Pirate GD VII - Wonder's in the Weave p2 (5-9) (Inactive)

Game Master Pirate Rob

"That thing was massive! At least we didn't need to bring the lizards into the mess."

Narika smiles that the cute little lizards can be left unharassed.

"If only not to have to fight three creatures at once." she reponds to Narika. She keeps both weapons at the ready. "Shall we look at the door?"

"I think we should see what is through that other arch behind us first."

Amukk fetches his dropped items while shaking his head. I'll never get used to moving plants, I think, he says glumly.

"Is everyone OK?" Narika asks.

You've got 3 obvious places to look around. The lizard/plant chamber. The opposite chamber or the door up ahead.

With no interest in disturbing the shocker lizards, Amukk moves closer to Kerastes, trying to see what's on the chamber opposite.
Take 10 on Perception for 22, with darkvision.

Looking at the far chamber reveals a twenty-foot-square room is home to a foot and a half of stagnant water that covers everything but a wide shelf on the east wall.

That shelf contains a score of fifteen-inch-tall statues carved of shiny white stone, each of jackal-headed humanoids in different poses and holding different accouterments.

Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs and jagged sigils cover the walls, in jarring contrast to each other.

A linguistics check may tell you something.

"Osiriani isn't one of my languages, unfortunately. Does anyone have experience with Languages?" after a quick glance she keeps her eyes in the direction of the lizards just in case.

When everyone is done in the current room, Narika will cast protection from energy on herself and then calmly walk into the room with the lizards to look around. She will ask her new friends not to panic if the lizards get scared and try to hurt her.

Linguistics {+Osirian}: 1d20 + 8 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 5 = 31

Fully ignoring the events in the 'lizard room', Izlin considers the chamber before him for a moment. "The pictograms recount the rise to power of the Dog Pharaoh, referring to him as the Jackal Pharaoh, and a conflict between himself and a rival pharaoh known as the Illumined Pharaoh. At the time of the engraving, their conflict had apparently not been resolved, and several references to ongoing feuding persist among the historical accounting. The jagged symbols are Abyssal characters which speak of the Jackal Pharaoh’s armies of gnolls, jackalweres and yaenit demons."

Narika finds nothing more than a once-grand frieze that dominates the west wall, its vibrant colors now faded.

In it, a jackal-headed man rides a dark chariot pulled by horsesized dogs, at the head of an army of gnolls and dire hyenas. Before him, a radiant ankh is engulfed in black flames.

Narika does get shocked once by the lizards in exchange for her curiosity.

reflex DC 12 halves: 4d8 ⇒ (1, 7, 2, 1) = 11

They further hiss at Narika but do not pursue if she backs off.

Arnold's attention flits between Narika and Izlin, not quite getting a full story from the latter. "Huh. Not sure how much it matters, but I wonder how long after these events this place was snatched up by the Hao Jin Tapestry."

ref save: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Narika's protection from energy absorbs 5 points of damage, leaving her unhurt, and with 91 points left that it can absorb (electricity only)

As a reminder:

A door in the north wall is decorated with a scene in bas-relief: a jackal-headed man holding two matching kukris, around whom a throng of bestial warriors bow.

There is no obvious mechanism to open the door, but there is a gap between it and the wall as if it is being held partially open.

Water sluggishly trickles through the gap, flowing deeper into the tomb.

---

What next?

Amukk will detect magic in the room with the shelved statues. If none are magic he turns to the rest of the party. Only one way to go, eh? Who wants to give a hand opening these double doors?

No magic, there is a small statue propping the door open that looks similar to the statues in the eastern room.

Amukk grabs the door prop, gives the shelf room a once-over (take 10 on Perception for 22), then moves toward the double doors.

Narika carefully follows Amukk.

The door prop is holding the double doors to the north open, not in the shelf room with its brethren.

Removing the statue causes thee door to begin closing, but there's an obvious indentation to put it in.

Doing so fully opens the door, which then begins closing very slowly afterwards.

Beyond the door A 10-foot-wide stairway descends 20 feet before vanishing into swampy water.

Ten feet from the top of the stairs, a 10-foot-wide hole gapes, water trickling over its edge and falling into darkness.

Lys moves to the opening in the floor and takes a peek down. If she doesn't see anything interesting or especially deadly, she'll take a couple of steps back and try to jump across.

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19 Low Light Vision
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Narika follows carefully after her bigger, stronger companions.

"Well then, it looks like we are not the first to arrive. That statue didn't place itself there after all." The magus joins the rest of the party.

Despite having to slog through the water Lyselsa manages to hop across the pit with a running start.

Beyond the hole the stairway descends into stagnant, murky water.

The north wall features two fifteen-foot-tall mosaics of the Dog Pharaoh flanking a series of smaller hieroglyphs arranged in rows and columns.

The east and west walls give glimpses of the top half of faded and water-stained frescos depicting pleasure slaves and vast wealth in a desert oasis paradise.

The water in this room seems quite a bit deeper and is dirty enough that you can't see the bottom, nothing immediately seems threatening however.

Acrobatics: 1d20 - 4 ⇒ (19) - 4 = 15

Kerastes follows the others, but when Lys jumps over the pit he follows quickly. He grabs his glaive and uses it to gauge the depth of the water. It it is shallow enough to wade in he slowly starts wading forward, prodding the bottom with the glaive for any pits.

Amukk loads his underwater crossbow and moves in front of Kerastes. Take 10 on Acrobatics for 11.

Come on! That door won't open itself, you know. Or will it? That would be incredibly improbable, but I wonder just how improbable...I should work that out.

Take 10 on Perception for 22 (darkvision).

Kerastes taps and finds a few more stairs that he's able to wade down onto easily. The stairs and water continue down, too deep to stand in without being underwater.

the water is effectively 5 feet deep at the bottom squares of the stairs and then 10 feet deep past that.

Meanwhile Amukk moves forward past Kerastes and splashes into the water, where his motions seem to disturb something...

Amukk feels the pain of a hundred little bites, and while the water is too dark to see though Amukk can feel many slimy little slug creatures attached to his flesh.

damage to Amukk: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9

The leeches continue to swarm, adding Kerastes's legs to their list of tasty morsels.

damage to Kerastes/Amukk: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8

Initiative:

Leeches
Izlin
Narkia
Arnold
Amukk (35/52)
Kerastes (26/36)
Lyselsa

Everybody is up!
The leech swarm is underwater in dark and murky water. Identifying its squares is easy enough at least. The leeches seem too numerous and small to be affected by conventional weapons.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9 OUCH!
Fortitude vs Distraction: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Knowledge Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 - 4 = 20
Fortitude in my turn vs poison: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Reroll Fortitude in my turn vs poison: 1d20 + 7 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 7 + 4 = 16

"Retreat! We can't fight them here. This is their territory! Also if anyone has some salt that would be rather useful!"

Kerastes speeds back and jumps over the hole. At the other side he takes an acid flask from his bandolier.

Ah yes, I got ahead of myself if you start your turn in the swarm make a fort save vs distraction

Fort save 1: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27 Yay!
Fort save 2: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25 Yay x2!
Distraction makes little difference since Amukk is staggered during the first round of combat anyway.

The ganzi moves back out of the water onto the steps. Get them off me get them off me get them off me...oh gods, I KNEW IT...

How would non-fire AoE spells work under water?

Am I correct in assuming that a flask of acid would disperse in the water before doing damage to the swarm?

"Quickly then, make haste back toward us."

Knowledge, Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

Lys jumps back across the hole in the stairs. "I have nothing to fight them with except for a torch. I don't think that will do much good."

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21

Having to pull back and wait for the enemy (again). And now hordes of tiny things. Joyous, Arnold groans inwardly. He stays back as instructed, swapping his trusty lance for a vial of alchemical fire. "I have more of these if you'd like one, Lys."

A completely submerged creature has total cover against opponents on land unless those opponents have freedom of movement effects. I'd argue you still get a point of splash. Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.

With everybody retreating out of the pool the leech swarm does not follow, so time is not pressing.

Effectively out of combat.

If she can, Narika stands at the top of the stairs and sends a cold burning hands onto the swarm without stepping into the water herself.

to heal Con: 1d4 ⇒ 4
to heal Str: 1d4 ⇒ 2
CLW: 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (6, 6) + 2 = 14

"That was nasty"

Kerastes casts lesser restoration twice and then opens his pack "I have a lot of vermin repellent here, Feel free to you use it." he then starts to cover himself with the vile smelling substance.

If she can, Narika stands at the top of the stairs and sends a cold burning hands onto the swarm without stepping into the water herself.

This is a good idea. Amukk has sound burst available as well.

Especially you you stir the water up first with say that glaive it's easy to attract the swarm and then blast it.

It's got 39 hp and a reflex of +6. A handful of salt also works like a flask of acid. So it'll likely take a few resources but the swarm isn't going to come out of the water.

damage: 5d4 ⇒ (3, 2, 3, 3, 3) = 14
damage: 5d4 ⇒ (1, 4, 2, 3, 1) = 11
DC for half damage is 18
willing to do more, but perhaps better to spread out the resource usage among characters

reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
reflex: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

19 damage

Lesser resto on Amukk for Con: 1d4 ⇒ 1 I guess Abadar does not like Ganzis...

Kerastes touches Amukk "Lord of law, please heal my companion Amukk"

He then aids with getting rid of the swarm "Someone must be better with chucking these than I am, please use these"

Donating 4 acid flasks to the good cause. I currently have a +3 to ranged attacks thanks to drain, someone is bound to be better

Flasks aren't great because of the total cover from attacking from outside the water. You'd only get splash. If you want to attack from inside the water though you could likely get full damage.

"This might be a bad idea, but I could get onto the stairs and acid splash them until they are done. The vermin repellent should keep them away..."

Amukk uses sound burst on the swarm. DC 15 Fort

sonic: 1d8 ⇒ 4 plus half rounded down for 6 pts
sonic: 1d8 ⇒ 4 plus half rounded down for 6 pts
sonic: 1d8 ⇒ 1 plus half rounded down for...1. LOL

The first 2 booms are enough to do it, since I didn't multiple the previous freezing hands by 1.5 Keep that last tiny one.

After a swift flurry of magic the water stops churning.