Motteditor's PFS 5-11: Library of the Lion PBP (Inactive)

Game Master motteditor

"You're right...sometimes things only get done with the proper kinds of grease," Kat remarks after Fenric and Gaeldrung's display grants them some headway.

Once inside the restricted section of the library, she nods in thanks to the man. "Of course. That should be plenty of time to research what we need," she smiles. She wanders over to one of the shelves and peruses them for a moment before picking a book and heading to the table with it, pretending to research until they're finally left alone in the room.

Gaeldrung searches quickly for the war journals, finds a tome that is sufficiently blood stained, and takes a seat. The chair creaks loudly as nearly 400 pounds of armored half-orc settle into it, but it holds well enough. Once the man is gone, he discreetly takes out his card and waits for the others.

Alessio follows suit and takes a book or two back to a seat.

"Thank you. That will be all for now," Fenric says to the librarian. "We will send someone to fetch you if we need assistance."

Once alone, Fenric selects a book on the World Wound and sits down with it at a table. He pulls out the card supplied to him by the Venture-Captain and affixes it to the underside of the chair. When the magic takes hold, he rises and reviews the instructions on how to find the secret archives.

"Honor, courage, and glory..."

He searches for any sections related to the appropriate themes, starting with any resources on Iomedae.

Gaeldrung affixes his card and starts with the Knights of Ozem. They were undead hunters, sure, but few organizations got closer to a pure manifestation of Iomedae's will.

Hakak pulls a random tome from the shelf - it looks like something on early wizardry and genetics. Might actually be interesting thinks Hakak but he has little time so pulls up a chair that, like Gaeldrung, complains under his weight. Whilst perusing the book, he slides his card under the chair....

Satisfied that you seem to have no questions, Tobias leaves and closes the doors behind him, leaving you free to place your cards.

Most of the books in this section are workbooks of famous composers, original copies of musical treatises, and withered manuscripts describing various operatic traditions from beyond the Taldan empire.

Looking around you see both of the statues hold blunt styluses — sometimes used to help read old, fragile texts — that point to their books, but only the western statue’s book actually any words: a column of print reads “Innovation, respect, knowledge, courage, integrity, honor, excellence, glory.”

perc: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

I'm not one for music necessarily but it is seemingly an infinite topic.

Perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (19) + 0 = 19

Man, that was close....

Once the coast is clear and their cards are placed, Katarina calls Ashton forth from her mind once again. "Help us have a look around, okay? Hopefully that's all that we'll need any help with," she asks as she begins helping the others search for the entrance to the hidden archives.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

"Sure thing," the phantom replies. "Heck, if looking around is all I need to do then that'll be the easiest job you and I both have had in some time," he chuckles as he joins the search.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19
______

I guess Taking 20 isn't an option, is it? :)

Do we need to roll if we can get the clue from your description of the stylus?

Fenric pauses to examine the only stylus with printed words on it. "Well, this isn't suspicious at all."

He tries to move the stylus to point at the words honor, courage, and glory in that order.

You can take 20, but it will obviously take some of your valuable time.

In that case, I propose Gaeldrung Take 10 and we all assist him for each check.

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

** spoiler omitted **

In that case, I propose Gaeldrung Take 10 and we all assist him for each check.

That works.

Fenric Lodovka wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

In that case, I propose Gaeldrung Take 10 and we all assist him for each check.

That works.

That way we spend 3 minutes searching (including our first failed attempts) instead of 40 minutes on two Take 20s.

Yup

That sounds like a plan to me!

Sorry, Clara responded to my message from when we got started and expressed interest in still joining, so I was trying to hold off a bit to give her time to post. But I don't want to slow things down too much, so I'm afraid she's not going to be able to participate. Sorry, Clara.

You quickly search on your own, but with no luck you begin working together. The music, which you can hear from through the door, seems to crescendo, every drum beat feeling like time slipping by you. It feels like a day, but after only three minutes, you notice the stylus and are able to manipulate it to point at the three words.

You hear a click from behind the door, the latch being released, and swing it open to reveal a 15-foot passage beyond that leads to a descending spiral staircase.

"Well! I'm glad that didn't take too long," Kat murmurs as they peer into the passage. "We'd best get moving though so we can close this door. Who's first?"
______

As far as marching order goes, Kat will be somewhere near the back. Ashton can even bring up the rear unless someone else wants to be in that spot :)

Hakak stands from his chair, stretching out his back. I have yet to find a chair built for anything but an elf he thinks. I will lead the way he says, pulling his Falchion from his back and making his way down the passage.

Hakak is blessed with Darkvision of up to 60ft

"No offense intended, but Gaeldrung should lead the way," Fenric suggests before ultimately following down the stairs.

Alessio looks around and shrugs. He falls in line toward the back. illlll just stay behind these big guys.

I may be formidable, but I lack the ability to see in the dark. Too much time under the glare of torches.

"I believe light can be provided," Fenric says. "Your eyes have proven are sharper than any of ours."

Closing the door behind you, you descend 20 feet to an empty room, a wooden door to the east.

The walls are smoothed stone, and the floor is carved into intricate patterns that also provide better footing than you'd expect considering how well polished it is. Wall sconces hold glass spheres enchanted with continual flame, providing light.

The faint sound of music still travels through the space, tickling your ears.

room with a door. I feel like I've read this story before.

looking at the door for traps

perc: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Giving the door a careful look, Fenric tests the latch.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

The door appears to be unlocked. Alessio doesn't notice any traps and the latch functions smoothly.

To keep things moving...
You open it to find a long stone hallway that stretches from north to south with several sets of doors along its east and west walls. The south wall bears a 10-foot-square field of carved divots that create no particular pattern. An inscription above the carving reads “The keenest eyes cannot see everything. Always remember to see the big picture.”

The carved floors here have a slight groove along the center of the hall.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
In addition to looking at the odd not-pattern, Gaeldrung walks down the hall a bit in the opposite direction to get a literal big picture. I smell a trap. Lets check these doors quickly to see if there are clues about this cryptic probably-a-trap.

I'll come with you Gaeldrund Hakak says Lest that human Fenric feel my eyes are not good enough to look out for my brethren

"I agree...we need to be extremely cautious while we're down here," Kat agrees. "I'll see if I can spot any magical auras while you two look around," she nods at Gaeldrung and Hakak.

As the two half-orcs begin creeping forward to check the corridor, Kat calls upon a detect cantrip and begins to focus, looking for magical auras.

Perception (If Needed): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
______

Kat will cast Detect Magic and start looking around.

Although he doesn't really expect it, Ashton keeps his ghostly eyes open near the rear of the group should anything decide to try creeping up behind them.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

perc: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Alessio inspects the curious groove and inscription.

Fenric nods to Gaeldrung before he tests the first floor on the left.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

You begin looking around, and after a minute Ashton and Fenric realize the pattern on the wall is a cunningly carved autostereogram, a two-dimensional pattern of dots that can create a visual illusion of a three-dimensional image when viewed correctly—a process that is easier when the viewer loses focus rather than focuses too hard. This one contains a hidden message, “Our monarch’s virtues are our own.”

Otherwise, after a minute, you're convinced there are no traps in the room, and Alessio thinks the groove in the floor must just be due to many years of foot traffic along the path.

The doors appear to be unlocked.

Fenric rubs his eyes. "Oh, that is hard to look at for long."

Finding the doors unlocked, he opens the first door on the left.

How many doors? Or clear more fog of war, please?

Two doors to the east, two to the west.

"Hey, it's a hidden message," Ashton points out after realizing what the pattern on the wall actually is. "It's tricky, you almost have to not be looking for it. But it says, 'Our monarch's virtues are our own'."

He shrugs his ghostly shoulders. "Not sure what that means exactly but I'm sure it'll come up at some point while we're down here."

"I'm just glad that we're making some progress," Kat confesses. "And that we've not come across any traps yet."

As Fenric opens the first door to the left she readies herself, wondering what they might find inside.

This well-lit room holds many chairs aligned towards two giant chalkboards that hang on the north wall. Along the opposite wall, several shelves hold books on sundry topics. Simple but colorful tapestries hang along the north wall, giving the room a bright appearance despite the lack of sunlight and the dour portrait of Grand Prince Stavian III affixed to the south wall.

A 15-minute hourglass sits atop the desk. A brass plaque on the frame of the portrait reads, “To serve Taldor, I must first learn the history of Taldor.”

You think the room will take about 30 minutes to search in total, including time to copy down relevant information. Unfortunately, this room is small enough that only four of you will be able to do so efficiently -- there's simply not enough space for a fifth to help here without getting in each other's way. So, if four of you search this room, it'll take 7 minutes total. You can obviously have fewer search while others continue to look elsewhere.

Searching a room for texts requires a successful skill check, and multiple PCs can search an area simultaneously. Each researching PC can attempt a Linguistics, Knowledge (history), or text-based Craft or Profession check (such as Profession [librarian] or Craft [bookbinding]) to find texts (You can try other skills, but you might suffer a penalty, and possibly magic could help). We'll use the highest skill check result with any other checks being treated as aid another.

You can continue spending time searching a room by spending half as much time continuing, if you think you may not have found everything of interest in your first search.

Gaeldrung leaves the library to the more bookish types and moves on to the next door.

Fenric turns the hourglass and quickly enters and surveys each room for the subject matter contained, such as was displayed on the portrait frame, so that he can better allocate his time.

Alessio starts darting around to search and document. Should we split the subject matter between us? What's the plan?

linguistics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

also have Comprehend Languages prepared as an extract that could be useful if we run into foreign texts.

"Once we have an idea of what's available," Fenric replies, "We should most certainly divide our efforts."

oh snap, nat 20 to lead us off. nice

Gaeldrung, for what it's worth, I'd say Profession (priest) can count as a research skill.

I'll hold off on resolving Alessio's results until we determine how many people are searching that room, and thus how long it will take.

Looking in the next room, you see its well-worn wooden floor sets it apart from the others. The west wall is lined with shelves that support books, a variety of instruments, and dozens of rectangular baskets that contain loose sheaves of paper. Several chairs are pushed against the wall, and a portrait of the Grand Prince hangs to east, surveying everything in the room with magisterial authority.

The brass plaque on the frame of the portrait reads, “Persevere, persevere, persevere!” and a quick look at the texts' names appears to relate to music. You can use Perform to investigate the texts in this room, which again can only really support four people at a time.

The two doors on the right side of the hallway open into the same room: Thousands of books line the dozens of shelves in this high-ceilinged library. Several tables and chairs near the center of the room provide a place to read quietly, and five rows of pew-like benches nearby face an immense lion’s head carved from the eastern wall.

This is a large room, that six people/phantoms could search at the same time, though it will take two hours total to search.

"I suggest two work on the history of Taldor--it might contain references to the Worldwound--while four of us tackle the main archives. Then we'll see where we are when the glass runs down."

Gaeldrung nods and tries to focus on his strength: combat journals and manuals.

prof:priest: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19