[PFS2 GM Psyblade] 01-01 The Absalom Initiation

Game Master Psyblade

Tamrin Credence looks in amazement as Vellir pulls off his sleight of hand tricks, once the coin is found he nearly bounces up in delight as he takes it and walks away while talking to himself.

Eando watches the exchange with amusment in his eyes before he addresses the pathfinders. "Ahh, new pathfinders, I take it you are here to proof your mettle?" He chuckled for a moment before he continued. "In the Flotsam Graveyard A sunken ship has recently washed up on a reef not far from Absalom. Rumor has it that smugglers areusing it as a safe house, and that they are involved in smuggling texts and possibly living creatures from Nex. There might be books that are valuable lying around, but if you can find any information about the smugglers’ methods, I would be more then happy to take it."

Taking a sip from his wine he regarded the pathfinders for a moment "Questions?"

"There are several sunken ships in the Flotsam Graveyard. Do you know the name of the vessel we're looking for?"

Eando nodded at Doc with a smile. "Unfortunately I don't have a name, it seems to have washed away or faded away, however it is easy to locate, anything else?"

Bloodshanks looks at the others. "Get the haunted house out of the way early, then?"

"Sounds like the most fun task of the bunch. Unless anyone's scared?"

Doc shrugs. "Most likely some local hooligans. The sooner we unmask them, the more time we can focus on this research at the College of Mysteries." He holds out a parchment. "Speaking of which ... can anyone make use of this magic missile scroll? It is outside my area of expertise."

"Alright, finally some action. I don't know about you people, but I don't feel at ease in this kind of social gatherings. I'm mostly a man of action" says Matheus, checking that none of the important personalities around might hear him.

"The 'haunted house' sounds as good as any other task to me. We can go straight to it, or maybe visit the various places starting from the nearest an continue then toward the farthest. What do you say?"

"Magic is my heritage. I can use the scroll." Namza pockets the scroll, as long as nobody protests.

"I've found most hauntings are superstitions or gossip. Let's get to the bottom of this one."

"Ooh, but what if it's a real spooking?" Tevvy asks nervously. "Tevvy doesn't like spookies. Last ones he fought nearly killed his new dinosaur friend."

Once Janira sees that the group has picked up their assignments she makes her way to them and listens to them for a brief moment before speaking up "Haunted house? that might be hard, not late enough, maybe do one of the other's first? just sayin'!" She grins a bit as she regards them all for a moment, giving tevvy a light pat on the head to encourage him.

The time of the day is roughly late in the morning, so haunted house is an evening thing.

Didn't realize this was a morning party. "Well, since we have daylight, how about the Flotsam Graveyard? I would prefer not to be out on a boat at night."

"Fine with me. It might be interesting to see what was smuggled out of Nex.

Tevvy nods vigorously. "Tevvy likes boats, they don't burn too good so Tevvy can play with his fire on them."

As you make your way towards the ship you spend some time asking around and gathering information, nobody seems to know anything out of the ordinary.

The weathered boards of the ship’s main deck are cracked, warped, and thoroughly covered in a thick, stinking carpet of algae, seaweed, and barnacles. The sodden mess squashes and scrapes underfoot, while squawking gulls circle overhead. The ship once boasted three masts, but they are now brokenoff only a few feet above the jagged railings. Whatever other distinguishing features might have once existed on this vessel are either long lost or utterly obscured. Empty doorways lead into cabins to the fore and aft, and a dark opening descends into the lower level.

In its current position, the ship is only partially above the waves. The bottom deck is completely flooded, making it impassable. The top of the masts are broken off, leaving only jagged, waterlogged stumps reaching up about 15 feet above the deck; all the rigging has long since rotted away.

Map is up, if people can put themselves on the top deck A1

The deck is difficult terrain due to the mats of vegetation and layers of barnacle growth. Characters can instead move along the railings with a successful DC 15 Acrobatics check to Balance

I appear to have View Only permissions on the map.

Doc Bloodshanks makes his way onto the deck and slowly slogs across it toward the door on the aft. "Hard to imagine there is anything of worth that has survived on this derelict. I believe the captain's quarters are generally in the rear, so perhaps worth checking out."

Should be fixed now and you can add things to it

"Yes, I'd think any records would be in the captain's cabin."

Vellir trudges over the barnacles. He peers into each doorway for anything of interest, before rejoining Doc at the aft. He keeps Haast from going after the gulls. "Now I see why they don't try cleaning this 'yard, if all the ships are like this. The captain's cabin, you say?"

As you make your way towards what seems to be the cabin the movement is slow and slippery but none of you manages to lose your footing. Getting to the Aft of the ship you don't find anything of interest there.

"Bah. Nothing here. Let's check the other cabins."

Doc slowly makes his way along with the others to the front. "Crew quarters, perhaps?" From within his vest, a neon green and yellow frog crawls out, resting on his shoulders. "Ah, there you are ... Done with nap time, eh?"

As the group makes they way through the upper deck nothing is to be found there. While making their way below deck sharp beams of sunlight light filter down through cracks in the main deck to cast this cargo hold in a dim light. Though the ship’s original armaments are now little more than rotted ballista mounts, this area shows signs of recent activity, including intact shipping crates, a recently broken crate, a few boxes, and faint trails worn through the slippery vegetation growing over the deck. Wooden doors in finer condition that the rest of the boat stand to the north and south, but the stairs
eading further down now lead only into dark, scummy water. The floor of the cargo hold is seemed to be hard to maneuver due to the slippery algae underfoot.

When making their way down the stairs everyone but Matheus notice a peculiar construct under the stair that seems to be staring at them in curiosity but there is also an underlying hint of something.

Sense motive roll from those that have it, and can people let me know they Knowledge Arcana

Perception (Sense Motive): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Arcana: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

I thought the lower decks were flooded and completely impassable.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

My Arcana mod is +7.

The frog jumps off of Doc's should and begins climbing along the rotted woodwork of the ship.

I thought the lower decks were flooded and completely impassable.

[Dice=Perception]1d20+5

My Arcana mod is +7.

The frog jumps off of Doc's should and begins climbing along the rotted woodwork of the ship.

The lower decks are, however ship has upper deck, middle and lower deck. Sorry if I caused confusion

Search me, but don't these things tend to attack people?" Vellir asks in hushed tones.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Post will come tonight, work is a bit more hectic then expected so will be when I am back home

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

I have Arcana +4

The pathfinders cannot sense anything from the creature as it is standing behind the stairs. It seems restless and looks around, Vellir, Doc and Matheus notice several remains of fish, seagulls corpse and the occasional rat around the creature.

Bloodshanks whispers, as if this insight contains much information, "I believe that is a Fleshforge Dredge."

I assume that is the extent of my knowledge about this thing?

Bloodshanks whispers, as if this insight contains much information, "I believe that is a Fleshforge Dredge."

I assume that is the extent of my knowledge about this thing?

Yeah, nothing in regards of how and what

Doc says tentatively to the creature, "Greetings. We mean you no harm." He watches for a reaction.

Sorry, I was waiting to see how the creature reacts. Namza isn't much on the soft skills.

Yeah, there is not much else to do but pose waiting.

The creature watched Doc silently as it let a grumble go from under the stair, not making any hostile move but he was slowly getting agitated if people didn't figure out what to do about the flesh forged creature.

"Oh," Tevvy says suddenly, snapping his fingers. "Tevvy heard rumors about this thing. Tevvy thinks it eats birds, and Tevvy eats birds, so maybe we can be friends!" He hops the rest of the way down the stairs and waves to the creature. "Hi!I Tevvy Dragonskull! Tevvy and friends are friends, we not food or scary! You be friend?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

Upon hearing the revelations about Tevvy and the creature, Vellir practically hurls Haast towards the top deck. The eagle wings the rest of the way out. "Yes, we can be friends," he adds. "I've got no birds to spare, but maybe some simple food will tide you over?" He offers a mid-tier packet of trail rations.

Diplomacy Aid: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Namza shrugs when his companions greet the creature.

"Takes all kinds."

Upon being presented with food the creature first looked confused about what it was, when he then reached out and managed to snack some from it he turned and seemed to beam a bit more as the trail rations were snapped from Vellir his hands as he sat down and started to eat, a happy growl could be heard once in a while between the gnarling of food.

"Friends..."

It was clear the creature possessed no more threat to the party and they could now explore the ship some more to see if they could find that what they were looking for.

So ... a Perception roll to search?

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Namza detects magic, then looks around.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

"Well, I'll be. It eats," Vellir smiles at the success, then moves on. "Reckon I can chalk that up as a mission expense?"

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Doc particularly looks for some kind of texts that might have escaped the damage to the ship. Softly to his companions, he says, "Looks like this fellow might be the cargo being smuggled. Would one of you want to see if he's willing to accompany us back to shore?"

"Tevvy will!" Tevvy begins chatting up a storm to the creature, suggesting that the Pathfinder Society is full of wonderful people and all kinds of delicious food, and you get to hit people and no one will get mad at you as long as it's the right people (especially people who like snakes.)

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Sorry for the delay, work happened yesterday and got me all occupied

The Fleshforge dredge regarded the bouncy little goblin with mild interests and sat down in front of the hyper active Goblin, hanging to each of it's words while munching on the trail rations before pointing to Tevvy "Friend!" Meanwhile the rest of the group would go over the ship with a haircomb to see what they could find. It takes them a while as they go over everything but the team finds the following: A smuggler left a pair of magical talismans rolled up in a smelly, salt-crusted rag. These are two crying angel pendants, a bundle of writs of inspection approving the cargo crates for export from the Nexian capital of Quantium. The other is a series of financial records, including notes of sizeable sums paid to the same individual whose name appears on the writs—a clear indication of bribery, and of interest to Gorm Greathammer. There is also a lantern that seems to give off an eerie glow.

In one of the rooms there is a coats of arms hanging against the wall Society check for Namza please

Gorm sent us to the College of Mysteries, I believe.

Gorm sent us to the College of Mysteries, I believe.

ugh... that is a clear screw up from me then :P ignore that part :D

Doc finds the lantern intriguing and investigates it, as he gathers together the paperwork in his satchel, hoping to keep them safe from further water damage for transport back to the Society.

Crafting: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Society: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

Namza puzzles over the coat of arms.

What has been discovered, it is clear that this is a relic of the original Silent Tide invasion — the evidence Calisro Benarry wants.

Which one do you guys want to do now?