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

Game Master Lupulus

Claudia sheathes her little sword, and helps the others look around.

Ingrge will take a look around as well...

Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (19) + 15 = 34

While Ingrge can use the wand of cure light wounds, perhaps we should wait? I think we may be at the end of the scenario and wouldn't want to waste any of your charges...

When you return to the cells and altar area, the murderer's body still lies undisturbed. Aryxis returns to the loose stone in the cell and pulls it away to find a small cache, containing 2,500 gp and 201 pp, along with a scroll of cure critical wounds, a scroll of remove disease, a scroll of divination, and a scroll of restoration.

Runes and writing adorning the walls are prayers to the demon lord Shax to defile a holy site and transform it into an evil temple. The rotting lumps of meat on the altar turn out to be humanoid hearts, undoubtedly the ones collected by the killer.

Also in the cache are some notes written by the succubus Avalexi (who very cleverly called her disguised alter-ego "Lex Avai") detailing what she had been up to. The temple had long stood empty when Avalexi discovered its presence, and began her plans to defile it. Her original ally was the half-fiend gargoyle, her own son "Scarlet Son." She raised the three wights - the original priest and his sons who constructed this shrine for Sarenrae decades ago that had been long buried. She abducted the priestess Zadendi just outside town - originally a travelling cleric of Sarenrae - and used her dominate person ability to initially turn her and slowly broke and re-indoctrinated her to serve her and her demon lord.

Your efforts have cut her plans short before the temple could be fully dedicated to Shax - her rituals stand incomplete.

The hearts would probably be proof to Kasadei and the guard that this was the killer, if the ambiance alone wasn't evidence enough.

We are indeed winding down, so feel free to save your charges. No more perception checks are needed at this point either.

"Grandmama mentions some succubi can be trained fighters. They maintain a human form for a while, then train under a master for a while and then seduce their way out of payment."

"Terrible." Sheela shudders. "The very nature of evil... she really thought this was the best way of her abilities."

"We should tell the guards now. The killer is dead."

Ingrge nods to Sheela. "I agree...let's alert the town guard...I'll go..."

Ingrge leaves his companions and searches out the town guard...

"I agree we need to tell the guards. We also need to rebury the priest and others who used this temple. Perhaps after the guards see them, the hearts should also be buried in that same area. And I think we should see what we can do to cleanse this temple after the guards see it."

After some looking around to make sure the site is clear, and knowing that the person responsible for the murders the guard sent archaeologists to investigate is dead, Leofric sighs in relief. But his relief does not bring him joy.

"Sure. Now that we've dealt with the damn thing, we should tell the guards who should have been the ones dealing with this from the get-go. And don't tell me we need to foster goodwill; our expeditions are dangerous as is without doing other people's dirty work." He looks at the dead clerics, one of which he personally destroyed. "I've already made the holes, I might as well bury them. I'll bury the hearts for all that it matters. But re-dedicating the temple? If the Sarenrites want it so badly, how about they put some skin in the game: try harder to "shine their light in the shadow". And no, their brethren dying on dawnwalks does not count."

He picks up one of the dead, adding: "We are Pathfinders, not Heroes Incorporated. This was all dangerous work that could have killed any of us for reasons that aren't good enough."

Syllyn listens with interest as the other races talk politics and religion. As a student of culture, he can't get enough of that sort of thing. Oddly, for a skald, he is more of a listener than talker though his incessant tapping makes his presence known..

Sheela doesn't have much to counter Leofric's words with. If the Sarenrites were not shunned due to politics, they would not have been targeted. Yet their blind faith made them easy targets.
This is why Grandmama stayed in the mortal plane.
This is why she endures her punishment.

"Let's bury the bodies again then leave this hellhole." Sheela spits. "I will have many words for the guards and the Sarenrites, but not now."

The shrine has sat empty for a long time, no Sarenrite priests were asking to reclaim it. Avalexi wasn't able to finish the rituals, so no evil power will linger here beyond a normal desecreation removal that I assume is a normal part of demon-cult cleanup in any significant settlement.

You rebury the bodies of the priest and his sons. When you leave it doesn't take long to find some small parties of guards searching the streets for signs of where you went. When you find them, Kasadei isn't far away and is quickly summoned to the shrine.

Another guard with her can't hold his breakfast on seeing and smelling the grisly altar. But the hearts are indeed all the proof needed that you stopped the murderer, and the demon cult in the making here is would be all the more alarming than a serial killer alone.

Back in the courtyard away from the scene below, Kasadei says "Excellent work, we are grateful for your assistance. It is unfortunate that the ambush developed so quickly and we lost sight of you, but you have done a great service for Magnimar. Here is your earned reward. I will pass work of what you done to the local Sarenrites, they should be grateful as well." A guard presents a bag with 3,000 gold.

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Several days later, messengers arrive for you with further reward from the Sarenrites and thanks for preventing further deaths.

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That pretty much wraps it up. Unless you do want to yell at NPCs for being needy enough to present you with a quest to run :) This Free RPG Day module falls a bit flat at the end as far as NPC interaction and doesn't specifically tie in to the society so doesn't have the same debriefing feel at the end.

Thanks for playing, hope everyone had a good time. I'll get the chronicles tomorrow hopefully, and feel free to continue any other character musings.

Thanks for running, GM! Enjoyed playing with everyone...

"I'm glad it's over now." Sheela thanks the guards. "We must respect people of all religions, Sarenrae included." Sheela takes her cut of the reward. "Make sure this place is cleansed, and the bodies are honored."

Thanks for running this GM. Much appreciated. It’s lucky we had a couple of level 6’s to do all the heavy lifting at the end. I think this module would be potentially very difficult if you only had Level 4’s.

I was certainly glad for the damage output I was seeing when the HP toll kept rising and the demon kept fighting. A squad of Syllyn's would have died a messy, heartless death.