A dice roll from 1-20 is both a lot of variation for someone practiced or talented at a skill, and, a very narrow variation for all the nuance available in a given moment.
There are the internal factors - Zahra is great at this but is off her game; or, Zahra is great at this but slips up at the last minute.
There are external factors - Zahra is great at this but something else happened moments before and the crowd is in a poor mood; or Zahra is great at this and the crowd doesn't have the perceptive was to see.
Imagine the difference between Zahra rolling a 3 and Tymythy rolling a 3. His result would have been 7. Hers 11.
I think she's being given sour lemons and turning it into ok lemonade.
everyone give me a charisma check - this is not a performance but considering what you've just been through I'm giving you a morale bonus of +4
Also, everyone make a will save DC30 (or nat20). Failure means any attempt to talk about, draw or write - or in any other way translate - the details of the challenge will become confused in your head and will come out gibberish
Cairee asked me if you missed treasure in this challenge. It was meant to be the final challenge and I did not put treasure in it. I have arranged for something else. Stay tuned
Zahra was in mortal danger. If Dounia didn't get the doors open it would be Zahra's turn next and she had her iron door almost off. She would have been mummy food.
Holy crap!!! That was amazing! One of the best sequences I've had the pleasure to GM! Thank you all.
Tymythy! Everything you did was necessary. The DCs for Dounia to squeeze through the 6" opening the window made were too high. If I had to I would have cut her in half.
The mummy criticaled it's second attack on the window. If she didn't get out quick he would have had her.
A section of marble half a human's height deep and the width of the door wide responded to Dounia's touch. As she put weight on it equal to a hungry halfling the section levered forward very slightly and seams much too small for Cairee to have noticed opened up. A tiny click sounded.
The marble floor shattered as a new spear, identical to Zahra's, shot upward.
Text was etched into the length of the spear.
'Dounia, if you're reading this let's have lunch - Iolantha'. At the end of the text was a half circle with a half circle inside it, beside an upsidedown Arch with short lines radiating from it outwardly. or a winky-phrase/emoji
Dounia reached around the spear and pushed the door open. The light was blinding but only for a few seconds. Before the team was the lower arena of Gossamer House.
The forward Dounia, who, to herself was real in every way, ran to the far end of the room at the end of the hall. She made it to the door and as she stepped on the last bit of floor it levered forward.
A spear identical to the one Zahra carried split the marble beneath her feet. The blade of the spear sliced across her belly and sternum until the spear head shot into her soft pallet. It split her tongue and cut into the roof of her mouth. She could feel her nasal cavity and throat fill with blood.
She had enough presence to grab the spear as it lifted her off the ground. The blade squelched in her mouth as she tried to call out. She blacks out. (forward Dounia takes 19hpd))
The rearward Dounia, who, to herself was real in every way, held Tymythy's hand and watched the fate of forward Dounia.
a simple step on the side of the floor in front of the door should trigger the trap without harm
Ousel flew into the room at the end of the hall and arced left. Cairee saw Ousel fly into her hallway as the bird came to her and flew circles about.
Dounia entered the room almost directly after Ousel with Tymythy close behind. Zahra entered on a parallel hallway on the right of them. Cairee and Ousel mirrored Zahra on the left.
Although none of the halls had turns the team somehow ended up in the same place. Cairee could see one singular powerful magical aura.
The room was simple, a marble lined rectangle. The door on its opposite wall was a slab of stone with a bar handle on the right.
Round 39
Cairee's door started to lift out of the bog.
Zahra scanned the hallway. She tightened her grip on the iron long spear and ran in until she'd climbed the steps. Her door closed slowly, crookedly, like it were drunk.
Dounia ran up the stairs and down the hall like she'd been here before, with no thought to danger nor detail. Tymythy was hard pressed to keep up but couldn't help a glance back when he heard a crass back in the cell.
The bog mummy had with only a second blow to the 'glass' smashed its way through and was climbing into the central chamber. Thymythy couldn't see more as the drawbridge'ing door closed slowly behind him and, once closed, turned into a seamless marble wall (as it did with Cairee and Zahra's doors).
Dounia:
There is no danger in the rest of the hall nor the room. You won't get to the door on the opposite side of the room until round 40.
Cairee will enter the same room from the right and Zahra from the left a few seconds after you and Tymythy enter.
You'll see the round ahead of you
Dounia could see colours that weren't there. Her hand had three images of hands moving about it. A redish phantom image of herself ran forward to the door out. She was in her body but she was also in the image.
The 'her' in the image felt solid and looked back at a phantom of herself, a blueish phantom.
The forward self ran into the hall, up the steps, and was halfway to the room without a problem.
Behind the 'forward' her, Thothmagur was in a wild rage, stupid with invincibility. The creature smashed against the glass and it shattered like it was meant to hold wine instead of monsters. Ouch - crit'd his roll
The backward Dounia looked back and the glass was still there!
The centre circle of the brass table turned clockwise a half-turn. There was a clanking in the ceiling as the key was drawn down into the table. The clanking stopped.
The iron doors in the four cells tilted forward with cables attached to the top corners like little drawbridges. Zahra's door wobbled down as it went and nearly fell off its bottom fitting. Beyond each door was a secondary door that opened automatically outward into halls. A few feet into the hall there was a short set of steps that led out of the bog and about sixty feet down each hall there was clearly a room.
Like it'd been prepared, the creature lumbered into the room. It was slower that most creatures but it didn't seem hampered by the swampy floor. (Difficult terrain for people but not bog mummies) With two fists together, the monster smashed down on the glass between Dounia and her old cell. A great spiderweb crack formed in it at his shoulder height.
The window in Dounia's cell had not yet opened. The door beyond the inner door was still closed. Her room did seem in the proper position to receive the creature. (for round 37 - they should open on round 38. Everyone please post for round 37)
Round 33
Tymythy worked furiously as he ignored frustration and picked at the glass. It was like he'd worked through every fragile part of the glass and the last resistant structure was found unyeilding.
Zahra let go of the key, left the window and returned with the longspear.
Dounia watched as her mind raced looking for flaws in her plan. Had she missed anything?! The absence of a roadblock was making it all terrifying. A voice in her head reminded her, 'Make sure you wash up before a job. Don't let people see you slept rough. Make sure you look clean and sharp. If the guard see you looking tired they'll use it against you. Don't show doubt. If you're afraid - swallow it. Always make sure you wash up before a job.' Dounia showed her friends nothing but confidence the plan would work.
Cairee, the wisest of the group, had found the calm that had left her in the mud just a little while ago. Her back was to the creature, a thing all need and devoid of wisdom. In Cairee, Thothmagur was outmatched.
Round 34
Tymythy struck the glass again. This time he could see the material was ever-so-slightly concave. The bend away from him was giving it all structure. It was tightening seams that would otherwise be loose.
Zahra placed her spear through the gap under the window and shoved! She struck Tymythy's window from the other side and the spear dancer watched all that he'd worked on flex back towards him. It was vulnerable!
Dounia watched Cairee. There was a serenity on the priest's face. Here, in this chaos, Cairee knew her friends would get her out or perhaps it was something else. Perhaps Cairee knew she had to be serene so she became it. 'Always wash before a job' The words repeated in her head. Such strength of spirit. As Cairee calmed herself so did Ousel.
Dounia also noticed Cairee mouth something. Immediately everyone felt warmer, safer, stronger. There was a feeling that there was something all about them, that it could see them. It cared what was going to happen.
The window between Zahra and Dounia closed.
Round 35
Tymythy lashed out at the glass. A glancing blow as he reached around awkward shattered stone.
Zahra and Cairee watched as their stone walls rose.
Dounia and Tymythy were alone again. Ousel fled to Dounia's shoulder and tucked herself just under the shayla.
Round 36
Tymythy's muscles flexed. His back ached. His calloused hands from years of spear wielding protected him from the worst of blisters but swinging a pick and spear dancing were not the same. Blood welled up as the skin opened on the inside curve of his thumb.
The pick came down.
The point went through!
He put his foot up against the remaining section of five foot wide wall and pulled.
All muscles were engaged in one furious act as the window gave way with plenty of space for Dounia to step through. Tymythy fell backwards into the mostly-dry mud of his cell as the room rumbled and moved.
In her cell, Zahra pried at her iron door. Nothing moved. Her leverage was not quite in the right spot.
Round 37
The rumbling of the rooms stopped and the five foot wall in Dounia's old cell lowered. What remained of Tymythy's wall lowered also.
Round 33
Dounia had Zahra's arm. Zahra had the key in hand. The window between Zahra and Dounia remained open.
Ousel flew around Zahra and through the opening. She stopped at the window to Cairee's cell and flew about looking for a way past where none existed.
Tymythy leaned over shattered rock. A small hole was left in the glass between he and Dounia.
Behind Cairee, through the window and in the dark, a dry voice filled with spite and sounding like sand being grinded with a pestle, called to her, "Keep your holy righteousness. Hide behind your light. One day, you will die and know the truth."
Round 34
The window between Zahra and Dounia began to close. (people may act before it closes)
Thothmagur never reappeared in the window. It closed and the creature was gone. Ousel continued to search for a way to get back to Cairee.
Round 35
The stone walls in Zahra and Cairee's cells raised. As Cairee's wall went back into place Ousel flew higher and higher until all sight was blocked.
Normally I would call this a 'steal' combat maneuver but as you're trying to stop someone who wouldn't resist you I'm going to call it an opposed initiative roll. Dounias rolls a 12 and has a +6.
Zahra's initiative:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Dounia pounced on Zahra's arm before the sorceress could insert the key. While Tymythy puts the tip of his pick through the window between he and Dounia. The window stood in its frame but it was only a matter of time before it was demolished.
window: hardness of 8 reduced by 2 for the pick, HP 5/30
Round 29, 30, 31 & 32 Nat 20! No need for a random roll. I think I can lift the fog of war for this.
R29
Tymythy grabbed a divot of the remaining 5' wall and pried with all his might! The severed section was somehow a-kilter and would not move until his added pressure set it plumb again. A great BANG. The wall rose out of its resting place and upward. The top three feet of stone was gone and when it came up as far as it should a long triangluar sliver slid towards the young warrior.
The window, and eventually Dounia, were still accessible through the top there feet and most of the right side.
R30
A familiar rumble shook the cells as they turned once more.
The sand in the centre space fell suddenly to the ground and the full weight of Dounia's body came down on her legs as she was thrust back into her natural time and place. Ousel dropped to the brass table, dazed.
Cairee woke in the mire she lay in.
Zahra nearly lost her footing as the room shook suddenly and would have to reset her spear before continuing to pry away.
Round 31
The five foot wide walls lowered again. This time in Cairee and Zahra's cell. Before them was a bizarre sight.
Dounia was standing on the brass table. She looked foggy. The sides of her face had horrible scrapes on them. There was a blood stain coming through her clothes over her left hip and she was favouring her right ankle.
Ousel was hopping about on the brass table around shards of glass. The sandglass was still floating in its place but the glass inside the brass frame was shattered and the sand now appeared to be all over the brass table.
The silver key lay at Dounia's feet.
Tymythy's five foot wall was terribly cracked. The top three feet and most of the right side were missing. With effort, Zahra and Cairee could see Tymythy standing beyond what was remaining of the wall. He looked like he had been caught in a rock slide. The glass wall between Tymythy and Dounia had huge fissures and cracks throughout.
Cairee was covered in muck, nearly every inch of her.
Much of Zahra's back wall, mostly to the right side of her iron door, was covered in frost and melting ice. The right side of the stone door frame of the iron door was terribly cracked.
Round 32
Zahra's window slid upward six inches and Ousel flew out to her shoulder. The little bird whispered in her ear.
Zahra:
"Turn the key. I love you."
The window opened in Cairee's iron door and a familiar face appeared.
"Is this all? Will you leave me alone. In the dark!"
Everyone may post without spoilers. Everyone has full rounds of actions for rounds 30, 31 & 32. God, I hope I got everything.
Through the strangest of nexus something miraculous happened.
There was a divine connection between Cairee and Ousel. This much was evidenced in the shared empathy they'd shown since their meeting.
When Dounia broke the glass of the timepiece she loosed wild magic into the cell with her. She was covered in it. Surrounded by it.
But so was Ousel.
As Dounia's mind exploded into the time-space continuum she was everywhere all at once and could make sense of a few of the things she saw. One of these was Cairee's cell. She could also feel the presence, the link between Ousel and Cairee.
If Ousel weren't there.
If Cairee hadn't been looking, hadn't been open.
If Cairee hadn't been perfectly observant at exactly the same time, this miraculous nexus wouldn't have happened.
Through Dounia's act of frustration the time magic of Hallwn mixed with the divine influence of Saiph through Cairee's familiar so that everything Dounia was experiencing Cairee also experienced. For a flash they were in sync.
Dounia - I've mentioned it to Cairee so you should also feel free to read all character spoilers labeled round 29
Dounia is with Ousel. Ousel is also in the whirl of sand. Cairee just rolled a natural 20 perception check while Dounia is experiencing her 'out of body' awareness. I can't let that go to waste! Dounia may read Cairee's last post. Cairee may read Dounia's as they all connect through Cairee's empathic connection to Ousel. The three are traveling together.
Cairee lay in the mud, alone. Almost alone, she could feel that second feeling in the back of her head. It felt brave, focused, and driven. The room didn't turn.
please post for round 29
Tymythy & Dounia; R28&29:
R28
Tymythy hit the glass again and he barely chipped the surface but a few of the tributary cracks joined together. As the fissure surrounded a small section of glass (as soon as the cracks touched) that facet turned to granite and was no longer transparent.
R29
Tymythy looked from the wondrous transformation of glass-to-stone to Dounia. She wasn't looking at the stone trapped in glass. The sands from the sandglass were floating all around her as her eyes stared off to nowhere. Her clothes floated about her like she were underwater. She wasn't moving.
Behind Dounia, Tymythy noticed her window had already closed and the five foot wall in her room was moving upward into its' closed position again. Once it was closed the room would try to turn. He heard the curses of the creature as the window in the iron door closed and the secondary door sequestered it once more.
Tymythy could see the bottom section of five foot wide wall at his feet as the mechanism beneath it tried to push that sundered stone up.
Tymythy is more than 3/4 through the window For R29 will Tymythy continue to work on the window or help the 5'wide wall rise out of the pocket it's in? I will roll to see what happens. If Tymythy helps, I will change the odds of it clearing.
Dounia's eyes have dilated so that they had the tiniest iris and were nearly all pupil.
Dounia; R29:
I really didn't think you roll that one! You have a 10% chance of getting any one thing and less than a 2% chance of getting Foresight
Dounia could suddenly feel the volume of this central room she was in. She could see herself and sense her clothes floating in the magical mist of strange sands. She was in and outside of her body simultaneously.
~
Then her vision expanded outward. She could see the four rooms somehow simultaneously.
In one cell, Zahra was holding the long iron spear. She was working it back and forth vigorously. The blunt end was stuck in a hole in the stone frame as she worked to pry off the iron door of her cell. Hoarfrost covered the stonework next to the door like it had been affected by some focused blizzard. The great iron door was wiggling like a loose tooth but wasn't yet out of its' frame.
On the back wall all about the iron door were words written in chalk. The same colour as the chalk from the mirror challenge.
KEY middle
ARROW glass lifts
ONE OF US STAYS
C on the left side Z on the right side
Dounia? Tymythy?
SAND FASTER!
and a quick scrawl …
name is Thothmagur 2000yrs prisoner
In the opposite cell Cairee was laying backwards in the mud. Her nose was bleeding as her chest heaved. She was recovering from some massive effort as she wept, her eyes focused on the ceiling.
On Cairee's curved wall there were also words in chalk. Some of it made sense.
BOG MUMMY. COLD HURTS IT.
A FRIEND OF SILIMIEL WHO KNOWS TYMYTHY AND FLYSON WILL BE IN ASGHAR'SINAN IN SIX DAYS.
~
Dounia's consciousness expanded again!
She could see a maze of mirrors. Cairee's sister was sobbing on the floor uncontrollably and yelling for her brother. Cairee's brother was insane with rage as he smashed at mirrors in another section of the maze. He screamed for his sister. Little shards of glass stuck out of him like porcupine quills.
In the arena, spears were launching from the floor, walls and ceiling. Lord Barelow's left arm was useless as he lead the group to the exit gate. Lady Shiply was holding his shield and covered their backs. Sir Pellius could barely stand as he bore the lifeless Prince Keon over his shoulder. In the centre of the arena were carcasses of a giant humanoid, a massive snake, maybe twenty gnolls, and what looked to be a gnome next to a mechanical man, a chair where the mechanical man's head would be.
In yet another space that looked like an endless vaulted ceiling over an underground lake, the Adherents were in a long rowboat, busy combining a series of collected potions. They argued as to the ratios of this to that. Beneath then a massive thing coiled and uncoiled deep in the black water.
~
Suddenly Dounia could see Hallwn with his retinue. They laughed and drank as they watched the teams struggle, get wounded, die in the lake reflections. Hallwn had a melon cracked open in one hand as a porter was pouring rum into the inner flesh of the fruit.
The orcs were watching their host from the sands next to the lake as they waited to perform the mirror challenge. Dounia could hear Batbayar, leader of the orcs, speak to Khol, "Remember, we are here for us. We will do as we've always done. I look at us. See who we are. Who you've become. What do I need of wishes. All my wishes you fulfill."
The Princess Allisette was with her people as they scoffed and geared at the reflection of Perdition's Cavaliers. She was flanked by two maids-in-waiting. Under the table she was holding her maid's hands so hard that they could all barely hide the discomfort.
~
Dounia was beyond Gossamer house.
A man with a bandaged face was crossing the southern desert by horse. He was accompanied by three men on horseback and a motley crew of brigands and thugs on foot. The man was clearly Karma. Of the younger men, Dounia could see Bisyun and Altalab, his core followers in AlHufra. The third man on horse was wearing robe over robe of finery.
In the rear of the people on foot were the Family, the little thieve's guild that helped The Blackbirds before the pit.
Three figures were coming down out of the mountains to the east. An old man with a walking cane, a young half-elven man in a leg cast and carrying a long canvas wrapped package on his back, and a part-orcish woman who looked accustomed to the wild.
Skirmishes were being battled between men, elves and orcs in the north.
Dounia's head began to pound.
In some dark place a great eye opened. The pupil was a slit. Everything was molten hot and smelled of sulphur. A voice that echoed through time and sounded as strong and as dark as the base of a pyramid spoke.
"I sense you. You defile my sactuary. I do not know what you are. Pray I do not learn. I … ABDJUR … THEE!"
Dounia snaps back into her body at the beginning of round 30. Also, I think that's deserving a lasting effect. You choose. Does Dounia become afraid of wide open spaces? Confused in crowds? Have strange reactions to mirrors?
Zahra; R28&29:
The progress was slow but consistent. The door was loosening in the frame.
Cairee called out to Saiph and felt the warmth of true understanding. It held her, warmed her, and radiated from her. That warmth and radiation beamed outward in all directions lighting the walls of the room. Particularlly, the wall before her.
In the past, Cairee's light healed the positive, the growing, the live and purged the negative, the unliving, the dead. It did this to anything the light touched. Here it only touched the wall. She focused harder. She tried to push beyond the wall. Could she do it!
Cairee's channel energy is a burst attack. It only affects what the light can touch. Diving under a blanket doesn't help but standing behind a wall does. If you want to push past the wall I'm going to need three things: a concentration check to push your ability DC22, a religion skill roll DC20, and a fortitude save DC16. If Cairee passes both the concentration and the religion roll her channel energy will extend past the wall. Failure means the wall blocks the attempt. This is a great strain wether she succeeds or not. If she fails her fortitude check she takes 1d8hpd and her nose starts to bleed. If she passes the damage is halved (rounded down)
Dounia & Tymythy; R28:
The glass broke easily and the sand poured rapidly out of the device. Much of the sand poured over Dounia as she coughed up particles of grain. It got in her eyes and her clothes.
The roll would be an attempt to sunder again not a reflex save but your roll is still more than enough. PMing you.
Zahra; R28:
The work was slow going with the spear but it was working. The iron door was moving more and more. At this rate it would take at least half-a-minute.
Tymythy and Dounia looked to where the spikes had been placed. They were gone! The top three to five feet of the wall had exploded into his cell. The bottom few feet were still in the hole the wall had descended into.
The spikes had served to hold the wall down until the room tried to turn. The mechanism that turned the rooms had exerted enough shearing strength to destroy the upper part of the wall across its' waste line.
Three things might happen.
The broken base of the wall may continue to keep the rooms from turning.
The broken base of the wall may, with the spikes clear, rise out of the floor when the mechanism comes around to turning again.
The broken base of the wall may get stuck again and cause another explosion of showering rock.
The visitation provides a one time bonus to Cairee's sense motive.
The strange vision had given Cairee what seemed like less than nothing. The hints and interruptions weren't anything to do with this so-called birthday party. They had to do with the outside world! The Fida Huras? Something to do with the sorcerer Kamzar Gibil??
She had to think differently. If the sandglass somehow changed time then it wouldn't affect the dead. But what was it doing to The Black Birds? Cairee's stomach growled. Her body felt more tired than it should. She began to listen to her body for the first time.
She was certain she'd only been in this room for less than three minutes. It felt like longer … or, more to the point, the strain on her body was harder.
She'd never tried to see magical auras surrounding the sandglass. She'd faced the other way but she couldn't shake the feeling that the sand was doing something very specific. Maybe not speeding up all time in the challenge. Maybe not separating the time The Black Bird's experienced from that of the rest of Gossamer House.
Was it speeding up the passage of time on their bodies and their bodies alone?!
Please go ahead and post for round 28. Please continue to add a mention of how Cairee is feeling
Tymythy & Dounia; R28:
Dounia rapped at her side of the glass and it felt like she was jabbing at stone with a broken stick. The water in Tymythy's cell had almost entirely drained away. The muck that covered the floor was setting up enough to make walking easier.
Dounia could also see where Tymythy, through some remarkable feat of effort, had pried up a flagstone from the floor just in front of where his (now broken) five foot wall sank down.
A large chunk of the old five foot wall was still down in the cavity under the floor.
The sandglass filled once more and flipped just as another great blow shuddered the iron door. Everything seemed to be holding but the dust being shaken from the surrounding wall was increasing.
Round28 Tymythy's space no longer counts as 'difficult terrain'. Dounia - the sandglass sits in the space between four and six feet above the table. That puts Dounia at risk of getting hit as it flips. Please make a DC10 reflex save or take 1d8hpd. Add your 'Danger Sense' bonus to your roll
Dounia:
Ousel flew up to Dounia's shoulder and whispered, "Sometimes I feel like Or'Habim. Right now I feel lost? I feel like my belly is scared!"
Zahra; R28:
Nothing seems to be changing. The room still doesn't move! It all feels up to Zahra.
What for this round?
Dounia - perception DC20 (add any detect trap bonuses):
The keyhole seemed much simpler than the one in the door to the challenge. It was Dounia's guess that any single piece of the key would be able to turn the centre arrow from 'doors closed' to 'doors opened'.
In the image at the centre of the challenge I made the keyhole quite disproportionately large. The entire image is 5' square and takes up the entire centre space. The keyhole should be close to 1/8th the size shown.
She can set the key in the lock and it shouldn't effect her movement. The space is a five foot square and the moving section at the centre of the brass table is small. There is no reason she needs to do it now. In an old post Dounia left the ket on the table. Did she pick it up again?
Only the centre circle containing the keyhole and the etched arrow revolves with the key image
Although the spear wasn't as effective as the frost damage she had been doing Zahra still made progress as she watched the iron door wiggle like a barely loose tooth.
Those stats are exactly right. Please go ahead and post for round 28
Just to be clear… Both the granite wall and the “window” to Dounia’s room are closed now? Or at least one of them – either will do the job.
In the post labeled: Friday, December 26, 2025,9:13am I wrote that the 5' wall in Dounia's room decended again. That was round 25.
In the post labeled: Saturday, 1040am I wrote that the glass to Dounia's old room lifted its' usual six inches.
It seems that the rooms, being unable to move, have reset to the actions they would normally do in the regular sequence. That means in round 27 the window should stay open. Round 28 (next round) it should close. Round 29 the five foot wall should raise up.
Dounia - you grabbed on to the sandglass and tried to move it on round 25. Do you have any actions for rounds 26 & 27 beside communicating with Tymythy?
The crack in the glass formed a few tributary cracks but stayed in place. Ousel hopped around excitedly and flew about to the spider-web cracks and tapped at them. That it wasn't helping didn't seem to deter the little bird.
When I designed this challenge I really had no idea what dynamics were being created. I also designed it under the framework of PbP which is a difficult way of playing in the first place.
From my point of view where I can read everyone's posts I feel that everyone is doing exceptionally well and no one has any reason to doubt their actions. Everyone is acting in ignorance.
I hoped this would be a key moment for the team. You were thrown together by circumstance. Getting through this challenge should prove that you can overcome any obstacles in Gossamer House and beyond.
I will certainly limit spoiler related posting in the future. It is very difficult.
Cairee moved to one side of the door. She hid as best she could and waited. Nothing happened.
You may post for round 27
Dounia & Tymythy; R25&26:
Tymythy - I'm not willing to give your anytool a 'warpick' critical multiplier. In the item's description is says: 'It is an ineffective weapon, always counting as an improvised weapon and never granting any masterwork bonus on attack rolls." You're not using it as a weapon but a digging tool so no improvised penalty. I have given it a bonus against the hardness of the glass but no x4 multiplier. You still do 17points damage.
R25
The ceiling inside the central space was the same as the others (10') but Dounia stood on the brass table, three feet higher than the floor in the cells. The sandglass was a foot from the ceiling and had a height itself of two feet. That meant it was four feet from brass table to the bottom of the sandgass. When she stood she was within easy grasp of it. It didn't move. It was as if the glass were hung on a metal pole through its' waist. She couldn't tip it forward nor back not pull it down from it's invisible hanging point.
The ceiling above it was also brass that formed a shallow dome.
The glass will flip again on round 28
R26
Tymythy wrote:
”The table beneath your feet. Does it still move?”
The table didn't change orientation. It was as if the central room stayed in the same alignment with the monster's cell and the four cells that held The Black Birds revolved like a pinwheel between them.
Imagine Tymythy is a bullet in the cylinder of a revolver. The chamber the bullet is locked in has a ceiling and a floor and a window where he can see the central axel of the cylinder (where the brass table is). The chamber also has a door with a window facing outward. The room with the monster is outside of the cylinder so one in four moves of the cylinder faces that room. Then imagine the cylinder isn't set in a revolver but in a cylindrical room. When Tymythy removed the stone in the floor he exposed the second floor of that encasing room. In brief, it is Tymythy's cell that is moving. The central brass table and the monster's room stay in one position.
As she examined the hourglass, Dounia watched Tymythy strike the window between them. The sizeable crack lengthened across the entire window but the pane seemed to hold together in the frame. One or two more good hits with the any-tool should do it!
Ousel flew to the window and gave it a few harmless taps with her beak as she struck at it as best she could.
Another heavy blow struck the iron door behind him. Again the wall shook with dust, "No longer a matter of sacrifice. I will not wait for a choice."
Dounia - you may post for round 26 & 27. Tymythy - please post for round 27
Zahra; R26:
Seconds passed. The room still didn't move. Zahra fired at the stonework again. If she could get through the frame on this side it should be an easy task to pry the door off with the iron spear.
Another strike and the crack widened from floor to the top of the door. She was two-thirds of the way through!
All was quiet in Cairee's cell. Nothing in the space moved. She was once again all alone.
Cairee has a full round of actions for round 26
Dounia & Tymythy; R25 & 26:
Dounia - you still have a full round of actions for round 25
R26
The glass between Dounia and her old cell slid upward about six inches.
The sandglass was already half-full.
Behind Tymythy the glass in the door slid upward and out of sight. The creature's face moved forward and into a little light.
"What are you doing! NOOOO! You are ruining everything! I will not be here alone. Forever alone. I WILL HAVE ONE OF YOU!" He seethed and then more quietly, [b]"Or maybe I will have all of you.
His body shifted behind the window's opening. A great blow smashed the iron door so hard that dust shook from the stone doorframe.
Tymythy and Dounia - you both have full rounds of actions for round 26
Zahra; R26:
A brief pause in her arcane focus let Zahra know the room was quiet. She was all alone.
"When dragon takes man form, dragon takes man weakness … Who are you?"
"Of course!" The old man's eyes shifted back and forth in some expression of eureka! His head snapped up to look Cairee in the eye then something seemed to distract him. "Flyson, be quiet!" The old man was disappearing faster. "The messages aren't for the competition. Someone is trying to give you aid for when you return from the party. Hallwn will try to separate you from your friends. Don't let him! Teamwork will undo him. Tymythy's accumen. Dounia's instinct. Your training. Zahra's heritage. Whatever you have to do, work together!"
He was almost gone.
"And tell Tymythy I'll be in Asghar'sinan in six days!"
All sight of the old man was gone. Cairee's final question went unanswered, or perhaps it was, partially. Tymythy may know something.
Cairee wracked her brain but how this man appeared to her was a mystery. It didnt feel like it was something she had done. It didn't feel like Zahra's magic. It felt like outside influence.
The sleet impacted the frame once more. The stone was breaking all along the right upward frame.
You feel like you might be halfway through this stone.
You can use your iron spear to use the combat maneuver 'sunder' the wall. It is practically an automatic hit (only a nat1 misses). CMB+3 vs a CMD3 (10-5dex-2inatimate). You still have to do more damage than its' hardness to have an effect.
You can use a touch attack spell to attempt the same. Instead of a strength modifier to CMB I'll let you use your Charisma (giving you CMB+6).
Dounia and Tymythy; R25:
Tymythy wrote:
(did someone invent a new variation of the Glassteel spell for this?)
Once again, Tymythy, very good question. Cairee figured that one out. You can ask her … if you ever see her again.
There are few glaziers amongst the Basternae but Tymythy can see a crack going nearly halfway through. If it took an explosion like that you can be sure that picking at it will be difficult. In game turns you will be attempting to sunder an inanimate object with a high hardness. Your CMB vs its' CMD3 so don't roll a nat1 Yes, the window still cuts down on sound but you no longer have to yell. <edit> I'll lower the window's hardness slightly because you're using a tool 'formed' for the purpose<edit>
The room didn't move. The sound was gone. The noise came from a spot just to her left and close to the central space no one occupied.
Cairee looked about the room. The area around the strange man was touched by an icing of frost. Where the man seemed to be an illusion - a fog - a spectral form, the frost on the surface of the bog was real and melting fast.
Cairee has a full round of actions for round25
Dounia and Tymythy; rnd25:
The explosion sent a huge section of stone towards the spearman. He'd ducked it to get pelted with head-sized pieces.
Dounia paused. Was it something Dounia did?
Tymythy was placing spikes from his climbing kit just before the explosion happened. If that five foot section of wall was still lowered when the room tried to turn maybe it acted as some kind of break. That is, until the preasure destroyed the stone.
The room didn't turn this time. It wasn't moving. The five foot wall in the room Dounia had been in began descending again. The wall on Tymythy's side was gone!
Ousel hopped about wildly but was ok. The dust all around them was settling but the room Tymythy was in was still cloudy.
Tymythy and Dounia - please go ahead with your actions for round25
Zahra; rnd23-25:
Zahra could feel the air condensing all around her. She was absorbing the atmosphere around her and she called out a word in draconic she barely understood as she threw her hands forward!
Ice and snow began to form just before her and immediately shot with force towards the corner of the wall by the iron door. Cold fist after cold fist smashed into the slightly weakened stone like a pulse of frozen power. The stone began to crack until a fissure opened.
Seeing her spell starting to take effect she did it again!
As she focused the room began to rumble again. The cell she was standing in began to turn but stopped before moving an inch. She could feel tension build and, even through the thick walls no one could speak through, there was a muffled KHAKOOM!.
The room failed to rotate as it had several times before. The sound was gone.
When Zahra looked back at the wall she could see the lower corner of the stone was pulverized. She could reach a hand in and feel the edge of the iron door. She was maybe a third of the way to forcing the entire side of the frame to crumble.
please go ahead with your actions for round 25
Tymythy scanned the brass table quickly. The star was on Dounia's side of the keyhole. Tymythy was on the opposite side. That would put his room directly between the centre of this giant contraption and the image of the skull.
The table seemed to have no mystery to it. The main table looked to be made of brass or perhaps plated in it. The outside ring seemed to show four rooms like the rooms that he and Dounia were in. The square to the opposite side of the star contained the image of a skull. There were four symbols that could be closed doors on the side of the table that had the star. There were four symbols that looked like open doors on the side of the diagram nearest Tymythy. The centre of the table had a disc with a keyhole at its' centre. An arrow next to the key hole pointed towards the four closed doors. The centre disk looked like it could rotate but most likely only if the key were used.
~
He stopped thinking it through. He worried for Dounia as she, on her back and hands against the window, birthed herself into the room. Tymythy turned his makeshift pick around and began hammering pitons into the top corner of the 5' wall. Dounia became caught on her belt as the window began to close! It was shear panic and force that got her waist past the frame.
a little more damage:1d4 ⇒ 4
She gave herself a dagger sized wound on her left hip but she couldn't stop. The window continued to close. Ousel flew through and grabbed onto her shayla flying wildly backwards towards Tymythy's window, beating against it with her wings. Dounia cleared her knees and had to twist her ankle through the last of the closing.
last one; hpd=:1d4 ⇒ 2
Dounia was inside the central space of the challenge, laying on her back and covering the keyhole. By that time, Tymythy had planted two pitons deeply into what crevice he could access. A quick glance back showed the iron door window had closed. It was now streaked with mud.
The monster was gone.
R23
The five foot wide walls began to close. The wall in the room Dounia had been in kept going until it sealed off at the ceiling. The wall between Tymythy and the desert thief fought to rise. It grinded upward about twelve inches as it drove the stake deeper into the track.
Then it stopped. At least six feet of the wall was still concealed under the floor.
The sandglass flipped again. The sand was clearly going faster now and at this rate would flip once more in less than half a minute's time.
You both have that round to act before rnd24
R24
The rumble started again. The rooms began to revolve but stopped. The lowering wall in Tymythy's cell was still down and acting like a brake. A horrible cracking started to come from the base of the wall!
KHAKOOOM!!!
The sunken wall exploded. The glass between it and Dounia formed a deep crack but stayed in place as a fine spray of sharp sand sprayed harmlessly at her through the small opening beneath it. The central space filled with dust. Tymythy's cell filled with a cloud of particulate matter. The rooms failed to turn.
Tymythy - please make a DC14 reflex save. Failure means you are hit directly by a large chunk of wall and take 21hpd. Success means you are showered with smaller chunks and take 10hpd.
Please hold on posting anything after round 24 until Zahra gets in-time with everyone.
Cairee; R24:
Cairee wrote:
"My name is Cairee Featherfriend … I travel with my friends; Zahra … Tymythy … and Dounia … we're competing in a very dangerous game set by our host, Halwyn. Someone has been trying to warn us, or threaten us ... I'm afraid for my friends. I don't know how to help them."
The icy spectral form of the man appeared to be slowly fading like a warm exhale on cold glass. He was wearing traveler's clothes that were difficult to mark. His accent was strange but he was speaking clear Aerthane. He had a weathered look like he'd been traveling and was clutching a heavy walking cane in his left hand. There were shoulder straps like he was wearing a backpack and something else poked over his shoulder. Perhaps the end of a crossbow.
When Cairee began to speak his eyes went wide and he leaned in, "Tymythy's with YOU! By what miracle?! No, not enough time - the Marid of Daw'alnihar! My gods, it's his birthday. Secret messages from a hidden … and Zahra is with you." He looked like a man playing a life-and-death game of speed chess. "Cairee, tell me about one of the messages. Any message. Quickly! We only have a few heartbeats more!!"
The room began to rumble. The room tried to turn. Even through the solid walls Cairee could hear a muffled KRAKOOOM!
please wait to post while Zahra catches up. When Cairee replies or acts it will be round25
Cairee's kn geography; untrained allowed - DC10:
His clothes seemed to have lots of different influences and his accent was hard to place. He was clearly a traveler who'd been everywhere between Zhayalamar and Dolerisium
I found a real enjoyment for preparing turkey and do it twice a year (Canadian Thanksgiving and Christmas). With the family a little smaller now (and Sarah's family 4,500km away) we'll gather at the family house not far outside of the city.
Traditionally, turkey or ham is the centre piece. We'll also have brussel sprouts, stuffing, gravy, potatoes au gratin, a large salad, creamed corn, and cranberry sauce.
We also have a stockpile of war cake, chocolate-coconut balls, something like a nanaimo bar (a three layer no-bake square wafer/coconut/walnut base - frozen custard centre - chocolate ganache top), date squares, and other small treats.
Cairee thought about the man, the one she could barely bring herself to look at. She thought about his bandages and remembered some of the defaced images on the walls in Al Hufra, the prison pit. Some of the figures had long robes on, but underneath (what showed of their underclothes at the neck and wrist) were wraps. The man's bandages were old. Maybe very old.
She could hear his voice, his dry snapping twig voice and the rattle of his teeth as they clicked together. She got a picture of his skin, not tanned but grey. She barely noticed it in the darkness of the room he occupied. She'd never gotten close but she remembered that. He didn't seem right.
kn religion:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
Cairee began to think he wasn't really a person. He might have been once but not anymore. Her feet slopped in the muck that came to her knees. Another thought came to her. People long ago in several places in the world buried their dead in fens and mires surrounded by possessions to help them in the afterlife. The more she thought about it the more she was convinced he was one of those. He was a bog mummy.
Evil creatures possessed of such loneliness that it drove them to inspire despair in others. Creatures that, if removed from their resting places, possessed enormous strength. The bogs preserved them remarkably well and protected them from fire ... but not cold.
She focused and thought of Saiph.
Nothing was making any sense. She became frustrated and yelled to no one! To the gods themselves!
Cairee wrote:
"No! … Show me! We're chosen, someone was trying to collect us, someone wants us still. Someone is trying to warn us, or threaten us. What am I missing?"
The room answered with silence.
Then it became cold.
Then a blast of cold wind like the angry exhale from nostrils the size of portholes filled the room with frost and covered the muck in a light icy mist. It was as if an invisible man had been standing before her and the frost covered him in a glossy sheen. He was old, maybe in his sixties. He looked healthy enough to travel well and he wore the clothes of a merchant. He stopped moving and reached out his hand like he were blind.
The old man, "Stop! Both of you! I can't see."
He squinted and continued to feel forward without stepping in any direction, "I'm someplace else! Spirit of Silimiel! What now! It's like before but more intense … I can see a stone room. AHHH!" He noticed Cairee and stepped back. "Who are you?!" He gained some composure. "Speak quickly. This has happened before. We don't have much time!"
Cairee can answer in round 24
Zahra:
I only wanted there to be an image of each other as the wall closed. It will be a long time before you see each other … if ever (Da da daaaaa)
appraise:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Zahra looked over the iron door set into the smooth stone wall. She was no engineer. Engineers would laugh at her plain understanding of the world. She was no tinkerer. Dounia could perform wonders with her 'little worm fingers' that Zahra could barely track. But she was a good judge of goods, of the quality of things.
The wall had seems but they were tight and well mortared. The door was well forged iron. There was a flange around the door that overlapped the wall and it was tight. This was a very good door. She would have to produce a powerful blast of cold to weaken it at all. The stone might be easier. She looked at where the stone was constantly being soaked by the fenny water. At the base of the door. That's where the stone would be weakest.
Zahra - all objects have a hardness. any attack on the door or the stone wall would have to get through the hardness and anything left over would damage the object. don't expect to be able to blast it with one shot and some attacks may do no damage at all.
You were writing on rounds 20 & 21. Your assessment of the door was a move action so you have rounds 23-26 to attack if you like.
Dounia; rnd21:
Dounia - this would be a 'escape artist' roll. Your result is 25 instead of 26.
I've been thinking about this as a way to escape the room when I designed it. The gap is six-ish inches by 5'. If Dounia can fit her head through then she can fit her shoulders through. My head is (as best I can measure) 7" wide. I can certainly imagine Dounia's to be 6".
The rules say DC30 for a passage someone can fit their head but not their shoulders through so a DC25 for this is what I had come up with.
The rules also say that this would take at least a minute depending on the length of the passage. This is a 2" space to squeeze past. So I'm going to make it a 2 round action.
For round 22 I want a second escape artist roll to get your hips through at DC20 and then a reflex save (add Dounia's 'Danger Sense' bonus to avoid traps) DC16 to get through before the window closes.
Dounia & Tymythy; rnd21:
Tymythy could barely hear the monster in the window reply, "I cannot GROW. I cannot sleep. I can no longer die." Instead, the spearman watched in horror as Dounia turned her head sideways and squeezed it under the window. The sides of her face scrapped viciously as she pushed past the hole.
damage:1d4 ⇒ 1and that was a success
She could feel her shoulder pop loudly as it followed her head through. Her ribcage flexed heavily as several bones felt sprained by the forced movement. She was now half-way through the gap. She was on her back with her hands pressing against the inside of the window. It was all or nothing now. It would be more difficult to retreat into the room than keep going.
