Darkness Rising

[Swodaems]

Does Bill think he he would be able to do anything with/to the portals if he was standing in front of them? (Including altering them to suit our purposes.)
He said he sensed Croakamancy and Hat Magic(?) in equal portion. Exactly how much energy was there? Could he tell any limits on the portals based on the amount?

Team, we need to decide if we even want to do this fight.

We can take the skele heavies down in a round or 2. However, our lack of knowledge with regards to what those portals do and what limits they may have means we could be facing substantially more foes with unknown attributes. While these foes may be dangerous in their own right, the fact they can interfer with our advance on the dagron is worrying.
The best way we've come up with so far to take down the dagron is the dance-fighting zerg rush using uncroaked made before entering the room using the juice potions. (I going to estimate the real damage from that tactic to be about 60-80 per round after the zerg reaches Trogdor, depending on how many of them we can get to him. Damage for the rest of the party vs. trogdor given leadership: T. Coil: Because the dagron takes up so much space, MarbitChow decided that TG1C will do 5d6 (17.5ish) to it. With the +1 ring and leadership, Hoboken will do 11+2d6 (18ish) making it the better choice. Rolf: 5+2d6(12ish) provided he doesn't take any attack modifiers. Yuri: 4+2d6(11ish) provided he doesn't take any attack modifiers. Will: if he can place himself in a place where the loss of Def doesn't matter, mighty blow X2 wil do 3+2d6(10ish) despite 2Xdef vs fire. Me: 1+2d6(8ish) provided I don't take any attack modifiers. Cupid only has a 1/6 chance of doing damage at all without attack modifiers. Bill and Triage should have better things to do.)I'm going to make a rough, optimistic, estimate of at least 6-8 rounds of fighting before we can expect to end the dagron. That's 2-3 rounds of getting the zerg to Trogdor, followed by 4-5 rounds of beating on it while also trying to deal with whatever those portals bring to the table.
Provided we can limit Trogdor's choice of targets for his normal strikes to myself and the heavies, with his 20 combat, Trogdor will do 5+2d6 (~12) to Yuri, 6+2d6 (~13) to Rolf, and (with my def ring,) 9+2d6 (~16) to Tod. (Or 5+2d6 if I can find a way to get cover from the heavies.) With that level of damage, I think using the regenerate scroll on Trogdor's target of choice is the way to go instead of repeatedly re-Warding whoever takes the hits.

I see 3 options for us: Go into the fight with everything we've got in order to take the Dagron down, decide not to go into the room today and end the turn, or go into the room with the intention to retreat.
Fighting with intent to win will be expensive. It will use up most or all of our juice potions. If we run into problems, I'm worried about losing PCs. A lot in this fight will depend on what those portals can do and that is simply unknown. However, despite my misgivings, I do believe we will win this if we try.
We've established that if decide to call it a turn, I am the currently only member of the party that will level after the XP splits at the end of the turn. While that does mean +1 com&def to everyone, I'm unsure if that will make a difference to our odds if we wanted to fight the dagron tommorow.
If we go in with intent to retreat before the battle is over, then we would be doing 1 of 2 things. We could merely be trying to kill enough enemies besides the Dagron to get 36 more XP, enough to get everyone to level. (That means going in with a group consisting of just us and a juice potion's worth of uncroaked.) Or we could be providing cover for a zerg to reach Trogdor. We would be stuck hoping that they could finish the beast without our help after we leave, but we would be able to get to relative safety.

[Exate]

I'm inclined to commit to a full-on zerg rush with as much PC backing as we can give them. Successfully leveling our party before the elves show up would be worth significantly more than the juice potions that it'll cost us, and thanks to the presence of the portal in the room retreat will remain an option if things start to go south.

[Werebiscuit]

OOC I'm willing to spend my AP's to better Def or Com depending on what you think is more appropriate (staying in the fight - long haul -then def or damage dealing shortening the fight -then well armed). It depends on what Yuri's saving for on his response. Remember when you level you'll also get that 3rd AP Swodaems... heavy would be a good choice..and I'm guessing that's what you've been saving for. I believe there are 4 of us on 2AP banked and one of the mancers has 1 AP to spend. Spent wisely we could add a lot of damage, hopefully shortening the fight. That's why I think ending turn would be a benefit. Doesn't it also refresh the mancers juice? /OOC

[MarbitChow]

Just a reminder: Tod is currently at max leadership bonus for his ability. If he levels and wishes to get +4 / +4, he'll need to take Improved Leadership.

Does Bill think he he would be able to do anything with/to the portals if he was standing in front of them? (Including altering them to suit our purposes.)

Magic is tricky. If he had a few turns to study it in a relaxed setting, he thinks he might be able to figure it out, but in the middle of combat, it's highly unlikely.

[Swodaems]

Here's a little manuver that I'm going to call "Operation Kingbait". It uses 2 juice potions to raise 10 dance-fighting skele warriors pre-fight and only works if the enemy moves forward in an easily predictable manner, but if it works, we'll have trapped Trogdor against a wall in under 2 rounds.

The plan:
First round:
(Yuri, Rolf, and myself are placed in the 3 squares adjacent to the portal on the marbit side.)
The first thing that happens is William moving into the room and firing a Mighty Blow X2 at Bw3 (the one closest to the portals.) Since I'm not in the room to grant leadership, this only does 2+2d6(~9) damage. Hopefully, this has the side-effect of making Bw3 move as far as possible to J9, Bw2 to J6, and Bw1 to J3. I'm also betting on Trogdor moving forward 8 squares and choosing to use Burninate to blow Will's ward off.
Then it is time to send in Yuri, Rolf, and myself. I go to H9 and strike at Bw3 for another 2+2d6. Yuri goes to I6 to attack Bw2 for 5+2d6. Rolf goes to I3 and attacks Bw1 for 6+2d6. They both take counterattacks that barely dent their wards.
T. Coil comes in and uses hiya to finish Bw3, exposing Tod to dagron attack on the next round. All other members of the team, including the 10 man dancing troupe, come thru the portal.

Second round:
The dagron decides to attack me, the most vulerable person it has access to. To avoid getting stuck in J7 (a square adjacent to Yuri,) it will need to scrape the wall and stick its lower left square in either J3 or I3 in order to stike at me. I take massive damage, but survive it.
Will does another mighty blow X2, this time on Bw2 for 5+2d6. This hopefully dusts it, freeing up Yuri to slam move up beside the Dagron, pinning it. T. Coil hiyas or hobokens Bw2 if Will fails or Bw1 to free Rolf.
I run away from the beast and recieve healing either from Triage or Bill using a scroll. I can place myself behind Yuri for cover so that I can keep striking Trogdor or start to deal with whatever the portals are summoning.
The 10 man dancing troupe does its best to close in on trogdor and starts the process of slowing beating him to dust. The PCs deal with what comes thru the portals during the interim.

[MarbitChow]

It uses 2 juice potions to raise 10 dance-fighting skele warriors pre-fight

Skeletons cost 8 Juice each, less uncroaked cost 4. Potions restore 20 Juice. Do you mean dance-fighting lesser uncroaked? Unless you're going to end the turn first, that will still require 3 potions, since Bill is currently tapped out.

[Swodaems]

It uses 2 juice potions to raise 10 dance-fighting skele warriors pre-fight

Skeletons cost 8 Juice each, less uncroaked cost 4. Potions restore 20 Juice. Do you mean dance-fighting lesser uncroaked? Unless you're going to end the turn first, that will still require 3 potions, since Bill is currently tapped out.

Yeah, I meant lesser uncroaked. We can get 10 of those for 40 juice or 5 per potion.
I am a bit worried about 10 not being enough. If we used 3 of the potions and Bill's bone puppeteer scroll, we could get 15 minor uncroaked dancing warriors, and 1 dancing skele with either mighty blow or beefy. That would bring us up to 2 full stacks of dancers.

If we end turn before going in, I'm worried about getting information from the scouts that says we have to return to the city before we have a chance to continue clearing the ruins. We weren't sure how much warning we would get of an attack and we would want to be fresh for any attack that comes.

[MarbitChow]

If we end turn before going in, I'm worried about getting information from the scouts that says we have to return to the city before we have a chance to continue clearing the ruins. We weren't sure how much warning we would get of an attack and we would want to be fresh for any attack that comes.

Ok, I realize that this is a tough fight. In light of that, I'm going to give you the following, one-time-only bit of OOC knowledge. You can rationalize your in-character actions however you wish.

Spoiler: show

The elves will not attack Dis City for at least 2 turns. Since you spent 2 full turns popping imps, I guarantee you will get at least 2 full turns warning before they attack, as well as the disposition of the troops they have.

[ETheBoyce]

"Given the makeup of Elven forces I believe we could finish this ruins hex tomorrow, though that does mean we might have to fight barbarians. If we choose to end turn, it may make sense to have Heavies from Sunnydale bring extra corpses to this hex either this turn or next turn."

[Swodaems]

"Given the makeup of Elven forces I believe we could finish this ruins hex tomorrow, though that does mean we might have to fight barbarians. If we choose to end turn, it may make sense to have Heavies from Sunnydale bring extra corpses to this hex either this turn or next turn."

No need for that. We can just make camp in this chamber. We have 18 corpses right here and one that was tossed into the next chamber. With tomorrow's juice, and 2 of the 4 potions, Bill can raise 16 of them as minor uncroaked with dance-fighting. (Or 11 with just one potion if we want to be stingy.)

That said, I arranged for the scouts to be able to send us the turn's findings at the start of next turn. I'll borrow one of the archer's quivers and write 'report' on it in marbit blood. I'll loop it over one end of my spear and stick that end out of the entrance portal of the chamber we're standing in. When the rest of the spear wiggles, I'll pull it back. If my guess is right about the nature of the portals, my makeshift mailbag will be sticking out of the ruin hex's entrance portal. (We could also just toss the marbit corpses thru the portal, but that is significantly less fun.)

[The Colonel]

THat sounds like It could work. Fight barbs, level up.

[Werebiscuit]

"Given the makeup of Elven forces I believe we could finish this ruins hex tomorrow, though that does mean we might have to fight barbarians. If we choose to end turn, it may make sense to have Heavies from Sunnydale bring extra corpses to this hex either this turn or next turn."

No need for that. We can just make camp in this chamber. We have 18 corpses right here and one that was tossed into the next chamber. With tomorrow's juice, and 2 of the 4 potions, Bill can raise 16 of them as minor uncroaked with dance-fighting. (Or 11 with just one potion if we want to be stingy.)

OOC I'd go with 10 uncroaked using the second potion and use Bill's juice to make 3 3-pointers giving them beefy & well-armed. We could get a fourth out of the scroll. We have to make the bone dragon have a choice of targets other than just us. The dance fighting means they'll have to stay in formation thus becoming targets for a burninate. It also gives us 4 corpses as a backup should we need it for the fight or later for the elves.
Given that means us resting, which would you prefer I used up my 2AP's on ?.. well armed ( which would allow me to act sooner - but still not sooner than the dragon and give more damage ...or...2xBlock (which will increase my def to19 -with leadership- and allow me to stand up to the drake for longer but decrease my damage ) . Thoughts ?
/OOC

[Werebiscuit]

The dance fighting means they'll have to stay in formation thus becoming targets for a burninate.

OOC BTW for formations "A chorus line" is best. Those high-kicks are deadly /OOC

[MarbitChow]

The dance fighting means they'll have to stay in formation thus becoming targets for a burninate.

A while ago, Dance fighting was changed to to just require that all dancers must be in the same stack. They can spread out as much as they need to.

[The Colonel]

Lets do a Queen number with it. Or DISCO cause it's dead, get it?

[Swodaems]

Anyone opposed to waiting until the next turn to finish the ruins?

(MarbitChow, If we do end up waiting until next turn, will the new prices for abilities kick in before we enter the chamber?)

[The Colonel]

no objection here nosiree

[Exate]

Anyone opposed to waiting until the next turn to finish the ruins?

I suppose that would be fine. Be sure we claim all the corpses so that they are preserved until next turn.

[MarbitChow]

(MarbitChow, If we do end up waiting until next turn, will the new prices for abilities kick in before we enter the chamber?)

No. New prices will kick in once the Ruin Hex is complete, which means either after the Bone Dagron is defeated, or as part of the preparation to the elven counter-attack if you choose to abandon the Ruin Hex.

[Swodaems]

(MarbitChow, If we do end up waiting until next turn, will the new prices for abilities kick in before we enter the chamber?)

No. New prices will kick in once the Ruin Hex is complete, which means either after the Bone Dagron is defeated, or as part of the preparation to the elven counter-attack if you choose to abandon the Ruin Hex.

So the dagron is the last encounter in the ruins? That's nice to know.

Also, I remembered that Tod has to personally be back in Dis city by the end of next turn in order to manage it. If we have to hunt down whatever barbarians are spawned by the ruins, then we need to arrange a way to get Tod back in time. Perhaps I could use one of the heavies from the city as a mount by riding on their shoulders.

Since we're apparently going to rest before the fight, now would be a good time for Triage to put a new ward up on those of us with damaged ones.