The web misses. The ray hits.
Need a fort from Pedipalp.
Tally, Donovan, Walhart <======
Walhart takes a moment to study the lady before moving in to strike again.
That one lands.
Tally, Donovan
Tally moves and then directs the detect evil towards pedipalp and the ceiling over her.
Tally does not detect evil.
Donovan attempts to maintain his grip on the squirming thing.
The old lady falls limp in his grasp. Don drops her. Before your eyes she reverts to her native form. A bloated spider with a hunchbacked body.
End initiative.
Tally continues scanning for evil, not convinced that the true source of the problem has been taken care of.
"Well, hopefully that does it, but I'm going to continue checking just to make sure."
Some backfill on her that your PCs do not know. Her name is Ektekka. She had already come to prefer her alterate humanoid form as a feeble old woman when she came through the gate and convinced Salighara she would make a good assistant. She always remained in this form and cast undetectable alignment every morning.
The illusory casting was poorly explained in the pdf but the proximity to the dreamgate aided her with the illusion.
Walhart takes a deep breath. "It took some doin', but we got her."
"Should we kill her or just toss her back through the gate?"
Tally continues his hunt for evil to no avail, gradually relaxing.
Valdis walks over to Mrs. Pedipalp and starts beating her with his staff.
"I don't believe for a second that this creature topples over just because you poke her with your armor. We saw her healing unnaturally fast last time. I don't want to see that again."
LOL. She's dead, Jim.
Donovan drops to one knee, feeling as though the proximity dreamgate is causing him to lose grip on reality. "THe gate, we need to fix it"
"OK, then, let's get to it. Without the old hag messing with us, we should be able to handle this."
Tally approaches the gate mechanism and surveys it.
Anyone studying the gate should give me an Intelligence or Knowledge (arcana) check.
, plus bonuses from clarity, not that it helped enough with that roll :(
"Can't make heads or tails of this thing. What a strange device!"
And that failure will call for a con check, Tally.
"How about we get Salighara. It's her dreamgate, isn't it?"
"Good idea. She must know more about this thing than we do."
Adding his clarity points to that roll Valdis believes he can shut it down with a successful dexterity or disable device roll.
"Yeah, no, sorry, I can't disable that thing at all." Valdis concludes from his insight into the gate. "Maybe someone who knows how to handle locks and traps might."
An int or arcana check with DC 18 will allow you to attempt a dex or disable device check. Both allow you to add your clarity points.
Valdis' curiosity gets the better of him and he tries to disable the portal.
Valdis' attempt to disable the device fails. I need a fortitude check please.
Valdis is not harmed by his failure with the gate.
Once you pass the int/arcana DC you know how to disable it and may continue the dex/disable DC attempts.
Valdis keeps trying to get past this awlful place and back to the real world. If needed he will simply heal himself.
only half of this roll
The gate gives in to Valdis' efforts. It stops working and is no longer a functioning gate.
Valdis sighs in relief. After healing himself he asks "So, on to get the last stamp?"
The longbow and hammer are in the corner of the room.
Tally does his part by casting a lesser restoration on Valdis
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm already back at full health." Valdis declines.
5 con damage reduces max hit points by 8 hps. Lesser restoration will repair that. Valdis is now at -4 con which is still -8 to total hp.
"Ah, OK."
As the gate comes to a whirring halt, Tally heaves a sigh of relief.
"So glad you figured that out. I'd really rather not prefer to spend an eternity here messing with that thing. And I sure am glad that thing didn't kill you Valdis, though I really wonder what happens when you die in the boneyard. Maybe you just come back? I suppose we should go talk to Mrs. Salighara and see about getting out of here."
*sigh*
"I wish I could get my family out too."
Walhart grabs his bow again. "Nice work on the gate. I wouldn't have figured that out at all.
I don't know about you all, but I'm glad to be out of this place."
"Well, we're not out yet. This place is full of the unexpected, so I'm not assuming we get out until we get out. but whether we do or don't, I fell like we have made a difference cleaning the mess up."
Valdis remembers that he should do something. He searches Mrs. Pedipulp for any valueables, but especially for any stamps or keys.
After that he searches the room if he finds something else of interest. Also for magical signatures.
Valdis locates a magical belt and magical bracers on the creature. There is no key and no stamp. The three planar cosmological models on the table each indicate a magical component.
The bracers glow faintly. The belt's glow is moderate. The first model has a bead with moderate aura, the second is faint upon a ring, and the third is faint originating an a stone. These items are intricately built into the cosmological models.
So, by planer cosmological models, do you mean like a solar system? What aspect of the cosmos do they model?
Knowledge (planes) DC 20
, untrained and quite poor at it.
Tally sees three pretty gimmahoochies.
"Any idea what they do? They make about as much sense to me as the portal did. Where do they come up with this stuff?"
Valdis removes the items from Pedipulp and puts them on the table where the other gimmahoochies are "Interesting." he concludes while checking on them.
Bracers
Belt of mighty constitution +2
pearl
ring of feather falling
stone of alarm
Valdis hands out the items he knows. "Here a belt, that should help with your health" he tells Father Walhart. "I think the that ring would fit you, Tally. It prevents falling."
"You can have the alarm stone if you want." he tells Don holding out the item. "The other items I don't know yet."
Removing these components destroys the models unless a character succeeds at a DC 15 Craft (clockwork) check.