Every year, the Grand Lodge hosts the Grand Convocation at its campus in Absalom. While the Grand Convocation is ostensibly not a party, it is an opportunity for the Decemvirate and Absalom’s resident venture-captains to express their gratitude to field agents and those venture-captains stationed abroad. The Grand Convocation also serves the practical purpose of encouraging networking, relationships, and shared intra-Society communication.
The capstone event is a banquet with remarks from Marcos Farabellus, the Master of Swords, who will touch on the Society’s many successes from the last year.
This morning marks the start of the Grand Convocation, and each of you is currently standing in line next to each other (how convenient), waiting for you chance to be admitting to the festival grounds.
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Keeya, looking forward to the Grand Convocation since weeks, wears a beautiful white dress with blue ornaments. It's not one of these prom dresses, but a simple one. Her hair is blonde and everybody standing next to her feels a slight breeze around her. Her eyes are aqua blue, she's oviously a Sylph woman. Around her neck she wears her wayfinder.
Waiting for some time already, Keeya tries to use the time to get in touch with other Pathfinders. "Hello, my name is Keeya. I'm really looking forward to the festival, the stories and the food. I wonder if Janira is here today to tell us stories of some great adventurers." she starts to talk, nobody in particlar, and looks around if somebody heard her words and is willing to answer.
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Cirri had to buy a new dress after undead messed up her last one. But she's wearing armor this time!
"Hi Keeya! My name's Cirri. Good to see you." Cirri twirls her staff. "This is my first Grand Convocation - I always wondered what it's like. Have you been here before?"
"I never met Janira before- who is she?"
Master of Swords Marcos Farabellus strides up to the large crowd and claps his hands together for attention.
"Welcome Pathfinders, one and all! And welcome to our traveling venture captains stationed abroad as well our honored guests! I am Marcos Farabellus, and on behalf of the Decemvirate, I welcome you to the Pathfinder Society’s annual Grand Convocation!"
A smattering of applause follows.
"I shall address all of the attendees later this afternoon to announce some of the Society’s greatest accomplishments over the past year and our plans for the future. In the meantime, I invite you to stroll about the campus, meet with your peers, and enjoy all the sites of the Grand Lodge. "
The master of swords gestures beyond the gate to the Grand Lodge's open grounds.
"We have set up numerous challenges and contests so that you can show off your skills or sharpen them if need be. I’ll send around ushers when it’s time to assemble for the speeches on the north lawn. Enjoy!"
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A tall, lean human male dressed in scale armor carries a finely-crafted polearm, his long black cloak trailing behind him. In fact, all his clothing is black. He squints as if in bright sunlight despite being indoors.
His eyes appear to mask a much older soul than his forty or so years might suggest.
He nods solemnly as he considers their task.
"I am Telos Phane," he says by way of introduction to his fellow Pathfinders.
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While waiting in line a dark older gentleman bows to those near at hand. He wears a flawlessly polished Mithril shirt, under a billowing cloak, leans on a fine cane, but carries no visible weapons.
"Allow me to introduce myself... I am Quinn Mulari, at your service-- an old traveler of the Inner Sea Lands for some years, but only recently a member of this fine society."
He bows gracefully over the ladies' hands but does not actually kiss them, and gives Telos a firm handshake.
"I am honored to share membership in the society with such as yourselves." He says smoothly.
Turning to the sylph, he asks, "And who is your little friend?"
Quinn smiles, "I too know not what to expect from this evening. But I must confess I am intrgued by the mention of 'contests of skill'. Shall we see what they have prepared for us?"
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Hello, my friends! I hope that the light of Sarenrae can shine in this event, more than anything! - a woman in yellow and blue clothes say to his fellow Pathfinders.
My name is Kyra, I'm a follower of Sarenrae. Probably you guys already guessed that. - she speakes that with a smile on her face - If I may, could I accompany you to these events? Not that I think will participate , but I believe the power of Sarenrae can be useful to my companions that get hurt in one of these "skill contest".
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"This is Roxy. Yes, let's have a look."
Quinn leans forward to make friends with the little fox. Considering the question weather to treat it like a dog or a cat, he extrapolates from his familiarity with natural lore.
Hello, my friends! I hope that the light of Sarenrae can shine in this event, more than anything! - a woman in yellow and blue clothes say to his fellow Pathfinders....
"Hail servant of the Everlight! Your order is always welcome among the good peoples. Though I trust this night, it will only be for your pleasant company, and not Sarenrae's healing power."
"I just came back from an Opera house in Oppara that was raided by zombies." Cirri shudders. "They ruined my dress and everything. I wasn't wearing any armor but I did have my trusty shield."
"Zombies at the Opera? I wouldn't have thought it possible, but my esteem for necromancers has reached new depths." Quinn frowns in genuine distaste.
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A tiny yet muscular gnome shoves the gates open before spitting in the grass.
"Hey, good bye to anotha closed door! Hey hey! Don't wanna keep no peoples out, you know what I'm sayin?"
Springing ahead with way too much energy, the gnome evokes a strong scent that is borderline offensive, yet somehow compels you regard him as manlier, more macho and perhaps slightly inappropriate member of his race, or any race for that matter.
He takes a bite from a barely cooked haunch of meat, apparently fastened to a dirty stick, catches your glances towards his meal and decides to comment on the obvious.
"Yeah. Meat on a stick. Neat, am I right?"
He steps forward, apparently seeking to punch Quinn in the arm, but stops just short, apparently thinking better of it, before smearing his greasy hand through his own long black, wavy hair.
"So, uh. Balzanno's da name, but uh, yeah my friends, dey calls me Balzy."
At this the gnome smiles.
"Because dat's what I am! Ha ha ha ha!"
His laugh isn't exactly one that sets you at ease, but it seems to come easy to him. The gnome looks over his shoulder at the campus beyond.
"So yeah, I guess some bigshot thought dat I was some sorta good candy-date for welcomin' yous all inta the Great Ladge. So, dey uh, gots a lotta stuff heres. Like, uh..."
As he apparently has forgotten the location he just departed, he glances back over his shoulder.
"Oh yeah! Dere's like dis obstaca course. You know, like one dat you'd run through?"
The gnome counts off two fingers, seeming to find that appropriate for his place.
"And um, yeah dey gots a menagerie with like animals and stuff to tame if you know dat stuffs."
Something makes you think he didn't quite pronounce menagerie right.
"And uh, dey gots a chat on lore or somethin'. Bunch of dem big brains. And uh, storytellin' contests. And, uh slootin."
The gnome regards his place counting with his fingers - some seven between both hands despite counting off four features, and he works to pronounce the last word again more carefully.
"Sloooo-tin. Like a detective thing?"
Taking another bite because apparently it doesn't bother him if he's talking to you with his mouth full, he continues.
"Somethin' about a workshop on traps and of course, bada boom, bada bing... Weight liftin! Which, uh hey, Kyra, I just came from dat, and you wanna feel dese?"
The gnome pulls back his sleeve revealing an actually impressively sized bicep for a gnome and flexes.
1. Animal Taming at the menagerie
2. Boasting/storytelling
3. Lore symposium
4. Obstacle course
5. Sleuthing
6. Trap mastery
7. Weight ligting.
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"Oh wow. There's a lot of stuff going on, isn't there Balzy?" Cirri has a huge grin on her face. "Lore telling, huh? I'd love to talk shop. But I also want to practice weight lifting...Ohhh, I'll just do both!"
Cirri tries to lift some weights.
She then has a long discussion about the joys of pulleys and buoyancy of wood.
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"Thank you... Balzy for your most distinctive assistance." Quinn bows slightly to the gnome.
"Lore telling, huh? I'd love to talk shop. But I also want to practice weight lifting...Ohhh, I'll just do both!"
"The Lore Symposium strikes my fancy as well, Miss Merryweather. If you will allow, I will accompany you there, and later visit the Slooot-in Competition."
Cirri and Telos break off to find Pathfinders of all sorts gathered around a makeshift yard which bears weights of all shapes and sizes. You're quickly corralled in with a dozen other Pathfinders ranging from fey half the size of Balzanno all the way to beasts of men who must have giant or ogre blood coursing through their veins.
Cirri's attempts seem half-hearted as she overhears announcements of the lore symposium beginning, so she drops her weights and heads over to the Quadrangle, finding Quinn and Kyra already gathering outside with what appears to be dozens of other scholars.
Telos, flexing, moves to out-lift the others.
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"Yea, course I's won. Dey always underestimates da Gee-Nome when dey shouldn't, you know what I'm sayin?"
Balzanno flexes a bit, highlighting a tattoo in an arc on his upper pecs.
~ Gno Ragrets ~
"So uh, you gonna take my arm and am I gonna show you round or what, Kyra? We should go watch dis Telos P dude go lift some stuff, right?"
Balzanno flashes a smile, and there's something about him that seems downright charismatic despite the extreme macho chauvinism that drips from his exterior more than the pungent odor of old, decaying forest and smoke.
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Cirri starts to lift stuff, but she's not really into it. She sees a seemingly bull humanoid and gets distracted talking to him and his lineage. The bull really doesn't want to talk about it. Kyra practices some politeness judo and politely guides Cirri towards the Lore Symposium.
Of course, Cirri finds fewer strong people but instead finds intellectuals, researchers, and the curious.
...she also finds the bull humanoid, who quickly curses his fate as Cirri approaches him.
En route she hears several elven wizards discussing the nature of conjuration magic and how it draws energy from other planes. Cirri rolls her eyes.
C'mon! Let's talk about something could help our fellow man! Like physics!
"I could talk about magic theory and stuff like that." Cirri notes. "But I'd rather talk about pulleys! Isn't it cool that you can lift so much with just a little bit of friction and some rope? It's because with a pulley, you can use less force over a greater distance..."
Cirri begins to ramble on about energy transformation, gravity, and friction and how constructions like the pulley can convert between them.
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"I will check this Lore symposium. Anyone wanna come with me? Knowledge is always welcome...
"The lore the merrier..." Quinn smiles.
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At the symposium he applauds Cirri's lecture on mechanics and buoyancy.
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Once his turn arrives Quinn strides into the center circle of the assembled, and with a theatrical flourish of his cape, bows to everyone.
"Greetings fellow Pathfinders! My name is Quinn Mulari, at your service.
In honor of this festive occasion, I bring a translation I have devised a translation (in verse) of part of a newly discovered ancient Osiriani table. It is uniquely appropriate for this occasion, and hopefully will entertain and inform.
I call it,
I am the very model of a modern Keeper-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of Azlant, and I quote the fights historical
From Burning Child to Nagisa, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Keeper-General.
I know our mythic history, Cyclopes and all Thassilon;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Erastil from Lamashtu and Rovagug,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
…
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Keeper-General."
Quinn bows.
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My fellow Pathfinders, there is soo much knowledge here that we can already write a book about what we are learning in this day. - Kyra says applauding the performances of her friends.
If I may, I would like to share the lore about a war so long forgotten. A war that involved Gods: .
In a time so long ago that perhaps, Rovagug sought to destroy the wolrd that we live. When he turned his gaze upon a new world he was opposed by an unlikely collection of gods, including Sarenrae.
Gods died in this battle, but their names have been forgotten.
For our good, the goddess Sarenrae sliced open a hole in the Material Plane, and the archdevil Asmodeus bound him there.
So, my fellow companions, we are only here today because of this kind act of the gods. - Kyra says waving her hands. - Shouldn't we be kind and good too? Let us search redemption in our hearts!
Finally , I would make a prayer to Sarenrae in order to bless us all - raising her hand to the sky and holding her holy simbol in the other hand she starts:
May the Flames of the Dawnflower carry us through the shadows.
May the light of our hearts vanish the fog of fear and our weapons find home in the heart of evil
With that, Kyra goes back to the side of Balzy.
Hope it wasn't so boring, Balzy... It's so hard to pass the good of Sarenrae to another person... - Kyra says in a worried way.
At the sound of a whistle, Telos begins to bench press an assortment of weights set up for him and with ease he completes more repetitions than any of the others in the yard.
Balzanno hollers at the warrior from the distance, seeming to pay little attention while Cirri is talking about pulleys.
In fact, Cirri gets the sense that a lot of the folks gathered are potentially overlooking her words, seemingly more impressed with the "more seasoned" or "more bearded" sages about. There's a smattering of discussion afterwords, but nothing like the discussions stirred by Quinn and Kyra's contributions.
Quinn is quickly surrounded by a dozen younger Pathfinders, all requesting that he expand on details about cyclopes or Thassilon or mathematics.
Kyra, after he turn, seems to spur a religious debate as many dark Pathfinder begin weighing the importance of Asmodeus relative to Sarenrae in Golarion's pantheon.
Balzanno shrugs.
"Eh, dat was a lotta words. I gotta be honest, Ky. Can I call you dat? I was lookin' at yer eyes more than listenin to whatchoo was sayin'. Hey! Did you see dat Telos? He lifted real good."
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Keeya follows Quinn to the Lore Symposium. She picks one text from several others. The text is written in runes, seems to be dwarven. She tries to translate it.
"This seems to be a text about a dwarven group digging deep in a mountain, the name I can't translate, they asked gnomes to build a machine to get the metal faster out of the mines. The greedy dwarves refused to pay the gnomes the weapons and armor. The gnomes got mad and built another machine to lock the dwarves in in their mountain. The never escaped."
Keeya works to translate a text at the lore symposium, but makes an honest mistake, swapping the ancient words for gnome and dwarf. Nobody laughs, but there's a long silence as several elder sages confirm and one stands to point out the wizard's mistake.
Cirri, abandoning the talks on engineering, joins the performances dancing and frolicking about. It's remarkable how many Varisians are engaged in dance this hour, and unfortunately her talents are lost in the writing mass of performers.
Telos: Weightlifting
Cirri: Weightlifting, Lore, Boasting/Storytelling
Quinn: Lore
Kyra: Lore
Keeya: Lore
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After listening to Keeya's translation and aplauding politely, Quinn moved through the colorful crowd to the Sleuthing event.
The scene of a simulated murder has been set up with the natural clues in several rooms built for the purpose with open sides, and a railing all around to keep any observers from disturbing anything. Off to one side a herald explains the information available on all suspects. Quinn joins the small crowds carefullly examining the scene and pondering.
He muses to himself, "Paladin Plum in the Scriptorium with the Candlelabra? No, surely it was Wizard White in the Hall with a Quarterstaff."
Quinn wrote down his answer in a elegant script then folded it and handed it to the judge.
Keeya moves to the weights after her mistake translating the ruins. Seemingly the frustration is a boon as she picks up a large metal ball and shotputs it further than any of the assembled Pathfinders. Kyra meets with similar success as she sits down and manages to lift the same weight that an oversized half-ogre before her did.
Balzanno hands through a chain mesh fence surrounding the weights and whistles and hollers at both women, commending them on their success.
Quinn takes a detour to the sleuthing challenge and despite significant evident implicating Paladin Plum, he deduces that Wizard White was in fact to blame and earns a medal commemorating his success.
Telos: Weightlifting, (Obstacles TBD)
Cirri: Weightlifting, Lore, Boasting/Storytelling
Quinn: Lore, Sleuthing
Kyra: Lore, Weightlifting
Keeya: Lore, Weightlifting
Telos literally barrels through each and every obstacle set on the course, crossing the finish line ahead of all the other competitors. He doesn't even seem to notice the fact he has three of the hurdles dragging from his abdomen.
Telos: Weightlifting(Y), Obstacles(Y)
Cirri: Weightlifting(N), Lore(N), Boasting/Storytelling(N)
Quinn: Lore(Y), Sleuthing(Y)
Kyra: Lore(Y), Weightlifting(Y)
Keeya: Lore(N), Weightlifting(Y)
As everyone completes their challenges and mingles in the common grounds, several rumors reach your ears
Runners sprint through the campus, shouting for all to hear.
"Pathfinders, please get settled. All campus-wide events are closing. All venture-captains and field agents are invited to gather on the north lawn for refreshments and the keynote address in several minutes!"
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A bit sweaty from the dance, Cirri leaves and reunites with her newfound friends. "Man, I had no chance against those other dancers- they're good. Real good!"
"You know, I've heard Aram Zey was supposed to give the keynote address, but he dropped out. He thought it was a waste of time. Pfft." Cirri shakes her head. "Pathfinders are a flock, you can't do everything by yourself! Good thing the Master of Swords is gonna keep our spirits up, huh?"
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When she joined the society, Cirri thought artifacts belonged in a museum. Safe from traps, hungry predators and insane cults. But when she travelled to Irrisen, found Jerdek's Shard and became an honorary Snowmask Tribe member, she did realize how easy it was for the Pathfinder Society to overstep their bounds. It was too easy.
So Cirri was enjoying the conversation between the Master of Swords and the mystical glyph. What does the outside world think of the Society? Are they really weirdness magnets, or would it be even worse without their intervention?
Cirri has many questions to ask, but it doesn't matter right now: Strange beasts are threatening everything and everyone!
"Keeya, everyone! you OK? We gotta repel these...things!" She clutches onto her staff.
Sir Laribold Croome, an immaculately dressed Taldan nobleman scrambles for cover behind a table, which his halfling manservant helpfully flips onto its side. Catching his breath, the Taldan fumbles for his monocle before addressing the nearby Pathfinders.
“Monsters and villains are attacking all over the grounds,” he states with perfect articulation, punctuated by a crossbow bolt that embeds itself in his makeshift barricade.
“Spread out, patrol the grounds, and snuff out trouble as you find it. If you should discover any clues about what the devil is going on, report back here at the base of Skyreach.”
He pulls his sword cane free from its sheath and raises it overhead. “Look alive, and show initiative,” he shouts before performing an elaborate dueling salute in the direction of an elephant and setting off after it.
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Kyra was listening to the speech when all happened. She couldn't believe in her eyes. Suddenly the grand Lodge was flooded with pursuers.
This is no good... - Kyra unsheates her scimitar and taker her holy symbol in her other hand - Sarenrae, protect everyone here and help me strike true against those who bring evil to this place!