Well, can't say I thought it would be easy once the bugs were done. I knew our wonderful DM would have another card or two up his sleeve.

Well my first thought was to have Kenji continue on his course and deal with these bugs and if Bear Sirene wishes to help I am sure the two of them could finish off these two wounded creatures.

Now to dealing with the death knight; having no experience with D&D I dont have any input on battling it and will take my later actions from your suggestions. But for now, Kenji will continue to deal with his current opponents.

Just wondering how Alasdair (the death knight) managed to withdraw from combat without being attacked, move across the room, pick up Maggot's sword, move again to the evil sword, attack and kill one person and grab another all in one round? I make that to be a few too many actions.

Thank you Cor Old Buddy. If Cor stops the poison then the healing can come even if I need to have Ulthok chug a Potion of Extra Healing. I know that it's taking an action to stop the poison so I'll do my best to figure out something GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD to help!
Even if we need to keep Tann in the dark. tehe!

From research....................

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dreo/20071003a


Dragon # 360 | The Ecology of... Archive | 10/3/2007
Ecology of the Death Knight
by Matthew Sernett
Art by Steve Argyle

Physiology

Death knights have no flesh and blood and thus lack the needs of a living body. They are tireless warriors who only desire vengeance, conquest, and other bloody evils. Despite lacking muscle and heart, death knights maintain the strength and vigor they had in life.

Like many of the living dead, death knights can be destroyed by damaging their bodies.
Although they feel little pain, enough punishment can break their bones. Unlike a lich, a death knight cannot take refuge in a phylactery, and it does not reform from its soul weapon. When its earthly body is destroyed, a death knight’s soul leaves its weapon and travels to whatever dire fate awaits it in the afterlife. None can say with assurance what happens to the souls of death knights. Some death knights might believe they know the fate of their souls, and that knowledge spurs them to maintain their undead existence by any means. For the rest, the afterlife is an intangible and terrifying unknown. If no devil or vile deity seizes a death knight’s soul, the knight can expect no quarter when its soul is weighed by the gods.

Ok Odyson, Alasdair is now a lesser Death Knight not a true Death Knight he is a custom modified undead creature created by Mammon and Glasya for one purpose only, to recover and deliever the sword, not to the Shadow King but to Mammon himself as the Arch Devil desires it. As such he has some of the abilities of a true Death Knight but not all of them. His face looks like that of the Red Skull w/o the redness and he still has skin on his body and blood flowing in his veins though he is technically undead.

Think of it this way Mammon is Saruman, to the Shadow Kings Sauron. Only this time the two are not working together but are at odds.

Now onto the questions.......


Can she move, shift and cast a spell in a single round No not all three. You could do a half move and shift but no other actions that rd as that would be considered a full action. Casting a spell is considered in combat rds a full action due to casting time and grabbing your ingredients and such. Where making a half move and then an attack is considered a full action just like if you don’t move and still attack is a full action.

Keeper if you cast Neutralize Poison on Ulthok that is your action for this upcoming rd then on your next rd you can cast Heal. To do as stated in your post will take 2 combat rds.
As to your other question the answer is quite simple really, at the start of thier movement phase none of the three were in close contact with #8 and #9 thanks to Kenji pushing the creatures out of range. Then once Alasdair, Althena and Cynil had moved out of range of the combat all together, they in essence disengaged, and were then no longer in combat rds but in normal non-combat turns. In a non-combat turn a number of actions can be taken, for example, like the 3 spells Sirene cast upon herself and the party and other actions taken before as you all moved up the stairs before the present combat started. Since his attack on Cynil was a backstab type attack and unexpected by her it is considered a free attack, much like a thieves backstab chance. His move to grab Althena was his action for the start of this new combat rd that was initiated by his attack on Cynil. On top of all that lets not forget that the three of them, thanks to Sirene, were still hasted so covering the distance, picking up Maggot's sword, stabbing Cynil, and grabbing Althena in a non-combat turn was like a blink of an eye. Even without being able to do it as I just explained, it would still have happened as I wanted it that way to advance the story line and as DM I have the ability to Tweek the game as I see fit as long as I do not use that ability to unbalance the game or change the rules arbitrarily and unfairly in my favor that you the players are given no chance to succeed. Plus this all happened among NPC's and not the party directly.

In response to Kyle on the Potion and spell issue as the matrix I was using was lost when my comp got wiped I’m not sure how it was originally as the last year or so + you guys have only been really healing yourselves upon resting. So what I was doing in that regard was adding up all player damage, removing the needed spells to cure all that damage, then once rested, replacing those spells per what you the players had chosen. However below is what I think was the correct matrix, but if not will be from now on.
Healing spells & Potions.

Spells
Cure Light= 10 points
Cure Mod= 15 points
Cure Serious= 25 points
Cure Critical= 35 points
Heal= As stated heals all damage from wounds, some magically effects, but does not neutralize or cure poison

Potions
Healing= 8 points per dose, 4 doses, 32 total points if consumed totally
Extra-Healing= 10 points per dose, 4 doses, 40 points if consumed totally

Firstly, welcome back Kyle! Even if Maggot forgot to put on his pants...

Regarding Cor and Ulthok, I think a single Neutralize Poison is enough. After which Ulthok can quaff his potion. We don't have much healing left now that Cynil has gone, and the Heal spell may be needed later for someone else.

Having Kenji and Sirene continue on bug-splatting sounds good to me.

Apart from hitting the thing until Alasdair until he dies, Cor's Turn Undead could work wonders here.

Finally, since it's a 'lesser' creature, I suspect its Spell Resistance is far lower. So slinging a few spells could work.

OK, not to argue that ‘what the DM says goes’ but if I understand the concept of combat rounds and non-combat rounds; then it is just a matter of slowing down the combat so that it can be handled efficiently. But I have to say that ‘Time is Time’ even in D&D Correct? I mean unless some magic is used to speed it up or slow it down.

With that in mind I have a question:

If Alaisdair and them are in Non-Combat rounds and we are in Combat rounds; wouldn’t a couple of combat rounds have passed as they crossed the cavern and did all that they did? If that is correct then we should have had time to finish off these bugs and cure Ulthok, etc before Alaisdair even gets to the sword and kills Cynil, and did all his bad guy gloating, etc. etc.

I understand that this would all happen as it is part of the story and I don’t have a problem with it, I just don’t see how they could be in separate time frames and yet all in the same post/round. See what I am saying?

Well that’s where the tweaking comes in. See hasted Alasdair gets a minimum of 4 attacks or actions a rd depending on what he does in that round or Sirene could cast two spells if Hasted depending on each spell‘s casting time. Below could be the sequence of events using 4 Actions + 1 Free Action.

Action #1) Moving towards the sword
Action #2) Pausing briefly at Maggot’s fallen stuff to pick up Mag’s evil sword
Action #3) Reaching the glass stand
Free Action) Backstabbing Cynil
Action #4) Grabbing Althena hostage.

Yes in the time frame indicated it could be seen as a stretch but here is where the tweaking comes in as it’s still plausible that all this happened while the rest of you continued fighting.
What Keeper, you and the rest of the Players have to understand is I’m not just the DM I’m a story teller, telling the story of the game, and in that regard I am also not a “Rules Lawyer’ or 'Dictator DM' I tweak said rules without breaking them as needed to keep the story moving forward and make the game fun for both you the players and myself. As stated at the front of the PHB The rules are just a guideline to be used to help run an AD&D game.

Hope this helps make my 'tweaking' easier to understand

Ok; it is clearer now. Thanks!

I just hope that 'tweeking' works both ways; for the players as well as the NPCs

Let us agree to disagree. We will never change your mind on this matter of time and I do not beleive you will ever truly justify your raping of combat vs. noncombat turn/rounds.

Let it be knowen the bugs are still there, we are dealing with a thing of the undead kind and time fluxes.

Game on. Oh and when I am done here can I have my pants please?

I think you have to allow some leeway to the DM to make things more dramatic. I don't see it as that much of an issue ... unless we die ...

so DM does or does not the HEAL spell cure disease in this campaign?

Since Cor is not in combat does he also go into non-combat mode and could then cast two spells?

I thought you had the PHB Keeper it's easy to look up. As far as Heal is concerned it works just as stated below

Heal

(Necromancy)

Reversible


Sphere: Healing


Range: Touch
Components: V, S

Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1 rd.

Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None




The very potent heal spell enables the priest to wipe away disease and injury in the creature who receives the benefits of the spell. It completely cures all diseases or blindness of the recipient and heals all points of damage suffered due to wounds or injury. It dispels a feeblemind spell. It cures those mental disorders caused by spells or injury to the brain. Naturally, the effects can be negated by later wounds, injuries, and diseases.

The reverse, harm, infects the victim with a disease and causes loss of all but 1d4 hit points, if a successful touch is inflicted. For creatures that are not affected by the heal or harm spell, see the cure light wounds spell.

As for casting two spells your Hasted rt so my bad you could cast both Neutralize and Heal in the same round My apologies.


And Kyle I did not 'RAPE" time I did what I did to make the storyline fit. I tweaked it yes and I'll do it again if I feel it is needed. As I have told you more then a 100 times you don't like the way I DM then get out of my game instead of whinning about it.

As for your pants sorry none of your clothing survived the Roach/Scorpions eating it.






















JK

Just needed a yes/no but did not get one. Looks like it does not so I will go with that. Cor will cast neutralize poison followed by heal.

I had an idea of something to try, BUT I had to get some "Experienced" gaming advice first. I've sent our DM a PM and if he decides to give the advice I need I'll share with the key people it relates to in a PM. For the rest I want to save it as a story item. It could be ready fun or a complete flop.