PFS #2-01 and #2-03 with DM Deevor (Inactive)

Game Master Deevor

"A short rest perhaps. But it is true, that longer rest didn't seem to help me much."

Now only one corridor is left to explore, onwards to the north..... further into the darkness .... the Pathfinders must complete their daily preparations and then it will be time to continue the exploration ..

See Discussion for healing etc... Moving on tomorrow ...

Perhaps the best thing to do is get out of here as soon as possible.

"Lets finish exploring this place and then get out of here. I'll tough it out."

The half elf nods.

Shayla agrees as well. "This place is creepy. Let's finish what we came here to do and get outta here."

Rangi nods his head "Let u move out to check the last corridor..."

Thanks for averaging the healing GM! I think with that everyone was full except Rangi and Webny (both of whom were 1 HP short form max and resting the night solved that).

He grabs his shield and club in the other hand and begins to go down the corridor.

Webny stretches and works some kinks out of her neck and back, both of which "pop!" loudly as she does. "Okay, gang! Back at it!" she says with a peppy grin, bounding off behind Rangi.

"Yeahs! Look out ruins, we're comings for yous!" Pooka laughs as she hefts her pack, draws her shortsword, and moves to follow the others.

Shayla pulls out her shortbow and follows the party, sticking to the shadows as usual.

He nods.

After the corridor winds for about a hundred feet, it opens up into a T-shaped room. Stagnant water pools in places where tree roots have pierced the ceiling. The floor is decorated with a huge mosaic depicting a conflagration, the dark smoke of the fire rising to form storm clouds pierced by lighting. At the back, the room narrows to an archway, sealed with a lattice of branches woven together. A smooth dark gray stone protrudes from the lattice.

See current map
Apologies for the delay, the company I work for went public on Friday and we had a big party, still felt off on Saturday too ... the party was good though.

"Oh nos...this has 'dangers' stamped all over its," Pooka scowls as she looks around, carefully watching for signs of trouble as she slowly creeps forward.
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Pooka will continue to Scout~

Rangi grabs his shield and club and moves forwards

"Let us check what that is..."

Defend, move forwards...

Shayla's fingers tighten on her bowstring... she follows her party stealthily...

Webny advances and draws even with Rangi, continuing to Search for hostiles as she goes.

Jak moves further up, keeping an eye out for strange things.

Rangi carefully scans the room and moves slowly towards the lattice of woven branches that appear to have been woven into a pattern, a picture maybe ... of lightening struck storm clouds ...

Give me your religion modifier if you want to recall knowledge ..

As he gets even closer the lattice of branches start to quiver...

Rangi stops and, after a quick look back to his companions as they follow on, he concentrates on what lies before him. In the lattice, he makes out the smooth dark gray stone as an elongated piece of basalt, in the shape of another finger.

Closer inspection suggests a pattern in how the branches are woven together. The finger currently inserted in the lattice, along with four slight openings in the weave suggest where more of the stone fingers found in the other chambers could be inserted. The openings fall in a line, with the basalt finger already inserted in the first opening. The basalt finger, like the other stone fingers, is covered in runes in the Cyclops language.

He approaches with the group, with a little trepidation.

When they get to the room the group is in now, he will cast detect magic.

Religion +7

Rangi looks at the branches woven together

"There is a finger, yet another one here, it has runes on it. Jak bring the book"

"There is a pattern here..." he leans on his club using it sometimes as a walking stick

Shayla moves up to the edge of the light, her bow covering Rangi as he examines the lattice.

No religion

Jak carefully looks at the Cyclop's runes to try to better understand them.

As Rangi and his companions study the chamber on their way towards the laticework, both Jak and Rangi engage in a heated discussion on the meaning of the mosaic on the floor. Rangi insists that it depicts the Gozreh's more unpredictable aspect when his temperament is fickle and fury swift, hurling bolts of lightning and dragging to the crushing depths of anguish those who dare befoul the natural world, with flame and destruction. Jak though says the mosaic is a dedication to the might of Urxehl, demon lord of storms, natural disasters, and trolls. The lightning-struck storm clouds are known in ancient texts as Urxehl’s religious symbol.

The words last and linger long in the air as Rangi moves to pick the basalt finger from the lattice. Begrudgingly he gives it to Jak, who after some time reveals that the finger contains the text 'NOW OUR LORD RESPLENDENT ON HIS THRONE' .....

Rangi mournfully speaks, "This is the finger laid in the first indentation of the lattice. What can it mean, we have five fingers and five places to lay the fingers?"

See the slide in the slides of the scenario, maps etc. Slide 2 contains all fingers and their translations.

"I think it is obvious, these fingers are keys to this 'door' and we just have to figure out what order they go in."

The half elf will open up his hand next to the stone fingers and the hand and see if they can tell, looking at a humanish hand, what goes where.

Rangi nods his head and looks at the fingers

"So how about"

1. Obsidian Finger "If I hath reembraced, loyalty professed"
2. Flint finger "our ego gone, this gift blessed"
3. Crystal Finger "of our devotion rewarded, our lord unsealed"
4. Slate finger "with the power bestowed, our enemy hath reeled"
5. Basalt Finger "now our lord resplendent on his throne"

He wonders looking at the order

"That common sounds weird to me, in Orcish it would be easier...."

"It'd probably sounds more naturals if we understoods the Cyclops language," Pooka points out. "Translations get weirds sometimes, especially if you's try to do it direct, words for words. Syntax gets all strange."

To Rangi's proposed solution, the little goblin nods in agreement. "I's thinking that makes the most sense!"

Let's do it he says.

Rangi approaches to the lattice once more, fingers held in his hand. The patterned network of branches and greenery quiver as before, which is either in anticipation or fear. When Rangi places the Obsidian finger saying 'If I hath reembraced, loyalty professed' in the first slot, the weave suddenly shakes in agitation, the barrier writhes violently before expelling and the finger is ejected from it's placeholder.

The shaking is so violent, the branches shoot a barrage of thorns across the room. Everyone in the room must react quickly to the missiles fired at them. All take 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8 damage from the thorns, Basic Reflex Save DC=20 (crit pass = no damage, success = 1/2 damage, fail = damage as rolled, crit fail = double damage)

Once the barrage has subsided, Rangi stands still watching as the branches once more return to a slight quiver.

His companions stand planted watching as calm returns, ready and waiting in anticipation. But all returns to calm as Rangi returns to the group with group of fingers, having failed to place a finger on the first slot. The company of Pathfinders have time to think again ....

What does it all mean? ... how can we find out what the clues have in common? ... are there any patterns ... are there hidden words in the meaning ... so how do these fingers help solve the puzzle of the weave? .... so where does each finger go into the weave ... why did the weave not expel the basalt finger in the first position? ... where do the other fingers get placed?

Once 3 of you agree to take an action, place the fingers in a particular order, I will take that as your parties choice.

1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Webny nimbly dances out of the way of most of the projectiles, though some leave their mark.

"Okay! So not that order, then, yeah? Maybe try the flint one first this time?"

Reflex: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Shayla also dances out of the way, but gets scratched by a few when she didn't move quickly enough.

Basic Reflex (DC 20): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 Ouch, think that's a crit fail so 16 damage.

"Yeouch! That's not the right fingers after alls!" Pooka howls as she's peppered head to toe with sharp thorns. "Owowowowowwwww!"

"Ums...maybe we shoulds put that basalt fingers back where it was...it must've been the rights ones to start withs," she suggests after taking a few moments to work through the pain. "But first we needs to, um, really looks all the fingers overs and see if we's missing any hints..."
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Not sure if there's a check we can attempt to try and figure out more or if we need to go back through the Gameplay thread for something we're overlooking? Based on the GM's hints I'm guessing the basalt finger goes in the first position where we found it, since it seems a wrong answer gets (violently) rejected...

Reflex, DC20: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 -16

"On dwarf curly beard! What kind of trickery is that!"

He drops the things to the ground and reaches for his tools

Medicine Threat Wounds: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Threat wounds: 2d8 ⇒ (5, 8) = 13

Net -3

Rangi looks at the finger and puts the basalt finger into the first spot "It was in the first place, and was not rejected."

1. Basalt "now our lord resplendent on his throne"

"And now what? We know that basalt finger is in the right order..."

.. are there hidden words in the meaning ..

Ok let me look

==============
Basalt Finger "now our lord resplendent on his throne"

==============

"What about the rest..."

He rewrites the text and highlights part of the words

Obsidian "If I hath reembraced, loyalty professed"
Flint finger "our ego gone, this gift blessed"
Crystal Finger "of our devotion rewarded, our lord unsealed"
Slate finger "with the power bestowed, our enemy hath reeled"

"So we have one more 'one, two threes, one four." Rangi looks at Jak "How certain are you of your translations?"

Before trying other fingers we should heal, and probably hide everyone behind the corner so that one person suffers ;)

Reflex Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Jak takes the full blunt of the attacks even though he almost managed to dodge some of them.

Webny asks, "How did the Cyclops' alphabet work? Could it be alphabetical by the materials? In Common basalt would still be first, then, right? Then crystal, flint, obsidian, and slate. Right?"

reflex 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

He is going to step out of the room for the next tries.

I'll post once you tell me what you are doing and when ready who you send to place the fingers, (whilst the rest of you hide out of range from the thorns).

Shayla retreats around the corner so as not to get sprayed by thorns again.

"Hums...I think Rangi mights be on to somethings," Pooka muses as the old orc points out there there are numerical values hidden within each finger phrase. "Maybes we shoulds try the crystal one in the fourths slot, since it's the only phrase that has a numbers that isn't repeated," she suggests. "If it doesn't blows up, then at least we knows we's on the right tracks."

There's a slight pause and then she looks around. "Ums...also, coulds I gets a medic, please?"

Rangi pulls out his tools and begins to patch his allies.

"Yeah, let us try the crystal finger..."

Threat wounds@Pooka: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6

Threat wounds@Webny: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5

Threat wounds@Shayla: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6

Threat wounds@lustanus: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4 failure

Threat wounds@Jak: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (4, 3) = 7

Threat wounds@Rangi: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (1, 5) = 6

Threat wounds@Pooka: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
heal: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 8) = 11

Folks, track your health! Sorry, lustanus. Each heal takes 10 mins so, at the time that I am done, I can do Rangi's wounds and Pookas again, Lustanus in 30 mins.

"Hide behind the corner I will put the 4th finger."

He puts down his club and raises his shield as he puts the finger in its spot

"Thanks, Rangi!" Webny says as he patches her up.

"Why don't you let me place the finger? I'm quicker and a littler target, and if things go wrong, you're better at patching people up than I am."

She holds her hand out for the finger.

"Thanks, pals!"

Pooka obligingly hustles back and around the corner, ready to rush in and help if things go awry...

Rangi looks at Webny and nods his head "Sure, it is a young adventurer game anyways. And there are more fingers to go anyways"

If Webny insists, sure, Rangi will hide behind the corner

Webny accepts the finger and heads over to its spot. She'll wait for everyone else to get clear before setting it down, though.

Getting behind some cover, Jak yells out. "I'll treat your wounds if you make a mistake."

As Webny approaches the lattice of branches it quivers, even as she gets close. She holds a torch in one hand, a finger with cyclopean markings. When she places the crystal finger in the fourth slot, the branches start to shake some more, but after several seconds the movements subside and the finger rests in the barrier.

Webny returns successfully to the rest of the party hiding around the corner, out of the way of harm.

is that a good thing?

"It worked!" Okay, which one is next?"

"Huh, ok. That was expected, now the situation complicates. We have two fingers that could fit into 3rd slot hopefully one of them would fit. Then we are left with two."

Says Rangi giving the choice to Webny