GM Jhaeman's "Doom Comes to Dustpawn" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

After kicking the wand away, Izlin tries to connect with the captain. s he does so, he makes certain to translate everything for his allies.

Translated from Elven"I'm sorry it came to this, you seem like a good man. However, something has either altered your mind or addled it. You keep calling us your crew, but we never set foot on this vessel until an hour ago. You crash landed a few days ago, and we are just one of many factions trying to find your ship. Take a good look at us. We are native to this planet. Can you put names to all of our faces? I am Izlin. Take a good look. What race do we seem to be?" He pauses to wait for any reaction. "What can you tell us of the beast you say is following you, and what is the purpose of the orrery? We believe we have discovered some of the missing pieces. How would it help the situation to repair it?"

He look to the team, "Anything else we should try?"

Xilt smirks rubbing his hands.

"All that magical equipment is ... dangerous for one so addled. I suggest that we remove him of the temptation to do any harm to others."

(Detect Magic)

The Mephit shakes his head in mock shame.

"Sure. You are doing it for his own good I am certain."

The captain is incurably mad, and continues to angrily shout about "insubordination" and "mutiny."

The fury of battle over, Dawa recalls his ability to speak in the Common tongue and sadly shakes his head at the raving captain. "Aye, the moon will do that to you if ye are not careful. And ye weren't were ye? Tch tch tch."

Leaving the enormous tiger to keep the mad captain pinned down, Dawa turns with excitement to the orrery. "Now this, however, positively invites us! Luna wanted us to find this, or I ain't touched with her "gifts" as some call 'em... What d' ye think it does? I wonder what happens if ye move this part..." If no one stops him, Dawa begins to play with the orrery, much as a child might play with a set of tinker toys.

As Dawa examines the orrery, everyone can see that it's designed to be expandable and collapsible. When fully expanded, it's almost four-feet-wide. Although most of the planets in the Golarion system are represented, four of the orbs seem to be missing.

Xilt directs Tzleztor to loot the valuable books in the library. He concentrates on magically examining the items on the subdued caster.

Spellcraft,Silver Wand: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28

Spellcraft,Red Cloak: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (12) + 18 = 30

Spellcraft,Jeweled Headband: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28

Spellcraft,Red Ring: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (17) + 18 = 35

Spellcraft,Grey Ring: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36

He turns to Dawa.

"Yes. I will be there in a minute. I suspect the Ornery can be activated again with the missing orbs. The real question is if we should."

Dawa nods at Xilt. "Aye, truly that is the question. Perhaps Mistress Moon herself can help us know the way forward..."

While the others examine the various items and search the room, Dawa will take 1 minute to cast Augury to ask "O Holy Orb of the Night, will activating the Orrery by replacing the missing orbs bring good or bad results in the immediate future?" GM makes a secret roll. Chance of a meaningful reply is 77%.

Almaas looks around.

“So much fighting!“ he says and shakes his head.

He stabilizes the frog man and tries to carry him to the elven bat lady outside.

“ Izlin, Can you accompany me and see if the elf-bat lady knows this frog?!“

"I would not be adverse to some answers. Let us try."

Almaas and Izlin carry she ship's captain outside, to where the elf with bat-like features waits. The two humanoids with animal features look at each other with glimmers of recognition and begin speaking rapidly.

Again translating the conversation as he goes, the magus joins in.

"Who or what is the 'Emissary'? And what follows behind?"

"Is it that Emissary dangerous?"

Dawa sighs with disappointment. "Mistress Moon has not favored me with a glimpse of the future. Perhaps she is disappointed that we are considering repairing the orrery - maybe we should smash it?!?"

With his augury complete, while the others interrogate the Captain Dawa takes some time to polish his buckler. This takes 10 minutes - no worries if we don't have that much time.

After repeated questioning, the best you're able to make out from the clearly-disturbed individuals is that the Emissary is coming, it is coming soon, and it is very dangerous.

"How can we defeat him!?"

They have no idea--you've gotten what you can get from these two.

"I could attempt another augury..." Dawa says rather doubtfully. "Or we could see what to do with this orrery while we wait for the 'emissary'... Or we could just leave and bring what we've found back to Dustpawn to try to make sense of it. Personally, I'm not afraid of him. Or her. Or it. Whatever it is. Am I not an emissary of the moon? I say we stand our ground and show this emissary what we are made of..."

Almaas thinks for a moment.

"So we found a crazy and rich lady with goals associated to this vessel that seems to have some connection to the stars. Somehow people are strangely morphed into animals. Something is coming that seems to be powerful and dangerous."

He looks at you all.

"I really have no idea what we should do instead of wither prepare for the worst and wait for whatever is coming or somehow divert attention to this place and prevent this emissary from coming."

"One thing is certain; trouble is headed our way. Let us not forget that there are other operatives about. We can't leave anything of value behind, and it's entirely possible we could be ambushed on the way back to town."

I can't quite tell--it seems like some are suggesting heading back to town and others suggesting waiting with the ship? You can make ooc votes if need be for clarity.

Xilt thinks they should go back.

"I would like to take a closer look at the Ornery."

The Mephit looks at the others. He is clearly more than a little disappointed not to be adding another wand to his collection.

"Why are we not stripping down the frog-man? You don't plan on letting him walk around with all that stuff in his current condition. Do you?"

Xilt nods.

"Likely he has a nice spell book to look at as well."

I'm game to fight it out with the emissary. What could possibly go wrong?

Dawa won't condone just robbing the 'mad captain' but he won't object to taking his stuff for safe-keeping until he can be restored to sanity, for his own protection of course :-)

Izlin is voting for heading back to town, but is expecting to run into the other team on the way.

Also good rendering the captain harmless via item removal.

"We need to examine that orrery. I am nor wise nor smart but I think that we need to either destroy that thing or put it together. Maybe if we destroy that thing Emesary will not come here."

I don't wanna go anywhere before we deal with that orrery. That thing looks to me very important.

Do we have all the missing orbs? (4, I think?)

"Yes, let us bind the captain and remove his items. We should then analyze what we have in more detail." Almaas says in an approving tone.

Xilt, you did detect magic on the Captain's possessions approximately 24 posts above--the results are in a spoiler. There's no spellbook on him. Nonmagical gear includes a spell component pouch, 500 gp worth of diamond dust, and a pair of small canine statues.

Okay, so several people have suggested the party should be doing something with the orrery. Who is going to do what?

Xilt would like to examine the Ornery beginning with Detect Magic.
He hands the Wand of Vampiric Touch to Tzleztor to use.

Everyone can open up the spoiler (above) to see if there is something that you can use. The rings are pretty good.

Well, Izlin doesn't have a headband, so he would like that if everyone else is good with that.

Tachonius can duplicate/exceed the rings through his spells, so he doesn't really need any of those items.

@Izlin - Go for it. Xilt already has a headband and no one else to my knowledge is INT based.

Xilt is momentarily stunned by the immense magic radiating from the orrery. After recovering from the onslaught he concentrates and attempts to determine its magical properties.

"Whoa. What a rush!

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28

Dawa doesn't have any rings at all (spent all my cash on the Banner of the Ancient Kings) so if no one else is interested, he'll wear both the Ring of Protection +2 and the Ring of Minor Fire Resistance. However, if anyone else wants either or both he is happy to yield them.

Dawa looks on with giddy anticipation while Xilt begins the process of fixing the Orrery.

If Aid Another is possible on Xilt's Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

Do we know how that orrery is related to Emissary? Do we have all the orbs?

Xilt nods.

"It is an impressive device."

Xilt has a look at the bookcase to make sure that Tzleztor did not leave anything behind. He searches for any sign of hidden treasure.

Perception,Hidden: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 9 + 2 = 21

He then goes through the process of adding the orbs to enable the device to be collapsed down and moved.

"This might take a few minutes."

Tzleztor looks slightly annoyed that his master doubts his ability. He places his small hands on his hips and talks back to Xilt.

"Hey, I know how to loot a bookcase. You know."

He then looks around the room searching for the elusive spell book or other items of interest.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21

He guards his master while the wizard is assembling the orrery.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30

The magus attempts to decipher the orrery in an effort to assist Xilt.

As the fourth and final orb is placed within the orrery, there's a sudden surge of psychic energy!

I need everyone (including pets) to please roll a Will saving throw vs a mind-effecting enchantment (compulsion) effect.

Just wondering if that is for people outside the ship as well. Not me, I'm pretty sure I was right next to it, but Tachonius was out watching over the prisoners.

Right, Tachonius doesn't need to attempt the save.

Dawa Will: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

If this is considered a "charm" effect then Dawa's banner will give everyone who can see it within 30' an additional +2 Morale bonus.

K'nai Will: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23 If this is a spell, K'nai has SR 13

Dawa can use Misfortune as an immediate action to make someone reroll, so if you don't like your die roll feel free to use this. He can only use it once/round though (since it uses his immediate) and only 1/day on any given individual.

Dawa feels the surge of psychic energy and hums with excitement. "The moon, the moon! She is calling us!"

The Misfortune won't be available because Dawa is flat-footed, and thus can't take immediate actions. This effect doesn't count as a charm effect.

will: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Will save: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (9) + 18 = 27