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

Game Master Quentin Coldwater

Zabu makes sure his Demon Mask is in place, giving him the appearance of a fiendish great cat before shouting at the statues.

"You don't have faces, names or sisters! You have nothing! You're just stone that's gotten too proud of itself! Now scat before I turn you into gravel!"

Intimidation: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 13 + 1 = 33[E]

Could I try deception to fool it into leaving?

Sure, against a slightly higher DC.

Zabu yells at the statues. Some of them leave each other alone sink into the ground with shame on their blank faces. Still plenty of statues are fighting with one another, so it doesn't look like the haunt is completely calmed down yet.

Will: 1d20 + 14 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 14 + 1 = 30 (+1 if the effect has the emotion trait and a success would count as a critical success)

Squash struggles to escape.

◆ Escape

Athletics: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 15 + 1 = 31

He then glares at the statue in an attempt to scare it

◆◆ Disable

Intimidation: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 15 + 1 = 33

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18

Raindrop attempts to calm the statues and explain that they all could have names if they would cooperate, but is drowned out by Zabu's shouting.

1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22 deception

The priestess goes on about how whatever held them here has said it is okay to leave.

Squash manages to break the statue's hold on him, but he's still waist-deep in quickdust. Unperturbed, he shouts down his assailants, but the haunt still continues.

Raindrop and Atae try to sweet-talk the haunt into calming down, but their efforts fall on deaf ears.

Haunt, 2 successes
Aerin
Emmanuel
Squash, buried to his waist, Heroism, 11 damage
Zabu
Atae
Raindrop

Zabu, Atae, and Raindrop still have one action left, if they want to try to pull Squash free or something. Aerin and Emmanuel may act!

Good thought but impossible for Raindrop. Casting Guidance on herself before the check would have made sense - and changed nothing.

Occultism: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

"Hold on Squash!" If squash would be a potato leshy would he be immuned ot being sucked under ground? Feeling there like at home? ;)

The elf is clearly moved by the whole situation hearing the mental cry!

"Hey hey! Calm down, everyone!"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

Manny realizes no one is listening to him. Ugh.

He reaches over to try to help Squash.

Athletics: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15

That may have made things worse.

"Hey! Stop playing around in there. We don't have time for you to take a dust bath!" Zabu says to Squash, reaching out to grab a hand? vine? something?

Athletics: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (4) + 18 = 22

Whoops, Zabu posted while I was typing. Squash has an Aid on getting out of the dust.

Aerin tries to oppose the psychic influence, but doesn't get very far. Emmanuel tries to soothe the spirits, but likewise isn't very successful.

Not all the skills are the same DC. Diplomacy is easier, Intimidation is in the middle, Occultism is hardest.

The statues cry out in despair once more, rattling Squash's brain for 2d10 + 11 ⇒ (5, 2) + 11 = 18 mental damage. Again, basic Will for half. More importantly though, Squash sinks to his neck into the mire!
You're gonna be holding your breath from next round on, as it pulls you under.

Haunt, 2 successes
Aerin
Emmanuel
Squash, buried to his neck, Heroism, 11 damage, Will save to resist 18
Zabu
Atae
Raindrop

Everyone may act!

Will: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 15 + 1 = 26

Squash then tries to pull himself up.

Athletics: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 15 + 1 = 25

Before growling once more at the statues.

"I said go!"

Intimidation: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 15 + 1 = 23

If that fails, hero point.
Intimidation: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 15 + 1 = 30

"Hey hey, everyone relax! Don't bruise your favorite vegetable!"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

Hopefully he calmed them down a bit more.

GM, if >Liberating Command< applies on Squash, Manny will cast it as his third action. Squash can then use his Reaction to escape the quicksand.

If Liberating Command doesn't apply, Manny uses >Inspire Courage< to help his teammates.

Squash manages to resist most of the psychic assault, but is too far stuck in the mire to free himself. But he plays bad cop-good cop with Manny and several statues calm down. Two more successes, and Hero Point is used.

I think Liberating Command would apply here. Not by RAW, but it's certainly a restraining/immobilizing effect. So you wanna use it?

Haunt, 4 successes
Aerin
Emmanuel
Squash, buried to his neck, Heroism, 20 damage
Zabu
Atae
Raindrop

Aerin, Zabu, Atae, and Raindrop may act! And maybe Squash has a Reaction to get free, I'd just like to see confirmation first.

She will try again 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16 deception on the haunt
1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23 hero point

Manny tries to help Squash escape with a >Liberating Command<!

Athletics: 1d20 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 15 + 1 = 30

With an inspiring word from Manny, Squash manages to struggle himself free to his waist! You'll automatically sink again on the haunt's turn, but you've bought time, at least.

Atae tries to sweet-talk the haunt, but again her efforts fall just short.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16 Hero Point to avoid crit-fail
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26

Raindrop casts Guidance on Atae as the two of them focus on soothing the haunt. For her part, it takes a moment to find her voice but Raindrop's second effort is much stronger.

Block init being what it is, not sure if that +1 can apply this round or has to wait.

Raindrop's soothing voice calms the haunt down. Everyone hears a whispered voice ringing through their head. "Enough. I won't let fear rule me."

Suddenly the statues stop struggling, the dust stops churning and dragging everyone down, and Squash can get out safely.
Technically needs one more check, but you've got this. Squash isn't likely to die from the damage and he isn't in danger of drowning either. I'll call it here.

You all see giant yellow eyes staring at you from the sky, and an iron will steady your own mind. You all feel safer, somehow, and Squash regains 4d8 ⇒ (5, 2, 8, 8) = 23 hit points.

Now that the statues have stopped fighting, you can have a look at them with an Occultism, Religion, or some sort of relevant Lore check.

"Agreed. Fear sucks." Manny shrugs and helps Squash out of the sand-dust.

"I think we're in someone's mind with yellow eyes and demonic invaders." He thinks. "Maybe they're stuck in their own dream."

Manny goes to look at the statues. "Hmm, some kind of Religious significance, I bet."

"Hmm?" Manny cocks his head to the side. "I think Shylye gave me some premiere information. One second..."

Another nat 20, nice! :)

Emmanuel has a gut feeling that his previous statement isn't entirely true, but close enough. The shifting statues are a psychic manifestation influencing a morphic planar domain, suggesting someone is exerting some small measure of control over a demiplane controlled by another more powerful being. Whether the invader is demonic or not, Manny isn't sure, but those yellow eyes sure are striking and don't belong to any regular humanoid.

Clearly, this entity is helpful to you, or they wouldn't stop the haunt and communicate with you. By calling upon this entity, you can ask for favours.

Everyone now has 2 Dream Points. You can expend Dream Points to do the following:

You understand the isle’s nature and have a sense of how to manipulate it. At any time, you can expend Dream Points to use any one of the following abilities. The Dream Point cost of each ability is equal to the number of actions it takes to activate. These abilities are not affected by the stupefied condition, as they are manifestations of the power of the dream.
Alter ◆ As a single action, create or remove difficult terrain in a 10-foot burst within 30 feet.
Destroy ◆◆ Manifest destructive energy in a 15-foot burst, dealing 3d8 force damage (DC 23 basic Fortitude or Reflex save, target’s choice).
Manifest ◆ As a single action, conjure a moderate healing potion in your free hand or the free hand of a willing ally within 30 feet. The potion you summon can only be consumed on the Dustbound Isle and ceases to exist when you die or wake up.
Restore ◆◆ One target within 30 feet regains 2d8+16 Hit Points. The target also decreases the value of one of the following conditions by 1: clumsy, drained, enfeebled, or stupefied.
Ward ◆ Gain resistance 5 to all damage for 1 round.

I'll also put this on a separate slide for easy reference.
You can earn more Dream Points by identifying or doing certain things, and I'll distribute them evenly (meaning I won't give anyone multiple Dream Points when others haven't gotten one yet).
I've made another thing on the first page of the slides where you can keep track of Dream Points.

"Let us rest and then head towards north-east part?" the elf says. I moved Aerin where I would like to go.

"Squash are you ok?" he looks at the leashy climbing from the quicksand.

Manny nods, hearing something no one else can hear. "Dueling entities in this zone... So, someone controls this place, but someone else is exerting a little bit of control. Not sure who is doing what."

"Also, the uh... entity with the yellow eyes. Very nice. Helped Squash and stopped the quicksand."

He finishes relaying and follows Aerin. "I'll let you lead the way. Squash looks fine. Plus he has a blessing of a hero for a few more minutes."

"My gourd hurts a bit"

86/106 hp

The mysterious yellow-eyed entity >should have healed you< for 28 HP.

"I can use some my magic to soothe your wounds. But I think we have some time for more conventional healing."

Yeah I missed that.

"So...I SHOULDN'T claw out the yellow eyes?" Zabu asks.

He follows Aerin, but when it becomes evident that they can make small alterations to this place, he focuses on his hand, imagining a frosty mug of ale appearing in it.

I'll actually spend a Dream Point to make that happen, if it's allowed.

Completely allowed!

Zabu focuses and a big mug of ale, chilled to the perfect temperature and the exact taste he prefers, appears in his hand.

Please don't imagine any naked women, let's keep this PG-13. :P

Atae csn imagine the bard ij the buff, lol

Raindrop smiles up at Zabu and his mug, "At least, not until we find out who the owner is for certain."

She hurries to catch up to Aerin as the group heads to the next waypoint, the eidolon loping along behind her.

She can use medicine if needed.

"Oh man, cool trick!" Manny watches the beer appear. [b]"I could get into a LOT of trouble..."[\b] He follows Aerin, trying to keep his mind clear.

Aerin heads towards the monolith on top of a 30 foot hill to the north-east.

"Uh... Aerin, are you going to climb the hill?"

Zabu looks at the mug then a wicked look comes on his face and he stares at an empty spot nearby. "Beer always tastes better when delivered by a beautiful woman," he says.

A figure starts to shimmer into existence but then the shape changes. Then it changes again. Always humanoid, the dimensions and features shift wildly before it fades completely out of existence.

"Too many good options," he comments before noticing Aerin.

He goes up and gives the elf a firm push from behind to get him moving.

Manny starts to walk up the hill, then notices Aerin and moonwalks back to him. "You okay? I bet there's one heck of a view at the peak of the hill. How many moons do you think we'll see?"

If you follow Aerin, you may open his spoiler tag.

"Huh... is this hill getting taller, or are we not moving?" Emmanuel thinks for a minute.

Can Emmanuel make a Occult check on the constellations or hill to understand the terrain? It's a +8 bonus if so.

The constellations above you are unfamiliar to you, so it's difficult to discern a meaning from them. Though now that you look closer, the stars on the stairs seem to match the stars in the sky. There's probably a trick to this, but you just can't quite figure things out....

The terrain warping around you is most likely something the owner of this demiplane planted themselves. They probably don't want intruders reaching the monolith, and this functions as some sort of "gate." Only people who know the trick can pass, and you don't see a way to brute-force this.

Do we need will save or something in order to traverse, like visualizing that we are somewhere else?

Aerin turns around "What the ..." He looks up the hill "I can't seem to be able to climb those stairs..."

He tries to poke the stairs with his sword, knowing that the key to seeing through illusion is interactions ;)

If this can be won by a simple Perception check then Perception +9

If not, let us try the other direction

"Something's going on with the stairs and the stars..." Manny takes a look. "Feels like some kind of code, but I don't know the cypher."

"Maybe we can check out the ships?"

There's no Perception or Will save or anything to poke through this. This is a case of weird old-timey point and click adventure logic, where you have to use item Q on object F to progress. Basically, come back later and you can progress.

Aerin moves to Zabu and takes his empty mug and tries to put it on the stairs. Then he tries to walk past it, seeing that it did not solve the problem the elf says

"Yes, I heard of such places ... let's leave it for now."

Point and click tried ;P

Sooo, weird. Okay, um, pyramid or ship?"

"What about this?" Zabu says, since Aerin was the first one to have the problem, the gnome grabs him by the waist, hefts him up a couple inches off the ground then starts to climb the stairs while carrying him.

After all, he doesn't believe in a problem you can't brute force your way through.

Eventually, he gets bored, though and sets Aerin back down.

"Ship," he snarls in irritation.

Hero Point to Zabu for having fun with his Dream Points.

Zabu lifts Aerin up and hauls him up 2d20 ⇒ (9, 4) = 13 steps, but after he sees he hasn't progressed a single bit, he abandons his task.

As you get closer your eyesight grows hazy, then you feel a weird sensation in your stomach, as if you're suddenly dropped hundreds of feet. Suddenly, you're all standing on top of the deck of the Sixwing Drake, the ship filled with the bustle of activity. Cracks rend the broken deck, and claw marks mar the rails and masts. The occasional shout of alarm echoes faintly, and the scent of blood and burning fur fill the air. Creaking stairs lead to the hold.

After a few seconds you feel that sensation in your stomach again, and you suddenly find yourselves in the hold of the ship. Wreckage and fallen crates obscure the hold, and several indistinct forms are fighting with each other, their shapes blurry, so you're not able to see who is fighting whom.

Then, that feeling again in your stomach. You're now in the crew quarters.

Mangled bunks decorate the room and dashed-about cards and dice litter the floor around a crushed table. The ship’s crew stands silent around the chamber, terrible wounds marring many, wayfinders and Open Road tattoos visible on most. Their eyes flash like cold, white embers. The crew crumbles to black dust, whispering accusations at the captain, “Thought you brought us luck, Captain,” “How’d you miss that storm?” “They came for you and we paid the price,” “Their ship... it can’t be real...” and other claims that wear down the captain’s soul.

Another sudden drop in your stomach, and you're in the captain's quarters. A spectral Varisian woman in a tattered sea coat frantically rummages through the captain’s desk, occasionally pausing to scratch the wood with a quill, writing without ink or paper. Her destroyed quarters slowly collapse around her, save for a bubble of stability that moves with her. She looks up, sun-weathered face distorted in despair. “The log. Where did I put the log? Can’t fix anything if I can’t remember anything.”

Cold blue-white ember eyes observe the captain a moment before vanishing.

You expect another... vision? Teleportation? Whatever it is, you expect to be whisked away again, but you remain in this room. The spectral figure is clearly searching for something, but can't find it. The cabin becomes pristine and intact near her, and ruined when she moves away. Cabinets circle the room, each etched with seemingly infinite triple-digit numbers.

Hokay. So this is a bit weird, but it's essentially a skill challenge. I thought it'd be easier to give them all at once, rather than one at a time and make this drag on forever. In each location, you can try one check each to find some context for what is happening here. Rolling is optional, and failing (and crit failing) is bad, so don't feel like you have to roll. Crit successes give you Dream Points, so if you're good at a check and you think others have already succeeded, you might as well try (but then you'll also risk the effects of a failure).

For the deck, you can try to make a Perception check to make sense of this all.
For the hold, Athletics, Perception, Occultism, or Survival are options.
The crew quarters can be investigated with Perception, Society, or Gambling Lore.
In the captain's quarters, you can use Athletics, Society, or Sailing Lore.

The visions are over in a matter of seconds, so you can't try to influence what is happening, by the way. Though you remain in the captain's quarters, so you can try to influence the captain in some way.

"Cool, it's like a shipwreck in slow motion."

Manny will cast >Heroism< on himself to enhance his chances to help the ship. Maybe he can help out the spooky ghost captain.

For the deck, Manny will use his +10+1 Perception to inspect the deck.
For the hold, Manny will use his +11+1 Athletics to clear the wreckage.
In the crew quarters, Manny will use his +10+1 Perception to inspect the area.
Inside the Captain's Quarters, Manny will use his +11+1 Athletics to quickly flip through the furniture.

The first time Manny rolls anything under a 5, he will spend a Hero Point to reroll.