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I didn't feel like I knew Tevaga as a character - she was more of a mechanical experiment - so I'm not too disappointed. Just wish it wasn't such a cheap end. I'm starting to suspect it's just a poorly designed encounter, the more I think about it. I'm no tactics expert, but as I wonder if we could have done something different, I don't think we made any glaring mistakes in our approach. But when a bunch of level-1 PCs face a BBEG that attacks with a modifier of +11, does an extra 4d6 damage when he hits, has an AC higher than 19, and had time to cast two spells just before the PCs enter, at least one PC is going to die instantly, and if you lose the initiative roll, that's likely 2 down (out of potentially as few as four sitting at a table!) before the PCs even get a turn. I understand people wanting a challenge, but that's not a challenge, that's just chance. I'd be real interested at the end of this to know if there's a reason given that he had two spells cast before the PCs enter. I know some of the adventure paths give the GM a lot of background info that the PCs may never find out (like a whole story explaining why there was a quasit in this room or something). I don't know if PFS scenarios give as much background, but as a player, it looks like he finally manipulated a face-off between his two nemeses, and instead of enjoying the show watching them fight to the death, he's looking out the front window to see if anyone just happens to be approaching. You put Sofia Vergara and Salma Hayek in my bedroom stripping each other and inviting me to join them, you better believe I'm not looking out the window to see if my neighbor's bringing over the hedge clippers he borrowed last weekend. He can keep them.
Ugh. Not doing too good with the rules today. I need to retcon Tevaga's actions with orc ferocity. When I read the description, I was checking to see if it was a full-round or just a partial round. When I didn't see that limit, I thought it was a full round. I didn't recognize that 'disabled' referred to a specific condition (that describes the limit I suspected).
Tevaga barely has time to figure out what's happening when she feels the shock of Chalfon's first attack against her. She feels the second before she can even reach her belt pouch. When he finally lets up, she's surprised to still be standing, if only for a few moments more. She glances at Fruno, who doesn't seem to be so lucky, as she steps back from Chalfon. Her hands shaking, she finishes digging out her potion of cure light wounds. She drinks it and tosses the empty vial aside before she passes out. Up to y'all now.
Tevaga freezes inside the doorway, her eyes wide with shock at the scene. Softly, she curses, "Desna, is this a joke? Thought I left the gang fights behind when I joined the Society..." She shakes her head, but manages a smile at her bad luck as she composes herself. She steps forward and puts her foot on the head of the Taldan faction leader. She gently spins it around so that it's no longer looking toward her or the rest of the party. She looks up at Chalfon at the top of the stairs, "We're just here for a couple of those 'useless treasures'. Whatever you got going on here is clearly bigger than us, so if you don't mind, we'll just pick up those parcels and be out of your hair?" She adds a shrug for emphasis, either for Chalfon or for her fellow Pathfinders.
When the woman finishes what she knows of Dalsine, Tevaga nods her head in understanding. "Y'know, I thought Akkuret's story seemed a bit detailed and, I don't know, sympathetic, or something. Now it makes sense. Man, that was stupid of us..." "Well, fake Akkuret sure wanted to dissuade us from visiting Dalsine tonight, but that was prob'ly all BS to assassinate us in our sleep. Do we want to go at least stake out the place tonight? We can't stay here."
Tevaga pulls out her own wand and hands it to the doctor. "You mind hitting me with this one?"
"Thanks." Tevaga starts counting the cultists when Vanyel offers to talk to each one in turn, and raises an eyebrow. "No need for that. It's late, and I need to sleep. " she turns to the crowd and points at the woman attempting to make herself small. Tevaga pulls out her sap, and starts hitting it into her open palm. "You come here and talk to me now, or we'll both take a little nap and chat in the morning."
Tevaga rolls off the pew instinctively when she hears the raven's call, but she's too slow to do anything as the shapeshifter starts cutting through Rilamon. Seeing that she's the next closest target, she feels her body tense for a split second before she consciously lets her body loosen for the impending attack.
"Yeah, do y'all know where this 'Dalsine' fellow lives? And what's the difference between this 'Porthmos Militia' and the rest of the guard? They an official force within the city guard or just a crooked clique?" Tevaga turns to the other Pathfinders, "And when we do find Dalsine's place, assuming we can wait till he goes out, which of us can get us in? I'm learning to pick locks, but I ain't there yet."
Tevaga returns to the ground floor with her lit torch. She looks around, and decides it's best to stay out of the way of the others already corralling the Sarenites. Instead, she whispers to the venture-captain. "You're going to have to come along, too. When they break through and find all this furniture set against the door, you won't have a good story. Considering their methods, they'll arrest you or worse. Come with us, and we can set fire to this place on the way out. They may not even come in until we're long gone."
Tevaga always enjoyed the travel to a mission. She spent much of the time looking over the edge into the water, searching for marine life, with a slight grin on her face. At the tackle shop, when the banging begins, she watches the others go to fetch the Sarenite fugitives. While they take care of that, she opens the trapdoor and heads into the basement. She finds the staircase, and lights a torch for the fugitives to see by when they come down.
Tevaga digs her thunderstone out of her belt pouch and throws it at the wall behind the evil cleric.
"Hm. Three bunks? One for Hafshi, one for the wizard, but the dwarf said he doesn't come up here, so who's the third one for? And that's assuming they don't have anyone using the top bunk." Tevaga searches the three bunks, trying to figure out how many have actually been slept in. Once satisfied, she follows the others to the spiral staircase.
Tevaga shrugs. "That's reasonable, I guess. 'Tests of faith' that don't need to test those with no faith. Before we go up these steps, let's check out these other rooms on this level." Tevaga backtracks to the first room past the statue (SW corner). She pauses before she tries the door. "Garinol, you want to check this for traps?"
"If someone needs to burn, I can bring up that wizard. But how would the mechanics of the temple know if someone burned themselves here? There's gotta be a switch or something." Tevaga cautiously sets the head of her mace onto the center of the flame, seeing if there's some trigger in the brazier hidden by the fire. |
