[PFS Gameday VIII] GM Roxxie's 5-08 The Confirmation (Inactive)

Game Master Roxxie613

Vipera tossed the rope to the other side before jumping. So we should be able lower the rope so that Urushi can climb up.

"We will lower the rope for you. Just grab that bundle down there and let usss pull you up, Urushi."

Urushi already grabbed the bundle the first time.

Urushi jumps in with a splash and the group on the other side hauls the leshy up. Ruzz is the only one left on the former side of the cavern.

The gnome seemed to hope that maybe the others would find a way across that didn't include him jumping. With a sigh he launches his pack across the gap and then winds up for a run and jump.

Acrobatics: 1d20 - 4 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (1) - 4 + 1 + 2 = 0

Sadly the gnome trips on a rock well before the lip of the ledge and tumbles over into the water artlessly. He comes up in the water spurting and coughing. His blue beard dye leaks into the water revealing white hair underneath. With a great deal of struggle the gnome tries to find a rope up to the other side or at least out of the water in general.

Swim: 1d20 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (14) - 2 + 1 = 13

Managing to swim over to the rope Ruzz struggles further in his attempt to climb out with an his gear soaking wet. Finding that the rope is gone as the group hauled it to with Urushi the gnome only sighs and clings to the rocks.

Ruzz runs up to the edge of the gap to jump only to overthink it at the last moment, slip on the ledge, and crash into the water. The other pathfinders lower the rope back and lift Ruzz out of the water, and the group takes a moment to dry off and warm up.

Vipera's eye emanates disappointment, and the group soon discovers why. Moving forward, about 30 feet beyond the pit and around a corner, a long, 3-foot-wide wooden plank rests against the cave's wall.

The bundle of cloth Urushi brought up much earlier is a beautiful green cloak, far too clean to have been down there very long. Who is carrying the cloak? Are they wearing it, carrying it in hand, or stowing it?

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The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway's walls.

These carvings are in a different style from the petroglyphs found elsewhere, and are easily discerned to be much older.

To inspect these inscriptions closer, I'll need a Knowledge (history or religion), Linguistics, Appraise, or Perception check. Everon gets a +2 bonus for knowing the Azlanti language. Anyone attempting Appraise or Perception takes a -2 penalty from the degree of deterioration. There are at least a dozen different inscriptions.

"Well, would you look at that?" Cynan gives a low whistle of appreciation.

perception: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 6 - 2 = 6

"What is it?"

Ruzz takes his time to look over the inscriptions to see if he can puzzle out their meaning.

Linguistics checks are secret roles so I'll let you do that. My modifier is +8

While walking the cave, Yaerstenn stops for a moment, and listens to the faint hush that seems to follow him.

"Yes, Elias? Mmhmm. I wonder how Janira's doing, too. He turns to the group "Maybe we shouldn't have left her alone?" He says with a concerned air.

When the party arrives to the inscriptions, he runs a hand across the walls and puts his mind to it.

"Could they be religious symbols?" He closes his eyes. "Pray grant me your knowledge and allow me to understand those inscriptions."
Casting Guidance

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 = 6

Everon inspects the inscription, trying to decipher it with his knowledge of ancient languages.

Everon tries a Linguistic check too, he has too a modifier of +8, without taking in account the +2 bonus.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 7 - 2 = 17

Vipera carefully examines the petroglyphs. I wonder what they might mean?

Ruzz Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Everon Linguistics, free inspiration: 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (4) + 8 + 2 + (1) = 15

Just waiting on Urushi's roll before I dole out info

Linguistics is rolled behind the screen by the GM. I use spoilers. This is because failure can have consequences for the players that they can avoid if they know they have failed.

Normally, I agree, but this is a succeed or fail scenario using a myriad of skills, so I don't mind if people know what they roll.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (10) + 4 - 2 = 12

It becomes clear that these inscriptions are from the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden.

Four of the inscriptions are discernible, and the rest are too faded to gather much other than they are in the same styling as the rest.

”Aroden? The dead god. What’s it say?”

Ruzz shares what he can figure out with the others once he is certain of the meaning. He looks around the area in confusion as to why these inscriptions woukd be found in a place like this.

"Did anyone else figure out anything?"

Everyone may open Ruzz's spoiler

Everon too explains what he found out about the inscriptions.

"Fascinating, ancient inscriptions about the dead god of humanity, in a place such as this. Perhaps this was an ancient Azlanti temple dedicated to Aroden? We need to find out more."

Vipera shares her findings. "Thisss looks like a sssoldier, carrying a torch. What does it mean?"

The cave opens up to the South, and there doesn't seem to be anything further in this cave. We're on slide 3, and the opening to the south leads to slide 4, so feel free to move your token into slide 4 as you move on through the cave

Cynan moves forward, cautiously peering about.
perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Ruzz is hard to pull away from the cave with the symbols but he reluctantly falls into line at the very back. He keeps his eyes peeled for anything trying to sneak up from behind.

Vipera pulls loose the crossbow slung across her and loads a bolt.

"Good idea, Ruzzzzz. Keep an eye out for dangersss. Keep our weaponsss at the ready."

It's hard to see from where's he's standing, but Cynan thinks he sees shimmering of water and a figure in the water.

Assuming someone steps in to be able to see fully the next cave

Also this is the last chance for someone to say anything about the cloak. Right now I'm assuming Urushi is carrying the wet fabric in their arms.

The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.

Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.

Kneeling in the water, facing away from you, is a lone humanoid figure. Looking closer upon his neck, it becomes obvious that this is a gillman. From this side, that is about all you can tell.

knowledge (local): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

knowledge (engineering): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Cynan lets out a low whistle, ”The city at the centre of the world... Look, there’s the Starstone Cathedral! That’s pretty incredible: Absalom herself, all in miniature.”

He waves at the gillman, ”Hey, hey! This is great! Is this yours?!”

The Gilman does not move or respond in any way, still facing way from you.

He is facing towards the pool, diorama, and cave wall.

Cynan looks at the others, "Is he maybe, y'know, ah, what'sitcalled... meditating or something?"

The old man revolves on himself, clearly impressed by what he sees, and walks up a little to examine the diorama.

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

"Indeed, it is a pretty faithful representation of Absalom. I have some feeling that this may be of some import... Maybe an altar? Could it be related to the glyphs of the Dead God?"

He stays silent when the gillman doesn't respond to Cynan, unwilling to disturb someone else's meditation.

"Perhapsss he is no longer with the living. Let me sssend the eye to ssspy."

Vipera's eye detaches itself and flies over to the gillman, stealthily observing it for signs of life and danger.

Stealth: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (15) + 21 = 36
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Gillman perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

The gillman does seem to be in a state of meditation, sunk halfway into this pool. He does not notice the floating eyeball sticking to the shadows, and continues his meditation, obviously unaware of the group of adventurers behind him.

Edit: He is clearly alive, as his gills move and he occasionally shifts in the water.

"Maybe he comes here to meditate. Perhaps we should leave him be and make a note of it. We can come back later and see if he is ready to talk."

”Maybe he’ll recognise the cloak? Worth a try?”

"He ssseemsss alive. My eye would have reacted if he wasss a zombie. We should be cautioussss. It could be a trap."

Vipera recovers her eye and carefully inches forward.

Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Urushi will approach the figure with the cloak in hand.

Ruzz hangs back and looks at the city from afar. Hearing the others say it is a model of the city the gnome seems to grow concerned. He takes a closer look at it while keeping an eye on the resident of the pool.

"Maybe it's a model for planning an invasion of the city?"

The Gilman stretches and groans and mutters something in a language unfamiliar to you all, sounding every bit just an old man in a pool of water. He still is generally facing the cave wall, and from Urushi's angle, it doesn't seem he's looking at anything in particular besides the waters.

I will point out that he does not react to any speech or cave noises or any of the like.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

"I ssspy a cloak on the shore," Vipera hisses. "Maybe he'sss taking a sssswim."

Vipera sneaks forward, staring intently at the man in the water. As she approaches, she picks up a stone off the ground and skips it across the pond. The rock bounces off the water past the bathing gillman.

Activating Hypnotic Stare on the gillman (-2 to Will Saves)
Skipping Stone: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Not that there's any rules on this, but that's got to be a good enough attack roll to merit at least two, maybe even three skips.

While there's not rules on skipping, if you had rolled less than 5 you may have hit the poor gillman instead. ;) I'll share a story in Discussion

The gillman jumps with a start and spins around to face the group. He is an older man with bright blue eyes. He looks everyone over warily, sizing everyone up.

Ruzz waves to the gillman with a huge smile and waves with both arms. The gnome barks a greeting but doesn't come any closer.

"Howdy there how are you! Sorry to interrupt your uhh ... Whatever you were doing!"

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

The gnome seems otherwise oblivious to anything else going on.

Yaerstenn bows deep and speaks after Ruzz.

"Please forgive our intrusion. We were wandering these caves and saw you meditating."

Perception DC15: 1d20 ⇒ 14

Cynan points to Urushi, "Yeah, we even found a cloak. Is this yours?"

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Vipera is staring intently at the the gillman, when she notices that he appears to be watching the lips of her companions rather than their eyes.

"You are reading our lipssss. Are you deaf?"

Everyone who speaks or has spoken and wants to improve his attitude roll diplomacy please.

"Yes, I like many before me came here to listen to these pure waters."

The gillman's otherwise stoic expression saddens. "The cloak is familiar to me, but it is not mine. It belonged to a friend that came here before me and did not return."

"I indeed cannot hear. Thus is why I listen in the waters, hoping to hear wisdom from their ebbs and flows."

In his current state, he seems to only be answering questions directly asked, no more and no less.

Ruzz looks confused and doesn't seem to understand how he can listen to the water if he is deaf. He just keeps a smile on his face and nods.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

Cynan nods along with Ruzz.
diplomacy aid: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Yaerstenn smiles softly and points at the replica of Absalom.

"If I may say so, this miniature city is very remarkable. Do you happen to know why it was carved here?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

"Tell usss, old man, what doesss the water sssay to you?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Before we can move on, I need to know if Urushi does anything with the cloak or just keeps ahold of it.