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Alright, I apologize in advance for this, but I've come to realize my mental state and ability to GM has changed since this campaign started, and I cannot GM effectively due to a variety of factors outside of my control. So, I'm going to mark this campaign within a few hours or so. I apologize once again. I wish the rest of you luck in all your future. I might start a campaign in the future once my situation is dealt with on my end, but I'm not sure how far in the future that may be.
The vegepygmy, still somewhat somber at the loss of those around him and their spores... reluctantly agrees. He makes a few tappings on his hammer, laid out on the ground, and then proceeds to go wherever the party may wish them to go. He, before heading out to wherever you are, points to what seems to be another access card, this one being white, so presumably a different level of access... and this one lets you access all the rooms in this floor of the deck.
Once the transfer of the vegepygmy to the new location is complete, you can safely traverse the rest of the floor... aside from carefully avoid the hungry alien to avoid becoming a snack, that is. So, assuming you take whatever of the gear you wish, what will you do while you wait out the few days for the missing piece of metal to be finished?
Once you start speaking in Undercommon, he goes and gathers up the weapons the, now-slain, vegepygmies had been using, as well as his own, and then he kneels, a non-linguistic means of showing submission. He taps one final sequence against his warhammer, and then drops the weapons at your feet, showing that he does not wish to die fighting. Sense Motive DC 15:
He, most of all, does not want to die. Knowing these are fungal-born creatures, you can perhaps surmise that he doesn't want his spores to die with him.
The grip on the leader's warhammer loosens even further, he doesn't seem to understand you, but his will to continue fighting has significantly decreased, seemingly, to the point that continuing without a fight is even possible. What will the party do now, with a vegepygmy on the urge of surrender?
As soon as you burst in, the vegepygmies surprised, you see strings sprout from the ground, ensnaring the vegepygmy in the back. You hear more rhythmic tapping from the one ensnared, more an attempt to communicate than actually escape from the string. What looks to be a leader, holding a separate weapon from the others' longspear seemingly made out of detritus... this one has a weapon that looks like it was made by a master craftsman, and is practically glowing. Uwe's pistol shot sounds loudly as it strikes the vegepygmy leaning at the door, and he looks to be quite enraged at that. Alyn shoots at the other non-ensared vegepygmy... and both vegepygmies fall relatively quickly as the leader looks panicked. The leader, as soon as the strings erupt from the ground, charges towards who he deems responsible... only to get smacked by Grezzag and immediately turn his attention towards them. Tap, tap, he taps on his warhammer, then attacks Grezzag then and there. He looks... wounded, but still continues to fight. The language of taps becomes frantic by this point.
DC 20 Sense Motive:
He does not want to die, and the grip on his warhammer has loosened by this point, as if he is losing the will to fight.
As you enter the room, you see what appears to be three vegepygmies carrying longspears, and one carrying a very obviously magical warhammer. The communication, composed of tapping, rapping, and so on, suddenly stops as soon as you enter the room. You know, Zelvin, that Vegepygmies are most often caused by russet mold spores, very dangerous fungi that have no way of physically speaking -- so establishing communication is hard. Granted, though, they are intelligent, so it is possible to communicate with them. However, the ones in front of you look ready to try to attack/infect you.
Zelvin knows, judging by the smell, tapping, and thumping that seem to ebb and flow with the change of a language, you can gather this is likely one or more Vegepygmies. Their language consists of such ebbs and flows, and is quite distinctive from wanton thumping and tapping. Should you open the door, either by magic or a keycard, you will have a surprise round to act and should roll initiatives, or this can be bypassedd alltogether, but this is the loot-intensive fight I was discussing earlier. What will the party do now?
The creature falls limp, barely even moving as it is quickly assaulted before it can even gets its bearings, if it can even be said to have those, straight. It takes two shots from Uwe, one from Zelvin, and an extra arrow from Grezzag, all while its stringy bonds from the hex snap under the assault of the weapons.
What do you do next? You have most of this deck cleared out, aside from a room where you can hear what appears to be shuffling of vines and leaves to the west.
As Uwe opens the door, the oozing and sloshing gets clearer... as well as the smell of rotting pus and blood. The creature starts slowly oozing towards you once the door has opened. Heck, you could probably even outrun the thing if you so desired. What do the 5 members of the party want to do?
Yeah, I admit I've bitten off more than I can chew with GMing two games. My pride has been holding me off from admitting it, but I should probably axe one of the games. Life has been hectic, and it takes less mental energy to just say "I might post a character" then make a decision on what to do next in an entire campaign that I'm porting.
So, as much as I've tried to put this off, I'm probably going to cancel this game to focus more on getting my own life in order with all the real life stuff. Thanks for the good characters while it lasted, I'm just not currently in the right mental space to host two different tables. Expect this campaign to be marked inactive within the next few days.
Boilborn Info:
Purulent wounds that crawl out from piles of diseased dead and areas of massive contagion, these oozes slop about thoughtlessly, quivering and ready to burst and infect anything that moves. The creatures manifest in areas wracked by plagues, where rot and ruin run rampant. Crawling from the afflicted areas, boilborn spread out in all directions to disperse their infection. Though carefully studied by healers and naturalists focusing on oozes, living boilborn are dangerous to experiment upon. This is because their death throes can sometimes be triggered accidentally, even when the creatures are handled gently and no harm has been done to them. Some posit that boilborn have only a limited lifespan, and self-destruct when that period ends. Others have labored for years under the hope that the infectious fluids contained within boilborn might somehow be used to find both cures and immunities to any number of diseases that plague the world. Though this experimentation has resulted in certain indicators that boilborn might indeed be put to such positive use, a reliable concoction has yet to be developed. It has no DR, and has very high resistance to acid (resist 10) but not other defenses of note.
Hekau realizes, unless it's a particularly rotting undead, only a Boilborn could smell that horribly of concentrated puss and blood. And when combined with the sloshing, you're fairly confident that's what it is
You hear both of them chuckle, both holstering their pistols as the they motion you through. "Eh, it isn't a serious enough duel to kill each other over. We've both had a few of them, but we're using flare cartridges. Go on ahead, sirs," he says to the lot of you. Holding a flare cartridge in his hand that he hasn't even loaded into his pistol yet. The other one then speaks up, with a chuckle that sounds like she doesn't believe you. "Demon worshiper, eh? We can delay it for a bit since it isn't that serious of a duel. Go on ahead," she says as she motions her hand for you to go through. Once you do though... you all see an old, dilapidated hotel that caught fire and risks setting the entire neighborhood ablaze. The local fire brigade takes up most of the street, blocking all traffic while they get the fire under control. They can use all the help they can get, magical or nonmagical! You could potentially guess where the fire is likely to spread next, either with scientific knowledge or knowledge of purely the natural state of the world. You could temporarily join the fire brigade and lift the hoses and nonmagical devices to help put out the fire or jut plot a route around the blockade (or just rush around everything) Heck, you could just provide your own water if you can with any water-based spell Meanwhile as you depart, you hear distant, horrid screeching from behind you as there seems to be a commotion at the last obstacle you had to overcome with the gunslingers.
As you continue on your chase, a few of you falling ever-so-slightly behind the pack, you come across what appears to be a showdown between two gunslingers in the streets, with their hands on the trigger and ready to fire. Crowds of bystanders stand on either side of them, chearing them on and pretty much blocking safe passage unless you try to get them to scatter There's also the much more polite option of just... asking the gunslingers to hold a little bit while you pass, which will work for all of you (a single successful Diplomacy check will let you all pass). You could also do the, admittedly kind of brazen, act of just dodging the bullets outright There's also still the crowd to weave through, which while more involved then dodging bullets given the size of the crowd of bystanders, might certainly be more preferable. Meanwhile, behind you, you hear more squabbling in Dwarven as the Spellslinger and the Musket wielder continue to chase you: Dwarven:
(Tengu) "What do you think he'll do to us anyways? We can just run if we fail, right? You head to Blythir, and I go underground with the rest of the 'inventors guild'. Security around both are good enough to prevent Lyzerius from getting to us."
(Human) "... Fine. If they escape, flee. Get those ahead of us to as well, so we don't get killed if we lose 'em. Chase after them in the mean time if we need to, graduate school isn't freaking cheap, for Brigh's sake." Meanwhile meanwhile, you can feel Gattlebee retch whenever the individuals are talking in Dwarven and mention a name, Lyzerius.
Everyone's help clears the way fairly easily, though Narl falls a tad behind as the chase progresses. Told, however, is worried by the imagery on the musket in particular. Ants, muskets, and elecricity are all symbols of Cixyron, a Daemonic Harbinger of gunpowder, poisonous metals, and electricity. Their cult is known to attack inventors for their nonmagical weaponry, but there are those members that prefer to create the weapons themselves. They're found mostly in the Mana Wastes and Numeria, for obvious reasons, but there are reports of cults as far as Irrisen. You also know that, as Erryll knows, the Wizard is a Spellslinger. Unless that gun is a very powerful magic item, they're effectively Wizards who can shoot firearms.
As the party enters the north door, they enter a hallway with three connecting doors. There's one to the east, which leads to as-of-yet unexplored room, another to the right (also unexplored), and one which heads to a corridor which you realize you have already explored -- the one where there was a lot of blood, presumably all consumed by the cerebric fungus. If you even press your head to the door, you can even hear the psychic emanations of the hungry creature. To the east you can hear sloshing coming from the unlocked door. It's not currently open, but you can smell it from here: it smells like rot and decay. What will the party do?
Ack! Paizo seemingly ate my post yesterday, you didn't lose me. I've just been struggling with a ton of job applications and a PhD application trying to get everything on track. A post should come shortly.
Erryll, you and your ancestors have a hunch that this wizard is most likely a spellslinger, sometimes also called a Spellshot, given the lack of any other weapon, staff, bonded item, or familiar. They study quite intensely to achieve magical effects with their gun, such as shooting literal fire and magic missiles out of it. In addition, magical enhancements to their gun apply to their spells, which with powerful magic weapons can be quite terrifying... but with mundane weapons it's more a fancy parlor trick. They're much more common in regions with both firearm and functional magic, though a good few still exist in Alkenstar.
Everyone but Thraag and Erryll seamlessly blend in and gain some ground against the chasing group of roughs. Erryll stands out a little bit due to not being familiar with the customs... while Thraag sticks out a little bit more than even Erryll. It could be worse, though. You can get a good look at part of the party chasing you if you glance back: - A human man in wizardly robes, which is fairly notable in Alkenstar given the unreliability of magic carrying what seem to be a revolver emblazoned with Brighite which he seems to be showing off as he joins the parade while chasing. Notably, he doesn't seem to be a native. - A tengu of unidentifiable gender, carrying a musket carved with symbolism of ants, clockwork, and electricity of all things, which is of little use in Alkenstar except for newly created lighting devices (think carbon arc lamps, i.e. really early electrical devices that you might even see in the Wild West) They seem to be talking to people, but you're unsure of who, as they continue moving through the crowd, with the human taking the path of joining the parade, and the tengu opting to weave through the crowd. Dwarven:
"They're gaining! Blend in or sneak through, and don't lose track of the cart. You remember what happened on our last mission, bird-brain. Don't get the alchemist who hired us mad."
After you make it through the parade, you come out a bit farther away from the persuers than you were before... but run into a portion of the road that is massively under construction, with the crew attempting to repair a sinkhole that swallowed an entire clockwork carriage, with bits and pieces spread out throughout the area. You could try to move heavy bits yourself you could try to order people as if you were a supervisor , or you could try some alternate methods. You can't take too long though, ssince you're still being pursued! What will our party do?
Yeah. I'm still with you, I just got majorly sidetracked with a PhD application after Erryll: I'll continue today as well as in the other game. I definitely need to get on a proper schedule for posting.
I'll say access it half the cost of scribing, as per PFS. I would say most of them are available (all of them that you have on your priority list would be available, yes). I'll have a post up later today.
And yes, Khoran, you can equip the party with crafted gear during down time.
Oh yeah, you can take 10 here. Normally in the 2e eauivalent you'd need Assurance to even try, but given that most of the chase sequence is Knowledge skills, I'll let you take 10.
We might have lost Alyn, yes, but I'm holding off on a new party member (if you want one, that is) until after book 1 ends, that way they have multiple in-character jumping off points in case someome wants to make someone not from Torch. Book 1 will end after that deck, so you're getting close to that point.
Grezzag, you see pretty much the same scene as you do on the deck everyone else is on, except there's a pair of doors, currently closed, blocking your view from everything else... and it's locked with the same mechanism the doors on the lower deck used.
Most of you manage to make it through relatively quickly... Thraag and Gattlebee, however, manage to bump into everyone and fall ever-so-slightly behind. The voices, which are louder to Thraag, continue... and it sounds like more bickering and running towards you. Dwarven:
"Clear that overload already! I don't want to be shocked by your gun again because you screwed up." After a while, you encounter what seems to be a festival dedicated to Brigh, the Bronze Lady festival. There's a parade of all variety of technology, but this being Alkenstar, is mostly clockwork. There's a good variety of steamworks, and a small selection of non-clockwork automata that seem to come from presumably Nex, Alkenstar's neighbor. The crowd is even more tightly packed. You could decide to throw them off your trail slightly by joining in the parade itself ), doing something similar to blend in with a crowd of worshippers () or try to once again weave your way through the crowd, albeit this time around it'll be a bit tougher to do so () What does our group of outlaws do?
Yes, Zelvin, you can say you crafted anything you needed (within reason, if it takes multiple weeks then it's off the table) that you can afford. Same goes for everyone.
As you move forward through the bridge, you notice the foot traffic seems to get denser... as well as the Dwarven (not dwarven -- though) voices getting louder and closer in the midst of the crowd. As you go through the thickening crowed -- you realize if you merely wait that the group will catch up to you. Dwarven:
"They entered the crowd! We're gaining on 'em! Annet! Toss it at 'em if you have to!" Each of you has to decide how you get through the crowd -- you could try to go with the general flow using your know-how of general crowd movements, try to weave through it with acrobatic finesse brute-force your way through via shoving, or perhaps even scattering the crowd You could even let them gain on you and confront them in the crowded streets, if you so desire!
As you descend back into the caverns, you're told by Khonnir to "get good measurements of the broken [i[lift," interspersed with Androffan for things that (well, most of -- Alkenstar aside) the Golarinite populace hasn't properly invented yet. He says the area you need to enter is behind the door, straight ahead.
This unlit circular room is empty... save for a panel of what appears to be controls on the wall to the northwest. A coil of tubes dangling from the left side of the panel periodically flashes with sparks, while a single square window on the panel blinks with several lines of Androffan text. Those of you that can read Androffan know these lines of text to be several layers of a building -- clearly delineated and labeled. One of these lines is flashing in an alarming red colour, while the other is in a warm blue color. The remaining lines are a very faint blue. Androffan:
Deck 4: Engineering Deck 3: Science (blue) Deck z: Crew Deck 1: Docking WARNING: Elevator off-line-please contact maintenance! (flashing red) Once the lot of you gather the necessary measurements for what appears to be a missing chunk of metal lodged upwards, you realize you could probably even [i[climb[/i] it if you don't wish to wait for Khonnir to forge the proper piece needed to get the machine functional again.
Yeah, admittedly it's supposed to be more challenging than I'm making it: I might increase the difficulty a little to give you more of a challenge, but 6 of you should be able to handle it. Am I correct in saying you eventually wish to head down again to clear that room of the ship?
Oh that's what CDG is. Yeah no he's outright dead.
Unconscious, but not dead. Nearly dead though.
You see the man, lowered pistol in hand, fall over unconscious as he lie there bleeding out from the two nearly point-blank gunshot wounds. A crowd begins to form around you, with some people staring directly at you (some suspiciously, some curiously). If you wish to loot the fallen-over man, you will find a +1 Pistol and 10 firearm bullets. Two pieces of paper, however , fall out of the man's pocket as he falls (assuming you actually pick them up):
Regardless, looking at the face of the unconscious man, he was certainly fearful for his life. And, given the retributive response, that fear was certainly somewhat justified. The two other gunmen run away, trailing alchemical reagents that suddenly stop past a point, as if they realize they started leaking reagents. Anyone who speaks Dwarven can hear a conversation, not really hidden, but no Dwarves are even present in the conversation: Dwarven:
"They let them get away because they have hats on?! Really?! Oh for Brigh's sake... Send the spellcaster's group after them, failing that get the shieldmarshals to question them, including making sure no magical disguises are used. If they're truly as wanted as Lyzerius thinks, that should do 'em in." Regardless of the anger-laden conversation, the crowd around you gathers, some of the passerby-s hoping the gunmarshals get involved to deal with the situation rather quickly -- i.e. deal with the literal unconscious body in the middle of the bridge.
Before the above, sorry
As the two gunchemists, trails of fluids spilling from vials as they run break-neck pace away from everyone into the crowd. The roguish pistolero, on the other hand, still attempts to stand his ground, but his pistol is at his side is practically begging. "What do you want? I... I thought you were someone we had been hired to keep track of?"
Ack, yeah I'll amend it to say only the two gunchemists left, just in case you want to ask/interrogate him a few questions if you so desire. Sorry about all this fiasco.
Yeah, I will say that fighting the Cerebric fungus would admittedly be a waste of time. There's a room with both a ring of protection and 3 different CMW potions that you probably would want to tackle for the gear inside. I'll probably be forthcoming with what gear is where so we can get this campaign up to operating speed again. There's also a room with a fight that will get you the bodies if any of you want to tackle that. I'll probably update tomorrow, and keep in mind that forging a piece to something that Khonnir only really got a decent look at is going to take a few days, so you can do them in trips and heal up if you want to.
The gun smuggler mumbles something in Osiriani ("was sure you..."), before fleeing so hastily that a few loose objects fall out. First and foremost was the Two items in the pockets of these is a pistol radiating with magic, flickering in the wizard-winds common to Alkenstar. Assuming you identify it, you know that it is a +1 Pistol, along with ten firearm bullets. The second item, is a flyer for the Longhorn Lounge, a club for rodeo champions. The words “last bell before sundown” are scribbled on the back of the flyer, with a bit of singed paper as well, perhaps from alchemical expirements gone awry. The other item is a crumpled order form for alchemical reagents. This kind of order form is fairly common among Alkenstar businesses that move a lot of inventory. This particular form doesn’t list any items, however. Rather, Gattlebee’s name and address are scrawled on it in a clumsy, almost childish hand. As you spend time collecting these items, a slight crowd gathers before you, wondering what the commotion was. You notice multiple figures draped in the same fishmonger garb speaking in Dwarven (despite none of them being dwarves, notably) as you continue to make your way around the bridge; at roughly the same time, you can hear explosions going off. Dwarven:
"Oh Brigh, why did that literal hothead ask specifically for the new hires to track after them! Send a few more their way, ones that won't run dropping a decent weapon! Maybe that spellcaster." After a few minutes, on the wood and cobblestone streets of Alkenstar, you encounter more openly hostile entities surrounding you. Two from one end, two from the others -- you're boxed in. The murmuring grows louder as you make your way into what appears to be a busy market, what do you do? Do you try to escape them, or do you decide to fight them in a busy market square (so crowded in fact, that it's extremely difficult to get your Gattlebee Wagon in)?
By one person who's basically being cast as "you fired at potentially the wrong person you'll get us all fired," hence the ability to potentially talk your way out of it. (That and it was too late to edit)
Forgot after a long period of tech and body issues: I converted it to an encounter you could just blow through, or just convince the rest of the group you aren't them. The original module didn't account for you wearing hats of disguise, and I forgot you were... so admittedly I screwed up. Either way, you could either bluff your way out of it, or you could just mow them down.
As the Gun Smuggler shoots, you hear a bombadier screeching at her to stop. "They're supposed to be disguised! How in Brigh's name do you expect us to get away with murdering some random passerbies because they're the right number of people! Think, idiot, think!" At this point you see the two alchemist lower their weapons, but the gunslinger still has her weapon raised. "I just have a gut feeling, okay! Something tells me this is them!"
"Alright," Gattlebee says as he picks up and pets his mischevious now-normal-sized pet chameleon as it changes colors to match his shirt, somewhat concealing itself as if it heard the talk of shooting it. "Now that slick's all normal sized again, let's head out." Once you do head out, you're pretty much the talk of every street you head on, and some people start asking Gattlebee questions about pyronite, which he politely refuses to answer -- giving vague excuses about not wanting everyone to have access to such a powerful weapon. You finally, after a while of walking, arrive at Bottleneck Bridge, which your successful preparations have determined there would likely be an ambush here... which admittedly you still kind of run into one regardless. A wide stone bridge connects the two shores of a rushing river. Carts and carriages frequent the center of the bridge while pedestrians stay toward the edges. The calls of vendors hawking their wares echo on the stonework as the merchants eagerly entice passersby to their wooden stalls. The twenty-foot-wide bridge runs forty-five feet, north to south. There are three fishmongers trying to sell their wares to some street vendors that look at you... suspiciously, but then they take out ornately decorated weapons and pounce (metaphorically) on you once they see Gattlebee -- two seeming alchemists armed with pistols and vials, and one gunner armed with only a non-ornate pistol. "That's them! Those are the guys that are protecting Gattlebee! Get 'em for the boss!"
You did expect something might go down here thanks to your preparation in advance (no surprise round), so it doesn't really take you by surprise when a single shot is fired, at Told specifically, by the non-alchemist of the bunch.
As you re-meet-up with Dolga, with the brain-and-muscular-damaged Khonnir in toe, she looks first to make sure the crazily babbling man really is Khonnir, since normally he'd act a bit... different than he is doing now. "Do any of you know what even happened to get the man in this state? I think it'll heal on its own," she guesses, and then she continues, "but the town managed to scrounge up some extra cash, more than was anticipated to give you for saving 'im. It's the least we can do." she then hands you 600 platinum pieces, making a quick remark about how it's probably easier to carry platinum around then 10 times the weight in gold. She then holds her hands out, one of which is holding the scroll of resurrection, and makes a remark. "I'll need the writ the flat 20% back now. The 600 platinum is plenty enough as it is, even for the heroes of the town -- at least until someone gets the torch back up and running that is -- bankrupting it and ruining their good fortune now, can we?" Once you do indeed hand her the writ for a flat 20% off for supplies in town, you and Khonnir head back to the Foundry Tavern -- specifically the area where Khonnir's house proper is, behind the tavern, where over the course of a few days, he heals up. For some reason, he seems insistent on not letting Sanvil talk to you while he's recovering, but once he recovers (at least, mostly, so it's only a few days advancement and he can talk.), he begins to ease up on what seems to be baseless paranoia and begins speaking about what happened. "The... the group I was with was investigating a broken down structure, the elevator, that should lead to a level in the caves no one has even explored yet. While... while the group was admittedly distracted trying to get the measurements for the metal piece, we were ambushed by the robots, which seemed to have once served some kind of surgical or medicinal purpose since they kept telling us to lie down and remain calm. They were reckless, probably malfunctioning, and so the scrapes killed a few of them." He then shakes a little and takes a breath, offering hugs to Val, Zelvin, and Hekau (although the last one may not necessarily be returned). Then, he continues. "I am so glad that you two made it back okay. Thank all of you for that. But if you do go back down -- since the torch is still out -- just know that their bodies may have been claimed. I don't know if it's by undead, malignant plant or fungi, or some tech we don't even know about -- but their bodies might be there to stop you in your tracks...," he pauses, takes a sip of the ale with a relieved sigh, and then continues. "If your group wants to go up there, which I believe leads to somewhere where the torch can be fixed -- go on ahead, I'll still need a few days to properly recover. Mind to tell me or Sanvil what you found? Sorry about... properly freaking out earlier, Sanvil just seemed to remind me of an old acquaintance I would rather forget, but it was probably the brain damage from magicless automata trying to figure out magic that caused that."
Erryll manages to shove the potion onto the tongue of the creature, causing it to gradually shrink as Gattlebee goes into the room to personally find it himself, as he's already prepared. "Oh, seems you already have it. Should we head out then," he says as he walks towards the door, barely waiting for all of you.
Yeah, same as Nevai/Narl. Unsure whether you're in or you're out;
We were waiting on Erryll and Told, but given the above message: we're only waiting on Told. I'll bot them both tomorrow. And I understand, Erryll, we'll get through this combat and then I might open up recruitment -- or I might not. Good luck in your future campaigns!
"Oh, it's fine for Uwe to stay here. You probably should go see the mayor tomorrow, as well." Val gives both her adopted brothers another hug. "Hopefully the conversation with Sanvil goes well, he's at the same inn as normal, I think? You probably found lots of cool stuff down there," she says excitedly.
Alright. Everything seems to have calmed down enough now, will update either tonight or tomorrow.
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