"Why would someone trap a door in their storeroom? Sounds like you just do not want to work." Ledt complains as Valeros just watches while he pushes the wall "Why we little ones have to do all the work all the time!?"
And he renews his efforts trying to move the wall with his little body "Ooomph!"
[dice=Strength DC 20]1d20-3
"Big talk coming from someone who sat back and did nothing all combat. I just want to make sure nothing bad is going to happen to me when I try to force the door."
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Ledt steps aside a moment when the half-orc comes to inspect the wall "Sure, you did a lot not letting yourself be eaten while Sylvester was frying up the thing" the halfling rubs his nose while answering the big hero "Besides, if you do not want me to cover your back, let me go first and I will show you how to deal with those museum pieces"
Once Omrijka calms out the worries, the halfling resumes his efforts to push open the wall.
Omrijka Remember Explore Report CO OPPA RAYT
She then examines the door for traps
Then looks to make it unstuck.
Omrijka finds no traps, but determines that something not unlike a thick fungal bed on the opposite side blocks the door.
Upon hearing the all-clear, Valeros moves to force the door with his trusty crowbar.
He ruffles Ledt's hair, "It's okay little buddy, now you can go play with the fungus on the other side of the door. Anyone know anything about that stuff?"
Corey helps with opening the door.
[dice=Strength to aid]1d20+1
"Thanks for the assist Corey, any idea what that fungus stuff is on the other side?"
Valeros stows his crowbar and draws both of his swords.
The door opens into a chamber containing several tall wooden bookshelves reaching to the ceiling, almost bursting with the weight of books and scrolls filling the shelves. The shelves and their contents are encrusted with thick growths of brightly colored fungus and glistening mold. Many tomes have fallen from the shelves, their open pages forming a base for more fungi and large mushrooms which carpet the floor. The air here is damp and close, and several of the fungal growths pulse with an eerie purple light that dimly lights the room.
Two large iron candelabra, full of unlit candles, hang from the vaulted ceiling. Several varieties of the fungi glow dimly with pulsing purple bioluminescence, providing the room with shadowy illumination.
Corey gives a nervous chuckle.
"I hope it's not dangerous."After the door is opened, he tries to identify the fungus before it possibly attacks.
Corey concludes that the majority of the molds and fungi growing here are relatively harmless, with a particularly thick fungal bed covering the floor of the southern most part of the room and making the door difficult to open.
However, he also identifies a large, human-sized purple mushroom just 10 feet beyond the door as a shrieker. This type of fungus emits a piercing sound that lasts for several seconds whenever there is movement or a light source within 10 feet. This shriek makes it impossible to hear any other sound within 50 feet. The sound often attracts nearby creatures that are disposed to investigate it. Some creatures that live near shriekers learn that this noise means there is food or an intruder nearby.
Chamber, fungal mat, and shrieker all revealed on Map on Slides.
"Hmm kill it without moving, sounds like a job for magic to me. Or we just leave it here for now, go find the girl, and then return to give it a dirt nap."
While the brains of the operation are working on the shrieker issue, Valeros sharpens his shortsword with his whetstone.
Sylvester thinks for a moment about what he knows about Shrieker's resistances to different forms of energy.
The gnome gnows that the shrieker has gno gnown resistances to particular forms of energy.
The gnome gnows that the shrieker has gno gnown resistances to particular forms of energy.
Sylvester thinks for a moment about what he knows about Shrieker's resistances to different forms of energy.
[dice=Knowledge-Nature]d20+2
"Well, I can certainly throw another Fireball at it. It might not be enough. Ledt perhaps you can throw some lightning at it at the same time?"
"A one-two punch so to speak."
"And burn all the books, scrolls, etc. in the room? Since the Shrieker isn't going to bother us why don't we just come back and kill it last."
Let's start with a cursory detect magic.
The Red Reverend detects the presence of a magical aura within the fungus-filled room.
Ledt's hair crackles with electricity, sparkling away unwelcome hands "No problem, ready when you are Sylvester!"
The sparks go down from the halfling's head all along his right arm, frizzling with energy as Ledt extends his hand and a ray goes over the group's heads to strike on the shrieker.
As Ledt's hands light up and the crackling electrical energy intensifies, the shrieker begins to vibrate, but the sudden ray errupting from Ledt's hand destroys the shrieker near instantly.
"Shocking! And no not the lightning the fact Ledt did something other than complain!"
Valeros nudges the gnome and grins at him, letting him know he's just teasing Ledt.
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Shaggy makes a single quiet bark agreeing with Red's statement of impromptu violence.
"Woof!"
Beyond those items possessed by his fellow Pathfinders, the Red Reverend senses only a single magical aura.
Valeros moves into the room to protect the casters but doesn't seem interested in the books.
"Let me know which ones are worth money and I'll carry those out."
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"I see now why all the stories that go around there about Valeros" Ledt grumbles back, quickly rushing past the fungus to the other wall and pushing the dancing lights to illuminate the area further to the south.
"The woman must have been studying here around. She should have left some trace of her research" the small halfling looks around the bookshelves specially looking for books that seem to have been recently retrieved from the shelves.
Omrijka looks on a little worried about her companions Did you have to kill it it might have sung a beautiful song
"Considering it's called a 'Shrieker', I'm not sure it's going to make beautiful music...more like a racket to draw the attention of anything else prowling around the museum."
Sylvester attempts to identify the source of the magical aura discovered by Red.
"Good idea for checking. There might be loot there!"
The moderate conjuration aura emanates from a backpack, which appears to be well made, well used, and quite ordinary, located along the central northern wall. It has two side pouches, each of which appears large enough to hold about a quart of material.
"The woman must have been studying here around. She should have left some trace of her research" the small halfling looks around the bookshelves specially looking for books that seem to have been recently retrieved from the shelves.
Tall wooden bookshelves, bursting with books and scrolls and encrusted with a profusion of brightly colored mold and fungal growths, fill this library. The westernmost door in the north wall has a sign reading “Scriptorium—Quiet Please.” Ledt spots a couple of logbooks detailing the Blakros family’s illegal activities smuggling slaves and other contraband throughout the Inner Sea region along with a patch of brown mold, which she is able to warn Corey about before he steps into it.
Brown mold now marked on Map and Corey's token repositioned accordingly.
As the party progresses through the room, from among the fungus in the southeast corner emerges a creature with a swollen, brainlike bulb encrusted with fungal shelves squatting atop several ropy legs. A wide mouth bisects the bulb’s crown.
It projects a confusing collage of images giving it an unsettling appearance.
As it approaches, it appears almost curious. Within your heads, a voice begins inquiring telepathically, Do fingernails sing?
How do elves sporulate?
THE FUNGAL BLOOMS! - Round One Begins!
Ledt
Corey
Sylvester
? (purple)
Valeros
Red
Omrijka
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"Gah! Brown mold! I forgot if it's destroyed by ice or fire!"
He tries to remember.
He backs away to the south and notices out of the corner of his eye a strange fungus in the eastern corner moving toward him and asking bizarre questions.
"Do fingernails sing?"
"How do elves sporulate?"
"Gah! What?... No... I don't know!"
He shouts back in annoyance with a puzzled look.
"Damn that's ugly and crazy as hell too! Where's that fireball at Sylvester? And maybe some more lightning too... What do we do about that brown mold?"
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"Were I you, I would not put my feety in that brown mold, Corey" Ledt warns the redhead elf just before listening strange words in his head "What's that? Who is talking in my head? I do not want to know how elves sporulate. I cannot care less and I am sure it is something I will never want to witness."
Without seeing angle to the fungus, what takes the halfling's attention is the backpack, he steps forward to have a better look "Do you think this is from the Blackro's daughter?"
Led opens the backpack to see it's contents.
And readies an attack in case a monster comes into his see angle.
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Sylvester recognises (he thinks) the backpack.
"That is most probably a Handy Haversack. It fits the description to a tee and almost every experienced adventurer has one. At any rate it is a magical backpack and we should take it!"
"Hey, it might also have some loot inside it!"
The gnome looks at the bard.
"Corey, what does that Brown Mold do?"
The gnome rides by Ledt not wishing to stay too close to the Brown Mold.
He thinks for a moment what he knows about this strange fungal like creature but the sorcerer draws a blank.
Sylvester tosses another Fireball against the wall to envelop the fungal creature (red dot is the origin of the effect).
Irrelevant Will save for Sylvester:
The psychic mumbling has no effect on the gnome whose thought patterns are already strange being a fey creature himself.
"Singing fingernails. Of course my Aunt's has those."
"Gah! Brown mold! I forgot if it's destroyed by ice or fire!"
He tries to remember.
He does. Brown mold feeds on warmth, drawing heat from anything around it. It normally comes in patches 5 feet in diameter, and the temperature is always cold in a 30-foot radius around it.
Led opens the backpack to see it's contents.
The backpack holds a collection of canopic jars, jeweled death masks, gilded ushabti, and other valuable relics, along with a chime, two scrolls, and feather. Also inside is a scrap of paper with the phrase “The Eye is always vigilant” written on it.
The chime, scrolls, and feather are magical, as is the backpack itself.
Sylvester tosses another Fireball against the wall to envelop the fungal creature.
The instant conflagration incinerates the creature. In your minds, you hear a passing voice, Can the circumference of the moon dream of rain and fish?
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Sylvester imagines a river of fish orbiting the moon as the voice fades from his mind.
"Well, take the magical bag and lets keep moving. I can have a look at the scrolls as they might be useful."
(Read Magic is cast to decipher the scrolls)
"Let us just stay away from the Brown Mold for now and continue on with our mission."
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"Let us just stay away from the Brown Mold for now and continue on with our mission."
"I agree. No point in messing with it if it's not going to attack us."
Corey takes a look at the contents of the haversack.
"There sure are a bunch of interesting items in there. Would one of those scrolls happen to be titled 'The Aucturn Enigma'?"
"BOOM! Now that's what I like to see. We'll let our resident Pretty Expert search for traps or hidden doors first."
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Ledt indeed registers the backpack with detect magic "What is all this? A collection of the bizarre?" the halfling starts to put things out of the backpack so others can see too "Maybe the scrolls and feather are worth something... And what is this? The Eye is always vigilant what is that crap supposed to be?" Ledt throws away the scrap of paper without much thought.
Without losing much more time, he stands up "Ah, yeah, let's not lose more time, to the eastern door"
"Well, take the magical bag and lets keep moving. I can have a look at the scrolls as they might be useful."
(Read Magic is cast to decipher the scrolls)
Sylvester identifies a scroll of detect secret doors and a scroll of gaseous form.
Searching the shelves, the party locates a map outlining the secret trade routes used by the Blakros family’s agents to cross the Taldor/Qadira border.
In the eastern portion of the room, hidden beneath the thick layer of fungus behind the westernmost bookshelf, is a secret trapdoor that covers a shaft leading downward.
Location of trap door beneath the fungal carpet now revealed on Map.
Moving to the door to the east, which bears a sign stating, "Scriptorium—Quiet Please."
Beyond the door lies a dark, vaulted chamber. True to the sign, it serves as a scriptorium, where texts from the archives next door may be read or copied at leisure. Bare wooden shelves, empty except for some extra writing supplies (sheets of parchment, bottles of ink, and quills), line the eastern wall, and three desks with high stools stand in the center of the room between six columns. A small sign on the southern door reads “Archives—Private.”
A body lies slumped in the southwestern corner, still clutching a club. Its legs have been eaten away by acid, and the corpse is already showing signs of putrefaction, with patches of mold on the skin. The mold resembles some of that found within the room you just exited.
A broken lantern lies next to the body, its oil spilled on the floor.
The two northern desks each contain small, empty candelabra, two bottles of dried ink, and old quill pens.
The southern desk has been used more recently—the candelabrum holds the stubs of half-burnt candles, the ink bottles are still wet, and fresh ink stains the quill pens. A handful of books and scrolls, treatises on the solar system and the empty space beyond, lie open on the desk. Underlined passages and marginalia written in Osiriani refer to the “the Dark Tapestry” and the “Dominions of the Black,” as well as something called the “Gate of Beyond,” a long-lost portal to these otherworldly realms. References to an ancient aberrant sorcerer named Kubburum Ishmedagan and the mad wizard Ralzeros the Overwatched are also highlighted.
The notes go on to describe the brain canister as a key that can open a portal--the Gate of Beyond--detailing how the canister can be attached to the Gate, and the revelation that destroying the cylinder while it is attached to the Gate will demolish the portal as well.
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Sylvester places the scroll of Gaseous Form in a handy pocket and the scroll of Detect Secret Door in Shaggy's saddle bag. He cannot help but find the hidden note (Perception modifier of +15) and passes it to Corey to attempt to decipher it.
He gives a hard look (and a Detect Magic spell) at the body decomposing in the corner. He give special attention to the club that the man is carrying as he recalls Zarta mentioning it to him in his Dark Archives faction letter.
Assuming it is not that heavy (or magical) Sylvester will use Mage Hand to retrieve the club for closer examination.
25 Perception on a take 10
"Any idea what dissolved the corpse's legs? And is that who we're supposed to find?"