Shifty PFS Group Bravo (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

Grogson moves to Florentine's side, rolling him onto his back after checking for posterior wounds. A large gash plays across the man's head and looks like it may be fatal if not seen to by someone of more skill than he possesses. "Florentine's in a bad way, boys. It looks like he's cracked his head good from the fall."

As the dust settles, the party finishes the battlefield recovery.

Three of the kobolds remain alive but unconscious, thanks to being struck with magical sleep and multiple bursts of colour spray; they are in no position to resist the party.

The 'Firespeaker' lies slain with an arrow poking from him like a mast jutting from the deck of a ship. Upon his person is the Jade Katana, a dagger, a spell component pouch,as well as a pair of potions and a spellbook - Raoul confirms they are a potion of blur and a potion of cure light wounds; The spellbook contains all 0-level spells, burning hands, magic aura, silent image, color spray, disguise self, magic missile, and ventriloquism.

Maurit carries two potions of cure light wounds and a potion of protection from evil; leather armor, dagger, shortbow with 20 arrows, masterwork thieves tools, and a nice opal.

Florentine is stabilised, and you realise there is little you can do about the poison in his system that will have to run its course Sadly haven't heard back from Flo, sent an IM a while back

In the rear of the room, on the far side of the makehift altar you note a freestanding dragon statue positioned between the well and the broken wall. A single rune in Kelish features on its brow.

Cracking the door to the North reveals a storeroom with a staircase on the far side.

Jivs knew nothing about battle field medicine but a potion always worked like it should. He took one of the potions of healing and poured it down Flo's throat.

At the dragon statue he traced the rune with his finger.

Let me guess Poz. It says 'fire'. Where to now boys?

Staircase goes up, down or both?

Did the 22 succeed?

"I can't believe this. Jiv, what did I get his with, that made me feel like I have never felt before...it was awful," he says as he shakes his head, gathering up his weapon.

I don't know Aranan. There was a flash of light of some sort and then you just stood there afterwards. Maybe Poz knows.

"I wasn't really sure who got a good glimpse of it. Raoul or Poz? Either of you? I would like to find a way to better prepare myself against that, if I can figure out what it was," he says as he scratches his head, glad it is finally clearing.

Did the 22 succeed?

Chasing a 25, total BS imo - the writer needs to go have a good hard look at themselves.

Grogson hefts Florentine's body on his shoulder and lashes his feet to his hands to keep him secure. "Let's gather what we need and move out. Time is ticking and we have a job to complete."

Map

Grosgson pushes onwards, making his way through the door...

This room has a wide corridor exiting it toward the north, and a door to the south. Barrels and boxes of supplies fill the cramped chamber.

"Which way,boys? We need to avoid the dead. I can't rightly fight for long with a man strapped to my body. Egress is key here."

Sorry, this weekend is unexpectedly sucking. May not be able to make a real post until tomorrow night. Here's a quick catch-up:

Re: "firespeaker" - can we tell what race he was? Know (local): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27 if it helps. Or did I just miss it?
Re: statue - I also assume it says "fire"?
Re: DC 25 - That's probably part of why they're retiring this module.
Re: Spell effect "I didn't get a good look at it, which may have been for the best. But it looked the same as what Raoul did afterwards. If you keep half an eye on me, I might be able to distract you at just the right moment for it to not affect you. Unfortunately, I was too far behind this time."

[dice=Perception on the "supplies"]d20+6[/dice]

Raoul addresses Aranan's question. "That spell that our sneaky friend used to disable you seemed to be Color Spray. Unfortunately for him, I could cast it as well, and did. It can be quite devastating when it works, as you experienced."

To Grogson's question, "Well, I suppose the safest route would be to backtrack through the way we came. But that would probably be less fun."

Continue round and explore the western side and possibly locate the documents? or pull back the way you came - back to the entrance?

I vote for exploration. Onwards! To documents and runes!

"I agree with Pozuket's enthusiasm. My previous statement was just a statement of fact. Yes, we must find these documents for the Qadiran Trade Prince."

In the store room, Pozuket gets busy rifling through the place looking for valuables or items of interest... his Gnomish attention to detail (or just by virtue of being short and therefore closer to things)paying off handsomely as he uncovers four vials of alchemist’s fire hidden in a bag of weevil-infested flour. They appear to be labelled in Draconic.

The party, once satisfied the room has given up its secrets, moves forward.

MAP - you are still traversing the stairs

This crossroads of stairs has one dominant feature: a crumbled statue in the southeast corner, once the image of a proud warrior chiseled roughly in granite. The statue’s helmeted head now rests on the floor, its lifeless stone eyes gazing toward the south. On the helmet, a single Kelish word is carved in the stone. The wide stairway to the north leads to a passage that ends in a cave-in ten feet past the foot of the stairs.

Eyeing the statue, Aran moves away from the front of it, waiting to see if it has some effect that shoots forth from it, since they have already dealt with the firebreathing statue.

"Keep it moving. With all the racket we've created I can't imagine it'll be long 'fore whatever lives in here is comin' ta check us out."

Taking one of the vials of Alchy fire with him; Jivs nodded at Slagtoes' advice and pushed forward.

Raoul also grabs one of the vials of alchemist's fire. "Let's explore further to the west, see what we can find."

The party continues to edge forward.

Map

Cracked and crumbling frescoes line the walls of this large empty room. The sections of the frescoes not destroyed by the passing ages show Qadiran men engaged in battle.

A rough stone tunnel leads off to the northwest, as if the ground simply cleft in two ages ago. A pile of bones rests just inside the passage.

Pozuket grabs the two vials of fire that the others didn't, and follows them deeper into the ruins.

Upon spotting the pile of bones, he says "Given that we are in the depths of an abandoned fortress, the traditional thing to have happen is for that pile of bones to arise and assemble itself into an undead skeleton bent on slaying us. Given that we are real and not in the midst of a traditional tale, I would doubt anything so cliche would occur, but keep a wary eye upon it just in case."

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

You know, I suppose you could pre-emptively Molotov it on the way past 'just to be sure' :p

My players make a point of smashing every skull they see, just in case.

Bueller? :p

Jivo was skirting past the pile of bones when Poz voiced his warning. The half elf stepped away from the skeleton heap and waited for it to start moving.

Are you serious man? We're in some dark ruins chasing after a magic sword. The only way our story would be more cliche was if we also had to rescue a princess.

"Nah, if we still ended up having to search for the princess, then the sword would be locked up with her...behind a guarding dragon. And if that had been the case, Captain Li would have to find someone else to find that katana of hers."

"Considerin' we have the sword and are looking fer them damned scrolls you might want to think about what protects a library.", Grogson gripes as he readjust Florentine's body again.

"Hmm, where could this passage lead?" Raoul takes a few tentative steps toward the passage with the pile of bones.

"Hmm, where could this passage lead?" Raoul takes a few tentative steps toward the passage with the pile of bones.

The creaking gears of inevitability once again grind forward as Raoul approaches the bones, and sure enough a bony hand lashes out towards him. Being highly suspicious about the obvious trap, it is just moments later that the party descends upon the unwitting Skeleton with a wall of sharp steel - sending back to whence it came in the blink of an eye.

A single skeleton? for real?

Among the pile of bones are one hundred gold coins worth of mixed coin, a golden crown (appraised at three hundred gold coins), a masterwork shortsword, and a wax-sealed tin scroll tube with a scroll which Raoul determines is of comprehend languages.

The party presses onwards...

MAP

This large room is dank, and a strange draft flows through it carrying with it a foul odor. Rubble is strewn here and there. A strange, slimy slick glistens down the western wall. Near the slick is a wooden door.

The only sound is a faint drip echoing from deeper in the dungeon to the east.

Looking for the source of the noise, your eyes are drawn to the long coridoor. At the end of this corridor sits a sinister-looking fountain in a rounded alcove. A four-headed hydra, displayed in cross formation, protrudes from the middle of the rounded wall. The hydra’s heads all face directly down the hallway. Its top head’s mouth is firmly shut, its socketed eyes staring darkly down the corridor, and its head fin is flared and up. On that head fin, a single Kelish word is carved into the stone. The other three heads have toothy mouths open wide and reclined head fins; these obviously served as spouts for the fountain. Just below the mouths is a ceramic basin. The basin has been dry for many long centuries now.

Yes, that is two desriptions. The first is the room you are in, and the second is the long east west coridoor.

As the skeleton animates, Pozuket just shakes his head sadly. "You were right. This is a cliche story. Maybe Maurit was originally a princess?"

I think you linked the wrong map - that link is just the same map as the previous one, as far as I can tell.

"I'll bet this one says 'water'. Given the way it's pointing, it's clearly intended on defending the basin. And since I doubt water was that precious, and this place is that cliche, I'm going to guess there's a secret door down there which leads to the library we're looking for."

On closer inspection, Pozuket notes two doors clear as day at the end of that corridor.

it's the correct map, the difference is you can now see the coridoor to the east, the full south room, and the door in its NW corner (next to some strange glistening slime)

Notionally you now have three choices - NW door, corridor south door, corridor north door...

As an fyi to the other players, I have played this before, so I'm keeping my mouth shut about ways to go and 'secrets', I'm largely just going to go with the flow.

"How long would a library have lasted out here? Didn't they say it had a quite some time?"

So, which way? First to call is it :)

Raoul pipes up, "Let's try the northwest door. The other hallway seems to head somewhat back from where we came from."

Keeping in tight to stay clear of the glistening mold, you are able to move past it without incident, although Raoul is certain he saw it moving when you drew closer.

MAP

This cramped chamber stinks of something worse than rotten eggs. A black mildew covers the walls and the three doors that lie beyond the entrance. Each has a small metal slot at its bottom, but the latched covers long ago rusted away.

The smell is overpowering and stomach turning, and your last meal is planning a rematch.

Drawing his shirt up over his face, he watches the movement closely, his sword held at ready, stepping slowly towards it.

The closer Aranan pulls to the slime, the more it seems to shift... the rest of the party is spread between the main chamber and what appears to be holding cells.

At the moment Aranan is just outside of 10' away, draw closer?

Grogson smiles as the others wretch at the foul scent,"No stomach for the sweet smells of the darklands, boys, hahaha." Noticing that Aranan is moving toward something weird he halts. "Careful boy." Grabbing a flask from his hip he says, "Try this."

/poke poke team :)

Pozuket pulls out one of the flasks of alchemist's fire that he recently recovered. "Lets burn off that stuff, and see if that clears the air. Stand back - I don't want to splash you."

Pulling the party back to a safe distance, Pozuket hurls the vial of liquid flame at the wall, and sure enough the wall erupts into a flurry of activity as a slime creature responds to the blaze. There is a short period of burning and a horrid stench in the air, but soon only a smouldering ooze coats the wall and floor. No signs of further movement.

It doesn't take long to search the cells, Within the cells are remains of three prisoners — those unfortunate prisoners left here when fortress came down. Now nothing but bones and tattered possessions remain.

Among the remains in the cell closest to the prison’s exit is a letter in Tian. The letter’s paper is brittle and browned with age, its broken seal features a kirin flying amid three clouds.

Coridoor remains, per above description. A door north, a door south...

Raoul carefully considers the options. "Hmm, I say we try the north doorway. Also, I believe we recovered a scroll of Comprehend Languages earlier."

Raoul searches for the scroll. Upon finding it, he reads the words and is able to read and understand the tian text of the document that the party just found.

Hopefully Raoul is able to confirm that the letter is the document that was requested by the trade prince.

"I say we have what we came for. Florentine is gonna bite it and we still haven't found those damned letters. I came to get the dragon lady her sword. What do we have to gain or lose by not finding the Kel his documents?"

Hallway North, or take the Katana and exit stage right? :)

I have opted for the egress. We are at least Amber on our LACE Report. Down by 20% on manpower and Red on spells.

The Tien manuscript:
The letter’s paper is brittle and browned with age. Its broken seal features a kirin flying amid three clouds. The letter introduces the ambassador as Xeng Li, and describes the gift to Taliq Asad — a jade katana, a representation of the Li family’s honor and its ties to House Asad.

Will check how keen the collective is to crack on in the morning, and whether you are keen to roll on or roll out :)

Ah, I forget that you are in Australia, GM.

Raoul considers the dwarf's assessment of the party's predicament. "Perhaps our stout friend is right. He had been so good bearing Flo, that I forgot about the ranger. On consideration, I agree with Grogson, let us cut out while we are able."

"If I am judging it correctly, I think we have very little area left to cover. We have gone in almost a square. I would bet there is only a couple of rooms left on this level and if it goes elsewhere, we simply leave. If not, we have completed all the tasks the Venture Captains asked of us or can, in good faith, tell them we did our best."

"Unless yer lookin' for work with that fella, we're running out of time, Aldori."