Cellion's page

With the way cleared by Silvia, Ketra leaps past the fallen charred chunks of table and the scorched remains of the blue sealbreaker. She rounds the corner and moves in to engage the last foe, skirting around the edge of their reach until she can lunge in.

+1 Dagger; w/ PA: 1d20 + 14 - 3 ⇒ (10) + 14 - 3 = 21 Damage (P): 1d4 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

Moved you 30ft on the map Garret

Morga, lets say the majority of the acolytes live at home, but likely some that are from outside of Sandpoint live at the Cathedral. Father Zantus and a few other caretakers also live there.

Scarnetti Manor
"A priestess of Cayden Cailean, is it? Pah." He returns his attention to the mounted head tapping a glassy eyeball and frowning "Its far from useless to have a priestess in your debt, but those cozying up to that particular god are usually rather lackadaisical. Still, if she shows up here, I expect introductions and credit where it was due." As he listens to the rest of the tale he frowns, then grows thoughtful "I've heard of this town. Part of the new dominion of that self-styled Runelord. I imagine something can be made of that. Nevertheless, it is a distant prospect."

"As for your church girl, it remains to be seen if she has any value. Convince her to work for me, in addition to her important duties at the Cathedral and perhaps that will make up for your earlier mess." He turns back to Autumn "Anything else for me?"

Autumn can tell her answer hasn't particularly endeared herself to him, but it also hasn't angered him further. It'll take more work, and more buttering up, to get on his good side (if he has one).

----
Turandarok Academy
Turandarok Academy is one of the larger buildings in town, an imposing stone structure near the harbor, left over from the older days. It hums with the voices of children during the day, and with a peek inside Vildran can see a few locals that work for Master Gandethus attempting to corral kids from several ancestries toward a table for dinner. After a little asking around, you're able to make your way to an office where you can speak with the older wizard.

Master Ilsoari Gandethus is a gaunt, tall human in a tailored suit that seems just a little shabby. He greets you coolly as you enter "Are you here to enroll a child?"

Pillbug's Pantry
Podiker recoils at Autumn's mischievousness and scowls "All the vacuous thoughts rattling about in that head of yours put together aren't worth five gold. Young people these days.... No doubt you filched it off some poor sod on the road." He presses his lips together and snorts, before heading off to a shelf where he takes two 'miracle tonics' and puts them on the counter "Now if you want these, lets see your payment and you can be on your way."

-----
Brodert's House
Brodert is glad to have a second perspective from San and peppers both of you with questions about your experience. (I will assume you do indeed trade the ritual materials) After San leaves and Vildran broaches the topic of joining the Runewatchers, Brodert ponder for a long moment "Well, you certainly have the enthusiasm and the skills. I'd be a fool not to invite you. Though before you get too excited, we're nothing more than a group of amateur enthusiasts. Well informed enthusiasts to be sure. Collectors as well, some of us." He indicates the piles of esoterica around his own house "If you're still interested after hearing that, you're welcome to join our meetings. They're right here in the evening on the first day of each season. We share our latest findings and any news. I dare say you may have some interesting things to share if you keep this up. And perhaps you'll even earn the respect of some of the others."

After leaving Brodert's house, you both separately try to remember the other magic users around town. Between the two of you, you recall:
- At the Cathedral and Boneyard, both Father Zantus and the gravekeeper Naffer Vosk have some divine gifts.
- At The Way North, the town's mapmaker Veznutt Parooh is known as a hedge wizard of sorts.
- At the Town Hall, rumor has it that the town clerk, Shayliss Vinder, has some minor skill at sorcery.
- The tavern Risa's Place is now run by the titular Risa's daughter, Lanalee Magravi, who frequently uses her elemental gifts to add some pizzazz to the dishes she makes.
- The local bookstore The Curious Goblin is run by one Chask Haladan, who not only offers various mundane tomes but a variety of occult scrolls as well.
- The local school and orphanage, Turandarok Academy, is run by Ilsoari Gandethus, a wizard of some repute. In addition to his activities in teaching the youth he offers arcane spells and scrolls.
- The lodge Mvashti's Place serves travelers (particularly Varisians) and is run by Jiolan Verneeth, who is rumored to have some talent with primal magic. She keeps these skills largely under wraps.
- The Feathered Serpent's Vorvashali Voon sells a few magical curios and is known to have some simple magic himself.
- The herbalist Hannah Velerin at Hannah's has some divine magic that she uses in tandem with her more mundane medical talents.
----
Savah's Armory
In the center of town along Tower Street lies Savah's Armory, a large and well stocked weapon and armor shop that has for years been a popular stop for both the town guard and any adventurers coming through. The gregarious Savah herself is manning the counter and she happily talks over the goods with San "If you think we don't have an elven branched spear for sale, well, you'd be outright wrong. They were popular a few years back after one of Sandpoint's heroes started using them! And that means we ended up with a few canceled orders and a few leftovers." She smiles "Leftovers that have been waiting for a customer."

"As for magical metalworkers, well, I don't know anyone who's specialized in that kind of work around town, but I know Vorvashali at the Feathered Serpent handles a lot of magical trinkets and does some work of the sort himself. You might be able to cajole him into helping you if you buy something. If you want any magic weapons though, you can always put in an order through the Armory and we'll send the message down to Magnimar for the next caravan to bring something up."

While this conversation is going on, Auggie and Morga have this own chat, with her friend trying to glean some details on her long absence from town.

Ketra yelps as she's showered by burning and blackened table splinters!

Father Zantus beckons to Hemlock to temporarily take the Horn "If you would Belor. It shouldn't do too much to you. And it will take a little time to prepare a suitable resting place for it for now." Sheriff Hemlock blanches and then steps forward resolutely to take the Horn. Within a few minutes Zantus finds the lead-lined box he mentioned earlier and finds a concealed place for it to rest behind the altar that is nevertheless hard to reach without drawing a lot of eyes.

The two of them return with Hemlock shivering and wiping his shaking hands on his pants. Father Zantus says "Thank you all again. I'll be relying on you to hold this in confidence, and to aid in any research when you have time. Morga, that story could hold, but we want to be sure not to create any panic. And I can already imagine how stories of cultists wanting revenge could quickly pick up momentum." Hemlock nods "I'll do what I can to increase patrols nearby without any official statement."

While Hemlock heads out to return to his duties, Zantus returns to Vildran's earlier question. "I believe it was Martin. Martin Cardenal." He smiles to Vildran "And of course you're welcome back to pore over my records and help the research. Twice as many eyes will make the work that much quicker. Otherwise, I will get in contact with you all if I learn anything interesting."

----

RE Autumn: Since all item identification can crit fail and falsely identify something, let me know when you want to try to ID something and how many days you'll repeat attempts if you get a failure.

----

With Zantus taking the Horn off your hands, you have some time to get reacquainted with Sandpoint after your long absence and meet up with friends, family and people who might buy your various magic items. From your new perspective, it feels almost like a whole new town.

Time to talk about how Seven Dooms will work.

Seven Dooms is primarily an "Event Based" adventure, with downtime in between each event. This offers a time for you each to Earn Income, Retrain, or pursue your personal goals. Depending on what you want to do with your downtime, we may jump into individual scenes, or stick to more "general" descriptions. Regardless of the approach, whenever we do downtime, please do work out how your downtime intersects with both the people of Sandpoint and with each other.

In Sandpoint, you can assume common-rarity items of level 4 or lower are generally available. Services to move runes or cast spells are also available if you can identify the particular person who can help you with it and you're on good terms with them. Certain additional items and services, as well as discounts on things you might want, can be gained if you have good Reputation with the important factions around town.

Reputation: During Seven Dooms, your party as a whole has a fluctuating standing with the various major factions within the town. You can find your current standing in the new SRD Reputations link in my header line. This doc will also grow as you learn more about the various factions. The seven factions are: The Bunyip Club, the Runewatchers, Sandpoint Cathedral, the Sandpoint Mercantile League, the Scarnetti Consortium, and the Town Watch, and the Citizenry. Your initial standing with these factions has been influenced by your backgrounds, leading to you being initially Liked by Sandpoint Cathedral and the Runewatchers. The individual pages for the factions will list the effects of your standing.

You can improve or worsen your standing with the factions based on your actions. Many of these actions will naturally happen in non-downtime settings. One surefire way of improving your standing though is befriending individual members of the factions. This can be via Making an Impression, or helping an individual with some task. Most of the 50 locations on the Sandpoint map is associated with one main person that, in turn, is also associated with a faction. Basically... make friends (or enemies) with people and your standing with the factions will naturally change. Many of the various locations around Sandpoint also offers their own individual minor boon if you maintain a good relationship with their representative.

"Kul-Inkit first is a good idea. Though Yambul, I wouldn't be so confident... she may be looking *for* a son even if you aren't actually the guy. Just be polite." The edges of her eyes wrinkle in amusement.

For Akh

Extremely accurate (and cute).

"If I remember what the Baron said right, there's a party every day Yambul. But I do think we'll meet the Baron there today." Ruha shakes her head at the wastefulness.

With a few words of welcome, you settle in to the deck of the sloop and your thoughts turn to your adventures thus far and the impact they've had. Art rushes about with Bastiano's assistance, unmooring from the pier and pushing the sloop off into the bay before unfurling the sails. A stiff wind catches the fabric soon after and you glide your way out and into the open ocean.

The sky ahead is dark, mottled with clouds, and the sun has fallen below the horizon. The wind that propels you onward feels unpleasantly cold for the season. And yet the most unpleasant feeling sits somehow lodged in the back of your minds. The Horn of Rust now travels with you, its resolution your responsibility. You can't help but sense it when you sit too close to the backpack you've stored it in. A prickly, unwelcome presence. A reminder of how close Meitremar came to calling this great evil into the world.

You may be returning to Sandpoint after only a few weeks, but you are returning far more wise to the dangers of the world, your skills honed by experience and flush with treasures found along the way. You recall the tales of Sandpoint's heroes in years prior. The adventures that they underwent. And now... you have your own stories to tell.

----
And with that we conclude Rusthenge! Onward to Seven Dooms for Sandpoint!
----

The ocean voyage is rough this time around, the waves carrying the small boat and testing Art's skills to keep the course correct. It is with relief that you see the first of the long chain of islands that parallel the coast of Varisia down toward Sandpoint. On the second day Art points out the island where you first stopped and saved Ordwi from her dero attackers. Luckily no such ocean-faring deep dwellers appear this time around to attack your own ship.

A day and a half later and with seas finally beginning to calm, you spot the town in the distance. Sandpoint, the Light of the Lost Coast... or so some visitors call it. The ruins of the Old Light greet you, and soon enough you find yourselves approaching the bustling harbor. In comparison to Iron Harbor, Sandpoint is a metropolis, with several ships in a variety of sizes and dozens of people hauling in the catch of the day to be sold in the market.

Check out Handouts for a cool piece of art for the town.

Art moors the sloop in a spare corner of the docks and with surprising spryness gets everything in order for you all to disembark. He offers "I may not have been swingin' swords out there, but I'm glad to have been 'a service in this little adventure. I think we all earned a little rest too. And Bastiano, if ye don't have somewhere else, I'd be glad to have an extra pair of hands on my next trip." He grins crookedly to your team "Don't be strangers now."

As for yourselves, you disembark unsteadily after days at sea. The entirety of Sandpoint hums with activity, familiar, comforting, and yet somehow different after your long absence.

Where to first? You're welcome to split up or stay together, though if you do split I'll likely need some extra time to catch everyone's activities.

I just had a rare flash of inspiration today. I think maybe this is a secret door that responds to those unexplained "bonus" holy symbols we picked up from the armor jerks we fought in the sewer. After the results for the knowledge checks I'll give that a go.

Ruha would have been still next to the golem when it exploded, so:
Reflex: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 14 + 2 = 34

Ruha dodges, but still gets stabbed by an array of metal bits. After Yambul has his turn with the healing wand, she asks for a few taps herself.

CLW x3: 3d8 + 3 ⇒ (8, 7, 7) + 3 = 25

"Quite a lot of explosions we managed in about ten seconds. Lets hope this place is as sound-proofed as Saoria was saying." She glances at the gear coming out of the safe "It would have to be a *very* good tailor Zzvkgrogk. Maybe with a few extensions. And well... it does look a little gaudy."

"Should we go and tell Saoria the news? Of the completely random and baffling lab accident that led to an exploding golem?"

Ruha maintains her Advice and...

(+3/+3, since I see people are missing it from their rolls. Should be an extra 3 dmg on Zzvkgrogk's attack and an extra 6 on Yambul's new crit, in case that makes a difference. Since Ruha is flanking, Yambul presumably also has sneak attack for another 4d6)

Similarly holding off for a moment to see if the construct is defeated by Yambul or Zzvkgrogk. If not, Ruha can potentially teleport Yambul out of its grasp.

Silvia, you're looking rather... high level there :D

"Well, the town pup always liked a bone with a bit of something on it to gnaw, back in Roslar's Coffer. Maybe this is the same idea."

Rūha makes sure she has her defensive buffs active as well as a heroism. With Yambul ready with his falchion and Zzvkgrogk with pistol in hand, she reaches over and quietly turns the knob to ensure the door is unlocked. If it is, she swings it open with force and rushes into the room.

Stealth if needed: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33

Nothing else I'm aware of, but maybe I missed something.

Considering that there's a save to be made prior to Morga having a chance to prepare Cleanse Affliction, there'll be one night where you both have to face a straight Fort save first.

-----

Those of you who rested over night wake groggy late the following morning. Both San and Autumn feel quite a bit worse (Stage 2), though one look at the others infected puts their current state of weakness into sharp perspective.

As for the infirmary, between Morga's determined treatment and alternating shifts from Ordwi and Elsie, several of the patients seem to be doing a little better. The same cannot be said for Morga's Great-Aunt, who clings weakly to life and no longer rouses from her rest. Despite the best treatment, her age has left her too vulnerable, especially with the disease progressed as far as it has. It seems likely she will not last another night.

-----

From here, feel free to roleplay out your next moves, but also confirm out of character what exactly you want to tackle next (either in the short term or in downtime). You can take advantage of discord if you want to coordinate plans or work out how much downtime you want to take. Please also remind me if I missed something you posted earlier that you wanted to do right away - I wanted to tackle Morga's relative while it was still immediate.

While not objectively better in all respects, in practice Enhance Weapon definitely overshadows Supercharge Weapon. At low levels, adding +1 to attack rolls and applying to multiple attacks already makes it superior (though keep in mind Enhance Weapon requires touch range, so it may have a higher action cost depending on positioning).

At higher levels Supercharge Weapon could hypothetically pull ahead due to stacking with the weapon's existing dice, but in practice the damage added, even while heightened, compares unfavorably to even cantrip damage (Supercharge is 3d6 damage at 5th rank for one attack, while telekinetic projectile is 6d6 damage, both costing the same number of actions). Supercharge ends up being absolutely awful, to a degree that makes me think they intended for it to be a single action instead of two.

Another bit of advice for any GMs looking to run this one.

I know the common wisdom on these boards is that summons provide enough small tactical advantages that they are worth the spell slot, but where I've used them and players I've GM'd for have used them, they really have never been much beyond "fine". They cost a lot of actions and almost always a top rank slot. In exchange you get maybe a flank, maybe a body blocker, maybe a small amount of damage and hopefully a cast or two of a lower rank spell. In practice it's rare you can get all of these.

The best recent use of a summon at one of my tables was a 2nd rank where the summon got in a 1st rank heal and one successful hit over 3 turns. Pretty effective, but it cost 5 actions. Those 5 actions could hypothetically have been a 1st rank heal and 3 bow strikes for basically the same effect without taking a 2nd rank slot. So it's not as though this summon was somehow massively over performing, and that's with a lower level summon where ranked spells are comparatively weak and the level gap on the creature is smaller. That makes me feel as though there's room for a little more potency in the summon without rocking the boat.

Also, as someone who played a lot of SF1E, please no summon templates. That was a clunky and deeply unsatisfying system, almost as bad as the polymorph forms system from the same game.

Gurga pats you all on the butt (except for the shorter Morga, who gets a pat on the back) as she chatters excitedly with the other boggards. She speaks up to you in common as well "Very very good news! Now Queen can come back and boggards can rule caverns again. Our new friends have done a great victory. Will you stay? Queen will surely have a feast for you."

When Vildran has a free moment he identifies the two wands - one a wand of create food and the other a wand of sound body (both 2nd level).

Akh nods knowingly to Velgo's comments regarding Guess?'s transformation before the group leaves "Guess?'s emotional core is steady, solid, locked perpetually on target, so that makes sense. The target is money by the way. I think of it like the hard golden center of an everlasting slobberstopper." He waves a claw goodbye and heads off to plan out the details with the rest of the crew.

I assumed Zeldirn would deal with any soldiers. We have our deal with Garvagam, but the impression I got from him was that he didn't want to directly fight and would instead clear out civilians so they don't get caught in any explosions. Not sure if he could be encouraged to rally some locals to give drow soldiers the run around without killing them all. Maybe by spooking them?

Another alternative is to somehow trigger the King to keep them busy... but I don't have any ideas there.

If Akh's mouth could water, it would have begun watering at the thought of a astrozoan-sized marshmallow. He considers trying a lick just in case, but ends up resisting with some difficulty. It wouldn't do to scare off this collaborator, no matter how potentially delicious they may be.

"Well, maybe after all this is done, I can become your disciple. A little gene modification never hurt anyone." Akh muses, very certain that gene modification would probably have some nasty side effects, but that he could also handle them when they arrived. "But for now, we have our show to run! Good luck with your part."

Alright, so we've got a few moving parts. Eska's social media post will probably lure Sinjin here with a bunch of goons. Caprea the raxilite can encourage only a limited landing party. Zeldirn keeps the chaff distracted and/or recruits them. We get some rumors buzzing (maybe via Telpi or Frennick) that Eska is both up with the King AND down in the lower levels to encourage further splitting, but we make the lower levels seem more credible so Sinjin goes there. Then we rely on Velgo to do the actual luring, drawing Sinjin's attention so he comes into an area we've prepared as an actual trap. We can even buy some explosives or something for Jaraduk to lay out. Meanwhile the real Eska is squirreled away somewhere quiet.

Ruha considers even buying a fancy outfit, but thinks to the stories the group has heard of Kevoth Kul, as well as considers the difficulty in finding something that might be tailored to fit her, and dismisses the notion. "If you think about the way his palace operates and the whole idea of this being a feast, I think you all need a bib more than you need fancy clothes. Except for Yambul of course. He should bring his princely best."

To Zzvkgrogk she'll add "By the way, do you mind if I hold onto Casandalee? After our last discussion with her, I'm starting to think she might need more frequent chats to help recenter her in the current place and time as best as possible."

It's been... 3 days since we disrupted the drugs? Do we know if thats enough?

Mysticism: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (8) + 17 = 25
Culture: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (16) + 20 = 36

Ha! I played an astrozoan envoy in an Against the Aeon Throne Pbp I never got to complete. They're really fun. Prosperity "Prosper" Starr never got to complete their mission of becoming the most beautiful shapeshifter in the galaxy♫♪

Akh is quite happy to hear that there's an expert shapeshifter and illusionist here to make the plan a bit more convincing, but the steep price tag gets him thinking those hologrenades might be just as good. Nevertheless he comments "Nice to meet you of course. You can impersonate two people at once? Is that two people in different locations? If so, how much would it be for you to teach that. Imagine if we could do this entire mission while I have another copy of me here at the bar enjoying some nice laid back snacks? And there's no such thing as NEVER right? Even I would fold for some nice marshmallows."

"And yes, Jaraduk is right that we will handle the fighting. But it's not out of the question that there will be some serious danger. Are you okay with at least slipping away from a megalomaniacal drow with magic powers?"

Yep, perfect opportunity for Guess and Melissa I think!

"You can't believe so many jobs could go wrong one after another and think it isn't a brenneri plot?" Akh nods, as if this is an obvious conclusion.

No objections from me Yambul! Seems fair.

Ruha slowly shakes her head at the torment Casandalee still seems to be suffering from. Now with a little distance from the Scar of the Spider, she'd been hoping the AI would be able to recenter herself. This instead made it seem like that wouldn't be possible while the trauma of Unity's treatment of her still rests. She withdraws inward, gripped by a concern about whether that's the way it should be... or if she should be doing something else. She resolves to spend more time talking with Casandalee to see if she can help. By the time she rejoins the conversation she's a little behind.

"Uh, yes. Zzvkgrogk undersells Unity more than a little with that description. Worse than a bad piece of technology, it is an entity that has perpetuated some great cruelties here in Numeria while remaining behind the scenes. Silver Mount is its home." She shakes her head "As for your son, we've been to Torch. If you can describe him, maybe we can recall if we met him." She eyes Zzvkgrogk skeptically. It seems a stretch to just assume Yambul would be the son of such a prominent figure.

The following will delay until after Garret so he can scorch enemies without them being surrounded by allies.

Acrobatics (tumble): 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (12) + 21 = 33

Ketra dashes forward, vaults one-handed over the shoulder of one of the golems, and then delivers a stab to its back.

+1 dagger; w/ PA: 1d20 + 14 - 3 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 14 - 3 + 2 = 21 Damage (P): 1d4 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Ah, good info, but I was hoping to work out if the knights were undead or not under that armor! I definitely wasn't clear on that.

Just realized I never finished healing back up after that near death experience. Still down 64 HP. Will heal 12 HP overnight so...
CLW healing: 9d8 + 9 ⇒ (6, 6, 1, 5, 7, 3, 1, 7, 6) + 9 = 51
That'll bring me to 1 HP damage for 9 taps.
---

For her part, Ruha feels exhausted with the day's proceedings. She makes a mental note to check in on Saoria at the Red Reaver the next day to see how the drug-brewing doctor has fared in light of the doctoring of his supply. Otherwise Ruha settles in to rest for the night.

"Well, you've got fire Garret and that seems like that'll keep them at bay. The question still stands though on whether we strike now or wait for them to lead us onward." Ketra queries the team "What do you think?"

I'm guessing Rosa might have some strong opinions so I'm leaving it open for her. OOC I'm kinda curious if a bit of patience can pay off.

Akh downs the tea offered in a flash, after which he rolls the teacup around on his prehensile tongue with all the dexterity his defective necrograft can muster. He periodically pauses to comment on Eska's story "The Golden League was my home and owners for a long time before I woke. They're quite picky with their tools. You must have been as good as they said if they weren't willing to give you up. For me I started thinking for myself and then fell into a vat of marshmallow and that was enough for them to deem I was too defective to serve any use. Maybe you should have gradually made your tattoos more and more mediocre so you got out of the limelight."

He flips the cup off his tongue and seizes it with a precise click of his claw "But making cool tattoos is something you should be proud of. Whether they were used for murder or not, it sounds like they were amazing."

He floats over and gets a handful of sugar cubes that he starts popping one by one into his maw "Anyway. You got away and you're alive. How would you like to also stop worrying about Sinjin coming at some unknown time in the future? That's kind of what we'd also like. And we have a plan to make it happen."

Count me in as disliking the review restriction. I've written quite a few reviews for adventures I've either run or played, and those reviews have been pretty serious examinations of the material on offer. Of my reviews, probably less than a third are for adventures I bought through the Paizo store. Humble Bundle-sourced pdfs, borrowing adventures from friends, or even being a player in an adventure someone else is running would all be disqualified from posting reviews if this goes through. That means basically far less reviewing from me.

Surely there's a better way to eliminate "troll" reviews than this.

You realize when you go to administer treatment to Ruha that in all this time you've been with her, she's never taken off the mask that covers her nose and mouth. She's always held only food or drinks to eat in private, and the couple times she's had to quaff a potion in the heat of combat, its been by pouring its contents straight through a small filtered opening at the front of the mask. Yambul's able to do the same.

Ruha pulls herself up to a sitting position with a muffled groan. "Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. I was certain that was the end for me. Completely convinced. But I suppose it's not yet." She gingerly touches her barely-healed wounds "Still feels as though it might turn that way. But otherwise, thank you all. Looks like you managed to deal with that Technic League woman." She looks around and notices the Shade is gone "You did manage to deal with her?"

"Horrible... even though these were probably the Crows." Ketra forces herself to look at the three bodies, though evidently she'd rather not "I think you're right Garrett, they were attacked here and then probably rose as those shades. Not sure why they needed to take off their heads, but if I had to guess, it would be to make sure no one can interrogate their bodies after they're dead."

"Well, I don't see a gnome here, so maybe one of the people that got dragged away was the leader of the Crows. Maybe some of the others were cultists that went down in the fight and needed to be pulled out before they were identified." She crosses her arms. "We have a lead into the sewers, but I wish we had a bit more than that."

Ruha addresses the Garundi man she was talking to "Oh, disappointing. You're on the side of the thief. I think you should reconsider." She strides up to the whip-wielding woman and sharply prods her in the forehead. "And you..."

Stunning fist on a hit; DC25 Fort or stunned 1 rd
Unarmed Strike; hero: 1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 16 + 2 = 31 Damage (B, cold iron, silver, lawful): 2d6 ⇒ (6, 3) = 9

"Quite bold stealing in broad day-" She glances upward "-moonlight."

Probably! This is just the introduction after all.

Rūha had her back to the situation in the pagoda and now turns to see an energy whip come crackling out "Oh, looks like an altercation of some kind." She looks back to see what the garundi guard is gearing up to do here.

I'd say a merchant is getting robbed, regardless of the allegiance of the woman robbing him. So intervening could get us into Drund's good graces. And considering he has another AI facet that seems like a good overall move.

I'm not a huge fan of either the story nor the design here. The story feels juvenile and edgy in an angsty modern teen kind of way ("the fighting blackens her soul" for example), and simultaneously makes her too much of a special wunderkind (raised by and studied under a master tactician) and completely handwaves her capabilities. In many ways its exactly the kind of backstory my friends and I would have made when we first started playing Pathfinder, so in that sense you could say it's perfect... though I expect a bit more from Paizo.

I'm particularly unsatisfied with the total lack of goals - it even ends with her expecting to meet suicide by combat. She has no particular ambition and no particular enemies (Despite the fact that she's killed so many people. She even admits she could go back to Urgir any time, making even that source of drama tepid). Does she fight for the helpless or does she fight for the money or does she fight just because her only home is on the battlefield? It's vague, non-committal. She just fights and feels vaguely guilty.

It also does nothing to show that she's a good commander! People come to her banner and she "sen(ds) them into combat to their deaths" and yells at them a lot. We never get a scene showing how she outwits her enemy, how her tactics save the day, how being a commander is a cool thing. Presumably she must be good if she's survived and continues to attract people to her, but y'know, please show it to us! It's the entire point of an iconic is to be the representative of that class.

Unfortunately, the visual design also just doesn't look like a cool character I'd want to play as. She looks like a random lieutenant you beat along the way to the boss in an AP.

RE AI: I know people are paranoid now about AI seeping in everywhere as it gets more polished, but I expect Paizo has a high degree of integrity for things like this.

Akh is immediately and totally distracted by snacks. By the time you see him again, he has his claws full and his hollow cheeks stuffed with spicy sky-roaches and ink bead bursters. "Wof?" He looks over at the party getting assaulted by a slimeball and draws the wrong conclusion "Now's nof the time to hit on locals Meliffa. We've got work."

OOC, I'm not sure if we're supposed to take the fact that we meet the brother here just hanging out as a contradiction of Telpi's sob story, or if this is just Paizo trying to be cute. I'm a little indecisive about which angle Akh should take.

Just missed putting in Akh's own argument, but I think it's worth mentioning regardless, even if we've moved on:

"You should not only let us do this, but help us to the fullest extent you can, because by already harboring a bunch of people who have gotten on Sinjin's bad side, you're probably already on his list of 'I'll get around to eliminating these guys eventually'. However you feel about it, we're already on the same side. The side of not dying to a Drow with a big pockets and a bigger ego." Akh speaks with a creaking groan at the thought of Sinjin's ego, which has only gotten worse and worse.

When Dregor agrees to let the party do it's thing here on the moon, he nods. "Of course, Sinjin might accelerate his plans once we provoke him. So you'll want to think about how you'll defend this place and help us help you help everyone here not die horribly when Sinjin arrives."

He barely gets to address the rather cool looking kasatha before the party's in the hands of the Chamberlain. Her sob story earns absolutely zero sympathy from him, but he figures the info is worth another ill advised obligation. "We can help. We'll be leaving here eventually anyway. Assuming we don't all die, along with the rest of the Moon. Then you won't have to worry about your brother's freedom."

"Hey you can feel free Attenuate - I'm not gonna complain until you start pumping me full of experimental concoctions that make me worse at fighting." Mercy laughs. "Yeah, Jiwalla then. Hope our lead with these patients holds up."

All things considered, the way Jiwalla delayed us is a little suspicious.

Oh no, he's a roleplayer!

Akh swoops down to hover just above Melissa's level "You don't have to give him our life story Melissa. And I'm not *that* new." He looks over at Dregor "What she's trying to say is that we've heard a lot of people here don't like Sinjin. And we don't like Sinjin. And we're hoping we can band together to take him out before he brings the whole galaxy down on us." He considers for a moment before adding "Though Melissa's right, looting poorly considered assassins has been a nice little side hustle for a while now. I bet you know all about that one."

"In any case, that's one particular woe that we're hoping to rectify. Of course, if you'd like to hear some more woes I have, I'd be happy to tell you about them. I've saved quite the list."

Would have been a good move to put Diplomacy as my sidereal influence skill in retrospect...

Akh adds morosely "I wouldn't say the law's on our side here either. I'm sure the King will stab us in the back as well and then we'll have all sorts of people to punch."

Currrently phone-posting so not sure how much money we might have to play with after liquidating assassin gear. Still, I doubt there's all that much.
Eel gift seems the most appropriate and finally gives a payoff for helping the eels beyond just making Shan happy. I wasn't thinking a disguise - we're probably on the best footing on Smugglers Moon as ourselves. And I think we want the assistance of the King to get us in contact with the other two and allow us safe harbor on Smuggler's Moon.

"Rooftop archers!? How many people do they have working for them?" Ketra passes the restoration scroll over to Rosalind to quickly use before turning back to the Second Swordknight. "We'll go to the Dyeworks, but I'm worried this might all be keeping us busy and distracting us from whatever they needed the Shield for. They being Gildais and whoever is working for him. We know they were already planning to silence the Crows, so we might just end up doing their work for them." She crosses her arms "If you can get something out of the assassin we found at the checkpoint guardhouse, some clue on how to find the ones behind the bigger plan, I think we need that even more."

I assume the dyeworks will be trouble, so Ketra will take a barkskin from Sanduro. Rosa if you have a heroism to spare I'll take that too, though who knows how much more combat we may end up with today.

"You know, what if we got him an exploding defrex? I think that might have some certain amount of novelty." Akh offers "Oh. I have an even better option - we could go to that water planet and get some neat plants from the super-eels we saved. They definitely owe us."

"Either way, I'm sure we can find something that the big King is going to like. We've seen a lot."

The lore revealed above is another reminder that the common history that I wrote for Akh and Sinjin as part of Akh's backstory got completely overwritten by the AP. Really sad. I didn't have any idea that Sinjin would end up a major character.

Akh relays his findings to the rest of the party. Once all the discoveries have been gathered together, he hems and haws about it all and comments "We should probably go talk to Zeldirn. If anyone's going to both know about Sinjin well enough to give us a lead on how to ambush him, and also have plenty of reason to collaborate with us to do so, it's him. In any case, everything points to Smuggler's Moon. It seems to be a meeting ground for people that have slipped away from Sinjin in the past."

Normally, you'd need to take a long rest to prepare your new slots. I'm fine if you take 10 to prepare *just* your new slots, since spontaneous casters don't have to worry about that.

Yep, no retcon, but going forward we'll use the "super simple" house rule above. I've copied it into the Campaign Info tab for future reference.