Skull & shackles (Inactive)

Game Master DBH

Either Kung's instinct is tuned enough to flank with Marnir, or Maddie's instruction finds a way to make a connection to the small amount of his brain still left available for processing. Probably the latter.

He finds himself opposite Marnir and tries to take the best advantage of the positioning to strike at the statue.

Even advanced and large a Caryatid is still not going to last long enough against the party. So this one dies as well.

Loot:

Falchion +1 Keen (Large) 2.

What are you doing now? Besides putting Kung back together that is.

Not when Kung and I aren't bothered by their DR and have weapons that are essentially immune to their damaging effect. They're really unpleasant foes at low level though.

With the second statue in chunks on the floor, Marnir has time to catch his breath. "Is everyone OK?" he asks. "Kung, you look like you're leaking a little."

Once everyone is healed and happy.

"Looks like that's the way to head," Marnir says, pointing down the only unblocked tunnel. To G19

Man, I've played an Orc bloodline sorcerer a few times, but I haven't ever seen Touch of Rage be as useful as it has been. Typically, there's only one melee character in games (often it's me), so having multiple buff targets is nice.

Niobe exhaust the last of her wand to patch up Kung.

Cure light wounds: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Cure light wounds: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

She replaces the stick in her sack and says, "This is used up. We'll need to find a wand-maker next time we go back to port."

"Are you all right, Kung, or do you need a little more patching up?"

Kung's stat bar says 73/110, with +8 from the wand that's 81, you OK going on that or you want a cure moderate as well?

Jane huffs when she hears Niobe, "Why use wands when I can easily make better potions for cheaper?"

Jane pulls out her flask and hands it to Kong "This is one of the Cure Mods that I can make."

CMW: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (2, 5) + 8 = 15

Oracle's hall.
The domed ceiling of this chamber rises eighty feet overhead.
In the center of the hall, a thirty-foot-high egg-shaped structure stands on the floor. Stone stairs climb the side of this domed structure, ending before a stone wall chiseled to resemble an immense eye, circled with strange runes glowing with an eldritch light.
The stairs and eye are mirrored on the opposite side of the dome. Tiny stars roil across the top of the structure, their light projecting strange constellations on the ceiling overhead.
Much of the northeast corner of the chamber lies in ruin, collapsed by
obvious cave-ins, but three other exits remain, doors to the east and west, and a corridor leading south east.

New map up top, showing where you are.

What are you doing now?

"Wow... that magical mirror sure is something. I wonder what it does?"

"Something magic, I bet," Marnir muses. "I wonder if this place is where the gem was kept." Keeping his wits about him and his axe in hand, Marnir carefully climbs the stone stairs.

Maddie will rise up into the air to get a better picture of the dome, before casting detect magic and checking each of the cardinal directions for the presence of magic.

Kung should be fine now; 96/110 after Jane's cmw. Remember, he gets a total of +40 temp hp when he's raging and Marnir is inspiring, and he still has 60 hp (10/hit) that stoneskin can absorb. He's in great shape at the moment.

Kung remains on the floor, marveling at the shining stars reflecting off the mirrored surfaces. His eyes light on the different carvings and their runes, but his attention keeps returning to the shiny objects.

Marnir You find you are unable to enter the portal to the inner chamber. Some unknown arcane force blocks it from opening for you?

What are you doing now?

Linguistics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Jane looks at the old block letters, then frowns. "Guys... These are runes around this eye here. It is saying something weird." Jane moves a little closer to try and read it better. "Only by blinding yourself to the world around you, can you see the way forward to the Eye of Serenity...." pausing for a moment. "Does anyone know what that means?"

"Got a handkerchief you can use as a blindfold? Or maybe close your eyes?"

Lau thing, ”That could work.” Jane closes her eyes.

Blindfolds or closing your eyes get no result.

"If that doesn't work, looks like it might take real blindness. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that yet," Marnir says looking somewhat worried. "Let's explore elsewhere and come back, eh?" He heads towards the eastern pair of doors.

G21 please.

I've sped things up as there are no encounters in these side rooms.

G21. MEDITATION CHAMBER.
A wall of silent darkness looms past this solid brass door, obscuring and muting anything within.

Permanent deeper darkness and silence effects within.

G22. STOREROOM.
Dozens of crates fill this small storeroom, the air heavy with the smell of incense.

G23. HALL OF TRIBUTE
Several urns, chests, and strange relics fill this ancient vault.
They all seem born of a bygone age, ancient artifacts of a distant time.

Loot list:
Pearl of power (3rd level),
Rod of wonder,
Potion of neutralize poison,
Scroll of divination,
Wand of summon monster IV (23 charges remaining),
A gold necklace worth 500 gp,
An expensive vase worth 750 gp,
9 pearls worth 100gp each,
159 pp,
2,786 gp,
427sp,
633cp.

"Always a little creepy coming into these old, empty places," says Niobe.

"That meditation chamber's spooky. Even with this place emptied out I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time there." The druidess uncomfortably grabs a lock of her hair and squeezes it and worries it in her hand.

"It's all a bit too dark and bit a too quiet," Marnir agrees, missing the bustle of a busy deck and the feel of the sun and wind on his face.

"So if we need to be blind to get into there," he says, pointing to the central structure, "has anyone got any way of making us un-blind again?"

"I do not... but maybe Jane can make an elixir?"

Remove blindness is a 3rd-level formula for alchemists.

Jane nods ”Yeah, but I don’t know the recipe for it.” thinking for a moment, ”how long would it take to learn it...”

Linguistics: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35

"I can make people temporarily blind."

"When you say temporarily...?" Marnir asks, hoping that Maddie means minutes rather than days.

"I mean I can summon glitter to blind people, but you would have to not resist my spell. I can get the entire group in one go."

"It hard for Kung to not resist spell, but Kung try."

Haha, superstition requires Kung to resist even helpful spells while within a rage (which, it occurs to me, we should have been doing all last combat for the healing....), but as long as he's not raging at the time, he should be able to allow the spell.

"And it'll go away on it's own?" Marnir asks, clearly hesitant at the idea of being blinded. "If that's what we've got then it'll do." He climbs the steps again to the rune-carved portal. "Let's get this over with then."

Jane looks at Maddie, "You're mad... you know that?" she looks around to see what the lighting is like in this room. "What would happen if we put out the lights in this room? I think we should try that, before putting something in our eyes."

Only by magically blinding yourselves can you enter the eye!

What are you doing now?

Blinded by the iridescent sparks of Maddie's spell Marnir is somehow able to see a doorway, glowing faintly before him. Holding his axe in one hand he carefully feels his way forward with the other, stepping through the portal before him. "Is everyone else seeing this?" he says, the pun completely intentional.

Jane sighs, ”hit me.”

Maddie will cast another Glitterdust on Jane.

I'll accept a glitterdust along with the cap'n, since it's an area spell.

Only one Glitterdust needed, as mentioned it's an area effect.

Once Marnir steps through the portal the starry dome of the vault vanishes as the walls become incorporeal for 1 minute, revealing the interior of the Eye and allowing anyone to freely enter or exit for as the long as the walls remain incorporeal.

G20. THE EYE OF SERENITY.
A flare of light sweeps through this oval chamber, blazing from a large, singular crystal resting atop a six-foot-high silver pedestal in the center of a raised dais. Two large statues face the pedestal, holding up large, curved swords that nearly touch the chamber's ceiling.

The crystal flares as the chamber is opened. Immortal dreamstone

Marnir can feel the world going still as he steps into the chamber, steeling his will he shakes off the Slow effect the exists inside it. The crystal responds by firing a crackling black ray at him that just misses.

What are you doing now?

Oh dang it's the Soul Gem from Ghost Tower of Inverness

"It's shooting rays at me!" Marnir shouts, ducking under a beam of black energy that crackles over his head. He reaches up quickly to grab the crystal, trying to get it out of the chamber before anything horrible happens to him.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

"What did you do to it to make it do that?

Nice quick responses.

Much to everyone's surprise when Marnir grabs the crystal from it's pedestal the two statues do not animate and attack him, instead space twists disconcertingly as two, clearly undead Cyclopes emerge from their storage to defend the crystal.

What are you doing now? You have a round of action as they appear.

"S&~!! I thought that was too easy!" Marnir curses as two undead-looking cyclopses appear with a nauseating sense of disorientation. "I've got the crystal, let's leg it!" he shouts. He runs out through the shimmering walls, slowing down slightly as his vision disappears again. He trusts his senses to guide him but he slams into a large creature. "Sorry Kung," he mutters as he fumbles past the big half-orc before finding the wall and following it with his hand. He launches into a rowdy song about a group of ne'er-do-wells fleeing from a tavern that they've smashed up during a brawl.

Inspired rage starts automatically, two Move Actions to double move, as I can't fail the DC 10 Acrobatics check to move at greater than half speed while blinded.
I'll try to save against Maddie's glitterdust at the end of my turn.

Will save vs glitterdust: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (9) + 16 = 25

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

Maddie will fire off a Disrupt Undead at one of the Cyclopses then retreat as well.

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
Damage Roll: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Ranged Touch Confirmation Roll: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
Damage Roll: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Still blinded, Niobe also tries to hightail (heh) back out of the room at half-speed.

So, can we see in this area or are we completely blinded?

Well you save every round for Glitterdust, so *Handwave* you can all see now.

Kung pushes off the blindness, still marveling at the strange sights he saw inside the chamber. How see when blind, but not see when see? This magic too much for Kung!

When his vision returns, of course his first instinct is to fight these new foes. Gory, decrepit versions of the cyclopses they'd been fighting all day. Even as his pegleg begins to tap sharply on the stone floor, and his personal will succumbs to that of his blood, a small part of him begins to laugh inside at the sight of the glittery dust that still shimmers over all of his companions.

I'm assuming that, since we're not blind anymore, we have to wait for them to leave the chamber before we can attack them? If so, Kung has nothing else he can do during this round. If not, I'll post an action for Kung.

Stoneskin, heroism, and grand destiny all have long durations (10 min/level) so I'm assuming they're all still active; please let me know if they've expired and I'll adjust stats spoiler below accordingly

No, the walls are immaterial for a minute once someone has entered the chamber. You can attack now if you wish. Way too many variables to keep track of over the days it would take on a PBP, so I"m trimming it down a little.

Kung rushes right back up into the strange chamber, his aim intent upon one of the zombie giants. He draws back his greatsword and slashes it hard.

Jane, Niobe. You bath can see now, what are you doing?

Niobe blinks her eyes several times, then upon the realization of the dangerous attackers, she incants a spell - those paying attention recognize that it seems similar to the produce fire spell that she cast before, but the incantation is longer and more complicated.

Suddenly a tremendous flame flickers into existence at her feet. It spreads in a roaring line to the south, engulfing the giant there, before doubling back, nearly missing Kung, and scorching the other giant!

Casting fire snake, sending the fire south and then doubling back north so that it hits both enemies. Since I can specify the path there is no risk of hitting party members.

Fire snake damage: 10d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 6, 1, 3, 6, 2, 1, 4, 1) = 30 (DC 20 Ref save for half)

Seeing the foe, Jane pulls out a potion of Fey Form and adds some stuff into it before drinking it. Changing into a Cold Rider

As Kung step into the chamber his steps slow as the binding magic of the place afflicts him.

So no attack from Kung as your action was to close.

Niobe shakes off the binding magic and blasts both the undead with a coiling serpent of flame.

Red manages to slip away from the fire, while Yellow takes it head on. Both seem to take less damage from the flames than they should have?

Maddie snaps a ray of magic at one of the undead, blasting it nicely as she retreats.

Marnir leads the way away.

The Undead's jaws gap open and they both breath a noxious cloud on Niobe & Kung.

Fort Kung: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (6) + 16 = 22
Fort Niobe: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Neither of the pair are blinded this round.

what are you doing now?

Sorry for the slowness, been busy as hell. Plus I lost my internet for 12 hours due to tech problems.