Perception:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 Epic Fail... if the Will save only affects humanoids, remember that Willem can choose to ignore it as if he were an animal. Will Save:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Willem looks at all the foliage covering what must have been a beautiful castle at one point. He shakes his head slowly, lamenting, "This place must have been a grand spectacle at one point. It would be a sad day of it was destroyed because no one saw fit to restore it rather than fight over it."
So I re-read the way this works, and actually no one will need to make saves, at least not just yet (its actually going to end up being a Fortitude save not a Will save, when it comes up). Those who did succeed on the Perception check get to act in the surprise round, however.
The Pathfinders' attention is drawn upward by the sound of boots scraping and pounding on the sandstone wall. Looking up, they witness a ghostly manifestation of a terrible scene.
In the spectral projection they see rough-looking warlords in furs and horned helms dragging a Taldan man to the top of the middle tower, his hands bound, and tossing a noose around his neck before pushing him off the tower and dangling him for all to see his death throes, as he dances on air.
The scene quickly shifts to later, and you watch as the man, now dead, is cut down and allowed to drop to the courtyard with a thud. He is then unceremoniously sealed into the base of the tower, no proper burial for either Taldan or Issian.
This entire scene is seared into the minds of those who witness it in mere seconds. Then, the ghostly hanged man appears again, severed rope dangling from his blackened throat, his eyes bulging as they regard the Pathfinders. He floats about 15 feet off the ground, aside the tower where he was hanged.
The ghostly hanged man's eyes fix on the Pathfinders below, and they can almost feel the hate in them.
Knowledge (religion) DC 15:
You suspect that this apparition is a haunt, which is a hazardous region created by unquiet spirits that react violently to the presence of the living. The exact conditions that cause a haunt to manifest vary from case to case—but haunts always arise from a source of terrific mental or physical anguish endured by living, tormented creatures.
Unlike most undead, it cannot be harmed except by positive energy, and even if it is neutralized, it will return unless specific conditions are fulfilled that cause the soul or souls involved to finally be at rest, and the haunt to be destroyed.
Yes, cure light wounds would work. The haunt is manifesting throughout the courtyard, so you wouldn't really need to do more than activate the wand, and basically touch it to the air.
The unfamiliar feeling of recognition jolts through the monk. "I know what this is!" He then snaps his wrist, allowing a concealed wand to fall into his hand.
Swift action to draw Wand of CLW from wrist sheath.
The apparition of a hanged man glares at the group once more, hissing with anger, and chooses four of them to target with its fell magic. As the spectral Taldan points at them one by one, Maxime, Bo, Glorne, and Uzziah are lifted from the air by some invisible force. Then, each of them feels a tightening around their throat, as if a noose is being drawn up.
The levitate effect doesn't have a saving throw (its mainly just for flavor, I think), but all four of you can act normally in relation to it, other than being suspended in the air 15 feet off the ground. However, the second part does require a save: suffocation. Maxime, Bo, Glorne, and Uzziah need to make Fortitude saves or they will begin to suffocate as the air is pulled from their lungs.
GM Rolls:
Uzziah, Glorne, Barbo, or Willem:1d4 ⇒ 2
Uzziah, Barbo, or Willem:1d3 ⇒ 1
Summary:
Surprise Round Maxime (channel), Bo (drew wand), Haunt (triggered), Uzziah (up)
Round One Willem (up), Maxime (up), Barbo (up), Bo (up), Haunt (not yet up), Πολυμάθεια (not yet up), Glorne (not yet up), Uzziah (not yet up)
Uzziah gets a move or a standard action in the surprise round, then Willem, Maxime, Barbo, and Bo may act in the first normal round.
Willem looks as his companions are lifted into the air, shaking his head between them as he then focuses on the apparition. Hoping the magic in his blade will help, he charges the thing, sword clearing its sheathe.
Not sure if I can reach him at this point, but of so, Willem will strike. Sword Strike:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 231d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Bo and Uzziah, like Glorne, are able to shake off the worst of the spell's effects, but Maxime is not so fortunate. She clutches at her throat in panic as she realizes she cannot breath. Moments later, her body goes limp, as she goes unconscious, still dangling in the air.
As Barbo unleashes more positive energy into the air, the spectral figure begins to grow faint, as if it will soon be temporarily vanquished.
Willem swings his blade at the ghostly presence, but even if he could reach the focus of the haunt, the hanged man, his blade seems to be useless against such a threat.
Bo, Uzziah, and Glorne are merely staggered, but Maxime is currently suffocating.
Summary:
Surprise Round Maxime (channel), Bo (drew wand), Haunt (triggered), Uzziah (drew wand)
Round OneBarbo (cure light wounds), Willem (failed to attack haunt), Maxime (suffocating), Bo (up), Haunt (not yet up), Πολυμάθεια (not yet up), Glorne (not yet up), Uzziah (not yet up)
Haunt- 17 damage
Willem and Bo may act, though Bo is staggered. Maxime needs to make another Fortitude save. She is currently at 0 hit points and unconscious.
Even as his magic blade sliced through the image as of it wasn't even there, Willem knew it wasn't going to work. Instead, he looked back and saw his companions struggling to breathe. The Taldan woman was suffering the most. The problem was, he had no way of reaching her.
Frustrated, he searched his backpack for rope to tie a lasso as quick as he could.
Willem has no real way of helping that i am aware of, without being able to reach any of them. Going to try lassoing Maxine down.
As Maxime fights off the ill-effects of the spell, the four Pathfinder who were levitated slowly float to the ground. The effects of the haunt seem to have passed, at least for now, though the haunt itself still needs to be laid to rest.
There are only two other things of note in the courtyard. The first is that the earth in front of the westernmost of the two fountains is soft and ready to collapse. Luckily you avoided that path of ingress.
The second is in regard to the architecture of the keep. Red stone wraps around the interior side of the keep's walls, while thicker gray walls reinforce the exterior’s perimeter. Deep fissures in the ground reveal slabs of white marble with strange, intricately carved patterns hidden underneath the keep’s foundation.
Knowledge (engineering) DC 22:
The interior walls appear to be older and made from stone native to Taldor, while the exterior walls are newer and carved from local stone.
Knowledge (history) DC 24:
The exposed marble floors bear symbols found in ancient cyclops temples.
Other than possibly dealing with the haunt, and healing Maxime (who is at 0 hit points and unconscious), all that remains here is to explore the lower levels.
Barbo takes down Uzziah's notes on the walls, then goes to look at the patterns.
Knowledge (History):1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13
"Looks like nonsense to me! Can anybody make heads or tails of this?" He makes a point of looking at the fissures and the marble they used to cover, then moves on. He moves to the tower and begins to look for signs of where the wall was put up to cover the poor man's body. "We should lay this man's body to rest. If we can find a way into this wall, we may be able to give him proper burial. I would hate for less seasoned adventurers to wander in here." He shakes his head and examines the wall.
Willem runs to check on each of the other Pathfinders before going to gather up his rope. "This place seems to have plenty of defenses of its own. The sooner we finish our exploration, the sooner we can get back and keep people away from here."
@GM the herbs found earlier could they be used to make the cure for the disease ?
It has mostly been flowers you've found so far, and those who made the Knowledge (nature) checks don't think they would help with the disease.
Barbo Beezle wrote:
"If we can find a way into this wall, we may be able to give him proper burial. I would hate for less seasoned adventurers to wander in here." He shakes his head and examines the wall.
In order to recover the Taldan man's bones from the base of the tower without causing structural damage, you'll need to succeed on a Sleight of Hand or Knowledge (engineering) check.
With Uzziah's guidance, the group is able to carefully exhume the body buried at the base of the central tower. The skeleton is still wearing a jeweled surcoat worth 800 gp and a signet ring. The coat of arms on the signet ring prominently features the symbol of a hart.
With nothing more to explore on this level, the Pathfinders return to the back of the keep and descend the stairs to the lower level. The ceilings here are 15 feet high. A little light comes into the first room they enter, but the rooms beyond are shrouded in darkness.
Rows of tiered casks fill this cellar. Faded frescoes adorn the smooth walls, depicting white-robed figures supplicated themselves to red dragons flying above their heads. Strange writing is painted along the ceiling in decorative runic script. Hallways branch off to the north, south, and west, while stairs to the east lead back up to the keeps upper level.
Linguistics DC 24 (or automatically succeed if you read Iobarian):
The faded words painted on the ceiling read "We await the Dragon's Return" in Iobarian.
Perception DC 22 (first to succeed):
You locate Sylvanna's missing copper eagle figurine lying under a row of casks.
Craft (alchemy) DC 22:
You pinpoint the age and origin of the wine collection, which is of more recent Issian vintages, though still hundreds of years old.
Appraise DC 22:
The frescoes are Iobarian in design.
There are 4 casks of aged wine, worth 200 gp each, as well as a pair of goblets worth 20 gp each.
Uzziah takes a look around. He lingers on the writing for a bit, then the frescoes. Finally, he speaks up as he picks up something from a row of casks, "I imagine I know someone who would want this." It appears to be a copper eagle figurine.
Barbo is caught up in the ceiling. "We await the Dragon's Return... Huh. Who the heck made this place? Silly dragon worshipers. Just worship the sun like everybody else." He shrugs and walks over to the casks. "Hmmm.... Probably too rich for my old bones."
"There are a great many secrets to be found still. Why do these men fight over this land instead of attempting to learn their own history? It is actually rather sad."
A grin washes onto Uzziah's face. "And there," he holds up his index finger, "is the pinnacle reason of why some people can't be trusted to make decisions on their own. Because they make poor decisions. That is why we are here is it not? To help them make the right decision?"
Willem frowns at Uzziah's suggestion. "Maybe so, but who is qualified to determine what the right decision even is? Many wars have been fought on such a thing. The coming one included."
"Ah, such a simple view of black and white. No Lord Targerion, it is not a case of one or two individuals determining right, but several to many. Why, Taldor has a Senate for just that reason. And, of course, all of them intelligent people. That should be a qualification, intelligence. Why you, a militaristic man should, appreciate such a concept. Would you want orders coming from a smart or a dumb person?"
I assume this conversation is taking place as we walk in
Willem nods, enjoying the intellectual conversation. "This is a fair assessment, and yes, one should take orders from the more intelligent, but as we have seen, even the most intelligent may not have the sense to use it." He smiles tapping his forehead with his finger.
The archon detects two magical auras to the north, both conjuration, one faint and the other moderate. In the interest of keeping moving, I'll assume that you guys head in that direction since there isn't anything else drawing your attention and no one specified.
By the light of Glorne's ioun torch the Pathfinders continue to explore, heading north through a room filled with trash and offal, before coming into a damp chamber overgrown with foliage from top to bottom. Thin rivulets of water trickle down from cracks in the moss-covered walls, obscuring the original painted frescoes underneath. Patches of bioluminescent mushrooms festoon columns of shelves and fill the area with a dim glow, while a canopy of vines dangles from the ceiling. A stone podium enveloped in lichen stands on the south wall next to two mounds of fungus and pods.
As the Pathfinder enter the room, they notice that large areas are covered in a strange, pale yellow fungus.
Knowledge (nature) DC 16:
The fungus is yellow mold. If disturbed, a 5-foot square of this mold bursts forth with a cloud of poisonous spores. All within 10 feet of the mold must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or take 1d3 points of Constitution damage. Another DC 15 Fortitude save is required once per round for the next 5 rounds, to avoid taking 1d3 points of Constitution damage each round. A successful Fortitude save ends this effect. Fire destroys yellow mold, and sunlight renders it dormant.
However, Maxime and Bo see more than their companions. Lurking nearby in the corner of the room, nearly perfectly camouflaged in this verdant environment, is a strange woman with pitch-black skin, pointed ears, and white hair, though she is overgrown with green moss and pale fungus from head to toe. Tears stream down the cheeks of this beautiful but sullen creature’s eyes, forming a puddle beneath her delicate feet. Both Maxime and Bo are stunned by her melancholic beauty, and feel their minds race.
Knowledge (nature) DC 15:
Dark and moody cousins to nymphs, lampads sulk along natural caverns and dank tunnels, their weeping cries echoing through the darkness. These creatures are often found carrying light in caverns and dungeons, drawing creatures to them like moths to flame. Though they prefer the darkness, they know that exposing their forms under bright conditions gives them an edge over creatures viewing them.
Just as nymphs guard nature’s purest places and dryads protect their sacred trees, lampads watch over the dark places of the world. They speak to the stone that forms their murky world, and their forlorn cries ring out through the belly of the earth.
Creatures who observe the lampad's beauty can lose their minds, and those who hear them weeping are filled with dread. Weapons of cold iron are required to do them harm.
Knowledge (nature) DC 16:
This lampad is a fungal creature. A fungal creature is an animate plant with the appearance of a living creature. It grows from spores implanted in the dead body of a host creature, and takes on the host creature’s basic form and many of that creature’s abilities. It retains none of the memories of the creature it grew from, yet it instinctively knows how to use the abilities it inherited from its host. How exactly this is possible is a question that continues to befuddle scholars. The leading theory is that the spores’ precise modeling of their host succeeds in capturing some of the creature’s physiology—essentially copying its mind—but that for some reason the departure of the creature’s spirit or soul upon death prevents the spores from copying the memories as well.
Fungal creatures are often content to sit in quiet contemplation, absorbing the nutrients they require from the life-giving earth. But when faced with living creatures, the overwhelming biological need to reproduce takes over, and the fungal creatures try to seed their spores into new hosts to spawn the next generation of fungal creatures.
Fungal creatures have the general appearance of the base creatures from which they spawned, but their skin is pale fungus rather than flesh and blood. Mushroom caps and shelf fungi sprout from a fungal creature’s body, along with fungal gills to deliver the fungal creature’s spores. As with many types of fungi, a fungal creature’s flesh is poisonous, and any creature that ingests any part of a fungal creature’s body risks infection by its spores.
As plants, they have a number of other immunities.
Knowledge (nature) DC 20:
Lampads cast spells as a druid, though they cannot drop prepared spells to summon creatures.
Knowledge (nature) DC 21:
Fungal creatures can also release a choking cloud of spores that lingers in the air for some time, poisoning and infecting creatures that breathe the inhaled poison.
Bo also notices yet more. The huge mounds of fungus near the pedestal seem to be moving.
Knowledge (nature) DC 17:
A psychepore is a symbiosis of two different plant creatures—a lurching bit of undergrowth distantly related to the shambling mound and an intelligent cluster of hard fungal growths that possess a malevolent hive mind. On their own, the shambling undergrowth is an unintelligent creature, barely aware enough to move itself to new sources of sunlight and water, while the fungal conks, for their part, are intelligent but immobile. The two pose a serious threat only once the psychic fungus infests the shambling undergrowth, and the creatures transform into the horrifying psychepore.
Psychepores can launch poisonous razor conks, but it also delivers a poisonous spore cloud into the air when it is slashed or pierced. Creatures who are poisoned by the psychepore experience strange visions and hallucinations.
Knowledge (nature) DC 22:
A psychepore procreates through microorganisms in its poison, spreading into victims fungal spores that try to bond with that host’s physiology to create a new psychepore. Generally, the only creatures with which these spores can coexist are the shambles that form the base of a psychepore, but these spores also have strange effects on creatures that aren’t their typical hosts. Such creatures suffer from delusional visions as their minds try to assimilate or reject the images presented by the alien will of the strange symbionts, and their bodies desperately attempt to force the foreign spores out. Some cultures harvest psychepores to distill their poison into a powerful drug, using it in religious rituals that search for inner knowledge or in dark alleys as a temporary escape from cruel, short lives—or transforming it into a truth serum used during psychological torture and other types of interrogation.
Psychepores have DR 5/slashing.
Knowledge (nature) DC 27:
Most psychepores attack only in vain attempts to procreate, never seeming frustrated by their usually futile efforts, but more intelligent specimens pursue less direct but more fruitful approaches, often serving those who aid in gathering the undergrowth they need to replicate. There are rumors of even more highly developed and intelligent versions of these creatures that learn the secrets of telepathy and how to adjust their poison to replicate possession magic. These superintelligent psychepores become more aware of cultural structures and take great joy in manipulating other forms of life to achieve their goals.
Surprise Round Bo (up), Maxime (up), Lampad (not yet up)
Round One Willem (not yet up), Bo (not yet up), Maxime (not yet up), Barbo (not yet up), Psychepores (not yet up), Lampad (not yet up), Πολυμάθεια (not yet up), Glorne (not yet up), Uzziah (not yet up)
Maxime and Bo need to make Will saves against the woman's insane beauty, but then they both get to take a surprise round (either a move or a standard action). For right now, they are the only ones that see the creatures in the room, and the only ones that need to make saves against her beauty, and who can make the Knowledge checks, other than the one about the yellow mold which everyone can make.
F human (taldan) Paladin (Sacred Servant) 9 | AC 28 T 11 FF 22 | HP 79/79| F +14 R +10 W +11 | Init +1, Perc +12, SM +5 | Smite : 2/2
Know. (nature) - pale fungus - Archon:1d20 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15 Will:1d20 + 11 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 11 + 1 = 25
Maxime readies her shield swift action and target the creature with her ability to detect evil. I know if she's evil
With incredible reaction time, Bo draws an arrow from his quiver and fires it in one swift motion, sticking the darkling fey in the shoulder. Tears well up in the creatures face, and she begins openly weeping as she steps into the open for all to see. Everyone present feels a tug on their heartstrings, the sorrow is so palpable.
Glorne wrote:
I thought the Archon has constant detect Evil/Magic.
It does, but none of the creatures in the room are evil or actively using magic.
Summary:
Surprise Round Bo (hit), Maxime (detect evil), Lampad (wept)
Round One Willem (up), Bo (up), Maxime (up), Barbo (up), Psychepores (not yet up), Lampad (not yet up), Πολυμάθεια (not yet up), Glorne (not yet up), Uzziah (not yet up)
Lampad- 5 damage
Now the rest of you need to make the DC 18 Will save against her insane beauty (not Maxime and Bo since they already did) or be confused, and all of you need to make a DC 18 Will save against her weeping, a mind-affecting fear effect that relies on audible components. If you fail the first save, you are confused for 1d6 rounds as per the spell confusion. If you fail that first save, go ahead and roll the 1d6, and roll on the chart for being confused on your turn to determine what you do. If you fail the second save you are shaken for 1 minute, so be sure to factor that into any attacks and saves.
Also, everyone can now either make Knowledge (nature) checks, or take advantage of the results of the Knowledge (nature) checks on the lampad, since they can now see her. Technically Bo shouldn't have known to use a cold iron arrow since Uzziah (the only one who succeeded on a Knowledge check) hadn't seen the creature yet and couldn't relay what he knew. Now he sees it, but we'll assume that in the surprise round Bo fired a normal arrow, unless he fires cold iron by default which I don't think I observed before. Bo is still the only one who has noticed that the psychepores are animate, as well, though when they take their turn it will become clear.
Has it been 6 minutes since we entered the ruins? Not that many combat rounds have passed but I wasn't sure how long the investigating took. If it's been less, everyone gets +2 to their rolls from Good Hope]
Knowledge (Nature):1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26 Knowledge (Nature):1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23 Knowledge (Nature):1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30 Wait, psychopores have DR which affects bludgeoning weapons, but a defensive ability that pops against non-bludgeoning weapons? RUDE!
Barbo shakes his head. I haven't seen a beauty like that in decades... But beauty is pain, as she always said. The samsaran lifts a hand and whispers a magic word. Haste! You feel lightened as a result!
Everybody gets Haste!
Haste:
When making a full attack action, a hasted creature may make one extra attack with one natural or manufactured weapon. The attack is made using the creature’s full base attack bonus, plus any modifiers appropriate to the situation. (This effect is not cumulative with similar effects, such as that provided by a speed weapon, nor does it actually grant an extra action, so you can’t use it to cast a second spell or otherwise take an extra action in the round.)
A hasted creature gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. Any condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses.
All of the hasted creature’s modes of movement (including land movement, burrow, climb, fly, and swim) increase by 30 feet, to a maximum of twice the subject’s normal speed using that form of movement.
