Zandora's page

Oh yeah, I didn't really need to pull that fourth lever, did I? Ha ha. I'm dumb.

Oooh, nice rings, thank you!

Zandora gives half the silver and one of the rings to Shada.

After they walk away she asks

Okay, what test next?

It was disgusting and painful. Do you have our rewards?

Kid was an illusion. Actually the lever. Strange. she tells Shada.

Then she goes up the stairs, still ready for trouble, just in case the people here reflect their test.

Zandora, if she has pulled the lever and gotten to the proper side of the barrier, heads for the door to find Shada.

Teleport and long range teleport aren't usable at this level... too many AP (or at least I think that was the reason I traded them out).

Zandora casts Teleporting Assault, tries to get to the lever to pull it and then back out. She doesn't engage the undead, even if attacked or harmed. She just stays on mission.

The Pathfinder version of Blink allows you to walk through walls too, depending on your rolls and you can choose the direction. I have done it many times. That one I could use here. Yours is the question. But maybe I was getting it mixed up with teleporting assault ... could I use that one to bypass the barrier if necessary?
(I'll probably actually trade Blink out since I don't want it for battle, and it doesn't look useful for anything else.)

Zandora isn't sure whether this whole thing is still part of the test or not, so she is reluctant to break the partition and give the undead access to a public area where they could get out into the populace. The kid had a sword, so if he wanted to try that, then she'd help him get to the exit, but she wasn't going to start it.

She says to the young adventurer

Don't talk and attract attention... let me do that. You just breathe, try not to panic, and think about how you got in here. That way maybe you could retrace your steps. If you came in some way you can't get back out, and you decide to break the partition, that's the exit over there. Just nod if that is what you are going to try so I'll be ready.

Zandora lets go of Shada's hand and tells her

Go, get out... see if you can get them to tell you another way in there. Maybe we can give him directions to get back out. While you try that, I'll try from this side... might have to break that barrier, and if so, the fewer people in here the better. I promise I won't be fighting them without you... just running.

Can I alter my blink spell to be able to cast it on the kid instead of me? Or alternatively, cast it on me but be able to pull him back through with me? Even if it has to be completely random, standing close enough to the barrier should get you across close to half the time.

Zandora has no idea what is wrong, but if they are going to let those undead out, it is definitely bad. She grabs Shada's hand and sprints for the door.

Is there such a thing as being able to run in this game, or is it the same distance whether you are walking/running/however much effort you are putting into it? I mean, mechanics-wise it only matters whether we can get to the door or not, but we would be running flat out in the story.

Oh, only three. I didn't remember that, thanks. I guess we're off to the next room then... or is it over?

I think circle around to the left, but if Shada feels confident splitting up we could potentially cover more ground I suppose... but I'm the one with the telekinetic way to hurl a lot of coins at once in all directions, although... probably just throwing a handful of copper in front of you would work too. Maybe I was overthinking it.

Okay, they start circling around whatever is there, pausing every other turn to shoot out some more coins, hoping to find the lever as well as making sure they are avoiding the center.

Zandora, using her knowledge of magic, changes her telekinetic hurl spell just a bit in order to shoot out a handful of copper. It wouldn't hurt anything, but listening to the pieces bounce or fall could give them an idea about what obstacles were in the room, and perhaps even where the lever was.

She tells Shada to stay behind her, and they go 10 feet straight ahead into the blackness, then she casts the spell, and they listen closely to see what they hear.

So, assuming my magical clothing that sheds light is weaker than the magical darkness... we can't even see our hands in front of our eyes?

Can I use knowledge magic along with telekinetic hurl to shoot out several copper pieces at once (with Shada behind me so I don't hit her)? Maybe the magical tradeoff is that they aren't strong enough to actually work as an attack that way, but if we listen to where they scatter and bounce off of, we might be able to detect obstacles and find our way (and possibly even find the lever).

There is also just hugging the wall and hoping that it brings us to the other side, but since we don't know the shape of the room it might be faster to try going straight ahead?

Or, I suppose it is even possible that having some latent telekinetic power, she might even be able to sense objects in some mental way, because otherwise she wouldn't be able to move them. Is that a possibility?

Zandora carefully scores the ice to give herself some traction and then pulls Shada to safety on the far side of the chasm.

I am sure that takes a while because she is being super careful since, you know, ice.

Zandora sets up a safety rope so that they can try jumping without killing themselves.

After pulling the lever (Still not sure if it was on this side or that side of the chasm or if it matters, depending on how wide it is... but just moving forward and guessing.), she attempts the jump.

Jump (easy +20 plus safety rope) = 60: 1d100 ⇒ 35

Thankfully making it safely to the other side.

Also not sure if Shada went first while I was getting the lever, but either way, she'll either get her rope back or wait for Shada and then get her rope back, and they will continue.

Okay, so at level one what are the options? I just gave up several teleportation spells, but couldn't have used them anyway... too much AP. I have two left but teleporting assault just allows you to do little 5m jumps as part of an attack, and blink has a 10m limit, and I think it is random, so even if the rift is that small, it has a good chance to drop me to oblivion as well. I don't even think "flight" would work as written, since it just allows you to hover 1m off the ground. That would help with the ice maybe, but not with a bottomless bit... 1m above nothing is still nothing. There are also water spells that seem like they could freeze us a bridge, but again, too much AP for noobs.

Jumping over I am sure is "possible," but if bottomless, will result in our deaths at a more than 50% chance, which doesn't seem like a good option.

So, here's what I am thinking... telekinetic hurl on one end of my rope to get it wrapped around something on the far side. Once we get it secure, we tie ourselves off to the "rope bridge" and then either hand over hand or jump using the rope the whole time, so that if we fall, the rope catches us and we don't actually fall into oblivion. That way, it might still be difficult to get over, but that isn't coupled with certain death. What do you think?

If the lever is on this side of the chasm, she ties off the rope bridge first so that Shada has more time to get across while she is activating the lever (uses telekinetic hurl again so she doesn't have to go the whole way, or reach down into the chasm), then comes back and goes over herself.

I thought I was joking... ARE there glasses that would aid perception?

Zandora walks very carefully to avoid slipping on the ice, and moves over to the trench, thinking that must be where the lever is hidden.

Perception 35: 1d100 ⇒ 62

Assuming half movement to be able to walk carefully (?), and no idea how far to the trench to look into it, so not sure how far I am able to walk. Is the trench parallel to the path to the door, or is it an obstacle that we have to overcome to get to the other side?

We seem to both need glasses. :)

You might want to open the door and at least look in and see if you can see the lever. I can still get it, but an extra perception roll might save us some time if it isn't obvious.

I think you can go on into the next room if you want to... your call. I guess you could at least open the door and look in and decide whether you want to go in or wait, depending on how comparatively horrible it is. :)

Zandora uses her next turn to go 40 feet towards the exit, but still has 20 feet to go, and takes another point of damage.

No worries. Sorry if I am arguing too much. I really am just trying to understand, but I go a little overboard sometimes.

We hadn't done the second round yet. I asked where it split off in order to plan that... I am going to use my telekinetic hurl again, so I won't ever get 80m from the door. (It only has a one round cooldown, and since it basically stops me to use it, that shouldn't be a problem here because I will always have a round of movement after using it.)

In any case, you said it was 30m down a side passage, but I didn't know where the side passage split off. My first post assumed it was right by the exit door, but if it is right by the *entrance* door as you seem to suggest, then I would go *10m* down it, then use the spell. That, at most, makes me 60m from the door, not 80. 2 damage noted.

Perception +20 = 55: 1d100 ⇒ 23

Zandora sees the lever and tells Shada to go ahead and go straight through, she'll get it.

It isn't clear where the path to the left splits off of the main path. Does it split off right where the door to the next room is, or sooner?

Based on it splitting off right at the door, Zandora moves 40 and takes the damage for this turn.

Okay, wait wait... from what you said a few posts back I got it wrong. You said

"Your speed is your Agility modifier, yeah. Since you both have a 40+ in Agility 1 Action Point lets you move 4m, 2 lets you move 12, and 3 Ap lets you move 20m. I'm assuming both of used all your AP, and managed to get 40m."

So, actually having a good speed is not all that helpful unless that is all you are doing, since everything is action points. You cannot move normally and cast normally... it is all trade-off. So, actually, if I go back the 10 meters, that takes up 2 AP, then I can cast, and then I am stuck there with no more AP. I could move 2 meters back the other way (and I will), but that kind of a fraction of the distance is unlikely to matter. (Good think I can move 40 next turn.) And I see now that these are action points for every turn, which I wasn't really getting till I re-read that. Okay, sorry... corrected, and moving on.

Also, we should have moved to the new room this turn (First turn 40, second turn 20m, then what I just posted which is 12m) but I guess Shada probably saw the lever as she was exiting the room, told me, and I went back for it to the border of the first room or something. Shada should be 10 m into the second room, and I am in between the rooms, barely into the 2nd probably because of that extra 2m. Ugh, keep messing up... but I think that is right for now.

It was Shada that was close, but yeah... ugh either way. Let's see.... if I add Telekinetic Hurl to my character (I had a lot of talents that are useless at first level because they cost way more than my currently possible AP, so lots to get rid of), that has a 20m limit, so I would have to backtrack 10m and then use 4/6 AP. Huh. Well, okay, let's try it I suppose. We're supposed to be trying out this game system, after all. :)

Okay, so Zandora, still struggling to not yog all over herself, sees Shada point out the lever, and nods that she will try for it.

She moves back the way they had come by about 10 feet, then casts Telekinetic Hurl at the lever, getting it to change position.

Action Points down to 2/6... not sure I remember how to get more. Is it a rest thing, a once a day thing, or what? It definitely costs too much to be able to use again, so I hope we see the next one before we get to it.

Then she moves back to the previous position, hoping she can control her gag reflex long enough to catch up with Shada.

That was total half movement, 20 meters.

Physical Prowess 40 (+10 easy, +10 chocolate) = 60: 1d100 ⇒ 46

... She is able to get it under control. Thank goodness!

Perception 35: 1d100 ⇒ 61

Nothing new to see this turn anyway. Next room in 10 meters, right?

So close on perception! Darn.

Which one would move levers? The "hurl" one?

I can't find telekinesis... what is it under?

Having moved 40 meters, Zandora needs to concentrate to stop herself from gagging, so she slows way down. The chocolate seems to help a little bit, but not enough.

Half movement... 20 meters.

She keeps her eyes open for the lever, in case they can see it before leaving the room, but she isn't too worried. Just getting out of this place will be enough. Why did they attempt this test in the first place? She couldn't recall.

Physical Prowess 40 (+10 easy, +10 chocolate) = 60: 1d100 ⇒ 68
Perception 35: 1d100 ⇒ 79

More fail.

What exactly can imbue magic do? Can I use it on a scarf to filter air, or on a lever to move it remotely or anything like that?

Okay, since we are changing our characters on the fly, I just traded out long range teleport which I can't use anyway for perception... call me a cheater if you like. :) It still only gives me a 35 total, but at least it is something.

Zandora is overwhelmed by the smell and decides to try something. She pulls some dark chocolate from her cooking supplies, and rubs it all over around her nose, especially under, all but blocking her nasal passages. It wouldn't make it great, she was sure that she looked foolish, and maybe she would hate chocolate for the rest of her life after this, but she hoped the strong sweet smell would make it tolerable. She offered some to Shada as well, then waded in.

I think you are right Shada... speed. Although if you do see a lever, let me know.

Movement 4... does that mean 40 meters?

Physical Prowess 40 (+10) = 50: 1d100 ⇒ 62
Perception 35: 1d100 ⇒ 70

Zandora has light clothing, so everything around her should be bright even though the room lighting is dim.

Let me know if the chocolate reduces the penalty or not.

Do we both have to go in each room, or can we enter separate rooms to increase our speed?

Oh! ha ha. That makes more sense. Thanks. So, I guess we have to ask... how is fear handled in your game? Not that we aren't going to find out soon enough, but maybe knowing up front will help us with strategizing?

Oh, my mistake. I think I misheard. Three levers, okay. Something to be looking out for.

She looks at Shada.

What do you think? Speed run, or go for completion? We can always try for both, but maybe we should decide which is more important to us... speed or getting all the levers?

What does "pulling three levels" mean?

Zandora smiles, but says

Sorry, friend. Not a bad price, but it is the ethical aspect of all of it that is the trouble. We can't risk blowing the contest by cheating. Fare you well.

She walks away.

Zandora smiles

Fellowship (30+20 = 50): 1d100 ⇒ 54 (Would also get +10 bonuses (each) if she is attracted to me. Otherwise, fail.)

Hmm, tempting, but we better not. Don't want to blow the competition over something we can likely figure out for ourselves.

I'm going to take the Natural Born Liar drawback off my sheet and trade it out for something else... I remembered at first, but then stopped, and I feel like my character changed in the meantime, so since you said we could rebuild anyway, I'm going to do that part... maybe some other things, but might take me a few days to get it all together. Haven't been monitoring the changes, so have to get up to speed.

What sort of information? We don't want anything that could potentially disqualify us, but if you have the location of the test of Grace, there wasn't anything in the rules about how we find it, so that could work.

(She stays on guard however, because she knows that the test of Survival finds you, and she also doesn't really want to be stabbed and left for dead in an alley.)

Zandora walks over to see what this is about.

Okay, I'm game. Valor then?

Hmm, well, any of the other challenges really... do you have a preference? We still don't know where the test of Grace is, but I believe you suggested the test of Valor? Shall we try that one?

She looks around.

It seems as though we've lost some of the people who we were teaming up with... shall we grab some others from the crowd on the way?

She scans the crowd and then looks over at Shada.

See anyone interesting?

That might help... sounds interesting.

Yeah, doesn't necessarily need to change... I liked what Shada was saying about bringing the different challenge levels to the forefront, make that part more obvious. Not sure how on that either. With play by post you are going to have people trying to roll their own stuff, and how will we know what kind of challenge rating the DM considers something? Should we just guess and say, well, since this seems like something anyone can do with enough time, I am going to consider it easy and take a +20 for this roll? That way, we could still feel like we do in Pathfinder at first level, that we could definitely take down a commoner or a rat, but you know... if it is a soldier or a dire rat, maybe we should think about it. :)

I think it will help, sure... have to re-look at all of that... but maybe psychologically knowing that 30 is 30% is worse than just not knowing the DC, because if I have a +4 at level 1 in Pathfinder I think, hey, that's pretty good for this level... might be able to hit something with a little luck. In this game I don't have 50% in most things... more like 30-40, and I think, wow, that's not very good. It'll be a miracle if I get under that.

The +4 is ADDED to the roll, you know, so it seems like extra, and in Pathfinder I also start out with 10s in my attributes without having to spend anything... so I start out with a 50% chance (or at least psychologically it seems so since that is half of a d20) rather than worse than that.

I thought it was an interesting challenge... not too hard in general, but overall if it were someone else DMing and they cared about rolling tests more, we might have failed badly because we couldn't make almost all of the rolls we tried, and they might have based the whole thing on that rather than just normal-person reasoning it out.

In a published adventure maybe it would say that it is an easy challenge so you get +20 or whatever, but even so, psychologically I find it somewhat difficult to even want to roll, knowing that I have less than a 1 in 3 chance of passing. ... I guess that could be a good thing if you are trying to focus on narrative rather than mechanics, and only roll for things that seem really tough or something, so no specific advice... just explaining how I was thinking going through it.

... as for rebuilding, I think I might rebuild at least partially, if I have time. I took some things thinking the would be useful for the future and that it was cool we could get almost anything from the beginning, but I seem to be lacking lots of basic skills and don't have the ability to cast most of that stuff yet anyway. Have to see if I can make a low level build that is more versatile.

However, I really don't know if I will have time, so I'll just move forward as is if I end up not having the time to look through everything again.

Zandora makes sure to say farewell to Azana (her supposedly dead body) on the way out as well.

As she leaves she says

Well played everyone. Thanks for an interesting challenge!

Okay, no worries. At this point I think Zandora would ask Ured about some of the machines that can create illusions... who had access, etc, but unless something comes up wildly different than what we already know, I think that we need to just accuse Almena and be done. We caught her in a lie, and everything else seems to fit together, although still not sure why she killed her. Doesn't seem like a non-recoverable problem to harm some trees... I mean they aren't even dead, and they will be fine eventually. Maybe there is something hidden in her room that tells us why? I guess I would check again just in case.

Anyway, if there is something extra-sneaky in there, I am not getting it, and I feel like we may have lost all the other players besides Shada, so I think it is time to be done either way.

Just met? Wait... do you not know that Azana is dead?

Just making sure... you mentioned Azana breathing when we inspected the body before... that was just because the whole thing is staged as well, right? No possibility of a faked death?

Ah, the items. Could you show me?

And even though it might not matter... why barefoot?

When you say Azana and Almena were being grumpy with each other, can you describe what you saw that made you think that?

Can anyone here cast illusion magic?

Zandora thinks about it.

Hmm. Well, I would say that stabbing someone is almost inherently stupid, honestly. It would have to be a pretty rare situation to make something like that sound reasonable.

Zandora shows her the copy of the Journal entry.

Any reason someone would want to frame you?

Did you borrow some gardening gloves from Almena?

Did you threaten to stab Azana in the heart?