Sior's PFS Destiny of the Sands Part II : Race to Seeker's Folly (Low-tier) (Inactive)

Game Master Sior

I am sorry Prothero. It seems that I can neither understand what is causing the effect, nor take it from you. Perhaps there will be a solution somewhere inside; maybe that's why she was here in the first place.

K (religion) to recognize my patron: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
K (religion) to decipher the cartouches: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

I strongly suspect that he was burned to death by getting the cartouche puzzle wrong. Nethys is god of all magic; and magic can be used
to defend or to attack those who would steal from you.

If it has to do with hocus pocus magic, you guys can handle it. Darvik comments roughly. Just tell me where to stand and where to go.

Borax tries to understand what purpose this room serves as he contemplates who the initials might belong to among the Pathfinder Society.

K. Local Take G10 on "V.L." = 21 + 1d6 ⇒ 6

K. Engineering Take G10 room = 20 + 1d6 ⇒ 2

"Take care everyone. Do not spread ourselves out. We should stay together as a group and travel as a group."

The picture of Nethys is that which is burned. The man on the ground is simply withered, not burnt.

Borax studies the cartouches and comes up with a few translations, which can be seen on this new and improved handout.

The destructive side of Nethys' personality is normally associated with the burnt side of his body, and the protective side of his personality with the whole side.

So the destruction cartouche belongs on the burnt side. The Prosperity, Rune, and Protection cartouches should all be on his whole side. I suppose that leaves the Knowledge cartouches on the burnt side as well.

Now that I've had some time to unwind and cool off after work:

1d20 ⇒ 1

Prothero examines the man and something else catches his eye. The wall next to him bears a multitude of scratches as if indicating the passage of time, and a chewed piece of leather next to him bears a nearly illegible note that curses the writer’s companions for leaving him to drown in a desert. He also wears a large best round his waist.

Borax, circling the room, thinks this may have been a water source of some sort, though he can't figure how the water is being fed to the statue. Odd. Hey, hold on a second, the handwriting on the map signed by V.L. and the script used on the wayfinder, also signed V.L. is uncannily similar to the note Torch originally sent you off with containing his errands to be run! ...Probably a coincidence.

Teric looks around the room, seeing his error in hearing there was a burnt man but also noticing something is off about the fountain. A wand sits at the bottom of the pool. Next to it is what appears to be a wayfinder. Additionally, there is a glistening scimitar placed at the feet of the statue.

Oh, and there is also a face. Instantly, water flows upward out of the fountain's reservoir and forms a humanoid(ish) form. It sits on the statue and looks at you. From within its form, various bubbling noises can be heard. Does anyone speak Aquan?

Defah, however, seems too engrossed in figuring the placements of the cartouches to notice until someone says something.

Prothero's eyebrows lift and he says, "Ah, I see! This stone must be slowing my mind as well! We need to move the cartouches to the proper sides of Nethys in order to...what, I wonder?"

Looking at the cartouches, he concurs with Defah's suggestion for which side of the god each should be placed on. He moves toward the wall where the cartouches hang and raises a hand toward the first one, saying, "Shall I do this, or does one of you want to?"

Erf, poorly timed post on my part, with all the new stuff you put up, Sior. Will catch up on it later, methinks, but I'm willing to be the cartouche guinea-pig when it comes to it.

No worries. We can hold off on the cartouches if the water creature makes ya uncomfortable =P

"If you will all give me a minute, I can mix an extract that will allow me to converse with these creature."

Borax bids his companions to hold their actions as he mixes an extract of comprehend languages and consumes it.

Borax then speaks to the creature in its native tongue,

"Greetings. My companions and I wish you no harm. Perhaps we can be of service to one another. We are from the Pathfinder Society and seek to preserve history and antiquities for future generations."

Diplomacy Take 10 =19

The creature looks on with curiosity as Borax creates an extract and drinks it. It continues to look on with what can only be guessed is puzzlement as Borax speaks.

Comprehend Languages does not grant you the ability to speak the language.

Doh!

Borax points down to the group and then points to the earth.

K Planes Take G10 to identify the creature=20 + 1d6 ⇒ 2

It is an elemental. Borax gets 2 questions on the matter.

Mimicking Borax's motion, the elemental drops to stand in the fountain's pool, pointing to itself and then the water. However, its pointing continues to go over the flowing water and up to the jar from whence it is poured.

Borax nods in acknowledgment.

Borax points to the items in the water and then points to the elemental.

Do I get the name of the creature, subtype?

Sorry, thought that was obvious. Water elemental.

After seeing the elemental motion to the water, Teric rolls his eyes. "It would help if you can explain that you can understand him. Perhaps see if he knows what happened to this man." Teric kicks the withered corpse.

"Yes, that much is obvious, but the question is how to make the creature understand."

Borax points to the water elemental, then to his ear and motions the elemental to talk.

As far as questions, one weaknesses and one defense

The elemental cocks its 'head' and asks

As Borax attempts to communicate with the water creature, Prothero stands by the corpse with Teric. He points out the markings on the wall and the chewed piece of leather and says, "I think I've got an idea what happened to him, though I'm not sure how. It looks like he lay here and starved to death, counting the days and chewing on leather for sustenance. All the poor soul had was water from the fountain to live on. I wonder if he picked the wrong arrangement of the cartouches and was trapped in the cave by it."

Prothero then points at the belt the corpse wears and asks Teric, "I'm a little reluctant to grab that and try it on, given what happened with the damned magic stone, but maybe you could at least check it for magic?"

Borax shakes his head in the negative but points to the corpse and raises his hands like a question.

I assume that when one identifies the creature, you get all the subtype information. In fact, I think I recall a 3.5 book which set the Subtype info at the DC of the lowest creature in that subtype.

For someone detecting magic, the belt does radiate as magical. As does the wand and the scimitar in and by the fountain.

Borax makes the motion of walking out with his fingers on his hand. Then Borax points to himself and says, "Borax." After which, he points to the creature and indicates a question again.

After a few attempts, the water elemental points to itself.

Content to let Borax communicate with the elemental, Defah is much more interested in the dead man's magical gear.

[ooc]Does identifying an item w/ detect magic and spellcraft require touching the items? Because Defah would prefer not to touch the man's gear until we determine how he became trapped in here.[/ooc

Spellcraft belt: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Spellcraft wand: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Spellcraft scimitar: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

"Drowned in a desert"? Did this man convince the elemental to kill him to avoid the slow death of starvation?

Borax was also interested in the corpse. Borax points at himself, says his name, points at the creature and says her name, then points at the corpse and signals the question.

Teric looks at the magical items with Defah. "Borax, see what he can tell you about the cartouches too."

Spellcraft (belt): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Spellcraft (Scimitar): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Spellcraft (Wand): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Prothero stands ready to slip the belt off the withered corpse, but looks to Teric and Defah first, for any information they can provide.

He glances at Borax and says, "I'm with Teric, see what you can learn about the cartouches, maybe just point at them and gesture like your'e moving them around, then a nice, confused shrug. If the water-creature won't tell us where they need to go, maybe it'll at least tell us the rules of the game. I wonder how many tries you get before bad things happen?"

Wow, a lot has happened.

Darvik keeps an eye on the creature, not being able to understand a thing that's going on. You want me to try the belt? I already feel bad, what more could go wrong?

Darvik will examine the wall where the scratches are in the meantime.

Perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (17) + 0 = 17

While talking to Sellana, Borax will move closer to scratches and leather, making sure there is nothing more his ability to comprehend languages might reveal.

At the question of the fallen man's name, the elemental does its own version of a shrug.

When asked about the cartouches, the elemental simply says

The items, gauged from a distance I assume, are a +1 scimitar, a wand of lesser restoration, and the belt, which looks like a belt of mighty constitution has a strange aura about it that it may in all actuality do the exact opposite.

Darvik does not notice anything else about the wall where the scratch marks are.

Borax lifts the dead mans arm and drops it, looking back at Sellana and shrugging as if to ask what happened.

After Sellana responds Borax motions to the want and scimitar as if he means to take them.

Again, it shrugs.

Borax turns to the group,

"It appears this creature is here to guard the few items that are here. Without a way to directly communicate with it, we'll have to defeat it to take them. I recommend we work on the cartouches."

Borax reexamines the cartouches.

"I agree with the suggestion of moving the cartouches to align with dark and lights side of Nethys."

I think I did this, but if not, K. Religion take G10 on Religion Nethys

Prothero studies the cartouches a moment longer, then says, "Unless that thing's burblebubblesplash talk is telling you what we need to do to solve this puzzle, and I'm guessing it's not, I say we just take a shot at it, using Defah's idea."

He moves a bit closer to the wall, reaches up to grab the first cartouche, and says, "Anyone object? Borax, let me know if your watery friend says anything I should know about, please."

Borax is saying to use Defah's idea, what is it do you think I mean when I said align the sides?

"The creature seems to think the cartouches are a test to weed out the unworthy."

"Don't touch the belt. It appears to help your health, but probably is like Prothero's rock, cursed. The other items seem normal."

"Let's see what these cartouches do."

Borax, you did indeed. Did better than a T10 on it, too.

Suddenly wary of the elemental, the party moves to the cartouches.

Following Defah's planned order, the two cartouches are switched, putting Preservation towards the whole side of Nethys and Destruction on the burnt side. Once the second tile is placed, a click is heard from the eastern wall and a section of paneling pops out. A hidden door has been revealed!

Borax is saying to use Defah's idea, what is it do you think I mean when I said align the sides?

I didn't see your post, as it went up just before mine. I read Sior's post and put up mine, and didn't notice that a post had appeared in the interim. I just asked if anyone objected because I wanted to move us along but didn't want to railroad things, didn't mean to ignore your post.

Prothero approaches the secret door, keeping a watchful eye on the elemental. He listens at the door a moment, inspects it for any additional surprises, then opens it.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Darvik will move ahead of Prothero if he indicstes the close is clear. Before we end up like that other fella we should go.

The elemental watches Prothero with curiosity as he goes over to the door.

The rich scent of palm wine, cinnamon, and myrrh fills the magically illuminated storehouse beyond the door. Each wall has deep slots filled with papyrus scrolls. A white-and-black marble altar enveloped in faint wisps of faerie fire sits squarely in the center of the room. A ladder to the south leads up to a walkway, with more shelves and a golden sarcophagus.

The elemental makes no action to stop you.

Borax examines the area for mundane and magical traps, while waiting for an magic scan.

Perception Take 20 = 25

Nothing appears to be a trap of any sort.

Borax will run though his knowledge checks to see if any of the rooms contents signify anything useful.

Prothero regards the scene before them for a few moments, then says, "Looks like we did better on the cartouches than the last fellow. Nice work, Defah. Now, before I get close to that altar or the sarcophagus up there, I'd really appreciate it if someone could check it for magic, evil, bad attitude, whatever you're able to pick up. Something tells me whatever surprises those things have to offer won't be very welcome ones."

In the meantime, he will carefully study the altar and see what he can determine about the god associated with it and any other useful information.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Edit: we're getting good at this cross-posting, Borax! That time we were only 24 seconds apart.

Borax realizes that looking at all of the knowledge contained here would take a very... very... long time.

Prothero, unconcerned, heads up to the altar and sees that it is clearly consecrated to Nethys, to everyone's surprise.

Prominent golden sarcophagi are always something to be careful of.

Defah will take a moment to say a minor prayer at the altar before going to look at the sarcophagus.

Are there any markings on or near it to give some idea of who is interred in it?

"Amazing." Teric marvels at the number of scrolls and the altar. He casts a detection spell to find any magical auras. "I bet any number of scholars would kill for this."

Detect Magic

Teric does not identify any magical auras, save from the sarcophagus on the higher level.

Defah ascends the ladder to the sarcophagus to see that it is covered in arcane runes and carved to resemble a human man of indeterminate identity. Beside the sarcophagus is a small shrine with an aged book upon it, its contents fully in Ancient Osiriani.

Upon noting the existence of the book, Borax quickly takes a look.