GM Kate's Ruins of Azlant (closed) (Inactive)

Game Master Kate Baker

As Purpose enters the circle, it floods with magic. A slight whirring sound fills the air as Purpose is bathed in a silvery light.

Make whole: 5d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 4, 5, 4) = 18

Small cracks and splinters on Purpose heal up, and the wyrwood looks pristine.

You suspect that each circle can perform construct maintenance like this once per hour.

Oooooooh
Purpose Creche holds a hand up to his cocked head. The fingers curl and uncurl smoothly. "As the day I was made. This is tremendously exciting." One step closer.

He joins the others in the second room. "The trap didn't target Silt. I assume more skum are here." He stows his bow, draws his sword, and moves to the eastern door to listen intently.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

There is definitely movement on the other side of the door.

Silt doesn’t understand but intuitively feels that this is an important discovery for Purpose. I open the door, Purpose... or would you like to?

Toby looks nervous as Purpose goes to step into the circle. "Wait, are you sure that's a good..." The relief is evident when Purpose is unharmed.

"Are the crossbows gone?" Toby peeks his head in, then quickly ducks away, expecting a bolt to strike him at any moment. When none is forthcoming, he moves back into the room.

"I will open it. The previous room has means of mitigating any personal consequences."

He holds up the edge of his cloak, and its lustrous silver edge takes on a matte finish as it hardens.

I'll open the door whenever we're ready!

People can retcon a pre-door action if desird, but in the interest of moving along...

Purpose opens the door to a workshop of some kind. A long marble workbench runs the entire length of the southern wall, and a rusting metal shelf stands on the opposite wall. Squat stools line up along the bench, which is littered with a variety of small, precise hammers and chisels as well as fragments of crystalline stone
that looks like quartz. A single door exits to the west, and
another exits to the north.

Two skum look up in surprise.

Yellow
Purpose
Joli
Toby
Silt
Cedar
Purple

One of them immediately lunges forward, striking at Silt but slipping on the floor in their hurry (or should that be Purpose directly in front of the door?)

trident: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

"Gah, more of these things!" Dammit, Silt's in the way! Toby leans, trying to find a shot around Silt. As he concentrates, water begins to drip from his pores, as you've seen before. Once he's satisfied he's found an angle to fire around Silt, he lets loose a furious blast of water at the yellow skum.

Accepting 1 burn to boost cold resist, which activates Elemental Overflow.

attack, pbs, elem. overflow: 1d20 + 5 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 5 + 1 + 1 = 22 Before cover.
damage, pbs, elem. overflow: 2d6 + 5 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6, 3) + 5 + 1 + 2 = 17

Toby hits solidly but doesn't quite take the skum down.

Not expecting the skum's sudden assault, Purpose Creche drops the edge of his cloak, steps back, and draws the splinter. His eyeband gleams with ruddy red light, and a searing ray lances towards the creature.

It passes through the droplets of Toby's blast, converting them into whirling clouds of steam...: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
...before makings its scorching impact against the skum's chest: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 1) + 1 = 8 fire damage.

(before cover but vs. touch, so I believe that's a hit)

Indeed it is! It didn't even have to be touch. These are minions.

The yellow one drops. Purple is still snarling at you. Joli, Silt, and Cedar are still up.

Silt charges the last Skum, drawing his straightforward spear and power attacking.

TUUUUUUUUBERSSSSS!!!: 1d20 + 7 - 1 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 7 - 1 + 2 = 20

piercing, descructive smite: 1d8 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14

Not seeing a way to get down that narrow hallway of a workshop, Cedar delays. Would that be called a galley workshop? I’m assuming Silt is at the end of the hall in front of the purple skum?

Joli moves in with his wand drawn and gets ready to heal Silt should he be hurt.

Silt easily hits, but doesn't take down, the skum, who responds by lashing out at the locathah, scratching him across the face with a sharp claw!

trident: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
bite: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
claw: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

ouch!: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Joli's readied heal may go off.

The party is up!

So Joli is next to Silt in that room?

The gashes on silt heal… and then some. Invigorated, he stabs the skum again.

+1 Spear, Power attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

piercing: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

I assumed so, but you downed the skum, so it doesn't matter that much anyway.

With the guards no longer any trouble, you can explore this workshop.

The table holds a multitude of small chisels, files, magnifying glasses, scales, and tools that pertain to the arcane but are not magical themselves. A strange metal contraption at the workbench has a rubbery hose snaking up the wall to the ceiling and a fine, needlelike end set near a vise built into the table. Dust from cut gems has accumulated beneath this device.

Among the quartz, one particular stone looks a little fancier and radiates strong universal magic. It is an ioun torch.

"Toby, why don't you take this ioun torch, since you can't see in the dark. Should we keep going or check the other side?"

Is there any kind of check to figure out that the strange device is? Does the workshop look like it's been used recently?

"What...is it?" Toby picks up the stone with trepidation. When he tosses it into the air, intending to catch it and gauge it's weight, he's taken aback when it fails to fall back down. He spins around quickly, nearly falling as he attempts to track to the stone's orbit around his head. "Woah! Check this out! That's so cool!"

Knowledge (engineering) to identify the device.

Purpose Creche slowly moves along the bench, so focused that he even walks right between Toby and Cedar as they speak. He stops frequently to gently lift and hold various tools. (object reading, if they were used within 3 days I can get a little info about who used 'em)
He takes in everything: quartz, gem dust, weathered metal shelf, tiny hammers and chisels.
"I do not think these are to make us."
His voice is small and soft, directed at no one.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Purpose gets vague glimpses of skum holding items, but it doesn't seem like anyone has used the workshop to produce anything in the last few days, and possibly much longer.

I'd also allow a craft check of some kind to identify the device.

Joli pocks up a magnifying glass as Purpose lays it down. He holds it up to his right eye and observes his friend’s restored coating of varnish. "Your maker took great care in their crafting, Purpose."

He smiles and gives the wyrwood a pat on the shoulder before going to examine the needle end of the tube. Blood?

Not that you can see.

Sone kind of craft check like craft traps? ;)

Sure.

”Let me take a look at that contraption. Maybe my experience with traps can tell us something about it.”

Craft: Traps: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

You suspect that this device could emit a high pressure stream of water, used to create fine cuts on gems. It would make for a pretty nasty trap.

"Great care in all things," Purpose Creche says to Joli's back.

He listens to Cedar's explanation of the device. "I assume the Ioun Imperative made its ioun stones here. But what is the 'imperative' portion." He steps from the shelf to the room's unopened door and readies his sword. "And what else is here."

He looks down the long room; if everyone else seems ready, he opens the door.

Ready!

This dark chamber is featureless except for a large ring of an unusual-looking metal embedded in the floor. A single door exits to the south.

Cedar detects for magic in the room.

Four silver lights hiss into existence above the circle. Purpose Creche walks towards it, focused, small clouds of illusory ash puffing and fading with each step. He speaks to himself in a quiet, rapid stream.

”What material? How does it feel smell taste thrum in nonphysical registers? Inert? Alive? What function? Birth? Careful. Don’t assume. Gather think order process conclude.”
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28
(dancing lights, then detect magic while he moves forward)

Cedar and Purpose both detect a faint divination aura.

"Divination."
He stops mid-step, pulls the Erastilian text from a coat pocket, then crosses the boundary and stands in the circle.

Purpose notices nothing different. For Cedar as well, nothing changes.

Joli, Silt, and Toby suddenly see bright auras of color emerge from his sword and longbow, while his ring glows with a different colored aura and his whole body has a tinge of a third color.

"Woah, Purpose, what'd you do! There's all sorts of colors coming off of you right now! I've never seen anything like it!" Toby moves forward cautiously to get a better look at Purpose.

”Really? What kind of colors? That’s odd.” Cedar blinks his mismatched eyes and tries to see what everyone else sees.

"Well, the sword is kinda bluish-greenish, the ring is kinda purply, and his whole body is kinda orange! Can't you see them?"

”Oh, those colors,” Cedar scratches his chin. ”It’s like you’re seeing him with a detect magic spell. Interesting.”

To test his theory, Cedar steps into the circle too.

”How do I look?” he asks, tossing back his wavy black hair. I’m assuming his buckler and cloak glow?

”This must be some sort of ancient wizard’s tower. But who lives here now? What kind of wizard would work with skum?”

Yes, all of Cedar's magic items start to glow!

"Now you're all glowy too!"

"Useful. Continue."
These words sound from the doorway, as even before Cedar stepped into the circle, Purpose Creche was already striding into the workroom and out towards the remaining unexplored chamber. "Where what is it here are we here how when to make create alter grow change improve."

He stops abruptly at the closed door, draws his sword, and listens.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12

Cedar arches an eyebrow at the outburst from Purpose.

”I guess the fun is over,” he says wth a wink toward Toby.

Oh, I got a nat 1 on the Perception! Feel free to jump in and stop this, but:
Purpose Creche lifts the edge of his cloak, holds the sword ready, and forcefully opens the door.

Purpose throws open the door. This chamber appears to be a workshop, as evidenced by a table along the western wall laden with tools and mechanical parts.

Two mechanical creatures turn to look at you.

Purpose Creche sheathes his sword and wavers in the doorway.

Like all constructs, nonlethal damage is ineffective against them. Because they are clockwork, they are vulnerable to electricity.