HP 91/91 (inc. +11 from transmutation focus; base 80)
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18, CMD 23
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +11
Speed: 30 feet
Inspiration (Knowledge/Linguistics/Spellcraft checks): 0/6
Mental Focus: 19; Abjuration [4/4]; Divination [3/4]; Illusion [4/4]; Enchantment [3/3]; Transmutation [2/4] (refocusing rod)
Resonant powers (+2 saves; +2 Perception, low-light vision; +1 Charisma checks; +2 Con; 20% miss chance)
Cape of the mountebank 0/1; gloves of arrow snaring 0/2; Dignity's Barb Crit No.: 8
Spells/day: 1st [][][][][]; 2nd [][][][][]; 3rd [][][][]; 4th [x][][]
Wands: Scorching ray 0/20; lightning bolt 0/20; magic missile (CL 5) 0/47; magic missile (CL 5) 0/34
Effects: Good Hope, Moment of Greatness, inspired (total +5/+5), holy Dignity's Barb 2/10
Katria fires twice, hoping she can hit one of the fiends, despite her friends blocking her aim.
While the acid splashes harmlessly against his sword, Seth's blade, still glowing an eerie, black-like color, seeks purchase once more against the fiends.
Seeing Liam step in, Amelia opts for speed and easier bodyshots.
"Hold still will you."
With a renewed effort and a flurry of holy weapon strikes, you take down the rakshasas!
Spectacles of understanding sit on the bedside table. A hidden wall safe holds a bag of holding (type II) with Milon Jeroths’s petty cash: 850 gp, 150 pp, and 5 small rubies (500 gp each).
A thorough search of the manor reveals something unusual. The kitchen stairs end in an unfinished basement stacked with dusty crates and broken furniture. A chest devoid of dust rests in an alcove by the stairs. The room is noticeably warmer than the kitchen above.
"Maybe there's something down there?" Katria says. "But something warm? Could that be what the Sarenites are protecting, since we haven't found any up here so far, certainly not keeping watch on Gannaius."
Amelia nods, "Koriana's blade shudders whenever there is fire, besides we are still under my weave of luck."
"I can ward us against fire, for a while."
Liam casts Communal Resist Energy (Fire) on the party and on Gannaius, giving everyone Resist Fire 30 for 20 minutes.
"Katria, these spectacles seem like they would be ideal for a scholar such as yourself.
So you think this chest is the means to access a space below?
I am ready to proceed."
"Oh, yes, thank you!" Katria says as she takes the spectacles .
She nods in appreciate for Liam's spell -- he truly does seem almost always prepared -- and nods for Amelia to open the door and Seth to proceed in . Dignity's Barb remains in her hands, a bolt loaded.
Searching the basement, Amelia discovers a trap on the chest, set to fire a fusillade of arrows at anybody who disturbs the lock or the lid. There is also a concealed door in the east wall. It is from this door that the heat is radiating.
"This trap would be a problem... but fortunately I have a man on the inside here who has taken care of it."
Once per day, you can call upon your coconspirators to have “made arrangements” on your behalf, allowing you to attempt a Knowledge (local) check in place of a single Bluff, Disable Device, Intimidate, or Sleight of Hand check. The DC of this Knowledge (local) check is equal to the DC of the skill check it replaces. Whatever arrangements you make—for doors left unlocked, guards strong armed out of your way, stolen keys left for you to find—must be reasonable to have anticipated and achieved beforehand...
Indeed, the trap has been disabled. Inside the chest you discover 3,286 cp painted gold. Buried beneath the coins is a flame tongue forged from a scimitar rather than a longsword.
"This seems like a weapon of Sarenrae... a flaming scimitar. I am not sure what connection it has to the followers of the Dawnflower.
It could be used to frame them for attacks, I suppose.
Or it could have been stolen from Qadira, to inspire some actual Qadiran attacks on Zimar.
Katria, would you want to try your Object Reading on this sword?"
"When we are ready we should move through the concealed door in the east wall."
After Katria does Object Reading (if she chooses to) then Liam will re-cast Good Hope, Moment of Greatness, and Shield (with 1st-level Pearl), as well as Align Weapon on Seth's rapier.
1 (6+1):
2 (6+1):
3 (5+1): Protection from Energy (D),
4 (4+1): Spell Immunity (D), Freedom of Movement, Dismissal (DC 22), Death Ward, Air Walk
5 (3+1): Spell Resistance (D), Breath of Life,
6 (2+1): Antimagic Field (D), Greater Dispel Magic,
Both Pearls of Power used.
Katria nods, claiming the sword for the minute to check its provenance.
Katria is able to glean some psychic impressions from the scimitar. She learns that it was wielded by a Sarenite paladin over 200 years ago. That would have been around the time that Grant Prince Stavian I outlawed the worship of Sarenrae in Taldor.
"If there ever was a real Jeroth family, perhaps one was a Sarenite?" Katria wonders. "Or maybe it belongs to whatever the Sarenites are protecting? Maybe we should have someone carry it when we go into this room? Perhaps the Sarenites -- if there are any -- will recognize it and offer us a chance to explain what's happening?"
Amelia took the scimitar for a moment and weighed it, "I mean I could use it, but I already have a blade more suited for my combat style." She gave a couple of false swings, "I can't put my full weight behind it, seems more like a dancer's blade than one built for actual combat."
She stored it away in their bag, "It doesn't seem that special but if we could avoid more bloodshed maybe it's worth a try Katria."
Seeing Katria's expression she doesn't close the extradimensional bag just yet and buckles Koriana's Blade to her waist, while holding the warm scimitar.
"Ready to go on through?"
Liam actually has a pretty good AC at the moment. He will open the secret door.
A tropical jungle fills the large room beyond the door, complete with thick plants, loamy soil, and a large pool. The stone walls are painted to appear as more jungle. Strange, white pebbles are scattered across the soil.
With a hiss, a gargantuan snake begins to slither towards you! An enormous coil of muscle and scales, this giant snake flicks its arm-length tongue in the air as it approaches.
Katria's jaw drops as this certainly wasn't what she expected. Is it a portal? An illusion? A demiplane? her mind races through the possibilities, waiting to explore it.
Oh, wait, a snake!
Seth readies his blade, prepared to strike if the snake gets within reach.
Firing the blessed bow, Amelia keeps her distance.
Amelia shoots the snake with an arrow while Seth holds his scimitar at the ready. The snake slithers forward and lunges for the elf, accepting a hit from his blade as its jaws snap shut inches away from the magus!
HP 91/91 (inc. +11 from transmutation focus; base 80)
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18, CMD 23
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +11
Speed: 30 feet
Inspiration (Knowledge/Linguistics/Spellcraft checks): 0/6
Mental Focus: 19; Abjuration [4/4]; Divination [3/4]; Illusion [4/4]; Enchantment [3/3]; Transmutation [2/4] (refocusing rod)
Resonant powers (+2 saves; +2 Perception, low-light vision; +1 Charisma checks; +2 Con; 20% miss chance)
Cape of the mountebank 0/1; gloves of arrow snaring 0/2; Dignity's Barb Crit No.: 8
Spells/day: 1st [][][][][]; 2nd [][][][][]; 3rd [][][][]; 4th [x][][]
Wands: Scorching ray 0/20; lightning bolt 0/20; magic missile (CL 5) 0/47; magic missile (CL 5) 0/34
Effects: Good Hope, Moment of Greatness, inspired (total +5/+5)
Katria fires twice, Dignity's Barb's magic again taking hold and sending an arrow toward the heart of the snake.
"Careful!" she calls out.
Critical: 19-20/x2; Range: 80 ft.; Type: P
Liam will begin INSPIRE COURAGE +3 (factored into Katria's rolls) and draw the +1 Holy Shortspear.
Nimbly moving out of the way she takes a couple of shots but is not used to fighting such a big serpent.
Seth dances around the snake, unwilling to commit too many resources to what amounts to a bit of pest extermination.
Amelia and Katria festoon the snake with bolts and arrows, but Seth fails to find a chink in its scaly hide. Injured and enraged, the snake lunges at the elf again, narrowly missing once more!
Liam hurls the holy spear!
He then draws a javelin and continues Inspire Courage.
Dropping the bow and drawing out Koriana's Blade, Amelia tries to slice through the serpent.
"Really? This is terribly messy!"
Seth furrows his eyebrows in concentration as he returns to the offensive, "Why is this miserable snake so hard to hit?" he frustratedly asks under his breath.
Liam strikes the snake with his spear, then Amelia and Seth land precise strikes, and the giant reptile finally falls!
A door across the room provides another exit when you are ready to proceed.
Katria begins looking around if no one pulls her immediately to the door, trying to figure out what the strange pebbles might be -- perhaps food, or the end results of food for the snake? -- and if there's anything else of note in the strange room.
Liam retrieves the magic spear.
Then he will join Katria in examining the strange pebbles. He will first look at them, and then cast Detect Magic.
There are numerous magical auras here, including continual flame spells in the ceiling and plates enchanted with heat metal beneath the soil to maintain the warm temperatures. The jungle environment would not be out of place in the southern parts of Qadira. The white pebbles on the ground are crushed shards of bone—leftovers from the snake's meals.
There doesn't seem to be anything else of value here.
Liam opens the door to the next room.
The door opens into in an old sinkhole beneath the manor above. The hole opens into a large crypt. Twenty‑six human‑sized niches run the perimeter of this dark, sandstone chamber in thirteen stacked pairs, between defaced carvings of the sun and a winged, feminine form--iconography of Sarenrae. Nineteen forms wrapped in muslin cloth sit quietly, largely faded and covered in dust, but one is wrapped in colorful fabric and less dusty than the others. A double door seals the passage to the west.
Three spectral figures manifest in the room. These ghostly crusaders float just above the ground, yet despite their phantomlike appearance, their armor and weapons seem quite solid!
A defaced shrine of Sarenrae? And spectral crusaders?
Liam racks his brain for knowledge of these undead.
I am quite sure that with a 13 he doesn't identify them.
He will cast Death Ward on himself and step back.
"Are these the Sarenrites?"
"They look like them," Katria calls, mind trying to process everything in front of her. "Maybe show them the sword!"
Amelia steps forward a little, brandishing the blade. Knowing enough about ghosts to know they are dangerous, she channels the blade to grant her protection.
The energy from the blade glows and transfers over to Seth.
Immediate Action use the black gem to become immune to a negative energy effect.
+1 to Negative Energy effects and saves.
Seth takes up a position beside Amelia, ready to respond with violence if the ghosts indicated that was what they were after.
The three spectral undead fly forward to attack you. Amelia and Seth both slice into one, and thanks to the defensive protections of Koriana's Blade, all three spirits miss with their attacks!
Liam begins INSPIRE COURAGE +3 (move action).
"Send these souls to their deserved rest!"
He also uses the Band of the Crusader's Alliance to cast Prayer (standard action). Because it is mind-affecting, the -1 will not apply to the undead, but the party gets a +1 luck bonus to attacks, damage, saves, and skill checks.
And Good Hope is still active.
So the buffs that Liam is providing add up to +6 attack and damage, and +3 to all saves and skill checks (+1 Luck, +2 morale).
Unused to the lack of physical feedback in her swings, Amelia's blade has trouble finding a target after the initial attack.
HP 91/91 (inc. +11 from transmutation focus; base 80)
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18, CMD 23
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +11
Speed: 30 feet
Inspiration (Knowledge/Linguistics/Spellcraft checks): 0/6
Mental Focus: 19; Abjuration [4/4]; Divination [3/4]; Illusion [4/4]; Enchantment [3/3]; Transmutation [2/4] (refocusing rod)
Resonant powers (+2 saves; +2 Perception, low-light vision; +1 Charisma checks; +2 Con; 20% miss chance)
Cape of the mountebank 0/1; gloves of arrow snaring 0/2; Dignity's Barb Crit No.: 8
Spells/day: 1st [][][][][]; 2nd [][][][][]; 3rd [][][][]; 4th [x][][]
Wands: Scorching ray 0/20; lightning bolt 0/20; magic missile (CL 5) 0/47; magic missile (CL 5) 1/34
Effects: Good Hope, Moment of Greatness, inspired (total +6/+6); +3 to saves and skill checks
Katria releases Dignity's Barb, letting it fall to the end of its weapon cord, as she pulls out one of her old trusty wands. She steps back and with a flick of her wrist and a quick command sends three bolts of force flying toward the lead specter.
"Return to rest, and go to the Lady's embrace" Seth levels a stare at the ghosts and strikes with a glowing blade, looking to end the undead abominations.
Your attacks destroy one of the spectres, leaving a second one lightly damaged. The two remaning undead attack again, one scoring a hit on Amelia.