Before the Dawn, Part II: Rescue at Azlant Ridge (Inactive)

Game Master TriShadow

"HA HA, That's its name? Pathetic. My blade shall suffice to quell your beast, scum! Now that I think of it, maybe I will have him skinned for a new pair of riding boots."

Between the pair, only Croaki manages to damage the Aspis leader. Meanwhile the remaining southern rider attempts to regroup with his allies as he fires another arrow, clipping the bard's midsection. Vines still pull against the straining mount.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DIDN'T GIVE UP?!?!
BUFFS Bless stacked with Inspire Courage {+2 to hit and damage}

***Round 4*** (bold may act)
Sarathor (2/25 hp)
Ahmandé (13/21 hp)
GREEN {entangled x2}
Durvak (30/35 hp)
Lini (31/35 hp)
Kaya
Ren
Captain and PINK {Captain -18/?? | PINK unhurt | PINK horse -12/?? hp}

As the explosive run winks out Durvak moves back towards the closest remaining horseman. Pointing a finger at the man, he calls out, "Enough be! Ya stop it! Yes get down."

Cast Command Will save DC 16 for 'fall' command
Target green

Kaya steps back towards the jerk taunting Sarathor, reloads her crossbow and then points at the Captain simply saying, "missiles, strike!"

Two small balls of force form at the end of her finger and zip away. Deftly dodging everything in their way, they slam into the Captain.

5-ft step, Move to Reload, Standard to Cast Magic Missile for Force Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 1) + 2 = 7

She looks at Ren, "go help Sarathor please! We've got the other ones managed!"

Lini glances towards the giant ball of spinning flame. "Follow him!" The ball chases after the rider to the west. She takes a step towards Kaya and pulls a wand from her pouch.

She shouts to Droogami, "Get the captain, Droo! Attack!" Droogami charges at the captain, snarling, teeth bared and bites.

Ren nods at Kaya's words and rushes over to assist Sarathor. He swings wide and comes in from behind.

Double moved Ren around, so no AoO unless he has reach.

Oops! Since Droogami has been attacking mounted riders, I haven't been including her trip since I figured they can't be tripped. The Captain isn't on his mount so she could trip him. I'll try to remember to add it to the rest of Droo's attacks in the future.

Trip vs. Captain's CMD + I.C. + Bless + Charge: 1d20 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11

No reach, so you're good Ren
With surprising speed, Droo crosses the battlefield and joins the fray against the stalwart cavalier. A feline paw leaves a deep gash, but the warrior stays on his feet.

The Desnan cleric moves to surround the Aspis captain. However, he is unable to stop the steel blade from digging into Sarathor's chest. With a tone that mocks Kaya's desperation, "Sorry Ren, you're too late to help this one." He slides to the raptor's side, "Now, about my new riding boots."

Meanwhile, the Captain's aide rides into combat, stabbing at Ren with his spear, but finds nothing but air.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DIDN'T GIVE UP?!?!
BUFFS Bless stacked with Inspire Courage {+2 to hit and +1 damage}

***Round 5*** (bold may act)
Sarathor (-3/25 hp) (unstable - Need fort save to stabilize)
Ahmandé (13/21 hp)
GREEN {entangled x2}
Durvak (30/35 hp)
Lini (31/35 hp)
Kaya
Ren
Captain and PINK {Captain -23/?? | PINK unhurt {Must make RIDE check next round}| PINK horse -12/?? hp}

Croaki attacks

bite: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
bite confirm: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Claw: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Claw: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

bite damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
claw damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

stabilise: 1d20 + 1 - 3 ⇒ (6) + 1 - 3 = 4

Not dead yet definitely dying though

With a small tremor to his voice, Ahmande continues inspiring his allies as best as he can. "You can send one of us to the ground, but we're Pathfinders! We rally around each other and overcome! Your doom is certain!"

He then knocks another arrow and fires at the last rider's mount.

You missed Kaya's Magic Missile damage of 7 vs. the Captain.

Reminder: Green is going to need a will save vs command

@ Kaya, so I did. Thank you. Added

As his master continues to bleed out, the raptor continues to fight on. The beast lives up to its fearsome reputation as it leaps on the unhorsed cavalier. Croaki pins the man to the ground, tearing out the jugular vein as the hind claw simultaneously rips through the stomach.

With a quick snap of his bow, the bard downs the horse, but the rider lands on his feet. The remaining rider manages to shake off the dwarf's command. Seeing his leader fall, the man turns tail and forces his horse back toward main Aspis force down the valley.

The lone Aspis tosses his weapons to the ground. "I yield! I no longer have a taste for this."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY DIDN'T GIVE UP?!?! The battle is technically won if you desire. Will stay in initiative until Sarathor is stable or conscious.

BUFFS Bless stacked with Inspire Courage {+2 to hit and +1 damage}

***Round 5*** (bold may act)
Sarathor (-4/25 hp) (unstable - Need fort save to stabilize)
Ahmandé (13/21 hp)
GREEN {entangled x2}
Durvak (30/35 hp)
Lini (31/35 hp)
Kaya
Ren
Captain and PINK {Captain -43/42 <<Dying>> | PINK unhurt <<Surrendered>>

Raimondo hurriedly tries to get the caravan moving again. He shouts over his shoulder, panic clearly evident in his voice. "You should heal your friend and leave the Aspis behind. This band of mercenaries was just a fraction of the number we saw chasing us. We have to reach Azlant Ridge before they cut us off! Quickly, put him on the wagon and let us be gone from here. HURRY!"

With the Aspis band fleeing and their caravan driver urging speed, Kaya dashes over towards Sarathor. She yells at the surrendered Aspsi, "don't move an inch or that cat will rip your throat out!"

Run Full Round Action and she looses her Dex to AC (-3).

Lini moves towards Droo while commanding, "Droo, heel. We do not attack those who are not attacking us. Defend me and attack should anyone harm me."

Lini - double move and free to command Droo. Droogami - 5 ft step next to Lini and prepares to bite anyone who attacks Lini.

Just out of channel range.

Moving closer to his downed companion, the dwarf ignores the fleeing banditels. "Eye-rori say no more bleedy!"

Flicking his wrist, the wounds of Sarathor seal.

Cast stabilize

Lol, holy crip-crap we have two clerics. I didn't even think about Durvak being a cleric with how he plays, lol!

I will let you guys roll for healing. Moving things along.

You climb ever higher out of the jungle, the series of thin switchback trails just large enough for Raimondo’s caravan wagons. Suddenly, from the canopy below comes an unearthly bellowing roar. Thousands of colorful birds take flight and wing off away from the noise, and a cacophony of screeching,
chittering, and screaming follows the roar.

As you approach the top of the ridge, a dilapidated camp comes into view. The camp is surrounded by a hastily constructed palisade wall forming a semi-circle that both starts and ends at an imposing cliff face stretching hundreds feet up from the palisade. The bodies of hundreds of ape-like creatures lie outside the walls in various states of decay. The stench is overpowering, and a cloud of flies is thick above the carnage.

A cry goes up from the tower built over the palisade’s gate as the lookouts spot you, and the gate itself rumbles aside on rickety wooden wheels. A tall woman with black hair pulled back against her head and a shortsword on her hip strides out from the camp to meet you.

At that moment, a horn sounds from down in the valley, closely followed by the screams of men and horses. Looking below, you see another group of Aspis Mercenaries, riding fast up the switchback trails, with hundreds—maybe even thousands—of ape-men hurling stones at them and running hard on their heels.

Non-pulsed by the activity, she approaches, she smiles a thin, tired smile and says, “Welcome to Azlant Ridge. I see you’ve met the locals.” She gestures back at the ape-men chasing the Aspis mercenaries up the trail. "Looks like you have some much needed supplies. Let's get back inside. Trust me, you don’t want to be out here when they get here.”

Once passed the safety of the walls, the gate is rolled back into place. The woman seems to relax a bit. She offers a handshake to everyone. "I'm Juliet Dias. Glad to have you with us. I assume you have some questions?"

cure light wounds wand 6d8 + 6 ⇒ (6, 3, 1, 2, 7, 6) + 6 = 31

heal: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Heal DC 10: 1d20 ⇒ 16

Kaya rattles off a litany of questions and comments.

"Oh my you look very ill. Have you all been eating at all? Well we brought food and supplies so dig in. Hey so we were chased by Aspis the whole way and they attacked us once and we fought them off and this one guy was a really big jerk but he's dead now probably."

Deeeeeeep Breath.

"Okay so what are those ape things, they look like ape people but I only know about apes and people not ape people. And have you guys been here long and what is this dig all about and WHAT WAS THAT ROAR!!!!"

She pauses just long enough to actually let the lady answer the questions, then runs off to look at the orb. "OH MY NEW FANCY MAGIC STUFF OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Heal: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

"Yous no look gud." remarks Durvak as Kaya floods the woman with questions.

Smiling as the excitable halfling takes off to inspect the new 'shiny', he asks a couple questions of his own. "Ya tink dem As-pees is wit them Apes-mans? Whys dun yous alls gets close-like. Eye-Rori be praised an offer ya 'is aids."

If we can get the people to huddle up, Durvak would gladly expend a channel
Channel if digsite people get close: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 1) = 2
Well...looks like Irori is being stingy...

I will wait to see if there are any other questions before I pick this up tomorrow.

Heal: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 = 5

Ahmande listens as Juliet explains the situation here, and perks up at mention of the sphere.

"Oooh, I definitely want to take a look at that! Can you show us this sphere while your people unload the wagon?"

Droogami follows after her new friend, Kaya. Lini, also intrigued by the glowing orb, decides to join Kaya as well.

To Kaya and Durvak, "Yes, it has been difficult. However, to give up was to face defeat."

The wizard is quickly entranced by the unearthed sphere, A precise and professional terraced dig site surrounds a half-sphere of a smooth, almost mirror-like white material. While it looks almost exactly like polished ivory, it’s slightly warm to the touch and glows with a soft, white light.

The tour finally leads the team to a set of metal doors. At fifteen feet high and ten feet wide, this door is an impressive structure. Carved from a dull yet shimmering metal, every inch of its surface is covered in runes, glyphs, pictographs, and intricate patterns. A single rift, about an inch deep, splits the door in half from top to bottom, giving you the impression that it might open were it only to have handles. The door sits recessed several feet into the jagged rock of the ridge’s impressive cliff face, which stretches a hundred feet or more above the camp.

Juliet looks at the team with anxious excitement, "So, who has the key?"

Kaya fishes around in her pack and pulls out the key, "oooh! I almost forgot I had this!"

She hands it over and then casts detect magic, looking at the door with excitement.

YES! I made note of who had it last scenario, but I'm glad I didn't have to remind you.

Juliet Dias accepts the key with giddiness. "Okay, you might want to stand back a bit. I really have no idea what's going to happen."

She descends the terraced excavation to the door and spends several minutes tracing her hands along various pictographs and symbols, constantly looking to the key and then back to door. Without warning, she slaps the key into a space that just moments before wouldn’t have fit it, and the door slowly, silently, opens outward to reveal a set of wide stairs descending into darkness.

She turns back to the party with a huge grin on her face, but as she’s about to speak, a horn sounds from the tower over the palisade gate and the camp suddenly leaps into action. Dias runs back up the terraced dig and says, “Explore the complex, find out what might be in there, and hope to the gods it’s something that will help us. I have to organize our defense. Go! GO!”

As she sprints off toward the camp’s defenses, a familiar roar thunders in the air, and a cacophony of screeching and screaming sounds echoes from all around the palisade wall.

While inside the Azlanti complex, the ceilings are all 15 feet tall unless otherwise stated, and the rooms are pitch black.

"Wait!" Ahmande yells as Juliet runs off. He looks back and forth between her and the others. "Oh, this doesn't sound good! We should go quickly!"

He enters the complex with the others, trying to keep his eyes open for danger.

The map is all covered, so I'm not sure where to move my token at this point.

Kaya pulls out a glowing ring from her pocket and slips it onto a finger, "I'm glad I got this made! Let's go!!!"

Putting on her signet ring that has Continual Flame cast on it.

With light available, I have opened up the first room. I will post a description tonight.

Blue outlined area = Normal Light

Magenta outlined area = Dim Light

Those with low-light double those ranges, those with darkvision... you suck. :P

Darkvision Suckers!

"Fanciful" mutters Durvak eyeing the dark room ahead. 'Me tinks ya be right Ahmande."

"Whatcha tink be down 'ere? Be artifactual? Azlanti? Whatcha be tinkin?" asks the dwarf, becoming infected with the giddy halfling's attitude towards it all. "Eye-row-ree ba praised!"

A wide set of stairs descends into an enormous room, measuring thirty-five feet wide by forty feet long, and more than thirty feet tall. The entire room smells sickly sweet, but the floors, wall, and ceiling are all smooth and clean—rather similar to the sphere in the ground outside. Four enormous monoliths, fifteen-foot-tall human-shaped metal statues, rest in the four
corners of the room. They’re made of white metal, almost like a suit of full plate sized quite large, but without anything discernible as a face.

Ahmande looks at the statues with concern. "Seen too many of these things come awake and start attacking Pathfinders... be careful here."

He steps down to the bottom of the stairs and casts detect magic, then studies the closest statue.

Kaya nods at Ahmande's comment, "like that golden statue thing. I mean, it didn't attack us but it definitely was something like this."

With a silent nod to the elf, Durvak takes a cautious step forward. Pausing a moment, he looks to the monolith next to him and tentatively reaches out his right hand.

Touching the smooth surface, the dwarf closes his eyes. "Me take look."

Touch of Knowledge! (Technically a touch attack): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
If this statue counts as a creature, Durvak gets a successful knowledge roll of 21. If it doesn't count as a creature...he simply rubs against it

Croaki approaches the nearest statue and sniffs it. After a little time if nothing else happens he will mark it with his spoor and move on to the next

Kaya looks at Sarathor with disdain, "I thought you said you finally had him trained! Ewww!!!"

"Croaki!" Sarathor calls the young dinosaur back to him with a hurt tone of voice

"You really shouldnt do that" he tells Croaki Although whether that admonishment is for Kaya's benefit or Croaki's you are not quite sure

A brief investigation shows that the monolithic statues are cool to the touch and impossible to tip over or move.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Croaki perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Croaki begins hissing at the still clean statues

Perception DC 18: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Knowledge (arcana) DC 26: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

"This is strange... there's no dust on these. Almost as if they repel it. And look, Croaki's waste didn't leave any marks on the statue, only landing on the floor."

Ahmande looks beyond the statues, and towards the hall at the other side of the room. "I don't love it, but I think we're going to have to go deeper inside if we're to learn anything more. Hopefully that's all these statues are about." He moves towards the other side of the room.

K: Arcana DC 26: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Eyes going wide she whispers, "shhhh... these things are Cold Iron Golems! Very rare. Luckily inert for us though, but I bet something triggers them!"

She moves close enough for a spell to work and begins cleaning up the poop. (prestidigitation) Her glowing ring illuminates more of the room.

Lini and Droogami move further into the room and stop near Kaya. Lini eyes the statues curiously. Looking at Kaya she says, "What do you think our odds are of getting through here without triggering the Golems?"

Kaya lets the magic keep working on the stain, what does that creature eat!

She thinks a second, "well pretty good. I mean Ahmande is already over at that end of the room so if it was a trigger on entering or moving through the room, we'd already be fighting. I'm mainly concerned that it was set up to trigger farther into the area so that anyone who came in would be trapped. I mean, that's what I'd do... er you know, if I had magical golems guarding my home. Anyway, let's just hope we figure out a way to shut them down or control them or talk to them. That gold statue thing I mentioned earlier we were actually able to chat nicely with it until it decided we were friends so maybe that'll happen here."

Confidence renewed and poop removed, she cheerfully bounds into the middle of the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Scrunching up his nose at the animal's activities, Durvak simply nods to his companions and moves deeper into the room.

Making his way to the doors, he eyes the statues wearily. "Aye me 'opes dun hafta fight 'em."

This 5-foot-wide hallway extends east to west, with six 10-foot-by-10-foot alcoves splitting off to the north and south, three on each side. The alcoves contain what appear to be stone sarcophagi made of the same smooth, white material as the iron golems, but lacking lids. Small piles of sand, recently disturbed, rest in front of each of them.

Eyes reflect torchlight from the darkness. With a hiss and scraping of claws on stone, you realize you are not alone.

THE DOOMED IN THE TOMB Round 1 (bold may post)
Sarathor
Yellow & Green
Black & Orange
Lini
Ahmandé
Durvak
Ren
Pink & Blue
Kaya

K: Religion DC 11: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Kaya screeches out, "GHOULS!!!"

Sarathor casts Bulls strength on Croaki then hefts his weapon into a fighting stance "Guard me!" he commands Croaki as he moves toward the sound of claws