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Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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Arc 2 Interlude 2: Bolder Rolling Sparks Flying
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    • Bolder Rolling Sparks Flying ​

    The Season of Still Stone

    Cob didn't like waiting, but he liked being poked with spears even less and being chewed on by a big lizard even less than that: "Fire, make big..." he pleaded, doing his level best to look like a wolf pup without a bone to gnaw, not that he had seen many wolves, pups or not, in his short life, but it was the principle of the thing. Seeing it have no effect on the scaled-one he tried another tack. "Maybe meat cooked in magic fire tastes good?"

    "Tastes the same, we let them go, through smells like trouble," came the curt reply.

    The very idea of trouble having a single smell was bizarre to Cob, it was like a forest at midday having only one color or every rock in a cave tasting the same, but he got the just of it. "Burn xul to come then?"

    "Xul?" Cob's brand new word sounded incredulous on the irxi's lipless mouth.

    "One word fast spoken better than two words slow, see?" he tipped his head to the side as he explained, as he was after all explaining twisty things. "I know what I mean, you know what I mean, other people maybe not know. Useful yes?"

    "Code?" came the more neutral question, though that may have been because the trio and their lizard had moved on, leaving behind only the worse-than-dead-skunk stink. It was so strong in fact that Cob wondered why no xulgath had ever tried to challenge a goblin chief for the rule-stick. Well, oK, maybe that had happened and Cob just didn't know about it yet. It wasm after all, one of the Great Gifts, the Gift of Tribe that there should always be goblins in every place.

    Suddenly Cob was sad thinking about the rock-heads just gone-gone, not even a parting song, bones to sharpen into speartips or tendons to tie them off with. No goblin should go like that.

    "Code must be decided beforehand," Gorok broke Cob from his the dreaming-awake he did from time to time.

    "Make code for battle?" Cob caught on quick though. It may not have been as good as a proper shanking and looting, but it was something to keep his mind off spooks that ate whole tribes.

    It was what might have been three days in the world above later, Cob having a good head for time, or so he told himself, that the pair of them had found a watering hole inside what the goblin had initially thought was a big kitchen with the put built into the floor, only to realize that it was the washing off and skin shedding room of a ruined xul fort. Weird, humans did that too, the washing up, not the skin shedding, that bit was normal, but the important part was the water was still there, or maybe it had gone and come back. Anyway, there were big spiral shrooms growing from the top of the ceiling over the water. Such bright and shinny red.

    "Danger," his companion warned and pointed into the water where Gorok could just barely made out the solid mass of many, many bones. Oh, it was like one of the strangle-vines. Good that he did not go have a closer look on the bank, there was way more stuff to do alive than as a spook.

    "You think the scale-folk come here?"

    A nod in the dark, more felt in the currents of the air than seen even with a goblin's sharp eyes. Gorok had found a perfect place to hide among the less animate vegetation. "They come here to harvest."

    Stealth: Cob, Gorok: 24, 32

    It seemed to Cob like they had hidden there a long time, chewing on a bit of travel meat and taking the odd swing of water, not even able to sing to pass the time, but eventually someone did come to take from the blood red fungus. He was hunched like most of his kin, and his crest was bigger and spikier than any Cob had seen to date, but that was not the only oddity. Instead of grey the xulgath had scales of green... eccept for his face which was white as skull picked clean.


    Witch-lizard, Cob didn't need to be told that part. He aught 'a know more stuff, but he would also be harder to deal with, requiring all of Cob's goblin cunning to deal with.

    How do the pair fight this new foe?

    [] Stuff some'hing in his mouth so he can's use magic

    [] Fire's always a goblin's friend, Cob starts by throwing an alchemical flask

    [] Just shank 'em

    [] Write in

    OOC: Hope you guys do not mind the voting interludes. For anyone wondering why the enemy did not get any perception here, it's because even a nat 20 from him would not have beaten the 24 up there. He has other priorities.
     
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    • This is very good news. This one should know quite a lot of things.

    So, how do we face him? Plain damage, taking into account the surprise round, means that we will probably overcome him in two rounds I think.
     
    This is a pretty straight forward fight. The Witch-Lizard, assuming it's a standard Xulgath, can be very dangerous if we give it a chance to use its Suggestion power, so we should try to overwhelm it as quickly as possible, attacking before it has a chance to do anything.

    I'm hoping it's just a Troglodyte variant, though.

    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
     
    Goldfish said:
    This is a pretty straight forward fight. The Witch-Lizard, assuming it's a standard Xulgath, can be very dangerous if we give it a chance to use its Suggestion power, so we should try to overwhelm it as quickly as possible, attacking before it has a chance to do anything.

    I'm hoping it's just a Troglodyte variant, though.

    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
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    A fullblooded Xulgath is a CR 4 foe with 45 HP. I do not think that we are facing that. Those ones do not tend to leave the safety of their cities.

    I think that we are dealing with a spellcaster of some kind.

    Alternatively, if we can't overcome him quickly maybe fire will make him panic and prevent spellcasting.

    But as I am betting on him being a normal Troglodyte with class levels:


    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
     
    Tomcost said:
    A fullblooded Xulgath is a CR 4 foe with 45 HP. I do not think that we are facing that. Those ones do not tend to leave the safety of their cities.

    I think that we are dealing with a spellcaster of some kind.

    Alternatively, if we can't overcome him quickly maybe fire will make him panic and prevent spellcasting.

    But as I am betting on him being a normal Troglodyte with class levels:


    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
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    Yeah, I don't think this is a real Xulgath. Like you said, it wouldn't be out here alone harvesting mushrooms like a peasant. Still best to hit it hard and fast, since it's probably a spellcaster of some sort.
     
    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.

    Here is hoping we successfully capture a high value target.

    Nice to see Cob and Gorok bonding in own special way.
     
    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
     
    [X] Sneak up on the Witch-Lizard under stealth. Once in position, Gorok will attempt a surprise attack while Cob attempts to flank it for a Sneak Attack.
     
    Which class should we expect from the Xul? I kinda expect him to be a Druid here, but could be a Cleric too I think.

    Anyway, if we capture him, we can not only get information off him, but also hand him to the Mongrelmen so that they get the info and a bargaining chip in this war, while we also get clout and brownie points in case we need a distraction later on.
     
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    Tomcost said:
    Which class should we expect from the Xul? I kinda expect him to be a Druid here, but could be a Cleric too I think.

    Anyway, if we capture him, we can not only get information off him, but also hand him to the Mongrelmen so that they get the info and a bargaining chip in this war, while we also get clout and brownie points in case we need a distration later on.
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    My first guess would be Shaman.
     
    Arc 2 Post 13: With Singular Fortune
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    • With Singular Fortune ​

    The Season of Still Stone

    "So we snuck right quiet though the shroons. Good thing they weren't the itchy shrooms or I'd have sneezed right then and then where would the big guy been?" Cob told the story with a sideways look at Gorok as though concerned the warrior might take offense at his bravado, but the warrior seems wholly engrossed in sharpening his gruesome iron hook, already long since polished to a shine after tasting the blood of the xulgath shaman so of course he continued, waving his arms for emphasis

    "Then I yelled, 'At 'em lads!' as loud as I could, get 'em to think there are more goblins, looking low instead of high, and a charged 'em from behind on account of xuls don't have eyes between their shoulder blades... well most of me don't. I heard tales of an odd egg, but this wasn't one of those, he just had this pale head see...?"

    Mina nods along with the story smiling, more at the excitement of the teller than at the misfortune of the shaman.

    "So I shank him in the spine, legs go tight out from under him, and then Gorok thinks I've killed em and now we have to look for another one, not to mention that they'll probably miss this one on account of he's some kind of spirit wrangler. But then I notice he had a healing potion on his belt. Quick as a greased pig I shove it in in his mouth, almost break the glass on the teeth, and he snaps his mouth closed." Cob mimes the gesture with a flash of his own teeth, not as deadly as one of the scaled one's but still more than enough to elicit some worry on their own.

    He apparently spat out a fog of fungal gas from a store of spores that he must have been keeping under his tongue for the purpose, though it was not near so efficient as he may have hoped. Keeping a clear head Cob reversed his dagger and struck him in the chin. This sent a few of his teeth flying, but he should have more then sufficient to chew his food, should he be allowed to live.

    That does explain the lack of about three front teeth in the mouth of the trussed up prisoner. Most healing potions, tinctures, incense bundles and the like do not have the power to heal missing teeth, no more than they have the power to regrow limbs. Otherwise he looks... well not well, he looks like someone who had been dragged back into your little cubbyhole in the stone by a pair of hunters who were first and foremost concerned with their own survival and only then with the wellbeing of the captive, but xulgath scales are tough and none of his bones seemed broken.

    "A dagger to the spine..." You turn to Mina. "How bad is that?"

    Her expression is as grim as you have sever seen it. "He's not going to be able to walk, or move his tail I guess, not without strong magic."

    "Well that isn't going to endear him to us," you muse aloud. Normally you would say one of the scaled ones left without the use of his legs would be dead meat walking. More likely than not he would keep fast to any secrets of his tribe in the hopes that he would be rewarded by whatever their patron was in death, but a sorcerer... a sorcerer would be prized enough to earn their place by the fires by their arts even so. Still, he is not going to be in a talkative mood when he wakes up.

    Cob Attack/Critical Confirm: 28/27
    Cob Damage: 20
    Cob Fortitude:     21

    How do you interrogate the xulgath shaman?

    [] Grim Hunter, Worse Hunter, intimidate the shaman

    [] Mina can perhaps pretend she is not part of the group that attacked him and trick some information out of him

    [] Offer to take him to Cauldron if he tells you everything he knows

    [] Write in

    OOC: So I kind of had to get creative on how I presented this because the fight itself was something of a nothing burger thanks to the crit sneak attack in the first attack. Hope it works.
     
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    • So, our captured Witch-Lizard was at least 3rd level. Not a bad catch at all. Go team green!

    DragonParadox said:
    "He spat out a fog of fungal gas from a store of spores that he must have been keeping under his tongue for the purpose, though it was not near so efficient as he may have hoped. Keeping a clear head Cob reversed his dagger and struck him in the chin. This sent a few of his teeth flying but he should have more then sufficient to chew his food, should he be allowed to live."
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    Haha, Cob becomes much more articulate when he speaks of himself in the third person.
     
    Mina doesn't have the acting chops or Bluff ranks to pull off that kind of trick, IMO, and taking the Witch-Lizard back to Cauldron doesn't seem like it would be an attractive option, considering the Xulgath appear to be at a low level of war with the Mongrelmen community.

    I think our best bet would be going the Intimidation route.

    [X] Grim Hunter, Worse Hunter, intimidate the shaman
    -[X] Kori will attempt to Intimidate the captive, with assistance from the rest of the party; Cob to be a crazy, hungry Goblin, Gorok to be the hunter deciding on how to best harvest the Witch-Lizard for reagents before feeding the rest to Warty, and Mina to be disguised as something monstrous (using her Disguise Self SLA), such as a Hag, demanding answers in exchange for sparing it's soul. Everyone will use Aid Another to assist Kori, and will benefit from the Guidance cantrip for a bit of extra help.
    -[X] Pepper can get in on the act, too, if he wants to nibble on the captive while everyone does their part.

    DragonParadox said:
    Edited, sorry.
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    Oh, I was thinking it was more of a feature rather than a bug. ;)
     
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