We start as soon as I confirm who's in.
|
I thought you sprung for the Remove Disease before leaving town. (Yes there is down time. I have to resolve before closing out the scenaeio.)
-Posted with Wayfinder
Waiting on Hunwald and Leonel to start, then I'll get it out.
Venture-Captain Alissa Moldreserv, a fiery red-headed woman who climbed from the depths of Galtan revolution to become one of the Society’s finest (and most well-connected) venture-captains, stands in the great meeting hall of the Grand Lodge in Absalom. She stares down her hawkish nose and sighs.
"“I ask for the best and they send me you. Lucky me. The Society’s best contact in Osirion, Grand Ambassador Dremdhet Salhar, informed me this morning that his lovely Chelish wife, the Lady Anilah Salhar, was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Normally, I wouldn’t care a bulette’s eyeball about who was or was not enslaved in Absalom, but Salhar is the Society’s best avenue for acquiring all of the necessary official paperwork to make our frequent delves into the tombs of Osirion cheap and legal. This is a relationship we want to preserve and since the Ambassador made it clear that our status is in jeopardy, I’ve been instructed to send our best agents to find her and return her safely to Salhar."
"I guess you'll do."
"Salhar hasn’t sat idle since his wife was taken—his own agents are prowling the streets and dug up one possible lead. A one-eyed Andoren, a grit junky named Fredrik, is known for selling or helping to sell nobility into foreign markets that desire house slaves. Being enormously illegal, this trade makes Fredrik a fair bit of coin that Salhar’s agents assure me all go straight into the pockets of the Second Chance, a grit den dockside in Puddles. That’s all I have to get you started. Go quickly. The fate of our Osirian exploits is in your hands.”
|
|
Before leaving for the Puddles, Hun slides up to Alissia and says, "I'm not positive but I think you must be my appendix... Because you give me a strange feeling in my stomach and I want to take you out!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
|
|
Dupine, I hate choice, but Ships is a little longer, and I'm not as confident about finishing before Gameday starts.
I'll take you off the list for this one so it's not in your feed, but you're absolutely (like everyone else from Silken Caravan) invited to Frozen fingers.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Grit is a dangerous, unpredictable drug that originated in the Puddles District of Absalom twenty years ago. It’s a combination of alchemically strengthened barbarian chew, boiled down to a thick paste and dried on cotton sheets, and several volatile plant-based chemicals like redroot and bitterbark. Grit is most often sold as a powder that is eaten, snorted, or mixed with qat or flayleaf and smoked. No two batches of grit are exactly the same and therein lies the danger: everyone has a different reaction to grit. For some, it induces intense, horrifying hallucinations; for others it causes a dangerous numbing of the nervous system; and still for others it can cause furious, physical rage. No one survives long as a grit addict and its addiction is one of the hardest to break. Grit is incredibly expensive, which often results in grit addicts committing ever increasing acts of violence to get the money they need to buy more.
Otherwise nothing academic jumps out on this mission. (The Venture-captain also seems quite unwilling to answer questions as she actively dismisses you to get started.
Getting down to the Puddles is pretty easy and quick.
Dimly lit by cheap oil lamps sputtering on walls punctuated by painted-over windows, the Second Chance reeks of unwashed humanity and pungent ash. Threads of sickly sweet smoke drift like smog from tin hookahs. Ale kegs lurk in each corner, and cheap clay mugs hang from nails on the walls.
Unfortunately, the Second Chance is in the midst of a frenzied, grit-induced brawl. The place is a free for all , but a few characters stand out. Next to the bar, a thick scowling Keleshite, grips a bloody scimitar in one fist, blocking one of the den’s rear doors. At his feet lies a fresh corpse, blood slowly seeping into the floor boards from the dead man’s slashing wounds. The man is the only one with a weapon out and seems to be looking over the mess like he owns the place. Another character perches atop a wobbling table at the center of the room, frantically kicking at several drugged-out thugs who try to pull him off, this man matches the description of Frederick.
|
|
It's a large one room establishment. You could clear the start of a path. The room is roughly L shaped, and you could throw a trio of fireballs without overlapping.
-Posted with Wayfinder
|
Thiera shares what she knows of "Grit", delving into academic discussion long after everyone loses interest.
She approaches Frederick, pulling her robes close and away from the filth of humanity nearby. "Do you need a hand with this?" she asks, gesturing at the rowdy brawl.
To Piper: "I have an extra scroll of sleep, if you think that might be a viable method of calming this rabble, should it be necessary." Thiera hands her the scroll.
Consider the entire area difficult terrain due to the brawl, but you could probably get to Frederick's table with Piper's spell now that I look at the map.The barkeep with the blade seems only to be on the look out for weapons... There's enough of a brawl that it would require a concentration check, but I'd let you go for it.
|
Thiera shares what she knows of "Grit", delving into academic discussion long after everyone loses interest.
She approaches Frederick, pulling her robes close and away from the filth of humanity nearby. "Do you need a hand with this?" she asks, gesturing at the rowdy brawl.
To Piper: "I have an extra scroll of sleep, if you think that might be a viable method of calming this rabble, should it be necessary." Thiera hands her the scroll.
"...zzzz...zzSNORT Sorry, oi tart yer 'ad already cast it on our way goin'." He says noting the dissertation the wizard gave on their way there.
I'm going to say that given the status of the druggies, their will saves must be negative, and Bullwhip's Overrun, there's a clear path. The question is how to get Frederick. If Thiera wants to try a sleep spell, I'll have him make a will save. If you have a plan B, post now!
|
|
Hun sticks his head in and eases inside the establishment... after watching Bullwhip bowl his way over to Fredrick's table he yells at the top of his lungs, ""
Then to Bullwhip, "Grab the doink and lets get out of here!"
As he steps out of the Second Chance, produces his tools and examines the front door, scheming how to lock it from the outside, allowing the Pathfinders to clear the area once Bullwhip and Fredrick exit.
As rainbows and dwarves start appearing hither and tither, Frederick moves to escape. Right as he does, Hunwald's plan takes effect. A throng of bodies rush to become an impenetrable tide.
Frederick is too drugged to resist after that. When pressed, he gives up the goods instantly, "I was hired to kidnap Lady whatsherface and sell her into slavery. I fobbed her off on Pardu Pildapush at his office in the Pits. ’Nough gold for a whole week o’ grit!” The confession is punctuated with a bloody cough.
He's clearly overdosed and will likely die from the binge.
What you do with Frederick is up to you...
Unfortunately, the Pits is well known to any resident. There's also only one place you can legally sell slaves in Absalom, Misery Row. Making your way there is simple. Misery Row is a massive elevated platform running the length of the Coins’ eastern edge. The platform’s base forms a wall between the Coins and Merchant districts. The slavers sunk cages inside the walls, accessible only from the top of the Row and filled with languishing slaves. These are the windows through which a prospective buyer sizes up future chattel. Between the cage pits and the slave trade, all of Absalom knows Misery Row as the Slave Pits of Absalom.
Also unfortunately, guards only let expected guests and business types through, and you're not on the list. They don't threaten you, but they are in the way.
A few ideas, what's the action?
|
|
The suave Rogue approaches the guards and explains, "We have important business with Pardu Pildapush, you know him, yes? Well then you also know he is a man who would not want to miss a phenomenal business opportunity, and you especially must know that you wouldn't want to be the guards that were responsible for his missing out on a mountain of coin. So please, point the way and I promise we will be like a Cheliaxian virgin on his first time... in, out and done!"
"Look, I ain't paid enough to give a crap so long as it seems like you got a legit reason for going. Just, if it turns south, lie about who let you up." The guard looks left and right first, then lets you by. On the way up he turns and adds, "Actually, tell'im Tevan let you up. Jerk owes me money."
On Misery Row the guards are actually quite alert. They eye everyone (and the weapons they carry) quite actively. It's not hard to find Pildapush's. Of course, his place is also the only one closed on the row. The place is busy, with guards, slavers, and slaves moving about. No one seems to pay particular attention to you, their alert eyes are quite busy.