Thaylias wont have much to offer this opponent other than cold steel and thick armor. My concern is of course Thay's weakness, dice. (jk) Hopefully he wont have a showing as he did with the lich.
So this demon is very intelligent, can cast a multitude of high level spells, a thick hide, and six arms w/ tail? Lovely. Anyway, I am wondering the best way to approach our enemy. Again, I have no knowledge of this type of monster except what you all have mentioned in game. I would imagine getting our warriors in close is a must w/ Oakshade, Shanti, Thurvold, and Allie on the flanks. ((I am in no way stating what should be done.. just pondering))
Thaylias will of course wish to go face to face, that is if he can get there. Would there be any caster w/ a spell that could help in this? Is it even futile trying because of this demons powers? Im rambling but just figured we could start a discussion on tactics for this comming Friday.
Allie's Bardic Knowledge is useful here. She probably knows more about this demon than all of you combined. The more she reveals to you, the better your chances. In fact, without that insight, you may be in deep doodoo.
Sometimes it helps to have that non-combat class in the group.
We may be in deep doodoo even with it if we're not prepared. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Anyway, while the group prepares themselves during the evening for the journey to the temple to the north, Allie briefs the group as follows about what she knows concerning the lore of the Merilith:
Allie informs the group:
"The demon favors the longsword as her preferred weapon, usually wielding one in each hand. They are fast with their swords, and purported to be strong as the biggest giants, often killing people with a single blow.
They are known to be immune or resistant to all elemental type attacks, except sonic or water, have tough skin which only cold iron or holy weapons tend to do full damage, and are hard to hit with magic but spells such as holy word, horrid wilting or wail of the banshee may work. Bless weapon will likely also mean the difference between life and death for the front line fighters.
She will also be able to grapple with her tail while attacking with all her swords, so she can crush or knock us unconscious if we get too close.
Even more frightening is that this type of demon tends to summon other demons to fight with her. This could be a small army of lesser demons, or one or two like herself."
A pause as she addresses the other spellcasters, "Unless spells such as what I've already mentioned are available to try, we probably should focus our magic on helping the fighters rather than attacking the demon directly."
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 13, 2007 04:43 PM: Message edited by: Lyssandra ]</font>
OOC: Sorry guys. Helluva month so far. I have a cold that I can't shake, and my grandmother had surgery on monday... it was minor surgery dealing with a cyst, but as she's 91 you can understand why ANY surgery on her has us watching.
IC:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"IF that happens, we must not let ourselves become too distracted... we must hammer away at the main Marilith herself...destroy her, and it will hopefully cause those she summoned to go back as well."Even more frightening is that this type of demon tends to summon other demons to fight with her. This could be a small army of lesser demons, or one or two like herself."
..............
After listening to the tale, Kel speaks clearly, "There is no choice, we go to Bal Gorodash. If I am to be chieftain, I must not just see to my tribe's survival, but their prosperity. The dwarves are worthy allies to any who treat honorbly with them... I imagine, they would be willing to trade with Barbos who helped avenge their kin on this giant's body. Besides, dwarves have treated our group with honor.. I would do it even without such reasons."
(In the following discourse, I am going to take the liberty of making use of some of your characters. This will save lots of time sending emails and waiting for those characters to respond on their own. I apologize if this offends anyone)
Oakshade listens intently to Allie, then speaks up. "Your lore on these demons far surpasses mine, little one. But I think you may be mistaken in one point. From what I have heard about striking demons with cold iron is that they must be hit with BOTH cold iron AND Holy Power; in other words, Holy Cold Iron. I could bless the cold iron weapons with Holy Power, if only we could get cold iron."
Thurvold scratches his beard. "Cold iron is normally not good metal. It just isn't as durable as steel. But it seems to work well against demons and fey. Enchnating it does wonders, making it even better than most steel, but because of the rarity and difficulty to make a decent weapon from cold iron, it is far more costly. There was a dwarf, Borgedar, who was reknowned for making wonderful cold iron, and he was a master enchanter as well. I think he died some tome ago. Something about a giant named Gragarashk."
Allie's eyes light up and she smirks as she recalls the lore regarding Borgedar and Gragarashk. "I know that tale. There was a powerful demon lord who sought to invade these mountains back when Thurvold would have been but a child. He knew that the dwarf was making cold iron for an army which woyld try to drive them back to the Abyss, and so found a way to be rid of the dwarf and the weapons. The demon sought out Gragarashk, and Eldritch Giant, and promised him secret ancient lore in exchange for slaying the dwarves and taking their weapons. And so the evil giant, hungry for knowledge, destroyed all of the dwarves, and took their home as his new lair. The place is called Bal Gorodash and it lies somewhere in these mountains. Perhaps the cold iron weapons are still there."
Thaylias nods and speaks up. "I met with some of the dwarves Thurvold hired for the crafting of the Temple of Tor, and they mentioned this place. They say it is further north in these mountains on a high peak, overlooking the lands about it for many leagues."
Shanti chuckles. "You left out the fun part, Thaylias. That the road to Bal Gorodash is infested with monsters."
"More evil to put down on the path towards righteousness," Celene mutters. "At least we have more options now. Do we undertake a trip to fight an Eldritch Giant for better weapons, if they truly exist, or face the Maralith with what we have?"
Everyone looks to Kel.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 14, 2007 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Starshadow ]</font>
Heh, no problem here with what was said.
A Holy Avenger would be a great help in this upcoming fight. [img]smile.gif[/img]
In truth, I can handle her on a sonic level, I was planning someething that would not have her keen will able to thwart me, also, as for her weapons, if we don't blast her but I can manage to heat or freeze her weapons so she would rather drop them should I do so? Or should I work on the sonic angle?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">"If this beast is resistant to both heat and cold, I'm not sure heating her weapons or freezing them will make her want to drop them. It's not a bad idea, but the sonic blasting might be more effective." He glances over to the bard, "Unless you think cold would work better than heat against her and her weapons?"Originally posted by Hummingbird:
In truth, I can handle her on a sonic level, I was planning someething that would not have her keen will able to thwart me, also, as for her weapons, if we don't blast her but I can manage to heat or freeze her weapons so she would rather drop them should I do so? Or should I work on the sonic angle?
Allie reminds the others, "The demon is impossible to hurt with poison, or electricity, and hard to hurt with fire or cold. Even sonic spells have to overcome her natural resistance to magic as well." She shrugs her shoulders, "The cold iron weapons, if we can retrieve them, are likely our best option. Between Oakshade's casting of Bless Weapon and Celene's Sacred Scabbard, blessing the weapons will be fairly easy to do. The decision is Kel's."
OOC: She will get 9 melee attacks with six longswords per round. SR 25, DR 10/Good Cold Iron, Immunity to poison and electricity, DR 10/Fire, DR 10/Cold. Without the cold iron weapons, we may be able to take the merilith down with what we've got, but each melee hit has to do more than 10 damage and the demon typically has over 200 HP.
My apologies, Indeed we should fight the giant first, though I would not use the weapons myself the rest of you certainly can use them, shall that then be our objective this eve?
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