GM Ietsuna's Shadow's Last Stand Part 1 - At Shadow's Door (Inactive)

Game Master Ietsuna

"You'd think if someone were here they'd be coming to investigate all that noise."

"Strange walking windows attacking us... what next? This is a strange place. And yes, with all this noise I'm surprised that our foes haven't surfaced. Unless they are watching us..." Ivan looks around suspiciously.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Btw, is Ivan still deafened?

The deafened has faded a while ago

Did we check rooms A and B?

Edwin enters the room on the east and starts looking around.

perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

ahh, i'm understanding the map a little better now.

Bennett checks over Edwin's shoulder.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

I'm pretty confused about the map. What's the area in the red box to the left?

Ivan also looks into the next room with the others to see what they may find.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

Red box to the left is downstairs below the choir loft where we are now.

This is a storage area, containing crates of supplies and equipment for the lodge.

Bennett pokes around for any leftover supplies we may be able to use.

The supplies are all relatively standard. Food stuffs, paper, writing supplies.

Edwin will go and check the western room.

perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

At the center of this twenty-foot-square room stand eight stout glass receptacles filled with fluids ranging from clear liquid to green jelly. Warty, fleshy blobs, resembling tiny humanoids, float inside each one. In one tube, a large black eye blinks up and down repeatedly, while in others a creature’s arms wave frantically and a strangely pretty doll-faced creature floats calmly.

Heavy wooden benches ring the room, overflowing with alembics, beakers, ovens, tubes, and alchemical equipment of all sorts. Stout doors stand along the room’s western and northern walls, and a narrow staircase leads upward along the north wall.

As a note, and I know it is hard to see on the map, but there are stairs leading up in both the east and west rooms (A and B).

Edwin goes up. He is trying to find enemies.

Eager, aren't you. Bennett smirks because he's eager too. He follows behind making sure to check over Edwin's back and the opposite corners Edwin is looking around.

Bennett and Edwin climb the stairs of the Western tower.

This chamber contains the library’s most valuable tomes. It is especially rich in books about devil-binding and the history of magical constructs,
including homunculi. A staircase leads back down and also up.

"I need to destroy evil."

Edwin continues going up.

We search every room thoroughly.

Earlier...

Ivan alerts the others to his discovery. "In that storage area we were just looking at, the middle section of the north wall, by the staircase, seems to be recent construction. I think we should investigate it."

Assuming the others agree...

Ivan moves to the area mentioned (I'm not exactly sure what this corresponds to on the map, so please move me as needed) and searches carefully for secret doors, traps, or anything else of interest.

Taking 20 on perception for 24.

Ivan, the new wall section is a doorway that has been bricked up.

Can we take a twenty to smash through those bricks with the crowbar?

Sure, if you like.

What happens when Edwin continues going up?

Edwin goes up to the top level of the tower. This uppermost floor looks to be someone's home, including both their office (a small marble table and a bookcase filled with tomes detailing the creation of homunculi and other constructs) and, hidden behind several tapestries depicting Aroden and Iomedae, a richly appointed bedchamber. The neatly made bed lies beside a nightstand stacked with several well-thumbed volumes of the Pathfinder Chronicles, with bookmarks flagging some of the more titillating passages.

Bennett follows Edwin into the room and office. He looks over the books for anything interesting and for anything that seems missing.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
knowledge (Geog, Local, Dungeoneering): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Edwin searches the whole tower and the he goes in other one on the opposite side and does the same thing there also in hope that he will find something of greater significance.

take 20 for 20+1=21

Edwin and Bennett search the office and bedroom, but find nothing hidden around the area. Everything seems to be out in the open.

Edwin moves across to the opposite tower and sweeps up through the levels.

The lowest level is a storage area, containing crates of supplies and equipment for the lodge. The middle level contains a laboratory, filled with large glass chambers, tubes, benches, and a number of weather experiments.

The uppermost level contains an office, with an enormous oak desk littered with papers and logbooks. These notes belong to someone named Greudemoffit. From the nature of the notes and books it would seem that Greudemoffit has developed a fascination with meteorology. A nearby table contains a stack of books detailing magical theories of weather.

If there is nothing of interest can we move on to next room that we are not visited yet.

Bennett has dabbled but doesn't know much about alchemy. He'll look around the stacks of books and papers. Greudemoffit, do we know that guy? Weather control is a crazy business.

kn local: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

"This is not my area of expertise... or interest for that matter."

You have explored the entirety of this end of the building. There is a long corridor leading north through the door where Bennett is. An identical corridor is on the eastern side of the building where Ivan is, but it is bricked up.

Bennett will do a quick reconnoiter of this hallway then join the group at the brick wall.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Hefting the borrowed crowbar Tashi nods; "I got to get me one of these. Surprisingly useful things."

Strength take 20 versus wall: 20 + 4 + 2 = 26

Edwin joins the group and helps Tashi.
STR aid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Craft (Alchemy) DC 15: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Ivan looks at the lab with interest but it is clearly more than he can understand.

"This whole place is strange. I thought we were coming in to free captives from our enemies who have seized the cathedral, but instead it almost seems as if the site is deserted. What are we missing?" Ivan muses aloud to the others.

The group works together to take the bricks down from the doorway. There is a long walkway ahead of you.

Edwin goes first, all the way to the end of walkway and opens the door.

perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Edwin finds a corridor running above the nave’s stained-glass windows, where the cathedral’s walls bow outward to support the roof. At the end of this long corridor, a plain door opens into a series of dark rooms situated 40 feet above the ground at the base of the cathedral’s great dome. These small rooms, formerly the cells of Aroden’s clergy, are mostly dark, although narrow, barred windows dimly light those along the exterior walls.

Bennett goes room by room to investigate.

Bennett finds some rooms appear to be guest rooms, although their mattresses are no longer inviting as they have been slashed and destroyed. The chambers are simple with desks, chairs and wardrobes, however these are lie on their sides and upside down smashed. Other rooms look to be conference rooms. They have long solid wood tables, finely carved chairs and easels upon which sits maps and charts. It would appear that everything of value has been removed from these chambers as they were ransacked. Refuse litters the walkways.

Edwin continues all the way to the north.

"Guys, if you are ready I will open that door!"

When all are ready Edwin opens the door holding his sword.

perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Miseria nods, with weapon in hand.

Bennett raises his bow in preparation. Do it.

A soft blue glow fills this room, emanating from the stained glass windows lining three of its walls, each depicting a godlike figure in a different city. Frescoes of angels lifting Aroden to the sky cover the ceiling.

Despite its obvious design as a chapel, the room itself has no religious trappings. Instead of pews, the remnants of a large wooden table and a dozen chairs fill the chamber. Much of their wood has been cannibalized to create a makeshift wooden gallows across the chamber’s eastern end.

Behind the gallows, three low stairs ascend to a raised area
with two overstuffed chairs.

There are three ropes tied to the gallows and each has a person hanging from it. The only thing preventing them from being hanged is the bench upon which they stand. Beside the bench stands a hobgoblin Picture on the map slide for interest. A fourth person lies between a couple of the overstuffed chairs.

Combat Round 1 - Bold May Act

Ivan
Tashi
Miseria
Bennett
Hobgoblin (Red)
Edwin

Bennett would love to shoot 2 arrows and cut the ropes if that is mechanically viable.

"You have the pleasure to be rescued by Tashi Blackbeak and company!" Tashi yells in glee as he rushed forward and attempts to cut the rope above the second hostage.

Standard Action Attack; mwk katana, two handed
attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Bennett, sure why not. Make an attack VS. AC20. The rope is small and will be hard to hit

Tashi swings and cuts down the first of the prisoners. They stay standing on the bench, but are now at little risk of hanging.

Bennett storms in and fires at the nearest taut rope.

rapid shot 1: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

rapid shot 2: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
rapid shot confirm: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
damage: 3d8 + 12 ⇒ (5, 8, 3) + 12 = 28

The second rope in the line falls onto the shoulder of the person attached to it.

Combat Round 1 - Bold May Act

Ivan
Tashi
Miseria
Bennett
Hobgoblin (Red)
Edwin

Unable to get to any of the prisoner's quickly enough to help them, Miseria presses on into the room to give the hobgoblin a reason to second guess his next action.

double move

Combat Round 1 - Bold May Act

Ivan
Tashi
Miseria
Bennett
Hobgoblin (Red)
Edwin

Ivan moves into the room and takes a shot at the hobgoblin.

mwk pistol, ranged touch, Precise Strike: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
B dmg (bullet & black powder): 1d8 ⇒ 6

"Avast ye blackguard! Ye'll free 'em, or rue the reason ye ain't!"