Nibbens
2015-08-14, 04:44 PM
For those of you just tuning in – get acquainted with the game here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?330770-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal).
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431879-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-16-(Salt-Bombs-Firedrakes-and-trolls))
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/golem.html#golem,-cannon
in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin of Iomedae and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human Verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
Dr. Jarvius Havishim Worcestershire – (Yes, he “invented” Worcestershire sauce in the game) Dr. W. is a paraplegic cleric and surgeon of Cayden Cailean. He built a small golem by the name of Sprocket to be his legs. (Using a de-netted Clockwork Servant
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/clockwork.html#clockwork-servant
to carry him) The good doctor may be solemn and serious, Sprocket, on the other hand, is annoying and serves as comical relief (as well as a foil to Dr. Worcestershire’s stern attitude).
City of Progress Campaign Journal: Chapter 17 (Diplomatic as a Baseball bat)
The game started with a small hiccup as they were stuck deciding what to do with the Troll and Kobolds they captured last game, so instead of chewing up valuable time, I asked them to do the research later so we could play at the moment. Everyone agreed and onward we went.
Since they had decided to leave the city last game and head toward Luddex based on the rumors of “witches” we started with everyone getting a knowledge Local check to determine specific information about the town of Luddex. Dr. Worcestershire called that he sent his servant into the town to scout out beforehand and I allowed it.
The knowledge local checks were rolled and resulted in this info: Knowledge Local DC 30: The town of Luddex is a moderately wealthy town which exports buys crops from its local farmers and exports the merchandise far and wide. Even Rab’s Progress relies on some of the crop produced here, although it’s not dependent on it. The town is a nice place to live with relatively low crime, if you ignore childish games like cow tipping or Rutabaga throwing, or the occasional scandal. The town is situated in the middle of several surrounding Old Orcish ruins and stone monoliths, from hundreds of years ago when the Orcs had control of this area and build a vast civilization. Now the roaming bands of Orcs that still remain are a shadow of their glory and no more civilized than your average brigand.
Local DC35: This area has been a hot spot for ruin divers and treasure seekers for years, even though the ruins have been plundered many times over – sometimes adventurers will run amiss with the local orc bands living there, but stories of those that return after encountering orcs in their ancestral ruins are few and far between.
However, because Blode (Dr. Worcestershire’s brute-force-get-things-done guy) was already there in town, I allowed the party a bit of extra directly from him. He reports to the Doctor that a witch has been caught and is currently on trial.
This sent the players into planning mode. Discussions on whether or not flying on Bobla would be beneficial to them or detrimental. Would the populace be backwater and not trust magic? Would it help the Characters image or not?
Ultimately, they decided that flying in and making a big show of power and skill would be more beneficial to them than remaining incognito. Dr. Worcestershire makes mention of this group being as diplomatic as a club (or baseball bat – take your pick) and decided to go along with them in their decent upon the town square.
When they approached they saw a few people gathered around the town square, in front of a church – so descend they did – Galarend floating via featherfall, and Lady Wisteria used an umbrella for falling with feather fall (like Mary Poppins), and Beable landed on the church roof like a boss with his arms folded and a mean scowl on his face, while Bolba and Mouse 2.1 circled the church like a pair of vultures.
(as diplomatic as a baseball bat)
After some general grandstanding with this startled populace, the round of questions started firing.
“Where’s the trial? Where’s the mayor? Where’s the nearest pub?” (This last question was asked by Dr. Worcestershire using his ring of the sophisticate (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-the-sophisticate))
Beable and mouse decide to grab the mayor in his home, while Lady Wisteria and Galarend enter the church (where the trial is being held), and Dr. Worcestershire leaves sprocket behind to “play” while he wheels his wheel chair to the local pub to find Blode.
Things get interesting here as my party has now split – as they often do during their “interrogations” – and it may be a bit difficult to remember all the threads, so bear with me.
First, Beable flies on mouse to get the mayor – literally knocking on his door with Mouse’s “mouth” open revealing the cannon. As soon as the mayor (a half orc) open the door – he’s greeted by a cannon golem’s weapon pointed right at him. Incongrously, Beable’s a happy and peppy little gnome. After some brief rounds of calm discussion turned intimidate checks, the Mayor decides to come with Beable to the church (which is where the trial is taking place and where Galarend currently is). Beable offers the mayor a harness to ride as Mouse flies through the air, but he declines. Smartly.
Dr. Worcestershire heads to the nearest pub where Blode is sitting waiting and another half-orc working the counter. The Dr. tells Blode that he wants to speak to the suspected witches parents. With a grin, the Halforc tells him that they’re currently at the trial – at the church. The Dr. tells Blode that if he needs him to create a distraction in town, to be ready to light something on fire. Then he leaves heading back for the church.
Lady Wisteria and Galarend enter the church right as the girl is going to give her testimony, so this grabs the attention of everyone around. Lady Wisteria steps forward pardoning herself for the interruption, but seeking an audience with the Priest/Judge as an immediate request. The judge of course denies this and asks her to take a seat to watch if she cares, but to please be quiet during the session. Lady Wisteria does not back down and the two of them go back and forth as to why it cannot wait. Eventually, Lady Wisteria backs down and takes a seat to watch the proceedings.
Beable shoves the mayor in the church, and says, “Here’s the mayor,” to Galarend (quite loudly) before slamming the door to the church (quite loudly again) before looking for the nearest bar. Asking a few locals, he finds out and heads there. He passes Dr. Worcestershire, waves and keeps going.
Galarend – doing a quick check of the ISG book to check how his Iomdae and Iori interact – finding that they are on neutral terms, he steps forward and approached the girl, draws his sword (which draws a wide eyed reaction from everyone in the audience) but he stops before her and kneels and begins praying loudly to Iomadae for a fair trial.
Dr. Worcestershire, approaching the church, hears Galarend’s dulcet baritone voice echoing throughout the entire church, so he enters and sees Galarend praying, Lady Wisteria playing with a “dancing light” tossing it up in the air and rolling it across her fingers, and sitting next to a bewildered mayor wondering what in the blazes is going on. He sits down as well.
(Diplomatic as a baseball bat)
Beable finds the bar, and Blode. The gnome sits down by the bar’s only patron and asks him if he drinks. Blode responds with “I could drink you under the table,” and smiles. The drinking game begins. However, Beable can tell that Blode is not really drinking all that much.
The trial continues with the girl giving testimony about what happened:
a. Girl: “I was out in the field and she heard a noise, and was scared. I ran from that sound and I have no idea what happened to Zin after that.”
b. Lawyer one: “Were where your clothes when you ran?
c. Lawyer two: “Come on, are you going to make her spell it out, you know what she was doing.”
d. Judge: “I want to hear it from her mouth. Therese, I’m afraid you’ll have to answer the question.”
e. Therese (girl): “We were together in the grass. We had been meeting for weeks now.”
f. At this point, a Farmer stands up – “Horse sheet! You know yous eet him, ya witch! Took em right out from my house. We goan burn ya ya pasty whoore!”
g. The judge calls for order: “Algra, I will not tolerate any more of your outbursts.”
(The girl of course winces at all of this.)
h. Judge calls for a recess.
People start walking out the church and once everyone is out only then does a person in what looks like guard garb actually begin escorting her out. Dr. Worcestershire stops her and gives her a rose as she walks out – a simple gesture that brings a slight smile to her cheeks, but overall doesn’t seem to help her mood. Galarend, on the other hand, scopes out the guard and does a sense motive check to see if he’s legit about his job – to which he determines that the man is serious about his guard duties and doesn’t seem to be corrupt. Galarend gives him and nod and the guard and his prisoner continue out the church.
Also, as people are walking out Galarend does a “detect evil” and picks up 4 hits – two minor, and a medium and a major. Galarend does a nod to Lady Wisteria and then to the strongest person in question. The Lady picks up the hint and follows her with a casting of Arcane Eye. She follows the woman who pinged as the highest level evil target. She learns that her name is Doreen and she runs a mercantile business as she goes back to her daily process.
So now, it’s Lady Wisteria, Dr. Worcestershire, Sir Galarend, the mayor, and the priest/judge (who they discover his name to be Tiberius Zank) who are alone in the cathedral.
First, Lady Wisteria apologizes to the priest who then proceeds to criticize the representatives of Rab’s Progress for acting so casually and as though they run everything in such serious matters. The priest asks them to be more mindful and respectful of the towns they interact with.
They take this verbal tongue lashing in stride and begin to ask their questions. They find out the priest believes that the girl didn’t do anything and is wrongfully accused, but will carry out the trial regardless of his opinions as a priest of Iori.
The PCs and the priest exchange information, and the priest fills them in that the Boy’s father Agra, was the man who stood up and shouted during the trial, was the one who brought charges of destroying the crops upon the girl.
The PCs ask for a full explanation and Tiberius goes into the long description. Therese was found running through a field late at night without her clothes on. The fears of the town with the crop failures was enough to start people talking. If that wasn’t enough, the boy she was with, Zin Agra, is missing after that night. She claims that she heard something and ran – but Agra has always had a grudge against Therese and her family when the girl and boy wanted to get married. Agra refused to let his boy marry some “rich city dweller.” Whatever his reasoning, it nevertheless meant that the two lovers had to meet in secret.
Tiberius believes that the girl is telling the truth, but mourns for soon to be destroyed reputation. It doesn’t matter whether or not she was telling the truth – her good name is ruined after this.
Lady Wisteria, Galarend and Dr. Worcestershire decide to go speak to the girl. They make their way to the garrison’s holding cells and see the girl looking down at the flower that the Dr. gave to her. The question her and get a more detailed explanation about the night that Zin went missing. She heard a noise and was spooked, and ran. The noise she heard sounded like someone speaking with their mouth open – no real words just a lot of open gutteral sounds. She made her way through the fields that night, and was spotted by Hanna Thumb – a local farmer whos field she was cutting through. When Zin went missing and Agra reported it – Hanna felt the need to report what she saw. The PCs pledge their help to the girl and tell her that if all goes well, they may be able to remove her from this town and bring her (and possibly her parents) to Rab’s Progress to get away from this mess. Taking their promises to heart, she seems more comforted.
The bartender comes back from the trial and resumes serving alcohol at his shop. 3 additional people come in as well. After some greasing of palms, Beable finds out a large amount of info from the townsfolk. Specifically, that Ol’ man Agra wouldn’t let the two get married, despite the girl’s parents (who are merchants) offer. He claimed that Zin was needed on the farm and that we wouldn’t let his son get married to a lazy family who doesn’t know the meaning of hard work. There was a lot of overlap from the trial and the PCs investigation, so I won’t mention it all here.
The PCs leave Tiberius and Lady Wisteria decides to chase down her Tea Supplier who comes from this town. From Brodert (her supplier) she receives a boatload of information – again, a lot of it overlap – but this time the relevant info comes in the form of tidbits about Doreen’s business practices. She’s rather cut-throat and if you manage to get at odds with her, she won’t have any problem manipulating the market and attempting to put you out of business. Brodert mentions that he’s managed to stay on her good side while operating in this town – but doesn’t trust her at all.
Next, the PCs all wind up gathering as a group and discussing what they found out. They decide their next best course of action would be either tracking down Agra and talking to him, or searching the location of where the Therese and Zin would have met and seeing what they can find there.
They decide to harass farmer Agra first. I mention to them it’s getting late in the day and is about 5ish and starting to get dark. While coming upon the man plowing his field – Beable (who’s riding mouse) throws a rope to Sprocket (while Dr. Worcestershire is wheeling himself toward Agra). Sprocket grabs hold of it and Beable yells for him to hold on.
Beable and Mouse begin flying at high speeds up and down the rows while Sprocket is “land surfing” literally digging the rows for Agra. The party had a good laugh at this (as well as Sprocket – “Sprockety-whoo” as he says).
Nevertheless, they see the plow that Agra is using and he asks them what they want. Dr. Worcestershire asks if Zin would use that plow often? To which Agra responds “yes.”
Dr. Worcestershire casts “Discern Location” using the Plow as a medium. After much reviewing of the wording of the spell I answer that it’s a completely legit use. The spell doesn’t give them a radar ping, but it does give the name of the location – to which I reply with “A pile of ruins directly west from here.”
Orcs and Forts – Blasting away the night.
The hunt continues into the night. It’s dark as the PCs come upon an old Orc ruin – approximately 100 feet by 50 feet with 20 feet walls and an open top. Inside the ruins are several dozen Orcs and a large gate blocking off the PCs from the encampment. They look around and get a sight of the armaments of the inhabitants and see that the gate guard and a Orc in front of the only door in the structure is fully equipped and stronger looking. The rest of the Orcs don’t have much in way of equipment or muscles.
The PCs approach the gate and ask Galarend asks directly about a Human boy named Zin. The Orcs do not deny they have him – but claim that there leader is absent, so any and all bartering must be made with him. The Orc guards will not overstep their bounds.
BTW, this whole conversation is taking place in Orcish – as they do not seem to understand Common.
Galarend says that he wishes to see the Prisoner and make sure that he is well. The orcs resist, but some well played RP later and the Orcs allow the Paladin alone to come in and see the boy and speak to him. The Orcs take him into the door in the structure, which turns out to be a 10X10 room with a spiraling staircase downward. They go down approximately 50 feet into the ground and the 5 foot tunnel is made of carved stone. Through this tunnel they pass a 4 way crossing and into a 40X40 room containing a stinking chest, a bag of what looks to be coins and/or goods and finally a large cage with an Unconscious boy guarded by 2 additional muscley-orcs – however, the unconscious body is no Boy. He looks like a 40 year old man with salt and pepper hair.
Now, the PCs had discovered the age of Therese and her lover to both be 16. This could not be Zin. So Galarend asks if he’s allowed to say a prayer to his god. The Orc thinks this over and shrugs. What could it hurt? Galarend first channeled positive energy, then cast zone of truth as the boy/man stood groggily up.
After much surprise and calming down, Galarend asked the individual a few questions. Apparently, the boy/man did not know how he got there. First, Galarend asked him if he was Zin Agra, and the answer is “yes.” This of course made him curious, so the important question came – “what do you remember?”
He responds that he was with his lover in the grass when she heard a noise – something like a guttural noise or an open mouth grunt. She got scared and ran away. While Zin was gathering his clothes he heard it again, this time behind him. He turns around to see Therese, beautiful and naked – and then she wasn’t Therese. Her face changed into something horrible – a horribly deformed creature with empty gaping eye sockets, and a tongue-less mouth. Two black withered wings extended from her back. The last thing he remembers is the smile before he passed out from pain wracking his body.
Now, he’s awake and feels his face – aged as though he was an old man. He’s distressed and asked Galarend to save him. Galarend takes a step back, looks as though he’s going to say no…
And summons Bolba.
Roll initiative.
The PC’s outside the fort noticed that Bolba had vanished, and through previously discussed plan – if Bolba disappears, they were to go around the backside of the fort and enter through the back of the section that had a door. A successful Stone Shape spell allowed the PCs access to the spiraling staircase and down to the tunnels in ehich they could see Galarend and Bolba fighting for their lives with the three Orc barbarians.
Galarend, not on Bolba as usual was reduced to a heal bot while Bolba did what he could against the furiously fighting berserking Orcs – When bolba finally killed one he realized that they all had access to the Tor Linnorm Death Curse (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo---rage-powers/linnorm-death-curse-tor-su). Each death cursing Bolba as he nat 1’d on two of the Orcs he killed.
A successful casting of Wind Walk from Dr. Worcestershire to get them in the room and a successful Rampart spell from Lady Wisteria to close off Orc reinforcements coming from the 4 way cross, and a successful disintegrate spell from Beable to damage an Orc were a few desperate maneuvers from the PCs to rectify the situation.
After the party killed 2 orcs, and dealing with the fallout from the death curses, Lady Wisteria cast Flesh to Stone on the final Orc. A quick Teleport sent the PCs, the loot and the stone statue of an orc to the fields outside the town of Luddex.
A quick search of the bag grabs them loot, a quick detect magic reveals that Zin is under an permanent Alter Self spell and has taken a penalty to his age and a quick dispel magic brings the boy’s face back to normal. They search the box and find the bodies of two elderly men – both of whom had all their hair and nails pulled out (all the damage was done incrementally, and post mortem).
It was here we stopped the game as the PCs decided what to do next. As it turns out, the next game is in four hours, so I’ll get back to you all tomorrow! Whoots!
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431879-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-16-(Salt-Bombs-Firedrakes-and-trolls))
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/golem.html#golem,-cannon
in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin of Iomedae and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human Verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
Dr. Jarvius Havishim Worcestershire – (Yes, he “invented” Worcestershire sauce in the game) Dr. W. is a paraplegic cleric and surgeon of Cayden Cailean. He built a small golem by the name of Sprocket to be his legs. (Using a de-netted Clockwork Servant
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/clockwork.html#clockwork-servant
to carry him) The good doctor may be solemn and serious, Sprocket, on the other hand, is annoying and serves as comical relief (as well as a foil to Dr. Worcestershire’s stern attitude).
City of Progress Campaign Journal: Chapter 17 (Diplomatic as a Baseball bat)
The game started with a small hiccup as they were stuck deciding what to do with the Troll and Kobolds they captured last game, so instead of chewing up valuable time, I asked them to do the research later so we could play at the moment. Everyone agreed and onward we went.
Since they had decided to leave the city last game and head toward Luddex based on the rumors of “witches” we started with everyone getting a knowledge Local check to determine specific information about the town of Luddex. Dr. Worcestershire called that he sent his servant into the town to scout out beforehand and I allowed it.
The knowledge local checks were rolled and resulted in this info: Knowledge Local DC 30: The town of Luddex is a moderately wealthy town which exports buys crops from its local farmers and exports the merchandise far and wide. Even Rab’s Progress relies on some of the crop produced here, although it’s not dependent on it. The town is a nice place to live with relatively low crime, if you ignore childish games like cow tipping or Rutabaga throwing, or the occasional scandal. The town is situated in the middle of several surrounding Old Orcish ruins and stone monoliths, from hundreds of years ago when the Orcs had control of this area and build a vast civilization. Now the roaming bands of Orcs that still remain are a shadow of their glory and no more civilized than your average brigand.
Local DC35: This area has been a hot spot for ruin divers and treasure seekers for years, even though the ruins have been plundered many times over – sometimes adventurers will run amiss with the local orc bands living there, but stories of those that return after encountering orcs in their ancestral ruins are few and far between.
However, because Blode (Dr. Worcestershire’s brute-force-get-things-done guy) was already there in town, I allowed the party a bit of extra directly from him. He reports to the Doctor that a witch has been caught and is currently on trial.
This sent the players into planning mode. Discussions on whether or not flying on Bobla would be beneficial to them or detrimental. Would the populace be backwater and not trust magic? Would it help the Characters image or not?
Ultimately, they decided that flying in and making a big show of power and skill would be more beneficial to them than remaining incognito. Dr. Worcestershire makes mention of this group being as diplomatic as a club (or baseball bat – take your pick) and decided to go along with them in their decent upon the town square.
When they approached they saw a few people gathered around the town square, in front of a church – so descend they did – Galarend floating via featherfall, and Lady Wisteria used an umbrella for falling with feather fall (like Mary Poppins), and Beable landed on the church roof like a boss with his arms folded and a mean scowl on his face, while Bolba and Mouse 2.1 circled the church like a pair of vultures.
(as diplomatic as a baseball bat)
After some general grandstanding with this startled populace, the round of questions started firing.
“Where’s the trial? Where’s the mayor? Where’s the nearest pub?” (This last question was asked by Dr. Worcestershire using his ring of the sophisticate (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-the-sophisticate))
Beable and mouse decide to grab the mayor in his home, while Lady Wisteria and Galarend enter the church (where the trial is being held), and Dr. Worcestershire leaves sprocket behind to “play” while he wheels his wheel chair to the local pub to find Blode.
Things get interesting here as my party has now split – as they often do during their “interrogations” – and it may be a bit difficult to remember all the threads, so bear with me.
First, Beable flies on mouse to get the mayor – literally knocking on his door with Mouse’s “mouth” open revealing the cannon. As soon as the mayor (a half orc) open the door – he’s greeted by a cannon golem’s weapon pointed right at him. Incongrously, Beable’s a happy and peppy little gnome. After some brief rounds of calm discussion turned intimidate checks, the Mayor decides to come with Beable to the church (which is where the trial is taking place and where Galarend currently is). Beable offers the mayor a harness to ride as Mouse flies through the air, but he declines. Smartly.
Dr. Worcestershire heads to the nearest pub where Blode is sitting waiting and another half-orc working the counter. The Dr. tells Blode that he wants to speak to the suspected witches parents. With a grin, the Halforc tells him that they’re currently at the trial – at the church. The Dr. tells Blode that if he needs him to create a distraction in town, to be ready to light something on fire. Then he leaves heading back for the church.
Lady Wisteria and Galarend enter the church right as the girl is going to give her testimony, so this grabs the attention of everyone around. Lady Wisteria steps forward pardoning herself for the interruption, but seeking an audience with the Priest/Judge as an immediate request. The judge of course denies this and asks her to take a seat to watch if she cares, but to please be quiet during the session. Lady Wisteria does not back down and the two of them go back and forth as to why it cannot wait. Eventually, Lady Wisteria backs down and takes a seat to watch the proceedings.
Beable shoves the mayor in the church, and says, “Here’s the mayor,” to Galarend (quite loudly) before slamming the door to the church (quite loudly again) before looking for the nearest bar. Asking a few locals, he finds out and heads there. He passes Dr. Worcestershire, waves and keeps going.
Galarend – doing a quick check of the ISG book to check how his Iomdae and Iori interact – finding that they are on neutral terms, he steps forward and approached the girl, draws his sword (which draws a wide eyed reaction from everyone in the audience) but he stops before her and kneels and begins praying loudly to Iomadae for a fair trial.
Dr. Worcestershire, approaching the church, hears Galarend’s dulcet baritone voice echoing throughout the entire church, so he enters and sees Galarend praying, Lady Wisteria playing with a “dancing light” tossing it up in the air and rolling it across her fingers, and sitting next to a bewildered mayor wondering what in the blazes is going on. He sits down as well.
(Diplomatic as a baseball bat)
Beable finds the bar, and Blode. The gnome sits down by the bar’s only patron and asks him if he drinks. Blode responds with “I could drink you under the table,” and smiles. The drinking game begins. However, Beable can tell that Blode is not really drinking all that much.
The trial continues with the girl giving testimony about what happened:
a. Girl: “I was out in the field and she heard a noise, and was scared. I ran from that sound and I have no idea what happened to Zin after that.”
b. Lawyer one: “Were where your clothes when you ran?
c. Lawyer two: “Come on, are you going to make her spell it out, you know what she was doing.”
d. Judge: “I want to hear it from her mouth. Therese, I’m afraid you’ll have to answer the question.”
e. Therese (girl): “We were together in the grass. We had been meeting for weeks now.”
f. At this point, a Farmer stands up – “Horse sheet! You know yous eet him, ya witch! Took em right out from my house. We goan burn ya ya pasty whoore!”
g. The judge calls for order: “Algra, I will not tolerate any more of your outbursts.”
(The girl of course winces at all of this.)
h. Judge calls for a recess.
People start walking out the church and once everyone is out only then does a person in what looks like guard garb actually begin escorting her out. Dr. Worcestershire stops her and gives her a rose as she walks out – a simple gesture that brings a slight smile to her cheeks, but overall doesn’t seem to help her mood. Galarend, on the other hand, scopes out the guard and does a sense motive check to see if he’s legit about his job – to which he determines that the man is serious about his guard duties and doesn’t seem to be corrupt. Galarend gives him and nod and the guard and his prisoner continue out the church.
Also, as people are walking out Galarend does a “detect evil” and picks up 4 hits – two minor, and a medium and a major. Galarend does a nod to Lady Wisteria and then to the strongest person in question. The Lady picks up the hint and follows her with a casting of Arcane Eye. She follows the woman who pinged as the highest level evil target. She learns that her name is Doreen and she runs a mercantile business as she goes back to her daily process.
So now, it’s Lady Wisteria, Dr. Worcestershire, Sir Galarend, the mayor, and the priest/judge (who they discover his name to be Tiberius Zank) who are alone in the cathedral.
First, Lady Wisteria apologizes to the priest who then proceeds to criticize the representatives of Rab’s Progress for acting so casually and as though they run everything in such serious matters. The priest asks them to be more mindful and respectful of the towns they interact with.
They take this verbal tongue lashing in stride and begin to ask their questions. They find out the priest believes that the girl didn’t do anything and is wrongfully accused, but will carry out the trial regardless of his opinions as a priest of Iori.
The PCs and the priest exchange information, and the priest fills them in that the Boy’s father Agra, was the man who stood up and shouted during the trial, was the one who brought charges of destroying the crops upon the girl.
The PCs ask for a full explanation and Tiberius goes into the long description. Therese was found running through a field late at night without her clothes on. The fears of the town with the crop failures was enough to start people talking. If that wasn’t enough, the boy she was with, Zin Agra, is missing after that night. She claims that she heard something and ran – but Agra has always had a grudge against Therese and her family when the girl and boy wanted to get married. Agra refused to let his boy marry some “rich city dweller.” Whatever his reasoning, it nevertheless meant that the two lovers had to meet in secret.
Tiberius believes that the girl is telling the truth, but mourns for soon to be destroyed reputation. It doesn’t matter whether or not she was telling the truth – her good name is ruined after this.
Lady Wisteria, Galarend and Dr. Worcestershire decide to go speak to the girl. They make their way to the garrison’s holding cells and see the girl looking down at the flower that the Dr. gave to her. The question her and get a more detailed explanation about the night that Zin went missing. She heard a noise and was spooked, and ran. The noise she heard sounded like someone speaking with their mouth open – no real words just a lot of open gutteral sounds. She made her way through the fields that night, and was spotted by Hanna Thumb – a local farmer whos field she was cutting through. When Zin went missing and Agra reported it – Hanna felt the need to report what she saw. The PCs pledge their help to the girl and tell her that if all goes well, they may be able to remove her from this town and bring her (and possibly her parents) to Rab’s Progress to get away from this mess. Taking their promises to heart, she seems more comforted.
The bartender comes back from the trial and resumes serving alcohol at his shop. 3 additional people come in as well. After some greasing of palms, Beable finds out a large amount of info from the townsfolk. Specifically, that Ol’ man Agra wouldn’t let the two get married, despite the girl’s parents (who are merchants) offer. He claimed that Zin was needed on the farm and that we wouldn’t let his son get married to a lazy family who doesn’t know the meaning of hard work. There was a lot of overlap from the trial and the PCs investigation, so I won’t mention it all here.
The PCs leave Tiberius and Lady Wisteria decides to chase down her Tea Supplier who comes from this town. From Brodert (her supplier) she receives a boatload of information – again, a lot of it overlap – but this time the relevant info comes in the form of tidbits about Doreen’s business practices. She’s rather cut-throat and if you manage to get at odds with her, she won’t have any problem manipulating the market and attempting to put you out of business. Brodert mentions that he’s managed to stay on her good side while operating in this town – but doesn’t trust her at all.
Next, the PCs all wind up gathering as a group and discussing what they found out. They decide their next best course of action would be either tracking down Agra and talking to him, or searching the location of where the Therese and Zin would have met and seeing what they can find there.
They decide to harass farmer Agra first. I mention to them it’s getting late in the day and is about 5ish and starting to get dark. While coming upon the man plowing his field – Beable (who’s riding mouse) throws a rope to Sprocket (while Dr. Worcestershire is wheeling himself toward Agra). Sprocket grabs hold of it and Beable yells for him to hold on.
Beable and Mouse begin flying at high speeds up and down the rows while Sprocket is “land surfing” literally digging the rows for Agra. The party had a good laugh at this (as well as Sprocket – “Sprockety-whoo” as he says).
Nevertheless, they see the plow that Agra is using and he asks them what they want. Dr. Worcestershire asks if Zin would use that plow often? To which Agra responds “yes.”
Dr. Worcestershire casts “Discern Location” using the Plow as a medium. After much reviewing of the wording of the spell I answer that it’s a completely legit use. The spell doesn’t give them a radar ping, but it does give the name of the location – to which I reply with “A pile of ruins directly west from here.”
Orcs and Forts – Blasting away the night.
The hunt continues into the night. It’s dark as the PCs come upon an old Orc ruin – approximately 100 feet by 50 feet with 20 feet walls and an open top. Inside the ruins are several dozen Orcs and a large gate blocking off the PCs from the encampment. They look around and get a sight of the armaments of the inhabitants and see that the gate guard and a Orc in front of the only door in the structure is fully equipped and stronger looking. The rest of the Orcs don’t have much in way of equipment or muscles.
The PCs approach the gate and ask Galarend asks directly about a Human boy named Zin. The Orcs do not deny they have him – but claim that there leader is absent, so any and all bartering must be made with him. The Orc guards will not overstep their bounds.
BTW, this whole conversation is taking place in Orcish – as they do not seem to understand Common.
Galarend says that he wishes to see the Prisoner and make sure that he is well. The orcs resist, but some well played RP later and the Orcs allow the Paladin alone to come in and see the boy and speak to him. The Orcs take him into the door in the structure, which turns out to be a 10X10 room with a spiraling staircase downward. They go down approximately 50 feet into the ground and the 5 foot tunnel is made of carved stone. Through this tunnel they pass a 4 way crossing and into a 40X40 room containing a stinking chest, a bag of what looks to be coins and/or goods and finally a large cage with an Unconscious boy guarded by 2 additional muscley-orcs – however, the unconscious body is no Boy. He looks like a 40 year old man with salt and pepper hair.
Now, the PCs had discovered the age of Therese and her lover to both be 16. This could not be Zin. So Galarend asks if he’s allowed to say a prayer to his god. The Orc thinks this over and shrugs. What could it hurt? Galarend first channeled positive energy, then cast zone of truth as the boy/man stood groggily up.
After much surprise and calming down, Galarend asked the individual a few questions. Apparently, the boy/man did not know how he got there. First, Galarend asked him if he was Zin Agra, and the answer is “yes.” This of course made him curious, so the important question came – “what do you remember?”
He responds that he was with his lover in the grass when she heard a noise – something like a guttural noise or an open mouth grunt. She got scared and ran away. While Zin was gathering his clothes he heard it again, this time behind him. He turns around to see Therese, beautiful and naked – and then she wasn’t Therese. Her face changed into something horrible – a horribly deformed creature with empty gaping eye sockets, and a tongue-less mouth. Two black withered wings extended from her back. The last thing he remembers is the smile before he passed out from pain wracking his body.
Now, he’s awake and feels his face – aged as though he was an old man. He’s distressed and asked Galarend to save him. Galarend takes a step back, looks as though he’s going to say no…
And summons Bolba.
Roll initiative.
The PC’s outside the fort noticed that Bolba had vanished, and through previously discussed plan – if Bolba disappears, they were to go around the backside of the fort and enter through the back of the section that had a door. A successful Stone Shape spell allowed the PCs access to the spiraling staircase and down to the tunnels in ehich they could see Galarend and Bolba fighting for their lives with the three Orc barbarians.
Galarend, not on Bolba as usual was reduced to a heal bot while Bolba did what he could against the furiously fighting berserking Orcs – When bolba finally killed one he realized that they all had access to the Tor Linnorm Death Curse (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo---rage-powers/linnorm-death-curse-tor-su). Each death cursing Bolba as he nat 1’d on two of the Orcs he killed.
A successful casting of Wind Walk from Dr. Worcestershire to get them in the room and a successful Rampart spell from Lady Wisteria to close off Orc reinforcements coming from the 4 way cross, and a successful disintegrate spell from Beable to damage an Orc were a few desperate maneuvers from the PCs to rectify the situation.
After the party killed 2 orcs, and dealing with the fallout from the death curses, Lady Wisteria cast Flesh to Stone on the final Orc. A quick Teleport sent the PCs, the loot and the stone statue of an orc to the fields outside the town of Luddex.
A quick search of the bag grabs them loot, a quick detect magic reveals that Zin is under an permanent Alter Self spell and has taken a penalty to his age and a quick dispel magic brings the boy’s face back to normal. They search the box and find the bodies of two elderly men – both of whom had all their hair and nails pulled out (all the damage was done incrementally, and post mortem).
It was here we stopped the game as the PCs decided what to do next. As it turns out, the next game is in four hours, so I’ll get back to you all tomorrow! Whoots!