[Outpost V] PFS2 #1-25 Grim Symphony (Inactive)

Game Master cmlobue

"Oooh, a secret passage! Those are always important!" Krakazh peers down and (if she doesn't see anything) follows it.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Once they've confirmed that the secret passage just leads between the two statues, and search it to see if the dwarf mummy was hiding anything in there, Olnik begins exploring to the south, up another set of stairs.

Siddhartha will follow Olnik to make sure the party doesn't get too far apart.

The wooden bookshelves of this room host a large collection of sheet music, each neatly separated into individual pages and left spread out for easy reading at a glance.

Krakahz recognizes that much of the sheet music on the shelves is old and valuable; in fact, some appear to be pieces of operas thought to have been lost entirely.

Krakazh's eyes go wide and she dives into the music. You might have trouble pulling her out of here.

Where does the group go after they drag Krakazh away from her new copy of Spectacular! Spectacular! in the original Osiriani?

Siddhartha follows Othello toward the platform in the Southern part of the room, slightly West of Center.

"But...but...I've never seen A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in ancient Thassilonian!! It's priceless!"

I'm sure you will be able to get Infinity Mostel to stage a performance in Absalom once we get this back. Phil Gold would love to co-star.

Krakahz pockets a score with a picture of a wizard with one hand raised, forming the uppermost point on a seven-pointed star, and reluctantly continues her exploration with the group.

This complex series of stairways and corridors eventually leads upward into a dead end. Unless you want to stand at the top and belt about how you never left your country.

Olnik motions for the group to go up to the stairs in the northwest corner of the room. "I think we've checked everything but this set of stairs..."

Krakazh walks along, nose buried in a score and humming with her kazoo.

Siddhartha will head toward the stairs with the rest of the party.

These rooms serve as living chambers, storing personal effects and comforts. A cursory glance reveals a well-worn tome on the basics of alchemy, a book on the history of Osirion, 3 trashy undead romance novels, 4 jars of honey, 3 bottles of fine wine, a large wheel of cheese, 5 bags of salt, and 6 sausages that appear to have been preserved with salt and embalming fluid.

"Well, is it time to activate the lever? Or use the keys?"

Krakazh sniffs the sausage, then has to hold in her stomach. "This. Is not food." She looks around skeptically and shrugs. "Both is good."

She skips back to the keyholes. "Keys, then lever? I love levers, but I do not love being thrown across the room by electricity."

Is there some way to use Crafting or something to examine the lever more closely and try to figure out what it connects to?

The Pathfinders continue not eating things they find lying around in a dungeon, for some reason. They leave the room unmolested.

There is no obvious way to determine what the lever does except to pull it. The hallway past it leads to another dead end.

"Go ahead, use the keys."

Olnik smacks his nephew Bjorn on the shoulder. "You heard the man, get to pickin' those locks!"

Bjorn sullenly walks over to the keyholes with is lockpicks. He mumbles, "Shame that mummy guy didn't have the keys on him."

Thievery: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Ooh, a critical success

Bjorn raises an eyebrow, and points at the lock. "This is a misdirect, I think. These are just holes. There's no lock build into them or anything."

Olnik shrugs. "Well, I guess the next best move is to pull the lever." He casts a quick soothe spell first to heal up the last bit of his damage, hopefully.

Healing: 1d10 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Despite using all his skills, Bjorn cannot open the locks. Because they are not locks - just key-shaped holes. A more enterprising engineer would have put traps into them, but I guess construction here was rushed, or subconrtacted to the same people who built the Lodge in Xer.

Unless you want to do a more thorough search here or upstairs, it is time to pull the lever.

Othello, giving enough time for the others to prepare, moves over and pulls the lever.

Siddhartha moves up to support Othello.

Another exciting adventure, where anything can happen, and usually does.

Olnik says, "If we want to be on the safe side, I could summon a fey to pull the lever." He glances around, half expecting that Krakazh might have already taken the lever-pulling into her own hands.

Bored with waiting, Krakazh wanders up the stairs and pulls the lever. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

The lever is pulled, and a wall that you thought was perfectly normal slides to the side. The hallway slopes upward past the secret door.

Slide 6, once you deal with...

Olnik hears a mysterious chant from just in front of the Pathfinders.

Secret Occultism or Religion to learn more.

I am having trouble interpreting the slide. Are we in a corridor? Can we see anything in front of us? Or are we in front of a door?

There is nothing to interpret yet, as there is a hazard you must deal with first. My fault for including the map before it is needed.

"I told you secret passages were important!"

One other note: I do have Spirit Lore +9, in case that's a better skill in place of Occultism.

Krakazh identifies this as a Ghostly Choir haunt. If triggered, it will deal mental damage to and frighten anyone nearby. It can be bypassed with Performance (to disrupt the sound) or Religion (to ritually silence the spirits).

Krakazh joyfully pulls out her new bagpipes again.

Performance, virtuoso: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 13 + 1 = 33

As the Pathfinders move down the corridor, Krakazh plays a discordant tune on her bagpipes. The ghostly choir cannot produce the harmonies that would be required to harm any living beings who pass this way.

This decorative music hall is dominated by a massive pipe organ, set on a raised platform 10 feet above the marble floor. The body of the pipe organ is 5 feet tall, with the pipes behind it reaching 10 feet into the ceiling. A pair of staircases lead up onto the platform.

Powerful chords from this room’s massive pipe organ shudder through the air in the hall, resonating deeply within stone and wood and bone. As the final notes of the music echo, a starkly pale figure with blood-red eyes stands up to look over his visitors. “Unexpected guests?” he asks, adjusting the fine velvet cuffs of his sleeves. Gesturing to a neat double line of undead corpses on the floor before him, he adds, “Very well. As you wish it, I shall entertain. Prepare for the performance of a lifetime!”

With a blast of melody, the corpses come to life, stepping in perfect synchronization with one another and the pipe organ’s haunted tune!

Round 1 - bolded may go

Siddhartha
Black
Yellow
Othello
Krakazh
Olnik
Blue
Green
Red

Secret Religion to identify the creatures in front. Secret Society to identify the creature in back. The platform you are on if 5 feet above where the large creatures are.

Are the nufriends on a level down from us?

Does anybody know what these things are?

◆ Step forward

◆ Pull out Holy Water

◆ Through at Yellow

Thrown Holy Water at Yellow: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16
Good damage +1 splash: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Siddhartha tosses a flask of holy water at one of the creatures.

The masked creature casts a spell and then plays the organ.

Performance: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (17) + 15 = 32

Each of the other monster dances towards you in unison.

Yellow climbs onto the platform.

Athletics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

It then takes a swing at Siddhartha.

Fist: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20
Bludgeoning Damage: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

The monk is prepared and ducks under the blow.

Othello recognizes the large creatures as zombie brutes, undead with the mindless and zombie subtypes. They are particularly affected by positive and slashing damage.

Round 1 - bolded may go

Siddhartha
Black (+11 temp HP)
Yellow (-7 HP)
Othello (1 action used for RK)
Krakazh
Olnik
Blue
Green
Red

Since the creature cast the spell before my first action, I don't think I have a reaction available to use my Recognize Spell ability, but if that is available then I'd use it, so just in case...

Silently, Olnik regrets that the Dwarven Pantheon chose the warhammer in place of the battleaxe as their favored weapon, or else spiritual weapon would be a good choice here. The lore indicates that it was a heated debate among the dwarven deities, taking many rounds of ale to come to a consensus.

◆ Recall Knowledge on Phantom of the Opera
Olnik looks at the bizarre creature that is leading this macabre dance troupe, trying to figure out what's up with that guy.

"Whatever's up here, that's clearly the main target. I'll go this way, and some of you lot try to go the other. Let's split 'em up. If they swarm around me, I've got some tricks that'll make 'em regret it." He darts off, banging his drum to generate a shield of force around himself.

◆ Stride
◆ Cast shield

Krakazh moves forward, concentrating on the creature on the far side. She starts up a goblin song to annoy them, "Stupid man make zombies dance, Zombies smarter than his pants..."

Goblin Song: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25 (vs. Will DC)

She lifts her bagpipes to try to fascinate them next.

Fascinating Performance: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 13 + 1 = 17 (vs. Will DC, need crit b/c combat)

Olnik recognizes O.G. as a dhampir. This is a type of creature that is similar to a humanoid, but positive and negative energy work opposite to how they normally do. He sets himself up for a future attack.

Krakhaz sings an annoying song (against which target?), which works, and then a fascinating one, which does not.

Round 1 - bolded may go

Siddhartha
Black (+11 temp HP)
Yellow (-7 HP)
Othello (1 action used for RK)
Krakazh
Olnik
Blue
Green
Red

Against the dhampir, since mindless undead don't usually work well with mental effects.

(one action for Recall Knowledge)

Second action: Move forward

Third action: Attack Yellow: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Slashing Damage: 2d10 + 2 ⇒ (8, 1) + 2 = 11

You cannot shove something toward you, Othello. Did you mean northeast?

Othello steps forward an chops a huge gouge out of Yellow.

Blue climbs onto the platform.

Athletics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

Othello, this triggers reactions from you.

It tries to hit Krakazh, who is playing the wrong music.

Fist: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16
Bludgeoning Damage: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

The wrong music continues.

Green moves, then climbs onto the platform.

Athletics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Red moves, then climbs onto the platform.

Athletics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Round 2 - bolded may go

Siddhartha
Black (+11 temp HP, -1 Perception/Will 1 round)
Yellow (-44 HP)
Othello
Krakazh
Olnik
Blue
Green
Red

"Shove" was the wrong word to use:

Critical Specialization Effects
Source Core Rulebook pg. 283 2.0
Certain feats, class features, weapon runes, and other effects can grant you additional benefits when you make a Strike with certain weapons and get a critical success. This is called a critical specialization effect. The exact effect depends on which weapon group your weapon belongs to, as listed below. You can always decide not to add the critical specialization effect of your weapon.

Polearm: The target is moved 5 feet in a direction of your choice. This is forced movement.

It is forced five feet NW.

"Shove" was the wrong word to use:

Critical Specialization Effects
Source Core Rulebook pg. 283 2.0
Certain feats, class features, weapon runes, and other effects can grant you additional benefits when you make a Strike with certain weapons and get a critical success. This is called a critical specialization effect. The exact effect depends on which weapon group your weapon belongs to, as listed below. You can always decide not to add the critical specialization effect of your weapon.

Polearm: The target is moved 5 feet in a direction of your choice. This is forced movement.

It is forced five feet NW.

Gotcha. "Shove" has a specific meaning in this game, which is why I was confused. Creature moved.

Aren't these some big ugly ones? With horrible music for them to dance to.

◆ Adopt "Tiger stance" to do Slashing Damage

◆ Step up toward Yellow

◆ Flurry of Blows

First Attack of Flurry of Blows using Tiger Claw Strikes: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20
Slashing damage, additional 1d4 Persistent Bleed on a crit: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (1, 4) + 4 = 9

Second Attack of Flurry of Blows using Tiger Claw Strikes: 1d20 + 14 - 4 ⇒ (14) + 14 - 4 = 24
Slashing damage, additional 1d4 Persistent Bleed on a crit: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (8, 4) + 4 = 16

"If you can call it music..."

With a series of strong chops, Siddhartha knocks out the first creature to approach the Pathfinders.

The organist casts another spell and then plays again on the instrument, still macabre but more uptempo than before.

Olnik recognizes the spell as sanctuary.

Performance: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (8) + 15 = 23

The monsters seem to loom a bit larger as the piece crescendos.

Round 2 - bolded may go

Siddhartha
Black (+11 temp HP, sanctuary, -1 Perception/Will 1 round)
Yellow
Othello
Krakazh
Olnik
Blue (+1 attack/damage 1 round)
Green (+1 attack/damage 1 round)
Red (+1 attack/damage 1 round)