[PFS1e] GM Deussu's #2-03 The Rebel's Ransom CORE (Tier 5-9) (Inactive)

Game Master Deussu

Tere easily solves the last batch of swirling daggers, and the path is clear to the door at the end of the corridor.

As the air elemental begins to roam the next area, the group takes their tea break, exchanging pleasantries and stories of their travels over the years. After a short while, the air elemental returns, reporting to Irizati.

"এক আত্মা দেখা যায় না। এখানে চারটি স্তম্ভ, একটি সিংহাসন এবং সাতটি ছিদ্রযুক্ত একটি বেদী রয়েছে। এমন কিছু লেখা যা আমি পড়তে পারি না।"

"আত্মা নেই কিন্তু দেহ কি? আপনার সেবার জন্য ধন্যবাদ।"

"A throne and an alter with 7 holes. More puzzles using the scepters I presume."

The elf nods and proceeds carefully down the hall, checking for traps as he goes. "Irizati, I think you should summon a creature that walks next time. Your air elemental flies, and wouldn't trip a pressure plate or pit trap."

Tere goes first into the chamber, checking for anything that might decapitate him.

The large chamber is made mostly from the same sandstone that dominates this tomb. A strip of black marble runs from an altar on the east end of the room, through the floor, to a throne that sits on the west end of the chamber.

Resting on the ar of the throne is a scepter. This scepter is made of simple sandstone and appears older than all the rest. An inscription on the throne in ancient Osiriani reads, "The throne of the Merchant Prince—those who would seek audience must sit and judge the worth of all things."

The altar, as described by the air elemental, has seven depressions, each one large enough to fit any one of the scepters. On the left side of the altar, just outside the row of depressions, is a small piece of quartz embedded into the stone. On the right side, opposite the piece of quartz, is a beautiful diamond.

Tere doesn't find any traps in the room, throne, or altar.

And there are no bodies.

"Well, maybe we are supposed to see whether the Quartz is more valuable than the diamond? Seems a little easy compared to the other tasks." muses the scholar.

He checks the room for any sign of magic, and then the seven depressions.

"I suspect we need to value the wives, or at least their scepters. Given his feelings toward the first wife, I'd suggest that one goes in the depression nearest the quartz."

Forgot to update the [u]scepter page[/u]. Now all seven scepters have been found!

Khellek scans the room, and easily notices a moderate abjuration aura emanating from the altar. Thanks to his vast repertoire of knowledge encompassing the majority of all arcanae, he recognizes the spell in effect to be repulsion. It has been, however, altered to only affect certain objects, and be turned off if a certain condition is met.

He quickly realizes the repulsion to affect the scepters, as he is unable to approach the altar with one.

Tere contemplates the riddle, then shakes his head slowly. "You're only partly right, Khellek. There are seven places for scepters, so we have to figure out how much he valued himself compared to his wives."

Tere contemplates the riddle, then shakes his head slowly. "You're only partly right, Khellek. There are seven places for scepters, so we have to figure out how much he valued himself compared to his wives."

”The way he had all this built to honor himself? I think we all know how much this egomaniac values himself. I’d almost guarantee he counts his staff as the most valuable, no matter what material it is made from.”

The elf laughs. "He did have quite an edifice complex, didn't he?"

"And yet we can't approach the altar to place the scepters in with the scepters themselves. I wonder if we just had one.. the right one.. if it would work?"

He tries approaching with just the latest scepter. And if that doesn't work, each of the others in turn.

"Well, it was worth trying.." he mutters, taking notes.

"The key has to be that one of us sits on the throne and directs placement of the scepters. We are supposed to be sitting in judgment, true?"

”I bet you are right, Tere. And I bet that throne is going to be most unpleasant when whatever trap this room contains goes off. I’m pretty sturdy….I guess I’d probably be as good a volunteer to take the seat as any we have.”

Doodle waits to see if anyone else would prefer to volunteer instead. If not, she will try to sit down on the throne.

"Let me check it for traps first, Doodle. If I can figure out what's there, we might be able to come up with something that would help you resist any damage."

Tere sees no trap in the throne, and Doodle takes a seat on it. Nothing bad happens to the gnome, and as the scepters previously repulsed the altar, they are now allowed to approach the slots.

Extra +2 for Tere from heroism

Khellek nods. "Ahh, lateral thinking. Well thought out!"

The scholar then examines the various scepters, to check that the one for the first wife really is the least valuable.

Appraise bonus +12 at the moment.

With the additional perceptiveness provided by the heroism spell, Tere does actually find a trap from the throne, or in fact the whole black marble floor, leading all the way to the altar. When all the seven scepters are placed in their slots, if one of them is wrong, something happens to those standing on the black marble floor, or sitting on the throne.

Khellek performs a routine examination regarding the scepters artful representation, materials used, historical importance, and estimates the monetary values of the scepters to be as follows:

I don't recall ever having used Appraise, ever, in PFS before. I think I only took it because it was an INT based skill :-)

"I don't suppose any of you have the ability to grant magical flight ?" he asks hopefully.

"Perhaps we should secure ourselves with ropes, just in case we have misunderstood the nature of the puzzle."

Then, confident in his own estimates, Khellek places the scepters in the various depressions starting from the quartz and working toward the diamond.

First goes in the scepter he assumes is Irian, then Alkhet, Elea, Shasha, Osomi, Kiranna and finally Iltorian.

Khellek does have Feather fall available if the floor suddenly caves in.

I'm posting now but Khellek would wait for any feedback from the rest of the team before doing this.

”I disagree, Khellek. I’d bet anything that he values his scepter more than any of his wives, no matter its actual worth. This trap is all set by his scale, and I suspect his opinion is that his is the most valuable.”

Reminder that this is actually the day I took not quite enough Lesser Restorations, Sent a scout ahead, and we decided to follow up because our buffs were still going.

"Doodlevain makes a good point. I could let you climb like a spider. Or an Air Elemental might be able to do the honors."

"We have three possibilities: first, as Khellek thinks, the prince expects pure rationality in matters of business. Second, as Doodle said, the prince expects pure rationality except for prizing himself most highly. The third possibility is that he decided to, to show off his modesty by esteeming himself the least...making a show of setting his wives above himself." The elf rubs his forehead, grimacing. "I wouldn't bet on that last one, though. It's a good thing material values haven't changed much in the centuries since he lived, or we'd have a really hard time with this."

"Ahh, I love a good debate. Well, we could finish documenting the room while we ponder on the matter and Mr Grunyar recovers his energies. Then, if they who sit on the throne, and he who places the scepters are thrown into a pit of doom we will at least have made a contribution to scholarship."

He starts to sketch out the dimensions of the room. "I do have an enchantment that would slow the descent of someone if the floor were to give way." he adds, a hint of pride in his voice.

"I have been in such tombs before."

"Let me put the scepters into place, if an elemental can't do it. I'll have a better chance of jumping to safety."

Khellek nods at Tere's wise thoughts. "Yes, youthful... for ones race.. reflexes would be helpful here I think.".

The scholar backs away

"One other thing to think about: this trap has to be able to reset itself, so if we mess up the order once we should be able to try again...as long as we live through it."

The plan is to have Doodle sit on the throne while (ideally) an air elemental puts the scepters in their slots in strict value order (to start with). If the elemental can't, Tere will do it while tied off to Irizati and Khellek outside the room. If everything goes sideways with the strict value order, we'll back out, heal up, and try again with strict value but putting Alkhet's scepter in the position of highest value. If that doesn't work, we'll back out, heal up, and try again with strict value but putting Alkhet's scepter in the position of least value. Sound good to everyone?

We may as well tie you to one of the pillars instead of people. It's up to GM Deussu on the elemental. I think the debate with air elementals was more about where a Druid in Air Elemental form kept the spell pouch then if they could manipulate objects. But I'm out of level 2 spells so it would have to be a medium one.

Air elementals are able to manipulate objects since they are not incorporeal. Having a ghost do the work would be impossible.

Doodle takes the seat at the throne. To her, it feels right. Maybe a big board of gold next to her, then she would fulfill her bloodline's destiny.

Tere, Khellek, and Irizati all reside in the corridor, while the air elemental—yet again summoned to the material plane by Irizati—takes all the scepters and places them in the following order, from quartz to diamond:

Unnamed, Alkhet, Elea, Shasha, Osomi, Kiranna, Iltorian.

Placing the last scepter provides a click, and for a short, silent moment, nothing happens. Then the black marble bursts into black flames!

Black Flames damage: 10d8 ⇒ (5, 6, 7, 6, 8, 7, 2, 5, 6, 5) = 57 fire damage
Air elemental, medium, reflex save: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21 (It takes 28 damage)
Doodle doesn't get a reflex save, since she's sitting on the throne!

The air elemental barely survives the scorching.

It's Augmented so is a little better off. By the time we heal up Tere it will be gone.

"Oof. Not a trick floor then. We can try a different order. Maybe wait until tomorrow and give you some fire resistance."

Doodle was on the throne, not Tere. Good thing, too; Doodle wasn't even knocked out by the damage.

”Argh! I told you all the scepters weren’t be right. Put his as the most valuable and put the others from least to most valuable. After I get healed up, that is!”

Khellek sighs. "It would seem your assessment of his self worth was accurate." he mutters. "Not really what one would want to take to the afterlife. But maybe his architect wanted to impress him."

If we are going to have another go at this today, I'll hit up Doodle with my wand, otherwise I'll use spells.

"Let's heal up and try this tomorrow. I'll add some fire protection just in case."

Khellek takes out his bandages, and adds a little "something extra" from his small bag of medicinals.

CSW: 3d8 + 7 ⇒ (1, 4, 7) + 7 = 19
CMW: 2d8 + 7 ⇒ (7, 2) + 7 = 16
CLW: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
CLW: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

"There you are, good as new!" smiles the elderly man.

"Prune juice. Good for wounds as well as keeping you, ahh, regular."

He goes back to his books, documenting the scepters in detail with pictures, and descriptions.

"Doodle, this may, ah, seem like an odd question. Did the black flames feel like fire?"

Did the rest of the party outside of the area feel any heat from the flames?

"That will tell us whether a spell to resist fire will help at all."

The black flame did warm the room a little bit, but only the brief flames dealt damage. And judging by the burn marks on Doodle, it most certainly was fire. At least partly.

After a day of licking their wounds, the Pathfinders return to the chamber, fresh to brave new challenges.

”There definitely was a fire aspect, but maybe something else strange as well. All I know is that it hurt really badly!”

"Irizati will put some protective spells on you for the next try. We'll do the order your way this time."

Memorizing 3 Lesser Restorations the next day. And Protection from Fire which will absorb 108 fire damage.

"Good luck."

So... what order are you going to try out this time?

Doodle takes a seat at the throne, anxiously waiting whether she'll be scorched once more, or another secret is revealed.

From quartz to diamond: unnamed, Elea, Shasha, Osomi, Kiranna, Iltorian, Alkhet.

Doodle has taken the seat on the throne as an elemental places, again, places the scepters as instructed by Tere. Once again, the fires burst, but not as hot as before.

Black fire, DC 24 Reflex: 4d8 ⇒ (8, 7, 8, 1) = 24 And Doodle doesn't get to save.

It's apparent the intensity of the flames is tied to how many scepters are in the wrong position.

"Are you all right, Doodle? The fire didn't look as intense." Tere approaches the altar again, frowning at the scepters.

Doodle didn't feel thing, thanks to magic protection.

"Hmm. Let me look at those scepters again."

Irizati consults a book and examines the scepter for possible sale prices.

Profession (Merchant): 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (15) + 17 = 32

Doodle once again suggest putting them in order from least to most valuable with the Merchant Prince’s being placed as the very most valuable.

That was the second attempt, although we used the possibly-erroneous values from Khellek. We'll see what Irizati comes up with.

Yeah, Khellek is no merchant, more a talented amateur who picked up a bit to help his wider understanding. Of course, he is unlikely to admit to not being an expert in anything.

Irizati takes the scepters and with his commendable experience dabbling merchandise across Golarion. He notices that the Scepter of Osomi is more valuable in material costs than Khellek estimated. Irizati places the value at 3,700 gp, not 2,900 gp.

Confident about the order, Doodle keeps the seat while the air elemental places the scepters in the following order:

Unnamed, Elea, Shasha, Kiranna, Osomi, Iltorian, Alkhet.

Bracing for a fiery death, the air elemental acts surprised as it's still there. The throne begins to sink to the floor, and Doodle hops off of it before being delivered underground. The wall behind it s$$~s to reveal a corridor.

A narrow set of stairs leads to a low, cramped chamber. Large stone sacrophagi are arranged around this chamber, seven in total. One of them is truly special, lined with glimmering gold and set on a small dais. Small mounds of canopic jars, ancient scrolls, dust-covered sculpture, and other pieces of valuable history line the sarcophagi.

As one of the Pathfinders takes a step into the chamber, four sarcophagi's stone lids move over, crumbling to the floor as mummies rise from their graves to defend the last resting place of the Merchant Prince.

A new map is now [u]available[/u].

Round 1
Link to combat map is here
Bold may act

Irizati
Doodle
Tere
Khellek
Mummies

Please state what spell effects you have active. I expect there was a serious buffing session before even taking a step towards the chamber, so don't hold back on those buffs.

As the mummies emerge, Khellek mutters to himself.
"No undead, no undead, no, it was too good to last."

Then pulling himself together adds "Mummies! Fear not friends, for these have already died once, and surely will fall rapidly to their second demise!"

Inspire courage +2 to hit, damage, and vs fear/charm

Then, as he says the word "rapidly" the old scholar puts a little more emphasis than normal on it, sending a burst of enthusiasm and speed through the team.

Casts haste.

"May I suggest we try to bottle them up in this doorway, where we can use out numbers against them, and they cannot use theirs against us."

I'll use Loremaster to take twenty on a know(religion) check on the mummies. That gives me a... 42. We'll go for immunities, resistances, vulnerabilities, special attacks, other special defenses and anything else the GM thinks he would find interesting.

"My students! Beware... undead mummies are known to...."

Khellek knows mummies by heart. They are, after all, iconic to Osirion. To his dismay he realizes these mummies are not of the regular variety; they are enhanced versions of the regular type.

Doodle readies an action to blast the mummies with her Dragon’s Breath spell. Her features briefly turn very dark, and she blasts a 60’ line of acid at the mummies when they close the distance with the party.

Acid Damage 9d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 5, 4, 4, 2, 5, 6, 6) = 38

DC 19 Reflex for half.