Geoffrey's Finest (Inactive)

Game Master CampinCarl9127

Dalton was a bit ticked the blood offer was not made when it could be split between the two. Surely thrice a pint wouldn't kill them. Instead, they found themselves in a macabre prison. Also holding his breath, Dalton followed towards the door - and ignored contact with the dying.

Toramin was willing to give, but very unwilling to force.

The cries of the desperate follow you as you reach the far door, a mother thrusts our her baby, but the party realizes the gravity of the situation and moves on.

They close the door behind them, then turn to examine the room they're now in. The room is a 30 foot diameter circle, painted around the entire length of the wall is the history of minotaurs. Above the one massive painting are four torches (reachable), evenly spaced out. One above the door, one on the far wall, and one on each side.

The most interesting aspect of the room is the center. You see hundreds of thousands of tiny white specks floating in space. After a minute of watching them, you see they are slowly moving linearly, but are confined to the exact shape of two separate minotaurs, except each one is about twice the size of a normal minotaur. Also, inside all the specks of the one on the left, you see another stone chip.

Map to come soon.

Out of curiosity, what is the history of minotaurs in this world?

I left my files up at school, but I believe I sent Bjorkus a PM with a fair amount of it. Bjorkus, could you possibly find that PM for us? I get flooded with a lot of them and it would take me some digging to find it.

Toramin will un-gag the villainous alchemist, whose name he has already forgotten, and ask him a brief question.

"I tire of riddle, traps, and puzzles. While we make our way to the gatehouse, good men and women die. The more of our people who are injured the longer you will have to suffer broken hands and ankles. I assure you that our priests are your only hope for succor because I will make sure you die before any outside rescue is actualized. I am your only path through this war. I will give you one chance to speed our passage to the gate house and to your healing. Choose. Choose wisely and choose now."

Any sass, bluster, insults or anything that doesn't reek of abject compliance will get him the return of the gag.

Do these specks appear to be light? If they are motes of light, do they appear to have any relation to the flame and shadow thrown by the four torches?

Gelrick takes a moment to clear his throat, looking around the room with curiosity. "Interesting, they even depict..." He stops as Toramin starts talking. He glances over at him before continuing to read the history on the walls. "My life is already forfeit, your bargaining chip is weak."

The room has a torch at each side, casting enough light that shadows are hardly noticeable.

That does not reek of abject compliance to me.

What was he looking at when he spoke?

After stuffing the gag back into the mouth of some nameless footnote on the rolls of the damned, Toramin will note, "It sounds as though our guest -- who thinks he is too clever by half -- has not been in this room before. That suggests that there is an alternative route of ingress and egress into the compound."

He was glancing at a depiction of when the minotaurs lost a battle at Sans de Glor, a battle they often deny ever happened.

Bjorkus moves towards the cloud of specks bearing the stone shard.

"What are they?" he rumbles aloud. "Are they alive?"

The best way I can explain this, imagine tiny specks of matter in a vacuum that bounce off the sides without losing velocity.

That sounds vaguely danger/ominous.

Any sort of knowledge checks we can make?

Toramin will start examining the room in detail, taking 20 (19). He is looking, but not touching.

I didn't design the room with any in mind, perhaps arcana could help a little.

You don't notice anything else Toramin

When Psotheos hears what the man wants for his cure, he feels hopeless. Not just because three liters of blood from the drow would put Lindale out of action for a few days at least, but also because of the enormity of the situation. This man is the creator of the disease and the best chance for a cure, but he has no scruples and is utterly untrustworthy unless his own well being is involved.

Psotheos doesn’t blame Lindale for walking away, refusing the offer. He admires Toramin for being brave enough to offer his own blood as well.

Overwhelmed with pity and grief he nearly cries as he walks across the chamber filled with his fellow citizens under the throes of the disease. As he holds his breath, it feels like a pressure is building within him, a rage at Nuro that he can’t wait to unleash. His eyes plead with the woman holding the babe to understand that he can do nothing for her.

In the new room, after catching his breath, Psotheos walks around the two minotaurs. ”Like statues made of illuminated motes. I would have studied magic if I knew I could do this,” he says in a whisper. Their beauty does nothing to lift the heaviness in his heart from the last room.

”Bjorkus, does the mural appear accurate to you? There might be some incorrect information that is a clue to the exit.”

"Beautiful," remarked Dalton at the light-sculpture. "But thin." He waved his hand through the space between some of the motes, not particularly toward the chip.

Know(History): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18 This is with regards to the minotaur history to see if there's any special connection to what's present.
Know(Arcana): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23 This is to glean any non-artistic purpose of the motes.

"I don't know a whole lot 'bout Taur history. My father an I weren't real close and there weren't any others on our crew", he explains.

Bjorkus snorts in frustration and studies the murals.

The murals don't help with the puzzle, I promise you I'll give you a more detailed history when I'm back at school.

As Dalton attempts to wave his hand between the motes, his hand is stopped on the outline of the minotaur, which you now realize is more than just an outline. Suddenly the giant minotaur animates, turning to strike at Dalton! Just as suddenly as the minotaur animates, it returns to its original position and becomes still.

Dalton takes 14 damage and his left arm is dislocated.

Bjorkus snorts again, in surprise this time, as the giant pseudo-minotaur animates long enough to flatten the fat elf. He prepares himself for a fight, only to see the creature resume its disinterest.

The bull approaches close enough to drag Dalton back.

"Get that wand. He's hurt bad."

Did Dalton's checks reveal anything useful? Is there anything interesting about the torches lining the walls?

His history check confirmed it is an accurate history of minotaurs.

If I remove one of the torches on the wall, do either of the minotaurs change shape?

Which torch? And no, they remain the same. Although with one less torch the shadow of the chip is easier to see.

Which minotaur is the chip in? Toramin will remove the east west torch nearest it.

The minotaur on the left, or to the west.

I think this might be a kabuki puzzle, so Toramin will try to manipulate the location of the stone or the positioning of the minotaurs by playing with the torches in both the positioning and their status as lit. Given his methodical nature, he will take notes and proceed by trial and error to see if his hunch bears fruit.

Heh, I have no idea what that is but I trust you. Bjorkus will just stand in awe of the giant minotaur construct-things.

The stone casts as a shadow as expected by a solid object, and the motes continue to not reflect or absorb light in any way.

Does detect magic show anything up?

Lindale uses detect magic.

Indeed, some magic coming off the minotaurs. Spellcraft if you would

Are the motes flammable?

Idk, try sticking a torch in there >.>

Sure

Toramin takes a torch and brings it to the motes, but as it gets to the outline of the minotaurs it's stopped dead, as surely as if you hit a stone wall.

Untrained Spellcraft: 1d20 ⇒ 8

Do the motes stop moving when that happens? Lindale, shouldn't you be healing poor Master Dalton. :-)

Yup, that's magic!

The torch has no effect besides the light it casts

Difficult puzzle is difficult.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Dalton you could detect magic then spellcraft better than me surely.

"Here Dalton. Can't have our magician dying on us now can we."
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
"I can help you put your arm back in if you want."

DC is too high for untrained, sorry Toramin.

Can we get some kind of checks for a hint?

Womp. Womp. This is a puzzle not meant for my character. :-)

Our characters are cleverer than we are. Well Dalton is at least.

I'm cleverer than Toramin, I hope, but I'm also not great at puzzles that I cannot see. The torches and the motes are the only moving parts in this room. They seem non-interactive so far. My idea of it being a shadow-puppet puzzle turned out to be a dead end. My current thought is we might need a specialized Knowledge or Spellcraft check? I would be curious if there are oversized Minotaurs on the wall. I had hoped the murals would be a clue, but we were told it is not relevant to the puzzle. *shrug*

Brought back to consciousness with a wand, Dalton thanks his rescuers and stands slowly. His arm ached, and his temper was red-hot. He studied the situation anew.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

"Perhaps something to do with light and dark to get that chip. The motes are points of light, so perhaps a shadow would halt their rather violent response. It's also possible the reverse might have the effect, flooding them out with light."

Trying none of the above though, Dalton merely reached for the chip this time - but with the hand of his mind.

Mage Hand on the stone chip with an attempt to move it out towards us.

Killer check Dalton

You almost jumped right on it with your first thought Toramin

You don't feel anything weird go on with your mage hand, but it simply doesn't effect the stone chip. You don't feel as if your magic was cancelled or dispelled, it just simply didn't work inside the minotaurs.

Toramin watches Dalton use his mage hand, and then gets a smile on his face. Toramin will use the torch to extend the shadow of his hand into the minotaur to get the chip.

Dot here, giving a description of your character and what a stranger would know about them with a passing glance. It's a large army and you may or may not know each other, but at one point or another you've probably at least seen each other.

Dot.

More to come.

Gabriel is 5'9, has two mismatched rams horns (one spirals one way and the other the other way), long blonde hair and one somewhat pointed ear and one rounded ear. He is often seen in the company of Colonel Geoffrey, especially at the training field the army sets up when it has time. The guy is quiet and you'll notice if you see him long enough that he stares into space a lot. He also has a tail, one that typically sways behind him, though he has been seen picking things up with it once in a while. Half of it is covered in spines. The other is smooth to the tip, where there is half of an arrow head. He usually walks around during the day wearing his armor and a longsword on his hip. One piece of his armor, his helmet, looks like it was carefully adjusted to suit someone with horns. Gabriel also wears a holy symbol of Iomedae, cast from silver, around his neck. (A longsword pointed downward with a light shining around the cross guard.)

Toramin is tall, for a dwarf, standing all of four feet and four inches. In many ways, he is a study in brown: brown skin, brown hair plaited with runes, and brown eyes. Toramin goes about the camp armored. He keeps his scale mail meticulously clean and his armored kilt wrinkle free. He is most often seen running around the camp inspecting the mechanical siege craft and inspecting complicated diagrams. Occasionally, he carries with him a giant hammer that, in all fairness, is much taller than he is. You believe his job is to advise Geoffrey on technological matters.

So people don't have to go hunting for it, by the way, I got a link in Gabriel's signature thing to his picture. You can clink on it from any of my posts in discussion or game play to see him. (closest I could get to makin it my avatar XD).

Certainly shows me for picking a picture to represent him outside the paizo forumn.

As a half-minotaur, Bjorkus looks like a lesser version of his beastly sire. Although he’d never measure up to a full-blooded minotaur, he towers over most men. His massively built frame wears its power well, with broad shoulders, a barrel chest, and limbs otherwise thick with bulging sinew. A bovine head sits atop his shoulders, complete with a set of meticulously cared for thick horns, but broken up by very human green eyes. His ruddy skin is covered with dense dark body hair, especially across his chest and arms.

I should get a helmet with horns so we are all a matching set.

Good description Bjorkus. Now tell us what a soldier in the military would see when he passes by you, kind of like what the other two posted.

If everybody dots soon I'll open up the gameplay thread.

Question. Can Gabriel have a helmet? Since, mechanically, it wouldn't do anything for his AC (for some odd reason I never got that, but -shrug-) would you require an action for him to don it as well? I still want to give it to him. It will just determine how often he wears if it it takes a swift action to put it on, a move, or if he can do it while drawing a weapon.

I should get a helmet with horns so we are all a matching set.

A helment? On me?!

Dalton is a fat half-elf. Yes, you heard that right. Perhaps pleasantly plump is a more appropriate term. The man doesn't look like he belongs anywhere near a battlefield, yet here he is. He laughs more often than not around here though, and the soldiers take well to him overall.

As far as what he does besides eating his share at the mess hall, you may occasionally see Dalton setting-up tents or moving earth to form trenches - with his fingertips in the air. There are no fireballs from him, but the man wouldn't be strong enough to shovel a cityway let along dig a trench, so he relies on his mental ability. His shoulder length straw hair is solo without a beard or moustache, perhaps a part of his elven heritage that actually came through.

He keeps a pair of glasses on him, and he wears his 3/4 length viridian cloak about him well. With it, and with the crimson garb underneath, he looks more like a statesman than a soldier. One may wonder why he's digging trenches in fine clothes.

By all means. Mechanically it won't effect anything, just how you look

Given our GM's gleeful recounting of his called shots home rules, I think keeping all your mangleable bits covered is a smart call. :-)

You don't have to type in this format in the discussion thread, only if you are talking out of character in the gameplay thread.

Well if you're wearing armor and get crit on it, it's probably going to be damaged.

Dalton is a fat half-elf. Yes, you heard that right. Perhaps pleasantly plump is a more appropriate term.

He is jolly! He has a special treat that he likes to give to all the good boys and girls.

Better the armor than my delicate, dwarven good looks.

Lindale stands taller than most men at just over 6ft. He is yet to don his newly acquired battle armour but can be seen with a shortsword at his hip when he is about. Silver hair just past his shoulders flowing in the wind and matching his grey eyes, which search the camp. You might know he helps with the camps security. He looks suspiciously at all, as if anyone could be a potential threat. Usually his tasks are not that important however. Making sure things are present and in order usually. He is neither quick to socialise or one to shy from people, but will happily talk to anyone who approaches. Though most leave him be due to his abnormaly dark skin and elf like ears.

Oh that's right, not everybody knows how drow work in my world.

There was some huge magical catastrophe that involved the dragons and the drow, but nobody is quite sure what it is. For some reason it caused them to lose their natural spell resistance.

Some of the drow are trying to progress in this world, but most of them stick to their old stubborn ways. If you go to a major city and take something similar to a citizenship test (although easier) you will be granted a card verifying you as a member of civilized society. If one of the old fashioned drow runs into one of these, they will usually kill on sight.

If our rogue checks in within an hour we can get started.

The previous post is what folks would see when Bjorkus isn't actively on duty or in combat. Having spent the greater portion of his life on the deck of a ship he hasn't worn much armor.

When on duty and basically forced to wear armor, Bjorkus is clad in a suit of worn scale armor a size too small and fitted for a soldier with reversed dimensions - being too tight across the shoulders/chest and too loose across the midsection. A heavy hide breechcloth and loincloth keep his hefty bovine manparts secured and tucked away. A massive axe is secured to his back via a leather harness and a hide sack tied to his hip holds his supplies.

Although imposing and constantly bearing a certain musk, those that are around the young bull for more than a short while quickly learn that he's approachable and friendly enough to most. He's often flippant about his military duties but seems to bear individuals no ill will.

He likes to sing and he likes to drink, often challenging other soldiers for a chance at winning their ale rations off of them. He loves physical tests of strength and seems to have an eye for the fairer female soldiers around the camp.

That better Mr. Omen? =P

With a deepening voice and a smattering of acne, Psotheos is clearly entering manhood. He’s just over six feet tall and slender. Despite the stains of blood, sweat, and dirt, his clothes clearly at one time were fit for a noble. His silver and purple tabard has a coat of arms over the left breast. A stranger can tell by his accent he’s from Xilres. For weeks he has marched tied to a wagon along with other hostages. His hair is long enough to fall into his eyes.

I will get a character sheet up very soon.

Gabriel, I'm doing the math and I think you have a 22 point buy. Also, just to clarify, are you simply using the longsword with 2 hands?

Dalton, I'm getting a 23 point buy from you, and that is taking into account your +1 str from your school of magic.

Gabriel, I'm doing the math and I think you have a 22 point buy. Also, just to clarify, are you simply using the longsword with 2 hands?

Dalton, I'm getting a 23 point buy from you, and that is taking into account your +1 str from your school of magic.

Middle age accounted for?

Lets see...

Str 15 - 7 (+2 racial)
Dex 10 - 0
Con 14 - 5
Int 11 - 1
Wis 12 - 2 (-2 racial)
Cha 14 - 5 (+2 racial)

Total = 20

And yes, I'll be using a longsword with 2 hands. Its his goddesses and his mentors favored weapon so unless something better comes along he'll probably stick with it. Mechanically not the strongest weapon but -shrug-

Mr. Omen, was the added description sufficient for Bjorkus?

Ah Gabriel, I forgot about your alternate racial ability bonuses. Thank you.

Always forget about age rules. I was never a huge fan of them, so I don't allow more than middle age. It's too easy to start off ancient and begin with like 23 cha or something. Ok, thanks for clearing that up

It's a little late for me to start anything. Check back in about 12 hours and I'll connect the gameplay thread and get everything started. G'night all

Yes it was, thank you. I will try to get into the habit of confirming things like this more often. Sometimes I just think "ok good" and don't say anything about it.

Hopefully Dalton doesn't need regular doses of Remove Meanness.

Heya Stratos.

Character Sheet ready for perusal. I didn't choose gear since I figured that depends upon what the Geoffrey gives him; probably some basic general issued weapon and armor. If I took the trait Rich Parents and bought some masterwork armor and weapon would Geoffrey allow him to use that? Or would the situation be more along the lines of "Well, do this for us and you can get your family heirlooms at the end of the war." If I don't take Rich Parents I'll probably go with Ear for Music.

Crunch looks good. Make your equipment as you were going to, I have a solution for it in game.

I'm looking forward to the intro.

Have finalised my equipment going off average wealth.

I was wondering if it is ok to take the alternate racial trait Ancestral Grudge, which replaces Poison use.

That trait is fine with me

Had a bit of unexpected time this morning. Gameplay thread is up. Please post your responses in appropriate spoilers, such as "DM & players x" (where player x is the other character with you at the time).

sweet, character sheet completed finally. Posting in gameplay soon.

Oh also, can everybody tell me when they normally have time to post? Just so I know when to be prepped to keep things moving. I know times fluctuate depending on the day and how busy you currently are, but I would like at least a rough estimate.

Generally 16:00 - 23:00 EST, more on weekends.

And hello, Bjorkus. Skaar #2, I see. Dalton is quite amicable as long as he gets his pastries.

I check regularly during the day. Anything to distract from the dissertation. :-p I check less regularly when things slow down, but don't hold back on my account.

It is late autumn

Hmm you're in my time zone Dalton. That will be easy to keep track of

Also, EST.

I am an hour behind you guys, but I'm used to dealing with Est time so...

I'll typically be available 8-5:30 est time during the week and weekends, and then again from about 2:30 AM - 3 or 4 depending. So early mornings and early, early mornings. XD

PDT — usually able to post either early morning around 7:30 a.m. and after 9 p.m. Sometimes lunch time. Like now.

Busy man Psotheos. Most of my breaks are just before yours so that might work out pretty well.

Also, I have just finished setting up a very nifty program that sends a message to my phone every time somebody posts here, so I will be able to respond relatively quickly unless I'm busy. Normally after a large post I'll wait for every person to post once before moving on.

Yeah, I love being an engineer. Programming is awesome.

Oooh, a noble of Xilres. Interesting...

I'm up and posting from ~9am to 12am PST. I started a bit late today because I took today off and slept in.

Well guys I have everything figured out except maps

I'm a big fan of google spreadsheets.

A DM I had used something like fantasy ground, a free version or what I don't know, and took screen shots. Those online programs are a lot more reliable when you only need to sign on yourself after all. XD

You don't have to log in for google spreadsheets.

Check out this one I'm using for a PFS game.

Well it's not awful. I'd like a little more detail if I could. I'm going to PM somebody I know, I think they can help