Quentin's 3-17 Dreams of a Dustbound Isle (Inactive)

Game Master Quentin Coldwater

Manny rises from his rest. "Whoa, trippy. This is what happens when I eat too many jalapeno poppers before bed. Minus the indigestion."

"Man, it's a bit too dark for me. Let me try to light things up." He casts Light upon his family brooch.

Flat Check: 1d20 ⇒ 12

His brooch lights up- but no where as much as it should have. "This dreamland doesn't like lights."

He readies his whip. "Neither does undead. Keep your eyes peeled and let's check out the monolith."

Put up some more images on the map. Everything on the map is what it is and where it is, though not necessarily exactly to scale. Also made a new slide with pictures for bigger images, such as the dream monolith. Don't want to clutter the map page too much.

Aerin wakes up to see Squash dealing with pronunciation. The elf even stops looking around and simply focuses on the leshy "I think it is the difference in how you produce a sound that makes it so difficult, the 'th' just couldn't sound right in what you were saying."

He reaches for his sword and swings it to the left, it soon begins to shine with light Casting 3rd lvl light, but Aerin has a low-light vision.

Flat check: 1d20 ⇒ 14

Zabu can see in the dark pretty good and is too cocky to bother buying magic to help. Plus, he's always around other people who spark up illumination.

"There are those eyes! I'm going to claw them out!" he snarls, pointing a finger at the pyramid in the distance.

"But I guess you're going to want to look at this thing for 'clues' and 'information,'" he says with barely concealed disdain as he nods at the monolith that's literally next to them.

Raindrop's wings flare to life, shining over her immediate area.
Her eidolon sniffs at the air and circles impatiently.
Innate light spell for her, darkvision and imprecise scent for him
Flat Check 1d20 ⇒ 16

"Well, they're gone for now, so that would be kinda hard. And who knows, maybe they belong to the person or persons we're trying to save. This is their dreamscape, after all."

Approaching the monolith, she looks more closely at the spots where the ruptures occurred.
Arcana, nature, or occultism? +10/+12/+10 - I'm assuming secret rolls.

"Oh, right. That was fast!" Zabu motions to the obvious monolith in front of him. "I can barely see out here."

Occultism +8, Religion +10. Manny has a +3 to any skill check he can attempt Trained.

Assuming these eyes were going to cause troubles for them sooner or later, Squash keeps his chain out, allowing his arms to stretch out, holding it at a greater distance.

Grasping Reach active

Emmanuel Holysmith's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
Raindrop's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28
Aerin Airendil's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31
Emmanuel Holysmith's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28
Raindrop's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17
Aerin Airendil's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20

I rolled for Aerin as well, because of reasons. These aren't secret. At least, the scenario doesn't mark them as such. Also, holy hell, those are some amazing rolls.

Aerin, Raindrop and Emmanuel start investigating the monolith. As you get closer, you see runes being drawn in the sand, as if by an invisible finger. As you try to read them, they blur and turn into tormented faces.

You all notice one rune in particular that seems to draw in light. It seems to bind whatever it marks to the Shadow Plane.

You also check out the monolith, but only Emmanuel seems to notice claw marks that have defaced the monolith, carving curses into the stone.

Wow, look at those rolls!

"Someone's claws have been carving curses into this monolith." He kneels to check it out. Is it a language he recognizes?

"If someone knows what the language is, I can cast >Comprehend Languages< and read it."

He glares at the rune. "Hmm. My guess is someone from the Shadow Plane broke in and is trying to break out. Or maybe whoever lives here needs our help."

Oop, overlooked a thing.

More prominently, faded poems are inscribed all over the monolith. Most of them are too worn to read, but one is still legible:

Cynosure, lost to me except for dreams.
My only succor on cursed black shore, dreams.
Sorrow brands my spirit, a curse I share,
Wounding as wounded ’til nevermore dreams.

"We all see that light-devouring rune, right? Maybe if we mar or remove it, it'll improve things."

Erg, missed some more. Sorry, skipped over some parts of the scenario as I thought, "I already know that," from the first time I read it. Turns out, it contains some pretty important stuff. >_>

Aerin Airendil's Arcana (E): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24
Raindrop's Arcana (T): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
Emmanuel Holysmith's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

You all recognise this monolith as a corrupted Desnan artifact. They're defiled holy relics with cultural and religious significance.
You also know that breaking the monolith would free the mind trapped within this dreamscape, but you could also purify the monolith. It's more difficult and most likely dangerous, but then you can preserve the monolith. Sadly, you don't know the exact ritual.

Emmanuel Holysmith's Religion (T): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
Aerin Airendil's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20
Raindrop's Occultism (T): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23

You also recognise the poem on the monolith as part of an invocation that draws Desna's attention. Reciting the full poem can help with purifying the monolith.

Apologies, GM. I have Expert Religion +10. I forgot to update my character sheets when I leveled up.

"Hmm. I'm down for purifying the monolith. Maybe we can clean this."

Manny is willing to make a Religion check to purify.

I am expert and a +13 in religion

"We might need to learn the whole poem to purify the monolith" says Elf looking at it

he moves his finger through the sand trying to replicate some of the runes that he saw missing.

"Someone's claws have been carving curses into this monolith." He kneels to check it out. Is it a language he recognizes?

"If someone knows what the language is, I can cast >Comprehend Languages< and read it."

You guess it's Abyssal, as you see some Abyssal sigils among the claw marks. Taking some time to translate them turns out that they're curses. Not to anyone or anything in particular, just a collection of the most foul curse words the Abyssal language has.

---

You all get the feeling Aerin is right. You can try the ritual right now and improvise part of it, but it'd be much easier if you know the whole ritual.

Aerin draws some runes, but without magic powering them, they're just scribbles in the sand.

Manny calls upon Shylye to grant him the ability to read Abyssal. And promptly regrets it.

"Uh huh... uh huh... ugh... that's kind of creative, honestly, I wanna write that one down... Yikes!"

"So, abyssal curses. Tons of 'em. No direct target, they just want you to rot in the Abyss. One odd compliment, they hope I burn slightly brighter than the rest when my soul is tossed into the river of flames." He shrugs.

"Sounds like we have a poem to finish." Manny keeps thinking about how to finish what he just read - fun challenge. "Did someone say they saw a ship in the distance? May as well check it out."

Manny can only see roughly 20 feet ahead of himself, so I'll assume someone with darkvision saw the boat. Or OOC I'll say we move in that direction.

can she make a religion check to make sense of this place?

"Poetry, huh? I can give it a go," Zabu says.

"There once was a woman who was Chellish
Whose appetites you could not embellish
She summoned a demon
Who was filled with {REDACTED!}"

can she make a religion check to make sense of this place?

Yeah, an Arcana, Religion, or Occultism check should do it. It's not a secret check.

"Relish?" Manny misses the end of Zabu's rhyme. "Oh, or Chelish ... pride. You could break up the sentence if you did it right. Or you could break up Wis-dom."

Religion: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

"Or the demon was filled with Lee-mons." Manny is stuck on spinning the poem.

She will go back through her theological lessons hoping to remember something that can help.
1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33 religion

Atae looks around and investigates the island. She comes to the conclusion that this isn't just a dreamscape, it's much more than that. It's simultaneously a demiplane within the Plane of Shadow, a fragment of the Dimension of Dreams, and a shard of someone's mind. The owner of this demiplane is capable of merging it with someone's soul to capture them.
As this is a piece of someone's mind, the owner is aware of what happens within. Your arrival isn't that noticeable (you're only a relatively small part in this demiplane), but making changes to the demiplane (such as destroying or purifying those monoliths) will attract attention.
As a dreamscape, this demiplane is very mutable. The owner can change it however they want, but strong enough minds can make minor changes to this reality as well. You've been collecting points. At a certain point, I'll tell you what they do.

"Okay, great work. Well, except for that poem. Yuich. Anyway, I kiiinda think we should head to that other monolith over there, but we are pretty close to the boat from here."

Yeah, you can wade through the dust-"water" to the ship, or go east to the monolith over there. What are you gonna do?

Manny hears about a cool ship and he wants to check it out.

What is wading for other people is often swimming for Zabu. While he doesn't mind swimming, he'd rather walk for the moment.

He heads East to see what he can see in that direction.

Looking at the ocean surrounding the island, it's not filled with water, but with black dust that ebbs and flows exactly like water would. You wouldn't get wet, but you might get a mouthful of dust.

Zabu heads east. A big rock bridges the gap between two islands, and is easy enough to clamber across.

Dilapidated tents and broken-down wagons circle a cracked stone monolith atop the promontory. The faint chatter of haggling and the jingle of coins whisper from the long shadows.

There's only a few market stalls on the map, but imagine a complete market square full of broken stalls.

As you walk across the market towards the monolith, stalls and wagons seem to shift around you, suddenly standing in your way and forming dead ends. The whole market suddenly becomes a maze of stalls, pressing in on you. The further you go, the more claustrophobic it gets, the darkness growing thicker. Even if you had darkvision, your surroundings are now concealed. If you're travelling outside the radius of the light, the darkness presses in on you, almost like a physical force. You have to struggle to continue walking forward. Mechanically speaking, you need to make a Fortitude save if you're not using light.

If you're Searching as an exploration activity, you can try a Perception check, Survival, Mercantile Lore, Scouting Lore, or Underworld Lore to check the market.

"Huh, this market got real crowded." Manny feels like the shadows are trying to smother his lit brooch. "Anyone see anything interesting?"

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (3) + 16 = 19

"The darkness almost seems thick, like I could touch it."

Raindrop Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
The eidolon is scouting, so no roll for him.

Sticking close to the light, Raindrop looks about with concern as the stalls and wagons close in.
"It's just like the dream," she whispers.

Aerin walks with his sword shedding light but even it fells surrounded by darkness. "It is so thick that I could slice it"

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

Emmanuel, Squash, Raindrop, and Aerin try to make their way through the empty market, but none of you seem to be able to make sense of the shifting environment.

Still waiting for a response from the other two, or potential rerolls.

Zabu deals with the market the same way he deals with any obstacle, he just forces himself through it.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (10) + 17 = 27 A success becomes a critical success due to Juggernaut.

He doesn't particularly want to be here though so he looks for a way out.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21

Oh wow, what bad luck, the DC is 22 for Perception. >_>

Zabu wanders off into the dark all by himself. It feels like the darkness is physically repelling him and he has to make an effort to push through. Bull-headed, Zabu plows through the darkness, and the stalls suddenly blur and swirl around him. When he can see clearly again, he's just outside the market again, despite knowing for sure that he went in a straight line.

perception 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

After seeing everyone stumble through the dark, Atae seems to be able to find the way. She spots glowing yellow eyes on a wall painted with a green dragon that points down the row. You notice a black-cloaked elven poppet with similar eyes discarded on a table pointing toward a faded, diaphanous tent. Inside, two glowing yellow candles light a single stand. After a few moments a simple lantern with an unlit yellow candle appears on the
stand. Picture HERE.

Atae also finds a panel marked with a blue butterfly, and behind it is a vial, the only thing of worth you've found so far. It is neatly labeled as a lesser potion of fire resistance.

When you light the lantern, it seems to drive the darkness away, almost as if the darkness is afraid of the light it sheds. It shines light as a regular torch, but without the light-hampering effect, so it shines in a 30 feet radius.

With the lantern in hand, the market becomes much easier to navigate. The stalls and wagons stop moving around and the way to the monolith becomes accessible. When you arrive at last, you notice that the crown constellation shines bright above the ancient stone, illuminating dead butterflies carpeted around it. Unlit candles flank a hollow in the stone holding a broken placard bearing legible writing.

Courtiers trail the king up the endless Stairs.
Please call me once more to dance in your dreams.

I think it's time for a Hero Point. I'll give it to Squash, so everyone should have 2 Hero Points by now.

"Hey Atae. A little help, here? Normally I'm good at moving through town in the middle of the dark. An important skill when you're hiding from angry guards." Manny mentally stops himself from completing the sentence. "Anyway, cool lantern."

Manny reads the inscription. "Hmm, not too shabby. I'll add it to the list of poem completions."

"Is there anything else here? If not, let's check out the ship."

Atae gives the bard a smile, You wouldnt have to hide yourself from me, unless you like hide and seek and walks over to the magus.

"...and husbands," Zabu adds to Manny's comments about hiding and important skills.

He doesn't bother acknowledging that the other man had a good idea, he just starts heading toward the ship.

"Courtiers trail the king up the endless Stairs.
Please call me once more to dance in your dreams."

Repeats Aerin trying to remember the poem "I guess this is the next part of the poem needed for the ritual."

Escaping from the market, Raindrop is visibly relieved.
"Ohhhh, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou. I never thought I would hate going shopping."

After collecting herself for a moment at the monolith, she gestures to the north and says, "Okay, we've got one more segment. Guess there's more out there, huh? "
After a beat, she adds, "Oh, boat first? Okay, boat first!"

You head towards the ship, but are first confronted by a field of faceless white statues.

I've moved you further ahead. Atae, I don't have your token yet, so I made my own for you. I also see you still haven't filled in the macro field. You were having trouble earlier, could you try again?

Pale, faceless statues, half-buried in black dust, litter the field at the island’s center. An occasional hand or head peeks out from below, pressed downward beneath another statue lifting itself to the air.

Emmanuel Holysmith's Perception (E): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19
Squash's Perception (M): 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17 Low-light Vision
Zabu Creed's Perception (E): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24
Raindrop's Perception (E): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32

Raindrop notices that the ground here is more swampy, and that these statues are slowly sinking into the ground. Moreover, her neck hairs stand up straight as she looks across the field. You're not entirely sure, but you get the feeling this area is haunted.
Area of the haunt is indicated by the yellow rectangle.

You could run through the haunted area and see if it activates immediately or if there's a delay on it, or try to find a way around it, or anything else.
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think you can calm down a haunt before it's manifested. You need to see its effects before you know how you can deal with it.

"Hmm. Spooky." Manny looks to his teammates. "Feels like a trap. If anyone volunteers to enter, I can make you feel extra cool about it."

Manny is willing to cast >Heroism< on whoever wants to enter the haunt first. Otherwise Manny will cast it on himself and lead the way.

"Not afraid. I go."

Squash bounds ahead when ready.

"Go forth, brave... um... Pumpkin! or maybe summer squash"

Squash feels a bit more heroic for a few minutes, thanks to Manny's >Heroism<

"They're just some stupid statues," Zabu says with his arms crossed over his chest.

He's about to step into the area when the walking salad beats him to it.

I was able to fill in the macros.

Squash, I've moved you slightly forward.

As Squash walks through the field of eerie faceless statues, a whispered shout carries through the air. “I have a face! I have a name! My sisters may be forgotten, but I will reclaim what’s mine!”

Grapple attempt: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (14) + 18 = 32

One of the statues lashes out at Squash, and holds him tight by the arm. Suddenly the dusty ground becomes almost like quicksand, and the statues (and Squash) slowly start sinking into the ground.

Emmanuel Holysmith's Initiative Using Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Squash's Initiative Using Search: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (6) + 18 = 24
Zabu Creed's Initiative Using Seek: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23
Aerin Airendil's Initiative Using Search: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28
Raindrop's Perception (E): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14
Atae's Initiative Using explore : 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18
Haunt: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36

The statues slowly start sinking deeper into the quicksand-like ground, taking Squash with him. Squash takes 2d10 + 11 ⇒ (4, 8) + 11 = 23 mental damage as the psychic outcry rattles through his mind. Basic Will save to halve/negate.

Now that everyone has witnessed the haunt, you think you can calm it down by using Diplomacy (Expert or higher) to urge the statues to work together, rather than struggle against each other, an Intimidation (Expert or higher) to scare the statues away, or an Occultism (trained or higher) to negate the psychic influence. This is a two-action activity.

Haunt
Aerin
Emmanuel
Squash, grabbed, buried to his waist, Heroism, 23 damage (Will save)
Zabu
Atae
Raindrop

Everyone may act!
The statues on the map are just for illustration, the field is completely filled with them, but I didn't want to clutter the map too much.
You can break a grapple by using an Athletics, Acrobatics, or an unarmed strike against a certain DC, and the area uses modified Quicksand rules, so you can escape with Athletics to swim.

Aerin keeps his eyes open and looks at the place "Be careful, friend"

Religion +9 to figure something out?

Well, I'm glad I didn't buy it, hehe.

Downloaded and all set. Thanks for running!

43330 2010, sorry vision is still a bit wonky

Session reported!

If people would like to continue the storyline, I'd be happy to run for you again, but after New Year's. The final part of the story, Mean Streets of Shadow Absalom is a 7-10, so that's off the table for most of you, but I can run 2-07 The Blakros Deception, which dives into Sarnia's history, if you want. Anyone up for that?

I'm up to play 2-07. Sounds like I should give Manny some side credit if I want to play Mean Streets afterward.

I've already played both of those.

I'm up to play 2-07. Sounds like I should give Manny some side credit if I want to play Mean Streets afterward.

me too

Thanks again for the offer, but I also have already played both.

The recent PbP GameDay worked out very well for me. In fact, I'm down to only having two scenarios from season 2 (#5 and 23) and one from season 3 (#3) that I have not done.

Is there a way to mark this as inactive or hide it from our personal campaign page?

GM if we're starting the older scenario, feel free to send us an invite!

Yeah, sorry about that. Got distracted. Who's willing to play 2-07? I'll post it on Cottonseed and reserve some spots. I'll hide this in a day or two when I got all the responses.

I will be interested, in the end. My life got a bit calmer, and some of my games have finished.

mw, me.

I'd be interested in playing the prequel.

already played it

Ahe is 7th level now!

Cool! If all for of you could post in the new thread, I can archive this.

New PbP.

To Squash and Raindrop: thanks for playing with me, and maybe until next time. :)