In reply to DM (msg #16):

Glum smiled urbanely.  "I am not averse to the delights I have heard your establishment offers.  Rumours of our vows of celibacy are somewhat exaggerated.  Sadly though, I come for another purpose."

He paused to admire the lady's complexion for a moment or to before continuing.  "It seems that when the goblins recently entered the town, the grave of a certain priest was interfered with.  I understand that said Priest had objected to your presence in the town.  At first I dismissed this information as irrelevant but then it occurred to me that if we knew why he objected to the carrying on of a legitimate business in town, we might have some kind of clue.  I don't suppose you do know why do you?"

Glum
   Kaye Tesarani shows no reaction to the news, thinks for a moment "Really, my my, what interesting news.  Father Tobyn grave was disturbed and you think I had something to do with it?"  She laughs lightly "I deal with the living, not the dead.  Its bad luck to disturb the dead.  I will admit that the good Father was a bit prudish when it came to matters of....fun, and took exception to the services we provide.  But as you can tell, I am still in business.  The council decided that the taxes I pay outweigh any "moral harm" I might do" she says with a grin.

   She sighs for a moment "And before you ask, no, I didn't have anything to do with is death either.  Him and his daughter died in a terrible accident during the "late unpleasantness".  It was such a waste, she was such a beautiful girl."  She will tell you about the "late unpleasantness" 5 years ago.  First a local noble (Lady Kaijitsu)killed herself, then a local artist named Jervas Stoot went on a killing spree, gruesomely murdering several people before he was caught, after killing the sheriff.  A month later, the church burnt to the ground killing Father Tobyn and his daughter.  She seems pleasant enough to talk too, and not hiding anything.  "Anymore questions?"

Glum sighed.  "So he was just a bit prudish? Damn, I was hoping to find out he was from some kind of celibate society so that some of his body parts might be valuable to black magicians.  I do apologise for disturbing you, for any offence I have caused and most of all, for giving the impression that I thought you might have had something to do with it.  That, I promise, was not my purpose in coming here."

Glum
She answers, "His daughter was a foundling he adopted.  For all I know he could have had a vow of celibacy.  He certainly wasn't married and didn't seem to have any lady friends.  But I wouldn't know, we never socialized and he made it abundantly clear that I was not welcome in his church."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:11, Sat 31 Jan 2009.

Glum nodded.  "Thank you.  You've been most helpful.  I am sure that I shall return on the next occasion when I feel overburdened with wealth."

After having a fun time being wined and dined Naomi begs her leave to continue on the Sheriff's orders and then goes and searches out Glum or Talis.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:51, Mon 02 Feb 2009.

Glum left Mistress Teserani and made his way into the street, where he could look for Naomi or Talis, or maybe people to chat with about goblins.

Naomi Armastance
On the way to Madame Mvashti's she is greeted by many people.  The Varisians tend to be more deferential, casting glances in her direction when they think she isn't looking.  She checks to make sure someone didn't put a "look at me" sign on her back when she wasn't looking.

<see 1.2 Sandpoint for the meeting with Madame Mvashti>

After the session with the mysterious Mvashti, she finds she has picked up another shadow, 3 varisian boys (maybe 9 or 10).  She occasionally finds them peeking around a corner and whispering to each other.  Eventually, they run off.  Asking around, no one remembers seeing anything unusual, but most people also seem still upset by the attack.  Maybe they will remember more in a few days when the shock wears off.

<Take a look at the npc list, anyone in particular you want to talk to?>

Glum
Finds people friendly and a bit on edge.  No one seems to have seen anything overly suspicious, but they are all afraid of the goblins coming back.  Glum concludes that it wouldn't take much to panic the people.

<go to 1.2 for the dinner party>
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:28, Fri 06 Feb 2009.

<Continued from 1.2 Sandpoint>

Glum and Naomi continue their investigation, asking around town.  The day is frustrating, chasing down leads that lead no where.  Person B thinking they saw person A (who they happen to not like)doing something suspicious....  The day is spent chasing your tail like a dog.

<if you want to speak with anyone or go anywhere specifically, let me know.  If you don't, we will go on to something more exciting.>

As Naomi and Glum are conferring after a very long day, when a Cheliaxian woman with a little boy and a baby comes up to them in a panic.  "Please, help me, we have a goblin in our house" and shows you the boys arm.  It has fresh goblin bites on it.  "Aeren hasn't been right since he saw a goblin light our cat on fire and has been terrified about a monster in his closet since.  Alergast, my husband, looked but didn't find anything.  Tonight, after putting Aeren to bed, we heard the dog cry out in pain and my son start screaming.  We found a goblin chewing on my sons arm.  My husband chased it into the closet with his dagger and I gabbed my children and ran."  She pauses and takes a deep breath, "Please, will you help my husband?"  She will give you directions or take you back if you prefer.

"Lady, take us there quickly.  If your husbands kept it locked up perhaps we can capture the foul beast."  Naomi says and quickly takes off after the woman when she heads towards her house.

Glum too rose from the table, grabbing his quarterstaff as he followed the woman to the house with the goblin.

Naomi Armastance and Glum


She takes you to a small house, the front door is still open and there is flickering firelight from inside.  She says "That is our place.  I'll wait at my neighbors over there."  She goes over to the house across the street and knocks on the door.  With you present she seems much calmer.

The house is middle class with probably 2 bedrooms, a main room and a kitchen.  There is probably a back door to the kitchen.  It even has windows.  Smoke is coming from a chimney.

<give me spot and listen rolls and what you want to do?

Check out the game map for a picture of what happened>
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:03, Sat 07 Feb 2009.

Glum could hear perfectly well, but wasn't sure what to make of it.  "I'll guard this side while you block the back escape route. (Or the other way round if you prefer.)"

20:26, Today: Glum rolled 24 using 1d20+4. Listen.
20:26, Today: Glum rolled 10 using 1d20+4. Spot.

Naomi Armastance and Glum
<Glum clearly hears noises coming from inside>

Naomi says "Ok, I'll go in the back door" as she runs around.  Glum pauses at the open front door and peeks inside.  The front/main room appears undisturbed.  There is a table (with papers on it), with several chairs on the right and a couple of easy chairs in front of a fireplace in the middle of the opposite wall.  There are 2 open doors on the opposite wall, 1 on either side of the fireplace and a closed door on the right wall.  The left wall has a nice glass window with curtains drawn.  The fireplace has a cheery fire going.  The noise is coming from 1 of the open doors and Glum recognizes the sound of goblin, no specific words, more like "ummmm, mumble, mumble".

<If you want to sneak, say so and I will roll, or you can take 10>

Naomi goes around back and finds the kitchen door unlocked, but closed.  She doesn't know whether this is unusual or not for the door to be unlocked.  Glancing into the Kitchen shows nothing amiss.  There are 2 doors, 1 to the front of the house and 1 to a pantry.  Quietly crossing to the door to the front she opens it and sees Glum near an open door.  He sees her and then...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:38, Mon 09 Feb 2009.

Glum sneaked as sneakily as he could toward the room whence came goblinesque noises and mumbles.  He sneaked slowly and creepily, listening the while for Naomi to appear around the back.  Only when he heard her did he stand in the doorway and in a loud voice announce in goblin, "You're nicked!"

Naomi Armastance and Glum

...as you cross the room and approach the bedroom door the sounds resolve into the sounds of chewing.  The door to the kitchen opens and Naomi is looking at you as you step into the door and announce your presence.  Moonlight shines thru a window into a small 10'x10' childs bedroom, a bed takes up much of the room.  At the foot of the bed is a small dog, dead in a pool of it's own blood.  There is a human on his belly with his upper torso in the closet.  This must be Alergast the womans husband, who looks like he has crawled into the closet for some reason.  The sounds go still, and all is quiet.  Alergast stops moving.

"If you show yourself before I finish speaking", said Glum in conversational goblin, "You will not be tortured. The converse also is true."

If the goblin appears before he has finished speaking, then Glum will attempt to capture the goblin, grappling but not trying to hurt it.

If it does not appear, then he calls Naomi to cover the space and begins searching inch by inch until he gets the goblin.  If he gets into battle with the goblin when he finds it, he will attempt to use nonlethal techniques, tying it up when it is unconscious.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:02, Mon 09 Feb 2009.

Naomi Armastance and Glum

Naomi gets over to the open door and sees the same scene Glum does.  Oddly, the man on the floor doesn't move at all.  As Glum finishes the room is silent and still.

Glum examines the man himself very carefully, for signs of life, causes of death, or the presence of a goblin hiding within the corpse (if corpse it is.)

Naomi Armastance and Glum

Glum cautiously examines the man.  He is still warm, but does not respond, unconscious maybe.  Glum tries to pull him out of the closet, but that proves harder than it should.  Like Alergast was caught on something.  Then suddenly, like a cork coming out of a bottle he pops loose and flops out of the closet.  Glum and Naomi are shocked to see that his face has been eaten off, down to the skull.  His horror is so great, Glum doesn't see the goblin from a hole in the closet floor lunging with a crude knife.

Round 1
Naomi Armastance was ready for combat, but not the horror of a faceless body.  She wildly fires at the goblin, but misses.

Goblin lunges at Glum from it's hole shrieking "My food, mine".  The goblin is covered with blood and the stench, nasty.  Because Glum is still in shock, the knife hits for 3 damage.


Tactical Situation Round 1
Glum is 5' from a goblin in a hole.  It's tight quarters, so it's a 1 on 1 fight.  Naomi has to take -4 from cover (Glum) and -4 from shooting into melee.  She might hit, but it's unlikely

                           dam      status
Goblin                -


<No surprise round, don't forget to add +1 to hit because you have the high groud>

Taking a chance at the goblin Naomi still attempts to shoot him with her celestial bolt.  Shooting over Glums shoulder she hopes not to hit him while he keeps the little bugger pinned.


09:24, Today: Naomi Armastance rolled 15 using 1d20. Attack Goblin in the Hole.
+4 to hit is canceled out by -4 for cover.
09:25, Today: Naomi Armastance rolled 7 using 1d6+1. damage.

Glum lunges for the nasty little goblin.  If he succeeded, he would grab the horrid creature by the right arm.

16:28, Today: Glum rolled 10 using 1d20+4. grapple goblin. Glum gets +4 because of his improved grapple, I don't believe the +1 for higher ground or the -1 because goblins are small applies to grapples.  Now Goblin needs to oppose this with its own grapple I believe it's d20 -6 for small size

Round 1
Glum grabs the goblin and starts wrestling him.
<grapples require 2 rolls, the 1st is a melee touch attack, 2nd is a grapple check(bab+str+size)>

Round 2
Naomi Armastance steadies down and hits the horrid thing, hard, for 7 dam.  With Glum holding him he's much easier to hit.
<lose dex while grappled>

Goblin keeps shrieking incomprehensible goblin curses at Glum.  It is apparent that this goblin is mad, or feral.  The goblin tries to poke Glum with the knife, but is easily block by his superior training.


Tactical Situation Round 2
Glum is grappling with the goblin, Naomi is still suffering -7 to hit (-4 cover, -4 in melee, +1 high ground, but goblin doesn't get dex)

                           dam      status
Goblin                      7       grappled (no dex to ac)


<If You’re Grappling here are your choices;
When you are grappling (regardless of who started the grapple), you can perform any of the following actions. Some of these actions take the place of an attack (rather than being a standard action or a move action). If your base attack bonus allows you multiple attacks, you can attempt one of these actions in place of each of your attacks, but at successively lower base attack bonuses.

Attack Your Opponent: You can make an attack with an unarmed strike, natural weapon, or light weapon against another character you are grappling. You take a –4 penalty on such attacks.
You can’t attack with two weapons while grappling, even if both are light weapons.

Damage Your Opponent: While grappling, you can deal damage to your opponent equivalent to an unarmed strike. Make an opposed grapple check in place of an attack. If you win, you deal nonlethal damage as normal for your unarmed strike (1d3 points for Medium attackers or 1d2 points for Small attackers, plus Strength modifiers). If you want to deal lethal damage, you take a –4 penalty on your grapple check.
Exception: Monks deal more damage on an unarmed strike than other characters, and the damage is lethal. However, they can choose to deal their damage as nonlethal damage when grappling without taking the usual –4 penalty for changing lethal damage to nonlethal damage.

Draw a Light Weapon: You can draw a light weapon as a move action with a successful grapple check.

Escape from Grapple: You can escape a grapple by winning an opposed grapple check in place of making an attack. You can make an Escape Artist check in place of your grapple check if you so desire, but this requires a standard action. If more than one opponent is grappling you, your grapple check result has to beat all their individual check results to escape. (Opponents don’t have to try to hold you if they don’t want to.) If you escape, you finish the action by moving into any space adjacent to your opponent(s).

Move: You can move half your speed (bringing all others engaged in the grapple with you) by winning an opposed grapple check. This requires a standard action, and you must beat all the other individual check results to move the grapple.
Note: You get a +4 bonus on your grapple check to move a pinned opponent, but only if no one else is involved in the grapple.

Pin Your Opponent: You can hold your opponent immobile for 1 round by winning an opposed grapple check (made in place of an attack). Once you have an opponent pinned, you have a few options available to you (see below).
Break Another’s Pin: If you are grappling an opponent who has another character pinned, you can make an opposed grapple check in place of an attack. If you win, you break the hold that the opponent has over the other character. The character is still grappling, but is no longer pinned.

Use Opponent’s Weapon: If your opponent is holding a light weapon, you can use it to attack him. Make an opposed grapple check (in place of an attack). If you win, make an attack roll with the weapon with a –4 penalty (doing this doesn’t require another action).
You don’t gain possession of the weapon by performing this action.>

Holding back her next attack Naomi prepares in case the goblin gets loose OOC: Readied attack, attack goblin if he gets loose and is no longer grappled

Out loud she says to Glum "Think you can subdue him?  Or should we just kill him and put him out of our misery."