GM Ietsuna's Core Library of the Lion (Inactive)

Game Master Ietsuna

There isn't really a mechanic that I am aware of to cover tracks. However, simply saying that you are is enough for me in the scenario. The floors are not dusty and if you make sure you clean up after yourselves if you make any messes that is enough for me.

Tatiana studies teh door carefully, looking for traps. As he finishes she fails to find any, but she does find that the door is unlocked. Opening it she peers through.

This long stone hallway stretches from north to south with several sets of doors along its east and west walls. The south wall bears a 10-foot-square field of carved divots that create no particular pattern. An inscription above the carving reads The keenest eyes cannot see everything. Always remember to see the big picture.

The carved floors here have seen consistent traffic over many years, and countless footsteps have worn a slight groove along the center of the hall.

You may take your time to study the 10-foot square and try to determine what can be gained from it with a Perception check.

perception: 1d20 ⇒ 3

1d4 ⇒ 3

Faeria rushes down the hall arms extended like a bird's wings. She stops seemingly at random in front of a pair of doors.

Keeping their goal in mind--the Shining Crusade that defeated the Whispering Tyrant--Ahmande is suddenly reminded of whispers of evil he encountered on another quest for the Pathfinder Society.

Checking a box for the Whispers of Evil boon from Chronicle 10-10 The Shattered Shield.

Ahmande follows Faeria, though he takes a much straighter line than she. He gets up close to the divots, studying a couple of them individually before he steps back and tries to follow the advice of the inscription, fuzzing his eyes out of focus and looking for the 'big picture.'

Perception DC 20, whispers of evil: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 8 + 1 = 19

He feels like the answer is just out of his grasp. But failing to make any connections, he turns towards the others and shrugs his shoulders. "Anybody make sense of this?"

Calmly walking at what seems like a snail's pace through the hall Niall tries to keep an eye on his surroundings

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

eventually coming to join the others by the door

come look at this, if you look right here you can see it says "Our monarch’s virtues are our own."

I'll pull out a pad of paper and make a note of the phrase

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

"A show of loyalty, I like it," Iladora muses, though she never would have noticed the saying herself. "Faeria, stay focused. What's over there?"

This room’s well-worn wooden floor sets it apart from the others. The west wall is lined with shelves that support books, a variety of instruments, and dozens of rectangular baskets that contain loose sheaves of paper. Several chairs are pushed against the wall, and a portrait of the Grand Prince hangs to east, surveying everything in the room with magisterial authority.

The brass plaque on the frame of the portrait reads, Persevere, persevere, persevere!

This is a small room and you may use Perform skills to locate clues along with the usual literary based skills.

Faeria looks over the room full of instruments, the trumpets, and drum sets, and cymbals! But then her eyes fall onto a seemingly empty bit of shelf. She rushes over to it and pulling something down or maybe pantomimes pulling something down--because whatever it is cannot be seen by anyone besides the mad mage. Then, with a word of magic (to cast ghost sound DC 16) she begins to play.

perform (air guitar): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Ahmande chuckles. "Not often that we get to work to accompaniment. I like it."

He begins sifting through the loose sheaves of paper, fixing the grammatical structure from famous speeches of the time in his head as he reads, as a reference to help find documents that might be of an age with the Shining Crusade.

Perform (oratory): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Tatiana tries to help with her historic knowledge .

Know history: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

I'll go in and take a look around see if I can see anything clearly out of place.

It is at times like these I wish my monastery was more traditional.

Yea I don't think I have any skills that can help with research, unless one of the rooms caters to my areas of expertise haha.

Having little knowledge of instruments or music, Iladora looks for any hidden doors or compartments.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

And the invisible band play on. "I CAN'T GET NO-♬"

As the other ones go inspect the room at the end of the hall, Akter moves to the one midway. He hopes to help search for information and hopefully speed it up as they work. He first examines the door.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17 Looking for traps on the door - I don't have trapfinding, but I can try my best at least :)

Between all of the searchers you find two texts. Stuck within a pile of sheet music you find a clue and among the music stands you find another. See slide 4 for these

In addition Niall find a scrap of paper. Player handout #1

Sorry for the delay; we lost internet at work yesterday, and that's where I post from primarily.

Ahmande joins Akter and Tatiana at the other door on this side of the hallway, anxious to continue their investigation.

"Does this mean anything to anyone?" Iladora asks, holding up the slip of paper with seemingly random letters written on it. "A sequence of volumes, maybe?" Or maybe it will make more sense later.

Looking at the paper, Tatiana says no idea, but it could be part of a code or a clue to decipher one? May be we will find something else to help understand it.

Looking at her comrades she adds Don't forget to clean it up, we need to let as few tracks as possible of our presence here.

"No, no, no. The chords go: K-Y-V-W-K-C-E-C-O-O-M-I-M-E-C-F-G-C-Q-F, and then C." instructs Faeria to the rest of the band, strumming the notes out on her imaginary guitar--appropriate considering that some of the notes themselves are imaginary.

"And then the big finish!" She slams her air guitar into the floor where it makes a noise like a guitar being slammed into the floor. Then she shovels the unseen instrument up into her arms and places it back onto the shelf.

"Ready?" she asks the space 5 feet to the left of Niall, and then heads for the door.

1d4 ⇒ 4

The southern door in fact. She tries to open it.

Thousands of books line the dozens of shelves in this high-ceilinged library. Several tables and chairs near the center of the room provide a place to read quietly, and five rows of pew-like benches nearby face an immense lion’s head carved from the eastern wall.

This is a large room. Due to the wide variety of subjects represented in this library, you may use any Knowledge check along with the usual literary ones

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

follow the mad-man, love this game

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Ugh, these Perception checks hate me.

Glancing at the books, Iladora notices one called "In the Details: A treatise on devils and their servants." She opens it and flips through the pages.

Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

"Ah-hah!" she exclaims, and wishes immediately that she hadn't. "Not... not relevant to the mission," she says to the others, looking around. "Just interesting." I remember this! She reads:

"It is often said that imps are little more than a nuisance. While imps are among the lowliest of their kind, they should not be underestimated. Because they are often called as familiars, they play a crucial role in the infernal hierarchy by serving as a first temptation, a gateway to delving further and further down the path to damnation."

Shouldn't there be another room open now too? We were gathered at another door before Faeria followed her random number generator. I'm fine going along with that kind of play, but when it leads her off on her own, it really should do that. Ahmande (and two others) are still trying to enter the other eastern room.

misperception: 1d20 ⇒ 5

"Ooooh, look at leaves... They're so pretty." Faeria says standing in the middle of the room. She spins about, her arms extended, dancing to an unheard tune, taking it all in.

Ugh, these Perception checks hate me.

Took me about 10 tries to roll above an 8 (on a d20--I made sure it was a d20) in another current game where I am nominally the front-line falchion fighter... Fortunately, he has hit points, and no one else could anything either, so I didn't feel so bad. The 1 on the disguise check (the check with the -1 CHA penalty) was particularly funny as he was crossdressing at the time. ;)

Remember too, you can always Take 10 while not being shot at. I'm rolling Faeria's because she doesn't have a bonus to perception and randomness is sort of her thing.

And there are bonuses too. I assume each character has all of these, and can use 'em as indicated.

With a +7 perception, I will take 10 if possible

Akter looks around with attention, up to the moment the ranger feels he might have noticed something - but did he?

I'll wait for the GM before following from here.

Faeria grabs a book off of a shelf, flips it open to the middle, coos to it like it was alive, and then tosses it into the air.

"FLY!"

Even after it falls, she still gazes up to, and past its apogee--a look of serene wonder on her otherwise glazed expression.

Sorry Ahmande. Missed that. Update below

This well-lit room holds many chairs aligned towards two giant chalkboards that hang on the north wall. Along the opposite wall, several shelves hold books on sundry topics. Simple but
colorful tapestries hang along the north wall, giving the room a bright appearance despite the lack of sunlight and the dour portrait of Grand Prince Stavian III affixed to the south wall.

The shelved books cover a wide range of topics. A 15-minute hourglass sits atop the desk. A brass plaque on the frame of the portrait reads, To serve Taldor, I must first learn the history of Taldor.

This is a small room and literary skills can be used to search it.

Meanwhile in the large room taking 10 on perception is fine

"Well, if it's the history of Taldor I need to learn, then so be it." Ahmande begins searching the texts as the brass plaque orders.

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Tatiana tries to help Ahmandé through the place but fails.

Know. History: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Akter definitely noticed something. He turns his body towards the lion, in a gist, and instinctively pulls his bow.

Guys - over there, that lion on the eastern wall was following us with its eyes! It moved! - he interrupts his friends on the large room, alarmed.

"Hmm? Are you sure you aren't just seeing things?" Faeria says to a space adjacent to Akter. "I'm an expert on the subject, you know."

"Describe the hallucinatory event--but don't do it until we find a couch for you to lay upon. It's very important. We need a couch, and a water-clock."

perception (couch?): 1d20 ⇒ 17

Iladore turns, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Just when I was beginning to question the wisdom of having my shield out. "This one?" She approaches cautiously and inspects the lion. "You're sure?"

If nothing else happens in the meantime, I'll take 20 to inspect it for a 26. Is there anything unusual about it?

Ahmande finds a clue in a book that is on the desk at the front of the room. Bibliographic References

Faeria fails to find a couch, but perhaps one of the long bences could be used in a pinch.

The lion head on the wall gives up its charade and calls to you. Come closer so that I may study those who enter my library.

Having found a clue, Ahmande moves back into the hall and wanders to the larger library, hoping to find the others there.

Tatiana follows Ahmandé.

Have you found something? she asks seeing her comrades clump together.

"Akter had a visual hallucination that the lion relief's eyes moved! And I just had an auditory hallucination that it spoke to us, and bid to us come closer." Faeria says excitedly to the space to Tatiana's right. "I'm looking for couch now to try, and get to the root of the matter. Oh, and do you have a water clock on you?"

Tatiana tries to look at Faeria and says No, I don’t. Then she looks at the lion’s statue to try to see if it’s an hallucination or Not.

As the lion calls, Akter approaches carefully.

Who are you? - he says, weapon still in hands.

The lion's head speaks again. I believe I asked your names first. Come closer and introduce yourselves.

Tatiana bows to the Lion and says
Honored to make your acquaintance. I'm Tatiana Malkolva, follower of Pharasma.
We are sorry to disturb you and we hope that we not trouble you.

Niall Sheehan it's been quite a while since I've seen a statue talk. may we utilize your library

Ahmande looks at the others. "We're talking to a statue now?" He gives a sharp glance towards Faeria. "Is this your doing? What are you up to?"

He approaches cautiously, however, and answers... though he remains alert. "I am called Ahmande. I'm a... ahh... well, I used to be a street performer. More of just a Pathfinder these days, though."

"Iladora. Former-- military. Now a sellsword." Her emphasis on the last word makes it clear that she's less than thrilled about this reality. "Are you a guardian of this place, or an occupant?"

I’m Akter Phruse, woodsman and tracker for the society. - the ranger replies - Now... Who are we talking to?

Ahmande looks at the others. "We're talking to a statue now?" He gives a sharp glance towards Faeria. "Is this your doing? What are you up to?"

"Hm?" says Faeria surprised to see the elf bard. "I'm sorry. I couldn't possibly give a consultation outside of office hours. Perhaps you could make an appointment with my secretary?"

Tatiana almost burst out laughing at Faeria's words but finaly manage to keep her cool.

Interesting, interesting. I am the guardian of this library. Having been here for so long I have a grand knowledge of history, however I cannot leave as you can well see and I would know of happenings from beyond these walls. Tell me of the outside world.

What's the last word you heard, after all, to tell a good story one ought to know where to begin

I have Lion's Blade initiates through here fairly regularly. The last was a month or so ago, but their knowledge is somewhat local. You say you are Pathfinders. Tell me of your latest travels.

I’ve actually just finished 3 years of training myself, so I’m a bit behind but I’m sure some of my friends can tell you tales, a few might even be true.

Tatiana is happy to jump in!

I've done a lot of travel since my initiation as an initiate of Pharasma back in Caliphas!
I've been sent to join the Pathfinders by Lord Diauden in Absalom. I've traveled back and forth in Kortos until I was sent to the south in Thuvia to help secure the Sun Elixir. Then I went North to help find a young noble then going back South to the Impossible Kingdoms!
At last I've help people lift a malediction before returning to Absalom trying to find artifact link to Razelros!

Then, whispering she says I also can talk about the last rumors in Court...