GM Tarondor's Emerald Spire Campaign

Game Master Tarondor

"Right. I'll be off then." Red takes a dozen steps, each slower than the last, then stops. With a sigh, he comes back.

"Red..." warns the tied-up outlaw.

"There's something I've got to say," says Red, ignoring him. "They're not ordinary bandits..."

"RED! You'll be carved for this!"

Red looks scared, but carries on. "They're some sort of cult. They worship some dark god or demon or whatever. At least the leaders seem to. I'm not so sure about the ranks and file."

"What I said about the entrance was true. It's over there, about five hundred yards, maybe?"

Oh-hohoHO! The plot thickens! >:)

Wymond nods and offers Red a hug.

"Ye did the right thing, Red. Need our help te make sure they don't come after ye?"

After finishing the conversation with Red, he turns to the leader, a grim expression on his face.

"So...did you lot tie Lilika up and leave her fer dead as some kinda sacrifice thing? Is that what this operation's about?"

"I've got nothing to say to the likes of you," says the other man.

Perfire nods as Red describes the bandits extracurricular activities, being familiar with those who stoop to paying service to fel creatures. The halfling stands to his full height and joins his companions warily.

'I'd talk, if I were you. The way we found Lilika I don't think she's too keen to let you be insolent much longer. If your masters are anything like my old masters', they won't be too pleased with you for getting captured and slaughtered.' His face is sad, and his words are delivered more as a warning than a threat[/b]'

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

"By the way, you didn't skimp on arrows, right?"
An arrow flies by the head of the bandit as Colcille, forty feet away, nocks another one. "I'm bored. So, as long as you're not talking, I'll practice with the bow, and while my aim is good, if your arrows don't fly straight..."

Wymond shoots an annoyed look at Colcille, but says nothing.

This man doesn't seem too interested in diplomacy. Colcille, care to roll Intimidation?

Intimidate: 1d20 ⇒ 1 Great.

The outlaw seems unwilling to budge, and strongly willed.

So, since Intimidate allows retrying, albeit with a penalty, I'll try again. If anyone wants to help, you are welcome.

An arrow embeds itself in the ground, between the outlaw's legs. "Whoops. That was close. Can someone put an apple on this guy's head?"
Intimidate: 1d20 ⇒ 20

"Hey, hey, hey! That ain't right. You can't do that!"

He seems rattled.

"Oh, I totally can. Once I shot a Hellknight's belt buckle from two hundred feet. Fun times. But if you tell us about your cult, who you worship, your aims, and why you were around, then I'll have something to do and won't need to kill time with target practice. Ah, and you also should apologize to Lili. I have no apples, will an apricot suffice?"

"Nonsense. You're an alright shot. Let's use an acorn." Lilika looks for an acorn and places it on the bandits head. "How's your balance?"

Intimidate to AID: 1d20 ⇒ 16

"Look, the kid's exaggerating! Really! We're just... just outlaws. And we use that cult stuff to scare the new recruits into line. I swear!"

Wymond spits at the ground.

"Yer no better than the Hellknights if that's the truth. Wrappin' yerselves in spiky armor an' goin' on about the punishments of Hell if'n ye step outta line when it's all bloody talk!"

He looks at Triath, who nods. Then Wymond closes his eyes and opens them again, a greenish-gold light appearing in them as he looks at each man in turn.

"Ol' Deadeye, grant me the clarity of yer eyes te see into these mens' hearts and see if they're worthy of a second chance."

Wymond's going to use detect evil on these folks. And if any of them ping as Evil, he's going to demand one good reason why he shouldn't hand them over to the Hellknights or let Lilika have her revenge.

Perfire falls back again as the bad cop routine continues. He appears alarmed at the change in Wymond's eyes, but remains quiet. A trick he'd learned in his years as a slave.

"Well, credit where it's due, when it comes te wickedness yer just all talk. So...knowin' the Hellknights'd probably hang ye if we turned ye over te them, apologize te Lilika an' give her her stuff back, show us that entrance te the Spire Red mentioned, and then break up yer little bandit group an' go home, an' we'll put this whole messy business behind us? Ye can live, Lilika gets her gear back, an' ye won't have te worry about less merciful adventurers killin' ye cuz they think yer a demon cult. Whadaya say?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

"Mister, I ain't got your stuff and I can't get it. If it's in the hideout, I don't know where it is. You think it's just us? Hell, no. It's a lot of people."

"I...I reckon I can show you the entrance, though."

Wymond nods.

"Sounds fair. Show us this entrance, an' we'll untie ye, so's ye don't go leadin' us into no ambush or anything. An' Lilika could still use that apology I mentioned."

"Sorry," he mumbles, with little grace or conviction.

He leads you to a tree very much like the one Red described. "You better be careful," he says. "That's all I got to say."

Also, the GM notes that you have not yet cleared Level 2...

The completionist in me weeps.

Lilika seems unmoved (and unconcerned) with the apology. She approaches the tree and gives it a thorough inspection.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30
Survival: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17

@ Team: Once we know where the entrance is are we going back to town? And then coming back?

Lilika can clearly see the small door set within the bole of the tree. There is a bell pull and a peep hole.

Colcille bites the apricot, slinging back the bow in her shoulders. "Your call on what to do with these folks, I don't much care after all."

She moves next to Lilika, looking for tripwires or other undesired welcoming devices.
Perception (detect traps and magic): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Sadly, evil creatures only detect as such starting from level 5. Any loot from the brigands?

You defeated six. One got away and the other was let go. That means you have four times this:

potion of cure light wounds, acid (2), smokestick, tanglefoot bag, masterwork studded leather, shortbow, arrows (20), quiver, daggers (5), short sword, thieves’ tools, 25 gp

Wymond cuts the bonds from the now former bandits.

"Alright, off ye get!"

He gets!

So what now? Back to Fort Inevitable? Back to the lair of the Bone Priest? Or investigate the outlaw's secret door?

Lilika swaps out her leather armour for the masterwork studded leather armour. She takes one healing potion, two smokesticks, two tanglefoot bags, four acid, and five daggers. (If there's leftover healing potions, acid, smokesticks, or tanglefoot bags she's be interested in more.)

To the Fort?

Perfire also takes a healing potion, tanglefoot bag and 2 flasks of acid. He carefully counts out the coins and divides them up among the group.

'Though I think we should continue to the fort to restock, I'm worried those bandits won't be true to their word. The one named Red, maybe, but maybe they'll hunt him down for betraying them before laying another ambush for us. It's a tough situation.'

Colcille pockets the thieves' tools, the last remaining smokesticks, one of the arrows and five more daggers, placing them in pockets around her clothes. She also bundles up the arrows and takes half.

"You are somewhat hurt, Perfire. Maybe we should get back, and think of some way to communicate at a distance. That way I can be your forward eyes." Thinking of the message cantrip, if we can find a way to cast it.
Her clothes under the armor are mis-matched and fit to her form by an inexpert hand, and she takes some care to apply scraps of fur back on the studded leather, trying to make it blend in the forest.

I'm good to go to the fort, if you want. I mean, I am, Colcille is reluctant.

"Aye. We can get some extra funds and restock our supplies before finishing out the lower level."

He sighs at Perfire's words.

"Ye may be right, Perry, but if'n they really did have families, then they'd have starved after the Hellknights hanged 'em. Ol' Deadeye probably would have spiked me fer that."

He looks to Triath, who says nothing, but gives him a look that doesn't ease his mind. He turns away and begins leading the way back to Fort Inevitable.

The team traipses through the Echo Wood, dealing with sudden bogs and seemingly shifting paths through the mysterious wood. At long last, you arrive at the fortress-town of the hellknights, Fort Inevitable.

At the gate they are met by a trio of heavily armored hellknight soldiers.

"Business?" asks a bored sentry.

"Adventurin' business. We're lookin' te meet with our employer, Mister Abenard Royst?" Wymond replies matter-of-factly.

Lilika looks at the Hellknights, not sure if they remember her. Or, come to think of it, if she even met these ones. It was hard to tell in that armour of theirs. But, she supposed, that was probably the point.

She lets' Wymond do the talking.

The guards call over their captain. "You have papers permitting this activity?"

Lilika reaches for the papers she had... then purses her lips. It had been stolen along with the rest of her equipment.

Perfire uncaps his scroll case and retrieves the group's documents. 'Everything should be there'

The guard looks it over and signals for a sergeant. The sergeant reads it and signals for a lieutenant. The lieutenant reads it and nods, looking back up at you.

"This grants you the right to explore in the Emerald Spire. It also requires that you pay a 20% tax on your discoveries. Please empty your backpacks, pouches and pockets on the table."

Lilika follows their orders to the letter. She has neither pockets nor backpack, but she does have some pouches. She empties them out onto the table. She is wearing four belt pouches which contain money, gems, potion vials and acid vials.

She also places the tanglefoot bags on the table, giving them a warning as she does so. "I don't recommend opening these two."

Then she waits calmly for further orders, head bowed deferentially -- as if she were used to silently submitting to others.

"Hold it!"
Colcille takes a look at the warrant, her large eyes quickly darting over the page. She frowns as she can't manage to find a loophole, and briefly considers stowing away some of the meager loot, but decides against it, as the loss would be minor.
"So, since it doesn't specify whose choice of that percentage, it defaults to us, so you can take this old thing and these tools that I don't need. According to my math, it's one fifth of what I got." she adds, throwing her old armor and a set of lockpicks on the table.

By the way, the link in the Campaign info page is not working, I looked for another one.
Also, do we have camping supplies?

I can't edit the campaign. Something is going on with Paizo. Here is THE LINK TO THE WARRANT

Also, did I say 20%? I meant 30%.

No, I don't think you do have camping supplies.

The lieutenant does not look amused to be bandying contract terms like a fishwife arguing over the price of day-old trout.

"Value of all discoveries to be determined by the officer on duty. You can appeal my decisions to Signifer Hast if you disagree."

"Search them," she adds tersely. The guards pat you down efficiently and without regard to gender, then examine your weapons, then step back.

The lieutenant swiftly separates your items into those that are obviously personal and those that look like coins or valuable artifacts.

Who's got a list of what you found since the start?

If a 30% tax seems like a lot... it is!

When the guards move to search her, Lilika removes all of her extra gear and equipment, placing it on the table. Everything but her clothes, of course. Then she stands still and unmoving as she's searched, letting them pat her down as much as they want. She seems unbothered by the whole affair. Or, perhaps, used to it.

I have a list of my stuff, and everything unclaimed. I do not have record of what others claimed.

Wymond snorts.

"Highway robbery, that is. Yer as bad as the lot who tried te jump us on the way here."

Despite this, he allows the guards to conduct their search and empties his pack of the things he'd been carrying for the group, after Perfire had gotten whatever personal possessions he'd given Wymond to carry.

The only stuff listed on my sheet is my personal gear that I brought in. Lilika's got the right of whatever stuff we've found that Wymond might have been hauling for the group.

Who has the Spire Transport Token?

I do. It's the last item under Lilika's gear.

I didn't realize Wymond didn't write down the stuff he was carrying for the group on his own sheet. I know there was also that salted meat. And a bucket. That original cache might have had one other thing not listed that we took. I'll backread in a moment to find it. Also, there might have been an extra weapon or two from the table in the throne room. Again, give me a few minutes and I'll find it. Afterwards I'll be sure to keep track of all unclaimed group stuff (even if it's carried by someone else). Anyone who wants to see it in the future can find it under Lilika's profile, under the spoiler that says 'Group Possessions.' Backreading now.

Okay, I found quite a few things that got lost in the shuffle. I didn't realize none of you guys were recording the unclaimed loot until quite a while after I joined up, so most of it is from before then. Also, keep in mind that none of this is from before I joined. Who was keeping track of gear before me? You got treasure, didn't you?

- a small silver horn etched beautiful carvings of what appear to be clouds which came from a coffin.
- four small wooden coffers of salted food (two with fish fillets, two with slabs of roast boar) I know we soaked and scrubbed it, and ate some of it. I'm not sure how much is left. Either way we kept the coffers.
- bucket
- two extra waterskins
- masterwork bastard sword from the necromancer
- two longswords
- five daggers
- hand axe
- masterwork longsword
- 42 cp
- 10 gp
- three sets of thieve's tools

Lilika, did you get that belt or those potions from the adventure?

Yup, the belt is under the 'Lilika's gear' spoiler up above. She's wearing it. She has some of the potions under her own gear as well. From the more recent potions she and Perfire both took some, plus some extra are under the 'Unclaimed group loot' spoiler up above.

Everything under 'Lilika's gear' 'Unclaimed group loot' and that recent post I made are what we have unclaimed, that Wymond's carrying, or Lilika claimed. If Perfire or Colcille claimed something from the loot for themselves it is not listed in my posts above. That's on them. I haven't been keeping track of everyone's stuff. Only the unclaimed things (after I realized no one else was), and my own possessions.

I only have what I took from the bandits earlier. Who's up for some smuggling next time?

Next time we go to Thornkeep to sell off our loot. Wymond will say as much when they're out of the authorities' earshot.