[PFS] 6-99 True Dragons of Absalom by GM Upaynao (Inactive)

Game Master Upaynao

@Varanog- No cover from the roiling orb of negative energy.

What do you guys want to do?

"It's really a tad too arcane to explain to someone not hatched of the magic blood. You understand of course." explains Varanog, Inexplicable Master of the Arcane.

"Shadrixis, I presume." Varanog performs a low sweeping bow to the great wyrmling. "About that army--"

What's the thing in the middle of the room?

"THEY ARE ALL DEAD AT OUR CLAWS!"

Intimidate (demoralize): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

"Cease your and your friend's, the Onyx Whatevers', interference in Absalom, and we might be persuaded to not tell your mother."

Skyrahk rummages around her pack and pulls out a hand full of scrolls.

Athrax slips his hand into his pack, hand wrapping around a tanglefoot bag, This goes bad, gotta keep it on the ground.

The dragon roars as the negative energy swells. "Betrayers! Thieves!" Shadrixis doesn't seem to be shaken in the slightest from Varanog's display.

Oof, Shadrixis rolled terribly.

Round 1
Skyrahk (29/29)
Varanog (21/26)
Pethjun (31/34)
Fazgyn (24/29)
Athrax (29/29)
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Shadrixis
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Leaping into action, Fazgyn darts to the right, pulling his bow and aiming to hamstring the dragon before it can take flight.

Shortbow on Dragon: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
Damage: 1d4 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1
Sneak Attack: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 6) = 9 Hampered movement, all speeds are halved until Faz's next turn, no 5ft steps.

”Finally! You will regret this!” Wielding her rapier, she charges straight at the dragon.

power attack, charge
+1 rapier: 1d20 + 10 + 2 - 1 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 10 + 2 - 1 + 2 = 28 dmg: 1d4 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 2 = 9

Could someone help move Pethjun? On mobile. Didn’t realize that Google Drawings doesn’t work on that.

Skyrahk steps to the side a little bit and then reads from one of her scrolls. Suddenly a glowing dagger appears next to the dragon and strikes at it.

Spiritual Weapon (Dagger) vs Dragon: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Force Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Free: 5' Step
Standard: Use Spiritual Weapon scroll
*Spiritual Weapon: Attacks dragon
*Last 4 rounds

Before everyone else jumps in his way....

scorching ray of DOOOOOM! v Shadrixis (ranged touch, v flat-footed): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 fire damage: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 1, 4) = 16

After everyone jumps in his way... which is exactly how he wants it. Athrax steps up and tosses his bag of gooey noodles at the jerk dragon who is causing all their troubles. He then pulls out an elixir.

5-ft step, Throw Tanglefoot Bag at dragon, Draw Elixir of Bomber's Eye.

Ranged Touch vs. FF + PBS - Cover - No Precise: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 1 - 4 - 4 = 20

Tanglefoot Bag

A glowing dagger appears just underneath Shadrixis as it pierces into his soft underbelly. Varanog lets loose another scorching ray but it burns through the open air, dissipating in the distance.

With a roar filled with confidence Pethjun charges in, stabbing Shadrixis with his rapier in the neck. Shadrixis squirms and releases the puncture point from his scale. His eyes glare down at Pethjun with suck hate and intensity.

Fazgyn draws his bow and sens an arrow into Shadrixis's wing, hamstringing the dragon as the wing goes slighty limp. Athrax tosses a gooey bag at Shadrixis, pinning the dragon in place as the fibers and glue chemically adhere to the ground.

Tangle Bag DC 15 Reflex: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9 Worst dragon ever. :P

Shadrixis's muscles bulge as he attempts to break free and take to the air.

Str check DC 17: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

The wyrmling begins to panic a bit as Shadrixis literally struggles for his life, both claws clutching at his mother's scale. "No....no I will kill all of you whelps." He screams.

Amazing first round guys!

Round 2
Skyrahk (29/29)
Varanog (21/26)
Pethjun (31/34)
Fazgyn (24/29)
Athrax (29/29)
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Shadrixis (-30; hampered; entangled; glued to the ground)
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Closing the rest of the distance, Fazgyn draws his blade in his free hand. Taking up position, he waits for Pethjun to step into the flank.

"MWAHAHA!" Pethjun laughs maniacally in glee when her weapon pierces through. She grins in delight when Fazqyn steps into position, and she moves in similarly as well. The rapier flies in, followed shortly after with a massive swing of her tail.

flank, power attack, dirty fighter, FCB
+1 rapier: 1d20 + 10 + 2 - 1 ⇒ (6) + 10 + 2 - 1 = 17 dmg: 1d4 + 6 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 15
mwk razored tail: 1d20 + 4 + 2 - 1 ⇒ (15) + 4 + 2 - 1 = 20 dmg: 1d6 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 9

Athrax nods, "Good work all, finish the weak worm off if you wish or knock it out so we get a bit of leverage. I'll prepare for alternative possibilities." He pulls and drinks a different elixir.

Move to draw Elixir of Fire Breath, Standard to Drink.

"WAIT, YOU FOOLS! How do you think, Argrinyxia, will react if we actually kill one of her young!?"

The equivalent of killing your your drunken, leech of a brother-in-law at your mother-in-law's house, assuming your mother-in-law was Smaug's sister.

Casts ray of enfeeblement.

ray of enfeeblement v Shadrixis (ranged touch, into melee): 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (17) + 6 - 4 = 19 Str penalty: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

"She'll make another one, one that isn't STUPIDLY TRAITOROUS!" Fazgyn shouts back.

"Then why wouldn't she just have done away with him herself?! Or send one of her other spawn?!"

Skyrahk reads another one of her scrolls to give a boost to everyone while her spiritual dagger swipes at the dragon again.

Spiritual Weapon (Dagger) +Bless vs Dragon: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 6 + 1 = 10
Force Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Standard: Reads Bless Scroll (+1 attack and vs Fear for everyone)
Spiritual Weapon: Attacks Dragon.
*Spiritual Weapon: 3 rounds left
*Bless last 40 rounds

The spiritual dagger isn't able to make it through Shadrixis' scales this time, though Varanog's coruscating ray spreads across the wyrmling's chest, sapping its strength.

Fort Save DC 14: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Pethjun's rapier pierces once more and his tail swats into Shadrixis' eye as the dragon snaps down at the kobold. Stepping into a flanking position Fazgyn begins stabbing deep into Shadrixis' neck. Each stab more and more scale flies free as the meaty center beneath gives way. "Mothe..."

Shadrixis collapses, quickly bleeding out from all of the injuries as the wyrmling succumbs to death.

Well done on stopping the dragon that quickly round 1. It was set to take to the air, breath all over you all over and over, then swoop through the ball of negative energy in the center of the room to heal itself.

The scale falls free from the dragons grasp.

Meanwhile, as a group you search the place. Shadrixis may have been very young, but he had a nicer hoard than you initially expected. His horde contains some silver gold and platinum coins under all that copper as well as an onyx gem.. He has also buried a few minor magic items within the coins: a traveler's any-tool, a black velvet pouch filled with dust of emulation, and an aegis of recovery.

What do you do?

"Now we lure the creepy bug-thing into an ambush, kill it, and hide the body, but leave an antennae stalk here to point the claw at it for killing the True-true-blood in revenge. Meanwhile, we sneak away." suggests Varanog sagely.

When the wyrmling falls, Pethjun puffs up noticeably. A dragon! Granted, it was a pathetic little wyrmling, but she would be boasting of how she slayed a dragon for time to come. Even if kobolds are supposed to be reverent towards them.

"Bah! Let's just close the portal and get out of this forsaken place! Give them the scale and begone." She would never admit it but the shadow plane gives her the creeps.

Fazgyn wrote:

"Where do we find Shadrixis? Are there more onyx fools?"

“The umbral wyrmling is like most children of his species, indolent and insufferable. As a dragon, he wishes to be fawned over, but despises his lesser role in the great machine of Shadow Absalom. As for his dwelling, the Onyx Alliance provided for him a great spire to roost upon—a spire built on a hive of my people, destroyed by the alliance during one of their many expansions in the city.”

"I did not like the way the roach spoke of our great kin. Now Y'zilix can read minds, so we'll need a distraction. A straw decoy, some sort of empty vessel that the insect can stare into while we take it unawares. ♪♫Ooh, Pthjun....♪♫"

Athrax's forehead furrows, "Wait, why are we killing the insect again? Do we believe it works for the boss dragon lady or not? Why don't we just stick to the plan and figure out if we've been had before executing her right hand bug?"

"I'm all for Pethjun's plan, that's our primary mission. Close the portal and make sure we have a way back to reap our rewards..." he doesn't continue his thought ...from the pathfinder society.

He starts shoving items and the horde of coins into his pack, slipping the necklace over his head muttering, "Stupid whelp, shoulda been wearing this."

"We just killed a scion of the Queen of this place on the word of a cockroach, who calls her mistress's offspring 'indolent and insufferable', and you wonder why I do not trust the thing?"

That, and to be honest 'indolent and insufferable' sounds too much like Varanog himself. Plus, from a logical perspective it sounds so suspicious. A powerful dragon with other children who rules a city sends a bug to recruit kobolds to kill her own son? That would be embarrassing on soooo many levels that even Varanog can't believe it. Traitorous or not mom's of any species probably wouldn't go that route. And then who are we supposed to turn the scale over to? The Queen or the insignificant bug who gets to use it for itself? I think we are being used as patsies to set up the next big season special set in Absalom--The Shadow (Dragons) Over Absalom.

"...I could pretend to be empty." Fazgyn mutters to himself before shaking his head. "So kill bug, get out? Or just get out?"

Or maybe it's just bad senerio design--I'm lookin' at you Solstice Scar A-Z! ;) Some scars never heal....

Still Varanog is suspicious.

It was obvious the bugs had some power here (this massive hive is a definite sign of power) and the queen dragon is the boss of the city so she had to have an alliance with them. The offspring was trying to challenge her rule and while dragons are intelligent, I wouldn't assume they act like civilized people. Most of nature sees nothing wrong with killing or banishing their offspring to prevent challenges to their power. Her whelp making a deal with outsiders and stealing from mom and forcibly removing her allies from their base and setting it up to challenge her dominion is a pretty grievous set of actions. I'm not saying to trust the bug, but we made a deal with it (under duress, but still a deal) and have other priorities... or at least Athrax does.

TLDR: Athrax votes to keep to the deal made with the bug.

PS: I liked Solstice Scar, it wasn't that hard to suspend disbelief and enjoy sequential runs.

If I am ever held captive by an evil terrorist organization, and am forced to play it again as a form of torture, I'm just going to play it like Groundhog's Day where whatever character it is being tortured knows what's going to happen in the parts they have already played through (I've got the Chronicle sheets after all, right?). Then just race to the end telling people what they are going to say and do, before they say or do it ("Sit down, and shut the Hell up Medda! A horde of kobolds is about to ambush us from just over there!"). I think it was a huge disappointment, and I would have felt bad to have paid money to go to a Con, and then spend the time playing though something I had already played 3/5th of a couple of months before. The fact that the designers then encouraged people to go through it with the same character--ugh! It seemed pretty bad in other ways too, but "Don't game angry!" --Even though you make me feel that way. ;)

Anyhow, Athrax's explanation makes a sort of sense, but it still seems weird (not that the Dragon wants her kid dead and her scale back, but that she somehow didn't have the tools at hand to do the job herself somehow). Again, it just seems a bit too embarrassing to then leave us alive to tell the tale of how we kobolds went in and killed her weak kid, that she couldn't do anything about herself. **shrug**

She's a big dragon with a whole city to rule. You don't go out of your way to hunt down one pest, you hire an exterminator.

I'm probably overthinking it (I'm playing a sorcerer after all), but Pethjun's initial reaction sort of sums up my worries. "Oh yeah! Them Umbral Dragons is like 'the mosquiters of the Shadow Plane!' I kills two or three of them every time I'm over there! Pests really."

Phew! Alright so we have 1 vote to go and kill the bug and 2 to just close the portal with the scale. Will go with first with 3 votes.

@Athrax- Give me a knowledge local check. This will determine what you know of concerning Y'zilix and the Mother.

"As I have no qualms about killing the bug thing but our primary goal is to secure our home, not get into unnecessary fights. I say, we close portal and secure our home for potential trouble in the future."

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Oooh, maybe actual in character knowledge and not (mostly for him at least) out of character speculation!!!

"Kill bug! Kill bug! Kill big!"

"Maybe kill 2nd edition goblins too."

"Maybe kill 2nd edition goblins too."

Gasp, genocide!

Having spent some time earlier wandering around and speaking with the locals Athrax comes to a few conclusions. Better later than never, Right?

First off it seems that Y'zilix kept mentioning the Light Weavers' Guild. They seem to be engaged in some sort of long term feud with the Onyx Alliance. Y'zilix explained she followed you for some time, thinking you were Onyx Alliance since you came through the illegal portal. Once Y'zilix learned you were planning to close the portal she seemingly took advantage of the situation by letting you know that the creation of stable portals in Shadow Absalom is outlawed by decree of the city’s ruler, Argrinyxia, the Shifting Lady of Ebon Scales, a mighty umbral dragon.

While not working for or directly with Argrinyxia, taking care of the umbral wyrmling would help meet the Light Weavers' goals as well as give Argrinyxia great relief that her scale is not opening any more breaches.

Sounds like majority wants to push through the portal and close it so I will post that tomorrow as I am in the middle of a long drive.

Varanog, Sorcerer Supreme! wrote:

"Maybe kill 2nd edition goblins too."

Gasp, genocide!

"RETA REEEAL GOBLIN!! AND AM REAL ICONIC FIGHTER TOO!! NO READ EVIL WORDS!! KILL BAD PUPPIES AND HORSEYS!! MWAHAHAHAH!" **Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop! Chop!**

Varanog casts scorching ray.

ZZZAP! **THUD**

"Honestly, when did a little genocide hurt anybody? Besides we all know kobolds are the far superior PC race."

While not working for or directly with Argrinyxia, taking care of the umbral wyrmling would help meet the Light Weavers' goals as well as give Argrinyxia great relief that her scale is not opening any more breaches.

Varanog snatches the scale and immediately starts using it for... something....

Even still, killing True-true-bloods sets a bad precedent. If people go around just thinking that they can kill dragons whenever they want to what will they think about ME?

A small goblin from the shadow plane is burned to a crisp on the way back to the portal.

When the you emerge from the sewer portal, a great gathering of Sewer Dragons led by chief Yiddlepode celebrates their triumphant return. A contingent of Pathfinders led by Drandle Dreng stands to the side, having just prepared to enter the breach themselves. "Oh, you closed it! Excellent, excellent! How did it go?"

The mutant otyugh Hats is also present, enthusiastically clapping his tentacles, knocking a beaten derby against a tricorne hat in the process. "Oh brave, brave hats, look at them! They have returned!" says the Prophet of Kallistrade in its high, squeaky voice. "I say," says Strident Commodore, "and just look, they have brought the 'hattiest hat' with them!"

The assembled group celebrates as the portal closes. Yiddlepode personally congratulates each of you well done, while looking especially regal in her velvet blue opera cloak. Then Drandle Dreng bows, and asks, "The Pathfinder Society thanks you as well, Sewer Dragons. From the carnage we saw when we approached..." one of the Pathfinders, covered in bandages coughs, "... and the traps that we mostly managed to avoid, you fended off the invasion admirably! May we hear a little of your exploits in the Shadow Plane?"

Just closing up here. Feel free to have your character tell a little story in your own words about one of the things that happened on your journey. Have fun, this is the close!

A small goblin from the shadow plane is burned to a crisp on the way back to the portal.

When the you emerge from the sewer portal, a great gathering of Sewer Dragons led by chief Yiddlepode celebrates their triumphant return. A contingent of Pathfinders led by Drandle Dreng stands to the side, having just prepared to enter the breach themselves. "Oh, you closed it! Excellent, excellent! How did it go?"

"Wait. Do we have to close that one now too?" grumbles Varanog.

The mutant otyugh Hats is also present, enthusiastically clapping his tentacles, knocking a beaten derby against a tricorne hat in the process. "Oh brave, brave hats, look at them! They have returned!" says the Prophet of Kallistrade in its high, squeaky voice. "I say," says Strident Commodore, "and just look, they have brought the 'hattiest hat' with them!"

"Back off, Mutie!" growls Varanog like an enraged toy poodle, while clutching his crown of silver.

Pethjun puffs up so much from the attention and praises, you could swear she is on the verge of exploding. "Harrumph, harrumph. Ha! It was a most dastardly place. Bizarre creature pouring out from mirrors! You would have been slaughtered if you were there!" Then pausing for dramatic effect, she saves the best for last. "And of course, we kill this false dragon! All shadows and wispy. Not like our fire and acid ones!"

Athrax steps forwards, "Ah, that was easy. Definitely not a major challenge for The Sewer Dragons, the pathfinder society's greatest allies." He smiles at Dreng, "We wiped out the Onyx Alliance for you and easily closed the portal on our own so you shouldn't have any further issues from them. What other threats and missions would you like us to handle for you? I assure you, there won't be a more capable group."

Thanks for saving the game and doing an excellent job stepping in, got the chronicle.

Varanog rolls his eyes. His gold scales darken with a mixture of anger and embarassment. We are True-bloods! The missions of Scaleless Ones are not our concern! Go find some stupid goblins for your 'missions'.

Varanog materializes a floating disc to stand on, getting him closer to eye-level with the Venture-Captain.

"And now Captain of the Ventures, our tribute for accomplishing all that you Smooth Ones could not."

Varanog is impressed by anything that you wouldn't ordinarily find in a sewer so a fresh stick of gum will do.

And then, Hair-face, depending upon the amount of the tribute I, Varanog, will lead you away from our lands and back to your own--I'm relatively sure I remember where I placed all of my blast runes. Heheheheh.

Thanks again for the game (and continuing the game) everyone.