PbP GameDay IV: PFS #4–23: Rivalry's End (3-7) - Tier 3-4 (Inactive)

Game Master Magabeus

Ha! Evil will turn on itself.

"Thank you agents. Please sit down to make sure nothing untoward happens here" Grandmaster Torch says as he stands up while catching the spider. He seats her into his chair while you make yourself comfortable. Torch accepts the papers you retrieved from the spiders lair and walks back to the woman, scratching the itches on his scarred face with it.

“My endless thanks to each of you, Pathfinders, for your loyal service.” Without pausing he concludes, “But now I’ve finally got something to hold over the Decemvirate, so I’m striking out on my own.” As he says this, Grandmaster Torch drives his dagger into Ouidda’s throat. She gasps twice and then collapses onto the ground.

Initiative
Auric
Valandil
- - -
Torch
- - -
Scratcher
Alektara
- - -
Gold
- - -
Jolly
Telos
- - -
Green
Purple
Remember that you are sitting, standing up is a move action in which you can draw a weapon

Valandil looks horrified for a moment.

"What...?"

Stunned he stands, and starts to cast a spell.

Summon monster II, comes in next round.

"Mon, ya got ta be kiddin' me. We kept her alive fa Torch ta kill her!"
Sorry for the disappearance. Crazy work week. Will go on my turn, but at least you all can probably see the flag right now.

Surprised by the turn of events, Auric stands up while drawing his bow and casts glitterdust on Torch, Ouidda and the guards.

Will DC 14 negates the blinding effect.

Torch: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Gold: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Green: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Purple: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Spider: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Grandmaster Torch dramatically envelops himself in his cloak and disappears! One of the bodyguards smiles at you "So, what do we do?"

Initiative
Scratcher - sitting
Alektara - sitting
- - -
Gold
- - -
Jolly - sitting
Telos - sitting
- - -
Green
Purple - blind
- - -
Auric
Valandil
- - -
Torch
- - -
If you are sitting: standing up is a move action in which you can draw a weapon

Alektara is stunned and speechless by what occurred. After a moment of disbelief she stands and draws her blade...

You also have a standard action Alektara, do you want to do anything with that?

Not sure of what else is going on Alektara just takes a 5 foot step to clear her area of furniture. if that is possible

One of the bodyguards smiles at you "So, what do we do?"

Waiting for Scratcher, remember that speech is a free action that can be taken out of your turn (within reason).

Initiative
Scratcher - sitting
- - -
Gold
- - -
Jolly - sitting
Telos - sitting
- - -
Green
Purple - blind
- - -
Auric
Valandil
- - -
Torch
- - -
Alektara

Scratcher stands up. "You bloody tell us where yer boss is!", Scratcher's claws readied, but not approaching otherwise.

Telos stands and moves to bar the door.

"Based on who we are dealing with here, no one is going in or out of this room until we know what's going on."

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

"I have no clue, boss does this from time to time. If he wants us he contacts us. Do you really think he would let us know where he is? He is a lot smarter than that."

Out of combat for now

The guards eye you cautiously, but relaxed. Telos detects nothing, but he knows that it is quite hard to detect an invisible person.

Val stops casting his spell, as it looks like combat has been avoided. For the moment.

know(arcana): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (14) + 13 = 27

"He teleported, some short range spell. Quick, we must find him..."

Then he stops.

"The body.. That spider can still be brought back from the dead, and the dead can also tell tales. We should bring her to Guaril Karela.."

"We could fan out mon. But, maybe you're right dat we should secure da body fa Guaril."

At that exact moment Guaril Karela enters the room "Sorry that I am....What happened here!?" he stops and regains his composure. "Tell me all and tell me quick" he says to you while eying the bodyguards "And you, drop your weapons, we will treat you fairly."

He then is all efficiency, listening to your story and quickly organizing a search in the vicinity (that finds tracks of a coach that stood waiting and then went of at high speed).

He arranges your return to Magnimar. Sheila Heidmarch meets you in Magnimar along with Drandle Dreng and Ambrus Valsin, who have come from Absalom upon hearing of the gravity of Torch’s betrayal. The venturecaptains debrief you and express the Decemvirate’s concern over the information Torch now holds over their heads and that he fooled
everyone for so long.

Despite Grandmaster Torch’s treachery, his former faction’s goal comes to fruition in an unexpected way when the Decemvirate reaches out to those who were so badly burned by their leader’s betrayal. Instead
of abandoning or condemning Shadow Lodge agents, the masked leaders console the wronged Pathfinders and they expend considerable resources to ensure they receive whatever aid and training they need to recover from the experience.

The End!

Thanks for playing! If you have any questions you want to ask, please do so as this can be a confusing scenario. I will get chronicle sheets out this evening (CET)

That was a slightly odd ending. Did we actually have a chance to stop Torch? I guess if we had won initiative and been able to close on him or something similar.

Anyway, thanks very much for running this. Val's first run in with a golem of any type. Can he learn that mirror spell, or only use it from the wand?

So that is why the shadow lodge is no longer a valid society...?

The DC of the Sense Motive to not be surprised is 41. You have a slim chance of stopping him if his initiative roll is bad and you are very lucky. I know one party that succeeded in killing him, although I suspect the GM made some errors somewhere. Normally there is a battle with the guards, but given that there was no damage done before Torch disappeared I decided against that.

Val: you can not learn the spell from the scenario as there was no spellbook or scroll with it. Assuming the spell is allowed by additional resources you can pay an NPC to give you access to his spellbook (at half scribing costs).

Success condition:

Primary: If the PCs bring Ouidda back to Cypher Lodge alive, they each receive 1 Prestige Point for completing their primary mission, regardless of whether Grandmaster Torch subsequently escapes.

Secondary: Succeeding at the primary mission also counts as succeeding at the secondary mission.

Guess this counts for JFC - adventure in a nation other than Absalom. Which country are we actually in?

prepare a report instead of day job DC15: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Thanks GM

"Blimey, that Torch bloke is a real bugga, ain't he?", Scratcher letting the situation sink in. "He was 'eady to do dat from the beginnin'; I 'ate being some stinkin' pawn, 'ight Boss?", the angry, slow-witted man asking Auric for confirmation on his assessment.

Wow! That was a crazy ending. I honestly thought that she was casting an illusion to show Torch kill her, then she was the guard and would try to escape. I've also dealt with Torch in other scenarios, and though I always thought he was slimy, didn't realize he was a full-out traitor! Crazy!

Telos: thank you! If the WTF moment happens at the end of this scenario I have done a good job.

Chronicles can be found here. The session is reported as well. Please let me know if something is not correct.

Valandil, can you cross out your day job or do you want me to upload a new chronicle? Riddleport is in Varisia.

Scratcher, can I trust a 5-star GM to roll his own day job and fill it?

Thank you all for playing, I will deactivate this campaign at the end of this week.

Thanks a lot for GMing this scenario for us, GMG, it was fun!

I'll cross out the day job, no need for a change in chronicle.

Thanks so much, GMG! That was a super fun run, and a great group! Chronicle looks great. :)

Likewise, the Scratcher has no day job :)