Poe, Anchor of Tem |
Poe travels with Tem keeping his eyes and ears open for traps and guards.
perception;: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23 He will be trying to keep lookout as we explore. Let me know when you want rolls, or roll them yourself.
Sajna |
Sajna follows Poe and Tem, glad to be on the move at last.
“I can blast through the locks if need be, but I wouldn’t want to be doing that without someone casting silence first. Best to only be relying on that trick once.” she whispers.
“Where are we thinking the old man is being held?” she adds, glancing down the corridor.
Shera Dionas |
Shera responds to Sajna, I would think he'd be with the rest of the prisoners. We should try to figure out how to make things silent back here. Remember one of the guards mentioned it. Might make things easier if they can't hear us doing what we need to do."
She listens at the door.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Cornelia glances at the locks. "Leave those to me. Perhaps Poe, Tem, and I can handle the searching of the offices while the rest of you find our man?" She immediately begin picking the locks of the door.
Disable Device: 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ (12) + 14 + (6) = 32
Shifty |
3d20 ⇒ (19, 18, 3) = 40
A smoldering fireplace illuminates this room, casting red light over a massive corner desk littered with disorganized papers. A seven-foot-tall statue of a four-horned fiend with a burning crown overlooks the desk from the corner.
The sharp-eyed investigators note several things of interest-
The desk hosts a jumbled mess of interrogation schedules, prisoner transfers, and Loyalty Day agendas, but Vexin identifies three noteworthy documents.
* One is a copy of The Asmodean Disciplines, bookmarked to a chapter on
crime and punishment with a handwritten note (Player Handout #1).
* The second document is a twine-bound set of instructions for activating the prison’s soundproofing mechanism. The manual notes that there are prisms that emit light when active, and they create a wall of magical silence between any two prisms with an uninterrupted line of effect to one another. No sound passes through this border, but if an object, creature, or wall disrupts the border, the entire effect ends until the obstruction is removed. There are also two keys attached to the binding.
* The third is a letter addressed to the chief interrogator from the Nail’s ranking officer addressing the declining efficacy of reports exposing political enemies provided by Zarta Dralneen (Player Handout #2).
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Cornelia quickly grabs the letter regarding Zarta's assistance and shoves it into her backpack. She then takes the other two documents along as they instructions could come in handy while the third is clearly of some import, but what yet she cannot tell.
Leaving behind the office, she rushes over to her companions and shoves the two documents and one of the keys in their hands. "What are you waiting for? Get in there! I'm going to search this other room over there." She points down the hallway towards the east. She then downs one of her elixirs and she appearance shifts and changes to appear like the guard they spotted in the archives before turning on her heels and moving to the
Using Disguise Self to attempt to imitate the female guard.
Disguise: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
Shifty |
Disguised as the female guard, Cornelia makes her way through the hall.
She realises she has arrived at a vault, and takes some time to admire the iron door and notes it has an inset wheel for a lock. The numerals one through nine embellish the wheel’s edge, with the number one set in the uppermost position beneath a stone arrow.
Roldala Chainbiter |
Roldala doesn't appreciate being snapped at overmuch, and goes to follow Cornelia once the coast is clear.
Of course they hide the answer in bad poetry.
Seven, Four, Three, Eight, Two, Six, Five, Nine, One.
As she calls out the numbers, she rotates the lock around to match.
Shera Dionas |
Shera takes the keys and documents and heads for the double doors to the south. She tries to look like a guard in her outfit and hopefully opens the doors with the keys.
"Come on let's get this opened."
Roldala Chainbiter |
Roldala glares at Sajna as though searching her face for some mockery, before she shrugs and looks away. They're not really the smartest ones in the room. They just act like it.
Shifty |
Roldala inputs the code on the dial, and as Desna would have it, she hears the satisfying click of the lock disengaging. After satisfying herself that it is safe to do so, she opens the door.
Dozens of carefully organized codices and scrolls fill the stone shelves carved into the walls, each labelled with names and sigils hammered into small brass placards over each niche. Two statues of humanoid fiends holding red-flamed torches monitor the room from the corners. Two open chests on either side of the door hold jumbles of unsorted documents, but a third chest in the far corner remains closed.
***
Shera heads south by herself out of sight of the party and opens the double doors to the prison.
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Cornelia looks a bit shocked at how quickly Rondala works out the combination to the door, but pats the half-orc on the back with a smile. "Nicely done." They enter the room together and Cornelia will immediately go over to the closed chest and examine it. Is it locked? "Rondala, would you please look through those documents and see if you can locate anything of import?"
Perception check for traps: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20
Disable Device: 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ (17) + 14 + (3) = 34
Shifty |
Cornelia finds no traps in the room.
The shut corner chest stores the Nail’s monetary assets for covering basic expenditures, holding an assortment of Chelish-minted gold and silver coins.
The documents contain information on Cheliax’s numerous political targets extracted from the Nail’s interrogation sessions. Some of these documents provide blackmail material
Three documents stand out in particular.
The first two are interrogation reports filed in the section marked with the Aspis Consortium’s sigil (Player Handouts #3 and #4). The other is in a chest that stores a mound of Zefiro’s unaltered Chelish histories, including one annotated lineage amendment torn from its binding and left atop the pile (Player Handout #5).
The former two reveal that Ianareth Alazario collaborates with the Aspis Consortium, that an Aspis agent named Kitio Aspenthi is active in Thuvia, and that the Bell of Obedience stolen from the Society years back was recently sold to the Hellknight Order of the Rack
The third document reveals that, although she was raised a Dralneen, Zarta is in fact the last known blood descendant of House Davian, former rulers of the greater Hellcoast region and the most powerful noble house to oppose the rise of House Thrune (and thus be obliterated after Thrune signed its infernal pact).
These documents would probably be of interest to Dark Archive or Sov Court
***
Meanwhile, Shera explores the prison.
The stink of unwashed bodies permeates this narrow corridor, illuminated by violet prisms set into sconces on the inner corners. Iron bars isolate the hall’s outer perimeter, where the walls are lined with manacles set into the stone. Dozens of filthy prisoners lie behind the bars, each one wearing a sign around his or her neck bearing an identification number, a crime, a red “X” next to the word “Interrogation,” and a release date. Two sets of iron double doors lead deeper into the building.
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Cornelia is not interested in the coins, but rather the information gleaned from the documents. She passes over the money to Rondala to distribute as she sees fit. The Dark Archives investigator reads over the information and smiles as she finds the inform tying Ianareth to the Aspis Consortium. "This is exactly the sort of information we need on her. I am sure the Decemvirate and Lady Dralneen would be very interested." She continues to read on and the next document gives Cornelia pause. She blinks several times and her head twitches to one side briefly Anyone with Cornelia can attempt a Perception DC 20 to read the spoiler below. She closes her eyes tightly for a moment, then rereads the document rapidly. "I can see now why the Infernals would want this information destroyed." She whispers and begins putting the documents into her backpack. "I think we have what we need. Let us find Zefiro and begone!"
Tem, the First and Last |
Into the prison itself; Tem nods to the others. "I'll follow a little behind, uniform or not, a phantasmal guard will be out of place."
Poe, Anchor of Tem |
Poe starts exploring the prison, walking quietly and hoping to hear any other guards before they see him.
perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24
stealth: 1d20 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 7 + 10 = 26
Cornelia d'Malheur |
"They have some of his documentation here, so I would assume he is within the prison area." With that information in hand she leaves behind the office to rejoin Sheera. "We have not much time."
Roldala Chainbiter |
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Roldala doesn't notice anything new amiss with Cornelia, and hustles over to join Shera in her rescue efforts. Readying her hammer she adds, I'll open any chains or locks that key won't.
Roldala Chainbiter |
Roldala will begin shattering the restraints of the prisoners. Adamantine Lucerne hammer should make most of those into a one-swing wonder
Where is Zeffiro? The historian? Do any of you know?
Shifty |
The clang of metal on metal echoes through the halls beautifully as the chains begin to break. The prisoners look pretty concerned... "No need for that" one replies nervously.
Omne of the prisoners responds to the questioning "If he's not in here, he's probably in the interrogation chamber" the man gestures towards the next set of double doors.
Sajna |
Sajna follows the others into the main holding area of the prison.
“We should see to Zefario soon only, we don’t have much time left.”
She nervously fingers the strap of her musket, hoping she won’t need to use it.
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Cornelia shakes her head. "Forget them, Roldala. We do not have time for this." She will continue to the next set of doors and examines them.
Perception for traps: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Shera Dionas |
Shera gives the prisms some study before meeting the others, "Have we seen any other prisms around? We seem to be missing two. We can also grab the two of the north side and put them on the south side to keep that end quiet of all sounds."
"We're not here to liberate the entire prison. Let's get who we came to get, and get out of this place." Shera hurries to the others.
Roldala Chainbiter |
Fine, Roldala fulminates. Once Shera has done what she wants with the crystals, Roldala heaves open the next set of doors.
Shifty |
Cornelia and Roldala push open the doors...
Barbed chains hang like streamers from the pyramidal ceiling of this large chamber. Several chains wind around the room’s grooved, bloodstained central column. Each corner of the room bears an iron statue of a regal, four-horned devil standing over a network of winches wound with the wicked chains. Light pours in from a dirty pentagram-shaped skylight set in the roof’s highest point, casting a shadow of Asmodeus’s unholy symbol crisscrossed with chains over the stone floor.
You can see a number of people are gagged and secured onto the central column by the room’s spiked chains.
Roldala Chainbiter |
Roldala squeezes the haft of her hammer till it groans beneath her fingers. Her face is pale as she looks at the all too familiar apparatus, but she still manages to keep a healthy dose of venom in her voice as she asks Shera, Should we leave them too?
Sajna |
Sajna will help Shera to quickly reposition the prisms before the interrogation chamber is opened, if that’s the plan. Once the pyramidal room is opened, the gunslinger stands in quiet horror at the sight beyond the door.
”This is not right.” is all she can manage to say.
Shera Dionas |
"No I don't think we'll leave them. This I cannot stand for. Those outside where in here for petty crimes and out in a few days. This, this is something else entirely. Let's get them down." She looks for a way to release them.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Perception Take 10: 10 + 12 + 1d6 ⇒ 10 + 12 + (3) = 25 Burning an Inspiration point on this one and Taking 10. I don't want to chance rolling low.
At Sajna's suggestion that the area could be trap, Cornelia steps forward and begins checking the area for any sign of such devices...
Cornelia d'Malheur |
Is it possible to get to the two statues flanking the door without interacting with the activating mechanism? If so, Cornelia will start with those two. Let me know if I need to do an Acrobatics check or something for this.
Disable Device Take 10: 10 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ 10 + 14 + (3) = 27
Disable Device Take 10: 10 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ 10 + 14 + (3) = 27
Cornelia spots the trap and what she believes to be point of disarming. She takes a steadying breath, pulls her hair back into a tight tail at the back of her head, and then steps carefully into the room after removing her well-made set of thieves tools from a pouch on her belt. She takes her time and focuses on task at hand...