Megan's Carrion Crown

Game Master Megan Robertson

Dillan pulls back the lid of the sarcophagus, revealing that a fair few bits and bobs are stored within, although there is evidence of someone having rummaged through and maybe taken some of the stuff.

Still, peering in, the group can see several sunrods, a lot of arrows of different types some of which have a dull gleam to them, some vials, a few scrolls, and a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back.

Just then, there's a scuttling in the upper chamber and two giant centipedes rush at you, hissing furiously!

That sounds like time for an initiative roll... 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Cassandra will step behind Merian and cast Resistance on her.

Moves away from the centipedes, behind Arturin and casts resistance on Arturin.

Initiative 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15 yep initiative rolls sound good here

Dillan draws his shortsword and readies for the large insects to attack...

Initiative 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Barret will meet them head on and strike!
Unless he is told not to, of course. Then he will delay until he is told he can go fight.

Initiative

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Free Action - Rage

Move Action - Move up to a centipede and punch it in the thorax.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

1d3 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 damage

Depending on where they are and how they approach there may be AoOs with my reach and combat reflexes.
Possible to get a map with character positions on it?

Initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

If Megan doesn't mind, I went ahead and created a battlemap of the crypt. Also, I took liberties with character placement (some of us seemed like we were still upstairs while others assumed we were all gathered around the sarcoughagus). If you would like your character somewhere else let me know and I'll move it before battle begins.

The False Crypt: round 1

Nice job. Looks good. I'm good where I'm at.

Looks good to me.

Arturin reaches forward and strikes down with his bardiche.
Bardiche power attack: 1d20 + 5 - 1 ⇒ (8) + 5 - 1 = 12, Damage: 1d10 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Merian wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that far into the room, but for now I'll just run with it.

When my initiative fiiiiiinally comes:
Merian raises her blade, stepping between Arturin and his target in hopes that he can continue to use the polearm past her. Moving to E10, but she gives the bug in F10 cover now. Fortunately, he went first. Her longsword hacks downward, and she feels a something both strange and familiar - a presence guiding her movement, but not the ones she is used to. Longsword attack with guidance bonus: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9, damage 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5 Perhaps it is that unfamiliarity that vexes her; unwilling to trust it, she overreacts and swings wide.

Why, thank you Cassandra!

Better have the centipedes roll their initiatives, too.

Centipede initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Round 1

Dillan is swift to draw his sword, and stands ready.

Snarling, Barret rushes forwards and smashes his fist into the centipede at F9. His fist cracks its integument and plunges deep into the nameless squishy bits inside, a spray of nasty yellow goo erupts and the poor beastie expires on the spot!

Equally fast if a bit less noisy, Arturin steps forwards raising his bardiche and brings it crashing down on the other centipede (in F10). The blade slices through the creature like a hot knife through butter, slicing it in twain. More nasty yellow goo, another dead centipede.

Tre' raises his hands to cast... and realises that the fight is over almost before it has begun.

Silence falls in the crypt once more...

Merian lowers her sword with a nod. "Let's get what we came for and get out of here," she murmurs.

Sheathing his blade and returning to the sarcophagus...are the Sunrods unused? If so how many are there? Can Dillan make out why the arrows have a dull gleam? Is it dust, some liquid, an odd substance? How many vials?

Dillan will remove the scrolls, the darkwood case and hand them off to Tre', "I assume you may want to look at these?"

He will then bring his attention back to the sarcophagus, unloading the contents onto the floor so he can make sure there is nothing under them as well as search it for a false bottom or concealed compartments...

Perception 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

I know this may be a silly question but; are we using the Core Rules for identifing potions? I ask because in my table top group I house ruled this. I didn't like the idea of for example this character picking up a potion of whatever, having no experience in such things, making a Perception check and identifing it. lol

Barret, drops out of his frenzy. He looks physically tired for a few moments as his primal rage takes its toll on him. "Are we done yet?" He asks.

Dillan: interesting thought. What's your house rule for potion indentification? I generally rule that you have to have potion-making ability to make a 'cold' check on an unknown one using the by-the-book rules. If you have a better one, I may pinch it!

Meanwhile, the loot. Now you have peace to examine it undisturbed, you discover that the dully-gleaming arrows are made of silver. There are a dozen of those, as well as 17 other arrows of different kinds - would take an expert archer to know what they all do. There are four unused sunrods, as well as seven potion bottles and what on closer examination prove to be six flasks of holy water. Then there are four scrolls, of the spellcasting persuasion, and that box.

Dillan, you do not find any secret compartments or other deceptions in the sarcophagus - it appears that whoever placed the treasures there assumed that the false crypt was sufficient camouflage.

I like the idea of it being only those who can Craft Potions, or say the Alchemist now since that is a class. But what I did was I altered the DC base to a 15 instead of the 10 I believe it is in the book, then required you be a spellcaster of the appropriate type. I.E. Divine casters would be able to identify Curing potions etc. Kinda like scrolls. :D

"Anyone good with a bow?" Dillan says as he gentle sets the arrows down, "Silver and i'm not sure about the others." Reaching back in he removes the sunrods, "Anyone need a light source?" If no one speaks up he will secure the sunrods.

Finally he sets out the potion bottles/flasks, "Anyone want to take a guess about what these are?"

Tre looks at the items, "Despite my knowledge, I'm not so very good understanding the magical composition of this. I suggest we take the 'treasures' to fight the 'ungodly evil' of this place, back to Kendra's and there it can be studied with access to books and such. Unless there are other who want to study these potions and things in here?"

Merian knows detect magic, but her Spellcraft isn't good enough to make IDing the items easy.

Merian steps forward, closing her eyes briefly as she whispers a prayer: "Atklāj man, kas ir burvju šeit." After a few moments, the enchanted items before her begin to glow.

There are too many things here to waste the effort of rolling for all of them, not when Tre can prep detect magic later and probably ID them all by taking 10. I'm just making sure we grab everything that's magical so we don't miss anything important.

"Yes, we should leave this place if we are done." Barret remarks, listening for more bugs to attack him. The fight seems to have calmed his nerves a bit though. He wipes the bug goo off his person onto the floor.

Perception

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Merian prays, and divine grace reveals that all the arrows apart from the silver ones are magical! Likewise the scrolls and potions. The flasks, as already stated, comtain holy water. The box also glows.

All is quiet, apart from Barret trying to clean himself up...

Ready to move out, or do you want to look in the box now?

"Perhaps we should open the box here?" Dillan moves over to the box, "After all if something bad is to happen with it opening it might be best it be here instead of at Kendras' home."

If no one objects.

Dillan examines the box for any traps...

Perception 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

If there are...

Disable Device 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

Tre nods as Dillan uses his skills to open the box. However, he moves back a bit, Well you can never be to careful where traps are concerned.

When Dillan announces he will open the mystery box, Barret will move in front of Tre, Cassandra and Merian to get in between them and whatever the box may have in store for them.

Dillan applies his talents to a close examination of the box - a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back. Once satisfied that it is safe, he opens it.

Within, he finds a spirit board with a brass spirit planchette, and four iron and glass vials containing tiny, churning clouds of vapour. The vials sit in velvet-lined indentations to the left of the spirit board and planchette, along with six empty indentions of the same size.

A lingering glow from Merian's spell clings to both the planchette and the vials. These glass vials are held within stylized cold-iron casings etched with strange runes, necromantic designs, and other eldritch markings. Within the vial roils a small wisp of white vapour, churning as if caught in a miniature vortex of air.

Anyone with an interest in ghosts will probably have heard of spirit boards. A spirit planchette is typically found in a wooden case smaller than this one, along with a thin wooden board printed with numerous letters and numbers. Nonmagical versions of these divination tools can be purchased in curiosity shops (typically costing about 25 gp); and can be used as alternative components for augury spells by those skilled in such arts, or as parlour entertainments. However, only magical spirit planchettes allow users to communicate with the other side.

Wait...what a Ouija board!?

Dillan looks at the contents, what in the hells in this?, stepping away from the box, "Well i've never seen smoke sit like that or whatever in the hells that is."

"Close it up and let's take it back to study it more, Kenfra has plenty of books and maybe some papers of her father that might help."

This check will take place when Tre and the spirit planchette get back to Kendra's home, so that he can use the professor's library to help with understanding the thing. Just thought, it would speed things along, if the check was made before we got back.
Knowledge(arcana) 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

With no one disagreeing with Tre' Dillan secures the box. He stands and looks about the false tomb, the giant insects remains, "Well I always thought that if you were in a tomb you should be dead." He gently pinches his own arm, "Seeing as i'm not what say we get out of here?"

Back to Kendra's house, then?

Yes, i believe that is the plan.

We don't have to Kendra's straight away if there's somethiing else you want to do?

What other options do we have. I think the items from here we need to figure out what they do, they most likely will be needed and perhaps this board will have some nice divination avenues we can approach.

Unless there are some secret passages that we don't know about, we have no reason to stay here. Unless we want to fight some more centipedes. :)

OK, you head out. The graveyard is quiet and still. A large black bird is perched on a nearby tombstone, regarding you with an unblinking black eye as you depart.

You make your way through the town towards Kendra's house. In the town square, a group of children are playing - a group of five little Varisian girls dressed in shawls and dresses are playing a skipping rope game at the side of the road. Each of the girls takes turns jumping in the rope while singing two lines of a rather disturbing song, then skips out of the rope to let the next girl take up the next two lines. The way in which the girls switch from skipping to passing the ends of the rope to each other to keep the whole thing going is strikingly well timed and well choreographed — and the verse itself, which the girls sing in Varisian, is rather disturbing. The five repeating verses are as follows:

Put her body on the bed.
Take a knife and lop her head.
Watch the blood come out the pipe.
Feeds the stirge, so nice and ripe.
Drops of red so sparkly bright.
Splatters spell her name just right.
With a hammer killed his wife.
Now he wants to claim your life.
Tricksy father tells a lie.
Listen close or you will die.

It's one of those songs that sticks in your head - an 'earworm' if you like.

Do you want to call anywhere in town before returning to Kendra's house?

Merian listens to the girls' song with a disturbed expression. "Something in this town is not right," she murmurs.

A few minutes later, she realizes she's humming the song and stops, looking even more annoyed.

And a few minutes after that, she's humming it again without realizing it.

"Yes, so do all younglings in the city sing songs like that one?" Barret asks also looking a bit disturbed.

For the record, Merian's got nowhere to be, so back to Kendra's house is fine.

Though I don't know whether Merian knows it, according to a post somewhere way upthread, Kendra's a diviner, so she might be able to ID the magical items today - that would beat having to wait for Tre to prep detect magic tomorrow...

Dillan looks at Merian and smirks, fools the lot of em, "You just starting to see that?" He looks to the cloudy sky and pulls his cloak about him, his hood covering his features...

"I can't remember the last time I was in a town that was 'right' but I would agree that this one is less 'right' than most."

Lets head back to Kendra's and see if what we found can help us find out what truly happened to the Prof.

At Kendra's House:

Kendra has some cookies ready for you, she wasn't kidding when she said that pottering around in the kitchen helped her mental state! She offers to have a look at the items you found...

"Whilst by no means an expert in such things like my father, I did listen when he talked... and I am a diviner myself," she says. "What have you found?"

Barret tentatively takes a cookie. He sniffs it and takes a bite. You see a grin as he takes a few more to snack on while those inclined to explain what was found. He offers one to Merian. "They're good." He says between chews.

"I believe your divination skills may be of use," Dillan gestures to the box Tre is carrying, "You may like to have a look at that." He finds himself a seat and tries some of the cookies, "Hats off you to you Kendra these are quite good!"

Merian looks at the cookie doubtfully. "It's still awfully early," she says, as though it were a stiff drink. After a moment's hesitation (during which Barret probably starts to pull the cookie back for himself! heehee), she finally takes one, biting into it. Her eyes light up and she starts eating with more enthusiasm, but she continues to do so slowly, trying to make it last, and she refuses any more.

Carefully holding the box out, Tre puts it on the table. Almost reverentially he takes each item out of the box and places them on the table in front of Kendra. "Gentle Lady Kendra, these things are new to me, unfortunately my knowledge of magic is limited and it is beyond my reason to discover the arcane energies that inhabit these things. i bow to your knowledge as a diviner, that might discover their real essence." He lowers his head slightly in deference to Kendra. Watching intently as she takes each item and examines them, for even in observation, knowledge may be gathered.

When finished, he thanks Kendra and asks if there is anything he can do to help her, she need only ask. "but there is on other thing, children's rhymes, we heard a strange one on our way back here. Have you heard anything like this before? " as he recites the first lines,

Put her body on the bed.
Take a knife and lop her head.
Watch the blood come out the pipe.
Feeds the stirge, so nice and ripe.
Drops of red so sparkly bright.

"Is that normal for the children here?"

"Where did you get these?" Kendra inquires as she starts to examine the items. "The graveyard? My father said he'd found a cache of items that might aid him, which he believed might have once been placed there by followers of Pharasma but that the current clerics were unaware of them."

She picks up one of the glass vials in the cast-iron casings, with swirling mist within.

"This is called a haunt siphon. It's used to trap haunts. You just need to open one as a haunt manifests and it gets sucked in. Or so my father said... he claimed some success with them. He said that if you are successful, the mist within starts to glow a greenish colour - and that you might need several for a powerful haunt."

She turns her attention to the arrows, and mutters a few words as she passes her hands in precise patterns over them.

"Hope there's an archer among you... we have ten ordinary magic arrows*, but some of the others are quite interesting... these two are called undead banes and these five here are ghost touch arrows. I take it you recognised the silver ones?"

She continues to look at the scrolls and potions.

"You want to know what these are, too? Just as well you are my father's friends or you would be running up quite a bill for my professional services!" For the first time since you've met her, she has a genuine grin on her face.

"To cut to the chase, two potions of lesser restoration, a scroll of detect undead, two scrolls of hide from undead, and a scroll of protection from evil. I hope you can put them to good use."

She takes a seat in what's clearly a favourite armchair. "You'll have to excuse me, that's quite tiring. But you asked about children's rhymes. Best bet is to ask them, or perhaps Alendru Ghoroven can help. He's a retired wizard who keeps school these days, he calls his place 'The Unfurling Scroll' and most of the local youngsters learn at least the basics there." She gives you directions, it's 'L' on the Ravengro map, if/when you decide to go.

* As in, +1 arrows

Dillan can't use the arrows, he has a crossbow, unless the 'arrows' can be used in that. Otherwise...anyone use a bow?"

"I do have some training with bows but I don't carry one. I guess that could be rectified if necessary. What are these haunts that you speak of Kendra? Do you speak of the undead?"

"Haunts are... kind of like ghosts, but they're not as intelligent," Merian answers. "They're like... illusions stuck to a place, memories of old evils. But they can still kill you."

Tre looks on the assembled party, his eyes looks at each in turn, "As with most elves I can wield a bow and have a shortbow with me. However, my skills are not in an out and out fight, I find it difficult to aim accurately into a fight. I could asily strike you, rather than the enemy. Is there anyone especially skilled with the bow?"

He waits for those whose skills revolve around the violence of war to decide on the best course of action. He himself turns towards the bookshelves once more, "To finish my studies of the Harrowstone prison and it's prisoners is the most impotrant task for me tonight. Remember that Tre, though a visit to Alendru Ghoroven may prove very useful."