Test of the Starstone

Game Master Kyle Smith 700

Assuming Nareth uses detect magic...

There is a magic aura on the door.

"It said no time. Time gone. Gone. It lied. It spoke the truth. Did it? Yes, friend. No, it lied. Time forever gone. No time."

Robert stood askance from the secret door, "If it only opens from the inside, perhaps brute force would be in order?" He gestured at the dwarf paladin, indicating it might be best if he were the one to try.

"Certainly, but I would like to try our other options first. You know, path of least resistance and all that..."

Tired of waiting, the Dwarf tries to push the door.

Some kind of... magic mouth, perhaps? Maybe its a punishment, for failing in the task we ourselves are undertaking...

Day 2 - 11:10 AM

Map

Pushing on the door is like pushing against a stone wall; nothing happens.

"Hehehehe. Time to go. Go time go. No. Stay. Go. It can't go. It must go. Time flies. So it said. Did it? Yes, friend. No. Said else. Ask. Answered. Yes. No. Said time. Said no time. No time. NO TIME! NO!"

Alec tries a different tactic, smashing a closed fist against the secret door and trying to be heard by the man. "There's a door! There's no time! A door! Follow the sound!"

Can I get an assist on a Take 20 (24, boosted to 26 with aid another) to find mechanism?

If that is unsuccessful; vote move on unless the primary spellcasters can reveal more.

Day 2 - 11:40 AM

Map

The party spends the next half hour searching over every square inch of the room. By the time you're finished, the manic ramblings are wearing thin on your nerves - especially as you don't find a means to open the door.

Nareth points at Alec's hammer. "Plan B."

Day 2 - 11:40 AM

Map

Combat Round - Surprise!
Insect - 16/16 hp - AC 14 T 11 FF 13 CMD 13 Fort +7 Ref +1 Will +0

Perception checks

As Nareth points at the hammer, Robert hears a skittering sound coming from the room to the south. He looks up in time to see an enormous insect (picture) enter the doorway.

Initiative
Party: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Monster: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Surprise Round - Robert and Cockroach only

Robert's turn.

Robert spins to find the horrific bug creature looming. He shouted a word of warning to his companions that got choked in his throat and came out a wordless cry of fear instead. Acting decisively, he cast his own Grease spell under the bug monster.

Reflex(DC 15): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Bug is now prone, I believe. Also front edge of grease should be where the bug is, so that melee people can get up in its face.

Day 2 - 11:40 AM

Map

Combat Round 1
Insect - 16/16 hp - AC 14 T 11 FF 13 CMD 13 Fort +7 Ref +1 Will +0

Wings flutter out from the insect's thorax, and it flies off the ground, forward and up to the ceiling.

The insect is at B3, but at the ceiling, which is 10 feet high. It can still be attacked from the ground, but it is not flanked.

Party's turn

Alec strikes from his enormous 4 feet tall body, but the swing goes short!
PA Longsword: 1d20 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 6 - 1 = 7! Miss! for: 1d8 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 2 = 13 damage

Robert's smug smirk quickly falls away as the insect simply flys over the grease trap. "Of all the rotten luck ... he grumbles. With a heavy sigh, he casts Acid Splash at the insect.

Acid Splash: 1d20 ⇒ 7 for Damage: 1d3 ⇒ 1

The glob of acid falls short of its target and misses the mark. With that, Robert takes a 5 foot step back.

Now giant bugs. Nareth swings his chain up at the creature, stepping sideways where Robert was to block off and defend the fragile wizard.

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25 Hit!
Confirm: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 Nope.
Damage: 2d4 + 4 ⇒ (4, 2) + 4 = 10

Lorenzo surged into the fray with his new rapier, piercing the beast's carapace with the pointy end!

Swift action Luck.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 6 + 2 = 16
Damage: 1d6 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 1 + 2 = 5

Day 2 - 11:40 PM

Map

Combat Round 2
Insect - 1/16 hp - AC 14 T 11 FF 13 CMD 13 Fort +7 Ref +1 Will +0

Bite on Alec: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13 (miss) for 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 damage.

The bug's wings flutter as it sinks back to the ground. 5' fly to the ground. It bites at Alec, but the dwarf's sturdy armor deflects the blow.

Party's turn.

Now very close to the target, Alec brings his Longsword with full force on the monster, but will it be enough?? Don't lose tomorrow's update!
PA Longsword: 1d20 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (13) + 6 - 1 = 18! Hit! for: 1d8 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 2 = 14 damage

Day 2 - 11:40 AM

Map

Combat Round
Insect - -15/16 hp - AC 14 T 11 FF 13 CMD 13 Fort +7 Ref +1 Will +0

Lorenzo attack (no luck): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21 for 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 damage.

Nareth attack (flank): 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 5 + 2 = 15 for 2d4 + 4 ⇒ (3, 1) + 4 = 8 damage.

Lorenzo skewers the insect, and Nareth's spiked chain finishes the job. The insect is dead.

"Well done, guys! I assume these kind of monsters come out of nowhere, right?"

Alec cleans his longsword and moves back to the secret door. Having a fresh idea, moves back to the door to speak with the crazy guy on the other side. "Hey! How much time do you need?"

Finally out of danger, Robert takes the time to study the creature.

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

He replies to Alec, "In essence, yes. Its simply a freakishly large cockroach. I'm not sure if they simply grow to these sizes or if they are, hm, encouraged? In either case, there may be more, so keep your eyes peeled."

Day 2 - 11:40 AM

Map

Throughout the brief combat, the rantings from beyond the wall did not cease, nor do they now.

Alec puts his hand on the wall where the door should be, knowing that his effort will probably be useless, but nonetheless he speaks it aloud, enough for even the crazy voice on the other side to hear it. "I'll grant you 10 minutes of my time!"

Day 2 - 11:45 AM

Map

The voice continues its rant, not even pausing at the sound of Alec's voice.

Do you want to move on to something else, or continue trying to figure out this puzzle? You've found one other unopened door on this floor, as well as some objects/areas of interest you may want to revisit due to relatively limited inspection:

1) The room with the falling rocks.
2) The rift in the ground in which centipedes hid.
3) The statue that answers questions.
4) The iron chandelier with a magic aura where it attaches to the ceiling.
5) The room that filled with blood.
6) A room filled with bats, the floor covered in guano.

Note: I'm not saying there's something to discover in those rooms, just that you either decided to leave and return later, or didn't spend much time with them.

Magic Aura on the chandelier? Nice!

Alec is ready to move. "Well, I'm not the clever one, but I've run out of options. If none of you have more I suggest we leave. Maybe we can return to that room with the guy who answers questions and ask him how to open this? By the way, haven't find the liar yet?"

Alec slaps the others so they would wake up. It is not even saturday yet.

Robert bristles at the dwarf's rough slap, blustering and muttering dark words. Composing himself, he replies to Alec, "That seems an apt change in tact, an excellent idea. Let's be off then."

He moves off from the group, gets as far as the doorway, then stops. He remembers he is not the heartiest member of the group and gestures for the others to step forward for their usual marching order.

It is Saturday for me- still working but finally some time freeing up :).

Lorenzo nodded in agreement.

I was thinking the same. Robert, would you care to phrase the question? We must leave no room for error in its formulation.

We could go to door 1, the one on the bottom left of the map.

Day 2 - 11:50 AM

Map

You head back to the room with the statue. When you enter the room, it again speaks. "Ask, and be answered."

Oh is it that room? Hmm, are those stairs I see around the bottom right of the map? Pardon my memory, I don't have the whole map memorized.

Sorry, I forgot to update the map. It's done now, with some labels for the stuff I mentioned earlier:

A - The room with the falling rocks.
B - The rift in the ground in which centipedes hid.
C - The statue that answers questions.
D - The iron chandelier with a magic aura where it attaches to the ceiling.
E - The room that filled with blood.
F - A room filled with bats, the floor covered in guano.
1 - Unopened door.
2 - Stairs down.
S - Secret door with babbling voice.

For future maps, I'll try to label rooms as you move through them, and keep a record of them somewhere for your reference.

If you want you can use the Sheet named "References", on the Loot Sheet, to put all of it together on the same place.

Alec remains quiet, letting the clever ones formulate the question.

The secret door that Alec found, the one that babbles. How can we open it?

"Appeal to he whom it hides. If he refuses, offer him fish."

"I would say, lets offer the fish! But then we have none, so, I would formulate a question, but I'm afraid this guy could answer it, thus I'll just add a comment. I think we should try the unopened door, as Nareth suggested. Unless you have more questions."

Mmm... Fine. Lead on good Dwarf.

Light Shield + Rapier equipped.

"I've been thinking, nothing we have investigated so far actually granted us any decent knowledge to help us in the following rooms. So I think we should, after this is done, stop investigating and overrun everything. Then, when we have a good feeling of something, we came go back to try it. What do you think?"

Since June 4th- the adventures of Alec and Lorenzo. Its not fair on GM to keep this pace up really.

Day 2 - 11:55 AM

Map

The previously unopened door is now opened to reveal an empty room.

Options left:

A - The room with the falling rocks.
B - The rift in the ground in which centipedes hid.
C - The statue that answers questions.
D - The iron chandelier with a magic aura where it attaches to the ceiling.
E - The room that filled with blood.
F - A room filled with bats, the floor covered in guano.
2 - Stairs down.
S - Secret door with babbling voice.

"So let's go down the freaking stairs. We can come back later, right?"

Day 2 - 12:15 PM

Map

The stairs descend, and continue to descend, for an interminable amount of time. Looking back shows nothing but the stairs you've already traversed, and looking forward shows nothing but further stairs. For 15 full minutes, you descend, until finally the stairs end into an enormously long chamber, 20 feet wide. Lining the walls, spaced every 10 feet, is a man or woman dressed in parade armor, various weapons held in parade stance. The end of the chamber is not in sight.

Map not updated, as I don't think it's particularly needed at the moment. Let me know if you need more description.

Alec detect evil on the men and women, but do not start to move just yet.

REAL men and women or statues?

The men and women look entirely too real to be statues. They do not move, however.

"Where are we?"

"Interesting." Nareth detects magic on the statues, then inspects them from a few feet away, then pokes around them.

Nareth detects magic on all of the men and women. With a little concentration, he determines that each has one aura.

Inspection from a few feet reveals no new details.

As Nareth pokes around the statues, one end of his spiked chain passes through one of the figures entirely.

One day I will have a rank in Knowledge: Arcana, but today is not that day.

Nareth stops at the figure that his chain went through, putting a hand through it.

Nareth's hand passes through the figure.

Nareth tries walking through it and checks the wall behind it.