Iron Gods Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Daniel Penfold 351

"I've no leads on the farm, but deal with whatever the issue there is first and then we can discuss the leads on the spy."

Zimdoz nods, "will do. To the farm, then?" Zimdoz packs up his things and looks ready to go speak to Jevik.

Poshment leaps upon Zimdoz's shoulders and points to the door. "TO THE FARM!" he cries.

The odour of pigs marks Jevik's farm before it comes into view. Visible from a wide break in a roadside hedge, the house has been recently painted and sports a wide porch with several chairs. An orchard is partially visible behind the house. A few sheds and two connected pens occupy most of the side yard, but the fencing of the pen has been splintered and the earth churned. You swiftly realise that something dire has happened here for a great amount of blood has been splattered over the house's front porch.

She sighs as she watches Poshment leap onto Zimdoz shoulders and reaches over, picking him up and shifting him to her own shoulders as she heads out.

Map updated

You see an area where the trees themselves have been smashed down to form a clearing. In the clearing is a creature that appears to be a mix of different animals fused together, with a bear’s torso and head, clawed ape legs, and a furred tentacle arm.

Knowledge arcana

Alldur studies the creature carefully for a few moments, taking in all it's varied parts.

Know Arcana: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32

Alldur, you recognise the creature as a Yoaguai. It has fast healing, spell resistance, minor damage reduction, it is immune to being nauseated and sickened but it can be hurt although not changed by polymorph effects.

Poshment cheers as he is lifted onto Vivianne's shoulders. "WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!" he screams into the sky.

At the sight of the thing standing in the clearing, he begins to squirm, his little hands mussing up the Paladin's hair. "EWWWWW! What is that?!" he whines in disgust. "No way that is friendly! Too ugly!"

Sliding off of perhaps the most valiant steed ever, he totters over to Grezzag and smacks his butt. "Alright my betrothed, the power of our relationship will make that thing hurt you less! No promises if it really gets to mutilating you though. Remember, till death do us apart!"
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Extended Shield Other on Grezzag! I don't have the bandwidth to do a proper bot of Grezzag, but I can do combat stuff if nobody else wants to! Might need a reminder or two though to get into the habit of it though.

@Poshment- yeah that's fine and would be very helpful if you don't mind.

I’ll make an updated Grezzag statblock with gear and put it in the discussion tab.

Zimdoz scratches his head, ”ugh, gross. Okay - do we have to fight this thing?”

'I reckon we could try talking to it first.' Alldur cups his hands around his mouth 'Excuse me! You, yes, you, the Yoaguai. I don't suppose we could talk you into leaving this poor farmer alone?'

Make a diplomacy check or a handle animal check

"But its so- OH MY GAWD ALLDUR NO!" Poshment shouts. Oh geez, oh geez, oh geez!

"Uuuuhhhhh, yes please, if you could, you know go away? Like far away? Probably forever? Blood needs to stay inside of people!" he stammers, completely uncomfortable with talking to that.

gotta love straight rolls

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15

The beast listens slightly but still seems hostile.

Anyone want to assist?

Zimdoz tries, ”listen, could you leave this farmer, as my friend asked? We could buy you some food, maybe set you up where there’s no other folks. Maybe if you protect the town they’ll keep feeding you?” Zimdoz asks, shrugging at Alldur.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (19) + 0 = 19

She sighs and reaches into her backpack, grabbing some of the dried meat from her rations. "...Are you all even sure that it's intelligent? It looks like an animal."

Glancing at the Yoaguia, she walks forward a bit and holds out slowly holds out the dried meat. "Here, hungry big guy?"

Handle Animal: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

The yaoguai takes some of the food and retreats into the clearing to eat it but it makes no other aggressive moves.

...I don't know why I didn't even roll... I meant to...

"Looks like we're back in business!" Poshment cries with glee as the big ugly lumbers away. Climbing back onto Vivianne's shoulders, he does his best to restrain himself from steering her with her hair towards the farmhouse.

She smiles a little and shakes her head, turning and walking over towards the Farmhouse. "Not too different from the dogs back home when you get down to it."

The youagai finishes eating and heads off to the north, heading out of the region of Numeria.

Heading towards the farmhouse you find a farmer and a hog, both of which appear to have been slaughtered by the youagai.

"...That's not good, right?" Poshment asks, pointing at the corpses. Milani, if only I was worthy of bringing back the dead! "Let's look around! Bet he had something tucked away here."

"...You do that, I'm going to go find a shovel to dig a grave and bury the farmer. Iomedae knows they deserve that much."

Alldur seems pleased that his ruse worked on the creature. 'Smart beast!' He proclaims enthusiastically.

He shrugs at the dead farmer and pig 'At the very least the pig may be salvageable.' With that he begins scouring the farm with Poshment.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Perception (Aid) vs Alldur: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Sorry, forgot to roll... again... Idk how I've managed to do that.

Poshment also looks around on his own, relying on his own rattish senses to uncover anything of interest.

”We should bury these two, say some words.” He says this as he looks around. ”Did anyone find any papers for next of kin? It’d be nice to let them know what happened, pass along some of the farmer’s things.”

Zimdoz quaffs his potion of heightened awareness and searches. Take 10 on perception for 26.

Apart from the bodies of the farmer and the hog you do not find anything else of interest.

What do you want to do?

Poshment rubs his chin. A lot (probably for wisdom). "I'm no doctor, but I think taking back something of his as proof and sharing the news is all we can do here. Oh, and arrange for a burial. Bet someone will want to verify our story..." he points out. "Let's go then, times a wastin' and the Technic League doesn't waste time!"

'Suppose we take his bloodied clothing? It would be quick to remove his tunic... or what's left of it.'

You take the clothing back to Redfang who thanks you for your help and then gives you a hearth mantle.

"Well, you've proved yourselves so maybe you can help me with my other problem. A few days ago one of the town's hunters killed a mechanical bird north of town. It shattered revealing a piece of paper with the area of Badwater encircled. It also had a message on it which I can't red but which I know to be used by the Technic League."

"I bet one of us can read it, give it here!" Poshment insists. Twisting and turning the message, he shoos all hands away until he eventually gives up (a mere thirty seconds). Crestfallen, he hands it to another person to look at before taking a seat and praying to Milani.
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Poshment is going to protest the situation by praying to Milani to fill out his new spell slots! Alldur, if you'd rather Poshment uses a spell for comprehend languages, rather than your wand, lmk and I'll get it in there!

Zimdoz thanks Redfang for his reward.

Zimdoz wrinkles his nose, and hands Poshment a vial with silver liquid. ”Drink this and you can understand.” He smiles at Poshment and then his face turns neutral. ”Please don’t jump on me again, though. You are quite heavy.”

Poshment snatches the vial and looks at it closely. Doing his best to discern what it is through direct observation, he eventually shrugs and downs it in one go. If he manages to retrieve the scroll again, doing his best to whine and climb all over people if needed, he tries to read it again. Subconsciously, he rubs his steadily forming pot belly.
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Thanks :)

[i]Using the vial you can read the message. It reads as follows:

"Locals identified southern springs as the source of the area's mutations and now avoid it. Afflictions consistent with mutagenic gas poisoning, as you posited from Silver Mount expeditions. I will explore with caution;locals avoid the area and my current cover would seem noticeably out of place were I discovered there."

She'll just hand Poshment the scroll to ensure he doesn't climb all over her.

Dutifully, Poshment recites the text for the others to hear. "Does that sound like something tech related or how should we approach this? I could pray for anti-poison magic tomorrow morning!"
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You're no fun :P

"From the town's point of view what is most important is uncovering who the spy is."

"Oh I seeeeeeee," Poshment says while squinting his eyes knowingly. "Any leads or should we just start poking around town until someone makes some noise?" That Technic League scum! They can't hide forever!

"Well, there are two leads as I see it.

The second lead is this. If there's a spy in town, chances are good that he or she is a recent arrival (present company excepted of course). I recall some travellers camped in Heddick's yard recently. Perhaps they know more?"

Poshment closes his eyes as he ponders the situation before him. Technic League... Bad. Technic... League bad? Technic League bad. Technic League bad! Technic League BAD!

TECHNIC LEAGUE BAD!" he shouts as he jumps into the air. Clearing his throat, he brushes some fake dust off of his trousers and straightens his well pressed shirt. "To the yard first? Technic League bad, so a spy should be our first priority!

Alldur nods sagely 'Indeed, Technic League VERY bad. The yard sounds like a logical place to start.'

Zimdoz nods in agreement, and follows along. "I don't know much about spying, but I can sneak if you need me to. We should go to the yard."

The yard is a lumberyard with a number of Varisian style tents in it.

The owner of the lumberyard, Heddick is bellowing orders to his workers as they process the lumber.

"Do we think sneaking is worth it or should we just walk in and see what happens?" Poshment pitches to the group once the yard comes into view.

'I think sneaking will just draw more attention to ourselves. Let's just take a look around!' Alldur almost house to shout over the growing din of the approaching lumber mill.

[i]The owner of the lumbermill steps forward slightly as he sees you.

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

"We heard you host travelers and would like to see if we can stay too!" Poshment says with a wide grin. "Then we can make all sorts of friends with locals and other travelers! Hooray!"
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Diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25

"Why can't you just stay at the inn?"