PFS Gameday 6: Risen from the Sands (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

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In the depths of the Osirian desert, a sandstorm has recently
uncovered a mighty pyramid that was buried beneath the sand
for ages. Lost for centuries, the pyramid has not yet revealed
its secrets, but one crumbling papyrus scroll found in the Great
Library of Tephu contains references to the tomb of an ancient
Osirian king known only as the Pharaoh of Sphinxes. Word of
the pyramid’s discovery has spread far and fast. Archaeologists,
explorers, and tomb robbers from across the Inner Sea are
gathering in Osirion’s taverns and inns to plan expeditions into
the desert, each vying to be the first to plunder the tomb’s
treasures. Your venture captain has sent you to bring back the tomb's knowledge and treasures for the Pathfinder Society.

You have travelled for a week from Sothis through the heat and weariness of the desert. Finally, you catch view of your destination.

An incredible man-made mountain, the pyramid rises out of the
desert sands, a relic of an earlier age. Its limestone casing blocks
are weathered from millennia of scouring sands, but the structure
seems solid and intact. A stone wall, buttressed by drifts of sand,
surrounds the entire structure. To the east stands a squat stone
building,connected to the pyramid by a long, covered causeway.
No visible entrances to the pyramid’s interior can be seen.

Malusha struggles through the sand, up and over yet another of the small dunes in this undulating desert. Rivulets of perspiration continue to flow down his face and he feels the constant presence of sweat drenched undergarments. But this is what it is to walk through the desert.

As he crests the dune he lifts his eyes and his breath catches. There it is! The pyramid! It is magnificent. He waits for the rest of his group to catch up and gives everyone a moment to stare in awe.

Eventually he points to the building on the east side of the structure. "I think that's where we need to go."

Will either of these knowledges help?

Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Knowledge(religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

Hunter gasps in the arid heat of the desert... His froggy body was not built for such conditions and his skin is so very dry and crinkly in the heat. He trudges on silently, but his discomfort is palpable, despite the lack of complaints.

When he spots the pyramid, he is too weary to smile... He simply pants softly and says, "Shade?" At Malusha's words, he nods and slogs through the sand toward the small building.

Crowe nods.

"Shade sounds good, but we should be careful... weren't the old pharaohs buried with all sorts of traps and tricks?"

The halfling woman tries to remain her dignity while sweating profusely. "Who decided to make the desert so HOT?" she complains, to no one in particular.

Before they approach the low building, she starts scanning the area for anything amiss.

Detect magic.

I'm guessing we would have had time for introductions before heading into the desert?

A pale lady with golden eyes clearly of a slightly outer planar heritage travels with you. She is dressed in simple robes but a good glance notices a thin layer of elven-style leather armor tightly hugging her skin. Aside from a few daggers and wands and a sling she doesn't appear to be armed. A polished-smooth wooden holy symbol of Calistria is tied around her neck like a choker resting at the base of her throat. Her voice is sultry as she smiles and speaks.

"So good to meet all of you. I am Sindelle Lifewater and it's my duty to you all to make sure that you stay nice and healthy during our trek. I can keep a link active between my life force and yours at all times if you want that will keep your bodily health in good order. Just say the word and I shall make this connection with you"

After questions and such dies down and we are about to depart, Sindelle touches a few of you to get your attention and speak to you quietly.

"In times of great stress, or in the middle of a fight, I'm told that I might not sound like myself...can any of you understand...ภาษานี้หรือไม่?"

note to the gm Sindelle keeps her wand of bless in her hand pretty much at all times

"I wouldn't mind one of those links if I do get into a fight, Ma'am...."

I'm hoping you guys can be all ready to go inside by Monday...

Sindelle will smile and wink at Night Hunter as she lays a hand on his shoulder, adding him into her Life Link (and she'll do the same for anyone else who will be up in the front doing fighting without question).

Ready here!

Crowe shakes his head.

"I didn't understand a word of that... however, I would be willing to accept the link."

You know that pharoahs did guard their tombs with traps and undead guardians. You do not know any more about this particular pharoah.

As you approach the small building to the side, Enora tries to detect magic, but she does not find anything.

A rectangular building constructed of large stone blocks sits on the desert sands to the east of the pyramid. A wide portico opens to the east, its ceiling supported by two rows of red granite columns. A dark passage leads deeper into the temple to the west. The sunlight outside the portico provides normal light in this chamber. The portico walls were once carved in relief, but millennia of exposure to windblown sand has worn the carvings away so there is not enough detail remaining to decipher what they once depicted.

I put you guys in the right area on the map. I guessed about your marching order, feel free to adjust.

Heeding the warning about traps, Crowe carefully searches the entrance.

Perception 'Take 20' = 27.

Hunter scans the area, also looking for traps.

take 20 if poss for a 30, or:

perc: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Sindelle will brush Crowe's shoulders with her fingertips with a smile as well and add him to her life link. She knows she doesn't have the best eyes so she focuses on seeing to their health and the camels (assuming we didn't walk through the desert).

At home in the desert, the bright sun makes no noticable effect on the tall (6'2") heavyset (257 lbs) half-orc with skin that has shrugged off its light for years. Her jaw turned in some sort of half-snarl, half-smirk, Narla surveys the squat entrance to the pyramid with the confidence of a veteran of many desert expeditions.

"Every step's just as likely to try and kill us as not," she says cheerfully, as if the idea of near-certain death was a child's joke and not a grim prospect. "No Pathfinder left behind, business as usual."

She invokes the name of Gojan the Sharp- -one of the earliest members of the Society (and subject of an earlier seance- -Marshal Spirit!) as she creates a small mote of illumination on her finely-made breastplate. "There! We can never be too careful in places like this!" (Casting light on self before we go in.) "You've got the right of it," she tacks on to Sindelle, accepting the life link.

Ready to go!

Sindelle smiles warmly to Narla letting her fingertips linger on the half-orc's breastplate as well for a moment also connecting her.

Oh so just in case anyone here doesn't know how Life Link works and missed the url I posted above! If my turn comes up in combat and you have at least 5 damage on your character, I take 5 damage from each of you and you heal 5. I can drop some or all of the links as an immediate action so don't worry about me! :)

Malusha looks with a little dismay at Narla's cavalier attitude about the dangers they are about to face. "Maybe you should be here in front?" Malusha offers a timid smile and moves to switch places with her.

Narla, go ahead and switch our places on the map if you agree.

Enora is a little skeptical but nevertheless accepts Sindelle's link. "Hopefully you won't have to use that on me!"

She helps examine the hallway as they enter.

perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

"If this wasn't dangerous, it'd be easy. And if it was easy, anyone could do it," Narla half-laughs as she trades places with Malusha. "And then it wouldn't be worth doing, right?"

Maybe he is right, and you're getting a little overconfident, Narla thinks to herself, shaking her head as if to physically dismiss her doubts.

Hunter will have participated in the seance if there was one, and taken the +2 to non-spell damage, if that's acceptable

Sindelle will participate in the seance and take the Heirophant benefit. She will also touch Enora's shoulder as well, making her the fourth and final person in her life link.

In 12 hours or so, we will move in; anyone who has not by that time declared what they are doing in terms of the seance bonus will be assumed to not have participated.

When Narla extends the offer for the to join in a seance Malusha smiles politely and then declines.

Enora is nervous at the prospects of a seance but participates anyway. She is certainly pleased when meets the spirit of an archmage who whispers secrets of damaging spells to her.

Archmage spirit- +2 spell damage

I just remembered that the remaining player is in a very different timezone, so I'll give another 12 hours for him to decide about the seance bonus.

If you are talking about me, I previously indicated (in the discussion thread, from memory) that I would happily take the Champion bonus ;-)

If you are talking about me, I previously indicated (in the discussion thread, from memory) that I would happily take the Champion bonus ;-)

Yeah, I was. Because that was in a different place, it was easy to lose track of. I'm putting it here for everyone's reference.

Anything you guys want to say or do before we move forward? We should resolve a few other things in discussion before moving on.

As part of Marshal, I also get to pick one of the bonuses, so I'll also take the +2 to nonspell damage via Champion.

You move on into the next room. A pair of carved and brightly painted granite columns support the ceiling of this darkened, roughly triangular chamber. To the east, stone statues of a regal man holding a crook and flail and wearing a striped cloth headdress stand on either side of the chamber, though the head of one of the two statues now lies cracked and broken on the alabaster floor. Two more stone statues depicting winged creatures with leonine bodies and falcons’ heads sit beyond. The smooth granite walls are decorated with hieroglyphs and faded murals that depict loyal subjects and slaves presenting offerings to a pharaoh who sits on a gilded throne, flanked by winged, falcon-headed lions. A passageway to the west stretches off into darkness. The current room is dimly lit by sunlight from the room behind you.

Everyone but Narla and Enora notices a suspicious looking pressure plate in the square marked '2a' on the map.

Edit: the marking didn't transfer. The little red rectange is the pressure plate.

knowledge (history): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

"Fascinating! This appears to be Sekh-pa-Mefer III, the Pharaoh of Sphinxes. And these winged figures are hieracosphinxes. That might be a clue to what we will face, perhaps?"

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

"Hieracosphinxes," Narla agrees. "Looks like our recon was right- -this is the place."

Narla extends a single arm out in an "after you" gesture to the heavily armed Shoanti.

"Shall we?"

I Hope we get to meet a sphinx... maybe Hunter can become a living monolith, lol

Hunter checks for traps before moving so he can peer down the western hallway. "Shall we go on then?"

perc, take 10: 10 + 10 = 20

are you sure that's not to the east... we came in from the west per the map, or is the map backwards?

In terms of traps, I rolled for everyone up above, and you found something, Night Hunter, look in my last post.

In terms of directions, the map is actually backwards because it started out sideways.

Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Knowledge(arcana): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Linguistics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21 I'm trying to read the hieroglyphs. Does the fact that I speak Osiriani help?

Malusha looks in awe at the statues. He stares at the hieroglyphs hoping to somehow decipher the text. Then he notices the pressure plate. "Everyone! Watch out for that stone there." He points to the plate. "That looks like a trigger to a trap."

if the little red thing is the trap, he won't go there... yet...

"Can anyone disable traps? if not, our only recourse is to set it off trying to minimize damage or effects."

Night Hunter, the pressure plate isn't the entire 5 ft square, it's actually about 2 ft by 2 ft. You know if you don't step on this small area, it won't go off.

well that's easy, since he's kinda small...thanks

Hunter sidles around the plate, careful not to step on it... he points it out to everyone so no one makes the mistake of doing so. He peers down the hallway.

still taking 10 on perception for a 20 with darkvision

If he doesn't seen anything threatening, he'll pass the threshhold and step into the space beyond the doorway.

Sindelle smiles at Night Hunter. "You have good eyes! Great job catching that! Any chance for me to not have to heal everyone is a good one!"

She takes a deep breath. "But since we're going into a pyramid..."

Sindelle utters a short prayer to Callistria and casts Deathwatch on herself (40 minute duration) while also drawing her wand of Bless and keeping it in her free hand.

Malusha, the carvings in this room are too worn to read.

You all move carefully past the pressure plate and into a narrow causeway. Shafts of sunlight shine down from slots in the ceiling of this long, straight corridor, illuminating the piles of sand that have accumulated beneath each slot. Elaborate carved reliefs, their paint now faded with time, cover the walls on both sides of the passage, depicting the legendary deeds of a great pharaoh.

As you near the end of the causeway, you notice a large round stone. It rolls quickly toward you, over you, out the door, and off into the sands.

Everyone but Malusha is able to partly dodge out of the way of the huge rolling stone. Narla takes 5 damage, Crowe takes 8 damage, Enora takes 5 damage, Malusha takes 15 damage, Syndelle takes 8 damage, and Night Hunter takes 8 damage. If anyone has evasion or any other ability that would change this, please let me know and we can fix it.

You continue on to the end of the causeway, and find a pair of heavy stone doors carved with images of rampant sphinxes.

edit: I also flipped the map so that N/S are the expected directions, as well as trimming the map down to only the inside of the pyramid.

Narla awkwardly stands back up after getting pancaked by a large boulder and dusts herself off.

"That...could have gone better."

Glancing at Sindelle, then the rest of the group, "you guys still with us?"

I've got a CLW wand, that is fair game if anyone needs/wants it, but I think the Life-Link takes care of my damage.

I have a wand of CLW with 10 charges. Let's use those first since she's pregen. Also I have a wand of mage armor with 5 charges. Going to use one now.

Enora shrieks when the rock rolls over them. Luckily her small size prevents her from most of the damage. That went to lifelink also I believe.

She shivers at the chilling prospects of danger ahead and taps herself with a wand for a little extra protection.

no evasion here.. gave it up for one of my archetypes; I assume 5 pts get healed by the life link, so I took 3 points off my total.

Hunter gets up from where he was knocked by the rolling stone... "I guess I missed a trap, eh? sorry."

Actually, that wasn't a trap, it was an encounter that as written _cannot be bypassed_. I think as written it's pretty stinky, but this is PFS.

"Ouch!" Malusha cries out when the large boulder rolls over him. He picks himself up off the floor, limping noticeably. "I think I'm going to need some of that wand," he says quietly to Enora.

Since it's a pregen, I'll assume she passes it to him and he can use what he needs. Let me know if you want it done differently.

He flicks the wand a couple times and says a few quick words. In a few minutes he looks much better. He hands the wand back to Enora. He stretches. "I'm ready to continue."

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6.
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3.

Crowe, likewise, as a wand that he will use.

With life link Sindelle would automatically absorb some of your damage (except for Malusha who she couldn't have in her link since she's only level 4).

- Narla's damage goes away completely (Sindelle absorbs 5)
- Crowe's damage drops to 3 (Sindelle absorbs 5)
- Enora's damage goes away completely (Sindelle absorbs 5)
- Night Hunter's damage drops to 3 (Sindelle absorbs 5)

"Ouch...well...that stings a little..."

Sindelle takes 28 total and will use a wand of cure light wounds to heal up...

CLW 1: 1d8 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 2 = 4 (24)
CLW 2: 1d8 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 2 = 8 (16)
CLW 3: 1d8 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 2 = 6 (10)
CLW 4: 1d8 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 2 = 11 (full)

After less than half a minute she looks ready to continue again.

If you look really closely you might get the sense that while getting hit by that big pyramid clearly hurt her it might also have been slightly pleasurable for her too...

Sindelle has 2 CLW wands plus she can channel 6 times per day for 2d6+2 (thanks to the hierophant seance) and I'm happy to use them for all of you as you see fit!

Sindelle did you use my wand? If so I have 4 charges left now.

"Someone really didn't want us venturing into this tomb! I hope that bodes well for what we might find to carry away!"

The doors are stuck closed. This door has an unusual mechanic; two people can try a strength check to open it and their results are added together.