[Gameday X] GM Zin's 6-06 Hall of the Flesh Eaters (Inactive)

Game Master Zin Z'arin

Uoralveren peers down into the shaft. "Well, we now know these are demon worshipers. Perhaps this is a kuru religious place. I doubt there will be anything lurking about. But yes, let's secure the area before diving in."

Ejtehah gets rid of anything preventing them to access the entrance.

He then tries to squeeze past the roots.

Mika stands nearby, her scimitar in her hands, watching for evil things to protect her companions from.

Indranna will try to squeeze past the roots as she follows the Ejtehah.

To be clear, we aren't clearing the rest of the woods before heading down?

I'm still in favor of clearing the forest first..

Before Ejtehah and Indranna can start climbing down, most of the other Pathfinders are already heading south out of the clearing to explore the top of the Gloomspire further.

I run rule of three for full parties, and the three votes were already in before anybody started to climb down.

Another clearing is found almost immediately. In the center of this clearing stands a large standing stone, about five feet in diameter and twelve feet tall. Carved into the dark stone are dozens of leering one-eyed humanoid faces, their mouths agape as if preparing to appease some unspeakable hunger.

Do they look like petrified humanoids or statues?

(Not sure what skill to tell.)

Dimak looks briefly at the stone.
But having no idea what the face carving could mean, he shrugs, ignores the stone and moves forward.

Bocke approaches the stone to examine it closer; he determines that it's likely a carving, though it's absolutely ancient and quite eroded, so he's not entirely certain. You may make a Knowledge (history) check to see if you recognize any details from the stone, if you like.

Dimak shrugs, unconcerned, and walks past the stone.

Both Bocke and Dimak are overcome with a sense of dread when they come close to the stone. Both Bocke and Dimak--and anyone else who approaches within 10' of the stone to make the Knowledge (history) check, above--need to make a DC 12 Will save vs a mind-affecting fear effect.

That was the last thing of note up top; I've uncovered the entire map for you as the remaining exploration can be completed without any new challenges or encounters.

Will Save: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 (+2 vs. Poison/Spells/Spell-like Abilities)

And there's the Nat 1 - woohoo! :-)

Suddenly, Dimak shudders. He turns around on the spot and quickly walks back where he came from.

"I'm not going near this stone again... ever!"

"Can we go down now and explore?" Indranna asks patiently.

Uoralveren hangs in the back as he watches Dimak shudder after approaching the stones. "You okay there, buddy?"

"It's nothing! I'm fine! At least I will be - if we leave right away..."

Dimak seems a little bit shaken uneasy, but otherwise ok.

"As there's nothing else here, let's go explore the crack, shall we?"

The thirty-foot-long, root-covered crack extends deep into the Gloomspire. Numerous gnarled tree roots creep down the sides of the shaft, a few of them hanging almost to the muddy floor. Dozens of shallow niches are set at irregular intervals down each of the four walls of the shaft. Though some are empty, most of the recesses hold squat, four-foot-tall stone idols of leering, horned fiends.

The strangler fig roots are scalable with a DC 15 Climb check.

The niches provide good footholds for climbers, making the descent easier than scrambling down the roots (Climb DC 10).

How are you proceeding down, and in what order?

Nobody trained in kn history?
Taking 10 on climb for 12. Going first.

Ejtehah moves down the niches.

“I don’t go fast! You be careful and not die!“

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9 vs DC 12

Bocke follows Dimak's lead, both towards and away from the statue. Bocke does not have Knowledge (history).

"Forget that!"

Bocke will climb down the roots. Take 10 for 16.

Dimak does not have Knowledge (history), either.

"I'll go first down the roots!"

Dimak climbs down the roots in front of Bocke - after waiting for the fear to wear off. Take 10 for 15.

Bocke and Dimak climb down and call up to everyone to hang on a second. While alone, Bocke offers Dimak a fresh pair of underwear, and changes his own.

"Okay, it's safe now, you can come down."

No history knowledge here.

The twilight speaker goes last, silently going down on the roots.

Taking 10 for an 11.

Dimak quickly changes his underwear. "Thanks, Bocke."

Ejtehah leads the way down into the crevice, using the niches as handholds. Dimak and Bocke follow close behind, Dimak using the roots while Bocke follows Ejtehah's path. Uoralveren disappears into the hole after Dimak and Bocke, similarly using the niches for hand and footholds. You posted roots, but those are DC 15 which your take 10 doesn't meet, so I assume you meant niches.

Indranna and Mika wait at the top, pondering how to get down.

Ejtehah reaches the bottom of the crevice, still 10' above the floor below. He looks at the muddy floor below him--a faint bit of light still emerging from the muck, and releases his grip to drop to the floor.

Dimak follows close behind, but something goes wrong. Suddenly, idols are tumbling out of the niches all around him! Two idols bash into Dimak on their way down, and one knocks into Ejtehah's shoulder.

Status
Bocke (10' down in crevice)
Dimak (-25/35 hp, plus possible falling damage)
Ejtehah (-8/30 hp, plus possible falling damage)
Indranna (up top)
Mika (up top)
Uoralveren (just entered crevice)

Can you put some indicator of who you're expecting responses from? Is it just Ejtehah and Dimak? Or does everyone get to react?

We're not in initiative; there are no limits on who can act right now. Ejtehah and Dimak have to take specific actions to prevent damage, but everyone else can respond to what happened as they like. Mika and Indranna hear the clatter; everyone else sees what happened to one degree or another.

acrobatics : 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

“Arghh … hurting! Who can make light here!??“

He takes out his clw wand.

clw : 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (4, 8) + 2 = 14

I have to say, I'm curious... who triggered the trap?
Dimak, climbing down the roots with take 10 for 15?
Bocke, also climbing down the roots (posted here) with take 10 for 16?
Ejtehah? Or Uoralveren?

Reflex: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9 Here we go...

Anyhow, Dimak has DR 1/- (which is doubled vs non-lethal), so maybe the total damage isn't that much...

At 2nd level, the invulnerable rager gains DR/— equal to half her barbarian level. This damage reduction is doubled against nonlethal damage.

"Ouch! Whoooaaa..."

Dimak looses his grip and falls into the mud.

CRASH!

"Bloody hell! That hurt - a lot!"

The dwarf gets up and moves away from the danger zone (of falling objects).
Then he gets his wand of infernal healing out and tries to use it on himself.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21 Success!

At the second try the magic works - his wounds and bruises start to heal.
For the next minute (while the spell is taking its course), Dimak looks around.

Perception, darkvision: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Oh yeah, meant niches not roots.

Uoralveren notices something happen down below. "Hey ya'll! Are you okay? I'll be down there as fast as I can possibly go.". Seeing that they fell, Uoralveren takes his time.

To calm his nerves, he starts humming an old child's song from his youth. "Just one step at a time, Wandering Dream. Just one step at a time."

I have to say, I'm curious... who triggered the trap?

Dimak triggered the trap. The trigger doesn't depend on how one descends, but how many descend. The trap--if not disabled or triggered earlier--will always trigger when the 2nd living being descends past a certain point, because reasons. Dimak is the only PC who made a Perception check in the crevice (earlier, before leaving the crevice and returning), but he failed to meet the DC to notice this trap.

Dimak joins Ejtehah at the bottom in the least cermonious way possible, landing in the mud with a thick splash. He picks himself up and quickly gets to work getting some fast healing going, then looks around the space with his darkvision.

There is little of note in this room; the floor is covered with at least six inches of mud, rainwater, and broken statuary. Sunk in the muck is the faint glow of Bocke's light stone.

This entire chamber is difficult terrain

At least, that "little of note" is what Ejtehah and Dimak see. What they sense, or feel, is something else entirely. There is a subtle sense of wrongness here. The clean, rectangular design of the room seems to shift in your peripheral vision, though everything looks normal when you look back. Periodically, a wisp of some strange, unidentifiable scent drifts past your nose, but further active sniffing can never discover the same scent again.

Dim light fills this particular chamber, faint sunlight coming in through two skylights set into the walls. Only one foot wide at this end, they do let some light in.

Light conditions in this chamber are dim light

Uoralveren, after the crashing subsides, picks his way down to the bottom with no further trouble. He drops to the floor as Ejtehah did earlier.

Status
Bocke (10' down in crevice)
Dimak (-13/35 hp; adjusted for DR and infernal healing)
Ejtehah
Indranna (up top)
Mika (up top)
Uoralveren (-0 hp; pending possible falling damage)

Map updated!
(Note: new map orientation is different from old map)

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (3) + 7 - 1 = 9

Uoralveren slowly climbs down, but manages to slip up and twist his ankle.

"Ooph! Ouch! That hurt."

Dimak triggered the trap. The trigger doesn't depend on how one descends, but how many descend. The trap--if not disabled or triggered earlier--will always trigger when the 2nd living being descends past a certain point, because reasons.

Fine with me, I was just curious.

"Wandering Dream, are you ok? Indranna, Mika, be careful when climbing down - for the last 10 feet you have to jump!"

Dimak then again tries to use his wand of infernal healing on himself.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21 Success!

At the second try (again!) the magic works - more of his wounds and bruises start to heal.
For the next minute (while the second spell is taking its course), Dimak looks around, trying to make sense of the impressions he got from this room in the last minute.

Perception, darkvision: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Is there anywhere to tie a rope to help with a climb check?

If yes Indranna will use her rope to help her climb down, taking 10 on the check for 10.

K:History: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Indranna thinks she recognizes some feature in the carvings (in the other clearing) that likely point to the Ghol-Gan empire as the carvings' origin.

Indranna finds a good spot to secure a rope to one of the nearby trees. Does she knot the rope?

Mika carefully climbs down.

1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

Bocke's rope was used to tie up the barbarians. He will climb down the rest of the way on the roots.

Indranna does knot the rope.

Bocke, Indranna, and Mika all make their way to the ground, Indranna's knotted rope providing support for that final ten feet without needing to jump.

Status
Bocke
Dimak (-3/35 hp)
Ejtehah
Indranna
Mika
Uoralveren (5 nl)

Uoralveren will touch his left shoulder with his right arm. His eyes close as he looks upward. "Oh Guiding Hand. Please watch over me and protect me."

Will use Community Domain's Calming Touch to heal 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 nonlethal damage.

Looking at the others, once he's a bit more refreshed, "Now what do we do?"

Bocke will search the room and check the door for traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Then he'll stand back as the door opens.

Shall we set up a door SOP? Let me know who wants to do Perception/Disable Device checks and who wants to open the door, and we can make that the standard as we move through the rest of the scenario. I'll set up a quick-roll spoiler for it. Doors are a real time suck in PbP; this will help a lot.

Bocke has +10 Perception (he can bump that to +12 with heightened awareness for short bursts), but no Disable Device.

Mika makes sure her scimitar is in her hand, ready for use.

not going to be great at going first, but happy to go right behind, ready to defend the scout.

It doesn't look like anyone in this group is trained in Disable Device, so I really just need to know who wants to be the fall guy that opens the doors after inspecting for traps. For purposes of the SOP, you'll only be opening doors the party thinks are not trapped. If a trap is ever found, we won't use the SOP; we'll take those on a case by case basis.

I can, I guess. +7 Perception here.

Ejtehah walks at the front.

perception : 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

“I not let die anybody else! Lythertida you young ones life!!“

Bocke will stay back with his longbow.

The perception bonus of Dimak is not that great, but quite okay.
Anyway, he can be the door opener for the party, if you want.

Indranna will stay in the middle of the group. And casts Mage Armor on herself. AC is now 19.

"I'll stay in the middle, where it's safest." Indranna tells the others.

The door is an 8-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide slab of seamless dark gray stone with a stone handle that opens fairly easily for a heavy stone door.

Strength, Dimak, take 10: 10 + 3 = 13

The door opens into a hallway, 20 feet long, that ends in a similar door. Dimak shoulders this one open as well.

The sickly sweet smell of rotting meat fills this perfectly square, low-ceilinged chamber. The east wall features a large bas-relief carving portraying a wide-eyed hag devouring her own hands. The ceiling in this room is only 8 feet high.

A bloated, wormy corpse—missing its left arm and bearing several horrific bite wounds on the torso and neck—sits propped up in the room’s southwest corner.

Ejtehah casts detect magic.

perception : 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

“Careful everyone be!!!“

Uoralveren shudders. "Something big must be in here. Look at those wounds. Wonder what could have made something like that."

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15