"A lock that needs picking you say?" Quink squints thinking. "I met someone who might specialize in what you are looking for. He's a bit of rough and tumble type, but maybe that's what you need, what?"
He sips his coffee, and dunks a biscuit into the brew before slowly chewing on it, and considering.
"Not familiar with a Brown Stone. At least not by that name. Why would a precious stone be brown? Have you heard of that before? Unusual to say the least. Let me look into a bit, eh?"
When introduced to Festus he shakes hands vigorously. Festus explains he is from Five Kings Mountain, and his familiarity with Grimbeard is from that association. "But the Grimbeard I recall was executed a hundred years ago or more..." says Festus with a shrug. "That tracks with what I know of him as well," says the sage. "Without any firsthand knowledge of course. I might be able to dig up a bit more about him in my library, if you have time for some research, that is."
Quink suggests you come by his home tomorrow at noon (and bring some tasty morsels along with) and then he might be able to have more info on Grimbeard, the Brown Stone, and possibly an acquaintance that could help with your lock problem.
When you mention the goblin attack, Quink visibly shivers. "My home is the next building over from those that were burned. If you hadn't stopped those little cretins, they might have burned my place, or worse. I am at your service as a means of thanking you for that. But why? Who can say why a goblin does anything? They are chaotic little creatures and generally act in mindless ways. There's no predicting."
Quink jumps a bit, startled as Neppka greets him with some enthusiasm. A bit of coffee adds the stains on his somewhat old fashioned robes. "My! Well good morning, what?" he says in reply trying to re-gather his wits.
"Grimbeard you say? A dwarf? Let me recollect..." he wipes his small spectacles on his robe, not really getting them clean as the gears of his memory start turning. "In fact, I do know that name. And so should you if you study your history. Grimbeard was a dwarven warlord, a rebel and a renegade some say. He led a revolt in the Five Kings Mountains about a century ago. Unsuccessful revolt, I should say, but it was a near run thing, as these things go. Why on earth do you ask, my good fellow?"
He smiles at Vako who pokes in from the side. "A brownstone? Like a building? I don't believe I know the reference, but am somewhat familiar with the architectural style, if that's what you are referencing."
There is no door to this room, but a pair of heavily laden bookshelves line the doorway, making the entrance a bit of squeeze to enter. Listening outside, M'Baba hears a faint buzzing sound coming from within the room, and looking inside, he can see a large mound of paper hanging which appears to be stuck to the ceiling. Other than that, its hard to tell from outside the room.
A loud farting sound echoes through the room at Buttercup's attempt to pass off junk as lucre. The smell that follows defies description...
The only other things you see easily visible in this room are the medical beds which are covered in blood and gore, and seem to be monitored by some semi-autonomous equipment. Nothing else is evident in this room.
I may have missed some healing catch up, but I show Alpha at 15/26, Bahir at 17/34, and Seoli at 22/30. Everyone else is full HP per my count. LMK if I have something wrong.
Prisoner Pits - Round 1
24 Blue Sinspawn
20 Ari
15 Isidiana
11 Grod
11 Red Sinspawn
10 Koruvus
10 Garen
9 Tot
5 Zombies
Blue Sinspawn races across the room working around any of the pit lids, and ends up in front of Garen, biting at the intruder with its horrible mouth parts. The attack misses.
Ari, Izzy, and Grod are up now.
Blue Bite vs Garen: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Welcome Printhello! You work with Father Zantus, but I am not sure our heroes have had much interaction with the priesthood so far. We will find a way to merge you into the game before they leave town on their next mission.
I will review your build/profile in some detail tomorrow and hit you up with any questions/concerns.
As Ari moves the light into the room, and Garen comes inside, a small deformed shape moves out of the hallway to the south, looking to engage the group in combat. It looks like a goblin at first, the size and general shape being right, but as it gets closer, you can see the thing has a third arm growing out of its mid back. Each arm carries a weapon: a silver dagger, a handaxe, and the last holds a longsword that glows with a faint red aura. A pair of the now-familiar sinspawn lurch right behind the malformed goblin, seemingly at his command.
"We will slay the intruders in your name mistress!" it slobbers in barely understandable Common speech.
Time to roll initiative. I will pick up any unrolled counts on tomorrow's post.
Map Room - Round 2 - continued
Courageous Anthem active - +1 to attack/dmg - 2 rounds lingering
25 Teela
23 Blue Mite
21 Red Mite
20 Scarlet Knight (+1 to AC)
18 Alvis (+1 to AC)
17 Grabbles and his mount
16 Faen (24/26hp remain, grabbed, poisoned, clumsy 1, +1 to AC)
14 Velas (24/28hp remain, +1 to AC)
9 Graham (26/30hp remain, +1 to AC)
9 Quintessa (+1 to AC)
7 Purple Mite
Alvis casts his benediction spell that fills the space around his allies with a protective ward that increases their defensive ability slightly.
Scarlet Knight is able to open his kinetic aura, and use the power to smash the Green Mite to death, improving the odds slightly.
The mite leader, Grabbles, moves his tick mount forward, and both attack Graham, who is nearest. Grabbles holds a long trident with barbed tines on the end built for rending flesh. But mercifully, both attacks miss.
Faen, Velas, Graham, and Quintessa are up now for the good guys. Faen needs another DC14 Fort or take the next stage of poison.
Grabbles Trident vs Graham: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Tick Mount hypostome vs Graham: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Back from being away for Christmas. Ready to jump back in.
Sorry for your loss Velas.
Myron's offer of a settlement seems to strike a chord with the tiny fey, who relax visibly. "Give us something shiny, and you may pass unmolested," says one of the creatures, as two more pop their heads out of the wall on the south side of the chamber. "And make it good!" adds one of the others.
Bahir wallops the medical drone with his magically enhanced spear, and the point seems to melt right through the metallic outer shell, ripping the drone apart, and scattering its pieces roughly throughout the medical bay.
End of Combat
Immanence from your noble branch allows +2 spirit damage on any strikes, no actions needed. If you use the one action (◆), it adds damage dice but with not additional bonuses to those rolls.
In this case its 19 damage with the striking rune, doubled due to a critical hit, plus the 5 electric damage from Transcendence or 43hp dmg total. Guess you are the new tank...
Ari can verify that this area seems to be a temple of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters, and part of the unholy nature of that faith is the mutation of seemingly normal into macabre and unnatural forms. It is entirely within reason that the deformed skeletons found in these cells were part of rituals or experiments performed either by the now-deceased quasit, or its minions, in ghastly reverence to Lamashtu.
Once everyone is in position to move on, Garen opens the eastern door. After about twenty feet of descending stairs, a vaguely rectangular room is found, with a curved wall on the far end has a spacious ceiling that vaults up to twenty feet. The floor seems to contain eleven wooden lids strewn haphazardly over eleven five-foot wide pits in the ground. From the darkness within the pits echo up strange shuffling sounds, and every so often a low moan.
A single hallway exits to the south of this room. It is completely dark inside.
It is easy enough to stock up on any writing or library supplies here though what is found does not have any material resale value.
Where to next?
Returned from break today. Glad to hear that Iovia is back. Hope all had a Merry Christmas and the new year is good to you all.
It is in the middle of this discussion about returning to the run-down burial site that you notice the old sage, Brodert Quink, enters the public room, holding a sheaf of papers and wearing his little pince-nez spectacles. He sits across the room from you focused on his work, sipping coffee while he waits for his breakfast. He does not seem to notice you while he sits alone reading and scribbling little notes in a small journal.
I added Baka Uno as the rogue, and a divine gnome witch to help with healing. They are invited to post in the Discussion as we work them into the game.
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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber
Back from the holidays. Given the needs and the withdrawals I think we will select Baka Uno, orc rogue, and Printhello, gnome divine witch, as the two PCs we are looking for.
Feel free to jump into the Discussion thread if you wish, and we will sort out how to get you in the game ASAP.
I did post a recruitment on this thread so check it out and see if there are applicants you like. I am likely moving on them quickly rather than a long drawn out process.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber
Looking for players to join a pre-existing homebrew campaign set in the small village of Sandpoint. It is not directly related to any pre-published Sandpoint content, including Rise of the Runelords, but may have some of the same places and NPCs. The Gameplay Thread is linked here if you are interested in reading back.
There are three existing players: a fighter, a monk, and a bard. We would consider adding 2-3 more if they were good fit. Ideally, the group needs a healer type and someone who could pick locks or disarm traps. The PCs are still first level, though they are nearing the promotion to 2nd.
Standard build rules apply. Any Paizo published source is fine. Ancestry should be kept to Common or Uncommon (the existing are Leshy, Tengu, and Tripkee) and characters should be good in nature and not overly monstrous in appearance.
Backgrounds tying applicants to Sandpoint are appreciated thought he ties don't have to be long or drawn out. Looking to add some folks quickly, so first come first served that meet the right criteria is likely the way this goes down. I realize recruitment during the holidays is likely to miss several interested parties.
Feel free to hit me up with questions.
I am happy to add someone, or better, if you know or play with someone good, we can invite them in.
Nothing is found in scouring the room physically, but the divination magic does reveal a magical aura in among the torn up papers and discarded writings. A single intact scroll is found that radiates a magical aura.
An Arcana check can reveal the school of magic or simply cast Read Magic can let a caster know what spell(s) are written here. I added an unknown scroll to the loot tracker for now.
The books seem to be random, with no rhyme or reason behind them. The boxes are filled with writing supplies -- blank journals, quills, charcoal, writing implements, and stacks of fine paper fit for magical writings.
Nothing else of note seems to be in the room.
M'baba wrote: Hey I will probably slow down posting now until after new years. I think I'll still be able to post once or twice. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year then. We can resume in earnest after the New Year, but if want to post in between, I will be checking in.
"Iomedae can suck it!" shouts a small squeaky voice from inside the far wall of the room. "Inherit this, and get out of our home!" shouts another. And then a pair of tiny figures come out of the holes in the wall. They are only 2' tall, with the look of a half-starved mangy opossum.
The second one conjures a spread of oily liquid that coats the floor around Impasha, while the first literally flies out of the hole towards the cushioned area as if to defend it from disturbance.
Impasha requires a DC16 Reflex (or Acrobatics) or fall prone on the slippery goo. If you want to fight these little guys, then roll initiative. You may not get a choice however.
Map Room - Round 2 - continued
Courageous Anthem active - +1 to attack/dmg - 2 rounds lingering
25 Teela
23 Blue Mite
21 Red Mite
20 Scarlet Knight
18 Alvis
17 Grabbles and his mount
16 Faen (24/26hp remain, grabbed, poisoned, clumsy 1)
14 Velas (24/28hp remain)
9 Graham (26/30hp remain)
9 Quintessa
7 Green Mite (5hp dmg)
7 Purple Mite
Teela conjures and launches an icy projectile that strikes the tick attached to Faen, killing the bug, which remains attached but is no longer draining her.
Blue Mite draws out its shortsword and attacks Velas who is adjacent. Neither attack hits as Velas avoids any damage this time around.
Red Mite throws two more venom-tipped darts at Graham. But both the small projectiles fly wide of the mark.
One tick is dead. Scarlet and Alvis are up now.
Blue shortsword: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Blue shortsword MAP: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Red Dart vs Graham: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Red Dart vs Graham, MAP: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
The crumbling remnants of several chairs and a long table clutter the floor of this room. To the south stand three stone doors with a small window at eye-height., each bearing a strange symbol that resembles a seven-pointed star.
Peering inside each window, you can see these were prison cells at one point. Each cell has a badly deformed humanoid skeleton inside, one has three brittle arms, another has an enormous misshapen skull, and the third has a ribcage that goes all way down to its pelvis, and the pelvis has stunted leg bones strewn below its strangely flat girth.
Sick Bay - Round 2 - continued
23 Raika
20 Alpha-47
19 Seoli
17 Karina
12 Medical Drone (17hp dmg)
4 Bahir
Not sure if it will do any good, Raika fires a pair of arrows at the drone. One hits the target, but doesn't penetrate the thick metal hide.
Waking up from its short downtime, the drone reaches out with its claw-like hands to slash at Seoli. The drone shreds part of the monk's shoulder, blood flowing freely. Then small appendages pop out of the drone, and start repairing some of the damage it has taken. During the attack it continues chittering in Androffan.
'
Seoli takes 8hp dmg and is at 22/30. Bahir, with enhanced weapon, is up to end the round.
Raika shortbow: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Raika shortbow, MAP: 1d20 + 8 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 8 - 5 = 13
Piercing Dmg vs Drone: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Drone claw vs Seoli: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25 hit
Slashing Dmg vs Seoli: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Repair: 1d10 ⇒ 5
Lia hasn't been in either of my games for several days in addition to not updating here. I hope things are ok with her.
Do you mean the large sized tick being used as a mount or the one that has Faen attached and blood sucking? It's merely small sized (but still big for a tick).
Neither door appears trapped or locked, and no sounds are heard from behind either portal.
Sick Bay - Round 2
23 Raika
20 Alpha-47
19 Seoli
17 Karina
12 Medical Drone (24hp dmg)
4 Bahir
Karina activates her musical instruments but the bludgeoning attack misses hitting the still robot. She then follows up with an electrical spell of her own, that does partial damage.
Alpha casts a spell giving magical blessing of Brigh to the spear of Bahir, enhancing the weapon on future strikes.
Seoli leaps into the fray, attacking the metal robot with unarmed strikes. The first strike clangs against the metal hide, but does no damage. After her follow up flurry, she has maybe hurt her hands more than the target.
Pending an action from Raika. I will run her tomorrow if no other update.
Drone DC18 Reflex: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25 success for half
The depression where the pillows rest seems to be the remains of an old hatch and pulley system that the slaughterhouse workers used to raises and lower beef carcasses for preservation. Moldy blankets and stained pillows cover the top of system now in a kind of makeshift children's fort.
To really search this area, you'll have to step down onto the pillow tops, and root around. Do you want to do that?
Aside from one small stack of books and a few wooden boxes, this room is empty.
The celebration of the heroes saving Sandpoint from burning down is great fun, but eventually the momentum peters out, and the heroes fall asleep, either in their rooms or passed out in the public room of the Rusty Dragon. Either way, the wake with sounds and smells of breakfast being prepared, fresh bread and jam with bacon and eggs by the aroma.
Gathering enough fortitude to make it to the table, they eat enough to fill their bellies and make the remaining cobwebs from last night recede to the background.
With the whole day before them, the group can choose which to direction to proceed in.
Map Room - Round 2
Courageous Anthem active - +1 to attack/dmg - 2 rounds lingering
25 Teela
24 Giant Tick (14hp dmg, flat-footed)
23 Blue Mite
21 Red Mite
20 Scarlet Knight
18 Alvis
17 Grabbles and his mount
16 Faen (24/26hp remain, grabbed, poisoned, clumsy 1)
14 Velas (24/28hp remain)
9 Graham (26/30hp remain)
9 Quintessa
7 Green Mite (5hp dmg)
7 Purple Mite
Teela is up now for the good guys to start Round 2.
Map Room - Round 1 - concluded
Courageous Anthem active - +1 to attack/dmg - 3 rounds lingering
25 Teela
24 Giant Tick (14hp dmg, flat-footed)
23 Blue Mite
21 Red Mite
20 Scarlet Knight
18 Alvis
17 Grabbles and his mount
16 Faen (24/26hp remain, grabbed, poisoned, clumsy 1)
14 Velas (24/28hp remain)
9 Graham (26/30hp remain)
9 Quintessa
7 Green Mite (5hp dmg)
7 Purple Mite
Graham moves into melee with one of the icky ticks, but his strikes both glance off the hard exoskeleton of the insect-like creature causing no damage.
As Velas advances, he triggers an unseen trap in the floor, which mounts to a simple rope noose disguised to blend in with the roots and floor, that would've sent him springing to hang upside down. Fortunately, he is nimble enough to avoid the man-trap. He also fights off the mild poison from the mite's dart. As he steps toe to toe with one of the mitflits, his attack misses and he spins up a psychic shield to defend any counterattacks.
Faen tries to pull free from the attachment to the giant tick but slips and falls and cannot break free. She does make a melee attack against the tick, scoring a hit and some stabby damage. She starts feeling quite woozy from the envenomed dart combined with blood loss.
Quintessa advances to get a better look at the situation, then conjures forth her needle spell firing shards of steel at the tick holding Faen. With bardic inspiration behind her, the spell hits, doing dozens of little wounds on the tick that add up to significant damage.
Green Mite strikes twice at Velas. The magus is able to manipulate his mind-shield to block both attacks and takes no damage.
Purple scores one hit on Graham, doing minor damage.
[ooc]Faen cannot break free and takes the clumsy 1 condition. Graham takes 4hp dmg. Velas breaks two layers of his shield, but takes no dmg.
End of Round 1
Velas DC15 Reflex: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Faen Escape DC16: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 critical fail
Faen dagger vs Tick, CA: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 1 = 25 hit
Piercing Dmg vs Tick, CA: 1d4 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 1 = 5
Faen DC14 fort vs poison: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 fail
Faen DC17 Fort vs Disease: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17 success
Quintessa Needle Darts vs Giant Tick, CA: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 8 + 1 = 16
Piercing Dmg vs Tick: 3d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 4) = 11
Green Mite vs Velas: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 hit
Green Mite vs Velas, MAP: 1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 8 - 4 = 22 hit
Purple Mite vs Graham: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Purple Mite vs Graham, MAP: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20 hit
Green Mite dmg vs Velas, 2 hits: 2d6 - 2 ⇒ (1, 1) - 2 = 0
Purple Mite dmg vs Graham: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
I was mostly asking you to recap what you learned as a review and to make sure you have internalized the important things as the story moves on, but its up to you if you want to speak them aloud, or just understand them.
My story threads can be hard to follow especially in PBP when there are real-time weeks in between things happening.
If you are not with me, let's review in discussion.
Impasha finds the doorknob no longer cold and there is no resistance as she pushes the door open this time. Celas and Elarion's rejoinder to the booming voice go unanswered.
Dirty salt and sawdust cover the floor of the room beyond, which appears to be a wide, gloomy hall. Bits of masonry have been chewed or clawed away from any visible walls, leaving a series of narrow, winding animal tunnels beyond. Steel rails are mounted in the ceiling, with a few lonely iron hooks dangling from them. A pile of stained pillows and moth-eaten blankets lie in a ten-foot depression in the floor to the northwest. To the southeast, a rusty iron grating blocks access to set of steps that descend that direction.
Though there were voices from inside a moment ago, there are no visible creatures in this room.
Nothing besides the door in the south wall are apparent from looking more closely in this area. The rest is simply as described above.
Looking for actions for Faen and Quintessa. I will post for them tomorrow if they do not update before that.
Sick Bay - Round 1 - concluded
23 Raika
20 Alpha-47
19 Seoli
17 Karina
12 Medical Drone (20hp dmg)
4 Bahir
Bahir stabs at the drone that is temporarily frozen in place, damaging its exterior and doing some form of electrical damage as well. He raises his shield, just in case the drone comes back online.
End of Round 1
The rest of the group is up now in Round 2 before the Drone's turn comes back around.
Karina the Bard wrote: Ah crap, knew I was forgetting to do something this weekend. Would it be safe to assume Karina got her instruments out as well? That's her usual routine, and the Remastered version is only one action so she can combine it with a spell.
If so I'll mark off where both the lute and the viol are.
Ok with me. I figured with the physical resistance, they would be less than useful but you do you.
Can we assume you used remaining healing magic and spent time damaged or broken items like shields during your down time. If so, everyone can start with full HP and refreshed equipment.
The next morning
After resting and recuperating over night, the initiates skip classes to return to the Stump Library, and finish the work of the day before. The exterior of the library is unchanged, save the door is now closed (assuming you did so when you left).
Entering the main chamber, the one remaining scrit gremlin leaps to the top of the bookshelves and tries its best to hide itself when you return. The ruined books, including some now flooded or burnt, lie in heaps across the center space still but no new threats are detected, and things look pretty much the same as when you left yesterday.
What doing now?
With a few of the books you were asked to retrieve, and about half the library explored, the team of initiates has had enough for one day, and decides to retire before exploring any further.
Heading back to the Spire Dormitory, you quickly get to rest, sleeping in for the day, putting salve on wounds, and studying spells to be at peak performance for the next day.
Any other downtime activity, or jump to the next morning and back at the Stump?
Only deep booming laughter answers Myron's requests and Impasha's queries. The champion's hand is not injured, it was more for a startling effect than any real damage.
"Swords drawn, pets slain doesn't seem to social to me," says the voice in a mocking tone. And then a loud boom like thunder fills the room, shaking some dust loose from the barn floor above.
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