Now, I could have Livia use 'triggering slash' here and possibly take down two of the PCs in a single action. But, since the PCs have gotten smacked around for attempting grabs, it's only fair for the monsters to make their attempts too. Livia shifts to D-5. Grab (1d20 + 6): 15 + 6 = 21. Sophia hits Gorlon's reflex easily. Unfortunately, the sanctuary power only increases his AC. Since he's bloodied, though, the attack would hit even if the grab was vs. AC.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Wearing a cold smile in spite of the battering he'd just given her, the graceful half-elf veteran turned towards the bulky dragonborn attacking her and leaped forward, wrapping her shapely legs around his waist and licking her lips meaningfully. "No... Don't look at me like that! I'm not prey!" the big dragon-man says, a note of worry entering his voice... But at the same time, having her lean body pressed up against him gave him an opportunity...</span><br/><br/>Here we go! This is a crucial moment. If Gorlon remains grappled on Livia's next turn, he's probably going into her belly. He could try to break away, but where's the fun in that? The fun is, he can now swallow her with a successful strength attack. But he'd rather not be bloodied, so, confident that Livia's friends don't dare spoiling their leader's meal, he delays until the end of the round, hopefully giving his allies time to heal him. If he can't get any healing, he'd rather use his action to get a Second Wind.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, DOG-BREATH?!" Sophia shrieks to the wolf priestess, whose tail goes limp in a display of contrition. "YOUR GUARDIAN IS WORTHLESS, NOW GET IN HERE!"</span><br/><br/>Yula moves to square B-6, provoking an AOO from Milla. AOO (1d20 + 4): 14 + 4 = 18. Misses by a single point. Yula then uses 'Split the Sky' on Milla to try and knock her down the well. Split the sky (1d20 + 7): 7 + 7 = 14. Enough to hit Milla's weak fort defense. Milla is pushed into the well and must make a saving throw or fall down it. Save (1d20): 4. She also takes some thunder damage: (2d4 + 4): 4, 2 + 4 =<span style="font-weight: bold">10 damage</span>.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"OH NOOoooo!" Milla cries in alarm as the thunderous strike topples her into the mouth of the open well right behind her, followed by a loud *SPLOOSH* a second later. Fortunately for her, there's a rope hanging down.</span><br/><br/>Milla will need to succeed in two DC 10 athletics checks to make it out of the well, each taking a move action, and each failure by 5 erasing one success. With her remaining minor action, Yula uses Healing Word, targeting Gorlon. He uses a healing surge for free with an additional d6 healing. Save (1d6): 6 = 6, plus the surge for<span style="font-weight: bold">15 points healed</span>.<br/><br/>Milla tries to climb out. Climb 1 (1d20 + 2): 11 + 2 = 13 Climb 2 (1d20 + 2): 18 + 2 = 20. She climbs out into square C-6.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"> Soaking wet and sputtering, the poor mage managed to haul herself out of the well rather quickly with the rope dangling down. The water had been rather cold, and the soaked robe clung to her sultry figure tightly. When she saw Gorlon's struggling belly, she gasped. "Livia! No! Help her, Darro!" He nods solemnly and brings down his halberd.</span><br/><br/>Sophia shifts to F-4 and first uses Divine Strength as a minor action, then blasts Darro with Radiant Delirium, her daily. Rad del (1d20 + 5): 17 + 5 = 22. Hit! This is gonna leave a mark. Rad del (3d8 + 7): 5, 2, 4 + 7 =<span style="font-weight: bold">18 damage</span>, and Darro is dazed until her next turn and suffers -2 AC (save ends).<br/><br/>Being dazed, Darro can only take a single action (standard, minor, OR move, instead of AND). Recharge (1d6): 1, fails to recharge powerful strike. He takes a swing at Sophia, his halberd having reach.<br/>Halberd (1d20 + 10): 17 + 10 = 27, Halberd (1d10 + 3): 7 + 3 =<span style="font-weight: bold">10 damage</span>. She can't catch a break.<br/><br/>Now that he's healed, Gorlon decides to take his chances. Incidentally, I've decided to just make the 'alternate ability-based grab' feats to count both for grabbing and for swallowing, since strength-oriented characters would be unfairly benefited otherwise. Unlike the grab, the swallow-check is against the target's fortitude, and unfortunately for Livia, her fort is 1 point lower than her ref, though it'll still be a close thing.<br/>Vore! (1d20 + 5): 2 + 5 = 7. The first attempt to swallow fails. Desperate not to become lunch himself, he uses up his action point and tries one more time. Vore! (1d20 + 5): 13 + 5 = 18. He gets it, just barely! About time the PCs had a little luck. Livia is going down.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">The slender Livia's delicate little lips suddenly opened impossibly wide, flesh and bone moving, stretching, and temporarily enlarging as necessary. But rather than try to push her off, Gorlon gave her a toothy smile of his own, and flicked out his long, forked pink tongue to brush up against the inside of Livia's mouth. His jaws popped and creaked as he tried to open his mouth even wider and crane his neck over her head. The half-elf's eyes suddenly went wide as she saw that this dragonborn could stretch his jaws even wider than was typical for his species. <br/><br/>In shock, her own jaw suddenly snapped shut, and, for the first time in the encounter, she showed worry. Her sultry eyes went wide, and she released her hold around Gorlon's waist... but, holding his axes with half-a-hand each, he wrapped his arms around her armored waist and leaned back as he lifted her upwards. "Nooo-!" Livia shrieked as she began sliding forward into the hot, wet prison of his gaping throat. As always, once he got his jaws around her shoulders, it went very quickly. With a loud *SLURRRP* of Gorlon sucking her slender body down eagerly, Livia barely had time to kick, sliding down his slick throat in a matter of seconds and landing in the stomach with such force that the bulging belly she produced bounced up and down merrily. With no armor or clothing covering his belly, Livia's squirming outline was clearly visible from the outside. The big dragon-born patted the wriggling bulge with satisfaction, tensing his throat muscles as hard as possible to prevent her from pushing back out. He could feel the tickle of the woman's sword in there with her, but like all creatures gifted with the feral curse, his stomach interior was almost impossible to cut through, especially since his prey was being squeezed too tightly to move much. The soft flesh of the half-elf's thighs, hands and face pressing against the stomach walls made him sigh with pleasure.</span><br/><br/>Unfortunately, his enjoyment might not last long, because Livia's up. She'll be rolling strength vs. his fortitude. Escape! (1d20 + 6): 6 + 6 = 12, miss! Escape! (1d20 + 6): 6 + 6 = 12 again, miss! Recharge (1d6): 6, her encounter power recharges, but she might not get a chance to use it.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">The tightly-stretched brown hide of the muscular dragonborn's stretched belly jostled frantically, and the clear impression of hand-prints could be seen pressing from the inside as Livia tried to gain some kind of leverage in her slippery prison. Though his belly bounced from side to side, Gorlon had her trapped, for now, and he let out a triumphant, rumbling belch.<br/><br/>For a moment, Yula was compelled to watch and drool with envy. And she saw that Sophia was in real trouble. It looked like that handsome morsel with the halberd fell to her to 'deal with'. </span><br/><br/>Yula uses Priest's Shield against Darro. Priests shield (1d20 + 7): 16 + 7 = 23, hit.<br/>Priests shield (2d4 + 4): 1, 4 + 4 =<span style="font-weight: bold">9 damage</span>(bloodied), and Yula and Sophia gain a +1 AC bonus until next turn end.<br/><br/>Milla tries to catch the clustered PCs with her last real trick, the Thunder Burst area effect spell.<br/>Thunder v sophia (1d20 + 7): 5 + 7 = 12<br/>Thunder v yula (1d20 + 7): 17 + 7 = 24<br/>Thunder v gorlon (1d20 + 7): 18 + 7 = 25<br/>Thunder damage (1d8 + 4): 3 + 4 =<span style="font-weight: bold">7 damage to Yula and Gorlon</span>, and they're also dazed.<br/><br/>Sophia shifts to E-5 and uses Second Wind,<span style="font-weight: bold">regaining 10 hit points</span>.<br/><br/>Darro shifts to C-4. Recharge (1d6): 3, his power fails to recharge. Since Darro has a greatly weakened AC, he's a natural target. Halberd (1d20 + 10): 20 + 10 = 30. Critical!<span style="font-weight: bold">Max damage: 13 hp</span>. Save (1d20): 17, removes the -2 AC effect.<br/><br/>Gorlon, a little woozy from the blast, does what feels right: active digest on Livia, str versus her fortitude, and giving her a -2 to her next escape attempt. Digest (1d20 + 5): 18 + 5 = 23, hit, Digest (1d8 + 4): 6 + 4 =<span style="font-weight: bold">10 damage</span>.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"HMMMMMPH!" a muffled, high-pitched cry rose from Gorlon as his stomach began to gurgle noisily, flooding with acid. "NOOOOOOOO" the struggling bulge called frantically. The dragon hugged the squirming belly as tightly as he could. "Shhhhh," he said. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon. Just quiet down. You wouldn't want to give me indigestion, would you?" Livia's skin reddened and burned wherever she touched the warm, slimy walls of her prison.</span><br/><br/><br/>End of round three<br/>HP:<br/>Gorlon: 6/38!<br/>Sophia: 16/43!<br/>Yula: 27/34<br/><br/>Darro: 19/47 (-2 ac)<br/>Milla: 32/42<br/>Livia: 38/69<br/><br/><a class="postlink" href="http://yfrog.com/5udemomap1p">End of turn 3 battlemap</a>