[PFS / Shifty] Faithless & Forgotten (Table 3) (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

Two doses. Cannot be too careful!

Cornelia smiles at Thrick once more and she playfully bumps him with her shoulder. "My thoughts exactly, dear Thrick! What life is worth living if you cannot live it up occasionally? Do you mind?" She imitates pouring the oil into the pot. Cornelia will then pour the oil into the stew herself, unless Thrick stops her. "While I'm no great chef like you, I like to dabble with potions, elixirs, and such. I'm a bit of an alchemist, but not like those insane ones like that to blow everything into bits. I prefer the safer routes. " She pats the various bottles hanging from her bandoliers. "So being able to help you spice this up is fun!"

Tem nods to Galvar, picks up a mop and bucket from the storeroom and heads to the latrine. Knowing he will be close by when his team needs him.

Min stays in the back, acting and looking bored as the stew-poisoning goes down.

Back from vacation! Thanks for taking over, Shifty!

Cornelia 'spices the pot', meanwhile Tem heads to the latrines. There is a bit of a chuckle from the guards at the defeat and Galvar looks suitably satisfied with himself.

Tensions begin to thaw, but it is obvious that Tem is quite out of favour with the guards.

The meal is up in about 15 minutes.... any actions?

Sajna sits quietly in the barracks, deep breathing and trying to get over the embarrassment of getting caught snooping around.

Amarandlon decides to break the ice. He considers doing so with a color spray, but decides that since Cornelia got to do...something...to the food, best to hold off for now.

He decides to tell a joke, instead!

Perform (Comedy) [untrained: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

"Hey, do you know how you kill an ogre with a crossbow? ...You shoot him!" He grins and looks around at the guards.

There are a few guffaws, but mostly people just go back to talking and playing cards...

While Thrick continues to cook, Cornelia will use the time to chat him up and see what sort of information she can garner from the young lad. "So, tell me a little bit about this place, Thrick. Do you all keep any sort of interesting documents here? I enjoy a good bit of reading now and again to keep my mind sharp." She lightly caresses his arm. "I'm sure you can appreciate that."

Diplomacy (Gather Information): 1d20 + 7 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 7 + (6) = 18

Using an Inspiration point to boost my roll.

"You're the first guard I've met to ever utter those words I reckon" he jests "Get you a job doing the accounts and ledgers, that's about it for books, suppose over in the administration office they keep the charge sheets too - some confessions perhaps. Don't ask me what's in 'em though, I'm barely a cook let alone librarian" he jokes kindly.

Shera will take a seat and try to join in the card game. "What's the game?"

They look up at Shera, "Five card poker, played before?" they ask as they invite her to sit down, "Take it you haven't spent much time in a prison before either eh?" the guard continues as she takes the seat “We don’t ask what they did to get here; management’s pretty strict about that stuff. They even have a way to soundproof the main prison when they’re interrogating important prisoners so nothing leaks out. Fine be me. I hate hearing them scream.” - the other guards grumble agreement.

***

Thrick continues on bonding with his new best friend Cornelia "What sort of books do you read anyhow? The boss keeps other important stuff in the vault, way in back. You need some kind of passcode to get in. I don’t know how he remembers it; he can’t even remember what month it is sometimes. He won't let you read those but you can probably read the ledgers”

"Five card poker? Yes I've played before. No I haven't been a guard much. Makes sense if you don't know what they are in for. No way to be sympathetic." She ante's up with some coin and keeps talking.

"Do they interrogate people often? Glad to hear we can't listen to them scream sometimes. That would be hard on the nerves. How do they manage to quiet everything down anyway?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

The coin goes down and the cards get dealt "They do, Vasenti is the Chief Interrogator. He worships Dispater, and he’s probably twice as dedicated to running a good prison than the King of Iron. He’s not so good at remembering administrative stuff, but if you get on his bad side, he’ll track you down like an animal and kill you half as humanely. Reckon he probably uses magic or something, the soundproofing is pretty good"

Cornelia chuckles at Thrick's admonishment of his boss, but takes a mental note on his description on where to locate the important documents. "Honestly, I enjoy all sorts of topics! I enjoy reading about history and learning about the ancient civilizations that have risen and fallen long before our time. I have a keen interest in learning about magical items though, when I was younger I had a terrible experience with one that nearly killed me, so that topic is sort of a morbid fetish of mine." She shakes her head slightly. "What about you? Do you have any favorite topic that interests you? Besides cooking, of course!"

He keeps stirring "Not really. Guard, cook, get paid, miss out on the festival and be stuck here. The usual"

Meal up in 5 minutes...

Meal up in 1 minute!

Roldala keeps a wary eye on the guards. This'll be when things come together. Or fall apart entirely

Thrick starts serving meals into bowls, ensuring there will be enough for everyone. The three fresh guards head out to do the rounds whilst those in the room enjoy a meal.

Thrick looks around the room and counts - "Thirteen!? Unlucky number" he laughs and continues plating up.

Galvar gives a short address "Once the meal is done we can rotate more of the crew through as usual, so everyone is eating now as there's no meals on your post. Vasenti would flog you for it, so don't do it"

Everyone is handed a bowl...

You are now all holding delicious bowls of steaming stew... everyone in the room is seated and eating.

Poe grabs his bowl, and a second bowl to take to Tem in the latrine. Going to dump these into the toilet.

Min sneers at the stew offered. "I don't eat such common fare. Thank you, but I will wait for better provisions. I mean, you people don't even have servants!"

Politely declining the meal offered, Sajna reaches into her pack and retrieves some flat bread and a small jar of chutney to sate her appetite.
"I am sorry, I do not mean to cause any offence, but I can not eat the flesh of animals. Please save my bowl for one of the others."

Roldala rolls her eyes in annoyance, Who wants to see me feed the mage?

Minmaximus smiles at the half-orc. "As charming as that mental image is, no. I don't eat save from silver platters. I am a wizard, not a savage."

Everyone stops eating. There is a lot of staring.

Tem wasn’t fed, he’s a ‘ghost’

Shera takes her bowl, and starts digging through her bag. "I know it's in here somewhere." She comes up with a loaf of bread. She breaks it and hands it and some cheese out to the guards sitting at her table. She fusses around not eating the stew but noshing on the bread and cheese. She hopes no one notices the level of her stew isn't going down.

Bluff: 1d20 ⇒ 6

There are now some curious faces, Poe is wandering to the toilet with his bowl, Shera is clearly pretending to eat the soup but not, Min and Sanja are outright refusing it, and an argument is taking place.

Things are becoming a little unsettled...

Min, you up for a little "roughhousing" wherein the stew would get spilled? Clearly, in character, Min wouldn't be up for it, but I wanted to see if that was a workable solution for you.

I have rarely felt so panicked in a scenario. :P Out of curiosity...are we all around the same table? If so, how big is it?

If you are feeling tense and a sense of panic then I’ll take that as a credit to my GNing :)

you are around a pair of tables and some benches per the map :)

Works for me, Roldala!

Was waiting to post my actions until after we figure out what Minmax and Rondala are going to do! I have the perfect idea of how Cornelia is going to avoid eating the stew... :) My post will be a reaction to Min and Rondala.

With a surge of sudden movement Roldala reaches out with her gangly arms to snatch up the irksome wannabe-Runelord. Once she has him loosely grabbed, she nags one of the bowls and starts slowly tilting it towards his face...

"GACK! Release me, woman! I WILL HAVE YOUR EARS FOR THIS!" Minmaximus kicks and squirms violently, knocking into the half-orc's soup-wielding arm!

Sleight of Hand: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (17) + 8 + (1) = 26

Cornelia notices the sudden tension in the room and starts to bring her spoon from her bowl when the fracas breaks out between Minmax and Rondala. "Not again!" She leaps to her feet quickly, surreptitiously knocking her own bowl of stew over and onto her pants (intentionally, but attempting to mask that fact). She pauses long enough to look down at the mess before storming over towards the quarreling duo with a fury in her eyes. "Enough, the two of you, enough!"

With an angry swat of her hand, she knocks the bowl completely out of Rondala's hands and sends it flying to the ground. "I have had enough of your quarreling! Look what you made me do!" She gestures to her soiled clothing. "Both of you separate, get to your stations. If I hear any more disagreements tonight, you will both be mopping the latrines with your bedrolls!"

Disarm: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

The soup spills, as much as Roldala can manage splattering across Minmaximus's robes.

Oops.

Bluff to look at all sorry: 1d20 - 4 ⇒ (8) - 4 = 4

Roldala snatches up her hammer and stalks out of the room.

"Roldala! Wait, you can't go out there without Galvar!"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 9 + 3 + 2 = 24
Sajna does her best to try and smooth things over with their supervisor as Cornelia's plan begins to fall apart.
"Please, forgive my colleagues. We have worked together a short while only, and these two are a particularly poor match in personalities."

The burning of embarrassment on her cheeks, the merchant tries to remain calm.
"I swear, what they lack in manners, they more than make up for in ability. But it would perhaps be wise to station them in separate halls..."

IF Amarandlon thinks this spell would work, and IF there seems to be sufficient distraction...

While everyone's attention is on Roldala and Minmaximus, Amarandlon quickly mutters a quiet incantation and waves his hand over the bowl, casting a prestidigitation to vanish the stew.

Stealth?: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Roldala begins the ruse, picking a fight with Minmaximus and the end result is that the man has soup all over him - the guards have a chuckle and one coarsely calls over "How's ya silver platter now 'Princess'?" which elicits some subdues guffawing. Roldala dumps the complaining wizard and tries to look like she's sorry when admonished by Cornelia, but aven the most gormless fool could see Roldala is not sorry and only feigning it as she walks out of the room.

Galvar looks like he is about to explode at the display, but Sajna manages to look fairly convincing and contrite - and Galvar notes her (sensible warning). Rather than explode he walks out, signalling Cornelia to follow.

Once in the hall Galvar and the guards halt Roldala and there is a pointed but measured dressing down of the half-orc and her 'boss', words such as 'professionalism', and 'standards', as well as 'decorum' are thrown about.

Meanwhile, the party has managed to offload their collective bowls of stew.

Amarandlon, not sure Presto makes things vanish, but the spell, stealth check, and in-game distraction should cover it as a bit of logic+fiat

The guards go back to eating.

Thrick looks enormously uncomfortable and puts down his bowl. You can see his hands are trembling.

In the hall, the discussion continues in detail.

1 minute elapsed

Min lets out a manly (not at all) scream of indignation as he's splattered by the soup. He does his best to sop the soup off, but he splutters too much to be solely effective. He stalks outside after the half-orc woman. "SAVAGE! HOW DARE YOU SOIL MY ROBES!?!" Catching up with her he jabs his finger toward her chest and in a low voice whispers to her.

Shera sighs at the interruption, and then goes back to eating her bread and cheese. "That's normal for those two. They can work together, but..." she shrugs.

Roldala's face darkens in a sudden blush as she shoves Min away, a look of shock on her face.

NO! No I'm not!

If the stew is bad enough, I was thinking it would fall under the large envelope of "cleaning" the bowl. :D

Amarandlon watches all the guards carefully. He sees Thrick's hands trembling, but no other evident effects...What did that human woman do?!

Min looks confused and hurt for a moment, then laughs. "Ha! Of course not. Just an ...acting choice. Definitely not true." His laughter is obviously forced and he clears his throat loudly. "Ahem, did it work? Are they succumbing?"

Galvar looks stunned at the clear impertinence of Minmaximus as he wanders into the hall and continues with the exact behaviours he is almost finishing lecturing Cornelia and Rooldala about. He looks at Cornelia with grave disappointment and a growing sense of livid outrage "You obviously can't keep these people in line. I shall aid you"

"Guards! Take this pair down."

***

There is the collective dropping of spoons as the guards rise and make for the hallway, drawing saps as they go.

In the hall, Galvar and some of the guards draw saps and begin swinging with force.

Galvar
Attacks Minmaximus.
Attack 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 3 + 2 = 24
Damage 1d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 2 = 7 NL

Red
Attacks Minmaximus.
Attack 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 2 = 9

Orange
Attacks Roldala.
Attack 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 3 + 2 = 21
Damage 1d6 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 2 = 7 NL

Thrick moves up, but just tails the group and simply surveys the scene.

R1
Poe
Sajna
Cornelia
Shera
Amarandlon
Minmax
Tem
Roldala

Min lets out a cry of indignant anger as the man attacks him. "YOU DARE TOUCH ME?!? CURS! I WILL SEE YOU WHIPPED LIKE THE DOGS YOU ARE!"

Concentration to cast defensively, DC 16: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14 However his spluttering anger ruins his casting! Instead he steps to the NE 5 feet!

Sajna peers through her fingers as she brings her hands up to cover her face in embarrassment.
Amateurs... this is ridiculous.

Sajna stays on her toes, but does not move to assist her raucous colleagues.

Total defense.

The sap slams against the side of Roldala's head with a dull thud, and her eyes flash with rage.

Her fists clench on empty air rather than the haft of her weapon as she warns them, "Don't do that again."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

R1
Poe
Sajna - pass
Cornelia
Shera
Amarandlon
Minmax - cast (failed)/step
Tem
Roldala - Intimidates Orange

Did any of the guards currently involved eat/taste the stew at all?

The Hashed guards all ate a plentiful amount once the 'show' was over. The others were either on duty, or the one who followed Galvar (who was following Roldala)