Concordance of The Abyss (Pathfinder Chronicle) (Inactive)

Game Master Molech

Apologies to Sabella Arvanxi-- I saw your question, had an initial reaction, and then while responding to other posts and wedging in the spies on the roof, completely forgot about your question. Kinda lame of me, considering you were *directly asking about the Lantern Man murder of four nights ago. I'm typing up the Gameplay post now--

The captured spy is frightened and has surrendered, but his 'attitude' is "Hostile."

Pär is reasonable at chasing and would be soundbursting the other fleeing person if thats reasonable for him.

@DM Ray - Did my 2nd (enhanced) perception check, before combat started, spot both of them? It kind of influences what K'Tak does next, obviously...

For those of us in the brothel, we should have tea and let the others ferret out the information.

@ K'tak,
It was a little out of sorts earlier; I should have articulated how I interpreted it. I think the following is reasonable:

out-of-Initiative -- NPCs on the roof rolled their Stealth as they were spying. K'tak did not notice them.

Surprise Round -- Mishanter noticed one of the NPCs hiding and Bluffed a secret message his allies understood (since he met the DC of passing a message).

Surprise Round -- Standard Action to climb up to the roof.

Round One -- K'tak -- after the NPCs -- has his full round of actions. If he wishes to use a Standard Action to use 'Uncanny Senses' to perceive anything other than the spy who surrendered, he can -- and will see the other spy stealthily moving away.

. . . .

Your post with the Uncanny Senses was during that doldrums, or rather, 'inertia,' between my Stealth / y'all's perception / Mishanter's secret message, -- and the beginning of the Surprise. Round. I can see the argument that K'tak, while looking at the rat from Rodenthome and overhearing Mishanter's secret message, had just enough time to take a Standard Action to look up on the roof of Pythoness House. But I disagree with it.

I think *in-game* it's reasonable to believe the Surprise Round would begin immediately upon Mishanter's secret message.

Does that make sense?

. . . .

Again, when I saw your second attempt with the Uncanny Senses that was what I thought in my head, 'Well, he can do that in the Surprise Rd but not before' -- but didn't post it.

I readily admit I should have. I'll get more proficient and reliable about posting. It's just one of those differences between over-the-table gaming and play-by-post gaming. At my house I'm focused on the game and don't usually miss stuff. But in PbP where I'm glancing at posts three or four times per day while my life is taking place outside of gaming, I'm missing something here or there.

K'tak, in Round 1, can use his Standard Action to see the other dude sneaking away and climbing down.

For those of us in the brothel, we should have tea and let the others ferret out the information.

Agreed. You or Sabella should post in gameplay to move that thread along and I'll check back later to respond to keep it flowing nicely.

Is Par threatening and intimidating Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth inside the Pythoness House?!?

I think Sabella, Artemisia, and Valeria are all inside, while I believe Muziel, Par and Mishanter are all on the roof still?

So who is Par telling 'or answer to me' ? and rolling intimidate on?

He walked back down and is threatening the creep.

Neither of the Madammes/Mistresses have offered him hostility, so he will not conduct hostile actions, including intimidate, against them.

He is currently "Chaotic sensible" in terms of alignment, partly because of his mental copilots influence.

OK, as I have posted, K'tak uses his uncanny senses ability on RD 1 to see the second spy...

WRT to who's where, we have 2 groups

In the Pythoness House, having a polite conversation - (PC's) Sabella, Artemisia, Valeria (NPC's) Mistress Maquent, Madame Radana Scalth

On the roof, pursuing and interrogating sneaks - (PC's) Par, K'tak, Mishanter, Muziel (?&Trogs?), (NPC's) Spy A, Spy B

@ K'tak,

It was a little out of sorts earlier; I should have articulated how I interpreted it. I think the following is reasonable:

out-of-Initiative -- NPCs on the roof rolled their Stealth as they were spying. K'tak did not notice them.

Surprise Round -- Mishanter noticed one of the NPCs hiding and Bluffed a secret message his allies understood (since he met the DC of passing a message).

Surprise Round -- Standard Action to climb up to the roof.

Round One -- K'tak -- after the NPCs -- has his full round of actions. If he wishes to use a Standard Action to use 'Uncanny Senses' to perceive anything other than the spy who surrendered, he can -- and will see the other spy stealthily moving away.

. . .

What I had in my head as a timeline was a little different than yours...

out-of-Initiative -- NPCs on the roof rolled their Stealth as they were spying. K'tak (and Sabella, Valeria and Artemisia) did not notice them.
Muziel, Par, Mishanter did spot Spy A. Only Mishanter responded, successfully passing a secret message. This doesn't start init - it's secret after all...
K'tak uses Uncanny Senses to understand what Mishanter's about...

Surprise round - Muziel initiates combat using D-Door (posted after K'tak used Uncanny Senses), takes Mishanter and Par to the roof. Ktak climbs.

Sorry, super behind on stuff, hoping to catch up tomorrow.

There appears to be some confusion(possibly my own):

Par never stated he went up to the roof, but then stated he went downstairs to question the creep. Does that mean he actually was up on the roof? As far as I can tell, that guy is still up on the roof.

He also nods to Val and Artemisia as he intimidates the spy, but they are inside the Pythoness House having tea and wine. There's no bad guy in there to intimidate.

Am I really confused(I've had some bad sleep the last few days, so it's possible) or are things jumbled up here?

Also, where is Sabella? On Friday(around 8:30pm posted time), she was apparently inside the House, asking her questions about who was murdered and where did he live, but now she's seemingly like in the doorway? 'Not inside, but could be, not on the roof, but could be' ?

It was my error -- earlier I posted Par had climbed up to the roof when in fact it was K'Tak. Just a technical error. I interpreted Par's 'going downstairs' as showing he's not on the roof but on the ground-floor of Pythoness House. My most recent Gameplay post is correct:

Mishanter, Muziel, K'Tak on the roof -- one NPC captured, a second escaping unless he is stopped.

Sabella just outside the front door with line-of-sight to her allies on the roof and her allies inside Pythoness House.

Artemisia, Lady Val and Par Joakimson inside with Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth.

K'Tak has informed on the presence of a second NPC. It looks as though Muziel Moreau is very busy with real life. If someone wants to holler out to 'get him,' and if Muziel Moreau doesn't take an action, I'll go ahead and look to see if the Dwarf Wizard can stop the second guy. Obviously if Muziel is able to post he will take the action he feels is appropriate. And, if no one is too bothered by a second NPC escaping as long as you have the first one, that's fine too.

.

The two women in Pythoness House are apparently ready to sell some information -- obviously if you want the skiny on a Magistrate it'll cost more. .... But you do have several options other than paying for tons more intel:

1) A captured spy
2) Lantern Man killing-locations from Mister Refrum
3) Tracking Powder and a four-day-old bloody site
4) The info Pythoness House has already said ('Truth & Light' commune, Darklight Sisterhood)
5) Commander Jute maybe
....If the women's price turns out too high for the Magistrate, you can always try other avenues and come back here later to pay.
6) Seven 8th Level PCs worth of character sheets and creative use of Crunch resources that be lots o' fun.

In thinking about this campaign, especially this scene that I have not handled describing well, I am willing to learn how roll-20 works as a DM, try to post a grid and 'X-marks-the-spot' and such. It won't be beautiful (think of the days with pennies for miniatures on a checkers board) ....Ya know, I'll learn if one of you is willing/able to teach me.

K'tak thinks we will have the 2nd roof top spy as well. I only posted round 1 because I thought we were in combat mode, but I plan on pursuing the 2nd spy; with a natural climb speed and full speed tracking, I expect to be able to catch him...

@ DM Ray : How do you want to handle the chase scene?

In the longer term I am considering an attempt at catching the rat observer to be interrogated, and once that is done, there is the crime scene to track from...

@ K'Tak,

In Rd 2 the second spy has to attempt two Climb checks to descend (without falling prone). He will likely make both but, considering the Paizo Dice Gods have been giving me really high rolls recently, part of me thinks he'll get a couple nat 1s climbing down.

If you want, have K'Tak ask for assistance from Muziel Moreau and Sabella Arvanxi. (Mishanter is on 'Spy 1' but may be able to help too.) This way, if 'Spy 2' escapes K'Tak's clutches, there'll be a Wizard on the roof using spells and Sabella Arvanxi on the ground.

But this guy's Stealth and knowledge of the terrain & location -- yeah, my guess is that if he climbs down successfully there's a good 50/50 chance he'll escape.

We are still in Initiative on the roof.

@ DM Ray
last round, (assuming a normal speed of 30'), spy 2 took a move to get to the edge (30' because of fast stealth), then took a 2nd move action to climb down (7.5' because climb is 1/4 speed). Two more climb checks to get him to the bottom = 15'; therefore building height is ~22.5 ft.

I took a move action after him last round ("he begins to pursue), which gets me 30' across the roof. With a natural climb speed of 20', I climb 20' per move action... and I have 2 move actions. I suspect that at the end of next round, fall or no, I will be beside him... Especially because if I have to, I will take the fighter express and aim for him...

Yes. I named the building at 25 feet, realistically between 22 and 28 feet. I calculated he'd need three checks and he has done his first. Since you have a Climb speed, yeah, heh. Plus, Muziel Moreau has something I like to call Glitterdust. I'm confident that by the end of Monday, beginning of Tuesday, once everyone has had time to post after the weekend, this will get resolved to the PC's satisfaction. We shall see.

Edit: And I see Muziel looks like he'll caste Haste first.

Rd 2 for K'tak
First Move action: across the roof (up to 60' with haste)
Second Move Action, Climb down the wall (up to 40', double my climb speed thanks to haste.)
Climb,Take 10: 10 + 1 + 3 + 6 + 8 = 28
1 ranks +3 trained +6 str +8 racial

busy dau, posting tomorow

Haste: Muziel Moreau, K'Tak, Mishanter, and Lady Sabella Arvanxi all benefit from Haste.

@ K'Tak,
The second spy hears your threat and attempts to flee. I'm not looking it up (I wanna go home, still at work) but I know a few of you have Lunge. I don't think Lunge will necessarily help you get an AOO as I Withdraw away from you -- but you'll tell me. Or if there's anything else.

@ Mishanter & Muziel,
K'Tak can probably capture the 2nd spy -- but if he makes it to Bridgefront it could get much harder. One million places to hide there. Y'all can stop him from the roof with Ranged or clever ideas.

LOL

@ Pythoness House,
In concern of not wanting to miss a post (like I've already done a couple times), I immediately had Pythoness House answer Artemisia's concern before I read through Gameplay. And wouldn't you know it, Sabella Arvanxi addressed it and it got resolved a couple posts later. .... I didn't want to just delete my post, so I just added a second post and square-peg/round-hole tried to make it fit smoothly.

Regarding my 36-hour absence -- that's gonna happen from time to time. I run my own little business and juggle all the work and wear all the hats. And, you know, sometimes you just get a bit o' burn out on PbP. But when I need a day or two, I'll try to let everyone know.

@ DM Ray, lunge won't help me get an AoO ; it only lasts "until the end of your turn". Thus, you can't use it to take AoO's during someone else's turn... That said, he used withdraw for 120'? "Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-round action. When you withdraw, you can move up to double your speed." Either a) he's really fast (60' speed), b) used run (4x speed) and not withdraw, and thus will draw an AoO or c) He only moved 60' (has a 30' speed).

This does not impact K'tak's round 3; with haste he can charge 120', and thus will be able to charge an attack in round 3...

RD 3
Using Power Attack
Full round action - Charge Spy 2, move up to 120' and attack
To Hit, Gore: 1d20 + 8 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (10) + 8 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 2 - 3 = 28
8 bab + 6 str +1 enhancement + 3 competence +1 haste+2 charge-3 PA
Damage, Gore: 1d6 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 + 1 + 3 + 6 = 21
+6 str +1 enhancement+3 competence

60 feet, yes of course, 60 feet -- I was tired yesterday and waffling between if I needed to Withdraw to avoid an AOO or just run away at 4x.

RD 3:
K'Tak Gores the blinded Spy for 21 HP barely a second after Muziel hit him with his Glitterdust spell.

He is not unconscious but you can tell it's an easy choice for him to surrender -- even if he weren't both blind and sparkling, 21 is the majority of his health (by the look of him) and there's no way he can escape K'Tak!

END OF INITIATIVE

Just a heads up, yesterday was a rough day for me. I was up till 8am(that was the okay part, as it was intentional), but then we had the company here to remove the dying tree in our and our neighbor's front yards, so that was loud. Was able to sleep for a few hours in the basement, but wasn't great, and my attempt to nap in the late afternoon was unsuccessful.

I will catch up tonight, and post. Sorry for the slight delay!

Tree removal is always louder than I remember. Hope your sleep is better tonight.

Artemisia has done what she feels is reasonable to do, and is entirely disinterested in who else might care about the lantern man. After all, if someone beats them to the relic they’ll be called off, so wasting time worrying about potential competition is just wasting time.

I think we have some option for where to next. Victim’s house, victims new shack, accosting a lantern kid, whatever the spies say. I’m sure there are other choices, sound off with them here and we can keep gameplay cohesive on the transition.

I haven't yet seen an Intimidate check for the two spies. Assuming you keep them separated from each other, you can have two checks.

....And absolutely let me know if you get unsure about what your options are to check this or that location. Investigative adventures can be hit-or-miss when gaming over-the-table, let alone via PbP.

Artemisia isn't doing anything to recover HP here, just setting the spy up to be released to their own lodgings to recovery at a natural rate. She's also not doing anything to sabotage that recovery.

I probably won't get a chance to post again until Sunday, birthday party tomorrow. As usual feel free to retcon Art's actions if needed.

Hey now, there has been an intimidate check! Or are you discounting my intimidate at a -2 modifier? :P

So yeah, Muziel ain't this party's face, though I'm trying to make Trogs the party mascot.

It's okay Muziel I'm not much of an intimidator, I am more of the Honey tongued face

Intimidate? Did someone call my name?

@DM Ray - did we get anything (either loot or clues) when we searched our pair of spies?

OOC, voting we move on from python house. I think whoever wants to release the spies from our care (or their worldly concerns) should do so, then we follow K’Tak, and presumably the Lantern Man’s trail. In a real time game this sort of “what to do with captured prisoners” might be fun to rp, but in pbp it’s just going to drag.

IC I think Art would prefer we tie them up for the watch instead of cold murder or releasing them but she knows we don’t exactly have time or automatically have influence with the guards so her first choice is not happening.

I am for tying them up for the watch. If anyone wants the other option Val will have to look the other way or not know of it

Pär is fine with tying them up. Cold murder is no, nobody pays him for murdering atm., releasing them in the shadows is somehing he would consider, in terms of making their employer feel that the heroes are entire reasonable persons who can be negotiated with.

Back in the saddle tomorrow -- sorry for the delay -- thanks for everyone's patience.

Going to wait on your post or sabella’s instead of vamp (making time) more. No trouble.

K'Tak is fine with leaving them tied up for the watch, but he's not for leaving their gear (see above question about loot and clues). Also, would we do better to leave them with the ladies of Pythonesse House (whom they were spying upon...) who can hold them and then turn them over to the watch, rather than just leaving them tied up on the roof?

I have no problem leaving them tied up as well, with the ladies or otherwise.

Before we move this scene along, what time in game is it? I know it's evening, but is it early(around dinner), late(everybody is seeking their beds) or past midnight(only us 'troublemakers' are awake, lol).

I'm going to have Mishanter guard them / take them up Garrison Hill to Fort Korvosa where he can hand them over to Cmdr. Jute and The Korvosan Guard (Sheila Heidmarch & Sir Canayvin will likely be up there by now, too, at Orisini Academy where they're staying.).

If Mishanter has Ghosted, it'll be an easy way to roleplay this separation.

Oddly enough, it is our beloved Paladin of Shelyn who is the party Intimidate master, with a respectable +9.

Lady Val, would you like to roll two Intimidate checks, one for each spy, in the hopes of getting their information? Our other Chelaxian noble, Lady Sabella Arvanxi can assist with a +5. ....And of course, if a PC wants to play the 'good cop' roll and try to assist -- go for it. You need to get one of the two spies adjusted TWO steps to get the info.

.... Now, cuz it's taken so long irl, once one of those two Intimidate checks is successful, I'll quickly post in Gameplay what the response is so y'all can quickly move to the next location.

. . . .

By the by, it will take three successive Survival checks -- WITH the +10 for the Alchemical Powder -- to get to track where The Lantern Man went four nights ago.

EDIT: And I'll post the treasure & XP for the two Spies, and Pythoness House XP, once the Intimidate rolls are done.

I'm the Intimidating one now well now

I guess I should give it a try

When I get off work I'll do some rolls and so.e intimidating

Gotta admit, I thought we'd had an intimidate check:

https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivmeq/gameplay&page=3#142

I'll put up the next 2 survival checks in a spoiler in gameplay.
@ Party - anyone who wants to help out with Aid Another or whathave you, feel free.

Ah the Dice Gods of the Paizo Boards! Doing what they must when a LG Pally of Shelyn threatens devilish torture.

Now the DM has to figure out what to do. 'Couldn't you have gotten a nat 20 for me?!?'

The two captured spies were equipped in a uniform manner, suggesting that whomever is their 'boss' equips his or her mooks rather than lets the mooks equip themselves.

In addition to the threadbare clothes they wear, they each possessed the following:
A 'Masterwork' Cloak that improves their Stealth (non-magical +2)
A Masterwork Dagger
A Masterwork Short Sword
A Masterwork suit of Chain Shirt Armor
One Potion of Invisibility (CL 8)
One Potion of See Invisibility (CL 8)
.... One of them has 11 gold coins and 64 silver coins; the other has 8 gold coins and 81 silver coins.

* * * *

XP for the roleplaying encounters of Ledbetter Apothecary, the Rodenthome rat, and Pythoness House, and the capture of the two Aspis Consortium spies = 1600 XP
(Your new total XP is 102,600)