The Dire GM's [PFS] #6-15: The Overflow Archives (PbP Gameday VI) (Inactive)

Game Master CanisDirus

I have two wands of CLW if anyone needs to use, just let me know how many charges you need.....

Oma looks around and sees several brass tubes floating in the water. Ohh, Goodies!

Acrobatics (to climb up on top of the bookcases for Perception Check): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 Don't know if I need this given the deep water and such, but posting just in case...
Perception (Brass Tubes): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

"Hey, guys, look! There are some waterproof containers over there" Oma points to them. "They might be worth salvaging, yes?"

(Out of combat I'm not going to require checks to get on top of the bookshelves since you can take your time)

Oma sees three of the brass tubes marked with Pathfinder symbols indicating that they have magic scrolls inside.

Something the GM forgot to mention!

Overhead of each of the four passageways is a bronze plaque identifying what rooms lay beyond.

Clockwise from the upper-right:

- Cartographium
- Heritage Stacks
- Dictionarium
- Taxidermy Storage

"Taxidermy? Grotesque. I have a feeling we will not like what we find in that room..."

Nijena gathers her companions around her and with a wave of energy your wounds begin to heal. channel positive energy
Heal: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4 really? :/

The rest of the open wounds she starts to heal with her wand. maybe we can split the wand charges between Oma and Nijena.

healing herself
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Diana is visibly shaking after the fight as she quickly cleans the blade and sheathes it. She retrieves her bow and wipes it off on her cloak. "I've got a wand as well"

2 charges on my self, who else still needs some?

Desini also pulls out a dark, gnarled wand from the sheath on her wrist. "I've got one too, although mine's a little nasssty. Sssome of you mightn't like it." She taps it onto her open wound, squirting a small drop of bright red blood out of its tip, which sizzles briefly and then causes the wound to steadily heal.

One charge of Wand of Infernal Healing. Anyone is welcome to use a charge of this at any time if they prefer the guaranteed 10hp healing.

She then gathers up the scrolls and deciphers them with a Read Magic spell, sharing their contents with the rest of the group. "So, where to next?" The sorceress points to the door to the Dictionarium, near where they fought the voidworm and the zombie vulture. "This one'sss the closessst, ssshall we ssstart here and work our way around?"

"Taxidermy? Grotesque. I have a feeling we will not like what we find in that room..."

"Grotesque? No. Interesting. It also makes me very curious as to whats in there..." Oma goes and gathers the three tubes. "Desini, can you make any sense out of these scroll tubes?"

Chi wipes water spatters from his kalimba and shrugs as he looks up at the Taxidermy Storage sign behind him.

"Heritage iiis history, which interests meee most, buuut we're all history eventually, so I can bide my time." He makes a snuffling purring sound that might be a laugh. "Theeen again, I suppose we couuuld end up as taxidermy, too."

He stands ready, waiting to see which way the group goes.

Gesturing to the remains of the bird Diana shudders, "I've had my fill of bodies, for now, I say anywhere except Taxidermy Storage. "

-2 Arrows, -2 CLW Charges, 1/2 Smite Evil, 3/4 LoHs

So, not taxidermy, but a decision is needed, or else we can roll for it *evil GM grin*

"There is 4 doors, yes?" Oma gets out a die, and rolls it. roll: 1d4 ⇒ 3 "Dictionarium it is."

The door to the dictionarium bears a simple lock. It takes Oma two tries, but he is able to disable it and open the door for you. But! As soon as the door opens into this previously dry room, water starts to rush inside! It will take quick action to save the texts inside this chamber from flooding! Fortunately, Desini and Nijena are able to shove the door closed in time to save everything within.

The dictionarium contains many books, with more language primers, linguistic treatises, and records of inscriptions than anything else.

Two items of note stand out from the others. The first is a nonmagical Traveler's Dictionary for translating Sylvan into Common. The second is a Cloak of the Manta Ray that the archivists apparently thought to be a mundane ray-skin and used it to bind several volumes of thesauri.

One wing down, three to go. Where to next?

"Well, we went where you wanted this time, time to see the fun stuff. You can't avoid it forever, and best get it over quickly, Taxidermy time!"

"What, you haven't been having fun already?" Desini says with a smirk. "Taxidermy room it is. I mean, what could go wrong in there?"

"It's not about what can go wrong" Oma says as he heads over to the door marked Taxidermy "It's about all the interesting things one can learn there, all the cool stuffed stuff. What? You afraid that they may come to life and we have to deal with Zombies or Skeletons? And, no" he adds emphatically "water isn't fun."

Chi's stands transfixed, feathers slowly puffing up until the Dictionarium door is closed again.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

He shakes himself, and gurgle purrs. "Thaaat is a place for which I could make time. Rrrr. Beautiful."

He turns away, his regret obvious, and follows Oma and Desini toward Taxidermy.

Diana reluctantly follows them to the Taxidermy room.

S'slarn also reluctantly follows, not excited to see all the stuffed creatures.

Since I see no labeling on the map, I can't move us to the door of the new room.

Sorry, I thought I had posted the rooms as being clockwise from upper-right. I've moved you all to the upper-left, where Taxidermy Storage is.

As you arrive at this closed door, you see a slightly soggy scrap of a scroll pinned to the door with a steel dagger.

After reading it, you are able to notice that this door is not locked. However, there appears to be water pressure on the other side, which would require a strength check to open it.

For the sake of time, I am going to assume that you are able to make the DC 15 check to get the door open. Further, I am fine in assuming that the scroll fragment is enough to get you ready to face danger. If you think your character would have used any defensive spells or resources before opening the door, please feel free to indicate it at the start of your next post and I will allow them to be applied retroactively.

A thin waterfall drops from a grate in the ceiling (white circle on the map) fifteen feet above, creating a curtain in the doorway to this flooded room. Beyond, mounted animal heads glower from virtually every inch of every wall. Stuffed specimens also lurk beneath the dark water, their antlers, horns, and claws breaking the surface here and there. In the eastern corner, a large gilded cage (bronze-colored unequal sign on the map) sits mostly submerged, its waters thick with embalmed birds bobbing at the surface.

Diana, Oma, and S'Slarn notice there is a human locked inside the cage...it's Virml - the apprentice you thought you were talking to outside the archives alongside Kreighton Shaine and Zarta Dralneen! If kept in that cage for another hour or two, given the volume of water still coming down from Mistress Koi's constant deluge, he will certainly drown!

Virml is not unharmed in that cage, either. His mouth is caked with dried blood, and the same three of you who noticed him also see that most of his teeth have been violently pried out of his mouth! The culprits are nearby as well, three diminutive creatures holding oversized pliers bearing human teeth in them flitting about with tiny wings, and also a small, aquatic-looking female creature floating on the water's surface.

As you enter, the larger of the four creatures smiles and speaks. "Надад илүү олон шүд, охид минь. Явж, бүгдийг нь ав!"

Round 1!
Oma
S'Slarn
Diana
Red
Yellow
Chiguya
Desini
Green
Nijena
Blue
Round 2!

Oma, S'Slarn, and Diana are up! Chiguya, Desini, and Nijena - you can post what "pre-buffs" (if any) you might have activated before entering this room.

GM Note - This entire room is a Deep Bog. One square of movement costs 20' of movement. There are taxidermied heads mounted along all of the walls, however. You can make a DC 10 Climb or Acrobatics check to get on top of those, but if you do, there are a few conditions:

1 - You are considered to be "climbing" and lose your Dexterity modifier to AC unless you have a climb speed.
2 - Each mounted head can only support so much weight, so if someone is standing on one and a second PC moves through that space, the head will tear free of the wall and dump both characters back into the water.

Knowledge check post coming shortly.

Green creature - Knowledge Nature:

Blue, Red, and Yellow creatures - Knowledge Nature:

Desini uses a charge of her Wand of Mage Armor on herself before the group enter the room.

AC now 18.

Kn. Nature (untrained):: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

"Tooth fairies!" Desini exclaims in horror, her hand instinctively reaching up to cover her mouth

Know Nature: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Diana draws her cold iron arrows at Desini's words. Letting loose the evil fey. Targeting Blue then yellow if blue goes down.

Rapid Shot: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 6 + 1 = 25 Dmg (Clold Iron): 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 = 6

Rapid Shot: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 1 = 16 Dmg (Clold Iron): 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 2 + 1 = 11

"A fight it is, then." Oma, knowing he has the best long range weapon, aims at GREEN.

Underwater Crossbow: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Both of Diana's shots hit the blue tooth fairy - the second because it is flat-footed! But even after taking both arrows, it still remains flying!

Oma's shot misses the flat-footed green creature by mere inches.

S'Slarn can still act (and Chiguya and Nijena can still post pre-buffs) before any enemies take their turn!

S'Slarn (botted, will try my best) will try to jump up onto the mounted taxidermied heads in order to advance to the blue tooth fairy and make a grapple attempt on it!

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Grapple: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

S'Slarn grabs the diminutive thing!

The red and yellow tooth fairies exclaim with excitement in Sylvan as they both rush towards Desini!

"Ээжийнхээ хувьд сайхан хүүхдийг аваарай!"

The red one will try to bite Desini on the shoulder while the yellow one goes for Desini's mouth with her pliers!

Red Bite: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Bite Damage: 1d2 - 1 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) - 1 + (6) = 6 (Sneak Attack + Slow Reactions = Desini cannot take attacks of opportunity for 1 round)

Yellow Pliers Greater Dirty Trick: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29 ("Tricky Thief" Supernatural Ability)
(oy vey)

Desini has a tooth yanked out of her mouth for 1 point of Charisma damage and 1 point of bleed damage!

Round 1!
Chiguya
Desini (-7 hp, -1 Cha, 1 point of bleed damage per turn)
Green
Nijena
Blue (-17 hp, grappled)
Round 2!
Oma
S'Slarn (grappled)
Diana
Red
Yellow

Chiguya and Desini are up!

Thanks GM, well botted! S'slarn would also have yelled out any information about all of the creatures he gleaned with a knowledge check:

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

He reveals all of this information, paraphrased in a way that doesn't include out-of-character stuff:
"This is a Bog Nixie, a variant advanced Nixie. It is a small aquatic fey. Like most fey, nixies have damage reduction overcome by Cold Iron. Bog nixies can sing a "captivating song" that has an effect similar to that of a harpy's song - failing a will save leaves a victim captivated and unable to defend themselves against the nixie's attacks!

In addition to DR/Cold Iron, bog nixies have some Spell Resistance. Their best save is Reflex and worst is Fortitude. Unlike normal nixies who are usually chaotic but not good or evil, bog nixies are always evil."

"The small creatures are Tooth Fairies - diminutive fey with the extraplanar subtype. They have minor damage reduction overcome by Cold Iron, and in their hands, any set of pliers function as magical weapons which they can use to yank someone's tooth out as a combat maneuver (dealing charisma damage), or smash an opponent's finger with (dealing dexterity damage)! Further, even though they are diminutive in size, their pliers gives them a five-foot reach!

Destroying their pliers will automatically stun a tooth fairy for one round afterwards. Once per day they can cast Invisibility on themselves. Also, when they die, they explode into poisonous dust!"

When he sees Desini's tooth pulled out:
"We must reattach your tooth within ten minutes, in order to sssave you from any lasssting damage!"

FORT: 1d20 ⇒ 15

Desini manages to shrug off the paralysis but is not too amused by having one of her teeth ranked out of her mouth. "How dare you! Give me that back!" Blood spits out of her mouth and her forked tongue flicks up to the gap where her missing tooth was.

"This is no laughing matter, you little thief...but I'll give you something to laugh about if you want!"

The sorceress attempts to cast Hideous Laughter on the fairy that attacked her.

Hideous Laughter (DC20)

Chiguya (botted) will begin to Inspire Courage in the party and then will squawk a bit and move out of the way so the ranged party members can get a better angle on shooting the nixie!

Both the red and yellow tooth fairies will try to take attacks of opportunity on Desini as she casts her spell.

Yellow Pliers: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13
Red Pliers: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20
Red Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Desini DC 15 Concentration Check: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Yellow Will Save: 1d20 + 4 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 4 = 26

The yellow tooth fairy giggles, but not at the spell!

Your GM read one thing about this room wrong - the bog nixie is not floating in the water but is actually perched on top of a stuffed gorgon's head mounted near the ceiling in the square where her icon is - sorry about that.

The bog nixie grins at the developments happening below, revealing that she has all manner of teeth (her own, human, and some scavenged from taxidermied heads) stuffed in there, as she begins a Captivating Song!

Desini, Nijena, and Oma are under the effects of...

(Moving blue up one in the initiative order just for sake of us moving us along faster)
The blue tooth fairy, held firmly in S'Slarn's hand, tries to bite him!

Blue Bite: 1d20 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 4 - 2 = 14
Bite Damage: 1d2 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1

Nijena and Oma, captivated by the nixie's singing, spend their turns wading through the water towards her. The tooth fairies know not to attack their mother's "playthings" and so do not take any attacks of opportunity against them.

Round 2!
S'Slarn (-1 hp, grappled)
Diana
Red
Yellow
Chiguya
Desini (Captivated, -10 hp, -1 Cha, 1 point of bleed damage per turn)
Green
Blue (-17 hp, grappled)
Nijena (Captivated)
Round 3!
Oma (Captivated)

S'Slarn and Diana are up!
Nijena and Oma, if you have a reroll that either of you would like to use and beat the DC under the Will Save spoiler above, you'd also be up and moved back to where you were before I moved you (added arrows on the map to show movement).

Fort: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

S'slarn shrugs off the paralytic effect and uses a flurry of maneuvers to both attempt to pin the creature and pummel it.
Grapple Pin: 1d20 + 13 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 13 + 5 = 24
unarmed, grappled: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 plus bleed: 1d4 ⇒ 2

S'Slarn maintains his grapple and pins the poor little blue fairy, then squeezes so hard that it goes unconscious in his nasty nagaji hands!

(Don't forget the +1 to attack and damage from Inspire Courage, by the by)

I have nothing to allow me to reroll that Will Save.

Oma, under mind control effects, moves straight to the enchanting creature.

Diana shakes her head as the creature sings seeing her allies caught in its throws. "Lets see you sing with a few arrows in you!
Rapid Shot: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 1 = 18 Coldiron Arrow: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 2 + 1 = 5
Rapid Shot: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 6 + 1 = 24 Coldiron Arrow: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 1 = 8

Both of Diana's shots find their mark in the nixie, rendering her staggered and disabled!

The red and yellow tooth fairies zip over to attack Diana to try and protect their mother, the red one trying to bite her while the yellow one tries to pinch one of the paladin's fingers on her draw-hand!

Yellow Pliers: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Red Bite: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Red Damage: 1d2 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1

Chiguya (botted but I talked with the player earlier heh) will drop her Inspire Courage and instead begin a Countersong to try and shake his allies out of the nixie's captivation!

Chiguya Perform: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
(folio reroll that I know the player has)
Chiguya Perform reroll: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Just like that, all of you are set free from the captivating song!

Round 2!
Desini (-11 hp, -1 Cha, 1 point of bleed damage per turn)
Green (- 13 hp, staggered and disabled)
Blue (-23 hp, KO, grappled)
Nijena
Round 3!
Oma
S'Slarn (-1 hp, grappled)
Diana
Red
Yellow
Chiguya

Desini is up and no longer captivated!

Fort DC 11: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Desini snaps back to her right mind thanks to Chiguya. She wades through the water into some open space, before sending off one magic missile towards the annoying nixie and two for the nasty little fairy that stole one of her teeth.

Magic Missile Damage - Nixie: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Magic Missile Damage - Yellow: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (3, 1) + 2 = 6

Desini's missile knocks the fey mother****** unconscious, and the bog nixie falls from her perch down into the water...and she does not emerge.

The (conscious) tooth fairies shriek in horror, and flee!

Out of combat!

In the aftermath of the battle, you find a leather bag (of questionable origin) containing gold and silver teeth worth about 750 gold.

Assuming you free him from the birdcage continually filling up with water, Virml stammers out his thanks with only half a dozen teeth in his mouth, having been afraid he was going to drown if you hadn't come to rescue him!

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

"Hey, Desini, look, your tooth!" Oma wades over to her and reinstalls it back into her mouth. On the way, he grabs the Gorgons Horn and the Meadowlark and asks her "Hey, can you - or anyone - tell me if these are magical?"

Desini gratefully accepts the tooth from Oma and gives the tengu a hug. "Thank you! You're a pet!"

She then has a look at the items to see if she can identify any of the magical items. "Why, yes they are! Nicely spotted! That's a feather token and this one is a horn of fog, as far I know!" She shares the details of their magical properties with the rest of the group.

Spellcraft (take 10) - meadowlark: 10 + 5 = 15
Spellcraft - gorgon horn: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

Desini then turns to Virml, speaking in a soothing, sibilant voice. "Ssso Virml, are you OK? Well, asss well asss can be expected given what you've been through. What HAVE you been through exactly? How did you end up in thisss predicament? We're not here to try and get you in trouble, but I fear trouble hasss found usss all whether we like it or not. It seemsss there isss a ssshapessshifting fox out there taking your form...pleassse leave no detailsss out from what you can remember, sssince you came down here into the Archivesss!"

Diplomacy (take 10): 10 + 13 = 23

After her tooth is re-attached, S'slarn hits Desini with a charge of cure light wounds to make it stick.

Magical healing was also needed for the tooth to stay in, per the spoiler way above. :)

Desini gratefully accepts the tooth from Oma and gives the tengu a hug. "Thank you! You're a pet!"

She then has a look at the items to see if she can identify any of the magical items. "Why, yes they are! Nicely spotted! That's a feather token and this one is a horn of fog, as far I know!" She shares the details of their magical properties with the rest of the group.

[dice=Spellcraft (take 10) - meadowlark]10+5
[dice=Spellcraft - gorgon horn]1d20+5

"Magical? Nice!!! What do they do, do you recon? Oh, and see, I told you so! No zombies or skeletons. Just some ugly bugs. And look," Oma nods to Virml "We have found someone."

Desini's Charisma damage is healed!

(and the information on what the items do is in the hyperlinks with their Spellcraft DCs)

Virml recounts to you that he snuck into the archives on a dare to pilfer some sort of magical scroll to bring to a party fellow Pathfinder initiates were going to be having down at the docks. As he picked the scroll, The Name of the Fox, he read part of it aloud, and then the scroll burst into six pieces! A handsome kitsune was the first creature to emerge, and immediately read pieces of some of the scrolls, summoning outlandish creatures and taking on Virml's appearance, leaving him here with the fairies before heading off to ransack every chamber in the lower archives. Some time later, water started pouring forth from a level high above, and he was scared that he was going to drown, until you saved him!

"Ouch. Where did the Kitsune go?"

"I have no idea...I've been locked up in this cage for hours!"

Desini thanks S'Slarn for his timely healing and and now looks like she's back to her usual, enchanting self.

"Well the Massster of Ssscrollss sssent Virml...ah, that isss to sssay, the kitsssune off to the Ssscriptorium to transsscribe sssome sssoggy ssscrollsss, but who knowsss if he actually went there or headed off to caussse sssome other missschief?"

Looking Virml in the eye, she smiles at the young fellow. "Ssso, are you coming with usss, or did you want to head up and report what you know to Ssshaine directly...oh, and how are you feeling now? Need any more healing to get back on your feet?"Desini will offer a prod of her Wand of Infernal Healing if needed.

"Thisss water'sss ssstill flowing. We better get moving."

Did we not get the Koi to stop with the water? If so, where is all the extra water coming from?