Band of Foxes - Harmonious Wisdom of Foxes (Inactive)

Game Master Ietsuna

It seems several of the group went in through the locked door with the intent to shut it behind them. Since I'm not going to be splitting the party, Kenta will stick with them.

The Holy Warrior leads the way once the door has been unlocked, stepping inside to look for dangers and threats in the room before them. "Seems clear!"

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

"If we lock the door behind us, won't that block our escape route?" Takabe says, glancing back at the locked door.

Hiiragi considers. "Hopefully we have not locked ourselves into a trap. That said, so long as Onna recalls how to re-open it..."

"But you found another open door over there, yes? So all we have to do is fight our way through a manor house full of General Ghost-Bear's undead troops to the other exit. No problem. Right?"

Ikari grins. It is a savage and toothsome grin, but not without humour.

Ok. I am sorry for the confusion. We'll pull everyone into the central area and work from there.

The interior of the manor-house is in disarray. There are carcasses, old bones and shredded cloth around, but, as previously noticed, the south east corner of the house is much less disturbed.

Kenta searches around the room (I removed the fog of war). He checks for dangers, both random and intentional, and then looks for anything that may have survived the ravages of time.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Obviously, there is nothing dangerous here and everything has just rotted away...

Path marked with yellow line.

Ikari has a good sniff around the entrance, before following Kenta inside.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Yep, definitely totally safe and uninteresting.

"Let's make our way towards the 'escape route' in the south east, we can double back afterwards."

Following behind Kenta and Ikari.
perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (10) + 0 = 10

Onna walks about the room. She runs her fingers across the back of one of the couches, pulling up a thick film of dust.

"Pretty sure it's been a while since anyone has cleaned this place."

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Hiiragi steps in behind the group, keeping close watch of the corners of the room.

If nothing else, she notices that her friends wouldn’t spot a trap if it glowed. She giggles a little behind her sleeve.

A tattered rug adorns the floor of this short, forlorn hall. Pieces of a broken weapon rack lie on the floor in front of a statue of a stern Tian-Shu man wearing ceremonial armor and holding a long-bladed sword above his head. Doors lead out of this hall to the north, west, and south.

Hmm...I wonder. Onna calls on her training, allowing her to see arcane auras.

Casting Detect Magic. Looking around the entire room, but paying more attention to the statue, armor and sword.

You do detect a magical aura coming from the statue.

"Now this is interesting. This is certainly no estate belonging to a peasant. It does make you wonder what caused it to be abandoned, doesn't it?" he muses looking over the statue and room hopefully for some clues following their bards lead using detect magic as he goes.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

"So what do you make of that?" he asks her looking at the statue.

Itami raises an eyebrow. "You do know peasants don't own estates, right? They wouldn't be peasants anymore if they did," he comments.
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Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 Nothing to see her folks, move along!

"The term is relative. Even the man owning a manor is a peasant in the eyes of lord owning a castle." he scoffs at the old man.

Juzo looks at the statue quite intently but cannot seem to find what it is that is triggering Onna's Arcane senses.

Kenta looks at his allies, "find anything?"

"Besides a magic statue? No, not really." Intrigued. Onna gets close enough to take a closer look.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

Onna detects an aura of Evocation magic from the statue.

"Hmmm evocation is all the attack spells, right. Fireball and such? This might be really dangerous."

”Give it a wide berth.” Ikari advises.

is it necessary to pass the statue? Or can we reach every part of the manor without doing so?

Kenta nods as Onna describes the spell, "We should disable it. I don't want some kid wandering in here on a dare and getting killed, that would be irresponsible. If someone can try to do that, I'll stand by them with my new magic healing stick here while the rest wait outside of the room. If not, I'll just start hitting the statue until it is rubble and the trap is broken."

Hiiragi can't help herself:
"If the kid makes it past the bear, you mean?"

"I've fiddled about and learned how to pick locks and deal with manual traps, but I have no idea going about making something like this less dangerous. I mean, for all I know it lights up at night or sends out a cool breeze to fend off the summer heat."

While the others deliberate over what to do with the statue, Itami wanders off to the Western door and opens it. They can fiddle with the ethics of touching dangerous objects. Let's see what is behind this door...

Yes, you can get around without getting too close to the statue.

Itami wanders through the western wing of the house. It is much the same as the rest of the estate in that is shows signs of bear habitation and not much else. The only exception is the room in the south west which has a locked door so he cannot investigate.

I have revealed the east wing also since Onno looks like she is looking in there. It is bear habitat with bones, torn fabric and mess.

Juzo shrugs after the statue looks like a trap rather than something of value.

"Either the bear hasn't been able to wander in here or it isn't as dangerous as it looks. Can't let out quiet elder wander off alone...." he says going with Itami.

Seeing the bear habitat he grimaces with a fake retch.

"Makes me glad I am not just a fox. Living like this...or worse being food for that thing out there. If it wakes up it will probably head back here...so let's look around quickly." he says kicking around the debris.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"Let's just all leave the room and throw a rock at the statue or something. It's probably a one time thing." Takabe says before they continue onwards.

"Good idea." Kenta ushers everyone out and starts lobbing rocks at the statue to see if it will trigger the whatever.

He'll throw rocks found in the courtyard until he hits the statue squarely, does he need any rolls?

With a smirk, Itami walks down the hall to the door he hopes leads to the chamber with the statue and begins to knock.
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If the door locks from this side, he will unlock the door if the other side cannot open it.

As the stone moves close to the statue a cone of flame shoots out from the statue's mouth then fades. Those perceptive among you recognize this as Burning Hands.

Door is locked Itami. Disable Device to open, or you can smash the door down.

Takabe watches with his detect magic to see if the aura fades after the spell completes.

Kenta exclaims, "WOAH! WAS THAT UNHOLY BLIGHT?!? I've heard about that. It hurts good people."

The aura does fade once the spell goes off. Trap does not reset

Kenta moves over to the door that Onna is at and attempts to open it, to start searching more of the residence.

Hiiragi follows along with the group; admittedly, there's not always a lot of call for shrine maidens when exploring old ruins, so she finds herself pondering whether a deep-fried mouse would be good.

Probably terrible to eat in human form, though.

...Might spook the humans, though, and that's always fun.

.......Maybe run the idea past Kasumi.

"Anybody any good with locks?"

If not, Ikari tries to break down the locked door next to Itami.

STR check, rage: 1d20 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 1 + 2 = 14

"...huh... axes might be called for."

Onna squeezes in between the warrior and the door. "Maybe a more finessed approach is in order."

Disable Device (Take 10): 10 + 10 = 20

Onna gently tickles the lock and there is a satisfying click.

I totally forgot that Onna picked the lock on the main door already! Oops.

No worries

Onna gives a satisfied yelp to herself as she slides her tools away. She stands to the side of the door and opens it wide as she bows to Ikari, "By all means, after you."

I honestly don't have a clue where we have looked and where we haven't looked and what doors are or aren't unlocked at this very moment. There seem to be some differences between what happens on the map and what is posted. Can we just default to an SOP where the group is moving slowly through with detect magic up, searching each room with take 20 and moving onto the next room until we get stopped or find what we need or get eaten by the house that is actually a mimic?

The only area left to explore is the bottom left corner room. This is a big house and not much is in it.

If it's possible for a fox to look sheepish, Ikari does, as he acknowledges Onna's expertise.

Ikari enters the last room, wary of further traps.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Suggest we then take 20 to search the last room.

In stark contrast to the decaying ruin of the rest of the manor, this combination of bedroom and office is almost pristine save for a thick layer of dust. One wall contains shelves bearing books and scrolls, and another wall is covered with an enormous map of central Tian Xia. On the desk lay several sheets of thick paper, their script indecipherable under ages of dust.

The books on the shelves are military treatises and the scrolls are military orders detailing troop movements in the dying days of Lung Wa.

The giant map of the region that became Shokuro is highly detailed. Someone with a steady hand carefully marked several remote locations in various mountain ranges. The border of the map is an intricate depiction of the Dragon Empires zodiac.

The papers on the desk are a series of one-sided correspondences in Tien from an adjutant of the last Lung Wa emperor to General Chiang Zhen. The adjutant thanks General Zhen for his visit to a recent military summit at a place called the Summer Palace.

Though these letters are putatively written on behalf of the emperor, their tone is familiar, even intimate, and hints at a close relationship between the adjutant and the general. Details about the sunsets viewed between mountain peaks and constellations seen from the Summer Palace provide hints as to the lost Summer Palace’s location.

In addition you find a fine calligraphy set on the desk worth 100 gp. Within one desk drawer you find a gold ring worth 300gp and another 50gp worth of coins. Leaning against the desk is General Zhen’s masterwork naginata.

Once the more adventurous types check for traps first before stepping in. ”This looks like exactly what we have been looking for,” she states, skimming over the letters before stowing them in her robes.

”That is a beautiful weapon,” states Hiiragi, looking over the naginata. ”Nothing I could use—or at least not as efficiently as a warrior could—but I appreciate the craftsmanship.”

Taking a 10 on my Knowledge (Nobility) and using my Faction Pin perk to hit the 15.

"Look at these here. The Summer Palace is talked about even across the world as a near-legend of opulence. It has likely been lost since the empire fell here. They still like to go on about how their estate would rival that of the Summer Palace. We may just find it to prove them how wrong they were. Heh." he says with a smirk while helping pack away the documents.

"Here let me assist you."

If this won't help the Pathfinders it will certainly help some other clients.

"This appears to be what we are looking for. Shall we be on our way then? No need to linger in the bear's den while we have our goal in hand," Itami suggests. Hopefully this helps whatever machinations that woman is working towards.

"Well, other than the bear, this mission wasn't very exciting. I guess its time to head back and collect our rewards." Takabe says as he examines the papers.

history: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15