Brisco was the first hero to go, as usual. His first inclination was to do Battlefield Medicine on TerStegan. However, because the monster had him in his tentacles, that was going to be tough. He cast his Tempest Surge spell and took a Reactive Strike. That hurt but it didn’t crit so the spell still went off. Brisco then had to make a 26 Will save against its evilness and rolled a 20. The monster missed its save and took the full 16. He then put Guidance on TerStegan to aid any future rolls. Even though he was still unconscious. Xeelie went next. She did her Lore thing and learned it had no weaknesses nor resistances. She then charged past it but was 5 feet short of getting flanking and cast Fast Healing on TerStegan. Clarisa did her last 3rd level Missile Barrage for 39. Oakwood turned on his Thermal Nimbus, moved in and crit with a fiery axe for 28. TerStegan became conscious from the Fast Healing, drew his backup hand axe since his main axe was back where he initially fell and attacked with the +1 from Guidance. He hit for a sad 11. And hit again for 12 and killed it.
We searched the room and found nothing. We healed up and refocused. Somehow that took 20 minutes of arguing. The door to the south opened to a long hallway that ended with another door. However, about half way down, we were attacked by a devil (Barbazu) with a floating shield and floating glaive. It went first. It missed with two glaive attacks and then crit with its beard. TerStegan missed the Fort save and was diseased. TerStegan turned on his stance and missed twice. Clarisa was still in the old room so she had to move up. She tried a Daze since its range was 60 feet and the devil critically failed its save. It took 10 and lost one action. Brisco moved up and did his doctor visit on TerStegan and healed him 31. Xeelie ran up and enchanted TerStegan’s axe with Conductive Weapon. Before Oakwood got to go last, a small flying devil entered the encounter. But it was invisible. It summoned a large rat swarm on top of the 3 heroes up front. They had to make a 17 Reflex. They took minimal damage but Xeelie missed save. We figured she was diseased as well. The floating glaive disappeared and reappeared behind Clarisa. But missed. Oakwood turned on his Thermal Nimbus, moved up to get the rats in it (and give fire resistance to his friends) and then missed the devil with a ranged attack.
Retroactively, the two flying devils became visible after taking their hostile actions. They were attached to the shield and glaive. The big guy missed TerStegan and then crit with his beard again. He rolled a 1 on that disease save and was Enfeebled 1. He hit for 29. And then missed and then crit the rats. That was for 56 which instantly killed the whole swarm. And then the follow through sweep did 13 plus 6 electrical to the main devil. Clarisa moved further into the hallway, fleeing her devil. She then turned and hit it for 13 from TK. 5 of which, bounced. Brisco cast Heal on TerStegan and gave him 42. And then stepped back. Xeelie did her Lore on the devil and got the same info as last time. She then moved up to get flanking with TerStegan and missed with a 2. One flying guy dropped the shield, flew up and attacked Xeelie with flanking. It hit and did 8. And then missed. The other one dropped his glaive and caught up to Clarisa. It hit for 16. She a rolled a 1 on her DC20 Fort save but used her hero point. And made it. For its last action, it threw a flask at Oakwood. That hit for 5 acid which was also persistent. (2d6+2) Oakwood charge it. He hit for a net 3 and then took 8 more acid damage.
The big guy charged to target Xeelie and hit her for 24. Plus, that 1d6 infernal persistent bleed. And then shifted her out of her reach. And missed with its reach glaive. And then used his beard and hit TerStegan yet again. For a normal hit of 10. TerStegan hit him back for 19. And again for 14. He tried to Demoralize him but didn’t roll anywhere high enough. Clarisa moved closer to the big guy who was “near death” and used an Electric Arc between it and one of the flying guys. Both saved for half. It was only 5 but at least they didn’t resist any of it. Brisco did the same but only one took half and the other took none. He then healed Xeelie for a bunch. The resulting Reactive Strike missed him. Xeelie stepped to get within range and hit with a hero point. That did 16 which was 11 which was enough to drop it. She did Recall Knowledge on the flying guy. It had the same “default devil stuff” as the other one. The one flying guy took a 5-foot step and disappeared. We assume, turned invisible and flew off. The other did the same. Oakwood had low odds to Seek it so he emptied his water skin and got rid of the persistent acid instead.
Paul stepped away and was skipped. Clarisa cast a AOE heal but it was only 1st level so it was only 4 points. Brisco used his keen Halfling eyes to Seek the invisible devil. He rolled a blind roll. He did not find anything, despite his bonuses. He used a hero point and this time was confident there was nothing in his Seek area. He then used Administer First Aid on Xeelie. The DC was only 20, the same as the flat check, so he made that with no problem. Non bleeding Xeelie then picked up the shield and then moved north to pick up the glaive. He noticed the flying guys in that room and saw them fly away. Quickly. (We then figured they were using Dimension Door to get around.) Brian wanted to end the encounter but Oakwood had one last power to use at the bottom of the order. The Dash of Herbs allows a save against disease. Because Brian didn’t want to do the bookkeeping, he just said it worked and people saved. It shouldn’t have been that easy but we said thank you and moved on. The glaive was +1 and the shield was cold iron. We almost quit for the night but Paul returned so we thought we’d finish off the last two doors. We opened the door. In there was a torturous room. The equipment rack was missing the equipment the devils were using. It was otherwise unremarkable. TerStegan remember the clue from Dr. Whatshisname and went to the lose floor tile. In there were 5 potions and another letter. The letter was from Dr. Quagmire. More delusional ramblings of barely useful stuff. Mostly about devils and how they were reasonable, dangerous, and deadly. One vial was Portal paint and the rest were Skeptic potions. And nothing else.
The last door of the night lead into the arena. The room was large as was the description. Once again, there were tempting words about treasures in the pile of garbage to entice (trick) us into entering. The Cheerer Man was still there, watching. TerStegan went in and started searching. The rest followed. Someone shoved Brisco into the room and the door locked behind us. The arena started up and Brian read the usual text about how we have no choices. We had to fight Belcora’s champion, Caliddo Haruvex. He promised us 10k gold if we won. We assumed that would never happen so it must be a “runaway” challenge in order to get a draw. (Metagaming) Xeelie, who was detecting magic, felt the doors were magically locked behind us. The doors to the north were protected by formidable portcullises. The main viewing area was 40 feet up the shear walls. In the 3 corners were items we thought might hold the key to our escape. The closest one had a fine silky powder in it which Brisco picked up on his turn. The golem said that if Clarisa went with it to serve Belcora, he’d let the rest of us live. (The GM attached Clarisa’s back story to Belcora.) She tried to stall it by pretending to negotiate with him. “Tell me more about this fabulous job opportunity.” She rolled a 19, used a hero point and got a 27.
Oakwood activated his dashing bracelet to move 35 for a minute. And moved up 70, seeing one of those aberrations, watching and taking notes from the gallery. He was heading for the chain shirt in the far corner but was reminded of the hand crossbow Xeelie’s mother had given us. And the Climbing Bolt that would go up 50 feet. TerStegan moved to a portcullis and pulled out the Otari key. Xeelie examined the pouch but Identify is an encounter activity. I.e. took too long. She did her Lore on the golem first and rolled poorly. She used a hero point and rolled a 20. It is undead and had many immunities but no weaknesses. It was a Grave Knight. Generally, very high up on the food chain. High AC. He passed that on to us which the Grave Knight overheard. That did not help Clarisa’s bluffing. She then rolled on the dust. She thought it was just garbage, left here over the years. (I.e. more enticements to get us in here.) Brisco stayed near Clarisa to support her deception. Clarisa had to move closer to it to appear cooperative but she could move inefficiently. Two actions of movement and one to convince him. She only got a 23 this time and it decided she was lying. Brisco tried to support her but needed a 20 on the die. His RP tale moved it down to an 18 but he still rolled a 20. That bought us another round.
Oakwood, giving up on the chain shirt, moved into a corner to get some cover. He pulled out the crossbow and fired at the helpless ceiling. And rolled a 1. He used a hero point and rolled a 4 which became a 14 which was enough to get a critical success. Because he was against the wall, it would be easier to climb up with foot holds. The Grave Knight only moved up another move thanks to the actions Clarisa and Brisco had used to stall it. TerStegan wanted to use his Lifting Belt which would lift 8 bulk as if it was nothing. However, there are mechanisms to overcome so it wasn’t simply a weight issue. So, he used the Knock feature on Otari’s key (+4) and had to make a Force Open Athletics check. But he didn’t have a crowbar which gave him a -2. Brian made him a Jon deal. 20 gp to “happen” to have a 5 sp crowbar to avoid the -2. Which he reluctantly took but then Xeelie suggested he use the newly acquired +1 glaive to pry it up. New deal. Use the glaive but it would be ruined. He needed get a 25 and got a 25. That was all his actions but it was wedged opened. Xeelie was next. She cast Loose Time’s Arrow. That gave everyone a Quicken action to step or stride on their next turn. She then moved up the stairs behind the portcullis.
Clarisa realized the Knight wasn’t buying it any more so she ran up the stairs and on to the map, one level above. Brisco did the same. Oakwood used his Burning Jet to get up 25 feet, then used Assurance to climb the rest on the rope. And then used the Quicken to move again. He was still holding the rope since he couldn’t spare the action to try to pull it free. Unfortunately, the Knight went next and TerStegan was still in there. But it couldn’t quite get to him so he summoned a flying phantom steed instead. TerStegan moved on to the other map. Xeelie moved to be even with the back rank and cast Bless with her last 2 actions. That new map was at the grand hallway that led to the circular stairs up and down. Clarisa delayed until after Oakwood, not sure what to do. Oakwood gave the rope to Brisco and then grabbed Clarisa and Jetted to the upper hallway. He was heading for the exit asap. Brisco made a crazy Acro roll to get up there and ran past the other two. Clarisa pulled a rope out and tossed it over the edge. It went next. It flew 60 but lost some movement gaining altitude. It still got over us. (Any hopes that it wouldn’t leave the arena were dashed.) TerStegan zipped up the rope in one action and picked up Clarisa. He then used his Helmet to stride twice which got them at the portcullis. Xeelie ran to the circular stairway instead with the intent of heading to the teleportation circle.
Oakwood triple moved, slid under the portcullis we had jammed open and got into the exit tunnel we had cleared out. At this point, the chronicler went to bed. He assumes once everyone slipped under the portcullis and/or got out of the dungeon, the Knight turned back. And Xeelie managed to find her own way through the teleportation circle network. I think the only things left on level 6 are the Hydras and the treasure hoard of the water demon that almost killed us a couple times ago. And the arena of course but that guy had just proven to be unfair so hopefully we can avoid that.
