SHATTERED STAR CAMPAIGN - GAMEPLAY (Inactive)

Game Master Daniel Penfold 351

Glad that the statues had decided not to immediately attack him, Tatsuo inwardly sighs in relief. Keeping his voice down but eyes on the 'statues', he murmurs "Whomever put them here surely would have made sure they would have some kind of way around them like a passphrase, would they not? I don't suppose Maroux or some other helpful person you ran into gave any information that might suggest what such a thing would be? Though I must say, if they were my guardians, I would have had them immediately attack rather than simply turn their heads and thereby giving warning and a chance to prepare to any I wished to keep out."

Following Tatsuo's lead, Calvon also keeps his voice down.
"Perhaps the point of alerting us was to give us a chance to give a passphrase. The Runelords were arrogant and Sorshen would likely never imagine that her monument would be invaded by strangers. If I could recall any other details about these carayatid columns, as they are called, we might know for sure." As he is speaking, Calvon is looking around what he can see of the room and a thought occurs. "Instead of a passphrase, it could be a symbol, such as the rune of lust. Does any of you carry such a symbol?"

Memnosyne, you can see that the weapons are effectively carves into the columns, it would be very difficult to remove them.

The columns continue to watch at the moment, they are not moving any further, however it does look as if they are designed to prevent anyone but permitted creatures to access the shaft. It is hard to judge as you have been underground but you all think you have travelled enough by now that you are all underneath the Lady's Light

What do you want to do?

I was waiting to give everyone a chance to chime in.
However, I am more inclined to think the Rune of Lust has a better chance of getting us past these creatures than one of the shards belonging to a rival Runelord.

you're probably correct, Calvon. why don't we simply try to destroy these things here and now? It's possible that if we attack one, the other (if they're supposed to guard that entrance) might not even move, seeing as how its conditions to attack have not been met
Memnosyne, suddenly remembering she has a golembane scarab, uses its detection ability to make sure they know how many of these creatures are around.

"Smashing them sounds good. Any plans besides that scarab?", Oster whispers.

"Calvon, what do you know about these creatures?"

Really more of a question for the DM. Not sure if identifying means we know everything about them or just what they're called or something in between. I OOC know there are details about these things that would be useful for us to know IC if we're planning/considering fighting them.

I generally do it based on how you roll but I'll be nice on this occasion

Calvon you identify these creatures as Carayatid Columns. They have damage reduction against everything. They have spell resistance against any spell that allows for spell resistance. If they are hit with a weapon that weapon takes 3d6 damage. A transmute rock to mud spell does 1d6 damage to a column per caster level, a stone to flesh spell negates the damage reduction and the immunity to magic for one round.

Memnosyne, there are only these 4 creatures around

I relay this information to the rest of the group.

Unfortunately, while I do have 2 spells that I can cast that are not subject to resistance, I do not have them prepared. I wouldn't currently be much help in a fight except for my force missiles. There is the shaft, but it has magical darkness and silence cast upon it. We have no way of knowing what's down there. On the plus side, the shaft has magic on it that would likely cause anyone to float, but there's no way to tell how far that goes down the shaft.

Oster listens.

And Oster puts away his rapier.

"We need to hit them from range, and with a lot more firepower than we have right now. I say we pull back, rest up, rearm and hit these statues when *we* are ready."

You head out of the cavern, nothing disturbs you on the way out. The columns turn to look at you as you guy but take no other action

"Any other route we haven't tried yet?"

"Well, it seems unlikely that this is the only entrance. Perhaps we should look around more to see if there is another way in."

"I would think their either has to be a secret entrance somewhere or, as was suggested, there is a password or symbol that stops the carayatid columns from attacking. What about these women knights? If what the hermit told you is true, they found a way in.

Would Knowledge (history) maybe give me some clue as to how to get past these things? Maybe there's something in a book I read somewhere that was a clue?
Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27
Also, would I know anything about these knights with Knowledge (local) or (history)?
Knowledge (history or local): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

"Whatever everyone decides, I'm in."

Calvon, you know that the Runelords tended to rely on symbols rather than passwords among their followers. It was common for Sorshen's followers particularly to display the rune of lust on their clothing or armour in order to get past guardians.

The descriptions of knights sounds like the descriptions of the former royal guard of Korvosa, before the downfall of Queen Ileosa. They are an all female group of mercenaries known as the Gray Maidens.

"Okay, then. Let's sketch some lust runes and see if they let us pass without any trouble." Memnosyne whips a piece of chalk out of her bag.

Tatsuo nods his head at Calvon's information. "Unfortunately, this renders my offensive spells useless. If this rune idea doesn't pan out, the only help I will be able to provide will be by distracting the columns." He similarly pulls out some chalk, removing his shirt to start drawing the symbol on the back. Curling up one side of his chest, around his neck, and down the other side is an intricate tattoo of a black, serpentine dragon. Once done, he replaces his shirt, offering to drawn the symbol on the armor or clothes of anybody else.

After Tatsuo has drawn the rune of lust on everyone you head back into the chamber. Again the columns turn to look at you as you approach but as soon as they see the rune they freeze and revert back to solid marble again. The way to the shaft is clear

"That was good thinking. Kudos!"

"Nice work indeed! I'll look ahead folks."

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

Oster, you sneak forward, you get to the edge of the shaft, all you can see is blackness going down, it looks like the shaft is at least 50 feet down

I'm going to cast detect magic to find out the strength of the most powerful spell on the shaft. I'm going to assume that all the spells are at that same power level.
"Based on my recollection of the spell that allows a person to float down the shaft, if the spell is powerful enough, I think we are safe floating down the shaft, unless the shaft is incredibly deep. However, the magical darkness and silence would prevent us from seeing or hearing anything. So, this could be a trap. However, if Sorshen was allowing guests through here by presenting the rune of lust, we should similarly be safe in the shaft."

"That stands to reason, Calvon. Of course, if anyone can feather fall, they might want to go first." Mem smirks a bit as she pulls a rope from her pack. "Just in case," she says, offering to tie it to anyone who'd like to go first.

Calvon, the highest level spell is at level 20 and is feather fall

"I can go down first, if we wish. One tug on the rope can mean things look safe enough at the bottom. Two tugs mean 'pull me up'. Though if the shaft is truly greater than 50 feet, we may need more rope." Tatsuo pulls out another 100 feet of rope from his bag. Unless someone else wants to go first, Tatsuo will find a pebble to cast Light on (it may not work in the darkness spell, but hopefully the spell doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the shaft), tie the rope around his waist, and featherfall down.

As Tatsuo goes down the shaft he is immediately swallowed by the darkness, you cannot see or hear him. Tatsuo you drop the pebble, after 50 feet the darkness ends and you can see the pebble faintly glinting, although the room itself is lit.

Can I safely reach the ground or does it look like there are enemies below? If all looks safe and the ground is reachable, I'll tug once. Otherwise I'll tug twice to report back.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Calvon shifts nervously from one foot to the other and you can see he's sweating a little bit. There's a part of him that wanted to go first, but a bigger part was scared, both for himself and his new companions. What if my conclusions were wrong? What if someone gets injured, or even killed, because I said it was safe? All of his experience so far had been fairly safe. He'd worked for the Pathfinder Society, but until now he'd never actually been on a real life or death mission. He looks around nervously. Those statues could kill me with one blow. Please, please don't start moving!

Yeah, you can safely reach the ground

Tatsuo tugs once on the rope. The ceiling of this grand hall is made of polished grey marble. It rises to a height of twenty five feet, supported by ornate columns whose central eight foot sections have been carved to resemble a beautiful woman. A ten foot square platform sits in a wide alcove on the north wall, atop which lies a white marble sarcophagus with a painted lid. The sound of gently running water echoes along the hall to the west.

Memnosyne lets out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "One tug. Looks good," she says with a little forced cheer. With that, she steels herself and leaps in herself.

Memnosyne, you leap into the shaft, everything becomes dark and you can hear nothing, you slowly float to the ground. After 50 feet you move out of the darkness into bright light and you meet up with Tatsuo in the grand hall.

"I do not suppose you would like to use that scarab of yours to check these statues while we wait for the others to join us? It would be a shame to be caught off guard twice in such a close span of time. The sarcophagus also seems worthy of attention, though I might expect a mummy or some such undead instead of a living statue."

The scarab does not detect the presence of any golems in the area

Calvon follows Mem, although he waits a minute to make sure that, wherever she lands, she has time to move out of the way.
As soon as he emerges into the light again, Calvon gasps, feeling that this is more akin to the grandeur he would expect from a Runelord. He is so busy looking around that he forgets to watch his landing and stumbles when he hits the floor. Fortunately, this gets him away from the landing area.
He gets up, looking at the sarcophagus, but does not approach it fearing that it may be trapped or warded.

Can I see enough of the sarcophagus to make a Knowledge check?
Knowledge (arcana or history): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

You can see from looking around that the chamber clearly dates from the time of Thassilon. The figure on the sarcophagus is clearly that of the Runelord Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust.

Calvon gasps, for a few seconds thinking to himself that Sorshen's body might lay inside. Then he remembers that the knights, the Gray Maidens, claimed that they found Sorshen alive. The knights must have found the sarcophagus and revived her, he thinks.
He waits for Oster and Xango but casts detect magic while he waits, starting with the sarcophagus and, if he has time, scanning the rest of the room.
Once Oster and Xango arrive, Calvon tells everyone his thought that the sarcophagus must be empty since the Maidens claimed that they found Sorshen. If any magic is present, he communicates that information as well.

"I rather hope 'Sorshen' did not lie in that sarcophagus; it would me some other woman broke out of that sealed rock we found earlier."

I'm not really sure which map we're on (K1 maybe?), but I guess let's check out the sound of moving water? If Oster wants to sneak ahead he can, otherwise Tatsuo will just go forward with a glowing pebble.

Once they are all reunited, Tatsuo suggests they check out the western hallway where they can hear water coming from. Not being a grave robber (and not wanting to needlessly anger any mummies inside), he shows little interest in investigating the sarcophagus and stands back should anyone else do so.

Calvon, there are 3 magical auras coming from the sarcophagus, however due to the denseness of the sarcophagus and the sarcophagus lid you are unable to tell what the auras are.

Map, now updated

I think we should at least look inside the sarcophagus. I'm curious what these magical auras are and what they are coming from.

"I prefer the dead be left to lie in peace," Memnosyne says, perhaps a bit more severely than she meant to, "but I suppose you can take a look. Do be respectful, please," she says more softly.
Cocking her head to one side, she adds, "Hey, do you hear water?"

I know that the sarcophagus is likely to be trapped or something. However, I deliberately wanted to play a character who had more curiosity than common sense. Note the 8 WIS 20 INT and Dangerously Curious trait. Unless someone wants to convince me otherwise, I'm going to open it up.

Although the lid of the sarcophagus is heavy, you are able to smoothly push it to one side. Inside the sarcophagus lies the perfectly preserved body of a woman, identical to the one depicted on the lid, clad in diaphanous flimsy robes and an enormous amount of splendid jewellery. She looks almost as if she's sleeping not dead. The jewellery includes a necklace, a pair of earrings. seven rings and a silver and pink pearl anklet

"Aahh!!"
Calvon stumbles backwards about 10 feet but keeping his eyes on the sarcophagus. He readies a spell, waiting for the woman to sit up or take some kind of action now that her rest has been disturbed.
"There's someone in there!" he shouts
I wanted to keep detect magic going while I opened the lid. Did it show me anything in the brief moment that I had?

"Hey, do you hear water?"

"Yes. I would suggest when we are done here, we go investigate the source further."

Tatsuo stands back as Calvon explores, watching and silently debating with himself. If he robs that grave and the person inside comes alive and attacks him, am I honor bound to aid him? He would make himself unclean by partaking in such an act, but I know not all foreigners are as civilized in such matters. Though clearly some are. His eyes flick briefly to Memnosyne. I suppose another question is, if he robs the grave and I aid him, would I expect to partake in the spoils? Though distasteful, that is, after all, what eta are for. Would that then make Calvon one? Or is he exempt from such labels as an outsider? He continues to debate to himself as he waits for Calvon to finish whatever his business is, so they can continue their exploration.

Given the description, my guess is you'll pick up an aura of gentle repose.

Xango and Oster what are you doing

While the others ponder, Oster quietly climbs down and makes his own search of the room.

Stealth: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

[i]Calvon, you pick up three overwhelming auras, it is hard to distinguish them but one of them is gentle repose.

Oster, you find that the inside of the sarcophagus is trapped with a phantasmal killer effect. It can be disabled temporarily (but not removed) for a number of rounds if you wanted to remove any of the items

Calvon steps up to the sarcophagus, looking down at the deceased Runelord.
"After I heard that the Gray Maidens claimed to have found Sorshen, I kind of hoped we'd find her here. I mean, Karzoug survived all these years, why not Sorshen and the other Runelords as well." He lets out a big sigh as he looks at the Runelord for a few moments longer. "I guess she's really dead though." He laughs. "I suppose it's a good thing. She'd probably kill us or enslave us." He steps away from the sarcophagus and joins Tatsuo and Mem. "Well, let's check out that water sound and see if we can find this Sorshen imitator somewhere in this statue."
Unless the gems have some historical value, I'm not interested in them.

The jewellery is from the time of the Thassilon Empire, so at least 1000 years old.