I'm sorry, I thought paizo was going to be down this week and didn't check. Don't have time to post now (may be able to tonight) but its going dark tomorrow morning for awhile.
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4 of them (1 of each identical pair) detect as under strong enchantment magic. The other 4 are apparently under no magic that you can detect.
You have 8 unconscious people in front of you. On closer examination, you have 4 sets of 2 seemingly identical people. Detect magic 4 of the 8 detect as under strong magic but Fenna is unable to determine what type of magic it is. The other 4 ((including the one you know has some kind of damage resistance) do NOT detect as magical in any way.
Sho shoots non lethally
Two of the ones in the grease fall down (red and green). The 2 outside of the grease both go down (one shot by Sho, one chopped by Branart and Sosche. It is almost entirely my fault but this battle is taking far too long and you've already gotten the most interesting part down (the fact that you're facing a mix of faceless stalkers and what appear to be normal people). And the opponents that remain aren't a challenge to you lot at this point. If people are ok I'll just declare a PC victory at this point and move on to the post combat wrap up.
I am absolutely incompetent with google slides :-(. No idea how to mark individual enemies. So, the one to the NW IS a faceless stalker, the one to the NE is NOT this weird new faceless stalker, all the rest are unclear at this point Thanks for that
Calling out the strangeness, Fenna makes a knowledge check
That is sufficient for her to realize that some, but not necessarily all, of your opponents are something akin to a Faceless Stalker transformed to be exactly identical to the human soldiers. Unlike normal Faceless Stalkers, however, these seem to have DR 5/- (or, at least, slashing weapons do not overcome their DR). A rather scary thought. You know that one of the guards is definitely this kind of Faceless stalker, one isn't, and the rest you aren't sure about. Note that you're not sure the other one isn't a normal Faceless Stalker, you'd have to hit him with a bludgeoning weapon to be sure I am absolutely incompetent with google slides :-(. No idea how to mark individual enemies. So, the one to the NW IS a faceless stalker, the one to the NE is NOT this weird new faceless stalker, all the rest are unclear at this point
With that perception check, you realize that one of your opponents took less damage from that opportunity attack, the other didn't. Would that blow be aimed at the one that took less damage or the one who took full damage?
There is a flurry of blows and arrows Both Brannarts Aoo's hit.
Sosche, there was something wrong. Your blow hit but did less damage than you expected it to. Brannart's hit misses Fenna hits hers lethally Sho then shoots non lethally
Only one of the opponents goes down, 2 are now wounded 3 of them attack Brannart
Only 1 hits for a further 10 points of damage. You're all up. Something is definitely amiss but you're not quite sure what. Anybody(s) can make a perception check as a move action to try and figure out what.
Sorry for my lack of posting. Life. Will post tomorrow
5 nearest saves vs slow
Sho does a non lethal attack against the first one, putting it down non lethally. The second one is also hit but doesn't go down The remaining all advance but only 4 of them get an attack (the rest are slowed)
for Mostly all misses but Brannart does get hit for 10 points of damage. You're now all up The 4 northenmost ones are the ones slowed. The NE one is the wounded one
Sorry, life got crazy last few days. Should definitely get post in tomorrow morning
Unfortunately. none of them respond to your friendly overtures and with a growl they all advance
Ok, combat is iminent. Sho and Vexas are up, then all the baddies, then all of you
The group heads to the right, descending the stairs. As you enter into the temple proper, you hear the constant crashing of waves and creaking of the cathedrals pillars and walls. While the place is obviously structurally sound, the noise does make it difficult to hear other sounds (-4 penalty to all sound based perception checks). It is impressive the scale that this place is built on. The ceilings are some 30 feet tall and the walls are fairly intact despite the milennia they have been standing (there are some cracks and fallen chunks). Obviously, some kind of preservative magic is at work. The corridor that you find yourself in is fairly well lit. Some of the light comes from the entrance itself, the source of the other light isn't immediately clear. 8 people wearing the armor of Andorean soldiers face you. Presumably these are some of the colonists that you are here to find. As they say you they call out such things as "They are all dead, you've come too late" "What took you so long?" "Good, Ontooth needs more subjects" Slide 22 (I deleted some older ones)
Not sure if you mistyped there Sosche but it would only be 5 rounds not 5 minutes to take off of spell durations. After dealing with all 3 rounds of the ineffectual Faceless Stalkers, the group proceeds onwards.
It is fairly obvious to you that what you're facing was, so many years ago, a temple complex with the primary building built into the slope of a hill. You're about to enter into what was the top floor of the temple. While there were exits from the top floor to the grounds this was almost certainly an area restricted to the temple residents, not an area open to lay visitors Fenna can easily identify the fallen statue as being a representation of the Azlanti goddess Amaznen, the LN primary god of magic in the ancient Azlanti empire. You have a choice of two entrances into the temple proper. One on the right, one on the left. Which do you wish to enter (as viewed on the map, NOT as the characters would see things). Or do you have some other cunning plan at this point?
In a flurry of spells, arrows, sword and polearm the first wave of the faceless stalkers are completely destroyed. But they are only the first wave.
We can play that fight out OR I can just declare that you win and charge you 4 charges of CLW wand to heal up afterwards. I'll say that it would take 3 more rounds, I'm easy either way.
2 of them swing their glaives at Vexas (one 5 ft stepping backwards first) for
for
Connecting once for a total of 11 points The other 3 advance as shown on the slides 2 attack Brannart
Both missing And the 5th one moves in on Soche
They definitely seem to be NOT on their game right now :-(. PCs are all up.
As you step close to the statue, suddenly several faceless stalkers appear from behind various walls, charging towards you. They're not even pretending to be something else, they are in their faceless stalker form.
So
Absolutely ok with that. Makes perfect sense
Ok, I'm going to speed things up a bit. Answering all your questions and also the likely follow up questions. The monument where you are is a place where, before Earthfall, the Azlanti lured Will-O-Wisps in so that they could be captured and forced to become lights. Yeah, thats right, the Azlanti turned sentients into light bulbs. And you're talking to the lightbulbs :-). The faceless stalkers are allies of the Ulat-Kini (Skum) who live in a half-sunken temple on the east coast, near where the river meets the sea.. They prefer the sea and don't come on the land much. It used to be totally above the surface but land has sunk with Earthfall, They can give you more or less accurate directions to the temple. A7 on slide 22 (I've skipped a couple of fairly pointless encounters). You all presumably rest up somewhere for the night and head over to A7 reasonably early the next day. It takes you a bit of time to find it but you get there around noonish or so. You should also all level up to level 8 You see ahead of you a ruined walled plaza with steps leading down to the temple at the far end, See slide 25 The platform on which the statue once stood is 10 ft high and looks reasonably climeable The rubble is generally difficult terrain, but the rubble next to the pedestal costs 4 squares of movement The statue varies in height but is 10 ft or so on average. Climbable but more difficult than the platform. The statue itself is difficult terrain The walls are 15 ft high and fairly climeable
Sorry for the delay. I've been quite sick the last few days. Should make a proper post tomorrow
I can just answer your questions and assume that it is Fenna asking the questions. But I would like to make sure that others actually want to do this investigate thing
Ok, I'm getting the fairly strong impression that people are some combination of really frustrated and really bored with the whole "Investigate the Island to find out CLUES" part of this adventure. Am I right? Do you want me to just arm wave all this with
Uh, poke?
It works perfectly.
You have successfully greeted the Wisps, which will provide you with a bonus on all attempts to interact with them.
With that linguistic check you can definitely communicate sufficiently to them that you want to cast a harmless spell in order to communicate. So you can use the scroll of shared language if you want.
You have successfully greeted the Wisps, which will provide you with a bonus on all attempts to interact with them. You're sure that they speak 2 languages that you lot may speak. They speak Aklo and Azlanti. However, they REALLY REALLY REALLY hate people who speak Azlanti. REALLY. Not quite at the "will automatically attack anybody who speaks it" but pretty close to that. Or you can make DC 25 linguistic checks or DC 15 Charisma checks to communicate simple ideas through a rough sign language.
Sorry for the delay. No AC in my house and I've been exhausted the last couple of days from the heat (heat by Canadian standards at least) :-( The DC to greet the Wisps is indeed 25 The base DC of the Dungeoneering check to know how to communicate further is only 16. Although there is more information available if you roll a 26. Or, of course, you can just try various languages and stuff,
Fenna recognizes that the balls of light are, in fact, Will -o-wisps. Fortunately, you're pretty sure that they aren't immediately hostile, and seem mostly curious about people who are either (or both?) foolish enough or powerful enough to come visit them in their home. Fenna even knows that the appropriate thing to do is to greet them, using your Dancing Lights spell to have the balls of light dance correctly. Fenna, give me a Fly, Spellcraft, or Perform Dance check (same DC, just use whichever one is better). Give me a Knowledge Dungeoneering check to know how to communicate with them beyond that greeting.
The group heads off towards the marsh, getting there a little before sunset. Slide 22 shows you a little more of the Island. A5 is the 7 pillars, an area as yet unexplored
The land gradually gets boggier and boggier until you see before you the marsh. Perhaps a couple of hundred feet away in the marsh you see Six twenty-five-foot-long stone blocks, each tapered like an arrowhead, are arranged in a vaguely flower-shaped formation in the moist ground. Some of the ancient stone blocks are cracked and splintered, while others are half sunken in the marsh. As the sun sets upon the ancient stone monument, one by one, dozen upon dozens of lights appear in the darkness, hovering like ghostly lanterns above the fetid waters of the marsh.
[b]"One tutu coming up. He waves and one of the other wyrwoods comes over with a positively gorgeous pink tutu with several semi precious (and shiny) gemstones sewn into it. They spend a bit of time measuring you and adjusting it so that it is an absolutely perfect fit once they are done. You are positively effulgent in it. Its getting to mid afternoon now. The Wyrwoods offer to let you stay here for the night if you wish. They don't eat food but they can offer you some fish to cook (they use the fish parts for stuff) Do you wish to spend the night here or head on to the swamp immediately? I don't want to delay the game, so I'll just tell you up front that the only issue is when you arrive at the swamp (your night here will be safe and uneventful). If you head off now it will be nightfall by the time you get to it, if you spend the night and get an early start it will be closer to noon.
"Just stories, I'm afraid. My favourite is that you should wear a pink tutu when dealing with them but I strongly suspect that is just a story and I just like it because the thought of brave adventurers wearing pink tutu's amuses me. But we CAN sell you pink tutu's if you really want. 1 sp each for basic ones, up to 10 gp each for REALLY nice ones"
"We're pretty much self sufficient here. But the one thing we absolutely need are any and all Ioun stones you can spare and want to trade. We'll take as many of those off your hands that you have to deliver" "The ghost lanterns live in the swamps, not near those pillars. No idea what lives by the pillars, if anything. Nothing that has bothered us or been seen by us, at least" So, where are you off to now?
They look at the Ioun stone with obvious desire and satisfaction, "What do you want for it? We will give you any combination of alchemical items or potions worth 2,000 gold. Although you'll have to wait for us to make some things Do you have any other stones to trade? Maybe even more powerful ones?"
"No harm in telling you about what you claim are our common enemies and other dangers on the island. We’ve seen many ugothols <faceless Stalkers> here in the north, but the ugly creatures are smart enough to stay out of our territory. They live in caves near the river. They haven’t always been living here on the
Ulat-kini <skum> are common in the southeast, but we don’t know where their lair is. They live somewhere many miles to the south, and they like swimming better than walking, so we don’t run into them too often here. Ghost lanterns <will=o-wisps> inhabit the southern marshes. There is an ancient place built from stone where they gather at dusk. It is said they know everything that happens on this island, but I should warn you, they’re not very welcoming to visitors. The stories say you should carry a lantern or other light source when you approach them or they’ll think you’re an enemy. Many kinds of beasts also live in the woods and marshes." As to bartering
They have lots or potions and alchemical items (pretty much most anything they have or can make). They also currently have
"Ok, please come with us" At least some of the archers step out from behind cover. One of them goes in front and leads the way, a couple others follow behind. They take you into the centre of the circle of ships. Various of the Wyrwoods watch you from around the edge. In the centre is another wyrwood. Although he looks similar to the others he exudes an aura of age, of power both personal and political. All the following is in Azlanti. "Greetings. My name is Locwudu. We are creatures called <Word you've never heard before>. I am the oldest of us and they have chosen me as their leader. What brings you to our home? Are you willing to trade with us? We have some items that are little use to us that may be of use to you, if you have anything we would eant"
They pretty obviously don't trust you but you are detecting no active deception
Cool answers. I like them :-) "Ok, I sort of believe you. Mostly. Why are you here? What do you want with us? Never mind. You should tell our leader. Leave ALL your weapons where they are and come on in. No spell casting!"
"You say that you are humans but no humans live here. Where is your ship? Where did you come from. And you say that you're enemies of the shapechangers. What proof of this do you have?" While there are many approaches you can take to answering these questions, the following are some suggestions from the module Show body parts of a faceless stalker
But anything you can think of to convince them is fine with me,
Sorry for the delay. Partly I was waiting for all the players and partly life happened. Will post later today
These are Wyrwoods. They are small constructs. You've heard about them being a fairly recent race created by a cabal of wizards who needed nimble, skilled construct servants. At some time they gained free will and eventually escaped the wizards control. While somewhat xenophobic in general they are NOT intrinsically hostile to humans. They are known for being rational and unemotional, concerned primarily with the survival of their race. How they reproduce is a secret that is NOT known to you but they DO reproduce somehow. Mechanically, they are constructs with darkvision and low light vision who have class levels and all the interesting stuff comes from their class levels. But there is something very wrong with the above. What the heck are they doing here, literally thousands of miles from where they should be? And why are they speaking Azlanti? And its hard to tell with them hidden but they don't quite look right.
You see a couple of small figures (there are probably more that you don't see. It is some kind of small wooden construct creature armed with a longbow. Knowledge Arcana or Crafting to know more.
A 25 is EXACTLY what you needed to remove the memory node. Well done. We seem to have consensus that you'll head on to the ships so that is where you now go :-). The trip there is fairly uneventful, and you arrive there in the late afternoon. Broken remains of ships and boats on the shore form a perimeter around heaps of barrels, crates, and other items that look like salvaged cargo. Additional ladders, nets, ropes, and weights have been attached to the ships and boats. A crimson flag on the mast of the largest ship proudly blows in the wind. Slide 24 As you approach it, a voice calls out in Azlant. It is coming from one of the ships ahead of you but the person shouting is hidden. You're currently 60 ft off the east end of the map, Perception check to see who is yelling
Azlant: "Stop there or we'll shoot. Reveal your true form, spies! You can’t fool us!”
Sorry, this weekend was very busy. Lots of gaming Sunday and I went off to the No Tyrants protest on Saturday (Can't have a No Kings protest up here in Canada since we kind of HAVE a King :-) :-).)
That positive energy is enough to (at least temporarily) put the haunt to rest. The only actual loot here is the Ioun Memory Node stone embedded in the device. Using brute force to remove it would likely destroy it. Disable Device would get it out far more gently with a greatly reduced chance of destroying it. And, whether or not you get it out, you have to decide where to go from here.
Not at all surprisingly, this is indeed a haunt. A haunt that has NOT yet acted. You all have another action to try and deal with the haunt
It takes some time (40 odd minutes) but Vexas is able to activate the mechanism. Running it with the current set of parameters you come to a terrible realization, that a huge number of massive objects are coming from space and headed directly for Golarion!!! Almost all of you (Perception DC 13) hear the faint screaming of meteors through the sky and see a bright flash of light in the distance and feeling the rumbling as if an impact occurred nearby. The roof of the observatory is blown away revealing 2 meteors in the sky approaching at a high speed. At the same time. a ghostly image of an Azlanti woman wearing a priests vestament appears hovering in the air, screaming out in Azlant a long drawn out "No!!!!!!". The meteors are coming!! You have a round before they arrive! What do you do?
Mechanism:
Combining your many knowledges and insights you manage to more or less sort of figure out what this thing is and activate it. This was an observatory back in Azlanti days and the clockwork mechanism is designed to calculate and display astronomical information such as positions of the sun, moon, other planets, several constellations. There was also a large telescope attached. While the lenses are now destroyed some of its magic still remains functional. If the telescope is pointed at a celestial object data is fed into the clockwork mechanism. A mere 2 entries allows one to calculate a linear trajectory and the objects speed, more data refining the trajectory and speed. Once a trajectory has been determined the objects position at any point in time (past or future) can be determined with accuracy determined by how many data points. All of these calculations are stored in a gem, a Ioun Memory Node The mechanism also has an output panel composed of thousands of pins that can be slid up or down, showing letters, 3D graphs. These pins can also be used as input devices. So, you've now figured out the mechanism. Do you wish to actually activate it? If you do so, you'll probably be able to figure out how to control it and run calculations of your own or see what calculations were last made on it.
Spyglass: Very slowly scanning the area with the Spyglass you eventually spot something that seems interesting. South West of here are 7 stone pillars set in a 1/2 circle, as you go clockwise around the circle from the northern pillar each pillar gets shorter and thinner than the previous pillar. The entire area seems shadowy compared to the neighbouring forest although there is no obvious cause for the shadow. Note that these pillars are in the part of the island that was NOT on the plaque since it had eroded away.
Sho has a vague idea of the value of the statuette. She places it as kinda sorta maybe 500 gp or so. Your trip to The Wheels of Heaven is uneventful. Getting there, you find that there is a 20 ft tall building built into the slope near the summit of what appears to be the one of, if not the, tallest hillss on the island. You approach stealthily but nothing attacks you and eventually you see inside the building. Inside is a machine consisting of thousands upon thousands of gears. A giant tube similar to a a spyglass rises from the centre of the contraption. On briefly examining the mechanism the only things that are immediately obvious are that it is some amlagam of magical object and technological device and that it is in exceptionally good shape. It MAY be possible to enable it to function again (although at the moment you have little idea of what that function might be). If you want to do that it would take a minimum of an hour's work and you'd have to make one of a Craft (Clockwork), Disable Device, Knowledge (Arcana or Engineering) or Use Magic Device check Alternatively, if you have a spyglass you can slowly scan the island from this vantage point and maybe see something of interest. Or you can decide that there is nothing of immediate import here and move on.
Sorry, its been a really busy weekend. I'll get a proper post in tomorrow |