Mummy's Mask Version 1.5 (Inactive)

Game Master DoubleGold

Yup. South.

South it is. Onward!

You all make it to the Ibis Balcony

A tall basalt statue of an Ibis-headed humanoid holding a long scepter in one hand and a cluster of scroll in the other dominates this balcony. Two corridors flank the statue, which leads into a more south room.

When you are ready to move into the more south room, you will come to the Hall of the Ibis Prince. Hieroglyph-covered pillars support the vaulted ceiling of this long hall. Painting of ibises grace both the floor and the walls. A sarcophagus sits to the east in a small alcove flanked by basalt statues depicting imposing seated figures.

Religion: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Religion: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

"That is Thoth", Zuburu explains. "But I have no clue what he's doing here. Elmar can you check that sarcophagus for traps?"

"Sure." Any traps?

+28 Religion
History: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26 Remiel auto-aids the check with his +10 to make that just pass the requirement

Remiel pipes up. Kaylor says that Thoth normally has an ankle instead of a scroll.

With a growl, Kaylor's voice comes from mid-air. "It's ankh, not ankle. And the statue might represent some prince rather than Thoth."

Remiel helpfully pipes up. Some guy named Hakmothes, son of Hakotep and Neferuset. He was known for being a nerd, hence the relation to Thoth.

There's a pause. Then you hear Kaylor's voice dryly commenting from a different location than before. "So you couldn't get 'ankh,' but you got those names?" Remiel's only response is an impish grin.

Seeing he's not going to get a response, Kaylor sighs. "Elmar, is the statue just that or are we supposed to do something with it?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Unless Perception +46 says otherwise...

No traps in this room, even if Elmar took 20. Ready to move to the Hall of Ibis Prince?

Yeah.

Yep.

you find the treasure in this room easily. The room is described above, anything more you'd like to know about this room, before heading back, as that is the southest you go. The treasure was in a mummy's sarcophagus.

I think everyone's fine with heading back and taking the next direction at the fork.

Yuppers.

okay, so you all make it to the western room.

Balcony of Wasps

The floor of this balconies chamber is painted with a golden-hued hieroglyph of a wasp. To the west three besalt statue depict insect-headed humanoids clad in priestly vestments and carrying ritual vessels on chains. The walls are painted with scenes of harvest, though the laboring peasants are being set upon by swarms of insects. On the south wall is a block of dark stone, a single cartouche of gold set in its surface. Three yellow gems in ebony settings are embedded in the surface of the cartouche.

Combat

You are all up against 10 million wasps.
the ac to hit them is a 8 and they are everywhere. How many wasps do you kill per turn? hitXdmg equals the number of wasps killed on your turn, and crits don't confirm but instead just tripple the number you just killed, and natural 1s kill 1 wasp if you hit the ac. For area effects, it is number of squares effected squared x dmg. so burning hands effects 7 squares, that is 7squared =49. 49x5d4=number killed.

They go last and they need to bypass your touch ac. 5 of them bypasses your touch ac and you take 1 point of damage. So if your touch ac is 30, you need 150 of them to take 1 point of damage. But the number left alive at each round is divided by how many of you there is. So if 1 million is left alive at end of round 1, that is 200 thousand coming at each of you. Spells that provide barriers cut down the damage to 1/4 of the amount, so if you put on a wall of fire spell, instead of taking 800 damage, you only take 200. Multiple walls do stack, while one person puts up a wall of fire, a second person puts up a wall of ice behind or in front of it and you only take 1/4 of 1/4 of the damage=1/16 of the damage. You cannot go below 1 HP for this battle, they leave when everyone is at 1. Challenge rating of this is 17.

Do we go first? Does Barkskin cut down damage?

What is the volume they occupy? A holy ice wall (hemisphere) and some flame strikes should take care of a good number of them.

I think web would be super thematically useful here. But I kind of get the impression from the rules explanation that wall of fire would be more useful.

Also, are we just assuming the swarm is in whatever area is convenient for us? Because if I did create a wall of fire, I'm pretty sure not all the squares it can target would actually have bugs in them.

Hrm. Zuberu doesn't have any good spells for this. Punching it is!

Punch: 1d20 + 21 - 3 ⇒ (10) + 21 - 3 = 28
Damage: 1d6 + 11 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 11 + 6 + (5, 1) = 25
Self Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Flurry: 1d20 + 21 - 3 ⇒ (11) + 21 - 3 = 29
Damage: 1d6 + 11 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 11 + 6 + (4, 5) = 32
Self Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Iterative: 1d20 + 16 - 3 ⇒ (15) + 16 - 3 = 28
Damage: 1d6 + 11 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (1) + 11 + 6 + (5, 5) = 28
Self Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Second Iterative: 1d20 + 11 - 3 ⇒ (13) + 11 - 3 = 21
Damage: 1d6 + 11 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (1) + 11 + 6 + (2, 6) = 26
Self Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

I'm just waiting to see if Elmar can cast defensive spells before we fight the swarm or not, but I think everyone else has questions as well.

I guess Kaylor will just cast Wall of Fire and then full attack.

The wall is either 320 feet long, 20 feet high OR a 40ft radius circle that is 20 feet high
In the wall: 2d6 + 16 ⇒ (6, 3) + 16 = 25
Within 10 ft: 2d4 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4
Between 10 and 20 feet: 1d4 ⇒ 4

To Hit 1: 1d20 + 25 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 25 - 2 = 24

To Hit 2: 1d20 + 20 - 2 ⇒ (10) + 20 - 2 = 28
Damage: 1d6 + 12 + 16 + 3d6 + 2d6 ⇒ (3) + 12 + 16 + (4, 1, 5) + (5, 5) = 51

To Hit 3: 1d20 + 15 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 15 - 2 = 14

Remiel uses a scroll of burning hands (CL2)
15ft cone
Damage: 2d4 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3

Elmar... shoots his bows through the air, I guess?

Attack 1: 1d20 + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (1) + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 = 29
Damage: 2d8 + 2 + 14 + 20 ⇒ (4, 5) + 2 + 14 + 20 = 45

Attack 2: 1d20 + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (14) + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 = 42
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 1 + 7 + 10 = 24

Attack 3: 1d20 + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (1) + 34 + 1 - 2 - 5 = 29
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 7 + 10 = 23

Attack 4: 1d20 + 29 + 1 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (4) + 29 + 1 - 2 - 5 = 27
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 1 + 7 + 10 = 20

Attack 5: 1d20 + 24 + 1 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (15) + 24 + 1 - 2 - 5 = 33
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 1 + 7 + 10 = 22

yes, we all go first. And they occupy like every square within a 20 by 20 diameter and it is 3d, so they are above you too

Okay, so Zub punches through with 2174 of the wasps killed.

Kaylor creates a huge wall burning thousands and leaving thousands blocked from his path 320/5 =64 squares, but also 20 feet high, so 64X4=256 squares. He dealt 25 dmg. so 256X25=6400, then killed 8 more within 20 feet of the wall, but that wall is 256 squares, so 256x8= 2048. Then killed an extra 1428 from his attacks.

Remiel kills 21 of them 3 dmg and 7 squares covered. 3x7=21

elmar fires off several arrows. killing a couple of thousand 1305+1008+667+540+726

16317 wasps have been killed.

Rest of the heroes are up, and 1 defensive wall is up which will reduce dmg to 1/4 of the amount

edit: I did Kaylors wall wrong. the wall is 256 squares, but that means there are 512 squares within 10 feet of the wall and another 512 squares between 10 and 20 of the wall, so 512X8=4096. And Kaylor did roll 2 natural 1s, so an additional 2 wasps were killed.

18367 Wasps have been killed.

So how much damage do we take?

Ankhet casts flame strike where the swarm seems more dense, careful to avoid her companions.
Area: cylinder (10-ft. radius, 40-ft. high).
Half damage is fire, the other half comes from divine power:
Flame Strike: 15d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 5, 4, 1, 2, 6, 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 3, 1, 6) = 54

I thought the damage was (squares affected)^2*damage. If not, that's fine. If it is, I've gone ahead and done the math to save you some time.

So how much damage do we take?

that comes after all heroes have went to see how many are left

Ankhet casts a cylinder 9 squareX8squares=72 squares. 72X54=3888 and the last hero left the scene. don't know what happened to what's his name.

22225 wasps are dead.

[ooc]by the way, I made a typo, 5 of them need to pass your ac, not your touch ac.

10 million minus 22225 =9977775 wasps remaining.

there are 4 of you so....2494443 wasps per person. There is a wall up, so each of you take 1/4 of the damage, and you need 5 of them for every 1 point of ac you have to take 1 point of damage.

elmar your ac is 32. 2494976/32/5/4=3897 dmg, No that is not confirmed, just what could happen.

Edit: or wait does he? the wasps turn, many of them have to pass through that wall to get to the heroes, and they are all far far back. They are all 20 to 30 feet or more from the wall and they have to come close 12 times to even get to the wall, one for each row. Then they have to cross through to the other side and reach the heroes, which means 24 times close to the wall and 3 times passing through it, one for each row.

and I forgot the other side of the wall as there were another set of squares on the other side of kaylors wall, so really an additional 4096 were killed last turn 26321 wasps killed

dmg: 1d4 ⇒ 4
dmg: 2d4 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4

add the 2 togetherX512X24=98304 additional killed

dmg: 2d6 + 16 ⇒ (2, 6) + 16 = 24X256 squares coveredX3=18432 killed

total of 143057 killed. Ankhet, you sure you don't want to switch to a wall? Kaylor killed over 120,000 with his wall alone and will cut dmg to 1/4 of the amount. if you too make a wall, that could be another 120 K along with all of you only taking 1/16 of the amount. You can't die this combat, but yeah, this might be winnable, and this will count as cr 20 instead

Ankhet can still change her action, then I calculate dmg.

Oh, right Kaylor is right, it is squares squared, times the number, so yes 3.7 million have been killed. I wonder why this combat seemed so impossible to win, then after they would have had to pass through the wall that would have been 512 squared times 8, which is like 2 million, but they have to keep coming closer an closer to win get to the wall, so time however many squares the giant swarm had to cross to get there

And in 6 to 9 second flat Kaylor and Ankhet kill all of the wasp, while the allies help with a couple of thousands

You all see as big pile of wasps on the floor slowing turning to ash and dust and they burn to the ground.

After the combat, heroes see 3 gemstones glow and light up and then a wall opens to the south.

"South, then? Damn bugs."

Zuberu grunts in agreement and pulls the few remaining wasps from his ears.

You okay out there DG?

Remiel looks like he's about to argue for no particular reason. But then he wisely chooses to change his mind. South indeed! Always loved the South. Nice and warm. And unlike those savages up North, they always put sugar in their tea.

Zuberu grunts in agreement and pulls the few remaining wasps from his ears.

You okay out there DG?

yep just been tired and been ill..mentally speaking. But there is no cure or medication for phobias, and I have the strangest ones

Okay so you all go south. This room is the Deathbed of the Netheshunn. You all see a body on a bed about 40 feet away. Five statues are around the bed. You see the body stand up.

But there is no cure or medication for phobias, and I have the strangest ones

I dunno, man... I've got a pretty crippling phobia of fish that keeps me from swimming in lakes.

"That's an illusion."

Knowledge (religion) to check if undead: 1d20 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 6 = 28

no undead here and the statues are nothing special. also, Happy Easter

Perception: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (16) + 25 = 41

To expand upon Elmar's statement, Kaylor says the body is actually not moving on its bed. Also, there's treasure. So maybe the illusion is to try to send us screaming like small children instead of looting the place? Although if they knew us they knew it'd be more likely to make us go murdering it like the badasses we are. Remiel fans himself in a very egocentric manner.

Happy Easter!

"We are in a real right old, incredibly powerful flyin' warship. I'm thinking there might be a bit more to the defenses than this."

”If there’s nothing else here we should move on”, Zuberu adds after Remial collects the treasure.

okay so you claim all the treasure in this room. onto the north entrance?

Sure...

you go to the northern room into the Emerald pyramid.

You run into a This hideous shape has the head of a feral elk with jagged teeth and sharp antlers. Its humanoid legs end in blackened, burnt stumps. outsider cr 17

and a outsider cr 16

Halt he here goes there, no one is allowed without riddle answered says the Devil

"A wealthy merchant of Sothis had a daughter of great beauty, upon whom he settled a rich dowry. Unwilling to part with either his daughter or his wealth, he found one reason after another to rebuff her many suitors. But when two sons of Pharaoh's chamberlain presented themselves, the merchant knew he could not reject them outright as he had the others.

"Thinking himself wise, the merchant devised an impossible means to decide which man would marry his daughter: the brothers would race their camels around the outskirts of the city, and whichever brother's camel came in last, that man would have the hand of his daughter and her rich dowry. This way, thought the merchant, the race would never end! But the brothers were no fools, and soon found a way to outsmart the wily merchant. What did they do?"

Elmar's response to the horrifying devil beasts is to attempt to subtly hide in the shadows while casting Named Bullet. Stealth: 1d20 + 32 ⇒ (20) + 32 = 52

Invisible Kaylor instantly recognizes the two despicable creatures. Taking advantage of his stealth and Remiel's telepathy, he communicates with his companions while putting in his ear plugs and using his ability to read lips for any verbal communication the devils have.

Everybody hears a mental sigh, followed by Remiel's annoyed voice in their heads Kaylor says, and I quote, 'The devils are evil, especially the wendigo, which drives men to cannibalism, so Kaylor's fine with killing them. However, he thinks he's solved the riddle.'

In case anybody else wants to guess at the riddle, I'll put what Kaylor thinks the answer is behind the spoiler.

And if it looks like other people want to kill the demons, Kaylor will help out with an initial data dump on them.

Stealth: 1d20 + 25 + 20 ⇒ (2) + 25 + 20 = 47

Maybe ask if anyone's opposed to just killing these things? The world would be a better place without them.

Remiel relays Elmar's message. There's a pause and then he continues. Kaylor's totally ok with killing it. Although he'd kind of like to know if his answer was correct first. Although it isn't strictly necessary.

"Give it a shot", Zuberu answers. "If they don't like your answer and attack we'll crush them."

Unless Kaylor wants to give an answer, Elmar will start attacking.

Initiative: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (13) + 21 = 34

Kaylor positions himself next to the wendigo, has Remiel convey his position telepathically to the group, and then has Remiel respond to the demons.

"Each man jumped on his brother's camel and raced around the city. By causing his brother to lose, the man may win."

If the answer is correct
Assuming this would cause the demons to lower their guard, Kaylor will attack with Elmar.

If the answer is incorrect
Remiel will begin to brainstorm with a member of the party not trying to be sneaky, so that when Kaylor and Elmar attack, it's still hopefully by surprise.

Init: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (5) + 24 = 29

Kaylor ends up giving the right answer. Very Good and the Windigo instantly drops dead. 2 Guardian Thunderbirds appears and a lightning elemental appears. One more question, answer right and I'll guide you through the next section of the pyramid, the water crypt. Answer wrong and you fight these things, though you don't have to fight me.

You are walking down a path when you come to two doors. Opening one of the doors will lead you to a life of prosperity and happiness, while opening the other door will lead to a life of misery and sorrow. You don't know which door leads to which life.
In front of the doors are two twin brothers who know which door leads where. One of the brothers always lies, and the other always tells the truth. You don't know which brother is the liar and which is the truth-teller.
You are allowed to ask one single question to one of the brothers (not both) to figure out which door to open.
What question should you ask?

"Who ARE you, and why are you using your great and vast powers of summoning to call forth mighty demons and then kill 'em?" Elmar asks.

The name is Shendakut, and I am bound by rules of the pyramid and among other things. I will take vengeance on the other Devil that did this to me. Hakotep has other Demons and Devils working for him higher up than he is.