ok everyone stands back, and i try whispering Torag to the ssstatue. sir pentor waits till everyone's as far back as they feel safe, and then tries whispering Torag's name into the statue.
Valais answers Shamak, "Not as well as I could wish. I believe the altar was meant to convince people that Thurl was a follower of Torag. But is a VILE, TREACHEROUS lie! His laboratory lies below... that is where I awoke like this and slipped silently through the shadows to the Archive. A simple lever operates the mechanism from beneath. Proceed carefully, my Pathfinder minions. I was not the only experiment that SCUM left behind."
Everyone moves back as Sir Pentor speaks the name of Torag. There is a pause and you hear the whirring of a mechanism beneath the statue.
1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
The altar rotates clockwise to reveal a spiral staircase of wrought iron that descends into a pitch black chamber below.
Perception DC 25:
You hear a the slightest whisper come from the statue about 30 seconds after Sir Pentor spoke the name. It whispered, "Torag".
A cage-like spiral staircase of rusting wrought iron descends along one wall of this room. Dim but vibrant green light pulses from two large glass vats that stand from floor to ceiling in the far corners. The glass surface is fogged with dust and a cloudy liquid within keeps you from seeing inside the vats, but a dark, twisted silhouette floats within each one. Powdery rust coats much of the floor, though several lines of footprints crisscross the room. Metal doors lead to the east and west. The coppery metallic tang of blood taints the air here along with the smell of rotting organic material. Flies buzz through the air and beetles and other vermin scurry away from your approach, apparently sustained on the debris of Thurl's sick experiments.
Valais stares with horrified eyes at the incubation vats with her hand clapped over her mouth. She seems engrossed by nightmarish memories of this place.
Male Human Rgr2/Sor1 | AC 15 T 12 FF 13 | HP 23/23 | F +4 R +5 W +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | SM +0 | CMD 14 | conditions: none
Perception:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26Nice!
"Whoa! The statue just whispered, 'Torag'! Actually, though, if Thurl was just pretending to follow Torag, why would Torag's name open the trap door leading to his incriminating hidden demon workshop? Someone who has no reason to suspect him of anything would say, 'Hey! What a great statue of Torag!' and then grrrind 'What's this secret passage? Oh, by the gods! Look, everybody! Thurl is really a demon-worshiper!"
In the lab, Random is uncharacteristically quiet. He alternates aiming between the two doors exiting the gruesome place.
You clear away as much dust as possible and peer through the glass, your eye first meeting the shapely back of a feminine form with wings and a sinuous tail that coils around her legs, which end in cloven feet. Her arms, however are mismatched, mottled and hulking, far too large for her frame and ending it great ham-fisted claws. Turned in on itself in fetal position, you cannot see it's face at all.
Peer into vat 2:
The form in this vat is serpentine, with no legs at all, but four arms. The creature twitches and you think you saw a slitted eye move to regard you in return.
Sir Pentor finds no traps and hears only the faint sound of dripping water beyond the east door. But not far beyond the east door, he hears the distinct sound of a pained groan.
since he's already over there on the map and he heard something and thinks there's no trap, he'll check everyone is ready then go full defensive and open the door.
This room is a madman’s abattoir. Near the center of the room stands a polished metal table with manacles bolted to each of its corners and a bloodstained hacksaw embedded in its side.
A wooden workshop bench rests against the east wall, covered with gleaming tools of varying sizes, a spool of barbed wire, a stack of large metal staples, and a stack of notes, and even more grisly tools hang from hooks on the wall like pots and pans in a well-stocked kitchen. Reddish-brown splotches cover the floor and your boots stick to the floor in places.
On the table, a partially clothed male elf with a distended belly is sprawled on his back as he quietly moans in agony, his arms bound by the table’s manacles.
The elf is unconscious, but seems to be suffering from terrible pain that stirs him even beneath the black veil of sleep. As you watch, his body trembles as he draws a shuddering labored breath. You are yet unsure as to what ails him.
Heal check was to identify the problem.
Valais looks through the doorway, only shaking her head that she does not know the elf.
Turk's assistance helps Sir Pentor to realize his error, but the knowledge that this poor host has already perished may have come too late. "Get out, now!" He shouts as something within the distended belly of the elf rolls beneath the skin a second before it begins to swell violently and bursts like an overfilled balloon. Fragments of worm-like viscera shoot out from his abdomen and a cloud of negatively charged spores fill the small room.
I had some trouble deciding how this will go down. Technically, a failed Heal check to detect the danger triggers the hazard, but Turk's aid would have made the check a success, so I decided to give a chance to get out of the room before the spores burst out. If you beat the parasite's initiative of 5, you can use one move action to vacate the room. Anyone left inside or standing just outside the open door must make a Will save DC 16 for half damage from the negative energy and make a Fortitude save to resist the spores.
Male Human Rgr2/Sor1 | AC 15 T 12 FF 13 | HP 23/23 | F +4 R +5 W +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | SM +0 | CMD 14 | conditions: none
Init:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
Staying near the door, apprehensive of the pained test subject to begin with, Random easily dashes out of the room. He turns and aims his bow toward the doorway, ready for anything unfriendly to emerge.
Sir Pentor is unable to vacate the room before the parasitic spores fill the room, but the rest of the party beats it out of the room just in time. Shamak stands in the open door and is hit by the burst of negative energy.
Fortunately, Sir Pentor's fortitude allows him to resist the few motes he inhales. Before long the spores settle to the floor and stick to the gummy surface. Without the parasite animating his corpse, it becomes clear that the elf has actually been dead for some time. With no victim to be concerned over, he focuses on the contents of the room and picks up a sheaf of notes.
The notes on the workbench detail Thurl’s latest experiment, which involved replicating a vermlek demon’s ability to inhabit a corpse and transplanting
that ability into a construct.
We'll spare you exposure to the spores since you aren't in the room, Shamak, but the negative energy burst will reach you. Make a will save for half damage or take the full 4. Pentor failed his will save and takes 4 damage but resists infection. Once the cloud of spores settles, the room is again safe to move through.
Heal or Knowledge(Planes) DC 20 check to decipher notes:
You read through the technobabble and learn that Thurl’s latest version of the experiment involved infecting an elf. The elf, the notes describe, demonstrated remarkable resilience and seemed to be fighting off the infestation. The observations end with a note to find more elves to repeat the experiment and speculation on how the ongoing experiment might conclude. The Dwarf's blatant lack of compassion is clearly laid out in the cold, recorded facts and calculations of his experimentation.
The door to the next room is heavy iron and opens via a lever. A rush of frigid air rushes out as you open it. Inside, clawed limbs, scaly torsos, and other large body parts hang from large hooks connected to the ceiling by thick chains. Along the walls, large canisters and jars hold dozens of smaller body parts suspended in clear liquid.
Knowledge(Planes) DC 15:
Most of these parts are pieces of lesser demons such as dretches, vermleks, and babaus.
Near the door, you find a wand hanging from a hook on the wall.
Spellcraft to identify wand DC 18:
This is a wand of sleet storm with 10 charges remaining. You suspect it was kept here to maintain the cold temperature within the room.
For the notes: Knowledge (planes):1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
"Disgusting! He made experiments on this elf because he was resisting well the infection. He wanted more elves for this experiment and writes all this as the elf was a mouse. A laboratory mouse!"[b]
For the room: Knowledge (planes):1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
[b]"I don't like this!" he says barely entering the room.
Male Human Rgr2/Sor1 | AC 15 T 12 FF 13 | HP 23/23 | F +4 R +5 W +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | SM +0 | CMD 14 | conditions: none
"I think I'd be able to use that wand. Just don't go rushing into the fray before I cast that one."
"Really, the idea's pretty clever. To summon a demon into the body of a construct, rather than some poor blood sacrifice, but doing all these experiments seems kinda contrary to any sort of humane motive. Maybe the intent is to use a slave to build constructs, and then you can create more subjects for demonic possession than if you just sacrificed the slave."
Valais looks at Random, her human eye wide with new fear as it welled with tears. "Construct? Is that what he has done to me? CURSE THAT MADMAN, what has he done to us? And why? Am I even still myself inside? Or does something insidious lurk within..." Despite her appearance, her fear certainly still seems human.
Satisfied that they have learned all they can here, the Pathfinders turn their attention east again. A 30 foot hallway turns south from the eastern door of the incubation chamber and ends at a landing. Stairs descend east into a flooded room and west into another small library.
Valais sniffs, glancing toward the path to the flooded room. "I nearly went that way when I was looking for the way out, but something about the water smelled wrong."
Please indicate which room you would like to explore first, remember that research and exploration takes time and 30 minutes have already passed, so the duration of Gronk's active effects is half spent already.
Go east into flooded room:
Stagnant water opaque with grime and scum fills the chamber, which is featureless but for a rusting metal door to the north and several eroded runes near the waterline.
Perception checks, please!
Go west into library:
The walls of this room are lined with steel bookshelves bolted into the polished stone. Books rest comfortably against each other, each given ample room to be removed without risk of damaging the contents within. Two black leather chairs next to the western wall are positioned around an ostentatious wooden table supporting a single glass tumbler. There are two identical, reinforced wooden doors along the western wall.
You can choose to proceed on through the doors for now or go ahead and investigate. Making sense of this collection requires at least half an hour of reading and two or more successful research checks. The following skills may be used to perform your research: Appraise, Heal, Knowledge (arcana, planes, or religion), Linguistics, or acceptable Profession skill.
Male Human Rgr2/Sor1 | AC 15 T 12 FF 13 | HP 23/23 | F +4 R +5 W +2 | Init +2 | Perception +6 | SM +0 | CMD 14 | conditions: none
"Don't worry. You're clearly no construct. A construct is like a machine. You're more like a human and demon stitched together."
bluedove wrote:
Valais sniffs, glancing toward the path to the flooded room. "I nearly went that way when I was looking for the way out, but something about the water smelled wrong."
"What do you mean, wrong? Wrong-peculiar or wrong ha-ha? I bet this wand could do some wrong things with that water. Or, maybe, 'funny' things? I always get those two mixed up."
more than a round of stuff, but we're not in init.
Pentor take out my wand of mage armor. looks like this area is getting dangerous, and tap Nagini with mage armor and cast greater magic fang on her. then hissssss at her to guard the passage behind us while squeezing and leave a pebble with light cast on it by her.
Then coming up alongside Shamak to listen at the doors. perception:1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Valais answers Random, seemingly comforted by his assertion. "Wrong-bad. Smells FOUL, that water." She looks happy to not be heading that way.
It's not double doors that open together, it's two separate doors to two separate rooms. I'm assuming the party continues to travel together, Gronk leading the way. Moved everyone up
Gronk, Shamak and Sir Pentor spot no traps and hear nothing threatening behind either door, but they do notice a liquor cabinet near the table with it's door ajar. The cabinet contains 20 bottles of fine liquor as well as several wax-sealed bottles that look like potions: an oil of magic fang, two oils of magic weapon, a potion of cat’s grace, a potion of fox’s cunning, and a potion of cure moderate wounds.
Shamak admires a masterwork battleaxe mounted on the wall as Gronk opens the northern door.
The walls here are polished and smooth, unlike the stone block construction elsewhere. The floor bears a strange symbol of concentric circles and compass-like stars, and the entire carving glows with a steady, red light. Strange writing covers much of the walls, some of it in dark blue charcoal and the rest in deep red paint. A shallow tray along the north wall holds several sticks of steel-gray chalk.
GM Rolls:
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Turk identifies the language used here as Abyssal. He also believes this represents an exchange between business partners, though he cannot quite make out the gist without spending time to study.
Finding no immediate threat, Gronk opens the second door, further south and finds himself peering down a hallway. Glass cases, each a three-foot cube, line the walls of this L-shaped five-foot-wide stone hallway. Each sealed alcove contains the slowly wriggling form of what appears to be an oversized insect larva that has a vaguely humanoid head wrinkled in pain.
Knowledge(Planes) DC 15:
These encased creatures are Abyssal Larvae. Abyssal larvae are believed to be the final form of an evil soul deemed too weak to become a demon and too weak to become the servant of a demon. Another theory suggests that the larvae are the imprisoned forms of slain demon princes and lords. Whatever their true origin, abyssal larvae are plentiful throughout the Abyssal planes, and are some of the most disgusting and loathsome creatures encountered.
These creatures feed on anything they can consume, be it rotting carcasses, freshly slain creatures, and even waste. Consumables are first liquefied through a process requiring the abyssal larva to regurgitate stomach acids onto its meal. As the food breaks down, the larva slurps it up and consumes it.
While loathed by the more civilized, some demons, such as dretches and babaus, savor the juicy flesh of these creatures and often engage in hunting expeditions across the Abyss, killing and devouring as many of these creatures as they can find.
The larvae present no threat as they are and a slain petitioner such as a larva is gone forever, its essence dissipating to the Positive Energy Plane. Although planar philosophers debate whether killing a petitioner equates to destroying a soul, no true consensus has ever been reached.
