We started, back in the arena, facing a big monster emerging from the pile of garbage. Somehow Oakwood went first and the Shanrigo Behemoth went last. (Bizzarro world.) He made it his Hunted Prey, turned on Thermal Nimbus and missed its 29 AC with an 11. TerStegan turned on his aura and moved around to get flanking. That was 3 actions but he used Sudden Charge so he got one swing. And he hit exactly. (Because it was made up of multiple monsters, it couldn’t be flanked.) He did 21 but 10 points of the slashing damage was resisted. Briscoe had no one to heal so he didn’t know what to do. He cast Enlarge on TerStegan and missed with his trident. (At least it didn’t have reactions.) Clarisa did a 3 action Force Barrage. That did 37 all of which applied once the GM targeted it for him. It took 6 fire damage from the aura and then slapped Clarisa with reach. It had a +23 attack so it could only miss on a 1. It did 21 and then grabbed her with ease. And then squeezed her for a Fort 27 save. She missed that and took 18 plus 1d6 persistent bled. And that squeeze healed it some.
Oakwood missed with a 2-action melee fire blast and then raised his shield. TerStegan demoralize it for Frightened 1. He hit exactly, due to the frightened, however the bonus damage from the enlarge was the same type as his stance so that didn’t stack. He did 25, 10 of which bounced. And then missed. Briscoe couldn’t possibly pry Clarisa free so he used his Tempest Surge. That did half damage for 15. And then Doctor’s Visit for 32 on her. Clarisa didn’t like her chances to Escape. She channeled her inner Jon and went outside the box. She asked if she cast Pest Form and became tiny, could she slip through its huge claws. He got a Brian deal. If she agreed to take 2 more dice of persistent damage, she could do it. But first she had to make a flat check to cast while grappled, which she did. She successfully slipped through and then moved away and reverted to her normal form. And the deal got worse in that the 3d6 persistant stayed. And then it went again. It felt like Russian Roulette. Who would be destroyed this round? It was Briscoe. It rolled a 1. And then crit with an 18. That did 38 and 2d6 and Enfeebled 1. And then it missed.
Oakwood did First Aid on Briscoe to treat the critical bleed. And then rolled a 20 and did 21 points of fire damage. TerStegan missed and missed again. And cast Shield. Briscoe gave Oakwood Guidance and did a 2 action DR first aid on Clarisa to get rid of the bleed. That medicine roll was a 1 so he used his hero point out of embarrassment. Clarisa did her last 3rd level Forced Barrage. That did 38 that couldn’t miss or be resisted. Can’t be beat. It went last. It crit Oakwood for 55 and 2d6. It then shoved him past the portcullis we pried open last time. And slammed it shut.
Oakwood cast Sure Strike and missed a two-action ranged EB with a 1 and a 10. And took some bleed. TerStegan used a hero point to do 5 and then missed twice. Briscoe cast Tempest Surge again. Half for 13. That dropped it. It then released a 5-foot emanation of yuck. Fort 29 save. Briscoe failed but TerStegan rolled a 20. That did 40 and Briscoe dropped. Brian ended the encounter but he kept us on the turns to watch us miss some rolls. Oakwood did Herbs on Briscoe to get him conscious and then bled again. And then failed an athletics roll to raise the gate. Enlarged TerStegan missed the gate roll 3 times. Oakwood then did First Aid to get rid of his bleed and aided TerStegan. He rolled a 2. And then a 13 which succeeded.
Brian gave us a 50/50 chance and the rune was broken. Oakwood did Herbs on himself but Briscoe refused to do Ward Medic in this garbage area. TerStegan started searching the pile and made a Fort save against the disgust. Briscoe wanted to help but did BFM on himself first. He missed that save and was forced to refuse to participate. And then argued about it for 15 minutes and was allowed to search while vomiting. Oakwood jetted over to the other side of the arena to look for the stuff in the corners we saw before. The first was hide armor of some kind. The other corner no longer had anything. A half hour later, Brian declared the search pointless. At this point, TerStegan realized the Researcher that had been watching us was in a chamber we hadn’t been in. So, healing became important again and we spent 10 minutes while Briscoe did Ward Medic. TerStegan navigated the fog of war and we ended up back in the bar. The patrons were still there but mostly ignored us. From there was a door into the viewing area.
We opened the door and the party die split. It went first and was tipped off to our hostile intentions because we had rolled initiative. It moved up, applied venom to its weapon and using reach, attacked TerStegan. And missed with an 11. Hidden in the shadows behind the door, a Dreshkan emerged and attacked. It used its claw and hit TerStegan. That did 9. It then stepped in front of the door. And rolled a 20 for 21 more. TerStegan had to save against the voices in his head. DC 21 Will save. He saved and was immune for a minute. He attacked the Dreshkan and hit with a 5. But only did 14. And then hit again for 23. Another Dreshkan emerged from the other side of the door and attacked. It missed and moved to share a square. And missed with a claw. Briscoe made his Will save and then complained about his poor Druid options. He cast Hydraulic Push on the big guy and missed. He used a hero point and hit. That knocked it back 5 feet and did 13. Oakwood missed the Will save and was Confused. He was forced to attack the unharmed Dreshkan. He crit for 28 and then missed. Clarisa used TK on the one she could see. It got -1 for cover but she still hit. The big guy took 15. She cast Shield.
The big guy stepped up and attacked with reach. And missed twice. The Dreshkan did a cone needle attack. Three of us took all of 15 and Briscoe took half. TerStegan crit with 6 to spare. That did 48 and destroyed it. Its buddy took 17 from the sweep. He then hit that one for 19. And hit again for 23 and it dropped. 107 in one round. Briscoe cast Slow on the big guy and it missed the save for Slowed 1. He then crit with his trident for 25. Oakwood was confused again and he attacked TerStegan. He missed with a couple 3s. Clarisa did TK again and missed. And cast Shield again. One of the card players shoved Clarisa from behind. And then closed the door. We were making too much noise, evidently. Since she couldn’t share Briscoe’s square and there was nowhere for anyone to do, the GM declared her prone.
The big guy opened a side door and ran away. TerStegan followed it into a hallway with 7 doors. Those doors were smaller than normal and didn’t reach the floor. He missed and hit. That did 25. Before Briscoe could go, the door at the end of the hall opened and something vaguely undead looking said, “Why should I help you researcher?” in common. And closed the door. Briscoe targeted the big guy with Frostbite. It saved easily for 4. Oakwood ran up, got reach and hit for 17. And then missed. Clarisa stood up and moved. But that left her with one action so she couldn’t attack. The big guy managed to go again. Still slowed. It stepped away from TerStegan and ran down the hall. TerStegan followed and attacked. He crit for 44 and dropped him by 43. That other guy was hiding and now had a large body on it. TerStegan stepped up to engage it.
Murschen attacked from hidden and got his sneak attack dice. He did a Flurry on TerStegan. The first was a crit for 39. The next for 19 and that dropped him. He then charged up to Oakwood and threw a star at the lever the GM had been trying to get us to flip. He rolled a 38 on athletics and hit. That opened 4 doors with a ghast behind each. And they stunk. Briscoe needed a Fort 18 save and made it. He couldn’t get pass the guy to get to TerStegan. He cast a AOE heal to get all of us except TerStegan plus the undead. Murschen was not undead so he healed too. He was a Monk. The undead saved, crit saved and two fails. It was 12 on the dice. Oakwood could reach TerStegan with a 30-foot ranged Dash of Herbs. And then turned on his fire aura now that he wasn’t confused. Clarisa critically made her Fort save as did Oakwood retroactively. She stepped up and used Flurry of Claws. That hit a Ghast and missed the monk. A Ghast attacked Brisco. The claw missed but the bite hit. It was 9 points plus a Fort save which he made. Another Ghast stepped up and attacked Oakwood. The bite hit for 13 and he made two Fort saves. The claw missed. The next Ghast tried the same but both attacks missed.
At the top of the next round, the last Ghast attacked Brisco. He took 11, saved against the fever but missed the paralysis. But since it had the incapacitation tag and we were twice their level, that fail stepped up to a save. TerStegan stood up, picked up his axe and walked into the fight. The monk attempted to Tumble Through. TerStegan hit him with a reaction for moving. (His AC was 29.) That was 24 points. He needed 3 successes to get past 3 players and missed the first one. And missed on his second try. He gave up and did a flurry on TerStegan. That crit for 47. (He had an attack of +22.) He then crit Oakwood for 30. Briscoe started with another Fort save which he made. He then cast another Heal. All the Ghast failed the save. It was 23 points. Oakwood saved and then missed 3 times with rolls no higher than a 6 against a low level Ghast. Clarisa did a 4th level Blazing Bolt. She missed the Monk and used a hero point and hit. That did 25. The next bolt missed a Ghast and the last bolt killed one. A Ghast attacked Briscoe and did 10. He saved. It hit again for 8 and he saved again. And hit again for 8 and he still didn’t roll a 1. But the damage was adding up.
The last Ghast died from the fire aura. TerStegan couldn’t stand or pick up his axe without taking a reaction attack and this monk crits nearly every time. He crawled one square away, picked up his axe and stood up. The monk hit Oakwood for 16 and then missed. He failed to tumble through. (And he had a very good acrobatics roll.) And then hit Oakwood for 14 more. Briscoe did a ranged heal on TerStegan that did 40. And then did DV on Oakwood for 32. Oakwood cast a Protector Tree next to him and then hit the monk for 15. He figured this guy couldn’t miss but didn’t do a lot of damage so the tree was a good idea. Clarisa did another Blazing Bolt. He hit the monk for 21 and took out the last Ghast. And then retroactively she missed a Fort save and then heroically made it. And then she ignored Briscoe’s pleas to close the door and cast a useless Shield. TerStegan stepped up and hit for 17. His second attack missed. The monk went next. He entered a stance that upped his damage dice among other things. He crit Oakwood for 37 and then missed. But the tree took all the 37. And then we swung on TerStegan and missed. Briscoe cast Tempest Surge and the monk saved for 12. Oakwood tried to talk to him as a free action but used up his allotted words for a free action. He replaced his tree with one behind TerStegan figuring Oakwood had the healer behind him. And then hit for 17. Clarisa did TK but missed. She then closed the door.
TerStegan missed and then heroically hit. That did 22. He then missed but only by one. Oakwood used his reaction focus point Guidance to make that a hit. That did 15. And he rolled a 20 to crit on his last action for 47. But somehow, he stood. However, on his turn, he dropped from the fire aura. The GM was most displeased for our actions. Murder hoboing a neutral dungeon denizen. He taunted us for a while and will continue to do so till the end of time. The monk did attack first, knocking out TerStegan and opened the doors of the undead but evidently, he was a guy we weren’t supposed to kill. He did have a victory brand on his forehead that we could now see now that it didn’t cost us an action to notice. He had some mundane weapons. And a +1 striking hand wraps. The hide armor turned out to be ghoul hide armor. That gave +1 saves against ghouls and curses. Briscoe considered it but it would reduce his AC by 1. That’s limited use vs constant use and not worth it. The doors went to chambers that had massage tables. And the last door led to a sauna. Victor’s area? We decided to leave the dungeon, rest up and attack the next level fresh. As usual, the casters had burned through their highest-level spells first. The barkeep banned us for fighting. We sold the loot except the resistant armor which went into Briscoe’s bag for later conversion. That netted us each 42 gold.
