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The middle floor contains the library’s most valuable tomes. It is especially rich in books about devil-binding and the history of magical constructs, including homunculi. The uppermost floor contains Telfyr’s home, including both his office (a small marble table and a bookcase filled with tomes detailing the creation of homunculi and other constructs) and, hidden behind several tapestries depicting Aroden and Iomedae, his richly appointed bedchamber. The neatly made bed lies beside a nightstand stacked with several well-thumbed volumes of the Pathfinder Chronicles, with bookmarks flagging some of the more titillating passages.
With that out of the way, and not wanting any further surprises, you return to the Homunculis Lab, and try the other door.
The north door leads to an ascending stairway and a corridor running above the nave’s stained-glass windows, where the cathedral’s walls bow outward to support the roof. At the end of this long corridor, a plain door opens into a series of dark rooms situated 40 feet above the ground at the base of the cathedral’s great dome. These small rooms, formerly the cells of Aroden’s clergy, are mostly dark, although narrow, barred windows dimly light those along the exterior walls.
This area now contains guest quarters for Pathfinders and a number of conference rooms. Most contain simple beds (their mattresses slit open by the Shadow Lodge agents), broken desks, and upturned wardrobes. The conference rooms each come with solid wood tables, finely carved chairs, and easels for displaying maps and charts. The Shadow Lodge agents have already removed all the valuables in these rooms. In the process, they ransacked the area, leaving refuse throughout the main hallway
At the end of the hall, you come to a final door, leading into the High Chapel. Stopping for a moment, you hear cruel voices inside. They seem to be toying with and intimidating others, who can not or do not respond. Finally, bursting through the door, you see a soft blue glow fills this room, emanating from the stainedglass windows lining three of its walls, each depicting a godlike figure in a different city. Frescoes of angels lifting Aroden to the sky cover the ceiling.
Despite its obvious design as a chapel, the room itself has no religious trappings. Instead of pews, the remnants of a large wooden table and a dozen chairs fill the chamber. Much of their wood has been cannibalized to create a makeshift wooden gallows across the chamber’s eastern end. Behind the gallows, three low stairs ascend to a raised area with two overstuffed chairs. Laying tied up just before the gallows are four hostages: Venture-Captain Brackett, the Pathfinder wizard Wystorn Telfyr, his apprentice Greudemoffit and an unknown Osirian female.
There are also three hobgoblins. One has a viscous spiked chain that she pulls off of her body with lightning speed, mindless of the small cuts it causes her, and two others armed with Heavy Maces they have been using to bully the hostages.
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The two Hobgoblins swing around, one taking a position on the left, the other opposite it on the right, hoping to draw you in further and gain advantage.
ROUND 1
Maldoc
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Hobgoblin 1/Red () and Hobgoblin 2/Yellow ()
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Umaro, Kryssa, and Sareptha
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Hagla ()
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Umaro moves into the room, picking his way through the debris.
"Now you're going to let those nice folks go and give up aren't you?"
Umaro calls out as he reaches down into his power and draws it forth. His skin begins to harden, sprouting blue-tinged scales all over his exposed skin. Once done Umaro rolls his shoulders and neck a little, getting use to the feel of the new skin.
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Hagla begins to whirl her spiked chain about, slowly advancing. She seems to delight in her metal spikes hitting and sliding off of her breastplate, even moreso as it occasionally slides beneath the plates, drawing small amounts of blood in anticipation of spilling all of yours.
"Come to watch these fools die, have you. Or where you pathetic lot actually thinking you could mount a rescue." As she steps forward, she gives the Venture Captain a solid kick to the face, adding to his torment.
ROUND 2
Maldoc
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Hobgoblin 1/Red () and Hobgoblin 2/Yellow ()
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Umaro, Kryssa, and Sareptha
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Hagla ()
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[dice=Acrobatics to "jump"]1d20+7[/dice]
Sliding around with unforeseen ease for such a brutish creature, the Red Hobgoblin avoids both Kryssa's and Umaro's swings, , ending up Flanking Maldoc with the other Hobgoblin.
Once they are both in position, they each swing their large Maces at Maldoc.
ROUND 2
Maldoc
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Hobgoblin 1/Red (-8, hurt) and Hobgoblin 2/Yellow ()
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Umaro, Kryssa, and Sareptha
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Hagla (-15, meh)
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Swinging in to save the day, Sarephta pigsticks the last Hobgoblin, leaving it wobbling on it's feet and basically helpless. It drops it's weapon, knowing that anything it does will be just too much for it's body to handle.
While some of you "take care of" the brute, , the others free the hostages, and search the bodies. You find a note on Hagla which Venture Captain Brackett reads then explains. After thanking you for rescuing him, Brackett pulls himself tall and brings them up to date on the events that transpired since and leading up to the assault on the Cathedral of Aroden. In addition to the details provided in the adventure background, Brackett also informs the PCs that the great Osirian sage Amenopheus is in the city, and has been working with Brackett under cover as an inside agent among the local Shadow Lodge. He believes that the aged wizard is in great danger, quite possibly having been uncovered as a traitor by the local Shadow Lodge leader, a person known as the Spider, who Brackett suspects to be none other than a prominent member of the People’s Council named Dorianna Ouidda.
"Time is of the essence. While I was captive, I overheard a bit of their plan. I need you to find the truth behind Ouidda, if she truly is the Spider. If she is, that means she wields an enormous amount of political power to squash us. The Sapphire Sage may also be in a great deal of danger. . ."
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The cool ocean air of Almas is less forgiving than usual this early morning, leaving the streets empty even of vagrants. As the moon showers its last ivory rays onto the cobblestone street and the tip of the sun begins to climb over the watery horizon, a lone figure slinks out from a nearby alleyway, pulling back its hood and revealing itself to be Venture-Captain Alissa Moldreserva, a dour expression cemented to her face.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t have met at the lodge, but thanks to all the disappearances and political turmoil as of late, I’d say it’s best to keep a low profile for the time being, at least until things get sorted out. It’s bad enough that the good name of Pathfinders everywhere is being slandered by that treacherous group of villains, the ones who call themselves the Shadow Lodge — now the politicians are on our hides thanks to that damnable Ouidda."
“No doubt you’ve heard of her—Dorianna Ouidda, one of the representatives on the Peoples’ Council here in Almas. She showed up in Almas a few years back, and she’s been out to get the Society ever since. Her origins are damn-near untraceable by practical means; it took us this long to finally get to the bottom of the matter, and while it’s no secret she has it out for the Society, few know the truth behind the matter, which is what I’m here to tell you.
“We have it on good authority that Ouidda is none other than the Spider—the leader of the Shadow Lodge cell here in Almas — and that she’s been using her fellow cabalists to smear our name throughout the city. She’s trying to get the legitimate members of the Society either completely run out of Almas or completely under her thumb, but for what reason, we don’t yet know. We know she’s got some shady dealings in her past with the slave trade, and we think she might be up to some of that
business here in Almas too."
"In just a few days’ time, Ouidda will be going up in front of the Council to make her most damaging speech yet, a speech which could obliterate the Society’s presence in Almas, if not the whole nation of Andoran. The tricky part is, the Society doesn’t have enough proof of her association with the Shadow Lodge or the slave trade to get her disbarred yet. This is where you come in. . ."
"We need you to go around town here, and track down leads. Find anything you can that proves Ouidda is the Spider, or anything at all we can use to bring to light whatever foul business she has going on. and to stop her from delivering her speech before the legislature at the palace of the Peoples’ Council the morning after next. She has already caused us a lot of trouble these last few days, and turned the people against us. I probably wouldn't go around shouting you are a Pathfinder right now. Our reputation is pretty smeared at the moment. Do you have any questions?"
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Umaro nods as the mission is laid out. Hearing about not identifying themselves as Pathfinders, he quietly slips his Wayfinder into a pouch at his belt.
"It seems that she is very good at hiding her tracks. Finding out more about her and her connections may be difficult. And what if we run into her, should we attempt to bring her in if we can find enough evidence or simply squish her?"
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"Here is what we think we know about her. The Spider has long been the moniker by which one of Almas’s most cunning criminal masterminds went, and only recently have anonymous reports sent from someone with much knowledge of our organization revealed a connection between this Spider and Ouidda. If we can prove the two are one and the same, we can easily discredit her and end her plot against the Decemvirate.”
"As for going after her directly, no. At least not yet. While I’d normally suggest we handle Society matters ourselves, this time it’s a bit different. If we strike at an elected member of the People’s Council, we risk the very result of disgracing the Pathfinder name we hope to avoid. This needs to be handled legally, which means we need to expose Ouidda for the scoundrel she is.”
"Ouidda’s web of contacts is vast and her influence strong, so there’s no telling how many you might be up against. Owners or proprietors of the corrupt businesses she uses to launder money or that serve as cover operations are especially suspect, and depending on how discrete you are, she may send some of her own agents after you in short order. Be on the watch for assassins, though there’s no telling what kind of creatures — or whether they’ll be magical or not — a person of Ouidda’s influence might have access to."
"Start by asking around. Or if any of you have allies or contacts in this area, outside the Pathfinder Society, you can start there."
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It doesn't take you long to receive your first clue. Within an hour of hitting up bars, asking around for the Spider, and similar dubious questions (and spending not a little of the Society's coin), you meat a halfling trader willing to share information. She tells you that "The Spider is involved with a strange new investor. “This old half-elf, goes by the name of Jarovar—a real stingy, nasty type—well, he’s just set up his investment establishment in Almas, but he refuses to subscribe to any of the merchant guilds in the city and he only deals
with a few clients who get small contributions from him, one of whom is the Spider, I hear. Queerer still, he makes odd ventures out of his shop in the dead of night, well after closing."
Three hours later, you meat and Andoran beggar by the name of Audovini, that is willing to trade you information for food. According to her, "The Spider is originally from Katapesh, and brought along some slave-traders when she came to Almas. If rumors are true—and I hope they’re not—then this Spider is the nasty sort of arachnid, the kind from distant lands like Katapesh that brings her creepy slaver buddies with her. Only sensible way in from Katapesh is from a boat, and the only boat I seen around here that says it’s from Katapesh lately is the ship they call the Sailswift."