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Thanks for the heads up! Have a good weekend.
Blake: Detect magic reveals nothing unexpected. As Lysa pointed out yesterday the statue does glow faintly with evocation magic and it is unlikely enough power to cause significant harm. Other than that there are no magical auras to detect. Studying the statue for a moment you decide the purpose of the evocation magic is to obliterate any dust or cobwebs that should settle on the statue.
Back into the darkened catacombs you retrace your steps to the complex's door and into formerly trapped entry hall and then into the room with the statue of the enraged woman where things last went awry. The room as before teems with insect life but none of it appears hostile or overly dangerous. What is odd and immediately obvious is that the smaller corpse is missing. The larger one-the one that concealed the swarm of spiders seems to be where you left it but the smaller more recent corpse is missing. Reminder there is a door to the north a passage to the east and another to the south. (maps here)
You head back out through the caves, retracing the way you came in. before long you can smell clean salt air and blink as you reenter the bright sunlight outside. The ground is marked by dozens of small puddles evidence of a recent midday shower.
Spellcraft was the right choice for determining the qualities...the appraise check was for something else.
James, Mike, Steve and Tom...Wow! There's a lot to like in these final submissions. I just finished my first read through and skimmed the judges responses and wanted to say well...Wow. Very nicely done. I need to read through the entries again and read the judge's comments in full before I make up my mind and vote. You guys didn't make this easy and I thank you for it. Good luck everyone.
With the spiders scattered across the room the corpse should be free of vermin and likely safe enough to search.
Roll Call?
Assuming Nornan continues to hold: Blake makes a dash out of the room and up the stairs shedding spiders as he goes. The mass of spiders shrinks as most of the vermin scurry into cracks and up walls out of sight. Within a few moments the swarm will have completely dispersed.
Nornan brushes a few of the spiders off Blake as the swarm bites and stings again even as the swarm begins to slowly disperse.
Divine power courses though Blake and heal the hundreds of oozing bites but the spiders still swarm all over him.
Lysa looks like you're up.
Nornan swipes ineffectively at the spiders crawling on Blake a few few get scattered but for everyone Nornan swats away two more seem to crawl into the cleared space. Nornan: One of the little beasts crawls ups you arm and you fight off a twinge of primal revulsion.
As you brush it off you realize you recognize the type of spider these are. Often called corpse trappers, they nest in groups inside corpses to attack scavengers. Normally they don't attack anything larger than a coyote unless provoked such as by disturbing the nest.... Normally the best tactic when in this situation is to soak yourself in water to wash off the bugs or stand perfectly still and wait them out. Unfortunately this is a larger nest than you've ever heard of (usually they don't have a human sized corpse to nest in.) It's obvious that with the larger swarm unless action is taken to protect Blake waiting will probably kill him and the only nearby source of water is apparently trapped.
Nornan you can swing your axe at Blake but it will do pretty much what you might expect in this situation...hurt Blake and have little to no effect on the swarm. energy attacks and area of effect are the key in such a case unfortunately Blake is in the same square as the swarm so those actions will have likely detrimental effects for Blake as well.
Clarence:
Initiative: spider swarm:
Blake issues his warning as he stoops over the second corpse. Reaching into the rag like clothes a couple of small spiders crawl up Blake's arm then suddenly the rags shudder and a wave of green-black arachnids swarms out of the corpse and up Blake's arm and legs.
I had a long day yesterday and am only just now getting to make my first pass through and I must say over all this looks round looks very promising! And Jacob's right the map turnovers are out of the ballpark.
Blake: You have a hard time discerning much of interest. You're not even a hundred percent sure you can identify what kind of humanoid it was.
I have to go to work...I'll address the rest of the questions tonight when I get home.
I am really looking forward to this round and I'd like join Sean and thank the round 4 guest judges! My dice are ready for for the big reveals!
Clarence: The figure makes no appearance in any of the texts that you can directly recall but several facts can be inferred from the clues revealed in statue itself.
Those elements seem to point to the fact that this was a person of incredible importance and so well known a plaque was unnecessary. There is a strange hubris to this: To be so confident of your fame and future legacy that you don't need your name to be inscribed in the stone is quite unusual. In modern times and even in many Thassilonian ruins the customary signs of vanity (including plaques identifying the subjects of sculptures and other art) are quite common. It's absence hints at an almost deification of the subject. So perhaps she is an ancient deity or more likely a powerful ruler. The latter seems supported by the book and the ranseur which are carried almost as badges of an earthly office. Given the runes of wrath at the door and on the armored statues in the front entry, the angry burning expression on the statue's face and years of experience and study it may be safe to assume that this is a statue of one of the legendary Runelords: The kings and queens of old Thassilon which would make this the Runelord (Runelady?) of Bakrakhan the domain of wrath.
Haha, looks like Nornan just single-handedly defeated the second centipede! Should I even bother with an action? I know. I knew this was an easy encounter but I figured these two would put up a little better a fight. Damn my treacherous dice...lol. So it looks like we're back to narrative form for the moment.
Nornan circles the statue quickly moving past Brinda to position himself near Blake . Nornan's axe crunches through hard carapace. Ichor oozing from the grievious wound, the centepede emits a hissing scream as it writhes wildly. The centipede's body and legs clatter against
The fight only took a matter of seconds but now you can catch your breath and take a closer look at your surroundings.
The walls of this chamber are pocked with holes and cracks and stony debris and dirt litters the floor. The red marble statue is of a strikingly beautiful woman except that her features are contorted in an expression of inhuman fury. She is dressed in flowing robes, and her long hair is held back by an intricate headdress of hooks and blades. In her left hand she carries a large book, the face of which is inscribed with the seven pointed star. In her right hand she holds a glittering steel and ivory ranseur. The fluttering cobwebs that hang from the ceiling dance about the statue's head but never seem to settle there. The small humanoid corpse leaning against the central statue it appears to have brownish red scales and a pronounced snout but the local insect life has devoured most of the flesh from this body. A small leather pouch can be seen tied to the remnants of a cord belt at the creature's waist and tucked somewhat under it. The other corpse still appears to be little more than a skeleton but the rag-like clothes that cover the body still writhe disturbingly. Lysa: Detect magic reveals that indeed the statue glows faintly with evocation magic it is unlikely enough to cause significant harm.
The small corpse radiates no magic but on closer inspection it appears to be some sort of small brown scaled lizard man with an almost canine like facial structure.
Brinda moves forward and the centipede seems unable to strike her even as she lashes out with her scarf. The blades sink into the vulnerable space between carapace plates causing the creature to whip away dripping ichor.
Blake rushes forward and the enraged centipede lashes out with it's mandibles before the magus can attack but the clacking maw misses Blake's face by scant inches. The Magus lands a devastating counter blow heartbeats later severing the red head from the rest of it's body.
The second creature closes on Blake and lashes out with it's venom dripping mandibles but to no avail as Blake neatly sidesteps the attack.
Yes! Everyone feel free to post your action when ever you get the chance don't wait for the person with the lead init. once all of the actions are in I'll put the round together in a summary post and we'll roll around again.
Everyone quiets, listening for the noise Nornan drew their attention to. After several heartbeats everyone hears it: Arrhythmical clicking and hissing eerily close. Peering into the cobweb cloaked darkness reveals very little from here.
You all proceed carefully down the short stairwell above you dozens of fist sized hairy spiders skitter down the walls and along the ceiling scuttling away from the light. At the bottom of the stairs you peek into an oddly shaped room.In the center of the room is a red marble statue of a woman in flowing robes. Crawling and curling about this statue is a four or five foot long green centipede with bright yellow legs and a head nearly as deep a red as the stone of the statue. Scuttling along the ground near a doorway at the northern end of the chamber is a second nearly identical centipede. Sprawled on the floor are two corpses. A small one slumps against the statue's pedestal and the second, human sized and little more than a skeleton in shuddering rags, lays at the mouth of the hallway to the south . The centipedes hiss and wriggle towards the party on clicking legs. Initiative:
Good luck guys. Sounds like this will be a tight round. I'm looking forward to seeing what sorts of terrors we've all unleashed on Golarion.
When the voting closes I'd love to know which monster rule that is.
beach and bbq, Grrr...Its too cold here for that. Add to that the dusting snow and I'm officially jealous. Id be angrier but I've got a date tonight. Father Daughter dance at my daughter's elementary school. I can't believe she's in third grade already. Enjoy the beach.
You know some one's gonna call you out on that space now...visible or not, just to be funny.
Nornan: Sorry that was just me getting artsy...If you want to make another Perception check I won't stop you but I wasn't actually calling for one.
Man I thought the submit button last round was scary... Got mine in this morning according to the Paizo counter I had 0 words to spare. Whew that's tight.
I think we need to get a separate guild-hall thread set up for wives, girlfriends and other supporters. My wife can certainly relate to what you are saying, mamaursula. I know that one of her main motivations for cheering me on in this round is that a Top 8 placement ensures that I won't to do this again next year. FIFY
I think I've got most of my monster finished. I need to let it sit and come back to it make sure it's text portion is better organized and doesn't read like a first draft(like my last entry).
Thanks Nornan. Spoiler: Looks like my first choice for a monster for this round treads too close to forbidden territory for my taste. So you guys may be the first who'll get to face off against that idea. It's a kinda nasty CR4 so it'll be a little while before I inflict it on you guys.
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