Fazgyn the trapper |
Fazgyn come out and jump at the prey to slash it down.
charge attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21
dmg: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
That'sss you come willingly, bigfoot. Get out from our sewer or die!.
GM Auke |
The next part is closing the portal definitely. After some research (trail and error) you find out the portal is indestructible from this side, so you all have to find the focal point on the other side.
After you all step through the portal in the sewers of Absalom, you arrive the streets of Shadow Absalom. This shifting city is an imperfect mirror of its Material Plane counterpart, with many regions and districts of its own. The streets of Shadow Absalom are a forlorn affair; the city lacks the bustling avenues one would expect to find in a settlement of its size. You are dumped into an abandoned alley, right across from a boarded-up shop whose peeling sign reads “Organs and Sundries.” This side of the portal looks identical to the side that you entered.
After you depart the confines of the alley, you notice that roughly half of the city’s populace consists of fetchlings, while the remaining half includes a wide variety of unfamiliar humanoid species. Unlike cities of the Material Plane, the streets of Shadow Absalom are accommodating to most species, kobolds included, so you have no problem blending in.
Mystic Seeker |
- Yes, but I believe we can leave you in that Organs store if you would like to.. I think, chief didn't send that we all should return, - Varanog tries to investigate the focal point on the Shadow Absalom side.
Fazgyn the trapper |
Fazgyn enter portal being the last kobold doing that, not before he loot his prey.
And this place seems really nice and shoddy. More opportunities arrives.
-Pretty niccce. But can any scalymate remember if our missssion detailsss say sssomething about this place? Very sssad we lossst this poisoned Bigfoot Drundle
GM Auke |
Perception
Athrax: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Engashez: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Fazgyn: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
Pethjun: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Skyrahk: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Varanog: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Knowledge(local)
Athrax: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Engashez: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Fazgyn: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Pethjun: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (2) + 0 = 2
Skyrahk: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (12) + 0 = 12
Varanog: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
GM Auke |
- Actually I like it here. Do we really have to close the portal?
Engashez is boiling with creativity, thinking of a new song to write.
While thinking of a new song to write, Engashez remembers hearing other songs and reading some tomes about Shadow Absalom.
10+: The city is called Shadow Absalom and is located on the Shadow Plane. As its name would suggest, the city rests at a coterminous point with Absalom’s location on the Material Plane. The locals are used to strangers winding up in the city, by mistake or by odd turns of fortune.
15+: The great wyrm umbral dragon Argrinyxia, the Shifting Lady of Ebon Scales, rules Shadow Absalom. By her decree, planar portals and gateways are prohibited within the borders of the city without her blessing. The sole exception is a stable planar portal located in the city’s heart, a site that matches up with the Material Plane equivalent of Starstone Cathedral. Those lost in the Shadow Plane are urged to exit via the strange portal in the city’s heart, as it always returns those who entered the Shadow Plane to their previous point of entry.
20+: While dozens of factions operate within the planar city, two are of interest to your expedition. The Onyx Alliance maintains several safe houses and bases within the city. The alliance’s headquarters is probably located somewhere within the city, though only its members know for sure. A second organization, known as the Light-Weavers’ Guild, is comprised of several resident d’ziriak hives that make their living by adding luminescent accoutrements to clothing and armor. The light-weavers maintain a longstanding grudge against the Onyx Alliance, based on some past slight unknown to the people of Shadow Absalom.
25+: Asking around you find out that one of Argrinyxia’s lesser spawn—the wyrmling Shadrixis—has made some bargain with the forces of the Onyx Alliance. The exact details of the arrangement are unknown, but many suspect that the wyrmling has sought to spite his mother by assisting the Onyx Alliance. Others comment how Shadrixis stole one of his mother’s scales, the key to opening planar portals in the city.
Mystic Seeker |
- Probably, we need to find that Shadrixis and bring him to his mother alive, so she could punish him. You mentioned Light-walkers, they might have some information on where we can find him.
Fazgyn the trapper |
-Agree. Letsss move and find some alliess or at leassst a guide. I cant be in charge during navigate here.
Fazgyn is very suspicious right now. Its very interest place but too peacefull to be true... and no cellings here.
Auke Teeninga |
-Agree. Letsss move and find some alliess or at leassst a guide. I cant be in charge during navigate here.
Fazgyn is very suspicious right now. Its very interest place but too peacefull to be true... and no cellings here.
Well, it's actually not that 'peaceful'. For instance there are half-dozen fetchlings in rags slump against the sealed entrance of a church bereft of iconography. Each of them partakes in a ritual involving crushing crystalline prisms that, when broken, emit vibrant, multicolored light. The light moves into the fetchling’s eyes, absorbing like water down a drain. This light is a potent drug making its way through Shadow Absalom, provided by renegade d’ziriak light-weavers. Each of the fetchlings is highly addicted, and is only able to maintain incoherent conversations.
Also four sacristan kytons create an unerringly equidistant perimeter around a single elven child who skips along the empty streets of the city. The procession is frustratingly elusive, as they always appear just at the edge of vision. If confronted, the sacristans turn with great grins, simply stating “This one is for Vevelor of the Broken Dream.” Immediately following this proclamation, the kytons fade into darkness, as the child skips ahead out of sight.
All kinds of weird things on this plane, but it's true that nothing is attacking you.
Pethjun The Muscle |
Pethjun makes a step into the street and catches someone who is looking peacefully enough to not attack everyone on sight - Rrr.. who is in charge here?
Diplomacy: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 = 5
GM Auke |
Pethjun makes a step into the street and catches someone who is looking peacefully enough to not attack everyone on sight - Rrr.. who is in charge here?
[dice=Diplomacy]1d20-1
As Pethjun steps into the street a insect like creature steps out of the shadows in the alley.
Her mandibles chitter and her body humms ominously as you hear her voice in your heads.
"Chitter, Chitter, Humm"
[telepathy]"Hello there friends. It seems you and I have the same objectives. My name is Y’zilix and I'm a member of a group opposed to the Onyx Alliance."[telepathy]
GM Auke |
[dice=Sense Motive]1d20+13
- How do we know, you are telling the truth.
"Humm, Chitter, Humm"
[telepathy]"If I were Onyx Alliance I would have send for reinforcements as soon as you came through the portal. Instead I observed you to determine your intentions."[telepathy]For the full artwork of the creature log onto roll20 and go to journal, handouts, D'Ziriak
GM Auke |
"Humm, Chitter, Humm, Chitter, Humm, Chitter, Humm, Humm"
[telepathy]"The imbeciles of the Onyx Alliance disregard the rules of our city’s matron, the great Argrinyxia. She has forbidden the creation of any planar gateways without her express consent—consent only given in the form of one of her vaunted scales. Unable to retrieve such a blessing on their own, the alliance managed to trick one of great Argrinyxia’s whelplings into stealing such a scale. Now, that misbegotten child, the wyrmling Shadrixis, has been gifted a lair as an offering from the Onyx Alliance. Were you to retrieve the scale and slay the whelping, then it would be a simple matter to close the portal that intrudes on your world. Of course, this would also accomplish my goals."[telepathy]
GM Auke |
"Humm, Chitter, Humm, Chitter, Humm, Chitter, Humm, Humm"
[telepathy]"My involvement must remain strictly confidential. As such, I can only guide you to the lair of Shadrixis. I cannot risk my involvement being discovered by the Onyx Alliance. The umbral wyrmling is like most children of his species, indolent and insufferable. As a dragon, he wishes to be fawned over, but despises his lesser role in the great machine of Shadow Absalom. As for his dwelling, the Onyx Alliance provided for him a great spire to roost upon—a spire built on a hive of my people, destroyed by the alliance during one of their many expansions in the city."[telepathy]
She guides you until the dragon’s newly bequeathed home is within sight.
"Chitter, Chitter, Humm"
[telepathy]"I suggests that you rest first if you are currently not at full strength. Even a wyrmling dragon is a formidable foe."[telepathy]
GM Auke |
-And what Argrinyxia would tell if we say we are going to kill her whelping?
"Chitter, Chitter, Chitter"
[telepathy]"Hypothetically speaking, if a queen would spill milk, you would not expect her to clean it up herself. This would clearly be unworthy of her personal attention. The milk would clearly have gone bad, so it would need to be removed before it would go rancid and would stink up the place."[telepathy]GM Auke |
- Good idea. Any place, where we could rest?
She suggests an inn. If you go there you meet three well-equipped adventurers. They approach you, asking for directions to the center of town. The party consists of a proud knight named Sir Melnas, his trusty companion Yong (foo horse), a scarred duergar her companions call The Unbroken, and a regal, dark-skinned Ekujae elf called
Larinor Arthrin, who is guiding the group with a magical portable astrolabe. The group is not at all disturbed by the your presence or monstrous nature, and Sir Melnas acts with nothing but civility when asking for directions; meanwhile Larinor attempts to hurry her group onward. After about a minute, the worried elf demands that her compatriots move along, as she believes that “Aslynn’s minions are not far behind, and we must make haste to Galisemni.”You rest up and you can prepare new spells/extracts if you want.
Please post your new spell/extract list if you do so.
Fazgyn the trapper |
Fazgyn continue to be suspicious, but anyway kobolds should make their deal and need some information and some contacts here. And inn is a good place for such a business.
So he prefer to be closer to duergar, overall its rare race. So Fazgyn listening for gossips and watching at "Unbroken" site with interest.
He drew part of Onyx Alliance loot and decided to sell it out not for coin but for impression and attention.
Being under questions about the stuff, Fazgyn ready to lie a bit...
GM Auke |
Next morning you travel to the dragon's hideout:
A soaring edifice of darkened violet stone looms in the city’s skyline, some four hundred feet above. Jet-black dirt extends a hundred feet around the tower in a sizable mound that obscures the spire’s base. Engraved in the hills around the tower are strange symbols, each the size of a standing human.
There are no visible entrances to the tower, though a single tunnel descends into the hill surrounding the spire.
See right side of current map. One square = 10x10feet
Fazgyn the trapper |
- Scalymatess. Can someone interpretsss those symbolsss? What is the meaning, I sssee no ssenssse.
But, if we are looking for true dragon, it able to fly in and out, so the enterance mussst be high. Can someone become a ssspider to climb and investigate? I would love to, but no such a portion available... Just can sssee around closer
Is it difficult to climb here up?
GM Auke |
The tower itself would be very hard to climb. There is a single tunnel which leads to the base of the tower proper.
Mystic Seeker |
K(a): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
- I'd prefer to use tunnel, kobolds are not ment to fly so high, unless they find way to unleash power of true dragon.
GM Auke |
The underground tunnel opens up into what was once a vast circular chamber. Portions of the northwest and southeastern sections of the room have collapsed. Three pillars rise up twenty feet to a stone ceiling above, each of their sides covered in black marble polished to a reflective sheen. A perfectly spherical mirror floats in the air at the northern end of the space, roughly two feet in diameter. An audible hum emanates from the orb and echoes throughout the room.
Map Updated
GM Auke |
Athrax doesn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Mystic Seeker |
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
- I'd like to help you, but never seen something like that, - answered Varanog. Expecting things might go wrong, he used a wand to protect him with magic armor.
Fazgyn the trapper |
-Dont think its safety thing. Seemssss as slowfang for me. Think we should look for another way or invessstigate better this place.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20
Disable Device: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16
GM Auke |
Fazgyn looks at the orb, whatever it is. He notices that the mirrored pillars in this room do more than support the ceiling. It seems they also act as a focal point for the orb. It seems there once was a 4th pillar, but it got crushed.
Using the orb might be dangerous if not properly handled.
Fazgyn uses his skills to make the device safe again.
Retry
Disable Device: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24
After a second try he feels it should be safe to use the orb.
GM Auke |
The trapdetection of Fazgyn circumvented a complete combat encounter! DC was 20 :-)
that the device uses to complete its transportations now has a small hole that allows creatures from other regions of the Shadow Plane to slip through. Unless the PCs detect and fix this defect, activating the mirror gate creates an unexpected opening and attracts a pair of extradimensional shapechangers from a less-inhabited portion of the Shadow Plane.
Two Soulslivers. No match for a full group of Kobolds, but it would take time (they have mirror images) and resources (they explode when they die), so I'm glad he searched for traps and found it!
GM Auke |
To speed up to process I'll allow Knowlegde Arcana to find out what the orb does
Arcana
Engashez: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19
Varanog: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 Succes!
Fazgyn the trapper |
-Now its better. Sseemsss as we have prevented one danger, but still need a way through..or up. Ssshhouldn't we return to buy spider climb magic? Or exchange some taken ssstuff for it at least.
Rolling for ideas about enterance, no character sheet available now, so can't remember actual knowledge stats.
dungeoneering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
engineering: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
GM Auke |
You activate the orb, buff up and then all touch the orb again and are teleported to the top of the tower.
Crisp air swirls around the unguarded edges of the spire’s apex. Polished mirrored marble covers the circular floor, spreading out in a forty-foot radius. A pile of gleaming copper coins with a dragon-shaped indent rests on the northern end of the platform. Beyond the edges of the platform, the dim lights of the city below are visible, accented by multi-colored glyphs adorning the sides of what appear to be massive termite hives in the distance. A floating mirror-like sphere rests in the southern edge of the platform, while a larger sphere floats in the center. The central sphere lacks the mirror-consistency of the gate and instead swallows the already dim light of the region like a black hole.
A small shadow dragon is clutching a dragon scale in one claw and moves warily around the perimeter of the platform.
Mystic Seeker |
Cast mirror image from a scroll prior to departure. 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Varanog waits until his tribesmates are ready, before doing anything.