DC was 15 to accomplish
you examine the broken bench, it appears someone fell into the bench just hard enough to break it, you can't tell if the person backed into it, fell into it or was pushed. arcana or engineering to know that.
you examine the dead cobras, you determine they have slash marks on them, arrows in them and they have been squished. More slash marks than anything suggests someone had a blade, though you can't tell what the slash marks are in terms of weapon. one of them has blood on the teeth suggesting that one actually succeeded in biting a target.
you examine the arrows, you can tell that the ranger or whoever fired did so in the southwest corner by looking at the angle, though you can't tell which ones he fired first or if he moved during the fight, arcana or engineering to know that.
you examine the blood, it leads a trail to the door, with less and less drops and person dragging their leg, suggesting that the person was bit. You can tell that the blood is from a core race, though without forensices, there is no way to know what race exactly it was.
you examine the slash marks that are on the floor and can't determine a thing.
you examine the footprints, you can tell the person stayed on that bench for quite some time, though you can't tell if the person jumped off or got off, just they traveled from the bench to the snakes. arcane or engeineering to know that.
Okay, you can examine the objects a bit closer for a second look for more clues, as long as you have dc 15 or higher you get more clues or examine the other objects.
Kaylor will look over the odd skid marks.
"Hmmm...Tiny Tim, have you ever seen the like?" Kaylor quietly asks his slow and steady companion.
Tiny Tim makes turtles noises, and then explains to Kaylor in their super secret special language. "You are lucky that I am such a smart turtle."
Kaylor then surveys the rest of the carnage. Looking at the trail of blood, he asks, "Wouldn't there be more blood as the person moved? Not less?" He ponders this, and then pokes at the blood, checking to see if it's still fresh or if it has had time to dry. "Elmar, can you tell how long ago this battle was? Might someone be in need of assistance? Can you tell how many walked away from this fight?" As he approaches the dwarf, he taps him with a magical stick, making his companion feel better.
Kaylor then moves to listen at the door, absently tapping himself with a wand as he does so.
But fails to hear anything.
you can't tell much from the skid marks, only that one or more of whoever was here was in a hurry.
Also the blood is semi wet, you would need two perception checks or perception plus arcana/engineering to know that, but your character looked specifically to see if it was fresh. Heal check does the trick too. You can tell that the blood is no more than 30 minutes old, though without the checks you can't tell further.
okay for the skid marks, you notice there was only two people running, they weren't expecting to run into trouble so soon. They were after something or someone and tried to stop to avoid landing on top of the snakes as the things rose up as they got closer. The way the skid marks were, they were definitely in a hurry one way or another. You also notice the footprints leading from the skid marks, it was the meleers in a hurry, not the ranger, or any bard, etc. as footprints lead from the marks to the snakes. they left footprints because they went through some dirt area, chances are they came from the same grave we did, but didn't run into trouble until they got inside.
"I'm okay with a li'l convincing. Especially if it means no more vampires."
okay, you all collect enough evidence in the room to find out what happened.
Reconstructing the crime Scene
okay, so 4 brave heroes go in. The melee person goes charging in and tries to stop considering he doesn't want to fall into the door. He goes between the two snakes and starts attacking with an axe that is as the slash marks are unusual. He either cut through the snakes and hit the floor or just missed a couple of times and hit the floor to cause slash marks, it is hard to tell which. He does eventually swift around the snake where he is bit, hence drops of blood. the way the blood dragged on suggested he was poisoned pretty badly as it looks like a limp, further analysis suggests that they were here less than 20 minutes ago as you all examine the blood further.
The ranger goes in and moves in a northwest direction as he fires, being careful as possible not to hit his allies.
Another melee fighter travels straight up north and past the snake eventually where he is northeast of the broken bench. Evidence of how the bench broke suggests he was pushed as someone else came through the north door.
The forth person was part ranged/part melee as you can see more slash marks suggesting he had some type of throwing daggers, as some didn't create slash marks but piercing marks. He traveled in a boomerang shaped direction traveling northeast onto the bench, then eventually jumping off the bench to put some power to his attack against the snake. You can also see tiny clothing fabric near, but not on the arrows, this suggest that the guy that jumped off the bench was in a hurry to off the snake and chase after whoever else was in the room.
Whoever these heroes were, they were small, but had big feet.
Investigating the next room could say more.
There are no secret doors around as Elmar looks.
Looking back the heroes might remember some of the other adventuring groups.
cryptfinders
Daughters of the Deserts
Dog Soldiers
Sand Scorptions
Scored Hand though Velyrianna is dead, remember the others surrendered and went to prison for trial, there was 1 member that survived, as a lot could have happened to the survivor during that time, found innocent, or escaped, or be dead, or bailed out, etc.
Elmar is happy to move on to the next room—rather than clues and scuff marks, maybe there will be some proper bodies or witnesses to sort things out the straightforward way.
Kaylor politely nods, only half listening to the onslaught of information, most of which he really doesn't care about. Group of 4: 2 melee, 1 ranged, 1 mixed. Small. "Weren't the Dog Soldiers all small? If so, watch out for their trained dogs."
Kaylor takes point, moving into the next room.
as heroes reach the next room, they find more dead bodies and more stuff on the floor. There are some unknown/unidentified guards and it is hard to tell which side they were working for, though a further examination could tell us.
Kaylor looks for any insignia on the guards to try to identify who they work for.
Kaylor starts to drag the dead bodies into a neat row. After removing any gear that might be useful, he crosses their arms and closes their eyes. Once the job is done, he turns to Nahoçe, waving vaguely to the bodies. "If you want to administer last rites. Or something."
He then goes to examine the broken bottle, trying to determine what its contents were.
Elmar notices the vitims died of battle and none was finished by the lions but by the Silver Chains gang members themselves, but the examination shows that the guards were working for the heroes, the could have been rescued people willing to fight for them, or paid off merchants because the groupe couldn't handle it themselves
All the bodies have been looted
Kaylor examines the bottle, it was a bottle of water, but there is something odd about the water? And no nature doesn't cover the water. The bottle was sadly dropped instead of thrown.
the heroes follow the trail it leads to a secret passage where they rescue a guy named Tarouk and one of the Dog Soldiers, as they were both tied up. They also find a dead Velyrianna, but the heroes just defeated her didn't they?
You can make perceptions and heals on the body as well as talk to the survivors.
Yes the floor is stone or at the very least a hard floor.
The party also gets 3500 gp for the rescue
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Nahoce examines the body.
Didn't we just kill her, twice? Whoever created the machine-golem Velyrianna seems to be creating more of her. We can't let this continue.
Nahoce asks the dog soldier,
What happened here? How is it that you were captured, yet your enemies seem dead on the floor? Explain. Now.
Sure, a perception check on the body.
Nahoce investigating the body finds out it is a decoy and the diguise wears off, revealing and ordinary Silver Chain gang member, it was a thing of magic. They Velyrianna you killed was the original remade.
They answer Nahoce. Not all of them are dead, they chained us here and left. They have our friends hostage. They give you blue prints of the new area and all secret entrances.
Just then on the way out the heroes meet Hepsushep, she is a lamia, kind of like a centaur, but with a lion body. She isn't hostile, but she says, Hold it right there. I am lonely and nobody wants to play with me. She says "play" as if it had multiple meanings
I can't let you all leave, some of you have to stay behind or at least play with me.
Silver whispers to Zuberu
she doesn't respond, but Zub senses she is lonely.
"Zuberu, this sorta thing seems more yer specialty then ours. This's some sort 'f desert mythology creature, and heck, it's female, 'm sure you can handle it."
And then Elmar mutters under his breath something about no crazy lion monsters belonging in a well-kept city.
Kaylor frowns at the disguised person. Why would someone actually want to pretend to be Velyrianna? It's not like she's all that fierce. She inspires neither fear nor awe.
Upon seeing the creature, Kaylor gives his companions a confused look. His expression very clearly reads Do you have any idea what she wants?
It takes a moment, but as all the gears snap into place, Kaylor's eyes go wide and he starts to splutter rather uncharacteristically, his face going an even darker shade of red. He backs up a few steps, coughing awkwardly. I...think I will let Zuberu handle this.
"I will...erm...ummm....leave it to...errr...you...then." Kaylor almost trips over his own feet in his eagerness to leave.
Yeah, Elmar's going shopping.
afterwards the characters go shopping and then get to the next area.
okay, right now, Avelloran is not a player, so we don't have to divide exp by him anymore. I have him level up if he rejoins us.
The characters get to the new area, but the first battle is outside, so don't worry about the map for now, I didn't draw an outside area anyway and they are several feet in front of the building, at least a good 40 and no obstacles or even trees in anyone's way.
You all see 3 ankhegs, nature or arcana ids, but if you already know the monster by heart, that is okay too, just don't spoil it for everyone. all 20 feet from you, all of the line up horizontally, they are large so, they take up a space 30 feet wide lined up.
zub
all 3 ankhegs
Silver
Nahoce
elmar
Kaylor
oh, good question, you they were around the corner of the building and clear on the right side, where there actually are hiding spots, ie trees. You would have noticed something 60 feet away from them, but you would not have known what it was from the said distance and it is slightly foggy out even though it is 4:00 in the afternoon, though not enough fog to affect any of the battle unless you are 60 feet away from a target.
So you would have had time to cast a buff, or get in one ranged attack at -10 penalty if you really think your character would have attacked an unknown creature thinking it was hostile.
These things aren't smart, they didn't hide intentionally, they were just on the right side of the building around the corner and the heard/saw food coming their way. Yes, to them, you are all food.
Elmar, not quite knowing what he's fighting, immediately lets loose a volley of arrows when he sees that they're hostile. He's been practicing, and now he's pretty confident in his ability to shoot multiple arrows at once.
"They like to bite and grab. They produce acid, but only spit it if they get desperate, so don't stand in a line."
Kaylor casts web on the area around the ankhegs.
He then moves closer and, upon seeing what they are, chucks an alchemist's fire at them to set the web ablaze.
anyway elmar definetly kills one and makes his way onto the second. Kaylor finishes off the 2nd.
Silver goes over to bash one in admantine
There is one left and it is bloodied.
it goes over to bite silver
acid The entire party is up [ooc]I doubt this thing lives past round 2.
"Damn bugs should'a stayed in the desert. Still, it's gettin' pretty dangerous around here for the townsfolk, no? Maybe somethin's gotta be done about that."
I didn't see the reflex save
it is now dead, but this could prevent silver from having taken damage.
Silver is glad the thing was caught in the web.
he then chugs 7 minor potions of healing he bought to heal
okay, you were given the blueprints of the area. The light blue things are doors, the green things are wall.s
The dark blue are secret doors.
Also I can't draw 3d easily, so for reference I have to describe them all.
The blue door on the left side of the buidling looks like a wall but is a door.
The one next to the entrance is a door that leads underground, it is directly on the ground and is covered with a thin layer of dirt, it travels through the area and comes up to the next room. The door on the inside buidling you can look out but not in, so you can see them from underground, but they can't see you as it has tinted glass to it.
See the blue area where it says entrance and it has 2 exits. It is like a ventilation duck, but it is not. The area blends into the ceiling which is 16 feet high and it has tinted glass, meaning you can see stuff in the room looking down, but they can't see you looking up. When you do exit, there is no latter, just a straight drop down.
Obviously the people who kidnapped members of the other team are waiting in the entrance, so going through the main door is called taking them head on instead of using stealth.
See the blue door that leads into the main room on the left, that is actually almost like a ventilation duck as well, a very small one at that which is 4 feet long, it is 12 feet above the ground. But at the end of it is a stone gargoyle that you can stand/sit on.
and the circles are the enemies, though I only showed the ones in the entrance room for now
Elmar thinks, looking at the blueprints. "Stealth might not be too bad here. Zuberu, what d'you think about holding the door while a few of us sneak around behind, through the west entrance or the secret passage? I highly doubt there's a single one of them as can hear me sneakin', and I can shoot down any spell casters to make yer job easier."