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Author Topic: Beneath the Invisible Tower  (Read 17768 times)

DeadUematsu

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« Reply #30 on: March 10, 2009, 07:01:08 AM »
Skill Challenge-Researching the Stolen Lantern; Using Arcana to determine how a lantern would ward off outsiders and how possibly someone could displace it (I figure it's probably an inside job but let's roll it out). (1d20+11=25)

Shroom is delighted and, using his near-encyclopedia knowledge of arcane matters, elaborates on the lantern's supposed magics and workings. He also speaks about how such a ward (if it existed) could be foiled (imagined or not).
 

Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #31 on: March 10, 2009, 08:32:24 AM »
Quote from: Drohem;288049
Fargrim finishes his mug of ale and places the mug on the table as he stands up and says, "well, we might as well check out any leads that we have here in the village regarding the lantern before we leave to deal with the undead.  I'll go to the village gates and see if there's any concrete evidence that a lantern actually hung there.  Maybe there's a commemorative plate, or a maker's mark, or something.  Hopefully, there'll be a special hook or pole for this lantern.  I'll be back soon, and meet you here."

(OOC- Fargrim goes and climbs the gate to verify the existance of the lantern.  Athletics check = 23.)

Ok, so Fargrim climbs the gate and checks out the area where the lantern was attached to the iron gate above. (Also successfully)...

He finds an old but amazingly well made copper-colored padlock (open) that must have been used to attach the lantern to an iron ring set in the keystone. The padlock is embossed with a dwarven rune ("K") and is open.  It appears to have been tossed onto a ledge that remains hidden from view by anyone standing on the ground. Something rattles inside when he picks it up. He climbs back down, taking the lock with him.


OOC: Two Successes.
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Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #32 on: March 10, 2009, 08:46:38 AM »
Quote from: Sigmund;288050
Looking thoughtful, Ridcully starts asking around to his new friends from town still hanging about in the tavern to see what the lantern looks like, what it's made of, how much it might be worth on the open market (strictly looking for a possible motive someone might have had to steal it... honest).

Streetwise roll for challenge.

Combined with Streetwise of 8 = 20 total.


Ridcully starts doing this, and takes about an hour asking around about the lantern. He gets a good description- although many people took it for granted- it hung down from the gates for nearly two centuries. The lantern was shaped like moon shaped cage, made of something like wrought iron-- it was sturdy and metal, and a bit rusty. It held a source of continual light. Nobody knows how much it might have been worth, until you run across someone who also tells you the story of how it had been a gift from a witch who once lived in the valley. In which case the value of the lantern would be "..priceless, since we'll probably all be killed by demons without the lanterns protection..."

That person may have been overreacting, though.

During his investigation, Ridcully also hears that a goblin was seen skulking around the town heap (sort of a trash dump), and that there have been other thefts as well.

OOC: Three successes.
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Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #33 on: March 10, 2009, 08:55:05 AM »
Quote from: DeadUematsu;288078
Skill Challenge-Researching the Stolen Lantern; Using Arcana to determine how a lantern would ward off outsiders and how possibly someone could displace it (I figure it's probably an inside job but let's roll it out). (1d20+11=25)

Shroom is delighted and, using his near-encyclopedia knowledge of arcane matters, elaborates on the lantern's supposed magics and workings. He also speaks about how such a ward (if it existed) could be foiled (imagined or not).

Shroom knows that the rules of magic are ancient and bound by protocols too complicated to unravel with just casual study..  but the most likely workings of the lamp involved the configuration of the cage that held the continual light inside. When the light shone through the cage it would cast a reversed shadow of sigils and glyphs or possibly some kind of symbol or ward on the ground in front of the gate.. and possibly right into the Shadowfell.  Fell creatures would respect such a glyph.

OOC: So far that is 4 successes.

OOC: This is a level 1, complexity 2 skill challenge (ie 6/3), worth 200XP. We'll do a divvy of XP when you finish it. Note that follow-on details of the results of each skill check provide more info!
« Last Edit: March 10, 2009, 09:27:44 AM by Abyssal Maw »
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Drohem

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« Reply #34 on: March 10, 2009, 12:44:19 PM »
Fargrim returned to the Grinning Crone with the copper-colored padlock.  He finds a place to sit at a table, and shows the padlock to his new companions.

"I found this padlock at the gate on a obscured ledge.  There was an iron ring where a lantern could hang.  It's dwarven craftsmanship, as you can plainly see.  It has the Maker's Mark "K" stamped on it.  Also, there's something loose on the inside," Fargrim says candidly.

Over several nice warm mugs of Luna Ale Fargrim examines the padlock, turning it over in his hands and looking at it.  He traces the Marker's Mark absent-mindedly with his calloused fingers as he searches his memories for any knowledge on a dwarven locksmith with the that Marker's Mark, or stories about a dwarven locksmith making a lock specifically for the village of Perreluna.

After reflecting and searching his memories for a few moments, he holds it up to the light and tries to look through the keyhole to determine what exactly is the object that is rattling around inside.  Fargrim gets up and retrieves a long thin piece of tinder from next to the fireplace, and tries using it as a tool to either remove the item in the padlock or maneuver it so that he can see and identify the object.

========================================

OOC- Fargrim tries to remember anything about the locksmith (History check = 15).
OOC- Fargrim tries to remove item from inside the lock (Thievery check = 10).

Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #35 on: March 10, 2009, 01:44:15 PM »
Quote from: Drohem;288135
Fargrim returned to the Grinning Crone with the copper-colored padlock.  He finds a place to sit at a table, and shows the padlock to his new companions.

"I found this padlock at the gate on a obscured ledge.  There was an iron ring where a lantern could hang.  It's dwarven craftsmanship, as you can plainly see.  It has the Maker's Mark "K" stamped on it.  Also, there's something loose on the inside," Fargrim says candidly.

Over several nice warm mugs of Luna Ale Fargrim examines the padlock, turning it over in his hands and looking at it.  He traces the Marker's Mark absent-mindedly with his calloused fingers as he searches his memories for any knowledge on a dwarven locksmith with the that Marker's Mark, or stories about a dwarven locksmith making a lock specifically for the village of Perreluna.

After reflecting and searching his memories for a few moments, he holds it up to the light and tries to look through the keyhole to determine what exactly is the object that is rattling around inside.  Fargrim gets up and retrieves a long thin piece of tinder from next to the fireplace, and tries using it as a tool to either remove the item in the padlock or maneuver it so that he can see and identify the object.

========================================

OOC- Fargrim tries to remember anything about the locksmith (History check = 15).
OOC- Fargrim tries to remove item from inside the lock (Thievery check = 10).


The history check provides Fargrim nothing, other than the fact that the lock is of obvious dwarven manufacture. It is also constructed of... copper. And Copperpot Hold specializes in such items. This padlock itself is pretty old though. At least a century old.

The thievery check Fargrim makes is just enough to ferret out part of a broken lockpick rattling around in there. It falls out onto the tavern table in two pieces. The lockpick is made out of a blackened shard of notched bone, scriven with tiny spidery runes... You can make them out as goblinoid, although it only spells part of a word.  

OOC: That is the final two successes! The Skill challenge was worth 200 Xp, so you each get 50XP.

OOC: Please edit your character sheets and provide the languages you speak! The list of languages is the standard one out of the PHB.
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Drohem

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« Reply #36 on: March 10, 2009, 02:00:04 PM »
With a look of absolute disgust on his face, Fargrim exclaims, "goblin filth!"

Fargrim looks pensive for a moment and then says, "didn't someone mention a rumor about a sulking goblin around the village?"

=================================
Quote from: Abyssal Maw;288153
OOC: That is the final two successes! The Skill challenge was worth 200 Xp, so you each get 50XP.


It's on the sheet! :)

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;288153
OOC: Please edit your character sheets and provide the languages you speak! The list of languages is the standard one out of the PHB.


Fargrim speaks Common and Dwarven.

CavScout
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« Reply #37 on: March 10, 2009, 03:09:45 PM »
"Dwarven locks, goblin tools.... what does it mean?"
"Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?" -Obi-Wan

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Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #38 on: March 10, 2009, 03:57:53 PM »
Are you ready to head out towards the dwarven burial ground or follow up on something else?
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Drohem

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« Reply #39 on: March 10, 2009, 04:44:35 PM »
Quote from: CavScout;288180
"Dwarven locks, goblin tools.... what does it mean?"


Fargrim looks thoughtful for a moment and says, "well, I think that it was either a goblin, or goblins, that stole the lantern; or that someone or something wants us to believe that it was stolen by goblins.  I propose that we deal with the immediate dwarven undead threat first, and then return to follow up on the goblin leads in connection with the lantern."

CavScout
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« Reply #40 on: March 10, 2009, 05:53:11 PM »
"I am ready to deal with these undead as are you. But are our companions ready as well?"
"Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?" -Obi-Wan

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DeadUematsu

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« Reply #41 on: March 11, 2009, 12:03:56 AM »
Shroom frowns as the activity surrounding the lantern slows, stating "I'm ready to depart."
 

Sigmund

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« Reply #42 on: March 11, 2009, 01:30:44 AM »
Ambling over from talking with an off-duty caravan guard, Ridcully says, "Hey, neat lock. The lockpick is pretty, but it's broken so it won't work so well anymore. Are we leaving yet? I'm ready."
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Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #43 on: March 11, 2009, 01:28:51 PM »
Ok, moving on...

The four of you, Stralor, Shroom, Ridcully, and Fargrim head out of west via the front gate by late afternoon. You can't help but look up at the gate as you pass beneath it and see the empty ring where the old lantern used to hang.

The road splits and goes a number of different directions, but Fargrim guides you west on a recently-blazed trail that runs parallel to the blight zone, without entering it. Within an hour or so, you are close enough to at least see the edge of the blight-- blackened earth, dead vegetation, and the occasional withered tree, stripped of leaves stretches as far as you can see, as if a gigantic shadow had been cast across the valley. You also notice pools of a black oily substance, perhaps tar, that seem to reflect the light and dot the blight zone in various areas.  Nothing seems to move out on the blight area but you get the sense that something is out there, just out of sight.

The trail leads away from the blight for a while- a safer route, that heads back towards the edge of the mountain and eventually to the mountain tunnel that leads to Copperpot Hold. Fargrim switches back towards the old trail, now, and leads you back towards the northern edge of the blight. Within another  hour, the trail has curved back to cut across the blight, where an old tea-tree orchard once stood.

Now just the withered husks of trees, and the occasional blasted chunk of stone remains, dotting the earth. This was the old battleground where (as the legends goes) 12 dwarves held off a force of nearly a hundred orcish raiders for a day while a strategic gate was repaired. They were all buried just beyond the grove...behind a crumbling section of stone wall.

You guys enter the blight zone at last.

The earth is soft and damp here, but strangely stained black and streaked with gray. The four of you cross the orchard towards the area of the burial ground, when Ridcully points out a group of 5 hunched figures-- dwarven skeletons.. all of them still with the dried  and mudcaked remnant of a beard.

 Two of them are clad in their coppery chainmail armor, now ragged and falling to shreds. They are armed with warhammers and the battered shields they carried in life. The other three skeletons are literally falling apart.. but their armor seems to have disintegrated entirely. They have managed to pull their shields along with them. One of the unarmored ones carries a rusted crossbow.

The skeletons seem preternaturally aware, and turn towards you as you get closer.

There are several dead trees, a fallen log, and the crumbling fragment of a wall on the battlefield, as well as a crumbling section of low wall.

OCC: Roll for initiative!
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Drohem

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« Reply #44 on: March 11, 2009, 01:59:16 PM »
"Father of Battle!  Guide my axe to put to rest the remains of these heroes!"  Fargrim exclaims upon seeing the dwarven skeletons.

==============================

(OOC- Fargrim's Initiative check = 13)