GM - Mark Garringer |
Actually that is probably a bit of a GM fail on my part, there would be a faint evocation magic to light the candles.
As for the Spellcraft neither result is going to tell you more. Though I am a little wary of allowing a T10 after a failure. Some skill checks may actually allow for that, but I think in the case of Spellcraft I feel this is relevant: Retry: When using detect magic or identify to learn the properties of magic items, you can only attempt to ascertain the properties of an individual item once per day. Additional attempts reveal the same results.
GM - Mark Garringer |
Dobin and Rose find nothing else of interest in searching the room, and Rose is pretty certain the altar belongs to Orcus!
GM - Mark Garringer |
The altar is black stone, about 2 inches of thickness. Parfin's earthbreaker could probably make short work of it!
GM - Mark Garringer |
Obviously hitting it isn't going to be a problem...I believe this is correct for your power attacking?
Hardness 8; Hit points 35
Damage: 2d4 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (1, 1) + 4 + 6 = 12 4 damage
Damage: 2d4 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (3, 2) + 4 + 6 = 15 7 damage, 11 total
Damage: 2d4 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (4, 2) + 4 + 6 = 16 8 damage, 19 total
One of the black candles is knocked off by Parfin's massive blows! He feels a wave of blackness wash over him...
Parfin Fort Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25 ... but seems unfazed by it. Continue?
Rose Silversting |
"Woah, you don't look so good Parfin - what happened there?" How many more candles are there? Any chance Kwin can do another spellcraft check now that he's seen the actual effect?
"Maybe we should try knocking out those candles from a distance. Like with arrows, or some loose pieces of this altar." Rose collects some of the black stones, prays for some guidance for herself and Parfin +1 to a d20 roll, and starts chucking the stones at the candles.
GM - Mark Garringer |
There were 3 candles which were on the altar, they all lit up when you entered the room. Kwin's Spellcraft checks stand.
Rose takes a chunk of the broken altar and tosses at one of the remaining candles, hitting it directly head on! The candle tumbles off to the ground...she feels a wave of cold blackness and despair wash over her...
Rose Fort Save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21 ... but seems unfazed by it. Continue?
Rose Silversting |
"Ugh, I felt funny after hitting the candle. Kwin, can you summon a creature to knock out the last one?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
GM - Mark Garringer |
Kwin moves in to examine the two candles which have been removed from the altar, and they do indeed still radiate dark necromantic auras.
Parfin Groud |
If Kwin doesn't have a critter to use, Parfin will shrug and do it himself, then continue destroying the altar itself.
Kwin Avassar |
"You read my mind, Rose."
Kwin begins casting, and after mere moments, the floor begins to bubble, and a familiar small humanoid begins to take shape from the fluid floor. Its skin is the same stone as the floor, and its skin is cross-hatched in the same stone pattern as the floor. Kwin speaks to it in a strange, grinding language.
Summon a small earth elemental and command it.
So he is asking it to pick up one candle, carry it ten feet into the stone and 'drop' it. Then return for the next one, and then the next.
"Rose, can you help it resist the dark power surrounding the candles?" Do you have guidance, resistance, bit of luck or something similiar available?
GM - Mark Garringer |
The earth elemental moves over to the altar and takes the final candle in it's hands and as it turns to move away, the elemental gives a low grumble and falls to the floor, dropping the candle!
Fort Save: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 1 = 7
GM - Mark Garringer |
Parfin resumes smashing the altar and with a few more mighty blows reduces it to rubble!
Damage: 2d6 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (5, 2) + 4 + 6 = 17 9 damage, 28 total
Damage: 2d6 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (4, 6) + 4 + 6 = 20 12 damage, 40 total
GM - Mark Garringer |
Where to next folks?
WM: 1d20 ⇒ 12
WM: 1d20 ⇒ 19
Kwin Avassar |
"I believe so. I can cast it once, and if it does work, I don't know how long it will last. And it will take me longer than normal to cast it, so you'll need to keep the thing away from me for a few long moments."
I can cast it using my bonded object casting, and it is a full round spell.
GM - Mark Garringer |
Returning to the dam-construct snake guardian, Kwin begins casting his sleep spell on the thing as it once again animates to attack the party! As the magical energy settles over the snake, it falls still where it is as the water it was holding back flows into the room once more!
On the far side of the room across the water there is a black stone in the wall, with a bronze handle set into it. The stone is actually the front of a stone drawer that can be pulled out by the handle. The drawer contains a scroll of hide from undead, a potion of invisibility, a silver dagger (worth 50 gp), three +1 arrows, and a pair of saltwater pearls.
XP: 800 each!
GM - Mark Garringer |
As you guys found out before, this is rough encounter (CR 7 for an APL 3 or 4 party), but he's got a big weak spot :)
What next?
Kwin Avassar |
"Well, that will teach me to dismiss an entire college of study because I expect to face demons and undead! I will certainly have to rectify that!"
"I believe now all that remains for us to puzzle out is what is behind the two doors in the room with the flaming floor. After that, we can go down to the next lower level that Dobin discovered in the illusion room."
So we will head to the flaming floor room, coming at it from the side nearest to us (where I put Kwin's icon).
When we approached from the other side, there was a button by the door. Is that the only button we see in the room?
Did we scan the rest of this level for secret doors already? Were the only ones we found (that we hadn't found before) to the crypt and the altar room?
GM - Mark Garringer |
You have searched the explored areas for secret doors and found them all.
Back to the fire room! To recap/remind...
The floor of this room is five feet lower than the doors, and the entire floor burns with magical flames reaching to a height of two feet. In other words, there is a three foot gap from door level down to the top of the flames, the flames are two feet high, and the floor is at the bottom. To anyone standing at the level of the doors, there is no heat emanating from the flames. However, if the characters reach down to test for heat, they discover that the heat starts one foot above the level of the flames and that the flames themselves are as hot as normal flames—the heat just doesn’t rise very high, for some reason.
Each door has a button next to it on the inside of the room to the left of the door. The button can easily be reached from the door without any risk of falling into the flames.
In addition to the fiery floor and the buttons, the room has a third strange feature: chains hang from the twenty foot tall ceiling at ten-foot intervals, each chain fifteen feet in length. Thus, a six foot tall person hanging from the end of the chain would have his feet approximately at the point where the heat of the fire begins. It is obvious that one way of crossing the room would be to swing across by using the chains (hold your feet up!), catching the next chain at the end of each swing.
Kwin Avassar |
"Well, if someone wants to try to push the button by the door, the rest of us should stand back. If we took time to rest, I could prepare True Strike and use it to try and hit the button across the room. Or I could prepare to summon an elemental again and we can send it in to press the button. Pressing the button may cause the flames to flare up when a button is pressed, though it may disable the trap, as it did with that teleport pit trap we found previously."
GM - Mark Garringer |
There is a button by each door, so one button by the east door, the west door, and the southern doors.
Everyone stands back, and Parfin bravely offers to push the button next to the door you entered (east door). As soon as the button is depressed, a thirty foot bridge extends from beneath the door, launching out to connect under the western door. The bridge itself is a kind of treated wood and rests about three feet above the flames. It is about four feet wide.
Kwin Avassar |
Slightly embarrassed at the lack of hazard from using the button, Kwin just says "You can hardly blame me for being suspicious." Looking at the bridge, he says "That should lead us to where we came into the room on the other side. How do we get to the doors there on the south wall?"
"Jericho, if I can enlarge person on you and swell you to the size of an ogre, do you think you could reach the button by the south doors with the tip of your halberd?"
GM - Mark Garringer |
You also surmise you could try and trigger the button with a ranged attack from the bridge, though it is a pretty tiny target.
The bridge seems quite sturdy to Rose, if a bit narrow for the full-sized humanoids.
Rose Silversting |
"Let me try to hit the button with a rock first. With a little divine intervention, I can do this - no problem!"
Rose ties a rope around herself and hands the other end to one of the many strong men around her. She heads out into the bridge, and after a few prayers for luck, hurls a stone at the target!
Guidance, then True Strike
Attack: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 20 ⇒ (14) + 7 + 1 + 20 = 42
Which door?: 1d2 ⇒ 1 West door.
"See, halflings really are good at hurling stones." Rose grins.
GM - Mark Garringer |
Great idea. I am going to retcon you just a bit since the setup may have been confusing. The bridge connects the east and west doors, so you could easily cross the bridge and push the western button while safely standing in the doorway (like you guys did with the eastern button/door you came in). So you'd probably want to focus on the button between the southern doors...
Rose hurls a rock at the southern door and strikes the tiny button with a 'click'. A bridge extends from under the west southern door, the runs right up to the east-west bridge.
After searching the door for traps and poison, the party continues through the door into a hallway, that has south facing doors on the west and east ends of the hallway.
Map updated. Which way first? Split the party? :)
Kwin Avassar |
As much as I love the notion of splitting the party (we can cover twice as much ground!), I think we'll save that tried and true tactic for a more desperate situation.
We'll cross over through the southern door and take the right fork. I moved Kwin's icon on the map to show which way. We'll do our standard checks on the door before we go in.
GM - Mark Garringer |
The door is safe and in you go!
This room contains five sarcophagi the lid of each one contains a small dent where something has been dug out from the stone. The first three sarcophagi have already been opened and stand empty with their lids beside them. The fourth and fifth sarcophagi are still closed.