RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

If you don't move the bones you can't see anything more.

You can try bashing the door, or casting knock. You seem reluctant to bash the door. Do you cast knock?

Noted about not going across the bridge.
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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Woe »

I'm reluctant to make a lot of noise and leave a lot of traces behind. We're doing good so far. Tiana was even smart enough to lock the door behind her. :lol: She'll knock away (4 spell points used now, correct? We're spending the night down here.)

As for Kilian, he won't disturb the dead. No need. If the skeleton doesn't have a sword sticking out of his ribs or his head located away from the rest of his body, there's naught much to see.

The fighters will arm themselves, just in case. Anna and Freya can stay in back, guard both the bridge and the door with their bows.
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: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

KNOCK...creak...(4 SP down).

No monsters leap out. It contains (on more shelves):

A large chest.
A smaller chest.
Large hold all, with a faint glow emanating form it (magic).
Quarterstaff with magic runes (magic).
Inscription tools (2) (magic).
Rations (spoiled), large amounts (several months worth for 1 person).
Rope, silk (useless)
Clothes, robes (spoiled).
A pair of goggles (magic).
A brazier and some coal (much more recent).
Some chairs (4)
A table
Rugs (spoiled).
A ring (magic).
A net.

The chests look like a bit this:
Image

So basically you just found a whole bunch of magic items lately. Shame you do not know what any of them do. No attempt a trial an error so far.
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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Woe »

Score one for the home team! A magical monty haul! Now if only I knew what anything did. :)

How many EP do we have left? The party is spending the night here for sure now -- unless they find an alternate way out. I'm good exploring more but don't want to get too deep in the first day.

The party sorts the items into magical, non-magical useful, and worthless. Tiana stares at the magical pile a bit, then leans to Abigall and says, "I don't see a difference. What do you see? How do you see it?" She looks more closely at the quarterstaff, inscription tools, and ring. Any markings that she can understand?

Meanwhile, Freya, Talin, and Kilian all look at the magical hold-all. Is it magical and empty? Was it full of something and now empty? Is it open (or was it opened by the party)? Kilian has heard of ancient mining carts from red dwarves that can carry more than their usual capacity, and everyone knows of the stories where ancient wizards -- not charlatans -- use chests to summon items and creatures from other worlds.

In short, Abigall better start coughing up some more information than "that one is glowing faintly, so it is magical" :)

The party will start trying some of the items, but I'll be explicit about that. Not quite yet.
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: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

4EP down.

Abigall can't really explain how she sees it. 'They just look different. The good magic comes from the sky and the trees and the air. It looks green, or gold. The bad magic...it comes from somewhere else. It looks like a kind of red and black, or purple. Your people, and us sylvans, only ever used the good kind. Humans used both. I can teach you to see it, maybe. Or maybe I can't. I don't know. It just comes so natural to me.'

She says that many of these items are not so bad - as in, their magic does not look very evil to her and is only a dull pink color. The staff looks rather evil, though.

The holdall turns out to contain six more of those blue discs, all wrapped in muslin cloth. Two of them are glowing with a magical light. It extends to about the same distance as a torch.

The inscriptions on helmets, discs, staff, ring, inscription tools and goggles are all the same as the Arabic-style ones in the magic triangles. She can't read them at all. From now on I am calling this 'Human Magic.'

(I'll state again that the runes on these items look a bit different to the more delicate ones you saw on the statue bowl. These ones look a bit rougher.)

There's still two locked chests to deal with. Abigall says those do not look magical. They are delicately made and might have some sale value.
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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Woe »

Yikes. I really wish someone had offered me "identify" as a 1st level spell. I'm sorely tempted to take this all back to Brant and ask our elf friend what all this does.

Just to clarify: the staff looks evil but glows neutral for Abigall, or the staff looks neutral but glows evil for Abigall?


Everything save the googles and the disks go into The Bag. We'll sort it out tonight while resting, or at Brant, or sometime later. Kilian doesn't trust the helmets yet, and will see if he can make a contraption (tm) that will hold the disks. Is it clear how the disks get attached to the helmets? Are there any noticeable differences between the magical helmets found earlier and the non-magical helmets found just now? Sorry, a lot of questions about (non)magical helmets and (non)magical disks, as well as how they interrelate.

Anna and Freya will take a look at the two locked chests, first checking for traps then attempting to open.
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: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

My mistake. You have found 4 helmets so far - three in the armory, and one on the skeleton. All are slightly magical. Ignore anything I said about non-magical helmets.

SO:
4 slightly magical helmets
6 discs - only 2 of which work good.

The discs fit easily into the spaces on the helmets and stick there almost as if by magic. Voila, a helmet of continual light.

You can have 2 of these straight away. Range 50 feet. Kilian and Talin can easily rig up leather flaps for covering the lights quickly. This leaves you 2 helmets, and 4 nonworking discs.

Clear?

The staff looks evil to Abigall. The other items so far found look sort of pinkish (mild extra-planar magic). The staff looks red (strong extra-planar magic).

It also looks to the rest of you like a bad-ass wizard staff covered in funky magic runes, like the ones in the story-books.

To clarify - 'The Bag' is not a bag of holding, it's just a backpack. I just used the word holdall. It looked magical because it had magic glowing discs inside.
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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Woe »

Gotcha. For me, The Bag refers the party pool of stuff that goes into the Loot thread, but I'm not tracking which person has which gear. I was hopeful that the holdall was magical as well, but guess not. I'm also updating the Loot thread but not the encumbrance yet. Calculating encumbrance is my favorite part of RPG as well. :)

"This is amazing! Anna, come check this out!" Talin shows her the helmet. "Now we don't need torches! Here, let me put this on you." If she lets him, he'll fasten the helmet on snugly. Oh, and he'll have a helmet on first so if anyone turns to the opposite gender, it will be Talina and not Andy.

Tiana has mixed thoughts about the staff. She doesn't want to take it, but she doesn't want to leave it either. After a few minutes studying the staff, she sighs and straps the staff to her pack.

After tidying up and stowing the gear going with them, they'll cross the bridge. Freya in front, then the others -- standard marching order.
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: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

OK.

I understand about not specifying who is carrying what, but in the event that you get split up, or someone needs an item urgently, I will roll randomly to see if you are carrying that item. So if there is anything that a player is definitely carrying, better say so now.

Talin and Anna both put helmets on and they fit well. No-one's gender changes. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Tiana takes the staff.

Ignoring the chests, the party head over to the bridge and begin to cross.

Freya gets about 25 feet across the bridge - meaning that most of the others are still a bit back inside the skeleton room - when a humanoid creature about 6' tall, made out of metal, marches out onto the bridge towards her and starts talking to her.

Image

It's voice is metallic, and loud. It points a sword at her. She cannot understand what it is saying but she guesses it is challenging her right to cross the bridge.

She is not surprised and can flee, attack, or wait and see what it does. It is 10' from her and approaching.

Talin and Anna are surprised. Everyone else isn't and may also act if they want.

Map to follow shortly.
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Re: The Quest for Malagosbe (chapter 8)

Post by Longman »

full map - Copy (9) - battle1.jpg
full map - Copy (9) - battle1.jpg (74.86 KiB) Viewed 4463 times
R = Robot (the thing).

The width of the bridge is about 8 ' wide. I'll say 2 can fit abreast. The dwarves are out on the bridge, Bruce with mace, Kilian with axe. The ones behind Talin and Anna do not have much of a clear view.
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