[PFS_CORE_Aerondor] 02-19 Keep of the Huscarl King (Shades of Ice part III) (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

stuff: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Khargrom slips forward. Further back in the cave he notices several small lizards... or are they? Sitting in a warm pool. They don't appear to have noticed him yet.

Farlen knows that the softly glowing algae that covers the cavern is mundane, and will likely die should the cavern’s temperature drop below the balmy heat it needs to thrive.

Khargrom attempts to identify the lizards, to see if they are threats to the group or if they may provide a tasty treat for dinner.

Common Knowledge: Nature? (max DC 10): 1d2 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

He then slips back to his allies with the information and describes the lizards as looking very much like lizards. He asks quietly, "I say we try to scare em away, but be ready to whack em if they see us as food."

Staracast listens to Khargrom's description of the lizards.
knowledge nature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

Khargrom has no idea what they are.

Amiri shrugs, she had been leaning against her sword trying to catch her breath. She lifts it high over her head and heads towards the lizards, "Dinner then."

She tries to sneak up to them like a fancy hunter, though it isn't really her style. She quickly outpaces the slower dwarf back to where the critters are lounging.

Stealth - ACP - Fatigued: 1d20 + 1 - 3 - 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 - 3 - 1 = -2

Khargrom moves behind her quietly, though not as quickly. Might as well try to take advantage of her noise to sneak up on them.

Let me know if you need another stealth check or if the first is still fine.

As Amri clunks toward the darkness in the back, she obviously startles them, and they dash forward!

Status: bold still to post
Farlen Fatigued; 4NL damage;
Khargom
lizards
Stratacast
Snakey
Amiri, Fatigued, 8NL damage

"What are those things?"
know nature: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Farlen will pull out his wand of mage armor and activate it on himself.
"Deflect"

Farlen is amazed. It turns out those cute little lizards that are thundering toward the group are genuine bode-fide dinosaurs. Just very small ones.

On the downside.. he is pretty sure that as well as having sharp teeth, they are also poisonous. Weak against mental attacks, for sure.

"Those lizards are small dinosaurs that are poisonous and have sharp teeth." "Be Careful." "They are susceptible to mind attacks." "Calm emotion might be useful if we want to just pass by."

Seeing Amiri pass by on the way to kill the things, "Or not."

Khargrom moves up next to Amiri while pulling out a dart, I don't think running in there and upstaging our 'proud of her fighting skills' lady here is ideal, I"ll just stop and try to catch these critters off guard... plus those teeth look very pointy. He whips the dart at the closest dino.

Move 15 ft while drawing dart, throw at Green.

Dart vs. Flatfooted: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18 for Piercing + Sneak Attack: 1d4 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (3) + 2 + (6, 2) = 13

Khargrom tosses a dart at a tiny dinosaur which drops it.

The two remaining ones swarm forward at the brave dwarf.
Who would get an AOO if he had a weapon in hand, but I'm guessing probably doesn't?

attacks: 2d20 ⇒ (7, 3) = 10

But they can't get past his tough dwarven skin.

Status: bold may post
Farlen Fatigued; 4NL damage;
Khargom
Stratacast
Snakey
Amiri, Fatigued, 8NL damage
lizards

Farlen advances into the cavern to get a clear shot pulling out his wand of magic missiles.

"Seems more appropriate to use a mouse trap." "I really don't have a good spell to use that won't catch Khargom as well." "So here goes nothing."

Leveling the wand, "Zappo", a streak a red issues forth from the wand and slams into the red mini dino.

mm dmg: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 charge 26, 25 remaining

Yeah, a weapon in hand would have been smart, lol!

Khargrom steps away from the little biters into flanking with Amiri, pulls his warhammer out and smacks at the one struck by Farlen's spell. He hollers at the druid, "If'n ya want a pet, let us know and we'll try to just knock out the last one. If not, more dino meat for dinner."

5-ft step, Draw warhammer as a move, Standard to attack red.

MW Warhammer + Flanking: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 5 + 2 = 16 for Bludgeoning + Sneak Attack: 1d8 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (5) + 2 + (2, 1) = 10

Amiri swings her big ole monster slaying weapon pretty hard at the last critter, "Well yeah I'd love a pet, but will it grow bigger?" At the last moment, she turns the blade and attempts to whack it upside the head and knock it out instead of hack it apart.

Attack blue NL.

Large Bastard Sword - Fatigue + Flank - NL: 1d20 + 3 - 1 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (14) + 3 - 1 + 2 - 4 = 14 for Slashing/NL - Fatigue: 2d8 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (6, 7) + 6 - 1 = 18

The red dinosaur lets out a howl of pain, but stays up as Farlen's magic wounds it. The howl stops as Khargrom smashes it with his hammer.
Amri, in her tired state, can't quite get her huge sword to hit the agile little creatures.

Someone can post for Stratacast and snakey of you like

Status: bold may post
Stratacast
Snakey
lizards
Farlen Fatigued; 4NL damage;
Khargom
Amiri, Fatigued, 8NL damage

Stratacast and Rocky head towards the only remaining lizard. Staracast tries to knock it out while Rocky tries to bite it. "I hate to harm animals, but they don't usually give you time to talk it out."

unarmed strike, fatigue: 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 3 - 1 = 11
non-lethal damage: 1d6 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (5) + 3 - 1 = 7

Rocky slithers forward and does what a snake of his kind does, tries to swallow the lizard for food.

bite, fatigue: 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (15) + 3 - 1 = 17
damage: 1d6 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 3 - 2 = 7
grab on hit: 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 7 - 1 = 8

Stratacast lets his concerns show. Rocky however just sees a meal.
Gulp

Battle over, you may want to reread the first post in the cave and let me know if there is any exploration you wish to do...

Farlen will examine the cave painting.
Knowledge history: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
He will also look at the rock slide.
perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
"Hmm, very interesting."

Further in the cave, Farlen inspects the rock paintings and a nearby rockfall. No other dinosaurs will be coming through there this evening!

Farlen can't make out much about the paintings
If you are trained in local you can also have a go with that. Others may also want to make perception and history/local checks.

I assume Farlen can't retry perception, but if he can...
Farlen will look around the cave.
perception: 1d20 ⇒ 7

He will then detect magic scanning the walls for anything.

There is a magical glow among the fungi...

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

"Well, nothing looks to be of much interest here. I guess we should get some shut-eye after that hard travel before we continue tomorrow." Stratacast says as he picks a spot to lay down with Rocky next to him before tipping his hat over his face.

Farlen concentrates on the fungi and tries to determine the type and strength of the magic.

Can he attempt a spellcraft or knowledge arcana to learn more of the magic aura?

In order to try and work out more about the auras and items, Farlen would need to eyeball them and touch the items. That means getting fungi on his fingers...

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Knowledge: Local: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 (Traps +1, Stonework +2, Stonetraps +3)

Heal: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Khargrom waves his allies over, "Got some bodies here, anyone recognize them? I figure we might at least figure out who our bunkmates are for the night." Once his allies are near, he will search the bodies. If Farlen won't dig out the magic fungi, he'll do that too. "tis just a bit o' dirt and glowy plants. Never hurt nobody."

On the dead bodies there are three sets of bandages (magical), a throwing axe, a nice lookig bolas, three bottles (magical), six pairs of snowshoes, a large tooth (magical), a bag with gems inside it.

Khargrom counts out the gems publicly, then tosses the bag to Farlen. "In case yeh got some spells that need expensive components, you get to hold these till we get back to civilization."

He sets aside the bandages and tooth, looking at the two spellcasters, "All you, figure out what we got."

Taking a sniff and then dabbing a tiny bit of each potion onto his tongue, he tries to figure out if he recognizes any of the flavors of liquid.

Perception to Identify the powers of a potion through taste DC 15 + CL.

Perception Potion #1: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Perception Potion #2: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
Perception Potion #3: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Lastly he simply sets out the snowshoes for the group to use tomorrow, "This'll get us moving faster if we run across the deep stuff!"

Snowshoes

Farlen will try to figure out the bandages and the tooth.

spellcraft to identify bandages: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16
spellcraft of tooth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22
"Interesting! Very Interesting."

"Can't say that that I mind finding this stuff, but I wish it had not come out of the demise of others. I will keep the gem safe. I am a jewelry designer by trade you know."

Poison, definitely poison.

Or... oh gods, it's worse. Tea. A herbal tea at that. Probably brewed by the savages to keep out the cold. The second is the same. The third has a much more woody flavor. Hard to tell why anyone would want to drink that, certainly it would ruin a meal as it seems to make you throat all but seize up.

Two potions of endure elements, one of barkskin

Farlen scratches his head for a while, before finally concluding the bandages would magically help the healing process. bandages of rapid recovery The tooth is actually an enchanted wand, that will let you travel long and hard. Wand of longstrider

And moving things on
The night passes without incident. Hurrah, and the group awake in the morning more or less warm and well rested.

You may make another attempt at deciphering the paintings if you like. Nobody bought that translation sheet at the start, did they?

knowledge history: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Farlen examines the painting again thinking there is something he is missing. He will sketch them in his journal also.

Khargrom hands off the barkskin potion to the barbarian, "I figure you'll be the largest target if we get into another fight, might as well have this."

The proud warrior eye's him, attempting to discern if he thinks she is weak and needs the aid. With a *Hmmpph* she takes the potion, apparently satisfied with his tactical explanation.

He hands the other two off to the druid, "If yer snake or you get cold, these'll help."

________________________________________________________________

The next morning the dwarf wakens from a restful sleep, "Belly full of lizard chicken in a warm cave, I feel like I'm home!" He wanders over and looks over the paintings again and then shrugs.

Knowledge: Local: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Looking out the cave entrance he gauges the height of the snow to determine if snowshoes are needed and if the temp has dropped enough to need his new wand. He looks over the loot pile, "Anybody able to use that fancy wand of daddy long legs or whatever it was? Moving fast might let us catch up to them danged snakes." He looks over at Rocky, "present company excluded o' course!"

The storm has passed and the cave takes little time to dig out. Even better, your path slopes gently downward towards a series of high rocky cliffs at the edge of the Tusk Mountains. It is around midday that the map you are following indicates you should take a narrow ravine. You have passed numerous herd of Mammoth and Bison, which have always kept a respectful distance from youl.

The shriek of a snowy owl dances off the high, rough walls of ice and rock inside this gorge, and the long shadows inside make it feel like evening rather than midday. Although the canyon provides a direct path through the rocky terrain of this area, the other side is almost invisible from the entrance. In the snow drenched plains leading to the gorge mouth, primeval aurochs and bison paw at the new snow to unearth
scrub grass.

If you enter the ravine...

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 (Traps +1, Stonework +2, Stonetraps +3)

Khargrom points out the humanoids huddled beside a group of mammoths, "What'r they up to hiding over there? Have they seen us? Should we introduce ourselves?"

I might be the only person that can use that wand without UMD, but its personal only, so I can't use it on you guys for you, sorry.

Staracast looks at where Khargrom is pointing, "We should try to approach peacefully. Anyone have a white flag we can fly to show that we mean no harm?"

"White on white might be hard to see anyway. I like a more subtle approach. The last two encounters with the natives have not made me think they won't stampede the herd at us. Let us proceed cautiously and try to avoid them."

survival check: 1d20 ⇒ 14

"I think if we keep low and don't draw attention to ourselves we can move through the ravine."

Walking in a little ways, "Looks like a group started down this way then changed there mind and doubled back." "Hey, there's something dead ahead." "There's a dead cat in here."

Is there any way around the ravine, even if more difficult?

I guess we could follow the other humanoid tracks and see how they went around the ravine of cat death. Anyone good at survival checks?

Under Farlen's advice, Stratacast looks to the ground for any signs of the tracks.

survival: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Bit of a retcon back to the cave for a moment, as I'm not sure I gave you all the information about the cave paintings, which is nice backstory.

The paintings depict a castle at the base of a mountain. Outside the castle, a large creature with wings and a long neck lies on the ground before a figure lifting a huge red axe over its head to strike. Other humanoid figures cluster around the scene. The mural is then interrupted by a repeated design: two mammoths with a smaller one in tow marching east. This motif is repeated over and over in an orderly line from the top wall of the cave to the bottom. There are 30 copies of this design.

The next scene shows the wielder of the red axe lying on a raised mound within the castle, his weapon clutched to his chest. Other figures leave the castle carrying large bags on their shoulders.

The drawings continue on the other side of the cave, showing an avalanche cascading down to cover the tower. The last drawing shows more of the humanoid figures standing over the edge overlooking the castle’s previous location, while four drawings of the moon in various states arc above the scene. In this last picture, all of the humanoid figures have a smear of white color around their lower faces.

Khargrom noted that the creature on the ground in the first painting was originally painted white, but that time has eroded whatever the painter used to show this color. The character brandishing the axe was also painted white, but around the face, suggesting a large white beard.

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled peril.

In the ravine you realise you could try to avoid it by going up the nearby mountain side. It is steep, icy and the going would be very slow. You to recall that you are following another team, and trying to get to the "treasure" before them. Still, it would be possible to avoid it if you so choose.

Khargrom shrugs, ”Well, can’t go around and can’t turn back. Let’s just be careful.”

Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Farlen attempts to be quiet and follow after Khargrom's lead.

stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

Not sure we can stealth the whole ravine floor. Might be way too slow. But at least when we get close to the hiding humans.

Farlen will try to determine how the tiger died.
heal check: 1d20 ⇒ 12

The team slips into the ravine. The cold seems to radiate off the walls which get rapidly higher as you cautiously edge forward down the looonnnngg ravine. Still barely half a mile distant you can see what looks like the other end of it...

And perception checks with your next post please.

Farlen does his best to keep a watchful eye out.
Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 15

"If we can angle away for the bison and bulls."

The stocky dwarf tries to stay light on his feet, ready for anything as they hurry along.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 (Traps +1, Stonework +2, Stonetraps +3)

Stratacast tries checking the wand to determine how many charges are on it as the head down the ravine. If there are more than ten, he'll use one on himself and one on Rocky with spell sharing.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

*Shivers*

Amiri glares at anyone questioning her clothing choices.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Maybe a fifth of the way in, you all hear a rumbling echoing down the ravine! A herd of Auroch is heading your way.

Unless you have some unusual method of movement, your only real option to get away is to climb the walls. As you all make your perception checks, you all get a single chance to do that. The DC is 15. If you fail then roll initiative, if you beat a (see below) you will have time to make a second check before the herd is upon you!
herd init: 1d20 ⇒ 14