The Fall of Manlich and Horrible affairs that come after

[Logos7]

Heading down the winding twisting stairs you find yourself at their landing a huge room with a single spire upon which a ominous orb rests precariously.

Stepping forward you see a wizened and mad looking face flash through the orb before it starts pulsating with a sickening light, It wasn't manlich and looked very very old.

An Unseen Porticulus snaps shut, baring travel backwards as another flash comes, and you realize that all of you look much more mature.

The Sinsister Flashing of the Strobe of Ages continues, as you begin your struggle to end its relentless aging pulse before you are little more than hair and bones.

(Skill Challenge, 12 Success before 3 Failures, each failure after that triggers a pulse. Base DC 20 )

Tell me how you defeat the Strobe of Ages ( You can use any skill as long as it makes sense, If it doesn't I'll tell you and tell you why)

Everyone has aged 2 years, Short lived races (Humans, Halflings, Half-Elfs, Teiflings, Dragonborn) all naturally expire arround 80 years of age, Elfs and Dwarfs expire arround 200 and Eladrin arround 300)

 

[OnlytheStrong]

[sblock=Skill Challenge]

I used the thievery skill since it can disable traps. It seemed like the most reasonable skill to use. It seemed odd to me to announce that I disabled the strobe when the others could be effected, so I didn't say anything yet. Sorry for rolling the way I did on Invisiblecastle. I didn't know another way to do it.

Skill Challenge (thievery) (1d20+16=30) Skill Challenge (thievery) (1d20+19=22, 1d20+19=31, 1d20+19=32, 1d20+19=26, 1d20+19=34, 1d20+19=26, 1d20+19=30, 1d20+19=34, 1d20+19=26, 1d20+19=29, 1d20+19=25) [/sblock]

 

[Walking Dad]

Terminus uses his arcane knowledge to discover any possible weaknesses of this devious trap!
[sblock=ooc]
Skill Challenge:
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1712122/
rolled 10 times. first three there failures, the rest succeeded.

[sblock=Mini stat block]
Terminus
Perception: 16 Insight: 21 Low-light Vision
AC 24 Fortitude 21 Reflex 20 Will 19
Hit Points: 67 / 72 Bloodied: 36
Temporary Hit Points: 12
Action Points: 1 Second Wind: 1
Healing Surge: 8 Surges per day: 11 / 11
Encounter Powers: Howl of Doom, Fiery Bolt, Diabolic Grasp, Ethereal Stride
Daily Powers: Summons of Khirad, Hunger of Hadar, Armor of Agathys, Shroud of Black Steel
[/sblock][/sblock]

 

[Logos7]

Armil rushes towards the devious spire, searching for a control panel or another means of disabling the trap, finding a hidden leaver that operates the spire, he manages to bring the orb to floor level, but the orb itself is merely a magic item, it is neither mechanical nor a trap technically, their is no way to disable the orb directly with Thievery.
(Success 1 taken. )

Terminus racks his mind over and over again looking for information concerning this orb, aging effects or simular traps. Studying the newly lowered orb allows some addittional insight, but nothing clicks in the warlocks mind
(Failure 1 taken, retry allowed failure 2 taken, no more retries from terminus)

Total 1 success and 2 failures, Addittional Theivery Checks will not work to disable the orb. Terminus cannot make addittional arcana checks (althought others can )

ooc: The point of a skill challenge is not to spam the same skill over and over again, but rather to intereact with the scene in a way that makes narrative sense, allowing everyone to contribute.

Can I get what the rest of you are all doing (and any skill checks you would like to try), please, thanks.

 

[Walking Dad]

ooc: so we are neede the 12 successes in 12 different skills ?
If not, Terminus has at least the Thievery skill, too.

 

[Logos7]

You don't need 12 successes in twelve different skills but you do need 12 successes in various skills by various people. Armil tried theivery checks to directly disable the orb, it can't happen so I allowed 1 and told him that the rest can't work. Terminus tried 10 checks in knowledge, I took the first fail, and then a retry and after that no more arcane knowledge checks for Terminus.

 

[OnlytheStrong]

[sblock=Action/Ooc]

Sorry, didn't read the part about skill challenges until just recently. I wanted Aramil to study the thing and look for weakness' but all I did was get the 3rd failure.

Perception check (skill challenge) (1d20+11=12) [/sblock]

 

[Drowned Hero]

Krual Juno Dragonborn Paladin

Kral searches his mind for any history of a orb on a spike that ages people.

History (1d20+11=30, 1d20+11=22, 1d20+11=25, 1d20+11=28, 1d20+11=18, 1d20+11=12, 1d20+11=27, 1d20+11=18, 1d20+11=12, 1d20+11=26)

 

[Kobold Stew]

As the portcullis slams down behind her, Indulgence turns and grabs the bars. Where did that come from? she asks herself. How did everyone walk past this and not see the mechanism?

"How did this happen?" she calls out.

Indulgence has suffered a great deal over her life. She has overcome these difficulties. In some ways, that is the fate of many tieflings, sure -- but right now she feels a pain that goes beyond the many superficial wounds she has endured. There was no defense. There was no opportunity to prevent this. How did I get into this situation? How did the Manlich get this sort of magic? The questions resound in her mind.

"Where is the mechanism? How did this trap get sprung?" Her eyes cast around the room, looking for the trigger.

Her eyes are wide. It's not that she is panicking, but she knows, knows that she has lost some of her life. This is her life, ad her time fighting the Manlich's forces have shown her that she does not look forward to what will follow her death.

She utters a curse in Abyssal, dozens of syllables that string themselves together testing the full range of her mortal vocal cords, until she runs out of breath. This shouldn't have happened. How did it wait until we were all in the room?

A tear begins to roll down her face, a tear of pain and regret. The warmth of her face, however, causes it to disappear before it hits her chin. Perhaps it remains unnoticed.

"Wait! There..." Her finger points to what she has spotted.


****

Three Perception rolls 1d20+11: 23, 25, 28

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1713267/

 

[Logos7]

Armil's poking arround seems to have reawakened the orb, which is begining to flash fitfully
( failure 3)

Kral racks his mind of history and lore to see if anything turns up about an orb that ages people, he remembers a stories of a primordial who was responcible for the creation of time among other things. his name was Chronus, and he was said to have been a mad diety before the gods locked him away forever to push time's wheel. The magical study of time is now known as Chronomancy.
(1 success, and history is not an option anymore )

Indulgence looks arround fraticly asking "How did this happen?" and then the answer comes to her. Barely visible in the room appears to be patches of nothingness. Slight shimmers of perhaps illusions hiding the trap that explained why it could not be spotted until triggered.

How did the Manlich get this sort of magic? The question hangs in your mind, this trap seems to be vastly above the lich's abilities, perhaps he tamed this dungeon the hard way and found a way to control the already present timesphere, or perhaps he has much bigger connections that you have seen yet.

Searching arround you find no line, plate or pulley, you remember the face appearing briefly over the orb, and think that perhaps some kind of magical detection activated the trap.
(2 successess)

(4 success and 3 failures, Good job guys, You'll be reaching a milestone and I'll be giving out xp after this room)