"That does sound reasonable. I would head to the second floor next, to secure the house in addition to finding the focus", Alexandrios agrees.
The environment upstairs in the lodge is decidedly more chaotic, with shifting patterns in the carpet that change color; strange smells of the ocean, swamp, and desert wafting through the level; and odd noises of all
types ringing through the air.
The balcony is lined with eight closed doors.
Alexandrios collects various substances on the way upstairs. "This is good, that might work as a replacement. Oh, I wonder what this could do. I have to try..."
He gets behind the melee at the door. "Nothing more to prepare for me" he says.
The doors in the upstairs portion of the lodge are too heavy for you to open them from your current phase of reality. When you try to pass through a closed door, they appear in the hallway outside one of the other bedrooms doors. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to which door you appear outside of!
You do notice that the door in the far corner of the second story has a bronze plaque that reads "Venture Captain."
There must be some way you could get inside.
"Maybe we can build a simple device, we have strength to produce a little force, so if we put a lot of levers and such we can push the door open with a feather. Alexandrios starts his thought process of the challenge of a closed door.
Elena squeaks and points at Ma'elo, then downstairs.
When Griphook walks into the door of the Venture Captain's room, he appears outside the door on the other side of the balcony.
The students easily understand Ma'elo. Tels leads a group of them (Hari, Geltra, and Vim) to open the venture captain's door.
The area outside the door shows signs of what can only be called "extreme planar weirdness", so much so that the students comment on the bouncy carpets and moving wallpaper.
Once the door is open, you see a large bed covered in fine linens is the centerpiece of this well-furnished room, and a sturdy table surrounded by three chairs sits in its northeast corner. Several eye-catching curios rest on top of the room’s chest of draws, including a mirror with a gilded frame, a mother-of-pearl box holding talcum powder, and a polished lodestone more than a foot in diameter. Two lamps in wall sconces light the room and a thick carpet woven with a wayfinder pattern lays on the floor.
Looking at the room for long is disorienting: Shimmering images of the bed dance across the floor, loose papers float through the air in slow processions, and the walls ripple like a pond’s surface each time someone in the room takes a step. The pile of the carpet grows six inches deep in the course of a second, and then subsides back to normal.
Professor Thandmere Krelsun lies on the bed, unconscious. Both you and the students can see the professor--you can tell as the students gasp in recognitrion--as well as a ghostly, serpentine creature wrapped tightly around his body. Disturbingly, the creature’s head appears plunged into Krelsun’s temple.
The creature's long tail hangs down over the side of the bed. The end of its tail is entirely on the same phase as you, appearing to emerge from a “ripple” in reality. It sways back and forth in your general direction.
"Well that is curious, I think I read about similar things in the past, but I can't now remember what it was."
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"It looksh like whatever planar inshtability we are experienching, it musht be coming from here." Griphook explains further that this room is the center of the chaotic forces that have plagued this field trip. They also realize that they’ll be unable to interact with whatever is inside the room unless they enter the room themselves, due to these powerful reality-warping effects.
"And what ish that creature? Ish the profeshshor alright?"
When Ma'elo tries to grab the tail, it reacts violently, rearing back to swing at the Pathfinder.
The rogue is too fast, however, and get the jump on the tail!
~+~Combat Round 1~+~
Ma'elo
Tail
Griphook
Alexandros
Na'ilath
Ka'elen
Jackie
Ma'elo slices at the tail with shadowy daggers, scoring one good hit.
The tail lashes out at the rogue in retaliation.
for
It tries to wrap around him...but fails.
So it tries again, and just getts ahold of him.
~+~Combat Round 1~+~
Ma'elo (-9, Grabbed)
Tail (-10)
Griphook
Alexandros
Na'ilath
Ka'elen
Jackie
|
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"It is a bad tail!"
Griphook raises his composer staff to call upon his musical accompaniment!
◆◆ Musical Accompaniment (+1 status bonus to Performance checks)
He continues to flick it here and there as he encourages his allies with the music from the accompaniment with lingering effect.
w Virtuosic Performer & Musical Accompaniment (Crit Success, 4 rd of CA; Success, 3 rd of CoCA; Failure, 1 rd of CA, FP not spent)
◇ Lingering Composition
◆ Courageous Anthem
Alexandrios runs in behind Ma'elo.
"That looked bad! Here, take this, it should make you feel a bit better", he says, mixes a potion and administers it to Ma'elo.
◆
◆
◆
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"What do we need for the ritual again? Maybe we can leverage that to try to reset this kerfuffle."
As Na'ilath says this he moves to the opposite side of the creature from his brother and strikes while invoking magic.
◆ stride
◆◆ Spellstrike - Gouging Claw
(slashing+spirit and 2 persistent bleed from gauging claw. Add one additional spirit damage if off guard for shadow sheath)
The rest of the group rallies to attack the tail and help Ma'elo. Griphook's song lingers in the air, Alexandros heals, and Jackie and Na'ilath attack, both striking the tail.
Don't forget Courageous Anthem! (3/4)
~+~Combat Round 2~+~
Ma'elo (-4, Grabbed)
Tail (-36 [-9, -17, 10])
Griphook
Alexandros
Na'ilath
Ka'elen
Jackie
Ma'elo slips out of the tail's grasp, but misses his strikes at the creature.
The tail lashes out at Na'lath, who hit it the hardest!
for
for
While the magus dodges, the tail sways in his direction and he can feel a strange wave of sensation sweep over him.
On failure: You are Flat-footed and gain 1d6 temporary Hit Points for 1 round
Don't forget Courageous Anthem! (3/4)
~+~Combat Round 2~+~
Ma'elo (-4)
Tail (-36)
Griphook
Alexandros
Na'ilath
Ka'elen
Jackie
Griphook's needles fly across the room and nick the tail, then Jackie follows up with a powerful swing. The tail is looking pretty ragged!
Don't forget Courageous Anthem! (3/4)
~+~Combat Round 2~+~
Ma'elo (-4)
Tail (-54 [-8,-10,-36])
Griphook
Alexandros
Na'ilath
Ka'elen
Jackie
"Hmm, I don't want to burn you for nothing, but take another sip" Alexandrios offers, mixes a quick vial and applies it to Ma'elo.
◆
◆
◆
Luck is on Na'ilath's side! He gets in two strong swings with his spirit-charged hatchet, the second one sheers right through the end of the tail, which disappears through a tiny hole in reality with a *pop*!
The warping in reality continues, but now there is little to keep you from fixing it.
Your practiced coomunications guide the children toward the items the need to conduct the ritual: some water from the kitchen, a steel shield from the armory, and the lodestone in the Venture-Captain's office.
Carefully coordinated, the children chant "Narven." Each time they do, a disorienting shimmer wavers across the room and passes through the walls.
On the third repetition, the room shivers and seems to *click* into place.
"Hey, it's the Pathfinders!" Vim shouts, triumphantly. All of the children crowd around, talking at once about how brave they were and what a great field trip this has been.
The din rouses Professor Thranmere Krelson, who stirs uneasily on the bed: "Eh, what's that?" the old dwarf moans. "Why am I in bed? Oh, my aching head. Help me downstairs, please."
Upon returning to the main hall, you discover that the lodge’s staff have reappeared. Many of them are chatting with the students who stayed behind in the hall while you were dealing with the planar abnormality.
Venture-Captain Armeline Jirneau greets you warmly, "Oh, well done, both agents and students! We were able to observe you the whole time from the phase of reality that we were trapped in, but we couldn't do a thing to help you. Luckily, you showed excellent teamwork and initiative." She beams at Geltra, Hari, Tels, and Vim. When her gaze reaches Alec, her look turns more stern. An angelic look of innocence is fixed on the young man's face.
Thandmere abashedly explains that he had made a deal with a pelagastr protean to try to liven up his teaching, but realized that he had gotten more than he bargained for when reality fractured around Woodsedge Lodge. "I thought it would just spice things up a bit," the professor says, "But I realized things were out of hand when its magic overwhelmed me; the protean kept me unconscious so it could experience the chaos that it had caused."
Thandmere senses that beating back its tail and activating the Material Failsafe has shunted the creature back to the Maelstrom, and he doesn’t think it will be much of a problem in the future—returning to pester the Society wouldn’t be much of a new experience, after all.
After making sure everyone is safe, Armeline packs the group back off to Absalom so her staff can deal with the aftermath of the incident.
The Maze of the Open Road transports everyone safely. When you arrive back at the Grand Lodge, J greets you at the Maze's exit: "Well, how did the field trip go, Pathfinders? And, students: Is your assignment done?"asks you how the mission went and asks to check the students’ assignments.
"Hmm, I can see why that could be a good idea, it would be certainly useful to include some variations and unexpected events to some classes in school. Perhaps we could improve on that idea", Alexandrios starts to think about Thandmere's plan.
Elena pinches Alexandrios' ear to get his attention, then squeaks and points at her clawed feet, nose, and ears.
She finishes by shaking her index claw at Alexandrios and squeaking naggingly.
"Not every courageous experimentation in variable space goes bad!" Alexandrios tries to defend his position. "Like, like... give me a moment. I'll remember an example soon."
"Well, unusual experiences are why we chartered this trip. I would have taken you down to the Grand Bazaar again if we wanted something ordinary," the students groan a little bit. As wonderous as the Grand Bazaar is, they have been there many times.
"Our homework was completed, by the way!" Hari waves a neatly-printed page from her notes, practically in J's face.
"Well, that calls for a celebration. Official Academy party day on Fireday!" Students cheer as J congratulates them, "You're all invited, of course," J smiles at you.
Professor Krelson is also greatful. He presents you with an autographed copy of a Pathfinder Chronicle that deals with Pathfinder Society
expeditions in the Five Kings Mountains. (He tells you that he wrote a short appendix for it.)
Two days later, you also receive thank you gift baskets containing notes and small presents from the students. It includes freshly baked cookies!
You fulfilled your primary success conditions by resolving the situation with the Woodsedge Lodge, and your secondary success condition by helping the students finish their homework. Your little gifts constitute the bulk of the treasure bundles.