You can't tell, but none of it actually is aligned. The gear will fit a Medium individual. The Impaler is a halberd - arguably it's not that useful as you could end up filling your companions with despair too, based on the description.
In addition to the +1 on all saves, the medallions allow you to cast false life on yourself once a day which is especially handy for us squishy magical types.
Scrutinizing the loot, Vethran scratches his head and furrows his brow as he attempts to recall some obscure factoids about the halberd in particular.
"The design of that weapon is very similar, perhaps identical, to weapons that were employed in ancient Thassilon. They were typically used by the guardsmen to break up riots and other sorts of civil uprisings. Either that thing is a very accurate replica... or very, very old."
As for the snakeskin tunic, I'll gladly take +2 AC and a +1 to hit with my rays! Oh, and the Fort save bonus is nice too, should it ever come up.
Also, and this is pure metagame here, we should at least get through one more encounter before we decide to rest or go back to town. We're just shy of 700 xp from level 7! :D
"I do not think the sword analogy is a good one," Alwyn replies to Elisile. "The main reason these things bother me isn't necessarily that we take them off grotesque monsters like these snake-women; after all, I took my protective ring off the Graul necromancer. What worries me more is the circumstances and the locations. The lamia gave Aldern Foxglove a star after he became ghoul. The star was carved into the walls down in the freak-infested temple. The brains of this outfit are wearing them. It just seems to be associated with the conspiracy we seem to be uncovering."
Once everyone is healed up, the corpses are desecrated and loot is distributed, Elisile peers through the open doorway that Xanesha entered through. Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12
Oh, ok, I see it, the western door – so not much else to be seen there by the looks of things. Elisile will give the place a quick search with her secret door spider-sense, using the Perception roll posted above ... which isn’t likely to find anything.
“Is your objection to these medallions then that they proclaim the wearer as being a member of the conspiracy?” Elisile asks Alwyn as she gives the prison area a cursory examination, whilst he drags the bits and pieces of the snakewomen’s bodies in. “In which case, wearing them out of sight should calm your concern. Vathren and I have examined their magical properties, and they seem to bear no malign influence – except for any meaning that their shape may impart, they are little different to the fat woman’s ring. And as I said, it is possible that their distinctiveness and meaning may work to our advantage at some point.”
She looks at the battle priest with an expectant expression, then frowns slightly. “I suppose that they could conceivably be used as a focus for scrying on us ... but probably no more so than other distinctive items we may take from our fallen enemies – the clawed woman’s sword, or the snake woman’s halberd for example.”
"You're probably right. I guess they just remind me of how little we know about what's going on here. Why would the snakewoman sponsor a murder cult in Magnimar, transform Aldern Foxglove into an undead monster and help a band of ogres attack a remote human outpost? I feel like a blind man holding a mammoth's tail, trying in vain to guess what kind of creature he's petting." Alwyn pauses for a while, thinking. "Take them if you will; I'll stop complaining about them. Obviously I won't wear one. I cannot wear both that and this" - he pulls out the miniature wooden sword dedicated to Gorum that he keeps hanging around his neck - "in good conscience. They seem to be more than just membership badges - they really do feel like holy symbols of some obscure, long-lost cult dedicated to some unfathomable creature."
Huh. Turns out halberds don't have reach. As it does the same damage as a bastard sword, you're probably better off with the old b-sword - unless the Impaler is +3 or something like that. Having said that, it is rather cool. I would have taken it, if it hadn't been for the fact that it is a martial weapon.
Camlo pokes about the treasure pile a title, and listens intently to the conversation about the medallions, "I, ahh, think I would be in agreement with the good lady elf. If there is some, ah, sort of conspiracy, and it ermmm, proves necessary to pretend to be a part of it, in any, ah fashion, what better, errmm, costume, could there be?"
Camlo will take the other medallion if no one else wants it, he's just realised he's a lot more fragile than he thought ;)
Hudak has two feats invested in the Bastard Sword. I wouldn't really recommend a change at this point. I'll record the masterwork dagger in my inventory.
Hudak has two feats invested in the Bastard Sword. I wouldn't really recommend a change at this point. I'll record the masterwork dagger in my inventory.
"I'm ready. Keep in mind that we need to be quiet and careful. We cannot hope to win facing two dozen ogres at once, and the lessened state of some of us does not help. Ideally we should seek out and find the ogre leaders and kill them first. If they lose their leaders, mop-up will be a lot easier."
Elisile turns her head, fixing Alwyn with the blank stare of the green glass eyes of her new mask. “No. I believe I understand how this works. Also, my examination of the dweomer reveals that the petrification is not permanent, so if there is some accident … all is not lost.
“Stealth is certainly a good idea. Camlo and I, perhaps, should lead.”
Let’s say Elisile and Camlo stay about fifteen to twenty feet ahead of the rest, using stealth and perception as they go?
I'll take the rapier for sure and might as well take the medallion. If Elisile or Camlo want it that would be fine with me. Since no one has claimed it at this point I'm taking it until I hear otherwise cause a free false life is a free false life.
Wand of scorching ray... I have a 65% chance of activating it right now. I suppose that is better than Elisile's 0% chance from an opposed school. You want that one Fates?
You hear vague sounds of ogrish voices in the distance but nothing definate.
The stairs lead up to a small storeroom, the back wall of which looks like the unworked rock of the cliff face behind the fort. A door to the south leads out. A tentative peer through the crack of the dorway reveals a long corridor heading south with several doors leading off.
Camlo listens at the door for a moment, then turns to the others, putting a finger to his lips, intimating they should be silent. He then does a very bad pantomime of ogres outside the door, whilst trying to be quiet...
The joys of a low wis character :), just relaying the spoiler above...
Wand of scorching ray... I have a 65% chance of activating it right now. I suppose that is better than Elisile's 0% chance from an opposed school. You want that one Fates?
I'll take the wand of scorching ray if you take my wand of ray of enfeeblement. I don't really ever see myself spending an action to use it when I could nuke something instead, but Illes might find more opportunities than Vethran would to enfeeble something. Plus, it's a 1st-level spell, so you should have a good chance of activating.
Elisile turns her head, fixing Alwyn with the blank stare of the green glass eyes of her new mask. “No. I believe I understand how this works. Also, my examination of the dweomer reveals that the petrification is not permanent, so if there is some accident … all is not lost.
Alwyn almost flinches away as Elisile looks at him through the alien mask. "That's good. I'll keep it in mind."
Being slow and clanky, he stays at the bottom of the stairs as the lighter-footed party members creep up to investigate.
You are at the north end of a north-south corridor, 10' wide and at least 70' long (i.e. nothing like a real castle). There are doors all along it's length - four doors along the east side and three - including two sets of double doors - along the west. Another set of double doors faces you at the far end to the south where the corridor ends in a T-junction. Just beyond the first doorway on the west side is a stairway heading up.
The sounds of ogrish jollity seems to be coming from somewhere in the distance.
The rangers didn’t give us a map of the inside of the keep, did they?
Let’s head to the nearest door – whether its on the east or west – and try that. The bosses might be upstairs, but it doesn’t seem to make much sense to leave a castle full of ogres between us and our escape route if things go sour, so exploring this level is probably the go.
To save time, we should probably come up with a standard approach to doors. How about this – Elisile and Camlo both sneak up and listen at it (Elisile will take 10 as standard on both these checks), Camlo can search for traps in the same roll, (the rest of the group stay at least 15 feet back, space allowing) then Elisile covers the door with her bow whilst Camlo tries to pick the lock and/or opens the door. If all is clear we gesture the others forward, if its not clear the others will surely soon know about it! If Elisile and Camlo are quiet enough they might be able to get surprise on anything behind the door.
Sounds good to me, Camlo will take 10 on those as well, I'll start mapping the place as we go in a few hours. Add to that, Camlo has his punching dagger lightly in one hand, and the rapier sheathed.
That would be:
Stealth: 31
Perception: 21 (24 vs traps)
Disable Device: 27
Just as the party makes motion to set out from the room with the deceased lamias, Vethran pulls out a scroll from his pack.
"I suppose there's no better time for this than now."
He walks over to the body of Xanesha and pulls out a small pouch filled with shiny black stones, placing a fistful of them in the dead woman's mouth. That done, he opens the scroll and intones the eldritch words inscribed upon it.
Caster check to activate the scroll of animate dead. DC should be 8 if it was written by a wizard or DC 9 if it was a sorcerer. 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15. I'm placing all of my onyxes in her mouth. If she is less than 10 HD, then some of those stones will be left when she animates, just let me know how many and I'll add them back to my sheet. If she's more than 10 HD... it'll fail.
If successful, I'm animating her as a skeleton. She will retain her proficiency with the halbard. Plus, she can carry it for us. :P
Xanesha's corpse twitches, lurches up, and then collapses in a deliquescent heap as her flesh falls from her bones under the influence of Vethran's spell. With a wet gurgle it then slumps unmoving.
By the way, I know the rules say that you can take 10 on stuff, but it doesn't feel right while actively listening and creeping to just take 10. I'm especially uncomfortable with taking 10 on Stealth checks. One false move and you could (theoretically) have a whole castle-full of ogres on your backs - I want you to roll for that. It might be better if you tell me you are sneaking and listening, and when it matters I'll ask you for a roll.
The nearest door is on the west side of the corridor, five feet down. Perception checks please for Elisile and Camlo.
By the way, I know the rules say that you can take 10 on stuff, but it doesn't feel right while actively listening and creeping to just take 10. I'm especially uncomfortable with taking 10 on Stealth checks. One false move and you could (theoretically) have a whole castle-full of ogres on your backs - I want you to roll for that. It might be better if you tell me you are sneaking and listening, and when it matters I'll ask you for a roll.
The nearest door is on the west side of the corridor, five feet down. Perception checks please for Elisile and Camlo.
Elisile looks back at the others waiting a few feet away at the store room door, points to the door, then mimics Camlo’s earlier imitation of an ogre. She then quietly nocks an arrow to her bow, then nods at Camlo, then the door handle.
Technically you can’t ready an action outside of combat, but Elisile is getting ready to shoot at whatever is beyond when Camlo opens the door, if appropriate. Init: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20 if necessary.
Once used to house the wounded and sick, this chamber is now a slice of some blood-drenched nightmare. Hacked pieces of bodies litter the sick beds. The floor is slick with gore, strewn with mangled organs and heaps of entrails. A dead fat man sits at one of the operating tables, arranged as if he were merrily spooning chunks of his own disembodied organs out of a brown bowl. His guts spill out of a large gaping slash in his midsection. An ogre is busy adjusting the defiled corpse's limbs into what passes for aesthetically pleasing to ogres, but it swings round as the door is opened. Half of its face is a ruined mess of scars and bone, and it reaches for its ogrehook as it notices the party.
Gotta love that fertile Logue mind. Roll initiative. I'm going to say that Camlo, the Elisile go first - Camlo opens the door and draws his weapons, and Elisile can fire as above.
Lay-out: A-I across the top, and 1-17 down the side. The storeroom is E-G/1-2. The stairs back down the cell block are at E2 and the door to the corridor is at G2. The corridor itself is at F-G/3-17. There are doors at G6, G9, G12, G15, F4, F9, F13 and at the end of the corridor at F17. There is a t-junction heading off at E/16-17 and H17. The stairs up are at F6.
This room is at A-E/5-7. The table is at C6. The ogre is at A-B/5-6.
