GM Weenerton 7-10 Consortium Compact (Inactive)

Game Master OG3

"Looks like things are about to head up. We have a merry time and place with Delroya. Everyone ready? Let's do this!"

A large warehouse looms into view at the end of Gull Street. Its main level sits at the edge of the street above a ten-foot drop to the harbor’s waters below. A door in the western wall of the warehouse opens, and a woman clad in simple leather armor steps out. Her features display a blend of Taldan and Mwangi heritages, and her crisp accent is difficult to place. “I am Magali Delroya. You must come quickly, Pathfinders. We do not wish to be seen.” Delroya moves briskly, waving off protests or interruptions, and speaks with the rhythm of her steps. “Questions later. Much is at stake. First you must listen.” Her outward display of authority does not entirely mask her fear.

The small room through the warehouse’s western door features a round table and several chairs. “This room is for the guards. They are all too busy dealing with our disruptions, so no one is here for now. That door leads to the docks below,” she says, indicating a door in the southern wall. “Come this way. I will show you the warehouse.” She opens a door in the northern wall, revealing a cavernous storage room. Haphazard stacks of barrels and crates almost reach the ceiling twenty feet above. Two large skylights in the ceiling provide ample light during the day, and a dozen unlit lanterns are spaced around the room. To the east, a wide opening in the southern wall looks out over the loading bay ten feet below. A freight elevator platform rigged to a complex set of pulleys and ropes and a staircase both lead down to the loading bay.

“As you can see, the Aspis Consortium maintains a sizable operation out of this warehouse, which they rent from the Kortos Consortium’s Locosta family in exchange for alchemical goods. After tonight, I hope that the relationship between Aspis and Kortos will be irreparably damaged."

“We may have delayed the shipment, but my sources tell me that both the Kortos and Aspis consortia are likely to investigate the warehouse later tonight. I had hoped for more time, but I will not able to move the goods until after midnight. I need your help in holding off the agents until everything is in order. They are not likely to work together, so you should prepare for multiple groups of agents. While I have no qualms about fighting the Aspis agents, if possible we should avoid further antagonizing the Kortos Consortium. Their agents may be willing to look the other way.”

“Because the agents are on high alert, you should stay at the warehouse until they arrive. We wouldn’t want anyone spotted or attacked out in the city before we’re ready. That gives you several hours to prepare. Most of the items in the warehouse are simple trade goods designed to make this outfit look legitimate. You may want to take some time to look around, though—you never know what the Aspis Consortium might have stowed away here.”

“I can stay here briefly, if you have questions or need assistance.”

Map updated with the warhouse and some places to investigate if you like. Let me know how you plan to move forward.

Cith says "You wanted the drug and the notes, correct?"

Magali perks up at the mention, Yes, they would be most helpful. Hod did you come by them?

“Found the sample on one of his victims. Found the journal on him. We turned him over to the guards and his victims over to a church that we thought would help them.”

If she is interested in the details, Cith is willing to give them.

“How will we recognize the people from the Kortos Consortium?”

Make sure the victims of his poison get the best care they can get. If Laszo doesn't want to co-operate, let me know. I have no qualms ensuring he talks.... Carlin says, patting her morningstar.

Area 1 is definitely closest, but Bahram can't resist a possible office door, area 3.

Walking toward the office, Bahram comments to anyone listening, "If we are looking to 'hold off the guards' I have a couple of little spells that may come in handy. I can create sounds coming from anywhere I want, and I can also create illusions. If we really want to have some fun with them, I could create a layer of magical grease on any item that they are trying to move. This could be fun...Oh look, an office door. Let's take a peek."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

Bahram will then cast detect magic on the door, and into the room beyond. Before entering, he will take the time to turn and sweep his detect cone about the warehouse around him, within 60'. If he stumbles upon anything ,not upon the persons of his fellow pathfinders, he will spend the few rounds investigating it.

If his detect comes up with nothing, he will open the door.

Sayuki smiles. "No questions from me," she says, investigating the area.

Sayuki will take a walk around the warehouse, keeping an eye out and Taking 10 on Perception for 16.

Magali takes you around the warehouse. I was able to scout this place out quite well. I've found a few secret doors that may be useful. I also found this in [area 4].

She hands over an oil of Arcane Lock.

You can move boxes to barricade or try to lock the doors. Stuff like that. Let me know how you prepare.

"Right then," Sayuki says, turning to her comrades. "Have we all heard The Ballad of Home Alone?"

lol

Bahram smiles as he looks to Sayuki and places his hands on his cheeks. "I was just reciting that one in my head!"

"So the place has already been searched.". He says, looking to Delroya. "From your reconnaissance, do you think that we could barricade ourselves in? I could use my magics to make them think that we are somewhere where we are not. Where are these secret doors that you have found? How do you propose we could use them?"

Secret doors marked on map with "S"

For one, we now know about them in case they try to enter in places we did not expect. They can be used as a getaway for you, just in case. I suggest you narrow the points of entry so you dont' get surrounded too easily.

"The goal is still not too injure them. Should we, instead, try to bluff them into believing we are here about something else entirely? And then use some magic to make them think that a thief has run off with something if theirs? That way would be non-confrontational."

Bahram does seem to be excited at the thought of being able to use his magic for subterfuge.

I dig it. Y'all describe any preparations you want to do for that and I'll ask for a couple rolls before they show up.

"Delroya, do you know the dress for the local constabulary? Or some other guise that we could take to help out a story?"

and to the group, "Maybe we could blockade/lock all of the doors except for those along the dock. That way we can speak to them there, and if it goes poorly, maybe push them into the water? If it does not go poorly, I could them try to get them to chase a fake thief. Maybe we could be looking for this thief and not be after the consortium at all! Or we could tell them we are thinking about shutting them down because of all of the pain they are causing the citizens! So any options."

He is on a roll and someone needs to stop him.

"Tell me of this Ballad - Home Alone."

"If you need muscle to move anything, just look my way." Bedisa gives a very toothy grin (and flexes slightly to show off her muscles).

The two light colored squares are the skylights, correct?

“Blocking one of the doors seems like a good idea.”

“Rather than block the secret doors, how about if we put boxes to either side so they would have a narrow space to come in through? Those good with ranged weapons could stand on the boxes and fire down. Could even make it steps up on the defending side, so it isn’t difficult to climb.”

“We should probably think about where each of us wants to be on look out, and who is going to say what when the Merchants come.”

Cith, true to his name, then suggests “I want to explore, see exactly what sort of stuff is stored here. Maybe there is something we can use.”

He will start looking in some of the boxes and generally explore the warehouse.

"Tell me of this Ballad - Home Alone."

Sayuki grins. "It appears we have some time. A bard* could tell it better than I, of course-- but here we are."

Player's Note: I'm generally averse to using the actual names of character classes outside of OOC game mechanics, but "bard" here more refers to "anyone who tells tales, possibly through song."

"The gist of it is this: a human family with far too many children leaves one of them behind on a family trip to Oppara. The child is then left to fend off his home from ruthless burglars. The appeal to the story is in what follows: the child proves to be immensely creative, and sets a wide variety of traps to harm the burglars. Some, in fact, would be quite fatal if enacted in real life and not a bard's song."

"Of course, the real fun is hearing multiple tellings. Different bards tend to envision different traps, and some really are quite clever."

She turns; "Now, regarding nonfatality. Are we discussing avoiding killing both parties, or are we only doing that until we can assess which are Kortos and which are Aspis?"

Bry-Anne leaves the talkers to talk and starts working - starting by looking for anything useful in the crates at the loading dock.

Exploring area 6

Carlin looks around with Cith.

If need be. I can block an exit.

“We have the oil that will lock one small door. We need to find ways to deal with the other doors.” he tells Carlin as she comes over to help him search. “Still, there are more doors than people in our group. We need to make this place more defensible.”

I don’t care which area I search. Since Bahram is searching Area 1 and Bry-Anne is searching area 6 Cith will look someplace else.

could we jam the door or lock with something? like break off something in the lock to prevent it from opening? They would have to knock the door off...we would be ready then...

With a shrug, Cith says “Breaking the door should be easy. Breaking it so it doesn’t open, that probably takes someone who knows about locks. Regardless, we probably don’t want to do any permanent damage — that would likely anger the Kortos Consortium that owns this building.”

Sorry, no disable device on this character.

Moved characters to where they said they were searching. Picked area 2 for my character, feel free to change that if you wanted your character searching there.

Sorry, no disable device on this character.

Sayuki wiggles her dextrous fingers, as if responding to words unsaid.

"We could also simply move crates in front of the doors. I'm ill-suited to that sort of heavy lifting, of course... but there are many doors to work on."

Attempts to bar, lock, or jam a door require Disable Device 20.

In your investigation you find a few things:

-2 hungry fighting dogs growl at the PCs from within a locked cage (the key rests nearby in plain sight). A PC who spends 3 hours interacting with the dog and succeeds at a DC 20 Handle Animal check befriends him.

-Wand of cure moderate wounds (5 charges)

-6 doses of drow poison.

Let me know when you are ready to receive your first wave :)

At finding the fighting dogs (no doubt because of their smell), Cith loudly calls out “Anyone here a dog lover?” With a wry grin and a twitch of his tail, he adds “Must admit, I prefer cats!”

So, I'm thinking for better coordination, let's put notes/comments on the map so we know which doors we want to leave open and which to block. I remember someone suggesting we keep the dockside doors open and bar everyone else; if we're down with that plan, any of us who aren't good with animals can focus on blocking or disabling doors.

EDIT:

"I must admit to no particular love for dogs," says Sayuki, who definitely isn't a fox.

looking at the dogs. "Hmm. We could barricade/lock/disable the doors, climb up high on some boxes with good vantage points, and let the dogs free. Once they do make it past the doors, they will have angry hounds to deal with. All of us with ranged weapons could use the drow poison to try to put any to sleep if they get past the dogs. I hear that stuff puts people right to sleep!"

“How about we release the dogs in the guard area? Lock them in there. That way we don’t have to stay up on boxes just so the things don’t bother us.”

Gesturing towards the dock, he says “The other option is building some sort of doggie barrier on the lower part of the warehouse. Prevent them from coming up on this level. That would make it a bigger area they protect.”

Peering at the dogs through the bars of the cage, he asks “Should we feed them? They look hungry.”

“As for using poison, I will decline. The rest of you may use it if you choose.” You get the impression that he really doesn’t object to others using it — away from him.

“Were there any guard uniforms in the guard area?”

Sayuki will look around for guard uniforms, per Cith's advice.

Regardless:

"A hungry dog is less likely to view us as potential meals," she admits.

"As for the poison, it is... fairly tricky stuff. We risk ourselves, if we are not careful. Better to simply place the bottles at the top of a cracked door and let them drop upon whoever seeks to barge into this place."

"I've never had luck with poison. Nor letting someone else do the work for me. I'd rather be more direct with our approach. But doesn't seem like thats what everyone wants to do."

"Do we know how many people will be coming?"

With a grin, Cith says “Don’t worry, I bet there will be plenty of opportunity for a direct approach! Plans never go as we want them.”

With a sweep of his arm, he adds “Figure out where you want to apply that direct approach, and move boxes to create the terrain you want! Just tell us if you have a preference for what doors are blocked and where we put the dogs.”

“As for how many, we were only told of two groups. I doubt the merchants would make a big push, so the question is how many times could the Aspis send agents. At least once, hopefully not too many times.”

With a chuckle, he adds “Ask me after midnight, I’ll be able to give a better estimate.”

Feeding the dogs is a good idea...don't want tem hungry for us... Carlin says, grabbing a bundle of rations and tossing it to the dogs.

Good boys...don't worry..we won't hurt you... she says in a soothing voice.

handle animal, untrained: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

And as for using poison, I think you can guess my answer...

”Sarenrae never did strike me as the pragmatic type,” chuckles Sayuki.

I finally get to use some poison! But like the opposite of an Assassin. I'm saving them by putting them to sleep, lol.

"Well, I have no qualms using poison in order to save their lives.

Bahram will take the poison, and apply it to his arrows.

poison mishap: 1d100 ⇒ 85

Bahram will begin attempting to bar/Jam each for before helping to stack crates against the doors if no one comes up with a disguise.

disable device: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

"I still like the idea of taking to them and confusing them better, but we can make this work. What about the dogs?"

Still some discussion so I'll let y'all hash out the last details. If you go with a ruse of some kind, I'll roll you a disguise check and a bluff check when we get to the encounter. Please mark each exit with a status you want to leave it in.

Looking to Bahram, Cith asks “Is there some way we can keep them from coming up the stairs? If so, I say we release them in the loading area. Otherwise the guard area.”

I don’t have a disguise kit. Are there any uniforms to make a disguise out of?

I have placed Cith on top of some crates. As a feline, he has to hide in the boxes! ;)
I am also willing to do the talking if the group prefers that.

Bry-Anne does not partake of the poison. "Deception is not logical because a rational mind will see through it," he states bluntly. "If that is the group's desired course of action, I would only hinder it. I can stand guard in a remote area and attempt to convince any intruders as to the wisdom of leaving without entering."

Such as Area 6, or one of the guard rooms. Probably not the large main room unless we just want a guard for a door.

"Seeing that no one is coming up with a disguise, let's forget that idea. Cith, let's go ahead and stack boxes, boxing in (heh) the dogs in the bottom area. Bry-Anne, Bedisa, can you help with that? I've disabled the rest of the doors, and we can stack more boxes in front of them. Let's only leave one secrete door open to us. Who wants to guard the unlocked secret door? I will position myself in the middle to make the most use of my bow" Nodding to himself, Bahram seems satisfied with his plan until it seems a thunderbolt strikes inside his head. "...Wait! There will be the Aspis agents as well as the Kortos agents. It's okay to strike down the Aspis agents, Delroya excluded, but we should try to reason with the Kortos guys, right? Perhaps a couple of us should stand out front to see which group is coming when so that we can try to reason with the Kortos, and hop back in to defend against the Aspis. Is there an easy way to tell them apart?" This last question he aims primarily at Delroya.

"I could camp out on the rooftop," points out Sayuki. "That way I can keep an eye out, and when the Aspis get here, I can either fire down from the skylight or rappel down if I'm needed on the floor."

Bahram's eyes light up at Sayuki's suggestion. "I like that idea! And what a visual that would be!"

“If Sayuki is on the roof, that would also allow her to talk to the merchants when they arrive. She should be able to convince them to leave without battle. That way we wouldn’t need to have anyone obviously outside.” Looking towards her, he adds “Hopefully there is a good place up there to hide while watching.”

“I like the idea of stacking boxes to keep the dogs in the lower area, which would then suggest Bry-Anne could be on guard in the office.” There is a line for the boxes. Just realized there is a door at the top of the stairs, that should be enough to keep the dogs in place.

I have also put some puppy pictures in for the guard dogs. Picture may not be an exact match for actual creature. :)

“Once the boxes are in place, we release the dogs and get out of the area.”

I have placed lock symbols on the doors we want to jam. Check out the map, see if everyone is alright with that and place your figure where you will be on guard.

“Any other ideas?”

@GM Do you need any more rolls for anything involved with the setup?

Sayuki will check around outside and inside for an easy access to the roof-- probably a ladder?

Seeing Sayuki looking for a way up, Cith offers her use of his grapnel and silk rope.

Sayuki will happily borrow them if a ladder does not present itself!

Given we've got, as far as we can tell, All The Time In The World, can I assume the grappling hook works? If there's enough of it to knot it, that should bring the climb DC down to where I can Take 10 to ascend, as well. No point in risking getting splattered if I fall badly :P

Sorry for not posting more - super busy past few days. Trying to catch up on the plan.

Bedisa will start stacking boxes to keep the dogs in area 6. She'll also start boxing in the other locked doors.

"So the plan is to fight the Aspis agents when they sneak in through the secret door, yeah?Are we still planning on funneling them?"

Funneling is a good idea...separate them and limit their effectiveness. We should pair up....Sayuki up top....

"Want to help me Carlin? I can't move all these boxes by myself."

Bedisa isn't that great at logistics. She'll start making a funnel by placing boxes near the secret door until someone else tells her different.