Nightfiend's (PFS-Standard) #7-18 Faithless and Forgotten, Part 3: The Infernal Inheritance (Inactive)

Game Master Nightfiend

I seem to have forgotten to put it small, then it would have been DC 15. :P

Mia moves over and begins examining the skeletal remains.

After taking a look at the hole in the skeleton’s chest, Mia casts a detect magic and focuses on the area around the skeleton.

Felli removes the gold bracelet from the skeleton and shows it to everyone. "This bracelet has a goat engraved on it. Wonder if that means anything." Felli hands it to anyone that wants to examine it.

Felli stands up from his search, "I wonder if this poor sap was an 'explorer' like us or something else."

Mia shares the info with the others.

"More items that appear pieces of some mysterious puzzle.
The thought of disrupting a construct or golem, that sounds fun."

After considering the uniform that the skeleton is wearing, Felli recognizes the motif as being some sort of Chelish soldier.

Felli lifts the cloths on the skeleton a little bit. "A Chelish soldier. So whatever killed this guy was not too long ago. At least long enough for a skeleton to be left behind but still not long ago. Maybe this construct you mentioned Mia."

"Well if this is a forge and that wound was made by something hot, it is not difficult to guess that he was stabbed with something that was in the forge. It could have been a rival. Are you going to try to repair the rod, Mia?"

"Thessse puzzle peicesssss assss you ssssay.. what do you think would happen if ss someone were to wear all the itemsssss? Or are they a key??"

-Posted with Wayfinder

Serge shrugs. "I'm not about to dress like a Chelish soldier. Perhaps the statue might have something to do with these puzzle pieces? This is beyond my level of expertise, unfortunately."

"Repair it, i might as well Though i reckon it will be of limited use."

Take 10 with guidance for the DC 20.

With a limited knowledge of the forge, Mia begins to manipulate the device in ways that seem unnatural. Soon the furnace erupts with a bellowing belch of heat that worms the room. After placing the rod into the furnace and closing its door, the rod begins to glow with a vibrant multicolored hue. The entire process takes about ten minutes before the furnace cools enough to allow the rod to be removed. Once removed from the furnace the rod feels slightly warm. After looking over the rod, Mia believes she should be able to activate it with little effort.

While Mia is working on the rod, Felli curiosity gives the better of him and he takes one of the torches to light while he slips to the stairs they passed up to explore. When reaching the stairs he goes into stealth mode, at least as stealthy as he can with a torch lighting his way.

Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Felli moves up the stairs and looks to see what is beyond it before committing to moving forward anymore.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

I moved Felli on the map to show where he stopped on the stairs before peeking around the corner.

Oh, oh. There he goes again. I hope that curiosity of his doesn't trigger something nasty.

Solstice, a timid woman until the crap hit the fan, would never actually say anything, but she does think Felli is taking unnecessary risks and follows him to make sure he doesn't get into trouble all by himself. Then again she is not a rogue and would never dream of being one.

Felli move over to the stairs and attempts to move as quietly as possible. As expected the rogue’s ability to hide with a torch is very limited, but he manages to move somewhat quiet. The stairs descend down at a 45 degree angle, making them a little difficult to navigate quickly (Stairs count as difficult terrain.) As Felli reaches the bottom of the steps, light from his torch filters into the hallway revealing enough for him to note a plethora of interesting things.

Solstice follows closely behind Felli while keeping an on the rogue.

Take 10 for a stealth of 12.

Why is he tiptoeing while waving a torch? I don't get it.

Quite subconsciously Solstice also tiptoes as she follows him in spite of her thoughts.

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Holds his hands up for Solstice to stop. "Careful. Those runes scream 'Trap' and I suspect that body on the steps fell victim to the trap."

Debating on trying to figure out the runes and possible trap by himself, he thinks better of it. "Solstice. If this room is as dangerous as I think it is, we should tackle it together with the rest. Lets head back to inform the rest what we found."

Felli turns and heads back to the group, upon arriving he tells them what he and Solstice discovered.

"Those stairs we passed up leads to an interesting room. There is a north stairway that is blocked off but I think it leads back to where we have been before, if my coordinal perception is correct. But in that room was some strange runes depicting figures being guided by a rat, a goat, a raven, and a hound. On the other side of the runes was another set of stairs with another corpse. It had a silver amulet on it, maybe something important again."

Sorry for being MIA yesterday, had a migraine completely lay me out.

Fundir gets lost in his thoughts as he watches Mia work the forge. Very interesting woman.. with a great many skills. he thinks to himself, his respect for the woman rising even further. Shortly, he notices the disappearance of two of his companions. He looks about, then decides to stay put for the moment. He instead turns back to Serge, and says "Perhapssss... but I have no objectionsssss myssssself. But prudence issssss wisssse asssss well."

He keeps an ear out for his companions, should any harm befall them.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 10 + 4 = 18

After Felli explains what he saw in the room, Serge thinks hard for a moment until a surprised look electrifies his face. "WAIT! Didn't that bracelet have a goat engraved on it, Felli?" He paces about the room for a few steps. "And the dagger. The dagger had a raven headed pommel! And we saw that hound statue before... Surely these are no coincidences that they match with the runes." The paladin is both excited and pleasantly surprised at his sudden burst of insight.

Not just a big sword and some armor after all...

"You may be right! Nice thinking, or creative even if wrong. Do you think that something will happen if we put the items on the runes? There were 4 in the room - how many do we have?"

"But have we found anything with a hound on it? And what about the rat? It ssssseems to me that thesssse itemssss are keyssss, and sssshould be in the room to allow passsssage through the runes.." Fundir muses after listening to Felli and his report.

"Well, I suppose we haven't," Serge frowns at Fundir, feeling defeated. "But what if we at least try and see what happens should we bring the one of the items we do have towards its matching rune?"

"Let's try. Yet i am concerned somewhat, as the wand i managed to reforge...never thought i'd be doing that-is meant to briefly disable a construct. Worst case, that find would opt we could encounter one."

"It could be the items do match up. Those runes reminded me of a book I read a while back. They represent different layers of hell. Lets see Avernus, Dis, Erebus, and Phlegethon which correspond to Barbatos, Belial, Mammon, and Dispatar. So those items we have been finding could possibly be for those runes."

Felli remembers the ring they discovered before. "The ring on that skeleton that was under that fallen wall before we discovered the illusionary statue had a hound engraved on it."

As indicated by different members of the group, the dagger does indeed have a raven headed pommel, the ring does have a hound engraved on it, and the more reticently found bracelet has the head of a goat engraved on it. There hasn't been any sign of a rat, yet.

Felli ponders, "If memory serves me right, we do have three of the animals. As for the rat, it might be on the silver amulet on the corpse I saw in the rune room."

Felli ponders more, "Each of the demons of Barbatos, Belial, Mammon, and Dispater would represent one of the animals. Raven, Goat, Rat, and Hound. So we probably have to figure out which order they go in as well as getting our hands on the silver amulet on the other side of the runes to disarm the trap associated with the rat."

AH! That's what I missed. I had the ring, but couldn't find a description of it aside from it being platinum. Thanks!

I know this is a far shot, but if we were to take that iron rope that we found and use it, would we be able to hook the amulet with the pole and retrieve it that way?

"Yessss! I did not remember the hound on the ring. Thank you, Felli!" Fundir exclaims. Turning back to the problem at hand, he thinks carefully. "What about that painting? Could that be the key? The animalssss match our itemssss. Maybe it goessss in order: rat, goat, raven, and hound. But that would mean we need to find out if that amulet issss what we need firssssst.."

"If we tie my grappling hook on one end of the iron rope, we can possibly hook the corpse on the other end of the runes and pull it to us and that could also be a test to see if the 'traps' go off with non-living things."

Felli removes his grappling hook out of his bag and then takes the clothing off of the corpse found in this room to tie securely the grappling hook to the iron rope.

Felli takes a look at the magical iron rope that was found at the entrace and determines that he can tie the rope to his grappling hook and then command the rope to harden. When pulled straight and commanded to harden, the rope creates a pole with a grappling hook attached to one end. Note that the iron rope is only 25 foot long.

Fundir helps Felli set up the rope/pole combo, and then carefully moves into the room.. right up the first line on the floor. He knows better than to cross an arcane line, much less such an obvious ward as this one. He turns towards Felli for the man to pass him the hook and pole.

Do you want some sort of dex check or possibly a ranged touch?

Ranged attack is acceptable in this case.

"Are we SURE we want to do this? I've heard plenty of tales in the north about fools that meddle with things like this and it never ends up well. These things ARE big-arsed demons, right?"

Solstice looks very worried. Her superstition is, perhaps, clouding her judgment, or perhaps clarifying it. Who can tell at this point?

Serge stands ready with his greatsword held in front of him as he looks over at Solstice. "Fear not, my lady. A few demonic runes and some ancient Chelish relics... What could possibly go wrong?" He smiles smugly, a tinge of sarcasm filling his voice, but he's much too invested in his original deduction about how these runes might work and so Serge throws any caution to the wind.

Felli moves alongside Fundir and helps him with the iron rope. "The iron rope is only 25' long so we'll have to get right up to the first row of runes on the floor to be able to reach the corpse if I calculated the distance right. But be careful, we don't know what might happen."

Felli will let Fundir try and hook the corpse and then will help pull the corpse toward them.

Mia watches the men take precautions, and casts guidance on everyone.

"Could we extend the rope using the anytool?"

Fundir considers the problem before him, and gratefully accepts the magical help from the others. He closes his eyes forr a moment, and suddenly he sprouts orange and black striped fur, a tail, and some really gnarly teeth. He opens his eyes and grins at his companions before moving the pole out towards the body, trying to hook it with the grapple.
Aspect of the Tiger, +2 Dex

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

If this fails, someone else can try, or I can use Summon animal for a eagle. But depending on how this is written, the eagle may set off the traps by crossing the threshold..

Fundir’s aim isn’t the best, but the hunter manages to catch the side of the corpse's shoulder. After snagging the body, Fundir begins to pull the it back towards the group. Once safely through the warded area, everyone is able to get a better look at the corps. This skeletal body is similar to the one the group found by the forge, but this one has a silver amulet that looks like a rat curled up into a circle around its necks.

"We have the rat now. We just have to figure out how to use it on these runes."

Felli scratches his head, "Any ideas?"

"Is there any where on this wall these objects may be inserted?" Serge examines the runes. "We may be off track. Perhaps the answer lies further down this hall."

"Yes, I think we should continue to explore before we try anything. There may be some clues further on."

Using Fundir's arificial light source, Serge takes a look down the hall. On the east end of this dim hallway, two staircases lead to the north and south but the one to the north has collapsed. A painting on the eastern wall depicts four figures guided along a path by a rat, a goat, a raven, and a hound. A rounded tunnel extends to the west, and glowing runes on the floor divide the floor into four areas. Stairs at the far end of the hall descend into a larger room. The corps that was once lying at the other end of the hall, now rests at Fundir's feet.

After visually inspecting the area, Serge doesn't see any indication of a specific area to place any of the items.

OK, I will need to know who is carrying what item. I would also like to confirm if Serge is actually moving up to the first glyph, or is he examining it from a distance. Note that the glyphs are actually on the floor. I placed glyph indicators along the north wall so they would be out of the way in order to indicate the sections of the corridor that have a glyph.

"Was there another path to take in the room where Mia did her forging? If so, might be best to fully explore that area before we try to get pass this trap."

Unless someone else wants to carry it, I guess Felli can carry the ring with the hound engraved on it since he found it.

The four figures being guided - is each being guided by a specific avatar and are any of the figures recognizable as something we've seen?

The room with the forge does not continue outside of the direction you are currently headed. The figures in the painting are crude humanoid images that are being guided by a rat, goat, raven, and a hound. None of the images look to be guided by any one particular avatar.

Platinum ring with the head of a hound = Felli
Raven headed Dagger =??
Bracelet with the head of a goat= ??
Amulet of a curled up rat= ??

Fundir watches the proceedings, then takes the rat amulet from the skeleton.
"I think we should line up in order like the painting. Rat, goat, raven, hound, then the resssst." he says, taking his place in line. "Once we are lined up, then we proceed in line."

"I''ll take the raven, if nobody minds."

Platinum ring with the head of a hound = Felli
Raven headed Dagger =Mia
Bracelet with the head of a goat= ????
Amulet of a curled up rat= Fundir

When you decided to proceed, let me know how you wish to move forward. In a group. In a line, One at a time, etc....

Serge maybe?

Sure thing

Serge takes the goat bracelet and examines it. "Let us hope this ... artifact does not lead us to evil." Bracelet around his wrist, he takes his big sword out and motions for the group to continue on. "I can go first and ensure that nothing happens."

GM, earlier, Serge would have examined from a distance. But with the bracelet now in hand, he does not mind moving through the hall one at a time unless anyone has any objections.