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Dang, just missed posting before the bot! Sorry to be so absent, it's been an oddly busy time for me of late. GM - Garif would have used his wand of magic stone prior to starting the encounter. So the attack would have done 1d6+3 damage. If you'd prefer not to retcon that damage, that's fine, I'll just account for it going forward.
Garif, finally armed for the fight just as it ends, scratches his beard sleepily. "Just when I think I've seen all the possible ways Pathfinders might get invited to a meeting," he muses aloud, "a bunch of goblins defend us from thugs in the middle of the night, then invite us to meet their dad." Ambling over to join Iovo in the conversation, he asks the chatty goblins, "Who is your father? What's his interest in all of this?"
Glad to hear you're still feeling well, Ladile! Interesting that you raise the notion of a false positive on a PCR test. I've just wrapped up running a large cleanup operation after California's recent wildfires, and we were PCR testing ~150 multiple times a week. We got some positive results followed by multiple negatives, and did a lot of digging into the technical literature (and I work for EPA, so the digging was done by scientists), and concluded that the chance of a false positive with a PCR test is vanishingly small, whereas the likelihood or a false negative is orders of magnitude greater. The more likely scenarios, rather than a false positive, are that the follow-up tests were false negatives (counter-intuitive, but supported by the math) or that your positive test was at the tail end of your active infection, and thus was at too low a level for the follow-up tests to detect it. As for the cat behavior - my two cats don't sleep with me (I'm ever so slightly allergic, so cat dander in my bed makes me sneeze), but they compete for couch space with me and my partner like their lives depend on it. But in a low-key, oozing fashion. And my bigger cat is 12-13 pounds, so he has some weight to throw around!
Garif joins Rees and Kleines in getting ready for bed in their shared room. He sets his armor and other gear on the table and falls into the nearest bed, quite tired after the party last night and the misadventures of the day. Nico jumps onto the bed at Garif's feet and begins to monopolize the space, spreading out and slowly, inexorably pushing Garif towards the edge of the bed. Unable to sleep comfortably with the fear of being pushed onto the floor, Garif realizes there is an empty bed nearby. Judging that Nico is likely too sound asleep to notice, Garif slips quietly to the other bed and crawls under the covers, quite content to be able to spread out. He sighs deeply and drifts off to sleep.
Seeing that Nico is no longer terrified, Garif directs the panther to attack the dretch! The dwarf concludes, based in Damiar's information, that the sphere of flame in his hand will not be of much use against the dretches, so he awkwardly draws his sling with his free hand, then loads a cold iron slingstone into it.
Garif resists the sickening effects of the noxious cloud, but is unable to see through it clearly enough to help Nico and Iovo. He finishes his conjuration, dropping a giant frog next to one of the Pikes! The dwarf then moves as nimbly as he can past the nearby pike, in order to escape the toxic cloud! ”Nico, come!” Garif cries out, adding, ”Everyone should get out of that cloud, it’s not a healthy place to be!” He then mutters a few words in a language that sounds of stone and lost caverns, and a torch-bright flame appears in his hand!
The enormous frog, pale-skinned as if it had spent its life underground, bites at the nearest Pike!
As the conversation evolves, Garif moves reluctantly over to the cleaning supplies. I guess this is the way we’re playing this. The sisters will never cease to surprise me. Before Garif can even pick up a scrub-brush, however, Rees takes a different tack, bullying the halfling and his subordinates out of the way. Garif gives the room with the cages a quick study while Iovo messes with the door, just in case there’s something of use in their mission that others might not have spotted.
He then joins his companions in moving into the next room. When the sleeping man comes into view, Nico lets out a quiet but audible sigh – clearly, the great cat would like nothing better than to be sound asleep right now. Seeing Iovo move over and begin to rummage through the desk, Garif does his best not to move or make a sound, and turns his attention to listening to the unopened door to his left.
Garif stands silent as a stone as the elven sisters chatter with the goblin. With a sigh, he pats Nico's broad head, giving the great cat's ears a gentle tug and thinking, We went from a party where I was supposed to take care of animals to a shop where we have to charm a goblin girl. When, oh when, will the Society send me to the Plane of Earth or somewhere that makes sense to me? He gives Lobda a nod, then moves toward the door with his companions, making room for Kleines to lead the way.
Garif sees the tense exchange between the two venture-captains and scratches his head a moment, muttering, "What is up with those two? Dwarves can get sideways as readily as anyone, but they are really something." He turns to seek out his companions, to see if they've got any insights to share based on what they've learned at the party, but inadvertently steps on the tail of a large, pink-furred wolf that Nico has been quietly growling at for several minutes. The creature lets out a pained as Garif jumps back, apologizing profusely to the wolf and the even more oddly-colored gnome standing at its side.
Hmm, this could be interesting, Garif thinks to himself as the venture-captain makes clear what his assignment will likely be. For all that Nico travels with me, I'm not especially good with animals. But it'll be better than me trying to sing...
"I'll be managing whatever animal issues come up as best I can, Iovo," Garif tells the clever elf, "but I should have some time free to do a little quality control on your pours."
Garif sits quiet as a stone through the briefing and the ensuing chatter, murmuring at one point, "Well, I'm good at observing things, keeping my eyes open, I can certainly do that. But this does seem very strange, that senior Pathfinders would be going at each other like this, even using poison!" He is distracted from his ruminations by Rees' eloquent glance. After a thoughtful pause, Garif can't help but disagree a bit, his brow wrinkling and coming together above his eyes, then lifting in gesture that should be clear to all, We dwarves follow the law, of course. But it does seem a bit abrupt to just arrest everyone! Though perhaps elves are less prone to curbing their own behavior. In any case, we all agree that these errant venture-captains must be kept in check.
Garif's smile is broader than that of Vinius, though just as brief, as he nods wordlessly at her response. Completely ignoring the songs and musical riffs emanating from the cluster of elves, the dwarf begins to hum tunelessly to himself as he hands Vinius lanterns to hang. With a quick look at Rees, Garif lifts one bushy eyebrow, I'm making myself useful, contributing to the community. What are you doing? A little twitch of his cheek seems to somehow convey the dwarf sticking his tongue out at his elven friend, though his tongue never actually appears.
Garif moves into the half set-up party room and looks around thoughtfully, contemplating the event to come. Another party to get through, it seems. Funny how often they send us to this sort of thing, I really thought when I joined up I'd be exploring dark dungeons and other nice, underground spots. He turns to remark on this to his companions, and discovers they have all scattered to the wind as Garif's thoughts have slowly percolated. They are all making small talk and chatting away, and the dwarf feels a bit at a loss, until Rees makes eye contact. 'Whatever do you mean, one of my fancy parties? I don't know a thing about parties!' he says with a tug of his long beard and a lift of both eyebrows. A subtle shrug and the faintest of grins adds the thought, 'Perhaps you are the decadently wasteful celebrant here?' Laying a gentle hand on Nico's shoulder, to discourage the massive cat from chasing strings of paper lanterns, Garif approaches the taciturn woman in red and blue and says, "Not to worry, I know how you feel. Not much of a talker either."
Gang - I hate to do this, especially after offering to run something and having a new player just join us, but I think I'm going to drop from this series. I hesitate to do it, and have been thinking about it a lot, out of concern that it may be difficult to keep it going, as there may not be many people with Core characters at the right level. But there was some interest in our recent recruitment, so maybe that's not such a problem. In any case, I've found I'm not enjoying playing with the limited character choices Core offers over such a long run, and it doesn't help that I have played pretty much all these scenarios before. I think with the advent of PF2, I'm still enjoying occasional high-level play in PF1, but playing within the limited options of Core isn't really doing it for me any more. Sorry to bow out. You are all great, fun players, and I look forward to playing with you all again on the boards, by VTT or at a table some time.
Hey y'all - I had said I'd get us started again in two weeks, and it's been about that long, but I am fortunate enough to be leaving to go camping again tomorrow, coming back on Wednesday. So I may get our next session started next week, or it may go as Hmm suggested and happen after GenCon.
Sorry to go quiet there, all. I've been getting ready for a work trip (which doesn't happen much these days) and am now on said trip. A couple of things: On my chronicle, Garif actually does have a day job, so here's my roll, if Dennis doesn't mind revising it:
More broadly, I've been pondering whether I have the bandwidth to run the next three games, and I think I probably do - but I would not be able to start for a couple of weeks, since I've got the work trip this week, and am going camping for a week after that. The reason I was going to run those three is I have played them all in Standard and Core, so wasn't going to be able to replay. With the pile of replays I got when PF2 came out, I could play part 1 and then run part 2 & 3, as Iovo suggested, if you all want to get going sooner.
Garif listens as Iovo lays out the plan, then nudges Ironshanks and comments, "We may grumble about their ways a bit, but gotta admit, these elf sisters can be clever when there's a need, eh?" Turning to Damiar, he says, "If you turn me and Nico invisible, I think we can just manage to go unnoticed as we leave here. Let's do it."
"What a singularly uninteresting library," Garif mutters as he studies the titles of the various sections. "Not a bit of natural history...though I guess there's something labeled 'Histories.' Not my strong suit, but more interesting than personnel files, whatever those are." He gestures to Nico to wait by the door, and joins his comrades in searching the library.
Garif clambers down through the opening, dropping onto the bookcase below and just managing to keep his balance so he can descend to the floor feet first rather than leading with his head. Nico drops down gracefully behind Garif, the cat's dark fur and fluid movements making him look briefly like a night-black waterfall flowing into the room. Both cat and dwarf look around, and seem to shrug in unison as Garif says, "Hmm, not really my department, libraries and archives and such. But let me know how I can help." Nico shifts his eyes to Garif briefly, but makes no such offer, instead curling into large puddle of fur near the big desk. Garif, curious where the double doors lead to, goes over to take a look at them. "Don't want to stumble into another demon-summoning keyhole," he says to himself as he carefully studies the door.
Garif follows along behind as Iovo navigates the turns in the passage, passing the various items found between himself, Phin and Damiar to try to identify their magical properties. "Not my strong suit, this, but I'll give it a go," he says, as he opens the pouch and inhales a tiny puff of dust, causing a loud dwarven sneeze to echo through Iovo's communication spell.
Seeing how helpful the frog is being, Garif does his best to help it. He mutters a few words in the tongue of the druids, then gives the frog's slick flank and poke with his finger. The frog follows its instinct and tries to swallow the devil, but the infernal creature is too big!
Unless I've misread the order of things, Damiar should not have taken an AoO from the red devil, since it's grappled by the frog and can't take attacks of opportunity. It's not clear to me if red moved, since I don't remember where it was, but in Dennis' post he described it moving - which it also can't do if it's grappled.
So quick question, does the frog threaten? It my not be a threat, but does it provide a flanking partner? It definitely threatens and provides a flanking partner. It has a bite attack as well as the the tongue grab, and attacks my foes - my original intent in summoning it was to give Iovo a flanking buddy without anyone having to dance through a bunch of devilish AoO's.
Garif chuckles at Ironshanks' rather inventive imprecation, as he continues to form the strange shape in his hands. Raising a weathered, grey brow and opening his hands slightly to reveal more of the wriggling, green thing within, he gives Rees a look full of meaning, Why of course it's not a stone, silly elf! I suppose it could resemble a large chunk of malachite, though it hardly seems to have monoclinic crystals... Shaking his head to regain his focus, Garif notes that the spot he planned to toss the green form in his hands is now occupied by a rather broad dwarf. Shifting his weight a bit, he throws the slimy green ball through the open door in front of him. As it flies, it grows and takes on a more defined shape, with tightly bent arms and legs and a wide, wide mouth! When it lands, the giant frog immediately attacks the devil before it, extending its long, sticky tongue!
Garif then wipes his frog-slimed hands on his hide armor, before drawing out a wand and his sling.
"She may have a wide range of tastes, Iovo, but the focus here seems to be on a single one,", Garif remarks somewhat primly as he gives the room a quick scan. He turns his attention to the carved Asmodean amulet, helping Iovo look for any unpleasant surprises before taking a step back while the clever elf works on the keyhole.
"I like to think I could bluff just as badly as a champion of Iomedae," Garif responds quietly to Iovo, "but I'm sure you're right, the Society could certainly find others even less well-suited if our venture-captains put their minds to it." Absent-mindedly giving Nico's broad head a scratching with his thick fingers, Garif weighs in on the options ahead, "As is clear by now, I'm not a good liar, so I say we duck quickly across the hallway and take a look through that nearby door."
Garif follows Ironshanks' lead in not dressing up, knowing full well he won't convince anyone that he's a servant in an elegant household. "I still don't really understand how our venture-captains choose agents for these missions," he muses in a quiet voice. "I can't imagine anyone less suited to this one than me, and maybe you, Magee. Yet here we are." |
