The Pact Stone Pyramid (Inactive)

Game Master Pact Stone GM

Cloud Pate will stay close to Cloud Hurgah and nervously await becoming the comfortably hefty solid Pate.

Likewise, Hurgah does little other than stay close to the exit of the pipe and wait to grow solid again.

The Karek cloud returns to the room via the large circular hole in the floor, very shortly thereafter it begins to solidify rapidly.

Moonpate wrote:

Cloud Pate will stay close to Cloud Hurgah and nervously await becoming the comfortably hefty solid Pate.

Likewise, Hurgah does little other than stay close to the exit of the pipe and wait to grow solid again.

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Thanks for the map, Beetle - seeing it, I think Hurgah would prefer not to be bottled in in the narrow area between the bas relief and the deep pit. Instead, he (and The Pate, I presume) drifts round along side the south wall to materialize between the sand door and the pit.

I guess that map means once Xerissa solidifies she gets her map tools out and sketches up the room. Once she's done, she's back to her wand in one hand and her other with a bomb. She's hanging back, ready to strike.

Which map is it?

The most recent map in the map section (the bottom one). It has the firefly bas relief, the tube and the "humungous" double doors. The caption refers to the mosaic.

Got er?

Thanks for the map, Beetle - seeing it, I think Hurgah would prefer not to be bottled in in the narrow area between the bas relief and the deep pit. Instead, he (and The Pate, I presume) drifts round along side the south wall to materialize between the sand door and the pit.

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If folks are waiting for the post that calls for a horrible save or initiative, it's not coming. . . at least not yet.

Send me those actions!

Got it. Thanks! Breach is gonna hover between "Karek's tube" and the "humongous double doors" before materializing. Two squares(10' I would guess) to the right from the top most portion of "Karek's tube".

I'm good where I am. I'm just waiting for the "materialized" word.

Pardon - I was unclear.

All are materialized, solidified and probably already reminiscing about their bizarre transient experience as a purple cloud of mist. It turns out, not only can you choose where you land in this room, if you don't like it you can now simply walk wherever you want to go.

(Crazy stuff the way we coddle adventurers these days - on a lower level no less!)

Storytime with Karek

Karek shares what he discovered about the sand door, mentions that the mosaic tiles are off in some sort of pattern, and tells of an empty room about 100 feet down the pit. You can read my spoiler tags!

So, dree rouds. Big door, sand door, and rid'own. Which way?

If I am permitted to be so bold, I would suggest Donkor come with Karek to travel out onto the mosaic, and see what we can see.

I second your suggestion and further suggest Donkor go in front! ; ) hey! He's got lot's of hp right? I also think we should get detect magics going again. Hit every feature in the room.

On vacation this week. Will check in from time to time.

Gandel will relay what he has discovered (open his spoilers).

Gandel will cast detect magic on the symbols of the four Pharoahs.

Hal will draw his axe and step a few paces back from the sand doorway wary of it in this dangerous place.

It's not entirely clear to me who is casting detect magic on what (other than we know Gandel has the mosaic covered), but for now it does not matter:

The Mosaic

Does not radiate magic. It has no aura.

When Karek (and Donkor) travel across it they discover the small tiles do not appear to actually be cemented or otherwise fixed to the floor. They are loose - perhaps all of them, which would be in the thousands. Very strange.

The Osirion Firefly Bas Relief

This radiates a very powerful magic (transmutation).

The Sand Door

This radiates trace magic only. It is non-magical, but has been near or touched by magic.

The Giant Double Doors

. . . do not radiate magic. But they sure look imposing.

The 10-Diameter stone shaft in the floor

Also does not radiate magic.

"The relief shows powerful traces of transmutation magic though the mosaic does not. The sand wall has trace magic. Not really sure how it all fits together yet. Which one of you explored that hole in the floor?"

Having already used his rope Hal grabs his grappling hook from the bag and uses one of the sharp edge to test the sand wall to determine how solid it truly is.

Halstadt finds the sand to be very compact and tight. However, it is not so tight that he can't jab the edge of his hook into it and claw away. When he does so, grains of sand fall away in bunches, dumping on the floor.

The wall does not though collapse like a delicate sand castle. So while it looks like Hal could dig into it or perhaps through it, he would probably be looking at a fair amount of work, depending on how far back it goes.

Care to keep digging?

Karek says to Gandel: I did. Id looks like dere's a room down dere.

Gandel turns to Hal, "Hold on there Morgrym lets get everyones thoughts before we start to touch anything".

"Well, I wonder what's going on with these tiles?" asks Donkor. "The don't appear to be trapped--or magical. Perhaps they conceal something underneath?"

Gandel turns to Hal, "Hold on there Morgrym lets get everyones thoughts before we start to touch anything".

"Perhaps we can dig at from a more safe distance. A simple mage hand should suffice."

Assuming I am right that Moonpate means to dig away at the sand blockading the smaller door to the south--

--with a range of 45 feet to his mage hand Moonpate can dig away while being as far as the dead center of the room, or even by the stone tube.

Let me know if this actually happens.

I read that as digging up the mosaic tiles. I think we should take a look at the ones that were misplaced.

Assuming I am right that Moonpate means to dig away at the sand blockading the smaller door to the south--

--with a range of 45 feet to his mage hand Moonpate can dig away while being as far as the dead center of the room, or even by the stone tube.

Let me know if this actually happens.

Dead center of the room sounds fine with me, as long as Hurgah is by my side.

Hal nods to Moonpate and heads over to stand near the mage taking a position opposite Hurgah.

Gandel will carefully search the mosaic to ascertain whether the bas relief is a trap and if so attempt to disable it in addition he attempts to utilize his knowledge of the Pharoahs to determine what type of effect this relief may create noting that the mosaics are loose he will nudge his thoughts towards whether that area is part of the trap.

Perception (Search for traps) DM roll
Disable Device 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (10) + 19 = 29
Knowledge History 1d10 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18
Knowledge Arcana 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Dead center of the room sounds fine with me, as long as Hurgah is by my side.

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Question: I totally forgot about Anyo 3.0. Could he have accompanied us down the tubes, and if so, shall we assume he is with us. I can set him to digging out the sand wall along with a Mage Hand spell.

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When Moonpate took on a gaseous form, Anyo disappared. But once he re-solidified, Moonpate was able to re-constitute him with the remaining time in the spell's duration (a few more hours).

Goodness know how correct a ruling that is, but let's go with it. It will increase the power behind Moonpate's telekinetic digging by a factor of 5.
-----
The glowing sprite with a humanoid form flies at the wall of sand and begins digging away with unseen hands. Grains of sand begin collecting in small piles on the floor.

In addition, Moonpate adds additional magic as he animates Halstadt's grappling hook and scratches away at the sand from 45 feet away.

At first swift progress is made. But as the minutes fly by, Moonpate discovers it is going to be a rather tough going. The deeper he gets the more densely packed the sand is - it is almost like chipping away at stone!
-----
Moonpate is making progress, he can see the results gradually piling up, but it is very slow. Without knowing how deep the sand goes, it is impossible to give an estimate, but you could be looking at, say, at least a half hour. On the positive side, this appears to be, thus far, quite a safe way to chip away. Nothing is happening.

It turns out once you get deeper this sand barrier actually has a hardness score!

Keep at er?

Gandel will carefully search the mosaic to ascertain whether the bas relief is a trap and if so attempt to disable it in addition he attempts to utilize his knowledge of the Pharoahs to determine what type of effect this relief may create noting that the mosaics are loose he will nudge his thoughts towards whether that area is part of the trap.

-

As to the floor tiles, Gandel determines, not only are they lose, they appear to have been pried up. When he grabs them with his thumb and forefinger he finds he can lift them clean off the floor. There is a trace of cement underneath indicating the tiles were once attached. But clearly no more.

That's a bit of a mystery then. How come they didn't go flying when Karek and Donkor first walked across it? They must have been placed to together with such precision that the tiles are as tight as a puzzle.

There are though, thousands of tiles. If this was done deliberately by human hands, you would be looking at hundreds and hundreds of hours of patient labor. Why would someone pull them up only to rearrange or replace them? Or more likely, who ripped them out? And who put them all back? And might they have looked differently?

Gandel will hold off on touching the relief for the time being.

"It would appear that someone or something went through a great deal of trouble to rearrange these tiles. I am not sure whether it is worth examining the tiles to determine if they can be arranged a different way it would be extremely time consuming. More time consuming than digging through that wall. Is that a better idea than exploring the hole or the double doors or are we just exploring in as unorthodox a manner as we posibly can?" Gandel asks with a smile on his face.

Karek, his suggestions unheeded, and growing annoyed with the lazy craftsmanship of this misbegotten place, begins to correct the out-of-place tiles.

Dead center of the room sounds fine with me, as long as Hurgah is by my side.

Naturally, Hurgah sticks by Moonpate, doing nothing except standing ready to react to the multitude of bad stuff that all this digging and poking about is bound to set off.

Gandel will assist Karek in rearranging the tiles since it seems obvious by the rate of Moonpate's digging that the Desert Squad will be here for a while.

Karek, his suggestions unheeded, and growing annoyed with the lazy craftsmanship of this misbegotten place, begins to correct the out-of-place tiles.

-

(1) Gandel is right, the tiles have all been pried off of the stone underneath and are now all loose, carefully fitted together. If the party keeps walking over them, they will eventually kick them up.

(2) That's probably a big "so what". The tiles do not appear to be trapped and there's no sign of a secret hiding place underneath.

Just another nonsensical strangeness in a strange place it would seem.

If the doorway gets deep enough that light is required to see Hal will light a torch and toss it into the doorway. Otherwise Hal will keep an eye on the hole in the center of the room to ensure nothing comes out out it!

And then a familiar figure appears. . .
-----
“If I may,” says a gravelly voice from behind, “I would urge you not to do that.”

When you spin around you see, an old bald man in a cloak. You recognize him at once. It is the creepy guy who gave Halstadt the scroll, back on a higher level of the pyramid. Calmly, he continues:

“I put that wall there precisely for your protection. If you go in there you might find something quite evil – and not the kind I believe you are looking for. . .”

Hal's eyes narrow at the sight of the man.

"How do we know you are here, of all places, to help us? If you are tell us your name. If what is beyond that wall is so deadly how were you able to contain it with sand?"

"With my magic," the elder answers, "But is that really important just now?"

"Aren't you really looking for your friend? I can assure you, she is not here."

"Yes, we are looking for our friend. That does not mean that we are also not here to stop whatever evil that may escape from doing so!"

If Xerissa is around the corner but can hear this sudden arrival, she is going to remain hidden. She'll creep up to the corner so that if she needs to she can spin around and attack. She'll try to quietly sip her elixir of hiding. Let me know if you want a Stealth check. If she can do it quietly, she'll use her wand of alchemical allocation on the elixir so she doesn't lose it. Then she gets her bombs out so they are handy, like at her belt, but keeps her hands free so she doesn't look threatening in case the dude walks around and suddenly sees her. Then she'll like be casually leaning against the wall. I know that's a lot of actions but maybe Hal will keep this guy talking for a while. I guess you guys will have to handle this NPC interaction without Xerissa's bodacious CHA!

"Then where is she?! You seem to know everything about this place. If I didn't know any bett'r, I'd say yer some kinda spirit o' this place. And seein' how yer some kinda spirit, we'd be obliged if you could tell us how we can get to her. And we need to hurry; we haven't a lot o' time! At least, that's what meself told meself," he looks at him as if that explains it all perfectly.

If Xerissa is around the corner but can hear this sudden arrival, she is going to remain hidden. She'll creep up to the corner so that if she needs to she can spin around and attack. She'll try to quietly sip her elixir of hiding. Let me know if you want a Stealth check. If she can do it quietly, she'll use her wand of alchemical allocation on the elixir so she doesn't lose it. Then she gets her bombs out so they are handy, like at her belt, but keeps her hands free so she doesn't look threatening in case the dude walks around and suddenly sees her. Then she'll like be casually leaning against the wall. I know that's a lot of actions but maybe Hal will keep this guy talking for a while. I guess you guys will have to handle this NPC interaction without Xerissa's bodacious CHA!

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(I'll take care of her Stealth check for us - off-screen.)

"Then where is she?! You seem to know everything about this place. If I didn't know any bett'r, I'd say yer some kinda spirit o' this place. And seein' how yer some kinda spirit, we'd be obliged if you could tell us how we can get to her. And we need to hurry; we haven't a lot o' time! At least, that's what meself told meself," he looks at him as if that explains it all perfectly.

-

"If I were you, I might try the level below," he adds.

Can you roll a Sense Motive for me Beetle, want to see if Hal believes what this figure is telling him.

"Okay. Ya wouldn't happen ta know of way ta get us to the level below, do ya? If ya do, would ya mind tellin' us?"

Based on the black candle he is holding Gandel would like to determine if anything in the histories discuss such a figure.

"You still have not told us who you are sir".

Knowledge Arcana 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Knowledge History 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24