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As your miniature mountain crashes into the side of the fortress, you have only a brief window in which to clamber off, make your way toward an entrance, and slip inside.
Thanks to Alden, Haliban, Ninlil, and Snaggletooth identifying a breach in the fortress, this dangerous task isn't as impossible as it would have been without their keen eyes and skill.
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Alden follows through far less gracefully then his companions as he lands with a clatter though with the aid of his armor, locking his knees allows him to resemble a skidding armored cart as he comes to a stop with sparks flying from his feet.
"I'll have you know that these boots were made by the finest leather makers!!!" he proclaims in protest....
"You have my thanks." He turns to Urien, drawing out another wand.
"This wand might better suited to healing my wounds though it may take longer."
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Theo eyes the incoming collision, and quickly tries to spot a way off before it does. Luckily, he is wellversed in traversing rocky terrain... even the fact it is moving through the air, and exploding all around him, is a bit new.
He leaps down to a lower ledge, clambering over some jagged outcroppings, and makes his way down far enough to drop to the fortress blow, calling out to Fairbeaks as he goes.
Fairbeaks, for his part, is noticeably restless, his useless vestigal wings flapping in irritation, and his head constantly jerking around to look at the latest chaotic event nearby.
When Theo calls for him to follow, and jump down to the new location below, he seems reluctant for a moment, then a bit of rock exploding nearby seems to spur him on, and he leaps and clambers his way after the dwarf.
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Hector, Urien, Alden, Haliban, Theo and Fairbeaks safely clamber off the falling chunk of rock, make their way toward the breach, and slip inside the fortress. They pause to cheer Ninlil as the sylph tries to make her way to join them, Snaggletooth clinging to her shoulders.
Alden realizes that had he paused to heal himself, he would have likely been grievously wounds by a combination of falling from the floating island, being cut by the fortress’s jagged surface, being crushed by other approaching debris, or some other calamity.
Just inside the relative shelter of the breach, the hellknight uses the brief respite to treat his injuries, if not his curse of misfortune.
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Having made it safely inside, you must now navigate the narrow, twisting passages found within the fortress itself. The rebel veela spoke true, the very walls seem to shift every couple of minutes, buffeting you mercilessly.
You'll have to rely on your dungeoneering and survival skills to keep going. Spells such as divination might help, and powerful divinations such as find the path might allow you to bypass the dangers altogether.
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(+2 if we're underground)
Navigating narrow tunnels in the strange stone fortress turns out are not much different than finding one's way through narrow passage under a mountain, Theo finds out.
He does his best to keep everyone going in what he hopes is the right direction, though its hard with everyone spread so far out.
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As the chunk of rock hurtles toward the surface, Ninlil isn't as fortunate as her companions.
While her leap from the floating island is graceful, her landing is awkward and painful. Battered by the fall, cut by the jagged rocks on the surface outside the fortress, bludgeoned by other cascading debris, she
She hobbles, as quick as she can, up to her companions, who are waiting for her within the breach.
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Theo demonstrates his excellent fieldcraft, but he won't be able to do it alone. He looks to the team, trusting two of them can help navigate through the alien, shifting terrain of the asteroid's tunnels.
He considers riding Fairbeaks again, though he's uncertain how much that would help, given the necessary skills to find their way through the fortress.
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Ninlil asks for some healing and recasts False Life. "Ow! That hurts! That... that didn't go well. Now let's see..."
She starts trying to help the party with their dungeoneering... ironically with
"Aaaaagh! I hate this! Too much stone, too much metal, too much earth..." she grumbles as she tries in vain to navigate.
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"Keep your infernal bargains to yourself." Theo growls, clearly not interested in Alden's unholy assistance.
Tired of all the wrong turns, he tries to figure out where they went astray, backtracking slightly to go down another path.
(+2 if underground)
He thinks he has it sorted out, as he leads the way through more constantly shifting tunnels.
(+2 if underground)
Even then, he's about to go down one way, when Behind him, Fairbeaks balks at going forward. It takes Theo a moment to realize the bird is sensing something not right about that tunnel, and he takes another look at it.
(+2 if underground)
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Urien seems distracted, watching all of the walls shift and move, but then snaps out of it with a sudden confidence.
I think it's this way, but let us tend to wounds first. Oh and Haliban, this may help...
Urien casts heroism on Haliban.
For himself:
Before they continue, Urien renews the Triple Time bardic masterpiece, hastening their journey once again, repeating the same performance, albeit with a slightly distracted air as he attempts to navigate the shifting tunnels.
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While the party continues to treat their injuries, Urien steps in to relieve Ninlil of her land navigation duties, and upping the team's tempo with his Triple Time cadence.
Thanks to Urien's masterpiece, the rest of the journey only takes another 5 minutes.
Theo, ever the reliable ranger, leads everyone through the tunnels, with only one miscue, this time from Haliban, catching the party in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the shifting walls once more batter the group.
(+4 vs traps, +2 heroism)
The shifting tunnel walls also reveal another hazard. Haliban spots a camouflaged trap, at least 10ft across, a 40ft. deep pit, its bottom filled with wicked spikes. He sees no way around it. Fortunately, this isn't the slayer's first rodeo, and with his impressive skill set, he quickly disables the trap and leads the party safely across.
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While the party continues to treat their injuries, Urien steps in to relieve Ninlil of her land navigation duties, and upping the team's tempo with his Triple Time cadence.
Thanks to Urien's masterpiece, the rest of the journey only takes another 5 minutes.
Theo, ever the reliable ranger, leads everyone through the tunnels, with only one miscue, this time from Haliban, catching the party in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the shifting walls once more batter the group.
(+4 vs traps, +2 heroism)
The shifting tunnel walls also reveal another hazard. Haliban's sharp eyes spot a camouflaged trap, at least 10ft across, a 40ft. deep pit, its bottom filled with wicked spikes. He sees no way around it. Fortunately, this isn't the slayer's first rodeo, and with his impressive skill set, he quickly disables the trap and leads the party safely across.
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A heavily worn set of stairs leads from claustrophobic tunnels into an eroded cavern studded with sand-scoured crystals that emit cool, faint light. The jagged foundations are all that’s left of metal walls—the fragments of which now jut from the wall like throwing knives.
An immense, intricate, thousand-sided polyhedron made of sky metals floats within a tight series of binding circles. As blasts of air erupt from the polyhedron, the surface’s shattered facets regenerate before being blasted apart on another side.
The metal walls here are demolished , resulting in a mostly open cavern. Near its center floats the 20-foot-diameter faceted orb inside which is locked the Untouchable Opal, which hovers within a series of five concentric arcane circles, each a rune-carved solid ring of gemstone inlaid in the ground.
Each of these facets represents a riddle, conundrum, or digit in a massive combination lock that keeps the orb sealed and the opal safe. The lighting here is dim.
You have a moment to explore the sanctum and can attempt preliminary checks to break the warding circles and decipher the orb.
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Urien understands the how the magic circles work.
The five major magic circles around the orb provide numerous external defenses that ward off intruders. These circles’ respective effects cease when you destroy them.
Distortion: This circle increases the difficulty of all your checks to solve the puzzle orb.
Earth: This circle empowers the guardian creatures here, enhancing their attacks and damage and ability to withstand damage.
Fear: This circle instills the fear of being buried alive in those who attempt to solve the puzzle orb. This is an evil compulsion and fear effect, and although protection from evil does not protect against it completely, the spell does allow an additional save against the suffocation effect.
Warding (2): Each of these two circles increases the other three circles’ hardness and heals themt; the warding circles do not protect or heal each other. These effects are cumulative increasing hardness and healing twice as many hit points if both warding circles are intact. This healing cannot repair a destroyed circle, however.
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Ninlil is resilient at first but eventually wheezes from the bludgeoning, and asks someone to use her wand on her. As time rapidly passes, she'll also re-use the wand of Mage Armor on herself and Snaggletooth.
She shakes her head at Alden. "While he may not traffic in divine energies the way that some others, do, my god would not be pleased with me should I cast such evil magic. However, if you would like to borrow my significantly less sinister wand, you are quite welcome--"
Her eyes go wide as we enter the room with the gigantic, faceted cage. "By Ranginori--how horrifying and beautiful!"
After being fully healed up,
She runs toward the prison!
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"Did you say it empowers the guardian?" Theo growls, instantly on the alert. "If its an earth guardian, maybe its under the rocks?"
He looks at the mysterious circles engraved on the floor, and the orb floating in the middle of them and shakes his head.
"The metals here..." He mutters, almost in awe. "These are some of the rarest skymetals, and here so common."
He studies one of the polyhedral facets, trying to figure out how it works. If not from brain power, at least from observation.
"Those ones there are seem to be ordered by tensile strength for a number of skymetals." He muses, pointing to one of them. "At least I think they are... horacalcum, noqual... do not recognize that one... But I think that last one there is out of order."
He shrugs slightly, clearly not sure.
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Snaggletooth studies the protective wards surrounding the orb, but the familiar can't make heads or tails of the magic circles.
Haliban, Ninlil, and Theo throw caution to the wind and set to work trying to solve the puzzle of the orb.
As they pass through the first, their senses experience a disorienting distortion around the orb. Nothing seems to happen, as they pass through the second ward, but as they pass the third, Ninlil and Theo are shaken, their minds filled with the fear of being buried alive. It's far worse for Theo, though, as the dwarf begins suffocating.
When the character fails one of these Constitution checks, she begins to suffocate. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hit points). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she suffocates.
They notice no additional challenges as they pass through the fourth and fifth magic circles.
Fighting through even the worst of the wards' effects, the trio reach the massive orb, only to realize that their efforts are hampered by some sort of distortion, making their attempts to solve the puzzle significantly more difficult.
Haliban and Ninlil succeed, beginning to solve some of the orb's facets representing some extraplanar truth, elemental koan, symbolic meaning within a facet’s mineral composition, or any number of other esoteric aspects, but Theo's attempt falls short.
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Urien studies the series of circles for a long moment before saying in an almost lecturing voice as he gestures to the circles he is referring to.
It's a warding matrix of circles. Those two circles enhance the others, allowing them greater endurance and restoring them if damaged - fortunately, they aren't linked to each other and are likely the best weak point for trying to dismantle this matrix. That circle there appears to be linked to entities - likely guarding creatures, so we should be wary of whatever may be in the area ; they are likely more potent until that circle is disabled. The circle there appears to be designed to muddle and confuse cognition, likely an effort to disrupt attempts to deal with the circles the way one would a magical trap. The final circle appears to be some sort of inverted spirit trap, projecting the essence of someone buried alive to project terror into those who enter the influence of the circle.
I'd recommend that we attempt to deal with the two warding circles first, but given that the bolstering circle appears tied to enhancing guarding creatures I'd imagine that as soon as we attempt to physically break or disable them magically the guardians are likely to try to interfere.
Urien pauses and then looks both surprised and thoughtful.
Those correspondence courses were more useful than I thought!
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Hector strikes the first of the series of concentric arcane circles, each a rune-carved solid ring of gemstone inlaid in the ground.
The gemstones comprising the magic circle are so hard, the jarring blow rattles the swashbuckler's arm to the elbow. The ward is undamaged.
The party turns to face Alden, wondering if the hellknight can offer any assistance.
Urien informs the team about the nature of the magic circles:
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The fortress responds to your intrusion by disgorging construct guardians from the walls to fend off the Pathfinders. Two mineral monstrosities emerge from the walls to defend the shattered sanctum. Each of the creatures has the head of a carnivorous dinosaur, an homage to Ayrzul’s sacred animal.
The pink one appears out of the south wall, a horrific humanoid figure, a mass of calcified bones and skulls tied together with slick ropes of sinewy crystal.
The red one appears out of the north wall, a jackal-headed, brightly painted clay statue, animated and lurching forward, hefting a wickedly hooked sword.
(Misfortune curse)
(+2 underground, +4 mountains)
(+2 underground, +4 mountains)
Hector
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Pink ??
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Fairbeaks
Haliban
Urien
Ninlil
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Red ??
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Alden
Snaggletooth
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Pressing obligations at home weighing on his mind, Hector hesitates.
The large pink horrific humanoid figure of calcified bones and skulls hurls some of its bones at the swashbuckler-oracle. The bones clatter against Hector and magically duplicate, forming a cage surrounding the ifrit. Then the creature shambles forth from the south wall, and when it gets within 10ft of Hector, it halts, cracking the calcified knuckles on its massive fists.
Hector
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Pink ??
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Haliban
Urien
Ninlil
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Red ??
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Alden
Snaggletooth
Theo
Fairbeaks
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Sometimes I hate that I'm so often right... Urien mutters mostly to himself as the guardian creatures emerge.
He glances at them, attempting to discern what manner of creatures this place has used for guardians and then abruptly realizes he's standing by himself, having been so lost in thought about the intricacies of the balance necessary in arcane forces to maintain the circles he didn't even notice everyone else moving towards the center.
The magic raises them up, but Pathfinders can bring them down! Urien exhorts dramatically as he moves out of entrancce. Then he glances at Hector with a frown adding libertus in a lower tone.
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Ninlil recognizes both creatures and recalls a few important details about them. She casts haste on those of the team within her reach.
Haliban studies the large pink creature and looses a handful of blunt arrows at it. All but the last find the target, bludgeoning the horrific construct in rapid succession.
Unsure what the red creatures is, Urien does recognize the large pink thing. The flame dancer starts singing a dirty limerick about blood and bones, gems and stones, inspiring the team with his voice. Seeing Hector confined within a strange cage of magical bones, the bard casts liberating command on the swashbuckler, doing what he can to help Hector escape his bone prison.
A character who has no air to breathe can hold her breath for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. If a character takes a standard or full-round action, the remaining duration that the character can hold her breath is reduced by 1 round. After this period of time, the character must make a DC10 Constitution check in order to continue holding her breath. The check must be repeated each round, with the DC increasing by +1 for each previous success.
When the character fails one of these Constitution checks, she begins to suffocate. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hit points). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she suffocates.
Hector
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Pink ??
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Haliban
Urien
Ninlil
Snaggletooth
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Red ??
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Alden
Theo
Fairbeaks
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Theo struggles to take in a breath, nearly overcome by the terror of being buried alive!
Fortunately, his condition does not jibe with his visual surroundings, and with a concerted effort he is finally able to suck in a breath full of air with a loud gasp.
He swears loudly in Tien, then closes with the giant bony thing with a scowl, bringing his tetsubo out and slamming it into the thing as hard as he can.
, for damage.
As he moves, he calls to Fairbeaks, pointing back towards the other creature.
, for an additional damage.
Fairbeaks, always eager for battle, gives an excited squawk as he breaks into sudden motion, charging across the stones towards the second construct.
, (magic)