Everyone works together to force one of the gears backwards, closing the last chute! Several seconds later the water slowly begins to drown and when there is less than an inch of water remaining the gear-laden door swings open.
Once-cheerful mosaics of smiling children and adults running through the streets of Absalom line the walls, but age and water damage smear the faces enough to make it seem as though they weep. Sturdy work benches and bookshelves line the walls. An intricate mess of bronze chains, plates, pendulums, and gears that form a sort of astrolabe dangle high above the room. Catwalks spin out from the walls in three places, curving on a horizontal plane and meeting in an open circle in the middle of the room. Between the catwalk circle dangles the body of a desiccated elf, ragged and dusty scraps of clothing barely covering his thin, bony body. He seems to be dangled in a maze of chains connected to the massive astrolabe above and the chains clank silently as he lolls his head from side to side. Nuar is chained to a dusty couch in the northern spiral of the room and is barely conscious.
Rhyfelwr follows as well, ready to use his healing wand as needed. He keeps an eye out for potential danger. "It is highly likely that they did not restrain themselves."
As you approach Nuar, the desiccated elf’s head lolls to the side again and his eyes flutter open. He stiffens and tugs at his tethers, screaming with rage. “You! You ungrateful, short-lived insects! I was betrayed and dragged on this altar of pride! Mortality is all you crawling beasts deserve!”
Abysiel Greensummer is tied permanently to this chamber and dangles 20 feet above its center by 12 massive bronze chains. The narrow catwalks within his workshop provide a level footing if a PC climbs the 20-foot ladders up to them. Without railings, the catwalks are dangerous: moving across one at half speed requires a DC 5 Acrobatics check (DC 10 to move at full speed). Anyone taking damage while standing on the catwalks must make an immediate DC 10 Acrobatics check or fall. Characters who fall may attempt a DC 15 Climb check to catch themselves, as per the Climb rules.
Oh, if you can use the wand, then Brak would have healed me on the last page. No one spoke up about it and I've been hella busy, so I just forgot to follow up. Spend you action on something else.
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
I would have swore I said I could use the wand, maybe that was a different thread. Hmm.
Zax will double move in order to try and reach the catwalk. Looks like the top ladder is closest, I can move 40' this turn. I guess that puts me on the ladder somewhere?
@Hingle: yes, he's hanging in the middle of the room.
The ladders are 20' tall. Assume you move up at half-speed. Don't forget that moving across the catwalks at half speeds requires a DC 5 Acrobatics or DC 10 at full speed.
One of Rhy's arrows sinks into the elf's side as Brak and Zax start climbing the ladders to read the elf! Pierre runs across the room to check on the Minotaur Prince!
Initiaitve:
1. Hingle, Pierre, Brak, and Umaga
2. Abysiel (6 dmg)
3. Rhyfelwr and Zax
My apologies, I'll be very sporadic from today (Sunday) until late Monday. I'll post whenever possible if things change. To keep the game moving I'll post now, which amounts to double moving at full speed across the catwalks. A double move at full speed would put Brak NE of the enemy within melee.Acrobatics:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
Abysiel’s chamber contains many of his ancient tools and earlier experiments in manipulating time. Among the salvageable items are an alchemist’s lab, masterwork artisan’s tools, a wand of magic missile (CL 3rd, 50 charges), and a wand of daze (50 charges). Scattered throughout the room are a variety of coins brought here by the morlocks as offerings—there are 800 gp worth of coins. The greatest treasure, however, is Izryen’s Hourglass, which can easily be removed from the grand device with 30 minutes worth of work.
Izryen’s Hourglass dates from before the Starstone, when elves stood as the only civilized humanoids of Golarion. Izryen milled her hourglass from white jade and quartz, and filled it with the magic-steeped sands of the northern Garundi desert. Originally crafted to keep time precisely and aid the wizard’s study of the heavens, near-constant tampering and augmentation eventually forged a sympathetic link between the Hourglass and the flow of ages around it. The sands keep perfect time, and anyone studying the artifact for 5 minutes who succeed on a DC 15 Knowledge (arcana) check can determine the exact position of any given celestial body at that moment. While in the presence of the Hourglass, mortal beings age at half their natural rate.
Nuar Spiritskin is grateful for your assistance and is quite confused as to how he came to be in the Tangle. Once Abysiel is slain, it is a simple matter to extract Izryen’s Hourglass from the grand device above and let the Minotaur Prince lead you out of the maze and back to the surface.
And that's it! I'll get chronicles out today and we'll jump into the next adventure! I think everyone should be due to level so I'll give you a bit of time to take care of that.
Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng’s pinched face is hard to see from behind the stack of books that divide the front of his office from the space behind his desk. A shockingly old man with white hair and slightly milky eyes, he is surprised by the appearance of outsiders in his office, and looks up, half startled and half relieved.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice. I’d been meaning to give this assignment to you at a later date, and with less pressing time constraints, but it seems that time has conspired against us.” Dreng mumbles to himself as he passes out a stack of notes and maps from behind the wall of books. “These notes are from a recent Chronicle—it contains some interesting finds, but one of them is now the utmost priority to the Society.”
Dreng lightly taps a bony finger on a map, on which can be seen a section of Absalom with a small corner townhouse circled in deep red. “This townhouse is a façade for an underground vault. The vault belonged to an old noble family of Absalom that was expelled a decade ago—the Decklands. The family was forced out when their patriarch—a man known as Orias—was discovered to have written documents detailing the city’s defenses, documents he intended to hand over to hostile forces loyal to Cheliax. The Chronicle indicates that a copy of these documents exist within the vault.
“A Pathfinder looking into the Decklands and their Chronicle references in Cheliax was attacked and killed ten days ago. The thugs made off with a copy of his notes— fortunately, he’d already sent us another. We have reason to believe it was the work of the Decklands’ oldest child, a young woman named Celeena, and she’s the reason this assignment is now urgent. The fact that Celeena and her forces were willing to kill a Pathfinder for this information shows how desperate they are to retrieve the documents. If she were able to get these documents and return them to Cheliax, it would undermine the defenses of the whole city, as well as cause the Society undue headaches. Find Celeena, find the documents in her vault, and prevent this situation from turning into one big mess for the Society.”
"What sort of…resistance can we expect to encounter? Does this Celeena employ her own bodyguards or does she simply hire random swords as needs arise?"
