GM Lari's From the Tome (High) (Inactive)

Game Master Dhenn

Jorciel nods, "Aye, that's the right of it."

Bodta looks at Sparky. Mage armor too, if you please.

Sparky's UMD: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (20) + 16 = 36 <--wow! Do I get +8 armor now?!?!

He takes out his own Wayfider, hangs it around his neck, and turns on his own light.

Seeing the two mightier warriors jockying for front position, he grates out, I usually go first, but... he gives a bow to the two front-liners ...will take rear guard if is better.

He keeps one of the Shield extracts in hand, leaving one hand free, and takes position at the party's rear.

GM Lari I forgot we had a lvl 4 melee in our 6 - 7. Any objections to me giving Bodta my Barkskin to drink instead of Sparky?

Jorciel nods to Bodta, "You're far more maneuverable than me. If I don't start up front, I may miss the glory!"

After his show of bravery Horacio gladly lets the other crusaders take the front.

Tweaks to spell distribution are fine.

The plaque on the sarcophagus reads, General Dame Vheist 3770-3825 AR and has Aroden's holy symbol carved onto its surface.

The writing behind the sarcophagus describes a mighty battle in which the general charged at the point of a valley full of undead.

As Jorciel and the others read about the battle, Horacio and Sparky hear the faint sound of hooves coming in the distance.

Sparky and Horacio can take a surprise round action, as you suspect a haunt is manifesting. If anyone else has abilities that allow them to act as well, feel free.

No one requested longarm so I can still make 6 Shields. Switched my level 2 spells to 2 barkskin 3 alchemical allocation. Since Barkskin lasts 70 minutes I suggest Bodta gets one and Jorciel the other.

"Something is coming, Prepare yourselves."

First take a 5ft step back.
As a free action Sparky will use his efficient quiver to draw his bow. swift action apply a bomb to a tangleshot arrow. Standard action ready to shoot the first corporeal hostile creature he sees.

haunts are made out of suck...

and tx for the buffs Sparks!

Horacio reacts quickly and channels the divine power of Iomedae in an attempt to dissipate the haunt before it forms.

touch AC 10: 1d20 + 5 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 5 + 2 - 2 = 19

CureCriticalWounds: 4d8 + 7 ⇒ (6, 4, 8, 1) + 7 = 26

Grateful for Sparky’s early warning, Antonella closes her eyes, clears her mind, clasps her palms together and waits …

The Arodenite symbol on the casket glows softly in the wake of Horacio's spell.

The hoofbeats continue to intensify, and an army of spectral cavalry takes shape around you. Most appear as humans with Aroden's iconography, but symbols of various deities and nations dot the ranks, and a smattering of elves, dwarves, and wolf-mounted halflings are visible in the crowd.

A woman in finely crafted armor leads the group, sitting astride an impressive warhorse. She turns to her soldiers, silently shouting words of inspiration, before turning to all of you, looking expectant.

Would anyone like to address the soldiers?

I lower my weapon.

"Ghosts rarely have money but when they want to talk it is usually worth listening."

"Hail and well met soldiers of an age since passed. I am Jorciel, Warder of Iomedae. I beseech thee to tell your tale and see your thoughts given voice."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

Horacio begins weaving together another spell but seeing others speak Horacio pauses and speaks as well.

"Well met crusaders of Aroden. Long has your age passed but rest assured that Iomedae and her followers carries the torch."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 15 + 2 = 22

Antonella stands at peace, her praying hands held before her.

"Your descendants keep the Tyrant chained. Your legacy is a righteous one."

Diplomacy aid: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

"Your gear and horse are very valuable. You must have been a great warrior."

Aid diplomacy: 1d20 - 2 + 2 ⇒ (12) - 2 + 2 = 12

The woman in the lead seems to consider your words, before raising her longsword in a salute and silently mouthing praise to the Last Azlanti. She begins to lead the other cavalry in a charge, dissipating into nothingness as they do so.

That does count as permanently putting a haunt to rest, in case it matters to any of you. There are many exits to this room available.

Decisions like this can bog down games irl. Even more so in pbp. May I recommend we follow a general guideline until we have a specific location in mind? I personally favor counterclockwise spiraling towards the center. So by that theory we would check orange, yellow, green, then reassess based on gathered information. tldr orange.

That plan sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Agreed

"First a sarcophagus then a bunch of ghosts. I think protection from evil would be a good idea. Jorciel if you wouldn't mind drinking this extract? And now this potion then spit it back in. Gross I know but it is perfectly safe. Now let us check this door opposite of the stairs."

Assuming Jorciel doesn't balk at drinking then spitting strange liquids he is now under the effects of circle of protection vs evil 10ft radius for 50 minutes. +2 deflection bonus vs evil, +2 resistance bonus vs evil spells and effects, And prevents attacks by summoned monsters. Usually. And the consensus seems to be the orange door for now. We could use an arrow for North.

The paladin nods. He's learned to put his faith in his fellow agents as well.

I'm good with the plan.

Antonella wears a disapproving expression at the rinse-and-spit caper, though the only comment she makes is. “That went well. Your spell set us up for success, Horacio.”

The paladin advances. “Orange door did you say, Sparky?”

Take 10 Perception for traps and threats: 10 + 7 = 17

Hitting Orange and Yellow right now. Clockwise like that is fine for a default since that sounds like people are OK with it. Otherwise I tend to default to a "rule of two." If one person proposes a plan, someone seconds, and nobody's objected by the time I update, we go with that option.

Orange
Draconic and celestial symbols are etched into the walls at seemingly random intervals. An unadorned stone table stands in the east side of the room. Shelves worked into the walls are full of old books. Everything is coated in thick layers of dust.

Those of you with some academic knowledge of magic or the relevant languages (trained in Arcana, Spellcraft, or Linguistics), recognize that the symbols on the walls were part of abjuration effects to help safeguard against mishap while conducting experiments with both arcane and divine magic. The books are almost all ruined, but one book, Barricado Arcanae, radiates a faint abjuration aura and is still legible. It is an ancient textbook for amateur wizards, teaching theories of abjuration. The text is written in archaic Common. Requiring DC 10 Linguistics or Intelligence to decipher.

The text seems to be a relatively rudimentary introduction to the principles of abjuration magic. The introduction describes wards to preserve the book as a practical example of the text's lessons being put into action.

There are also a collection of dusty but still-intact potion vials, and a pair of magical gloves, with Aroden's winged eye embroidered into their backs.

Yellow

This long and winding hall contains the crypts of three major houses; each section has a single stone sarcophagus for the most prominently interred ancestor. Recesses in the walls hold other, less important family members. All are empty save for bits of burial cloth.

Sparky will check out the potions.
Alchemists can use craft alchemy to identify potions. I don't get my bonuses for crafting things but I still make DC 20 on a 1.

"The potions are Remove Curse, Remove Disease, and Remove Blindness/Deafness. I'm incapable of seeing magic auras so I don't know what the gloves are."

"Iomedae has seen fit to gird me against diseases of the flesh, so I need not carry that potion. I am not erudite enough to understand the gloves through study, though I suspect Horacio is."

Jorciel looks about the room and the passages left to explore. "Perhaps we should look this way to complete the southern end of this place." He points towards yellow.

Amenhotep nods.

"This one agrees with the plan to search the area behind, before moving forward."

Perhaps heading to green and magenta, thereafter...?

Sounds good

“Agreed, but watch out for traps, Good Jorciel.”

Take 10 Perception for traps and threats: 10 + 7 = 17

Fluent in both Draconic and Celestial, as well as being a trained Linguist, Antonella finds the wall etchings absorbing. Her Irorian discipline prevents her from touching them, even though she longs to feel their texture.

Although she can understand the book easily enough, (by Taking 10 in Linguistics) the arcane nature of the Barricado Arcanae holds far less interest to the scholarly monk.

She frowns at the gloves, whose eldritch secrets are beyond her ability to decipher.

I presume if all we found is burial cloth in yellow that includes assumptions like detect magic and take 10 on Perception. So green next. Did we decide on a marching order? A lot of 5ft wide corridors here. Also I have 2 Alchemical Allocation left. They can be used for Heroism or saved. Possibly for extra uses of the potions we just got.

"We are too spread out. Let's try to stay near Jorciel to benefit from the circle of protection."

Detect Magic + ID Gloves: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 12 + 2 = 32

"How iteresting, Ghostvision Gloves.

Continuing clockwise is great.

Green

This small chamber contains alcoves for bodies to be stored, though no corpses remain here. One niche holds a folded piece of cloth, which radiates a magical aura. Another holds a copper wand, long since oxidized to green.

Brief biographies carved above each alcove indicate that the bodies of fallen officers and commanders were once interred here.

Unfurling the cloth reveals the standard of a long-forgotten Taldan military unit.

Magenta
These rooms are empty, but the walls are covered in names of fallen soldiers. Names from every major Inner Sea race and culture are common, though curiously no Tien names seem to appear. Despite that, a few truly exotic names and alphabets dot the list, including a couple of obvious draconic origin and at least one that appears to be a sphinx.

Heavy claw marks have rendered some names illegible, but at first glance there is no rhyme or reason to the distribution, and the damage appears quite old.

Various tunnels fork off from here.

Recolored some of the newly discovered options. Orange would be the most clockwise, I suppose, but I wanted to give options before getting too far ahead. A default marching order would also be handy.

Rear guard...

Orange, then yellow, is fine by me.

Cover is a sad thing I must always deal with. But I like to be able to see the enemies. Can I be 3rd in line?

First! :-)

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Fir..." Antonella pouts as Jorciel claims the honor of leading the group through the necropolis.

"FIRST!" She maintains stubbornly. "After Ser Jorciel."

Jorciel will take the time to read the names, and do his best to record information for posterity.

What's the green rectangle?

So marching order is Jorciel, Antonella, Sparky, Horacio or Amenhotep, and Bodta as rear guard. Amenhotep and Horacio need to decide which is 4th in line then we are set.

Just left behind to indicate that's the room I was talking about there.

[ooc]Orange

Piles of bones, generally sorted by type, litter this chamber. A tibia sharpened to a point lies near a circle scratched on the ground. Dozens or hundreds of skeletons must have provided the bones for this agglomeration.

The next room on has three white marble statues. Two are relatively featureless humanoid shapes, matching the murals on the walls, which show a spiraling procession of thousands of souls streaming toward a great spire. Many are featureless and vague, though more detailed depictions of soldiers, commoners, and others pepper the queue.

The remaining statue (in red) is a fearsome demon, seemingly menacing the souls. Directly behind it, the mural shows a crusader in gleaming armor.

DC 10 Religion or Planes identifies this as a depiction of the River of Souls, flowing into Pharasma's Spire for judgement.

One of the spirit statues is outlined in ghostly blue light, and wears a ring-shaped iron pendant on a chain made of discolored bones and teeth. A faint magical aura radiates from it.

"This place is incredible! The knowledge and history!" Jorciel tempers his excitement to concentrate, seeking out evil intent.

"What is that necklace?"

[poc]did anyone identify the cloth and wand?[/ooc]

I've never seen this much treasure in a PFS scenario...

No. We still need ID on cloth, wand, and necklace. I keep forgetting to buy a wand of detect magic.

Sorry for being slow, we took a sudden night out of town to avoid reality for a night.

Spellcraft ID Cloth: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 12 + 2 = 33
Spellcraft ID Wand: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 12 + 2 = 21
Spellcraft ID Necklace: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 12 + 2 = 21

Horacio takes a bit to look all the items over and has no trouble IDing them. Thanks to Heroism that is.

"The necklace is a Gravewatch Pendant."

"The wand will cast Daylight about three half dozen times and the cloth is a Knight's Pennon."

What color is the Pennon?

Also Horacio will take 5th in line.

"This is astounding! While my calling makes me benefit from that pendant, my armor is potent. I do not need the item. Would that I had a way to display that red Pennon!"

This is too easy …

Antonella bows to Horacio and Jorciel in turn. “Thank-you for identifying the items, brother Horacio.”

“Good Jorciel, if you will not take the pendant, may I wear it? T’will be useful for one standing on the front line.”

Antonella mentally runs through her list of tactics for defeating the restless dead. “The zombie apocalypse approaches, brothers. Our ordered underground world is about to change …”

"Ah a battle pennon. It grants Heroism to the holder. Bodta you could benefit from it and still hit things right? The wand may as well be helpful now. We are not a stealthy bunch."