PFS1 #5-08: The Confirmation (GM Mike...R) (Inactive)

Game Master Mike...R

Apologies for the delay, technical issues with the website stopped me being able to post yesterday.

Spotting the approaching Pathfinders Janira musters a smile, despite her clearly dire situation. "I'll see what I can do." she replies to Bart. "It's certainly good to see everyone! Watch out for its horns and axe, its got a lot of attacks! But luckily I think its now too tired to use that big charge it has."

The halfling takes a step back and then uses her whip, trying disarm the minotaur...

Janira whip disarm vs Minotaur: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 6 + 1 = 11

...Unfortunately the minotaur's grip on its weapon is too strong. The creature pursues Janira and lashes out with the axe...

Minotaur broken battleaxe vs Janira: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
damage: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 5) + 3 = 10

...downing the Pathfinder's guide with a single heavy blow and then advancing towards the rest of the party clearly intent on doing the same to them!

Janira is unconscious and has the dying condition, although she does not look to be in imminent danger of death (i.e. she is at a few hit points below 0).

As Janira has the Lingering Performance feat the party will continue to benefit from her inspire courage for another 2 rounds despite her no longer performing. The party will also have noticed that the Minotaur appears to be able to attack targets 10 feet away due to its size.

-- ROUND 2 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Janira (negative hit points, unconscious)
Minotaur -6

(Bold may act)

Zhaxia gauges the distance she'd have to travel to get close enough for her mental magic to work and shakes her head as she reloads. "The best thing I can do for now is keep shooting! I'm sorry I can't do more!"

Light crossbow attack, including lingering inspire courage: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 2 + 1 = 18

Damage, if applicable: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Zhaxia's crossbow bolt zips trough the air and thuds into the minotaur's thigh. The monster let's out a bestial roar of pain, but does not stop its advance.

-- ROUND 2 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Janira (negative hit points, unconscious)
Minotaur -12

(Bold may act)

Morden pushes through the remainder of the underbrush and brandishes his longaxe. Don't have enough movement to cross the river unfortunately.

The rhino charges into the river!

Swim: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

But even a small rhino has little difficulty with a refreshing swim now and then.

This movement will likely provoke an attack of opportunity.

Gore + Inspire Courage vs minotaur: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 3 + 1 = 18
Damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 = 6

Bart gets closer to the water and with a smooth motion he nocks another arrow and lets it fly.

twang: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 = 101d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

still gonna try to jump the stream nest round..will have just enough to try it...would be epic if i could attack at the end of the jump...lol

As Morden's Rhino swims across the river the Minotaur lashes out again with its axe...

Minotaur broken battleaxe AoO vs Rhino: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Damage: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 2) + 3 = 7

...which strikes true, but not hard enough to stop the animal companion making it across the river and dealing out some retribution.

Bart looks to repeat his earlier success with the bow, but his second shot is not quite as accurate.

-- ROUND 2 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Rhino -7
Janira (negative hit points, unconscious)
Minotaur -18

(Bold may act)

With the minotaur now near and Janira down, Zika takes out her bow but instead of shooting at him she cast a spell on the monsters axe, trying to disarm him.

Zika casts Grease targeting the minotaur's axe. He need to roll a Reflex 14 save or let it drop

Minotaur save vs Grease: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Zika casts her spell and the minotaur's axe becomes coated in slimy grease. The creature tries to keep hold of its weapon, but it slips from the minotaur's grasp and lands with a thud on the muddy bank of the stream.

Seemingly concluding that the slippery weapon may no longer be a viable option, the minotaur decides to use its head (literally) and lashes out at Morden's rhino with its horns...

Minotaur gore vs Rhino: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

...however its attack fails to find the intended target.

-- ROUND 3 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Rhino -7
Janira (negative hit points, unconscious)
Minotaur -18

(Bold may act)

Zhaxia smiles a little. "Cleverly done, Zika!" Then she reloads and shoots again.

Light crossbow attack, including inspiration: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 2 + 1 = 13

Unfortunately, her bolt sails over the minotaur's head when it lowers its horns to charge the rhino.

Bart takes a running jump at the river, trying to get close and deal with the minotaur.does my shield hamper my acro check? if so i'll drop it as a free action...
acro: 1d20 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 2 - 4 = 14

Zhaxia's shot goes wide, while Bart successfully crosses the stream.

@Bart - A heavy wooden shield has an armour check penalty of -2 which would have an impact on acrobatics, so I assume you are dropping it?

As I forgot to do Janira's stabilisation roll on her turn, here it is now...

Janira stabilisation (DC 10): 1d20 + 1 - 3 ⇒ (13) + 1 - 3 = 11

Although Janera is still unconscious, it does look like her condition is not getting any worse.

-- ROUND 3 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Rhino -7
Janira (-3 hit points, unconscious, stable)
Minotaur -18

(Bold may act)

Feeling the boostering of Janira's words damnpening, Zika follows the story where the pathfinder left it before falling, only... Not knowing how the story goes she makes it up:

Tired and wounded from a long fight, Gregaro Voth found himself surrounded by ferocious beasts. Alone and disarmed, he began being overwhelmed by the powerful creatures of the jungle. It was then, in midst of the desperate battle for survival that he had a thought... A single tought: He was going to die.

Zika begins an interpretation, to have it started once Janira's ends at the end of her turn.
+1 atq and +1 dmg with weapons. Doesn't stack with Janira's.

yep..dropping it if it does...wasn't sure about RAW...like if the roll doesn't involves your hands for example...just double checking...

Can just barely reach the minotaur from across the river.

Morden strikes with his longaxe!

Bardiche + Inspire Courage vs minotaur: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 3 + 1 = 11
Damage + Inspire Courage: 1d10 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 1 = 12

The rhino keeps up its assault with its giant horn.

Gore + Inspire Courage vs minotaur: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 3 + 1 = 21
Damage + Inspire Courage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 = 6

Can just barely reach the minotaur from across the river.

Confusingly the text in the scenario it says the stream is around 10 feet wide, but it does look like there are some spots where the grid works out so that it is possible to reach across it with a reach weapon. For the purpose of jumping I would say the stream counts a 10 foot across due to its muddy banks, although it does look like there is an area a bit further east along the stream where it does narrow to 5 feet for a little bit.

As Zika starts inspiring the party Morden swings at the minotaur with his axe, narrowly missing the beast. His rhino has more success, once again goring the minotaur in the thigh and eliciting another bellow of pain.

Determined to extract some sort of retribution the bullman once again lunges with its horns in the direction of the rhino...

Minotaur gore vs Rhino: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

...with similar success to its previous attempt, before stepping away from the stream to avoid any more attacks from across it.

-- ROUND 4 --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Rhino -7
Janira (-3 hit points, unconscious, stable)
Minotaur -24

(Bold may act)

This time, Zhaxia was ready for the minotaur to duck, and coolly puts another crossbow bolt into it.

Crossbow attack, incl. inspire courage: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 2 + 1 = 20
Crossbow damage, incl. inspire courage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Bart grabs his sword in both hands and barrels forward at the beast.

Come meet your doom, you overgrown chunk of beef! he yells as he brings his blade down.

attack, 2 handed: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 6 + 1 = 151d8 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 6 + 1 = 10
AC is currently 17...no shield

Zhaxia's crossbow bolt slams into the minotaur as Bart advances towards it. Seeing the half-orc approaching the minotaur once more lashes out with its horns...

Minotaur AoO gore vs Bartok: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

...but yet again fails to hit the target, allowing Bart to close and strike the beast with a heavy blow. The minotaur's knees buckle and it falls to the floor unconscious.

What does everyone want to do now?

-- END OF COMBAT --

Zhaxia
Zika
Bart
Morden
Rhino -7
Janira (-3 hit points, unconscious, stable)
Minotaur -38 (unconscious due to nonlethal damage, stable)

Bart swiftly dispatches the beast...I'm not taking any chances... he says as he then heads to Janira to help render aid by giving her one of the healing draughts from her bag.

Acrobatics: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (16) - 1 = 15

The heavily-armored dwarf takes his time crossing the makeshift bridge to join the others. Having no particular healing skills, he keeps a respectful distance to let others bring Janira back to consciousness.

Once the minotaur is finished off Bart feeds Janira one of her healing potions to bring the Pathfinder's guide back to consciousness. The halfling blinks awake and sits up. Still a little disorientated she looks around trying to work out what happened. Spotting the downed minotaur and a full set of still very active Pathfinders she allows herself a relieved smile.

"Thankyousomuch!" she manages before composing herself. "I would compliment you on your combat skills, but it looks like I missed most of it. Rest assured I'll make sure your heroism here gets mentioned in the report.". She reaches down and rubs her ankle "I can't believe I managed to trip over that tree root when I was trying to lead that brute away..." she mutters seeming slightly embarrassed, but quickly brightens again "...Anyway, what did you find in the cave? I'm super excited to find out!"

We made contact with a gillman pilgrim...Uori...he might still be in the caves. He gave us some insight as to the meaning of this place...turns out this has a shrine dedicated to Aroden. You should rest a moment or two...we're just thankful we were able to get to you before he made it back to you...

Janira listens to Bartok's report with great interest "That would certainly explain what I saw when I last visited this place. That's amazing, who would have thought there was a shrine to Aroden in such an out of the way location! Did the gillman travel here all the way from the coast?"

I'll give everyone a bit more time to cover off any further stuff you want to tell Janira and then move things on to the conclusion of the adventure.

"Not sure. But there were skeletons in there too-- livin' ones, like. Well, not livin' exactly, but someone was definitely up to a bit o' necromancy at some point. Don't worry, they're dead now," he says proudly. "...Again."

The halfling looks concerned at the talk of skeletons and necromancy, and visibly relived when Morden makes it clear that the party dealt with that particular threat "It certainly seems like you've had an eventful Confirmation and have clearly been very much up to the task." she smiles.

After quizzing the party further on what they found during their exploration, Janira offers to wait outside to let the party conduct any further study of the caves they wish to do. While she is clearly fascinated about what they found inside, she insists that this is their Confirmation and that she wouldn't want to get in the way.

Once everyone has finished exploring the caves the party make camp and the following morning Janira leads the expedition back to Absalom. The return journey is far less eventful than the previous day's trek and everyone arrives back in the City at the Center of the World without further incident. Once safely back in the Grand Lodge, Janira leads everyone to Kreighton Shaine's office and knocks on the door. Letting them in the Master of Scrolls inquires excitedly about what the party found during their investigation and also asks about any notes they made of their discoveries.

Bart watches over the others as they record anything of note in the cave system.

Well, we made contact with a gillman pilgrim named Uori...he told us about the shrine to Aroden in the cave...the others made notes regarding the place. It holds meaning to the gillmen as well...they have a shrine there too...so that's why Janira saw them go there...

The shrine seems to still hold some remainings of Aroden's power. We discovered that it can perform at least one ritual by iluminating a replica of the city of Absalom.

Zika let's out her notebook with copies of some of the runes that she was unable to translate.

There might have been more information that we were unable to discover on the walls.

The Master of Scrolls takes a look at the pictures in Zika's not book "Fascinating" he muses "Those look to be inscriptions from the History and Future of Humanity. Well done for taking notes, it’s difficult enough to remember what one had for breakfast the day before let alone to recall exactly what one was thinking while studying an inscription. Given that you are now the foremost authorities on that cave and what it contains, it seems only right that you be given the honor of coming up with a name for the cave."

He then turns to Janira "I must also commend you on a job well done, the team have done an excellent job under your guidance.". The halfling starts to protest that all of the good work was done by the party, but is clearly delighted by the compliment.

Three days after returning from the cave, the Pathfinders are summoned to a ceremony at the statue of Durvin Gest situated just outside of Skyreach Tower. There as part of a short ceremony each is confirmed as a full Pathfinder field agent by the Master with whom they most closely worked during their training. As part of the ceremony, the new field agent's mentor also gifts them a personalized wayfinder with a reminder that that this is not only the symbol of the Pathfinder’s trade but also a reminder of the three principle duties of a Pathfinder: explore, report, and cooperate...

...and with that we reach the end of the scenario. Well done, you are now all confirmed Pathfinder field agents. I'll get the game reported and chronicle sheets sorted out within the next day and will provide a link to them in the discussion tab. Thanks everyone for playing!

Thanks for running! Zika, I hope PbP Pathfinder on the boards was enjoyable.