Male Human Wizard [Herbalist] 10 - HP 108/108 - AC 26 (27 with Mage Armor) - F: +19 R: +18 W: +18 - Speed: 30, - Perception +15; Exploration - Investigate
"Go ahead, Mikhail. Take the dagger. I did not detect any magic but you never know with these things," says Piotr.
Piotr looks to the northeast before continuing.
"Before we head upstairs, we should explore the room over there. That might be where the haunt came from, but we should not leave anything unexplored behind us."
Mikhail unrolls his sleeping bag and lays it down in front of the alter and then uses his sword to knock the dagger onto the mat and rolls it up before picking up the mat and putting it back in his bag and then (assuming nothing terrible happens) he goes to search the door.
Human Bard (Sorcerer) 10 [hp 128/128 | F+18, R+19, W+18 (+2 vs Sleep) | AC 28 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 3/3]
"Well, down the dark stairs in the creepy temple in the strange portal? Why not?" Alister summons the balls of light again to move ahead of them as they descend.
As you arrive at the bottom of the stairs, you see a winding passageway whose floor is made up of large flagstones, each 5' across. Each flagstone bears a strange sigil, each slightly different, like nothing you have ever seen before. Piotr detects a variety of magics in his field of view, including Divination, Enchantment and Transmutation.
Male Human Sorcerer(Fey) (Bard) 10 - [HP 98/98 | F+18, R+17, W+18 | AC 25 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 2/3] [Exploration Mode = Search]
Aristu peers past Piotr and Alister to see why they've stopped. "That certainly doesn't look good." He calls up his aura sight and tries to figure out what dangers the sigils hold.
Between Aristu, Piotr and Corb, the consensus is that this area is heavily trapped with necromantic magic and negative energy that will sap the life from those who cross it.
"I lack the wards to bypass this effect. I could try and use
a channel to send Positive Energy in to defuse it. Or perhaps if someone has a fly or some means of tricking it into thinking we belong we can try and bypass it in that fashion." Mikhail muses as he looks down at the deadly trap.
Male Human Wizard [Herbalist] 10 - HP 108/108 - AC 26 (27 with Mage Armor) - F: +19 R: +18 W: +18 - Speed: 30, - Perception +15; Exploration - Investigate
"I do not have any ability to remove this trap," admits Piotr.
"However, while it may be a poor use of the spell, I can summon a creature and command it to enter that area. That is likely to discharge the trap," continues Piotr.
Male Human Sorcerer(Fey) (Bard) 10 - [HP 98/98 | F+18, R+17, W+18 | AC 25 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 2/3] [Exploration Mode = Search]
Did our study of the magical auras indicate in any way if the traps would be discharged after triggering, or if they were a permanent feature of the tiles?
Oh, for a party rogue! Per the OGC: Only characters with the trapfinding class feature can disarm magic traps. But if you're asking whether it would reset, yes, you think it would reset, but not immediately. You might have a few seconds to get through after it discharged.
Human Bard (Sorcerer) 10 [hp 128/128 | F+18, R+19, W+18 (+2 vs Sleep) | AC 28 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 3/3]
Alister has been quiet, looking at the flagstones pulsing with energy. And odd thought crosses his mind. Jehovah starts with an I. He shakes his head, clearing the thought.
"If the summon works, we'll need to move very fast."
How many flagstones to get across? Do we even see the 'other side'?
Male Human Wizard [Herbalist] 10 - HP 108/108 - AC 26 (27 with Mage Armor) - F: +19 R: +18 W: +18 - Speed: 30, - Perception +15; Exploration - Investigate
On the presumption that Piotr was unable to identify the specific spell effect with his miserable roll of 16 ...
Also - burn a Hero Point to maximize the Summon results to get 5 celestial dire rats.
Piotr begins muttering the words of a spell, intending to call a number of small creatures. Once the holy rats have arrived, Piotr commands them forward through the warded area.
"Quickly, everyone! Not so close as to be caught in any spell effect but before the magical defences reset!"
The holy rats run out onto the floor where horrid tendrils of darkness reach up and suck the life from their tiny bodies. Then you run out onto the same floor, hustling through dark chambers until you reach a door. You can try to open the door or continue on south on the rune-filled path.
Human Bard (Sorcerer) 10 [hp 128/128 | F+18, R+19, W+18 (+2 vs Sleep) | AC 28 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 3/3]
"I hope you have another of those for us to get out." Alister looks down the corridor to the south, then turns back. "Open the door. If there are more of those tiles this way, we need to get away from them."
Male Human Sorcerer(Fey) (Bard) 10 - [HP 98/98 | F+18, R+17, W+18 | AC 25 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 2/3] [Exploration Mode = Search]
Aristu reluctantly finds himself following rats down the corridor of doom. When Alister indicates that they should go through the door, he quickly flips through his scrolls and withdraws a scroll of Knock, in case the door is locked.
"A deeper and heavily warded portion of a dark temple. Lets go see what they felt was in such great need of protection." Mikhail continues on down the corridor to the first door before calling about Abadar to scan the door and the small alcove to the north for magic. He also takes some time to search the door for mechanical traps and to see if it is locked.
Detect Magic and spend a round on the door. If there is an aura I will spend the round to determine type of aura. And then scan the alcove. If there is an aura there I spend the time to try and detect the type of magic. I then search for traps.
Perception for Mechanical traps around the door:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28
A small crowd of ghastly shades materialize before you. They are only mostly human, as if their ancestors had bred long ago with some stranger thing from beyond this world. Their ears are large and droopy, their eyes wide and staring, their mouths small and filled with needle-sharp teeth. But the are undoubtedly ghostly.
"You tread upon ground sacred to The Dweller in Darkness!" whispers their leader. "We sacrifice you now to appease Its anger and ease Its passage into this world!"
And with that, the leader holds forth a strange sign whose violent energies seem to gnaw at reality all around you, tearing at you from within and without!
Entropy Flare:3d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 4) = 11
You can make a DC 17 Will save for half damage.
Then the ghosts surge around you, reaching for you.
M Human Fighter (7); - HP 60/60 ,- AC 24/T: 10/FF: 24 - F: +7 R: +4/ W: +6 (+8 vs. fear) - CMB: +9 - CMD: 21, Speed: 30, Init. +4, - Perception +12
Will save:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 note additional +2 from Bravery class feature if this is a Fear effect.
Galen takes a step forwards, and hacks at one of the ghosts with his magical sword, his other arm holding his shield.
It is not explicit whether one can take a 5-foot step in addition to an action in a surprise round. Paizo forums lean towards yes. If you ruling is no, Galen just takes a step and then ignore the below attacking.
For whatever its worth. Subtract 1 from attack and damage there due to strength damage. It won't effect the half damage for incorporeal amount, but it might change whether I struck.
M Human Fighter (7); - HP 60/60 ,- AC 24/T: 10/FF: 24 - F: +7 R: +4/ W: +6 (+8 vs. fear) - CMB: +9 - CMD: 21, Speed: 30, Init. +4, - Perception +12
I don't know if they are subject to critical hits or not. But if so, the above attack roll is a critical threat, so here's the confirmation roll (and if successful, above damage of 19 is doubled):
If you're not aware, she's considered to be super deadly. As written, this is a TPK-in-a-box. Her at-will DC 21 Will save dance is ridiculously dangerous at your level. As written, she could easily slaughter at least one character and probably all of you unless you got lucky.
But TPK's are no fun unless well-deserved, so I knew more than three years ago that we were going to handle this a bit differently...
Aristu:
Yeah, that's really creepy, right? It was almost too creepy for me to do, but I think there's a good story in there that'll take quite some while to unravel. Hope you're not too creeped out!
Just out of curiosity, why are you murdering Piotr's kinky date? Not saying you shouldn't, just probing Mikhail's psyche. She hasn't actually hurt anyone. Y'now, yet.
Well, she seems to be messing with our minds as I believe you do know when your targeted by a mental effect. That and since she is in the middle here I am guessing she was ruling over all the other evil fey. Is it a prejudiced. Sure. Am I ok with that. Yep.
I recently watched an episode of Star Trek: TNG. Counselor Troi is possessed by an alien intelligence. She stands up and goes to say something and Worf already has a phaser drawn and pointed at her. "Easy!" I was thinking. "Is it standard practice in the Federation to draw down on anyone who stands up a little too quickly?"
While "evil fey" is a pretty good bet, the Dancing Lady's not really done anything besides seduce Piotr and act unconcerned about it. She's not so much "messing with your minds" (in the sense of a spell or psionic assault) as "so beautiful you can't look away."
This isn't to criticize your choice; I just want to understand Mikhail's reasoning.
As I once told my Amber DRPG players. "Sticking the knife in a player character's back is only half the GM's job. The other half is asking 'how's that knife feel?'"
Sorry I realise I posted my last post under the wrong Alias (Holys) from another game. I don't appear to be able to edit/delete it now. Will take a little getting used to!
You might find it useful to use Oladon's Campaign Tools Extensions for Chrome or for Firefox. I use the Firefox one. It lets you set a default alias in each campaign, select custom avatars, sort your aliases in nifty ways, highlight threads where there are new posts, and all kinds of other cool stuff.
The default alias for a campaign is a godsend for someone like me who is in a great many campaigns.
Male Human Slayer 6; - HP 46/46 ,- AC 17/T: 13/FF: 14 - F: +6 R: +7 W: +3 - CMB: +8 - CMD: 23, Speed: 30, Init. +4, - Perception +13
GM Tarondor wrote:
Ahran wrote:
Sorry I realise I posted my last post under the wrong Alias (Holys) from another game. I don't appear to be able to edit/delete it now. Will take a little getting used to!
You might find it useful to use Oladon's Campaign Tools Extensions for Chrome or for Firefox. I use the Firefox one. It lets you set a default alias in each campaign, select custom avatars, sort your aliases in nifty ways, highlight threads where there are new posts, and all kinds of other cool stuff.
The default alias for a campaign is a godsend for someone like me who is in a great many campaigns.
Thanks! I installed it but it is still defaulting to Holys. Do you know how to use it? I can't find much of a manual; I open the 'options' page of the extension and 'auto-select alias' is checked, but it's not defaulting my posts here to Ahran. Do I have to do something more so it knows which alias belongs on which campaign?
When you post and select the alias you want to use, a little non-descript icon appears to the right of your selection. If I recall correctly, it looks sort of like the stylized outline of a human head and torso. Hover over it and it will say something like "Make Default". Click it.
I want to make sure you guys know to check out the information on the Campaign Info tab. I'm working on it all the time and I'm in the midst of adding a "Dramatis Personae" section.
Guys if you missed it she is not grappled anymore. In fact its almost impossible for me to keep her grappled. So you may want to close your eyes and not watch her dance.
Human Bard (Sorcerer) 10 [hp 128/128 | F+18, R+19, W+18 (+2 vs Sleep) | AC 28 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 3/3]
You're right. She's not grappled. I missed that she got her turn.
So if she gets her turn and a standard action, she can start dancing again. Closing our eyes might work. So might tripping her or somehow throwing a cover over her. Maybe ongoing damage, like setting her on fire? Or somehow denying her that action, like grappling her again. You get the flank bonus now if you try it.
Alister is also hoping that getting hit by a bane weapon leaves her in a less sexy mood.
Even if you can't keep her grappled, grappling her forces her to take a standard action to escape and another to start the dance. That forces her to choose between dancing and a full attack.
Male Human Wizard [Herbalist] 10 - HP 108/108 - AC 26 (27 with Mage Armor) - F: +19 R: +18 W: +18 - Speed: 30, - Perception +15; Exploration - Investigate
I cannot remember Piotr's current number of Hero Points.
What can I accomplish by spending a Hero Point? The +8 luck bonus, coupled with (possibly) an Aid Another from Corb, would mean a 15+ is still needed to escape from the vines.
Could Piotr slip a hand free by spending a Hero Point?
He is still naked and without his spell components, so could not cast any spells that he has memorized.
Male Human Slayer 6; - HP 46/46 ,- AC 17/T: 13/FF: 14 - F: +6 R: +7 W: +3 - CMB: +8 - CMD: 23, Speed: 30, Init. +4, - Perception +13
So we seem to be at a bit of an impasse with the Dancing Lady...
Should we discuss here what to do?
It seems to me that it would be unjustifiable to try to kill her. So do we just let her go and part ways for now? (Bearing in mind it's possible that she could presently leave of her own accord anyway.)
So I apologize for a bit of this. Any awkwardness in this scene is mine.
Vague stuff about the story:
Without giving anything away, as written in the original adventure, she's just a monster. The second-most dangerous one in the adventure, after Hargulka, but just a monster with no motivations beyond sucking your blood.
I knew from the start that I wanted her to be more, and to tie in with the larger story. As I think you guys know, Kingmaker is the single most popular Adventure Path, but the biggest complaint about it is that the villain isn't even hinted at until the 6th installment, which feels like a weird, tacked-on left turn after all the kingdom-building. So I've been trying to integrate the overall story right from the start, looking for characters who can serve the larger narrative. The Dancing Lady is one of those.
However, the big risk for the GM in revealing too much is that the players decide "well, there's a villain over -there-, so let's go there now" (and get killed) or "well, we know there's a villain who wants X, so let's create our kingdom around that idea." The ideal balance is to let the story of the kingdom-building unfold as the PC's see fit, but lay enough groundwork so that when the villain appears, you think "yeah, that makes sense. Oh -that's- what all this meant," rather than "say what, now?"
So, the Dancing Lady can lay hints, but she's not going to say "look, there's a dragon in cave #257 and he's planning to steal the princess and become a god" or whatever. Plus, I think fey are probably mercurial and hard to interpret by nature, so I'm sort of intentionally having her be vague.
Human Bard (Sorcerer) 10 [hp 128/128 | F+18, R+19, W+18 (+2 vs Sleep) | AC 28 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 3/3]
I think this has been done well. She's currently a prisoner, but she's tipped her hand that it won't be for long. While Alister would think to hold her prisoner, something tells me we'll never get to that point. I expect something suitably fey-like, like fading with the sunset or...didnt she say something about the moon? Becoming a moonbeam maybe. I hope not a werewolf.
So that means she toying with us for now. She's giving us some hints for her own amusement. Alister (and I'm assuming Aristu) will not execute her. Alister might not like her and doesn't in any way see her as his mother, but she is still family.
So for now I think we hold her prisoner and try to learn as much about her and the fey queen as we can. Maybe we should ask her about the trolls. Thorn seems to be a piece of the puzzle too...
Male Human Sorcerer(Fey) (Bard) 10 - [HP 98/98 | F+18, R+17, W+18 | AC 25 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 2/3] [Exploration Mode = Search]
Mikhail wrote:
And the company she keeps is pretty poor.
That's a pretty harsh assessment of Piotr. :-)
Even if it the Dancing Lady did not appear to be his mother, Aristu would not be in favor of killing her. As it is, he is probably about 75% convinced that she is/was his mother, and there is no chance that he would agree to harming her under the present circumstances.
Ideally, I'd like her to agree that if she wishes a dalliance with citizens of Stagfell that she content herself with asking them, rather than compelling them. If we could convince her to inform us when she sees movements of trolls in her neck of the woods (as Tiressia and Melianse have agreed to do), that would be useful.
Male Human Slayer 6; - HP 46/46 ,- AC 17/T: 13/FF: 14 - F: +6 R: +7 W: +3 - CMB: +8 - CMD: 23, Speed: 30, Init. +4, - Perception +13
I agree that this has been done well, and she is certainly an interesting character! It is because of this that it is a difficult decision of how to proceed.
Ahran also doesn't think that execution is a valid option now. I like the idea of asking her to play nice. Maybe we'll need to come back from time to time to check that she has done so.
Ahran has +4 Diplomacy, +5 Intimidate, +12 Bluff so may not be the best person to lead negotiations here. And due to the fact that he's also new to the kingdom, is not so comfortable speaking on behalf of everyone here. So perhaps Alister/Aristu are best-placed to lead?
Male Human Sorcerer(Fey) (Bard) 10 - [HP 98/98 | F+18, R+17, W+18 | AC 25 | Perception +15 | Focus Points: 2/3] [Exploration Mode = Search]
So when we conclude our search of the ruined keep, we should certainly finish exploring this hex (assuming we aren't already finished). We should also explore the hex to the Northwest (0715) while we are out this way.
