Erica examines the door, and finds that it has already been opened. The enchantment placed upon it has been removed. She looks back at the party and says “It’s open.” She opens the door.
The door opens and reveals a gnome. Erica takes an involuntary step back in surprise, colliding into Guston who's face bumps into her shoulder causing an eruption of popping boils.
Hold that thought...
*Anduin casts Mass Hold Person*
[Spoiler]@Nimran you know the score. Will save to negate. [/spoiler]
Erica: Will save: 9+7=16 Fiora: Will save: 13+2=15 Kaled: Will save: 1-1=0 (heh) Vaga: Will save: 20+3=23 (that’s a critical success) Guston: Will save: 20+2=22 (another critical success) Ignatius: Will save: 12+4=16
So Vaga and Guston succeed. Everyone else is frozen.
*Anduin holds his hands up in peace and speaks quickly*
I mean no harm Guston. Really. I mean no harm. If I wanted to cause harm I could have just blasted you and your friends with lightning.
*Anduin makes a blue iridescent wand appear in his hand, by magic or slight of hand, it is hard to tell in the darkness of the tomb*
I just hate to see swords drawn in anger. I actually thought, that this...
*Anduin flexes his fingers, the wand disappears and a plain grey ring takes it's place*
This... Was the cause of the evil in this tomb. How absurd. Why would this be evil? Why would this cause the ground around us to be barren? How idiotic! It was obviously Chauntea's enemy Talona, the poisoner... Made the land sick and invaded Chauntea's sanctity.
*Anduin closes his eye's in prayer*
Chauntea the curse has been lifted. Let your seeds grow, let your crops ripen and may you harvest our hard work.
*Anduin opens his eye's and lets them linger on Vaga warily, they flick back to Guston*
I pray to all the gods Guston. I serve them all. Even Talona.
*Anduin takes a vial from his belt and in a florish, uncorks it and pours the contents down Erica's frozen open mouth.*
A gift Talona. To your glory.
*Anduin holds the flask to the heavens. Then looks back at Guston and smiles*
She will be fine. A simple poison that any cleric with a slow poison spell can easily remedy.
You were to find me this ring, no? I found it for you Guston. You still owe me. To repay me from saving you from your... predicament, all I ask is for you to cure your affliction. Wear this ring Guston. This ring symbolises the circle of life. They call this ring the Groom of Chauntea's Wedding Ring. They say that this ring will be worn by whichever man takes Chauntea as his wife. Wear it Guston and be transformed!
*Anduin kneels, places a hand on his heart and proposes*
Marry her. Marry Chauntea! I give this gift willingly.
You need to do a successful will save each round to become free from the paralysing effect , after a number of rounds equal to my level has passed, if memory serves.
“I... I don’t understand...” says Guston, looking at the ring warily. “You say you mean no harm, yet you try to freeze us in place... and then you poison a priestess of Chauntea, whom you say you serve... even a small poison can do much damage if not treated soon, and as you know I am out of Chauntea’s favor, despite her moment of mercy. Such a spell as slow poison would be beyond me, even were I in her favor...”
Guston’s eyes flicker to the ring before him and he licks his lips in obvious temptation and desire...
“But I know you cured me of my curse... I’m so confused... and why would Chauntea, who chastens me, wish me as her husband? I am a mere mortal... a cursed mortal! A blighted, pathetic mortal... I am nothing.
“You say this ring will cure my affliction...?” Guston says as his fingers linger on his face. “At... at what... what is the cost?
“It is obvious that I cannot fight you,” he says finally looking the gnome in the eye. “What is it that you want? What are you trying to accomplish?”
Shouldn't we wait for @Skatan to move on at this part of the story?
That is all simple allegorical nonsense that the gods like to surround themselves with. The ring however will cure your afflictions. As for you other points. I impeded on your freedoms and liberties, yada, yada, yada.
*Anduin seems to swell in size, his chirrupy treble voice becomes a deep bass growl, Vaga who has watched the scene with his fists clenched stands in front of Guston protectively*
YET I ALONE CAN GRANT YOU TRUE FREEDOM FROM THE TYRANY WE ALL SUFFER.
*Anduin sighs, deflates somewhat*
Very well. Last chance Guston. If you will not wear my ring, maybe Fiora will?
*Anduin moves to place the ring on one of Fiora's paralysed fingers*
Vaga is slow to anger and even slower to take on aggression but this gnome has pushed all his buttons more than once now. Vaga sees absolutely no reason to trust anything he says and amassess all of his training, all of his power into a huge blow - a stunning blow - aimed at the big nose of the gnome. "Let's fight fire with fire, stun vs stun" he thinks to himself as he unleash his fury on the gnome.
I am FINALLY here my friends! Sorry for the abscense, more on that later.
Vaga throws a punch at Anduin, and the gnome has to leap back away from Fiora to avoid the attack.
I’d say a round has passed by now. Erica: Will save: 12+7=19 Fiora: 5+2=7 Kaled: 2-1=1 Ignatius: 15+4=19
At the same time that Vaga throws a punch, Erica and Ignatius are no longer paralyzed. Erica starts coughing up the poison as she casts Neutralize Poison on herself.
“No!” cries Guston, reaching for the gnome’s slowly advancing ring as it approaches Fiora’s perfectly formed and honorable hands of righteousness.
This happens just as Vaga makes his attack at the gnome.
He is torn by his distrust of the scene and fear of the powerful gnome, and by his absolute lust for a cure, even at great risk. The expression on his face could be distress at either fear or disgust at himself.
And no one looking on, perhaps not even himself, can tell if his cry of No! was a cry of protest or of desire.
Is 17 or 18 the save DC? (Because I didn't succeed at 16, but succeeded at 19.) So that's {10+3 (Hold Person level) + 4 or 5}, which means @Anduin is currently at either level 4 or 5. Am I right?
Finally free from the shackles of the nefarious enchantments which the gnome had covertly and crookedly placed on them, Ignatius casts Burning Hands on the gnome. (If he is undead, he'll take bonus damage from fire, right?)
Considering that casting Burning Hands will also harm his friends, Ignatius pauses his casting just in time, and instead decides to use his Psychic Blade to attack the gnome.
I was thinking about the BG version of Burning Hands, and so I thought that the AoE is only 1 creature. But after @lolien said, I checked the 3E version, and realized that it's AoE is larger than that.
PnP Spell resistance DCs also take class bonuses into account, which I can’t really keep track of. I only use ability mods to determine DCs. Anduin has a high Intelligence, but the only DC a 19 can’t beat is from a perfect Intelligence of 30 (+10 mod), which NOBODY really has.
PnP Spell resistance DCs also take class bonuses into account, which I can’t really keep track of. I only use ability mods to determine DCs. Anduin has a high Intelligence, but the only DC a 19 can’t beat is from a perfect Intelligence of 30 (+10 mod), which NOBODY really has.
So the PnP version of the save DC is basically = Ability modifier + spell level + class level? Or is something more added to this?
Vaga suddenly remembers he has a secret weapon, excellent for close graplling combat, and moves in for the strike; he opens his jaws wide and attacks the gnome with a fierce biting attack, going for the throat!
Ignatius throws a stone at the gargoyle to distract it from attacking Guston and Vaga, so that they can successfully deal with the gnome. He then casts Levitation, and lures the gargoyle after him, as he keeps darting hither and thither in the air, trying to keep it engaged as long as possible.
Comments
Hold that thought...
*Anduin casts Mass Hold Person*
[Spoiler]@Nimran you know the score. Will save to negate. [/spoiler]
Fiora: Will save: 13+2=15
Kaled: Will save: 1-1=0 (heh)
Vaga: Will save: 20+3=23 (that’s a critical success)
Guston: Will save: 20+2=22 (another critical success)
Ignatius: Will save: 12+4=16
So Vaga and Guston succeed. Everyone else is frozen.
I mean no harm Guston. Really. I mean no harm. If I wanted to cause harm I could have just blasted you and your friends with lightning.
*Anduin makes a blue iridescent wand appear in his hand, by magic or slight of hand, it is hard to tell in the darkness of the tomb*
I just hate to see swords drawn in anger. I actually thought, that this...
*Anduin flexes his fingers, the wand disappears and a plain grey ring takes it's place*
This... Was the cause of the evil in this tomb. How absurd. Why would this be evil? Why would this cause the ground around us to be barren? How idiotic! It was obviously Chauntea's enemy Talona, the poisoner... Made the land sick and invaded Chauntea's sanctity.
*Anduin closes his eye's in prayer*
Chauntea the curse has been lifted. Let your seeds grow, let your crops ripen and may you harvest our hard work.
*Anduin opens his eye's and lets them linger on Vaga warily, they flick back to Guston*
I pray to all the gods Guston. I serve them all. Even Talona.
*Anduin takes a vial from his belt and in a florish, uncorks it and pours the contents down Erica's frozen open mouth.*
A gift Talona. To your glory.
*Anduin holds the flask to the heavens. Then looks back at Guston and smiles*
She will be fine. A simple poison that any cleric with a slow poison spell can easily remedy.
You were to find me this ring, no? I found it for you Guston. You still owe me. To repay me from saving you from your... predicament, all I ask is for you to cure your affliction. Wear this ring Guston. This ring symbolises the circle of life. They call this ring the Groom of Chauntea's Wedding Ring. They say that this ring will be worn by whichever man takes Chauntea as his wife. Wear it Guston and be transformed!
*Anduin kneels, places a hand on his heart and proposes*
Marry her. Marry Chauntea! I give this gift willingly.
Guston’s eyes flicker to the ring before him and he licks his lips in obvious temptation and desire...
“But I know you cured me of my curse... I’m so confused... and why would Chauntea, who chastens me, wish me as her husband? I am a mere mortal... a cursed mortal! A blighted, pathetic mortal... I am nothing.
“You say this ring will cure my affliction...?” Guston says as his fingers linger on his face. “At... at what... what is the cost?
“It is obvious that I cannot fight you,” he says finally looking the gnome in the eye. “What is it that you want? What are you trying to accomplish?”
Marrying Chauntea?
*Anduin chuckles*
That is all simple allegorical nonsense that the gods like to surround themselves with. The ring however will cure your afflictions. As for you other points. I impeded on your freedoms and liberties, yada, yada, yada.
*Anduin seems to swell in size, his chirrupy treble voice becomes a deep bass growl, Vaga who has watched the scene with his fists clenched stands in front of Guston protectively*
YET I ALONE CAN GRANT YOU TRUE FREEDOM FROM THE TYRANY WE ALL SUFFER.
*Anduin sighs, deflates somewhat*
Very well. Last chance Guston. If you will not wear my ring, maybe Fiora will?
*Anduin moves to place the ring on one of Fiora's paralysed fingers*
That's Kaled at a younger age. You can guess what is his first name.
Vaga throws a punch at Anduin, and the gnome has to leap back away from Fiora to avoid the attack.
Erica: Will save: 12+7=19
Fiora: 5+2=7
Kaled: 2-1=1
Ignatius: 15+4=19
At the same time that Vaga throws a punch, Erica and Ignatius are no longer paralyzed. Erica starts coughing up the poison as she casts Neutralize Poison on herself.
This happens just as Vaga makes his attack at the gnome.
He is torn by his distrust of the scene and fear of the powerful gnome, and by his absolute lust for a cure, even at great risk. The expression on his face could be distress at either fear or disgust at himself.
And no one looking on, perhaps not even himself, can tell if his cry of No! was a cry of protest or of desire.
Guston is just barely able to grab the ring as Anduin jumps backwards.
And he successfully manages to retain his hold on the ring. He is now wrestling with Anduin over the ring.
Finally free from the shackles of the nefarious enchantments which the gnome had covertly and crookedly placed on them, Ignatius casts Burning Hands on the gnome. (If he is undead, he'll take bonus damage from fire, right?)
Vaga jumps in and grabs the ring as well, but he finds it difficult to keep a hold on it with Guston and Anduin’s thrashing.
Ignatius’ Psychic Blade collides with Anduin’s form.
"That's one slippery gnome", Vaga thinks to himself while trying to get hold of some limb or whatnot to help wrestle that ring from him.
The gargoyle slams into Guston and sends him flying into the wall.
And Guston can no longer maintain his grip on the ring.
The gargoyle looks back at Anduin and says “Get out of here! You must survive!”
As Guston gets laid out, Vaga bites Anduin on the neck, clamping down with his battle hardened jaws.
Fiora: Will save: 18+2=20
Kaled: Will save: 15-1= 14
Fiora can start moving again.