Seraphimpunk's Way of the Wicked

Game Master Seraphimpunk

you eventually get bored. There is no other noise down here. And you quietly get back into your room. Nothing else happens this night.

crickets chirping.

OK, I'm back from a work pit and catching up/reading now. Like Zach I'm on Pacific time

Heheh. I know, you, zach and will. 9 hour gulf , and wills wedding is this weekend.

Yeah, posting is going to be sporadic at best for me this weekend. Sorry!

As a working on his divorce man, a "congratsulation man! I love weddings." with equal measure "I'm so sorry".
I'm kidding of course. All the best to you and yours.

wish i could be there to see it myself. Congrats! take lots of pictures! Anyway... still processing data?

anyone have any other potion requests ?

Ash feels like drinking with the dwarves at night. He'll see how he feels about this in the morning.

If Ash can do it, I would like to see the Ale/Wine/whatever spiked to rile emotions of the soldiers or dwarves. Or on a simpler end, hallucinogens or poisons.
Something that all the towns members regret the next day.

Holy crap, new job apparently consumed all of my mental energy this week, I didn't even remember to check the game. I'm behind!

In character, it seems like Tempy has been distracted these past few days. She's helped out with selling goods and used her charm to gather some intel but hasn't really participated in the scheming and planning.

[i]Whatever evening comes up next, when it's dark and the inn is quiet, but before Message wears off for the night, Temperance starts whispering.[i]

Alright, ladies and gents, I know I've been quiet the past few days. Have felt a bit under the weather. Hope I'm not catching whatever paralyzed Gridlock and led to his eventual demise.

But I have been thinking. I have a few ideas for things we can do to learn more and sow discord:

• We can explore the inn more. Let's see if we can find this supposed secret passage. A back door to Balentyne may be much easier than going in the front.

• Figure out what is going on with the innskeep. He's acting weird. I'll head downstairs tonight and see if he's having another "sandwich" and join him for a drink. I'm not the best at detecting a liar, but I'm sure I can twist him around my finger if I put my mind and body to it.

• Setup Tacitus for something. He's a pretty powerful fellow and seems scarier than any of the other major figures in town. He's also the most likely to figure out what we're up to. He's also considered to be creepy and weird. Hell, if we're lucky, he's actually up to something. But even if not, we can make it seem like he is. Getting rid of him with the townsfolk's help by playing up some of the common rumors may be the safest bet.

• Learn more about this cleric fellow that got him demoted in the Catholic church. Maybe Neji will be luckier as a small boy than she would be as a small girl?

• As much as I despise the idea of attending a Mitran Mass, I want to see these singing statues for myself. It may be nothing, but could tell us something about the priest.

• Why is Lord Fancy Pants so grim and gloomy? Maybe he communed with his god and saw his town's future. Maybe there's some dirt or something we can exploit to gain his confidence.

• We could poison Mama Guisseppe's beef stew (impersonate her or just poison the ingredients). Might be able to kill some soldiers that way.
  The poison rules are pretty rough. It would be expensive or even impossible to get enough poison to kill a bunch of soldiers, unless it was a poison that didn't follow traditional mechanics.
  

Any other ideas?

i can check the apothecary and see what kind of stocks they may have , but buying enough to poison a garrison may arouse suspicion. I'll check the area around town too, see if I can't find something growing naturally. Unfortunately the belladonna from Branderscar is pretty dried up, and nowhere strong enough.

You can check shops the next day.

That night Temperance slinks back down to the inn from her room in the evening. And sure enough, there's a bit of sound as the innkeeper tries to quietly come in through the kitchen from his rooms.

He startles a bit when he hears someone downstairs, and you can see him look around in the poor light, as he starts a candle.

hello, who's there? You're up awfully late. Anything I can get you?

The innkeep walks over to your table, setting the candle down and sitting opposite you

Before coming down I switched outfits into something comfortable and chaste, but loose fitting and a little revealing, as women's nightclothes tend to be.

My typical form is still the mousy serving wench from Branderscar, but I've experimented with variants of her form that are more/less noticeable and enticing. I choose one of the more enticing ones tonight.

I also mention to Neji before I head down (and re-establish message with her and Forsythe, giving them 40 minutes of listening to one side of my conversation with Bellam) that she may want to use my distraction as a chance to explore a little.

Disguise to look unintentionally/GND hot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (13) + 13 = 26
The +10 I get for alter self doesn't apply mechanically since it only is relevant for trying to look like a particular person. But I figure it could be worth a bit of a bonus since I have the ability to actually make myself look hotter.

Oh, and is the barkeep an attractive fellow? I figure at the least he's a bit desensitized to pretty girls since he's hired a crew of beautiful tavern wenches. But, I'm hoping I can learn a little bit about him and the city nonetheless.

Can't sleep. That kid's the noisiest creature in all Talingarde. Even when she finally nods off to sleep after jabbering way past her bedtime, she snores like a goblin. So how about a nightcap? You don't seem too tired yourself, hopefully you won't mind keeping me company?

You have a nice place here. Normally I'm not a fan of one inn towns, but your establishment makes me feel right at home. It's classy and tasteful you have some of the best looking barmaids I've seen north of Daveryn. I have an eye for good help and I can tell when someone else does as well. You wouldn't believe the kind of dives we had to stay in while we were heading North...

I heard there was a raven the other day. Did it carry tidings from the south? Do you get reliable ravens from the south being all the way up here or is news rare...

Tempy continues to make small talk for a while, like a bored traveler with nothing better to do.

Diplo to make him like me: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30
-Might even have some circumstance bonuses in there for all my visual aids?

If he seems cold and disinterested, then I'll just keep talking to him for a while, providing time for Neji to explore. Then when she's sated her curiousity, I'll get tired and head to bed, thanking him for the drink.

If he seems to be warming up to me, which I'm hoping he will, then I'll start asking about people in town.

Some of the general gossip may actually come from him, but since he's seemed to be a bit suspicious of us, perhaps not. Maybe he knows more than we've gotten so far from just talking up his day crowd.

• Lord Thomas Havelyn - "I saw him the other day walking through the town. He was in a hurry, which I expected, but he had the most heartbreaking look on his face. Is something wrong?"
  
• Father Donnigan - "I always enjoy a good Mitran service, hoping to see one this Sunday, I've heard Father Donnigan is a breathtaking orator and has even enchanted to statues to join the choir. Is it true that he was once a bishop?"
  
• Tacitus - "I've heard rumors about the Court Magister being a powerful wizard. I'm always a little nervous around mages, is it true? Is he a good Mitran? Does he attend service like a godly man? Or does he spend his Sundays locked in some tower studying heretical tomes and performing unnatural experiments like I hear from people around town?"
  

If this seems to be productive, I'll ask about some of the less prominent townsfolk.

roll sense motive, and a bluff check.

Oh, they get ravens all the time. They stay pretty well informed up there thanks to all those birds. I doubt it was anything important.

I don't think my wife would approve of a late nightcap with you miss, but if you'd like some sherry wine, I've got a good vintage, should help you get back to sleep.

He putters behind the counters and gets two glasses.

Aye lord Havelyn is a good man, but he still mourns the death of his wife. I'm surprised you saw him in town, he rarely leaves the watchtower.

Tacitus, never met him. I've heard he stays in his tower all the time. But Havelyn would never stand a wicked man to serve as the keeps magister. I'm sure he's a good man in his own way.

He talks close and quiet, not wanting to disturb the rest of the inn, or his wife probably, but wipes down the tables a bit more, and double checks the front door's lock as the two of you are talking.

He finishes his drink. well, I really must get back to bed myself, goodnight miss. Sleep well. Mitra be with you.

where will neji be investigating ? It's slightly nebulous, so I'll try and get a rough layout map up. There's the main hall with tables and benches, the bar and a dartboard, the kitchens behind the bar, which connect to the innkeepers rooms upstairs, and from the main hall stairs up to the inns rented rooms. There's also a small outhouse, and stairs down to the dry/cold storage presumably. You've hung out enough at the in these two days to see him or his wife coming up with some cold meats or cooking supplies from the basement.

As to whether he's a comely man or not, not really. He's got a strong sturdy looking face, welcoming and familiar, but not really very handsome, maybe in his youth. He seems about 40ish. His wife is a boisterous bussummy woman, younger than him, but not obscenely so.

The innkeeper has a wife, and you've seen while he does have a few pretty barmaids serving drinks and food, his kids help out a lot, they have five. The younger two you haven't seen much, but the other three must be about 10, 12, and 15 or so. A young boy, a stout lass, and a teenage boy that helps out cooking, serving, and cleaning the stables with his younger siblings.

oh, by the way, who among you speaks Dwarven? I only see Neji, but just checking The dwarves staying at the in chat a lot in Dwarven amongst themselves when they come back from the keep, while they're eating dinner, drinking, and playing some kind of Dwarven card games that no one seems to understand.

Sense motive: 1d20 ⇒ 11
Bluff: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (7) + 17 = 24

I figured she'd want to poke around looking for any clues about this secret passage to the Watchtower we heard about. Going off this rumor:
I hear there used to be a secret passage to the basement that allowed the Lord of the Watchtower to sneak in here and have a good time.
So it seems like the cold storage might be a good place to examine thoroughly.

I had no idea the guy was married with 5 kids ooc. Did I miss that somewhere? In character that would be obvious, so I would tone down the sultriness accordingly. I do not want to be perceived as a godless seductress and manipulator to these simple-minded fools. I get this visual of being run out of town by ignorant fools with torches screaming that I'm a succubus.

This guy seems super boring and after about 5 minutes of talking to him and I feel this sudden urge to put the bastard to sleep and slit his throat. But I control that desire and keep talking to him with a smile on my face to give Neji time to explore if she so chooses.

Question for the group. Since I'm leveling, I believe I can change my eidelon's appearance and such. Should I go for something more Socially acceptable so it can be out most of the time? Or should I go and change it to something much stealthier and give up combat potential?

I could keep him the way he is, and use the "summon eidelon" spell for combats, but that seems to be losing half of my character most of the time.

his status wasn't mentioned anywhere, I had to re-read his entries a few times to get everything. The formatting on some areas is not the most GM friendly. It's ok, I presume you weren't trying to be adulterous, just alluring. Is one of the group posing as your "husband" among the traders disguises you've adopted, if neji is playing the child?

if neji wants to hang out in the bar after the night cap and explore the basement, she can, it'll be a stealth roll to see if you make too much noise and wake up someone in the inn when you go down into the basement, and from there a little easier to sneak around. If someone goes down, let me know what they are doing (taking 10/20, casting stuff, etc. )

ill leave this night open a little more if she or someone else wants to explore. The next day, you'll probably manage to sell the rest of whatever you wanted to sell. Leo's full plate will be ready on Fireday, and someone can check out the apothecary with Ash. He'd like someone with a decent bluff, in case you find a stock of poison you want to buy.

How about just make it not look undead? My guess is since arcane magic is a little frowned upon, summoners that call on evil outsiders aren't welcomed. But a holy summoner with an angel servitor might escape casual scrutiny. We're all still screwed if we get hit with detect evils.

[dice=Sense motive]1d20

[dice=Bluff]1d20+17

You don't get a good read on what he's up to in the common room at night, but you don't think he's suspicious of your inquiries.

Is this setting a part of Golarion? At first I assumed it was, but since Talingarde isn't on maps of Golarion and there have been no references to Golarion and Mitra basically sounds like Iomedae but isn't...I'm thinking this may just be a different setting entirely.

And that makes some sense, I think paizo owns Golarion, so 3PP probably can't use it. Weird to have the effective game universe be essentially "all paladins all the time". No hives of scum and villainy or anything.

On a related note, I'm guessing that the local scroll shop doesn't carry a lot of scrolls of misdirection. We'll have to get some from Thorne or scribe them ourselves.

Good thing we only have 4 HD, so don't register on detect evil yet. Except for Forsythe and Leo, since they have the aura class feature.

its setting neutral. I picture it west of cheliax , across the Arcadian ocean map link

They just need as ideas and Mitra. Who could as we'll be replaced with iomedae, but I left it so it's not easy to slip up and say Mitra at some point. They have a few regional languages, and some text on generalities ( like the dwarves, worshipping a general dwarven forge deity. )

They've fit first n second level scrolls. You can probably get a few. You don't know if they might report you to some authorities though or put you on some kind of watch list.

I'll fast forward the night. posted as more of a narration in the Gameplay thread.

for neji, assumed take 20 with +8 perception.

Online and catching up...

Loran, regarding your Eidolon, I would normally say we could really use some stealthy action in this group, but pending Leo, your pet may very likely be the tank of the group. So, I don't know how others feel, but I would build it for battle and not worry about it being social.

But....at the end of the day, in all honesty as a GM and a player, I would build it how you want to play it, not what you think the party may need. If you would like it to be more social or sneaky, build it and enjoy. We will compensate happily. My 2 cents.

Nobility: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
History: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
Geography: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Religion: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Lady Balentyne died in child birth about 20 years ago, though the child survived and was raised by Lord Havelyn, who never remarried.

The Singing Saints of Balentyne are legendary for their beautiful songs in praise of Mitra.
The church would not be likely to demote someone and send them to such an important post as a punishment, the rumor of him once being a bishop is likely false. By all accounts, the priest is a very gregarious and boisterous man. He's the one organizing Ye Merrie Men's performance.

Rough sketch of the Lord's Dalliance - It got some curtains and support beams when you come in, an old stage that still gets a little use. the backstage is used by the eldest boy as his room, and one room backstage is for the barmaids. there's tables and some booths, a big bar, with massive kegs on tap. stairs up to the 2nd and 3rd floor in the upper left corner of the image, stairs down to the 30x 30 basement larder in the lower left corner. Stables off screen to the left w/ no entrance directly to the inn. there's an awning that goes around out front from the stables to the inn, and the 2nd story main hangs over the front of the building about 10 ft, with big support beams. the inn keeper's rooms are on the lower right side of the image, and he's got 2 stories on that side of the building.

oh and re: urchin kid w/ a knight's pendant. if he was a knight' son, they'd have raised him, not let him go to be an urchin, so it'd have to be a particularly sad story where all the knights died, which might raise eyebrows, in a military base that kind of thing might have been heard of, and be deemed a far-fetched or impossible Bluff. ( -10 or -20 penalty ).

Knowing that, I assume with my rolls above, I will drop the knight's orphan son for someone who is better at ye ole bluffin' (**cough**Temperance**cough**) and go back to what I do know how to do, being sexy, highly unstable and burn things down.

Would you have a rough sketch of the Aldencross hamlet/town and what not? Nothing special, just a basic map of highlights and locations.

Ok, so pretty much every lead I came up with was total crap. #1 The innkeep seems much more into his boring wife and kids than pretty ladies and town gossip. #2 Despite Neji's taxing efforts, she was unable to find anything remotely resembling a secret passage to the keep. #3 The bishop is most likely as clean and upstanding as one would expect, not the deviant I'd hoped for. #4 The Lord is a widower and a paladin, so no big surprise he mopes around. He must have the bluest balls this side of Lake Tarik. #5 There may just not be any good gossip, which is why the innkeep can be so damned boring and still keep his place open.

This place is as tight and lordly as one might expect from a crazy border town guarding the only pass. Let's try a different tack. Let's get some intel on the actual fortress if we can.

First off, we could just try walking around the town close to Balentyne and see what more we can learn just by looking around and being friendly. Without going anywhere that would obviously draw suspicion, of course. If we can get close to the fortress without being turned away, we should do so. We can at least learn some basic of the layout

Maybe we can impersonate a guard?
It's a pretty obvious tactic, still might be good. Risks a detect evil/zone of truth/etc or just flubbing a roll against a bunch of clerics and paladins and holier-than-thou's that might be overly on guard for evildoers like ourselves.

Making friendly with a guard? Maybe impersonating one of his friends or loved ones?

Maybe we can sneak in?
Loran's idea of using the shipping to get in might help. Even if we can't be merchants, we could possibly stow ourselves away in with the food or in barrels or something.

Maybe Neji could try to talk her way into the good graces of this old soup lady?

And I'd like to talk to more townsfolk about the town wizard. Maybe I can get some more detailed gossip. For any townsfolk that seem inclined to gossip and not too careful about the quality of the gossip, I'll mention that one of the farmers saw him sneak out in the middle of the night and head out into the wilderness alone (looking very shifty of course!).

Diplo to gather more detailed info or find that one gossipy townsperson: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33
Bluff to spread a rumor: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (4) + 17 = 21

I'd also like to talk to the rookery guy. He's considered to be odd, probably the boring kind of odd that doesn't further our cause, but perhaps there's a lead worth tracking down.

Hrm. This is pretty underwhelming ladies and gents. I don't think any of the ideas I've had have worked out or led us closer to our goal and I don't think any of my current ones are much better. Anyone else got an idea?

The rookery guy seems impossible to talk to. by all accounts, he never leaves his rookery, and you've never seen him in the Inn.

You try and find some more information about the wizard, and hear rumors about how he uses dark magic, and has a sinister library of forbidden tomes. But nothing that doesn't sound like villagers who just generally fear and distrust magic.

The soup lady lives in town, and goes up to make her soup moondays according to the rumors. Welcome to approach her if you'd like to try something.

The food supply wagons aren't big enough to hide a bunch of medium creatures. maybe a few small humanoids, but you don't think it'd be hard to impersonate the servants. The wagons collect/deliver food every couple of days.

Making friendly with a guard seems like it might take too long to pay off. You don't have enough time to earn trust, you think. It might take a week or more to do it the mundy way. Impersonating a guard seems viable. Intelligence check?

During the day, Ash and Temperance hit up the apothecary to see about some poisons. Looking around, Ash identifies Arsenic (ratpoison) as the only really viable poison they seem to stock. their entire supply of it would cost 240gp. But you'd need a good story to not arouse suspicion buying it. I'd need to hear your story, and you'd need to back it up with a Bluff check, if/when you want to buy the Arsenic.

Ash says enough rat poison should kill a few guards and sicken a lot. It might weaken the garrison for a week at most.

The rest of the day, some of you get close to Balentyne. Its an impressive structure. Perhaps 200 ft by 100 ft. you estimate, with the narrow portion facing the cliff. I'll get you a picture and detailed description today if i can ( and a rough one of the town ). You may have seen some snapshot of it in google sketch up that I was working on already.

You see there's one gate on the town side. Balentyne is a little over a mile walk from the hamlet of Aldencross, so its never like the keep is "part" of Aldencross. It is a hike, and uphill to the keep. Its got immense crenelated battlement walls forming a rectangular base, around a cathedral and tower that rise up above the walls, which are probably something like 20 or 30 ft. high.

Sneaking through some foliage a bit distant from the keep and downwind, you see a 100 ft span bridge that reaches out from the southern plateau to reach the northern plateau. Its about a 20 or 30 ft. wide bridge. the last fifth of the bridge appears to be a wooden drawbridge that is attached to the bridge portion. when raised, it would form a wall and leave a 20 ft. gap at the end of the bridge. At the northern plateau is a two or three story gatehouse , also with crenelated battlements up top. The gatehouse, you can see, has a massive black portcullis that is down.

The keep's gate towards town is guarded by a handful of guards. Some of you stay and set a rotating watch, to keep an eye on things. Ash leaves his armor behind and volunteers to stay the night. The gate stays closed and guarded all through the night by at least two guards, with torches outside at night. Ravens do come and go from the top of the circular tower, a few times a day. In the afternoon, a lovely hymn can be heard faintly, as they must be in choir practice in the afternoon.

In town, trying to ply guards for some more information, you sit down and manage to have drinks with someone important. Can I get a sense motive? you can nominate one or two of you to be sitting down for drinks, in the Inn. Not Ash as he's gone all night. Leo is moping in his room.

As for the highlights of the town. there's not much to highlight. They have an apothecary that sells potions, and a scribe that sells 1st and 2nd level scrolls with a decent assortment. The market has some stalls with the magical items I described for sale. Those don't seem to get too much trade and won't change often. Other than that, there's the Lord's Dalliance ( the only inn that caters to travelers ). The town "church" is up in Balentyne where mass is held mondays, though visitors are always welcome it seems. I will get a little drawing up later. There are a few nicer homes in town, as there do seem to be a few wealthier townsfolk as well, and some of the guards do seem to have friends and family in town. Nobles it seems, would occupy their home up in Balentyne.

From the guards outfits, you do start to notice that there seem to be four types of guards. Three types that correspond to the captains they serve, and a fourth that has a few off duty men that stop by, apparently of duty rangers, serving the captain that road out earlier in the week.

Ash leaves Neji an Extract of Invisibility, Reduce Person, and Summon Monster I, in case she wants to try something and not worry about wasting resources.

I will be updating the calendar with the correct timeline tonight. It won't impact anything since its just the numbers that are changing. not the overall routine. It does seem like this occurs more towards winter, than summer though. So remember you're in a cold, uninviting climate, and people dress warmly.

sorry for the wall of text.

Is it Victor spreading the rumor? I forget if he had the Rumormonger Rogue Talent

A rogue with this talent can attempt to spread a rumor though a small town or larger settlement by making a Bluff check. She can do so a number of times per week equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0). The DC is based on the size of the settlement, and it takes a week for the rumor to propagate through the settlement. If the check succeeds, the rumor is practically accepted as fact within the community; succeeding by 5 or more over the DC decreases the time it takes the rumor to propagate by 1d4 days. A failed check means the rumor failed to gain traction, while failing by 5 or more causes the opposite of the rumor or some other competing theory involving the rumor's subject to take hold.

map of aldencross. Not to much of a scale.

we also need to figure out a story for us to stay in town for the whole month. Most merchants leave after at most a week.

First thing though is a reason for us all to stay here, or we'll catch suspicion pretty quickly.

do the guards check the deliveries prior to them going into the castle? or is it more a cursory glance?

Not hard to find an unattached guard at the tavern, off duty.
Leo is still awaiting his suit of full plate.

i could fake finding a flaw in the suit! or request something more once it's done.

I probably have the best Sense Motive (+11), so I'll volunteer my services.

SM: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29

I'm also am not giving up on the secret passage. Neji has a decent Perception, but the possibility of a secret passage is too good to not try again with a better modifier.

I'm going to memorize an Owl's Wisdom for tonight, and try to make it down to the basement myself. I'll take off my armor (to remove ACP to Stealth) and stay in my "pajamas", so I can use the ruse of being a sleepwalker if I'm caught.

Once in the basement, I'll take 20 perception (standing +10 modifier) with +2 because of Owl's Wisdom (+12) for as long as I can.

It would be great if I could have someone else with me for aid-another, but I don't see how I can without blowing the sleepwalking cover.

Oh, and I'll be sure to try a Detect Magic while I'm down there to see if it's possibly a magically hidden passage?

I can come with you, my eyes are as good as yours in the dark.

Oh, screw this. If we have a shop in town that has 1st level scrolls, I'll just go buy a few scrolls of "Detect Secret Doors."

Neji can cast it in the basement (Sorc/wiz list, not cleric). We'll find it really quickly.

What do you guys think?

Why don't you take the invisibility and reduce person then, in case you need them. I can brew them again tomorrow morning. Is what ash would say, if he were back at the inn that night.

Why didn't I think of that.