Shackled City (Pathfinder) - GM_Chris

Game Master Chris of the Clouds

Round 5 Init 21

Didn't take the iterative as I wasn't sure if I'd had to move 10' or 5' and didn't know if I'd make the reflex save.

Seeing the fight centered around his sword, Finneas steps up and attacks.

5' to J39.

Seeing how little his gauntlet does, the prophet waves it around in the creature's face.

Aid Toffitt: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33

+2 on his attacks next round.

Round 5, Init 12

Dyrant will continue making the Demodand feel bad about himself.

Retribution: (7 Rounds vs. DC23 Will) = 1/2 melee damage back at bad guy.

"Demodand, you have failed on this plane, like you have elsewhere. Be gone and know that the celestial powers ally against you."

Round 5, Initiative 11, Location:K41

Seeing that the warriors seem to have the creature pinned down and ready to fall, Atol begins the arduous task of healing the party. He takes out one of his wands of cure light wounds and starts with himself.
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Atol uses Blessings of Fervor for +2attacks/AC/reflex saves this round.

Remember, anyone who had breakfast with Atol has 11 temporary hit points, +1 (morale) attack rolls/Will saves, and +4 (morale) on poison/fear saves from the heroes' feast for 12 hours.

will save: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17

The frustrated demodand tries for one more evil act before he dies and takes a 5' step toward Cog with his short swords.

Going to let Glimmil resolve these attacks against Cog after a ride check, etc. The demodand should die this round then between the retribution effect and the other attacks to come.

Round 6
Glimmil = 25
Dyrant = 24
Toffitt (mutagen) = 23
Atol = 22
Finneas = 21
Demons = 4
D2 (-2 STR, -4 ATK, damage=85)

Round 6, Initiative 11, Location:K41

Atol watches the demon fall and smiles. I killed one this time. Me! He then continues to ply his wand.
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Atol uses Blessings of Fervor for +2attacks/AC/reflex saves this round.

Remember, anyone who had breakfast with Atol has 11 temporary hit points, +1 (morale) attack rolls/Will saves, and +4 (morale) on poison/fear saves from the heroes' feast for 12 hours.

Round 6, Init 23

If the demodand is still standing, Toffitt makes quick work of it until his sword gets stuck.

Dueling sword: 1d20 + 20 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (19) + 20 + 2 - 3 = 38
2 Str Dam +: 1d8 + 9 + 9 + 6d6 ⇒ (7) + 9 + 9 + (4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1) = 40
Reflex: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (19) + 20 = 39

Iterative: 1d20 + 15 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (6) + 15 + 2 - 3 = 20
2 Str Dam +: 1d8 + 9 + 9 + 6d6 ⇒ (6) + 9 + 9 + (4, 1, 2, 6, 5, 2) = 44
Reflex: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (10) + 20 = 30

Fervor: 1d20 + 20 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (19) + 20 + 2 - 3 = 38
2 Str Dam +: 1d8 + 9 + 9 + 6d6 ⇒ (3) + 9 + 9 + (1, 2, 5, 6, 4, 2) = 41
Reflex: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (1) + 20 = 21

Confirm #1: 1d20 + 20 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 20 + 2 - 3 = 31
2 Str Dam +: 1d8 + 9 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 + 9 = 19

Confirm fervor: 1d20 + 20 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (16) + 20 + 2 - 3 = 35
2 Str Dam +: 1d8 + 9 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 + 9 = 20

Dyrant huzzahs as the two demodands fall.

Dyrant waits to see if the last one falls before acting.

Even with the DR the demodand can't withstand the two piercing strikes and it too falls.

Dyrant reacts quickly to the demodand's fall, restoring the blessing of St. Cuthbert on Finn and Atol. He casts Detect Magic and looks around.

"We are in the right place. There is much evil here," Dyrant opines, keeping his eyes on Aralynn.

More statues surround this room. The only path ahead appears to be through the door. After a thorough search, the party opens it and finds another shaft, this one descending a couple hundred feet at least.

Toffitt begins walking down the shaft.

Finneas turns off his cloak then works to staunch his wounds.

CSW: 3d8 + 8 ⇒ (3, 5, 3) + 8 = 19
67
CLW: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
CLW: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
CLW: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
110

Atol turns the wand on himself a few more times after combat ends.

Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Cure Light Wounds for 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Glimmil, please use all the charges you need and I'll note them when you're done.

"Good job everyone. I think I can squeeze out one more combat - but not if they keep getting tougher!" Atol wipes the blood off his face and looks somewhat dejected that there's so much of it on his cassock. That's going to take some deep cleaning.

Toffitt takes a moment to imbibe his extract of barkskin. Finneas, I forgot to note that it's not +5. Oops. Sorry.

Dyrant snuffs loudly at the deep shaft, asking Aralynn to explore at least part of it before he descends.

"Glim, Finn, Atol, & Doctor, let us be careful. We do not know what dangers we will face down here."

Dyrant will draw a scroll and cast Reduce Person on himself, making himself more cherubic and angel-like in the process.

When he nears the bottom of the shaft, he will draw his scroll of Mirror Image.

After the first 110' there is a ledge with a large and intricate circular door measuring nine feet across that completely blocks the passageway. The portal has interlocking parts made of composite materials--primarily darkwood, bone, iron, and adamantine. The door's face has been worked into the likeness of a stylized beholder with ten eyestalks. Set into each eyestalk is a different color gemstone, and set into the large central eye is a transparent crystal the size of a human fist. The thick stone doorframe is shaped like a ring and carved with eight strange glyphs.

Beyond this door the shaft appears to descend another 110' before ending in an open room.

"Dyrant, what magics do you see on this door?" Toffitt examines it for mundane traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (19) + 27 = 46

Everyone hanging out in the shaft? I just want to know where everyone is when it suddenly fills with molten lava. ;-)

It looks safe to Toffitt.

Atol stays within 30' or so of the leaders, so he's either just inside the shaft (ready for the lava) or just outside it with the party - whatever make sense to you (GM Chris).

Dyrant looks over the glyphs.

"Does anyone here speak that language?"

1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14 Linguistics

Dyrant squints at the symbols...

"O-V-U-L-A-T-I-O-N. Hhmm...some sort of breeding chamber, perhaps? That would explain the smaller eyes above, would it not?"

Before the doors are opened, Dyrant will cast Mirror Image from the scroll and draw his wand of displacement.

Aralynn casts Protection from Evil on Dyrant, just in case. (1/3)
Then on Finneas. (2/3) 7 minutes of such.

Dyrant would be in the shaft, feeling no need to be directly seen when the poop hits the frogmoth. We've had Gong Mimics, Dread Wraith Cloaks, and Demodands hiding in Zombies. Dyrant thinks this door might transform into twin Balrogs. He's behind cover with a spot to look into the door, if possible.

Dyrant casts Detect Magic and examines the door.

A Ride check can only be used to negate one attack per round, since it requires an immediate action (which consumes a swift and luckily Glimmil still has his since he didn't use his Lay Hands last round).

Hits on Cog:
AC35 for 11
AC33 for 14
AC33 for 10
AC32 for 11
AC29 for 11
AC31 for 11

Ride DC35 to negate AC35 hit: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (20) + 17 = 37

All the others hit, for 14+10+11+11+11=57 damage total. With the 17 temp HP, he needs to restore 40 to be at full.

Cure Light 8 charges: 8d8 + 8 ⇒ (3, 8, 4, 2, 5, 5, 1, 4) + 8 = 40

8 charges puts Cog back at full.

As the party recovers from the battle from the demo-doods, Glimmil excitedly chatters away while repairing Cog's wounds with Atol's wand.

"And, what a saving moment! I was praying to Garl, and a big shiny light came right at me -- and it was Aralynn! Just in the nick of time too, and of course these evil do-badders started to go after Cog next when they knew they couldn't defeat one of us. And Finneas, I almost thought we lost you, can you believe how sticky these things are?"

Glimmil takes a breath, climbs back onto Cog and fetches his lance and stands bravely before the door.

"Doctor, can you spot magical traps? Or just the mundane sorts?"

Glimmil pats his spoon collection.

"My spoons are ready. I'd prefer not to be deafened by a shockwave again, if at all possible. It makes for good pillow conversation telling these stories, but it really hurts my ears."

Been a while since we've dealt with traps and I don't remember how I was playing this, but in any case Glimmil with Toffitt's help or maybe the other way around, can determine that the door is indeed trapped. You suspect it has to do with the crystals.

Finneas watches silently as the others play with the door.

I could kick it down.
Fifth: And be burned for it.
I could announce myself.
Fifth: We've done that already.
What should I do then?
Male: Sit there and smolder with generic rage for a bit, once they open the door you can let whatever is on the other side cut you down again boy.
Fifth: You will not speak to the High Priest that way!

I'm not sure if we've deduced this is a Disable Device check, or a puzzle we need to solve?

Glimmil looks the door up and down and produces a couple spoons after hopping off Cog's saddle.

"Should I get started?"

Glimmil's Disable Device is only +12, not sure how deadly traps are in this AP, but its highly likely that a mid 20s roll won't be enough in my opinion.

Toffitt takes out some rope and offfers it to Glimmil. "Might I suggest a harness to make sure Cog doesn't fall, should some traip, say, dispel the airwalk? Finneas, Atol, shall we hold?" He climbs up quite a ways to brace, should Glimmil agree.

With Ant Haul on, Toffitt can easily brace 2500 pounds on his own.

Dyrant casts Heroism on Glim, then returns to his safe spot.

"Good luck, Glim. We're all counting on you."

Glimmil looks at the trap and tries to figure out where to fit a spoon. There really isn't any place to do it. He imagines the crystals shooting rays of fire at him and tries to figure out how to get them to bounce off the spoon and back at the crystals, but the curve of the spoon involves geometry that makes his head hurt.

He thinks he might be able to do it, but then again that might just be his pride talking.

Giving it a try?

"Cog?"

Glimmil gives a concerned look to Cog. While he knows his companion can easily evade a dragon's most deadly fiery breath, he worries nonetheless.

"Perhaps he can stand back by you all, just in case?"

Glimmil ties Toffitt's rope around his waist, yet with Dyrant's confirmation that the trap is magical, he estimates little probability in a pit opening up beneath him.

I recalculated Glimmil's bonus, it's actually pretty good and Heroism stacks with all his bonuses. +27 without armor. +22 in his full plate.

Three tries, just in case the first one doesn't explode in Glim's face and he can retry.

Disable Device #1: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (5) + 22 = 27

Disable Device #2: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (17) + 22 = 39

Disable Device #3: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (5) + 22 = 27

The first attempt does explode in Glimmil's face, but Garl must have been looking over his shoulder as half the rays go wide. The other half of the rays do hit though and loosen the cobwebs in his head (18 damage).

He settles down for a second attempt and this time manages to disable the trap. The door has stopped shooting at him, but is still locked. Glimmil will try a couple times, but the mechanisms are so intricate and deeply embedded that he will have to take off his armor if he wants to be able to open the door.

Maybe we should knock?

"Do we want to break it down? That might work too."

Dryant can see Glimmil's longest soup laddle disappear into the door as he pokes around. It's at least two feet thick.

A two foot spoon for a three foot gnome? Good Garl.

Toffitt descends and holds one or two of the spoons in place while Glim does his work. Can bring a take 20 up to a 44 total with aid.

Toffitt gives Glimmil some assistance, but still the stubborn door remains locked. Glimmil will need to take off his armor to contort his body in just the right way to reach all the required latches, levers, and gears.

Dyrant will use a PoP 1 to recall Mage Armor for Glim.

Darn game mechanics getting in the way of reality!

Glimmil sweats profusely as he attempts to stretch and reach the far latch before finally tossing a ladle down on the cobblestones in frustration.

"I'm... going to have to undress."

As he fiddles with which strap to start with his eyes widen in frustration.

"Erm... a little help?"

Once down to his breeches, Glimmil will take 20 for a DC47 lock. Assuming he has time, he'll get dressed again.

Finneas watches the contortions of his companion impatiently.

"How much longer can we walk on air?"

I had about 20 minutes of air walk left before Glimmil strips down.

Armor donning rules - looks like half of d4+1 minutes to take off and a full 4 minutes to put back on (both with help), so we're at ~14 minutes when we walk through the door.

"Good job Glimmil! No one else could have worked their way into that lock like you did!"

Glimmil reaches the furthest latch and the door makes some dull grinding noises. He is just able to pull his arm out before the door splits into three sections. Each section quickly retracts into part of the adjoining doorframe. Once the three sections have fully retracted, the passage stands open.

A bit more than you can see from the shaft, but I have time to type now.

The passageway opens up into a 30' high room with similar doors to the north and west. The walls are carved with myriad bas-reliefs depicting various Underdark creatures and terrain. This hall also holds an impressive collection of monstrous statues, arranged in a semicircle and all very lifelike. The statues include a juvenile black dragon, juvenile minotaur, harpy, otyugh, rust monster, kuo-toa, and phantom fungus. To the north, a huge archway looms. Two paintings hang on the wall to either side of the arch. The western painting depicts what looks like Cauldron under a burning sky. The eastern painting depicts a beautiful but horrified blonde woman imprisoned in a metal cage that looks almost as if it were made of iron ribs and adamantine skulls. Dyrant at least will quickly recognize the image as that of Lady Celeste.

As Glimmil starts to put his armor back on, the door shuts very quickly and crushes one of his spoons that had not been put away yet. Glimmil gets the door reopened and sure enough it snaps shut in another 18 seconds. A few more tries shows the time to be consistent. He's also quite sure that he will not be able to disable the door or hold it open.

taking armor off: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
How would you like to proceed? About five minutes has passed while Glimmil has dealt with the door and taken his armor off. It's essentially a take 20 with the armor off for him to open the door. I've put everyone in the shaft on the same level as the floor of the room for simplicity. If you'd like to be + or - that level in the shaft, just let me know.

Map

Toffitt enters the room walking at 15' up. He looks very carefully for signs of life, and speculates as to whether any of these statues once lived.

1d20 + 27 ⇒ (17) + 27 = 44

Dyrant will burn another scroll to make himself small again after the door opens.

"The Angels will protect us. St. Cuthbert is with us! Let us finish this."

He will beg Aralynn for the gift of flight again.

Dyrant will fly to M13 at 10' up. He will cast Detect Magic and examine the statues for any that he recognizes.

Pushing a bit, but didn't want to spend a long time on a non-issue.

The party piles into the room and the door shuts behind them. Glimmil starts the long process of putting his armor back on while Dyrant examines the statues and other artwork. Aside from Lady Celeste, he does not know any of the things represented in the artwork by name.

Toffitt sees no signs of life, but is quite sure the statues used to be alive.

"Let us hope our 'host' does not have some way to return them all to flesh and blood at once... I do hope you have more of those scrolls, Dyrant..."

Dyrant flies over to examine the assets of Lady Cleavage Celeste, looking sad.

"I had wondered where she was. No, I have no more scrolls today, but tomorrow...mayhaps, or the day after we can return her and others to life again. It's a horrible way to exist. The monsters that did this must be punished."

Dyrant will fly back to L13 and wait the door at J13 to be opened.

"Let us continue on. Glim, you ready?"

"I was thinking more of the chance we'll be petrified. Twould seem our foe has the ability to turn a great many people and creatures to stone. I suggest we do what we can to obstruct such spellcasting. Perhaps more mist once we have Vhalantru in our sights."

*grunt, pull, tug*

"Just a second Dyrant, we're almost rady."

Atol helps Glimmil back into his plate armor.

I hope we don't have to go through that door in a hurry...

Glimmil nods appreciatively.

"Thanks Skie, that was record time getting it back on!"

Oblivious to what he has just said, Glimmil hops aboard Cog, tests the balance of his lance and finally adjusts his helm.

"What else do we think Vhalantru can do? Could he un-stonify the statues?"

Dyrant examines the painting of Celeste and--as your post implies--deduces that she is likely trapped within it.

I'm going to allow Glimmil to open the doors with his armor on, or maybe just one gauntlet off. Perhaps it could be counted as a second assist from someone else.

Toffitt examines both of the doors for obvious traps.

Perception on North: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (10) + 27 = 37
Perception on West: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (5) + 27 = 32

"I'll drop mist when he shows up. How do you think he trapped her in the painting?"

Finneas will examine each statue closely, looking for any lost brothers of Kord that might have been taken as trophies.

The north and west doors are exactly the same as the east door. In fact, this side of the east door has the same arrangement of runes and crystals. As expected, they are all trapped.