Rose petals of all colors fell from the trees as Bellaban and Corvus kissed and the crowd erupted into applause. Mayor Meredith looked up at the sky and wondered where the petals came from. The roses in her hair seemed intact. They fey began partying immediately, and some Satyrs shuffled to Derrik's side of the aisle to see who was in the mood for more personal entertainment. She sighed.
"Just another part of being human, correct?" Meredith turned, startled at the Emissary offering her another cup of tea, which Meredith drank in one shot. "The Queen is growing impatient, but patience is your virtue, Meredith." Meredith notices the Emissary's head has no facial features. "The Queen wishes to meet you. But you will not survive the encounter."
Meredith frowns, unsure of the message. "Didn't I... forgiveness?" She stammers. "What did I miss?" The Emissary strains to turn to her.
"The sooner you shed your humanity and consume me, the sooner we can stop this charade." The Emissary's body withers away into a mass of roses before blowing away across the wind.
On the Venture Captain's advice, Meredith takes a few days off in Magnimar. She makes sure the Pathfinders are no longer suspects, and she even hears a few rumors about Maiveer Sloan having to deal with unexpected investigators. The Twincandles remain small and stay out of her way.
It's evening on the third evening when one of the youths she saved accosts her on her way back to the Heidmarch manor. The kid warns her she's entering Twincandle territory, and he's supposed to rob her since she never bought protection. But really, he wants to thank her, and leaves a small wood carving of a leopard leaping out of a planter's pot. Meredith smiles and turns back to revisit Mister Chert's shop. Antaios seems a bit confused by the gift, but it seems thankful.
"This town is beautiful in some ways, but smelly in others." She tells Frankie as she tries to tuck him into bed. "I wonder if I could do better." She smiles. "The farm is really growing, isn't it?" She looks out at the nighttime sky.
"Frankie, look. I... I don't know where your mom is. Maybe we'll find her."I don't think she wants to be found."I can offer you a place to stay at the farm. It won't be as crowded, either. Anyway, think about it. I'm gonna head back in the morning, alright?" Meredith forces herself to sleep that night. May be the last in a big city like this.
The next morning Meredith summons Denair and they begin packing. "Hey everyone. It's been... I'm not going to say fun. But I've learned a lot. So thank you. All of you. I have to return to the farm. Or, I guess it's a town now? Anyway, Bittyboo's daughter and Derrik's son finally announced their engagement. I'm a guest of honor. Gotta go." Meredith shakes hands with each of you, except for Chi.
Diplomacy:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31
"I'll keep practicing, I promise." She recovers from her bow.
"You got played like a fiddle. Narcotics does that to everyone." Meredith shows the letter showing Terliss's plan. "He would have set you against the Pathfinder Society, no money would have been made. Just misery and pain."
Diplomacy:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28
"So the next time you want to mess with drugs, think carefully." So looks at the recovering youths, then back at Frankie. "The next generation's gonna pay for it."
Once outside the encampment, Meredith takes a deep sigh and coughs. The city stink irritates her nose. "I can't wait to get back to the farm. Let's tell Mister Chert the problem has been resolved, and then report to the Venture-Captain."
Meredith breathes heavily, eyes fixed on the tiefling and her bloodied mace. She hears a voice and spins towards the source. Frankie looks at him for a bit. "Y-you're right, Frankie. He's gonna rot in prison for a while."
She reads the letter and grins. "They never destroy the evidence. We have a lot of leads, now. And the Pathfinder's innocence."
"Good job, everyone. This was a drug den. No one should be wasting their lives out here. Let's get out of here. Come on, Frankie."
Denair hefts the man out of his acidic goo. Meredith beats the the tiefling silly, keeping him alive but unconscious.
"Is everyone alright?" Meredith looks about and stays away from the acid. "These two are gonna rot in prison for a long time. I wonder why they wanted to frame Pathfinders so badly."
Denair's Perception:1d20 + 16 ⇒ (5) + 16 = 21 Denair takes a moment to look for any clues.
0/1 Defeat a known slaver whose Challenge Rating is at least equal to your character level. For the purposes of this goal, a slaver is a creature that owns at least five slaves, is maintaining a compulsion spell or effect to control a creature for at least 1 day, or is explicitly cited as trafficking slaves.
Denair continues flying the remaining 5ft up to swing at him.
Slam, Power Attack:1d20 + 6 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 4 - 2 = 14 Damage, Power Attack:1d8 + 6 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 6 = 14
If he falls:
Meredith double moves down the stairs, ending right next to the table. Keeping her elongated arms and the mace at the ready, she taunts the creature. "Go ahead punk. Make my day."
Denair, meanwhile drops down and swings at him.
Slam, Power Attack:1d20 + 6 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 6 + 4 - 2 = 25 Damage, Power Attack:1d8 + 6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 6 = 13
I drew black arrows to represent Meredith's 2 possible routes.
Denair continues flying the remaining 5ft up to swing at him.
Slam, Power Attack:1d20 + 6 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 6 + 4 - 2 = 28 Damage, Power Attack:1d8 + 6 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 6 = 18
If he falls:
Meredith double moves down the stairs, ending right next to the table. Keeping her elongated arms and the mace at the ready, she taunts the creature. "Go ahead punk. Make my day."
Denair, meanwhile drops down and swings at him.
Slam, Power Attack:1d20 + 6 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 4 - 2 = 17 Damage, Power Attack:1d8 + 6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 + 6 = 15
I drew black arrows to represent Meredith's 2 possible routes.
Meredith and Denair fly into the chamber. The acrid stench almost causes her to sneeze. "These tombs are a mess. Someone dug them up but... why?"
She turns to Vosk. "I can make Frankie Invisibility]invisible[/url] again." She grabs her mace and casts Long Arm, causing vines to bulge from her shoulders and intertwine into her arms. "Something tells me we aren't going to end this with a quiet conversation..."
I only 1 2nd level slot left, so that's 1 invisibility remaining. If Frankie doesn't want it I'll cast it on Denair.
Meredith resists rolling her eyes, thankful she held back long enough to listen to him actually help. "I never really learned how to use shields. I did think about learning once, but, Denair wouldn't learn a lot."
She grabs an everburning torch from the fallen fighter. "Let's see what's going on past here." She approaches the door and waits for Denair and Frankie to take the lead.
Meanwhile, she tries to heal herself.
UMD:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30Pfft, there's the 20 CLW:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Meredith sees the plan go off, but there's always something unexpected. She maintains her position, hoping to distract for as long as possible.
Especially when watery wraiths wallop an unarmed person. She keeps her anger in check but swings at the Red one, hoping to draw it away from the conscious person and give them a chance to escape.
Meredith will attack defensively for +2 AC and -4 to her attack.
"Alright chumps, let's do this! Leeeroooy Jenkinssss!" Meredith rushes into the room with her longspear drawn, uttering an ancient battlecry she heard long, long ago.
Denair begins to quietly fly into position, hovering 5 feet above the ground.
Denair's Stealth:1d20 + 18 ⇒ (3) + 18 = 21
Meredith casts Invisibility on the bundle of berserker barrage. She looks to everyone, readies her spear and gives a thumbs up to see if everyone is ready.
Sounds like:
- Vosk will Glitterdust the guards.
- Chi will fire from the doorway and provide support.
- Denair, invisible will get close and strike.
- Meredith will draw their fire.
I don't know what Zirt or Frankie want to do. I say we get this shindig ready in about 10 hours so we don't take forever planning. Sounds good?
Meredith comes to take a look. First she smiles, impressed with the mural's beauty...
But then she bares her teeth as she watches the overseers. Frankie could have wound up like this. She backs up.
"I can turn a few of us invisible. It will end once you attack, but we won't be a sitting duck on the approach." She turns to her friends. "Unless someone has a better plan..."
"Hmm... it's an Arcane Lock. Very powerful. It would take a lot to unlock this door-" She hops back a bit startled as it opens. She looks down and sees Frankie. "Good job, kid. You always surprise me." She looks up and wonders why Vosk is so mad. She shrugs.
"I guess the only to find out is to clean up your mess." Meredith shrugs. "Everyone else alright with this plan? Sounds like we have another crypt to raid."
Meredith can't help but grin at Chi's question. That was pretty spicy."Glad to see you know the whole drug trade doesn't really work. Your er, cousin, tried to blame us for attacking Mr. Chert. That's why we're here. For your sake you'd better hope we flush him out, or our organization is going to come back with reinforcements."
Was this what you had to deal with, Frankie? She looks at the kid and shudders.
Denair buzzes about, grinning at the guard and revealing several teeth.
Meredith notes the Twincandles. Siblings? She holds Frankie's hand tightly and looks at the leaders. "Sure, tell us about 'em. Who are they? What are their capabilities? Do you know why they attacked Chert?"
"The living plant likes Chert, and was trying to protect him." Meredith muses. "But that doesn't explain the spider vial or the diluted potion of rage." She pauses. "Or the rat infested sinkholes. I think you're caught in something big. Real big."
Frankie's advice from "mom" causes Meredith to wince. "Right, Frankie. It's okay. Sounds like we have a lot to figure out. Lead the way then." Meredith keeps her weapons stowed and makes sure Denair follows closely.
Meredith shrugs. "He's got a point, ya know. We're looking for more people wearing this. They have plenty of answers to our questions. And we pretty much did save your lives, back there."
"Ylandria. Eun." Meredith gives them a good handshake, although her gaze is drawn to their clothing. "Hey Vosk, did you want to say hello? I'm certain we have plenty of questions to ask."
Meredith stows her mace and runs underneath Denair. "Looks like we're flying out of here. Denair, let's get out of here." Denair lifts and flies Meredith over the sinkhole, dropping her on the other side.
"Everyone alright? I could ask Denair to scatter the rats, but I don't think they'll be bothering us across the sinkhole."
I am currently in a Council of Thieves AP. We're at level 8, investigating the mayor's house in the middle of a hellraise.
Two of our four members dropped out due to too much work on their plate. If you're interested in joining, click here and you'll get to see me play a Bard + Lyrakien duo.
New Years bring new changes, and I totally understand. I've had to cut back on a lot of game time to make room for work, errands, and personal discovery. That also means Paizo.
Thank you for telling us this now, though. This will give me a good chance to prepare final posts for Meredith and Denair.
"A local gang? Great. Maybe someone paid them. Still, it's a good clue. Thanks Antaios." She carefully picks the cloth off of the living shrub.
"I think Mister Chert was attacked, they may have stole something or applied the rage potion or whatever was in that vial." She points back to the vial with the spider insignia. "They didn't know Antaios
could move. Their mistake. We find them, we find our answer."
After a minute or so, Buzz and Lightyear fly up up and away, well beyond the infinite canvas of the night.
Meredith's mind races to the most fearsome beast she can think of. But then everyone begins talking about the topiary. She notices it pausing as Chi and Vosk talk to it.
Really, Meredith? Again with the talking. Fine. The voice fades from her mind as two shining lights appear around her. Meredith shakes her head. Why did that sound like the emissary?
"Wait, we can talk to it?" She turns to the shrub. "Antaios? Hey, Antaios. Hold on, hold on. We mean you no harm. Elias Chert helps take care of you, right? He's injured but he'll survive, he just needs some rest."
Diplomacy Aid:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13
She then looks at the lights. "Hey Buzz. Hey Lightyear. Can you two heal Denair?" The lanterns fly up and cast Aid, granting Denair 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (7, 8) + 2 = 17 temporary hit points.
Meredith jumps to attention when the plant thing springs to life. "Uh, what? Denair, watch out!" She moves up to Denair and casts Shield, transferring the magic to her eidolon. Some of the thorns break off, forming a protective barrier around her.
"This place is cramped. It's going to be hard to flank."
"That... Denair is good with dealing with thorns, Frankie." Meredith rests a bit as the ceiling thorn comes to a rest. "That's some beefy security for a florist."
"I found the potion of rage, diluted. A missing plant... this weird spider vial. I think someone tampered with the plants in here."
