"The puzzle box was an anagram... we rearranged the letters to the correct word to unlock it."
Vuloo rubs his fingers, "The metal of the door is unnaturally hot. Does anyone have a means to resist heat? Braelex, what did the puzzle box spell out? Do you notice a similar pattern in these runes?"
Vuloo will try wrapping his hands in cloth and then moving the letters.
Vuloo wraps his blistered fingers and hands and attempts again. While he can feel the strong heat and can't hold his hands against the metal for long, the cloth protects him from incidental touch. However, the runes don't respond at all.
Relan nods thoughtfully, recalling the box. "It was in a different language as well." he glances up at Vuloo as he burns his hand and notices the rune pulsing red. "Well it looks like we need to tap the right order again but this time mistakes are a bit more costly."
Braelex nods and moves to the next door, checking it carefully before trying to open it.
Which door? There are 3.
To Andel, "To you have ink and paper? Write down the letters of "The eyes" and "Listen" and let's see if they can be re-arranged into something meaningful. Let's work it out on paper before we risk touching the door again."
Andel rummages around in his pack and pulls out a spare journal, pen, and vial of ink passing it to Vuloo with barely contained excitement.
Andel rummages around in his pack and pulls out a spare journal, pen, and vial of ink passing it to Epik with barely contained excitement.
The door the blood trail leads to...is that one of the runed doors? Does it feel hot or look magical?
"I doubt the Tower Girls figured out how to get through the doors. A blood trail leads to this door here. Let's make sure we deal with them so we don't have anyone stab us in the back while we try to get through the ancient doors."
The northeast door, with the blood trail, is a normal door. The runes are only on the ancient double doors to the west.
Then northeast it is!
"We will need to come back to the rune door. Something far more interesting than the tower girls lies on the other side."
Vuloo packs up the ink and paper and then follows the group through the Northeast door.
Several pieces of furniture decorate this room, the modern furnishings clashing with the ancient carvings of Thassilonian wizards crafting deformed monsters from dead bodies decorating the walls. Luxurious crimson Varisian drapes have been pinned up in an archway to the southeast.
Terisha is sitting in a chair leaned against the wall, still bloodied ... she leaps to her feet reluctantly as you come in, whip and short sword in hand. Stepping from behind the crimson drapes is a wererat, in fine leather armor with silken gray fur. She looks less feral than the others you've run across and she holds a Varisian bladed scarf in her hands.
"So you're the Pathfinders who came to Natalya's rescue. Tell me, did the wayward child tell you all about how she deceived us and stole from us? Or did she spin you a web of lies where she was the poor victim in the story ... hmmm?"
Relan slips the silver dagger into his hand, and looks at blooded girl and gives her a grin. Letting his gaze take in the room he stops on the the were-rat. "Why dont you enlighten us with your tale then?"
"Watch out for a rat under the cupboard," Braelex mutters, holding her crossbow at the ready.
Vuloo draws his crossbow and establishes a life link with Relan.
Aidon will stop and blink owlishly at Ayala, "Ummm, Hi." He waves, "So I just have a couple of answers, and a few questions then in regards to what you just said, just now." Aidon begins to tick off his questions and answers on his fingers, "First, yes we are Pathfinders, lucky guess there," Ticking off his second finger, "B, she may have mentioned a bit about how things happened, I don't believe she used the word 'deceive' or 'steal' though," Aidon uses air quotes, ticking another finger, "Thirdly, what do you know about Were-Gazelles?" Aidon stops briefly, very curious about her answer to the were-gazelle question, then starts ticking off fingers again, "And C, or are we on D?" he stops to count his fingers, "Yes, and D, why should we believe anything you have to say, your girls have all been very mean to us, shining bright lights into our faces, threatening us with violence at every turn, setting up really not nice ambushing to try and kill us all, locking poor Vicky here up for years and years and years for no good reason!" "Terisha here has tried to kill us no less then 4 times, at least Natalya only tried to kill everyone once, she kinda has you beat there, as far as you know, like, who is on our good side."
"So...to recap, you trying to kill us a lot, bad." Aidon gestures with his left hand, "Natalya trying to only kill them once, less bad" He raises his right hand and shakes it
Are you with me here, did I lose you anywhere a long the way? I can start over if needs be"
Ayala's nose twitches as Aidon rambles through his litany, "Are you asking me a question or attempting to make sense of your trespassing? You seem surprised that we would defend our home," she gestures at all of you. "Did the Tower Girls not give you ample warning and chances to leave? I am doing that once again.
"I know you're not guard so I'll let you in on a little secret," she leans forward conspiratorially, "We're thieves. We take things from other people and some times, like this one, from places no one has lived in for a long time."
She gestures at you with her scarf, "How is that any different from you Pathfinders? The only difference here is, there's honor among thieves and we found this place first. Natalya stole something from us before she turned traitor, and as I understand it, you have it now. Simply lay it down and walk out down to your boats and leave. We'll pretend like this never happened. You go search for your ancient knowledge somewhere else, and we'll continue to loot this piling. Good news is, it keeps us off the streets!"
Sense Motive -
"I know you aren't telling the truth here, and worse, I don't know who or what you are trying to pass your message to but I have to say, that was not very subtle, you should go back to thief school or rogue academy, where ever it is you learn how to do thief-y type things"
Aidon looks at the group, "She's trying to be all thief-y and pass along some sort of a message, be alert."
"I also wasn't aware that we were trespassing on land you rightly purchased from it's previous owner, if you will simple show us your bill of sale and proof of ownership, we will gladly have Natalya turn over whatever it was she stole from you, as you would indeed be the rightful owner of anything you found on your land, but sadly, we don't have any such item with us."
"You are very different from Pathfinders, as we don't ever pretend to claim any ruins we search as our own. We don't move into the ruins and treat them as a home because most of us actually have some self respect and would never live in this kind of squaller." Aidon gestures around the room to show that it really is just a ruin, "But, then again, none of us that I know of are rats, so we don't really know what it's like to want to live in sewers and garbage infested homes."
Bluff is required if you lie ... which in this case, you are.
Braelex smiles, keeping her crossbow trained on Terisha.
Quest is to find the next shard. Side quests to take out Ayala, find some unique Thassilonian lore, solve kidnappings
Bluff -
Sense Motive Check:
Vuloo whispers:"Look at her arm movement, she's signaling to someone. I can't tell to whom or for what purpose, but it can't be good.
I suggest we attack immediately before she can spring her trap."
Relan readies his weapon, "Enough of this, you have your last chance to take whats left of your girls and leave this place before we take your hide back to the guards as a trophy."
Relan whispers to the others "I bet theres some girls behind that curtain, be ready."
Without waiting for a response for Ayala, he charges the wererat roaring at Braelex to fire.
Braelex fires.
;
Voloo fires on Terisha:
Attack: Damage:
Fulmen follows Relan and will try to assit him in combat by flanking Ayala. He will also keep an eye out for surprises based on what others have said about the signally.
Aidon will summon a Celestial Eagle to attack Ayala and it will Smite Evil as it attacks.
HP -7
AC - 14
Saves:
Fort +5
Ref +4
Will +2
Claw/Claw/Bite
To Hit -
Damage -
To Hit -
Damage -
To Hit -
Damage -
Round ?
HP: 18/18
AC: 17
vs Ayala
Confirm -
Total Damage -
With a roar, Relan ends the discussion . Terisha moves to act, but Braelex plugs her in the shoulder with a quick crossbow bolt, surprising the agile rogue. The blonde woman continues forward, taking a small step and then slinging her whip out at Relan from a distance. The coil of leather lashes out, ripping the dagger from Relan's hands and sending it clattering to the floor.
Vuloo fires and puts a crossbow bolt into the other shoulder of the blonde who begins to spit blood.
; reset with readied action
; success
Do i need to reroll my attack or would that work for my longsword? Or i can spend an action retrieving the dagger?
You can do either
"Relan, you'll need the dagger to harm her ... she's more resistant than her minions!"
Andel shouts to the warrior.
Interrupted by the Tower Girl second, Relan reaches down and grabs the dagger, interrupting his charge. He moves to engage Ayala with Fulmen moving to aid him.
Ayala, ready to act, holds her action, but her eyes flit over to the cabinets to her left and right. On call, donkey rats burst out of them to engage the party. One bursts as Braelex, but she is unsurprised since she had seen it earlier. However, it still gets through with a minor scratch. the other rat on the southern end of the room, completely surprises Relan. The rat misses, but the distraction causes Relan to leave an opening for Ayala to gash him with the end of her bladed scarf.
Aidon summons another eagle which immediately senses the rat-woman and rages on her clawing and biting creating gaping wounds ... that all immediately heal.
; HIT!; Damage = 1
; miss
; HIT!
Round 2 AC19 HP21
Vuloo takes a 5' step south to avoid the rat and fires on Terisha.
Attack: Damage:
Smite evil overcomes DR if she is indeed evil
Only the paladin version of it does, not the celestial template version.
Braelex moves up and away from the rat, while reloading and firing her crossbow again at Terisha.
Only the paladin version of it does, not the celestial template version.
Aidon pauses and frowns at the wererat "Hmm, I really thought that was going to work..."
Aidon shrugs and glaces over at Terisha, "Well someone is going to have a bad day now instead."
Round 2
HP: 18/18
AC: 17
Relan growls in pain and strikes out with a strong attack at Ayala with the dagger.
vs Ayala
Flank is when 2 opponents are threatening on directly opposing squares. In this case, Ayala and the rat both get flanking on you
Relan, the lifelink gives you fast healing of 5 hp per round while the link is maintained - Vuloo takes the damage.
Right, so Relan got hit for 9 and then heals 5 while Vuloo takes 5.