[PFS] Dawn of the Scarlet Sun by GM Lupulus (Inactive)

Game Master Lupulus

Dawn of the Scarlet Sun

Leofric steps up through the main gates towards the meeting room indicated in his missive. What are they going to foster on me now?

You all have come to Magnimar at the request of the Pathfinder Society. You have been asked to work directly with the city guard to help solve a problem plaguing the town recently.

For the past few days, the city of Magnimar has been in the grip of terror. A murderer stalks the city’s streets in the gloaming pre-dawn hours, and each morning it seems a new and freshly mutilated victim appears in an alley. There have been four bodies discovered to date—all worshipers of the goddess of healing and redemption, Sarenrae. The city guard desperately wants to catch the murderer, yet he is a cagey and elusive foe. In order to expedite the search, they have turned to you to aid them in stopping the culprit before he slays again.

A woman greets you, though not very cheerfully. She is Varisian and in the uniform of the town guard. "Thank you for coming, these latest murders have proven most vexing. Magnimar has seen all too much of this type of thing, but the markings of these murders is something new altogether. We have already conducted some investigations, and once you are all ready I will brief you on what we know so far."

And we're off! I'll continue the briefing once everyone has posted their details in discussion and made some response here as well. Now is the time to react if you've been to Magnimar before, I know Aryxis said he has some useful connection.

Portrait of NPC is in slides on my signature, and please double check your initiative/perception I have on the sheet.

Once she receives a Pathfinders summon, she gives Grandmama a long hug and bids her goodbye. "I'll never give up. Never."

---

Sheela drinks some tea and bathes in the sunlight, distracted. That didn't work at all. Usually this brightens her day.

You meet this Aasimar as her Unseen Servant hands her some more food. Her frown quickly melts away when she sees you. "Hello, I'm Sheela. From the Kolphan family." She stands up and hug you, kiss you and shake your hand (depending on your preferences.)

Turning to the captain, she asks: "So there's a creepy murderer of Sarenrae worshippers around here..." The frown returns. "Terrible...well, everyone has a story to tell- we'll find the killer sooner or later."

Still fuming at the realization that not only will he be assigned to a team to perform an even more dangerous task than usual, Leofric shakes Sheela's hand with the least amount of enthusiasm you can conceive of. "Leofric Collins."

To the Captain, he asks "What do the markings look like?"

And someone tell me what the hell we're doing here??? A serial killer? Really? WE're ARCHEOLOGISTS" he thinks to himself really angrily.

A little frog-lady (about 2 feet tall) looks surprised and upset when she hears who is being targetted by the serial killer. "We have to do something to stop this!"

Claudia venerates Sarenrae, and her big brother who she adores is a cleric of Sarenrae.

A rather tall fellow in a grey cloak arrives. He throws back his hood, revealing a face with Elven features. He bows to the others, saying, "Ingrge, at your service..."

A crimson crested lizard man with breastplate armor and an adamantine scimitar takes a seat. His hands are in constant motion, rapping out rhythms on his belt, shield, breastplate, table, whatever is at hand.

"How very interesting. Human laws intrigue me. I take it this is not a sanctioned vendetta of some sort, or are such things illegal here?"

The tall breastplate armored half elf with wild hair and a shining greatsword across his back strides in and nods greetings to everyone before addressing the guard...

"You guys seem to have a lot of issues with religion around here. Not so long ago, I was in the area cleansing corrupted members of the Church of Desna just north of here in Ravenmoor. That all ended well though and I'm sure we can accomplish the same result here."

"Interesting. I was dealing with Razmir deviants myself, though their religion turned out to be just plain simple greed. That combined with yet another destructive artifact meant trouble. In the end we just took it aways and added another it to our vault. Talk about a single point of failure. Makes me nervous just thinking about it."

Syllyn emphasizes his point with a hard rap on the table as he says 'thinking'.

The woman nods as the last of you is collected and tries her best to answer some questions before filling in the other details they have so far.

"Good, you are all here now. I am Kasadei, overseeing the city watch efforts to investigate and put a stop to these killings."

Looking to Syllyn's question, she says "We don't know anything about a motive, beyond the fact that these have all been followers of Sarenrae. So sure, for all we know at this point it could be some kind of vendetta. But such a thing would certainly be illegal here." She raises a surprised and cautions eyebrow.

When Leofric asks about the killer's calling card, she describes it. "All the victims were stabbed multiple times from behind, and their hearts were removed. Through magical means, we've found none of them saw their killer, but one caught a glimpse of the weapon, a dagger bearing a strange symbol of a white feather dipped in blood. We haven't been able to identify this symbol yet." A knowledge religion check might let you recognize what she's describing.

"The victims also mostly recalled a sudden silence right before their passing. All these victims were killed during their "dawnwalk," I understand a traditional ritual for their goddess. And all were killed in the Shadow, the district in town near perpetually covered by the shadow of that damned bridge." Kasadei is referencing the an immense and ancient ruined stone bridge known as the Irespan that looms overhead, keeping a part of the city in its shadow through most of the day.

Kasadei asks very formally "Do you have any more questions about our investigation before I discuss our plan to catch this murderer?"

Leofric rubs his eyes with one hand, as his other drums upon his armor. "I see. Well. Do you have any supplies you can provide us with to deal with this problem? Or do you know the address of someone who you go to for specialized supplies?"

Gonna assume a 10 wont tell me anything about this mysterious symbol.

Ingrge frowns at the grim description of the murders...

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

He's stumped at the symbol on the dagger...

"With all the murders at the same area and done in the same manner, has no one tried to bait the killer?"

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

"He did say he has a plan and it probably includes bait. Do tell us your plan miss-guard."

"Oh! Are you going to dress someone up as a worshipper of Sarenrae, doing her dawnwalk in the shadow of the bridge?" Sheela focuses on her nails. "Sounds like you'll need a damsel. I can do that." She looks to the rest of the group. "No offenses."

"A white feather dipped in blood you say? Sounds familiar. Rings a bell as the saying goes..."

Kn: Religion: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Aryxis recalls that the symbol belongs to Shax, the demon lord of lies and murder.

Claudia ignores Sheela's interruption. "Please, tell us your idea how we can stop this horrible situation."

Kasadei rolls her eyes a bit at Leofric's words. "If you experienced adventurers are in need of 'specialized supplies' for this job, suffice to say you will be well rewarded for the task, to the tune of 3,000 gold if you can help bring the killer to justice."

"Trying to draw out the killer is exactly the plan we have been working on. I'm glad you all agree with the wisdom of this course." She can't help a quick glare at Ingrge for challenging why they haven't handled it themselves. Clearly she's not happy that they haven't been able to settle this already and had to ask for help. "As suggested, we want to put together an ambush to lure the murderer out so that he can be captured, but none of the guards have the precise training required to pull the ambush off successfully - I've been tasked with finding some specialists who can do this, that's why you all are here now."

"In the early hours before dawn tomorrow, we need you to serve as a decoy, trying to attract the attention of the killer. There is a tavern near the docks where we will meet and make our preparations. You can start the dawnwalk from there and the guard will stay a safe distance behind. If the murderer takes the bait, you will need to apprehend him and we will move in for an arrest as soon as we can, though it will be a few minutes."

"For the rest of today, I suggest you ask around the locals in the Shadow who might be more willing to talk to you than a guard. Or there might be some Sarenrites with useful information - they are too impatient and demanding on the guard of late to get anything useful for us directly."

"Any other questions at this point?"

If you want to spend several hours gathering information from either the Shadow district residents near the murder locations or local followers of Sarenrae, tell me which one and make a diplomacy check. Or follow up with Kasadei if you have other questions. Or other things you think might be useful.

Can we split the party and do both, keep the party together and do both, or must we keep the party together and choose one. (either question the locals or question the Sarentrites)

"If we travel as a well armed party, we won't be much good as a decoy. I'm not much on disguises or stealth for that matter, so I may need some help pulling this off. Any ideas?"

Ingrge, sensing his questions were not taken well, will remain silent, just nodding in agreement with the plan. He decides to scout out the Shadow district and gather what information he can find on the streets and in the pubs...

Knowledge (Local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

For the afternoon activity you can split up, so each one of you has time to question either one or the other

Kasadei answers Syllyn's question. "We'll make final preparations before dawn, but I'm sure we'll need lookouts or more convincing ideas for the decoy."

When the time comes everyone will get to make a skill check, so party planning makes some sense as you go through the information gathering. Bluff to act like a decoy, stealth to hide, disguise to make a good disguise, knowledge religion to help with the disguise, and perception to serve as lookout would be among the options. There may be other skills if you have ideas or discover anything today.

Aryxis decides that someone in the district probably knows more about what is going on than the guards so he does the round and uses his own brand of logical diplomacy to try and gather information.

Diplomacy (T10): 10 + 13 + 2 = 25

Sheela nods. "Well, if you need someone who is good at bluffing, I can certainly do that. I'll just need to play the part, so to speak."
Sheela has a +12 to Bluff. That's the only applicable skill she has here.

Sheela turns to Claudia. "Let's talk to the local followers of Sarenrae. I'm sure they will shower us in information."

At the local temple, Sheela gets the attention of as many followers as she can. "Sarenrites. I am Sheela, from the Kolphan family. I have heard terrible, terrible rumors and I wanted to know if these supposed dawnwalk murders are true. I know this is a difficult topic to speak of, but if we pool our information, maybe we can find a way to dawnwalk safely."
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

"Come now. Speak up." Sheela waits patiently for the world to fall into her lap.

Syllyn will help with impressing the locals and getting information from them. Though he is spending more time listening to totally unrelated storied that pique his interest. Syllyn seems easily distracted by a good tale.

diplomacy-gather info: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
This is an aid to Aryxis unless we are looking for multiple successes instead of one big success.

As for applicable skills, Ingrge has +20 to Stealth and +15 to Perception

Has any mention been made of the fact that we are dealing potentially with demon worshipers?

Leofric looks at Sheela from top to bottom. "You certainly look like a Dawnwalking Sarenrite victim. Including the part where someone comes and puts a blade in your heart and you die." His frown deepens. "So I hope you understand why you are my least favorite option when it comes to "bait". Bait should either be expendable or tough as nails.
Or crazy."

He sighs and offers in a tone that wants to be less angry: "Sorry. I do have some money left over from my expeditions to Numeria. I want to put it forward to make sure we are successful here. What could we purchase to make this... Honeypot situation... "Better". If that's possible."

"I'm sure there's a reasonable magic shop in town. Perhaps we could together buy a few scrolls to make some of us invisible? I could use those, even though it's not a spell I have in my book. Then we could be right by Sheela and she can look vulnerable without actually being so?"

dipl. aid to Sheela in temple: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

The little frog-woman looks reflective. "I'm not a very good servant to the Lady of Light. I sometimes neglect my dawnwalk and instead just go stand at the edge of my party's camp. However, my laxness is troubling me right now..."

"Haha! Oh Leofric." Sheela laughs off his worry. "The blade in the heart does sound terrible. But that's why all of you will be nearby, right? Besides, who is better to play the part than I?" She laughs. "But if worst comes to worst, I can just Vanish for about a minute."

"Claudia has a good idea. Scrolls of Invisibility will help, but they won't last forever. A scroll would only last 10 minutes or so. Still, it's worth it."

She smiles and turns to the Grippli. "Honestly, as long as you're performing acts of good, I think Sarenrae knows your heart is in the right place." She smiles. "Grandmama knows I try my best despite my vices. Many, many vices. But she hasn't given up on me, and I know the Lady of Light will never give up on you." Sheela relaxes. "That's how I feel, anyway."

"Claudia has a good idea. Scrolls of Invisibility will help, but they won't last forever. A scroll would only last 10 minutes or so. Still, it's worth it."

"Perhaps a spell to disguise oneself. I hear druids can make themselves look like tree, rangers have spells to camouflage themselves, and wizards can make themselves look like different people. Though a tree probably wouldn't work if this dawnwalk thing involves walking, huh. Maybe that wizard disguise spell would work then? Though it is one of those personal spells and only lasts a few minutes, so... Hmmm."

Actually Syllyn could cast just about any spell using his improved spell kenning ability so he could cast most 2nd level spells or lower at level 5. He could go invisible for 50 minutes.

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

"Invisibility spells only last a minute if casting from a scroll. Ten, twenty minutes at most if you are a powerful spellweaver" grunts Leofric, annoyed with how lighthearted and worry-free everyone else seems to be with the matter at hand.

"It might be better to go with a more simple illusion. A Silent Image spell will last as long as we need it to, and would be cheap."

"Actually, if I cast from a scroll, it's five minutes."

@Leofric: Aryxis recalled the bit about the demon lord, I don't know if he's shared it with you all. Aryxis?

While there is no temple to Sarenrae in Magnimar, Sheela and Claudia are able to find a small gathering. The followers are agitated, but you do learn some from them. The targets so far have been low ranking clerics, but unrest has begun to spread a bit as the other followers have demanded the guards solve this crisis.

One grumpy older priest complains about being treated so poorly by the city after all these years. "The faithful tried to build a proper shrine about 80 years ago - man named Volsten and his two boys were at the head of it. They put it in the Shadow to try and bring it needed light, but the building was barely complete when a couple of local thugs broke in to rob the place and beat all three to death. Now Volsten and his sons are buried on the grounds, which otherwise has been abandoned and unused since..."

The others investigating rumors and clues around the murder sites in the Shadow hear no shortage of rumors, disturbingly similar. Tales of clacking and scratching sounds on roofs, sounds of flapping wings and even a few claims to have spotted the shadow of some "demon" silhouetted in the night sky.

Follow up as you wish, and after that you all make a pass through the selected ambush site to scout it out. Then you meet back up the inn you are staying at and can finish discussing your plans. There is time after to go shopping for scrolls if you decide you need something like that.

For planning the ambush, it sounds like Sheela wants to use Bluff to serve as bait, the rest of you will be able to support her with one skill check of your own. You won't need to cover all the options so feel free to use one you are good at. Don't make your checks yet but do a little more discussion now that you have a little more info. The default list of suggested skills is Stealth to hide positions, Perception to lookout, Disguise or Knowledge (Religion) to help make a convincing disguise for your bait.

For spell support if you want it, you are guessing there is a 20 minute window, so if your spell is shorter than that there is a random chance it would be in effect. Something like invisibility would add its bonus to your stealth if you go that way.

As you plan, you can figure out what check you want to make and place your token on the ambush map (slide #3) where you would like to be for the ambush. Sheela (or magic image if she decides not to do it) will walk that north path where I placed her. Clear as mud?

"That's... complicating things." Sheela thanks the older priest. "If you don't have a temple, you may be weak where enemies of your religion can take advantage. We'll do everything we can to stop it."

Later at the inn, Sheela greets you all. "I'll have to Bluff my way through. I don't know much about disguises or the finer points of religion, but I know all of you will support me."

The next morning, Sheela uses her wand of Mage Armor to better protect herself.

Ingrge nods. "I will cover you from the shadows; I'll strike quickly if you are threatened..."

"A silent image spell! That's brilliant, Leofric. It will last as long as you need it to and help hide all of us!"

Syllyn is all for buying a silent image scroll.

Claudia nods in excitement at Leofric's idea. "You are suggesting that the silent image be the decoy, right?"

happy to contribute Claudia's share of a scroll, and also to cast, unless Sheela would rather be the caster.

"A silent image sounds like an excellent idea. I'm happy to chip in for a scroll if noone knows it...." Aryxis raises his eyebrow in question.

"For myself, I'll station myself nearby. I've got good eyes and can move at great speed when I need to."

Where the time comes, Aryxis will cast Heighened Awareness to give him a bonus to Perception for a total of +12.

"Actually, I was thinking we could use the silent image to construct something to hide behind. Ah, but then there is that walking thing again. Sheela would have to keep walking by the same spot for that spell to work."

"You designate a spot to show the decoy in, he or she can't leave that area." Sheela frowns.

Ingrge shrugs. "There appears to be plenty of cover in that area... I should be able to stay concealed while I follow and keep an eye on Sheela..."

Claudia has no strong opinion here, so will let Sheelah and Leofric, who do seem to have strong opinions, work it out... :)

"If you think the illusion will work, Leofric, we can go with that." Sheela hates deadlocks, and she wants to get this over with as soon as possible. Grandmama needs more help! "I can use the scroll, no problem. Hopefully the killer falls for the bait."

"So Ingrge, you will be our eyes and ears. I won't be able to do much until the kill arrives."

Sheela will contribute to a scroll. It's 25 gp for Silent Image.

How do you guys want to use a silent image? As pointed out, it's pretty stationary, and the ambush is a walk. Picking your positions on the map is for simplicity, but in character assume you have to be on the move, (but mechanically won't have to make more checks or anything)

We may be overthinking this. Just go with the skill rolls suggested since the spells we have are not quite what we need. I'm thinking that a decent knowledge local roll combined with the silent image spell could give us a bonus by putting an image up to use for hiding behind in the most likely intercept point. How does that sound?

Leofric replies: "The illusion won't work as the bait; I think it would work to camouflage the cavalry." He points to Syllyn. "He understands where I'm coming from."

He pauses, then shrugs helplessly, defeated. "Listen. I just don't want to see anyone die today or tomorrow." Because that Sarenrite at the head of the Silver Crusade won't let me hear the end of it in that passive-agressive tone of hers. "Let's do it your way, and if it doesn't work, we'll try with magic."

I understand this is a walk, but is it a walk where the Sarenrite just chants as he/she walks about or a walk interspaced with long pauses? Am I overthinking this and we want to just use the skills mentioned earlier? Possibly, and I'm all for that.

***Later, right before Dawn***

You have to be ridiculously motivated to do one of these "Dawnwalks" thinks Leofric to himself as he moves slowly parallel to their decoy. His eyes wander to the Nagaji and the Grippli. I wonder how they feel; it is colder than a Nidalese nun's heart he continues, suppressing a shiver as he shifts, arms closed in an attempt to conserve heat.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

"And away I go. Wish me luck!" Sheela smiles, dresses up as a Sarenrite and activates some Mage Armor.

Okay, walk the walk. Pray quietly because I don't remember the lyrics, or hymns or whatever. I can sing a sweet song, though.

Bluff: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14
Inspired Reroll: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19 Better, I guess.
If you need to apply Disguise instead of Bluff, use +4 instead of +12.

Ingrge will stick to the shadows and any other cover available as he observes Sheela walk down the road. Once she passes his position behind the fence, he'll stealthily follow from a distance ('bout 30'), staying in the shadows close to the buildings...all the while his eyes and ears will be alert for signs of the murderer...

Stealth: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (12) + 20 = 32

Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27

GM, Claudia has a climb speed, and would like to follow along from high up so she can see. Would you allow a climb check as her skill?

If you guys want to use the silent image, you could make like an illusory fence to hide behind, at the purple line for example. I'll move everyone behind it who isn't already on the map as your planned ambush point, if everyone is ok with that then we will make that the plan. I just need then someone to explain what the chosen illusion is, cuz I hear some in character disagreement and I'm not sure what it's over at this point, if Sheela is walking and the Silent Image is a wall to hide behind :)

@Claudia sure if you want to try climbing up to the roofs to see you can try a climb check. But move yourself out of the silent image zone to where you want to be as well.

The next morning, before dawn you meet Kasadei and go over your plan with her. She will give you the space you need but knows where to keep an eye on.

I got checks for Leofric, Sheela, and Ingrge. The other three can go ahead and make their skill check now too. And someone confirm that they want a silent image wall, and what that wall is. Once I have those things I'll spin up what happens. I don't mean to be railroady, but this scenario is that way a bit and I feel like you all want to move on more than you want to tweak the finer points you (or your characters at least) might disagree on :)