Motteditor's Strange Aeons PBP

Game Master motteditor

Tristain seems perplexed by Al's failures to damage the eye.

"Maybe we need to build a fire on it...just keep heaping wood until it burns away. Or maybe..." Tristain tries to find a good answer.

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 Intelligence check...what to do?

You think if it's some sort of haunt, perhaps something that can hurt undead?

Tenebrynn steps between Al and the eye, and presses her hands against his belly, trying to push him back a few steps. "Wasted effort. Worse, it smells bad and is loud." She points in the direction of Tolman, "Paper animals won't distract kids for long if you keep it up. Need to find better solution." She then nods to Tristain, "He's smart. Thinking of other possible means. Maybe fire will work. Need to be careful not to risk building though. Maybe three-voice's question is a riddle? Maybe tear is clue? Need to be thinking, not stabbing."

Heinrich nods at the gnome's words. "It isn't harming anything at the moment. Maybe we need to continue to explore this place, before we deal with inconsequentials."

Is there anywhere we haven't been yet?

Is there anywhere we haven't been yet?

There seems to be nowhere that you've not explored in this area, nor anywhere else you can get. FWIW, you have had a hint to this, though certainly a very subtle one. And again, there are people here you could ask questions of.

Tristain bonks his head while he thinks about the eye.

"Does the chapel have a large supply of holy water?" Tristain looks for holy water, the goes back to bonking.

Kyffin, for a variety of reasons, reaches out to the eye, converting a Shield of Faith to a Blessed Cure Light Wounds…

Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 (+50% = 4 total healing)

Sadly his faith is weak, and the spell reflects it. He watches to see what happens...

The eye seems to shrink a little as Kyffin touches it, though it still snaps at him, but not quickly enough to connect.

Again it cries out, another tear soaking the floor.

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Kyffin draws his hand back quickly, "Well, I've but one spell remaining, which I'll reserve for future injury, but I think we should continue to 'heal' this eye until, if we're lucky, it goes away. I don't know how much that will take, or I'd try another round now."

"OK, if we've tried every door, the child must have been seen by us. Right? But I didn't see him, so it stands to reason we haven't found every door as yet."

He walks up to the current guards at the barricade. He talks to them of all the places he's been and asks, "What have I missed? Is there some door or other passage I have not searched? Do any of you know of a secret door, hidden passage, or other threshold?"

"I'm also unable to truly help...I'm not much good at fighting," Tristain opines. "I don't know what we should be doing."

Tristain watches Walter's spell fail to do anything, then goes back to bonking.

Mostly confused as to what we should be doing or how to do it.

"He didn't make it back to the chapel with us, so he must be out there somewhere," Vaustin says. "It's a big asylum, and this is just a small corner of it we've been able to ... mostly ... secure."

Al pulls back his sharp stick as the gnome girl pushes him away. "It's evil, I tell you, but cutting it don't seem to help much." When Kyffin returns and touches the eye, Albert finds encouragement. "See now, that's thinking, cutting the evil didn't do much, so we should try poking it. Maybe there's a sleepy burr in the corner and we just need to dig that out?" The older man strides around the gnome girl and swiftly pokes the eye with a dirty, rough fingernail trying to dig out sleepy burrs from the corner while not getting chomped by the eye-mouths.

lay on hands, positive energy: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Tenebrynn throws up her hands and, shaking her head, walks away from the bad smelling eye growth and the men who can't keep their hands off of it. She mutters quietly to herself as she thinks on the problem, "'What am I become?' 'What am I become?' Three voices. Fangs. What does it want? An answer to the question? Maybe. Told it answer, no response. Why? It's an eye and a mouth, not an ear and a mouth? Maybe it can't hear, only see and speak? Maybe it can read? Worth a try."

The gnome wanders back over several minutes later with a piece of dirty cloth. She's written 'YOU ARE BECOME AN EYE ON A WALL WITH A MOUTH' in large block lettering on the cloth with some charcoal from the fire. She looks at the others and shrugs, then holds the cloth up for the eye to read it.

Heinrich nods at the half orc's suggestion to 'heal' this thing to death. He mixes up an elixir of cure light wounds, but waits to see what the gnome's literary solution does. If the eye doesn't seem to respond, he pours the potion on it for 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10 curing.

*bonk*
*bonk*
*bonk*
*bonk*

Tristain stops his bonking to more fully appreciate the thinking of the gnomess. '"That's right! Good thinking! In this new reality, it might be that not all things can hear! Might be that it has such a big eye...but no ears with which to hear. And probably no nose with which to smell! Exactly, gnomess, that's exactly right. Excellent thinking."

Tristain ponders what note to write next...even considers sketching the eye on this blackboard so it might see itself.

The eye doesn't respond to the gnome girl's but it flinches at Al's touch and then -- after catching just the finger of Confuscius 1 hp -- seems to evaporate as the latter man pours a potion over it.

Behind the former eye a closed door beckons.

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16
1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
1d8 ⇒ 1

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25 Knowledge (Religion)

Tristain observes the effect from between his head bonks, thinking about what it
means. He stops bonking, and let's loose with a suggestion.

"It'll come back...it's not gone-gone, but gone for a bit," Tristain explains what he thinks he knows. "We should take off the door and burn it while we can. That might help. It might."

"Before we go destroying the door, which we might want to close quickly, let's see what's on the other side, OK?" Kyffin chuckles.

When the group seems more or less ready, he draws his scimitar and opens the door with his other hand.

White tile, spiderwebbed with cracks, lines the walls of this cathedral-like hall. A prominent, oval desk faces staunch double doors, while hard benches and portraits of somber doctors line the walls. Regal stairs ascend toward a second floor, but rubble has crushed the upper flights, blocking passage. Lofty windows, gridded by bars, reveal yellow mist seething just beyond.

There are a number of doors you can see here, but it's a little tough to see on the "dungeon" map. There are a set of double doors to the south (referenced above) and to the north. You can see a single door leading east to the east of the northern double doors. In the eastern stretch of the room, there's a door leading north far, and another set of double doors leading south. The may be more farther to the east -- you can see the rubble-crushed stairs on the eastern end of the map -- as well, but you'd have to go in and look around.

"Look for tracks of the missing young one before we go tromping all over them." Albert peers at the floor on the other side of the door in the new room.

Survival: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
Perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

"My eyes ain't as sharp as they used to be, one of you younger fellars take a look."

Heinrich nods and moves into the room, looking around. He focuses on the desk, opening drawers and checking files. Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Kyffin likes the old man's style, and checks for tracks before entering and searching with Heinrich.

survival: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

Tristain follows well behind BK von Ulster and Walter, unwilling to go much further and worried that the haunt may return and lock them out.

"We should remove the door! Do you not understand!? It will come back! It will!"

"But if we do that, anything else out there," Tenebrynn waves nebulously past the door and the hall Kyffin and Heinrich are presently searching, "could get in here." She shakes her head, clearly expressing that to be a very bad idea.

"Yes, clearly, but is that better or worse than us being trapped out here? Is that what you want?" Tristain reminds the gnomess.

Tenebrynn turns to look at the children in particular, then slowly turns back to regard Tristain, "Most preferable would be to solve eye-riddle permanently, not temporarily. Barring that, better for them if door stays intact."

"No. NO! We should get rid of the door and move the barricade from the far side to this one! There is no exit nor approach from that side...at all! We know because we scoured it! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense!" Tristain bonks his head into the wall, clearly distressed.

*bonk*
*bonk*
*bonk*
*bonk*

"What if things come out of the fog though? I saw in the fog. Very bad. Safe with door and barricade in place here and now. Should keep it that way." She grabs Tristain's right hand with both of her own at this, gently drawing his attention back to her. "Do you want rest for a time before we go through? If it grows back over night we can try to solve riddle again. Sketch idea was a good one; better than writing. Eye-mouth obviously illiterate. If it hasn't grown back fully, we can decide if we go through or not after seeing progress of any regrowth. Sound good?"

We haven't rested since we spent ourselves in the fight when we lost Belzoni yet, have we? Tris is still out of spells and Kyffin's nearly dry as well?

"We should press on. There's a lost boy, and I'll be uncomfortable waiting until we're as ready as we may be while he's out here." he gestures to the unknown.

"Let's look a little while longer. It's important not to let the child down." Kyffin urges the group.

If they agree, he'll continue into the room, searching as above.

Sorry, guys, didn't realize we weren't getting new post notifications.

You do not find any tracks in the room, though your search does reveal a couple more doors one to the east and one to the west in the northeast part of the room; you may see a door on the map to the east of the rubble, but it would actually be a major project to get to it. All told, you have seven points of possible egress from the room, NOT counting the one you used to enter..

The desk has nothing but some papers, apparently intake forms, all of which that you see are blank.

Does Tristain have any sense of how long it will take the Eye to come back?

"Let's look a little while longer. It's important not to let the child down."

"Then we should take the door down so we're not trapped out here. Either that or smash it, take it off its hinges and place is someplace else," Tristain tries to argue, looking at Al and BK Pequeño who have yet to opine.

As a reminder, Tristain won't be much use in combat most of the time.

Nope; sorry.

Heinrich nods. "This desk is useless. Unless your names are secretly BLANK FORM, FILL IN BLANKS WITH VITAL INFORMATION then I know nothing more. Let us try the door to the East."

The door to the east opens into a hallway; it runs 25 feet farther east then turns north for about 30 feet before it ends in tons of rubble that seem to have collapsed into it.

I put a closer-up view of the area in the combat map tab so you could see it more easily.

"None of those feel like my name." Kyffin/Walter chuckles.

He nods at the door, "Good choice." he moves to the door suggested and, blade still out, opens it carefully.

Ninja!

He looks through the hallway a bit before closing the door and asking, "OK, where next? We might want to dig through rubble someday, but not this day I think." he adds.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Digging through the rubble will take days, barring some other method you discover. You don't perceive anything new.

Let's try the west door.

Kyffin walks over to the west door at Heinrich's nod, and opens it, ready for battle.

While others go on (while ignoring Tristain), he stays behind to begin to unhook the door from the hinges, fearful that the Eye might return at any moment.

I'll save them. I'll do what I have to do.

Does it have hinges? Because Tristain happens to have a hammer.

Albert stares at the seemingly unfamiliar areas of the institution. "Why don't I remember this space?"

or does he? does Albert have any new details to share with the party regarding the layout of the rooms beyond?

As his slow memories stir to the surface, he moves to back up Kyffin as he opens the door.

Tenebrynn looks around, her curiosity driving her ever onward as she pokes her head beneath desks and presses her face up to walls to try and peer into various cracks and holes. Pulling back from one, she looks at the group, looks to her left, then to her right, then bends down to look behind her between her legs. She stands up and asks, "Where did the head-bonker go?"

Oh, yeah, I suppose Al would have some more knowledge. I'll try to remember to include what he knows, though it will be filtered through his perceptions, which may not always be accurate/up to date.

The majority of the rooms at the heart of Briarstone Asylum served to admit new patients and support the sanitarium’s doctors in providing their wards with the best possible care. The southernmost rooms provided entry and meeting spaces, where patients and their families consulted with the asylum’s doctors.

You're in the admission area, where the double doors to the south are the exit (or entrance), though as you know there seems to be some strange fog out there, with seemingly dreadful inhabitants. The second set of double doors south lead to a visitor's room.

The double doors to the north lead to the asylum's library.

The closest door to the east leads to a consultation room, while the next door over is storage.

To the northeast, doors lead to a hallway which you've already found ends in rubble, and to an outdoor courtyard. The stairs led to a second floor, which seems to have collapsed in the golarionquake that caused some major damage about a week ago.

Chalker, I assume it must have hinges. You can make a Disable Device check (which I'll allow you to make untrained, if need be), with no penalty for lack of tools, as you can use use your hammer. DC 12

"C'mon door. I don't like you and you don't like me, but you need to come down," Tristain says as he works to free the first hinge as others explore.

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 Disable

Tristain realizes he's using the hammer backwards and...uh, upside down. He grips the wooden handle for when he tries again.

It's okay. You can do this.

Unfortunately, you think you've jammed it, and aren't likely to be able to get the door off its hinges now...

Disable Device: If you fail by 5 or more, something goes wrong. If the device is a trap, you trigger it. If you're attempting some sort of sabotage, you think the device is disabled, but it still works normally. (Sorry, Chalker.)

Kyffin will try each of the doors in turn, starting with the library next I think, seeking the boy. As always, his blade is ready though for something else...

He looks over his shoulder briefly at the hammering, but chuckles when the door remains in place.

Giving you quick descriptions of each room, as you see it from the doorway (but not assuming you enter), going by doorways from left to right. I'm assuming you're not trying the two sets of doors to the outside but let me know if you want to (despite Winter's concern about trying to leave, you survived your quick trip to the courtyard earlier).

Double doors to the north
Sagging shelves, held together by dust and an extensive system of rolling ladders, ring this large library of husky, dulllooking tomes. At the room’s center broods a heavily worn table surrounded by uncomfortable chairs. A chandelier of iron vines dangles above. The scents of leather and old paper pervade the high-ceilinged space, but so does a distinct bestial musk. Another set of double doors stand on the far wall.

Door 2, to the consultation room
A long desk, several chairs, a sideboard, and numerous once-stately landscape paintings barricade the door of this somber conference room. A toppled wall opposite the barrier undermines the room’s defenses, a point driven home by the six masked bodies littering the ground. This room also opens into the next room.

Door 3, to storage room
Much of this room has collapsed, and the remains of various cleaning implements jut from the rubble, which leads into the previous room.

Second set of double doors to the south, to the visitor's room
As though it had been plucked from the halls of some warm, country estate, this room is filled with inviting furnishings, a hearth ready for a fire, artwork populated by picnicking families, and a mansion-shaped cage with colorful taxidermic birds inside. Large windows might have once looked out over colorful flowerbeds, but now show only yellow mist. A battered corpse is impaled on the antlers of a stuffed elk head hung above the hearth. A second man, who like the first was wearing stained yellow robes and a tattered yellow veil, lies dead on the ground. Another door leads to the west to a garden path, per Al.

None of the rooms, from the doorway, have any signs of a boy.

Kyffin takes in each room briefly before going on. (just taking-10 perception (total 12) to glance in the room for knife wielding doctors and the like before checking the next)

Once they've checked all the rooms over quickly, he suggests, "I want to spend some time searching that library. Some of those lower shelves had things scattered, almost as if a small child came by in a tantrum."

He chuckles, "Or I'm just making up wild stories in my head. Either way I think we should search around a bit before moving on. And I think we can leave those doors," he points to the ones leading outside, "alone."

If the group agrees, he'll head back into the library and do a more through search of the room.

perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

"I broke it? How'd I break it?! What?" Tristain rotates his eyes from the hammer back to the hinge and then back to the hammer. It is a face of disbelief.

Tristain continues to work on the door, planning to set it afire (which is totally a good idea). He'll begin to gather some kindling from the other room.

Want to keep things moving, so I'm assuming a little bit based on what you've posted.

As Chalker, realizing he's bent the part of the hinge that would let the pin come out, begins to gather kindling, the gnome girl joins him to see what he's doing.

Walter heads into the library to look around, followed by Al, while Confusius is torn between the two groups, trying to keep his eye on both.

Still, he's close enough to hear the chittering and screeches in a strange language that break out as his two companions move into the library, where they see three rat-like creatures with Tiny human hands in place of their front paws and unnerving human faces with a toothy mouth at the top of the stacks. The three creatures hoist heavy-looking tomes, clearly getting ready to throw them at the half-orc and human intruders.

All but Heinrich are up for Round 1/2. Note that Gnome Girl and Chalker are about 40 feet from the library doors. The creatures are on top of the stacks, about 8 feet up. The ceiling is 14 feet in here.

Each of the four contiguous sets of shelves has a rolling ladder set in rails along the stacks, which is marked with a star on the map. If/when you try to manipulate them, I'll let you know what it takes.

Round 1 of Ignorance, Init 16

Tristain continues to collect kindling to burn away the door to save and protect others.

Round 1, Initiative: 17

Kyffin sheathes his scimitar (move) and draws his light crossbow as he moves up next to Al (15' move). He calls out, ”Hey, uh, everyone - to arms! We have some sort of small ruffians in the library!”

To the creatures he calls out, ”Now look here, there’s no cause to be attacking us, right? We’re not evil!”