PF2E Stolen Fate

Game Master andreww

Billy draws on the power of the Harrow to restore himself. Relocating himself he inspires his companions and then unleashes the power of the sun! One group of spirits seems utterly unphased but the second one shrinks away on horror from the light.

As Red miraculously avoids damage, Sigourney reacts and activates the power of the Eclipse, turning the complete avoidance of damage into a grazing blast.

Activate [reaction] envision (mental); Frequency once per day; Trigger A foe that you're aware of and who is within 60 feet achieves a critical success on a saving throw or a Strike; Effect You produce an aura of doubt that overwhelms all foes in a 30-foot emanation and reduces bright light in that area to dim light, as if the region were under an eclipse. The triggering creature's critical success is reduced to a regular success. All further saving throws or Strikes attempted by enemies within the emanation suffer a –2 item penalty; saving throws or Strikes attempted by the triggering enemy suffer a –3 penalty instead. You can sustain this aura of doubt for up to 1 minute.

The loss of Sigourney's vitality leaves her choking and spluttering. Luckily, her concentration is not disrupted. She Effortlessly causes the Phantom Orchestra to shift position, crashing down in an equally cacophonous roar on Red.

DC 44 Fort save, Sonic area damage, CA, -3 item penalty to Red's save: 10d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 1, 3, 6, 1, 1, 5, 4, 3, 3) + 1 = 34

She quickly gets out of the horde's reach and towards her allies. Pointing her Knifewand at Red, she declares in verse (much like Billy); "They appear to be shrinking - press our advantage. With my Fire Sign - Holy Light, you can feel my rage!"

Concealment Flat check DC 5: 1d20 ⇒ 6

Holy Light, CA: 1d20 + 34 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 34 + 1 = 52

Fire damage, CA: 13d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 6, 3, 1, 1, 4, 2, 5, 4, 1, 4, 3, 2) + 1 = 43

Spirit damage if Unholy: 13d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 2, 5, 4, 2, 3, 5, 3, 4, 1, 5, 6) = 47

"Slick, if you stay within my touch reach, I can give you the power to harm these ghosts. Do not go leaping out of my reach, I cannot catch up with you!" She says in a harried tone.

↺The Eclipse, ◇ Sustain Phantom Orchestra (Effortless Concentration), ◆ Stride, ◆◆ Holy Light Red

Reginald continues running.

◇ Independent Stride

"I can't believe she's attacking me," says Pine conversationally, casually cartwheeling through the air to avoid the blast. "Can't trust anyone over two feet tall. They keep betraying me like that!"

Too much emphasis on snark and showing off, he gets a little singed.

Reflex: 1d20 + 35 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 35 + 1 = 40 Failure, but Pine takes only half damage. And subtracts his resist fire 10, that makes 11.

Red finds itself suffering under the holy light. It then finds itself pummelled by noise and blasted by more holy flames, although it does not appear to be affected by the holiness. The group does shrink under the assault.

These are undead but they are not unholy. Pine, I made your save against the sunburst for you, you are fine.

The red troop swoops down to the ground and assaults Sigourney and Billy, lashing out with their spectral blades! Fortunately their magical protections ward them from some of it.

Based on the GM's description, I'm going to assume that Red is on the ground.

Taking his own advice, Slick switches his Brass Dwarf resistance in an effort to minimize the damage caused by the screams of these ghostly troops.

Action 1 (◆): Activate an Item: The Brass Dwarf - Switch the current resistance equal to your level (19) from electricity damage to sonic damage. For 1 minute, you gain weakness equal to half your level (9) to electricity damage.

Slick then hears Sigourney's call to get close to her if he wants his blade made more effective against these ghosts. He takes her up on the offer and launches himself at the ghosts that just attacked her, landing beside her when he's done and taking one more wild swing at the creatures before him.

Actions 2 & 3 (◆◆): Needle in the Gods’ Eyes
- Action: Leap with Greater Boots of Bounding - Up to 60 feet horizontally or vertically.
- Action: Strike (+3 Major Striking Greater Flaming Holy Quickstrike Greatsword) with Courageous Anthem vs Red.
- Action: Strike (+3 Major Striking Greater Flaming Holy Quickstrike Greatsword) with Courageous Anthem vs Red.

Greatsword Attack: 1d20 + 34 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 34 + 3 + 1 = 54
Greatsword Damage: 4d12 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (1, 8, 12, 1) + 15 + 1 = 38 slashing damage
Greatsword Flaming Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 fire damage - no resistance
Greatsword Holy Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2 holy spirit damage
Greatsword Holy Extra Damage to Unholy: 1d4 ⇒ 4 holy spirit damage

Greatsword Attack: 1d20 + 34 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 34 + 3 + 1 = 55
Greatsword Damage: 4d12 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (10, 1, 10, 11) + 15 + 1 = 48 slashing damage
Greatsword Flaming Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6 fire damage - no resistance
Greatsword Holy Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2 holy spirit damage
Greatsword Holy Extra Damage to Unholy: 1d4 ⇒ 4 holy spirit damage

Action 4 (◆): Strike (+3 Major Striking Greater Flaming Holy Quickstrike Greatsword) with Courageous Anthem and MAP2 vs Red.

Greatsword Attack: 1d20 + 34 + 3 + 1 - 10 ⇒ (17) + 34 + 3 + 1 - 10 = 45
Greatsword Damage: 4d12 + 15 + 1 ⇒ (12, 1, 10, 10) + 15 + 1 = 49 slashing damage
Greatsword Flaming Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 fire damage - no resistance
Greatsword Holy Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3 holy spirit damage
Greatsword Holy Extra Damage to Unholy: 1d4 ⇒ 1 holy spirit damage

Slick leaps into the group of spirits and lays about him, landing a pair of moderate blows.

Large groups like these are not enemies Pine is well-equipped to deal with, but he can still help Slick. He swoops through the middle of the troop to get to the other side, lashing at as many of the ghosts with his whip as he can.

◆ Stride to flank
◆ Strike Whip: 1d20 + 34 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 34 + 1 = 51 for nonlethal slashing: 4d4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (1, 3, 1, 4) + 6 + 1 = 16, precision: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 5, 6) = 21, cold (ignores resistance): 1d6 ⇒ 6, and spirit (holy): 1d4 ⇒ 1; on crit, double damage and add deadly damage: 3d8 ⇒ (1, 6, 7) = 14, target is Off-Guard one round, target triggers Slick's RS, and DC 34 Fort or Slowed 1
◆ Strike Whip: 1d20 + 34 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (16) + 34 + 1 - 5 = 46 for nonlethal slashing: 4d4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (1, 2, 2, 1) + 6 + 1 = 13, precision: 4d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 4, 3) = 13, cold (ignores resistance): 1d6 ⇒ 5, and spirit (holy): 1d4 ⇒ 2; on crit, double damage and add deadly damage: 3d8 ⇒ (8, 3, 2) = 13, target is Off-Guard one round, target triggers Slick's RS, and DC 34 Fort or Slowed 1

Pine pokes at the mass of spirits but to limited effect.

The second host of spirits up and over the group, descending to bring their weapons to bear.

They move so as not to provoke. Pausing to check for rerolls.

The known DC for the blades' Reflex save is in the 38-42 range, but given their other known DC ranges, I suspect it is likely closer to the top end of that range (say, 41-42). I'm down to my last Harrow Reflex re-roll, which unfortunately was a failure at -4 to the roll. This brings Slick's Reflex bonus down to +25. So, Slick will need to roll a 16-17 for success, and a 6-7 to avoid the crit fail. Given that we're only dealing with void damage and none of that Drained stuff, I'll use it here to try and avoid the crit fail. Not sure I'll ever use it otherwise.

Focused on the troops he'd just attacked, Slick is caught a little flat-footed by the advance of the other group of troops. He spins around to face the new danger... and loses his balance...

Rerolling with my Harrow Ritual result: Keys (⚿): - Failure (-: reroll a Reflex saving throw with -4)

Reflex Save vs DC 38-42: 1d20 + 29 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 29 - 4 = 45 (Bulwark +1, Tempered Reflexes: S▸C)

Then again, I could always roll a nat-20.

...but almost miraculously, he stumbles just enough for the ghostly blades to miss him entirely, but not so badly that he ends up on his butt.

Slick manages to weave around the mass of attacking spirits. Billy and Sigourney are not quite so fortunate.

Billy chants another refrain to keep the group properly inspired.
♫"My singing never-ending. These troops, let's keep on rending!"♫
CA extended for another round.

Time for a first-time spell...
With everyone huddled together, the little halfling realizes it's impossible to avoid his friends in a blast. But he recalls his Aasimar father teaching him an ancient incantation when one is surrounded by undead. He mutters, "You've got to hear it. I've got the spirit!", and casts Divine Decree.

Spirit Damage +CA: 7d10 + 1 ⇒ (1, 10, 6, 2, 8, 6, 10) + 1 = 44
Divine Decree: 40' emanation which only affects enemies

He then bravely moves to a more strategic position (past Slick) to the north.

◆ CA (quickened), ◆◆ Divine Decree, ◆ Stride
NB: Billy has Devine Decree as a 1/day innate spell, thanks to an Aasimar (now Nephilim) ancestry feat called Celestial Word, remastered as Divine Declaration.

"That is a neat trick, Billy. We could have used a banishing spell versus all those fiends we faced a while back..." Sigourney comments as she Effortlessly Sustains Phantom Orchestra on Red and Blue's.

DC 44 Fort save, Sonic area damage, CA, -3 item penalty to Red's save, -2 item penalty to Blue's save: 10d6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 2, 2, 1, 6, 5, 4, 1, 4, 2) + 1 = 31

With the Eclipse heavily affecting Red and Blue's ability to defend against their magic, Sigourney continues to sustain the waves of darkness pouring out of her body.

Rummaging around her Greater Accolade Robe, she Reviews as a Free Action, quickly finding that Scroll of Ghostly Weapon she bought all the way back at the Storval Stairs.

She then tries to Recall Knowledge about what she overheard at any point in time about Blue and which defences are particularly weak. She wants to know the details (ie how it works) of Blue's lowest defence. Her Dubious Knowledge gives her one piece of true and false information on a failure.

Squinting through the dim light, she sees Slick Slashing away at the ghosts - although with much less effectiveness than usual. She reaches through the concealment to try and enchant his Sword with Ghostly Weapon...

DC 5 Flat check concealment: 1d20 ⇒ 17

...and with delicate fingers grabs the sword, pumping magic into it as it becomes translucent.

It gains the effects of the ghost touch property rune, which means it doesnt take up a rune slot and mess up Slick's macros.

"I should have done this from the beginning. Go kill them all Slick. Make it permanent this time."

◇Effortless Concentration to Sustain Phantom Orchestra, ◆ Sustain The Eclipse, ◇Review (Recall Knowledge Blue + Interact to Draw Ghostly Weapon, ◆◆ Cast Ghostly Weapon on Slick's Greatsword.

Billy unleashes divine power against the collected spirits. As the power rolls through the massed spirits they give a collective sigh and slowly fade away. They may return at some point but not at any time that needs to concern you.

Searching the chamber, the only item of any worth is a pair of golden shears sitting on the altar. You can recover them easily enough. Now you have all three items needed to access the chamber holding the Harrowing Three!

What do you do?

Combat status

Slick [293]
Billy [234], 72 damage
Pinebrush [272]
Sigourney [217 - Drained 1, 198], 85 damage
Reginald [133], 15 damage

Even though he sustained minor injuries, Billy doesn't want to waste any more time before visiting the legendary Harrowing Three. He asks the group hopefully, "Now that we hold the three keys, are we ready to keep our appointment?"

While the group responds, Billy casts Prestidigitation to make himself presentable. He then retrieves his mirror and comb to tame his golden locks. He begins heading toward the tree's roots -- hoping his friends follow.

As Sigourney slides up and starts casting a spell on his greatsword, Slick sees the last of the ghost troops disappear under the effects of Billy's spell. "Hold up there, Sigourney. Looks like Billy took care of our little ghost infestation. No need for your spell now."

Slick walks up and recovers the golden shears from the altar. He swings them around to see if they're merely decorative or if indeed they could be used in a fight. He turns to Sigourney. "Any chance you can look these over and figure out what kind of magic we're dealing with?""

With Billy's divine power banishing the banshees, Sigourney puts away her scrolls and takes a seat on the ground, clearly exhausted.

"Hold your horses, Billy. I'm still Drained and we need to inspect the shears."

Sigourney spends a single action to Identify Magic on the Shears.

Arcana, Quick Identification (Legendary), Unified Theory: 1d20 + 37 ⇒ (16) + 37 = 53

"Pine, could you treat our wounds? The Harrowing Three can wait another hour or so."

The shears are a +3 major striking vorpal weapon.

Pine examines Sigourney. "I think so. Might take a while, though. I've never treated a life-draining injury."

Legendary Medic takes an hour.
Medicine: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (14) + 31 = 45 That's against the DC of the effect that caused the Drained condition, so probably a success.

The more mundane injuries are easier.

Slick is surprised by the news of the runes on the shears. Vorpal shears! Wow! I've heard of such a rune, but I've never actually seen one in person. I thought it might have just been a myth." He's not convinced that shears are the best weapon for such a rune, but there's no time to seriously consider the other possibilities at present.

Insta-kill on a nat-20 is nothing to sneeze at.

He tucks the shears in with the other keys in Billy's Spacious Pouch.

Loot sheet updated.

Once everyone is back up to full strength, Slick looks around to make sure they didn't miss anything before nodding to Billy. "I guess that's it then. Let's go find these Norns we've heard so much about."

Properly presentable, Billy is very anxious to actually meet his legendary heroes. When he's forced to wait (and get healed), he bides his time, strumming his lute and praying to Desna.
Billy refocuses in twenty minutes.

After that time, Billy turns to Pinebrush, "Not to rush you, but are you done yet?" He paces and thinks about what he'll say to the Harrowing Three.

As Slick begins to stow the shears, Billy asks, "Don't we need to present the three keys for passage: Gegnir’s Knife, Speaker’s Claws, and these Golden Shears. Should we have them out and available?"

When the group is (finally) ready, Billy casts Musical Accompaniment to include appropriate reverent music for the conclave.

Sigourney waits patiently for Pine to treat the party up. She spends 10 minutes contacting her patron, communicating wordlessly with the dragon.

Refocus done in 10 minutes.

As Billy frets about presenting their loot, Sigourney can't resist the opportunity to correct him. Speaking gently, she says; "No Billy, we are not presenting these three items to the Harrowing Three. We are using it to cut the magical rope securing their lair so we can come in. Quite an inefficient system I must say..."

When the group is ready to go, Sigourney gets on her Floating Disc and floats after the group. Walking is too plebian when you're a high level caster.

Patching yourselves up the group heads back into the branches of the great tree. The boughs guide you back down to ground level and you soon find yourselves once again before the door.

Once again the Keeper addresses you. Welcome back mortals. I see you have located all three keys. I may now permit you access to the Tripartite Seal.

With that, he steps aside.

Technically the AP has you fight him on his own but its a fairly trivia fight four against one. Its more interesting if you try and force things when you fight him and the Linnorm.

Examining the seal you note that each is empowered by a separate type of power, arcane, divine and primal. The shears contain potent divine magic, the dagger arcane and the claws potent primal magic.

What do you do?

Slick leans in and examines the seal. He notes that each of the keys they'd collected resonates with a power corresponding to each of the three parts of the seal. "Maybe I'm just being simple here, but it seems to me that we should use each key to cut the part of the seal that matches its power."

Unless someone tries to stop him. Slick pulls out the vorpal shears and uses them to try and break the divine part of the seal. If that proves successful, he does the same with the Gegnir's dagger against the arcane part of the seal, before finally using the claws of the Speaker against the primal magic of the last seal.

Sigourney intervenes and stops Slick.

"Wait," She says. "Let us cut the seal open together, all at the same time. I do not think it makes any difference, but it feels appropriate that we prove ourselves together, as we have over countless trials."

If everyone agrees, Sigourney distributes the weapons, leaving the shears with Slick, handing the dagger to Pine and Reginald to cut together and leaving the claws to Billy.

"Everyone ready?" She calls out.

As the wise witch speaks, Billy nods. "That seems like a fine idea, Sigourney. Yes, let's try it together."

Billy accepts the Speaker's Claws and readies to sync with the group.

Each of the three of you takes a weapon and reaches out to the Seal. As soon as you touch each weapon to the relevant know it fades away. As it does so, each of the weapons also dissolves into nothingness.

As the seal falls away the massive doors slowly swing open. Countless golden threads dangle in loops from the ceiling of the chamber, while large piles of the same thread lie scattered throughout the room. A spinning wheel stands in the centre of the chamber. Numerous shelves holding a variety of items and treasures line the walls. The large double doors you enter through are the only way in and out, while at the opposite end of the room sit three enormous wooden thrones.

Each throne is home to a massive, horned Norn. The Norns address you, switching between themselves as they speak. Ah, the great heroes. We are pleased that you have finally made your way to us, as we foresaw that you would. We’re sure you’re wondering why we’ve called you here. We have a proposition for you. My sisters and I are not wont to leave the safety of this chamber, but we are in need of powerful beings such as yourselves. You have been fated to gather the scattered cards from a very particular deck. A deck that we worked tirelessly to create since the dawning of this Age of Lost Omens.

You did well to gather what cards you could, but now the Betrayer has taken them all. You will seek her out, reclaim what was taken, and return the cards to us so that we might restore what these Lost Omens stole from us. You might ask why you would do such a thing for us. We are prepared to explain your fate if you wish.

Billy steps forward. He cannot believe he's actually in the presence of The Three. He bows respectfully, "It's a great honor to be here." He continues, "I've heard tales, but this is more than I could have imagined."

When asked about their fate, Billy responds, "Yes, oh great harrowers, we're very interested in knowing more about our role in all this." He smiles warmly and does his best to keep his composure in the presence of legends.

That is some really cool art. They look like they're engaged in a game of Blackjack with truly cosmic stakes.

Sigourney hangs back, letting Billy do the speaking as usual. While Billy chats up three huge horned women, Sigourney studies the youngest looking one with her Biographical Eye.

"Who is the Betrayer? Are they the Raven Nicoletta woman that the Prince of Wolves told us about?" The Witch asks plainly.

DC 30 secret Society Check, +36 Modifier.

Sigourney realises that these beings are the Harrowing Three, a trio of near deific legendary Norns.

They smile at the group and at Billy's kind words. We believe that you are destined to recover the Deck of Destiny. We created the Deck so that we could perform a reading for Golarion itself. By doing so we would fix the fate of Golarion and all who live here. In that way, the power of Prophecy would return to the world. The future would be fixed, people could learn their fate, plan their lives. Order would be restored to the world.

They pause for a moment and sigh, Sadly, before we were able to complete the reading our home was attacked by three villains, Drustan, the Prince of Wolves and Raven Nicoletta. Their attack disrupted our ritual and caused the cards to be scattered across Golarion. They were able to seize some, others came to you but yet more were lost across the planet. You managed to recover most of them but in doing so you gave Raven the chance to take them all with the box she created to contain the Deck.

If you agree to recover the cards and return them to us so that we can complete the Reading then we will release Zellara and she can tell you were you might find Raven. We will, of course, reward you for doing so. As for the Betrayer, that is not Raven but the last of the Deck. Surely you noticed that one Card was missing. Raven took the Betrayer with her when she fled from here in the aftermath of our confrontation.

Slick keeps quiet and lets his friend Billy carry out the initial questioning of the Norns. But the more he hears, the less he likes it.

All this talk of creating the deck to restore the power of prophesy so as to allow people to learn their fate didn't exactly sit well with him. He liked the idea that his own fate wasn't set in stone and that his actions and decisions would be what determined his future. He didn't like the thought that he was merely a stringed puppet carrying out a script set in motion long ago by some celestial puppeteer... or the three before him. Without free will, was was the point of living?

He voices his reservations. "To be honest, I see little advantage in helping you restore the power of prophesy to Golarion. I much prefer the idea that we have free will to shape our own futures, even if that results in a messier and more chaotic world. At least it would be our world, not that of some powerful being or beings in whose play we are but mere actors reading our lines. Why should be help you in your quest to rob us of our free will?"