The Godsmouth Heresy - Team Alpha (Inactive)

Game Master Luke_Parry

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Casting detect magic while searching the room.

Bodham conducts a cursory sweep of the room with Detect Magic, and identifies the following:

Religious carvings depicting the judgment of souls cover the walls of this room. A stone pedestal with a bowl-shaped depression on top stands in the northwest corner. Wooden cabinets and chests of drawers line the walls.

Amongst all of the this, Bodham finds two scrolls, and a cloak, which radiate magic.

Feel free to give me Spellcraft checks. Anyone else can give me Perception checks; I will assume that you wait until the Darkness abates.

Bodham isn't trained in Spellcraft yet, so the best he can do is 10, I believe.

"Looks like this cloak and these scrolls are magical. Anyone able to identify their properties?"

can they take 20 on their perception checks? I forgot to do that

@LP, huh...that is a little counterintuitive...oh well waste of a good 21

Malkiel heeds the words of his comrades, and returns to the room. Once the darkness had dissipated to low-light, he takes 20 for a 26 when he searches the room.

"I've learned to use a few magical items in my travels, but not enough to be able to tell between them with any skill."

spellcraft is one of those trained-only skills...

oh yea thats my cue
Dolre says "May I look at them?"
spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7<<scroll
spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10<<scroll
spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7<<cloak

After exaiming them for awhile she sighs I cant tell yet. I may have to study them more tomorrow."

If that is it I suppose we should store them for now and move on.

Sure, you can take 20 on Perception.

Malkiel is too enthralled in his search of the room to hear the exchange about the cloak & scrolls...

Searching the room, Malkiel finds a large number of religious accoutrements, worth a modest amount of money, more for their historical value than their intrinsic value.

100gp in total.

What now?

There are other exits (other than the door we broke down) from this room, I take it?

One other door exiting this room, opposite the one that you entered by. This door is shut, but *not* locked.

Dickey gestures to the closed door.

Malkiel, would you like to again do the honors?

This time, Dickey steps back to the corner of the room opposite from the door, prepares his sling and casts Light on the bullet of his sling.

Dolre is ready to follow the leader once again.

The theme of judgment in the afterlife is continued in the carvings on the walls of this room. A wide table stands along the north wall, draped with a heavy black cloth. A single candle burns in a tall, iron candlestick in the southwest corner, but the rest of the room is cloaked in shadows.

"Greetings." A sibilant voice states, echoing throughout the room. "Long has it been since visitors have come to this area. Know that I can draw back the veil of mystery that cloaks the Godsmouth Ossuary, and reveal all the secrets of the Ancients - all that is required to formalise the pact is one gold coin of the realm; place it upon the black cloth, and your question will be answered."

Feel free to ask questions, but answers come at the cost of 1gp each.

Dolre places a gold coin on the black cloth.
"What is stealing the bodies?." ask asks. Then she takes a step backwords just in case.

"No thing is stealing bodies - it is a human who has a particular interest in the undead."

"What is this human's name and occupation?" Malkiel asks to be practical.

There is a pregnant pause, as if something was being waited for...

Remember, it is a gold piece per question, so you *do* need to leave a coin, and state that you are doing so...

Malkiel finishes working a gold coin out of his well concealed pouch and places it on the cloth.

"His name is Svilennius, and he is a mortician."

Offering two gold coins of his own, Bodham gets inquisitive. "Where can we find him and what allies does he have to defend himself?"

"Go back down the corridor to the end, turn right, turn right again, and follow the path as far as you can. Do not tarry in the room of the The Great Pit; things occasionally crawl up from The Still Place many hundreds of feet below, and you *do not* want to encounter anything from there... He has no allies, but does possess numerous undead minions... that have not been animated through the power of magic."

Malkiel drops another gold coin on the cloth, "Forgive my skepticism, but who are you that we should trust what you say?"

"I am simply the one who is providing answers to questions. If you choose not to heed what I say, it makes no difference to me; my contract with you only extends as far as providing truthful answers."

That was not an answer, neither did it ease my skepticism, but I have one more question

Another coin, another question, "If not by magic, then how have his minions been animated?"

"Science."

While the questioning is going on, Dickey searches the room, looking for somewhere where someone might be hiding.

Magic voice, eh? This reminds me of one of our shows we used to put on...

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Dickey does not spot anything unusual.

What do you want to do now?

"Saï-ence? Never heard of it. Probably some kind of Razmiran mischief. In any case, this Svilennius is probably the one who caused so much distress to the Lady of Graves. Let's seek him out."

Dolre seems to be thinking and then places anther gold on the table
"Are there any other places in this tomb we should see besides where this human is located?" she asks.

Perc: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Nicolae also searches the room with Dickey, curious about the nature of their strange benefactor.

It is difficult to pinpoint, what with the echoing nature of the room, the acoustics of which appear to have been designed to confuse, but Nicolae thinks that the voice might be coming from beneath the black cloth.

"This place is a wonder of the Ancients, with many things both foul and fair within its chambers; as to whether you need to see them, however, I do not know, as you are relative unknowns to me."

A note of annoyance then creeps into the voice, as Dickey and Nicolae start searching the room.

"I have answered your questions, in accordance with our compact. Please keep your colleagues in line, and stop trying to find me."

Malkiel nods at Bodham's suggestion, "I agree, best not to anger the 'disembodied' voice."

Malkiel sneaks off down the hall to the intersection.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19

Dolre says
"Well there are a lot more areas to explore lets go."
as she follows Malkiel

Nicolae shrug his shoulders and follows the others outside. After they have walked a safe distance he speaks. I think the voice was coming from beneath that black cloth. Lets hope his information is more solid than his presence.

Dickey follows the others and runs his fingers through his hair, trying to undo some tangles.

Hmm, I looked around and didn't see anything, but if you think the voice is coming from underneath the cloth, I'd be willing to go back and take a look. That whole scenario reminded me of a theatrical performance. And what does a spirit want with gold?

Okay then...

Backtracking down the long corridor, upon reaching the end, the party turns right, and goes down another short corridor, which ends at yet another T-intersection.

To the left stands a door emblazoned with a strange seven-pointed star, which positively glows with magical energy.

To the right is another long corridor, ending in a door... the first in this complex which you have encountered which is actually open!

Let me know if you wish to continue to follow the directions, interact with the strange door, or do something completely different.

Bodham thinks...

1d2 ⇒ 2

... the party should follow tze voice's advice and hunt down Svilennius!

Knowledge(arcana): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

This dice-rolling mechanism has a grudge against me. I'm fine with heading the direction of Svilennius, so head to the room labeled number 20? I take it that's the same room with the door open?

Not wanting to try his meager luck on a magical door, and sensing the teams' wishes, Malkiel stalks toward the open door drawing his bow, and setting an arrow. He takes his time, looking and listening all the while for any sign of life or anything interesting.

takes 20 for a 26

Seeing nothing, he'll stop at the doorway and look inside. otherwise he'll stop as soon as he sees something

Dickey, why y u no take 20? There's no ticking clock

Oh, hmm, good point - I guess it seems counter-intuitive to me that you can take 20 on a knowledge skill. I'm taking 20 then...

Dickey informs the rest of the group of the meaning of the star (see the spoiler above).

Oh, it didn't occur to me that you couldn't...it actually makes sense, because knowledge isn't time sensitive like that...oops.

You *can't* take 20 on a Knowledge skill check (well, unless you have access to a large library, or you are a 5th level bard with Loremaster).

Peering through the open door...

A thirty-foot-diameter pit fills this circular room, its bottom lost in darkness. The ceiling arches twenty feet above the pit, which is encircled by a narrow, five-foot-wide walkway. A door stands in the opposite wall of the room, across the pit.

Let me know if you plan to tarry, or wish to move through the room as quickly as possible.

Dolre studies the strange door.
knowledge arcana: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Good now we do have a reason to know about the door :)
"That is the seven pointed star representing seven schools of Thassilonian magic. Hay I wonder what magic there might be in there. We really should come back to this door!" she exclaims. Dolre then moves on with the others.

As they are going through the room, Bodham uses his darkvision to examine the walls for carvings of any kinds, without wanting to tarry.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Lol, Dolre, thanks for bailing me out with that natural 20. FWIW, GM, I did look up the PRD before my last post and it didn't say you couldn't take 20 on knowledge checks. I'm guessing I just looked at the wrong section, but I tried...
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/usingSkills.html

Dickey casts Light on a sling bullet and throws it in the pit, watching it fall...

Let's see if this mysterious voice is telling the truth...

You're right it doesn't, but it does say you can't try again, and since Taking 20 is effectively just trying again and again until you get a 20 without having to physically roll that many times, then that means you can't take 20

Malkiel looks wide-eyed at Dickey, and gestures for him (and anyone else in the room) to come back out of the pit room. Once those who decide to get out of the room have done so, he quickly closes the door behind them and listens intently.

*sigh* Dickey, I was really hoping someone would not be silly enough to do something like that... I take no responsibility for what is about to happen... Maybe we should call you Pippin from here on out?

Dickey drops a lighted pebble down the pit... the light dwindles away to a point of light, before disappearing entirely.

Bodham: Doing a proper search will take time; at least half a minute, or more - there *might* be something to find, but distance penalties means that a 23 only works if you are taking time to move around the room, rather than standing in one spot, and glancing around...

Malkiel looks at Dickey in horror, and begins to frantically suggest that everyone leave the room as quickly as possible...

...about the time that a strange beast - a fanged, human skull on top of the body of a huge skeletal snake - arcs up from a hidden ledge just below the lip of the pit, and starts to sway...

I need will saves from everybody. This is *not* a spell or spell-like ability.

Round 1: N, Bodham, Dickey, Malkiel, Nicolae, Dolre

I need to know the results of those will saves before determining what this creature does next, unfortunately...