GM Top's Dungeon Delver's

Game Master Pete H.

The gnome thinks about it for a bit, ”I like her suggestion the best. Why don’t I work off my crimes cleaning up the garden?”

The group discusses what to do.

The group feels it will take about twelve hours of work for the gnome to clear the garden. That is twelve hours total if no one helps. Each hour worked by a dwarf would reduce the total time. Anyone trained in K: Nature feel they could reduce that time by half with some good organization, if they wanted to.

"Make a start with that undergrowth there" Halali gestures to the gnome, "warg weed unless I'm mistaken, chokes the life out of any other flora, gets everywhere."

Halali is trained in Knowledge (Nature).

Then addressing her fellows again in the dwarven tongue "The mission brief doesn't require us to rout this evil priest, but it seems it might be the best way to gain free access to the library and crypt. So, do we wait for the scheduled service in a couple of hours or rush him in his quarters now?"

”I vote we go confront them. I’d like to detect evil on the priest before we start thrashing him. This gnome could be making up fantastic stories, you know,” Kaz adds.

The gnome begrudgingly grabs an old shovel and starts digging up weeds.

The pathfinders seem to agree that they should quickly address this evil they have found, but aren’t sure how or when to do it.

The GM still recommends the ‘burn it all down’ option. :D

Bilos is willing to get his hands dirty, even if he doesn't usually.

(Vould the phantom also count toward time needed to weed?)

Grunigon smiles when the gnome grabs the shovel to start with the weeds. When he notices others starting to help him he frowns and says, "Are we going to 'speak' with the head cleric? Probably should do that before the service, right? We can return here after. If I remember right there's a task that we're to do here anyway."

Ander chips in...using his powder to help remove the larger roots if needed.

The phantom would, yes. The crow, no. It seems we have some dissenting opinions though as to what to do next. Anyone else want to weigh in?

The dwarves seem content to sit in the garden and not decide things. The warm afternoon sun is very relaxing.

I'll give it another day and then just assume you all chip in to clear the garden, that's the prevailing vote at... two, with one opposing.

Halali casually pulls up weeds whilst musing in Dwarven.

"If you all want to do the gardening before the (probable) bad guy shows up to give his sermon or whatever, that's fine. Maybe we'll have enough time to get this job done, I mean it's two hours to go, right?

Or hey again, maybe we dodge the sermon and sneak into Dakang's quarters then, maybe he left some sort of bad-guy notebook we can find and reveal?"

Grunigon looks at Halali as she states her idea. "Sneaky. I like it. And if we don't find anything, we wait for him to return."

”Id rather run straight in and confront him asap, but I’d vote for the sneaky approach over sitting out her and pulling weeds all day! That wasn’t what I signed up for,” Kaz growls at the others.

Even with Kaztor not helping and griping the whole time about manual labor not being in the official job description of pathfinder, the rest of the group and the gnome finish clearing out the garden with about fifty minutes until the sermon. It takes twenty more to map it out for their records.

They doooooo find something interesting. One of the plants seems a bit out of place for this location. It's a certain 'flayleaf', which when chewed provides a nice little relaxing narcotic. Gastidem seems to be juuuust a bit protective of it.

Thirty minutes until the sermon. What next?

”Doesnt shock me a bunch of evildoers are growing a drug in their garden! I say we shut this place down for good,” Kaz co tongues to complain to the others.

"Before we break everything, we should at least find out if the people here are complicit or controlled."

Aye...if they don't know it's bad, it's not their fault. Or if they're forced...well, that's another ball of lead...

"So we've got three choices" Halali says to her fellow dwarves, still using their native tongue.

"Attend the sermon; rush Dakang now; or sneak into his quarters whilst he's preaching to the choir. What's it to be?"

”Id vote that we rush him now!

Rushing might not be a good choice...if we are outnumbered...might get ugly real quick.

"If these are true believers, we might end up fighting the whole monastery. But I have the ultimate sneaking in tool."

Everyone please make a choice out of the three provided by Halali so we can move this along.

I think if Bilos sends in his "evil" twin, we can snoop undetected... Ander says with air quotes for the evil part.

"So, sneak yes? Sounds good to me."

You mean during the sermon, Bilos and Ander? Or right away?

I'd say let Bilos's friend lead us. We can find out if the priest is evil or a tool. We don't need to kill the innocent."

I worry that something bad could happen in that sermon and don't really want to there. Plus is seems a terrible time to confront this man, in front of a lot of his loyal followers. So I vote to confront him now.

It looks like Dran and Kaztor want to try to rush him now. Grunigon, Bilos and Ander seem to be leaning towards trying to sneak into his quarters during the distraction of the sermon. Halali? Others change their mind or got misinterpreted?

i say sneak during the sermon...less chance of being spotted

Halali agrees with Ander

The dwarves come to a democratic conclusion that trying to sneak in during the sermon is the best option.

They wait a half an hour for the sanctuary to start filling up with monks.

Who is where? Who is trying to sneak? Is anyone or everyone going into the service? How and where are they sneaking from and too? I know you have a phantom that can walk through walls, so these questions are important.

Kaz plans on staying present at the ceremony. There was no way he was sneaking around in his plate mail. And besides he wasn’t a fan of sneaking away. He figured if trouble broke out, he could trail and maybe catch the head priest from behind and cut off an escape.

Dran will not go to the service so he will hang with the main party but recommends a direct approach that does not require stealth. Lets just wall in like we are supposed to be there. he recommends.

Bilos is stuck with the infiltration team.

Grunigon agrees with Dran. Stealth works better if they don't already know that you are here. "Maybe a couple dwarves should go to the ceremony? If asked they could say the rest of us are in the garden."

"Alright. Clankers go to the sermon, the rest of us see if we can get into Dakang's quarters somehow. Anyone got a method of raising an alarm - apart from screaming real loud that is?"

"As for you Gastidem" she switches back to Common to address the gnome "roll up a phat one and chill, alright? I wouldn't mind a sample - herb helps with meditation according to some of the storm monks."

Kaztor heads on in as the monks all assemble. He takes a seat at an offered mat. Three asimar guards stand at attention on one of the walls (west I think?, I’ll update the map later). A large bodied priest steps up to the raised pulpit and begins talking… but more on that later.

The rest of the dwarves are standing in the garden.

Where do they go and how?

Gastidem as requested collects a sample of leaves and hands them to Halali.

B-line for the high priest's chamber? Dran asks.

"Aye." Halali agrees.

"Yes. And if there's a guard?"

The dwarves feel the straightest route they know would be going back the way they came. And obviously not just walking through the middle of the sanctuary during the sermon. But it would be walking just outside.

Any sneaking?

The priest welcomes the ‘guest’ and makes a comment that hopefully the rest of them will show up to the next sermon. He begins leading the congregation in some stretches.

Stealth probably isn't a real option. Bluff like we know where we are going and are supposed to be there? Bluff: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

The dwarves tromp on into the monastery again, walking right by the sanctuary without even trying to be sneaky and head right on towards the priest's room. As they open the door into the guard's quarters, one of the guards slides back the curtain to the sanctuary and asks them "What are you all doing?"

Grunigon replies that they are supposed to be here, or gives a decently good lie at least. However it isn't in anyway convincing. The guard replies, "Why are you ignoring simple requests? We simply can't let you in there." The three guards appear ready to pull weapons if you continue into the asimar guards' room to get to the High Priest's room. Everyone in the sanctuary is also aware of this conversation occurring, watching closely. The priest up top has stopped his stretching, paying close attention as well.

You may attempt to influence the guards to let you through via Diplomacy (or theoretically Intimidation, though consequences of that is worse).

Kaz moves 20’ closer to the holy priest and uses his detect evil ability on the priest. ”Now hold on everyone, we are here to make sure this isn’t an evil like cult thing. If not, we will be on our way and out of your hair,” he warns.

I hope a 20’ move will put me within 60’ of him, given his elevation.

Would someone move me, please?

Ooh, subtle!

Bilos is much better at sneaking than lying. Or at least less awful.

Stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Bilos feels very quiet and unobserved in the hallway.

Kaztor doesn’t need to move, but his spell is quite observable. It doesn’t seem like anyone knows what he is doing specifically though, fortunately.

The priest gives a jolly laugh, ”Evil Cult? Of course not. My followers are peaceful monks.”

Ander tries sneaking, knowing it's not his strong suit.

stealth: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

sorry i just got internet back...love when it goes down on a holiday weekend...thankfully a friend lent me a wifi hotspot until tomorrow..

Ander decides to stay quiet.

The asimars put hands on weapons (but don’t draw yet) and the leader repeats, ”We. Will. Not. Allow. You. Inside. Those. Rooms.”

The priest adds, ”And while my followers are peaceful monks, my guards of course will do whatever it takes to protect law and order. Are you dwarves really opposed to that?”

”Now why is a leader of a bunch of peaceful monks detecting as evil to my ability to detect evil?” Kaz turns around the room, looking at some of the other parishioners, checking them for evil as well.

The priest chuckles, ”And we are just supposed to believe you have a mystical magical way to detect evil? And it of course supports your crazy claims? I don’t think we are that stupid.”

Neither the monks nor the asimars detect as evil.

"I think that's your cue to head into the office," Bilos mumbles at his incorporeal friend.

Please move me as close as I need to get to not break the tether while sneaking happens.

Are we all in sight of the priests/service then?