(2) A Haunting at Perdition's Point (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

I'll check for traps whenever we are advancing.

If you enter, please move yourselves on the map, and indicate your paths

I shifted Lineera and Cathran on the map to reflect the formation's planned pattern a bit more. Though I left Riley where he was since I wasn't sure he'd want to be in the room just yet.

I move straight forward 30' checking for traps as I go.

Updated Lineera and Riley on the map, assuming that Cathran's doing the same, but left her just in case.

As Riley moves forward, he finds a stairwell that leads up toward the 3rd floor. It does not lead down to the ground floor.

The lighting is near dark in the back by the obelisk, and the stairwell is pitch black, as is the end of the small hallway to the north.

Does Lineera manage to see much in the room? Or is the remaining darkness in the room supernatural darkness? Or are the blacked out areas behind walls or something?

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

Lineera see's fine. It's the Humans that can't.

A wave of heat suddenly rolls forward out of the stone obelisk, flooding the entire entryway, and blowing out the front door.

Fire wave: 3d6 + 3 ⇒ (1, 5, 5) + 3 = 14 DC 16 Reflex for half damage

Aw man! Me and my big mouth! :P

Reflex Save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Mahb manages to partially shield herself from the fire blast.

Reflex Save DC:16 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

Ref: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

Cathran feels a rise in the room's temperature, and realizes that it's coming from the strange obelisk a split second before an unbearable wave of heat rolls out of it. She manages to turn and cover most of her exposed flesh from it, but she can still feel the skin blistering under her clothes.

"What was that?" she cries from between gritted teeth. "And more importantly, is it likely to happen again?"

If the Obelisk's effect was magical, can I figure out what it did with a spellcraft check?

You can make a Kn(Arcana) DC 15 check combined with a Perception DC 15 to get an idea of what happened, your low-light vision would have given you a split second to see what was happening before the fire wave went out.

I'm assuming those checks rely on having low-light vision so I can't make them.

Mahb moves in cautiously and listens at the door before trying to open it.

Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

And I believe we're waiting on a Reflex save from you, Riley (just making sure we're all on the same page)

"Ough... Why can't we ever just walk into a place and not have it well defended? I'd like to have the upper hand, just once y'know?"

Mahb needs to make a reflex save as well, the blast went out the door and another 20 feet beyond her. And yes, waiting on Riley's reflex save.

Uh... you mean this save?

Reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

DoH! Yes, that save. :) I'll post updates later tonight or tomorrow (game night)

Eva had been in the process of pulling out an alchemist fire, holding it in one hand as she climb the stairs. Not long after she saw her friends enter, fire blew out the door and past the end of the landing! Running up the stairs worried, "Are you all okay?" Peaked in the door worry all over her face.

"Not sure if 'okay' is the right word, but we're alive." Lineera looks fairly obviously worse for wear. "Don't suppose you got something for this, Eva?" 'This' being gestured as more or less all over herself and the nasty bit of burning that's happened.

I'm assuming those checks rely on having low-light vision so I can't make them.

Mahb moves in cautiously and listens at the door before trying to open it.

Perception 1d20+5

Sorry, missed this, my bad

Mahb listens, hears nothing, and opens the door. The inside of the room indicates it might once have been a 'fresher', but the room is completely covered in vines that are growing up out of the 'fresher'. One poor old skeleton is caught up in all the vines, as if the former owner died on the fresher and was never moved.

Mahb eyes the plant suspiciously, trying to identify it... just in case it is some sort of carnivorous or skeleton-making beastie.

If she can ID the plant as something harmless (or fails to ID it), Mahb will look through the room carefully and eventually physically search the room and skeleton, including looking down the toilet.

Knowledge: Nature 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27 (If not Nature then use this same roll for Arcana or Planes)
Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

Mahb backs slowly out of the room and shuts the door quietly. She looks to her allies, saying with gravity. "Touch no vines in this place especially if they have scythe-shaped pods. Am I clear?"

You said potions at -1 caster level if healing? so would that make the healing potions a 0 CL potion?

Pulling a healing potion out of her bag, Eva rushed over to Lineera worry all over her face. "Here drink this." Eva held up the potion for her to take.

I would have rolled but I was unsure how a CL 1 potion would be affected.

Eva looked to Mahb as she came back with her warning. "...very much so. Who knows what's living, or unliving, here..."

Yes, so instead of the potion being 1d8+1, it would be 1d8+0. If you made up an infusion of CLW, it would normally be 1d8+3, but because of the necromantic field, it would be 1d8+2

Healing Potion: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Lineera accepts the potion gratefully "Thanks." And immediately the burns fade from their previous strength. "Though I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm wrong about this place being intentionally defended anymore. Seems like setting off that trap would have triggered a response by now. Maybe we caught them napping?" Though the phrase is hopeful, Lineera's tone makes it clear she's not expecting things to be better. "Well if everyone's okay to move, I think we should keep investigating."

Mahb moves on to the other door on this side of the tower. Again she listens before attempting to open the door.

Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Mahb finds an old kitchen overgrown with black vines and moss. There are skeletons in this room as well, one bent over a counter with a meat cleaver in it's hand, held up by vines. A humanoid skeleton is on the counter, and at first glance, has several bones chopped into pieces, as if it had been butchered. A third skeleton is inside a large oven, a hand sticking through a broken glass window into the oven.

The vines do not have scythe shaped seed pods.

You can make a Kn(Arcana) DC 15 check combined with a Perception DC 15 to get an idea of what happened, your low-light vision would have given you a split second to see what was happening before the fire wave went out.

Well, I would give it a shot if I had any ranks in Kn. Arcana. Remaining in the dark (so to speak) it is, then. :P

Cathran sucks in air through gritted teeth at her burns, but makes no other noise as she follows Mahb to peer into what must have once been the kitchen. After a moment she growls, "I do not know what this place once was, but it would appear that no part of it has gone untouched by evil. This is a sickening place; if we were not pressed for time, I would suggest we bring an ensemble of clerics to cleanse and destroy this place."

Cathran indicates the door opposite from the kitchen's, and asks Riley to help her check it for any more old traps.
Taking 10 for a total of 20.
Once she's reasonably sure there are no traps to be found, she opens the door and looks in.

The room looks like it was an office of some kind, lo many decades ago. It is overgrown with moss and vines (green vines, no scythes). There's an old desk, at which sits a skeleton overgrown with moss and vines wearing remnants of a rusty chainmail shirt. A broken dagger is thrust through it's skull from the rear, the end of which (with a broken off tip) emerges from the skull's eye socket.

There are some weapon racks and an armor rack against the back wall, both overgrown with vines and moss.

Mahb eyes the vines and plants skeptically, trying to make sure they hold no nasty surprises before she searches the corpses in the kitchen and the room in general.

Knowledge: Nature 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22
Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

The moss and mold and vines in the kitchen are all what you'd expect in a swamp. There is some Fire Moss near the old oven, so open sparks or flames should not be used anywhere near that area if you want to avoid an explosion.

Searching the skeleton and the drawers that can be opened find a small collection of odds and ends.

7 gold pieces and 15 silver pieces in a drawer
9 gold pieces and 8 silver pieces in the vines under the standing skeleton
An old scroll tucked into the remains of the belt on the standing skeleton

BTW: I'm assuming you all have light sources, I need to know what you're using for light though. Lineera doesn't need it, obviously. But everyone else does I believe.

Mahb cast light on her Hanbo just before we walked in and will maintain it throughout.

Mahb collects the goods and tsks at the spell in the scroll. when she emerges from the kitchen, she shares her find. "Just some coins and a spell of Hideous Laughter (Arcane). I'll hold onto this stuff unless any of you would like to carry them."

Hideous Laughter isn't on my spell list... can anyone use it?

Cast Read Magic
Spellcraft 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

Nope, doesn't look like it's on anyone's list. Unless I picked up the Insanity patron next level; which I'm not really planning on doing. Also, dang, DC 23 for a first level spell? Must be a decently high caster level.

Thought it was a second level spell, oh well, we'll say it was done up as a 3rd level caster (DC to decipher a scroll is 20 + Caster Level), so it would have been 21 at minimum. Of course, since she cast Read Magic, that would have deciphered it for her, so no spellcraft check needed.

EDIT : I was right, it is a 2nd level spell. Only bards get it as a 1st level spell. This is a wizard/sorcerer scroll, 2nd level.

Eva, having entered darkness and the light from outside not being enough, activated a sunrod. Standing near the door, by Lineera, she listened to see if she heard any movement or strange noises. Taking 10 for a 17

And just so I'm clear, my Infusions are affected by the aura but not my Extracts?

Light Source: Sunrod

Anything that's based on curative magic, or has [good] in it, or uses Positive Energy is affected. Anything else isn't. So Cure Light Wound infusions or Channel Positive Energy are affected. Extracts of Haste or Darkvision would not be.

Eva hears all the normal noises you'd expect in a lifeless necromantic tower. The rustle of leaves, her own heart beat, soulfull noise made by low winds pushing past the open door.

With a grimace, Lineera turns to Eva and states, "Well, shall we?"

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

Lineera listens at the door in following with everyone else and opens it carefully.

There is no sounds inside the room, although the door is stout and heavy.

Inside are 3 sets of bunk beds, all overgrown with a scarlet lichen that's 2-3 inches thick. Skeletons lay on the beds, each dressed in rusty chainmail and rags. Each holds a long sword, but the long sword has been thrust down through the skeleton, pinning it to the mattress. The one on top is protruding 7 or 8 inches down past the mattress.

There are lumps of lichen that might be footlockers at the ends of the bunk beds, and what looks like possibly encrusted weapons racks against the wall.

"Uh, Mahb? It's not vines, but this still looks... funky? Can you take a look at this?"

Mahb, who was already watching from the main room, comes in. Her hard eyes look over the moss. "The vines I'm seein' in the other room are the kinds that seek the dead or grow in necromantic areas - some that don't do nothing and others a whole lot less friendly."

Knowledge: Nature 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21

Mahb runs her eye over everyone in the room, looking for open wounds. "If any of you are bleedin' - from a cut or slash - get out now. Dripping blood near this moldy lookin' stuff will cause us no end of grief. It's called Vampire's Coat for a reason... and you don't want it growin' into your body to feed on you."

After making sure she isn't bleeding, the hag moves into the room to help with the search.

Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Someone wanna check the footlockers for traps before we open them? I could see a slashing trap in this room to kick the Vampire's Coat into high gear... At least, that's the evil sort of bastardy thing I'd totally do. >:D Probably best to be wary of an animated weapons rack or skeletons.

Good idea Mahb! Casting Detect Poison to ensure if there are any poisoned traps, we know of 'em.

"We should probably begin destroying the skeletons as we go. At least their hands. Unless, you think that may trigger a response?" Lineera cautiously follows Mahb into the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

All that Mahb and Lineera find are lichen covered beds, racks, and footlockers. The footlockers are locked. Neither can tell if they are trapped.

Lineera does not detect poison on any of the footlockers

Do they seem free standing, or attached to the floor?

You should buy some syringes, Eva. Then just stand behind her and jab her in the butt with them. :)

I'm imagining the wand is just tucked into her belt for easy access. Also, tall half-elf means long arms, so I'm sure I could just get it from you. I don't know if it's any kind of action to crouch down and be fed a potion not on my turn, though; maybe that could work. :P

NO BUTT JABBING.

Okay, no butt jabbing. I'll just... make some epi-cures and go for the thigh! :3

I'd say our team's first priority should be getting Cathran back in action. I'll move ahead since next round I can move without triggering any AoOs, which combined with my fairly high AC should hopefully prevent me from getting the same Butt-Jabbing Cathran did. ;)

From there, I'd recommend that if anyone has effective ones handy, we all try to use bludgeoning weapons. Beyond natural armor, my concern is that these guys might be rocking some DR, and if so, I'm guessing it's bypassed by bludgeoning given their exoskeletons probably protect in similar fashion to regular skeletons.

Beyond that, I'd just say let's try to get the two who're holding the stairs down first, and keep trying to push our way out. Perhaps if you could start working towards the second one on the stairs while the rest of us focus on the first, Riley?

Huh. I would think piercing weapons would do better against an exo-skeleton, assuming these guys even have a weakness one way or another.

What I usually do is, if someone says they want to know about something, I'll check their skills and see if they have the right skill...

Cool. I'm down with that.

mdt wrote:

Eva Elsington wrote:

Why did people have to be so tall so she couldn't feed them potions? Oh the woes of being short.

Syringes... glutial areas...

Yep, though I need to pick some up first.

The only way I'll accept this is if Eva spends a feat for Proficiency.

You do realize that syringe and spear syringe are two different things, right? She's not going to be stabbing people with a spear. :)

I do, but with a syringe spear, Eva could butt-jab-heal even giants!

It's say if we go that route we give her throwing darts syringes, simple weapon proficiency after all, and she gets range! ;)

I've been skipping Aurora because she hasn't been posting. Aurora, if you're still here, please let me know.

Hey PbP friends,

I'm moving this weekend, so I may be without internet and time to post for a couple of days. I'll do my best to get on and post once a day, but we'll see what time permits.

I'm writing this for every game I'm in:

I'm deeply sorry I disappeared for as long as I did. As you may know I'm dealing with serious problems with my job, and in the past week I was hit with an issue after another, regarding work, family and health. I've been so busy I didn't have the time to even think about taking a few moments for myself. Of course, I should have posted as much way sooner than now, instead of just disappearing and leaving everyone waiting. Every day I would tell myself I had to take a few minutes to at least write a quick post about my inability to play, and every day something new and disastrous would happen that required dealing with without delay (yes, it's been one of the worst weeks of the last several years...)

My situation SHOULD be getting better starting next week, and I'll do my best to start posting again on Monday. Once again, I'm very sorry for disappearing like I did, and I hope I didn't cause too much trouble.

Hope to see you next week! :)

No problem, life happens.

Ouch, can't believe you got hit twice in a row like that. Hope you're hanging in there.

Game fall down, go boom... :(

Yeah people, come on! Can we at least call role here? You've made mdt sad! >:(

Sorry, took my first non-working weekend in a while for myself. Wanted to rest and wrap my mind back around not only my characters but my dm plans for other games.

I've been delaying to see what folks do. For casters, it is easier to know where to throw your weight after you see how things are going.

Waiting my turn.

Mahb, the problem with that is, you need to post 'holding my action' or something, as I'm waiting for that post to move on, which is holding up Riley's action.

Riley, go ahead and move. Aurora is iffy, and Cathran was moving, so may not have ISP yet. Mahb was apparently holding.

When I post up order of actions, it's more to do with who gets to go before the NPCs, and who gets to go after the NPCs. For this round, everyone goes before the NPCs, so just post.

My apologies for not making that clear for the new guys, I think the old hands already knew that.

My mistake. Apologies.

And while we've had our rocky spots, here's to us people, we've officially broken into the thousand posts mark in game!

*Thread crashes with her party canons playing her kazoo* *confetti everywhere* Yay! Celebration! Thread party!

*twirls and dances scarves spinning around her* *bounces around all excited*

*Snrk* oh Eva... THREAD PARTY! CUE THE DISCO LIGHTS!

Yay! I may not have contributed as many of them, but I read them all! :3

I'm mortified beyond belief.

Just when I thought the worst was over and I had pulled through, it went all down to hell. Suffice to say I'm looking for a new job, and possibly in a few days a new home. Saying I've been miserable the past few days would be an understatement. To avoid falling into depression, I'm taking a few days off job-hunting and so on to 'reorganize my life', so to speak... Paradoxically, this means I should be able to spare the time to play a little bit! At least it'll cheer me up some! :)

Right now I really need some sleep, when I get up I play to come back, read all about what I missed and finally post something.

Thank you all for your patience!

Ugh, well as honestly sorry to hear that as I am, I'm also really glad to hear that. I'm honesty back in school right now myself because I failed to get out of my last terrible job quick enough and suffered a bad enough psychotic break that I had to basically duck down and hide from the real world for a time. Still am trying to get back on my feet from that one.

Suffice it to say, I think you made the right choice, even if it's one hell of a hard one to make. Hope things steady out for you soon Aurora, hang in there and I'm glad to hear you're coming back!

Life events are always hard. You hit bottom, pick yourself up, and climb back up again. I've done that twice now. So far, things are looking much better this time. It'll work as long as you don't give up, although sometimes it'll be easier to believe than others.

Checked the loot list; the last edit before mine just now was a day before we knew the ship fare, so I subtracted out the cost of half the passage and 6 gold we spent on an inn. I took a hefty amount out of our silver and copper coins.

Thanks for sorting that Cathran!

And I'll be getting game posts up later today mdt.

Also, Aurora: I'm very sorry to hear that. I just moved to a new place myself, and it was out of necessity rather than choice. It feels awful, I know, and it sounds like you're having an even harder time. I'm glad that you're still thinking of us, and I'm really looking forward to your posts! You can do it.

Yes, thank you Cathran.

Also Aurora/Elena, maybe the changing of things will work out better in the long run. One can pray and hope that everything will be better soon and just know you are in my thoughts.

After a weekend of no internet, I'm ready to get some posts up! Though good thing is the snow and ice from the storm that hit yesterday/today didn't take out my power!

Kind of been giving you room to RP or do things in Town, anything beyond the visit to the alchemy shops? If not, I'll start those and we can move forward.

What time did we arrive in Vauntil? Will the next ferry be the morning or evening one?

EDIT: Oh, also, Cathran can give Eva some money to pick up some alchemist's fires, unless she has time to make them herself. Or maybe some acid.

How much time was it that we were in PP before we left. I know I made some then, but I didn't do all the calculations because I was working like crazy. I did some math, I just want to make sure my time is reasonable.

It was cure potions, acid, alchemist fires and sunrods that I was making at the time.

And I'll pick anything up you want Cathran ^^

Probably one alchemist's fire and one acid flask would do for now. It'll be good to have some touch AC, ranged, and AoE weapons around. Once we figure out how much you crafted back in PP, I'll subtract the crafting gold from Cathran's purse.

I thought it was two weeks, but it may have been three. I would have made all I could during that timeframe. My brain is a little fuzzy on the time there.

From the time of the 'boss fight' to leaving PP, it was 4 weeks.

Two weeks of rebuilding, recovery, repair, then RP, then two more weeks, and then everyone set out.

Should i assume the lack of posting means you're ready to go to Calphas? Or did someone want to do something else in Vauntil?

I'm good to go, just waiting on a response from Aurora. I think I'll get 2 alchemist's fires and 2 acids from Eva's crafting spree (I thought they would be more expensive, but now that I see how cheap they are, I decided to double down).

I've just been busy ^^; I was going to get some alchemy things. I just had to do RL things after work last night and coming into work early this morning. It's been one of those busy phone days because of the end of that one project that had me so busy the last 2.5 months. It's finally over! Completely! Now... to just get back to my normal (and for some moved up drastically) deadlines.

Sorry mdt, got into run off caffeine crunch time. Should have said something though. Will make one more post, but I'm ready to keep pushing forward.

I'm sorry folks, been sick for most of the week. Been trying to keep up, but as the week has gone on, it's gotten harder and harder. I'll do my best to post a few times a week until I'm over this.

No problem and get well!

I'll echo Mahb on that one, as I've said to everyone, it's more important that you take care of yourself than play this game. I mean I enjoy playing this game a lot, but it's no reason to turn this into a chore rather than a game! :)

No worries, feel better!

Sorry about the delay, long day at work.

So, the plan now seems to me to be:
-send some people to find the temple
-send some people to find lodgings
-go to bed and get the amulets destroyed in the morning

That about right?

So, the plan now seems to me to be:

-send some people to find the temple
-send some people to find lodgings
-go to bed and get the amulets destroyed in the morning

That about right?

-Cathran and Lineera give Lucky a back massage