GM Harker's PFS Season 4 Campaign

Game Master Justin L. Warren

T'kk'tck glances around then moves back to the room where the others are waiting and explains the situation.

"Guys there is a long hallway with double doors to the west and east, and a single door to the north. Sounds like a kitchen. The southern part of the hallway is covered in a curtain and sounds like music and a crowd. I say we just walk through there as if we belong there. No need for anyone to think otherwise. We make for the east door and keep looking. They won't be holding her in the crowd or in the kitchen."

No, intimidating the servants might spook them enough to go fetch the guards.

Note the conspicuous absence of time redeclaration on taking 10. It takes exactly the same amount of time as rolling the d20 does.

--

Are you wanting to bluff because of time? I feel like it has a high chance for failure.

"How do you propose we look like we belong? Spells to make us look like we're wearing livery?"

Disguise Self could help with that.

I'm still trying to figure out how Quiella would feel about that kind of subtle deception.

"By acting like we do. Boldness. Just strolling along as if you really do belong. Rather than timidly looking right and left as if you don't. Straight backs, purposeful gait, chin up. Ho! Like this."

T'kk'tck struts back and forth.

"Often if you -look- the part, you are ignored. Because obviously you wouldn't be so bold if you weren't belonging. Livery might help, but I don't suppose you'd be up for deception, no. Just shoulders squared. The -"
He waves at Quiella and Moadis. " -white knight shining rightness thing or whatever you call your authoritative pace in your temples."

T'kk'tck looks at the rest of the party to see their opinions.

To save time and because I like how it looks more than peeking out and scuttling ;P

Valik will drink his own sneaky potion, and proceed to try and gather intel.

Can I take 10, as per the rules above?

if not stealth, per: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 381d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29

Lyanifs assumes the personage of Anstrella Trelax.

"How about this?" She asks.

"And then I 'escort' us to through the eastern doors?"

Halkale at a loss when not in the areas outside of town tries to be quiet and not be a harm to the tasks. While every one is talking he watches through the curtain.

just in case? my bonus is quite high. +11 plus +2 for humans.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 11 + 2 = 24

Quiella uses one of the disguise self scrolls (after a few tries) to hide her array of weapons and the armor beneath her courtier's outfit.

"That is a very clever trick, Lyanif." Quiella's tone implies that she is perhaps a little disapproving, but impressed in spite of it.

"I'll follow your lead, T'kk, Ly."

Gods, let me pass this off.

Valik, there's no opportunities for cover or concealment in the hall, so stealth isn't really possible with people moving back and forth constantly through the area.

Halkale, you'll need another minute before you can precisely predict the next break in traffic. If the others wait the extra minute, you'll be able to move to any of the rooms.

If you're going to bluff your way down the hall, I just need the leader to make a Bluff check. You may want Lyanif to serve this function, since she'll get a bonus from her excellent disguise. Let me know if you want to stick with Quiella's Bluff or let someone else take the lead.

Oh, I didn't know only one person could bluff. I thought we all had to do it. I feel much better about this plan now. And someone else should definitely lead. We can do much better than my 19. That would also mean I didn't burn that inspiration point. Win all around.

Did you see my comment about taking 10?

Yes, you are correct that taking 10 doesn't take any additional time, although taking 20 does. I had thought the scenario enforced some penalties for taking 10 regardless, but looking back through it, I see that it does not.

if we can aid another I'd like to but otherwise I'm voting Lynif makes the check.

Oh yea. Go Lyanif go!

Moadis will follow the disguised rogue stonefaced and without saying a world.

I'll allow you to aid the Bluff check, sure.

Quiella follows Lyanif's lead. Bluff to look like she belongs, aid another, untrained, guidance: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 3 + 1 = 20

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Oh, then I would have taken 10 rather than rolling the bluff attempt (which would make the DC 26)

Lyanif steps confidently through the eastern door, leading the group through the small curtain to the south then down the hallway headed for the double doors to the east.

Lyanif holds her head high. I am Anstrella. I do this every day. They will look, but then they will avert their eyes. They have their own duties and nothing is out of the ordinary.

...what I wouldn't give to be actually invisible.

With 'Anstrella' leading the group through the hallway, the servants pay absolutely no heed to the party's presence. Indeed, they take pains to stay out of your way despite their haste to transport food and drink to the party beyond the curtain.

Exiting through the east doors, you find yourself in another hallway, although this one is currently devoid of activity. From the north door, you still hear sounds that correspond to that of a busy kitchen, while the south door is silent.

Peeking past the south door, you discover a small courtyard. These gardens shine in the moonlight, but dark shadows hug the lower reaches of the bushes, topiary, and trees. Two marble staircases wrap around a balcony where revelers are silhouetted against the light shining from the ballroom’s stained-glass windows. A tall wrought-iron fence divides the garden from the city beyond and below. Small servant’s doors enter the garden from the north door you're looking out of and also from the south.

Ok, everyone will need to make a check here to move to the south door while trying to avoid spooking the party guests on the balcony. If you choose to move slowly and carefully between the bushes and trees to use the shadows to your maximum advantage, it'll be an average difficulty Stealth check, but will take some time. If you want to save time, you can choose instead to use Bluff or Disguise (Lyanif, you got this one already) to pretend to be one of revelers crossing the garden, or try to dash across the garden with a higher difficulty Stealth check.

I am dressed in a courtier's outfit with jewelry and all of my combat equipment is hidden. I could probably pass for a reveler.

On the other hand, I could *definitely* sneak through the bushes with +13 Stealth, so if the rest of the party *coughcough*Moadisterribleplatemailstealth*coughcough* wants to do that I will take the less risky option and do that.

If say, a large dog/poisonous frog/etc were to suddenly appear and dash inside would that distract the guests enough not to notice a clanky paladin crossing the courtyard? Trying to think of ways to help out.

Otherwise, I'd say everyone uses their best skill and attempts to cross.

A giant frog appearing in the courtyard most likely would bring the embassy guards into the immediate area.

I can do stealth but my bluff skill is bad.

Ok, I believe we're just waiting for each of you to choose which option you're going to be taking and then make the appropriate roll. For those of you not very stealthy, I believe there's still two Elixir of Hiding available. Lyanif doesn't need to make a roll here if she's using Disguise.

Lyanif will definitely be using disguise once everyone else decides what they're doing

Quiella sneaks carefully through the bushes.

Stealth, untrained, acp, elixir of stealth: 10 + 5 - 2 + 10 = 23

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Halkale sneaks through the bushes.

Stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Moadis drinks the elixir of stealth and sneaks in.
1d20 + 1 - 5 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 1 - 5 + 10 = 21

stealth T 10, non-rushed route: 10 + 8 + 10 = 28
if I cannot take 10: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (6) + 18 = 24

if some can cast silent image, to create an illusionary courtyard and we could simply walk by. The guests would not be interacting with it, so no save and then the once past the illusion can poof?

A Silent Image spell would work, if the caster level is high enough to cover the entire area. You may want to save that for now though, since everyone has made the check so far. I believe we're just waiting for T'kk'tck, I'll give him a bit longer before botting.

Stealthy stealth stealth stealth. Sorry for the delay. Work got stupid and I was late.

stealth roll T 10: 10 + 11 = 21

Although Lyanif quickly marches herself across the area to the exit, the rest of the party sneaks slowly to the door by using the plants in the courtyard as cover. Fortunately, the party guests do not seem to notice.

With the party now obscured by some shrubs by the south door, you have an opportunity to look into the next room. You see what likely used to be a side chapel is now in use as a staging area for the gala. Magnificent stained-glass windows and vaulted ceilings look down on the racks of platters, dishes, wine bottles, and glasses stacked neatly on long wooden tables.

After watching for a few additional seconds, you see servants entering and exiting from the north double doors on the east side to pick up platters of hors d’oeuvres, while the south door doesn't appear to have any activity whatsoever.

Unless you want to do anything particular in this room, you can just move quickly through here without making any checks. If that's the case, just let me know which door you want to go through next.

let's quickly go to the South door

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south

Moving swiftly through the south door in the staging area, the group finds itself in a narrow and deserted hallway. There are three doors to your immediate north and one door to the east. Scouting ahead as the hallway makes a 90 degree turn to the north, further down there are two more doors on the south wall and one east at the end of the hallway.

Let me know which door you want to investigate out of the seven choices.

First door?

First door

Can we do all three that we're standing in front of? Or each take a door except the last one?

Do we want to? We only have an hour in total and we've burned through some of that already.

If we can only do (or want to do) one door at a time, then yeah, the first one is fine.

We should be able to open each door in rapid succession, assuming we don't find anyone/anything behind a door that should take our concentrated effort.

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Simultaneously opening the three doors directly north, you discover that they all lead to what appears to be unpopulated servant's quarters. Indeed, scattered servants’ outfits hang over the edges of bedposts in this sparsely furnished private room.

If you want to spend time here, let me know. Otherwise let me know the next door(s) you want to open.

I say we move to the other doors and open them simultaneously as well.

Opening the east door reveals another room devoted to servant's quarters with beds and uniforms. Peering inside, it's obvious that two of the other doors also lead here.

Peering out the west door, you discover the south galley. Extremely busy with servants moving back and forth from behind the curtain and into the staging area, there is also a coat check just north of the door you're currently behind.

Based on the information given to you, the next door you want to go through is probably the one directly northwest. You can Disguise yourselves as servants and hope you aren't given a platter to deliver, or use Perception to time out the servant's movements to avoid being seen. The pretending to be servants may take longer than timing the movements, especially if you go back to find servant outfits that fit you.

Let's go with the Perception option.

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Moadis helps timing the servants movements.
Aid Another Perc: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

Lyanif also tries to help with the timing.

Aid another: perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

per: 1d20 + 16 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 16 + 2 + 2 = 32

along with determining the shifts of the workers, I can hear a cricket on the moon :)

lol

Valik's keen eye quickly deduces the proper time to cross the hallway without being noticed and, acting at the appropriate moment, the group moves to the northwest door to find that is locked. Remembering the keys that were left for you, you discover that one of them works in the lock and the party hastily filters into the room beyond.

The furniture in this luxurious sitting room is covered by drop-cloths, and buckets of paint sit against walls where erotic murals are in the process of being replaced by a neutral institutional taupe. An enormously tall gilt frame leans against the wall. The door to the east leads to the hallway you've just came from, while to the southwest a door is propped open by a bucket and displays the half-dissolved inscription, "Where Love Comes to Die."

"Hmm, I wonder whose room this could have been..."

I can't remember if Quiella has ever met the Paracountess to recognize this as her kind of room. Are we going to search it?

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I would suggest that we do. Lets search it.

Feel free to make Perception rolls.

Perception, un trained, aid another: 1d20 ⇒ 17

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