DM Carbide's From Shore to Sea (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Hurl.

I really wish there was a way to get rid of this since it ruins any chance a rogue has of being useful, LOL.

The villager barely keeps its grip on Maddie despite Rah's magic. The halfling's followup spell dazes him, though. That is in many ways a really offensive spell for first level.

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Quiven-nauseated
Villager-dazed
Bogenschützen
Rah
Maddie

You can keep the roll, Bogenschützen. You, Rah, and Maddie are up!

Will Save in case there is an illusion effect in play here: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

With one hand, Maddie pulls free her mace and tries injure the creature enough to release her.

MW Heavy Mace: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Maddie, the creature is definitely covered with an illusion, and it's strong enough that you can only catch glimpses of what's covered. It's definitely larger than human, and covered with chitinous armor heavy enough that your mace blow bounces off of it. You don't recognize it, though.

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) check: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Thanks. I'll fire a single blunt arrow and keep the roll. Then I'll stand fast and await requests from the rest of the party.

Bogenschützen's arrow impacts the villager with a solid crack. He opens his mouth and emits an inhuman hiss of pain.

Villager: -23 HP
For your reference: AC22/T12/FF19

Yikes. Is he dead?

No, he's taken 23 HP out of, well, at least 24 HP. They raise 'em tough in Blackcove, you know.

Regarding Ear-piercing scream: yes, it can be powerful, but you've been rolling really bad on fort saves. In most other games I've used it in, it's just about useless because it does so little damage. Anyway, I'd use something else but the arcanist pregen has only three ways to do damage 1. ear piercing scream 2. fireball 3. use charges from her staff of fire (which is running a little low). That said, here's another scream. :)

Rah gives the villager another ear-piercing scream!

Ear-piercing scream - DC 16 for 1/2 damage and negate daze: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 3) = 11

And of course, it's useless against undead.

The villager again fails to resist Rah's spell.

Round 2:

Initiative order
Quiven-
Villager-dazed
Bogenschützen
Rah
Maddie

Everyone can act!

Villager: -34 HP

Can I charge? If so,

Attack: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35 for Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Confirm?: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24 for Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Yes, you can.

Quiven hits the villager with his gladius!

Villager: -41 HP

With the grappling creature's armor apparently stronger than she anticipated, Maddie instead tugs loose her silver symbol of Pharasma and channels negative energy to harm it.

Channel Negative to harm living creatures (DC 17 for half, allies excluded), 6/7 remaining: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 3) = 6

Ready another blunt arrow. Will only shoot if it looks like things are going badly or one of the others asks me to.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Quiven-acted
Villager-dazed
Bogenschützen
Rah
Maddie-acted

Maddie's negative energy harms the villager. Bogenschützen holds, and Rah can act!

Villager: -47 HP

Let Rah save spells
I'll come out of ready (if that's allowed) and take a single shot with a blunt arrow:
Longbow: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26; Damage: 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

Then I'll take a 5-foot-step back.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Quiven-acted
Villager-dazed
Bogenschützen-acted
Rah
Maddie-acted

Bogenschützen's arrow hits the villager, but does not bring him down.

Villager: -60 HP

That's one tough sonofagun. the archer admits.

Rah casts another ear-piercing scream. Because she really has no other options.

Ear Piercing Scream DC 16: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 4) = 13

The villager finally manages to resist the full effects of Rah's magic.

Round 3:

Initiative order
Quiven-
Villager-
Bogenschützen
Rah
Maddie

Quiven, you're up! (Now that it can finally act again you're going to crit it a couple of times and drop it....)

Villager: -66 HP

Gladius: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22 for Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Gladius: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16 for Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Round 3 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Villager-acted
Bogenschützen
Rah
Maddie
Quiven-

Quiven's first blow damages the villager; his second does not. Quiven, it feels like you're hitting something much harder than flesh.

The villager (and this may seem suspicious, even to Bogenschützen) lifts up Maddie in one hand and raises her to his mouth. Maddie, DC 19 Fort save or paralyzed. I've rearranged the order so that everyone can act again.

Villager: -70 HP

Fort Save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Does Maddie see exactly what's trying to paralyze her?

Maddie attempts to stay calm, and channels negative energy.

Channel Negative to harm living creatures (DC 17 Will for half, allies excluded), 5/7 remaining: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 6) = 9

That ain't somethin' ya see every day. You OK, Maddie? Time ta git serious now?
Five-foot-step forward
Manyshot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16, Miss!
Rapid Shot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24, Blunt Arrow: 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16
Iterative: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25, Cold Iron Arrow: 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12

Not clearly, Maddie. If I may make a suggestion, it's touching you, so you could spend an action on something other than channeling and probably get a lot of information about it.

Unfortunately, Lore Keeper is a spell-like effect, and concentration checks in a grapple are very difficult to make.

Ah--hadn't realized that.

The ersatz villager has only 15 HP left, so Bogenschützen's first hit leaves it downed and dying; he can save his last arrow, and Maddie can save her channel. It drops Maddie and collapses to the ground with a heavy thud and clash of chitinous armor; the illusion cloaking it fades away to reveal THIS. A few will-o'-wisps appear near it, hovering over the creature and pulsing in time to its dying heartbeat.

Knowledge Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22
Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31

Rah's eyes widen in surprise when the true form of the creature is revealed.

"That's a chull!" She says, pointing at it. "They are evil aquatic aberrations, known to paralyze and eat their prey. They are not known for illusions, and I suspect that something else masked its appearance with a veil spell. I think someone might be hunting us. We should hurry back to the orrery and finish the ritual before other things come looking."

That's messed up is what it is! Quiven notes after Rah explains everything. Yeah, lets make haste outta this place!

"Yes, let's finish with this terrible place as quickly as we can." Maddie says in concurrence with Rah and Quiven as she heals herself with her Cure Light Wounds wand.

CLW 1: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
CLW 2: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
CLW 3: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

16 charges left on CLW wand

The rest of the trip to the Observatory is uneventful. Over the next two hours, Maddie and Rah work at understanding the vast orrery well enough to manipulate it.

Maddie, give me a Spellcraft check to Aid Another. Rah, give me a Spellcraft check; add +5 for the amulet, +5 for the instructions on the stele, +2 for your notes from the stored lecture, +2 for the time you spent working on it yesterday, and another +2 if Maddie makes her Aid Another check.

Aid Another Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 15 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 15 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 2 = 46

Rah, I have good news, bad news, and interesting news....

Although Maddie isn't as helpful as she was yesterday (something about getting twitchy every time a beam of refracted light got near her, even though the amulet protected everyone against the adverse effects of the orrery), Rah is able to figure out how to turn off the glyph. She is beginning to work through the process when she makes an unpleasant discovery: the rune-carved frame that should hold the solar lens she needs to properly shut it down floats empty of all but a few shards of crystal; the rest of the lens lies shattered on the floor. (Rah is able to determine, incidentally, that the active glyph has only one function--it's an amplifier, though of what is not clear.)

"Oh drat!" Rah cries when she discovers the broken lens.

I'm assuming we need the lens to shut down the glyph. Could it be repaired with a mending or make whole spell? Do we know of another lens somewhere? Also, is there a way to redirect or reverse it somehow without the lens?

Stepping briefly into metagaming here, there is nothing in the module about using mending or make whole to fix the lens. It's certainly worth a try. There are also a number of other instructional tablets around the building that you might want to look at.

"I'm afraid I do not have access to the divine magic necessary to fix the lens today. Perhaps we should see if any of the nearby tablets might be helpful?"

Maddie looks for said tablets, casting Comprehend Languages if necessary. That spell will last 70 minutes, which will hopefully be long enough.

Blind Knowledge or Spellcraft Roll, please add the modifier as necessary: 1d20 ⇒ 18

Blind Knowledge or Spellcraft Roll, please add the modifier as necessary: 1d20 ⇒ 18

Yahtzee!

Actually, it's a DC 18 Perception check to find the relevant tablet.

Maddie does some reading and finds a caveat for broken lenses on one of the instructional steles, directing students to "consult your professor so that a replacement might be retrieved from its appropriate storage."

"Did we pass a storage area already?" the simple archer asks the other Pathfinders.

Yeah, did we?

Not that you'd recognize as such. Though there's a broken tower top orbiting the observatory....

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Rah, you are our expert on these arcane matters, where do you think we should look? Perhaps the broken tower top orbiting the observatory? There may be a usable lens in there."

"This is more like a treasure hunt... or a wild goose chase." Rah looks up to the broken tower. "I would assume they would keep replacements close by. Let us hope they thought the same thing."

How far is the tower? I might just cast fly on Bogen and have him carry my up there to look.

The foundation of the tower next to the Observatory is crumbling and empty, while the tumbling top of the ruined steeple occasionally passes overhead at a height of about eighty feet from the ground.

Slight change of plan.

"I will go take a quick look. Watch my back." Rah looks through her spellbook for a moment, casts a spell and rises from the ground, then swoops away to investigate the tower as he nears the ground.

Using quick study (1 arcane point) to swap fireball for fly. Using School Understanding and detect magic when I get close.

School Understanding As a swift action, Enora gains a +3 bonus on initiative checks for 3 rounds and always acts on the surprise round during that time.

Am I carrying you?

Rah rises into the air, heading for the spire as it approaches. At about sixty feet off the ground, though, the halfling suddenly has it brought home to her just how those tower tops are kept up--a strange force takes hold of her, as though she had flown into a windstorm.

DC 25 Fly check or thrown 90' almost laterally east, and take 10 HP nonlethal damage from smaller bits of debris.

Bogen, I decided to go alone. I figured I would rather have you available to shoot if something shows up.

Fly: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

Rah manages to control her flight and continue toward the tower!

If this is a continuous effect that requires checks every round I will use dimensional slide to get inside the tower (70 foot range).

It's continuous, yes, but since it doesn't kick in until you're twenty feet away from the tower you're able to get inside this round.

Rah manages to keep her heading in the face of the orbital current around the island, and slips inside the slowly tumbling tower top. Once inside, she no longer feels the effects of the strange force, and is able to navigate the halls and staircases without any problems. In the top of the tower, she finds several types of lenses hanging serenely in mid-air, still held by whatever levitation magic had been put in place long millenia ago. She readily recognizes the one she needs; there are three left intact.