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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7).
Another kidnapping spree erupts in Cassomir and the Pathfinder Society sends you to the notorious Swift Prison to interrogate a captured cultist about the recent disappearances. With clues gathered there, you must explore Old Cassomir and find secret locations that lead you to the source of the spree: the long lost Crypt of Fools.
Crypt of Fools is part 3 of the The Devil We Know series. Parts 1 and 2 can be played in any order, but parts 3 and 4 must be sequentially after 1 and 2.
Written by Larry Wilhelm
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“I am perplexed. A new kidnapping spree plagues my beloved city. It seems our citizens make easy prey to those who profit from such exploits. While this disturbs me, I am more troubled by reports that some of those kidnapped return to the city as undead monsters who accompany this Cult of Nature’s Cataclysm plague, a plague that I can’t seem to excise from my beloved city. This ends now! For a third time we battle Groetus-worshiping dogs and there will not be a fourth!”
Taking several deep breaths, Hestia regains her composure.
“I am sending you to Swift Prison to interrogate a cultist we captured who was trying to kidnap a local engineer. Meet my man Garver out front - he’ll take you in to see the Nature’s Cataclysm fool. Find out where the other cultists hide, where they’ve taken their recent victims, and how they’re turning them into skeletons. Free as many Cassomir citizens as you can - the good publicity never hurts. Any questions?”
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”Will this never end?” Zinkyudo asks. ”Someone needs to impose some sort of order on this place. The number of kidnappings in this city, and what happens to the kidnapped folks – it’s unbelievable.”
He settles down a bit and says, ”But I’ll do what I can to put an end to it. Though I won’t be eager to come back to Cassomir, as much as you may love the place, Ventrure-Captain. I’ve seen too much of its ugly side.”
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Gwen racks her brain for lore of what she's learned of this city. Any shred to aid in the endevour.
"I disagree, good Zinky. Surely Evil can not spawn in infinite numbers? If we but excise this most recent outbreak, perhaps we shall have broken the spirit of misfortune that seems to plague this city! I would have it that they come at us openly like this, rather than corrupt the city slowly and imperceptably over a number of years. This last step speak of desparation! Let us have done with them in one more stroke, and let the good people get on with the business of governing but now made richer for the evil-doers absence!"
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Nev lights a new cigar and then says to the rest of the group, "Gwendolen, I'm not entirely sure what you said but I liked that parts I understood. I'll be happy to help if I get to shoot some things and have a good meal afterwards. Maybe I'll finally get to have that special Taldan cigar I've been saving for when this whole ordeal is over."
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Gwen pulls Nev and Zinky aside and asks them in hushed tones. "Have either of you experience in interrogating a cultist? I have read but poorly of the lore of cults, but theiy members usually are think of head and merely words might prevail us but little. Have you any idea of what we're to do when we get there? Perhaps we can but provoke the man's pride? Mayhap if we belittle him and the forces he works for, he shall freely give us the details we want, confident that we go to our deaths?
This is but a poor idea at best, but a poor idea is better than none at all, unless you can think of better?
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Swift Prison’s formidable gates loom over those who pass beneath them. Out front, a gilded statue stares uncaringly at those who serve time beyond her sentry-like gaze. The wrinkled, dirty faces of Cassomir’s prisoners are briefly illuminated behind the bars of the ground floor begging cells. Their pathetic drone as they beg for coppers fills the courtyard in front of the prison.
Hestia’s man, Garver - a tall Taldan man with a slim physique and plain peasant’s clothing - approaches. [/b]“Ah. You made it. Good. Follow me.”
Garver turns and enters the prison, marching through myriad hallways that twist and turn and finally end at a plain but thick wooden door. Garver produces a key and says, [b]“Our captured cultist enjoys visitors, and if you like his work, it’s all for sale.”
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Zinkyudo follows along behind Garver, quietly replying to Gwen, ”No, I’ve never interrogated a cultist before, though I guess I’ve killed a fair number of them at this point. And I have to say, having spent a little time around people of various faiths, I’m not sure that belittling the man and his gods is going to get him to tell us anything. It seems Blayne’s idea of charming him is likely to be more effective.”
After a pause, he adds, ”And if that doesn’t work, we could make very clear to the man that if he doesn’t tell us what we need to know, Nev will shoot him. A lot.”
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In a cell, covered in paint, you see a man dressed in torn beggar’s rags, with his feet shackled to the floor by a 3-foot length of chain, he throws color onto a dirty canvas. He stops painting when you arrive, looks through the bars, and exclaims with a toothless grin: “For you, my master, always for you!” He then lays the painting atop a small pile of recent works and sets up another blank canvas, madly attacking it with his brush.
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“Friends! Did the Master send you? Yes, he must have. Praised be he who ends the days! Do you seek my secret? Soon enough - but in return I ask something from you. You must give it to me as I need it to complete my collection.”
He points to two paintings hung in a shadowy corner of his cell. A third canvas hangs next to them but is blank.
“If you go outside this very prison you’ll find a statue covered in gold. You may have already seen her! Describe this statue to me in exquisite detail and I will tell you all I know.”
The statue sits just outside of the prison’s gates, its golden form shining brightly in the sun. It stands just over 7 feet tall and rests atop a 3-foot-tall stone base. The statue depicts a curvy Taldan female with short hair and wearing flowing robes open at the neck. She regards the PCs with a blank, uncaring expression. Faint moons decorate her flowing robes, and she crushes a set of scales beneath her left foot.
perception rolls
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After studying the statue carefully a while, Zinkyudo points out the sculptor’s mark on the left foot and says, ”I wonder if that detail will be important to the nut in the cell? Let’s go find out.”
Returning to the cell, he tells the crazed artist what they saw, ”It’s a golden statue, like you said. It’s a bit over 7 feet tall, and it’s on a 3-foot-tall stone base. It depicts a pretty bodacious Taldan woman, lots of curves on her. She has short hair and wears flowing robes, open at the neck. Her face just kind of stares, looks like she doesn’t care about anything. What else…her robe is decorated with a faint pattern of moons, and she’s crushing a set of scales beneath her left foot.”
With a glance to his companions, he adds, ”And one more thing, it looks like the sculptor signed his work. There’s a tiny letter ‘I’ carved into the statue’s left foot. Is that enough for you to do your painting? You ready to tell us all you know?”
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The crazed painter rapidly completes his third masterpiece. My master resides within the Crypt of Fools, hidden deep beneath Old Cassomir. I’m not sure of its exact location, but if anyone has knowledge of the Crypt of Fools and how to get there, it would be the engineers at Cassomir’s engineering guild, the Hall of Wonders. The engineers all have complete blueprints of nearly everything built by the Taldor government in Cassomir, and since the Crypt of Fools was built by the government to hide the crypts of shamed families, it’s highly probable they have all of the information you need. Dalirio once told me that the cult was going to need to remove the documents from the guild eventually to prevent anyone from finding them.
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Zinkyudo considers whether he knows anything useful about the cultist’s faith, and who this Master or the day-ender might be.
He then says, ”I guess we should figure out where the Crypt of Fools is.” Turning to Garver, he says, ”You’ve been here longer than us, where can we find the Crypt of Fools?”
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Gwen stares silently as the discussion goes forth. She's afraid that is she opens her mouth she'll just ruin it and be forced to kill the monster.
Her observations let her ponder the two unfinished works in the corner. The cultists is attacking the third, almost blank one, but what of the others?
She has no eye for art, but perhaps the mad hatter will answer directly, being so fully under Blayne's geas.
What of your collection that you are now finishing? What secret are you know working to those three paitings that was so important that they remained unfinished until now?
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Smoke and steam pour through many openings of this misshapen building. Gears and gizmos can be heard clicking against one another in a rhythmic cadence. A loud “chunkchunk” sounds as several pistons churn up and down, powering some unknown machine. A cacophonous symphony of grinding metal plays on. An enormous sign, nearly the entire width of the building, declares it to be the Hall of Wonders.
Gwendolen can hear a very faint screaming coming from inside the hall.
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That room is empty, and there is a closed door, you can make a climb check and a strength check if you would like to go in the window.
All the first floor windows will show you rooms with nothing of interest and a closed door.
If you want to look through the 2nd floor window in the corner, you would need a different climb check, and still a strength check to open the window.
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Zinkyudo climbs in the window onto the catwalk and slips his bow off his shoulder. It looks like the woman there is in charge, and the thugs are doing her bidding, beating up that gnome. I hope I’m right…
He looses an arrow at the woman, then calls out loudly, ”Leave the gnome alone! Gwen, Nev, Blayne! Keep coming, there’s trouble!”
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Gwen comes to a stop at the T-intersection. She spies the as-yet-unaware thugs to her right, just as Nev caps the T a ways to her left.
She gesticulates at Nev in the universal sign for "shoot them a lot!".
Then she stays where she is, ready for them to try a counter-charge at Nev's superior firepower.
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A brass planetarium rotates in the northeastern corner. Next to the celestial model, a clockwork contraption ticks and tocks as it turns on its axis. Finally, a giant metal crab sits with its claws extended on a southwestern platform. A hatch at one end of the crab provides an entrance into a barrel-like chamber; inside two levers rest near the front of a cockpit.
Red Thug
Blue Thug
Yellow Thug
Tashiela 9 dmg
After Nev shoots Red Thug, he moves up and it causes Gwendolen’s readied attack to strike, and he falls.
Blue Thug will swing his at Gwendolen and deal damage if he hits.
Zinkyudo and Blayne are up before Yellow Thug and Tashiela.