Dragon Mountain (Inactive)

Game Master Banesama

Ahadiel just nods from his horse concentrating on it.
My bottom hurts. Why do I always forget the I hate riding. Well I can´t let them down. More or less hastily he dismounts, gives the good horse an apple as reward and claps the dust of the journey from his clothes.

getting off his horse, J'Victus looks around the area to make certain all is as it should be.
Perception: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (14) + 31 = 45
Once he feels all is well, he starts for the door

"See? It was a perfectly uneventful trip." Fuego comments."There was no need for all that teleport business just because you were too lazy to get out of bed for a morning ride." Fuego chides Mihail.

Enta replies to Fuego Firestorm's words

But she also thinks
"darn, my butt is sore likely since I don't ride horses much."

As they come to a stop, Amelia reactivates her hat of disguise and becomes visible once more, now wearing a formal black suit and bowler hat, with long brown hair in a simple braid down her back. She pockets an apple and glides along behind J'Victus as he approaches the door.

"Thank you min, you were a friendly ride. Here, have an apple and there's some grass. I'll just tie you loosely here then."

Clara ties off her horse and looks around, then heads after Ahadiel and Amy.

"Ah wizard towers. I always enjoy the little details. The intricate self opening doors and levered gates, and yet I never see a wizard with a wrench. Why is that?"

Mihail snorts at Fuego.

"This again? Give it a rest already. I am not complaining, they are not complaining. Me being partial to laziness, stop putting words into my mouth. I get that you are trying be a mind reader but stop. You are bad at it. Seriously, you should stop getting worked up over minor things like in our past adventures. I swear one day your high attitude is going force karma to bite us in the ass."

The bard then curses and puts a hand over his mouth. He moves to one side, hides his face from the party and pukes for over a minute. When finished, his breathing is irregular.

"It's a good thing my breakfast digested. I would not have appetite for lunch then. Ugh."

Mihail brushes his horse's mane as he ties it to a post and rewards him with a carrot that he sneaked into his pack.

"No offense to you, my friend. I like you but me on your back do not work out that well for me it seems."

Akarus hops off his horse, and removes his shield from his saddle. "Well, shall we head inside? We don't want o keep Artemis waiting."

"Meh, it was a perfectly fine morning to get out and see the roses." Fuego grins, invigorated by the morning ride. "I'd say use magic only for really important things. And not to save yourself half a morning of nice scenery. And you probably shouldn't have seeing who could drink more last night. Or you wouldn't be in this shape this morning."

"Lets go in." Fuego agrees to Akarus's request, as he pushes open the gates.

Mihail is not even batting an eyelid on Fuego, his eyes mostly on the tower.

"I am afraid my yesterday's drinking has nothing to do with my unfortunate nausea and I did enjoy watching the roses during our ride. Thank you very much."

To add to his cool tone, he flicks his shoulder length hair.

"Anyways, let's meet with Athena. A change in environment is more suiting now that you sparked my interest in the interior when you mentioned the tower, Clara."

The group moves into the Tower to be shown a room that should be too large to fit in the base of the Tower.

Base Floor

To greet you is a strange looking dog, Dog Familiar. To your utter surprise it starts talking to you.

"Greetings. My Mistress will join you soon. Please have a seat and enjoy the tea and biscuits I have prepared for you."

There is a tray with tea cups for everyone and biscuits with a bowl of jam if wanted.

The dog moves over to the fire place and lays down on a dog bed as he watches you.

There are circular stairs going both up and down.

Etna surprised at the familiar's intelligence
"I'm guessing she had her familiar awakened...."

and walks in with the rest of the group.

"Who knows, but let us take a seat and show our host our respect." Sitting on a bench he grabs a cup of tea and takes a quick swig."Excellent, my thanks!"

I've always enjoyed having awakened familiars. Whenever I've played a wizard I've strived to make his familiar awakened and then roleplay them as smartasses. :P

"Huh," remarks Amy as she enters the tower. "It's bigger on the inside."

She turns to address the dog. "How does that work exactly? Is it some sort of illusion, or just an extradimensional space?"

Clara concentrates on the dog without really thinking about it, then apologizes.

Detect evil, diplomacy if it's offended is +10

"Sorry, habit when presented with talking creatures. It's terribly human of me I know. Let's try again. Hello, and thank you for the offering. How did you pour the tea? It looks lovely."

She seems genuinely curious.

"It sure is. I wonder what magic is used to get up to the upper level. Teleportation or transmutation? I guess I will have to ask our host once she turns up."

Mihail picks up the teacup and biscuits as he stares at the dog, not the least surprised by its speech.

"Woah, you made this? How nice of you."

The bard takes a munch out of his biscuit and sip his tea.

It still amazes me that after all these years and the crap we have been through...that my companions still wet their pants at the sight of wizard magic. If they had the chance to see a drow city.....that would be an ugly and very quick death
J'Victus shivers a bit as he walks through the gates. His attitude is respectful but he does not seem too impressed..

Thank you and we look forward to meeting your mistress at her convenience
He finds a seat and sits down to enjoy some biscuits and tea.

"Hello dog!" Fuego greets the dog cheerfully. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance, could I know whom I have the pleasure of addressing?" Fuego addresses the dog politely. Do you mind if I ask how you and Athena came to be together? It would be a fine tale, I'm sure."

'I had a dog named Spot once....until those brigands took away everything I cared for....'. Fuego conceals his inner pain by keeping an amicable smile on his face.

He nibbles the biscuits and sips the tea. "Cinnamon really does add such a delightful zest to things. And the Chamomile tea is so warm and soothing." He lavishly praises the dog's culinary skills.

The dog responds, "How rude of me. I am called Thor. My Mistress summoned me, hmmm... better not say how long ago. She would get mad. But awhile ago. As for the placement of the tea and biscuits, there is an invisible servant somewhere around here. Must be with the Mistress at the moment."

A few minutes pass when a woman enters the room from below, Athena, "Thor have you seen the book on moon dogs? I seemed to ha...."She stops when she realizes the party is there, "Oh.. we seem to have visitors."

Thor responds, "Yes Mistress, you asked them to visit you about the Mountain."

"The Mountain? ... Oh yes. The Mountain. I forgot." Athena composes herself before she continues on, "Greetings visitors. I am Athena. Sorry about the sudden summons, but I am so excited about the reappearance of the Mountain that I needed adventurers right away to explore it."

Thor interrupts, "Shouldn't you let them introduce themselves first?"

Athena looks at Thor absently for a moment before she snaps out of it, "Oh... I should shouldn't I. Yes. Please, introduce yourselves to me."

"Hello Thor." He holds out his hand for the dog to shake."I'm sorry, if I asked about anything sensitive. The cookies are delicious!" He compliments the invisible servant.

"Hello Athena," he offers his hand for a handshake, slightly self-conscious at all the burn scars. "My name is Fuego. I'm the groups...demolition specialist. If you want things to go up with a big bang, I'm your man."

"Milady, you seem to have a lot of things on your mind at this point of time, would you like to share any of your problems with us?" He asks.

Clara rolls her eyes at fuego's milady, and grins at Thor. Then composing herself as she can, she offers a handshake to the wizard.

"Good morning again mistress mage. I'm Clara in service of Shelyn, we met at that baptismal ceremony, with the..."

She pauses, then continues with an apologetic smile at Thor.

"With the satyr. You were amazing. We'd love to help with the Mountain, exploration is one of our favorite things."

Akarus puts his fist to his chest in a crusader's salute, before saying, "Good morning Mistress Athena, I am Akarus Vildean, warrior and holy champion of Vildeis, blessed be her name. It would be my honour to partake in whatever task you have for us."

Bowing deeply Ahadiel introduces himself. "Good afternoon, Ma´am. My name is Ahadiel, called the Judge. How may I be of assistance?"

Amy stays a few paces back from Athena and gives a little wave. "Hi, I'm Amelia, and you basically had me at 'explore'."

Listening to the others introduce themselves, J'Victus nods at the wizard.
Keep it simple.
He seems to be zoning off for a moment, but it is him just thinking...He looks at the wizard with a look of curiosity.
J'Victus...Acquisitions...
Then he takes a step forward. In a curious but calm voice....
What do you mean the mountain reappeared? Mountains do not just go off for a stroll and then decide to return to the range they came from.

Etna does a bow as she introduces herself
"I am Enta Venus Van Ash"

Mihail stands up and bows with grace.

"Mihail at your service, Miss Athena."

The bard then takes a seat and finishes his tea.

"You have me intrigued on the exploration of uncharted grounds. I'm in. What is the name mountain we are going to explore?"

Athena nods at everyone as they introduce themselves, "This Mountain I want you to explore is somewhat of a mystery. The place is often called by locals as Dragon Mountain, though a dragon is not always spotted. So those reports of a dragon might not be associated with Dragon Mountain. The truly mysterious thing about Dragon Mountain is that it will disappear for 20 years and then suddenly reappear elsewhere for a couple of years before disappearing again.

There will probably be much danger. I imagine others will be looking for Dragon Mountain and not all of them will be friendly. Also what is actually in Dragon Mountain is a mystery to me. That is why I am sending you. I hope for you to return after thoroughly exploring it and reporting your findings to me and any scrolls or books on the place. Any other treasure you find will solely be yours. I'm only interested in the knowledge."

"That sounds simple enough, although I think we'll have to prevail upon you for supplies, mapmaking parchment if you wish maps, books if you want journals. The usual expectations. Oh, and of course we'll need permission to copy to our best ability or simply take descriptions of any of the knowledge contained within the mountain should we find that procuring the originals would end in the usual unpleasantness or an unfortunate final death by kobold craftsmanship. It's part of our standard recovery disclaimer. Only a soon to be dead idiot pulls the sacred book of forty-two levers from the kobold high shelf in the clockwork device, I'm sure you understand."

Clara is crisply businesslike, then goes back to her easy smile.

"Now the dragon, that's easy."

Listening intently Ahadiel ponders for a moment.
"Well If we get to this town, we can buy the papers you need Clara!" But then he smiles. It sounds like an adventure."Anything else you can tell us about this dragon mountain!"

Amy nods along to Clara's requests, but her attention is elsewhere. Her eyes glaze over as, just for a moment, she relinquishes control over her familiar's body. She retreats into her head, cuts off the outside world, and casts her mind back to the books and scrolls that have filled her days and nights, to any obscure or esoteric legend about the Mountain's supernatural nature or the magical creatures rumored to reside there.

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (10) + 21 = 31

"Dragon Mountain..." she says slowly, as if sounding out the syllables for the first time. "Sounds... interesting."

"Does Dragon mountain have to do with a dragon? Which town will you be teleporting us to, and which mountain range is it in really?"

"Well, I'm not really good at map making and all that," Fuego furrows his eyebrows,"Anyone down here any good at maps?"

Not sure what skill it would be for mapmaking?

I could see a good argument for Survival, Knowledge (geography), or Craft (maps). Which would make Amy and Akarus the most likely candidates.

Also, Akarus might want to start preparing scrivener's chant in one of his orison slots.

profession cartography

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) would suffice for drawing maps of dungeons and Knowledge (Geography) for drawing overland maps. But Craft (Maps) and Profession Cartography works too.

"I will provide journals and map drawing papers for everyone. And I have basic adventuring supplies available for you {Any non-weapon/armor found in the PHB}. The mountain range is called the Mindspin Mountains {Taking some liberty here to the Golarion Map since this adventure existed before Pathfinder} and the town I will be sending you to is a town called Harker's Ferry. I can't tell you much about the Dragon Mountain since the information I have is out of date and a lot could've changed as it hopped between dimensions for the last 20 years."

What knowledge checks do we need to get more info about dragon mountain other than arcana?

"This truly sounds like a most fascinating oppor-" Amy stops mid-sentence and turns to gaze intently at Clara. "Kobolds!" she blurts out. "You said something about kobolds, and, and... I read about a place called Dragon Mountain ages ago in that big encyclopedia of kobold anthropology. They... live there? Died there? Something like that."

Amy pauses for breath, eyes bright with excitement. "Athena, would you happen to have any books on kobolds we could borrow? And, um, mountaineering? And... hold on..."

Amy racked her brain, trying to place the new names they had been given.

Taking 10 on Knowledge (history) to recall any significant events involving the town of Harker's Ferry, as well as on Knowledge (nature) for the flora, fauna, and weather of the Mindspin Mountains, for a total of 31 on each.

J'Victus watches quietly as the others make their pitches for this or that.
There are magical maps that once created are blank of course but when activated they would map everything out to a set distance...mark locations of known cities, towns, rivers, glades, etc. I have heard of versions that were used by the varies races from the darklands. These maps would map out an area of tunnels with the same parameters as the above ground version but would mark things that are underground. I do not see why this would not work for a mountain that moves.

He stand and walks a few feet...
The logistics of this adventure are going to be a difficult task in of itself, what with all the supplies we will need just to survive a plane traveling mountain. This is not taking into account the supplies to handle your request. Now we are more than capable of handling such a task. I am hoping that you have some extra-dimensional items for sale. I was leaning more towards a portable hole. I would be happy to purchase it outright or I would contract it to be made.

Etna thinks about the words used in the discussion

"since the mountain phases in and out of areas in a 20 year cycle, time in the mountain could also flow differently. For All we know we could end up stuck in the mountain for 20 years.
One thing to think about is food and water supplies if and should we need them for a long period of time.
Now I recall Clara making a lot of drinkable water before so water might not be the biggest issue, but food would."

"I should be able conjure up some food in a pinch," Amy chimes in thoughtfully. "As should our resident holy champion," she adds, giving a nod to Akarus. "But your offer of supplies sounds extraordinarily helpful, and I'd love to take a look at whatever's available."

"Bah. Nothing but secret doors and traps comes with kobolds. Get a 10 foot pole and be VERY careful about what you're stepping on."Fuego grumbles.

Mihail nods at Amy's suggestion of securing .

"Glad we will the means to secure food."

The bard scratches his head.

"Dragon Mountain? Sounds like an ever-changing and shifting labyrinth of some powerful leader who owns a dragon, having dragon blood or a location that attract draconic creatures."

He forsakes the comforts of the couch and sits cross-leg. He bends his head and looks down at the floor.

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) on Dragon Mountain and creatures (Take 20) - 25

Knowledge (Nature) on Dragon Mountain and creatures (Take 10) - 25

Knowledge (Planes) on Dragon Mountain and creatures (Take 10) - 20

Knowledge (Local) on Dragon Mountain: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Knowledge (History) on Dragon Mountain: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

"Amy, we should not be foolish enough in not being prepared, for all we know there could be anti-magic areas within the mountain."

"Truly. Kobolds, ugh. At least we'll be in the mountains. You'll like snow if we see any, Amy."

Clara grins, then settles down.

"Provision today, teleport in the morning? That let's everyone rest, and prepare for trouble. I for one would like a bath before we do the risking our lives bit, if only because I know I won't feel truly clean for a while. As our new employer I am now at liberty to inform you that when we return from this expedition we will almost certainly reek. I advise having soap, water, bandages, and clothes you deem modest on hand, but we'll find out all we can of this mountain for you.

Upon mention of a Portable Hole, Thor's ears perk up and he speaks. "Mistress, we have such an item. Remember you let that one adventurer group you hired to explore the 'Lost Dryad Glade'. I don't see why we cannot let them borrow it as well."

Athena nods with Thor, "Yes. Your right. We will let them borrow the Portable Hole. Very wise thinking Thor." Athena then turns to her side and talks to the air. "Go fetch the Portable Hole will you my sweet."

A few minutes later a handkerchief appears on the table. Thor responds, "There is the Portable Hole you can burrow."

I thank you kindly, this will come in handy.
J'Victis picks up the handkerchief and places it in a belt pouch.

"Hmm... Amy now appears more collected and calculating, giving off an air of professionalism. "Our most immediate concern now seems to be staying in communication with you. A set of ring gates would be ideal, allowing us to send back books and scrolls and such as we go. Would you happen to have a pair we could borrow, or any idea where we might be able to obtain one?"

J'Victus simple nods at Amelie as she asks about the ring gates. It appears that he was thinking along the same lines...
but....
he pauses for a second as he tried to determine the best way to word his thoughts...
I am not expert on magics but I do know a thing or two about those gates. In order for them to work we need to be on the same plane. If this mountain jumps from plane to plane we just might not be on the same plane....maybe. I do not know. If scrying magics are being block it also would not surprise me to see that translocation type magics would be blocked as well. We might have to set up a staging area to teleport to and from outside the mountain....

Athena responds, "Your friend is correct. The extra-dimensional properties of Dragon Mountain not only prevents scrying, but long distance communication and teleportation. If I was able to teleport you to the entrance to Dragon Mountain I would. But there is too much distortion. There are closer towns to the mountain ranges, but Harker's Ferry is small and peaceful. Other towns are bigger and will draw more attention to you from any 'hostile' parties that might also be interested in Dragon Mountain. I will continue to scry your progress until the distortion prevents me. But when you are done exploring Dragon Mountain, if you distance yourself enough from the mountain I will be able to teleport you back here"

"That's interesting. Do you think those same forces would prevent teleportation, and scrying within Dragon Mountain itself? How about divination magics?" Fuego asks Athena.

"I think I'd like to get a wand of detect secret doors. If, and only if, there isn't something blocking divinations within the mountain itself." He mentions to the party.