GM Dak - Shattered Star 1

Game Master Dakcenturi

"Get them off, get them off!" Esrisi shrills loudly as runs around the room and swats at the creatures sticking to her body. Once she finally gets them off her body, she spins to address Queen Sapher. She opens her mouth to say something smart, but promptly closes it as she thinks better of her outburst.

This wasn't Sapher's fault that the paste didn't work. Relax. Take a deep breath.

After ensuring there are no more visitors in her clothes, Esrisi takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly with her eyes closed. Clearing her throat and turning to address her companions "Well done everyone. Mokhasi, excellent spell execution. Sapher and Veltariel, well thrown flasks."

She checks herself for bugs once more.

Sapher looks a little cross with herself "I kind of thought the bugs would be so repelled by the smell that they'd recoil. Not just go around me." shaking her head at her own ignorance, and nods in agreement to Ez's praise, of Mok and Vels at least. "Is everyone okay?"

"Better to just put it over all of our clothes." Drask suggests. "Well maybe that's the last of them." He says with a shrug. "Aye, let's keep moving."

Veltariel plucks centipede after centipede from her body, seeming to find one clinging to her everywhere. She pries one still wriggling ones jaws from her midriff as Esrisi’s gives her a compliment, eliciting a blush from the archer. ”Thanks, Es...”

She steps over to Esrisi and asks her ”Mind checking me for more? I’ll return the favor.”

Esrisi smiles when Vel takes the compliment. "You're welcome!" she beams. See? This is exactly what we need. Friendliness!

She holds her smile while she figures out how to best address Veltariel's question before it looks awkward. "Uhh. Yes, good idea.
Can't be too safe. Don't want any of those things causing problems later on. Right?"

She moves over to Veltariel and lightly brushes her back off twice before proclaiming "Looks good to me. I don't see any." When Veltariel turns to Esrisi she steps back and holds up her hand as she says "You know what? I think I'm good. I checked myself pretty thoroughly. What we need is magical cleansing!"

Turning her back to Veltariel and looking to their arcanist she asks "Mokhasi, did you prepare that cleaning magic by chance? I'm sure that will be the most efficient method of cleaning up?"

Veltariel sighs, but when Esrisi turns her back to her, she reaches out at the base of her neck, letting the centipede she still had tucked away in her hand dance briefly along her neck before she pulls it away and holds it up in front of Esrisi.

”Thanks, but I’m not so sure you got them all...You sure you don’t want me to check?”
__________
Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Bluff: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22

Perception to see sneaky elf: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Sense Motive devious elf: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Of course.

Esrisi's body goes rigid as the centipede tickles her neck. She lets out a brief gasp as she slaps away at the spot it was in.

Eyes wide and completely unaware of the fool she is being played for, she searches her body for more of them before turning to Veltariel and nodding several times in rapid succession. "Yes. Please. Get them off!"

Veltariel performs a very thorough check for more centipedes on Esrisi, her hands sometimes lingering a bit long at times. Eventually, though, as her hands slide up Esrisi’s legs, ribs, and back, she says breathily to Esrisi, ”Okay...I think you’re good,” as her own heart races in her chest.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Drask wasn't paying enough attention to pick up anything between the ladies, alas for him.

While anxious to get them off of her at first, halfway through the search Esrisi's mind finally connects the dots on how she found herself with Veltariel's hands on her body. Quick! Think of something unrelated, far away from here. She tries to imagine something else other than Veltariel's hands and centipedes. Find your happy spot!

Closing her eyes she starts to visualize some of her favorite things. Lemon cakes. Candied apples. Blueberry pie.

When a hand lingers on her legs longer than she feels is necessary, her thoughts quickly change. Alcohol. Lots of alcohol. NO! Stupid alcohol got you into this mess! No more alcohol!

When the search concludes she asks cautiously, stuttering at first "N-No more? That's wonderful. Thank you."

Scooting away from Veltariel, she speaks louder than she needs to and announces "Ok! Let's go do that thing! Let's go, uhm, go find the shard! Onward Pathfinders!"

Where to? There is the hallway leading north and the stairs back in the other room leading down.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Knowing that there is still unexplored areas on this floor, Esrisi quickly moves forward into the northern room putting as much distance between her an the centipedes as possible. She announces "We need to check this area out before we go down again."

The hallway to the north continues on for some way, just at the edge of what Es can see she start to see heavy webbing on the floor and walls to the north. The hallway also splits back to the west just a short way in.

She tries to imagine something else other than Veltariel's hands and centipedes. Find your happy spot!

Don't worry, I'm sure Vel will find your happy spot.

Don't worry, I'm sure Vel will find your happy spot.

..................... There are not enough periods I can put on this line to represent my response to this statement.

Esrisi calls a halt, holding her hand up. She backs up and retreats to her party, watching the hallway as she does so. "About time for that magical armor now Mokhasi, there is spider webbing up ahead to the north."

Channel Energy: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 5) = 6
Calling forth the power of her goddess, Caroliss heals her allies of most of their wounds from the swarm attack.

"Ugh, that vermin repellent failed so miserably!" complains Caroliss, who still stinks of the useless substance. "I'm going back to that snake oil salesman and demanding a refund! Hold on, let me get this stuff off."

She starts gesturing, trying out some magic she had prepared this morning just for this occasion. "Come on, come on, why won't this work?" It seems she still hasn't quite figured it out yet. "Ugh, I'm going to deal with this later."

Looking up from her own concerns, she looks at how friendly Ez and Vel have become as they deal with the lingering centipedes. She whispers to Esrisi. "Wow, I don't know what you said to her, but Vel is really a changed elf! It's like the two of you are best friends! I always knew you were the charmer, and you've really proved it this time."

Esrisi turns to face Caroliss, trying to decide how to best answer her friend. She decides that everything is fine and it things will eventually plateau and Veltariel's behavior will normalize. Besides, it's not lying if she believes it herself, right?

Lowering her voice to a whisper "Don't be silly! YOU'RE my best friend Cars! Oh and yeah, I really did I this time, didn't I?! It's nice, isn't it? No more infighting. Working together a as a team? This is what being a Pathfinder is all about. Building trust and relationships?"

Esrisi remembers what Veltariel gave her and she adds "Remind me to show you what she gave me last night! You'll never believe it!"

Mokhasi watches the exchange and casts prestidigitation on the assembled party members to tidy everyone up. He will then cast detect magic on his surroundings.

He nods at Esrisi and uses the party wand on her when the webs are spotted.

He does not speak, otherwise, beyond the verbal components of his spells, but his manner is not unfriendly.

Sapher simply shakes her head, muttering something about not understanding big folk and their strange courtship rituals at ALL.

Killing spiders though, that she understands, drawing her hammer, and once the others are ready she advance toward the webbed hallway, doing her best not to step on anything that looks like she'd stick to. And hopefully for monsters and traps.

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

Ez thanks Mokhasi for the cleaning and then again for the armored protection. She offers a curtsy to him with a big smile. "Thank you master arcanist! Your services are greatly appreciated!"

She moves up behind Sapher. She whispers "I'm right behind you, please don't splat me with your hammer."

"No splatting, got it." Sapher whispers back without looking, taking it for granted the thing sounding like Ez is Ez and not a voice mimicking spider sounding like Ez.

Before they advance, Mokhasi whispers to Sapher, "A moment aside, please, when you find it convenient, and we can speak quietly. If you can get Drask too, and only him, it would be good. We must confer."

As this is not an especially good time, he will wait until later.

"Sure Mok" Sapher responds. While she is not happy with sneaking around, she hopes a talk will help whatever is going on.

Drask raises an eyebrow, but shrugs and steps aside. He had learned long ago to put a little faith in the smart ones of the group, as they usually ended up solving problems he didn't even know existed.

Sapher advances as the others follow behind. This wide hall is lined with pillars, between which hang thick sheets of webbing. These do not seem to be the older, dusty cobwebs of the corridors, but rather fresh webs. The brittle carcasses of several albino crickets the size of small dogs hang among the tangle. It appears there are four passageways that split off from the main room two to the east and two to the west.

If you can tell the difference in the flooring, all this area ahead is considered difficult terrain.

"Ez, many paths here. Would you mind doing a quick look at each to see which would be best for us?" Sapher whispers to the tall woman behind her, making sure to lower her hammer first, to avoid accidental splatting. "Vels, Cars, would you mind keeping an ear out for her while I attend to something else quickly."

If Ez agrees and there is not too much of a fuss from the other two, she'll pull Mok to the side, tilting her head to Drak to step away with them for a moment. Before either have a chance to speak, she'll start "No I have no idea what is going on with those two, but it is a sure fire better thing than throwing fists at each other in the middle of the street."

Esrisi nods her head in acknowledgement to the dwarf, slipping ahead into the tunnel to the west first. "Sure thing." she says, slowly moving ahead and searching for trouble (while simultaneously pretending to not stare at the dog-sized carcasses all around her)

Mokhasi waits until the others are minding the reconnaissance, and he whispers to Sapher and Drask "we are all pleased that everyone seems to be working well together, but you should both know that there may be magic at play. As in, enchantment magic. One, we do not know the side effects, and if it was Esrisi's hand in this, we can expect there to be unintended consequences. Two, Veltariel's mind may have been stolen from her - if she were ever to find out, she would likely kill Esrisi. I can think of few more egregious violations to her person. Thoughts on how to proceed?" Mokhasi attempts to say this quickly, and in as low of a tone as is possible.

Sapher's mouth hangs open as Mok's words make their way into her head. "No... oh dear sweet No..." forcing her voice lower "We can't, we're in the middle of a ..." she stops, first tightening on her hammer's shaft "But we can't Can't! That... that's an abomination. That's..." she takes a deep breath, trying to calm her temper "We have to talk to them. Now... as soon as Ez gets back. Maybe back in the kitchens. Hopefully you're wrong about what it might be and we can get back to hunting for this Thing. But if not..." she shakes her head not wanting to think where that might lead.

Caroliss listens for trouble as Esrisi scouts ahead. She doesn't listen all that carefully, though. Instead, she chats with Vel.

"It's really great that you and Esrisi have made amends. She can be a bit oblivious about others at times, but she really does mean well."

As the others talk and Es advances into the room she suddenly feels like eyes, multiple sets of lots of eyes are watching her, when she finally notices over-sized spiders moving in the webs towards her.

The spiders swarm toward Es. One launches a bolt of webbing at her while two more, noticing Vel and Caroliss just down the hall do the same toward them.

RT-Es: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
RT-Vel: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
RT-Caroliss: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Somehow Es manages to avoid being caught in the webbing but Vel and Caroliss aren't as lucky as the webs anchor them down making it difficult to move.

Anyone hit with webbing is entangled. DC12 for escape artist or STR to get free.

Round 1
Enemy, > Es/Drask/Vel/Mok/Caroliss/Sapher

Esrisi screams "SAPH-PHER! IT'S HAMMER TIME!" as she barely manages to avoid the webbing launched at her. Stepping up to the nearest spider, she punches it in the eyes and then tries to follow it up with a roundhouse to the body.

Looking back she shouts again "Uhhh, guys? Could I get some help in here? There are five big spiders in here staring at me with a million eyes and I don't think they want to eat me!"

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Hearing the commotion, Sapher kicks herself for getting distracted, no matter the reason. She charges the battle to only to get slowed down by the sticky webbing.

Was going to charge but then remembered it was difficult terrain, so just moved.

Veltariel smiles politely at Caroliss. ”It would seem we’ve turned a corner and actually seem to have a lot in common, but I think that she and I...” she is interrupted by thick strands of webbing hitting her and snaring her arms and legs. She gasps with surprise and looks to see Esrisi in trouble at the edge of Caroliss’ light!

”Es!” she shouts as she strains against the webbing, every muscle in her body straining against it until she finally rips free and knocks an arrow.
__________
Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Es, form a line!" Drask shouts, but he is too late. With an unhappy grumble he lurches into battle, landing next to her to cover her flank.

Double move, moved on map. Not raging, and mirror image is up.

"Eww, webs!" Caroliss is not happy about being stuck, but also knows that it was more important to help her good friend who had just been surprised. A gorgeous mirror image of Esrisi appears beside her, and she feels the luck of Calistria favoring her.

Ez gets a mirror image for 3 rounds and a Bit of Luck for 1 round.

First day of school, sorry for the delay.

Hm . . . I think SLAs require concentration checks to use when entangled, like spells?

Concentration DC15 (mirror image): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Concentration DC15 (bit of luck): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

As the webbing interferes with Caroliss's magics, the momentarily beautiful mirror image of Esrisi becomes distorted and deformed, leaving a bizarre image that will fool no one!

"A line where?! There are spiders everywhere in here!" shouts in response to Drask.

Esrisi sees her image appear which makes her smile. I knew Caroliss had my back!

"THANKS!" she calls out only to see the image begin to distort and Veltariel calling out her name, which makes the oracle frown as she begins to wonder Es? Has she ever even called me Es before?

Caroliss - You said it's DC15 and your second roll is a 16. Did it not go through?

Mokhasi curses softly in elvish, and quickly moves up behind Sapher, drawing his spear. He attempts to help aid Sapher’s next attack.

longspear, aid another, AC 14 (with soft cover): 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (4) + 0 = 4

But he swings wild at the spider and does not help.

Es bashes the nearest spider pretty good, but it isn't enough to kill it. Drask moves up to get into the fight, but the webbing makes it difficult to join the others. Vel manages to burst out of the webbing through sheer strength ready to attack. Mok moves up to the edge of the webbing trying to distract the spider with his longspear but the webbing interferes and he ends up just poking at the ground. Caroliss tries to help Es but only manages to get off one of her spells making Es feel a bit more lucky. Sapher is last to join in, the sticky webbing making matters even worse for her trying to join the fight.

The spiders adjust moving away from anyone that is an immediate threat and they all shoot out more webbing to try and entangle their foes.

RT-Es: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
RT-Drask: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
RT-Sapher: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
RT-Mok: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
RT-Vel: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

While Es and Sapher manage to avoid the webs, everyone else gets bundled up again in the webbing.

Round 2
Enemy, > Es/Drask/Vel/Mok/Caroliss/Sapher

@Ez--I was casting two spells. The second spell giving you Bit of Luck goes through, but not the mirror image. You still get to roll d20s twice and keep the better result this round.

"Sorry Ez! Let me fix that illusion!"

Caroliss decides it's time to get herself out of the webbing rather than fumble around in it more. She tries to break free.
Str Check DC12: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2

And when that fails, she decides to try and fix the mirror image anyway.
Concentration Check DC15: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

This time, the mirror image looks more like Ez, except that her hair is gone. It's an unfortunate reminder of old times. "I'm trying, I really am!"

If I could have moved out of the webbing any last round I would have. Will do so again this round as much as able.

Veltariel continues straining against the webbing, trying to get clear to lend aid against the arachnids!
__________
Strength: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

"Thanks Caroliss! This one is much-" her eyes widen when her hair is missing from the image. Craning her neck around to glare at her friend she shouts "YOU FORGOT MY HAIR!" before letting her frustration out on the spider in front of her with a right jab.

If the creature doesn't go down she'll kick it as well, otherwise she'll slide over to her left and kick the next spider.

As Mok's spear slashes the air about her head, Sapher once again thanks the gods for deciding to make dwarves the proper height. A thought she keeps to herself so the big people don't get offended. Instead she steps forward and brings down her hammer on the arachnids head with a nice satisfying tha-wack.

attack with guidance: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

hitting the one to her right.

I have a mirror image up, that web may not hit me.:

Drask pushes through the webbing and moves over to destroy one of the spiders.

Rage Attack (Entangled, PA): 1d20 + 10 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 10 - 2 - 2 = 20
Rage Damage (PA): 1d8 + 8 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 8 + 6 = 15

Drask-1, Image-2: 1d2 ⇒ 2

Guess it didn't hit you

Mokhasi can’t do much while entangled, so he tries to aid Sapher again.

Still within reach of one, at least.

longspear On one right of Sapher, aid another (AC 10), entangled: 1d20 + 0 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 0 - 2 = 12

Es moves up to finish off the one spider that she had already injured while Drask, missed by the webbing as it hit his image and caused it to dissipate moves into the webs to help Es out. Vel manages to break free of the webbing once again and moves further out of the room. Mok continues to wave his longspear around in an attempt to help Sapher with her attacks against the nearest spider and it seems to actually cause a distraction this time. Caroliss struggles against the webbing but can't break free. She attempts to create another image of Es but yet again the webbing gets in the way and messes with her magic. Sapher thumps the spider in front of her with a solid blow, but the insect still seems to have some life in it.

The spiders scurry about the webbing unhindered by it and get in position to continue to entangle the rest of the group. Shooting more webbing at at those who haven't been trapped.

Sapher would get an AoO on the one near her.

RT-Es: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
RT-Drask: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
RT-Sapher: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
RT-Vel: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

Drask, Sapher, and Vel all get covered in webbing while Es, continues to be lucky in avoiding the spiders web shooting.

Round 3
Enemy, > Es/Drask/Vel/Mok/Caroliss/Sapher