Overpowered Rise of the Runelords

[Llyarden]

Literion shook his head slightly, stumbling as his senses returned to reality, rejoining the group in time to catch up with the conversation - he, like many of them evidently had, had more or less run out of meaningful languages to invest in (although as he had already discovered, not taking sign language had been something of an oversight), and Sphinx was among the couple of dozen Literion knew. Hank himself spoke nothing but English, so it was a very strange experience to speak fluently in another tongue as though he'd spoken it all his life. "I agree that we don't know what this world is, whether these are just incredibly advanced and scripted NPCs or real people, but even if we don't know for sure, if there's just a chance that these people are real...we can't just stand by and allow them to get hurt."

He glanced over to Evras. "You said it was goblins that attacked, right? I assume we all ran into them back when we were low levelled, so Locate Creature should find them if they're close. Can any of you cast it and hide your magic? I can cast it, but I'd rather not be seen casting spells in the middle of the town when we don't know how the townsfolk will take it."

[Thunder999]

On hearing those replies Evras will stop walking and reply "You two make a good point, I can do a silent and still spell once a day, but don't have the feats to actually conceal things, so no better than you there, best just dip out of sight."

[Wabbit]

They picked up the doll and looked through the crowd to see if they could find the child who dropped it. They returned closer to their party and lifted the doll. ”I found a doll. It could be a quest hook but nothing came up on my hud. I think things are a hybrid of real with game mechanics.” they were over that discussion already.

“Do we think we were brought here for a reason or just dropped at a starting area?” they were curious if they were not the only group of real world people trapped here.

“I can cast it but not wth still spell I never took that feat. But Goblins aren’t normally hard to find right?” they had not taken Sphinx but did have ASL if that helped at all and Goblin. “I’ll admit I spent most of mine on hex feats.” they added sheepishly

[Jack_Simth]

Spoiler: OOC

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Confirmed, you haven't seen any active magical spells on anyone. A few folks have minor auras from magic items, but those are rare, and are only showing up on folks that are clearly fairly wealthy.

Also, side note: Still and Silent isn't enough to conceal spellcasting in Pathfinder. They dropped the note from Spellcraft that you must see or hear the components (Relative to 3.5), then added a different feat to do it. The light shows in the artwork mechanically exist in Pathfinder.

At this point Evras is aware that proof either way might just be more important than stopping it in advance, but the attack taking place is evidence enough either way. So he has his familiar silently relay telepathic orders to his summoned Ghaele, telling it to wait invisibly in the graveyard and stop any grave robbers.
Speaking in Sphinx once more "I think we can rule out the locals being as strong as us, noone's seen through our disguises, I'm not getting any unexpected magical auras on arcane sight, and I've read enough thoughts to say they're not simply warded against divinations. As for the rest, we'll know in time I'm sure."
Evras is then going to go find where they're serving food, particularly that provided by the Rusty Dragon, he vaguely recalls that being the best inn in town and isn't passing this chance up.

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm assuming that if there was something obvious showing up with arcane sight it'd have been mentioned in the descriptions.

The Ghaele blinks at the orders, and replies audibly, just to be chaotic "Guard duty for corpses? That seems... light. OK. Definitely a change from what I'm usually summoned for. But: As you command." It rolls it's eyes, but obeys.

The party-goers milling about seem confused, but largely shrug it off as just missing the person who's speaking amidst everyone else.

[Dakrsidder]

Coming close to the conclusion of the topic, Aethra just shrugs and says "do as you must but does the grave robbery really have to be stopped? More observation before making an interference such as that seems more logical even if there's enough evidence to assume the same things will happen. If your morality hurts too much to let the attack happen here, then it can't be helped, but taking out both triggers from the beginning when no one's in immediate danger seems unwise. Trailing the robber seems like a better alternative if it's something of interest."

[Thunder999]

This, Evras has an answer for, in Sphinx still, "The mere attempt is enough to gather information from, the grave robbery is their actual goal here, I'll admit I'm not entirely certain why, not to make undead, but it's got to be something bad. There's a few other easily checkable things I know for later, including where any events we disrupt would have led us." After a short pause he'll add "If that's not reason enough then, there's also the fact it's probably safest to test the effects of changing things while the stakes are still fairly low, than try for the first time when something big is at risk."

[redfeline]

Cierra returns to the group just behind Quiet. She has a deer rib in her mouth and is eating it thoughtfully. She was musing as a doppelganger she had no mouth. So really she was using some shape changed appendage to some how eat the venison. Perhaps it was her chin or her nose, oh wait she lacked a nose too. As she continued to eat and ponder her mind remembered something important. Dnd doppelgangers do not have mouths, pathfinder ones do. She looked on with a bit of disappointment on her face.

Looking at the others she realized she didn't understand a word they were saying. She finished the last bit of meat on the rib and spotting a dog nearby tossed it to the animal. She then returned to the group and began to sign in ASL. 'I don't understand what you are saying, and I understand most of the languages in the game.'

[Lioslaith]

I notice Cierra signing and am again pleasantly surprised that I can understand it. As the others continue to debate I 'translate' what they are saying for her so she can keep up with the conversation. Adding in that sign might also be a way to communicate without many knowing how to utilize it.

[Wabbit]

Quiet watched Cierra and smiled as they signed back replying to Samael as well.’I don’t know that tongue either. But yeah this could be a good secret language but wouldn’t work via telepathy’

[Shaggy]

Boa would understand then due to her tongue of the sun and moon class feature. So she at least could keep up with what was being said by everyone though she didn't know how to do the sign language. "Testing out a change makes sense, but following them back would also change things." she pointed out "Changing the small things for a beginner quest makes sense but honestly. How do we know a quest now? Does anyone see any quest markers?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Can I do a perception to see if I notice any quest markers or anything game related on the overlay we are seeing (Perception +36) let me know if I need to do a proper roll.

[redfeline]

Cierra looks around but is not surprised at the lack of quest markers. She shakes her head to indicate she doesn't see a marker.

[Lioslaith]

I decide to go introduce myself to the Mayor and see if I can get to know the towns “ruling caste” a little better. Seems like we might be here for a while and may even possibly need to defend the area.

[Jack_Simth]

You do not see anything that looks like a quest marker overlaying your field of vision, no.

Mayor Kendra Deverin isn't hard to find; she's keeping up a friendly face, and is schmoozing like one would expect of a town mayor. A lot of folks are congratulating the reasonably attractive blond human woman, who seems to be in her late twenties. Her shoes and hairpin have faint magical auras.

[Lioslaith]

I position myself so the meet and greet will come around to me eventually and await my turn. When she gets to the person next to me I realize I’m not sure how to introduce myself at all. When she turns to me I extend my hand in the traditional greeting and smiling ”Greetings mayor, it is an honor to make your acquaintance my name is Samael. My friends and I are travelers and have heard good things about Sandpoint. We wanted to stop and check it out. It appears we have good timing with the temple dedication. If there is anything we can do to help please let me know.”

Way more than I intended to say but once I started it was hard to stop. Haven’t had this level of interaction with the NPC’s before. Or so I am hoping.

[Jack_Simth]

Mayor Kendra Deverin smiles warmly "Nice to meet you. I am Mayor Deverin, but you seem to have already caught that. Everything is arranged at this point, so all that's left for you is to enjoy the festivities. How long are you in town?"

[Lioslaith]

"We really haven't decided on a length of time. No where to go no time to be there sort of situation. At this point we are just sort of winging it." I give her back her warmth as we talk.

[Jack_Simth]

The Mayor briefly looks aside while she briefly considers your answer, then looks back at you with "That's a bit unusual; most folks have obligations or attachments that keep them places or cause them to travel... did something happen?" She seems a bit concerned... although you're sensitive enough to pick up that she's worried more that something might be following you to her doorstep than she is for you personally, although there is some of the latter as well.

[Lioslaith]

"Well I am always hesitant to use the word adventurers as it sometimes carries negative connotations. But my friends and I are always looking for work or something along those lines that might be of use to anyone we come across. Picking up on her concerns, "Even if that help is moving on quickly."

[Llyarden]

Since it didn't seem like any of the others could hide their magic any more than Literion himself could, while Lio schmoozed with the Mayor, Literion slipped away again and cast a Locate Creature spell to find the nearest goblin. Hopefully there weren't any friendly goblins in the town, although from what he remembered of Sandpoint (which, admittedly, was information that had been a few real-world years old; he hadn't been back to the town in-game for ages) that didn't seem too likely.

He hadn't noticed many magical auras on the townsfolk, so with any luck none of them would have magic-detection abilities of their own active, and once the spell's display faded and it was just quietly overlaid on his vision, none of the townsfolk would find anything out of the ordinary about a newcomer to the town wandering around, occasionally turning in circles - after all, he was just seeing the sights.

Spoiler: OOC

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I don't know how big Sandpoint is, but Literion will wander around it until he's relatively confident he's covered it with his round-about-1000ft radius of locate creature (crossing bridges as needed to get around running water etc) - or until he locates a goblin. Or I guess until he ends up in a situation where he can't finish his search of the town without arousing suspicion.

[Thunder999]

Spoiler: OOC map stuff

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The whole of that map of the town from earlier looks to be just shy of 2000ft vertically, much less horizontally, so a 1000ft radius will go a long way.

[QuantumFlash]

Momonga decides to leave the more social aspects of information gathering to those who seem to have it well in hand and instead slips away to a spot out of sight before using an at-will power to turn invisible and follow the Azata to the graveyard to keep an eye out there for anything unusual. Maybe it’s due to becoming an undead himself but for some reason he feels a bit more comfortable in the graveyard as well. He raises a hand in front of his own face to confirm it, wondering again at the true skeletal form shown to him by true sight which seems so normal and not at all frightening as a skeletal hand should be.

[Wabbit]

Spoiler: OOC

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From the map I could pull up Sandpoint is fairly small width wise. Its about 1,800 feet if you go from Boggy Creek its about 1,500 or so if you don't search that far down.

GM - My reading of the Primeval Landscape implies Quiet can choose who is unaffected by not just the five steps but of the hazards that the ability creates too. Is that your reading?

Quiet would still be holding onto the doll and looking around to see if they could find the child who dropped it. Still they moved their hands to speak in ASL 'So are we waiting for the attack and the graverobbery? Maybe we should mingle?' their hands where slowed not sure about the last part. They where not exactly super social under normal circumstances and now they where physically there rather than just reading it through the hud read out on their headset.

'Our group is pretty big, we might draw attention all stacked up.'

[Jack_Simth]

"Well I am always hesitant to use the word adventurers as it sometimes carries negative connotations. But my friends and I are always looking for work or something along those lines that might be of use to anyone we come across. Picking up on her concerns, "Even if that help is moving on quickly."

She stifles a laugh "I'm hardly going to ask anyone to leave just for having an unusual story." Although you do pick up that she plans to have someone look into your story "It's just unusual, is all. Who knows? Maybe you'll set down some roots here." A few other folks start crowding her slightly, so she says "Regardless... I have my duties to perform, so I'll see you around."

Spoiler: Literion

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You quickly find a small covered wagon behind some buildings south of the festival square; a little checking, and you find there's ten in there, snoozing the day away.

Spoiler: OOC

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Since it didn't seem like any of the others could hide their magic any more than Literion himself could, while Lio schmoozed with the Mayor, Literion slipped away again and cast a Locate Creature spell to find the nearest goblin. Hopefully there weren't any friendly goblins in the town, although from what he remembered of Sandpoint (which, admittedly, was information that had been a few real-world years old; he hadn't been back to the town in-game for ages) that didn't seem too likely.

He hadn't noticed many magical auras on the townsfolk, so with any luck none of them would have magic-detection abilities of their own active, and once the spell's display faded and it was just quietly overlaid on his vision, none of the townsfolk would find anything out of the ordinary about a newcomer to the town wandering around, occasionally turning in circles - after all, he was just seeing the sights.

Spoiler: OOC

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I don't know how big Sandpoint is, but Literion will wander around it until he's relatively confident he's covered it with his round-about-1000ft radius of locate creature (crossing bridges as needed to get around running water etc) - or until he locates a goblin. Or I guess until he ends up in a situation where he can't finish his search of the town without arousing suspicion.

The place is actually quite small. A CL 20 Locate Creature Spell (400 + 40 * 20 = 1200 feet radius; CL 15 would be exactly 1,000 foot radius) from the middle of town would hit everything except the noble manors, and you only miss those due to the running water clause (the river feeding into the bay).

Spoiler: Momonga

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Momonga decides to leave the more social aspects of information gathering to those who seem to have it well in hand and instead slips away to a spot out of sight before using an at-will power to turn invisible and follow the Azata to the graveyard to keep an eye out there for anything unusual. Maybe it’s due to becoming an undead himself but for some reason he feels a bit more comfortable in the graveyard as well. He raises a hand in front of his own face to confirm it, wondering again at the true skeletal form shown to him by true sight which seems so normal and not at all frightening as a skeletal hand should be.

For now, the graveyard is empty except for you and the Azata.

[Lioslaith]

Nodding deeply enough as to almost be a bow, "Forgive me m'lady, I have taken up far too much of your time. Root's do indeed sound appealing now that you mention them. I may consider it. I shall indeed see you around."

[Jack_Simth]

Spoiler: Quiet

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Spoiler: OOC

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From the map I could pull up Sandpoint is fairly small width wise. Its about 1,800 feet if you go from Boggy Creek its about 1,500 or so if you don't search that far down.

GM - My reading of the Primeval Landscape implies Quiet can choose who is unaffected by not just the five steps but of the hazards that the ability creates too. Is that your reading?

Quiet would still be holding onto the doll and looking around to see if they could find the child who dropped it. Still they moved their hands to speak in ASL 'So are we waiting for the attack and the graverobbery? Maybe we should mingle?' their hands where slowed not sure about the last part. They where not exactly super social under normal circumstances and now they where physically there rather than just reading it through the hud read out on their headset.

'Our group is pretty big, we might draw attention all stacked up.'

It doesn't take much looking to find the child in question. A little boy seems to be sulking a bit while eating some cake, his mother rolling his eyes and telling him "I did tell you to leave Freddie at home..."

Spoiler: Mechanics question...

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Let's see...

When a whisperer arrives on the Material Plane, it can spend 24 hours in a wilderness area to lay claim to a region of up to 10 miles in diameter as its territory, which then becomes its primeval landscape. While in a whisperer’s primeval landscape, the DCs of Survival checks to navigate or avoid becoming lost are increased by 20. A divination that offers guidance, such as find the path, requires a successful DC 31 caster level check as it is cast or the result is corrupted and it instead leads explorers into the whisperer’s embrace. A whisperer’s primeval landscape is always under the effects of a grand perilous demesne curse, as if the whisperer had cast supreme curse terrain. The total CR of hazards encountered simultaneously must be 18 or lower, rather than 15, and each individual hazard is CR 17 or lower, rather than 14. If any of the hazards are defeated, the whisperer automatically replaces them 24 hours later. A primeval landscape can be removed via remove curse or similar methods (against DC 30), as detailed for all cursed lands (Horror Adventures 143).

Any creature that enters a primeval landscape begins to suffer increasingly vivid and maddening hallucinations. After spending 24 hours in the region, and again every 24 hours thereafter as long as it remains in the area, a creature can attempt a DC 30 Will save to resist being increasingly affected by the primeval landscape. Upon each failed saving throw, the creature moves one step down the following track. Casting greater restoration or psychic surgery on an affected creature moves it one step up the track. Miracle or wish removes all cumulative effects. Every full 24 hours spent outside of the primeval landscape, the victim moves one step up along this track. At the GM’s discretion, the whisperer can choose to not to affect specific creatures or to stop their progression at a specific step. While the effects of a primeval landscape are not mind-affecting, mindless creatures and creatures with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are immune to the effects. The save DC is Charisma-based.

First Failed Save: ...

Referring to the Underlined portion? Contextually, I'm reading that as just the general saves - the normal hazards are still there. Also, you can only claim wilderness areas - so it might be useful for cutting off a city from supplies, but wouldn't include an actual city (or dungeon) as that's no longer wilderness (although something like an elvish tree city would still maybe count).

[Wabbit]

Spoiler: OOC

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Thats a fair reading. I would say I thought the Wilderness Area of the first line is for the natural monster just because Whisperers tend to only exist in natural forests as per their Ecology entry. Looking up the rules on Wilderness in Pathfinder there are various terrains that count as wilderness not just forest. So if used on Sandpoint, the water would also be within that sphere of effect. But if we are ruling that anything manmade or altered from nature than the roads would also count as unaffected. So its not so much as cut off a city more like make wandering off the path a really bad idea.

[Lioslaith]

Spoiler: OOC

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keep in mind the areas you are talking about though. The Whisperers area is going to be about 78.5 square miles. The area of Sandpoint is about .09 square miles.

[Llyarden]

So there really were goblins here.

Of course, now that posed another issue. Evras had said that the goblins were part of the attack, and if Literion had run into a situation like this in the game he'd have been more than willing to just kill them all before they woke up. But...who was to say the goblins weren't people too? The only real difference between the average goblin warrior and a villager was that the former was tagged as a hostile NPC in the game and the latter wasn't. If that was no longer the case...he couldn't just kill them, any more than he could randomly kill one of the villagers. Especially if the others were right, and the goblins were somehow being forced to act out their parts in a prewritten story.

On the other hand, he still couldn't just leave them be while he went to ask the others for advice.

He left the cover of the wagon off slightly, enough that he could move a little distance away and still see them - and then picked whichever goblin he could see best and cast a Dominate spell at it.

~Stay still, and don't make any noise,~ he commanded mentally in Goblin (without actually waiting for the popup that would tell him whether the spell had worked).

If the enchantment did work, he retrieved another of his spellbooks and cast a telepathy spell from it on the goblin. ~When I ask you questions, you will answer them telepathically.~

Spoiler: OOC

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Yeah, Literion is CL17+1d4 to be specific (would be 19+1d4, but I forgot to have him use his Harrow deck), so somewhere between 1120ft and 1240ft; given that he was going to be wandering around a bit I figured 1000ft radius would be a reasonable approximation.

Literion casts dominate person on one of the goblins (chosen basically at random); DC31 Will to resist. His first command will simply be to do nothing and act as though it were still asleep. If the dominate works, he Quick Studies and casts telepathic bond so he can interrogate it without alerting the others.

[Jack_Simth]

Spoiler: Literion

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You can feel the connection to the goblin. A moment of concentration reveals that Dominating him didn't wake him up.

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: OOC

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I just reread my post and realised that I forgot to include my character's name but did mention Evras, so I'm not sure if that spoiler is directed at me or not. I've edited it now to hopefully be clearer.