GM Zero/GL's Giantslayer! (Inactive)

Game Master GM_Grandlounge

Ulretha has been muttering under his breath for the duration of the solution to get him out of the bottom of the pit and their trek down the corridor.

He does not seem angry with Kioshi, however, rather relieved that the man was able to come up with a solution.

"Thyste is right. Anyone who goes out into the wilds for no reason is crazy. And usually delusional. Most people aren't like us and would starve within days of running out of the food they brought with them. They think they're 'getting back to nature' and forgetting that most of the things out in nature would eat you as soon as look at you."

"No, I'll take four wall and a waterproof roof, food I buy and cooked by a female who has other skills, a warm fire and a soft bed over nature every day."

"Have no doubt, if I didn't think there were riches to be found here, I would still be in Trunau living in the biggest house I could afford with our loot from the battle," Ulretha answers, chiming in on the discussion.

"Have no doubt, if I didn't think there were riches to be found here, I would still be in Trunau living in the biggest house I could afford with our loot from the battle," Ulretha answers, chiming in on the discussion.

”That, and you like the way my tail swishes when I walk,” chimes Thyste.

Lidia there is a group of vines that catch your eye.

Knowledge nature please.

Ya, in this world it is a death wish to go backcountry camping. Considering a friend was attacked by a moose recently, where I am. It may be crazy in this world too. But, I'm not going to stop.

;-) A moose?

kn nature: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Knowledge(Nature): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

"That, too," Ulretha confirms. "All our problems would be solved if you just knew how to cook."

Knowledge (Nature): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Meese are quite dangerous, apparently. I live too far south to know. We just have to worry about every type of poisonous snake in North America, here.

kn nature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

We will save all the rolls that are not Lidia until she gets back and describes the creature to you all. She is currently the only one that sees it.

Please roll stealth if you want to get back to the group.

Lidia freezes in place and her eyes widen when she realizes the mortal danger the group is now stumbling toward. Already she can hear Thyste's cheerful piping voice carrying through the buzz and chatter of the fauna. She bites her lip in indecision, staying put for long enough to evaluate the chances of bypassing the creature, scanning about for other safer paths through the greenhouse.

Survival: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12

After this brief and terrified survey, Lidia backs away from the monster, hoping to warn the group before they wander into its grasp.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31

Lidia makes it back to the group explaining what she sees she finds out that most of the group has dealt with these creatures in the past in one way or another.

The others add notable information that Tendriculos have regeneration that is stopped by bludgeoning or fire are infact plants with all plant traits despite being ambulatory and are immune to acid.

How would you like to proceed?

"I recommend we try to go around it. This is a pretty big place. If we stick close to the walls, maybe it won't be able to reach us." suggests Lidia.

"Agreed. I see no reason to start a fight with a bunch of plants. We have had enough troubles. Let's hug the wall and circle the area."

Kioshi nods.

“Good, I will follow you! And I have almost no spells left!“

Ben starts off in a clockwise direction.

"But...I have bludgeoning," Ulretha says, looking down at his hammer in disappointment.

Then, again, he's still not feeling at full strength so he's not necessarily looking for a fight, either.

He follows the group, gesturing for the Pack to follow him closely as they hug the wall.

Thyste considers the plant tentacle monster that eats people.

She says something filthy, as can be predicted.

Ok, we are going to do it this way.

I will take one survival or perception check from a designated leader. This is to read the creature's movement and keep it as far away from you as possible. This will decrease the DC of the check to get past it. Then we will do a group stealth check. Everyone rolls stealth. The highest roll is the main roll the others count as aids.

Does this work for everyone (these are the PFS group check rules from season 9, I think)?

Works for me!

Perfect!

Ben, I think it's between you and me to lead. I'm happy to do it if you like.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

Yes. that works great.

"You've seen the creature so why don't you lead Lidia?"

-stealth, Ben: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (17) - 2 = 15
-stealth, Little Buddy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

"Ok. Remember, the vines can be almost anywhere-- trailing along the ground, hanging from a tree, interspersed with the foliage of some other plant. The thing is almost too clever to be a plant and its huge. So keep your eyes peeled. The vines look like regular vines, but they're fleshier and have little pinkish lines running through them. That's the sap, and its part of what makes the thing so strong. If those vines get you, even someone as big as Ben, chances are it'll pull you in easily. And the thing can feel vibrations in the ground in the air, so move carefully -- those vines can move and they're liable to slither across our path if they can."

Lidia takes a deep breath as she looks around at everyone. She was probably saying all that for her own benefit, just to work up her nerve.

"Right. Let's go." And so saying, she begins sneaking off north, sticking close to the wall.

”Does it have a sister?”

Stealth: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (3) + 17 = 20

Stealth : 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Little Ben whispers back in sotto voice basso, "Good advice, Lidia, good advice. And, I'm thinking, we should be quiet as much as possible.". In spite of his size and obvious lack of skill, he does relatively well, and is able to point to a few sound traps that the others miss.

So, not only does he have to be quiet but also he has to avoid making too many vibrations on the ground. Should be easy enough for a 7' tall man wearing a shirt made out of solid steel.

Stealth minus ACP: 1d20 + 8 - 7 ⇒ (10) + 8 - 7 = 11

The Pack Follows along once he makes a few gestures.

Stealth minus ACP: 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (13) + 3 - 1 = 15

Stealth minus ACP: 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (4) + 3 - 1 = 6

Stealth minus ACP: 1d20 + 3 - 1 ⇒ (3) + 3 - 1 = 5

Moving generally in a clockwise direction, the team, going excruciatingly, slowly trails the creature as it grazes. Lidia tracks its movement with carefully honed expertise. Ben and Little Buddy do better than they maybe would expect, though the familiarity of the natural surrounds instills confidence. Thyste continues along with the group and has the unfortunate job of steering Kioshi whose feet seem to exclusively find the loudest places to land The pack sneaks with mixed success and the two young members get a little snippy with one another, but the larger of the three manages to quiet them down.

The team manages to sneak to a set of double doors set into the back of a root-formed gazebo.

How would like to proceed. Once through the doors, you believe you will be in the clear.

Lidia breathes easily for the first time since entering the greenhouse once she looks back and sees everyone safely in the gazebo. "We're lucky this place is so noisy." she observes.

She then goes to open the double doors.

Ben gives the area a look for traps perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22

He will pause to allow anyone else to check for things and then open it if nobody says anything after a wait of 10 seconds.

Ulretha worries less about the doors and watches behind them to make sure that the big scary plant doesn't sneak up on them.

The door is safe to open. The team is able to shuffle everyone quietly.

Numerous flowers cling to the myriad vines and creepers growing over every inch of this curving corridor. A powerful bouquet of competing floral fragrances floats throughout the enclosed space.

Knowledge nature please.

kn nature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Little Ben just isn't all that used to exotic flora or fauna. But he still suspects that, the way this place is, the pungent scent is probably dangerous and wets a rag and puts it over his mouth. Just in case. And also, just in case, he casts detect poison as he goes along.

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

"That smell... it seems familiar." says Lidia. She frowns and crouches down to take a closer look at the nearby creepers.

kn nature : 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

Lidia and Kioshi. Many of the flowers here are of exceptional rarity and are worth a lot of money.

"These aren't local flowers." says Lidia as she pokes gently at a slender, delicate-looking bloom. "I know where I saw this one. I went into a city once, in Ustalav. There was a place that sold rare flowers imported from other countries. Some were so fragile they couldn't even grow in the wild anymore, they had to be raised in special protected environments. This looks like one of those. I don't remember any of the names or where they were from, but I remember that smell. People supposedly pay a lot of money for them. That didn't really make a lot of sense to me, they look kinda strange in my opinion. And I never had money to spend on a flower that can't even live in the real world. Daisies and violets are nicer."

She points to another flower about 10 feet up the path. "That one I recognize. It's a tulip. They come in all sorts of colors, and some of those are valuable too, if they're rare enough."

She stands up. "This must be where the druid keeps their special flowers, for some reason. But as far as I know none of these are dangerous or anything. And they certainly aren't any good for fighting orcs." She shoulders her gear. "Come on, let's keep going."

Ben takes his scarf off and gives the blossoms a good sniff now that his detect poison came up null and the flowers are kinda identified.

"Hmmm. That is very interesting. I'm fond of flowers myself, but not under the current circumstances. We'll have to collect a few more seeds on the way out."

”Oh, absolutely not!” snaps Thyste. ”Ben, your Queen is missing a crown. I demand you fashion me one of flowers immediately!”

Ulretha sniffs some of the flowers, then sneezes. He wipes his snout with the back of his hand.

"Yeah, yeah. They're lovely. But even you can't even eat them. It would be better to raise grass. At least you can eat the things that eat grass," he comments.

Ben waves at Thyste dismissively. "Later, flower child, later. Right now we need to search this place."

Ben continues to fire off random detect poison castings when he sees a door, a new plant, anything that might be poisoned.

Ben nothing seems poisonous, you do know that several of these are edible but are likely worth a lot more for sale than in Ulretha's belly.

On to the next room then?

Yes, we keep moving. Not stopping to smell the roses. at least most of us aren't.

Yes, continue onward

Kioshi follows the group.

The group walks the down what looks like a beautiful set of carved stairs, but as their hands run over the banister they find no seams or joints. These stairs like everything else here are grown. Turning down the hallways their gaze is met by a looming thirty-foot door made of tightly knotted emerald green vines that seem to tell a story of a great battle.

Ben calls out "orcs" in druidic, then pauses to see if the word opens the door. It seems reasonable given that the orcs caused all the issues to begin with. If not it will probably take some time to guess the password.

Though unable to read or speak the language that Ben is using, Lidia can basically tell what he's up to. She gives the vine door a dubious, sulky look.

"That druid back in town sure left out a lot of details about this place." grumbles Lidia. She drifts to the back of the group and looks back up the hallway the way they came. She pulls a bottle from her pack, takes a long drink, then leans against the wall in mopey fashion. The cat follows her and lets out a long, loud yowl at her.

"Yeah, I'm hungry too. Be patient." she scolds.

”One of these days I’m going to have to learn Druidic proper,” laments Thyste, who knows just enough to identify it when it’s spoken. ”Only words I know are the dirty ones.”

She grins, and leans in to Ulretha. ”That means ‘shit’ in Druid.”

When Ben calls out "orcs" Ulretha looks around, crouching down and with his hammer and shield held at the ready.

It quickly becomes apparent that there aren't actually orcs around and he glares at the man.

"Don't they call that 'fertilizer?'" Ulretha replies to Thyste.

"Maybe it's like the gateway at the entrance? We could try shining the magic lamp at it." suggests Lidia from the rear. She puts the bottle back in her pack and squats down to snatch up her cat and hug it up close to her neck and stroke its flank. The cat hangs limply in her grasp, mentally counting to ten perhaps...