Junia leads the party west. Several corridors and galleries eventually lead to the entrance of the second intact greenhouse in the arboretum. A wooden plaque outside reads “Plants of Eastern Garund: Please proceed with caution, as some are poisonous”. Unlike the dead and warped growth in most of the Arboretum, the plants growing in this greenhouse seem to be relatively young and healthy. Several raised beds of earth host strange looking plants with long, sinuous vines, and a small, gently flowing fountain with a red lion statue at its center sits near the middle of the chamber. Against the wall stands a worktable and chair covered in gardening tools. Tending to the plants seems to be an anthropomorphic plant woman.
"Stay back, you are not allowed to harvest my companions!" She warns.
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Junia leads the party west. Several corridors and galleries eventually lead to the entrance of the second intact greenhouse in the arboretum. A wooden plaque outside reads “Plants of Eastern Garund: Please proceed with caution, as some are poisonous”. Unlike the dead and warped growth in most of the Arboretum, the plants growing in this greenhouse seem to be relatively young and healthy. Several raised beds of earth host strange looking plants with long, sinuous vines, and a small, gently flowing fountain with a red lion statue at its center sits near the middle of the chamber. Against the wall stands a worktable and chair covered in gardening tools. Tending to the plants seems to be an anthropomorphic plant woman.
"Stay back, you are not allowed to harvest my companions!" She warns.
"Calm down. We are not here to harvest you, or your friends. Who are you?"
"I am Khaya. Who are you?"
"Well then go search for it and leave us alone!"
"It's kinda under that red lion statue." J whispers to the group.
"Alright, but stay away from my companions."
Carefully tipping over the Red Lion statue on the fountain reveals that it is hollow. Inside is a small package wrapped in many layers of wax paper: Grishan’s intelligence packet. Reading his notes reveals a number of secrets, all in Grishan’s hurried script, along with documents that provide proof of the allegations made.
Case M7In process, expect updates after Stilonius’s birthday party. Case D4 Lady Miranda Dacilane is rumored to have committed numerous amorous indiscretions during her youth. The most outrageous was that she was the mistress of Orias Deckland, a scandalous member of Absalom’s upper classes, and bore him a child. She is also rumored to have belonged to a secret society known as the Harbingers of Fate. Rumors come from a drunken but reliable source. Case A1 Badru let slip that his sister is heading to Osirion to participate in a secretive excavation of a tomb from the time of the Pharaoh of Forgotten Plagues.
Case M12 It is well known that the Morilla family runs the Guild of Wonders, Absalom’s most prestigious espionage and assassination organization. What is less well known is that the Aspis Consortium, a Chelish band of fortune-hunters, hired the Guild of Wonders many times to spy on the Pathfinder Society and the Blakros family. I successfully created a diversion for the servant’s attention, and was able make copies of several documents that prove that Lady Annasendra personally oversaw contracts to assassinate members of the Pathfinder Society. If the number of events I am invited to is any indication, they haven’t caught on yet, but I ’m afraid to dig deeper in to this situation. Case N4 After hours of searching and days of asking subtle questions, I ’ve turned up absolutely nothing of interest. Surely people this boring must be hiding something. Case L3 The servant in charge of the kitchens has a penchant for gossip.
Information Broker I read in a diary that that an information broker lives in Absalom named Torch. I hear he’s well worth his coin, but is not to be trusted, because he’ll sell information to anyone. Case Maldris 8 To my shame I have learned that my own father, Merrin, is a charlatan who used the chaos of the Andoran’s People’s Revolt to change his name from Vanoecker. I later learned that the Vanoeckers were an Andoren noble family with a tyrannical reputation. The worst part was that I discovered that my brother knew about this all along. So much for his glorious, egalitarian ideals and Andoren purity. We’re just as guilty as the rest of them! Case T3: There’s some big ceremony coming up at the temple of Asmodeus in a few months. People were muttering about a great fie to honor him, but I couldn’t hear many details. I can’t shake the though that those devil bootlickers are planning to burn slaves in that pyre. I must investigate further.
Junia nods though she is clearly distraught and a little disgusted by the information about her mother.
The ghostly boy appears for a moment. "Yes, we should speak with him. But that can wait until we visit the drownyard."
Khaya interrupts the party briefly. "Can you please keep my presence here a secret? I would like time to grow my companions so I can ask the Absalom goverment to help free the rest of my people."
"We are subjugated in the land known as Nex. I had to smuggle myself and some of my companions here."
She is being truthful. Honest plant creature is honest.
"Thank you."
The Drownyard is located a short distance from the Arboretum Arcanis, and is surrounded by a tall, wrought iron fence. The key provided by Drandle Dreng unlocks the front gate. The grounds of the old Tri-Towers Yard have been cleaned up in the last several years, and several old ruined school buildings that stood too close to the cliff’s edge were demolished. All of the gnarled old trees were removed and new flwering bushes and trees have been planted in their place. Despite these efforts, the few ruined classrooms that remain look sad and forgotten. Just inside the gate sits a small, locked storage shed marked with the Pathfinder’s Glyph of the Open Road.
J. falls silent as she steps on the grounds of her old school, as she has not been here since she was rescued seven years earlier. "Please, a moment of silence for those lost here." Once the moment has passed, she nods, as if she has made a decision. "There is something in that classroom. It has something to teach me, something I need to learn."
"It was our classroom from when we went here." Junia replies before walking to it.
"Okay.."
The storage shed was once locked, but its lock is damaged and no longer functions. It contains various supplies used by the archaeological teams that work here including large rolls of twine, wooden stakes, brushes, sacks, shovels, trowels, and various measuring implements. A large sign hanging on the back of the shed reads:
“Entry to above ground structure in the ‘Yard is strongly discouraged. It contains an dangerous supernatural force. Items in the yellow box are for emergencies only. Signed, V-C Dreng”
The spirit boy shakes his head no.
Junia ignores Itra and starts walking again.
The small classroom is all that remains of a once great school. School benches and chairs are scattered about in a haphazard fashion and a chalkboard hangs crooked from a single nail on the western wall. The sound of the ocean beating against the cliffs in the distance is the only thing that breaks the silence.
You feel a slight vibration in the ground. You suspect a haunt is about to happen. You both get an action before it manifests.
The positive energy flows from the siphons and whatever was going to happen, doesn't. "Thank you for your guidance and protection. But there is another restless force. It calls to me from below." Junia explains.
"Yes, in the necropolis." Grishan agrees.
The reek of death chokes this narrow stone corridor of the entrance to the necropolis, where a trio of adult corpses slowly rots into the stone.
You notice that the bodies have been dead for only two months and that two of them have no signs of physical injury.