The meeting in Absalom with Drandle Dreng nearly a month ago was brief, as always. “I have a routine mission for you, though a dangerous routine mission,” the old man whispered in the great hall in the Grand Lodge. Suffering from a cold and weak from lack of food and rest, the old venture-captain looked quite possibly the worst you’d ever seen him. Through wracking coughs he explained, “An ally of ours in the Land of the Linnorm Kings—Rognvald Skagni—is writing a lengthy report on the state of government in the northern countries of Avistan. I received a letter from him just yesterday requesting several key documents from the vaults here to help him finish the report.” Venture-Captain Dreng patted a large, heavy-looking chest next to him. “These are the documents, and I need you to board a ship north to deliver them to Skagni.”
Dreng tried to stand at that point, but a fit of coughing sent him back into his seat. He gestured for a well-dressed, impeccably kept man standing in the shadows of the room to approach and whispered raspy orders to him. The man picked up a small pouch and a large key and handed them both to the party. “Venture-Captain Dreng is unwell, as you can see. He wished me to give you this key and this pouch of gold. The key opens the chest, and the gold will buy you passage and get you from the Linnorm coast to Trollheim, where Skagni resides. Whatever you do, do not let the chest out of your sight and do not, under any circumstances, allow it to be searched. These documents are for Mr. Skagni’s eyes only. Are we understood?”
Dreng’s nameless servant waited for a reply and then smiled. “Good. Now run along; Venture-Captain Dreng needs his rest.”
You may take this time to make any final purchases. I recommend cold weather outfit and anything else you see necessary.
Additionally, the chest of documents presents a small challenge to the party. The chest is 2 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 3 feet deep. It’s made of heavy oak bound with iron, and locked with an enormous, finely crafted steel lock. The chest weighs 100 pounds, and it’s imperative the party keep it safe.
Male CN Human Magus (Bladebound) 3.1 | AC 15 {19 w/ Shield} (T 10/FF 15) | CMB +4 CMD 14 (FF 14) | HP 30/30 | Init +0 | Fort +5 Ref +1 Will +3 (+5 vs Cold Weather)| Perception +0 | Speed 30' | Arcane Pool +1: 4/4 | Black Blade's Arcane Pool: 1/1 | Active Conditions:
Purchases Cold Weather Outfit (8gp) before trip.
Dark is wearing black tanned Leather Lamellar armor of high quality. From his belt he has sheathed a long sword and hanging from a chain is a small book. Otherwise he looks of average height and build, though mildly attractive.
He takes the coin pouch and key from the man. "Right. A delivery mission with sensitive info."
---
Looking at the chest, he frowns. "Unless one of us is very strong or has a spell that can levitate the chest, we might want to rent a cart that we can pull."
F Halfling cavalier (honor guard) 1/swashbuckler (mouser) 1 | Hp4/19| AC 20 Tc 15 Flat 16 | F+4 R+7 W+2 +2 vs Fear | CMB +0 CMD 14 | Perc +6 | Init +4 | Panache 3 of 3
The red headed halfling will bob her head, two bundles of hair to frizzy to be called pig tails bobbing with it.
"Seems simple enough. I'm pretty good at protecting stuff myself, though I'm used to guarding people. Also you may want to go see a cleric. That cough sounds nasty."
Etna will get herself that cold weather outfit (8 GP) as well as a potion of invisibility (300 GP).
Female Human (Taldan) Bard (Archaeologist) 4 Portrait
Lara likewise buys a cold weather outfit before the party sets off.
"Sounds good to me," a brunette Taldan woman says. She is dressed in earth tones, with a shortbow slung over her shoulder and a longsword at her hip. "We'll need a horse to go with the cart, obviously."
She pauses, her lips pursing as she contemplates something. "Do they rent carts? I'd imagine we're buying it, no? Unless there's some traveling peddler who's heading our way and is okay with us simply 'renting' his services for the duration of the trip."
Male CN Human Magus (Bladebound) 3.1 | AC 15 {19 w/ Shield} (T 10/FF 15) | CMB +4 CMD 14 (FF 14) | HP 30/30 | Init +0 | Fort +5 Ref +1 Will +3 (+5 vs Cold Weather)| Perception +0 | Speed 30' | Arcane Pool +1: 4/4 | Black Blade's Arcane Pool: 1/1 | Active Conditions:
"When I'm saying cart, I'm thinking more along the lines of a hand drawn wagon and we could probably buy a usable, throw awayable one. So no horse needed."
Dark holds his finger next to his nose, "Remember we are going to be taking a ship."
A small hand runs along the upper edge of the chest as a halfling with dirty blond hair inspects the chest before coming to a stop, pondering.
"We could look into getting one of those magical bags. That might be best to keep it out of site. Otherwise we could pose as merchants and try to hide it in plain site with similar chests," states Roscoe, rather dryly.
Roscoe will purchase cold weather gear (8GP), a shortbow (30GP), and 20 arrows (1GP).
Is everyone ready to get on the boat to arrive to your destination. Any last things you'd like to do? Will get you moving along here later tonight or tomorrow morning.
OK let me know how or who is carrying the chest. I would like to get this post up and moving.
Your party travels and arrives to Trollheim. The average daytime temperature in Trollheim during this time of the year is just above freezing, and the average nighttime temperature hovers around –5° Fahrenheit. If there are any final purchases you need to make as you arrive here and discover how cold it is, feel free to do so.
Cold Weather:
Cold and exposure deal nonlethal damage to the victim. A character cannot recover from the damage dealt by a cold environment until she gets out of the cold and warms up again. Once a character has taken an amount of nonlethal damage equal to her total hit points, any further damage from a cold environment is lethal damage.
An unprotected character in cold weather (below 40° F) must make a Fortitude save each hour (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and might be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well (see the skill description).
In conditions of severe cold or exposure (below 0° F), an unprotected character must make a Fortitude save once every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check), taking 1d6 points of nonlethal damage on each failed save. A character who has the Survival skill may receive a bonus on this saving throw and might be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters wearing a cold weather outfit only need check once per hour for cold and exposure damage.
A character who takes any nonlethal damage from cold or exposure is beset by frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the cold and exposure.
The directions to Skagni’s home provided by VentureCaptain Dreng’s assistant are unclear, but after a few wrong turns due to poor handwriting, the party finally locates their destination.
Where the directions indicate Skagni’s house should be stands only the charred husk of a burnt-out building. Bits of burnt timber and ruined furniture lie scattered about, but if anything remained after the fire, it seems to have been picked over and looted. Though most of the walls are blackened with soot, a patch along the former front of the residence still shows relatively clean, white walls. Smeared across those white walls, written in reddish-brown letters four feet tall, are the words, “Pathfinders go home.”
DC 10 Heal:
You are confident this writing is indeed blood.
Go ahead and roll perceptions to investigate the burnt down building and any other actions you'd like to take.
Male CN Human Magus (Bladebound) 3.1 | AC 15 {19 w/ Shield} (T 10/FF 15) | CMB +4 CMD 14 (FF 14) | HP 30/30 | Init +0 | Fort +5 Ref +1 Will +3 (+5 vs Cold Weather)| Perception +0 | Speed 30' | Arcane Pool +1: 4/4 | Black Blade's Arcane Pool: 1/1 | Active Conditions:
Seeing as he looks like strongest member of the group, Dark lifts up the chest and carries it. Letting the group take the lead as he comes up behind.
When the weather starts getting cold, he goes ahead and puts on his cold weather outfit.
Lugging the chest to the cottage and frowns to see it burnt down. He puts the chest down next to one of the walls of the burnt down cottage before he starts to investigate.
Female Human (Taldan) Bard (Archaeologist) 4 Portrait
Heal:1d20 ⇒ 18
Perception:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Lara frowns and unshoulders her bow as they approach the burnt-out cottage. "Blood," she notes of the letters on the wall. The Taldan archaeologist looks around warily and nocks an arrow to her bow, just in case.
Roscoe grabs a smoldering rod of wood, the last remnants of a chair or table. He studiously moves about, prodding with the rod to move debris about in case there's a trapdoor or hidden chamber beneath the floor.
Just realized I forgot to dot this campaign, so I didn't get notifications about it. Sorry!
Before the group sets off to Trollheim, Eirika purchases a set of cold-weather clothes. She smiles as the cold air of the Land of the Linnorm Kings stings her face, wrapping a piece of cloth around her mouth.
Perception:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
"Nothing the Pathfinder Society does ever seems to go as planned," she mutters from behind her scarf.
F Halfling cavalier (honor guard) 1/swashbuckler (mouser) 1 | Hp4/19| AC 20 Tc 15 Flat 16 | F+4 R+7 W+2 +2 vs Fear | CMB +0 CMD 14 | Perc +6 | Init +4 | Panache 3 of 3
"Well this is a bit of a cool reception huh? Hopefully everyone is ok."
I was obviously to late to save anything, but their may be some clues left to help figure out what happened. Etna will begin to investigate with her wolf through the wreckage.
Lara, Roscoe, Erikia, Etna & Wolf all see a group of humanoids camped in a small copse of trees about 50 feet north of the house in a small, forested area just off the neighborhood’s small, rutted street. They seem to be observing you.
You don't find anything of interest if you search the building as it seems everything is burnt down or looted.
Female Human (Taldan) Bard (Archaeologist) 4 Portrait
Lara deliberately does not look in the direction of the humanoids. "We have company; a short distance north of us," she says in a conversational tone to those around her.
"I saw them too," Eirika replies casually. "We can only hope they're not hostile, though instinctively they must be the ones who burned the place down."
The four people start to make their way over to you, it doesn’t look friendly as they are pulling out handaxes and making quick movements. They are about 40 ft away from you.
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Up first, Etna, Dark, Eirika & Auraea!
Combat Tracker:
Round 1 Bold may act
══════════════
16.04 - Etna
14.00 - Dark
13.04 - Eirika
13.03 - Auraea
13.01 - Boss
09.02 - Lara
06.04 - Roscoe
06.01 - Thugs
Male CN Human Magus (Bladebound) 3.1 | AC 15 {19 w/ Shield} (T 10/FF 15) | CMB +4 CMD 14 (FF 14) | HP 30/30 | Init +0 | Fort +5 Ref +1 Will +3 (+5 vs Cold Weather)| Perception +0 | Speed 30' | Arcane Pool +1: 4/4 | Black Blade's Arcane Pool: 1/1 | Active Conditions:
Watching them head over to the group with obvious hostile intention, Dark decides for the moment to stay near the chest but respond with the hostility by using his sling to propel a stone at the one that looks like their leader.
Male CN Human Magus (Bladebound) 3.1 | AC 15 {19 w/ Shield} (T 10/FF 15) | CMB +4 CMD 14 (FF 14) | HP 30/30 | Init +0 | Fort +5 Ref +1 Will +3 (+5 vs Cold Weather)| Perception +0 | Speed 30' | Arcane Pool +1: 4/4 | Black Blade's Arcane Pool: 1/1 | Active Conditions:
Watching his stone pounce off harmlessly against the woman, Dark moves a little bit closer to get in range and then sends a Ray of Frost directed at her.
Ray of Frost (Range Touch) vs Green:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18 Cold Damage +HotS:1d3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
F Halfling cavalier (honor guard) 1/swashbuckler (mouser) 1 | Hp4/19| AC 20 Tc 15 Flat 16 | F+4 R+7 W+2 +2 vs Fear | CMB +0 CMD 14 | Perc +6 | Init +4 | Panache 3 of 3
Etna will dance around the thrown weapons before moving up in front of the man with the yellow border. She will make a quick stab towards the woman, however.
attack:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
damage:1d4 ⇒ 3
She will also prepare to use a point of panache to roll into some one's square is they miss her.
"You and me as one," Eirika says, following Etna to strike at the thugs. In tandem with the halfling, she strikes at the yellow axe-bearer, trying to pull as much attention from her ally to her.
