GM Harker's PFS Season 4 Campaign

Game Master Justin L. Warren

Ok, Mel watches for stuff sneaking up on us instead of going down after William. He'll follow down last, bringing the light and such.

Ok, Mel watches for stuff sneaking up on us instead of going down after William. He'll follow down last, bringing the light and such.

William will move up and down on the ladder a few times to take Halkale's equipment down, leaving him free to carry down his wolf.

"Good doggy!"

No traps or other dangers are found by William or Melufiuos on the way down the iron rungs. The elf also tosses a sunrod into the water, but the illuminated depths reveal nothing underneath the surface. With the all clear, Halkale then lowers Frostfur via the harness the wolf wears. The rest of the group follows, including Tilly who still seems quite eager to find her family while staying as close to William and/or Quiella as possible.

I'm not sure that Animal Handling roll would be good enough to lower Frostfur, but Halkale can keep making the attempt until he finally succeeds.

What next? There's the double doors to the east, the collection of robes, and the culvert Valik spotted 10 feet under the water.

Oh, duh! Mel scans for magic. sorry

William looks at the culvert, looks over at Halkale, and wrinkles his nose. "It looks like we will be accompanied by the smell of wet dog..."

He chuckles. "Well then, who's up for a swim?"

Melufiuos discovers one of the robes is magical, radiating a moderate necromancy aura.

Are the robes covering the drain, causing the flooding?

There does not seem to be any sort of drainage system, although no one has explored underwater yet in detail. The way the room is set up, it would appear that the water is supposed to be there. The robes are on the eastern dais, hanging from hooks.

I don't really wanna get in the stale water. Anyone have a long tool I could use to jostle the culvert at the bottom?

Mel goes over and studies the robe (take 10->24), puts it on, and reveals to the party what it is. "I assume none of us can control undead, eh? Too bad, we could have sent one of these suckers to check out the culvert... they don't need to breath or anything.."

At Valik's question, Mel goes over to his porter and checks the gear... "I've got a porter. Why in the heck don't I have a 10 foot pole?" After pausing a second, "Maybe some furniture from upstairs? Curtain rod or something?"

You can't take 10 on Spellcraft to identify magical properties. You have to concentrate on Detect Magic in order to identify something magical. This is a distracting task. You can't take 10 if you are distracted. Thus, you can't take 10 to identify magical objects. I will make sure to save this to c/p it next time this comes up.

I have a +2 to swim if I remove my armor. I suspect we are all swimming if someone doesn't drain the water, if it can be done.

Swim: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8

The swim check is DC 10. Feel free to take 10 if that helps you.

William attempts a controlled dog paddle, but finds himself just splashing around in place.

haha, Quiella has a -1 to swim with her plate mail on.

Quiella eyes the water, unsure of how to traverse it in her armor.

she's not afraid, but she's approaching this practically

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William surfaces, then calms himself and goes back under to explore.

Swim (take 10): 10 + 0 = 10

Halkale and Frostfur swim for the dias.

Swim Halkale: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
Swim Frostfur: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Crap, sorry! Here are my rolls
swim: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

William and Melufiuos both head under the surface of the water and look at the culvert. It appears to open to a 5' X 5' water-filled tunnel that heads 40' to the south and ends in wall.

Meanwhile, Halkale and Frostfur swim to the dais and onto dry stone.

If possible, I'd like to spend 10 rounds to swim about and explore the opening. At half speed I should be able to swim the 10 ft down and 40 ft south in 3 rounds + 1 move action, so can I have him spend 2-3 rounds to look around the end of the tunnel, and then swim back giving him a few rounds of leeway for breathing?

If that's allowable...

"Interesting that a culvert like that would end so abruptly. There must be more to it... especially if that is to be the drainage."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

"That's an interesting object," Ophelia muses, peering at William's Numerian device. "In all my studies, I've not seen its like."

When Mel identifies the robe and announces it for what it is, her eyes darken in the shadows from her wayfinder. "Do not joke of using the undead in such a way," she says stiffly. "That robe is unnatural and should be destroyed, just like the abominations it creates."

As the others begin to scout ahead, the priestess waits with Quiella, also uncertain about how to approach the problem in her armour.

That's fine, William. I believe you have double your Con score in rounds underwater before you have to worry about drowning if you are just taking move actions.

William stays submerged for sometime as he explores the underwater culvert passage. At the end of the tunnel, he finds an obscured entrance which leads to what appears to be a large circular pool. Whatever else is above the surface of the pool is difficult to tell while still submerged.

Map updated, the dotted line on the map indicates the culvert.

Since I was taking double move actions I believe its equal to my con score which is 12.

William catches his breath and then returns to the party. "There is another opening up ahead, 40 ft out. I have not explored further since it would be tactical folly to make additional offensive movements without support, so with that I have a proposal. I believe Melufios and I would have no trouble making our way to the far side, so if the two of us bring across one end of a rope, we should be able to pull the more heavily armored of our contingent through the tunnel without any significant risks of drowning. It is a short enough swim that with enough coaxing Halkale's puppy should be able to join us as well."

William attempts to give Frostfur a little scratch on the head.

Cha check to not get bit?: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

I don't know if you could make a wolf swim underwater, I can't imagine the DC for that handle animal. Is that a door (the white things) on the eastern side?

Yes, you are correct about the drowning rules William. Thanks for setting the record straight on that.

Getting a wolf to swim underwater would be the same as any other action it doesn't normally want to take, it's a DC 25 Handle Animal to 'push' it. There are, however, a set of double doors on the east side of the room as mentioned in the original description.

So, what'll it be? Take the underwater passage or open the east doors?

I vote for the underwater passage, but do not go past the first room. ie, check out the room the passage leads to and then come back and go through the normal doors. That means leaving the wolf in this room while we check out the underwater place. Then we come back and get him before going through the normal doors... just a thought. I'll go along with anything.

If we can get the wolf to swim through I'd say we might as well explore from there until we hit a dead end. Otherwise I'd go with Mel.

Halkale tries to get Frostfur to swim underwater with him

Handle Animal: 1d20 + 7 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 4 = 12

Frostfur doesn't seem particularly happy with the idea of more swimming, let alone becoming submerged. Halkale, you can keep trying until you make the DC 25, the only thing you have to lose is time.

That being said, I'd really like to get the input of those wearing heavier armor since they're the ones who might have the most difficulty in swimming.

Well, it's been awhile, so if you want to go for the swimming, go ahead and give me checks, although those in heavier armor might be slow catching up with you. Otherwise, you can just go through the door.

If possible, I'd like to tie a rope around the heavily armored folk who can't take 10 to make it through, and one by one pull them through if they have trouble swimming on their own. If that's enough to make it easy then I'll do that. Otherwise we can just move through the doorway to the east just to get this moving forward.

"Why d-d-don't I stay b-b-back here with Frostfur and g-g-guard these d-d-doors?" Halkale offers, realizing Frostfur is not happy about the underwater part of this place.

I am okay with trying to do that, but we will be leaving a flank unguarded. Not sure the Ranger/AC bond is enough to tell me that oh no Frostfur got attacked by something, let's all swim back I know this breaks the first rule of group..but. yeah

I think he said you can take 20 on that handle animal check since there is no penalty for failure.

The rope set up sounds fine to me, so we can eschew making swimming rolls. Also, Bert can go ahead and take 20 to coax Frostfur underwater and through the tunnel.

After a few minutes and the help of some rope, the entire group manages to make it through the underwater tunnel into the next room. Emerging from the water, with the only light provided being from Melufious' sunrod or whatever magical sources of illumination the group brings, the pool appears to be a large cistern. The water rises up to the height of the floor and directly above it there is a hole in the ceiling with a bucket hanging from it. Twenty feet to the northwest is a pair of double doors.

"Well... Lets get everyone up and dry and we can move forward."

William walks up to the double doors and takes a peek for traps and a listen for guards.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

He then motions for someone else to verify his findings as he retrieves his musket from his pack and carefully dries out the barrel. He checks to make sure his powder horn has sprung no leaks, and then reloads the weapon. Once everyone is up and at least one other person has confirmed that it is safe to move forward, William will take point and open the door, musket at the ready.

We have sunstick, ioun torch, and everburning torch. Plus I think Ophelia has her wayfinder glowing.

While trying to catch his breath and dry off, Mel complains to himself"OK, why did I think this was a good idea?"

He tries to get a view through the hole in the ceiling. He assumes it is one of the rooms in the house and wonders if we've seen it yet. Is it the kitchen?

He then takes a look around and checks for traps by the door.
trapfinding: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

"Why because it was a tactically sound idea. The fiendish incursion in this wretched abode certainly has endeavored to protect and reinforce any obvious entrances to their entrenched positions. When one possesses a limited number of troops, a safe wager would be to place smaller contingents guarding secret entrances. Worst case, we face our foes no differently than we would have before. Best case, we face our foes with the element of surprise. Most definitely a course of action worth taking."

He watches Melufiuos as he thoroughly inspects the door for traps with a degree of sincere appreciation for his work. "Have you perchance considered the way of the Arcane Trickster? I have heard of mages who specialize in chicanery by deftness of palm in addition to arcane incantation... and you seem as though you already have a degree of expertise in the matter."

Thanks for the light update, I figured you all were good in that department and didn't have time to go through the old posts earlier today to check.

Melufiuos is confident that the hole in the ceiling does indeed to lead to the kitchen area where you saw a well earlier.

Neither William nor Melufious find any traps on the door nor hear any guards, so the techslinging human leads the way into the next room.

Inside the cold stone room, you find empty 21 cots sitting in rows. There is no sign of current occupants. A stairwell leads up a wooden door. Moving up the stairs and past the door, you realize they connect to the first floor sitting room. They lead to 'C' on the first map.

Frostfur surfaces and swims to the dry ground, shaking herself vigorously. She eyes Halkale as he steps from the water. A soft growl rumbles from her as she stares at him, almost like she is disappointed with him making her do that.

Halkale gazes back at her and nods his head and then makes a hand gesture, which seems to make her less agitated.

"F-F-Frostfur is not happy about t-t-this, she m-m-might have figured she'd g-g-get to chew on s-s-something if we were going through all t-t-this."

He restrings his bow and readies himself to follow the lead of the group.

Side note to GM--Bert is in the other campaign. :) it's okay I sometimes have to take a moment to remember which one is which.

My apologies for the error, Halkale. At least it was in an ooc post rather than in character!

No need to apologize. I am playing 4 games, two games a piece GM'd by the same GM. And in the other pair, my character portrait in one game is used by another player in the other game, gets really confusing.

Quiella wrings the water out of her hair and then ties it back. "I can't say I ever want to do that again."

She looks uneasily at the doorway that leads to rooms they've already passed through. "I won't have to do it again, right?"

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"Twenty-one cots... I fear we shall expect to face twenty-one foes."

William will carefully and methodically go through cot by cot, looking for any personal effects left behind that could give a clue as to who inhabits this place.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"Well Quiella, if that staircase leads up above as expected then we should not need to swim through again, however we may wish to secure the secret exit to ensure none of our foes can escape through it."

William will look around for something to bar the secret door with, then swim down and secure that exit before heading back upstairs to continue the search.

Hearing the distress in Quellia's words, the young elf goes down on one knee to be at eye level with the paladin, "No. It appears that we found two alternate paths to the same secret area. Both of them unpleasant," he frowns. A thought strikes him and he laughs, "and I guess you got the worst of it both times. Ops, sorry." he blushes and apologizes. "We should go back through the closet, but this time, we make sure we don't get hit with any more arrows."

To the soldier, "I've thought about it a lot. But there are so many things I want to do, even an elf's lifetime isn't long enough. In fact I only recently decided to stay focused on my current course. "

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The cot room contains only the barest of comforts. These include thin blankets, hard pillows, and cheap framing.

William, if you can come up with some way to use these materials or your equipment to bar the secret door, then I'll be happy to say you block it. Alternatively, someone with Disable Device can make a check to attempt to do so just using thieves' tools.

I'll give you a little bit to figure out how you want to handle this, but I'll move on to the next room within 24 hours.

disable device: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28 plus one more if Mel can get a guidance first

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Take a guidance poke, Mel ;-)

With a little divine guidance, Melufiuos swims to the secret door in the cistern and manages to bar it closed.

* * *

Returning to the second floor bedroom and then climbing down the iron rungs again, the party finds itself back where it started from in the robe room. A search of the eastern double doors yields no traps or sounds, so the group progresses beyond them. A set of steep stairs lead down to a hallway that continues to the east while also forming a 'T' with a passage to the south. The way further east is blocked by a metal portcullis. The way to the south leads to another steep staircase which takes you to a 50 foot long hallway with a horrifying mural of the Nine Hells covering the entirety of the 50-foot-by-20-foot west wall.

Also over the the southern passage is a balcony 10 feet up. You can see a desk and a chair standing facing the mural and some arcane writing on the floor, although to decipher the latter you would need to get a closer look. The ground floor around the balcony is 10 feet down, so you would need to climb up to get to the balcony from the hallway it overlooks.

My inner Call of Cthulhu player is twitching again...

"Alright... last time I tried to study arcane writing in the library I was burned. Perhaps someone more skilled in such knowledge would be better to inspect? Melufios?"

William walks towards the mural carefully, looking for traps around it's perimeter.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

Dot and stuff. It takes 3 xp to level correct?

That's right.

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Alright, I've got Quiella all re-specced. I changed her stat-line a little. I'm still not sure if I want to stick with 14 STR and 15 CON, or go to 15 STR and 12 CON.

Or move her DEX back to 10 and have 15 STR and 14 CON. Or keep her DEX at 12 but bump her CHA back down to 16 (losing the ability to bump it once and have 18), for a 15, 12, 14 Physical line.

With more CON she is a little better as an HP battery (she is headed for playing as an Oradin), but with 15 STR she can get that bump at level 4 to be a better front-line fighter.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I like the 12 DEX because it puts her AC at 21 (along with her new Full Plate).

gnomes get +2 cha/con, -2 str...depending on how optimized and munchkin you wanna be.

one array could be:

str 16-2=14 (10)
dex 12 (2)
con 12+2=14 (2)
int 10 or 9
wis 9 or 10
cha 15+2=17 (7)

at level 4, bump charisma. charisma powers your divine grace, it powers your oracle spells. You have a decent str/con/cha score to be tanky/casty.

If I were to play it, I would dump int to a 9, paladin get 2 skill and oracle only gets 4. If you need an extra skill, take one from favored class

just my two copper though :)

It's time to choose my first favored terrain. I know we are jumping around some, but what might be a good first terrain, GM Harker?

I think I am going to spend 2 PP on a Darkwood Comp longbow. I don't have enough fame to get to a +1 but would after next scenario and the weight savings is nice. 1500 gold limit is kinda hampering me, because while i could get mithral chain shirt, nothing in the medium area is available, so it's not really a good upgrade. I guess this is the time to get the efficient quiver to better carry my large amount of arrows.

what you guys think?

Not sure. Write down your two options, flip a coin. If you are disappointed you know you really wanted the other option.

Okay I've updated T'kk'tck using the fact that I can reroll as much as I want until I level to level 2.

He's monk now and I believe his character sheet is fully up to date.

Since I'm GMing the scenarios, I hesitate to give any build advice, although I would say that in regards to ranger favored terrain in PFS, when in doubt choose Underground since it's bound to come up eventually.

It appears that T'kk'tck's last mission caused him to undergo a major evaluation of his life choices! :-)

And grow a mutant eye!

Lol. Yeah I want to try out monk and either inquisitor or possibly witch before choosing who I'm going to stick with.

Well, I just realized the quiver is 1800 gold and I can only buy 1500 and below.

I used 2 PP to get a Darkwood Comp Bow with +2 Strength. Sold my other bow. Bought an Adamantine and 2 silver weapon blanch. Subtracted 2gp for arrows replaced.

I think I'm going to end up going with

STR 15
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 7
CHA 17

If I can decide to live with the loss of Spellcraft and Knowledge (Religion) (and who knows what other skill ranks down the road). It's less versatile than I like my PFS characters to be, but 18 CHA + 16 STR + 14 CON on a Gnome Paladin by 8th level will be nice. I wish there were a way I could bump the CON to 15 without making her INT truly abysmal and losing the DEX bonus.

--

Sweet that you got the +2 STR bow, Halkale. Bring on the damage output!

Well I had one before, this one is just made of darkwood, making it lighter.

I know I should be saving my PP up to eventually keep a resurrection in my back pocket, but I think I'm going to pick up another wand. I'm thinking Wand of Shield so I can dial Quiella's AC up to 25 with a successful UMD roll. Although I'm also considering the Ranger's Wand of Lead Blades or another Paladin wand. Any thoughts?

Also, can I use 1PP to have the masterwork enchantment cast on my new plate mail?

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I don't believe you can use 1 pp to buy Masterwork Transformation because you have to pay the material cost of 150gp for armor which would place the spellcasting cost above the 150gp limit and you can't mix pp and gp in the same purchase.

So I couldn't use it to pay the materials cost for Ophelia to cast it before our next quest?

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Woah, was I supposed to be leveling up Mel? I've between busy. He is going to pick magus for his next level. No clue if he is gonna buy anything.

If I've not done it by the time you are ready to start, can you move forward anyway?

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@Quiella, you can have ask that another PC cast it and then you pay the material costs, but it has to be during a scenario. I would then need to mark it on that scenario's chronicle sheet since you can only have one of that spell active at a time.

@Mel, I can make the initial post, but we can't move forward until everyone has a current character sheet. If you need a day or two longer I'm sure everyone would be ok with accommodating you.

If I did it that way would it expire at some point? What do you mean by "only one active at a time?"

I decided to go ahead and pick up a Wand of Shield. +4AC just seems so much better than the variety of +1attack options I had available--even Divine Favor for +1attack and +1damage doesn't seem to me to be worth it.

I also propagated the attribute change I talked about above to my various profiles/sheets. With that, Quiella is ready to roll.

In PFS, you can only have one Masterwork Transformation spell active at a time on a PC as per The Guide to Organized Play. It doesn't expire, rather placing it on a chronicle sheet verifies to any potential future GM that you had it cast on you and that you cannot have another one until that one is no longer active.

Halkale is ready, changes mentioned above.

Huh. So you have to waste money in order to get more than one piece of magical gear? When Quiella can afford to get a +1 Enhancement on her Greatsword she'll have to sell the Greatsword and buy a +1 Greatsword?

I'm not sure I follow your question, Quiella, but since only masterwork items can become magical, it's usually better to buy a masterwork version of an item instead of the non-masterwork if you're planning on a magical upgrade.

Mel's PDF character sheet is updated.
Mel's Item tracking sheet is updated.
Not finished translating to the pfs page.

It looks like Mel is still working on translating his character sheet to the paizo site, but he can still post while he works on that.

I haven't heard anything from Ophelia, but I'll send her a private message tomorrow if there's still no update from her.

I also got a private message from the player of Moadis yesterday, explaining that he's ready to come back. I haven't heard a reply from him yet, but I told him he could play in this group as the 7th player if he hasn't played the scenario before, otherwise he can just return to the group when we start the 8th scenario (I also offered to run a fast scenario concurrent with this one).

With all that in mind, I'm going to put up the introductory post for Delirum's Tangle now, feel free to begin posting, although I won't move very far in the scenario until everyone verifies their participation.

I'm going to follow Valik and get a wayfinder as well(-1pp).

Scarab Scribe monk. . .I swear I'm not a copy cat though :P Just for the wayfinder.

Actually T'kk'tck, I'm afraid the wayfinder will cost you 250gp or 2 pp. It's only 1 pp for Valik because of a boon he received in a previous scenario.

Ah gold then :p sorry. Updated character sheet to reflect gold loss instead.

I'm here! Sorry, had a bit of trouble with Hero Lab and the forums.

Took Steadfast Mind as my 3rd-level feat, so I have a chance to retain spells if I fail the concentration check to cast defensively.
Spread out skill points into some new Knowledge skills.
Gain access to 2nd-level spells (took bull's strength and false life this time around).
Bought scrolls of remove paralysis, lesser restoration, and page-bound epiphany.

Should be all up to date!

Moadis will be re-joining us sometime in the next day or so as a 7th player, so we'll continue once he returns to the thread.

Hey guys.

Sorry for the long absence and sudden disappearance. Last december I was having a really rough time at my job when a family member had to be hospitalized and the whole thing overwhelmed me. Too much stuff were happening at the same time and at some point I just could not bring myself to get online anymore after a day of work+hospital.

Things are finally getting better and as such I am trying to pick up the pieces of my virtual existence here at the paizo site now that life is getting back to normal at the home front. Nice to see you all again.

My regards
Merck

Glad everything is back to normal.

In case you hadn't noticed the stuff on my inventory sheet, these are what I bought before the adventure started:

Pearl of Power
Goblet of Quenching
Scroll of Chill touch
Scroll of Comp Languages
Scroll of Detect Secret Doors
Scroll of Endure Elements
Scroll of Grease
Scroll of Identify
Scroll of Shocking Grasp
Scroll of Slient Image
Scroll of Floating Disk
Scroll of Feather Fall
sunrod
Rope, spider's silk (50 ft.)

These are the things Mel wants to buy after hearing we are headed into a maze. The items are to be distributed among all party members (too heavy for Mel to carry alone)

12 x Ball of twine
12 x iron spike
1 x Map maker's kit
2 x hammer for spikes???
2 x ink
10 x chalk
10 x torches
2 x hooded lanterns
6 x lamp oil

Can he acquire all that stuff before heading down to the maze?

Also, is there any chance we could hire a mercenary to sit outside the entrance next to the twine spiked in the ground? With a whistle and a lantern? OK... going overboard..... breath....

Good to have you back, Moadis. I'm sorry to hear you had a rough time, and I hope your loved one is doing well.

Mel, I would say that second list is probably much more than you need. Would you like to pare that list down? If not, I need to know who's all carrying what items.

Ok
Paired down list

8 x Ball of twine
6 x iron spike
1 x Map maker's kit
1 x hammer for spikes???
10 x chalk

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Finally finished updating my character page here.

That list is fine, Mel. A light hammer is 1 gp, so we'll go with that for the cost for a good spike hammer.

Playing up doesn't improve the xp gain does it? Just the gold/equipment pool?

That is correct, T'kk'tck, you receive the same experience and the encounters are more difficult.

an evening spent regularly checking the site on the phone:

"Why isn't half the group doing anything... don't they know that they need to post within a day or two..."

the morning when rested and actually thinking:

"oh. surprise round. Oh initiative. well I guess that makes sense."

Saving up all my good dice rolls for when I have to throw gnomes.

Hey guys, it's been a rough/hectic weekend, and now I'm at a family BBQ. Australia Day and all that. I'll post once people clear off. Sorry.

Should I move people around on the map to reflect their actions, or do you want to do it, GM? Ophelia is still 15 feet away from a beetle on the map, and Halkale hasn't moved either. Not sure where to put Quiella until I know where they are. She is not going to concern herself with her Wand of Shield since the beetles don't seem to be hitting too hard and are going down pretty easy.

Ophelia and Halkale were next to a beetle that is now dead, the map should be correct.

Ah, well that explains it. :)

I suspect Halkale should do the Survival check and he does have dungeonering trained. Perception is a toss up, but Halkale gets some bonuses to skill checks for being underground. Too bad minotaurs don't count as humans...

I think we'll get more successful aid rolls with Perception than survival. What's the difference between your two skill levels?

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On Survival:
Halkale seems the most likely with 8+bonuses?

On Perception:
T'kk'tck has 9, valik has 10, Halkale has 8+bonuses. so Valik or Halkale

I think Mel wins the knowledge Dungeon comparison.(7 to ophelia's 6)

I think Mel wins the knowledge Arcana comparison.(7 to ophelia's 6)