Ith's PFS pbp
Game Master ithuriel

The little sorcerer takes a deep breath, then tries to climb down the rope as well.

Climb 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

Kovar will take '10' on his climb for a total of 11.
What will Kovar need to do to get Grey down the opening? Hog tie him and lower him down? Ride on my back? What particular skill check needed for this?

@Kovar: If you hog-tie Grey and lower him down, that should be fine.

Talhaearn and Valeros nimbly scurry down the new rope. Once they are at the bottom, Kovar hauls the rope back up to the top, and loops it around Grey; Fog and Talhaearn then slowly lower the struggling wolf down the shaft, where he is untied by Valeros. With Grey safely down, Kovar quickly follows.

Alie goes next, but she slips in the algae coating the shaft, and falls...

3d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 1) = 5

...fortunately, she glances off Grey, and is not badly hurt, the thick fur of the wolf providing a relatively soft landing.

Seeing what happened to the Gnome, Hustavan gulps, but with Wadi needling him, the badly-burned former-aristocrat swallows hard, and then gingerly works his way down...

Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15.

...breathing a sigh of relief when he reaches the floor without incident.

Wadi follows behind him, and then it is Fog's turn...

Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16.

...fortunately, he, too, manages to make it down without incident.

The party finds itself in a naturally-formed cave, some 30' wide x 35' long x 10' high. Water dripping down from the ceiling collects in a shallow pool, which gives off two small rivulets, one tracking down a passage to the west, and the other down a second one to the north-west. A third passage leads northwards.

At this point, Hustavan pipes-up.

"The passage to the west leads to the main shrine; the one to the north-west leads to the bathing area, and the one to the north leads to the baptismal font. I would be careful when you go to the font - the Guardian (a massive undead wolf-beast) will probably still be there..."

"Whoa now! I got ya!" Valeros lunges out to grab Alie when she falls, but she slips between his arms thudding into the ground at his feet. "Uh... Almost? Sorry kid."

"Oooooo, I hate this place. I wish I'd have landed on him," she grunts, staring at Hustavan.

Wadi glances at Hustavan and mutters quietly to the ex-nobleman, "Looks like you are making friends down here." He then takes his healing wand out and touches Alie.

Alie gets Infernal Healing for 10 rounds.

"Well there's no sense in alerting the guardian to our presence by blowing up any more traps...I say we visit him first and then scout out these other rooms. Anybody need healing before we move on? Tal offers his wand...he may need a hit himself!

"As always, thanks Wadi. I'm afraid this place is going to be the death of me," she says, patting him on the back. Knowing the effect the wand had on her before, Alie, hung toward the back of the others, not wanting to lose her temper like she did earlier.

"I agree Talhaearn, we should go that way first."

Fog readies himself for whatever this guardian may be....

Valeros nods, pulls a potion from his belt strap and readies his longsword in the other hand, "Alright. Let's do it." So saying he begins stalking in waiting for Tal to pace him and keep an eye out for more traps.

Before entering what we assume to be the guardian's area, Valeros will drink a potion of protection from evil.

Tal slinks down the hallway looking for traps and disabling if he comes across one.

Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

Taking 20 on Trapfinding

Disable Device: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32 If needed

As the group heads down the corridor, Wadi mutters softly to himself ans a nearly transparent bubble of force appears in front of him.

Cast Shield, duration 3 minutes. AC now 19.

@Wadi: Talhaearn is (wisely) 'taking 20' searching for traps, which means each 5' square takes two minutes. Given that the passage is a tad longer than 10', your Shield spell will expire before you reach the end of the passage.

10' into the corridor, Talhaearn discovers several trip-wires connected to a rather vicious swinging axe trap. However, he keeps his cool, and is able to bypass the triggers without much difficulty.

More ominous, however, are the sprays of arterial blood which dot the walls of the passage, and the rather... juicy... drag marks on the floor, which indicate that a number of freshly-created corpses have been taken this way in the not to distant past.

As the tension grows, Talhaearn comes upon the remains of another trap approximately 50' further down the winding corridor - this time, involving a swinging scythe, which has claimed the lives of at least two people, if the headless corpse on the floor, and the second pinned to the wall by the scythe blade, are anything to go by.

Finally, the corridor opens-up into a 25' x 40' room: A stone trench about three feet high runs the length of the west wall. Hanging above it are several human men, their chests flayed open, their blood dripping and pooling in the trench below. A thin stone tube then runs from the middle of the gory container, funneling blood down toward a large basin in the center of the room. Judging from the blood splashed around the outside of the basin, something recently crawled out of it.

Most disturbing, however, is the occupant of the room: A massive man, nearly 9' tall, who is harvesting the entrails of one of the flayed men.

As the party enters, he turns, and you see that his flesh is dried and waxy, his eyes two dark pits, with central pin-points of smouldering crimson witch-fire.

"Well well, what have we here? Hustavan, I was not expecting you to be the last one to survive... Although involving outsiders is strictly forbidden, your guile is commendable. Come, destroy them with me, and we will rebuild the Cult stronger than it ever was before!"

Hustavan goes pale when he sees the creature.

"By the Gods! That is not the Guardian! That is Balliaset..."

As the implication of what the undead thing is saying sinks in, however, he blanches, and starts to go a little green.

"Wha-? By the Emperor, no!" He turns to the party. "Please, protect me, and finish-this creature off! Then we can be done with this place!"

Balliaset shrugs.

"Very well, then, your fate is sealed. I will look forward to sending all of your Souls to meet the Grim Harvestman..."

Round 1: Kovar, Valeros, Balliaset, Wadi, Hustavan, Talhaearn, Alie, Fog

Ith: OK then, instead of having Wadi waste his spell, he will cast it as his first action this round, OK?

The GM has no problem with that plan, either ;-P

Since fog goes last....(I'm guessing planes is the check I want, but don't have ranks in that)

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Knowledge Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

What the Hell is that thing?

Seeing this monster makes Kovar's blood boil, whistling to Grey to attack he launches into the man called Balliaset. Kovar will pause for a moment to watch where Grey is going and try to move around to get into flanking position.

Free action, draw Scimitar. Move to attack Balliaset.
Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7+2 if able to flank with Grey for Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Grey's Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13 for damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9 and then attacks again.
Grey's Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15 for damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

GM - Grey has the attack trick learned, but I don't know if this creature will require any additional Handle Animal skills in order to attack, if so: Handle Animal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23

I will reveal what, if anything, Fog knows once he has had a chance to recover from his surprise (i.e. when it is his turn ;-)

@Kovar: Balliaset definitely qualifies as an 'unnatural beast'. In order to get Grey to attack such creatures, you need to give him the 'Attack' trick twice.

Thus, you do need to push him. The good news is, you passed (although the DC is 25, you get an additional '+4' on Handle Animal checks versus your animal companion, which you have not included in the above roll). The bad news is, it is a move equivalent action to do so. Thus, you can either push Grey, and move up to Balliaset, or move and attack, but leave Grey behind.

Valeros grabs another vial from his belt tips it up, tosses his head as he swallows and smashes it on the ground at his feet. "Ahhh yeah. I'm about ta smash your face. You ready son?" The Andoran warrior begins growing, slowly at first and then increasingly faster.

Protection from Evil running this being round 2 of 10.
Retrieve and drink Potion of Enlarge Person

Gotcha, thanks! Kovar would have moved and attacked expecting the wolf to follow. At least now we know its an unatural beast! Next turn we will get the wolf to move. For now, I'll try to set up a position to allow others to flank.

This is total metagame, but considering you have to roll 15 or better to push grey you might want to take that opportunity.

You are totally right knowing what I rolled and the metagame. However, I'll assume that my character didn't have that information. At least this turn! :)

Balliaset easily evades Kovar's swing, and snorts.

"Pathetic."

He responds with a body-slam!

Slam: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27...

Crit Confirmation: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Crit Re-Confirmation: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Oh dear :-/

2d6 + 14 ⇒ (4, 4) + 14 = 22, + two points of Constitution drain.

@Kovar: Give me a Fortitude save to negate the drain.

Crackling black energy envelops the beast's hand, and seems to suck the very life-force from Kovar, who nearly slumps to the ground, whilst the creature looks revitalised.

"Excellent."

Round 1: Kovar, Valeros, Balliaset, Wadi, Hustavan, Talhaearn, Alie, Fog

Ouch...as one whose character recently suffered both CON AND STR Drain in another PbP here, I feel your pain, Kovar.

Wadi winces as he sees his fellow Pathfinder take the brunt of the blow. Murmering a defensive spell to protect himself, he calls out "Fog, what sort of creature is this? And more importantly, what can harm it?"

Cast Shield on himself.

Hustavan takes one look at what happened to Kovar, and flees back down the tunnel, screaming:

"He'll kill us all!"

Talhaearn, Alie, and Fog are up.

Round 1: Kovar, Valeros, Balliaset, Wadi, Hustavan, Talhaearn, Alie, Fog

Heh. Just be glad that I am running it 'as written', rather than applying the updated stats - it really should be draining levels, not Constitution :-/

Fog will cast shield of faith on himself, and move to a position to support the rest with healing.

Alie attacks the monster with her new favorite spell, and fires off two magical bolts at it.

Magic Missle damage 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (3, 3) + 2 = 8

Tal moves in to flank Balliaset with Kovar and attacks.

Attack: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Sneak Attack: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Talhaearn, the creature is obviously 'large-sized', and has acted in initiative, so it can now take AoOs; would you like to try and close 'acrobatically'...?

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

...and he sticks the landing!

Talhaearn nimbly dodges into a flanking position, and delivers a vicious cut to the beast's right flank.

Balliaset roars in annoyance.

"Right then, I guess you are next!"

As soon as he speaks, however, Alie sends a pair of force bolts winging into his shoulder.

Father Fog casts a spell, calling on the Dawnflower to shield him from his enemies, and then cautiously moves into the room.

Kovar and Valeros are up.

Round 2: Kovar, Valeros, Balliaset, Wadi, Hustavan, Talhaearn, Alie, Fog

From last turn - Fort Save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
... and will be at -1 HP with that failure.

Stabilize: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
... and -2 HP with that failure.

Wow, what horrible digital dice rolling! I also assume that since he is a monstrous NPC, Grey can't really attack or anything like that?

Valeros charges in while still growing, but miscalculates the swing. Still- by the time he reaches full size the warrior is towering a good three feet over the cult-master.

Charge in, leaving himself 10 feet out as he has reach now.
Enlarged, +1 Longsword Two Handed, Charge: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 9 + 2 = 12 Damn. Stupid dice roller.
Current AC 19 (-1 size, +2 deflection vs evil -2 charge)
Saves at +1 (protection fr evil overlaps with his cloak)

Ahmm...yeah. I keep forgetting I'm 3rd level now...I get another Sneak Attack die: 1d6 ⇒ 4

@Kovar: Unfortunately, unless someone is able to push Grey, he will not attack Balliaset - this is why taking the attack trick twice is usually a good idea :-/

@Valeros: Give me a Reflex save, or drop your weapon.

Balliaset chuckles as Valeros charges in, missing wildly.

"Clearly, you are no threat."

He then turns to regard Talhaearn.

"You, however, are annoying."

Slam: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16, for 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 + 1 point of Constitution Drain.

Fortunately, however, Talhaearn is able to dodge out of the way at the last minute...

Reflex 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Whoah...this guy is BAD NEWS!

Wadi advances cautiously into the shrine. "I think I have been called annoying as well..." He then lets fly a fiery bolt at the creature.

Move into shrine room, out of combat range.
Elemental Ray ranged touch 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (17) + 2 - 4 = 15 melee; damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6 fire

Alie, seeing the havoc that Balliaset was creating, knew she had to keep attempting to pitch in as she could, fires off her last arcane blast.

Magic Missle 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 2) + 2 = 8

Tal turns on slice & dice mode. Taking a 5 foot step if necessary to flank with Valeros.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
Sneak Attack: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Sneak Attack: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8

Crit Check: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Since Valeros charged, he went to the closest available square (i.e. directly adjacent Balliaset in a straight line from the door). Balliaset was against a wall; the only for you to flank with Valeros at present would be to be in the wall...

Wadi throws a bolt of fire at the beast, which scorches his flesh...

Talhaearn unleashes a flurry of blows; the first misses wildly, but sets him up for a second blow...

Re-Crit chance: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16.

...incredibly, however, what should have been a sure strike at a weak point is turned aside at the last moment, when he nearly loses his footing on the blood-slick floor.

@Talhaearn: Sorry; Fog's spoiler contains information pertinent to what is happening, but he has not said anything, yet...

Alie, dependable as ever, unleashes a pair of force bolts, which strike Balliaset firmly in the chest.

Fog to end round 2, Kovar and Valeros to start round 3.

Round 2: Kovar, Valeros, Balliaset, Wadi, Hustavan, Talhaearn, Alie, Fog

Valeros roars and brings his oversized blade down on the dead thing with all of his might.

If Tal redirected his attempted flank last time to get in position for flanking ASAP, Valeros will move into that flanking position for this attack.
If not, Valeros will get into a position where Tal can step into a flank on his turn- hopefully Val is able to do so with a 5' step.
Enlarged, +1 Longsword, Two Handed 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 +2 if flanking
Damage 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (5, 3) + 9 = 17 if flanking +1 damage
AC 21

Valeros slams his blade into Balliaset's side. The wight has enough time to give a howl of frustration, before he explodes into a cloud of blood, which coats everything in the room in a fine patina of red.

Combat over ;-)

"Ooooo, that thing was nasty. Are we all okay?"

Alie casts Detect Magic, thinking something that strong has to be using or protecting something.

Alie detects no magic in the room (beyond what the PCs brought in with them).

Other than the hanging corpses, and the baptismal font full of blood, the room is empty, albeit quite gory.

"Well that was fun. We should probably take a quick rest and make sure we're all OK. However I find lounging in fresh blood to be disconcerting. Shall we move into the hall?"