GM Valen's PFS 1e 7-10 The Consortium Compact (April 2021) (Inactive)

Game Master Lysle

Alice casually walks after the others. The sluggish movement of the 'mugger' seems a bit odd to her.

The appearing bug however, Kn. Nature: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
"That beetle can unleash a bright flash if cornered. Nothing severe, just a mild annoyance."

She taps BiggerBird on the side of his arm, and he feels a slight tingling sensation.

Cast Guidance.

Did Fyl get his spells off before combat started? If no, then he'll cast mage armor this round.

Did Fyl get his spells off before combat started? If no, then he'll cast mage armor this round.

Yes, each PC had a round to take any actions before we went into surprise round.

SEWER OR LATER! - Surprise Round One Cont'd!

PCs in bold may take a single move or standard action

Alice
Fyl
Rogarch
Helping Hand
Beetle (green)
Ponya
Yoon
BiggerBird
Micah

Helping Hand cannot speak to Rogarch yet but he can point. A feeling of concern wells up in the empathic link between them and the small scorpion points a claw at the glowing insect near the end of the corridor.

(Full Defence in Rogarch's pocket)

Fyl sighs, "That kid is going to get herself injured or worse..." he laments as he moves up to keep an eye on her.

move action

The insect-of-unusual-size takes to the air, flying towards the bulk of the party.
Move

SEWER OR LATER! - Surprise Round One Cont'd!/Round One Begins!

PCs in bold may take a single move or standard action

Ponya
BiggerBird

PCs below in bold make take a full round of actions

Alice
Fyl
Rogarch
Helping Hand
Beetle (green)
Ponya
Yoon
BiggerBird
Micah

BiggerBird steps forward and swipes at the beetle with a claw.

claw att: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15, if hits, claw damage: 1d3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

As the creature shows itself the fire horse muses, "Maybe it's just a mutated lightning bug?"

Then it flies towards them, "OH GOD OH GOD AAAAAHHHH KILL IT!!!"

Ponya snaps out with unnatural reach, biting at the critter as it flies by and then tries to finish it off with another chomp.

AoO from Combat Reflexes and Reach, Standard to Attack

Bite AoO: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 for Magic/BPS: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Bite Standard: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 for Magic/BPS: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Sadly though, sewer gas got in his eyes... or something.

Should it make a difference, BiggerBird had guidance upon him.

Passing the blessings around, Alice casts guidance on Fyl.

BiggerBird steps forward and swipes at the beetle with a claw.

The tengu snags the beetle with a claw, ripping a hole within its exoskeleton.

The sewer gas hinders Ponya's efforts.

Alice offers some magical guidance.

SEWER OR LATER! - First Full Round One Cont'd!

PCs below in bold make take a full round of actions

Alice
Fyl (guidance)
Rogarch
Helping Hand
Beetle (green) -4 HP
Ponya
Yoon
BiggerBird
Micah

Rogarch steps forward and attacks the insect with her large hammer.

To Hit,Guidance: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 7 + 1 = 26
Damage,Cold Iron,Blunt: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

She keeps a close eye on the kleptomaniacs in the room in case they might get any ideas.

With a single, well-guided blow, Rogarch smashes the insect, causing its battered exoskeleton to crumple and its remains to splash into the waste waters below.

COMBAT OVER

Looking around, you conclude that this dingy sewer serves as a laboratory, where experimentation has been conducted with a variety of drugs and poisons.

You conclude that the four lost souls here are addicted to some drug, which has clearly affected their motor skills and memory. You are unable to get any useful information from their mouths.

It is currently Oathday, a couple of hours past sunrise.

perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

"Well this looks promising..." comments Fyl as he spots a vial near one of the sleeping pallets.

Fyl will cast detect magic on it after picking it up, just to be sure.

knowledge local (untrained) with the guidance that I forgot about: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

Despite a thorough search by Fyl, no notes are found within the lab.

The recovered vial does not give off any magical auras.

The Bloodrager knowledge of the criminal element leads her to believe that these experiments are most likely done in secret and at night.

(Take 10 on K-Local untrained is 10).

Helping Hand touches her for luck (Guidance) while she takes a look at the retrieved vial but shrugs having no specialised knowledge of what it may be.

Perception,Guidance: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 = 6

Helping Hand looks at the vial noticing something of interest. He has no way as of yet to communicate such a complex idea to his companions.

(Helping Hand's Take 10 on Perception is 19)

He does convey a sense of understanding to Rogarch through their shared empathic link.

Ha! I didn't even consider taking 10.

perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Oh that is not good! The drug in process. Drugs are bad and must be stopped. We can come back tonight and stop these people.

BiggerBird pushes the bug to float down the channel and out to sea, so its corpse won't give anyone a warning.

Take 10 for 19 on alchemy.

"Drugs indeed. Pretty potent, or these people have low constitution.
Maybe both."

"What about these... addicts? We can't have them here if a fight breaks out."

Rogarch simply shakes her head at this overwhelming display of moral decay.

"Typical decadence found in the cities. If these people had to do a hard day's work to support their families they would not have the time for such self-indulgence."

"We need to move on. If there are other rooms to explore here then good otherwise we will need to return tonight as Bigger Bird has suggested."

Micah listens to all the chatter in the group and the discoveries they have made.

I believe every spoiler was hit, right?

He sighs, "Usually addictions are failures of society to treat or care for a disease. These people need help, not condemnation."

If any raised eyebrows are given in the direction of the angry looking and sounding man he replies, "What, you've never had a family member go through something like this? Regardless, these people need to be moved."

He pulls out a wand and tries to get it to work on the nearest person.

UMD CLW Wand: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
UMD CLW Wand: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
UMD CLW Wand: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24 for CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

"There we go, that did it. Can you walk?"

I believe every spoiler was hit, right?

I believe so.

He pulls out a wand and tries to get it to work on the nearest person.

"There we go, that did it. Can you walk?"

Cross off only one charge.

The questioned addict slowly moves to her feet, then takes a fall. Though she appears capable of walking, she seems to have forgotten how to do.

The wand does not have a curative affect on the poor addicts, evidence that the drug drains its users of their mental faculties. If they ever possessed any useful information, they do not now.

The addicts are suffering from stat drain, but are otherwise uninjured.

You conclude that Laszo the Leper is not present and that he is not likely to return until close to nightfall.

Task not quite complete. Do you wish to wait for Laszo or attempt another task?

Alice searches the alchemical supplies for anything useful.

Perception?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18
Is it possible to make some sort of knockout powder trap thing, to put Laszo to sleep, with intend of less hostility when we return.

Is it possible to make some sort of knockout powder trap thing, to put Laszo to sleep, with intend of less hostility when we return.

With enough time and know-how, I suppose something like that may be possible. What do you have in mind? And are you willing to spend the likely hours it will take for the attempt?

Hours.....i shall refrain in that case. ^^

Rogarch shakes her head.

"Clearly these people are beyond our help and moving them will only indicate to the criminal element that their operation is compromised in some way and they might decide to re-locate."

"We should leave here now and return tonight. We have at least one more mission to complete today."

I have no idea if any of our actions will have any in-game effect but moving the addicted people away would be a dead giveaway.

Hours.....i shall refrain in that case. ^^

The rules for improvised "Wilderness Traps" account for effort in terms of hours. They are, however, far more favorable to the rules for mechanical traps, which account for effort in terms of weeks. If you are aware of other sets of applicable rules, I am happy to consider them.

I encourage such seeking of alternative/creative solutions, particularly as this is a repeatable.

My character is looking forward to the maximum hostility confrontation with the mad alchemist. Anyone who would do this to other people clearly needs to be dealt with appropriately. :)

Micah growls and is about to say something, then it is quite apparent he has gotten a decent idea.

"Listen, I think we can do everything we want to do here. I want to get these people out of the sewers and you want to ambush the crap out of our target. Why don't we take the people out and drop them off at a good god temple so they can at least rest safely. Then we take their places and set a perfect ambush."

Ponya just seems stunned. Perhaps it is because Micah is for once not spitting about smiting evil. Maybe because of the revelation that he actually cares about the fate of these addicts.

But most likely, it's because the plan has a hint of forethought behind it.

"It is pretty clear that these people need to be here for any ambush to be successful. If our target gets wind of our plan then he can easily relocate and start again."

"The quicker we complete the next objective the faster we can get back here to setup our ambush and consequently protect these people. Perhaps meeting up with the Aspis agent could be our next objective?"

This party is far from subtle so either of the remaining tasks is equally bad I think. :)

These people were just wandering around the alcove when we got here? If yes, then they really don't need to be here for the ambush. heck, we could even do the straw body fakeout sleeping on the mats.

We should keep the game going. If people want to evacuate these people then fine. What is next?

With no sneaky PC's, I thought disrupting the meeting would be easiest. Causing a disruption isn't too tough. We could just start a fight with each other in the place where the meeting is supposed to happen. Eventually someone will probably call the authorities if we make enough noise and cause enough damage. Then we run away before the authorities get there (hopefully). I imagine that would make them delay.

With no sneaky PC's, I thought disrupting the meeting would be easiest. Causing a disruption isn't too tough. We could just start a fight with each other in the place where the meeting is supposed to happen. Eventually someone will probably call the authorities if we make enough noise and cause enough damage. Then we run away before the authorities get there (hopefully). I imagine that would make them delay.

It looks like you jumped back to task #1 here, which is unrelated to the sewers.

...

I think we have enough to complete task #3, which is evidence and a sample. We *don't* have to kill Laszo, although I suspect many of our chars will want to out of principle. Just keep in mind that killing him may actually trigger the "alert of sabotage" response.

...

It looks like you jumped back to task #1 here, which is unrelated to the sewers. ...

Yes. I thought it was decided we were done with this one for now. Rogarch had asked about what to do next.

We need to wait until tonight before this task really comes online. As we have a strict time limit I suggest we try task #1.

Micah tracks down whoever has the letters for this mission and reads through them, "We need the notes still. The Leper probably has them. Either wait here or go do another mission. I say we take these addled saps out of here so they don't get in the way later and then go set up to disrupt that meeting at noon."

Timeframe wise the GM said it is currently a couple hours after sunrise so we are mid-morning. The Leper is likely to not be back until nightfall so... that's a long time from now. We also really need to disrupt the meeting that is taking place at noon. The ship needs to be infiltrated sometime today as well, but it is at least being offloaded all day long. We could also split the party... which is always a very smart idea. :P I also want to apologize, I thought we were a couple hours before sundown, not after sunrise. That was why I suggested waiting around for the alchemist.

"I am really sneaky! So I can help! Do I need to steal something?" the little girl asks.

Yoon, how about special books from a library? ;)

That didn’t work out well last time! :-)

"I am really sneaky! So I can help! Do I need to steal something?" the little girl asks.

"Not yet. But we may need you to watch some folks without being noticed once we get to the tavern," replies Fyl.

Ok, let's go to the tavern.

Humans seem to find me and my friend rather noticeably memorable. Says the bright yellow tengu. Perhaps we should stay outside so it is less suspicious when we come in and start a ruckus?

The party makes its way from the sewers through the streets of Diobel’s Bristles District to the tavern called the Overflowing Oyster[i/] as described in Delroya's missive. The [i]Overflowing Oyster is a dirty, broken-looking building that barely fits between the fishing tackle shop to its north and the junk shop to its south.

Hanging over the door is a creaky sign that shows a painted oyster with pearls spilling from its gaping shell.

Even from the outside, one can see that the interior of the Overflowing Oyster displays a mix of rickety furniture and gaudy decorations, from strands of obviously fake pearls hanging over the kitchen’s entrance to wooden carvings of sultry mermaids and cheap paintings of ships at sea. The dirty tavern is hardly crowded.

The streets outside are more so, as workers and business folk pass by the area as they carry out the duties and tasks associated with their various walks of life.

Map of the Overflowing Oyster is now on Slides.

Approximately two hours remain before it is noon.

What would you like to do?

I still think you human-ish mammals should go in first.

Micah will have dismissed Ponya again. An ifrit is enough of a sore thumb, but a fire-horse-elemental wandering around is just asking for trouble, or at least someone to pay too much attention.

He frowns, "We made good time, have two hours. Maybe go in separately or in small groups to keep our cover? An maybe someone good at talking can go in and get themselves hired to work?"

I don't know if we have a real smooth talker in the group, but Micah could try to get a job as a busser, waitstaff or bartender if no one else wants to try.

Rogarch shakes her head as she looks at the tavern.

"Another wholesome establishment although I guess it is a step up from the sewers but really not by much. It is amazing that people would want to spend their money in here."

"There were plenty of these type of places up north but that does not make it any more appealing."

"I am certain that all sorts of rift-raft and mercenaries come here all the time so I don't think we need any sort of cover."

So, depending upon how the party approaches this task, it could end up as some sort of a skill challenge or, perhaps, an all-out brawl, or something in-between. Thus, I am looking for some sort of plan, or at least the beginnings of one, to move us along.

I will give you another day or so to formulate a plan amongst yourselves before throwing out possible approaches considered within the scenario.