GM thunderspirit |
As Azimuth steps in to have a look about, he notices that the room is significantly cooler than the surrounding rooms have been — almost cold.
Azimuth also sees,half overgrown with mold and fungus, a backpack lying in the corner, as though discarded in haste by its previous owner.
GM thunderspirit |
non-lethal cold damage: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 3) = 10
As Azimuth starts around the corner, he feels incredibly fatigued by a rush of cold! (cold resistance applies)
This is a patch of brown mold. Brown mold feeds on warmth, drawing heat from anything around it. The temperature is always cold in a 30-foot radius around it.
Fire brought within 5 feet of brown mold causes the mold to instantly double in size. Cold damage instantly destroys it.
Azimuth World-Traveler |
Azimuth becomes aware of an extremely uncomfortable cold coming from the room. As it gets near unbearable, he realizes that it isn't the cold from the room, but the warmth leaving him!
He backpedals out, leaving the pack behind.
"That.. was an uncomfortable experience."
Clara Oswald |
"Hmm, sucks your heat out you say? George doesn't have much heat, you know, being dead and all. Maybe he can play fetch?"
Clara orders George to retrieve a backpack, and if he is still hungry, he can eat some more fungus.
GM thunderspirit |
While George is mindless (I know, I'm disparaging your pet) and thus doesn't know what a backpack is, I don't really see a problem with him fetching you a bunch of things until he gets it right. :-) So...
The backpack holds a collection of canopic jars, jeweled death masks, gilded ushabti, and other Osiriani relics of some value. Also inside is a scrap of paper with writing in similar script to that which was found in the Scriptorium.
The phrase "The Eye is always vigilant" is written on this scrap of paper.
Vayu |
"Whenever I hear someone talk of the "eye" I think of the legendary beholde ... er ... I mean floating eye."
Vayu looks nervously around expecting the valiant Knights of Intellectual Property Rights to come bursting into the room.
"Other than that possibility, I too have no idea ..."
GM thunderspirit |
Do we know where this obstacle is in the room?
The door was difficult to open due to the overgrown fungi all about the eastern portion of the room.
Entering the archive room via the Scriptorium door, Lore notes that there are more tall bookcases here with significantly less fungus growth on this side. His Perception check doesn't reveal anything else, however.
GM thunderspirit |
Recap: there's something in the middle of the room that gave Azimuth a nasty bout of non-lethal damage. (I don't think anyone has Kn: dungeoneering to identify it.) And there's a massive explosion of overgrown fungi that gets more significant west to east in the archive room.
Whatcha gonna do now?
Lore Jorinson |
"This side of the room seems safe-ish, but I don't see anything useful over here. We have to feed Nigel to the mold. It's the only way to advance. Or we could knock the bookshelves over and light the room on fire."
GM thunderspirit |
You guys seem to have found all the rooms in the basement.
And I am thoroughly entertained by the prospect of feeding Nigel to the fungus, especially in light of all the PFS encounters with that particular "old friend of the Society." LOL
Clara Oswald |
"Well, assuming it attacked with cold, it could very well be extremely susceptible to cold. On the other hand, it it absorbed heat, it is likely that the fungus feeds on heat, and we could make the entire area a much, much more dangerous version of what it already is, that covers most of the basement, and sucks all the warmth from our bodies. On the bright side, George would be fine under the latter."
Payj |
"Let us take a closer look at the fungus," Payj says confidently.
She approaches the fungus and begins to take a close look.
Take 20 for 21
We're looking for something more than this fungus, I suggest we all take 20, with all of us aiding the person with the highest perception.
GM thunderspirit |
Taking 20 is enough.
Vayu convinces Azimuth to come back into the archives room and help him search about in the eastern area. With some difficulty, they discover a secret trapdoor hidden beneath the substantial layer of fungus behind the last bookshelf.
GM thunderspirit |
With some time and significant effort, Lore and Azimuth get the trap door open. The scenario calls for a Strength check, but I figure eventually you guys would get it.
Beneath the trap door, a circular, 10-foot diameter shaft drops 40 feet from the archives to the level below. A narrow flight of stone steps can be seen spiraling down along the shaft's circumference, coated with slime and mold, which also covers the walls.
Marching order and Acrobatics checks for anyone descending the stairs please. Half-speed can be attempted which may lower the DC.
Clara Oswald |
"I think we should figure out what the note means, but we can talk about it on the way down I suppose. I don't like being in back, but I hate being in front. Perhaps I should sit in the middle. . . George can go first. That way, if there are traps, he can just bungle through and not worry much about it. Sound good?"
GM thunderspirit |
No problem with George going down too, but he too will need to make the Acro check.
Payj |
Payj removes a rope and a dagger. She ties one end of the rope to her dagger and asks one of the big strong lads to drive it into the floor. She then scampers down the rope.
That is, if it is possible?
GM thunderspirit |
Sure, why not?
GM thunderspirit |
With the aid of the rope, Lore can't fail the check.
The shaft deposits you in an alcove at the far end of an antechamber, free of the riotous growths of fungi and mold that choke the shaft and archives above. The simple, clean lines of the basement's basalt walls give way here to a disturbing, organic style of architecture that makes it seem like you are walking through the gullet of some monstrous behemoth. At the far end of the hall, a large, ornate arch that looks disconcertingly like the beast's toothed maw stands in the wall, covered by a heavy black curtain with sickly green light from the chamber beyond shining around the edges. A plain iron box sits on the floor in the middle of the room.
Lore Jorinson |
"Right. Secret cave under the city. The plot thickens. You're our foremost expert on dead Osirians, Clara. If none of that stuff in the bag rings any bells I don't think anyone else knows. I think you'd look good in one of those masks, if that helps."
He glances around the cave, half expecting the walls to spring to life.
"Careful folks, every room thus far has had something try to kill us or someone recently killed or Nigel in them. That box is probably known as 'the Master of Shadows' where it comes from."
Lore tosses his sunrod at the iron box and ducks behind George.
Clara Oswald |
"Worth a try. . . " Clara casts Detect Magic and inspects the masks, then tries whispering "The Eye is Vigilent" to the mask, in Osirioni, before putting it on.
"Keep an eye out for an eye, or anything else I suppose. I am sure that there has to be more to this phrase than a slogan to mark a backpack."
Approaching the box Clara also tries the phrase, in both common and Osirioni.
GM thunderspirit |
None of the masks detect as magical. After Clara puts a particularly interesting one on, she moves toward the box just as Lore tosses his sunrod...
ranged touch vs. AC 12: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
...and a high-pitched alarm sounds as a small stone rolls out from behind the box. The alarm sounds a few seconds until Clara utters "the eye is always vigilant, whereupon the alarm stops.
GM thunderspirit |
What's the plan now?
Clara Oswald |
"Fine, no headlong charge into battle and certain doom. You do realize that makes for a much more boring story though, right?" the gnome sighs at the thought of lost glory, and orders her skelebear to take position center of the curtain.
Clara moves to the other side of the curtain, and also peaks past. Unlike her companion, Clara does opt for some stealth.
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
GM thunderspirit |
Beyond the curtain, Azimuth and Clara can see that the walls and ceiling of this chamber bulge outward, continuing the grotesque architectural style of the antechamber, as if you were peering into the leviathan's
stomach. Queer, glowing nodules protrude from the walls at seemingly random intervals, bathing the room in their sickly green glow. A tall, free-standing, almost organic-looking archway carved from a strange, glowing blue-green stone stands atop a low dais in a wide alcove at the far end of the chamber. The center of the arch is empty, revealing the wall behind it, but the space occasionally flickers with curtains of starry darkness, as if somewhere else lies just beyond the portal. A susurrus of ghostly whispers seem to issue from the gate, their language and meaning unclear, but fraught with a sense of wrongness. A small iron cylinder is attached to the apex of the arch.
A half-Osirian woman, with long, dark hair and light brown skin, wearing a weathered explorer's outfit, is connected to the arch by five disgusting, fleshy, fungoid umbilicals attached to her hips, shoulders, and the base of her skull. Her eyes are completely black, showing no iris or whites.
Nearby are a handful of figures dressed similarly to the hapless guards upstairs; most remain lying on the floor, but one is upright and moving. Clara recognizes it as a zombie!
In a deep, gravelly voice that certainly does not match the woman's appearance, she shouts across the chamber!
Foolish infidels! You shall all perish for your insolence!
Initiatives!
Azimuth: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Clara: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
George: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Lore: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Payj: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
Vayu: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
woman: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
zombie: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Clara
Lore
Vayu
woman
George
Payj
Azimuth
zombie
Clara, Lore, and Vayu are up!
GM thunderspirit |
The woman would be Kn (local); it doesn't specify for the fungoid umbilicles, but I'll say it's Kn (dungeoneering). The zombie is a gimme. LOL
DC 15 Will save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Not THIS time, Clara! ;-)
GM thunderspirit |
Clara tries to secure another pet, but this doggie in the window says no.
Lore moves up, grabbing his sunrod on the way. He pulls the curtain aside and takes in the odd scene.
Vayu!
GM thunderspirit |
We're playing this at 6-7, right...? ;-)
The woman barks an order to the zombie in Osiriani and draws out a wand, holding it at the ready.
George, Payj, Azimuth!