Into the Footsteps of ULTRA PLUS Horror (Quest 15) (Inactive)

Game Master Will Huston

Surprised to end up in melee after all, Mia improvises a poem:

"In the dungeon, dark and deep,
They were surprised by foes strange,
Blows taken, their lines broken,
They started the desperate fight!"

Then she weaves a spell, and touches her sword.

◆ Courageous Anthem (+1 hit / +1 damage for allies)
◆◆ Runic Weapon on bastard sword

The creature just stares quizzically at Blackfeather Jack's glare. The fire's light is muted by the gloom of the Netherworld. However one of Jack's crows punctures the creature, and it falls.

The one who danced away before rushes forward and attempts to stab Gella again.

Blue Dagger vs Gella off-guard AC: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28
Piercing Damage Sneak Attack: 1d4 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 + 2 = 5

It attempts to sweep its knife into Zdenek!

Dagger vs Zdenek AC, MAP: 1d20 + 10 - 4 ⇒ (7) + 10 - 4 = 13

But Zdenek leans out of the way and it passes harmlessly through the air.

Round 2
Blue Stalker (-10)
Br'eak
Zdenek (-5)
Orange Stalker
Gella (-11)
Green Stalker (-10)
Tirx (-14)
Purple Stalker
Blackfeather Jack
Mia

2 actionsBr'eak casts the ignition spell as a melee attack that target the Purple Stalker beside him.
1 actionRecall Knowledge on those individuals.

Br'eak Ignition (Melee); Fire Damage: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 272d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8

The lizardfolk steps to strike the orange one.

Claw, Courageous anthem: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 7 + 1 = 19 vs off guard

Damage, Piercing: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 1 = 8

If the orange falls he then strike the purple one Otherwise he continues on the orange

Claw, Courageous anthem: 1d20 + 7 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 1 - 4 = 5 vs off guard

Damage, Piercing: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 1 = 7

Okay, I really do apologize. It looks like at one point, I must have been looking at the high tier stats for these creatures when I was checking their HP. It only mattered for Red who should have gone down after Tirx's critical. The easiest way I see for this is, retcon that Blackfeather Jack's blast was against the next closest creature, Green. Likewise, Mia, if you want to retcon the spell you used since you might have thought they were significantly beefier than they actually are, I am okay with that.

Br'eak lights one of the creatures on fire, and it screams in pain. Br'eak recognizes them as Caligni, but shouldn't they be exploding after dying? It doesn't seem to explode as the creature falls.

Zdenek valiantly and confidently slashes into one of these creatures and it collapses.

Round 2
Blue Stalker (-10)
Br'eak
Zdenek (-5)
Gella (-11)
Green Stalker (-13)
Tirx (-14)
Blackfeather Jack
Mia

Gella grins at the two creatures flanking her, she looks rather manic.

Right boys, I have you right where I want you!

She lases out with her flickmace once, then twice, then bashes with her shield before making a third flickmace attack.

◆ Strike Blue
◆ Quick Reversal, flickmace green, shield blue
◆ Strike whoever is left

Flickmace, Blue: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26, may be a crit?
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (6, 3) + 4 = 13

Flickmace, Green: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (8) + 13 - 5 = 16
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 4) + 4 = 12

Shield, Blue: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (8) + 13 - 5 = 16
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (5, 4) + 4 = 13

Flickmace: 1d20 + 13 - 10 ⇒ (16) + 13 - 10 = 19
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (4, 5) + 4 = 13

A critical hit forces the target to make a DC20 reflex save or be knocked prone.

The fighter takes care of the two remaining creatures, neither of them exploding either. The party waits a beat, and it does not appear more of these creatures are on their way. The combat, for now, has ended.

The lizardfolk pulls out his healer's toolkit and begins to treat his wound.

Medicine: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Healing: 2d8 ⇒ (2, 7) = 9

And pointing to Gella and Tirx: These two need more treatment.

And he gets his whip.

Gella rolls her shoulders and examines her wounds. Well, that wasn't so tough. Bit of a nice workout. Anyone know what these things are or how they came to be here?

She takes out her healing kit and sets to work with her bandages on Trix.

Medicine, DC15: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19, pass
Healing: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 7) = 13

As she finishes up with him she taps her wayfinder and the shiny white stone inside. That's me mostly fixed up too, handy things these pearly white stones. Anyone spot anything interesting while I was busy?

Trix is down 1HP which I think we can probably live with. I recover 10HP from the aeon stone while treating Trix, I have 1 damage left which will go away in a minute.

The fire in Jack’s head dwindles and goes out, as the crows crumble to ash.

”So that was exciting!”, he says. ”Everyone’s being tended to, good. Now, let’s see about those rubbings”

He looks at the walls in the immediate area for any significant carvings.

Br'eak inspects the scene to find any clues left by those foes.

There are no carvings, and these strange stalkers leave behind very little of interest. There are six daggers, of fine make, left behind, if you like. The mural must be further in the dungeon.

The next room is filled with debris, and broken things. It appears that the damage was done both magically and with more convention weaponry. Gella spots almost immediately an old book hidden beneath a broken table. It is written in crisp Common, but with somewhat archaic sayings and grammar.

Most of the pages of the book have been torn out, but the first few remain. The book is the personal journal of Alystair Caskwater, a self styled warrior and monster hunter. It appears that Caskwater had a plan to travel to the Netherworld, to take on a mage native to that shadowy world. The mage was suspected of trying to weaken the border between the planes and attacking some rich patron on the Island of Kortos.

The Lizardfolk has a look to the book.

Pathfinder Lore: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Well let's hope he didn't get the mage to our world.

Society: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

"Based on this archaic language and the decay of the book, this book is at least several hundred years old," Br'eak says.

So this Caskwater is dead from a long time now.

Gella picks up the book, Oh look, a book, yay, more research. Hey, most of the pages are missing, that's a relief, I mean, very unfortunate, yes, most unfortunate. Anyone ever heard of this Caskwater bloke?

PFS Lore: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

The goblin looks at the book.

PFS Lore:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"That was a nice recovery, even if our lines didn't hold", Mia comments the fight.

PFS Lore: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

She looks at the documents. "Well, it's not from my homeland, so haven't heard of him. But let me document this", she says, and takes out her pen, and a scroll of paper, then starts writing down their findings.

"That was a nice recovery, even if our lines didn't hold", Mia comments the fight.

Gella gives a slightly embarrassed shrug, Yeah, sorry about that, there were too many of them and they were pretty quick but you all held up well. Proud of you! she says, giving a little fist bump to everyone.

Mia Efimerida wrote:

"That was a nice recovery, even if our lines didn't hold", Mia comments the fight.

Gella gives a slightly embarrassed shrug, Yeah, sorry about that, there were too many of them and they were pretty quick but you all held up well. Proud of you! she says, giving a little fist bump to everyone.

Jack bumps her back, doing a little boom. The raven on his shoulder looks at him judgementally.

The lizardfolk takes care not to present his claw for the bump. It would be sad.

Mia returns the fist bump a bit clumsily, as if not so familiar with the gesture. "They say no plan survives a contact with an enemy."

She continues noting down the discoveries. "So, a monster hunter? Sounds nice, but I have already a thousand poems about monster hunting. Maybe if this Caskwater met some rarer ones?"

The name Caskwater has been seemingly lost to time. None of the assembled Pathfinders know the name. With little more than a few nodded heads, they press forward.

A hallway opens up to their left, leading to a room. The smell of rotting offal and blood fills this room. A spout of blood flows from the north wall into the pit below. The pit is half full, blood and offal making a viscous, stinking stew. A carving on the eastern wall depicts a giant figure raising a massive stone from the sea and an island with it. The carving also shows a reflection beneath that raised island of a shadowy land emerging as well, as if reflected in the sea, only the lack of the giant figure and the massive stone indicates this is more than a reflection being depicted. Is this the mural that the senior discovered?

As the party moves forward to investigate, Br'eak detects the presence of magic in the room

please note where you are and where you may move to for your next post on the map.

Ominous music starts up as Jack takes in the room ahead Cast musical accompaniment

”Well, I can see why they saw the carvings, but didn’t stick around for the rubbings”, he says.

Br'eak strides 15 feet south.

"I need to see the room. I am aware there is magic close by."

Gella pauses at the entrance of the room when the call of magic present is made. She hunkers down behind her shield, keeping a way eye out for things emerging from the pool of blood and filth.

Well, isn't this delightful. Any of you clever types know what sort of magic is going on here?

Gella remains in search mode but at the room entrance in case of emerging enemies.

The lizardfolk stays ready with his whip in hand in case something happens.

Magic, magic, it's quick said. What is it really?

Let’s see how this magic is.

"Smells horrible. It looks like a room from stories, just the kind that has some nasty traps. Keep an eye on anything strange", Mia says and carefully looks around as she walks to the edge of the pit, to see clearer what is down there.

Doing Search activity for this round, with perception +5. Move to the edge of the pit, closest square from current position if nothing prevents going there.

Jack follows Mia, but heads for the lower left corner of the room.

Mia notices that the blood and viscera is beginning to churn. Whatever is going is going to happen now. I'll need a religon, occultism or thievery check or suffer the consequences.

Occultism: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

Zdenek has a look from the entrance of the room.

If it is relevant

Br'eak observes from the back.

Occultism: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

The churning blood and offal begins to start to leech the life force out of the assembled Pathfinders but Br'eak breaks out an incantation that stops the hazard.

The smell from the pit begins to die down rather quickly, though Br'eak suspects that it will come back if the Pathfinders tarry too long here.

Religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Oh look. The mural depicts Aroden raising the isle of Kortos from the depths of the sea.

Vased on the observation of the mural that depicts Aroden. Br'eak puts his brain at work, and freeze at the tip of the knowledge.

Occultism: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

Occultism: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

"So if that one above is the real island, the one that looks like a reflection must be the shadow version of it. Shadow Kortos, with shadow Absalom", Mia deduces.

"These kind of things might come to life again a moment later, wasn't that what they taught us? I'll quickly write a description, can someone take a rubbing or draw it?" she says and scribbles a bunch of notes with respectable speed.

”Right-o!”, exclaims Jack. He quickly sets to transferring the relief onto paper.

Gella glances behind herself into the room, How are you big brains doing? Got want old mutton chops wants yet?

The group quickly makes rubbings of the shadow absalom. There is more to the complex to the south.

Do you go further in?

Lets check the rest of the place people, there might be other interesting things in here.

”Ooo, more rubbings!”, Jack says excitedly. ”It’s like I’m drawing them myself, without the talent!”

Let's move forward.

Let's go.

Mia stares at Gella, genuinely surprised. "That's the first time anyone calls me smart", she says. "Artistic, or brave maybe, but not that."

She holds her sword and bow in hand, considering a moment. "Maybe our lines will hold next time. I'll ready my bow." She nods at the team: "Get as much information as you can get. Onward".

"We can continue on this side. I will stand behind you as I don't need to see from the front of the line." Br'eak says.

The party moves deeper into the ruins, into a portion of unworked stone, a natural cavern. Signs of another battle fought long ago are in abundance: scorch marks cover walls made of uneven stone, slashes from blades and arrows scar the walls further in, preserved in this collapsed extraplanar demesne. The fighting here seems to have been much more intense than in the earlier chamber.

Gella finds another page of yellowed paper. This fragment details the same group as the journey, traveling across Shadow Kortos, hunting the dark mage. They tracked the mage to a shadowy reflection of Uromaz. The last entry shows their plan is to trap the mage by collapsing the citadel onto her, and return to the real Universe on the other side of the shadow.

Pressing forward, the party walks down a long corridor to a large chamber. The north wall of the chamber has an enormous stone mural, depicting a battle against a draconic foe. Depicted within the mural, a great many faces stand behind a singular individual, weapons raised as a dragon attacks. The hands raising weapons behind the hero are skeletal in nature, and their faces skulls. Stairs descend to the west, a sturdy door made of a black metal of some sort stands to the south.

The door to the south seems to be locked, if anyone tries it. So, the question is, do you go up the stairs, or try to unlock the door?

Jack takes in the mural. ”Everyone’s the hero in their own story”, he muses.

Getting to the door, he looks around at the others. ”Well I’m at a loss”, he says.

Positioning himself with his whip in hand the lizardfolk comments: Well don't let this door behind us.