GM PDK'S PFS RPG 'TOMB OF THE IRON MEDUSA' (Inactive)

Game Master Purple Dragon Knight

@Dora I have included a large wolf and pulled you back 5' to the southwest. @Everyone Please confirm placement if you have not yet- I will move the action forward tomorrow.

braced for impact

@GM - that works for me. May not be good placement for Dora depending on what happens, but it is what I envisioned her doing.

Fine by me

Lilly looks around the people who have crowded around her. You all obviously do not know what taking cover means do you, she sighs, raises an eyebrow and mutters, Pathfinders before casting a simple defensive spell on herself, activating a couple of wands and sticking the Rod into the Medusas mouth.

Casting shield of faith and activating heightened awareness and mirror image for 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 images

The rod is already in the medusa's mouth and her eyelids have flipped open. Please describe how you are manipulating the rod. This appears to be a puzzle.

Try twisting it, maybe it’s a key and needs to unlock it! Mal suggests the obvious answer.

Lilly will try twisting it to the right then to the left then up and down. If that doesnt do anything she will generally try waggling it about until something explodes or activates.

"Was there any sort of clue as to getting this to work?" Sahess asks, as she hears and feels Lilly fiddling about with the key device.

Lilly looks at the note with the poem on it as she works, Nothing that I could make any sense of

As Lilly twists the baton to the right (clockwise), the right eye's pupil rolls to the right; when she then twists it to the left (counterclockwise), the left eye's pupil rolls to the left. See Slide 10 for current position of the eyes. Waggling it about does nothing: the only degree of freedom appears to be rotating it clockwise or counterclockwise as you would turn a normal key.

Maybe turn it so the eyes face inside?

Lilly shrugs and does as Thrag suggests, after all, what could possibly go wrong.

This thing doesnt seem to work.

Mal starts to grin So its Torag's universal key then? Its clearly magical, maybe you could try your luck at randomly activating it's magics before I smash something to bits trying to get inside.

I need to know how many turns clockwise and/or counterclockwise. After each post, I will update the picture and describe what happened.

Mal starts to grin So its Torag's universal key then? Its clearly magical, maybe you could try your luck at randomly activating it's magics before I smash something to bits trying to get inside.

Re-read my initial post about climbing over the wall. It's DC 5 i.e. very easy. I thought you guys were aware of this?

Aware? Yes. Paranoid about? Also yes.

One right, one left, then two right, two left, continuing until I get bored and see if I can randomly activate it with UMD.

One right, one left, then two right, two left, continuing until I get bored and see if I can randomly activate it with UMD.

I think Lilliandra suffers from high level jadedness :P.

Twisting once to the right, the right eye's pupil goes up;
Twisting once to the left, the left eye's pupil goes down;
Twisting twice to the right, the right eye's pupil goes down;
Twisting twice to the left, the left eye's pupil goes up.

Not seeing any effect other than the eyes wiggling Thrag suggests

Let's try it in another head, might have different eyes.

Dora scratches Rusty's head between the ears.

I usually like puzzles but this is an odd one. I am half tempted to go on the other side of the wall and see if this medusa head exists on that side or if this is a portal to some other location beyond just passing through the wall.

So your group is easily defeated by walls of texts and spoiler tags hey? noted... muhahahahah

Dora looks around. Who said that? :P

She is a haunted Oracle afterall.

The scroll from the baton said something about a sad place and turning the face to floor. Although maybe only one of us can get through at a time. Try turning it to get the eyes both down?

Lilly shrugs and does as suggested, trying to set the eyes both downward and then she has a moment. Hey, the emblem of the Daellum family was a cross eyed Medusa, maybe that will do something

Lilly cranks the baton to the left and right until both eyes are crossed towards each other, mimicking the emblem of the Daellum branch. The medusa’s jaws gape open and a cold blue light shines forth. See Slides 1, 9 and 10

Lilly and everyone except Dora and her wolf are lifted off their feet and sucked into the yawning mouth, shrinking and spiraling down to nothingness as the iron face seems to swallow the targets whole.

If you wish to resist the effect, you'll need a Will save. What do you do?

Thrag goes along for the ride, assuming the secret way must be the correct way.

Lilliandra allows herself to be pulled along.

Lets hope this isnt a sphere of annhilation!

Mal stands with his allies, refusing to save against the effect, assuming the tomb’s key isn’t certain doom.

Brother Rabbit allows it to happen.

Oh dear, something seems to be happening, best to let it.

Map updated; see Slide 11

You push the heavy stone lid of a sarcophagus away from you!

...you find yourself staring up at a dome in an octagonal chamber made of fine, polished white marble. The domed ceiling peaks twenty-five feet overhead, decorated with frescoes of people in billowing robes, hands joined, looking down with pity on you, below...

Braziers along the base of the dome filled with flickering flames faintly illuminate the chamber. Twelve carved stone sarcophagi lie beneath the dome, surrounding a large carving on the floor of a leering medusa’s face.

You all see Lilly rising out of a sarcophagi... hers has no lid, as she probably magicked the stone lid open.... but the rest of you see your fellow Pathfinders coming out of other sarcophagi, where they similarly pushed the lid off like you did... except Dora and her giant wolf: those two didn't seem to have made the trip here. You note that your lid shows your birth date, and... year of death?! which seems to correspond to... the current year!?! 4719 AR!!! except Lilly, as her lid has been melted apart via stone shaping magicks!)

Feel free to record your birth date at the beginning of your next post, for fun times... and inclusion into your background story! :)

At the foot of each of your respective sarcophagus is a 9-inch-long funerary baton, similar to that provided by Hanoris, but made of polished brown stone.

The recessed floor in the center of the mausoleum is an earth-tone mosaic of complex geometric designs reminiscent of Qadiran artwork, with a scowling medusa’s head in relief at the hub, 15 feet wide and made of iron, a larger version of the vertical head you first came across on the necropolis' outside walls.

On the edges of the iron disc, at each of the four compass points, is a circular hole.

What do you do?

Naturally Lilly would not have left her lid intact in any event, a lady never reveals he age.

Lilly looks around the chamber for an exit, I wonder where we are and what has happened to Dora...

Do we still have the baton we came with?

Lilly secures the baton at the base of her sarcophagus. We may need this

She examines it to see how, if at all, it differs from the first.

Do we still have the baton we came with? She examines it to see how, if at all, it differs from the first.

Yes, you still have the one you came with; the new ones are similar to that provided by Hanoris, but made of polished brown stone.

Born 4698 AR
Died 47820

Thrag quickly uses the spike of his hammer to make a crude modification to the death date. He reaches down and grabs his own baton.

Can't hurt to have spares.

Brother Rabbit stretches as he gets out of his own "final resting place." He looks over at the dates. "Born 4670, died 4719. Time does fly when you're having fun, aye?" Rabbit barked out a laugh.

The captain took a moment to look around, picking up his own baton. "Does anyone know where Dora got off to? Hopefully she's not suffocating in one of these with her companion."

Perception: 1d20 + 33 ⇒ (7) + 33 = 40

Lilly will moves between the remaining sarcophagi knocking on their lids to see if there is a reply. I am not sure I want to open one if the two of them have been stuffed inside together...

Thrash will circle around looking for Dora's name on a plaque.

You all hear some new muffled sounds from one of the sarcophagus... investigating you realize it is Dora, and she just arrived, slightly panicked at being in a coffin.

Party together again

Popping off the lid of Dora's sarcophagus Thrag helps her out.

Four more holes and another medusa head. Good thing we have all these extra batons now.

Mal originally was much longer lived, but Paizo retconned that...

Born 4690

Good to have all of us here... Mal looks around to get his bearings .

take 10 for 40, since this is a tomb Mal will constantly be looking for traps.

Dora steps out of her sarcophagus with Thrag's help, and looks around the room, observing the fresco overhead and the four holes for funeral batons...

” Wait, What happened? Ewww is this what it looks like? That is creepy! I thought you all were going to leave me standing there outside. I had to get a bit creative. My cousin
Mack Giever taught me a trick or two. Right Rusty?“

Rusty, at the moment, is running between the molecules of your armor, and quite frankly, way too busy avoiding being hit by a random electron and thus unable to respond.

Dora dusts herself off and looks around the room.

Oh wait! Right. I had to stow him away since I couldn't get him easily through the medusa head thingy. Waking up in a tomb can be disorienting. Hey? How did they get these dates here?

She taps an emblem on her armor and the large wolf pops out none the worse for wear.

Good question. They were there when I climbed out.

Thrag moves to a hole and inserts his baton.

Ready?

With Dora safe Lilly reverts to examining the various frescoes on the ceiling She airs walks up to the roof to get a good look at them and murmurs a simple detect magic spell to check out the chamber as se moves around it.

Perception: 1d20 + 29 ⇒ (18) + 29 = 47
Any relevant knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 17
They are all +24 except for Nobility at +26 and Planes at +37. these include heroism and consulting a relevant pathfinder chronicle

On the edges of the iron disc, at each of the four compass points, is a circular hole. Funerary batons may be inserted in these holes, fitting snuggly and clicking in place. Using three or more batons as handholds, you think you could all simultaneous push in order to rotate the iron medusa clockwise or counterclockwise. STR check please

Anything about the frescoes?

Lilly will silently hand her baton to one of the others, she doesnt do manual labour.

Str: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

@Lilly: no

Thrag and the others rotate the iron medusa 45 degrees clockwise, and you all hear a loud bang from the hallway—this action releases the stone
block at the top of the carpeted stairway. Those close to the bottom of the stairs can see a starry night sky outdoors.