JJJ's Haunting of Harrowstone

[stack]

Augustin take the other side of the door, swinging with both hands.

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Can we just 'take 20' on this? AUgustin maxes at 11 damage.

[Gwynfrid]

The group moves inside the square room. Kaythek steps into the ruined former foyer, while Briar holds the door for him. He strikes at the thick hinge, failing to cause any noticeable damage. On his side Augustin tries to attack the other door, without any success either.

No sooner have the pair made their attempt that all doors, north and south, slam shut.

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Kaythek is locked out, while the rest of the team is trapped inside the room with the fungus.

@ Stack: Sorry, no, you can't take 20 on that.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

"This is really starting to get annoying."

Morcaine moves towards the center of the room.

"All right, spirit of the prisoners or metaphysical anger of the prison itself! Come on out! Exorcists right here! Show yourselves and be done with it! COME ON!"

She waves her hands around in the air, frustrated at the way the doors impede their progress in or out. If they had to exorcise every single door in this place it may have just been better to finish the job the fire started and tear the entire place to the ground.

[stack]

Augustin checks to see if the walls are as supernaturally resistant as the doors they hold, striking just to the side of the one he and Kaythek assaulted.

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(1d8+3)[7]
(1d8+3)[6]
(1d8+3)[9]

[Gwynfrid]

The walls are not supernaturally strong, but, being stone, they are strong enough. Augustin realizes he stands no chance to break them down with a mere morningstar.

[Sarone]

Scowling at the door slamming shut, Kaythek's face scrunches in rage as he closes his left hand. "RELEASE MY FRIENDS, PRISONERS IN DEATH," Kaythek yells as he calls upon healing energy. "OR SUFFER MY WRATH!"

Reaching out with his left hand, fingers spread, Kayhtek releases the energy as he touches the door.

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Cast Cure Light Wounds (1d8+2)[5] on the door.

[Gwynfrid]

Kaythek feels the door trembling ever so slightly as the healing energy is absorbed by the haunt. Ulric tries the door, which opens without further ado.

"It's gone. For now, at least".

The other doors in the square room no longer resist the heroes's attempts to open them.

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What's your next move ?

[stack]

"Anyone else getting the impression that this place doesn't like us very well? I'm just getting a vague feeling." He stalks through the room, passing through door S-18, continuing in the direction Vesorianna indicated. He indicates the wand on his belt. "At least we have a lockpick if it happens again."

[Leviathan]

Briar sighs. "Vexatious. Malevolent force shows proclivity for pettiness, pointless delaying tactics. Result: unnecessary time wasted; only deferring, but not eliminating, inevitable encounter. Still, positive prospects," she announces: "seen as threatening enough to delay.... Or trivial enough to toy with. Not sure yet. Prefer not to reach level of data required for certainty."

[Archpaladin Zousha]

"Let's get those confiscated items and get out of here. We need to tell the town what we've learned here."

[Gwynfrid]

Followed by the others, Augustin steps up to a slightly elevated stage, walled off from the larger rest of the room by a wall of iron bars. Several rows of wooden benches, all spotted with mold and sagging with neglect, some of them toppled over, are visible. In front of him, the can see a lone chair, cemented to the floor, and equipped with chains and manacles. Further on, at the edge of his vision, is an iron door.

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(1d20)[6]

[stack]

Augustin looks around as far as his limited perception allows. "This...I don't even wish to guess what happened here. At least the chair is fixed down, so slightly less likely to attack us. Feel anything, Ulric?"

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proceeding ahead through the next door (allowing Ulric to detect evil and Tamara to check for traps first, of course).

[Gwynfrid]

Ulric hesitates. "No, I don't think so. Wait a minute... Don't you think it's a little cold ? This chair... Aaah !"

Tamara and Augustin, too, feel a sudden drop in temperature, chilling them to the bone.

"... There's evil on the chair," finishes Ulric weakly, realizing the warning is too late.

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Negative energy damage to Augustin, Ulric and Tamara: (1d6)[4]

Rolling Fortitude saves right here as this will save time (pls correct me if I get the bonuses wrong)

Augustin (1d20+2)[19]
Ulric (1d20+8)[15]
Tamara (1d20+4)[10]

Tamara feels a weakness in her limbs, numb from the cold spell.

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Tamara takes 1 Str damage.

[Leviathan]

Briar groans. "Predictable. Thoroughly done with this. Chair, meet explosions." She unstoppers a vial and hurls it at the contraption, producing a gout of fire and smoke.

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Touch attack vs chair (if even necessary): (1d20+6)[23].
Damage: (2d6+5)[15]

[Gwynfrid]

Briar's vial hits the chair squarely, producing an impressive ball of fire and setting the ugly-looking piece of furniture aflame. As the fire dies, the temperature of the room reverts to normal.

Ulric nods to the gnome, acknowledging her quick thinking. "Looks like that spirit was vulnerable to fire. Well done..."

He takes a few cautious steps, but nothing else manifests. He gets closer to the iron door.

"Now that's one for you, Tamara."

The door is a very strong, barely rusty iron-wrought affair. It is locked, and the lock is clearly more sophisticated than anything in the prison so far.

[stack]

DM beat me to it.

(Presuming the furniture remains recalcitrant and he was not in the blast zone of the bomb)

Augustin winces from the cold, tingling fingers dropping his weapon and reaching for the wand on his belt. He stabs the glowing wand toward the chair, releasing its positive energy.

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free: drop weapon
move: close to chair while drawing wand
standard: touch attack w/ wand (1d20+3)[7]
CMW damage (assuming minimum caster level) (2d8+3)[12] will save DC 13 for half (10+2 (spell level) + 2 (min stat to cast spell is 12, so +1 bonus))

[Sarone]

As Doc dealt with the chair and haunt, Kaythek remains by the door to the foyer. Looking at Morcaine, Kaythek smirks at Doc's resourcefulness. "Good job, Doctor," Kaythek says. "Just wondering, do we have another vial of holy water? I would like to see if it'll have any effect on these doors in the foyer so we won't have to worry about them he next time we come through the enterance."

[Gwynfrid]

Ulric puts his backpack down, extracts a phial from it, and silently hands it over to the Oracle of War.

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@ Stack: Yep. Briar was pretty fast, and she rolled a nice amount of damage too.

[Sarone]

Taking the vial in hand, Kaythek nods at Ulric. "Thank you, Ulric," Kaythek, before turning around and heading back into the foyer. "Let's see how this goes."

Putting enough to get a few drops on his finger, Kaythek goes to the door that leads to the vault and the confiscated items and starts throwing a few drops at the door.

[SanguinePenguin]

"Wow, that was really cold! Thanks for blowing it up, Briar! You're so great!" Tamara proclaims enthusiastically. "Oh! I forgot that I brought LOOOOOOTS of holy water! Let me know if you want more! Say... do you think it takes better than normal water? I've always wondered that..." she sets about searching the door for traps, then opening the lock.

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Traps: (1d20+6)[20]
Disable Device: (1d20+9)[11]
Disable Device: (1d20+9)[24]
Disable Device: (1d20+9)[25]
Disable Device: (1d20+9)[29]
Disable Device: (1d20+9)[18]

[Gwynfrid]

Ulric follows Kaythek back into the square room and inspects the door. "Hard to say. You dismissed the haunt with positive energy, so what evil remains is now very, very faint. I can't tell you if what you did made it any weaker. I guess it's worth trying, though."

During that time, Tamara set to work on the door. The lock is one of the most complex she ever set her eyes on. At one point, she feels like she's just on the verge of figuring it out... but she's eventually disappointed.

[SanguinePenguin]

"How stupid! Why would someone put a lock on a door that I can't pick?" Tamara asks. "Well, what should we do? Ram it down with one of those benches? Or should we go somewhere else?"

[Leviathan]

Briar meanders her way over to Tamara, dusting off her coat and blushing slightly as her companions praise her bomb's handiwork. She peers at the door, leaning forwards so that her button nose is only inches from it. She pulls out her spectacles. "Hmm, difficult. Possible application of kinetic force feasible. Also possible..." She screws up her face, borrowing one of Tamara's tools for a moment, twisting it in the lock's mechanism.

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Disable Device. If possible, taking 20 for a result of 30.

If not, here are some rolls, since I'm not sure what'll be required:

1:(1d20+10)[22]
2:(1d20+10)[29]
3:(1d20+10)[18]
4:(1d20+10)[11]

[Gwynfrid]

In total, focused silence, the gnome and the halfling work in concert, and they have a really hard time of it. Augustin, looking at them, notices with interest that the expressions on the gnomish and halfling faces look disturbingly similar for two such widely different personalities - a look of extreme concentration, mixed with a burning desire to uncover the secret behind this mysterious door. At long last, both diminutive, sweating heads turn to look at each other in triumph, as a tiny, tiny click can be heard.

The door opens to a place dimly lit by two tarnished, heavily barred windows. A bizarre collection of antique goods rests upon wooden shelves that line the room. Several of the items contain tiny tags with labels written in a careful script. Most of them are junk, or so old as to be now useless, but a number of masterwork weapons and other curios are of interest.

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@ Leviathan: This doesn't matter to the end result, since taking 20 + Tamara's help is enough get Briar to beat the DC anyway, but can you please indicate how you get Disable Device to be keyed to Int instead of Dex ?



List of valuable items found here:
- a set of masterwork thieves’ tools
- a bronze war medallion from the Shining Crusade
- an unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I
- a set of a noblewoman’s silver hair clips
- a masterwork punching dagger
- a pouch containing a dozen masterwork shurikens
- a masterwork silver war razor
- a wand.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Morcaine takes up the medallion and looks at it carefully, with reverence.

"This is nearly as old as my Order, as old as Iomedae herself even!"

[SanguinePenguin]

"Wow! I wonder what it is doing in here?" Tamara asks looking around. "What do you think this room is for? A repository of confiscated items?"

"Hey guys! You don't think these are the items we're looking for, do you? Maybe, we shouldn't touch them... hmm... they don't look tainted by horrible evil..." As if she was not listening to her own arguments, she picks up the set of masterwork tools, "oh neat! These tools are way nicer than mine! I bet I could have gotten that lock open no problem with these guys! Briar, do you want my old set?" She offers the tools to the gnome with a congenial smile.

[Sarone]

Looking at the door, Kaythek goes to the others and continues throwing water at them, after looking down the hall to Augustin. "Hey Gus, you think we need a cleric of your faith here? To cleanse the foyer, I mean?"

[Leviathan]

"Assortment of weaponry does suggest use by social undesirables: razor, dagger, so forth, all concealable. Luxury items perhaps of negligible value to owners, or confiscated close enough to date of fire that auction, destruction, or distribution of goods not possible.

Briar accepts Tamara's now-old thieves' tools. "Ah, hmm, connotation of colloquial name for these has unfortunate implications. Still, could be worse: could be plagiarists' tools."

Briar scans all the items, looking for anything of note.

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Perception: (1d20-2)[12]
Knowledge (history): (1d20+10)[27]
Knowledge (arcana): (1d20+16)[29]

[Gwynfrid]

Briar remembers that the present-day ruler of the formerly great empire of Taldor, on the Inner Sea, is Stavian III. The monarch portrayed is presumably one of his ancestors. By the look of the portrait, he personified the arrogance traditionally attributed to Taldoran people quite well.

The Shining Crusade, nearly a thousand years ago, was a great war launched by Taldor, back when it was one of the most powerful nations in Golarion. The Taldoran forces, aided by the dwarven kingdom of Kraggodan and the Knights of Ozem under the great warrior Iomedae, managed to vanquish the Whispering Tyrant, Tar-Baphon, imprisoned him in Gallowspire and established the Kingdom of Lastwall to watch over the lich’s prison.

Beyond that, there is nothing of historical significance.

[stack]

"Try not to...touch anything. Anything else. Bother. I'll check for enchantments, Ulric, please look for malevolence. Hmm." Augustin strides quickly in, looking for any traces of hostile magic. "Certainly valuable items."

To Kaythek, "I think it may be best to hold my strength in case something surprises us on the way out. If the doors act up again we should be able to drive the haunts back well enough then."