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that would be because I uploaded the wrong set... now there's a nice shiny set of PDFs out there... (including the correction for yours, Ka). openoffice will import the PDFs after I've sliced the Chronicle page out of the electronic of the scenario/module. I can then annotate. It'll also let me cleanly export back to pdf. Works out nicely altogether, but I have to remember to upload the PDFs, not the ODGs....
Chronicles here. If there are any discrepencies, please let me know. I'll be reporting the results to the Gamesday folks by Saturday.
@Ka - I've got you down for 2 PP for a wand CLW. Is that still right? So when i report this your PP 'net' will be 0, though your fame should still advance 2. clear as mud? ...and S&S proceeds apace. I've certainly got plenty of folks to fill the two tables. I haven't gone deeper and started evaluating submissions in detail yet. Unfortunately my wife won't be joining us as we push off into the madding seas... she decided she can't commit to the pace I'd put on those. Maybe some other interesting folk from different corners of Paizo-land though :)
In the small, dead end passage to the northeast of the excavation site lie the long-buried remains of seven dead pathfinders beneath a makeshift stone cairn. Zoathris's gear (left behind after his immolation) includes silversheen leather armor, short swords (2), drow-crafted boots of elvenkind, and black smear (6 doses). Miregold is brutally scarred and suffers major nerve damage that leaves him shaken and exhausted until he receives restorative treatment. he is eternally grateful and
Despite Miregrold’s best efforts, the Decemvirate assumes possession of the Karcau Lodge and transfers him to a more remote lodge elsewhere on Golarion, where he is less of a liability to the organization. The Society’s masked leaders turn control of the Karcau Lodge over to Basia Kalistoff, who makes good on her promise and rewards the PCs for their assistance.
BTW, as annoying as the deeper darkness was, it's even worse - it was an 'at will'. It chewed up Zoathris's standard action, but he'd have just kept making more... :\ @VBH - looks like I'll be able to get Chronicle sheets out by Friday afternoon after all... thanks to a timely crit by your friendly neighborhood Paragon of Good and Justice.
As Zoathris lunges forward to attack Garinol (who was stealing the object of Zoathris's current plaything, Miregold), Rhydderch tracks the sound of his footfalls and the clash of metal, and swings on him with a great slice of godly smiting, and severs some critical bits of the villain. As Zoathris's bits settle to earth, they emit a fizz, then a spark, and explode into a conflagration of deadly flame, eclipsing even the inky blackness the dark stalker had called into being.
VBH dismounts, sending the wounded Gerald farther back. VBH strikes out, but the attacker has moved out of range of his attack. Zedril - newly healed and feeling the effects of poison abate - steps forward and bathes the area in fire. The bright elemental fire momentarily relieves the darkness - with little effect. Rhydderch, however, had been moving up to attack the opponent, and discerns a momentary silhouette - enough to fix on him and landing a solid blow, despite the returned darkness. Garinol moves toward the door with Miregold, pausing to cast a spell and cast his gaze around the room. As Garinol retreats, everyone in the room hears a thin, high pitched voice wail, and screech in a harshly accented tongue, "તમે તેને ન કરી શકો છો! Miregold ખાણ છે! હું દ્રાક્ષ જેવા તેને દાબવું, અને ઇંચ દ્વારા તેમના જીવન બહાર બર્ન જાઉં છું! " Dark Folk language:
"You can't have him! Miregold is mine! I'm going to wring him like a grape, and burn out his life by inches! " Rhydderch, Zedril, and VBH hear and sense a figure leaping past them towards the door.
VBH and Ka fire fiercely at the concealed attacker - Ka striking accurately at a point slightly behind the attacker, and VBH finding the target, but unable to connect for damage. Garinol removes Miregold from the machine - by braille. Miregold moans as he is moved, but the magical healing applied allows him to stagger, with Garinol's support, towards the door. Zoathris takes a slice at Gerald ('Snuffly nasty mount!') and fades off into the darkness.
ALLCON -
Ka and Garinol work assidiously on Miregold, freeing him from the machinery without much further damage, and liberally applying magical healing that restore his vitality, if not sensibility. ...and... the lights go out. Very, very, very out. Those with darkvision are shocked and appalled to discover that they can not see in this deeper darkness.
Garinol successfully reaches Miregold, suspended atop his own fantastic construction, and infuses him with life to supplement the venture-captain's own waning light. Miregold is pierced in a dozen places, with caustic fluids being infused directly into his veins. Garinol doesn't have a solid handle on Miregold's situation, but it is clear to him that the Pathfinder will die in short moments without further intervention. Although neither Rhydderch nor VBH can see any particular source, Rhydderch is sure that there is some source of evil among the machinery on the east wall. GM Screen: 15
Though naturally formed, the walls and floors of this room are secured and reinforced with additional construction. It appears as though these newer structures were recently partially torn down. At the chamber’s heart lies a crude and massive machine-like device. It consists of a large stone and iron tank fitted on a crossbar to a disk plated with reflective metals. Strings and cables, threaded through the device in intricate cat’s cradles, secure delicate and precisely oriented refractive devices. The unfortunate venture-captain Skeldon Miregrold is lashed to the top of his own greatest invention, his body riddled with hundreds of sharp, crystal needle-width shunts all filled with acid. His moans reflect a nearly perfect despair. GM Screen:
The platform rests very near the center of the underground body of water, which extends out for between 250 and 300 feet in all directions. The lake is fed by a stream that enters beneath its surface on the northern edge and flows out from a similarly concealed tributary to the southwest. On the north, south, and west edges of the cavern, the water flows right up to the smooth, stone walls. On the eastern shore, a low bank filled with fine black sand leads to a narrow tunnel away from the lake. It is to this passage that the guide rope leads, 300 feet from end to end. Each boat holds two Medium creatures and can be propelled with a 25-foot punting pole (found in the bow of each craft). The PCs may also pull the craft along the surface of the water using the guide rope.
A makeshift platform stands between a series of limestone stalagmites protruding from a seemingly endless subterranean lake. Only a small pool of light illuminates the platform, falling from the hole in the cavern’s ceiling above and holding back the thick darkness stretching in all directions. Three ornate ivory gondolas float nearby, tethered to one of the planks forming the haphazard platform. A rope tied to the tallest stalagmite stretches taught into the darkness.
By torchlight, the darkness yields to show that the chain extends down 40 feet. It is afixed to a stalactite, which is one foundation for a small wooden pier. The pier is surrounded on all sides (as far as any light carries) by dark, still waters. There is a rope that extends northwest from the pier. Two small skiffs are moored to the pier. The chain looks firmly anchored at both the top and bottom, presenting a straightforward climb down, for everyone except Gerald.
Most of the shelves contain collections of assorted books, scrolls, and Pathfinder Chronicles, arranged by date. In addition, the library possesses a small general reference section in the southeast corner. The inner doors on the west wall open to small storage closets. The first closet contains reams of paper, blank notebooks, assorted inks, quills, binding glue, scissors, and similar items. The second contains a filing log of all the volumes in the library and a strange relief carving covered with serpents. The rags where the dark creeper fell contain a masterwork dagger and three doses of "black smear" poison(a specialty of the dark folk). Several magical scrolls are filed amid the library’s shelves. The shelves hold a scroll of comprehend languages and a scroll of darkvision. cheliax:
PCs of the Cheliax faction should be interested in the relief carving located in the library closet. Osirion:
Osirion faction PCs will want to obtain the scroll entitled “The Razing of the Temple of Apep by An-Hepsu V,” which is easily located by date or filing log. In the laboratory, The desk contains Miregrold’s personal journals. One of them lies open, revealing his latest entry (see Handout A), a passage concerning his growing suspicions that his former associate, a dark stalker named Zoathrias, has returned to murder him and steal his aureolyte crystal. Others contain some pretty damning evidence concerning Miregrold’s past robberies, the spoils of which he sold to fund his research, and his misuse of Pathfinder Society funds. A search uncovers a few dog-eared pages that concern dealings with dark folk (such as dark creepers and dark stalkersand includes notes about their weaknesses. A search of the desk uncovers a collection of notes detailing the proper placement of banded sunrods to activate the lighting apparatus, and a larger version housed farther underground, in a large cavern.
Miregrold keeps his most valuable possessions in this room for added security. An unlocked chest is stashed beneath Miregold’s workbench. It contains a masterwork light crossbow, five sapphires worth 40 gp each, 10 pp, and 50 gp. There are several alchemical items on the desk which are clearly visible without searching. For Tier 1–2, there is a vial of alchemist’s fire, an acid flask, and two vials of antitoxin. Osirian:
PCs of the Osirion faction will probably take interest in the mobile of the solar system. The opalescent sphere they seek represents the planet Eox. To replace the sphere with the decoy require a disable device check (DC20). Qadira: Qadira faction PCs will want to obtain the logs of Miregrold’s past dealings with dark folk.
The odd humanoid has moved next to Zedril, and has a dagger raised, with a viscous black substance dripping from the blade. The sudden brightness of Rhydderch's daylight spell causes it to flinch briefly.
initiative humanoid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15 initiative Rhydderch: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
With a sudden flash of inspiration and insight, Tomnus realizes the machine is about to wind itself into an inglorious and unspectactular failure. The dysfuction runs through sunrod 27, a half turn clockwise will release it, and it can be extracted to shut the machine down gracefully, rather than turning into a nasty mess on the floor. As Garinol follows Tomnus's suddenly cogent explanation, the machine ceases its thrumming, and its painfully bright light levels cut out quite suddenly. The chambers are otherwise dark, except for the party's light sources. All of which suddenly also cease to operate.
Garinol begins removing sunrods, while Rhydderch tries to convey a sense of how everything is supposed to go together, based on the available notes. Tomnus contributes to the decision making. VBH backs off, having apparently set off a chain of actions he doesn't fully fathom. Ka and Zedril exchange tactical considerations for later confrontations. GM Screen:
Tomnus and Rhydderch reach the conclusion that the device should have limiter rings associated with the sunrods as they are placed in the machine - and that the current configuration of the machine does not include the limiter rings, which are on the table. The notes also identify a store of sunrods near the bottom of the stairs . Garinol confirms that there are no limiter rings, and that he's extracting sunrods as quickly as he can. But the machine continues to thrum and pulse.
The device has five locking entry points, each just wide enough to house a sunrod. To properly activate the device, the rods need to be adjusted by fitting them with specially crafted rings that precisely boost or dampen their effect. They need to be placed in the proper order for the device to function effectively. In the wrong order, they can cause the device to fizzle or worse, overload. The notes at the desk list the following numbers and names with the material from which the rings are crafted. The numbers correlate to slot locations labeled on the device’s blueprint. The rings contain writing explaining how to place them on the sunrod. Each ring must be placed in a specific position that correlates with a slot along its shaft. The sunrods currently inserted in the machine have no limiter rings on them - the limiter rings are ordered neatly on the workbench. The current operation of the machine is... not according to design.
Burning, blinding light explodes from a large circular alcove in the northeast corner of the room. Within, an elaborate arrangement of mirrors, prisms, and similarly refractive materials stands carefully positioned by calipers, strings, and wires marking its precise settings. In the opposite corner dangles a three-dimensional mobile of various sized metal spheres. A complex frame surrounds the spheres. The length of the frame is etched with numbers. A broad work desk divides the two alcoves. The work desk is covered with a mixture of metal bits, crystals, and handwritten notes. GM Screen:
Attempting to disable the device feels right, but the complex arrangement of prisms, mirrors, and sunrods is very baffling. Your initial attempts don't produce a noticable difference - the device continues to pulse and thrum.
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