GM Endless Forms' PFS 01-47 The Darkest Vengeance (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

The party finds nothing else of interest on or around the organ or in the rest of the room. The doll was a bard using ventriloquism and ghost sound to trick you.

The party finds no traps on the next door and heads through to the next room:

Well-stocked bookshelves line the perimeter of the room, surrounding a small, central area with four reading desks. A low partition separates two more desks, which face away from the center of the room, toward the shelves.

When you enter the room, a humanoid mass of filthy, reeking black rags with pale white hands is frantically searching through books, leaving a trail of books littering the floor behind it. When you enter it turns and begins to rattle off in a strange tongue while gesturing wildly.

What is he getting on about? Jaysin asks. Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Something about that light is bothering it I believe. I think he might want us to help turn it off?

Jaysin will cautiously look where the light is coming from and will look to see if there is some sort of door in the shelves. Here? Here? Where? Speak, man!

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Sense Motive 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

"How do we stop that light from shining? Is there any way in there?"

Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

You can easily find that the bookshelf swings open to reveal a room beyond. The dark creature hides himself behind a bookshelf as burning, blinding light explodes from a large circular alcove in the northeast corner of the room. Within, an elaborate arrangement of mirrors, prisms, and similarly refractive materials stands carefully positioned by calipers, strings, and wires marking its precise settings. In the opposite corner dangles a three-dimensional mobile of various sized metal spheres. A complex frame surrounds the spheres. The length of the frame is etched with numbers. A broad work desk divides the two alcoves.

DC 11 Fort save or blinded for 1d4 ⇒ 2 rounds.

Fort save 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

"Aargh, my eyes!". Senjin falls to the floor trying to shade himself, to no avail. This hadn't been his greatest performance so far,that's for sure.

Fort: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Cyrinda tries to cover her eyes, but ends up blinded by the light.

Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Filios is not blinded by the light, and he steps inside and begins to work at disabling the device.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

Fort: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Wincing from the power of the light Jaysin exclaims, What is the purpose of this contraption, really? Turn that thing off!

Filios steps in and shuts off the machine, taking the room back down into normal light. Almost at the same moment, however, the room descends into total darkness.

Initiative:

1. Cyrinda and Jaysin
2. Dark Creeper
3. Filios and Senjin

Cyrinda and Jaysin are up!

Am I still blind or has 12 seconds gone by? Since there is no light it may not matter.

Not all the light! What is wrong with you people? Jaysin seems frustrated at the fact that he is unable to see anything.

Jaysin will delay since he can't see.

Cyrinda, still feeling blinded, hears Jaysin shouting about the lights. "Oh, the lights went out? Lemme fix that. She reaches down and feels her way finder hanging from her belt. She taps it to activate the light. "Is that any better?"

"I still can't see anything," Senjin exclaims, not sure of what to make of these developments.

You are no longer blinded but unless you have darkvision you are essentially blind now thanks to the darkness.

Also, the light spell from the wayfinder is not able to overcome the darkness.

dagger: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Senjin feels the familiar whiff of a dagger near his midsection, nearly missing.

Initiative:

1. Cyrinda and Jaysin
2. Dark Creeper
3. Filios and Senjin

You guys are up!

Oh ok, well no matter. So, do we know what square this guy was in from earlier?

Jaysin fires a pair of arrows at the location he believes the enemy to be in!

Bow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 for Arrow: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11 and Concealment, low is hit: 1d100 ⇒ 89

Bow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11 for Arrow: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8 and Concealment, low is hit: 1d100 ⇒ 3

Well Senjin definitely knows he's nearby so he can tell out to you guys where to aim.

Senjin will call out anything he knows about the positioning of the baddie. He will flail out with a punch at where he thought e creature was located.

Attack unarmed 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Cyrinda listens carefully to Senjin's aiming advice and fires off a magic missile at the thing.

MM: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Jaysin's arrows clatter against the wall as Senjin's punch hits nothing but air. Cyrinda's magic missiles briefly light up the air as they slam into the creature's chest.

I think you might need line-of-sight for magic missile but I'll let it happen since there's not many other ways to deal with this f++$er at this level, especially if no one has darkvision.

Initiative:

1. Cyrinda and Jaysin
2. Dark Creeper
3. Filios and Senjin

Filios is up!

Round 1

Filios moves into the room acrobatically attempting to avoid being attacked by the location of the enemy that he saw when the magic missiles hit.

Acro: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22

He then attacks with his Curveblade.

CB Att: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23
CB Dam: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Not sure if I need the concealment roll bc of the missiles lighting up the location. If I do, it follows - High Good!

Miss Chance: 1d100 ⇒ 71

Filios deftly leaps past the dark creeper, despite not being able to see it, and slashes out with his blade, feeling the familiar tug of a connected hit.

Recognizing its greatest threat, the dark creeper stabs at Filios!

dagger: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 (still against FF since you can't see him)
damage with sneak: 1d3 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + (1) = 4
DC 15 Fort save against poison or take 1d2 ⇒ 1 Str damage

Initiative:

1. Cyrinda and Jaysin
2. Dark Creeper
3. Filios and Senjin

DC: 14 dmg

You guys are up!

Senjin again tries to spot the baddie using his other senses. If he is able, he swings away.

Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Attack 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Miss chance, high is good 1d100 ⇒ 84

I really must learn to deal with darkness better than I do. Jaysin spits, recalling the same issue at the blasted wedding he attended. Taking his best guess he shoots twice!

Bow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15 for Arrow: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8, Low is Hit: 1d100 ⇒ 9

Bow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17 for Arrow: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9, Low is Hit: 1d100 ⇒ 5

Round 1, STR Dam = 1

Fort: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Filios attacks with his Curveblade.

CB Att: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
CB Dam: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Miss Chance-High Good: 1d100 ⇒ 93

Jaysin hears one of his arrows thunk in the darkness, followed by the sounds of a body hitting the floor.

Out of combat!

Several moments later, the darkness fades and you are free to investigate the room further.

Several magical scrolls are filed amid the library’s shelves.

Furthermore, now that the light from the machine is no longer blindingly bright, you can find a desk full of journals. The latest entry seems to be of some interest:

Perhaps I’m just paranoid, but I feel the need to recount several queer goings on that occurred over the last week. On three separate occasions, when I returned to the excavation site, I discovered the sunrods in the device prematurely drained and the chamber bathed in thick, unnatural darkness. Initially, I’d thought there might be something wrong with the device, so I tried the same combinations upstairs on the prototype. Nothing happened, at least nothing resembling what was going on downstairs.

Vitrios offered to stay onsite, to keep an eye on the device and see if he could track down the reason for its malfunctions. The next day, we found him unconscious, barely breathing—it seems he’d suffered some sort of vermin bite. My mistake to leave him down there alone. I’m not sure it was accidental. I’m still waiting for the alchemist’s report, but the symptoms looked similar to the effects of Black Smear poison. Zoathrius used to use a device called a spider-biter when he‘d knock off guards. It was a quick, snapping spike-thing, which he’d coat with the same toxins he’d polish his blades with. Poxing dark folk. If I could gut ‘em all… I keep telling myself he’s never getting away from that aboleth I left him with, but if he did, I’d be the first person he’d come looking for. Me and the aureolyte. By now, he must know I gave him up for the crystal. It has to be paranoia. There’s no way. Still, it’ll give me an excuse to throw a killswitch on the prototype just to be sure.

Instead of the glimmer, coruscation, fulgor, taper, effulgence pattern I’m using to get the daylight effect, I’m going to switch the taper and coruscation sunrods, which should overload it, creating some seriously intense blinding light, but not enough to cause an explosion. The same patterns should also work on the main device.

-Skeldon 4709

Additionally, there are several alchemical items on the desk which are clearly visible without searching, as well as the large machine in the room (which you may want to investigate more closely in a bit).

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

I could use sme healing and restorative magic, if anyone has some.

Don't you have one of these? Jaysin produces his healing stick. Very well, if someone would do the honors of patching up our brave friend here?

Go ahead and roll what you need, Filios.

Is it a Wand of Cure Light? 1d8+2, right?

d8+1

Filios takes a few shots of the Wand.

Cure: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Cure: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Cure: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Thank you, Jasysin. Oh my, look here at this chest.

Feel free to read the spoiler above for contents, all.

Cyrinda looks over the two scrolls. "Oh, these could be really useful! This one - that would've helped up be less frustrated by that darkling thing."

So, I guess I'm using the wand on y'all? I'll need to UMD it.

UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Cyrinda gets one use of the wand off before finding herself too frustrated to try and use it again.

The DC is 20. When rolling a 1, you can't activate the item for 24 hours. Sorry.

Are you telling me that I can only get one charge out of the wand because of your failure on UMD? Cannot someone else try the UMD? It is a class skill for me, but I am untrained, making it nearly impossible to hit the DC 20. Are we sure that is the right DC?

Use a Wand, Staff, or Other Spell Trigger Item: Normally, to use a wand, you must have the wand's spell on your class spell list. This use of the skill allows you to use a wand as if you had a particular spell on your class spell list. Failing the roll does not expend a charge.

Action: None. The Use Magic Device check is made as part of the action (if any) required to activate the magic item.

Try Again: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours.

Here is the PRD entry for UMD.

Cyrinda feels bad about not being able to use Jaysin's wand to heal Filios. "I've got a potion you can have," she says meekly as she holds out a potion of cure light wounds for Filios.

I'm assuming that only Cyrinda can't try to use the wand for 24 hours, not that the wand can't be used for 24 hours. Right?

Jaysin, that's how I understand it, yes. But, I'm not sure if anyone else has ranks in UMD or otherwise can use the wand.

Yes, once you roll a nat 1 on a UMD for a wand, you cannot use it for the rest of the day. But you can use other wands if someone has one. It's going to be rough if not.

After checking out the room, the party looks at the device more closely. The device has five locking entry points, each just wide enough to house a sunrod. To properly activate the device, the rods need to be adjusted by fitting them with specially crafted rings that precisely boost or dampen their effect. They need to be placed in the proper order for the device to function effectively.

The notes at the desk list the following numbers and names with the material from which the rings are crafted. The numbers correlate to slot locations labeled on the device’s blueprint.

Number Name Material
1 coruscation electrum
2 effulgence bronze
3 fulgor copper
4 glimmer magnetite
5 taper graphite

Unfortunately, the rings themselves are labeled in strange runes.

Ok, this is a bit confusing but let me try to clarify (that is, assuming I'm understanding it correctly, it's not written that well. There are five slots in the device for five sunrods. The positions and their names are labeled on the machine and the notebook tells you which material ring to use in that slot.

Then, each metal ring can go in five different positions on the sunrod before you put the sunrod in the machine. The Linguistics check is to interpret the writing on the metal rings to determine which position they need to go in.

What is this nonsense? Jaysin tries to make sense of it all.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Gibberish. That's all that is.

So, the main thing we are concerned with is getting the rings in the correct slots, right? Are we more concerned with the names, or with the materials? Or is that asking for too much? Also, what do the names refer to? The rings? The sunrods? The entry points in the mechanism?

"Hmm, if I only had a scroll of comprehend languages, I could read what these blasted runes say. Do you think a shop that would provide scrolls would be open this time of day?"

Not sure if we'd have time for me to run and get a scroll, but I'm happy to do so.

Sorry folks, Senjin has no skills to contribute to this challenge, unfortunately.

Okay, so after re-reading your post, GM, it seems that the names refer to the sunrods. Are the sunrods clearly labeled?

Since nobody seems to object to Cyrinda's idea, she dashes out of the house as quickly as she can to search for an arcane shop to purchase a scroll of comprehend languages.

Time (hours): 1d4 ⇒ 3

I too have no skills to contribute.

Yeah, this whole thing is confusing and written poorly. I hope I'm interpreting it as intended but no guarantees from my end. We'll go with how I outline it below though.

You can use any old sunrod; in fact you'll need new ones to operate it. Fortunately, there was a whole crate of them earlier! I believe the names refer to the slots on the machine where you input the sunrods, i.e. the machine is not labeled with "1, 2, 3", it is labeled with "coruscation, effulgence, etc" and the numbers are just the order they are in. The metal next to the names refers to the ring that needs to be used in that slot. But the metal ring can be put in the sunrod in five different locations, and the correct location for each ring is noted on the ring itself.

Oh, and in case you didn't catch it in the note above, this isn't the actual device; this is like a prototype. But it's put here so you can practice and figure it out, because you may or may not find the real one later.

So, the only variable we cannot determine is what slot the rods go into? Can we not determine that by the metal next to the ring? In other words, if we know where the metal goes on the rod, and we know what metal goes to what slot, then can we not place them accordingly?

Bah. Why are we messing with this nonsense? If it not the real thing it can't be important.

The comprehend languages thing is a good idea. In fact, get a couple. I'd pay for one if need be. Jaysin might be a bit rude but he's willing to lend a hand or a coin to those that need it.

No, the variable that you need to determine is the position the ring goes on the sunrod. As I understand it, you can put the ring in five different positions on the sunrod and then you put the sunrod/ring combo into the machine in the appropriate slot. You know the slots on the machine, you do not know the position of the ring on the sunrod itself until you can read the numbers on the ring that tell you the ring's correct position. Again, that is my understanding, which could be incorrect. It's pretty confusing in the scenario itself.

Lets wait on the Comprehend Languages scroll. All I can think of is us getting electrocuted or something nasty without it!

Cyrinda returns with two scrolls of comprehend languages. She activates one and reads the inscriptions on the rings.

"Okay, here's what they say. The bronze ring needs to be placed in the fifth position. Copper here goes in the third. Electrum is second, graphite fourth and magnetite goes in the first position."

Cyrinda places the rings in the respective positions on the sunrods. "Ready?" she asks before placing the sunrods in the different slots.

I think that sounds like the right thing to do.

Go for it.

Good. This is mostly a practice for when the real machine comes up later so that your characters generally understand it functions.

As Cyrinda puts the rings in the correct positions on the sunrods and then inserts the sunrods into the slots on the machine, the device begins to hum and then fills the chamber with bright but pleasant light. Identical to a daylight spell.

The final room in the basement has a narrow passage leading to the musty storeroom beyond. Beyond, an arching, iron tripod rises from the center of the room, spanning a narrow hole in the packed dirt floor. A wooden-handled winch holds a thick chain that leads down into the darkness below.

Filios approaches the winch. He peers down into the hole.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

What is the diameter of the hole?

Should we pull up whatever this chain is attached to?

Perception aid another 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

"There's no telling what might be at the bottom of that winch. Let's pull it up," the monk adds! waiting to make sure the others agreed before laying hands on the crank.