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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echolocation" data-source="post: 8055914" data-attributes="member: 7011911">Session 24Courtesy of Drift's playerWe kicked off the session with Ella utterly failing to remove the bug from her head. Fortunately it wasn’t interested in laying eggs in her brain: and just exploded into psychic damage instead.The remaining creatures were eventually dispatched: Sydney getting in some vicious hits and Angharad stubbornly maintaining his grapple fire-fight until the bitter end. After applying some healing, we turned to look at the puzzle room before us. A series of coloured force fields occupied the room, along with six coloured stones.[SPOILER="Angharad's fire-fight"]When grappled, Angharad deals fire damage to the grappler each turn. The eye of madness reflected this damage back to Angharad each turn too. Eventually, Angharad won.[/SPOILER]We quickly discovered that touching the coloured stones activated and deactivated the force fields - as well as creating coloured force bridges - and set our keen intellects to getting across the room. That led to us yelling at Millie as she flew around pecking things.As the last force field fell to Millie’s expert pecking, and the final bridge across the room shimmered into view, there was a burst of light and we were all overtaken by a vision. 3 orcs, armed with 3 familiar artifacts, fighting semi-translucent aberrations. Somehow we understood their words, even as they spoke in Ancient. They spoke of “Toteth’s seal” failing, and the aberrations being from "Gidim" - but smelling of Apet.One of the orcs closed its eyes and focused its mind on one of the aberrations before it, and the creature phased out of seni-corporeality into reality. Another orc quickly sliced it in two, and as the vision faded we found ourselves with a newfound understanding of two things. First: we now had the ability to speak Ancient. And second: we understood that the aberrations we’d been fighting were not incorporeal but thoughtform creatures. Creatures that could be forced into reality with a concentrated effort of will.Armed with this knowledge, we advanced: crossing the force bridge and finding a symbol for the sun on the far side. We continued into the next room: a far smaller space with a complex mechanism hanging from the ceiling and an ancient stone map on the floor. Shining a light on the apparatus highlighted two specific spots on the map: our current location, and a point off the coast of Ber.The next room had the symbol of Mavisha on the floor - the plane of water - and a space on the wall that looked like it had once held something rectangular and 6 ft tall. Dust marks suggested it had been removed recently.The corridor beyond led to a stone pillar with the symbol of Jiese on the floor - the plane of fire. Angharad, on a hunch, poked the symbol with fire, and it briefly glowed, deactivating the fire trap hidden in the pillar. So... for once... Angharad... actually… prevented fire damage? That’s a first.Continuing down the corridor, we found a secret doorway in the wall that had been jammed open with metal poles. Someone had set a rug on the floor in the doorway, woven with the word “Welcome”. 2 bodies lay just beyond it, and 5 more deeper into the room. 3 of them were tieflings - the ones Caius had sent maybe?As we peered through the doorway we saw a broken circle of protective runes on the floor, and a golden disc on the far wall. As Lisandra looked in she received a vision. The 5 people lying dead on the floor had been performing a ritual: but one of them slipped and broke the circle. As he did, aberrations appeared and killed them all.Closer examination of the “disc” on the wall revealed that it was actually stone covered in a thin layer of gold, and there seemed to be some kind of passage behind it.As the others entered, Ella hung back, and received a vision. A vision of her father. He seemed to be trying to contact her, via some kind of magic. But just as she thought she'd made some kind of connection in return, the vision vanished.[SPOILER="Ella's Da"]Ella's father (Da) brought his family to Flint 30 years ago to assist in the industrial revolution. Shortly thereafter, he died of bleaching. Or so it is thought...In reality, Ella's father was recruited by the Ob to assist the colossus cell. Believing it was a project that would end the Danor-Risur conflict, Da faked his own death to protect his family. With his work finally completed, he now spends his time tinkering with planar energy. He has found a way to imbue Ella with a form of Guidance (spell), which will hopefully aid her. Ella will eventually encounter him in the events of Book 5. At this stage, he does not know that his boss (Steelshaper) killed his wife.One important aspect of the vision was that Da was writing notes, but Ella could not make it out. This aspect is blown out of proportion when Ella's Distant Madness takes hold.[/SPOILER]The others watched in confusion as Ella slammed a fist into the wall. Despite their questions, she remained evasive about what she’d seen, and they returned to searching the room. Inside we found that the corpses on the floor had had their pockets rifled - much like the bodies outside the ziggurat. And closer examination showed that the golden stone seal definitely had something behind it. As we dragged it aside, we found ourselves staring into a deep, black void.Floating in the void was a dead, faceless man. Looking at him, Lisandra received another vision: the man was standing in the room, and the void was full of aberrations. One of them dragged him into the void with overly long arms and bit off his face, leaving him floating there.Ella, ever keen to explore, volunteered to enter the void: tying a rope around her waist before jumping in. It was... like space - if Ella had known what that was. Lightless, weightless, and seemingly limitless. And yet, there was breathable air. Reaching the end of the rope, Ella contemplated the space for a moment before heading over to the dead man and checking his corpse. His pockets had also been rifled - just like every other corpse in the ziggurat. With the help of her allies, Ella dragged the body and herself back into the ziggurat room.There wasn't much time to contemplate the dead man though, as Lisandra, John and Angharad were all struck by simultaneous separate visions. Lisandra’s vision was not shared, but John saw his previous partner: conducting a shady deal. And Angharad saw a familiar nymph from his past, spouting taunting words.[SPOILER="Lisandra's vision"]Time: PresentLisandra was teleported to the Theatre of Scoundrel's costume rooms, where ex-lover Connor was dressing manikins in costumes. To her dismay, Lisandra found out Connor worked for Kell in Book #2, though has been unable to talk to him. The two carefully chatted, with Connor utterly confused at how Lisandra managed to sneak into the place. Connor shares his aspiration to get close to Kell, make a bucket full of gold, then quit the guild. Before leaving, Connor asks for Lisandra to pick an outfit. The vision ends shortly thereafter.He hopes the outfit she chose will be best suited to the Family meeting he is about to attend. Connor will snitch to the Family, and make a return appearance in book #5.[/SPOILER][SPOILER="John's vision"]Time: PastJohn comes from the capital, but is currently on hiatus after killing his partner who attempted to assassinate the Viscount Inspector. Unbeknownst to John, his partner was part of a radical eschatological movement. The vision takes John back to the evening before his partner's death, to an inn where she picked up a homemade bomb. Previously, John could not make out the figure who gave her the weapon. But in this vision, John found himself inside the inn, and could see the silent exchange clearly---it was a man smoking from a frozen pipe.[/SPOILER][SPOILER="Angharad's vision"]Time: CurrentAngharad was stolen by fey as a baby, and raised in The Dreaming. A nymph was initially intrigued by the adolescent boy, but grew bored of him. She would often toy with him, breaking his heart over and over. In this vision, Angharad is briefly teleported to the dreaming. The nymph, seeing a fleeting moment to terrorise the man uses her time wisely, and attempts to gaslight him to oblivion. Spoilers: it works.[/SPOILER]The three of them had scarcely come back to reality when another vision hit all of us: Kell’s cronies, standing in an alley around a man tied to a post. They immolated him, after accusing him of being a snitch, and cheered as he died. One of them was given a letter, with the address being Angharad’s house.[SPOILER="Final vision"]Time: CurrentIn the alleyways of Parity Lake, Kell's men execute a snitch in the style of Angharad: burning him alive, and fusing a golden coin onto his finger (an improvised mage cuff).[/SPOILER]Even as the vision faded, a sound trickled in: flowing water, streaming down the room's walls - and this was no illusion. And it was no water. As the room began to fill with acid, the corpses around us began to rise: the groans of the undead joining the hissing of the caustic fluid. And Team BAD took one look around and began to beat a hasty retreat. Or at least, most of us did. Because some people just don’t know when to bloody quit.The acid rapidly flooding the floor made movement difficult, and John soon took to the air in eagle form: leaving Ella and Angharad fighting a running battle on the ground. Or rather, a walking battle because Angharad refused to move more than absolutely necessary. Preferring to hit zombies than outrun the rising tide of acid.Ella coaxed him along as best she could - alternating between healing his zombie and acid induced wounds and yelling at him in Gnomish. Despite Angharad's self-imposed handicap, we eventually we made it back to the rainbow puzzle room: leaving a trail of charred, fire-and-acid-singed zombies in our wake.When we finally arrived we were greeted by a lovely sight: 3 more mummies! And these one had spells! And class abilities! Attempts to negotiate with them in Ancient quickly broke down. Fortunately we had a secret weapon: buttons. John managed to lure one of them across a force bridge, which Millie then cunningly deactivated behind it: leaving the mummy monk stranded. It took its revenge though: punching the little blue jay in the beak as she flew away.Meanwhile, the largest of the mummies had crossed another force bridge and was ready to pummel Ella and Angharad into a pulp. They were not so easily pulped though! As they activated various flying abilities and flew the hell away.Eagle John deactivated the bridge behind them, sending the mummy plummeting onto the acid-soaked spikes below! Bird power!That just left the stranded mummy monk on one platform and the mummy spellcaster by the entrance. John and Angharad took care of them handily: eagle John clawing the spellcaster to pieces, and Angharad bull rushing the monk off the platform after it managed to jump across.Ella on the other hand was being entirely useless: taking a nap in the acid while her friends did all the work. Typical. A nap that was getting dangerously close to turning permanent. Fortunately Angharad and John slapped her awake with healing before she got herself killed - much to Millie's relief. Do you know how hard it is to find a good caster these days? Or even a mediocre one? Times are tough for familiars... You have to take what you can get...Having finally finished Indiana Jones'ing it up, we headed for the entrance: wading through rivers of acid to get there. John having a great time having his flesh slowly melted away! He really shouldn't have given up those eagle wings… Still, overall: things were looking up!...Until we got outside. Then we found out that every single dead thing within sight of the ziggurat had decided to get up and go for a stroll - in our general direction of course.But hey… at least it's not raining! ...Oh waaaaait.So tune in this week: to find out how Team BAD gets itself out of this one! ...Or possibly just to watch us get our brains eaten by swamp zombies. Who knows?DM NotesI LOVED the ziggurat, and I think the players did too. I didn't expect them to manage a bee line to the final room. As a result, I quickly piled them with visions. I think this worked quite well, as the players inferred that whatever was causing the visions was in this room. It also created anxiety, as the characters struggled to do anything without being interrupted by a vision. The anxiety culminated in the dead rising, so it was perfect pacing.I cannot believe Angharad: (a) deactivated a trap by blasting it with fire, and (b) saw zombies mounting up around him and decided to try to fight despite other characters begging him to run.Angharad and Ella have Distant Madness! I've always been unimpressed by the madness in Pathfinder, so I tailored custom ones to the characters. I aimed to capture an aspect of their ziggurat vision that would obscure their personality and judgement. Partner paranoia (Angharad)You expect your partners to betray you at any moment, though you fear the repercussions if you are the first to attack. Like the nymph from your past, you feel both fear and love towards the party. Play Angharad as if he is expecting his partners to attack him. For example, treat all threatened squares by your ‘allies’ as threatened by your enemies. You do not gain benefits from flanking, cannot accept aid another attempts, and cannot accept spells from others willingly.In all of this, Angharad feels a need to please his allies, if only to relieve suspicion or gain tenuous love. Angharad adds +10 to rolls attempting to aid another.Ink insanity (Ella)What was written on that parchment? Ella knows what it is. It’s the reasons he uses to justify the pain he put Ella and her family through. Play Ella as if she expects every piece of writing to hold the secrets to her father’s abandonment, be it fear, anger, obsessive curiosity, etc. Ella receives a -4 penalty on all intelligence-based skill checks, as she struggles to focus through her emotions. Whenever exposed to writing, she is shaken for the next hour. This penalty does not stack with cumulative exposure to writing.A part of Ella brims with hatred. Whenever she casts Demetriou’s Direction, she does not gain the usual spell effect. Instead, Demetriou’s Direction functions as the spell Rage that may target only herself, and lasts for 10 rounds.(edited)[SPOILER="Demetriou’s Direction"]A special kind of Guidance bestowed upon Ella by her Da's experiments with planar energy. Except, now it functions as rage.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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