GM Elberion's From Shore to Sea [PFS] (Inactive)

Game Master GeraintElberion

Robyyn keeps a keen eye open, waiting for his best chance to land his next spell, now that Reginald has tipped fortune away from the creature.

will: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

will: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

The human continues to strike out at the creature with his Kama's, slashing into the bubble of water and hoping to strike flesh.

+1 Kama, Flurry: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25 Concealment, 51+ = Hit: 1d100 ⇒ 58
Adamantine: 1d6 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16

+1 Kama, Flurry: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31 Concealment, 51+ = Hit: 1d100 ⇒ 87
Adamantine: 1d6 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

+1 Kama, Flurry: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13 Concealment, 51+ = Hit: 1d100 ⇒ 42
Adamantine: 1d6 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

And with Ischell’s blows, a giant octopus, deceased, sinks through the floating bubble and crashes bloodily into the bottom pool.
Gore-flecked water now flows around the water ‘walls’.

End of initiative. Now what?

Castinus warily approaches the blob of floating water in the centre of the room. He pokes his rapier inside, and, if there are no remaining hazards apparent, will ask Ischell to grasp his armour whist he holds his breath and pokes his head inside. When this is done, he opens his eyes underwater to see if there is anything remaining inside the sphere. If the water is too murky, he feels with both arms and the rapier for something his eyes cannot see.

Aaftaab comes down with Parvaaz.

He casts detect magic and also walks into the water to be able to detect of anything is down there.

perception : 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

“What do we do now?!“

The corpse of a decaying skum lies toward the rear of the building. The dead skum wears a strange, leathery cloack and holds a corroded copper scroll case containing two scrolls. A small vial is tucked in the cloak’s interior pocket.

Aaftaab picks up the magical items and gives them to Reginald.

”Can you identify these items with your wizardry?!“ he asks.

Aaftaab looks at the decaying scum.

heal to check how the scum died? : 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

Reginald waggles his extensive eyebrows at Aaftaab. "But of course!" he chortles.

Spellcraft Take 10 vs DC 24, 22, and 17: 10 + 14 = 24

"Ah yes! This first is a cloak of the manta ray, those are scrolls of freedom of movement, and this last one is an elixir of swimming." Reginald pauses for a moment, then frowns at the corpse. "But why would an aquatic creature such as this one be so concerned about being able to move underwater as to collect all these things? I'm pretty certain they can swim on their own."

Reginald, I should emphasise that this is all the skum has, besides a loose tunic: no weapons, armour or equipment of any kind besides those things.

"The skum appears to have been stabbed several times. Hmmm ... Reginald is right. Something is strange here. Who wants these items? And where to next?"

"Well, the skum may not have been a skum when it put those items on in the morning... this little island still has secrets." Robyyn points out. "We might want to distribute those items around, though. That way if we're caught needing them... well, we'll already be wearing them."

"Based on the observation that we ourselves appear to be transforming into a more piscine form, I suspect the same happened to this poor soul. It would seem advisable to inventory our supplies for breathing underwater. What resources do we have between us? Spellcasters, are you able to help out here?"

Castinus has Air crystals x2, Flask of recocoction ('Deepmarket Deception' Boon); 2x Sponge Potion of "touch of the sea";
2x Sponge Potion of "Air Bubble"; Scroll of Water Breathing.

"I have, well, I have nothing. My usual strategy when threatened with the deep is to take to the sky--it's a natural instinct for us sylphs."

Ischell takes a moment to clean off his blade, before stowing them at his waist. After supporting Cas' attempt to enter the liquidy orb. As soon as the half-elf starts asking questions about magic, Ischell begins to half-heartedly fumble through his small pockets and satchels hidden about his cloak and person.

"Well dudes, I have some... uh, bad news. I ain't got anything that you would consider useful at this point in time. One of those scrolls would be wonderful but, like, I still wouldn't be able to breath- ya know."

This cloak appears to be made of leather until the wearer enters salt water. At that time, the cloak of the manta ray adheres to the individual, and he appears nearly identical to a manta ray (as the beast shape II spell, except that it allows only manta ray form). He gains a +3 natural armor bonus, the ability to breathe underwater, and a swim speed of 60 feet, like a real manta ray.

The cloak also allows the wearer to attack with a sting ray’s tail spine, dealing 1d6 points of damage. This attack can be used in addition to any other attack the character has, using his highest melee attack bonus. The wearer can release his arms from the cloak without sacrificing underwater movement if so desired.

This might be what you are looking for, Ischell.

Next steps - e are at B3; Castinus votes for area B5 next. Continue our counter-clockwise circuit around the island; evade the will o'the wisps; leave the ominous ziggurat in the centre until last... do you agree?

"Why, that's delightfully counter to the island's own clockwise spiral; I like it, Castinus."

"Indeed!" Reginald happily ignores the implications of Castinus's earlier statement about the skum and tries to wring the water out of his eyebrows.

"I would mind a spot of healing if anyone could give me a hand"

Mist holds out a wand of cure light wounds.

Then assuming she gets some healing she will take Ischell by the arm.
"Care to accompany me oh brave hero?"

Castinus slaps and jabs at Mist a number of times with the wand:

not sure how many HP down youare - I leave it to you to roll

Just realised I misremembered and I didn't get hit. Lets pretend I offered it to those who did :P
If you got hit roll your heals and I'll mark it off

"Why, that's delightfully counter to the island's own clockwise spiral; I like it, Castinus."

Aaftaab nods.

”Let us move. I agree with this strategy!“

You are at B5, B3 was the growing shell building with the lizard and the strange necklace.

Next anti-clockwise would be B6.

As you moved around the island's coastline, An entire section of the island has plunged to sea level here, forming a sunken cove 180 feet below the streets of the city above.
Among the toppled towers punctuating this beach, a rough canal cuts from the shore deep into the interior of the island, disappearing into a dark cave mouth in the cliff wall. Seawater in the trench rises and falls with the tide. Dozens of exhausted villagers excavate the canal with crude shovels and large clamshells scavenged from the nearby beach.

perception : 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31

“Hey, Look there! A steep roughly carved staircase leads down!“

He then leads Parvaaz to the villagers.

“Hello, I hope that we are not disturbing you! May we ask what you are doing and if there is anything that you can tell us about this place? We are new and really want to help!“

diplomacy : 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31

Yea. That is just about perfect for Ishell....

"Uh. Would any of you guys mind if I kept a hold of this cloak?"

As they group traverses the outside of the island, the human attempts to remain vigilant. He produces a thin, perfectly smooth wand and extends it to Reginald. "Hey, short stuff! Would you mind using this on me?"

Mage Armor reup

Not wanting to separate far from the others, Ischell begins to make his way down the step reluctantly. About halfway down, when the villagers come around into view, he calls back up to the others.

"There are some, like, gilly people here. Look like us, but worse. Things don't seem good, dudes. They are like, building something, I think?"

Mist sticks by Ischell, teamwork is almost always the most viable survival plan.

When she can see the state of the villagers she whispers Should we try to do something for them?

Aaftaab steps back from the villagers when they do not respond.

Detect alignment on them.

As you talk about them, move about and use powers, the gillmen villagers make no response.

Knowledge (engineering) DC 20, guidance: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 7 + 1 = 20

Nice strong coral wall, here, Robyyn thinks to himself, stepping down to the beach with confidence.

Sense Motive DC 15: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Unable to sense anything deeper than that which his eyes have already told him, Robyyn offers a disturbing observation. "I don't like the looks of this... we may just be looking at our future, here."

Can we tell what the gillmen are working to build here?

sense motive: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

"These people are under some kind of mind control effect. We should continue. They are also no real threat so we do not have to worry about our retreat either."

Aaftaab moves to Ischell then.

Robyyn, they appear to be building a canal. It leads into a cave, taking a channel of sea water into the island bedrock. You would have to enter the cave to see where the canal ends.

Robyyn peers into the darkness of the cave. "Hmm, shall we spelunk?"

Can Robyyn see any lights in the cave, or anything else of interest, without entering directly?

Castinus considers the gillmen slaving like automata at the manual labour. He glances down at his own now sjighly webbed fingers."Nothing I have seen here bodes well. We need to make progress with the elimination of this threat, and should leave no avenue, or canal, un-explored in our efforts to confront whatever fell dread is behind it. I say we venture into the dark. Are you with me?"

The cave continues, 50 feet into the island.

It is lit, unnervingly, by a trio of bobbing will'o'wisps.

At the end, the canal stops at a solid wall of peculiar coral.

Robyyn casts detect magic and examines the coral from outside the cave. He studies it to see what he can learn just from its appearance and any magic that he detects. (Darkvision 60'; 55' away from just outside the cave to just get the coral within range of the spell and his vision.)

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Knowledge (nature): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

Robyyn, apologies, I got mixed up earlier. The coral wall is a 'deeply set foundation', as identified earlier. That can only be seen by looking into the cave. You identify no magic from the wall.

With his knowledge of the natural world, Robyyn has never seen anything like this coral before. It seems very solid and yet, as coral, alive.

The gillmen are not digging at the coral itself, only up to it.

Robyyn will slowly approach the coral, but is clearly suspicious of it. Could this be the source of these changes? Is it controlling these people to expose it to the world?

Robyyn is prepared to stop advancing and retreat if he feels like the coral is attempting to influence him in any way more than what he's already experienced here on the island.

The gillmen steps clumsily and silently around Robyyn as they work.

Up close, the coral is beautiful, a rainbow of vivid colours.

Robyyn's mind remains clear, the island's strange affliction only seems to have affected his body.

As she follows her friend Mist is intrigued by the patterns of the coral and gently places a hand on it to feel it.

The coral is cool, damp and firm, if a little brittle.

"Beautiful. Breathtaking!" Robyyn mutters in awe, but seems to move on from that emotion quickly. "But otherwise pretty mundane. We should probably move on."

Before he exits the cave, though, he casts detect magic one last time, and focuses his attention past the coral, searching for auras deep within or beyond the creature.

Ishell falls in line behind the half-elf. "I suppose we have little choice. Right behind you dude". As he moves forward, his eyes flash with a golden light and the world through his eyes grows slightly dimmer

Detect Evil

Just a reminder: "The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it."

Robyyn and Ischell scan the area but find nothing of further interest.

After climbing up the narrow path, the party moves away from the excavation site, considering their next move and continuing their counter-clockwise route.

Suddenly, a woman breaks from the overgrown ruins ahead, shrieking as three dark shapes bear down on her. The creatures look like flying mats of tangled seaweed, but with toothy maws. The woman abruptly stops, cut off in mid-scream, as the closest creature moans horribly, then drops down and completely engulfs her.
Slide 11