The Forgotten God (Table 5)

Game Master Rednal

The looters simply grinned.

"I think I'd prefer to stay here." the apparent leader said. "I'm not so desperate for gold that I want to risk my life in there. If you succeed, that works out well for us... and if not, well, we can probably at least get as far as you, and pick up whatever's left by your corpse."

"Suit yourself," Astoroth shrugs as he walks toward the indicated double doors.

Three prison cells sit along the southern (Left) wall of this hallway — each contains a mound of dead bodies in various stages of rot and destruction. There's another pair of double doors in the northwestern corner.

Astoroth looks into each cell before moving on. Wouldn't do to get trapped if the mounds of bodies suddenly animated.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26 (+1 vs traps)

There don't seem to be any traps in this room, but there are a pair of well-concealed doorways hidden in the western and southwestern walls. There's no telling where they might go, though, or even if going down them is a good idea - if you plan on shutting this thing down, you'll almost certainly have to visit the main rooms, and potential shortcuts may just result in backtracking. Or exposure to needless dangers - and as if to emphasize the time-sensitive nature of your task, the entire underground area rumbles as the small, crystal lights flicker weakly.

Ignoring the hidden doorways for the time being, Astoroth continues to the double doors at the end of the hall. Time was of the essence, and as odd as this building was, it wasn't his place to go snooping around any more than necessary. Ancient ruins were one thing, but poking through someone's residence was just rude.

This long hall flickers with unsettling purple light — the source of this stomach-churning illumination is the eighteen alcoves that run opposite each other along the walls. Within each stands a pillar of rough purple crystal, flickering with what appears to be violet fire. An ominous rumbling and high-pitched wail comes from around the hallway’s corner far to the north.

Every few seconds, fire erupts between the crystals, blasting the area directly between them and bleeding off to the side. Even now, flames exist between...

3d10 ⇒ (5, 8, 9) = 22

...the fifth, eighth, and ninth sets of crystals.

On the map, that's direct fire between the numbered crystals, and indirect damaging areas for 5 feet on either side of the main blasts. So the furthest you could go without literally running into the fire would be one of the squares the '4' is on.

Astoroth stops in his tracks and observes the movements of the flames. Traps like this usually operated according to a particular pattern....

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
INT: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

EDIT: LOL

XD XD XD

As far as you can tell, there's exactly no set pattern to these traps - the blasts are fully random, and even as you watch, they change.

3d10 ⇒ (10, 7, 9) = 26

This time, flames ignite between the seventh and ninth pillars, and you keep watching to look for a pattern...

3d10 ⇒ (8, 10, 1) = 19
3d10 ⇒ (2, 7, 4) = 13
3d10 ⇒ (1, 5, 6) = 12

And the flames bounce all over the place, ultimately ending up quite close to you indeed. No point advancing at all when the flames are close, and after a few seconds...

3d10 ⇒ (5, 8, 5) = 18

Flames ignite between the fifth and eighth pillars again.

This was taking too long. While the blasts appeared random, there was doubtless a pattern to them, but it was clearly a very complicated one. As time was of the essence, he'd just have to brute-force this obstacle. Astoroth concentrated for a moment, and his skin took on a slight glow.

Wild Arcana to access an awesome talent from the Nature Sphere

You may spend a spell point to gain the ability to absorb energy from fire for 1min per caster level. You gain fire resistance equal to your caster level. Whenever you take damage from fire (whether or not it is enough to penetrate your fire resistance), you are healed an amount equal to 1/2 the fire damage dealt to a maximum amount equal to 1/2 the fire resistance granted by this ability (minimum 1). Damage dealt in excess of this amount is handled normally.

In other words, I gain Fire Resist 4 for 4min. Each time I'm exposed to fire, I'll heal at most 2hp.

3d10 ⇒ (4, 2, 3) = 9

The flames changed again as you focused on casting - this time appearing as an almost-solid wave of flames between the second and fourth sets of pillars. While rushing through was possible, it might also be possible to simply rush forward through each opening when you could and hope that fortune was on your side.

Which was exactly what I'd planned on doing now that I have a buffer. :-)

Setting himself, Astoroth began to walk down the corridor stopping before the flame walls as he went. While he wasn't sure how hot the fire would be (and didn't plan on finding out), his spell should provide him with some protection.

He'll advance as far as possible without being burned, wait for the flames to shift, and continue.

You stopped at '1'.

After a few moments, the flames shifted again...

3d10 ⇒ (10, 8, 2) = 20

...and you were unable to proceed as the flames remained in place right in front of you. A few seconds later...

3d10 ⇒ (6, 10, 2) = 18

...they were still in front of you.

3d10 ⇒ (2, 1, 4) = 7

Luck was clearly not on your side, as before you could move forward, the flames ignited on your position.

Fire Damage: 4d6 - 4 - 2 ⇒ (2, 6, 5, 5) - 4 - 2 = 12

Despite everything, a bad series of burns shot across your body - there was simply no way to avoid the flames.

3d10 ⇒ (7, 9, 9) = 25

Finally, an opening in the flames appeared, and you were able to rush forward across the suddenly open distance as fast and as far as you could. Up to 6 on the map.

3d10 ⇒ (1, 2, 2) = 5

...And as the flames vanished from the front and reappeared by the entrance, you managed to dart across the remaining space and finally emerge to the other end, past all of the crystals and the deadly fire. Ahead of you is another chamber.

A thunderous roaring and shrieking fills this large chamber. Two huge crystal tanks stand in the center of the room, each filled with what appears to be boiling blood infused with periodic blasts of violet electricity. A complex series of metal pipes, struts, and violet crystal tubes shrouds and cradles these tanks, connecting to the walls and ceiling of the chamber in dozens of spots.

Of course, you haven't advanced into the room quite yet - and if there's any healing you might want to do, now may be a good time...

His protective spell mitigated the damage, but he still suffered some painful burns (Resist 4, heal 2, took 6pts). A quick surge of power took care of that, though.

Wild Arcana for the Life sphere
Greater Healing: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Feeling refreshed, Astoroth took a minute to take in the strange mechanism in front of him.

Knowledge(engineering?): 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ (14) + 14 + (6) = 34
Knowledge(arcana?): 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ (7) + 14 + (1) = 22
Disable Device?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17 (not sure if this gives knowledge or just disables things)

It was 12 points after resisting and healing. Also, Disable Device is only for disabling items. I'll assume you haven't actually touched it yet.

There's a crackling sound as you enter the room...

Reflex DC 12: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

...but you're easily able to step to the side as you see electricity gathering and step out of the path of least resistance. As far as you can tell while avoiding the periodic bursts of electricity, though, this is some kind of capacitor system for the engine, gathering up excess power for use as needed by the entire system. They seem to be quite powerful - it would take a lot of damage to destroy this thing, though it might be possible to safely do that from a distance. It may not be a critical system, though - you could also just head up the northern door instead, bypassing this fixture instead of shutting it down directly.

Ouch! Those flame jets were nasty!

Astoroth frowned as he considered his options. Shutting down the capacitor system was definitely an option, and he could probably do so from the hallway if necessary. However, if it's harnessing excess power, disabling its function may have negative repercussions. Best to continue exploring and finding out more information. Carefully avoiding the lightning arcs, Astoroth made his way to the northern door.

This circular chamber looks similar to a silo, the floor and ceiling dropping away for twenty feet in either direction. Above, the ceiling appears to be scorched stone, while twenty feet below, the chamber ends in a pool of boiling, steaming dark water. A five-foot-wide walkway around the edge of the silo allows passage between doors on either side. The walls of the room are a complex tangle of purple crystalline pipes and metal tubes, many of which steam with heat. A complex-looking metal and crystal valve, its face a twisted clot of slots and nodules, glows softly on one wall just above the walkway.

Disabling this is... not going to be the easiest thing you've ever done.

It will, however, be represented by a logic puzzle! Or by rolling a Natural 20 on Intelligence by trying to solve it manually - each manual attempt will take 10 minutes.

The emperor wants his daughter to marry the smartest of 3 extremely intelligent young lords, and so the emperor's advisers came up with a way of testing the intellect of each of the lords.

The lords are ushered into a small chamber and seated, facing one another, and are shown 2 black hats and 3 white hats. They are then blindfolded, and 1 hat is placed on each of their heads, with the remaining hats hidden in a different room.

The emperor tells them that the first lord to deduce the color of his hat without removing it or looking at it will marry his daughter. A wrong guess will mean death. The blindfolds are then removed.

You are one of the lords. You see 2 white hats on the other lords' heads. After some time you realize that the other lords are unable to deduce the color of their hat, or are unwilling to guess. What color is your hat?

Note: You know that your competitors are intelligent and want nothing more than to marry the princess. You also know that the emperor is a man of his word, and he has said that the test is a fair test of your bravery and intellect.

Assuming equal levels of intelligence among competitors, putting a White hat on everyone's head would result in the nebulous stalemate the puzzle implies. After all, each competitor would have identical variables to work with. The king said this was a fair test, and giving someone a Black hat would put him at a disadvantage. Therefore, my hat is White.

Correct!

After several minutes of working with the controls, you're finally able to manipulate some of the cogs and gears, turning them to the side and shutting down the cooling chamber. It seems like it will take some time for the water below to cool off properly, but you have managed to disable this room, at least. The only exit from the room seems to be the door in the southwest.

With a nod of satisfaction, Astoroth heads to the southwest door.

The walls of this gently sloping, five-foot-wide hallway are thick with rumbling metal and crystal pipes and tubes that periodically spout out blasts of steam. There's a door on the right side, in the middle of the hallway, as well as at the far end. Moments after you enter, a blast of fire with a radiant white core shoots out of the walls and moved towards you, only to abruptly swerve aside as it gets close and hit the wall instead, like it's actively trying to avoid you. There's no follow-up burst of flame - the hall seems safe to traverse.

odd that the fire avoided hitting me ... perhaps it has something to do with the Lifesphere? ... Astoroth cautiously traverses the hallway and opens the door midway down. Best to check there before continuing onward. Plus, that door can serve as cover if another blast of fire comes his way.

Beyond this door is a short hallway with doors to the left and right. You can hear what sounds like hissing steam from the door on the left.

Hissing steam. Most likely another part of the complicated mechanism controlling those flame pillars. Best to check there first. Analysis complete, Astoroth opened the left door.

The walls of this fifteen-foot-high storeroom, as well as the tools and repair supplies on its shelves, are coated with condensation. The air is wet with clouds of steam - and two small humanoids with leathery wings that you recognize as Steam Mephits. They start screeching as soon as you open the door, seeming quite angry about your intrusion.

Init (Enemy): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Init (You): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

"Hello there. This machine has malfunctioned and is endangering the city. I was sent here to try to fix it. If you'll allow me access to tools, I will leave you in peace."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

"Get out - and shut the door!" One of the Mephits growled in rough but understandable Common. It definitely wasn't the creature's preferred language - and they looked all too ready to use violence if you didn't comply. On the other hand, there was no proof you actually needed anything from inside the room... you could clear the angry creatures out now (they probably weren't supposed to be here anyway) - or leave them be.

"Fair enough. I'll leave you be." Astoroth closed the door and proceeded to check the room across the hall. Access to tools would have been nice, but he can always return if the need arose.

A large number of tools, cleaning supplies, and lengths of crystal and metal tubing are stored in this fifteen-foot-high chamber. It's much like the previous one, really - but a search uncovers nothing of particular interest or use to you.

Making a mental note of the room's contents, Astoroth closed the door and continued down the long hallway and opened the door at the end.

This chamber is identical in appearance to the cooling chamber you shut down a few minutes ago - well, mostly. The air in this room is much more foul, a result of a hideous stew of decapitated bodies that float and putrefy in the water below. Fortunately, none of the bodies seem like they're going to start moving. Now that you know what you're looking for, it's not hard to locate the mechanisms by which you can shut down this part of the facility.

As before, make INT checks or solve a puzzle.

There are twenty coins sitting on the table, ten are currently heads and tens are currently tails. You are sitting at the table with a blindfold and gloves on. You are able to feel where the coins are, but are unable to see or feel if they heads or tails. You must create two sets of coins. Each set must have the same number of heads and tails as the other group. You can only move or flip the coins, you are unable to determine their current state. How do you create two even groups of coins with the same number of heads and tails in each group?

I'm an amateur magician, and this reminds me of one of the first tricks I learned. Split the coins into two equal piles, then flip one of the piles over. You'll end up with the same ratio of Heads to Tails in each pile.

Note to self: Go for the harder puzzles. XD

Shutting this reactor down is actually easier than dealing with the previous one, despite the different designs, and finally the bubbling and boiling below moves towards a halt. With that done, you're able to crack open the next door and peer into the hallway. As you set foot in it, another burst of flames erupts out of the walls - and again swerves to avoid you. Like the previous passageway, there's a door down at the far end, as well as halfway down the ramps that continue to take you lower and lower.

What can I say? I love this kind of thing. :-)

Why are the flames avoiding me?
Knowledge(arcana?): 1d20 + 14 + 1d6 ⇒ (14) + 14 + (6) = 34

It seems that following the flames is the most expedient course of action. Astoroth heads to the door at the end of the hall.

It's difficult to say why, exactly, the flames are averting themselves from you - they're clearly dangerous, but at the same time, it seems like they're trying to avoid hurting you... which implies some kind of intellect or guiding force, and at least minimal control over their activities. The earliest moments are the most dangerous - something seems to be taking control of the fire halfway through its attack and diverting it, and observation allowed you to repeatedly notice the moment when that occurred.

Beyond the far door is a third cooling chamber - and while it looks like the others, this one is full of steam that seems to be growing steadily thicker... and the air is noticeably more pressurized, too, rushing out at you when you first open the door. It may be necessary to disable it quickly...

You are the ruler of a middle-ages empire, and you are going to have a celebration tomorrow. The celebration is the most important event you have ever hosted. You've got 1000 bottles of good wine you were planning to open for the celebration, but early in the morning, you find out that one of them is poisoned.

The poison exhibits no symptoms until death. Death occurs within ten to twenty hours after consuming even the minutest amount of poison.

You have over a thousand slaves at your disposal (for menial labor, like moving the bottles around or pouring drinks) and just under 24 hours to determine which single bottle is poisoned. Sadly, you can't get enough replacement wine from anywhere else at this point in time - and the whole event would be ruined without the drinks.

You have a handful of prisoners about to be executed, and it would mar your celebration to have anyone else killed.

What is the smallest number of prisoners you must have to drink from the bottles to be absolutely sure you can find the poisoned bottle within 24 hours?

I'm having a fair bit of trouble with this one. According to my calculations, it'll take a minimum of 6 prisoners to find the poisoned bottle and will take 5 sets of trials. Increasing it to 9 prisoners will decrease the time to 4 sets of trials. I can break the math down for you if needed.

However, the poison takes 10-20hrs to take effect, and I only have 24hrs to find the poisoned bottle. This means I have AT MOST 2 sets of trials. In order to play it safe, the smallest number of prisoners is 999.

As you continue working, an explosion of steam fills the room as the pressure reaches critical mass, scalding your skin as you feverishly work to shut the chamber down. Unfortunately, you don't seem to be much closer to it...

The pressure drops afterwards, but slowly starts to build up again.

Fire Damage: 5d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 5, 2, 3) = 17 Bit less if your defense from earlier is still up.

Hint: Think small sips. It obviously doesn't count if there's the potential for someone to die from alcohol poisoning.

I was thinking small sips. :-) The problem is there HAS TO be a 20hr delay between testing rounds due to the delayed nature of the poison. So, even if each of the six prisoners sips from 100 bottles (leaving 400 untested), I won't know if I got lucky until it's almost time for the celebration to start.

But if there was a second round after twenty hours, you wouldn't get an answer until well into the party. How might you be able to test a lot of bottles very quickly, and still differentiate them?

If it's too hard, there's always rolling INT - though steam WILL keep building up...

In other words, how can I test 1000 bottles in a single round of drinks. What's the sip limit to avoid alcohol poisoning?

Depends on the size of the sip. However, they could drink from a lot of bottles if they had, say, a milliliter or so from each. Basically, you can assume that they can drink from as many bottles as necessary for your solution.

Regardless of the test, each prisoner will either end up alive or dead. 1 prisoner means two possible outcomes. 2 prisoners means four possible outcomes. 3 prisoners equals eight possible outcomes. ... 10 prisoners means 1024 possible outcomes. That's over 1000, so a solution is possible. No idea how to work it, but I'll guess 10 prisoners is the answer. If that doesn't work, I'll have to do the INT checks unless it's possible to straight-up destroy the cooling chamber from a safe location.

Ten is correct. ^^ The answer is that each bottle can be marked with binary numerals that correspond to each of the prisoners, and they drink from every bottle with their numerals on it. Ten prisoners allows for enough unique combinations of numerals to label every bottle - and you can use that to locate the poison by seeing who died and comparing their numbers to the bottle labeled to match. Statistically, each prisoner has ~50% chance of living through the experiment.

After some time, there's a hiss as you're able to shut the reactor down - and the pressure in the room starts to drop again as things begin to cool off. That's three of the cooling chambers down, though there's no telling what effects are occurring deep within the facility.

The hallway ahead of you has only one door, at the far end - and there's still the door behind you that you haven't checked.

Binary numbers? You're an evil, evil person. ;-) Also, this clearly didn't take place on Golarion, as the king didn't think to hire a low-level divine caster to either purify food and drink or detect poison. XD

Continuing onward, Astoroth opens the far door.

After avoiding two more blasts of flame - or rather, standing still while they avoided you - you were able to move down the sloping halls and into a fourth cooling chamber. This one looks somewhat different than the others - though the water below is still boiling, it doesn't look quite as troubling as the previous ones. At the very bottom of the pool, you can see a crack in the wall, where apparently quite a lot of water has flowed out of the chamber - but even as you step inside, the water rises up fifteen feet away from you, revealing itself to be an elemental with a body made of human skulls created from foam and fluid.

Init (Enemy): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Init (You): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Even as you start to react, a burst of flame arcs out of one of the pipes - but instead of striking the walls, it whips towards the elemental instead, clearly feeling rather hostile towards your foe.

Fire Damage: 1d6 - 5 ⇒ (4) - 5 = -1
??? Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Fire against water is usually a losing proposition, of course - but the white core of the flames seemed like it had actually done something.

Astoroth had no idea what sort of elemental this was, but the oddly living fire obviously didn't like it. As the flame had thus far actively tried to avoid him, it was probably safe to assume it was an ally of sorts. With a quick gesture, Astoroth launched a blast of magical energy in the elemental's direction.

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8 Bludgeoning Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

The elemental split its body apart, allowing the blast of magic to bypass it without doing harm - and the water elemental (though it was considerably darker-looking than the one you'd seen in the underground base) flowed forward to swing at you with its bulky arms.

Slam: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26 for Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Activating Sudden Block
Elemental Slam Reroll: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27 Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Astoroth Retaliatory Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

First elemental attack applies and hits me for 8pts damage.

I'll take my turn once I see if my retaliatory unarmed strike did anything.

It did indeed hit the elemental - for full damage.

Astoroth grimaced as the elemental's fist blew through his hasty block. Setting himself, he launched a pair of blows, hoping to drop it before it does any more damage to his person.

Unarmed Flurry: 1d20 + 5 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 5 - 2 = 20 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Unarmed Flurry: 1d20 + 5 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 5 - 2 = 22 Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5