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INTRODUCTION
The trip through the Mindspin Mountains has been an arduous one, but your party is determined to see this thing through (it doesn’t hurt that the pay is obscene). If your crew manages to make it through this thing alive somehow, the riches, titles, and untold glory will have you set for life. The offer of patents of nobility alone has your mind reeling. Thoughts of your future take you away from the inhospitable terrain around you. You never thought you’d say this, but why couldn’t we have stayed in Freedom Town another night?
When your guides told you the route took you through the Bloodsworn Vale, you were sure you misheard him. Having been ambushed no less than six times by brigands and orcs, you’ve now lost five of your initial eight guides. You wonder when the giants will appear and finish the task and end this hellish trek. It doesn't help that you must reach your destination by a certain day and time either; the pace has been grueling these last weeks.
As you wonder why in the heavens you’re marching toward certain death, your hand passes over the crumbled note in your pocket. You've reviewed the rather succinct message from your benefactor a handful of times these last few weeks, wondering how he could simplify your objective so easily. "Get the Fang, get out first, get to the next trial!". Piece of cake, right?
Scoffing, you know it's not as simple as he's written it. For starters, the note should have read "Assemble your best team. Meet your contact in the Brimstone Springs at the southern end of the range of the Mindspin Mountains. Make the deadly and nigh impossible trip through the Bloodsworn Vale up to Hanging Monastery, Sech Nevali. Find some ancient deadly undead warrior guardians of the gauntlet called Graveknights and show them the strange metallic amulet you were given. Hopefully they take you to and let you enter the Gauntlet before murdering you. Somehow traverse some long forgotten dungeon with untold deadly treasures and challenges to retrieve a piece of an all powerful artifact called Saevox's Fang. Oh, right, there are three other groups also entering the dungeon AT THE SAME TIME."
That’s the one that kills you. Three other groups are also vying for a piece of the glory just like you. Something about three ancient trials that need to be completed to take ownership of this artifact known as the Trimerix. Apparently the Thassilonians enjoyed difficult contests before a bunch of rocks fell on their head and killed them all.
Anyway, where were you? Ah right, other parties in the dungeon. While running for your lives, getting and protecting one of the three artifact pieces before the three other treasure hunter groups, also somehow obtain information identifying the time AND location of the second trial! HA! While doing everything above, all that is left is to escape the trial from one of the three exits. Four groups, three exits. Oh, and probably you should add "Stay alive" to the list of objectives.
See, piece of cake.
It's probably best to think of it as "Get the Fang, get out first, get to the next trial" after all.
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Useless. Guides. Won't. Stop. Dying. Sruigryth signs to her three compatriots.
Graiel smiles his toothy smile. I thought about saving a couple of them but....that would be less for us. Plus, the way that one human died..?..Hilarious!...Who knew a small dart could cause a through and through..?..His head!.. Graiel audibly laughs, sounding a decent amount like a hyena.
Unlike the other Gnolls, Festram is focused on his surroundings. Not that he cared at all about the life of a human, but he would prefer not to be ambushed again, as he had come perilously close to taking damage in the previous fight, and he was down to only 6 magazines for his repeating crossbow.
Inarus signed back At least they taste good. Unlike most others, Inarus didn't truly care about how arduous the trek was.*
Relentless
* At 2nd level, a vampire hunter can travel for an extended period of time without rest. The vampire hunter (and his mount, if he has one) can walk 16 hours in a day of travel without it being considered a forced march, but at the end of that day, he must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. If he fails, he can travel for 8 hours the following day, and he (as well as his mount, if he has one) is fatigued for the following 24 hours. If he succeeds at the saving throw, he can use this ability again the following day. The DC of the Fortitude saving throw increases by 2 for every additional day the vampire hunter has been traveling for more than 8 hours. The vampire hunter does not need to attempt a separate saving throw for his mount. After the vampire hunter rests for 24 hours, the saving throw DC resets to 15.
Profession Cook
+10 Modifier
Put the two together, and the mixture of long marches and dead guides probably wouldn't faze him
This gnoll's fur was jet black. His breastplate was similarly darkened, and his darkwood shield would have matched the rest if it were not for the dark-red symbol on it. It was that of the scarred legion. A tribe? A mercenary company? It didn't matter what you called it, so long as you paid on time. He rested his nodachi on his shoulder. It was a long, thin blade, equally useful for slashing as it was for stabbing.
He grinned, showing off all of his sharp teeth. He signed to the rest of his group I have a good feeling about this. I smell both profit and good food, just waiting to be killed and cooked.
ARRIVAL AT SECH NEVALI
With only a single guide remaining, you finally arrive at the outskirts of your destination, the Hanging Monastery known as Sech Nevali. You provide payment to the sole remaining guide who makes a hasty retreat back the way you came as you take stock of the amazing sight before your eyes. You did plenty of research before you got here, so fortunately you have some rudimentary knowledge of what this place was.
Sechi Nevali is a vast stone temple complex built upon a very thick metal platform suspended over a mile-deep chasm by three immense chains attached to three nearby mountain peaks. A fourth chain failed centuries ago, making the monastery sway disconcertingly in strong winds. The fortress was built over 10,000 years ago by the Therassic Order, a Thassilonian society of wizard-monks dedicated to a deity of magic known as the Peacock Spirit. Members of the order were protected by a group of mysterious knights, the Order of the Green Feather, that was devoted to the same deity. The god’s followers all perished during Earthfall, leaving details of its faith a mystery and the monastery abandoned for thousands of years.
Your arrival at the base of Sech Nevali is met by a group of terrifying looking heavily armored humanoid creatures. They are clad in a suit of ornate jade-colored full plate armor with eerie green eyes glowing from within their visors. You jump to the logical conclusions that these are the undead Graveknights you had been seeking. These guardians prevent you from passing further and do not respond well to any form of questions or interaction, in fact they are beginning to tire of your repeated attempts to pass and now have drawn their weapons for what surely will be a slaughter.
You decide to try the amulet that you were told was “the key” to getting access to the trial. Holding up the amulet seems to trigger a response from the guardians that causes them to sheathe their weapons and relax their posture. A half dozen of the Graveknights encircle your group and begin to lead you towards a passage carved into the side of the mountain.
The Graveknights escort you along a treacherous twisting and narrow path that leads away from the Hanging Monastery and deeper into the mountainside. You half expect the deadly knights to turn and slaughter your group at any second, but ever since you showed them your amulet they haven’t been outwardly hostile to you. Despite that, shadows veil what lurks within the dark, imposing armor of these figures, their two glowing eyes gazing out from their closed visors.
Sruigryth attempts to keep as much distance between himself and the Graveknights as possible.
Stuck up bastards, these wizards, with their chains and skeletons and floating monasteries, he signs.
Inarus walked beside his pack mates with unease. Part of him wanted to go and just break the chains, to cause the entire mess to fall into the chasm. It would serve them right, making something so impractical. But, if he was being honest with himself, what it really was that he didn’t like...it was being surrounded and outnumbered. It put him on edge. But flight wasn’t an option, and neither was fight. So he silently entered the former temple.
Gravel knows he's not the brightest or wisest among his pack, but he knows when and how to stay alive. These grave knights, though outnumbering his pack, we're not fighting so he would stay quiet. There was a lot of money in this for a reason and starting out fighting unnecessarily would not make their job any easier.
"Stay close." was all he could think of saying to his pack as they were led along.
Festram said nothing, instead concentrating on making a mental map of the path the group took, should they need to go back the way they came.
ENTERING THE COURTYARD
The path gives way to an unlit underground passageway and after hours of nonstop marching through the corridors and endless stairs, you are completely lost. Your few attempts at conversation or to stop for a brief rest have not been well received by your undead hosts and so you continue to press onward, deeper into wherever it is you are.
The Graveknights finally stop before a set of closed marble double doors. Engraved in the floor directly before the doors is a ten foot circular rune covered in ancient markings. A Graveknight points to the member of your party wearing the amulet and then points to the center of the rune shaped circle on the floor. You cautiously step onto the rune and within seconds it begins emit a pulsing light blue light. The heavy marble doors begin to open on their own at a slow, even pace as sunlight streams into the dark corridor from beyond the doors.
Satisfied by whatever ritual you just completed, the Graveknights motion your party forward through the double doors. As you exit the corridor and move into a large square open air courtyard, the sunlight temporarily blinds you as your eyes adjust to the bright light once more. Another corridor directly opposite yours meet in the middle at a wide set of steps that rise up to a H shaped stone platform.
Well maintained hedges line the perimeter of the lush green grass courtyard. Four mechanical crane-like contraptions that hold large metallic ten foot cages with thick, heavy chains sit adjacent to the stone platform. At the each of the four corners of the stone platform where it meets the cage, a three foot tall circular stone pillar glows with a sky blue colored light.
Your party is directed up the platform towards one of the four corners with cages. As you pass through the center of the H, another circular rune flares to life beneath your feet on the stone platform. Three distinct runes sit inside the circle that begins to emit a pulsating, bright blue light. The Graveknights don’t give you time to study the symbols though and push you forward toward one of the corners of the platform. You come to a stop before a small circular stone pillar that is also emitting a faint blue light around the base of the pillar.
Patience is one thing that he had learned during his training, but these...creatures were sorely testing it today. Hopefully they would not accompany the group throughout the entire dungeon.
4/4 - RULES OF THE GAME
As you wait patiently for something to happen, three other parties follow the same routine as you, each led up to a different corner of the stone platform. One party consist of a hunting party of four gnolls, the second what looks like a band of three half-orcs accompanied by a female human. The third party is a two humans, a gnoll and a female halfling. Finally the last is a smattering of everything, containing a grippli, a duergar, a young human girl, a man of Tian descent, a velociraptor and a large cat. Once all four parties have arrived and are in place, the sounds of heavy footfalls each from each of the two corridors leading to the platform.
Four yellow cloaked, man-shaped creatures stride up to the platform, splitting and turning to each of the four groups. These creatures appear to be part statue and part metallic machine with an exquisitely crafted bastard sword suspended on their backs. They move with practiced precision as they climb the platform and execute exact turns before stopping before each group and turning their back on you to face towards the center of the platform.
Once all four cloaked creatures are in place the sound of heavy steps reveals a fifth creature, this one in a deep red cloak. It moves methodically towards the three glowing blue runes in the center of the platform. After a cursory look at all four parties, it begins to speak in a deep and measured baritone voice. Unsure which language is to be used by such a diverse group, each of you are surprised to hear the voice spoken in your natural tongue.
“Welcome to the twelth running of the Trimerix trials, contestants. Though preordained, long has been the wait for the trial that resume today. Each of the four groups assembled here today will descend into the depths below and face a gauntlet of challenges that are designed to eliminate the unworthy.”
“Sealed below are the two items you have come here to claim. First, the fang of the dragon Saevox, one of the components of the Trimerix. Second, the tome Karazathak, the ancient volume which notates the location, date, time and other requirements for the second trial. Lay claim to one of each of these items and then find the exit from trial. I will be waiting on the other side to greet up to three groups of you who intend to advance to the second trial by meeting the criteria I’ve just outlined.”
The deep voice shifts from a neutral tone to one of caution as he turns to eye each one of the party members. “If you wish to exit the trial, your party must possess one and only one of each of the two items I just mentioned. The ancient rules of the trial must be strictly adhered to and so each of you will be accompanied down into the depths below.” The red cloaked figure spins in a slow circle and identifies each of the yellow cloaked figures before you. “These are your overseers. They will provide initial guidance to help you get started on the trial. Make no mistake however, they are not under your command nor are they present to assist you in completing the trials, that task is yours and yours alone. They are the enforcers of the ancient rules of the trial and will be watching closely.”
“The trial will begin after each of your activation stones have been attuned to your party. Place your hand on the stone pillar as you make your way into your cage. Once all four groups have entered their cage the trial will begin. Good luck to you all.”
”Look brothers, an exile.” He glared at the gnoll within the other group. ”If these fools get in our way, we will be be eating well.”
"Use the signs, brother. Giving up nothing is almost always better." Sruigryth signs to Inarus.
After a pause, he grins and continues signing.
"But yes, we shall feast well."
Sruigryth walks up to the stone pillar and places his hairy hand onto it, before striding confidently into the cage.
Grail simply steps uo to the stone pillar, places is paw, and lets out a laugh while looking at the knoll from the other group.
"We have little time brothers for eating. In and then out."
The overseer turns and looks at Festram and Inarus. "The trial will not wait for those to delay, place your hand on the stone pillar to begin." as you notice the other parties each approach their own stone pillars and place their hands onto it.
Warily Inarus placed his hand upon it...
In the southwest corner of the platform, the half-orc party continues to shown signs of frivolity in their approach to the trial. Apparently half of the group entered the cage without touching the stone as instructed. After a quick reprimand by the overseer, they quickly exit the cage and touch the stone before dashing back inside. The female human appears to attempt to kick the stone, but misses terribly and falls to the ground on the platform. A half-orc quickly reaches out and grabs her, pulling her back inside the cage.
Once all of your party has attuned to the stone and entered entered the cage, your overseer walks over to the door, closes it and then locks it. After locking it, the heavy metallic creature begins to climb up to the top of your cage. As he climbs you take note that even though he is roughly the size of a large human, he must weight three to four times it!
It finishes climbing to the top of your cage and stands astride it, looking down at your group. Satisfied by whatever it sees, it clutches the heavy chain in its left hand that connects your cage to the mechanical winch above. Holding tight it nods once to the red cloaked figure in what you assume is a signal that you are ready to proceed.
Looking around the platform you see the half-orc party to the south and the mixed party to the east follow the same pattern with their overseers climbing on top of the cage and signalling the red cloaked creature.
ROUND 1
In order to keep pacing equal among all teams, the entire game will take place during Tactical Combat/Initiative rounds. The current round will always be the same for all players and is used to keep all four teams synchronized.
The game will advance to the next round in one of two ways:
1) The round advances no later than every 48 hours (2 days) from the start of the previous round IF all players from all teams have completed their actions for the current round. If all players from all teams have completed their action for the round the game can advance sooner than 48 hours.
2) If a player hasn't completed their actions within 48 hours, a single 24 hour extension will be added to the current round. During extended round time, any player of the party whose character's actions are missing may submit actions for the missing character in their party for that round. Only 1 extension period of 24 hours will occur per round and no round will take longer than 72 hours to progress (unless the GM's announce it so for some special reason).
Initiative is rolled for all players each time your party enters a new location. Those initiative values will be used if your party encounters a new combat encounter in that location. If a combat encounter is already underway when your party arrives, your initiatives will be inserted into the existing initiative as new monsters joining combat normally would. If the game advances a round without before all actions have been submitted, those characters with missing actions will automatically be placed in delay and can come out of delay at any point in the next round.
Whenever your party is not engaged in combat, you are free to post your actions for the round in any order you wish. This is done to allow maximum flexibility through the play by post format. The GM will interpret your actions to take place when you post them unless you explicitly state you are doing it after another member of your party does something.
Once all four overseers have locked their cages and followed this process, the red robed creature walks to the center blue runed circle and takes his bastard sword from his back. With both hands he plunges his sword into the center of the circle while exclaiming a sharp command.
The world above disappears in a blink of an eye as the steel trap doors on the ground below you groan and suddenly swing open, sending your cage plummeting into the darkness below at high speed. The iron prison you are contained in descends at an alarming pace as it gains momentum during freefall in complete darkness.
Above you the deafening clang of the chain unfurling from its spool begins to fade away as the whooshing of accelerated air of your descent takes its place. After a few seconds of this, you aren't quite sure how far you have fallen and you begin to worry that your rate of descent is going to cause serious injury to your party at the bottom of whatever this is if this keeps up.
Sounds of the chain creaking and groaning are equally met with shudders and strain as a sudden jolt throws everyone to the floor of the cage when the slack runs out the chain and it suddenly goes taught. The chain screams loudly in protest, instantly stopping your descent as your cage bounces and spins back and forth between what sounds like a stone enclosure of some kind outside of the cage.
Two loud metallic clangs ring out from the surface, echoing down the shaft. Looking up the shaft past your overseer, you see the daylight disappear as the metal doors above are sealed and closed once more.
Still standing on top of the cage, your overseer shakes your chain twice and then it shudders to life, resuming its descent at a controlled and measured pace this time. He looks down at you and states “I will now answer three questions.”
PERCEPTION
INITIATIVE
WILL SAVES
FORT SAVES
REFLEX SAVES
Drawbacks:
Graeil - Overprotective: If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls and skill checks as long as you are farther than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.
Inarus - Warded Against Nature (Animals do not willingly approach within 30 feet of you, unless you or the animal’s master succeeds at a DC 20 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy check. Animal companions, familiars, and mounts granted by your class abilities are immune to this effect.)
Sruigryth - Meticulous: You take a –2 penalty on skill checks for skills with which you’re untrained.
Festram - Haunted: You take a –2 penalty on saves against spells with the evil descriptor.
"Brothers, thar chain is about to break! We need out of this cage right zoggin' now!"
Sruigryth pushes his way to the lock and starts attempting to open it.
"Overseer, how to we open the cage?"
Sruigryth's steady paw is evident as he quickly pulls his picks from his pack and slips them into the rust cage door. The satisfying click lets him know that his task was successfully executed as he picks the lock to the door to your cage.
"Which direction is the closer of our two objectives?"
Inarus waited to get the answer. Part of him wanted to charge out, to get out of the death trap which was this cage and to rush into a foe that he could actually fight. But he knew how foolish that was, and instead forced himself to be patient, while his more inquisitive pack members asked their questions.
"Which direction is the closer of our two objectives?"
The overseer clutches the chain in its left hand as it looks down between the bars at the gnolls below. In a strangely calm and reassuring voice, it responds to you in gnoll "Though you will be presented with multiple options, all paths in the gauntlet below will eventually converge upon the same location. The tome Karazatha is marginally closer, if you choose to seek it that item first."
Sruigryth desperately looks for something to arrest our impending fall, shouting at his pack:
"We need to get to something more stable, or at least get out of this deathtrap!"
With that, he climbs on to the outside of the cage, still searching for a anchor point on the shaft wall.
Graiel looks at the overseer, his mouth afixed in a grin, "How do we get to each of the objectives?"
"What guards each of our objectives?"
You hear a yelp as Sruigryth momentarily loses his grip on the cage but with luck, manages to grasp the cage before he falls.
The Overseer looks briefly at the fumbling Sruigryth, then at Graiel, "There are two paths to each objective. Which path you choose will be your choice and the fates of those with you lives or dies by your choice."
Sruigryth grunts as his grip slips and he flips backward. His foot slips between the bars of the cage as he flails wildly and his back crashes into the cage with a clang. The whole cage seems to groan and creak as Sruigryth hangs from the side, his ankle caught between the cage bars!
Inarus rushes to his packmember, and reaches out a hand to help him...
Graiel stand pondering their predicament for several moments before speaking up, "If we can all get to the chain, we could ride it the rest of the way down."
Festram will also climb the chain.
Festram manages to climb out of the cage and grab the chain while Inarus reaches out and grabs Sruigryth's ankle and begins to pull him in. Graiel rushes to assist but manages to bump into Inarus. Fortunately, Inarus has a good enough grip, he manages to pull Sruigryth back into the cage.
ROUND 2
The cage continues to descend at a measured pace, the sound of your voices barely audible over the clank, clank, clank, clank, clank of the chain echoing down the shaft. In addition to the sounds of the cage descending, the unnatural metallic groan from the chain above grows louder as the apparent failure of the link that couples the chain to the cage becomes evident to everyone. The cage’s even-paced descent is momentarily interrupted when the several other chain links crack open, causing the cage suddenly to lurch several feet unexpectedly before catching once again.
As the cage descends, it passes through what appears to be a series of overlapping webbing. The webbing wraps over the bars of the cage in numerous places as the cage passes through it. The light colored web begins to turn darken and shift in the shadows. Squinting to get a closer look, you are alarmed when you realize that the shifting shadows are actually are hundreds if not thousands of diminutive spiders flooding into cage all around you! In no time at all the spiders are crawling on the bars, on the webbing and all over the solid metallic floor of the cage.