Dobhyst Wasteland campaign

{OOC: Heh, completely worth it. I was expecting to have to take him aside and give him a lengthy chat, while stealthily removing his beard hair by hair with prestidigitation.}

I look thoughtfully at the tea towel. "This is a good tea towel. I think it might have made a better scarf, now I look at it properly. Hmm..." I'll pull out my little notebook and start scribbling down some notes in Gnomish.
After a few rounds of writing I close the book and look through the bag, humming cheerfully to the tune of detect magic. How many spellcrafts do I need to make?

Unfortunately for you, only 2 items even remotely exude magic, and both are scrolls.
Closer inspection leads you to believe the other gear is either masterwork or just well polished (in the case of the gemstones and obsidian).

Since I don't seem to have read magic prepared, I'd better just do it the hard way.

As for the gems &c, I've got a +3 Appraise bonus. Since it's supposed to be a secret roll so I don't know if I'm way out or not.

Results: That's a 13 and 17. I'll put my char sheet up soon...

The member 'Quark' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 6, 10

You find a scroll of remove fear, yay.
Aaaand a scroll of invisibility. YAY!

The gems aren't all that lucrative. The Citrine scores 50gp, the Lapis Lazuli scores 20, the rest are 1gp each in value.

At least these random treasure generators aren't giving you copper pieces...

"Excellent" I grin to myself. "These must be the classic dwarven variants on these spells! Just the sort of thing I was hoping to find up here, yes, yesyesyes!" I pull out my spellbook and a lot of ink, then look over at the rest of the group. "What, you're still here? This will take some time, you know. Why don't you go and kick a dwarf or something to pass the time?
"How about trying to see why those crazies were even up there in the first place? There must be something special about the area, otherwise they'd have done it somewhere more comfortable. Mad doesn't mean stupid."

Dice Results: Not liking me much at the moment. That's 14 and 16 on the spellcraft checks to transcribe them, which would be a failure. Just as well we'll level soon and I can try again. Two hours gone.

The member 'Quark' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 7, 9

If you had a spell-slot open, you could have automatically cast read magic and deciphered them immediately...

Also, congratulations, you've learnt Invisibility!!! and remove fear... (as a bard/cleric spell I don't think writing it down does much).
You lose standard 40gp for writing down invisibility. Pay Nethys within the next 5 seconds to receive a free gift!!!. I'm not going to charge you for the other spell, as AMAZINGLY not-useful as it is.

I groan. "These scrolls are old. I haven't heard of anyone using that scam for centuries."
{OOC:
All depends on whether the scroll is divine or not. But you're right, I hadn't actually checked, so I don't need to include that. That's just 1 hour then.
Sadly, I don't have the spell slot to spend on read magic. Next level. So close.}

Fine then, level up.
Be that way.

When you put it like that, how can I complain? Shall I assume spells are all preped &c.?

Maintain your uncast spells.
The rest of your slots are now open.

{OOC: Welp, I'm all leveled up. Spend an hour reading through my spellbook if necessary (Trying to do so on my head), and I'm good to go.}

"Hmm," Quibbler says as he stands up and stretches. "Yes. Maybe it would be a good idea to ask around and see if anyone knows what those crazies were doing up there when they could have been somewhere warmer. Demons are fun, but not that fun." He pauses. "Okay, maybe Demons aren't fun. Anyway, I'm concerned there might be more of them around, or they might have some lasting influence. We should ask around about them."

Too lazy to even bother writing dialogue for the moment...

You could easily make a few diplomacy and knowledge(local)/(history) checks to attempt to glean a bit of info.
Depending on the quality of your rolls I'll give a differing amount of info.
On a terrible roll, then you'll know that something is being hidden from you (I see no reason to make these rolls secretly; dwarves either tell the truth, or say nothing).

{OOC:

Or of course they know nothing. If you want to roll for me my online character sheet is completely up to date (Including my preparation of Quibbler's Exploratory Tongue).

Well, let's see. Local would be ideal if I had it. Religion (+8) would be suitable as well if there's something of particular significance to the area. Possibly Planes (+9) if there's a bit of extraplanar disruption that might attract things that might encourage Demon Worship (Such as Demons). History (+7) could work too.

If that brief period of recollection doesn't help, I'll get to use my impressive modifier of +2 for Diplomacy.}

{Roll Results: 14 Religion, 20 Planes, 27 History and 10 Diplomacy}

The member 'Quark' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 6, 11, 20, 8

+6 for Knowledge Local

The member 'UnsavouryCharlot' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 11

I'm just going to skip the boring dialogue here and throw you, to quote Doctor Evil, a fricken bone.

Quibbler gets the feeling that either someone's keeping something from him, or he's simply asking the wrong questions. He finds he has a great deal more luck dealing with a young looking, and surprisingly beardless, acolyte of Torag.

He hastily sketches for you a map of the roads in the surrounding area. He details the site of a crypt from a disgraced dwarf, who was believed to be consorting with demons. This dwarf was however contemporary with the youth of the mine boss Grakhuil Fotdreni, more than 200 years ago.

Markus also discovers that the only safe paths leading out of the mountains are through a dryad grove in a nearby valley, past the offshoot leading to the crypt and the road leading back to the Wrebus gnome encampment. He also can gather that the road leading past the crypt leads through a deep canyon and is rarely travelled, so there is no report as to its current condition.

To make thing (much) simpler to understand, Quibbler manages to obtain a reasonably well drawn (considering dwarf penmanship...) parchment map which after consulting with Markus is filled out a little more thoroughly giving a good overview of the surrounding area.

A Dwarvish Demon worshiper, hm? Demons are immortal, so there's a good chance that any demons around the place are still around and active, juding by that cult. Possibly some Abyssal influence in the area, too. Keeping an eye out for sorcerers or tieflings wouldn't be a bad idea. I can tell you from prior experience that Demons are pret-ty nasty things that you don't want to have around. Trust me, I've summoned a few.
...Except for Succubi. Those are okay. And Inccubi, if you're into that sort of thing. Can't call it a good party until someone summons a succubus.

In any case, if there's even a chance of there being more demons or demon worshippers, we need to stop them soon. We don't want another worldwound up here. I think we should head to that Crypt to investegate and see what's around.

{OOC: Nice map}

"You know, I find Succubi particularly draining."

I'm going to take that as a sign of you wanting to get out of this (un)hell-hole.

A few dwarves, typically the less well armed ones, wave to you as you leave. It appears that ending that ridiculous cacophony from up the hill has made them very happy with you. So much so that a small dwarf-girl-child, approximately 26 years of age given her mild stubble growth, offers a basket containing what looks like some kind of pastry, claiming that she's made the three of you lunch (three being the Cleric/Arcanist, Rogue and Paladin given that they've actually posted on this thread).

There is little to see leaving the mine that you haven't already stared at before; mountains, snow, clouds and the like.

After an hours walk along the barely marked gravel track a sudden dip in the pathway leads you to an ominous sight...
A massive canyon stretches out before you. At least 100ft high on both sides, mist swirling along the canyon floor. While the granite walls appear to be extremely solid, the recent snowfalls could be problematic.

"Mmm, yes. Part of the reason my magical aptitude isn't up to scratch, I'm afraid. Still recovering from my last couple of 'adventures'." Quibbler sighs. "Ah, those were good times."

Quibbler thanks the litte dwarf girl for her pastries. "If you ever need some magical tuition, I'll be happy to give some to you. I'm sure you'd be an excellent student. Hmm, yes. Early signs of obsession with a stranger. Very promising." *Insane giggle*. Quibbler spends the hour of walking concentrating on Quibbler's Exploratory Tongue so he can taste the pastries without actually eating them. He gives little sighs of pleasure from the taste. {OOC: I hope these are actually good}

{More OOC: Just checking: is the canyon blocking our path, or are we going to walk along it? Also, how wide is the path? I'm assuming that the walls are decently sloped since there's the possibility of an avalanche, otherwise the snowfall wouldn't be an issue.}

I actually misspelled the food you were given. It was meant to say pasties, not pastries...
Has little to no influence on the game though.

The path lowers into the canyon and follows it along the very bottom of the chasm. The west side of the canyon extends into yet more high mountains. The east side reduces slowly before reaching a sheer drop about 200ft away.
The path is fairly narrow, fluctuating between 5 and 10ft. These walls look incredibly difficult to climb (DC in excess of 40 in these conditions) and the recent cold-snap has frozen powder-snow at the top of the canyon into a deep-blue block ice.

It doesn't take a knowledge engineering check to work out that this will be fairly safe if there's no seismic activity, though with the ice is obscuring the sun the way it is, light may quickly become an issue.

You can see approximately 70ft down the canyon before the mist thickens obscuring anything further.

{OOC: Seismic activity? Good grief, I hope there's none of that. for a start, I haven't got a portable door}

"Oooh, what an interesting canyon! I wonder what caused it? A river, perhaps, from an ancient time? A large migration of goats walking in single file? Or, maybe, maybe..." Quibbler pulls out his notebook and scribbles down a few notes.
"Well, if this is the way we've got to go, so be it. We could climb up those cliffs, but there's a dragon around and I don't want to be out in the open while it's around. There's that nice mist that will keep us hidden in the canyon."

I'll cast light on myself so I can see a little better in the canyon, and use my Gnomish dancing lights to bounce around ahead of me and hopefully give us some advance warning of any light-hating beasts.

Would be nice to add more forum-based stuff, but I've really allotted the next area to the live-session.

Any in-character role-playing is always nice though.

{OOC}
Session Summary: Went into Crypt and set off lots of traps. Also found some Drow, presumably the demon worshipers. They've been sneaking in and out of the Crypt apparently.

Can we have a summary of the treasure we've found?

Also, I'm not telling people I'm casting illusions. I barely know these people (except for Ikiit). Unless you make the spellcraft check to see what I'm casting, it's going to look like I'm doing something else. Ikiit of course knows Quibbler well enough that he'd recognise the illusions.
from now on, therefore, I let everyone know that I will tap my nose/do some minor movement when I cast an illusion so the party knows that it's an illusion. Otherwise when I remove effects I do so using the illusion to make it look like it's some other powerful spell.
{/OOC}

Quibbler Disintegrates the wall of stone and the residual mirror images around the place to turn them into small ash piles, then looks at the unconscious drow. "Ehehe! A captive! Someone tie them up! When they recover consciousness we can see what they know about this cult, ehehe!"

"Kekeke will we need all of them? Elf-things but not normal elf-things. Under-elf-thing yesyes. Heard they make good poison but are they immune? Kekeke interesting to try, interesting to see! They talk or Ikiit make them talk kekeke."

{Is there anything else we can see here? or is this as far as it goes? I'm inclined to wait here until we can do something with our prisoner regardless, since anything further on will (probably) need to get past us to get out.
I could channel positive to save time, but if we're not that badly injured I won't bother.}

As of the end of the last session, this is your map.

Well, ehehe! Let's take a little peak down that corridor, shall we? Best make sure there aren't any more big ones coming, hm? You, Mr. S! If anything comes down there, throw an electric snowball at them. I want to wait for this dwarf to wake up so we can get a better idea of what's going on.

"That is a Drow..."

"Not for long!, Not for long! kekeke can turn Drow-thing into flimsy Dwarf-thing. Keke alchemy is quite fun yes."

If you want to transform a highly robust Drow into a flimsy Dwarf, be my guest. You'll have to work out how first.

The stonework becomes more rough as you peer down the corridor. Judging by the light given off, you believe that the corridor turns a corner after about 20ft.

I'm pretty sure this is a dwarf. It's too tall to be a drow. Unless I've got you big things mixed up again. Why can't you all just be a sensible size like Ikiit and I? It would make it much easier.

Well, whatever it is, I'm waiting for it to wake up! This is the first living thing in here we've seen, and from the looks of it, it's been here before. We should find out what's up ahead before blundering on blindly. Better yet, we can get this... thing to walk in front of us. Let it set off the traps, ehehe!

In the meantime, someone should take a look around the corner, hm? We don't want to be interupted.

{Can we have a description of our prisoner please? Aside from the whole drow thing. It's slightly awkward calling it thing or it}

"Call it thing-thing then. Ikiit crawl around corner now, yes yes creepings, Ikiit scout out."
Stealth +9

Blessed be the forum dice roller \O/

The member 'The Sunbound' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 3

Against a DC 0, you easily pass the stealth check. You peer around the corner and see.....
Stairs.
Going down.

Also, Alex. For an explanation of this drow, think a kabalite warrior wearing leather and no helmet.

I slap the genderless and featureless drow in front of me. "Wake up! We've been here for ages, and we haven't got all day! Take me to your leader! Ehehe!" I've always wanted to say that. Mammy always used to talk about some wierd things saying that on her talking box.

{OOC: Character sheet updated to reflect traits and story feat; transcription error that noted my will save as +7 was fixed}

The Drow looks up at you and makes an expression as he he wished he hadn't looked. Almost a look of disgust, barely holding back a sense of pity. He then sighs.

"You have no idea what you're in for."

He appears to be quite tight lipped.

Markus pushes Quibbler to the side "Let me handle this"

I begin speaking in undercommon, if any of you know it, I will post the text

Rolling for diplomacy
+7

The member 'UnsavouryCharlot' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 8

{OOC: Ikiit will know it. I don't. Just let him know what you say; I'd like to be kept in the dark. Unless you've got some IC reason to want to tell us}

I grin. "Oh, this game!? I love this game, ehehe! The monks who say 'Ni' are there? Kittenzilla doing the monkey gibbon? Major Blunbottil with pants full of custard? An elephant playing the Saxophone?
"...that last one I'm worried about. IT COULD BE IN THE ROOM WITH US!" I pull my jackal fur pointy hat over my head and crouch down, then throw a pinch of salt over my shoulder.

Lifting my hat up so I can see again. "Am I right? Can you lead us onward? I can give you a nice warm pastry. Mmmm. What's your name, anyway? I think I can hear the Elephant asking that, ehehe!"

He stands up, unsteadily but with conviction.
He then yells,
"To hell with it, I'm not dying for this secret. If you want what the boss is after then go deeper. Just leave me be, and let me out of this thrice damned crypt of a bearded savage!"

We tied him up, didn't we? I hope we tied him up. Mr. S, why didn't you tie him up? GM, chosen of the mother, tell him to tie him up!

"Curious, you seemed eager enough before." I say to the drow. "You don't have much choice in the matter anymore, either.
"What sort of a fanatic are you, anyway? Go back to fanatic school! I'll go with you, I teach there. I forgot the way, though. TAKE ME THERE! I don't know what your boss is after, but whatever it is I wants it! Gimme!"

(I had written in my notes that he was specifically tied onlonly at the wrists, just thought I'd nab you on a technicality... Just call it willing suspension of disbelief)

"I'm here because they're paying me. Got a whole 30 gold pieces out of it upfront along with a share of the spoils. Of course it's only after we get here that I learn that the place is empty and we're looking for a book."

{OOC: Wrists is enough. So long as he can't use weapons that's enough. You're completely justified though; if we don't say what we're doing, you're entitled to assume anything.
...as a generic aside, do you feel the IC ramblings that would normally be OOCed add to the impression Quibbler's mad? I mean, they're not said, but they're thought IC.}

I'm disappointed. I thought he was going to be a fun fanatic, but he's just a boring mercenary.
"And here was I thinking you were going to be interesting. fine, I don't care if you leave, just take the rope off first, and tell us what's going on up ahead. How many are there up ahead, are there any more traps, and do they have pickles? I hate traps that cover you in pickles!"

"He told me his boss is that way"Markus points to the corner, "He is trying to call him, we can't have that."

Markus moves to break Drowly's neck

{OOC: Heh, this is a thing for you, isn't it? At least it probably won't cause problems this time.}

I scowl. "Pesky troll. Go ahead and kill him, at least we know they're coming now. We've got time to set up an ambush."

Once Markus has killed him:

"Right. Rather than making an actual wall this time, I'll create an illusion. I'll put a network of wooden walls covered in rotating saw blades and moving spikes around the room, leaving some holes in each wall. Make sure to only attack through the holes. If they see you, run around one of the many corners before moving through a wall."

Casting Silent Image, spending an Arcane Point to increase DC by 2.

Illusion arrangement, if I have time to explain. Should take about 3 rounds. This fits pretty easily into the 6 10 ft cubes I've got.

Red bits are the Death Walls

OOC: I've only done it once before, this time I just tried to the most painless way to kill. Also, I meant the boss is down the unexplored area

Well, silly me then. You, Markus. This is your fault, so go and lure them up here! You're good at that sort of thing, otherwise that sneaky Azalor would never have hired you!