PbP GameDay 2: PFS (module) The Midnight Mirror (3-5) with GM Endless Forms (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

Bizzle does have a Scroll of Continual Flame if that helps. He can cast that on whatever you'd like.

Bizzle will purchase an Oil of Daylight, just in case the trick is needed. He can always pour it on whatever or let one of the fighter types have it.

Is everyone ready to head to the Mirror then? I'll move us along to the next scene if you are all ready.

I may shop for one or two items, but will just post what they are if I have time to do it. But I'm ready to go.

I think I'm ready. Once more into the mirror, dear friends, once more!

Bizzle will use his wand of Mage Armor before stepping into the Mirror and will allow others to use it if they can benefit from it. He has the Oil of Daylight mentioned previously with him as well as a scroll with the following spells : darkvision, flame sphere and protection from evil (communal). 750gp for the oil and 450gp more for the scroll.

I'm back, and I'm ready to go into the mirror.

When the party is ready, Stepan shows you to the stairs that lead to the basement, telling you that the Midnight Mirror can be found down there, although he fears to accompany you and has not been down there himself in ages.

As you descends, you see that the walls of the dark chamber below are lined with hooks, knives, and other instruments of pain. A steel altar, encrusted with dried blood and graven runes, sits in the room's center. Behind the altar stands an iron maiden, whose cover depicts a woman in a bridal veil and dress.

From the iron maiden you hear a voice, "And who is it that approaches my resting place? Do you come to pray to the Midnight Lord before the Bride of Zon Kuthon?" You think that the figure of the woman on the iron maiden is moving but quickly realize that it is an incorporeal spirit, identical to the one depicted on the device's front, exiting to look at you. Her form appears to have once been quiet beautiful, although her spirit body still retains the scars from her many mortifications in service to the Midnight Lord.

Hiram clears his throat. "I'm afraid not, Miss. We're here to see the Mirror. May we go about our business?"

Terrill grins a bit at Hiram’s answer and stands ready to draw his blade if the scarred spectral beauty means to do them harm. ”Pity the baron didn’t mention this little detail,” he mutters quietly.

Oh ho! Would you look at that? Bizzle is quite taken by the unexpected image. What is it? Does anyone have a guess?

Fredrik just shakes his head sadly.

Given what the strange spirit has said, it occurs to Terrill that he may know something about this apparition.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Wilhelm is taken aback a little by the apparition, but decides to try and speak with it. "And you must be the bride of Zon Kuthon? Pray tell me miss, we seek entrance through this mirror... if you don't mind, that is."

"Why yes, I am the Bride of Zon Kuthon, the only one loyal enough imprison myself in both constant torment and constant ecstasy for three weeks before I joined my Master, the Midnight Lord. You seek the Mirror, though? Interesting. It lies through that door. But why do you seek it? Why should I let you access it?"

Diplomacy checks will be needed before she either allows you to pass or gives you any more information.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

"Miss, we seek to undo a terrible deed done by the Baron. It is only with your blessing that we seek to enter the mirror and retrieve the brothers the Baron has sent therein."

"My friend speaks truly. See, the Baron - in a misguided attempt to ensure his power - sent some poor souls to meet an unfortunate fate with Nicasor - the man in the mirror."

Wilhelm's fingers lightly touch on the mirror shard given to him by the Baron. "So miss, we humbly ask your leave to go about our goodly duties this day. We would appreciated it ever so much."

Diplomacy: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Cue sad trombone sound.

Three weeks? Bizzle blurts out loud and blinks rapidly at the thought. Umm, anyway, yes, we seek to enter the mirror as we have been entrusted with a mission of rescue, or something!

Auto success to Aid Another (Hiram) with +9 Diplo

Being too honest is not necessarily a good thing here. Guard your words, its one of the cursed! Fredrik whispers harshly but low so only his companions can hear.

"Ah, yes, Stepan. He has grown up to be a weak, irreligious lord; I've never thought much of him; certainly the most disappointing of my nephews. It is a tragedy that his eldest brother-the strong, charismatic, and ruthless Iozif-died young. It would not surprise me that Stepan would have done some, as you say, terrible deed that needs correcting."

"But you say his brothers are within the mirror? Can that be true? I suppose it always surprised me that Iozif and Henric were taken by their illnesses so quickly that they were never brought to my shrine for healing. But you imply that Stepan put his very own brothers in the mirror in order to ensure his own ascent to the throne? Well, perhaps Stepan deserves more respect than what I have given him. He may be stronger than I had supposed."

"And yet his brother is the rightful heir. If you say you are going into the mirror to rescue him, I will allow you to pass. In fact, if you will allow me but an hour to pray to the Midnight Lord I will prepare several spells to aid the living. If you are not in need of this now, you may be when. . . if. . . you make it out of the mirror. I will be waiting."

The vault beyond holds the midnight mirror, sitting in a ritual circle of silver runes, with an everburning torch at each cardinal direction. The mirror stands unsupported but chain-bound in the center of the room, several cracks running along its smooth surface.

Hiram bows to the iron maiden and thanks the spirit for her graciousness.

"Well, let's do this." He steps to the mirror, touches the glass and pushes.

Terrill is not particularly interested in the gifts the Bride of Zon-Kuthon has to offer, and moves to join Hiram at the mirror. He steps into the runic circle and draws his blade. He holds it in his right hand, while his left hand reaches up to touch the mirror's cracked surface.

Wilhelm follows behind Hiram. He hums and half-sings a song under his breath, "Mirror in the bathroom please don't..."

As the party enters the Midnight Mirror, you appear in a room similar to the one you just exited. A chain-bound mirror, identical to that in the basement vault of Boroi Manor, stands unsupported in a small, stone room. The frigid air is thick with a near impenetrable darkness. The only source of light comes from within the mirror itself, the flickering flames from the ring of torches pale silver, as though the illumination had to strain the color from itself to penetrate the darkness here.

Map will be up soon.

Hiram murmurs a few words and his sword, now in his hand, sheds light as a torch.

Terrill pulls a small, magical crystal from his pocket and tosses it into the air, where it begins to orbit his head like a small, glowing moon, giving off a light similar to Hiram's sword.

Casting any spell with the light descriptor requires a concentration check but with a cantrip you can just keep trying until you get it so it's not that big of a deal.

Bizzle will have his wayfinder for a light source, assuming that it will work in here. If no one else requires Mage Armor then Bizzle will stow that wand and retrieve the one for Magic Missile.

Well, lets get this show on the road!

Before entering the mirror Fredrik would like to inspect it and the room, looking for another shard of it. Take 20 for 23 in perception. 2 magic daggers are better than one...

Fredrik will also cast light at the metal point of his spear.

Is it possible to remove an everburning torch from the wall before going in?

Looks like the map is up and the only exit is the door in front of us, right? This assumes that is the case:

Terrill holds a hand up for everyone behind him to be as quiet as they can, then listens carefully at the door and inspects it for anything out of the ordinary, in this most extraordinary place.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

Fredrik does not find any other shards. Bash is able to remove an everburning torch from the wall to take with him.

Terrill leads the way through the sole door. The shelves of the disused room beyond are full of empty bottles, bones, and implements of torture. Two doors stand in the center of the north and west walls, the former adjacent to a set of stairs leading up. An iron maiden stands in the eastern corner of the chamber.

Wow, you think maybe the body of that ghost thingy is in there? Bizzle points to the iron maiden in the room. Maybe one of you religious types can check it out or something.

Bizzle will cast Detect Magic.

"Sounds like a good idea, Bizzle," says Terrill as he steps into the room and turns to face the iron maiden, focusing on it to sense the presence of evil. If he senses nothing, he moves to the door to the west and listens and looks at it.

Detect alignment on iron maiden at east end of room.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

"I don't know. She's offered to help us; I think messing with her corpse would be an insult. Best to carry on."

Instead, he moves to the door and listens carefully. Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

"Hiram, I think, has the right of it. 'Twould be bad form to disturb the sweet bride's resting place, don't you think?" Wilhelm stays close to whoever has light.

I didn't intend to pop open the iron maiden, just wanted to detect alignment on it and see if it's a threat.

Gotcha. Carry on!

No magic or alignment is detected on the iron maiden or elsewhere in the room. And she wouldn't be in there anyways; this is just a reflection of the Manor but she never entered the Mirror. She was just killed in the real iron maiden on the Material Plane and still resides as a ghost there.

The party checks the next door and opens it to reveal six five-foot square alcoves branching off a thirty-foot hallway. Within each stands a six-foot tall sarcophagus of the same shadwy substance as the walls and floors of the chamber.

You say this as if we understand how the shadow world works, EF. I don't know how it works, and Terrill most certainly doesn't. Just keepin' it real (in a fantasy setting on the internet, that is).

Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

"Hmm, this looks a little worrisome," Terrill mutters, "but we're here to check the whole place out." He extends his senses to feel for the presence of evil and magic in the strange hallway and, if he detects none, steps through the doorway.

Detect magic and detect alignment

"I suspect this entire place is going to be worrisome. Or worse. A shadow prison for enemies that the shadow-worshippers thought bad enough to hold? We're definitely in for some horror." Hiram moves to walk beside Terrill.

Can I aid another or cast guidance on Terril's roll. He is just one point short of making the DC. Anyway here is my roll.

Fredrik inspects the scene
A A? Heal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

Sorry, I was just trying to remind you that she died in the real basement so she won't be here in the mirror. This isn't exactly the Shadow Plane anyways, since it's just a pocket dimension within the mirror.

Terrill detects evil in the crypt.

You can aid on the Heal check.

Just as Terrill is about to step into the hallway, he notices Fredrik looking at something on the floor, apparently a small bone of some kind. Fredrik lifts his own hand and studies it a moment, muttering, "Is that... This causes Terrill to look around a bit more carefully, and notice a scattering of small bones throughout the entrance to the alcoved hallway.

He raises a hand quickly, gesturing for everyone to stop, and says, "Wait! You're right, Fredrik, I'm glad you stopped to think about these little bones on the floor. They're all finger and toe bones, a couple of dozen of them...even more worrisome, eh, Hiram?"

"Shall we just proceed, or does anyone have an idea what's going on here, and an idea for how to not add our own bones to this collection?"

Unless someone's got another plan, Terrill will cast resistance on himself and start down the hallway - but I'll wait until others have posted.

Do you remember Lady Anya's hands? She was missing a few fingers too. This must be some kind of offerings to Zon-Kuthon. Bloody heretics...
K. religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Hiram looks a little disgusted as he hears Fredrik and Terrill discuss the bones on the floor. "Well, I'd like to keep my fingers intact. Anyone else care to donate? No? Let's deal with whatver comes, then." With sword out and light on, Hiram joins Terrill in stepping down the hall.

Cast resistance just in case and move on down the hall.

Hmm, I don't seem to have any finger bones in my pack, sorry. Bizzle states a little too matter-of-factly. Maybe we should pick a few of these up in case we need them somewhere else.

As Terrill steps into the crypt without giving the required offering, he hears a soft scrape of bones that reveals two long, sinuous skeletons of two large snakes with humanoid skulls and snakes' jaws coming from one of the alcoves.

Initiative:

1. Fredrik and Terrill
2. Snake skeleton creatures
3. Wilhelm, Hiram, Bizzle, and Bash

Fredrik and Terrill are up!