DM Beckett's PFS 2 - 23&24: Shadow's Last Stand (1-2) (Inactive)

Game Master Beckett

The hills ringing Almas, capital of Andoran, slope gently toward the harbor cradling the Hornet’s Nest, the red sun rising behind them. This morning the ship’s activity rivals its namesake as Pathfinders and their agents bustle here and there inside the ship’s hastily constructed command post.

After a short wait, Venture-Captain Dennel Hamshanks rolls into the ship’s galley, his face scowling and dark eyes bloodshot. “You lot again? The Decemvirate promised better, but I suppose we have no time to waste. You have likely heard the rumors, which, unfortunately, underestimate our danger. The Society’s lodge in the former Cathedral of Aroden here has thrived of late, they say thanks to Venture-Captain Brackett’s grand parties, which seduce the weak-willed leaders of this so-called ‘democracy’ into permitting the Pathfinder Society unfettered access to the resources in the nation’s interior. Not likely you lot were ever invited, though. Needed to be of the presentable sort, after all."

“Last night, Brackett threw one of his most extravagant fetes yet to celebrate the recent return of a team of Pathfinders up near Falcon’s Hollow on a diplomatic mission to the region’s fey. Fillian over there claims that all the sparkling light made the Cathedral’s windows a stunning sight. Everyone was having a grand time until the trouble started. At the stroke of midnight, a dozen guests drew their swords and methodically massacred the others—poor, drunk fools. A moment later the lights went out. Fillian had been admiring the windows from the dome’s walkway and ran upward, to the belfry. Says he hid there until daylight and then crawled out to my ship here. He heard many others flee underground, followed by screams of agony."

Sitting on a bench on the wall behind you is a boy. He appears exhausted, and even a bit terrified, but as you look at him, he nods back at you, as the VC continues.

“Shortly before dawn, several bands of what looked to be hulking, cloaked hobgoblins left the Cathedral, taking off in different directions into the city. Not only do we need to retake our lodge and rescue any survivors, but whatever those monsters plan to do in Almas, it’s got something to do with the Cathedral. I imagine even you understand how that might look for the Society if something bad were to happen to the city at large, centered on our local headquarters."

“You can probably guess who’s behind this source of endless trouble this past year. We need that Lodge back, and we need Brackett alive. Time is not on our side here, and I fear it may already be too late for whatever those monstrous brutes left the Cathedral to do. According to Fillian’s tale, the best way in is the belfry. So your job is to get in there, kick the Shadow Lodge out, and keep Brackett alive. And put a stop to whatever ongoing plot you manage to uncover. Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Does anyone need to make any last minute purchases or ask any questions.

Sarephta nods as the Venture-Captain completes his briefing. Though she is accustomed to military discipline and drill, this is her first mission away from her religious order.

Those are dark memories...best forgotten.

She rouses from the thoughts that trouble her and responds to the orders.

"Of a certainty, a most dishonorable treachery has been committed upon the Society. We will discover the culprits, secure the cathedral, apprehend those responsible, and report back to you."

Rhuul, dressed in a fancy party outfit looks more and more distressed as the briefing goes on.

"Oh no. This is terrible."

His fingers are playing with a small card, and he checks it again in disbelief.

"I thought the party was today. Not last night."

Steeling himself for the inevitable he adds. "We must certainly rescue the captives!"

He rummages around in his travelling bag and pulls out a Pathfinder society flag. "For the Society! We will prevail!"

You can't help but feel just a little inspired by the well dressed dwarf.

"Do you have somewhere we can change?" he asks Hamshanks.

Flagbearer! Don't let the flag fall - +1 to hit and damage and save vs fear while he holds it. This is a morale bonus, so probably no need to memorise bless.

I've added a map. You can find a link at the top of the page, as well as under my DM avatar. Please try it out, and arrange yourselves in a sort of marching order.

Umaro sits and listens to the tale, his hands clenching as the tale continues.

"How would Hobgoblins get into the cathedral? And what would cause those guests to turn on one another." Umaor shakes his clean, cut head, showing off the elaborate Shoanti tattoo that disappears beneath his armor. "There are many questions that need to be answered, but we will find those answers."

On the way to the cathedral, Umaro will want o pick up a grappling hook. If the belfry is the best way in, we're gonna need to climb.

.

The jolly dwarf looks at Umaro and his question. "Maybe they wore fancy dress? Or at the very least formal dinner-wear to be sure."

He thinks harder. "As for the guests attacking each other. I suspect a shortage of dessert. The more sinister minded may suspect of course that they were hobgoblins disguised as dinner guests. For myself, I prefer to think about dessert than hobgoblins."

Dessert? That's the best answer you can come up with? The elven magus asks bluntly. Whatever the answer its pointless now. We have a job to do. Let's go do it.

Sarephta frowned at the discord between her new companions.

"We haven't much time for bickering. The assailants could be covering their tracks as we speak. We should leave at once."

Umaro stares at the dwarf for a few moment before laughing heartily.

"I suppose there is a chance that could have happened. But as my friend here says, it really doesn't matter now. Let us go and hopefully we can prevent more deaths."

The dwarf looks on in mock shock at Maldoc. "Inspirational. You have hit the orc on the head good elf. The point is, it doesn't matter - what does matter is that the party was disrupted."

He again fingers the now worthless invitation, discarding it into the harbour.

He proceeds to change out of his party finery and into a rather dashing suit of leathers. Even if he does think so himself. He also pulls a large dwarven waraxe from the same bag.

"Let us head off to the cathedral! Bessy here is ready to hew some goblins."

"It appears we are in agreement," Sarephta says. "Let us proceed."

It doesn't take long to reach the once cathedral of Aroden that now serves as the Almas Pathfinder Lodge, and you find ampule means to make quick purchases on the trip. The Cathedral of Aroden is a massive stone structure overlooking central Almas. Two solid towers flanking a pair of enormous bronze doors dominate the facade. The doors, with their glittering bronze carvings of Aroden’s ascension to godhood, welcomed the faithful in times past, but they now lead into Telfyr’s massive library. Above the doors stands a roughly circular stained-glass window with delicate looping stonework, a style known as a rose window. The main entrance is locked, and on a quick inspection, you are pretty sure also barricaded from inside.

A flat gray stone ledge runs along the edge of the cathedral’s roof, crisscrossed with rain gutters feeding the leering grotesques that ring the building. Toward the south side, the ledge surrounds a gently peaked roof above the long rectangular nave. Two solid towers jut upward at the south end, their severe stone sides broken only occasionally by narrow, barred stained glass windows.

At the north end a lofty dome covered with deep red copper shingles dominates the structure. The graceful edifice peaks in a twisting stone tower with a golden turret, from which the Pathfinder Society’s Glyph of the Open Road banner hangs limply in the still air. The tower has four large windows arranged vertically on each side, all protected by corroded iron grates. Through the grates hang several bells, ranging in size from large to gigantic.

Going around to the back, you find an easy path to climb up, and by doing so, you can travel along the roof to the tower with the belfry. Anyone that can make a DC 10 Climb check by Taking 10 makes it, but if not, please give me a Climb check.

I can make the climb check with taking 10. But I can't make that perception check!

Sarephta looks to her companions, unsure how to proceed.

"This doesn't seem defended by the intruders. Perhaps they have taken what they wanted and left."

But I can't make that perception check!

I'm sorry. :( You can till try to Aid Another. The scenario literally says "DC 5 Perception check to notice if they heard Fillian’s directions, or DC 25 otherwise)", and no one spoke to him about how he got out. I did ask if anyone wanted to ask questions, and no one did.

aid another perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Sarephta keeps looking for any way to advance, but everything looks like a dead end.

Yeah I guess we did just kinda run off. Oh well, note for self. Ask questions of survivors.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Umaro takes a quick glance around the belfry, "Ye, the front seemed to be protected but we should be able to get in here if the boy managed to get out. Hmmm now how did that little one get out?"

If we need to, Umaro can take 20 to find the grate.

Rhuul climbs easily up to the roof, and lowers a rope for any who finds the climb difficult. He looks around for the rope that he was expecting to find dangling, but doesn't see it.

Rhuul spends a couple of minutes assessing the situation. Carefully he scans the roof-top up to the Belfry

Eventually he spies the grate...

Take ten on climb for a success even with ACP. With +5 perception, Rhuul can eventually spot it by taking 20. (if that is permitted)

This dwarf acts more like a gnome. Terrific.

Maldoc takes a look around as they arrive at their destination. Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Just need a couple of helpers and I get there.

Taking a moment to scout out the area, you find a loose grate that leads into the belfry.

The belfry contains nine large bells hanging from a maze of wooden beams. Four relatively small bells hang from a beam at the tower’s top, with the others increasing in size toward the tower’s bottom. Weather and rust coat most of them, especially the seven-foot-wide behemoth of a bell at the tower’s base.

A complex network of scaffolding frames the bells, with each suspended from wooden sliders attached to a system of ropes and pulleys along the tower’s walls. These beams connect to scaffolding along the vertical chamber’s perimeter, allowing access to the bells above and a platform five feet below the giant bell’s bottom.

Sorry, got hung up with a coding project and didn't get things posted.

Kryssa draws her heavy flail and looks at the bells as if fighting off an inner urge to ring something. "I'm not going to hit the bells," she says more to herself than the others, "but I'm also not going to get rung by something hiding up here."

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Looking into the belfry, Umaro's eyes move along the bells and down to the scaffolding.

"Hmmm, looks like getting down unnoticed might be a problem if those bells go off."

"Stop!"

Calls out Rhuul with some urgency.

"There is a warning device here..."

He points it out:
"There a trap installed here, and very recently. It looks like it's designed to trigger sort of like a trip wire, causing all of the bells to ring in unison if too much pressure is placed in the wrong area. It may be possible to disarm it, but otherwise everyone is going to need to be very careful as they climb down or everyone inside the cathedral is going to know we are here"

Looiking at Kryssa he adds "I doubt anyone is here if they have such a trap. Maybe they are short on numbers."

"Or short on alarms."

"If you have the capacity to disarm the trap, please do so, Rhuul," Sarephta suggests. "It seems the best course through this mess."

"Sorry lass. Me dwarven eyes are keen, but me fingers are not made for that type of work."

He looks hopefully around the rest of the group. "I don't suppose any of the rest of you would have the skills? Otherwise maybe tying a rope off up here and climbing directly down, thus avoiding the trip wire altogether may be the best option."

"Any way we can step past it without climbing down?"

Sarephta considered all the possibilities.

"It appears that we may not have the capacity to disarm this trap, and there is a danger that we might set it off. Perhaps we should consider another possibility: purposely setting it off. If we have one of us in the open that sets the trap off, and the rest of us in hidden positions, we might turn this ambush on its ear."

Rhuul shakes his head.

"They may send someone up, or just all go onto alert. I think just bypassing it is safest. We drop a rope down and don't go near the alarm at all."

Does it look like this is actually a viable option DM?

I'm open to interesting ideas. You could also try to maybe Acrobatics down without hitting the bells, maybe even lower people down by rope without touching the scaffolding. If no one can Disable Device, maybe you have some gear you might be able o use to rig the bells or muffle them. I don't think anyone has a silence spell.

Nope no silence spell, and no disable skill. How far down is it to the ground from where we are DM?

"Hmm, I would rather not ring the bells. Those that are hiding in here may come to investigate, or they may run, or they may take whatever survivors there are left and use them as hostages." Umaro looks around the belfry trying to come up with something. "I think our best bet is to lower people down. Unless everyone if feeling nimble."

It's pretty far down to the ground floor, but there is a floor in the room that's only about 10ft or 15ft down. I've updated the (non-combat grid) map if that helps.

"If we are to descend, it appears to me we should do so a floor at a time, rather thank risk falling all the way down. Perhaps we should keep to our marching order in who we lower down first."

Sarephta looks down at all the bells. Though of angelic descent, she lacks the wings that would make this simple.

Rhuul eyes up the group carefully.

"I be ashamed to be a dwarf to admit it, but I'd be more ashamed to drop you. I'm not sure I could lower most of you down safely. You're all big, and most of you have even bigger armour."

He looks at the bells and where the alarm is.

"If we could either muffle the bells, or remote their clangers, that would negate the alarm as well."

He also looks to see if there is a 'locking' mechanism for the bells - one that would normally be used to stop the bells clanging when the wind is too high.

Does the alarm look like it is rigged in the room below as well, or just at our level?

Yes, I like the idea Rhuul has. Let's try to muffle the sounds of the bells just in case we set this thing off.

"Hrm, let's see what I've got in my bag... my bedroll, a hammock, and some rope. Either that or I could lower you guys down."

"You elves are renown for your agility. Be my guest, just avoid the trip ropes. Were it just me, I'd tie off a rope here and climb down at least to the next floor."

"Who should we lower first? Stick with our marching order?"

Might I suggest lowering the second strongest character down first, and leaving the strongest (best climber) down last. You can also Aid Another, but only 1 individual at the bottom can do so. Also, did anyone try to muffle the bells? Try to have fun with this. :)

If you want I can go down first. Let's try to do something with the bell clappers with a blanket or something, also.

Umaro nod and, putting his massive hammer aside, reaches into his bag to pull out a blanket. With quick strokes, he begins to cut the blanket into strips with a dagger, placing them into a stack.

"If we wrap this around the clappers, it should dull the noise. Once we're done with that. I can lower Kryssa down, then we work together to get everyone else down. I'll come down last."

Rhuul nods, happy that it is not his blanket that is sacrificed. He does keep his eyes open down below, in case of any movement.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

I can point out to you where the trip wires are, but I don't think I'd best be the one to wrap the blankets around them clappers.

aid another - not sure which skill: 1d20 ⇒ 4

Just to move things along. I'm not sure if everyone is confused about the trap/area or can't decide what they want to do? If you are confused, please ask for clarification, or if the answer I gave didn't help, feel free to ask again. :)

with a total of +12 that can go t characters that need it in +2 incraments. <Edit>Giving +10 to Rhuul, and a +2 to Serephta allows everyone to slide down without hitting any of the bells or tripwires, and setting off the bells.

The Cathedral of Aroden’s former congregation hall fills an enormous, high-ceilinged open space, with the rectangular nave opening into a large circular chamber beneath the building’s grand dome.

Along the dome’s ceiling, a fresco depicts Aroden’s apotheosis and his famed battle with the wizard-king Tar Baphon on the Isle of Terror. Although intricate, the fresco’s crumbling perimeter and fading colors betray the lack of recent maintenance. A narrow wooden balcony, lined by a finely carved balustrade, encircles the dome’s base and the cathedral’s nave. The balusters depict men following several different professions, while fine calligraphy graces the top railing.

Forty feet below, an enormous altar—itself the size of a small building—stands stoutly below the dome’s apex. The cathedral’s nave stretches out to the south. Soft blue light streams into the enormous space through dozens of meticulously decorated stained-glass windows lining the nave. They illuminate trophies of all sorts—from weapons to wands—hung from the hall’s many columns.

Signs of last night’s gala and the massacre that interrupted it are obvious: freshly painted sunburst decorations, tables swathed in fine cloth covered with spoiled food, a portable stage standing empty but bloodstained, and corpses littering the floor below. Once you reach the floor of the nave, you see that there are a total of 17 corpses. Most appear to have simply been slain, while a few seem to have survived the initial massacre, only to die of their wounds shortly after, before they could get help.

Perception checks please.

Map Updated.

Sorry Beckett, Don't know about anyone else, but I wasn't quite sure how much I could do to the bells without requiring the disable device skill.

So are we down on the main floor now? And on the map, what is the brown area, there doesn't appear to be any way to it from where our characters are.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Once on the flood, Umaro's eyes move around the cathedral taking in the beautiful work. Finally his eyes fall on the bodies of slain and his face becomes a bit more grim.

"Such a beautiful place should not be fouled by the acts committed here. Let us find those who did this and then maybe we can let these poor souls find peace."

"Thanks for your help up there. Don't think I could have got down withyou it." says the dwarf to everyone.

"We bit a bit obvious here. Lets quietly head south towards those doors...

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Rhuul unfurls the Pathfinder flag, carrying it in his left hand. His dwarven war axe he unslings and carries ready in his right.

He puts a calming hand on the shaman. "They be dead lad. Naught to do but avenge them.

knowledge-religion: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

So are we down on the main floor now? And on the map, what is the brown area, there doesn't appear to be any way to it from where our characters are.

Yes, you climbed down to the main floor. The brown area is a huge alter to Aroden, "about the size of a room". It is 10ft tall, and from the top of it, it is another 40ft up to the ceiling.

1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 Just 15 shy of what was needed.

Maldoc will agree with the notion of going to the south doors.

Beckett: Okay that makes sense.
Maldoc: lol, missed it by 2 myself

Not that I can make that roll even with a 20
Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Sorry, my mistake. I was looking at the map from my phone and didn't catch that. The alter is the thing inside the circle you are around. It's just on a small dais (not enough count as difficult terrain). The brown & bloody thing down further to the middle of the room is an (unnamed/unlisted) object within a small trophy room display. Since you are heading down that way, you would have been aware of this next bit of description, which would have made more sense, I just didn't want to put a wall of text at once.

The Cathedral’s former congregation hall no longer resembles a religious space. Many of the original decorations—such as the fresco and balustrade—remain, but Brackett has put the stamp of the Pathfinder Society on it as well, with a huge number of vibrant and exotic (but mostly worthless) trophies hanging from the columns. <A large low table displays a map of the known world with notations of the Pathfinder Societies more commonly known exploits, now covered in blood and gore from the massacre last night.>