RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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Woe
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Well... if Freya goes last, then that means Anna should go first (sneakiest) then Talin (second-sneakiest, though it might have something to do with Anna being down in the hole too. Is Anna willing to go first? Then the dwarves, then Tiana, then Freya. You have the general plan. Blue lights for sure, and they'll drop a lit torch first. What could go wrong?

By the way, you never described what's below other than the trap. It's the usual non-descript description? You didn't neglect to mention the pile of skulls in the corner?

(a bit of role-playing to start your day)
[Kilian] "I'm going first."

[Bruce] "No you aren't, boss. I'll go down and make sure it's safe for you."

[Kilian] "Ye daft? I've been spelunkin' since ye were a wee lad in the city of whatever city yer from. I'm going first."

[Bruce] "What's the point if hiring a bodyguard if you keep walking into trouble? I'm going first."

[Kilian] "And the way ye listen to orders, ye might as well be unemployed. In Greenland."

[Bruce] "And if I were in Greenland, I'd still be going first."

[Kilian] "..."

[Bruce] "Besides, someone has to stay up here and guard Freya and Tiana. You can guard them up here while I guard you down there. Everybody wins."

[Tiana, whispering to Freya] "That's a uniquely dwarven conclusion."

[Kilian, after recovering from the comment that he needs to guard Freya] "My beard's longer. I'm going first."

[Bruce] "Yes boss."
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Post by Longman »

Anna down the rope easy as spitting out an apple pip.

Talin, the big lunk, is a bit harder for Freya to manage.

Kilian, and then Bruce before his master has even gotten off the bottom of the rope. Freya nearly tumbles out of the hole.

Then the mage, deceptively heavy.

Freya, arms aching, lowers herself down the hole and then drops 10', taking 2 hit points. She bodged the roll, alas.

The trap is easily avoided now you know where it is. The columns are in fact 5 to 6 feet wide, bigger than shown, and they are ornately carved. Some of the carvings include dwarves as well as people. The alcoves contain stone benches about 4' high for displaying stuff on, almost like a museum walkway. Whatever was on them is gone now, except one old broken glass case which is empty. It might be worth 5gp for the colored glass.

The small of death is coming from the rooms off to the west. Both that door, and the door to the northern passageway to 3a are missing.
Woe
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Not that it matters, but I was thinking that the mass of topsiders would help i.e. Freya+dwarves+Tiana lower Talin; Freya+Tiana+Bruce lower Kilian, Freya+Tiana lower Bruce, etc.

Is Anna confident in disarming the trap? Freya will help, if that helps (both RP as well as the roll itself; I'm curious).

Freya will also sneak up and look in that western room. I'm not sure why to sneak given all the recent noise, but it's a better plan than "Freya will lumber over, singing Glory to the Moon Isles." And dang it! I wanted that door.

Tiana will study the columns. What kind of dwarves and humans? Which empire, and which era?

The martial ones will guard; all with melee weapons out. Talin will also check for tracks. Goblins and ogres, I imagine?

Kilian will pocket the glass, possibly as a curiosity.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

Last time you tried disarming/ resetting a known trap the results were a major cock-up. So the answer is no, you are not confident you could do that safely. You can try, with the better of the two of you, +20%.

Freya takes a quick look around into the western room (13a) and sees there is a dead body on the floor, a goblin. It is fairly recent - a week? Rats have had a good go at it, but there's still enough flesh to cause a stink. It's been stripped naked - no armor, no weapons, no nothing.

Beyond there, the door to 13b is intact! It's made of stone and is quite low - about 4' high.

While up there, Freya also sees that the alcove with the doorway leading north to level 3a is totally empty and the door is missing.

Tiana generally recognises the carvings to be from the Mundina Empire - can't find exact details at the moment but the same era that you have discovered before. You do not know the names of any of the rulers depicted and there is no writing anyway.

Talin's tracking roll reveals yet again that is terrible at tracking in dungeons. He can't see anything on the stone floor other than rat debris.

Kilian fiddled about and realises that getting the glass out of the case will be quite difficult. He doesn't break anything, but he doesn't get far. A dagger would help.

"You want me to have a go at that boss?" says Bruce helpfully.

PS - in terms of noise, you haven't actually been that bad in here. Certainly nothing as noisy as a big piece of metal hitting the ground from 15' up.
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Kilian says, "Not yet. Let's get that trap down first."

You're right, these thieves have been terrible at removing the traps. Let's try something new.

The trap is similar to the other alarm, something that makes a lot of noise when it hits the ground? Here are some ideas, but each of the ideas depends a bit on the trap.

Plan A:
The party all have these winter blankets. Might put them to use. One of the blankets gets spread out below the alarm, so if the alarm falls, it falls onto the blanket. Corner holders are Kilian, Bruce, Tiana, Talin. Freya helps Anna, so that'd be 60% on the trap check. Doesn't help with the beaker.
Q: is the blanket wide enough to catch all of the trap's devices, and is it a single device or multiple i.e. they'd clang against each other too?

Plan B:
Same as plan A, but Tiana will whisk up a magic hand to stabilize the beaker first. I'm not sure whether the hand can be that dexterous, and how much the beaker weighs. I definitely don't want it to fail to hold the beaker aloft.
Q: How heavy is the beaker, and can Tiana manage the hand while holding a blanket?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

It's one plate of metal. A blanket shared by three people would reduce the chances of failure to 1 in 20. (Tiana can't hold the blanket and do mage hand well enough.)

Freya helps Anna, so that's be 60% on the trap check

Yes.

"Mage handing" the poison beaker (which is about as big as a pint of beer) down to the ground is an excellent idea, which is guaranteed to succeed, and for which I will give you extra EXP. All you need to do is have the mage hand in place on the object before you remove the wire, and you'll be OK. Unfortunately you can't do both objects at once.

So, if you roll 60% or lower you have disable the trap so it is usebale again. If not, you are most likely OK anyway...unless I roll a 1.

If you're not happy with that just step over the wire and leave it there!
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Ok, let's see...

Talin, Kilian, Bruce all on blankets. Talin has a wider wingspan, so he gets two corners. /shrug
Tiana mage-handing the beaker down. If it's less than the weight limit, she'll go with the 10 round version.
Anna and Freya pick the lock.

So let's see... 60% chance to undo the trap, plus only a 5% chance the trap goes CLANG on the failure! That leaves only a 2% chance of failure. What could go wrong?

;)

Let's go with that plan.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

You miss the traps rolls by 1%.

The blanket holds.

Tiana is now holding a primitive pottery beaker with a leather stopper full of an (as yet) unknown substance.

No sound made.

That's 2 cantrips for the day. (I'll check the time of day tommorow. I think the day has worn on a bit.)
Woe
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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Woe »

Wow, that blanket idea was brilliant. I wish I had thought of it before.

Yep, I'm hoping that 13b is a good place to hole up for an evening. That means time to check it out. Carefully, looking for traps, secret doors, odd stonework, etc. Is it something like, 13b appears to hold a caged monster, there's a switch to open the area, and one goblin got unlucky? Any foul signs of how he died?

The other option for resting is the room farther down on the northern passage, but I suspect 13b will be something interesting.

If Bruce wants a go at the colored glass, he can as long as:
a) he's quiet
b) it's after all this dead goblin and 13b and finding out the cause of the shuffling earlier sorts itself out.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Post by Longman »

After a check, you are confident there are no traps or secret aspects to the door to room 13a, or elsewhere in 13a. It's a very short door - too short even to be built for dwarves. Kilian thinks it's a storage room on the other side. No switch to open it or anything. If you want to open it you an pick the lock or bash it down.

The goblin has no obvious signs of death but it's hard to tell when the body has been gnawed by rats. They are still around, in the corridor leading north.

Bruce tries and fails to get the glass out but he doesn't break the thing either.

Still no idea what the shuffling noise was.

It's August 31st and it's about lunchtime. I thought it was later because I forgot that you had a night's rest after the mimic battle. So far you have been exploring this morning and avoiding goblins and ogres. That's all.

From memory, Tiana has cast 2 cantrips today - what about other spells for the day? Any?
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