The Moar Core Tour (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

Correct. Found everything, but one of the things was in the case with the swarm. It appears that the book might be part of the swarm. Darn defenses getting in the way!

You would say fighting the swarm is likely to damage the books. You think that sonic, force or bludgeoning damage would likely to less damage to the underlying texts. There is still the problem of combat tending to be excessively noisy.

Welp, my best tool against swarms is burning hands, which sounds like a bad idea here!

Phinellippa looks mournfully at the books behind the case, but decides not to risk lighting the place on fire. She joins the others in B10.

Using my rolls from before now, yes?

Yup! Phinellippa 25, Coco 14.

B10

You use the key to unlock the room.

Two rows of tall bookshelves flank the imposing yet beautiful wooden desk that presides over this room. Over the door hangs a portrait of Grand Prince Stavian III, portrayed wearing an especially smug grin.

A brass plaque on the frame of the portrait reads, “A cunning lie is never told twice.”

This is a small room with no additions to the normal research skills.

Knowledge History: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Damiar reads the plaque, and her ears wiggle slightly. “A cunning lie is never told twice?” She pauses. “This is Eutropia’s father... And he’s a tricky guy. I am wondering if this room contains secret doors or traps.”

Damiar casts Detect Magic and looks around. Does she see any illusions?

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

“But then again, I don’t see any traps, so we’re probably fine!” She looks up at the plaque, again. “I keep thinking about cunning... Is there anything stone in this room that might hold secrets?” She really likes this theory for a few minutes, but then she shakes her head. “No... Stavian’s not a dwarf, and Taldans are pretty human-centric. Anyone have some good ideas here?”

As one of the Chief Skill Monkeys of the Group, I have been trying hard not to use the clues so that everyone else can use them. But they do us no good if no one else uses them. Use the clues, guys!

Sorry for the delay, all. Work's really busy right now, and I've been wanting to do anything but be on the computer when I get home.

I believe there's still room in this room for one?

Rees follows the others, glancing around and pulling down a few books as he tries to determine which are most (or least) frequently read. I'll take Hand-Written Notes for +3, Alex.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 3 = 20

There is room for four researchers. If the fifth person wants to do something else in the room, go for it.

So far we have Phinellippa, Damiar and Rees. Room for one more researcher.

Just to be sure, did we miss the noisy interlude already? If so, gang, let's use the next one to deal with the swarm.

Telling Nico to wait outside the small room - and making sure that Coco is inside - Garif joins his companions and attempts to help with the research.

Appraise, untrained: 1d20 ⇒ 10

Garif, it was only in the Ancient Books Collection (B9) that Appraise could be used without penalty. In this room, it is the normal skills: Linguistics, Knowledge (history), or text-based Craft or Profession check without penalty. You've been using Perception.

Wandering into the room, Garif immediately notices something strange about the back wall, behind the desk.

OMG, I should have listened to my gut! Cunning had meaning after all. D’oh!

”Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it, and bloody obvious?“ Garif asks his companions in the room as he considers the strange stonework. Looking around, he sees that no one else is aware of the oddness of the wall behind the desk.

Taking a careful look to ensure there aren’t any surprises between him and the puzzle of this interesting stonework, he approaches the wall to study it more closely.

Not sure if I’d need a separate check to see if there are any traps, but I’ll roll one in case:

Perception : 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Yes, traps always require an active search unless you have the Rogue talent Trapspotter.

Looking around a little more, Garif finds a lever to open the secret door. Unfortunately he also discovers a poison dart trap on the door. While searching the area, he finds that the desk has a potion and an elixir in it.

The rest of you continue looking through the bookshelves as Garif is making these discoveries.

Waiting to hear what the group wants to do about the trap, if Garif is still intending to do research having found the trap, what Kleines is doing, and if anyone wants to identify or take the elixir and potion Garif found in the desk.

Phinellippa examines the elixir and potion.

Spellcraft, elixir: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22
Spellcraft, potion: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21

Kleines looks around, trying to help find useful books without any real idea what he's looking for.

Perception: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (16) - 2 = 14

Sorry, I misunderstood where I was time-wise.

Phinellippa recognizes the items, a potion of gaseous form and an elixir of vision.

It takes the group eight minutes to search here. You only find two texts of any interest.

You still have a trapped secret door.

Phinellippa frowns, looking at the door. "Can anyone do anything about the ambuscade? I don't think they'd bother trapping a door unless there were something covetable behind it."

Damiar looks amused. “I have my unseen servant cast for a reason. Let’s all step out of the room, and let it open the door.”

She ushers everyone out, then says, “Open the door, please!”

"Oh, good," Garif says, clearly relieved. "I thought I would have to somehow sort out the trap, since I found it. I'd rather walk on gravel than do that - even fresh rhyolitic gravel, mind you, with its sharp cleavage surfaces, not that riverine stuff - though I'd want to avoid anything with conchoidal fracture..." Seeing everyone leaving the room, he hurries after them, lest the unseen servant open the door while he's still nearby.

At Damiar's direction, the lever is moved causing the secret door to open. As the door opens, a small dart flies flies from above the secret door into the desk. Had a person pulled the lever, you expect that the dart would have sunk into them.

B11, now added to maps!

Cabinets with two tall drawers each line the east and west walls of this room. A relief carving of a lion’s head dominates the south wall, hanging imperiously over a low stone step. Six freestanding statuettes of lions in various poses stand atop the furniture.

The large lion carving is stylistically similar to the Guardian. The stone step below the carving has four shallow, cylindrical recesses.

Each miniature lion statuette is portrayed in a different pose. One crouches as if preparing to ambush its prey. The second is roaring as it leaps at prey. The third wears a yoke that is chained to a large block that the lion strains to pull. The fourth wears a tiny pair of spectacles and reads from an ornate scroll. The fifth is draped in the flag of Taldor. The sixth sits erect and wears a crown.

This is a medium room. No additional skills for research.

"Hmm. Fascinating statues. Perhaps we'll learn about their meaning in here."

Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

CoCo stares the the lion reading from a scroll.

"Cats don't wear glasses."

Profession (librarian): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Given the luck Nico's had trying to catch that bird, maybe they should.

Kleines pokes around, trying to find some clue to the statues and the divots.

Perception: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (17) - 2 = 15

Kleines discovers there is a secret door behind the lion statue. It is not locked, but the divots in the step before it work as some sort of combination lock which looks like it triggers some other device should someone open the door without disarming it.

The divots in the step are the same size as the bases of the lion statues.

"Hey Garif, did you see this other door, too? Does anyone have any ideas what we're supposed to do with these statues? Seems like they unlock something, but I can't tell what."

It isn't clear to me. Did anyone take the potions found in the desk, and if so who has them?

Phinellippa definitely makes sure that they don't get left behind! Anyone want one?

If no one else wants it, Kleines will take the Elixer of Vision. He doesn't have any of the trained skills for researching, so maybe boosting his terrible perception will let him help more.

"Damiar, do you suppose your unseen servant could open this one too? There seems to be a mechanism."

Is this being asked before the research is complete in this room or after?

If after, I will give the research results first.

After research is complete.

Damiar, busy with her research at first does not realize that Phinny is talking to her.

Knowledge History: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

“Oh sure, my unseen servant can do that! That’s what it’s for!”

"Shouldn't we figure out what the statues and divots are all about first? What if they rise up and attack us or something?"

Double checking, I don't see research checks for Kleines, Rees or Garif.

Rees glances around, clearly distracted by his ponderings on the subject of loyalty and division.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Click. Whirr.

BOTTING CHECKS

Kleines Untrained Bookbinding: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

Kleines picks up glue and cardboard trying to figure this book-thing out. The girls seem to know what’s going on with it... Why does he keep getting glue on his fingers?

Garif Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Garif continues to study the room for clues. At least they had the sense to make all of this out of good solid rock.

The filing cabinets in this room house dossiers on Lion Blade agents past and present. Examining the documents in their entirety would take weeks, but even a cursory search of the papers shows that Taldor’s most infamous spies maintain a presence in nearly every nation of the Inner Sea region and in numerous nations that lie beyond. The rest of the documents pertain to known artifacts, holy sites, and cursed properties.

It takes your group twelve minutes to find two different books that have useful information relating to your task. Although you would love to go through other records, you believe that is all there is to be found here relating to your task.

So it sounds like we have two in favor of Unseen Servant touching things, one wanting to puzzle things out. I'll wait until you agree.

"Sure, Kleines, but we better be quick."

Is there a relevant knowledge check to know more about the statues?

The only other check they give is a very difficult for Tier 1-2 Disable Device check.

Honestly, I don't recall this when I played but that is probably because we failed to solve it and were a little rushed to complete the scenario.

If you get close, I'll give minor corrections.

If we don't have an obvious path to solving it, I don't object to plowing through, if that's what the group wants.

"Hmmmmm...should we imitate what the statues are doing perhaps? There aren't quite enough of us, but Nico could fill in, I'm sure!"

Kleines discovers there is a secret door behind the lion statue. It is not locked, but the divots in the step before it work as some sort of combination lock which looks like it triggers some other device should someone open the door without disarming it.

The divots in the step are the same size as the bases of the lion statues.

Repeating this, since it is easy to forget details in PbP.

Six statues. Four divots. The bases of the statues match the size of the divots.

Oh, I gotcha! So we're trying to figure out which four statues go in the divots.

"Hmmm. I'm reviewing all the clues we've found, but nothing seems to relate to these lions. Anyone have any ideas?"

Yup! That or giving up and having the unseen servant just yank the door open.

GM is this a real logic puzzle that the players can actually solve, or something that can only be resolved through a Disable Device check or brute force? If it's a real logic puzzle, I'd like to try to figure it out. Otherwise, I'm going to use the Unseen Servant.

It is a puzzle and you never found one of the pieces. It can still be solved via guessing.

I have no idea, but I'm fine if anyone else wants to take a crack at it!

Garif scratches his head for a while, his thick fingers making a sound like scraping stones on his bald pate as he thinks. "I'm not sure we have the whole picture here, but I'm thinking this puzzle may have something to do with the stuff that was written below each of the pictures we saw."

Considering the lions, he continues, "We don't have enough bits of information to match all the lions, but we might be able to get some of them and then guess. The plaques seem to suggest we line them up in a certain order, by the words used or the number of times the word is used. So I'd guess it's like this for the first three slots - "

“To serve Taldor, I must first learn the history of Taldor.”
“A cunning lie is never told twice.”
“Persevere, persevere, persevere!”

Studying the lions further, he makes some suggestions as to which lions might fit with which lines, "The one with the spectacles must be the study of history. And the persevering one must be the one in chains. I'm not sure about the lying one, unless they mean the one with a crown, as kings do sometimes lie."

Turning to his friends, he asks, "Does this make sense? Any ideas about the lying lion line?"

”Oh, of course!“ Garif exclaims, thwacking himself on the forehead, ”there’s more than one meaning to ‘lying’. I can’t say that any of these lions is telling a lie, but one of them is lying down - the one that’s crouched as if ready to hunt. I believe that’s our second one, so now we’ve got three of the four. Anyone want to guess which lion goes in the last slot?“

"No...but isn't there another room down the hall? Maybe the last answer is in there." Did we go in B7?