[PFS/DMK/EMS] The Emerald Spire Superdungeon - Table II

Game Master Kludde

"Agreed. We don't want to be surprised by undead."

Upon closer inspection, the names on these tombs - listing 'thief masters' of old - are actually recent alterations. The ancient bodies inside the sepulchres show no sign of animating.

As soon as the iron bands are removed, the coffin burst open and a terrible, vengeful spirit emerges!

---
Kellan
Zenyr
Redke
Vayu
Ketill
Ilya
---
Wight
---

Psychic Inception: The hypnotic stare and its penalty can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mindaffecting effects (such as an undead or vermin). The mesmerist can also partially affect such a creature with his mind-affecting spells and abilities if it’s under his hypnotic stare; it gains a +2 bonus on its saving throw (if any), and if affected it still has a 50% chance each round of ignoring the effect. Ignoring the effect doesn’t end the effect, but allows the creature to act normally for that round.

Zen'yr seeing it is undead lets out a sigh, as she hates undead. They are mindless and cannot be affected. Lucky for her, she learned a method to still affect them, albeit with a reduced chance of success. She focuses her mind on the undead abomination, hoping to cause it to wonder what to do next.

free 5' inside doorway, mesmerist gaze, casting daze. Will save 16

To make space for the others, Vayu runs deeper into the room staying out of reach (unless it has reach!), and fires his dragon pistol ... the dragon's breath enveloping the area in a burst of flame.

Fire: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8
DC 15 for half

Lowering his left hand, chard black with soot, he assesses the damage, trying to determine which weapon to proceed with

"Take it down!"

High is ignore: 1d100 ⇒ 17
Will: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 5 + 2 = 18
RFX: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Zen'yr tries to affect the thoughts - thoughts! - of the wight, and feels like something is taking hold. There's a connection there, a churning vortex of pure hatred of the other side. Though she almost manages to disturb the black swirling emotions, she fails to gain any leverage, and the wight shrugs off the effect.

Less of that can be said of Vayu's shot, though. While the wight concentrates, she is caught completely in the blast of Vayu's dragon pistol.

---
Kellan
Zenyr
Redke
Vayu
Ketill
Ilya
---
Wight (8)
---

Redke rushes into the room and seeing the wright spits on the ground.

"Mighty Asmodeus beckons your soul to serve him!" Redke says as he zings a pebble at the wright.

Attack!: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Probably a miss, but if his flatfooted is terrible, i'll roll damage

Damage!: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (5, 2) + 7 = 14

Kellan casts her last shocking grasp for the day, and has just enough movement to move up and swing at the creature. She also uses a Swift action to increase Talon's magic.

Talon: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6 plus electric: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 5) = 13

Unfortunately she likely misses the stupid undead creature, holding the charge for next round.

Kellan charges up Talon, and swings at the undead horror. Unfortunately, her swing just deflects of the tough flesh of the walking corpse, without causing any harm. Redke's pebbles merely spray the creature, but also don't cause any lasting damage.

---
Kellan
Zenyr
Redke
Vayu
Ketill
Ilya
---
Wight (8)
---

Ketill steps forward and throws a bomb

Explosive Bomb, Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Neg Lvl: 1d20 + 6 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 1 - 1 = 8
Ouch
Splash: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Ilya, Kellan and Whight: 7 fire damage reflex DC15 for half, sorry

RFX: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Keith throws an explosive device at the wight, but it manages to duck out of the way, avoiding most of the blast as the bomb rains fire on Ilya and Kellan.

---
Kellan
Zenyr
Redke
Vayu
Ketill
Ilya
---
Wight (11)
---

Reflex: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Yep, ouchies. LOL. I thought that the splash was always minimum damage? So it would be... oh still 7. LOL.

Kellan: Tieflings have fire resistance 5... (and the splash was for the direction, be glad I have a negative level, saved you one hp ;->)

Ah yes, thank you for reminding me about the fire resist. :)

Ref: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Ilya takes some fire damage damage from Ketill's bomb, but is able to avoid half the damage by manipulating the flow of the fire. The fire Ilya manipulates collects around Ilya's fist as she moves over to the wight. She enters a stance belonging to the dragon style, and tries to punch the wight with her fiery fist.

Punch, Dragon Style, Elemental Fist: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11 Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 Fire damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Ilya throws a punch at the wight. The fiery eyes of the course, staring at her menacingly, throw her off-guard, and the punch hits only air.

The wight retaliates for the disturbance, and swipes out at Kellan, who fortunately manages to avoid the blow.

Slam, Kellan: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 131d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

---
Kellan
Zenyr
Redke
Vayu
Ketill
Ilya
---
Wight (11)
---

Kellan will again swing at the wight with her held spell on Talon.

Talon: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 plus electric: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 3) = 10

But will again miss. GRRRR!! LOL

Explosive Bomb, excluding allies: 1d20 + 5 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (19) + 5 + 1 - 1 = 24
Fire Damage: 1d6 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 5 + 1 = 12

Ketill throws another bomb, this one hits and engulfs the wight with fire.
Wight is on fire: taking 1d6 at the end of its turns unless extinguished

Redke tries again to shoot pebbles at the wright after moving to avoid having his companions in the line of fire.

Attack!: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Damage!: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (5, 3) + 7 = 15

And with that I'm gonna be gone for the whole weekend for a con, feel free to bot me until monday-ish.

Ilya lifts her fist again and concentrates. There's a small spark and electricity envelops her fist, with which she throws another punch at the wight.

Punch, Dragon Style, Elemental Fist: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24 Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 Electricity damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Vayu drops his main pistol to let it hang on his weapon cord. While reloading his dragon pistol with dragon's breath he runs to where he can hit the wight without including his allies in the burst of flame. Squeezing past Redke he gets into position and unleashes a cone of flame.

Flame DC 15 for half: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4

Much of the flame blows out the sides of the weapon and his dragon pistol jams!

Ouch, Vayu! A 30% chance of misfire is no good at all! I hadn't looked at the dragons' breath cartridges before this!

Kellan keeps swiping her sword at the wight, but she fails to make contact. Keith tries again with a bomb, and blasts back the undead horror, giving Redke and Ilya ample opportunity to strike, and cause massive damage. The pebbles tear through the putrid flesh of the rotten piece of unlife, while Ilya's punch sends electricity coursing through the dead meat. When the two are done, the light in the eyes of the wight fade.

Combat over!

It's time to report! I'll have chronicles up soon, and I'll report the game, which brings me up to 99...

Yeah, 30% miss chance is pretty crazy, but that's why it's his second pistol, just pulled out for groups or emergencies. When it jams he just drops it, pulling back out his primary pistol, and repairs the dragon pistol later. It just adds some variety to his otherwise, "I shoot it" action. That's why he has a level of cleric, and is a Sylph as well ... give's him some other fun tricks/choices.

Good job Kludde ... so what module is 100 going to be?

The weird thing about PbP is that I've already completed module 100, just not number 97 :). The 100th game was a face-to-face game (a rarity for me, only 12 of my credits come from those) of 'The paths we choose'. It's probably going to be 'Scions of the Sky Key I' that will push me to that fourth star, though, unless you're really fast with that fourth level.

Please give a shout if you're ready for level 4!

---Are you ready?---
Ilya
Ketill
Kellan
Redke
Vayu
Zen'yr
---

Kellan is also buying two scrolls of heart of the metal so that she can defeat some damage reduction if necessary. I have a question for you, though, Kludde. When you buy a scroll of a spell that has a material component, it's already supposed to be paid for as part of the scroll, correct? So does that mean I have to choose which type of DR the scroll will allow me to defeat, and pay for that material component as part of buying the scroll, or can I produce a material component as part of CASTING the scroll so that I can use the spell for any of the DR options?

Other than that little question, Kellan is ready to proceed.

It seems like pretty much everybody is ready, so let's carefully start the next part

An acrid, nauseating reek fills the air at the bottom of the stairs—a musky, reptilian stench. The stairs descend to a small chamber of smooth, hewn stone lit by a dim greenish light from two strange, torchlike devices on the walls. A metal door with a simple latch mechanism glows with a dim green light in the middle of the north wall. The walls and ceiling are decorated with drawings and writings in bright colors. The depictions are abstract but somehow alien and disturbing.

A reptilian creature appears, and speaks “We welcome you to Godhome. You wish to make sacrifice now, or visit? Take holy grub maybe? Come now, and offer a gift to the god box, so that the box may grant you safe passage.”

The stench! Oh, the horrible stench! A DC 13 Fort save would be in order here.

Fort: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12 <- DAMN DAMN DOUBLE DAMN!

Kellan, about to try to speak to the creature, catches a whiff of its odor and promptly turns her head and pukes on Redke's boots. She looks sheepish and says "Sorry Redke. Please don't try to kill me?"

After returning to the Emerald Spire Ilya tries to do the usual thing, which is casting mage armor on herself with her wand.

Use Magic Device: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Her wand immediately jams, becoming unusable for 24 hours. "Ah drat... Well I was expecting this to happen at some point, which is why I carry a potion of mage armor with me. I'll keep that for when I really need it."

Luckily my AC went up from the AC Bonus monks get, boosting my Dex from 15 to 16, and buying a Ring of Protection! :)

Without her usual magical protection Ilya proceeds into the Spire, where the party's greeted by the reptilian creature.

Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Untrained Knowledge (Local): 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19

Ilya manages to keep her last meal where it belongs, and recognizes the creature as a troglodyte. "Pardon me, but this is our first visit to Godhome. What kind of sacrifice or gift do you speak of?"

Give the god some iron-metal, and it will bless you and send you on your way! All good visitors make gifts of iron-metal to Skraa-orm thagh, the god in the box!

fort: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Zen'yr catches a whiff of the stench. At first she is able to hold it together, but another breath of it and she cannot keep it together anymore. She turns to the side, and throws up all over the wall. She looks back as she wipes her mouth clean, and then she takes a sip from her waterskin to rinse her mouth out.

how..how much of a gift is required?

The ways of the Skraa-orm thagh are many, but for most pilgrims, it is satisfied with two weights per person.

Two pounds, that is.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
False Life Temporary Hit Points: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Knowledge Local Take 10: 10 + 6 = 16

Ketill is not carrying his naginata, although he now has a longbow and a magical backpack. He has gone to the local temple before entering the spire to get his last issues with his short trip to the afterlife solved bought restoration.

Seeing Ilya having troube with her wand he asks her "Shall I try to use it on you?"

UMD: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22 "That wasn't that hard"

- - -
"Can you lead us to the god box so we can look at it before deciding if we want to pay homage?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

"It's no use," Ilya tells Ketill. "I think I did something wrong, and it's no longer responding."

From the UMD page: If you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours :(

From the UMD page: If you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours

Emphasis mine, I always read that as: someone else can try to activate the item.

Yep, Ketill's right, it only stops reponding to YOU for 24 hours, he can still activate it.

"Metal, eh? Well... I'd like to see this god of yours before I agree to give it an offering, but we might be persuaded to do so."

In town, when most are ready to go, they begin to get exasperated as Vayu is futzing about crafting ammunition, buying different types of metal, working some more, buying other ingredients, back to crafting. Finally with his bandolier loaded up with various tyoes of ammunition he has crafted, he picks up his newly magiced pistol from the magifying shop and everyone thinks he's ready to go, but then he pops into a shop of scrolls where he spends an ungodly amount of time, only to buy one scroll. Finally emerging ... whew ... but then he stops by the armor smith! Just as everyone is about to kill him, he pops out ready to go ... looking at the others, "What?"

It's expensive to be a gunslinger

Sold 30 regular bullets, Lamallar Leather armor, Purchased, 20 Paper Cartridges, 8 Dragon Breath, 30 Cold Iron Bullets, 1 Adamantine Bullet, 5 Silver bullets, 10 Salt shot, and corresponding powder, MW Chain Shirt, 2 Tindertwig, 1 Sunrod, a Scroll of Abundant Ammunition, and upgraded pistol to +1.

***********

Vayu pulls his shirt up and over his mouth and nose to help cover the smell fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23.

"What a incredible smell you've discovered!"

"Yes ... take us so we can gaze upon the wonders of the god in the box."

I figured using "you" was just a general way of wording the sentence. Not complaining though!

Ilya's quite surprised to see the wand react to Ketill. "What...? How did you do that? Oh well, thanks!"

"Yes, let's pay a visit to the god in the box."

posting to let you guys know i'm still alive, will have an updated char up tomorrow *time to crash following a con*

Take lots of Vitamin C or something ...

And take a bath ;-) Hope you had fun!

That is joyful to hear. Slaagh says. I will guide you to the complex of the god box, so that you may behold its marvels.

[b]Out first room is the room of grub. Here, the Skraa-orm thagh provides us with all the delicious nutrition we need. There is plenty for everyone. Should you be hungry, you can take from the room of grub.

The room contains a large stone vat in the middle of the eastern wall. It seems to be filled with a pasty, pink substance. Just north of the tub, a tall door made of lustrous, coppery metal leads east,and passages exit the chamber to the north and south. Three torchlike devices in the wall glow with a soft green light, as does the metal door.

Slaagh then leads the party through a corridor, past another of the coppery doors, into a second chamber. A stone tub filled with water stands against this chamber’s western wall. Three glowing light-sticks illuminate the room. A door of copper-colored metal stands in the western wall, and passages exit the room to the north and south.

This is the chamber of water. Water here is plentiful, and the god box provides as much as we need. If you are ready to make a sacrifice now, we will move through this door Slaagh says as he points to the door on the west.

Slaagh is not alone in this complex. Several troglodytes showed up during the tour, looking on curiously, taking grub from the stone vat, or just walking around in some kind of strange chant. (You've seen about 8 in total so far)

"Slaagh, does the god box want all kinds of metal or should we give a special kind? Also, have some other humans passed through here recently?"

If those wizards passed through here they must done so peacefully

We get many visitors, yes. Many visitors, making sacrifice to the box to move below. Some refuse, it is a very sad thing - they are not allowed to pass.

"Are they allowed to leave?"

"I worry that I do not have a worthy sacrifice, Slaagh. I cannot give my sword, here as he is my friend and speaks to me."

I wonder if we could reasonably leave, go get some cheap steel weapons, and return?

I have 50 cold iron arrows... probably won't be enough for 12 pounds. Would be a shame to have to destroy the doors in this place for a sacrifice and the troglodytes probably wouldn't like that

I wonder if a 100gp chunk of adamantine would be enough?

Redke speaks up for the first time in a couple of days, "Good Sir, We did not know that we were going to be in such august company, perhaps you could give us a few days to gather the necessary material to gather a sacrifice suitable to your god?"

I've got 1000gp available if we need to buy stuff to make a sacrifice... Dibs on not having to carry it though (7 str makes carrying stuff difficult...

The metal speaks to you as well? That is a blessing indeed. Perhaps you should offer the blade to the god-box, so that it may converse.

Slaagh then turns to Vayu Of course, they may leave, they just cannot pass through.

Yes, please do come back and make a sacrifice to the Skraa-orm thagh. I will be waiting for you when you return.

"Good Slaagh, would any metal be a suitable sacrifice?"