As an act of retribution, an enemy of the society begins hiring river pirates to waylay Pathfinder boats bound for the crusader nation of Mendev. Unless the Pathfinders can track down the party responsible and put an end to their piracy, the raids may spell the doom of the society’s ambitions to the north.
"Can someone give me a hand here? I'm a little out of my depth here..."
Once Searlas is content that the scallywags and the captain are either stable or beyond any help we can give, he'll relieve them all of their weapons, and check their pockets for anything of value. And relieve them of that too...
"Do we want to talk to this fella? See what this is all about? Someone tie 'im up and let's give him a jolt." Daffy pulls out a wand of CLW and readies to tap the captain when he's secured.
A quick survey of the rest of the house reveals no other threats.
The smaller door to the east of this room is locked, but easily openable with a key on the captain's person.
On a desk in that room is an open log book...
It contains a detailed but somewhat choppy account of his career in piracy, and the past several months’ entries show that he switched his strategy from opportunistically targeting vessels at random to exclusively targeting Pathfinder shipments.
Two entries in particular stand out
Entry 1:
Met with Helkit in the city today. Charming as ever. Gave her her cut of most recent Pathfinder raids.
Don’t know why she needs it; she’s even richer than most bloodied.
Fenced supplies are pocket money to her. I’ve heard there’s a Razmiri bounty on Pathfinder boats, and I’m sure that’s where she’s really earning profit here.
Need proof—might be able to use as blackmail if things go sour. Till then, just have to trust my Pirate Queen will continue to bless her Favored Son as he plies her ways upon the river
entry 2:
Helkit wants us keeping an eye out for Sczarni in the area. Sounds like they’re mostly Varisians but have been recruiting others lately.
Heard she was supplying muscle to those messing up Guaril Karela’s business—probably fears retaliation.
I’ll have to keep an eye on her other visitors to see if I can learn about her contact and what he knows for myself
know local or nobility 15:
Helkit is one of the “bloodied” of Tymon.
Also inside the locked room are nearly a dozen stacked crates, each one stamped with the Glyph of the Open Road and weighing approximately 100 pounds.
"She's one of the fighters of Tymon — 'bloodied', I believe is the unfortunate term they use," replies Itra.
I find it amusing that she somehow knows this, even though when it came to knowing what a 'bloodied' was at the beginning of the scenario, she hadn't the foggiest... :P
"Um... so they're working for... a pit fighter? Okaaaay.... so now what? March into the arena and challenge her to a duel or something? This needs to be stopped somehow and it's pretty clear that these pirates are just the hired guns. Of course given the 'blackmail' comment, it's quite possible that the captain over there may have a bone to pick with her. What say we wake him up and see what he has to say about this?"
Female human (Varisian) cleric of Erastil 4 LG | Init +4 | Perception +9 AC 17, T 13, FF 14 | hp 27/27 | Fort +5, Ref +6 Will +7
"Looks like we need to speak with Helkit right away. We may end up in the arena after all." Shera nods to the crates. "I suggest everyone grabs a prisoner or a crate, and let's get out of here."
Trying to make up a bit for lost time from my slowness last week.
There's nothing else of note in "Bessie's Bayou."
The captain is happy to sell out his employer for better treatment but doesn't have anything of value to add beyond what you are able to read in his journal.
---
Returning to Tymon is a relatively peaceful affair and takes approximately half a day of travel. Smine meets you at the docks where he chats with your original captain Demeliah a bit who agrees to waive her fee in exchange for the captured skiff.
Smine then invites you back to the lodge where he serves a late supper and listens intently to your report.
Smine comments over a plate of roast hog "Well, I see you recovered some of our crates, how'd things go?"
Female human (Varisian) cleric of Erastil 4 LG | Init +4 | Perception +9 AC 17, T 13, FF 14 | hp 27/27 | Fort +5, Ref +6 Will +7
Ask the Society what to do with him. If putting him in jail here won't do any good maybe they have a suggestion.
Shera makes her report. "Things went alright. Daffy almost died, but we managed to survive the mission thus far. We found information that Helkit is behind the thefts. I don't know what we can do about that. She's "blooded" after all."
Smine will suggest turning the pirate over to the local authorities, there he'll get his just deserts.
Smine furrows his brow at the mention of Helkit, and ponders for a few moments before responding.
"Well Done I suppose. Everything I hoped for out there. Whatever else, our immediate enemies are done for. Hopefully gives anyone thinking about doing the same pause. But there’s the problem. There’ll be more, because they weren’t acting on their own."
Smine pauses a moment to let out a sigh
"Helkit Silverbane—she’s a problem: Lots of money, lots of clout. She could just hire another group and hardly lighten her purse. We need to take this to her—make her see we’re more than she can handle. But going up against the bloodied... that’s like swimming upriver. Through piranha. Bleeding."
Smine lets his comments sink in before his mood lightens at least slightly.
“Law’s not an option. First off, bankrolling pirates... barely a crime here—only if you get caught. Even with witnesses, she’s hardly red-handed. And bloodied’s word in court is worth lots more than words from captured bandits or the ones that caught them."
"Tymon’s got some hard laws, but this wasn’t really even in Tymon. It’s all... borderline. Don’t think we could make formal charges stick."
Smine sips his cooling tea thoughtfully, the furrows of worry on his brow slowly evening out.
"Got one option, if you want to take it. Can’t hit her in court... but Tymon wasn’t built on courts."
His eyes widen as he leans in close, “Ever heard of the Law of Grievance?”
"Hrmmm... nope! But I'm pretty sure I can figure it out... Considering everything around here seems to work around that Arena of Aroden, I'd be willing to bet we're in for a gladiatorial match. So... what do we have to do? Hop in and beat up on her champions until she loses face?"
Under the Law of Grievance, anyone in Tymon can challenge another person to arena combat. Even a “bloodied” citizen must accept the challenge of outsiders. In a way, it’s the fairest possible law available to those with the deck stacked against them.
Smine sends an apprentice to localte Helkit. Within the hour the girl returns "Helkit is overseeing a gladiatorial teaam training at the Arena."
Smine follows up "Alright, just go up to Helkit, state your grievance and challenge her under the law."
Searlas smirks. "Well, I've still got enough juice left in me to go for an arena rumble. And calling out folk is easy enough for me... although I usually run to the hills afterwards... but hey! Let's do this!"
This is all within the hour? What would you say is my duration left on False Life?
About 3 hours of journey back down the river and another hour or so of dinner with Smine.
Smine responds what he knows "The challenged gets to set the terms, although if she chooses single combat I'd imagine you'd get to choose among you. Whatever the terms it'll likely take a couple of days to get the match on the Arena schedule."
Know Local DC 15:
Although several years have passed since Helkit last entered the Arena of Aroden as a combatant, she is still fairly well known. She has two signatures as a gladiator: her piecemeal armor and her penchant for bringing a trained animal into combat with her, so unlikely to go for a solo combat.
Female Human Fighter 5 [ HP 8/45 (0 NL) | AC 19 Tch 14 FF 16 | Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3* | CMD 22* | Init +3 Perc +4 | Effects: bless, inspire courage ]
Knowledge (Local):10 + 5 = 15
"Come to think of it, I heard she rarely engages in single combat," adds Itra thoughtfully. "Likes to bring some kind of animal into the ring with her."
She'll also relay the rest of the information in that spoiler.
"She doesn't drag slaves into the ring now does she?"
Did we recover all of the goods? If we did, I wouldn't mind seeing if we can track down the one that got away, or at least putting some feelers out. Otherwise, it may be worth getting some gladiator's attire to look badass in. Gotta have the WWE swagger here if we're gonna do this right. Other than that, lets go challenge Helkit!
"Now if we're gonna go do some pit-fighting the look is almost as important as the fight. No offense Itra, but I think the city watch is just going to get a lot of 'boos' from the audiance. Also maybe some pet food to mess with her battle buddy."
"Yeah... but when you're busy roughing up drunkards and vagrants, you aren't getting judged on style."
He looks at Itra, then opens, and silently closes his mouth. He pauses then slowly says, "Ok... maybe for once it would have been better if that blasted bird was here to shut me up."
"Well, shall we go throw down the metaphorical gauntlet? Get this ball rolling? It sounds like we may have a few days to prepare while we wait for our turn in the ring. Also," Daffy adds with a wink and wry smile, "do you think our challenge would go over better if we had an actual gauntlet to throw?"
Even empty, the Arena of Aroden is an imposing sight that seems to magnify the sounds of clashing blades and grunts of exertion of a dozen sweaty, muscular men and women sparring on the sandy floor.
The synergy of well-trained teamwork and combat style is apparent, though it falls short of the standards set by a tall, broad, iron-haired woman dressed in rich furs.
“Watch your flanks, you ham-fingered dolts! Felex, if you leave your partner’s back uncovered again just to make a cheap swing, it’s your back I’ll break in two!” she roars at the gladiators.
“Now hold! There’s company.”
Turning in your direction, she snaps, “Who in Abaddon are you? The Silver Slayers have the training ground today.”
It seems obvious to you that this is Helkit. Addid pic to slide 5 with Smine.
As we approach the arena I'd like to re-up my false life.
False Life:1d10 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
~~~
Searlas looks over at Itra and Daffy and mutters. "Look menacing... and back me up. Coz sure as Cayden's tanked I don't got the muscles to back this one up."
He turns to Helkit and adopts a pose of confidence. Confidence that if the midden hits the windmill, he's probably faster than his heavily armored companions.
"We are here on behalf of the Pathfinder Society. For hiring pirates to assault their supply ships, you have invoked their ire, and for that we invoke the Law of Grievance!"
Diplomacy:1d20 + 14 - 3 ⇒ (15) + 14 - 3 = 26
Getting the formalities out of the way, a sheepish grin crosses Searlas's face. "So you say the training ground belongs to the Silver Slayers today eh? Is that who you'll be hiding behind?"
Her surprised expression curls into a sneer. “Very well, I accept. Some fights are already scheduled for two days from now. We’ll settle this then. As challenged, I set the terms: Group battle—you lot against me and my Slayers. No limits on weapons or magic. Public arena fight, on the shifting sands—and you should know I’ve never lost on those.”
She glances at her trainees for a moment before reluctantly adding, “No need for a death match. The challenge may be decided by yielding. Anyone losing their nerve can call it off for their team.”
She smirks. “Mind you, that won’t be anyone on my side. I don’t train cowards.”
"So, I hear there's a big match coming up tomorrow! Helkit and the Slayers, the flyer said. Personally, I can't wait to see it. First time seein' her in action, y'know. Do you think it bein' on the shifting sands will make it too easy? All I know is I'm hopin' for a good show."
Daffy learns all sorts of interesting things by asking around.
Interesting tidbits below from various sources around town
"Ahh ya, did ya know their full name is da Silver Slayers. They's quick, work well as a team and always have some crazy new exotic weapon. That's sure to be a fun match."
"Hey billy, do you remember what the last piece Helkit added to her armor was? Ya I know it was like three years ago, wasn't it some elven chain from that Elf, callin' himself 'the unhittable', that went about as well as you might imagine. Man you gotta check out her armor!"
"Whada think, maybe an elephant this time? Helkit's best moment, her truely best moment is when she rode a rhino into the grand melee. She won that year too. She maintained a surprising amount of grace while riding that rhino and bashing heads with her axe.
[b]"The shifting sands are great, there are sandpits all over the arena, of course the top is filled with sand so it don't matter much, cept during shifting sands when they fill a few with water before covering the tops again, always a fun surprise when somebody steps in one. Helkit's never lost a shifting sands match ya know."
The following morning, Searlas will use his Rebirth Domain ability to learn Negative Reaction for his Bard spell. See if we can turn the crowd on em...
Searlas wakes up the next morning, well rested and not hungover for a change. "Morning Hariwini... Sleep well?"
Hariwini's augmentation will be the usual one, Skilled (Disable Device) as she keeps her strangely articulated claws.
The bird, which somehow appeared just as he awoke, chirps a happy response.
So... in true Caydenite fashion...
"So... wanna see if we can get those fools hungover?"
Hariwini chirps her discontent.
"Pfft... I'll bet we could go drink for drink with em... especially if Daffy is messing with the drinks. Hey Daff, does that song of yours work on mud?"
He pauses. "For that matter... does it work on quicksand?"
Sylph Ranger 4 | AC 19-T13-FF14 (21 vs ranged) | HP 32/32 | F+5, R+8, W+3 | Per +9, darkvision; Init +4
Zephyr is mildly outraged at the "press coverage" as it were. "Hey, can we counter this? Daffy, can ya sing somethin' to slap back at 'em? On a street corner maybe! Somewhere public! Or if not, pay some other musicians to sing a song praisin' US!"
She listens intently to Daffy relaying what he knows. "Pits, eh? Sneaky! Ya should all make sure you have a rope and hook in case ya fall down one, rest of us might be too busy to get ya out. ...come ta think of it, I need a hook myself, heh."
Zephyr will buy a scroll of handy grapnel, if one is available in town.
"As for the animals.... guess I could pray for a different kinda wisdom than my normal," Zephyr muses. "Somethin' to calm a riled beast. But I ain't much of a spell-slinger, really."
I could indeed prep calm animals or charm animal in my one spell slot, but my save DC on that is gonna be low as I'm not usually offensive casting. Still, it seems like it could be awesome if it works, so I'll swap heightened awareness for calm animals when we rest.
Female Human Fighter 5 [ HP 8/45 (0 NL) | AC 19 Tch 14 FF 16 | Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3* | CMD 22* | Init +3 Perc +4 | Effects: bless, inspire courage ]
Itra spends some of the intervening time in meditation and disciplined martial practice. Between the two, she finds time to connect with the local city guard and ask them about Helkit and her gang — their fighting styles, weaknesses, and least-favorite guardsmen.
Normal shopping is no problem, Tymon is a Large town with a population of 2,564, so the item purchase limit is 10,000gp
Tymon is not exactly well known for its strong guard culture but there's at least a token city guard. Itra isn't able to learn anything that hasn't already been earned though.
Finding out the Arena of Aroden's rules is a trivial matter.
presented in an OOC format below to help avoid any confusion.
Participants may cast preparatory spells before entering the arena but otherwise cannot use magic, activate items, or drink potions until the combat officially begins; this translates to 10 minutes of time checking in with the arena manager, suiting up, reviewing the rules, and verbally acknowledging these rules before stepping out into the fighting space.
Magical flight and climbing the walls and columns is permitted, but only to the level of the grandstands (25 feet above the floor). Going any higher is considered unsporting, presents a risk to the spectators, and is grounds for disqualification. Violators receive a single warning and slow count to three (over the course of 1 round) before being disqualified.
The combat conditions established by Helkit allow either team to give up should any participant declare that he yields. Doing so grants victory to the opposing team.
The combat is not, strictly speaking, a death match, but participants are not held accountable for killing their opponents.
Can I send Hariwini in to scout out the arena and identify the locations of the pit traps? Her perception bonus is 5 (My ranks) +3 (Class Skill) +3 (Skill Focus) +2 (Wis) = +13. She has Int 7, Wis 15, and speaks Common. She has to stay within 100ft of me, so I'd have to be hanging out in the grandstands and would likely get only a small portion of the field, but something is better than nothing. If that's allowable...
Searlas will approach one of the guards at the arena. "This looks like an amazing arena and I've gotta say... you've got quite an interesting way of handling disputes. I've been through lots of areas that resolve disputes with violence but this... this is much more well thought out. Mind if I take a seat in the grandstands and watch the warmups?"
There are potential pit traps all over the arena since the sand is separated into sections. The question is which will be filled with water, something that won't happen until right before your match. You'll all have plenty of opportunity to catch the initial match ups tomorrow before your big show. As for today the Arena is closed for maintenance to get everything set up for tomorrow.
Female Human Fighter 5 [ HP 8/45 (0 NL) | AC 19 Tch 14 FF 16 | Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3* | CMD 22* | Init +3 Perc +4 | Effects: bless, inspire courage ]
Can Itra anticipate what sorts of challenges we might face from a sand pit trap filled with water? Are we looking at difficult terrain, or falling into a water-filled pit, or...?
I'm going to be in England from August 16th-30th and then at Pacificon over Labor Day weekend. I can manage to play while travelling but I need my desktop to GM, thus the late start on Tuesday the 5th.
When convenient:
Player Name:
Character Name:
PFS Number:
Faction:
Day job:
Also, when you get a chance can you fill in an initiative line and add a copy of your "mini" to page 1 of the slides
We should have Psychic 5, Cleric 3, Bard 3, Fighter 5 and Ranger 4, putting us exactly at APL 4. If people want to swap around characters that's fine, I concern my recruitment much more with players in mind over characters.
Also feel free to introduce your characters on gameplay if desired, we've got about in a month until we get started, so plenty of time.
So... would that qualify for the Liberty's Edge faction card goal of 'defy local law or custom in a way that assists me and my allies without endangering the mission or threatening innocents? Or will I have to push the envelope a bit harder?
Hariwini is Searlas's conscience in somewhat tangible form. He showed up one day after a long night of drinking and Searlas still hasn't QUITE figured it out.
The intent wasn't necessarily to ignite the grease, the intent was to bathe prone sailors stuck in a grease trap in alchemist's fire, possibly ignite any dry surfaces the wooden boat or cause them to smoulder, and generally cause panic and chaos.
My personal rule of grease has generally been that it is flammable, but along the same lines of the splash effect of alchemist's fire (1 dmg) and can possibly be used as kindling. Even then, setting a small pool of natural grease on fire is a rather deliberate thing, and chucking alchemist's fire on it probably wouldn't make a nice controlled burn.
Hey Daffy, I'm signed up to play Unseen Inclusion with you in a few months at Conquest. :P I'll probably bring Zephyr to that table unless she winds up being a crappy fit for it. Be kind of neat for Daffy and Zephyr to get to play together face to face.
I'll only be there Friday. Let me know if you want to try and grab a meal between slots or even a quick snack after the last Friday slot. (Also I swapped my evening slot to 9-04 with you two.)
Actually, it's a 10m/level cantrip; can't you just cast it on all of us before the fight? DM's ruling as to whether that would work, of course, but I don't see anything in the spell that would contraindicate it.
I guess it's a GM ruling how many message spells I can have going simultaneously. Each casting can only target 1 creature/level.
You can have multiple message spells going at once. Of course you have to play operator though. For simplicity sake you'll only be able to share info across message on your turn.
Moving banter to discussion to avoid filling up gameplay with ooc tags. I suspect she doesn't have the feat you mentioned simply because I don't think that book was even in development in season 5.
Sadly he's not a vigilante. He's a Gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger) 1 / Rogue (Thug) 7. In fact he's looking forward to hitting level 11 so he can get his advanced rogue talents... His feat plan is to take extra rogue talent at level 11 so he gets Double Debilitate and Quick Shot. Roll for Initi-BANG! Frightened, Sickened, -2 AC, Speed Halved...
He's my -1 who was originally a pure gunslinger rocking the double barreled cheatery. When that got eliminated I retrained him into unchained rogue. I also made the conscious decision that I did not want to make him a damage beast, so instead went for debuff effects. He tries really hard to take prisoners.
There's some ambiguity in how the ability is worded but I've always seen it played as allowing a dazzling display as a standard action, and Helkit's tactic's block assumes that is the case as well.
After taking advantage of the fact that Psychic magic has no verbal/somatic components, it's actually kinda nice in an odd way to actually run into the fear problem for once. Reminds me that I'm not just a wizard.
Sylph Ranger 4 | AC 19-T13-FF14 (21 vs ranged) | HP 32/32 | F+5, R+8, W+3 | Per +9, darkvision; Init +4
I may not get a chance to post again until Monday, going on a short camping trip. I might be able to before then, but if you wind up waiting on me, feel free to bot. At this point Zephyr's likely just trying to put arrows into people/will wand-heal Itra if she gets too beat up.
For those of you who are curious Helkit is a Barbarian (Mad Dog) 4 / Cavalier (Huntmaster 2)
As for the powerful animal companion note...
Scenario wrote:
Note that although Helkit’s two classes would not normally stack their effective druid levels for determining the strength of her animal companion, Brimstone’s stats are generated as though this were the case; this is a product of Helkit’s esoteric fighting style and training with the exotic animal—a special exception to the rules for this scenario.
You see, she really had the trait to boost her companion's extra level... she wasn't cheating!
Boony boon boon?:1d20 ⇒ 4 Nope!
Thanks a lot for a great scenario! I hope to see you in another game soon... from either side of the table to either side! I'm probably going to hold off for another week or so before I begin looking to jump into another game and/or recruit for one of my own, but if you've got any requests PirateRob let me know.
Thanks for running, Rob! I'm so glad I got to use my neat water tricks in a scenario! Also, I'm glad to see a Mad Dog in action, since I'm in the midst of building one.
