PFS PbP Game Day IV: DM Carbide's Thornkeep Level 1 (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Roll-off: 1d20 ⇒ 20

The shadow goes first.

Simon's up directly after Muusa, and I can't imagine her actions will change Simon's. So...

”SH!T!” yells Simon as he turns to see their otherworldly attacker. But he wastes no time, punching his fist towards it as he shouts.

”તેનો નાશ”

The dragon tattoos coiled around his thin wrist respond by flaring to arcane life. They roar as they launch themselves from his outstretched fist to spiral through the air and slam unerringly into the shadowy creature.

”I’m beginning to see why no one has returned from this place,” he grunts as he falls back, trying to make room for the team to maneuver.

Cast Magic Missile (not the wand)
Magic Missile: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 4) + 2 = 10
.
Then fall back behind Kerastes (map updated).

And this encounter, in particular, was the motivation for this post.

And here I thought it was his sparkling personality. But I did wonder about that once our shadowy friend appeared. Hopefully Simon's up to the challenge.

EDIT: and sorry suggesting you go at the back, Aeilín. I swear I'm not trying to get you killed. :/

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

"Fall back behind me!" Kerastes shouts "You can't hurt it with normal weapons, I can make my weapon magical!"

EDIT: and sorry suggesting you go at the back, Aeilín. I swear I'm not trying to get you killed. :/

Sure, sure...

Weakened, with no magical options to speak of, Aeilín shuffles back toward Kerastes. Shield held before her, she hopes the extra armor offers some protection against the ghastly spectre.
5' Step back

Was there a save roll for the negative level, or do I automatically get it, and take a save roll every day?

No save against the initial level drain*. If you make your save at 24 hours, the negative level is gone, but if you fail your save it becomes permanent and you get no further saves.

*Which still causes a certain amount of wtf?! when you consider that Thornkeep level 1 could have a party of 0 xp characters go through it; having a monster that's basically tag-you're-dead for L1 characters is kind of harsh.

Wow, busy morning!

Surprise Round

Kn Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Concentration: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Touch Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 13

Muusa whirls and touches the undead thing with Chill Touch. "I don't know what it is!" she calls out.

If it hits...
Panic rounds: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Round 1

Muusa moves behind Kerastes and draws her spear again.

Muusa is unable to touch the elusive shadow creature.

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Simon-acted
Aeilin-retreated
Kerastes
Shadow
Nectanebo
Muusa

Kerastes is up!

Shadow: AC 15 T 15 FF 12 -10 HP

"On the other side of me Aeilín!"

In his native tongue Kerastes says something causing everyone to feel more nimble

"Vennligst hjelp meg å spare mine andre veivisere"

Everyone gets +2 deflection bonus AC (and that is also on your touch AC)

"Simon, can you do that again?"

"It's an undead shadow. Don't let it touch you; it's like want incarnate. It will drain you until you have nothing left...and then you will become one."

Lacking any weapon against it save his knowledge, Nectanebo does his best to simply evade it.

I take a total defense action.

Round 2 (rearranged; ongoing):

Initiative order
Shadow-acted
Nectanebo-acted
Muusa
Simon-
Aeilin-
Kerastes-

Before Nectanebo can react, the shadow drifts up and touches him. A chill passes through the occultist's body, and he feels slightly weaker. 1 point STR damage. You lucky dog.

Everyone can act!

"Simon, can you do that again?"

"Hells yah I can!" the young mage responds with a cocky half-grin-half-grimace. He punches toward the shade-monster a second time, shouting and lighting up the gloomy hallway with another pair of roaring tattoo energy dragons.

Cast another Magic Missile at it.
Magic Missile: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 4) + 2 = 10

Simon's missiles tear through the fabric of the shadow. Most of the tattered shreds of it fray away. The core of the creature collapses in on itself into a small dark blue sphere, though, which falls to the floor with a click.

Out of combat!

The stone appears to be a piece of lapis lazuli worth 50 gp. Anticipating the next question, there is nothing of magic about it.

"BA-HA!" Simon shouts with an excited, jumping fist-thrust of exultation. "Boo-yah! Suck it, shadow-monster!"

Then the teenager proceeds to do a series of comically exaggerated dance moves that end with an arm-flex/pelvic thrust maneuver. When it winds down, he grins at the team. "Any fight you walk away from, right?" His eyes are drawn curiously to the blue sphere. "So what was that thing?"

"Well done youngster!" Kerastes says to the dancing and prancing human.

"It was a shadow, and it will probably reform in a couple of days. Nothing we can do about it except warn everyone to stay out of the building. Now let's move on so we can use Abadar's protective cloak over us to the best effect"

Kintampo checks the next door for traps, does not find anything and opens the door.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

You find yourself on a balcony overlooking a familiar room. There are two dead goblins here; in the center of the NW wall you see a door, currently closed, and in the center of the SW wall you see an opening. Through the opening you can see stairs leading down.

"Door or stairs? I don't care either way"

A reminder that the goblin fled southwest, if that helps you make a decision.

"On second thoughts, that goblin went south-west, so let's explore down those stairs first."

thanks

Simon looks down from the position that the goblin archers ambushed them, then considers their options. He nods to Kerastes, "Works for me. Though in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm nearly out of juice. I have a few wands and scrolls, but really only enough of my own power for about one good incantation."

He looks over at the drained Aeilín and Nectanebo. "We should begin thinking about when the best time to rest may be. Running into another serious fight at our current capacity may be dangerous. At the very least we should be willing to fall back if things get hairy."

"You are right, we should discuss our status. I am in favor of carrying on as we shouldn't give whatever the goblin has run to more time to prepare. But if the others want to rest that is fine with me."

The stairs descend to a landing, then double back and continue down before leveling off at a narrow hallway. A framework of old timbers shores up the ceiling, which is cracked and uneven. From further down the hallway you hear the sound of falling water. The presence of the goblin corpse in the middle of the hall under a large stone block, however, draws the party's immediate attention.

"Agreed," Says Nectanebo as he picks up the lapis with a trembling hand. "I can now say I've felt the touch of oblivion itself...and got off rather easy, I think. I think I'd still like to find some treasure hoard or something to set this evening's reverie to."

"Perhaps we can find that goblin and then rest," says Muusa in agreement. "I have more spells, but Simon has been very useful and we all need to be in good standing to continue."

"A night's rest may shake that off," says the shaman to Nectanebo with a helpful smile.

The goblin under the rock, incidentally, seems to have been there for a couple of days, and any accessible gear on it is gone.

Muusa listens, and looks at the goblin to determine what happened to it.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22

Heal: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

From where Muusa is, it looks as though a block from the ceiling (rather like the ones that are held up with shaky timbers...hmmm) fell down on the goblin and killed it instantly. The shaman can see a gap above the goblin where the stone seems to have fallen from.

"I do not like the look of this, are we agreed that we will continue?" the oread says while thoroughly checking the area for traps.

Take 20 for 28 perception

"I'm no mason," Simon says with a look from the crushed goblin up to the crumbling ceiling. "but that doesn't look safe to me, either. Still," he says with a shrug, "the goblin came this way, so presumably it's safe. Unless like Kerastes said ... it's a trap."

I can't beat Kerastes's Perception total there, so if he doesn't see anything telling, then I'm for continuing carefully forward.

Kerastes, the timbers look pretty unsteady--as though there's a fair chance that even walking near them will bring down a chunk of ceiling if you're not very careful.

In game terms, every one of you has a 25% chance of triggering a local collapse just walking; running or fighting doubles that. It's a DC 10 Acrobatics check to pass with no chance of bringing down part of the ceiling. A DC 20 Disable Device check will allow you to shore things up so that they won't collapse for a while.

"Did anyone talk about kobolds down here? So much for goblin engineering," says Muusa.

Can we take 10 on that Acrobatics check?

How wide is the area we have to traverse before we are safe again?

"Very unstable here, we should be careful. I hope I will be able to avoid a collapse, maybe the more nimble should go first"

"I can give everyone a slight boost thanks to the spirits," says Muusa thoughtfully. "I can go last."

Guidance, in other words. It's something!

Maybe fifty or sixty feet, tops. Yes, you can take 10 on the check, although you'll be moving at half speed. (This is much worse if you hit it while you're running away from a shadow.)

"I don't think Abadar will approve of that, he likes to be the one who help his servants. In his vision it could lead to conflict of interests"

Thanks, I have my own guidance, and unfortunately they don't stack... at exactly -1 after dex, armor check penalty and guidance...

Luckily, guidance and my Dexterity bonus will perfectly counteract my armor check penalty and allow me to take 10 for exactly 10.

Take off the armor and air it out, Kerastes! :D

Up to Kerastes. It sounds like all of the rest of you can make it taking 10 on your Acrobatics checks.

"I don't like to be without my armor, I will take my chances"

Acrobatics, guidance: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15

Kerastes manages to slip down the passage without disturbing anything.

Next room forthcoming, as soon as I can get the map set up.

Muusa tiptoes through the room. "Well done, Kerastes," she says.

Boy, lots of site outages lately.

Acrobatics, neg level, guidance: 1d20 - 4 - 1 + 1 ⇒ (12) - 4 - 1 + 1 = 8

>25% (?): 1d100 ⇒ 98

Aeilín shuffles across the timbers. Her breath catches as the wood creaks, and dust rains down on her head... finally across the gap, she breathes a sigh of relief.

You cross through the most unstable area with no more than a few scares.

Rounding a corner, you can see that the passage widens into a larger chamber ahead of you. It looks like a natural cavern, with small yellow crystals reflecting your torchlight from the walls. A level flagstone path clings to the western wall, but most of the room is an open pit some thirty feet deep. Uneven columns of rock jut from the chamber's depths, matching the height of the flagstone floor to the north and the south. Water drips down from the roof of the cave, pooling at the base of the columns. There's an exit to the north; next to the exit is a rickety ladder, along with torches on the floor and a small open-topped barrel. From your position you can't see what's inside the barrel (if anything).

"Who wants to bet that the barrel is full of food for the monster in the pit," says Muusa in a whisper.

"Or worse, it was full of food, but now it's empty," she adds.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19

"Let's check it" Kerastes says while moving forward, carefully along the sides of the pit. He first peers down to see what is in it.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

You can't actually get across on the side of the pit--the intact parts of the original floor are on the other side.

"Who had a rope? Seems we need to descend down that pit to get to the other side"

Or jump from column to column with your stellar Acrobatics checks -_-.

ETA: If you don't have any rope with you, there were some coiled ropes on the balcony behind you--they were apparently there so the goblins could get up and down easily when there weren't any homicidal adventurers in the vicinity.