Halls of Dwarven Lore - by Wise Fox (Inactive)

Game Master The Wise Fox

It is a locked door! Of course we are not done here. There could be valuables back there, lol.

Silly me, of course. :)

Or Sexy, Dwarven ladies to woo! (Too bad I lost the Luthril identity...)

Take 10 on disable device fails. Taking 20 works
It takes quite a bit of time to unlock the door, as not only was there the traditional lock, you also had to disable several runes that kept relocking the door as soon as you unlocked it (Arcane Lock).

After opening the door, you hear a gruff male voice with a heavy dwarven accent from down the stairs. "So, you managed to get yer legs put back together Shu-Lin and finally got Beetie to listen you ya, huh? Well, bring it on you crazy ol' ghoul. You ain't eatin me! I finally got me rest, and I got a disintegrate with yer name on it."

"We're... not ghouls. They beat them..." Tsusuko states, Wayfinder hanging on his backpack. "We're... not eating anything..."

Diplomacy?: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

"I would hold off on that disintegrate. Shu-Lin and Beetie attacked us. They are dead, again. Who are you exactly and what happened down here?"

Erin asks the voice as she beings to cautiously make her way down the stairs.

He yells back from down below. "Yer not ghouls? How do I know fer sure? You might be Shu-lin in disguise fer all I know. She was always good at rewriting reality with her lies. Approach slowly mate, so I can get a good look at ya."

You hear him mutter something.

You travel down the corridor, which opens into a 30-foot, circular, dusty room littered with the trappings of a modest camp and illuminated by light from a smokeless torch. Four sets of dials adorn the rounded wall at even intervals, and two passageways provide access to the room. The passageway to the northeast leads across a short bridge over a deep trench before terminating in a small recess just large enough to accommodate a fully armored dwarf. The southwest passageway winds gradually to the south and is littered with but not blocked by rubble.

An old grizzled dwarf in a traveler's outfit is at the opposite end of the 30 foot room, pointing a wand at Erin. He takes a quick look at you, then says, "Well? Tell yer friends to come down too and ta close the door behind ya."

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28

Hearing the spell cast, he moves down with no weapons drawn (as he always does, actually.) Despite his ghoulish appearance (adventuring gear thrown on over inpatient robes and being a generally disheveled, old man), he moves down. "We're... not dead. Or un-dead... If you trust your magic sight, though... go ahead..."

If he wants to lock the door behind us, I want to make sure we've got the dead-twice-over with us. Don't want to have them wash away or whatnot, after all!

Ezrek follows Erin down into the chamber. Greetings Master Dwarf. What are you doing down here and what is your name?

Tanrov follows the party into the room.

”Please don’t disintegrate us. I’ve heard that hurts.”

"Uhh, not so sure about closing the door when you are pointing a wand at me like that. We are really just here to figure out what happened. If you do not want to help us, we can walk right back out that door and I will lock it back up all nice for you." Erin responds to the dwarf while stepping a little further into the room.

"Hmmm. Not not dead, and no illusions." He lowers his wand and takes a moment to put it back in his sleeve. "Eye be Sandricaan, wizard and Pathfinder. Before we gettin into what I'm doing here, what are you doing here? For that matter, who are you? Doncha know its bad manners not to introduce yerself before asking others the same?"

"I'm Tsusuko... I think..." He scratches his head. "I've... not know who I am... for years? I know we're here... to save... you... though..."

"Erin, and manners go out the window when someone is pointing a weapon at you. We are also Pathfinders, here to see what happened to the last two expeditions that came down here. I am wondering what was worth all these people dying."

"Erin, huh? Well lass, there is always time for manners. If I wasn't so mannered and asked nicely, I would have hid myself, disintegrated first, and ask yer name later."

"In any case, I have no real idea what is down here either. Eye been studying this place fer quite some time, and eye believe it contains a great cultural treasure."

He walks to the northern panel. This button here closes that recess there, pointing towards the small recess across the bridge. "Once the recess is sealed, I can hear gears and machinery turning behind there when I use all the controls. This is some sort of secure vault, I know it, but I can't get it to work by meself.

"That likely as some meaning as well," pointing to a large stone poster hanging above the northern controls, but since it is damaged, I can't figure out what its meaning is.

Player Handout of the stone poster

Map

Man, if this isn't a Pokemon Ice Gym/Ice Zone puzzle, then I'm, like, 0/5 on Paizo puzzles (even ones I gm'd first).

No idea what the Ice Gym puzzle is.

"A vault. Interesting... I am going to have to take a look at this."
How many buttons are on this control panel? Is there a picture of it to go with the poster? Any applicable checks?

Every time there was what I call an "Ice Zone", the floors would slide you whatever direction you moved until you hit a wall or a block in the center of the ice. Then you could go another direction until you'd hit another block, and there was always only a few correct combinations of movements that would get you to the end of the area, usually involving the pick-up-able items. Without seeing the whole map, it's pretty impossible to tell if this is one of those, though.

For Reference

There are a set of identical dials and a big red button that is just begging to be pressed on each of the control panels. Operating the machines requires a Disable Device check to operate them blindly or a Linguistics check to puzzle out the coded runes next to each dial and button. Ability to read dwarven grants a bonus to these checks.

I'm surprised you didn't get the reference, Gil.

Ashur will walk over the short bridge, stopping before it ends. He tries to peer into the deep recess.

Perception!: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (17) + 19 = 36

Linguistics 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
Disable Device 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (8) + 16 = 24
To try and figure out how this thing works.

Ashur:
The vault "lock" seems to be suspended over a 30 foot pit. The walls in the pit are extremely smooth, like glass.

Erin fiddles around with the controls. You hear the machines whirl and grind, but nothing happens.

"No, no, no!" The dwarf goes. Like this! He shows you what to do, and you hear some noise.

Ashur sees a 5 foot square pillar rising from the ground to the north, while a pillar directly above the alcove drops from the ceiling, sealing the alcove.

Erin, you can take 10 on your disable device checks to run the machine, now that Sandricaan has showed you how to use it.

Who's going in? Sandricaan do you know what the nature of this device is? Can you cast a message spell, in case we get separated?

"I feel like I should be. I am probably the quickest in case anything happens, but we need someone that can work these controls too."

"That's why I should go in. No one can work this contraption better than you. I think I can make my way out if something happens."

"No can do laddie. Didn't think I'd need message, seeing as Eye was the only guy around."

"You be careful in there, okay?" Erin says with a hint of concern. She then refocuses her attention back to the controls in an attempt to puzzle out exactly how they work.

"Of course. When am I not?" Ashur waits for Erin to open up the alcove before he Dimension Doors into it.

"It would be quicker to mention the times you were."
She retorts quietly while using the controls to open the alcove.
Using the take 10 you mentioned before to activate the device.

Ashur says nothing but he grins at Erin's remark.

The alcove opens up.

Ashur walks inside.

"Here goes nothing."
Erin says as she activates the machine.

You hear some gears whilrling in response, and the pillar behind Ashur falls down behind him.

Ashur: Please use spoiler tags with your posts. You are cut off from the rest of the party at this time.

Ezrek stands, quietly thinking of ways he could assist.

Erin waits roughly 30 seconds, then activates the machine again.

Same machine, I assume

You hear some gears turning. The pillar drops, and Ashur emerges from his room.

"Uh, try some different buttons." Ashur walks back into the room.

Tsusuko's face turns to one of concern. "Would... flying help? I don't want... them... back, but they can make you fly... if you need it."

"Flying won't help me get through solid stone, but thanks anyway."

Sandricaan: "Lassie, we got 4 other panels. If this one opens and closes the vault, what to the other 3 do?"

Oh, I thought there was only one panel.

"Well, since we cannot talk, I will change one every 30 seconds to give you time to move. If it gets dangerous, just do your finger waggling teleport thing."
Erin says, then activates the first switch. Followed by the second one 30 seconds later, continuing down the line.

Any particular order? There is the north switch, east switch, west switch, and south switches.

Well this suddenly got a lot more complicated than one box, lol. Lets go clockwise form the first one I flipped.

Erin activates the northern switch, sealing Ashur in his 5 foot cube. Erin moves to the eastern switch and moves to the southern one. Erin attempts to activate the southern switch, but the controls are locked out for a few moments before signaling it is ready to recieve a command. You activate the southern switch, and hear some noises and a loud click from within. Erin moves to the eastern switch and activates it. She then goes back to the northerns witch and activates that switch again, and Ashur comes out again.

N,E,W,S this time.