Outpost II: Dungeon Master S's "Debt to the Quah" [Classic] (Inactive)

Game Master Chris Marsh

Victor, ignoring the spiritual melee around him, moves over to Bulgulp, as requested.

Double move.

Victor brings the weapon over. Bulgulp, ready for it, takes the weapon and places it on the the stele. Immediately some of the Shoanti spirits suddenly find themselves armed with earth breakers!

Round 1:
Alexandre: Retrieve klar
Gbagbe: Retrieve bow
Haunt: ATK!
Zyneste: Go
Eddard: Go
Victor: Move
Bulgulp: Take and replace

Weapons Returned: Earth Breaker

Okay, wait, so Alexandre has the klar and Bulgulp has placed the earthbreaker that was in the bag...?

Zyneste rushes over to Victor and grabs the bolas from out of his bag.

That leaves a bow in the bag after Zynaste.

Zynaste grabs the third weapon out of the bag. Remember the room is completely difficult terrain.

Round 1:
Alexandre: Retrieve klar
Gbagbe: Retrieve bow
Haunt: ATK!
Zyneste: Move and grab.
Eddard: Go
Victor: Move
Bulgulp: Take and replace

Round 2:
Alexandre: Go
Gbagbe: Go
Haunt: TBD
Zyneste: TBD
Eddard: TBD
Victor: TBD
Bulgulp: TBD

Weapons Returned: Earth Breaker

@Eddard Gbagbe and Alexandre grabbed the bow and the klar respectively. You moved up to the bag and looked inside to see the bola and earth breaker. Victor then moved to me and I took and placed the earth breaker, then Zyneste moved to Victor and grabbed the bola.

I believe that is the correct order of actions this far

DM - I didn’t account for the difficult terrain in my actions last round, so I’ll need to use a move action this round to make it all the way to the stela, and then my second move action to place the bow on it.

Also, is there more than one bow to be placed? Gbagbe grabbed what I thought was “the bow” in the bag, but in your last post you say there’s one remaining in the bag. Do we need to place another one?

Gbagbe continues his slow way across the chamber, reaching the stela and carefully setting the bow in its proper place! He turns to see if his actions have had any effect on the supernatural battle raging around the room!

No, I think the posting times and rates got things a bit confused. Let me try to sort it out below:

Gbagbe trudges along and places the bow. Suddenly Shoanti spirits are armed with bows too!

Round 1:
Alexandre: Retrieve [color=red]klar[/color]
Gbagbe: Retrieve [color=red]bow[/color]
Haunt: ATK!
Zyneste: Move and grab [color=red]bolas[/color]
Eddard: Go
Victor: Move
Bulgulp: Take and replace

Round 2:
Alexandre: Go
Gbagbe: Place [color=red]bow[/color]
Haunt: TBD
Zyneste: TBD
Eddard: TBD
Victor: TBD
Bulgulp: TBD

Weapons Returned: Bow, Earth Breaker

Eddard moves over to the doorway near the spot for the klar, ready to cover Alexandre...or make a break for it, if needed.

Double move.

Gritting through the pain of the ghostly assualt, Alexandre pushes through the morass to place the klar figurine he has on it's corresponding stelae.

Move
Move action - place klar

Alexandre drops the klar into place and as before more of the Shoanti spirits seem armed. Just in the nick of time, as the Chelish bear down yet again.
1d6 ⇒ 21d5 ⇒ 41d4 ⇒ 4

The tide of the spiritual battle begins to turn!

Alexandre: Safe
Gbagbe: Safe
Zyneste: Safe
Spirits v. Eddard: 1d20 + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (18) + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 = 25 for DMG if hit: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Spirits v. Victor: 1d20 + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 = 20 for DMG if hit: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9
Spirits v. Bulgulp: 1d20 + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 13 - 2 - 2 - 2 = 23 for DMG if hit: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Round 2:
Alexandre: Place klar
Gbagbe: Place bow
Haunt: ATK
Zyneste (Holding bolas): Go
Eddard: Go
Victor: Go
Bulgulp: Go

Weapons Returned: Bow, Earth Breaker, klar

double move to besides Eddard

Do you want to check that door to see if it's unlocked?

Strictly speaking, this room is still haunted...

Zyneste, casting her mind back to her days a child running through her parent's fields chasing rabbits, takes a breath and rushes to place the bolas.

Spend 1 ki to increase movement by 20' to 70'/round. Move and then place bolas.

When the final weapon is replaced, the entire side of Shoanti becomes armed. It takes their spirits only a matter of moments to lay waste to the Chelish. The recess in the middle of the room slowly fills with crystal clear water.

A sense of peace settles over the room.

Eddard reels as the Shoanti spirits treat him like invading Chelaxians. As the haunt fades away, he finds himself on the ground, curled up. Bouncing back to his feet, he runs his side with a wince. Never been beaten up by ghosts before, he says aloud. Can't say I'm a fan.

His wits returned, he looks at the door by his side.
Perception (+2 for traps with trap spotter): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

The door seems completely safe, so he opens it carefully. Clay statues line the walls of this claustrophobic hallway.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26.

Victor nods thoughtfully.

"At the base of each statue is a symbol of an animal and a name in Shoanti as follows: eagle, “Story Seeker”; horse, “Meadow Grass”; griffin, “Meditates in Sunlight”; and bat, “Tranquil Shadow.”"

Kn (local): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17 LOLOL...lesson (re)learned: take 10 where possible. ;-)

Gbagbe watches the end of the ghostly battle with fascination, cheering quietly to himself as the Shoanti triumph over their Chelish foes. With a grin on his face as if he’s just watched truly fantastic entertainment, he follows his companions to the next chamber.

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Peering at the statues a moment, he’s quiet at first, then smacks his forehead in realization, ”Whoah, look at that! The statues are arranged by generation, so as you move through the passage, it could be interpreted as moving through time. Cool.“

Bulgulp takes the lead and heads down the halls cautiously, not sure what other dangers may be waiting.

Just a reminder that I have Trap spotter (+12) in case there are any traps as I move down the hall

Bulgulp moves down the hall. Neither trap nor trick block his path. Once deemed safe, he opens the next door:

Twin staircases lead to a raised stone platform overlooking this room. Four sarcophagi occupy the lower level. The lids have been smashed open, and stones shards litter the floor here. A faint feeling of unease stifles the area. Doors exit to the north and south. The staircase to the west leads to a dead end.

The skeletons in each of the sarcophagi are intact, but the lids of the sarcophagi have been smashed, with pieces lying on the ground. It's going to be a pain, but you think you can sort through the pieces to organize the lids (and fix them with the stone), but the question will be... which lid with which sarcophagus?

"The hallway appears to be safe from traps, Im not sure what these statues are meant to look like but should we check them for damage in case we can repair them while we are here?

The statues in the hallway look like they're in good condition (which is definitely not the case for the sarcophagi.)

Gbagbe hops into the room beside his fellow grippli, thinking aloud as he moves, "Okay, if we need to put the smashed lids back together, how do we figure out which pieces go with which sarcophagus? Simset's notes don't say enough about this, just that he broke some coffins and found no treasure." He sets to studying the shards with care for any indication of which ones go together.

Any checks we can do here? Or are there more clues to come to solve this puzzle? I'm guessing there's some relationship between statues and sarcophagi, but we don't have much info on the broken lids at this point.

Until you test drive the stone on them, there isn't much you can do. Once someone commits (and updates the map) I can reveal more.

"In that case, would it not make sense to re-assemble the lids, to see if additional clues are revealed?"

Victor then moves to do precisely that.

Eddard moves up to the edge of the steps to study what he sees.

Take 10 on Perception for 17, 19 if trapped.

Alexandre walks into the room after listening to the others discuss the statues. "I think I'm glad that Simset couldn't take the statues. 4 statues and 4 sarcophagi... I'm guessing that these are Story Seeker, Meadow Green, Tranquil Shadow, and Meditates in Sunlight and either the sarcophagi or the lids are marked with their chosen animal, hopefully both. " He looks up to the raised platform. "Want to bet that being up there makes things more apparent, but triggers another spiritual attack?"

After a moment, he pauses for a second. "Actually, we should double check to see if the statues were moved. Simset may have tried to lug them around and shoved them back in without a care of order."

Bulgulp moves into the room, expecting some sort of danger to jump out at the party any time. He realises he doesn't really like tombs and would much rather be outside and above ground.

Zyneste moves into the room, arrow raised in case danger is present. She casts her eyes over the stones and helps put them together if needed.

Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (5) + 15 = 20

Carefully the party gathers round, alert for danger. With the pieces assembled, it's a simple matter to use the Scavenger's Stone to rebuild the lids.

Indeed, after a couple of minutes, the solution does seem rather obvious. The sarcophagi are arranged in chronological order of the interred, with the following years on a plaque on the base of each in Shoanti: the first is labeled “Story Seeker 4430–4571,” the second is labeled “Meadow Grass 4457–4482,” the third is labeled “Meditates in Sunlight 4481–4565,” and the fourth is labeled “Tranquil Shadow 4595–4692.”

Which order will you put them in?

North appears to be the left of the map, yes?

Following the animals and names Victor found, and that it's a linear progression in time, I propose the following order, bottom of map to top (which should be east to west, following the path of the sun):

Eagle — Story Seeker 4430–4571
Horse — Meadow Grass 4457–4482
Griffin — Meditates in Sunlight 4481-4565
Bat — Tranquil Shadow 4595–4692

The party places the lids in the order suggested by Eddard. Immediately the sense of unease in this room melts away and is replaced with a feeling of tranquility!

Victor nods.

"Our work in this chamber appears to be done. Let's move on."

He then heads to the next area.

Need map updated and direction chosen.

There is a problem at my end - I can't move tokens around on the map, for some reason. My intention is to go through the door on the other side of the current room.

As Eddard puzzles out the order of the sarcophagi, Gbagbe moves up as if to help sort the logic of it. He's immediately distracted by observing the ratfolk's careful cogitations and, rather than helping solve the puzzle, Gbagbe just stares at Eddard as he thinks. The grippli's gaze is surprisingly intense, as if he's peering into Eddard's mind as it works and finds it truly fascinating.

"Wow, that was amazing..." Gbagbe says quietly to himself, absently helping out with the Scavenger's Stone when asked to do so. When the feeling of unease fades from the room, he looks around as if startled and says, "Oh, we did it! Guess I was busy watching Eddard's brain work. Really fascinating stuff."

I lined us all up on the map by the door that Victor had in mind, with our two trap-spotting types closest to the door.

The door seems safe, so on the party pushes. The large table at the center of this room is its only significant characteristic.

Bulgulp cautiously moves in and inspects the room and the table.

Take 10 for a 21 Perception

Zyneste, arrow in hand, moves in to search the room with Bulgulp.

Take 10 for 25 on Perception.

"Okay, according to Simset's notes, He just referred to this room as a dead end," Alexandre says as he follows the others to the doorway of the room, looking over the papers that the Venture-Captain gave the group. "And then he discusses returning to the room that the ghostly Shaonti army was in and going through the other door. So, outside of checking to see if there was some looting that wasn't mentioned, I don't think we have much to do here."

For completeness sake, Victor glances around the room...

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32.

...and then heads for the next door.

Bulgulp nods at Victor and Zyneste confident their efforts to search the room have been thorough and then move to the other door back in the chamber with the pool.

Gbagbe nods along as Alexandre studies the reckless Pathfinder's notes and their companions silently gaze about the room. "Sounds good to me," he says in reply to the swashbuckling kitsune's analysis, turning to join the others as they head back the way they've come.

When they reach the room with the pool in it, Gbagbe again refers to the notes, which say something about 'water gone', then checks to see if there is still water in the pool.

After looking around, the party can't help but agree that this room is, in fact, a dead end. Moving to the next door, it seems safe, so it gets opened.

Beyond is a basic room, more of a hallway than anything else... Map updated.

Bulgulp will move down the hall inspecting the small anti-chamber as he passes, still paranoid that spectral enemies lurk around every corner.

perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19

Gbagbe follows his Pathfinder buddies down the hall, consulting Simset's notes as he walks and telling the others what they say, "The notes for this next room say 'Big round room - almost fell into the pit. Took ring from skeleton but knocked everything into the pit." He considers a moment, then adds, "So look out for skeletons. And a pit."

Zyneste looks out for skeletons. And a pit!

Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (6) + 15 = 21

The antechamber and door both seem uninteresting (and undamaged thankfully), so the party enters. In the center of this circular room is a platform overlooking a shallow pit. Inside the pit is a heavily damaged sarcophagus and a broken skeleton.

Unfortunately the damage here is extensive and will require a lot of muscle to get the sarcophagus back into position as well as some time putting everything right.

Map updated.