VampByDay's 1-01 Round Robin Speedrun Extravoganza (Inactive)

Game Master VampByDay

Starting up from before:

You are at the bottom of the stairs. Shadows are acting weird, there is some chanting you can hear from up the stairs.

Ogren looks back up at Isurus. "Is it really just the shadows? Huh..." With one look back at the spot where he started crying, Ogren moves to the stairs and bounces up them two at a time, wanting to end these shadows affecting his mind.

Jaxon looks back at them and then the shadows. "This is weird. I think we ought to stay together. I don't like what these shadows are doing."

Once Isurus is certain everyone has gathered, he draws his other trident and leads the way up the stairs.

I placed in in some kind of order on the stairs going up, Isurus in the lead and I assumed Ogren next. After that I kinda guessed.

Droning voices echo off the mahogany walls and domed, plaster ceiling of this luxurious room. The sumptuous furniture has been pushed to the sides of the room, making space for eldritch markings and mystical paraphernalia laid carefully over the plush carpet. The chamber seems muted and dim despite the crystal chandelier overhead, and a bone-numbing chill seeps through the space along with a metallic scent. A ritual is obviously underway here, but it doesn’t seem as though it’s working as planned. Shadowy energy lashes out from a twisting breach in the center of the room, and indistinct shapes flit and scuttle along the walls.

Who you presume to be Tavvar (Lady with grey hair) stands at the head of the circle, her face twisted in a determined grimace, while her (presumed) assistants each frantically continue their gestures and chants. The ritual is obviously wearing them down.

Things are obviously deteriorating fast as you see a shadow take a more solid shape with a sinister grin and stalk towards the quartet of arcanists. Everyone realizes it's time for action!

Gonnna assume Isurus uses their battle ability to give everyone +2 initiative because they said they would. Also +1 from scouting.

initiative Alaric: 1d20 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 4 + 3 = 19
initiative Samna: 1d20 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 4 + 3 = 18
initiative Isurus: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 4 + 1 = 22
initiative Ogren: 1d20 + 5 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 5 + 3 = 14
initiative Jaxon: 1d20 + 5 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 5 + 3 = 24
initiative Shadow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Initiative: Bold May Go
Jaxon
Isurus
Shadow
Alaric
Samna
Ogren
Ritual

It is an occultism check (and a single action) to identify what the heck is going on with this ritual.

Isurus focuses the adrenaline of battle as his eyes turn milky white and the smell of blood suffuses the room. He bursts up the stairs and around the shadowy form menacing the ritualist to engage it from behind. "This is out of control! How do we stop it," he shouts at Tavvar as he drives his tridents toward the shadow, one then the other.

◆ Athletic Rush
◆ Strike
◆ Strike

Trident (T): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Piercing, Curse: 1d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 2 = 8
Trident (T): 1d20 + 6 - 5 ⇒ (17) + 6 - 5 = 18
Piercing, Curse: 1d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 2 = 10

AC currently 18

Ogren moves to bounce up the stairs first, but stops when Isurus instead takes the lead I have a mental image of him preventing the goblin from running face first into danger. Not sure how true that is, though.

Ogren follows behind the azarketi and peers into the room. "Wow! That's pretty and cool!"

Curving stairs on a square map...I think I can get into a flank with 1 action.

Jaxon hears the chanting and rushes past the others. "You have to stop this now!" He glares at Tavvar seeing if he can break her concentration. Then he refocuses on the shadow, to try and stop it from fully forming with his morningstar.

Demoralize Tavvar: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Strike vs flatfooted Shadow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Sneak attack: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + (3) = 8

◆ Move
◆ Demoralize
◆ Strike

Tavvar and her apprentices do not respond to Isurus, they are deep in concentrating on whatever they are doing and it seems like they are trying to control the ritual, not continue it.

Isurus's first strike is ever so slightly off target and the shadow manages to slip between the tines of his trident. His second attack hits solidly though, dealing a surprising amount of damage to the shadow, but it still has some fight left in it.

As Jaxon reaches the top of the stairs he doesn't know what is going on, but he recognizes instantly the tell-tale facial expression on Tavvar as what could politely be called 'damage control mode.' Even though he isn't well versed in magics, he can tell from a moment's notice that she and her apprentices are trying to shut the ritual down, or at least contain it. Attempting to disrupt her concentration here with an intimidate check would be . . . . bad.

It is immediately clear that Tavvar and her apprentices are noncombatants and are no longer trying to continue the ritual. If you want, I can treat your demoralize as your first attack roll, and your attack as your second attack Role Jaxon.

Sure, I'll take you up on that. Gotcha, they are actually trying to help.

Jaxon gets a sneak attack in on the shadow, though his second attack misses.

The shadow turns around to strike Isurus
attack Isurus: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
damage if hit: 1d6 ⇒ 4 negative damage.

After the creature hits, it triest to slime it's way INTO Isurus's shadow!
acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

The creatures slips INTO the shadow of Isurus, and spends its third action to deal automatic damage!
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3 Negative damage
Again, single action occultism check to figure out what is going on. You can still attack the shadow, it is just now in Isuru's square.

Initiative: Bold May Go
Jaxon
Isurus -7 HP
Shadow -18
Alaric
Samna
Ogren
Ritual

Alaric pushes past on the stairs and comes into the room. "What is going on here!?" He looks on in horror as a shadow passes through the room. This one much more real than those they encountered downstairs.

◆ Stride
◆ Stride
◆ Occultism +4 to see what is going on
↺ Infernal Detonations

"The ritual has gone awry! We need to shut it down." Alaric quickly warns everyone.

"This spooky stuff isn't really my forte, Alaric."

Samna moves over and tries to punch the shadow out of Isurus's...shadow.

Flurry
unarmed strike: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
unarmed strike: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 7 - 4 = 16 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

With a glance at the hapless researches, she adds "Might want to get out of here before things get really out of hand."

Samna punches the shadow to death Well that's a sentence I never thought I'd say/type. and the ritual seems to calm down slightly, though it is still out of control.

Initiative: Bold May Go
Jaxon
Isurus -7 HP

Alaric
Samna
Ogren
Ritual

Ogren moves into the room and looks around, there's not much he can do right now. He jogs into the room, raising his shield as he moves next to the woman in charge. "Uhhh, is there anything I can do to help?"

As he says this he gives her a look over for obvious wounds.

The ritual lets out a massive surge of necrotic energy , as the ritualists are unable to contain it. Also another shadow appears in the room!

Basic Fort save DC 18: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8Necrotic damage

And another Shadow appears! It attacks Ogren

attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16 but can't get past his armor! It attacks again!

second attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 It flails again!

there's a 20 on that die: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0 It is rather pathetic for a shadow.

Tavvar and her assistants aren't looking great.

Initiative: Bold May Go
Jaxon
Isurus -7 HP
Alaric
Samna
Ogren
Ritual
New Shadow

↺: Scenario Defined Special Reaction

Fortitude, Curse: 1d20 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (1) + 6 - 1 = 6
Hero Point: Fortitude, Curse, Vestments 1-Glyph: 1d20 + 6 - 1 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 6 - 1 + 1 = 25
Blue Acolyte takes 0 damage. Isurus takes 4 negative damage.

Fast Healing 1

Isurus throws himself in the way of the energy blast, shielding one of the acolytes. "We need to stop this before it overwhelms the only people holding it in check!"

He moves to pin the newly born shadow between himself and Jaxon and thrusts his trident toward the entity. The azarketi then speaks a sound that resembles rushing water, and Jaxon feels a bolstering energy.

◆ Stride
◆ Strike
◆ Cast (V): guidance @Jaxon

Trident (T): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22 vs. flanked target
Piercing, Curse: 1d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 2 = 8

"I think they're trying to shut down the ritual!" He swings his morningstar at the shadow again, helped by Isurus. He raises his shield up to try and ward off any counterattacks from the shadow.

Attack vs flatfooted (guidance): 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 7 + 1 = 20
Sneak Attack damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 4 + (4) = 10

Attack vs flatfooted: 1d20 + 7 - 5 ⇒ (18) + 7 - 5 = 20
Sneak Attack damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 4 + (4) = 13

◆ Strike
◆ Strike
◆ Raise Shield

Three strikes from Isurus and Jaxon take out the creature.

Waiting to see if I can do anything to help stop the ritual.

Aww, fudge biscuits, Ogren's not going to get to hit anything this fight, is he?

Ogren also jumps in front of Tavvar as the wave passes near them. "That's bad energy!"

↺: Protect the ritualists Reaction
Fortitude Save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
No damage to Tavvar and 4 to Ogren.

Ogren then looks at the other two ritualists across the room and scrambles to help them.

He bumbles through the shadows of the ritual itself, and ends up next to the aides in green and red. He reaches his empty hand out at the aide in green, curing them of some of the negativity coming from the ritual and then raises his shield as he steps in between the one in red and the ritual center.

◆: Stride, ◆ Lay on Hands (6 health to green), ◆Raise Shield, AC 22

Alaric focuses on the ritual to try and shut it down as quickly as possible. "Not much time to explain the how, I will try and do it quickly."

Not sure how many actions it takes to shut the ritual down so here are three rolls, use what you need from it. :)

Occultism: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
Occultism: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Occultism: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Alaric does not succeed on any of the checks. He can still inform the party of the checks they can make.

Alaric begins to point around the room. "Shut the ritual down!" Occultism "Counter it with Shadowtongue." Society check w/ Shadowtongue "Or, counter the Planar Energies." Religion

"Not much I can do here except watch out for shadows!"

Samna moves to get between a researcher and a rift.

Jaxon tries to speak to Tavvar. "Help us help you! What can we do?"

I'm guessing the answer is the info Alaric already got, but who knows. And Jaxon can't help much with only a +2 in religion.

It looks like Tavvar is wholly consumed preventing the ritual from exploding in everyone’s face.

"Not much I can do here except watch out for shadows!"

Samna moves to get between a researcher and a rift.

Are you going to ready to flurry if a shadow shows up or something? That was a single action.

Yeah, great idea. I forget about readying sometimes!

Ready-Flurry
unarmed strike: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
unarmed strike: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 4 = 10 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Alaric, Jaxon, Samna, I need your fort saves from last round, unless I missed them somewhere.
The ritual pulses again, dealing basic fort save dc 18: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 1) = 7 negative damage.

Another shadow manifests in the room and tries to move in on Tavvar (move) Samna immediately punches at it as it gets close but misses twice. However she does get its attention.

Attack Samna: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

The creature then attaches itself to Samna’s Shadow.

creature is sharing a square with Samna. All the PCs are up, remember your fort saves

Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Samna stomps on her own shadow, trying to drive out the invader.

Flurry: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Flurry: 1d20 + 7 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 7 - 4 = 19 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Unarmed Strike: 1d20 + 7 - 8 ⇒ (13) + 7 - 8 = 12 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Unarmed Strike: 1d20 + 7 - 8 ⇒ (7) + 7 - 8 = 6 for bludgeoning: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Fort Save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 8 damage
Fort Save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Hero Point reroll: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9 7 damage

The pulses of negative energy catch the thug off-guard, though he just manages to avoid having it completely destroy him. Still, he lurches towards Samna, intent on helping her free her from the shadow.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Sneak attack?: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Attack: 1d20 + 7 - 5 ⇒ (18) + 7 - 5 = 20
Damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Sneak attack?: 1d6 ⇒ 2

◆ Move
◆ Strike
◆ Strike

Does it count as flanked if it's in the same square as Samna?

Fast Healing 1

Fearing that they are not making enough headway in quashing the ritual's energies, Isurus turns his attention to Tavvar's work.

Fingers crossed.

Religion (T): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Religion (T): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Religion (T): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

As Isurus performs a planar counter-chant and Samna and Jaxon punch and stab the shadow, the shadow energies around the ritual fade and the assistants and Tavar all fall to the ground, exhausted. After a few moments the only evidence that the ritual has gone on is the wounds you all have.

Tavvar is the first to speak ”Thank you, whoever you are! My ritual, I thought the missing ingredient was shadowtongue, a potent spell-language that could control the energies. Oh, it appears I was wrong. I thought I could show people how Nidal could do good works through our use of shadowtongue, where did I go wrong?”

Either killing the last creature or making the religion check ended the ritual.

Fort Save 1 DC 18: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19 4 Damage
Fort Save 2 DC 18: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10 7 Damage

Alaric wipes the sweat from his brow. "There were a number of runes wrong." It caused the shadows downstairs to gain life."[/b] He helps Tavvar up. "The Pathfinders hired us on to check in on your ritual."

"No, no I spent MONTHS going over those runes. They can't be wrong, they just can't. Oh Nethys, this is going to be a mess. And what will the town criers be saying tomorrow? No doubt blaming all people from Nidal for this one incident. God, I was just trying to help ameliorate my country's reputation!"

Ogren bounces over to the woman and tries to consol her. "Don't worry! We haven't told anyone about it and there's only one other person in the building! We can probably keep it secret!"

Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Arcana: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23 Ha!

Jazon squints at the runes. "Old guy in the clink would ramble on about magic from time to time. But this seems to actually be something he ranted about. You have to be in the right frame of mind to do complex magic. If you were fearful of how our ritual would make Nidal look, it could spoil the mental runes. You might need to research this a lot more. There's a reason a lot of wizards have a detached view of the world. I mean, aside from just being a**~#&%s in the first place. That detachment helps them maintain calm when they do this type of stuff."

[dice=Arcana]1d20+3 Ha!

Jazon squints at the runes. "Old guy in the clink would ramble on about magic from time to time. But this seems to actually be something he ranted about. You have to be in the right frame of mind to do complex magic. If you were fearful of how our ritual would make Nidal look, it could spoil the mental runes. You might need to research this a lot more. There's a reason a lot of wizards have a detached view of the world. I mean, aside from just being a#$%@&+s in the first place. That detachment helps them maintain calm when they do this type of stuff."

"What are you blathering about you magically illiterate . . . sorry . . . sorry. You saved my life, I should be more grateful. Its just, I spent months trying to perfect that ritual and you come in and claim to know what's wrong after all of two seco-actually, now that you mention it. . . I did rely a lot on mental runes to direct the ritual . . . I suppose if some stray thoughts got in . . . it's worth looking into at least. Here, take this bottle of shadow essence. It was a catalyst for the ritual so it wasn't used up. If nothing else it's worth some gold. I need to go redesign a ritual I suppose." she sighs heavily as she begins gathering her things.

"Magic is difficult to control," Isurus says simply with some sympathy. "However, you need to be more careful where you practice those magics. There is a caretaker here at night who might have died if we had not been here to help."

Ogren looks up at Tavvar and nods, "I thought that those runes looked a little anxious myself... But Isurus is right! You need a safer place to try this level of ritual! The Vigilant Seal has been trying to make a safe place for rituals of this sort. Something about anti-magic foam? But they might be able to help you if you want!"
Why am I imagining Absalom having something like a Fire Code for magic? 'This building isn't rated for 3rd level rituals! You'll have to pay a massive fine and lose your ritual liscence!'

"Perhaps we can take a look at your ritual with you and see where we can help?" Alaric suggests as he is curious of the ritual himself.

As a Reminder, Eando tasked you with finding out if Tavvar's rituals were okay or if they were 'too dangerous and needed to be stopped.'

We did stop her from doing this and helped her figure out what was wrong. But I suppose she is continuing to try.

"Well...surely a topic for more research."

I'm going to give a full report of this to Kline. How reckless!

You have now completed two of the four tasks. I know the original plan was to sleep in the haunted house. Is that still the plan?! Did you want to do something before then?

Works for me.

Sure we can rest before the Haunted House.