GM Bret's PbP Gameday IX: Library of the Lion (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

Toral joins in to search the room.

perception : 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15

Ela winces a bit as books start coming off of the shelf haphazardly.

Do you... remember where you pulled each of those books from?

She starts walking along the shelves hoping to get a sense of the organization in the private archives.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 The crack team is on the job today!

Sorry I didn't explain clearly Grelthe will pull one out at a time, replace it, then move to the next one. She is being very careful to leave everything as it was.

So far no one has found anything in their search.

Igor puts up a light spell on his dagger which is partially exposed from its scabbard.

"That will last for 30 minutes. So once it goes out for the fourth time we will have expended our two hours."

Igor talks to Walter who has yet to really understand him.

"Ok now let us look for some books."

(Igor's take 10 on Perception is 30)

While the rest of you are still searching the bookcases, Igor notices something strange about the west wall. They go over and check it out, finding a section that is hinged to swing outwards.

Knowing that the mechanism must be nearby, they search the area. The two statues each hold blunt styluses—sometimes used to help read old, fragile texts—that point to their books. Only the western statue's book actually any words: a column of words that reads “Innovation, respect, knowledge, courage, integrity, honor, excellence, glory” in that order.

Experimenting a little bit, she finds that the arm on the western statue can be rotated up or down by several degrees, allowing one to shift the word that the statue's stylus points at.

"Honor, Courage and Glory. Those are the words."

Igor looks to see if he can point the arm on the western statue to those words and in that order.

"If I am right we should get the playing cards out."

As the stylus touches the word Glory, the section of the western wall that Igor had found swings open slightly. Opening it the rest of the way, you find a latch on the interior of the secret door that allows it to be opened and closed from that side.

Beyond the door is a 15-foot passage that leads to a spiral staircase going down.

Igor's eyes glint with excitement. He hides himself from any possible view from a window and then casts Mage Armor.

"Ok, Grelthe put out the playing cards. We need to get the show on the road."

"Right. I almost forgot."

Igor dry chews a Blood Boiling Pill increasing his alacrity in combat.

Ela watches Igor enhance his defenses with curiosity.

Do you have reason to believe something dangerous is waiting down this passage? I assume it's simply where the most secret accounts of the shining crusade are kept.

Igor shrugs.

"The unknown always invites danger. It is better to be prepared than not."

"Come on, through the door. We're going into a musty archive, not a battlefield. I'll close the door behind us once Grelthe puts the playing cards on the field."

Grelthe hands out the cards, and activates hers near the bookcase she was searching.

Please place your avatars on Slide 3 where the illusions are.
You may also place your avatars on Slide 4 in the room marked B1.

Once they are alone in the room, Elris will put his ear drops in.

"Right, we should be expedient but careful. No telling what is in this secret section. If any tomes are magic it could turn into a battlefield, Iacopo." he says after placing his card underneath the couch, so the illusion looks comfy in his reading.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 2 = 8

Once down the stairs, he listens to the door while waiting on the others.

Ela rounds the corner with her card, spacing out from some of the others. She spots a chair and places her card under the corner.

She admires the realness of her double for a few moments before following the team down the passage.

Added to the map

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Ela doesn't hear or see anything interesting as they start down the passage.

Toral casts 'heightened awareness' on Iacopo Liacenza and Igor Ivantoe.

50 minutes duration.

* * *

Toral then casts heightened awareness and then guidance on himself, enters the aisle and looks for traps.

Perception, heightened awareness +2, guidance +1: 1d20 + 14 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 14 + 1 + 2 = 32

He also casts detect magic and scans the area.

Did Toral use his card?
Did Igor use the card that was left for Walter the Toad?
I do need to know of any steps you take that make it harder for someone to investigate what happened afterwards.

Toral will use the card so that he seems to read a book in the library that Tobias left us in.

Survival to make it look like we were in the room? No idea if that works. :-): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Elris prefers to stay close to the investigative members of the group but will still attempt to clean up any messes they make.

Is there a way to close the bookcase behind us without...you know, locking us in?

The door doesn’t lock. It latches closed, but there is an obvious latch on the secret side that allows you to open and close it.

I need to compose some OCC mechanics for how the research works. I will get to that a little later today.

Igor does leave a card behind for his familiar Walter (They are both together on Slide 3).

@Toral - Heightened Awareness is a personal spell so it cannot normally be cast on other people. Thanks for the thought anyways. :)

Wow! Did not know that. Memorized it five time to share. :-(

Wow! Did not know that. Memorized it five time to share. :-(

I will allow you to swap a few of them out since it was a mistake and we haven’t hit anything where it would matter yet.

Thanks! I kept three. ;-)

The spiral staircase descends 20 feet to a small, unlit room with a single door. The door is unlocked.

Research rules

As you explore the Library of the Lion, you can perform skill checks to uncover, look through, and write notes about texts that fulfill your mission objectives. Some of these texts also contain clues, which grant a special advantage on other such skill checks. A small deck of cards are used to represent these texts.

Searching a room for texts requires a successful skill check, and more than one of you can search an area simultaneously. Each researching person can attempt a Linguistics, Knowledge (history), or text-based Craft or Profession check (such as Profession [librarian] or Craft [bookbinding]) to find texts. Some areas have other skills that can be used in that area to search without penalty. You might use a different skill or ability; doing so would have a penalty. You may also come up with a creative or relevant way to use a spell or class ability, in which case I will award a bonus to that check.

We will use the highest check result in a room; others who succeed at the check will give a +2 to the highest result.

On a Success, you will find one important text and receive a card for it. For every five points by which the result exceeds the DC, one additional text will be found.

Each area with texts is categorized as a small, medium, or large room, which take 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours respectively to search and copy down relevant information. Divide the time required to search the room between each active researcher. No more than four people may search a small room at a time.

Whether you succeed or fail at the check, you can continue spending time searching a room. You will receive one additional text by spending half as much time continuing. You will be told when there are no more texts to be found in an area.

Feel free to ask questions. I have a fair amount of leeway for giving bonuses on the search for creative solutions.

Going to attempt an alternate skill, because the best she has for the nominal skills is untrained +5 (craft). So here's hoping the alt. penalty isn't greater than this difference...

Ela heads to "the big room" (B5) and attempts to take an engineering angle on the shining crusades.

You can learn about cultures, motives, and specific goals by looking at the machinery they employed during their wars...

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

B5

Thousands of books line the dozens of shelves in this high-ceilinged library. Several tables and chairs near the center of the room provide a place to read quietly, and five rows of pew-like benches nearby face an immense lion's head carved from the eastern wall.

Due to the wide variety of subjects represented in this library, a PC may use any Knowledge check without penalty to find clues in this area.

When I give a room description, I will also tell you if additional skills can be used in that room.
For each room in which you are researching, please give a Perception check as well.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10 the dice are hot!

Good, so let us all start with B5 and that is 20 minutes as we are 6 people?

Toral enters and looks at the library.

perception : 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 14 + 2 = 30
Toral will use his extensive connections to the past to guide him in the search.

kn history : 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 6 + 2 = 15

Reroll kn history with Knowledge of the Ages (1/6 used) +6 Wis : 1d20 + 6 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 6 + 6 + 2 = 29

One question GM: Can I also use profession merchant with a penalty as his knowledges are quite low and he can boost them only six times with Knowledge of the Ages?

Elris has Kreighton's Perusal prepared, that should reduce the time to get one success for me I think. Possibly taking an hour off the time or something similar.

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 2 = 9

Elris begins searching for books important to the crusade.

Will use my spell depending on how it will work for the scenario, possibly making it easier to tackle the big room.

Iacopo puts his card in the corner of the front, far enough from the door that the illusion might hold, but easily spottable if someone where to walk past an open door.

Iacopo makes sure to latch the secret door closed once everyone on the team goes in.

Seeing his compatriots go to the biggest room, Iacopo follows. "Yes, let's do this one first so that we have the most time available for the smaller ones."

Knowledge (nobility): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Igor scans the room.

(Take 10 on Perception is 30).

He then begins to look at any books dealing with extra-planar creatures.

(Take 10 on K-Planes is 22).

"What a fascinating place. It is a shame we have only two hours to search. I could be here all day every day."

What Wizard would not say this? :)

Igor, I think that with your modifier rolling is better than taking 10 as the upside is more important with additional successes, right?

perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (18) + 0 = 18
nobility: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
While she's looking around the room, her priority is the dining crusade books, but she is also really curious about that giant lion head on the south wall and will quickly inspect it as well.

Igor, I think that with your modifier rolling is better than taking 10 as the upside is more important with additional successes, right?

Correct. It is the highest total that is used, modified by the number of other successes. It is slightly different than Aid Another in that it isn’t a flat DC 10 for the boost.

Will be updating a little later today, just wanted to pop in and answer this question about the research mechanics used here since they are different than normal rules.

@Toral - I see your point and I will roll my Knowledge skills going forward. However I think I will continue to take 10 with Perception. Your character can beat a 30 if he gets lucky but I doubt anyone else can.

Should have included this earlier...

B2 Stone Hallway

This long stone hallway stretches from north to south with several sets of doors along its east and west walls. The south wall bears a 10-foot-square field of carved divots that create no particular pattern. An inscription above the carving reads “The keenest eyes cannot see everything. Always remember to see the big picture.”

B5 results after taking 20 minutes in research

Toral initially has some problems but then refocuses and takes the lead in research in this massive room. Everyone except Elris finds something of use to the effort. A total of four clues are found.

Added a slide with the clues found.

When we've exhausted the clues in a room will it be apparent? And is it time to go another round?

Toral approaches the lion and casts detect magic.

"The lion is moving."

Toral, if you are approaching it please move your figure on the map to where you are going.
The rest of you should feel free to update the location of your avatars as well.

Toral moves forward to inspect the lion more closely!

"Hmmm ... that was no phatamorgana!" he says more to himself.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

Grelthe is sure she was hallucinating when she thought she saw the lion carving move - until Toral confirmed it! She moves closer to it and quietly says "Umm... hello? feeling very foolish for talking to a carving. Assuming it doesn't respond, she will lightly tap on it with a finger.

"It moved? Could it be some sort of illusion?" Elris asks moving closer, in case he needs to protect the others.

“I doubt that.” the lion head says in reply to Elris.

Then it looks directly at Toral. “It seems you are very perceptive. Please come closer.”

Toral is momentarily startled.

“Sorry, but I had my fair share of statues attacking me. Let’s ratter talk with the both of us keeping a safe distance. What are you? Watchlion?“

The head growls out the word “Guardian!” It doesn’t appear to like the term Toral used for it.

"Guardian of what?"

Igor's curiosity is peaked.

@GM Bret - Can we make any sort of knowledge check for this guardian?