DM Rich's Carrion Crown

Game Master Briccone

No matter what Drace tries to do, he consistently seems to be chasing the spider's motions. Thankfully though nothing has found a hole through his armor!

Scimitar Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Scimitar Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Light Spiked Steel Shield Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
Light Spiked Steel Shield Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Stepping up, Teil continues to swing away with his giant bludgeon.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 4) + 7 = 14

With her allies blocking a clear shot, Vivian's sling bullet misses its target.

Drace has more success as he slams his spiked steel shield into the spider and it slides off the side of the wall, slain.

Combat Over.

With the threat of the spiders neutralized, a brief look around the web covered room would suggest this used to be a chapel dedicated to Pharasma.

I'm sorry, but could we take a few minutes to clean the chapel? as you know, I worship Pharasma, and it's a pity to see this holy place in such disrepair.

"I would agree, Vivian. Let me help you."

Teilaenthis was wiping spider-ichor off of his earthbreaker onto the floor when Vivian spoke up. Nodding, he steps outside the room and stands guard while continuing to clean his weapon.

Let me know how you plan to spruce up the chapel, who's helping, and anything else you like to do in here afterwards.

The doctor pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and begins using it to brush away the dust and cobwebs from the altar to Pharasma. "Had anyone noticed a broom or dustpan in any of the rooms we'd explored earlier?"

"Certainly." Drace said with a nod.

If he can help it without getting in anyone's way, he'll find something (other than his hand) to clear away the webbing in the room, using his height to get the hard-to-reach places.

After ten minutes of work, the room is finally cleared of spiderwebs. An altar stands at the north of the room, along with a number of pews facing towards it. Several holy symbols of Pharasma also hang from the walls, as well as some cabinets in the northwest wall. Opening the cabinets reveals a few religious supplies, including five vials of holy water, a scroll of lesser restoration, and a magical wand.

See, the weaver of Fate thanks us for our good deeds! These vials of holy water will be handy against the cursed ghosts of the prison! What is this wand, Stefan?

She bows and prays to the altar, thanking Pharasma for her help

Examining the wand, Stefan casts a spell. His eyes glow with a faint bluish light.

Casts detect magic.

Takes 10 on Spellcraft for an 18.

"This appears to be infused with the holy power of the Lady of Graves to heal injuries. Tara, perhaps you should keep it."

You can't take 10 on Spellcraft checks to identify magical items since concentrating on a Detect Magic spell serves as a distraction.

Stifling a yawn, Tara keeps watch out in the hallway as everyone else busies themselves with cleaning the chapel. After most of the spider webs are cleaned, she enters to help identify some of the found items. Casting the detect magic spell causes her eye colors to swap, before she concentrates. Shrugging as she looks over the wand, Tara hands it back over to Stephan. "It appears that I have a gap in my education. I apologize, I do not know what spell this wand contains." Running a hand through her dark hair, Tara frowns heavily. "I wonder why there is a chapel to Pharasma here? Abadar would make more sense, seeing that he is the god of law and judges."
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

You can't take 10 on Spellcraft checks to identify magical items since concentrating on a Detect Magic spell serves as a distraction.

Oh. Okay. I've not encountered that ruling before. Please ignore my previous post. Retconning...

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26 ...Success!

Stefan takes the wand from Tara and tries his own hand at identifying it. He casts a spell, and his eyes glow with a faint bluish light. After studying the wand for several moments, the glow of his eyes fade and he hands it back.

"This wand appears to be infused with the holy power of the Lady of Graves to heal minor injuries. Much of its power is already expended, but it should still function for another dozen uses or so... perhaps a bit more than that. However, one needs to be attuned to divine magic to cause it to function." He points to some runes etched on the wand. "These appear to be the incantation one needs to speak to activate it. Tara, as a servant of the Lady of Graves, perhaps you should keep it."

When you are finished in this room, please let me know the next destination.

To continue forward, I'll need someone to pick a new destination.

Teil leads the group down the hallway, ready to open the door to his right once everyone is in place.

Teilaenthis opens another door to find a dusty room containing an empty cabinet but not much else.

Please pick another room :)

Poking is head in for a quick look in the room. Drace opens the set of doors to the north.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 11

[ooc]I think from the tool tip size that this maybe another set of stairs? If so I'd like to clear out the ground floor before we start on another floor. If you need Drace's input he would like to then open the door across from the chapel that they cleaned up.

Let's finish this set of rooms before going up or down.

Agreed. Sentir adds to Vivian's plan.

Teil readies himself to assit Drace with any threats coming through the northern doors.

Drace opens the north doors and looks inside. Several moldy cots lay strewn around this room, while doors to smaller, more private sleeping cells hang askew to the west. Judging from the rest of this room’s decor, this must have once been the prison’s infirmary.

"Ah, the infirmary. Let's look through this room—perhaps there are still a few serviceable pieces of medical equipment that I could put to good use!"

Stefan sends a pair of dancing lights into the room, and then enters. He begins looking around.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22

Shall I assume the whole group enters and helps Stefan search?

Drace is happy to take the lead!

Aid another, Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Vivina does her best to look around

As Dr. Von Herzog and Vivian take the lead searching the infirmary, they begin to note various alchemical substances left along the clutter of the room, with antitoxin and soothe syrup being the most notable.

Before they can begin to collect them, however, the incorporeal form of a twisted, nearly skeletal ghost of a broken prisoner instantaneously pops into view and radiates fear to all of those nearby.

Unprepared for the horror of the ghastly visage, Stefan, Teilaenthis, and Vivian lose all capability for logical thought and find themselves fleeing from the sight. Those PC's are frightened for 1d4 ⇒ 4 rounds. After sending half the party into panic, the apparition disappears from sight.

A successful Knowledge (religion) check can identify this creature.

You cannot see the creature now, but I left an icon on the map to denote its last location.

PC Initiative
Drace's Initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
Sentir's Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Stefan's Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15
Tara's Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Teilaenthis' Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Vivian's Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Initiative (Round 1)
Vivian (1 Dmg; 4 rds Frightened) <= Up
Sentir <= Up
Stefan (4 rds Frightened) <= Up
Teilaenthis (1 Dmg; 4 rds Frightened) <= Up
Drace (6 Dmg) <= Up
Tara <= Up
Ghost?

All PC's are up.

Are there racks and shelves we can push over? We might get lucky and hit it + a cloud of dust might reveal the thing...

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

"GAAAHHH! Run!"

The doctor nearly trips over himself as he turns and flees out of the room and down the hall. He pauses at the double-doors at the end of the corridor only to open them.

Double-moving out of the room, through the prison, and toward the door.

You can create a dust cloud by knocking things over, but you run the risk of destroying the potentially valuable substances left in the room that Stefan and Vivian spotted earlier.

I'll reveal what the Stefan got on his religion check once he's able to tell you, or someone not frightened makes the roll.

Blanching visibly, Teileanthis lets out a low moan as he quickly moves back down the hallway.

Run away!

Vivian dashes out of the room

Catching herself on the door frame as Stefan nearly mows her down, Tara gazes curiously into the room. "What in the world?" Rubbing her chin as she catches sight of the fading apparition, Tara purses her lips as she attempts to recall any information on the creature. "This is world is no place for the dead. Return to the graveyard so you may be judged." Tara calls out to the creature, hoping to reason with it.

Know Religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Tara identifies the ghostly creature as a poltergeist. This undead monster is incorporeal, and therefore immune to all nonmagical attack forms, although magical weapons do hurt it. Compounding that, it also has natural invisibility, except for the occasions it wants to use its frightener ability to scare people off by suddenly becoming visible for a limited time. It has no natural form of attack so it has to rely on telekinesis to throw objects or people around. Poltergeists are usually bound to a site and can only range a limited distance from that site. These apparitions also have an ability to rejuvenate after being destroyed, the only way to permanently destroy a poltergeist is to determine the reason for its existence and set right whatever prevents it from resting in peace.

That's pretty much everything, since these are low CR creatures and Stefan and Tara rolled two 20's to identify them. Feel free to look them up if you want more information.

Sighing heavily, Tara rolls up her sleeves. "It's a poltergeist." Tara explains to those that have not fled. "We will have to deal with it here, otherwise it will follow us throughout the rest of the prison. It also has no other attacks than trying to frighten us away." Cracking her knuckles, Tara enters into the defunct infirmary. "I know you are upset, tell me what binds you here and I promise I will make sure that you will be at peace."

Tara will move into the room and wait to hear if the poltergeist will tell her what keeps him here.

Sentir and Drace are up.

For the next 18 seconds, Stefan tries to put as much distance as possible between himself and the apparition. This may involve him sprinting across the Harrowstone courtyard.

This means that Stefan is out of combat for the next 8 rounds: 4 rounds of double-moves away from the fight, followed by 4 rounds of double-moves back... unless, of course, he runs across another encounter on his own...

Could someone bot Sentir and Drace? This is an unusual situation, so I'm unsure what they would do, but I don't want to just delay them both since half the party is fleeing. If no one feels comfortable doing that, however, I will just delay them in 24 hours so we can move on.

Okay... I'll put on my GM hat and bot Sentir and Drace for them... I also double-moved Vivian out of the room behind Stefan.

Sentir...
Seeing the poltergeist scare off half the party, Sentir steps into the room. Hearing Tara attempt to negotiate with it, he reaches out with his mind to sense the thoughts of the undead creature, knowing that this power can also damage and anger it.

Attempts to use Brain Drain on the poltergeist for 2d4 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6 damage. Will save DC 15 negates and also reveals that it was Sentir who attempted it. If successful, Sentir receives a jumble of thoughts from the entity, which he can try to make sense of next round.

Drace...

Drace seems surprised that three of his friends ran off. He raises his shield and holds his scimitar in a defensive pose, scanning the room for signs of the thing.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Sorry for the delay! Had a bit of a pain flare up the last few days and haven't been moving/writing much anywhere. I'm happy with the current course of action!

As Teilaenthis, Vivian, and Stefan flee the room, Sentir attempts to use Brain Drain on the entity, but does not contact another mind in the area at all. Perhaps the creature is immune to mind-affecting effects.

Looking through the room, Drace does not find any clue to the poltergeist's position.

Tara tries to parlay with the spirit, but the only answer she seems to receive comes in the form of a broken bottle that appears to move out of its own accord and fly towards her head. It fortunately misses her, but does crash into a bottle of blue liquid on the far wall, breaking the container and soaking the area in azure fluid.

Initiative (Round 2)
Vivian (1 Dmg; 3 rds Frightened) <= Up
Sentir <= Up
Stefan (3 rds Frightened) <= Up
Teilaenthis (1 Dmg; 3 rds Frightened) <= Up
Drace (6 Dmg) <= Up
Tara <= Up
Poltergeist

Sentir, Drace, and Tara are up for normal actions, while the others are continue to be frightened.

A perturbed look crosses Tara's face as the bottle shatters against the wall. "Alright, if that's the way you want to play, then you have sealed your fate." Pressing her hand against the wooden holy symbol around her neck, Tara floods the small room with holy energy, seeking out to harm the poltergeist. "Pharasma, have mercy on this lost soul, so that it may finally know peace." Finishing the prayer to her goddess, Tara hopes that the others are okay.

Channel Damage DC 13: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Drace will move to cover Tara as best he can from any flying debris, but will otherwise delay and see the result of her holy energy.

Sentir almost laughs. 'Throwing bottles is a step down from dying of freezing cold." but he too waits to see what tara does. This seems to be personal for the cleric.

If the channeling hurt the invisible spirit, it's difficult to tell. It's not difficult to determine that the poltergeist is still unhappy with the group's presence as a sharp plank of wooden debris now flies once again at Tara, in the opposite direction of Drace's guard. The object smacks the Cleric in the ribs, but fortunately only on one of its blunt sides. Tara takes 1 damage from the flying object.

Stefan, Vivian, and Drace continue to the flee from the room, all heading directly for the front entrance.

Initiative (Round 3)
Vivian (1 Dmg; 2 rds Frightened) <= Up
Sentir <= Up
Stefan (2 rds Frightened) <= Up
Teilaenthis (1 Dmg; 2 rds Frightened) <= Up
Drace (6 Dmg) <= Up
Tara (1 Dmg) <= Up
Poltergeist

Sentir, Drace, and Tara are up for normal actions, while the others are continue to be frightened.

"Any suggestions Tara? I'm not sure if that hurt it!"

Teileanthis continues to flee.