The 6 Seasoned Pathfinders, Episode 10 - The Night March of Kalkamedes (#4-19) (Inactive)

Game Master GHembree

Dusklord waits as Stephani cuts through the brambles and Lyrio and Starling hold Kalkamedes still.

Looking at the sharp undergrowth, the wizard says "I am not sure it is wise to say this, but these look--fairly flammable. I recognize 'flammable' is not a word I should say with Serak around, but he has been awfully quiet. Where are you, anyway, gnome?! If you're not talking I'll worry you're burning down something we didn't tell you to burn down!"

Starling tries to keep Kalkamedes from moving forward. She maintains her hold on him, but it's clearly not the kind of activity she is used to. "You're not going anywhere yet!"
Grapple + 5: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

While Swift and Radagosa keep Kalkamedes pin, Stephani hacks a path through the Raser Brambles using Gamin the Misforged sword.

Once the path is clear and Kalkamedes is released, Kalkamedes continues on oblivious to any dangers he marches for another hour before abruptly turning west causing Lyrio who is scouting ahead to the north to be out of position.

Kalkamedes new direction takes him straight into a watery bog, and a standing pool recently made much deeper by the rainfall from the prior night. While the water is only 2 feet deep around the bog’s periphery, it gradually gets deeper -- eventually Kalkamedes will become submerged.

The pool is 80 feet across and 200 feet to either side of Kalkamedes’s path. As he wades deeper his intermittent snores demonstrate he is disinclined to hold his breath. Currently he is in the 2ft section.

Gamin shouts ”Quick do something before Kalkamedes drowns!”

Dusklord looks on in dismay. "I will be little help! Someone grab him again!"

Starling flings herself at Kalkamedes, trying to stop him from moving again. This time, however, she is not as successful. "Quick! Help me stop him!"Grapple: 1d20 ⇒ 10

Starling goes into the water trying to stop Kalkamedes, but he slips out of her grasp as he continues to move forward

CMB (Radagosa): 1d20 + 5 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 + 5 = 15 keep grapple

Radagosa also fails to grapple Kalkamedes.

Need a 17 or better grapple check to stop Kalkamedes

The sleep walker continues to walk forward now in 4ft of water up to his chest. He is making no attempt to swim, just walking forward and will soon be in over his head.

Everyone gets another round of actions to attempt something.

1d20 ⇒ 18
Flailing in the water, Starling somehow gathers the inner reserves to summon whatever strength she has and tackles Kalkamedes from behind, grappling him and preventing him from moving deeper into the water.

Stephani helps Starling.

Grapple aid: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Unfortunately, her armor prevents her from being nimble enough to help.

Dusklord assesses the situation and breathes a sigh of relief as Starling restrains Kalkamedes.

"I was beginning to think we would need to reanimate his corpse to find out where he was going. Not that it would have been entirely distasteful, but still outside our mission parameters. Would it be best to find a way around?" the wizard asks.

"Perhaps we should tie a rope to him to make this easier, then guide him around the swamp."

Starling grapples the sleepwalker on her second attempt, Kalkamedes tries to break free and succeeds slipping out of the bard's grasp.

Kalkamedes break grapple CMB: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14 Starling your CMD is 14 (you have 12 in the header line)

Lyrio's lion grabs Kalkamedes by the back of his nightshirt holding the man fast despite his further attempts to break free.

Bot of CMB (Radagosa): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

Kalkamedes break grapple CMB: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

With Kalkamedes grappled the group can carry the man around the edge of the bog some 200ft to ether side, and release him on the far side.

Any further precautions before releasing Kalkamedes? If as Dusklord suggested tying a rope to him who has rope and who would be holding (or tied to) Kalkamedes leash?

If anyone has rope, we can keep it on Radagosa. She's fairly strong - plus, in terms of actions economy, she isn't as useful as the rest of us

Stephani has a rope, and helps tie it to him and to Radagosa on the other side.

"This will work much better, my fine paladin friend," Dusklord says to Stephani.

"Kalkamedes will already wake up tired and wet. Let us ensure he is not also dead."

Once he is secured, the wizard says "Let him loose and we will follow where he goes. Perhaps it loops around toward home."

Lyrio instructs Radagosa in such way as to not harm the man. The lioness grunts a little bit, but follows up with the plan. The druid stays close.

I'll stay near them the entire time. Whatever is guiding this man actions might be of evil intentions.

Starling, wet and sore from the bruise she got while wrestling with Kalkamedes, sulks a bit while walking. "This is such a cruel punishment. Whoever did this to Kalkamedes will pay. I'll make sure of that. Wrestling with sleepwalkers isn't what I joined the Pathfinders for."

Past the Pool with a rope tied between Kalkamedes and Radagosa, the sleepwalker is released to march on.

Anyone observing might think that it's merely a lion out walking it's human on a leash for a midnight stroll.

Kalkamedes’s path winds westward into a steep mountain pass that climbs several hundred feet. The surface levels out only to terminate fifty feet ahead with a precipitous drop into a thirty-foot wide canyon.

As Radagosa stops pulling the rope taught, Kalkamedes tries to continue walking forward.

Kalkamedes Str check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
strength opposition check between Kalkamedes and Radagosa. Need a strength check for Radagosa and strength aid check for anyone else who want to grab the rope and pull.

The canyon is 100 feet deep and 30 feet wide. The walls are unusually sheer and would be difficult to climb.

Stephani will help pull him back.

I believe I can take 10 and auto-succeed here with 13, right?

Dusklord picks up one end of the rope as the others pull. He looks for a moment like he might assist, but then promptly drops the rope.

str check: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (3) - 2 = 1

"Kalkamedes, how have you not killed yourself prior to tonight?" the wizard asks.

Sorry, Can't take 10 on Aid Another checks, otherwise they would all be successes since the DC is 10.

Oh, yah - that's right...

Strength Aid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22 Well, that should do it!

"Good question, Dusklord. This is bizarre - do you think he is taking a different route than usual?"

Radagosa (STR): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

The lioness is caught by surprise, but the Paladin held a firm grip. Lyrio was distracted, and limited himself to chuckle when his pet companion seemed to have issues keeping the sleeper at bay.

Sorry for that, Stephani. I'm sure Radagosa will pay more attention now! I think she was influenced by our friend's sleepness...

Between Radagosa and Stephani they stop Kalkamedes by the tether giving the group time to figure out how to get across the 100 feet deep and 30 feet wide canyon.

"Very well," Dusklord says flatly. "He once again succeeded in not dying. Now how should we cross this obstacle? I seem to have forgotten my climbing gear."

Gamin speaks up "If only I had functional limbs, I would leap across the chasm to save Kalkamedes. Now that I think about, Kalkamedes did return one day after his sleep waking with injures from a fall."

"You're not very helpful, sword... We have to cross this somehow. Would anyone consider themselves good climbers? Once we get someone to the other side, this will become much easier."

Gamin sighs "I really wish I could be of more help. I can't climb, fly or build a bridge."

"Perhaps the thought of building a bridge is a good one, though," Dusklord observes.

"One possibility would be to have someone climb down, then scale the other side, and we could throw a series of ropes across. If we had three ropes, we could walk across one and hold one in each hand. Though not my preferred method of travel, it would likely be safe enough."

"But how would we get our charge across? Maybe we just lower him down, and then pull him up on the other side?"

Well, whoever climbs down and up, can just carry the rope. It'd still be fairly dangerous to the others, though. I think I like Stephani's idea better, even if it means we will progress slowly.

The druid prepares to climb.

I can lead the way, even though I'm not a good climber either. - he says - If we're ready, though, I will modify Radagosa to carry her in a safer way, so someone else will have to hold the sleeper during this while.

"Very well," Dusklord says and sits down. [b]"This would have been an excellent day to prepare feather fall.

The wizard waits as the others prepare ropes and tie them off, not trusting his own skill with ropes.

With Kalkamedes held, it would be a simple matter to pin him or tie him up.

Lyrio looks over the side of the cliff and judges it would be a very difficult climb!

Gamin whistles, "That's a long way down and back up, maybe you should use a safety rope? You sure you can't just jump or fly across the gap? Did no one think to pack a grapple hook, I'm sure there is someplace over there to catch it on."

(It looks like Lyrio has a climb of +3 and that's if he removes his armor and shield. The DC is such that he has a much better chance of falling than successfully climbing. It would take 7 climb checks moving at quarter speed, to descend and 7 more to climb up.)

Starling shakes her head. "No grappling hook here, and the climb seems very dangerous. I do have an idea though. I can summon a creature, a small horse, on the other side. If Lyrio can help me communicate with it, and someone has an idea how we could get it to stabilize a rope for a few moments we can get to the other side. We can shoot an arrow with rope there or maybe throw a lasso or something. If nobody has any other idea I can summon an eagle to drop the lasso on the horse's neck."

Dusklord has a better idea, though spurred on by Starling.

"Get up here, you lazy skeletal lump!" he says into his backpack.

His familiar hisses and slithers forward and its wings start flapping lazily.

"Vermithrax, take the end of this rope to the other side and wrap it around that tree as many times as you can."

How wide is the chasm again? Could someone jump across to tie this better? We could tie the rope around them in the event they fall...

"A-hissssss!"

"What is that?" Stephani says to Dusklord, a little taken aback by the odd little creature.

"This is Vermithrax," the wizard says. "My familiar. If he doesn't start doing some work I anticipate I will see what he can do as a reanimated familiar," he sneers at the beast as it struggles with the rope.

He's come out a time or two, but like most familiars, it's a surprise to see them!

Starling smiles, quite relieved. "Well that seems simpler than me summoning random creatures and sending them to the other side of the chasm... Good job, Dusklord!"

Having a plan Dusklord sends Vermithrax with one end of his 50 silk rope. The tiny creature with it's over sized head and long thin tail flaps it leathery wings as it carries the rope across the 30 foot gap.

Making disagreeable noises as it loops the rope around a young tree tucking the end within a coil to secure it.

The group now has a rope spanning the gap. It should be a simple task of climbing hand over hand or balancing like a tight rope walker to cross, but what about Kalkamedes???

(DC 5 climb check, or DC10 acrobatics to cross.)

Dusklord ties another rope around his waist in the event the other one fails.

"Soon I will research a flying spell. This magic is not far beyond my reach, and then I swear I will never participate in such mundane feats of physical exertion again!"

The wizard actually takes the lead this time, easily making his way across the rope.

Once on the other side, he says "Perhaps we could rig a harness on Kalkamedes and pull him across with one of your ropes?"

climb: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (20) - 2 = 18

"I would suggest we put him to sleep first, but I suppose technically, he already is... I don't quite see how we are going to get him across on a rope."

Sorry guys! Paizo is acting up and I can't see updates

My Climb check is currently a +0 (with my ACP of -4). I can't fail the climb for more than 5 - can I just take 10 for Lyrio?

Lyrio hears the others and considers his options. Finally, though, he speaks.

He's already tied to Radagosa. Let me just tie him tighter and she can carry him over to the other side on her back.

Can I simply do that? Assuming there's a chance of failure, here would be the lioness acrobatics. She's strong enough, and even with encumbrance her Acrobatics are still fairly good

Acrobatics (Radagosa): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
Acrobatics (Radagosa): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

@Lyrio: Jumping that far is Acrobatics DC 30, so her chances of making it are very low...

Starling bites her lip, thinking about the group's options. "I can try to make him fall asleep or charm him, but I don't think those would work on an unconscious person. Does someone have some more rope? We can tie Kalkamedes up on one end of the rope, and tie that rope to the one we currently have, then have someone pull the other end of the rope from the other side."

(Jumping would be a DC 30, but with the rope I'm allowing a DC10 walk across. You can take 10 with Acrobatics. If you have a climb speed you can take 10 with climb.)

Oddly enough Kalkamedes, can't be put to sleep or charmed in his current state. But right now he is tied up like a sack of patotos. So you can carry him.

Dusklord climbs across with ease using the rope.

Lyrio lashes Kalkamedes to Radagosa's back, and the lion takes a few tititive steps on the rope, before scampering the rest of the way with ease.

"Hurry, will you?" Dusklord says beratingly. "Who knows if he will wake up and we will not discover where he was going?"

Starling sighs, then walks the rope as well, following Dusklord and keeping an eye on Kalkamedes.

Starling, Lyrio and Stephani cross on the rope with a careful acrobatics, and the group is once again ready to move.

Once Kalkamedes is released again with a rope tether tied between him and Radagose, he starts walking again away from the cliff, for a period of time. Great bands of stars sweep across the cloudless night sky, illuminating a series of game trails that chase through the mountain shrubs and berry bushes.

As the group passes through one particular second of berry bushes, you hear a large grizzly bear roar with displeasure warning the group away from her cub. Unfortunately Kalkamedes path is taking him right towards them.

Map updated, PCs are up.

Dusklord frowns at the grizzly bear ahead.

"Perhaps we can scare them away," Dusklord says. "But in the meantime, hold on to Kalkamedes' rope."

Delay for now...if the bear attacks, I'll cast a heightened glitterdust (DC 19 Will) on the grizzly.

"Perhaps... I have little experience with large animals, but it seems we have angered this one. Maybe we can throw food at it?"