: My Enemy's Enemy
Having recently been re-assigned to Magnimar to assist Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch, the reunited group has been given urgent instructions to head to the Dryad’s Trousseau, a flower shop in the Dockway district of Magnimar, to investigate a recent crime meant to frame the Pathfinder Society. Further instructions are promised upon your arrival on the scene.
It’s a cold twilight in the Dockway, and the salt-sprayed streets still teem with activity. A young city guard stands outside an ornately decorated storefront, the window frame adorned with baroque carvings of wild vines and flowers.
The guard speaks: “Oye, Pathfinders. Glad you all came so quick. Here’s the latest place robbed, this afternoon by a group dressed like your lot. The shopkeep is laid up in the flat upstairs—his landlady’s taking care of him. She thinks it was Pathfinders, too, but I talked her into speaking with you.”
The young man knocks on a narrow door to the right of the shop entrance. “Look, I know you Pathfinders are all right. Cap’n Heidmarch’s done good in this city, so I’m happy to help you start sortin’ out what’s behind these crimes. But public opinion is goin’ south. The sooner you figure out who the guilty parties are, the better. Good luck. Oh, almost forgot—I was ta give this to you.”
The guard hands over a leather pouch marked with the Heidmarch family seal, and departs just as a scowling elderly woman opens the door. “Right. You come to explain why your gang beat up poor Mr. Chert?”
A quick look into the pouch reveals six letters addressed to each of you.
Valiant Soldier,
I recently learned that a drug cartel has begun operating within Andoran’s borders, using the freedom we provide our citizens to manufacture the Katapeshi narcotic known as pesh under our own noses, no doubt in retaliation for the many slaver vessels from Okeno we’ve sunk on the waters of the Inner Sea. My counterparts in Alams are already at work destroying the sources of this soporific scourge, but they need to trace the path of its distribution. As luck would have it, one ship believed to smuggle the stuff out of Augustana—called the Paloma—last reported Magnimar as its destination. If possible, verify that the Paloma is the ship we seek so we may end this trade in human suffering.
In Liberty,
Major Colson Maldris
Fellow Pathfinder,
Two months ago, the mysterious disappearance of the shipping vessel Cormorant was a great tragedy for the Grand Lodge, as one of our most venerable members, archaeologist Lydia Hob was known to have booked passage upon that ship. Recently, bits of the Cormorant’s cargo have turned up for sale in Magnimar, thousands of miles from the Cormorant’s last known position on the Obari Ocean. Lydia was known to carry messages in the most unlikely of places, and if any of her personal effects turn up in your travels, return them to the Grand Lodge. It is possible that some insight can be gleaned as to her fate.
Your Comrade,
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
Inquisitive Student,
In seeking treatments for the Ruby Prince’s unfortunate condition, some texts mention a pharmacological remedy that may help stave off the prince’s suffering. Unfortunately one component, a rare extract of amaranthine juniper, is all but unknown in Osirion. We understand that these decorative plants are sometimes cultivated in Varisia. If you come across such a plant, acquire a small cutting of it to bear to us. We will take care of the rest.
In duty,
Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage
Most Valiant,
Once again, you are compelled to seek out and fight against the forces of wickedness. Although it is difficult, view your enemies with compassion. As you beard the dragon in its lair, attempt to capture some of your opponents alive as a demonstration of mercy. Turning them over to the city watch will give them the opportunity to consider that lesson and repent.
In Light,
Ollysta Zadrian
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"Yes, ma'am... I mean no ma'am...I mean we are here to help sort things out." The words just keep tumbling out of the young elf's mouth. "We are here to find who did this and bring them to justice." He lowers his voice for impact, "regardless of who they may be"
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"Well, it was your people, maybe you should start there!" The aged woman angrily replies.
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Quiella calmly addresses the woman, "Although some may think otherwise, it is not the way of Pathfinders to attack and steal from honest folk. I can assure you that whoever these bandits may be, bandits or not, we will bring them to justice."
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"yeah, what she said", says the elf with a relieved smile. He then blushes and steps back.
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Placing a hand on Mel's shoulder, Ophelia gives the elf an almost imperceptible, sad shake of the head. It was so sweet when he tried.
"As my friend says. We are certain the Society has nothing to do with this attack; however, we will put our resources into finding the real culprits. Would you be able to tell us what you know about the attack?"
The woman seems to calm down a little after your assurances of goodwill, but she's still a bit on edge. "Well, it was early this afternoon I heard a crashin’ come from the shop. At first I thought it was just some noisy delivery men, but I remembered they already come this mornin’. I looked outside—I live across the street—and saw Mr. Chert slumped on the cobblestones, and three or four people in hooded cloaks runnin’ away!"
The elderly woman points across the street to the door of the shop in response to Halkale's query. "It looked like one of the thieves was pullin’ him out the front door when I got to the window. Little fella was draggin’ Elias by his shoulders. It was then I seen him drop one of them ‘way-show-ers.’"
"I'm holdin' on to the way-show-er, it's a piece of evidence after all. Elias is restin' up stairs, but I can let you into the shop I suppose if that's what you want to do. You seem like good folk, not like those brutes that hurt poor Elias."
The Dryad’s Trousseau is one of a series of shops tucked into the back streets that serve the Dockway’s waterfront. A display window filled with colorful, hardy blooms fills the front of the store. The sign displayed in the window reads 'The Dryad’s Trousseau, Exotic Flora. Proprietor, Elias Chert.' A sturdy wooden front door leads to the shop’s atrium. On the building’s east side, a narrow alleyway runs north to a delivery entrance.
Nothing relevant to the mission is found outside the shop when Halkale, Frostfur, and Melufiuos take a look around.
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Valik, grabs a few supplies before heading out to Magnimar. He smiles as he sees his friends familiar faces.
He listens to the job needed to be done.
Pathfinders accosting someone, I HIGHLY doubt that, he thinks to himself as he listens to the elderly woman's recount of the events that happened.
He travels with Halkale and survey's the site of the crime.
Valik then heads inside the shop and takes a look around, making sure not to disturb any of the exotic merchandise.
"Oh yeah, here ya go. I guess if you're all gonna bring the thugs to justice, you can just keep it." The woman replies to Moadis, pulling a broken wayfinder from her pocket and handing it to the older paladin. Although it looks like an ordinary compass, the case does bare the Glyph of the Open Road, the universal symbol of the Pathfinder Society. Further inspection reveals the name 'Lydia Hob' engraved on the inside, as well as the initials 'A.V.'
After handing over the object, the older woman walks over to the door of the shop and unlocks it, "Iff'n there ain't anything else, I better go check on poor Elias. I hope you folks catch the rogues who attacked him!"
Inside the front door is an overturned planter the size of a washtub. Soil mixed with bits of broken pottery is spilled across the hardwood floor. To the north, an ornately decorated fifteen-foot-wide archway allows passage to the shop’s display floor. A sales counter fills the eastern side of the room, and behind it stand several bookshelves filled with horticultural tomes. A stoppered flask lies in plain sight in the middle of the floor.
Taking a closer look at the flask, Quiella discovers the stoppered vial is half filled with some liquid and radiates a faint magical aura of enchantment.
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Can we try again? If I take ten, that is 21. All I need is a good assist and we have it.
Check the flowerpot for more bottles.
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Taking a look inside the large planter, Melufiuos does not find any additional bottles, but he does note that the planter has a name plate that says, 'Antaios.'
Valik moves into the display floor to discover that this room contains hundreds of colorful and exotic plants, positioned beneath several salt-clouded skylights. The most remarkable specimen, an intricately twisting four-foot tree bedecked with lavender-colored leaves, stands in an alcove on the room’s east side. A brass plate reveals it to be an amaranthine juniper. At the rear of the display floor on the eastern wall is an open doorway with a twisting woody vine curled around the frame, fixed in place with loops of wire. Above this vine is a sign reading “Employees Only.”
Examining the room in more detail, it's clear to Valik that the vine acts as some sort of trap or deterrent to prevent people from moving though the eastern doorway.
The monk also locates a silver vial among the juniper’s twisted roots. The vial is marked with an insignia resembling a stylized spider. Although the open vial is mostly empty, there is still a few drops of liquid inside.
Quiella knocks on the door, but does not receive any answer. She does see, however, that the door is locked.
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Quiella returns to the woman. "Did they steal anything from the shop? Preform any harmful acts other than the property damage and tying up the shop owner?"
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Quiella has to knock on exterior door to the upstairs of the shop to get the woman's attention, but she soon opens the door a little short of breath, "All them stairs, I ain't as spry as I used to be. I don’t rightly know what they stole. I figure they took the cashbox. Mr. Chert carries a lot of rare and unusual plants, maybe they wanted somethin’ like that there. I didn't go inside the shop myself, since I break out in awful hives just bein’ near the flowers.”
"I didn't see what they did to him inside, but it looked like one of the thieves was pullin’ him out the front door when I got to the window. Little fella was draggin’ Elias by his shoulders. It was then I seen him drop the ‘way-show-er.’ When they left, that's when I found poor Elias unconscious and barely breathin'. He weren't tied up."
Melufiuos finds no traps on the locked door.
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"hmmmmmm", thinks Mel before asking Valik if he sees any traps on the locked door.
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As far as Valik can tell, the vine around the northeast doorway is some sort of relation to the deadly assassin vine, although this one does not seem as dangerous. It seems likely that it tries to prevent people from entering the next room by grabbing them.
The monk then looks over the door indicated by Melufiuos, but does not find any traps on it either.
"He's sleepin' right now, but I can let you see 'em." She leads Moadis and whoever else wants to follow up the stairs to a bedchamber above the floral shop. Laying in bed is a broad-shouldered, robust man in his late 50s. Examining him closely, you can see that his only obvious injury seems to be some bruising and a small, bandaged cut on his arm. Despite the evidently minor nature of his wounds, Chert seems gravely ill, sweating profusely and muttering to himself. More specifically, he keeps repeating, "Antaios… Antaios… No… Antaios…"
He seems to be suffering under the effect of some poison that effected his awareness of the world and his fortitude (i.e., Wisdom and Constitution damage). It appears that the worst part of the poisoning is over, and he'll recover with some rest.
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Mel will follow and assist on the heal check, nodding, rubbing his clean shaven chin, and repeating, "Hmmmmm" and "uh hu"
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