The entry hall now stands open. Its carved stone ceiling is twenty feet high. A cyclopean marble statue stands on the left side of the hall, and a pile of rubble lies opposite it. Just past the statue, shadows envelop the hallway in absolute darkness. The walls depict religious rituals performed by giants with a single eye in the center of their foreheads and battles between the giantfolk and serpentlike humanoids.
Lucky makes the gesture he's seen his feral friend make, and wards the evil eye as he skulks through the door and makes a Counterclockwise circuit of the room.
To avoid surprise, hidden object & doors: +1 (Eye for Plunder)
To notice traps: +3 (Trapfinding: +½ level round up)
In or on water: +2 (Favored Terrain: Water)
Does Knowledge Nature help to identify the serpentlike humanoids?
Tiger-Kiltem pads softly into the room and helps to look around
Perception
The druid also helps to light up the darkness with with an orison Light
Kiltem looks at the forms, and simply cannot place them as creatures of Gozreh's design.
Lucky starts to head down the hall, when he stops before the first intact statue in the hallway. The rogue's intuition and training pull his gaze towards the eye on the statue... it's trapped. Crossing the hallway here would set off some awful spell. Based on the discoloration of the stones, likely a fire spell...
Is it possible to circumvent the trap and still explore?
In case it is not... and ONLY if it is not: Lucky warns his shipmates and waves them back out of the area of effect.
Otherwise Lucky indicates the area and trigger, hoping to continue without risking incineration.
The rogue explains there is a trap and tells everyone to move back.
Before moving away to let Lucky do his best. The massive tiger reaches out a dinner plate sized paw and hooks the rogue around the thigh and pulls him in for a moment. The wildshaped druid casts a spell. Resist Energy
Lucky feels the familiar energy of his friend’s magic. For a moment the rogue was sure he saw a bluish forcefield around his body.
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The gnome taps his chin for a moment and then sees that the discoloration only goes so far.
I've got this back up a bit and maybe we can pass safe for a few moments.
Pulling out a wand Slappy does an unnecessary bit of gesticulations, speaks a few command words, and a few long seconds later a wolf shows up, along with a stench of sulfur.
With a two chirp whistle and a wiggle of the fingers the wolf is sent to cross the boundary and try to set off the trap.
Nice use of summon monster!
Updated--this assumes we can keep the door open, and that the discoloration due to flames does not reach outside the threshold.
Slappy sends the wolf in. The eye lights up and and for
The wolf returns to its realm, and the eye trap seems spent.
After seeing the fire trap incinerate the summoned wolf, everyone gives Slappy a slap on the back. The party heads back in to search.
Party Perception
Perception
lowlight and scent
+2 on water terrain
The party inches their way forward. Furtive glances at Lucky come frequently as the rogue tries to ferret out more tracks. At the end of the hallway, the party finally spots clues as to the other crew.
A stone monolith lies shattered in this diamond-shaped alcove, reduced to large chunks of rubble. The larger fragments resemble the pylon standing outside the waterfall, though they bear different inscriptions. The withered body of a giant lies face down amid the wreckage. Next two it are a pair of bodies, smashed to death. Anything of note has been taken from the corpses.
The complex hallway opens in both directions.
Healing
Can Kiltem make any accurate guess to how old the bodies are? What killed them?
Kiltem estimates that they're less than two days dead. [ooc] The strange body can be IDed with a Knowledge (Religion) check.[/oov]
The party moves in to explore this section a little more closely.
Perception
While most of the party are searching, the Tiger-Druid goes to each tunnel entrance and gives some good sniffs. Can he tell which way has more recent spoor?
Perception w/ scent
Survival
Slappy struggles to figure out what the corpse is.... Meanwhile Kiltem feels penned in. To the west he hears active shuffling and it smells of death, to the east he hears a man groaning and it smells of blood...
Unable to properly communicate the druid in tigerform pauses a moment. First knowing danger is close he asks the Mother for a boon.
Casts Barkskin on himself.
Next he goes over to the East passage, and gives a deep growl to get everyone's attention. While it looks strange on the big cat, he gives a very humanish toss of his head "this way..."
Unless the rogue stops him to scout, BigKitty leads the way.
Standing next to the huge tiger Lucky easily dismisses his urge to pet the large cat. Taking a moment to make sure the whole party is ready, he motions to the wildshaped druid to lead the way.
Kiltem leads w/ Lucky close behind to trapspot.
The Capitan and Slappy are next following behind.
The Slayer takes rear guard.
Both Kiltem and Slappy use Light spells as needed.
Tiger-Kiltem can smell blood. His muscles tense as he is ready to pounce.
Slappy will touch both Kiltem and Lucky with a Vanish. he whispers Good kitty, now they can't see you but only for a short time
Slappy doesn't need light, but he will hand a lighted pebble to the Captain confident that he will shield it while the druid is scouting.
Within this expansive room, cyclopean statues stand at attention, pointed toward the center of the room from alcoves set in the facing walls. At the northeastern end of the room, stairs lead ten feet up to a stone table.
A man on death's door groans on the floor by the table. He's covered in blood, and doesn't look like he'll be conscious much longer - if he's even conscious now. In the dim light, it's hard to make out a face.
trap, but Slappy isn’t there it’s for Kiltem or Lucky to say
Invisible tiger and human moves swiftly into the room. They give a quick sweep looking for enemies and threats.
Perception Kilt
Perception Lucky
Tiger-Kiltem can see well in the low light environment and gives a few sniffs on the move. Once the quick sweep with no obvious enemies is over, the druid will cast an orison as needed for illumination Light
Assuming the two find no threat, Lucky will softly call for the others, while Kiltem guards the wounded man.
There seems to be no threats in this room. Kiltem's light orizon reveals the identity of the semi-conscious man. It's Ratline!
Kiltem remembers the man and felt he was a decent sort. The druid internally curses that he doesnt have a CLWs spell ready to cast.
Ratline?!?! Well I'll be keel-hauled! Don't we have a wand of Curing or something???
Art hustles forward, with a muttered cover me!behind his back to his companions. The captain does his best to make sure Ratline will live until more potent help can be had.
In desperation, he pulls out one of his more potent healing potions, but looks to his companions questioningly before force-feeding him
At Art’s prompting Slappy remembers he has the party’s healing wands. He pulls out the battered wand and gives the wounded man a poke.
CLWs
Rat's eyes flutter open, "I'll cut you grundle to no..... HOLY FRELLING S&*$SCHNACKS! IT'S A FREAKING TIGER!"
He freaks out a bit more, "ART?! LUCKY?! WHAT IN BESMARA'S BRIEFS IS GOING ON HERE?!"
keep your voice down, old friend. We have no idea who else is in this place...the tiger is with us, that's Kiltem, believe it or not!!
...and here we are. We're just as surprised to find YOU here. What's happened to you, best you can tell?
Lucky gives the man food and water, and punctuates the captain's tale here and there with color commentary.
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While everyone is paying attention to Ratline, Slappy is still wary about the smells of death, so he keeps an eye out for any kind of ambush.
Last we saw him was when he was on the Wormwood with Harrigan. I assume he was on the crew with Harrigan's new ship, what does he know of that ship, and why were they dispatched here?
"Woah! *cough cough. That's quite the tale. You got room for one more? Harrigan picked up some new guys and sent them on a mission to prove their worth. Not all of us were cut from the same jib. I was used for fodder. There's um.... maybe three left assuming the others aren't dead? They weighed anchor in a hidden cove, but couldn't get into this place from here, so they sent an away team."
Satisfied that Ratline will be okay and not a threat to anyone in the party, tiger-Kiltem heads back to guard the entrance of this room. He hasn't forgotten the "smell of death and sounds of shuffling nearby"
The rogue leans in to help the Capitan get some better information from the wounded man.
Left for dead... The XO of the Piranha shakes his head with pity. But then his whole demeanor changes, You are lucky, that Lucky came along! Lucky gives a dramatic flourish that makes Slappy proud.
But then the XO is back to business. Seriously Ratline, we are glad you are going to be okay. We surely do have room for one more. But we need some information.
One. How did you guys get into this place? It didn't seem like you used the same big stone doors that we did.
Two. How did you get hurt? What dangers lurk down here? Besides the pirates
Three. Do you know why Harrigan sent a crew here to this island? Anything specific they were looking for?
"Nope. We tried to find a door but couldn't. We had nice weather and clear skies though so we spent a day looking for a good place to land. We found one eventually, but even then it was hard to spot. as soon as we stepped off though, the weather turned."
"We fought this... zombie looking thing with one eye. It hit me with a fist so hard I thought a ship rammed me."
"He had heard that there was a specific treasure here that he wanted. I don't know what it is though, I didn't get the description. He just said it was for 'an upcoming storm in the Shackles.'"
So now with Ratline in the party, they head over to deal with the dangerous undead/zombie thing.
The big tiger waits at the corner for everyone to be ready.
Ratline, you're not in any shape to fight. You stay back--Slappy, keep our old friend safe, savvy?--but be sure to sing out if you see anything that jogs your memory, to warn us of danger. Speaking of dangers...what other of your crew is down here? Any old friends like yourself, or are they all the sour, Harrington sycophants?
"Is the path to the jolly safe? No lie, you done saved my life. If I'm ever goign to pay it back, it's not going to be when I'm in a bad way like this."
Lucky stops for a moment. He sees a strange outline in the eastern wall!
Yes, the path should be clear. Here... Art takes off the small skull pendant, and places it on Ratline's neck. The Lookout will keep an eye out--and the crew will know you got it from me and you're no spy! Off with you, man...
The Capitan sends Ratline and the Lookout back to the Jolly boat.
Lucky lets the party know he believes he found some sort of secret door. The big tiger slinks up next to the slim human, clearly ready to explore.
The rogue starts to carefully inspect the door and if able he will open it for further exploration.
The party sends them back confident that they'll be safe.
Lucky opens the secret door and we explore.
The secret door empties to a short hallway. At the end is a large room. This immense hall is grand in both scale and design. The room and attached southern antechamber measure over a hundred feet long from north to south. A raised dais sits in the center of the hall, flanked by two thick stone columns inscribed with runes from floor to ceiling. Two alcoves in the western wall remain dark and empty, and the northeastern corner has partly collapsed, scattering large slabs of worked stone and piles of dense rubble across the floor. More runes, similar to those on the columns, cover the walls and floor.
Perception
The party begins to methodically search the large room.
Lucky and Tiger-Kiltem stay together as a pair. They begin searching in a clockwise fashion, starting with the first alcove
Meanwhile The Capitan, Ko, and Slappy provide more of a watch/guard over the parts the room that can't quite be seen or remain hidden. They are vigilant of bad things creeping up on the party.
Both bard and druid use their light spells to best effect as needed. While assisting Lucky search, Kiltem will also hit each area with runes/statues with a detect magic orison as well.
Tiger Kiltem's hackles rise as he smells something living in the room. The sweat of fear has a distinctive coppery note to it. The.... eyes of the tiger turn to the corner with rubble as he makes eye contact with a man in the shadows! It's obvious that he means you harm when he moves to hurl some kind of alchemical weapon your way!
Round 1:
Art: Go
Kiltem: Go
Slappy: Go
Lucky: Go (Needs Bot)
Ko: Go
Pirate: TBD
Art strides over closer to the man, no weapons in his hands (yet!). On his approach, he calls out HOLD, stranger!! Let's parlay instead o draw blood--because it will end so very badly for you... Art's fingers tickle one of his daggers.
READY ACTION: draw (free action) & throw a dagger if the guy makes an overtly aggressive action.
Round 1
Seeing the man begin his attack with an alchemical weapon, tiger-Kiltem swiftly moves to attack. Big dinner plate sized paws cover ground quickly and with a spring the tiger pounces on the man.
Move, charge/pounce/full attack
1st attack
GMF claw
2nd attack
GMF claw
3rd attack
bitey jaws
I'm also pretty sure that your 1st attack will still be a hit :-)