Samnell's Ziggurat of Worms (Inactive)

Game Master Samnell

Is Dommer around 70 feet from the statue as well? If he's beyond 50 feet, then he will run towards it. Otherwise - he will move and attack

Dommer covers his face and grunts, while quickly trying to access his options.

Is Dommer around 70 feet from the statue as well? If he's beyond 50 feet, then he will run towards it. Otherwise - he will move and attack

Dommer covers his face and grunts, while quickly trying to access his options.

He's about seventy out, yes. everyone upstairs but Trib is.

Namtar will run with his cloak and covet the eyes

Round 2
Arundel seized the rope and climbed for all he was worth, gaining the top and seeing the dazzling red, orange, yellow, blue, and violet lights for himself. Their effect barely tugged at his mighty mind before he pushed it away.

Dommer covers his face and grunts, while quickly trying to access his options. Seeing the scant options before him, he ran forward and reached the howling face. Namtar followed a moment later and threw his cloak up over the flashing eyes.

The wind kept Namtar from blocking both eyes, but his cloak muffled the light from one and immediately its dazzling effect lessened. Still, it was enough for Zummabu's company to entirely shake off the mind-addling power. Even as they broke free, the wind began to howl more powerfully still. Tribim realized he would have trouble trying to walk against its force.

Everyone is up top. Dommer and Namtar are in melee range of the face. Everyone else is 70 feet back. The statue is blowing a severe wind at present, which gives -4 to ranged attacks. Small creatures must make a DC 10 STR check to get closer to the face.

Hitting with the resiliency of a bear, Dommer tries to smash his hammer-looking earth infusion against the face to stop the wind.

Devastating Infusion: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Damage: 1d8 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 1 = 8

I thought Tribim was closer also?

Amarekashu started moving against the wind. "Guess we know what happened to the skeleton, no?"

Regin lifts his shield up to block some of the light and moves forward.

I thought Tribim was closer also?

You're right. He's 10 feet from the face.

Everyone is up top. Dommer and Namtar are in melee range of the face. Everyone else is 70 feet back. The statue is blowing a severe wind at present, which gives -4 to ranged attacks. Small creatures must make a DC 10 STR check to get closer to the face.

so to move forward Tribim must make a str check, does he need to make a str check to hold his ground at 10 ft?

'Blast, don't know if I can do anything against a stone face.' Planting his feet, resisting the wind, Tribim lifts his hand and focusses casting magic missile at the thing.

MM: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Samnell wrote:

Everyone is up top. Dommer and Namtar are in melee range of the face. Everyone else is 70 feet back. The statue is blowing a severe wind at present, which gives -4 to ranged attacks. Small creatures must make a DC 10 STR check to get closer to the face.

so to move forward Tribim must make a str check, does he need to make a str check to hold his ground at 10 ft?

'Blast, don't know if I can do anything against a stone face.' Planting his feet, resisting the wind, Tribim lifts his hand and focusses casting magic missile at the thing.

[dice=MM]1d4+1

You only need one to advance closer to the thing. This round.

Arundel pushes forward against the wind, moving toward the face.

Run action toward the face, stopping 15ft back from it.

Tribim wrote:

Samnell wrote:

Everyone is up top. Dommer and Namtar are in melee range of the face. Everyone else is 70 feet back. The statue is blowing a severe wind at present, which gives -4 to ranged attacks. Small creatures must make a DC 10 STR check to get closer to the face.

so to move forward Tribim must make a str check, does he need to make a str check to hold his ground at 10 ft?

'Blast, don't know if I can do anything against a stone face.' Planting his feet, resisting the wind, Tribim lifts his hand and focusses casting magic missile at the thing.

You only need one to advance closer to the thing. This round.

do we need to move in closer? Of course if he is closer now, he will have to be blown further later...so

after casting the magic missile, Tribim moves closer to the face.

strength check: 1d20 ⇒ 10

do we need to move in closer? Of course if he is closer now, he will have to be blown further later...so

You don't need to, but lots of you wanted to.

Round 3
Namtar reached up with his cloak and blocked the face's other dazzling eye, freeing Zummabu's Company from the threat of paralysis as Arundel ran forward. Regin lifts his shield up to block some of the light and also moved forward. Amarekashu started against the wind too, making for nearly a general advance. "Guess we know what happened to the skeleton, no?"

'Blast, don't know if I can do anything against a stone face.' Planting his feet, resisting the wind, Tribim lifts his hand and focuses casting magic missile at the thing. His unerring blot struck square in the center of the howling mouth, where magic briefly flashed on impact.

Hitting with the resiliency of a bear, Dommer tries to smash his hammer-looking earth infusion against the face to stop the wind. It too struck home and caused a flash upon impact. But still the face howled its terrible wind, the force growing strong enough to carry Tribim up off his feet and hurl back down the tunnel.

Standing against the mounting winds and seeing the flashes when attacks strike the howling maw, Arundel realizes that it must be powered by some sort of standing Art sensitive to the material configuration of the structure. When his companions have struck at it, they altered the physical and magical landscape sufficiently to disrupt the Art at least for a time. With enough hits in the right spot, they may be able to to quell the winds entirely...though he suspects that the Art would right itself with enough time. Perhaps minutes, perhaps days.

Positions:
Dommer & Namtar: Adjacent to face.
Amarekashu: 10 feet back
Arundel: 15 back
Tribim: 35 back
The edge is 70 feet back.

Trib has 4 nonlethal damage.

The statue is blowing a windstorm at present, which makes ranged attacks impossible. Medium creatures must make a DC 10 STR check to get closer to the face. Small creatures need a DC 15 STR check to keep from being blown away.

Amarekashu continued moving towards the face and, when he reached it, hit the damned thing until it stopped trying to blow him down.

First Blow: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Dommer insists and tries to hit again - the Dwarf wasn't the smartest one around, and this was the type of solution his simple mind could get around.

Devastating Infusion: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Damage: 1d8 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 1 = 8

Unfortunately, despite the immense target, he still manage to miss with his earth powers.

Leaning into the harsh winds, Arundel slowly reaches into his pack and draws out the obsidian rod of shatter they found earlier. He shouts the incantation for it, and jabs it toward the open mouth of the stone face.

Shatter damage: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 2, 6) = 15

"Keep at it!" the elf yells at his companions. "If we keep hitting the damn thing, it'll curb the wind!"

Do we need to worry about the lights from the eyes anymore, since we've all made the save?

Leaning into the harsh winds, Arundel slowly reaches into his pack and draws out the obsidian rod of shatter they found earlier. He shouts the incantation for it, and jabs it toward the open mouth of the stone face.

[dice=Shatter damage]4d6

"Keep at it!" the elf yells at his companions. "If we keep hitting the damn thing, it'll curb the wind!"

Do we need to worry about the lights from the eyes anymore, since we've all made the save?

Only if Namtar gets blown away or something else happens to him. You don't have to re-save right now because he's blocking them with his cloak.

Yeah, I knew he was blocking it, but was hoping that it was a one-and-done save, and not something we had to continue making saves against, in which case the cloak wouldn't be needed since we all made our saves. A guy can hope. Can Namtar kick at the thing while also holding the cloak?

Yeah, I knew he was blocking it, but was hoping that it was a one-and-done save, and not something we had to continue making saves against, in which case the cloak wouldn't be needed since we all made our saves. A guy can hope. Can Namtar kick at the thing while also holding the cloak?

He's mostly holding the cloak against the wind. The face didn't come with a hanger. :) He could kick, but nonlethal damage wouldn't mean anything to the face.

Trib? Want to make your strength check? :)

sorry I must have misunderstood, If he passes the str. check will he have an action? Probably will cast again.

str: 1d20 ⇒ 12

'Blast, here we go again.' Bouncing across the cave floor Tribim starts to look around for something to grab hold of.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Regin advances as far as he can on the face.

Is there room for me?

Regin advances as far as he can on the face.

Is there room for me?

The tunnel's only about ten feet wide. You could squeeze in, but it would be hard to be combat-effective whilst doing so.

sorry I must have misunderstood, If he passes the str. check will he have an action? Probably will cast again.

[dice=str]1d20

'Blast, here we go again.' Bouncing across the cave floor Tribim starts to look around for something to grab hold of.

[dice=perception]1d20+7

I'd have let you do something else if he made the check.

Started off resolving this and then realized it's a giant face with a low AC (5) and the party only needs to do 8 more damage before Trib's safe. So going to do this quick and dirty.

Amarekashu continued moving towards the face and, when he reached it, hit the damned thing until it stopped trying to blow him down. It took only one more solid blow before the wind markedly lessened and Tribim ceased sliding down the tunnel. He thought he might even be able to stand.

With the rest of Zummabu's company battering it, the face took less than a minute to reduce to silence. The huge mouth closed once more and the riotous light dimly visible through Namtar's cloak vanished. It was over.

Now we know how that guy died. Is there a handle? Only valuables are protected so... usually. Either that or we just shut down the seal over some kind of horror...

"Given time, the magic will recharge, and could pose danger anew. Hard to tell how long it will take; could be hours, could be days. Just in case, I suggest we look quickly." As he says this, he replaces the obsidian rod he had used, and then he begins to examine the face in closer detail.

Examine the face to see if there is any way past it or anything else of interest about it.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

"Given time, the magic will recharge, and could pose danger anew. Hard to tell how long it will take; could be hours, could be days. Just in case, I suggest we look quickly." As he says this, he replaces the obsidian rod he had used, and then he begins to examine the face in closer detail.

Examine the face to see if there is any way past it or anything else of interest about it.
[dice=Perception]1d20+11

So far as Arundel can tell, the face appears to be carved into a solid wall.

'well that was disturbing.' Tribum stands up and dust's himself off then toddles to the face, "Well if it's going to recharge we should find what it's protecting and get out of here." Tribim helps inspect the face, "What would happen if we take tha lights out of tha eyes?".

Tribim will take 20 (27) on perception, was there anything else in the tunnel?

While the others examined the door, Amarekashu looked elsewhere. Perhaps it was simply the trap and the cheese was somewhere else...

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Amarekashu and Tribim both searched over the tunnel, Tribim very thoroughly, but neither found more than scratches left in the walls and floor by past unfortunates and the pressure plate that triggered the face.

'there has to be something here.' Tribim, having not found anything, begins to look at the face again, "This hallway is a lot of work for a trap, I still think there must be something here." Tribim inspects the pressure plate, the eyes and the mouth again.

Looking for a direction here:
Can Tribim attempt to disable the pressure plate to see if there is something under it?
We keep talking about the lights in the eyes, are they just reflections or are there actually lights that we can remove?
Is the mouth open or shut? can we see in it?

'there has to be something here.' Tribim, having not found anything, begins to look at the face again, "This hallway is a lot of work for a trap, I still think there must be something here." Tribim inspects the pressure plate, the eyes and the mouth again.

Looking for a direction here:
Can Tribim attempt to disable the pressure plate to see if there is something under it?
We keep talking about the lights in the eyes, are they just reflections or are there actually lights that we can remove?
Is the mouth open or shut? can we see in it?

This is a singularly elaborate trap, compared to the other you've seen. "Fake elevator go smash" is pretty simple.

1) He can try to, sure.
2) There are presently no lights in the eyes and they appear as stone orbs with roughly hemispherical hollows where the iris and pupil would be. When the eyes were active, the colors filled that space.
3) The mouth was open when it howled at you, but is now closed. The stone moved as if alive (though still visibly stone) when opening and closing. When open, it appeared hollow inside much like the eyes.

"It may be there is, but the key to opening it is not here. We may have to solve the puzzle of the lamps before something opens a way." Amarekashu shrugged. He couldn't think of another reason to go to all this trouble.

"It appears to be nothing more than a trap. Friendly place, this." Arundel says, with a shake of his head. He will cast Detect Magic, just to make sure nothing unexpected pings on it. Assuming nothing from that, he will return to the chain to head back down.

Regin is a little excited to find that it's just a trap. This is a good sign! If this grave was already looted a hundred times in as many years there's a good chance this trap would be destroyed by now! Or at the very least that mold getting scoured away by someone else. We may actually be in an undiscovered tomb!

"It appears to be nothing more than a trap. Friendly place, this." Arundel says, with a shake of his head. He will cast Detect Magic, just to make sure nothing unexpected pings on it. Assuming nothing from that, he will return to the chain to head back down.

Arundel's arcane senses reveal Art of the mind-meddling sort faint enchantment about the face's eyes, and two separate emanations of a more protean species of magic, the stronger from the face's mouth moderate transmutation and the weaker suffusing the whole wall faint transmutation.

Arundel pauses by the wall, running his hands along it. "What have we here?" the elf whispers under his breath. He calls out to the others "Looks like this whole wall has a faint transmutation aura to it - the whole thing is magical. Not sure what that means, though, nor what we can do with it."

"Transmutation?" Amarekashu stared at it. "Well, one would assume it either becomes something else - like not there - or it can turn creatures into something else." Perhaps it was what brought the face to life?

In any case, I doubt it'll reveal it's secrets if we just keep staring at it. Lets go poke around some more and see what we can find.
For once, Regin seems genuinely excited.

'Transmutation? I wonder if Dommer can tell if there is anything behind it.' Tribim listens to the educated magicians talk about magical stuff. Finally he asks, looking at Dommer then to Namtar, pushing up his shirt sleeves. "So is there any way to tell if there is anything behind tha face? Or should we finish knocking it down to find out?"

'Transmutation? I wonder if Dommer can tell if there is anything behind it.' Tribim listens to the educated magicians talk about magical stuff. Finally he asks, looking at Dommer then to Namtar, pushing up his shirt sleeves. "So is there any way to tell if there is anything behind tha face? Or should we finish knocking it down to find out?"

Getting through with conventional means would be easiest with mining tools, which you could buy back in Dalath. Assuming it's a regular wall and no more than a foot or so thick, you could probably dig a Trib-sized hole in: 1d4 ⇒ 2 hours. Knocking a peep hole through would take about a quarter of that time, because you still have to chisel away a goodly bit so the tools could reach the end and open up enough space to let light through.

Assuming a normal wall about a foot thick. If it's thicker, add as much time again for each foot. Should it be magically reinforced, times could easily double or triple. Should the wall just front on bedrock, you'd know when you got the peephole dug because you could see where the facing stone ends.

Also sundry reminders, because it's been plenty of RL time: The company have never checked the saggy floor beneath the green lantern, or what's back the other way from where they came in. Also the dazzling lights only shone with the colors of lanterns that are absent and/or not lit at present.

Ok guys, so what are we doing?

'I wonder what we should do now/' Tribim scratches his head, looking to the other members of Zu.Co. and ask, "So what do we do now?"

"I would suggest smashing a hole be a last resort, and we investigate the sagging floor beneath the lamp first." It was, after all, closest.

'yeah, I don't like smashing stuff much either.' Tribim looks from Amaredashu to Namtar. "That sounds like a good idea ta me. Give me just a moment ta see if I can disarm tha trap permanent like." Tribim returns to the pressure plate and attempts to take it apart permanently.

if he can take 20 (31) to disable the pressure plate he will. if not does anything happen if he fails?
Disable device: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

'yeah, I don't like smashing stuff much either.' Tribim looks from Amaredashu to Namtar. "That sounds like a good idea ta me. Give me just a moment ta see if I can disarm tha trap permanent like." Tribim returns to the pressure plate and attempts to take it apart permanently.

if he can take 20 (31) to disable the pressure plate he will. if not does anything happen if he fails?

Sorry, not going to allow take 20 on disabling a trap because there's a chance Trib doesn't know that it worked and a chance he springs it on himself. I might shrug off the first but the second is a big deal consequence. :) Specifically, he might jumpstart the trap's recovery mechanism. Speaking of...

Tribin sets to on the pressure plate, inserting wedges into its side to hold it up and then levering the whole plate. Light flashes beneath and an arc of lightning climbs his tools into the halfling's arm.

Ow: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Flickering red, orange, yellow, blue, and violet light returned to the statue's eyes. It wasn't strong enough to have an effect, but that seemed to be only a matter of time as they lights grew faster and brighter.

Time to leave! Regin declairs and he starts motioning people toward the rope down.

"Agreed" Arundel responds, moving to the rope and climbing down.

Zummabu's Company safely descend the shaft before the wind rises again.