GM Blood's Rappan Athuk (PF) (Inactive)

Game Master David James Olsen

He uses his spear and pokes "through" the painting where the chest would be.

"What...?" asks Hermann in bewilderment, then putting his hand through the "painting" as well in an attempt to determine the size of the empty area behind the it.

You came up the stairs behind it

OK, was confused. How about the other painting?

Jokbur puts his hand in the painting. If no ill effects, ties a rope to his waist and goes in.

The "painting" on the north wall has an actual wall behind it. Other than the stairs leading down behind the "painting" on the south section, there is a door of iron-reinforced wood on the east wall.

Having now seen that the walls are in fact illusions, Qui attempts to simply disbelieve whatever illusions may be present.

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

If he does not detect anything new, he will then go to the newly discovered door and carefully search it for traps or anything else of note.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Illusions have to be interacted with to be disbelieved. Just looking at them isn't enough. Usually they need to be touched, or something needs to be thrown at them or something. They can be very tricky.

I figure that your having poked through it would be enough for me to doubt it, then I can look for signs that it is not real - lack of blending between the illusion and the real stone, colors that do not match, anything of that sort.

I think generally taking an action to examine something is good enough to get a save to disbelieve. I think I just figured it out though.

Ariella looks at the copies of them moving through the illusiory walls. She moves so that her copy is standing next to the chest in the image, and then bends down and tries to the open the chest using her double's hands.

Jokbur's first idea was to direct Herman to see if he could touch the chest he saw in the painting. I figured Herman would tell us if his spear hit something.

He just poked it with his real spear I thought?

Correct, Ariella.

Basically you guys came the opposite way most would come. That way when they go for the chest they fall down the stairs. Given the fact you came up the stairs you know approximately where they are even though the "picture" is still there. So I am not having you fall down the stairs when trying to get the chest that is shown in the opposite walls picture.

Even with you interacting with the pictures, they don't go away. Quirmydt checks the door which comes up untrapped and unlocked. Despite leaving the previous level, everyone still feels sick except Quirmydt. Ariella take 1 point of damage

Seeing his companions looking less than well, Qui tries to see if there is anything he can do to help them.

Heal(Ariella): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Heal(Edmund): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19
Heal(Hermann): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Heal(Jokbur): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
Heal(Jonas): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

Not sure if I would get a bonus once I figure out what is wrong with one of them.

they are all diseased with something

You head east out the door into a hallway. After 60', there is a door to the south and 10' further to the east is a stairway that descends only 10' before continuing east an unknown distance. From the top of the stairway you see the floor below is dark and slick with what appears to be water.

"We should probably focus on finding a way out for now. That means looking for stairs that go up," Ariella says nervously. We've been down here a long time...What if we can't get out and starve. Will I stoop to eating Qui? Gods, I hope not.

No need to stop being on guard.

"Let me look at this first."

Paranoid that he will get ambushed if he looks too long, Jokbur settles for a quick look before going up the stairs. He will also do a quick look from the top before stepping in the liquid.

Take 10 for 28 -- we get ambushed any time I take 20

From the top of the stairs Jokbur does a quick look then when he is satisfied begins to slowly creep down the handful of steps. As he reaches the last step before the bottom and gently sets his foot down on the floor and is relieved to find it is only water.

At the bottom he sees that 10' more to the east a similar staircase goes back up to the level of the hallway they just came down. Basically this is a quick dip down and back up

Jokbur, carefully check the water with a pole or something. This seems like a place for a pit or something more sinister.

Qui assists Jokbur's search as best he can.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Jokbur prods with one of Herman's spears before leading everyone past the dip.

Jokbur is relieved that there is not a pit at the bottom of the landing.

At the top of the stairs on the other side, the passageway turns to the north. After 30' there is a door to west, the passage continues to the north, and a short 20' passageway to the east where there are iron rungs on the wall that extends to the ceiling.

"Hey, you think this might be another one of them magick-y things that looks like a ceiling but really isn't?" Hermann asks.

Taking an old, dirty sock out of his backpack he places it on a rung to test if it was sticky like that one hallway had been.

As Hermann moves over to the rungs he sees there is a 5' circular hole that extends upwards along with the rungs.

As he puts his sock on the rung, nothing unusual happens

"Hey, this goes up! Jokbur, you should take a look let us know what you see!"

Jokbur rests his theory.

With bow in hand he takes a quick look.

Take 10 for 28

It looks to go up maybe 50' or 60' feet but that is all you can tell with the current light

"Up to what?" Jonas says, trying to look up past Jokbur.

"Unless physics have also changed in this hellhole, up to freedom!" Ariella says with a feverish light in her eyes. "Up to the sun..."

The tiny man-frog moves over to the apparent ladder.
I can climb up. I spent my youth climbing from tree to tree avoiding the dangers of the jungle.

Qui will climb up to see what can be seen.

Darkvision: 60'

Climb speed: 20'

Climb: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14 <-- if necessary

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

There are rungs attached to the wall. Pretty sure that means 'ladder'

Quirmydt climbs up to the top and he is on the first level where there where a number of pools. The one you came up has an illusion to make it look like it is filled with water when it really leads down to this lower level.

Northern most pool

Climb speed allows you to always take 10. So unless the ladder's DC is more than 24 you auto-climb it. That's what a climb speed is. Well that and it allows you to move faster than 1/4 your move speed while climbing.

Qui calls down:
We have been here before. The ladder leads into an illusion of a pool in the room full of pools.

Forgot that I can take-10 on climbs.

"Well, we are not as wealthy as I hoped, but shall we head back to town?

"Do we even need to head back to town? Maybe we could just camp for a day or two in that old, ruined house and come back down. I shouldn't have to tell you that we ain't finished what we came here for," Hermann offers.

He doesn't know we're all sick from the puss-zombies since he's passed all his test!

"Knowing the way back to the surface was my primary concern. Now that we have our bearings, I'm ready to continue."

"You I do admit that I would enjoy a bath."

"Are we climbing back down? Exploring a new place? Or just having fun playing magic hands from where it all started?"

Feeling just fine:
I am good to move on. If the rest of you need to rest, we can head back to the cabin. If you are ready to continue, then we should head back.

"We should avoid the maze of magical hands if possible. It's too easy to get lost. I've still got most of my divine juice and about half my resevoir of fire for the day. Is anyone else hurt? I haven't been feeling too well since we fought those zombies."

Are we aware that we're sick?

We're taking damage, how could we not be?

You are definitely aware that you are all (except Quirmydt) sick. But he's a frog guy, they are weird

I also rolled a Heal check a while ago to determine that you were all sick. Not sure I got much more.

You determined they all have a disease

Not sure when the next save vs. Disease will be necessary, but I will try to help with the disease. If I beat the DC of the disease, the person should get a +4 on their save.

Heal(treat disease) @ Ariella: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Heal(treat disease) @ Edmund: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Heal(treat disease) @ Hermann: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
Heal(treat disease) @ Jokbur: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
Heal(treat disease) @ Jonas: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

-->Well, got rid of some pretty mediocre rolls anyway.

You found out we were all sick, but you didn't tell us. That's why I brought it up.

I assume that taking damage from something=some sort of negative feeling.

"I think we should go up top and rest until this illness passes. We can use the time to repair the cabin, and then have someplace closer than town to rest in should we need to. We might just keep getting more and more sick, it's not worth the risk if you ask me."

"Is that what's going on?" Jonas says, typically oblivious to the sources of his own discomfort.