The Devil's Gorge (and Beyond)!

Game Master Rynjin

"What... You don't want to talk to her? Would you rather talk to me, then? I know how to talk... And how to make people talk."

Donovan has an evil grin on his face as he speaks.

Intimidate 24.

"No, Kev, it's not that you're a halfling. A halfling man, like any other man, has a particular way of walking when he doesn't want to be seen. A particular way of looking behind him. If you're in trouble, maybe we can help. If you've done something you shouldn't, maybe we can help put it right. We can't help you unless we know what is going on."

diplomacy (if reroll allowed for new speech):1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

"Ah! Alright, alright! I was jus' droppin' off a package, jeez. Not worth gettin' pounded over."

"Did someone ask you to drop it off?"

"Well I wasn't doin' it for my own health."

"Could you be more specific? We don't have all night... What were you taking? Where? For whom?"

"Didn't get no names. Some guy just paid me to drop this package in that spot over there. I thought to myself 'Easy money, right?' and went on with it."

"So... Someone tells you to deliver a mysterious package and you don't think there is anything wrong with that?" Donovan sounds legitimately flabbergasted. "You can't be that stupid... Halflings are supposed to be clever!"

Donovan uses Detect Psionics and checks both the Halfling and the package.

No Psionics.

"Why would I think there's somethin' wrong with it? People pay me to deliver stuff all the time. I'm like the, eh, mailman around here. Except I don't carry packages to the postbox, you know? Special delivery."

"Then why were you hiding what you were doing, Kev?"

Does he not get a -10 penalty to Bluff for that one? It's an "far-fetched" lie, after all. ^^

"..."

Donovan stares at the Halfling.

"You offend me."

"Then why were you hiding what you were doing, Kev?"

"Because part of the job is keepin' a low profile, girly."

"Anyway, are you dopes gonna let me loose? I got errands to run."

"I think we should ask the opinion of the city guard... Just to be safe."

"Maybe we should ask 'em, eh? I can tell 'em all about how you snuck up on me, threw a sack over my head, and threatened my life."

"It sounds to me like your whole business is about delivering things discretely. Any reasonable person would know that sometimes this would be related to wrongdoing. What do you do to make sure you are not involved in any wrongdoing? And why did you wait so long to answer our questions, if you thought there was nothing wrong?"

"There ain't nothin' wrong with there bein' a little somethin' wrong if you catch my drift."

"Look, I don't know what's in the packages. I don't ask. You know why? Because I don't wanna know. i don't care. I get paid, I drop a package, thassit."

"I'm going to ask you one more question, Kev. And your answer will tell me a lot about if you're our friend or not. Has a Vanaran recently asked you to deliver a package, or do you know of where we could find a Vanaran other than the two Scholia students?"

You never know, he's seems to at least be on the border of the underworld, used by them as a courier.

So, we now only have to wait monkeyboy - say a bored ugash with an unsweetened Black Currant Pastry-Hold the frosting in his hand.

I guess we should speed up things on this side.

"Yep. So where'd you go when we first hit town anyways?" Thetsu yawns before drinking some tea.

"I'm going to ask you one more question, Kev. And your answer will tell me a lot about if you're our friend or not. Has a Vanaran recently asked you to deliver a package, or do you know of where we could find a Vanaran other than the two Scholia students?"

You never know, he's seems to at least be on the border of the underworld, used by them as a courier.

"I don't generally become friends with people who kidnap me, but whatever. I'll answer."

"No, I don't know any monkey-boys. The package is labeled "Silverback" though. Ain't that a kinda monkey or somethin'?"

Will move ahead with Blackthrone once everyone is caught up.

Dorla looks at Donovan. "I think he's told us all he can. I also think he's done nothing worse than not look too closely at who he does business for. Let's let him go. He doesn't deserve any worse than the scare we've already given him."

So you guys want to purse Blackthrone today before the dinner?

"I guess that's fine..." Donovan lets the halfling go.

Once Kev is out of sight, Donovan creates a psychic simulacrum and uses it to open the package from a safe distance (about 50 ft).

Paranoia FTW!

Inside the satchel is a scroll tube, and inside the tube is a scroll.

Uh... Spellcraft? 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (20) + 16 = 36

If it's just a normal/non-magical scroll, than that check should be replaced by a Linguistics check, in which case my bonus is only a +9.

It's like a reading scroll, not a magic scroll. You're picking it up and reading it then?

I tell my simulacrum to read it for me. :P

Speaking of...I can't find this power anywhere.

It's not a simulacrum, it's just Astral Construct. I just used the wrong word by mistake (I was discussing the Simulacrum spell earlier today). I got it via Expanded Knowledge.

It is a Construct, and thus has no Int score. It cannot read, and merely holds the scroll helplessly out in front of it.

I read it, then.

Make a Will save.

*annoyed sigh*

Will: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31

Donovan feels the words of the scroll start to shift and change to something else in his head, but reality reasserts itself.

It was triggered to cast a variant of Memory Modification to change the words to something innocuous on anyone but the intended recipient.

The scroll simply reads.

Baron Mistletoe. Get it done.

Did it not use psionic magic?

"Who the hell is Baron Mistletoe?" Donovan mumbles to himself.

It does, but neither the satchel or scroll case were magic (and technically not even the scroll, just the words, though thatwoud have shown up). If Donovan had looked closely at the scroll case, he would have noticed it was lead-lined.

I'm going to assume that Donovan then tells Dorla what he's reading, so she doesn't have to be rude and read over his shoulder.

Dorla thinks about what she knows about Baron Mistletoe.

Knowledge local: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24

Whatever she knows, she promptly shares with Donovan

I'm going to assume that Donovan then tells Dorla what he's reading, so she doesn't have to be rude and read over his shoulder.

Donovan is 6' tall... Dorla must be quite the amazon! XD

OK, around his shoulder, just as rude.

If Paizo's fonts didn't mess it up, I'd insert here a smiley face sticking its tongue out.

I'm going to assume that Donovan then tells Dorla what he's reading, so she doesn't have to be rude and read over his shoulder.

Dorla thinks about what she knows about Baron Mistletoe.

Knowledge local: 1d20+14

Whatever she knows, she promptly shares with Donovan

Baron Mistletoe is a minor noble with property just outside of town. He breeds horses as a hobby, and holds a seat on the trade council.

"Should we... Warn him or something? It looks like he's being targeted by someone."

"We should bring back this information and talk to the others. Do we know where exactly this was supposed to be delivered?"

It looked like the halfling was gesturing toward a drain pipe in the alley.

"I think we let 'Kev' go before asking him..."

OK, Dorla suggests to Donovan that we go take a look around the drain pipe.

To cut this off at the pass...it's just a normal drain pipe. It's a drop point is all.

"Donovan, I think we've gathered some important information. Let's go find the others and update them before our dinner with the Vanaran students."

"Very well, then. Let's return to the inn."

You locate Thetsu and Ugash as they stare forlornly at a bitter, unfrosted, lumpy pastry.

Dorla shares what they just learned with Thetsu and Ugash. She suggests a possible connection between the note and the assassination with poison she learned about earlier. She also wonders if 'silverback' might be Chirrup's old master, or related to him.

After the conversation, Dorla takes care of any last minute arrangements or preparations for the dinner with the Vanaran students. If the inn has a private dining room, she makes arrangements to use that. Then she waits for the students to arrive. She checks with Thetsu about any Vanaran customs related to dinner so she doesn't accidentally offend their guests.

"They're city dwellers so they're probably pretty detached from the usual customs. Just make sure some fruit is part of the meal and keep bananas away since some folks get offended."