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Learn a Spell Downtime activity.
Spell: Biting Words (1st rank Occult spells)
Spell: Phantom Pain (1st rank Occult spells)
Spell: Soothe (1st rank Occult spells)
Spell: Fear (1st rank Occult spells)
Total cost (including earlier posted roll) 10 gp
Chronicle received. Looks good. Thanks. I will roll here for to learn some more spells, since she doesn't have much else to spend her gold on at the moment. One last question: the first step of the Learn a Spell activity says, "Spend 1 hour per spell rank, during which you must remain in conversation with a person who knows the spell or have the magical writing in your possession." Since there are lots of witches around at the end of this adventure, can we assume she has the resource of a person who knows the spell at hand? Or would I need to spend gold to hire someone as a service?
For her downtime, Gitaena would like to try to help her familiar learn a new spell. I'm hoping I have the process correct. Please advise if not. Spell: Occult rank 1 spell Summon Undead
Can I attempt to learn more spells or is it just one per downtime?
"I'd favor Firozet Botosar's proposal. Seems the most straightforward and fitting for Irrisen's culture," Gitaena suggests. "Also, as a witch, I've wanted to visit this land for a long time. I'm glad I could see it for myself and grateful for a chance to help. Good luck, and I know something about luck," she finishes as her black widow strolls down her hair from her ear to her shoulder.
Gitaena curses as she feels the chill cold affect her. Then she runs as fast as she can, which is somewhat slower than normal due to the cold, and then concentrates and causes a drinking cup from a nearby table to lift into the air and fly swiftly at the witch. As she does so, her familiar sends ill fortune her way. ◆ Stride (20 feet)
If applicable this or future rounds, Oddity Identification Feat: When you become aware of a magical effect or see a spell being cast, you can immediately determine if it twists minds (with the mental trait), fights against fortune (with the fortune or misfortune trait), or reveals secrets (with the detection, prediction, revelation, or scrying traits). At the GM’s discretion, similar effects can also fall into these categories. When you Identify Magic or Recall Knowledge to learn more about these effects, you can always use Occultism without penalty and gain a +2 circumstance bonus.
Gitaena wipes some blood from her eyes and glares at the twigjack. "Back at you, Jackie!" Then she concentrates, directs her attention to one of the larger twice-dead ravens and sweeps her hand in the direction of Twiggy. The raven then lifts and zips, beak first, at the Twigjack. Then she yells, "We're going to use your corpse for kindling of a great bonfire next!" ◆◆ Telescopic Projectile
◆ Demoralize
DC 17, 3 piercing
"In other circumstances, I might enjoy this," she quips sardonically. She endures the swarm assault as best she can and then flees to a temporarily safe distance ◆. Again she directs her Haunting Hymn cantrip ◆◆ to be heard just by the two swarms and the twigjack, narrowing avoiding her allies.. As before, she builds it up by singing a series of notes which crash together to produce the damaging sound nearby. She picks a different chord, hoping it does more damage this time. DC 17 basic Fortitude save. If a target critically fails the save, it's also deafened for 1 minute.
Gitaena advances on the incoming swarm and sends out another Haunting Hymn into the birds and also affecting the Twigjack.
Gitaena casts her Nudge Fate hex ◆ on Beezhul and as she does, her black widow's red hourglass marking shifts to provide more luck for the kholo.
Then she moves to the side, so the crows cannot swarm over the whole party at once ◆ . She stares at the twigjack, trying to remember anything she may have learned about it. ◆
Oddity Identification: When you become aware of a magical effect or see a spell being cast, you can immediately determine if it twists minds (with the mental trait), fights against fortune (with the fortune or misfortune trait), or reveals secrets (with the detection, prediction, revelation, or scrying traits). At the GM’s discretion, similar effects can also fall into these categories. When you Identify Magic or Recall Knowledge to learn more about these effects, you can always use Occultism without penalty and gain a +2 circumstance bonus.
"Before you step forward, consider what a giant black widow spider could do to your little bums. I can turn this small one into something bigger than all of you combined!" Gitaena shows the goblins her tattoos of a black widow in a web on her neck and then her familiar crawls across her eyes as she grins with pleasure at the thought of what she is describing.
I will be away from home Thursday and Friday. I'll have access to WiFi and will try to post, but 'bot me if necessary. Gitaena has used her prepared spells for the day, but will use ranged cantrips if possible in preference to using melee weapons. She will cast her Hex on whoever seems might need it most. She'll also apply her Familiar of Balanced Luck ability to help whoever is in combat. Her profile has prepared dicebots for skill rolls and combat attacks.
"I'm thinking something different," Gitaena says. She then notifies Faethor she has a helpful hex for dealing with the cold. If he accepts, she casts Nudge Fate on him. Then she faces the direction the ice monster slithered off in and begins to sing a series of short notes. Each note persists, building into a dissonant chord that shatters ice rime off the trees and perhaps injures the monster as well. As she's casting, her black widow familiar directs a little fateful energy at Faethor as well. Familiar of Balanced Luck:
Your familiar has a spot on its body that looks like a good luck charm or a bad omen, depending on the angle. When you Cast or Sustain a hex, one creature within 15 feet of your familiar gets your choice of either a +1 status bonus to its AC ◆ Hex: Nudge Fate
Gitaena stays where she is, concentrates as three silvery spider webs form in front of her and then each becomes a missile of pure force that she sends at the enemies, concentrating them all on the kite. ◆◆◆ Force Barrage
Gitaena looks a little paler than usual at the physical task ahead. She is not used to dealing with ice and was never one to attempt sporting games. She activates her Nudge hex, then casts a cantrip asking Grandmother Spider for help. Then she starts running, trying to avoid the ice patches.
She slips and slides along as best she can.
Next Gitaena moves on to the fey lady, Siraya. The idea of making the train adaptable reminds the witch of a story, which she tells Siraya. "There was a witch who had the misfortune to live in an area where people did not understand witchcraft. A corrupt and hateful cleric of Abadar told tales that painted all witches as evil and out to harm good folk. Braeton, a young witch was being kept as a slave in a household in Cheliax. She tried to use witch spells and hexes to escape but was discovered. The priest ordered her hanged. "As she was led to the gallows, she used her magic to enchant the hangman's noose and it slipped over his head and lifted him up. She used the same spell to untie the knots holding her hands behind her back and slipped into the crowd which was frightened and distracted by the animated rope." The story continued, each time presenting the witch with a new threat and each time, she used her magic to transform herself or something nearby to create a way of escaping, eventually leaving the country and becoming free.
Gitaena has picked up a thing or two about arcana so she tries to link what she knows to the idea Firozet outlined. "Have you considered combining the capabilities of water and fire elementals to create steam? If water is turned to steam in an enclosed chamber with something like a piston at one end, then the expanding steam would push the piston, which could then be linked by gears and shafts to turn wheels."
Gitaena approaches Lt. Surkzin and asks her about her stone carriages. As needed Surkzin gives curt commands to her attending engineers. Gitaena speaks to the leader, "Did you come up with this idea or are you executing the design of one of your well-diciplined cohort? What powers the vehicle and what kind of track does it require?"
Gitaena looks over the dwarves' models as Ivinder explains his plan. "King Anong continues to reach out to the world after years of hiding underground, or so I've learned from my studies. Will she attempt to keep aspects of this design secret to trade with Irissen in return for mechanics who know the secrets keeping the trains running on time? Or will the secrets be sold for a high but fair price? I know there are those in your circle of influence who frown on divesting such secrets at all."
Gitaena fears she may have gotten some of her assumptions wrong. Maybe her uncle Ratchet's library was out of date.
Right but is a diplomacy check needed after another PC has succeeded at a diplomacy check to initiate the research options? And which groups require the diplomacy check? Beezhul didn't make a diplomacy check but got the research options. Same with Elidathas and Siraya, and with Faethor and Lt Surkzin. A diplomacy check was needed with the witches. Now that someone has succeeded with them, do other PCs need to make a diplomacy check or can they just interact? Is a diplomacy check needed to interact with Pirozet or Ivindor? It will speed things along if we know how this mechanic works. One last question: are the research options going to be the same for each PC that approaches the same NPC group?
Gitaena next approaches the group of dwarfs led by Invinder Greaseblood. "Hello. If anyone can design a machine, I would expect it would be you lot. I've heard you have tracks in your mines for moving ore. Surely that could be applied here, just on a bigger scale. What are those cylinders on the sides of the cars?"
Gitaena glares for a moment at the matriarch's attitude, although it is an attitude she is used to receiving. She tries again to curry favor, although she has to work at not letting the annoyance at having to do this show in her comments. "Well, a model based on the famous Dancing Hut of the Queen of Witches does make sense for Irissen. It would just be a matter of applying the arcane logic of the hut to this new type of vehicle."
Gitaena senses a kindred spirit in the coven matriarch, so she approaches the group. Her black widow familiar is watching from her cheek, near her spider web tattoo. "Beautiful dress," Gitaena says, with what she hopes is a warm complement for a cold region. She waits to gauge her reaction before saying more.
Gitaena is first off a bit star-struck to be in the presence of the queen of the realm long renowned for powerful witches. She wonders if Anastasia is herself a witch, but she is not about to ask at this point. Gitaena wonders if she is the right person for the job. Her main skill in crafting things is as a weaver, which she doesn't think will be much help with the device described. Her first thought would be to perhaps harness the power of fire elementals, but she is not experienced enough with magic to understand how to do that. She keeps silent for now.
Gitaena walks silently with the group, slowing at points to look more closely at the portraits, curious if the queens she read were dethroned in some struggle after an attempt by one of them to inflict eternal winter on the rest of Golarian. She tries to remember their names, and comes up with Elvanna and Yelizaveta. She also watches for anything about Baba Yaga and her hut, about which she has heard many bedtime stories, detailing her many infamous acts of cruelty. Before getting to the queen's chamber, Gitaena catches up to Calix and asks, "Traditionally, I understand the queens of Irissen are traditionally witches, daughters of the Witch Queen. Is this also true of the current queen?"
The first thing everyone notices about Gitaena is her red hair, which contrasts well with her mostly black clothing. The second is her eyes, with one dark brown, the other a yellow ochre shade. Her light skin tone further suggests her parentage were a human father and a hag mother, making her a changeling. She hails from Ustalav where her family fit in well but anywhere else would cause people to avoid them like a contagious disease. Gitaena left home on good terms with her family, although they disapproved her her joining the Pathfinders. She is 20 years old but looks younger, short, petite, and fairly attractive if one is not put off by her goth look. Her quips tend toward gallows humor and she is generally not a perky young woman, brooding sullenly and discouraging anyone from getting too close. She wears black leather traveling pants, a black cotton shirt, a black leather jacket, and a winter traveling cloak, black (of course) with dark wolf fur on the inside, finished off with practical black hiking boots. She wears minor pieces of jewelry, silver, with some red jasper stones. She darkens her skin around her eyes, giving herself a haunted look. She also sports a tattoo of a spider web that is mostly on the right side of her neck, but strands extend up to her ear, eye, nose, and mouth. When the center of this tattoo can be seen, it contains a black widow spider, its red hourglass contrasting with the black abdomen. At times, however, a real black widow spider can be seen on her, her witch's familiar. For armor, she has only her hide shield, although she usually has mystic armor spell applied. She carries a staff and a sickle and hides away a small corset knife for emergencies. She has a hand crossbow and a blowgun, with some simple poisons for ranged attacks. Of course, as a witch, she also has some spells prepared and can cast a hex at will. |
