GM Jhaeman's PFS Module: "Masks of the Living God" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

Relgar has no idea about what these creatures are but hopes that they burn.

He indicates to Mallycorn that he needs to move (5' step) into his space (and assuming that he agrees) he lets loose a wave of fire from his position.

He touches one of the looted pirate Alchemist Fire using it to enhance his spell.

Burning Hands Reflex DC 16 for half damage: 5d4 + 5 ⇒ (3, 4, 1, 1, 1) + 5 = 15

Alchemist Fire,either Red or Blue if they fail their save catch on fire: 1d6 ⇒ 6

It is tight quarters here with Drukpa caught in the middle so only Blue and Red can be targeted without flame broiling our reptilian friend. :)

I will wait for this burning hands spell to be resolved. We have our gear, yes? Including weapons.

Drukpa steps 5' to the northwest to open up a bit of space and enable him to use his (reach) weapon. Angrily he slashes at Red.

Free action: enter bloodrage (round 1 of 10)

mwk bardiche vs Red: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
S dmg: 1d10 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

As Relgar waits for an opening, Drukpa jumps back from the door and slashes down with his bardiche, shattering one of the rocky monsters into gravel!

I'll treat Relgar and Anibal as delaying. Drukpa's attack hits and destroys Red. Everyone except Drukpa is up.

Mallycorn moves and lets the gnome do his thing.

Delays and move 5 feet

@Mallycorn: Sorry to be a pain, but you can't both delay and take an action (the 5' step). You could take a 5' step and ready an action (which is a standard action) with a set trigger, or just take a 5' step and finish your turn.

No worries: 5 feet step and Guidance on Anibal

Mallycorn is more than happy to call forth Pharasma name, and bless Anibal to ease his Fate

With the battlefield suddenly opened up, Relgar sprints into perfect position and unleashes a gout of flame, incinerating the remaining rock creatures!

Alas, the blackened curtains will surely reveal that intruders have come this way . . .

Yellow and Blue both fail their saves and are destroyed! We are off Initiative.

Relgar eyes glow with excitement as the rock creatures are reduced to pieces of glowing magma.

"That was fun!"

He looks at the condition of the curtains with a laugh.

"I would say that some redecorating is in order."

"I guess our days of sticking around pretending to be cultists is over. We are in it to win it now so we better make the most of the next couple of hours."

I guess we should be looting at this point. We are going to be wanting some gold on our chronicle sheets. :)

"We should check out what is behind this door?"

Relgar checks to see if the concealed door is enchanted with magic (Detect Magic).

Anibal if you would like to look for traps and locks and such on the concealed door that would be great. :)

Alecto looks a little stunned as the fight unfolds in front of her. It seems she just made a decision what to do as everything is already over. It seems to us that everything was quite quietly.

Drukpa huffs and puffs to catch his breath, momentarily fatigued, but it's not long before he is back to usual self.

"Ye think we'll find them surfboards behind this door? Why else would theya hidden it?"

Relgar winks at Drukpa and smiles.

"We are going to find out."

"Everyone please grab some treasure. We need to make this church as poor as possible!"

Pathfinder Looting mode officially engaged. :)

"Anibal if you please check the door for mundane traps and crack it open."

Anibal watches the merciless effects of fire on both the creatures and the room.

"Ah... Well, that's not good. Can we clean it up? Maybe move the curtain in a manner that would hide the burned parts? I would prefer if nobody knew we were here."

He doesn't seem to be happy with Relgar's suggestion to loot the place either. "If the impressions of this temple are to be any indication, all of this is probably just worthless junk. I'll pass, thank you. And if anything goes missing, I am pretty sure they will go through our stuff and find it."

He thinks for a moment. "Then again. If they were to find it in someone else's chest... Someone like Krant's for example, that could be interesting."

He looks at the door briefly. "Try to fix the curtains if you can. I will look at this door here in the meantime."

Perception to find hidden mechanisms: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22

Then Take 20 to both disarm possible traps and unlock the thing for a total of 33

"Then again. If they were to find it in someone else's chest... Someone like Krant's for example, that could be interesting."

THat would be a welcome twist of Fate for this bully.

Anibal picks the lock on the concealed door to reveal what looks like the temple's treasury! The chamber contains two small chests on opposite walls and a large chest between them, sitting next to a table. Atop the wooden table lie three bags and a large ledger.

Relgar turns to Anibal. The little man is clearly animated and has no intention of stepping down or changing course.

"We cannot hide this mess. These curtains are beyond repair and their magical trap has been sprung so they will know that we were here. So I suggest that you get on board with the plan."

The gnome stomps his tiny foot in defiance.

"Besides I am through being their evil lap dog and I refuse to go back, ever."

Relgar loots the contents of the curtained room distributing the goods among the party. He then proceeds to examine the treasure room. He checks for magical protections on the ledger, the chests and the bags.

Hopefully we will find what we are looking for today. Relgar is just not going back. Period! :)

Drukpa acknowledges the treasure with a disappointed nod. "Yeah, I guess gold ain't bad, though it ain't nothin like catchin a wave..." He sighs. His journey to becoming a Razmiri cultist has taken him in directions he never expected.

After scouring the curtained room for spoils, Relgar enters the treasury and looks around.

Relgar's eyes light up at the prospect of magical treasure. He attempts to determine exactly what magical properties the item might have but he is not quite sure at the moment.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

"Mallycorn, perhaps you might want to have a look at this?"

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

Let's see..

We don't approve of your approach, Relgar. Cunning and stealth could further give much more. Alecto turns away from the gnome.

As a player, I am saddened by the transformation of a rather original adventure into a rather ordinary one (kill everyone, loot everything) and would like to avoid this as long as possible.

It’s completely up to you folks how to proceed here—sneaky or direct. If different party members have different views, a good solution may be for someone to suggest a compromise (in character or out) to see if it helps the group reach a consensus.

Anibal only murmurs after Relgar expresses his intentions as he scans the room quickly, and pats Alecto on the shoulder with an approvind nod when she expresses her feelings.

While those more gifted in identifying the magic auras in items do their work with the pouch, Anibal decides to scour the place for the omelette. Erm... amulet.

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (6) + 13 = 19

If he does not find it, he would start thumbing the ledger instead. Maybe something in it would be of use.

"Again, I propose we divert the attention from us by pocketing something rather unique to this room, and putting it somewhere with Krant's possessions. Relgar, wouldn't you like to be an instrument of some good old karmic retribution?"

And I agree with Alecto on this. I made a character built for intrigue and various forms of schmoozing and sneaking around. The scenario is perfect for them. Assuming we are able to explore like this every day or two, it should be possible to not break out cover. I assume the temple will step it up with the extortions later on. As in, they will try to shove the new acolytes deeper into the cesspit of morality. But as long as we handle it like the baker, I am all for staying in spy mode. Of course, a breaking point is likely inevitable. But we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

We think this is an incredibly great idea. We'd like to see it! Alecto is clearly overjoyed somehow childishly and it seems she had already forgotten about her reaction to the gnome.

I think this is a wonderful idea. Krant's punishment is long overdue, by hook or by crook.

Relgar simply shrugs and puts up his hands in disbelief.

"You people are actually Pathfinders right? And you object to taking the direct route of looting and killing evil cultists?"

The gnome pauses for a moment. He can see that the entire party is against this plan.

"I can stick it out for another day maybe two but then I must leave. My cousin was enslaved for a short time and the bleaching set in. I just cannot take the chance. Mission or not."

"But, you have to promise me that we will take all this loot and hide it somewhere. I don't plan on returning empty handed."

Relgar is neutral after all and sort of greedy. :)

Anibal considers Relgar's words briefly, then speaks up. "I need you to understand something, Relgar. It might sound like me lecturing you, but I will simply put a few facts on the table. Plase don't take it as me being condescending towards you."

He pauses for a few seconds, then continues.

"First of all, regarding your question about my membership in your guild - No. I do not consider myself a member. I am an external contractor. A third party. I do my job, I get paid. Either in gold,or information I am interested in."

"Which brings me to the second point - My contract here is to find the amulet we discissed in Kassen. Based on that diacussion, I would assume that is your mission here as well, but I could be wrong. Let me know if this is not the case, and hopefully we can work something out."

"I don't like the inner workings of this temple. I get the feeling that we share that sentiment. But... Going on a killing spree, whether I want to be a part of that or not, will not bring us closer to the objective I have - the amulet. For all we know, it could be halfway across the continent by now."

"With that said, we don't have any leads on the amulet's location. That is why we are in this room today - or at least why I am - to find something that would point us to it."

Anibal pauses again. "However - once we find it, I will do my best to reduce the influence of this temple in the area.If that means taking it down completely, I will try. And I certainly won't stop you from taking whatever you wish from it once that happens. Can you work with that?”

He offers Relgar a handshake to seal the deal.

"By the way, I already have a few suggestions on how to do that, if you are interested."

As he speaks, Anibal looks around the room. The three chests are all locked, but investigating the three bags is easy. The first contains four complete sets of city guard uniforms, matching those worn by the local watch exactly. The second contains an array of over two-dozen silver holy symbols, representing those of every common (and some uncommon) good and neutral deities. The third bag looks empty.

@Anibal: I'll need an Intelligence or Linguistics check for the ledger.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (14) + 0 = 14

Know Religion: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Mallycorn, nearly out of habit, checks the religious symbol, looking for Pharasman ones

Were those abandoned by ex-members of the faith, or used by cultist to rob and con people out of their coins, maybe even more cruelly of their beliefs and spiritual succor?

We think they did something bad to the owners of these symbols...

Anibal loses colour from his cheeks at the notion. "Mallycorn... Is yours there? Or did you get it back?"

Relgar listens to Anibal's legalistic justification of his methods and behaviour.

"Look, everyone has their reasons for being here and I am happy to help find the amulet or complete any other so called mission objective as long as we collect all the treasure along the way."

"On most of these missions they do not pay you directly and I am here for the money. So, as long as we are taking all of their stuff I am happy to go along with any plan of yours that is not likely to get me or my dog killed. Alright?"

The gnome pauses for a moment getting back to the task at hand.

"You should probably have a look at the locks on those chests. The amulet could be in there or possibly more treasure."

I am assuming that we need to retrieve the gold here for full rewards in-game. Relgar is not the only one with a fair bit of greed in his heart. :)

The gnome examines bag #3 more closely. Clearly it is magical in nature but it appears to be empty. He has heard of magical bags that provide extra-dimensional spaces and he is curious if perhaps this might be one.

This is the only reasonable explanation about why a magical bag would be left empty in a treasure room.

Examining one of the bags more closely, Relgar sees that although it looks to be empty, when he places a hand inside he can feel something's there! He pulls out a broken gold chain that's clearly not of recent make.

I want to be clear that as the GM, I have no preference for how you proceed. Only because it's been brought up, I can explain (non-spoilerly) how treasure is calculated in PFS for Chronicles. In a normal scenario, the GM is given instructions to deduct a certain amount of gold from the standard allocation if certain things aren't done (like "Enemy X isn't defeated" or "x# influence points aren't achieved"). For items, my job is to cross them off if they weren't found at all (say, if there was a scene the group just didn't take part in for whatever reason). For modules like this one, however, the GM is not assumed to be a PFS GM. (For example, I have to make up my own "briefing" and adventure hook.) Organised Play still releases Chronicles, but no instructions are given as for when gold should be deducted. The bottom line is that I may still cross off items if not found, but I have no authority to reduce gold amounts on a Chronicle (unless a player leaves early, and then they get a pro rata amount based on the estimated # of encounters they missed). It's all a bit complicated, but hopefully that clarifies things for everyone.

@GM Jhaeman - Thank you for taking the time to explain this. So essentially as you lack any guidance on how to deduct gold from missed treasure drops (as it is a PF Module and not a PFS scenario) players can expect full gold rewards as long as they get to the end of the adventure. This makes perfect sense as the chronicle sheets were created in an Ad hoc manner after being approved for PFS play. It makes far less sense in game but as it simplifies matters considerably I am not complaining. :)

The gnome becomes immediately interested in both the broken gold chain and the bag.

"Now this is interesting!"

He casts Detect Magic again attempting to determine if the chain and/or the bag are the sources of the magic.

Assuming the bag is magical as well he drops a small item from the room into it to see if it disappears as well.

There is something odd with these holy symbols, whatever religion they represent. They were probably mad by the same silversmith, and his work isn't bad at all.It's just that they miss some tiny details that a true believer only would spot, and only if up close. So they can easily pass for the real thing from a casual glance. People see what they expect to see. For example, this symbol of Pharasma. The silversmith made two spirals, but he closed the smaller, inside one in the larger, outside one. While the true symbol shows an aperture between the larger and the smaller spirals, because our belief is that life and death are an eternal cycle.While some people die, some other ones are born

just giving some fluff about the counterfeited items

As Mallycorn discourses on the sham holy symbols, Relgar experiments with the magical bag. Anything placed in it seems to disappear from sight, but is easy to find via touch--and somehow, the bag seems roomier than it should!

What would you folks like to do next?

Relgar's face brightens as he confirms the magical properties of the bag.

"Well, this solves our storage issue. I guess we can call it a Bag of Holding ... all my stuff."

The little gnome whistles a jaunty tune in Sylvan as he begins to fill the bag with the most valuable of the loot.

"So, Anibal would you mind trying to open the chests?"

He looks around at the party wide-eyed like a child at his birthday party.

"Is anyone at all curious at what possibly could be inside these chests?"

He peeks at Drukpa.

"Perhaps even an expandable surf board. You never know."

Mallycorn lets out a chuckle at Relgar's antics

Naughty boy..Drupka, if we don't find a surf board in the temple, I'll buy you one. But.. if you don't mind the question, Drupka.. Do you know how to use a surfboard? Cause I surely don't!

Anibal keeps his focus on the book, but lifts up his head once he hears his name. "Yes, I'll look at them in one second.", he answers Relgar and keeps peeking at the pages.

Once he is done, he closes the ledger and puts it back in place. "Apparently, the chain you're looking at is from the amulet we are after. The other part was removed by a certain 'High Priestess Iramine'. So that's our new lead."

He looks around the room, to see that Relgar is indiscriminately shoving everything that seems valuable into the bag, and is immediately concerned. "Are you -SURE- you want to do that? We are not done here, you know, and having that pouch on your person seems like carrying around a lighthouse on a moonless night."

Taking 20 on the chests for a total of 33.

He kneels to the boxes and starts working them, but tries to talk some sense into Relgar during the process. "I urge you to reconsider."

Relgar looks confused.

"It is one little bag that can easily fit into someone's backpack and then directly into Shaggy's saddle bags. I am not suggesting that we walk around with it out in the open."

Perhaps with the treasure rules being what they are we do not have to loot the place down to brass tacks but we should make some sort of effort with a Bag of Holding in our possession.

After finishing with the ledger, Anibal starts picking the chests on the locks while conversing with Relgar. The small chest to the west opens with a little effort to reveal fourteen bulging sacks of copper pieces. Moving on to the larger chest in the middle of the room, Anibal starts on the lock, realising at the very last moment a spring-loaded needle coated with a viscous liquid has launched itself at him! Fortunately, the dextrous Iobarian is able to swat it away before the needle can pierce his skin. When opened, the large chest reveals four sacks of gold and a small darkwood case inscribed with the symbol of Razmir.

A trap on the middle chest was triggered, but didn't succeed.

Each of the fourteen sacks in the first chest is filled with 200 copper pieces.

Each of the four sacks in the second chest are filled with 200 gold pieces.

@Anibal: Do you want to open the darkwood case and continue with the third chest?

@Relgar: Just let me know what's going into the magical bag in case it becomes relevant later.

If we found the chain from the amulet... If we know that some priestess has the amulet itself... And if we assume that the priestess is not here, then our goal is to establish where she went? Right? - Alecto thinks slowly but steady (14 wis!). What can we do to get this information? I propose to capture the leader of this sect asleep and find out everything from him on pain of death.

I do, but better check it for traps first.

Anibal pauses to make sure there aren't any more traps on the case and remaining chest before opening them. The case contains five moonstones, a set of horseshoes, a green vial, a masterwork cold iron heavy mace, a dark yellow potion, a cloudy potion, and a transparent oil. The chest contains nine bags of silver, with about 200 coins in each bag.

I'm just conscious we've spent about a week (real-time) in the treasury, and will give a gentle suggestion the group move on so we don't lose momentum.

After finding what he is after, Anibal puts the ledger in its original place, and doesn't touch anything else. "High Priestess Iramine", he quietly whispers to himself a few times to remember the name, and decides to wait by the exit. He listens in on the commotion in the hall to find out whether they are still alone.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

Relgar will place all the items in the small dark wood case into the magical bag. This includes: five moonstones, a set of horseshoes, a green vial, a masterwork cold iron heavy mace, a dark yellow potion, a cloudy potion, and a transparent oil. He is also sure to take the broken gold chain and the ledger as well.

The gnome reluctantly leaves all the coins and other assorted paraphernalia behind but is sure to make sure that all magical items that he knows of (and has not been already mentioned) is placed in the bag as well.

@GM Jhaeman - That really is not too much stuff and should hopefully all fit into the bag easily. :)

@GM Jhaeman - Good point about the timing. We can keep it rolling. :)

"Alright people what is next? Maybe we can find everything we need tonight if we are lucky?"