PFS Gameday 5: Amazing Red's Twisted Circle (Inactive)

Game Master Daxter

"Nice job, group. That Gnoll and his pet had no chance against our combined might!". Rumble was ready to continue on when the group decided the time was right.

"I feel like it was over too quickly, yet I am glad to see everyone is safe now."

5d20 ⇒ (15, 12, 10, 4, 4) = 45

The party notices notices footprints of a tiny humanoid wearing shoes leaving the nearby cave, perhaps a very young human or a halfling child.

The masked elf sheathes its sword and stands back up again, stretching momentarily. He then walks over to Jaxal.

Thracius sighs deeply, glad they were able to fell the Gnoll and its pet before they caused them too much hurt, wiping his brow with an embroidered handkerchief, the elf waits patiently whilst the others calm down and heal injuries.

"Yes, well done, there are child tracks here..." the Elf says shyly.

Belinda wraps a bandage around her injured arm.

"I wonder why there are children wandering around out here.."

She says, pointing to the tracks. "And why the tracks leave, but don't enter. Shall we look within?"

But before going any further, she quickly checks the gnoll bandit for cash or useful equipment.

"We must investigate. Am not leaving a child here unprotected. Gnolls and worse am bad for child. Hopefully it hid."

The gnoll has very little useful equipment. On him you find a chain shirt, a composite longbow(Str +2), 20 arrows, a spear, and a climber's kit.

Pictographs on the walls of this shallow cave show an indistinct winged creature navigating through a sea of swirling patterns and black dots. A clumsily constructed altar sits at the center of the cave. Dozens of small niches are carved into the wall, most filed with an odd assortment of items; teeth, scraps of clothing, a jar of white liquid, a wooden staff, several pieces of parchment, a cloth pouch, a leather satchel, and several identical wooden dolls.

Religion, Planes, and a Perception check please.

Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Not trained in the Knowledge skills.

The oread didn't need any light source, as he scanned the cave, hoping to find the lost child the group was now following.

Eleoheim then walks over to Belinda and pulls out a wand.

"Hold very still, this occasionally doesn't go well."

The masked elf begins moving the wand around in a seemingly random way, intoning words in elvish in a low voice. He then ends by lightly touching Belinda with the wand near where the hyena bit her.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

"Hmm, that didn't work. Did it hurt? Let's try it again." He then proceeds to make the same movements and speak the same words as before, albeit a bit faster.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Eleoheim lets out a short phrase in Elvish.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

He lets out a long sigh, visibly trying to calm himself.

Suddenly he begins jumping up and down and wildly gesticulating, nearly shouting the command words.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

Healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Eleoheim then calms down and pockets the wand, trying to regain some of his lost dignity.

"There, was that so bad?"

Still straightening his clothes, Eleoheim walks over to the corpse of the mutated gnoll.

"I've never seen anything like this creature. Does anyone know what caused him to change?"

He then picks out 10 arrows, putting them in his quiver and grabs the climber's kit as well.

Walking into the cave, Eleoheim pulls out a small, brightly glowing rock and flicks it up into the air. It begins shedding light, illuminating the cave.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

RumbleRock notices that there is dried green colored blood on the altar that has been sloppily wiped away.

"What sort of creature has green blood," Rumble asks as he points out the remains to the group.

Thracius looks oddly at the masked Elf as he curses the wand, shaking his head slightly as he follows Rumble into the cave, conjuring the Light of his Wayfinder to view the markings.

k. Planes: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13

"Ermm... Forgive me, but I believe the Gnoll had green ichor like blood"

"Really?" asks Belinda before adding a "Thank-you" to Eleoheim.

"I thought gnoll blood was red like ours.."

She checks her rapier to see what colour the hyena blood was.

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Jaxal takes the remaining arrows, and tries the bow. Finding it to be too strong for him, he nonchalantly sets it back down, hoping nobody noticed his failure to pull back the string.

He also packs up the climber'd kit. "If he was carrying this gear, I think we should assume we may need it to access where ever he was."

Thracius nods to Belinda, unsure of himself but trusting his memory and going back to check the Gnoll's felled corpse.

"When my spear of thorns struck the beast, it causes the creature to bleed from many wounds, the Gnoll's blood was sickly green."

The party looks around and examines the items in the cave.

Rumble picks up the well made staff. "Anyone mind if Rumble use staff? Smack baddies in their heads with this," he grins, waving it around and feeling its heft.

Belinda nods her assent.

"Sounds like a plan! Those bullets may be helpful to me - unless anyone else uses a sling?"

Eleohim gestures that he has no problem with anyone taking the gear. Not interested in anything else, he climbs the nearest hill or tree to get a better look at what is around them. Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Eleo sees the town of Mercy not so far away and not much else.

Eleoheim points out the town to the rest of the party. Anything unusual to be seen from this distance?

-Posted with Wayfinder

Nope.

The elf will stay where he is, keeping a lookout for danger until everyone is ready to leave.

"It's rather nice to here. Nice view of the town as well."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Do the tracks lead there, or away?" asks Belinda as she assesses the new ammunition.

Towards the city.

Eleoheim calls down to Belinda. "It seems they lead toward the city. Whatever was here probably is there by now. I say we continue to Mercy and see if anyone's been attacked by these mutant gnoll things."

"Sounds good to me. I could do with some clean water to wash this bite."

The town of Mercy rests a mile south of the banks of the Ustradi River. A wooden palisade encircles a collection of its approximately one hundred wooden buildings. Hardy trees laden with red and yellow fruit dot the surrounding landscape. The road leads to a wide gate, which bears a prominent sign with orange-painted letters.

You arrive in Mercy 1 hour before sunset, passing through fields of cashew trees. The sign attached to the gate reads, “Mercy does not allow dishonesty, firearms, or large weapons within town limits. Respect the curfew.”

A man greets you by opening the gate. "Welcome to Mercy. I’m Sherif Molume, and I keep the peace around here. As you can see from the sign, we don’t allow people to walk around with large weapons around here. Before I let you inside, I need to ask you to hand them over.” So anything that isn't a light melee weapon or a quarterstaff needs to be handed over.

Does a small rapier count as a light melee weapon?

"Howdy Sherrif!" smiles Belinda.

"My what a lovely little town. Where does it get its name from?"

Jaxal will pocket the oil of silence.

"We are not here to cause trouble, my good sir, but these items are family heirlooms, and I would be most disappointed to lose them. Is there nothing we can do to allow us to hold on to them? Peace bonds, perhaps?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

I'll say it does count so you can keep it.

"You won't lose them. They will be safe in a locker. No one will get to them. No exceptions for the law here."

Jaxal nods, and hands over his bow and his rapier.

Eleoheim nods and starts handing over all of his weapons: his elven curved blade, arrows, longbow, and morningstar.

"Do we receive a receipt detailing what we submitted to you? Otherwise how would you know what we gave you? You might hand over my family blade to a friendly-looking dwarf and then I would have to kill him to get it back, and you would be to blame."

He then clears his throat. "Receipts are always better than murder where I come from."

From behind the mask, it's hard to tell if the elf is being serious of joking.

"What do you do if Gnolls attack?" asks Belinda.

"Does everyone rush for the lockup?"

Eleoheim nods in agreement. "The halfling has a good point."

Thracius takes the two scrolls from the Gnolls left belongings, before having one last look at the cave paintings and comitting mamy of them to memory and quick sketches. With that done, the Elf leaves the claustrophobic cave and joins the others towards Mercy.

Having nothing contraband to hand over to the Sherriff, Thracius sighs at Eleoheim's frankly dense statement, unsure if he wishes to be arrested. With a deep breath to steel himself, the Wizard steps up and asks the Sherrif a question?

"Has anyone gone missing Sherrif? For we have just encountered a mutated Gnoll and Hyena companion in the hills, with Child-like footprints around, though we found no person."

"I'll make sure you get them back when you leave, trust me. We can handle the gnolls here, that is if they bother us. They usually don't. Everyone is here in town, except Amenira if you count her. I wouldn't doubt that there'd be mutant gnolls and such in the hills but I don't know about that last part."

"Amenira.... We had heard of someone of that name being in town. Is she missing? " asks Belinda, glad she was allowed to keep her small rapier.

diplomacy to improve attitude with sheriff: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Rumble is fine with handing over any gear. "True weapons are up here," he says with a smile, pointing to his head, "not there," pointing at the pile of weapons.

He perks up at the mention of Amenira, and waits for the response to Belinda's question.

"She's been gone for 2 months now. She lives over in the orange house on the west side of town. She’s been hanging around Mercy for about a year now. Every month, she goes into Alkenstar to send letters to her family. She’s not a proper one of us, but she’s nice enough, and follows the rules, so we don’t mind her sticking around. She makes good toys for the children. Or at least, she used to. She’s been in Alkenstar a mighty long time. I would’ve thought she’d be back by now. Maybe she decided to go back to city life, but it’s awfully rude of her not to at least stop by and say goodbye first."

"I'll make sure you get them back when you leave, trust me. We can handle the gnolls here, that is if they bother us. They usually don't. Everyone is here in town, except Amenira if you count her. I wouldn't doubt that there'd be mutant gnolls and such in the hills but I don't know about that last part."

Eleoheim nods. "Trust between long-term friends and traveling companions is good, even hoped for. Trust between strangers is foolish, as they have done nothing to earn such trust. Receipts are better, don't you think?."

"Fair enough, but this is Mercy and I'm the Sheriff here. I got no reason to keep them permanently so you're gonna have to trust me if you wanna come in to Mercy. Them's the laws and nobody gets to break 'em."

"Are there any other laws we should be aware of ?" asks Belinda.

"Two months you say, would we be allowed to look at her house?"

Eleoheim seems to be unwilling to concede the argument ... if this actually IS an argument. "Who is talking of breaking the law? I was merely asking for a receipt, that is all, but if you say we have to trust you, then so be it. But if we have to trust you, does that also mean that you have to trust us? After all, trust is a two-way road, is it not?"

"We pray and attend temple twice daily, once at sunrise and once just after sundown. We ask that you stay inside the guesthouse from 1 hour before sunset until 1 hour after sunrise. That gives you 10 hours each day to wander around. When you hear the triple bell you can leave the guesthouse, and when the triple bells ring again, return to the guesthouse and draw the curtains. Curfew begins shortly. Are you friends of hers I assume? If so, you may look at her home.”

"Trust is a two way street. I trust that you'll follow instructions and our laws while here. I would hate to have to kick you out."

Thracius sighs at Eleoheim's obnoxious arguments, believing they may be close to ruining the mission if they are simply refused entry. He turns the his Elven kinsman and whispers slightly to him.

"Please stop, before we are not let in" he pleads.

He then turns to the Sherriff with genuine interest.

"Why the curfew? Is there threat of invasion?"

Eleoheim turns back to Thracius.