GM Jhaeman's PFS1 # 1-03 (#31) "Sniper in the Deep" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

No one around here is going to complain about a +5/+5 to all attacks and damage rolls. :-)

Unless you already have heroism going, then you could complain that it is only a +3/+5 :)

Malachi sees the shade of Vaydren occupied with the great lizard, and skirts the edge of that battle to face off against Dargo. Eschewing a hammer strike, Malachi wraps his tentacles around Dargo's head and pecks at his eyes...

dirty trick, tentacles, bulls strength, bard: 1d20 + 17 + 2 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 17 + 2 + 5 = 36

Dirty Trick does not provoke thanks to Feat. If CMD is beaten, Dargo is blind for 1 round plus 1 round for every 5 points by which Mal's roll exceeds CMD. Dargo can remove the Blind condition by spending a Move action.

Mal's hammer is still at the ready, so he's threatening at both 5' and 10' reach.

"My eyes!" shouts Dargo, as Malachi's painful pecks temporarily blind the man with blood and tears! Meanwhile, Kitoro helps her allies with magic and inspiring words!

Malachi's dirty trick succeeds. Dargo will be blinded for 4 rounds unless he does a move action to remove it.

Calabaza is up or I can bot tonight.

Calabaza swims down the side of the hold, preparing to dash into the fight at the perfect moment!

Meanwhile, rubbing the blood from his eyes, Dargo growls at Malachi: "You'll pay for that--you'll all pay!" Suddenly a wave of foul energy washes through the hold, restoring strength both to him and his ghostly companion!

Botting Calabaza as doing a move action to get into position so that next round she can do total defense and move into the ghost's square (as close as I can safely get to botting instructions).

Dargo does a move action to get rid of the blindness and then channels energy to heal the ghost for 17 hp of damage. Because he has the Death's Embrace domain power, he also heals from it.

Initiative (Round 2)

The Rock + Ginger
Vaydren's Ghost
Kitoro
Calabaza
Malachi
Dargo

Bold should go!

The Rock bolstered by Kit's magic tries a very difficult shot. He tries to aim a snowball in between the legs of a dinosaur who is engaged in deadly combat with a ghost.

Snowball,To hit touch,Good Hope, Bard Song, In combat, Cover penalty: 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 3 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (2) + 8 + 2 + 3 - 4 - 4 = 7

Cold Damage, CL 10 with intensify rod and place magic, Good Hope, Bard Song: 10d6 + 2 + 3 ⇒ (6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 6, 2, 6) + 2 + 3 = 50

"Kill the ghost, the man means nothing."

The Rock pulls upon his affiliation with the Pathfinder society to guide his aim.

Shirt Re-Roll!

Snowball,To hit touch,Good Hope, Bard Song, In combat, Cover penalty: 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 3 - 4 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 2 + 3 - 4 - 4 = 23

Ginger lashes out at the ghost as if her life depends on it (it does).

Bite,2 negative levels,Gr. Magic Weapon, Good Hope, Bard Song, Power Attack: 1d20 + 13 - 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 13 - 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 - 2 = 30

Damage(Magical),B/P/S, Gr. Magic Weapon, Bard Song, Good Hope, Power Attack: 3d6 + 16 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (6, 6, 3) + 16 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 = 44

Bite,2 negative levels,Gr. Magic Weapon, Good Hope, Bard Song, Power Attack, Multi-Attack: 1d20 + 13 - 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 - 2 - 5 ⇒ (15) + 13 - 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 - 2 - 5 = 26

Damage(Magical),B/P/S, Gr. Magic Weapon, Bard Song, Good Hope, Power Attack: 3d6 + 16 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (4, 5, 4) + 16 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 6 = 42

The Rock's magical snowball veers at the last second and smashes through the ghostly figure, tearing away some of its ectoplasm! An instant later, Ginger tears away more with her enchanted bites!

But instead of responding, the ghost is ordered by Dargo to take on a more immediate threat to himself: Malachi!

The Rock's snowball hit (with the reroll) and does half damage.

Both of Ginger's attacks hit for half damage. One more of those would likely be enough to destroy this thing!

The ghost does a 5' step and attacks Malachi with its corrupting touch. Result: Hit. Malachi, you take 23 damage, bypassing any DR (but damage is halved with a DC 18 Fort save).

Initiative (Round 2)

The Rock + Ginger
Vaydren's Ghost
Kitoro
Calabaza
Malachi (+Fort for half vs corrupting touch)
Dargo

Bold should go!

Kit casts a DC 19 Cacophonous Call on Dargo, hoping to put him out of the combat for good, weaving the cast into her ongoing dance.

Fort DC19: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32

Malachi has had worse than a shiver down the spine before.

"Cala! Get up inside Dargo's business, yes! Let's finish this!"

I'll hold off my combat rolls till I see what Cala does. Fair chance that with all those bard buffs plus mouser flanking Malachi could finish off both the ghost and Dargo in one.

Dargo chuckles as Kitoro's spell washes over him with no effect. "You want to see spellcraft kitsune, I'll show you spellcraft!"

Dargo makes the save vs cacophonous call with a natural 20.

Calabaza and then Malachi (delayed) are up.

I'll post Mal's attacks under spoiler while I've got a minute. If Calabaza enters Dargo's square please open the spoiler. If Cala does something else then that will affect Mal's actions.

"If you last that long. I'm no fortune teller but I'm predicting you don't last more than 15 seconds."

Calabaza races and slides between Dargo's legs to attack from an unexpected direction! A second later, Malachi finishes the fight, destroying both foes with utter abandon!

Per their most recent post in Discussion, I'll bot Calabaza as tumbling into a foe's (Dargo's) square and then attacking. The movement provokes an AoO but it misses.

Calabaza's attack hits and, with sneak attack,does a total of 27 damage. With Mouser, she provides flanking as long as she's in his square.

Malachi's first two attacks hit the ghost and destroy it. His next three attacks hit Dargo and take him down (with three tentacles left to spare, jeez!)

We are off Initiative.

"Well, that is the last time we give a pirate the benefit of the doubt in order to hear his backstory. Next time we will jump him proper when he is not looking."

The Rock casts Detect Magic and examines Dargo, the remains of the ghost (if any) and the chest.

33 Perception on a take 10 (with Good Hope)

"Alls well that ends well. Now, let's see what is in this chest!"

Like The Rock, Kit checks for traps first, but if none are found she will try to unlock it.

pick lock, heroism: 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 10 + 2 = 32

If there is a trap, she will try to disable it.

disable trap, heroism: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 + 2 = 18

As The Rock scans for magic, Kitoro goes to work on the chest that stymied Dargo for so long. And with just a few seconds work, she springs the rusty lock! Inside is a one-foot tall golden statue of the god Erastil . . . it must be The Sniper!

Good work, Kitoro--that was a DC 30 lock.

Rogarch points out the magical cloak, half-plate and short swords that detect as magical.

"Alright people. I think we are done here. Let us get back to the deck of the ship before you forget how to swim."

"Once we are on our way back I can see if I can figure out the enchantments on these items."

It is all party treasure now. :)

Since Kit has a nice stylish cloak with all kinds of mask embellishments on it (tiny theater masks with serious and comedic expressions) there is no way she is going to swap out cloaks! And the breastplate and swords are not her style either, so she turns her nose up at the loot. She does pick up the statue and examine it before tucking it away in her pathfinder pouch (or trying to, the thing only takes 10 pounds).

"Such a fuss for a fancy statue."

"It is alright Kit, we can sell the gear we don't want to keep. I have a few contacts myself and I am sure that Malachi has many more."

The Rock has Profession Merchant as does Malachi. :)

She gives him a brilliant smile and proclaims "Sounds good to me. One of the reasons I took this high risk job is that the society is quite generous with pay. It all evens out in the end and I've never been disappointed. Shall we head up now and see how the guards are doing?"

"Agreed. It is time to head back up."

"Eh... if Dargo was a pirate he wasn't any good at it. Sharks take him, yes."

Malachi eyes the booty greedily. "We'll be well paid, yes. Whatever properties the 'Sniper' has, I'm happy to let the Society determine. As for merchant contacts" Malachi laughs "I sell the finest fruits and vegetables this side of the Steaming Sea, yes!"

Swimming and climbing back to the main deck of the Iron Tide, the Pathfinders can see Dargo's thugs are still trapped in the conjured hedge maze. Unable to cut themselves free without injury, they shout occasionally for help while consoling each other that their patron will soon come to rescue them.

The Rock calls out to the trapped men.

"Not to worry in an hour or so the hedge should dissolve. If you don't fight against it you will be fine."

The Rock looks ready to get back in the rowboat and back to solid land.

"I agree with your assessment Malachi. Are you ready to ferry us back home?"

Kit briefly wonders whether Dargo, unconscious as he is, will eventually bleed out or drown, then dismisses it. Either the guards rescue him or he dies, which would suit her just fine. A rather unpleasant murderous fellow.

Sounds like the group is ready to head back to the Grand Lodge? (if so I'll update in about 12 hours)

"Yes, when we get back I need to take Ginger to a temple. I don't want her experience with the spirits to be a lasting one."

I checked the FAQ (for the CRB) which reinforces my play experience. Energy Drain from monsters is temporary and can be removed with much less expense during the first 24 hours.

The Rock has a Slush Fund equal to the value of his day job which should help to somewhat offset the cost.

"The Besmara's Grace is ready to make sail, shipmates, yes!" Malachi exclaims as Polly alights on his shoulder.

If you've got the same Slush Fund boon as Malachi, it's for 'tolls, bribes, living expenses or other non-permanent costs'. Spell-casting services don't seem to be covered. But negative levels can all be removed by one 380gp - or 2 Prestige - casting of Restoration before they could become permanent after 24 hours.

I don't know about that. spell-casting services for an effect that does not persist between adventures (like charging a Spell Storing Weapon and bringing that spell into the next adventure) seems like a non-permanent cost to me. It will be up to GM Jhaeman to adjudicate of course. :)

The journey back to the Grand Lodge proceeds smoothly, and soon the Pathfinders find themselves back in the presence of Venture-Captain Adril Hestram. "Well?" It seems the past few hours have not improved his foul mood.

@The Rock & Malachi: Once we formally end, I'll put a post about clearing conditions, etc., in the Discussion thread.

Rogarch looks at Kit.

"Just give him the Sniper. That should improve his mood."

"Yes, well, the item was sorely bought. That Drago fellow turned out to be a sneak thief conspiring thug. He got his boss killed and went for the statue himself. Seemed to have a way with undead. Probably a necromancer. Anyway, here you go. One sniper statue."

Though probably old hat to Hestram, Kit makes a show of pulling the rather large statue (at least of keeping in a pouch) out of her pathfinder pouch.

Hestram takes The Sniper, expressing his approval only with a grunt. "Never liked that whelp Dargo. But Airk's dead? Did you find the body?"

"Afraid not. We had a choice between collecting the body and retrieving this. We did find out that the hired thugs hid his body in some sea caves along the coast. We may have to return and question a few folks to find out where. By the way, Dargo was accompanied by an undead spirit he named Vaydren. Not sure if that is important or not. I don't suppose Airk's last name is Vaydren?"

"Eh, Airk's body will be miles from here, and there are hundreds of caves it could be in. Hire a diviner, yes."

"Vaydren was most likely the captain of the shipwreck the Sniper was hidden in: she was named Vaydren's Might. Alas for him, he's not so mighty now, yes. Still, a shade like that won't rest easy. Best pray to your gods that he can't leave his watery grave, yes."

Hestram completely ignores the question about Vaydren.

"If you know where Airk's body is, go get it! Don't you have any bloody pride in being a Pathfinder! When you get murdered, should we just leave your carcasses to rot? If you don't know where it is, then yeah, I'll find a gods-forsaken diviner to do what you can't!"

As with the opening briefing, please don't be offended--I think you folks are doing great, but the scenario gives me direction on Hestram's reaction to mention of Airk and this is my best interpretation. The Venture-Captain obviously isn't a morning person!

The Rock shrugs.

"To be clear we have no idea where Arik's body is."

This is why you always need 5 PP for body recovery. Everything else can be paid for with gold but not this. :-)

"OK, Boss. If you want to pay us to go find the body instead of sending a bunch of newbie recruits, fine with me. And if I spend a little extra time in the tavern questioning the strong burly guards, well, line of duty and all. Happy to oblige. Debriefing is over, yea?"

Kit moves to leave the room and diligently pursue the new mission with all DUE haste.

Hestram waves a hand dismissively before turning his scowl on The Sniper.

From The Rock's post and Kitoro's sarcastic response, the sense I'm getting is that the group is ready to formally conclude the scenario, but I just want to double-check before moving things over to Discussion to clear conditions, etc.

Sounds good. If we fail to pick up a secondary winning condition, I will use the Prized Find boon from The Wounded Wisp to gain the PP anyway.

VC Hestram pulls out the absolute minimum from those around him. He is lucky that we did not sell the Sniper to the Aspis Consortium and claim that it was lost at sea. ;)

"Eh, far be it for me to stand in the way of gainful employment opportunities for junior pathfinders, yes.

Now if you want to hire a ship to ferry a team around Absalom's countless coastal caves, my rates are quite reasonable."

He is lucky that we did not sell the Sniper to the Aspis Consortium and claim that it was lost at sea. ;)

Sometimes you wish there was an option to forgo Prestige for a big bag of extra gold :)