GM Lamplighter's "The Frostfur Captives" (Inactive)

Game Master Scott Young

Seems like the routine is good.

Sochi comments, "Having a hot meal in the middle of the day may not be wise once we reach the eternal winter of Irrisen. Smoke has a way of shouting to those you wish not to disturb."

The second day of travel proceeds much more smoothly than the first, and you make up the lost distance easily. On your right is the mighty Rimeflow River, swiftly flowing with the occasional chunk of ice floating downstream. You see the occasional traveler or trapper, most of whom are friendly enough, stopping to share news or a meal.

Late on the second day you come to the confluence of the Rimeflow and the Thundering Rivers, and encounter a semi-permanent camp of travelers, traders, and adventurers. You pass the night in relative warmth and security, and learn a little of the border war that has long plagued the area. The Witch Queen of Irissen constantly harasses the Ulfens here, and they are always on watch for the day when an invasion of witches and evil humanoids pours over the border. There is great hatred of anything from Irissen, including creatures like goblins.

On the third day, well-rested, you follow the river's curve to the north. About midday you see the city of Trollheim across the river, and take the ferry to that city. (You have the opportunity to buy additional supplies at this time if you wish.) Alas, spending the night here will put you behind, and so you turn your back on the warm inns and taverns of the city and strike out north.

The fourth day leads you to the forks where the Iceflow River gushes into the Rimeflow, bringing chunks of ice from its glacial source farther north. The temperature drops, and you have your first taste of snow as you travel. (Not cold enough to change the Fort save situation, though... yet.) Now navigating using your map, you begin the search for the rendezvous point. The land is largely bare, save for infrequent stands of evergreen trees, covered with newfallen snow.

It is near time to stop for the night when from a nearby copse of woods, you hear a whispered challenge, first in Ulfen, and then in the common tongue of Taldane. "Friend of Freyr Darkwine, or of the Witch Queen?" The sound is accompanied by the faint creaking of bowstrings stretching.

Perception - Beromir: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Perception - Eryndir: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21
Perception - Kyras: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Perception - Rha'ziz: 1d20 ⇒ 4
Perception - Skaar: 1d20 ⇒ 9
Perception - Sochi: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2

"He first spoke in Ulfen so chances are they aren't on the side of the Witch Queen", Beromir says in a low voice. "I would say "Freyr Darkwine""

Assuming the voice is coming from a scout from Sverrir Lightfoot's team, he responds "We are friends of Freyr Darkwine."

Bought three days' trail rations at Trollheim.

Rhaz readies his crossbow, prepared to aim it in the direction of the voice (though it is not yet raised, as this would be a hostile gesture).

He also surveys the area for favorable terrain with cover and/or concealment and possible enemy positions/fields of fire.

Is there a tactical map that we can refer to?

Btw, assuming that we used up four trail rations on our trip, Kyras bought 5 trail rations.

Sochi says in a happy manner, "It's serendipitous that you've come for us. We thought we were meeting you further from here."

Bluff since I have no idea who these people are and if we don't know them it will hopefully sow some confusion: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

I also have: Innocent If making a Bluff check to tell a believable/unlikely lie, the target always wants to believe you.

Btw: My shield is also in hand, so I will be taking a -2 to attack rolls unless I declare that I am putting up or dropping my shield.

Eryndir points out the two hidden men he sees, though he doesn't raise his bow...yet.

Skaarr just pulls his axe and waits to see what happens.

Two cloaked men step out of the forest, their bows leveled at you. From their garb they appear to be Ulfen rangers. A tall woman steps out from behind them, looks you over, and nods to the archers. They relax their bowstrings as the woman steps forward.

"I am Sverrir Lightfoot. We've been waiting for you. Follow." She leads you around the copse of woods and to a small clearing, where a number of other humanoids are gathered. Four Ulfen warriors are in the process of packing up their campsite, while sitting on a log sit 6 sullen goblins in a row.

"I'm glad you are here... I've had about enough of our 'guests'," she states flatly. "Come, I will introduce you."

She leads you over to the row of goblins. They are not restrained, and wear only cold-weather gear with no armor or weapons visible. "We found it was easier to give them their freedom," Sverrir whispers as you approach the group. "Less escape attempts that way. These goblins are used to working for humans, and so one boss is as good as another to them."

"This is Kella," Sverrir begins, indicating the largest goblin, a female with a number of small skulls hanging from her clothing. "She seems to be the leader, if I can use the term. Next is Bigmouth, Chompt, Durp, Grabble, and that's Kroog at the end." Each goblin looks at your group, their faces falling with the realization that they are even further outnumbered now.

"Here's a map. I've marked recent enemy activity here, and here. Your best bet is to cross the river at the village of Harvest's End... there's a ferry there. Don't cross over into friendly territory until you get near Trollheim - we have assurances from the Black Ravens who guard the area that you'll be allowed to pass unmolested. If you cross the river farther north, well... it's unlikely our citizens will allow live goblins to pass through our lands."

Kella stands up and interrupts Sverrir. "I Kella Stinkmouth! I CHIEF goblin! Me get first food! Then me happy. Work good! No first food, no happy. Okay? Okay!" She does her best to look menacing.

A smaller, lithe goblin wearing what looks to be a wig made of animal hair stands next to Kella and clears his voice. He produces a hollow reed from somewhere within his clothing, and blows through it. The sound produced is midway between a flute and a kazoo, with a good dose of "raspberry" thrown in. "Chief Kella, oh Chief..." he "sings", while trying to accompany himself on the reed flute.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" scream Big Mouth, jumping up and leaping at Durp, jaws open wide. Big Mouth begins to bite Durp until the others pull the two apart.

Grabble sits silently, arms wrapped around his midsection, rocking back and forth, muttering quietly to himself. His nervous eyes dart around.

"Time for food?" asks Chompt, licking his lips. He glances at Sochi. "You food for Chompt?" he asks hopefully.

"Longshanks no bring food, dum-dum!" intones Kroog, standing and trying to sound wise. "Zarongel will destroy longshanks, THEN they be food!" He nods sagely, then sits back down, crossing his arms as if that should settle the matter.

"You stink, Big Mouth!" mutters Durp, trying to clean the dirt out of his flute while eying the other goblin.

"YAAARGH!!" yells Big Mouth in response, hurling himself back at the goblin fluteplayer teeth-first. Again the others pull the two of thema part.

"STOP!" yells Kella. "Me Chief! You listen Kella!" Her voice is largely lost in the chatter from the goblins, who begin arguing amongst themselves about everything and nothing.

Sochi raises an eyebrow at Chompt and says, "Apologies, Chompt. It is our task to show you where the food is. If you eat us, we can't show you to the food."

Kyras adds under his breath "And if you eat us, there will be no more food."

Rhaz picks up a decent sized branch and saunters over to the log where the goblins are sitting. With a loud crack that pierces the din, the branch shatters over the log next to the goblins.

Rhaz calmly turns to Kella with a patronizing glare.

"Keep your brood in check or their numbers are going to start dwindling. Understand?"

Intimidate: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15

Kella looks at Rha'ziz, confused by his big words. "Kella know numbers, yes! One-many-lots-abunch! That why Kella CHief!" She gives a half-smile, but it's clear she has no idea what you are talking about. She does seem intimidated, though.

Chompt stands up excitedly at the mention of food. "You show Chompt food, Chompt be friend!" He scurries over to Sochi and begins capering around in a circle, licking his lips. "Food food food, Chompt get FOOD!"

Sverrir rolls her eyes and turns away, nodding towards one of the packed snow sledges. "There is enough food for the goblins for four days on the sled, plus four days of actual food for you folk," she states, as she turns to continue packing. "We're back into the woods before nightfall... another three weeks out here. I almost wish I was taking the prisoners back myself. Almost."

The sledge looks like it is designed to be pulled by two people, and will easily carry all of the baggage and rations. There are extra waterskins and cold-weather gear, a campsite kit with tents, several lamps and two small casks of oil.

"I think I know what you mean, Sverrir," Eryndir comments dryly. The elf deposits the little bit of extra gear he carries that keeps weighing him down onto the sledge.

"If goblins touch oil, or try to make fire, Skaarr cut off all their fingers!!" the towering half-orc witch doctor threatens, shaking his wicked looking axe at the goblins.

Take 10 for a 20 on intimidate.

"If goblins listen to longshanks, do what us says, Skaarr give goblins yummies!"

"What dangers haunt this region between ourselves and friendlier lands?" Sochi asks Sverrir.

Rhaz moves over to a position behind Big Mouth. As the goblin is drawling on over his kin's chatter, Rhaz's closes a firm grip over his shirt and lifts him off the seat.

Rhaz slaps the goblin in the face.

"You're going to be first, punk, unless you work for me."

The goblin looks sullen as Rhaz shoves him back onto the log next to his confused buddies.

I'm rolling my own dice and reporting the results now. The die roller here gives me a 4 every time.

Most recent check:

Intimidate against Big Mouth: 1d20 + 11

17 + 11 = 28

And here is where I wait for Rha'ziz to be eaten by goblins.

Lol, right?

I'm rolling my own dice and reporting the results now. The die roller here gives me a 4 every time.

Most recent check:

Intimidate against Big Mouth: 1d20 + 11

17 + 11 = 28

You're joking right? The dice roller works perfectly fine. It only gives you a 4 every time if you try to cheat by deleting your post and posting again. What I mean by that is it generates a random seed for each alias for each thread that gets reset with each post. That's also what taking 10 is for.

When a character or creature is not in immediate danger or distracted, it may choose to take 10 on some rolls (specifically, skill checks). Instead of rolling 1d20 for the check, calculate the result as if the die had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure—you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn't help.

The Goblin Song

Goblins chew and goblins bite,
Goblins cut and goblins fight,
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!

Goblins race and goblins jump,
Goblins slash and goblins bump,
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!

Chase the baby, catch the pup,
Bonk the head to shut it up!
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We be goblins! You be food!

-The Pathfinder Staff

Are you calling me a cheater? I was asking the GM a simple question. How bout you guys enjoy the rest of this game. I'm obviously not welcome here.

Scott, you can go ahead and pull me off the roster.

I'm not. I'm just laughing at the rolled 4s. I would laugh at my own. :)

I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm saying the the only way it will roll the same number every time is if you delete a post and then post again. If you roll on the boards there can be no doubt about cheating. If you roll off the boards you can just make up whatever number you want and we have no way of knowing. That's what I'm saying.

No need to make accusations. I have had duplicate rolls on occasion as well. However, we will use the dice roller here, and if we detect an issue we will deal with it.

If folks have issues, please either put them in a PM or send them to me privately.

Rhaz - Outside of the 0.25% of rolling two fours in a row, which may be what occurred for you, the dice roller doesn't normally duplicate rolls. However, if you roll something and then delete the post and repost trying to change the roll, it also won't change. That's an anti cheating mechanism, because otherwise anyone could just delete a post with a roll they don't like and repost it a second later and get a different roll. If you try rolling several d20s in a row, you'll see what I mean about it not being broken.

1d20 ⇒ 1
1d20 ⇒ 8
1d20 ⇒ 1
1d20 ⇒ 2
1d20 ⇒ 13
1d20 ⇒ 17
1d20 ⇒ 5

I wasn't saying you were trying to cheat, but I do think that asking to roll off the boards is unfair to everyone. That's all. Sorry for immediately mentioning cheating. That's the just the first thing that came to mind with the dice roller duplicating rolls.

I was merely stating that you picked up and slapped a goblin unprovoked around a bunch of other goblins. As such, you are likely to get bitten (or at least an attempt at a bite) from at least one of them. Because that's what goblins do: they bite and fight.

OK, moving on. Rha'ziz has withdrawn from the game; I will contact the second back-up.

I really don't care if people criticize my character who I am still learning how to play - and is admittedly anti-social - but I just ask that other players don't disrespect me directly or indirectly since I actually am a real person. I'll remain at the request of the GM but will not tolerate those kinds of accusations. What kind of person would cheat in an online D&D game anyway? I was merely testing out the rolls and had accidently entered a d12 in one, having to delete and re roll. Nobody wants to play with a cheater, so I'll let the group decide.

I will take a 10 on my last intimidate check (total of 21). Or perhaps treat this entire interaction as an intimidate check that I roll - I'm almost afraid to roll it myself now?

Rhaz moves up next to the goblin and explains in his ear:

"You keep them in line and report any plots to me and I'll reward you," his voice then grows dark, "but $%#! me over and you'll wish you were never born. In any case keep your $%@!ign mouth shut about this."

Big Mouth is left to contemplate the offer.

Thank you for coming back Rha'ziz. Getting back into the story"Thank you for the provisions, Sverrir. Is there any points of interests or places that we must be extra careful in?"

I actually have been in PBPs where people got caught cheating on these boards, but that was before they changed the dice roller to be how it is now. Glad you're giving it a second go.

"Skaarr think he understand job. Ready to go now," Skaarr says. He stays close to the goblins with his axe in hand, ready should they try anything foolish.

Quite befuddled by his teammates on his first Pathfinder mission, Eryndir moves to stand with Sochi and Kyras, who actually seem slightly civilized. The elf grimaces as the human brute continues to slap around and threaten their goblin prisoners, and shakes his head in disgust.

Seeing the elf shake his head at Rhaz, Skaarr cups a hand around his mouth and "whispers" to Eryndir, "Him so angry, Skaarr think him have short man complex," quite earnestly.

Skaarr has a 7 int and a 7 cha, so he's dumb and uncouth. This is not a dig at you as a player Rhaz, merely an in-character thing. Similar to Rhaz's own anti-social nature.

It must have been the cold. Rhaz normally did not lose control and behave in a way that was beneath him. He stepped away from the goblins and made his way back to his campsite, which was positioned somewhat away from the other Pathfinders.

'There's never a shortage of fools in Golarion,' he thought as he passed the group of three who were playing with the goblins as if they were small children.

The whole spectacle reminded him of a Chelish slaver whom he had crossed paths with in Korvosa. A gentle and civilized man, this individual made it a point to treat his slips with kindness. Perhaps he realized that slaves and prisoners were less of a problem when they forgot what they were.

But before he would enjoying his alone time, Rhaz felt the need to make one last comment. "Why would I be angry, big one? I still have my good looks. In fact, I'm almost as pretty as your elf friend over there, who seems to be quite upset about something." A grin fit for any villain accompanied Rhaz's last remark.

Rhaz snorted at the indignation around him, a sentiment that never failed to show up in those whose simplistic worldviews fell short in explaining life. Rhaz dismissed his thoughts and turned his attention to the sounds of nature.

Rhaz will be taking watch as the rest of the party figures out what to do. And Skaarr, in character banter is quite alright. I'm more of a narrative player anyway. My apologizes for being overly sensitive before.

Beromir sighs lightly, the mission will not be easy. He turns to Sverrir. "You have just spent some time with the goblins. Before we leave, do you have any advice for us as to how calm them down or keep them quiet ?"