The Vaults of Time and Space (Inactive)

Game Master Matt, Garnished Game Designer

"The things I once imagined would be my greatest achievements were only the first steps toward a future I can only begin to fathom."

Adventurers bold. Fearsome and valiant heroes. Or perhaps tyrannical villains. Each and every one of you is a mortal paragon. But now, you have gathered your forces to assault a legendary dungeon... the fabled Vaults of Time and Space.

Within lie countless challenges and dangers, each one more fearsome than the last. From across the infinite expanse of worlds and the breadth of all epochs, the foes within will test you like never before.

Do not expect rooms and chambers... the Vaults are demiplane realms each connected by portals. Fifteen Avatars lie within and each one must be defeated.

However, the very first step is to enter the Vaults themselves.

The first encounter... the Astral Gates.

===

You also have been given the following cache of supplies each.

Celestial Amber Fragments x5
(Single use activated item, casts heal on the user. Takes a standard action to break. Heals 150 hp)

Maelstrom Spell-Crystal x5
(Single use activated item. Takes a standard action to use.)
Choose a 6th level spell or lower for each crystal. The chosen spell is immediately cast upon activation. The spell uses Caster Level 20

I apologize for this smaller cache, I originally had much more planned but realized that piles of potions were rather useless. If you need any clarifications, please ask.

Dot in and we begin.
===

Dot.

dot

dot.

Dot.

Slam ambles along, poking holes in the ground with his left pointer finger, saying "dot, dot dot."

Encounter #0: Astral Gates

The portal you've crossed leads to a vast expanse of deep nothingness.

The five of you amble along, no floor nor ceiling to guide you.

Just endless blackness. It is not dark, and your eyes aren't deceiving you. There is simply nothing to see.

Seconds, minutes, hours, days... years perhaps pass before you reach the lights... the Astral Gates.

Each player makes a DC 40 Will Save. If you fail read the spoiler.

Before you stands a titanic doorway of ivory white. The door is made of some unfathomable metal. Everything else is blackness.

Above you, barely visible are a few white lights.

Laeron wanders through the vast expanse of nothingness on the other side of the portal, never straying far from his team. The strangeness of this... place, for lack of a better word, fascinated him. As time passed them by he jotted down observations in a small notebook that he keeps on his belt at all times, both as a way to occupy his thoughts and to prevent them from wandering to strange and dangerous places.

Will Save: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (19) + 26 = 45

Upon arriving at the strange gates Laeron lifted his gaze to behold the great doors that appeared out of the darkness. His gaze was attracted to the strange colour of the metal and the glow of the lights surrounding the door. He gazes longly at the door without approaching it, just as a precaution.

Perception: 1d20 + 36 ⇒ (15) + 36 = 51

looks like I will be screwed. need nat 20 on the save and 16 or better to percieve (loosing points on the stats the drive most of my abilities.

check of nat 20: 1d20 ⇒ 16

perception DC 40: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (8) + 26 = 34

if this is how it will be for the rest of things looks like I will be out by the next encounter

yup. -1 on all the save DC's vs my special abilities and SLA, and can't find crap either

of course there is one possibility... I am incoporeal as long as I am moving

need time to re-calculate my stats. as that will reduce lots of stuff.

Let see how the dice favor me then:
Will Save: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (19) + 23 = 42
Perception: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (1) + 31 = 32

The Cat lord, Ludovic is looking at the gate and gets distracted by Mortimer, his familiar and while waiting to see what the others make out of it.

"That took longer than expected."

Will save: 1d20 + 29 ⇒ (11) + 29 = 40
Perception: 1d20 + 29 ⇒ (17) + 29 = 46

Jorn walks for what feels like forever, the blackness causing his mind to go dangerous places. However, even after what feels like an eternity, his faith brings him through without incident.

When the massive ivory door looms ahead of the party, the dwarfborn aasimar's eyes are drawn to bright white lights above them. "...are those gettin' closer?" he asks the others, squinting at the lights.

For the sake of simplicity, assume the Will Save to be DC 30 for now.

I based myself off of the collective party's saves and assumed 40 to be a hard, but beatable target.

Talon, your saves seem rather on the low side. Cloak of resistance not acquired?

cloak slot already taken. and was not sure on stacking mutiple abilities on items. I would like to know howe many of the other save bonuses break down, besides I have a cape of free will (+5 bonus on will saves and +4 bonus all other saves. and re-roll a failed will save 1/day

so that is +6 base, +1 wisdom, +5 cape = +12

not enough money to boost wisdom with items also I am the only one that does not have levels in a class with Will as a good save.

so based on my roll above as a 16 +12 that's a 28 still a fail..

or just burn my re-roll right away but doe sthe fact that I am ethereal every time I am moving have any bearing on the madness effect?

Just a quick comment as to your Will save, you have to add the will saves of each of your classes together. As such your will save should be more like this:

+6 Ninja, +3 Assassin, +1 Shadowdancer, +1 Wis, +5 cape = +16

I thought I did that? was I miss reading the chart?

Ninja 8th level = +2
Assassin 9th level = +3
shadowdancer 4th level = +1

yep thats +6 total... Ninja has bad will saves (just like rogue)

I make neat characters but they are always much weaker than most others. I am completely incapable of making an optimized character for given situations. I am quite sure that while I have many interesting abilities only about 10-25% will actually be usefull in this game the rest are just cool to read but not much value. at least with the kind of luck I ususally have. rogue classes in general are mostly neglected in pathfinder already, as it is probably the only class that is nice to have but not really needed in any adventuring party. I just like to give them a try every so often, hoping I can find that one combo that will help it out.

Ah I see, seems I misread the ninja chart. Hmm don't know how to fix that weakness then :/

Will Save: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (7) + 26 = 33

There are a few items that you can use to boost your will save: A luck stone (20k gp) will raise it by one; there's an ioun stone that will do the same which costs 30k gp. It's also worth mentioning that shuriken are ammunition, so they break when you throw them, so putting returning on them is not as helpful as you might think it is.

As mentioned, the DC was dropped to 30, so for sake of ease let's assume madness was averted. In any case, it would have cleared up after defeating the first encounter, but meta-meta, you wouldn't know.

Now, back to gameplay!

As Laeron observes the door and it's strange lights, he notices that they are approaching them.

"Be wary friends, we may have trouble. Those strange lights seem to be coming our way...

While warning the team, he begins to wrack his mind for any clue as to what these lights might be
Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 34 ⇒ (1) + 34 = 35
Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 34 ⇒ (8) + 34 = 42

Slam begins to adjust himself while picking his nose. "Pretty lights not friends?"

Laeron flips quickly through his note book to see if there might be any hint as to what the lights are while he answers his ogre companion

"I'm not quite sure Slam... give me a moment, and please, don't go touching those things until we know what they are"

Jorn clutches his weapon regardless, eying the approaching lights coldly. "Jus' hope they ain't gonna try and touch us, first..." he mutters.

"Okay Lahrun. You tell Slam if he should hit and he hit."

"Shining lights , attacking?...Hmmm." As the cat lord is deep in thought about it while rubbing mortimer, a cat scintillating like the colors of the rainbow.

knplanes: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (12) + 40 = 52
knnature: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (9) + 40 = 49
knlocal: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (13) + 40 = 53
kndungeoneering: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (8) + 40 = 48
knengineering: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (13) + 40 = 53
knarcana: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (8) + 40 = 48
knhistory: 1d20 + 40 ⇒ (9) + 40 = 49

Hey all, Godgorger has been a little busy with projects but the next post will be up later tonight

The lights are way too far away to discern what they are by simple knowledge rolls.

Anyone interact with the gates?

Laeron grumbles audibly as he tries to get a good glimpse of the lights. Failing that, he sighs deeply putting away his notebook and drawing "Flicker" before moving towards the door

"It would seem as though it is finally time to go and 'touch' some things that maybe should be left untouched. I would much rather have a little backup in case this goes sour, so please get ready and signal me for when I should proceed"

Once the team gives him the ready signal, Laeron moves forward and touches the gates in an attempt to open them...

Talon practically vanishes from sight and in an instant is beside Laeron.

perception: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (3) + 26 = 29 Talon grabs Laeron's hand. wait

its too easy.

He looks down to the ground, and with a nod, talon's shadow separates and moves on its own. and disappears through the wall by the gates.

Talon uses his Shadow companion to pass through the wall (if he can) to see what is on the other side.

the shadow companion has the same abilities as a shadow (undead creature)

Jorn watches Talon's shadow pass through the wall without a word, but raises a curious eyebrow.

"Why shadow walk away? Come back little shadow!" Slam begins to start chasing the shadow.

Laeron quickly recovers from his surprise, both at Talons speed and at the strange displacement of his shadow, and turns to face Slam before anything catastrophic happens.

"Wait just a moment Slam my friend, the shadow will be back he just went to see what there is to be seen on the other side of this wall. No need to worry."

As he speaks, Laeron tries to make soothing gestures while he tries to seem a little more imposing than the massive ogre in the hopes that he will listen

"You tell Slam this bad place. Shadow could get into trouble or lonely. Me not want shadow get lonely."

"He won't get into trouble or be lonely, he's just going to take a quick look and be right back"

As he speaks he tries to hold back Slam despite his massive size, hoping to avoid any potential trap he might inadvertently set off.

The shadow slips through the grand gates and finds itself in a long, decadent hallway filled with strange but dazzling furnishings. The hallway seems to carry on forever however. There are no windows looking out.

The lights are still too far to determine their nature.

Talon relays the information to the group, The coast is clear on the other side. make sure the door is not trapped before proceeding

Talon says as his shadow returns and reattaches to where it belongs.

Slam pats the shadow and says "Good. You no run off- you might get hurt, and that would hurn Talen."

Jorn remains alert as he inspects the door, his gaze occasionally flitting to the lights above with worry. "Le's do 'at, then. Still don' like th' look o' them lights, but we mus' press on."

Unless someone stops him, Slam will do the below:

Planting one hand on each side of the split gate, Slam will push them open.

Seeing no further reason to stop Slam but still feeling rather uneasy, Laeron simply prepares himself for what may come next.

"Well Jorn, seems like it's time to see what these lights have in store for us...

Readying an action to cast Dispel Magic if ever a trap spell activates

Slam easily shoves the doors open revealing the hallway described earlier. As you do so however, the lights flash brightly and then accelerate downwards, streaking down like meteorites.

Reflex Save DC 25 to make it out of the way of a direct hit, Reflex Save DC 30 to dodge into the hallway and avoid the blast radius of the subsequent explosions as the miniature stars detonate upon impact.

You do not take the blast radius damage if you are directly hit.

Direct Hit Damage: 10d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 5, 2, 2, 2, 5, 2, 1, 6) = 33

Blast Radius Damage: 5d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 6, 2, 2) = 15

The damage is half fire damage and half bludgeoning damage.

As the stars explode, a booming voice echos out...

"It began with flame..."

Reflex save: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (13) + 25 = 38

"Ragathiel's wings!" the Paladin cries as he rushes away from the falling stars.

So I forgot to mention this, but Jorn has a Life Link on the other three members of the party.

Not sure if Dispel Magic has any effect in this situation? If it does Laeron attempts to prevent the explosion with the below check. If not, he dodges out of the way

Dispel Magic: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (4) + 22 = 26

Reflex Save: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (9) + 31 = 40

"By Talandia's grace I hate trap doors..." Laeron mumbles after dodging the blasts

Reflex Save: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (5) + 22 = 27

It sounds like an effect similar to meteor swarm. if that's the case, it should make 4 different attacks on someone (probably me, since I opened the door) and if I get hit, I wouldn't get a save. Otherwise, it's 4 separate reflex saves, one for each sphere. Unless I miss my mark completely.

reflex: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (10) + 31 = 41

As the orbs decend and explode, talon vanishes from sight disappearing into the shadows.

appearing one more inside the corridor away from any blast.

I'll let players know when something is a spell effect. This was just exploding miniature stars. Glad that everyone can easily make DC 25

As you tumble into the hallway the gates slam shut behind you and vanish, leaving a stone wall behind.

The same voice from before echoes through the hall:

"Come forth would be explorers, the First Trial awaits you."

"Whut it mean by try all?"

Laeron sighs briefly as the voice fades, a mix of worry and excitement crossing his face as he answers Slam

[b]"It means we are about to be tested my friend, and I don't think we are going to like what is in store for us"[b]

Once everyone is ready to move, Laeron advances into the hall

Slam will walk over to one of the largeish pieces of furniture, pick it up, then follow Laeron.

Jorn clomps into the hallway, his weapon hanging over one shoulder. "Stay sharp, lads, an' we shouldn't have any problems," he trails off, eyes peeled for more threats.