GM G's Before the Dawn II - Rescue at Azlant Ridge (Inactive)

Game Master Magabeus

"Thank you, please step back so I have some room"

She descends the terraced excavation to the door and spends several minutes tracing her hands along various pictographs and symbols, constantly looking to the key and then back to door. Without warning, she slaps the key into a space that just moments before wouldn’t have fit it, and the door slowly, silently, opens outward to reveal a set of wide stairs descending into darkness.

She turns back to you with a huge grin on her face, but as she’s about to speak, a horn sounds from the tower over the palisade gate and the camp suddenly leaps into action. Dias runs back up the terraced dig and says “Explore the complex, find out what might be in there, and hope to the gods it’s something that will help us. I have to organize our defense. Go! GO!”

As she sprints off toward the camp’s defenses, a familiar roar thunders in the air, and a cacophony of screeching and screaming sounds echoes from all around the palisade wall.

The door is open, it is dark inside

- - -
Wyeth sees a massive horde of apelike creatures moving up the path. A fellow pathfinder on the tower raises a horn to his mouth and signals to everyone that enemies are approaching.

Dark eh?
<= Has darkvision

A wide set of stairs descends into an enormous room, measuring thirty-five feet wide by forty feet long, and more than thirty feet tall. The entire room smells sickly sweet, but the floors, wall, and ceiling are all smooth and clean—rather similar to the sphere in the ground outside.

Four enormous monoliths, fifteen-foot-tall human-shaped metal statues, rest in the four corners of the room. They’re made of white metal, almost like a suit of full plate sized quite large, but without anything discernible as a face. To the west a corridor leads away from this room.

"Well, while you guys light a torch, i'll spoil the surprise of what you're going to see. A wide stairs to an ever so big room, i reckon 35x40 feet, 30ft high ceiling. , he whistles softly in surprise, There's 4 enormous slabs of stone, monoliths i think they're called? They're constructed of that white colored metal the paladins use for their full plates, but several sizes larger. And....another corridor in the west."

Saitama pulls out a glowing purple stone that sheds a constant light. "I picked this lil thingy up from my last adventure. Much justice was served!"

After Marduk describes the chamber, Saitama laughs. "A paladin in full plate, that's silly. Too restrictive!", patting Marduk on the back. "I'm glad your you still have a smell of humor that's as quick as your feet!"

Benson adjusts his Wayfinder and makes it light up. He watches Wyeth, trying to catch his eye and gestures to him to join us. If he must, he waves the wayfinder back and forth to get his attention.

Juliet comes running to the gates "The newcomers had the key! They are investigating whether there is something behind those doors that can help us. Prepare for battle!"

"Investigating....may Irori guide our arms in this endeavour."

Marduk carefully observes the surroundings for anything weird.
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Well that was unexpected. :o/

As soon as one of the creatures come into (two) range (increments), Wyeth fires.

Crossbow: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (4) + 3 - 2 = 5 Okay, see, Wyeth has this really bad history with monkeys, and...

As he re-cocks the crossbow he looks around. "Where are the others? We need to take out as many as we can now!"

Upon hearing Juliet's shouted news, he looks towards the excavation. "They're going in?"

Reaction Roll (high=stick to the plan; low=panic and run for the excavation: 1d100 ⇒ 7 And that settles that!

With a curse he finishes cocking his weapon and tears off down the ladder to rejoin his crew.

"I been workin' on the *cough*railroad*cough*... "

Good choice, Saitama and myself would be pretty disappointed to have to bury you, since starting at lvl 1.0 together and such. ;) Often in PFS your character ventures with others just once or twice, so IC comradeship is perhaps a rare commodity. But that could be just me.

Yeah, I've been pretty lucky: My other PFS character's been with mostly the same crew from the beginning too, and she'll crack L4 after the current scenario. But the error in your logic is thinking that Wyeth wouldn't decimate those primates. :op He'd be all like, "Where were you lot?" while wiping mutilated monkey meat off his fauchard. :op

Of course... ^^

Once Benson sees Wyeth heading toward the entrance, he gives him a thumb's up and steps down into the unexplored ruin. He moves deliberately, letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer light and scanning the path for signs of traps or secret passages.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

Raevin follows along curiously looking at all the strange and unusual structures down here.

(take 20 on perception = 24)

"Massive mobilized monkey mob closing fast," says Wyeth as he reaches the group, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm not sure how long the defenses will hold up. We'd be better manning the wall unless there's something here that hints... whoa, big suits of armor! Anyone check for magic yet? I'd rather not fight those things."

"మేజిక్ కనుగొను!" he chants, not waiting for an answer. Detect Magic, scanning the area, extending the duration if anything's detected in order to obtain maximum information.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

"A heapload of monkeys and apes, night at the museum hundred fold?"

Welcome back on the railroad Wyeth... Your choice, I had nothing to do with it (but thank you, makes my job easier)

The statues are perfectly smooth and perfectly clean, as though dust or dirt were repelled from their surface.

Wyeth detects a lingering aura on all four statues. Mainly with an aura of the transmutation school, but with traces of evocation.

Tight quarters ahead, can I get a marching order?

Benson has the best AC and second best perception, so he's willing to go first and try to spot traps. Monk or paladin by his side (when there is room) or at his back would be nice, but he doesn't care who. Benson will draw his dueling sword to be ready for trouble.

Wyeth will go wherever the group thinks he'd be most effective. He does have reach with the polearm.

Saitama prefers to be upfront as much he can, but playing nicely with others is part of Iroran training; there is no I in 'foosball team'.

Raevin will slip into the middle of the group, ready to move up if traps are to be detected.

So Marduk can suggest a change, but it sounds like Benson, Saitama, Wyteth, Raevin, Marduk or reverse Wyeth and Raevin. That way we have strong fighters at front and rear, with the guy with the reach weapon in the middle.

I'd say we'll spend just enough time in the first room to make perception rolls to notice traps or secret doors. Benson would rather not mess with the statues and hope they remain inanimate. If nothing is found then we move through the 5 ft. wide door to east.

Benson made one perception roll earlier when he first got to the room. Let me know if we should make more. I'm okay with the GM rolling perception rolls for my character when he does not want to give away the potential to find something by asking for a roll at some specific point, so long as we are clear how we are moving through the halls. My preference is to go slowly enough that we can make perception checks for traps at regular intervals, perhaps every 20 feet or so, with more checks whenever we encounter unusual features. If time becomes critical and we have to mover more quickly, we can do that and take more chances with missing traps.

Wyeth's reach is 10', just FYI.

I led a local party through the Bloodcove Disguise yesterday, they gathered a bit more attention than we did (just 18 awareness points...) but fun was had!

You enter the 5-foot-wide hallway that extends east to west, and immediately come upon two alcoves splitting off to the north and south. The alcoves contain what appear to be stone sarcophagi made of the same smooth, white material as the iron golems, but lacking lids. Small piles of sand, recently disturbed, rest in front of each of them. On both small piles stands a humanoid creature with long, sharp teeth, and its pallid flesh is stretched tightly over its starved frame.

Initiative
Benson
Marduk
Saitama
Raevin
Wyeth
- - -
Creatures - Knowledge (Religion) to identify
- - -

How did they do against the summoner? Did they do anything with her afterwards?
Oh dear...ghouls. I ran Frozen fingers of midnight from season 0, the one who was dumb enough to go crawl under a bench was hit for 5 rounds of paralysis.

"What's this? Cascades?"
Kn. religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Just noticed...i can't see them. Can i keep that roll though?

They set the summoner free, because that was the promise they made to her in exchange for the cure. FOOLS!!!!

The flesh from those ghouls suddenly melts and you now see just their bony skeletons (I looked at tier 3-4), you know everything there is to know of those, they are just the standard skellies. See PRD.

And sure you can keep that roll for when you see them

"Two skeletons!" Benson yells as he drops his dueling sword and moves to attack, drawing his light mace as he goes.

light mace: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

"Well, let's deal with them quickly."

Marduk heads in towards the other skeleton, seeing Benson rushing one already.

Punch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 51d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Benson and Marduk miss their targets!

Initiative
Saitama
Raevin
Wyeth
- - -
Skeletons
- - -
Benson
Marduk

Raevin does his best to stay out of the way of the real fighters, since he has no effective weapon against skeletons. IF something attacks the rear of the party where he is, he readies an action to fight it off.

to hit, readied action: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15
dmg if hits: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Wyeth moves up behind Saitama (last in initiative order) and glances between the two skeletons before frowning at the blade of his fauchard.

And then, instead of attacking normally, he sweeps the legs of the Northern undead in an attempt to knock it down.

Trip Attack (Reach): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Wyeth, I use block initiative; first to post in a block is first to act.

Wyeth sweeps the legs of the northern skeleton while Raevin watches the back

Initiative
Saitama
- - -
Skeletons
- - -
Benson
Marduk
Raevin
Wyeth

Saitama runs up to the skeleton Marduk attacked and exclaims, "No, like this my Iroran brother in arm strength!", swinging his fist towards the skeleton's chest.

PUNCH!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Damage on hit: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

However, Saitama's blow goes right through the empty space in the rib cage. "If there was muscleatude on this thing, that woulda worked...", he pouts.

From the hallway you see four more skeletons coming your way! One of them slashes at Wyeth and hits him! 5 damage The others try to hit you but fail miserably.

Wyeth, you can make an AoO at the first one

Initiative
Benson
Marduk
Raevin
Saitama
Wyeth 13/18
- - -
Skeletons
- - -

Raevin moves up behind Benson and tries to hit the one in the corner with his sap, which at least does bashing damage, though he's not sure it'll wound a skelly either.

to hit: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18
dmg if hits: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

In the combat spoiler you list the attack on Benson with the words "Prone" and "Flanked". I can see that he's flanked, but is the skeleton prone? Benson hasn't become prone that I'm aware.

Benson continues to pummel the one in the corner before considering whether to move away from the flanking peril. If Raevin's attack took the corner skeleton out, then Benson will attack the one in the middle, with an extra +2 for flanking and another 1d6 for sneak attack damage, if applicable.

Light Mace: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Sneak Attack Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

If Raevin did not take out the one in the corner, then Benson probably did, so he'll hold his position and harry the skeletons as they crowd in between us all.

The skeleton is prone, sorry, I did not want to modify each roll

Raevin's attack has no effect! Benson kills the skeleton in the corner.

Undead are immune to nonlethal damage

Initiative
Marduk
Saitama
Wyeth 13/18
- - -
Skeletons
- - -
Benson
Raevin

-I- knew that, but Raevin didn't... still had to try because his only other weapon is a rapier.

Marduk does a flurry, kicking the left and then the right (skeleton providing flank to Benson & Saitama[/ooc]

"Hold on."
Kick, fight defence: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 3 - 2 = 211d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Kick, fight defence: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 3 - 2 = 171d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Kick crit?, defence: 1d20 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (15) + 3 - 2 = 161d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Marduk kills two other bony undead!

Initiative
Saitama
Wyeth 13/18
- - -
Skeletons
- - -
Benson
Marduk
Raevin

"Much better!", Saitama nodding at Marduk's success.

"JUSTICE PUNCH!", he shouts as he punches at the next skeleton.

JUSTICE PUNCH!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Damage on hit: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

And again bones fly through the air as Saitama launches his justice punch.

Initiative
Wyeth 13/18
- - -
Skeletons
- - -
Benson
Marduk
Raevin
Saitama

Dang, you guys were busy today! :o(

Wyeth staggers back as one of the skeletons rakes him, then lashes out in retaliation.

AoO: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11 Not that it matters now, but for the sake of completeness...

As more undead come down the hall, he steps forward and takes a swing at one of them.

Attack (Cold Iron Fauchard): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Damage (note, Slashing): 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Hmm... in retrospect that looks fishy, as if I took the AoO to burn off a weak roll. Feel free to use the 11 as a failed attack and toss the 19, if you wish.

Not fishy at all, if you had killed it with the AoO you would have prevented it from hurting you

Wyeth kills another skeleton, the last remaining undead shuffles forward but did not expext another slash from the half elf's fauchard. The last couple of bones clash upon the ground!

AoO (Cold Iron Fauchard): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Damage (Slashing): 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Out of combat!

You carefully explore the remainder of the corridor and come upon four more alcoves. At the end of the corridor yoe enter a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot room that is constructed entirely of the same smooth-white material seen on the sphere outside.

A single white pillar stretches floor-to-ceiling in the center of the room, and in a niche rests a smooth, white, hand-sized square box covered in glyphs and runes similar to those on the complex’s front door.

Benson will look at the glyphs without touching the box to see if he notices any patterns. Linguistics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

"They're glyphs, all right." Then he steps back and lets others see what they can observe. "Anybody know what this white stuff is?"

I meant to ask about this before we moved past the area where we fought the skeletons.

The alcoves contain what appear to be stone sarcophagi made of the same smooth, white material as the iron golems, but lacking lids. Small piles of sand, recently disturbed, rest in front of each of them. On both small piles stands a humanoid creature

Benson will get his dropped sword and place it back in his scabbard and re-sling his light mace. Then he'll examine the remains of the skeletons and look in one the sarcophagi. What does he see? How can one tell that the sand has been recently disturbed? Were the skeletons naked or were there remnants of clothing or armor or what-not? Stirring the sand with a dagger, what does he see?

Do all the alcoves have similar sarcophagi, similarly filled with sand, etc.?

"Careful Benson, last time Wyeth, Saitama and myself were taking close looks on corpses, they sprung to life and attacked."

"The same mission with mad monkeys, might I mention!"

Raevin goes over toward the box and examines it without touching it, to make sure the box and alcove are not trapped.

perception: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 = 6

He shrugs and backs away from the alcove to let others take a look. "I'm just not sure.. I can't tell one way or another if there's a trap on it or not.. perhaps someone else should take a look."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
Checking for traps on the cube.

"I don't see any trip wires or obvious indications of a trap, but I'm not very experienced with that kind of threat."