Ruins of Azlant

Game Master pauljathome

"Just stories, I'm afraid. My favourite is that you should wear a pink tutu when dealing with them but I strongly suspect that is just a story and I just like it because the thought of brave adventurers wearing pink tutu's amuses me. But we CAN sell you pink tutu's if you really want. 1 sp each for basic ones, up to 10 gp each for REALLY nice ones"

Vexas laughs nervously.

No... I think we're fine with what we've got.

Anybody else have questions for them before we head out?

Sosche is sure there is more to learn, but he's not sure what will unlock the secrets. So he's ready to go. "We'll keep our eyes opened for more ioun stones." He offers seriously.

When everyone is ready to go, he heads back to their weapons and resupplies before getting back on the road.

I don't think bravery has anything to do with the clothes you wear. I'll take one of your best pink tutu, please.

Sho hands 10GP

[b]"One tutu coming up. He waves and one of the other wyrwoods comes over with a positively gorgeous pink tutu with several semi precious (and shiny) gemstones sewn into it. They spend a bit of time measuring you and adjusting it so that it is an absolutely perfect fit once they are done.

You are positively effulgent in it.

Its getting to mid afternoon now. The Wyrwoods offer to let you stay here for the night if you wish. They don't eat food but they can offer you some fish to cook (they use the fish parts for stuff)

Do you wish to spend the night here or head on to the swamp immediately?

I don't want to delay the game, so I'll just tell you up front that the only issue is when you arrive at the swamp (your night here will be safe and uneventful). If you head off now it will be nightfall by the time you get to it, if you spend the night and get an early start it will be closer to noon.

Arriving in the daylight sounds nice. I suspect our night here would be safe and uneventful. Vexas suggests votes.

"Sure, let's spend the night with our new friends and head out in the morning." Sosche agrees.

"Time is tight. We only had six days when we started.
This is the second day - we spent one night in the tower.
We don't know what delays are ahead of us. I would suggest we press on today rather than cutting our day short, as it is only mid-afternoon."

This is the same day as the Chaos Beast fight and the haunt, right? How is everyone on daily resources?

”I’ve got plenty of resources if you want to press forward.” Sosche admits. He was looking forward to some comfort too!

Sorry, I forgot we had a time limit. Press on!

Vexas' resources are in his status line. Not too bad, still has all of his spell slots. Truthfully he wouldn't get much more from a full rest.

Vexas groans dramatically, annoyed that rest will be deferred.

Very well, we carry on!

Fenna can't figure out whether wyrwoods have a really strange sense of humor they are willing to to take all the way, or are just capable of selling anything to anyone. Either way it's impressive and weird.

She'd happily stay the night, but sighs and says "fine" to moving onward immediately.

Life hit me hard this weekend. I'm back :-)

The group heads off towards the marsh, getting there a little before sunset.

Slide 22 shows you a little more of the Island.

A5 is the 7 pillars, an area as yet unexplored
A6 is the marsh

The land gradually gets boggier and boggier until you see before you the marsh. Perhaps a couple of hundred feet away in the marsh you see Six twenty-five-foot-long stone blocks, each tapered like an arrowhead, are arranged in a vaguely flower-shaped formation in the moist ground. Some of the ancient stone blocks are cracked and splintered, while others are half sunken in the marsh.

As the sun sets upon the ancient stone monument, one by one, dozen upon dozens of lights appear in the darkness, hovering like ghostly lanterns above the fetid waters of the marsh.

"Great, we arrived just in time for all the danger. And it's another swamp again. I could have done with the rest."

Fenna seems unhappy.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

K Dungeoneering(?): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Vexas laughs nervously at Fenna's complaint. He can't really argue it.

He takes a deep breath and casts Light on himself in lieu of a true lantern.

"It's only sunset. Let's talk to the ghost lanterns and then find a safe place to rest.
But first, can we conjure some more lights? Fenna, your Dancing Lights maybe? Sosche, anything you can do?"

"Sure."

Fenna summons four balls of light. She arranges them in a line and then puts them into motion, a circular pattern that makes it looks like she's juggling them. It's the only way Fenna can manage to do anything that resembles real juggling. She has tried to learn a couple of times in the past and she plain sucks at it.

"Well, that's the danger isn't it? I won't claim there's no way the ghost lanterns will possibly consider talking to us; but I don't see why they would either. We're a fine meal and luring meals in is kind of the whole point of being a lamp-like ball of light in a swamp."

That's all I'll say until I get results on my skill checks.

Sosche eyes the lights in the marsh, and tries not to be drawn into them.

At Brannart's prompting, he casts light on the tip of his ranseur before moving forward with the group.

Fenna recognizes that the balls of light are, in fact, Will -o-wisps. Fortunately, you're pretty sure that they aren't immediately hostile, and seem mostly curious about people who are either (or both?) foolish enough or powerful enough to come visit them in their home.

Fenna even knows that the appropriate thing to do is to greet them, using your Dancing Lights spell to have the balls of light dance correctly.

Fenna, give me a Fly, Spellcraft, or Perform Dance check (same DC, just use whichever one is better).

Give me a Knowledge Dungeoneering check to know how to communicate with them beyond that greeting.

Fenna gives an excellent demonstration of the gap between knowledge and implementation. In practice she does nothing close to what she needs to with the balls of light.

Perform Dance: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

K Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Well, I can't say I'm disappointed. Hitting a second DC 25 check was so unlikely I never got my hopes up to start with.

We have Hero Points you can use for a +8 before the roll or a +4 after the roll, or to reroll. Do we know it is DC 25? But you have options. I will offer my Hero Points if I can. Have you used the daily Take 20 for Lore Master?

None of the skill options are knowledge so Lore Master isn't an option. After a reread maybe it's not 25. That's what I rolled on the previous K Dungeoneering check and the GM said the same DC. I suppose it could be lower, a DC wasn't actually given so maybe I misunderstood. Even so, I doubt the second roll passes the DC, although Lore Master would apply to that one.

Know Dungeoneering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Sho can't help the bardess in her quest for knowledge.

If the DC is 25, you've got Gallant Inspiration (+2d4) and can use an after-the-fact Luck Point for another +4 if you still need it. Sorry that Brannart is no help here.

Yeah, no help here either, sorry.

Sosche looks at the pretty lights, and hopes they don't have to fight them.

Vexas could only help with Spellcraft

Sorry for the delay. No AC in my house and I've been exhausted the last couple of days from the heat (heat by Canadian standards at least) :-(

The DC to greet the Wisps is indeed 25

The base DC of the Dungeoneering check to know how to communicate further is only 16. Although there is more information available if you roll a 26.

Or, of course, you can just try various languages and stuff,

If I can I guess I'll do all the stuff then. Gallant Inspiration cast, 2d4 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3 gets me to 22, and burning a hero point will get me to 26 on the Perform Dance check. Taking 20 with Lore Master brings the the K Dungeoneering check to 29.

You have successfully greeted the Wisps, which will provide you with a bonus on all attempts to interact with them.

You're sure that they speak 2 languages that you lot may speak. They speak Aklo and Azlanti. However, they REALLY REALLY REALLY hate people who speak Azlanti. REALLY. Not quite at the "will automatically attack anybody who speaks it" but pretty close to that.

Or you can make DC 25 linguistic checks or DC 15 Charisma checks to communicate simple ideas through a rough sign language.

Vexas speaks neither of those, and is not trained in linguistics.

Fenna rolls her eyes helplessly at the absolute stupidity of the situation.

"Anyone happen to speak Aklo? No? That's what I expected. Hardly anyone anywhere on the entire planet's surface speaks Aklo. They understand Azlanti but don't utter a word in that language or they'll hate you forever."

I checked. Nobody speaks Aklo because it's not a language anyone would ever choose in this AP.

CHA: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Liguistics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Gallant Inspiration Again: 2d4 ⇒ (4, 3) = 7

I'm pretty much done with this scene. That's four back to back high DC checks just to start communicating. I've rolled both and everything for brevity. CHA check fails, and it's not a skill or knowledge check so no Lore Master or Gallant Inspiration for a boost. Liguistics requires a 20 with my +5 bonus so another fail. Gallant Inspiration can be used since it's a skill check so Fenna can get a 28 in Linguistics.

With a little magical help Fenna tries miming at the things without turning them murderous.

You have successfully greeted the Wisps, which will provide you with a bonus on all attempts to interact with them.

What kind of a bonus are we talking about? If at least a +3, then Fenna's initial Charisma check passed and she didn't need the second check or the Gallant Inspiration. Because you can use that spell after knowing if a roll passed or failed.

GM Pauljathome wrote:

You have successfully greeted the Wisps, which will provide you with a bonus on all attempts to interact with them.

What kind of a bonus are we talking about? If at least a +3, then Fenna's initial Charisma check passed and she didn't need the second check or the Gallant Inspiration. Because you can use that spell after knowing if a roll passed or failed.

Sorry, I misspoke. That bonus only applies to checks to actually influence them

With that linguistic check you can definitely communicate sufficiently to them that you want to cast a harmless spell in order to communicate.

So you can use the scroll of shared language if you want.

I'm actually a little surprised about Aklo. Must be one of those regional differences in play things. Around here (where here is partly my actual geography and partly the PF1 online groups I play with) Aklo is actually a quite common language to take.

Not trying to say you've done anything wrong, just kinda explaining why I didn't think the AP was being all that silly.

Sorry you're getting so frustrated. This is also the kind of thing that can be worse in PBP than in FTF games. In PBP it drags on. I don't want to remove player agency and player and character choices DO matter here

If they consent to receive the spell, Sosche absolutely whips out his scroll of share language. He casts it using his mnemonic vestments so the scroll is not used, but rather his own power (second level slot used). He shares the common tongue with one of the glowing lights.

"Hello! I believe you can understand us now and can translate our language for your friends. This will last for some time, I hope it is helpful for you."

He grins, hoping it works as well as he thinks it will.

It works perfectly.

Seeing Fenna's frustration, Brannart tries to be encouraging.

"You've got this. If things turn bad, just let me know what to do, but you've got this."

Between Fenna's +16, the +? circumstance bonus we got from the earlier checks, possible Aid Anothers since we can use Common, Heroism as an option, and Gallant Inspiration if all else fails, I think Fenna can hit any reasonable DC and even many unreasonable ones.

Uh, poke?

Vexas, working through the current active translation magic, begins

We've been told you're aware of all that happens on this island. Is that true and can you help us with the activities of the faceless?

Not being much of a 'face' himself, Sosche supports the halfling. "Yeah, we're quite hostile to the faceless and have nothing against you whatsoever. We'd love to help each other out, you know?"

He grins and nods along, hoping they understand.

Not really know what will-o-wisps might consider politeness or rudeness in conversation, Fenna decides to try to ease into getting to the point, starting with something that could be construed as casual.

"Do you happen to know what these standing stones once were? What purpose they served?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30

Sorry for the delay. I've been quite sick the last few days. Should make a proper post tomorrow

Hope you're feeling better!

Ok, I'm going to speed things up a bit. Answering all your questions and also the likely follow up questions.

The monument where you are is a place where, before Earthfall, the Azlanti lured Will-O-Wisps in so that they could be captured and forced to become lights. Yeah, thats right, the Azlanti turned sentients into light bulbs. And you're talking to the lightbulbs :-).

The faceless stalkers are allies of the Ulat-Kini (Skum) who live in a half-sunken temple on the east coast, near where the river meets the sea.. They prefer the sea and don't come on the land much. It used to be totally above the surface but land has sunk with Earthfall,

They can give you more or less accurate directions to the temple. A7 on slide 22 (I've skipped a couple of fairly pointless encounters).

You all presumably rest up somewhere for the night and head over to A7 reasonably early the next day. It takes you a bit of time to find it but you get there around noonish or so.

You should also all level up to level 8

You see ahead of you a ruined walled plaza with steps leading down to the temple at the far end,

See slide 25

The platform on which the statue once stood is 10 ft high and looks reasonably climeable

The rubble is generally difficult terrain, but the rubble next to the pedestal costs 4 squares of movement

The statue varies in height but is 10 ft or so on average. Climbable but more difficult than the platform. The statue itself is difficult terrain

The walls are 15 ft high and fairly climeable

When he sees the difficult terrain and altitude he tries one of his new spells, casting Air Walk (80m).

He looks to the others, ”I can readily cast another if anyone else would like the ability to walk on air.”

Ranseur out, Sosche then ‘climbs’ on the air to investigate the statue’s head. Maybe there are gemstones for eyes. You never know. It could happen.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Sosche is 15' up.

Vexas follows Soche to the head, but he ops to inspect the statue from the ground level.

First, he checks it for any traces of magic.

He looks to the others, ”I can readily cast another if anyone else would like the ability to walk on air.”

"I do not mean to impose, Sosche, but I think it would be helpful for me to have such an enchantment if you can spare it. There is a lot of rubble here, and being able to walk above it would help me more readily defend the group."

Brannart moves in and looks around.
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

"Consider it done!" Sosche casts Air Walk (80m duration) on Brannart.

Fenna doesn't see any particular reason to cost Sosche another spell used just yet. She stays on the ground and waits while the statue gets checked out.

As you step close to the statue, suddenly several faceless stalkers appear from behind various walls, charging towards you. They're not even pretending to be something else, they are in their faceless stalker form.

Stalker init: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Fenna Init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Sosche init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11
Brannart Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
Vexas init: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27
Sho init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

So
Vexas Up
Then all the stalkers
Then the rest of you.

Of course... Vexas mutters, moving into the space between the statue head and body to confront a stalker.

[move] 20ft drawing rapier

[standard] attack
+1 rapier attack flat-footed, piercing damage: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 141d4 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Sneak attack (flat footed): 3d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 5) = 12

2 of them swing their glaives at Vexas (one 5 ft stepping backwards first)

glaive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 for damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
slam: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16 for damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8 grab: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21

glaive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28 for damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
slam: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9 for damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 grab: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Connecting once for a total of 11 points

The other 3 advance as shown on the slides

2 attack Brannart
glaive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 for damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
glaive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16 for damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Both missing

And the 5th one moves in on Soche
glaive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16 for damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

They definitely seem to be NOT on their game right now :-(.

PCs are all up.