[PFS_CORE_Aerondor] 04-Special Race for the Runecarved Key (Inactive)

Game Master Aerondor

Liminy is usually dressed as a teacher. No armor to wear. Though since we are suspicious he will use a charge of mage armor ahead of time. If it wears out during a pleasant lunch all the better.

Liminy waves.

"Liminy. A scholar and one of the many parties interested in knowing more about the key. Dr Landis has invited us to help us allay certain concerns we have."

perception #1: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (20) + 17 = 37

perception #2: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (17) + 17 = 34

"How indeed" says the woman dryly, as she moves to have her glass filled again.

You sit down and have a rather chilly first course. Soup. Not that the soup is cold, it is hot, but the conversation... another thing entirely.

kn local: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31

"I don't believe I caught your name." Jayori will hint, conversationally, trying to keep up appearances of a friendly lunch.

"Myself, I am originally from Vudra, the Impossible Kingdoms, as we like to refer to them!" He laughs cheerfully. "A rather pretentious sounding title, to be sure. But we do so love our mysteries! Why I think there were over a thousand gods in our pantheon alone, at last count."

Jayori's just being friendly! Trying to put her at ease!

(If it matters) Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23

The woman gives Joyri a hard look. "I am Makorios." and then shuts down again, calling for another glass of wine as she does so.

Liminy is not a subtle person.

"Tell me Makorios, What interest does the Order of the Nail have in the key? My understanding is that your order of the Hellknights focuses on culling savage races, Not funding the purchase of pieces of history to be interred into museums. Though it could be argued that placing the key in a museum would add to local culture. Will your order be guarding the exhibit? "

Liminy is obviously teasing her a bit but he is genuinely curious about why she wants they key.

Sorry as I'm GM for this as well, I was hoping someone would take the lead. I can do opening up. Seiran is dressed handsomely in the latest fashion and impecable bearing. Not wearing armor helps.

Seiran partakes of the meal though he does it slowly as is the wont of nobles do during his studies. He is more interested to know that The good Doctor's patron is a hellknight.

Makorios stands, directs an icy glare toward Liminy and excuses herself from the table.

"Thank you for the meal Doctor, and best of luck at tomorrow's auction."

Dr Landis looks astonished and bewildered at the development.

Lasaraleen, just enjoying the chance to wear her court gown is sad to see the woman storm out in a huff.

"Well, that could have went better. Although,I think you touched a nerve and she may be disuaded from participating in the auction after all. ."

Seiran chuckles as she turns to the Bewildered Doctor.
"What my friend means is that your patron is actually a represetative from the Hell Knights. I'm not sure about you but I would be leery of such."
Diplomacy 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

"Yes.. I'm afraid so. It seems I must recuse myself from the bidding or risk my museum's independence."

With a job well done you head back to Sheila.

"Well done team. I see you are getting the hang of how things work here!"

She looks through her notes. "Here is another that might appeal to you, chasing down some wicked forgers?" She smiles, slightly scary sight that. None of you will sleep well tonight.

“There were two women at the pre-auction who paid their deposit in Minkaian coins which, according to our sources, may have been stolen during a recent caravan raid. If such is the case, the duo no doubt have dubious intentions. The women call themselves the Duchesses and they likely have ties to one of Magnimar’s criminal organizations; I suspect the Rushlight Society. Still, it is their finances and not their intentions that most concern us."

She nods to the paladins in the group. "Though obviously their intention may be of tangental interest to some of you."

The smiles the evil smile again.

" Some of our more reliable street contacts informed me that the two women were last seen entering the home of a local merchant named Windun Landers. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Landers has a wrought iron rushlight mounted on his door casing. Head to the man’s residence, and see if you can’t figure out how much money these “Duchesses” have. If all is as I suspect, they don’t have enough to bid competitively. I’m also near certain they’re using stolen funds, so leave whatever gold you find. I don’t want us bidding with illegally gotten coin—that’ll create more problems for us than it will solve."

She gives you all a very hard stare (tm).

"Lastly, whatever you happen to find, do not involve the authorities. I cannot risk the courts subpoenaing your testimony during the auction.”

"Someone wanting to steal money from a caravan?" Jayori says. "That sounds familiar..."

He gives Sheila a pointed look.

Being Immune to Fear, Seiran stares back with a smile.
"That's all? Really So are we to do this quietly or with a bang?"

Seiran cocks his head and places a palm underneath to strike a wondering pose.

"Exactly. I thought you would appreciate the chance to Do Something Right." says the exasperated venture captain.

"I would suggest quietly. I for one will not be spending a copper piece getting you out of the watch house if I'm trying to win that key." he adds to Seiran.

"Any more questions? We don't have long before the auction starts... If not, get on with it."

She provides the address of Windun's residence. It appears pretty much as the captain described.

At the dinner
Gadget sits awkwardly through the whole dinner, quietly eating from her plate. She listens and cringes at the conversation, and when the Hellknight finally leaves, she lets out a sigh of relief.

At Sheila
"I... I suppose that's not too bad of a task. We shall do this for you!"

Well this is dreadful news if those Duchesses are involved with ill gotten funds. We can get to the bottom of it. But I am going to change first. I do not want my best gown torn in the process.

Lasaraleen changes back into her adventuring gear and is ready to head back out.

I'm happy for everyone to be back in adventuring mode here if you want. You're currently sitting outside the residence. I think we have under a week left for this part, so time is of the essence.

"Hopefully this Mr. Landers is home, and won't mind us taking a look." He says, with a slight frown. "I have no desire to start breaking in to people's rooms like a common burglar."

He will go up, and knock on the door.

We have no one able to pick a lock, nor much in the way of stealth or invis options... so frontal assault it is! =)

After a moment or two the door is opened and a man peers out. "Yes... no, no, I am not a boarding house. And I am not interested in buying used lanterns, even at half price."

"Well, that is fortunate!" Jayori will respond. As we have no lanterns to sell... even at half price."

He gives the man a friendly smile.

"Are you Windun Landers?"

Assuming confirmation

"Though you may not be a boarding house, we have reason to believe you are putting up two guests." He gives the man a stern glare, attempting to forestall any objections. "I believe they refer to themselves by title, rather then name. Would they happen to be in?"

Diplomacy?: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Hrmm... not sure where this is going. =) But a place to start!

"Oh no. Well... I might have some guests. " he finally agrees, not really wanting to say more.

I can't make that sense motive!

"Might? Jayori says, raising one eyebrow. "You're not sure?"

"Well, it might behoove us to warn you that there might be some concern that these two women, who might be guesting in your home, have ties to various criminal enterprises and might be funding their visit with stolen currency." He explains, trying to project the gravity of the situation through his tone. "Now I'm sure a legitimate businessman such as yourself was not aware of this when you took them in, but it is likely any coins they paid you are from this theft, and are easily identifiable as such. And that's not even touching on if this stolen property were found on your premises."

"It could be the authorities are already making moves." He tries to look sympathetic, rather the accusing. "We merely hope to verify our information, nothing more... so that no one gets gets caught up in such pending investigations, unnecessarily... especially for just being a good host."

At the dinner "When this is all over I really would like to know why the Hellknights want the key. We may run into them again."

Liminy will askk someone to use a charge of his CLW wand on him and Mage Armor himself with a wand before we get here.

sense motive vs Windun Landers: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

"Thorough investigations can be so time consuming. But this seems like the best option for you. We wouldn't want your reputation tarnished in any way."

aid diplomacy: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (5) - 2 = 3

"Look, I really can't talk about them. Not that they are here anyway." he says.

"Look, you seem like nice enough folk, but I Can't Help You."

He thinks for a moment. "Now you mention it, I am low on lantern oil.. Excuse me." he says as he gestures for you to clear the way to the road for him.

Assuming no one actually stops him from leaving...

After he is out of sight Liminy tries to help the paladins.

"Wait. I actually have some oil right here. We could chase him down and sell it to him or do a good deed and fill his lanterns for him."

Liminy actually does keep a lantern and oil for dungeon crawls.

Lasaraleen listens as well to the man's responses.

Sense motive: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

wow, she caught on...

I am sure we are able to help this nice man with his oil problem. In fact I think he would be in dreadful trouble without our oil help.

She moves to the open door and pulls it open all the way.

Shall we?

Lasaraleen thinks he probably left the door open on purpose :-)

Even I got that! =) He's giving us implicit permission to check the Dutchess' room! It's all good!.

Within the main door there is a reception area. A door leads out and large stairs lead upward.

Map is updated

Note: If Liminy sees any lanterns that are low in oil he will fill them. It is the least he can do. He will also close the door after we enter.

"Well, we got it one way or another. Let's check it out!"

Gadget keeps her bow sheathed for now.

BTW, if her Mage Armor wand has worn off she would like to reuse it. Going to assume it happens and already marked off a charge.

Seiran can use the CLW wand if needed.
Sense motive 1d20 ⇒ 7
"Let us go in and search then. I have a feeling that this is all a plan for us to help him while helping ourselves. A beautiful setup if any."

"So where would the guest rooms be?" Jayori muses, glancing around the home.

"Will try upstairs." He offers, as he heads up to the second floor.

Dunno exactly, but will guess upstairs, so will go that way!

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Yes, assume the mage armor was completed
You start to search the house... Jayori doesn't manage to spot anything helpful upstairs.

Radagast does his best to search the area...

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (7) + 16 = 23.

"Anyone spot their room?" Jayori calls from upstairs. "Not finding anything up here. We know how they dress, we know there are two women. How hard can it be?"

He seems genuinely perplexed they can't locate the women's room.

Unless our intel was wrong!?

You search the house and eventually find a bedroom (north east corner) which has a large, heavy chest underneath one of the beds...

"This again." Jayori will say, with a sardonic smile. "I suppose we should try to find the trap before setting it off this time?"

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Open it up. Hope there's some coins. Count them! Go home!

Wow, that is a lot of coins. Heaps of them. You settle down to count.

1..
2..
3...
100..
101..
1328..
1329..
...
4987..
4999..
5000

Oh, wait a moment, did you already count that one.

Think of all the good some of these could do for the orphans of the city...

"We found the coins but not the women. Something is wrong and put those coins back." Seiran reminds his fellow Paladin who might have taken the counting of coins too literally.

Nobody wants some extra cash? Anyone? What about supporting thoe homeless?

"Yes, where is the 'company' ? Something is off with this situation ."

Lasaraleen twists a lock of her her hair while thinking what she missed.

Wrong group to be asking to steel stuff the cash!
And we were told not to take it! And were kinda witnessed coming in. =)

"Perhaps off preparing for the auction, it is not far off." Jayori says thoughtfully. "Whatever the case, we have our count. Hopefully Sheila will be satisfied with the amount."

"We should not stick around too long, the merchant will return eventually, and I'm sure his willingness to look the other way is not endless."

Radagast gives the room a quick once-over, just to see if he finds anything incriminating.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17.

The ridiculously well behaved team puts the gold back under the bed. They probably even make the bed and put in a hot water bottle for who ever was there.

Then, shining with virtue they head back to the venture captain.

"Welll..." she demands.

I'm not sure we will have time to do another, especially with me vanishing for the long weekend, but I'll try...

“It seems the Runecarved Key has attracted the attention of a small exporting company run by the dubious Vaor family of Underbridge. Why the Vaors are interested in the key, or even how they came up with the deposit, is beyond my imaginings. I doubt they have much in the way of finances, but one can never tell. Perhaps they represent someone else more powerful, perhaps not. In any event, I need someone to head down to Underbridge and find out. This map should get you to their warehouse quickly. Best of luck, Pathfinders.”

"More dubious characters." Jayori says. "Excellent!"

"Let us to it, then."

We're getting a lot done for all the same day =)

Yep and It's exhausting. lol
"To the Vaors!"

You have no real difficulty in following the map, and soon arrive at a warehouse. The sound of activity can be clearly heard from inside.

"Let's head in! Maybe we can talk our way through this one as well!" Gadget seems hopeful.

"yes, let's proceed at once ."

Boarding plane home - bot me if action needed before tonight .