[OOC] A Trip to Remember (OOC)

[Corwin]

@Mindsiege - Would we need a roll to get an impression of how easy the columns are to damage? As in, does it take earthquake-level events to damage them, or would pounding on them seem to have some potential?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Corwin

Would we need a roll to get an impression of how easy the columns are to damage? As in, does it take earthquake-level events to damage them, or would pounding on them seem to have some potential?

The columns appear to be fairly solid marble, and the Fireball which Derek just threw at them did nothing more than to get them dirty with soot (it did however clear out all of the fog beneath the balcony). To destroy the pillars it would take some very heavy demolition equipment, but without siege equipment you'll not make much ground in the span of a fast-paced combat encounter. So yes, Earthquake would be sustainable while attacking with your melee weapons would not.

[Togot]

well crap, i tried

[Corwin]

Not useless for Derek, being able to clear out fog may be pretty key. On that topic...

@Mindsiege - By description, I'm thinking Oguun can't use Toll the Dead on the nightmare under the circumstances even with Derek and Nephala finding it, because it specifies "a target you can see". Is that right? Would he either have to Ready it and hope the nightmare comes out of the fog or do something else?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Corwin

By description, I'm thinking Oguun can't use Toll the Dead on the nightmare under the circumstances even with Derek and Nephala finding it, because it specifies "a target you can see". Is that right? Would he either have to Ready it and hope the nightmare comes out of the fog or do something else?

Correct, right now Oguun can't target the Nightmare with Toll the Dead directly.

[secretID]

Sorry I've been quiet - RL troubles here. I'm reading everything now.

[Mindsiege]

@secretID:
I hope things ease up for you soon!

[Togot]

does derek have an idea where the nightmare is?

[Mindsiege]

Originally Posted by Togot

does derek have an idea where the nightmare is?

Only in so far what the battle map and GM instructions tell you.

@edit:
Specifically, it's assumed that Aurora will tell her party the Nightmare's new position that she could sense. Technically she would have to convey that information first before everybody else shares it.

@2nd edit:
If you want to prompt her to share the information, I don't mind if you make two game posts this week. One to prompt her and then one with Derek's actions. All the adventurers should be aware that Aurora stayed behind in the mist and is fighting for her life alone right now.

[Togot]

ok guys i really think we need to work out a plan here because this is looking like a tpk. derek can use his two remaining fireballs to clear the mist and reveal the nightmare so we can get some shots on him, but i need to have an idea where he is, and i need friendlies out of the blast radius.

[Mindsiege]

Derek's Fireball revealed that the Nightmare is currently occupying the space between 30' and 40' altitude. With the Fireball's radius the Nightmare wasn't even touched by the fire explosion, however I'm ruling that the heat plume is slightly bigger so all characters should have a LoS established to the Nightmare's feet at least. Because of the Fireball placement though, the Nightmare will still count as obscured for the sake of ranged attacks, which would have to be made at disadvantage.

[Togot]

to quote a friend of mine, "why do i always fail?"

[Mindsiege]

I might want to add, there is a lot of mist pushing back in through the windows, so the space in the corner will only be cleared of the fog until the end of this turn.

[secretID]

Is the nightmare "a target within 30 feet of you"low enough for the fire breath?

Originally Posted by Togot

ok guys i really think we need to work out a plan here because this is looking like a tpk. derek can use his two remaining fireballs to clear the mist and reveal the nightmare so we can get some shots on him, but i need to have an idea where he is, and i need friendlies out of the blast radius.

It's impossible to say how bad (or good) our situation is. It may be 1 or 100 hp from death, and its death may be inconsequential. We also don't know if we need to fight Mayuri directly.

But plans are always nice. (: Visibility sure helps, though we're not great at range. I think the best way to use the fireballs to clear fog is:
1) Turn 1: the party clumps somewhere. Nightmare hits and runs.
2) Turn 2: fireball adjacent to party, in direction of nightmare, to clear a significant space between.
3) Turn 2: PCs ready ranged attacks for when it comes into view.

There are a lot of variables, but I think it won't have enough movement to circumvent the fireball clearance area.

[Corwin]

A few other things to consider:

1) Damaging the nightmare seems to damage the dreamscape, so pounding on it enough might force Mayuri out of her shield by dropping the balcony, even if it doesn't kill the nightmare.

2) Not!Mayuri seems to be concentrating on something, but we have no idea what. We know something illusionary is going on, but we have no idea what, so we have no idea what the benefit of breaking her concentration would be. Maybe it would drop the fog, maybe drop the shield, maybe reveal something else, maybe something we haven't thought of. It's hasn't been relevant so far because she's beaten two tries to force a concentration check already. However, unlike all the other things we've fought, she has an independent mind, so she should be affected by Rolen's Mind Sliver. If Mind Sliver beats her INT save, that's one concentration check, and it would take 1d4 off her next save against Toll the Dead too. It's also reasonable to assume she doesn't have a lot of HP, because she's been hiding behind something or other the whole time, and we know she can be hurt because Derek tagged her with Magic Missile and she ran.

3) The only illusionary thing we have any good reason to think might be around are hidden stairs to the balcony or somewhere else, because she seemed to attach some significance to the idea. We've moved through a lot of squares where stairs might be obscured by illusion though and haven't bumped into anything. We could potentially dash around in some kind of systematic way to eliminate squares where stairs might be. But that could also be a huge waste of time and turns, and if the stairs were set into a wall rather than rising from somewhere on the floor, we'd have to feel our way around all the walls which would take a lot of Actions and give the nightmare plent of time to pick us all off.

There are other things I can think of, but our attempts to directly see through anything illusionary or directly influence the dreamscape have been so inconclusive and failure-prone that it seems like the PCs have nothing to go on there.