GM Jhaeman's PFS1 # 5-23: 'Cairn of Shadows' (CORE) (Subtier 8-9) (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

Kaya looks up at the myriad of chains and shivers, ”perhaps a river of blood? Either way, yes. The less time we spend here the better.”

Khellek eyes up the chains with a worry.
"Some Devils are associated with the use of chains... I advise extreme caution."

The light from Jair's wayfinder and Kaya's enchanted armor seem to barely push back the almost tangible darkness permeating the chamber.

As you advance toward the sound of slow running water, you can’t help but brush up against the densely hanging chains, which leaves streaks of rust, oil, and . . . blood? . . . on your clothes and armor.

Soon you reach a small arched bridge over a stream of shadowy liquid.

The range of your light sources are halved, so a light spell creates 10' of normal light and an additional 10' of dim light. It's hard to keep good track of lighting conditions on something like Google slides, but we'll do our best. If your character has low-light vision or darkvision, remind me often and I'll try to give you some additional tips of what's ahead. For now, the densely packed chains make it hard to see further than 20-30' regardless.

We are now on Slide # 2. Please feel free to readjust your marching order.

"I have a bad feeling about this place. Two Blades said as he looked around the place. Helping with the light issue he said a short prayer and the rapier started to glow.

Cast Light

"Luckily" says the scholar "I have spent far too much time in poorly lit libraries."

He checks a small buckler on his arm and then wiggles his fingers causing another light to appear on the buckler.

Finally, eyeing up the grim surroundings he mutters. "Might pay to get Bessie out..."

So saying he unhooks the crossbow from his belt and fumbles around, eventually selecting a silver headed bolt which he clicks into place before laboriously winding the mechanism.

Casts light, gets out his crossbow and loads it.

The party adjusts the best they can to the omnipresent gloom.

Okay, where to? There's east across the bridge, north, south, or back west (where the archway is). Or if you can fly or burrow, up and down become options :)

Grog rubs his face.

pool of blood....what have we gotten into.

The gnome speaks somberly, ”Well, a bridge indicates a path, so that would be a smart way to go. It is also an excellent place for an ambush.”

Did we come in from the west?

Two Blades nodded and quietly made his way across the bridge.

Stealth: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (6) + 17 = 23

Be careful, could be a trap!

Says Jair as Two Blade starts crossing the bridge.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Khellek watches carefully as Two Blades slips across the bridge. He holds Bessie ready. A careful eye might notice the elderly scholar's hands shake a tad as he tries to keep the crossbow at the ready.

Kavor Doan casts Detect Magic and examines the shadowy liquid.
01-35 ASF: 1d100 ⇒ 68

He casts the spell successfully on the first try. Cantrips are the only thing for which he has ASF - everything else is Still or V-only.

Two Blades barely makes a sound as he crosses the bridge, demonstrating its safety. As the group advances, the safety of escape through the archway behind them is lost to sight. Only the feeble light of their spells, an island in a sea of all-enveloping darkness, provides a slim measure of comfort. The soft clanking of the dangling chains provide an eerie backdrop, too irregular to be forgotten as white noise when danger could loom from all around.

At the end of this macabre hall, a desiccated humanoid husk stands propped up by chains. Dozens of hooks of all sizes dig into its flesh, suspending the frail looking corpse a few inches above a throne of rusted iron, like some grotesque imitation of a marionette.

@Kaya: Yes, the archway was to the west.

@Kavor Doan: The liquid does not detect as magical.

Two Blades held up a hand to have the group stop. Pointing to a place above the throne, he brought the danger to their attention before making his way back to them. "Looks like a shaft is directly above the throne he whispered.

Khellek eyes up the corpse from afar before looking around again.
"Given this chamber has been entered before us... did anyone think to check for tracks?" he asks.

He then returns his gaze to the corpse, and joins Kavor in checking the area and corpse for signs of magic.

Does the corpse appear that of a human, or orc, or??? How is it dressed, apart from chains?

Kaya is broken out of her anxiety about the chains ripping her to pieces at the request. She starts scanning the floor.

Survival for tracks: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

Jair follows.

Doomed, we are doomed...

And takes a look at the "man" in chains after a short prayer to her god, to unlock the secrets of life and death.

Heal: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 1 = 9

Suddenly, a dry, coughing breath escapes from the body, sending ripples of motion up and down the chains that suspend him! Ancient, empty eyes lift to look around. Given his terrible condition, this man might be better off dead, but . . . somehow . . . he's still barely alive.

@Khellek: It's a human dressed in rags.

Khellek calls out, first in Taldane then.. well. in a cacophny of languages, hoping for a response.

"Hello there... who are you, and how did you end up like that?"

Common, then I'm guessing Shadowtongue given the gloom here, then Vudrani, Infernal, Celestial, Vuldrani, Elven, Azlanti, Thassilonian, Tekritarin, Skald, Varasin, Ossarni, Tien, Ancient Osirani, JJiska, polyglot, Cyclpos, Kellish, Hallit, Shoanti. Yes, that is an awful lot of languages, before he resorts to using magic.

The man's deep, sunken eyes slowly focus on Khellek. His voice is a rattling whisper. "I am Telendrak, the last horselord chieftain to defy Zon-Kuthon. I have been a prisoner here for more than 9000 years . . ."

9000 years, it's a long time...

We are explorer and historians, could you tell us more about your time before Zonie's-Kuthon? asks Jair

Kaya nearly jumps out of her skin when the... thing animates. As it and no one else immediately reaches for weapons, she eventually takes her hand off her sickle and remembers what she found. Whispering it to her allies she tries not to interrupt the conversers, "Several other tracks here. Humanoids, last couple day or two. They have NOT left."

She, almost frantically, watches the chains above and around her, hoping to get a glance of any impending ambush.

"9000 years, that puts you... well, slightly after Earthfall?" asks Khellek.

"And do you wish release from your... position here?"

What language does he speak?

"Should we cut him down?"

Lord of Pain I think they call him bah..."

The man's voice, answering Jair's question, can just be heard above the faint clinking and scraping of the dangling chains. "The horselords tribes ruled the Atteran Plains, their warriors riding mighty chiardmars and driving foes before them with spear and lance. The tribes were fierce and independent, worshiping spirits of nature and our ancestors. So it was in my day. The horselord Telendrak came to the Cairn of Shadows in the time of darkness, and before true darkness descended on the land called Nidal. That’s what the last Telendrak said."

His eyes go wide with fear and he looks straight up when he hears Khellek's question about setting him free. "I am Telendrak. It doesn’t need to come. I obeyed!"

"What doesn't need to come?" asks the obtuse Scholar.

"And if you don't mind me asking, for man 9000 years old, your command of modern Taldane is remarkable. How did you come about it?"

Jair gets quill and papers and starts scribing.

She also looks at the way the man was maintained alive for so long. Very impressive I would say... may that's what awaits us?

Could you tell us more about these spirits of nature?

When asked by Khellek 'What doesn't need to come?', the man replies quickly. “The Master of Chains. The Lord Above. Giver of the Gift of Anguish. Our only god, now. He made me Telendrak, when the last Telendrak was so foolish as to die.” He continually glances at the ceiling fearfully, refusing to answer the questions about his speech or the beliefs of the ancient horselords.

Two Blades kept quiet, not wanting to give his location away as he expected battle.

"There is always a Telendrak, then? And the one you replaced was probably not the original either, given the time that has passed.
Someone is always here to be Telendrak and to suffer for Telendrak's defiance of Zon-Kuthon."

He considers. "Did another group of explorers come through here recently?"

"I AM TELENDRAK!” the figure shouts at Kavor Doan.

Its voice then returns to a rattling whisper. “Others came. They went to see the Lord Above. We could hear the screams, as the Lord gave them the gift of anguish. And there was such blood, cool drops that rained down upon us . . .”

"I AM TELENDRAK!” the figure shouts at Kavor Doan.

Its voice then returns to a rattling whisper. “Others came. They went to see the Lord Above. We could hear the screams, as the Lord gave them the gift of anguish. And there was such blood, cool drops that rained down upon us . . .”

Grog flexes his muscles.

"Should I pull out the chains?"

"How long have you been Telendrak?" asks Khellek, curious.

"Always. Always have I been Telendrak. Just like the Telendrak before me and the one before him . . ."

Kaya frowns.

This is becoming just a big circle. We need to figure out what happened to those idiots that went up the chain.

”Is The Lord Above, Zon’Kuthon? Is he up the chains? May we go visit and see what happened to the ones who came before?”

"Yes, seek the gift of the exquisite agony he will bring you."

"Yes, seek the gift of the exquisite agony he will bring you."

"Eh no thanks bub. Old Deadeye is more my style!"

"Exactly which way did they go?" asks Khellek.

He gestures up. "That way? How?"

"Chains . . . in the end, all is chains. They bind and torment. Struggle as you wish, they never loosen."

"Cayden Cailean would say otherwise. Shackles can be broken."
The dwarf hefts his Adamanatine Waraxe and activates Arcane Strike; eldritch flames crackle along the blade.

"But you do not wish for freedom. And so I think that the iron shackles you wear are not the chains that bind you. If you have lost the love of freedom, then nothing I can do will help you."

He considers the prisoner's answer.
"I think we are to go up the chains. Up that shaft that Two Blades indicated."

"So, we climb then?"

She looks at the chains to see if they are climbable without injury.

May be we can explore more of the place?

Khellek pales a little.
"Even in my youth, I was not one for climbing." explains the elderly scholar.

"Perhaps there are stairs somewhere?" he says, peering around.

"I have a Levitate spell prepared if needed."

Kavor Doan will use his bonded item spell to cast Spider Climb on himself.

01-35 ASF: 1d100 ⇒ 76

He successfully casts the spell despite his armor.

"That will last for quite a while and will give us some options."

It is a Still Levitate that he prepared, so no worries about ASF for that spell.

The soft clinking of the chains almost seems to absorb your words, and it feels like the darkness is pushing in your feeble pools of light. Could it be true? Has this place of needless cruelty existed for almost ten millennia?

Good role-playing everyone! Keep talking through your options. I'm travelling for the weekend, but will post again on Monday.

Kaya shrugs, ”We came for those that went up. Or the fancy thing. I guess we could look elsewhere, but I would presume they did too. I’ll follow wherever though, search away.”

Do the walls seem to just be swinging chains? Or do we see solid surfaces with chains hanging down in front of them?

"I can climb up!"

I have a fly spell scribed on my scroll. I could use it if needed. says Jair before adding with a disheartened tone But seems like we will all died and suffer for millennia in this place...

In whispers, the Pathfinders decide what to do next . . .

Thanks for your patience, I'm back on duty. What would you like to do next? Obvious options include trying to climb up the chains (or fly) to ascend the shaft above the throne, search around more on this level for an easier way up, or perhaps even use teleportation magic. And unlike many GMs, I'm also perfectly happy to see a split party! (There's also the issue of what, if anything, to do with "Telendrak".)

@Khellek: There are solid walls--probably something like black marble on the three sides of this throne chamber. The dense collection of chains hang down from the ceiling. Only the area directly above the throne has chains that ascend up through a shaft there.