Palace of the Vampire Queen (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

"And how much to buy out her contract?"

“You are interested in buying her loan? Yes, we can discuss that. Now at full term, I stand to make nine hundred silver pieces on the terms of the loan. I am invested for fifteen hundred, and no payments have been made,” Olok strokes his beard, leans back and looks toward the ceiling for a moment.

“To be fair, the girl won’t be capable of working hard enough to make that much money in one year, and I’m not interested in putting her to work in shameful ways. Here is my offer. I’ll sell you this loan, right now, for an initial payment of one thousand silver pieces, and a second payment of another one thousand in six month’s time. I’ll release the indenture clause, return the girl to her mother, and in exchange you, or someone willing, takes her place on the contract. This means,” he leans forward, “You agree to one year of indentured labor, on one of my ships doing the trade routes, should the terms of the loan be unfulfilled.”

Moralane cannot buy Atharessa’s services, she belongs, technically, to Sir Guisse, and if he should find out about this loan, he would probably imprison, at hard labor, Atharessa’s entire family, to pay the loan off himself. Moralane, as a family member of House Vessocho, is unlikely to care about the matters of House Guisse.

“I’ll pay the thousand, now,” Moralane whispers into Hallister’s ear. ”But the rest comes out of whatever share she earns in the next six months. We need her, and she isn’t, well, never mind. I’ll get the money and be back as quickly as I can, but please, tell no one where the money came from, please.”

Rownig simply listens to the conversation from afar, keeping an eye on everything that is happening. Rownig previously indicated he would be willing to put his share into the purchase. The only thing he really needs from a gear POV is more parchment and ink for the new cleric, Windel.

Provided I hear Moralane's offer...
"I will sign on for the service."

Make a Perception Check, DC 15 to overhear what Moralane whispers to Hallister

Not sure if I'm close enough to overhear Moralane but if I can here is the roll.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

that's a tough call, for me, Rownig. You are, technically outside of a modestly crowded restaurant trying to overhear a whispered conversation at a table some twenty feet away. For you, I think there isn't a way to hear the conversation, and a Perception roll of 20+ would indicate you "read the lips" of Moralane and understood most of what she was saying, but you didn't roll high enough. You do know, with the 17, that she did whisper something that seemed important, by the expression on Hallister's face.

Let's let Mazrim make the Perception roll, and adjust his response as he might need to, and let's see what Hallister has to say.

I think we can wrap this side story up this weekend, introduce the new Goblin PC before Sunday, and get to the Dungeon on Monday. I'm excited to start describing the "Palace" and see who the party deals with the monster encounters.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
guess I missed that so...
"Would you give me a little time to come up with that sum?

Okay, Moralane is kind of counting on Hallister to pass on the word that HE can get the money, and she will duck out quietly. If Hallister is not okay with this arrangement, someone will have to think of something else.

No problem not hearing, I figured it would be stretch.

Sorry, been busy the last two days. I didn't expect to play a big roll in this conversation. Didn't mean to hold the game up.

"Done." Hal says curtly, nodding. "Lass, ye know where I keep the coin. Fetch th' man his money." he says to Moralane.

Moralane hurries off. Again time passes in awkward silence, and when Moralane returns she has 1000 silver pieces. Contracts are Signed.
Olok sends one of his men off with instructions, spoken out loud so as it is clear, that the young girl is to be returned, escorted no less, to her mother.

He thanks you for your business, and then says, “I’ve had my full and I take my leave of you gentlemen. Good luck to you.”

With this business concluded you are ready to set out for the Palace of the Vampire Queen. I will assume that you intend to leave right away. You report to Hallister’s leader, and he gives his approval to the makeup of this group and then introduces you to a Goblin.

“This is Miaqnik, and he has some experience in the areas you are headed into. He knows a few of the local dialects, and will be useful to you, once you enter the Tomb of the Goblin Kings. Good Luck, and may you find your final destination at the end of your journeys.”

Without any further ado, you can introduce yourselves, ask a few questions, and then I will move you along to the entrance of the dungeon. Do you have all of your gear? Good. Everyone receives 1000 experience points for getting to this point.

The only thing I would have done is purchase some more parchment (10 to 20 Sheets) and ink for Windel.

"Good t'meet yer acquaintance Miaqnik." The beefy hand extends to the goblin. "Me name is Windel."

"Aye dat be da truth glad to have a guide. Names Rownig."

"Hallister." The pale-eyed dwarf grunts. "Welcome aboard."

"Weclome, my name is Mazrim."

The Goblins eye twitched as his name was slightly mispronounced by Windel. He extends his clawed hand to the Dwarf and grasps it, while shaking his head vigorously.

"MI, AG, NIK. Miagnik. Not Miaqnik. Like Miagik!" He turns his his head toward Rowning and the others and grins at them. "I guide you all. Yes."

Windel shrugs slightly, "Dats what I said Miaqnik." He watches the goblins reaction while he tries to hold back his grin.

Miagnik looks at Wendel like he can't believe what he's hearing. He scratches at his head and gestures wildly at the Dwarf. "Gaaah!! No no no! Miagnik!" After a few more seconds of flailing, he seems to calm down and give up on the Dwarf.

He looks at the others with a bit more hope in his eyes. "Miagnik... will help you all explore the Outogal Hollow, where the water flows upward... and then maybe we become friends, yes?" As he spoke his face went from serious to a more cheerful expression.

"Let's get walkin' time's a bit short right now." The stealthy dwarf will one of his usual positions either point or act as rear guard. While Windel will center the line.

Your party,

Hallister
Rownig
Mazrim
Atharesssa
Moralane
Windel
And
Miaqnik

Hikes back along the same trail as before, skirting the small river, climbing up the rocks at the little water fall, avoiding encounters with hostile Goblins, and for a few hours drops by and checks on Azram and Luca at the mining camp.

All is well at the mining camp and you are impressed to see how the place is coming along. The undead that were gathered here have been placed in a pit just outside of the camp walls.

You made better time, because you are familiar with the way, and you set out for the rest of your journey.

You head almost directly south, avoiding Eight Fountain Springs completely. It takes you a couple of hours to cross the valley floor, and you come to the southern end of the grassy plain, and find yourselves at the base of Betthras Mountain.

It is the tallest peak in the Varidau mountain range. It rises to just over eight thousand feet above the sea (here it is only six thousand feet above the valley).

You follow a Goblin trading route up the north face of the mountain for several hours, until nightfall, and then find a safe camp site under a rock overhang.

In the morning you head to the west, seeming to go away from the mountain, but it is only a short diversion, in order to reach a pass that leads to the southern face of the mountain, and then you begin a steady climb that is a combination of walking at a severe angle uphill and occasionally hand over foot climbing, but nothing that requires ropes.

You end the second day only a short way from where Miaqnik is certain the entrance will be found, and you camp for the night.

On the third day of your journey, setting out as soon as the sun rises, you climb some more, and the hike around a face of the mountain you cannot climb, and then you see it.

You are on a flat part of the mountain. The peak is above you another three hundred feet or so. It is cool here, and dry. The wind howls. A stream, small but fast, flows out of a pool where a natural spring bubbles out of the rocks, and as the stream curves away from you and heads down the mountain, here, because of the way the sides of the mountain close in around you, it appears that the water is running uphill.

This is the place where the water must rise before it falls.

To the left of the pool, there is a shallow cave, only ten feet deep, and it looks like it would be a safe place to camp, if you do not find the entrance to the palace.

You cross the stream just below the pool and hike a few dozen yards around the edge of the mountain. For a time, the path grows narrow, and has a dangerous drop off to the southeast. Then in short time you are on another flat area of the mountain. It is an area about one hundred feet across, and thirty feet wide.

In the center of this area, against the mountain are two enormous columns, each ten feet in diameter, and rising to twenty five feet in the air. The columns are plain, no carvings indicate their purpose. Between the columns is an arch, fifteen feet at its peak, and twenty feet wide. There is a dark opening into the mountain beyond the arch.
You have found what you believe is the Tomb of the Goblin Kings, or possibly what it is known as today,

The Palace of the Vampire Queen

The mountain before you is made up of many different mineral deposits. It is chiefly Limestone, but Granite, Marble, and Bentonite, are also in abundance.

Little to nothing grows at this elevation here on the mountain. You see no grasses, flowers, or shrubs, but above you, some hundred feet or so there are a few olive trees.

The opening to this strange place is twenty feet wide, and fifteen feet high at the apex of a gentle arch. Cut and fitted stones, of granite, make up the framework, including the arch and this “Entrance” is flanked by the two columns you saw earlier that stand to either side of the entrance.

The ground here is level, and transitions from the natural soil covered surface of the mountain just outside of the entrance, to a smooth, flat, worked stone floor beyond. The flagstones that make up the floor are each about two and a half feet square and they are not fitted close together, making the floor somewhat uneven in places.

The tunnel, or Palace Entrance, goes north, into the mountain.

Standing at the entrance you can see that the passageway continues straight back into the mountain for as far as you can see. It remains the same width (20’) and the ceiling height here is about twelve feet (12’). The walls of the passage, to either side, are carved directly from the mountain itself, and include decorative square ‘column’ like features every twenty feet, that extend from the floor to the ceiling. You can see that these columns protrude away from the walls about two feet, meaning that a person could, conceivably, gain partial cover from missile attacks if they were to stand against the wall next to one of these columns.

Thirty feet beyond the entrance of the Palace, on both walls to the east and west you can see what appear to be sets of massive stone doors. The doors are recessed away from the walls by nearly a foot and have frames made from cut and fitted stones placed against the walls of the mountain. Each set of doors is a pair of solid stone doors four feet wide and seven feet high. The passage continues on past these doors, to the north, into the darkness.

What do you do?

Before entering the passageway Rownig will check for traps. If he believes there are no traps he will proceed forward hugging the left wall, if he can until he gets within five feet (5 ft) of the doors on his left.

checking for traps taking 20: 1d20 + 20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 20 + 9 = 49

He has his two hand axes in hand utilizing his two weapon fight technique if it becomes necessary.

Does anyone have cartography as a skill?

I think you made a mistake in your coding there, Rownig. Looks like our total should be 29, not 49.

I'll take point for the main group, staying about 20' behind Rownig while he scouts ahead.

Hal held his curved-grip, lightwight axe up by the head, crouched low as Rownig checked the tomb. He knew that goblins weren't the worst sorts of things that might be around.

I sure did, that's what happens when I don't proofread it twice.

Windel says a short prayer before he enters, "Lord lead me straight and true, guide my mace to destroy all that is unnatural, and let me render aid to those in need."

Miagnik looked at the Dwarves and then to the halls. His face had a sense of awe and reverence as he gazed upon its walls.

"Rowning."

Rownig responds in Goblin:

"Iyki blayat umkupht"

Moving slowly into the Dungeon, Rownig steps lightly, and watches for tell-tale signs of some well hidden trap, but he doesn’t detect anything of the kind.
When he reaches the sets of double doors on either side of the wide passageway he looks down, further to the north, and feels apprehensive about how it just seems to go on and on into darkness, but as he peers to the north, he begins to see that there may be a four way intersection just near the edge of his vision.
As he approaches the set of double doors on the west wall (the left wall) he can tell that these doors are heavy, and it will probably require two people pushing on one of them just to open it. However, he is happy to see that even though the craftsmanship is better than he would have thought Goblins were capable of, the doors do not fit closely together. There is a gap of a couple of inches between the doors and Rownig can look through the gap and get a feel for what is beyond.

There is a passageway, ten feet wide on the other side of these doors going west some forty feet and ending at another set of double doors similar to the set Rownig is looking through. There are some very strange, carved stone Goblin busts set on pedestals on the south wall of the passageway at intervals every five feet (a bust on a pedestal occupies a square, then there is an empty square, and then another bust, for a total of 4 busts.

I really wish I could get the hang of MapTools, it still confuses me, but I want to try and explain that the “stone doors” here are designed (drawn on my map) so that they are centered in a five foot square. So from the hall where the party is, the doors are recessed a foot or so back from the walls, then they are about a foot thick, and there is another partial square of space before the passageway beyond begins. This means that when a stone door is opened there will always be a five foot square that the characters can stand in where the door was located.

Don't worry too much, you do pretty well in your descriptions, so I'm actually able to tell what the layout of the hallway is. I've been trying to use a similar program for my gaming group when I'm running a game over Skype, but even after several months, it's still a pain to use for all but large scale encounters.

Miagnik watched the Dwarf search the halls and doors and he was glad to know this one, at least, held them with proper respect. It was when Rowning got close to the door that something occurred to Miagnik.

With a look of somewhere between shock mixed with disbelief, Miagnik spun around the group and blurted out: "None here, very strong. Miagnik is not weak for Goblin but not strong either. All but... you." He said pointing to Mazrim. "All but you, weak. Lacking muscle. You help open door."

He then walked up to Mazrim and touched him on the shoulder while speaking words filled with power. "Rhann shagaakloch"

"I wouldn't call everyone weak friend," patting the goblin on the shoulder, "But I think I know what you mean." moving up to the double doors and leaning his ranseur on the wall right beside the door and then looking to Rownig, "Clear?"

Rowwnig search the doors thoroughly timing permitting. Take 20

If he has reason to believe all is clear then, "Clear!"

There doesn't appear to be any traps or tricks built into the door, that Rownig can detect from this side.

As Rownig and Mazrim brace themselves against the large stone door and shove, they are surprised, and almost stumble, when they discover that the door, though certainly massive and made of solid stone, is somehow almost perfectly balanced in frame that surrounds it, and it swings, with far less effort than they were expecting to make.

The door is at least ten inches thick, and must weigh over five hundred pounds, but the two of them soon realize that only one of them, alone, could have opened the door, but when they relax, they also realize that the door is balanced to swing shut again, as soon as it is released.

One of you must hold the door for the others to come through.

Once the door is opened, and Rownig has a clear view of the passage beyond, he notices that something isn’t right. There are signs of fire in this passage, the northern wall, opposite each of the four Goblin bust, all along this passage, is scorched. He looks carefully, and then it becomes obvious that the busts are some kind of trap, and the trigger is several large tiles of the floor.

It looks like it would be impossible to deactivate the trap, but Rownig is confident that he can tell which tiles of the floor are triggers.

The Passage is 40’ long, going west, and ends in another set of doors similar to the ones you have just opened.

Do you proceed? If you do, everyone must follow Rownig as he zigzags down the passage avoiding the triggers in the floor. If you decide to proceed, once you are half way down the Passage, make Perception Checks, please.

Rownigh will begin the complex zigzag path, explaining which ones to walk on.

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

Does anyone have a tower shield?

Neither Windel or Rownig have a tower shield.

That's a negative on the 50 pounds of Wood and iron.

Miagnik is following Rownig. A cautionary but large smile was growing on his face as he recognized what the scorch marks meant.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Mazrim will wait for everyone else before following carefully.
"No, I don't carry any shield Hallister."
perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Moralane and Mazrim, trying their best to follow those ahead of them, fail to step exactly where they should and trigger the trap.

Two separate Goblin Busts spout flaming oil across the witdth of the passage.

the busts are determined randomly Bust #1: 1d4 ⇒ 1 and Bust #2: 1d4 ⇒ 2. Using the party line up described earlier, this would indicate that Rownig is the only character at risk. He is subjected to 2d4 fire damage, and may be set on fire, by the trap. He can roll a Reflex Save, DC 18, for half damage (using his Evasion, he would take No Damage). The Damage is Fire Damage: 2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5. If he avoids the damage then he is not on fire otherwise, he must roll a d6, and on a 1, he is on fire. Other characters that rush to try and extinguish him, if he is on fire, risk setting off the trap again.

In the future Rownig will step, bend down and chalk mark the square to step in. He will put one of his two hand axes away, and pull out his chalk in order to perform this action.

"Whoa...watch where ya be steppin', follow my tracks!"

reflex save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

The nimble dwarf curses that someone triggered the trap but he deftly avoids the fire damage. "Club foot, watch whatcha doin'!

"Sonofa!" Hal curses, shielding his eyes from the sudden flames.

"This ain't a good idea." he says holding up a hand to stop the others. "You a'right, Rownig? How much weight y' figure it takes t' trigger them pressure plates?"

There's a lot of us, about half of us are lacking in the Perception department and have lowish Reflex saves. The odds are very against us. I think we should approach this a different way.

"It's more of where ye step, I'm markin' th' path now...should've done it t'start wit." He motions for everyone to stay put, [b]I'm half way there, let me make the path and check it out...stay put." Is he half way there? I took some liberties with that, I suppose.

"Bah, who in their right mind thinks these things up? Sorry Rownig I'm not really built for all this tip toeing around."

"Most of us aren't. We need t' out think this, or we're lookin' at a lot o' burn scars."

In pondering the trap scenario Rownig tries to figure out if he can exhaust the available fuel by leaving a heavy object on a triggering stone.

traps: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Experimenting can be tricky, but judging by what has already happened, it looks as though it might work, that way, anyway. Each burst of flaming oil is triggered by a depression of a stone, and the stone must reset before it will trigger again and it sure seems like the four statues will trigger, individually per single activation, randomly. However, if everyone stands beside a statue, and reaches out and touches a trigger stone, one after another,pushing down hard with a foot, causing repeated random statue “flame-belching” you might exhaust the oil supply. But you have no way of knowing how much oil there really is, so how long will it take? It takes a good amount of weight (more than the weight of a Goblin steep maybe) to trigger the trap, so finding heavy objects and triggering every floor stone, of which there are twenty, might be another option, but again, it would take a lot of time.

Rownig is five feet from the set of doors at the west end of the passage. Hallister is 15 or 20 feet behind him, so at the middle of the passageway. The others are between Hallister and the east end of the passageway just inside the open door (which is slowly closing now, because no one took any measures to keep it open).

If Rowning works his way back down the passage, marking every safe place to step, you can proceed without any further chance of activating the trap, but this will take him one “Turn”*

I will be tracking time in the dungeon by “Turns” which are ten minutes in game time. I will try, form her on out, to place a number at the beginning of my posts that represents the current turn. Characters, obviously, have no way of keeping track of time, but this should help the players keep track of the passing of time. Please try not to abuse this.

To avoid anymore triggering missteps Rownig will back tract and mark each safe step for his group. he will spend as much time as necessary to safely mark the path. "Y'all need t'wait till I'm done"