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Malgrim scatters the two swarms in the main room, leaving only the swarm sharing the room with Seif and Shadow.
Thugs (2 unconscious and getting eaten alive by wasps,-9/-1Dex; 3 uninjured) Swarms
Beginning of round 4
The somnolent plant is a bit slow and dreamy, making it difficult to get anything concrete out of it, including its origins or anything about Ghorans. It communicates a motherly affection for the surrounding region and the townsfolk of Mercy. It stepped in and saved the inhabitants by producing a transformation in the bodies of their young, making them 'bionic', except with plant augmentations instead of machine. This has been going on for a while with the processing becoming more and more perfected over time and, though not apparent, the adults have already gone through this transformation. Before the Verdant Spark (which is what it calls itself) came to the rescue, the town was doomed. The Spark thinks this transformation is such a great thing that it plans to spread the favor over the whole world once it is fully awoken. Whether or not it could actually do so might be in question, but it seems confident, in spite of the fact that it has absolutely no concept of how big the world is. It has no idea who Robori is (or Amenira or the doll or any particular individual for that matter), but is quite certain that whoever or whatever Robori is, it is not responsible for the thriving life in the area and saving the village. Over time it has learned to influence the surrounding land across several miles and protected the village from numerous natural disasters, including the mana storm. You can quickly deduce that Robori is the villagers attempt at explaining the happenings as best they can, being totally unaware of the Verdant Spark. Suggesting the idea of moving it sends it into panic mode, much like a mother being threated with separation from its children. It would probably be possible, but it would likely fight back. Assuming you leave the creature to protect the town, the return journey to Katapesh is largely uneventful, though if the PCs take Nira with them, the doll attracts strange looks and mutterings from other people who see her. Venture-Captain Roderus requests that the PCs provide him a detailed account of their journeys and discoveries. The venture-captain is disappointed that they did not bring back the Verdant Spark, but when the PCs explain that they left the artifact in place to protect Mercy, he praises them for their prudence in considering when a mission should or should not be completed. Once the PCs have completed their account, Roderus reaches under his desk and withdraws a fat pouch of coins. “I told you I would compensate you for the success of your investigation, and I am a man of my word.” He distributes coins to the PCs. “Well done, Pathfinders. It’s good to know I can rely on you for future missions.” OOC:
Amenira used the enter image spell on the dolls she handed out to spy on the children and witness the transformation. The cloaker, self-styled and quite mad protector of the Verdant Spark, felt like Amenira was getting too close to the truth and stole some of her possessions to lured her to it's lair where it killed her. But Aminira was able to cast her soul into the doll which continued the fight and sent the bewildered cloaker running for safety. Hey, if a doll came to life and attacked me, I would probably get the heck out of there too.
@Malgrim
@Gnasher
Shadow dares the swarm and stick around long enough to dispatch another thug who takes a nose dive. For his trouble he gets chewed on by the swarm.
The one thug still standing in a swarm staggers over to a chair and collapses into it. The three lucky enough to be outside the swarms stay back and wait for you to come to them.
Beginning of round 3
Seif (-8 HP)
Thugs (2 unconscious and getting eaten alive by wasps,-9/-1Dex; 3 uninjured) Swarms
, 27 damage
Malgrim wisely retreats from the swarm and sends a bifurcated blast of water into the churning mass of wasps. His brutal use of water reduces the swarms targeted significantly, though they still persist, but the thugs drop where they are doomed to suffer the continued attentions of the wasps. Ironically their only hope is that the heroes disperse them.
Gnasher (-0 HP)
Malgrim Gryh (-7 HP) Thugs (1 unconscious and getting eaten alive by wasps, -6P/-1Dex; -9DP/-1Dex; 3 uninjured)
Correct. Depending on one choice you might have another combat, or I could just assume some things and go straight to the summary and debriefing if you so choose.
You are allowed to position yourself anywhere in the foom you would like, including next to the door. I figured you had time to get out of bed and move in the room when you heard the commotion. Gnasher, that drops the Thug that was in front of the door. Malgrim, you are up.
As a note, you can consider this adventure completed as far as joining another game is concerned.
I'm interested. Got a 4th level nature oracle or a 6th level skald if normal, depending on which level range you want to run. I have a 4th level fighter and a 7th level un-minimaxed druid (i.e. low power) druid in core.
@Seif
After throwing open the door, the poor thug is met by an intimidating screech and a face full of fur. Seif's bud, Shadow, does a fine job of subduing the guy. If the bite/claw/claw/rake/rake hadn't taken him down, he probably would have passed out from fright. Though I don't think shadow knows what 'Kill' really means as his/her attacks were mostly paw pads. Syn laughs and waves at your group with a wink. Thousands of wasps appear and start gnashing on Malgrim and Seif and, yes, some of the thugs. After her 'present' she lifts off and disappears upward.
; ;
Round 2
Thugs (1 unconcious and getting eaten alive by wasps, -8D; -7P/-1Dex; -6P/-1Dex; -4; -9DP/-1Dex; 3 uninjured)) Seif (-8 HP, need DC 13 fort save vs. distraction, need DC 13 fort save vs. poison or lose a Dex)
Syn (-0 HP)
Yes, opening a door is a separate move action. Had it not been, you would have had your wish and a thug or two would have been right there for you to obliterate.
They went before Gnasher, but most of them just did a double move. You will be acting before them.
That would have taken an extra action.
I forgot too. You want to retro things or just stick with it the way it is?
Sounds good to me. I will hand wave the UMD to emulate the Wisdom since you can keep trying without consequence. What do you say to the plant?
Malgrims blast bounces off the door she is hiding behind, leaving a hole that will be a pain to fix. The Thug in the middle of the room rushes the door and takes an ineffectual swing at Malgrim, While 8 others rush out of Rayhan's bedroom and the stairs they were on their way up.
.
Seif heads off to protect Rayhan. As soon as he opens the door he finds there is a slight complication. There are a few invaders in the main room (A7) and the door to his bedroom (A9) is open. DC 18 perception, no take 10, and not Seif: Lingering by the door is a female that looks familiar. It takes a moment, but that smile is ingrained in your memory. Syn! she looks like she is trying to hide but she is not doing a particularly good job of it.
You are all bedded down in the guest rooms at midnight when they hear the horses crying out from the stables.
Excellent. Then, with the purchased finalized, I can move on.
Since it is a 3rd level Druid, 4th level bard, and a 2nd level ranger spell it is not on anyone's list and will require UMD. You might as well try (in spite of Nistivo's reluctance) as it is not like you ruin the scroll on a fail.
Of course it has monetary value. It is a magic scroll after all. And Nistivo knows it can be purchased for 375 gp.
Nistivo continues drive home the crux of the matter, whether it would be more profitable to take the plant with them or leave it. The answer seems obvious to him.
No evil detected.
The thing does blaze brightly with an overwhelming magical aura of transmutation and conjuration.
I asked about that and a GM gets a race boon with no roll.Usually, the GM rolls for a player boon, too. This is in addition to the GM boon. Before I investigate I'll roll.
Now I don't have to figure it out :)
A link to the generated chronicles is available at the top of the page. Please verify that the info is correct. @Grilgoth
Any other's want to chime in about whether to leave the sprout there or take it away?
What do you have to do to get a replay noted? I tried through RPG Chronicles but it seemed to ignore the fact that a replay was selected so I added the player's request to the GM notes when I submitted to HQ. Was that the right thing to do?
I asked about that and a GM gets a race boon with no roll. Did you all decide what to do with the sprout? I need to know that before continuing.
@Grilgoth
Or do GMs just select from... ...without rolling? RPG Chronicle submissions are dur on the 20th, right?
Statuses:
So should I make a roll as a GM too. and select A or B if I win? Are the boons awarded to players done at random or do I ask?
I have this for day job rolls: Eredur: 28
Note regarding Door Prizes Paizo has graciously offered up prize vouchers for Gameday, and we will be randomly drawing winners from a pool of all players and GMs for reported games. These vouchers will need to be emailed, so please remember to fill in Your emails in RPG Chronicles so that we can get you your prizes when they win. We also have a set of boons for our PFS1 players. Each GM and Player of a PFS1 game has a 10% chance to win one of our lovely boons at random. Have everyone at your table roll a d20 and a roll of 1 or 20 wins. So make a roll for your day job if needed and then a roll for your boon.
@Ezekiel
After exploring the rest of the cave and finding more of the same, you return to the sprout to decide what to do with it.
Ezekial, I just need you to fill out RPG Chronicles.Still not filled out and we are nearing completion. Still need your entry in RPG Chronicles.
Ah, no, no way I was referring to that. I was just talking about the party being surprisingly uneventful. I was rather surprised you didn't know what metagaming was, now I understand. Yea, she is bound to make an appearance again. I'll make sure of that.
Metagaming means you base what your character does on expectations formed outside of the actual scenario. For example, if you have played a dozen pathfinder scenarios and found that there are 3-4 combats per scenario, you might assume that if you are about to start a 4th battle it will be the final one with the BBEG. Or if most of the time when there is a party or wedding or something and a bunch of goons attack, you will go into a party expecting a battle. In my experience, with these games, there is better than a 75% chance that an innocent get together will have complications. This a a rare case where there are no complications.
In the room with the giant sprout you discover an amber necklace on the ground, holding a miniature version of the tree that populates this cave within. A seedpod next to the artifact contains one use of dowsing syrup (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment 292) attached to a verdant vine (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment 275). You get to the room with the red X in in and discover a body wearing a set of orange like the ones that the people of Mercy wear. A body that looks remarkably like the small doll that has been following you. When Nira sees the body she approaches it and whisper 'murder' as she points at it. It also looks like it was used as a storage area at one time but most of the items left behind have long since decayed. I'm going to assume someone is using detect magic while exploring so you will find a circular length of vine that holds two spherical seedpods, both of which are magical. DC 18 perception, spellcraft, or alchemy:
One of the seedpods contains a potion of greater desperate escape, which functions as a potion of cure moderate wounds and a potion of invisibility. DC 18 perception, spellcraft, or alchemy:
One of the seedpods contains a a gray potion of protection from alignments, which has the properties of all of the protection from chaos/evil/good/law spells. DC 18 perception, spellcraft, or alchemy:
One of the seedpods contains a potion of resilience, an orange liquid that functions as a potion of bear’s endurance and a potion of barkskin. DC 18 heal: She has been dead for 2 months, and there are several bite marks on her body that were the cause of her death. Bite marks that match the ones on Eredur which, by the way, have not been healed.
Once the meal is over, the group retires downstairs to the parlor, which has been set up to accommodate whatever form of additional entertainment the PCs have decided to provide to the guests. Bottles of wine are opened and drinks flow liberally among the guests during the PCs’ performances. Malgrim impresses the guests and you make a clean sweep of things (apart from Urah's nervous attempt). Finally the guests leave . You all have a couple of days of peace before anything happens to do your purchases (including the 3000 gp bonus for your performances). Could you make a list of the purchases you make?
Do you examine the thing up close?
I'm lowering that DC a bit as this is a low level party and I added the roll/knowledge on my own initiative...
DC 20 kn history: Grilgoth's information reminds you of a historical reference about ghorans. A group of powerful ghoran druids attempted to draw upon what they could gather from Ghorus’s original rituals to create a new member of their kind. Their ritual was partially successful—the seedling on which they experimented developed a rudimentary form of sentience, but it gave off a form of radiation that caused ghorans in close proximity to quickly wither and die. Fearful, the druids sealed the seedling away in a state of dormancy and left the region. This could very well be that seedling.
Grilgoth thinks that this sprout reminds her of a Ghoran. When the mana waste was created during the war between Geb and Nex, Nex enlisted the
DC 18 perception:
It occurs to you that the closer you got to this location, the more verdant the area became. DC 25 kn history: Grilgoth's information reminds you of a historical reference about ghorans. A group of powerful ghoran druids attempted to draw upon what they could gather from Ghorus’s original rituals to create a new member of their kind. Their ritual was partially successful—the seedling on which they experimented developed a rudimentary form of sentience, but it gave off a form of radiation that caused ghorans in close proximity to quickly wither and die. Fearful, the druids sealed the seedling away in a state of dormancy and left the region. This could very well be that seedling.
The temperature rises toward the back of the cave. A tangle of vines spins and twists out of the rocky ground to cradle an enormous seedling. Both the seedling and the vines glow with a vibrant green light. The vegetation around the sprout is particularly vibrant with life.
The party starts exploring finding a number of branches and a couple more rooms, none of which present a challenge or offer any information or reward, regardless of how hard you search. You come to yet another branch and choose which direction?
The guest first look bored, then impressed with Seif's lecture as each of them, including Kazim, learn something new. Kazim claps the most enthusiastically which is a compliment indeed as he has been mostly reserved during the party. At first the guests are shocked by Gnasher's antics, but when Fester leaps to his feet and cheers (and does not get mauled), the others loosen up and give a much more restrained huzzah, though they still look a bit bewildered. "All part of the act, Urah insists, before he begins his own performance involving escaping from some handcuffs."
Unfortunately Gnasher's outburst has completely unnerved him and it takes far too long for him to get out of them, in fact through the entire 5th course, delaying the arrival of the 6th.
"Absolutely not!. Well, not like that particular part..." At that moment dinner is announced and the guests move towards the dining room. Rayhan waits until everyone is seated (additional chairs are brought in as necessary), before he taps a spoon against a crystal wineglass and raises a toast. "Welcome, honored guests! Kakishon has long been a place of myth and legend. Some scholars had turned away from the notion of this place after convincing themselves that the place was pure legend and did not truly exist. I distinctly recall the suspicion I felt just a few days ago when these fine folk arrived with what they believed was the Scroll of Kakishon itself. After seeing so many charlatans and forgeries in my life, it was hard to believe at first—but I believe what these folk have brought me may indeed be the real thing. I complete my research and appraisal in a few days, at which point we can talk prices. For now, though, let this toast be for the heroes who have brought to Katapesh a piece of history!" The guests all raise their glasses and toast the PCs, after which the food is served. Eramin brings out plates of aromatic sliced meats, vegetables and fruits from the garden, salads, bread, and fine wine until the dining table is covered completely. Once the food is served, the table erupts into conversation. Some of the guests ask how closely Rayhan has examined the map and if he’s figured out how to activate it yet. Others want to know what the party intends to do with the map. Marzuk states that he simply cannot fathom the notion that they would wish to keep it, given that there are so many others who have been waiting lifetimes for a chance to learn its secrets. Fester eats heartily and recounts tale after tale, but is also very interested in the tales the heroes tell too. Yet at no times do any of the guests make offers—they’ve already stated their offers to the PCs, after all, and haggling and bargaining at a dinner party is considered crass.
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