[PFS] 0807 From the Tome of the Righteous Repose (Inactive)

Game Master Michael_Hopkins

Eldon uses his pearl of power to recall shocking grasp.

"You are right Crios, this is certainly the blade we came here looking for" says the elf, holding the weapon while using detect magic in order to identify it.
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

"You do fear this is a trap Orophin? I can't tell what the object is exactly"
K. arcana to detect school of aura: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

After gazing intently at the blade with the aid of his active detect magic spell, Crios seems to come to a realization,"I know what it is! It's a holy blade and touching it would have certainly hurt the orcs. That must be why they left it alone."

It's a +1 holy blade and it would have given the evil orcs a negative level.

We should see if there are traps here before we move anything.

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

-Posted with Wayfinder

"A holy sword!" says Orophin in wonder. "Just like in the epics!"

He looks rather pleased at having seen one with his own eyes.

"Can any of you use such a blade?"

"While I may not use one, I can certainly hold it. I think we should check for traps though before we move anything."

I meant to put that under bold brackets in my last post but somehow missed it. That was what my perception roll was for. I may not be able to disable a trap, but I can notice one.

Waki whistles softly at the mere mention of the holy katana.

Skilled in all blades I am. But worthy to hold it, I am not.

Kivuli watches the conversation unfold with interest. However, he turns down any opportunity to wield the blade.

Assuming Crios doesn't find any traps, and isn't contradicted by one of our rogues, lol, he willl take the blade down. Bunch of chickens...no offense Waki. ;)

Necress examines the blade, but can't tell anything about it.

"This is wholly unfamiliar to me," she says as she looks at the symbol on it.

knowledge religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

The only "trap" on this blade is the negative level it imparts to evil creatures.

Crios can, with a bit of effort, remove the pitons attaching the blade to the wall. The blade is not in perfect condition, but its make is certainly Minkaian.

It is a +1 holy katana with the broken condition.

Removing the blade causes a faint, yet audible, click to occur in the sarcophagus. The ensuing moment of tension is met with silence, however.

Orophin looks at the sarcophagus, altering his vision to look for tell-tale emanations of magic.

Casts detect magic and looks at the coffin.

Orophin detects the faint aura of abjuration that seems to be quickly fading. By the time the detect magic expires, the aura has faded to nothing.

Crios spends a long time looking for traps on the sarcophagus after hearing the click. "Stand back, unless you also want to help look for traps here." Once clear of traps, Crios pushes the sarcophagus lid to see if it opens and if it does he continues until it is fully open.

Crios is holding the sword in a make shift scabbard(really just some rope tied around it}.Take 20= 28 on perception, taking the time to be sure there are no traps before opening the sarcophagus. If a trap is discovered, let one of the rogues do their thing before opening it up.

"Odd, there was a protection upon the sarcophagus, but it is fading. I wonder it the presence of the sword protected it somehow? Does anyone see any reason to disturb the dead within? Or do we think that may be the remains that need to be reburied?"

In Tien "Unless the sword and magic was designed to to keep something locked within."

Inside the sarcophagus is an elf skeleton, interred in the fragile remains of lamellar armor. A badly damaged book lays at the side of the skeleton.

Wedged inside the front cover is a note written on one side in Dwarven, the other side in common.

"Akina Yohanatatsu, daughter of the western continent and sister to the crusade. May she find rest in the House of Torag. 4 Desnus 3771"

The book appears to be written in a dialect of Elven, despite its Tien calligraphy. Eldon, upon casual inspection, would be able to discern that it is a Shizuran holy text. Notably, a section details traditional funerary rites and prayers for the faithful.

Liguistics: 1d20 + 11 + 1d6 ⇒ (14) + 11 + (6) = 31
Know Religion: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 8 + (5) = 33

"She dieded in hot battle. No timing for propered honorings."

"Then she is our mission. To return her body and sword to the knights."

He looks at the body with a little unease. "I'm not that good with dead things.." he admits.

"If return her to surface for burial required, then mission to honor the fallen undertake we must ." Waki nods in agreement

"extracting the body difficult may be, especially with orcs prowling nearby ."

religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Necress nods as she reads Kivuli's lips.

"Shizuran tradition is to cremate the body on a pyre under the midday sun, then distribute the ashes to the deceased’s descendants. Lastwall’s tradition is to cremate the entire body save the skull, which is etched with the name and dates of birth and death then placed in The Ossuaries of the Fallen in Vigil."

"I don't want to leave her remains here now that we have unlocked the sarcophagus. We could try and lock it again of course, and hope that is enough, but I saw the magic protection fade away as did Orophin." Crios says with visible concern.

"My vote is that we remove her remains carefully, right now. Perhaps we could use a cloak from one of the fallen orcs, or even my own for that matter, to wrap her in. We then travel north, passing through the unexplored areas of this place as we move toward the exit"

He pauses a moment, seemingly wrestling with a thought.

"We should make a promise. Once we travel back to Lastwall, or as soon as possible, we give her a proper cremation as is the custom of her people. Then we deliver her ashes to her descendants, again in the custom of her people. This noble hero deserves her proper rest."

He looks to his group for their thoughts as he begins to unclasp his cloak, readying to wrap the elven hero for transport.

Again in Tien, "If she has waited this long, perhaps her people should be here to witness it. As to what to do right now, I am loath to bring the remains with us. Should we fall, we would be at fault for disturbing the remains and exposing them to a potentially far worse fate.. Perhaps Orophin can say a prayer and anoint the body for now and we exhume the remains as we depart."

"I suggest we put her to rest now," Necress says. "I am familiar with restless spirits. They haunt me continually, those only I can see. They all want something, and once it is theirs, they will rest in peace. We should do our best to give her the proper ritual."

Orophin considers the debate.
"There are two traditions, both involve the burning of the body. Both involve taking a part of her back to another place. We were asked to locate this ruin and retrieve the samurai’s remains and her blade, so the society can present them to the Knights of Ozem for proper burial. On a purely practical side it may be easier to carry her ashes than her skull. Or we could honor both traditions. Burn the body, take the ashes to her family and the skull back to Vigil."

He shakes his head. "I agree we cannot leave the body here though. "

He says a short prayer, not that Orophin is much one for praying and then reaches in to look at the body and wrap up the remains in a cloak.

Just a post to let you know that I'm still following along. I'm going to let you guys continue deciding how to approach this.

You would know that either of the two options for funerary rites would be appropriate- -one befits her faith, the other her station.

Eldon seems to have difficulties to follow up the disquisition today for most he would like to. He looks busy as he keeps an eye around the room entrances.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

"I think honoring both traditions, as Orophin suggests, would bring her peace," Necress says.

"To do either, we must remove her and burn most of her remains."

After securing her body in his cloak, Orophin will respectfully take her outside.

"We should find somewhere a short distance away, so any orcs still in there are not immediately attracted to the fire." he suggests.

Waki nods in agreement with the others.

Fire back in the southeast, we had there, and plenty. Safe should be if outside we cannot reach easier. Although finding ample fuel for pyre a challenge will be.

Waki points to the room where the three cult/caster orcs burnt the party.

Perhaps wagon in center is of use as transport out or fuel within?

"That is an excellent suggest Waki. We can use it to carry the body, and then it can become the pyre!" nods Orophin, excited at the idea.

"I can almost see it now..[/b]"

He breaks into tune

"As the noble warrior consumed by fire
The night light with her funeral pyre
Great traditions of Shizuran
met valient Lastwall plan.."

"This body has lain for years. Surely it is no disrespect to ensure the ceremony will not be disturbed by clearing the remainder of the tomb at the cost of a few hours."

I'm fine with the pyre, but Kivuli is just a shy little guy who hates interrupting one process for another.

"Yes Kivuli, we will clear the unexplored rooms first before we build the pyre, for safety sake. We must wait until under a midday sun anyway according to the requirements of the ritual. That is a still a few hours off from now but please lead the way out of this room, and stop by the center please so we can get that cart. We will follow you."

Moving to follow Kivuli as he heads out again to scout, Crios motions for the others to follow.

Agreed.

Waki nods and follows closely behind Kivili to see what other inhabitants need to be cleared from the place.

The party respectfully loads the Shizuran Paladin corpse into the wagon, doing their best to fix it for road use.

Not going to worry about the wagon for now.

Heading north from the room with the sarcophagus and katana, a small room to the right is filled with clearly tainted water. The humid air is heavy with the smell of stagnant water.

Besides the tainted spring, the room is empty.

Orophin approaches the tainted water and starts to hum.

"This water won't support life... at least not as we know it... I may be able to do something about that.."

Uses purify food and drink, several times if necessary.

Crios approaches Orophin as he casts his purification spell, and looks over his shoulder at the tainted water. "I wonder what caused the taint here?" he says quizzically. He scans the water's depths, looking for a source of the taint.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

stealth, take 10: 10 + 19 = 29
perception, take 10: 10 + 9 = 19

The wayang stays unobtrusively off to the side hallway.

Necress also tries to clean up the tainted area, using create water the purify what she can.

A few castings of purify will provide enough water to drink and refill waterskins, but the source itself seems to be tainted.

K. engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Eldon examines the spring "The source of water filling this spring has dried out. The new water seems to have a more recent drilling origin. I wonder what are they looking for..."

"Alas, while ails this water, mere words will not cure. We must seek the source if we wish for the water to bring joy once more to the world"

A task for a later day, perhaps? Must we clean the water or with the burial rites complete first? Perhaps a new orc we find information on water will have?

Waki will sneak over to join Kivuli and Crio in the western hall.

stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

Necress follows the others toward the western passage and casts shield of faith on herself.

Carefully proceeding down the hallway leads to another room being used as a makeshift bedroom for three orcs. One dingy bedroll conceals some moldy rations (including a half-eaten bar of chocolate carefully wrapped in gold foil (carefully wrapped for an orc, at least)), but otherwise this room is empty.

Quickly surmising there is little of interest here, Kivuli moves on to the northern passage.

Stealth: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (3) + 19 = 22
Perceptions: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Waki will ignore the bedding and move up behind Kivuli.

"Seems we found the orc's nest..." says Eldon while checking the beds.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

The elf follows then Kivuli closely.
Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

"If we are lucky that was all of them. A small group of fiery fanatics..." utters the life mage, hopefully.

He follows along, his eyes piercing the darkness around the group.

Necress follows to the north. "Where there are orc beds, there are bound to be orcs," she observes.

The room to the north has a statue in the northwest corner that has been battered beyond recognition. In the southwest corner, a pair or orc corpses lie haphazardly abandoned.

Kivuli's first glance notices a bit of motion inside of the top orc on the pile just before a handful of bugs burst out in a gruesome display...

Kivuli Reflex Save: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

...but he deftly maneuvers away from the infestation of rot grubs, and the group can get their insect-stomping on before the bugs burrow into anyone. (It's not a swarm's worth...just about a half-dozen).

To speed us through (more-or-less) empty rooms:

The room to the east (labelled A) is another abandoned bedroom. The scent of phosphorus and sulfur hanging in the air, combined with the single singed bedroll suggests that this once was the room that the orc cheftainess called her own before they managed to open the vault room where you fought her. All of the possessions here are charred and worthless.

The room to the north (labelled B) is strewn with pottery chips, broken stone, and glass shards. Several jagged stone structures likely once were display cases, now stand like manufactured stalagmites. The statue on the dais in the northernmost corner has been shattered, and now only displays two dwarven boots.

"Is that the whole place explored now?" asks Orophin.

"We should take the body to her final rest."