Strange Aeons: In Search of Sanity II [IC - Group #1]

[lostsole31]

R2T6: BJ readies an action to attack with his quarterstaff should the assailants press the attack and move into range.

End Round 2, Begin Round 3 ...

R3T24-22: Sure enough, the woman in the room to the south steps out and gets attacked by Brother Jaume, getting hit in the upper chest for 12 (max)! At the same time, Akbar's spell also goes off and the woman takes 5 ... and seems almost insensate.

R3T20: The little floating cloud of mist moves out of the southern room and goes into the northern room, passing through the dazed woman's square.

R3T18: AiO #2 swings his crowbar at Brother Jaume but misses wildly, as if distracted by something.

R3T15: AiO #1 drops his crowbar and withdraws into the room.

R3T14: Dorn tears into the room and attacks AiO #2, but the cultist hears the fast man pounding on the floor and spins quickly enough to block his hammer.

R3T11: Jean, what do you do? You are currently flanking AiO #3 with Brother Jaume, but AiO #2 has cover. Do you have Javert do anything?

Lord Hanley on deck, Akbar in the hole ...

[lostsole31]

R3T11: Jean wills Javert to keep his position. He then taunts the woman (AiO3) in a language she likely doesn't know (Kelish) while attacking her with his scimitar. His strike nails the dazed woman in the upper right arm for 10, and she drops. He then steps over her body to flank AiO #2 w/ Dorn who is inside the personal effects room.

R3T10: Lord Hanley moves into the room and around. Jean sees him stare at something on the shelf, and a small box flies at AiO #2 and hits him in the head for 2.

End Round 3, Begin Round 4 ...

R4T24: Akbar, only one enemy is visible right now, and she is down, though you hear the sounds of battle in the northern room. What do you do?

Brother Jaume on deck, Nadya in the hole ...

[Blackhawk101]

Bj will kneel and pull the fallen woman into his square before checking her condition.

Spoiler

Show

Heal check to determine her condition

[Swami Monsoon]

Still blocked from the action, Akbar takes the opportunity to shore up his defenses...

Spoiler

Show

Cast Mage Armor on self

[lostsole31]

R4T24: Still blocked from the action, Akbar takes the opportunity to shore up his defenses.

R4T23: BJ will kneel and pull the fallen woman into his square before checking her condition. He determines that she is dying.

R4T20: Nadya-cloud delays ...

R4T18-15: AiO #2 spins on Dorn and swings his crowbar, but the spry older man blocks it. AiO #2 then moves into the corner of the wall and bookcase. AiO #1 is not seen.

R4T14: Dorn begins an onslaught, and crits with an uppercut on his first strike for 22 - a brutal strike that slams the man against the shelves and knocks him down. Dorn forgoes his extra attack.

R4T11: Jean, what do you do? No active enemies in sight. Javert is delaying.

Lord Hanley on deck, Akbar in the hole ...

[pfm1995]

Jean follows the sounds of combat with his scimitar drawn; as soon as the yellow-robed madman Dorn had knocked down comes into view, Jean lashes out at him with his sword.

Mentally, he calls out: Find the one that ran!

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Attack - (1d20+9)[27] Damage - (1d6+7)[12]

[pfm1995]

Spoiler: Critical Post

Show

Lying on the ground, the man proves easy fodder for Jean's blade.

Severity - (1d20)[15] Bonus Damage - (2d6)[2]

[lostsole31]

R4T11: Jean follows the sounds of combat with his scimitar drawn; as soon as the yellow-robed madman Dorn had knocked down comes into view, Jean lashes out at him around the corner of the door jamb with his sword. He might not be moving, but Jean doesn't even give him a chance as he disembowels the unconscious man.

Mentally, he calls out to Javert, Find the one that ran!

Dorn looks at Jean with anguish, "Why, Jean? He was already down ... why?"

Javert flies down the hall to the far door and looks in.

Spoiler

Show

He's against the far north wall, cowering.

R4T10: Lord Hanley goes out of Jean's sight, further into the room.

End Round 4, Begin Round 5 ...

R5T24: Akbar, what do you do?

Brother Jaume on deck, dying cultist woman in the hole ...

[Blackhawk101]

BJ will attempt to stabilize the woman.

Spoiler

Show

Heal check to stabilize

[Swami Monsoon]

Akbar cautiously advances into the room, ready if another enemy appears...

Spoiler

Show

Move to square north of Jean. Readied action to Ear Piercing Scream if a target appears.

[lostsole31]

R5T24: Akbar cautiously advances into the room, ready if another enemy appears.

R5T23: Brother Jaume easily stabilizes the dying woman.

Combat Ends ...

The man that was sent to the corner is docile and pretty much under Lord Hanley's guidance now.

Racks cluttered with boxes and sprawling collections of haphazard junk fill this dusty storage room. This room holds the personal effects of hundreds of Briarstone patients, present and past. Most are held in trust, awaiting the day when their owners will once again be fit enough to reclaim them and leave. Befitting the likelihood of such hopeful prospects, most of the items are covered in a thick layer of dust.

The storage room has been partially ransacked, with some of the shelves knocked over and their contents scattered across the floor. Of particular note, however, is a collection of mismatched dolls placed as if sitting in a classroom. A careful search of the room doesn't yield anything else of interest or value.

Lord Hanley says his "patient" should be fine for the next couple hours, but that he should be delivered back to the chapel before then. In the meantime, he will keep an eye on him. Also, you have a badly wounded, comatose woman - also in yellow robes - lying in the hallway.

And, of course, the room to the south that she came from.

[Blackhawk101]

BJ rises from tending to the cultist woman before speaking to the group, “She is stabilized for now. How do we proceed from here?”

[lostsole31]

Lord Hanley pipes up. "We should check through the personal effects for anything of use - material or information - and detect whatever magic may be apparent. Then, do the same in the room to the south."

A check of the room finds nothing, but when Brother Jaume uses detect magic, he finds three small vials that were overlooked that detect as magic. Two of them are similar. Lord Hanley says he will aid the cleric in trying to figure out what they are, but nobody sees him actually cast detect magic.

Spoiler: Brother Jaume (aided by Lord Hanley)

Show

There are two vials of a shimmering paste. Only with Lord Hanley's assistance is Brother Jaume able to note that this faint aura is one of transmutation. After some continued discussion between Brother Jaume and Dorn, they both determine that you have two vials of silversheen.

For the next vial, Brother Jaume again finds the little lord's insight invaluable in determining that the faint aura is one of transmutation as well. Again, Brother Jaume talks with Dorn, and they determine that it is oil of align weapon.

Do you divvy the two vials of silversheen and the oil of align weapon now? If so, does anyone express interest in one of them?

[Blackhawk101]

BJ is marginally interested in align weapon goop.

[lostsole31]

Dorn is interested in a vial of silversheen? Anyone for that other vial? Jean - for your scimitar?

[pfm1995]

Jean will take one of the vials of shimmersheen, but he's far more interested first in the dolls, and then what might be in the door to the south.

[lostsole31]

Done. Dorn and Jean get a vial of silversheen, and Brother Jaume gets the oil of align weapon.

The dolls are just a collection of mismatched dolls. In fact, since Lord Hanley isn't tying down his charmed cultist, it is that cultist who goes back to babbling incoherently as if he were teaching the dolls something in that imagined classroom.

Moving to the south (Lord Hanley remains to entertain/ watch over the cultists), the party enters the room there. The handles of dozens of drawers frown from the faces of numerous matching cabinets. Many of the drawers are open and their contents—volumes’ worth of stray parchments—blanket the floor. There is also a door to the west.

The personal histories and treatment records of Briarstone’s patients are stored here. The room’s recent ransacking has destroyed much of the room’s order. While the PCs could find details on the background of almost any of the asylum’s patients here, it would take hours to do so and result only in largely mundane trivia.

So, in addition as to what to do with the door to the west .... does the party spend several hours here? If so, Lord Hanley and two others to help carry the woman would be needed to ferry the cultists back to the chapel. Or, the cultist that is charmed would have to be tied up.

What do you do?

[Blackhawk101]

“what should we do with these misguided patients? I doubt Winter would be glad to be saddled with their care but I cannot allow them to come to harm in good conscience. Mayhap we can find a room to secure them while we find a better place to house them. Brother Jaume rubs his eyes as if he could scrub away the weariness and worry.

[lostsole31]

Dorn answers that sternly, "The Chapel is the redoubt for those that have survived. They have survived, and as I am sure they are not Greys then they are patients needing care. We may need a side room to guard, but otherwise they can be restrained and held under Captain York's watchful eye. Remember that the chapel has a calming effect on the dreams of those who seek respite therein."

[Blackhawk101]

“so be it. Let’s be about it quickly then.”

[pfm1995]

"Agreed. It is a shame that no records of Zandalus were kept - absent them, we have more pressing problems than this trove."

[lostsole31]

Was that a "no" on spending time in this room? Please give me a definitive.

[Blackhawk101]

BJ would like to transport the patients back to the chapel now. So no to remaining.

[lostsole31]

With Brother Jaume's nervousness about the cultists, he and Dorn help carry the fallen woman, and Lord Hanley makes sure his "big fella'" comes quietly, even allowing him to gather up the collection of dolls, since it has a pacifying effect on him.

The party safely gets the cultists back to Winter and Captain York's care. Captain York doesn't seem thrilled, but Winter is quite pleased that not all "survivors" are monsters that need to be put down ... just watched carefully.

What is the party's plan? Lord Hanley (being a more mental type) is interested in heading right back out to comb through the records room. Yeah, exciting ambitions, that one.

[Blackhawk101]

“As Lord Hanley would like to go through the old records, if another wishes to assist him and provide a second pair of eyes for security, the rest of the group can explore the immediate area.”

[pfm1995]

"Javert can do that." Jean says. "He will let me know should things become amiss."

[Blackhawk101]

BJ nods. “Let us start by exploring the Western door from the “records room.”

[lostsole31]

The door inside of the Records Room is locked, but Dorn again pulls out the keys taken from the late Losandro, and one is on the ring that does the trick.

The walls of this crowded room are covered by filing cabinets, except for one space where a battered old painting of a somber, towering structure hangs. So, like the main records room, more cabinets fill this room, the records inside being of a more disturbing and sometimes supernatural nature than those held in the main records room (so, the "Special" Records Room). While hundreds of unexplained events and brutal dramas unfold in these pages, most are not pertinent to the PCs’ goals.

No magic is detected in here. With Javert aiding Lord Hanley in the main room (where everyone is standing around right now, anyway), it is up to Nadya to aid Dorn in a search of the crowded little room, but they don't find anything of interest.

Anyone have anything else they want to do in here, or move out into the hallway to check the next door?

[Blackhawk101]

“Let us try the next door in the hallway,” BJ says before heading out.

[lostsole31]

A full check at the next door reveals nothing. Once opened, the entire room is full (past the height of the doorjamb) with debris, and the door is quickly shut before it tumbles into the hallway at all. That room is definitely "lost" unless you think you're going to do a major excavation.

At the final door ... the one at the eastern edge of the hallway ... the group makes the normal checks. Untrapped (seemingly). Unlocked. And yet, while the door is unlocked, it does not budge. What do you do?