Dear Everyone,
I am posting this to all of my games. I'm sorry for my lack of communication. Life has been dumping on me.
My work load is still overwhelmingly heavy, and we had a major medical scare in my family. My son had a relatively simple case of strep throat, and we learned the hard way that he is allergic to penicillin. Very allergic. We've been dealing with medical issues for over a week now.
I will be going on inactive status for a short while. I need to get things in order and I barely have time in my daily schedule to eat dinner with my family let alone do any gaming. Between too much work, finishing my dissertation, and my son's health, I have too much on my plate.
If you feel the need to replace my character, I understand. I will reach out to you when things settle down to see if there is still an opening. Probably in a few weeks.
Thank you for all the fun! I hope this passes soon.
Hello, everyone.
I am swamped at work right now. I am preparing a grant proposal single-handed this week (yes, they gave me a week to finish it) and my free time has disappeared. I'm sorry if I've been absent/slow in posting. I will be finished today, and catch up this weekend with posting. I am sorry for the interruption and thank you for being understanding.
Knowledge (arcane) 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24
Victoria shouts above the din. "This is a Purple Worm! A magical beast that lives below ground --and usually stays below ground! They are known to eat horses or cows whole when the emerge. This seems to be a particularly advanced specimen."
Victoria casts a spell and begins to grow to enormous proportions herself, easily standing 15 feet tall within a few moments. She is also covered in a coating of thick, white fur.
Cast monstrous physique III, taking the form of a Huge yeti. I'm not taking any other actions yet, but here is an AoO just in case. FYI, I now have a 20-foot reach.
Melee Attack
fauchard 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (18) + 25 = 433d8 + 22 ⇒ (1, 6, 7) + 22 = 36 Critical threat
fauchard 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (10) + 25 = 353d8 + 22 ⇒ (6, 3, 6) + 22 = 37 Critical confirmation
Victoria continues onward to escape the magical storm.
Another double move, as you suggested.
"I can carry you, Aldern." Victoria descends to catch the nobleman by a hand and ferry him along toward the wyrm. When the creature is in sight, she let's go and drops him a few inches to the earth.
Double move action.
"I would not want to insult our scouts by questioning their competence, but dividing our group would be not prudent." Victoria continues to hover in the air, ready for trouble.
GM, you are correct. It is my first time using the spell. The eyes can continue their original programming.
Knowledge (arcane) 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (13) + 19 = 32
Victoria shifts her masked gaze back and forth as she examines the new weather phenomenon. "This is not natural. This is a sleet storm spell. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to stop our progress without direct confrontation. Press on! The radius of the spell is not so great. A minute of walking should take us out."
Victoria follows along behind Graverattler, keeping her eyes circling at a perimeter of 150 feet.
"Very well. We shall wait."
Can serpents or wyrms wield magic in the same way as dragons...?
Knowledge (arcane) 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (13) + 19 = 32
Victoria's eyes continue to spread out (currently 120') and she quietly makes her way down to the rest of the party. She whispers to them, "Can anyone create illusions? If we can surround the sensor with a globe of illusion, then we could portray false actions while my eyes continue to search."
No 'offical' actions, really. I cannot fly above the canopy and we don't have a clear target.
"I will keep all of my eyes open." With a few quick movements of her hands and some chanted arcane words, Victoria summons a host of floating eyes, each the size of an apple, that whirl in a circle around her. There are 1d4 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12 eyes in all. Victoria clears her throat and all of the eyes spin to look at her. "Comb the area. Expanding spiral. Report targets larger than a man."
Prying Eyes.
I use Wild Arcana. 4/5 mythic points.
"Serpentine? Yes, a wyrm more than a dragon. I have heard of the tatzlewyrm of the River Lands, and the linnorms of the northern reaches, but I have never heard of such a creature in Korvosa."
Victoria follows along, confident that someone as used to roughing it in the wilderness as Graverattler should be able to find their prey.
I can't beat those rolls.
Victoria casts an overland flight spell in preparation. "Please remind me, Lord Foxglove. Does this creature have a breath weapon similar to a true dragon?"
Victoria takes her watch, hopefully without incident...
"In that case, I will take watch for the first two hours. Justinius, I will wake you when it is your turn." Victoria elects to sleep in the wagon for the night.
"I will take a horse. As long as we avoid stunt riding, I should be fine." She climbs on top of her temporary steed.
"Then why even help defend this town? Your opinions are predictable, Graverattler. As I'm fairly certain mine are to you. I may seem hard and cruel, but my hardness and cruelness has been necessary to protect many innocents. A few of them even you would agree are innocent." Victoria finishes her tea with a last sip and places her mug down on the table. "I will retire for the evening. Justinius, I would be happy to discuss this case at a later time. Perhaps in other company. Right now I need to rest for our hunt tomorrow." She retires to her room.
Hey guys! I want to make certain that this argument between Victoria and Graverattler is not going too far in terms of acceptable roleplay. Many groups I've played with want such exchanges to be in the "background," so to speak, and not influence interactions with NPCs. If it is too much, I'm happy to tone it down.
"Thank you, Ameiko." Victoria calls out as their hostess leaves the table. She gives Graverattler a heavy look. "The next time you object to something I say, perhaps you should wait until we are out of polite company before forcing a confrontation."
Victoria shakes her head in disbelief. "The villagers were there first, Graverattler. You cannot build hamlets in a day. They were there for several years building and clearing land. They couldn't very well abandon their livelihood in a fortnight. Murdering entire families in their sleep does not qualify as 'defending your home.' Ever. I can't believe I have to say this... you blanch at torture, but find disemboweling children to be morally defensible? Duly noted."
She leans forward a bit. "Tell me, Graverattler, which was here first? Sandpoint, or the giants? Do you know?"
The flavor is great. I am having to read the sentences two or three times to understand it, so maybe dial it down a tad. Just a tad. :)
DM Nate wrote: Ameiko frowns slightly when the conversation quickly turns back to her family. "My father is the town leadership... I mean, there's the mayor, yes, but mayors come and go but the four families and their heads always stay the same. He didn't have any objections to the Cathedral, though, he knew it would bring more commerce. More crowds too, I'm sure he wasn't excited about that but no, he probably could have stopped the whole thing if he really wanted to."
"Is there anything else you'd like to hear about?"
"Is Lord Foxglove always so... gregarious? Or is it these remarkable circumstances?"
Graverattler wrote: ...She shakes her head in frustration, then pounds a fist on the table "Druid terrorists?" she demands. "Yes, terrorists, if you must know. I led a contingent of Armigers to the Backar Forest in southern Molthune. A circle of druids were targeting frontier settlements. They had sent warnings to loggers and farmers to stay away from their woods. That isn't unusual, being druids and all, but their methods set them apart. After their warnings were ignored, perhaps for a fortnight, they attacked. They came in the night. They descended on small villages, polymorphed the inhabitants into dumb beasts, and set fire to their buildings and fields. All of them. Men, women, and children. Some of the villagers, now animals, were used in haruspicy." Victoria's voice becomes quiet, and she flexes a fist as she recalls. "We caught one of them. A fat and slow little man. He was likely new to their circle and still had the soft body of a scholar. I'm sure he had joined them out of some misguided philosophical idealism. I broke him. I broke him as thoroughly as a man can be broken in a single night. We let him die of shock, tied to a tree. We used the information he gave us to find the rest of their circle. We did not take prisoners." She unclenches her fist. "We dispelled the enchantments on the villagers that we could find. The rest we buried. Five young men and women joined the Hellknights. Three made it through basic training. One died on a mission, and the other two are now Armigers. I think of that little village cemetary every time I see them."
She takes a drink of tea. "Did you have a problem with my choice of words?"
"You honor me, Sir Redarm. It is true that the Hellknights are investigators as much as they are defenders. I have led many investigations, questioned many suspects, and prosecuted many cases. Thought, to be honest, they were of a nature quite different than this situation. The Order of the Gate is charged with rooting out supernatural threats to civilization, and stamping out cabals of druid terrorists and doomsday cultists does not easily translate to our present case. However, the framework is the same. You have a crime. Crimes must be committed by an actor. That actor has motivations and goals. Physical evidence and witness testimony may reveal the actor. Identifying the benefit of the crime may reveal the actor. Intense scrutiny and questioning can elicit a confession Sometimes they resist and must be convinced..." Her eyes glaze somewhat and she stares at the table. After a beat, she sniffs and continues. "Confessions lead to resolution, or to other actors. In this case, our primary actor is unidentified. We have secondary actors -- the giants -- who do not have clear motive other than general looting. That is no reason to risk life and limb when outlying farms can provide provender and sport. No, something else convinced them to risk an attack on a large and well-defended city. Given the intrusion into the crypt below the cathedral and the theft of the body of Father Tobyn, we can deduce that the attack was a ruse to draw attention. Given that, we come to a portentous question -- What is so important about the body of Father Tobyn that it can lead to the uniting of disparate stone giant tribes, their coordinated assault on Sandpoint, and the sacrifice of one of their chief captains? Given the fact that other bodies in the crypt belonged to equally notable holy men, it must be that the theft involved the personage of Father Tobyn. This leads me to believe that someone involved in his mysterious death five years ago in the conflagration is also involved in the recent corpse theft, either as a primary or secondary actor. Why would our primary actor need the body of Father Tobyn? Is there some divine or arcane ritual that requires it? What will be accomplished by this ritual? There are very few uses for a dead body that do not involve its use as a ritual component."
She takes a drink of the tea when it arrives. "In the morning, we must check and see if the priests have learned anything from the bodies of the giants. If not, then investigating the holds of the giants would be the next logical step. Perhaps capturing a scout alive and asking the right questions."
Victoria walks into the common room, metal-clad feet thumping on the floor as she approaches the barmaid. She stops suddenly, perhaps a hand-span too close for comfort to the young lade, and looks down. "Something needed our attention. Sharing specifics would be the prerogative of Sheriff Hemlock or Father Zantus. I will honor their trust." Her voice, as always, is hollow and slightly muffled behind her helm. She stares for a moment. "Tea, please."
She ambles to a table and raps her polearm on the floor, causing it to shrink to the size of a dagger. She secures the baton to her side and takes a seat. "Please, Justinius, take a seat beside me. I typically eat lightly for dinner, but your company will be appreciated all the same. I sleep fitfully after a large meal. What did you want to know? I will answer what I can."
"Thank you, Father Zantus. We may much to ponder. I would suggest we all retire to the inn to sleep. Rest may give us insight."
Diplomacy (gather information) 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20
Knowledge (local) 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (7) + 19 = 26
Victoria politely asks Father Zantus regarding Father Tobyn, the beautiful daughter, the fire, and in particular regarding where the fire started and how far it spread.
Victoria nods. "We killed a specter, destroyed a fetish altar, and Father Tobyn's body is missing. There is nothing more to add. Can you draw any conclusions as to motivation? We surmised either someone involved in the cathedral fire five years ago, or a necromancer. But necromancers are a boogey-man only when good reasons are exhausted."
"Nothing more here. Let's head up and make our report." Victoria does just that, entering the cathedral and seeking out Father Zantus and Sheriff Hemlock to apprise them of their findings.
Knowledge (arcane) 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (13) + 19 = 32
Perception 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26
"Well done!" Victoria raps the pommel of her fauchard on the floor of the crypt. "Now, let's see what was being protected by this creature." Giving the bone fetish a wide berth, she circles the chamber. "The bundles occupying these niches are, predictably, wrapped bodies. Every niche," she points at each one as she walks by them, "also has an inscription. A name and dates of birth and death. Except for you." She stops at one niche, bearing an inscription but no body. She leans forward and reads. "Father Tobyn. Why, he was the previous High Priest, who died in that fire five years ago! Either the people who stole his body were involved in the fire five years ago, or a necromancer is seeking to create something truly awful and needed an intact corpse from a holy man. My money is on the former."
Turning, she considers the fetish in the center of the room. "I would encourage no one to touch that... thing. Fetishes like this amalgam of bone and sinew are sometimes crafted by savages. They bear magical enchantments. It is certainly the source of the auras of desecration and fear. I suggest we alert the clergy, concerning both the theft of Father Tobyn's body, and the need to cleanse this crypt. I would not want other corpses being raised as undead."
Yikes! Best wishes for his recovery.
One use of mythic power to fuel Wild Arcana.
"Wǒ zhàohuàn tiānshàng liàn kǔnbǎng nǐ. Yuàn nǐ de zuì shì shùfù nǐ de línghún."
Victoria summons glowing chains of light, which surge out of her hands, fly through the air, and quickly wrap around the shadow creature.
Reflex DC 21
Concentration: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20 vs DC 18
Looks like no AoE spells in this fight. :S
The wave of unnatural fear rushes up to Victoria...
Will save: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30
... and washes over her without noticeable effect. "You do not frighten me, specter. Do pay attention, because this is how you will die."
She fires magic missile again, not wanting to catch of any the other party members in an area-of-effect spell.
5d4 + 5 ⇒ (3, 1, 3, 4, 2) + 5 = 18 force damage
Victoria descends the stairs just until she can see into the chamber below. "An incorporeal target is resistant or immune to many things, but sheer arcane force is not one of them." She fires off a magic missile spell.
5d4 + 5 ⇒ (1, 2, 4, 4, 3) + 5 = 19 force damage.
My one action...
Just as Graverattler is about to descend into the crypt, Victoria intones a brief eldritch chant. A soft haze of blue light shimmers over everyone, and you are filled with a sense of disciplined order.
Cast communal protection from chaos.
"The crypt may be empty, or may have a threat inside. Endangering yourself in such a manner is valiant, but must be your choice."
In some campaign settings I've read, law enforcement has to get a warrant before they can employ divination magic on a suspect and is considered a 'search' in our legal sense. Golarion isn't quite like that, but it is still considered invasive.
Of course, you could go full Judge Dredd and just not care if you offend anyone. "Why are you so touchy, citizen? HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE?!"
Victoria steps from the shadows, standing inside the cemetery on the opposite side of the gate. She nods her great-helm at the arrival of the party. She makes several universally understood hand gestures -- holding a finger over her mouth, pointing at the party, and holding an open palm in a halting motion -- and disappears again.
After a minute or so, she arrives again, with a temple neophyte in tow. He unlocks the gate with the haste of a nervous underling and mumbles something incoherent about waiting for them inside.
The Hellknight leans in to the party and speaks very softly. "Civic duty is its own reward, ladies and gentlemen. Ahead is the crypt that was vandalized and entered during the attack. Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zantus desire a report from me when we have determined what, if anything, is inside. Can any of you employ divination magic? It would be prudent to make whatever surveillance we can before physically entering the mausoleum."
The common room door of the Rusty Dragon swings open abruptly as Paralictor Whitesmith stands outlined in the light of the setting sun. The orange glow makes her mithral armor shine like bronze. "We are needed. Now. The attack was a ruse to draw our attention. Someone broke into the mausoleum holding the remains of dead clergy. The Sheriff wants us to investigate. There may be trouble. Your assistance would be appreciated." She nods, waves a hand beckoning for others to follow, and lets the door swing behind her as she heads back to the cathedral.
Helmet on.
Victoria speaks with an acolyte concerning a wand of cure minor wounds. Perhaps with a discount for a Hero of Sandpoint? She would not be crass enough to ask for it directly.
Victoria smiles, which of course is not visible, but can be heard in the warmth of her voice. "Of course, Prelate. Your time is a treasure to me. It would be an honor to join them." She enters the room where they meet and stands at attention with her hands clasped behind her back. "Greetings, Sheriff. Father Zantus. It is a pleasure to meet with you. My I have a rundown of what has been discussed thus far?"
Victoria will make her way to the cathedral, hoping to see what is available in the way of healing potions or wands. Also, to check in with the Prelate to see if any progress has been made in investigating the motivation of the giants.
Victoria turns her head slowly to Avaria. She has a distant, fascinated appearance in her eyes. "Did you, Avaria? Did you marry in such a place? Transgressions of the law must not, will not be tolerated."
Hmm... I like the idea, but switching from an Int to a Wis skill drops the total modifier by 5. That hurts a bit.
But then again, it's still +14. I'll make the switch.
"Indeed, I am." Victoria dabs at her mouth with her napkin as she finishes her meal. "Unless, of course, Avaria happened to marry her husband within a jurisdiction wherein marriage is both a religious rite and a legal contract of joint ownership with conditional clauses of indemnity and forfeiture in cases of infidelity and abandonment. In that case, his indiscretions are illegal." Victoria balls her hands into fists. "That would drastically alter my motivation to participate."
"That is very agreeable, Lord Foxglove." After he leaves, and in response to Graverattler's question. "If I may, what is Avaria hunting?"
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