Hadassa's Legacy of Fire

Game Master jhpace1

The shaitan seemed put off by the aged human's remarks. "This?" Oberhak returns, barely glancing behind him at the floating stone and the serpentine creature stuck on its' surface, "Merely a Protean scout. They attack in cycles, keeping us on our guard. They can sense when outsiders are within Kakishon, and have attacked us since we came here. We were lucky to capture one; I left it here as a warning to other interlopers like itself."

"If you want to leave Kakishon," Oberhak offers, "you will need to battle Proteans like this on the Isles of Not. So you should go. Now."

"I don't think fighting the Proteins will help, since they're the ones making this place. Maybe they're angry one of their friends is missing? We should probably take em back to them, that might start to fix things." Yazi thinks aloud while looking at the frozen Protean.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (8) + 14 = 22

Can't make that with a natural 20

"If you claim this as your realm in Jhavul's absence, and display one of them here as a trophy, what is to stop the proteans from retaliating by unraveling the entire plane out from under you?" Nasir asks.

"Yeeeeeeeeah I really don't think they're happy about this."

Rayhan muses A creature of primal chaos trapped in a stone from which the very essence of Kakishon emanates. I'd love to study the effects...

"I will not give up my favorite decoration." Oberhak declares. "As long as the remaining Proteans exist, Kakishon is threatened. My followers have not yet found the Isles of Not. But you, you adventurers, you might be more resourceful and find the Proteans' home. If you slay those who still dwell in the Isles of Not, I can help you escape Kakishon. We can find out together, after you return."

Yazi blinks. "The Proteins are what is keeping Cashew Land together. We kill them and we're all gone. All of us, including you." she flatly says while starting to question the Genie's intelligence and sanity.

Rayhan lays a cautioning hand on Yazi

A word my dear. and as soon as he gets her attention the wised scholar hisses Don't antagonize him. There's more to this than we know...Let's leave and think of a better plan

"I didn't realize stating the obvious was antagonizing." she flatly responds. "And uh, how?" she adds while looking around the cavern.

"I am also curious how we are to leave this place. Will you give us safe passage from here if we request it?" Bartan asks Oberhak.

"I am told Prime Material Plane adventurers are resourceful." Oberhak says. "Don't all of you carry ropes and grappling hooks?" He turns, walking under the surface of the granite floor. The other shaitan in the wall backs away as well. "Guardians, post." The rock-colored man orders, and the spike-like elementals shuffle back to the corners of the room.

So we're alone with the guardians?

(Yep!)

(Man, first time I've been able to get into the Pazio boards all day. Did all the programmers catch a virus at PazioCon this year, or what?)

Over active firewall, they fixed.

"Maybe we should just free the Protein?" Yazi thinks aloud while watching the encased protean.

Yeah it seemed that the problem was with accessing the non-secure parts of the site. Anything at secure.paizo.com was working fine. It was strange.

"I am no fan of fighting without knowledge of the consequences, but time is also of the essence... I don't think we should try to free it at this moment. What do you think, Rayhan?"

"If we go to see the Protean and they attack, we'll be glad to have one less to deal with by leaving it here. If we are able to negotiate a deal with them, freeing their fellow may be a good bargaining tool." Nasir suggests.

I don't think we should press a fight in our current state. Khayal says looking at the injuries his companions had received. These creatures are not our enemies. We have real enemies to fight.

The stone guardians shuffle back to their respective corners and slowly turn back into pillar-like shapes.

(Now, the GM is willing to aid in the INT checks and notice that you still have a flyer (Rayhan), as well as some spider climb potions, and surely someone has 100-150 ft of rope? Someone could get to the top of that hole in the ceiling, climb to the temple with rope, tie the rope off around a nearby pillar, and have everyone else climb up.)

Rayhan answers the question We don't know what will happen if that Protean is freed. It might attack us...it might thank us. Protean are fickle beasts.

Now that we have been here, at least Rayhan can teleport us back.
Bartan you look like you are only barely alive. And Yazi, another hit like the ones you have been getting could kill you.

Yazi sighs and throws her hands up.

Khayal pulls a few ropes out of his backpack and ties the ends together.
With a crack of a grin Khayal holds the ropes up and says,
Could one of you who thought better than to jump down here tie this off above.

"Starting a battle while injured would be foolish. We can always come back should we need to. We know that he is hiding something. If he outright lied to us, we come back and take him out and any who stand with him." Nasir says calmly. "For now we should leave and heal"

"I sincerely hope we have the luxury of time to do so." Yazi muses, remembering the lacuna that tore through the sea on their trip over.

Rayhan takes the rope and says I'll fly above and tie the rope. and then he does so.

Hajar keeps silent, but he thinks How much time did we waste traipsing about for the Smith Artel?

Hajar will heal his allies while the Scholar Rayhan secures a means for their escape.

Channel: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 1) = 8
Channel: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 5) = 13
Channel: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 1) = 9
LOH Bartan: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11
LOH Bartan: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8
LOH Bartan: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9
CSW Yazi: 3d8 + 7 ⇒ (2, 2, 3) + 7 = 14
CSW Yazi: 3d8 + 7 ⇒ (2, 7, 1) + 7 = 17
CMW Khayal: 2d8 + 7 ⇒ (7, 7) + 7 = 21
CMW Khayal: 2d8 + 7 ⇒ (6, 8) + 7 = 21

Everyone is all healed. HP are fixed on the map

That's different, we didn't know the plane was collapsing at the time, and we kinda needed new weapons to fight the Efreeti, since not all of us have cool talking sword that automatically upgrades as we advance.

When the rope is secured Khayal will wait for the others to begin their ascent. He climbs up right under his brother, letting Hajar use his shoulders as steps if need be. Taking a 10 on the climb check and aiding another to help Hajar climb.

That's different, we didn't know the plane was collapsing at the time, and we kinda needed new weapons to fight the Efreeti, since not all of us have cool talking sword that automatically upgrades as we advance.

(This from the woman who needs a caddy for all her blades? ;) )

Yazi wrote:

That's different, we didn't know the plane was collapsing at the time, and we kinda needed new weapons to fight the Efreeti, since not all of us have cool talking sword that automatically upgrades as we advance.

(This from the woman who needs a caddy for all her blades? ;) )

That I got rid of, one I even gave to help Khayal upgrade his. But yeah I'm sure the +1 Human bane Greataxe would have been so useful against an Efreeti

I think going to the smith was mostly for me. Had Khayal known what was going on, he would have prioritized differently. But, we did not know. If anyone is to 'blame' it is Khayal, it already eats him up, let him live with that in peace.

Honestly part of the tension about the decision making is being generated by the constant griping about wasting time from the less equipment dependent.

Rayhan drops the rope from above. The rope coils on the floating rock in the center of the room, spilling over to dangle above the opposite-relief bottom well in the floor.

(Two DC 15 rolls needed until you get to the tunnel in the ceiling, followed by two DC 10 rolls due to Khayal's assistance. Just don't fail by 5 or more - you'll fall.)

Bartan looks incredulously at the rope. "This could end poorly..." He casts false life on himself from his wand, just incase.
false life: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 LOL
He then decides to pull out his wand of cleromancy and see if he can predict his success...
looking for like rolls...: 7d4 ⇒ (4, 3, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2) = 15 I'll choose ones, so I can apply up to a +3 bonus to up to 7 checks in the next 7 rounds.

Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Climb: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9 I add a +3 and don't fall.
Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13
Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 Uh-oh... I add the +3 but that's not enough. Do I get a Reflex save to catch myself on the rope as I'm falling...?

It should be DC 5 for knotted rope.

(I have an excuse - it was on the Discussion Thread! So Bartan magically saves himself from slipping and falling off the knotted rope.)

(I actually had a game in the Underdark where I was just one level away from making a Spiderman gauntlet using animate rope, spider climb, and minor creation. But me and the GM had a falling-out over the terminology of the words "material component".)

Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16
Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (12) - 1 = 11
Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (17) - 1 = 16
Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15
Climb: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (12) - 1 = 11

Hajar makes the climb, but not without some difficulty.

Khayal looks at his brother quite impressed. For wearing that much armor, he sure scurried up the rope well.
Even Bartan appeared to do well. Just as he would be slipping, he seems to grab on at just the right time. It's good to see us not struggling.

Heh, Yeah good thing Bartan has luck on his side MOST Of the time...

(That just leaves our two ladies. Are you going to spider climb back out, or try the rope?)

spider climb lasts 10 minutes per caster level, I figured it was still on.

(Ok, the potions are still active. You good to go, Nasir?)

yup

So our adventurers regroup on the stone temple's floor at the North end of the Golden Bowl. The afternoon sun is still high in the sky.

What do you want to do?

"So I suppose the next step would be to find this Isle of Not and deal with the Proteans." Nasir states as they consider their options.

"Yeah..." Yazi replies while rubbing her head.

Looking out at the desert once more, Khayal looks to find the path back. survival: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Though the fake sun glares from above, he thinks he can retrace their earlier steps. If we have to come back, perhaps Rayhan's magic can speed the trip.

"Let's get out of here for now and get eveyone patched up." Nasir says putting an arm around Yazi.

Yazi thinks for a moment before just leaning over to kiss the side of Nasir's face as they walk.

(Going off of Khayal's Survival, botting Hajar & Bartan.)

The adventurers follow the sand out of the Golden Bowl, going West. They follow the dunes narrowing to a wide trail back to the island's Waypoint. Once at the adobe house and wooden pier the sun is sinking rapidly to the horizon.

(Stay the night? Or blow the horn and summon the galley?)