[PFC] Granta's Consortium Compact #2 (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

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Water laps steadily at the pier as sailors, laborers and merchants rush busily around Absalom’s port. The venture-captain’s summons called for a meeting aboard the Sixwing Drake, a sleek sailing ship. The Drake’s captain, a Varisian woman and fellow Pathfinder named Zarah Zendrani, stands at the helm of her vessel. “It’s not like Valsin to be late,” she mutters, furrowing her brow. As if on cue, a tall and meticulously groomed man pushes his way through the crowd and up the gangplank, cursing audibly. “Whoever supervises this mess of a port needs to be dumped in the sea!” he grumbles.

The tall man looks around at those gathered before him. “Just the group I requested. Perfect. I’m Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin, and I took great care in selecting just the right Pathfinders for this assignment.” Valsin reaches into his belt pouch and withdraws a small, folded paper before continuing. “A few days ago, I received a curious note from a rather unexpected source. It’s not every day that I get a request from an agent of the Aspis Consortium.” Captain Zendrani’s eyes widen, and Valsin smiles knowingly. “But Magali Delroya does not appear to be your typical Aspis agent. As you surely know, the Aspis Consortium pursues a variety of activities across the Inner Sea that the Pathfinder Society finds abhorrent. It seems that Delroya has been working with them for some time, but can no longer stomach the snakes herself. She wants to stop a shipment of an experimental drug from leaving Diobel later this week. It’s bound for a number of locations across the Inner Sea region. According to Delroya, she can’t ask the local authorities for help, because the Aspis Consortium has already struck a deal with a faction of the Kortos Consortium, a powerful merchant collective. Her hands are tied, so she’s come to us for help. In this note, she outlines three different tasks that would help to disrupt the Aspis long enough for her to move the shipment to a secure location, out of the clutches of the consortium. Once you accomplish two of these tasks, she’s willing to meet with you, but not before.

“Take some time to look over Delroya’s note and the tasks she has set for you. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask. Remember, the Aspis Consortium is a long-time enemy of the society, but the Kortos Consortium, while certainly suspicious, is not our enemy. It is a complex organization with many factions, and we should avoid antagonizing any of them, except when necessary to oppose the Aspis Consortium.”

Handouts can be found here.

Untrained K Local: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14

"Huh, those two don't have any formal agreements. Perhaps this is an isolated situation?" muses Tishka as she scans the notes supplied. "I'm certainly on board with stopping this 'Leper'. As to the other task, you guys have any preference? I'm not sure how I could truly help in either of those..."

Pulling her wayfinder from its visible perch, she shoves it deep into the bottom of her pack. "I predict that would be a nuisance today."

Taking in her companions, she smiles at the few friendly faces. "Pleasure to serve the Society with you again. For those unaware, I'm Tishka Beger and as you can see from my hair, I'm quite talented in the creation of hair dye products." With a wink, she turns back to the Venture Captain Valsin.

"Have you arranged for lodging in town? Or would it be better for us to return to the ship? Any chance the society has provided elixirs or supplies to disguise ourselves with? Any suggestions on how to handle these...more subtle tasks of hers?"

Knowl' Local: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Talking to Zarah Zendrani is another Varisian woman, with a red cloth holding down her long black curls, several cotton skirts layered one over the other, and various colorful shawls wrapped around her embroidered blouse.
Other than a dagger in her flannel belt, you see no weapons, but various arcane implements.
A raven perches on her shoulder.

Bowing deep to greet Ambrus Valsin, she smiles once he has finished his speech: "At your service, Venture-Captain. We shall honor you and carry out this mission! Though I am not sure you can trust a turncoat not to become a Pathfinder turncoat".

Turning to her companions: "I am Venusia Amăgire, and delighted to venture out with you. Also, dear Tishka, I would be happy to test some of your hair products! But... after our mission I guess. Unless, unless we use it as a disguise?"
She smiles.
"In the meantime, to further what you stated, Thiska, the agreement the Aspis Consortium has with part of the Kortos Consortium will not be very stable since neither group is centralized. So, if we disrupt their operation it will sever ties between the two groups".

She then lowers her voice, checking to see if any of the Pathfinders are members of the Liberty's Edge: "The Aspis are dealing with House Locosta, which pretends to deal in Qadiran spices, but they make most of their money by buying and selling Qadiran... slaves!".

On Venusia's shoulder, the raven pipes up, speaking in common: "Slavery is bad".
Venusia nods to her bird: "That is Cioară..."

Lync, a reserved Elf of moderate size, dark green cloak with a Shortbow slung over his shoulder, listens to the Venture-Captain intently...

Knowledge (Local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

"Sir...some of these tasks could run us afoul of the local authorities...I assume you'd wish us to avoid any legal entanglements?"

Huratas is a handsome young halfling wearing the clothing and holy symbol identifying him as a priest of Calistra. At his side is a finely crafted whip that looks well used.

kn Local untrained: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (9) - 2 = 7

"Derp." *cough* "Pardon me. No questions here."

"SLAVES?!" exclaims the green-headed gnome "No! That won't do! I....We..." her ears turning bright red, she reaches for her strange staff. Somehow, a silvered point melds cleanly into the rounded iron side.

Blushing at her outburst, Tishka's takes a few rapid breaths. "Sorry for the interruption, sir...I'll try to hold my tongue." she mumbles, putting her weapon away.

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

A lone dwarf in the corner rocks his feet back and forth to the motion of the sea. In his thick right hand lay a bar of soap and every once and awhile he brings it to up to his mouth and cracks off a corner with his teeth and begins to chew.

"Yeah, though we're all upstanding members of society here. No thugs or roustabouts, but say we did get into...what'd the elf callit? Entaglements. That. Say we get into that. How would we, say, get out of it?"

He does a double take after seeing the gnome barbarian amongst the others. "Tishka ya little ball'a death, how ya been?!" He takes another bite of soap.

Then to the others: "Kranzer Kraken-Mouth at yer service! Do a bit'a everything, even goin' unconscious like that one time, what was it a cave? Can't remember, noggin's no good anymore. Anyway, catch'em not looking and I can bring them down quick."

Valsin waits until the gnome runs out of breath, though it can hardly be said that he does so patiently. "No, I will not be performing your mission for you. You've been trained to do your job, and I expect you to do it properly."

The Venture-Captain nods to Venusia, then looks her clear in the eyes while answering. "Rest assured, Magali Delroya will be thoroughly vetted, and then have her trust progressively tested, to determine whether the Society can depend on her. That will be a job for me and and the three masters, though.

“You are correct, Lync. If possible, try not to get on the group’s bad side. The Kortos Consortium is powerful enough to rival Diobel’s teriarch, Lord Avid. And while it does engage in smuggling and other illicit activities, it also performs some responsibilities as a legitimate merchant guild. But either way, it is a power to be reckoned with. A fair number of prominent people in Diobel are in the Kortos Consortium’s pockets, or are prominent members of the guild themselves.”

Ambrus smooths his mustache several times, clearly unaware that it doesn't need any grooming. "Your next assignment, Kranzer, is to report to Guaril for further training. You obviously still need it.

"Now, are there any more important questions?"

Venusia bows her head before Ambrose Valsin as he answers her, and then, shakes her head when he is asking if any have important questions.

To her comrades, she will ask: "Let us show this Delroya that Pathfinders are capable of swift and decisive action... which task do you wish to accomplish first? The Leper? Or the ship? It seems the meeting is only at noon".

Amber Springheel was a blonde haired halfling woman, with the lithe corded frame that allows her the necessary grace and power to perform her duties. Duties that often put her at odds with law enforcement. Despite that, she stood silently watching the others her hands instinctively on the hilts of her weapons the thumb teasing the pummel.

She wasn't one to get tangled into the affairs of the Society or its enemies, but her boss Benji "Gristle" Gunder was a member of the Society and as he had just lost his hand in the last venture, she was to go in his place as he sought out regeneration magic. She gingerly looked over the pages and shrugged still not one hundred percent about this. As they introduced themselves and discussed plans. She observed and worked in her mind possible ways to fight, incapacitate, or circumvent her fellow "agents".

"Depends.Either seems within our capabilities.Me I am a cook, and gopher. A halfling able to get what you pay me to get. Amber Springheel at your service" she says giving a bit of a curtsy.

Kranzer bristles and spits a chunk of soap out into the corner of the room. He moves his hands up and down his body. "Train? Why this here is given by Torag himself, a gift ta every lass walking tha inner sea, eh?"

He chuckles loudly to himself then goes back to chewing.

Valsin makes his escape as quickly as possible, and one of the sailors motions for you to follow him. Though it is Captain Zendrani who speaks, "The aft hold is mostly empty right now. The crew often uses crates for make shift tables and chairs, so you should be comfortable enough in there while the Drake is under sail."

Lync finds a hammock in the hold and settles infor the trip...

"Can we remain on the deck a bit, to see the sights?", Venusia asks, happy to take in the coastline, and maybe the fishing villages and such along the way.

Though, if people wish to confer and strategise, she will go to the aft hold.

Huratas walks around chatting with the sailors when they have a moment or two to spare.

Diplomacy to gather information: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

But they are far to busy to tell him much of interest.

Amber reads the letters again weighing each scenario in her mind. As she does she lets one hand goe to her braid and twirls the tip about her finger. It was an odd little habit but one that she had kept from her years as a wee little girl.

The meeting screamed trap. In fact, even the author mentioned the fact the players in this venture knew of her play. Why not make it difficult for others on top of the mouse. The Ship would be the easiest to infiltrate. The security was usually lax on docks, and any hired goons would be more inclined to watch the merchandise and not the entire ship. As for this Leper. IT seemed cut and dry burglary. Grab his notes and ingredients. If pressed to fight she doubted he would be a match for the group's combined might. As for which to do first, well that was easy, Dockyards then meeting then Leper.

She proceeded to walk from the letters and find a nice place to practice her dagger throws. It would be a bit before she was tired and it never hurt to keep yourself in peak fighting physique.

"I agree, the ship and the leper would likely be best. I'll take your lead on the ship, but since we'll be arriving at the docks.... Well, it just makes sense to tackle that task first. Handling the Leper would be immediately following." replies Tishka.

She spends a bit of time mixing a few ingredients she'd brought with her into a thick seafoam color and offers to die any of the crews beards or head if they are so inclined.

"Then let us move to the ship upon arrival, as you say. I am not very discreet", and Amăgire spins around in a circle, her colorful dresses twirling, and the little bells and beads tingling, "but Cioară might be of help".
The raven caws.

Venusia removes a deck of large, and very old, cards from her sash, and shuffles and cuts them several times, before spreading them out, and then picking one from the Harrow deck: "The Paladin... law, good, strength, what is righteous..."

"Sounds good ta me, the ship it is, then the leper!" Kranzer says.

Kranzer sees Amagire's deck of cards and says, "Eh, there's never been a card game ol' Kranzer's bad at. Wanna play lass?"

"I will play... just not these cards!"

The sailor pushes Amagire forward, "Best not to question the Captain!"

Huratas' overtures receive a similar response, as everybody is too busy to do more than swear at the little cleric. And Tishka's attempts to 'help' draw even more cussing and some thrown objects.

Once in the cargo hold, the sailor introduces himself. "Name's Kiffin. What about you lot?"

He stealthily produces a flask from somewhere and takes a sip, then passes it around.

"So, what's the captain up to that he doesn't want us to see?", Venusia asks, accepting a nip from the flask.
She will try to read the sailor's face as he answers, or eludes.
But the movement of the ship makes Amagire turn slightly green, and she cannot read much of anything.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

"Huratas."

Huratas takes a small sip.

"Ah, tha's okay. Got me own cards if yer superstitches. And what a hand ya got, first try! Look'a that she's a natural folks."

Kranzer pauses between hands to glance at the sailor. "Kranzer's the name. Want to join a friendly game'a cards, eh?"

"She would keel haul me for answering a question like that! Cards is a different story, though."

Kiffin holds out his hand for the deck, offering to deal first.

Amagire shrugs, and sits down to play cards.

Lync shrugs. "Deal me in..."

Huratas will stand nearby watching the game. And keeping a close eye on Kiffin.

Watching as the others begin their game, Tishka smiles. "I'm Tishka by the by. Please to meet you!"

Sitting crosslegged, she watches. "Not much of a card player myself, but be happy to watch you play."

"Just make sure you sit on that side of the table," Kiffin warns Tishka, "I don't need no hanger spying my cards."

The sailor deals in Lync and Amagire, and even goes up a few coins in the first hour. Unfortunately, sailors make far, far less gold than Pathfinders, and a string of bad cards ends his fun rather suddenly.

"Best be getting back to work. Wouldn't want to shirk my duties, you know."

After that, you are left alone for the remaining journey. And at dawn on Oathday, you're summoned to the deck to watch Captain Zendrani and the crew of the sleek Sixwing Drake steer the ship up to the massive barrier of broken war-barges, crumbling walls, and jetties of iron and wood that protect the port of Diobel. “Well, here we are,” says the captain. “I’ll make sure everything is in order with Diobel’s inspectors and charter you a barge to the port. You aren’t carrying anything particularly valuable, so you shouldn’t draw much attention from the inspectors or pilots, so long as you don’t run your mouth. My crew and I will wait here with the ship. You can return here to rest, if you need to, but remember—there isn’t much time!”

Several minutes later, the Captain finds a bargeman and slips him a few gold coins. Zendrani quickly introduces the stocky, middle-aged man as Markus Karbie. After a quick look at your party and some head movement that may have been a nod, he simply turns and walks back to his barge.

Lync slings his bow across his shoulder and follows the man to his barge...

Huratas follows inexpertly humming a jaunty tune.

"Off we go...", Amagire happily looks at all the great things to draw, here, and gets on the barge, curious as to how this moves.

"And we're off!" exclaims the gnome, giddily. "I do hope this is a fun day."

Ensuring her supplies are strapped in their proper places, and the wayfinder is securely at the bottom of her pack, Tishka follows the rest onto the barge.

"Right, thank ya Captain!"

Kranzer walks off the gangplank and strides out onto the barge. He turns back to look at the others after they've disembarked as if startled by something.

"Where were goin' to hit first again?" He raps the side of his head with meaty knuckles. "Head doesn't keep as much in'it as it used to, neh?"

Amber checked over her equipment and got on to the barge. once there she found a spot to lean against and observe the others. When the question was struck as of Who first she shrugged.

"I would aim for the supposed Leper? But that is me"

"The Leper is fine for me"

"That's ok with me, I just thought we were starting with the ship. We are already in the dockyard." replies Tishka. "But either way is fine with me. I'll go wherever."

Amagire shrugs, she is fine with either.
"The ship is closer..."

Lync shrugs as it makes no difference to him. "I also think the tavern is close to the docks as well..."

"We can let the Harrow cards designate our next, most propitious step?"

What's the final decision?

Unwrapping them from their silk pouch, Amagire shuffles her Harrow cards and then spreads them out, selecting one--

Random: 1d3 ⇒ 2 -- 1: Leper 2: Ship 3: Tavern

--"The Foreign Trader, this is the card of merchants, and those who truck in information, so, the cards call for the Ship", she says.

With butt a nod to the Varisian woman, she smiles. "Okeedokee"

Scanning the ships in port, the gnome tries to locate their mark.

Kranzer twirls a short sword in the air with big, meaty fingers and then sheathes it.

"Works fer me!"

While nagivating the maze of broken ships that form an artificial reef blocking Diobel’s harbor, Amagire draws her fair share of attention and cat calls. Conversely, Amber passes so unnoticed that she gets bumped around and stepped on several times.

This treacherous and erratic terrain teems with laborers, barge masters, pilots, and port inspectors, who all busily conduct the business of ferrying goods to and from the Bristles. Beyond the Trawl, seagoing ships wait their turn to offload cargo or pick up new goods. One ship stands out among the others—the freshly touched-up paint on its hull, blue with streaks of white lightning along the hull, marks it as the Blue Dragon’s Bite. It sits moored to a dock jutting from the Trawl, with several crates already offloaded nearby, and many more waiting piled on its deck.

On deck, blocking the gangplank, you notice two men arguing.

Map updated. What is your plan?

perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

In response to the catcalls "How rude."
Once we reach the dock Huratas points to one of the men who seems better dressed then usual.

"The port inspector I think. The other is presumably the captain. The local custom fees are not to his liking."

"I am not a stealthy one, so not the best to go on the ship itself without attracting attention. Though I can send Cioară, my raven, with you. She is discreet", says Amagire.
"I can try attract more attention though, to distract the people on the dock and the gangplank, while our scouts get on the ship".

I'll push the action tomorrow, if there's no consensus.