Dungeon of Dread - Team 1 (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

"He helped save my life, if he want's to exaggerate a little it's fine by me." Kára whispers with a smile.

Cairenn sees a magical aura coming from the brazier in the hall and also from the spear.

"I, for one, am grateful to have Cairenn as our ally," Erich says, grinning. "He'd be a real terror if he decided he liked the bat side better."

"But I'm equally grateful for Hana. Her magic not only took that beast down, it also put us back together after the fight. Running across you down here was a real piece of luck for us, even though I'm sure you'd rather not have been abducted by hobgoblins in the first place."

Erich looks around, getting a sense of the hallway they'd rushed into. "Hmm. Obviously, it's a good idea for us to stick together. But I'm just going a few feet over there," he points up the hall, "to that corner, make sure there isn't anything else nasty hiding."

Erich pads silently up the stairs, and passes the pile of rubble marking the passageway back through the chapel. He stops just short of the next hallway, leaning against the wall. I could poke my head around the corner and look, he thinks, but this place is teaching me to be more cautious. I think I'll just listen first...

Confused by the exchange between most of the group, Lueck shakes his head and shoulders his pole. He goes with Erich, quietly and attentively.

Cairenn gives Hana a narrow-eyed look at her whispered aside. "Vampires have many abilities," he says haughtily. "Not all of which are commonly known, save to those who have studied such--"

Lyrasael snorts, interrupting him. "Oh, shut it. Please, Hana, continue to call him on his crap."

Cairenn flushes an irritated red and stalks away from his half-sister, ignoring the nice words of Erich and Kara. (Mental note: invest in a cloak at first opportunity, he thinks. He can't swish his cloak dramatically if if he doesn't have a cloak.)

"MY CONNECTION WITH THE SPIRITS," he says loudly, gesturing dramatically as he speaks, "informs me that both this brazier, and the spear held by that statue, are enchanted. This bears further investigation. Abraxes! Come forth! Proceed down the corridor and illuminate the path for us!"

Sending his trusty Casper buddy ;) down the southern hall to the sigiled room.

Erich hears nothing from his post at the corner.

"How does is look, are there more of these guys down here? If so I'm not so sure we should proceed with our resources this low." Kára suggests.

"Good point Kára. I've still got about half my prepared spells left and can channel a few more times this day, but a quick rest might do us good. Judging from the way that passage was blocked up I'd think it safe to assume that these goblins were isolated from the rest of these tunnels so, unless the noise attracted something, we should be safe there for a while."

Cairenn frowns. "There is an enchanted weapon just down that hall," he says, gesturing. "Are we just planning on leaving it until we have had a nice nap? And we've come across no living quarters for the hobgoblins, yet-- no place they bunk down-- so I think it would be quite presumptive to assume we've found the last of them. Did they just lurk en masse in that entrance waiting for people to come in? I doubt it. I assume they have other business in these tunnels, and therefore, some way to travel among them."

It's possible Cairenn's just being argumentative because he had his poetic exaggeration called out.

Waving a hand irritably for silence, he squints towards the spear and the brazier.

Spending 3 rounds to analyze auras, etc, and, if you permit, making spellcraft checks. Most GMs I've had say you have to be close enough to touch the items to spellcraft, but entirely up to you.

Kn Arcana, to identify the aura of the brazier: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Kn Arcana, to identify the aura of the spear: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Spellcraft, brazier, if possible from here: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Spellcraft, spear, if possible from here: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Lueck stays out of the conversations about resources, enchantments and all that other stuff that goes right over his head. He helps keep watch, bow ready and wandering from looking up the well to the corridor we've yet to explore. They'll work it out. Half of them are elves, and the other half seem as smart as elves.

Cairenn thinks the brazier is intended for burnt offerings and produces an effect when such an offering is made. The nature of the aura and the sigils on the wall behind the brazier and the armored spear wielding sentinel suggest that there is a passage there which opens when the brazier is properly utilized.

With abraxes shedding light in the sigiled chamber it is now plain to see that the suit of armor behind the brazier has a nine eyed skull in it's helm with a strangely equine jaw. The spear appears to be made of silver and enchanted with a basic magical enhancement, but it also appears to be broken along it's haft.

"That would have been useful a few minutes ago." Kára says aloud starring at the spear.

Cairenn chooses to take that as vindication (in his ongoing quests against all the imagined slights done to his ego).

"Yes, it would have. Now that brazier suggest a secret passage might be hidden there.... how odd the helm is, though! Nine eyes... that looks like a horse's jaw, too. Well: do we try to retrieve that spear first? If may be damaged, but I wager it is also very useful."

""[b]But I'm equally grateful for Hana. Her magic not only took that beast down, it also put us back together after the fight. Running across you down here was a real piece of luck for us, even though I'm sure you'd rather not have been abducted by hobgoblins in the first place."

"Well, I'm glad you did find me. Otherwise I would probably have been the the next blood bag used for that vampire statue." Hana replies to Erich, feeling a little fuzzy inside at his compliment. "And your welcome." she says with a smile.

Shrugging at Kára's comment on Cai's exaggerations she smiles and shrugs at Lyr's comment, best move forward then.

"Would either of you packing a 10 foot pole like to lead us down this passage way?" she asks Erich and Lueck, "I can keep going for a bit if you like though I would prefer it if we made camp as soon as possible. And let's keep our eyes and ears open, Cai is right, we've yet to find any but one bedding so I'm afraid we might have attracted something with the noise of battle."

With that Hana hopes that one of the guys will take the initiative and start working their way down the hall, she just looks and listens.

perception, listening for noises: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

"Well, if you think the spear would be useful, I can see if it will come loose."

Leaning his pole against a wall, Lueck will approach the statue and see if the spear is indeed something that can just be taken from it. If so, he'll try.

The grip of the gauntlets is loose and the spear slides easily out.

+1 silver broken spear

"Yes, it would have. Now that brazier suggest a secret passage might be hidden there.... how odd the helm is, though! Nine eyes... that looks like a horse's jaw, too. Well: do we try to retrieve that spear first? If may be damaged, but I wager it is also very useful."

Lueck passes off the spear pieces to Kara, and moves to the area Cairenn indicated. He starts to check the area for a secret door. If he finds one, he'll check it for traps.

Perception 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29
Traps 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24

Erich hangs back a few paces from the rest of the group, watching as they explore the side chamber. Something about that nine-eyed skull unnerves me, though I can't quite put my finger on it...

He leans cautiously around the corner, peering down the hallway opposite from where the rest of the party is.

The corner Erich leans around is a short dead end passage that terminates abruptly after only ten feet. There is a burned out lantern set down on the ground by the back wall of the dead end.

In the sigil room with the brazier Lueck does indeed find the outline of a secret door behind the armored horse-faced skeleton right where Cairenn said it would be. But this one is nothing like the collapsing flagstone secret doors from earlier. This wall is smooth and solid and there is no clue how to open the secret door. It's outline is actually traced in black paint which is hard to see against the black wall but obvious enough when you get up close. There is an evil looking emblem in the center of the door and the same emblem is engraved on the brazier. But the door has no handle or mechanism of any kind.

Seeing that Lueck comes to no harm and no alarm is raised Hana moves down the corridor and looks over the brazier, statue and the line on the wall.

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Any of this ringing any bells?

Meh, sorry for my slowness. Kind of worried over Lyr's player who seems to have vanished long-term, and it just don't feel the same to play Cai without his sister...

Cairenn takes the spear and makes a good deal of dramatic gestures over it to study its essence and similar nonsense. That done, he wanders after Lueck, because it's dull hanging back there and that statue looks interesting, as does the brazier.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Peeking into the brazier, he notices the scraps of burnt parchment. "Abraxes! Lift these so I may see!"

(Mage hand to raise out the pieces of paper, if that's allowed, and Cairenn will scrutinize them for any signs of text that might have survived the burning. Comprehend Languages would still be up, if there is any writing.)

From back down the hallway, Erich can hear his companions searching the brazier room, Cairenn's voice raised dramatically in some sort of necromantic evocation. I'm sure they've got everything under control, Erich thinks. There would be more screaming and shouting if there was any trouble.

He creeps quietly down the short passage, the curiously abandoned lantern holding his attention. Who leaves a something like this just lying around in a dead-end hallway? He lifts the lantern and looks it over, then turns his attention to the far wall, searching for any clues.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

Hana thinks this altar is dedicated to Sha-Yen-Marr, the nightmare demoness behind the blight...

Cairenn thinks the scraps of burnt parchment in the brazier are remnants of arcane scrolls.

Erich spots the outline of a secret door at the end of the dead end passage. Perhaps someone set down the lantern to investigate it.

Cairenn frowns unhappily at realizing the scrolls might well have been magical. Such a waste! Such knowledge he might have gathered! The half-elf sighs.

"Well, we have a prize of a sort, in that spear. If you all still wish to rest, I will not argue. ...where did Erich go?"

Lueck continues to keep a wandering watch, going from one means of access to the other.

Whether we rest or advance is up to the casters; I can go either way.

.

Anyone want to be party treasurer? I have a spreadsheet another GM gave me.

Awesome intro posts all around guys, the characters are really coming alive in my mind now.

Happy to track loot if nobody else is interested. I get pretty anal about that kind of thing...

I'm almost done plugging in all the starting equipment into the equipment tracker, and I have to say thank you once again to all of you for the very well organized and tidy character sheets in your profiles.

All the info I needed was right at my fingertips.

The only thing I need to finish up is Kara's gear, because she had one of those kits from ultimate equipment.

I just plugged in my items, because I realised I hadn't copied the list over from Herolab yet... *adds to profile*

Yeah I could see you doing it while I was doing the others, google docs is so cool.

Guys very important thing I forgot. I am super OCD about this, so please pay attention.

When you post your turn (and only when you post your turn) preface it with a header like this

Round X:

So and so does such and such....

This is surprisingly important to me, ok? When I'm posting from work, I need to be able to scan through the gameplay thread, and see who has acted so I can delete the little "<<<<" from the initiative table. This is how I know when I need to act for the monsters, as well as when I need to record new damage etcetera.

So I need exactly one header per PC per turn.

That is, do not attach a header if you are just posting dialogue or AoO or free actions or OOC comment. Only preface your post with a header if you are taking your actual turn.

And format it just like this:

Round 1:

Bold.

Boom.

For some reason a lot of players in my other games have really resisted forming this habit, but it makes a world of difference to me guys, I don't why, it just does. Kind of like the mini-stat line issue I have where I like them all formatted the same. It helps my brain process the visual information while I'm multi-tasking.

BTW how are you liking my simple initiative?

Gotcha on the Round thing. It does make things simpler, I just forget to do it.

And initiative is working out well for me so far!

Cool, I didn't know other games used round headers, I thought it was my own peculiarity.

I have a funny brain, if things aren't set up a certain way I get all messed up (like if I had eggs in the back of the fridge instead of the shelf on the fridge door, I would starve to death before I found them.)

I think the initiative is working just fine. And I'm on board with the Round header, no problem. I think you had mentioned it before, in the discussion thread, and I just forgot it entirely. My apologies, will use from now on. Are we on to round 3 now?

Oh yeah I usually write something like "Round 3 Go!"

Guess I forgot (-_-)

Festival I'm working next couple days has spotty internet, I might be a bit light until Mon.

A rotten fish launcher? That. Was. Unexpected...

Wait, why was it a flounder? Given the nature of the cannon, shouldn't it have been a bass?

grooooooooan

I understand the logic behind ending the bardic performance. But a truly great bard, one for the ages, could puke an heave in such an inspiringly rhythmic way as to keep his allies' morale at supernatural levels. ;)

And I know that Lueck, being the other one potentially in the line of fire, will never hear the end of this. "I took a fish for you!" :p

In Cai's future, he will be a bard of such badassery that he will puke in rhythm. :P

For now, baby steps....

Hahah, you know it!

And the next trending musical sub-genre is born... Alert the blogosphere!

#yakstep

click me

Good luck, and get some sleep, man. ;)

You guys stuck?

Oh, I think we'll work it out. :P

Hugging the forward walls to deny them clear shots will probably result in them having to come to us (or their withdrawing back into the caverns). So, if we can work together on that, it should be feasible.

Of course, the best laid plains...

Nice^^

FYI Kara did short out the bass cannon (great idea Kara!).

Hooray!

Ideas FTW!!!

Respect the unexpected...

So check it out guys, I never knew you could choose any corner of your square to determine cover (I always thought if a line from any corner passed through cover you were blocked) so now that Kara pointed this out I'm trying to be extra careful to do it right.... So I drew color coded arrows for every shot I took this round so you guys can tell me if they are illegal. See battle map.

Hmm. I was actually under the impression that if any of your corners were blocked you had cover as well. I'll go digging through my CRB...

I think I get it now. any corner blocked, cover. all corners blocked, total cover.

Abraxes!

You have not seen the last of Abraxes!

Also, thanks for playing along with that silliness, Erich, it's always more amusing when someone does. :P

You have not seen the last of Abraxes!

Also, thanks for playing along with that silliness, Erich, it's always more amusing when someone does. :P

Oh, I'm loving it! He's pretty convinced that Cairenn is totally a necromancer. It helps that Erich doesn't really know much about magic, so he's easily fooled. And he's a little superstitious, too.

I loved that RP too you guys. Also, if you haven't noticed yet, I'm not the kind of GM who panics if someone tries something there isn't a rule covering (like Kara's use of create water vs the cannon.).

FYI I would have let you wreak havoc on the gullible hobs with Abraxes (just putting that out there in the name of transparency since we are in the getting to know each other stages and I'm sure some DM's like to stick to what is on the sheet and in the rules.)

Want to apologise for my slowness lately. I have exams this week and next, so I'm somewhat limited as to when I can post. Sorry! Trying my best to pop in between revising weeks... haha.

I didn't notice any slowness (*_*)

I notice tho'. ;)

There will be a period next week where I have exams 3 days in a row, and I'll definitely be gone from Paizo then! (Tuesday ~ Thursday next week)

The last thing I ever want is for a game to feel like an obligation, what's worse than that right?

Can Dien pilot you during those exams maybe?

I would have guessed you would need something like Sunday through Friday away then, with lead up studying and a day to recoup. If Dien isn't comfortable covering with Lyr, we could take turns. I mean, someone has to lead the vanguard against the hobgoblins, and an elven druid seems like the perfect candidate. ;)

Another solution... If Lyr is away for a few days...

You guys have wiped out all of the hobgoblins but one minion and the leader. I think I will just have them surrender so we can leave turn based initiative mode and go into exploration mode. That way Lyr can just fade into the background a bit until her player returns friday.

Edit: Or is it next week you have exams Lyr?

Lyr has exams this week (right now), but since we're waiting on more characters than just her at the moment, I won't presume to bot her until/unless she's actually holding things up due to them, heh. She might have a chance to weigh in herself anyway.

Ok, thanks for the update Cai.

BTW guys, here is the campaign wide thread with all the PC's from all the different parties.

This is like a big off-topic thread and it's where I announce stuff that concerns everyone, like if I'm going to be offline for a couple days, etc.

You can dot the gameplay thread if you want it to show up in your active campaigns list and get notifications of activity.

Lost Lands Mega-Campaign

No word from Kara in 5 days :/ Lyr is away for finals so I guess we'll pause until tomorrow.

I'm tentatively re-opening recruitment for one more PC to join you guys. After doing this for a while I have kind of decided that six is a really ideal number for PbP groups.

I just rolled Lyr's round 10 turn over to the top so I could open round 11 and she doesn't lose a turn (she still has a turn in round 11 as well.)

You can bot her for one or both, Dien, or leave them waiting for her in case she gets time to pop in tomorrow. Whatever you think she would prefer.

Epic post Cairenn Bell...

3 rounds worth of actions, all seamless, and still made it chock full of narrative and RP...

Rockstar post \m/_

I get the feeling not your first rodeo...

Ha, thanks! *bow* Eh, lots of PBP under my belt...

I'm finding that PbP is an art! It doesn't work if everyone doesn't take an active role in making it work.

Has everyone seen this?

We can break out of initiative now.

For exploration I like to keep things very fluid.

Don't worry about "if/then" style posting or anything like that. No elaborate procedures.

Just declare what your PC will do, and I will come along and call for any rolls I need and resolve all the action.

Don't assume anything, don't describe any outcomes or results, just declare what you want to do.

Ask me lots of questions about the environment, talk to each other IC and OOC, but don't worry too much about rolling dice until it comes up.

The main thing is, try to see what the PC sees. If you do that you will know what questions to ask.

This:
DM There is a cat in a tree.
PC How high is the tree? Does it have any knots in it? Does the cat look vicious or scared or friendly or what? Will the branch the cat is on support my weight if I get up there?

Not this:
DM There is a cat in a tree.
PC Climb check. *roll roll* 18! I get the cat down.

Don't worry right now about "that will take forever, that will never work in play-by-post, is he going to use fiat and mother-may-I instead of the rules and, and..."

I get it. I get all that. The first thing we have to do is get into sync.