1. GM Edwin's Zeitgeist Campaign

Game Master Insnare

The members of the crowd look at Morgrym a bit confused.

Professor Weber says, "Dr. Meredith, is that you? Are you ok?"

Weber sends one of his staff to get the paramedics to help with the injured.

Rock holds Dr. Meredith as Falko cuffs her. He then takes off his bag and uses his sword to stuff his gun into it looking disgusted but is diamond coated pistol looks very valuable.

Morgen Cippiano walks over to Cretien and says, "Very impressive, constable, very impressive. What werea dose tingsa?"

"A threat to all life on this plane."

Morgan nods his head and says, "Salud!"

A few minutes later the local police arrive. The officer, Alfred Bellastair, recognizes you and defers immediately, ordering his men to secure the museum and give you space. 'Sirs, pleased to meet you again. We heard the commotion and came immediately. Is this an RHC matter? Can we assist in any way?'

As a refresher, he was their at the consulate when the 1/2 elf woman fell to her death.

Dr. Meredith still vomiting on herself squeaks out a "I am afraid it will come back."

"Clear the roads for us on the way to our destination. We need all citizens as far back as possible and we need to get there as fast as possible."

"I can't keep this spell up forever." Johnathan says, staying near Meredith.

Bellastair nods in agreement as the local police go into action helping Gala patrons and trying to revive those who were attacked.

You take a coach back to RHC HQ to put Dr. Meredith in the anti-magic cells at HQ. Because it is evening there isn't as many people in the building as normal.

Anybody want to do anything before you interrogate Dr. Meredith? The map for HQ is above in the campaign tab.

FIRST FLOOR:
1. Entrance. Reception.
2. Lower Hallway. Lit with gaslights on the ceiling.
3. Western Stairwell.
4. Eastern Stairwell.
5. Interrogation Rooms.
6. Quartermaster Office. The quartermaster has keys to rooms 7 and 8
locked in his desk
7. General Supplies.
8. Evidence.
9. Secretary Pool.
10. Guard Room.
11. Morgue.
SECOND FLOOR:
12. Inspector’s Desks. Your desks are in one of these rooms.
13. Delft’s Office.
14. Support Offices. Empty.
15. Break Room.
16. Upper Hallway.
17. Saxby’s Office.
BASEMENT:
18. Holding Cells.
19. Magic Cells. Spellcasters are kept here. The cells are enchanted
to function like mage cuffs; any attempt to use magical powers
sounds an alarm and does 2d6 damage to the prisoner. A golden
ward also blocks teleportation and summoning. Two columns
glow with pale white light, which grants everyone within 25 ft.
Resist 10 against all energy types.

Think im ready for the interrogation. can't think of anything

Angus will go around spending some stabilization spell if it can save any of the patron

CLW: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 for Johnathan
CLW: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 for Johnathan

CLW: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 for Morgrym
CLW: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 for Morgrym

I wounder who is that Sijhen, and how long she will be able to control herself he says to his fellow RHC

Back from vacation. Thanks for the botting!

Falko takes in the scope of the scene, reflecting on what just happened.

It came with reinforcements... It left Xambria because we forced it or for other reasons..? She fears it will come back; will the cells hold him back? We use gold to prevent teleportation, and the seals are made of gold; coincidence..?

He adds to Cretien's order: "Yes, and have some of your men collect samples of whatever it is that attacked us and bring them to us at RHC. We must understand this threat in order to fight it. Those samples will help."

Finally, he walks up to Grimesly: "You ok? Your men? I can get someone to look at their injuries... Thanks for the help. I owe you one!" and he clasps the man on the shoulder.

Without saying another word, he makes sure he has the genuine artefact with him as they leave the place.

Cretien will stay just inside the threshold of the magic cell block, making sure he is not close to Xambria.

Morgrym will walk out in front sweeping his cloak back on his shoulder dramatically and say make way, make way

The police do as instructed and Grimesly thanks you for your concern and Rock tries his damnedest to stay away from Angus and seems a bit leary of Morgrym seeing that he is a high elf and all.

Asher feel free to add anything before the interrogation

You bring Dr. Meredith down into the basement and into one of the anti-magic cells and close the bars behind her. She stands next to the bars so as to make it easy for everyone to hear her.

Dr. Meredith calms down a little and begins to speak, “So forgive me if this comes out a little non-chronolinearly; I think I’ve gone
several shades of crazy. Getting everything out is more important than getting it clear. You might want to write some of this gibberish down." She waits until you have some writing implements and then continues:
“The thing in my head, its name is Sijhen. It’s a Gidim. They’re some sort of race from another world, and it was trapped behind the ziggurat’s seal for thousands of years. Real lookers, from its memories.
“Do you know what brain tastes like? I do now. I’m not a fan. Imagine being brought by a friend you don’t really like to the same restaurant that only serves—. You know, nevermind, you don’t want to know. Never with my own mouth, thank
you, though."

"You have experience madness itself, Doctor, but we have many questions that needs your answers. I beg you cooperate with our enquiry: This, Sijhen, does it fear gold in any way? Also, where did the creatures that accompanied him come from? More importantly, why did it leave your body!?"

"Gidim, that term has come up recently."

Sorry! I was unable to post for a bit longer than I expected.

Asher needs ammo and hasn't had time to make the rounds himself. Is there a back stock of cartridges he can use, and then replace it with ones he makes himself when he has the time?

Asher stands in the interrogation room, and takes notes in his little book.

"You're not crazy, Doctor. You've been under the control of a chaotic interplanar entity," Johnathan touches her forehead, concerned, then steps back. "I'd say you're taking it in stride."

Asher, roll me 2d8, please

It most certainly did. Along with the plane of Ruin he replied to Cretien

don't forget to update your hp as my healing in your task bar :)

Dr. Meredith continues, "Look I am trying to get this nonsense sorted in my head. I have thousands of years of history in there and sometimes from multiple points of view for the same occurrence. Wait, where was I, yes, Sijhen got out, got into me, made me forget. I’m still not sure what I don’t remember,
but it definitely was interested in the Obscurati. It only figured that name out later, after it ate old Mr. Bergeron’s brain.
“You lot, you stopped Macbannin. He was with Bergeron. There are these cells, keep them all secret from each other. Only a few people at the top know how it
all fits together, and Caius wasn’t at the top. But the Obscurati-. That’s a long name. The Ob. Sounds less ominous. Ob.
“So the Ob, they want to find out all about the Ancients and these seals. Caius was paying for us to do that for them. He reported up. I think he had a spell put on him to keep anyone from finding out who ‘up’ was from him.
“Oh, and he’s going to ride the train. Sijhen didn’t care about that, because it’s months from now, but I think it’s important. Whoever is ‘up’ will be there."

??: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7

you get 15 cartridges

Falko forces the strain away from his voice as Meredith produces important information, yet fails to answer his questions. With a forced smile, he asks again: "That's good Doctor. Very good. Now, concentrate, for it will help us fight this Sijhen: Does it fear gold in any way? And where did the creatures that accompanied him come from? Finally, why did it leave your body!?"

Xambria says, "Apet, Gidim, or Apet or Gidim, depends... I am not so sure... different beast different place... Mavisha... gold no... doesn't fear gold.... “The gold is an annoyance for him to return to Gidim... Sijhen kept opening these portals, but it could never go through. Something stopped it. Portals instead of trains, hmph. He’s just like Catherine Romana. Even a madwoman can read the papers, you know.”
Sounds of commotion come faintly from the other end of the jail, beyond the
common prisoner cells.
“Damn. There was something else I just remembered that was important, but
it’s fighting. It made me forget. Your boss! Your boss, Saxby has something it
wants. Saxby wasn’t up, wasn’t down, but was sideways. She worked for Macbannin.
You probably ought to deal with that.”
The commotion grows louder, and then follows a scream from some dying prisoner.
“Oh, I got it! Sijhen doesn’t care about the train because it plans to leave, and bring an invasion back. It planned to get captured, and I’m not really in control.
Oh, bloody—”

A sudden wave of extraplanar energy washes over you, pouring out of the stone walls to the south. You stagger at the sudden sense of dislocation, and as you struggle to regain your senses, every inanimate object around you not carried or worn turns impossibly translucent. You can see through stone, down to the sewer, out to the under-construction subrail tunnel, sideways to the band of
black-clad murderers sneaking into the basement, up to the ground floor and all your equally confused coworkers.
And then the world turns transparent, nothing but contour lines and faded textures. The sight is too much for your mind to grasp, and vertigo drops you to your knees. But you do see one thing clearly. Xambria stands, jumps into the ceiling,
digs fingers into invisible handholds, and pulls herself up through solid stone to the ground floor.
Your vertigo passes, and the world has started to darken back to translucence, and further still to solidity. But you can feel another wave coming, and for a moment, when everything was transparent, you saw monsters flying through the
building above.

Sijhen climbs via phasing through the ceiling and up to the second floor. It then runs east through the hallway and kicks open the door to Saxby’s office right at the moment you recover from your vertigo.

Here comes the multithingy climax for Adventure 3, the above describes what can be broken down into 5 round intervals of how reality changes. * Round 1—Normal. Reality is normal and opaque.
* Round 2—Translucent. Creatures can see through terrain as if it
were cloudy glass, and have a general awareness of the locations of
other creatures that are only separated by one or two walls.
* Round 3—Transparent. Creatures can see through terrain,
though they’re still aware of its locations and contours. They gain
the phasing trait, which allows them to move through solid objects
and ignore difficult terrain, but they cannot end their turns inside
a solid object.
* Round 4—Translucent. As per Round 2.
* Round 5—Normal. As per Round 1. After this round, start a new
cycle, back at Round 1.
During Round 3 of the cycle, all creatures effectively have the
Thoughtform trait (see page 13). However, since attackers and targets
are in synch with each other, attacks deal deal normal damage to incorporeal
creatures, not half damage. I am sharing this with you because you guys will have picked up on it by the above description but it helps you understand what is happening. On Rounds 1 and 5 you cannot see all that happens on the map but on Rounds 2-4 you can and Round 3 you can phase your speed up or down on the map or through wall but cannot end in a wall because you would be crushed or impaled.

Round 1 Please post your first action and give me a Initiative roll.

RHC COMBAT MAP

Ok, so area 18 is where the assassins are, and the tunnel underground has earworms in it, right?

Falko drops to his knees, grabbing his head in despair under the intense vertigo he experiences. As he watches, helpless, Xambria once more escape, the first thing that comes to mind is that even their state of the art prison cannot stop that ancient thing.

"It's going for Saxby! We need to kill that thing. It hungers for our world!" he gets to his feet, digging in his bag to retrieve a scroll and unfurls it, his eyes concentrating on its arcane symbols as he mutters a simple incantation.

Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10 MvA to get scroll, StA to cast Expeditious retreat.

That's right, Xambria/Sijhen in on the second floor in Saxby's office. FYI, the subrail tunnel can only be reached during the phasing rounds unless you left the building and entered through the sewers but that would take more time.

"I..I can't see.." Johnathan clenches his fists and presses them against his eyes, then starts muttering arcane phrases.

Casting Mage Armor

He then runs towards Saxby's office.

csn my elemental get me there faster? If not...

Morgrym sees the whole of things shift through their phases and then when possible will start running towards Saxby's office.

I don't see how it could, you are in the basement and Saxby's office in on the second floor. Could you guys roll me your initiative please?

init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

the black-clad murderers on our level, which way did they appear to be going? upstairs near them, or towards us, or somewhere else? I'm of a mind to try to deal with them. Also if they are coming up into the basement, and the sub-rail can only be accessed via phasing, where are they coming from?

during phasing rounds we can essentially fly?

Coming towards you, How they got there you aren't really sure. During phasing rounds you can ignore or not ignore gravity during that round, objects can be gone through. You can scale a wall like walking but you cannot fly or you can ignore the ground and fall through without getting hurt.

init: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Arlg We have been playing right into its hands. Curse that thing. he says ready to string into action

I'll hold the people coming to kills us. Heavy armor slows me down anyway. That that can go after that thing

Current AC 22

Init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

"Monsters from above. I'll head that way."

on your next turn you can try to recruit your coworkers to help out.BTW, Delft is surrounded and could use some help .

One of the darkmen moves 30ft and casts deeper darkness over most of the basement. Making the light dark. The other three dark creatures double move.

Round 2

initiative: Stalker 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21, Creeper 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16, Slayer1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20, Pistoleros 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Roll off between Morgrym and Stalker 1 Morgrym1d2 ⇒ 2 Stalker....

Things become translucent again and you can see that Delft is cornered has been attacked by an earworm and there are more of those in his office.
Just remember you can see what is happening on the whole map now unless you are in the deeper darkness.
Order: Stalker, Morgrym, Slayer, Pistoleros, John, Creepers, Asher, Falko, Cretien, Angus

Stalker double moves.

Morgrym

Falko is also at the end, right?

yes fixed

where did the creatures who flew in from above end up? Are they already in the building?

in Delft's office

Morgrym will call out that he will assist Delft and will go for his office door. If there are any others near he will take those to the office as well and explain about the mental attack aspect as they go

so are you going to attack the worm maw?

I'll head to Delft as well, then.

"There!" Asher yells to Morgrym. "Can you make it solid?!" He points to the worm maw.

Morgrym moves and does a mental attack on the maw 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16, fort DC 161d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19 pass

Slayer attack on Cretien with kukri 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 hit 1d4 ⇒ 1 Poison DC 15 fort 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 fail doing 1d2 ⇒ 1 Strength damage.

Pistolero 1 shoots at Angus, touch 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Pistolero 2 shoots at Angus, touch 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16 hit 1d8 ⇒ 1 damage

One of the pistoleers, a member of Lorcan Kell’s thieves guild, taunts
the party, saying “Lorcan Kell sends his regards. Do you like our new
friends?”

The dark stalker snaps back, “Quiet! We have a strict no-gloating
protocol.”

John

I couldnt tell where everything is in the scrum to know the maw was in our way, also did we have time to get healing before this started because if not,I am at six hp

Johnathan will run around to the different offices, shouting, "Alarm! Alarm! We're under attack!" Attempting to recruit as many people as possible as he runs down the halls.

Morgrym, there are four levels to the map. You are on the second floor. Well, I specifically slowed it down to give you time to ask questions, get supplies and talk to people in the office. Angus in post 5858 healed you for 18 hp. In post 5856, I wrote the floor plan of the RHC HQ. Normally, I use Google Drawing for the maps but because this is multilevelled to me it made sense to use a presentation, this time. Delft is the brown haired gentleman.

John, give me a diplomacy roll.

Those with Darkvision

Asher, Falko, Angus, Cretien

Cretien will ignore gravity, leap upwards, then ignore the floors above him until he gets to area 12 next to the RHC member. Then he will cease ignoring boundaries and gravity to land there.

"Draw them upstairs, out of the darkness. They've too great of an advantage."

not sure if that is one or two move actions, but he will draw his grenade launcher along the way. If he has a move action to spare, he will open the door there.

that you can do in round 3, not round 2