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- Wow, I see you tough guys. It is not a usual approach for simple travelers. BUt I do not want troubles, fellas.
The dwarf put down a stick wich looks as an axe now and steps back. And raises opened hands in a apologetic gesture.
- If you do not mind to read here at the note-board are some legal lines. As for me, I will bring my own documents in a minute. - Chirium makes a guesture that he is going to enter a small boarder worker cabin and maked it way (for illusion cover).
- impudent hucksters -adds alchemist when he thinks he won't be hheard clear.
You realize that you cannot convince the men based on the current situation but you leverage the illusions to create a diversion that allows you flee!
Once everyone is accounted for you roll out, back into Magnimar.
As you arrive into the courtyard empty handed, the Venture Captain looks up and scowls. "You obviously were not successful?!" she snaps, then turns and speaks quiet instructions to a nearby Pathfinder.
Her glare does not softens when she hears about the confrontation and that you were not able to get the gold ... she looks at the sky.
Turning back to you, her voice stern, she says "I thought I had made myself clear that you were to hide your affiliation with the Society. I appreciate that you took some precautions to hide your involvement, but anyone who recognizes such high level of magic can potentially trace you back to my house ... they do not have to think too hard to figure out who tried to raid the caravan."
The next morning, two hours before the auction is slated to begin, Sheila Heidmarch calls everyone back to the theater for another emergency briefing. She appears greatly agitated and her tenor is one of immediacy.
”My friends, we have little time and much work to do, so I’m going to make this simple. While you were dealing with the Aspis Consortium, my informants in the city investigated the individuals you reported on from last night’s gala. It seems a number of them have sufficient funds to jeopardize our efforts. In what little time remains, I need you to prevent as many of them from participating in the auction as possible. My agents will provide each of your groups with a mission brief. Once you complete the task, return here to inform us of the results, and we shall quickly set you upon another mission. Again, we need you to complete as many missions as you can before the auction starts. But remember to keep your efforts clandestine and try not to kill anyone important. We’re still trying to win the auction somewhat legally.”
______________
You return to the Lodge and get a night's rest.
You are then called before lady Heidmarch again.
“We have a noble Paladin in the group who I personally appreciate! Thus, I’ll choose the missions that you can do with little conflict!“ she says looking at Zaigan with a smile.
“I think we got lucky with our merchant friend, Falrig Sneve. He mentioned that he was trying to conserve funds for the auction, so we sent him an invitation to stay at Haruka House on the grounds of our manor. If you have yet to see it, Haruka House sits alone on the west side of the main house and is the most luxurious of the four Thassilonian cottages on the property. As far as I can tell, Sneve suspects us of no foul play. Still, we can’t have him mucking up the auction, can we? Thankfully, I doubt we have to do much. Ensure no actual harm comes to him, though, as such would reflect poorly upon Heidmarch Manor and the Pathfinder Society. Rather, somehow trick him into believing the Runecarved Key is cursed and he should withdraw from the auction without any further urging!“ she says.
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What we know
The Collector - Falrig Sneve
Toward the back of the room stands a gray-haired man in his early fifties, dressed in fine silken robes and flanked by two muscular guards. The man nervously fingers a small silver coin, flipping it about in his fingers.This nervous man is Falrig Sneve, an eclectic and wealthy merchant and artifact collector from the Capital District.
You heard rumors that Falrig is extremely superstitious.
You can sense that Falrig’s behavior is somewhat compulsive, such as knocking three times on doors before he passes through them, counting certain objects or groups of people, and deliberately avoiding the cracks of mortar between the cathedral’s tiled floor.
Scarlet realizes that as soon as she arrives next to him, Falrig Sneve displays an obvious interest in the Runecarved Key as he looks in that direction all the time.
***
Falrig looks at Scarlet and readily declares, "I am very sorry ehh ... lady but amusement is not necessary! I have great interest in the key!" he says but suddenly his expression changes.
"But I do hope that this auction goes better than the last one. The last time I bought a similar piece, it was cursed.” he confesses.
The VC replies.
“How you attempt to convince Sneve is entirely up to you. You can attempt to fool him through the use of your social skills, create some kind of phantasm or mental manipulsation to haunt Haruka House, or use a combination of the two!“ she says and sends you off.
You make your way to Haruka House that sits alone on the west side of the main house and is the most luxurious of the four Thassilonian cottages on the property.
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Chiriim may talk but do not like to. So he would craft and prepare some scary things maybe more to scare and make things non-useful . He even has magic wand of Erase to remove unproper letters and signs. So the alchemist wants to be playful. And in a negotiation suggest that Runelords and Lissala herself watch over the Runekey. So it may be dangerous to possess.
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After hearing Lady Heidmarch's initial briefing, Sihir scarcely bothers to listen to the back-and-forth beyond it - this time, he knows EXACTLY what to do!
He decides to start small: A while after Mr. Sneve's arrival, after sundown and when he is alone somewhere (or at least believes himself to be, as the dark little man hides nearby, under the Veil of a forgettable human servant), the lights around him begin flickering, flaring, and dimming uncontrollably for a solid minute!
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- This is the plan.
- Please do not post things until you have read and understood the plan.
- If something doesn't make sense or you are unsure, OOC your question.
- You are not bound by the plan, but it is what other people are doing.
- If you want to do something other than the plan, dop not cut across other peoples actions and ruin their plan.
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When Sihir sees what Brallenera was working on, he imbues it with his own finishing touch: A powerful, but subtle illusion marking it as a mighty - perhaps cursed??? - object of arcane craft! For all he knows, the lavish gesture may go completely unnoticed by their guest if he's no training or talent in seeing the Hidden World, but to the Wayang mind, a work of art that goes unseen is perhaps the most precious work of art of all.
As soon as the illusionist starts his spell you hear a little shriek.
The illumination in Sneve‘s room seems to flicker erratically, fluctuating between absolute darkness and blinding brightness.
The man seems to investigate something …
… but suddenly he realizes that this is somehow strange.
“Who … who is there?!?“ he asks loudly from inside his room.
~
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Scarlet and Poppy.
Poppy The pair sneak around the property, quietly picking their way around the property and making some odd noises and having things go bump in the night, playing on the mans know love of patterns.
Poppy adds to this with a silent image of sihedron symbols appearing in odd locations around the house. Then adds some Dancing Lights
Scarlet adds to the 'ambience' by playing a slightly haunting and disconcerting tune down the chimney, whilst Poppy adds some disconcerting childlike laughter.
Scarlet - Stealth
Poppy - Stealth
Poppy - Silent Image - DC16 Will save.
Scarlet - Perform Stringed
Scarlet and Poppy are really successful because Falrig Sneve suddenly drops to his knees and starts chanting in a strange tone.
"Please my lord!! Let the curse hit someone else this time ... let the law of attraction be broken ... "
Arrius' and the Chirium the Sage's work on the prop are exquisite to support and eventually also the Wayang's alchemy provides a great source of spookiness!
"Arghhh ... noooo ... please spirits of the past! Please do not haunt me again!" he cries out and starts tapping on the ground in a specific pattern.
But somehow he does not receive the answer that he wanted and cries out in completely shock!!
"Okay!!! Okay!!! I understand!! I will not pursue another artifact!!! I shall not do it again!! No I shall not!!" and he starts packing his belongings to leave the mansion.
You return to the Venture Captain and she happy to hear that you were successful!!
"Good job! Let us see how you tackle the next mission. While we’re not sure how much of a threat Dymal Rinks poses to our winning the auction, we don’t want to take any chances. Our informants tell us that Rinks owes a considerable debt to the proprietor of the Matador, Master Basaale Minvandu. Short on the funds to cover his debts, Dymal Rinks hopes to cash in on the Runecarved Key as part of a wild investment scheme. Unfortunately for Rinks, Minvandu wants his debts paid immediately and has sent his collectors to track the halfling down. I suspect we can easily knock Rinks out of the auction by turning him over to Minvandu’s thugs." she tells you as an introduction.
"Still, I’m a little wary of this course of action as handing Rinks over to the bone-breakers may very well result in his death. Despite being a desperate little imp, Rinks is a decent arbitrator and if word gets back that we played a part in his death, it might make things difficult in the future. If you can avoid getting him killed it might help. Perhaps you can pretend to be thugs and scare him off or simply threaten to rat him out to Minvandu if he doesn’t back out of the auction. In any event, do whatever you need to do to drive him away. Oh, and he lied about his whereabouts. Our informants say he’s hiding out at the Galesford Inn in Dockway.” she says with a stern look on her face.
You find out that Rinks is holed up in his room at the Galesford Inn and doesn’t intend to show himself before the auction.
You realize that in order to confront him, you are going to need to find some way to sneak or break into his room.
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"Of all the numbers, '2' is the wickedest liar," interjects Sihir, reemerging after a period of that silently-and-inconspicuously-lurking-for-so-long-you'd-almost-forgotten-it- was-there way to which Wayang seem so prone. "When faced with two ways, seek first another."
He shuffles up to (and just to the side of) the door...
...and with barely a tap on the knob, it swings wide open!...or does it???
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Scarlet makes her way through the Inn and quietly picks her way to the door.
Stealth
She spends sixty seconds opposite it, checking for traps.
Then moves to manipulate the lock in quick time.
Disable device as a standard action
5 Ranks: Reduce the time required to disarm a trap or open a lock by taking a –5 penalty on your Disable Device check for each step by which you reduce the time required: 2d4 rounds, 1d4 rounds, 1 round, a standard action, a move action, a swift action.
10 Ranks: You can disarm magical traps at a –10 penalty even if you lack the trapfinding ability. If you possess the trapfinding ability, when attempting to disable magic traps, you never trigger them, even if you perform the trigger action (such as looking at a symbol). If you fail the check, you can still trigger the trap, and you can’t use this ability to bypass it.
Scarlet Scoundrel can sneak in and quickly realizes that Rinks has set a number of poison dart traps to guard against possible ingress into his room. But Scarlet is able to disable them!
Sihir Aneh then casts a spell but it seems that whatever he intended is seen through! You open the door but the Halfling looks right at you!
(+2 in Urban/underground)
]
Rinks immediately takes up a fighting position!
"I am not going to let you take me to Minvandu! Go to hell you debt-collectors! I am not going to let you thugs break my bones!" he shouts!
And he double moves to the window!
~
Initiative
Rinks
Scarlet
Chirium
Sihir
Zaigan
Arrius
Brallenera
Chirium demands Burpl to catch the halfling, so giant frog jumps inside and from a chair shoot her tongue to grab target
[dice=Tongue attack] 1d20+7
[dice=Grab CMB] 1d20+7+4Meanwhile Chirium himself consumes potion of Animal Aspect, increasing speed.
The tongue misses the Halfling!
Arrius´s spell has an effect now someone has to use that!
Zaigan´s words just drip off his panick.
The halfling has a dagger in his hand and tries to take the opportunity to stab Scarlet but it is in vain.
Scarlet can really grapple the Halfling!
After a couple of seconds it is clear to the halfling that escape is futile ... especially Brallenera's tight grip reminds him of that.
"What do you want from me you savages!!" the frightened halfling shouts.
The dwarven warrior’s Intimidation is more than the Halfling can handle and you finally break him, at which point he attempts to bargain with you!
“Spare my life. Please?!? Please!! Thanks!! We… what are you thinking about?!?“ he mumbles.
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Chirium grabs something what seems interesting from the room belongings. Thereafter he says
-Okay, listen, hairshank. There are serious people who participate in the auction. And you should not. Now, I am taking this bimble-bimble from your hut and you may thank us for not fuuhh-fuuhh all you stuff. You do not want bam-bam your brain out of ears and moving away hair from your shanks, right? So, I suppose it would be wise to leave city soon-now. Got it?