[PFS2] 1-12 Burden of Envy (GM Watery Soup) (Inactive)

Game Master Watery Soup

Gazard will be on the lookout for guards, so we don't get caught breaking in or doing anything illegal and signal for allies to stop if he notices a guard looking our way perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Milady congratulates Mister Dardala on being so efficient with the keys.
"I will not lock my door at night with you around."
(the 2nd Thievery roll only got a +1 from Milady, not a +2 ; putting info' in Discussion)

Entering the room, she huffs:
"Well, that is not very clean at all. I am sure this is a bachelor living here.
All that dust, and scribbling on the wall like some toddler... my oh my!"

She will look over Vardala's shoulder again, as well as others who might be trying to read the writing on the wall.
(to give +1 or +2)
"Can you make sense of that? Why could the man not spell out a nice formal sentence?!"

While she takes time to look around the room--
+9 Perception
--to see if he at least did not leave dirty laundry, and to tidy up a bit, hopefully finding some clues.

Variel begins decoding the scratches, under Milady's strict oversight. She points out that certain markings appear to be Flitch's name. Over time, Variel works out that most of the scratches are not letters, but rather markings. The graffiti is a map of the sewers, with Flitch's hideout marked in one tunnel.

The rest of the house appears to have been long abandoned - nobody in or out for several weeks.

Mechanically, now that you have the map, Flitch's hideout works like any other location: you can enter the sewers from any location, but will still spend 2 hours traveling to the actual hideout.

Hookie brightens at the idea of sewers. "Ooo, Hookie am finding the best food in the sewers! Not cooked blegh food, but wriggling fresh food! And sometimes pickles!" He starts to salivate. "Let's go let's go let's go!"

"The sewers, as in... where the refuse is sent? Can people really go down there?"

Variel sighs. "Yes, technically they can, but no one who wants to retain their dignity would do so. If we are going to go down there, let me take a moment to remove my fancy outer garments and replace them with my travelling clothes."

If we go into the sewers, Variel will replace the fancy clothes he bought for the merchant masquerade with his normal travelling clothes, to try to keep the good clothes looking and smelling nice.

A reminder that curfew is approaching. Your next destination should be where you sleep f9r the night.

Damn, having to take 2 full hours to travel anywhere eats up the time quickly.

"I do not really wish to sleep in the sewers... but, well, it is an adventure after all!"

I for one am all for using the sewers if we are out past curfew. Or um sleep in a dumpster. Dumpsters do exist in the city right?

"Should we leave a message for Flitch to come to Yuleg's so we don't have to come back here?"

See Discussion. I'm going to move to a 3 locations/day system because it's been pointed out that my timekeeping doesn't make a lot of sense. You can visit one more place before heading to wherever you will sleep for the night. (Remember, you'll need to be with Yuleg's daughter for 8 consecutive hours for the Medicine check.)

"Look at this place, friend Regus. I don't think he'll be back anytime soon. If we want to find Flitch, we'll need to go get him. Down there. I wish I had brought an extra pair of clothes." Ixlilton says while wrinkling his nose. "I nominate Hookie to go down there. I bet he'll be able to see and fit down there better, too."

"Perhaps we go find Flitch, and see if we can use his location as a staging point to get everyone else out? Then we return to Yuleg and take care of his daughter tonight."

"I don't know. I assumed a thief might like this kind of decor," Regus replies to Ix.

"I'm pretty good at navigating tunnels... but I don't know about going into such a filthy place."

Regus does have Mining Lore and Terrain Expertise (Underground).

"Well, let's see where this takes us, hmmm? I do not want to be down there after dark. I'd rather be well-rested and not smelling of human waste before going to bed. Besides, Milady is needed tonight. Now, the question is, finding a sewer entrance and entering it without looking too suspicious."

'So, off to the sewers we go! What craziness this is. Off we go!"

Milady is ready to help find some discreet entrance, thanks to the map, and follow her comrades on the couple of hours of trek to Flitch's hideout.

"Hooray!" Hookie celebrates his return to the pickle-pits.

A well-oiled grate leads down into a twisting sewer system. Graffiti covers the walls at every intersection of the labyrinth. Fortunately, you have the map that Flitch left.

Ixlilton finds a low-grade silver shield and a small bag of silver along the way. Yeah, no way to gracefully work that in, sorry. But it's a Treasure Bundle.

The map leads to a small sewer maintenance chamber, where someone has set up a humble campsite. A human male jumps up and pulls out a small paring knife and waves it around threateningly. "Who are you?" he demands.

"Hello! Hookie am Hookie, and these am Hookie's friends!" Hookie supplies helpfully. "Am you Flitch? We am for looking for you!"

Variel steps up and adds, "Uncle sent us. He's been asking about the slippers."

Flitch breaks into a beaming smile. "You scared me for a second!"

He puts away the knife and waves you in. "I've got everything we need. I know how to get to Shard Cove, and I made us some fake passports."

Flitch also shows you some of the items he's stockpiled - a disguise kit, a repair kit, and a minor healing potion.

Flitch's picture revealed on Slide 2.

Variel accepts the papers and puts them in his pack. "Good, well done. We need to gather up the other people before your ship arrives. Do you see any problem with bringing everyone this way? It seems like it would probably be safer than splitting them and moving them through the city."

"What a nice little home you have made for yourself down here, sir!"
Cough... cough...

Looking over the papers, Milady smiles: "This will be very helpful!"

She whispers discreetly to her comrades--
(all can open spoiler)
--"Not very good work, but it WILL help us make our own."

Hookie nods at Milady's assessment. "You am living in good place! Am you seeing many pickles down here?" Hookie leans in conspiratorially.

"Good, well done. We need to gather up the other people before your ship arrives. Do you see any problem with bringing everyone this way? It seems like it would probably be safer than splitting them and moving them through the city."

"My home is your home," Flitch offers. "We can hide people here until the ship arrives. Guaril said there'd be a ship that arrives outside Shard Cove - I can get you to Shard Cove, but do you have a way to get across the Cove? I'm not a great swimmer. We could use some rafts."

In addition to the timing, and the rafts, I want to remind you that in the instructions, only 5 people will fit on the Rolanna's Prayer - you'll need to smuggle everyone else out aboard the Merry Mayfly with you.

"Hookie, please. You do not want to eat pickles down here. Just imagine how... nevermind. This is a good location, Flitch. Are there any dangers down here?" Ixlilton looks at Milady. "However, we won't be able to extract the daughter of Yuleg until she's better, am I right? Much less bring her here. Perhaps we should return to the inn and continue our search tomorrow. Flitch, do you have tools to create forgeries down here?"

(GM, to create the forgeries, I imagine it would be a Crafting check? Also, GM, were there only six barrels of fish with Yuleg? So that means if we fashion a raft (another Crafting check, I presume), we can't use those same barrels to smuggle people out, am I right?)

Create a Forgery is a Society check (secret, DC 20). Detecting a forgery is Perception or Society vs the creator's Society DC.

If you successfully Craft a raft, I'll tell you how many people it can hold (it depends on your degree of success), but it's more than 1 per raft.

I suggest we arch some of the rafts, therefore people can go underneath the rafts and still have their heads above water, that is one way to smuggle them. Gazard will help create a forgery. My society is +7 and since we all open the spoiler now +2 on top of that for +9, and you said secret check, so I assume that means Dm rolls

Create a Forgery is a Downtime activity, not an Exploration activity.

It will take 8 hours to Create a Forgery.

Gazard will only do that then if we've got a lot of time, or there is no otherway around this.

"So... Flitch will stay here and we can hide people with him if needed, and then move out this way to the Cove.
Now, we should all get back to the Inn, so that I can take care of the young lass...
And maybe some people can start making rafts?
Though someone needs to eat all the pickled fish in the barrels-- what Goblin would do that?
And we can also use Flitch's papers to make forgeries.
Rafts and forgeries might be done during curfew?"

"I suppose that's possible if none of us sleep tonight." grumbles Ixlilton.

Can the raft making and forgeries be done in parts, as in 4 hours today and 4 hours tomorrow or do they have to be done in a single sitting?

Actually, we only get 8 hours in town per day, leaving us 8 hours of sleep *and* 8 hours for downtime activities. So we can have one or two people tend to the girl, a couple more work on rafts, and others work on forging papers this evening.

Variel has +7 Medicine and +5 Society, so can work on either tending the sick or forging papers. Not so good with building stuff.

I'm going to count that as 3-ish votes to move back to the inn. I'll give you guys a free visit to go back to Flitch if I moved you on too fast.

Milady (rolled earlier) sets about the task of healing, alleviating Elena's worst symptoms. Mechanically, Elena now has Stage 2 Filth Fever. She is able to guide you through the sewers if you want (but you've already found Flitch's hideout), and she can be extracted.

Variel and Gazard set about making some forgeries. If anyone else wants to try, post a Society modifier.

Both agree that their forgeries are good. Mechanically, this either means they both failed and the forgeries will be spotted immediately even without scrutiny, or they both succeeded and the DC for spotting their forgeries is at least their highest Society DC (DC 19) and only if someone looks carefully.

Anyone who wants to make a raft can post a Crafting check (open, because the difference between Success and Critical Failure is obvious).

Anyone who doesn't want to help heal, forge, or craft can just sharpen their weapons, overindulge on pickled fish, tell war stories, or some combination of the three. You have 8 hours before bedtime, and then everyone gets a full 8 hours of rest ... and then pickled fish for breakfast.

Milady will tend to the lass.
 »Aye, she is doing better. »
And rest.
 »Must get my beauty sleep! »

Ixlilton pops opens some fish barrels and tosses a pickled fish to Hookie.

"Pharasma take this stench!", Ixlilton exclaims as the smell of pickled fish assaults his senses. "I don't know how you can eat this, Hookie, this stinks."

"Help me pass the time, Hookie. Tell me about yourself as I work", Ixlilton grunts as he tries to assemble something floatable.

Crafting rafts: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Regus gives Milady a hand in looking after the young dwarf. She seems to have it under control but he is worried about the lass. Also, he has no skill in making things.

Botting Hookie.

Hookie excitedly tells Ixlilton about pickles for 8 hours while scarfing a disturbing number of pickled fish. The stories disgust Ixlilton, and he's unable to complete a raft from the barrels. However, he hasn't ruined the barrel, so a retry can be attempted.

---

The party turns in for the night, and everyone benefits from a full night's rest.

---

In the morning, Yuleg makes everyone a hearty breakfast of pickled fish, roasted potatoes, with a generous dallop of soured cream and chives. The soured cream helps mitigate the taste of the pickled fish, which for most of the party is a positive thing.

Day 2 - where are you headed?

With or even without his allies, Gazard will head to the Arcanium Abjurant

Ixlilton, no matter how hard he washed himself, can't get the stench of pickled fish off from his hands fully and has a fitful sleep where he dreams of pickles and being hunted by the Runemaster of Pickled Sins.

With a headache, he comes down for breakfast and groans at the contents, thinking to himself. "I'm starting to hate fish."

"Yesterday I was suggesting Themolin, but it looks like our friend Gazard has another idea. I'll go with him, he says eagerly trying to get away from Hookie.

Milady will see to the daughter, checking how the fever is doing now--
(the roll will be in the evening, correct?)
--and making sure she is well covered, getting a lot of fluids and such.
"I will make sure you are better tonight. Rest some more."

Then Milady will go with the flow.

Hookie follows along, slurping the guts out of pickled fish. "Wait wait, Ixilton! Ixilton am forgetting his pickled fish!"

Once the centerpiece of the city, this wizardry school suffered heavy damage while Xin-Edasseril stood outside of time. Several ruined columns line the front entrance of the white marble building where vellum banners hide broken stonework. A newly restored statue of Belimarius stands in the courtyard. Beyond these measures, much of the school still lies in disrepair. The limited number of people on campus and Belimarius’ dismissive attitude toward the crumbling institution means its grounds are poorly watched by the runelord’s forces.

Vacant classrooms cover the first floor of the Arcanium Abjurant. A stone staircase leads to a number of modest academic offices on the second floor, each lined with cramped bookshelves, archaic charts, and chalk-filled slates.

You locate Daffrid Chaverly's office. Picture on Slide 3.

"May I help you?" she asks.

Gazard extends his hand out to shake his hand. Ah yes, we are new here and we were wondering what you can tell us about this town. Also any good books here on some interesting topics? diplomacy if needed: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Daffrid shakes Gazard's hand politely. "I can recommend some books on multidimensional algebraic topology," she says rather dismissively, "My field of expertise is extraplanar cohomology of astral manifolds."

"I suggest you look for the Visitor's Center if you're tourists."

A lot of people wear glass over their eyes, here... Milady thinks to herself.
But she shrugs, and decides she should try and make an impression.

"EXTRA-planar cohomology of astral manifolds! Oh! That is fascinating. So much more interesting than planar cohomology of astral manifolds."
Diplomacy, trained: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
"I must say. Would you not be interested in spreading your teaching, maybe somewhere else in the world?
We would love to be tourists, but, sadly are not... however, maybe we can help you and your family.
How are your two young ones?"

Daffrid doesn't respond. She doesn't know how you know about her family.

Disloyalty is a capital crime in Xin-Edasseril.

(just in case I made a mistake, I did this assuming she was alone in the office, and no one can hear us)

Milady looks around: "We are the ones are here to help you exfiltrate, all four of you. As you have agreed upon and are paying for."

Daffrid looks around suspiciously. She opens the door and looks up and down the corridor to make sure nobody's around.

"Are you with Guaril? What's taken so long? My family's been ready to go for days!"