There’s a brief whir of shifting gears and crystal resonance. The automaton’s eyes dims slightly, flickers once, then flares bright again. It tilts its head as though accessing something distant.
“Query registered: P. Eltrax. Vault designation not found in public index.”
A pause. The construct shifts its stance slightly, internal components clicking softly beneath its carapace. A ripple of light pulses through the silver filigree on the floor, crawling out in every direction like a search command cast wide across an ancient network before speaking again,
“Eltrax: Privileged classification. Cross-referencing… Access to restricted vaults requires sigil from High Scriptorum or administrative override. Present valid sigil or depart the threshold.”
Another pause. The automaton's gaze remains locked on Teryn.
Ellanise looks back and forth between the construct and Teryn. "I just remembered. Weren't we supposed to get clearance from a high something-er-other?"
She sighs. "We haven't got time for this." She steps forward and lunges. The heel of her palm flies forward, aiming for the construct's chin. Before it can react, she kicks one leg up, slamming her boot into its chest. Then, in a blur, she spin around, slamming the back of her taut arm into the construct for good measure.
Action: attack 1: 12, damage: 5 bludgeoning
Bonus: flurry of blows
Attack 2: 26 (nat 20), damage: 14 bludgeoning
Attack 3: 21, damage: 8 bludgeoning
Sneak attack if applicable: 6
If sneak attack is applicable, but the first attack's 12 missed, here's another die for the sneak attack if it's on the second attack (the crit): 1
Teryn chuckles, preparing to attack as well if Ellanise's beating doesn't destroy the construct outright. He has secretly been hoping for a chance--or perhaps excuse--to try out his new ring.
Ready action: ring of the ram 1 charge to hit 21, damage 5 force -.-
The construct begins to speak again, voice rising in volume,
“PRESENT--” but it doesn’t finish.
You surge forward without hesitation, slamming upward into the base of its jaw with a loud clang, the force ricocheting up its neck assembly. The Archival Retrieval Automaton lurches slightly from recalibration. It starts to pivot toward you, but it's too late. Your boot hammers into its chest plate, denting the metal slightly with a groan of strained bolts. The follow-up crashes the edge of your arm into the side of its head with a clang that echoes off the stone walls. Sparks crackle from its eyes as it staggers a half-step. The light in its eye flickers,
"Status: Active, multiple threats identified."
Yet for all your precision, the impact doesn’t land with quite the force you'd expect. The automaton’s frame absorbs the hits, its structure reinforced with dense alloys. It feels like striking a moving anvil.
The construct straightens with a hiss, its posture unfazed. Scuffed, but far from staggered.
As the final echo of Ellanise’s strike fades into the stone around you all, Teryn steps forward. Your fingers curl, and the ring pulses with pale energy with white light rippling outward like a coiled wave just beneath your skin. With a quiet mutter and quick jab, the stored energy discharges all at once.
A burst of shimmering force slams into the automaton’s chest with a low boom, the impact pushing the construct a half-step back with its metal joints grinding in protest. Dust rattles from the ceiling. The arcane filigree beneath the construct flares briefly in an almost sympathetic response.
Rowan jolts as the air fills with the crack of Ellanise’s strikes and Teryn’s ring-borne pulse. 'Well, the plow’s dug in—no sense lettin’ it drag alone', he thinks, slipping the shortsword from his belt with a rasp like a scythe leaving its sheath. “Alright then, tin crow!” he growls, stepping in beside the others. He whips the blade in a broad, arcing slash meant to catch a joint at the automaton’s side, the steel flashing blue in the ward-light (hits 16 for 6 damage). Without breaking stride he rolls his wrist, drawing the curved scimitar from his other hip and bringing it down in a tight follow-through toward whatever passes for the construct’s neck (hits 13 for 8 magical damage).
You move like a man harvesting trouble. The shortsword flashes in the torchlight as you step forward, the blade slicing cleanly into the joint beneath the construct's outstretched arm. There's a metallic clang followed by a stuttered whir as servos briefly lock and recalibrate.
The follow-up comes in a tight arc, your scimitar whistling toward its neck, but this time the construct anticipates the angle and shifts just in time, deflecting the strike with a jarring clang that sends a shiver up your wrist.
The automaton turns its head toward you now, its glowing eye focusing like a tightening noose. Several attackers inside its engagement range; the pistons in its arm lock into place.
“I just though on the worst possible scenario.” He admitted to Rowan, feeling that if wished for it to be any different the connections would be all but set into stone. “Let’s go.”
As the automaton spoke, Käinen studied its structure, locating joints and points of pressure. They needed to pass and lacked the way to do so peacefully. He saw the attacks, the combat, long before they happened. With a speed almost unsettling for someone of his size, the goliath approached and, with his right hand, tried to control the automaton’s right elbow. He stepped diagonally across the front of the construct, moving to his own left, crossing in front of the metallic body, pulling the enemy’s arm with him, aiming to turn its torso slightly and twist its shoulder while bringing himself behind it. To force the arm into a hammerlock.
If things went right, he would be out of reach while the sentinel would lose balance, Grappled, even a machine would be easy to put in chains, made into a defenseless target to be pummeled into scrap. A big if, Käinen knew. The thing should be both fast and strong, hard to pin. It was likely that someone else will need to put the bow.
Notes: Party members, please check the group chat. Käinen uses his action to try and grapple the automaton. The automaton must make a Str or Dex save against a DC 15 (8 + 5 from Dex [Martial Arts] + 2 from proficiency). If the automaton succeeds, Käinen will expend his bonus action to attempt the same grapple (another check like the same). If the automaton fails, Käinen will use his Fast Hands to spend his bonus action using one of his chains to tie the automaton.
You break into motion like a landslide. Your massive hand clamps down on the automaton, but the construct resists, pivoting its arm outward with a burst of mechanical torque. The sound of grinding and locking pistons fills the space, but you don't let go. You shift your weight, stepping across its body, leveraging its whole mass and momentum. Your arm snakes under the construct’s shoulder plate. You hear the metallic snap-click of stressed joints locking the wrong way. The construct’s torso strains.
The automaton is now Grappled and Restrained as steam hisses violently from a vent along its side, the glow in its eye flickering again
Rowan feels the construct’s arm lock under Käinen’s crushing grip and meets the goliath’s eye for the briefest heartbeat. A silent understanding passes between them—Käinen has the machine pinned, and every second of leverage counts. Rowan shifts his stance, blades dipping to a guard position, and gives a quick jerk of his chin that all but says, Your move, big man.
(Rowan offers to change initiative with Käinen, this way Käinen can bind the automaton before its turn.)
After locking eyes with Rowan, Käien raised his knee, using it instead of the arm to keep the machine in place. With the dexterity of a thief, his free hand moved, pulling out his chain. Not fully extended at first, he could not wrap the machine into steel at first. A new, more focused attempt proved itself successful.
The goliath was impressed with the understanding he shared with halfling. They thought together but once before yet they still understood the distance and speed each other had. Rowan had given him the room necessary to contain the threat. The warden was unable to close any distance, it would be far easier to hit while its won attacks would be substantially harder to find their marks.
Rising his eyes to their group, Käinen all but called them to keep striking. If the automaton tried to escape it would be unable to do anything else and remain in range of another grapple. If the automaton let things as they were the fight should turn into a massacre where they would be able to beat the mechanism into a pulp with hardly any retribution. Soon enough his punches would join the barrage. Maybe he would keep attacking and disengaging, that way the security system wouldn’t so much as have a chance of hitting him.
Notes: Initiative exchange accepted. Käinen uses his Quick Hands feature to spend his bonus action to Utilize his chain and make a Athletics DC 13 check, in which he fails. He then spends his action to do the same, this time reaching the 13. The automaton is Restrained until he uses its action to make either an Acrobatics test DC 18 or an Athletics check DC 20. So, everyone, your attack rolls against the automaton have advantage and its attack rolls have disadvantage.
Ellanise extends her arms and locks her fingers together in a makeshift flail. She twists her upper body and leans in (attack: 24, damage: 7 + sneak attack: 1), slamming her fists into the construct's back. A guttural "Gah!" escapes her as her limbs make contact with the imposing humanoid.
Even as she vocally reacts to her first attack, she leans further in, bending one elbow (attack: 22, damage: 6) to crash into the automaton for a second hit.
With Käinen’s massive arms locking the automaton in place, your fists slam into the back plating like a flail striking a shield. The impact dents one of the shoulder panels slightly, and though the construct doesn’t cry out, something in its posture bucks as it tries to compensate. As you lean in, elbow already cocked back from the follow-through, you slam the point of your elbow into the gap near the automaton’s neck. It staggers again in Käinen’s hold from the sheer concussive force.
With its limbs pinned and three attackers surrounding it, the automaton’s eye flashes rapidly, flickering with internal light. The silver filigree embedded along the floor pulses. You hear a distorted voice crackle out:
“Defense protocol engaged.”
It stops struggling physically and instead unleashes a charge of magical energy from the floor. The silvery veins running along the floor pulse with white light and flash violently, overloading like snapped leylines. Käinen feels the blast slam into his torso like a battering ram, the magic trying to rip his footing out from under him. Ellanise staggers back half a step, blinking against the light as her arms instinctively come up to shield her face.
The automaton capitalizes on the distraction from its attack. With a hiss through pressure valves as it shunts power to its limbs, a sudden burst of strength, it twists against Käinen’s grip, driving its reinforced shoulder into his sternum. The servos groan, but after a struggle, it breaks free. Its stance stabilizes, low and ready. Its eye narrowed to a precise slit. The construct isn't retreating.
Arcane Relay Core: The automaton is magically linked to the Constellarium’s ward system. Once per encounter, as a bonus action, it can pulse the ground within 15 ft. Any creature standing on the arcane filigree must succeed a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer arcane feedback (2d6 force damage) and lose reactions until the end of their next turn.
Rolling for you guys: Teryn - 22 Ellanise - 11 Käinen - 8 Rowan - 22
Ellanise and Käinen both take 10 Force damage. The automaton rolled a 22 (18+4) to break the grapple.
Teryn lets out a sharp laugh as he shakes off the arcane surge, brushing a few sparks from his sleeve. “Durable, aren’t you?” he muses, eyeing the automaton’s steady stance. “I wonder, do you feel anything behind that alloy shell? Or just running battle subroutines?” With a flick of his wrist, necrotic energy coils around his fingers and lashes out in a spectral hand, clamping onto the construct’s frame with a ghostly rattle of bone. “Let’s see how you handle entropy,” he smirks, before blinking backward across the floor in a short-range teleport, landing with a theatrical bow and a glint of mischief in his eyes.
Action: chill touch to hit 12 -.-;;, damage 9 necrotic
Bonus Action: misty step, Taunting Step. (Wis DC 15 or have Disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than Teryn until the start of Teryn's next turn.)
A low, feral snarl slips from Rowan’s throat as the floor-runes flare and the automaton tears free of Käinen’s hold. Something ancient and titanic answers inside him—the thrum of greatstone hearths and mountain blood. The halfling’s frame swells like a storm-cloud: bones lengthen, sinews knot, clothes stretch but do not tear, until Rowan stands a full giant’s height, shoulders brushing the archway’s shadow. The silver filigree underfoot groans, lattice-light skittering beneath boots that now weigh like millstones. “Call all the ward-spirits you like,” his voice rolls out, newly thunder-deep. “We’ll still thresh you to scrap.”
He lunges. The automaton’s eye slits blaze, gears whirring to meet him—but Rowan’s reach has grown monstrous. With reckless abandon he thrusts the short-sword into the construct's joints. The scimitar—now a glinting harvest-hook in a titan’s fist—slashes across the automaton’s shoulder assembly. Rowan plants a massive boot, ready for its counterstrike, every muscle thrumming with that colossal fury.
Bonus: Rage! Free: Reckless Attack Action: Attack with Shortsword, critical hit (26) due to advantage for 16 normal piercing damage Nick attack with Scimitar, hit roll 19 for 7 magical slashing damage
The construct's optical slit narrows as Teryn vanishes in a blink of light. Its targeting system twitches mid-calibration, caught between protocols. It's drawn toward the source of arcane displacement. A low-pitched whine emits from deep within its frame.
As it begins to adjust, Rowan strikes. The first blow cracks into its torso with a shuddering metallic crunch, driving the machine a half-step backward. Dented plating splits near the impact. The second blade catches deeper through the shoulder ring, cutting into an actuator, causing it to almost lock up.
It stumbles back a half-step. Steam sizzles out from damaged joints as internal pressure tries to equalize itself. It turns, slower now, leaning slightly left and begins to reposition defensively. It isn't retreating or surrendering.
Ellanise draws her dagger, flips it in the air, and catches it. In two quick slashes, the blade flies at the automaton. (2 attacks with nick weapon mastery: attack 1: 23, damage: 8, sneak attack: 5; attack 2: 21, damage: 3 because we don't add the DEX modifier on this attack, right? — all non-magical damage) Sparks fly as her blade strikes the steel plating of the humanoid twice.
She then immediately performs another spinning kick. (bonus attack: 8) However, she is too slow, and a metal hand deflects her leg.
The automaton’s head snaps toward you the moment your dagger sings through the air. The first slash bites deep across the midsection with sparks spitting from a newly carved seam in its plating. The second glances off the outer shell with less force, but scoring a streak across the brass but failing to penetrate. As you spin into a final kick, its hand jerks upward, intercepting your leg with a sudden parry. The impact is jarring.
The automaton's armor is beginning to look scored and dented.
There’s a brief whir of shifting gears and crystal resonance. The automaton’s eyes dims slightly, flickers once, then flares bright again. It tilts its head as though accessing something distant.
“Query registered: P. Eltrax. Vault designation not found in public index.”
A pause. The construct shifts its stance slightly, internal components clicking softly beneath its carapace. A ripple of light pulses through the silver filigree on the floor, crawling out in every direction like a search command cast wide across an ancient network before speaking again,
“Eltrax: Privileged classification. Cross-referencing… Access to restricted vaults requires sigil from High Scriptorum or administrative override. Present valid sigil or depart the threshold.”
Another pause. The automaton's gaze remains locked on Teryn.
“Failure to comply will result in... retrieval.”
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
Ellanise looks back and forth between the construct and Teryn. "I just remembered. Weren't we supposed to get clearance from a high something-er-other?"
She sighs. "We haven't got time for this." She steps forward and lunges. The heel of her palm flies forward, aiming for the construct's chin. Before it can react, she kicks one leg up, slamming her boot into its chest. Then, in a blur, she spin around, slamming the back of her taut arm into the construct for good measure.
Action: attack 1: 12, damage: 5 bludgeoning
Bonus: flurry of blows
Attack 2: 26 (nat 20), damage: 14 bludgeoning
Attack 3: 21, damage: 8 bludgeoning
Sneak attack if applicable: 6
If sneak attack is applicable, but the first attack's 12 missed, here's another die for the sneak attack if it's on the second attack (the crit): 1
Teryn chuckles, preparing to attack as well if Ellanise's beating doesn't destroy the construct outright. He has secretly been hoping for a chance--or perhaps excuse--to try out his new ring.
Ready action: ring of the ram 1 charge to hit 21, damage 5 force -.-
The construct begins to speak again, voice rising in volume,
“PRESENT--” but it doesn’t finish.
You surge forward without hesitation, slamming upward into the base of its jaw with a loud clang, the force ricocheting up its neck assembly. The Archival Retrieval Automaton lurches slightly from recalibration. It starts to pivot toward you, but it's too late. Your boot hammers into its chest plate, denting the metal slightly with a groan of strained bolts. The follow-up crashes the edge of your arm into the side of its head with a clang that echoes off the stone walls. Sparks crackle from its eyes as it staggers a half-step. The light in its eye flickers,
"Status: Active, multiple threats identified."
Yet for all your precision, the impact doesn’t land with quite the force you'd expect. The automaton’s frame absorbs the hits, its structure reinforced with dense alloys. It feels like striking a moving anvil.
The construct straightens with a hiss, its posture unfazed. Scuffed, but far from staggered.
As the final echo of Ellanise’s strike fades into the stone around you all, Teryn steps forward. Your fingers curl, and the ring pulses with pale energy with white light rippling outward like a coiled wave just beneath your skin. With a quiet mutter and quick jab, the stored energy discharges all at once.
A burst of shimmering force slams into the automaton’s chest with a low boom, the impact pushing the construct a half-step back with its metal joints grinding in protest. Dust rattles from the ceiling. The arcane filigree beneath the construct flares briefly in an almost sympathetic response.
Initiative Order:
- Ellanise (20)
- Rowan (10)
- Archival Retrieval Automaton (10)
- Käinen (9)
- Teryn (7)
It's currently a surprise round with the automaton caught flat-footed from Ellanise.
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
Rowan jolts as the air fills with the crack of Ellanise’s strikes and Teryn’s ring-borne pulse. 'Well, the plow’s dug in—no sense lettin’ it drag alone', he thinks, slipping the shortsword from his belt with a rasp like a scythe leaving its sheath. “Alright then, tin crow!” he growls, stepping in beside the others. He whips the blade in a broad, arcing slash meant to catch a joint at the automaton’s side, the steel flashing blue in the ward-light (hits 16 for 6 damage). Without breaking stride he rolls his wrist, drawing the curved scimitar from his other hip and bringing it down in a tight follow-through toward whatever passes for the construct’s neck (hits 13 for 8 magical damage).
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
You move like a man harvesting trouble. The shortsword flashes in the torchlight as you step forward, the blade slicing cleanly into the joint beneath the construct's outstretched arm. There's a metallic clang followed by a stuttered whir as servos briefly lock and recalibrate.
The follow-up comes in a tight arc, your scimitar whistling toward its neck, but this time the construct anticipates the angle and shifts just in time, deflecting the strike with a jarring clang that sends a shiver up your wrist.
The automaton turns its head toward you now, its glowing eye focusing like a tightening noose. Several attackers inside its engagement range; the pistons in its arm lock into place.
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
“I just though on the worst possible scenario.” He admitted to Rowan, feeling that if wished for it to be any different the connections would be all but set into stone. “Let’s go.”
As the automaton spoke, Käinen studied its structure, locating joints and points of pressure. They needed to pass and lacked the way to do so peacefully. He saw the attacks, the combat, long before they happened. With a speed almost unsettling for someone of his size, the goliath approached and, with his right hand, tried to control the automaton’s right elbow. He stepped diagonally across the front of the construct, moving to his own left, crossing in front of the metallic body, pulling the enemy’s arm with him, aiming to turn its torso slightly and twist its shoulder while bringing himself behind it. To force the arm into a hammerlock.
If things went right, he would be out of reach while the sentinel would lose balance, Grappled, even a machine would be easy to put in chains, made into a defenseless target to be pummeled into scrap. A big if, Käinen knew. The thing should be both fast and strong, hard to pin. It was likely that someone else will need to put the bow.
Notes: Party members, please check the group chat. Käinen uses his action to try and grapple the automaton. The automaton must make a Str or Dex save against a DC 15 (8 + 5 from Dex [Martial Arts] + 2 from proficiency). If the automaton succeeds, Käinen will expend his bonus action to attempt the same grapple (another check like the same). If the automaton fails, Käinen will use his Fast Hands to spend his bonus action using one of his chains to tie the automaton.
You break into motion like a landslide. Your massive hand clamps down on the automaton, but the construct resists, pivoting its arm outward with a burst of mechanical torque. The sound of grinding and locking pistons fills the space, but you don't let go. You shift your weight, stepping across its body, leveraging its whole mass and momentum. Your arm snakes under the construct’s shoulder plate. You hear the metallic snap-click of stressed joints locking the wrong way. The construct’s torso strains.
The automaton is now Grappled and Restrained as steam hisses violently from a vent along its side, the glow in its eye flickering again
Initiative Order:
- Ellanise (20)
- Käinen (10)
- Archival Retrieval Automaton (10)
- Rowan (9)
- Teryn (7)
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
Rowan feels the construct’s arm lock under Käinen’s crushing grip and meets the goliath’s eye for the briefest heartbeat. A silent understanding passes between them—Käinen has the machine pinned, and every second of leverage counts. Rowan shifts his stance, blades dipping to a guard position, and gives a quick jerk of his chin that all but says, Your move, big man.
(Rowan offers to change initiative with Käinen, this way Käinen can bind the automaton before its turn.)
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
After locking eyes with Rowan, Käien raised his knee, using it instead of the arm to keep the machine in place. With the dexterity of a thief, his free hand moved, pulling out his chain. Not fully extended at first, he could not wrap the machine into steel at first. A new, more focused attempt proved itself successful.
The goliath was impressed with the understanding he shared with halfling. They thought together but once before yet they still understood the distance and speed each other had. Rowan had given him the room necessary to contain the threat. The warden was unable to close any distance, it would be far easier to hit while its won attacks would be substantially harder to find their marks.
Rising his eyes to their group, Käinen all but called them to keep striking. If the automaton tried to escape it would be unable to do anything else and remain in range of another grapple. If the automaton let things as they were the fight should turn into a massacre where they would be able to beat the mechanism into a pulp with hardly any retribution. Soon enough his punches would join the barrage. Maybe he would keep attacking and disengaging, that way the security system wouldn’t so much as have a chance of hitting him.
Notes: Initiative exchange accepted. Käinen uses his Quick Hands feature to spend his bonus action to Utilize his chain and make a Athletics DC 13 check, in which he fails. He then spends his action to do the same, this time reaching the 13. The automaton is Restrained until he uses its action to make either an Acrobatics test DC 18 or an Athletics check DC 20. So, everyone, your attack rolls against the automaton have advantage and its attack rolls have disadvantage.
OOC: OK, let's keep hitting!
Ellanise extends her arms and locks her fingers together in a makeshift flail. She twists her upper body and leans in (attack: 24, damage: 7 + sneak attack: 1), slamming her fists into the construct's back. A guttural "Gah!" escapes her as her limbs make contact with the imposing humanoid.
Even as she vocally reacts to her first attack, she leans further in, bending one elbow (attack: 22, damage: 6) to crash into the automaton for a second hit.
With Käinen’s massive arms locking the automaton in place, your fists slam into the back plating like a flail striking a shield. The impact dents one of the shoulder panels slightly, and though the construct doesn’t cry out, something in its posture bucks as it tries to compensate. As you lean in, elbow already cocked back from the follow-through, you slam the point of your elbow into the gap near the automaton’s neck. It staggers again in Käinen’s hold from the sheer concussive force.
With its limbs pinned and three attackers surrounding it, the automaton’s eye flashes rapidly, flickering with internal light. The silver filigree embedded along the floor pulses. You hear a distorted voice crackle out:
“Defense protocol engaged.”
It stops struggling physically and instead unleashes a charge of magical energy from the floor. The silvery veins running along the floor pulse with white light and flash violently, overloading like snapped leylines. Käinen feels the blast slam into his torso like a battering ram, the magic trying to rip his footing out from under him. Ellanise staggers back half a step, blinking against the light as her arms instinctively come up to shield her face.
The automaton capitalizes on the distraction from its attack. With a hiss through pressure valves as it shunts power to its limbs, a sudden burst of strength, it twists against Käinen’s grip, driving its reinforced shoulder into his sternum. The servos groan, but after a struggle, it breaks free. Its stance stabilizes, low and ready. Its eye narrowed to a precise slit. The construct isn't retreating.
Arcane Relay Core:
The automaton is magically linked to the Constellarium’s ward system. Once per encounter, as a bonus action, it can pulse the ground within 15 ft. Any creature standing on the arcane filigree must succeed a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer arcane feedback (2d6 force damage) and lose reactions until the end of their next turn.
Rolling for you guys:
Teryn - 22
Ellanise - 11
Käinen - 8
Rowan - 22
Ellanise and Käinen both take 10 Force damage. The automaton rolled a 22 (18+4) to break the grapple.
Next up are Teryn & Rowan!
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
Teryn lets out a sharp laugh as he shakes off the arcane surge, brushing a few sparks from his sleeve. “Durable, aren’t you?” he muses, eyeing the automaton’s steady stance. “I wonder, do you feel anything behind that alloy shell? Or just running battle subroutines?” With a flick of his wrist, necrotic energy coils around his fingers and lashes out in a spectral hand, clamping onto the construct’s frame with a ghostly rattle of bone. “Let’s see how you handle entropy,” he smirks, before blinking backward across the floor in a short-range teleport, landing with a theatrical bow and a glint of mischief in his eyes.
Action: chill touch to hit 12 -.-;;, damage 9 necrotic
Bonus Action: misty step, Taunting Step. (Wis DC 15 or have Disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than Teryn until the start of Teryn's next turn.)
A low, feral snarl slips from Rowan’s throat as the floor-runes flare and the automaton tears free of Käinen’s hold. Something ancient and titanic answers inside him—the thrum of greatstone hearths and mountain blood. The halfling’s frame swells like a storm-cloud: bones lengthen, sinews knot, clothes stretch but do not tear, until Rowan stands a full giant’s height, shoulders brushing the archway’s shadow. The silver filigree underfoot groans, lattice-light skittering beneath boots that now weigh like millstones. “Call all the ward-spirits you like,” his voice rolls out, newly thunder-deep. “We’ll still thresh you to scrap.”
He lunges. The automaton’s eye slits blaze, gears whirring to meet him—but Rowan’s reach has grown monstrous. With reckless abandon he thrusts the short-sword into the construct's joints. The scimitar—now a glinting harvest-hook in a titan’s fist—slashes across the automaton’s shoulder assembly. Rowan plants a massive boot, ready for its counterstrike, every muscle thrumming with that colossal fury.
Bonus: Rage!
Free: Reckless Attack
Action: Attack with Shortsword, critical hit (26) due to advantage for 16 normal piercing damage
Nick attack with Scimitar, hit roll 19 for 7 magical slashing damage
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
The construct's optical slit narrows as Teryn vanishes in a blink of light. Its targeting system twitches mid-calibration, caught between protocols. It's drawn toward the source of arcane displacement. A low-pitched whine emits from deep within its frame.
As it begins to adjust, Rowan strikes. The first blow cracks into its torso with a shuddering metallic crunch, driving the machine a half-step backward. Dented plating splits near the impact. The second blade catches deeper through the shoulder ring, cutting into an actuator, causing it to almost lock up.
It stumbles back a half-step. Steam sizzles out from damaged joints as internal pressure tries to equalize itself. It turns, slower now, leaning slightly left and begins to reposition defensively. It isn't retreating or surrendering.
Initiative Order:
- Ellanise (20) No reaction
- Käinen (10) No reaction
- Archival Retrieval Automaton (10)
- Rowan (9)
- Teryn (7)
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."
Ellanise draws her dagger, flips it in the air, and catches it. In two quick slashes, the blade flies at the automaton. (2 attacks with nick weapon mastery: attack 1: 23, damage: 8, sneak attack: 5; attack 2: 21, damage: 3 because we don't add the DEX modifier on this attack, right? — all non-magical damage) Sparks fly as her blade strikes the steel plating of the humanoid twice.
She then immediately performs another spinning kick. (bonus attack: 8) However, she is too slow, and a metal hand deflects her leg.
The automaton’s head snaps toward you the moment your dagger sings through the air. The first slash bites deep across the midsection with sparks spitting from a newly carved seam in its plating. The second glances off the outer shell with less force, but scoring a streak across the brass but failing to penetrate. As you spin into a final kick, its hand jerks upward, intercepting your leg with a sudden parry. The impact is jarring.
The automaton's armor is beginning to look scored and dented.
DM : The Shade Over Runewarren | Vaelen Gravesong : Shadow of Eternal Night
"Fear is the weight we carry, love is the treasure we bury."