GM Zin's CORE 6-18 From Under Ice (Inactive)

Game Master Zin Z'arin

Merisiel eyes the situation from the ground, then gets a sly grin as her flanking partner seems to be doing a great job distracting her prey. She quietly stands, steps and and aims for a gut shot to end this charade.

Stand, 5-ft, Stab

+1 rapier + Flank + IC + Bless: 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 8 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 25 for Magic/Piercing + SA: 1d6 + 3 + 2d6 ⇒ (5) + 3 + (3, 6) = 17 (18-20 crit)

Assuming the wolf is still up after that flurry of attacks

Cenae looks over the situation and holds her holy symbol tight. Grimacing at all of Liet Gar's wounds she tucks her head behind her shield and bolts for the fighter. Skidding to a stop in the snow behind him she shouts, "Glorious Dawnflower heal this man, he fights to protect his allies!"

Move, Spontaneously cast CMW (replacing Sound Burst #1) for 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 6) + 5 = 18 healing to LGZ

The combined efforts of the Pathfinders finally bring the winter wolf to a bitter end.

Combat over!

Status
Dimple
Liet-Gar (-23 hp) I'm not applying Cenae's spontaneous cast yet, in case there's a slower method of healing you'd rather use than giving up a sound burst
Merisiel (-1 hp)
Arboreal
Cenae

Feel free to heal up, as you like; I'll move us along likely in the morning, but maybe earlier if I have time tonight.

Definitely saving the spell, thanks. Cenae will activate any healing wands anyone has if they wish. If you don't have one, she'll figure something else out at that point.

She looks over the wolf for any valuables while asking the group, "Finish it off or stabilize it?"

Well maybe we should ask our guide what the custom is around these parts. What do you say Uliah? Arboreal questions the blond witch

As Cenae generously offer to heal the injured, Dimple cuts in front of the sun priestess. "I think Merisiel might need your attention."

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

Uliyara seems indifferent about Rigrory's fate. "Baroness Ugalaena is no friend to Dalun, and her agents do her bidding at their risk. If it was Rigrory's fate to die her today, I'll not stop it." She motions her hand towards the fallen wolf, and continues, "but if you don't want that blood on your hands, let's make sure we bind him well. He's a dangerous foe; we won't want him at our back."
_____________________________

Moving to the entrance, undistracted, you're able to peer into the opening you created.

Intricate gilded stonework adorns the entrance, and a complex marble mosaic paves the floor. Arrow slits flank the north and south sides of the hall, but the north side has collapsed and is choked with rubble. On the wastern end, two 10-foot-tall marble statues of armored dwarves flank a fresco depicting an opulent throne room. The faces of the statues have been broken off.

Hazard: Ice covers the floor. Characters must spend 2 squares of movement to enter a square covered by ice, and the DC for Acrobatics checks on surfaces covered by ice increases by 5.

Map updated!

The cleric stabilizes the wolf and binds them up, "Maybe they will recognize pathfinders can't be pushed around."

She looks over Merisiel's wounds with a shrug, "Just a scratch, you'll be fine. Good stab there at the end." Looking inside the cavern her nose twitches, "Shall we continue?"

Taking a couple minutes to rest as the healing is applied and the foe bound, LGZ nods.

"Glad that went as well as it did. Thank you Dimple, I feel much better." he announces, climbing to his feet. "Cenae, just as a heads up for ya. Dimple typically carries my wand. If she falls, and I need healing...it's the stick with my hair tied around it."

Turning to the hole, he guestures forward. "Shall we head in and see what we came to find?"

Dimple blushes as she adjusts her collar. "Is it getting hot around here?"

Arboreal’ begins to move slowly and carefully towards the statues keeping his eyes open for trouble

perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

Arboreal's keen elven eyes note the faint outline of a door on the wall to the right of the statues. He quickly finds a trigger for the door under the shield arm of the nearby statue, and pops the door open.

No traps are found, so the party pushes the door open to investigate. The room appears to be a weapons cache, likely for the guards that would have been stationed here when Naldak's Point was a functioning settlement. It appears to have been hastily emptied, but a few items remain. A masterwork heavy steel shield and an ivory-handled heavy repeating heavy crossbow lie discarded on the floor.

After confirming that the cache is otherwise empty, you turn south and proceed down the hallway there until it open up into a larger space. Thousands of icicles cover the ceiling of this cylindrical chamber. The outside edge forms a perfect circular curve, cutting into stone without mark of chisel or tool, impossibly smooth. Only places where ice flows over the stone, or where the structures have collapsed, mar the perfect precision of the cylinder. The remains of workshops and living spaces, still furnished, peak through holes in the cylindrical void. At the southern and western edges of the cavern, large portions of the stone and ice have collapsed, cutting into the immense void with piles of rubble.

Hazard: Ice covers the floor. Characters must spend 2 squares of movement to enter a square covered by ice, and the DC for Acrobatics checks on surfaces covered by ice increases by 5.

Map updated!

Looking over the crossbow her eye's light up, "oooh, that's fun. I've never seen a design like that."

Cenae mutters into the emptiness, "I wonder what drove them out so quick? I doubt it's still here, right?"

The outside edge forms a perfect circular curve, cutting into stone without mark of chisel or tool, impossibly smooth. Only places where ice flows over the stone, or where the structures have collapsed, mar the perfect precision of the cylinder. The remains of workshops and living spaces, still furnished, peak through holes in the cylindrical void. At the southern and western edges of the cavern, large portions of the stone and ice have collapsed, cutting into the immense void with piles of rubble.

I probably should have massaged this block text a bit, as I don't think it conveys what you're seeing as well as it should. The 'cylinder' referenced here is the absence of a huge portion of Naldak's point. It's as if the bulk of the settlement has been cleanly removed with surgical precision, leaving a perfectly shaped cylinder of emptiness in its place.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29 This Crossbow is magical and quite exotic

Oh WOW. That is one seriously powerful piece of magic to have done that. Don't ever piss off Baba Yagr!

Pausing, LGZ looks back to Arboreal. "We shouldn't have to worry about that now though, right? Surely anyone left here would have expired ages ago...or froze to death?"

Gesturing towards the walls of ice, "I mean, nothings been able to get in here for quite some time..."

"Surely the magic required to do that " he adds pointing towards the cylindrical hole "Is no longer active at least."

Well even the most overwhelming acts of magic leve no aura after a week lets ses with a careful and studied expression Arboreal casts detect magic.

No magic can be detected; whatever caused such a precise removal of much of the settlement happened too long ago to leave any traces.

What next?

Look for trouble signs of dwarf stuff written down

perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21

Advance carefully so he can see the doors Initially where Ive put the witch formerly known as Haltani and then moving up to the door on the left first

Suspect our door drill is Merisiel checks for traps and opening ness then LGZ and Cena Flank and Me and Dimple hang back (LGZ may want to be directly behind Merisiel) Any objetions?

None from lil ole me.

Sorry all, it's been a busy rush lately. I'll try to get a post up periodically here. Feel free to bot with the following SOP as necessary.

Merisiel carefully checks over the door for traps and listens for any dangers inside. Once cleared, she steps to the side and pulls it open.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19 (+2 to locate traps)

You open the door easily, finding no traps nor lock. You find a small complex of rooms that must have been a guard station. Desks sit empty, a few scraps of meaningless paper littering the drawers. A weapon rack in the southwestern corner of the room must have contained the town’s arsenal during their heyday. The door to the iron-barred cell in the northeastern corner of the room is locked, but the cell is clearly empty; only the tattered remains of an old cot and manacles remain in the cell.

What next?

Merisiel moves to the next door and repeats her actions.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24 (+2 to locate traps)

The cleric of the sun pokes through the room, finding nothing, "Alright then, seems like this must have been a guard station."

She pops back out in the hallway and waits for the next room to be opened, ready to blast the giant worm that obviously took a massive perfectly circular bite of the complex.

Again the door presents no threats. In front of you is a fully-intact apartment; perhaps the only one remaining in Naldak's Point. The frozen corpse of a dwarf slumps against the wall, perfectly preserved in a block of ice. He wears a hexagonal hematite beard clasp with a single dwarven rune inscribed on the face.

Dimple muses to herself, "Well, if this goes like every other mission, creepy and horrifying 'things' are about to appear. Either undeady things or demony thingies. I think its the dead's turn."

Cenae narrows her eyes, drawing her scimitar and warily moving up to take a close look at the frozen block of dwarf, "You all face that many abominations? It seems I was picked to join up with the right group of pathfinders."

Perception how the heck did a dwarf get frozen completely in a block of ice?: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Assuming everyone will be entering the room with Cenae... can everyone please place their token in the room, along with whatever actions you are taking?

A thing will be happening once everyone is in the room, obviously, but I ain't sayin' what until you're all in position. <cackle cackle>

Merisiel slips quietly into the room and takes up a position by the door.

Arboreal will enter trying to get a look at the beard clasp

Come on Dimple this is a chilled out room. Stop letting your imagination run wild. But Cenae asks a good question

Dimple steps in. Upon seeing the frozen dwarf, she takes out her net and tosses it over the frozen form. She looks at the others with questioning eyes and shrugs. "What? Either that was really smart, or I gave him a peekaboo death shroud."

Ranged touch (net), nonproficient, range penalty: 1d20 + 6 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (4) + 6 - 4 - 4 = 2

Dimple tosses her net towards the ice-encased dwarf, but the distance just seems too far; the net falls neatly across the table in the center of the room.

The ice-encased dwarf remains encased in ice; it shows no signs of having noticed.

Cenae looks at the gnome with her scimitar snapping up in a defensive posture, "Was there a ghost at the table?"

Arboreal will enter trying to get a look at the beard clasp

Sorry I didn't respond to this initially (my personal GM pet-peeve is when a GM only responds to the most recent player post, ignoring the other player posts above it, and there I did it myself!)

From his current position, Arboreal can't see any more detail about the beard clasp; he would need to move closer.

Sorry I didn't respond to this initially (my personal GM pet-peeve is when a GM only responds to the most recent player post, ignoring the other player posts above it, and there I did it myself!)

Yeah one of mine too and yeah I still do it myself

From his current position, Arboreal can't see any more detail about the beard clasp;

Arboreal will move up to the ice block for a better look (and prove Dimple right)

The dwarf's eyes snap open when Arboreal approaches; it's mouth opens and a tremendously loud shriek emerges, shattering the ice surrounding it and sending shards that fill the space inside the room.

Reflex save (DC 18) from everyone, please, unless you are immune to cold damage. If you fail, you are entangled for 1d4 rounds.

"Pathfinders! You are strong, and you've been loyal to me! Show your strength again; this ancient dwarf can't best you!" Uliyara's words inspire you!

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (Ref save pending)
Dwarf Knowledge (religion) to identify
Merisiel (Ref save pending)
Dimple (Ref save pending)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending)
Cenae (Ref save pending)

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)

reflex: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

knowledge religion: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

concentration 16: 1d20 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 + 3 = 18

Casts obscuring mist then gets out Lets take this fight outside

As the room fills with mist Arboreal heads for the door

rounds entangled: 1d4 ⇒ 3

This is a revenant, but some kind of cold variant.
Fueled by hatred and a need for vengeance, a revenant rises from the grave to hunt and kill its murderer. Devoid of any compassion, emotion, or logic, a revenant has but one purpose, and cannot rest until it has found vengeance.

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (entangled 3 rounds remaining)
Variant revenant
Merisiel (Ref save pending)
Dimple (Ref save pending)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending)
Cenae (Ref save pending)

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)

Reflex DC 18: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Knowledge: Religion?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Cenae is oblivious to the shards of ice, but they seem to be divinely deflected away from her by scorching heat bursting from her small frame. She points her weapon at Ice Cube, "To Arms!"

Cenae can confirm Arboreal's identification of the creature, but is unable to offer anything more.

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled, 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (entangled, 3 rounds remaining)
Variant revenant
Merisiel (Ref save pending)
Dimple (Ref save pending)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending)
Cenae

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)

See above updating posts after others have posted is another bad habit of mine

Casts obscuring mist then gets out Lets take this fight outside

As the room fills with mist Arboreal heads for the door

Cloud is the origin point for the mist radius 20 feet so template is wrong but fills the room with mist is as close as makes no difference. Danny boy may have been on my shoulder but has double moved the hell out of there

Concentration DC 26: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Arboreal starts trying to cast a spell, but the revenant takes advantage of the caster's inattention. It strikes out with a clawed hand and grabs Arboreal's ribcage through the flesh of his midsection; Arboreal's spell fizzles before he can complete the words and motions that make the magic work, and the elf finds he's gripped too tightly to flee! But the revenant almost immediately releases Arboreal, moving past him and Dimple, then out the door towards Uliyara!

The movement would provoke from both Arboreal and Dimple, but neither are armed, so neither threaten their squares. However, it does provoke from Merisiel and LGZ.

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled, 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (-15 hp; entangled, 2 rounds remaining)
Variant revenant
Merisiel (Ref save pending, AoO pending)
Dimple (Ref save pending)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending, AoO pending)
Cenae

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)

Reflex: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Merisiel easily ducks below the level of the table as the ice shatters around her, popping back into place as the enemy dashes towards her. She gives a slight *tsk* as it isn't distracted by Dimple to allow her to aim for a vital spot... if an iceblock dwarf even has a vital spot.

+1 rapier AoO + IC: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 8 + 1 = 14 for Magic/Piercing + IC: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 = 10
______________________

Following the Revenenent out of the room, she moves into flanking with their guide, hoping the princess isn't useless in a fight either.

+1 rapier + IC + Flank?: 1d20 + 8 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 8 + 1 + 2 = 15 for Magic/Piercing + IC + SA?: 1d6 + 3 + 1 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 1 + (6, 3) = 15

Unfortunately, neither of Merisiel's strikes are true; the revenant's driving purpose seemingly keeps it from even noticing the attacks.

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled, 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (-15 hp; entangled, 2 rounds remaining)
Variant revenant
Merisiel
Dimple (Ref save pending)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending, AoO pending)
Cenae

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)

Reflex: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Entangled for...: 1d4 ⇒ 3 Rounds

As soon as the dwarf explodes from his icy prison, Dimple jump-stomps up and down. It looks similar to a child having a tantrum. "I TOLD YOU! I. TOLD. YOU!" Her voice slips into a mockery of Cenae's "Is there a ghost at the table? Ah ha ha ha." Her voice changes back. "NO! IT'S RIGHT THERE! Maybe you and your sun god can get off yer butts and do something about it!"

Dimple's dander is raised even more as Uliyara calls out. "Why the...but...THAT'S MY JOB!." The bard rolls up her sleeves, muttering to herself. "Oh Dimple, let's be friends. Nevermind that I am totally lying to your face. Now I'm gonna do all the things you do in a fight." A sudden thought lances through her consciousness, "KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF LIGER! I CALLED DIBBS LIKE A YEAR AGO!"

She then pulls out her butterfly necklace, "Desna lady, I think we might need some help. Got anything?" In response, a wave of energy crashes into the Pathfinders ...and stupidhead Uliyara the Liar-girl, bolstering their prowess in combat.

Casting Bless. +1 to hit and stacks with Inspire Courage.

I knew Dimple wasn't going to like it if Uliyara got initiative over her, but there's practically nothing else she can do. Her spells are all focused on keeping her cover; she's got virtually no offense or party buffs other than Inspire!

Dimple adds a layer of divine magic to Uliyara's enthusiastic inspiration.

Round 1 (bold may act)
Uliyara (entangled, 1 round remaining)
Arboreal (-15 hp; entangled, 2 rounds remaining)
Variant revenant
Merisiel
Dimple (entangled, 2 rounds remaining)
Liet-Gar (Ref save pending, AoO pending)
Cenae

Active Effects
Inspire Courage (+1 morale on saves vs. charm/fear and +1 competence on attacks and weapon damage)
Entangled (move at 1/2 speed; can't run or charge; -2 penalty to all attacks; -4 penalty to Dexterity; Concentration DC 15+spell level to cast spells)
bless (+1 morale on attack rolls and saves vs. fear)
morale bonuses don't stack

No worries. Just more fun to be had :)

Cenae is taken back immediately, "A YEAR?!? A WHOLE YEAR? Jeeze lady, you gotta consider that he might just not be in to you."

She walks passed the gnome and out into the hallway to get a better look at their dwarf thing.

Move and then Option A or B

"I don't see a lock of his hair on any wands you're carrying!" She watches the cleric move through the door. "By the way, I noticed you skipped over the part when you were wrong about the undead monster thing! Maybe Sarenrae is just not that in to you! Ever think of that?"