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

Game Master PaleDim

Soleil's most recent adventure left her whetstone interestingly fey-touched, and I think this is exactly the time to use that to her advantage.

Soleil gets an ornery look on her face, makes a very likely unnecessary shushing gesture to her party, and then pulls out her whetstone and moving a bit closer to the first pillar. After giving a couple of swipes across the blade of her sword, it begins to giggle and coo. With "full noise mode" activated, Soleil tosses it up towards the far pillar so it and all of its noise will pass both to hopefully draw out whatever it there.

Ranged Attack to hit a spot DC 5 (DC 9 with range increment penalties): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Mei takes a whiff of her companion and turns her head away with twitch of her nose.

Seeing the fox's action, Ki Chin takes a whiff of himself and grimaces. He keeps his sword at the ready.

"I hope whatever it is we are about to face does not like the root I rubbed up against. Who will take the eggs?" he asks in a whisper.

With a huff and a spit, two lizardfolk step out from behind the pillars. The nearer one snarls something at all of you before brandishing his morningstar menacingly.

Map updated.

Round 1
Bold may act

Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Blue
--------
Mei
Meux
Ki Chin
Talethia
Magmara
--------
Red
--------
Tiny

Ari-Ani, Soleil, and Gaskar are up!

Seeing two lizardfolk step out and threaten him and his party, Gaskar gets ready to fight. He moves up silently towards the first lizardfolk and gets in his face, showing off his muscles. 'You picked with the wrong crew' the half-orc thinks.

Move action = draw heavy flail. Standard action = move towards lizardfolk.

Gaskar, your BAB is high enough that you should be able to draw while moving, meaning that you don't have to use your standard action on movement.

My BAB is +0 since Gaskar is an unchained rogue. So don't think he can! Gaskar would probably have drawn his weapon when he was sneaking up but I hadn't mentioned it.

Soleil moves up beside Gaskar and slices at the lizardperson with her Elven curve blade calling out, "The way of the samurai is the road to your fast death!"

Elven curve blade: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 191d10 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12 1 point of her bonus is fire damage if that matters.

@GM can you describe what they are carrying? If either one looks like a caster, then Ari-Ani moves beinnd the rock/pillar.

Ari-Ani's path to the lead lizardman blocked. Ari-Ani advances, but readies her attack should someone come near.

My BAB is +0 since Gaskar is an unchained rogue. So don't think he can! Gaskar would probably have drawn his weapon when he was sneaking up but I hadn't mentioned it.

Apologies, I keep misreading the class of your stat-line as multi-class rather than multi-archetype.

M.A. Gaskar wrote:

My BAB is +0 since Gaskar is an unchained rogue. So don't think he can! Gaskar would probably have drawn his weapon when he was sneaking up but I hadn't mentioned it.

Apologies, I keep misreading the class of your stat-line as multi-class rather than multi-archetype.

No worries. Sorry about that - fixed it. Let me know if thats better.

@GM can you describe what they are carrying? If either one looks like a caster, then Ari-Ani moves beinnd the rock/pillar.

Ari-Ani's path to the lead lizardman blocked. Ari-Ani advances, but readies her attack should someone come near.

Good question. There was this:

brandishing his morningstar menacingly.

and...

The party notices that in addition to the blunt weapons, each lizardfolk holds a wooden shield, and has three crudely crafted (but effective) javelins strapped to their backs.

As Gaskar carefully approaches to engagement and threatening distance of the near lizardfolk, he stares it down, shakes his weapon and prepares to trade strikes, when...

Soleil comes brashly strolling up besides him and confidently winds up with her curved elven blade. The lizardfolk looks equal parts caught off-guard and stupified, looks down at the clean gash across its torso. It looks back up at Soleil before dropping to the ground.

Red down!

The other snarls and sprints at Soleil, winding up along the way.

The swings seems to have lost strength from the lizardfolk's running, as it glances off of her armor.

Round 1
Bold may act

Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Blue
--------
Mei
Meux
Ki Chin
Talethia
Magmara
--------
Red
--------
Tiny

Round 2
Bold may act

Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Blue
--------
Mei
Meux
Ki Chin
Talethia
Magmara
--------
Red
--------
Tiny

The whole party is up!

With his flail drawn, Gaskar tries to tumble around the lizardfolk to try to flank with Soleil.

Acrobatics to move through threatened space: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Then he'll smash down on the lizardman.

nonlethal, heavy flail attack, flank: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 2 = 24
damage: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Gaskar is able to deftly maneuver past the lizardfolk, providing no extra opportunity onto himself, before turning and bashing it.

It gasps heavily, clearly winded by the hit. It's looking very worried. For now, it still stands.

It was my mistake to highlight both rounds in typical block fashion, because it's causing some of the players who don't get into the first block to miss chances in these faster battles. So for now, I'm going to un-highlight the round 2 block to ensure some of the players from the end of round 1 get a chance to get in on the action.

Round 1
Bold may act

Ari-Ani
Soleil
Gaskar
--------
Blue
--------
Mei
Meux
Ki Chin
Talethia
Magmara
--------
Red
--------
Tiny

Mei, Meux, Ki Chin, Talethia, Magmara, and Tiny are up! (then we will proceed to round 2 -- don't worry Gaskar, not removing your action)

Seeing Soleil potentially in danger, Magmara charges at the beast and strikes out with her lucerne hammer.

Lucerne Hammer: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 241d12 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Lucerne hammers have reach, she has a +4 to hit, +1 from the masterwork weapon, and +2 from charging.

Gaskar-Did you forget to add in your sneak attack damage from flanking?

D'oh. I knew I forgot something... that's the whole reason I went to flank too.

sneak attack, nonlethal: 1d6 ⇒ 1

With the fight finally on what looks like a grin forms on Mei's face as she runs towards Blue.
Double move

Seeing that Red was down Ki Chin moves a little closer to Blue and lets loose an bolt of acid.
Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Acid Splash: 1d3 ⇒ 3

Meux moves up to within rang of his firebolt. Not sensing any apparent common language available to open up any sort of parlay, he puts aside all thoughts of diplomacy and curls his hand up into the shape of a revolver,

"Let me introduce you to Sarenrae's little friend!"

Firebolt (ranged touch): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Firebolt: 1d6 ⇒ 4

The hapless lizardfolk takes a series of brutal hits to his body before finally giving out. A hammer to the chest, and an orb of acid to the face, and its body drops just out of targeting of the errant fire bolt.

Out of combat!

Proceeding to the nest, you find four eggs intact, and two having been broken open and consumed by the lizardfolk. Near the nest is the body of a tyrannosaurus clearly dead from the numerous javelins that stick out of its body, but the broken foliage nearby shows it didn’t die without a fight. A mangled humanoid body lies nearby the nest.

What will the heroes do next?

"Oooo, eggs!"Soleil says in delight, "we could make an omelette!"

"The Gripplis set us to retrieve these, sp..." Magmara begins.

"We could take these back to my frog army!" Soleil says happily.

Survival: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15

Heal: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15

"Hey look!" the excitable Ifrit says, pointing, "the corpse has an Aspis badge. Aspis corpse! Oh, and look over here! Bootie prints! More Aspisy baddies were here and ran off," and she follows with her eyes, "that way" as she point up the ridge, "and that way too!" she says, pointing down the slope. And the lizardy guys went there too. Probably chasing them. Yep![/b]"

I assume the eggs are rather large, but would they be too large for an adventurer's backpack? Soleil and Magmara are both decently muscular and could carry them.

While Soleil gets distracted by footprints, Magmara checks the Aspis body to see if they have anything worth note.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Heal: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (14) + 0 = 14

Survival: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (2) + 0 = 2

Gaskar takes one of the eggs to carry. He'll look at the footprints that Soleil pointed out then shrug.

Sorry for disappearing, I had read up and was going to post something on my lunch break, and then both my territory and regional managers popped in unannounced to see how my store was doing (I knew they were in town to visit another store, but thought they were coming to see me tomorrow). They took over my lunch, so posting kind of got sidetracked and forgotten. Assume Talethia was inspiring courage and add an extra point of overkill to everyone's attacks, lol.

Talethia will help carry an egg.

"Well, should we follow the one getting chased by lizardfolk, or the one who went up the ridge? Or forget them both and deliver the eggs?"

Eager to divert his attention away from the embarrasment of a way too errant firebolt, Meux eagerly offers a bit of perspective on the situation and Telethia's query,

"I think our main attention should be focused on delivering the eggs..."

Meux lowers his voice to a volume he thinks would only reach the ears of his fellow Pathfinders,

"...though a bit of reconnaissance might not hurt to avoid potential ambush on down the line. I am not so worried about those chased by the lizardfolk, as those who escaped up the ridge..."

Meux steals a glance up the path by way of the ridge.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Not being able to clearly focus on anything even five feet from him, he shrugs,

"Hmmm...seems all clear to me."

"I agree with Meux. Our task was to retrieve the eggs. The Aspis Consortium has been kind enough to provide us with bait to keep the dinosaur occupied. Let us now waste their generosity." Ki Chin says as he nods to himself.

How many people are now carrying eggs? I think we already have 4?

I assume the eggs are rather large, but would they be too large for an adventurer's backpack? Soleil and Magmara are both decently muscular and could carry them.

Soleil thinks the eggs are not really that heavy, and could easily fit into a backpack, but are somewhat fragile.

Magmara searches the body but unfortunately this one didn't have a note.

Sorry for disappearing,

No worries!

Talethia asks the critical question of the party. Meux and Ki-Chin start the conversation leaning towards returning rather than chasing further.

I'll give a little longer for the rest of the party to weigh in.

Ari-Ani looks about. "We should give chase. I suspect there is an opportunity here that we are overlooking. I have the potion of invisibility and I could use it to follow them and scout the danger.

Regarding the eggs, we should put them in a handy haversack to protect them from breaking. If no one else has one, I do."

Soleil had also voiced a preference for taking the eggs back to "her frog army," but she'd follow whatever the group wanted to do, ultimately.

Loving the haversack suggestion, Ari.

"How about this then? We take the eggs and hide them somewhere. Maybe dig a whole and put them there? Then we chase after the Aspis? There may be more of them waiting for us to leave and take the eggs."

With the haversack available, burying the eggs (and then possibly losing them) seems a hassle. Are others swayed by Ari's suggestion?

"If we are going to delay delivery, then I would feel better not leaving them lying about. I vote for Ari-Ani's haversack. The magic therein should be sufficient for safe keeping!"

The half orc nods at Ari's suggestion.

Talethia nods at Ari-Ani's idea. "The handy haversack sounds like a good idea to me. Eggs don't need air, which is the usual problem with putting living things into a magic bag."

Following reason, the group slowly and carefully stashes the eggs into the handy haversack.

A few hundred yards from the dinosaur nest, the ravine suddenly falls silent—no birds, monkeys, or other jungle creatures are audible. A few heartbeats later, a bellowing roar echoes through the ravine, causing countless small birds and animals to abandon their hiding places and scatter as quickly as possible. A series of great shuddering cracks herald the downfall of several trees in the distance, and a second thunderous roar pierces the air, followed by the frantic shouts of panicked humanoids. Suddenly, a massive dinosaur bursts out of the jungle to the southwest, pursuing a dozen leather-clad explorers through the ravine. The furious creature sweeps up a straggler into its massive jaws and flings the screaming victim off into the jungle, roars, and rushes toward its next target.

Roooar!!!

Welcome to the chase scene! I mean... surely you don't intend to stand your ground and become a snack "fight" :) RUUUUUUUN!!!

For those not familiar with the Pathfinder 1e chase rules, they are conducted over several obstacles. Fleers keep distance from the pursuer by succeeding at checks to work around obstacles or by using some relevant ability. On failure, the party still advanced to the next obstacle, but the t-rex or the Aspis agents gain ground on you.

You'll be given standard options at each stage, but you can also get creative and use a different ability (potential +2/+4 bonuses for ingenuity, depending on how actions affect the situation). You can all use different actions. I'll take the highest roll towards success, and remaining rolls 10 or up count as aid (even if from a different action). You all succeed as a group.

Coming Through! The rival (yup, Aspis) agents flee in the face of the stampeding dinosaur, heading straight towards you! You may tell them to Eat your Dust with an Acrobatics check, or Knock them Flat with a CMB Trip attempt.

Ari-Ani tries use her acrobatics

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Ki Chin attempts to use his sheathe to knock the legs from under the Aspis agents as the magus starts to flee.
Trip: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

For just a moment, Soleil's face lights up happily as she sees this giant creature she's never seen before. However, as Magmara grabs her arm and is turning her even as she's shouting "RUN!!" it occurs to the Ifrit that maybe standing and watching the dinosaur come at them is a bad choice.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

After getting Soleil moving, Magmara swings out with her masterwork lucerne hammer hoping to knock the legs out from under one of the Aspis agents to buy her allies more time to escape.

"Thank you for your sacrifice," Magmara says as she takes her swing.

Trip Attempt: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

The terrible sight totally freaks out the gnome,

"Holy Buh'Geebiss!"

Not judging anyone else by the standards he holds for himself, Meux feels that Mother Sarenrae would not approve of him resulting to dirty tactics without giving the Aspis their own fair chance for repentance. Subsequently, he does the only other thing he can think of and tries to hightail it out of there as fast as his stubby legs will take him!

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Ari-Ani freezes at first when the Aspis agents come flooding out of the woods ahead of the t-rex! Of course, her mind then kicks in quickly and she recognizes them for what they could be... "other food" for the monstrous saurian.

She kicks up a bit of dust in the faces of the Aspis agents at the head of their group and turns to run. Her teammates already have the same idea, with Magmara offering her own "snackrifice." Ki-Chin as well is able to deftly get another agent's legs out from under them with his graceful combat maneuvers, while Meux takes off running on the others' lead.

The team is off on a good start, being "at least faster than other food."

One success!

The dinosaur’s thunderous rampage causes some rubble to fall right in the your path! You may Go Around with Survival or Shove it Aside with a strength check. Remember, if you have a relevant spell or class ability, you may apply it.

Ki Chin felt a bit of elation seeing the Aspis agent go down. At the sound of falling rubble Ki Chin looks ahead to see rubble falling down his path. Deciding he did not have the time to go around it the magus decides to use his sword to shove the falling rubble aside: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17.

Strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Gaskar follows Ki Chin's lead and pushes some rubble aside. His muscles flex as the rubble seems heavier than normal. But the adrenaline flows through him.

That's enough for the next success!

The team follows behind Gaskar and Ki-Chin shoving boulders aside, providing them safe passage! Soon after, you spill out into a clearing, which means no obstacles! It also means...

She’s Right Behind Us!! A relatively open patch of ground gives the tyrannosaurus an opportunity to build up speed, and she draws dangerously close to all of you!

You may Get off the Road with a Stealth check, or Fend Her Off with an attack roll.

Gaskar isn't afraid of the T-rex, but some of his companions look a bit frail. 'Maybe we should get off the road.' He thinks to himself.

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

Following Gaskar's example, Meux tries to hide from "the opportunity that was suspected they were overlooking."

Stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

Once off the road, Meux taps into his Pyromaniac tendencies and produces a Dancing Light (as a spell-like ability)in a faintly glowing, vaguely humanoid shape a few feet in front of the rampaging dinosaur. He manipulates the luminous decoy- making it dance and dart away in the opposite direction-trying to lead the beast from whence it came. Narrating a verbal enticement in a low personal tone as if he was playfully teasing a pet,

Yes, kitty...kitty, Follow the pretty little glowing man!