The Red Arm of Absalom - Ongoing Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master GM Red

"Mind if I give it a once over before we open it Captain?" Mr Peppers takes a few moments and casts a spell then focuses on the letter, and repeats the process a second time.

"Can't be too careful considering who we're dealing with now can we."

Mr. Peppers senses nothing poisonous nor magical about the note.

Turns out to be a delayed letter bomb..... :)

Would be a pretty sad and easy way to blow up a Pathfinder crew... explosive runes or perhaps a mean contact poison... Elf Mages sure do fear the contact Con poisons...

Before the letter arrives...

Begrilda awakes early the next morning, as is her usual practice. She makes her way to the upper deck as quietly as possible in order not to wake up the others, though she nearly trips on the steep stairs leading up to the deck. When she finally reaches the deck, she finds a quiet spot near the bow of the ship and kneels in prayer.

Over the next hour of prayer, Begrilda speaks to her goddess, Bolka. She spills out all of her feelings about the events of the mission so far. She thinks about the new comrades she is working with. She thinks about Gallix, her lost love. But more than anything, she thinks about Laszo and about the part she played in his death. Oh Blessed Maiden, how am I to serve you when everything around me brings out the darkest side of even the noblest of warriors? How can I use the gifts you have blessed me with to fulfill my oaths? And how can I do this without becoming a murderer? Teach me, Bolka. Teach me to be just and good, but also to be wise and prudent like my new friends.

Suddenly, the sun rises above the horizon, and the dawn breaks across the water in a stream of blood-red light. Today would be a new kind of day for Begrilda. Today would be a day to show the Maiden's Wrath.

All that to say, adding Murderous Command to my prepared spells for the day. Mwahahaha

Well, Peppers, imagine an official gathering with closed envelopes across the gathered ones, all within close proximity...

The party opens the note up and,

I'll give you guys a little while before I advance the game again. Ace hasn't posted, and I'm pretty sure he's going to come here with 30 posts to read... XD

TPK! Also: That's a very mean spell especially with slumber hex around...

Any gathering must be ripe with food tasters and abjurists and diviners and counter intelligence agents. Sounds nerve wracking.

Mr Peppers will take a look at the note, taking a sip of water from his new waterskin he purchased on the way back to the ship. "Looks like we have a location and no time. Lets not go in blind or unprepared. Are you familiar at all with this place Captain?"

Any useful information Mr Peppers may know of this location?
Knowledge: Local: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Captain Zendrani shakes her head. "I haven't explored Diobel that thoroughly, unfortunately." Mr. Peppers recalls only that the location is an unassuming shipping warehouse along the water with multiple entrances. He doesn't recall there being anything nefarious about the part of town it's located in.

Does Bishop have time to casually ask around so I can make a local check? If not no worries.

Delroya sounded a little urgent in her note, so you get the feeling there isn't a whole lot of time to ask around town while at the same time avoiding giving away that you're Pathfinders.

Bishop waits on the dock for everyone happy to be off the ship. While he waits he consults with his bones to see if their action is wise. Rolling them several times and watching where they fall and what symbols are revealed.

Sirettis rises out of bed with the dawn and approaches the crow's nest. Isa flies down and lands on her shoulder. "Good morning, Isa. Another day to exist."

Upon reading the letter, she nods."Well, best we go to the warehouse. If this is a betrayal, I'll put her to bed."

It was 54 unread, and another 32 in Discussion!

"I agree, let's get to the warehouse and check it out."

Ace reloads his crossbow and checks the mechanisms to verify all is ready, should trouble ensue.

D. had dreamt of his parental home and their antiques business.
The things he found boring..and when some merchant came up to him to ask for something, he woke up.

"Hmm....a good thing i've decided to not make that my future. All the checking dusty or old items endlessly..."

Getting out on deck, he sees Bishop playing dice with his bones.
The others appearing in time, he greets them with a nod.

"The warehouse it is."

"Well I've heard of this place anyhow, but nothing notable sticks out. Its on the water as one might expect. I'll gather my things and we can be off as soon as everyone is set." He nods to the Captain and heads off to his quarters to gather his equipment.

Following Delroya's instructions, you wave at Captain Zendrani as you take leave once again. "Do be careful, Pathfinders. We will be waiting here for your return. Desna guide you."

You head back into Diobel and towards Gull Street. A large warehouse soon looms into view. Its main level sits at the edge of the street above a ten-foot drop to the harbor's waters below.

A door in the western wall of the warehouse opens, and a woman clad in simple leather armor steps out. Her features display a blend of Taldan and Mwangi heritages, and her crisp accent is difficult to place.

IMAGE OF MAGALI DELROYA

"I am Magali Delroya. You must come quickly, Pathfinders. We do not wish to be seen."

Delroya moves briskly, waving off protests or interruptions, and speaks with the rhythm of her steps.

"Questions later. Much is at stake. First you must listen." She moves to lead you deeper into the warehouse. Her outward display of authority does not entirely mask her fear.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Cirri oops wrong PC Sirettis does not question her and simply keeps alert of the woman and her intentions.

Sirettis (or Cirri, I suppose? ;) senses that Magali isn't up to anything untoward and is being honest.

The small room through the warehouse's western door features a round table and several chairs.

"This room is for the guards. They are all too busy dealing with our disruptions, so no one is here for now. That door leads to the docks below," she says, indicating a door in the southern wall.

"Come this way. I will show you the warehouse." She opens a door in the northern wall, revealing a cavernous storage room. Haphazard stacks of barrels and crates almost reach the ceiling twenty feet above.
Two large skylights in the ceiling provide ample light during the day, and a dozen unlit lanterns are spaced around the room. To the east, a wide opening in the southern wall looks out over the loading bay ten feet below. A freight elevator platform rigged to a complex set of pulleys and ropes and a staircase both lead down to the loading bay.

"As you can see, the Aspis Consortium maintains a sizable operation out of this warehouse, which they rent from the Kortos Consortium's Locosta family in exchange for alchemical goods. After tonight, I hope that the relationship between Aspis and Kortos will be irreparably damaged."

This is all reflected on the map, Slide 6. I'm breaking up the box text because no one likes a wall of text!

"We may have delayed the shipment, but my sources tell me that both the Kortos and Aspis consortia are likely to investigate the warehouse later tonight. I had hoped for more time, but I will not able to move the goods until after midnight. I need your help in holding off the agents until everything is in order. They are not likely to work together, so you should prepare for multiple groups of agents. While I have no qualms about fighting the Aspis agents, if possible we should avoid further antagonizing the Kortos Consortium. Their agents may be willing to look the other way."

"Because the agents are on high alert, you should stay at the warehouse until they arrive. We wouldn't want anyone spotted or attacked out in the city before we're ready. That gives you several hours to prepare. Most of the items in the warehouse are simple trade goods designed to make this outfit look legitimate. You may want to take some time to look around, though - you never know what the Aspis Consortium might have stowed away here."

"I can stay here briefly, if you have questions or need assistance."

"How might you suggest we turn the eye of the Kortis agents? Is it possible to pay them off or to give them the name of a high ranking official in the organization that would turn them the other way?"

"The Kortos agents are loyal to House Lacosta. They know the Aspis have been using the warehouse for illegal activities, but they may not yet know what else the Aspis have done. The horrible drug experiments on the citizens of Diobel in particular come to mind. Anything that you had noted while seizing the cargo manifest or stopping the crazed alchemist could put their relationship with the Aspis into question."

"Appeal to their goodwill. I'll make a note of that."

Sirettis takes a look through the warehouse for anything that can be used to block entrances.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

Isa flutters around, and both are clearly displeased with the idea of being confined for most of the day.

"A guild war, of sorts?"

D. can't suppress a smile.
How amusing.

Trip to the warehouse

Mr Peppers walks with the group to the warehouse meeting. He keeps his eyes peeled for anything suspicious and a hand on a wand in his robe pocket. Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Upon meeting their new 'host' Magali, Mr Peppers follows her direction and looks for any anxious tells warning him of a trap as they enter the warehouse. Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 18

Once inside and confident everything is on the up and up, at least at this point, he relaxes his grip on his wand. "You've taken quite a risk here Magali, as have we in coming here. Your intentions are most noble."

Mr Peppers then takes the quick tour with the woman before he starts in on the questions. "Indulge my questions if you would be so kind. First off, when you return for the shipment how do you plan to get it out? The cargo hoist down into a ship or something else? How much material are we talking about here? Just a couple crates or significantly more? How important will speed be in getting the crates out? Is this going to be a quick snatch and grab or something a bit more stealthy. I just want to know how we should be preparing the cargo. What do the guards that you expect to be back here tonight from the Aspis look like? We don't want to mistake them for the Kortos."

Mr Peppers asks these one at a time before each answer to avoid confusion.

Afterwards he'll search over the warehouse with detect magic followed by detect poison, assisting someone more observant than he (taking 10) to see what sort of goodies are in here. Spellcraft: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

"Thank you. I am a wanderer. I call no place my home, and no one my family. I thought that meant that the Aspis Consortium was a good fit, but I was wrong. They have no respect for anyone but themselves..."

She considers Mr. Peppers questions. "I have contacts who will bring a ship here to pick up the goods once the threat is dealt with. At least half of these crates contain smuggled drugs, I'm sure. Speed won't be important once the Aspis are taken care of. At least, I don't expect additional agents to come here after today, especially if the Kortos become aware of what they've done."

She ponders for a moment, then remembers the crest. "Look for the gold badge with the curled snake on it. Some of the Aspis are proud and choose to display their affiliation publicly. Let it be their downfall."

I'll move onto resolving both Sirettis' perception and Mr. Peppers' spellcraft if there are no more questions for Delroya.

Mr Peppers is satisfied that they only need defend the place vs lug around crates!

Delroya pulls another note from her pack and hands it to Mr. Peppers. "Here. You may need this. What we're doing here isn't exactly legal in the eyes of the Kortos Consortium. I am hoping that we can get through this without drawing their ire, but as a last resort, you can use this document. It should eliminate any questions as to the legality of your actions. If you can avoid having to use it, I would be grateful, but do not hesitate to present it if necessary." Writ added to slides

She then moves to show you two secret doors that function as hidden entrances into the warehouse. One on the north side of the warehouse, and the other next to the loading dock. "Be wary. They tried to conceal these doors and could possibly use them to enter." Red lines on map are secret entrances

Randomized gifting: 1d6 ⇒ 5
"Given your impressive success with the delaying the shipment, I have some additional supplies for you." She hands you six stones that Mr. Peppers is able to identify as thunderstones. "I must go to make final preparations for the shipment. Good luck, Pathfinders. Remember, they will probably get here around dusk." Quickly on her feet, she heads back out of the warehouse.

6d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 5, 6, 3, 6) = 27

Looking through the warehouse, you find the following potentially useful equipment:

Carpentry supplies with masterwork artisan's tools
A 50-pound human-sized cage with a lock and key
A wand that Mr. Peppers identifies as cure moderate wounds with 5 charges remaining
An oil of arcane lock

At the loading platform, Sirettis notices a crawl space underneath the platform big enough for one person.

In the south of the warehouse, on top of some crates, you find a stoppered glass jar filled with spiders.

The search through the warehouse takes about an hour.

You have five hours to prepare. You can use this time to move crates, barricade entrances, hide, create disguises, or whatever else you can think of!

Looks like we have quite a bit of time and quite a lot of fun looking options! I'll throw some out there, as should the rest of you so we can figure out something effective and fun!

Once Delroya leaves Mr Peppers will take a look at the writ. "Wow, she's got some friends in high places.. well at least one. Unless of course its a forgery." Does the writ have anything official looking about it and do I recognize the name/title? Knowledge: Local: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Mr Peppers will then throw out some of his thoughts on the building's defense.

"Defending a building really isn't an area of study for me but I would think some of the basics would be to limit the entrances to maybe 2 or 3, and have them rigged or watched so we know if someone sneaks in. This arcane lock oil would best be saved for an exit we want to be able to use by keep them out of. It is quite powerful magic.

It would be good if we can maybe get them in the building so they don't flee and come back with reinforcements. Maybe put some sort of distraction up in the warehouse to funnel them where we want them. I can create some sounds to help, and that big cage can be a good focal point. I also have some grease if we need it."

Does a quick walk through of the warehouse. "Can't we use that oil to stop people from coming in you said it's some sort of magic lock right, Mr. Peppers?" Bishop arranges some random items on the floor and points people to the layout of the building he has done his best to replicate. "Perhaps we lock the main door to the warehouse with the oil yellow line. We also block the secret door into the main warehouse with crates light blue boxes leaving only one available secret entrance open as this is probably only known to the Aspis members that will make them come through there. In the office we should smash the jar of spiders and post on the outside doors a sign blue lines indicating a poisonous spider infestation from the jungles of Mwangi. We can also use this as a reason for our being here. Say we've been hired by the owners of the warehouse to clean out the said infestation. To add to it we can use the cage to say this was housing the mother spider. Thoughts?"

"I think traps are great, but what if the Aspis aren't the first to come? We should limit entrances to the main one, if we can. I say we don't release the spiders yet, but leave one of us there to throw them in if an attack comes from that way. I will volunteer to stand guard at the inner office door for that purpose."

"The warning for the pretense of poisonous spiders sounds amusing, yet i doubt many would fall for it."

D. looks at the carpentry supplies.
"There seem to be plenty of nails. We can carefully place them for the agents to walk into and injure their movement on narrow points."

As per caltrops, is the intention.

"If any Kortos guards approach, I can convince them to leave. Let us focus on securing the other exits. Is anyone good at carpentry? We should lock this door."

Mr Peppers listens to the numerous good ideas then adds some thoughts.

"The large warehouse doors typically would only get opened to move materials, I think we should assume and concentrate on the smaller doors to be accessed. The warehouse doors are large and heavy as it is, they can be secured to not open easily enough for hammer and nails. The good thing about the oil is we can still access the door via a password, making it good for an emergency exit. The lock is also permanent so it would be useful to the Kortos afterwards. I like the idea of setting up some nails to injure some feet, it shouldn't be hard to put them in some boards on the ground in a dimly lit area. We should also stack some crates so we can access the roof windows to keep watch, not to mention have a high platform for crossbow firing."

Mr Peppers will check to see what doors already have working locks, if any, for maximum effect of the oil of arcane lock.

Moving crates: You can move a 5-foot stack of crates five feet in 10 minutes. If you succeed at a DC 20 Strength check, or if you work together, you can move a stack of crates 10 feet in 10 minutes.
If you're going to use the carpentry supplies and tools to hammer some nails into a board, I'll need a craft check from whomever is going to do so. It's pretty straightforward to hammer in some nails so the DC will be low.

Mr. Peppers notes that all of the doors' locks show signs of having been picked, and the keys are nowhere to be seen.
You can attempt to relock a door with Disable Device DC 20, however

He recognizes the name on the writ, Scion Lord Avid, as the ruler of Diobel.

"I would be glad to assist Sirettis in smoothing over any trouble with Kortos agents who come by," Begrilda says. "I...have a way with people."

Okay, team, so to summarize so far:

• Barricade the loading dock door and northern secret door
  
• Setup nails and boards at the other entrances to function like caltrops
  
• Arcane lock on either the main warehouse entrance to the west (I'll have to number these doors) or a smaller door
  
• Hang onto the jar of spiders for now
  
• Setup a stack of crates that can be used as a sort of firing tower and to keep the roof windows in view
  
• Put up signs indicating venomous spiders on the loose!
  

Looking over locks Bishop notes he should be able to relock them with no issues

Okay, Bishop has plenty of time to lock all of the doors again.

Did you want the caltrops at all entrances?

Can everyone also position their tokens on the map in the room or position you'd like to start in?

I would say board shut the two different sets of large warehouse doors, should be must faster than moving all those crates, especially if the doors slide vs open, but either way much faster. Mr Peppers will volunteer for some hammer work and just take 10 on the Craft check for a 13. I still want to use that arcane lock on the northeastern secret door so we have a way to get out, once Bishop relocks it, it will have a DC30 lock that we can bypass with a password. It also makes it stouter vs bashing in. I'm thinking we can funnel them in via the guard room door and block the remaining small doors with crates.

If we throw down caltrops that will probably put us in combat which is why I was suggesting the spider act. We can fight Asus who use this warehouse but it would give the Kortis a reason to turn around and leave us alone. Boarding shut the warehouse doors sounds good to me.

"Bishop, do you think we could use some of these thunderstones to rig up some deafening traps? I'm thinking on the warehouse door here that goes into the guard room... leave the door open and if they shut it Boom! I can also shut it from afar with magic. We could also set them up as an early warning system on some of the other doors."

^ Now that's a good idea! No one has Craft (traps) as far as I know, but the more ingenious among you can probably figure out a way to create a crude yet effective trap untrained.
No caltrops for now, just dangerous spider signs, and boards along the two sets of large warehouse doors. Arcane oil on the northeastern secret door. Gotcha.

"Oh my, you are clever, Mr. Peppers. I'm afraid I don't know much about such strategizing. I'll tell you what. I will stay beside Sirettis and, if any members of the Kortos Consortium come by, she and I can ply our charms to make sure they leave peaceably. I'll hold on to that writ Miss Delroya gave us as a last resort as well if you don't mind. As for those despicable Aspis fellows, if they come around, Sirettis and I will take up a more central location to you all, where she can use that ability she used on Laszo to put some of them asleep, and I can grant you all a blessing from Bolka. I know it's not much of a plan, but it should be a start, eh?"

I honestly have no idea how to improve upon what you others have suggested so far. I'm kinda terrible at this sort of thing. Haha

"It may mean killing these Aspis members Begrilda unless you have means to keep them sleeping for a very long time. I didn't want you to surprised if it came to this. It might mean the difference between living and dying this day."

Begrilda pauses for a long moment, gazing down at her feet. After a few seconds she looks up and meets Bishop's eyes. "Bolka has shown me that, in order for goodness to carry on, those who turn to darkness must be destroyed. She has even given me a tool to use to turn that darkness upon itself. I thank you for your concern, Bishop, but I assure you, you will not hear any objections from me today."

Bishop bows before Begrilda. "Regardless whatever means is used it will be done judiciously."

Bout time her deity talks some sense into her.

Knowledge: Nature: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16 Are those spiders anything special/poisonous/valuable?

Also wanted to be sure that we locked all of the exterior doors, and other than the guard room exterior door try setting up those thunderstone traps?

"While we debate things, how about you guys give me a hand moving these crates around over here so provide easily climbing for me to be perched up here? Hrmmm and maybe another one or two for cover. I don't want to get zinged with any crossbow bolts.. Murder holes!"

Mr Peppers aligns the crates up around him at the top of the platform to come together enough to resemble murder holes/arrow slits on three sides. I put an arrow where I have the easier access to climb up to my position. The first crate of that climb I'm going to smear with alchemical grease.

"Alright how did we want to set up this sound trap? I've never really created a trap before although they mentioned it briefly in one of the Society's classes that I was in. Any ideas?"