GMTrex's 3-25 Storming the Diamond Gate (Inactive)

Game Master Andrew Trexler

Trifle flashes a fanged grin when the southern Aspis falls to the ground. "Take that, Aspis scum," she mutters under her breath.

Jenny Will: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

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Jenny also succumbs to Trifle's spell and is blinded for 1d4 ⇒ 3 rounds and stunned for 4 rounds.

Ivy takes out her composite longbow and rapidly strings an arrow into place. She pulls back on the string until her muscles strain and takes aim at the Dazed Baddie, holding her breath....and releases it in a rush as she lets the arrow fly.
Ranged Attack Roll: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Khakil begins a performance of his favorite epic to bolster his companions whilst taking out his wand of CLW.

"Not one tale can match the sanguine,/to the divine Cayden Cailean..."

The man was smart enough to shoot from behind light cover, so even despite the daze (which he isn't under anymore) the arrow just barely catch's the edge of box and veers off past his ear.

Khakil's ballad, meanwhile, begins to fill you with awe and confidence! Don't forget that +1 to attack and damage rolls!

Cott is up!

Infuriated at the sight of their attack on Jenny, Cott's features twist again as he sprouts claws and fangs once more. Use Totemic Transformation - Natural Weapons (1 min)

Snarling, he rushes towards the still standing consortium member that attacked his companion.

Round II

Seeing his other friend go down (for 2d4 ⇒ (1, 1) = 2 rounds) and the polymorphing druid get all up in his face, the as-yet-untouched Aspis shouts to his colleague south of the door. "JENKINS, GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!!!" Jenkins comes out of his magus-inflicted stupor and does so. Together they go to work on Cott.

Rapier: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 2 = 6 MISS
Rapier: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 3 + 2 = 23 THREAT Confirm: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 2 = 8 NOT CONFIRMED DMG: 1d6 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 2 + (6) = 11 DMG 11

One rapier pokes a deep hole in the druid.

Round II Update
Ivy: shoots and misses
Khakil: begins to sing
Cott: transforms
Baddies: flank and stab Cott
Trifle: CURRENT

Trifle to finish round II, everyone else to begin round III!

Round III
Ivy spends one point from her Arcane pool to add +1 enhancement to her weapon.
Ivy quickly grabs another arrow and taps into her Arcane Pool for extra strength. As she strings the arrow she imagines it piercing the baddie directly in front of her through the eye, and bolstered by Khakil's singing she feels confident that this battle can be won. The arrow zings through the air and...
Ranged Attack: 1d20 + 4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 4 + 1 + 1 = 18
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Trifle, as a swift action, runs her free hand through the air over her sword. In a burst, the metal bursts into shimmering flame. The longsword is now a +2 flaming weapon.

Trifle swings with the flaming sword at the guard next to her.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Fire damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Working together, the magi drop Jenkins. He goes down with an arrow through his eye, a slash across his ribs, and his shirt on fire.

Khakil and Cott (still no Jenny) are up next!

Khakil uses a charge of his wand to close some more wounds.

CLW wand on Khakil: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

He continues his epic: "His strike true - no time to think,/ and none could match him in the drink."

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Round 3

With a beastial roar, Cott lashes out with his claws at the bowman to the north.

Claw 1: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 Damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Claw 2: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15 Damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Then, snarling savagely he lunges at the man's throat with his fangs.

Bite: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

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Round III

After the magi bring Jenkins down, Khakil continues his healing and singing while Cott does the fighting. Cott's claws don't make it through the guard's defenses, but his fangs do -- drawing out a sharp yelp of surprise.

"Zzzzz" says one guard. The other growls in frustration and hops over the crates (drawing an AoO from Cott) and heads for the door, kicking one open.

Round II Summary
Ivy: shoots and misses
Khakil: begins to sing
Cott: transforms
Baddies: flank and stab Cott
Trifle: enhances weapon and hits

Round III Update
Ivy: shoots and hits
Khakil: sings and heals
Cott: attacks, one hit
Baddies: asleep, dead, and running
Trifle: CURRENT

Trifle is up!

Inflamed by the taste of his foe's blood, Cott lunges again as the bowman scrambles past him over the crates, trying to sink his fangs into the man's neck once more.

Bite AoO: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

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Cott's teeth tear a sizable chunk out of the man as he hurries limps for the door. A gush of blood collides with the sandy floor with a wet plop.

Trifle!

Trifle darts around the crates after the fleeing man, and swings at him with her flaming sword.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Fire Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Trifle drops him as he flees. The one remaining guard is beginning to wake from his slumber, however...

Ivy, Khakil, and Cott!

Ivy casts Daze on the waking baddie and then ties him up with his rope.

Ivy casts Daze on the waking baddie and then ties him up with his rope.

He's still stunned and blinded for 1d4 ⇒ 4 more rounds and then stunned for another round after that, so daze is irrelevant. Tying him up with a rope takes a very long time.

Move action to reach him.
Move action to get out the rope.
Standard action to grapple.
Standard action to pin.
Standard action to tie up, if you're lucky.

Would you like to do something else?

ROUND 4
Khakil ends his performance, stands up, and rushes towards the final baddie.

Ivy drops her bow, walks over to the baddie while drawing her rapier and stabs him.
Attack Roll: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 4 + 1 = 17
Damage: 1d6 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 2 + 1 = 5

Cott focuses his fury on the sole remaining foe. He savagely slashes at the stunned bowman with his claws.
Claw : 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22 Damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Claw: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22 Damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Then, baring his bloodied fangs in a vicious grin, he snarls and snaps at the man's throat.

Bite: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

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The party collectively finishes him off. Jenny eventually shakes off her stupor. Out of initiative. At this point, Khakil, Cott, and Jenny are considerably injured. Please make sure your HP count in your header is up to date.

The door to the next room is ajar, opened by the Aspis Trifle slew, revealing a hallway that turns west deeper into the complex.

Cott runs his tongue over his bloody fangs and savors the taste of victory. He shakes the gore off his claws, and grimaces slightly as his transformation ends and his saurian features fade. He retrieves his wand of Cure Light Wounds and tends to Jenny before seeing to his own wounds.

Taking five four times. Two for Cott, two for Jenny. Jenny is full, Cott's down 1 hp. Will update when at PC

"Let's see if our friends here had anything useful."
He says with a grin as he picks over the corpses with an eye for anything of note, value, or use.

"Before we proceed, somebody ought to take a look around the room here while I relieve these fine chaps of their material burdens, that their spirits may travel unencumbered into the afterlife. "
He says with a smile, albeit one made somewhat less friendly by the dead men's blood still smeared across his mouth.

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The guards are carrying mostly mundane equipment, but there are a few things of note. Each is carrying a set of masterwork thieves' tools, ten cold iron arrows, and a bronze Aspis Consortium badge. Additionally, each is wearing a crude amulet. One side of the amulet depicts a demonic rune composed of three hooked, spiky crescents. The other face depicts a faceless woman wearing a... bloody Pharaoh's headdress... over which is written a set of Abyssal runes.

Cott hands one to Trifle, who reads the runes as "Above me is the Mother, below me impure blood."

Cott eyes the arrows.
"Cold iron hmm? Maybe the Aspis aren't in league with the Areshkagal cultists. Could be they're having demon problems of their own. These might come in handy."

He tosses a bundle of ten cold iron arrows to each of his three companions, then turns to Khakil.
Know anything about that medallion?"

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K Religion: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18

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Khakil takes the medallion up and studies the runes.

"This is definitely a trinket of a follower of Areshkagal."

He then pockets the medallion and takes out his wand to use on himself once more.

Wand CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

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Ivy lays her hand on the hilt of Faerahrn to gain extra awareness of the room around her. "What information do these ledgers and books hold, do you think?"
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Khakil rummages through the creates and boxes before heading over to the desk. He inspects all the drawers for anything useful, and flips through the ledgers.

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Also worth mentioning: the amulets have small holes punched into them in a seemingly random pattern, though the pattern is identical on all of them.

Nine additional amulets hang on the pegs by the door leading deeper into the temple.

Make a cursory look around the room, Ivy finds that the crates generally contain a variety of adventuring and cartography gear. The ledgers on the bookshelves catalog items and supplies that have been taken out on missions, as well as pages upon pages (indeed, books upon books) of apparent gibberish.

The desk is covered in a crude map. It does not depict any region of Golarion you've ever seen or heard about.

Cott grabs the map and the ledgers and stuffs them into his pack. "The Society may like a look at these. "

Out of curiosity he examines the holes in the amulets, then opens one of the ledgers to the first page of apparent gibberish, and tries to line up the holes in the medallion with the letters on the page to see if they may be written in a cypher that can be decoded with the amulets.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

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You can definitely fit the map in your bag, but you'll have trouble stuffing in dozens of ledgers (there are multiple bookshelves, after all). You grab two for later examination and stuff 'em in. (If all goes well, the Society can have scholars swarming over these shelves in a matter of hours anyway.)

After a moment of careful study, lining up the holes with the gibberish produces only still-more-incomprehensible gibberish.

Khakil pockets all the hanging medallions along with one of the bronze keepsakes. He heads to the southern doors and tries to slowly open them as quietly a possible, keeping an open eye on what lies behind.

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

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Ivy walks around the room eyeing the many books and amulets. She absently sheaths Faerahrn and picks up her bow from the place where it fell in battle. "It's possible that the amulets are a key that need to be lined up and turned at the same time to unlock a specific door. Khakil, I think it's a good idea to bring them along. Have you found something else?" Ivy walks softly behind Khakil and laying her hand on the hilt of her sword, for extra awareness as well as reassurance, Ivy peeks over his shoulder.
Stealth: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

I should mention that Khakil now has both his shield readied and rapier drawn.

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A long, blasted-out hallway displays several tablets depicting gruesome images of torture and mutilation. The blasted areas have destroyed several of the tablets, but thirteen of them still remain unscathed. Scorched stone and rubble contrast the otherwise pristine, torch-lined corridor.

While his companions are scoping out the hallway, Cott quickly casts Detect Magic on the amulet.

In the interest of saving time I'm going to post my actions for both if it detects as magical and if not

If magical "This amulet definitely has an aura of magic about it. Could either of you magi identify the nature of the enchantment? If they're cursed, trapped, or alarmed it would be best we know now before we head deeper into the temple with a pack full of them. "

If not Cott loops the medallion around his neck and proceeds to join Khakil and Ivy to the door, motioning for Jenny to follow.

"Lovely decor..."Says Cott sardonically, as he eyes the gruesome tablets, looking for anything of particular note or significance.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

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The amulets do NOT detect as magical.

The tablets each depicts a man or woman self-inflicting savage wounds upon themselves as if they are etching a series of words into their flesh. Below each macabre illustration, a riddle is written is Common.

There are 13 tablets remaining in the room; some others appear to have been destroyed and are now rubble. I'll take Kn Engineering and Kn Arcana. If you wish to attempt to solve one of the riddles, pick one of the 13 surviving tablets.

"Everyone stand back," warns Khakil. "I wouldn't want any of you getting caught up in an explosion when you don't need to."

I assume that I can only use one check per puzzle? If so I'll take the first roll. I'll put a spoiler for the second if you allow both checks.

Khakil walks to the closest tablet and studies it. He tries to recall any older magics that might correlate with it.

K Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

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The Knowledge checks aren't for the riddles themselves, don't worry. Your limited knowledge doesn't help much here.

Khakil walks up to the first tablet and studies its mysterious koan and stands mesmerized in front of it for a moment...

There are still 12 more if Khakil (or anyone else) wants to try another. Anyone else can also try the one Khakil did.

"Pay these tablets no mind for now. Only a fanatic would likely understand their meaning, " dismisses Khakil.

"Follow: the sooner we find the portals and shut them down the sooner we halt the Aspis' efforts." He puts a finger to his mouth before pointing onward down the hall. He edges quietly and slowly forward, scanning the ground for pressure plates or other such triggers.

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

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Cott follows Khakil into the hallway, but can't help turning to inspect one of the tablets on the way.

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Trifle will inspect a tablet on her way to the hallway, since it doesn't seem to take long.

Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Cott glances at the wall, almost absentmindedly. 1d13 ⇒ 7 He becomes entranced by the riddle.

Trifle also steps up to a tablet 1d13 ⇒ 5 with an apparently single-minded purpose.

"It seems the tablets are invocations of some sort of demonic blessing. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to invoke them all, but an evil boon or two each shouldn't be too much to bear, and might come in handy. I'm feeling rather more fortuitous myself for having solved this riddle."

Cott then proceeds a bit further down the hallway and stops to inspect one more tablet on the way. -Posted with Wayfinder

1d6 ⇒ 2 = 9

At the end of the hallway stand a pair of closed double doors.

"If you think it is wise, I shall try another."

Khakil has a go at the second to last tablet.

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