Chaosorbit's PFS 7-06/7-08: To Judge A Soul (Inactive)

Game Master Chaosorbit

"Bo, what do you think happened to the cradle? Who took it? Where and why?"

Elska begins searching the room for other possible clues, especially around the mural with the shadowy figure, and under the false cradle.

Perception, take 20: 20 + 14 = 34

"Maybe they left a clue..."

Elska does a very through search, but finds no clue where the real cradle might have.

Yuzana looks shocked...This is the cradle, I know it!

"It doesn't seem to be. Who has access to this place? Would Lord Ryuu be one such person? I could imagine him trying to cause us more problems..."

Yuzana replies The shrine is always open. Anyone is free to visit. Who is Lord Ryuu?

Then thinking a moment. We only rarely receive visitors and they never visit shrine.

"Maybe we should ask the Talons of Envy. Is it possible they took the cradle?"

"I'm sorry, I was confused for a moment. Yes... yes we should speak to the Talons."

"I'd suspected as much, such an obvious artifact would be ripe for thievery." Surveying the scene and his fellow pathfinders "What say we set a little trap for this "Talons" and see if we can't clip their wings."

Bo will pound his fists together in excitement, eagerly awaiting his companions response to his ambush proposal.

Inddeed. However we will have to devise a solid plan... we must learn all there is to know about their tactics...

Elska smiles at Bo, then whispers shyly, "In my homeland, we have a saying—'I am all trunk and ears.' What is your plan?"

Yuzana offers “They come from the north road at midnight, from the mountains. They always fly across the dam, then into the village.

Feel free to devise your plan.

"Flying, eh? That means we'll need to be careful how to hide ourselves.. hiding behind a bush will not be sufficient. I'm not well-trained in subturfuge... what about the rest of you?"

Bo will turn towards the townfolk "Do you have any scarecrows lying about? We could position a couple of scarecrows on the bridge, draw the talons in then we all come flying out of this building to pound on 'em."

With a rather dire look on his face as he looks from each of his companions face to the villagers, "Otherwise, we'd accept volunteers from the villagers, it'd be tough, dangerous but heroic and necessary."

"It will be just like that village down in Shokuro, eh Bo?" Elska elbows the Chelaxian.

"Maybe we should take a look around and suss out the defenses here. Nuk and I will go check out that small outbuilding down there on the south side of the river. Any of you are free to join us, but someone should go check out the north side of the river too."

Elska clicks her tongue, "C'mon, Nuk. Let's go check out that shed or outhouse."

@ GM: How long do we have before nightfall? And how long before midnight?

"I'll check out north."

Miyako heads north of the bridge and inspects the area there.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Yes, there are scarecrows in the rice fields. Yuzana says excitedly, Use them as you like.

When Elska examines the shed, she finds:

In the lee of the dam, an old bamboo shack squats upon four rotting stilts, its grass roof nearly blending with the tall rice paddies. Yuzana accompanies you and introduces you to two ailing elderly men. These are Bopa and Zimtra. The men bow. Who work the paddies have chosen to live in hut instead of returning to village each day. She continues.

Walking up steep hill to village to hard and painful for them, but both still work so long as troubles in village continue.

-----
Miyako goes to the north, rice fields stretch to the north for a short while and then give way to an increasing less traveled and rough trail that leads first into foothills and eventually into the mountains.

Elska bows to the men, "We are honored to meet you. My friends and I will do everything we can to help your village."

Mido turns to Bo.

Shall we go and fetch the scarecrows? Then we choose a good place for an ambush. Myself I am easily hidden but you might need a more thorough guise.

Sorry, forgot to answer about an hour till dark, and a few hours till midnight.

I dropped a couple scarecrows on the map. Feel free to position them as you like. If you want more feel free to add them. Also position yourselves how you intent to set yourselves up.

You still have time to make preparations so let me know if you are doing anything else.

Looks like it is slightly overcast, there will be some moonlight, but those without low-light/darkvision, let me know if and how you are augmenting your vision at midnight.

Once you let me know you are ready we shall see if the Talons come this night, my guess is you should expect them!

Giltman has no way as of now to augment his sight. Does anyone else? If not, he will simply wait in the dark for a signal from one of his allies who can see, and will then cast light.

Aye, I've only my wayfinder, I guess I can use that as one of the signals.

"Thank you, Yuzana for the scarecrows. They'll make nice bait, alongside myself" Turning toward the team of pathfinders "Here we go friends, Elska, you're pretty good with that bow right? I think positioning you on that bluff hiding in those bushes would give you a good ranged advantage for when these Talon's come flying in. Just my suggestion."

Acknowleding Giltman, Miyako and Mido. "Mido, if you don't me asking, I remember how strong your powers of confusion where against those robots, think that'll work against these Talon's too?"

Pacing the dam as he goes over his suggestion for the battle plan, Bo will enunciate his battle plans with plenty of fist pounding.

"Giltman and Miyako I'll suggest that you guys and Mido hide in the Cradle hut, wait for the Talon's to attack these Scarecrow companions and then burst out ready for combat!"

I think this'll work, we'll catch these Talon's by surprise and they'll be dead before they knew what hit them

"That is a good plan, Bo. You know that I am still learning with my longbow," Elska looks down at her feet abashed. "If I can get close to them—say within 25 or 30 feet—I'm a little better."

"Maybe Nuk and I can stay up on the dam with you. If they get close, I can activate Nuk's collar to make him big. It only lasts a minute, but it might make all the difference."

"There are a couple of nice old peasant farmers down in that bamboo hut. Maybe we can use their clothes to create a disguise. I have furs in Nuk's saddlebags that they can wear."

"If it is going to be dark, we could start a fire, but that might not be a good idea on the dam. Does anyone have torches or a lantern? I have an ioun torch for myself, and I can use my wayfinder on Nuk. But we could arrange some torches and lanterns around the dam to make it look like we are working here."

Tidbit I should have prompted you for earlier, but I overlooked it.

Elska had noted good auras in the shrine, as you make your preparations, you feel particularly serine. You come to recognize that the holy aura from the shrine functions as a hallow spell, within the shrine and 20 feet in all directions from the shrine.

While waiting for darkness to fall, Elska wanders over to Miyako. "Anything interesting?"

Perception, take 20: 20 + 14 = 34

Mido merely shrugs in reply to Bo Those who ponder the deeper meaning of the world and are not of keen intelect are most likely to be affected. Here I could not say as I know not what we are dealing with...

Mido has a pretty stellar stealth modifier. Hiding isn't an issue for him. He will probably hide next to the hut so that he is in the shadows.

The sun begins to set as your preparations continue. Elska wonders over to the north side of the dam, where Miyako is scouting. Looking at the base of the dam she notices an area where rocks are piled in an unusual way.

"Nothing special," Miyako replies to Elska. The latter then points out the unusual pile of rocks.

"Orrr maybe there is?"

Miyako moves up to the rock pile and starts removing the top rocks, to see if there's something neat underneath.

Indeed a crawlspace, like a small cave lays beyond.

"Interesting. What shall we find in here, I wonder? I'll volunteer to go in first, as my armor should protect me well, and I wouldn't want to lose one of you more magical-types."

Giltman craws into the cave. After going about 15 feet in the cramped space, he finds a small waterlogged chamber a cradle is lodged in mud and sand. A talisman hangs from the cradle's exposed edge.

"I think I may have found it, friends!"

Giltman tries to dislodge the cradle and pull it out, looking around for who put it there while he does so.
Percep: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

That is great...I wonder who might have brought it here and why?

Do we really want to take it out now?

We still have several hours until midnight, right?

"Where's that candle thing? Let's see if this does anything. Any of you know what that talisman is?"

Bo notices that most of his party seems to have disapeared somewhere, after searching around he finds them in a crawlspace.

"What's goin on in here?" After seeing the cradle and hearing it out from his teammates Bo will run back to the fake cradle and grab the candle of conveyance.

"Here's the candle, Elska, try holding it up to the cradle!"

Elska presents the candle. Anything?

As Giltman pulls the cradle free, the sand under his feet seems to shift and water begins to pour into the chamber, first from where the cradle was, then from all over. Outside of the cave the rest of you hear noises as if water is pushing through the dam walls, seconds later many small cracks begin to leak water from the dam. The dam has begun to leak.

Giltman quickly emerges from the now filling chamber, just as Beauregard arrives with the candle. As it nears the cradle, retrieved by Giltman, the flame burns blue, but moments later it begins to flare and sputter madly, coruscating through the spectrum until it settles on blood red. Within the frantic candle, images appear: first, a jagged black pagoda, then the image of a blue-skinned woman, her hair like a black shroud. Her jaws distend and erupt with fangs. Bakten’s face appears, his eyes wide with pain and terror. He falls from view and the candle’s flame winks out.

Meanwhile, the leak quickly becomes a steady flow of quick moving water, as the small cracks widen.

Yes still several hours till midnight.

"Um...Bo...Giltman...I think we better get out of here." Elska casts feather step on Giltman before withdrawing to the dry bank. She then calls to Nuk.

"We did what we had to do with it, now leave it!"

Miyako quickly runs to safe ground, some distance removed from the dam.

"We have to evacuate the village, fast! Else everyone may drown when the dam breaks!"

She takes a quick look at the dam, to get an idea of how long it'll hold.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

"Miyako's right! Everyone across the dam, quickly! Bo, get the cradle if you can; if you can't, let's leave it on the bank and come back for it later!"

Elska is also looking to see how long it might hold.
Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29

"Isn't there anything we can block it with? What if I get big and plug the holes with my body till we can find a more permanent solution?!"

Bo will wade into the room and heft the cradle

strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Mido looks on with panik in his eyes and rushes down to the village as fast as he can to warn them of the impeding disaster.

Tha'll teach you not to listen to wise old Gnomes...

Sorry slow to post yesterday got real busy.

Giltman has the cradle, so that is not an issue.

Getting to higher ground, you attempt to study the dam, it's a hard to say exactly, the stream of water is increasing steadily but you may think it will be awhile before it totally gives. You also notice that the village sits up on hill and while it may get some flooding you think the worst will hit the surrounding rice fields.

Beaurgard wades into the cave hoping to stem the tide, but the dam is leaking in too many places.

Suddenly, as you get ready to run back across the dam you hear panicked shouts. The small hut with the old men has broken from it's rotting stilts causing the hut to start drifting downstream.

Judges_2

Giltman runs and tries to climb up to cross the dam. Can't tell how high the platform is at that point, is it climbable at all?

Climb: 1d20 + 3 - 5 ⇒ (14) + 3 - 5 = 12

"C'mon, Nuk! Let's see if we can get to them." Elska begins running across the dam.

"Nuk, koma!"

Nuk trumpets and follows along after Elska.

Bo will run to the bluff and draw his potion of Enlarge Person,

"I'll wade into the river and try and save them if all else fails, I think I might be the best swimmer here."

Not that I'm really any good at swimming.

I have entangle available. That might slow down the shack.

Giltman, Elska, and Mido all begin to rush across the dam as Beauregard readies his potion. The hut begins to move downstream.

I'll go ahead and put us in a initiative for this.

Initiative:
Beauregard: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14
Giltman: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (8) - 1 = 7
Miyako: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
Master Mido: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Elska: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Nuk: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Round 1:
Nuk
Beauregard
Miyako
Mido
Elska
Giltman
hut

Let me know what you are doing.

Elska casts feather step on Bo, and then continues across the dam.

"Let's go, Nuk!

Nuk trumpets and follows Elska.

Bo will quaff his potion of Enlarge Person, instantly doubling in size, before hopping down this small ledge and trucking off along the river side.

Acrobatics, if it matters: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

Shoot, that doesn't bode well if it does matter >.>

@Bo - We'll say you waited on the feather step and that takes care of the little ledge.

Having lighten Beauregard's steps Elska and Nuk rush across the bridge, as Beauregard goes big and begins running down the bank. The small ledge might have cause him trouble, but extra large and light steps make the obstacle negligible. The concerned elders panic shouts can be heard of the rush of building water.

Giltman books it across the damn Double move.