The Tomb of Menetnashte
August 30th, 761, 1:29 PM; Day 165 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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Lia fails concentration, moves, provokes and is hit by Shadow Harris for 14 damage. Shadow Harris then 5ft steps into Lia’s square.
Tomas casts Divine Favor.
Kuzan casts Arc of Lightning on Shadow Lia and Shadow Andre.
Otto casts Bite of the Werewolf.
Sascha full rounds Shadow Sascha.
Andre casts Cone of Cold on Shadow Otto and Shadow Andre. Shadow Otto evades, Shadow Andre is dropped.
Shadow Kuzan casts Close Wounds on Shadow Andre, using a charge of his ring.
Harris hits Shadow Sascha for 14 damage. He uses his Flanker ability to designate U8 as a square he is flanking from, meaning Sascha is still flanking with him.
The crackling wave of super-chilled air slammed into Andre's green-eyed shadow. It flickered, and before your eyes you could see the ambulatory shade begin to break up, wisps of darkness evaporating. The eyes, two emerald stars, began to dim...
Whereupon one of the other shadows, a tall shade that bore a more than passing resemblance to Kuzan, intoned a few unheard words. The dispersal of shadow-stuff halted, a moment before complete destruction.
The Shadow-Kuzan strode through the field of battle to stand between a huge, hulking knight of darkness. With another gesture from the dark priest, the great knight grew stronger and darker, a miniature abyss with twin emerald lights where his face would be.
“Kill the cleric!" Edmund bellowed, unwilling to call the shadow by Kuzan’s name. He slashed at Sascha's doppelganger before stepping back to guard the spellcasters. "Otherwise we'll
never put them down!"
There was a sudden pulse as half the room turned to ice...
Shadow Kuzan moves and casts Heal on Shadow Sascha.
Shadow Sascha Rages and Full Attacks his better half, hits three times with one critical threat, fails to back up, deals 85 damage (after DR).
Shadow Otto tumbles past Andre and shoots Lia for 19 normal and 6 electric damage.
Shadow Andre activates the Amulet of Tears and casts Cone of Cold on Kuzan, Otto, Andre, Lia, Sascha, Jervis, Aya, Shadow Jervis, and Shadow Otto for 41 damage, Reflex DC 19 for half. Shadow Otto evades, Shadow Jervis saves for half, reduced further by cold resistance, Jervis and Aya fail and take the full damage, dropping Aya to -4.
Shadow Lia bypasses Blur, hits Kuzan with Orb of Force for 52 damage.
Shadow Charles Inspires Greatness on Shadow Jervis.
Shadow Tomas full rounds Jervis, smiting twice, for 50 damage.
Shadow Harris full rounds his better half and critically hits, for 57 damage.
"I didn't want this." Samael said through gritted teeth, ducking underneath the various blades and other sharp appendages of the Beherit's shadow-crew. Coming up behind the darkened paladin, the Borcan whispered a word to steady himself and then jammed a sharp stiletto into Shadow-Tomas's spine. "
You're not real, you don't count."
Jervis, for his part, cared less for such semantics. The shadows were attacking him, and a wave of cold had just rolled over his body and nearly frozen his darkling crow to death. This, Jervis would not countenance. The stocky, dark-skinned warrior growled somewhere deep in his throat, and then he attacked.
Now, Jervis was not a skilled swordsman. Sir Uffington would have had nothing but contempt for his technique. He did not feint or parry, pirouette or duck. Rather, he simply
attacked. In his favor he had bone-crushing strength, reflexes honed by fifteen years of back-alley fights, and a limitless supply of rage. Jervis was always angry. It was his base state of being, a bottomless well of fury that he used to great effect. Now, Aya's wounding stoked that fury to a white-hot blaze.
Jervis's first blow slammed right across the shades black shield, driving it back a step. Before it could recover, Jervis punched it in the face with his spiked gauntlet, a blow that on a man would have mutilated him for life. He grabbed the shadowy shield by the top rim and pulled it away, then ran Tomas's dark doppelganger through with his sword, burying it to the hilt in the shade's throat. Then, just for good measure, he pivoted the blade downwards, reversed his grip, and disemboweled the shade.
All this took approximately ten seconds.
"Impressive." Lily said as this scene unfolded. She raised her beloved silk fan, lengths of green silk hanging between a half-dozen steel spines. Expedition long, people had suspected that it was a weapon, and as a matter of fact, they were right. The green silk fan was Lily's personal weapon, but it wasn't used for stabbing people through the throat. Rather, people forgot that one could make a wand out of many things.
A ray of dull-orange energy shot forth from one of the fan's steel spines, hitting Shadow-Jervis upon the chest. The shade took the energy, and though its form remained as coalesced as before, it slowed before your very eyes, reactions becoming sluggish as though it walked through a thick stream. A moment later, a similar ray hit Sascha's doppelganger. Lily followed up with the dispelling incantation almost as an afterthought.
"They're mostly harmless now! Focus on the spellcasters and healers!" Seeing as Samael was currently not capable of command and that Jervis was fully in the middle of a battle-fit, it seemed that Lily was left as the senior-most of the Conspirators. Or at least the sanest of those left.
Wonderful. "Michel, heal Jervis, if he falls we're all sunk."
“Loup,
Fass!” Guy growled from across the battlefield, as Micheal stepped back to obey Lily’s command. The dog shot forward, sinking its teeth into the Shadow-Micheal’s leg. With a sudden jerk, Loup pulled the shadow-man to the ground, smashing its head against the chest of gems on the way down. Guy stepped forward, swinging his axe; perhaps it was a blessing that Micheal had dodged behind the statue, and didn’t see the unholy grin on Guy’s lips as he drove the axe through the shadow’s head.
Micheal uses Inspire Greatness on Sam.
Sam tumbles over, casts Hunters Eye, attacks Shadow Tomas and flubs it up - Micheal uses Alter Fortune to have him reroll, and he crits instead, for 49 damage.
Jervis turns Shadow Tomas into a fine mist, and deals 5 damage to Shadow Jervis.
Khalil dervish dances, spins over to Shadow Lily and deals 45 damage.
Lily spends ALL her inspiration points, hits Shadow Sascha and Shadow Jervis with Ray of Dizzyness, and Area Dispel Magics on TU/10-11. Removes the Superior Resistance off of Shadow Lia instead of the Greater Invisibility.
Loup hits Shadow Micheal and for 18 damage and trips him.
Guy full-rounds Shadow Micheal, killing him.
“Get back! Behind me!” Harris called out, as the shadows began to surge toward him. The shadow wolf snaked behind him, leaving trails of black vapor behind as it ran. Harris caught the wolf out of the corner of his eye, catching it with his sword, but the creature reformed around his blade, slamming into him with its full weight. Harris, caught off balance, smashed into the floor. The shadowy Guy casually walked up to him, like an executioner at a chopping block, and slammed his axe into Edmund’s side.
Elsewhere, the Shadowy Jervis slashed at his counterpart, adding another river to the crimson flood pouring down the mercenary’s chest. Sam gave a wordless scream as his double came beside him, coldly catching Lily just under the collar bone with a needle-sharp stiletto. Lily’s double spread her fan, a sleek thing of black satin, and sent an emerald beam into Sascha’s chest. The knight could feel his limbs locking up, as if all the years he had lived through had come crashing down on him twice over. His shadowy double came blazing toward him, unstoppable in its silent frenzy.
Shadow Loup runs around Harris, provoking an AoO for 14 damage. Loup attacks Harris for 10 damage and pulls him to the ground.
Shadow Guy moves to flank Harris, provokes. Harris misses and cannot five foot step because he is prone. Shadow Guy hits for 15 damage.
Shadow Jervis is very dizzy and hits Jervis for 28 damage.
Shadow Sam casts Hunters Eye, flanks with Aya and hits Lily for 49 damage.
Shadow Lily hits Sascha with Ray of Dizzyness. For the next five rounds, he can only take one standard action per round.
Shadow Khalil dervishes, hits and crits Micheal for 32 damage, crits Guy for 20
"Not
again." Fassahd whispered, watching the chaos unfold, bathed in venomous light of the Eye of Anubis. Blood and black ichor flowed from countless wounds, while the crackle of ozone accompanied fell magics. Everywhere the slim little Akiri man looked, he saw bloodshed and violence as Beherit's spectres fought the Expedition. "No... this time, I shall not run."
"For this time..." Fassahd looked to the eye, pulsing with its hateful luminescence. You realized that his black hair was growing longer as he spoke. "This time, you have given me foes
I can fight."
The fine, black-brown hair spread across Fassahd's skin like a million marching ants. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and so you could track the sprouting hairs as they raced down his arms, growing thicker and longer with ever instant. Even so, they couldn't quite obscure what happened beneath them. The muscles in Fassahd's arms bulged, growing larger so quickly that it was a small miracle they didn't tear through his skin. Even under the coat of black-brown fur that covered his arms, the cable-like muscles stood in sharp relief, even as Fassahd himself
grew.
Now, the Akiri was not a tall man, but now he grew with every passing heartbeat. Six feet... seven... his clothing ripped to shreds... eight... nine, ten, eleven,
twelve feet in height, and even that was limited by the fact that as he grew Fassahd settled into a fighter's crouch. His arms grew longer, reaching down the floor, his claw-like nails clicking against the stone. Beneath his thick pelt of fur and the bunched muscles of his new form, Fassahd did not look even remotely human. He raised his face, bringing the muzzle with the razor-sharp teeth into sight for the first time.
The huge jackal-beast snarled.
Charles inspires courage and moves to engage Shadow Charles.
Fassahd transforms.
The Treasure Room's Ceiling is 20 ft. tall.
The big piles of treasure (the more brightly-colored, the cartons of gems, etc) are impassable terrain, and too unstable to climb upon.
The smaller piles of treasure (the golden coins) are Difficult Terrain, thus you need to take 2 squares of movement to enter one.
The Statues are on 6-foot tall bases and are generally considered Impassable, unless you use a Climb or Jump check of some sort.
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The Conspiracy is, at the moment, treating you as allies, so unless you attack them you can flank with them, move through their squares, etc.
The Shadows have a discernible anatomy. They can be sneak-attacked, suffer critical hits, etc. Also, Shadow-Loup does not count as a wolf.
The real Loup, on the other hand, does count, so you're not off the hook yet, Otto.
Lastly, House-Rule regarding Alignments: Shadows count as both Evil, and the alignment of the person they are shadowing for purposes of alignment effects. So Shadow-Otto can be struck with both a Smite Good and a Smite Evil. This should only be relevant for the Conspiracy, I believe, but informing you nevertheless.
PCs: Mass Conviction, Inspire Courage
Kuzan: 37/89, True Seeing, Greater Resistance, Darkvision, Ebon Eyes, Protection from Evil (+2 Deflection to AC), Death Ward, Blur (20% miss chance), Longstrider
Lia: 26/46, Greater Mage Armor (+6 AC), Superior Resistance
Otto: 73/73, Bite of the Werewolf (+2 Str, +4 Dex, +4(2) Con, +4 natural armor)
Tomas: 120/120, Divine Favor
Andre: 63/39, Amulet of Tears (24 temp hp)
Charles: 63/63, Haste
Sascha: 23/108, Haste, Slowed
Harris: 15/115, Prone
Shadow PCs (Black): Mass Conviction, Haste (except Charles and Sascha) Recitation (+2 AC, Attack rolls, Saving Throws)
Tomas: Dead.
Kuzan: Greater Resistance, Darkvision, Ebon Eyes, Protection from Evil (+2 Deflection to AC), Death Ward, Blur (20% miss chance), Longstrider, Recitation (+3)
Lia: Greater Mage Armor (+6 AC), False Life (2 temp hp), Greater Invisibility
Otto: Bite of the Werewolf (+2 Str, +4 Dex, +4(2) Con, +4 natural armor)
Sascha: Rage, Slowed
Charles:
Andre: -15 hp, Amulet of Tears (24 temp hp), Greater Invisibility
Conspiracy
All: Inspire Courage
Jervis: -123 hp, Ebon Eyes, Magic Circle Against Good, Heroism, Resist Energy (Fire), Haste
Aya: Dying (-4 hp), Haste
Sam: 23 temp hp, False Life, Ebon Eyes, Magic Circle Against Good, Heroism, Resist Energy (Fire), Protection from Energy (Sonic), Inspire Greatness
Lily: -32 hp
Guy: -20 hp, Heroism, Haste
Loup: Haste
Khalil: Heroism, Crown of Might, Haste
Karsh: Haste
Micheal: -42 hp, Protection from Energy (Sonic), Resist Energy (Fire), Unseen Servant
Fassahd: Endure Elements, Deathwatch, Ebon Eyes, Conviction, Protection from Negative Energy, Magic Vestment, Magic Circle Against Evil, Protection from Energy (Fire, Cold, Electricity), Contingent Energy Resistance, Greater Resistance, Spell Immunity (Sound Lance, Magic Missile)
Shadow Conspiracy (White)
All: Recitation (except Lily, Aya, and Sam)
Micheal: Dead.
Jervis: -10 hp, 7 temp hp, Ebon Eyes, Magic Circle Against Good, Heroism, Resist Energy (Fire), Lesser Visage of the Deity, Haste, Inspire Greatness, Slowed
Aya:
Sam: False Life, Inspired Greatness (29 temp hp total), Ebon Eyes, Magic Circle Against Good, Heroism, Resist Energy (Fire), Protection from Energy (Sonic)
Lily: -25 hp
Guy: Haste
Loup:
Khalil: Heroism, Crown of Might, Haste
Karsh: -3, Haste