[PFS] GM Socrates Presents Heroscapers Unite

Game Master Ietsuna

Don't post in here yet.

Some context

Founded over 400 years ago in 4307 AR, the Pathfinder Society originally consisted of adventurers based in Absalom who sought a way to combine their resources and recruit additional help for particularly dangerous ventures. Over time the group attracted new members and continued to grow, and today its members and influence span across Golarion.

Today, the Pathfinder Society continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, and supply hardly keeps up with the demand for new agents. To meet the growing need, the Three Masters, who are responsible for the training of new initiates at the Grand Lodge, have made the difficult choice to advance the promotion of some of the Society’s most promising initiates. In addition, they have taken the unprecedented step of letting a small group of particularly impressive initiates attempt a confirmation together, accompanied by an established field operative.

The Confirmation is the final test all Pathfinder initiates must pass in order to become Pathfinder field operatives. Every Confirmation is different, and ordinarily it would be tailored to the individual initiate; however, in this case, Kreighton Shaine has selected a task suitably engaging for an entire group. At all times, initiates are expected to fulfill the three duties of a Pathfinder agent: explore, report, and cooperate. Failure to adhere to these three tenets risks expulsion from the Society.

Once they have undergone Confirmation, Pathfinder agents are called upon to travel to the far corners of Golarion, delve into the deepest tombs, and solve the world’s oldest riddles. During these dangerous missions, Pathfinders are required to keep detailed journals, maps, and accounts of their exploits. After each adventure, agents send a copy of their records to the regional venture-captain for analysis; especially noteworthy reports are forwarded to Absalom for consideration to be included in the next edition of the Pathfinder Chronicles.

The Society comprises thousands of adventures coming from all walks of life, and it places no moral obligations upon its members. Each member of a Pathfinder Society adventuring party is expected to forgo all personal and theological differences and work together to achieve the Society’s goals.

You stand before a run-down inn in the Merchant's Quarter of Absalom. The sign, a pig standing on its hind legs with its arms folded over a corpulent belly, tells you you're in the right place--the letter you received last night just said "Start where it all began. Meet us at the Pig’s Paunch one hour before dawn"--so you head inside. You're greeted by the smell of sweaty people, stale tobacco, and old food. You recognize Kreighton Shaine sitting by a table and walk over to join him. He sushes you if you try to speak to him, encouraging you to introduce yourself to the other students instead.

I won't normally use this tense--I typically say "the party" when addressing the players--but it felt appropriate here.

Go ahead and Roleplay your character's entrance to the inn, introduce your character to the others, and roleplay with them. After you've had a few days to get to know each other I'll move us forward.

Dahlia arrives a half hour early and orders a watered whiskey to help get her started this early in the morning. She then spots a sizeable dead potted plant in the corner and sits behind it like a hunting blind.

What am I doing here? How did I let Easy talk me into this foolishness? Society? I don't know how to fight, and some idiot will probably go rushing in against a dire-demon-giant-ogre-moth and get me killed. pfft.

Dahlia will then sit, wait, and watch to see what yahoo's come in to meet Kreighton before going to introduce herself.

Easy admires the sign outside, and marvels at the number of people around. A proper adventure! Here we go! But why are all these people sweaty? It's not even sun up yet! Or maybe they don't take baths?

She sees Kreighton from across the room and approaches his table, stopping about five feet away. She spots the potted plant and correctly intuits who the skulking figure is behind it. Indifferent to the strangers throughout the room, she shouts: "Dahlia! He's sitting right here!" Only then does Easy turn to address Kreighton, ignoring his attempt to shush her. "She's blind as a bat, that one, sometimes."

Easy draws out a chair, but hesitates before sitting, waiting to see if Dahlia gets up. If not, Easy will take a step toward her, and see if that gets her moving.

This is just the sort of idiocy that will get me killed...and from Easy, who I thought to be at least a little smarter than your average short lifer.

Dalia sighs, downs the rest of her whiskey, gets up and walks over to the table of adventure beginning. She gives Easy the evil eye and then turns to say hello to Kreighton, but the simple words are choked by a nervous giggle rising in her throat. She then sits and quietly chuckles to herself as she waits for the rest of the party.

Makolen walks down the street toward the Pig's Paunch ignoring any peculiar looks that may come his way. He is long used to looks of hate and fear that are often directed toward him due to his parentage. As he approaches the tavern he notices the sign, The ghost of my father haunts me still , this brightens his mood as be walks through the door. "Hello comrades" Makolen says with cheer in his voice as he approaches the table.

Zemeri steps into the bar at precisely the moment she was directed to appear. She scans the room and notices the appropriate table. She walks over twiddling a trinket in her hand. She sits, eyes narrowed. The effect is enhanced by the birthmark around her left eye.

" Zemeri. I'm an oracle. Seems some of you are acquainted with each other, but I'm not very familiar with any of you. Mind if you tell me more? "

She may be young, but she knows she's left a good enough impression to be invited to this meeting

Dahlia nods her head towards Easy.

Sure, I'll tell you more. The little one there is Princess Buttercup of Munchkinland. She has come to prove to daddy that she's a big girl now.

Dahlia then straightens herself up as much as her badly twisted spine will allow, and puffs out her scrawny chest in her linen robes.

I am her sworn defender, the mighty barbarian, Oopsalog Thickhead.

As Dahlia tries to hold in laughter at her own poor humor, it causes her body to shake convulsively. This causes a small brown owl head to pop out of the hood of her robe and peer over her shoulder inquisitively.

Oh yeah, this is my mighty steed, Bucephalus.

Grayson stood across the street of the Pigs Paunch watching people come and go for 15 minutes or so, making note of anyone that looked like they could cause a problem. He stands in the doorway for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light, and counting the number of people inside, making special note of anyone that looks dangerous.

He's a large man, grizzled and scarred, despite only being in his late 20's.
He nods to Kreighton and walks over to the table, and sits, putting his back to the wall, where he can see the door.
"Trache Grayson, Call me Grayson."

Makolen and Zemeri approach the table simultaneously. Seated at the table is Easy, a late-middle aged halfling. Her hair sits on top of her head in a big bun. She wears a mixture of peasant clothes and simple armor, and she has a (halfling-sized) longbow and a spear leaning against her chair. She looks completely at ease and happy to be where she is, though her appearance also gives away that she's new to city life.

Easy watches Makolen and Zemeri as they approach, meeting their eyes respectfully, kindly, and very slightly imperiously. She is the image of a schoolteacher out of place, which is more or less the truth. Makolen, in particular, might appreciate the calm way in which Easy looks at him just like he's a regular guy. Half orc, whatever, she doesn't seem to notice or care.

"Greetings! I am Esmerelda Spivot, but everybody calls me 'Easy.' I used to teach archery at a little country school, but now the school is closed so here I am. I've never met an oracle before, dear."

Easy looks expectantly back at Zemeri.

edit: . . . and she smiles kindly at Grayson, as he introduces himself and sits down. For the moment, she is responding to Dahlia by ignoring her, though it's obvious enough that the two are friends.

Makolen nods to Easy as a smile of appreciation crosses his lips. He is dressed in loose traveling clothing that looks sturdy but by no means new. He is carrying light weapons and his hands are wrapped in strips of dirty cloth.

"My father was a drunken pig much like the one on the sign over the door. He was dark, violent and mean and took any offense as an excuse to beat my mother or me. I learned at an early age to be quick and stay out of the way. My mother was kind to me but she was scared all the time. We finally escaped my father's clan but they hunted us down and my mother died at his hands. I was left to starve." Malkolen stops, as a look of pain crosses his face.

Zemeri continues to twiddle the trinket absent mindedly. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth as she eyes the halfling. They seem watchful but burdened.

"A pleasure Esmerelda. I don't recommend it. Haven't a clue why I had to be chosen and is not like there's many clues. The gods work in mysterious ways. Plus you get some fun curses from the gods. It's the best. "

The trinket falls out of her hand and lands a fair bit farther away than it should have. Zemeri grumbles and mage hands the trinket back to her hand.

Like that. Archery school sounds much more exciting. How long have you and Oopsalot known each other?

Zemeri's eyes flicker as if to indicate she's aware that's not the witch's real name. She also eyes the other two.

A pleasure to make your acquaintance as well Grayson and I don't believe I got your name.

She gestures at the half orc.

Dahlia goes a bit wide eyed as she listens to Makolen introduce himself. She opens an oversized canvas grandma purse that is slung cross-shoulder over her bony frame and goes rooting around elbow deep inside of it with both arms. After a noisy jangling of many things she comes up with a pen, a bottle of ink, and some somewhat crumpled blank sheets of paper.

Dahlia puts one leg across the other smoothing her robes over them so that the poorly stitched ivy vines show clearly. Then she takes pen and paper in hand, looks at Makolen, nods at a near by bench, and says,

Have a lie down sir, and tell me more about your childhood. Don't dilly dally though, my next patient is here in an hour.

Softly, back to Zemeri:

[b]"Oh, sweet child. That must be so hard for you. Erastil has always been good to me. I imagine I wouldn't like it at all, if my god put curses on me. Who is your god, so I can avoid him? Her? It?"[b/]

Grayson leans back in his chair, adjusting the large shield across his back, and shifting in his scale armor. It's obviously heavily used but in excellent condition, obviously repaired several times. He's constantly fingering the worn wooden handle of the axe hanging off his hip. Eyes flicking to the door every time it opens. He grins easily, which is accented by a large scar that runs from the corner of his mouth to his ear.
"Well this is going to be fun. I've been a merc for the last 10 years or so. Good to know Sarcasm is something that follows all walks of life.
Grayson pulls out a small block of wood and a small knife and begins to widdle.

Dahlia barks an ugly little giggle at Grayson's response, and then smiles, happy to know that there's still some people around who can take a joke. She then proceeds to put her props back in the bag.

Makolen nods toward Zemeri, "Makolen Artar at your service. Usually folks don't care what I'm called, they either want me dead or gone."

Now Makolen turns to Dahlia, "The question usually comes up sooner or later so I just like to save time and answer it up front. "

Makolen looks around to see what food this establishment is serving.

"So anyone know what this means?"
Grayson pulls out a crumpled piece of paper and flattens it out on the table. It says, "Start where it all began.Meet us at the Pig’s Paunch one hour before dawn"

"I don't know about any of you but I don't think I've ever been here before"

Zemeri grimaces in response to the query about her god.

"Don't know. Could be several. I'd hardly be the first that's happened to. Oracles don't get the direct line like clerics do. Personally, I don't trust any of them."

Her hand was clenched around the trinket as she said these last few sentences. She slowly released her grip and exhaled. She turns to the orc and Grayson.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance Makolen. As for the note, despite encountering way too many cryptic things in n my life already I am not sure what it's referencing."

She slumps a bit in her chair.

Makolen motions to a server and orders a large breakfast including eggs, ham, bacon, bread and milk.

"I haven't a clue what the note means but I figured there would be gold or intrigue involved so I decided to check it out. Hopefully the service here is quick, I'm starving."

Makolen anxiously rubs his belly while looking around the room.

Grayson Raises two fingers up to the server.
"I hate riddles I much prefer problems that I can hit"

Easy is very pleased that there's someone who can entertain Dahlia at the table, and she leans over and gives her friend an affectionate squeeze around the shoulders, as if to say "See? I told you it would be fun." But it's not out loud, so she didn't say it in bold.

Grayson pulls out a small block of wood and a small knife and begins to widdle.

"Oh, look! Grayson, that's so good! Are you making a box? Or some other kind of a square? Where I come from, it's called 'whittling.' I don't know what you mean about 'wiggling,' that's something else. Where I'm from."

"I haven't quite decided yet. It usually comes to me halfway through. I do one for every mission I go on."

Dahlia looks at Grayson, gives s little shrug, then pulls a long wicked dagger from its sheath (it looks remarkably unused), and starts carving her initials into the table.

Me too.

What does he do if his mission only lasts a day? Does he take his block and call it a gelatinous cube or something, and decide it's done? Does he have a locked chest in his house, where he keeps the 15 or 20 sticks and blocks from missions that only lasted half a day, or didn't even start, like this one hasn't started yet?

I think I won't ask any more questions about the block of wood. I can't tell for sure but he might be getting grumpy.

Easy looks around at all the interesting people at the table. "Look at how many of us! Kreighton, is this everybody?"

I wonder how pointy Makolen's tusks are. They don't look very sharp. They probably aren't. I won't ask him if I can touch them.

Easy keeps her thoughts to herself.

"Well hang on. I need to know how all of you handle yourself. I can presume that you" Grayson points at Easy "like to stay in the back of the group and pick people off. And you Grayson gesture to Makolen "Probably like to stay around the edge of the battle and hit people when they ain't looking. But you two" Grayson points his knife at Dahlia and Zemeri, "I've never worked with an Oracle or..." Grayson trails off to not offend but he wiggles his knife at dahlia "Before, But I know magic is dangerous and confuses the hell out of me so I assume that's what you two do. So, anyone got any tricks they wanna share with the class?"

"Well I'm primarily here to look good." Says Dahlia (with her 7 charisma).

"I'm total shit at fighting though, so I'll be hiding as best I can, and, hopefully, screwing with the heads of any meany-pants bad guys we encounter to either make them have a harder time hitting us, or make it easier for us to hit them. But, mainly just the looking good thing." She says, and then, crinkling her eyes at Grayson, she once again digs in her bag and pulls out a tortoise shell comb.

"Speaking of which, I've also got this comb here if you wanted to tame that rat's nest on your head."

Grayson blinks twice slowly at Dahlia, then up at his head as if looking at his hair then back to Dahlia
"Thanks but I'm okay. It'll just get messed up inside my helmet anyway. Besides we don't want you to have too much competition for your looking good thing"

So, anyone got any tricks they wanna share with the class?"

Esmerelda uses Grayson's attempt to address the others, along with the bustle of the crowd, to hop quietly down from her seat and quickly sneak around to the far side of Grayson. She is as quiet and invisible as she can be, before she taps him on the shoulder.

"I can also do a bit of sneaking."

Just for funsies, I will roll a die:
Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

edit: Hah!

But I know magic is dangerous and confuses the hell out of me so I assume that's what you two do. So, anyone got any tricks they wanna share with the class?"[/b]

Zemeri waits for the others to finish. She sets down the trinket and cracks her knuckles and looks Grayson directly in the eyes.

"Magic is my primary specialty. There's lots of neat tricks I can do."

With a flick of her fingers and a few brief mutters, she brings a cup to her. More flicks and mutters and the cup is full of water. She pulls a small object from her bag and mutters again while touching the object to the cup and it is suddenly glowing bright as a torch. She then begins to drink. Her eyes never left Grayson's throughout this entire process staring at him watching how he reacted.

"That's fairly basic stuff. Some of my other stuff isn't as conducive to a crowded setting where innocent people could get hurt."

She downs the glass and places it on the table.

"I wouldn't expect me to remake the heavens any time soon, but then again I don't know what new abilities I'll be granted from whatever mystery gods chose me. For now, you can expect me to make things easier for our group and harder for our enemies."

Makolen grins a tusky smile as the server arrives with the breakfast he ordered. He wolfs down a large fork full of eggs and tears off a chunk of ham. With a full mouth he says " Mwmws arhdd meswer"

Makolen swallows a big gulp of milk. "Let me try again.... Grayson you are correct, I do like to wait till no one is looking and then smack them around with my fists or cut chunks out with my kama"

Makolen pulls out a wickedly curved blade on a short bone handle that resembles a sickle but appears to not be used for grain. He tests the edge of the kama and then returns it to its sheath.

Makolen smiles at everyone at the table and then voraciously falls back into his breakfast.

Her eyes never left Grayson's throughout this entire process staring at him watching how he reacted.

Grayson squints at Zemeri as she shows off. But ultimately remains passive.

First of all, y'all are doing awesome at this. Glad to see you're taking to it and your characters are starting to more or less get along.

Kreighton Shaine perks up at Easy's question and looks around. "Yes, yes, I suppose this is everyone. There will perhaps be one more but they must be running late..."

He springs onto the table and addresses you "Well well, let's not wait around all morning, shall we?
Welcome! Welcome, my students! Please sit down!" He says enthusiastically before sitting himself, cross-legged right there on the table.
"Ah, breathe it in! Can you smell it? This is where the Pathfinder Society got its start--over four hundred years ago, under this very roof!
And now, today, you will begin your Confirmation! The other Masters, Farabellus, Zey, and myself all agree that you've shown your worth and dedication to the society. It's high time you show us that you can handle being full field operatives.
Janira!"
An excited halfling woman steps forward wearing a large backpack with all kinds of tools, pouches, scrolls, etc. strapped to her person.
"Janira will be going on your Confirmation with you. She will be an invaluable resource for you, because she first discovered the very caves you will be exploring on *her* Confirmation!"
Janira nods and pitches in with a wide smile "Hello future Pathfinders! Just six months ago I was mapping cave entrances in the foothills of the Kortos Mounts when I saw a lone gillman entering a secret cave. Shortly after I finished the mapping I saw *another* lone gillman enter as well. I checked the cave out but couldn't find them..."
Master Shaine bounds to his feet, "Pathfinder-Initiates! Your assignment will be to travel to these caves, explore them, document them, and most important of all, learn what the gillmen are up to in there! Oh, and please don't die." Then he hops off the table and strides out of the inn, humming.

Janira breathes in and out to calm her obvious pride and excitement at leading you. "Does anyone have any questions before we get started? Personally, I'd love to know a little more about each of you and why you decided to join the society."

knowledge geography: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
knowledge history: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22 <- Oops, don't have the training.

Geography: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
History: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

Dahlia tilts her head with interest when the Gillmen are mentioned.

”Huh. A few years ago, when crushed with boredom, I decided to learn the ancient dead language of Azlanti. But, I’ve heard it said that the Gillmen are the last remaining descendants of the Azlanti people. If that is true then I wonder if they still speak the language?”

Grayson smiles at Janira.
"Grayson. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I grew up on a farm. Got bored, so I joined a Mercenary group. Thats where I learned I'm generally pretty good at taking a punch. Didn't like the way they were running so I left. Went looking for the next adventure and found myself here."
Grayson wipes his mouth with his sleeve finishing his breakfast.
"So Janira. What can you do? You've been where we are going, what can you tell us about the area? Also what in the devil is a gillman or an azlanti??"
Grayson says, sizing up the newest addition to the party. Trying to put together how helpful she may be. He briefly glances at his shield.
I'm gonna need a bigger shield if I'm supposed to protect all these people.

"I was finished teaching, so I wanted to make the world a better place while my knees were still up to the challenge of adventuring. And Dahlia was bored out of her mind."

Knowledge geography: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (3) + 0 = 3

Zemeri with no real idea about any of this, eyes the halfling and smirks slightly.

"Pleasure to meet you Janira. I'd like to know why I was chosen for my particular path. Oracles don't really get many good clues. So since I needed to find my path, the decision made sense."

She mutters quietly.

"Not like I had much I could do otherwise."

What she said...bored.

Janira grins at Dahlia; "It's always exciting to meet another knowledge seeker! I love all kinds of knowledge, but especially history--particularly the history of the society! I don't actually know for sure how they came to be or whether or not they are related to the Azlanti. Wouldn't it be great to find out?"

She turns to Grayson. "I'm a mixed bag of skills. I can do a lot of things well enough to survive and explore, but I'm not an expert in anything--except society history, perhaps. As for the area, well, when we get to the wilderness we'll be in the territory of centaurs, minotaurs, and harpies. Hopefully we won't run into any of them... Gillmen are a human-like species with gills on their neck. They keep to themselves, but they're not typically hostile towards the rest of us."

She smiles at all of you. "Well, there is one thing I can tell you for sure: the life of a Pathfinder is not boring!"

"As for me, well, I joined the society four years ago after I came of age; to see the world and try all of its different foods! But I soon came to love learning and preserving knowledge for its own sake. I want to get some of my work published in the Pathfinder Chronicles someday and even become a true Chronicler!"

"Where did each of you grow up? How do you handle yourself in a fight? You look like a hefty bunch. I'm glad you're on my side!"

Please feel free to post your answers, but I'm going to move us forward some.

---

After hearing out your answers and making some appreciative remarks, she dives into planning out the mission. "Master Shaine reviewed my notes in detail and he's convinced that it's not just happenstance that I saw them enter the caves at full moon. Tomorrow night is our best chance to find out what's important about these caves and what they're doing there."

"The caves are at the foot of the Kortos Mounts. We'll have to move pretty fast and use all of our daylight to get there in time. We'll cross over the Cairnlands towards Diobel and then make our way through the wilderness. Hopefully we won't run into any of the local inhabitants," she makes a wry grin. "Then we can explore the caves, figure out if any Gillmen are there, or were there. We should also keep an eye out for any *other* significance the cave may have while we're there."

"Before we get started, does anyone have any other questions about where we're going or the mission?"

Makolen finally finishes his breakfast and drains the remainder of his milk in one big gulp.
"Sorry I didn't want to be rude and talk with my mouth full again. I have to work on that since my orc side has no manners.

Makolen turns to Janira,
I chose to join up to meet new comrades, explore new places, and find lots of stuff.

Dahlia rolls her eyes at Janira, though truly she is impressed to find someone of non elven blood who values knowledge moreso than the ability to beat their neighbor over the head.

"What does Shaine think the significance of the full moon is? The tide? Religion? The ability to frolic outdoors at night?"

Zemeri fidgets with her trinket.

"If you haven't already guessed, I'm Varisian, but I'm nothing like the thieving con man stereotype. I'd rather not talk about where I grew up though."

She stares down at the floor eyes shut. She is taking some effort to keep herself from doing something. She says nothing more as Janira explains the rest, simply nodding where appropriate.

Easy touches the pendant at her neck. At a glance, it's an arrow in a notched bow, which one might expect an archer to wear. Anyone taking a second moment to look at it would likely be familiar with one of the symbols of Erastil, one of the old gods. Unsurprising, for an archer paladin from the wilderness.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to right some wrongs, if I can. And I want to see the world, too, or at least to see some of it.

I grew up in Remington, a little village near the road to Diobel. It's closer to Diobel than it is to Absalom, really, but it's not quite on the road. It's far away and lonely, so here we are!

Easy is completely guileless. She's just happy to be here, and it shows on her face and in her tone of voice.

I grew up in Varisia near Korvosa. My mother was Varisian Wanderer and her tribe took me in after she died. Although they are mostly known as travelling performers, some of the Varisians are adept fighters. I was in the charge of one of those fighters and she taught me what I know today. She taught me that size and brute force aren't the only ways to win a fight but that motion and agility can be powerful also. Do gillmen normally inhabit caves?

Grayson sits hand on his chin, listening intently as everyone talks content to let those more knowledgeable than him do the thinking.

Easy watches her new companions chew their food. It doesn’t smell like good food. It smells like body odor in here. I’m glad I ate already.