DM Carbide's PFS Emerald Spire

Game Master John Woodford

"What do you think is down there?" Asvald asks as he readies his blade and leads the way down the new hallway.

If Kali confirms it's safe, he'll open it. Asvald will cast heroism on himself too.

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Senja offers, keeping well to the back.

Kali takes a look around the new area and reports her findings.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

"Worry is for folks who don't explore Emerald Spires." Nuria lightly laughs.

The door seems untrapped, so Asvald opens it. On the other side is a fair-sized room with arming dummies and racks of weapons along the walls. There's a double door in the northern wall, the door you're entering through, and a pair of doors on the west wall, behind a bronze portcullis. A single emerald automaton stands in the room, and it turns to face you as the door opens.

"Sure wish Klarkosh had told us the magic word to get those constructs of his to let us pass," Senja says quietly, peering into the room. "Do we fight it, or look for a different way to go? There's still that door on the north wall of the mecha-mage's workshop."

Carbide - is there a closed portcullis between us and the automaton?

No; there's a portcullis to the west of the automaton.

Ok, thanks. Wasn't sure if the map or your description was what to go with, wanted to be sure we could get at it.

Senja raises a hand and wiggles his fingers, saying, "Well, I could make that construct a bit more accident-prone, then you all whack it to bits."

"Good plan. Let's do it!"

The party moves to the attack!

This is likely to be over very quickly, with the only wrinkle being how you get to it.

Round 1:

Initiative order
Party
Construct

Everyone is up! You all beat its initiative check, so you can act in any order you want.

Senja conjures up a huge, peculiar horseshoe of shadow, then lifts it up and aims the open end at the construct. It seems to pull at the emerald machine with a magnetic force, causing it to wobble as it moves.

Misfortune hex, DC 18 Will save to resist.

Asvald charges his sword with arcane energy and charges the construct with his blade held high.

Sword: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
Damage: 1d8 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 5 + 2 = 12

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Party; Asvald & Senja have acted
Construct

Asvald advances and swings at the construct, but is unable to penetrate its armor. However, it fails to resist Senja's hex.

AC 17 T 11 FF 16

Kali moves into the room after Asvald and tries to discharge her Shocking Grasp spell on the construct.

Touch attack vs FF: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Electricity Damage + Precision Damage: 4d6 + 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 3, 6) + (3, 1) = 22

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Party; Kali, Asvald, & Senja have acted
Construct

Kali darts in and touches the automaton, sending arcs of electricity crackling into it.

AC 17 T 11 FF 16 -22 HP

Nuria begins a catchy... and inspiring tune. 120 tempo.

+2 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +2 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.

Since technically I acted before Asvald, can I bump his hit/damage by 2?

Eh, sure. It's not like this thing is going to do more than inconvenience you.

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Party; Eva has yet to act
Construct

As Asvald advances, Nuria's song enhances his skill enough that he's able to hit the construct for effect.

Over to Eva!

AC 17 T 11 FF 16 -31 HP

In the interests of wrapping this up quickly....

Eva chop! (incl. inspire & flank): 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 2 + 2 = 30
Damage, incl. inspire: 1d8 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 2 = 11
Eva Reflex save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

The damage done to the automaton has caused it to begin emitting arcs of electricity. Eva moves up quickly, avoiding the arcs, and flanks with Asvald, landing a solid blow on the construct. The construct takes a quick step back out of the flank, hitting the lever as it moves, then chops at Kali, hitting her for 10 HP

As the lever is moved, the portcullis behind it lifts up, and a second portcullis drops from the ceiling just east of Asvald and Kali.

Round 2:

Initiative order
Party
Construct

Everyone is up again!

AC 17 T 11 FF 16 -37 HP

Asvald raps his sword on his shield and begins his rousing northern chant.

Inspire Rage!

Senja begins a rising, mad laugh, tinged with darkness, extending the misfortune that plagues the automaton. Just for fun, he draws his crossbow as well, then moves along the newly-lowered portcullis to try to get a better line on the automaton.

Move action to cackle to maintain misfortune, move action to draw crossbow, 5-foot step.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Party; Asvald and Senja acted
Construct

The construct remains under Senja's hex, and Asvald rouses the party's spirits to fight.

Nuria, Eva, Kali--you're up!

Nuria gasps in surprise as the grating is lowered. She pulls out her whip and attempts to whip the level back up into position. She continues to sing

Uh, combat maneuver on lever? cmb: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

I'm going to have to say no--Improved Whip Mastery specifically allows use of a whip to grasp Small or Tiny objects on an attack vs. AC 10, implying that it can't be done w/o the feat. (Not sure I agree with that interpretation, but this is PFS.) Besides, you're trying to move it vertically by pulling on it from the side; even if you pull from floor level, the resultant force in the vertical direction is going to be small.

;P OK. Well she futzes around with it for a round because she's big on hubris.

Kali focuses for a moment to vanish from sight. After moving to the other side of the construct, she then breaks her invisibility with an attack from her adamatine wakizashi.

Adamatine Wakizashi vs. Flat-footed: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Swift Action: Spend 1 Ki to activate Vanishing Trick. Move Action: Move 15 feet to other side of construct. Standard Action: Weapon attack with disappointing results.

+2 from singing, and when an invisible critter hits a visible one (or you're attacking a blind opponent), you get +2 to hit, so you're up to 14 vs. flat-footed. Which is probably still not enough, but there you go.

If you can find another +2 from somewhere, then we'd be in business.

What happens if you accept the raging song?

-Posted with Wayfinder

+2 strength
+4 constituion
+2 will saves
-1 armor class
no spellcasting

Not enough, then. Ah, well.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Party; Eva remaining
Construct

Eva is up!

Kali, DC 12 Reflex save or take 6 HP electrical damage from ending your turn next to the construct. Botting Eva again:

Flurry of chops, incl. inspire: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 8 + 2 = 26
Flurry of chops, incl. inspire: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 8 + 2 = 12

Flurry damage, incl. inspire: 1d8 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 5 + 2 = 11
DC 12 Reflex save for Eva: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

The monk closes with the automaton and chops at it twice, connecting once. She fails to dodge the electrical storm around it, though, and then it snatches a longsword from one of the wall racks and cuts at her with it. Eva takes 6 HP electrical damage and 10 HP sword damage.

Round 3:

Initiative order
Party
Construct

Everyone can act again!

AC 17 T 11 FF 16 -43 HP

Reasonably confident of his companions' ability to handle the construct without further magical aid, Senja loads his crossbow. He takes a step to the side and lifts the weapon, taking careful aim before shooting. Sadly, he fails to take into account the portcullis and the bolt bounces off it, nearly hitting Senja in the eye!

Crossbow, into melee: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (1) + 6 - 4 = 3
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

I think we've got this guy handled, but if anyone objects, let me know and I'll some buffing.

It's got 4 HP left; if I hadn't rolled badly for Eva and Kali hadn't missed the fight would probably be over.

Excellent, more crossbow practice!

Ref Save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Waiting to see if someone will flank with Kali and/or destroy the construct before posting.

Asvald charges his sword with magical energy and chops at the hostile construct again!

Sword: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 9 + 1 = 22
Damage: 1d8 + 5 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 2 + 1 = 15

Asvald finally puts an end to the construct!

Out of combat!

The room contains a wide selection of normal weapons and the remains of the emerald automaton, but nothing else of interest.

Sighing with relief, Kali draws her Infernal Healing wand and taps herself with it. "Please just give me a minute, guys."

41 charges left on wand.

While she waits, she flips the lever to raise the east gate, "North door?" Without waiting for a response, she checks it for traps, but perhaps not as thoroughly as she should thanks to the weird feeling of diabolic regeneration.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Fully healed if given a minute.

"Sounds good to me," Senja replies as he looks around for his wayward crossbow bolt.

Nuria skips through. "Why not? They seem as good as any."

Eva is also down 14 HP.

The doors are apparently untrapped. On the other side is yet another of the bronze cylinders, this one set to provide access to the east. The room it leads to is empty, save for a control panel with the usual paired black and red levers, the remains of an emerald automaton that's seen better days, and a staircase leading down.

Senja taps Eva with the healing wand, then considers the bronze cylinder before them. Once Eva is feeling better, he messes with the levers to figure out how to get the hallway rotated to connect with a different passage. As he ponders the puzzle, he offers a suggestion, "Since we've got a pretty good approach to taking out those emerald automatons, we should do that to the two we saw off to the west. No sense in leaving them around for someone to bump into."

Use wand of infernal healing, putting Eva at 39/43 hp

In the center position, the corridor in the cylinder leads west and ends at a blank wall. In the down position, the cylinder shows a blank face to the training room. However, if you start from the room with the stairs down and reset the lever down, a wide hall is revealed that turns west and ends at a set of double doors.

"This place is seriously annoying. Let's just try the west doors." Kali says with some exasperation as she flips the lever as necessary to get access to said doors. Afterwards she checks the northwest door for traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Just clarifying, Kali--you mean the single door in the armory, or the double doors?

The door her token is currently adjacent to. There's two doors on the west wall in the current room, do we already know what's behind those?

Nope. Senja wanted to check out the north door thoroughly.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I'm fine with going the way Kali suggests, was just curious about the rotating tunnel thing.

"Well, I guess we can do that after Senja is done investigating the ways that tunnel shifts."

I'm fine either way, just trying to move things along.

I'm done, let's go Kali's way now!