Sobestian manages to make the kind of joke that only bugbears find funny, and Inoklar finds it seriously funny indeed – she falls to the floor and cannot stop laughing! Hakotep intones another lullaby, this time sending a goblin off to a restful sleep!
Oldmar lands a powerful blow with his axe, Rokdor provides a hate-filled (but cooling!) breeze to Inoklar with her hammer, and Gaelwyn charges across the room, just managing to hit the bugbear with help from the inspiring song of Sobestian! Inoklar is still conscious, but she looks battered and bloodied!
Sadly, Ekkie seems to have forgotten her allegiance to the Godking of the Halflings, in the face of Inoklar’s fierce scowl! She steps up to Hakotep, drawing her dogslicer as she moves, and attacks her liege lord! Her divided loyalties have confused her, however, and she misses.
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"Do we need a prisoner? " Gaelwyn shouts out as he brings his greatsword around for another swing.
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Sobestian shakes his finger at Ekkie and gives her a mild scolding, which seems to convince her that siding with Inoklar is not the best move. Her conclusion is supported by Gaelwyn and Rokdor slaying the bugbear guildmaster! With bite of blade and crunch of hammer, the two combine to kill Inoklar! Ekkie and the other standing goblin both drop their weapons, the clang of steel on the floor causing the sleeping one to roll over and sigh deeply before drifting off again. The goblin by Gaelwyn holds up his empty hands and takes a step away, peering around the pillar at the human warrior, clearly hoping for mercy!
Ekkie says to Hakotep, ”Oops! Um, Ekkie thought you someone else, not nice Gokking of Hafflings! Mistake! Ekkie not fight you now, okay?”
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Hakotep sighs and puts his hands down to his side. "That will do, Ekkie. Be more careful and remember who your friends are next time."
Hakotep leaves the remaining foes to everyone else as he looks about the chamber. "Was that the leader of the Nightsoil Marauders then? Let's check the tunnels beyond to be sure. And then I say we put Ekkie up as the new leader as long as she promises loyalty to the Pathfinder Society. . . and her Godking, of course."
As Oldmar and Hakotep discuss the succession of leadership within the Nightsoil Marauders, the rest of the party can see that there are passages leading north and south out of this chamber. The northern passage leads back into the sewers, and doesn’t seem to contain anything of interest. The southern hallway makes a turn and dead-ends at a simple door. Opening it reveals what must be Inoklar’s bedchamber, as it contains a single, foul-smelling bed and other furnishings.
A search of the room quickly turns up a large chest containing Inoklar’s takings from the Nightsoil Marauders’ operations, including emblems and tokens of rival crime organizations in Magnimar: a set of miniature scales carved from black onyx stolen from an inattentive Night Scale thief, several Varisian scarves and knives taken from Sczarni thugs, an ornamental star of Desna filched from one of the Gallowed, a broken klar that belonged to a Shoanti gang leader, and most significantly, a golden Aspis Consortium badge. At the bottom of the chest, well hidden from her superstitious goblin minions, are Inoklar’s scrawled notes detailing her plans to take over Magnimar.
It appears that Inoklar’s foremost plan was to expand her guild’s influence by starting an all-out war between Magnimar’s criminal elements. She envisioned committing a series of grisly murders of underworld figures and their families, while subtly leaving clues at these crime scenes implicating rival factions. She expected to have groups like the hotheaded Sczarni, the Shoanti gangs, and the Night Scales at each other’s throats before long. Inoklar’s other schemes included using the pyromaniacal nature of her goblin minions to demand “fire insurance” protection money from businesses and to stockpile enough incendiaries to start a widespread fire in the city above, with the aim of weakening or wiping out any organization opposing hers. When the smoke cleared, the Nightsoil Marauders would have moved in to seize power!
Interestingly, the Aspis Consortium and the Pathfinder Society were also a part of Inoklar’s designs on the city — she saw them as rival “smuggling operations” and meant to drag them into the impending conflict by setting them against Magnimarian criminal gangs as well as each other. Her notes document orders given to her goblin agents to steal distinctive trinkets (which she later planned to plant in incriminating locations) from various groups in the city, including the Pathfinders based at Heidmarch Manor. It is clear from the collection of items Inoklar had amassed that she was well on her way to implementing this plan, and that the Pathfinder Society has averted a crisis! Had Inoklar’s scheme succeeded, she would have set rival factions in the city against each other until they were all weakened or destroyed, and then stepped in to take over the City of Secrets!
With Inoklar’s defeat, this plan is thwarted and the leadership of the Nightsoil Marauders is disrupted. On returning to the surface and reporting to Sheila Heidmarch, the party learns that the remaining goblins will likely disband into small, disorganized groups posing little threat. The trinkets retrieved from Inoklar’s trunk will be put to good use by the Society, as returning some of these will help improve relations with factions of Magnimar’s underworld. And finally, the Society has plans to use the gold Aspis badge as a vital part of an important covert operation against the Consortium.