I'm doomed - is the kid? [Archive] - Wizards Community

I'm doomed - is the kid? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mellagon
01-18-07, 03:30 PM Here's the situation.
We're playing a Lovecraft-ian D&D horror game. This means that everyone in the party is likely to die, horribly, or wish they had, or some combination thereof.
Currently, we're in a tower owned by what is essentially cultists of Cthulhu. They put up a nice front, but they're clearly (clearly OOC anyway) going to kill us all. We're making nice until we can find out where the girl we're trying to rescue is, and then we'll make our escape.
I'm playing a dwarven wizard, and I assumed that step one of our escape would be to find a way out of the tower. The door was the magical sealing kind, and I got a servant to, "Let me outside so that I might go riding." Yay dwarven wizards with ranks in bluff.
The rest of the party was searching the tower elsewhere (Yes, we split up, God help us, but to be fair we were driven apart by stuff and things that seemed very important at the time). So I took a kid we had rescued from wandering horrors outside with me, not wanting to leave him alone in the tower. The servant makes some complicated gesture to open the door, I make an int check to remember the pattern (got a 17) and I <think> I can open it later. If it's the same pattern to open from the outside.
As soon as I set foot outside, the door slams shut, and hundreds of carnivorous scavenging rodents are surrounding me, led by the ghost-like corpse of an awakened animal I'd been tricked into eating. I'm entirely surrounded and they're not in a single fireball-able clump. It'll probably take them one round to swarm me, just hazarding a guess. And I have no idea what the ghostly stag is.
My current assets (read - spells prepared) are Fireball, Gaseous Form, Dispel Magic, Lesser Celerity, Mount, and Protection from Evil. There's a few others I can't remember right now.
My current plan is to toss the kid my satchel containing my spellbook and backup pouches, 9 days of food, and directions back to civilization (my journal), gaseous form the kid, and then probably die. I'm playing CG and I've always wanted to do a hero's death. However... it occurred to me that without their wizard, the party might die as well. Not arrogance, simple fact - wizards are useful. Most of the party, were they there, would tell me to save the kid and fight as best I could (Good aligned parties are so nice).
If you have escape suggestions, I'm interested. Mostly, however, I'm wondering what is more moral? Gaseous Form on the kid, and try to survive long enough to escape myself? Or save myself, and fly to the aid of my comrades and the girl we're trying to rescue in the first place?
owlkeeper
01-18-07, 03:42 PM why not keep your spellbook, and toss the kid the rest of the satchel.

I see some outs here with protection from evil. These things sure SEEM evil. Or maybe use mount to mount the kid and then ride your way out! Maybe gases the kid, then fireball. Or...since you have ranks in bluff, convince the head stag, that the KID (or the rats) ate him, and used his diverted attention to come up with a better plan.
Some_call_me_Tim
01-18-07, 04:24 PM Mostly, however, I'm wondering what is more moral? Gaseous Form on the kid, and try to survive long enough to escape myself? Or save myself, and fly to the aid of my comrades and the girl we're trying to rescue in the first place?
Tough choice, especially consider a Chaotic Good character who "follows his own moral compass." Personally I would try and save the kid, here and now is much more concrete than sometime in the future when your party might need you.

I'm not sure how well gaseous form will work given it's limited duration and speed. Mount seems the better option for outrunning the enemy. I would probably go gaseous form the kid, summon a mount, ride like hell, fireball while riding off into the sunset. If you die, at least you tried.

If I was the DM, I know how I would handle your death to reward your bravery, I would let the boy be you new PC. He has your spellbook he can ride off and study for a while then come back to save your friends since he can't save you.
Cromag
01-18-07, 05:40 PM protection from evil the kid and tell him to run, he should be perfectly safe to get out then.

then if you survive the initial wave Gaseous form yourself and float back inside.

all you have to do is live through the first attack and your golden ;)
MechMage
01-18-07, 07:00 PM Now, I don't have my books with me, and I haven't read gasious form, but I wouldn't be surprized if that ghost stag can waste you in gasious form, and out run your mount. If you can light a fire, you may be able to ward them off, but I probably won't stop the stag. Even if you give the kid a magic boost, it won't out last the rats. If you can only save one of you, you have a better chance than the kid.
Yokomohoyo
01-19-07, 12:57 AM your caotic good right... I belive its good for the kid to live but it will be even better for you to live... hehehehe love being caotic hahahaha
Mellagon
01-19-07, 11:52 AM owlkeeper -
I want the kid to have the Spellbook for three reasons
1. It's in my bag with everything he needs to survive, and I don't want think I'll have time to root and sort.
2. I don't want the things that kill me to get access to mu spellbook. Magic is rare enough that it's a decently powerful book.
3. Getting back to civilization won't be easy. If I go down, he'll need the book to have much of any chance at all. If nothing else, he can barter with it, maybe try a cantrip or two, or use it as a bribe or distraction.

Prot from Evil only saves me against summons and outsiders, not undead (presumably) and relatively natural scavengers.

Some_call_me_Tim -
Mount's not a bad idea, but I'm entirely surrounded. I'm visualizing wading into a river of piranha. Gaseous form, while not as fast, protects against non-magic and let's the kid get over the horde.
I appreciate the moral advice. The kid is definetly a more concrete problem. The party's compotent without me. The kid is dead if I do nothing.

Cromag -
"all you have to do is live through the first attack and your golden ;-)"
If I do live through it, it's likely that my GM is using swarm rules. Concentration checks to do anything else are going to be a pain in my enormous dwarven butt.

MechMage -
The SRD says that Gaseous Form grants DR 10/Magic. I don't know what the Ghost is, I doubt it's a straight-from-the-book ghost. The thing has a personal grudge against me, what with the cannibalism, so I think it'll be chasing me down and not the kid. The scavengers probably can't pierce the magic's DR. Actually, this is making more sense to give the Gaseous form to the kid, since I'll be drawing the aggro of the one thing that can hurt it.

yokomohoyo -
Yeah, I'm chaotic good, but I try not to take that as a liscene to abandon the 'good' part as soon as my back's against a wall. Or rather, my front, and several hundred carnivores.

My current plan, from this discussion, is that since my big 'out' spell, Gaseous Form, will only save the kid, and he's likely to die from the swarm if I don't do something, he'll get that first round. Assuming I'm still around to cast, I'll either try to kill the ghost-stag, hopefully making all the semi-normal animals less aggressive, or if things are going really bad, I'll try to Mount up, use lesser celerity to get on that round, and flee the mass.

The game is tonight - I'll post the results after that. Probably Sunday.
aotrscommander
01-19-07, 12:12 PM Good luck.

Sounds as if you're going to need it...
Azar_of_Faerun
01-19-07, 12:48 PM Hearing that from a lich is amazing :eek:
Aegeu
01-19-07, 06:38 PM Gaseous form allows you to take anything you were wearing or holding in your hands. Would you be able to pick up the kid and then cast Gaseous Form? If this fails, I would try to open the door and *pray* that the password is the same from the outside. Lesser celerity will help you do everything in one round.

If the DM uses swarm rules, it's easier to escape. Use a readied action to dive out of the way when they swarm you (because they have to be on top of you to hit), and then use lesser celerity to get some distance. Try throwing the rats some meat to divert them. Finally, whatever the ghost is, it'll be a lot easier than the entire swarm.
Novabomb
01-19-07, 07:42 PM How far is town away?
What does your spellbook do besides give you spells? (you mentioned the kid will need it if he is to have a chance)

Could you sorta draw the possion of foes out plz?
hunterc311
01-19-07, 08:04 PM Ideas, though maybe too late:

1) Do you have Fly in your spellbook? Cast it from the page and take off. It's worth sacrificing the spell from your book to escape unharmed. Retrieve the book as your move, read the spell as your standard, and 5 foot into the air. Only the ghost can reach you 5 feet in the air, the rats are screwed. Leave the next round, barring the ghost having some way of stopping you.

or

2) Knock the kid unconscious (he probably has like 3 hps, and you have a quarterstaff or at least a strong enough fist). He is now your "gear" and you can cast Gaseous Form on the both of you. Though getting both of these actions done in one round is not really possible, since they are both standards and I doubt you have a quicken spell option, so...

or

3) Do you have magical robes or a magical cloak? Fall on top of the kid and wrap your robes/cloak over the both of you as your move action, then drop a fireball centered on you as your standard. You forgo your reflex save but the kid won't be harmed by the fire because he is surrounded on all sides by a non-mundane barrier, and the rats will be toast for 20 feet in every direction around you. I doubt there are many more rats than that. Then worry about the ghost, assuming you can suck up the potential fireball damage (dwarf, good CON, looks like you're about level 6 since you have three 3rd level spells memorized, maybe you could take around 24 hps of fireball damage).
smoker
01-19-07, 09:02 PM If you're a prisoner, and you're not dead all ready, then someone wants to keep you alive. And your DM is either very cautious about killing characters, or your DM enjoys killing characters. Figure out what your DM's style.

If your DM is wiling to keep you alive, try the self sacrifice route. You'll create a problem for your DM. Does your DM really want to kill your character?

Shift the problem to the DM.
StrangeGuy
01-20-07, 08:52 AM Can't say that I'd pick that last option given.... putting it on the DM seems kinda lame and metagamey...
Need_A_Life
01-20-07, 09:40 AM Gaseous Form on the kid and go down fighting...

With tears in his eyes Mellagon completed the incantation and the horrified childs eyes widened as his body lost its solidity. "Save yourself!" Mellagon yelled at the dumbstruck child, "Get away from here!" seeing as how he'd be ripped into pieces soon, Mellagon saw no other choice than to let himself fall in combat. All these beasts would, no doubt, be able to disrupt his remaining spells and even those couldn't save him, he could hope only for the kids survival. The translucent ghost floating above the feral wolfpack looked at him with a hateful recognition.
"I'm the one you want," with a flick of the wrist a small pebble of fire shot at the ghost, who seemed to regard it with little concern, until the sphere struck its incorporeal form and enveloped the spirit with magical flame, horribly scorching its incorporeal hide. "That was my final defense," Mellagon said with no regret as the fire died down against the still-standing stag. "I welcome you, the one who is about to kill me." Then, with an uncharacteristic animalism he threw himself into the flurry of claws and teeth before him, letting them bite and rip at his barely protected skin. In the corner of his eye he saw greenish smoke floating slowly away from the battle. He mounted the strength to smile, even as his chest was penetrated by an ethereal pair of antlers.

Hey, I'm a sucker for dramatics, who has nothing to do today... (and who has a hard time concentrating on writing a decent description)
Aegeu
01-20-07, 10:08 PM Ideas, though maybe too late:

1) Do you have Fly in your spellbook? Cast it from the page and take off.

Err... How can you cast spells directly from a spellbook page? I can't find it anywhere in my PHB.
12Shark
01-20-07, 11:05 PM It's a holdout from earlier editions, where a spellbook was pretty much a book of scrolls.
Mellagon
01-21-07, 02:37 PM Alright, the game session was Friday, and it bugs the heck out of me when there's no closure on threads like this, so here's the story.

It turns out things were much, much worse for my party inside the tower. They had been brought to an Awakening ceremony, with a capital A, for an Elder-Thing (a Lovecraftian god-monster). We don't know what kind of Elder Thing, and since non of us were epic, it didn't much matter. Dead was dead.
Thankfully, we had an alienist who took a "I hear voices" feat. And her 'patron' Elder Thing did not like the Elder Thing that was waking up. So she started to chant. Eventually, the rest of the party starts to chant as as well, sucking attacks from minions to do so, occasionally failing their forbidden lore checks and giving off little spurts of blood. Slowly, they drove the thing back into its sleep, not through their own power, but through the dubiously good-intentioned power of the Elder Thing that was using the alienist as a meat-puppet.
Out the window and down below the tower, I was fighting the horde of rodents.
They were scavengers, or so we had thought when we had seen them earlier, but now that I was alone, all their paws extended into dagger-sized claws. I braced myself, attempted to open the door, first with the gesture I had seen, then with the gesture I had seen, reversed. The door remained sealed, entirely indistinguishable from the smooth stone of the tower.
However, they didn't charge. They were waiting for the ghost, who took the form of various departed family members and people I had failed to help, before enveloping me in a black cloud and sucking the life from me.
Firstly, protection from evil on myself. The ghost had not charged the child, and the scavengers were not advancing. This spell shut out its attacks on my mind. From up above, screams, but that was beyond my scope at that point.
Second round, I tried one of my two attack spells - scorching ray. The mist didn't react at all.
Third round, I tried to dispel the mist. It coalesced into a demon-shape, thankfully a burned demon. At this point I both heard the chanting and figured out its significance, and ordered the boy to chant. I told the demon-beast that the thing waking above us was just as much death for it as it was for us. It responded by gnawing on my thigh and injecting some kind of poison. Dwarves laugh at poison.
Fourth round I unleashed the fireball. It made a nice hole in the scavenger horde, and the demon-beast finally dropped. The scavengers skittered for a moment, then charged. The boy continued to chant.
Fifth round, I realized that even if I survived the first wave, the child would not. My familiar scampered from my shoulder and into the pack, which I tossed to the child. He dissipated into mists, and began to escape.
Above, the party was fairing poorly. The bard, both in character and out of character, had not figured out what the chanting was doing, or that <anyone> could attempt it. Two of the party members had been hit by the Elder Thing's tentacles, and it had turned them into other-things, like its followers, with glowing eyes and pungent skin. They were slaughtering the few that resisted. The party cleric was making some headway, through a foul pact of some kind (haven't the foggiest to whom, which would have been worrisome in other circumstances). The pact apparently doubled all numerical parts of spells, every number, but it later drained a permanent constitution and some sanity, with the promise that this was getting off easy.
Still, grappling with a doubled Balor Nimbus spell caused the Thing's head priest's soft skin to boil and melt. As more people above began to chant the Binding Words, the Elder Thing slipped back into the lake.
Below, the horde advanced. I lived through the first attack, but now was nearly dead, a few hit points left. They were quicker than me, but I had lesser celerity left. As they rushed me a final time, I cast the spell, and ran on borrowed time to the nearest house, throwing myself into hiding, hoping I would not be seen.
To the scavengers, I had vanished. They began to hunt for me.
Above, the party had slowed the cultists, and fled out a window, falling safely with magic. I cast my mount spells, and did my best impression of a bloody, half-dead calvary rescue. The child joined us, and we fled as quickly as possible, not looking back for chase or the Elder Thing.
It is a horror game, so we are using the variant sanity-loss system for casting spells. So, in a fashion true to the genre, this victory has perhaps cost me more than if I had simply died.
Aegeu
01-21-07, 10:30 PM Glad to know you made it out alive. Now maybe you should check into an asylum to regain your sanity.
aotrscommander
01-23-07, 05:34 PM Ouch. Well, at least you're still alive...sort of...
Ramrod_The_Wizard
01-23-07, 06:58 PM This is reminiscent of have a cleric of mine "died". Well the party was sent into a dreamscape and the world became dark and twisted and the entire party exept for me (dwarf cleric of silver flame) and the halfling druid had survived. We pretty much had a clash of culture throughout the campaign, and the feelings ran deep.

Well we came apon a point were we were just wandering through a dark (by dwarven standards) forest and we came apon a area where about a hundred corpses were hung from trees, and they magically started to light on fire. Well as some clowed thier way out of the earth while others fell i blasted some with light of lunia because im a more casting based cleric and it does more damage against undead. Well eventually a demonic flaming werewolf appeared and the druid failed a will save for fear. Well eventually the undead began to bear down and i was going tet-a-tet with the thing and fighting off multitudes of these flaming monstrosities, but i knew it would overcome me. So my character looked the druid in the eyes and said "Run, ill hold them off" as he cast sanctuary on her (the werewolf was the only one even capable of touching her and he was busy) and all of our hatred melted away. Eventually several rounds later I was tackled and vividly described how i was ripped to peices. What made this even more epic was the fact im only third level.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mellagon 01-18-07, 03:30 PM	Here's the situation. We're playing a Lovecraft-ian D&D horror game. This means that everyone in the party is likely to die, horribly, or wish they had, or some combination thereof. Currently, we're in a tower owned by what is essentially cultists of Cthulhu. They put up a nice front, but they're clearly (clearly OOC anyway) going to kill us all. We're making nice until we can find out where the girl we're trying to rescue is, and then we'll make our escape. I'm playing a dwarven wizard, and I assumed that step one of our escape would be to find a way out of the tower. The door was the magical sealing kind, and I got a servant to, "Let me outside so that I might go riding." Yay dwarven wizards with ranks in bluff. The rest of the party was searching the tower elsewhere (Yes, we split up, God help us, but to be fair we were driven apart by stuff and things that seemed very important at the time). So I took a kid we had rescued from wandering horrors outside with me, not wanting to leave him alone in the tower. The servant makes some complicated gesture to open the door, I make an int check to remember the pattern (got a 17) and I <think> I can open it later. If it's the same pattern to open from the outside. As soon as I set foot outside, the door slams shut, and hundreds of carnivorous scavenging rodents are surrounding me, led by the ghost-like corpse of an awakened animal I'd been tricked into eating. I'm entirely surrounded and they're not in a single fireball-able clump. It'll probably take them one round to swarm me, just hazarding a guess. And I have no idea what the ghostly stag is. My current assets (read - spells prepared) are Fireball, Gaseous Form, Dispel Magic, Lesser Celerity, Mount, and Protection from Evil. There's a few others I can't remember right now. My current plan is to toss the kid my satchel containing my spellbook and backup pouches, 9 days of food, and directions back to civilization (my journal), gaseous form the kid, and then probably die. I'm playing CG and I've always wanted to do a hero's death. However... it occurred to me that without their wizard, the party might die as well. Not arrogance, simple fact - wizards are useful. Most of the party, were they there, would tell me to save the kid and fight as best I could (Good aligned parties are so nice). If you have escape suggestions, I'm interested. Mostly, however, I'm wondering what is more moral? Gaseous Form on the kid, and try to survive long enough to escape myself? Or save myself, and fly to the aid of my comrades and the girl we're trying to rescue in the first place?
owlkeeper 01-18-07, 03:42 PM	why not keep your spellbook, and toss the kid the rest of the satchel. I see some outs here with protection from evil. These things sure SEEM evil. Or maybe use mount to mount the kid and then ride your way out! Maybe gases the kid, then fireball. Or...since you have ranks in bluff, convince the head stag, that the KID (or the rats) ate him, and used his diverted attention to come up with a better plan.
Some_call_me_Tim 01-18-07, 04:24 PM	Mostly, however, I'm wondering what is more moral? Gaseous Form on the kid, and try to survive long enough to escape myself? Or save myself, and fly to the aid of my comrades and the girl we're trying to rescue in the first place? Tough choice, especially consider a Chaotic Good character who "follows his own moral compass." Personally I would try and save the kid, here and now is much more concrete than sometime in the future when your party might need you. I'm not sure how well gaseous form will work given it's limited duration and speed. Mount seems the better option for outrunning the enemy. I would probably go gaseous form the kid, summon a mount, ride like hell, fireball while riding off into the sunset. If you die, at least you tried. If I was the DM, I know how I would handle your death to reward your bravery, I would let the boy be you new PC. He has your spellbook he can ride off and study for a while then come back to save your friends since he can't save you.
Cromag 01-18-07, 05:40 PM	protection from evil the kid and tell him to run, he should be perfectly safe to get out then. then if you survive the initial wave Gaseous form yourself and float back inside. all you have to do is live through the first attack and your golden ;)
MechMage 01-18-07, 07:00 PM	Now, I don't have my books with me, and I haven't read gasious form, but I wouldn't be surprized if that ghost stag can waste you in gasious form, and out run your mount. If you can light a fire, you may be able to ward them off, but I probably won't stop the stag. Even if you give the kid a magic boost, it won't out last the rats. If you can only save one of you, you have a better chance than the kid.
Yokomohoyo 01-19-07, 12:57 AM	your caotic good right... I belive its good for the kid to live but it will be even better for you to live... hehehehe love being caotic hahahaha
Mellagon 01-19-07, 11:52 AM	owlkeeper - I want the kid to have the Spellbook for three reasons 1. It's in my bag with everything he needs to survive, and I don't want think I'll have time to root and sort. 2. I don't want the things that kill me to get access to mu spellbook. Magic is rare enough that it's a decently powerful book. 3. Getting back to civilization won't be easy. If I go down, he'll need the book to have much of any chance at all. If nothing else, he can barter with it, maybe try a cantrip or two, or use it as a bribe or distraction. Prot from Evil only saves me against summons and outsiders, not undead (presumably) and relatively natural scavengers. Some_call_me_Tim - Mount's not a bad idea, but I'm entirely surrounded. I'm visualizing wading into a river of piranha. Gaseous form, while not as fast, protects against non-magic and let's the kid get over the horde. I appreciate the moral advice. The kid is definetly a more concrete problem. The party's compotent without me. The kid is dead if I do nothing. Cromag - "all you have to do is live through the first attack and your golden ;-)" If I do live through it, it's likely that my GM is using swarm rules. Concentration checks to do anything else are going to be a pain in my enormous dwarven butt. MechMage - The SRD says that Gaseous Form grants DR 10/Magic. I don't know what the Ghost is, I doubt it's a straight-from-the-book ghost. The thing has a personal grudge against me, what with the cannibalism, so I think it'll be chasing me down and not the kid. The scavengers probably can't pierce the magic's DR. Actually, this is making more sense to give the Gaseous form to the kid, since I'll be drawing the aggro of the one thing that can hurt it. yokomohoyo - Yeah, I'm chaotic good, but I try not to take that as a liscene to abandon the 'good' part as soon as my back's against a wall. Or rather, my front, and several hundred carnivores. My current plan, from this discussion, is that since my big 'out' spell, Gaseous Form, will only save the kid, and he's likely to die from the swarm if I don't do something, he'll get that first round. Assuming I'm still around to cast, I'll either try to kill the ghost-stag, hopefully making all the semi-normal animals less aggressive, or if things are going really bad, I'll try to Mount up, use lesser celerity to get on that round, and flee the mass. The game is tonight - I'll post the results after that. Probably Sunday.
aotrscommander 01-19-07, 12:12 PM	Good luck. Sounds as if you're going to need it...
Azar_of_Faerun 01-19-07, 12:48 PM	Hearing that from a lich is amazing :eek:
Aegeu 01-19-07, 06:38 PM	Gaseous form allows you to take anything you were wearing or holding in your hands. Would you be able to pick up the kid and then cast Gaseous Form? If this fails, I would try to open the door and pray that the password is the same from the outside. Lesser celerity will help you do everything in one round. If the DM uses swarm rules, it's easier to escape. Use a readied action to dive out of the way when they swarm you (because they have to be on top of you to hit), and then use lesser celerity to get some distance. Try throwing the rats some meat to divert them. Finally, whatever the ghost is, it'll be a lot easier than the entire swarm.
Novabomb 01-19-07, 07:42 PM	How far is town away? What does your spellbook do besides give you spells? (you mentioned the kid will need it if he is to have a chance) Could you sorta draw the possion of foes out plz?
hunterc311 01-19-07, 08:04 PM	Ideas, though maybe too late: 1) Do you have Fly in your spellbook? Cast it from the page and take off. It's worth sacrificing the spell from your book to escape unharmed. Retrieve the book as your move, read the spell as your standard, and 5 foot into the air. Only the ghost can reach you 5 feet in the air, the rats are screwed. Leave the next round, barring the ghost having some way of stopping you. or 2) Knock the kid unconscious (he probably has like 3 hps, and you have a quarterstaff or at least a strong enough fist). He is now your "gear" and you can cast Gaseous Form on the both of you. Though getting both of these actions done in one round is not really possible, since they are both standards and I doubt you have a quicken spell option, so... or 3) Do you have magical robes or a magical cloak? Fall on top of the kid and wrap your robes/cloak over the both of you as your move action, then drop a fireball centered on you as your standard. You forgo your reflex save but the kid won't be harmed by the fire because he is surrounded on all sides by a non-mundane barrier, and the rats will be toast for 20 feet in every direction around you. I doubt there are many more rats than that. Then worry about the ghost, assuming you can suck up the potential fireball damage (dwarf, good CON, looks like you're about level 6 since you have three 3rd level spells memorized, maybe you could take around 24 hps of fireball damage).
smoker 01-19-07, 09:02 PM	If you're a prisoner, and you're not dead all ready, then someone wants to keep you alive. And your DM is either very cautious about killing characters, or your DM enjoys killing characters. Figure out what your DM's style. If your DM is wiling to keep you alive, try the self sacrifice route. You'll create a problem for your DM. Does your DM really want to kill your character? Shift the problem to the DM.
StrangeGuy 01-20-07, 08:52 AM	Can't say that I'd pick that last option given.... putting it on the DM seems kinda lame and metagamey...
Need_A_Life 01-20-07, 09:40 AM	Gaseous Form on the kid and go down fighting... With tears in his eyes Mellagon completed the incantation and the horrified childs eyes widened as his body lost its solidity. "Save yourself!" Mellagon yelled at the dumbstruck child, "Get away from here!" seeing as how he'd be ripped into pieces soon, Mellagon saw no other choice than to let himself fall in combat. All these beasts would, no doubt, be able to disrupt his remaining spells and even those couldn't save him, he could hope only for the kids survival. The translucent ghost floating above the feral wolfpack looked at him with a hateful recognition. "I'm the one you want," with a flick of the wrist a small pebble of fire shot at the ghost, who seemed to regard it with little concern, until the sphere struck its incorporeal form and enveloped the spirit with magical flame, horribly scorching its incorporeal hide. "That was my final defense," Mellagon said with no regret as the fire died down against the still-standing stag. "I welcome you, the one who is about to kill me." Then, with an uncharacteristic animalism he threw himself into the flurry of claws and teeth before him, letting them bite and rip at his barely protected skin. In the corner of his eye he saw greenish smoke floating slowly away from the battle. He mounted the strength to smile, even as his chest was penetrated by an ethereal pair of antlers. Hey, I'm a sucker for dramatics, who has nothing to do today... (and who has a hard time concentrating on writing a decent description)
Aegeu 01-20-07, 10:08 PM	Ideas, though maybe too late: 1) Do you have Fly in your spellbook? Cast it from the page and take off. Err... How can you cast spells directly from a spellbook page? I can't find it anywhere in my PHB.
12Shark 01-20-07, 11:05 PM	It's a holdout from earlier editions, where a spellbook was pretty much a book of scrolls.
Mellagon 01-21-07, 02:37 PM	Alright, the game session was Friday, and it bugs the heck out of me when there's no closure on threads like this, so here's the story. It turns out things were much, much worse for my party inside the tower. They had been brought to an Awakening ceremony, with a capital A, for an Elder-Thing (a Lovecraftian god-monster). We don't know what kind of Elder Thing, and since non of us were epic, it didn't much matter. Dead was dead. Thankfully, we had an alienist who took a "I hear voices" feat. And her 'patron' Elder Thing did not like the Elder Thing that was waking up. So she started to chant. Eventually, the rest of the party starts to chant as as well, sucking attacks from minions to do so, occasionally failing their forbidden lore checks and giving off little spurts of blood. Slowly, they drove the thing back into its sleep, not through their own power, but through the dubiously good-intentioned power of the Elder Thing that was using the alienist as a meat-puppet. Out the window and down below the tower, I was fighting the horde of rodents. They were scavengers, or so we had thought when we had seen them earlier, but now that I was alone, all their paws extended into dagger-sized claws. I braced myself, attempted to open the door, first with the gesture I had seen, then with the gesture I had seen, reversed. The door remained sealed, entirely indistinguishable from the smooth stone of the tower. However, they didn't charge. They were waiting for the ghost, who took the form of various departed family members and people I had failed to help, before enveloping me in a black cloud and sucking the life from me. Firstly, protection from evil on myself. The ghost had not charged the child, and the scavengers were not advancing. This spell shut out its attacks on my mind. From up above, screams, but that was beyond my scope at that point. Second round, I tried one of my two attack spells - scorching ray. The mist didn't react at all. Third round, I tried to dispel the mist. It coalesced into a demon-shape, thankfully a burned demon. At this point I both heard the chanting and figured out its significance, and ordered the boy to chant. I told the demon-beast that the thing waking above us was just as much death for it as it was for us. It responded by gnawing on my thigh and injecting some kind of poison. Dwarves laugh at poison. Fourth round I unleashed the fireball. It made a nice hole in the scavenger horde, and the demon-beast finally dropped. The scavengers skittered for a moment, then charged. The boy continued to chant. Fifth round, I realized that even if I survived the first wave, the child would not. My familiar scampered from my shoulder and into the pack, which I tossed to the child. He dissipated into mists, and began to escape. Above, the party was fairing poorly. The bard, both in character and out of character, had not figured out what the chanting was doing, or that <anyone> could attempt it. Two of the party members had been hit by the Elder Thing's tentacles, and it had turned them into other-things, like its followers, with glowing eyes and pungent skin. They were slaughtering the few that resisted. The party cleric was making some headway, through a foul pact of some kind (haven't the foggiest to whom, which would have been worrisome in other circumstances). The pact apparently doubled all numerical parts of spells, every number, but it later drained a permanent constitution and some sanity, with the promise that this was getting off easy. Still, grappling with a doubled Balor Nimbus spell caused the Thing's head priest's soft skin to boil and melt. As more people above began to chant the Binding Words, the Elder Thing slipped back into the lake. Below, the horde advanced. I lived through the first attack, but now was nearly dead, a few hit points left. They were quicker than me, but I had lesser celerity left. As they rushed me a final time, I cast the spell, and ran on borrowed time to the nearest house, throwing myself into hiding, hoping I would not be seen. To the scavengers, I had vanished. They began to hunt for me. Above, the party had slowed the cultists, and fled out a window, falling safely with magic. I cast my mount spells, and did my best impression of a bloody, half-dead calvary rescue. The child joined us, and we fled as quickly as possible, not looking back for chase or the Elder Thing. It is a horror game, so we are using the variant sanity-loss system for casting spells. So, in a fashion true to the genre, this victory has perhaps cost me more than if I had simply died.
Aegeu 01-21-07, 10:30 PM	Glad to know you made it out alive. Now maybe you should check into an asylum to regain your sanity.
aotrscommander 01-23-07, 05:34 PM	Ouch. Well, at least you're still alive...sort of...
Ramrod_The_Wizard 01-23-07, 06:58 PM	This is reminiscent of have a cleric of mine "died". Well the party was sent into a dreamscape and the world became dark and twisted and the entire party exept for me (dwarf cleric of silver flame) and the halfling druid had survived. We pretty much had a clash of culture throughout the campaign, and the feelings ran deep. Well we came apon a point were we were just wandering through a dark (by dwarven standards) forest and we came apon a area where about a hundred corpses were hung from trees, and they magically started to light on fire. Well as some clowed thier way out of the earth while others fell i blasted some with light of lunia because im a more casting based cleric and it does more damage against undead. Well eventually a demonic flaming werewolf appeared and the druid failed a will save for fear. Well eventually the undead began to bear down and i was going tet-a-tet with the thing and fighting off multitudes of these flaming monstrosities, but i knew it would overcome me. So my character looked the druid in the eyes and said "Run, ill hold them off" as he cast sanctuary on her (the werewolf was the only one even capable of touching her and he was busy) and all of our hatred melted away. Eventually several rounds later I was tackled and vividly described how i was ripped to peices. What made this even more epic was the fact im only third level.