Against Darkness

[Sulara]

"A woman says have the creatures throw weapons in mud to show a people can trust. If creatures do, set them free."

[saalaria]

"I can dispel the effect of magic but once."

Magnus - can disprel magic be targeted to form a 10' corridor round the east side of the mud - so we can get round to the secret door and the lone giant?

[Magnus]

"I can dispel the effect of magic but once."

Magnus - can disprel magic be targeted to form a 10' corridor round the east side of the mud - so we can get round to the secret door and the lone giant?

I'm afraid that the spell description is very specific in terms of its AoE (30' r sphere).

[Magnus]

Vorsyin cast it last time and for a magic user, the AoE is a 30'x30'x30' cube. Cleric is a 30' r sphere.

[Zhym]

"Wouldn't you need line of sight into the room to cast the spell?" Gaerys asks. "If so, you'd have to expose yourself to missile fire from all those giants while you were casting it."

[NJWilliam]

Antheris

Antheris pokes his head around the corner enough to see the Northernmost giant closest to the secret room and directs the insects to engulf the giant.

Stepping back he begins to cast obscurement, targeting the mist to obscure the room with the giants but for a path along the East wall from the secret door to the Northeast exit.

A 30' radius sphere should work well if targeted on the middle of the East wall.

[Eulalios]

but why not just use the open stairs that are just south of us?

[Zhym]

I think there's still a wall between the room with the giants and the stairs.

Unless we want to stone shape a peep-hole through which dispel magic could be cast.

[Sulara]

Niamah shouts "The giants throw weapons in the mud, show people giant means words they say!"

[Zhym]

Gaerys shrugs. "I have a feeling the giants will see the insect attack as a rejection of their offer. Still, there's that damned lake of mud between us and them." He shoulders his axe, draws his bow, and nocks an arrow, knowing that the party is truly in a fix if he's resorting to use of a ranged weapon against giants.

Magnus: does the corner of the wall offer any cover (i.e., AC bonus) for peeking around the corner, firing, and ducking back behind it?

[Magnus]

The corner offers some cover against some opponents. Note that only 2 characters or so can fit into the "sweet spot" where they can fire and get cover.

[NJWilliam]

If the party wants to talk with the giants more, Antheris will hold off on the insects and obscurement.

[Eulalios]

(giantish)"When you say the messenger is one of us, what does it look like?"

[saalaria]

Still happy to cast it but I want a consensus first. So everyone Dispel Magic - yea o nay?

[Zhym]

"I don't think there'd be a good chance of successfully completing the spell," whispers Gaerys. "Doesn't it take the better part of a minute to cast it? Even if you get the jump on them, all four giants will probably throw things at you the minute you step into the room to get line of sight. All it takes is one hit to spoil your concentration."

"I see two options," he continues. "One, let them go. If they throw down their arms and trudge through the mud, we let them leave and live. If they balk at dropping their weapons, Tybalt could give them his word that we would not attack. Everyone knows paladins won't lie.

"Two, attack. Send the insects at one of them, then enter in force with a front rank firing ranged weapons while Hollis dispels the mud from behind.

"I don't like letting evil giants live, especially those of this Steading. But a ranged combat is not favorable to us without expending precious magic."

"Destroying the giants is no longer our primary objective," he decides. "It's defeating the evil and this 'Messenger.' We can't afford further injury and expenditure of resources on enemies who would flee. I think we have to let them go, if we can make sure they really do."

Sorry if this is metagaming:

If four hill giants all attack Hollis, there's a 91% chance at least one attack hits, even with his AC of -1, assuming none of the giants' weapons are magical (BTW, 48 HP and AC -1? Put Hollis in front! ). Dispel magic takes 6 segments to cast, which means, if I interpret OSRIC correctly, the spell can't be completed before the giants attack even if we win initiative.

So, IMO, we either need to wait until the giants are gone to dispel the mud back to rock, or else give Hollis a covering front rank of alternate targets.

[Zhym]

If we decide to attack, I think we can dispel most of the transmuted mud and protect Hollis with minimum exposure, assuming we can fit four people in a 10x10 square:

giantattack.jpg (220.29 KiB) Viewed 921 times

This exposes Gaerys (or Tybalt, but he doesn't used ranged weapons, does he? Where on the map is he right now?) and Ethan to the whole room, but keeps Antheris (needed for line of sight to the insects) and Hollis protected. We'd still have a roundabout path to get to the giants (or them to us). A straight shot to Helga would require centering the dispel effect just north of the south wall; Hollis would have to step into the room to cast it there.

We might also take out the other three giants with a fireball, after which we could dispel the mud at our leisure, but it may be a waste of the spell for just three giants:

giantsfb.jpg (210.83 KiB) Viewed 920 times

[Magnus]

ROUND 7

The party debates whether to press the attack or accept the remaining giants' purported surrender.

Niamah shouts at the giants to disarm themselves. Heldga spits on the ground emphatically and shouts back:

SO WE CAN BE LEFT HELPLESS FOR YOUSE ATTACK...AND IN OUR TRAVELS??? WE'ZE ARE NOT FOOLS. YOUSE JUST NOT ATTACK FOR SHORT TIME, WE FLEE, AND STEADING YOURS!!!

Lorath meanwhile speaks to Heldga. She spits on the ground again. Her eyes then widen as she grins. She says only..."so, you don't know..." She cackles.

Lorath ONLY!

Lorath then sees Heldga move to the northeast...about 20' west of the mud. She eyes the secret door carefully but does not fire. The giant in the corner moves 10' to the east and 30' down, so as to optimize his sightline. The remaining giant on Lorath's side of the mud also slides to the east. Though true intentions are difficult to ascertain through the Aethereal mists, it seems that the giants are not going to attack immediately...but rather are taking more careful defensive positions.

[Zhym]

"Screw this," grumbles Gaerys. "Enough debate. Antheris, deploy your insects. Hollis, cast your spell if you can do it behind me." Gaerys nocks an arrow, ducks around the corner of the hall long enough to fire at Heldga, then reloads and fires around the corner three more times.

Long bow: [1d20] = 8 Damage: [1d6] = 6
Long bow: [1d20] = 9 Damage: [1d6] = 1
Long bow: [1d20] = 15 Damage: [1d6] = 3
Long bow: [1d20] = 5 Damage: [1d6] = 6
Hits AC 5, 4, -2, 8

The ranger wonders why he even bothers to carry a bow around.

Edit: if we're still counting this as one combat, this should be a two-attack round for Gaerys. I added two more shots.

[Magnus]

Hollis can cast from cover and have enough of a sight line to dispel.

[saalaria]

Hollis will move to see and cast Dispel Magic at the indicated area
Indicated area as per Zhym's fantastic calculation