PbP GameDay IV: PFS #6–97: Siege of Serpents - Tier 1-2 (Inactive)

Game Master Magabeus

Girzog listens at #2

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Unless he hears something dangerous, he simply opens the door without knocking

The doors to room 1 and 2 open easily. Room 1 is a well decorated suite, while room 2 is more cosy. Room 1 is obviously in use while room 2 is ready to be used. Both contain a bed, nightstand, a chest for personal belongings and a mirror. Room 1 also has a table, some chairs and a cupboard that only contains some clothes.

"What, may I ask, are you doing Inspector?"

"Testing hypotheses, my dear Elf. If the door is hidden in 'plain' sight, it must be viewable using some other sight, or detectable without sight."

"Can anyone here detect invisible objects?"

"No, but we could try right?"
Thomas says with excited eyes.

Perception, inconsistencies anywhere?: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

Thomas would even knock the walls, to see what sounds as wood/door.

Most i can do is detect magic, I can give that a shot if need be Kryas sighs

"I suppose if there is an invisible door, Kryas, there's a good chance of it being magical."

I'll move to room 3 and check again

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

and open the door again.

If nothing is found, Girzog will simply open door 4 without checking (unless someone else takes that room, then he'll go to the large room on the opposite side of the room)

Kryas walks around the rooms scanning around with Detect Magic

"If this room opens to alternate realities within itself, perhaps going into a room, shutting the door, and then exiting through that same door might bring us into a different area rather than our original setting. Therefore, our current setting, which is in plain sight, would be exactly where the room we're searching for is located," Balinor says, gesturing with his hands (greatsword held as always in his right hand as he's still on guard duty for the party).

All of Arliss Hall radiates moderate magic when studied with detect magic, but the door to room 8 radiates strong conjuration magic.

Rooms 3 and 4 are similar rooms to 2. The rooms at the other corridor mirror the left corridor. All contain a full-length mirror, bed, nightstand and a chest for personal belongings.

Thomas is knocking on the panels and detects a secret door between room 7 and 8.

You might want to reread my two introductory posts, they contain hints that you have not acted on yet. You are on the good path!

*Knocks...*knocks*...*eureka!*

"A-HAH!", Thomas lets out excited. "Found something."

Thomas tries to feel where the doorknob is, if it opens, he opens it the stealthy way. (Like a shield)

If not, he'll have to focus and see if it needs some lock picking.
Take 10 for 20 on disable device.
Or 20 for 30, if it's no problem.

Ok, i wonder if this is that room 8a, which was not to be disturbed.

Thomas opens the secret door and is standing in a completely identical room to room 7. He opens the door to the hallway and finds his companions there.

Entering room 8 again he sees the open secret door to room 7.

"Hmmm... the Master of Scrolls said the mirror should be in the room, but we'd need to work together to find what we need. Is it possible we all need to enter the secret room, leaving the main hall empty? Or maybe, this "version" of the hall doesn't even contain the mirror."

Girzog begins talking to the empty hall around him

"Sir, I don't know if you can hear me, since we heard you before. Is the mirror accessible from all iterations of the hall? Could it be that we need to find a way to either enter your iteration, or bring you to ours, before finding the mirror is even possible? Is there any more assistance you can give us at all?"

"The rooms all have full-length mirrors in them. Shaine said that we needed to find two full-length mirrors but that the trick was that only one of them was inside Arliss Hall. Perhaps we gather the mirrors and try placing them on one side or the other of the door to room 8?"

The mirrors are all secured very well to the walls and can not be moved.

You notice that room 8 has a key on the inside of the door while the others don't have that. You also think about what was written in the ledger “Arliss Hall values your privacy. Simply lock your door and we will see to it that you are not disturbed.”

You need to step through the mirror in room 8, but there is a procedure to activate it... Simply locking the door from the inside and stepping through does not do it. Remember the teamwork that is required according to Shane. And why would that secret door be there? Is it to get into the room or out?

I'm personally just really terrible at figuring out these sorts of things.

I will give you the solution this evening (CET), it would be a shame if the only thing you did in Act 4 was trying to solve this puzzle

I get that one door is different from the rest, so obviously that's the one we need to focus on.

Obviously the secret door is room 8a.

I don't know what else we can do that's teamwork related. It sounds like only one of us can go through the mirror at a time.

Kreighton Shaine has to be the last person to go through the mirror, or be there to let us all go through it.

I don't get why there's a key in the handle on the inside. Is there a way to lock the door from the outside?

Forget Shaine and the secret door, focus on the normal door and "Arliss Hall values your privacy, Simply lock your door and we will see to it that you are not disturbed". Remember that privacy points to just one person.

There is a keyhole on the outside of the door but no key. You can't remove the key from the lock on the inside.

"Perhaps if we were to all enter room 8, lock the door, then stand where we are all reflected in the mirror and exit through the secret door that would fulfill all of necessary components for the riddle?" Balinor suggests.

What if we enter one at a time somehow

"Hang on, I have an idea. Balinor, I will go inside and lock the door. Wait 10 seconds and try to enter the room and do the same."

Girzog then goes and locks himself in the room.

"Perhaps we should break the other mirrors?"

Noticing the surprised looks on his colleagues' faces, the Inspector stammers.

"I... I'm sure the Society could repair them. There's a broken tower floating above our heads, after all. A few cracked mirrors can't be that troubling."

The type of magic they have could cause issues if broken Inspector. With magic, larger doesn't always mean more dangerous. Especially with mirrors

"Yea... um... let's try to avoid wrecking property as long as we can. I haven't been in the Society for long, I'd like to stay."

Girzog enters the room, closes the door and turns the key.

The remaining Pathfinders can clearly hear the door being locked. After some ten seconds Balinor tries the door and opens it easily. Inside the room there is no Girzog...

Balinor quickly checks the room and does not find the Tengu. Trying the mirror he notices that his hand easily passes through! This must be the way to the floating tower!

Meanwhile Girzog is waiting in the room, hearing absolutely nothing from the hallway.

I came to check specifically thinking "He didn't post the solution, that must mean one of us got it! The question is, will Balinor not find me inside, or do we need to go Rambo all over the mirrors..."

Expecting to hear minor chatter outside, and having waiting long enough that Balinor should have arrived in the room, Girzog tries to go through the mirror. If this still doesn't work, he opens the door to see if something has happened.

Rilia walks around to the secret door and opens it, expecting to find the tengu.

**********************
Overseer Announcement
**********************

The floating tower begins to shift, tilting slightly to one side. A shower of debris rains down on the lawn and buildings below.

Rilia slams the secret door shut again, not even bothering to see if Grizog is inside, distracted by the ruckus outside.

Did I do that?

Oh sh... this had better work!

Girzog thinks to himself as he tries to get out of the room!

Kryas follows suit like everyone else walking into the room and shutting it and locking it.

Was I too subtle?

Eventually you figure out the solution and enter the mirror, entering a room in the tower. The southeast corner of this room has broken off along with part of the floor. Rubble, loose bricks, and masonry litter the edges. Beyond the opening, blue sky and the Absalom’s city skyline are plainly visible. A solitary door is closed to the south and a fulllength mirror is bolted to northwest wall.

will upload map in an hour from now

Okay, opening and entering through a locked door was something that would never have occurred to me. Track record in over 3 years of doing PFS riddles: 0.

Ooo! Another door!

The Inspector leans over Thomas to examine the door in front of them for traps.

Perception vs. Traps: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

"You expect more trouble, Pendergast-san?
There's not been a sudden demon popping through, after all."

Or some stuffed terrasque left behind, for that matter.

Ooo! Another door!

The Inspector leans over Thomas to examine the door in front of them for traps.

"Given our luck with doors perhaps it might be prudent to have some of us climb to the other side of this wall the one she's up against through the opening?"

You move out of the room and search this floor of the tower and find nothing of immediate interest. Finding the stairs to the higher floor you move up, Girzog in front and Balinor immediately behind.

The top floor of the tower is an open space, undivided by interior walls but for the small space partitioning the stairwell. Windows large enough to step through line the exterior walls. Immense magical circles are permanently etched into the floor, their lines and curves inscribed and filled with several types of metallic powder. Faint, multi-colored mist roils within the southern circle.

Two strange contraptions stand near the northwest and southwest windows. Each device is a large, red-tinted crystalline lens mounted in a frame so that they may be angled in all directions. With each device you see an unknown human, while a halforc is standing near the northern circle. You just see him tuck an item into a pouch. You can clearly see an aspis sigil on each person's shoulder. It is also clear that you managed to surprise them!

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Initiative - Surprise Round
Movement West is considered across difficult terrain, due to the tilt of the tower. Succeed at a DC10 Acrobatics to ignore this.
Thomas
Balinor
Girzog
Inspector
Kryas Azrin
Rilia
- - -
Full Round
Gold
- - -
Thomas
- - -
Green
- - -
Balinor
- - -
Red
- - -
Girzog
Inspector
Kryas Azrin
Rilia
- - -

The Inspector drinks his last extract of Shield as his surprise action.

(AC is now 21 for two minutes)

Thomas draws his shortbow.

Knowledge Arcana to identify the contraptions and Knowledge Planes to identify the colors

Balinor takes a 5 ft step towards (red) and swings.

Greatsword: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Damage: 2d6 + 9 ⇒ (2, 6) + 9 = 17

Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (7) + 8 + (5) = 20
Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (19) + 8 + (4) = 31

Girzog heads north towards one the Aspis, slower than usual due to the tilt of the wreckage.

Knowledge(Arcana): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12
Knowledge(Planes): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

Both capped at 10 untrained

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9 The colors are pretty.
She would have had her rapier out coming up the stair.
Takes 10 on acrobatics for 11 (DEX +2, ACP -1) to move.

We should spread out. There's some powerful magic in this room and that means a powerful caster.

"You there! Yield!"

Takes 10 on acrobatics for 11 (DEX +2, ACP -1) to move.

Can't Take 10 during combat, unfortunately.

Rilia, I consider entering initiative as being distracted = take 10 not allowed. For ease of play I assume you did roll 9+ ;-)
Edit: Ninja'ed by the inspector

The contraptions are skylances, you remember that they were installed here after being recovered from a Shory ruin. When a creature casts scorching ray while adjacent to a skylance, the spell’s range increases to long (400 ft. plus 40 ft./level). A creature adjacent to a skylance can also spontaneously convert any spell with the fire descriptor and that is 2nd-level or higher into scorching ray. Finally, once per day a creature can use the skylance to fire a single scorching ray that deals 2d6 fire damage without any spellcasting required.

The creature in the circle is an unknown, but very powerful chaotic outsider classified as a protean. The Inspector immediately sees that it is angry at being held in a restricting circle and has taken the form of this mist to probe at the defenses put up to hold it there. Crossing that circle would be a bad idea as it would likely use the opportunity to vent its anger.
Although the mist is not likely to hurt anyone it would manifest some limbs to grapple and then constrict anyone unfortunate enough to enter the circle. There is electricity crackling around the creature and the Inspector guesses there is a link to that element.

Balinor takes a mighty swing at the aspis agent in front of him, almost killing the evil infiltrator. The others prepare for the battle that is beginning.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5

The northern aspis agent does not seem to be affected by the tilt of the tower and steps to the side. She then uses the skylance to fire a ray of fire at Girzog, scorching the Tengu.

Initiative
Movement West is considered across difficult terrain, due to the tilt of the tower. Succeed at a DC10 Acrobatics to ignore this.
Thomas
- - -
Green
- - -
Balinor
- - -
Red - 17 damage
- - -
Girzog - 5 damage
Inspector
Kryas Azrin
Rilia
- - -
Gold
- - -

Thomas moves west, to get a shot at red's flank.

Shot, vs FF, into melee: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (6) + 5 - 4 = 7Dmg, SA: 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + (2) = 3
Crap... :)

Thomas misses with his shot

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 6) = 9

The southern aspis agent steps around the skylance to avoid Rilia and then activates the ray against the elven bard. Rilia takes the full blast and immediately goes down.

Initiative
Movement West is considered across difficult terrain, due to the tilt of the tower. Succeed at a DC10 Acrobatics to ignore this.
Balinor
- - -
Red - 17 damage
- - -
Girzog - 5 damage
Inspector
Kryas Azrin
Rilia - 9 damage, dying
- - -
Gold
- - -
Thomas
- - -
Green
- - -

Well... that was an interesting start. Now I just have to make an Acrobatics check to full attack. Barbarians are known for being limber and acrobatic... right?

The Inspector blinks, shocked by what just happened.

"The frail ELF? You Aspis have no tact."

He draws out a bright red flask of Artokus's Fire and 5 foot steps closer to the agent that just dropped Rilia.

Can someone move me 1 square down?

"Two can play this game. The difference is, I crafted this myself."

Burn my last 2 Inspiration for +1d6 attack.

Ranged Touch, Inspiration: 1d20 + 4 + 1d6 ⇒ (11) + 4 + (3) = 18
Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) = 8

Constitution check: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (8) - 1 = 7