If I were these guards, and someone teleported in,and then I saw them cast a spell- I would absolutely shoot them.
Fixed that for you :D
Honestly, Teleportation is high-level stuff. At that point, as a regular guard, you can act immediately, flee, or die.
Waiting and giving initiative to the caster and his buddies seems a death sentence if they are hostile. They seem to not have chosen this route, so casting(with advance warning) should be fine.
I would prefer not to test that particular theory.
As for the silence dust, Mel used hers during the Brothel fight. Not sure if anyone else did.
Fair enough, no need to risk something if it's not necessary.
But I maintain that IF they intended to act against us, they would have needed to do so immediately.
Except they are supposed to have priorities higher than their own safety. We *could* be high level nobles teleporting in for sunday brunch, and the invitation got mixed up.
While there *are* ways to cast a spell without getting caught in Pathfinder, the fact it requires a feat 2 - 3 levels down a tree to have a chance suggests it does not show up much.
Of course, what we did not see them do was look for an invisible person teleporting in with us. I'd be inclined to assume that they do have a procedure for it though, probably using that Alarm variant that only works on invisible intruders.
Sure they have priorities. But I'd expect that there is "protocol" for stuff like high-level-nobles teleporting for a visit.
Which is why they have those wards with prison redirection in the first place.
Point being that if I was hostile, I could easily turn invisible with my SLA(if I am not to begin with), draw the quicken rod, swift cast, 5 foot step, go to town on next round. Maybe even get surprise and win init.
And/or we would be battle-ready and assail them if hostile. Hence why I am saying: Yeah, they did NOT attack initially and waited for what we do. Which, if we were hostile, would be a death sentence.
Hence I doubt that they'd NOW freak out if someone says "hey, I am going to cast something now to prove a point".
Hmmm. But if that were the case we could have had you teleport in while we were invisible, and all of us holding an action to attack.
I think there's a chance we could get away with casting, but there'd be a decent chance of someone reacting. Probably depends on what you say first. Arguably the same if you draw a weapon.
I *think* Mel was the only one to use it? If we give her the 'spare' everyone can then still have one.
Busy busy. Will post tomorrow.
Aye, that is kind of my point.
They could not identify the spell, most likely, and would be uneasy. But with advance warning it should be tolerable, especially if you explain why and what the spell will do.
If they were so 'hostile' that they would attack on someone casting, they should already have done so rather than wait on us.
On a totally unrelated note, I think I may need to name my window well "Eater of Rodents." So far since moving in it's been the end of one mouse and two baby rabbits.
I just pulled a third baby rabbit out a few minutes ago and released it again. It was considerably more active than the last one, so it may live. At any rate, it's got a better chance now than it did while it was stuck at the bottom of a four-foot tall egress window well.
Unnecessarily dons biologist hat Rabbits are order lagomorpha, not rodentia (unlike the plurality of mammals, which are indeed rodents). It is a common misconception that they are rodents because of similarities between the two orders. Doffs unnecessary biologist hat
Unpacks +26 in Knowledge(Nature) for further random rabbit facts:
And these lagomorphs produce two types of droppings, one of which are cecotropes, which they eat again - similar to multi-stomach setups, just that they do a second pass in their one. The other is fecal pallets. So they don't really eat their poop, they just have a two-round setup going.
@Gameplay: Well, Turick WAS advocating for an alliance with Avinoax, was he not? If Mel is unmasked, he may find a genuine Avinoxian elf to talk about things.
(Plus her parents live in Avinoax , so there's that.)
The rabbit didn't make it. I released it in my back yard, and put a little dish of water about two inches from its head. But it just huddled in that spot and died some time during the night.
I've got a window well cover of course, but the shape of the window well means that it doesn't fit very tightly. Baby rabbits are small enough to squeeze under the cover and then fall in. I've thought about maybe getting some screening to mold over the top of it, but this is also an egress window in case of fire so it would have to be something a person could move fast in an emergency from the inside. Bah.
And now for game play! Let's triple check the math on that DC, as invited.
Mel's Bluff score breaks down as follows:
7 ranks
+3 class skill
-1 Charisma modifier
+2 Disguise Kit
For a total of +11. Ordinarily she has a +10 from her Hat of Disguise, but that's obviously not in play here.
In terms of performing the actual check, the applicable modifiers are:
+5 minor details only (because it's basically just the ears)
-2 disguised as a different race
That brings her modifier, before rolling, to +14. For convenience, I have been taking 10.
Grand total: 24. In short, not enough. The odds were pretty good -- the Captain apparently needed to roll a 16+. Which he did.
Technically you can take 20 on Disguise, I think, but it would take too long to be practical. Donning a disguise takes 1d3 x 10 minutes, call it an average of 20 minutes. Taking 20 then multiplies that by 20, so it would take something like 6 hours and 40 minutes. "I'm ready! Let's go adventure for 80 minutes, and then we can call it a day!"
I would totally throw a hero point at this for a +4 bonus after the fact, but I used them all up during the brothel fight. I don't suppose any of you would like to spend one on Mel's behalf? I imagine somebody sneezing at just the right moment would be a sufficient distraction. It would only be a +2 on the roll (after the fact, for an ally), but that would be enough to avoid this rather serious complication.
And it really does look rather serious. Turick has a known dislike of elves. Sure, Mel could claim to be Avinoan -- but I have a strong suspicion that Turick knows a fair bit about elves despite (or because of) disliking them. And given that we've just demonstrated that we were not entirely forthcoming with him at the outset, the diplomacy DCs for dealing with him have probably just gone up even without the elf thing.
I'd really rather get on with investigating Cust rather than spending time mending fences with Turick.
I'm tempted, but I'm not sure Hal knows Mel actually has anything problematic to hide.
Making sure the curtains and doors are closed, Mel takes off her hat. The image of a perky blonde human woman fades away, leaving the narrower planes of Mel's own face, her dark hair and the tips of her ears tucked beneath a scarf just as they had been when they rescued him from the mirror.
I just scanned through a ton of posts, and I don't think he knows Mel (as opposed to Melia) is anything but a skinny human.
That said...
Good RP, Hal. Perhaps later Mel needs to unmask in private so he'll be aware of the situation!
GM, here's a die roll.
Go ahead and add whichever Knowledge skill would be appropriate regarding the weird ghost bird, 'cause I don't know what to roll for that. I'll make sure the modifiers in my skills line are up to date.
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Just FYI, I have a new baby arriving any day now. I probably won't drop 100% off the map but I will be a lot less frequent, maybe without notice, for a couple weeks.
Congratulations!
Thanks for the heads-up - with number 4 due in January, I totally understand.
Take some time for you guys, I'll be around whenever you find some time.
Wow - congratulations!
Congrats!
Congrats! Great news :D
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Congrats to you, Turion!
Sorry for my slowness. Was applying to a bunch of faculty jobs this week. Will update tomorrow morning.
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New baby is here now. He and his older sister have put us through the ringer for a bit. Will be in contact more some time later.
Great news! Enjoy :D
Congratulations! :)
Enjoy. We'll be around, patiently.
Hope everything is fine with you and the little one :)
No hurries, just checking in.
(After my previous absences, I do kind of have a desire to regularly make known that I'm around - don't mind me)
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I'm going to attempt resuming pbp this week.
Hope all is going well!
In a case of terrible timing I may be incommunicado over the weekend.
Hm.
I tried to research the validity of my suggestion, but it seems a GM call is needed, there.
Can Elementals who Earth-Glide take objects with them?
Can the move something in the medium they can move in?
It seems it's GM Fiat.
I've seen mention of comparing it to "underwater" rules, meaning they swim through the stone/earth and the concepts and limitations are similar.
There's also Earth Glide, the spell, which uses similar wording. Would the Target need to be nude and empty-handed?
If not, what if they let go of an object while inside the stone? Would it be shunted to the closest exit point or "lost" in transition? Could they pick it up again or is digging needed?
For what it's worth, I'd prefer to either get a large elemental or a couple medium ones with SM 5 - ideally, they could "lift" the whole coffin to the surface, leaving the grave itself undisturbed.
Otherwise, back to planning, but if that works we can go ahead.
I will be on vacation visiting family so will be gone a couple days(starting tomorrow) - hence saying if that works, I'm fine with going ahead with that plan. If it doesn't work we'll need a different approach anyway.
Physically, there would be a huge amount of resistance to moving a large object like a coffin, even through loose earth. But the monster ability does say as easily as a fish swims through water and, lacking any other guidance, I'll say that they can drag objects along with them. It just slows them down a little, exactly how much doesn't matter right now.
For reference - with DD I can teleport people carrying up to their max load.
So that is the determinant factor about doing it WITH the coffin.
I think the highest Strength is Kaz, but I'm not sure if it's 19 or higher, and/or if we have means to boost it.
19 would be 350 for heavy load, but his stone plate and other stuff is likely to put him over. Also not sure if we could "distribute" the load, as pall bearers would, or if that would be "cheating" the terms of the spell.
But if there's a shed close by we can use, I'm also fine just making our way there with the invisible coffin.
Shed is the simplest, if you're quick!
Speaking of questions, what are we asking this stiff?
Speak with Dead gives 1 question for each 2 caster levels. So we're looking at ... uh, five questions? Maybe six if Hal has some CL-boosting shenanigans.
I don't know if its strictly necessary per the spell, but I like to start these things but just telling the subject who we are and what we're doing, to provide context. Just
Some things to ask:
- Do you believe Baron Cust had you killed?
- Did you build one or more secret rooms or passages into Baron Cust's manor?
- How do we access the secret rooms or passages in Baron Cust's manor?
- For what purpose did Baron Cust want these secret rooms or passages?
We could leave a couple of questions open for things that come up during the questioning. And if there are any left at the end, Mel wants to know if he has any final messages for his wife.
Uh, are we going to be admitting to this? Otherwise I'd prefer 'waht do you wish you had told your wife?'
We don't have to tell her 'details'.
Suffice to say that we managed to contact her late husbands spirit.
By what means, operational security does not allow us to tell.
I doubt an architects widow is intimately familiar with the workings of magic in that regard, and with the occult classes there's also different, less intrusive ways this could have went down.
Just a quick heads up. Come December I'll be gone from 10th-16th and probably from the 21st to about 25th.
I feel those answers were a great answer to a pair of 3rd level spell slots, thanks Brookside GM!
Fun! I love little exploration/intrigue sidequests.
Okay, so, we know the following:
- All the doors and windows have locks.
- The estate is walled.
- The front and rear gates are guarded.
- The front and rear doors are guarded.
- He has an office.
- There's a secret room in the basement.
- The secret room is probably trapped.
The evidence we want is most likely to be either in his office or in the secret room.
I was kind of hoping that our interview with the architect would reveal a secret passage used for getting stuff in and out of the place. That would have been handy.
Let's not do another infiltration -- we just did one of those. So that leaves our main options as:
A) Gather more information potentially through the application of magic. Does either Hal or Túrion have Clairvoyance, by any chance? That would let us scope out the internal layout, which would be very helpful for getting straight to our goal rather than blundering about blindly from room to room. We could theoretically get the same information by bribing, charming or otherwise suborning one of the household servants.
B) Kick down the door, preferably some time at night to minimize the chances of them getting outside reinforcements.
C) Try and sneak in, which is always challenging with a group.
Thoughts?
I do have Clairvoyance, yes, and used it before.
However, we do know that most of the mansions have those teleport traps with redirect to dungeon...so by that logic, even with more information we'll default to B or C as final approach.
That said, I'll have to do some catching up on gameplay.
2 of the 3 kids, and my SO have fallen ill, and I didn't get much time to do anything over the weekend(or today). I'll get up to date and post more informed as soon as I can manage, though.
Hal can memorise clairvoyance, though he'd have to burn a lvl 4 slot. Insect swarm might be better.
@Brookside GM: how does this interact with sensing the scrying sensor?
Suppress Audible or Visible Effects: A stylized spell’s effects can be suppressed to the point where they are difficult to spot or hear. Such a spell’s audible and visual effects are largely transparent, quieter, smaller, or otherwise less obtrusive. A creature notices the suppressed effects only if it succeeds at a Perception check (DC = 10 + your number of ranks in Bluff or Spellcraft + the highest of your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifiers). If, at the GM’s discretion, a spell’s effects are intrinsically bound to its visual or auditory signature (such as sunburst, sound burst, and most spells with the language-dependent, light, or sonic descriptors), reduce the DC of the Perception by 10.
I believe you mean Insect Scouts, which is what you used in the Linen Shop if memory serves.
And I concur. Even if you could do it more stealthy, Túrion would have several clairvoyance-casting left for today.
But as mentioned, I'm reluctant to burn them unless we have time to wait before going in.
Yes that can hide the scrying sensor.
Alright, so I am torn
method #1. Go have a look at the building look for auras using Soulsight Goggles and Read Spell Traces
2. move away a bit and burn 'ears of the city' and 'false face' to cast Insect Scouts as a second level druid spell using Spell Study
Once this is done we need to move in CL + 1d6 hours.
4. If possible would like the scouts to give the location of mirrors.
This is good because insect scouts is not a scrying spell, and a bunch of the counters won't stop it.
If we can find mirrors we can use irriseni mirror sight.
Otherwise I am hopeful the impressions from the insect scout are sufficient to get clairvoyance up - and that if the area is warded against scrying we might have worked it out. This'd need to be cast Stylized, with the chance the spell fizzles, in order to maximise the chance we will be able to avoid detection.
On the other hand...
method #2
Could just possess someone who is allowed in the house.
So method #1 gets us information - does it help? Is all we want to know what is in the secret rooms, or do we want in? I'm guessing if we see something we're going to need to get in anyway, which means potentially we're better off doing that in the first place.
it would help with getting past traps and locks because of the rerolls it grants, so maybe that, then sneak, then kick down the door when it inevitably goes wrong?
Turion: how are you with invisibility spells?
method #2 sounds like infiltration which means some people potentially sitting around... and possibly someone getting killed we don't want getting killed.
@Brookside GM: does mirror transport count as teleportation for anti-teleport effects? I'm sort of assuming it foes because of the 'as if using dimension door'
Yes to Hal's question, it counts as teleportation.
Method 1 sounds good to me. For my part, I'm chiefly interested in figuring out what the layout is so that we can get directly where we need to go and avoid wasting time bumbling around through irrelevant rooms.
Only individual invisibility.
There's some spells I would love to pick up, invisibility sphere among them, but we're notoriously short on actual cash, and I spent most of mine to afford copying the spells we found on spellbooks, rather than buy scrolls for extra cost and write those.
I was also considering using stuff with burrow speed to see about any hidden underground rooms - but we'd need burrowers that leave a tunnel and would probably accidentally collapse the locale in a sinkhole :)
The thing is, we COULD probably just breach the place, shock and awe style, avoid lethal casualties, then find justification post-factum in the hidden chambers.
(And if not, we can make a quiet exit stage right as none of us are locals)
Or try and charm and bluff our way past the guards. That we are the guilds magical inspection specialists sent to check on the gellar fields of the wards and traps to assure no entities from the void beyond take over any hapless hosts in form of mundane guard personal.
I concur that knowing WHERE we go would be desirable, but I think with our versatility and skills we have a decent chance of success no matter what approach we go with.
Right, so, I think we've settled on doing some magical reconnaissance. We've laid out a lot of options without actually picking any of them.I don't think I can make the next move here. Mel's not a spellcaster -- or at least, only barely one, and not equipped to do the kind of stuff we need.
Could either Hal or Túrion please pick an approach and do it? You two know your capabilities much better than any of the rest of us. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
The one thing "holding" me from acting is that as I stated, I'm reluctant to burn the slots for multiple Clairvoyances and maybe a few summons to pinpoint where we want to be/go - unless we have an opportunity to rest before going in.
That is, without that question answered I am unsure how many resources to dedicate to recon, over keeping a reserve in case things go belly-up - as they tend to, so often - .
So, do we spend the remainder of today gathering information/intel, then rest and go in tomorrow?
Or do we do some basic recon, then wing it immediately to the best of our knowledge?
I am fine with either, but depending on choice I'd allocate resources differently.
It's up to the party whether or not you go in today! The timeline will progress a bit if you don't go in today but I'm not going to make any promises as to how much that will matter and for what. First two party members to agree on something, let's do that without further deliberation.
Here's a suggestion for assaulting the Cust manor.
The gates and the front and back doors have both guards and alarm spells on them. Going through there is a great way to let him know we're coming. And we can't teleport into the building due to the teleport trap.
The layout -- at least the exterior -- is pretty similar to the Harcourt manor. There are windows on the ground
So let's Dimension Door to the side of the building, outside, then get in through a window. Mel can take stab at unlocking it -- she's got lockpicks and one glorious rank in Disable Device. If any of you can do better, speak up! Ideally, we get in without alerting the guards at the main entrances.
Once inside, we make a beeline for the basement, where we know there is a secret room which most likely has a trapped entrance. We get in there, find the evidence we need, and get out. No doubt dealing with obstacles along the way.
I'm inclined to say wait till late at night for this. Doing it in broad daylight while people are up and about is probably a poor idea.
In theory, an area dispel magic can suppress the effects of a permanent teleport trap temporarily, thus allowing us to escape via teleportation magic. However, I'm pretty sure that would take a Greater Dispel Magic, and none of us are capable of casting spells that high level. So there's a good chance we'll need to get out in more mundane ways.
I toyed with the notion of Dimension Dooring onto the roof, on the grounds that the Cust probably didn't extend the Teleport Trap above the roofline. But then I'm stumped for how we would get into the building from there, as I rather doubt he has a convenient skylight or similar. Those are pretty modern.