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Wren
The large centipedes are poisonous. The poison isn't the strongest but can harm the reflexes of any person - bitten multiple times it can even paralyse people.
The swarm is even more dangerous as it can't be hit my ordinary weapons. Centipede swarms are also poisonous - only slightly less so as their bigger brethren. Luckily it seems this swarm is smaller as the ones you heard about.
Aldous notices that the Crypt has been recently disturbed, but is too distracted to spot that the good Father cast a spell...
Round 1:
Aldous casts Guidance on Wren.
[ooc]Round 1
AC:18
HP:12/12
Status: Creeped out by giant bugs.
Move Action: back up to the top of the stairs, and draw dagger.
Standard Action: Throw dagger at closest giant centipede.
Attack:
Damage:
Wren continues to prattle everything she knows about giant scorpions and that swarm.
Unbothered by the bugs, but extremely bothered by Mistress Wren's annoying lack of intelligent vocabulary, Galadan takes out his crossbow and 10 bolts, handing them to the feathered fiend.
"Make yourself useful."
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Kevin
I take the thrown dagger as a readied action. The centipedes start in room 3 - sideways. So if you go back up, you would have trouble to attack directly.
The swarm follows the soft and fresh meat. Like a black wave it moves up the stairs and engulfs Kevin.
Damage Fortitude DC13 against Dex damage
The dagger hits true and one of the giant centipedes stops moving.
The second centipede follows the swarm. Ignoring Kevin it is attracted by the light and goes straight towards Galadan.
Attack Damage Fortitude 13 against poison
Galadan - I expect the feathered friend might be the one who is best prepared and useful right now. She already has a flask in hand.
There should be an AoO opportunity for Kevin when the centipede moves past. Also characters with ranged weapons who can draw them fast enough will be able to nullify the attack on Galadan.
Andrea gasps as the wave of crawling vermin engulfs Kevin. However she steels herself as their larger cousin swarms up after them hefting her stout staff and waiting for a chance to squish the bug.
"Kevin get back..Wren wait till he's clear before you throw that"
She mentally curses herself for not having any spell useful in this situation
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Okay - I had nice pictures but I think I did a mess with people moving and no grid. Well - we learn ...
Here is my interpretation:
Wren moved back to stairway 1 - the upper stairway. She has Alchemist Fire in hand and is first on round 2.
Kevin moved back to stairway 2. He reset to throw a dagger and kill one of the centipedes.
The centipede swarm crawled up from the room below - attacked Kevin and is on the way to get into room 2.
Andrea - not acted yet - so I reset you to end of this round.
Aldous - cast guidance on Wren
Cassandra - still to act - I reset you as well
First giant centipede tries to rush out of room 3 but gets killed
Second Giant Centipede rushes up and attacks Galadan
Andrea and Cassandra - you are close enough to attack the centipede that attacked Galadan. This will be after it had already attacked but before round 2.
Round 2
Wren to start
The swarm next - on the move
I know at some stage I also offered a possible AoO to Kevin on centipede 2. For simplicity and to allow Andrea and Cassandra a swing let's say the swarm did distract Kevin. Also not sure with the dagger throw about right hand / left hand / off hand. I don't think if I take that into account that both centipedes would be hit.
Galadan reaches forward with his hand, glowing with a dull grey light, and attempts to touch the giant centipede.
Andrea hefts her hickory staff and swings it hard at the repulsive centipede
Attack
Her flailing blow misses by a wide margin and she grunts in annoyance
"Hold still you vermin"
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Galadan
You reach out to the Centipede. But distracted through the chaos and prattle of Wren you miss by the slimmest of margins.
Andrea's blow misses.
The two alcolytes have run out.
Father Grimburrow acts last in the round. You notice his complete calmness. Standing in the corner of the room he seems to watch you with interest how you deal with the problem.
He then reaches to his symbol of Pharasma and cast another spell.
Repel Vermin
"Oh Pharasma - I understand the cycle, so let the vermin feed on the dead. But please forgive us disrupting this crypt and keep them away from the living.
Spellcraft
Andrea doesn't recognise the spell the good Father is casting but is relieved that he is taking action on the groups behalf.
Fort Sv vs DC 13 :
ROUND 2
Init:18
AC: 18
HP: 12/9
Kevin does a quick little dance when the swarm attacks, but quickly retreats and moves to attack the remaining Giant Centipede.
Power Attack:
Damage:
Wren looks at Galadan both thankfully and quizzically. Thankful for the thoughtful offer of the weapon, but wondering if Galadan had been listening to a word she had spoken about these centipedes, and, in particular, the nature of the swarm.
Sadly, not all my nestmates can be wise owls like myself...even the turkey can come to roost.
"Why thank you Galadan. That's very nice since I left mine at home...however, maybe you missed my main point about that ugly tangle of centipedes. There are too many for a single weapon...."
Wren will begin to repeat what she knows about the swarm to Galadan, looking at him to make sure he's really listening this time.
* * *
on the Father's spell.
Hmmm...I really must learn more about the ways of religious folk. There are so many mysteries.
* * *
After Kevin has moved away:
Stnd Action: Toss the alchemist's fire at the swarm.
to hit.
fire damage to swarm.
EDIT: Potential crit:
to hit.
fire damage to swarm.
Move Action: Take the offered weapon from Galadan and move 5' back away from the swarm.
AC: 13
HP: 7/7
Weapon: unloaded xcrossbow
Status: Flighty
Effects:
Spells:
0: Detect Magic, Prestidigitation, Message
1: Colorfowl Spray (DC 16), Grease (DC 18), Enlarge (DC 16)
Diviner's Fortune (2/8 used)
"Think creatively, Mistress Wren. There are other ways to use a weapon that the ways which are obvious to all."
"Think creatively, Mistress Wren. There are other ways to use a weapon that the ways which are obvious to all."
"Other ways to use a weapon THAN the ways which are obvious to all."
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All
Fire damage : indeed it is 1.5 times. But no extra splash damage - I think that's the reason you get the 50% extra. One possibility would have been to cast burning hands with the alchemist fire as component.
The chanes to hit would have been better. But I shouldn't have underestimated Mistress Wren.
So 4 HPdown and they are burning.
In general I'm pretty happy with creative solutions - especially if you lack standard resources.
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Round 2:
Wren lopsided off the Alchemists Fire with stonishing skill and lands the flask dead in the centre. Half the swarm burns. The remaining ones moves forward towards the exit.
You see them scuttle up the room. You notice that they don't go straight but rather in a curve - as if they try to avoid Father Grimburrow as well as possible.
Crawling up they reach Galadan and Aldous.
Damage
Kevin storms up and decapitates the second giant centipede.
Perception
Too distracted to notice the lack off centipedes centred around Father Grimburrow Andrea climbs up onto one of the low tombs in the room shaking a few determined cetipedes off her skirts as she goes
Letting out a shout equal parts surprise, pain, and fear, Aldous beats a hasty retreat to the side of Father Grimburrow, putting as much distance between himself and the swarm as possible...
Cassandra will cast Bless upon the group.
"Aj Pharasma, Bonvolu fortikigi miajn kunulojn solvi kun viaj benoj."
Already injured from one centipede's stinging bite, Galadan does what he can to get the smaller ones off his body, following Aldous to the general area of reprieve around Father Grimburrow.
on the Father
fire damage on swarm, 2nd round
Move Action: Wren will also retreat closer to the Father, hoping his aura does not extend to bird and their brethren.
Move Action: Wren will return the large feather back back into her armor.
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The burned centipedes Leave an acrid and unpleasant smell in the air. The last few crawling beastsleave the crypt - fleeing the combined magic of the Father and Cassandra.
Suddenly nothing moves anymore - as it should be.
But bad smell is better as danger.
Time to explore and find what the Professor has written about.
Once he is sure that the centipede swarm has dispersed, Aldous will cautiously return to carefully searching the Crypt, using a Detect Magic-enhanced search strategy to find whatever he can...
Galadan also searches with detect magic active.
Delighted when the swarm disperses (Wren didn't know how she was going to deal with them otherwise), Wren goes and picks up the sunrod.
Wren will take a moment to load the borrowed crossbow, asking Plume to beak the sunrod while she does.
She waits near the top of the stairs for an escort to go back down to Room 3 where her divinations told her there was magic.
She will be prattling in celestial with Plume while she waits.
Andrea picks up a couple of straggling centipedes and drops them into her pouch as a mid morning snack for her familiar.She brushes herself down flips her braid back over her shoulder and fixes Kevin with a stare..
"Well..help me down then" she demands off the fighter.
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The magic aura you notice leads you towards a single large sarcophagus in the deepest part of the crypt. Looking closer you spot a single line of recent footsteps leading up to the sarcophagus. It seems the Professor must have been here ahead of you.
Whatever the Professor took – there is a fair amount of useful material remaining. You spot a dozen silver arrows, four sun rods, six flasks of holy water, 10 arrows of slender built, five arrows with an unusal shaft of grey wood, as well as two arrows with black shafts and red fletchling.
In addition there are five clear vials with a green potion as well as two potions with yellow contents. A total of four scrolls – two of them seemingly identical round up the find.
But the most intriguing find is a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back. This is same design that appears on the cover of the purple book from the Professor that was locked.
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Father Grimburrow looks at the find with interest.
"It seems that the Professor did know a lot more as it seems. It would have been useful if he would have confided to Pharasma and the local church in time.
Now it is too late to ask for his help and it will be up to you to use these items and to honour the Professor and to follow in his footsteps."
"I will be outside - looking for my followers. Please let me know if you want your scratches healed. You might need your strengths in the days that are coming."
Shaking an errant centipede from his sleeve, Aldous clears his throat, and says:
"Allow me to try to work out what these things are; I may not be of much use in combat, but research is something that I excel at..."
Ever the Scholar, Aldous does his best to identify the magical items that have been discovered:
Kevin retrieves his dagger and cleans it and his sword on a rag before throwing the offensive looking remains on the body of one of the giant centipedes.
"Well..help me down then" she demands off the fighter.
Kevin offers Andrea his hand. "Certainly my dear, how rude of me."
As he helps the diminutive wonder down he whispers in her ear, "If you need any help later checking for centipedes, I would more than happy to assist you. You never know where they may get to."
Andrea gives Kevin a wry look her eyes running up and down his frame before giggling slightly and giving him a tiny wink
"I'll bear that in mind Sir" she says being more than used to similar comments from his sort.
"May I commend you on your taste in dress by the way." she says brushing an imaginary thread from his lapel " Clothes maketh the man as they say however I do think something a bit more practical might be in order if we are going to go poking through dirty old ruins"
"...and you can let go off my hand now"
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Aldous manages to indentify most of the items:
5 Green Potions : Potions of Cure Light Wounds
2 Yellow Potions: Potion of lesser Restoration
All scrolls are cleric scrolls – therefore you hand them to Cassandra or Galadan (Autosuccess).
A scroll of detect undead, two scrolls of hide from undead, a scroll of protection from evil
12 Silver Arrows: non magical silver arrows
10 Slender Arrows: +1 arrows
5 Grey Wood Arrows: +1 Ghost touch arrows
2 Arrows with black shafts and red fletching: Undead Bane arrows
Content of the darkwood case:
The darkwood case is worth 50 gp, and contains several objects of interest—a spirit board with a brass spirit planchette, and four iron and glass vials containing tiny, churning clouds of vapor. The vials sit in velvet-lined indentations to the left of the spirit board
and planchette, along with six empty indentions—the professor made off with most of the vials but left these four behind. The six vials are all valuable magic items called haunt siphons.
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New Magic Item
Haunt Siphon
Aura faint necromancy; CL 3rd
Slot none; Price 400 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
These glass vials are held within stylized cold-iron casings etched with strange runes, necromantic designs, or other eldritch markings. Within the vial roils a small wisp of white vapor, churning as if caught in a miniature vortex of air.
To capture a haunt’s energies within a haunt siphon, you need only twist the metal casing to open the vial in the same round that the haunt manifests (a standard action)—this can be before or after the haunt has acted. You must be within the haunt’s area of influence to use a haunt siphon. When you activate a haunt siphon, it deals 3d6 points of positive energy damage to a single haunt.
If it deals enough damage to the haunt to reduce the haunt’s hit points to 0, the mist inside the haunt siphon glows green—if it does not reduce the haunt to 0 hit points, the haunt siphon is still expended and becomes nonmagical. It may take multiple haunt siphons to destroy powerful haunts. A haunt that is neutralized by a haunt siphon takes a –5 penalty on its caster level check to manifest again after its reset time passes.
A haunt siphon that neutralizes a haunt can no longer be used to harm haunts, but it can be used as a grenadelike splash weapon that deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage with a direct hit. Every creature within 5 feet of the point where the haunt siphon hits takes 1 point of negative energy damage from the splash.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cure moderate wounds, gentle repose; Cost 200 gp
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New Magic Item
Spirit Planchette
Aura moderate divination; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 4,000 gp (brass planchette), 10,000 gp (cold iron planchette), 18,000 gp (silver planchette); Weight 5 lbs.
Description
A spirit planchette is typically found in a wooden case along with a thin wooden board printed with numerous letters and numbers. Nonmagical versions of these divination tools can be purchased in curiosity shops (typically costing 25 gp); while these items can be used as alternative components for augury spells, only magical spirit planchettes allow users to communicate with the other side. Three types of spirit planchettes exist—brass, cold iron, and silver. Each in turn allows an increasingly potent form of divination effect to be utilized. A spirit planchette requires a board to move upon, but this “board” can be made up of letters scribed upon any smooth surface—it need not be a prepared board for a spirit planchette to work.
To use a spirit planchette, you must rest your fingers lightly upon the planchette’s surface and then concentrate on the planchette (as if maintaining a spell with a duration of concentration) for 2d6 rounds while the planchette attunes itself to the ambient spirits of the area. After this time, the planchette begins to slowly slide in random patterns across the board—at this point, questions may be asked of the spirits by any of the individuals involved in the séance. The consequences of each question asked of the spirits depends upon what type of planchette is used for the divination, as summarized on the table below. The spirits reply in a language understood by the character who asked the question, but resent such contact and give only brief answers to the questions. All questions are answered with “yes,” “no,” or “maybe,” or by spelling out a single word from the letters arranged on the board. The spirits answer each question either in the same round the question is asked (in the case of a yes, no, or maybe answer) or at a rate of one letter per round (in the case of a single word being spelled out). A spirit planchette may be used once per day—the maximum number of questions you can ask with it depends on the type of planchette being used (as detailed on the table below).
Communication with spirits can be a dangerous task, for many spirits are jealous or hateful of the living. Every time a spirit planchette is used, the user must succeed on a Will save to avoid being temporarily possessed and harmed by the angry spirits. In some areas where the spirits are particularly violent or hateful (such as in Harrowstone), this Will save takes a –2 penalty. The DC of this save depends on the type of spirit planchette being used. Anyone who fails the Will save becomes confused for a number of rounds (depending on the type of planchette being used), and no answer is received. The spirits in the area are not omniscient—the GM should decide whether or not the spirits would actually know the answer to the question asked, and if they do not, the answer granted is automatically “maybe.” If the GM determines that the spirits are knowledgeable about the answer, roll d% to determine whether the spirits speak truthfully or whether they lie.
Spirit Planchettes Table
Planchette Type / Questions per Use / Will save DC / Confusion Duration / True Answer / Lie
Brass / 1 / 11 / 1 round / 01–60 / 61–100
Cold Iron / 3 / 15 / 2 rounds / 01–75 / 76–100
Silver / 5 / 19 / 3 rounds /01–90 / 91–100
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, contact other plane, speak with dead; Cost 2,000 gp (brass spirit planchette), 5,000 gp (cold iron spirit planchette), 9,000 gp (silver spirit planchette)
Galadan holds his hands over a gash on his leg, where a giant centipede had bitten him with its stinging bite. "I could use some healing, if no one minds."
"May I commend you on your taste in dress by the way." she says brushing an imaginary thread from his lapel " Clothes maketh the man as they say however I do think something a bit more practical might be in order if we are going to go poking through dirty old ruins"
"...and you can let go off my hand now"
”Right, my lady, I assure you I was just trying to insure that you are close enough to me if more monsters attack. “ Kevin lets go of her hand and straitens his jacket, giving her a charming smile.
”Had I known we would be slaying undead and exploring an ancient crypt this morning I would have dressed for the occasion, I assure you.”
”Right, my lady, I assure you I was just trying to insure that you are close enough to me if more monsters attack.“
Andrea laughs again.."Off course you were Sir Kevin..did I suggest anything different..shame on you Sir if you think otherwise"
She disengages from the fighter and wanders over to where Aldous is examining the trove."A lot of useful items then..I suggest we take them back to the House before we decide our next step"
However her mind is on other things
He's not unhandsome..and he seems sincere..well as sincere as any other man his age ever is..You could do a lot worse.He drinks too much though..we'd have to put a stop to that
Cassandra will go over to Galadan and lay a hand upon his wound.
Cure light wounds:
Galadan looks at the unusual woman.
"Thank you. That was helpful."
Some of the wounds on Galadan's body began to heal, leaving thin scars where the bleeding bites once were.
"A healing potion for each of us, then, and let the potions of restoration be kept safe until they are needed. As to the scrolls, Cassandra, you may keep most of them. Since there are two scrolls of Necros Inilluminis, , I shall take one of them if you do not object."
Galadan speaks in an imperial tone, but he often does that. It should be obvious to all that he is making a suggestion, not making demands.
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Father Grimburrow looks at the content of the chest.
"I haven't seen any Haunt Siphons or Spirit planchette in a long time. It seems the church did expect a time when they might be needed.
I will take two Haunt Siphons to safe-keep at the temple or for emergencies for Ravengro. You should take all the remaining items to help you in the exploration of Harrowstone."
He then looks around if anyone else still needs healing
Channeling positive energy