GM.BastardBard's [PFS]#3-09: The Quest for Perfection—Part I: The Edge of Heaven (Inactive)

Game Master Neal B

After climbing up, Daji is definitely going to explore the cavern and see what he can find and will retrieve his hook and rope after Valon climbs up as well.

After several moments of struggling -- and failing -- to move his body, finally his limbs respond. Valon stands, clutching at his side. "Might have cracked a rib in that fall," he mutters before nodding at Daji. "Thanks."

Climb: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 Just for fun.

The monk grabs hold of the rope, grits his teeth, and begins hauling himself back up to the ledge. He moves quickly and soon finds himself once again standing on the ledge from which he had been shoved. He brushes himself off, then follows Daji into the cave.

"Here."
The Balrog seems almost embarrassed as he quietly says an arcane command word for his wand.
CLW on Valon: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 Wand at 39

Inside the cave Valon and Daji notice a hidden stash of goods, including a well-made pair of boots, a finely crafted jade brooch, and a weather worn journal.
They also see a tunnel that slopes downward, likely to the rubble-strewn area they were both at before.

Health and Status:
Daji -1hp
Xiao Hua
Caleyn -3hp
Valon -4hp
The Balrog -1hp
Danny

"As ugly as those things were, they had some pretty stuff. No idea what any of it is though." Daji says as he picks up the journal and flips through it, reading what he can.

He takes one glance at the downward sloping tunnel, rolls his stiff, still hurting shoulders, and turns back to examine the bodies of the creatures. "So, does anyone know what these things are? They did a number on us."

"Maybe I can help with the stuff you found."
The Balrog casts Detect Magic.
Spellcraft boots: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Spellcraft brooch: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Only the boots detect as magical. The brooch appears to be moderately valuable.

Upon failing to gather anything useful from the journal, Daji shares, "Hey guys, this journal is super old and worn. Most of the writing is completely gone, but the last few pages, well, I think someone better read than myself could make something of."

Once content that the cave has nothing left to offer, Daji will take a seat against the cave wall to rest.

Caleyn moves over by Daji and slides down the cave wall, kinda sore and achy.

"If anyone could spare a bit of healing, I could use a touch. Please and thank you."

Caleyn snuggles into her cloak and closes her eyes just to rest a lil bit. Her axe ever close at hand

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
"Those are boots of the winterlands. If no one objects, I would not mind to wear them!"

You guys left the base camp about 3 hours ago, so it's still mid-to-late morning. I'm assuming you're continuing and gonna post the next bit, but if the intention was to wait, please let me know.

Your group follows the Path of Many shrines through the mountain for about an hour before...

The narrow mountain path ends at the lip of a fifty-foot-wide crevasse that stretches out of sight in both directions. A pair of carved stone pillars stands at the edge of the chasm and a matching pair of pillars can be seen on the far side. The remains of corroded iron chains, set within the stone pillars, dangle limply into the crevasse. A relatively gentle slope leads to the bottom of the crevasse. The slope on the far side is much steeper, and is covered with jagged, precarious looking rocks.

Alright, so there's a bunch of climb checks down the shallower/easier slope you're next to, a 50 foot walk across, then a climb up the more difficult/steeper side on the other side of the crevasse

I figure the following will work best:
1) Take the next 24 hours to discuss your plans as a group for getting across. AND 2) Decide whether you all would like to (pre)roll all of your climb checks (in which case I can post the DCs as spoilers, and you can roll and role-play) as well as your stated speed (quarter speed at normal DC, half-speed climbs increase DC by 5). OR if you would like to state your intentions/speeds, and I can just batch roll everyone and narrate through this bit.

Effectively, instead of going round-by-round over the next week or two I just want to get this skill check encounter solved in the next few days. I feel that just doing a climb check each day is arduous and would lose interest. (I'm open to suggestions for other solutions too)

On Slide #7 now. It is 50' down on this side. 50' across. Then 50' up.

Survival: 1d20 ⇒ 13 It was worth a shot

Daji rolls his shoulders and, feeling how restrictive his hide armor and buckler are, takes them off and shoves the armor in his pack. "That's a long way down. If someone is confident enough to get down without rope, I'm more than happy to volunteer mine to aid us. I just would much rather use it going up the other side."

Daji also would like to study the pillars closer, trying to figure out what the carvings are.
Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 8 And is apparently too distracted by the beautiful sorceress in front of him, hah

Daji would definitely want to play it as safe as possible after a mere 20 ft fall roughing him up pretty good. Quarter speed, rope on both sides if possible, etc.

know nature: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27 !!!

Danny squints as he looks to the other side of the gap. "It looks like the spring thaw made many of the rocks on the other side loose. There's a way more likely chance to cause a landslide. This won't be fun."

Seeing Daji getting into climbing shape, Danny does the same. "I have one of these climbing kits that has rope in it. If one of you strong folk want to go first and anchor the pitons, it would make the climb way easier for the rest of us."

Using the climbing kit and without armor I can auto pass (with take 10) DC 12 checks. I would imagine it gets a bit harder than that though. I could drop my entangle spell to cast summon nature's ally and summon an eagle that could drop the grappling hook somewhere it might stick. It's quite a long shot though as it only has one round and that's a lot to do.

There are no details given about the carvings on the pillars. They could, however, be used to tie/anchor a rope to, and use it to climb down.

"Would it help to intentionally create an avalanche now, to make any loose rocks fall down while we are safe on this side?"

The Balrog looks at the gap.
"Or, if one of us could get down, across, and back up, without triggering an avalanche, then they could tie a pair of ropes onto the pillars on that side. One high, one low. Tie the other end of each rope to the pillars on this side. Then it is possible to walk across the rope bridge and get to the far side with only one person having gone up the treacherous rock wall."

Valon leans forward, peering over the edge of the chasm, then looks up to assess the slope on the far side. "We could certainly try triggering a landslide from here," he says. "Otherwise, unless you want to do it, I'm probably the best bet if someone needs to go ahead and set things up for everyone else." He frowns. "Gotta say, that far slope doesn't look like an easy climb."

"I really like Balrog's idea of a rope bridge alongside Valon's idea of causing a landslide sooner rather than later. Who knows, maybe we'll make a rock-bridge!"

"They were both my ideas," says the Balrog with a hint of edginess. He's a CN Calistrian and a bit self-absorbed. I don't mean to overdo it, though.
"I'm not sure exactly how to trigger a landslide from the safety of this side of the chasm. I can get big again and throw rocks, maybe?"
He has his own Enlarge SLA.

"Valon, whether we do that or not, you are the best climber. So thank you for volunteering. You'd be out of range of my last Feather Fall.... unless I stand at the bottom of the cliff. Which I could do if we get all the loose rocks to fall down. Yeah, that sounds good."

He looks at Daji. "Uh, sorry about not catching you with the spell earlier. Well, not really sorry I guess. I can only cast Feather Fall once more, and there are bigger drops on this climb than the one back on the path. Like this drop here for example. So it was a judgment call. You lived."

He takes out his wand and heals Valon. CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
"Oh, fine, you too Caleyn, although you don't look that bad to me."
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 Wand at 37.

"Sorry mate, paying more attention to my footwork and the whispers around me than the actual voices around me... Did I say that our loud?" Perfect imo. Player fault here, it's what I get for being sleep deprived. Plus, good chance to play up my Oracles curse, my favorite part of the class.

"We'll say I earned it with this oversight and call us square, eh? I agree though, this fall looks far worse than what we were facing before. Plus it was my dumb idea to ride the sticky goo up, anyhow. And I totally get spell limits. I'm saving something in case the.. two siblings? Whatever the map calls it, in case they turn out to be against us." Daji gives a wicked grin and refuses to explain further.

"We could all start throwing rocks blindly, unless someone sees a specific weak spot? Hard to see anything from back here."

Looks like we have three votes for trying to cause a landslide, along with a suggestion on how that's been seconded (throwing rocks). For the logistics, I definitely don't mind either way on how the batch rolls are handled.

Okay, sounds like general consensus is to try and trigger the landslide ahead of time, then have Valon climb down and across to try and make a double-rope "bridge" (one rope for hands to hold and stabilize while another for people to walk across).

For this you'll need something significant enough to cause a rockslide (I would say most arrows and the like are too small to have any effect).

Also, you'll need two ropes about 75 feet long. (for Valon to be able to hold onto them the whole journey). I have figured out what I intend for checks to cross the rope bridge. However, when the other things are figured out I will need climb checks from Valon for each side of the crevasse, and what speed he would like to go (or his intended speeds, and I can roll them)

Does this make sense? Any questions? (Trying to roll with your guys' planning and make things as fair and simple as possible)

Health and Status:
Daji -1hp
Xiao Hua
Caleyn
Valon
The Balrog -1hp
Danny

Let´s go with the landslide
"I am not good outdoors, so I will concede to your wisdom!"

Daji will offer his 50 feet of rope. As for the landslide, Daji's got nothing helpful except his hands.

The Balrog will get big with his Enlarge SLA and hurl rocks from one side of the chasm to the other, aiming to hit the wall. If he can't quite reach the far side (should be 10' range and 5 range increment max), then he uses his sling. In that case he would pick up rocks from the ground that are the right size (so should be about 2-3 lbs). That way they do not shrink when released from the sling (like his Enlarged bullets would).

He'll rely on Danny to tell him where to aim.

I think we have enough ropes across the party (there are 3 50' ropes on the character sheets - Valon, Daji, and Caleyn).

Bump. I'd like to keep this moving.

Was Balrog able to cause a landslide? If so, what are the effects on the crevice?

Also, could I point out particular weak spots to target with thrown rocks to cause a landslide?

Ah. Was waiting on feedback from others. FYI, for the 3 ropes you have, one of them would have to be cut in half to have the two separate ropes of ~75 foot length.

Large Balrog Throw: 1d20 + 4 - 8 ⇒ (5) + 4 - 8 = 1
Large Balrog Throw: 1d20 + 4 - 8 ⇒ (18) + 4 - 8 = 14

Balrog's first throw comes up short, but the second rock he chucks hits some of the loose rocks near the top of the far wall. The ensuing slide of loose rocks crumbles down the face of the wall, and settles as sediment at the bottom of the crevasse. The rock fall was vigorous and could be felt even at this distance; you're reasonably confident that any rocks that were loose enough to be at risk for falling would have fallen.

Daji passes his rope forward. "Cut that if you need to, yeah?"

Valon lets out a low whistle. "Yep, that would've hurt. Good thinking." He takes the rope passed forward by Daji and along with Balrog begins cutting and tying them together into the appropriate lengths.

Taking 10 on Climb checks, assuming he also gets the +2 circumstance bonus from Danny's climbing gear, means an 18. Valon will be taking 10 as far as he can, and one of us can roll the checks if the DC is higher than that.

Knowing patience is a virtue, Xiao Hua takes her time crossing the ropes.
Taking 10 for a climb 11

The Balrog flexes and poses.
"Did you see that? I'm a fire giant! Only more handsome. "
He waits to see if Valon needs any help.

"If the climb is tricky," meaning if Take 10 isn't good enough and Valon has to roll "then I'll come down into the crevasse to be ready to catch you with my spell. Otherwise I'll stay up here."

Xiao Hua, the ropes are not in place yet, and they will not be a Climb check.

Valon kits himself out with the climbing gear and rope, and steadily makes his way down the near slope. Safely makes his way across the difficult terrain of the rubble at the base of the crevasse. However, on the other side he seems unable to find a solid grip the first time or two.

The far side will require die rolls for Valon. Please indicate climb speed, and make all of your rolls (7 for quarter speed, 4 for half speed) and I will spoiler the DC and results if the DC is not met.

Seeing that Valon appears to be having Balrog starts his way down the near slope (assuming he keeps his promise). I will need climb checks and intended speed for Balrog's descent (7 for quarter speed, 4 for half speed).

Danny watches with bated breath as his companions begin their climb.

Can the Balrog climb down a rope? One end should be already anchored on the "easy side" of the cliff. Rope and wall is fairly easy - his Take 10 is a 14 (if still Enlarged, it lasts 3 minutes) or 13, after accounting for his Climber's Kit and his ACP.

After a couple failures to find an easy handhold, Valon pauses. He breathes in and out deeply a few times. Focus on the task at hand. You've done this before, you can do it again. With a new burst of energy, the monk begins his ascent.

Starting at half speed, might slow down further up. As the kids said a few years ago, yolo.
Climb: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 2 = 12 Lol nope.
Climb: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 6 + 2 = 28
Climb: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 6 + 2 = 28
Climb: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 6 + 2 = 26

Okay, so 45 feet up now. If you'll allow it, Valon will go quarter-speed this last bit. I'll also use his Ungrounded Veteran boon, which gives him another +2 circumstance bonus on any climb check. That should hopefully be enough to get him up the ledge.
Climb w/ Ungrounded Veteran boon: 1d20 + 6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 2 + 2 = 21

Daji holds his breath watching the two climb.

Don't have much to add, just realized I hadn't checked in since Friday

Balrog, we'll assume that when Valon has difficulty climbing, he brings the ropes back towards the base of the easy side, allowing you to do the DC5 climb down.

Valon steadies himself with determination and makes another attempt at climbing the far wall, and takes off with great speed! Nearing the top he remembers the lessons he learned while on the Plane of Earth, and slows down to properly appreciate every footing and handhold of the remainder of the climb. His steady determination allows him to make it to the top!

Assuming enacting the agreed upon plan...
Upon reaching the top Valon ties his ends of the rope to the pillar, one at the base, and one at a height convenient for the rest of the group to grab with their hands.

I will need Acrobatics checks for everyone to make it across the ropes. Using the hand-level rope will make it significantly easier. You only need one Acrobatics check per round (even at a double move). A "normal" check allows you to move half-speed for the full round, if you would like to try and move full speed please indicate so before giving your rolls. Please make enough Acrobatics checks for your speed to make it across 50 ft. Once everyone has done this, I will post the DC/results.

Danny casts a spell (guidance) to help him balance better before starting. Once he is in the air and most of the way there (hopefully) he casts the spell again.

acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 2 + 1 = 13 Double move 20 ft
acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8 Double move to 40 ft
acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 2 + 1 = 19 Action and single move to 50 ft

Daji will cast guidance on everyone remaining to cross, including himself. Each part of his journey, he will move a "normal" check for the duration. I interpreted it differently than Danny, as half-speed for the full round was assuming a double move in my mind, so 20ft becomes 10ft per round. Daji does NOT want to fall again.

acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 + 1 = 13
acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 Son of a-
acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

half speed being per move action, so a full round of moving at half speed would be your base speed (modified by armor and whatnot). Just only need one check per round, even if you're double-moving.

The Balrog will use his last Feather Fall on the first person who falls.

The point of the rope bridge was to avoid climbing up the far wall more than necessary in case it was still unstable, but if it is harder than a rope-and-wall climb (and we think we've gotten all the loose rocks down), maybe better to untie one rope at each end so we can all go down one rope to the chasm floor, then up the other rope.

So, Daji got 13 for the first 20 ft, 21 for the next 20 ft... then 5 for the last 10 ft.

Is it possible for Valon to assist on these checks at all? Like if he tried to hold the rope steadier or shouted encouragement or something, I dunno. Worth asking.

Caleyn takes off her armor and moving at half speed begins

acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13
acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

So, Daji got 13 for the first 20 ft, 21 for the next 20 ft... then 5 for the last 10 ft.

Daji, back in this post you took off your armor. Your move speed should be 30ft then, correct? Meaning two rounds of double-moving at half-speed should get your across 50 ft. Right?

I assume that everyone waits for the person in front of them to finish crossing before starting their attempt (reduce rope wiggle).

Danny gets out to almost half-way across the chasm when a gust of wind causes him to shake a little more than he is comfortable with, and he holds on for dear life! His hairy feet maintain their balance as he continues... need one more check, hope it's alright that I make it for you to move it along.
Danny Acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
... and Danny makes it safely across, pulled into safety by Valon.

Daji follows behind and is able to make it across without much trouble, his spirits attempting to tug on the rope some, but it is hardly noticeable with all the bouncing the rope was doing anyway.

Caleyn removes and stows her armor, and is able to get across with the deft assurance of the fey people.

Botting:Xiao Hua then attempts her crossing.
Xiao Hua Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Xiao Hua Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
And is able to make it to safety.

Everyone is now across the chasm, and The Balrog is at the bottom. I will need either climb checks for The Balrog, or another solution.

"Untie one of the ropes."
If one rope is untied on the hard side, and its end dropped into the chasm, then the Balrog will climb back up the easy side (where it is still tied), untie the second rope (which is still tied on the hard side), then climb back up the hard side on the hard rope.

We now have a rope hanging down into the chasm from each side.

Rope and Wall is DC 5 normally, but even if it were DC 10 the Balrog could do it with Take 10.

Oh my goodness, thank you GM, you're a lifesaver. Could a thrown dagger cut the ropes? Or could we attempt a strength check to break them, and hope they break away from the carving rather than right where we are pulling them?

EDIT: Ignore me, I like The Balrog's plan. What check would it be to untie it, if any?

leave him behind, he's served his purpose... kidding of course.

Exhilarated at the crossing, Danny looks back over the edge. "You need any help Balrog? What can we do?"

Untie one of the ropes at this end so he can get back up the "easy" side then do the same over there for a rope and wall to brace against on the "hard" side?
EDIT: you guys are to fast for me.

Balrog's plan will work. Please let me know if Daji and/or Caleyn would like to re-don their armor.

About a half-hour beyond the crevasse lies a strange rock formation...
Two rock formations, shaped like a pair of thick pillars, stand prominently near a cliff’s edge. One pillar stands fifteen feet tall and the smaller stands ten feet tall. A shallow cave, just to the side of the pillars, looks as if it might provide some shelter from inclement mountain weather.