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Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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[X] Cross the bridge and be on your way, you do not need more trouble

Best not poke things at moment.
 
Trying... to... resist... temptation... and do... a right... thing.

[X] Follow the voices, something strange is going on here and you would rather find it before it finds you

Failing.
 
[X] Cross the bridge and be on your way, you do not need more trouble

I like mad scientists, but we need to save Cauldron first.
 
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Arc 2 Post 19: The Virtue of Swiftness
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    • The Virtue of Swiftness ​

    Season of Rushing Waters

    A shared look is all it takes, none of you really want to go down in a ditch and follow strange sounds... well maybe Cob, but even among his old tribe those who followed strange sounds alone had a habit of never returning from under far-shadows. So you make your way across, some more stealthily than others as shadows muffle your steps and Cob follows uncomfortably close to take some advantage of your unearthly blessing... only for Gorok to loose a skinning knife off one of his many belts, clattering into the darkness under the bridge, which startles Mina out of her slow Pepper-guided walk into a rush that only adds to the clamor. Good shoes that take hard wear on stone are also loud as hell's own dancers, you learn cursing under your breath even as Warty jumps the whole span of the bridge in one leap with nothing but a muffled thump to mark him.

    On instinct alone you make the hand signs for getting out of here only to remember they don't know what those even are. "Come on, come on!"

    The span between your shoulder-blades feels like it's been dipped in itching oil for the next half mile until the tunnel finally narrows into something more defensible then slides down an old slipway that must have held something more exotic than water to judge from the streaks of dark residue all across it.


    Alas, once you are through the strange passage and back into the orc-caves you find them distinctly less deserted according to Gorok. There are no beasts here and the patches of glow-lichen are positioned to keep the light in the eyes of anyone coming from the east, trimmed with a purpose. It does not not take long to spy the signs on stone, prominently carved and stained black with soot: three circles bound by a triangle, all contained in another larger ring.


    Akorian Knowledge (History): 1d20 +5 = 7 (Failure)

    Alas that you can make no sense of the thing, signs and totems change with the shifting water ways, the grumblings of the stone, the migrations of beasts and even causes more arcane. The only thing you can be sure of is that it is not of Xulgath make, though that is more your nose not your eyes speaking, no reek lingers in the air.

    In the end it is not you who discover the identity of the locals, but they who find yours. Sharp booming sounds, half flute half whistle call out, a keening sharp as a knife... once, twice, an answer.

    Hearing this Gorok puts his hand on the flank of the slurk to calm it. "They are around and below, ahead and to the left, we cannot escape, not easily at least. It seems like we shall have to speak to those who dwell in this place.

    "And answer for trespass?" Mina asks worriedly looking around as though a wave of crossbow bolts might fly out of the dark at any moment.

    "They would not be that obvious if they were planning an ambush," you shake your head.

    "Unless they're goblins," Cob offers, not-entirely-helpfully.

    Or dero, or morlock, or any of a dozen other sorts of folk driven mad by the isolation of the deep caves this far from any of the trade tunnels, your mind adds to the list as the four of you fortify as much as one can with nothing but what you can pull out of your packs. Your best battlement in Warty stretched out across the threshold of the narrow cave just wide enough for you and Mina to stand up at the back while Gorok can reach across the body of the slurk with his metal hook.

    Suddenly a voice rings out from the darkness, harsh and unaccustomed to the contours of the dwarf tongue, but still clear as it is commanding: "Who passed through the Three Skull Hunting Grounds without pledge or blood or strength of steel?"

    Gorok looks back at you and Mina, even as Cob for answers...

    [] Enemies of the xulgath under the thrall of the ancient Blackscale
    Hopefully he's made as much of a thorn in the side of these folk as his other neighbors

    [] Travelers passing through, knowing not these caves have been inhabited
    Likely you will be asked to pay some kind of tribute for your trespass

    [] Write in

    OOC: If the opposing roll had beaten your lowest roll but not the average you would have gotten a different and less dangerous result than if they had beaten the average, thankfully for you whatever was in that dry riverbed was far too busy with whatever it was doing.
     
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    • Well, at least we avoided the greater danger, or so it seems.

    Now we just need to make it through this exchange. I don't think pleading ignorance will do is much good, not in this place. Better to be honest and hope these folks aren't friendly with the Xukgath. That's a pretty fair assumltion, IMO, considering how belligerent they've become recently since coming under new management.

    [X] Enemies of the xulgath under the thrall of the ancient Blackscale
     
    Tomcost said:
    Gentlemen, I think that we should find a way for all our party memebers to have

    Stealth Synergy (Teamwork) – d20PFSRD

    www.d20pfsrd.com www.d20pfsrd.com

    This makes it so that everyone rolls stealth, and we take the highest number.

    [X] Enemies of the xulgath under the thrall of the ancient Blackscale
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    I'd rather wait for Invisibility spells and other helpful magics than have everyone invest in a Teamwork feat. Those aren't really practical for most adventurers, our party included, unless you have someone who is able to share the feat with others using a special ability.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I'd rather wait for Invisibility spells and other helpful magics than have everyone invest in a Teamwork feat. Those aren't really practical for most adventurers, our party included, unless you have someone who is able to share the feat with others using a special ability.
    Click to expand...
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    I just meant that if we could get it not by traditional means (a limited resource), but a reward of sorts for having our party sneak through so many things in the future. It certainly doesn't hold the same value of a traditional feat
     
    [X] Enemies of the xulgath under the thrall of the ancient Blackscale

    Always happy to avoid a dangerous encounter thanks to stealth!
     
    Arc 2 Post 20: A Cold Welcome
  • Threadmarks
    • A Cold Welcome​

    Season of Rushing Waters

    "Enemies to the xulgath, to the blackscale woken from the sleep of ages," Gorok hisses, weapon at the ready.

    For a long moment there is no answer, though the stone carries the echoes of heavy breathing. The mind conjures dreadful visages of things climbing out of the dark places of Sekamina: worm-kin, gugs... drow. Maybe not the last, drow would sooner gouge out their own eyes than live in a hall as crude as this one from what rumor tells.

    ??? Reaction: 1d100 +10 (???) = 91 (Success)

    A laugh bubbles up like sticky tar through the air. "Bold of you to have come so far with so little!" What steps into view is not some horror of the depths though herself just as dangerous: an orc sorceress, her face marked with ritual scars like claws racked upon it, made all the more gruesome in the blue corpse-light of the staff she bears. No orc-work that, its lines flowing, almost organic, the crystal upon it perfectly polished. It gleams with fearsome cunning in the eye, even as it casts her ragged cloak in shadow even to your eyes and in shadow as well the warriors at her back.


    A Scholarum-Staff, the voice of memory not quite your own whispers in the depths of your mind, a necromancer's staff. Your heart skips a beat as you remember the grim witnesses of death who would call the dead to trial when the Lawmen asked or else summon them forth upon the field of blood where living men would be too dear to spend. To see one of them intact is... shocking before the gaping maw of ages you feel between that moment and this, but it any would endure all this time it would be the masters of death. Only an initiate's staff, you remind yourself. But would they have remained an initiate?

    Akorian Knowledge (History): 1d20 +5 = 23 (Success)

    The orc motions to Cob with her staff. "You have trespassed and so you must pay tribute, but you are foes of foes. The slave's life will do."

    "Cob is no slave. He's not a slave" You and Mina speak at the same time, Gorok does not bother with words, he bars his fangs and lowers his weapon.

    Far from being intimidated the orcs seem to find this amusing. "Your deaths at the hands of the scaled ones shall be amusing. Bad for you that you can't pay in laughs. Maybe you trip him up."

    "If you want to see the color of your guts ask. No reason to twist round your shadow!" you threaten, but the words land like a stone thrown into the dark

    Akorian Intimidation: 1d20 +4 = 8 (Failure)

    "You say you are enemies of the Black-scale goblin-scratchers," the word is an insult in dwarf-tongue you know, the implication being that anyone foolish enough to share a cave with a goblin will catch some slickness from them. "Then bring us back his heart and we will see your trespass forgiven."

    The pair of warrior orcs are still laughing, but she is muttering something more purposeful under her breath, a spell.. but not an attack, you recognize the mark of the Threefold Pillar of the Godmind in her gestures, the invocation of immaculate truth and, judging by the hand Mina puts on Cob's shoulder so does she.

    Spellcraft Rolls: Akorian, Mina

    What do you do?

    [] Agree to the orc's bargain, you will kill the blackscale and bring his heart back

    [] Attempt to lie, a strong mind can push through the magic

    [] Attack, they won't be laughing when you slip a dagger between their ribs

    [] Write in

    OOC: Welp... this could have gone worse.
     
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    • Hmm...this is a fight we could probably win, but I don't think we could do it without using up resources we can't afford to waste now, not if we want to move against the Xulgath sooner rather than later. There isn't really any reason not to agree, though I'm going to alter my vote slightly just in case.

    We can truthfully intend to kill it and bring the Orcs the heart, but that doesn't mean we are compelled to do so.

    [X] Agree to the orc's bargain, you will kill the blackscale and bring his heart back, assuming its heart remains intact when we are done with it.

    Gotta add this caveat, because we'll probably need to use our Fire Elemental against it, and if we do that, the Elemental must be allowed to completely incinerate its target to prevent it from attacking us.
     
    [X] Agree to the orc's bargain, you will kill the blackscale and bring his heart back

    @Goldfish , I would rather not lose goodwill on technicalities. Zone us Truth prevents lying, but doesn't make us shove our foot into our mouth.

    Also we can kill the elemental if it is near incinerating the Balckscale.
     
    [X] Agree to the orc's bargain, you will kill the blackscale and bring his heart back, assuming its heart remains intact when we are done with it.

    Seems like best bet at moment since doubt we can fit this right now.
     
    Tomcost said:
    [X] Agree to the orc's bargain, you will kill the blackscale and bring his heart back

    @Goldfish , I would rather not lose goodwill on technicalities. Zone us Truth prevents lying, but doesn't make us shove our foot into our mouth.

    Also we can kill the elemental if it is near incinerating the Balckscale.
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    This doesn't seem like we're trying to play with technicalities, but rather outright stating that we might fuck up the Blackscale so badly there may not be a heart to bring back. That should resonate with an Orc's...Orcishness?
     
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