I like runes's page

Guys, I was just updating the loot and resources sheet.

I've decided I won't add money there. I'm just assuming you're splitting it equally between party members. Unless, of course, there's a problem with acquiring the money for it.

So for example, I didn't add the gems that are worth some cash after selling, since they'd be pretty easy to transport. But I added the large helmet because some logistics are still required. If you do manage to haul it back home and find someone to buy it, then I'll just remove it from the sheet.

Unless, of course, you guys want to keep it as.... I don't know, a trophy? You guys decide.

I have no idea what all this means, but cheese is always good!

Upon looking at the so-called door more closely, Ethan and Alicia manage to open it without much difficulty. It seems it's a secret door! The corridor goes down and after a few turns, the group reaches another room.

The sound of sloshing water fills this room, which has almost entirely collapsed into a large tide pool. What few walls do remain intact here bear detailed and impressive carvings of incredible treasuries filled to overflowing with coins, gems, jewelry, and other items of value. To the east, the walls depict a carving of a towering mountain, its peak carved in the shape of a stern face just above a great palace. Below, the side of the mountain’s valley cradles an immense city of spires.

Upon looking at the room again, one can see that some part of the treasure is a bit ruined. Shattered urns, empty crumbled stone chests show that some treasure was removed from here. Also, once beautiful armor and weapons have not withstood the test of time. However, some things did survive.

After some time rumaging through the treasure, the party finds:

- 3500sp
- 630gp
- 40 precious stones worth 10gp each
- a jade amulate of natural armor +1
- an ancient coral-encrusted helm sized for a giant. If the party can manage to transport this 300 pound out of here, it would be worth 3000gp.

I can't update the map now, but I will when I can.

There was a fight that was supposed to happen in this room, but it doesn't really serve any purpose other than being hilarious - a hermit crab that chose the large helmet as a new home, so it looks like the helmet has pincers and fights back. I took this fight out because we've been here enough and the party won't lose to this, despite the shadows' damage.

That's good enough.

Open the spoiler already.

Guidance maybe?

It seems this complex has been cleared out. The sound of waves can be heard in the distance.

Arrian got me thinking of Babylon 5 again. Now I'll have to find where to watch it.

I'm considering Bless from last fight is still active, since it lasts 4 minutes. So, Doni's 18 - 4 from shooting into melee +1 from Bless hits the 15 touch AC. Also, she takes a step back to avoid an AoO.

Donimah fires another shot and it dissolves the last bits of the shadow. The room is now silent.

Donimah manages to take out another piece of the creature. Although barely existing anymore, it knows no other thing to do than try to suck out the life of nearby living creatures. It approaches Arrian and swings its claw at him.

Its attack, slow and clumsy flies above Arrian's already tall structure, hitting only air.

Party's up. Finish him!

I'm a little hesitant to bot Doni right now to get things moving. Her round could potentially end the fight and I don't want to take this agency from the group.

I did not think of the shadow vessels, but now I am. If they ever appear again, I'll use that image for the creature because it does fit.

Green will vs Alicia channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Blue will vs Alicia channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

One of the shadows disolves from the group's joint efforts.

Can someone delete blue from the map please? Doni, Ano and Juri are up.

@Arrian: You are totally right. My bad.

@Alicia: While you're right that you can use Combat Expertise due to EitR, you still cannot do 2 standard actions. You either bite or you channel. Please let me know which you're doing.

Green will vs Ethan channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Blue will vs Ethan channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Will vs Alicia's channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Will vs Ethan's channel: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

@Arrian: I think you've used both your judgements today. One with the dogs, one with the barghest.

The shadows have been here so long that they are not prepared for this wave of positive energy. They take the holy power head on, weakening them severely.

Afterwards Arrian cuts one of the shadows twice. The temporary enchantment on his weapon is enough to breach the veil of their existence. The strikes are powerful, and enough to make it fade away.

Donimah throws a magical punch at one of them which also takes part of its existence away, but it's still there. They move to their closest target, Alicia.

One of the shadows (blue) is able to attack Alicia. Its slam flies straight through her armor and shield, and grasps her very soul, taking some of its strength with it.

@Alicia: Take 4 Strength damage.

Party's up!

I found some free time. Here goes

Three shadowy forms come out of the walls.

The group is ready for this.

All readied action can go off now. After that Arrian and Donimah won initiative, so they can act again if they like.

I could move forward, but I'm having an extended weekend with my family. Chances are I will only be able to update on Tuesday.

Moved Alicia and Ethan into the room. All others, move yourself in if you like.

Alicia gets in and concentrates on detecting evil. She narrates the evil stirring and moving in.

They'll come out in 3 rounds. Post your 3 rounds and put yourselves in, please.

Guys, I have a question that's more of an opinion I think. It's about Int vs Wis stuff.

So what do you guys think should be more appropriate to piece together a big picture idea? I mean, suppose you've lived small isolated events that you thought nothing special at the time. What would be the better stat to see if later you can put them in a big bowl and relate them?

I am initially going with Wisdom, because I'm thinking of a (country) leader who has highly intelligent advisors. Each advisor is very good at focusing on one thing at a time, but it's up to the wise leader to see it all in a single picture to rule the land.

But now I'm doubting my train of thought. Does anyone have any wisdom to share (pun unintended)?

O man, take care Ano. Hug those pets while we're in Thistletop. You'll be back in Sandpoint in no time for that.

Or you could have a flashback in the dungeon. That'd be cool too. I'll try to think of something mechanical to go with it.

LoL

I stand corrected!

@Arrian: Doni and Juri's collective knowledge determine that Bless Weapon would not be useful vs incorporeal creatures. They don't have DR. They just don't have a physical body. Magic weapons so affect them, albeit at half damage (unless they are ghost touch weapons).

Alicia knows that channel needs line of effect (it doesn't go through walls.)

@Doni: You can assume it's still Karzoug. It'd be a safe assumption. This depiction is different, but it would be hard to come up with a reason to have two different depictions of a man with a glaive and a book.

Donimah and Juriya put their heads together and they both reach the same conclusion at once. It must be incorporeal creatures!

Arrian doesn't detect any magical auras.

Alicia senses it from the cracks on the stone wall.

Arrian can't really see, hear or smell anything weird.

This is sort of important: Is the group in the room or is Alicia doing this from outside? Also, sorry I didn't update the map yet. I'll do it tomorrow.

Alicia detects 3 sources of evil from within the walls. They stir at the party's entrance.

The group opens the double doors. Four pillars support the domed ceiling of this room. Several dark alcoves containing standing sarcophagi grace the walls, and a statue of a stern man wielding a glaive and holding a book stands in the southern part of the chamber.

My bad

@Arrian: That's interesting, so I stand corrected.

So, as far as exploration goes, there's still the double doors to the south, and the tentamort in the floor above, the creepy thing on the ceiling that you guys decided to leave out.

Are we resting? Going south? Tentamort? Back to Sandpoint?

While that's true, I believe they have to roll for caster level to cast a spell that is a higher level than they can cast. Also, these 4 spell level classes only have a caster level at their level 4. That is, they are not considered a caster before that.

@Arrian: I hadn't noticed that about the ring. Man, that makes it so much less useful.

@Alicia: You still have a double door with a creepy image on it to the south. I marked it with a red dot on the map, which I had forgotten to do earlier.

@Juriya: Not in this book. Get comfortable in level 4 for now.

@Alicia: From what I read of hero's defiance, you roll lay on hands, you don't get the max automatically, unless there's something else from your character I forget.

Damn that was a hot round for us.

@Arrian: You had an extra +1 due to high ground.

Alicia shows what paladins are made of, slicing the beast with holy power. It is startled by the sheer ferocity of the attack. It turns its body towards her, ignoring everything else completely. Juriya throws the bomb at it, but it disappears right as the bomb reaches its face.

@Juriya: Blink works by shifting you to the Ethereal plane back and forth, so when it blinks away, it doesn't exist in this plane, so no splash, sorry.

Arrian does a tactical move, taking advantage that the creature is completely focused on Alicia. With his enchanted against evil creatures weapon, he slices it. Not expecting this, the creature collapses, letting out an angry sigh.

@Juriya: You're totally right. After Alicia's crit, it had 7 HP left, so the bless weapon made a huge difference.

@Doni: You can keep your spell if you like, or still create a pit to add some insult.

The group of heroes breathes relieved. They survived this encounter.

Everyone get a hero point for awesomeness!

There are some racks on the corners holding a lot of candles, 60 in total.

A single silver coffer sits on its side on one of the shelves in the western alcove. As you open it after verifying it's not trapped, you find it's filled with white sand.

You have 1 hero point from when you joined the game, and all uses from the hero point rules are available, including act out of turn.

Quick comment on my phone:

The monster has Combat Reflexes in its sheet. Don't know if you want Cherry to be coming with you.

@Juri: Your throwing of a bomb happens at -4 due to no Precise Feat. Luckily, its touch AC sucks.

@Alicia and Arrian: You take 2 fire damage from Juriya's splash.

As Ano walks by the creature, it takes advantage of the situation for an attempt to bite her.

The bite removes a chunk of the catfolk's shoulder. On the other side, however, Ano's blade penetrates a vital part of the creature. However her thrust does not do as much damage as she thought it would.

Ano blink, miss if <= 50: 1d100 ⇒ 53

@Doni: It's not a ranged touch, but a melee from a reach of 10ft due to your excellent choice of spell. I'll have to add that to my wizard repertoire, althouth spectral hand does a better job, but requires Precise Shot.

Doni blink, miss if <= 50: 1d100 ⇒ 31

Donimah's spell is about to hit him, but he blinks away just in time.
Although the spell is still charged in your hand.

The barghest replies to Donimah in Goblin and Juriya as he strikes those around him.

Ano, take 22 damage from the bite AoO.

Arrian take 21 damage from bite, Alicia take 17 damage from unconfirmed claw crit and Ano take 26 confirmed crit on claw.

Changed the map a bit. Forgot this dude is Large. Also, forgot to add knowledge check bonuses. Juri knows it has no special resistances. Also, it has DR 10/magic. Arrian doesn't get any extra info because his roll didn't exceed the DC by 5 or more

I posted it so you could roll it yourselves and write an appropriate result if you like. But if you don't I'll roll it myself. Unless I forget, then you get a free hit.

Sorry for the suspense, my timetables will be a little bit messy until the end of August.

Arrian is right about that. Feel free to re-prepare the slot if you didn't mean this to happen.

The group steps towards the door to open it, Arrian and Alicia leading the charge. Suddenly they notice that there is no doorknob. The doors to this room are made of stone but bear no handles. An indented outline of a seven-pointed star, its shape covered by hollows and slits, graces the spot where handles should be.

After a brief pause, Juriya remembers the thing that was not a tool in the transmutation room to the east. It does fit the hole indeed and it proves to be the only key to open it. The doors open as the group finishes casting their boosting spells.

Fix your marching order if you like. I put you how I thought you'd go.

Behind the doors nothing can be seen, but a growl can be heard.

I added a slide in the map presentation with the book's illustration of this fight, I find it very nice. Get ready, this is a nasty one.

Before anyone can do anything, the creature appears. This snarling, canine beast pads forward on all fours, its slender front limbs looking more like hands than a wolf’s paws. Strangely, the creature seems to be blinking in and out of existence, without pattern, making it hard to lock down.

It immediately starts to bite and swing its claws at Alicia.

The creature's ferociousness is visible. Its bite moves towards Alicia's head, but it blinks out of existence just before biting. However, this doesn't happen with both claw attacks.

@Alicia: Take 2 claw attacks, one for 12 and the other for 10 damage.

Party's up. The creature's being affected by a blink effect, so all attacks and effects on it have a 50% chance to miss, i.e., that it disappears at the exact time you attack or, the effect passes through it.

As the group casts spells before entering the door, some spells can be heard being cast on the other side as well.

Only Doni and Alicia's buffs to go.

That is very helpful, yes, but I should be keeping track of this. So if one of us fails, the other will be there.

Ok, I like Ethan's post with all buffs in a single sentence. Can everyone also post their respective buffs so it's easier for me to track?

Now I wanna hear more about the opera singer...

The group finds that the second level is perfectly comfortable for some rest, despite it being tilted.

When you want, you can just rest and assume all resources are refreshed.

Actually tracking rations, that's a first.

I make a point of tracking for my own character, so now I share the pain.

If we're sleeping in the dungeon, let's make sure we have enough trail rations to go around. If we're going back out, let's meet Gogmurt on the way out.

Upon investigating the tools, she determines that they are of very high quality.

Set of surgical tools worth 100gp in total.

She also detects that there's an object at a corner of the easternmost table that is not a tool. It appears to be a silver-and-gold seven-pointed star; one surface is studded with nodules and blades, and the other features a thin, curved handle.

@Arrian: The room you're in is beyond the gold coins pillar already. There were 3 doors from that hallway and you've explored 2 of them so far. Only the one with the big evil remains.

Those heal checks sucked!

Ethan and Arrian study the bones without touching them. Upon examination, they seem to be human bones. If one were to put a human's skeleton together, there's enough for that, but there's also more. The extra would not be enough to put another entire human together, there are legs missing, but there's a thorax and skull and arms. How this second person relates to the first is unclear.

Knowledge local or heal.