Zilean's Revenge

First of all, I said Paladins. Not High Cleric.
Second, I'll just go Demonic Berserker mode and tear out a few of his vital organs. That should work.

@ Skitter: Depends on what kind of poison you have in mind. It would probably be something basic, like disorienting/blinding powder, or just stuff that's deadly (not instantly, though) or causes immense pain. You would at best have had time to mix a few of the ingredients together (while you were in the temple), without any further alchemical refinement, before this point, using certain ingredients. Also, the poison can't transfer via "shadow cutting" powers, only direct splashing or blade-to-wound contact.

@ Recruitment: I'll give it a few more days + let you handle these boring events first.

Everyone

Stealth (H) -> 15

Perception (S) -> 2

Diplomacy (R) -> 18 + 8 = 26

At Rolf's words, Zilean responds:
"Ah, so that was you? I must say, you ARE a man of many faces. I could have sworn you were one of those mercenaries with unusable livers, yet there you were, flinging cantrips like a bonafide wizard. As for what I'm doing here? Why, the promised spectacle, of course!"

He looks around the area randomly.

"Yes, rather disappointing attendance, isn't it? I had hoped my stagehands could keep the crowd "warmed up" for my big tricks..."
*He snaps his bone fingers a few times as he says "warmed up"*
"...But even a few are better than nothing. I'll just have to move along to another! I'm afraid I can't tell any more to a non-employee. Unless you'd like a position? I've had lots of openings recently... Judging from your outfit, you'd make a perfect lion tamer!"

Skitter moves back to the group, with one of the devices. He can't figure out any obvious arming mechanism, however. Zilean notices him fiddling with the bomb, and merely chuckles at the scene a bit.

Horizon moves as stealthily as he can towards the cultist. Zilean, having seen Rolf whisper to him, notices him as he's moving away.

Zilean: "Hm? Oh, it's Mister Heckler again. What's the matter? Bored? I wouldn't do that if I were you, you know. Or maybe you don't, since I'm not you. So I suppose you can do as you please!"

He laughs a bit, before diverting his attention to Rolf and the High Priest.

Zilean: "So, you've "saved" your precious temple and rounded up the cavalry to save the day! What are you waiting for, then? Smite me, old man!"

At these words, the High Priest starts chanting a spell. He stops and hesitates, however, as Zilean shifts his position, so that the suspended wizard is between himself and Rolf/Skitter/High Priest.

Horizon continues to the cultist, pretending not to see him. The cultist ignores, or otherwise doesn't look at him as his gaze is focused on his spell and doesn't realize you can actually see him. Horizon eventually passes out of his line of sight, some distance behind him.

Skitter stops and stares at Rolf and says, "Heroes? Who? Me and Knifey and you? You can't be serious. In fact I'd probably be joining this bozo if he weren't such a buffoon as long as the pay was right. I'm only on your side because I figured if I wasn't helping when all that crap went down you brutish humans would immediately jump to blaming the kobold with dark and sinister powers OooOooh." (the bolded part said mockingly) While he was talking he was subtly applying poison of the immediately painful variety to the bomb, hiding his actions with his cloak from Zilean when he turned to talk to Rolf. ((Thievery: 15+ 8 = 23.))

"I mean look at your stupid stoooopid high priest there. He's willing to let this guy get away with whatever plot that could kill who knows how many because one already dying fool of a wizard is in the way? Stupid pelorities and their squimishness always getting in everyone's way. As if their 'morals' are worth our lives." He says the last glaring at the High Priest. ((Seriously, vampires kobolds....probably get pelorites trying to kill them all the dang time. He's had to have lost at least a cousin or some other family member to one of their kind at some point.)) While still facing Rolf he silently mouths "Fire Ball".

With that, since he can't figure out how to arm the bomb properly, he rips off a piece of the outside he figures is just there to keep things stable or shielded from outside elements ((Thievery: 14+ 8 = 22. Well that should be enough to not blow himself up anyway. So glad I didn't roll a 1.)), turns to Zilean and shouts, "Hey Zilchknees! Catch!", and hurls the poisoned hopefully unstable bomb at him, not caring about the wizard being in the potential blast. ((Ranged Attack: Bwahahaha! Yes! Celebrations! Nat 20!))

((Um, so why can't I apply poisons via my shadow slashy power? It's magic. It's already transferring the attack from the sword through shadow. If it were a magical flaming weapon you'd get magical flaming shadows. Don't see why poison should be any different. I know it certainly would work that way in both 3.5 and 4e.))

@ Skitter: Your shadow slash powers are, as I see it, causing your blade to be "projected" as a solid shadow/physical shadow manifestation of the sword in the distance, to the target. They aren't transferring the actual blade (as in, the part with the poison).

If they did, it would mean that when you use it, during that ranged slash, your blade vanishes, transfers as a shadow into the distance (with poison on it), remotely gains momentum (without the reactive force of your hands holding the hilt), slashes the target, then un-shadows and returns back to its hilt, undamaged. Failing to do such an attack properly would leave you with half your blade missing!

And just to be clear, I'm only referring to your ranged shadow "slash". Teleport-stab combos would apply a poison.

Everyone

Skitter spins around to gain enough momentum in his throw, then throws the device. His aim is true, as the device detonates at point-blank range, right next to both Zilean and the prop wizard.

Zilean: "Huh, didn't expect that."

A semi-large, highly-concussive, fiery explosion erupts in the air, engulfing both Zilean and the wizard. The fire quickly burns itself out, whilst the concussive force shakes the floor and breaks a nearby stained window of the temple. A few moments later, a mixture of blood, meaty chunks and the poison Skitter applied starts falling down, the latter forming a kind of "mist cloud" from the blood. As the smoke clears, it becomes obvious that the prop wizard is no more. Zilean, on the other hand, is standing where he last was, seemingly unharmed. He laughs like a maniac for several seconds, before looking at Skitter and saying:

Zilean: "Oh my... I never thought I would be the one being entertained! Ah, but it appears time is short. I have other... matters... to attend to, so I'll make this next bit brief."

He then extends one of his palms upwards. From it, fire swirls, forming into a fireball and summons a fireball in it, roughly the size of his palm.

Zilean: "As for you, my little fireworks-loving friend... You and I are a lot alike. I like you. Which is why I will count to three."

He snaps the fingers of his other hand. The fireballs suddenly expands to the size of a basketball.

"One."

Horizon

As Skitter throws the bomb and it detonates in midair, the cultist suddenly swears, as a magical feedback hurts his hands. He watches the explosion in shock.


Just out of curiosity, where exactly are Rolf and Skitter standing right now? I know that the High Priest / paladins / Tiffany are on the inside of the temple/gates, whilst Horizon is roughly in the middle of the crowd area, behind the cultist.

((I didn't think about it too hard Zarhon. I figured "it's magic" kinda covered it and just went by how I know the mechanics work. It's not a big problem or anything. I'm ok with your way. It does eliminate some funny stuff I could though. If I had to say how I figured it worked, it just formed the shadows into a magical duplicate of the blade, using the magic/whatever was on the blade in the process.

Well, Skitter had been at the center where the bombs were before. Then he moved away, I figure away from everyone else too. Still, probably closest to the center out of everyone.))

"Well crap. That didn't work? Poisplosion didn't work!? Unthinkable!" Skitter thought before he saw the fireballs. "Three....yeah, no way I'm getting out of range that fast....but, he doesn't know that does he?" Skitter grinned up at Zilean and shouted out, "Won't work on Skitter any better than it did on you!" ((Two?)) and he swirled his cloak around him as he ducked down and vanished, leaving the cloak lying flat on the ground as the only sign he had even been there. ((Stealth: 17+ 8 = 25.)) ((Three?))

Well, kinda. He really just opened the portable hole underneath him while leaving his cloak above while he closed it behind him.

He hoped his companions and that priest would make the most of his distractions.

((Haha, that was fun. Glad I rolled well for this scene. Bad rolls would have turned cool moments into ick. Still, wondering if Zilean or the cultist are going to be effected by the poison.))

I pictured Rolf being about halfway between the bombs and the High Priest.

"...Son of a bitch!" Rolf shouted as he ran back to the "safety" of the temple. "High Priest, if you've got something, use it now!" The props wizard's death was tragic, but Skitter's...actions did give the High Priest a clear shot. He ran to one of the doors and grabbed it. "Tiffany, get ready to close the doors right after the High Priest gets a shot off.

Man, Rolf's not going to enjoy being on an evil party.

Hopefully, Horizon will stab the cultist so that Zilean's shield will go down.

edit: Oh boy. Didn't know how close the bombs were to the front door. Editing my comment.

I don't think you're getting how the area looks like, Ramsus. Here's a representation, based off where you say you are (looking sideways):

#.......................................Z...............I
#...................................(%%%%)........I
#......................................................II
#......................................................II
#.................................___S,B___R___II_HP,T__
#............H.....C.........../

... - Empty space
# - theater/stage/crowd area exit
H - Horizon
C - Cultist
/ - Wooden Stage ramp (slightly elevated area, since it's a stage)
__ - Floor of stage/temple
(%%%%) - Cloud o' fun
S - Skitter
B - Bomb stack
R - Rolf
II, I - Doors (the doors are huge), temple walls
HP - High Priest
T - Tiffany

The High Priest intended to detonate the bombs near where Horizon is standing, but Rolf said they were stacked on the stage, probably so Skitter can check em first. Skitter could probably make it to the doors in time, unless he goofed. Horizon though, would either have to get really lucky or run the other way.

Goddammit, now I don't get to do my thing. Well.

Horizon used the chaos from the first explosion and the further distraction of the cultist to close the gap from behind. He covered the cultists mouth and drove his scimitar into his back, maybe a little more agonizingly slowly than was necessary. He remained silent, and as the lich powered up his fireball, he looked around for cover. Seeing none, he swore and made himself as small as possible behind the cultist's body, still propped up on his scimitar. He also looked around for anything small and heavy to throw at the lich, hoping to break his concentration, even distract him enough for the others to hit him with something else.

I had an idea for a video to display my reaction to what just happened, but I can't find it.

Um, Skitter, you might want to either run to the temple, or pull your portable hole trick over near the theatre area exit (so it's down a bit in elevation). You might fool Zilean, but it's kind of hard to fool explosions at ground zero.

What part of closing it behind him did you not get? Stuff doesn't pass through when it's closed.

Let me just check.

DandDWiki wrote: This hole can be picked up from inside or out by simply taking hold of the edges of the cloth and folding it up. Either way, the entrance disappears, but anything inside the hole remains.

Okay, I think you're good. Well, you'll be right where a big cloud of toxic purple smoke (not to mention the poison mist) is when you get out, unless you stay in there for a while.

And Skitter would come out before he figured Zilean was gone why? Basically he's just going to sit in there until one of you comes over and opens the thing or a few hours go by and he's sure you guys have all died and Zilean has moved on or everyone forgot about him.

And then after a few hours you poke your head up, and come face to face of a horrendous mass of flesh AND Zilean, who's been waiting patiently.

...and that's when Skitter joins his team. Seriously, if you guys all die...evil campaign time.

I didn't say we died. We just left.

If you guys just left me there you totally deserve it if I switch sides.

Just a reminder for Skitter: You can stay in the hole for 20 minutes before suffocating (2 small creatures = 10 minutes of air). And if I'm not mistaken, the entrance can only be opened by you from inside, if you closed it that way, since the entrance disappears (Meaning Rolf or anyone else outside probably wouldn't be able to see / open it, unless they use magic schenanigans). Or something. The description is a bit vague on that part.

Update coming later.

I demand an update now, since I'm actually awake this early and here for it.

Rolf smiled. "I got this! Tiffany, close the door!" He and Tiffany shut the doors, then Rolf quickly cast Hold Portal on the door.

He hoped that Horizon would get away from the blast in time. He had seen Skitter disappear into the portable hole and close the entrance, so he assumed he was alright in there.

Although a small part of him didn't really care all that much about the kobold.

Roll for Hold Portal (if necessary. I mean, it's right freaking there and it's not going to dodge.)

Confound these "partial information" problems. The most we can hope for is that Zilean gets caught in his own explosion.

Horizon swears under his breath. He had hoped the High Priest would have a better plan than "Run Away and Lock the Door". Spotting the metal box, he slowly moves toward it, hoping not to be seen- even though he knows full well he was now the only thing left in the area to draw Zilean's attention. He drags his corpse shield with him. He still might need it.

You had better start working on your gloriously elaborate explanation as to why sending Horizon in and leaving him there doesn't constitute a betrayal. Take your time.

Rolf

Nat20 (Actually rolled)

The door is secretly a ninja mimic! It attempts to dodge, but you are too awesome to miss. The force of your magic forces it shut. Humbled, it decides to turn its life around. It abandons its path of bloodshed and converts to Pelorism. As its first act of virtue, it decides to protect you, ready to sacrifice itself for the greater good.

(No, you don't need to roll. The spell works. Update tomorrows.)

...I blew a Nat 20 on an automatic win? Ah, man! Maybe now that the door has converted to Pelorism it can learn to automatically shut when it sees cultists.

Well, I can't promise it will be an elaborate explanation, but I'll think of something. Thanks for the heads-up.

Hmm. I guess it doesn't have to be elaborate, but it will need to be 15 pages minimum, 10 works cited (no Wikipedia), peer reviewed and at the very least awaiting publication in "Pull Something out of my Ass Quarterly".