KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

A red river surges through the tomb here, its color as bright as blood. In the center of the chamber ahead, it plummets over the edge, cascading down a thirty-foot-diameter pit with a roar.

There's some room to maneuver around and climb the walls on the far side of the waterfall, where many narrow ledges beckon, but the stone is all very slick. The spray and mist make it impossible to tell how long the waterfall descends into the darkness below. Above, the vast cavern arches upward into darkness, beyond even what Astraden can make out.

Around the ledge to the east is a large staircase leading up. Upriver to the north, it seems that the passage continues on.

"Oh, yay, the 'river of blood' Flycatcher told us about." Enthusiasm is distinctly lacking in Eben's voice. He stares across at the staircase. "The crazy spider said the Marquis lived deep beneath the tomb, right? So the stairs probably don't lead to him. Do you think we have to follow the waterfall down?"

"I could send one of the archons to investigate," Rodrigo's disembodied voice informs.

If that ends up being the consensus Rodrigo will command an archon to descend into the waterfall pit to scout and then report back.

"Do it."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

How deep do you tell the archon to go? What are its exact orders?

"Go down until you reach the bottom or are returned to your home plane. If you reach the bottom before your summoning expires, return to telepathy range and relay your findings with precise descriptions. Please."

Lantern archons don't get telepathy. Is that a summoner ability I'm forgetting?

Nope, just thought they did. Speech range then I guess.

"How are we going to get down there if there is something important? Seems like a dangerous climb . . ." Astraden says, eyeing the cave walls distrustfully.

The archon zips over and drops down. Its light rapidly fades from sight as it descends.

The group waits about twenty-five seconds after the lantern archon leaves their view. The cave is quiet aside from the rushing river.

Rodrigo's vision flashes slightly, and he feels a twinge of pain.

The creature he dispatched has been returned to its homeplane.

"I guess we could use that magic rope again. At least part of the way."

Make a Perception check to dig out the magic rope thing from the very bottom of the party inventory beneath the used potions and worm jars and drow heads and dwarf diaries, from which it must never be removed.

"...Again? I wasn't sure we'd ever used it before! I didn't even know we still had it..."

"That seems to be a very deep hole based on the amount of time the archon was gone before it disappeared. Something down there likely killed it. I'd suggest extreme caution."

Tanith digs up the rope and blows some of the dust off it before offering it to Farrukh. "Can magic items expire? You should check it first."

From what we can see, are there enough/properly placed ledges that it would be possible to use the rope to climb down in 50 foot increments?

Edit: actually, for once this is a case where the rope of climbing really isn't any better than a normal rope, since we'd be using it to go down and don't need to worry about pesky things like attaching it way above our heads. So if we used it in conjunction with regular rope, we have more than 50 feet of possible climbing material. I have 50 feet of rope on me; anyone else have any?

"How long before it disappeared? Forgot to ask you earlier."

It moves at 60 feet and was gone for 4 rounds. It went down a minimum of 240 feet, and a potential distance of 480. I don't think we have enough rope.

A quiet Carina purses her lips and sighs.

...I'm really not looking forward to facing whatever's down there...

From what we can see, are there enough/properly placed ledges that it would be possible to use the rope to climb down in 50 foot increments?

Yes. In fact, there are quite a large number of hand and foot holds as far down as you can see (DC 15 Climb checks).

"Didn't we use it to crawl through that sewer chute once?"

To be honest, I kind of assumed we'd used it just now to get down the 40 foot shaft to get here, since nobody actually made a Climb check.

Anyhow, to clarify, I was asking if there were ledges that we could stand on on our way down the chute spaced up to 100 feet (rope of climbing + my rope) apart, so that instead of making the DC 15 climb checks to go down the walls (which might be a small problem for a number of us), we could just use the ropes to descend to one ledge, haul them down, lower ourselves to the next ledge, etc.

You don't see any ledges of that nature.

Eben grimaces as he looks down at the waterfall's arterial spray. "Getting down there's going to be difficult, even with a magic rope. It's not that long. And climbing the walls... well, I assume Farrukh or Tanith could pull that off, but the rest of us might have a few problems. We could fly down... but that's probably going to wipe out a lot of our best magic."

So, plan?

"Wait, speaking of magic . . . Rodrigo, do you have any teleportation spells left? I don't think we should even risk it if we don't have some way to get the party back up here, quick."

Not ideal resource-wise, but we could hit two of us with fly and have the remainder be dimension doored down. If things go sour, I wouldn't want to have Eben, Carina and I teleported up and leave Tanith and Farrukh to climb alone.

Does anyone have Feather Fall?

Ring of feather fall, which doesn't exactly do the job unless there's a way to pass it up and down the pit.

Maybe we should just disregard my initial input and go explore the stairs? Maybe something there leads down safely?

Alright, clearly we need some motivation to make a quick decision...

1d100 ⇒ 41

;)

Backtrack and explore the stairs sounds like a winner.

Sure.

The party edges around the side of the river and heads up the stairs.

They find themselves in a large hallway. This hall is watched over by six statues of Wind Duke nobles (an awkward term if ever there was one). The central statue to the east stands before a stone door.

The statues all have cupped hands in front of them, and floating on a cushion of air above these hands are intricate carvings of strange buildings and towers. The statue before the door does not hold a carving, though there is some crumbled stone at its feet that could once have been one.

The air here is cold, and moves in faint whispers. A passageway to the north opens into a large room lined with red ice, sheets of which extend along the floor of this room.

A DC 10 Acrobatics check is needed to run or charge in this hall, and the DC of Acrobatics checks made in here for other reasons increases by 5. It is considered difficult terrain.

You can't make out much of the hallway past the (raised) portcullis to the north.

Stepping gingerly across the slippery floor, Eben investigates the nearest statue, specifically checking how heavy the floating carving is. If it's portable, he ferries it over to the statue that's lacking one and sees if it floats there.

Farrukh sighs.

"Eben, did you just touch a thing?"

Eben takes the figurine. It's very light. He turns and places it in the hands of the middle right statue.

No wind rises up, and the carving lands in the statue's cupped hands.

Eben looks disappointed. "Oh, I thought it was one of those lost tomb puzzle thingies. Guess it's just a broken statue. Still... these carvings are neat. Astraden, you think they're worth anything?"

"Well, that went better than expected. Though it could still be a puzzle,who knows."

Farrukh move sin and starts checking for anything suspicious, having to catch his balance several times.

"They didn't have this back home. I don't think we missed much."

Take 10 for a 36 (39 vs traps).

Farrukh finds a hidden sliding dial next to the eastern door. Closer examination reveals it to not be a rocky protrusion but a jagged pale stone carving resembling a snowflake. The snowflake seems to be melting slightly, though whether this is a sign of wear or how it was originally crafted is hard to say.

Regardless, he believes the dial can be pulled down to trigger something—not, he doesn't think, a trap.

"I'm about to touch a thing!" he calls, fair warning after all.

Then he pulls the thing.

Carina braces herself for the worst.

The screeching of rust and metal against stone answers Farrukh's wild touching. The portcullis above the archway right to the north slams down, hitting the floor with a near-deafening clang. Fine ice chips fly off as the (fairly blunt) metal spikes crunch right through the sheet.

Is that good or bad? Are we trapped now?

Farrukh believes the dial can be pulled up to trigger something—not, he doesn't think, a trap.

"Looks like this just works the portcullis?" he pulls it back up.

Assuming that just raises it, does it go in any other direction?

If it doesn't:

"Onward then?"

And we go to the end of the hall.

The portcullis raises back up.

Rodrigo, I think your lantern archons actually expired during the talk with Flycatcher, so mark off another usage of Summon Monster.
1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 We'll work with that as the number you have (minus one for the one sent below). If you'd like to have more, feel free to add in a couple more uses like you did earlier. For ease of retroactive placement, only place them on top of other figurines, just so there's no bias on account of what's about to happen.

The party begins to file through the open archway. Just when Eben is stepping over the threshold—

"Master!" truesays one of the archons. "The statue!"

The sound of stone breaking against icy stone rings in the hall as the beautiful stone spire crashes to the floor. The statue before the door straightens, its form flickering, then giving way to reveal its true face: An only tangentially humanoid visage of dark metal and gears. Its body is crafted with a shining chestplate of bronze, and it wears a simplistic cloak of dark blue hemp.

Eben turns in time to see the creature's fingers grasp the dial. It yanks the dial downward, and Eben leaps back as the portcullis slams to the ground—splitting the party.

Knowledge (planes) applies.

Inits (favored terrain?): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 151d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 231d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 161d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 201d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 161d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 181d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Surprise Round

The creature points at Rodrigo and Eben. "Your circumstances are no doubt extenuating, but I cannot allow this aberrant behavior to proceed in this place of law. Prepare your souls for whatever end awaits them, and take comfort in knowing you are the first primarily sentient beings in. Thirteen-point-eight-eight-eight-seven-thousand-Material-solar-rotations. To disturb this place. If I am killed and-or otherwise dispatched, you will be the first to disturb this place and survive. Either way, you are to be congratulated, though the granting of such congratulations would be deemed by my newer kin 'illogical', and, additionally, pointless, as you are about to die."

A mere moment after it points, it is already attacking. Its speech does not even slow as it steps between Rodrigo and the dial, raises its metal hand, and lunges for the summoner's throat. Its hand is crackling with dark violet energies.

Touch Attack (FF): 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (3) + 18 = 21 Damage (if hit): 6d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 5, 1, 5, 1) = 23

Cold metal hands grasp Rodrigo's shoulder. He feels his very life force draining away as the creature pulls it into itself, visibly gaining in hardiness. Spellcraft 17 IDs this effect as vampiric touch.

Round 1: You are up!

So was he like impossible to see or something? You can find even a Mimic or Gargoyle or something with a Perception check vs Disguise, these guys getting a free pass is weird.

"Rodrigo! Do your teleport-y thing and come over here with Eben!"

Holding off on actions for now.

There was no "free pass", and it's weird that that's our first assumption. When you stated you specifically examined the room, I paid attention. A 39 was simply not good enough. And in case that still has you wondering: This creature had a +32 Disguise.

Agh, I'm already up late for homework . . . don't really have time to post much. I assume Rodrigo's invisibility ran out, or else the thing saw past it?
Appraise check Eben wanted (good hope): 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 10 + 2 = 18
Knowledge (planes) on thing (good hope): 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 6 + 2 = 27
Caster level check vs SR: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

"Oh jeez, Rodrigo! I don't even remember the last time you got hurt!" Astraden calls down Olidammara's blessing on her friends, imparting a small curse on the metal monster. She splits off another double and steps out of the way of the portcullis for Tanith.

Prayer and copycat cast now, and relevant buff is probably magic circle against law which benefits . . . everyone except Rodrigo. And Bermintrude.

Lock me off that f&*+ing "Herp derp swarms" thread for the next day or so. Don't let me look at it, you hear me?!

I forgot that Rodrigo probably still has his invisibility up. In that case, the attack targeted Eben, not Rodrigo. My apologies.

And with regards to other things I forgot to mention, the creature does not seem impeded by the ice. Its spiky feet are the equivalent of snow tires.

Astraden's spell washes over the monologuing creature ineffectually.