Winds of Fate

Game Master Joy

There are a number of items in the vault, a large chest, some statues, large vases, basically things that could be awkward for an individual to easily carry alone. Given the nature of a money lender and pawn business, there is a curious lack of smaller items, such as jewelry and random knick knacks.

Ivar and Selkyon, you think that there has been the recent traffic of multiple individuals and a lot of disturbed dust on the shelves, suggestion that many small items have recently been removed.

Selkyon, you think that you hear the sound of panic breathing coming from underneath the trapdoor.

A humourless smile appears on Selkyon's lips:

"Raziel, would you care to open the trapdoor? -Please step back, ma'am," he adds, placing himself between the widow and the trapdoor. "I think someone remained stuck here."

He unsheathes his sword, getting ready in case whoever is hiding from the group has the bad idea to attack.

'There are several pieces miss...someone remains.' Hearing Selkyon's observation, Ivar steps nearer, drawing his sword as well.

Listening in on what has been found, Ghandy readies an arrow and stands back.

Raziel knows that the easiest way to open the trapdoor is to just stand on the pressure plate and let it open naturally.

Pelipe was already outside of the room, not taking chances that the traps were all disarmed or known. There were already enough bodies inside, however, she stands at the doorway so as to able to see into the vault and trapdoor when it is opened. When the others mention their suspicions of someone inside the vault, she herself pulls her spellbook and readies to cast a Charm Person spell on whoever may be inside.

"If that's the case, then the motive was a robbery. It was murder, and all of this is wickedness unchained. The deception, the lies, and the gullibility of people all ties to one motive. Who has that motive though? It would help if I were from this small village. I probably would know who it was immediately."

If there is a person inside, she is casting Charm Person on them the moment she sees them regardless of what they say or do. Will DC 16

I will assume that Raziel agrees to stand on the pressure plate to cause the trap door to drop.

Raziel moves to stand on the trigger plate and after a few seconds have passed (time to allow whoever stepped on the plate to reach the trapdoor), the floor in front of the vault door drops down.

Looking downward, you all see a 20 foot deep pit lined with smooth stone walls and a humanoid figure laying at the bottom. Even without any knowledge of healing, it is clear that one of his legs is bent at an area that should not actually bend. Obviously he is not able to climb out of the pit and attack anyone.

Raziel agrees! :D

"How unfortunate," Selkyon says ironically, as his gaze falls on the robber's broken leg. He sheathes his sword, and gets a long, silken rope out of his backpack. "Let's haul him up."

I can get down and see how to carry him up, unless Ghandy wants to use some magic on him to heal his leg so he can stand up and climb by himself.

Smiling at Selkyon's sarcasm, Ivar sheaths his sword, moving beside his friend, "Good you brought der pack min venn." He gestures towards the rope, "I vill help vit der rope."

TWoF, do you want a strength check when we pull up the burglar?

I think Pelipe wanted to cast a spell asap?

I think there are enough of you to lift up 140 pounds without a strength check.

Knowledge local check to identify race.

will save: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

The person in the pit would rather you pull him up than leave him there to die, so he will hold onto the rope and you successfully pull him up and then Pelipe casts Charm on him.

Given the state of his leg, it is clear that he isn't about to run off anywhere and he begins begging you all in common to not hurt him.

Ghandy looks down at the thief, "I can heal you and make all of that pain go away," the cleric states authoritatively. "Tell us what you were doing in here and what you know of the murder and maybe Desna will allow you to walk and travel again."

After a pause to give the man a chance to answer, Ghandy looks over at the widow, "Do you recognize him?"

Untrained Knowledge Local: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

'Begging?' Ivar bends over and begins to roughly frisk the man, "Vhy vould we vant to harm you?" Giving a carnivorous smile, he tells the man, "You vill vant to answer der dame's qvestions.

perception (search): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
intimidate: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

It wasn't long before the man was being hauled out. Pelipe's stomach churned at the sight of his twisted leg. That wasn't right...

To him, she would seem like that long lost friend he had once known, and very beautiful she was being seen in the best possible light. Telepathically, Pelipe beckons him to cooperate.

"Tell my friends here all they wish to know. This would greatly please me and they are your friends too!"

"Yes, please remind us of what you all were doing here and what your plan was. I forgot..."

She seems almost sad in this, as if she were part of his gang and couldn't recall the plan.
Bluff: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21 Wooohoo yay!

Once he is out of the pit and into the lantern light, you can see him more clearly. A smooth-skinned, hairless humanoid wearing only a pair of shorts whose skin is almost the same color as the stone he lays on with his broken leg covered in blood from where the bone is poking through the skin.

He looks up at Pelipe, "Plan? We take valuables and run away with them."

Ghandy looks at him, "If you want to walk again, tell me who 'WE' is. What you all took. And who or what killed the proprietor."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Knowledge Local (untrained): 1d20 ⇒ 7

Selkyon puts away his silken rope, after inspecting it to make sure that it didn't get stained with the intruder's blood. He has no idea of which race the humanoid belongs, having never seen grey skin before.

"Answer our questions, and we'll see what we can do for your leg, he says, still rather coolly. "What's your name, and where do you come from?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 ⇒ 2 Trying not to sound creepy and failing

So we are intimidating and 'diplomacing' him at the same time? Ghandy is the bad cop? :P

Once the individual is pulled out of the pit, Raziel slinks away into the shadows of the room, drawing his longspear just in case...

To be fair, Selkyon's roll check is so pathetic that I'm not even sure he knew what he was going for xD

The others began demanding of the criminal, Ghandy in uncharacteristic form, and even Selkyon in a manner of conditional care. Pelipe, as one who struggled with her evil side for a long time, doesn't entertain such evils lest she be consumed by them.

"You all are on the borderline of threatening him and ruining my spell...," Pelipe thinks to herself with a huff of breath.

Opening her telepathic communication with the man, she asks, "Could you please answer the elves' questions for me? I'd appreciate it, as we are friends. I want to know your name and where you've come from, and if you had anything to do with the murder that happened here last night. We can't have anyone get in trouble!"

My bad, I did forget to add that there was a sack with him in the pit. It did contain some items that had been taken from the vault.

"My name is Rogi. My tribe lives here now. We took everything small enough to carry. We told to rob the vault, that our job. We told everything was being taken care of. We just rob, we just keep hiding. We hide good. Most don't even know we live in city."

So trying to juggle player knowledge of Pelipe's charm spell and telepathic communication and what Ivar knows by what has been done or said out loud.

'Remind us of what you were doing, I forgot?' Looking at Pelipe for a second, 'Did she just con this little thief?' Separating the thief from his bag, Ivar steps back and smiles when the man simply answers Pelipe's question. 'that's exactly what she did.'

Hearing the threat in Gandy's voice, and unable to tell if Selkyon is attempting to be friend or foe, Ivar not wanting to confuse the situation more, stops talking and tries to tell which direction the interrogation will go.

As Raziel moves to guard the room 'Good Raziel is covering the door,' Ivar turns to his friend, calling out, "Raziel." When the half-orc makes eye contact Ivar tosses him the bag that the grey man was holding onto.

Hearing a huff, Ivar looks to Pelipe, then the creature named Rogi who is looking at Pelipe, instead of Ghandy, Selkyon or himself. As the fellow answers, Ivar wonders, 'Well that's interesting, I wonder if she is using magic on him as well.' Moving closer to Ghandy, resting his hand on her shoulder he gesturing with his head towards Pelipe.

I generally don't roll 'skill checks' on characters, (it feels like PVP to me) but I will roll sense motive on Pelipe to see why she huffed, and another on Rogi to see if he's being honest
sense motive: Pelipe: 1d20 ⇒ 20
sense motive: Rogi: 1d20 ⇒ 19

Raziel offered Ivar a knowing smile as he tossed the bag to him.

The half-orc paused for a second before opening it, and savored that moment of anticipation and curiosity about the bag's contents - but just a short moment, then he just opened it.

Ivar, you believe that Rogi is being honest.

Raziel, you see bits of jewelry and other small objects that were valuable enough to either sell for money or to given as collateral for loans from Walder.

With a nod back at Ivar to confirm the contents of the bag 'make sense', Reziel goes to the widow - "You are probably not aware if it is so, but I believe these would match what would be expected to find in your husband's vault?"

To Ivar, Pelipe seems aggravated about something, however, it is hidden under her faux veil of kindness. It can be easily assumed from knowing her character that she is not being in alignment with herself by what she has said aloud. There is certainly something afoot!

Speaking out loud now that Rogi has answered them, she asks, "Thank you for answering Rogi, you've been a great help."

Looking to the others, she explains, "Rogi here is one of the Skulks. They are a race of people who live a most interesting lifestyle. Typically Skulks view all you guys as lazy, shortsighted, and foolish, but me, you like me, right?"

Being fun to see the effects of the spell and how friendly he could perceive Pelipe, she asks him such questions as she manipulates his mind and perceptions to show the others what she's doing. The mage has to be careful to let her impulses not go too far though. She pulls away from him and speaks to those who will listen to her in a quieter voice.

"I don't think the standard Skulk would hesitate to murder someone, but I am not sure Rogi here did anything like that. They usually work in groups, so from what he's saying, it sounds like there are some others and perhaps someone pulling the strings. Some are known to be wizards, but I am not so sure...it's rare. They are mostly takers of things, not book delvers."

Turning back to him, she brushes her hair behind her shoulders and kneels down to be more on his level.

"As my friends asked, who told you to rob the vault? Who told you that everything was being taken care of? What seems to be the problem? Was it one of your friends who asked this of you? Was he going to pay you?"

"Kymeth and Onamae said we just go in and take whatever we could carry from the vault. They came here with me and Zakhar. We did what they said we do, we took everything we could easily carry. The small things that wouldn't weigh us down. We were trying to figure out which key went to that chest, but we heard a scream for help upstairs, so we ran in case people came down here. I fell in pit, the others said they had no time to figure out how to open it and I could hear them jumping to not step where I stepped. Kymeth said we get more Shiver for doing this."

assuming 'shiver' is supposed to be silver?

Ghandy feels her characteristic compassion come back to her. Working as a sailor made her tough when she needed to be, but that side of her only came out when necessary. She felt bad for this Skulk.

Her level, pursed lips make an upward turn and her voice lightens. "Thank you for your honesty Rogi. Desna, I am sure, would want you to walk again. Let me fix that leg."

Ghandy kneels down, puts one hand on Rogi's leg and grasps her holy symbol with the other and whispers, 'Desna, hear my prayer and allow this one to walk again. He may never follow your ideals or your faith. He may never travel outside of what he knows, but I ask that you allow him to walk again that from now to the end of his days, he can make that choice for himself.'

When she finishes, her companions feel a wave of energy wash over them. Injured or not, they feel a bit more refreshed from their recent endeavors.

if needed, she sets the leg first

Heal Check: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Channel Positive Energy: 1d6 ⇒ 5

After a few moments to monitor his recovery, Ghandy stands.

"Rogi, I hope you are feeling better by the graces of beautiful Desna. Please help me understand. It sounds like you or your friends had some keys since you were looking at this chest." Ghandy pauses to tap the chest in question. "How did you or your friends get the keys? Also, can you take us to your friends? We want to make sure that you get home safely."

Bluff: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Channel Good; Skill Checks ... Bad

"Shiver" in the Pathfinder lore is supposed to be some kind of drug. Maybe Rogi is an addict?

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Selkyon watches Rogi's face attentively while he speaks in case he'd try to trick them, but he doubts that he is able to actively resist Pelipe's spell. The identity of the murderer remained frustratingly unknown...

'Kymeth, Onamae and Zakhar, still tallking about 'they' hmmm whoever killed Walder let the skulks have the trinkets, and they would get more shiver? Or did he mean silver?' Looking around briefly, 'And the ledger doesn't appear to be hear."

When Ghandy heals the skulks leg, Ivar asked him, "Vould you tell us who vas still upstairs ven you came to der vault?"

While the others continue speaking with Rogi, Ivar begins looking through the vault to see if he can find the ledger.

Would take 20 (24) on perception in the vault, looking for the ledger.

"Shiver" is a drug. Which is what he'll start doing controllably when/if he begins to experience symptoms of withdrawl. He's not at that point yet though.

Selkyon, you believe Rogi is telling you the truth.

"We waited in the alley nearby, a human opened the door and waved for us to come in and there was another man inside standing over someone who'd been knocked out. First human gives us keys, says steal stuff from vault, then go upstairs to sneak out the back, into the alley while they stage the front. I don't know what he meant about stage the front. We meet later for exchange. We not supposed to let anyone else know where we live."

WoF, just out of curiosity, the widow did not comment when I showed her the contents of the bag?

"Can you describe the human who handed you the key?" Selkyon asks.

'We need to find these humans.' Looking from the skulk, to Pelipe, then to Selkyon as he ask a pertinent question. Ivar nods, "If is very important for us to meet dis human, can you tell us der name or vhere you vere supposed to meet dem?"

Looking to Ivar at Rogi's words, she stands up from her kneeling position and moves over to the large brute of a man. Her small frame comes within his personal bubble as she intends to whisper to him. Quite readily he can smell the fresh scents of her soap fragrantly lifting up off of her in a delightful aroma. In a soft, quiet voice, he can hear her murmur, "We should get the sheriff before he decides his leg is fine enough to walk on and we have to hold him here. She would do well to hear this herself while he is under my spell...if I can overpower his mind to speak to who is likely his enemy..."

With that, she will slightly pull away and curiously look to him to see what he thought and if he felt if they should go grab her now while he was open to speaking to them and the Shiver compulsion hadn't taken him over. Her hands fold at her front to patiently hear what he thinks and she readies to lean in again if he intends to whisper to her. In the meantime, she listens to Selkyon behind her asking the Skulk about the man who was manipulating all of this. If only she could read Rogi's mind and steal his thoughts, they wouldn't have to ask. Was that evil of her? She contemplated this among the myriad of other thousand thoughts streaming through her mind at that moment.

While speaking to the skulk, Ivar realizes Pelipe is standing and moving near, he shifts his feet so he can speak with her privatly but still keep an eye on the prisoner, lowering his head, he listens and nods, 'The sheriff ... I'll wager she has ways of making people talk.' Leaning back in he asks, "How long vill de compulsion last? vill ve have enough time to fetch der sheriff? Or should ve just take him to her?

Raziel, the widow would thank you and confirm that the contents look like things that would be in the vault and if asked, she does recognize some of the items, but will say that she wasn't always present for all his dealings, so doesn't know every item in the vault.

Rogi shrugs at Selkyon, "Not good with human faces and he was mostly covered by a dark cloak, but he did have a lot hair. Growing from his head and face like what happens to human males, not much light, but I think it was red."

To Ivar, "We were supposed to stick to the alleys and not be seen and wait behind the tannery. No one lingers around there, it smells too bad."

"How long vill de compulsion last? vill ve have enough time to fetch der sheriff? Or should ve just take him to her?

Quietly she replies, "A little less than an hour. I don't know if we should take him to her. He might try to run or his allies might try to rescue him. Right here, he's cornered. One way in and one way out. I don't have manacles stuffed down my top so...I just figured someone should probably try to get her to come here as soon as possible. Whether that's you or one of the others, I'll leave to you. I'll stay here and keep his mind distracted hopefully..." She does hear about the red-bearded man and raises an eyebrow. This was the second time this guy had done something to influence the outcome of what the people of this town perceived.

Keeping to the shadows, Raziel circles around to to block the exit from the vault - just in case - "Might be worth it to take a look at the rendez-vous location" - comments.

"Ah, good'ol Red Beard is at it again. Wish we found him yesterday. If you think we should get the Sheriff, I'll go." Then nudging a chin towards Raziel, "I agree we should also check out the tannery."

"I don't have any more questions," Selkyon tells his teammates. "Let's bring him to the sheriff. Maybe bind his hands."

Pelipe nods to Ghandy and answers her quietly, "Go then. Let those dancing feet run like the wind. The sooner you get back here with her the better, and bring manacles."

With Selkyon finished asking questions, she hopes that Rogi had not heard them plotting. She leaves the others to return to Rogi whose leg looked less infected and gross now that he was slightly healed. The others could inform Selkyon as to their plan to get the Sheriff. In the meantime, she would ask Rogi questions about the Skulks to distract him while Ghandy went to fetch the sheriff.

'Good Ghandy will get the sheriff, hopefully she can find her quickly.' Nodding in aggreement with Pelipe, he shrugs at Selkyons recomendation to bind his hands, and smirks softly so the skulk won't hear. "Or ve drop him back in der pit." Moving back to the Skulk Ivar asks, "Rogi, vhen vere you supposed to meet at der tannery, is dat someplace you get der 'shivers' on a regular basis?"

"Why not just bind him and take him with us?" - Raziel comments with a shrug - "He can show us the spot on the way, no?"

Raziel is not the most sensitive of guys :D

A few options have been mentioned. Taking him to the Sheriff (shortest plan), bringing the Sheriff to him (twice as long since it is there and back) and taking him with you to the tannery.

I think our choice of those options would depend on how far away the sheriff is. If we are still in town, is it a huge town? Is it an hour away or a couple blocks?

It's about a 20 minute walk. The merchant district is fairly close to where the courthouse and sheriffs office is, but there's no direct streets there.

"That's a good idea, Raziel," Selkyon nods in approval.

'That's a good idea.' Nodding in agreement with Selkyon and Raziel, Ivar steps closer to the elf, whispering, "Let us vait and see vat information der burglar gives us about der Tannery, den ve vill tie him up, ja?" He smiles a little, "Shall ve use der silk rope?"