GM TOP #10-14: Debt to the Quah (Core) (Inactive)

Game Master Pete H.

Lini walks over and tries to calm Rocky.

"Alright Rocky, you don't have to go in if you don't want to. Good doggie."

20 Handle Animal on a take 10.

The druid shakes her head and sighs.

"There certainly is something unnatural about this place."

"A job is a job but this is just weird."

Lini addresses Salvo and Corba who clearly have a better handle on this strange language riddle than she does.

"So have you braniacs figured all this out yet? This room is freaking the animals out."

Droogami has his nose held high at Rocky who was spooked so easily. Surely if he wanted to enter the room he would.

Why do cats always think that they are better than dogs? ;)

"Hm. Let's use the statues in the hall as a reference; I guess it's not a guarantee, but it's our best hope. Salvio, go read off which sigil matches which name so Bobbie and I can match the lids."

Then, remembering they're all in fact peers here, she adds, "Please."

Because cats ARE better than dogs. :D

The wizard pulls out his previous set of notes with a flourish. "Thanks to Corba's insight and my language studies, I'm pretty sure that the eagle goes with Story Seeker, the horse goes with Meadow Grass, the griffin goes with Meditates in Sunlight, and the bat goes with Tranquil Shadow." He points at each sarcophagus in turn.

Salvio looks a bit confused and repeats himself. Once the appropriate stones are put in place the feeling of unease in the room ends. Everything looks and feels great!

Where too next?

There's more than just a few grunts and muttered swear words on Bobbie's part while the warriors move the lids, and she's left panting from the effort -but finally, it seems that whatever dark magic was throwing off the Emperor's groove casting a dark mood over the place has been lifted.

"There seems to be a path there," she points to the west. "Want to go this way?"

The staircase to the west leads to a dead end.

Salvio reviews his copy of the notes from the mission briefing. "Back to the room with the water, and then north through the other door. This says it was a dead end, but let's see for ourselves...Lumketel might have broken something that we'll need to fix."

Lini pokes her head through the door to the north and laughs. It’s just a meeting room. Weird. Nothing else is found there.

Backtrack time! Check the other door off the pool room or go back to the main room?

"Hey, let us check the other door off the pool room and then we can head back to the main room."

Thanks for pushing the game forward GM Top. Sometimes it is necessary. :)

"Sure," Bobbie leads the way to the pool room, and opens the other door.

"Aroo?"

Huh... the weirdness is gone now...

As soon as the lids are repaired and moved to the correct places Rocky looks confused for a second, then suddenly has no more aversion agains moving into the room.

Corba is surprised to find herself inside the room as her riding dog suddenly (and quite happily, too!) walked through the door.

"Rocky, what happened? Is the reason you didn't want to get in there gone?"

After finding only dead ends the bard follows Bobbie back to ghost room to the other door. When that one is finally opened, the halfling tries to get a good look into the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

That place is real creepy... but we've saw worse, remember, Bobbie? When we investigated that great ossuary under Kaer Maga? There were a few close calls down here, we nearly all died...

Reference to Godsmouth Ossuary adventure

The group backtracks and after a precursory danger check, open the next door. It leads into a small storage area with nothing but a couple old picks and shovels.

But down the hall and around the corner a large round room opens up. In the center of this circular room is a platform overlooking a shallow pit. Inside the pit is a heavily damaged sarcophagus and a broken skeleton.

There is no oppressive or semi oppressive feeling in this room, but it definitely looks sad how much damage was done.

Lini speaks to Salvio.

"Perhaps you can use the stone to fix the damage here as well?"

"I remember," Bobbie shivers. "Especially that monster in the pit..."

She groans when she sees the poor state in which the sarcophagus and skeleton are. "Heiress. He really didn't make any kind of effort," she mutters, her voice full of anger towards their fellow Pathfinder-turned-renegade.

How deep is the pit?

10 feet.

"Can one of you stronger people lower me down there on a rope?"

"I have none, but lowering you by hand shouldn't be difficult. Harder to get back out though. How are you at climbing?"

(I have a +6 Climb, I could do it.)

Salvio starts to laugh, then stops himself. "I haven't trained in that skill. There's usually ladders in the library if I want to get a book from a high shelf."

Sorry, I should have bought a rope .. Do you have one, Bobbie?

"Er... No," Bobbie admits sheepishly.

Lini takes out a scroll.

"Sure, I can make you climb like a spider for maybe 30 minutes or so."

Salvio, if you want I can cast Spider Climb on your character.

Droogami looks at the pit and wonders why everyone is standing around and not just jumping down.

A 10 foot drop down for a cat is rather trivial if it is prepared. :)

"All right, I have an idea. Iladora can lower me into the pit, and I'll fix things up. Once I'm done, Lini turns into a wolverine, I cast bull's strength on her, and she climbs out while I hang onto her. Let's do this one last, though, in case we find something else that we can use to access the pit."

It is at this point that he realizes that he was talking over the druid. "Sorry! I like your idea better."

"I can just cast Spider Climb on you or you can jump down. It is only a ten foot drop after all."

Maybe you missed my last post. It is a lot of casting to avoid a single d6 of damage. :)

Maybe you missed my addendum ^_-.

Note that the sarcophagus and body was damaged from being knocked into the pit.

"So you cast the spell on the strongest of us (not me), she carries up all of the broken pieces, and I fix them up here."

The sarcophagus will be very heavy and a strength check is needed to lift it out of the pit. If you have rope then any number of you could attempt to aid the primary lifter.

AFAICT none of us have rope.

I gotta say that’s impressive if true, you gotta have rope! :D But fortunately the scenario as written doesn’t actually require rope to aid (it just made tons of flavor sense). So if you all want to get this thing out I need a primary strength roll and everyone else may aid. Maybe roll a few times too, since PbP is slow going. Or leave it down there, up to you all.

That's why I was hoping it was still in pieces, so it wouldn't have to come up all at once.

I would be happy to allow tons of creative options if the scenario didn’t set a DC for a strength check. I guess you could try to break it up more and make it easier to lift and then use extra charges to repair it, if you want to try that instead. You are welcome to make alternative efforts too, but I can’t guarantee anything will perfectly work.

"Don't you wizards have a spell to make a person bigger, Salvio? That could help, too."

I propose to cast Spiderclimb, Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person on the strongest party member (Iladora). As she doubles in height, the 10 feet depth shouldn't be a problem, and we all can try to aid from up here. And she will have Str 24 (+7), that's not bad at all for an ability check!

And you're right, we Pathfinders should have rope! :-o Now that I have Rocky's saddlebags I have no more excuse - will buy some asap.

I've never bothered to buy any, because when it's needed it always seems like there's at least three people trying to use theirs at the same time lol.

"Sure, I can do that." Iladora turns to Bobbie. "You stay up here so I can hand it up to you?"

Taking 10 on Strength, before any spellcastings, gives me a 14. Although it seems odd that it wouldn't just be a question of "does this sarcophagus fall within your Lift Over Head limits, yes or no" (which would be 300 lbs).

The wizard looks simultaneously exasperated and embarrassed. "And I even prepared that spell today! Too focused on solutions involving climbing, I guess. Ready?"

Definitely odd when looking at lifting rules, sure. But most scenario writers set DCs for challenges. Probably because this is a d20 based game so ya gotta make a roll instead of just saying it happens. Neither a 14 nor 17 (with buffs) will get close to the DC, fyi.

"How about if I enlarge both Iladora and Erica? Would that help?"

Definitely odd when looking at lifting rules, sure. But most scenario writers set DCs for challenges. Probably because this is a d20 based game so ya gotta make a roll instead of just saying it happens. Neither a 14 nor 17 (with buffs) will get close to the DC, fyi.

Maybe it is big and hard to handle without handles? ;-) Let's see how Iladora handles herself... :-P

What about Take 20?

GM TOP wrote:

Definitely odd when looking at lifting rules, sure. But most scenario writers set DCs for challenges. Probably because this is a d20 based game so ya gotta make a roll instead of just saying it happens. Neither a 14 nor 17 (with buffs) will get close to the DC, fyi.

Maybe it is big and hard to handle without handles? ;-) Let's see how Iladora handles herself... :-P

What about Take 20?

Sure, but no aids since it is considered failing a ton of times to succeed once for that 20 result. And it'll take 2 minutes.

Per Discussion Corba is suggesting a take 20 with bulls strength and enlarge person. You ok with casting both of those Salvio?

Yes.

The group gathers around to watch some magic and muscle! Salvio wisely sizes Bobbie up and then blasts her with the strength buff.

She spends a little time positioning and figuring out her grip, making sure her large body can twist and lift safely. Safely for her and safely for the sarcophagus. Then the lifting begins. She is hecka strong now, but still really strains to get the awkward stone coffin out of the pit and back on the platform. The spells are juuust past half gone when she pulls herself out of the pit to look at her handiwork.

The coffin and skeleton are still broken, but at least in the right place now. And fortunately through all this the skeleton remains still.

1 charge each would do to fix them, gonna use the stone? Anything else?

"Good work!" Salvio fixes the breaks, then checks the notes and snaps his fingers. "The ring! We have to put the ring back on the skeleton!" He starts looking through the items for a ring.

I assume Iladora did the heavy work, as was initially planned ;)

Bobbie watches the other fighter strain herself to get the coffin out of the pit, a little frustrated to be unable to join in the effort.

Salvio and Corba recall seeing a ring bouncing around in the same bag as the weapons from the earlier room.

Corba reaches into Rocky's saddlebag and pulls out the sack that had the weapons inside.

"It should be in here somewhere, Salvio..."

Should've thought of this sooner. "What else is in the bag? Let's do an inventory, so we know what we need to return."