DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder 3U - Ring of Fire

[OOC I'll follow Aqua's advice, thanks guys! Could you please move me on roll 20 whilst I'm away. Ta. ]

jaliera Bow/ Adv / Sneak Att / HIde
Gypsy rolled 1d20+8,1d20+8,4d6,1d20+10 and got 20, 26, 13, 20

Oh forgot arrow damage.

jaliera Arrow damage
Gypsy rolled 1d8+5 and got 6

DM

Jaliera moves to be able to see her target around the side of the wall of water, her shot striking true. She remains near the wall and despite revealing her position with the shot, successfully manages to hide from everyone yet again. So sneaky.

OOC: Giant's HP-meter is down 1/3, or has 2/3 remaining, depending on your optimism or pessimism.

Sindar

The bard slips out on to the bridge and lines up with the giant. He whispers. The giant may hear whispers that are disconcerting. He then moves back into cover.

Sindar Disonnant Whispers (psychic) Wis 14 save
Pandemonium rolled 3d6 and got 9

Dissonant Whispers
1st-level enchantment

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous

You whisper a discordant melody that only one creature of your choice within range can hear, wracking it with terrible pain. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 3d6 psychic damage and must immediately use its reaction, if available, to move as far as its speed allows away from you. The creature doesn’t move into obviously dangerous ground, such as a fire or a pit. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and doesn’t have to move away. A deafened creature automatically succeeds on the save.]

DM

Ignara is starting to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

First, her troll turns against her. Now she's hearing voices in her head. Not just voices, singing. Not just singing, BAD singing, completely out of key. Only bards can cause such horrible pain.

Ignara Wisdom save DC14
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+4 and got 8

Failed save, taking full damage (half since not at advantage) but since her speed is 0 she does not move away. However, her reaction has been expended so she can not do opportunity attacks until the start of her next turn.

Aubric

Aubric is happy that Pavel took his suggestion to engage in battle, but questions the wisdom of him playing hot potato with his sword while rushing forward.

That guy is going to get himself killed.

Of course, that's exactly why Aubric is here. Figuring that Sindar can fend for himself, the cleric moves forward, just enough to get a glimps of the giant, targeting a spot just adjacent to him for his spell.

A swirling mass of thorny vines appears next to the giant. (OOC: Yellow Circle)

Spiritual Weapon

2nd-Level Evocation

Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute

You create a floating, spectral weapon within range that lasts for the duration or until you cast this spell again. When you cast the spell, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 5 feet of the weapon. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier.

As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet and repeat the attack against a creature within 5 feet of it.

The weapon can take whatever form you choose. Clerics of deities who are associated with a particular weapon (as St. Cuthbert is known for his mace and Thor for his hammer) make this spell’s effect resemble that weapon.

Aubric Spiritual weapon
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+7,1d8+4 and got 21, 10

The vines twist inside Ignara's armor, prickling at her skin.

While remaining out of sight of the Giant, Aubric is still too close for his comfort, anticipating the need to rush forward and heal Pavel. But just in case, he also remains ready to flee back to the south if threatened.

OOC:
- Move 30 feet
- Spell as Bonus Action during move
- Ready Movement as Action, on a threat to him from the Giant (Giant moves within line of sight or casts a spell targeting his area ... like turning the floor to lava.)

<Bern>

The giant is still the most threatening foe ... and looking a bit worse for the wear. He moves north to be able to shoot around the wall of water and lets two more arrows fly,

[[ Bern arrows MikeD rolled d20+9,d8+4,d20+9,d8+4 and got 12, 6, 10, 11 ]]

DM

Bern moves just enough to be able to target the giant outside the wall of water, but misses. Better luck next time.

A minor note.

Zeim pointed out that "attacks" in the context of spells refers to those which roll hit dice vs. AC. Spells with damage side effects are not attacks. So the Giant has a bit more damage than I have been tracking and I've updated accordingly. Giant is about 55% health.

This is also the reason that Pavel could carry around two red-hot swords (one of which he dropped again) and have disadvantage on attack rolls, but still be totally fine casting his spell.

ooc: My time's at the mercy of a 20 month old so I went early to keep the flow flowing.
Zindra
She moves north to not have to shoot through the wall of water. She knows it will expose her but there was a clear-cut objective, to kill that giant. Once she gets a clear shot she lets two arrows fly but these weren't good shots and she knows they were not going to help bring it down.
Zindra Two arrow shots, 2 damages, hunter's mark damage
Neptune rolled 1d20+8,1d20+8,1d8+3,1d8+3,1d6 and got 12, 13, 9, 7, 6

[Thanks for the damage check, AquaDyne! Was posting in a hurry at work. ]

Arus

The wall of water seems to be effective in creating cover that the ranged attackers can pivot around. Hopefully they can also use the darkness in the nooks and crannies to their advantage, moving in and out of hiding.

Arus has a troll to contend with before he can tackle the giant though. Just when a red hot sword would've come in handy! The triton has no fire or acid but perhaps the mephit ahead will oblige them with its fiery breath if given a juicy enough target?

He has options but he needs to think fast.

[How high from the level where Arus stands to the level where the fire giant stands? I noticed the gradiented steps from the stream to the level above but can't tell what height they represent.]

Arus

Glancing around he sees a slope between a mammoth tusk and the bridge he can scale, thus leaving the troll to whatever fate it chooses.

He moves, scrambling up and charging the immense giant. With every prayer he can, muster Arus plunges in his sword.

[Terribad damage roll. 42 in total, probably halved.]

(OOC - Hah! Troll under a bridge!)

DM

Arus charges into melee and with the advantage of Pavel flanking his target, plus the divine power aiding his strikes, lands two powerful blows on the giant.

[OOC: pending potential crit damage, see previous comment.

The Giant's HP meter changes from green to yellow as it drops below half its base, at 38%.]

Zindra, meanwhile, is distracted enough from having to move and shoot around the water wall, and her shots miss.

Mephits

The one remaining mephit inside the cave [MM1] wants to get revenge on Zhu for hitting it with a magic missile, breaking its concentration on heating Arus's sword. It can't quite reach her, and hasn't yet worked up its fire breathing ability again, so instead goes for the nearest two targets, Zindra and Bern, parking itself between them and attacking Zindra.

MM3 Fire Breath Recharge
AquaDyne rolled 1d6 and got 1

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1d4 + 1 slashing damage plus 1d4 fire damage.

MM3 Claws Hit/slash/fire
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+3,1d4+1,1d4 and got 10, 3, 1

Unfortunately, it can't even land a blow.

Outside the cave, the Mephits are surprised that Kriv is chasing them down. Rather than run away, they gang up on him; three of them get close enough to breathe fire on him while the last one can't summon up a firey belch and instead flies headlong into him, claws slashing. The one maintaining concentration on heating Kriv's armor sends another surge of heat his way.


MM4 Heat Metal Bonus Action
AquaDyne rolled 2d8 and got 12 (fire damage halved, so 6)

MM5 Fire Breath Recharge
AquaDyne rolled 1d6 and got 1

Fire Breath (Recharge 6). The mephit exhales a 15-foot cone of fire. Each creature in that area must make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

MM4, MM4a, MM4c Fire Breath
AquaDyne rolled 2d6,2d6,2d6 and got 9, 4, 5 (fire damage halved, so 4, 2, 2)

Kriv: 3 Dex saves (at disadvantage due to your hot armor) to drop each number in half

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1d4 + 1 slashing damage plus 1d4 fire damage.

MM5 Claws
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+3,1d4+1,1d4 and got 17, 4, 4 (damage 6 since fire is halved)

Ignara

Wincing from the powerful blows by Arus, the fire giant is done messing around. She reaches out her burning-hot hand and grabs the triton paladin.

Multiattack. The fire giant uses its molten grasp twice, one of which it may replace with a hurl creature attack.

Molten Grasp. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 3d12+7 bludgeoning plus 3d10 fire damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 20).

Ignara Molten Grasp Arus
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+12,3d12+7,3d10 and got 20, 25, 17

[OOC: Roller wins a tie at AC20 so I think that's a hit and enough damage to drop Arus to 0hp, thus he's unconscious. Rules aren't clear on saving throws here and left to DM but Sage Advice says "probably" auto-fail. So I'm ruling that Arus is grappled in addition to being unconscious.]

Having grappled Arus, the Giant ponders throwing the merman, just as he threw the troll earlier, but feels the body go limp and decides to try to remove the other melee threat instead, reaching for Pavel with her other hand.

Ignara Molten Grasp Pavel
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+12,3d12+7,3d10 and got 18, 29, 13

Pavel also is squeezed unconscious, and the Giant now has two party members that it can use as projectiles in a future attack...

Ignara Awaken Magma Recharge
AquaDyne rolled 1d6 and got 2

Kriv

The thing with being a creature that breathed fire was that other creatures that breathed fire weren't exactly a threat. The Dragonborn neither flinched nor did anything to defend himself from the magma mephit flames, his expression surprisingly readable in the scorn and contempt that radiated from him more than the heat did. In truth he was slightly less fireproof than they were, but the difference was negligible. The one that came at him with claws might have had a better idea, if he hadn't been a student of the Art wielding a Staff of Defense.

In retaliation, the Dragonborn roared again, focusing the sound on the mephit that had heated his armour.



Minor point of order: MM4 was said to have lost concentration on the maul as of Kriv's previous turn. MM4a still has concentration on the armour. The post lists MM4 as maintaining concentration on the armor. I presume that was supposed to be MM4a in the most recent post. Otherwise if MM4 who lost concentration was the one on the armour, then Kriv wasn't at disadvantage.

Mephit turn

Kriv Dex save at disadvantage
AJ rolled 1d20+1,1d20+1 and got 20, 20 - 4 halved to 2 damage.
Kriv Dex save at disadvantage
AJ rolled 1d20+1,1d20+1 and got 11, 2 - 2 damage
Kriv Dex save at disadvantage
AJ rolled 1d20+1,1d20+1 and got 6, 2 - 2 damage

Reaction, cast Shield (2 charges) from the Glassstaff. +5 AC, melee magma mephit misses.

Kriv turn

Kriv Thunderwave (MM4a if they're maintaining concentration on the armour)
AJ rolled 2d8 and got 10
MM4a DC14 Con save for half damage or be moved 10ft directly away from Kriv.

Potential additional actions depending if they make the concentration check, over to you.

DM

Unfortunately for the mephits, the range they needed to cast fire breath is just inside the range of Kriv's thunderwave spell.

Fortunately for the mephits, their choice to spread out at angles means he can't target all of them at once, and one particular mephit takes the brunt of the blast.

MM4a DC14 Con Save/Thunder Damage/DC10 Con Save for concentration
AquaDyne rolled 1d20+1,2d8,1d20+1 and got 13, 6, 20
(Edit: ignore the 2d8, you did the damage roll so it takes 10)

The blast is enough to push the creature away and do some damage to it, but it stubbornly keeps that armor glowing red.

Originally Posted by AJ

Minor point of order: MM4 was said to have lost concentration on the maul as of Kriv's previous turn. MM4a still has concentration on the armour. The post lists MM4 as maintaining concentration on the armor. I presume that was supposed to be MM4a in the most recent post. Otherwise if MM4 who lost concentration was the one on the armour, then Kriv wasn't at disadvantage.

Correct, should have been MM4a, so the roll at disadvantage was correct. But Kriv also has Bless so you get an extra 1d4 on those saving throws. Wouldn't have helped when you rolled 1s on 2 of the 3 saves, though . So total of 6 damage from the 4 attacks.

Davroar

He will swim right up to the streams edge. With the ground level 10 feet above him to the giants feet, he should be out of sight as he surfaces and reverts back to his human self keeping low with only his head and shoulders above the water.
Wanting to provide as much distraction as possible away from his friends he casts summon animals bringing fourth eight swarms of bats to appear from the ceiling over the bridge and instructing them to swarm and attack the giants head.

[ooc: move, bonus action to revert back to human form, cast summon animals - 8 swarm of bats (CR 1/4) ]

DM

Hardly anyone noticed that Davroar had conjured eight Swarms of Bats while the battle was raging. But right after Arus's blows land, they follow his orders to swarm the giant, surrounding it.

They all nip and bite at the giant.... a distraction, but only a minor one, as she continues her earlier plan to take out her more powerful attackers.

Giant Bats Swarm of Bats attack w/advantage+dam x8
AquaDyne rolled
1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,
1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2,1d20+4,1d20+4,1d6+2
and got
13, 18, 7, 12, 20, 6, 11, 18, 8, 18, 20, 8,
9, 7, 5, 11, 16, 7, 5, 9, 5, 22, 10, 8

(Ignore hit dice, originally rolled for Giant bat rerolled with 2d4 for the swarm) 3, 4, 6, 6, 4 -> 23 dam

(OOC - I presume the Bat Swarms provide advantage/flanking for everyone?)