With no recourse, with no way to attack outside the circle, it simply turns into a statue of a gongorinan qlippoth and awaits its death.
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ROUND TWO Ayita
What do you want to do?
ROUND ONE
Perception DC16: The magic circle is chiseled into the floor and will require more than stepping on it to disrupt it.
Yes, it works to ameliorate the Confusion.
THE MISTS OF TIME SPLIT OPEN... we are seeing Ayita and Frantino look at the horrible thing. Ayita succumbs to its terrible, gross, horrific visage. ROUND ONE
No. I think we should rewind everything. You've suffered HP damage and offer some good points. Let's do this again.
What would Ezranadir like to do?
Unless moving takes him out of the zone and he is no longer confused... Frantino shakes the confusion from his brain. His back is to the qlippoth, his eyes focused on Nasir. He realizes... Ezranadir, Doc, Nasir and Ayita are not confused.
LOL. It seems better to do it this way, since I can't imagine we'll stay in rounds after the confusion wears off, which it now has.
Once Ayita backs away, her confusion seems to subside. FRANTINO:
rounds A few seconds later, Frantino glimpses the thing again and becomes confused. This is an ability where a save doesn't grant ongoing immunity. Save each round. It's bad. For expedience's sake, why don't you roll two confused rolls and then roleplay it. After that, we'll assume you figure out how to move away from the thing (Ayita is far enough away that she is no longer affected). If you get too close you can see icky horrific stuff and become Confused again. But Frantino...
Mental attack? Can I help it if mortals' minds are so weak that they cannot stomach gazing upon perfection?
Rolls are in Roll20. OK. Do me a favor and roll them here. EAsier to keep track that way.
Not a spell, so no, it doesn't. AYITA: Next round, please roll 1d100 and match your result to the Confusion table. That is what Ayita ends up doing for that round.
Frantino is disgusted by this thing. Looking at it, this close, is just... BLECH. Was that an egg sac he just saw? Or maybe some wretched internal organ? He wants to avert his gaze, it is so horrible. Who knows what its shifting, horrific, qlippoth body will do next? FRANTINO ONLY: FYI you saved against its horrific appearance. Its a gaze, mind-affecting thing. I rolled in the previous spoiler post for Ayita. She failed, so expect her to do some Confused thing in her next post. For this, I would argue that Frantino can/will realize what's happened to her, since he could almost feel/do the same thing as a result of looking at this disgusting thing. He gets where Ayita's comin' from. ;)
AYITA ONLY: rounds CONFUSED TABLE
@AYITA - I leave it to you to roll a d100 on the above table and then roleplay it. The gongorinan is SO disgusting, so horrific-looking at it has addled your brain for a bit. The eyestalks ugh. The pinchers ugh. The idea of eggs BLECH. It is nightmarish thing from the Lower Planes, a disgusting monstrosity haunting your nightmares and now it is HERE, in real life, not in your dreams. You cannot wake up from it. Your brain is short circuiting!
DR10/Lawful Immune cold, acid, mind-affecting effects, polymorph effectsResist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10 SR 22 The gongorinans are the spawn of a nascent qlippoth lord, although one could be forgiven for thinking them of them less as offspring and more as parasites. Gongorinans are an industrious and intelligent breed of qlippoth, and where they find themselves, they invariably form hive-like complexes to live in. These gongorinan “cities” are labyrinthine affairs with plenty of chambers for their transformed children to live in. In the Abyss, gongorinan hives can grow truly immense, with populations in the thousands, but even the Material Plane is no stranger to gongorinan hive cities.
Is there any oath that could bind such as this? What deities do they follow? It looks more chaotic than lawful... No deity can bind me. Our Lords offer no obeisance to anything, especially not late-coming outsider upstarts dependent on the likes of you for power. It clicks all its claws simultaneously. All you have is my word and my desire to leave this wretched plane.
"Yer plan makes sense. Is there a less painful way ta send 'em back?" Pain? says Og-Zeugus to Doc. What does pain mean, after thousands of years trapped here in isolation? Thrice-foolish Thassilonians. I understand they brought their doom upon themselves and left me here in this shattered place... forever.
Ayita quietly asks Ter, You know the lore of Arcana and the Planes well. Is it bound to do as it promises if we free it here? (Ayita sounds dubious to Ter.) Does killing it in the circle send it back, alive, to its home plane? If it was called into a summoning circle turned inward to imprison it, Ter says into Ayita's brain, then, no, killing it won't send it back.
No, killing me here will simply kill me, half-elf. I am no summoned ally, brought here temporarily to spend my blood in service. I was called here in ages past and trapped by these damned Thassilonian magics. Nothing it has said seems untrue to you, although how well do you know the facial tells of crab-like qlippoth hellbeasts?
Knowledge (planes) DC21: The creature is a gongorinan qlippoth. Obviously summoned here into the circle.
The passageway, actually a room that has collapsed over time, curves a bit around. Only the northeastern portion intact. The collapse has shattered and cracked the floor, breaking up several magical circles that had been carved into the floor. Only one circle, located in the room’s easternmost corner, remains intact, its runes still flickering and glowing. Inside the circle stands a human-sized statue of a weird crab-like creature. It has a dozen eye stalks and four arms. The statue turns towards Ayita and Frantino and walks to the edge of the magic circle. As it does, it becomes more fleshlike, abandoning its rocky statue-like appearance. I am Og-Zeugus and I command you to free me, mortals. No harm shall come to you. I simply wish to be gone from this wretched plane of existence! it says directly inside Ayita and Frantino's head.
Ooh, where to this time? VEgas for Consumer Electronics Show. NOt fun.
Ayita and Frantino's careful perception find nothing new in this room. The northeastern corner of this otherwise empty room has collapsed, resulting in a jagged tunnel winding to the east.
Traveling for work. Should be posting once per day.
The earth elemental returns through the wall and tells Ter that beyond the wall is a small platform and then nothing. Open air. The elemental has difficulty explaining something it has never encountered: it is high up in a tower, far far from the earth it is used to. It has exited the official entrance to the Gecko and looked down the pillar to the earth far below.
Ayita also asks the elemental to note any creatures Ter's size or larger, let her know. Do you speak Terran?
Happy new year!
This is possibly the primary entrance to the Gecko facility.
Detect Poison in the area in general and then concentrating on the fonts. No poison in the area.
As you ascend the stairs, you see a pair of shallow alcoves to the east and west that contain what appear to be long-dried water fonts, each of which seems to have been scraped numerous times by sharp objects. As you approach the end of the entryway, passing the last alcoves, you examine the wall at the end. The stone has a softly rippled surface, giving it the impression of a swiftly solidified wall of mud. Knowledge (arcana) DC23:
The wall has been opened and closed several times with stone shape.
Ayita will spend more time searching for secret doors in all the rooms here. She uses Guidance. (Since GM Derek did a lot of rolls for her, maybe we can assume she finds nothing... just in case, here are a few more rolls - I count 12 doorways.) Anita’s extensive intensive search reveals nothing more of interest. The rooms seem to be just sleeping quarters for the cult. Gross that they would sleep so close to the experimentation area. Ugh.
Happy Holidays, everybody.
Neither Frantino, nor Ezranadir find any magic or traps. Ayita, carefully searching the small room, spies several ledgers on the table. JACKPOT! They appear to be journals filled with notes recounting numerous failed attempts to craft the polymorph plague. All written in Abyssal, it looks like an hour of reading through could reveal some important details. Something quickly stands out to Ayita: "... new doses will require more eggs harvested from the prisoner, Og-Zeugus.” Knowledge (planes) DC15:
Og-Zeugus is a name in Abyssal. Not in Common. And not a name that anybody on Golarion would use. Unless they are a fan of the Abyss, maybe. Skimming the notes suggests to Ayita that an expert in necromancy could, in theory, develop a cure for the polymorph plague. Elsewhere in the room... amid the scattered notes on the polymorph plague are three other noteworthy pieces of information. The first is a report from an unsigned investigator who confirms to Leptonia that Clegg Zincher did indeed purchase three scrolls of true resurrection in the year prior, and that said scrolls are believed to be kept under lock and key somewhere in his tenement in Riddleport. The second is a parchment bearing a list of prices offered by ships for passage for 21 people north to Riddleport. Leptonia underlined the least expensive option—passage on a ship called Sea Moth, which, according to the notes, was scheduled to depart for Riddleport the day before the heroes first entered the Gecko. Leptonia also jotted a date on the sheet, circled it, and labeled it “ZINCHER’S AUCTION.” The third is a copy of a report from Pathfinder Society agents ripped from a volume of the Pathfinder Chronicles that details the results of a dangerous mission undertaken to defeat the return of Runelord Krune. Near the section that details the death of a newly arisen Runelord Krune, Leptonia has penned a disturbing gloss: “Dead for now, but if we can return him to life, a thankful Runelord of Sloth may just give us the support needed to bring the polymorph plague to the breath of every city it touches!”
[dice=Targeted Dispel Magic check]1d20+8
The faintly glowing line disappears. Ayita, after listening again, carefully opens the door. Inside, a simple table stands in this room next to a bedroll on the floor. The walls are painted with horrific images of distorted, tentacled shapes feasting on hapless humans, although a closer inspection makes it apparent that many of the feasters are themselves partially transformed humans. A campfire, its ashes cold, once burned near the southern wall.
Ezranadir comes over and casts Detect Magic first. "It may be a magical trap so do not read or look at it further. Let me detect its aura first. It could be Explosive Runes or some sort of Ward. I'd suggest stepping back a bit." It is a faintly glowing line. No words. Detect Magic suggests it is a moderate abjuration aura.
Ayita and Ter find no evidence of damage or indications of what the trap might do.
As Ayita opens each door, she finds more of the same. A pair of used boots, torn, lying on the ground. A comb. A small bit of trail rations, forgotten in a corner. The same corner, blank of dust, showing where a bedroll probably rested. Continuing clockwise, while Frantino moves counterclockwise around the room, Ayita comes to the northwestern door. It opens on an empty hallway that ends in a collapsed roof, preventing passage. On the northeastern door, Ayita is ABOUT TO OPEN IT and stops. A faint line, mostly obscured by the walls, glows around the edges of the door. Ayita doesn't know what it is. Something magical. Knowledge (arcana) with Read Magic DC13:
It is likely a Glyph of Warding set with a summoning spell of some sort.
No noise emanating from the doors Frantino examines. Both are unlocked. Inside can be found small remnants of life. Frantino guesses they were living quarters. The patterns on the wall depict Yamasoth, the qlippoth lord, the Polymorph Plague.
Ayita cautiously moves into the corridor. It turns left and the opens into a large hall. The walls of this long hall have been decorated in a tangle of red-and-green swirling patterns. To the south, these patterns end in fanged mouths, while to the north they all converge into a single gaping fanged mouth within which leers a single bloated eye. Doors line the walls of the room, with one in the north set directly under the eye’s glare. Tables fitted with straps to restrain those lying atop them stand here and there in the room, while several empty crates and boxes rest stacked in an alcove to the east.
No traps that either of you can find. Nor do you hear anything.
Nothing invisible that Frantino can see. Nor does he see hidden doors or traps.
The wide hallway leads down two flights of stair to a platform. The platform ends in a wall. There's something weird about the wall, but Ter would need to be closer to examine it further. The alcoves are former fountains, now long dry. They've been scraped repeatedly by sharp objects, likely to remove a precious metal from the stone work.
Ayita is, after some work, able to make sure the door is securely shut. The bodies and the unconscious monster remain inside. The rest of the unexplored Gecko beckons!
The chains are too short to be used to escape the water in the pit.
Ayita thinks Ter is on to something. The monster was really distracted by its hunger.
Ayita, Ter and the water elemental scout the water pit. None of them find any outlet that would let the thing to escape. But it would probably drown. What the elemental and Ter DO find below the surface is... bodies. Waterlogged bodies that appear drained of blood. Well, if the monster is hungry, there are carcasses down here that it could eat and satiate its hunger, suggests Ter without batting an eye. Bodies of humans are still just bodies. Perhaps if they were dead faerie dragons, she'd feel differently.
"While we have a minute, let's take a look around to see if our poor unconscious friend here has anything that can help us learn more about this plague or confirm what the vampire told us. Can't just take that one at his word!" The room is full of rocky debris (the southeast corner has collapsed) and a smell of rotting food. There is no food, however. It has, you assume, been gobbled up by the terribly hungry monstrosity you see before you.
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