"The anonymity that allow you to be deceived for generations? Or the anonymity that allowed the machinations of a Tyrant rise to threaten the world. If we don't protect against these thing are just grave robbers. Do you have useful information or not. What are the most threatened areas?Where is the leader, your former colleague? Where are the artifacts and information most in need of protecting? Do you have any intelligence on the types of enemies ahead? Do you have any inte...."
”The anonymity of the Decemvirate has no correlation to the Whispering Tyrant’s escape of Gallowspire. And I know not what you mean of ‘deceived for generations,’ but we do not have the privilege to discuss such minutiae when the center of the Pathfinder Society is on the verge of implosion; if you wish for a discussion on that front, I am more than willing to ensure that we shall meet once again, but only after we have dealt with the situation at hand!
“Unfortunately, my clairvoyance is limited to the actions of Pathfinders, and the triple-flanged Decemvirate is inherently warded against my sight thanks to their helm, so I cannot give you a detailed description of the situation at hand, but that does not mean I cannot be of any help. There is a cache hidden in the pedestal of the Durvin Gest statue that was placed there following the debacle that I first met you three,” She motions to Fletch, Thereus, and Xanaphia. ”I have given you all authorization to open it. You will find what’s within of particular use. Godspeed, Seekers.”
Following Shemis’s direction, the Pathfinders make their way to the statue of Durvin Gest, and when they do, a panel in the side of the pedestal magically materializes and opens, revealing several treasures!
Loot:
Gotta say, this is by far the most useful equipment horde I’ve seen a scenario give to a party of PCs.
A fully-charged wand of cure light wounds
10 potions of cure serious wounds
A scroll of death ward
A CL 18 scroll of dimension door
A pale green prism ioun stone
An orange prism ioun stone
Treasure in hand, the Pathfinders make their way to the Mausoleum.
*
Mindless undead occasionally meander out from within the Mausoleum, but opening the door to the crypt reveals a much more sinister truth:
The Mausoleum has become overrun by a horde of undead—no, not a horde, a flood! Every coffin, every sepulcher, every tomb has become flooded with the living dead—zombies, skeletons, crawling hands, beheadeds—and the Mausoleum of deceased Pathfinders has become a Pharasmin’s worst nightmare!
The undead mindlessly claw and rip at anything around them in an attempt to break their way out of the tombs that have become their prisons. They undead, scrambling for freedom, create a wall of flesh and bone that makes seeing beyond 10’ difficult—requiring a significant amount of time to try to catch a glimpse between the spaces of the undead.
When the doors to the Mausoleum fully open from simply being ajar, the corpses of once-Pathfinders spill out all over the Seekers, the beasts piling over one another in a tide of rot and bone to claw, grab, and rake at the Seekers! The minuscule undead largely fail to hit even the most unarmored of the Seekers, but 5% of their attacks manage to hit and deal minimal damage—but 5% of 10,000 is still 500, thus the minor wounds inflicted by a twentieth of these beasts still accumulate quickly into something deadly! There are specific rules for how these wounds accumulate.
Male Human Ranger 14 (Freebooter and Skirmisher) - HP 122/130, AC 29/T: 16/FF: 25 - Perception +19 - F: +14/ R: +14/ W: +8* - CMB: +18 - CMD: 34, Speed: 30*, Init. +4
Fletch takes two of the potions. Folks, the only item on that list that I can really use is the pale green prism ioun stone, but adding +1 to my lower-level abilities isn't going to benefit the group as much as adding it to one of our heavier-hitters. Someone else should take that stuff.
Anariel will take the dimension door scroll and two potions. I have an orange prism ioun stone and a competence bonus to saves so the pale green ones doesnt benefit me much.
Arriving at the Mausoleum Anariel scowls, Well, this isnt good. I can burn us a way in without expending any resources if you want to go that route. See if we can find out what's causing all of this?
Shapechange allows her to duplicate Form of the Dragon 3 which gives me a 12d8 breath weapon in a 100' line or 50' cone usable every 1d4 rounds. That should be enough to deal with masses of stacked up undead? It also gives DR10/magic.
Flinching at the sight of so many dead pathfinders arisen again, Thereus nods to Anariel's plan. "Yes - put the poor souls out of their misery as quickly as possible."
"I to can gain DR and Flight which may help survive the onslaught. But I have little in the way of area damage. We may want to search for the source of the animation. There may be a necromancer in there that needs to be stopped. I think we should cut off the head fo the snake."
Xanaphia takes the scroll of death ward from the stash and 2 of the potions. Before continuing on she casts heroism on herself and an extended (via rod) true seeing, and uses her wand of heightened awareness.
@GM I bought another lesser talisman of freedom between sessions, FYI
Anariel unleashes a cone of flame, clearing out a chunk of the undead and revealing a path of scorched undead remains towards a bone-white pylon.
Spellcraft 24:
This pylon is generating a massive amount of negative energy which seems to be animating the corpses of the Mausoleum. The pylon can either be disabled with great skill like a magical trap or through brute force.
If you exceed the DC by 5+, open the spoiler below
Spoiler:
The pylon acts as a minor conduit for another magical ritual, but you cannot discern the exact purpose.
Anariels huge dragon jaws split into a grin. Oh, its like some sort of magical trap but it also is a conduit for some sort of other ritual. I should be able to disable it, but not, I think, in this form, and not without some extra preparations.
With that Anariel changes form back to a troll and draws a scroll from her pack. Activating it she turns into an air elemental, draws her tools from her polymorphic pouch and approaches the pylon.
You might want to stand back a bit.
Using a scroll of Aram Zeys Focus so I can disable magical traps. Has it been more than 19 minutes? If so I will recast bestow insight as well.
How long has this taken? My scroll of aram zeys focus only lasts for 3 minutes and I dont have a spare. if it runs out I will spend another arcane pool to swop out a spell for it and cas it if necessary
Grognar was looking while you were working. It looks like it took 30sec to find one and you found the first one, so less than 1min 30sec is my best guess.
No “new” problems, but there is still the three groups of Pathfinders departing the Grand Lodge with relics/documents in hand and the one random Pathfinder scratching on the door of the Central House with a shortsword.
The Seekers make a B-line for the Pathfinders carrying off the relics. The eight thieves stop dead in their tracks, looking at the Seekers in astonishment and fear, unsure of what to do.
"Give those back. I'm on a roll with asking people nicely please don't disrupt that. I just convinced a flaming immortal to help us and I would like your help too. I have a fifth friend whom you can't seem who has been itching to turning people into rather impractical pieces of furniture and I would hate to see that happen."
Grognar, What you were just saying sounded more like an Intimidate check than a Diplomacy check to me, but I’m not going to push it because it ends the same either way.
The group shift their gaze between the Seekers and the relics in hand for several seconds. They look at one another and shift over the relics they are carrying to mostly be carried in one arm. They all draw weapons in their free hand and look as if they are ready to make a break for it!
Sense Motive 30:
The thieves are clearly scared of the party, but there is something that they are much more scared of than they are the party. From the scenario: “…[the group] fear[s]…[their leader] far more than the PCs.” TL; DR: using skills against these guys is impossible.
Everyone in the party (including animal companions and familiars and such) have a single standard action and a swift action in which to attempt to subdue the eight thieves. Assume the PCs and the group carrying the relics are in the most advantageous position for whatever action it is that you take.
A surprisingly deep voice rumbles from nearby, But hatstands are entirely practical pieces of furniture after which a tornado of magic is unleashed against the would be thieves!
Try to rob us will you! shouts Anariel as she appears floating above the enemy.
Multicoloured magical energy erupts across the group, setting them all to screaming and wailing.
Thief 1:1d8 ⇒ 4, fort save or die
Thief 2:1d8 ⇒ 2, 40 acid, reflex save for half
Thief 3:1d8 ⇒ 8, 2 beams
Thief 4:1d8 ⇒ 3, 80 electricity, reflex save for half
Thief 5:1d8 ⇒ 6, will save or permanently insane
Thief 6:1d8 ⇒ 3, 80 electricity, reflex save for half
Thief 7:1d8 ⇒ 2, 40 acid, reflex save for half
Thief 8:1d8 ⇒ 8, 2 beams
Thief 3, 2 beams, reroll 8's:2d8 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9, fort save or die, fort save or turned to stone
Thief 8, 2 beams, reroll 8's:2d8 ⇒ (7, 8) = 15, will save or sent to another plane
Reroll 8:1d8 ⇒ 5, fort save or turned to stone
I could still take a swift action depending on the outcome
Well...In favor of not overcomplicating things, I’m just going to call this one.
Not knowing the meaning of the word “overkill,” Anariel turns a thief to stone then sends them who-knows-where, drives one to insanity, and flat-out kills half of them. All for just trying to run.
The two still somehow conscious look at one another and drop the relics and get on their knees.
”Please! We’ll tell you anything! Just don’t hurt us!”
What do we do then? Obliterate the other groups of thieves? Not sure I want to waste the magical energy. She turns on the hapless survivor, Where is Torch? If you tell us the truth I might recover your petrified friend once this is all over.
”Last we saw him he was fighting a member of the Decemvirate who fled to the Mausoleum with Torch at his heels; I don’t know where he went from there, but Zurnzal might, he’s probably still in the Repository.”
Knowledge (local) 15:
Zurnzal is a half-orc assassin-for-hire that was a member of the Aspis Consortium team that raided the Grand Lodge and trapped Aram Zey in a lantern.
Anariel begins to swear some more, Now we have Aspis involved and working with Torch. Damn the man. An assassin to boot as well. Best be careful everyone!
On the way to the next group Anariel pops her spellbook out of her glove of storing and flips quicky through the pages to find a less lethal way of dealing with the groups.
Spending an arcane pool point and swopping out chains of light for mass suggestion but waiting to see what the rest do to conserve spell slots.
"Other than going in there with frightful aspect and letting them all hit me and make them all afraid, which I'm willing to do I don't really have the spells for this type of mission. If you know of a good spell to miracle I will cast it but my spells tend not to stick. I could wall them in or reverse gravity I guess."
I'm hoping one of the other's has something a bit more useful.
Anariel rolls her eyes at Grognar, Fine, fine, let me waste all of my magical energy dealing with these fools. If we frighten them all they will just scatter all ove the place and this will become even more difficult.
She turns on the group of thieves, You lot! Surrender at once in the name of the Decemvirate! Give up your booty and your weapons and return to Skyreach. Wait there until we have dealt with the current situation and can deal with you!
Casting Mass Suggestion on the group, DC30 will save to resist. I can affect 19 targets, it lasts for 19 hours, hopefully we will have the situation handled one way or another in that time.
