[PFS] 5-23 Cairn of Shadows by GM Upaynao (Inactive)

Game Master Upaynao

Telendrak looks back up to Oleander. "They came... They came from the darkness and went to see the Master of Chains up above." He sniffles and adds, fighting back tears. "You have shown mercy and kindness to Telendrak. But you will all die here. None escapes the Master. And Telendrak will return to his throne of pain, and will be compelled to watch as your bodies are fashioned into implements of agony of both body and mind" he quakes.

"How did they go up Telendrak? Which passage did they take?"

Feebly he points upwards. "The Master came down from above, and up they went. And then there was screaming... They screamed... So much... DON'T GO! THEY'LL MAKE YOU SCREAM TOO! LEAVE, LEAVE WITH TELENDRAK BEFORE THE MASTER TAKES US ALL!" he shouts, abjectly begging.

"I agree we should not go up," Insidion says after some consideration.

"At least, not yet. Let us explore the rest of this HELL HOLE first to see if there are any clues as to what is happening here."

"Insidion, can you please cast dancing lights down the corridor so we can see a little better?"

Insidion complies with Eadie's request.

"Does that help?" he asks the fighter?

Takahiro follows on, sword in hand...

I assume Darkvision still works out to 60'

Insidion give me a caster level check on those Dancing Lights

caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Eadie sheathes her enchanted falchion, and draws ghost-salted cold iron.

Dancing Lights is an at will cantrip, isn’t it?

If Insidion’s first spell fails, Eadie encourages the Dragon Disciple to keep casting until he succeeds. “Can we try that again please, Insidion?”

She smacks Skug on the shoulder blade. “Ready?”

It is. So I don't feel bad.

Insidion finds that he cannot make the simple cantrip come into existence, as if the Cairn itself opposed the existence of light within.

"Skug kill now!" And before the sentence is even finished, Skug gives Brax a playful swing and moves forward.

@Eadie: I'm fine going first or second, depending on whether you want Skug to find the traps or do it yourself :-)

Eadie runs out of pay sense at about the same time as Skug.

Inciting the right to change her mind, the warrior sheathes cold iron and draws her ghost-salted polearm. “Did VC Farabellus teach you about leap-frogging tactics, Skug?”

“I’ll tap my polearm on the floor, walls and ceiling out 10’ ahead of us, (15’ if you’ll allow lunging, GM) if it seems safe, you advance 5’ in front of me and also have a look for traps and threats.”

She continues holding her Lucerne hammer out in front of her. “Then I’ll squeeze 5’ past you and repeat the process, also checking for traps and threats until we reach the door.”

Take 10 Perception: 10 + 15 = 25

“Whatcha say?”

Sure, I'll allow it. Are you waiting for Insidion to recast Dancing lights (or try to) or are you feeling bold today?

*Scoff* Stoopid BOLD of course! Bring it, GM ;)

I'm not sure "bold" is the right word, but half the fun of a character like Skug is risking his life on stupidity :-) Oh and his max Perception is 18, so he only finds traps by setting them off.

Skugs nods at Eadie, "Skug leap frogs."

Insidion frowns, his fangs looking very large, as his spell fizzles.

"AGAIN!" he shouts and tries the spell again....and again.

caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
caster level check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Alright! Just as an FYI I moved people's tokens to reflect where they are based on what they have said and the logistics involved. I really encourage you to move your own tokens unless you have absolute confidence that I will not short-change you.

By the time Eadie and Skug have reached the door Insidion's dancing lights have finally materialized. Tapping the ground with great enthusiasm, they do not discover any traps but the clanging does echo throughout the barrow.

Reaching the ancient door, Eadie stops and puts a hand on Skug's left shoulder. The door is trapped, the mechanism seeming to imply that the ground they stand upon is not the terra firma they expected it to be.
Eadie also believes that the door is nothing but a deception; giving onto nothing but another wall.

FWIW GM, I DO trust you to move my token in relation to what I post.

“Skug, I think at least one of us is standing on a trap door. Let’s step back and see if I can determine its dimensions.”

Eadie waits for Skug to withdraw and then starting from the beginning of corridor again, traces how far back the edges of the trap-door?/floor pit? extend, using her polearm like an old-fashioned 10’ pole.

The warrior calls over her shoulder. “Can anyone disable traps? I think there’s a pit in the floor that probably leads deeper into the cairn.”

I don’t think anyone has Disable Device.

“If we can’t disable the trap, I think we should trigger it from a safe distance. Maybe using a summoned critter or by chucking useless stuff like broken chain at the fake door until it goes off.”

“Thoughts?”

"I'm hardly an expert..." calls Oleander from the back.

"But after exploring with one too many groups that couldn't deal with even simple ones, I took a class in them..."

Yeah, one skill rank, and no inclass bonus, but...

She ties a rope around herself and passes the other end to one of the tough looking warriors.

"If its magical, I have no show, But if nobody else can try.."

"One moment" Takahiro casts a blessing on Oleander then moves away.

Resistance, +1 to save

(GM: let me know if I needed to mark any CLW charges off for Telendrak, though I'm guessing his damage is more mental than physical)

E.G. hangs back about twenty feet behind the fearless Skug and Eadie, watching with a little nervousness. "Can't do anything about traps my own self, sorry. But should we tie Oleander off in case a pit gives way?"

She proffers up her rope to help secure Oleander, though she's nowhere near strong enough to hold the other woman. While Oleander attempts to figure out the trap, E.G. digs around in her pack, locating a few bottles and knocking them back.

Drinking an antitoxin and antiplague at this point.

"-oh! I forgot I had this scroll. Bought it half by mistake, didn't realize it wasn't my sort of magic. --Oleander, you miiight be able to use it?" the quarterling says, proffering over the scroll.

E.G. has a scroll of Detect Snares and Pits on her that I'd all but forgotten about, I must have bought it back at level one or so. It's limited usefulness since it's a duration-concentration, but Oleander, you're welcome to use it if/when you have the desire to, otherwise I'll probably finally remember to sell it back after this scenario.

I suspect this trap is too complex for it, unfortunately. Though if it gave a bonus on disarming, I'd try it anyway.

You hit Telendrak once? So you can take one charge off for that. As you astutely observed, Telendrak's wounds aren't all caused by weapon damage. Let me know if you are using that scroll. As I read it, it wouldn't give you a bonus per se on disarming anything here.

As Oleander looks upon Eglantine's proffered scroll, Eadie quickly comes to the conclusion that the entire corridor leading up to the door, a conclusion she reaches just as Insidion's dancing lights end, plunging the group back in the semi-darkness pierced only by their ioun torches.

So, the area that has that white box within is the trapped area. Disarming the trap means you go up to the door. Roll if you desire to try and disarm it.

Also for those of you wondering why your magical lighting didn't make a Clvl check when entering, it's because the GM neglected to remember at the time and well... You know. Breaking the flow and all that. You may expect other magical sources of light activated within the Cairn from here on out to need to make a similar check though.

Skug looks sideways at Eadie, "Door not door? Where door?"

“The door is in the floor, Skug.”

Eadie bites the side of her lip under her great helm. “It runs the whole length of the corridor. I think you have to be way down the end against the false-door in the dark to try and disable the trap, Oleander.”

“Do you want to do that? Or I could just try smashing through the floor with my adamantine trap setter-offer.”

“What do you want to do?”

"Does anyone have a summons that could set off the trap?" Insidion asks.

I can fashion crude objects.

Xichi casts a spell and calls forth a roughly spherical ball, which he passes up to the front of the line.

I can create more if that one doesn't work.

Sorry, been a pain with the web site, probably won't be posting again until it is fixed

Oleander waits to see if the ball sets off a trap. Once it has had a chance, and seeing little alternative, Oleander double checks the rope around her and then advances to see what she can do about the trapdoor.

disable: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

"Are we starting to think we might need to climb up those chains?" Takahiro sighs...

Yeah, it won't grant a bonus here, I was thinking more when we're past this, but no skin off my nose if it doesn't get used.

Eglantine watches uncertainly as Oleander attempts to get the trap ... resolved, one way or another. "Hold that rope tightly, please, Skug!"

Having noted the difficulties of Insidion in activating his light spell, E.G. decides now would be a good time to have a scroll cast on herself... while it can still be seen.

"Ahem. Signore Insidion, would you mind reading this then touching me?"

Scroll of darkvision, 3 hour duration

The trap triggers when one opens the door, and since you were able to traverse the corridor to get up to the door I'm going to assume noone can generate a force greater than the weight of two humanoids, one in heavy armor by throwing a ball.

Oleander spreads her thieve's tools and begins to work on the door. Unfortunately, a sudden howl of all-too-human pain echoes throughout the cairn, making the ranger jump and nudge one of her picks the wrong way.

Falling damage: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 1) = 3

Oleander disappears down, a cast gap where she once was. As she falls, she barely has the time to notice that she's about to land atop a bed of spikes, the size of a halfling's sword. On the plus side, Skug notices that the pit is only about 30 feet down.

I would have rolled the reflex save for you but I had already previewed the rolls for the trap. So go ahead and roll.

reflex: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Oleander falls, stunned by the sound of the cry.

Doesn't the rope stop her falling to the spikes?
Fort if required:
fort DC 17: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
fort DC 17: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

I probably need to make some sort of check to stop the fall, so here's a random d20: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Skug quickly leans back, knees bent, and yanks on the rope. "Skug catch elf!"

Strength check: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Eadie tries heaving on the rope to help pull the brave elven ranger away from the pit spikes. “Ready, Pathfinders? 1-2-3-HEAVE!”

"Are we starting to think we might need to climb up those chains?"

D’oh!

“Well to be honest, Takahiro – I hadn’t been …”

Eadie keeps a firm grip of the rope as she hangs her head. “Makes a lot of sense now that you mention it.”

"There seems to be no other way to go"

If it looks like the rope will fail, Xichi has a Feather Fall ready and will cast it.

@Oleander: I was parsing through that before I posted. Assuming the party goes with what makes sense, they would allow you only enough rope to go to the end of the corridor, which is 30 feet away from Eadie. That is still enough to swing all the way down to the bottom of the pit. You could argue that there's 25 feet of "empty" space between Eadie and Oleander but I've always counted distance the same way one would count range. Thus, if you were adjacent to Eadie, you would still need five feet of rope to go from square one to square two. In this case you were 25 feet from Eadie, so there was thirty feet of rope needed to bridge the gap.

@Xichikitte: Feather fall is a good idea which will stop Oleander from taking the fall damage, but it won't be enough to give her a bonus to that Reflex save, as it only reduces falling speed to 60 feet per round.

@All the other Pathfinders directly behind Eadie + Eadie: I will allow for a Reflex save from anyone directly holding onto the rope. As of right now, that includes everyone except for Takahiro and the animal companion (besides which, we're all outta rope folks). If you make said save, which is a DC 23 save, you can make a strength check to pull back on that rope and avoid Oleander getting the Nidalese sheshkabob treatment. Oleander, after looking at her sheet, weighs a little under 200 lbs, gear included. I'm going to rule that it's somewhere in the realm of dragging something (it totally isn't but we're going to abstract it to that because we sorta have a framework for that and it works for me). If you make that check, you must make a DC 15 Strength check to stop Oleander's momentum downward.

@Everyone: If you are concerned about the fairness/realism/anything of this ruling, send me a message.

In an instant before making contact with the spikes adorning the bottom of the pit, Oleander notices the glint of gold and platinum, just as she feels the twinge of movement from the rope tied to her.

Xichi casts Feather Fall on Oleander, then frantically grabs at the rope.

Spells 1:5/8 2:7/7 3:6/6 4:4/4

Reflex DC23: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

As the rope slips through his hands, he curses himself for his soft, supple skin.

@GM, I will make a case here for Feather Fall to give some benefit to the Reflex save or the drag weight. If Oleander is accelerating more slowly (~32ft per second in the first second, down to ~10ft per second with FF), then it stands to reason that it would be easier to catch the rope (which is moving 1/3 the speed) and/or exert the force necessary to catch her fall, which any physics student knows is proportional to acceleration. I will accept whatever ruling is given.

Thats a tough trap and subsequent set of rulings to have to translate and adjudicate GM, glad it's you and not me mate :P

Given E.G. currently weighs like.... maybe 20 pounds or so (since I believe her reduce person is still up, I think we spent about 4 minutes on the chains earlier?), it seems like she couldn't be anything but a speedbump for Oleander's fall, heh. Still, maybe she can aid the STR check...

Reflex: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

STRENGTH?: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8 Nooope

E.G. squeaks as she reflexively grabs on the rope-- and is promptly dragged several feet by it before letting go... she has no wish to tumble down into the pit with Oleander, alas.

I'm good with that ruling, tough edge case with a 30' rope and 30' drop. Certainly she'd get a slam against the wall at the end of the swing, but it might help reduce the number of spikes she lands on. I'll leave it to the GM to figure things out and let me know final damage and poison status.

I probably still have some fly up from the previous room...anything I can do to help with the fall?

Insidion considers what he might do to help Oleander.

Alright, I've sat on that one a day and here's what I'm thinking.

@Xichikitte, you do make a good argument; my only recourse here is to say that the rules don't model physics well enough at all, but that's a weak defense compared to what you are asking. Also, props on how you phrased that, I wish some of my live players were as respectful when they make their cases. I'm going to say that the others can make a DC 20 Reflex check to catch Oleander's rope instead of a DC 20. Yours stays at 23 because of your spellcasting while trying to grab the rope.

@Insidion: There are no chains here to grab you, so if you can beat the reflex save, you could actually go up to Oleander and grab her, using the DC established by Xichikitte. You would not need to make a Strength check, but you'd be down in the pit.

@Everyone: I'll be rolling people's Reflex saves myself for those who haven't rolled by then.

From the gallery - also concur it is nice to see such friendly and happy players :)

Flying nearby as Oleander falls into the pit, Insidion tries to grab hold, but misses as she falls too quickly.

reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Xichikitte *still* curses himself for his soft, supple skin. :-)

Eadie Reflex Save: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Despite a heroic attempt by all the other pathfinders, by the time the rope is grabbed, Oleander is transfixed by two spikes. Despite her shock, she can feel herself growing weaker.

OK, final tally! Oleander, take 12 points of damage, two points of strength drain and you must make another save, DC 19 Fortitude. Since we are dealing with a poison that has a duration of rounds I will need everyone to limit themselves to what they feel would be reasonable to do in 6 seconds. If you short-change yourself, I'll nudge you.

Also, as a warning: I am entering the last month before finals and as such my schedule is going to be a hot mess. Like I told you before I will not abandon you, but my one post a day requirement on myself is... well... Heh. We won't talk about that. Expect the pace to pick back up to where it was at the beginning after the first week of May. I apologize in advance.

Takahiro rushes down to help pull the rope and fish Oleander out...

Str 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Oleander swoons as she tries to free herself from the spikes, grabbing what treasure she can as she is hauled upwards.

"Does anyone have an anti toxin?"

Fort #1: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

Lacking a cloak of resistance, Oleander can even benefit from a resistance spell.