Chaosorbit's PFS PbP Gameday V - #6–23: The Darkest Abduction (Inactive)

Game Master Chaosorbit

Kudor nods, not particularly weirded out by the chickenesque creature.

Sorry you I missed Padrig...assume you probably received a few strange looks from the passers by, but no words were spoken.

You head down to the theater floor and begin to search among several hundred seats that fill the slightly sloped theater floor.

Your search doesn't seem to yield results, you notice Brother Theo seems staring in the direction of the stage, as if listening to something.

Kudor pauses and quiets down, waiting for Brother Theo to speak.

As the group searches the theater, Heccan closes his eyes and the others can see him physically wince, if just for a moment. He opens his eyes that seem to flash red, if just for an instant and he slowly looks about as they make their way through the place. He turns his gaze toward the direction Brother Theo appears to be looking.

Heccan will cast detect magic and look for the presence of any magical auras.

Queth and Heccan both scan the room with Detect Magic, but other than items on there fellow Pathfinders no other magical auras are detected.

To keep things moving...

Brother Theo relays that he hears alarmed voices coming from backstage, as you strain to hear it, eventually you can all hear the noises.

Herodotus frowns. "Though we should act in a civilized manner, any sort of shout or scream do not sit well with me. This is a theater though, perhaps some people are still rehearsing for their next performance. Let us go forth and investigate."

And thus he strides forth.

"Is that coming from the stage? I can barely see it." LOL

"Wasn't this place supposed to be cleared out?"

Kudor nods to Herodotus's very reasonable suggestion and strides forward as well.

"Maybe it is the abductor and we can solve this with commendable haste."

We both move at speed 20 so we are rushing towards the sound but will be behind a bit. Pull my wand of magic missile as we move.

The party reaches the stage and finds it is tilted slightly toward the audience. Though they look realistic from afar, many of the set pieces seem shoddily built. Many feature protruding nails or jagged bits of unfinished woodwork. When you look around you find nothing and not a sound is heard the theater is completely silent.

"Padrig does your nose tell you if anyone was just here?"
Cast guidance in Padrig.
Survival for tracks: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Padrig finds evidence of that people have been on the stage, but nothing that seems like it was just made.

Queth would like to take a look around maybe for trap doors or such.

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (15) + 20 = 35 - +4 for traps, +2 for haunts

Queth finds a trap door on the stage, but it leads only to a small crawl space. He does however find several strands of curly red hair
wrapped around a nail head at about ankle height.

Kudor scratches his head and looks for secret trap doors.

perception: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (14) + 19 = 33

Bah ninjas I tell you ninjas everywhere.

Heccan concentrates and tries desperately to pinpoint where he believes the sounds are coming from, walking slowly to that location.

Hecccan will try and find the source of the sounds and, if he believes that he is certain of their location, will cast glitterdust to attempt to uncover any invisible things in the area.

Seeing the red hairs on the nail, Brother Theo plucked it to take a closer look, hoping he recognized the owner of the strands. "While I am not follower of the arts, I would think that this does not look right. Balazar, would Padrig be able to locate the scent of the owner of the red hair?" he asked looking around the are to see if more of the hair could be located.

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (3) + 20 = 23

"He can but try."
Guidance on Padrig.

The scent ability seems to use Survival when tracking but I'll roll both skills and Chaosorbit can tell us which one applies.

Survival: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

"We may have to spread out at times during this investigation so I want to make sure we can communicate."

Cast Message on everyone.

Herodotus keeps a watchful eye on lord Abraxi; while a formidable Pathfinder agent in his own right, he ability to wither a traitorous assault has not seemed to improve very much.

Sorry busy morning

Despite his in-depth search Kudor doesn't find what he's looking for. Under Herodotus watchful eye, Heccan's desperate concentration brings only frustration as the noise has ceased completely.

Padrig is unable to pick up the sent, as his master casts message. It's at this point Brother Theo makes a useful observation, the hair colour is almost an exact match to the portrait of Olivina Sharnau in the lobby of the theater. The location of the hair seems odd at ankle height, implying she most have been laying down.

Additional searching on the stage yields no additional clues.

Would you like to examine Backstage or the Dressing Room?

"I think Backstage should be next on our list." comments Kudor, heading in that direction.

Weary of any other sounds, Herodotus motions towards the backstage area, where props and their like are stored and moves towards it.

"Agreed! Plus, I wanna see what other props they have." Queth is clearly having fun just looking around a theater.

"Perhaps she was drugged before being dragged off. That does not explain the lack of a scent trail. By all means let's investigate backstage."

Both wings backstage are packed full of props, extraneous set pieces, and costumes. Fake swords hang from pegs on the walls, dozens of elaborate costumes hang on racks, and rows of crude wooden busts support myriad wigs. The dressing room door partly covered with a knee-high pile of bouquets and notes, all of which express some variation of “Olivina— We miss you! Come home safely!”

Kudor will check out the fake swords, to see if any real weapons or other clues lie concealed among them.

take10 perception: 10 + 19 = 29

Herodotus joins on in, hoping to suss out any secrets left behind.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (18) + 20 = 38 - +4 for traps, +2 for haunts

Queth also begins to search around, but follows with Detect Magic.

Kudor's inspection of the prop sword reveals just that props, not a sharpened blade in the bunch. Hereodotus joins the search as well, but it's Queth that notices something interesting, while nothing magical is detected, he's weakened eyes none the less uncover that several standard costumes seem to me missing as the empty hangers attest too; any respectable theater should have at least one beggar outfit, a city guard outfit, and a merchant outfit, these all seem noticeably absent. Also several wig stands are missing wigs as well.

"This is lame. They are missing outfits and wigs! Almost seems too weird that those would be missing from a theater with any sort of prestige. No beggar outfit, city guard outfit, or merchant outfit!" Queth was clearly hoping to see a more impressive display.

As he should have been!

What would you all like to do next?

"To the dressing room, something very odd is going on here..."

After clearing away the well-wishers gifts from in front of the dressing room door, you find it locked. Luckily you were provided keys and they seems to fit the lock.

Unlocking the door, Brother Theo held his hand up to prevent the others from entering until he first scanned the area.

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (15) + 20 = 35

"Do we know if one of the missing wigs had red hair?"

"I am beginning to suspect that our kidnapping victims might be unwilling actors in some strange play."

The dressing room Olivina used just a few nights ago is crammed full of vanity mirrors, makeup kits, and discarded bits of clothing. Some of the mirrors are adorned with favorable reviews, trinkets, and script pages.

A ghostly form of a frumpy woman in her mid-30s wearing a light, blood-spattered gown and carrying a pair of gore-covered sewing scissors floats just above the dressing room chair. She stares curiously at Brother Theo in the doorway as he begins to scan the room.

Oh, Ustalav... Queth doesn't look too stunned by the appearance of a ghostly figure.

"Hello there. My name is Queth. Are you a resident of this theater?"

The ghost woman replies, Resident, no, but I do work here. I'm the hairdresser, Margaret.

Kudor blinks and rubs his eyes.

will to disbelieve: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

"Excellent! Hey, did you see anyone get kidnapped here? We are conducting an investigation about someone who may have been kidnapped."

"Also, I like to know who I'm speaking to. What's your name?"

Herodotus frowns, but lets the conversation proceed. After all the ghostly woman has not done anything harmful... Yet.

Kudor attempts to disbelieve the ghost...but can't help but think it is real. Herodotus looks on as Queth continues to talk to the spirit, as soon as Queth mentions the kidnapping the ghost fades, Kudor, Queth, and Brother Theo hear the staccato snipping of scissors.

Initiative
Balazar: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Padrig: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Brother Theo: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (9) + 0 = 9
Heccan: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11
Herodotus: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Kudor: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Queth: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Perception
Balazar: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Padrig: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Brother Theo: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (9) + 20 = 29
Heccan: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Herodotus: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24
Kudor: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (18) + 19 = 37
Queth: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (8) + 22 = 30

Surprise Round
Queth
Balazar
Herodotus
Kudor
Padrig
Heccan
Haunt
Brother Theo

A huant is manifesting, but only Queth and Kudor both notice it and are quick enough to act in the surprise round. Brother Theo notices it but his reflexes aren't quite quick enough to act before it triggers.

Queth and Kudor may act.

"Ustalav never fails to live up to its reputation."

Standard Action
Queth casts Cure Critical Wounds and applies it to any surface where he thinks the haunt is manifesting.
Cure Critical Wounds: 4d8 + 9 ⇒ (1, 5, 8, 4) + 9 = 27

Knowledge (Religion) (If needed): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

Need a melee touch attack, please Queth.

Queth, almost as he was expecting it, reaches out with his positive healing energy to attempt to destroy the haunt.

Touch Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 - Ack! Rerolling

Touch Attack (Reroll +5): 1d20 + 6 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 5 = 20

Queth on the spot reaches out with his positive energy destroying the haunt.

Seconds later the ghost of Margaret reappears, her appearance seems less gruesome, she addresses you as if seeing you for the first time.

Hi I'm Margaret, master of hair and makeup for the Cloisoi Theater. Are you new performers here?

Shrugging off the echo of threatening scissors, Herodotus begins to speak. "Well met good Margaret, we are Pathfinder Society agents here on a mission to save an unfortunate soul kidnapped by forces yet unknown. We were hoping you could lend us a hand in this matter, especially by telling us anything you have seen or heard. A woman such as yourself must be au fait of all things happening in this grand theater."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (15) + 18 = 33

Ah, the one rehearsing just the other night. Yes, I heard Olivina stay late one night to practice a soliloquy, and all of a sudden there was the sound of a scuffle, muffled footsteps, and muffled screams. I suppose it could have been real trouble, but I wouldn’t interrupt over something like that—not after the lecture I got after interrupting the last diva to stalk these halls. No, no… She trails off while grinding her teeth and nervously clipping her scissors together, though she does not become violent.

She then continues After the scuffle, I heard them moving across the stage as if dragging a great weight. Makes sense, given that she always bragged about being carried out of the theater by her adoring crowd. I found the building’s back door open a little later, and the sewer grate back there was ajar. She’s a sharp-tongued harpy, but no actor deserves to be dragged off by the swampers like that.

She pauses in thought as her eyes narrow and glance in the direction of the stage. Almost no one… She trails off while grinding her teeth and snipping her scissors together.

"Pray tell my dear, what do you mean by that?"