[Outpost II 2019] 5-11 Library of the Lion [1-5] (Inactive)

Game Master hiyami

Tok moves around the group to the far side of the book swarm and slashes at it.
sickle: 1d20 ⇒ 8
slashing damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Xavier takes a step away from the swarm, and draws his rapier. To fix his injuries, he taps himself with his Cure Light Wounds wand.

5-foot step away, drawing rapier, CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Angry Magic Tree's axe slices through the cloud of books, cutting through the spines of two and smashing a few into the ground where they make feeble attempts to lift up again before quelling into stillness. Xavier heals himself as Ilathor sadly lights a torch. Tok unfortunately misses, and the swarm is quick to take revenge!

The mass of books advance, buffeting both Angry Magic Tree and Tok!

The bolded may act.
---Round 3---
Yates
Waze

---Round 4---
Ilathor
Tok Taket 3 pts of damage
Xavier 3 pts of damage
Angry Magic Tree 3 pts of damage
Books! Augh! 6 pts of damage

Ilathor sighs at the impending tragedy as he goes to pluck a wand from his sleeve before it hits him. Bah! This will be useless against them! Instead, he pulls out a torch from his bag and begins to light it. "We have no choice but to quell this mass uprising of arboreal specters!" he cries. "Our greatest fears have become manifest, fire will be our surest ally in putting this down."

Yates gives a jerk in surprise to Ilathor's comments, throwing off his aim even further. "Wait, WHAT? You're actually advocating we BURN them? Even when there might be valuable information in them? Is there not a better way to handle them? If these are truly spirits then how can we ensure they don't take up new books after we destroy these?"

Peeved, Yates takes a second to Focus on his scarf, the thing was well designed and sturdy if he just tried using it this way and then that way it would almost match the abilities of a well crafted weapon, if not one that had been enchanted! His plan of action confirmed, Yates lashes back out at the swarm one more time.

Taking a swift action to use Transformative Resonance adding a +1 enchanment bonus to his attack and damage rolls

Ilathor rolls his eyes. "I don't want to burn the books, but they are currently eviscerating our companions. While it is likely a deserved outcome, we need them for the rest of our mission," he explains. With his torch lit, he steps up to the books gnawing on Angry Magic Tree and does his best to singe their covers with a single tear rolling down his face.
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Torch vs Swarm: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 181 = 1

”Fire? No fire? Wait! Got!” Angry Magic Tree mumbles through his excitement. Moving out of the bookstorm, he nudges Tok with a foot and forcefully says, ”Move!” as he holds a green vial ready.

Move action to draw acid flask, 5 ft step left, readied action to throw. On mobile - can someone grab the token?

Token moved!

Sadly they didn't want to use fire. Waze doesn't pull out his nice wand, nor an alchemist's fire. He simply waits with his acid flask in hands until everybody can be out of the swarm.

Between the fire and the improvised scarf, the swarm looks decidedly diminished. The party might not even need two vials of mischief to take 'em out!

The bolded may act.

---Round 4---
Ilathor
Tok Taket 3 pts of damage
Xavier 3 pts of damage
Angry Magic Tree 3 pts of damage
Books! Augh! 14 pts of damage
Yates
Waze

"Finally, something I can hit." Xavier attacks with his rapier.

Rapier: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9, 1d4 ⇒ 1

After swinging, Xavier looks mildly frustrated. "Well, maybe not."

Tok slips out of the way if the book swarm, past his team mates, puts away his sickle, then draws his short bow.

As soon as Tok is out of the way, Angry Magic Tree tosses her flask, landing a decisive blow against the book swarm. The books fall to the ground in quite the mess. There are mangled spines, pages that were torn from the books, and dogeared pages. Needless to say, if anyone were to encounter the remnants of the books, it would likely be obvious someone had been there.

Combat over! Sorry for the delay - testing and grading for school. @_@

Yates gives a shudder over the poor remains of the books, the pitifully broken spines, the irrevocably torn pages, and... and... and the dogears! Oh, the horrendous dogearing!

"We can't leave these poor things in this state! If nothing else they need to see a proper book binder! The torn pages can probably be repaired and the spines redone, but ther e's not much we can do about the dogearing. I shoud have some some room in my bag for most of them, but I might not be able to carry all of them."

The periphery of Ilathor's vision starts to fade as he starts to process the horrific condition of the books. "I'm... I'm going to be ill," he declares before bolting out of the room and sitting with his back to the cool wall.

After a few moments of deep breathing, he speaks up. "Yates is correct that we must do something, though I suspect our equipment will be inspected upon our departure."

Just out of curiosity... Has anyone got the mending spell? o:

I have mending! It takes 10 minutes a casting though...

Well, how long does it take to do some research? Stinks to lose Ilathor's research expertise, but perhaps the clues we've uncovered can help us make up the difference while he covers our tracks!

I can do the search during this time. You too by the way. But we have to clean up the damage here.

Waze tries to find out something here.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

After a few moments of deep breathing, he speaks up. "Yates is correct that we must do something, though I suspect our equipment will be inspected upon our departure."

Yates purses his lips at the observation, nodding slowly. "And their abscence might raise an eyebrow or two. Tell you what, I'm pretty good at making things look like they haven't been broken, many years of fixing things that I accidentally broke or I might get blamed for breaking. However, it does take some time. You guys keep searching and I'll handle this!"

Yates also has mending, just in case he used the wrong thing in his pack for a weapon, and his skills aren't the highest for this. He'll take the 10 minutes to fix them up.

"Fantastic!" Ilathor cheers. And now I don't have to waste time that could be spent reading to clean up the dogearing-bird's mess! With the matter resolved, he leaves the group for the next room in need of it's knowledge to be dredged from the depths of obscurity.
________
If we think it will take more than one casting of Mending, Ilathor will remain behind to help Yates if he asks him. Is there a room on this level that we haven't searched (besides the lady's room)? Did someone find a hidden lever/button (or something) or am I having meta thoughts about the blocked out parts of the map?

"Downstairs is the only place left to search now."
Tok straightens out his feathers, adjusts his gear and tosses the keys to the book cabinet to Yates. He heads for the stairs and takes his time to check around for any traps or other pitfalls.

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, I've been sick.

Xavier seems mildly confused by the frustration over the state of the books. He seems to refocus with Tok's suggestion. "Yes... yes, lets check downstairs." He follows behind him, as Tok checks for traps and such.

I remember you that we discovered a secret door over there.

"Oh! Right you are, Waze! Tok, I found a secret door and a projectile trap on the desk. Can you take a look at it?" He leads Tok over to the desk.

"Right, you got it."
Tok follows Xavier to the trap, pulls his tools out of the depths of his vest, and gets to work.
disable device: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Sorry for the extra delay today, folks! A family friend's was stranded at an airport one state over, so we ended up driving for... about six hours and rescuin' him for the weekend until the airlines can untangle the mess. Xavier, I hope you feel better soon!

Searching through the room, Waze finds some journals relevant to the Shining Crusade. These entries appear to have been written from generals of the time. Ilathor and Yates work to correcting the sad state of the books as the Wayang searches, bringing the texts to some semblance of their former selves. As avid readers, they might notice that the books are decidedly more battered than their neighbors, though they're certainly not as devastated as they were when they first began their work.

Tok carefully sets to work disassembling the trap. There's a brief moment where he thinks he's about to take the projectile to the face, but a deft twist of the hand saves him from a painful looking fate. Opening the trap door reveals a corridor beyond it, but perhaps there might still be some useful information here...?

Time Remaining: 67.5/120

During the time passed by Tok to disable the device, the wizard searches once again through the room.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Angry Magic Tree helps Waze look around for interesting books, panting slightly from the effort of the battle earlier.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

"Looks like we are done here," Ilathor rubs his hands together and leaves Yates to whatever it is that Yates does. Heading down the hallway, he goes into the latest room. Once Tok gives the go-ahead about the corridor, he runs down the recently revealed area. A SECRET ROOM IN THE SECRET LIBRARY?! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!
________
Basically, once Tok either starts walking down or gives it a look over, Ilathor is going to blitz into the next room in the name of hidden knowledge.

Tok peers down the hallway.
perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Although Waze and Angry Magic Tree poke around to make sure they've gotten all of the relevant information, they find little in the way of further clues. Rather, they find two different glass containers in the desk, one a strange grey color and the other a shimmering blue.

They could be potentially useful - but their absence might also raise questions.

Tok barely has a chance to glance down the corridor to yet another door before Ilathor makes a rush for it, clothes more or less flapping in the nonexistant wind. Pushing the door open, he sees that cabinets with two tall drawers each line the east and west walls of the room. A relief carving of a lion's head dominates the south wall, hanging imperiously over a low stone step. Six freestanding statuettes of lions in various poses stand atop the furniture.

Time Remaining: 62.5/120

So many lions! Makes sense, they are a traditionally regal creature, but they are getting quite overused thematically in this library. Before stepping into the next room, and to give his robes a break from all that flapping, he quickly scans it for magic. Wonder if any of the things in here would make for a suitable vessel for our lion friend in the central room.
________
Perception (Traps? Vessels? Idk?: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Spellcraft?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24 +2 vs a magic item
If no magic is detected, he walks right in and begins researching. If the lion is magical, he will attempt to speak to it.

Tok follows behind Ilathor and let's him check out the situation.

We must let these potions here. Otherwise their disappearance will proof that someone came here.

Then let's see where the secret door guide them.

While waking past them, Xavier tries to get the attention of the various lion statues.
Assuming they don't respond.
"Well, I would have thought the lack of a talking lion head would have given that away."

Sorry about that! The family emergency appears to be over. @_@

Quickly going over the room for traps, Ilathor finds that the large lion carving is sylistically similar to the Guardian, but conceals what appears to be a secret door. He doesn't think the statuettes would work and the carving itself seems impractical to carry. There's a stone step below the door that has four shallow, cylindrical recesses that are the same size as the base on each of the six freestanding statuettes scattered about the room.

Each miniature lion is portrayed uniquely. One crouches as if preparing to ambush its prey! The second is roaring as it leaps at its target and the third wears a yoke that is chained to a large block that the lion strains to pull. The fourth wears what appears to be a tiny pair of spectacles and reads from an ornate scroll. The fifth is draped in the flag of Taldor and the sixth sits erect and wears a crown.

Yates stubles into the room after everyone having tried to make sure that everything was organized and in order back in the previous room. He gives a longing look at the potions curious as to what they might be.

Entering the new hidden room, he gives a good look around and settles on the statues. "Oh, a puzzle! Perfect! This library is dedicated to the Blades, right? Then I propose, obvious though it may be, we are supposed to choose the four statues representing the values and ethics of the Blades. The lion with the flag and the lion with the spectacles might be ones we should use but I can't quite remember the creed..."

"Good thinking Yates."
Tok moves the statue with the flag into one of the grooves.

A puzzle, but of course! "With four recesses and five statues, it appears we must choose the odd one out... I say it is the one with the yoke! Shall we try putting the rest in?" Ilathor suggests.
________
If that doesn't work Ilathor will begin to lose interest and start gravitating towards any books in the room.

Don't forget to place yourselves in the room. c: Positioning is important!

The wizard has an idea. He gives it through the corridor: I think there is a right order to position the statues. Did we find something to help us to place them in the right order? What does each one symbolize?

Angry Magic Tree eagerly begins pushing at the statue with spectacles. "Didn't we see some writing on the wall or floor or ceiling or somewhere as we came down here?" she asks, hardly breaking a sweat.

There were some words: "The keenest eyes cannot see everything. Always remember to see the big picture." But what is the big picture?

From post Mar 21 2019, 05.05pm

Xavier notices AMT pushing the statue with the spectacles, and goes towards the one roaring and leaping. "Yes... yes, the one with the yoke being the odd one makes sense. The other ones all show confidence and power, while that one seems to be controlled. Although I'm not sure..."

Tok takes off as fast as he can run to the northwest room and stops at the door. He uses all his concentration and skill into opening the door as quietly as possible to not alert the woman...
stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13
and runs up to see what the inscription on the portrait is.

I think they are different rooms, so no need to risk alerting the caretaker?

That is how I understand it as well.

Oh hahaha makes sense, got the rooms mixed up.

After seeing what the inscription says Tok heads back to the room.
"So what order are we putting these statues in?"

The answers coming from the wizard: I says 4 - 1 - 3 - 5

As I wrote in my post in the discussion's list, Wed, Apr 24, 2019, 06:42 pm