The Seer's Journey - DM Downrightamazed

Game Master downrightamazed

Coming back into the room from his scouting Jorzan says to those present and those listening through the spell "I like your idea Kelne, but we don't know where the big guy is now I say we take this window of oppourtinty and get out of here now. We can all split up into groups of two and make seperate ways to the gate guard station. The Boy can head out first and meet up with Kelne. A little later Justahl with Cassie on his back can disguise himaelf as a warbanian and head out with Gray. Meanwhile Karthan and I can each invisibly follow one of the pairs to make sure no one is following them. When we reach our dwarven allies we perform what magic we need to and go get Kevin."

Looking around to see if the others have any changes or sauggestions to make, Jorzan otherwise get ready for stage two of the plan to begin.

Karthan will get the message cantrip running. "It won't last for very long - a bit under an hour, and we'll all have to be back in the same place to re-cast. In the mean time, I intend to scan the thoughts of anyone we come across, and when invisible, both Jorzan and I are unsually hard to spot."

"Lad, do take care of that vest. It's most useful, and I've never seen another for sale."

[ooc] Could someone post - in a single message - the bullet list form of this plan that we've all agreed to on the OOC thread? I've seen so many slightly different versions that I'm not quite sure what to do with it. [/b]

He will cast mage armor on himself and Cassandra, using one of the uses of the Extend Spell rod on hers - just to be safe. He's got both rods in the Handy Haversack.

He will be using the Mockingbird Amulet when he needs to cast a spell while invisible.

Well, any good plan has to be flexible enough to change as new elements are introduced or altered. But hear what you're saying so here you go.; )

As Karthan casts his spell on their ward Jorzan helps her put on her new magic boots and cloak, courtesy of Tanel

Please make note or add to your sheet stuff going to your PC

@Kelne, @Feral Boy, @Karthan: As you are making your way to the gate, you notice a group of large bats fly overhead going in the opposite direction, but you encounter no resistance.

@Everyone: You arrive at the gate in about ten minutes, leaving you with a half-hour before your deadline for meeting the Wolfguards at the north side of the cavern. Unfortunately, there are no dwarves waiting for you. The guard detail notes the lot of you with a bit of surprise, but no concern. They get all types down here.

Trista reminds you all that Grippen said it would take him an hour, and he still has about 20-30 minutes left in that timeline.

Are the dwarves going to get buffed? If not, now is a good buff-time. I assume you'll wait until the last possible second, of course.

Jorzan turns to the Elf "Do yuo know where he might be? Perhaps you and I can go there and see if we might hurry him along."

Up to the others but seems to me best to wait until last min to buff, as DRA mentions.

Karthan will take the time to do a take 20 on the Stealth check for when the Wolfguards show. First order of operation is detect thoughts while other people talk to them.

Oh sorry, and re the Dwarves getting buffed, depends on how many there are. But so were you saying we just fast forward to that part? If yes, I think I can tell you the majority of what buffs everyone gets, but of course if anyone does or doesn't want anything specific it's completely up to them.

Eventually, you hear a marching sound, and look down a side street to see Grippen approaching with a veritable platoon of armor-clad dwarves; 33 of them! All are carrying well-worn battle axes and sporting deep scowls. You have scant minutes to spare.

"Right!" Says Grippen, a ferocious grin on his face. "Off we go, then, where's the fight?"

Assume all of these guys are Level 4 fighters or similar. I'll handwave that you get your buffs done in the short bit it takes from the time you see the dwarves to the time they reach you.

Who's doing the Scrying?

Karthan, Feral Boy or Gray can all do the scrying. Karthan might have a slightly better link to Kevin having known Cassandra longer?? But whoever wants to or has the first chance to, get at 'er! (Also, don't forget to use the finger)
The Main question/problem is though however, how the heck are we gonna get 33 Dwarves to the castle?? We have 6 scrolls in total, three of which were supposed to be used to get out. And we only have 4 potential casters for the scrolls. Unless...?

As the buffering magics wash over him, Jorzan looks to their Dwarven allies and quickly calculating says "Grippen! Hail and well met friend! I had no idea you'd be able to muster such a force in such short a time! But I do not know how we are to get all your men to Castle Ormir. Do you have any arcane casters among you? Or any other means of transporting yourselves to where we need to go?"

Grippen looks incredulously at Jorzan and lets loose a mighty belly laugh. "AHHAHAHAHAHAA! Jorzan! Friend! Did y'think me a fool? You said it was Ormir you sought to do battle with, and he's days away from here! I wouldn't gather such a force without a way to get us there. Now are you all coming along with us? The gate can only be opened once a day, and from a battle like this I don't expect we'll be back anytime soon so IF any of us return, there should be no trouble coming back through."

The young Rogue grins hugely at the news. Nearly a whole platoon of battle hardened Dwarves and an easy way to get right to the castle! Things were already going along much better than they had planned! He does shoot Trista a quick and not entirely present look 'Would have been nice if she could have let us know about the Travel Gate' Quickly dismissing the thought from his mind though and knowing time was of the essence he quickly fills the Dwarven leader in on the plan so far.

Grinning in gratitude at his new friend, slight embarrassment at his erroneous presumption and eagerness for battle he says "Ok, we have two main tasks. One is to rescue the boy, we have scried on him to try and ascertain his exact position and shall attempt to get as close to that position as we can and effect his rescue. Out other goal is to eliminate the abominable threat of the Baron once and for all. Our thought was that while our team, my companions and I, concentrate on finding the boy, your deadly Dwarves and youself can attack the Baron's forces directly, providing an important distraction from our efforts. Once we have the boy we can all meet up and completely destroy them all. Our casters can provide some magics to help keep us in contact with each other and give us a slight edge in battle over our foes. Also, you can spread some of these magicked bolts among any of your men which have crossbows. If you have any specific information on the Baron, his castle, where we can find the boy or anything else, now is the time to share it. Also, where exactly does this Gate of yours take us?"

So, continuing from the Plan, Karthan, can you cast Message on the dwarves as well? Or at least Grippen? And Gray you're going to be busy for a bit bro ; ) You likely would have cast the Daybreak Arrow spells on the ammunition a while ago, since it has a long Duration. We'd then have 100 pieces so perhaps we can say 15 bullets for Feral Boy, 30 arrows to split between Kelne, Trista and Jorzan and 55 bolts for the Dwarves and Gray to share. Jorzan will also hand out the extra Garlic, Holy Water and Stakes to the Dwarves. Also Protection from Evil should at least be cast on Grippen and his lieutenants, any of us with a UMD can do that, to save time. We should all have the rest of our buffs already cast on us and then just before we go, Gray can cast Bless on everyone, if you choose of course amigo. Then almost ready to go! Just need someone to (have already) scried on Kevin. Also hopefully get some further answers/intel from Grippen. Then Woot! Party Time! Come on y'all! Where is everybody?? Time to Post! : D

Minimum Buffs we (party members) should all have on us:
Message
Hide From Undead
Protection From Evil
Invisibility (? Just before we leave? We should be able to keep track of each other through Message. But if anyone thinks it's not a good idea we can scratch it)
Plus individual buffs

Karthan can connect 8 people - in addition to himself - with Message, but cannot have multiple Message spells running at once. It has a maximum range of 180 feet from him, so won't be particularly useful for widely spread groups.

He will cast Mage Armor and Extended Shield on himself just before we leav, and cast Mage Armor on Cassandra. This leaves him with 5 1st level spells left.

Jorzan, do you want Karthan with you being sneaky and stealthy and fire (literally) support? Or should he be with the Dwarves softening targets up with fireballs? He will cast Darkness from the wand on you once we're in the right place. Jorzan and Karthan are better off with Darkness cast on them since it won't go away when they attack.

Anyone I can identify as a caster is getting a flaming acid arrow cast on 'em.

Well, with 8 that's perfect, all our group (excluding Cassandra) plus Trista and Grippen. As for which group you go with, totally up to you mate. Of course having Karthan with us would be a major help, but if you think you'll have more fun blasting with the Dwarves then you should do that ; ) Darkness is badass, but we should keep in mind that the vamps will be able to see through it just fine. Since you're here, you might as well do the Scrying Karthan. Oh and did you 'pick up' your share of the Stuff you bought for us?

Karthan collaborates with Cassandra to get the best possible chance of finding Kevin, wherever he may be, but when the spell is cast, there is an active shove back at the caster, like a rude arcane push, and the spell simply evaporates into tiny falling flecks of light.

Kevin, it seems, has resisted being located.

Grippen watches the spell fizzle. "What was that! What just happened? Did you find the boy? Is someone coming to get us? What's going on?"

Jorzan, watching the casting, does not seem too surprised with the outcome . At the Dwarf's question Jorzan turns to answer him "That was our attempt at scrying on the boy. Without any luck. This was not unexpected though, we shall just have to look for him. So quickly, tell us what you can of the Castle's layout, where the boy might most likely be located, if you have any idea, and where we shall arrive and what we can expect when we travel through your Gate. Then let us be off! For the Wolfguard shall know very soon that we do not plan to give in to their demands!"

"I'll stay with the Dwarves."

DM DRA - I am willing to re-do another scroll of Greater Scrying and use one of my 8 Hero Points to boost the roll.

Well, there's nothing to blow a hero point on, that I'm aware of; the only roll involved with Scrying is the target's Will save. So hang onto that HP.

Karthan pulls out the second of his three divination scrolls, and casts once again as everyone else looks on...

Kevin DC21 Will save: 1d20 + 4 + 5 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 5 + 5 = 20

This time, the spell seems to take hold, and hook into the boy's location. Karthan's eyes glaze over a little bit as the magic grants him insight.

Grippen looks eagerly at Karthan. "Did it work that time? Did you see him? What do you know?"

"I've found him. I don't see anyone in the room with him."

Karthan focuses on where to teleport people to. "Team one, be prepared to move out."

Hey bro, just realized, since Karthan is the one who cast the scry and knows where Kevin is, according to how I understand teleport works, I think Karthan may have to come with us (Team 1) after all.

Yeah, so is Team one just all you PCs, and the Dwarves and Trista are on their own? Makes no diff to me, but I do need to know for when encounters begin, obviously. :-)

That sounds about right to me, unless Karthan has something else in mind?

Kelne nodded, "Let's do this then," he said, readying his sword and shield, "There's a good chance they'll be expecting a rescue attempt, so be ready for trouble on the other side."

He'd considered trying to locate Ormir, but without some personal item, it would be a good deal more difficult than scrying on Kevin had been, and even that had required two attempts. Besides, Ormir would surely come to them soon enough. Additionally, if there was an insidious trap near Kevin, and they had to trip it, better all of them were present to fight their way clear.

Sir Justahl kneels in front of Cassandra.
"It's time Cassandra. Gird your mind and heart; we are here to undo what the enemy has done to you and yours. You have seen us in action before, they cannot stop us from rescuing your brother!"
He smiles at her, exerting every ounce of his Aura of Courage on her.

Quickly he puts the oversized helmet on her, straps her into the harness, attaches it to his back and stands up.

Right, I'll be with team 1 then."

"Gather 'round. We're about to drop into a hot zone." Karthan pulls out the scroll of teleportation, and begins his intonation...

Also, once combat starts, PLEASE list your buffs in your combat headers. I know Jorzan listed them above, but no one agreed or disagreed with him that that would be acceptable so I can't assume anything. If you don't specify a certain buff in your combat header, I'm not going to count it. No exceptions. Most of you do this anyway so I don't expect it'll be an issue. TIA.

There is the sickening lurch that always accompanies teleportation, and then you are in a very different place. The heat and noise of Olmskoldsv is gone. You are in a tall, cold hallway. The walls are stone, but the floors and ceiling are marble. There are 5' diameter marble columns set 5' from the walls and with 15' between each column. The hallway itself is 40' wide and nearly 100' long, with a 50', arched ceiling. There are two large tapestries depicting some sort of bloody conquest in one, and trade and commerce in the other. Both feature a central figure around which the scenes are composed that Kelne explains is the Baron.

At each end of the hall is a large set of double doors. Each door is 10' wide and 20' tall and made of solid wood banded with iron. On either side of each set of double doors is a skeleton clad in metal. It looks like a statue. "Those are made from the bones of Ormir's enemies." explains Kelne in a Whisper. "Damn creepy, they are, and all over the place. I'm afraid I don't know where we are, though. Is this the place you saw, Karthan?"

Karthan knows immediately what happened; "They have the boy in some interdimensional pocket, on another plane. He's not so protected I couldn't see him, but teleportation across planes isn't possible, so the spell must have just shunted us somewhere nearby. We're close. I know that."

Here is the map.

No need for initiative yet.

Sir Justahl calls out; "Nouhves! Come forth, you are needed!
There is a flash, and Nouhves trots out of a silvery gate that appeared momentarily.

Through the Message cantrip:

"Justahl...wai..." A pause. "We're all invisible to undead. Nouhves isn't..."

Karthan tries to get a feel for what direction Kevin is in.

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12 Spellcraft.

Kelne left Karthan to track down Kevin, opting to spread out somewhat and keep a sharp eye out for trouble.

As is his norm, the moment they arrive the always ready rogue, bow in hand and Daylight Arrow knocked, looks carefully all around for any sign of danger or object of interest.
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20

As the planar gate and large equine suddenly appear, the shadowdancer swears to himself about impulsive Paladine who have never been trained in the art of stealth. Not waiting to see the result, Jorzan quickly whispers to Gray to cast Hide from Undead on Nouhves as well, hoping that the skeletons, if indeed animated, lack the intelligence to continue to react once they can no longer see the celestial warhorse.

If the situation is still unchanged and the undead guardians remain undisturbed at the doors, Jorzan first whispers to the young Seer "Cassandra, do you have any sense of where your brother might be?" After getting her answer he then quickly but quietly moves to the one of the doors (doesn't matter, but if she can't sense him, Jorzan will pick the door on the right), still taking care to hide in the shadows even though he shouldn't be visible to the guardians from beyond the grave. Once there, he carefully checks for traps and listens for anything he may be able to hear from beyond the large portals.
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28 for traps
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20 to listen

Since summoning is a full round action, I figure Karthan can warn Justahl in time.
At Karthan's warning, Sir Justahl stops in time; greatly embarrassed at forgetting that Nouhves would not be covered by their preparatory enchantments...

As Justahl cancels the summoning...Karthan starts humming something softly through the Message cantrip:

Theme for this part of the adventure...

I intend to use the Mockingbird Amulet and Ghost Sound to send guards pursuing invisible intruders. Please TRY to be stealthy...

Nice save Sir Neowald ; )

Just for future reference (I'll put this in the Campaign Info tab, too); my house rule regarding trapfinding is this; if you are actively searching for traps, the ratio is One Perception Check per 10 square feet OR Specific Item, e.g., a dresser, foot locker, door, etc. I find this dovetails nicely with the rogue trapfinding ability and suchlike.

SO! From here on out, if you say you are looking for traps please also specify where, exactly, you are looking. If you don't then I will assume you are checking the 10' in front of you. In this case, Jorzan specified he's checking the doors, which are each rather huge, so I'm gonna roll an extra Perception check for him so he has one for each door.

Cassandra is petrified. From her spot on Justahl's back she shakes her head solemnly at Jorzan's question, her eyes big as dinner plates. Snowy fluffs his feathers a bit and stays put on the shining knight's shoulder, always near his charge. Or companion. Or whatever the young seer is to a magical owl.

Jorzan then steps lightly over to the east doors (assume "up" is always North on these maps unless otherwise specified) and begins examining them both closely.

Extra Perception for Jorz: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

After seeming to satisfy himself there are no traps, he places his ear up and listens closely. After a moment, he Whispers to all of you; "I think I can hear whispered voices, or very quiet conversation, maybe, but it is really far away and these damn doors are too thick for me to make out any more than that."

That's totally cool by me boss, makes perfect sense. And actually, I've always felt that rolls like that, and knowledge rolls and such, should be rolled in secret by the DM and the player just given the results. One of the main reasons is that, whenever a DM says "Make a perception roll" we players automatically know something is up.

Knowledege(local Stormfare):1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

Knowledge: Local (Stormfare)-- 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Sir Justahl is jolted by the realization of where they were.
"It's the Promenade," he whispers. "The ballrooms are through those doors."

Not ever having visited the castle before, Jorzan relies on the knowledge of those who have, whispering "We have find Kevin as quickly as possible. Does this give you any better idea which way we should head first? And can any of you tell if these skeletons are undead or just decoration? Any magic? Any Evil? Meanwhile I'm going to check out the other doors."

And taking just as much care, he moves over to the Western set of doors. Certain that ballroom doors wouldn't be trapped and that time is of the essence, he does not bother to check for traps this time and just listens intently instead.

@Jorzan: At this set of doors, you hear pretty much the exact same thing, except you're able to make out a couple phrases: "...hold these stairs...
...no idea if...
...arrival, keep them out...
...not your job...
...just not upstairs..."

1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15 Perception
1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15 K (local) Stormfare

It takes Karthan a moment. He mutters.
"So it is...so it is. Which ballroom? Also - Justahl - can you determine if those skeletons are evil, or merely decorative?"

Would Karthan have any clue about the layout of the building - including where to throw his voice with Ventriloquism?

Continuing to use the whisper spell Jorzan informs his companions "We may have something here. Seems like there's guards on the other side of this door and they are to prevent us from heading up the stairs. Once we know the situation with these skeletons, perhaps we can create a noise to bring the guard into this room and ambush them when we do."

By the way DRA, I'm assuming neither East nor West doors are locked?

EDIT: And now I' paying for my desire for thematic roleplay as this would be a perfect situation to send my new Shadow friend into action...-_-, but soon my precious...soon...Muuuuwahahahaha

Sir Justahl frowns at the skeletons, and concentrates on opening his mind to Detect Evil.