TheFred

Yes, and yes.

Now there is. If you want to do stuff as you approach you can, I kinda went a bit fast and loose with Eustice doing his Word then them fleeing.

I don't see why Remove Curse wouldn't work. Seems like a good thing to try, anyway. Molgrug would need to find a scroll of it first... but if he had one, he could cast it.

OoC I'm pretty chill about all of this to be honest. Dealing with challenges is part of the fun, right? Also I feel bad since in a previous version of this game Michael did something similar to me but I managed to wriggle out of it, which feels a bit unsporting.

This obviously makes going back to the ice guy a stronger option but I don't think it means we have to do it, we can probably still pursue other options. And if the worst comes to the worse, we can always amputate!

"Well, actually," Molgrug begins, that dreaded word and his lecturing tone suggesting he's about to launch into another monologue, "I am quite familiar with a large variety of curses - and in fact not only curses, but all manner of enchantments, hexes, jinxes, afflictions, dweomers, scourges, and maledictions. Why, we yugoloths invented most of them! Now, this particular curse, I'll admit, seems a little unusual, and calls for further study, though my preliminary analysis indicates a transformative nature - evident, to all of you, I am sure, by the discolouration of the flesh and the inability to transform the afflicted limb. Of course, these effects did not begin until after interfering with the sceptre, and are no doubt an unintentional side-effect of the release of necrotic energy which I estimate to have been at around... oh, six or seven Schodoffs in magnitude?

"At any rate, the reversal of such magical curiosities is, in fact, quite a straightforward manner. Why, I have a spell in my spellbook that will do just that, and whilst it may perhaps be challenging for the inept mortals of this world it is hardly taxing for a practiced arcanist - such as, hmm, myself, obviously."

Yep, just wanted to check you were aware.

Eustice and the others are still quite far away at this point but he can use PW Weaken when he gets closer.

Jezira leaps back, leaving one of her foes swiping at empty air... the other manages to snap at her with powerful jaws, however, and though she nimbly twists free, the bite draws blood.

The wolfwere grins and, seemingly satisfied with having inflicted such a wound, hangs back rather than pressing the attack.

"You're too late anyway, human - or whatever you are!" He snarls, his words difficult to understand from his bestial maw. "The ritual is complete - we felt it! Malar will deliver us!"

"Ha! Go ahead! See for yourself!" The other gloats. "We won't stop you!"

The two growl, however, as they see Kassandra's light approaching. The rest of the band of heroes, accompanied by many of the villagers, rush closer, and Eustice cries out a magical word causing one of the wolves to flinch back and yowl with discomfort.

"You're too late, fools!" The wolves cry - and doing so, turn around and flee deeper into the mines.

Jezira is hit by one bite attack for 13 damage

Bianca Pohlo

"Oh no..." Bianca mumbles, "This is bad, this is bad..."

She clutches her spellbook tightly, trying to think what spells might be any help... all of her theory isn't much use in an actual fight! The best she can do is conjure another blob of acid, which she send hurtling over Neskas' head towards the approaching skeletons.

It feels as though the tide of the battle is turning!

Having hurriedly reloaded her crossbow, Nancy takes aim again. Unfortunately it's hard to get a clear shot on the last few skum, who are being pressed back by her allies. Nevertheless she looses a bolt in their general direction, hoping she might get lucky and hit one before they can do any harm to her friends.

"That's quite an... unpleasant sensation," Molgrug complains of the sceptre's magical blast. "Hmm... perhaps the necromantic energies contained within this device are indeed better-suited to some dead fellow than we planar travellers. It might be that such a trade is in our best interests, after all."

He eyes Shillereese's arm with interest - and perhaps a little amusement - as he considers her condition.

"Well, amputation is not the worst outcome," he posits, thoughtfully. "After all, you still have another arm! Why, most of my yagnoloth henchmen only had one good arm and it didn't stop them being entirely adequate goons. I don't think we should be so hasty to rush back to the old dead fellow just because your perfect complexion is under threat."

You don’t need to Detect Magic to try a UMD… but Molgrug’s modifier is not that great (since it’s a Cha skill); Carmine’s is better.

Molgrug gets a +15, with his specs, but he’s limited by spell slots. Now we’ve got both items he could detect on all of them at once… though we might want to finish exploring first in case there’s anything else. Detect also isn’t that useful for items, you get a clue but you really need Identify. Or, indeed, he could UMD, just who knows what that might do? Maybe don’t stand in front of where he’s waving that thing around?

Molgrug can cast Detect Magic but it won’t do anything Carmine isn’t already doing and he only gets 1/day. But, I could attempt a UMD check to activate it blindly. I can’t see that going wrong at all.

Aeos, Psychosurgeon
DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0
Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2

Aeos shrug, still making a show of examining the records whilst pondering what reality might lie behind them.

"Some sort of lurking threat, perhaps?" they ask. "There's little in these records to indicate any particular instability. A tendency towards paranoia, perhaps... are they afraid of something stalking them from... uh, the "edges and corners"?"

Internally, Aeos ponder how much they want to solve this mystery compared with how much they need to mislead the doctor - almost arguing with each other. This seems too uncanny a coincidence... but with the Hoftada watching their every move closely, it's impossible to investigate fully.

"We must confess this is quite an unusual case," they say, vaguely aware that they are still being assessed as part of their new "job". "Never mind about the corners, what do the flies represent? The symptoms are unusual, but could this be some form of schizophrenia or dissociative disorder?" They don't dwell on the irony of treating a patient with a fragmented personality.

Just normal Knowledge stuff:

"You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s CR."

If any other Knowledge skills would be applicable I can happily roll those too.

All of the "looking for" threads are closed; are people after PMs?

To identify the bad guy? He looks like he's undead, right?

Question: Can I cast Expeditious Excavation here or does that only work on non-worked floors and this doesn't count as that?

Bianca Pohlo

Seeing the ominous figure, Bianca gulps in fright.

Yeah, so... how is this working? Have we just not hit a critical mass yet? Should we all just post threads or some anyone want to discuss ideas further?

Aeos, Psychosurgeon
DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0
Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2

Aeos eye the doctor, trying to gauge what he's getting at. Has Null compromised them? But if so, this seems an unusual way to go about dealing with it. If they know for sure, why the charade?

"Hardly," they say. "We met on the way here and explored the complex a little yesterday... but Null was reserved, quite introverted. They gave no sign of this condition, however. If you had asked us to make a diagnosis then we would have been hard pressed to find anything wrong. Their willingness to spend time with roommates points away from any form of social anxiety, though it's possible that they were suffering from some form of emotional detachment, perhaps memory loss?"

Despite whatever is going on with the doctor, Aeos cannot help but be genuinely intrigued by Null's condition. Dr Sion makes up a good part of their memories and they recall being fascinated by any case which was more unusual than the norm.

"Presumably something triggered this dissociation after we parted ways yesterday," they muse. The obvious answer is whatever Null discovered in those old shafts, but they don't really want to draw the doctor's attention to that. "Such things rarely happen all at once, though. There must have been some prior trauma - do you have access to their medical records?"

If I'm honest I'm a little busy with life and my existing games at the moment but I'd potentially be interested in a solo trade, maybe even the kind you're talking about @Llyarden (I'd prefer 3.5 but I'm good with high-ish power PF1e or similar). I've had limited success with them myself but I think a solo lets you do a lot of stuff that you wouldn't normally in a party game, with maybe much more character-focused plots or things like being the villain (or the old "chosen one" trope).

I'll check out your hub thing @rover, though I'm not so much looking for anything right now, myself, as just open to the possibility. 🙂

We had coal before the industrial revolution; what we didn't have was the agricultural revolution. But in a fantasy world, we've got magic. In D&D, Plant Growth is a L3 spell. However, why would you need a coal-powered engine when you have magical means of travelling. Phantom Steeds probably beat early mechanised transport, undead horses never tire, and anyway we have actual teleportation.

Bianca Pohlo

"Is that her?" Bianca asks, peering into the room ahead but worried about going any further. She keeps her voice low, as if frightened that something might hear her. "The woman we're looking for? How did she get past the doors, and the arrow trap?"

She gulps. Does this mean that some kind of scary undead person really did cart her off, somehow bypassing the Pyre's defences or resetting them afterwards? Simple skeletons are mindless creations; they couldn't have done this.

I have a concept for a setting that I keep meaning to try out sometime that's essentially medieval in terms of technology but modern in terms of sensibilities. It annoys me a bit in game that are meant to be quasi-medieval when people don't act medievally or use modern slang or whatever (I'm not expecting proper Old English, but there's a level at which it just breaks immersion for me)... but this would be embracing that. We might, for example, have some democracies or human rights, and we'd be able to quit with fantasy racism (or at least have it be an acknowledged point of contention). However my concept was that magic takes the role of technology so we wouldn't actually have TVs and cars and electricity, but we might have scrying dishes on people's walls that can be tuned to different channels, self-driving horse-skeletons or devices that conjure up magical food and go "ding!" when they're done. An obvious comparison is a more "magitech" setting like Eberron with which I'm envisaging some similarities, but quite a different overall vibe.