[PFS2] 1-07 Flooded Kings Court (Inactive)

Game Master Pirate Rob

Heading back to the east the choices get a bit more interesting, there's the main tunnel to the north that heads towards what appears to be another long chamber.

There's more inflow to the east that stretches quite some distance. On the north wall of that passage is some sort of opening to the north, while the west wall of the northern tunnel seems to have an opening as well.

At least the air here is more salty than sewagey.

Jaqard follows along behind. One who questions may feel a fool for a minute, the half-orc says to MugVug's inquiries, yet one who does not question at all is a fool, always. Curiosity's flame does you credit.

Realizing that he's fallen behind, Oskar hurries to catch up with his comrades.

"I feel a breeze of fresh air! Perhaps we are nearing the spot where the sewer flows into the open sea. It would be nice to take a fresh breath before trudging back through the sewers."

Ball is in ya'll's court for which direction to explore next.

MugVug comes up behind Roumatha and points off into the distance,

Looks like there is an opening up there. We should go down and explore there! Maybe that's where the lizard beasts came in?

Moved us up to the opening. If Roumatha and/or MugVug would rather be in front of Jaqard, I am fine with that.

Fresh air does sound appealing, Jaqard says, leading the group in that direction.

MugVug follows Jaqard but looks wistfully down the corridor in the previous direction.

I meant down there Jaqard, I think I see something that way. But maybe there is something down here too!

He sneaks up behind Jaqard and peeks through hiss legs to see what he can see.

Whoops, my bad.

Nah that's okay. Fog of exploration and all that. Not like MugVug was really all that clear in his direction.

"Yes, let's try this door and see if maybe we can get a bit more fresh air in here!"

Investigating the passage reveals stairs down to where crashing water and the occasional bit of flotsam fill an entire cavern that extends to the northwest.

Before you're able to investigate further though light pours out of the initial passage you came from as the mercenaries from before arrive in the sewers, crossbows drawn and loaded.

You recognize the front two mercenaries but the 3rd (Green) seems unfamiliar to ya.

The front mercenary shouts out, his crossbow leveled in your direction "Alright pals, we brought reinforcements past that distractable Goblin duke. We'd rather not have to fill ya with holes to get our job done, but we've been hired to explore down here. So whad'ya say y'all just head on back up, tells your bosses we got the drop on ya, or whatever makes ya happy."

They are only unfriendly, rather than hostile at the moment, so are in a threatening rather than fighting mood, but that's rather precarious.

Roumatha turns around sharply at the voices in darkness. He snorts in indignation but keeps silent, allowing his more socially gifted comrades to attempt to defuse the situation. In the meantime, though, he takes a small vial of black liquid out of his bandolier and gulps it down. As the bitter tincture enters his bloodstream, his pupils dilate and he begins to make the outline of the speaker across the channel.
lesser elixir of darkvision, 10 minutes duration

Before Roumatha has a chance to retrieve and drink his elixir the itchy trigger fingers of the mercenaries get the better of them as the leader in the purple bandana shouts "Get em!"

Splashing out into the water from the corridor a mercenary in a red bandana fires quickly at Roumatha
crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
At least his reload goes well.

The leader instead looks to MugVug and pulls the trigger.
crossbow vs MV: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

His shot is a bit better, but still nowhere close. He then reloads and draws a club, not sure at what range the action will be at next.

Initiative:

Red
PURPLE (club/xbow)
Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
Blue
MugVug
Green

Roumatha, Oskar and Jaqard are up!

Reminder the wet green spaces are all difficult terrain, you both have light sources so can see each other fairly well, despite some dimness or darkness in between. (Roumatha's elixir is still in bandolier)

Well, that escalated quickly... I will then assume that the low-light vision is enough to give me direction to them.

Roumatha quickly jumps across the nearest channel.
Athletics w/Quick Jump: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13
But he slips on the grimy surface and splashes into the muddy waters, forcing him to waste time clambering up the ledge again.
Cursing under his breath, he makes his way southeast, out of the immediate visibility of the enemies, and prepares himself to jump across the next channel.

They've got lights, so are visible even with normal vision.

Jaqard springs into action like Roumatha, taking a different route (indicated in orange on the map). He sees the half-elf slip into the drink and opts to stay just out of sight as well, holding up one finger to his lips as he motions for his other friends to get out of the line of fire.

Stride, Leap, Stride.

Sorry for the delay - got a little hectic with ConCurrent.

Oskar begins to chant the epic tale of The Four Sewer Explorers - his newest composition - in a bid to lift his comrades' morale.

Free action: spend 1 Focus Point to attempt Lingering Composition
Performance: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28
Single action: cast Inspire Courage (+1 status to attacks, damage, and vs fear, as long as you are within 60' of Oskar), which is now active for either 3 or 4 rounds (depending on whether the Perform check was a critical success).

Oskar then bends his mind towards the leader, attempting to mentally jolt and confuse him.

Two action cast of Daze cantrip. The range is 60' which by my tally is exactly the distance between Oskar and Purple. DC 19 basic will save. Target takes mental (I think this is the same as non-lethal?) damage "equal to your spellcasting ability modifier" (does this mean 4 - my Cha modifier - or 9 - my Cha + trained proficiency + level 3?)

GM, for planning purposes for next round, if Oskar wants to just move through the sewers rather than jumping across, are those squares simply difficult terrain, or does he have to do something to jump down into them and/or climb up out of them?

Just difficult terrain, the sewers are only about 2feet deep and the water comes up to the lip. So any stepping onto a dry land square is fine, stepping into a wet square is difficult. I'll get a post for everything else late tonight.

Sorry for the delay, after 90 minutes of my 4yr old screaming and refusing to go to bed because she only got to eat desert once I was out of spoons.

Daze is just 4 damage from your cha modifier. Nothing about daze is non-lethal. Just some creatures might have resistances/immunities/vulnerabilities to mental damage.

will: 1d20 ⇒ 12

With his companions dissapearing into the side tunnels and shadows Oskar inspires his party and attacks the leader with his mind.

The leader furrows his brow in pain as he tries to shake off the mind fog. Fails, takes 4 damage.

The mercenary with the blue bandana steps out into the muck and pops off a shot at the performing halfling...

crossbow vs Oskar: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
but misses.

"Always did hate bards" he mutters under his breath as he reloads.

Initiative:

Red
PURPLE -4 (club/xbow)
Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
Blue
MugVug
Green

MugVug is up!

Hey!!! You guys lost fair and square! If King Zusgut says you gotta stay our of his stinky tunnels then you gotta stay out of his stinky tunnels! Nobody ever respects us goblins. I'll show you!

With that said he starts running along the edge of the waterway. He grabs ahold of Oskar's shoulders and leap frogs over him, twisting in mid-air so that he is facing in the direction of Jaqard. He then picks up speed and using his tail for leverage...

Athletics to Long Jump: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

...he gets his tail accidentally caught around his own ankle and sprawls face down onto the cold hard stone.

MugVug's sewer traversal efforts are not quite as successful as he may have liked, nearly breaking his ankle on the loose wet stone.

The Bandit with the green bandana and the magically lit crossbow moves up and see Jaqard is the closest and takes a shot.

crossbow vs Jaq: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

That being unsuccessful draws a shortsword.

Another pair of bandits emerge from the passage, the first in an orange bandand takes a shot at Oskar.

crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
before cursing under his breath "Piddlespot!" and reloading.

The (hopefully?) final bandit with a yellow bandanna emerges and also takes a shot at Oskar.

crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

The closest yet, but not a hit. A bit more disciplined, she finally reloads.

The bandit with the red bandanna slogs across the sewer and also takes a hot at the only clear target, Oskar.

crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Glancing behind him Oskar is beginning to make out his own silhouette of bolts on the wall behind him.

He then draws a shortsword.

The leader shouts "Screw it, I told you this was a bad idea!" as he abandons his companions and retreats.

Initiative:

Red (SS/Unloaded xbow)
PURPLE -4 (club/xbow) Retreating!
Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
Blue
MugVug
Green (SS/Unloaded xbow)
Orange
Yellow

Roumantha, Oskar and Jaqard are up!

GM, I sympathize about the little one. I have a 3 ½ year old daughter and fortunately I've persuaded her that dessert is only for after lunch, not dinner "because it makes me HYPER!!!" she says, gleefully!

Re Daze, I think my confusion about the spell has been because the spell has the non-lethal trait. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be an errata of some kind or what, but right not I'm not sure why it has the non-lethal trait or what the implications are. Maybe they meant to say that it only does non-lethal mental damage?

Oskar is horrified to see an army of crossbow bolts whizz by his head. "I haven't had a reception like this since I played the open megaphone at Magnimar's Underbridge!"

Oskar moves up, jumps into the sewer - which is practically chest high for him - Brrrrrrrr! - and sends a burst of high pitched death metal "music" into the midst of the bandits. "Here's the song I played then - what do you think?"

One action: move; Two actions: cast Sound Burst DC 19 Fort
Sonic dmg: 2d10 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7
I believe I can put the center of the spell just at the upper left corner of orange, which I think should catch all of them except the fleeing leader.

Oh, so it does, should be nonlethal then, totally missed that. As a note Non-lethal only matters if it's the final blow. I'm told Starfinder does it the same way. Rules

Looks like sound burst there misses green, I don't quite see a way to hit them all, put a 10ft burst on a map beneath the baddies for ya.

A burst of sound explodes amidst the mercenaries deafening many of them as chaos overtakes their ranks, likely leading to a rout although orange and green likely still have some fight in them at this point.

Red -7 Deafened (SS/Unloaded xbow)
PURPLE -4 (club/xbow) Retreating!
Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
Blue -7 Deafened
MugVug
Green (SS/Unloaded xbow)
Orange -3
Yellow -7 Deafened

Oops, for some reason I was thinking 10' burst is a square. My bad. Thx.

Huh, so no more tracking lethal and non-lethal dmg separately. Good idea but I hadn't noticed that.

No worries, some people have some predrawn AoE templates for pasting in. For some silly reason I prefer redrawing them each time, something fun about the polyline tool, even if my lines aren't quite straight.

Athletics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Hearing high-pitched death metal performed on a lute makes Roumatha envy those who were deafened by it. At least, it seems to have energized his jumps as he easily leaps over to the other end of the channel, finding himself in front of the green-capped bandit. He critically cocks an eyebrow at his enemy's short sword.
Hunt Prey, +2 to Intimidate and +1 AC vs Green
He then brings his own greatsword forward, still glistening with the lizard blood in the reflections of the light from the enchanted crossbows.
Demoralize: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 2 = 14
"The monsters we killed here had teeth larger than your weapon. You shouldn't have brought a knife to the sword fight."

Ugh, my post got eaten. Thanks, Paizo postmonster. >.>

Jaqard crouches down like a tiger, darts around the corner and looses a volley of unarmed strikes on Red.

Tiger Stance ◈, Stride, Flurry of Blows ◈ w/Stunning Fist (DC 17 Fort).

unarmed strike (1): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
unarmed strike (2): 1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (17) + 8 - 4 = 21

slashing strike dmg (1): 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
slashing strike dmg (2): 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Paizo's definitely been having some issues the last few days.

Roumatha manages to cross the sewers while keeping his boots dry and even manages to scare the front Merc.

Jaqard comes up and as the mercenary prepares to run unleashes a terrible blow, dropping the already severely wounded mercenary with a critical hit.

With that the deafened bandit with blood splattered all her blue bandanna over flees as well, back up the stairs from whenest they came.

The remaining foes seem in a rout.

Initiative

Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
MugVug
Green (SS/Unloaded xbow/ Frightened 1)
Orange -3
Yellow -7 Deafened

MugVug is up!

MugVug scrapes himself off the ground and gets to his feet. He looks around to see if anyone noticed his embarrassing slip and fall. When he sees that the mercenaries are running away he sticks his tongue out at them and then does a not so subtle insulting dance in their direction.

The remaining mercenaries flee, leaving their fallen companion face down in the muck.

Combat over.

Panting from all the jumping around, Roumatha walks up to Jaqard.

"Your fists are like hammers - very impressive. But perhaps this misguided fool didn't deserve death. They didn't put up much of a fight..."

He picks up a stray crossbow bolt and touches its tip with his finger.

"On the other hand, had they been more skilled, they wouldn't hesitate to skewer us like pigs. So perhaps it's only fair, after all."

Before I forget...

Lets give MugVug a hero point.

Oskar uses the time after the battle to jot down notes for what he thinks is likely to be his next big hit: "The Battle of Sewerdeep" - "I'm certain this is going to the top of the charts!"

Spend ten minutes working on the composition in order to refocus and regain one focus point.

Afterwards, he looks up absentmindedly and says, "Did those goons have anything we care about? I wonder why they attacked us? Didn't they say something about working for somebody...? Oh well, probably doesn't matter much anyhow. Which way now?"

MugVug points back up the passageway,

Let's keep going this way. Let's check out the bottom of those stairs. I think I heard water sloshing around down there.

"Agreed." Before they head that way, Oskar checks the lone dead brigand in case he had anything in his pockets they cared about.

Jaqard nods slowly. I had sought only to protect my companions, he says to Roumatha, and he turned into my boot to his head just at the wrong moment. It is a shame he is dead; I did not wish it so.

He contemplates a moment, thinking back on the teachings of Qi Lo Ni. Fighting to defend is no vice. Fighting to attack is no virtue.

Nothing of particular interest on the mercenary unless a handful of crossbow bolts, a crossbow, a shortsword or a club are of interest.

Heading down to explore further gets you to where a barnacle‑covered boat is moored. The craft is mostly filled with water, and the rope securing it to the shore is saturated and beginning to rot. If you dumped the water out it might even be serviceable.

Jaqard motions to Roumatha and MugVug to help him get the water out. Unfortunately, the goblin's small stature is problematic -- when the half-elf and half-orc heave on their end, the boat tips on the end where MugVug hangs on, dumping all the water over the head of the goblin.

Uh...sorry about that, my friend, Jaqard says sheepishly.

Oskar watches the antics of his comrades with enjoyment and begins to develop a mime performance tentatively titled "Old Boat Raining on My Head"

Performance (mime): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

"I feel certain this is going to be a smash hit! You can't go wrong with mime."

Mugvug sputters and coughs as he spits out a mouthful of brackish water. At first, he seems ready to get angry until he sees Oskar's antics. He laughs, takes off his beret and wrings it out, then jumps into the boat. He strikes a pose at the bow and says,

Onward my crew! Let us set forth in our vessel and explore the depths!

He flicks his hand as a small crab crawls out of his sleeve and then points into the dark.

A boat trip is not how I expected this mission to go... though it's still better than trudging through the sewer muck, so I'm not complaining

Roumatha aids in cleaning out the boat and restoring its condition.

Getting the boat functional is easy enough and pushing off from the shore takes you about 50feet northwest through a wide crack in what must have once been building foundation.

There a rocky beach covered in bits of assorted refuse meets the
water. To the northwest, what once must have been a natural cavern wall partially collapsed some time ago by the settling ground on the water side, revealing an area beyond of worked stone. The chamber within is large and constructed of a pale green stone. Multiple rounded passages worm their way to the northeast and southwest, while a grand staircase rises to the northwest.

Roumatha does not think any creatures have passed through here recently.

Before getting on board the boat, Oskar nervously double checks to be sure that the scroll of water breathing he procured from his Spells training is still in his pouch. "Swimming, uh, not really my thing, dontchaknow - interferes with my voice training - I'm sure you understand..."

MugVug sets off from the beach and heads up the stairs.

Come on everyone! Let's see what's up here.

Moved everyone to the steps.

Trusting his companion's eye and its conclusion that no one has passed through here in some time, Jaqard nevertheless keeps his eye out for trouble.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Heading up the stairs you encounter a wide gallery is lined with a colorful mural depicting a figure performing some sort of magical ritual over an expanse of ocean.

His arms raised, he beckons to something beneath the waves, and is answered by a frothing, foaming section of the water that hints at a massive shape rising.

To the northwest, stairs rise to another large room. An elegantly carved figure towers over the room, combining the body of an eel with the visage of a horrifying deep‑sea fish and four grasping tentacles.

The gallery additionally features two moth-eaten mounds of flesh that one might generously describe as bodies... animated bodies that have responded to your presence

Initiative

Roumatha
Oskar
Jaqard
Blue
MugVug
Red

Roumatha, Oskar and Jaqard are up!

Oskar looks up at the looming figures in horror. "Gods, what are those?!"

Then he begins to sing again, feeling that one of his soon-to-be hits will cheer up the group in this dire moment.

Performance (Sing): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32
Spend 1 focus point on Lingering Composition and 1 action to Inspire; Inspire Courage is now active for 4 rounds due to crit success.

Then Oskar uses his mind to send a stone hurtling through the air at Red.

Spend 2 actions for Telekinetic Projectile
Spell Attack Roll, Inspire: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 9 + 1 = 24
B dmg, Inspire: 1d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 1 = 8

As a reminder if anybody wants to treat Oskar's question as nonrhetorical, one could recall knowledge with religion as an action

Oskar's rocks slams into the large walking corpse, knocking a chunk of desiccated flesh off, it however shows no outward signs of pain or hesitation.

Before Combat
Roumatha feels uneasy looking at the murals.
"This does not bode well... Magical rituals calling forth something from beneath the waves are never just about a bigger fishing catch!"

In Combat
"What did I tell you! This is probably what's left of those who came here before us!"

Is it reasonable to say we had weapons drawn while exploring?

Roumatha tries to get his mind off of just how revolting those things are and see if he can find a weakness.
Hunt Prey vs Red, +2 to Intimidate and Recall Knowledge, +1 to AC and a free Knowledge check
Religion: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 5 + 2 = 18

He Strides up to the horrible creature and swings away with his greatsword.

Strike: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 1 = 27 for: 1d12 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 4 + 1 = 16 damage slashing or piercing depending on what I know from the results of the check