Karamjeet moves forward and takes a mighty swing at the broom, but it dodges out of the way of his attack.
Ingmar moves forward and throws electricity at the enemies.
Both manage to dodge out of the way for most of the attack, but they're still slightly singed. Both the ghost and the broom don't seem to take a lot of damage, though.
Aurika sees the enemies resisting some of the attacks and thinks about why that would happen. Her eyes light up as she examines the broom.
"Oh, that broom is a magical construct! Like most hard objects, it resists some damage, but I don't think it's much. Just hit it harder! I don't know much about the spirit, though. Sorry!"
Aurika moves a little closer and casts Shield on herself, just in case.
The broom moves closer towards Karamjeet, kicking up a lot of dust as it moves. But before it gets close enough, Karamjeet slices with his fauchard.
With a deft swing, Karamjeet slices the broom in two pieces and it is no more.
The ghost moans and floats closer towards the group. Once it's the centre of attention, it lets out an agonizing wail, shaking everyone to the core.
After that, it locks eyes with Ingmar and waves a spectral hand through his torso.
Aurika
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Spirit 1 damage
Nic
Zourn
Everyone may act! Don't forget the Will save.
Zourn can't recall specifics, but he does remember from basic Pathfinder training that ghosts tend to resist damage. You'll need a lot of damage to put one to rest with physical attacks. Magic tends to work slightly better.
He then walks up and tries to cleanse it with holy energy.
Zourn's holy energy tears holes into the ghost, but less than he would've hoped.
Karamjeet slices twice at the ghost, but despite not being afraid of it, the ghost manages to dodge his attacks.
Aurika
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Spirit 3 damage
Nic
Zourn
Aurika, Ingmar, and Nic may act! Don't forget the DC 18 Will save.
Nic runs around the battlefield, hoping to get a better position from the other side.
Ingmar tries to burn away the ghost, but fails to get his spell going.
Aurika jolts the ghost with electricity.
Somehow the ghost conducts electricity, and while it doesn't have much to damage, you still manage to zap it quite well.
The ghost step-floats over towards Aurika (it has seen Karamjeet slice the broom in half and is smart enough to not repeat that action), since she is the only one to damage it, and tries to rip the life essence out of her.
It manages to extract some life energy and tries to apply it to itself, but he is too long gone to benefit from it.
Aurika
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Spirit
Nic
Zourn
Everyone may act!
Karamjeet keeps slicing away at the spirit, but his attacks are getting sloppy and none of them connect.
Nic sees an opening and squeezes in, but misjudges his timing and only pierces air.
Zourn tries to defend his companions and stabs at the ghost, hurting it quite a bit!
Aurika and Ingmar throw electricity at the ghost, but it manages to dodge out of the way of most of it. Its ethereal form isn't affected by Aurika's attack at all, but is slightly singed by Ingmar's spell.
Zourn has proven to be quite effective at damaging the spirit, so it retaliates by lashing out twice.
It then floats carefully away from Zourn's sharp spikes.
Aurika
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Spirit
Nic
Zourn
Everyone may act!
Nic finally gets his chance to strike, and though he can't find any vital weakness in the ghost, his first attack tears the ghost to shreds!
You all have a well-earned lie down and patch each other up as the ghost did quite some damage to you. Just as you make ready to explore the rest of the Labyrinth, you hear rushed footsteps echoing from where you came from. Suddenly three unfamiliar cloaked figures burst into the room and are just as surprised to see you as you are surprised to see them. "Those are the Pathfinders, right," one says with a curse.
Another responds, exasperated, “Yes. Get your dagger out."
Ingmar
Intruder 2
Karamjeet
Intruder 1
Zourn
Aurika
Nic
Intruder 3
Ingmar may act!
You all have your weapons drawn.
Intruder 2 does a hit and run on Karamjeet and runs forward, slashes at the fighter, then returns to his original position.
Ingmar
Intruder 2
Karamjeet
Intruder 1
Zourn
Aurika
Nic
Intruder 3
Karamjeet may retaliate!
Karamjeet retaliates by making a big swing with his fauchard, cutting the poor man open from left shoulder to right leg. He collapses to the ground, lifeblood spurting out of him.
Intruder 1 looks at Karamjeet in shock. "You monster! Sure, we came to rough you up, but you just killed him in poor blood!"
Intruder 1 walks forward to avenge his poor friend, not knowing the fate that's going to befall him...
He dodges the bloody fauchard by a hair, tries to stab Karamjeet, then rejoin his friend to the north.
Ingmar
Karamjeet 5 damage
Intruder 1 4 damage
Zourn
Aurika
Nic
Intruder 3
Zourn, Aurika, and Nic are up!
|
Aurika attempts to conceal her next spell, hiding the gestures and weaving the arcane words into dialogue.
Completing her hidden spell, the sound of booted feet running toward the area emanates from the western passage into the chamber. "Oh good, our reinforcements are coming! You should surrender now while you still can!"
Intruder number 1 manages to resist most of the cold emanating from Zourn, but number 3 isn't so lucky and takes a faceful of ice.
Nic walks around to try to set up a flank in the future.
Aurika stealthily casts Ghost Sound, and suddenly the sound of running feet fills the room.
The two intruders are clearly shaken by this turn of events. They look at one another, but then one hisses, "We can't come back empty-handed. One more attack, then we make a run for it."
Intruder 3 seems like he's going to make a dash for it, but it turns out it was a fake-out to try to catch Zourn off guard.
Luckily Zourn is onto this guy's plan and remains on guard. The intruder then slashes twice at Zourn.
The dagger finds a gap in Zourn's armour, but the second attack luckily bounces off solid steel.
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Intruder 1
Zourn
Aurika
Nic
Intruder 3
Ingmar and Karamjeet may act!
Both fail to dodge away on time, and they get shocked pretty badly.
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Intruder 1
Zourn
Aurika
Nic
Intruder 3
Both enemies are now bleeding heavily from their wounds. A gentle tap might knock them out, looks like.
Karamjeet is up!
Karamjeet swings at Intruder 1 and slices his arm right off. The other two attacks miss. Pale as a ghost, Intruder 3 drops his dagger to the ground and yells, "I surrender! I don't want to die!"
The intruders don't have much of value on them: just a dagger and a bronze Aspis badge.
What do you do with them?
|
Karamjeet keeps his fauchard readied to attack and calmly addresses the standing Aspis agent.
"Why have you attacked us? How have you managed to sneak past all of the Pathfinders on this expedition? What do you want? Please be forthcoming."
Karamjeet quickly glances at the other dying agents and says to the group.
"It might be useful to try to stabilize those two so that the Society can question them."
"I-I-I dunno why we're here! Leadership told us Pathfinders found some new ruins, so they decided to beat you to whatever is down here. There's a whole bunch of us down here, and we just managed to, I dunno, blend in, I guess? We're just grunts, sizing up how you're doing and hopefully grab some loot while we're at it. We never wanted to kill anyone!"
The agent eyes his flimsy dagger, which, to be fair, pales in comparison to Karamjeet's giant sword on a stick.
You all help stabilise the fallen Aspis agents and the remaining awake agent nods in thanks to you. He realises he is outmatched and doesn't resist.
You look through the rest of the Labyrinth and find one more room. Stone shelves built into the walls here store books, ledgers, and other documents. A desk with an oil lamp provides space for a solitary researcher to investigate the materials.
Many of the materials here crumble when disturbed, but with some careful investigation and about one hour of work, you puzzle together the history of this region (all written in dwarven, of course). Several ledgers remain that show bustling trade in both Raseri Kanton and Jernashall prior to 3980 AR. Diaries speak of a well-functioning, thriving society with little mention of unrest until a volcano erupted and forced the inhabitants to flee.
Aurika fills everyone in on the backstory of this area. The volcano Droskar's Crag showed signs of impending eruption since 3900, but the dwarven kingdom of Tar Khardurrm ignored all the signs. After the volcano's eruption, Tar Khardurrm fell into a great decline, which descended into bickering and fractured alliances until it finally collapsed almost 500 years later.
With this information and the captured Aspis, you head back to base camp.
Halfway through the tunnels, Nic suddenly stops you as he spots a tripwire that wasn't there when you came here. The Aspis shrug and say, "That wasn't us, we don't have trap kits on us. Must've been a different team, but it does look like our handiwork, yeah."
It's a simple snagging wire with barbed points that dig into your leg that's easily disposed of. Definitely more built to hinder and delay rather than to injure anyone.
You return to camp, explain what you've found, and have another night's rest.
The next morning, you head back to the final unexplored area.
Several effects have gone off. I'll list them here and also put them in a slide so you can easily reference it if necessary.
Hazards Identified: -2 to all Stealth DCs for this act. This doesn't affect you directly (I keep track of that, but just to let you know that it does something).
Allies Gathered: -2 to all DCs to interact with NPCs (such as the Sisters you've met earlier) during this act.
More people have come to the Pathfinder base camp and have expanded the options available to you. These will last the entire scenario.
Enhanced Spellcasting: You can buy spellcasting services for non-essential common spells from the Core Rulebook up to your level at a 10% discount.
Diverse Investments: You can purchase any common item up to your level, including items that aren't from the Core Rulebook.
You all also get a free Minor Healing Potion, clearly labeled with its sponsor Hands-Off Healing, who also has a shop in Absalom.
You make ready to head into the final unexplored area, the Sunken Halls. You get potions of Water Breathing to explore underwater areas without straining your resources.
The Sunken Halls were discovered at the bottom of a lake. Other Pathfinders have secured a guide rope that leads directly into the Halls, so you don't need to worry about navigating there yourselves. You pop your potions and are ready to go.
Here are the rules for aquatic combat, also repeated on the slide for your convenience.
- You’re flat-footed unless you have a swim Speed.
- You gain resistance 5 to acid and fire.
- You take a –2 circumstance penalty to melee slashing or bludgeoning attacks that pass through water.
- Ranged attacks that deal bludgeoning or slashing damage automatically miss if the attacker or target is underwater, and piercing ranged attacks made by an underwater creature or against an underwater target have their range increments halved.
- You can’t cast fire spells or use actions with the fire trait underwater.
- At the GM’s discretion, some ground-based actions might not work underwater or while floating.
- Swim/Climb DC is 10.
You need to make an Athletics check to swim while in combat. Out of combat, I'll assume people who can't make it will guide you, but are too occupied in combat to do so. Swimming rules are found here. Basically, a DC 10 Athletics check lets you move 10 feet underwater.
You can also use Athletics to Climb if you're adjacent to the wall to propel yourself forward.
Faintly glowing algae tints jagged stone walls in a green light. A fine silt that clouds the water with every movement covers the bottoms of the chamber, though it settles seconds later. Clearly manufactured steps start at the base of the floor and sink to deeper waters in the flooded room to the east.
The algae provide dim light. But considering that all the previous rooms were completely dark, I presume people have Wayfinders or other means of seeing in the dark. Obviously, torches don't work here.
As you enter the tunnels and go around a corner, you see three lobster/eel-like things swimming around. They notice you and make a hissing sound, clearly intending to defend their territory.
Nic
Lobster-thing #3
Aurika
Zourn
Lobster-thing #1
Lobster-thing #2
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Nic may act!
These things are an Occultism check to identify.
Everyone has their preferred weapon out, as you're expecting trouble.
Nic sinks down and prepares to fire at whichever enemy comes closest. He doesn't have to wait long, as the eel right ahead of Zourn rushes in, but he hasn't practiced underwater shooting in a while and the arrow goes wide. The eel-thing rushes at Zourn and tries to pinch his fingers with its claws.
Zourn also feels something being injected into his bloodstream, and once the thing's claws close around Zourn's fingers, it doesn't let go!
Nic
Lobster-thing #3
Aurika
Zourn
Lobster-thing #1
Lobster-thing #2
Ingmar
Karamjeet
Aurika and Zourn may act!