GM Bold Strider's PFS 01-37 The Beggar's Pearl (Subtier 6-7) (Inactive)

Game Master rpblue

Dhastrach boldly leads the party around the corner and down the side. When he gets close enough, he sees a pit that descends into darkness to his left. There still doesn't seem to be anything of value or alive in this room. Just the pit, doors to the left and other possible exits.

Shardra will continue to follow after Dhast, while keeping an eye out for anything *not* alive but moving, or any interesting stonework...

Perception(Stonecunning +2 If applicable): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21

Shardra sees exactly what she saw when she first entered the room and nothing has changed since that point in time.

Assuming Torvic came with us, so moved his mini on the map.

"Do we want to drop a light down that pit to see what's down there? It might attract unwanted attention, but it would be the obvious way to check it out, if you dwarves can't see that far."

The dwarven shaman shakes her head then holds a finger to her lips, motioning to the door ahead, then the one 'across' the room before moving up a little bit more.

"Well then", Az whispers, "let's pick a door and go for it."

She quietly pulls Dhastrach aside. "The next time we're in a fight do you want to be enlarged, so you'll hit harder?"

"It would extend my combat abilitiess, so it iss a welcome prroposal," Dhastrach answers, "if the situation givess such a choice. Crramped corrridorrss arre a norrm, afterr all."

He then moves over to the door, quickly examines is, and then opens it if he detects no threat.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10 (+ stonecunning?)

@Group: Which door? None of you are by doors.

I say! Lazlo says, scuttling over to the far side of the room. Another door! Wholly unremarkable, yet one never knows what one might find on its other side. What say we check here? I, er...I confess I'm in no hurry to shimmy down the sides of a pit...

Moved us over by the door at the top of the room.

Az puts away the scroll of Shield she pulled out earlier and pulls out a scroll of Enlarge Person before anyone can open the door.

Dhastrach leads the way as the group opens the door to find a long hallway that bends in the center, leading to another door. Upon opening the door the group is greeted with a weird sight, though it probably explains the fungus growing around the Hall.

Expansive fungi cover the floor of this massive vaulted chamber, with rivulets of fresh water dribbling in from tiny cracks. Wide paths have been torn out between the fungal growths, winding haphazardly between the giant stalks. The uneven walls of the cave require a DC 15 Climb check to safely clamber down them. The two lower ledges (off your door and a door to the left) are 60 feet up from the floor of the cavern. A ladder leads up to the ledge, 80 feet up from the floor.

Giant ants nest in this area, where they are often captured and tamed by the nearby mites. You would think that the insects would attack intruders voraciously, however pale fungal growths infest these creatures, covering their exoskeletons with bulbous projections. Although unsightly, the fungi have no effect on the creatures’ ability to fight, however it seems to keep them docile enough if they aren't engaged directly.

Optional Encounter. Going to bypass as it is not very interesting.

What IS it with the Society sending me on all these freaking climbing missions! Between that place in Tian Xa and this... grrrrrr.

Shardra looks at the drops and the climbing involved again and shakes her head with a bit of a grumble.

"Before we start climbing up an' down an' all over the place, which is going tae take forever with me in heavy armor, we might want tae finish looking at this floor? Just an idea?"

Yayyy bypassed not very interesting encounter!

At the time I posted there was only one door visible; the one we didn't take.

"The gallerry endss herre," Dhastrach declares, "we werre tasked to explorre the gallerry and itss wonderrss, not some massive caverrn beyond it."

Dhastrach turns back and heads to another door, repeating the same procedure as before.

Oh, thank goodness, he understands how much of a pain in the butt climbing up and down is going to be!

Shardra stops grumbling a bit and follows after Dhast to start clearing the rooms that the party missed looking for the door to the cavern.

"Besides, if we need tae, we can always come back tae that after we clear th' floor."

"Climbing is easy. I have scrolls of Levitate, though not enough for the whole group. You should get some before your next mission."

"But in the mean time, I agree with Dhastrach. This isn't our mission. Let's find out what's going on with the 'evil fey things', and leave the local wildlife alone."

She follows the others back to the other door.

The group scans the expansive cavern and decides to ignore the ledge and the door to the left before turning back to the skipped door. They cautiously approach and look for traps, but find that the roughly-hewn door is locked. The brass handle has a little slot that is likely for a key.

Is the door wooden?

"Thiss could be a storrage," Dhastrach ponders, "do I use brrute forrce, orr do you have something else in mind?"

If anyone approves bashing, Dhastrach will attempt to force the door in. Take 20 to Strength checks, totals 22.

The scenario doesn't say, so I will guess.

Dhastrach examines the door and finds that it is a well-crafted wood door, possibly preserved by magic.

DC 23 for breaking down a strong door, so with a single aid, you pass!

Dhastrach, with the aid of Shardra, push hard enough to shatter the locking mechanism and the door swings inwardly without a sound; a testament to dwarven architecture.

Inside, a gruesome sight waits for them. A woman (human) lies bound by ropy fungal growths that encase her head and send pulsing tendrils along her limbs. These growths have temporarily blinded her.

Bizarre, agonizing growths protrude from the limbs of a male dwarf. The scars of old floggings cover his torso, slightly obscured by new welts and cuts.

A Chelish-looking man is chained across the room from the other two. His scalp sports jagged scars and he’s unable to speak, though he softly moans constantly.

Lazlo is too shocked at the scene to speak. (An unusual turn of events for the verbose gnome.)

As his senses slowly return, he looks at the fungus and racks his brain to remember what he might know...
Probably Kn (nature), but just in case, Lazlo has Kn (dungeoneering), (engineering), (geography), (history), (nature), (planes), and (religion), with the same modifier for each. If by chance it's Kn (arcana), that modifier is +16 instead of +10.

Knowledge: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23

Shardra gasps as she sees the states of the people in the room.

Lords and Ladies, how are they living through this?

She blinks a few times and tries to figure out if they're dead or being animated by the fungus that's present...

Heal(Assess Health): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

"Storrage forr torrturre subjectss..." Dhastrach says grimly, letting his sentence drift as he get closer to the male dwarf. "Who arre they? Otherr explorrerrss snatched by the despicable mitess?"

Dhastrach examines the people warily, trying to determine if they are somehow possessed, and hostile. If they appear docile enough, Dhastrach attempts to perform impromptu surgery to aid their condition

Heal? Knowledge (nature)? Profession (surgeon)?

Azkadellia gawks, but does nothing to even pretend to help. Once the others have moved into the room, she steps into the room behind them, but stays behind to guard the entrance.

The elfen woman is examined by Shardra and she thinks that she can remove the growths, expertly taking Lazlo's dagger and cutting into them with two precise cuts. With a small shriek, the tendrils spasm and retract, restoring her sight. She blinks. "Is that... you... Torvic?" she asks before passing out. Torvic stares at her with his crazy eyes. He runs up and starts shaking her. "How do you know me!?" he asks, clearly crazed.

Sharda thinks that only weeks of magical healing can restore her to her former self as she has likely suffered large internal damage and immense psychological scarring.

Heal checks to aid the other two if you wish.

Heal Check(Assist on Chelaxian man): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

Heal Check(Assist on male dwarf): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

Shardra blinks at the reaction of the guide and the woman.

"Shhh. Shhh. Easy, Torvic. Easy. We'll find out eventually. Steady like rock."

She then helps out as needed to the others checking out the situation...

"If anyone needs another dagger to cut more of those free..." Azkadellia says, unsheathing her dagger and holding out to the others. She continues to keep one eye out the door, in case more enemies show up.

Heal (male dwarf): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Heal (chelish man): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

"Let me take a look," Dhastrach says, and gets over to the two remaining patients. He loans Azkadellia's dagger, thanking first, and attempts to restore the two into operational condition.

"Torvic might have something to tell uss. Do you, Torvic?"

Lazlo notes the transformation of the elven woman with some sense of relief, and offers a hand to Dhastrach with the other two.

Heal assist: 1d20 ⇒ 10
Heal assist: 1d20 ⇒ 2

The gnome helps somewhat with the male dwarf, but is too fascinated by the scars along the scalp of the Chelaxian to do much more than find patterns in them. I can't tell if that looks more like the Irespan in Magnimar or the Cyphergate in Riddleport...Az, what do you think?

"Definitely the Cyphergate. See the curvature of that particular scar right *there*? Hey... watch where you're.. gah... move your hand, thanks."

Shardra isn't so much poking fun at Lazlo as trying to keep the gnome focused on the task at hand. It's almost a blessing when he turns to ask Az that question.

"Could you give Azkadellia a hand watching the door while we work? An extra set of eyes could be useful, especially given how observant you are."

The tone isn't a chiding one, but rather an encouraging one.

When we say weeks of *magical* healing, are we talking 'needing specialized spells' or 'in the scale of hundreds of hp of damage', if such a thing is possible. Would using a Wand of Cure Light help stabilize the injured a bit better for now?

"Trust me, I know the Cyphergate in Riddleport well, and there's nothing here that looks even remotely like it", Azkadellia responds without even turning to look at whatever distracted Lazlo.

The afflictions don't look as if they can be cured with a simple Cure spell, but they might need a bevy of spells including Regenerate, Heal or Remove Blindness/Deafness, among others.

The group looks to aid the other two, but it seems that the human man's mind is too far gone for Dhastrach to do much of anything for him and the dwarf's protusions only cause him to bellow out in pain from his stupor as the group pokes and prods at them.

The woman appears to be able to walk a bit, but the other two will need to be carried out if you intend to save them. As you are working on them, three mites rush into the room, shouting in Undercommon.

Initiative:
Dhastrach: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Azkadellia: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
Shardra: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Lazlo: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Lazlo: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Initiative:
1st: Azkadellia; Shardra
2nd: Mites (Red, Blue, Yellow)
3rd: Dhastrach; Lazlo

Assuming they don't have reach weapons, since I'm only 10 feet from them, and I'd notice if they do. Az is smart enough to move before casting if she'd provoke.

Azkadellia decides to start with some heavy damage, in the hopes of ending this quickly. Since the enemies aren't engaged in melee yet, and there's no cover separating her from them, she has a clear shot with her Scorching Ray spells. Remembering how weak the mites from earlier were, she intentionally targets two different mites, hoping a single ray might be enough to knock one down, instead of focusing fire.

to hit red mite touch AC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
fire damage red mite: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 3, 4) = 18

to hit yellow mite touch AC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
fire damage yellow mite: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 6, 1) = 11

She then moves behind the rest of the group.

Can I use a shirt/folio re-roll for that first attack? If so, here's the re-roll:

to hit red mite touch AC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

"Morre of these pestss?" Dhastrach says, irate, "let's devastate these miserrable crreaturress out of existence."

Dhastrach flicks his warhammer to his hands and flings it at the burnt mite (or another if the yellow mite falls).

Hand of the Acolyte (mwk cold iron warhammer): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 281d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

The shaman points at the (blue) mite and says something slow and rumbly in the language they are speaking.

Standard Action:

Shardra casts Misfortune on the (blue) Mite (DC18 Will Save or roll two dice for every d20 until effect stops and take the lower of the two.)

Az fires off two flaming beams at the mites, but one is able to dodge the effect out of sheer luck as the other suffers some rather serious burns.

Shardra looks to inconvenience the creatures as such calls down the powers of misfortune and bad luck on the bluish mite.

Will Save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

The mites, undeterred, advance with their short swords in hand, stabbing at Dhastrach and Lazlo.

Dhastrach-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20
Dhastrach-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Dhastrach-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Dhastrach MF-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Dhastrach-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Dhastrach MF-22 FFAC: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Lazlo-16 FFAC: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Only Lazlo is scratched by the mites, but his wound seems to suffer from a grievous, serated blade that aggravates the wound.

Damage: 1d4 + 1 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 1 + (5, 3) = 11

Initiative:
1st: Azkadellia; Shardra
2nd: Mites (Red, Blue-Misfortune, Yellow @ 11)
3rd: Dhastrach; Lazlo @ 37/48 HP

"Pitiful pestss!" Dhastrach curses, as they pile up on him. Feeling that these mites are not the ordinary, run-of-the-mill types, he casts a strengthening spell.

Defensive casting (Bull's strength, DC 19): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

And so he feels much stronger.

"Too tight quarters to enlarge you this fight", Azkadellia tells Dhastrach. With that she drops her scroll of Enlarge Person back into her Handy Haversack (move action) and casts a spell to blast the yellow mite again (standard action).

Magic Missile damage: 4d4 + 4 ⇒ (4, 2, 2, 4) + 4 = 16

Shardra stands pat and sighs at the nigh suicidal mites.

Move Action: Chant to maintain Misfortune on Blue

Having started chanting, Shardra points at the reddish one, as the sorceress has been pouring it on the yellow one.

The gnome winces in pain as he is hit. I need to stop getting hit, too, I think, in addition to Az's advice, he thinks to himself, his tongue sticking part way out of his mouth as he furrows his brow and concentrates, taking a five-foot step away from the mite.

He casts glitterdust as indicated on the map. DC 16 Will save to avoid blindness.

I hate to say it, but I don't think that Glitterdust area is right. It's only 10 ft radius, so centering it on the north wall will miss the blue one. I'm not seeing a way for you to hit all 3 mites and avoid Dhastrach.

You're right that I drew it wrong the first time; but upon review it still works. Map updated.

Good call. Not sure how I missed that solution to hit all of them. This is why I love having the templates when playing in person.

1d20 ⇒ 15
3d20 ⇒ (14, 18, 3) = 35

Shardra's new hex fails to affect her new target as Azkadelia unleashes a blast of arcane magicks on the injured one, blasting him to the floor.

The remaining misfortuned mite falls prey to Lazlo's Glitterdust as Dhastrach casts his spell defensively, growing in size and strength.

The mite who can sees squeaks in fear as the other scurries behind him, grabbing his tunic for aid as they flee, leaving their unconscious cousin to his fate.

Powerful displays of magic from all make for quick fights! Good job team! :D

Status
Azkadellia
Shardra
Dhastrach
Lazlo @ 37/48 HP

Shardra pokes Lazlo with a PFS Standard Issue PregenWand of Cure Light Wounds!

Cure Light Wounds Wand: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

And again!

Cure Light Wounds Wand: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

"We're kind of stuck, here. We need tae get these folks to safety and healed, but we've also the mission of finding out what is going on here, and explore this place. Ideas?"

Combat's over, I suppose?

Dhastrach grabs his warhammer in two hands and gives a powerful blow to the blind, stumbling mite.

[dice=Mwk cold iron warhammer + BS + "invisibility"]1d20+8+2+2[/dice] vs. flat-footed
Damage (bludgeoning, cold iron): 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Once the mites have all left the pathfinders, Dhastrach thumps the warhammer on the floor, still holding the handle. He turns to look at Shardra.

"I suppose we could leave them herre in this rroom and lock the doorr, and come get them once we get back," Dhastrach says, rubbing his chin, "we can't securre theirr prrotection otherrwise. We alrready have Torvic the Dazed to babysit."

After the mites scurry away, Lazlo nods gratefully to Shardra as he scratches his head, pondering the wounded here. I don't suppose there's a better plan. Still, these mites have proven persistent, and I wonder how easily they can get into a chamber we've tried to secure, even locked.

What's left down here? The pit? Is that what we have left to investigate?

"Do we have any reason to believe there may be more captives? Perhaps, we could leave with these and get them to safety, before returning. Either that, or we'll just have to move quickly in exploring the rest of this place before the mites return with reinforcements."

"Alternative, we secure them here, quickly move through the rest of the complex, but keep an eye back here. It's going tae hamper me a slight bit, but... got an idea."

Almost as if summoned, a rocky lizard creature sneaks out of Shardra's backpack and rests on her shoulder, looking almost comically bored.

"Kolo here can keep watch on the captives we've rescued thus far, and come running to warn us if they get disturbed while we're exploring. He's a bit sneaky and vicious, even."

The crag tuatra clambers down and finds a good 'nesting' spot in the detrius of the room.

"Ready tae move out if ye are!"

Shardra's going to leave Kolo, her spirit animal, with the captives as an insurance policy so the party can keep exploring.

"Hmm. I suppose I could leave an assistant to help keep watch, as well."

With that, Azkadellia holds out her left arm, the long sleeve of her dress lying flat all the way to her wrist. Suddenly, the fabric begins to rise, as a lump appears on her forearm. Eventually, the fabric falls back to reveal a small, brown owl sitting on her arm, as if it were there all along.

"Stay with the lizard to keep an eye on these people. If anyone comes, fly away immediately, and alert me", she tells the owl.

"HOO!" he responds, then flies around the room, looking for the highest perch possible.

Az wears her familiar as a tattoo (tattooed sorcerer archetype). He has the "speak with master" feature, so he understands her instructions. And they have an empathic link up to a mile, so if any trouble comes up, she'll sense it immediately.

How's the light in here? The owl has low light vision, but not darkvision. I'll leave a light if necessary.

The familiars are a good idea. :-)

The group places a lit torch in a nearby sconce and leaves the owl and lizard to watch over the injured followers. "Good idea!" Torvic bellows as he searches for more problems, though he still seems to be quite off.

@Lazlo: You can explore any of the blocked off areas.