Shifty PFS Group Alpha (Inactive)

Game Master Nik B.

Tikrit, one hand still on Nester's arm, and the other holding his Katana, and his eyes still blinded by the flash, says, "Keep the me turned towards the enemy, and stay behind me. Kishara! What's happening out there?"

Full Defense

Haemish the Unlucky wrote:

I'm assuming the pale-faced fellow next to me is an enemy.

Actually its poor old Nester :p

Oops. That's what you get for coming late to the party, I guess. Does that mean there are no further targets left?

Barmaid is still alive, but presently prone on the far side of the bar.

Barmaid is still alive, but presently prone on the far side of the bar.

Ah, well in that case Haemish just double moves to J11.

Damn, those were some fine rolls!

"Hold on Tik! Grim's about to filet a fish and serve her up to Lady if she does not YIELD NOW!" Kishara calls out with every bit of wind her lungs can bring to bear.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Can I abandon my held attack for this? =D

Well, not really, you can't use diplomacy once the steel is flying sadly. That said, as a Free action you can tell the gillwoman to surrender, whether she does or not is another story :p

Ah, ok, I knew I started it out as an Intimidate for some reason, but I get no bonus for that. But yes, it's a warning to surrender or die. Can I convert it to a +0 Demoralize?

Are we at round 3?

"I didn't know that your minds are as slippery as your skin to avoid my curses. Surrender now, we have you cornered and outnumbered. That would be the best thing to do if I were you."

Yhen pulls out her wand of Ill-Omen, will use it on the barmaid if she won't surrender.

Mandraks move left, then her turn.

-Resolving Manrak.
Ref1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
Ref1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Mandrak manages to not slide in the Grease, and begins moving to the bar to assist the party.

The Gillwoman stands (Lady, AOO!) drawing a swipe from Mandrak, 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6, but she proves evasive.

She steps rearward away from her assailants - she points a finger and shouts at the huge aquarium, which in a dramatic display of crashing glass and pouring water (not to mention fish!) disgorges its contents across the bar room and also into the water beneath the building!

Looks very cinematic

MAP

R3
Kishara
Grimaldus
Haemish & Lady
Yhen
Mandrak
Tikrit
BARMAID

Double move to J15 (maybe I'll get an AoO =)

Lady snaps at the gillwoman, but she proves too quick for her. bite attack AoO: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Kishara sees that the gillwoman means to slip away into the harbor and sprints to block this new exit, she holds her rapier in hand and spreads her arms wide in invitation.

Double move to M11, also hoping for an AOO

Missing Mandrak and Tikrit, will advance them in the morning...

Still blinded, Tikrit stays with Rees.

move toward the nearest oppent still stand and/or attack them...

Mandrak steps in swinging and biting...

Attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Damage 1d6 + 3 + 1d4 ⇒ (1) + 3 + (1) = 5

Attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Damage 1d6 + 3 + 1d4 ⇒ (5) + 3 + (3) = 11

Attack 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Damage 1d6 + 3 + 1d4 ⇒ (3) + 3 + (4) = 10

With a flurry of bloody blows, one jags the woman seriously injuring her... she begins withdrawing from the combat.

First square is safe from AOO's, Lady threatens the second square of movement so may AOO - rest of her action resolves after lady gets a swipe.

Lady seems to love the taste of low Azlanti in the morning. bite AoO from higher ground: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7trip attempt if bite hits: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

1d20 ⇒ 20

Pulling away from Lady's snip (that barely misses), she continues on along the bar before hopping across and going wide of Kishara before launching herself at the hole where the fishtank was. Battered and bleeding, she disappears into the waters below but from the state of her wounds you question how long she might survive, if at all.

The tavern is mostly still apart from the fish flapping on the floor.

All over bar the shouting.

Swearing viciously in Elvish, Kishara moves to investigate the fallen gilmen before anyone can stop her. She'll stabilize anyone she can and search them for intelligence.

Heal: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Grim searches the bodies of the fallen and retrieves the fake item they brought that started this whole dance in the first place...
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

"Where's the embassy? I don't like the way we were treated by these Azlanti people. I want to know whether they know about this incident."

Once the dust (and water) settles...
Kishara can't do much for the first Gillman who bled out onto the floor, but Grimaldus strike hadn't quite killed the other and in the nick of time you manage to secure some bandages.

The fake artifact appears to be just that, a fake, designed to distract long enough to time a grab for the real merchandise.

Nester Rees strides off to the Gillman Embassy, Grimaldus's casualty at deaths door in a makeshift stretcher.

After some deliberation it becomes clear the Low Azlanti were completely unaware of the activities of Ulionestia and her allies. After everyone is comfortable that this was a genuine double cross, the Aspis consortium having clearly made some earlier deal with Ulionestia and not the Embassy, you give the Low Azlanti ambassador Gloriana Morilla’s letter, though when he opens it he simply smirks to himself and shakes his head at a silent joke he doesn’t share.

You safely return the genuine Pathfinder artifact to the vaults of the Grand Lodge, after a brief sea journey home – it has become clear the Aspis consortium weren’t watching the sea particularly well. Venture-Captain Dreng thanks you for your efforts and apologizes for sending them on a fool’s errand, but he commends you all for uncovering the ruse and preventing the Society’s enemies from gainingcontrol of a true Azlanti artifact.

Thus Ends - First Steps, Part III: A Vision of Betrayal

Roll credits and out-takes

Chronicles due out tonight or tomorrow morning, but long story short as (most of you) have now been through three sessions its 'welcome to level 2' time. Please read the guide to organised play for level up/advancement process (importantly, HP progression)

Level 2 two-handed fighter:
+10 HP (+6 +2 CON + 2 favored class)
Skills: Added 1 rank to Craft (weapons) and Survival
Feats: Shattering Strike: At 2nd level, a two-handed fighter gains a +1 bonus to CMB and CMD on sunder attempts and on damage rolls made against objects. These bonuses increase by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd.
Power Attack: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon or a one handed weapon using two hands that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.

May purchase something from the sheets or in town...will look later!

Primer

Kaer Maga

City Map

The Storval Rise is a cliff of immense proportions which stretches across the width of Varisia, dividing it in two like an unavoidable facial scar. Reaching heights of over a thousand feet in the south, the Rise begins as low as only a few hundred feet in the north, by the Velashu Uplands. It is here, at the cliff's lowest point, that ancient giants built the Storval Stair, which still provides the easiest access from the fertile lowlands to the harsh Storval Plateau above. Much of the cliff face is filled with ancient statues and monoliths, relics from the long-lost empire of Thassilon. One such ruin is the mysterious hexagonal city of Kaer Maga, which sits atop the edge of the Rise at the falls created as the Yondabakari River plummets to the land below.

Standing atop the Storval Rise, the cliff-top city of Kaer Maga (pronounced kare MAH-gah)is built inside the ruins of an ancient fortress: a six-sided ring of 80-foot-high seamless stone, stretching more than a half mile in diameter and topped with towers of every shape and design. Also known as the Asylum Stone, Kaer Maga has served as a refuge for exiles, misfits, and ne'er-do-wells fleeing persecution and prosecution for thousands of years, and is known throughout Golarion as a place where anyone can fit in, and where anything can be bought and sold.

Though an anarchic "civilization", a loose consortium of groups, gangs, and families rule the people of Kaer Maga. The entire city is a melting pot of citizens from all cultures, such as the Ardoc family of Bis, the Brothers of the Seal, who are ready to kill each other over whether or not they should open the great portal they guard somewhere deep in the caverns beneath, the gently whistling Sweet-talkers of Tian, with their lips sewn shut to keep them from uttering the true name of their god, the troll seers who predict the future by casting divinations with their own intestines, and finally the bloatmages, with the leeches that keep them alive attached to their bulging bodies.

A young Tien woman debarks the boat that brought her to these chaotic shores. She wrinkles her nose at the multitude of smells and keeps a tight watch on her belongings as she moves through the press of people.

The City of Strangers, part I: The Shadow Gambit

VC Drandle Dreng

It’s been nearly a month since Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng, a decrepit yet well-respected Pathfinder, instructed you to meet him dockside in Absalom.

On arrival, Dreng herded you on to a Korvosa-bound merchant vessel and gave you a series of quick, stern instructions. “One of my good friends, amerchant in the Varisian outcast’s haven known as Kaer Maga, sent me a very strange letter, which I need you to investigate. The merchant—his name is Horis Collgardie—tells me that the residents of Kaer Maga are very upset about the Society’s plan to build a lodge in their city and even further upset that the agents we sent are making trouble, stirring up the delicate balance of power that exists in the so-called City of Strangers. The trouble is, not the Decemvirate or any venture-captain I can find gave the okay to build a lodge there. We know it would be folly to do so—at least right now—and so this idea that Collgardie has that the Society is there and doing just that is worrisome". Pausing to gather his thoughts, he reads your faces for a reaction.

"In a few weeks time, you’ll be in Korvosa. From there, book passage on a river ship for Harse, then travel overland to the road’s end at the cliffs below Kaer Maga—the so-called Twisted Door. There you must pay the Duskwardens to escort you through the Halflight Path to reach Kaer Maga. Once inside the city, find Collgardie and find out what he’s talking about. If there are Pathfinders in the city founding a lodge, tell them I order them to stop at once. If this is some kind of ruse, get to the bottom of it and do what you can to keep our Society’s good name in Kaer Maga—we may not be completely welcome there, but neither are we unwelcome. Let’s keep it that way. Any questions?”

"If what you're suspecting is true, what do you want us to do to the one starting up that ruse? Anything we need to pick up before we go?"

"Who are these Pathfinders? Do we have any intelligence about them?" Tikrit asks. "And is there anything you can tell us about why Kaer Maga's balance of power is so delicate?"

Kishara nods along with Yhen's and Tikrit's queries and then asks her own, "Venture Captain, Kaer Maga sounds vast. Can you tell us where we should begin our search for your friend, Collgardie and these rogue Pathfinders? Also is there an Inn or someplace we might stay while we investigate? Someplace more... Pathfinder friendly, yes?"

Grim asks his question more to his friends than to the Venture Captain, "Do you think we should hide our Pathfinder ties in Kaer Maga? Or should we let it be known we are true Patfinders there to set the story straight?"

Haemish scratches his beard as he ponders Grim's question. "Best to go incognito, I think, at least at first. We might make a hash of it all, in which case we wouldn't want ourselves to be known as Pathfinders. Once we have everything tied up neatly in a bow, then we'll let 'em know!"

Sounds like me that there's some issues here... maybe some wrong doing with the pathfinders...

"And is there anything you can tell us about why Kaer Maga's balance of power is so delicate?"

”As a city of outcasts and strangers the order is maintained on a knifes edge the whole time, things are done based upon alliances and deals made in taverns between families, factions, and gangs; at best its a shady place for shady people, at worst it doesn’t comfort one to think about. There is some semblance of law and order, but not much, there’s a reason why the outcasts, lawless, and wanted people all head there”

”Can you tell us where we should begin our search for your friend, Collgardie and these rogue Pathfinders? “

“You’re adventurous Pathfinders—I’m sure with his name and a few loose coin, you’ll find him in no time.”

”Also is there an Inn or someplace we might stay while we investigate? Someplace more... Pathfinder friendly, yes?” "Do you think we should hide our Pathfinder ties in Kaer Maga? Or should we let it be known we are true Patfinders there to set the story straight?"
"Best to go incognito, I think, at least at first. We might make a hash of it all, in which case we wouldn't want ourselves to be known as Pathfinders. Once we have everything tied up neatly in a bow, then we'll let 'em know!"

“Yes! Keep your head down and be smart. The balance of power in that city is fragile—upset it and you’re likely to die. The good news is that at the same time as you will be watched from all angles, these rogues will also be watched. Nothing happens in that city that isn’t seen by someone, alive or dead”

Last check ins, and final shopping :)

Has added a few things to her profile and I've captured the cost

Yhen will buy an alchemist's fire x2 for 40 gp.

Great, late night here, will kick this forward in the AM

ok up dated... bought mwk backpack and pathfinders kit...

From the moment the sun rose this morning and the dizzying Twisted Door opened at the bottom of the Storval Rise, you, your companions, and a handful of traveling merchants have trudged slowly up the myriad stairs, tunnels, cliffside paths, and underground ruins that make up the famous Halflight Path. On either side of you march several gruff-looking men and women wearing brown-and-gray uniforms, the right breast bearing a badge with their symbol: a golden arch on a midnight blue background. These are the Duskwardens, and it’s their duty to see you safely up the Path to Kaer Maga, hours and hours of climbing above you.

About halfway through the climb a series of events unfolds—an enormous chunk of masonry, well constructed brickwork on the west side of the passage, collapses. From behind it boil dozens of yowling, barking, and yipping creatures carrying swords and snarling viciously — goblins. In a matter of a few quick moments, the goblins were among the merchants and citizens with the Duskwardens desperately trying to fend them off. Just as the party thought to act, another chunk of masonry, this time from the ceiling, collapsed and cut you all off from the rest of the traveling group. You find yourselves in a small passageway, cut off and under siege...

They appear to be taking a very cruel look at Lady.

MAP

Surprise Round
Standard Action
Kaneko
Kishara

Round 1
Yhen
Mandrak
Kaneko
Tikrit
Kishara
Grimaldus
Bad Guys
Haemish

Kaneko moves to D11, her longspear threatening to any who would close on her.

"Finish that loner first!" says Yhen as she cackles and Evil Eye (AC) the goblin at J-12.

Kishara hurls a dagger toward the goblin Yhen marks out.
"If you think that wolf looks like dog-meat, you're about to bite off more than you can chew!" she shouts with a sneer.

Throw Dagger: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (2) + 5 - 4 = 3
It that throwing into combat? Oh well, I think it's a miss regardless.

You get one more chance to throw anyway.

With my combat reflexes I should get AoOs on all 3 if they close on me... Otherwise I am the closest target for missile weapons, sparing the flatfooted

I will wait to post my action until after the goblins have gone.

i'll move to the closest goblin and attack... stating "down you go..."

Move to L14 and attack whatever that thing is on M15 while avoiding AoO from goblin on J12

Grimaldus takes a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dark, quickly looks around and sees the party has enemies on two fronts. He pulls his greatsword from the sheath on his back and attacks the one creature he doesn't recognize (but looks a bit like the critter that dazzled him before...)
Power Attack: 1d20 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (11) + 6 - 1 = 16
Power Attack Damage: 2d6 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (3, 1) + 6 + 3 = 13

The map isn't loading for me at the moment.

Tikrit, his feathers fluffing out, draws his Katana and moves to confront the attackers, the blade flashing even in the dimness of the caves.

Move to attack a Goblin with Katana 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 damage.

Kishara darts forward, pulling her rapier and jabs at the goblin in front of her.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18 Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Move to I12, targeting J12.

Kaneko positions, spear in hand.

Kishara hurls a dagger that goes wide.

Yhen casts twitches her Evil Eye at the Goblin, 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8 immediately feeling it cave under her supernatural powers.

Mandrak slips forward and lashes at a Goblin 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 211d6 + 3 + 1d4 ⇒ (5) + 3 + (3) = 11(D4=Bleed) ending it's melee before it even truly started.

Kaneko (pending)

Tikrit slashes at his foe, but finds the Goblin too fast on its feet and his sword slashes only air.

Kishara (pending)

Grimaldus notes the strange one is a Shaman, but doesn’t worry too much once he drops it.

MAP

Round 1 Continues
Kaneko
Kishara
Bad Guys
Haemish