Raw map: pastebin.com/pC3YhgWR

Looks like it's just Ben.

I can join if there's room for 1 more.

Go for it

Got a L3 character?

Gnome artificer. Putting it together now. Do you want to see a character sheet?

Base stats: 11, 11, 14, 18, 17, 12

Hey that guy's pretty smart.

She's also a functioning alcoholic, apparently :P

and a 427 year old redhead XD

Waiting for MikeQ to report ready

Stats: St 10 Dx 14 Co 14 In 17 Wi 12 Ch 08

So everybody starts near the 2,4 on the map marked S; to the north is a beehive; to the east an open doorway is carved into the cliff wall

The grass is a bit pachy but cool on your feet with the morning dew

I finish off my Irish coffee - and resign myself to the fact that I probably wandered here during a blackout

lol

A couple bees are flying around

"Speak with small beasts" doesn't include insects does it

Let's say it does.

I'll ask if they know anything about the cave opening. Creatures that go in and out, if so, how often

Nobody's been here in the past week but the ex-bear.

ex-bear..?

roll perception

d20

16

There's a bear skull near the behive, and a bunch of bones pitched far away in anger.

Ah.

The bones are angry? What do you mean?

No, whatever pitched (threw) them surely was.

You're clearly not going to learn anything else from the bees.

Well, I doubt that was the bee's doing.

How far into the cave can we see (I have darkvision)

It looks like there are some side passages in this east hallway. We should investigate!

All the way to the ! (door)

The floor is made of tiled cut stones, but it's very old and dusty.

@MikeQ Sure. One by one or side by side?

How about the one that goes north, at 7,3

You moving there?

I send my robot butler (perception +4) to check it out.

Oh, yeah that's fne. I just meant our marching order lol

The passage is dead-end. At the ? you find a scroll.

Or that. That also works.

What's it say

It's the kind of scroll that stores a spell.

Can we identify what spell it is?

I believe your characters are capable of this. It is a scroll of deafness.

What?

:P

I have a better description for the other passage.

While the robot is exploring, I'm gonna check out the bear skull to see if anything is odd about it

The bear skull is only a few days old, but it looks like something picked every last bit of flesh off it in a hurry.

Well, that's unsettling. Any tracks to/from the skeleton?

Lots and lots and lots of bear tracks. Funny how only one set leads here and none away though.

@Joshua all lead to the bear, you mean?

No, they're all around you. The whole area is full of bear tracks.

Oh so all the bear tracks lead to this cave, you mean, not the skeleton

Aren't you at the bear skull?

Yes. I'm just confused as to what "here" means. "One set leads here, none away"

I think the bear tracks suggest that the bear walked here, and died, and then someone threw its bones

Yes.

So there may be a bear-eating creature in this dungeon somewhere

Ok.

Yeah

Fortunately, none of us are bears, so we should be ok

Welp. Best get to it.

Anyway, what's down the southern passage (7,5) ?

This is clearly not a passage at all, but a tool shed with its door long gone. You find one somewhat rusty pickaxe and some metallic rubbish.

And what about those things to the east? V1 and V2?

Ok moving on to the first room. The ceiling height jumps to 30 feet. This looks like the front door, and it's 25 feet tall. On either side of the door are ceramic-looking vases.

You see no hinges. The door must open inwards.

Anything special about the vases? Images, patterns?

They're very large vases. Like they're intended to hold branches rather than flowers, but you don't see anything sticking out of them.

I envy you guys, have fun!

@Joshua So otherwise they're just plain vases?

@KorvinStarmast :D

As far as you can tell by looking.

Any branches lying around the room?

Nope. It's quite bare.

The only possible place things could be is concealed by the vases.

It's kind of dark in here, but you both have darkvision.

So the vases aren't in alcoves or anything?

No. I have to admit I didn't think of it because the map resolution doesn't allow it. They're sitting on the floor.

I'll tell robot butler to check what's in the vases

Ok. Well, if you want to brace the vase @MikeQ, I'll use spiderclimb to check inside the vase?

Or that

Which vase?

North

You find two scrolls of light.

And the southern vase?

There's nothing here. Curious how the inside of the vase doesn't quite go all the way to the bottom.

Maybe it has a false bottom. What if we flip the vase?

You discover it's too heavy for that.

Even if two of us climb up it and try to imbalance it?

Far far too heavy. You can't even budge it.

@Ben Can you wild shape into something strong enough to lift the vase?

No, he can't.

CR 1/4 only

Are both vases equally heavy?

No, the north vase tips easily. There was nothing under that one.

So either there's something heavy at the bottom of the 2nd vase, or it's fixed to the floor

Could check to see if the false bottom flips?

It's clearly carved in one piece.

I'm gonna use Produce flame cantrip.

Are you going to blow up the vase?

Get some light on the issue, see if that helps

Nah produce flame is just like a torch

In the better light you can clearly see the vase is not made of the same rock as the floor. Something looks wrong with a tiny bit of floor partly under the vase and partly not, like it was liquid at some time.

Oh, we should probably check the door for traps.

That would likely be your forte, mechanics man :D

The door is clearly locked, but you don't feel any mechanism other than the bolt when you push on the door.

@Joshua Which vase is that? The heavy or light one?

@Ben Heavy vase.

What does it feel like? Solid, or sticky, like congealed?

Feels like rock, but it's textured like it had ripples at one time.

@Joshua Nature roll to try and figure out what does that?

Or, int?

Go ahead make an int check

d20

7

d20

dang. Lol

You rack your brain and can't think of what does that.

Welp, we have a locked door, and I have thieves tools and guidance

d20

d4

You succesfully pick the door.

That lock sucked.

[squint suspiciously]

The door is still closed. You think it can open now.

I'm gonna pull out my copper sword, scrape the floor near this solid stuff and see if it reacts in any way to sparks

I do not recall the reaction of copper on basalt. :(

@Joshua the floor is basalt?

Not exactly, but it's the same origin mineral.

It's like someone took lava rock, cut and polished tiles out of it, and fitted them together.

Ok, well the only reason my sword is copper is cos druids don't use "steel". And I'm just trying to create sparks

Ah. I know you can get sparks from flint or quartz.

The ultimate goal is to see if I can make this stuff react to fire, and if so could potentially use the "produce flame" to make it react, and see what's under the vase.

@MikeQ thoughts?

Could we try opening the door first? Maybe the vase might be useful later.

Not with produce flame. now if you could run create bonfire for a few hours you could melt it, but I don't think that's a good idea.

Yeah. Let's move on.

I'll extinguish the flame for now

Robot butler will try to push open the door.

You open the door. The hinges make an annoyingly loud creaking sound. The next room is not lit enough to see at all, but you have darkvision. You have awakened a tiger at 19,4. It's staring at you.

Good thing we have someone who can talk with animals.

Indeed. Sounds good to me.

Uhh... nope

I only have Speak with Small beasts

From being a Forest Gnome

Oh. Next plan then.

Can I turn into a Tiger Cub?

Ok.

Not sure what you're doing, but I'll give you a guidance

I'm gonna try and calm it with my cuteness haha

If he turns into tiger cub he can try to communicate with tiger.

So I'll try and put across that we're friendly, and that it can leave now that the way is open.

STR 4 DEX 15 CON 4 INT 2 CHA 9 (you keep your WIS right?)

If it's wild shape, he keeps his int, wis, and cha, and any skill proficiencies

ah so much the better for you then

As a tiger cub you instinctively read back "you're not my cub" and "please go away"

I'll behave in a submissive manner, to show no intention to aggravate it, but then also try and walk around it in a wide circle, to show the desire to move past.

You successful walk around it.

Also run around @MikeQ to show that I want to bring him and the robot

No harm, not foul. Sweet

On the other hand, how's MikeQ gonna get past? I don't think he's got wild shape.

@Joshua Oh that's what I was trying to do. Show the tiger that we just wanna leave him in peace as we move past

The tiger let you past, but I don't think it's about to let a gnome past.

No, but I can try to distract it with a moving object, and then robot butler and I can try to move past inconspicuously. I've got a clockwork toy that moves on its own.

Oh man. I'm gonna have to make check for the tiger aren't I?

If you want to?

2d20

The tiger is wise to your game. It doesn't work.

On the other hand, robot butler got past.

I could try distract it with the "playful cub" routine?

@Ben Maybe one of your illusions could help here?

Or that

Ah wait you're still in tiger form, nevermind.

Hint: what check does a tiger have advantage on

Oh! I know what to do here.

Could one of the vases from the last room fit through the western doorway?

No problem.

Oh wait, this only works with Tiny objects. I have a club, that should work.

I'll use Magical Tinkering to make the club emit a nice meaty smell, and then toss it to the southern side of the room.

You doing that?

I could also bestow the odor to the clockwork toy.

I believe the clockwork toy is out of your reach.

I have mage hand, and the toy probably doesn't weigh too much.

Oh yeah. Anyway I know 3 other ways you can solve this problem with 100% reliability.

Ah. Ok. I'll call robot butler back to me.

Then I hop into the vase, and robot butler carries the vase across the room.

Robot butler walks past. The tiger doesn't care about the robot.

You doing that?

It should look like the robot butler is just carrying a vase, along the north side of the room. And there's a wooden club that smells like fresh meat, on the south side.

d20

The tiger picks up your club and follows the robot butler. It seems he knows you're there somewhere.

You come to the east end of the room. The door is locked.

Can your robot butler handle this, or do you need some distraction assistance

Maybe if the lock is exposed enough, robo butler can hold the vase sideways against it, and I try to unlock it?

Gonna try it?

Depends on what the tiger is doing

XD

standing right behind robot butler

I'll distract the tiger by playing with him and playing with the "meaty" club.

Uh the tiger is holding meaty club

Does it want to play fetch?

make a WIS check

d20

Yeah. So it's like "oh you have a tasty treat, I want some". Being the "playful cub"

13 total

It seems like the tiger is guarding the area.

Seems odd that the tiger is locked in from both sides. Is there any food or water in the room? Or a key?

Perhaps unlocking the door is the most promising endeavor

I'll try the playful cub routine. See if that distracts him enough

The tiger takes notice

d20

The tracks near the bear skull, do the same tracks lead into this room? Or do they lead west?

the tiger seems to be having a hard time tracking you

No bear tracks near here

@Joshua Me?

If I were you I'd try the vase trick to unlock the door

There are no bear tracks in this corridor with the tiger.

Alright, I do that. But someone's killed a bear and locked a tiger in a room without food or water, and that someone may be nearby. Dunno if they want visitors.

The bear killer is discoverable; the tiger-trapper is not generated yet

d20

d4

26 to unlock the door

It opens. The lock sucked as much as the previous lock.

The door opens inwards but that's no problem for robot butler

Move through and close the door behind us?

We could bring the tiger along, maybe release it back into the wild

@MikeQ That would be on the way back out?

Or maybe the tiger wants revenge

Neither of you have detect magic right?

I have it, and can cast it as a ritual

The tiger's behavior is abarrent; maybe detect magic would help

I only have adv on Int, wis and cha saving throws vs magic

If there's no hurry, I'll cast it as a ritual. Detects any magic within 30 ft.

I can stay as a cub for an hour

Ok. I'm looking up the result.

The tiger has multiple overlapping spells including schools of enhancement and transmutation. The entire floor of the next room has active magic in the school of abjuration. You can perceive the far wall is just out of range.

I'll whisper this information to @Ben 's character

Would now be a good time to give the next room's description

Sure

The room's ceiling is only twenty feet, and consists of granite, only lightly fractured. You are not concerned with it caving in any time soon. The walls are of the same material. The floor is highly polished granite, and reflects as good as a mirror, but significantly darker. The far wall is metallized granite, and there's an obvious spear trap labelled t on the map. Each corner of the room has a 10 gallon Urn made of clay.

What does the spear trap appear to do?

Descend from the ceiling and impale anybody trying to walk down the hallway.

@Ben Should we try throwing or firing some projectile onto part of the floor?

Well, the tiger is following us, and the fact that it has transmutation on it tells me it might not actually be a tiger.

You're still in the corridor where you met the tiger right?

At the door, yeah

what's robot butler's CHA?

6 (-2 modifier)

What's it's foot/boot material?

The creature itself is mostly metal, although it could have nonmetal parts. Maybe it has rubber pads under the feet, for traction.

It's about to matter.

When I wrote the magic for this room I didn't expect anybody to try to bring a robot in.

I think Ben spaced out.

Yeah, it's hard to keep pacing in play-by-text D&D

At this point I'm kinda stuck

Ah. If I were you I'd look in the urns.

We're trapped between a non-tiger and a fire room :P

But we'd have to cross the room first, and the floor is magical.

It's abjuration. You should be able to walk on the floor.

I don't quite follow that logic, but ok

Robobutler and I will check the southwest urn.

Well, with 15 dex, I can try.

Does robot buter's metal foot touch the floor or do the rubber pads keep the metal from doing so?

He has rubber boots, because he also helps out in the lab

ok then. You reach the urn. It's completely full of wax bricks.

The tiger stays in the corridor.

I'll move to the other one

More wax bricks

All the urns have wax bricks?

yess

What kind of wax?

petrolium wax

Something's wrong. Robot butler wont go very far into the room.

I'll use mage hand to retrieve one of the bricks.

You have a wax brick held by mage hand.

Odd. I'll ask why he won't go further into the room?

Because he can't see. It's too dark.

Even with darkvision? This is the steel defender from the battlesmith subclass.

How does a robot have darkvision?

Oh; I don't have that book.

It has darkvision 60 ft, although apparently it can't talk

Ok scratch that line then. I though for sure it was blind.

If this is an abjuration room, maybe it's important to see how the room reacts to magic

We should step out of the room, and maybe try casting magic into it

Hmmm; it didn't react to mage hand. What you gonna cast?

Ah, good point. What if... I use mage hand to move the brick into the spear trap?

The spears impale the mage hand and quickly retract again. The mage hand isn't damaged.

How far downward do the spears reach, when extended?

Within an inch of the floor

So maybe we could pile the wax bricks, get the spears to impale them, and jam the trap. @Ben any other ideas?

I'm honestly a little confused. At this point we've got a not-tiger sitting at the entrance of the room with a meat smelling club, a robot with rubber boots holding a large vase in which Mike is casting magic from.

I'm holding my cub form so as not to aggravate the tiger, but it won't go into the room...

May I suggest another detect magic close enough to inspect the spears?

Sure.

There is no magical emination past the room. The spear trap must be a completely mechanical trap.

Ok... I could try disarming the trap using thieves tools

Hmmm, not impossible. You're gonna need better light.

Ok. I'll use Magical Tinkering to make the thieves tools emit bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet, then guidance myself, and then try to disarm it?

Make a perception check

d20

d4

12 total

There are some electical components high up on the walls in the hallway. You won't be able to reach them without setting off the trap.

These suggest a prime target for disabling if you can find a way.

@Ben Got any druid tricks that might come in handy?

Well, as stated earlier, I'm still confused about the situation

Didn't get any clarification so I'm not sure about what's viable or not

There's a spear trap the east, triggered by motion under the trap. The controls are on the other side of the trap, so I can't disarm it up close.

You are in the doorway. To the west is the tiger with transmutation. To the east is the room with abjuration floor and the far exit has the spear trap MikeQ is poking.

So if I drop the cub form, the Tiger isn't going to do anything? Cos my understanding is that Mike is still hiding in the vase

It looks like the tiger won't leave its corridor

Ok.

Well in that case, I'll drop the cub form. I have spider climb. Is the wax pliable?

yes

If it is I can climb up there and jam some wax into the roof of the trap, then set it on fire

Sounds plausible.

I'll look for any obvious mechanical parts, and aim for that. Try and jam the trap or break it so that it can be opened/closed by simply lifting it

Get some guidance from Mike as to what I should look for

The trap is built into the ceiling

so the spears all just come out of individual holes?

Yup.

You've got produce flame right. You wanted to burn stuff right?

Well, I guess I can still stuff the holes full of wax and set in on fire

Yeah

So that's what I'm doing

Ok then. You stuff the first row of spear holes full of wax and light it off. The wax fire isn't very hot, but a huge amount of black smoke comes out of the holes.

The upper part of the hallway is filled with smoke, and there's a decent amount of smoke in the room you're in too. The electrical components are covered in smoke.

We'll all step back, and I'll use mage hand to trigger the trap again. Do the spears come out?

Nothing happens.

Sweet

Hooray! We should probably hurry onward.

You reach the downstairs and the end of the content I had prepared. Good thing too. That took a long time.

Deal

Noice

What's funny is the intended solution to the spear trap was to put out all the light sources and walk on through. You could also snipe or blind the electrical components. I had invisioned a was bonfire.

What was the go with the tiger?

Fly, spider-climb the ceiling, or find a way to get past its senses.

What was it actually?

But there's still a door to unlock on the other side of the tiger room

No problem, it's the same key as the first door.

The tiger is a tiger under geas for guard area with active transmutation -> tiger. Trying to fight it with only two characters would have been a quite the challenge.

the transmutation would have caused it to regenerate

Yeah it was clearly too strong to fight. I don't see how going over the tiger would work though. The tiger would still see that, right?

If it's under a geas to guard the area, then it could just block the door before anyone climbs across.

The ceiling height is 30 feet. I thought it would work. Maybe not.

It's got INT of 3. It doesn't understand block the door.

So it was guarding the center of the room, specifically?

Yes

???

I probably goofed up the design. An older version had it chained but I didn't like that.

Puzzle design is hard. The important bit is that you really need to communicate the non-obvious parts, because players can't read your mind, and they may visualize the situation differently than you do.

Yeah. A lack of explanation as to why a tiger is not doing what a tiger would normally do was really confusing for me, clearly haha

Yeah I'm noticing.

e.g. there was no indication that the tiger couldn't reach the far door

It could and did reach the far door