GM Kate's Beneath Unbroken Waves, Table 2 [closed] (Inactive)

Game Master Kate Baker

She laughs. "I am Zulfibha. That's an old inside joke between us. She's letting me know that you seem trustworthy even though not all of you are undines. I don't know anything about your key. May I take a look?"

Nixie holds up the key. "Yes, of course you may look at it. Would you like to see how it works?"

Nixie concentrates, and the ball in her hand glows and spins.

Knowlege Arcana to make it glow and do cool stuff: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

"It's lighting our way to our destination, and led us to you."

She holds it and examines it. "Amazing. This will probably let you in to the large building over there. The writing is the same." She gestures to the one building that still stands. "We've never been able to get in. Not only is it locked, but some water elementals guard it. They'll pop up if you get close."

"So what were you all doing down here anyway? This area seems quite unsafe with Nagas and elementals, when buildings aren't falling down as well that is"

"It's not so unsafe normally. The elementals don't bother us if we stay away from that building and nagas don't normally act like that. We've been trying to learn the moves from the old monastery! This was some kind of equipment room. I wonder if anything made it..."

The undines start digging through the rubble and find a few usable items. There is a heavy underwater crossbow with 10 bolts, 4 masterwork cestuses, and a magical tiger fork.

"Do you think you could use any of this?"

"She wanted the orb, near as I could understand. I might have cut off a chance to learn why, an' I'm right sorry about that." Maarin frowns, looking over the spoils. "Not a thing of use to me among the lot, I must admit. If I get too close to a foe, I've a blade to deal with them." Opening another small pouch, she almost comically produces a rapier that should not fit within the size of the pocket it was draw from.

“Thank you, Zulfibha.”

Looking at the underwater crossbow, Sarq admits “I’m not much for ranged combat, but right now that crossbow is better than anything I have.”

Looking towards Daffy, he says “You are more likely to make use of it than I.”

Checking the Tiger Fork, he adds “I suppose this might work, but I was planning to keep a hand on my wand. Tough to use this with only one hand.”

Looking to Nixie and Daffy, he asks “Is there anything in the enchantment of the Tiger Fork that makes it especially useful?”

"Sure, been a while since I've fired one, but I could probably do something with that thing if no one else wants it." Daffy will hold onto that crossbow if no one more effective is likely to use it.

detect magic and Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

Running his hands over the tiger fork, he focuses for a moment, then shrugs. "Definitely magical, but nothing too out of the ordinary; looks like those bloody big pokey bits would be pretty useful to run someone through, though." Using a bit of player knowledge with Kate's permission. It's a +1 tiger fork.

"Well there might be more dangers around, so please be careful."

Blackjack looks off into the distance "Elementals next huh?"

"I hope they're the amicable type. My bullets aren't nearly as effective on them."

"Elementals, then!" Nixie says. "Um, how long have they been acting strange? Is there anything that happened around the same time the elementals and nagas became aggressive?"

"Oh no, the elementals have been there a long time. Like, a reeeeeeally long time. I figure hundreds of years."

No rush to finish chatting with the NPC, but please let me know when you're ready to move on to the building!

"No new aggression? Well, there goes that theory." Nixie sighs. "Alright, then we'd best move on then!" She starts swimming towards the elementals, and then says to the rest of the group, "You're coming, right?"

Sarq once again gets out his wand of Touch of the Sea, so he has wand in one hand and Trident in the other. He then swims over to where Nixie is going.

“Do we know where these elementals are?”

That question gets answered quickly!

One building stands tall among the wreckage of many others, with elegantly curved walls made from stone. Runes carved into the exterior glow brightly, and razor-edged coral reefs form a protective fence around the building’s perimeter.

Three large water elementals swirl into being.

New map is up!

Heading over:

"Hey Sarq, you want some help swimming that will last a little longer than that thing?" If you'd like, Daffy can cast slipstream on you. Only a 20ft swim speed, but you won't have to carry around the wand (10min/level).

Maarin looks to the rest of the non-undines. "They say something dangerous is in there. I told 'em we can handle it. Nixie, may be needing the sweet words to smooth things out, eh?"

Looking towards Daffy, he says “That sounds good. Are you sure it isn’t a problem? I don’t want to use up too much of your magic just to make up for being connected to air rather than water.”

"Not a problem at all. If it frees up your other hand for fightin' (like, say, with that +1 tiger fork), then it's worth it." Daffy casts slipstream on Sarq. 20ft swim speed for the next 50 minutes. We have two bards with almost the same build in the party, so I don't think it will hurt to much for me to use a spell slot.

Diplomacy Take Ten: 10 + 18 = 28

Nixie nods at Maarin's translation, then continues in aquan.

Diplomacy to aid: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22

Blackjack watches on, curious to see where this is going...

While Maarin and Nixie are talking in the bubbly language of water-folk, Sarq puts away his trident and wand. Then he accepts the Tiger Fork, grabbing it with both hands.

The water elementals step aside.

You notice that, while the building remained standing during the earthquake, several gems did shake loose from the walls. They glow with magic.

Large letters arch gracefully over the top of the large front doors, while much smaller writing covers the surfaces of the doors, interspersed with ancient, brightly glowing runes.

Anyone who speaks Vudrani or Aquan clearly reads Monastery of Unbreaking Waves above the door. The smaller writing is more difficult to read, as it is quite archaic. If you speak Aquan or Vudrani, you can get the gist of it, but it will take a Linguistics check to get a complete translation.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21 Dice are fixed! XD

Maarin squints at the inscriptions, before shaking her head. "Murderous undead inside, don't open, et cetera et cetera..." She looks at the guardians and nods. "I figure we can end this with a bit of luck and Pathfinderin', what d' y'all say?"

Aid Another, Linguistics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

“I don’t know this language, but it looks to me as if this one has part of it worn away.” Using his finger to draw in the sand, he says “I think it should be this.”

He is able to figure out what the correct shape of a few of the other runes are as well.

Looking to Maarin, he asks “Does it say anything useful about what sort of creature it is, or powers it has?”

I keep hoping one day to run across a warning that actually tells you that sort of thing. Maybe today will be the day.

Actually, I think the DC is 20. I copied that spoiler from my last run of the game, which was high tier.

"Ah, thank you Mister Sarq. That's quite helpful." Maarin flashes him a bright smile. "Well, this here says his name, Falehetu, but not a damn thing about what he became. Mayhap they didn't know either."

Linguistics, Aquan: 1d20 + 6 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 4 = 21

"Well, if he's trapped inside then parhaps we can figure it out for ourselves."

'Don't suppose this is going to be solved with a polite chat and a cup of tea? Why trap and not just destroy?"[

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Linguistics: 1d20 + 6 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 6 + 4 = 17

Nope to both.

"I'm glad you can translate this, it's aquan but so. archaic." Nixie frowns. "So we're off to destroy an undead? I have no idea why they trapped him instead of destroying him... But maybe we'll find the answer inside?"

“Maybe they didn’t know how?” Sarq suggests, obviously not sure if it is the reason or not.

"From the inscription, it sounds like trapping him was the best they could do, and even that took three of them sacrificing themselves to do so. Look here, it says:

Falehetu returned, but this time as an undead horror, swearing vengeance on the House of Unbreaking Waves for his downfall. He killed many of us. Three brave monks subdued him in this building, giving their lives in the process. What was once our schoolhouse is now his prison, and this is the end of the monastery."

“We should copy that down, no doubt Venture-Captain Melipdra would be very interested in it.”

He frowns as he realizes there could be a problem doing that.

Somewhat embarrassed, he mentions “So, it seems ink and paper will not work down here. Other than carving it into something, how do you write beneath the waves?”

When you are ready to go in, there is a suspiciously orb-shaped niche in the door!

''Our books are beaded strings," Nixie says. "But much of our culture is oral. There's a reason that I trained to be a memory of my people."

She takes a deep breath and says, "If we're going to buff, the time to do so is now, right?"

She casts heroism on Sarq. "You go straight into battle, so you might need this." Then she casts investigative mind on herself. "I'm ready. Are you?"

Once the others have either cast buffs, or said, 'Ready', she inserts the orb into the door.

"Say, that's a good idea, Nixie! Blackjack, how'd you like one a'them?" Daffy casts heroism on Blackjack as well, if he does not object. This duplicate bard thing is hilarious.

"Would you like any magical swimming help as well?" I can't remember if you already did something to get a swim speed, but Daffy will cast slipstream on you as well, if you'd like.

Maarin pulls a powder horn from her belt of pockets, casually loading her pistol as the party casts their spells. Air bubbles pour from the horn into the chamber, black powder loading dry and ready to fire. Fitting a bullet in place, she grins. "I sure hope we find the dastard quickly. Cleaning wet powder out is the pits."

"Would a wand of air bubble work on your gun?" Nixie asks Maarin, curiously.

Is the slipstream Daffy cast on Sarq still active?

Maarin stares at Nixie a moment, seemingly dumbfounded. "Ha! I suppose it would. How long does it last? My horn here keeps it fresh maybe ten minutes. If you can save me tha cost o' cartridges, I'd be happy to buy everyone a round when we get back."

"Thank you Daffy, I feel far more heroic than earlier! Nothing can stand in the way of our victory now!"

"To victory!"

@Blackjack: did you want slipstream?

@Sarq: It should still be going (it's 10min/level). Kate says its only took a few minutes to get down here.

I'll take it if no one else needs :)

Nixie casts air bubble on Maarin's gun.

"Should we go in singing or wait?" she asks, hand hovering over the orb-shaped lock.

I can cast it again if someone else needs it.

"Let's hold off on that, Nixie. Maybe we can make a dramatic entrance once we size up the audience." Daffy's ready to go.

Okay, assuming you're going in...

The orb fits perfectly in the niche and glows with magic, unlocking the doors. The building is flooded, though the water is stagnant and smells of decay. You see rooms to your left and right and double doors in front of you.

Blackjack moves over to look into the right room...

Blackjack moves over to look into the right room...

Daffy follows Blackjack into the room and looks around.