@Pierre: lol! I forgot about that. Beleg has nearly died so many times, he's just really tired of this Pathfinder s~$%.
As you move towards the granary, Zax casts detect evil and sure enough, from the first room he can tell that there are several (ok, 5) evil things in the next room!
The spots with grain are difficult terrain. The lighter colored squares indicate hatches/chutes that let down grain from above. If desired, you can trigger them with a reach weapon (or a normal weapon if you jump high enough). You can also use a ranged weapon to try to open them if you want.
Initiative:
1. Hingle, Rhyfelwr, and Pierre
2. Baddies
3. Umaga, Zax, and Brak
Rhyfelwr moves into the room and fires a quick arrow at the nearest foe. Cant edit map at the moment...can someone move me just inside the room? It looks like I can avoid difficult terrain.
Attack:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13, Damage:1d8 ⇒ 3+2 if I'm shooting at a human.
Hingle's acid only burns some grain as Pierre readies his weapons against the undead! Rhy's arrow strikes true but the piercing nature of his arrow doesn't seem to do anything to them!
As they move in, Pierre's blade cuts into one of them! It fights back with its own sickle, which is in much worse condition than Pierre's.
Brak lets loose a tirade of curses and dashes into the back of the fray, throwing axe first. Vs. Red:1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 2 - 4 = 17"Let me in!"DMG:1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Male Gnome Sor5 | hp 37/37 | Init +6 | AC 17/13, T 13, FF 15/11 | CMB +0, CMD 12 | F +5 R +5 (+2) W +4 | Prcptn +4 |
Hingle's boldness in stepping forward before evaporates quickly when his acid splash misses and the undead things close in. Discretion being the better part of valor, he retreats quickly as his more capable friends close in. Whew, he thinks to himself. That was close!
The gnome draws out a flask of holy water and hurls it at Blue!
ranged touch:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 if a hit:2d4 ⇒ (2, 4) = 6
Zax moves in and cuts down one of the undead! Brak finishes off another! Umaga and Pierre miss, as does Hingle's holy water. Rhy likewise misses. The undead continue to hack away!
As they closed in on you, you felt an eerie silence come over the area. You no longer hear the clanking of your weapons or the movement of your companions. 5' silence aura
Pierre sneers as his sickle and dagger bounce from the bones. "F###ing smith... I asked for weapons, not s**#."
He spins around the skeleton, dodging two slices from his foes and slamming his sickle against the spine of the yellow skeleton. He follows up with a slash from his dagger.
Pierre lands a glancing blow on one of the undead! Umaga stabs into the undead but finds that the piercing spear does not do all that much. Zax takes down one of them and Rhy swings and misses.
Initiative:
1. Hingle, Rhyfelwr, and Pierre
2. Baddies
3. Umaga, Zax, and Brak
If Umaga crushes the green skeleton with his crit, then Pierre while tell him to move up and distract the yellow skeleton for the same result. (5' step for Umaga)
You are able to stop the Black Echelon Operatives before they were able to add the Gut Wither poison to the granary!
Desperate to find Nessian, Yargos takes you into the sewer maze of the Puddle District, a waterlogged labyrinth of dangerously flooded tunnels known as the Siphons. "We need to meet with Grandmaster Torch, and quick! He'll know where Nessian's located. Grandmaster Torch has powerful friends and bodyguards. You would be wise to keep your weapons sheathed."
After requesting an audience, you are brought before the Grandmaster, a charming, soft-spoken man, but one whose entire body is covered in horrible burn scars. Grandmaster Torch lounges in a shallow pool nursing his scars while two servants gently recycle the water over his charred form.
His two heavily armored, half-orc bodyguards remain close at hand. After a brief introduction, Grandmaster Torch concedes he does in fact know where the upstart Nessian has carved out his new base of operations. Torch is reluctant to sell the information, and the price to rat out a potential future underworld leader of Absalom is steep indeed: 6,000 gp
"We should take this f@%+ing poison with us, yes?" Pierre asks the group as he sheathes his dagger and sickle. He lights his cigarette with an odd metal contraption the size of Brak's thumb.
---
"I know of your damned ways. We have men like you in Galt. Snakes who would sell their own child for the murmurings of the rebellion." Pierre draws deeply on his cigarette and blows it out in frustration.
"You know we have no such means, broker." He sneers after Torch's offer.
Male Half-Orc Paladin [4.1] | HP 40/40 | AC 24 {26} T 11{13} FF 23 {25} | F +9 R +6 W +9 | CMB +6 CMD 18 | Init +2 | Perc +2 | SM +6 | Diplo +8 | Intim +4 | Heal +6
Indeed, your price is unreasonable! We mean to save the city and you look to make profit? Zax is visibly upset that this "Torch" person seems reluctant to share such important information.
Male Gnome Sor5 | hp 37/37 | Init +6 | AC 17/13, T 13, FF 15/11 | CMB +0, CMD 12 | F +5 R +5 (+2) W +4 | Prcptn +4 |
Hingle steps between the paladin and Torch. You see, Mister Torch, sir, the gnome says with a smile, we're new agents, without the resources to consider such a generous offer. But surely there's some sort of accord we can reach here? We, um... Hingle grabs Pierre and guides him forward, trying to avoid being overheard by Zax, we have this poison that the undead were going to use on the granary. That must be worth something, no?
"Hmm, the poison is an interesting offer but I have a better one...."
"I’ve recently come into possession of a series of safes. Unfortunately, the safecracker I employed has turned out to be quite useless. If you can coax even three of the five safes open, I could be persuaded to disclose Nessian’s location and dispense with my regular fee entirely. These chests are remarkably unique and I have the foreboding suspicion that, in this case, the receptacles just might be worth more than their contents, so I’d rather you didn’t smash them open. Oh! One more thing: if my diviner warns me you have crossed me and stolen the contents, there will be repercussions."
The items are as follows:
The lock of this iron cask contains a laughing devil’s head.
This red box has been inset with a trio of golden faces: the first appears stern, the second angry, and the third fumes with hatred.
The lid of this stone chest is covered with a relief of carved ivy.
This sealed stone chest has no visible lock or hinges. No decoration or writing of any kind can be found.
A strange stylized writing wraps around the whole of this rectangular chest. Stranger still are the ten small pores that run along the box’s lid.
"Precisely." Grandmaster Torch answers. "Although if you're not up to the task...."
Umaga then stalks off to search the boxes and finds the following details:
The Devil Dial
The devil's head can be turned in both directions, like a combination lock, but without numbers to act as a guide. Disable Device to slowly twist the metal head back and forth in the correct combination of seven separate positions. You can make two Perception checks while doing this to listen for the tumblers and lower the DD DC.
The Box of Golden Faces
DC 8 Sense Motive:
The box appears to react to intense negative emotion. (rage, Will save, Intimidate, Use Magic Device, Perform: acting)
The Riddle Vault
The individual letters of a riddle are cleverly carved between the leaves on the chest's lid:
Though different now sounds my name, the spelling still remains the same. Once prior leap of might, now becomes bird of white.
The Smooth Stone Chest
DC 14 Will:
It can be opened simply by lifting the lid, although there is an illusion to make it look closed. You can see through the illusion though.
The Holed Safe
Ther eis a hidden panel on one side of the box, but no means to open it.
DC 7 Int, Linguistics, or Perform check:
The strange lettering on the box is actually the notes to an ancient forgotten tune.
The pores of the safe are actually the openings of a simple wind instrument built into the workings of the safe. Perform (wind instrument) check to correctly play the song.
Male Gnome Sor5 | hp 37/37 | Init +6 | AC 17/13, T 13, FF 15/11 | CMB +0, CMD 12 | F +5 R +5 (+2) W +4 | Prcptn +4 |
Disable Device is Pierre's area! :-)
DC 8 Sense Motive:1d20 + 0 ⇒ (18) + 0 = 18
Hingle studies the Box of Golden Faces, then remarks, This is gonna sound silly, but each of these faces is kinda angry. I don't like it. Maybe someone should try getting angry back!
DC 14 Will:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11 (add'l +2 to roll vs. illusions)
Hingle looks at the smooth stone chest for a long while, then shrugs. No idea.
DC 7 Int check:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
After looking at the holed safe for a bit, Hingle claps his hands excitedly. Oh! This along here is a collection of musical notes! Like a flute! Now how did I used to play that thing again...?
Zax screams at the Box of Golden Faces and surprisingly it opens! Inside is a collection of ancient stone miniatures of a Viking army from the Land of the Linnorm Kings.
After a moment, Pierre eventually gets the right combination on the Devil Dial and opens it to reveal a lost treatise entitled The Inward Facing Circle written by Coganaris the Wracker, a famed Chelish devil-binder, along with scrolls of protection from evil and protection from good.
Lacking any trained skills, Brak gives the stone lump a look over. He's not sure how a "block" of stone constitutes a "chest" so he looks all over and feels for creases or secret buttons. (Taking 20)
After fiddling with the stone box for a few minutes, Brak eventually sees through the illusion and realizes that he has already opened it but that the illusion only makes it look like it was still closed. Inside is a collection of material components for a wealth of spells (value 500 gp but 70 lbs of weight).
Having opened three safes, you can return to Grandmaster Torch. "Ah, thank you. You are worth more than my 'safe cracker' friend at least. As it happens, Nessian has been lairing in a new base of operations recently. He calls it the Pyramid of the Dog, carved out of a ruin of half-collapsed siege towers, just outside of Absalom"
"I will remind you before you go though that should Nessian ever discover I disclosed this information, I would view that as most unprofessional and spread the word accordingly."
----
Nessian's decrepit lair is not a pyramid at all. Rather it consists of four ancient, battered siege towers, three of which have collapsed inward toward the largest, forming a giant, tepee-like wreck. You note a dog standing guard outside the tower.
