GM Rinaldo's Eyes of the Ten 2018 (Inactive)

Game Master The Great Rinaldo!

Marta can do a detect lies thing - though I'm not sure it will work on the dead and she doesn't think that Hestram would lie.

Now, interrupts a small, sweet voice in the heads of the living, far be it from ME to call a Venture-Captain a liar, buuut I certainly think he's taking 'need-to-know basis' farther than I have ever seen it taken. I have to wonder where he is headed now...he can't be terribly worried about it, given that (I would assume) these questions would be much harder to evade were they to be posed by Pharasma....

At that Marta will activate her detect lies ability, just in case it helps.

Something is not adding up here. Ragathiel, give me wisdom. How does one read the dead?

Marta watches Hestram's corpse carefully as the group decides on its final question for the deceased venture-captain.

Fendahl watches and waits, not sure what else he can add to the discussion.

"Am I to presume you are speaking to us from the Boneyard? I am rather curious: If Pharasma asks you these questions, what will you tell Her?"

"Pharasma will hear nothing but the answers she is owed."

With the final question asked, the magic expires and the corpse lies silent.

Eliza has been listening intently, and once the questioning is done, calls you all to the conference room, which managed to survive the attack.

“The Red Raven struck at Adril Hestram for a reason. The truth is that we have suspected Hestram of treachery against the Pathfinder Society for months. The Decemvirate asked me to investigate personally. The Talespinning was not a prelude to Adril’s promotion, but rather a test of his loyalty. A test which he appears to have failed.”

She sighs and continues. “Osprey has determined that the attackers that escaped fled into the hedge maze that sits behind the lodge. The Lodge’s books call it the Maze of the Open Road, and my own investigations reveal that it contains portals that connect to sites all over Golarion. It’s been here for centuries, and it’s extremely dangerous. I’ve been spending most of my time worrying about the rare curious citizen who sneaks onto the grounds and wanders in, but I wonder if I shouldn’t have been more concerned with what might come out.

“Before you follow the Red Raven into the Maze of the Open Road, we should investigate the scene of the crime and see what can be learned. There’s no telling where the Raven wandered off to inside the Maze. If you’re to follow him, you’d best do so with as much information as possible.”

"You have the run of the Lodge, with the exception of my personal quarters. If you feel the need to go there, ask and I will escort you. See what you can find and report to me when you are done. I will be seeing to the staff and arranging for repairs. I will also send to town to for a priest to attend to Myrdon."

She shakes her head. "I'll have Hestram's body placed in his room. He can lie where there for now, until we determine what exactly is going on."

--------------------

We now have enough of a break to allow Myrdon to get raised. A priest will come and take care of the Raise Dead and the first Restoration. Let me know how you are paying for it. Once we hit a longer downtime that lets a week pass you will be able to get the second Restoration.

Let me know who wants to go where in the lodge and what you want to do. This is an investigation, and you are free to split up and do different things.

As mentioned, Myrdon will spend PP to get resurrection. He has a boon that halves the cost, i.e. 16pp. (GM, let me know if you want me to email you a copy of the chronicle.) I find that's that's better as I don't think he can afford to lose any spell slots, and saves time from restoration.

Hrrmm. So if you suspected Hestram all along, do you think then those responsible for his death were innocent? Killing him may have been warranted, but once they attacked us without honor, they forfeit their claim for justice.

Fendahl will look around the main hall, trying to determine if there is anything left worth salvaging.

I suspect inspecting Hestram's body or belongings may be the best place to find clues to unravel this mystery.

With permission, he will inspect Hestram first.

perception: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (14) + 17 = 31

In the morning, I can pray for different spells if more thorough investigation is needed. Or a spell to help with navigating the maze.

"Agreed. And then we should check his room next. If we're lucky, he has a diary that spills everything. And we have this redbirds base of operations. A visit there would be in order, don't you think?"

Marta carefully and methodically combs though Hestram's belongings, not at all convinced that he was somehow a traitor.

It just doesn't seem like him. The guy was blunt as a mace. Subterfuge and treachery? Just not his style. I do love a good puzzle.

Perception: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (20) + 25 = 45

“Thirded!”

Autoaid perception checks: 1 + 24 = 25

bit of luck Sense Motive on Eliza and her statements: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18
roll twice, take best: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

*tuh* I would have thought that level of game playing was beneath Eliza and Osprey ... Welcome to Seeker politics, Luisila!

“VC Petulengro, if I give the servant fetching the priest for Myrdon a shopping list, do you think they could bring some items back from Woodsedge for me?”

“Is anyone a good diplomat? I wonder if we should interview the servants – especially the ones we saved, to see if they know anything?”

"I can get answers out of the servants, if there are answers, OR ELSE!"

Yea, there was a not so veiled threat in that 'or else'. She seems more inclined towards the intimidation side of the whole diplomacy coin.

Third times the charm? The site has been up and down all day and keeps eating my post. Thankfully I had composed it offline and didn't lose it.

A servant is sent off to locate a priest to bring Myrdon back. The trip takes several hours, during which time the rest of the party begin investigations.

Hestram's body has nothing to tell you. He was dressed for the ceremony, and didn't even have a weapon on him. It seems he was taken completely by surprise.

As you go to move him to his quarters, you notice that not far away, near one of the servants' quarters where the attackers seem to have come from, is an empty potion vial.

In Hestram's quarters, you see a map of Golarion’s Inner Sea region lies upon the bed, with red notes in several places. Next to the map rests a primitive greenstone idol carved in the likeness of an ape, while a serpentine necklace rests upon the sitting table. See the new "Clues" page on the images slideshow.

Luisila pays close attention to Eliza and Osprey. It is clear they have more on their minds, but they want to see what you find before telling you more. While you investigate, they go into her quarters to converse quietly.

Let me know what else anyone wants to do. Luisila, let me know what you were wanting to have purchased for you, and I will let you know if they can get it.

Fendahl will investigate the map and the greenstone from Hestram's room. He comments to himself or anyone else close by.

Hrrmm. This map shows markings which undoubtedly indicate clandestine organizations, enemies, associates or his favorite pubs.
We will have to study further.
The gem could be connected to the map in some way.

He will cast detect magic upon the map and two tokens, looking for any special auras on any of them or in the room in general.

“Well the 'TM' in Galt probably stands for Teppin Montrose, the rich Galtan VC Hestram Luisila does air quotes ✌ didn’t ✌ murder.”

She takes a closer look at the map. “Perhaps the initials and locations indicate future (or prior) targets Hestram was looking to rob of some relic they owned?”

“If so, I’m kinda surprised not to see the intials ‘GM T’ on the list.”

She bites her lower lip as she thinks. “I’m gonna try another room. Hestram was in pretty good shape. He probably spent a lot of time in the Training Room.”

take 10 perception + guidance in Training Room: 10 + 24 + 1 = 35

Luisila will also scan the room with detect magic.

"I think you are right about the initials. Makes sense. You think these trinkets are relics? They certainly have that feel to them. Particularly the ape one."

Marta will fire up her detect evil/good/law/chaos ability and see if there is any kind of alignment on the items, and see if she can dig up any information from her inquisitive mind. (Any knowledge rolls we can make? If monster related Marta gets a hefty bonus.)

"Someone should check out the empty vial, though I suspect it might have contained the poison used on Hestram. And the servants quarters. Keep an open mind folks. There are two sides to every coin, and we do not know what Hestram's actions were motivated by, or if he is being set up here."

Marta's always suspicious and critical mind flits from possible explanation to explanation.

The map does not have any magical auras, thought both the necklace and the ape icon do. The necklace has a moderate abjuration aura, while the ape has a moderate transmutation, and Marta feels a mild but palpable evil coming from it.

The vial appears to have held a potion. There is no residue of anything toxic, and no magic remains. However, you do recall that the Red Raven and his archers all appeared out nowhere as they attacked.

The weapons training facility obviously sees little use. Luisila's investigation reveals that a portion of the floor can be made to rise when the lantern against the southeast wall is manipulated. The rising platform at the center of the room eventually comes to a grinding halt, revealing an inky secret passage descending rapidly beneath the lodge and heading off to the southeast.

As you continue your investigation of the grounds, I'll take this moment to remind you to read your faction missions. Some of you may have activities that you may (or may not) wish to do while here.

Kn Religion: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

"I'm familiar with this one. They actually worship a giant ape down south and the society has had a few run ins with them while exploring some ruins down there."

"I think I'll start questioning the servants."

Pulling the servants aside one by one, Marta will ask things like:

Just a reminder, because it's been a while ... you know that all of the servants wear masks to hide their identities. They tell you the names Eliza calls them by, but will not give their true names. None of them gives you the name "Alondais".

Marta questions the servants, and gets nothing of use. They have all been on staff for some time, and have not noticed anything unusual. They are appalled at the idea of worshiping ape or serpent gods, and they have all heard of the Red Raven as a masked "hero" of the Red Revolution. Marta can actually hear the air quotes around "hero" ... the staff don't seem to be fans of the revolution or the Red Raven.

After a time of this, Eliza comes to Marta and takes her aside. The staff have mentioned your questioning, and the venture-captain is mildly annoyed that you seem to have taken an adversarial attitude toward them. "Any further such interrogation should be done with me present. I work hard to keep these people safe and happy here, and don't need you disturbing my relationship with them."

Marta gives Eliza a dispassionate and unnerving otherwordly stare.

"As you wish. Tell you what. You ask the top 5 members of your staff whether they know anything about this job while I call upon Ragathiel to inform me if they are lying. Then we can move on, or perhaps one of the others can take over the questioning."

Fendahl will puzzle for a bit on the initials, trying to recall any names which fit the letters.

Hrrmm, seems plausible. More research needed to discern the names. The tokens we should keep, and the map.

He will move to the vial and inspect it's contents (without touching). He continues to concentrate on detect magic for any residual aura.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 not sure if there is anything remaining

Fendahl waits to see if he can tell anything on the auras.

Luisila drifts back into Hestram’s bedroom to check in with Fendahl and the others. “There’s a secret passage beneath the training room that heads off to the southeast. I only looked down it as far as my ioun torch would allow – and didn’t see much.”

“I feel bad for Myrdon missing so much action. Do you think we should wait to check the passage after he’s been raised?”

“Or should we check it as a group, so our investigation is more complete, giving Osprey and Eliza no reason to hold anything more back?”

The priestess does a quick headcount. “Where’s Marta, Fendahl? I might keep looking for the basalt stone on the way to search the Conference Room.”

“Boss-types looove their meetings. So maybe there’s another clue there?”

take 10 perception + guidance in Conference Room: 10 + 24 + 1 = 35 + detect magic

Lost in his personal investigation, Fendahl calls back to Luisila.

Hrrmm, what? Oh, I have lost track of Lady Marta. We may want to regroup and organize our findings before we follow any secret passages.

He will enter the main hall and try to locate the other Pathfinders and ensure the animal companions are behaving.

Fendahl keeps searching the halls until he has located everyone after the investigations.

Fendahl gets nothing from the vial. Any magic it contained was used before the vial was discarded.

Luisila peeks into the now-damaged conference room. Eight high-backed wooden chairs ring the immense table here, which bears the insignia of the Woodsedge Lodge. Maps and documents that had been on the table are damaged and strewn about the room.

PM sent to Marta.

Eliza studies Marta briefly, then replies with a sharp tone, "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt this one time ... do not forget that I am the Venture-Captain here, and these are my carefully vetted staff who are under my protection. If you have actual evidence to suggest one of them is at fault, bring it to me. Otherwise, I want you to leave them to their duties. Am I understood?"

Over the course of investigating the lodge, there will be enough time for a priest to be summoned. Myrddon, welcome back!

I'll give time for everyone to check in and let me know what else they want to do in the lodge.

Marta dispassionately stares at Eliza for a moment, then replies with a stiff and terse "As you wish."

She returns to the group, displeased, but accepting of her superiors authority.

Matter of factually she announces "I regret to inform you that the interrogation of the servants did not provide any additional information. Venture Captain Eliza seems to be quite protective of her staff and cut short my questioning. Fortunately we have other avenues to explore."

Marta does not seem particularly put out about it, though she rarely shows much emotion anyway.

Fendahl will work with Myrddon to catch him up on current events and bring Aegis to him once the priest has finished the rites.

Hrrmm. Welcome back to the land of the living. If I may be so bold, what did you see beyond the great veil?

With the Galtan priest in da house, have we clocked over a new day yet? I realize we haven’t rested. But Luisila normally refreshes her spells from Calistria at 3am – when the nightclubs let out ; )

If yes, she will keep most of her spell slots open for the time being anyway, GM Rinaldo.

Linguistics for codes in conference room docs + guidance: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 5 + 1 = 20

“Welcome back, Myrdon! I know a certain giant roc that will be happy to see you.”

Luisila informs him of the concealed passageway in the Training Room. “Perhaps we should explore the hidden tunnel next as a group and then report back to the VCs?”

"That sounds like a good plan to me. And then we pay this Red Raven a visit, I expect."

Nope, same day unless you are specifically asking for an overnight rest. In which case events may happen off camera. ;-)

In the interest of expedience, I'll let you know that the tunnel leads down and goes a *very* long way, possibly connecting into the Low Highway toward the Darklands. While it may be of inherent interest to individuals, it does not appear to be of use to you in this investigation.

Are there any other activities, interrogations, or investigations you wish to do?

Vladek asks Luisila and Fendahl whether they, too, had received a request to locate the Kathari Fragment.

After seeing how long the passage is, Marta baulks and suggests, instead, "We could waste days heading down this tunnel. Besides, we know that they retreated into the hedge maze known as 'The Maze of the Open Road'. I think we should track them and see which portal they took. I'm ready to follow them through. I think its either that or head on over to the estate of Aric of Halvon in Galt. We can either confront him there or try to locate his secret cavern. I recommend the former as it most likely will lead us to Galt anyway and the trail is only warm for a while."

Fendahl nods at Vlad's question.

Hrrmm, yes. I was tasked to locate it. Although we should be wary of others who may try to stop us. Finding it would be helpful, but not of the primary concern at the moment. But watchful for it we should continue to be.

Fendahl will kneel and examine any tracks in the entry of the tunnel which would suggest it to be a better choice than following the maze.

survival: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27

If nothing presents itself, he stands.

I agree with you Lady Marta. The Maze of the Open Road seems to be the path chosen for us at this time.

If we have Myrrdon raised/resurrected, will we need to wait a day anyway, or continue through the night? Fendahl is not totally tapped out, but has spent his better spells.
Also, I am assuming it was already late in the evening when these events occurred.

Luisila also responds with an “Affirmative” to Vladek’s query.

“I’ve been searching for the damn thing throughout the Lodge.”

“Where’s Marta, Fendahl? I might keep looking for the basalt stone on the way to search the Conference Room.”

take 10 perception + guidance: 10 + 24 + 1 = 35

“I think we should wait for Osprey and VC Eliza’s comments on our investigation before making a final decision on the next step.”

“But at the moment, I agree the Maze of the Open Road is the better choice.”

Finally, the site is up at a time I can post!

The first words out of Myrdon's mouth when he awakens is "Aegis!" His mind is flooded by the recollections of the battle against the massive demon some time ago where he similarly fell unconscious, to find Aegis' predecessor lifeless beside him when he woke. This time, however, Aegis II is standing over him, nipping him gently with its massive beak.

He slowly gets up, thanks the priest for healing his wounds (for Myrdon thinks he merely took heavy wounds), before getting up to survey the devastation around the lodge.

"Veil? What veil?" His mind is still moving rather slowly, and is slowly stunned into silence as the rest of the party recounts what happened. He unconsciously strokes Aegis' beak in thanks for its tremendous contributions to the combat, but remains silent as he contemplates what has happened and try to piece them together. "I... I might need a while."

As he got a resurrection, and he hardly cast any spells when he went down, he can't pretty much get going. Lol! But rest might be good.

On the other hand, even with you massively debuffed, that bird of yours is pretty dang tough and you can still use wands and scrolls. You are far from useless. I suspect we have some travelling ahead of us anyway.

Fendahl is fine to continue or rest, deferring to the majority vote.

Hrrmmm, you give wise council. Once we hear Osprey and Eliza opinions, we can voice our decision on which direction and whether to rest.

Oops, made a typo. I meant that Myrdon is totally fine to just keep going because he hardly used any of his spell slots, and with resurrection, he doesn't lose any.

"Well, we could look in on the library. If anyone was studying anything, it might be out still. And we should take a closer look at the armory and make sure nothing else was meddled with. Other than that, I can't think of anything else we need to go through here before we set off."

Marta is a bit suspicious here of Eliza. Besides the way she cut short the interview, Helstram just doesn't strike her as the type to be a traitor. Unless he was under magical influence. That could be the case.

“Great to have you back, Myrdon.”

Luisila puts an arm around Marta and gives her a quick hug. “Searching the library is a honey of an idea!”

“I am also going to give each room (except Eliza’s) a once-over, to see if I can find the Kathari Fragment.”

take 10 perception + guidance: 10 + 24 + 1 = 35

Marta stiffens a bit when Luisilla hugs her, though by now she is almost used to it, so less so than on previous occasions (which I'm thinking has happened.). She's heard that hugs are supposed to be good for you so she can hardly object, but they make her so dang uncomfortable.

"What fragment? I don't remember it coming up in the interrogations. Did you all discover something while I was questioning the servants?"

Luisila *taps* the side of her nose and smiles. “It’s just the joint Grand Lodge/Scarab Sages faction mission, Marta.”

“Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more?”

Marta scratches her head, wondering what the lure is in serving a faction lead by weird old folks obsessed with Osirian lore. There are so many more important things to do in life like saving humanity from itself.

The shelves of the library are somewhat bare, as Eliza is just beginning to restore this collection to its former glory. She’s amassed many historical documents and maps, but the assembly has little direction at the moment. The door at the far end is locked.

The three small guest rooms along one side of the Upper Halls have been converted to housing for the lodge’s servants, with the matching rooms on the other side set aside for yourselves. The rooms’ furnishings are unusually gaudy, appearing to consist largely of mismatched cast-offs rescued from elsewhere in town. The staff allow you to make a quick inspection, and you find nothing unusual.

Fendahl follows along but other than looking in each of the remaining rooms with Luisila and Marta for any clues missed by their sharp eyes,he says little else.

Motioning towards the locked door Marta states, "I suppose the polite thing to do would be to ask for a key, though I wouldn't mind trying my skills on the lock. But if it is a complicated one, I probably wouldn't be able to open it anyway."

Marta assesses that the lock is moderately complex, but thinks she might be able to open it.