GM R0B0GEISHA Presents: Ironfang Invasion (Inactive)

Game Master R0B0GEISHA

+7 HP (half 4+1=5 + 2 con)
+1 BAB
+1 Fort
+1 Reflex

+8 Adventure skills (7 + 1 FC Bonus)
Climb, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (Nature), Perception, Spellcraft, Stealth, Survival

+2 Background skills
Craft (Bows), Profession (Trapper)

Spells
+1 orison (Create Water)
+1 1st level spell (Entangle)
+1 1st level spell per day

Gained Precise shot as a bonus feat.

Central to your efforts are the refugees rescued from Phaendar. Due to your actions during the invasion you have 20 people in tow. Most are ready to lend a hand but also equally ready for a hot meal. The refugees must eat and be kept safe, but can help you gather resources, guard camp, scout, and produce goods they can’t otherwise buy in the middle of the woods.

NPCs are described with a quick, simple system for ease of management. The default listing assumes the refugees fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs and daggers or improvised clubs. Each refugee has an AC of 10. Any skill not listed on the table below is considered untrained, with a penalty of –2. Named NPCs, such as Oreld and Kining, have increased stats.

Over the course of this adventure, you will gain promotions they can assign the NPCs of their choice. A promotion allows an NPC to retrain to another NPC class (most often allowing Commoners to retrain into Adepts, Aristocrats, Experts, or Warriors), or to gain a level in their current class. An NPC cannot retrain into a base class unless a PC specifically selects that character as a companion with options such as the Leadership feat. An NPC cannot be promoted to be higher level than the PCs.

Aubrin possesses player character levels and cannot be promoted.

Each day, an NPC can be assigned to perform one task around camp or generally employ skills on your behalf. The most useful such projects include the following.

Assist: NPCs can assist a PC or NPC with any skill they’re trained in, automatically granting a +2 aid another bonus.

Build Shelter: Creating a shelter for one Medium-sized creature requires a successful DC 12 Craft or Survival check. For every 2 points by which the result exceeds 12, the shelter can accommodate one additional Medium-sized creature. These shelters are simple and cold, but enough to prevent a character from being fatigued from lack of shelter.

Craft: With access to the necessary tools, NPCs can craft finished goods for the PCs upon request, using the normal Craft skill rules (Core Rulebook 91).

Forage or Hunt: Characters who spend a full day hunting or gathering and succeed at a DC 10 Survival check gain 1 Provision Point. Characters gain 1 additional Provision Point for every 2 by which the result exceeds 10.

Herd: Phaendar’s sheep and goat herds were scattered in the attack, and many were lost in the Fangwood. NPCs can recover a single goat or sheep with a successful DC 16 Handle Animal check. Captive animals can be maintained with a single successful Handle Animal check (DC = 10 + the number of animals) per day. Neglecting to maintain the herd or failing this check indicates one or more animals have wandered off. A captive animal generates 1 Provision Point every 3 days in the form of milk (and eventually cheese or butter), or can be butchered to immediately provide 2 Provision Points.

Scout: NPCs trained in Survival or Stealth can scout the area or keep an eye on Phaendar for the PCs. With a successful DC 10 Survival check, an NPC can either discover one point of interest in the area (such as an encounter location) or reduce the chances for a random encounter by 5%. An NPC who succeeds at this skill check by 5 or more can identify one danger in the area of the encounter (if any exist).

Stand Watch: An NPC can stand watch, attempting Perception checks and even confronting danger while the PCs rest uninterrupted.

Support: One or more NPCs can follow you to assist them, carrying equipment, standing watch at temporary camps (see below), and providing skills you may lack. NPCs hold back from combat, but should you lose a fight, the NPCs attempt to drag their unconscious leaders to safety.

Use Skill: NPCs can use any of their listed skills on your behalf, such as using Handle Animal to train captured animals, Heal to provide long-term care, or Knowledge to answer questions for you.

Regardless of the refugees’ general mood, specific named NPCs (if they survive) take on a helpful role within the group and provide unique benefits so long as they remain alive and friendly to you, as follows.

Jet: Jet keeps the resources maintained, making sure the refugees use the most perishable items first and helping people pack balanced loads. She knows many stories and songs that she shares with the others. So long as Jet oversees the cooking, the camp generates 1 additional Provision Point each day.

Kining: The stolid dwarf keeps everyone’s weapons sharp and true, and though she grumbles, she trains the refugees how to fight so they don’t panic. All the refugees gain a +1 bonus on initiative rolls while Kining remains with the group.

Oreld: Oreld gathers materials from the woods to make rudimentary potions. Every day, he can make one dose of bloodroot poison, one tanglefoot bag, or one vial of antitoxin, but doing so prevents him from working on any other tasks that day.

Food

The basic rules for starvation and thirst can be found on pages 444–445 of the Core Rulebook. The resources you and your followers need to survive are abstracted throughout this adventure as Provision Points. One Provision Point sustains a person for 1 day and consists of a half-gallon of fluid (clean water, or ale, broth, cider, goat’s milk, or sheep’s milk) and 3 to 5 pounds of stable food (apples, berries, bread, dried boar, dried venison, hard cheese, mushrooms, nuts, pickled vegetables, and smoked trout). The PCs’ followers carry their resources in a hodgepodge of bottles, jars, and satchels stuffed into improvised backpacks. Each Provision Point of resources weighs about 10 pounds. Together one trail ration and a waterskin also translate to 1 Provision Point, but weigh only 5 pounds.

Consuming only half a Provision Point per day sustains a character, but leaves that person distracted and irritable. A character who eats only a half portion takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws until she consumes a full portion. If a person eats half provisions more than 3 days a week, she doesn’t have enough body fat to endure starvation for long, and must begin making Constitution checks each day to avoid taking nonlethal damage.

If a person eats no provisions in a day, she takes the –2 penalty on all attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws listed above. Typically, a character can go without water for 1 day, or food for 3 days before making Constitution checks to avoid taking nonlethal damage. Remember that a character who takes any nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst also becomes fatigued, imposing additional penalties.

Shelter

Perhaps more important than even food is basic protection from the elements. Rules for inclement weather can be found on pages 437–440 of the Core Rulebook. The Fangwood Forest and Nirmathas in general are temperate, with frequent light rains. Shelter can be as simple as an abandoned home, a cave, a lean-to, a ruin, a tent. If a shelter option isn’t immediately available, a character can construct a temporary shelter sufficient for one Medium-sized creature with a successful DC 15 Survival check and 1 hour’s work; for every 2 points by which this result exceeds 15, the shelter can accommodate one additional Medium creature.

Sleeping without a shelter is cold and often wet, exposing a character to the elements and leaving her fatigued the next day. If she sleeps without shelter a second day, she awakes exhausted, which persists until she can find shelter to rest in for a night. For several weeks in the summer, nights in the Fangwood are warm and clear enough that characters don’t require a shelter to sleep comfortably unless there is an unusual cold snap or precipitation. Creatures under the effects of an endure elements spell are not fatigued by sleeping without shelter.