To Prove D&D Exists for Echolon

OOC: Toots, can I get a trombone for that Nat 1?

OOC: Sorry, no trombone, you’ll have to make due with a saxophone and a trumpet: 🎷🎺

Still OOC: Also, as soon as you cast light a second time the first one immediately ends. But if you explain your plan Toots can cast it on something for you. She would use a pebble instead of money however, and even if you give her one of your coins to use she would pocket it and still cast it on the pebble.

Tommary takes the lighted ... pebble and gasps "Transmutation!  Oooo yeah!"

OOC: thanks, and didn't know that, so you're saying if Tommary ever wanted to emulate Sting's labyrinthine spiral in "Wrapped Around Your Finger" he's going to need a production team?

OOC: That’s what Major Image is for.

Tommary peeks around the corner and about 30 feet ahead he sees a black framed column with glass inserts.It consists of three or four glass panels that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axel within the cylinder. The cylinder blocks the entire passage.

OOC:

Quote from IamSposta >>

OOC:

O.M.G…. WTF…? How many parties will I be in that get defeated by a door of one variety or another? I hope to hell at least one character gets high enough on whatever check this ends up requiring to figure out how it works. If the party cannot deduce how to operate it and we have to smash through it (or worse can’t!) I think this one will make at least 6 “failures to operate” (or worse I think 3 “failures to proceed”) for various reasons. A couple times the players didn’t figuring it out. The rest of the times the players knew how to get through the bleeping door, but the frikin’ characters couldn’t pass their checks. It was frustrating when the PC’s were none too bright and didn’t have the right Nonweapon Proficiency (or it wasn’t high enough to help) and couldn’t “figure it out,” so the party couldn’t work the thing without metagaming, that was  a bummer. But when even the effing characters absolutely know how to get in, but the forking shirt was stuck or jammed, and not one gorram PC could succeed at a mutherluvin’ Open Doors* Check to get in….

🤬

Yes, that happened once, in 2e no less! There was no [REDACTED]* [wprop]finesse[/finesse] property in 2e!!!! The only weapons that used Dex to attack instead of Str were ranged weapons, and they still uses Str for the damage.**

A Wizard had the exact same chances with a dagger that they did with a staff, so some actually purchased*** a nonmagical staff at 1st-level instead of a dagger, and on purpose no less. It wasn’t even a Focus because those didn’t exist yet. Everyone who could put at least a 9 in Strength to avoid any penalties, even Wizards since “Cantrip” was a 1st-level spell back then. Charisma was the nearly universal dump stat for everyone except people playing Paladins, Druids, and Bards (if they rolled well enough^) or a class that got followers^^ (if the player thought that one had a shot of surviving long enough.^^^)

Footnotes:
(For those who didn’t play 2e, so don’t understand, and might actually be curious enough (if any) to read footnotes. 🤷‍♂️)

  *A special type of Str check.
  *JK
 **Except all Crossbows, and any Bow that wasn’t “Composite.”
***There was no “starting equipment” option. Every PC rolled to determine how much money they started with and all equipment had to be purchased individually.
  ^Players had to roll stats, often in order, and each class required PCs to meet at least 1 Ability prerequisite Ability, even for single classed characters. (Paladins had 4!!) Charisma was required for those three classes, even though it didn’t “do” anything special for them. It just modified social checks like it did for everyone else. (It wasn’t a spellcasting Ability back then. And none of those classes had a feature that used it except Bards. (They got followers.👇)
 ^^Some classes granted followers as a class feature. And I don’t mean like some subclasses now get “a pet.” I mean stuff like:

• Bards got a whole bunch of groupies (10d6 0-level NPCs)
• Clerics got an entire congregation of devoted faithful (20d10 total: 0-level NPCs, or any (N)PCs of the DM’s choice)
• Thieves (now “Rogues”) got a modest guild of naves or a scouting party (4d6 1st/4th-level (N)PCs)
• Rangers got multiple Companions (2d6 Animal Companions, leveled (N)PCs, or magical creatures)
• And Fighters got it the best with; a unit of basic troops (0-level NPCs consisting of either10-20 cavalry or 20-40 infantry), and an Officer (1 5th-7th-level Fighter with magic items), and a unit of elite troops (10-30 1st-2nd-level cavalry or infantry)

^^^I know, all of that (☝️) sounds amazing. And it was cool, but you could only take them on solo adventures.*^ The biggest problem however, was you didn’t get those followers until between 8th-10th-level depending on class… when almost 2/3 of all PCs died by 3rd-level, and half of the rest died by 5th. 😒
 *^It was common for PCs to solo almost as much as ”Party-Up,” and it was also common after a job for PCs to jump to different DMs’ tables and Party-Up with different PCs for different dungeons like the independent “contractors” (“mercenaries”) for hire which they were. And if you were lucky (or good enough at fluffing up your DM‘s ego), some of your followers might transition into “henchmen” which were like a cross between a “Sidekick” and a second PC. And those could accompany a PC on adventures with other PCs. (I never had a character survive long enough to earn enough loyalty to convert a follower like that. 😕) 

 OOC: That was quite entertaining =)

OOC: I guess with my 9 perception roll I probably don't have the understanding to advise my fellow adventurers to secure any trailing cloaks or capes.  Then again, I don't know if my time spent in the Vaults of the Brothers Warner and other archives of the Woods of Holly might give me some familiarity as to what this is.  For the heck of it History 6.

"Not sure what we got up ahead.  I suppose we could poke around and explore it a bit ... part of me though thinks it's begging for me to do one of my party tricks."

OOC: I do have a third level slot with which I could cast shatter, if only we had opposition in the vicinity, this would be cool.

Tommary, accustomed to imbibing only pure filtered rain water and grain alcohol for purity of essence, must have emptied the grain alcohol flask before filling it with the glowy potion.

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

OOC: I guess with my 9 perception roll I probably don't have the understanding to advise my fellow adventurers to secure any trailing cloaks or capes.  Then again, I don't know if my time spent in the Vaults of the Brothers Warner and other archives of the Woods of Holly might give me some familiarity as to what this is.  For the heck of it History 9.

"Not sure what we got up ahead.  I suppose we could poke around and explore it a bit ... part of me though thinks it's begging for me to do one of my party tricks."

OOC: I do have a third level slot with which I could cast shatter, if only we had opposition in the vicinity, this would be cool.

Nearest you can tell is it's some sort of clockwerk contraption blocking the way. You'd have to get closer for more details.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

OOC:

O.M.G…. WTF…? How many parties will I be in that get defeated by a door of one variety or another? I hope to hell at least one character gets high enough on whatever check this ends up requiring to figure out how it works. If the party cannot deduce how to operate it and we have to smash through it (or worse can’t!) I think this one will make at least 6 “failures to operate” (or worse I think 3 “failures to proceed”) for various reasons. A couple times the players didn’t figuring it out. The rest of the times the players knew how to get through the bleeping door, but the frikin’ characters couldn’t pass their checks. It was frustrating when the PC’s were none too bright and didn’t have the right Nonweapon Proficiency (or it wasn’t high enough to help) and couldn’t “figure it out,” so the party couldn’t work the thing without metagaming, that was  a bummer. But when even the effing characters absolutely know how to get in, but the forking shirt was stuck or jammed, and not one gorram PC could succeed at a mutherluvin’ Open Doors* Check to get in….

🤬

Yes, that happened once, in 2e no less! There was no [REDACTED]* finesse property in 2e!!!! The only weapons that used Dex to attack instead of Str were ranged weapons, and they still uses Str for the damage.**

A Wizard had the exact same chances with a dagger that they did with a staff, so some actually purchased*** a nonmagical staff at 1st-level instead of a dagger, and on purpose no less. It wasn’t even a Focus because those didn’t exist yet. Everyone who could put at least a 9 in Strength to avoid any penalties, even Wizards since “Cantrip” was a 1st-level spell back then. Charisma was the nearly universal dump stat for everyone except people playing Paladins, Druids, and Bards (if they rolled well enough^) or a class that got followers^^ (if the player thought that one had a shot of surviving long enough.^^^)

Footnotes:
(For those who didn’t play 2e, so don’t understand, and might actually be curious enough (if at all) to read footnotes. 🤷‍♂️)

  *A special type of Str check.
  *JK
 **Except all Crossbows, and any Bow that wasn’t “Composite.”
***There was no “starting equipment” option. Every PC rolled to determine how much money they started with and all equipment had to be purchased individually.
  ^Players had to roll stats, often in order, and each class required PCs to meet at least 1 prerequisite Ability, even for single classed characters. (Paladins had 4!!) Charisma was required for those three classes, even though it didn’t “do” anything special for them. It just modified social checks like it did for everyone else. (It wasn’t a spellcasting Ability back then. And none of those classes had a feature that used it except Bards. (They got followers.👇)
 ^^Some classes granted followers as a class feature. And I don’t mean like some subclasses now get “a pet.” I mean stuff like:

• Bards got a whole bunch of groupies (10d6 0-level NPCs)
• Clerics got an entire congregation of devoted faithful (20d10 total: 0-level NPCs, or any (N)PCs of the DM’s choice)
• Thieves (now “Rogues”) got a modest guild of naves or a scouting party (4d6 1st/4th-level (N)PCs)
• Rangers got multiple Companions (2d6 Animal Companions, leveled (N)PCs, or magical creatures)
• And Fighters got it the best with; a unit of basic troops (0-level NPCs consisting of either10-20 cavalry or 20-40 infantry), and an Officer (1 5th-7th-level Fighter with magic items), and a unit of elite troops (10-30 1st-2nd-level cavalry or infantry)

^^^I know, all of that (☝️) sounds amazing. And it was cool, but you could only take them on solo adventures.*^ The biggest problem however, was you didn’t get those followers until between 8th-10th-level depending on class… when almost 2/3 of all PCs died by 3rd-level, and half of the rest died by 5th. 😒
 *^It was common for PCs to solo almost as much as ”Party-Up,” and it was also common after a job for PCs to jump to different DMs’ tables and Party-Up with different PCs for different dungeons like the independent “contractors” (“mercenaries”) for hire which they were. And if you were lucky (or good enough at fluffing up your DM‘s ego), some of your followers might transition into “henchmen” which were like a cross between a “Sidekick” and a second PC. And those could accompany a PC on adventures with other PCs. (I never had a character survive long enough to earn enough loyalty to convert a follower like that. 😕) 

 OOC: That was quite entertaining =)

 OOC: I am most pleased that you enjoyed it so. After all, you work so hard to be our DM, and you’re just swell at it. So I’m super glad to bring such a smile to your face.* 

So anyway, about this door....

OOC:  what are the non-glass parts of this cylinder made of?  Would they by chance be metal? Or are they stone?

Quote from ArwensDaughter >>

OOC:  what are the non-glass parts of this cylinder made of?  Would they by chance be metal? Or are they stone?

 They are black metal.

"Hold onto your critters, Toots, we may need probes."  Tommary will approach the cylinder for a closer look, and hopes that his Litecoin will show what's on the other side of the glass.

“Probes…?!?” Toots exclaims, a suddenly worried expression on her face. “Uhh…. What do you mean? You don’t mean what I think you mean. Do you?” She cups Mece’s pouch in a protective manner. Looking over her shoulder she says quietly ”Don’t worry, I won’t let him do that to you.”

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

"Hold onto your critters, Toots, we may need probes."  Tommary will approach the cylinder for a closer look, and hopes that his Litecoin will show what's on the other side of the glass.

 Getting a closer look reveals a fair approximation to the picture above. On the side panel on the left and right there are silver framed slots. The slots appears to be big enough to fit a coin.

Just beyond the glass cylinder you see two stone statues with their backs to the walls. One on the right, one on the left. The right statue resembles a demonic gorilla, the statue on the left looks like some kind of infernal vulture.

Ok, now that he's actually right there, Tommary's going to do an inspection to figure out if this is built to trap, if it so can it be bypassed, or if I can figure out what the mechanics otherwise do besides cylindrically and transparently block my appreciation of the back ends of demon-rilla and devil-bird.  Tommary is an appreciator of things well sculpted.  

Perception: 14 

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

Ok, now that he's actually right there, Tommary's going to do an inspection to figure out if this is built to trap, if it so can it be bypassed, or if I can figure out what the mechanics otherwise do besides cylindrically and transparently block my appreciation of the back ends of demon-rilla and devil-bird.  Tommary is an appreciator of things well sculpted.  

Perception: 13 

 It blocks the entire passage, wall to wall, ceiling to floor.

It might be possible to become trapped inside if the panels within rotated in a way to block a person in.

Toots loudly stage whispers to Tommary: “You’ll figure it out, I have faith in you….“ *tuning lute*

🎵”Before this tunnel stops forward motion
Before my tears start falling the floor
Now the time’s come to say with devotion
It’ll takes a smart man, baby
But you’ll get us through that door

Yes, I gotta have faith
Ooh, I gotta have faith
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith
I gotta have faith, faith, faith“🎶

She then turns towards the others, muttering very quietly under her breath. “You think it’ll work? It’s Tommary, if those brothers he keeps talking about didn’t have something like this in that vault of theirs…. This might take a minor miracle or something. Either of you holy rollers got one of those to spare? Oethe, your god makes metal stuff, yeah? You too right? Isn’t part of your observance or something? You got any guidance for him?

OOC: Toots has Bardicaly Inspired Tomary.

For the next 10’minutes, MidnightPlat can add 1d8 to one of Tommary’s ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, either before or after the roll, but before knowing the outcome.

Elyona will join Tommary in inspecting the contraption, paying particular attention to the metal. (Since she was a blacksmith)