ORCy Beginner Box (Inactive)

Game Master Luna C

Grolugh identifies the symbol as belonging to Abadar, god of commerce. Risk's detect magic does detect something. While the group tries to figure out what to do and how to manipulate the machinery, they see tiny shafts of light coming from the northern wall. Peering inside, the group sees a kobold standing watch.

The group does notice a lever protruding from the back of the machine. In this particular case, operating the machinery is a crafting check, not thievery or perception. Please do not try to guess which check to roll; I'll let you know what to roll when something is needed. I have said this several times now.

Well, you could have let us know from the outset it was a crafting check. That's why I made suggestions as to what I, the player, thought might be appropriate for the GM to secretly roll.

I will wait until you tell me when I may roll the Crafting check.

Sorry for the delay! Life is lifing. Anyone who wants may roll a Craft check to attempt to discern the nature of the machinery and potentially interact with it.

Crafting (T): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

craft: 1d20 ⇒ 15

hopefully enough with no bonuses lol

Ooof, first, the lever is protruding from the back of the chest, sorry!

Risk's able to discern through some true beginner's luck that this mechanism controls a hidden trap in a nearby room. It's not clear what the trap is or how it's triggered, though. It's currently in the disarmed state.

Does the group examine what's in the chest?

Tama curiously peers inside the chest...

and the chest opens its eyes and peers back at Tama lol

Risk stays a couple feet back and keeps his hands on his sword just incase

Awww, it's cute! Can we keep it, guys? Can we? XD

The chest is indeed a mimic and does

damage to the party.

Inside the chest, you find the following: a pile of coins (214 cp, 22 sp, 3 gp), a rolled-up piece of parchment which we'll identify when we have an arcane caster, and a small glass box. The box contains an emerald worth 20 gp.

Btw, I moved Grolugh to where I think we are...is the kobold on watch behind a door, or a wall?

Moved Tama and put Risk outside the door, if that is okay?

Much appreciated

No issues with moving folks to where they would logically be.

As the group rummages through the chest, they hear a quiet conversation among some unseen kobolds near the one spotted earlier. They mention "the boss's new pet" and "plans for the town above".

Anyone with the Arcana skill can try to identify the scroll.

know some magic (arcana): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

Risk takes a look at the scroll, thinking as a spell caster he may know about it. However it looks like the scroll is too far out of his depths. Shaking his head he says to the others "Sorry guys, I'm pretty handy with a sword and a tale but my magical knowledge has fallen behind. I'm not sure what this scroll does."

"Quite all right, Risk. We'll keep it safe," says Grolugh. "Say, let's go greet these kobolds."

No worries, my pedigree chum! Tama grins then nods in agreement, Yes, let us introduce ourselves!

Out of nowhere, Joli huffs and heaves to catch up!

Arcana (Trained) vs DC 15: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

"Apologies for being late. [Village Elder] sent me to lend a hand, I slept in and, well... I'm here now" she looks at the scrolls "Hard to read"

Before the party now stands a well-dressed orc in fine clothes carrying a large stick and with several odd weapons strapped neatly to her back and sides - including a hooked sword and lots of hooked fly-blades with rotational symmetry. She speaks with soft confidence and pauses here and there between sentences as if lost in thought.

To Tama and Grolugh "Just whom are we to meet?"

Glad you could join us! Great introductory post :) Please provide a token for the map (linked under my name here).

Now that the group is together, what do you do?

Just as a refresher, we turned the wheel and heard a click, right? There is just that door to go through North there?

I think it's either the north door or the barricade as our options

The group did not pull the lever on the chest. Risk is correct that the barricade is another option, or you could do something else entirely. What does the group do?

"Hullo, ah...didn't catch your name. I'm Grolugh, servant of the goddess Mazluden. And we were going to meet some kobolds, but it occurs to me that they are probably talking about something we might have espied past a barricade, back a ways."

"...you might have seen some dead kobolds and a dead spider along the way. That was us," he says, as an afterthought. "I suppose we could pull that lever, but seeing as how it might release something untoward, maybe we should investigate it further, or get a kobold to explain what's going on." He waggles vaguely in the direction of the lever and chest.

Jo? Izzat you? Tama squints in the dim light then says with a wink, Yeah, we made some kobold friends back there and are lookin' ta make more, eh?

High-fiving Tama, they do their secret handshake: clenched fingers bumped together three times, the third an 'explosion' accompanied by sounds of 'boom' and raising both arms and jumping backwards "Old times, yeah. I forgot about that" she turns to Grolugh "Servant of a goddess of trust and community? I think. Means your word is good. I can get down with that. You can call me Jo" she does a cool 'yolo' move busting out her bo staff.

Joli pulls the lever with it.

"Guess we'll see what comes of it. Kobolds, huh?" wrinkling her nose in thought.

"Ok, so no investigation..." Grolugh shrugs. "Mayhem may shake a few things loose."

He raises his shield in case Jo has unleashed a mimic or an acid spray cannon, or an acid-spraying mimic.

Risk laughs heartily as he pulls out his sword just in case"a little chaos always makes for a good story! Let's see what may come!"

The party hears a click as Joli pulls the lever. Nothing else appears to happen. The kobolds continue their idle chatter.

Presently the main options for advancement are opening the door to the north (directly north of Risk) or deconstructing the barricade. What does the party do?

As risk hears the click and nothing happens he sighs a bit "well that was a bit underwhelming. Shall we venture forth?" risk gestures to the door, perhaps a bit more exaggerated than necessary. "I'm personally one for doing the easy route so I say north. However should you all want to disassemble the barricade I will follow along."

Tama makes a quick look at the door before checking with his companions, placing his hand on the knob...

Perception check?

Grolugh nods at the knob-knocker knowingly, preparing for a knockdown.

Knob-knocker... Sounds dirty! XD

Tama places his hand on the doorknob. He perceives the door. It is a well-made door of wood with a smooth wooden doorknob.

There are no knobs to knock, but anyone can knock on the door if they prefer.

Any sounds on the other side of the door?

Tama faintly hears kobold voices, but only because he knows to listen for them given the clearer sounds through the hole in the wall in the chamber with the chest.

Softly to the others, Tama whispers, Burst in, or stealth? There are kobolds on the other side, but they could be the same ones from the barricade...

I can do Stealth, I'm not certain how well our friend Grolugh will do in his armor though Risk says looking at Grolugh's equipment

Grolugh shrugs and mimes beating a kobold with an invisible stick.

Joli opens the door!

”Look alive, gents. Time for a little action!”

Sorry, was just waiting for everyone to chime in, but that works for Joli's answer!

Shrugging with a grin, Tama moves in with his shield at the ready!

Grolugh also has his shield ready!

Joli takes the initiative and opens the door. It swings open with a creak, revealing a massive chamber inside--perhaps long ago some ancient monarch held court here. On the side furthest from the party, a broad set of stairs leads up to where said monarch might have had their throne. Pillars throughout the room support the ceiling, high even for orcs, with banners too tattered to discern still hanging from them. A decorative tile pattern in the middle of the room is still visible despite the grim coating on the floor.

Most importantly, however, three kobolds (the ones the party heard earlier) stand guard and shout as the door opens!

Kobolds initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Other kobold initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Joli initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Grolugh initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
Risk Zil initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Tama initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Grolugh and Joli may post their turns. Joli, if you could update your profile like the others to have things like your HP, AC, saves, perception, speed, hero points, and so on in the status line that's visible when you post, that would be quite helpful!

◆) Recall Knowledge
◆◆) ???

Not having many kobold friends, Joli wonders what threat they might pose…

There's two separate groups of kobolds here, to be clear. Since you can't see them where you are (in fact, because of the pillar and the wall, no one can!), and thus don't know specifically what kind of kobold you're fighting, I'll limit this to general knowledge. Once you see what you're fighting you can roll again. If you'd prefer to Stride then RK to get more information, let me know and we can go from there.

Joli knows a lot about kobolds, in fact! She recalls that they tend to be fond of traps and using clever tactics, and are known in particular for moving quickly about the battlefield in ways that stymie their opponents. That said, they tend not to be very tough or tenacious.

Mechanically, this means their Fortitude and Will saves are weakest.

◆) Recall Knowledge
◆) Stride
◆) ??

Carefully advancing into the room, Joli cautions "Booby traps may be about - vigilance!"

Joli moves into the room and sees two different kinds of kobolds, two wielding spears (three each). A third, toward the back of the room, wears a necklace of eggshells and is busy handling some kind of device. She has a shortsword at her hip and some spears on her back. The kobolds haven't acted yet, but their gazes lock on Joli as she enters the room.

Good thing you cast light, otherwise you'd be groping in the dark!

◆) Recall Knowledge
◆) Stride
◆) Observe

Joli looks for winches, cables, pulleys, snap blocks, and other mechanical parts that might feasibly connect to the lever she pulled in the other room by the chest.

How might whatever trap the the eggshell necklace wearing kobold have her mits on actually work?

Well then. Joli knows everything, evidently.

As Joli examines the environment, she sees something particularly insidious: the western wall has several holes (one for each long row of blue squares on the map) whence it appears the mechanism will shoot something nasty at whoever steps on the floor tiles. It's possible to disable this trap with a Thievery check, either by manipulating the floor tiles or the holes in the wall.

This concludes Joli's turn, unless she has a free action--I imagine you'll warn the rest of the group, but feel free to make an IC post to that effect.

Joli - the "smart" monk - points to the area where there is access to the controlling mechanism.

"Disassemble it there" she warns her party "Careful there and there"

GM - where exactly on the map? Could you mark the trigger areas? Can we jump over them?

It's the three rows of grey/blue tiles directly north of Joli. I have put red squares on the map to indicate the corners of the SquareRectangle of Suffering. If anyone has trouble making out where the Danger Zone is, please let me know. You can try to jump over them, but as your speed is 25 feet, you don't quite have the movement to clear them--it'd need an Athletics check for a Long Jump.