[PFS] GM Lithrac's The Sky Key Solution (#7-00) - PbP Gameday 5 (Inactive)

Game Master Cyril Corbaz

Selkin and Bambang finally manage to bring down the elusive pink-scaled troglodyte!

Combat over! Well done! Once you have defeated the serpentfolk and their servants, you can either attempt to interview the slaves about the less glamorous aspects of serpentfolk society (via Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Sense Motive), or assist the slaves with medical care, escaping, or the like (Diplomacy, Disable Device, or Heal). Keep in mind the slaves don't speak Common.

Selkin will try to see what he can do about the injuries the slaves might have.

Heal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Selkin senses that the slaves are reluctant to be approached and inspected, since they don't understand his motives. They don't seem to understand the Common tongue, which may play a crucial part in the lack of understanding between the two parties.

Does anyone speak Draconic, Thassilonian or Undercommon? If not, someone else may want to try another check.

Negi will try speaking to them in Goblin.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Are there any Halflings among them?

The slaves are all humans, and despite the language barrier between Negi and them, they manage to understand his gestures of peace thanks to his childlike appearance and friendly behavior. They nod and leave after giving the Pathfinders important information about how the serpentfolk captured them, and about the way they were being held there. After a while, they leave.

Congratulations, that's another Victory Point! I'll report it at once. In the meantime, please select on the Global Map where you'd like to head next. The only unclaimed area so far is the Temple (interior). I'll also let you heal up in your next post, before we move on to the next encounter.

I'll also remind you that you have an Aid Token, which may come in handy if you find yourselves in difficulty.

Shadow mends his wounds with a healing wand while Negi does what he can to communicate with the slaves.

CLW: 3d8 + 3 ⇒ (1, 8, 4) + 3 = 16

With the freed slaves on their way, Negi gathers up his weapons and prepares to move out.

To the Plaza!

Selkin will gladly heal members of the party with their wands if needed while they head to the Temple.

Radagash offers his own healing as they go, remembering to give himself a touch or two. "Apologies, friends, I have a PROBlem with the talking when the FIGHTing starts with the clawing and the slashing and the SMELLy LIZards..." he says sheepishly.

Cure Light Wand: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Bambang gratefully hands his wand to Selkin for healing.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Would Bambang's longstrider be over? 1h since the start.

The Pathfinders have allied with a group of Azlanti Rebels! They're joining up with Pathfinders as they make their way into the Serpentfolk Temple!

Each table now counts as one subtier higher for the purpose of calculating what benefits they get from Aid Tokens. Subtier 10-11 tables increase the Aid Another bonus to +5, the Allied Offensive option deals 4d8 points of damage, and Burst of Healing heals 6d6 points of damage.

The Plaza is claimed, so there's nothing else to gain from there (as far as the common effort is concerned), but you may go there if you wish. So far I count one vote for the Plaza, one for the Temple. Can I have a quick, decisive vote from someone else?

Also, more than one hour will have passed by the time you reach your next destination.

I think I'm already on board for the Temple.

Temple it is, then!

Chaotically twisting tunnels and chambers shoot throughout the temple’s interior, some ending abruptly and others opening into smoke-choked studies, scriptoria, and meditation chambers. Countless alcoves are cut into the walls—almost entirely hidden within the elaborate mosaics. A single clay tablet inscribed with pictograms lies on a nearby table. It appears to be only part of a much larger set.

Finding the matching tablets would require a Perception check, or any other creative means to find it.

Selkin takes a careful look around.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31

Selkin not only spots a tablet which may be of interest, but also notices that the alcove it's in is trapped. As a matter of fact, all the alcoves are trapped.

And we don't have a rogue... :)

Bambang grasps his greatsword and wills the spirit within to assist to carry the tablet over. He casts mage hand, hoping that it is not more than 5 lbs. :)

"This isn't good, is it?" Negi says, looking over the alcoves.

No, its not. Hopefully Bambang can retrieve the tablets though.

While waiting, Negi takes a potion of Cure Light Wounds and drinks it.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Sighing in relief, he pulls out a Tanglefoot Bag and bounces it in one hand, while holding his hammer across his shoulders with the other.

Shadow watches anxiously from a distance while his companion tries to retrieve the tablets.

With a clever use of his magical abilities allows the cautious Bambang to retrieve the tablet without any harm. You realize that the tablet is part of a Ydersian holy text lost to the ages in the present day. Brilliant idea, well done!

Once the tablet in your possession, you can easily document the first one you found as well, and ensure that this precious information will be reported to the Grand Lodge.

One more Victory point!

The Pathfinders move onwards, exploring the darkest reaches of the temple until they reach an unholy shrine. Glowing coals warm this shrine and cast an eerie under-lighting on the towering, snake-headed statue behind the altar. The reek of ammonia and rotting flesh fills the air and burns the eyes. A serpentfolk priest was conducting a dark rite on the altar, but you interrupted him. He glares at you with an evil eye, and unleashes his pet snake upon you.

The priest immediately casts a spell, and 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 copies of himself appear to confound your blows.

Temple Attendants - round 1
1. Serpentfolk (5 images)
2. Shadow, Radagash
3. Snake
4. Bambang, Selkin, Negi
New map is up.

Shadow advances and adopts a defensive stance with his blades at the ready.

Readied Attack Defensively: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (7) + 6 - 4 = 9
Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

The Pathfinders have worked their way through the Temple Interior, and have discovered that the serpentfolk are performing some kind of ritual in a basement level called the Ophidian Rectory. Perhaps if you rush there you can learn all about the serpentfolk's ancient sacrificial techniques.

…

Oh, also potential save some people. That could be important too.

The Temple Interior is now claimed and the Ophidian Rectory is now discovered! Can we stop the ritual in time? The map is now updated with both the district unlock and the recent aid token transfers. Remember, you still count as one subtier higher for the purpose of your aid token benefits!

Once again, the Gnomish Oracle brandishes his wand of Bless and grants a boon to his companions.

Thanks for your patience! Here we go again.

As Shadow remains poised to strike any incoming assailants, Radagash's blessing washes over the Pathfinders, bringing hope in this den of evil.

The snakes slithers and slunks towards the bard, dodging the incoming blade with ease before striking him with his bare fangs! Luckily, Shadow avoids the snake's embrace.
Bite: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 131d4 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Temple Attendants - round 1
1. Serpentfolk (5 images)
2. Shadow, Radagash
3. Snake
4. Bambang, Selkin, Negi
Party buffs: Bless

"Snakes, snakes everywhere!" Negi grumbled, winding up and huling the Tanglefoot bag at the serpent.

1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

He then grips his hammer and prepares to fight.

knowledge(nature) on snake: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14 for special attacks
I assume for the serpentfolk, it would be knowledge(local)? Bambang doesn't have that.

Fearing whatever other magic the serpentfolk might conjure, Bambang decides that he needs to close in, and leave the rest of his party to manage the giant snake. He first mentally calls forth his magic to strengthen his sword. He then summons the spirit within his sword to grant him swiftness of feet, before sprinting to face the serpentfolk.

standard action: cast lead blades, swift action: expend mental focus to activate Sudden Speed (+30 ft movement for 1 min), move action: move 55 ft up to serpentfolk.

Selkin will cast Murderous Command on the serpentfolk!

DC 15 Will

Negi, a tanglefoot bag has a range increment of 10 feet. Please add the correct modifier to your attack roll, as well as the -4 penalty for throwing a ranged weapon at a target in melee (since you don't have the Precise Shot feat). For your ranged attack roll, I'm counting +7 (+3 BAB, +3 Dex, +1 small size), so where's that extra +1 from? I surely must have overlooked something. If not, that's a (13)+7-2-4=14. Can you confirm this, please?

Bambang, you're entitled to one question. What do you wish to know?

Selkin, please note that murderous command has a reach of close (30 ft in your case), which brings you close to the snake. Do you wish to retcon? If not, please move your token to a legal square to cast that spell.

Can I find out about special attacks, or is that too vague?

Negi, a tanglefoot bag has a range increment of 10 feet. Please add the correct modifier to your attack roll, as well as the -4 penalty for throwing a ranged weapon at a target in melee (since you don't have the Precise Shot feat). For your ranged attack roll, I'm counting +7 (+3 BAB, +3 Dex, +1 small size), so where's that extra +1 from? I surely must have overlooked something. If not, that's a (13)+7-2-4=14. Can you confirm this, please?

Bambang, you're entitled to one question. What do you wish to know?

Selkin, please note that murderous command has a reach of close (30 ft in your case), which brings you close to the snake. Do you wish to retcon? If not, please move your token to a legal square to cast that spell.

My apologies. My phone, for some reason, was stuck on the previous map for the link, so I didn't have a reference(or move my character).

The +1 comes from his Carpenden Lobber trait, which is a bonus to non-lethal splash weapons.

I must have miscounted squares or looked at the wrong icon or something. I've moved into the room and should be within range, if not feel free to adjust.

A crack of thunder and the tang of ozone cut through the complex. The figures before you, and indeed the walls, the floor, even the air itself seem to crumble and fall away like glittering sands through an hourglass. Unfamiliar figures—their heavy, hooded robes embroidered with the symbol of a winged eye—stand about the field, their hands crackling with lightning. Dozens of Pathfinder spellcasters lie dead at their feet. A gargantuan image of a woman appears and shimmers like a desert mirage. She has a regal bearing, but her features are lined as if by years of endless duty.

”Arrogant Pathfinders! Your ridiculous Society spends fortunes and lives to reassemble a treasure that turns time itself like the pages of a book—a key that could undo all the misery and suffering our world now knows—and you use it for this? Poking at snakes and playing at heroism? Golarion knew a true hero once! Our Lord Aroden—who raised the Starstone from the sea and imprisoned the undead tyrant Tar-Baphon—could already walk the world again were it not for your petty games and delays. Every death in your hours of playtime now hangs as a weight around your collective necks, you spoiled children.
“I am Lady Arodeth, and on behalf of the Harbingers of Fate and the God of Mankind himself, I have seized your Sky Key. Its defenders threw their lives away trying to stop compassion and destiny from returning to this world. I advise you not to throw your own lives away attempting to do the same.
“Behold the return of the Last Azlanti! Behold Aroden!”

Table GMs, you may begin Act 3.

As a reminder to everyone, this scenario ends at Midnight Eastern US Time, when October 11th becomes October 12th. You should work on resolving anything bad that happens by then. I mean, not that this is bad or anything.

Bambang: Special attacks is fine. However...

Selkin: I thinkyou mistook the token for the snake and the one for the serpentfolk. The serpentfolk you're aiming at is 10 squares away from you (50 feet). However...

... however Act 3 starts at once! One of the beneficial side effects of the time shift is that some of your expended powers and class abilities are once again available as though they had not been expended for the day. Each of you can choose two of the following benefits, and the same benefit can be selected twice to double its effects.
• Recover one or more spells or spell slots whose total
levels are equal to your character level.
• Regain one daily use of a class feature. If you would
normally be able to use the feature five or more times
in one day, instead regain two uses.
• Heal 1d2 points of damage to all ability scores.
• Heal 1d8 hit points. Add your character level to the
number of hit points recovered.

The robed Heralds begin casting, and arcs of lightning leap to the rods made of skymetal. A deep thrum from somewhere below reverberates with chest-tightening force, then the earth begins to heave and quake. Emerald green miasma lashes out, snaking back along the arcs of arcane lightning and infecting hooded casters throughout the crowd. Your body—or perhaps the whole world—crumbles to dust and you hear a distant scream of “She’s overloaded it!” And just as swiftly, the world is whole again, but in place of a flower-speckled field stands the sprawling marketplace of a small city. Ivory-white buildings and columns feature reliefs and endless statuary all depicting physically perfect human specimens in poses of glory over serpentfolk. A chiton-clad crowd of gawkers stares, both at you and at the roiling dome of green light that encompasses nearly a square mile of territory, beyond which this strange city stretches on. Robed Heralds panic as they sprint beyond the edges of the glistening dome, only to collapse just beyond its border. There they scream and writhe, their bones cracking as flesh and sinew age to dust in mere moments. Meanwhile, those unfortunates consumed by the green miasma scream and stagger, their features warping and bloating as if the power seeking refuge within them were too big for mere flesh to contain. And high overhead, a looming stone glows with a light visible even in the growing light of dawn. See Handouts page.

As the crowd of Pathfinders has suddenly appeared in the middle of the small city's marketplace, the crowd of onlookers grows angry, then defensive, yelling at you in Azlanti.

Bambang looks around in confusion, not entirely clear the magic that had brought the entire crowd of Pathfinders to an entire new place.

Or a an entire new time!

He looks up and notices the flowing stone above head. It captures his attention completely, and he seemingly doesn't notice the onlookers. A suspicion grows in his mind, and his heart sinks.

"Comrades, I sure hope that is not Earthfall..."

GM, Bambang has a total of 8 mental focus points, i.e. he can use his focus powers 8 times a day. Would that count as the second benefit above? If so, Bambang will recover 2 level 1 spell slots to reach his max (benefit 1), and 2 mental focus points (benefit 2).

"If anyone can speak Ancient Azlanti," Negi said, looking around, "now would be a good time to speak up! If not..." Negi plants the butt of his hammer in the ground, takes a deep breath and cries out loud and clear in Halfling.

<"To anyone who can hear and understand my voice; these people need your help to understand us!">

Bambang: Sure, it sounds like it would apply.

Shadow will recover four bardic performance rounds.

"I'm afraid I'm not fluent in Azlanti. Does anyone have a spell that might help?"

Comprehend languages or tongues would be nice.

Selkin will regain two channels and three first-level spell slots. If I need to I'll cast Longstrider again.

The sudden change comes as a shock to Radagash, and the alarming sights and events make him quake. Finally, in the moment, he looks around at the other pathfinders. "Where are we? When are we? With the time and the lightning and the SUDDEN DEATH?!" he exclaims. He sticks close to Shadow. "I have a scroll of Comprehend Languages..." he says. "But I can't talk back, unless they speak Gnomish. Or Ignan..."

Use the healing, and recover two L1 spell slots

Shadow nods toward the gnome. "Use it. At the very least we can understand what they're saying."

Radagash retrieves his scroll, completes the magic on it and relays what he hears to the other Pathfinders, before casting another spell on himself and attempting to calm the Azlantis.

Cast Enhanced Diplomacy
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 9 + 2 = 22

Shadow tries his best to help smooth over the situation despite the language barrier.

Aid: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Not being particularly glib of tongue, Bambang choose to stay silent, but raises his hands, weaponless, to show that the party means no harm.

diplomacy, aid: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (13) - 2 = 11

Radagash acts quickly and decisively in the matter. Drawing a scroll, he empowers his mind with understanding of old Azlanti and shows to the crowd he has understood their grievance. With a series of gestures, he makes his intention plain and clear, with Shadow and Bambang acting as one to aid him. The crowd somehow relents, and considers the sudden appearance to be far less threatening than they had anticipated. It quickly disperses as most of these Azlanti choose to seek shelter from their hearth.

A familiar figure limps out from between two buildings. The weight of years seems to hang over Kreighton Shaine, the Pathfinder Society’s illustrious Master of Scrolls, his face more deeply lined than it was this morning. “My apologies for not reaching you more quickly, but I have been quite distracted,” he pants. To the left and right across
the ancient marketplace, other versions of Kreighton Shaine are speaking to other, equally bewildered Pathfinders. “It seems redundant to say so at this point, but the Harbingers of Fate have seized control of the Sky Key, and we all appear to be trapped in what the Isle of Kortos used to be eons ago. The same sort of temporal bubble that brought the serpentfolk city of Sessegishoss to us now keeps our forces pinned down here.

“We are attempting to uncover the Sky Key Vault now. While the vault itself seems to be here in this time period, our entrance to it wasn’t projected back, and we’ve lost our bearings relative to its location in this new landscape. What’s more, I worry simply reclaiming the Sky Key will not be enough to allow our escape—that green surge we all witnessed seems to have invested many of the Harbingers with enough of the Sky Key’s energy to maintain our chronological exile.” Shaine looks worriedly up at the sky. “We will need to work together to uncover the vault and cut the tethers that anchor this time period to the Harbingers’ spellcasters. We must do both so we can use the Sky Key to escape.” A crack of thunder sounds overhead as the dome of green light twists and arcs down to the surface with a thunderous crash, and strange, hairy beasts stride where it struck. “And we would be wise to move quickly.”

Shaine distributes a single potion of cure moderate wounds to each of you and asks you if you have any further questions before moving on.

"So all the Pathfinders should split our efforts to either uncover the Sky Key Vault, or to disrupt the Harbingers' spells that are anchoring us to this time? Any ideas at this time where the vault might be? As for the Harbingers, any chance they would be friendly, or would we have a battle on our hands?"

While Bambang asks these questions, he eyes strays to the meteor looming overhead. Never in his wildest dreams when he set off travelling the world did he imagine being directly under Earthfall.

Negi looks thoughtful for a moment. "Given what's going to happen, should we consider finding a way to spare these people from the fate soon to befall them?"

"If you can find a way to locate the vault, that would be an outstanding thing to do. The Sky Key vault is made of steel and sky metals, but also buried approximately 30 feet beneath the earth, which shields it from most of our available divinations. I remain open to suggestions. Act upon what you can do - you know your talents better than anyone."

"As for how to separate the Harbinger of Fate mages from the temporal energy inside them, I must admit I’m not completely sure. Advanced magical theory was always more Aram’s bag. But then, it does seem to be a sort of magic, so anything you have to shut down magical effects should do the trick. And if it is a magical effect, it will certainly expire upon their deaths—tragic, certainly, but better than all of us dying here. Then again, these Harbinger spellcasters must be of some relative skill based on the spells they performed. You may be able to coax them into dismissing the effects themselves, though their temporal investitures seem to have made them a bit… erratic."

"As for these poor souls, I'm afraid there's little we can do for them." concludes Kreighton Shaine.

In short, you can either attempt to locate the vault (creative solutions will be rewarded), while it might be a little harder for you given your limited access to potent magic that could help you do that. The alternative is finding and destroying the anchors.