[PFS] GM Skipper's #2-04 Shadows Fall on Absalom (Inactive)

Game Master SkipperD

"It seems there's a mystery to be solved here... The game is afoot!"

Casting Heightened Awareness, Investigative Mind, my Corruption Resistance SLA, and Mage Armor from my wand, if the wizard doesn't mind activating it for me.

So, what's with all the parchment? Quiven will try to see what its all about.

Marta will move into the room and look for anything out of place or odd.

Perception: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (19) + 23 = 42

Forgot the +2 from heightened awareness last time

"OK you all go do your look-sees. I will wait here for when violence is needed." Jaggar says as the others run around searching. He stands with his back against the wall near the entrance watching the others.

Kleetus waits patiently a small distance away, aware that the talkers required some time alone with the man before they called upon his services. "Ah wonder wut they're doin' in dere. Oh well. They'll explain when explainin' is tha thing ta do" he says very seriously to one of Absalom's many rats.

Of course, the Physician, no worries.

Ouroboreia inspects the maps of Absalom, looking for possible clues of Sidri's intention, or if this is linked to the attempt on Drandle Dreng's life.

Knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Knowledge (arcana, planes) +22, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +14, Knowledge (engineering, geography, local, nobility, religion) +12, Knowledge (history, nature) +20

The Physician sidles up to Quiven, and examines the parchments.

Linguistics?

Several of the pieces of paper are adorned by poorly drawn attempts to portray Dreng, but one of them seems to have captured his likeness quite well. Beneath that one are the words “the imposter must die” and “death to the imposter,” with question marks behind each phrase as if the author were trying to think of a good tag line. Each of the maps on the north wall details a district in Absalom. The westernmost details the Wise Quarter, where several “X-ed” out areas render the map useless. The middle map portrays the Puddles District and has the same treatment as the first. However, the last map, the one on the east side of the room, corresponds to the Ascendant Court, and a thick red circle highlights a tiny building. Scrawled below is one word: “Dreng.”

A more thourough search uncovers a grisly mask made from questionable leathers hidden in the ratty chair, and a dark bluish-gray dye that splatters the underside of the dusty blanket.

I auto-succeed at the Religion. Using Investigative Mind on the Nature.

Nature: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 15 + 2 = 29
Nature: 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 15 + 2 = 36

"Hmm. It seems our friend here is a Skinsaw cultist. And he's been messing around with an arsenic-based dye, likely to extract the toxin to use as poison."

Oh. So, what about these maps? Should we try to find that building and see what it is?

That seems like the best bet. Hopefully it is not Dreng's hideout or he could be in some serious trouble even as we look around here. I wonder why he thinks Dreng's an impostor. Or perhaps he is just mad?

Marta lights up a Detect Magic and makes a last sweep of the area.

Heck, she'll also do a sweep with a detect evil.

"Yes, we can take no chances here so we need to find Dreng. What bothers me is that he left his mask here, whereas one would think he'd wear it in order to "honor" his god by performing an assassination. Still, that house is our best lead, apart from ambushing him here... which may very well be too late." analyses the wizardess.

"What bothers me is that he left his mask here, whereas one would think he'd wear it in order to "honor" his god by performing an assassination."

"What better way to honor the god of secrets than to carry out your... devotions without identifying your patron?"

Marta finds neither magic nor evil in the shack.
So, are you leaving?

Is there any kind of check we can make to identify the circled building, especially if it's the same building where me met Dreng?

Yes, I think so.

Quiven thinks a moment. Maybe the mask was planted? Quiven then asks, Maybe we should take it with us as some sort of evidence, just to be sure?

"Bag it, but quickly. I think we need to get to that building fast."

I'm ready to leave.

catching up on the posts

"Did you all find everything you needed? Not a big fan of this sneaking around. I like the direct approach. Heard of a skinsaw cultist before. Heard they were kinda crazy too. We facing them now?"

@The Physician: With your Knowledge (Local) bonus, you know that the circled area is the location of a high-end costume shop called "The Black Mask". You didn't see the exterior of Dreng's meeting place, so you don't know if it's the same place.

I've added the map at the top of the page. I've placed those who've been snooping around in the shack, but Jaggar and Kleetus go ahead and place yourselves as you wish before we proceed.

Have we checked out the other buildings? I assumed from the description that they were irrelevant, but now that we have a map I'm wondering. This is a map of the building/room Sidri occupied at the Grand Lodge, right?

It's from one of the map packs, so there will be irrelevant details, but yes, this is Sidri's quarters at the Grand Lodge.

Jaggar placed by the door leaning against the wall inside the shack

Kleetus is in the alleyway, as the initial idea was to have The physician apart from the party.

As the party is about to leave, Kleetus' fine-tuned senses warn him of impending danger and spots the ambushers before they can spring their trap.

Kleetus gets to act in the surprise round.
The bounty hunter and the two calistrians are on top of two of the neighbouring shacks, 10 ft off the ground.

The woman on the roof casts a spell on Kleetus.
Will save, Kleetus: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25, but he resists her foul magic.

The archer on the roof takes a shot at Jagger (who's in cover).
Attack: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 13 + 1 + 4 = 24, but the arrow hits the shack instead, bursting into a short lived cloud of magical energy.

Surprise round
Bold may act
_____________________________________________
Marta
Calistrian (green), Bounty Hunter
Kleetus, Jagger, Ouroboreia, The Physician, Quiven
Gladiator, Calistrian (red)

"Yall in there, there be folk out here who look a mite cross with wut we're doin'! Not that we're are in any way shape or form associated, yall on the roofs" chirps in Kleetus, who turns invisible at the cast of a spell.

Casting invisibility. Next turn, I have a potion of Fly waiting for me.

Combat round 1
Bold may act
_____________________________________________
Marta
Calistrian (green), Bounty Hunter
Kleetus, Jagger, Ouroboreia, The Physician, Quiven
Gladiator, Calistrian (red)

Marta will cast shield on herself from the ioun stone, use a swift action to activate a judgment for more AC and saving throw, then move outside.

"You know, attacking pathfinders in the grand lodge is probably a very bad idea, don't you? Who are you, anyway?"

The archer on the roof shouts a response to Marta.

"Filthy, lying Norgorber dogs!"

He punctuates his accusation with a barrage of arrows aimed at Marta.
Attack: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 = 33
Attack: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 = 33
Attack: 1d20 + 8 + 1 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 + 1 + 2 - 2 = 17

The arrows once again burst into magical clouds, which softens the blows quite drastically.
Nonlethal damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 12
Nonlethal damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 12

The puffs seep into Marta's nose and mouth, and she feels some influence pressing on her mind.
Will save, Marta: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (8) + 17 = 25
Will save, Marta: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (13) + 17 = 30
The aasimar's resolve does not falter, though.

The green calistrian jumps down from the roof,
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22, and lands on her feet like a cat.
She then casts a spell, and Kleetus comes back into view.

Combat round 1
Bold may act
_____________________________________________
Marta (24 nonlethal damage)
Calistrian (green), Bounty Hunter
Kleetus, Jagger, Ouroboreia, The Physician, Quiven
Gladiator, Calistrian (red)

It looks like I forgot the rest of the ambushers' surprise round... Oh, well. I guess you lucked out this time.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Not a clue.

"Norbergers? You are what we call a tool. Someone is using you as we are not Norbergers."

"About time things got interesting!" Jaggar says in response to the warning from Kleetus...
The fighter steps out of the shack looks around and sees the gladiator and decides to test his mettle...

GG1+PA+FF: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (9) + 22 = 31
DMG1: 1d10 + 23 ⇒ (6) + 23 = 29

"Nor-ber-gite?!?" asks the disembodied voice of Kleetus, who then seem to change ... drastically. "YOU WOULD HAVE US WORKING FOR THAT PUTRID BAG OF DISHONEST FILTH? BY THE TIME AH'M DONE BEATING YOUR HEAD IN WITH YOUR OWN LEG, THE MASTER OF THE FIRST VAULT, SHOULD HIS MIGHTY GAZE FALL UPON US, WILL HAVE TO TAKE AN EXTRA SECOND TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU ARE YOU BLASPHEMOUS WASTE OF FLESH!!!!"

Kleetus is so pissed, my hope is the bad guys will go thinking "Oh s++&, not only did we get the wrong guys, but now they are going to do terrible terrible things to us."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (3) + 20 = 23

Move action, take a potion out.

Unable to get into combat immediately, Quiven runs outside and looks for a chance to aid his friends after gauging the battlefield!

Move Action to draw weapons and come outside, Standard Action Total Defense (AC 35).

Jagger lands a solid blow on the gladiator while Quiven moves into position.

The ambushers seems unfazed by Kleetus' threats, but Marta's assertion that you aren't Norgorberites seems more effective. Perhaps intimidation isn't the way forward here.

Combat round 1
Bold may act
_____________________________________________
Marta (24 nonlethal damage)
Calistrian (green), Bounty Hunter
Kleetus, Jagger, Ouroboreia, The Physician, Quiven
Gladiator (29 damage), Calistrian (red)

Ouroboreia pops out of Invisibility and attempts to explain the situation in a more diplomatic way than Kleetus.

"I'm afraid there's a dreadful misunderstanding here. We are no more Norgobites than you are, it seems. We are currently chasing Sidri, whom we have proof is a Norgobite. Please, I speak the honest truth, as the sun and moon are my witnesses. All of you stand down."

Diplomacy, Raiment of Command : 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (13) + 25 = 38

-Posted with Wayfinder

The archer gives Ouroboreia a long, hard look, then motions for his comrades to step down.

"Well, Sidri isn't a worshiper of Norgorber either, so why are you after him?"

"Then possibly the Norgobite mask we found in his cabin was planted. We want to interrogate him about the attempt he made on Venture Captain Dreng's life."

-Posted with Wayfinder

Rage flickers in the archer's eyes at the sound of the accusations.

"The mask sure as hell isn't his!"

Regarding the assassination attempts, he has this to say.

"I don't know anything about that. He just said he was in a lot of trouble. Said he had to stop someone. Could've been Dreng for all I know."

Diplomacy, Raiment of Command

I NEED that spell. I'm going to have to work on how to allow my Inquisitor to cast it.

"So no more fighting...? OK then. Sorry about the nasty cut." Jaggar says to the gladiator and then keeps his mouth shut to let the others do the talking.

The archer scratches his unshaven chin before continuing.

"Perhaps... Sidri said something about to some costume shop. You could follow up on that lead, while we snoop around and try and get to the bottom of this mess."

"So you must be Sidri's partners. Any idea who could have planted that mask? Who told you we were Norgobites? Also, we would like nothing more than establishing the truth about Sidri, especially if he's being framed for a deed he didn't do. You know how better than we do. Why would he attempt to kill Drandle Dreng? "

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ouroboreia wrote: Diplomacy, Raiment of Command I NEED that spell. I'm going to have to work on how to allow my Inquisitor to cast it.

It's from Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, along with other fantastic spells (although blood money was too abusable and got banned) . Make sure you buy the book (or the pdf), it's an awesome AP too.

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Indeed we are! I am Darik Dunstin, the burly fellow over there is Utok Crow-Eater and the two nice young ladies are Sonta and Ialyssia Rask. I don't know where Sidri got that mask, but it might connected to his father. I've heard whispers that he is bedfellows with them Skinsaw types. I have no idea why Sidri would go after Dreng, but his actions are usually well thought out, so there must be something we can't see."

Stowing away his potion, Kleetus nonetheless adorns his Tiger mask before stepping out of invisibility, slamming his fist into a nearby tenement's wall to do so. "Tellin' me Ah'm that masked butcher's servant, y'all musta had rocks in yer eyeballs" he grumbles. "So we gotta git to a cost-hume shop fer more infermation? Well then let's git, 'cause Ah'm feelin' a mite sore about this hen-tire situamation right here, Abadar have mercy."

"Hmm, interesting. It seems, yet again, Dreng didn't give us the whole picture."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (6) + 21 = 27

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Heh... Does the old bastard ever?"

The Physician senses no deception from Darik.

"I get that you want to work with folks like us but if anyone finds the guy we get first crack at him."

Perhaps we should team up instead of fighting. Dreng may be under a false impression too. Seems like someone is making the truth hard to find.

Ack. That was supposed to be bolded. Looks like the discussion is going in that direction anyway...

"First crack, second crack, it doesn't matter to me. I'm more interested in seeing that the villain of this whole thing sees the error of his ways, Jagger's way or Darik's way. If he's lucky. My way if he's not."