Pathfinder 1E [IC] Pathfinder: Jade Regent

[Binder Fred]

After everybody has settled down, Fastus begins, Sachiko and Elsbeth excitedly standing by behind the curtain.

"Welcome friends- and neighbours! I think everybody's heard the news by now, so I thought-" he suddenly grinned: "let's make it entertaining too, right! So tonight I'm- WE're going to tell you a story of what happened TODAY, out in the swamp. A tale of daring-do, treasures and ADVENTURE! It's all true too!" His heart was beating fast, looking at all those eyes, and he couldn't help grinning wide: better than facing goblins!

And he began with them setting off from Sandpoint, Fastus the Brave, Sachiko the Quick, Elsbeth the Magical, Suldrel the Wise, Wireth the Strong and Jariah the... also Wise and Magical -- oh, and their pets too. Dire warnings from the Sherriff, strange tracks and sneaky shapes in the thickness of the swamp, but then safe refuge at the warden's house.

As Fastus narrated, behind the curtain Sachiko intoned quietly under her breath and narrowed her will to a pin point: a stylized vista unfolded behind the blacksmith... looking more like hand-painted artwork of a scene than a picture of a real place. But the trees rustled silently and the reeds swayed and the water rippled, and smoke lazily curled out of the chimney of the warden's homely cottage.

"Cooool!" commented their self-designated narrator, eyes shining when he turned to see what everyone was oo-ing and ah-ing about. Didn't know Elli could DO that! "Uh, I mean: safe refuge at the warden's house!"

The warden emerged from that cottage, but the eyes of that cheery halfling were yellow with black, slitted pupils.

"UNTIL!"

The bad warden lashed out at the shadowy figures of the party, knocking them flying!

"That's RIGHT: the warden's tongue SHOT OUT, hitting Elli right through the chest! Red blood like a fountain! And when we looked, the 'warden' wasn't the warden anymore: it had never been HIM! Instead there was this tongue-monster thing: short, wiry, dry like a twig, and with sharp SPIKES poking out all over -- even on its TONGUE! A LOT of them on his tongue, actually, right?"

He went on to excitedly narrate the battle, and in THIS version Elli was deeply wounded but didn't pass out, directing the battle from the back and encouraging her friends to greater glory; the tongue-thing had a sibilant voice and threatened people a lot as it battled (Fastus uses his Intimidation skill to try and really bring it to life for them); and Fastus gloriously falls during his (successful) 'pushing' gambit, bravely sacrificing himself so the others can surround the thing.

At the end, the monster was badly wounded but surrounded by the downed (but still conscious) bodies of the fallen heroes -- he had just finished taking down even the mountainous Wireth-the-Orc!

"But brave Sachiko is undeterred."

The scene pivoted abruptly to center on an imposing figure dressed in a flowing kimono (which she had seen Ameiko wearing before), with long white hair snapping in the wind. She had a wide, disc-like hat on that's tilted forward to cover the top half of her face, showing only the confident smirk on her lips. Tall and slim, but with rather impressive measurements, this incredible warrior slid a wickedly oversized sword from the sheath behind her back-

Fastus spontaneously giggled, "Is that supposed to be-?" Wait, he realized. SACHIKO's doing this?! When did she-? No time, "Ah: she delivers a stirring speech to the thing before-"

'Sachiko' seemed to flicker out of sight so fast was her movement. The first slash-cut away what's left of the beast's disguise, and it and the lady warrior dueled fiercely as they leapt about, knocking over trees and laying waste to the swamp and the halfling's home until finally the swordswoman severed the monster's horrifyingly spiked tongue and cleaved the creature in twain with the follow-up.

The deed done, she ran two fingers down the sword's length, cleanning the blood off of it, then slid it back home and put a straw in her mouth to chew on as she helped the others to their feet.

"- doing THAT," summarized Fastus, picking the thread back up and now enjoying himself tremendously. "(Although *I'm* the one that cut the thing's tongue off)," he specified to his audience as if it mattered. "The tongue-thing falls, uttering a last hissing threat -- But who cares? RIGHTEOUSNESS has prevailed and the warden - the TRUE warden - is SAVED!"

 

[Graybeard]

Elsbeth

Earlier that afternoon....

Elsbeth left the Rusty Dragon shortly after the others. She had stayed long enough to help out waiting on a few customers. She then set off to do a bit of shopping before she returned to the Inn to help Fastus with his story.

The first thing she decided to do was trade in her mace. She really wasn't very good with it and to use it effectively you had to stand next to whatever you wanted to hit. As the events of the past couple of days had proven, you needed to wear armor to protect yourself from attacks to use the mace properly. Since she had an aversion to wearing armor, it made sense to sell it and buy a weapon she could use further away.

She browsed a couple of different shops first, getting an idea of prices and quality of service. She settled on a shop run by a human named Tristan.

"How may I help you?" he greeted her pleasantly.

"I would like to trade my mace for a weapon I can use from a distance."

Elsbeth produced the mace and handed it to the man for an appraisal.

"I can offer you 2 gold for this."

"Is that all? I was hoping for a bit more, It's almost new! Never been used in combat!" she explained.

"Well, okay. For a pretty young lady such as yourself, I will offer 3 gold. Now you said you wanted something you could use at a distance? What are you interested in? Bows, slings, javelins, blowguns?"

"Well, I'm not very good with weapons. They're not exactly my specialty." Elsbeth mentioned.

"Ah, I see. Magic user?" he concluded.

"How did you know?"

"We get a lot of those in here looking for a weapon as a backup to their spells. Crossbows are very popular with magic users of all types. They allow you to be further away from the enemy and still deal a reasonable amount of damage. They are easy to use and can be upgraded later if needed." he explained.

"How much do they cost?"

"A standard model costs 35 gold but a better one would cost 335 gold. The more expensive model does more damage and is more accurate." he explained.

"Okay, I would like to purchase the more expensive model. I guess I need some arrows to go with it."

"Certainly, for an additional 2 gold, you can get 20 bolts to go with it."

"Thank you, I will take those as well. If you are not busy this evening, there will be a performance at the Rusty Dragon. Some friends and myself will be telling the tale of how we fought and defeated some goblins."

"I think that sounds like fun. I would enjoy seeing you relate this brave and daring tale."

Elsbeth blushed slightly at what sounded to her like flattery.

The shopkeeper finished wrapping up her purchase and handed it to her.

"Thank you for stopping in and I will see you tonight."

Elsbeth walked around a bit more and purchased a new shirt and skirt. They were not fancy but seemed to be good quality everyday clothing.

 

[perrinmiller]

Jariah Taliaferro, Human Female

In watching the performance, Jakira kept whispering about the truth of the events being told. But after a few moments, Jariah shushed him mentally and the conversation carried on there to not disturb Koya as she watched.

Jariah was not concerned about the accuracy, since she choose not to help them tell the tale. Jakira was sullen about it at first until he received some grilled meat on a bone to gnaw on. Then he soon forgot about the play.

[sblock=Mini-stats]Jariah Taliaferro
Init: +5, Senses: Perception +6
AC: 15, Touch: 13, Flat-footed: 12 (Leather armor)
HP: 9 Current: 7
Fort: +1, Ref: +3, Will: +3
Summon Monster: 4/7 Remaining
1st Level Spells: 0/2 Remaining (Mage Armor, Lesser Rejuv)
Conditions: None

Weapon in Hand: None


Jakira
Init: +2, Senses: Perception +4, Darkvision
AC: 14/18 (Mage Armor), Touch: 12, Flat-footed: 12/16
HP: 12 Current: 4
Fort: +3, Ref: +4, Will: +0
Condition: Darkvision, Power Attack, Pounce
Weapons in Hand: Claws & Bite[/sblock]

 

[Binder Fred]

Elsbeth continued: "With the Warden safely rescued from the vile creature, the brave adventurers set forth to the goblin village. Upon arriving, the village was quiet, deathly quiet. The adventurers split up to investigate....."

"RIGHT," agreed the young man, called back to order. "They ventured in, caaaarefully..."

The wooden gate had been blasted from the inside by some humongous beast or something.

(Fastus lifted a torch up to the side and blew fire across its tip to light it. Then he held it above him and hunched his head a bit as if he was exploring a low cave or something (it was Elli's idea).)

"The goblins had these long houses on stilts. Low thatch ceilings -- well low for US, right? Smoke-stains all over. And these tiny window-things -- with twigs to keep the animals out, I guess?" He mimed it out, drawing it out as he looked this way and that: "Scraps of goblin things abandoned here and there. The wind. And silence.... but no goblins in the first hut they explore... or the third... or the-"

A sudden *BOOM* from behind the curtain, making even Fastus jump!

"AH! Uh... I mean: fireworks shot out at Suldrel and all hell broke loose!" (He'd been strongly I favour of using ACTUAL fireworks here, but had been quickly and completely outvoted for some reason. Something about Ameiko not wanting her inn burned down today.)

Cowering goblins snarled at them with sharp teeth and pointy swords, jabbering in an unknown language as they shot a bunch of sparky, fireworky missiles at the party. The worst part though was that one of them always ran back towards another hut, right, shouting: "It's not them, it's not the skeletons! Come on and fight with us!" And so on, and so forth, until the party was fair overrun by a tide of green teeth and steel!

Background fighting noises come from the curtain throughout this and the next part: the clash of swords on metal, shuffling and banging, and even the occasional call of " "Take THAT!", "A-ha!" or "Rally around me!".

And Fastus sure was impressed by goblin teeth, if the number of time he mentions them is anything to go by, but he's doing his best to give the impression of chaos and things happening all over right now: Jariah shouting orders; Wireth and Jakira holding their own against a clawing tornado (although Sachiko, Elsbeth and Fastus seemed to be doing most of the taking down for some reason); a charge through the throng to assault and then smash through the doors of the chief's mystical hut (who'se main room had somehow acquired a pair of flaming beast idols and accompanying braziers for some reason, complete with gloating Gutwad and cronies in the center).

Suldrel was badly hurt right then (by an exploding voodoo curse), but not only survived but took his bloody revenge on the bone-painted goblin priest! Fastus fell through the roof and was only saved from a grizzly death by an arrow through Chuffy's head, courtesy of a miraculously well-timed Warden! Gutwad, Jariah and Wireth traded insults! Eagles, eagles all over the place! FINALLY, Elsbeth ran up to the door and tricked Gutwad's attention away!

"Just for a heartbeat, you understand?"

But it was enough for EVERYBODY to SIMULTANEOUSLY plant their weapons into Gutwad's belly, ending his threat to the good citizens of Sandpoint FOREVER!

A pause to let that sink in...

Then Elsbeth pushed the red chest through the curtain and out onto the stage. She flipped the lid up with a piece of string while Sachiko made a subtle golden glow come out from inside...

"And what's this they find in the bowels of Gutwad's treasury?" Ugh, that had sounded WAY better in his head! He shook that away, far too much on a high to care right now! "Is it a load of Tian Xe heirlooms I see there? And in them a MAP to some skeleton-guarded treasure?" A long, expectant pause... "MAYBE! See you here next time to find out!"

"Come out here Sachiko and Elsbeth." And when they do: "Weren't they GREAT?" Then, on impulse: "Oh, and enjoy ALL your drinks tonight, on US!"

 

[Binder Fred]

Afterwards

Afterwards, a still wired Fastus worked late in the forge, first cleaning up for his Da to compensate for the missed day, but that somehow evolved into improving his 'square bar of iron' mace into something that didn't look quite so crude -- with a proper handle at least, right? (They were fighting SKELETON PIRATES tomorrow, after all!)

Normally you'd want somebody working the bellows and feeding the fire, but he managed well enough with just his fiery breath.

When Elsbeth dropped by to check on him though, she found him draped over his da's anvil, sleeping like a bab- uh, make that - sleeping like an exhausted young man.


OOC: I'm in your hands, [MENTION=21705]Graybeard[/MENTION].

 

[Graybeard]

Elsbeth

Eventually the show ended. The reaction from the crowd was generally good. Sure Fastus had embellished a few details and condensed the time they had spent so as to not put the crowd to sleep but the general story was there. Afterward she helped clean a few tables and Fastus had asked to to stop by the forge later. She asked him if Sachiko would be there and he gave her an odd look and mumbled something about her being busy. Elsbeth had agreed since she knew Fastus could be trusted. Still, it was rather strange to her that he had apparently invited her alone. Maybe Sachiko had been right the other day when she had been teasing the two of them.

After Fastus left, she continued helping out around the Inn. It seemed like the proper thing to do since Ameiko had provided them with provisions and healing potions for their journey into the swamp. She quickly lost track of the time and when she noticed how late it was, she excused herself from work and ran to go see Fastus.

When she finally arrived, he was sound asleep and snoring over the anvil. Should she wake him? He looked exhausted. Cautiously she walked over to his sleeping form and gently shook him.

"Fastus, wake up. You should be in bed."

 

[Binder Fred]

He was SOUND asleep though and she had to prod him a second time.

"Uh?" Fastus glanced up owlishly, and then he spotted her and smiled: "Hi, Elli. What time is it? Never mind; doesn't MATTER." What mattered was- What was he doing again?

 

[Guest 11456]

The next morning you all feel refreshed and ready to take on the new day. Ameiko waits at the Rusty Dragon for the group to assemble.

 

[Kaodi]

The night before when Sachiko and Shalelu had come home from the retelling of their 'adventure' Suldrel had presented his gift to the elven ranger. "I figured that with the windfall it as good a time as there would be to get you an upgraded kit. I know the old one has seen a lot of good use, but it was getting kind of worn out..."

To Sachiko he says quietly as well, "If there is anything you thought you needed but did not quite have the coin for, you know I always hold back some money. We can grab it in the morning before heading out."

 

[perrinmiller]

After putting Koya to bed following the performance, Jariah had dismissed Jakira and went to bed as well. She was anticipating a long day of hiking through the swamp again and wanted to get some good rest.

After summoning the feline eidolon, she made her way over to the Ameiko’s tavern for breaking fast. With enough coin, she was still willing to spend the extra silver to eat there instead of picking up food from the market stalls and eating at Koya’s.

She greeted the others and Ameiko after entering the tavern, “Good morn.”

“Did everyone sleep well?”

Jakira replied, “yeah, but I am hungrrry.”

What else was new?

[sblock=Mini-stats]Jariah Taliaferro
Init: +5, Senses: Perception +7
AC: 17, Touch: 13, Flat-footed: 14 (chain shirt)
HP: 16 Current: 16
Fort: +1, Ref: +3, Will: +4
Summon Monster: 7/7 Remaining
1st Level Spells: 3/3 Remaining (Mage Armor, Lesser Rejuv, Unfetter)
Conditions: None

Weapon in Hand: None


Jakira
Init: +2, Senses: Perception +5, Darkvision
AC: 20/22 (Mage Armor), Touch: 12, Flat-footed: 18/20
HP: 22 Current: 22
Fort: +4, Ref: +5, Will: +0
Condition: Darkvision, Power Attack, Pounce, Evasion
Weapons in Hand: Claws & Bite[/sblock]