GM Bret’s Outpost II Doom comes to Dustpawn! (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

Melody puts her hands on her hips. "Well, we have important business! And it has to do with who's poisoning all of the people in your town!

“Poison! Who said people were getting poisoned!” You take a half a step back just to avoid the spray of spit as he shouts everything.

“Alyssia, do you know anything about this?”

Alyssia starts by saying “Yes, Mayor Kurigoss. It is why people are ac”

At that point the mayor interrupts, yelling “Enough! I don’t need a book about it.”

“Give me the name of the person responsible, I’ll have them locked up immediately!” The mayor gives a little growl. “No one poisons the people in my town and gets away with it!”

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23

"Hate to brake it to you sir, but I think you may have been affected by it as well."

“What? Preposterous! Other than a minor headache, I’ve never felt healthier!”

"It's not that kind of poison. It won't kill you or even make you unhealthy. Rather it has some very unusual effects including feeling a little sick and confused under stress and shortness of temper. In the end it transforms you into something beastial."

Knowing full well what the correct answer is, he asks, "Have you been feeling irritable lately?"

“Why does everyone ask me that?”

Alyssia gives him a look and he hesitates. At an almost normal volume he admits “Perhaps a little bit. Nothing to be worried about though.”

Then he asks again “So who has been poisoning my people, and if it doesn’t kill why worry about it?”

So who has been poisoning my people, and if it doesn’t kill why worry about it?

Prospector Pearl Heart hitches her thumbs in her belt and narrows her eyes at the mayor.

In her country accent, she drawls: Why worry 'bout it? Ain't that funny. If ya'll wish t'govern a herd o' flea-bitten beasts as a beast yerself, then there's no need to worry a'tall!

Else, lock up thems responsible so we'se can help the good folks of Dustpawn. Some of thems villains are coolin' their heels in my carriage outside, waitin' for more permanent accomodations in your pokey.

She takes off her hat and muses. Course, I suspect them scoundrels' true ringleader, thems that goes by the name "Emissary from Beyond," is too, well, larg-ish, an' terrifyin,' an' time-spannin,' an' made up o' too many extra dimensions — you know, all that Dark Tapestry bosh — for the village hoosegow.

That said, mister Mayor sir, we'se Pathfinders will do our best to save this town. Yes indeed, we hate that Dark Tapestry flapdoodle, y'see. We don't want to sees nobody else turned into beasts of the fields. You just leave it to us to help the good people of Dustpawn, sir, and save them from them terrors beyon' what mortal minds can comprehends.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

Melody summons all of her willpower not to giggle at Tycho.

"Please. It might not kill, but it destroys lives. There are some of the people responsible, but we haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet."

Auto-aid on Diplomacy!

The mayor seems to have trouble understanding all of what Tycho says and likes Melody’s nice short summary.

“Moss! Get in here!” the mayor barks out.

In slinks a fellow armed with a good sword and wearing a breastplate. Seems to be moving rather slow and deliberate. “I’m here. What do you need now?”

The mayor tells him to take your prisoners and put them in the jail.

Looking to your group, the mayor says “He will handle it.”

Then with a nod, the mayor barks out “Next!”

It seems you have been dismissed.

Moss has you carry the prisoners into the basement. There are several barred cells here, and he opens a couple up for you to put the people in.

He locks the doors after you are done and allows you to find your own way out.

What time is it at this point? Tycho would like to check in with their spy, meeting it at the inn's room, if possible (and assuming it's still alive…)

Theodric will hang back a bit and follow the party back to the inn, looking out to see if anybody else is trailing them.

What time is it at this point?

I will need to reconstruct what time it is. I believe it was afternoon, so you missed your spy for today.

The instructions were:

Meet me here [the window of Tycho's room at the inn] at noon and tell me what they've done and where they've gone, and anything else you think is interesting. If I'm not here, go find the prospectors if you can and follow them more, and them come back again at nighttime. Repeat this every day until we meet again, or you stop existing.

I meant that the scout should come back at night (not late afternoon), and wait for Tycho there.

"I'm thinking we need to figure out where the poison is coming from before it does in the entire town. I can remove the poison from the food we can find, but that won't do much good if they keep poisoning it. Let's start with the food at the inn. Where does it come from and who has access?"

Reconstructing the day, since there were questions.
Awoke and traveled to Nesher Mines,
Five hours travel to the mines,
Met Sonarisa
Fell into a trap
Met Elbris and Abtaroh
Met the Nesher brothers
Dug a grave and buried the remains of the Nesher Brothers
Met four more Cultists, killing two. One of the Cultists made the mistake of getting grease all over Mongo’s favorite shoes.
Tycho makes a carriage for the prisoners and you head back to Dustpawn.
You arrive back in Dustpawn in late afternoon
Discussions with Dalviss and Alyssia. Alyssia is convinced to give you two scrolls of Break Enchantment and Remove Curse,
Leeara has her curse removed, she is recovering in her room at the Inn.
You visit with the Mayor and hand over the prisoners.

I would say it is probably around 6pm by now,

No one spots the ‘prospectors’ while traveling the short distance between the Inn and the Town Hall. The streets aren’t that crowded, so it is unlikely you missed them.

The group of you arrive back at the Inn to find Leeara packing up some survival gear. She isn’t taking any food or water from the Inn. She does ask if you know what remains of her supplies at the cave and if any of that was contaminated. Since the food here isn’t safe and she doesn’t want to get cursed again, she figures her best option is to live off the land for a couple of days.

Dalviss isn’t pleased, but can’t find fault in her logic.

I understand, Leeara. If we purify your food here at the Inn, would it convince you to stay and cook for us? Pathfinders thrive on good food, you see…

diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25

I left you a couple days' worth of trail rations near the cave. We didn't take anything.

When asked about curing the negative energy effects, Alyssia gives a short laugh and says “I’m sorry, but I’m not that powerful a priest. I don’t know of anyone in town that is. There might be someone with a scroll of the restoration spell needed, but I don’t know of any.”

They bop themselves on the head.

We still need to help Mongo and Warpac recover! Is there anyone around with a scroll, I wonder? Should we ask around town?

Leeara hesitates, but Pearl can be very persuasive.

“I don’t have any way of knowing what is contaminated. I started packing as I realized that I was hungry and couldn’t eat or drink what was here.”

“If you can clear out all the bad supplies in the kitchen and provide me with what I will need to cook, I suppose I could stay. What happens though if you head out of town for a couple of days again?”

No need to clear out the supplies — we'll purify them! Well… Warpac will purify them with Desna's blessing. You see, he can do a good amount in one casting, so we should have leftovers — enough for us Pathfinders, you, Dalviss, and the grumpy barkeep. Warpac can even purify a little extra so if we're gone for a couple days you can still be safe. Just don;t tell anyone else.

Tycho nudges Warpac and rubs their hands greedily. Eh? What do you say? An extra casting or two each morning, and we can eat well again.

sorry, Tycho really wants decent food :)

"Absolutely, I can do a clean up a whole pantry in a couple of minutes unless you have a really big pantry, Tycho. No need to wait a day, it takes little time at all and I can keep recasting it since it is a simple orizon."

True to his promise, Warpac is able to quickly clear the kitchen and pantry of any contaminated food or beverage.

Leeara and Dalviss are both relieved by this.

“Given everything you’ve said, did you want to search the prospectors’s room?”

A10 on Slide 6.

Let's snoop!

"That would the wise thing to do. Where do you get your food from?"

Did we get 2 break enchantments and 2 remove curses or 2 (as in one each) total. It was unclear.

Warpac will be using that detect poison a lot. Not just for food but also on the corridor, room, and just about anything the party comes near to.

Two scrolls of Remove Curse of which one was used on Leeara and two scrolls of Break Enchantment.

Tycho and Warpac head to the prospectors room. Pulling on the door, it refuses to open. Looking at it, there is no way to lock it. It doesn’t appear to be stuck, it just refuses to open.

Tycho detects magic.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Maybe Melody or Theodric or someone more knowledgeable knows what is going on here.

There is a magical aura covering the door.

"Looks like it's time to break something! Unless one of you has a better idea?"

Assuming not, he will attempt to break down the door.

Strength check: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

The sound of Warpac smashing against the door echoes through the hall. The door doesn’t show any signs of the attempt.

Warpac and Tycho hear someone shout from in the tavern area. A1

Those in the main tavern room hear a loud smashing sound. Dalviss looks towards the door into the rooms and loudly exclaims “What is happening?”

Ahhh! Dalviss! Warpac tripped on that loose nail over there! You know how dwarves fall — like a pile of rocks, hahahahaha, ha.... ha. Luckily his boot ripped out the nail, and it’s all safe now. Please don’t tell anyone — Pathfinder pride, and all that. Don’t worry about anything; we’re not breaking your inn.

bluff: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (11) + 21 = 32

Warpac has a confused look on his face for a moment, but then holds his leg as if it hurts.

bluff: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (11) - 2 = 9

Those in the Tavern can see Dalviss trying to decide if it is worth going to actually see what is happening. After a moment’s thought, he looks to the rest of you and asks “Could one of you go check, make sure they aren’t breaking anything of mine?”

He then acts like a proper QuestGiver, returning to his seat and ignoring everything around him. ;)

"Aye, I suppose I can." Tim agrees, moving to join the party in the hall. "Running into trouble?" He looks over the door and up and down the hall for anything useful.

Does it look like there is a gap under the door? Maybe a window outside?

Melody tries to figure out what's going on.

Detect magic and Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

She will use the wand of identify if appropriate!

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16 if that tells her anything.

Assuming nothing from that tells her this is a bad idea, she tries to dispel the magical effect!

caster level check: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

Detect Magic and Spellcraft are for identifying magic items. Since it isn’t technically a magic item, the Spellcraft check doesn’t give you anything.

Melody detects the faint magical aura on the door. Although she doesn’t immediately recognize the spell, she is able to easily dispel it. She quickly checks and determines the magical aura is now gone.

I'm sure it's not trapped, after all that. Tycho opens the door.

Theodric shakes his head at all the pounding and loud casting.

Don't they know anything about subtlety?

Tycho opens the door without issue.

This room isn’t as tidy and clean as the others have been. Clothes and equipment are laying around and only one of the beds in here has been made.

Searching it, you notice they have a lot of waterskins filled with drinking water. Way more than four people should need, especially since there is a public well not far away where you can get fresh water.

Warpac finds something behind one of the beds. It is a folded up piece of paper with a hastily drawn map on it. It depicts the Dustpawn area. Although it isn’t labeled, there is a red circle about where the Nesher Mines would be and a big red X in the same location as the map at the back of the journal had marked. Neither location is labeled.

Now they will know we've snooped. SHould we prepare for a conflict when they return?

Tycho ducks into their room and looks for Ice Cold Lemonade.

Now they will know we've snooped. Shall we prepare for a confrontation? Tycho goes to their room to see if Ice Cold Lemonade is back yet.

"I'm thinking these fellows are probably the one poisoning everyone. We are going to have to confront them sooner or later. Might as well be on our terms."

Warpac starts checking out the area with and eye towards ambush, looking for empty rooms to spring from so that they will be trapped when they try to enter the room and have nowhere to flee too. Though the way everyone has been acting, they would probably want the fight. Everything around here does.

Theodric speaks up "I think here is not a good spot for a confrontation. It's their home and too much likelyhood of collateral damage nearby"

"Warpac, you can detect poison, right? Do you think these waterskins are it? Or....maybe they don't want to drink from the well?"

"Just a sec. I'm checking..."

The water in these skins is completely free of any trace of poison.

"... and that would be a no. I see no signs of any poison here. So. Do we go looking for them or wait here? I think Theo is right. We should go hunting for them or who knows what other mischief they might get into while we wait."

"If these are clean, then maybe the well is bad? Why bring so much water with them otherwise, right?"

Tycho laughs. Let's put water from the well liquid into these waterskins, and leave them here!

"I agree with Warpac. We should go find them before they hurt anybody else!"

Theodric nods as well.

"Well, let's go find them, then! Is anybody good at tracking?"