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I apologize, GM - I listed the wrong faction for my character in the early discussion thread post, it should be Vigilant Seal, not Grand Archive. Would you mind changing it on the chronicle sheet, please? I think the reporting should be OK - it says Vigilant Seal on my Organized Play/Sessions tab.
Rolled my day job here. Please apply to my -2001 at level 2. Thanks!
"Oh, wonderful. From wandering hip-deep in muck through a sewer to traipsing through a jungle, where we'll be covered in biting insects and strangled by carnivorous plants. I can hardly wait!" Ezren pours himself another glass of wine and drinks deeply.
Ezren flinches at the doll's punch, then shakes his head. "Don't touch me, you pathetic mockery of life!" The wizard limps away from the animate doll to the far wall of the room, then turns and points at the machine. [b]"Flambé," he says, calmly flicking a glowing bead into the muck near the machine. The bead explodes.
On my turn: "Don't let them get away!"
Ezren hurries in the room, shouting everything he could understand about the machine. He stops in front of Kyra and, calling out a few words of arcane power, spreads the fingers of his hand wide. A cone of flame erupts from his fingertips, engulfing the jelly-like cube and barely missing the paralyzed goblin.
Ezren steps up to the room's entrance so he can see what's going on.
"Oh, bother. Let me see, what do they say in those copper-piece novels Valeros is so fond of? Ah, yes. Ahem!" The aging wizard puts on an over-the-top gangster accent. "Say, that's a pretty fancy piece of machinery you got there. Sure would be a shame if somebody ... fireballed it." Returning to his normal voice, he adds, "Just back up a step and do what the lady tells you, please."
"Hmph! I've been waiting for all of you."
"Note to self: avoid sewers under alchemist's shops in the future," Ezren mutters once the ooze is destroyed. Once the party moves into the next room - the wizard certainly isn't the first to enter - he quickly examines the notes and, once he has read them all, the dagger and related contraption.
"Blast! Whoever wrote these notes has terrible handwriting! I can't make heads nor tails from this ... this ... chicken scratch! Fumbus, Kyra, can either of you make any sense out of this?" Ezren slaps the papers back onto the table in frustration. He stalks over to the dagger and glares at it.
"Oh, this. It's a dagger of venom. Useful, but I suppose it might be dangerous to pull it out of this thing it's connected to. Merisiel, would you like to do the honors?"
Is that a change for PFS2? In the 1st edition campaign when playing a pregen you would just apply the PbP chronicles in the order finished, right?
Tracing arcane symbols in the air with his hands, Ezren again calls out "Regenboog van bliksem!" A band of lightning flashes between the twin black puddings, with a roar of thunder washing over the Pathfinders a moment later.
Merisiel glares. "Nothing sharp? What do you mean nothing sharp? All I have are daggers and a rapier!" "I mean nothing sharp! What do you think I mean? Nothing stabby or slicey! Nothing pokey or slashy! You're the one with all the knives, just don't use any of those! And definitely not your sword! Don't you have a cudgel or something for when you want to bash someone on the head and steal their purse?"
The wizard calls out, "Don't attack it with anything sharp! You'll..." Amiri splits the ooze into two. "... only split it into two deadly blobs! Oh, Hells. It's also immune to acid, in case you were going to try dissolving it."
Ezren hears shouting from up ahead. "Blast that boy!" he mutters, then hustles up to the intersection next to Kyra.
I'm leaving before dawn tomorrow to visit my daughter at college for Parents & Family Weekend, back home Sunday night. I will probably be able to post once each day, but I will likely be off my usual schedule and I doubt I'll be able to post more than once each day. Please bot me if necessary.
"She's not wrong! Unless I see magical auras in one direction or the other, I don't suppose it much matters to me which way we go, because now that we're here we need to explore the entire place before we report back." Ezren's sigh echoes through the gloom. "Given that the worst horrors are likely to come at us from the stinking sewer to the south, I suppose that if I were in young Valeros's shoes, I would be more comfortable clearing out the sewer first, rather than risk some noxious feculent creature sneaking up from behind." The wizard pauses, then says, less certainly. "Actually, standing in my own shoes, as the one walking behind the rest of you, I would be more comfortable clearing out the sewer first as well." Ezren continues scanning with Detect Magic, following the group.
"My clothes don't smell!" Amiri says indignantly before turning to Ezren:"That's nice! Do my sword as well mage!" Ezren closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Certainly not any worse than his do, anyway," he mutters. In a more conversational tone, he says, "My dear young woman, I would be happy to make your sword glow as well, but that would cause the spell on Valeros's shield to wink out. As long as he is taking point, wouldn't it be better for him to hold the source of illumination?" The wizard continues to explore, using Detect Magic to scan for more wondrous items.
"Hmm. This must be a very powerful ring! I have never seen anything like it except in ancient tomes. We should bring it back to the Lodge for further examination."
"Who knows what kind of creatures we'll run into down there. Hopefully, my sword will be enough to cut them up." He sighs. "I don't suppose you want to cast some light on my shield, Ezron? It's a bit dark down there." Ezren is holding a dull gray aeon stone in one hand, the other just beginning to make an arcane gesture over it, when Valeros asks the wizard to cast Light on his shield. "No, I don’t want to ca..." Ezren trails off, then huffs out a breath and slips the pebble into his pocket. "What was I saying? Create some light on your shield? Nothing simpler, my boy. One moment." With a snap of his fingers and a mellifluous incantation, the wizard causes the warriors shield to glow as brightly as a torch. One thing I am certain of: if one of us needs to be a brightly-lit target down there, the youngster is better able to take a few hits - or explosions, or what have you - than I am.
Welcome back, GM Batpony & Roxxie!
Ezren scowls up at the broken window, leans his cane against the side of the half-ruined building, and begins a series of stretches. For all of his grumbling, he appears surprisingly spry. He picks his cane back up, turns to Merisiel and says, "Well, what do you think? Do we go in the window or do you get us in through the door?"
"Of course. This looks like exactly the kind of place they would send us to search," Ezren grumbles. Ezren casts Detect Magic and searches for indications of lingering spells, magical traps, or magic items.
"Much obliged, my good man. Now, if there is any possibility that this trail we're following will lead us down to the sewers below your fine city..." Ezren wiggles his fingers and barks a few words that hum with arcane power, and the wine bottle floats over to the wizard from across the table. He quickly grabs it out of the air and pours the remainder of the Chelish red into his glass. Holding up his glass, he continues, "... I will require fortification. Here is to the glamorous career of a Pathfinder!" Ezren will gulp down the rest of his wine once Merisiel and Fumbus are ready to head out.
"What? Oh, um, yes, of course. Merisiel and Fumbus are quite right, my good man. We're here on important business. Found this odd note in your hand, you see, and we'd like you to tell us what you know about this chap Bijan Ohrlavi, and why he wanted this particular volume. And why, er, well, why you sold it to him." Ezren repeats most of the questions already asked by his companions before asking one of his own. "And what did you mean here, that his money was 'slimy'? Do you mean he paid you with coins covered in actual ooze?"
Ezren orders a large steak - "And make it well done. That means brown all the way through, not half raw, do you understand?" - and grouses when the server tells him that the seasonal vegetable dish refers to vegetables in season in Quantium, not what he would expect in Absalom. He cheers up when the server comes back with a fine bottle of Chelish red wine and leans back in his chair, sipping happily. "Well, Igrigi, you missed quite a bit of excitement! Just two years ago, Absalom was assaulted by an army of supernatural evil creatures - undead, demons, what have you - and of course we leapt to the city's defense, not that individual agents ever received a word of official thanks. Then there was that kerfuffle in the Hao-Jin Tapestry - what kerfuffle? Why, the Tapestry's coming apart at the seams, old man. Of course I mean that literally, wasn't I there myself? And just a few months ago, I was at the front line when the Society took on the Whispering Tyrant's forces, wave after wave of the most horrific creatures ever spit back from the Boneyard, and ..." Ezren drones on until someone interrupts to ask Igrigi about the bill of sale.
Ezren tries making his way through the Quantium bureaucracy to find Igrigi.
I'll be traveling for business through Saturday. I shouldn't have any trouble posting at least daily, but may be off my usual morning schedule.
Should I go ahead and roll Ezren’s Occultism check as well?
That's weird, I thought I edited my post but it duplicated it instead.
Ezren looks through various books on the nature of things. His expression thoughtful, he flips through the pages with the occasional grunt or murmur, as though suddenly understanding a particularly interesting point. He may or may not be falling asleep while he reads.
Ezren shakes his head at the suggestion that they abandon the library for more active investigation out in the city. "Kyra - any of us - is far more likely to be injured if we go running about the city without a clear idea of what we are doing. This is unlikely to take any of you by surprise, but I vote that we finish the mission we were given, to examine the records stored here at Nexus House. Once we have done all we can here, if we still believe that there are missing volumes that are important to our research, we can follow the whatever investigative trails we uncover."
Ezren rubs his beard in irritation at these new mysteries. Missing books? Slimy money? Foundational agreements for our organization lost to the mists of time? Tedious, but I suppose such is the life of a Pathfinder. Better that this task fall to us than to some other, less qualified, group. "Hmmmm. In retrospect, it did seem as though the statues only moved to attack when we found the note relating to this sale. As it appears to have been somewhat improper, perhaps we should speak with the senior archivist who made the note, this Igrigi Lokar?"
Ezren, moving cautiously, approaches the nearest of the downed statues. The aging wizard grunts as he crouches down to peer at it closely. "Hmmm. Well, this is interesting."
Ezren steps back to get a better angle to aim at the statue that has grabbed Kyra and once again casts Ray of Frost.
Sorry, folks, I was tied up at work from early yesterday morning until late. Getting caught up now.
"I did?" Ezren looks at his hand in surprise. "I suppose I did at that! Perhaps they are vulnerable to cold? Odd weakness for an animated hunk of rock to have, but perhaps it will work again." Once again, Ezren gestures and points, this time at the gray statue that has grabbed Merisiel. He shouts,"Unhand that rogue, you ... you chiseled shard of shoddy craftsmanship! Linio de malvarmo!"
"Wear them down, Pathfinders!" Ezren points a finger at the blue statute and intones, "Linio de malvarmo!"
Ezren looks up at Fumbus's shout. "What's what? Oh, those!" Action 1:
Info sought with Recall Knowledge action: (Adapted from the PFS1E PbP GM Kit) 1. Special Defenses e.g., fast healing, regeneration, evasion 2. Resistances Spell, Damage and Energy 3. Immunities Immunities 4. Special Attacks All special attacks 5. Saves Ranked in order, but no numbers 6. Weaknesses Weakness and Vulnerabilities 7. Spell-Like Abilities (Innate Spells in 2E?) All SLA's including caster level 8. Special Abilities Anything not covered under special attacks or defenses 9. Senses low-light vision, darkvision(range), etc 10. AC Total AC, and which is worse (Touch/Flat-Footed) 11. Hit Dice Number and Size of Die, but no added modifier 12. Skills What skills are trained or higher proficiency. What skills have a racial modifier. 13. Speed All relevant movement rates and quantities 14. Statistics In order, no numbers. 15. Feats All feats 16. One Specific Save (Reflex) Exact number, no info on the other two
Ezren starts to wave away the enthusiastic alchemist, then notices something about one of the tomes and rotates it 180 degrees as Fumbus suggested. "Abadar's brass ... scales. Hmmm. You may have something there, Fumbus. Well done, lad."
"She wasn't exaggerating about the state of disorder in here," Ezren grumbles. "I saw sections of our archives raided by the Aspis a few years back that were more organized." Still muttering to himself, the aging wizard sits down at the table with the enchanted volumes and begins his research.
Mollified by the comforts of Nexus House and relieved at the idea that the Society has finally given him a mission that seems both interesting and relatively safe, Ezren leaves off his complaining for the time being. "So, er, Vash-Vatom, I assume this device in the archive is an orrery, but what does it model? And what is its origin?"
Wait a couple of months, and the playtest for the APG classes - investigator, oracle, swashbuckler, witch - will start up. I don’t know if they’ll award points for it, but still - looking forward to three of my favorite classes coming back, especially the oracle!
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