EbonFist's #7-15 The Deepmarket Deception (Inactive)

Game Master EbonFist

Who needs high dice rolls when you have a +14?

The chaos of the moment overtakes Kal'ryon, his movements erratic and full of surprising strength. Swinging his pole arm, he lashes out the purple rat.

Mst Guisarme, Rage: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Damage: 2d4 + 10 ⇒ (2, 3) + 10 = 15

Castinus moves away from the melee crowding the doorway, unable to access their foe. Instead he takes up a position at the entrance tunnel, watching out for trouble or potential reinforcements.

move, ready action: attack if hostiles approach

readied attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 131d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

The two bloodragers step into combat, Crowe slamming the leader twice and Kal'Ryon slashing his underling once. Both look seriously injured despite what Crowe feels are poorly struck blows.

Neither shows any sign of going down, though.

Round 1. The BOLD may act.
Red Rat -60HP
Diazepane
Ichio
Purple Rat -25HP
Kal'Ryon
Grandblade -19HP
Crowe
Castinus

Grandblade starts swinging his blade at the purple one.
+1 Fire-Forged Greatsword Attack Roll: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
+1 Fire-Forged Greatsword Arcane Strike Damage Roll: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (2, 5) + 7 = 14

Grandblade just misses his target.

The leader focuses on him in turn, slashing at him with both ends of her sword multiple times.

Blade 1 Attack 1 plus flanking: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 9 + 2 = 22
Slashing: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Blade 1 Attack 2 plus flanking: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 2 = 16
Slashing: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Blade 2 Attack 1 plus flanking: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 9 + 2 = 13
Slashing: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Blade 1 Attack 1 plus flanking: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 4 + 2 = 17
Slashing: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Despite the flurry of swings, she only one scores a hit.

Round 2. The BOLD may act.
Red Rat -60HP
Diazepane
Ichio
Purple Rat -25HP
Kal'Ryon
Grandblade -28HP
Crowe
Castinus

Diazepane "Tom Brady" Ketal will step out of the pocket and try to arc a bomb over the people in front and land it in the end zone.

I'm not including cover, I'll let you decide.

Frost Bomb, PBS, PS: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 0 ⇒ (1) + 8 + 1 - 0 = 10
Cold, PBS: 3d6 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (5, 2, 3) + 6 + 1 = 17 plus DC 18 vs staggered

Needs more Gronk.

Miss: 1d8 ⇒ 8 => The square to the east of Crowe.

Diazepane will use Splash Weapon Mastery to move that one square north.

Crowe and both enemies will take 10 cold splash. Sorry, Crowe!

Crowe scowls at Diazepane, "Them, not me."

As Diazepane engages in the "freeze them all, let the gods sort them out" method of combat, Ichio attacks with more subtlety.

Wakisashi +1: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
slashing: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Refl: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Refl: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

The cold and the sword are enough to down the leader. The other one avoids both entirely.

Who?: 1d3 ⇒ 1

He jabs his rapier at the tengu.

Rapier: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Piercing: 1d4 ⇒ 3

But he's not able to land a hit.

Round 2. The BOLD may act.
Red Rat -60HP
Diazepane
Ichio
Purple Rat -25HP
Kal'Ryon
Grandblade -28HP
Crowe
Castinus

Crowe keeps on swinging.
attack: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29
damage: 2d6 + 14 ⇒ (5, 5) + 14 = 24

attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9
damage: 2d6 + 14 ⇒ (4, 2) + 14 = 20

Crowe smashes the last rat.

But needs to make a Refl save to see if he took full or half damage from friendly fi...frost to see how much healing he'll need.

As the group regroups, they find themselves with 3 doors to choose from.

Diazepane will heal him up to full.

Wand of CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Wand of CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

1 charge if he makes the Reflex, 2 charges if he fails.

reflex: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Diazepane makes amends while the party makes their decision.

Do ye -

1.) Go through the North door (type N)?
2.) Go through the East door (type E)?
3.) Go through the North East door (type NE)?
4.) Search (type S)?

First answer to get 2 votes wins.

S

perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

S

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

"If anyone can expedite the recovery of my wounds it would be highly appreciated." Grandblade requests.
S
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Diazepane burns up some more magic healing up Grandblade while the party searches the room.

Apparently, the guards here enjoyed drinking as there are a lot of empty beer bottles scattered around.

But the only things of real interest are their gear.

They find 6 potions and oils.
A wand.
2 cloaks.
A longbow.
A two bladed sword.
A mithral chainshirt
A suit of studded leather armor.

Diazepane will attempt to identify the wand.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (4) + 15 = 19

Diazepane will also attempt to identify the beer potions and oils.

Craft(alchemy): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (4) + 15 = 19

Do I need multiple of those?

Edit: After seeing results, please can I roll separately for each potion? haha :)

Kal will offer taps of his 'infernal healing' instead of taps of CLW, retroactively. If Grandblade is willing, he can take as many taps as he needs (assuming we have 1 minute per tap). Just let me know since it is both a character and a mechanistic choice

The Ganzi lowers his blade, and sighs. "Thought I was going to get anotherm swing". The chaos surrounding him slows and he produces a thin, deep black, wand.

"I have some healing for you, if you're not *too* queasy about it." His wide grin growing even wider.

I'll let the roll ride. It's good enough.

The wand is Shocking Grasp (4th level.)

The potions and lotions are -
elixer of hiding
potion of cure light wounds
potion of invisibility (2)
oil of magic weapon
potion of cure serious wounds

What do you guys do, now?

e

Crowe looks over the gear, "Pretty good stash."

Then he hefts his earthbreaker and looksa round, "Where now?"

Castinus peers over his shoulder from watching the team's backs, and, seeing the melle is done, advances into the doorway. He pulls the two dead ratmen into the lobby, and tries towipe up any spilt blood as best he can to deter a casual observer from raising an alarm. "There. That should do." He steps into the lobby and quietly shuts the door behind them.

"Progressing inside this lair may yet require more subterfuge, for a while at least. I dare say it will become, well, kinetic, before we are done. Would it be an idea for one of our number to scout ahead, magically invisible, to at least uncover what perils lie before us?"

If the next two posts don't volunteer, Castinus will step up, take two of the invisibility potions, down one and seek to scout ahead through the northern door. If someone else wants to instead, that's just fine - he's comparatively squishy in this mission.

Crowe is happy to scout. He will take the elixir of hiding and potion of invis for +32 stealth.

I'm assuming Crowe is scouting, then. Which door you go through, Crowe? And keep in mind, only one of them leads straight into the open maw of a Red Great Wyrm...

Castinus is standing to one side of the doorway, just in case...

Crowe imagines climbing into the maw of a great wyrm and grins, then he pads toward the northern door.
stealth: 1d20 + 32 ⇒ (16) + 32 = 48

Crowe imagines climbing sneaking into the maw of a great wyrm and grins.

Although I'm only giving the descriptions to Crowe, I'm going to display the map for everyone. It's just easier and you're going to all see it eventually, anyway.

Crowe lifts his earthbreaker over his head, ready to charge...

Then he remembers he's being a sneaker and pads back to the others.
Still invisible, he quickly reports, "Fungus man and a six-legged rodent the size of a horse, growing fungus."

Then he checks the north-east door, How long does this stuff last anyway?

The door to the room to the north opens then closes. You're all together in silence for a while (except Crowe.)

Then, the door to the room to the north opens and closes again and Crowe's voice comes from out of thin air.

It's unsettling, especially when you start to think that there's no telling how often an invisible person might be standing near you...watching you...listening to you...contemplating your doom...

After all, the potion Crowe took is from one of your enemies...who knows which others have the same potions and are creeping around RIGHT NOW?!

Then, the door to the northeast opens and closes...maybe Crowe went out through it, maybe someone else came in through it.

Invisibility is a 2nd level spell with a duration measured in minutes so...3 minutes. Unless someone doesn't think it's fair, I'm going to assume about a minute to go into a room, return and give a report.

Sounds fair to me...

Castinus watches all this intently... from the closing of the doors, estimating the length of Crowe's stride, counting out the steps to the second door... alert and wary of the risk of infiltration by the Aspis. He even listens, hoping to catch some recognisable sound, a breath or footfall he can identify as Crowe...

"Psst... Crowe is that still you?"

Grandblade catches up and keeps his blade at the ready.
Perception VS Hazards: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Crowe returns from the second room, he stands right beside Castinus, ”Who else would it be?”

”That room had no creatures, just some creepy evil worship stuff.”

Then he heads to the last door.

Once more a door opens and closes after someone who sounds like Crowe speaks from very near Castinus.

There's just no telling how many invisible creatures are in the room with the party, now.

Crowe returns and, as the invisibility fades, explains, "Three dummies in there with replica wayfinders, and some kind of torn up robe on the wall."

He scratches the back of his neck, "You want to give mushroom-man the jump right away? Or see if the weird stuff makes more sense to someone else?"

"Let's take a peek at the weird stuff first if there's nobody in the rooms."

"Let's go figure out the weird stuff in the third room. I'm all for getting in to do the job, then getting out with the minimum of trouble.

Crowe leads the group back into the room with the dummies.

The group heads through the door to the east.

Three practice dummies stand in the eastern section of this room. They wear pendants around their necks bearing crude replicas of wayfinders. A ceremonial gown rent by several bloodstained stab marks hangs on the southern wall.

know local: 1d20 + 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + (6) + 6 = 15, know nobs: 1d20 + 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + (2) + 6 = 11
"Hmm. Those robes hanging on the southern wall appear to be ceremonial gowns, rent by several bloodstained stab marks. I expect this means our foe attend elaborately formal meals, yet are extraordinarily clumsy with their cutlery."

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Knowledge (nobility): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

"That sounds about right."

Still here, just following along

I'm going to try to be more efficient with the dungeon crawly aspects of this scenario and give prompts when it's decision time.

Having explored what is probably a training room and definitely guessed the importance of a set of robes correctly, the Pathfinders are once again faced with a choice.

A door leads out of this room to the Northeast or they can go back to engage with the fungus fella and his mushroom mouse or they can explore the round room with a rune.

Let's take a look at the rune to identify it, and try to avoid fighting the fungus unless necessary.

So apologies about my silence recently. I've been trying to readjust my sleep schedule to be able to return to work. I do grave shifts.

Knowledge Nobility: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

"If you believe combat will become warranted, I can cast a spell of fire to strike at the fungus." Grandblade says to his allies.
Scorching Ray if we want to get a drop on it.

The Pathfinders head into the circular room to explore even as they discuss how best to cook a mushroom.

The walls of this circular room are covered in painted scenes of fear and torment. The stone ceiling rises in a craggy dome that is haphazardly carved with disembodied eyes, talons, fangs, and other monstrous features. In the center of the room, rusty brown stains run down from a circular dais, which holds a stained marble bowl and a collection of rusty daggers. A jagged black rune covers up most of the floor. Tattered and moldy bedrolls are pushed into the corners of the room.

Where to, now? There are doors in here and in the training room that lead deeper into the complex, one of the doors here seems to lead back to the mush room and there is another that leads there from the entryway.

Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (18) + 15 = 33
Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

"Lamashtu."

Didn't we also see her symbol earlier this adventure? Edit: 3 eyed bug head over the entryway.