Aid Tokens
Once per encounter, any character at a table can use an Aid Token to assist the group in one of five ways described below. Once a table uses an Aid Token, the token grants no further benefit until the end of the encounter, at which point one of the players can pass the Aid Token to a neighboring table for them to use. It is very important that the players remember that there are a limited number of Aid Tokens, and hoarding one means that somebody else doesn’t get to use it. An Aid Token’s benefits can take one of the following five forms.
Aid Another: Ralph gives advice via a sending spell to help you solve a puzzle, disable a trap, or accomplish some other task as if performing the aid another action for a PC. The bonus for this aid is +3.
Allied Offensive: Ralph happens to be in a battle nearby and spares a moment to direct a long-range magical attack on a creature at the same time as the PC, increasing the damage dealt by one attack by 2d8 points. In addition, after the attack, the target is momentarily disoriented and anyone attacking the target is considered to be flanking it until the beginning of the attacker’s next turn.
Burst of Healing: Ralph asks a nearby cleric to send a burst of positive energy through the token. This heals all of the PCs of 3d6 points of damage. Alternatively, Ralph can send one of these spells thorugh the token to one of you: neutralize poison, remove curse, or remove disease with a caster level of 6.
Spellcasting Synergy: Ralph sends a surge of magical energy through the token as you cast a spell increasing the save DC and caster level of the PC’s spell by 1.
Timely Inspiration: Ralph broadcasts the effects of a bard’s inspire courage bardic performance for 3 rounds. The competence bonus is +2.
Table successes: 22
The beast rider
Research Encounter: The sacred pools
The Serpentfolk guards
The Scales of Ydersius
Research Encounter: Festival Preparations
Temple attendants
Research Encounter: Words of a Dead God
Beasts of a Civilised Age
Scions of the Serpent God
Research Encounter: An Azlanti Perspective (double success)
Guardian Idols
______________________________
Finding the Vault
Fate's Anchor: Gad Gemple
Fate's Anchor: Binui Skostravalus
Fate's Anchor: Romnus Vagarti
Fate's Anchor: Alrule Shahan
The Many Arodeths x 4
The Operations Center
Hmmph. Ok, that was fast. Even faster than I was intending.
The Harbinger looks up in the air as Twitter's voice echoes in her ears.
"Who is that? Is it you, my lord Aroden? Have you come to give me counsel? Oh my lord, forgive us! Deliver us!," she raves as the green energy flares around her, then flies up from her to rejoin the green energy dome in the sky.
I'm going to be nice to you guys and tell you that there is a very nice boon you can get if you go to the sky key vault before this is all over.
Kreighton Shaine nods in approval as Twitter's ploy works. However, he suddenly stops and cocks his head to a side, as if listening to some voice you cannot hear.
"You lot are rather more resourceful than even I would have thought. But we're not out of the woods yet. That temporal bubble is still intact, but worse still, I have received reports that the pathfinders in the Sky Key Vault are facing significant resistance. Even if we defeat all the anchors, we also need to recover the Sky Key to break free from this time. Go to the Sky Key Vault and aid the Pathfinders there as best you can!"
At Shaine's urging, you return to the site that you first identified as the location of the Sky Key Vault. You see that a tunnel has indeed been dug through the ground, and there is light and sounds of battle coming from within. You are joined by several other pathfinder teams, including one that appears to be led by Ralph, and each team is accompanied by their own instance of Kreighton Shaine. It appears that you are not the only group that has been rushed back to the Vault.
You follow the tunnel through a broken wall of metal into a large chamber. Veins of strange metal line the walls of this massive chamber. Enormous bronze devices connected to the walls by massive cables spark and spew steam, almost obscuring the large vault door at the far end of the room. The door is labeled with a single word in a plethora of languages: danger. Stagnant water collects at the bottom of a ten-foot wide pool in the middle of the room. A gasping, bleeding elf who looks like an aged version of Kreighton Shane lies across the room.
Skipping an optional encounter because there is little time left.
“Good show, Pathfinders,” the injured form of Kreighton Shaine manages between blood-soaked coughs as your own younger instance of Kreighton Shaine helps him(self) to his feet.
“But Lady Arodeth is a true savant and driven to fanatical extremes. The same energies that infected her casters above have also seized her soul, and I fear she has already killed several of your fellow chroniclers. Or will have killed them. Blast, but this is confusing.”
The older Shaine leans heavily on his younger copy of himself as ge continues speaking. “However noble her goals may have been, if Lady Arodeth forces us to remain in this time, we will all die. If the Sky Key is still functional, you must reactivate it before the Starstone arrives.”
The machines in this chamber begin to spark and smoke, and female bodies take shape from the green miasma. Shaine continues, “She has learned to create temporal copies of, as I have. She can produce an army, left unchecked. Some teams will need to hold the line here, in this chamber, so that anyone confronting the true Lady Arodeth in the room beyond isn’t overwhelmed by these simulacra. You know your team’s capabilities better than I, but I promise you Lady Arodeth will be not yield easily.”
With that, the chorus of murky green figures announce, “I would have brought destiny back to this world.”
You have three choices here. You can either stay and fight one of the instances of Arodeth while the more experienced Pathfinders try to deal with the real one, or if you are very confident in your ability to persuade Arodeth (a combination of many skill checks will be required), you can ask the other Pathfinder teams to clear a path for you. If you are REALLY brave, you can also volunteer to be the group to try to the real Arodeth, who is a mage many levels higher than your APL, but that will be almost certainly suicidal, so I suggest you don't.
Mage Armor (22 hours); Deathwatch (constant); Overland Flight (7/9 hours); See Invisibility (75/220 minutes), Ring of Blinking
I'm good with either stay and fight or persuade Arodeth. We've done pretty well with skill checks, but if it's Charisma based checks we're looking for, Torrag will be a bit useless.
0 init:0 perp:+9 hp: 83/83 dr 3; 17\18 rounds of rage ac16 cmd 20 saves fort: +10 reflex +3 will +3 reroll 1\1.
Before talking to the injured Kreighton.
Yeah... This place is cool.Says the librarian.
After talking to the injured Kreighton.
But why now they were attacking us?, he questions. I would? You mean she's the leader? That seem... depressed don't you think? Like you she had already lose.
Hum. She was looking a bit fatigued and for what we saw. And now she's more crazy.
Revive Aroden. Why it is always a question of gods? Sometimes, people don't understand that gods are just excuses for doing or not doing what we want. I mean there a god for every action you do except for don't believing in their existence.
Well... i don't feel like fighting in this moment. So I suppose, we should at least try to negotiate... could be good.
I don't want to just say this in front of them... I know! that should be a good word.
We shall liberate Lady Aroden from... from... her psychological prison!
We're not too bad at combat either, and I have a decent amount of firepower left available for use. If we're pressed for time I think combat might be quicker, so I'm leaning more towards stay and fight. If time was not a factor, I'd be keen to try talking...
Especially since if we fail to persuade her, we might end up in a fight we can't win.
Since these are just copies, there are no alignment repercussions for killing destroying them, right?
Interesting. Blan is advocating negotiations and Twitter is saying stay and fight and let someone else do the talking. But Twitter is right about one thing. If you try and fail too many checks to persuade her, Arodeth will most likely just attack you. Your choice.
Torrag is indifferent. What do Hakime and Van want to do?
I will point out that you can still try to go deeper in to talk to Arodeth after fighting your first simulacra. The house still needs more vault and anchor successes
I'd go for negotiations, but it seems that would put us at an impasse of 2 and 2, and we don't have time for a lot of negotiations among ourselves, so I will go with stay and fight, even though I think Twitter would make short work of our needed skill checks.
Combat it is, and Van, now is no longer the time to hold back on anything. The meteor is very close. Now is the time to fight with everything you've got.
The gathered pathfinders look around at each other, and eventually one of the teams steps forward.
"We'll take care of the real one, you guys clear a path for us!" their leader cries.
"Don't count me out either," the many Shaines add as they each begin chanting and glowing with green energy. "You're not the only one with a link to the sky key's powers, Arodeth!"
You feel a lurch as the ground shifts beneath your feet, and when the room stablises once more, the other Pathfinders and most of the other Arodeths appear only as faint outlines. However, your instance of Kreighton Shaine and three of the Arodeths remain completely solid.
"This should prevent things from descending into complete chaos and clear the path for that team to proceed. You will have to deal with these three Arodeth-copies though. Six of us against three of them, but don't get too cocky!"
Round 1
Torrag
Van
Hakime
Arodeth Red
Arodeth Blue
Arodeth Green
Twitter
Blan
The pool in the room appears to be about 20ft deep. There are ladders inside leading out, but you notice ripples of electricity running along the surface.
Can and Torrag lay on their buffs and Hakime grazes one of the Arodeths with an arrow.
Almost as if they were copies of each other, the Arodeths hold forth their staffs, and lightning begins to crackle along them. The green Arodeth sees Hakime moving towards her and accepts the challenge, moving towards her and sending a ray of fire at her. The other two Arodeths decide to apporach from the other side, moving towards Blan. One of them fires a ray of fire at Blan, and the other fires some kind of green ray that saps his strength.
Renewed Vitality (Ex): The barbarian ignores the effect of 1 point of ability penalty or ability damage per 2 levels she has (maximum 10). At 6th level, the barbarian can also ignore 1 negative level per 4 levels she has. She takes the full effects of the ability penalties, ability damage, or negative levels once her rage ends. (so I have now 18. That mean nothing then.
Green buckles as if she had been struck by some unseen force. Blan moves up to attack with his scythe, but he misses!
Shaine can go at any time in the round once per round. Remember he has limited spell power. No one objects to Shaine casting resist electricity on Blan?
Round 2
Torrag (Shield, Haste)
Van (Haste)
Hakime (Haste)
Arodeth Red
Arodeth Blue
Arodeth Green -26hp
Twitter (Haste)
Blan (Haste, -9 STR) -18hp
Now waiting for Torrag to begin round 2. I highly recommend the fireball. If there was a time to use it, it would be now. I've even marked a suggested area on the map that will get you all 3 Arodeths and none of your friends.
ref:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7 ref:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 ref:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 That is nothing short of amazing...
The Arodeths are so fixated on Blan and Hakime that they do not even see the dwarf until the bead of fire shoots from his fingers and explodes, engulfing them all in flame. Van's finishes off the Arodeth in front of Hakime with a scorching ray, and Hakime redirects her shots at the one before Blan. Only one of her arrows hit, but it sinks deep into her flank.
Seeing that Blan is about to get ganged up on, Shaine grants Blan his request for a lightning resistance spell just moments before the two Arodeths set upon him with their crackling lighting staffs.
The first Arodeth twirls her staff around in one hand while chanting and tracing an arcane symbol in the air with the other.
concentration:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 spellcombat:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19 pain:1d6 + 3 - 3 + 4d6 ⇒ (3) + 3 - 3 + (5, 6, 1, 6) = 21
As she chants, her staff grows white and cold, and she smashes Blan on the head with it. The staff itself does not hurt much, but the chill from her spell numbs him to the bone. Staggered 1 round
The other Arodeth shoots a stream of magic missiles into Hakime as she runs up to the paladin.
3d4 + 3 ⇒ (3, 4, 2) + 3 = 12
Round 2
Torrag (Shield, Haste)
Van (Haste)
Hakime (Haste) -12hp
Arodeth Red -36hp
Arodeth Blue -22hp
Arodeth Green -48hp
Twitter (Haste)
Blan (Haste, resist electricity 20, staggered 1 rd) -39hp
Pathfinders are go again. Blan is staggered this round. Hakime has an Arodeth in front of her.
Twitter and Blan up for round 2, the rest up for round 3.
Ok, that will be enough. Twitter PMed me two rounds of actions, and I assume she will go for Blue first.
Twitter does more of her thing that she does, and combined with Van's magic missiles, the Arodeth attacking Hakime falls. No longer threatened, Hakime directs all her attacks at the last Arodeth and takes her down.
1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
You have 4 rounds before more Arodeths come. You can buff, heal or do anything else you want in those rounds, including leave to find more anchors.
Ok guys, this is the situation. The house still needs more anchor and vault successes to survive. At this stage, neither option is better than the other. The next poster can decide for the group whether to go for the 5th anchor, fight more Arodeths or try to negotiate with the real Arodeth. Same warning - if you fail to persuade the real one, she is likely to attack you.
You know what? if things are this bad, I'm going for divide and conquer. I've got a couple of boons I can burn to help on skill checks. I'm also going to use some abilities that will reveal some of my secrets, so I wanna fly this solo. Worst case, if I don't get enough successes, I'll come back out to ask for help.
Sean, we're going to blitz this in a private channel. I see you on discord, so you better not be afk.
"You guys heal up and get ready to keep fighting the crazy-women. I'm going to see if I can't talk some sense into the main crazy woman! If I don't come out... well if I don't come out we're all probably screwed anyway. You guys rest up here and and wish me luck!"
Twitter grabs the pouch at Hakime's waist and flies into the room beyond.
Ok, crazy bird wants to fly solo, if she dies it's her own funeral. Don't expect me to pull punches if you fail.
For the rest of you, post what you do in the four rounds before the next combat. Feedback from some of the other table GMs is that their tables are focusing on anchors, so we should focus on vault successes anyway.
Shaine sighs as he opens a hole in your private battlefield to let Twitter out.
"Normally I'd caution against this sort of behaviour, but desperate times..."
The rest of you have 4 rounds of actions to prepare for the next wave. At the end of the fourth round, the walls of the room shimmer again, and more Arodeth copies emerge from the walls to do battle with you.
"Be CAREFUL, Twitter!" Hakime tells the bird before Twitter flies off. Even though the pouch and bird were light, Hakime feels the lack of burden as a palpable weight in her worry for her little friend. "Go with the blessings of Erastil, may your words fly straight and true to their target, little friend." Hakime says as a blessing after Twitter is gone.
Shall we remain here or go after another anchor, friends? I'm leaning toward going for an anchor if it won't take us too long to get there... "
The green dome overhead ripples and flexes, visibly weakened but still present. The same woman’s voice from earlier booms from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“This… this isn’t what I wanted. I wanted a world with purpose again—with certainty. But I suppose there is no greater way to die than in the same fiery cataclysm that marked Aroden’s first step toward divinity. Join me in martyrdom, Pathfinders, and try to die with some dignity.”
Tables, we no longer need any anchors successes! All that's left is to retake the vault!
That's your four rounds, Hakime. If Blan is going to receive anymore healing, it will need to be from someone else.
Round 1
Van
Torrag
Blan (resist electricity 20) -23hp
Hakime
Arodeth Red
Arodeth Blue
Arodeth Green
Hakime still needs to post her actions for round 1. The rest of you can post your 4 rounds of actions before round 1, and then your actions for round 1. Check the map for where the new Arodeth copies are.
Edit: Things are... "interesting" on the other side of the wall. Twitter has used her best skills, and now needs to rely on luck and creativity. I think her player is sweating right now. *Evil GM laugh*
Well, whatever Twitter did when she went in alone has been resolved, for better or worse. You will find out what the result is in a few rounds. Right now, you are fighting Arodeths and have no idea what is going on with her.
Round 1
Van
Torrag
Blan (resist electricity 20) -23hp
Hakime
Arodeth Red
Arodeth Blue
Arodeth Green
Blan, Van and Torrag have 4 rounds of actions before the Arodeth copies appear in round 1. Blan is still in need of healing
I also still need actions from all of you for round 1.
Twitter, I want no posts from you until the round I specified.
Your personal copy of Kreighton Shaine will be traveling with you, but he is not much of a warrior in his current condition, nor can he help you with skills. He can cast any combination of the following spells up to a maximum combined spell level total of 6, at CL 10. He will need protection, and if you allow him to die, you will lose a valuable source of information and assistance. Use him wisely. 4th—greater invisibility, solid fog, wall of stone
3rd—fly, haste, tongues
2nd—bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, resist energy
1st—enlarge person, identify, shield
Can I post if it's not about the persuasion attempt? I just want to suggest that it would be a good idea to use Shaine to cast enlarge person on Blan before the fight, and then haste on the group in round 1. If we're low on time, we might as well burn everything we have left to maximise our damage.
0 init:0 perp:+9 hp: 83/83 dr 3; 17\18 rounds of rage ac16 cmd 20 saves fort: +10 reflex +3 will +3 reroll 1\1.
Blanmieux resists partially the cold attack because of his natural resistance to cold.
If we have soo much buff... I will need this to do this fight fatigued for receving the enlarge and the haste. My fatigue always come for one minute and that there the down side of superstition. Always rolling for any spell. Anyways once again, the + and - in my strength null themselve. Normal Ac15 touch 9.
Blanmieux's hands trouble a little after the fight. He search to body of the clones if there potions he can drink of some sort or magic item to wear. But
Ok... I should be good without been angry right?
M Gnome Arcanist 6 - HP 38/38 - AC 16/T: 15/FF: 13 - Perception: +1; Darkvision 60 ft. - Fort: +6, Ref: +7, Will: +6 (+2 vs. Illusions) - CMB: +2, CMD 15 - Speed 20 ft. - Init. +3
Battle Prep:
With Shaine offering to cast Haste in Van's stead, the Arcanist uses his arcane reservoir to switch that spell with Lightning Bolt. He then consumes another 1st level spell slot to renew a single portion of his reservoir pool.
Combat: Round 1
Van uses Dimensional Slide to place him in the perfect space to sent a Lightning Bolt at the two images on the south side of the room.
ref:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 ref:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 fort:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15 Their unluckiness continues to amaze me.
Van relocates himself and sends a lightning bolt over the two Arodeths to the south. Torrag catches the Arodeth to the North in an acidic cloud, slowing her down a little. The giant Blan cuts down Arodeth Blue and Hakime puts 2 arrows in Arodeth Green.
Surprised by the ferocity of your opening round, the Arodeths charge up their darkwood staffs and rush forward to do battle! Red fires a ray of fire at Hakime.
scorch:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26 confirm:1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 - 2 = 15Just barely saved by the sickened effect from Torrag's cloud. damage:4d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 6, 3) = 16
Hakime cries out in pain as the ray of fire nails her in the gut, burning her, but fortuantely, the effects of Torrag's acidic cloud prevents the Arodeth copy from scoring a critical hit.
Green 5ft steps to Blan and attempts to cast a spell as she spins her staff in one hand.
concentration:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15 staff:1d20 + 8 - 2 ⇒ (3) + 8 - 2 = 9
She curses as she loses her spell, and in that moment also loses her focus on her attack, completely missing Blan.
Shaine withdraws to a corner of the room.
"I've given you all the help I can in my current state. It's all up to you now!"
Round 2
Van
Torrag
Blan (resist electricity 20) -23hp
Hakime -16hp
Arodeth Red (sickened) -9hp
Arodeth Green -37hp
Blue is down, Blan managed to get through this round unhurt, and Hakime narrowly avoided a critical scorching ray. Truly Desna is with you today.
Pathfinders, actions for round 2 please. Hakime, take an extra hasted shot from round 1.
Blan's first strike misses, but his second splits the last Arodeth in two.
It looks like the house is still behind on Vault successes and has very few days left, so I'm going to push us into the next fight, until the house gets enough successes to avoid the meteor. Most of the other tables are doing the same.
1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 4 rounds again till the next wave. Blan will still be large and you will still be hasted. Twitter will rejoin the group.
Moments after the last Arodeth falls, you see Shaine reopening a small hole in the wall of your private battlefield to admit Twitter. She looks quite pleased with herself.
I will let Twitter give her report of what happened.
Soon after, however, more Arodeths begin to emerge from the walls. The pathfinders have not recovered control of the Sky Key Vault yet!
0 init:0 perp:+9 hp: 83/83 dr 3; 17\18 rounds of rage ac16 cmd 20 saves fort: +10 reflex +3 will +3 reroll 1\1.
Blanmieux will rest.... and just before they came back. He is no longer fatigue. He rage and take a damage stance. You want maximum, you will have maximum
Round one
Blanmieux will suggest to torrag to step out a little than he will do a 5 foot toward blue. And attempt to slice her into meat.
"I did it, guys! The real Arodeth is going to help us get back home! Errm... problem is, these copies of Arodeth are copies of her from before I spoke to her and want to get in her way, so we gotta take them out. Say... does anyone else feel this place getting warmer? I wonder if it's because oh gosh there's more of them!"
Twitter fixes her pouch back at Hakime's waist, and trusting Blan and
Blan, think if you take a 5ft directly to the right, you can full attack blue anyway, and still cover Hakime from green. Wanna just do that?
Twitter reckons that even if Blue survives Blan's attacks, Van's lightning bolt will probably finish it off. She instead works her magic on green as she appears to be the biggest threat to Hakime.
