[GD XII] Redelia's Academy of Secrets (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

While Rognak stabilizes the injured party Thrag pokes around the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (11) + 17 = 28

Thrag sees signs of a magical ritual gone awry.

The human blinks rapidly, looking confused and scared. She sits up and looks around, trying to find the retriever.

"I hope you didn't actually want that. Because you can't anymore." Aria wipes non-existant blood from her sword and sheathes it in one swift motion.

"You know the saying, You summon it, you kill it yourself. This time it almost killed you. Out with it." he said, tucking his wand back into his bandolier, before scanning the area and pointing out what was wrong that occurred during the spell.

K:Arcana: 1d20 + 24 + 1d6 ⇒ (16) + 24 + (2) = 42
Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32

Trying to get ahead on the competition?

Sayna kneels down and offers a hand. ”Now what mischief have you been up to, dear? Do not worry. You are safe. Just tell us what happened.”

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (11) + 31 = 42

Daathiel watches with interest. Rognak seems to have figured out what transpired and is examining the room.
The Shelynite's mercy is perhaps more than most Pathfinders would have offered, but not surprising, the aasimar thinks.

The student explains that she wanted to show that she could control a powerful summoned creature, so stole a scroll. She immediately lost control. She is now terrified that she will be held responsible.

Indeed, unless you intervene with a diplomacy check, she will be in debt to the school for years.

But, why? Were you trying to enter the contest?

Thrag has enough diplomacy to guarantee an aid success, but he'll leave the actual convincing to the more charming members of the group

"Hmm... who knows that you stole the scroll? And did this retriever kill anyone?
I am not inclined to try to get you off the hook if it did. But if you were the only one harmed, then I can try to appeal for leniency.
If that is the case, to whom would I speak? Headmaster Toff? You would need to come with us and make a full confession."

I am assuming we do not make Diplomacy checks to convince her of anything, but rather the headmaster.

Aria can try to aid, but she's not a talkative person in general.

Sayna pats the girl on the shoulder. ”I will speak with the headmaster. No worries, dear. This kind of thing happens in magic schools.”

Are we gonna roleplay out that meeting or do you just want me to roll diplomacy?

ordinarily I'd want to roleplay through it, but in this case, let's just go with the roll and any assists. I'd like to get the actual contest going, and I've been really really slow this convention.

Daathiel defers to Sayna as she has expressed an interest in leading the conversation with the headmaster.

He does not see any need to bolster her arguments, finding Sayna to be exceptionally persuasive as is.

Skipping Aid Another because I think (OOC) and Daathiel thinks (IC) that Sayna has this, and jumping in to her conversation with the headmaster would be unnecessary.

Diplomacy Aid DC 10: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18
"You might be able to save yourself some trouble with the school administration if you make an offer up front rather than letting them decide your fate. Maybe offer your services to the person that wrote it. I would hazard to guess that it is the instructor for summoning spells here. You might at the same time learn to properly control them while serving your penance. However, if you are going to summon them, be prepared to send them home." Rognak said as he started to talk about the properties of the Dismissal spell

Thrag leans on his large hammer and looks down at the student. Your best bet will be a lot of begging and grovelling, maybe throw in some weeping,

diplomacy, aid: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

”Headmaster, I think it would be in everyone’s best interest if we just make this whole matter disappear. Aside from ruining the girl’s life, imagine what a pall an event like this would cast over the entire Breaching Festival? Why, I could even see people wanting to cancel it. Not to mention that the city authorities would be itching for the chance to exert some extra oversight into your school. Let’s just let it go.”

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (7) + 31 = 38

"Oh, fine..." the Headmaster agrees, and waves for the student to get out of his office.

interlude to sleep the night before the contest...

When Sunday morning arrives, the Acadamae wakes to a single sharp ringing of the campus bells at the break of dawn. The Breaching Festival officially begins an hour after dawn, but eager spectators begin gathering on the surrounding walls and the campus’s southern quad even before sunrise. Hundreds of common folk sit or stand atop the Acadamae’s southern walls, while vendors of refreshments and souvenirs wander nosily and often through the mass. Important observers, such as aristocrats and other prominent locals and nobles, are allowed to gather at ground level among several large and colorful tents and pavilions erected overnight in the quad just south of the Hall of Summoning. This is also the area where your guide instructs you to wait for Toff's announcement starting the competition at 7 AM.

At 15 minutes before, a large group of nobles arrives to excessive fanfare—this is none other than Queen Ileosa and several royal attendants.

You also see three other contestants.

At 7:00, the bells toll the hour and Headmaster Toff Ornelos arrives in a blast of multicolored smoke, teleporting into the staging area from his office. He lifts his hand to signal silence, and after the crowd quiets, he speaks aloud to the crowd, but especially to the contestants.

“Welcome one and all to this year’s Breaching Festival! I know the contestants are eager to begin, so I shall keep this introduction short. This year, as every year, one must enter the Hall of Wards via its eastern entrance after solving several minor conundrums our professors and spellcasters have set up at the other seven halls that surround us. The first contestant to emerge from these doors—” here Toff pauses to indicate the large doors in the Hall of Wards’ western facade, facing the quad— “shall be declared the winner of the Breaching Festival. If no winner emerges by dusk, there can be no winner for this year’s festival. Yet should one of these brave contestants accomplish what no one has accomplished in over 150 years, that person will walk away with more than 150,000 gold sails!”

Here, the crowd erupts into cheers for several seconds. Whenthe roar dies down, Toff places his hands inside the front of his robe and withdraws a glowing, fist-sized sphere of shimmering light that he holds aloft. The sphere dances and bobs an inch above his upturned palm.

“These glowing spheres are the keys to your fate and fortune, worthy contestants. This is a key-light—there are seven of them hidden among the seven other Halls on the grounds. Each contestant needs his or her own key-light to get into the Hall of Wards. So find yourself a key-light, use it to enter the Hall of Wards, and you will have your chance to enter history!”

With that, Toff bows to the contestants, then signals to several other students standing nearby. They aim fireworks into the sky, and with a touch of magically conjured flame to fuses, a colorful set of pyrotechnic fire bursts signal the start of the Breaching Festival!

Where first, team? Options are:
Hall of Summoning
Hall of Seeing
Hall of Induction
Hall of Lies
Hall of Shaping
Hall of Charms
Hall of Whispers
Hall of Wards

note: you will need to visit at least five of these, since you need five keylights

In the morning before coming down for breakfast, Rognak cast some spells to help protect him during the day.

cast Mage Armor and Overland Flight.

"My plan, if possible, is to map out the areas first before we go too far in." Rognak said as the group looked at the options.

"A wise choice, Rognak. Knowledge is a potent weapon."
Daathiel will await the results of Rognak's spell before making any recommendations.

He's got a number of 10 min/level spells, but no hour/level ones to use at this time.

He will take an hour to read from his Book of Puzzles while Rognak is preparing spells.

DC 10 Intelligence: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Only needs 40 minutes. 6 puzzles left in the book.

Thrag grips his shield, but leaves his other hand free for the moment, Point the way.

Rognak realizes that each of the areas to collect a keylight is set up as a trap based on a spell, and those traps could either be disabled normally, or counterspelled. Those who set up the contest clearly tried to make things harder, because he cannot tell with arcane eye exactly what each hall contains.

When he tries to examine the Hall of Wards, something is clearly wrong. the entire hall is completely invisible to arcane eye. This is very creepy, and suggests that not all is as it seems.

Hall of Wards then? With Aria up front?

"Veeeery interesting. I'm good to look. Wards it is." Aria melts into the shadows as she heads that direction.

Rognak frowned at the information that was obtained trying to use magic to map out the halls. "I do so hate having to counteract spells." the half-orc grumbled. "Lets go then and be careful where you are standing when I start tossing spells."

The Hall of Wards is the one you have to collect keylights to get into. I'm sorry if my previous posting left that not clear; I can see how that might easily be true.

"Lets start from the Hall of Summoning and then Hall of Whispers, alternating between them in the hopes that we do not have to search every single one of the halls." Rognak said. "I do hope that the key-lights can only be taken by the person it belongs to as it can get really ugly if they get sent to another plane or such"

Lead the way. Odds are we'll have to fight other contestants for at least one of them.

Daathiel will cast Heightened Awareness, Heroism, and Acute Senses. He will use a charge from his wand of Find Traps (wand at 40).

This gives him a passive check for any traps (even when moving at full speed) at a +42. (+16 base, +2 competence, +20 enhancement, +2 insight, +2 morale).

He will walk up front alongside Aria, and will be Blinking from his ring.

"Happy to do any of the halls. Summoning first if you wish, Rognak."

Yup, Hall of Summoning it is.

In the Hall of Summoning, you find five tables, each with what appears to be a key light floating above its center.

Aria notices that four of the apparent key lights are actually traps of some kind. They would trigger if you tried to grab one of the false keylights.

Aria will point out the trapped lights. "Did we just need one of these lights?"

Assuming nothing leaps out at her, Aria will pluck the correct light off the table. "It can't be that easy, can it?

Yes, it actually is that easy.

Hall of Whispers:
This challenge is located in a storeroom filled with old grave-digging equipment and crates of loamy soil.

You notice the glow from a keylight seeping out of the cracks of an earth-filled crate.

Aria and Daalthiel notice that the crate is trapped. Rognak knows he could use spellcraft to find what spell the trap would use, if desired.

Daathiel moves to disable the trap on the crate.

Disable Device, Heroism: 1d20 + 35 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 35 + 2 = 57

By the way, for Perception rolls, his Perception is currently +41, or +43 vs traps (forgot the Luckstone in my previous post). I updated the statblock on the slides.

Then he will open the crate and take the key light.

Spellcraft-Take 10 for 36
"Good start. Next stop, the Halls of Seeing and Whispers" Rognak said as he checked out the two keylights to figure out who they were keyed with.

Daalthiel easily disables the trap and grabs a keylight.

Rognak knows the trap would have cast horrid wilting on everyone in the room.

You can choose who collects each key light. You can also freely pass them between you, so all that matters is that you collect enough to have one per party member.

Status:
keylights found: 2
keylights still needed: 3
rooms available:
Hall of Seeing
Hall of Induction
Hall of Lies
Hall of Shaping
Hall of Charms

I saw a vote for Hall of Seeing, so we'll go there next.

This room is an intersection of two hallways. The walls contain several large mirrors.

Most of you notice the trap in the room. If it is not disarmed, something bad will happen whenever someone touches a mirror or tries to collect the keylight.

You do not see a keylight. You do see your own images in the mirror smile and beckons you to follow, turning around and appearing to approach an orange light in the center of the reflected room which does not correspond to any light you can see in the real world.

I guess they weren't expecting someone specialized in traps. Looks like you're up again Aria.

"Or me."

Daathiel sets to work on the trap.
Disable Device, Heroism: 1d20 + 35 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 35 + 2 = 40

Daalthiel, with a bit of help from Aria, is easily able to disarm the trap. That just leaves the puzzle of how to find the keylight.

if no one sees any ideas out of character, I can provide hints from successful intelligence checks.

Aria exchanges a grin with Daathiel. "I don't know why someone would come in here *without* someone who specializes in traps."

She studies the mirrors for a few minutes, then enters the room and attempts to follow what "she" is doing. If that doesn't work, she'll try to find it with her eyes closed.

Rognak looked at the mirror as he faced it and tried to reach behind him towards the orange light.

Int check: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Thrag walks to the center of the room and grabs at the spot where the light should be.

Daathiel would try Rognak's solution but will instead watch while the wizard attempts it.

Daalthiel, with a bit of help from Aria, is easily able to disarm the trap. That just leaves the puzzle of how to find the keylight.

@GM, can you tell me if Daathiel actually needed help? I got a 40. I would like to know if my character is actually capable of disarming traps in this tier or if I have even over-optimized in that regard. This is something I have always wondered about in PF - how much is 'enough' relative to expected challenges. Implying that a 40 (on a 3) was insufficient is rather astonishing, unless you just did it for flavor.

The help was more than flavor, but not necessarily needed. It's a matter of keeping a sense of as many characters as possible contributing to each situation. That's also why I mentioned 'easily' disabling the trap.

If you are wondering what the 'expectation' is at any level for dealing with traps, the easiest way would be to see what a rogue would have who starts with an 18 dex and then puts one point into disable device at every level. A slightly higher bonus than this might be nice to make difficult traps a little easier.

Aria finds that when she follows the motions of her reflection carefully, a key light pops into existence in the center of the room.

status: 3/5 keylights collected.
rooms available:
Hall of Induction
Hall of Lies
Hall of Shaping
Hall of Charms

That would be Aria. She not hyper optimized, but has the max ranks in DD and is 2 shy of the max Dex she could have. Aside from masterwork tools, she doesn't have anything else to help out.

Aria grins as she tosses the key light to one of her other party members. "Induction sound good next?"

Sounds as good as anything else.

"Three down, two more to go. Lets check it out" Rognak said.