[Collective Game] WRATH OF THE RAIN MAKER

[Avoraciopoctules]

(You can retrain feats now

I've been a big shadow conjuration fan since reading this guide:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kvBvq ... U4WlU/edit

Overall, looks good. Some pretty nice tricks you can use, looking forward to seeing them in action.)

"Bavierre is running short on power, now that you've tapped into the temple as well and the sun's interfering with his ice. His monsters have stopped rampaging outside. Unfortunately, now he knows exactly where you are.

You could make your job much easier by opening the last solar intake, but that could corner you, since there's only one way out and he's sending monsters to attack right now.

Be wary of Tenoc, he'll envy you for taking what he sees as his rightful place. Though it's probably for the best, he would have made a terrible high priest."

[radthemad4]

(Replacing Weapon focus and improved critical with Practiced Spellcaster and Versatile Spellcaster then and taking Shadow Conjuration. Thanks, that guide's pretty cool. I especially liked the part about pit traps.

Hmm... apparently skill tricks are once per encounter (or per minute when combat music isn't playing) so permanent major image isn't going to happen just yet (though a standard action once per minute without breaking concentration is pretty awesome for 2 skill points). Oh well, I can take sonorous hum (possibly with shadow evocation) later on, or take the extraordinary concetration feat (DCs are too high for that atm))

"Ah, so he was planning on coming here and taking the staff? Well... this'll be awkward... Anyway, I'll worry about that once things quiet down. Hopefully he'll put aside his grievances till the immediate crisis is over. Thanks for the heads up though. I'll risk going for the solar intake."

Head for the solar intake

[Avoraciopoctules]

(BTW, your expended spell slots all recovered when you leveled up.)

You advance NORTH from the shrine as the divine lightning subsides, over the closed trapdoor and down a winding flight of stairs.

You emerge into a small room on the lower floor of the temple, but note another flight of stairs leading down adjacent to the one you just descended. Ahead, you see another large sealed trapdoor, with the controls for the trapdoor above mounted in the wall on the other side.

On second look, this trapdoor might not be perfectly sealed after all. You see wisps of blue mist curling up from where the doors connect. Floating within the mist is a translucent figure identical to the one that confronted you in the northwestern solar intake. As you emerge, it raises its arms and fades from sight. The mist starts to thicken, and more wisps drift up from the second flight of stairs.

Thankfully, your mask allows you to see clearly through the frigid fog, and you spot the blue-skinned batlike creatures concealed within without difficulty.

[radthemad4]

Stay out of view and cast Detect Magic on them. Use Knowledge Checks.

[Avoraciopoctules]

You back up the stairs, scanning the monsters as you go. There's a mix of transmutation, evocation, and conjuration. The fog continues to thicken, the bats almost floating within it. The flapping of their wings is unnaturally slow and inaudible.

Your best guess is that the monsters were made from magical ice much like the orcs, and the fog is a freezing variant of a Solid Fog effect. The semisolid vapors are holding up the bats, and muffling the noise they make.

Intuitively, you suddenly grasp the connection between the bat-filled fog and the rest of the divine power pulsing through the temple. Baviere has bent several threads of magic into the chamber below, but even more are gathering in the pool beneath, where the temple reaches its deepest point.

[radthemad4]

(Would the Cold Resistance 20 from the Water Domain help against the freezing effects?)

If yes, cast expeditious retreat, equip scimitars and go down. If the bats seem hostile, stand ground and full attack.

(Also, is taking the Flowing subdomain instead of the Water domain an option? Not asking to change current domain slots (because well... suddenly asking for freedom of movement after running into a fog cloud... doesn't seem right))

[Avoraciopoctules]

(You can switch to the Flowing Subdomain the next time you rest.)

Your resistance to cold would prevent you from taking damage from the fog, but it would still slow you down without additional countermeasures. There are a lot of bats in there, and if Baviere created them they are probably hostile. Hacking through the lot could be time-consuming, though it's unlikely to be directly threatening.

[radthemad4]

Cast extended quickened protection from evil (gets additional +2 AC from Abjurant Champion Levels). Try using the fan against the cloud and go down, ignoring the bats.

[Avoraciopoctules]

You place a protective ward on yourself and then advance, cutting through the miasma by unleashing blasts of sacred wind. The bats seem to rapidly lose strength as the fog tears away from them, and ping uselessly off your defenses.

Down, down you descend, to the lowest point in the temple, past both the main floors. The stone shifts from masonry to rough-hewn stone, and then into smoothly eroded rock that sparkles with shiny flecks. Drops and rivulets of frozen water are everywhere, but you manage to make pretty rapid progress.

Finally, you reach an opening into a wide cavern, mostly taken up by a dark black pool. A monstrous ice statue obscures your view of the trapdoor controls on the far wall, but it looks... unfinished. Baviere is struggling to shape it, force life and will into the thing, but he's not quite there yet. Perhaps understandable, since the thing's the size of a small house.

[radthemad4]

Scan the statue and the pool with detect magic

[Avoraciopoctules]

Yep, they're pretty damn magical. This pool is a stronger divine conduit than either of the ones in the two previous solar intakes. Turning it into a portal to Tlalocan with a ritual would be pretty easy.

You're fairly sure the super-monster is 1d4+1 minutes from coming to life.

[radthemad4]

Cast Heroics (Martial Study: Death Mark) and Coup de Grace the statue, using the long sword with both hands and Death Mark.

Death mark does 6d6 Fire damage in addition to normal melee damage (Reflex Save DC 16 for half).

[Avoraciopoctules]

Your sword begins to glow as you aim carefully, then leap up and impale the statue where threads of magic connect in a sort of "heart". A wave of heat blasts outward, sigils appearing and dissolving as the whole construct melts into a featureless heap of blue slag.

With your heightened magical senses, it is now possible to pick out the growing tension in Baviere's hold over the area, as the fading spell tries to pull more and more power from its source. Finally, the connection breaks from the other end, and a shriek of frustration rocks the temple.

"This can't be happening! Go! GO! Send in all the reserves, we can't let her break our hold on the temple!" Huh. It looks like you're starting to interface with whatever Bavierre is using to command his minions.

[radthemad4]

Go for the trap door controls to open the intake.

[Avoraciopoctules]

The trapdoor slides open, giving you a good view of the room above, and its set of controls. Unfortunately, the second door above this one remains shut. Orcs are beginning to pour into the room, but none have emerged from the stairwell at your level yet.

[radthemad4]

Use the staff to create a Whirlwind at the entrance where the orcs are appearing. Try hitting the door. If that seems to be working, continue, otherwise examine it more carefully, using Detect Magic.

(Is the door watertight? Can Water Elementals slide under doors? The fluff says This translucent creature's shape shifts between a spinning column of water and a crashing wave, but I don't see any explicit abilities.)

[Avoraciopoctules]

You raise your staff and invoke its power. As the multicolored flare of light fades, the air in the room above twists into a vicious vortex strong enough to pull the orcs off their feet. It circles the room once, knocking the orcs over like bowling pins or outright tugging them up into the air. Shrieks echo down from above as they spin around and around, the wind tearing at their flesh.

And then you gesture again, causing the fully-formed whirlwind to rise about a dozen feet. Orc after orc is violently slammed into the doors as they swirl to the apex of the vortex, melting apart into water and smoke with each impact. Cracks begin to form, and the stone shatters a few blows later.

A lance of sunlight plunges through the gap, and the pool before you flares an impossibly brilliant blue. You feel waves of power pulsing out, and your heightened awareness stretches a little bit further into the architecture of Tlaloc's house.

All of Baviere's ice is starting to melt. The only holdouts are Baviere himself, at the temple entrance, and the altars above where his lieutenants are struggling to hold off an assault by the surviving acolytes of the Rain Maker. But now, the sorcerer who defiled the temple is preparing to flee. You can see him reflected in the droplets dripping down from the ceiling as he raises a blue staff and begins to call out to his Frost Father to save him from Mictlan.

Fury bubbles through every stream and rivulet of power in the temple. You can taste Tlaloc's hatred for what this interloper and his god have dared do to his domain. And now you are the one holding the key to direct it.

[radthemad4]

(Hmm... firstly, if some sort of dimensional anchor type effect is available, direct it towards him)

Send a whirlwind his way. Engulf him in an aqueous orb. Hit him with lightning. (If precision is possible, try to separate him from his staff). Cast expeditious retreat and run towards the temple entrance, if possible channeling more destructive energies towards him on the way.

[Avoraciopoctules]

The temple is well-warded against extradimensional incursions originating outside. But inside, there are numerous channels leading out. It's what let you sneak into the temple in the first place, and it lets pools act as interconnected warp points. And the floor around Bavierre is soaking wet. You dive into the central solar intake's pool, emerging on the far side of the grand entrance hall in a flare of captured sunlight. Then you lock down the planar channels as best you can, and throw another tornado at him.

You've caught the sorcerer off-guard, negating his ritual magic and then striking as his escape spells fizzles. He's hurled off his feet by the wind, though he retains his grip on the blue staff. But his bloodsoaked formal Marignon robes are shredded, and a golden circlet flies off his head...

That isn't a human caught in your whirlwind anymore. It's a twelve-foot-tall humanoid monster, with pale blue skin and three glowing golden eyes. "Damn you, meddler! The war I was fomenting would have pleased Ymir greatly. Now the Frost Father will have to be contented with your corpse. I am Hrati, thane of Verdandur! I make my stand here!"

As the last of the magical ice barring the entrance begins to melt, you can hear muffled shouts from the Mictlan army attempting to break through.

Now revealed in his true form, Hrati raises his staff and twirls it. The weapon morphs into a trident, and several wisps of blue fire form around him. A brilliant blue ray fires from one of his eyes, searing you with cold so intense that it hurts a little even through your resistance. Too heavy for your whirlwind, he drops to the floor, cracking several tiles with the impact.

[radthemad4]

Cast Extended Quickened Dispel Magic on the Trident. If it doesn't work (but seems to the result of a bad roll rather than it being too powerful or immune to dispels), try again.

If it works, or the trident seems immune to this sort of thing, cast invisibility and move around, casting buffs. Summon 1d3 Fire Elementals via Shadow Conjuration to annoy him slightly.

Use quickened extended dispels against anything he casts, especially of the See Invisibility or True Sight nature. Move around invisibly, and get these buffs on:

Enlarge Person, Haste, Heroics (Flashing Sun maneuver, can full attack with one additional attack at max BAB, though all attacks are made at -2), Heroics (Searing Blade Boost, extra 2d6+4 fire damage per attack). Then get within reach of him and use Searing Blade + Flashing Sun for Full Attack with 2 extra attacks at max BAB and bonus 2d6+4 fire damage per attack.

[Avoraciopoctules]

You cast your dispel, aiming for the giant's weapon. The floating flames are snuffed, and the trident becomes a staff once again. Then you go invisible and dodge to one side.

Hrati kicks off the ground and skates forward toward you at high speed. Twirling his staff from hand to hand, he parries your attack of opportunity easily when he arrives adjacent to you. Invisibility doesn't seem to be helpful here, his glowing eyes find you anyway. Fortunately, that parry seemed to use up the Swift action Hrati would otherwise use on a laser.

[radthemad4]

Try Glitterdust. If it works, go with the earlier plan.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Your spell is interrupted by two staff-strikes to the face. Hrati has worse reach in staff mode, but after zooming up next to you, he's in a position to make attacks of opportunity of his own.

[radthemad4]

Try again, casting defensively.

(DC=19 for Glitterdust. Caster level: 12 + CHA Mod:5 + Combat casting: +4 =21 +d20, so autosuccess I think. If it isn't, try using Conceal Spellcasting to avoid AoOs: Sleight of Hand:d20 +10 vs Perception)

[Avoraciopoctules]

This time, you manage to get the spell off, and the giant howls as your golden motes block his vision... momentarily. The spell is already dimming, and you've got no more than a round or two before Hrati saves and can see you again. The dust will certainly help if he goes invisible himself, though.

Oh wow, Hrati did just go invisible. He must not have figured out exactly what you were casting.