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Inquisitors need a single level dip... but everyone knows it's barbarian you need! Well done on keeping up with the specialization, Ice Melts Quietly in Sunlight. I'm sure Kuragin will do so also. Ran out of time to post a moving it along post (wanted to get my PC posts in) so will move along tomorrow. Added benefit will be that Kuragin will get more time to post.
Thanks for running, Jyri! Had a blast and it was good to finally play this one from season 6. Those trippers were a turd... and to have two lots of them in separate combats speaks of devilry (or a lack of imagination) on the author's behalf. It's the sort of combo that can really only be done for NPCs (especially in a PFS context) and it's so deadly. If a pair of players did that with their GM credit blobs, I'd be pretty mad about it as a GM... and would roll my eyes a lot as a player. At least Haafiz, broken as he is, works solo and has a limited number of rounds he can be insane during. Also, it was great to play with you again Keith! You may not have punched as high during the last combat, but it wouldn't have been the same without you. Hope to see you on PbP again soon! Should we hit up Bold Strider to start up our next scenario now?
"Well done, Gunari," Haafiz congratulates the Caydenite, "Thank you for accepting my combat advice, too. I know you are well versed with the rapier, but we needed to stop him from destroying the book. All of you did so well, and it has been my extreme pleasure to serve with all of you. I hope we can venture together again some time. For now, though, I am sure that you will want to reunite with your friend Lort. He will be back in Absalom soon, no doubt. I was also considering staying here in Nantambu... if the enchanting Aya Allahe will have me, that is."
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Haafiz prays that Desna guide his aim and rushes forwards and to grab Dreggs himself.
: Haafiz rushes forwards in an effort to do as much harm to this would-be book destroyer as he can. He asks Desna to allow his weapon to strike hardest against creature's of Dregg's type and does his best to make his goddess proud.
Haafiz quickly casts see invisibility and moves after Thilza. Realizing that only bedrooms lie to the north, he checks down south for her... but tries to appear as though he is searching for her blind and listening out for her footfalls. Weapon drawn, but waving it around blindly, he walks down the hallway to the point where he could reach out and touch her, but he flails wildly to give the impression that he doesn't know where she is. "I will find you, witch. You have to open a door some time! When you do, I will be ready!" Haafiz shouts, deliberately loudly as though speaking to someone further down the hallway.
"Well done, Finarin!" Haafiz is suitably impressed once more by the elf's prowess. He twists on the floor and tries to improve his chances against his foe by concentrating his holy on bringing justice rather than pain to this man and lashes out.
Feeling lucky, Haafiz chances to stand up in Colon's presence. At least his friends are not around to help him out.
"Thanks for getting the doors!" Haafiz hears the chanting and skirts around the edge of the black tentacles towards the sound. On the way, he utters a quick prayer that Desna allow his blows to strike hard, allows his righteous fury to overtake him and takes a swipe at the gearsman with his adamantine Nodachi.
After lashing out at the robot, Haafiz ignores any clumsy swipe it makes and heads straight up to menace the woman in charge. "You might as well give up now," he offers, "We have already shown your compatriots the consequences of failing to accept our mercy. Do not make the same mistake."
Haafiz rushes in after Cyrus and takes a look around. He hears the chaos in the next room and yells out, "Aya! Arvellos! Close and bar these doors behind me!" Hoping that someone comes to do so, Haafiz is out of time to do such menial things himself. His friends need help! He continues through the house, past Finarin and sizes up the situation. "Need help? Where do you need me?"
Seeing no ill effects from the singing (and unaware of the assault on the Lodge), Haafiz moves over to confer with Cyrus. "The timing and placement of this singer is most strange, and I have not seen such a crowd gather out here before," Haafiz notes, "Do you think she could be a purposeful distraction? What next, friend?"
Level 7 is a sweet spot to have a toon at for playing locally (it hits 3/4 of the different tiered games - 3-7, 5-9 and 7-11). Planning to keep him that way (7) as long as possible. Lort returns next scenario. No question about it. He'll slow track as needed. @Jyri: How much XP will Amaranti have after he gets this GM credit?
Haafiz cranes his neck for a better look at the woman, but knowing that something is bound to be going down at any moment he decides not to take any chances. He reaches into a belt pouch and produces two pre-sized lumps of beeswax and shoves them into his ears . Haafiz says, far louder than he intends,
Haafiz allows his rage to subside and picks himself up off the floor. "Well, that went quite well. I forget how effective you all are - and Gunari! Quite the replacement for Amaranti you are! Excellent rapier work. I just wish I could have fought the battle from my feet. They are much more effective at bracing my blows than my back." The Keleshite seems a little winded as he moves over to Finarin to inspect the haul. He quickly grabs a potion of cure moderate wounds and, with a grin on his face, throws the potion of featherstep to Gunari, "For next time Finarin muddies up the battlefield!" He has a feel of the belt, "Well, this could be most useful. Is anyone else, like me, missing their own version?" With that sorted out, Haafiz approaches Sal, "I take it you have heard of the Pathfinder Society. My name is Haafiz and we are Pathfinders. The Technic League were your pursuers and after a book called A Thread of Silver. They no doubt traced it to your possession and perhaps realized that you sold this particular book to a man called Arvellos. They want it - at all costs, it seems. Please let us know what you told them and what they told you. Depending upon what they know, they may very well be headed straight to the Lodge. We can protect you there, if you like - but I would not blame you if you wanted to skip town. You are free to do what you will, and you have our best wishes."
"Trollhound? No you did not say," Haafiz says conversationally as Gunari sprays him with Vimes' blood, "That must have smelled almost as bad as these fiends here." The Keleshite turns to the last remaining man , "Surrender. There is no hope for you in this fight. If you continue, you will not survive. At least in the chains of justice there is a hope of redemption and release." While Haafiz despises slavery and the loss of freedom in all its forms, incarceration to bring justice is preferable to corporal punishment.
Haafiz quickly changes his bane to human bane and decides against getting up to face such expert trippers. He instead lashes out from his position on the floor. "Well, that was some fancy work to get me on the floor... but you will join me soon!" Haafiz declares as he swishes upwards (slightly awkwardly) with his prized nodachi.
Haafiz activates his oread bane ability, calling upon Desna to show him the right way to penetrate their rocky exteriors. He lifts his feet up lightly in the air, mystically finding the correct footing even on the shattered earth littering the floor. With his devotions done, he allows the blood to fill his head. The pressure pushes forth upon his eyes until all he sees is the oread. "You are mine," he says simply as he moves with unnatural speed and precision to strike out at him. Haafiz briefly considers stepping back afterwards, but decides that it would be best to keep his foe up against the table so that he can't drink the potion without consequences.
"I think I would rather have Cyrus along," Haafiz ponders aloud, "He is excellent at finding things and the sort of activities we are likely to find at a Sczarni camp. I can run very fast if the need arises and I am sure I could make it back to mount the first part of a defense of the lodge if needed. Would that Amaranti were here and could leave that magnificent serpent Kaisharga behind as a guard."
"Yes, Gunari, that has been gnawing at me also," Haafiz nods, "Perhaps we should at least spend a little time looking for Sal. After all, the golems are here and can probably hold them off - and I do not thing Nantambu is such a big place. Cyrus can stay here (maybe with someone else) and also aid Aya and Arvellos in holding any assailants off. I am pretty sure I saw some signal whistles in the supply room. Those could be used to get us to come back."
"I agree with Gunari. I feel bad that this Sal Durivan may have gotten swept up in all of this," Haafiz notes, "But our first duty is to the Lodge. We do not even know if he is in town, let alone if he has been captured. If we fend off the Technic lead - or if the gods are very kind and they do not attack - then we can look for him and make sure he is safe." Haafiz wanders the perimeter, making sure Cyrus does not get distracted. He elbows his fellow Keleshite in the ribs playfully when he notices the younger man looking at an ebon-skinned woman with a particularly cat-like gait.
"Not much. They were indeed of the Technic League," Haafiz tries to recall any details of significance, "It seems they have more allies who may be after the book. I am not sure how much longer our rumors will fool them - they may already be aware that Arvellos is a Pathfinder and trace him back here. Is there anything else we can do to help with the Lodge's defenses?" If nothing is suggested, Haafiz joins Cyrus on his rounds.
"It is good that you did not reveal anything," Haafiz notes, "But I would not have blamed you if you had. Mind you, giving torturers what they want does not always assure your survival. Let us get back to Sharrowsmith Exports." Without further delay, Haafiz makes a bee-line for the Pathfinder's Lodge in Nantambu .
"Well, I could certainly use such a belt," offers Haafiz, reaching over for it, "I have neglected to pick up such a device myself. If no one else would like it, I will get some use out of it..." Haafiz turns back to Arvellos, "We are Pathfinders like you, my good friend. It seems we are lucky to have gotten here when we did. Now, how about we mop up here while you fill us in on exactly why you went to ground and then how you were captured. I hope you will have no objections to coming straight back to Sharrowsmith Exports to hole up for a while." Haafiz leaves the questions he has about A Thread of Silver for after Arvellos gets a chance to explain himself.
Haafiz looks crestfallen for a moment, having not dealt a single blow during the entire combat. He checks to see if the man is alive, and if so he reopens the wound with his nodachi. "Do not deny people their freedom." With that, Haafiz pushes his body of the platform and rushes down to the bruised man in the chair. He ejects a wand from his wrist sheath and chants the keyword to complete the spell and heal whoever he touches.
"Easy now, you are with friends," he says to the victim of the Technic League while carefully untying his bonds, "Tell us, what happened here? Do you know where Arvellos is... or are you he?"
After seeing through the illusory wall Haafiz rushes up the stairs, ready to do battle with the ooze. Angry with his poor battlefield positioning (the speedy Keleshite is unused to being out of the fray) Haafiz spits a silent curse at the ground while waiting in the back for a better chance at his foes.
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Not true. You can also get a saving throw if you "study it carefully" - which is about as vague a description in RAW as it can possibly get. As a GM, I always assumed this is what anyone did automatically upon being told something is illusory (or realising the spell just cast was of the illusion school)... same as stating you are disbelieving an illusion in older school D&D. This is what Haafiz was attempting. RAW, scroll down to "illusion" -> "saving throws". Since it is listed under saving throws and saves are actionless, I've always ruled that "study it carefully" is too. You could rule that studying it carefully is a move action (like a perception check), a standard action (like most things that don't have a stated action time) or more, but it's up to you. Suffice it to say you don't need to touch it (at range or otherwise) to disbelieve an illusion. I did a fair bit of digging about this before running an illusory battle in Isle of Dread. While it's not PFS and I could rule it any way I liked, I still wanted to be sure that I was being fair to those involved. There is no clarification to "study it carefully" that I've found. Expect table variation in PFS, then, I guess... but it's up to you!
"He's right behind you, Cyrus - and he can fly now!" cries Haafiz in warning, "He's flanking with sextuple vision over there! Can anyone dispel magic?" Haafiz weighs up the situation and decides that a spell might be best. He rushes forwards to just within range and targets the flying invisible guy with an ear piercing scream. Haafiz opens his mouth and shouts something that only Zentyr can hear,
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