GM Tyranius Mosquito Witch (Inactive)

Game Master Tyranius

Guntram rises from petting Peaches with a smile on his face. Also on his face: several mosquitoes. He starts to open his mouth, feels one of the insects on his lip and blows it off.

Safer tae keep mah gob shut. Let's see whit she hud tae say.

Ionic and Seggiatore are no help to the conversation at all in actually seem to cause Haru to second guess it at all. that is until Faethor is able to save it by piquing her curiosity.

“Fine, fine. I’m looking for a friend of mine, and I don’t care to tell you her name. She sent me a letter a month ago, claiming that she intended to go to Shimmerford to investigate what was going on here. I intended to meet up with her here, but when I arrived, she wasn’t anywhere to be found.” She describes her as having black hair and wearing a golden armor, very similar to that Galia mentioned had gone missing a few weeks back.

She offers a smile. "As much as I would love to join you I must find my friend."

Ionic gives the woman a tight-lipped smile, mostly in an attempt to keep the bugs out of his mouth. Only opening his lips a little he stutters out, "'ave you talked to Galia, the little barber gnome? 'e mentioned someding about a woman like dat. Also, 'ave a bandanna. Keeps de skeeters outta ya mouth. Don't work well with beards, dough." He tosses her a bandanna and gives her a goodbye wave and Peaches a goodbye pat before corralling everyone and getting them headed out again.

Haru bids you farewell with a small smile as she grabs ahold of the bandana. "Thanks! Stay safe out here and see you around." She wraps it around her nose and mouth. With a small wave she heads off in the opposite direction.

Ionic wrangles up the rest of the group to the Inn. You make your way to The Whitefish and Stag.

The Inn is the tallest building in Shimmerford and one of the few with a view of the town gates. As you enter, a man comes over and introduces himself.

“Hello, I’m Callum Shay. Welcome to The Whitefish and the Stag!”

With a broad gesture towards the common room he says “This is my Inn. As I don’t recognize you, you must be new arrivals in town. Will you be needing a room? How long do you plan to stay?”

Ionic tromps into the room, and glares back at the rest of the group until someone finally closes the blood doors. He swats the few bugs still on him before giving a huff of relief and taking off a few layers of clothes. "Bloody hot in this get up!"

He turns to the Innkeeper and smiles, "Yep, we're new. Society decided to send someone about de skeeters. Room might be necessary. Don't know how long. Just hope it ain't long. Rather fight a Gozreh storm dan dose bugs! But mostly, hoping for some info. Anyone else here about de bugs?"

Blood doors... Must be from all the mosquitoes. ;)

Guntram's familiar pulls bugs out of his hair as he looks around the inn. He adds in after Ionic: Mebbe a human fella? Lots ay hair loch me?

Tay bad th' lass wi' th' dug didne stick aroond. Loove tae hae a dug aroond.

Whoops, lost a 'y' there. Bloody doors, though given all of the mosquitos around that could be quite literal!

Anyone else here about de bugs?"

The Innkeeper points a haggard man sitting at a table near the front desk. "Just that chap I'm afraid. he is the only other here at the moment."

Looking over you see a man hunched over and muttering to himself in the corner. He is a haggard human with dark messy hair, stubble sparsely forming a goatee, and gaunt cheeks. He is turning a paper doll over in his hands, the sweat from his skin starting to cause the paper to melt into something horrific looking.

Azu waits quietly for one of the more personable Pathfinders to approach the man, taking a seat.

Faethor approaches the fellow slowly. "Is everything alright?" The sorcerer looks at the man with concern.

As he tags after the group to inn, Seggiatore is clearly working to keep everyone they have met and heard about straight in his head. He absently taps his drum a few times as if checking which of the names match which rhythmic patterns.

Once inside the inn, he'll offer his hand to the innkeeper and introduce himself and the others, then request some arrangement of rooms for the lot. In a surprisingly normal-pace and calm voice even, almost as if a place like this is very much his Element.

Once they are pointed to the man in the corner, he'll get a little more excited. Falling in alongside Faethor, he won't saying anything additional, but will try to get a good read on the man (especially to determine if the sweating is caused by some malady).

The man continues to feverishly turn the paper doll over in his hands. "The..Witch." He looks up. “An idiot. An absolute idiot...” The man laughs sadly to himself, before jerking himself upright. “Oh, wait, you’re... where are my manners? Sorry. Introductions. I’m Quintus. Quintus Chevunier.”

Waving hello (rather than shaking the stranger's hand), Seggiatore will repeat his introductions of the group, gesturing as he does so.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Quintus. The tall drink of water here is Faethor Silverbrow, and I'm Seggiatore. Our dwarven friends are Ionic Saltbeard and Guntram Falk, and the quiet one is Azu Azan."

He'll pause briefly to let that sink in before asking, "What brings you to town? Is it the bugs? That's why we were asked to come. Seems we weren't the first. Or was it the Witch? We've heard only vague rumors about her so far, but she sounds fascinating."

"Yes. Fascinating," Faethor says flatly.

"You seem to be in distress Quintus, has something gone wrong?" Faethor stares at the man, concerned.

"What brings you to town? Is it the bugs? That's why we were asked to come. Seems we weren't the first. Or was it the Witch? We've heard only vague rumors about her so far, but she sounds fascinating."

“Because it wants me to be here. I shouldn’t have come... but no, that’s what it wanted me to do. It was trying to scare me, so I wouldn’t come... but what if it was being straightforward with me to trick me into thinking it was trying to trick me into staying away?” Quintus twists the doll in his hands. “It doesn’t matter... it always gets what it wants.”

"You seem to be in distress Quintus, has something gone wrong?"

“It’s in my nightmares. Go on, laugh!” Quintus snaps. “Laugh at the paranoid madman! Ever since I came too close to this damned town, I can’t get rid of it. It shows up and doesn’t say anything but when I wake up, I know things. Six and four dead on the Shimmerford road. But how? But why? Is the witch causing it? What does that have to do with the mosquitoes? And why is someone stealing shovels? I don’t even know how I know it... Maybe I’m supposed to cause it.”

Azu's ears perk up. He steps forward, "Someone is stealing shovels because they need to dig. Is there anything buried around here that most people don't want dug up? Or, are you seeing visions of things being buried?"

Guntram nods at the gnome's introduction, listens as Quintis converses with Guntram's companions and then adds after Azu:

We willnae laugh at ye. we've aw seen some strange things. Ye say mebbe yoo're supposed tae cause it. Supposed tae cause whit?

Azu's ears perk up. He steps forward, "Someone is stealing shovels because they need to dig. Is there anything buried around here that most people don't want dug up? Or, are you seeing visions of things being buried?"

“They’ve all gone missing. And picks. Hammers. Rope. Lanterns too. Maybe it’s a thief? But maybe that’s what it wants me to think. There must be some significance... it’s probably staring me right in the face and I just. Can’t. Think of it!” He looks confused and grabs Azu's arm. "Have bodies gone missing too?"

We willnae laugh at ye. we've aw seen some strange things. Ye say mebbe yoo're supposed tae cause it. Supposed tae cause whit?

"I don’t know. I have to figure it out. It’s trying to make me do something and I have to make sure I don’t... ah gods, what if telling you was what it wanted? No, no, it couldn’t have known I would talk...” He fingers the paper doll in his hands nervously.

Azu nods his head, "There are some people missing, but i don't know if the two are connected. The lantern, pick, rope, suggests we are looking for a mine shaft or cave system."

Azu tries to recall if he knows of any thing like that in the area.

Survival: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

This is a very social scenario, what all are you folks wanting to do?

Turning to the innkeeper, "Say, Callum... We were told two other outsiders came to town a couple weeks before us. Do you recall anything about them? They seem to have vanished. And what about these missing tools and other things that Quintus here is talking about - raving or not, heard anyone in town complaining about that?"

Assuming a bunch of negative answers, follow up with "Is there a town council here? Or Mayor? Or just someone everybody looks up to? ... Oh, and there's not a mine shaft or cave system nearby is there?"

Not sure if we should try to take Quintus with us or not, but Seggiatore is thinking we should talk to some kind of authority figure next. Unless we get answers that point us out of town. Or to the abandoned farm.

Faethor takes a seat. "Quintus, I'm going to be honest. You aren't making much sense. Why don't you start from the beggining and tell us what's going on."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

From what Azu can recall there are likely dozens of caves or mining tunnels within the area.

"Say, Callum... We were told two other outsiders came to town a couple weeks before us. Do you recall anything about them? They seem to have vanished.

Callum Shay thinks back a bit. "Been several new people around here lately. A few weeks back we had a brown-haired human dressed all in white, and this half-elf woman with beautiful silky black hair and gold armor over this amazing red dress! They went off into the woods and haven't heard or seen from them since."

"A few days ago, that one sitting over there and a woman with a dog came into town. not sure who you mean to talk about, but good luck."

"Is there a town council here? Or Mayor? Or just someone everybody looks up to?

"'Fraid, there's not a whole lot, most folks are leaving town in droves to get away from these mosquitoes. Just a few of us that stick around, trying to make everything function still. Noone is even willing to cause much trouble outside due to all this mess, so no need for much of a guard."

"Quintus, I'm going to be honest. You aren't making much sense. Why don't you start from the beggining and tell us what's going on."

Quintus grows quiet and begins mumbling to himself about being an idiot. You don't feel like you are going to get much more out of the crazed man.

Guntram nods and says, "Weel, Quintis, if there's anythin' we can dae tae help ye it, ye jist lit us kno." He turns to Callum and adds, raising his voice slightly, "'at goes fur yerself an aw an' yer establishment. We plan tae gie tae th' bottom ay what's causin' th' problems aroond haur, we do."

He turns to his companions. "Mebbe Ah jist miss th' dug, but Ah feel bad 'at we left 'at lass tae 'er ain devices. She mentioned Shimmerford an' noo thes lad haur has mentioned deid oan th' road. Has me concerned."

Azu turns to the group, "If we can find out exactly there the two went into the woods, I might be able to track them. Armor is not so good at hiding tracks. The weight and all...."

Where to next?

Callum Shay listens as he leans on the counter. "So you folks need a room or you headed out as well?"

"Good luck Quintus."

Faethor stands back up from the table. "I like that idea Azu. If nothing else maybe whatever is causing the others to disappear will try its hand on us. Of course we'll have to prove more resourceful than they but it'll likely come to that sooner or later anyway."

Ionic grows a little silent trying to ponder through what Quintus's ramblings were about. He definitely showed some interest in what the man was saying, and before the group leaves him alone at the table, the dwarf asks one final question, "So, just, uh, Who is visiting your dreams?"

Giving the man some space, Ionic slips a couple of coppers to Callum, "Make sure he gets something calming to drink, will ya? Also, ya liable to fill up? If it's likely, might need to get rooms now."

As the rest of the group stands up to get going, Ionic gives a small sigh and rebundles himself in layers of clothes. After a minute or so of getting ready he gives a muffled, "Let's go help dog lady!"

"Thanks, Callum. Figure we'll be back later and will need two or three."

Putting the beekeeper helmet back on, Seggiatore smiles grimly at the group. "So, sounds like you guys want to check out the road out of Shimmerford then? Or dig around in the woods a little, check out the cultist's place? I'm kinda curious to talk to the few others that have stuck around, maybe learn a bit more about what they've seen and heard and oh yeah there are the missing tools Quintus talked about, but if you think we can find the trail of the first two adventurers, I guess that makes sense too. Probably a nice thing to do, if we can manage to catch up with them and lend them some assistance."

He'll wave goodbye to both Callum and Quintus before springing out the door.

Sounds like the group wants to do some tracking. Outside of the river as means of access, one assumes there's a road. Or is the town just surrounded by woods?

Weel, help Haru an' Peaches ur try tae track doon th' other missin' folk. Either seems loch a guid option.

Guntram will go along with the consensus, though, despite his words, he seems a little more concerned about Haru and Peaches. Or maybe he just wants to play with the dog some more.

"So, just, uh, Who is visiting your dreams?"

Quintus slams away from the table in frustration. "it...IT! The Witch." He looks down at the paper doll. “It’s following me. Ha... hah hahaha! Of course its following me. I’m being stalked by a doll!” Quintus crushes the paper in his hands. “’The iron cave will fall’... what is that supposed to mean? What do you want from me?!” He storms off out the door.

Examining the paper doll, you see the words “the iron cave will fall”
scrawled on the doll’s paper scarf in jagged writing.)

Tossing a few coins to the Innkeeper you begin to make your way to the edge of town to scout out down by the river in the direction that it looked like Haru was headed.

Behind the group you hear the sound of high-pitched screaming horses getting closer. Something's wrong!

A carriage pulled by six horses tears down the road near Shimmerford at dangerous speeds, the animals driven wild by the biting bloodseekers—the bloodseekers themselves were not fast enough to keep up with the carriage and are not present, though the horses are clearly bleeding from numerous tiny wounds.

Each of you can attempt one of the following options:

Leaping onto the carriage: Holding on long enough to pull a passenger to safety requires an Acrobatics or Athletics check.
Success: Extract one passenger and toss them to safety. (You can continue attempting these checks until you fail, at which point you slip off the carriage and cannot continue.
Critical failure: You also takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage from the fall.

Calming the horses: This method requires a Nature check.
Success: The horses hesitate long enough for one of the passengers to leap to safety.
Critical Success: Two passengers leap to safety.
Critical Failure: The horses charge at you, knocking you aside and dealing 1d6 bludgeoning damage.

Creating a barricade: This method requires an Athletics or Crafting check, and likely involves you quickly shifting nearby barrels or maneuvering nearby crates into a somewhat stable configuration.
Success: the barricade slows the carriage enough for a passenger to leap free.

Drum slapping wildly against his leg, Seggiatore will leap onto the carriage and offer assistance in getting the door open and reaching for those caught by surprise within.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Ionic wrote:

"So, just, uh, Who is visiting your dreams?"

Quintus slams away from the table in frustration. "it...IT! The Witch." He looks down at the paper doll. “It’s following me. Ha... hah hahaha! Of course its following me. I’m being stalked by a doll!” Quintus crushes the paper in his hands. “’The iron cave will fall’... what is that supposed to mean? What do you want from me?!” He storms off out the door.

Examining the paper doll, you see the words “the iron cave will fall”
scrawled on the doll’s paper scarf in jagged writing.)

Ionic gives the retreating figure a concerned look. "Ain't in a good place, dat one!" He glances over the paper doll, before wrapping his hand in a piece of fabric, wrapping it up, and putting it gingerly into his pack. "Well, time to face the hordes of skeeters."

---------

As the carriage careens closer, Ionic unslings his waraxe, "Damn, dat's not good. Hope dat ain't got 64 people in it!" He waits for the carriange to get close before leaping on and trying to bury the head of his axe into the side for a good hand hold, and then tries to rip one of the carriage doors off.

Athletics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8
Ouch

However his leap proves to be a bit too short and his axe only catches the bottom bit of the carriage dragging the dwarf along the ground for a few paces as he tries to free his weapon. "Dammit, chainmail too heavy. Would have been enough to clear a ship!"

Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Nature (T): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Guntram takes a deep breath and centers himself in the face of the oncoming carriage. Try tae calm yerself! he tells his companions and then gets the attention of the horses by making strange, but smooth, slow gestures with his hands. That's reit. Everythin' is gonnae be aw reit.

While Guntram distracts the horses, Faethor takes the opportunity to stack some nearby debris into a makeshift barricade.

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Azu follows Guntram's lead and also tries the calm the horse, albeit from the other side.

Nature: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

Seggiatore leaps up onto the carriage, but his foot ends up slipping on the wheel and he is pulled off of it just as quickly as he was on it. The fall rolls him to the ground unharmed as he looks on in horror, realizing it is too late to catch the carriage again. the jump on the carriage throws Ionic off as the wheel bounces into the air and lands on the dwarf, knocking him off to the side.

The horses rear up and hesitate for only a split second as Azu and Guntram to block their path. This split moment is long enough for a mother to grab two of her children and topple over the side of the cart to safety.

Fathor shoves some crates and kicks an empty barrel into the path causing the horses to zig and zag around the obstacles, giving a chance for another passenger to leap to freedom just as the carriage and horses careen off a sharp ridge, shattering the conveyance and violently killing everyone else still aboard.

The four survivors huddle around as the children whimper and cry. "It's alright. It..will.be..alright." The mother comforts the children through sobs of her own.

A sharp ridge? Just outside of the riverside town? Yeah, sure. Instant death? Why not.
Note for next time - mention that that's where the stupid thing is headed in the encounter setup.
I'll be back on Sunday or Monday when I'm less annoyed with the module writer, hopefully in time for the next real bit of the adventure.

Faethor stares at the children with a frown. He holds out a hand as though to comfort the survivors but seems confused at what to say.

Instead he asks, "What happened?"

The woman's voice shakes as she clutches the children closely. "I..I'm not sure. We were traveling through when the horses suddenly were swarmed by those bloodseekers. They...they panicked." She sobs. The man that leapt to safety at the last moment, thanks to the barricade, climbs up from the wreckage carrying a small box. He hands it to Faethor. "You folks didn't have to save us but you did. There isn't much in here but thank you."

He hands you a box containing a bit of silver jewelry Treasure bundle and a single minor healing potion. "Looks like your friend could use a bit of this. That wagon did a number on his leg." He nods to Ionic.

If you are still looking for the tracks from Haru going into the woods, please give me a survival check.

Azu attempts to locate the tracks.

Survival: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Bump, what is everyone else doing?

Ionic gives a small groan of pain as he stands back up from being run over. He looks around for a moment. "Where de cart? ...It didn't... go...?" He watches the faces of everyone around and gingerly limps a little to the edge of the sharp ridge and looks down.

With a grimace he looks back, and approaches the woman a children. "It'll be okay. You'll be okay. First let's get you all to the inn. Anyone hungry? Dey've got good soup!"

At the offer of the healing potion Ionic takes it gratefully though scoffs at actually needing it. "Seen way worse on a ship. Just bleeding some is all. Wipe it up. Add some medicine. Bandage. Be right as rain, soon." As soon as he can get the victims back to the inn so they can start getting past the trauma, Ionic meets up with everyone else, bandannas wrapped over his scrapes and injuries. "Now to finding Haru?" He helps Azu search for the tracks.

Survival: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

If everyone is okay with it, Ionic will take 10 minutes to try a treat wounds check. Treat wounds: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16 Healing: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 6) = 12

Guntram also sees what he can do about the tracks.

Survival: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Ionic takes a moment to help the woman and children back to the Inn. He helps get them a room,and checked in. Before leaving he grabs a chair and wraps a bandage around his swollen ankle to try and help stabilize it. It seems to do the trick!

Getting up he goes to head out the door and notices that Quintus, that crazed prophet is gone.

******

Back at the edge of town Guntram is able to pick up the tracks and heads out into the woods. The mosquitoes are less visible through the thick fog but can still be felt crawling on the skin here.

Further and further into the woods you go and after some time Guntram loses the sight of the tracks and gets severely turned around. After nearly four hours of being swarmed by mosquito and the incessant buzzing sound you begin to feel a bit worse for wear as your stress levels rise, taking a toll on your bodies.

Need a DC 13 Fortitude save from everyone to avoid becoming fatigued.

Just as all seems lost Azu notices a dimly lit grove ahead. This dimly lit grove of uncanny, bare-branched trees, has thousands of the townsfolks’ Mosquito Witch dolls nailed to the bark. Investigating the dolls reveals contradictory information as to who could have placed them or when they were placed, for a patina of grime suggests they have been there for a long time, but the dolls should not have survived in such pristine conditions if exposed to the elements.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Seggiatore leans wearily on his knees, catching his breath as he looks about the grove, trying to make sense of it. "Why ...*huff*... why would they hang these here? ...*huff*... What's special about this grove? Anyone getting any ...*huff*... weird vibes or seeing something I'm not?"

Ionic spends the first bit of the hours long trek treating taking care of stressing his ankle too much, but it seems either the exercise, air temperature or mosquito-induced blood loss causes the swelling to go down considerably. His attention then shifts to the massing swarms of the damnable blood-suckers... Fortitude DC 13: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14... Which seems to distract the man from pushiing himself too hard.

At the grove of the place, Ionic smacks his 1,237th mosquito and looks around. "Isn't right. No way wood would last long here. Grime suggests a long time. Could be magic? Were dey moved? Any oder ideas? Faethor or Seggia, check for spells will ya? I'll check de nails."

Ionic waits for one of the magic users to give the all clear for spells before slowly approaching the dolls and checking the nails.

Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Faethor's breath is coming in sobs and he's annoyed with himself because of it. He is mumbling about how worthless his body is.

He nods at Ionic and starts sniffing the air around the dolls.

Casting Detect magic in the direction of the dolls.

Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Dornt ken hoo Ah... got turned aroond. Main be some kin' ay... magic in these woods.... Nae other explanation.

Guntram sees the grove and the dolls and thinks, Och whit noo. He somewhat reluctantly takes a closer look at them.

Occultism perhaps?

Occultism (T): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15