SHATTERED STAR CAMPAIGN - GAMEPLAY (Inactive)

Game Master Daniel Penfold 351

Oster you find a series of alarm traps which you are able to disable. From beyond the next door (L22) you can hear the sound of someone humming to themselves.

Oster moves back to the others and whispers:

"Alarm is down. Someone humming behind there. How about you all get ready to rush in once I get the door open?"

If that's what we are doing, Calvon casts spectral hand just before we rush in.

"Just so long as we make sure it is a hostile hummer before potentially killing them." Tatsuo agrees.

You open the door. A broad central column of stone fills the centre of this octagonal chamber. A flight of stairs coils up around this column, passing through an opening in the ceiling thirty feet above. Several doors lie in the chamber's walls. The room itself features a large amount of ancient and archaic but no less frightful-looking torture implements. In the room are 4 gray maidens. Their leader's face is covered in scars. She looks at you and says

"Who in the hells are you?

Oster grins.

"Sorshen's special agents. We're checking security, and you're lax! What are you up to that you've slipped up?"

Bluff: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (13) + 15 = 28

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Oster you think she is confused and somewhat under someone else's control.

"The Lady commands you, then go on through, don't keep her waiting!"

Memnosyne hides her smile as she scurries through with the others.
is this the Grey Maiden the old lady told us about? Didn't she mention a scarred Maiden?

You head up the stairs as indicated by the Gray Maiden, It is a long climb. You think you are going higher and higher within the Lady's Light statue. Eventually you arrive in a grand chamber of polished marble with a wide pillar rising from the centre. A curving flight of stairs winds around this pillar down into the depths. A starburst pattern in brilliant shades of orange surrounded by flowing script decorates the floor, while the domed ceiling twenty feet above evokes the opalescent interior of a rare seashell. Eight alcoves line the walls- standing in seven are regal statues of imperious figures carved from basalt.

There is writing on the floor in Thassilonian. Calvon you think the inscription reads "She who desires to ascend the Lady's Light must first deign to embrace the Lady and the Lie".

Up the stairs, Oster says:

"That worked out quite nicely! Now, does anyone see any differences between these statues?"

He looks keenly.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (18) + 16 = 34

Appraise: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (14) + 13 = 27

Knowledge Engineering: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

"May as well check for golems while we are at it. But my guess is that 'the lie' is what has caused others here to believe they serve Sorshen. Rather an interesting way to protect yourself if you put any who come close under a compulsion."

"Eight alcoves. I assume each of these seven are one of the runelords of Thassilon. And then there's the empty one. Hmm." At Tatsuo's suggestion, she nods. "Excellent idea. And while we're at it..." She casts detect magic.

Oster you cannot see anything else and you have no idea how the mechanism works although you suspect it is magical.

Knowledge arcana or history DC 25

Knowledge History: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

"It's ringing a bell for me. Anyone else?"

Anyone else?

This is unlikely to work, but I guess I can try.
Kn(Arcana): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Tatsuo shakes his head. "It does not seem familiar to me." He looks expectantly at Calvon.

Knowledge history: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34

Knowledge arcana: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31

"We've run into two teleportation...ummm...devices. Perhaps the empty alcove is where we need to stand after the teleportation effect here is activated."

"I'm not quite sure that the 'Lie' would refer to the imposter. Most of these effects seem like they would come from the time of Sorshen, so I would tend to think that the insription is also from Sorshen."

I'm also casting detect magic.

I'm not trying to step on Mem's action. I just have very good Spellcraft skill, if there is magic.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (14) + 20 = 34
Add a +2 bonus for identifying magic properties.

Memnosyne and Calvon you both pick up an aura of a teleportation spell combined with some form of summoning spell.

Alcove 7: An obese man with diseased, leprous flesh who hungrily gnaws at a huge haunch of meat who you recognise as Zutha the Runelord of Gluttony.

no worries Calvon :)
"Calvon, you seem to be the expert on these. Is there one whom Sorshen actively opposed? I mean, none of them seem particularly pleasant, but is there a 'sin' that directly opposes the idea of lust?"

Well, I don't want to metagame. I would think that Calvon would know the opposed schools of Enchantment (if there are any) but I might have to roll to konw what schools opposed Lust, or what Runelords opposed Sorshen.

Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31
Knowledge History: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (6) + 15 = 21

Oster keeps watch, the history and figures not as familiar to him as he thought.

Calvon you know that evocation or conjuration are typical opposition schools for Enchantment.

Over the centuries all of the Runelords opposed Sorshen at one point or another.

"So...Wrath?"

"It is unclear what you are supposed to do to the statues, but yes, we may as well check out the wrath statue. I will stand in the empty alcove, so we might see if it triggers anything." Tatsuo goes to stand in the empty alcove to serve as guinea pig.

Tatsuo you stand in the alcove but nothing appears to happens.

Oster walks up to the statue of Belimarius.

"Maybe this is 'the Lie'. Someone else get ready to embrace Sorshen."

Calvon will embrace Sorshen.

"You know, we could just figure this out by process of elimination. One person embraces Sorshen, and another person embraces one of the other Runelords. Eventually, something should happen and we'll know who the 'Lie' is."

"True that!", Oster replies as he embraces the statue of Belimarius.

Memnosyne starts to point out that there could be OTHER effects that are activated if you hug the wrong statue, but it's too late.

Sorry, need to backtrack a bit[/i]

Oster you find that there is a trap in this room, if the wrong statues are embraced it will summon something.

[ooc]Will assume Oster discovers this before you make your choice so you haven't embraced the statues yet.

"Hold up! It's rigged! We need to really think about this."

From a metagaming perspective, it seems like our original choice may have been a bad one. But I also don't think there's any reason to pick conjuration over wrath. But then perhaps the "lie" is illusion rather than one of the opposition schools?

Everyone can make an intelligence check

Intelligence: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

Intelligence: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Oster and Calvon, you think that the text on the floor refers to a literal lie, i.e. one of the statues must be showing its inspiration doing something out of character.

In that case, it's probably this one.

Alcove 3: A stern looking man offering the gift of a golden rose with his left hand. You recognise him as Karzoug the Runelord of Greed.

Tatsuo continues to wait patiently in his alcove for the others to pick which statues to embrace.

only the guy who made the history roll would know what's normal for them I imagine, but Greed OFFERING gold, sounds WRONG

I agree on greed

You embrace the statue of Sorshen and the one of Karzoug. The seven stone walls of this heptagonal chamber are polished to a reflective sheen. A red metal door sits in one wall-the only other feature in the room is a five foot wide mosaic of a coiled serpent slightly offset from the room's centre in the floor.

Smiling at the others wisdom Xango waits till the magic is done.

"Nice work folks." says Oster as he carefully advances.

Stealth: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (10) + 17 = 27

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (7) + 16 = 23

Mem peers around the room. "Calvon, can you tell us anything about this mosaic?"
"How's the door look Oster?" She casts detect magic and peers at the door herself in case of magical traps.
perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16 meh, the detect magic is the important part anyway, right?

As you look around Oster you can see that the two serpent heads can be rotated in a number of different combinations and each looks like it opens another small chamber off the main room.

Memnosyne, can you make a caster level check please?

Oster points out the details of the heads.

that's just d20 + lvl, right? No stat bonus? Add 4 if I'm wrong
caster level: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

As soon as you cast your detect magic spell it seems to be automatically dispelled.

"That's... odd. There's something here blocking my spell. Calvon, Tatsuo? Any idea what's going on?"