[PFS2_Luke_Parry] 01-01 The Absalom Initiation (Inactive)

Game Master Luke_Parry

Nina notes that if the offices are locked, she cannot determine that they are also unoccupied. :)

She Detects Magic as she walks through the museum. She's never seen so much magic in one place, so this is a treat for her. She quickly casts Shield as she sees the shadow dinosaurs approaching, but then laughs when it doesn't hurt her.

"Looks like the source of this is up on the third floor,s" she notes.

Flikk smiles and nods at the custodian before giving him a 'hello' fistbump (with the non spiked gauntlet hand). "We be good. I brought no fire." And he then heads up the stairs with the others.

He moves down the hallway of offices with Nina, checking each door and looking at the name plates, especially for the office of the woman they're here to meet. "I can open doors if you want. Probably. Probably."

Recall Knowledge: Society? vs Nigel: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

"This one has a name, Nigel. Curator. Must be the boss." He rattles the door to check the lock and peers through the window.

Lady Stoneheart stays with the group, taking on a motherly role trying to keep them together. She is still wary of another attack from something somewhere. Her shield and sword and ready for anything.

"Gives new meaning to jumping at shadows, doesn't it?" Katerina says, a moment after jumping to the shadow puppet play they're subjected to. "All these echoes give me a bad feeling about whatever is occurring upstairs. We better hurry before something truly bad happens."

Yaegren marvels a little over the various shadows, but presses on. His hand finds his axe and doesn't leave it when the dinosaurs appear.

"My kids would love this place," Nina muses. "But I agree we should head upstairs."

@Nina: Sure you can - small frosted glass windows at head height let you see into the office(s), in general terms. That said, I suppose if someone was pressed up against a wall, deliberately hiding, you couldn't see them...

In any case, heading upstairs...

Droning voices echo off the mahogany walls and domed, plaster ceiling of this luxurious room. The sumptuous furniture has been pushed to the sides of the room, making space for eldritch markings and mystical paraphernalia laid carefully over the plush carpet. The chamber seems muted and dim despite the crystal chandelier overhead, and a bone-numbing chill seeps through the space along with a metallic scent. A ritual is obviously underway here, but it doesn’t seem as though it’s working as planned. Shadowy energy lashes out from a twisting breach in the center of the room, and indistinct shapes flit and scuttle along the walls.

A middle-aged, white-haired woman stands at the head of the circle, her face twisted in a determined grimace, while her assistants each frantically continue their gestures and chants; your arrival has apparently stirred-up the shadows, which start to flit around more angrily than before... it is only a matter of time until the ritual fails!

FR: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12.
Flikk: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10.
Ghostbiter: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20.
Katerina: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20.
Stoneheart: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12.
Nina: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24.
Yaegren: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1:

Nina
Ghostbiter
Katerina
Yaegren
Stoneheart
FR (9 Flaws)
Flikk

Party (sans-Flikk) is up!

Alright, so, this section is *kind of* a skill challenge - to stabilise the Ritual, you need to make a difficult Occultism check. Doing so removes one 'flaw', and reduces the DC of subsequent such checks. Once one person has attempted such a check (regardless of success or failure), you are aware that Arcana and Thievery checks can also be used to remove flaws (at an easier DC), but such successes don't reduce the subsequent Occultism DCs.

Good luck!

Occultism: 1d20 ⇒ 16

"Hey, I know this... This is what you do!

Ghostbiter sniffs the air trying to determine if that metallic scent is blood.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

if that fails or isn't blood, we'll try other things.

She then tries to remember how longshanks store their reference books to find material that might help out.

Library Lore: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

Stoneheart wracks her brain, and realises that, whilst she is unable to help with the ritual (at least at present), there are other things that can be done to help stabilise it.

Arcana and Thievery are now unlocked, as previously mentioned.

Ghostbiter tries her best, but realises that she just doesn't have anything to contribute...

To be clear: The only checks that can be made are Occultism, Thievery, and Arcana.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1:

Nina
Ghostbiter
Katerina
Yaegren
Stoneheart
FR (9 Flaws)
Flikk

Nina, Katerina, and Yaegren are up.

Yaegren enters the room, and, quick to analyze the situation, chugs.

Stride, Draw, Drink Cognitive Mutagen.

Katerina pauses as the occult disaster that was in the midst of occurring, and she begins tracing where the problems were. After moment, she dives at the closest flaw and begins to work on it.

Arcana: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Katerina tries hard, and *almost* manages to wrestle the flaw into submission... but then it slips through her fingers.

Yaegren, meanwhile, drinks a mutagen, causing the vistas of his mind to broaden.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1:

Nina
Ghostbiter
Katerina
Yaegren
Stoneheart
FR (9 Flaws)
Flikk

Nina is up!

Nina will attempt Thievery.

Thievery: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Nina does her best, but the runes prove too complicated for her.

Meanwhile, the shadow rift pulses, sending out a burst of negative energy...

2d6 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5 damage.

PCs can attempt a DC 18 Fort save for half.

...as an amorphous ball of pure darkness oozes out of the rift!

It floats forward, and lashes out at Flikk with an inquisitive tendril...

Shadow Tendril: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20, for 1d6 ⇒ 2 Negative Energy damage.

...draining a small amount of his life force...

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6.

...before attempting to step into his shadow! Fortunately, he manages to dodge.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1/2:

Flikk (-2)
Nina (-5, DC 18 Fort for half)
Ghostbiter (-5, DC 18 Fort for half)
Katerina (-5, DC 18 Fort for half)
Yaegren (-5, DC 18 Fort for half)
Stoneheart (-5, DC 18 Fort for half)
FR (9 Flaws)
T (-5)
RA (-5, -5, -5)

Party is up!

Fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

Ghostbiter grins as the negative energy creature emerges. "I kill it!" Her eyes go white and she spits into her hands as she pulls her axe forth.

Rage positive energy, draw, strike

attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8
damage+positive rage: 1d20 + 4 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 3 = 10

shirt re roll on attack

attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

Weak in body for the moment, Yaegren watches the shadows. He tries to remember something pertinent to help Flikk and Lady Stoneheart fight...

Then he starts tinkering with the ritual.

Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Fortitude: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Can you clarify a few things? First, we get three actions, correct? So someone could attempt three Occultism/Arcana/Thievery checks? And are the researcher and her RAs making checks?

Nina will use a 3-action heal. This should get everyone except for the distant RA. Unsure whether it will do damage to the tendril but we'll find out.

1d8 ⇒ 7

@Nina: It doesn't specify anywhere in the scenario what kind of action it is to make a check, so feel free to make up to three per round, now that you are all in the room and 'adjacent' to the ritual.

The researcher and her assistants are *NOT* making checks - their struggles are the only reason the ritual hasn't already collapsed, and doing that requires all of their concentration... in fact, if any of them die, it becomes *harder* to fix the problem.

Ghostbiter slices into the wisp, carving off a reasonable chunk of shadow.

Although I am pretty certain you aren't actually supposed to be rolling a d20 for damage...?

Yaegren is unable to determine what, precisely, the thing is, but it is clearly extraplanar in origin.

Nina then channels healing energy, which washes over her colleagues and the injured researchers, healing them, but actually harming the shadow blob!

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1/2:

Flikk (-)
Nina (-)
Ghostbiter (-)
Katerina (-)
Yaegren (-)
Stoneheart (-)
FR (9 Flaws)
SW (-17)
T (-)
RA (-, -, -)

Flikk, Katerina, and Stoneheart are up!

sorry, should have been a d12. Random question, did the fact I was doing positive energy damage as a spirit barbarian appear to hurt the creature more?

No, it did not. If it had, I would have commented on it ;-)

"Ah, this shadow mad, Ghosty bite it!" Flikk dances away from the shadow trying to steal his own shadow and starts to work on the puzzle. "Don't worry, Flikk got tools for this, Flikk master with tools."

He gets to work.

Stride.
Thievery with Tools: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Thievery with Tools: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

"I think this candle upside, and crooked. I'll fix."

Lady Stoneheart sees Ghostbiter attacking the wisp and heads over to join him in the fun.

Longsword: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

@Nina: It doesn't specify anywhere in the scenario what kind of action it is to make a check, so feel free to make up to three per round

Yaegren should be able to make another Arcana/Occultism check, then. He Recalled and made one check.

Sorry to nitpick, but Nina will likely run out of Heal before we succeed at 9 checks (we know the DC is at least 17 and if Flikk fails we will know it's at least 19) so those +7 checks from Yaegren are super valuable.

Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

There we go!

@Nina: There is other stuff that you are unaware of. Suffice to say, unless you monumentally screw up (which I think is highly unlikely), you don't actually have to manually 'disable' all 9...

Flikk manages to carefully improve some of the binding wards, whilst Yaegren adjusts one corner of the diagram, slightly.

Meanwhile, Stoneheart slashes into the... flank? of the blob of shadow, releasing a plume of shadow-stuff.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 1/2:

Flikk (-)
Nina (-)
Ghostbiter (-)
Katerina (-)
Yaegren (-)
Stoneheart (-)
FR (7 Flaws)
SW (-22)
T (-)
RA (-, -, -)

Katerina is up!

Katerina winces a little as the wave of negative energy, followed quickly by the wave of positive energy. "Keep that up as best you can!" she cries as she dives into the mathamagical mess that they're having to clean up.

Arcana 1: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Arcana 2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Arcana 3: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Katerina quickly assesses the strands of magical energy surging through the ritual, and makes significant headway in stabilising it.

Two successes!

The rift pulses again...

2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11 Negative Energy damage, DC 18 Fort for half.

...knocking out all three research assistants...

I strongly suggest an area-burst heal...

...and another blob of shadowy matter extrudes itself onto this plane of existence!

The one engaging Ghostbiter once again lashes out with a tendril...

Shadow Tendril: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25, for 1d6 ⇒ 2 Negative Energy damage.

...draining a small amount of her life force...

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21.

...and slides into her shadow!

It then starts consuming Ghostbiter's shadow...

1d6 ⇒ 6 negative energy damage.

...before lashing out with a dark tendril at Katerina...

Shadow Tendril: 1d20 + 8 - 5 ⇒ (5) + 8 - 5 = 8, for 1d6 ⇒ 2 Negative Energy damage.

...who handily manages to dodge.

The other floats over to Flikk, and tries the same tactic...

Shadow Tendril: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17, for 1d6 ⇒ 1 Negative Energy damage.

...but the wily Goblin evades its attack.

Ghostbiter then hacks into the injured shadow-thing, carving off another chunk.

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 2/3:

Flikk (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Nina (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Ghostbiter (-8; additional -11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Katerina (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Yaegren (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Stoneheart (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
FR (5 Flaws)
SW (-19, -)
T (-11)
RA (-10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious))

Party (sans-Ghostbiter) is up!

Fort DC18: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25 Flikk grits his teeth and shrugs off the shadowy damage then watches the fresh shadow bounce off his armor. "Hey, I'm workin' here. Back off!"

He takes a careful step backwards then goes back to work on the flawed circle while the others deal with the problems. "Keep up that healy stuff while we workin' here!"

Thievery: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Thievery: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Guarded step and 2 thievery checks.
Does a nat 20 on a save do something extra good?

@Flikk: It counts as a critical success, which means you take no damage :-D

Flikk repairs some smudges in one of the runic designs, further stabilising the Ritual!

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 2/3:

Flikk (-)
Nina (-)
Ghostbiter (-8)
Katerina (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Yaegren (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Stoneheart (-)
FR (4 Flaws)
SW (-19, -)
T (-11)
RA (-10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious))

Nina, Katerina, Yaegren, and Stoneheart are up!

Fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Fortitude: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Yaegren scrambles to tidy up the ritual before it comes crashing down, yelling incoherently all the while.

Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26
Arcana: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Ghostbiter grits her teeth, and manages to resist the worst of the blast of pure negative energy.

Yaegren, on the other hand, suffers its full effects, but manages to power through, looking for weaknesses in the flow of mystical energy, and subtly reinforcing them.

Another 2 successes!

The Travails of Academia - Publish or Perish, Round 2/3:

Flikk (-)
Nina (-)
Ghostbiter (-8)
Katerina (-11, DC 18 Fort for half)
Yaegren (-11)
Stoneheart (-)
FR (2 Flaws)
SW (-19, -)
T (-11)
RA (-10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious), -10 (Unconscious))

Nina, Katerina, and Stoneheart are up!

Fort Save,DC 18: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

With a second wave of searing pain washing over her, Katerina focuses all her energy on fixing the mess. "Cmoncmoncmoncmon!" she mutters as she frantically works.

Arcana 1: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23
Arcana 2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
Arcana 3: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

fort dc 18: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Thievery: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Seeing that she isn't do much against the mist, she goes back to fixing flaws.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

3-action heal: 1d8 ⇒ 6

Nina resists the pulse of negative energy, then channels her own pulse of positive energy...

Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5.

Fort: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23.

The already injured shadow blob boils away like water exposed to a hot poker; as it dissolves, the residue floats down to the runic pattern upon the floor, further reinforcing it.

That counts as a Success :-)

The research assistants, brought to consciousness once more by the same pulse of positive energy, then join together in one last heroic effort to seal the final flaw!

As they do so, black energy arcs out from the rift, but the runes upon the floor glow brightly, forcing the dark energy back, and contracting the rift down to a pinpoint of darkness. The remaining shadow blob is sucked through it, like jelly through a straw, before the rift fades away completely.

The assistants then collapse in exhaustion.

Although there were 9 flaws, you only had to reduce the number of flaws to equal the number of conscious research assistants, in order to 'win' :-)

Tavvar closes her eyes, and breathes a great sigh of relief, before leaning wearily against the wall.

"Well, that could have gone better, but it could also have gone worse... a lot worse."

She then draws herself up, and gives each of you a long, hard look.

"I don't want to seem ungrateful, but who are you, and why are you here? I had been given to understand that the museum was deserted at this time of night - I hadn't wanted to risk anyone else's life on this project..."

Ghostbiter, suddenly less furious and more exhausted than she has the human words to communicate says, "You not ready for Lady of Graves. We not ready for Lady. We like it stay that way." On that note she falls face forward into the pile carpet and starts snoring.

"My name is Agent Nina Jaribu of the Pathfinder Society. Eando Kline has sent us to see whether your experiments are too dangerous to continue. Our answer will be yes."

The woman looks indignant.

"No one outside my team was in any danger - if it had gotten truly out of hand, I would have died, which would have automatically ended the Ritual. That is why I picked this place for my experiment - the wards here would have prevented anything escaping one way, or the other. I was also rushed - I wanted to do more research, and install proper safeguards, but my superiors insisted upon results, and always wanted them 'yesterday'!"

She then sighs, and shrugs.

"Not that it matters - I don't work for the Society, I work for the College of Mysteries. Nevertheless, I appreciate the assistance you have provided."

Yaegren knocks back a curative, offering up his second one. He speaks when he trusts himself to do so calmly. "So only you would die, had we not showed up. Allegedly. Our answer stands. That's what we consider too dangerous."

The dwarf looks ready to continue with the harsh tack, but Tavvar de-escalates and he follows suit. "You're welcome. If you're to keep working on this, do it with care. Or if you'd like a job with people who value your life more than what knowledge can be wrung from it, the Lodge's doors are open."

The woman massages her forehead wearily.

"If things continue as they have, I may look into that..."

She then gives you a small black vial, which seems to contain oily black mist, explaining that it is a Lesser Mistform Elixir.

That is Quest 4 completed!

----------------------------------

The final mission completed, you are able to report back to the faction leaders, who are all satisfied with your work.

After the last meeting, Janira Gavix intercepts the party in the halls of the Grand Lodge.

Janira Gavix races down the hall, her blond hair flying in her excitement. “I just heard you made it back—congratulations! It sounds like everything went, well, about as well as anyone could expect. Come with me, I have something for each of you.” The halfling woman leads the way into a small office and distributes finely crafted wooden boxes. Within each, a gleaming compass lid emblazoned with the Glyph of the Open Road and an engraved name lies upon a cushion of silk. “I’m not sure if you’ve picked up your own wayfinders yet, but when you do, you should have ones that prove that you belong. Now it’s official,” she beams. “Welcome to the Pathfinder Society!”

...and that, as they say, is that!

lol publish or perish

Flikk stops fixing candles and helps up the fallen assistants, poking them a bit to see that their bruises are actually bruises and not shadows in hiding. "Best not do that again. Maybe we all buy first round of pickle drinks for Nina for her healy magics."

Normally a sane person would mention the danger to the woman's assistants, but Flikk being a goblin doesn't always have those sort of morals. "Guy down stairs pushing around dirty wet broom. He send us here. You need rest, you look bad." He heads off with the others to collect their pay.

-----

"Flikk's own personal pointy widget? I keep it, thanks." He traces the engraved letters of his name to be sure. He's a new age goblin, he can handle words stealing some of his thoughts just fine.

Nina accepts her first mug of pickle brine unsure of what to expect, but confident that her new goblin friends wouldn't offer her a vomit-inducing drink.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Delicious!

Ghostbiter pours some pickle brine on her wounds. She looks at Nina and whispers confidentially, "Pickles are magic."