[ACO] PFS2e 04-01: Intro - Year of Boundless Wonder (P10) (Inactive)

Game Master UncleFroggy

Please dot (add a post) in here and then delete your post to add yourself to this campaign.

1) I am based in Southeast Asia (UTC +8) so my posting hours may be unusual (especially for those in North America). I usually update at least one or twice per day. Just to keep the game moving, please post at least once every day and at least once during the weekend.

2) Please label all three of your actions. Even if you think what you are doing is obvious.

3) If I am unavailable for longer than 24 hours, I will let you know in the Discussion Tab. Out of respect for your fellow players and myself, I ask that you do the same. Real life happens, and real life will always take priority over the game, but out of fairness for your fellow players, please let us know if you will be unavailable for an extended period of time.

4) Please note that on the following days, my posting can get unpredictable:
Tuesday/Thursdays - all day, as they are the 2 busiest days of my work week

4) Please complete the Macros and the Slides linked at the top of the page.

5) Questions, concerns? Feel free to share them in the Discussion tab.

6) Let's have some fun and tell a great story together! After all, that's what we are here for.

"Briney don't Know what Outpost is"

The fire he had created, he has run from - far in another direction "Briney don't Care - Briney Here!" he declares, once the coast is clear.

Yep. At a small stature, a small goblin, small even for a goblin, finds himself ending up at the Grand Lodge, dragging behind him an overly-complex crossbow looking to be about twice-and-a-half his height and probably weighing a ton - it screeEEetch's across the floor, leaving an unstraight line of scraped wax across the otherwise pristine floor tiling.

"Who Boss here?" he conjectures, looking around at those gathering next...

A lithe, young elven woman with a fur-lined cloak, heavier than one expects in these parts, approaches. She has a pack over one shoulder and a longbow over the other and they both drop down in a fluid motion as she discards the thick coat, as if squarely completing the transition from a much colder place. Underneath is nondescript hide and breeches of earthy tones. Her complexion is overly pale, even for an elf. Most interestingly, an intricate pattern of tattoos can now be seen reaching from her forearms to just where her hands meet her wrists. Sleeves hide where they begin. Her blond hair is always tied back and out of her way.

She moves very deliberately and swiftly, while her at-rest stance is of someone about to break into a sprint. She's always "on her toes."

Suddenly Endra looks down at the goblin realizing he is, in fact, a fellow agent despite his stature. She then looks back and forth between a crossbow that seems to be just relaxing, and a point across the room that seems to have caught some flame.

Oh, hello! Looks like you're a good shot with that thing. I'm certainly not the "boss" here. Just waiting to hear about a job, like you! I'm Endra! She leans down and respectfully offers a hand.

A reddish-orange kobold pokes his head into the room and looks around nervously before retreating back into the hallway.

Several seconds later, that same kobold opens the door and marches into the room. "Hello, hello. Felinzi here to help." He looks around the room again briefly. "So, what are we doing? My papers here didn't say much."

"Briney"

Briney reaches into his pocket "Briney knows job" not knowing silly longshank's ways, and hands the pale elf a copper, right into her outstretched hand "Okay?"

He turns to the orange kobold ""Papers". Is he the Boss!? Bossy name." he ponders the question "Where is "here"?" he, uh, pays Felinzi one copper too, just in case.

Then looking around, our small goblin (small even for a goblin) hero busts out a large magnifying glass, apparently trying to discover just who, or where, "Papers" the Boss is!

Endra looks at the coin and frowns.

Uh no, I meant to offer my hand for a greeting. Oh, never mind!

She flips the copper back to Briney and turns to the fire-colored kobold..

Hello Felinzi! We don't know yet, we haven't been briefed! I'm Endra.

Felinzi is a bit surprised at being handed a coin - even a low value one. But the coin disappears into a pocket almost instantly.

"Hello, dears!" says a tall, hook-nosed woman in a sunhat, hands clasped in front of her. "Rayleigh, but Ray's fine. I look forward to working with you!"

And then, registering the previous exchange, she looks at the kobold. "My, you don't happen to be the Felinzi that got into a tussle over at Port Peril, do you? My friend Arn told me all about you! Small world, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes. Yes, Arn told me to come here for work." Felinzi looks relieved to find someone that he knows - or at least knows someone that he knows. "Arn wrote down on paper where to go. Was worried that I read it wrong."

She beams at Felinzi. "He's nice, though not the best at acting the part. Do you know, he's the one who introduced me to the Society? It was a favor for getting him out of that awful arena they had him in. I suppose he felt bad that I lost out on the performing gig I had from them - but really! It's just awful what people are capable of doing to each other."

A very somber-looking gnome dressed in similarly dark formal clothing enters the room. His heavily combed hair is dark grey and his skin is light grey in color. His favorite color seems to be grey as everything he owns seems to be of this color. Even the leather pouches on his belt are dyed gray.

"I am Ozul of the gnome clan Fade. I am from Puddles, in Absalom. I understand that we will working together on this endeavor, whatever it may be. This is my first mission by the way, so please be gentle with me."

Endra chuckles.

First time eh? Well, don't worry. First mission usually only includes one dragon!

"Oh just one? Then I'm glad we have you along! It seems you're up to the task of taking two or more! Solo!" Ozul says with a smile on his face.

"Dragon!?"

Briney stows his magnifying glass for now "Briney can be dragon. But only when danger. Briney mighty dragon in Briney's heart!" there is, to the observant eye, a small vial with a dragon's shape on it stowed inside his vest.

He considers the grey gnome "You from Absalom? Briney too! Briney grew up in puddles. Very old now, almost 7" he seems proud of his advanced age "You look at least 8 or 9" trying to guess the sorcerer's age...

"Ah! A fellow-Puddlesman! A pleasure to meet you!" Ozul shakes Briney's hand vigorously.

"Yes 7 is old for a Goblin isn't it? I am 32 years old!"

A young lady barges into the room, panting heavily. She looks as if she had just awoken from bed. Her socks are completely mismatched, her newly pressed leather armor already in a state of disarray, and her hair in clumps of pale blonde tussles. The only parts of her outfit that did not look messy were the tools on her belt and the very, very sharp shortsword on her right side.

After taking several deep breaths with her hands on her knees, the young lady looks up at the gathered adventurers and beams at them. She starts speaking incredibly quickly. "Hi, so omigosh I'm so sorry I'm late! I just overslept, you know how it is, and I forgot that today's the day to join the Pathfinders and you know I wasn't completely ready but I mean I was ready I had all the tools set up but like I wasn't changed and..." She goes on and on, hardly pausing for breath.

"Oh by the way name's Clara. I look forward to working with you all! She finishes with a beaming grin.

Briney gives Ozul one copper too "Okay?"

Incredibly, Briney matches the rogue's energy!

"Hi Clara! I Briney! Briney the Younger! Briney know how it is! Briney has tools! Briney keeps them neat!" he points to his inside vest - several bottles arranged with rubberbands strapping them to fabric held together with pin cushions "Briney never sleep though! Briney mind no let Briney sleep! Briney forget nothing! Briney remember entire life! Briney remember everything! Briney 7! That mean Briney old! Briney ready for anything! Briney like Nice Tool Lady!"

He spends the next beat following Clara around meticulously - but not before giving her one copper "Okay?" he bounces to keep up with his much shorter legs...

Clara is so happy to find someone as energetic as she is that she goes along with Briney.

"Hi Briney! Oh my gosh you're so cute! Like, these tools are so important but they're so hard to maintain - " She gestures to immaculately clean healers and thieves tools on her belt, each piece fastened securely with leather straps "And oh my, you don't sleep! That's like so cool that you forget nothing - Wish I could not forget so I wouldn't have forgotten to wake up today...Oh and I like you too, Nice Tool Goblin!"

She slows her pace so that Briney can follow along as she wanders around the room, gawking at everyone and everything. She occasionally sees something cool - maybe something spikey or thorny - and she points it out to Briney and asks if he knows what that is.

She absolutely takes the copper and considers asking for more in future.

Ozul takes the copper coin and pockets it like it was something precious, securing it within a difficult-to-reach grey money pouch."Many thanks Briney!"

"Aha! Another newbie just like me!" Ozul looks to Endra, fully expecting her to talk about dragons on the first assignment again.

"Welcome Clara!"

Ozul looks at the kobold. "Hey mister! What's your name?"

"He's nice, though not the best at acting the part. Do you know, he's the one who introduced me to the Society? It was a favor for getting him out of that awful arena they had him in. I suppose he felt bad that I lost out on the performing gig I had from them - but really! It's just awful what people are capable of doing to each other."

"Yes. Very nice. A bit quiet. Rescued me from thugs, he did."

Ozul looks at the kobold. "Hey mister! What's your name?"

Felinzi startles a bit and hides behind Rayleigh for a second. Then steps out boldly and bows. "I am Felinzi. I will be your one dragon on this mission."

"Aha! Another newbie just like me!" Ozul looks to Endra, fully expecting her to talk about dragons on the first assignment again.

Hehe, yes. So they probably will keep it down to one dragon.

She flashes a wink at Ozul. However, Endra does quickly check the door to see if a VC might be walking through at this moment, having overheard her teasing and chide her for it.

It seems like we are all here now for the mission. I just hope the mission itself arrives soon.

"Briney not cute - but fierce!"

"Briney knows what everything is!"

Keen Recollection to Identify Spikey and Thorny things: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

"Briney knows lots of spikey and thorny things!" he proceeds to explain at least 15d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 4, 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 1, 6, 5, 1, 5) = 47 spikey and thorny things that he knows...

She seems happy that the group is getting along, flashing Felinzi an encouraging smile before adjusting her hat and turning to Briney and Clara. "My, so we've got a positive expert on our side for this mission! It's wonderful to have you along. And don't worry about it, Clara, sweetheart, I was terribly anxious on my first mission too, but it all went well in the end."

"Alrighty! We've a shy dragon on our side! And we've a dragon-slayer too!" he points at Felinzi and Endra respectively. "You guys can beat anything!" he says with a wide grin on his face.

As you all get to know each other, a leshy enters the Vault and introduces himself.

"Hi all! I'm Rain In Cloudy Day. I'm a new Pathfinder agent here in the Grand Lodge. I'm a special assistant to Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin. Grand Archivist Zarta asked me to assemble a crew of Pathfinders to catalog some items."

Rain in Cloudy Day has a bright green body and a purple mushroom “cap” atop his head, and he wears a white scarf and brown vest emblazoned with the Glyph of the Open Road. Grand Archivist Zarta Dralneen has long dark hair and black nail polish and is wearing a vibrant blue dress. Both greet the group of Pathfinders in a vault filled with newly acquired treasures, which Rain calls the “Vault of Boundless Wonder!”—a phrase he exclaims while excitedly waving his hands.

Clara spends her time looking hearing about 47 spikey and thorny things from Briney. Sometime during the 25th item, she quickly swipes a healing potion of the counter for later use.

"Omigosh, are you a leshy? You're amazing!" Clara starts gushing anew over Rain.

"You must be the Chief Pathfinder! I'm Clara, nice to meet you. What do we got to do today?" She asks excitedly.

"Ah, there you are!" Rayleigh clasps her hands and smiles, already looking around the vault. Admittedly, she'd not paid it much attention, more focused on making a good impression on her companions. She sees it now - well, she doesn't know about boundless, but it's a vault of wonder, certainly. "How may we be of service?"

"Well met Rain-in-Cloudy-Day! Well met Grand Archivist Zarta Dralneen!" Whew. That's a mouthful!

"Thanks for taking me on this assignment Rain-in-Cloudy-Day! What would you like me to do? And why did you meet us here?"

Felinzi steps back behind the nearest large person that he can find. Meeting the Grand Archivist in person is something that would take a bit of getting used to.

Others have handled the greetings already, no need for him to volunteer his own scales yet.

Briney - now fully understanding longshanks culture thanks to Nice Elf Lady - goes around and gives the venture captains each a copper.

"Rain-in-Cloudy-Day, I'm, um, Briney-on-Every-Morning!" one copper "Grand Archivist Zarta Dralneen, I'm, um, Briney the-Not-Archivist!" one copper.

"Briney can count!" his understanding of the mission complete.

Flipping his different-color pathfinder card, he grabs a nicer Lesser Healing Potion Provision, and hands it to "Here Nice Tool Lady!"

Zarta Dralneen watches the conversation with amusement, but clears her throat to remind Rain of his current mission.

"The Archives get more exciting every day," Rain states then adds, "And who better to manage the excitement than Zarta! Oh, have you all met Grand Archivist Zarta Dralneen?" Rain prompts you to introduce yourselves. Zarta smiles and thanks you for coming. Rain and Zarta then lead you to a table covered in interesting objects.

Rain in Cloudy Day waves exuberantly to indicate the piles of treasure in the vaulted chamber. "Just look at all these magic items! And enchanted weapons! And a skull that always looks at me funny! Big magic books about even bigger magic books! Well, I'm not sure about that last one. I haven't read them. Cataloging all this treasure is bound to be exciting! It sure beats sorting the mail."

Zarta leads the group through the vaults. She runs her fingertips along the table, lifts a strange hourglass, and inspects it with dubious curiosity. "Exciting, yes, and possibly quite dangerous."

Rain frowns. "Well, yes, but… at least we're in the safety of the Lodge? Can't be that bad! You said these items are harmless." He picks up a skull from the table. Its eyes glow with pink fire, and it speaks, "Unhand me, you hideous rotten mushroom! Harmless?! How dare you!" Rain replaces the skull and covers it with a cloth, muffling the voice.
"Well… mostly harmless?"

Felinzi notices Briney pick up a potion from the table and comes over to the table as well. He gives the covered skull a bit of an apprehensive look and skirts around to the far side of the table. He finds a Scroll of Heal and picks it up. He looks over to Rain and asks, "Can keep?"

Rain watches as you choose your provisions. "Oh yes, you can keep it for the duration of your time here. That's in case something falls on you or you slip and sprain something. But you'll need to return it at the end of your task.

"Wait, I don't think I've seen you. Are you one of the Pathfinders who reported for duty?"

Just before...

Endra un-tenses a bit when the VCes finally appear and begin to speak of the work. Too much idle time gets her stir-crazy a little more quickly than others.

Cataloging? Don't you need us out in the field killing things? This seems like something the interns can be kept busy with! states Endra with a hint of disappointment that she hopes is hidden.

--------------------

Now...

Then she follows everyone to the big pile on the table. Rain still seems more excited about it than she thinks makes sense, but Endra is listening.

Then Zarta utters "dangerous" and the elf scout perks up.

Oh? What is dangerous about these objects, here in the safety of this vault?

She winces as the talking skull as it comes to life.

Surely that's not what you meant...

She places a healing potion in her pack and steps over to one of the tables. Her eyes are on Zarta, apparently eager for an excuse to needle her about her work (and perhaps see if she's free to chat after the mission) - but there'll be time for that later. Instead, she offers the archivist a handshake. "Hello, ma'am," she says with a little curtsy. "This is a magnificent collection. I can only imagine how long it must have taken to build up."

"Thanks, Nice Tool Goblin!" Clara says as she takes the healing potion off Briney.

"So what are we looking to catalog?" Clara asks Rain and Zarta. She can barely wait to get started with the mission!

"Wait, I don't think I've seen you. Are you one of the Pathfinders who reported for duty?"

"Um. Yes?" The scroll disappears quickly into one of the many pockets of Felinzi's cloak. "Arn and Palomia said to come here to find work." He hopes that dropping some names of the few Pathfinders that he has met will be helpful. "Good work. Work that won't get me locked up or beat up. Work like sorting stuff. But no taking stuff without permission. That's what Auntie Frog says. No taking without permission."

"Arn? Palomia? Auntie Frog?? Are you sure you're all right, young one? Would you like to see the healers?"

Ozul looks stunned. He says to Rain-in-Cloudy-Day "Did you say that we're here to catalogue these things?" He blinks a few times before continuing. "But I was promised dragons!" he looks suspiciously at Endra.

She tilts the hourglass this way and that, shrugs, and sets it back on the table. "Yes, mostly harmless. We believe these items present no major threat to us, and we've secured those we believe to be cursed. The true danger comes from an old enemy of the Pathfinder Society, the night hag Aslynn. She nearly claimed these treasures for herself before they were entrusted to us. We don't know why she needs the items, or which ones are most central to her wicked plans. I'm off to a meeting to discuss the situation with Eliza, Ambrus, and the faction leaders. You'll stay here with Rain and continue cataloging these objects. We need to learn where the items come from and understand what they do. Then we can decide what to do with them. Any questions?"

Turning to Endra, she adds, "Well, we don't need anything killed, thankfully. There's more to being a Pathfinder than killing monsters, you know."

Any questions, just retcon it in. I'll just post ahead so that you can start on the actual scenario. Feel free to RP :)

Rain calls you over and you gather around the table. "I've taken the liberty of preparing these slides to help you. Feel free to move around the Vault."

Rain hands you a list of things he'd like you to do:

Surprise! It's skill check time. I know you are all shocked and amazed that there is a whole section specifically on skill checks and/or socialization. The listed skills are the obvious ones for each location, but creative solutions may be rewarded!

Also, you can use any Lore skill you have that seems to fit the needs of the area. When you post where you are going, please move your token to that location on the map

Crafting (Expert): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (20) + 12 = 32

Briney swan dives into the Pile of Treasure (#2) and begins swimming around.

"Look Nice Tool Lady - Briney can swim!"

A clumsy backstroke on account of our excitable hero's oversize head never-the-less turns out to be fruitful "Look what Briney find!"

"A room full of treasure and mystery? Sign me up!"

Clara watches Briney do laps in piles of treasure.

"Hey, don't take all the loot just yet, Briney! You gotta save some for me - I need to think about where the good stuff is!"

I can do pretty much all of these tasks but my best is perception (+8). I'll let you guys choose the stuff you all are best at and then fill in for whatever task is left.

"Arn? Palomia? Auntie Frog?? Are you sure you're all right, young one? Would you like to see the healers?"

Felinzi looks down at himself for half a second. "Yeah. Feel fine. I talked to doctor. Doctor frog says I am good to go, but..." He searches through his pockets for a couple of seconds and finally pulls out a small, folded piece of paper and opens it. "Here it is. 'Felinzi' That's me. 'Diagnosis: Felinzi is of reasonably good physical health and is neurotic, chronically indolent, and pyromaniacal.'" He puts the paper away. "Which is a lot of big words that I have to keep paper to remember."

Felinzi takes a look at the list of tasks, then looks nervously around the room. He doesn't want to be working too far away from everyone else and waits to see where some of the other people are heading to before following someone.

GM Tiger wrote:

"Arn? Palomia? Auntie Frog?? Are you sure you're all right, young one? Would you like to see the healers?"

Felinzi looks down at himself for half a second. "Yeah. Feel fine. I talked to doctor. Doctor frog says I am good to go, but..." He searches through his pockets for a couple of seconds and finally pulls out a small, folded piece of paper and opens it. "Here it is. 'Felinzi' That's me. 'Diagnosis: Felinzi is of reasonably good physical health and is neurotic, chronically indolent, and pyromaniacal.'" He puts the paper away. "Which is a lot of big words that I have to keep paper to remember."

Felinzi takes a look at the list of tasks, then looks nervously around the room. He doesn't want to be working too far away from everyone else and waits to see where some of the other people are heading to before following someone.

I just realized I set myself up for that one... Dr Croaker...

Still smarting from having been robbed of the chance to see a dragon, Ozul wanders aimlessly into the Vault. He finds himself on the table full of weapons. He tries to see if there's anything here that is familiar to him.

Warfare Lore: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

"She said there's be dragons. I would've loved to see a shadow dragon..." He smirks when no one is looking.

Briney dives into the pile of treasure and begins swimming laps. Halfway around, something pokes him in the nose. He pops up and pulls a wooden implement out of a nostril. Making a face and taking hold of the non-nostril-end, Rain identifies it as a wand of manifold missiles 1st.

Ozul wanders to the weapons table and has a look. Unfortunately, he's too distracted about not seeing dragons and only finds a rusted dagger.

"Arn told me you were a bit anxious and, um, needed a bit of a push to get things done sometimes," Rayleigh volunteers, which is a much nicer way to put the diagnosis. As she does, she walks over to the skull and lifts up the cloth Rain threw over it.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

.. Unfortunately, she nearly knocks it off the table as she does.

Required roll first
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Flavor roll after
Reflex: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Felinzi follows Reyleigh around the table since she is talking to him. "Yes. I do good helping. I come from Mwangi. Left tribe and ended up in town in Shackles. That's where Arn and frogs and Palomia and her cat found me."

"And you? Where do you come from?"

"Yipe!" Felinzi quickly reaches out and catches the skull before it can roll too far. He quickly sets it back on the table. "Nice cursed skull. Not rolling off table and getting bonked." He pats the skull briefly, then backs up and watches warily to see if the skull does anything dangerous.

Briney looks at the wand.
He points it like a gun.
That doesn't seem to work.
He looks towards Rayleigh.
He looks towards Ozul.
He scratches his head.

Finally, he heads over to his new best friend "Nice Tool Lady - Look!" he produces the wand "Briney thinks the trigger is magical - Who Briney give to?"

He turns his oversized head sideways and bangs the wand against it - 3d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 6) = 12 coins of indeterminate value fall from his ears!