GM Fnord's PFS First Steps (Inactive)

Game Master Aoth Anskuld

The imp turns invisible and you hear the flapping of wings.

Ice, Jory, and Tal hear the door at K5 open, and Tal hears little feet running away down the hall for a second before they get too far.

Done with the map.

Jake secures the box and says,

Ok, it appears as if we are done here. let us move on, shall we?

Jory leaves too. Don't like to leave him loose, but it isn't on our list, and he doesn't seem to concern the others.

"I guess if at least we report this incident, my sense of good and justice can be placated."

Fast forward past this part, never show this part again. (Spaceballs)

Tiann lowers her head, closes her eyes, and sighs heavily. Yes. Let's please move on. We've done enough damage here. She turns to Jory with a stern expression. Please stop trying to get yourself killed. Thank you. There is no humor in her voice, and it's more than a little frustrated.

Jory gives Tiann a big hug when they get out of danger, probably around her waist.
"Thank you for saving me. But I just know devils are evil. I don't like them runnin around."

I hope they don't kick me off the team. It would be sad to get in trouble for fighting devils. Especially one that drew first blood.

Karzak gives Jory a firm and fatherly nod, as if to say that he approved of his actions, but that next time he should kill the damned beast. He follows Jake and box, his thoughts of exploring old, dusty vaults and squishing devils with a silver hammer.

We'll call this part done. I will post the next scene sometime this evening, have a busy day out today.

For what it's worth, this was just a good opportunity for some RP, since mechanically there's not really any bad choices when it comes to dealing with an evil outsider. I take no issues with how anybody reacted or chose not to.

Your final remaining task:
[ ] Visit the offices of Osirian nobleman Dremdhet Salhar in the Wise Quarter. The Pathfinder Society needs to obtain permission to delve the Salhar ancestral vaults beneath Sothis. He has made a verbal agreement, and your visit makes it official. You will receive an official charter and detailed maps. Do not embarass the Society in this matter.

You take the box, and take your leave of the Chelish Paracountess, eager to begin on your final task for the day.

You make your way to the rich estate of Grand Councilmember Dremdhet Salhar, and are greeted by a guard who is clearly expecting you as you reach the tall, wrought-iron gate. Once you are inside, while leading you down well-decorated hallways and past expansive rooms, a servant tells you that Salhar is not present, called away on important Council business, but his most trusted advisor is available to negotiate any business you may require.

After a few minutes, the group arrives at a simple study near the end of a long hallway. Inside, a tan-skinned old man sits behind a desk flipping through pages in a large tome. Scraps of paper jut from the book marking over two dozen different places. As you approach the open door, the man silently gestures you into the study with one thin hand, while closing the rome with the other after finishing what he was reading. Once you are all inside the study, he addresses the group.

"Good day to you, Pathfinders. I am Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, advisor to Master Salhar. I understand you were sent here to discuss archaeological permissions. Knowing this was coming, I spoke with Master Salhar at length on the subject and have this to say.

"Since Osirion was reopened to exploration a decade ago, adventurers, historians, and treasure-seekers flock to my country by the hundreds, perhaps thousands. While most families with ancestral burial vaults maintain guards and keep their sites out of the hands of casual thieves, not all families have the wealth or power to restrict everyone, and as we all know, not every defense is perfectly secure. Unscrupulous tomb robbers and maligned merchant organizations cause Osirion to bleed relics into the Inner Sea—something the descendents of Ancient Osirion cannot afford. We Osiriani have thousands of years of rich history coursing through our veins, and while that power has been out of focus in recent years, we are content to wait, knowing our enemies will wear themselves down. As they fall into arrogance, folly, or greed, we wait for our return to power, knowing we bear the riches of our ancestors at our feet.

"Master Salhar remains impressed by the Pathfinder Society, orating in their favor a handful of times in front of Absalom’s Grand Council, in fact. Due to previous relationships between him and the Society, Master Salhar has agreed to grant permission to the Pathfinder Society to explore his family’s vaults below Sothis. The only thing he requires is that you retrieve the map of the vaults from his own vault here. The servant will lead you to the basement and show you the room."

The Sapphire Sage’s eyes twinkle as he smirks knowingly, then he turns back to reading his book as though he had never been disturbed.

After leaving Amenopheus' study, the servant brings you back through the spacious estate, leading you down sturdy stone steps into the cool basement. Down a hallway, after a couple of turns, the party ends up at a plain wooden door. The servant opens the door, gesturing to the room with a bow, and waits silently for you to enter.

Karzak frowns at the...well, the volume of words sent their way. He looks about at his companions to see if their minds were wandering as well...no..they were paying attention. Damnit! He pinches the bridge of his nose sharply, then tries to focus on the old man's words.

At the last, he snarls in confusion and leans in to speak to Jory in a hushed tone. Did 'e just threaten us, then tell us we can 'ave what we came 'ere for? I don't get it.

Knowing that he was far from the dwarf to bandy words with the old sage, he keeps his trap shut and waits for something to squish or bully. He follows the servant with a shrug, but gives the room a once over befor traipsing in.

Perception, with darkvision
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

Jory makes eye contact again with Tal and they immediately update the sketch filling in any details they missed the first time.

Karzak (and everybody else) sees a plain stone room containing three chests:
A copper banded chest of smooth, dark wood
A red lacquered chest
A cube of what looks to be solid steel

Behind the chests sits a low table holding a clear glass jar half full of liquid and a covered wicker basket.

Tiann is more than a little confused at the insinuations made by the Sapphire Sage. She stands on the threshold and takes a look around the inner room, wondering what all the fuss is about.

This is to see anything that's not immediately obvious per the above description. Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Nothing else to see. :)

Well friends, it appears that our benefactor may be a bit of a riddler. We came for a map. Talhaearn, see any traps? Karzak and Rory, stonework telling you anything?

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 11

Talhaearn will check the room for traps. Presuming there are none he will check to see if the chests are locked.

Perception/Trapfinding 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

"Tal, I will check out this table."

Jory alertly and silently approaches the low table to make a detailed examination, concenrating on the basket. Then dipping his finger into the liquid as little as possible to taste.
Per/Stealth 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 221d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Bah! Let's jes' get this done, already!. Karzak pushes his way into the room, knocking some of his companions in at the same time.

Playing along; I can see the dilemma:)

Karzak is right!... hopefully
Ice then uncharacteristically brazenly follows the bold Dwarf.

Once you all enter the room, the servant bows to you, leaves, and shuts the door, locking it behind him.

Written on the back of the door is the message: "Within these cases lies your quest and your way out."

Your inspections of the room and the outsides of the containers have revealed no traps.

Your available containers to deal with are:
copper banded chest of smooth, dark wood
red lacquered chest
cube of what looks to be solid steel
clear glass jar half full of liquid
covered wicker basket.

If you are going to examine / touch / do something with a container, please specify what container and exactly what you try to do (likely starting with details examination of an individual container with perception :)

You general perception checks have revealed that there is a jeweled brass key in the bottom of the liquid filled jar. The contents and locked state of none of the other containers are known without examining them individually.

This is a puzzle room, and the exact operations are important, so I'll need specific targets for skills; we'll consider that good rolls have already been made for perception/trapfinding for the room in general and outside of each container, and nothing has been found yet..

Hmm. Curious.

Tiann tries to open the basket, wondering what's inside. She's not very good with puzzles, but perhaps one of the quicker-witted members of the team can figure out what to do with what she finds.

Talhaearn sees that Tisnn has the basket well in hand but is concerned that Jory may perform a taste test on the liquid in the jar.

While I'm sure our host is not trying to kill us I think there are safer ways to retrieve the key from that jar, Jory.

Tal will check to see if the copper chest is locked. If not, he will check for traps before opening.

Trapfinding 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

Jory wants the key, but will delicately touch the liquid after a detailed examination and smell (strong acids and bases are easy to detect from smell). He rolled a PER 22 skill check.

Karzak snatches up the steel cube, flips it once in the air, and begins searching about its surface for a way to open it.

Perception
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Karzak nods towards the box. Looks like we'll need the key over 'ere for the box...I'm guessin' that key'll fit this lock.

"This liquid smells dangerous, my nose and Tal tell me not to touch it."

Jory will experimentally explore tilting the jar close to 45 degrees from side to side (without allowing any liquid to spill out) to see if the key stays in the bottom. Jory thinks by carefully tilting the glass side to side he may be able to quickly get the key with one of his normal arrows when it is in a minimal depth of liquid.

It is quite a large container of liquid, and tipping it over in a controlled manner is difficult but doable. You think that you could probably reach the key with an arrow if you tried though, even without tipping it. Include a dex check if that's the way you decide to go.

Talhaearn will attempt to pick the lock of the copper banded chest.

Disable Device 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Tiann hands the wicker basket to Talhaearn, moving it slowly and carefully.

There's a key here. But it looks like there's some linens beneath it. It seems suspicious to me. Could you take a look and see if it's trapped in any way? Would hate to open it and hurt anyone here. I can give you the same guidance I did before if you'd be comfortable with it.

Jory takes out a normal arrow and goes key fishing.
DEX check at +1 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

Jory ref: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Jory's arrow takes (1d6 - 5 ⇒ (3) - 5 = -2) no damage and he successfully fishes the jeweled key out of the bottom of the glass jar.

Abandoning the copper chest, Talhaearn checks the wicker basket for traps.

Trapfinding 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

I can't believe I'm saying this...but that's a really good idea Jory. May I borrow that arrow?

Talhaearn finds no signs of traps in the basket.

"Sure Tal" Jory hands the key to Khazad and the arrow to Tal.

Jory takes the glass jar over to the copper banded chest to see what one drop from the glass jar does on the copper banded chest and what one drop does on the red lacquered chest.

Hmmm. I don't see any traps...but I'm learning to trust Tiann's intuition.

Tal will use Jory's arrow to fish out the key.

Dex Check 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Talhaearn manages to fish the blue stone key out of the wicker basket with the arrow.

Talhaearn smells something burning and decides to check out the red chest.

Guess its time to start trying out some of these keys.

Tal will check to see if the blue stone key opens the red lacquered box. If it does he checks for traps ( 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17 ) before opening it.

Jake, paces uncomfortably back in forth in front of the door that closed them in.

I am not liking the confinement...I hope the skills of my companions can figure out the puzzle quickly.

Be careful, Talhaearn, I do not expect this to be easy.

I may prick my finger, but I'm fairly confident our host has no intention of turning us into a pile of corpses. Don't get me wrong there are risks...but I doubt they're life threatening.

The smooth, red lacquered red chest looks devious. The solid metal plate surrounding the gaping keyhole pulses with glowing amber runes. The blue stone key fits its lock, and turns, clicking as if it has unlocked the mechanism.

You find no traps evident on the red chest.

Karzak tucks the steel cube under his arm and steps up next to Tal, looking at the now unlocked chest with interest. The cube is all but forgotten as the dwarf waits, impatiently, to see what's inside the lacquered chest.

Talhaearn opens the red chest, amused by Karzak's sudden interest.

Repeat, Karzak can't move the steel cube.

As Talhaearn opens the chest, a series of clicking and sliding noises happen.

Inside the red box is a key forged into the end of a jeweled scepter.

Status:
Jar: Only holds acid
Wicker basket: Key extracted
Copper-banded box: Only one person knows it's an illusion
Red lacquered box: Key removed from inside, one person noticed key at ceiling level.
Steel box: Locked
Door: Locked

Talhaearn points up. I think that might be important.

Tal sizes up the others...his gaze shifting between Jake and Jory. Jory...how would you like to stand on Jake's shoulders for a minute or two?

Karzak snorts at the thought, glad only that the half-elf hadn't asked him...he'd have had to answer with blunt force. He looks at the key forged into a scepter. Maybe that one'll fit in the damned box, then. Think it's trapped?

Tiann gets the all-clear from Talhaearn and curiously goes through the linens in the basket. Specifically, she's trying to find any other objects that may be helpful. Other keys, anything of that sort. Once done with the linens she'll search the rest of the basket itself.

I guess this would be Perception? 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
As Tiann reaches into the wicker basket, she feels a quick jab and realizes she has been bitten by a tiny snake that is hiding in the linens.

Damage: 1
Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 woot, made your save, lucky

Sorry Tiann...I had a bad feeling about those linens; I thought you saw me use Jory's arrow to get the key out. Speaking of which help me talk Jory into grabbing that key hanging from the ceiling!