[OSP] GM PaleDim's PFS# 06-12 Scions of the Sky Key, Part 2 (Inactive)

Game Master PaleDim

We were allowed to recover our rope after the climb down?

If you have the means to do so, but it was tied at the top so that it would be safe and not simply come free. I imagine you'd want it there for the return.

Meux finally recalculates that the corner he is in is the perfect spot to unleash upon the swarm in front of him-a 15' cone of fiery wrath=without fear of harming the terrain or his allies, geometry was never his strong suit. He would smack himself in the head, but then the other swarm positions itself perfectly so he can nail both of them.

"Behold my fiery fumigation you icky ants!"

Empowered Burning Hands: 2d4 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7

+50% Damage = 10 total fire damage (rounded down)

"Now, ponies, go!" Soleil calls as she rushes forward.

The two ponies move up to "attack" the ants, which effectively simply gives the swarms targets to stay focused on, and Soleil moves up to the body and then goes to grab whatever was in the pocket that the man was reaching for.

The ponies each have 13 HP

Talking is a free action, so I assume he can still do it on his turn.

The normally mute Gaskar will shout out: "Alchemist Fires. Here.". This may be the first words some of you have heard from him. He'll point to the stash and looks ready to pick up one.

Ari-Ani, hearing Gaskar, motions to Soleil, "Let me throw the Alchemist fires.""

THese ants seem to have quite a high AC and Ari-Ani probably has the best ranged attack modier.

"Arggh. Get off me you blasted pests!" Ki Chin yells as he flails about trying to squash the ants.
Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

"Grab what's important and let us depart!"

Meux! Now we're talkin'!

Stepping forward, the gnome unleashes a fan of flame over the nearest segment of the pulsing swarm. The flames lick just past Ki-Chin. As the flames hold over them for several moments, crisp bodies of ants start collecting until it appears that they just aren't moving any more. As Ki-Chin shuffles his feet he notices a potentially? satisfying crunching sensation.

Blue down!

Soleil dashes the rest of the way to the downed body and, reaching into his tunic, grabs one of the alchemist's fires. Ari-Ani looks eager to get her hands on one of them with her skilled aim. Move action to grab the other one off of the body next round.

Meanwhile, agitated as he is, Ki-Chin is able to resist the mental and bodily effects of the ants bites! No poison, no distraction, but you still have actions this round, even if just running to keep up with the others.

The tide starts to turn towards the party! Will their approach carry them from danger?

Round 2
Bold may act

Talethia
Meux

Round 3
Bold may act

Ki Chin
Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Red
--------
Tiny
Mei
--------
Blue (-11)
--------
Talethia
Meux

Talethia and Ki-Chin are up.

Discovering that the item in the jacket was actually some alchemist's fire, Soleil says, "Aww man! It's just these stupid things? I thought it would be some cool magic thing," and the pouty lip comes out.

Talethia pulls out a pair of small wooden castanettes. She starts tapping them in a quick-paced rhythm and swaying to the beat. The party feels more courageous!

There really isn't anything she can do to hurt the ants, lol. But she can inspire courage. +1 Saves vs fear and +1 attack/damage rolls.

Heh, that's something! We're getting close to 24 hours for Ki-Chin. Giving him a little more time for actions and then moving us forward. At this point I presume you all either have: the alchemist's fires or one more burning hands from meux, OR enough hands to pick up the items one-by-one and run.

Wait, were there items besides the alchemist's fires?

Yeah, Gaskar only mentioned the alchemist fires though.

"Thank you for the assistance." Ki Chin says as he runs after the others.

"That would come in useful should we encounter more pests later." he says to Soleil.

The ants continue to devour the ponies one more round of that before they expire, as Talethia begins an inspiring song! Ki-Chin runs to catch up with the others standing near the body.

Round 3
Bold may act

Effects: Inspire courage+1

Tiny
Mei
--------
Blue (-11)
--------
Talethia
Meux

Round 4
Bold may act

Effects: Inspire courage+1

Ki Chin
Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Red
--------
Tiny
Mei
--------
Blue (-11)
--------
Talethia
Meux

The whole party is up, pets 'n all. FINISH THEM!

Gaskar stoops down to grab one of the alchemist's fire (move action). Then he'll toss it over.

Ranged Touch, inspire courage: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 2 + 1 = 8
Fire damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Soleil also throws an alchemist fire at the swarm. Even though she was complaining about the boring discovery, her face does light up as she throws an exploding container of flame.

Alchemist Fire: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Fire Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Witnessing the selfish and glory hoarding act of both the rogue and the summoner, Ari decides to grab the two potions and then steps back.

Meux shuffles down the path, squeezing through the area accommodating Lin Ki Chin, bowing his head slightly as he does so,

"Pardon me honorable sir! Faithful servant of the Dawnflowah coming through. Nothing to be alarmed about."

He stops at the corner in front of the swarm and calls upon the divine power,

"Blessed mother Sarenrae, please endow me with your fiery might to paste these pitiful pests in all your divine mercy!"

Empowered Burning Hands: 2d4 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5

+50% Damage = 7 total fire damage (rounded down)

Tiny scampers over to the body, looking for a coin purse or other small valuable things he can Fetch. He looks like he is quite good at doing this...

Talethia will continue her inspiring performance, while reaching out to take anything Tiny finds so that he can run back and see if there's anything else useful that can be reclaimed from the dead before the body is given back to Nature.

Mei decides she does not want to be left behind and follows Ki Chin to join the group near the body.

Ki Chin keeps his eyes on the swarm as he makes his way to Gaskar. Once with the group he takes a look at the corpse to see if there is anything else of note on it.

Double move.

Gaskar and Soleil gleefully lob the two alchemist fires at the ants. They aren't the most well-placed throws, but thankfully the sticky molten substance does tend to splash around.

1 splash damage from each throw.

Ari-Ani frowns at their over-eagerness in light of her own accuracy, and takes the opportunity to secure the two potions.

Meux then steps up to perform the finishing, cleansing fire. The fan of flame produces the familiar collection of still ant bodies, and crunchy surface to a patch of the jungle floor.

Combat over! Out of initiative. Good work team! Let's take a moment to deal with the body, the items on it, and otherwise regroup.

The party begins to more casually look over the body. The bites marring the swollen face make it nearly impossible to identify the body.

They find a couple of easily identifiable, pieces of non-magical equipment:

* a rapier
* a masterwork composite longbow

Additionally, they detect magic auras on the following:

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Gaskar nods once Meux blasts the last of the swarm away. He'll motion to the others at the rest of the gear he saw. Not being the magic sort, Gaskar steps back to let those ID the items.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Meux doesn't take interest in the items or see anything out of place-he nearly thinks he does, but alas if there is something as such, he just barely missed it.

He clears his throat and addresses the party,

"I believe there are a couple of you who were slightly gnawed upon. Come now, gather around...there is plenty of blessed goodness to be served! Let us not go traipsing through the jungle in a damaged condition."

Meux shuffles in the midst of his allies and channels positive energy for all who need it.

Channel +: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Yup, apologies I kept dropping PC damage between rounds. Bleh. Gaskar, Soleil and Ki-Chin each took 3 damage, and that channel brings everyone back to full.

With the ants now gone Ki Chin's attention goes to the magical auras on the body. Using Detect Magic he tries to divine the nature of the objects.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 6

Soleil takes a literal minute to resummon Magmara.

Once the other gal has manifested, Soleil starts telling her all about the fight including her amazing act of self-sacrifice.

"You sent ponies in to die for you?" Magmara says, less pleased than Soleil might have wanted.

"Yep," the happy summoner gushes, "my ultimate act of self-sacrifice!"

"That is not at all how self-sacrifice works."

"They were sacrificed," Soleil explains, "and I did it myself. Self-sacrifice!"

Soleil then turns back to the group with a big smile, completely missing Marmara shaking her head in disbelief behind her, and asks, "so, should we keep going or what?"

Given that a minute would have passed, I assume all looting and such would have already happened.

Ari-Ani invokes her jade wayfinder and sips the potions to determine what they are.

Perception (Take 10 for both): 10 + 91 = 101

That should be a 19 for Take 10 on Perception to taste the potions.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Tiny fishes a piece of paper out of a secret flap on the body's belt pouch and scampers over to hand it to Talethia.

"Good boy, Tiny! Thank you!" Talethia scratches the little Raccoon behind an ear and lets him climb up into his perch on her shoulder.

"Looks like the dead guy here pissed off some of his fellow agents." Talethia announces after reading the note.

She will hand the note around for everyone to take a look at.

Meux listens intently to Soleil and Magmara's exchange. He winces as he tries to calculate Soeleil's train of logic, seemingly counting the fingers of his right hand upon themselves as he does so. Unable to fully reach the same summation as the Ifrit, he shakes the thought out of his head.

"Jace...Zaril? These names are not familiar to me. Anyone have any acquaintance or knowledge to their identities?"

"Jace and Zaril?" Soleil asks with a surprised tone of recognition. "Maggie, isn't that the guy I fell asleep on after our last adventure?"

Magmara sighs and then gently says, "No, my sweet. That was Ashasar. He's the leader of the Concordance, so I doubt he would be trying to beat us to the eggs to get the artifact." She then looks up at Talethia and Meux and mouths, "I'm sorry."

GM Mauve-would a knowledge local check tell us anything about them? I don't have that trained, but if anyone else does, maybe it would be an options?

With the ants now gone Ki Chin's attention goes to the magical auras on the body. Using Detect Magic he tries to divine the nature of the objects.

Which item does this apply to? There needs to be a check per item.

That should be a 19 for Take 10 on Perception to taste the potions.

How are you replacing spellcraft with perception? I'm not aware that you can take 10 to identify magical item properties.

GM Mauve-would a knowledge local check tell us anything about them? I don't have that trained, but if anyone else does, maybe it would be an options?

You won't be able to tell anything about them individually from your personal knowledge, but these are obviously the party that preceded you from the Grippli village, and Aspis agents. It's reasonable to expect that if/when you catch up to them there will be some manner of confrontation (because, Aspis).

You can't Take 10 when using Detect Magic + Spellcraft, but PF1 is filled with little rules that most people aren't aware of. To wit:

Identify the powers of a potion through taste | 15 + the potion’s caster level

I get a nickel every time someone in this party goes on to use this in other games :)

The first potion.
With Ari-Ari drinking one potion Ki Chin focuses on identifying the other items.
Spellcraft(potion 3): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
Spellcraft(oils): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Spellcraft(arrow): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

You can't Take 10 when using Detect Magic + Spellcraft, but PF1 is filled with little rules that most people aren't aware of. To wit:

Core rulebook p.102 wrote:

Identify the powers of a potion through taste | 15 + the potion’s caster level

I get a nickel every time someone in this party goes on to use this in other games :)

Okay, so I've got the perception part (yeah wow that rarely comes up) but not the take 10 part. I understand that Perception allows retry "as long as the stimulus is present," but in that case that means re-tasting the potion many times and you've essentially consumed it.

The floor of the ravine slopes downward slightly and the foliage overhead gradually thins. The ravine is wider here, and numerous boulders scattered throughout the area attest to steady erosion. Some of the boulders bear strange carvings and are even hewn into rough pillars, but they jut at odd angles out from the landscape and don’t seem to be a part of any surviving structure. Nestled in the shadow of two such pillars is a shallow pit scraped out of the earth by some massive creature’s claws. The nest contains several branches, the half-eaten body of a leather-clad humanoid, several broken shells, and a several large, intact eggs. In the trampled foliage near the nest lies the corpse of a massive, bipedal dinosaur, its tooth-lined maw agape and its hide pierced with dozens of crude javelins.

The nest contains four intact eggs, and two more appear to be broken with their contents having been consumed. It's eerily quiet here.

Everybody hears something rustling around from, roughly, behind the two pillars up ahead and to the left.

Not in combat (yet?), but let me know how you want to approach the pillars or otherwise move. Obviously the approach shouldn't be to simply move all the way to the opposite side of the map and take the eggs, as something may happen before you can...

How do the heroes approach this situation?

Map updated! The nest is just off of the East edge of the map, beyond the sounds you're all sensing.

Survival: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15

Gaskar notices deep tracks nearby the path. 'I wonder what those are.'. The tracks look like they were left by massive, three-toed saurians.

Then suddenly there comes a rumbling up ahead. The half-orc freezes and put his finger to his lips indicating the others need to be quiet. On his tip toes, Gaskar will sneak up to see what's there.

Steatlh: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Gaskar doesn't yet see anything from his side of the pillars.

Magmara step just a bit in front of the party, particularly the squishy caster types, and gets ready to defend them.

Soleil tries to follow Gaskar's example by sneaking forward and trying to catch a glimpse around the pillars.

Stealth: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

Perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (14) - 1 = 13

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Talethia moves up 25 ft quietly, then taps Tiny and points towards the back of the pillar, giving him the signal to Sneak over there.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (9) + 11 = 20
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12

Tiny jumps down and stealthily moves forward 15 ft, watching for danger.

Perception checks were made previously so I could be crisp about how to proceed.

The group still hears the bit of rustling from behind the pillars.

Nothing emerges yet from behind. Ki-Chin recalls that on his descent into the valley, he'd rubbed up against roots that left a heavy smell on him. The group successfully moves quietly, avoiding triggering... whatever (if anything) is hiding there, but the group can likely be detected by smell for quite some distance.

I don''t know if anyone grabbed the oils, but if not Ari-Ani will pick up wihatever's left.

Ari-Ani draws her weapons as she tries to sneak up.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Not wanting to be left behind, Meux shuffles up as quietly as he can.

Stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

It's starting to look like a standoff. You *might* be able to sneak up on... whatever is back there. You could also try some manner of distraction.