GM Debug's PbP PFS 7-08: To Judge a Soul Pt 2 (Inactive)

Game Master DebugAMP

Will detect magic tell us if the toad is Mata's familiar? Or is there some other way to tell?

The toad does appear to be Mata's familiar. In addition, you find on his person a magic talisman, potion of cure moderate wounds, some magic boots, another holy symbol of Fumeiyoshi, his spell component pouch, and his spellbook, which contains a pretty wide variety of spells (45 levels worth if anyone is looking to check off a dark archive faction card). Mata Ryuu seems to have lingering auras from several spells across multiple schools. You can pretty easily determine that there are no enchantment or illusion auras.

Sharaheen walks upstairs and shakes her head grimly. "I am still young and have not re-developed any of my skills from my past lives, however his actions did not appear to be of someone who was dominated. Scared and confused perhaps."

Enora exclaims to the others "Be careful not to hurt the toad, it's his familiar!"

She looks at the others and asks "Do any of you have a way to destroy that vile unholy symbol?"

Also, is anyone going to heal him? You can use Enora's wand to do so. I want to quickly get him healed once to be sure he is stabilized. We might want to heal him enough to talk to him.

"See Milly. I told you." Vash says to the Roc then goes to take Mata's spell component pouch. "Well he has a potion we could just pour it down his throat after he's tied up. Maybe we should tell him how much his former love misses him. Might jog a couple memories." Vash muses.

He is stable since he was taken down (mostly) nonlethally.

"Healing him seems fine. I don't know what he will say that might help us or clear this all up. But I thought the same thing about the yeti outside. He might try to escape. We will all be ready for it this time though."

Karg takes a moment to use a wand to treat Shear's wounds and then another wand to a healer to treat the bites the swarm left on him.

Two Uses Lesser Rejuvinate Eidolon: 2d10 + 2 ⇒ (7, 10) + 2 = 19

Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

"Lets tell him of how much his former love cares for him. Because nothing says, 'love' more than ordering assassi-"

Shear cuts him off him there and Karg doesn't lets the matter drop for the moment.

Lars shakes his head as they discuss what to do next, he does make sure to bind the hands of their captive tighter.........

After giving Mata some healing...

Mata Ryuu awakens with a groan and has an incredibly confused look about him. He tugs at his restraints a few times and looks up at the party with a look of fear. He begins ranting in Elven "Who are all of you? Wait... you! The mistress warned me of you... I have seen you before... seen... you..."

"At the festival. We spoke and you ran when we asked you questions. We now wish to speak to you again." The eidolon's voice is soft, but still carries the crackle of flame on the edge of each word. Still he makes no attempt to truly be intimidating, but focuses on not agitating the already frightened wizard.

"Remain calm, we offer you more kindness than your mistress. We want to know many things. What this this tower is for. Why those people in caskets have daemon flesh."

"We have many more questions and we give you a way to fix damage that has been done. Will you hear them?"

Reavis looks around while the others question Mata.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

"You'll not defeat my mistress! She... she..." Mata seems to be a bit confused about the mention of the festival but determined not to say anything against Jujunal. He seems a bit scared by her and more than a bit senile.

Other than Mata's spell book laid out on the desk there is nothing else in this room.

Enora gently lifts up the little toad and places him on the table so he is nearer Mata's head. "Here, little guy, your master is safe."

Enora is trying to comfort the little toad, and also give Mata a better impression of the party. It's also completely in character for her to respect something as magical as someone else's familiar.

Mata's familiar croaks.

"Why do you serve her? What does she offer you?

"Don't you remember your lady love of old? She misses you." Vash ssays.

Enora reaches out her hand to pet the cute little toad. She turns to Mata and tries to calm him down by asking, What is your little friend's name?"

Go ahead and give me diplomacy.

Shear still finds it hard to be comforting, but attempts to follow more with the tone that both Vash and Enora are setting.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26

Reaching out, Lars invokes his patron's aid in making Shear's words more along an artform then anything else what words can normally convey.
Guidance on Shear

Enora chooses to aid another.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Success, so because Enora has 'helpful' Shear gets +4 to his diplomacy.

Yea about that...

Aid?: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (13) - 1 = 12

While the others attempt diplomacy, Reavis attempts to look through the spellbook for any spell he can steal out of it.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24

A glazed look crosses Mata's face and he slumps over. "Why do I still do this... I can't remember anything else... Take what you need and destroy her. Leave me here tied, I can't trust me until she is gone... I can't remember who I should be. "

He has gone completely complacent but a bit unstable. It seems as though his memory has been altered, either magically, by torture, or both, and it will take a large about of work to free him permanently.

As for Reavis, I'll post the spells in his book at lunch.

"Yea lets do that! How do we get to her?" Vash asks.

Enora leans down close to the little toad. "We're going to try to defeat the thing that has hurt your master so much. You stay here by him and see if you can help him feel better, OK? I know that you can't talk to me, but try to take care of Mata. He's been through a lot, and we had to hurt him to get him to stop hurting us."

Then Enora lifts the little toad and places him on Mata, probably on his lap. She's hoping that the presence of his familiar will give him comfort, since he has to stay tied up for now.

Mata points up the staircase. "The gate to her realm is there, but I know not how it works." He sits up and adopts a meditative pose with his familiar in his lap and falls silent.

The familiar croaks again and takes a seat.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

Shear watches Mata Ryu for a moment. With only a handful of years of experience with humanoid behavior he looks to see Ryu's intent and the danger he poses to the mission, others, and himself. The eidolon has no benchmarks though to measure what he has been through. He still cares more for the mission than the trials of this elven wizard, but considers this to be an additional goal.

Turning to Sharaheen, "Do you still think you can open the gate?"

Mata Ryuu appears honest both in his statements and in his self assessment. He seems as though he should be stable for a few hours at the very least. Most of the trauma seems to be non magical at this point, and proof of his captor's death would likely put him on the road to recovery.

Sharaheen shrugs. "Well, let's go look and see shall we? "

Will post next room once I'm at a PC

The spellbook contains the following spells:
3rd level - Lightning Bolt, Slow, Stinking Cloud, Vampiric Touch, Daylight, Dispel Magic, Wind Wall
2nd level - Acid Arrow, Bear's Endurance, False Life, Web, Resist Energy, See Invisibility, Spider Climb
1st level - Grease, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Shield, Alarm, Expeditious Retreat, Mount, Unseen Servant

If you want to copy anything into your spell book go ahead and make the appropriate checks/expenditures. If you pass on take-10 just let me know what you're copying and if you are preparing any new formulae.

Moving upstairs...

Twin braziers disperse the scent of jasmine oil throughout this bedchamber. A yeti pelt is draped over a futon near an arcane circle carved into the floor. North of the circle, a teak box overflows with jade figurines. A hollow in the eastern wall is bordered with a marble carving of wolves stalking a hare amid grave markers. Words are carved in a spiraling script around the hollow.

Shear is going to take some time to examine the script surrounding the hollow.

The words are written in Tien and says the following:

"Only by destroying my brother could I walk safely into the grave, and emerge before the undead who worship me."

Shear reads the words aloud, but isn't exactly certain what to make of them.

Lars observes and proceeds to read the ominious words himself.
"I'd say she intened to make herself undead as well but can only do so by killing of her previous incarnations." he theorises.

Karg moves into the room and examines the box of figurines while glancing over at the magic circle.

"Reading magical symbols isn't what I can do, one of you could take a look at that though since you all know about magic much more than me."

Reminiscing on imagery from rooms prior Karg goes through his notes.

Enora recognizes the details on the tapestry towards the back as depicting Fumeiyoshi's defeat of Tsukiyo, Prince of the Moon. In the first panel, Fumeiyoshi is shown sundering a piece of his brother's jade armor. Then, the lord of Envy gloats over his fallen brother with the shard of jade held high, while in the final panel, Fumeiyoshi thrusts the shard into an arcane circle here it crumbles into dust, activating a nearby portal in a graveyard.

Vash notices that the torn piece of jade resembles a hare.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19

Looking for something like a hare

Enora lends Vash her arcane knowledge and experience.

Aid another, perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14

Vash gets +4 to his perception, because Enora has 'helpful.'

A teak box next to the inscription contains 18 jade figurines depicting the following animals: eagle, fox, butterfly, horse, raven, ox, dog, crow, jackal, rat, snake, whippoorwill, crane, songbird, carp, monkey, tiger, and ram.

The carving surrounding the portal includes an alpha wolf and a hare, which upon closer inspection do appear to be the missing 2 figurines from the box.

The circle etched into the floor in the room has crushed jade dust within the grooves.

I guess search the rest of the room?

Does that mean that the wolf and hare jade figurines are in the carving or are they just not apparent. Unless they have already been crushed into the circle.

Can we make a knowledge on the circle and how to render it useless?

The jade hare and wolf figurines were hidden in the carvings and made to look like part of the carvings. The hare and wolf figurines can be removed from the carving as they are simply slid into cutouts.

After an application of Detect Magic from Lars...
Arcana/Planes: 1d20 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 2 + 4 = 81d20 + 6 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 4 = 19

The arcane circle radiates a moderate conjuration aura. The circle can be used to create a portal, and the ritual is reasonably straightforward, however there is an inherent danger. While the portal created will persist until commanded to close, the person who completes the ritual to open the portal will be immediately drawn through it. To open the portal, anyone with casting abilities simply needs to sit in the circle and and complete a 1 minute ritual that consists of reading the glyphs on the arcane circle aloud.

"Now that we are here, is there any reason we can't just smash the portal on this end and leave your worse self trapped in there rather than risking our lives attacking her?"

Shahareen shakes her head grimly. "While destroying this circle would certainly make it much more difficult to travel to and from her demiplane, it would be a minor inconvenience. This circle is a ritual circle to facilitate travel to her demiplane for those who do not possess the powers themselves. To close off the demiplane completely one has but 3 options: Find where the plane is tucked away and dispel it, enter the plane and dispel it, or slay is creator and allow it to collapse."

If more than one person is part of the ritual, do all of them then get auto-transported? I'd be fine with Enora doing the ritual, but there's no way she should be alone with whatever is on the other side while waiting for everyone else!

Only 1 person can complete the ritual, however it appears that the portal will be open and everyone else could run through after you.

Additionally, the jade wolf radiates magic.

Does it require any skill (Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana)) to perform the ritual?

Nope, no skill required. Just read aloud and portal opens.