GM Endless Forms' Shattered Star (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

"Of course," the disembodied librarian says. "I have some history here; perhaps you will note my presence in those texts."

After determining that the Abyssal writing does not contain an explosive runes spell, Bert quickly translates.

The collection of loose scrolls and papers that to the scarcely documented history of the abbey after Aroden’s death. On one of the sheets is written an account of the tale of Ricle Peakes, with four figure drawings of the main characters (funny images of Ardathanatus, Pharasma, Groetus, and Yamasoth)—these notes were written by Ardathanatus as a sort of “confession” as to why he murdered the Masked Abbot so long ago. A character who reads through this notices several areas where Ardathanatus almost appears to be remorseful about his actions.

Another scroll, also in Abyssal, contains Ardathanatus’s theory that undeath is nothing more than the natural next step in a soul’s progression toward the Great Beyond. This concept is about as blasphemous as you can get regarding the teachings of Pharasma, which maintain that undeath is a mockery of the process of life, death, and rebirth .

The leather book is a relatively recent tome that belongs to Ardathanatus. Written in Abyssal, this book is called Secrets of the Blackfire, a tome devoted to the manipulation and refocusing of magical portals, and originally penned by Blackfire Agents. The book contains instructions (among other things) for a ritual that can refocus any established extraplanar portal to connect to a new location, but notes that this ritual is quite difficult. While it requires only one person to perform, the ritual can take many weeks, and during the performance, the person must retain consciousness—sleep is forbidden, lest the energies “be unleashed in a most unfortunate manner.” Little is discussed about what this “unfortunate manner” might entail, but Ardathanatus has made notes of his plan to use lesser restoration spells to fight off the fatigue brought on by sleep deprivation during his attempt to “refocus the Doomsday Door to my master’s realm.”

Bert stands on a chair and skims over the papers, whistling quietly under his breath. "Oooh, hey! This sounds like it might be useful to know. But who's this Ricle Peakes person? Maybe we should go and ask Casamir."

Karn thinks for a moment. "Librarian, are you Ricle Peakes?"

Brelar buries himself in the excellent reading material.

"Even if Ardathanatus has started this ritual to refocus the Doomsday Door, we may still have time to stop him!"

My head hurts...

There is a small chuckle at Bert's and Karn's words. "You might say that I was."

Anything else you want to do here? That's it for this level so the next step is to go down the stairs....

I'm fine with that, though if the party wants to take a long rest we can.

"I think we better go back upstairs and rest. It sounds like this ritual is going to take a while, so we've got some time--and I want to be fresh when we go downstairs."

ETA: The halfling pauses. "Actually, let's see if we can find out how long it'll take--we've got these great books here, right?"

Starting with Knowledge (History) to find pointers to the Doomsday Door; between taking 10 and the +5 from the books, Bert gets a 45. Further checks will probably be left to Brelar, depending on what they are.

Based on the notes you've found, you think it's safe to say that he won't finish until tomorrow at the earliest, perhaps even longer.

New map is up! You have two stairs to choose from going down. Let's say you do the 1d2 ⇒ 1 southern ones!

Descending one of the staircases, you find the churning waters of a sea cave filling the grotto before you with the sound of surf. A few steep-sided rocks protrude from the waters like islands. To the south, a ten-foot-high ledge rises from the water. A rusted chest sits high up on this ledge, surrounded by a small mound of gold coins and silver dinnerware.

The water is 15 feet deep (low tide currently).

A rampage of a half-dozen particularly brutish sea drakes seem to have take up nesting in these caves. Surprisingly, they don't leap to attack but one of them lazily looks up and says something to you.

What? Argust looks to Brelar for instruction since the drakes haven't attacked.

Brelar whispers, "It's ok."

Brelar moves closer to the chest and tries to gage what kind of tithe would be appropriate based on what he sees here.

"Not one that I know. I guess we're going to pay them off, though."

Karn shrugs and peers around.

Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (4) + 18 = 22

"Any idea what would be appropriate?"

Brelar sees that inside and around the chest many items of great value.

Appraise: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28

Brelar looks into the chest, takes note of the contents, then takes out his bag of holding and pours out 2000 gp.

They answer Brelar:

"Hey, Brelar, are they happy? Can we go on?"

While standing around waiting for the interchange to finish, Bert does note that there is an underwater passage that likely connects out to the sea, which would explain how these drakes got in here.

Brelar nods, "They are appeased for the moment."

Though, looking at the map, I'm not really sure where I just secured us passage to? Though I guess they did say tithe and not toll...

No where in particular, although they won't attack you now. There are other stairways down if you want to try a different staircase.

Brelar suggests we head back up and try the other stairs. Once safely out of the earshot of the wyverns, Brelar relays the conversation and the contents of the chest. "They seem to be in league with Ardathanatus, at least tangentially. They should probably be dealt with at a later time."

You head down the other set of stairs to find a small room with numerous niches carved into the walls. Many of the niches contain vases and urns. A central stone pillar is carved with a spiral band of spiky runes.

The words written on the pillar are prayers to Groetus written in Thassilonian, blessing this level of the dungeon as a place of rest. The door to the east is locked with a doomsday lock but Bert notes that it has been further warded with a very sensitive glyph.

"Ooh, this one might be tough to manage. Have to think about this."

Bert casts good hope and calls on his luck before applying himself to undoing the trap. Between the spell and his luck, he can disarm a DC 40 trap by taking 10. Will this do it?

Bert disrupts the glyph and the party is able to use one of the Doomsday Keys found earlier to more through the door safely!

The room beyond is empty, save for four stone sarcophagi sitting in the room's corners. However, as you move into the room four shadowy figures rise from the sarcophagi!

They quickly move to block your way into the room and reach out to drain your life force!

incorporeal touch on Argust: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3

incorporeal touch on Argust: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 4

incorporeal touch on Karn: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3

incorporeal touch on Karn: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 8

Initiative:

1. Baddies
2. Brelar, Bert, Karn, and Argust

You guys are up!

Groaning as the shadows drain him of strength, Karn channels positive energy to damage the shadows.

Channel DC 20: 7d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6) = 25

August doesn't like the touch of these fellas so he activates Haste and attacks! Using the Shard of Greed ability for Haste, is that just for me or does it activate the actual spell and Haste everyone? I can't remember.

Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (14) + 24 = 38 for Damage: 2d6 + 28 ⇒ (1, 1) + 28 = 30
Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (13) + 24 = 37 for Damage: 2d6 + 30 ⇒ (3, 2) + 30 = 35
Attack: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24 for Damage: 2d6 + 30 ⇒ (3, 3) + 30 = 36
Attack: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21 for Damage: 2d6 + 30 ⇒ (4, 5) + 30 = 39

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (18) + 17 = 35

"These undead shadows will drain your strength! Our weapons will be of lesser effect, though Karn's positive energy will be excellent!" Brelar warns his friends.

Brelar fires magic missiles at the nearest shadow!

Damage: 5d4 + 5 ⇒ (3, 3, 3, 1, 3) + 5 = 18

@Argust: I believe it just allows you to cast haste, which would be a standard action.

Will: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 2 = 26
Will: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 7 + 2 = 19
Will: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 7 + 2 = 20
Will: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 2 = 13

Karn harms all of the shadows and Argust then finishes one of them off! Brelar then damages one of them with a set of missiles!

Initiative:

1. Baddies
2. Brelar, Bert, Karn, and Argust

#2: 43 dmg
#3: 12 dmg
#4: 25 dmg

Bert is up!

Bert draws and fires at the most damaged shadow, calling on his reserves of luck and grit.

DA +1 bullet to #2, incl. PBS and luck: 1d20 + 12 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 12 + 1 + 3 = 25
DA bullet damage, incl. PBS, luck, and grit: 1d6 + 7 + 1 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 7 + 1 + 3 + 4 = 18

OK, considering the creatures are already in my face I'll just use my boots instead.

Bert hits one of the shadows as they reach out their icy limbs to swipe at Karn and Argust again!

touch on Argust: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 1

touch on Argust: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 1

touch on Karn: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27
Strength damage: 1d8 ⇒ 8

Initiative:

1. Baddies
2. Brelar, Bert, Karn, and Argust

#2: 52 dmg
#3: 12 dmg
#4: 25 dmg

You guys are up!

Drained of all his strength, Karn collapses from the weight of his gear!

Str 18, 19 Str damage=paralyzed?

Worse than that, Karn--I think you're dead and about to turn into a shadow.

"NO!" Bert fires again, at the same one he'd hit before.

DA +1 bullet to #2, incl. PBS and lingering luck: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 7 + 1 + 3 = 18
DA damage, if applicable, incl. PBS, lingering luck, grit, and arcane strike: 1d6 + 7 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 7 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 3 = 23

Ah hell, I was just thinking about ability damage. I didn't think about it being shadows.

Oh, this is against my touch AC? This could be bad.

Argust continues to assault the shadows!

Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (18) + 24 = 42 for Damage: 2d6 + 27 ⇒ (4, 5) + 27 = 36
Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (4) + 24 = 28 for Damage: 2d6 + 29 ⇒ (5, 3) + 29 = 37
Attack: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (16) + 19 = 35 for Damage: 2d6 + 29 ⇒ (1, 2) + 29 = 32
Attack: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (8) + 14 = 22 for Damage: 2d6 + 29 ⇒ (5, 5) + 29 = 39

Confirm?: 1d20 + 23 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 23 + 4 = 44 for Damage: 2d6 + 27 ⇒ (4, 4) + 27 = 35
[dice=If they can "bleed"]2d6[/dice]

Argust, don't forget to reduce your attack and damage bonuses for your lowered Strength.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Not that it's likely to matter much, with those rolls.

-Posted with Wayfinder

I have but Good Hope and Haste are helping. I've lost a bit of damage though but not too much, yet.

Brelar fires more magic missiles at the most damaged looking shadow!

Damage: 5d4 + 5 ⇒ (3, 4, 2, 4, 2) + 5 = 20

Not running good hope atm, unfortunately.

Man, another of Tek's characters falling to EF! I think that's three in the past three weeks or something. Sheesh, I must be a mean GM or something.

As Karn succumbs to the draining power of the shadows and begins his transformation, Bert finishes another off, as does Argust! Argust then steps over and, with the help of Brelar, takes down the last shadow!

1d4 ⇒ 3

Out of combat! For now....

3 rounds until Karn becomes a shadow!

Thoughts? Philosopher's stone? Or do you think it is needed for something down the road?

"Sorry, guys--I got nothing to help with something like this. I don't even know if there'd be enough of a body left for us to get him raised if we killed him after he changed."

Argust just stands at the ready with a sad, concerned look on his face.

Can we actually go somewhere to have him raised?

There are a couple of clerics on higher levels; not sure if they have the spell, though. We may need resurrection to get Karn back up. No worries if we do, though; we've got the money. EF?

I'm guessing we want to save the philosopher's stone we found? Otherwise, it can be used for true resurrection.

You've only got three rounds before he becomes a shadow and you have to fight him off. You don't have time to get up to the clerics (unless you can teleport up there). Casamir is a 8th level cleric of Desna so he only has 4th level spells.

It sounds like either you use the philosopher's stone to bring him back immediately before he turns into a shadow or you can fight him off as a shadow and then have to get him fixed later. I'm not sure whether that would require resurrection or true resurrection or something like that but my guess is that it would. And you don't exactly have easy access to such things and the ritual will be done soon....

Sounds like we might have to use the stone.