- It should be noted the kobolds did have peaceful relations with those mites you guys helped with their snail problem, so they seem the sort not so randomly set upon travelers at least
- About half a day's journey from the upper entrance of the tunnels to the mouth of the Isger where the ship is meant to be waiting
Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Fantasy
-
- Tags
- pathfinder
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Is the route we're currently using compatible with a forced march? The Halflings are slowing us down, so if we moved at our regular speed and have them hustle, we could cut that half day down by about another half, especially if we have the Halflings take turns riding on Warty. He could carry at least six or eight Halfling children at any given time to let them rest in shifts.
You could try to force march them, the route is fine, the halflings might not be, hardened adventurers they are not for the most part. They mostly got by by hiding very well in Cheliax not forced march.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Drow raiders. Are they here to raid the surface, or for some other purpose?
I think I'd rather be far away from the place when they pass through, which means we should get going. Is there another route to the surface than the one we are heading to? I am trying to understand if we need to outrun them, or simply put enough distance between us and hope they go the other way.
[x] Make all haste to the surface
I think I'd rather be far away from the place when they pass through, which means we should get going. Is there another route to the surface than the one we are heading to? I am trying to understand if we need to outrun them, or simply put enough distance between us and hope they go the other way.
[x] Make all haste to the surface
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- Location
- Germany
[x] Make all haste to the surface
Routes up are uncommon and usually guarded. This one is unusual for not having anything more powerful than a kobold tribe near it, the nearest other route is the one near Longacre.
Yes in that they worship an array of demons rather than one Demon Goddess, they also have a thing for flesh-warping with er... predictable results. They are the ones to turned some pech into dero, just an an example, not that most people even in the darklands know that. One thing everyone agrees to is that as bad as the Duergar are, being slavers dedicated to an evil god of toil 'at least they are not fucking drow'. A dark dwarf will try to legalize you into losing your money, your freedom or your life if you are not careful, a dark elf might do the same for shits and giggles. They do make great stuff though like that spidersilk armor you are presently wearing, so there is that.
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Update in the morning, given the vote Akorian is likely to see daylight again... much to the displeasure of his retinas. 
Vote closed.
Arc 4 Post 5: The Last Leg
The Last Leg
6th of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
"Better not to have to fight at all," you answer after a moment, then seeing the disappointed look on Cob's face, add. "Drow are miserable to fight, or so I've heard at least."
Iolda gives you, or rather the silk armor peeking between the folds of your cloak, the side-eye, to which you shrug and answer honestly: "Not from their hands. In war or in trade it is the man who never crosses gazes with drow who is blessed with long life..." But not too honestly, is the implication that you had traded for the spidersilk would make your company seem more reliable to the halfling-folk.
If the journey so far had been rough, what follows is grueling. Nar Voth does not open up into a smooth gullet to the outer world here, but instead requires one to climb up narrow crumbling ledges, suitable perhaps for clawed kobold feet, but a nightmare to traverse with a score and more people, some of them far from hale, and all their supplies. Given enough time to take this slow and steady you would have suggested a rope harness for everyone. As is, a rope hammed into the stone at both ends with pitons works, though part of you wonders if it is more for moral support than physical...
A shout, then a muffled 'oof', echoes from behind you as the rope goes taunt. No scream follows. Looking back confirms that the old halfling is still here, only a few pebbles and some rock-mold consigned to the chasm opening to your left. "Watch it back there!" you call out, your shadow gesticulating with clawed hands against the torchlight. It does not seem to help, twice more Iolda's people slip or trip, but each time the rope holds, giving lie to your earlier thoughts about Cob's work.
Reflex Save Halfling: 1d20+2 = 8, 7, 9 (Failure)
Cob Knowledge (Engineering) DC 17/22/27: 1d20+9 = 28 (Full Success)
When you make it to the top a moss covered cave dappled in rays of sunlight, where from the looks of it the locals grow their food, Iolda and her fellows surround the goblin to congratulate him, much to his confusion. "Rope's good I guess, boring though, not even dipped in magic sauce."
Perhaps due to having his life most likely saved by your friend's work, the old fellow who slipped first asks what he means, earning himself about three bells of conversation about the possibilities of magic rope and of course fire. You can't really have a two hour talk with an enthusiastic Cob without getting into how fire improves most ideas.
Regardless, since no one seems to be harvesting any of the moss, your small caravan quickly makes it through the path laid out by the kobolds, marked with glyphs burned into the stones, easily decipherable by Mina. No one really wants to test if the threats of horrible-skin-flayling-eye-boiling death are a bluff or not even if you were not rushing to avoid the drow.
Ahead the path narrows into a tunnel that had been clearly carved with pick and chisel and often used until at last it opens into a square room with earthen walls. "An old basement," Mina proclaims, though you are less worried about just what that means and more about why the kobolds had not just set up a guard here.
Gorok seems to be of the same mind, but it is light out so you pause a few moments to take stock and catch your breath. This place is close to the mouth of the Isger, to the ship waiting for you there to make it in a few hours. Looking around you realize you are in the middle of what must once have been a village, though not a very large or prosperous one: a single well, and about six or seven houses all wrecked down to their foundations and so overgrown you can barely mark down their outline among the green. Thankfully there is still a path that leads straight south, but then these are the Burnlands, one can go in any direction at any time. You don't think you'lll ever get used to that.
"We can either take the road these last few miles and risk meeting other folk, or cut straight through the wilderness," Iolda explains. "We are a lot more likely to meet people on the road, but if we meet anyone off it they will be a lot more suspicious. 'Honest law-abiding folk' don't go traipsing through the hills and hollows in Cheliax."
What do you do?
[] Go overland
[] Take the road
[] Write in
OOC: Well I was not expecting super goblin engineering to save three halflings who failed a DC 10 DEX save, but I'll take it.
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Nice job, Cob!
Whew, really glad we avoided the Drow. That would have sucked...
I'm going to lean toward using the road for now. It should be faster and the chances for random encounters lower. Well, we're more likely to run into people on the road, but unless we're incredibly unlucky and they end up being a patrol of Hell Knights or other Chelaxian authorities, those we encounter will probably just be farmers or other local travelers. Going overland invites surprise!Bug Bears and the like to make an appearance.
[X] Take the road
Whew, really glad we avoided the Drow. That would have sucked...
I'm going to lean toward using the road for now. It should be faster and the chances for random encounters lower. Well, we're more likely to run into people on the road, but unless we're incredibly unlucky and they end up being a patrol of Hell Knights or other Chelaxian authorities, those we encounter will probably just be farmers or other local travelers. Going overland invites surprise!Bug Bears and the like to make an appearance.
[X] Take the road
- Location
- Germany
[x] Go overland
Vote closed.
Arc 4 Post 6: Neath Thunder Tread
Neath Thunder Tread
6th of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
The road is a smudged band of dirt meandering southward through wet soil that clings to the boots like tar. If that is not miserable enough a few bells later it starts to rain, more water falling from the empty sky above in gusting sheets that soon soak the rest of you from the top of your head to the parts of your trousers that had not yet been touched by the muck. Gorok and his fellows accept the circumstance in silence while Cob half-shouts something about 'the big water coming to you since you're late to meet it'. For her part Mina is probably murmuring a prayer to herself, though to whom you could not say over the sound of of the storm all around. There is a word you could have happily gone your whole life without learning. As for the halflings, glancing back confirms they are still with you, but judging by how they are bracing against the wind you wonder how much longer they can walk in this foul... weather. Just about the only one who does seem happy with this state of affairs is Warty as he croaks in counterpoint to the thunder what you dearly hope is not a mating call.
Weather: 100 (Once in a Decade Thunderstorm)
If there is one good thing about this weather it's that you doubt a devil from the darkest delvings of Hell could see through it to know escaped halfling from 'good honest folk'. So it is with no surprise that you greet the uneven splintered silhouette of a cart overturned on the road ahead. Really, you would be surprised to see one still rolling along at all. According to Gorok the 'horse' creatures so common in both the company of burnlanders and Cob's mid-battle taunts are truly unfortunate creature. Whoever heard of something dying because it had too much to drink? Then again, tipping one's head up and opening one's mouth may be all one need to do to die in this roofless place.
While you had been considering the ills of horse and sky the broken cart shows itself to be strewn about with shattered bottles formerly wrapped in straw. Wine from the smell, though it had not just been the road and the storm that had broken all of this, not unless the latter hurled a knife into the throat of the unfortunate driver.
"Brigands!" Mina shouts over the sound of the rain. "We should say a prayer to Pharasma over him, hasten his soul to judgement and beyond."
"Say your prayers lass, but this was not brigand's killing, not in this weather. See here?" Iolda kicks the side of the cart, its floor's been hacked open, showing there's a double bottom. "They were probably smuggling goods and got caught by someone who really took offense. I hope it was only goods, 'cause if it was people..."
"There's not enough blood there for more than..." Mina's falls silent with the next peel of thunder and does not speak again.
As Cob snags one of the bottles, still miraculously whole, Gorok also draws near and he pries from between two broken boards something that at first seems to be a coin, but which a closer inspection reveals itself as some kind of decoration in brass and jade, for not even the haughty drow would put so much craft into a simple coin.
Perception Gorok: 1d20+13 = 23 (Success)
Always more interested in the thing out of sight than the one in hand Cob comes over to look at the 'shinny'. "Oh, I know this one. Path peole, way walkers, something like that. They kill lots of goblins." He says is with a tone of distant admiration. Presumably they had not killed any of his tribe before they parted ways.
Cob Knowledge (Local): 1d20+7 = 18 (Partial Success)
"Pathfinders, adventurers and explorers," Iolda explains. "We don't deal much with their lot, but they stay bought when you pay their price and they know ways in and out of places most folks don't know are places to be. If one of them got dragged off in an ambush..."
Her words are cut off by the sound of thunder close by... no, that was too close. A moment later you see the treeline to the left illuminated by fire... a lot of fire.
What do you do?
[] Rush over to investigate
[] This is none of your affair, keep a straight path south
[] Write in
OOC: I normally do not show weather rolls... but when it looks like Gorzeh himself/herself is having a blast. I thought it would be worth it to show it.
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Damn, that's a rough storm. Good thing we got to the surface when we did. There could have been some significant flooding in the upper layers of the Darklands near the exits to the surface.
I would consider pushing for us to keep traveling, but Pathfinders can be valuable contacts, plus this weather is no joke. We probably shouldn't try to travel too much further with all of the Halflings, else we might end up losing someone.
I wouldn't even be shocked if we end up taking a random lightning strike because of the storm (no pun intended!). If we render assistance, we can do a good thing and maybe find a bit of shelter to ride out the storm.
[X] Rush over to investigate
-[X] Kori will activate his Cloak of Darkness and Mina will cast Mage Armor on herself. Kori will cast Invisibility on Cob before we reach the edge of the forest.
I would consider pushing for us to keep traveling, but Pathfinders can be valuable contacts, plus this weather is no joke. We probably shouldn't try to travel too much further with all of the Halflings, else we might end up losing someone.
I wouldn't even be shocked if we end up taking a random lightning strike because of the storm (no pun intended!). If we render assistance, we can do a good thing and maybe find a bit of shelter to ride out the storm.
[X] Rush over to investigate
-[X] Kori will activate his Cloak of Darkness and Mina will cast Mage Armor on herself. Kori will cast Invisibility on Cob before we reach the edge of the forest.
- Location
- florida
The pathfinder society is-
Well they are the main RPG guys. But they are also a goldmine of information and connections.
[X] Goldfish
Well they are the main RPG guys. But they are also a goldmine of information and connections.
[X] Goldfish
Have you looked into the penalties extreme weather gives? I was playing the kingmaker videogame and I was shocked by how crippled my party was by the weather.
Yeah, it is pretty terrible. God thing you guys did not choose to go overland last update or that would have been the unluckiest nat 100 I ever rolled. At least on the road you have something to follow.