IC 004 - Water Never Sleeps

[sulldawga]

Gars leaves the others to contemplate the shelves, looking attentively around the room...

With his Detect Magic eyesight, he looks for any hot-spots in the room, then focuses in on any items on the shelves that look promising, then the book... (That's just order of precedence based on what glows, hopefully not three whole wandering monster checks. I don't want to get ahead of the rest of the party.)

There is nothing magical in the room.

[The_Wanderer]

Sleepy
"I want to get that big book out from under these shelves...maybe we put one person on each shelf, simultaneously push them off while a third snatches the book? I'll take one bookshelf...who wants the other?"

+0 strength but Exert-0 which feels useful. Sleepy's not a great candidate either way.

[Rex]

Ciarra

"I can help you out Sleepy. Do you have a plan?"

She has a +1 for Str and Dex.

[hedonismbot]

Daravek

"I'll stay out of the way, and, er, keep an eye out for anything trying to sneak up on us!" Daravek says. He then removes his hat and shakes it out. The hat disgorges a faintly glowing simian creature that was clearly too large to have been hiding inside it. "Kledo, you take that side, and I'll take this side."

Daravek will keep an eye out, but does not have the Notice skill per se.

[sulldawga]

Any Exert-related plan should involve Lavin, as she has Exert-1 and a +2 STR.

[The_Wanderer]

Sleepy

"Lavin - come over here...you look like you've spent sometime moving furniture...What I think we do is the two of us each grab a bookcase and lift. If it starts to fall apart, we push outward so that it falls away from us. Once we lift far enough, Ciarra dashes in, grabs the tome and then gets out again...then we all look at it and hope it's not complete garbage. Sound good?"

[Rex]

Ciarra

"Good with me." She gets in position.

[Enoch]

Lavin takes hold of one of the fallen bookcases and sets her shoulder against it. "Here, let me see if I can shift this at all."

Exert: [1d20+3]=4+3=7

[sulldawga]

Skill checks are 2d6, not 1d20

[Enoch]

my bad:
Exert: [2d6+3]=3+3=6

[The_Wanderer]

Sleepy leans into the other bookcase even as he sees Lavin struggling.
Exert + Strength: [2d6+0]=7+0=7

[Marullus]

So... if the DC was 7, then sleepy's help puts Lavin over the top. Otherwise we're hosed.

Gars looks up from where he is inspecting the rest of the room. "You all okay over there?"

[Rex]

Do I need to roll?

[sulldawga]

Exploration Round 8

Lavin sticks her shoulder under one of the bookcases and pushes up. With her strength, she is easily able to lift it, but she rushes the attempt and the other bookcase threatens to come crashing down. Luckily, Sleepy sees the danger and throws himself into the other bookcase, holding it up until Ciarra is able to grab the hefty tome. Once she's backed off with the book, the pair of weightlifters let their bookcases go with a thunderous crash. Everyone takes a moment or two to cough and clear their eyes of the dust that has risen up.

Randomly decided the DC was 7 so the help from Sleepy saved the day!

[sulldawga]

I am assuming that the warlocks will be interested in the book so I will describe it.

The book cover is made from a red-tinged leather that has darkened to almost black with age and use. Within it are a number of descriptions of rituals and the author's attempts to activate the ritual with necromantic magic instead of arcane magic. There are four rituals in the grimoire. One is for the use of teleportation circles. Another is to temporarily convert a mirror or other reflective surface into a crystal ball. A third enables the mage to see far distances. The final ritual is, for now, beyond either Gars' or Daravek's comprehension.

As for the teleportation circle, the book says there are three components required for the ritual. One is a special ink created with crushed gems. The notes in the margins suggest a way to use human blood instead of the ink. The other two components need to be materials related to the area one seeks. Examples given are a feather from a bird that has flown over the destination or coins from the destination or a place next to it. The author's notes suggest that bones from a dead bird would work, or even body parts from a person or animal from the location. Coins seem to be easy to obtain so there is no necromantic replacement suggested.

[Marullus]

"Alas," Gars comments, "This implies the circle is not keyed to a specific location as I hoped but could allow movement to any place for which we have a proper psychometric antecedent. Let us continue on and look for thingsthat appear to have come from more ancient sites. Daravek, do you wish to carry this with you for now?"

[The_Wanderer]

"Alas," Gars comments, "This implies the circle is not keyed to a specific location as I hoped but could allow movement to any place for which we have a proper psychometric antecedent. Let us continue on and look for thingsthat appear to have come from more ancient sites. Daravek, do you wish to carry this with you for now?"

Sleepy
He stares at Gars and nods. "Yeah. I was just going to say psycho...what did you say? Psychometric? Anyway that's what I was thinking too." He glances at the others to see if he is the only one faking knowing what Gars is talking about.

"Anyway maybe there are some coins around here from some possible destination."

[Rex]

Ciarra

"Even better reason not to use the circle yet. Lets continue our search."

[hedonismbot]

"Alas," Gars comments, "This implies the circle is not keyed to a specific location as I hoped but could allow movement to any place for which we have a proper psychometric antecedent. Let us continue on and look for thingsthat appear to have come from more ancient sites. Daravek, do you wish to carry this with you for now?"

"Yes, I'm happy to take the book. It also suggests that circles like this one could provide an easy way to return to Ket - we all carry with us objects that came from in or around that area."

[sulldawga]

Do you want to do anything else in this room or move on?

If the latter, there are exits to the "north" and "west"