Liam never needs to use his spell.
He glances at the fiendish creature.
"Well done, Amelia and Seth. She could not escape or raise an alarm. But I don't know if her sisters will automatically sense her demise, or if we have the edge on them for now."
He searches the room for any secret doors, any correspondence from Milon Jeroth, or anything else of note.
"Katria, can you tell if this Night Hag had any items we might be able to use? My skills at identifying magic items are rather limited."
Katria begins looking around quickly to see if there's anything they can use.
She nods at Liam's mention of moving quickly in case the other hags -- who she hadn't seen with her earlier spying, after all -- are aware of their presence.
"We should also look and see if there's some secret basement or something where the other hags might be, that maybe I didn't notice earlier," she suggests.
Amelia instinctively tries to clean the blade only to see it doesn't stain.
"That went a lot better than I thought." She moves quickly toward the door and closes the windows before flipping the sign to closed. Finding the lock, she jams it as best she can then moves back to the others.
"We must make haste, I'll see what I can find with Liam's sight."
The hag doesn't have any magic items on her besides her heartstone. Most the of the tea sold at Sweet Dreams is of average quality. The stock behind the counter includes a small chest of medicinal Red King tea from Vudra, each cup of which acts as an antitoxin and antiplague. The chest contains enough loose tea to prepare 15 cups, worth a total of 2,250 gp. The store lockbox contains 35 gp, 816 sp, 12 cp, and a hexing doll.
You don't find any hidden doors here. You can go to the warehouse to face the nightmare there, or explore the apartment.
"Katria," asks Liam, "can a Cauchemar Nightmare sense invisible foes?"
"I would suggest we go into the warehouse with Amelia's Invisibility Sphere, and try to eliminate the Nightmare before it can shift out of this plane.
I can again ready to Dispel any such attempts. As can Katria, or she could ready to hit it with Dignity's Barb. If we are lucky, we can eliminate it before it can act.
I am not set on this plan, of course, and am willing to listen to other ideas."
Katria nods, happy to go along with that plan.
"I can prepare one of our weapons too," she says.
When you are ready, you step into the soot-stained warehouse. Though the towering cauchemar cannot see you, its senses are sharp, and it whinnies in agitation and snorts smoke as it notices the door open!
"Let's move. Stay close and if I spot something we can go invisible." Before she has a moment to enact the plan they cross the nightmare.
Seth springs into action, his blade gleaming with deadly light as he vanishes from where he was, teleporting behind the nightmare and bringing his sword down against it, but the motion disorients him just enough that his first attack goes wide.
Seth's attacks fail to get through the cauchemar's hide. It bellows with fury, snorting cloying smoke in the elf's face as it attacks!
"For Taldor and Golarion!"
Liam begins INSPIRE COURAGE +3 (move action) and readies to cast Dispel Magic if the Cauchemar tries to use a spell-like ability.
HP 94/94 (inc. +11 from transmutation focus)
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18, CMD 22
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +11
Speed: 30 feet
Inspiration (Knowledge/Linguistics/Spellcraft checks): 3/5
Mental Focus: 18; Abjuration [4/4]; Divination [1/4]; Illusion [4/4]; Enchantment [1/3]; Transmutation [2/3] (refocusing rod)
Resonant powers (+2 saves; +2 Perception, low-light vision; +1 Charisma checks; +2 Con; 20% miss chance)
Cape of the mountebank 0/1; gloves of arrow snaring 0/2; Dignity's Barb Crit No.: 8
Spells/day: 1st [][][][][]; 2nd [][][][][]; 3rd [][][][]; 4th [x][][]
Wands: Scorching ray 0/20; lightning bolt 0/20; magic missile (CL 5) 0/47; magic missile (CL 5) 0/34
Effects: inspire courage (+3/+3)
Katria brings Dignity's Barb to bear, quickly firing two bolts through the smoke. Still, she overcompensates for the weapon's own magical benefits, firing high.
Amelia moves in through the smoke to hack away at the cauchemar raising a hand against the smoke before grabbing the longsword in a two handed cleave.
Seth avoids breathing deeply, but with a step turning into a rush, a set of motion-blurred images left in his wake show Seth dashing out of the smoke into a flanking position with Amelia, where he uses his last touches of magic to slice deeply into the beast's hide.
While Katria fails to hit, Amelia and Seth land all of their attacks, leaving the cauchemar badly wounded. The creature tries to shift away to the Ethereal Plane to escape, but Liam counters its spell-like ability, leaving it stuck here!
HP 94/94 (inc. +11 from transmutation focus)
AC 23, touch 16, flat-footed 18, CMD 22
Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +11
Speed: 30 feet
Inspiration (Knowledge/Linguistics/Spellcraft checks): 3/5
Mental Focus: 18; Abjuration [4/4]; Divination [1/4]; Illusion [4/4]; Enchantment [1/3]; Transmutation [2/3] (refocusing rod)
Resonant powers (+2 saves; +2 Perception, low-light vision; +1 Charisma checks; +2 Con; 20% miss chance)
Cape of the mountebank 0/1; gloves of arrow snaring 0/2; Dignity's Barb Crit No.: 8
Spells/day: 1st [][][][][]; 2nd [][][][][]; 3rd [][][][]; 4th [x][][]
Wands: Scorching ray 0/20; lightning bolt 0/20; magic missile (CL 5) 0/47; magic missile (CL 5) 0/34
Effects: inspire courage (+3/+3)
"Don't let it get away!" Katria urges her companions as she continues to fire bolts.
Liam moves up, drawing his morningstar, and tries to provide a distraction to help Seth's next attack.
Caught in a melee with an outsider was not what she trained for, but skills in dueling could even be applied to nightmarish horses.
Magic mostly exhausted, Seth nonetheless continues his assault, channeling a minor spell with the intention of merely branding the mare.
Katria shoots the nightmare, scoring a critical hit, then Amelia and Seth quickly slice it up! It falls to the floor with a heavy thud!
It will take several hours to search the warehouse for valuables thanks to the mess from the cauchemar's soot.
"We don't have time to search the warehouse just now. On to the apartment?"
Liam will keep the Standard of Conquest in hand, ready to use its ability to Teleport the party if needed.
Katria agrees, moving quickly with the others to the apartment.
"Remember, we don't know if the body is really just a body, or some sort of undead," she tells the others. "Or where the rest of the hags are!"
She keeps Dignity's Barb in hand, making sure it's secure on its strap if she should need to drop it to grab one of her wands.
Amelia nods. "Yes, we need to ensure that their coven does not have time to flee or prepare. Let us make haste to the apartment and find out what that corpse could be."
Seth gleans his sword and stows it again, "I would request that we do not press on too much further, though I understand the need for haste. I merely have exhausted nearly all of my magic for the day, and shall require rest before terribly long."
"We must finish the coven off if we can, Seth. Though after that I believe we can rest."
Liam will call upon the power of Milani, channeling to heal.
Then he will use a wand on Seth.
You head into the apartment, where four mangy cats hiss and yowl at you but otherwise keep their distance. The outer room serves as a living room, office, and small kitchen.
There is a dose of flying ointment, and an orb of heaven wrapped in three layers of black sackcloth on a shelf, alongside various half‑burned candles, cracked animal bones, and feathers. Also on the bookshelf here are meticulous ledgers maintained by the Sisters of Indulgent Dreams on behalf of Milon Jeroth. The rakshasa still uses the night hags and their magic to deliver instructions and payments to Maxillar Pythareus’s various false‑flag operations attacking Taldan targets and framing Qadira. The ledgers on their own aren’t enough to damn Pythareus—given their dubious origin—but provide another strong piece of evidence of his wrongdoings.
The bedroom reeks of decay and incense. Examining the desiccated body, you see the features match those of the woman the night hag was disguised as.
The massive tom on the desk is written in a curious combination of Abyssal and Infernal, and illustrated with terrifyingly vivid drawings of both great heroics and atrocities.
It doesn't seem like the other night hags are currently present. You return to the warehouse to take the time to search it. Your efforts are rewarded by the discovery of several valuables in the mess: six champagne flutes carved from smoky quartz (100 gp each), three golden bowls etched with falcon iconography (300 gp each), a rose gold censer lined with a tarry residue of lavender oil (400 gp), an oil painting of the late Grand Prince Stavian II (1,500 gp), a music box carved from darkwood and wound with a permanent prestidigitation spell (3,000 gp), and waters of transfiguration.
Katria frowns as she looks through the tome. She can certainly recognize and read the Abyssal, but she hasn't gotten around to learning Infernal. She makes a mental note to herself to study it when she has time. At the last moment, though, she recognizes enough to make it what it says.
"It's research -- quite extensive, actually! -- on Taldor’s history and a collection of stories (both true and larger‑than‑life legends) surrounding various former kings. I think it was intended to serve as a focus for some kind of ritual, but there's no magic in it now," she tells the others.
After their search is complete, she suggests they return to their inn and rest. "We should let the authorities know the poor tea shop owner is dead, though ... we don't want to give away our own actions," she says.
Liam regards the Orb of Heaven with awe. He can feel its holy power. "For such a thing to be in the possession of such great evil..."
He looks at the book with Katria and helps out with some of the Infernal phrases. "Katria, can your Object Reading give us any information about the ritual that this book might have been used for?"
He looks over the ledgers.
"We will definitely want to take these.
Maxillar Pythareus was conducting false-flag operations to frame Qadira. That we expected.
He seems to have entrusted Milon Jeroth to actually carry those out, which he did through his network of contacts including the Night Hags.
I don't imagine Maxillar knew that he had Night Hags working indirectly for him. But his diviner was closing in on the truth. And that truth, I think, is that Milon Jeroth and the Night Hags were actually serving this Immaculate Circle. Night Hags are 'greedy soul brokers,' Katria? So perhaps they tamper with the River of Souls just as Panivar Lotheed does. It is circumstantial evidence, but seems to strengthen the conclusion that Panivar is behind this. I would guess the ritual had to do with souls somehow.
As to letting the authorities know... even an anonymous note could be used by another for an Object Reading just as you can do. I would say we should, as you suggest, leave here and get some rest, and then move on to the next location."
Amelia didn't have to understand Infernal and Abyssal to know these legends. The depictions matched up with the stories she had read about before coming to Taldor.
"Katria has the right of it of course, but what does it have to do with us and our current predicament?" She worried when Katria mentioned rituals, but when she clarified that the magic was gone she was less worried.
"I don't think these can prove anything by themself, no one would trust a hag as a source let alone one run through a rakshaha." Wondering how the magic could match up with these soul brokers, she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Seth, does Pharasma have anything to say about the matter? I can't imagine her not spurring you on."
"My Lady has not informed me of anything new, Lady Amelia, but my task to free the poor souls trapped upon Golarion has not changed in a century, and while I have had little interaction with the ghastly soul merchants, they fall under my mandate nonetheless." Seth replies, his attention spent on the golden bowls, trying to identify the falcon embossed on their surface.
"Not a former king, but we know a former prince has returned," Katria says, her voice barely above a whisper. "If Liam is right, these things may all be connected."
She sighs, frustrated that there's so much she still doesn't know, as they collect the items and prepare to return to the inn to rest.
You return to the inn in order to rest and recover as you plan out your next move...
"What is our best next move?
Is there any place in town where Liam might be able to buy more of the material components for True Seeing?
It is an eye ointment that costs 250 gold. And the spell lasts 11 minutes once he casts it. I imagine he'd want four doses (1000 GP); one for each of Amelia and Seth before going into Waterhill Manor, and two doses kept in reserve for future needs.
Also, we should remember what we got from the wagon. Aside from some mundane valuables, there were:
three potions of gaseous form,
an aegis of recovery
a candle of invocation
a +1 holy short spear wrapped in a scorched bolt of silk,
and a strand of lesser prayer beads
Liam is kind of making out like a bandit here, but the +1 holy short spear is perfect for slaying Rakshasas. A good-aligned piercing weapon.
"I think we strike the Rakshasas where they originated from. They are down one and we might very well end up with a free piece of information should they have fled in haste."
"I hope we don't face too many more of the kind of creature we faced before. Never have I encountered a creature so resistant to magic save a golem." Seth notes, but does acknowledge that, "Still, such vile creatures must be destroyed somehow, and there are none other suitable for the job."
Katria nods.
"Maybe once we find whatever Milon has, we can bring that to the major domo," she adds.
"It is a tricky matter, to tell a prideful man that he has been manipulated.
But if we find more evidence suggesting that is Panivar Lotheed behind this, and we can give Pythareus a target for his likely anger, we may have a chance."
Waterhill Manor is located in Zimar's Golden District. The luxurious two-story manor sits atop a hill with a fine view of the rest of the city. A single door on the ground floor provides entrance, while a balcony on the second floor provides a second means of entry if you are willing to climb up to it. You can see no lights in the windows--it appears as if nobody is at home.