Age of Ashes (Team Dahak)

Game Master Delta Arena

Vrosi tries to reach into the mechanism to jam it and prevent it from working, but due to the angle and the depth of the holes, Vrosi is unable to reach far enough into it.

It was a regular failure, so the mechanism does not activate

Try again: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

Kiilo, are you aiding again?

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Vrosi's abilities are enough to disable the mechanism placed in the closed door.

You'll have to try something different or have someone else try to disable it.

Mosquito yawns. The cleric takes a sip of whiskey. He then stands up to face the door.

The fidgety goblin hurricanes himself at the door!
Athletics(T) to Force Open, guidance: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 1 = 10

From his newly acquired position on his back, the frustrated goblin yawns....

Frustrated that he couldn't pick the lock, Vrosi hauls back and hits the mechanism.

Athletics to force open: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

The door is unlocked, so it swings back as soon as Mosquito pushes against it. As the threshold opens up, spikes lance out of the doorframe to skewer the goblin. From all side the spikes break through Mosquito’s armour and pierce through his skin, causing some serious wounds. Mosquito, you take 38 piercing damage from the spikes. Left on the doorframe are empty holes.

The chamber inside is in complete disarray. There is a desk covered in papers and books, bookshelves and cabinets clustered together.

Hmmm....well then ..lol! Priceless imagery of him getting stuck, pulling himself off and falling down unconscious.

Ouch!

Kiilo, are you aiding again?

at this point, the Hymn of Healing might be a better option ...

Kiilo frowns; that was quite a trap to instal ... on a bookstore. His wings extend and seem to shiver as music starts to play and he kneels down to the bleeding goblin.

Mosquito immediately gains 4 temp hp, and Fast Healing 4. Kiilo will sustain the song for 4 rounds

Mosquito suddenly jumps up to his feet! The confusion is real! He starts running about the place, leaping on tables, tumbling over chairs and the crazy eyed swashbuckler even once somersaulted a priceless Tiffany lamp!

Mosquito soon tires himself out, stopping by the now open door and proceeding through it.
All clear!

Looking forward to being a hurricane in here too, the goblin frowns at the already messed up room.
Mees no done it!

He begins picking his way through....
Exploration mode Search

Kiilo's miraculous song make quick work of Mosquito’s injuries, allowing them to stop bleeding and close on their own.

There is not much of value in the piles of notes, papers, papyri and books, but there is one hand written scribble that sounds oddly relevant to Mosquito. The note reads “Aha! Entrance to Alseta’s Ring—Guardian’s Way.”

Markus holds his breath as he watches the scene. He shakes his head after all is better. Inside, he considers what he knows about Alseta’s Ring—Guardian’s Way.

Recall Knowledge, Society: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Afterwards, he starts looking at the books. It's a good thing they have time.

"Brilliant Burnis bear brief on Guardian's Way. Guardian's Way got guarded during Goblinblood Wars. It in Woods West and North two three miles of town. There are three treetop towers and a guardshack on ground. Where woods were."

Markus says "Well, I think Voz found a connection between this Guardian's Way and... I think Altaerein citadel. If that's true, and she's trying to find out more about it, we should go there, as we have better chance to find her there."

He continues poking random things in the office in the hopes of finding a magical toy of sorts, without knowing what he is looking for. He decides to be a bit more efficient and scans the room with Detect Magic.

There is no magic coming from this room, but there are small items radiating magic in the adjoining room.

Markus says "Oooh oooh, let's go to the next room. There is magic there." He, of course, slowly advances, wary of traps.

Exploration mode Search (more specifically, detect traps)

Mosquito readies to proceed forward to death kills the little swashbuckler....
Exploration mode Defend

As you get ready to enter the second room, you find it locked. You don't see signs of this door being trapped.

Markus extends his hand to Vrosi to try and open the lock.

Kiilo, wary of what seemed to be more malice than actual evil, sends a shimmer through his wings as he prepares to sing if needed. Harming Kiilo's friends was unwise, whether they were pickle thieves or simply pickle enthusiasts wasn't relative.

Thievery: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Traps may be tricky, but the lock posses no problem for Vrosi. Without much effort it pops open, revealing the room inside. The untidy place is clearly Voz’s bedroom, with an unmade bed, a ransacked chest of drawers, a wardrobe missing half its contents, a small desk covered in personal effects such as Voz’s archivist’s gloves and dented reading glasses, and a night stand covered in books like “Breachill, Outpost of Liberty”.

The small items radiating magic seem to be coming from the wardrobe.

Are any of the items identifiable off the bat?
Given a minute?
Extended Detect Magic scrutiny?


ARCANA: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
OCCULT: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Mosquito begins playing with the magical stuff too!
Religion(T)+7

Vrosi puts on the gloves and glasses, and says, "Brilliant Burnis viewed as Voz! Ha!"

Markus suggests the group open the wardrobe, but first checking for traps.

Voz's gloves and glasses stretch and bend as they struggle to fit Vrosi's frame.

Following Markus' suggestion, you the magical goodies tucked under a fake board inside the wardrobe. The items are easy to identify, there are four spell scrolls and two runes. The scrolls contain Acid Grip, False Vitality, Mist and Stupefy. While the two runes are +1 Potency Runes.

Jackpot!

Markus quickly pockets the 4 scrolls hoping to scribe them to his spellbook later. He offers the runes to any of the others.

He makes a careful search of the room for some secret compartment and tells Cranky to do the same.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
Cranky Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

He turns to the others and says "Well, we know where Voz is going next. When we're done here we should report and then go to Guardian's Way."

Mosquito is seen trying to force a Rune onto his rapier....

"The process is a little more involved than that my friend, we'll take care of it though."

Glancing up to look curiously at Kiilo as the goblin is seen hoping up and down on the Rune and his rapier, Mosquito grins
Youses bees no saying....

There doesn't seem to be anything else of value in the bedroom. What remains besides the scrolls and the runes, are dusty tomes and piles of clothes.

According to ChatGPT, I can install the rune since I'm trained in Crafting. At DC 20, my +9 will only waste the rune on a nat 1. It seems you need 100gp of materials to install it, though? Seems expensive. And 4 hours.

Mosquito grabs the Rune, places it in his pocket and begins exploring anywhere else in the shop.
Exploration mode Search

Wees needs ta find Dat sheriff. Tells Dem bout da Viz and let's Dem bees knowing Wees bout ta goes gets her.

The goblin then says
Unless Wees kin finds somebody Dat ken Craft Magical Runes fer Mees new magicks!

"Maybe Markus could do it, in fact, maybe we could take care of it here. It's not like we care if we're interrupted, and I think we can be pretty sure that Voz won't be back any time soon."

Looking around the bookstore, Mosquito can find nothing that catches his attention. All there seems to be are dusty tomes and parchment rolls.

Unfortunately, it seems I don't have the necessary feats for the rune.

Markus says "I agree, let's speak to Greta again. We're done here." He thinks he wants to claim the store for himself, but there are more pressing matters at the moment. He starts to move back to find Greta hoping the others will follow. Cranky climbs atop his head.

A disappointed goblin accompanies Markus to see the sheriff about an alchemist.

Greta greets you when you arrive at the Town hall, where most of the burnt parts have been demolished and removed, and a team of carpenters and masons are taking measurements to acquire and cut the material for rebuilding.

Markus tells Greta after proper introductions "We've been to Voz's store. It's been abandoned. It seems she left in a rush. In her store, we have found reasons to believe she might have went to Guardian's Way. It's an abandoned outpost that was used in the Goblinblood Wars. It seems Voz found a connection between that place and Altaerein citadel."

He sighs and says "I believe she's up to no good. Probably the next best step would be for us to go there also and find out what it is she's looking for. And in the process, figure out why she would wanted to commit arson to the town hall."

He finishes his speech satisfied.

"I believe you are right. Her actions are highly suspicions, and we still don’t know if Calmont is telling the truth, or covering up for her. You have gone above and beyond the councils expectations when we hired you to check on the Bumblebrashers, and I thank you. This situation clearly goes beyond what we had original suspected. Bring Voz in. Whether for an interrogation, a trial, or justice remains to be seen, but she must answer for her strange behaviour regarding all of this. We will gladly pay each of you 10 golden coins to bring her in.”

Greta wishes you good luck on your hunt for Voz, before turning to the guild-heads that will undertake the reconstruction of the hall.

Markus is surprised at the mention of a reward. Coming from a slave life in Kintargo, he was expected to go above and beyond, the only reward being to avoid the whip. He replies "Yes, of course."

He looks to the others and asks "Up for a road trip?"

Before leaving town, he goes see his sister and check in on her. He makes sure she takes care of herself and avoids talking about his work for the town. When he is sure she is calm and accepts the life he chose for himself, he looks for the others to tell them he's ready to leave.

Mosquito seems to be lost in his own thoughts...so he nods absently, begins mumbling barely heard prayers to Cayden Cailian and departs the office to wander about for a few hours communing with his deity....

Mosquito is having a moment of self-worth/doubt. He is concerned about the group and their future exploits....

Once his friends begin to gather about ready to hunt the wayward alchemist, the Cleric of Cayden Cailian seems relaxed and anxious to be about it....

The trip to Guardian's Way is a three hour trek due northwest of town. The path is dense with trees growing at the foot of the mountains, but the the remains of markers from the goblinblood wars still remain, guiding you through the woods.

You make it to the clearing at sunset, and you can see the outpost from the edge of the woods. Standing before you, there is a 30-feet high watchtower composed of two platforms, a smaller one at the top, and a larger one at the 20-feet mark. Behind it, there is a simple log cabin flanked by two more 10-feet high platforms. Defending the outpost on the other side, there is only the cliff side.

Each of the platforms has rope ladders hanging to the ground, and there are some figure moving on them.

"I think we should scout around some more until we catch a glipse of Voz; we could resolve all of this simply if she comes quietly."

Who would be scouting? And for how long? And what would everyone else do in that time?

I hope we can have a rested situation? I mean due to spell slots etc.

Markus says "I doubt Voz will show herself. She must be working to figure something out. Given how fast she left, I imagine she is on some sort of time pressure. Which means that so are we. I propose we try to circle it slowly to see if we see anything interesting. Like, get back here in one hour or so? Unless we find something to stop us."

He waits for the others to give their opinions on his plan.

"Brilliant Burnis requires no rest. Still, mages might. Scouting in circle seems sensible."

Yes, everyone is in a rested situation.

You find no sign of Voz as you scout the old outpost, which seems to be occupied by a band of half-orcs on high alert. During the hour you spent observing the outpost and their movements, they walk back and forth on their platforms without abandoning their posts.

On the highest platform of the central watchtower, you see a a rudimentaty bell set up right besides the sentry that stands there.

There are no other signs of activity besides those in the outpost.

I have added the map and marked two areas where you are safe to place your tokens.