[PF 2e]Age of Ashes Adventure Path

Game Master Simmyish

The halfling mumbles to himself "I should have made the fire in the town hall bigger..." before looking over. "And how do I know you'll not sell the information I'm after yourselves? Do you have any idea what's down there?" he asks.

"We surely know less than you and that is your assurance that we won't betray you," said Red evenly.

deception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

"You already have the leverage you need, the goblin will only hinder you, best let her go,"

performance: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Nosteo tries to climb again.

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Athletics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Please die in a fire dice roller. Maybe 15 is high enough? After a few rounds of trying.

It takes Nosteo a few attempts but on his fourht time he gets up the rope to the battlements.

"Well, until these goblins tell me how to get into the basement, I'm not going anywhere," the halfling says.

"Well then let me try," said Red. bring her closer to me and I'll convince her to tell us what she knows,"

performance: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

"I won't tell him, he tried to kill us!" the goblin says to Red. "And, he set fire to the town hall in Breachill, he is an evil man!" she says.

"And I should of made it bigger to get rid of these meddlers," the halfling mutters to himself, referring to the group of you.

Red alters his tone and timbre towards a darker place. His manner changes from conciliatory to cold and unkind.

"After everything you've done halfling, you are doomed," says Red. "Fool! You reject help and instead bury yourself ever deeper. Say you kill the goblin, d you believe you can take on the three of us? No. And there are more coming. Many more.

Release the Goblin. Now. And you make it out of this alive,"

Using Versatile Performance to sub performance for intimidate

performance: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

"How can I garauntee you'll not just run me through when I let her go. I'm holding on to her for insurance now. And I've got some tricks of my own, short-tips," the halfling says to Red.

"We're not killers," says Red. "The only reason any of us would 'run you through' as you so dramatically put it, would be if you tried to kill us. Let us help you. It doesn't have to be this way,"

deception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

"That's not entirely true. If you hurt her, I guarantee that I'm going to run you through. If you let her go then maybe we can settle this peacefully."

Intimidation: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

There was much swearing just now at my location.

This will be hard convincing him of anything else to let the goblin go. Bluff, diplomacy and intimidation all seemed to have failed.

Hothfarr stands aside, a deep frown on his face, belying the anger that is welling up inside at the stand-off happening before his eyes and himself not able to help out in this case.

"So that's it huh? Holding a poor defenseless goblin hostage and nowhere to go. So how do you envision this going? You get to the basement alone? You know we will follow you regardless. Especially if you kill this goblin. So what is it gonna be? Go together to the basement? Fight and get killed? Or just leave and take your loss for granted? Those are your options at the moment."

Hothfarr looks up above the halfling to check for any loose bricks or unstable construction that might easily fall down if hit.
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

"You have no idea what they're hiding down there! Do you know how much people would pay for information on elf gates? You have no idea how much some would pay," the halfling says to Red. "If you can give me the 1000 gold I would get for this, then I'll let her go," he says. "Otherwise, I'll take your ear as well half elf, I'm sure there's a troll I can exchange it with," he says.

Red restrains the impulse to touch his ear. This is not the first time he has heard that particular threat."Alright. One thousand gold pieces it is," he says. He looks at Nosteo and says."Give him the gold. I know we were going to use it to resurrect poor Cathirix but to day we could save another life. It is what he would have wanted,"

deception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

"Well, I'm waitin' for the gold," the halfling says to the two negotiating, not letting the goblin go yet.

I saw Red's post Saturday and then decided to think about what I was gonna do and then totally forgot about it. My bad guys.

Nosteo takes out his coin pouch, which has nowhere near 1000 gold in it, and tosses it towards the halfling. "Take your money and let her go."

Deception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

"Where's the rest of it?" the halfling says taking a peak then throwing it back. The next thing you hear is a scream as he cuts off the ear of the goblin he is holding.

Nosteo's eyes bulge in rage. He grips his sword, ready to chop the halfling's head off. He knows that they were asked to bring him back alive but if the choice is either failing that mission or letting him kill an innocent, well, they'll just have to fail.

Perception Init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Hothfarr cracks his knuckles and looks the halfling square in the eye.

"Now you've done it!"

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Perception for initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Calmont Initiative: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Waiting on Aeral and Cathirix

Gonna declare Aeral and Cathirix as inactive at this point, will look for people after this encounter.

As the goblin's ear is severed, Hothfarr is the first to react.

We may have lost Hothfarr as well.

Sent him a message, if nothing in the next couple of days, we'll decide what to do :)

As the Halfling sees the two of you come towards him and slices the goblins ear, he quickly turns his blade towards Nosteo.

Letting go of the goblin woman, the halfling stabs Nosteo with the dagger.

Calmont Dagger attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
Dagger Critical damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 (10 for critical hit)

The first movement is unexpected, as Nosteo gets stabbed by the halfling before he goes to attack again

Calmont 2nd Dagger attack (agile): 1d20 + 9 - 4 ⇒ (14) + 9 - 4 = 19
Dagger damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

The second strike also makes impact into Nosteo's flesh, having taken the opportunity when Nosteo moved to hand him the pouch.

Acting as quickly as he can Red focuses. He doesn't know where this energy comes from, maybe the Ethereal plane or even his own soul, but it does not matter. Three bolts of bright energy the colour of cobalt streak from his outstretched hand

He casts magic missile using 3 actions

damage: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 1, 2) + 3 = 8

So I think my initiative moves to right before Calmont and here is my recovery check. DC should be 11

Recovery: 1d20 ⇒ 14

Now I'm unconscious, I think. The dying rules are the hardest to get used to for me.

The halfling takes the impact from the three missiles, each one making impact as it forces into him. That's when he turns his attention to the spellcasting elf. He moves over and stabs with his dagger.

Calmont Daggar attack vs Redsevic: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

The dagger strike manages to pierce through Red's armor as the halfling stabs toward him.

Calmont dagger damage to Redsevic: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 P

He then takes a second strike

Calmont Dagger attack 2 vs Redsevic: 1d20 + 9 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 9 - 4 = 20

The second strike also manages to pierce through, catching Red's flesh.

Calmont dagger damage 2 to Redsevic: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Red cries out in pain as the Halfling stabs him twice. He strengthens his grip on his sword and slashes at the little bugger. But not before summoning more ephemeral energies to protect himself.

Red casts shield and then strikes with his elven curve blade.

attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

So instead of all that I'll use my hero point on the last round. Of course now that I think about it, I don't know whether I would have any actions on the round I use it or not. So I'm going to put up two rounds of actions. If I can't do anything after waking up until the current round, ignore the 2nd. If I've gotten mixed up on init, ignore both.

You use your hero point at the start of your turn, so you would get your move on that round as usual. Just now your initiative is just before the halfling.

As the halfling goes to face the other defender, Nosteo uses that moment to quietly and pick himself up, restoring some of his vitality as he does so and gets back into the fight.

Redsevic summons a magical shield to protect himself before striking at the halfling, slashing into him and drawing blood.

Seeing the danger, Nosteo also brings up some arcane protection as he the area around him flares for a brief second, as a ball of flame forms and goes flying towards the halfling, making impact and singing his hair a little.

As Nosteo makes his reentry known, Calmont focuses on his current target, taking another stab at Red. He manages to get through the robes and find a vulnerable spot

Calmont dagger attack 1 damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 Piercing.

Taking a final stab, he strikes into Red taking him down, he then moves over to where Nosteo is, and slashes with a backhand strike with the blade.

He once again manages to make strike, slashing towards Nosteo's chest.

Calmont dagger attack 2 damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 Slashing.

I will use my reaction for shield block. Red may as well and not go down.

Nosteo continues with the same tactics he used before, except this time he punches Calmont with a flaming fist.

1 action: Cast Shield. 2 actions: Cast Produce Flame.

Spell Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Fire Damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Is Red still there?

Yes! So how do I do this? A hero point to stabilize.

Since you cast shield before going down, I suggest using the block part of it which should keep you from dying.

Red uses the Shield block reaction on his Shield spell it has a hardness of 5

So, that'll be 3 points of damage, and you can't use the spell again for 10 minutes, as it's a reaction, you still get your turn if your still up from that

I forgot about the not being able to so it again for 10 minutes. So I did not cast it on my last action.

still down

How much hp did you have? I thought that would leave you with like 3.

16HP total and I took 18 damage total.

Well the last hit was for 8 so you must've been at 6 before so the shield block would've left you at three. Unless the 18 damage is including the shield block, then yeah that's no good.

Just for Red: if you did go down and use your Hero Point, you do still get your turn - it isn't an action

Oh! Okay, then Red will cast telekinetic projectile at the halfling

damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

...aaaaand I forgot the attack roll!
attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

As the two struggle to hit the halfling, he dodges out of the way. "Ha, looks like you'll be joining the goblins as my hostages!" The halfling brags.

Meanwhile, on the road to Hellknight Hill, two other people are on the road being led by a goblin in white robes. The name - Warbol, who returned to Sandpoint not long after the call for heroes to say that she felt that because of people she saw leave the two others behind, they may need some help.

Warbol found Joran and Enara and asked you to accompany her, quickly, to Citadel Alterian. Earlier that day, she had made a request at the call for heroes to help her tribe who had sent a smoke signal to represent distress. Standing outside the keep, you can hear the sound of fighting coming from the centre courtyard.

"How," Enara asks, with a gesture to Joran's greatpick, "do you carry that thing?"

She pauses for a few moments with a hand resting on her rapier's pommel, taking in the sight of the ruined fortress. Correct, I am taking in the sight, and definitely not catching my breath after a short hike.

It's during that brief respite that the sounds of shouting voices and clanging steel finally reaches across the distance to her. With a muttered curse, Enara draws her rapier and holds out a warding hand to their goblin guide. "You were right, Warbal, they do need help. Wait here for us. Come on, Joran!"

Then, without another moment's hesitation, she charges forward and into Citadel Altaerin.

Joran just cocks and eyebrow and smiles. "Very carefully," he concludes, nodding.

As they finally make their way to the Citadel, Joran works the muscles in his shoulders individually before popping his neck from one side and then just as he's about to pop it the other way he stops, as the sound of combat is heard. Seeing Enara take off, "Right behind...! Hey! Wait up! Can't have all the fun without me!" he says to pretty much nobody as she's already gotten a good head start. Joran can't help but grin as he takes off.

((OOC: Gonna jump you in at the deep end on this as things have not been going well for the other two. Heroic moment time maybe)).

As Joran and Enara enter the courtyard, a group of Goblin Dogs watching as they enter, they can see the goblins tied up to various crenelations on the battlements and two figures fighting against a halfling wielding a dagger, the halfling throwing insults at the half-elf and human.