[DnD] Tomb of Horrors (GFF D&D Adventure X)

1 Die Roll Active Perception

On one hand, Garold was pleased that his request for work involving the destruction of the unnatural had not gone ignored by the council this time. On the other hand he was now faced with descending into dark catacombs most likely filled with hungry undead. He supposed there was a chance that this would end up like his previous job where the "monstrosity" he was called upon to save a town from turned out to be an eccentric artist's particularly hideous modern art sculpture, but as he gazed into the black void beyond the stairs that possibility seemed to be waning.

A halfling and a genasi arrived together and introduced themselves. Brevity seemed to be the order, so the shifter simply nodded and said "Garold" before returning his attention to the creepy hole in the floor.

Upon seeing the halfling ready himself for combat, Garold decided to do the same.

Equip light shield.
Light sunrod and place in shield hand.
Equip distance tratnyr.

Garold then held the sunrod out to illuminate the stairs, and joined the halfling in looking and listening for zombies or other undead abominations.

Perception check. 16 + 12 = 28

Jam it back in, in the dark.

1 Die Roll Active Perception

Satisfied that the minotaur and kobold would provide enough flesh to distract any undead long enough to make a run for it should need be, Garold descended as well and took a look around. Being largely unfamiliar with mechanical devices, he decided to leave trap checking to the others and focus on what was down the hall.

Perception check. 8 + 12 = 20

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh good, a patronizing tomb builder. Now they get to look forward to being chewed on by zombies and being mocked. After seeing Slim chuck rocks at the red tiles with no ill effects, Garold's curiosity overpowered his caution, and he decided to see what the rest of the message read.

Before embarking down the hallway, he pointed his spear at the strongbox and said "There's a hidden lever on the bottom of that thing, make sure the halfling sees it if he ever gets down here."

Garold then walked slowly down the center of the hallway, keeping an eye out for anything hostile at the edge of the Sunrod's glow. Whenever he approached another line of red tiles, he stopped and tapped them with the tip of his spear to ensure they sounded solid before crossing. As he walked he began to wonder what was keeping the genasi and the halfling. They had arrived later than the rest of the party as well. Maybe they were union, he mused, and were on a mandatory break. If he survived this he'd have to look into it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Garold was mulling over the meaning of the poem when he heard a loud clank followed shortly by a crunchy thump from the far end of the hallway. He turned and shielded his eyes from the sunrod to see the kobold peering inquisitively into a pit that hadn't been there before. The minotaur was just looking startled and confused. Both of them looked alright though, so he trusted them to handle whatever it was that had happened down there and went back to analyzing the poem.

"Shun green if you can..." He looked at the big green bearded devil carving. He wasn't exactly eager to dive into impenetrable darkness through the mouth of a demonic doorway, so this advice seemed sound.

He couldn't make much sense of the rest of the colors, but the line "Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall." caught his attention. The minotaur had been standing on a hollow set of tiles after discovering the hollow fresco on the wall. Perhaps there was one more. After studying the location of the hollow tiles along the red streak, he had a good idea where to start looking. The question remained though, would the fall into one of these pits be fortuitous for them, or the tomb architect that clearly wanted their souls.

Move 2 spaces north and 1 space east.
Examine the wall in the two spaces to the north, and tap spear on closest one.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

1 Die Roll Perception if needed

Disappointed that his theory about the wall was wrong, Garold decided to follow Slim's example and start destroying things. He wanted to find out what was under the hollow tiles, as they had proven harmless thus far, and the idea of a "fortuitous fall" still teased at his brain.

He steadied himself so as to not fall in should he succeed, and then attempted to drive his spear through the center of the closest tile.

Attempt to break floor tile at S3.
If successful, take a look and find out what's down there.

I was speaking idiomatically.

2 Dice Rolls lookin at stuff

Garold had scoured the pit with his keen eyes, but it was just a pit. Sigh. At least he had struck a blow against bad poetry by sending some of the red tiles to a spike-filled final resting place below. And even if he wasn't making any progress on discovering the secrets of this tomb, breaking some asshole necromancer's stuff was still satisfying in its own right.

He considered smashing open some more pits, but realized he had no idea which ones might be "fortuitous," and smashing them all would create a considerable navigational hazard. If he was going to survive this he certainly didn't need any more allies hurling themselves headfirst into deathtraps. Instead he decided to put his canine senses to use by scouting what was beyond the gem-laden archway.

Move to V3.
Take a look through archway.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

2 Dice Rolls damage

A cacophony erupted from the hidden passageway, ending with Uxig yelling for support. Garold turned from the doorway of impenetrable mist to see the genasi running full tilt down the hallway, and decided to follow suit.

Standard action - run
Move action - run
End turn at F2.

Oh my, that was a very pissed off looking Gargoyle. Probably best to focus its rage on something besides the party.

Spend Action Point
Standard Action - Biting Swarm

The magically charged spear finds its mark and explodes into a cloud of irritated bees. They waste no time swarming over the gargoyle, pissing it off even more, but also distracting it.

8 damage
Gargoyle has -2 to attack rolls until the start of Garold's next turn.

FELIPE NO

1 Die Roll quarter circle forward, punch

Immediate Interrupt!

One thing that Garold had learned from previous battles was that no one liked having magical angry bees thrown at them, ever. As such, when he heard what sounded like speech from the angry stone monster, his thoughts went something like this:

Did that thing just talk? If it's smart enough to speak then it must be smart enough to know that I'm the one who...

And that's when its claws ripped a gash across his chest. Who knew a fixture weighing a few tons would be able to move so fast when given life? Fortunately, having so much practice dodging the attacks of furious bee-covered opponents let him duck the second set of claws, while simultaneously calling upon nature spirits to retaliate. They swirled about him, but then focused as he curled his fingers and joined his wrists. Finally, he yelled the primal words of power "Hahh doo khenn!" and directed the spirits into the gargoyle's abdomen. It was a fierce hit, and the impact caused the creature to slide back.

Spirit's Rebuke. Encounter power spent.
5 damage to Gargoyle.
Push Gargoyle 1 square north.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

1 Die Roll Unlimited Bee Works

Things were going fairly well for Garold now. He'd managed to get the big ugly out of his face, and his allies were coming to provide bodies to hide behind support. The spirit bees had dissipated though, leaving the gargoyle looking rather relieved. He'd have to do something about that.

Move action - shift to G1
Standard action - Biting Swarn

Miss

The gargoyle was on to him now. It deftly evaded the magical spear before turning to give Garold an extremely smug look. Too bad it didn't see that minotaur coming down the side passage.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

3 Dice Rolls Rawhide!

Ooh, tingly. Garold looked around at his allies immersed in magical flames. He paused while looking at Beefi, and realized he was salivating. Man I could go for some barbecue. Maybe a good burger. Ooh, or a bison burger. Wait a minute, that gave him an idea.

Stampede Shot - encounter power spent.

11 + 13 vs. Fort. Hit!
1 + 1 + 9 = 11 damage.
Gargoyle is pushed 4 squares (or rather 2 until it falls into the pit due to lack of floor)

As Garold threw his spear (and thought about grilled meats) nature spirits once again swirled throughout the hallway before aligning to follow his throw then coalescing into three spectral bison. The shimmering translucent beasts charged straight through Slim and Beefi without causing any harm, then lowered their heavy heads and slammed into the gargoyle, sliding it back into the pit once again. The bison then followed it in, running straight over the edge like lemmings before vanishing as they fell.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Garold had not expected the minotaur to leap into the pit after the gargoyle and the spirit bison. Maybe it was the herd mentality that came naturally to bovines. He seemed no worse for wear, and even rather chipper, so all was well that ended well.

Beefi brought a collar with him when he climbed out of the pit, and a closer look revealed a small metal plate engraved with the word "Fluffy" riveted to the leather. Well, they'd certainly pissed this guy off now. No better way to anger a man than to kill his "dog."

Garold wandered over to the second hall and joined Slim in taking a break. He was probably going to need it.

Have a rest, spend a healing surge.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

2 Dice Rolls looking through doors

Well this was a pleasant surprise. When the Kobold had risen from his break Garold had half expected him to go barreling off through another set of doors. Apparently the lack of impression it had made on the gargoyle had disheartened the barbarian a bit.

Oh well, break's over, time to go looking for more bad poetry.

perception on stone dais
After Slim gets the doors open move to H-13 and look through both of them.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Strange things were going on in the room ahead. Beefi no longer seemed to be affected, but the others were all frozen in place as if time had stopped. Uxig was held in a particularly unusual position, floating in the air with his arm extended. Beefi seemed to be fine after encountering whatever it was, so with his fear of injury assuaged Garold was curious enough to wander in and see what the heck was going on. He still wasn't particularly optimistic about it though.

As he walked in he grumbled under his breath about why all wizards had to be such jerks about having grand magical powers and did they hand out licenses to be dicks along with diplomas at magical academies or what.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well this was fascinating. While his body must be frozen in the tomb, he seemed to be here in a completely separate world. It appeared to be a very limited world, but it was still a remarkable copy of reality. It reminded him of his favorite serial in Alchemical Fiction Weekly, which was Astral Expedition: The Second Generation. Most episodes revolved around discoveries while exploring the sea of stars, but occasionally they featured the ship's entertainment room, which was capable of magically creating people, places, and things to form an artificial world.

He'd always wanted to discuss the possibility and limitations of such a room with other readers of the series, but they only ever seemed interested in arguing whether the captain was better or worse than the captain in the first Astral Expedition series. Either that or just stating how superior it was to the Astral Battles novels, usually with the intent of drawing opposing fans into an argument.

But, here he was inside such a room at this very moment! Too bad it only seemed to be populated by grumpy gnomettes and crates. Still though, he would have to try and discover as much about this artificial world as he could while he had the chance.

He sat down at the desk and started sketching triangles on the provided paper. Not with any real intent to solve the puzzle though, he just wanted to appear to be working so he could ask some questions. He figured most would probably be answered with "Shut up intruder! Get back to work!" or something similar, but he couldn't resist trying to find a weak spot in this fake world.

"Since we may be here a while, my name is Garold. What are yours?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Where is 'here' anyway?"

"How did you get in here with all the crates stacked to the ceiling like this?"

"What's in all these crates?"

"How do you get food and water?"

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Garold sighed. It appeared that he was not in an artificial reality after all. The vision room of the tomb must have used some combination of time stop and astral projection spells, and this "world" was no more than a stage populated by actors, if you could call them that. How very disappointing.

Well, time to get this over with and get out of here. No sense sticking around any longer. Garold pushed away the paper and gathered the iron rods in front of him.

"Ok, you haven't been terribly specific, so I am going to make some assumptions here. Stop me if I'm wrong. First, judging by your lack of a forge and metalworking tools your design requires no cutting or bending of the rods, yes? Second, for maximum Garold made air quotes with the index and middle finger of each hand (and rolled his eyes) "triangle power" each triangle has to be wholly on its own plane, so no laying any rods across other rods. Alright?"

Garold waited for a sign of approval before continuing.

"If that's the case, each rod has to be a side of an equilateral triangle..."

He continued talking as he placed three of the rods into an equilateral triangle on the table, then picked up the other three.

"...which means the optimal shape is a triangular pyramid, having four faces, and each being an equilateral triangle."

He held the three other rods up with his fingers to make the pyramid he described.

"Happy? Can I go now?"

FELIPE NO

1 Die Roll ear to door

Stupid gnomes, he had clearly told them that his design wouldn't cross rods over each other as to create improper triangles. They obviously didn't know what they were talking about anyway, as their design really had 8 triangles in it according to their rules. Two large ones and six small ones.

At least that was over with. Of course now he was back in a tomb designed to kill him, probably after being subjected to a lot more bad poetry. Well whatever, time to get on with it. He followed Sam and Beefi into the southern room, and immediately crinkled his nose in disgust. His canine senses were detecting evidence of acts committed in this room that he would have really been much happier not knowing about.

Garold gingerly tiptoed through the room to the opposite door, being careful to avoid the unidentified fluids on the floor. He didn't want to remain in the steamy biological fumes any longer than he had to, but he supposed it was still preferential to rushing straight into waiting death.

Perception check to listen for what might be on the other side of door

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

2 Dice Rolls do I know them fish?

Being a sage of Melora's wrath, Garold has an expansive knowledge of horrid animals. He attempts to recall what danger the party currently faces, and what the best method to avoid a painful death might be.

Nature check on aquatic animals.
Perception check to get a good look at one first, if necessary.

Most amazing jew boots

2 Dice Rolls wandering eyes

Garold raised his sun rod and looked around the walls and ceiling of the chamber to see if there were any features that would make good rope anchors, or otherwise prove useful, with a good long look at the rusty thing south of Beefi and west of the trap door.

After relaying any findings to the party, Garold decides to sharpen his spear fishing skills.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

After successfully spearing a few of the more curious piranhas, Garold is satisfied he hasn't lost his touch. The genasi had assured the party that they were fish of the non-magical variety, but considering their native environment the catch of the day was still rather unappetizing. It had been worth it just to watch the kobold's fishing technique though. I guess when all you have is a throwing hammer, everything looks like a distant nail.

Seeing as he was an agent of the god of the sea, he decided he'd better find a use for the fish he'd caught if he didn't want to have to choke them down later to prevent a future involving holy smiting. Ensuring to keep his fingers away from the sawtooth fangs of one until he was quite sure it was dead, he proceeded to slice it up into bite-size pieces and flicked a few into the water. He was curious to see if they'd eat their own given the proper presentation.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Garold caught the rope and looked at the halfling quizzically. Then at the genasi, then back at the halfling, trying to detect any indication of bad blood between them. Neither seemed to be showing any, so Garold assumed it must be some kind of joke they shared from prior adventures together. At any rate, Garold didn't want to alienate anyone, so he smiled awkwardly and tossed the rope to Gra-fa-zut.

He then busied himself chopping up the remaining piranha he'd caught, while softly singing an strange little song he'd heard somewhere before.

Fish heads, fish heads.
Roly-poly fish heads.
Fish heads, fish heads.
Eat them up, yum!

Now he just had to wait for Beefi to clear the platform.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

3 Dice Rolls Everybody outta the pool!

Well, showtime. Garold tied the rope Gra-fa-zut had thrown him around his platform before scooping up the pile of chum he'd made and throwing handfuls of it to the far edges of the room. If the piranhas were going to go into a feeding frenzy he wanted them doing it away from him. He then grabbed the free end of the rope and made a quick judgment on whether it would reach the hatch platform before he decided to take it with him or not. Then, he pounced.

Atheletics check. Standing horizontal jump.
14 + 6 = 20. 10 feet jumped.

Shit. Splash.

Athletics check. Swim.
Athletics check. Climb.


I was speaking idiomatically.

Garold wasn't quite sure what happened. He recalled making it to the hatch without severe injury, but everything after that was a bit fuzzy. It might have something to do with the pain. Or perhaps a minor concussion. Yes, that might be it he thought before passing out. And so, Garold remained where he lay, a crumpled soggy heap at the bottom of the chain. At least the sunrod had survived the trip with him.

take a break, use a surge

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Garold awoke from his semi-voluntary slumber to see the two barbarians sticking their hands through seemingly solid spheres. He thought perhaps he was still asleep, but his sopping wet clothes and fresh piranha bites suggested otherwise.

He rose to a crouch before shaking the excess wet off, spattering anyone unwise enough to stand in the proximity with wet dog water. He then set off to find an orb to prod at, as it seemed to be the cool thing to do. Wasn't there something about searching for gold?

Investigate gold sphere of the naga. Use spear as a poking stick to see if I can feel something in it

FELIPE NO

Garold frowns up at the gold sphere. Its height was preventing any further investigation, and even if he was able to reach it he wasn't sure he wanted to go crawling into a narrow tunnel. He knew of far too many nasty creatures that lived in tunnels about that size.

Slim and Sam looked like they'd fit in there much better than he, and the former was already eagerly sticking his face through an orb.

"Anyone want a lift?" said Garold, before standing beneath the gold orb and clasping his hands to make a step.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

To no one's surprise, sounds of smashing echoed from the hole almost immediately after the kobold had climbed through.

"Can't you go five minutes without breaking something?" Garold shouted from his position in the hallway.

Oddly, there was no snarky comeback; only swearing from the halfling. Garold looked away from the tunnel he wished to investigate to see Beefi preparing to dive into the hole. Something interesting was going on, he just wasn't sure what.

Move and move down the hallway toward all the excitement.

Jam it back in, in the dark.