[PFS] GM kuey's The Confirmation (#5-08) - PbP GD6 (Inactive)

Game Master kuey

Kuukuruu climbs down from the tree. Sorry me no help with combat. Overwhelmed by snakes. They natural enemy of Grippli. Thanks for healing Janaira.

survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

The grippli not used to these surroundings get frustrated and gives up.Uh, me no good at anything. Me thinks, I will go back home and send another grippli to be pathfinder.

Pretty sure between two rangers and a hunter we should be able to kill this.

"No worries my little friend. Me and Lucy have this, we have done our share of scouting." Grey quickly moves forward and starts looking for signs of the trail, while Lucy returns to Janira's side hoping the halfing will find that spot just behind her ear once more.

While ahead and scouting for the trail Greay calls out to Kuukuruu and says "You should stay, I know we will need your skill soon enough. And trust me if that where spiders back there it would have been me in the tree."

Survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

While Kuukuruu gets all confused by the unfamiliar terrain, Grey, with some sniffing around by Lucy, easily manages to find the path. Janira lets out a sigh of relief when the trail begins to clear again. "Good going, Grey. And of course you too, Lucy." She digs out a little dried meat to feed her, and pats her on her head. Turning back to the trail, Janira then rapidly guides the party to the caves.

A couple of hours before dusk, the dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. ”Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines,” Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. “This is where I saw the gillmen enter.”

As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, “Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!” As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group. see maps and handouts for a picture of it

Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, “A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag,” she continues, pulling off her backpack, “and head deeper into the caves. It will only slow me down. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!” She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away. She gives the party members a confident wink as she passes, and calls out, partly to you but also partly to taunt the minotaur, ”No cow can keep up with my nimble feet! Not in these dense forests!” Indeed, she is indeed around much faster than what her short legs should be able to do.

Kalak hesitates for only a second before she picks up the backpack, throws it over her shoulder and motions to the others. "Let's go." She looks into the cave entrance, stops and turns to her fellow pathfinders before going in. "Does anyone have some proper light source?"

I can't believe I forgot to get flint and steel to go with my torches. If someone has at least that, I guess we could light mine. You can probably see the tip of them sticking out of my pack or something.

Let me see if I can figure out this url thing... As this reminds me of a great scene in a movie.

Link.

"I can't believe my eyes... A minotaur!" Ri exclaims as she joins Kalak inside the cave, wreathing her body in Light as flames criss-cross her form.

Hearing Kalak ask for help, Ri walks over to the woman and snaps her fingers, lighting her torch with ease. "That is no problem." she says plainly. "I hope Janira will be ok..." she says, slightly worried about their guide.

Grey stands with his greatsword drawn an Lucy at his side,taking the first few steps to to charge after Janira until Kalak's words bring him up short. Indecisiveness sweeps across the hunters face and he looks towards Lucy who gives a dissatisfied grunts and shaking of her head.

"I know, I liked her too, We are just going to have to trust she knows what she is doing." whispers Grey to Lucy "Come, the others need us."

Turning towards the cave entrance he responds to Kalak "I can provide the light"

Grey takes a moment and plants his greatsword in the ground. He than begins to chants alien words while touching his chest, moments later he touches the hilt of sword instantly creating a light source that emanates from the blade. Picking the sword up and resting it on his shoulder the hunter walks into the cave.

Natalia hesitates for a moment, silently weighing whether or not the group could indeed fight the minotaur without significant losses. When three of the members decide to follow Janira's advice, however, she shrugs and follows them inside the cavern. "I feel queasy about this, but I will respect her orders."

"It looks like are on our own now...". Nerias hopes nobody sees how he quickly wipes some sweat off his brow.

"Alright, let's do this!" he continues, taking a deep breath and steeling himself as he walks into the cave after the others.

The minotaur hesitates, uncertain to go after the speeding pint-size humanoid, or the larger group which although more of a handful, would make for a fuller meal. Janira's shrill voice, however, rings out in an unfamiliar language, taunting the minotaur, while she peppers it with crossbow bolts.

The minotaur roars in anger, and chases after the halfling. They quickly disappear into the thick undergrowth, and soon the crashing noises fade away, too.

You hide near the entrance of the cave until the sounds die down, and the usual chirping of birds return. Kalak searches through the backpack that Janira had passed to you and you find quite a number of very useful items, all carefully and neatly labelled by her! You spend some time sorting through the items with the light of Kalak Chei's torch and Grey's glowing torch. Please refer to the list here. Decide who is carrying what, as it might matter during combat later. :)

Also to confirm about light sources, Kalai Chei is holding a torch, and Grey's greatsword has light spell. Anyone else?

Ri has Light on her cloak per Basic Pyrokinesis.

Ri grabs the Tanglefoot Bag from Janira's pack as she hefts it in her hand, feeling the weight. "I think this is the most useful thing for me in here." she says with authority before moving forward into the caves.

Running towards the cave, the grippli yells out while drawing his bow. Kuukuruu take point. Me see in dark fie

Dark vision 60 feet

Kalak looks through the things, punctuating her rummaging with comments. "The scrolls and wands are useless to me. A sunrod would certainly be better than this torch, so I'd like one for after this one runs out. I'd gladly take a potion or two, but only if nobody really wants it."

I don't want to keep anyone from taking what they want, and this would really not be Kalak's style, but I'd be interested in a Cure Light Wound potion, Featherstep and maybe Barkskin. I'd don't need them all, but they are the ones that could be most useful to me. Plus the sunrod, of course.

Have added the link to the excel sheet at the top. Please go ahead and log in what you have taken in the sheet for ease of tracking. And go ahead and take what you think would be useful. Most of the time I run this, half of the items aren't claimed. :) Whatever is left unclaimed I will assume stays in the bag, carried by the guy with the highest strength.

Natalia takes a look in the bag after some of the others and pulls out the potion of Vanish. "If no one else minds, of course."

The potion of Vanish helps guarantee a sneak attack, but if someone can make better use of it, feel free to take it instead.

"I'll take a potion of cure light wounds, if you don't mind. There's still plenty more potions if people want."

Nerias readjusts the straps on his backpack, and peers into the cave.

I'm tied in Strength with Grey. I can take the bag if he wants. I think I'd still be in light load... Also, Grey, I'll let you take the potion of feather step. I've just realized you don't move as quickly as me, and I'd rather we get to melee at about the same time.

Ri nods in approval as Nerias shoulders the burden of carrying the hefty pack as she follows after the grippli, illuminating the surrounding rock formations with her flames.

"I think I only need the Tanglefoot Bag as I won't be on the front lines." she says straight-forwardly. "Hopefully this alchemical contraption can lock something deadly down long enough for us to dispatch it."

Ri nods in approval as Nerias shoulders the burden of carrying the hefty pack

Actually, Nerias adjust the straps on his packpack, and only took a single potion :-)

"So anyone have any idea where a Gullmen would run off too in cave?" Grey asks the group to only to get snorted at by Lucy "What Gillmen? I am sure its Gullmen Lucy. You really should do a better job at listening, really its just rude. Plus it makes me look bad in front of the others."

Natalia, just want to point out that the potion of vanish only last 1 round and so would not help for making sneak attack as the invisibility will wear off at the start of your next turn. Lighting-wise, Ri also has light, and Kuukuruuu has darkvision. Moving on, but please continue to take Janira's items along the way and log into the google sheet.

After some preliminary sorting of the items, the party continues on, hoping that Janira would be able to join them eventually. The tunnel that you are in varies from 3 to 10 feet width and height at different places, although it is usually a comfortable 7 feet wide and high. The caves are quite damp, as water is constantly dripping from stalactites. The air is humid and you can hear the distant rushing of underground streams, and a thin stream of water seem to be flowing down the tunnel you in. As a result, the ground and walls are slippery. (DC of all Acrobatics and Climb checks increased by 2.) Beyond the radius of your light sources, you find that the caves’ walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent fungi that provide dim light. (So for everyone other than Kuukuruu, if you are outside the light of Grey, Ri or Kalak Chei, there would be 20% miss chance.)

What is more interesting are the petroglyphs — most depicting marine animals or spiral shapes — that periodically decorate the tunnels’ walls, becoming increasingly frequent as you progress deeper. The rough surface of the carvings provides a natural platform for the fungi, causing it to grow thicker and making the carvings glow slightly brighter than their surroundings, creating an eerie yet solemn effect.

The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage about 10 feet wide. A large hole spans across the entire tunnel's width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the 20 feet deep pit lies a small bundle of cloth. The tunnel here is 10 feet tall with a ceiling mostly devoid of stalactites

Knowledge (dungeoneering) or Survival to learn more about the hole. You learn everything below up to the DC you match.

Survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Greay approaches the hole and gives it a quick one over "Huh. Someone took time to put a pit in a cave. Seems like a waste of time to me."

Grey turns and walks a little ways form the edge of the pit. "Well they obviously do not believe I can jump it. Why else put it here?" says Grey. He immediately turns andtakes off in a run, forgetting in is still encased in armor. He makes it to the edge of the pit and leaps...

acrobatics: 1d20 - 5 ⇒ (20) - 5 = 15
Holy crap I was expecting land face first in the hole

and lands comfortably on the other side. "They where wrong."

Lucy sees the dumb monkey trying to impress the others, probably one of the girl monkeys caught his fancy. Who knows, monkeys are not very bright.

She take of in a run and leaps the pit,

acrobatics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

landing just on the other side of the pit.

survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

The pit is a year old. I doubt they dug it for you. Looking down into the pit, something catches his eye. He immediatley drops down of the ledge and climbs down and begins to check out the cloth. What dis?

Um, Grey, as mentioned in the earlier post, for all acrobatics check, the DC is increased by 2. But you could have taken 10 with that, so I'll allow Lucy to clear. So general public service message, so long as you are out of combat or there is nothing particularly distracting, you may take 10.

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

"Anyone have some rope? If we can tie some off on both sides, the climb will be much easier." Natalia suggests to the group.

Um, Grey, as mentioned in the earlier post, for all acrobatics check, the DC is increased by 2. But you could have taken 10 with that, so I'll allow Lucy to clear. So general public service message, so long as you are out of combat or there is nothing particularly distracting, you may take 10.

My apologies and thank you.

"I do believe I can be accommodating."says Grey while fishing the rope out of his bag and tossing it back across the pit towards Natalia.

Natalia grabs the rope as Grey throws it, "Thanks. I think the rope is long enough that we can tie it off on both ends of the pit. I'll throw the other end back to you."

If I understand the dimensions right, 20 feet up on both side and 10 feet across is 50 feet, which is the common length of rope.

He immediatley drops down of the ledge and climbs down and begins to check out the cloth. What dis?

Kuukuruu scales down the walls like a spider and makes for the bundle of cloth. Although it looks rather nondescript from up the pit, when he examines it up close and after brushing off the dirt that has settled on it, he realises that it is a very well-made cloak. It is woven of fine thread of deep navy blue color, and embroidered, with silver thread, images of mermaids, corals, fishes and other underwater scenes.

At the bottom of the pit, Kuukuruu also find remnants of rotted twigs and leaves, clearly not originating from the caves itself. He also noticed that whoever created the pit had rounded its walls, seemingly to eliminate any corners that a trapped creature might brace against while trying to escape.

Natalia manages to grab onto the rope but tries as they might, Grey and Natalia are unable to find anywhere to tie off ropes to secure them.

Guess no one brought a grappling hook? :) Will wait for everyone to post how they're getting across, and the relevant skills they are using (taking 10 or otherwise) to proceed.

"Grey, how about you hold the rope while people climb out on your side. I'll hold it on my side to help everyone else climb down."

If someone is bracing the rope on either side, everyone else should be able to use it, making the climb roll easy enough for everyone to take 10 with no problems. I'll post Natalia climbing down once everyone else has crossed, unless someone better at climbing wants to hold it on this side.

After his masterful display of athleticism and somewhat awkward rope holding incident with Natalia, Grey quickly grows bored on the other side of the pit. He strikes up a conversation with Lucy after she makes a few guttural sounds with a shake of her head. "The Grippli? Yeah, I like him too...wouldn't be surprised if could climb the side of a marble tower in a rainstorm." says Grey.

Still looking for something to distract himself Grey begins exploring the area.

"Shall we look around some?"

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

edit: looks like we cross posted, I will have grey come back since you beat me to the submit. :)

Grey does not get to far before Natalia gets it in her head to repeat the rope holding incident. "Anything better than just standing." replies the hunter.

Nerias takes a hold of the rope. "Are you sure you've got this, Natalia?". He starts to climb down the rope, a bit awkward at first, but gradually more confident.

I'm assuming I can take 10 on this? If so, I'll also clamber up to Grey's (stone)side as well.

As the frog climbs down to recover the bag/cloak, Ri easily floats over the short chasm with ease, gently pushing off the edge with one foot and landing on the other side without even showing any effort.

Acrobatics-Take 10: 10 + 10 = 20

Ri, not being any help with the strength aspect of pulling people out of a pit with rope, looks around for something to help them.

If nothing is available, then Ri just hopes that Grey can pull them up himself with the aid of his pet pig.

Kalak looks at Natalia holding the rope for Nerias, appraises the pit for a while and grabs the rope just a hand's length down from where Natalia is holding it. "Go on ahead. Wouldn't want you to fall if nobody holds the rope for you." Once Natalia has made it safely across, she drops the rope and leaps across the pit in one nimble movement. Acrobatics take ten with the penalty gives me 15.

She gives Grey an approving look. "Nice jump. It can't be easy with so much armor."

Natalia smiles as Kalak offers to go last, "Actually, I was just going to jump across myself. Meet you over there."

Without further ado, she moves back 10 feet for a running jump and leaps over the 10 ft. long pit.

Taking 10 for 17, which with the -2 penalty is a 15.

Once everyone is across, she'll help Grey collect his rope. "I guess only one person needed it, but hey we aren't all half fr..., er cricket."

What is anyone doing with the cloak that Kuukuruu found?

With some level of teamwork and graceful acrobatics, the team manages to either climb across or simply leap across. After taking a short breather from clearing the obstacle, the party continues its journey down the tunnel. Interestingly, approximately 30 feet beyond the pit and out of sight around a corner, Grey who is leading in front spots a long, 3-foot-wide wooden plank that rests against the cave’s wall.

The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts for about half an hour until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. The carvings here are different in style from the petroglyphs found elsewhere in the caves, and from their condition, appears significantly more ancient. Moreover, it seems whoever have been carving the more recent petroglyphs have studiously avoided making their markings on these more ancient inscriptions. There appears to be 12 sections of these inscriptions altogether.

If you examine these inscriptions, each of you may make a knowledge (history or religion) or linguistics check. Barring that, you may attempt an appraise or perception check. If you know the languages Aquan or Azlanti, you receive a +2 to skill check for each of these language you know.

A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls.

Natalia stops for a few moments to try to interpret the petroglyphs, as well as quickly sketch them on the paper Janira provided.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

"Good idea!" Nerias says to Natalia, and he whips out his piece of parchment as well. He doesn't notice that his tongue sticks out a bit, as he concentrates on copying the glyphs.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Kuukuruu can not do anything with it but put it on, and he does so.

Kuukuruu spins the cloak around his head, and closes the catch wound his shoulder. The grippli climbs up the wall and looks to the others still pondering on how to get across.

I found dis. Dont it suit Kuukuruu He flaps the cloak, I think I'ma keep it.

Kuukuruu looks at the pictures and tries to understand something about it.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Kalak smiles approvingly as she sees Natalia leap across the pit after her. She then marks its location on the crude map of the caverns that she's been trying to draw on the parchment. Once they see the faded petroglyphs, she observes them cautiously while trying to copy some of them on the parchment as well.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Grey takes a moment to look at the faded petroglyphs. "Huh."

Grey notices that the other pathfinders are far more studious than he is and while the others document the petroglyphs he starts a wrestling with Lucy.

The hunter manages to holds his own for a moment, but eventually Lucy gets the best of him. The match ends with Grey on his back, pinned by the boar who is doing her best to lick his face while dispensing the maximum about of drool per lick.

"You win! You Win! Now get off of me ham head! says Grey with a mixture of disgust and pleasure.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Ri looks at the cloak as Kuuku dons it and smirks a little, which looks quite odd compared to her normal severity. It's clear the cloak was not designed for a small frog.

I'm assuming.

As they pass by the new petroglyphs, Ri takes a look, trying to understand what is being presented here and if it is relevant.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Regardless of her understanding, Ri chimes in. "We should note these pictures and take crude drawings of them. Perhaps this is part of the investigation aspect of the mission." Ri says as she starts to draw the first one, taking her time to try and get each one correct with a piece of charcoal and a parchment.

Charcoal is easy to make for Ri! :D

Through the collective efforts of the party in examining the various inscriptions, you manage to make out in more details four of the inscriptions, which depict the forms of a beggar, a scholar, a soldier and a farmer. (see maps and handouts for more information on each of the four)

That is when it hits you, these four are part of the twelve guises of Aroden, the missing or dead god of humanity, the god who raised the Starstone from the depths and set it upon the Isle of Kortos which led to the founding of Absalom thousands of years ago. It is said that he used to regularly take the form of one of these twelve guises as he travels through mankind, and each form illustrates his hopes for humanity. These inscriptions seem to be from the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden, although as depicted, they are slightly different than those that appear in the known version of the text, suggesting that these might represent an earlier version of the work.

Unfortunately, the rest of the inscriptions are too faint to make out. Ri creates some charcoal and makes crude rednerings of the four that you can make out while the rest stand guard.

After recording what you can from the cavern walls, the party progresses deeper into the cave system via the wide tunnel on the opposite side. The tunnel is short and your party stops cautiously just before it ends.

The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling 20 feet overhead, some measuring 10 feet long from base to tip. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.

Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. Something appears to be carved on top of this column of rock but you can't make out the details from this distance.

What catches your eye, however, is the lone figure kneeling at the edge of the pool. His back is facing you and he does not appear to have noticed you. You can see distinctively gill slits down the sides of his neck.

See maps and handouts

Nerias whispers to his companions. "What shall we do? Go up and talk to him? Or wait a bit longer until we see what happens? I vote for the latter..."

Kuukuruu not whispering at all, Why wait? Do not want to be in cave longer than have to. Anyway, its only one of him I see.

Kuukuruu enters the water. Hi, I'm Kuukuruu, whats your name. And why you in cave?

Before anyone can stop him, Kuukuruu throws caution to the wind and approaches the lone gillman. As he gets closer, he can see that he has his eyes closed, and seems to be mumbling some words under his breath, deep in meditation. He does not even notice when Kuukuruu comes up beside him, and only when the grippli enters the water does he quickly looks up with a start. His hand quickly reaches down to the staff beside him, but he stops before picking it up, not sensing any hostility from Kuukuruu. He leaves the staff lying on the ground and holds his hands up to signal his nonhostile intentions. He glances around the cave, noticing the other members of the party, but turns his attention back to Kuukuruu beside him.

"Hi, I'm Kuukuruu, whats your name. And why you in cave?"

The gillman is dressed rather simply in travelling robes, and has a well-tailored cloak thrown over his shoulders. He looks wary and apprehensive and does not reply.

If you wish to speak with him, please make the relevant social skill checks, i.e. diplomacy, intimidate or bluff, depending on what you intend.

From his position in the pool, Kuukuruu (and anyone else that approaches later) can now see the carving on the top of the column of rock rising from the middle of the pool. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. Along the edge of the pool, the smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.

Once you get within 30 feet of the carving

Kalak approaches warily, expecting danger and not wanting to leave the grippli alone. She looks everywhere, her eyes never quite resting except to inspect one thing or another.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18
sense motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16
Knowledge History (untrained, max 10): 1d20 ⇒ 13

She makes a mental note of the carving's nature, intending to write it down later, but she notices something about the gillman and moves just to the other side of the pond, keeping a distance so as not to look threatening. She speaks in a soft tone, forcing a smile. "Look, Kuukuruu, you two have similar cloaks. Do they have any particular significance?" she asks no one in particular, still eyeing the gillman.

Not sure that really counts as a diplomacy check, but since I'm trying to make him talk, I'll do it and let you decide if that's something he would just tell us anyway, as Kalak tends to be a liability in social situations.
Diplomacy: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8

"Feels a bit 'trapish' does it not?" says Grey with a wary eye on the rest of the cavern "Lure us to the center, surround us, than boom!" Grey pauses briefly to give the surroundings another look "Get what you can from the Gillman statue, me and Lucy will watch for the boom."

"Get what you can from the Gillman statue, me and Lucy will watch for the boom."

"All right...", says Nerias, this time without hardly any quiver in his voice. He warily steps up to the center.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Sense motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9
Knowledge (history), untrained max DC10: 1d20 ⇒ 19

"Hey, this statue looks just like a miniature version of Absalom!"

Ri looks down at the pool and gets the sense that this gillman is particularly favorable to the pool. "My flames don't mix well with water." she states to the group as she avoids the water. "Can you ask him if he knows how to deal with a minotaur? Janira is still out there and might still be dealing with it, so if he can kill it, then we can reward him on behalf of the Society." she says, not forgetting her comrade.

Perception-Take 10: 10 + 5 = 15 Success.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14 Failure.

Ri nods her head slightly as she looks at the gillman and back to Kukuu. "Kuk, I think the cloak belongs to the gillman here. See if he will take it back in exchange for helping us."