TOZ's Passing the Torch (Inactive)

Game Master TriOmegaZero

And the Gull is the only reason you managed to overcome that challenge. :) Everyone in agreement to have the Gull work the gate? What will the rest of the party do?

Only one outstanding thing outside here, yes? The lone agent picking at the door... can go talk to him!

Yes, let us talk to the agent before the clock counts down and the world explodes.

Omrax nods in agreement as he sheathes his greatsword and follows the group back to the gate.

To think the very Grand Lodge to become the looting grounds for such as these. Omrax shakes his head.

"Would you expect anything better from that bastard Torch?" Hamish replies.

Truth be told, I expect better from all men.
But with Torch, your point is well made, Master Hamish.
There is little he does which would surprise me now.

Yuri headbutts his comrades in furious joy at their victory. "Where next?!? 'An angry dwarf is a dangerous dwarf, and a sand dwarf is an angry dwarf,' as we Pahmet say"

Bombshell removes her eagle eyes, breaking out her bronze goggles with the elaborate set of lenses. She pulls out a lovely set of thieves' tools, and she quickly blows off the dust on them with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Y'know, the last time Crazy used these was during a Grand Convocation right here..."

disable device, if roll is needed: 1d20 + 25 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 25 + 2 = 40

Rokgurn winks at Bombshell.

"Well, if you are finished playing with your toys we have some real work to do."

Let us find out if this lone agent is actually Torch.

Bombshell takes over as acting captain for the Seaward Gull as the rest of the party approaches the Center House. The figure before the door is clearly too small to be the Grandmaster. Leaning against the double doors, slumped to the stone flagstones leading up to the building, is a familiar halfling woman.

”Good day Pathfinders! Janira Gavix, Pathfinder agent! I’m busy right now, have to chronicle everything inside the house, can’t help you right now! If you want to cooperate, that’s our motto!” On the ground next to her are numerous broken lock picks, while in her hand is a broken short sword. She raises the blade, clearly blunted from repeated use, slashing it against the dark wood panel of the door. No mark remains from the blow, as she raises the blade once more.

Brown Circle: Closed Gate
Red Circle: Starhall Burning
Purple Circle: Mausoleum Overflowing
Blue Circle: Lone Agent
Green Circle: Intruder Horde

"It be the Grand Lodge, lass." Hamish exclaims. "Pretty sure they've already chronicled everything. Who sent you here to do all this again?"

He picks up one of the broken lockpicks.

"Especially without the key." He adds.

”It’s an important mission!” Janira beams back. ”I was personally assigned to it! By the Decemvirate!”

Kasimir settles his carpet to the ground, and looks over the top of his spectacles at the young woman. Was this normal foolishness, or magically assisted foolishness?

Sense Motive 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

Kasimir steps toward the halfling and makes sure that the Gull is out of range. He then casts Magic Circle vs. Chaos on himself and moves until the halfling is protected by the magic.

What do you remember?”

"I have to chronicle the house. It's very important. The Decemvirate told me it needed done." The blunted edge scrapes down the door in measured strokes.

Kasimir can tell that the magic circle did not appear to free Janira.

"Well, then its a good thing we came along!" Hamish says, with a decisive nod.

"They just moved half the contents of this house here, to an off-site storage location. You're going to have to go chronicle all that too!" He instructs, with a confident nod. "In fact, you might want to do that now, come back to the rest here, once they have the key situation sorted!"

"I'm sure you can expense all those lockpicks too... don't forget." He adds, with a knowing nod. "You'll need form 37-B for that."

"Oh." The broken blade drops to the ground. "That's a really good idea. It'll go a lot quicker. Where is the other house?"

What, that might work? Egads, didn't expect that!
Now I'm on the spot! Uh... pondering...

Hamish's Bluff beats the DC on a 1, so... :)

Hamish glances up at the sky, as if pondering the time, scratching his bearded chin absently. "Well, last word had them finishing final security measures." He leans in close, and adds conspiratorially. "Have all the important stuff in that lot, so good they got ya on board, for sure."

"Anyway, think they said to head to the Wisp, grab a bite, maybe a drink... or two... and they'll send someone to get you once they have the security sorted. Think they're expecting it ta take a while, so will need you properly sustenanced!"

"Have a cup for ol' Captain O'Toole while yer there!"

"And if you see a briny salt there... scrawny fellow with a peg leg, name o' Eddy the Breaker, tell him to get his sorry ass back to the ship, 'fore I have him keel hauled."

_____________________________________

Back at the gate, the crew of the Gull will help Bombshell as she works the lock, the tiny sailors producing a full set of tools of their own, each one carried out on the shoulders of three or four crewmen.

Disable Aid Another: 1d20 + 17 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 17 + 2 = 21

Ouch, a 2? Glad Crazy's roll was much better!

Crazy takes a look at the mechanics of the lock, expertly identifying the routing mechanisms. It would be much harder from outside, but the gate was designed more for defense than imprisonment. With only a bit of work, the bolts slide into retracted position, still screened by Kasimir's illusion.

DC50 from outside, -10 if done from the inside.

Janira nods slowly, rising to shaky feet. "Aye aye Captain!" she offers with a shaky salute. Dried blood flakes away from her fingers, as Hamish notices cuts about the size of lockpick bars on them, alongside torn fingernails.

Hmm... how far is the Wounded Wisp from the Lodge? Could maybe give her a ride, now that the gate's open.

Kasimir’s eyes narrowed. Someone was skilled with enchantment magic, and used a lot of it on...her.

He thought for a moment, and then mentioned to Yuri “Could be vampires. The farther you are from me, the less I can do to help you.”

“She can take the carpet, it’s not as useful inside.”

Pretty sure the Wisp is a couple districts over.

Ya, too far to taxi via ship then. That's ok, don't want her to get there too quickly... she just looked tired. Chivalry and all that!

Here, you can take my carpet. It will save you quite a lot of time, just hold still for a moment...

Kasimir pulls a hair from her head, and picks up a broken lock pick, securing both in his wayfinder. He then steps off the carpet, and allows the halfling to test her flying skills.

Omrax will take the woman's hands.

Let me help you, Lady Janira. Your hands are injured.

He will risk a laying on hands with mercies to see if it helps.

Unless the cuts are superficial.

hands: 6d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 6, 2, 2, 1) = 18 + mercies remove (Cursed)(Fatigued)(Poisoned)(Sickened)

Rokgurn is concerned with Janira's mental state. He speaks a few words to Whisper in their shared language to examine her to see if there is any lingering magic around her while he ponders her medical condition.

Take 10 on Heal is now 23.

Whisper examines the magical auras (if any) surrounding Janira.

Whisper's Take 10 on Arcana is now 36. To determine spells in place.

Whisper recognizes that the dominate effect is still in place. Rokgurn can tell that all of her injuries are self-inflicted.

Janira steps onto the carpet dutifully. "I will explore and report! Thank you for your cooperation!"

Brown Circle: Closed Gate
Red Circle: Starhall Burning
Purple Circle: Mausoleum Overflowing
Blue Circle: Lone Agent
Green Circle: Intruder Horde

What would the party like to do now?

I am assuming that dominate person can be dispelled by Dispel Magic.

Rokgurn turns to Hamish and speaks to him in a language that a Summoner should know.

"Wait a moment Janira. My Eagle can carry you much faster than that slow carpet."

Wait, do I know terran? hmm...

@Hamish I saw it on your character sheet. If you do not understand Terran then my character will go up and whisper it to you.

Heh, was joking! It hurt spending those skill points to get the elemental languages (at 2 / level!)

"Feh, she'll be fine!" Hamish replies. "Get off her feet, a little rest waiting for the summons, she'll be right as rain."

"At least 'til we beat down the one what did it." He adds, with a frown.

Despite his words, he still gives it a try.

CL check: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Hrmm... That probably won't work...

Do we still need to root out what/whoever was animating the dead inside the mausoleum? They're probably still in there.

Looking to Kasimir for confirmation, the cleric gives a slight shake of his head, seeing no change in Janira’s reactions.

Janira, before you go. Who passed along the Decemvirate's instructions, and where were you at the time? And where and to whom were you supposed to report in once you'd finished? We're trying to find out who's in charge around here ourselves."

Protection from Evil generally wards the creature from domination and severs the link for the duration of the spell. At least we can find some information from her in the meanwhile.

@Grandmaster TOZ - Whisper's Arcana is quite high. I am assuming that active dominate effects can be dispelled but perhaps not with a 25 check.

“I also noticed the dominate effect, I’m surprised that the Magic Circle didn’t block it, I can’t explain that.

Her condition isn’t fatal, however. We should see to this artifact, and when we’re done, we can see to her and lay the dead to rest.

@TOZ - Kasimir is a member of the Dark Archive, and has been to this lodge before. would he know where dangerous things would be within the lodge?

Your circle is against Chaos and not Evil and thus should not block a dominate effect that is not of chaotic origin. At least that is my reading of the spell.

I don't want to leave her without making a reasonable effort to suppress/break the domination.

*Hands you scroll of Protection from Evil*

Rokgurn thanks Kasimir and hands the scroll to Hamish or Omrax.

"Are you even allowed to have this?"

Not on my spell list.

Aye, if its a lawful evil source, it would have no effect.
If not, she gets a new save... and even if she made that, it would only suppress it for 13 minutes (or just 1 if on a scroll), then come back into play again for the days that follow.
And it doesn't block an effect if it's already in place. It would just prevent further instructions. They'd be stuck doing whatever they were commanded to do before the protection hit.

end result: lots of reasons it might not have appeared to work =)

Hamish frowns, when his spell appears to do nothing. That can't be right!

"Ornery one, this." He growls. "But no simple spell is a match for Captain Hamish Carmody O'Toole!"

He spits into his palm, rubs his two hands together quickly for a moment, then tries one more time to cast off Janira's unwanted enchantment.

CL check #2 to dispel: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

If that fails too, he will stop (resources better spent elsewhere!)

Rokgurn hands back the scroll to Kasimir with a wink.

Why Clerics of Evil gods cannot have protection from evil is a bit dumb. I have the same problem with my cleric of Dispater.

@Hamish - That should do it. If it can be done.

As the protection spell takes hold, Janira shudders, twisting uncomfortably on the carpet. ”Do you still need help? I should get to chronicling...” she asks in confusion, clearly still affected by the compulsion.

Whisper estimates that whatever compelled her was something very powerful, possibly a mythic spell or artifact. Kasimir knows enough of the lodge to guess that anything of that power would be in the Repository, although access is typically limited to venture captains and the Ten.

Rokgurn turns to the others.

"We need to get to the source of this trouble and put an end to it if we can. We have dealt with the petty distractions but now we have real work to do."

To the Repository then?

Hamish frowns, when his spell appears to do nothing. That can't be right!

"Ornery one, this." He growls. "But no simple spell is a match for Captain Hamish Carmody O'Toole!"

He spits into his palm, rubs his two hands together quickly for a moment, then tries one more time to cast off Janira's unwanted enchantment.

As Hamish finishes his spell, the halfling blinks, straightening up slightly. Looking around, she seems to see the party for the first time. "Oh. OH! My head...feels like I've been listening to Master Shaine too long." Rubbing at her recently healed fingers, she looks at Kasimir. "Thank you for helping me. All of you. I was on the lodge grounds when I saw the undead coming from the Mausoleum. I knew I couldn't handle it by myself, so I retreated to Skyreach. I found a member of the Decemvirate there and thought they would know what to do. But when I warned them, they just laughed! It's a little fuzzy after that, but I think they used a sword on me and told me to get into the Center House. I don't know where they went from there. I hope that helps a littel."

"Good Work Hamish. Imagine what you can do when you put your mind to it."

He looks relieved that Janira is feeling better.

"Perhaps you can do something for us. We just defeated a bunch of looters (points to the location). Do you think you can organize the remaining junior pathfinders outside to retrieve the artifacts and put them somewhere safe. If you do not feel up to it I understand but I would like to put the Grand Lodge back in order if we can."

In the meanwhile Whisper examines her to see that the magical aura of domination has faded.

"Yes. Yes, I think I can do that now." Janira agrees. Whisper and Kasimir are confident that the domination is broken.

Anything else before the Repository?

Get us there whilst buffs are still running! =)
What sort of timing did we have on that part?