[PFS_CORE_Aerondor] 01-49 Among the Dead - Outpost IV (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Graff breaks the silence as they stare down at the zombie.
"Good zombie. I can heal it if we can get it back up."

"Wow, that could have been one of us. You sure you can heal it, zombies are a bit odd in that way. I think"

Does the zombie have DR and did you take that into account? I'm thinking it would get it's DR vs. each spike and if it is like normal zombies it has DR/slashing. I can hope, for Gumbo's sake.

I'll put it again the falling damage. While the rest of the damage is untyped, it is probably reasonable to assume is piercing, so heck, why not. DR it is.

How are you intending to try and get the zombie out of the pit?

Status,
Hadanka -
Graff -
Sylvester
Shen -
Ledt
Silgil
Zombie - 57 damage.

I have no idea.

Looking down at the thing. Silgil, do you think a potion that helps someone to jump higher would get it out?

"Can it climb?"

"It is huge. It should be able to brace against the walls as it climbs making it much easier. I would suggest dropping down a couple of ropes but I do not know what we can use to support its weight."

Giants typically have an easier time with pits than medium sized creatures.

"We are not finished clearing this level. I suggest we do that before going down the stairs."

"Well I could use my bond to cast a fly or spider climb spell on it. But I figure we have enough ropes between us to support the creature as it climbs. If it can climb."

Exactly how deep is this thing? Even with a rope it seems that it might fall down again if it has to make a lot of climbing rolls.

"Well, we have the climbing ring, you can order him to use it" Ledt looks at the pit and calculates the approximate length of it "Do you care if we just leave it there and jump to the other side?"

Well, the top of the giant is about 15-20' down. The bottom of the pit is probably another 15'.

You can certainly try ordering the zombie to climb up, but zombies are not renown for their skills. It's raw strength maybe enough to see it get out though.

Your estimate as to the giants weight is between five and ten thousand pounds.

Sylvester agrees with Ledt.

"I guess the ring would work for a Zombie. Maybe? It is worth a try as no amount of normal rope is going to be able to bear the weight of that beast."

Between the ring of climbing, his enormous strength and bracing against the walls it should be enough.

"Assuming that we are able to get the giant Zombie out of the pit we can use him as a bridge across. One at a time our weight would be negligible to him."

Silgil snaps his finger and exclaims, "Of course! The ring! I suppose we could just toss it down there. But that only helps it climb, right? It's not like it can scale smooth walls."

So what do the walls look like? Climbable or smooth?

Ledt takes the ring out of his finger and throws it at the zombie below "You, oversized pile of flesh, take that and get your dumb ass out of the damned pit! I do not want my mage armor to expire!"

"He's not going to listen to you Ledt."

To Gumbo he says, "From now on you shall answer to the name Gumbo. Gumbo, put the ring on and climb out on the other side of the pit."

Graff stiffles a laugh as the group banters on how to best get their undead ally out of the pit.

"Once I heal him, you might want to step back. The energy that I channel is not good for living flesh."

I'll put this down as an uneven surface with some narrow handholds and footholds, such as a typical wall in a dungeon. These are cultists, not skilled stone masons... although one may have been.
Two climb checks to get out
climb, ring, str DC20: 1d20 ⇒ 20
climb, ring, str DC20: 1d20 ⇒ 9

The ring is like magic, and Gumbo scoots up very easily. He then starts the slow and laborious process of squeezing down the stairs. On the way down you find
(1) decapitated cultist.
(1) cultist pinned to the wall by a spear and
(2) cultists lying in an almost indecent embraces, with their daggers in each others backs.

You arrive at a large chamber. new map
A five-foot-wide, rickety rope bridge stretches fifteen feet from a small landing at the bottom of a set of stairs on the south side of the room across a twenty-foot-deep pit to another small landing on the north side of the room. The north landing has a solid wood door leading north, and the south landing has a set of stairs leading up to the west.

Status,
Hadanka -
Graff -
Sylvester
Shen -
Ledt
Silgil
Zombie - 57 damage.

Silgil stands back and wathses curiously as Graff does the whole undead healing thing.

Sylvester stays mounted on his dog. He is certain that Shaggy can easily jump the gap and avoid the possible dangers of the shaky rope bridge entirely. He leaves such thoughts of daring-do for later on and addresses the wizard.

"Silgil, clearly the zombie will have to climb down and back up. The bridge will not support him."

lol Graff does negative channel....
Channel twice to heal undead 2d6 + 2d6 ⇒ (6, 4) + (4, 6) = 20

"Hey Big Guy, Heal this brute for more destruction for destruction's sake to do more destruction!" he chants as he brings forth his holy symbol to do so, which was him presenting his left shoulder towards the Zombie.

The rest of the team backs up as Graff calls on the powers of destruction to.. undestruct the zombie.

So three channels left?

Status,
Hadanka -
Graff -
Sylvester
Shen -
Ledt
Silgil
Zombie - 37 damage.

Yes 3 channels left. I rarely use my channels anyway.

"Destruction. I like this guys style" Ledt comments while the half-orc invokes the energies of zombie undestruction.

Looking ahead, Ledt examines the bridge "A wooden bridge in the middle of the dungeon of a temple stuffed with traps. I am sure the construction is solid as the Grand Lodge"
Perception: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15

"It does seem like Gumbo will need to do more climbing. Gumbo, climb down into that pit!"

assuming it still has the ring on. If not, we will give it to him to put back on.

"You know you could have him support the bridge if you like. That should make it far more stable."

Sylvester sees if he can detect any trace of magic in the pit below before the zombie descends.

(Detect Magic)

"Or he could just carry us over. Let's see if he springs any traps first."

I'll assume the ring stays on Gumbo until the end, unless anyone says otherwise.

Gumbo tries climbing down.
climb: 1d20 ⇒ 13
And has no trouble.

Sylvester sees no magic, while Ledt spots three bodies down the bottom. The bridge seems suspicious but nothing obvious wrong with it.

"There are three bodies down the bottom" Ledt gives them an eye from afar trying to get some hints of how they died, in order to understand if a trap made it and how it might work.
Heal: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (12) - 2 = 10

"Three deaths in the same spot, in the Temple of Traps, is no coincidence but a pattern for a trap"

At the mentions of bodies Sylvester perks up.

"Perhaps they might have some valuables if not any magic. Say, Silgil can you have your zombie pick up the bodies so we can examine them a bit better?"

He nods to Ledt.

"We should avoid using the bridge at all if we can help it."

"Sure. Gumbo, hand the bodies up to us."

You would need to go down and inspect the bodies to work out how they died.
Luckily the helpful Gumbo picks them up and takes them back to the group.

Ledt has a look at the first one. He, for indeed it was male, appears to have died from massive internal injuries. Possibly from a fall?

Sylvestor notices Shaggy starting to look very edgy and back up the stairs, hackles raised on his back.

"What's up with your..."

Silgil is about to say pet, but some of the animal handler sorts don't like that. They are friends or companions or some such elevated title.

"... buddy?"

Eying the corpse suspiciously, he commands,

"Gumbo, if these dead things start moving, attack them."

Can't be too careful.

Graff shrugs as he waits to see what items these bodies might turn up.

It's being a while since he got to look at treasure without having to fight for them.

"They died from falling" Ledt says a bit thoughtful "More accurately, from crashing with the ground. Falling is usually just the fun part."

The halfling tries to raise up the body, but it is clear his short and skinny arms does not give for more "Uuuuummmph!"

"You oversized pile of muscles, can you help me proof what happens when someone goes over the bridge?"

Gumbo ignores Ledt and moves on to the next corpse.

"Guys there is something there. Probably invisible that is sneaking around. Can anyone see invisible creatures?"

@GM Aerondor - Do I have enough of an idea where this potential creature(s) to use Glitterdust to outline it?

"We should send the zombie there immediately!"

Sylvester carefully rides Shaggy back a touch (5' Step for Shaggy).

Shen starts to look around.

“Where are you?!“ she says silently and looks around.

perception : 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33

She readies to cast glitterdust in case she notices something invisible.

@Sylvester I think speak with animals is exhausted now. All you know is that Shaggy is slowly backing upstairs.

Shen isn't too sure what, but senses... something..in the middle of the pit. But certainly can't see anything there.

I've put an X where you sense something, but heck, maybe it is just a figment of your imagination, this place is getting to you.

One action from everyone please. Please put yourselves on the map where you want to be. There is very limited space at the moment.

Silgil hangs back, ready to command Gumbo if something appears.

Seeing no one to help, Ledt leaves the bodies be and steps back a few meters "I am crossing"

Taking a running start, the halfling attempts to jump over the pit without touching the bridge.
Acrobatics-slower movement (jump): 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 6 - 4 = 21

Sylvester casts Glitterdust around where they imagine the source of the trouble to be.

(Will DC 17 or be blinded but more importantly there is no save to negate the invisibility.)

He allows Shaggy to take him further up the stairs into the other room.

Technically he is riding Shaggy and calls the shots but thematically they both want to back away from the unknown danger. :)

Shaggy takes his master away from the area of concern further up the staircase into the other room but is careful to avoid being right at the edge of the open pit in the previous room.

@GM Aerondor - I put a red arrow to indicate movement up the stairs as I do not know how far the stairs go up until you are in the previous room. As it is a single move action up the stairs the maximum Shaggy can move is 4 squares.

Ledt takes a running jump and clears the bridge.

Sylvester fills one side of the pit with beautiful glittering dust. Looks real pretty but nothing appears. The glistening lights cause shadows to dance around the room in a spooky manner.

Shaggy carries Sylvester about twenty feet up the stairs before stopping, shaking. He looks very nervous.
You'll need a handle animal check to get him to go back down.

Status,
Hadanka -
Graff -
Shen -
Silgil - delaying
Zombie - 37 damage.
Spooky stuff

"That was very pretty, Sylvestor. But I think you missed. Or perhaps it is a haunt or ghost or something. In any case, let's get out of here."

Have all three bodies been collected and examined?

You have collected all three. Gumbo has two of them. The third is on the ledge were you were examining it before the things started getting spooky.

"Gumbo, carry me across."

Silgil moves to the edge and 'mounts' Gumbo for a ride across the pit.

"I could use a lift as well." Graff calls out.

Sigil mounts up on Gumbo while Graff looks on hopefully.

I'm going to go with a move action to give a command to Gumbo, as this takes a non negligible amount of time when you only have six second.

While the giant is big enough and strong enough to carry more than one, he is not really very coordinated. And without a harness or anything, I'm going to have him carry one at a time without issues, any more and things might get awkward.. So just waiting for Hadanka to pick an aciton.

Status,
Hadanka -
Graff - readying an action to mount Gumbo.
Shen -
Spooky stuff
Sylvester
Silgil -
Gumbo the Zombie - 37 damage.
Ledt

Sorry folks. Work has been kicking my butt this week. Pretty much just getting home and crashing until the alarm goes off the next morning.

Hadanka moves to the end of the bridge while drinking a potion. Looking around for the threat the others are discussing. Potion of Jump
perception: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 10 + 2 = 13

Ledt feels a strange tug on himself, pulling him towards the pit.
CMD: 1d20 ⇒ 11 Frantically he tries to resist... Will save DC 12 or you are pulled into the pit.

Likewise the mouted Silgil feels a tug, pulling him off balance.
CMB: 1d20 ⇒ 20 And a dc 12 will from you too

Status, bold may post; round 2
Hadanka -
Graff - readying an action to mount Gumbo.
Shen -
Sylvester
Silgil -Will or fall into pit
Gumbo the Zombie - 37 damage.
Ledt Will or fall into pit
Spooky stuff

will ST: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12, +2 if hardy applies.

Silgil manages to resist the tug and keep his balance. Just.