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Apologies. I’ve been out of commission for the past week. Hope to get a post up tomorrow.

[occ]I’m going to try this for monster knowledge. Roll 1d20. Use this number for each of the knowledge skills you can use. I have certain problems with the whole monster knowledge thing.[/ooc]

To save time, do you guys want to create a basic strategy for exploring the crypt, which I can follow when you’ve finished exploring a room. The dungeon crawl seems to have brought the game to a crawl. Or maybe that’s just me. What are your guys thoughts on the game?

Yep, that’s a door.

Other than what was listed above, there are a few empty crates and barrels. By now, everyone had noticed the items above: numerous bedrolls, a pair of bullseye lanterns, 4 flask of oil, 5 days' worth of rations, two bottles of white liquid labeled as 'healing'.

What do you guys want to do next? Here are some options.
There’s an unconscious man in the room.
There’s a hallway leading “right” just before this room.
There’s a hallway leading “right” just after the room with the pits.
There’s a door to the “right” in the entryway.
There’s the exit to the crypt and an entire world beyond.

For those with less people-y skills, and because I forgot.

Aeric knocks the dagger out the the trembling man’s hand as Moon comes in. The man takes a punch to the gut and crumples to the ground.

The crossbow hits the floor and the man begins to ramble loudly. “Tricks of the dead one.” He grabs his dagger and slashes at Aeric. It drags across Aeric’s hand, drawing blood. Take 3 damage.

As Somanti squeezes through the door, a crossbow bolt flies at her gut. Despite some cover from the door, the bolt pierces into her abdomen. Ouch. Bad luck. Take 4 dmg.

She looks at the direction of the flying bolt and sees man hiding behind some nearby boxes. She finishes her decisively intimidating threats and manifests unearthly terror. The man is visibly shaken, but perhaps he’s seem more traumatizing thing in the past few days. He reaches down for another bolt. Mechanically, he is shaken, but succeeded on the will save against the power.

At this point we’re not in rounds. The man will either respond to your actions, or continue to fire off crossbow bolts.

Well, isn’t this complicated. I was referring to d20pfsrd.com which says:

You can use this skill to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds. This shaken condition doesn’t stack with other shaken conditions to make an affected creature frightened.

So, I looked back at my rulebook (6th printing), and it’s the same as aonprd, so I’ll rule as written in there. Not sure what the source of the other is.

Post coming later today.

Somanti - unfortunately, the shaken effects of the intimidate will not stack with the shaken effects of Unearthly Terror. Are you going to spend enough power points to push for the frightened condition?

The silence is unsettling as no reply comes. After some time, the groups realize that they are in the middle of a stand off. Neither side budging nor passing through the door.

So who wants to stick their head through the doorway as non-threateningly as possible? Come on. You know you want to!

Under the force of Moon and Screamer, the door breaks around the lock with a crack. A thud and a scrapping sound follow as a barricade behind the door begins to slide. The door hangs part way open, still partially barred, and requires anyone to wanting to enter to squeeze. (Another STR check would open it all the way.) The air hangs silently.

The hallway turns, and back to the right. Ahead lies a door, with a hallway running off to the left. Here, the wailing is clearly come from the other side of the locked door. It sounds like a person in agony.

The mournful wailing grows louder with each step toward the door at the end of this musty hallway. There are a host of bones strewn on the floor here, many of which are cracked and broken. The door is locked.

Sumak will look around at all the traps and stay still until the others get the door open. He then says, "Who would put this many pits in a room? Just digging them all must have taken forever."

How closely are you looking? Are you trying to trip them and look inside?

Sorry for the limited and brief posting recently. I've been dealing with family emergencies. Things are settling, so I should pick back up.

When all three switches are all pull together, they stay down. Checking the door, Kazzar finds it unlocked. The door opens into a corridor that continues for 15 feet before branching left and right. Also, with the door open, the wailing gets noticeably louder.

As the group continues to explore the room, the group is able to find a third switch and several more pit traps. I have revealed these, so feel free to move around. There is a path that avoids all of the pit traps.

The second switch is identical to the first. Moon flips the switch, which leads to the familiar clinking sounds. The door remains locked. Somanti pulls the second switch and more clanking is heard, but the door remains locked. Both switches return to their up position when released. Nothing else appears to change in the room.

Kazzar doesn't find anything more than pillows in the two pit traps nearest him. But as Moon makes her way towards the back of the room, she comes upon another trap. Beyond the trap, she is able to glimpse another switch.

I moved Moon to next before the trap. All of the square traps are DC 20 Acrobatics to cross without triggering

The sounds are coming from around the switch, but also by the locked door.

Moon pulls the lever again with Kazzar at the door. He tries it, but the door still refuses to open.

Nice teamwork.

The switch is heavy. As she pulls it, a clicking noise can be heard. However, when she lets go, the toggle flips back up.

The door refuses to open, and nothing else happens.

Moon sees nothing suspicious about the door.

Kazzar climbs out of the pit. The pit fills the hall and makes it difficult to cross.

Somanti sees quite well indeed. She spots two more traps among the pillars, one of them only visible by a crack of light. These appear as slight indents in the floor indicating trap doors.

Kazzar finds a similar grove. Unfortunately, he finds it with his feet. Immediately, the floor drops out from under him. He tries to jump to safety, but the floor drops before he can push off. Take 4 non-lethal damage.

Beneath the blanket is a pit about 10 feet deep, the bottom fourth being stuffed with pillows. Along the side of the pit hangs a broken trap door. Besides the pillows and the pit, Moon notices a switch in the alcove to her right. Grey circle. The switch is toggled up.

Additionally, as she walks over, the shadows of her move all around the room while the light of her touch bounces of the walls revealing a maze of pillars in this room.

I hadn't added the torch yet. It's there now.

With torch lit, Moon peers further into the room. Down the path to her right (bottom on the map), she spies a grey blanket spread on the floor blending into the stone.

Kazzar and Sumak peer into the room. Near the door, hidden in the darkness, is a pile of empty saddle bags and three brooms. Beyond, there are several pillars that obscure the rest of the room.

The light coming from outside isn't enough to light this part of the crypt. So, who's going first!

Moon opens the eastern door to inky blackness, and the wailing becomes louder, though still muffled, just a lesser degree.

The wailing is clearly coming from the door to the east, but it sounds like it is further than just beyond the threshold. The western door is silent as the grave.

Aeric searches the room, but finds no evidence of mechanical traps or the like.

Moon examines the packs. One of the packs contains a large pillow and two quivers (each containing 10 blunted arrows). The other pack has 2 days’ worth of rations, a full waterskin, and a pair of smokesticks.

Unless there’s more you want to do in this room, there are two doors to choose from to move forward. I’ll wait for 3 players to agree on a direction, or 24 hrs.

The last skeleton drops at Moon's blow. The sound of clattering bones mixes with the continued wailing.

End of combat.

The room is lit by the light streaming in from the outside. There is a door to the east. There is a door to the west. Both are of wooden construction. There are two bodies lying in the middle of the room and the bones of 8 skeletons scattered about with broken scimitars and broken chain shirts. There are also two packs in the room.

I forgot.

(Bold may go.)
Round 2
Sumak 15
Somanti 9
Moon 7

Round 3
Aeric 22
Kazzar 20
Skeletons 17

The group engages the skeletons, dropping two more in the melee. The remaining skeleton turns on Somanti and attacks with its scimitar and clawed hand, but both attacks miss their mark.

Sorry for the delay. The website was down when I came to post yesterday.

It's been a day. Will post in the morning.

Moon, you’re probably right, but I really don’t care. You all were very careful going into the crypt and watching the skeletons. So, I think it’s reasonable that you, or anyone armed, got an opportunity attack when they finally stood up.

Aeric, I had to move you. The sides of the room are a higher level. It won't affect your attack however.

Three skeletons drop under Aeric, Moon, and Kazzar's attacks. One of the skeletons is still pulling itself together, but two others turn on Greywind. They swing their blades and lash out with a claw each, but none of the attacks connect.

(Bold may go.)
Round 1
Skeletons 17
Sumak 15
Somanti 9
Moon 7

Round 2
Aeric 22
Kazzar 20

The distant wailing continues as the group enters the crypt. It's not coming from this room, but somewhere to the east.

Aeric reaches down and picks up a scimitar from one of the skeletons. It's old, like "old" old, like old as Kassen old. The blade is rusted and set flimsy in the handle. It wobbles as Aeric holds it in his hand. This a broken scimitar for rules purposes.

Moon, Sumak, and Kazzar all enter on high alert, watching and destroying skeletons.

The sound of bones clattering echo off the walls as Somanti kicks one of the piles. She looks intently at the bodies and sees that they have the same the wounds as the horses outside. She then realizes that the clattering hasn't stopped. She looks up to see what everyone else also notices. The skeletons are rising!

Round 1 (Bold may go in addition to Aeric's and Moon's opportunity attacks.)
Aeric 22
Kazzar 20
Skeletons 17
Sumak 15
Somanti 9
Moon 7

To clarify, the skeletons are on the ground, not standing up, walking around. Their undead-ness or lack there of isn’t readily apparent.

Aeric and Kazzar lead the party to the crypt's doors. They push open the heavy doors scattering faint light from outside revealing a long chamber with risen platforms on either side. A faded painting of Kassen is on the far wall. The room appears to be the site of a gruesome battle, with two bodies piled in the center and a number of skeletons scattered around. An echoing wail can be heard somewhere in the distance, beyond this foul chamber.

The map is set up. We are not in rounds so feel free to move about. Let me know if you have any issues.

The group turns away from the horses towards the crypt door, nerves on edge after that disturbing scene. Large wooden doors stand looming down a darkened tunnel. One door is ajar shining a sliver of light into the darkened void beyond.

As we enter the crypt, is there a group order? I will be setting up the map in roll20. A couple of things to note: 1) I am using the lighting functions, so let me know if there's serious lag/loading issue for you. And be sure to let me know if your character is carrying a light source. 2) I'm using their fancy new doors functionality. You can click on door symbols to open them, and they will let you and light through. If it's locked, will then show a locked symbol.

With the horse gone, the group is able to get a better look at the bones, though it doesn’t make everything clear. The bones are very old, and many are crushed as if trampled.

So it isn't clear to me if anyone is actually taking a closer look. Here are some checks if so. If anyone want to do something more specific, let me know.

It's obvious that these were heavy-laden ponies. Their saddlebags are still attached.

Unfortunately still at level 1. I won’t be going on strict xp for leveling, but for comparison, you’d have about 500 xp each.

I’m going to push to get you to that 2nd level though.

After what seems like forever, everyone makes it down the slope uninjured. At the bottom of the descent, lies another crumpled form. It's another body, however, it looks much fresher than the one at the lake. When Seffie checks the body, she yells, "He's alive." With some investigation, the man is identified as Samuel Wilson, a lumberjack from Kassen. He's unconscious and feverish with a broken ankle. Seffie and Jobu decide to take care of Samuel and get him back to Kassen while the rest of the party retrieves the Everflame.

As the rain continues to fall, the group travels the short trail across the valley to the crypt's entrance. When the trees open up, they see their destination.

An archway of stone is set into the side of a small hill at the bottom of the valley. Moss has overgrown many of the details, but one is still quite clear. The keystone of the arch is carved with a flame symbol with a stylized rune in the middle. Beyond the archway is a darkened tunnel that leads to a pair of massive wooden doors, one of which is slightly ajar.

A pair of horses and a trio of ponies lie slaughtered next to the archway, each corpse still tied to a post set into the ground nearby. A swarm of flies hangs lazily in the air above them.

Awesome! 5/6. Thanks everyone for being flexible with me. It’s really cool of you all. I sent a PM to Mizuchi, but he's unfortunately not able to join us. At this point, I don’t have any plans to replace him.

To get back to things quickly, I’ll narrate us from the hill to the crypt’s entrance at the bottom of the small valley. It’s probably been the part everyone’s been itching to get to.

Hey guys. Checking back in. Life is starting to get back on track. Is anyone still interested in continuing?

Hey all. I’m sorry that I have been MIA for so long. After my illness, other things in my life went sideways. Until things settle down, I won’t be able to continue, and that won’t be for at least a couple more months. It sucks, especially because this game has been a lot of fun and you’ve all been great players. Thanks for joining me, and have a great start to the new year!

Hey everyone. Sorry to MIA for a week, bur I’ve been down and out with a nasty virus. I hope to get back up on my feet in the next few days.

I would like everyone trying to get down the hill to make an acrobatics check. Anyone who doesn’t post by the end of Friday, I’ll assume they are trying to make their way down the hill with the rope for assistance and guidance from Aeric.

Characters get +2 bonus using the rope and another +1 listening to Aeric’s guidance.

The rain shows no sign of stopping as the party makes their descent down the hill.