Iron Abode (Inactive)

Game Master Pirate Rob

Dethor then starts looking behind all the other paintings in the room looking for notes.

The painting are all askew as though somebody has already checked the backs for notes and hastily put them back. From the one you have though you realize that the note is between the frame and the painting.

With that knowledge it's easy enough to peel the backing off and recover the full set of notes from this room.

Except for 1 painting though.

On the western wall is a large 10'x10' square painting labeled "Illusion Garden"

It does not easily move fromt he wall, and you seem to be able to stick your hand through... and into the garden.

Toad, ever the artist, leaps through into the colorful crayon-colored flowers.

Grams opens her mouth to issue a word of warning ... but it comes too late. She's no expert on gardens, and wonders if all those plants are really safe.

In the garden none of the plants attack but several statues of an adult Garundi woman at varying ages are displayed, each with a plaque that could likely be read from up close.

"Well, I guess we need to follow the impulsive goblin," sighs Dethor, as he looks to the others before jumping through, Mr. Stabby at the ready.

Domwurd finds it all very fascinating, and follows the others in through the painting.

It takes a few attempts for Princess Sunset to get up to the painting but she eventually follows behind and falls through the wonderful magical transporter.

She hts teh ground rolling head over heels several times before seeing what is going on. "What did you find?" She asks curiously rubbing some of the grime off of the plaques with her clothed hand to make them readable.

"HUZZAH!"

The Grand Marshal leaps into the painting.

Grams shrugs. "Adventure calls! That's why I left my boys, after all, so in for a copper, in for a gold!"

She follows the others.

As the party heads into the Illusion Garden a series of complex magical structures form around you. The nearby statue sinks into the ground and recedes an impossible didstance away, along with the walls of the house and other features of the garden. Walls of shimmering arcane energy rise up all around you, far too many to normally fit in the garden’s space. A ceiling forms above, trapping you in a complex maze!

Anybody who doesn't want to join their friends in the illusionary garden can hang out in the conjuration room, but I suggest you may all want to be helping

It'll take some skill/cunning to find your way through the maze.
Each of you can make 2 checks, checks are listed in general order of difficulty. As always happy to take relevant lores, or cool abilities. (Can overlap with other characters, your checks should be different skills though)

Arcana or Occultism to Recall Knoweldge on the illusion.
Survival to Sense Direction to navigate the correct paths.
Athletics to push your way through the dumb illusions
Perception or Will Save to disbelieve.

Toadkiller's Esoteric Diverse Lore (E), Holding Tome: 1d20 + 12 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 12 - 2 + 1 = 17 -2 penalty +1 tome
Toadkiller's Esoteric Diverse Lore (E), Holding Tome: 1d20 + 12 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 12 - 2 + 1 = 27 -2 penalty +1 tome Last hero point — at 0 now

Toadkiller's Esoteric Diverse Lore (E), Holding Tome: 1d20 + 12 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 12 - 2 + 1 = 30 -2 penalty +1 tome

Toad wanders around the garden like a docent, pointing at scribbles in his Coloring Tome and trying to show Princess what he found. Ya this is all normal Runelord gardener stuff really I know 'em all. Also I bet all the old people here like flowers too. He points at the Grand Marshal and Grams.

See this green one's Swamp Puke. That one over there is Cheese Wind — 'cause it makes your farts smell like cheddar cheese. He eats a petal. That one's Wandering Scurfpee. Over there is False Turtleface. And a goblin favorite Mad SkullDog.

Domwurd is a savvy sort who has read plenty about illusion magic.
Arcana: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31

And he's more than capable of disbelieving it.
Will save: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

”That’s wut I git fer followin’ a goblin, ” sighs Dethor.

Survival: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28
Scouting Lore: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

”There, that’ll do. ”

"Swamp Puke?"[/]b Princess sounds with utter amazement as she soaks in all of the goblins knowledge. [b]"You have been everywhere and know so much about this world." She begins to get a strange sense of this maze.

Arcana: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
Hero Point: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Occultism: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

So looks like *I've* also not gotten crafter's tools for Grams yet, so we're going with a broken shield from here on. Will rectify that after the scenario!

"Now, now, Dethor, no need for that. We're all Pathfinders. If we can't find our way forward, we should probably go apply to the Aspis Consortium, right?" Grams chides.

She enjoys looking around, ignoring Toadkiller's remark about being old. It's true, after all.

Lore (scouting) (trained): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
Lore (scouting) (trained): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Toad chooses not to heropoint his success.

Toad does well at understanding the magic.

Domwurd knows lots about magic and is also a capable disbeliever.

Dethor uses his knowledge of survival and scouting to make good progress.

Princess, not wanting to be outdone digs deep and does a good job.

Grams finally falters a bit, only earning 1 success.

S/CS/CS/S/CS/S/S/S/F/S
1+2+2+1+2+1+1+1+0+1= 12 Nagivation Points. Even with a potential -2 if Grand Marshal crit fails both checks... "If the PCs earn at least as many Navigation Points as the number of PCs, they reach the statue."

Y'all easily reach the far statue. Once there the illusory maze dispels itsself and things are back to normal. Investigating the statue reveals magical lettering on the plaque which is easily deciphered into a command word that causes the placard to slide down, revealing a hidden compartment containing one fragment of Alyreha’s research.

Where to next?

Hieronymous will happily allow these youngsters their chance to shine.

Dethor looks for the portal that they went through, to see if they can just jump back in. "Doesn't this manor look very familiar to you?" he ponders out loud.

"Not to me, but perhaps it's a common floorplan?" Grams suggests. "Time to go back inside, before anyone catches a chill."

It's easy enough to head back through the back side of the painting.

Back to the skull? the northern rooms of this floor? The stairs up? Something else?

"Not to me, this is my first time here." princess Sunset goes back into the house. "There was another room this way." She heads to the northern room near the stairs.

Dethor sighs, and follows the doll.

Heading up to the northern room you find a room that is completely bereft of windows and lit only by dim magical orbs mounted on each wall.

Two perfectly smooth crystal balls lie in the center of two large tables, near the center of the room. The other furniture in the room has been tossed, the shelves have been ransacked and a pair of mirrors on the far eastern side lie shattered on the floor, revealing an empty indentation in the eastern wall.

There is additional magic present other than what you've already interacted with.

Grams keeps her eyes out for anymore threats.

"Anyone know what that magic is?" she asks, unsure herself. "Maybe that kept whoever did this from anything worse?" Any checks we can make to Identify it?

Topad moves to the crystals. I bet these are spy balls. He peers within.

"I suggest we take a closer look and see what we can find. I once was challenged by the Grand Vizier of Qadira to find a golden needle in a haystack with failure meaning the removal of my head and, well, perhaps when we have more time..."

Search: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

It's divination magic.

Peering into the first ball you see the title

"UNIVERSAL FOYER" superimposed over a live image of the opening room.

While peering you can concentrate to change images.

It cycles between "CONJURATION GALLERY" where you can see the fallen painting as well as bits of stains from the blood of your wounds etc.

"ABJURATION DISPLAY ROOM" You see 7 open cabinets and 1 destroyed one.

"DIVINATION LOUNGE" You can see yourself in the ball! Not quite enough detail to make out anything in the ball though.

"ILLUSION GARDEN" It's the garden, with the statues!

"NECROMANCY STUDY" Static, literally nothing to see.

"HOME OFFICE" Static, literally nothing to see.

"READING ROOM" Static, literally nothing to see.

"TEACHING HALL" Static, literally nothing to see.

"ENCHANTMENT AUDITORIUM" Static, literally nothing to see.

"EVOCATION ATRIUM" Static, literally nothing to see.

"TRANSMUTATION SHOWROOM" Static, literally nothing to see.

"SCROLLS STORAGE ROOM" Static, literally nothing to see.

"RESEARCH TOWER" Static, literally nothing to see.

After that is cycles back to the "UNIVERSAL FOYER"

---

The other Crystal ball seems to show further off locations.

"Starstone Cathedral"
"Lepistadt University"
"Husk Beetle at Sothis"
"Spice Market of Sothis"
"Opera house of Egorian"

---

The cabinet in back looks like it was forced open and used to contain papers, which are now missing.

Toad peeks into the Starstone cathedral.

Princess wonders if she can pass through the strange balls like the picture frame. She grabs it by either side and tries to put her head through to see beyond.

Trained in Occultism +5

No travel available here, just viewing. Princess's head tinks off the ball.

Toadkiller sees:

"Starstone Cathedral"

The Cathedral stands on a stone column in the center of a wide and seemingly bottomless pit. Three bridges span the chasm while a 4th one lies in ruin.

Finally deciding there's nothing more to be seen here -- as if the message were coming from on low, from Folgrit herself, perhaps -- Grams tries to gather the wayward Pathfinders to push the group on.

"Come, come, time for us to be finding whoever may have stolen the papers here," she says, "if they're still in the manor." And I bet they are!

She looks at the cycling images. "Home office feels too obvious for Alyreha to actually store any papers there. I think we'll probably need to go to one of the other school rooms. Perhaps the necromancy one first? That feels especially dangerous, and we should tackle it while we're at our best."

Toad nods. Necromancy it is

"I can't say I light necromancy, but it's as good a start as any."

The rooms upstairs seems conveniently labeled, letting you find your way to the Necromancy Study without trouble. It's almost conveniently the closest room to the top of the stairs.

Opening the door reveals a room with two small desks that lay on the eastern and western sides of this small study room. The western desk hums with a soft, soothing sound while the eastern one buzzes with an unsettling low noise. On either desk, numerous crafting and repair supplies lie scattered about, and prototype golem frames are piled up against the northern wall. The shelf on the southern wall contains several books in an array of unusual languages. On all four walls, arcane runes shake and spark with instability.

Toadkiller thinks that the wards in here are misbehaving and that entering the room is a bad idea.

You've successful detected a Magical hazard before triggering it. Disable: Arcana (trained) to restore some of the arcane
wards, Religion or Occultism (trained) to quell the necromantic energy in the room.

"Well done!" Grams congratulates the goblin.

Will let others try to Disable first, since I'm lower level, but if necessary:

"Let me see if I can take the bite out of the magical hazard," Domwurd says, working his magic to disarm the runes.

Arcana: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29

Domwurd fixes the runes allowing a thorough search of the room.

No cool magic items or obvious treasure but some of the books on the shelves have marks along their spines. The three books in question are written in Celestial, Requian and Necril. Each has further markings in its table of contents and in certain marked passages.

Arcana, Society or Religion can be used to Decipher Writing. If any one understands one or more of these languages, everybody receives a +1 circumstance bonus for each language known by the party, as anyone can help translate

Dethor makes an attempt, using his religious training.
religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

Oh hey, there's a cool cipher cross refererencing the three books. With Sethor's knowledge you're able to decipher it.

Set of Notes #4 recovered!

Where to next?

*Dethor. Typing is hard.

I meant to give out a hero point earlier, but apparently did not. Hero point to Grams for their suffering in the Conjuration Room and Princess for trying to stick their head in the crystal ball

Princess Sunset eyes catch the sight of something interesting. She opens the door to the auditorium and begins making different pitced sounds to see if the echo. "Look in here friends. Play with me!"

Opening the door you see a semitransparent image of a small, elderly Garundi woman dressed in typical Nexian garb stands at a podium on the eastern side of this room before an empty lecture hall. Her form doesn’t move, but three obvious runes on the podium glow with a pulsating light, alternating between pale blue and rose. Before the figure, magic shimmers over a sheaf of papers, as if the figure were waiting to speak from prepared notes.

Toadkiller is pretty sure messing with the papers will trigger the magical trap. The 3 runes are dispellable or dialable via Thievery. (Or you could just try grabbing and making a run for it)

”Hang on, this is why you have me along. ”

Dethor moves to carefully disarm the trap.
thievery: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22

Dethor approaches carefully but has no luck disabling the glyphs.

No successes, no crit fails either though.

Grams waits, fidgeting a little as Dethor keeps working at the traps she's not able to handle. No reason to not keep going, I figure.

Tpad is twitchy but decides to let Dethor make more tries…

Having no magic prepared for dispelling the wards, Domwurd watches Dethor continue his efforts.

Dethor continues.

thievery: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17
thievery: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
thievery: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29