(first goal- get a level)
Morning briefing:
The last few days you had uniforms fitted between your interviews at different stations. But when all was said and done you wound up at New port precinct house as part of a flexible deployment team Tan Lu is building.
It started with possible deployment instead two years of desk work before you could qualify for street deployment. And it doesn't hurt that your team reports to the captain directly.
By this point you have put in a couple weeks of work assisting officers on different teams as part of learning responsibilities within the station house. Today your team is reassembled for the first time in weeks and heading over to meet with Tan Lu before your first deployment.
Meeting with Tan Lu
(You are gestured in by Tan Lu's assistant and find Tan Lu sitting behind his desk a huge block of polished mahogony. He is in his captains uniform sipping from his the ever present mug of coffee. A peculator on a small metal stand bubbles merrily filling the room with the smell of fresh coffee.
The desk is the only real opulence of the office. The walls are covered with plaques and awards for service. A detailed map of the precinct is framed behind his desk and there was a painting by the door of Tan Lu with the various other station chiefs and some miscellaneous political luminaries.
Two Helenese officers stand near Tan Lu but are currently admiring the detailed map of the precinct.
(describe Psapa and Gepaki)
Tan Lu - (dignified) Greetings flexible response team members. I hope the last couple weeks have given you a good feel for all the various departments within the station. You may be working with any one of them on a given day.
For today I need you to accompany Psapa and Gepaki on patrol near the south end of our district by the border with university district. (he turns and points at the map) Right around here. There are a bunch of exhibitions going on in university precinct and many exhibits have spilled over into buildings in our precinct. Psapa and Gepaki should know the streets.
Go there and keep your eyes open. Take a comm orb with you and don't forget to pick up gear and check with Shelia in communications on the way out. Todays watchphrase from Chen Wei is applicable for you folks - If in doubt, check it out. Good luck out there!
Theo suggests changing name to - Legion of Arcane Watchmen
(pick up gear)
(meet whisper, she is mute. She has an aid who speaks in sign language. Whisper needs to remember someone in the group. She will use message to communicate if necessary but will probably just gesture or sign to her companion since she likes to save her energy ) After they are dismissed they will start their patrol.
On the street
New Port neighborhood is filled with the boisterous energy of a busy seaport as well as the various downsides. The smell of fish is ubiquitous, numerous bars and brothels are visible from the station. On the street the crowd contains a lot of sailors as well as various rough folk heading to the days work. The weather has warmed up nicely after the big storms a week ago and the day looks to be sunny and clear.
How the group wants to get to the right area? Trolley or Paddywagon or foot?
Trolley - will be crowded. May have slow going due to a broken down trolley ahead. If they scan car they will find enough to write a citation. Might catch a pickpocket. Have someone from a character's background on trolley.
Paddywagon - may have to wait for one to come back. More senior groups are served first but could chat with Feng Zedong's squad. He has just gotten some "green" recruits. Wagon will get group to location a half hour before any events take place.
Foot - have encounter noted below on way to patrol.
(if not on foot have it later in the patrol region)
Dog pack (Theo/Psapa skill)
Walking down the street you hear a muffled cry for help from a nearby alleyway.
In the alleyway a four feral dogs have cornered a grubby kid behind a pile of trash. The dogs ribs show through their matted hair and they are snarling as they move closer and closer to the boy. (note: Kid has a pocket full of sausages he stole from a food cart. Dogs want sausages. Possible outcomes : fight, befriend boy, befriend dogs)
Dog CR 1/3
XP 135
N Small animal
Init +1; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp 6 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d4+1)
Str 13, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 11 (15 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Acrobatics +1 (+9 jumping), Perception +8, Survival +1 (+5 scent tracking); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics when jumping, +4 Survival when tracking by scent
Urchin
N small human rogue1
Init +3
AC 13, touch 13
Hp 6
Speed 30
Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 9
Feats Skill Focus (Slight of Hand)
Skills Acrobatics +7, Perception +8, Slight of Hand +10, Sense motives 2, Bluff 3
Reward - Party will either defeat dogs or have a pack of semi-feral dogs that now follow them around periodically and beg food. Dogs will help party someday
Meat vendor
While waking the route you pass by many stalls selling cheap charms for people just coming ashore. Near university there is a lot more art then the rest of the district, some of it pretty decent. Coming around a corner you encounter a food stall cloaked with the scent of freshly roasted meat. An older Helenese man hawks sausages and kabobs as you pass. "Come try the most tender meat in all of Helen"
Note: the merchant will quote outrageous prices to any Albienne. ("5 song, special price just for you, throw in two more and I will guarantee your meat is rat free!") He will slightly overcharge any thule figures since they might be related to important people, but any Helenese or Demi-humans he will give free samples to and his best prices. Merchant has a slight grudge against the ministry especially overzealous Albienne officers whom he blames for the death of his daughter who died trying to evade arrest. There is no magic and no evil, just old grudged.
A gather information check may get that the daughter died in old waterfront hospital and that he blames the ministry.
A diplomacy roll may result in haggling him to a reasonable price as a good haggle is something he does enjoy.
If any of his food is given to a dog he will be furious and start screaming and throwing things at the party.
University science expo blow out :
Finally you get to where the expo is happening. Placards in the street list various lectures or presentations going on in buildings nearby. The crowd is a bit thicker and you see a number of people wearing medallions.
Nearby placards include - HHS roundtable on chaotic perturbations of magis, "Where did the power go?" annotated timeline of Sula's fall by Scholarly Society of Helen, Hyssopos College presents the future of transportation, and 'The bastard Prince' a Heron presentation on Gallus Sebastian's lost bloodline and effects on stature. (many more exist, this is just area where things are thickest.)
(ask people what they would like to be doing.)
Detect magic/profession - Party checks a bunch of caster badges and there was one wagon with a cracked seal on its lightstones who you wrote up.
Sense motives - pair of apprentce casters trying to sneak into presentation on magic theory.
Detect evil - has a faint lingering aura. There are several people walking away 1 in 10 chance you might corner right one. If so it will turn into a chase. Person is reasonable level so could be dangerous. Rogue1/fighter5. AC -15 +8 1d8+4 (+1d6) Hp - 52 saves - 6/4/2 Smoke stick to give concealment Feats dodge, mobility, spring, fleet, nimble moves. (ignore 5 foot of difficult, and move 35) This guy will appear again.
Gather info - students skipped out of transport lecture because Lydian hasn't been around for a few days and his magic flywheel and carpet are both not in evidence. I mean who cares about Matthias's steam engine. It isn't feasible...
At some point a building nearby (future of transportation) (where the evil aura came out from) has a loud boom. Smoke and screams come from within. A couple people run into the street on fire this is right next to you what do you do?
Crowd of people pressing to get out. The area inside has patches of fire making movement difficult. (lots of floor on fire, prople blocking movement. Need to bull rush way in.
2 Small Fire Elementals CR 1
XP 400 N Small outsider (elemental, extraplanar, fire)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +1 size)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +0
hp 11 (2d10) Speed 50 ft.
Immune elemental traits (no flank/no sneak), fire
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold
Melee slam +4 (1d4 plus burn)
Special Attacks burn (1d4, DC 11) must succeed on Reflex save or catch fire, taking 1D4 damage for 1d4 rounds on its turn.
Str 10, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats Dodge, Improved InitiativeB, Weapon FinesseB
Skills Acrobatics +5, Climb +4, Escape Artist +5, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (planes) +1, Perception +4
(Note: experiment was tampered with, the experiment blew up hurting a number of people in the audience and the fire elementals escaped from the steam tank and started lighting fires since its binder the archmage is not around to compel them. Many people have fire damage (smoke inhalation, minor burns, also explosion may have damaged a number of seals so place may need to be blocked off and a hazard team sent in to deal. (requires a lot of seal spells so a higher level ministry caster is required. The team will be asked to return to station and fill out reports.) Fire department present towards end to put out fires high probability that someone in the fire dept knows Giera (or Tsapa if Giera is not present.)
There were a number of people badly wounded. (Healing in wake of emergency has potential to get +2 on all diplomacy and gather info roles in college quarter as you will have lots of college students as allies.)
Investigate - (turns out that head instructor being gone unexpectedly. A student tried to run experiments which were more physics oriented not magical but let the pressure tank get to hot rupturing and releasing the fire elemental.) The grad student was badly charred and has to be sent off to a burn unit. Maybe you can question him later.)
(Claudia gets chance to saves many lives. Party may gain favor of fire dept)
Debrief at station house.
Tan Lu is interested in what was observed and done. If he approves then promotion from trainee is immediate for entire team. As they are leaving there is a chance Llewellyn is outside the door to speak with Tan Lu, he will will stop the party and ask about the fire and its cause. (s)he will not indicate anything other than polite interest but asks pointed questions. A good perception roll will note that the childs eyes no longer appear shiny. It is subtle but is very creepy and makes it hard to lie or sense motives. This might be intentional as next time the group sees Llewellyn the child is not quite as advanced in the dehumanization process.
(Party is sent to collect their new insignia and gear and get back on street)
Whisper
Get call from whisper for caster + aberration. "Out of control familiar with mage obstructing access. Lab wants familiar remains. Take out familiar, try not to kill mage. 07-89-12-539" Aberration - Magic - disaster.
In Medius Rex
On way to assignment see tall angular featured man with braided hair wearing animal hides slam through a group of people. He s carrying a long bundle wrapped in a cloak.
(GM Note: He is plainsperson who just managed to steal an intelligent weapon from an illegal workshop in Market District. He managed to outrun the enforcers but is still trying to make sure he has lost them. The weapon has not yet been drawn so he is not under its thrall. The sheath is leaded so there is no detection despite a powerful aura. He uses improved bull rush to smash through the crowds.)
A crossbow bolt hits a lady he had just ran past and she screams and collapses to the street gurgling. The angular featured man spins around at the shriek cursing in a language you don't understand. (Plains tongue, he is cursing crow father for getting him into this.) He then turns and bolts away at high speed. Meanwhile from around the corner you hear screams of "get him boys, da boss will kill us if he gets away."
One half-elf female archer (shortbow). 2 albienne (male and female), one Drija desert warrior, A older helenese woman, and a hunchbacked male with really long arms. All carry weapons and appear slightly out of breath.
6 Thugs
CR 1/3 XP 135
warrior 1 CE Medium humanoid
Init +0;
AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor)
hp 6 (1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will –1
Defensive Abilities ferocity (fights to -12 but staggered at 0)
Speed 30 ft.
Melee falchion +4 (2d4+4/18–20)
Ranged crossbow+1 (1d8)
Statistics
Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 8, Cha 6
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Weapon Focus (falchion)
Skills Intimidate +2, Perception –1
Party must chase running guy or take out thugs. And they still have emergency call to deal with.
The fleeing plainsman stays in crowds to make shooting him or sleeping him harder. (Elf was an unregistered caster but is cast out. Party may lose Plainsman but if so consider it a foreshadowing of what is to come. Party must pick between chasing down plainsman and abomination call.
Plainsman Fighter 5 : 18/16/14/9/8/8 weapon focus, power attack, weapon spec, imp bull rush, cleave, run Hide armor AC-17 HP - 38 +11 spear? 1d8+9 Move 30 but run 150 Damage - 8 Items - bloodmage, potions 2, ointment 1.
Results : taking out the thugs and getting to question them may give the station a lead on the location of and illegal item manufacturing location. This place is known to crank out illegal potions and smuggle weapons. It also gives some information on the weapon "bloodmage". They know the ego on the thing is huge.
(GM Note - "bloodmage" is a classical vampire. More it drinks the more powerful it gets and the hungrier. But it prefers innocent children. )
OoC Familiar
Need to take out caster's familiar. It got into something and the mage is refusing to let anyone kill it. Emotive bond is still there. Uncooperative witness. He was doing something shady in Old waterfront and familiar got drenched in caustic oil. Familiar was tripping head off and when apprentice left room it snuck into master's stuff and went out of control. Mage is half out of control himself, not reasonable. Master has come back but is a pacifist from the island kingdoms and is not willing to harm life of any sort. He did call ministry though (His culture is like Balanese poor sense of time and a feeling of wiccan earth worship to his magic. 5th level caster. He does have dispell. As well as tongues and invisibility and 2 comprehend languages. (runs translation business. Has knock scroll but doesn't want to use it.)
Summary - Apprentice familiar got into masters magic items and is now a dire version. Go clean up. Catalog items and maybe take master in for unlicensed possession. (illegal seals? or unlicensed magic item? Maybe more powerful that he was saving for later.)
Apprentice - stealthy Caster3 (empathic link with out of control cat, clawing and biting) but subdue him and cat may come, Attack cat and he will burst in and try to fight. 1st Mage armor, hold portal (used), fog cloud (used) 2nd Summon swarm rats, invisibility (used)
Apprentice tricked it into a closet using invis, and fog cloud, and locked familiar in but it won't hold for long. Locked outer door with hold portal (hold portal +5 DC to force, he is holding door which is a tough door. Lock is decent quality as apprentice replaced it himself due to his illegal habits DC 20 with spell)
This size medium rat has a thick head, rheumy red eyes, and a mouth filled with sharp, powerful teeth. It has additional teeth every where on its face and its claws are inches long.
Wolverine CR 3
XP 800
N Medium animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +10
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +4 natural, -2 Rage)
hp 37 (4d8+11)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +2
Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
Melee 2 claws +7 (1d4+4), bite +7 (1d6+4), tail strike (trip only) +4
Special Attacks rage
Str 15, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +5; CMD 17 (21 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness
Skills Climb +10, Perception +10
Rage (Ex) A wolverine that takes damage in combat flies into a rage on its next turn, clawing and biting madly until either it or its opponent is dead. It gains +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and –2 to AC. The creature cannot end its rage voluntarily.
(Drugs in room, master has an item that was not properly protected from contact as well as more spellbooks than is usual. (magical spellbook is borrowed and what triggered conversion.)
end of shift check in at station
return items and debrief.
Session End 3300 XP or 550 each (cornering plainsman worth +300 XP)