2.4 The Ice fights Back!

[harknail]

I thought that the desk not being covered with frost would be enough of a clue that it's probably trapped as well...

As soon as Gabe touches the drawer, the glyph of warding activates and the desk erupts in fire, igniting both itself and Gabe. Gabe is scorched by the initial blast (14 damage) and is burning (5 ongoing damage).

Because the ongoing damage was applied during Gabe's turn as an immediate interrupt, he actually gets to make a saving roll before the ongoing damage takes effect.

[crysun]

Zynthis tells Gabe "Roll on the ground! Roll on the ground!" Zynthis attempts to help Gabe put out the flames.

[Ogremind]

"Come to think of it, fire does seem more appropriate..."
Would it do any good for Zack to hit the desk with a Chill Strike to try to prevent it from being destroyed by the flames?

Isn't Gabe lucky that he has resistance to fire?

[crysun]

Zynthis scratches his head when Gabe doesn't appear to be in a lot of pain.

[harknail]

Dec 4, 2009 15:00:22 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

"Come to think of it, fire does seem more appropriate..."
Would it do any good for Zack to hit the desk with a Chill Strike to try to prevent it from being destroyed by the flames?

Isn't Gabe lucky that he has resistance to fire?

Yes, a Chill Strike would help put it out, but so would Prestidigitation (it's still a small fire at this point).

And yes, he was lucky. I forgot about him being resistant to fire and just selected the damage most suited for the castor.

[candi]

Gabe seems mildly irritated by the flames trying to catch on his clothing, he nods at Zynthis's suggestion and half-heartedly drops to the ground and begins rolling. The fire goes out and he gets back to his feet, his face is twisted into a frown, "I liked that shirt."

With a sigh he once again makes to examine the desk contents.

Saving Throw: [dice=20]

Heh, I didn't even notice the "hint" I was too wrapped up in my theory. See D&D adventurer's are insanely cautious, and I was out to show there's no reason to assume *everything* is trapped guys, like look at me opening this desk without anything going -KABOOM!... It's extra funny because Harknail didn't know I was thinking this. [rand=53045956279070824471463593979292619689251010507996085586612525]

[Michael]

Well to be honest, if someone in real life told me that there was a 10% chance there is a bomb in my mail, I think I'd be insanely cautious too. Originally in D&D, about 1/3 of the rooms were supposed to be trapped in some way, and a wizard's tower with infernal references encased in ice is a place we should really be expecting lots of traps. Now, I'd still make fun of a player who wants to sleep in full plate, and needs to have the party move in perfect battle formation when in a town.

[Ogremind]

Zack will go ahead and Premeditate the desk fire out of existence in a little puff of smoke. Then he will examine the ward carefully to determine if it is still active. If it is safe, he'll check for anything that survived the flames.
Keep in mind that Tieflings have a limited fire resistance (5 I think). So that still damaged Gabe. On the other hand, the continual damage appears to be right at the threshold, so that might only be annoying.

"Warlocks seem to have a completely different psychology than wizards. You see, a wizard would have made a trap that kept the intruder around for questioning. Well, either that or one that blew up the entire room. This seemed more like a sadistic punishment than something that was actually ment to keep something safe."

[elricz]

I will be traveling almost all December, and I may miss some days in a row. If I am slow in my posts please keep Thursagan moving, don't wait if he is the only one left to declare his actions.

Thanks

[candi]

Have fun elricz!

As for the resistance, Gabe has 6 fire resistance so I still suffered 8 damage

[harknail]

Have fun elricz! We'll try not to get Thursagan killed

Zachary checks the desk and finds it free of enchantments. But being on fire seems to have saved it from the flash freeze effect seen in the library. Checking the now safe drawer, Zachary finds a book, apparently a Journal by Draigdurroch. Also inside is a good supply of quill pens too old to be useful (even though they aren't frozen).10

[Ogremind]

I just noticed that the spell checker turned "Prestidigitate" into "Premeditate".
Attempting to use Prestidigitation to keep the book from freezing, Zack will first examine it for more traps, and then hunker down to see if he can find the cause of the tower freezing. Starting at the last entry and then working backward seems like the best plan.

[crysun]

Zynthis walks up behind Zack, looks over his shoulder and asks "What are you reading?"

OOC: Just bumping the thread to get Harknail's attention.

[harknail]

Sorry for the delay, been crazy busy here.

The last entry in the journal was “Let them feel the fire of Asmodeus, and soon the fury of Karsus as well. They claim that they will punish me for my actions if I do not heed their warnings. THEY will punish ME? How laughable!”

Skimming the journal Zach finds that the entries begin with his arrival in the area, the construction of his tower in honor of Asmodeus, his theory that the ruins of the Netherese city of Karse lie beneath the Edge Wood, his early contact with the scattered fragments of the dead god Karsus, and his efforts to forge an eldritch pact with Karsus. He makes a passing note that the “ridiculous faeries” who live in the Edge Wood sent an emissary with a warning
not to tamper with the demigod. Draigdurroch’s response was to blast the emissary to cinders.

[Ogremind]

Dec 8, 2009 2:22:17 GMT -5 harknail said:

Sorry for the delay, been crazy busy here.

The last entry in the journal was “Let them feel the fire of Asmodeus, and soon the fury of Karsus as well. They claim that they will punish me for my actions if I do not heed their warnings. THEY will punish ME? How laughable!”

Skimming the journal Zach finds that the entries begin with his arrival in the area, the construction of his tower in honor of Asmodeus, his theory that the ruins of the Netherese city of Karse lie beneath the Edge Wood, his early contact with the scattered fragments of the dead god Karsus, and his efforts to forge an eldritch pact with Karsus. He makes a passing note that the “ridiculous faeries” who live in the Edge Wood sent an emissary with a warning
not to tamper with the demigod. Draigdurroch’s response was to blast the emissary to cinders.

"That definitely has the ring of 'experiment gone horribly wrong' to it.
"Who are 'THEY' in the last entry?
"On the other hand, he mentioned 'fire of Asmodeus', which would seem to be the opposite of the ice encasing this place. Thinking back on the protection on the bookcases, were those set up with this cold environment in mind, or were they intended as a more general protection against normal conditions? Is it possible that the ice here is actually the result of a counterstrike against the warlock, rather than something the warlock did himself?
"How about Karsus? What were his aspects? Is he associated with cold?"

Zack will keep up a kind of rambling commentary on what he reads. What rolls are appropriate for knowing things about Asmodeus and Karsus, religion?

[candi]

Here's some rolls from Gabe listening to the ramblings and reading over his shoulder.

[dice=20] +10 =
12 Arcana

[dice=20] +5 =
17 Religion [rand=060106408230295005943315297746775669402499176193885742074445978482]

[harknail]

Dec 8, 2009 11:17:26 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

"That definitely has the ring of 'experiment gone horribly wrong' to it.
"Who are 'THEY' in the last entry?
"On the other hand, he mentioned 'fire of Asmodeus', which would seem to be the opposite of the ice encasing this place. Thinking back on the protection on the bookcases, were those set up with this cold environment in mind, or were they intended as a more general protection against normal conditions? Is it possible that the ice here is actually the result of a counterstrike against the warlock, rather than something the warlock did himself?
"How about Karsus? What were his aspects? Is he associated with cold?"

Zack will keep up a kind of rambling commentary on what he reads. What rolls are appropriate for knowing things about Asmodeus and Karsus, religion?

The protections were general protection, they would have protected the books from fire as well as ice. Religion skills to recognize Asmodeus (easy roll to recognize name, higher rolls means your character knows more). Hard religion or history roll to recognize Karsus (he was a minor footnote).

[harknail]

Gabe remembers hearing about Karsus. Thousands of years ago, a Netherese city called Karse stood in the area, and the demigod Karsus was its patron. Karsus tried and failed to ascend to full godhood, dying in the process, and his city (along with the rest of the ancient Empire of Netheril) fell not long thereafter.

Gabe had not known where Netheril was, but apparently it stood where the Ridge Woods now stand.

[Ogremind]

Zachary ponders:

[dice=20]	+6	= 11 Religion Asmodeus
[dice=20]	+6	= 24 Religion Karsus
[dice=20]	+11	= 13 History Karsus

Ah, the fickleness of the dice.[rand=1904964536690715364125797307487618802781318178222790190772251095]

[crysun]

Zynthis appears bored by all this history talk. "Can't we just find a switch and turn it off?" (Zynthis is referring to the cold)