"Wow, that's seriously creepy. It looks like the Abbey might have been built around this, too. And I really don't think I could pick that lock. There might be a key somewhere else...let's try another door for now. How about the northern door to the west over there?"
The first room Bert leads everyone to proves to be a kitchen with a great fireplace almost ten feet tall. You notice that someone seems to have been recently preparing sausages with ingredients like meat, onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt.
The room behind the kitchen is the pantry, containing many wooden shelving units and all kings of kegs, barrels, and crates. The majority of them have been ransacked, although numerous bunches of sausages and misshapen leathery bags hang from the ceiling beams near the middle of the room.
Bert notes that the weird leathery bags-which are actually stomachs upon closer inspection-have been enchanted with a magical trap to spew forth some sort of disgusting creature.
After studying the bags with detect magic Brelar comments, "Those are quite facin...disgusting. Probably best to leave them alone."
What about the sausage? Argust asks as the party leaves the room.
"No idea--I'm not a healer. Maybe Karn knows?"
Bert tenses first, then relaxes. "Whew--I thought you were going to say it was halfling!" He gives a halfhearted, sickly grin before turning serious. "Let's get back to this. Next door south?"
Bert can easily 'disable' the exploding stomach things.....
---
The next door leads to a fifteen-foot-high vaulted passage that runs to the outside. However, as the party opens the door to this passage a loud bang! is heard from within, resonating shock waves out towards the party!
Bert reflexively takes cover, avoiding any damage from the lethal sound.
Argust takes the full brunt of the sound wave. Shaking his head he looks into the room, trying to figure out what it was.
*fail*
Brelar also takes the full burst of sound, hands going to his ears as he doubles over from the pain.
Brelar will begin keeping detect magic active as they move through the abbey.
Brelar detects the remnants of a greater glyph of warding on the alley, which was likely the cause of the sonic boom.
Heading down to where the ettins were stationed, the party explores the doors beyond. A grand stairwell to the upper floor is set along the west wall, splitting to the north and south in flanking ascending flights. An extravagant headdress consisting of a veil hanging from a silvery crown is draped over the north banister at the foot of the stairs.
Brelar detects another greater glyph of warding centered on the
headdress. Bert also notes a pit trap beneath the headdress.
"Hey, that's the Masked Abbot's headdress! Want me to have a go at the traps on it?"
"Or I can try and dispel it." Brelar offers.
Bert easily wedges the pit trap so that it is no longer unstable and then uses a quick trick to deactivate the magical glyph guarding the headdress.
Note: Magic traps such as glyph of warding are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a glyph, only a character with the trapfinding class feature can use Disable Device to disarm it.
Whistling tunelessly under his breath, Bert finishes his delicate task and hefts the headdress. "Karn, you should take this for now, but we really should return it when we're done--it belongs to the Abbey, after all. We'll talk to Casamir about it later, when we give back the silverware."
"Let's check upstairs...I don't know why they left the headdress, though."
The northwest room on the second story is empty but for a high-backed leather armchair facing on one of the windows looking out at the sea; its leather surface is stained and stinking of decayed meat.
---
The middle chamber is almost completely lined in wood and furnished with a round table with a single chair, several stools near a large firepace, and two tall bookcases flanking a window with flowery stained-glass designs.
The bookcases are almost empty and contain just a few books of obscure poetry and litanies written in Aklo and Abyssal.
One of the books-a small book of poems in Abyssal dedicated to the demon lords of Golarion-lies open on one of the tables. A short poem is scribbled on the inside of the back cover:
Two to left for annis hag.
Three to right for bansee nag.
One to west for greenie crone.
Two to east for spinster lone.
Two to dussk for wife in tears.
Three to dawn for witch's leers.
---
The southwestern room is also empty except for three unoccupied chairs.
Anything we can find out about the chair/rotting meat? Brelar was hoping to have a nice relaxing view of the sea, but should probably avoid sitting in such a mess.
Brelar studies the Abyssal writings with interest. Is the poem recently added to the back cover, or does it appear to be a normal part of the book?
"This poem here seems to reference followers of the demon lord Mestama." Brelar tells the group. Looking in the remaining books, Brelar searches for infomration on the demon lord.
Bert casts his mind back to the locking mechanism on the Doomsday Door and the way it shifted, and thinks about turning a key or pick in the pattern the short poem describes--two left, three right, one left/west, two right/east, two left/west, three right/east. I'll probably have to actually see the thing again to figure it out....
Bert seems to be on the right track about the poem being a sort of cypher to something else but isn't sure it is specifically about the door....
Mestama? Who the blazes is Mestama? Never heard of such a person. Is that who lives here? They need a bath or somethin' then, it stinks in 'ere.
The party moves through the double doors to the central chamber of the second floor. This huge room is a large open central chamber surrounded by an ambulatory, creating a sort of indoor arcade with numerous five-foot-wide arches providing access into the center. In the central chamber, which sits under a vaulted twenty-foot-high ceiling supported by wooden timbers, twenty-one ornate chairs stand in a solemn ring, their backs against the walls of the arcade between each of the arches. On the high back of each chair is the beautifully sculpted holy symbol of one of the major deities of Golarion. An immense dark fireplace looms to the west.
Unfortunately, this chamber is guarded by a beefy but clearly undead bugbear and a trio of mummies in his wake!
Bert calls on his luck and casts good hope on the party before ducking back out of the line of fire.
Brelar launches a fireball at them!
DC 21 Ref for half!
The mummies seem especially hurt by Brelar's spell, although the bugbear seems to resist some of it.
The bugbear charges at Karn, kicking a chair out of the way as he brings his axe down on the Kellid!
The mummies shamble forward and climb around the chairs!
lut: 28 dmg
mum1: 57 dmg
mum2: 57 dmg
mum3: 57 dmg
Karn takes down two of the mummies and injures the zombified bugbear!
lut: 49 dmg
mum2: 57 dmg
Brelar moves up toward the mummy and says "Burn!" as he unleashes a fire jet on the flammable mess!
DC 21 Ref for half or catch on fire!
Brelar burns up the last mummy!
lut: 49 dmg
Argust steps forward and tries to end this fight!
for
for
for
Argust expertly cuts the bugbear into pieces!
"Anyone mind if I take the headband? After I clean it really well, anyway. It smells nasty."
"Not at all Bert, go right ahead!"
"And then let's check the south door before my spell runs out. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
The southern doors lead to a sort of enclosed bridge suspended over the cliff and shore. The walls are decorated with magnificent stained-glass windows depicting wonderful landscapes of the Outer Planes and of the home of the gods of Golarion.
A pair of doors at the end of this skywalk leads to a room finely tiled with ceramic and glass and is filled with the smells of pleasant floral aromas. A large circular stone bath rises from the floor in the middle. Of the three stained-glass windows in the room, the ones on the west and east walls are flanked by large clay vases under copper pipes that descend from the ceiling. The air is pleasantly warm, no double heated by the steaming water in the bath.
Three unusually realistic statues stand in the room-one of a begging redcap on his knees, another of a startled-looking hill giant, and yet another of a beautiful half-elven woman armed with a sword and a hooked club.
However, a living creature also inhabits this chamber: a beautiful medusa with green robes beneath her chainmail armor. She relaxes by the pool but grins evily when you walk through the door!
Bert averts his eyes and casts glitterdust on where he saw the medusa.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Why you ain't lookin' at her, Bert?