We started with character changes.  Paul had already added the Bard free archetype to his Fighter/Marshal last time so he was good to go.  Dan added Oracle to his Sorcerer which was only adding a couple of feats.  DG had the most work to do.  He transformed his Monk+Kineticist into a Kineticist+Monk so he had to transfer inventory and add Monk feats.  DS still hadn’t figured out what to do so he was running Brisco with the addition of the Medic archetype.  And BTO couldn’t make it but his latest plan was an Alchemist/Witch+Investigator.  Evidently the remaster rules have fixed up both Alchemist and Investigator which he had considered back when we started.  And we were off. 

We came up to the camp at the Smuggler’s Cave that we suspected the kids from Otari had gone.  We elected to announce ourselves rather than sneak up.  Bardish TerStegan took the lead but he came on pretty strong.  “We know Amicia Rajani took the sword and we know you’re heading into the Gauntlight.  That’s way too dangerous and you all should go home.”  They denied it all.  Amicia was not seen and the other 3 seemed to be delaying us.  He made an intimidation roll on Oakwood’s sister and rolled so well; she started crying.  Eventually, we just went past them and into the cave and talked to Amicia.  As we suspected, she had the missing sword.  TerStegan repeated his accusation but it didn’t work so well.  But it did force out what had really happened.  Eventually.  The sword had broken itself out of the case and flown to her in her room.  She assumed it had “chosen” her as the last blood of the Rajani family line.  Given the stuff that been happening around Otrari and the evidence, that was probably true.  Her plan was to embrace her presumed destiny and go become an adventurer.  She was heading to Absolum (not the Gauntlight) and was hiding in the cave because the town was looking for her.  And talked her friends into coming too, although only the Gobin was planning on doing the adventuring thing.

There were more discussions with TerStegan doing most of the talking.  He believed her story and would support her goals but she needed to go home first and explain what had happened.  She was reluctant.  Oakwood tossed in that her father, in addition to being worried about her missing daughter, was being accused of stealing the sword.  She had to clear his name, at the very least.  Eventually, with promises of support from TerStegan, we talked them into going home.  Oakwood went to get Longsaddle with Clarisa while the other two went to the Rajani home.  Oakwood filled in Longsaddle and advised him that tack, not force was needed.  Especially, given that he could be working for the Rajani family in the near future.  We all came together and the two “adults” had a secret meeting.  They agreed to take the sword into custody until they could do their due diligence of investigation.  TerStagen was mad about that but got out authoritied.  TerStegan was certain the sword would escape soon enough and told them to put a guard on it 24/7 so that when it left, they wouldn’t have to reaccuse anyone.  With that, we ended that side plot thread for now. 

TerStegan decided to write a short easy song about how the sword chose Amicia in hopes of swinging public opinion to his point of view.  Unfortunately, that was taken as proof that her father is destined to take over as mayor.  Oakwood stopped by his parent’s house to give his father a heads up.  He was thinking, as mayor, he’d be pulled into Longsaddle’s investigation and he wanted to try to give him the right information before it got muddled up.  However, his father realized the impact this might have on the election.  He proposed starting a rumor that Oakwood was “chosen” by the Otari holy symbol relic.  Oakwood didn’t want to be dishonest and pointed out that he had never been that popular in town.  Black Sheep and such.  Maybe his older sister was a better choice.  He left his father to scheme.  But it doesn’t look good for the upcoming election, at least for the Memhemes family.  We went back to the cabin to get a night’s sleep before returning to the Gauntlight.  This was all the same day we rescued the dwarf from level 4.

Looking at the architectural plans we recently found, there were 3 secret areas on level 3 we never got to so we decided to finish it off.  First was another teleportation room that was otherwise unremarkable.  Next was a secret reading room off the Restricted Area that we had burned.  In the big room, we found a giant skeleton that seemed to have toppled over in the fire.  There was nothing left in there but the secret room was unharmed.  In there we found 3-4 potions.  However, we did not have Xeelie so we couldn’t identify them.  We also found Belcora’s journal, however Xeelie was the only one that could read the demon language.  Lastly, we found specifications on the construction of the teleportation circles.  It would be possible to use them to fix the circles but we needed someone with a lot of crafting skill.  We miss Xeelie.  Hopefully her new version has all the same skills.  The circle on the first floor was the only one that was damaged but given time and money, even it could be fixed. 

Lastly was the presumed office of the Scribner ghost.  We were hesitant to take on a haunt but decided to go for it.  We were reminded that her room had a body with armor, a portrait of the chief craftsmen and a small iron key.  All of which we had already taken.  Brisco and Oakwood went in to try to convince her that she was dead (see body) and that it was time to move on.  Figuring it was a Haunt/skill challenge.  However, it turned out to be another boss battle.  Once again, she had super high stats to make her a challenge for 4-5 characters all by herself.  Like a 25 AC.  Brisco went first.  He spent an action to convince her not to fight (succeeded but failed) and then hit her with a 2 action heal (harm).  She went, doing an AOE Moanful Groan.  Brisco missed the Fort save and was Slowed 1.  Oakwood made his and the other two were too far away.  She then crit Brisco for 39 points of damage.  We attacked and/or moved up and attacked.  Brisco did Battlefield Medicine on himself but the next round, was hit again for 25+ more.  Oakwood and Clarisa were doing full damage with vitality damage but TerStegan’s damage was getting resisted.  But he crit so he did more anyway. 

After 3-4 rounds, it was over.  Oakwood used Ocean Balm to heal Brisco and Brisco healed himself with another 10-minute Treat Wounds.  Meanwhile, her office was searched.  We found some valuable books in a cabinet after TerStegan busted it open.  He crit failed his Pick Locks and broken them first. And then crit succeeded with the Force Open.  In there were also plans for the Gauntlight itself.  It would take time but if we could figure out how it worked, we might be able to figure out how to stop it from working.  However, it was in a language we didn’t know.  Maybe Xeelie did.  We also got a side view handout showing it going 400 feet down.  If we understood it correctly, there were 7 levels and we were on level 3.  And had briefly been on level 4.  Levels after 4 seemed to be very high? Not sure.  By this point, Paul was asleep so we stopped there.  The plan next time is to go deal with the ghost that was fixing books.  Is she a haunt or another boss battle? The last thing on this level was that wooden golem in the private library.  Are we tough enough to fight it or is it one of those unbeatable monsters? Hopefully a Recall Knowledge will tell us what to do.