[PFS_Aerondor] 05-01 The Glass River Rescue (1-5) PbP GameDay 3 (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Sorry for the slow response ... kiddos woke up throwing up this morning. So this post will be brief and lacking narration. Sorry, guys. :(

Jal will sneak down the ladder, then press his ear against both doors, hoping for anything useful.

Perception (ear to eastern door): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Perception (ear to western door): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Hopefully, one of those rolls will give us some more information. If not, Jal will offer to go through the eastern door first, stealthily, of course.

Rolls for opening the chosen door, then percepting/stealthing in:
Perception (ear to eastern door): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Shungur draws his dagger, ready for combat, as Jal heads east.

Oh, good call. Blade is drawn.

and no big spears (or bombs) down here, I reckon.

I'm ready, just open the door

Mylitta also follows, bow drawn.

Any feedback on those perception checks, Aerondor?

Been at home with two sick children myself...

No sound is heard from either door.

The group opens the eastern door and looks through...

This area is bare save for a rickety side table and chair
set against the north wall. A set of keys lies on the table,
alongside a browned, half-eaten apple, stale crust of
bread, and dull paring knife. Ironbound oaken doors lie on
the eastern and western walls, and a door-lined corridor
stretches to the south.

Map updated

"Huh," Jal grunts with a look down the long hall, then he gives Brother Tophor a wink. "Check for traps?"

He then skulks into and southward through the room and hall, trying to keep the group safe. At every door, he presses his ear to try to hear within.

Perception (traps): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Then, take 10 to listen at every door in this room/hallway.
Perception, take 10: 10 + 8 = 18

Been at home with two sick children myself...

Also, sorry to hear it ... it sucks. Hope they feel better soon. (Mine bounced back pretty quick.)

Snatching up the keys, Tophor moves along with Jal, wary of traps and alarms.

Perception, traps: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (8) + 14 = 22
Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Perception, doorway (take 10): 10 + 14 = 24

Mordack cleans off and pockets the paring knife. a nice weapon to use later in this module, yeah right, it is probably an improvised weapon.

There are eight keys on the ring.

Going down the hall, the pathfinders check out the various doors.

Looking at the first you see:

The door to this jail cell has a small window at eye level,
blocked by three vertical iron bars. Matted straw is strewn
across the floor, and a set of manacles hangs affixed to the
wall opposite the entrance. Two buckets sit at the center of
this dank prison

This pattern is repeated, but in three of them, there are dwarven prisoners.

Tophor also notices a loose brick in a wall...

Map updated

I'm not sure which cell we are near...

As they approach the prisoners, Tophor whispers to them. "Greetings, dwarves. We've been sent by the Society to rescue you. Are you all well, and fit for travel?"

Noticing an oddity in the wall's pattern, Tophor gestures to a loose brick in it's makeup. "What have we here?" Turning to Jal, he asks, [b]"A trap, or something else?"{/b]

Being informed of the strange pattern Valrus addresses the dwarves. " You might want to stay in your cell for just a moment, we seem to have found something strange here. "

He then turns to the party. "Lets see what we've got here, this seems almost too easy, so a trap wouldn't seem out of place. Lets deal with it and get out of here before we're noticed!

Mordack takes the 2 buckets with him as they could be useful later.

"We should lend them weapons," says Shungur as quietly as possible. "And make sure they are not hurt." His face does not hide his simmering disgust for Razmiran audacity.

you mean like this sparing knife I took with me from the other room?

You have explored the whole corridor and looked through the cell door windows. The ones with the dwarves in are marked F7 and locked, the empty cells are F6

The cells themselves are all locked, and you can see the dwarves within are manacled as well. They look in poor condition.

"I can walk, just" admits the first. "The name is Rakuska Ingardam." Which is one of the names of the envoys you were tasked with finding.

The two other dwarves are in a similar state.

Are you doing anything with the loose brick, or just leaving it?

I'll carefully pull it out, wary of traps.

Perception/traps: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17                Oof!
Disable Device (take 10): 10 + 9 = 19

"A knife is better than nothing," says Shungur to Mordack. "Rakuska, can you tell us what happened? We have come to this inn unharmed as of yet, but we do not trust our hostesses."

sense motive: 0 + 1d20 ⇒ 0 + (3) = 3 to see if this is a trick.
and Mordack will wait further instructions from his allies.

At the moment you are talking with Rakuska through the door

"Ours story is a sad one. We
bypassed Xer only to be waylaid by a faith barge and
have all our funds extorted from us before they
captured us —though not without a fierce fight! We
three were brought to this place with hoods over our
heads, which our captors removed only when we
arrived at the inn’s gate. "

He rattles his manacles a little. "This is a thirsty story, can you get us out?" he asks before continuing.

"I’ve been interrogated
twice by a merciless Razmiri cleric calling herself Holy
Ahendile. The cleric is convinced we dwarves are
in the country for some subversive, nefarious purpose. The mute
has brought us food infrequently, even sneaking in treats from the
kitchen on two occasions."

He shakes his head.

"The only other people we saw were the smiling
old ladies. That was when we first arrived. "

The maltreated dwarf also relates that she has heard
nasty gargling speech in the jail corridor at times,
as well as a wet, sliding sound, like a mop being dragged
back and forth across the floor.

The brick is un-trapped, and taking it out reveals a small box. Within the box are several locks of hair and a vial of blood.

Mylitta looks troubled slightly. "If thats the case, we should move fairly quickly and get you out of here...the last thing we want are further reinforcements".

"Yes, lets get out of here before the guards find come and find them missing " Valrus agrees.

The doors to the cells are still locked, and the dwarves within still chained up.

Shungur looks troubled at the vial and hair. "Some sort of sympathetic magic?" he wonders. He ponders the dwarves' story for sincerity.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

random rolls to worry players with no other significance: 5d20 ⇒ (4, 5, 15, 9, 8) = 41

As far as anyone can tell, Rakuska is telling the truth. Certainly the dwarves look to be in a pretty poor state.

Feel free to do a spellcraft check about the blood and hair.

Sorry for the quiet. I'll have a post up this morning some time.

Heads up, Tophor’s player’s wife just had their first baby! They thought they had a bit more time (so he’s asked that I apologize on his behalf). He said he’d check in if he can, but otherwise wanted to see if I could bot him as needed. GM Aerondor, you fine with that?

Jal—convinced by the dwarf’s story—checks the cell door for any traps or alarms. ”Shungur, can you tell if there’s any magic on these doors? Or in the cell?”

Perception (cell door for traps): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Assuming there is no magic on the doors/in the cell, Jal takes whatever time is necessary to deal with any found traps and try the key in the lock. If the key doesn’t work, he’ll go to work with some thieve’s tools.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14 <— if this fails, and the key doesn't open the lock, he'll keep at it until he succeeds in getting the door unlocked/opened.

"...I cannot," says Shungur regretfully. @#$%@$#% skill list. Try Mordack?

Jal turns to the acid-tossin' sorcerer. "Can you see if there's magic on the door or in the cell?"

Valrus ponders the purpose of the hair and blood.
Spellcraft, take 10: 10 + 9 = 19

Mordack does not have spellcraft, he has 3 knowledge skills and acrobatics and bluff and his day job.

Who said anything about skills? Do we not have someone capable of casting Detect Magic?

If not, Jal will do his trap search and unlock/open the door outlined above.

…worst…spellcasters…ever…

I have Detect Magic

There is no magic on the door, and the keys open the locks. Jal does notice the hinges are very rusty and will likely make a lot of noise if the door is opened.

As for the blood and hair, well, if one has a body part then it is much easier to scry someone....

Pass on congratulations to Topor and his wife. I doubt we will see much from him. I've got three kids myself and the time when they are very new (especially the first) is very special. Feel free to run his character.

@ Mylitta: that’s very helpful! Though Jal just thinks you’re a silver-tongued hottie … he doesn’t realize you can cast the magics (well, until now, if you just obliged to Detect Magic). :)

@ GM Aerondor: Thanks, I will pass on the kind words. I’m sure he’ll appreciate them.

Jal frowns down at the squeaky hinges, then spends a few seconds tinkering with them to minimize the noise and opens the door as quietly as he can.
Disable Device: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

With the cell door finally open, Jal offers the dwarf a hand. ”The name’s Jal.” He gives a half-grin, ”We’re your knights in shining damn armor.”

Just as quickly, his half-grin fades, and he looks back down the hallway. ”How did they bring you down here? We need to figure the best way out … and quickly.” He looks at the dwarves, taking in their condition. ”Will anyone need help walking? We need to move fast.”

How many horses or mules (or other serviceable mount animals) did Tophor see in the stables?

TOPHOR'S ACTIONS

With Jal handling the cell door, Tophor sneaks to the southern door pressing his ear to try to listen beyond.

Stealth (to approach door quietly): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
Perception (ear to door): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34

And he hears every damn thing within a quarter mile. O.o

Mordack will ready a magic missile in case there is something on the other side of that door.

"Rivers do not leave tracks, and we already know how to bribe the people at Xer," says Shungur with a grimace.

"Hey, I'm just counting the cards in our hand, Shungur." Jal says with a wink, "The fact that they leave tracks may itself be incredibly useful."

"I don't think we have time to put their horseshoes on backward," says Shungur with a grin.

"HA!" Jal barks, shaking his head. "Now you're just being a party pooper."

"Party p-…?" Shungur grows serious. "You would not want to do that at a Kellid party, Jal," he says mournfully, and then allows a grin to resurface. "Anyhow, we have some escaping to do."

The dwarves are quietly released with the help of some grease from the table.

The third dwarf, Pechas Domri, a Pahmet dwarf, offers "Thank you
you for our timely rescue. May the blessings of the Diamond Sage be on you all!"

The second dwarf, Holfist Sendstrom, when asked about how they were got in, adds "When they took our hoods off we were made to go into a bathroom and climb down a ladder. Then the hoods went on again."

He looks around, none of the dwarves look to be able to move fast given their current condition. "I don't think we have much fight in us, no that we're not up for a battle, but one good blow and I'd be done for."

No sound is heard from the door to the south.

Valrus grabs the scrying components. "We best be going up that ladder in the bathroom and make our way out of here. No use going looking for trouble when we've accomplished our mission..."

"Hold on just a second," Jal whispers as he pulls a wand from his pack. "Can one of you put a few touches of this to each of them?"

Assumign a teammate obliges, i'm scratching 6 charges off my wand...
CLW x2 charges on Rakuska: 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (7, 6) + 2 = 15
CLW x2 charges on ?? (the 2nd dwarf, female?): 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (1, 8) + 2 = 11
CLW x2 charges on Pechas: 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (3, 7) + 2 = 12

Also, I keep forgetting this, what does Jal know about the "merciless Razmiri cleric calling herself Holy Ahendile"? (from a few posts up?)
Know: Local: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

TOPHOR'S ACTIONS

At the end of the hall, Brother Tophor checks the southern door for traps, then tries to ease it quietly open ... hoping to discreetly see what's beyond.

Perception (for traps on the door): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23
Disable Device (if necessary, either on trap or to oil hinges on door): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
Stealth (to open/peek discreetly): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Perception (look into room): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26