VampByDay’s PFS2e 2-11 Pathfinder Trials (Inactive)

Game Master VampByDay

"You are giving us your word, is that it? Which is something we can trust?"
Perception, Trained, +7 for Sense Motive

Kyra loosens a leather pouch and takes a handful of small iron balls, rolling her sling-bullets around in her hand, making them clink and clatter:
"Wouldn't it be fun to roll these on the floor, see the patterns they make, and hear them ]i]crack[/i] as we smash them for you?"
This should be like 'Thin iron or steel, 5 Hardness & 20 HP (10 BT)'-- or not?

"Do you need a hammer?" Isurus asks, pulling off his pack and fishing for his hammer.

"No need for that"

Samna snatches a bullet from the interesting pattern Kyra has made and smashes it flat against the wall with two quick punches.

Flurry Damage: 2d4 + 4 ⇒ (2, 3) + 4 = 9

As long as that's sufficient damage...

She lets the misshapen bit of metal drop to the floor and roll through the remaining bullets, further disrupting their pattern.

After a bit of punching Samna is able to break one of the ball bearings I’ll just assume some flurry of blows happen until enough damage is accrued and the protean does a little flip in the air, dislodges the amulet from itself and disappears when you grab it.

Returning to Shaine he is happy you have gotten another correct amulet. ”Well, I am certain you know there is only one creature left, but just for completeness sake, and to make sure you’ve learned what all four creatures are, ‘ The lowliest of all demons has an amulet. Particularly wicked spellcasters actually break off a piece of their soul and form it into a minion.“

Kyra, one sling bullet short, sighs at the idea of having to go deal with another Evil being.

"While they are inherently evil Kyra, you have to put yourself above them. Just as I did with the little Devil, don't allow them the chance to twist their words or your soul. Act swiftly." He places a hand on her shoulder. He steps through the last portal.

Dyner's feathers ruffle as she hears mention of a demon. She draws her neck in and puffs up, clearly not happy with the idea of dealing with a demon at all.

She hops into the portal but stays defensive on the other side. Devils were fine as long as you never agreed to anything. They'd twist words for sure, but they were consistent. Demons though, demons her family and home had been fighting for generations. She'd rather never have to make a deal with one, unless she absolutely had to. Too many friends and family lost.

"This one may require sleight of hand or other trickery," Isurus says. "And this one seems most like to jump to violence if we are not careful."

Kyra doesn't want to parlay with it anyway, so let's just see...

Samna follows into the portal and tries to slip the amulet away from the creature before it is aware of her.

Thievery: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

If that is a failure, I'll use a hero point.
Thievery: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

As Samna reaches for the amulet the creature recoils, then a look of relief washes over its face.

”Are you finally here for this thing? THANK THE ABYSS! Oh! I hate it here. It’s too cold and I’m being used to HELP people, it’s awful!”. He seems so angry that it takes him a good fifteen seconds to disintsngle himself from the amulet and throws it on the ground. ”Take the blessed thing, I want OUTTA HERE!”

Lol, found that funny, the one you were most worried about was the easiest. From the book: “ As soon as the PCs suggest that he might be their current target, he shoves the amulet in their faces, telling them to hurry up and take it already.”

Dyner gives an angry warning caw as she gets in closer, before scooping up the amulet and tossing it to Samna, clearly not wanting it in her claws any longer than necessary. "We have it, now go back to where you came from."

She confirms the thing has left before she backs up into the portal, only then does she start smoothing her feathers. "Right we got the last amulet. What now?"

"Maybe we win a prize like at the carnival." Jaxon gives Krighton Shaine a mocking smile.

"That's one task down. Two more to go it seems." He goes back through the portal to return the final amulet. "Great job Samna."

"Our prize is proving ourselves to the deans," Isurus says with all seriousness. "That is the point of these assignments. If that was not enough, then I am not certain why one would agree to them. And with success comes yet more assignments."

Shaine congratulates you on getting all four amulets and ushers you back upstairs where your coach is waiting for you. "Oh, before I forget, I got a message from the master of spells, she's set up a sort of thinking man's obstacle course in training hall 7B, so head there instead of her office." he says as everyone piles in. He also relates that he's giving you top marks, and so you will be monetarily compensated for a job well done at the end of the day. You earn some treasure bundles.

You are easily able to find your way to the training hall.

An odd array of magical fixtures fill this spacious chamber: a wooden platform floats in the air halfway down the hall, a fountain spewing violet water sits in one corner, a wooden scaffolding holding fake walls in place creates a miniature room within the larger chamber, and several doors leading out the sides of the hall have glowing runes upon their surfaces. “What I have here for you is essentially an obstacle course,” says Sorrina, sounding rather proud. “Each part of the course represents a different sort of challenge you’d possibly encounter in an actual mission. I’ll only award your final scoring for this trial when everyone has overcome the challenges. So, think of this as a group assignment.”

Sorrina gestures to a long table holding several closed satchels. “You aren’t expected to take on all the tasks we have available here. I’ll be assigning you three of them. Your group can also pick [ONE of the supply satchels. Each satchel contains a different set of tools, including some magical items you would otherwise be unable to access from our storerooms. There should be an item or two in each that can help overcome all of the possible challenges. Your task is to decide which of these tools suits your group in besting the challenges you’ve been given. Some tools might be more appropriate in certain challenges than others, and some might seem useless for your particular tasks, but there’s no ‘correct’ answer here. I’m observing and grading your creativity and success, not seeing if you’d do something the same way that I might in the same circumstances. Any questions?”

Kyra nods to Alaric Salisfer, considering his wise words:
"True, I must keep that in mind..."

Kyra bows to Sorrina Westyr, her teacher.
But scratches her head, not really understanding the rules, of when to choose the satchel, after knowing what the challenges are?

"No questions, we are ready, ma'am!"

"Do we know what the course will consist of to be able to choose the correct tools?" Alaric's armor creaks as he bends down and begins to look through the packs to see what is there.

"And could you tell us how many tasks there are, so we can ration our resources?"

Samna cranes her neck to take in all of the unusual obstacles in the room.

Dyner gives a curious look at all the things in the room. Violet water is a rare thing, and the floating podium has her curious. "Sorrina, this looks very interesting... Why haven't we done something like this in class before? It'd be a fun challenge."

She pauses for a moment, and then says, "I'll probably have more questions once we know what challenges we'll be doing, but for right now I think I follow."

"Well, it does take a fair amount of time and money to set up, so we can only really afford to do it for those nearing graduation. Anyway, three trials. First up!" she walks over ends up under the wooden plank floating in midair.

"For the first challenge: sooner or later, you’ll need to ascend somewhere you can’t climb, or battle a flying opponent. Test your skills on a tall platform. You will all need to get up there somehow, though I suspect some of you can help out some of the others."

She then walks over to what appears to be a corridor constructed in the middle of the room (in that there are walls that form rectangular prism roughly 100 feet long. She throws open the door and to your surprise the corridor is full of water! You shield yourself for a moment, waiting for it to spill out, but it doesn't! The water, somehow, magically stays in the corridor. "It seems like there’s always an underwater area to deal with, even in ruins that are in the middle of the desert. Find your way through to the end of the aquatic corridor. All of you. That means no cheating and just walking around, everyone must pass THROUGH the corridor."

A smiling Sorrina then leads you to an antechamber off the main hall. Lying on the floor and occupying most of the hallway is a large, plush, stuffed dragon. Sorrina, speaking in a stage whisper, lets you all know that you need to cross the hallway without waking the dragon. If he does wake, they must appease him, lest he devour them all with his stuffed, satin, pillow-like teeth. She delivers her ominous threats quite deadpan, though she clearly enjoys describing this particular challenge.

"Seriously though, I've enchanted him to be able to hear and see and he's quite hard to beat if I do say so myself. Don't think invisibility will save you, dragon senses are notoriously sharp, their hearing surpasses that of bats, and their sense of smell beats a bloodhound anyday. Needless to say, if the dragon attacks you , you loose even if you could beat him up. Trial is to get past him, not beat him up."

With that she returns to the area with the satchels.

Check out slide 2 for pictures of Sorrina and also the terrifying PLUSH DRAGON!

Dyner looks at the flying wood plank and walks under it back and forth with an interest, checking for wires. "I thought fly spells only worked on people..."

She next approaches the wall of water and looks at Sorrina for a moment to make sure she can touch it, before sticking a claw into it. "Oh, chilly!" She flicks the water off and then gazes at the sleeping dragon plushie. "He's cute. What's his name?"

As soon as they get back to the satchels, Dyner starts to pull out the contents of each in an organized manner, curious as to what possible supplies they might have available to them. As she does, she asks, "Sorrina, can we use our own supplies here as well? Oh and how high was that floating platform again?"

Kyra wonders if the dragon is stuffed as in having eaten a lot of Pathfinders?

"Walking in the air among you is more difficult for me than water. It is only water and not acid? Hopefully, I will be able to help you all through," he says. "A rope and grapple should work for the floating ledge. I fear I will awaken the dragon no matter the aid. We shall see."

Jaxon looks up at the floating plank and then at the corridor of water before he just snorts at the stuffed dragon. "Well, can't say I've seen things like this before. I thought this was going to need to be done by you magical-types." He wiggles his fingers. "But this is an interesting challenge. Might be some fun to be had in this Pathfinder gang after all."

He nods at Isurus. "Rope and grapple should work as long as it's not enchanted with something weird. I think holding my breath is the best way through the corridor. For both, if we can get one person through, they can help pull the others up. We could tie a rope to everyone and pull them through the corridor." He turns to look at the stuffed dragon. "As for Mr. Stuffy over there, I might be able to get through without making a sound. I'm lighter on my feet than it looks. But I don't know how to help the rest of you."

He glances to where Dyner is opening up the satchels. "Well, what have we got?"

"Is there a time limit?" Isurus asks the Master of Spells.

"We should pick our supplies and see if they spark any ideas." Samna adds to the conversation.

The platform is 15 feet off the ground

The time limit is the end of the day

Sorrina says that you can use your own equipment too, but you should check your satchels first.

Sorrina further explains that Each satchel contains: 100 feet of rope, four vials of lesser alchemist’s fire, a standard-grade adamantine dagger, two scrolls of sleep, and a decanter of endless water. Also: each contains some additional gear. You can choose one satchel to use, but you can't look inside it before you choose. This is to represent stuff you might find in the field and how you have to make do with what you find.

Dyner gives the satchels a look for a moment and then grabs a random one, seeing as there's no way of knowing whats in them. She brings it over to everyone and satrts pulling things out. "I wonder if filling the corridor with the dragon plushie with water would count as 'beating him up' or not... Hrmm any ways we have some rope. I can also add a 10 foot ladder to the supplies if we need that at all."

GM stuff: 1d3 ⇒ 3

Inside the satchel you find:

two moderate eagle eye elixirs, bottled air, two immovable rods, two potions of negate aroma, scroll of wall of stone, skeleton key, all helpfully labeled, in addition to the aforementioned rope, dagger, etc.

Alaric looks at all of the gear. "Any ideas? Can we use this decanter to propel us through the water?"

"What do you do first? What seems easiest, hardest?
I could be totally wrong, but it seems that climbing the platform should be possible with the rods and rope... maybe even the help of a beautiful and smart flying bird!
And thanks to Isurus, getting through the water tunnel should be do-able, with rope, the bottled air, and maybe pushing with the decanter, as Alaric stated."

Kyra looks at the plush dragon area.
"What about that? Sleep spells? Stone wall to block off its part of the corridor? Reduce our presence via the no-aroma?"

"I agree that we should be able to get up to that platform with little difficulty. Could we place the rod at 5 and 10 feet, then climb to the platform? Perhaps we could use a rope to help our balance."

Samna eagerly jumps to this task, more suited to her talents.

"If one goes up first--"
Kyra sees Samna jumping to it.
"--one like you."
"Be careful!"
Kyra holds the end of the rope.

It will take either an Athletics or acrobatics check to climb up with the immovable rods. After that it is a DC 10 Athletics check to climb a rope that Samna will presumably drop down.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Samna attempts to swing her way up the rods.

Crit success! Samna is so good at placing the rods and jumping up that everyone else gets a +2 bonus to their Athletics checks to climb up the rope because they can use the strategically placed rods for extra aid climbing up.

Kyra is amazed.
It seems to her that Samna ran up into thin air, putting the rods BEHIND her!
Boosted by such beautiful movements, Kyra--

Athletics, Untrained w. Samna's bonus: 1d20 + 0 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 0 + 2 = 20
Crit' so 10 feet up?
Athletics, Untrained w. Samna's bonus: 1d20 + 0 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 0 + 2 = 13
+5 = the 15 feet?

--manages to climb the rope rapidly.

"What an athlete, Ms. Samna Tranth!"

Just to make things easy, I’ll say it takes a single Athletics check to climb up. Normally it would take 2 or 3, but let’s just make it easy.

Kyra is easily able to climb up.

Dyner starts to try rousing Tarragon at the mention of a 'little bird' she almost gets him awake as she watches Samna practically climb into thin air herself. With a few blinks the tengu decides to leave her familiar alone and tries climbing herself.

Athletics, boosted: 1d20 + 0 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 0 + 2 = 10
Hopefully that's just a basic failure.
Take 2: 1d20 + 0 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 0 + 2 = 14

She has some troubles with the ropes and bars.

If, after all her flailing about and getting herself wrapped up in the rope, she still is earthbound, Dyner just suggests the others just lift her rope tangled body up the hard way.

Isurus chuckles. "If you would allow me, I will tangle you in a safe fashion," he saysin his accented Taldane to Dyner. He ties the rope into a harness around the tengu. "You hold the rope steady while the rest of us climb, then I will try to haul. Keep in mind that climbing is not my strength."

He moves to climb, making slow progress ascending the rope in his heavy armor and limbs better adapted to swimming. "I have an idea for these rods in the water challenge."

Athletics (T), Bonus: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 2 = 19

Dyner starts to try rousing Tarragon at the mention of a 'little bird' she almost gets him awake as she watches Samna practically climb into thin air herself. With a few blinks the tengu decides to leave her familiar alone and tries climbing herself.

[dice=Athletics, boosted] 1d20 +0+2
Hopefully that's just a basic failure.
[dice=Take 2]1d20+0+2

She has some troubles with the ropes and bars.

If, after all her flailing about and getting herself wrapped up in the rope, she still is earthbound, Dyner just suggests the others just lift her rope tangled body up the hard way.

I said the DC to climb the rope was 10. You got a 10. You are fine

"Not bad, Samna. Not bad at all!" Jaxon hauls himself up the rope and the rods, making quick work of the climb.

Athletics: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 7 + 2 = 25

Athletics: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 3 + 2 = 13

Alaric knows he is quite heavy and probably a little noisy in his armor. He removes his breastplate and stretches to give himself a little more flexibility while climbing. Climbing to the platform he leaps for the rope and catches it, hauling himself up. "Thanks Samna."

I said the DC to climb the rope was 10. You got a 10. You are fine

Whoops, I missed that. What I get for posting right after waking up.

Everyone is able to get up to the platform, Sorrina claps and tells you well done.

Kyra pumps her fist:
"Teamwork... and Pathfinder Society support, for the win!"

Dyner tries to get fancy on the way down and grabs the rope in her claws. She rapels down using the rope and her not quite flight worthy feathers as brakes to hit the ground softly.

She then looks over at the corridor of water and frowns for a second. "I wonder if we could make some sort of skiff to be pushed around by the decanter? If I remember correctly that thing can spew forceful amounts of water out all at once. That plus something that we can guide to make sure we are going the right direction might be enough to get across... Anyone have a pulley system on them? I think if we get the rope across, especially with a little extra added on, and then had a way to keep our vessel attached to the rope, we might not have to worry about veering off course."

"It seems Isurus should take the lead for the water challenge, since he is more comfortable there, than he is right now-- plus he has ideas in using the rods..."

"In truth, with the rods, the rope, and the bottled air, you would not need my affinity to aid you unless there is more to the water than is visually apparent," the azarketi says as he collects the immovable rods from where they float in the air. "My idea was to anchor the rope on the rods at the beginning of the course and near the end. Then each of you pulls yourselves along the rope while breathing from the bottle. I can shuttle the air back to the beginning for the next person and be available to rescue anyone who has a misadventure. I will go place the rods and rope as well as scout the path for hidden currents."

He ties each end of the rope to one of the immovable rods. Just inside the water, he presses the button on one with the rod horizontal at waist level and then flies through the water faster than most could run the length outside, though his armor does drag a bit. He appears to be enjoying himself. Barring any unforeseen events, he sets the second rod near the end of the course and emerges on the other side. "Ready."

Kyra admires the graceful underwater motion of Isurus!