"He's trying to lure us into something," Erevan says to the group. He turns his attention to Snips. "Alright, your little game ends here right now!" He takes out an alchemist's fire to try to scare the kid. "Tell us what you know now or things will get very hot soon."
Harry says with a soft voice Be easy on him there Erevan, maybe he can explain
With a shrug, he begins to follow the young man towards the back door, stopping as Erevan calls him out on it. "Hey, that's not nice. We've been nice to ya so fer...."
Nodding as the alchemist takes a rough tone, he smiles. "I suggest ya spill. You're makin me angry and I don't think too good when I'm angry...this big axe here gets thirsty."
"Ah! Don't hurt me!" Snips squawks. "I just-- I wanted-- You're going to kill me aren't you?"
You quickly convince Snips that you might not kill him if he explains himself.
"I wanted to join the Bloody Barbers. You've got to murder someone to join, so I thought I could lead you into an ambush. Look, I can tell you where they're hiding in the alley... and you let me go?"
Erevan smiles and stows away his alchemist's fire. "Now that's more like it. Just tell us where they are and you're free to go."
Snips is more than happy to give up his prospective brothers in exchange for his immediate life, and he describes the location and number of Bloody Barbers hiding in the alley.
"Hmm, what do you think? Seems that they are quite well spread out. That makes it difficult for us to encircle them. And the place is rather open, and might be hard to sneak around them." Oktai ponders a bit before suggesting. "What if one or two of us follow this young aspiring barber out the front door to draw them close, while the rest circle around?"
Considering the lay out, Trinken asks "Why dun I take the long way round? Me maybe get the jump on guys on far side of the alley. I'm not too good with ranged fights."
Erevan goes with Trinken behind one of the buildings.
"Tactically, I think we should still together and with the narrow streets, it would be easy to funnel them." Oktai follows Trinken as he fights best with other melee fighters.
Encounter Mode! Round 1.
Harry turn the corner and fires his crossbow at blue
And then uses his third action to reload.
Zork casts a cantrip to slow the closest foe's reactions.
Casting Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting
Range 60 feet; Targets 1 creature
Duration 1 round
You cloud the target’s mind with effects determined by its Will save.
Success The target is unaffected.
Failure The target is flat-footed.
Critical Failure The target is flat-footed and slowed 1
Rushing forward, Trinken swings his large axe at the unexpecting barber. "I think ya need a trim, Jim." he advises the man. Giggling at his own joke, the short man raises the blade again and slashes it downward. "Just a friendly reminder, I don't want to get kilt yet." he adds.
With his shortbow in hand, Oktai quickly moves up behind the Trinken and starts loosing arrows over his head directly into the face of the would-be ambusher in front of the goblin.
Harry starts off the ambush with a shot from his crossbow. The quarrel lodges dramatically in the building next to the blue-shirted Barber's head. Just as he looks to where the danger came from, his mind gets sent for a loop by Zork's magic.
Trinken charges down the alley and swings, his axe glancing off of the Barber's leather armor. His follow-up swing, however, opens the Barber's belly and the man collapses to the ground.
Oktai steps forward and fires two arrows out of the alley. The first plunges into the yellow-shirted Barber's chest and knocks him out of the fight. No one is sure where he was aiming the second arrow.
Encounter Mode! Round 1.
Regulas and Erevan
Erevan takes out two alchemist's fire from his satchel and moves behind Oktai.
Regulas moves around the side of the building drawing his bow.
"Hey! We're under attack!" one of the bandits shouts.
"No, really?" another shouts back.
"Let's cut 'em!" a third shouts.
The Barber in the red striped shirt advances on Trinken and thrusts his dagger at him twice, neither time scoring a touch on the goblin. The Barber in the blue shirt advances on Harry and slashes the half-elf across his arm.
The other two Barbers advance on Zork.
Encounter Mode! Round 2.
Party's Up
Harry (-4 hp)
Harry will 5 foot shift back, or provoke if that is no longer a thing and burning hands the blue guy Reflex 14 for half
Erevan lobs one of the alchemist's fire towards the red guy in front of Trinken. "Hope you don't mind a bit of heat, Trinken."
Zork raises his shield, then holds up his symbol of Nethys, and two arrows of magic fly from the two sides of the mask, one of gleaming light, the other of roiling shadow. They impact the two thugs. "Away with you! You shall fear the All-Seeing Eye!"
Focusing on the dagger being swung at him, the barbarian doesn't even seem to notice the flames licking his hide. "THATS NOT NICE!" shrieks Trinken "You was gunna ambush us, we's was warnin ya."
As smoke begins to emerge from the small man's ears, he raises his axe again and swings it downward at the foe in front of him.
Everan tosses a vial of explosive liquid onto the red-shirted thug, setting him on fire. Trinken puts him out of his mercy by chopping him from stem to stern, and then the goblin charges out into the alley.
Harry moves away from the rogue in front of him and tries to incinerate the man. The Barber dances out of the way of the brunt of the flames, but he does look quite injured.
Meanwhile, Zork calls upon Nethys to defend him, and the deity answer by striking the two rouges preparing to flank him.
Encounter Mode! Round 2.
Oktai & Regulas are up
Harry (-4 hp)
Blue (-5 hp)
Blue Stripe (-2 hp)
Yellow Stripe (-3 hp)
Oktai races out of the alley, running towards where the thugs are. He sees Harry being accosted and fires an arrow at the back of the bandit.
Regulas moves around the building searching for targets, but not finding anything.
The blue-shirted Barber goes down in the dirt with an arrow in his chest, the blood mixing with his shirt to create a purple bloom.
The blue-striped Barber moves to place Zork between himself and his remaining compatriot. Through some trick of luck, he slices to the left of Zork's head, then to the right, and then to the left again. However, the yellow-striped Barber punches two holes in his back while he is distracted dodging the other blows.
Encounter Mode! Round 3.
Good Guys are up!
Harry (-4 hp)
Zork (-14 hp)
Blue Stripe (-2 hp)
Yellow Stripe (-3 hp)
Harry double moves up to get to Yellow as close as he can and crossbow shot.
Erevan moves closer to his allies as he readies his remaining alchemist's fire. He hesitates for a while and decides that it would be better if he gets really close to the action.
Oktai closes in on the remaining barbers, worried for Zork. He fires another shot from his arrow along the way at the nearest one, but the shot goes wild this time. "Hang on there, Zork! We're on our way."
Regulas takes off through the buildings trying to head of the ones fleeing.
Steaming still spraying from the goblins ears, he watches as his companions step in front of him. With a frown, the small man hustles around the group. Though it takes all his energy to get close, he snears. "You be screwed now! Yous gunna die!"
Zork calls on the power of Nethys to heal himself.
Zork runs away behind Oktai, his shield still raised.
Harry fires a crack shot at near point-blank range and drops the Barber in the yellow-striped shirt. As the others close in, the last remaining Barber drops his blade and throws his hands in the air. "I give up! Don't kill me!"
Oktai stands over the cringing Barber, grimacing at him. "You've done this to enough victims over the years to know how this goes. You keep your life in return for information. Who's been going after the Rose Street ex-slaves?"
"Not us!" the Barber insists vehemently. "Whoever it is killed one of our own: Remna. She was a freed slave like the others; she disappeared about a week ago. We thought it was revenge for killing this half-elf cleric.
"We questioned everyone we could think of, but all any witness could tell us was the killer wore metal armor and had difficulty using his right arm."
He licks his lips. "Look. Let me go, and I'll explain to the bosses that this was just a misunderstanding. Tragic accident."
You keep your word and let the last of the bandits run away.
When you return to Venture-Captain Valsin, he sighs in relief. "I'm glad that this won't mean going toe-to-toe with one of the most influential thieves' guild in Absalom. It bothers me that the killer is still out there. We took in many of the freed slaves after the assault last year, and if he is targeting former slaves, more of our agents could be at risk.
"This investigation appears to be getting more and more dangerous, so take this in case of emergency," Valsin says, handing you a minor elixir of life. "Now, get some rest."
A letter arrives a few days after your encounter with the Bloody Barbers.
Pathfinders,
There are certain places in Absalom where criminals go when they want to keep a low profile. The Puddles is one of those places. Street after street of abandoned buildings and a small and underfunded guard force make it an ideal place for people looking to stir up trouble without getting caught.
Still, someone there may have heard something useful. Travel to the Puddles and speak to the guards. They’re called the Muckruckers, and you can recognize them by the bronze badges they wear. I’ve provided you with a small donation to help fund their public services, which should help convince them that talking to you is worth their time.
The letter is signed by Venture-Captain Valsin and arrives with a sack of thirty-five silver pieces.
Rain patters down onto the muddy streets of Absalom’s Puddles district, covering it with the murky pools of water that give the district its name. The buildings that line the streets have seen better days. Many of them are decaying, shuttered, or boarded up. The door of one of these buildings swings open, letting rats rush out into the streets. A woman wearing leather armor and a bronze badge stands in the doorway, slashing a shortsword into the swarm of rats and urging them out of the building. On her forearm, a tattoo of a dog animates and snarls.
As you loiter, the woman turns to address you.
“Do you need something? As you can see, I’m busy. Can’t have vermin chewing thorough our food stores, and this isn’t even the first swarm of rats I’ve dealt with today. They’ve been everywhere lately.”
"Excuse me, are you by any chance with the Muckruckers, or do you know where we could find them?"
Oktai moves to stand behind Zork, but doesn't speak, eyeing the woman warily.
"Yep. I'm a Muckraker--one of the few people who care enough about the Puddles to volunteer our time to protect it," she answers Zork. "Name's Ziraya al-Shurati. What do you need a Muckraker for?"
"We have a request and a donation to your cause. First, here is a donation, to help you keep the puddles safe. Second, we need to ask you about recent events -- someone is targeting recently freed slaves for murder. Have you encountered anything of that nature?"
"Well, very kind of you!" she says as Zork hands over the sack of coins, ignoring that she thinks the gnome actually looks rather shady and might have stolen the money that he just gave her because, well, it is a lot of silver.
"A few days back, I received a report from a local named Dahlia that one of her friends had gone missing," Ziraya explains. "With the current vermin problem, we Muckruckers don’t have time for a full investigation without more evidence to suspect foul play. Dalia works at the Frog's Tongue."
She provides you with directions to the tavern.
The sign announcing the tavern is a mummified frog glued to a slab of wood. The tavern itself is a two story building, but most of the walls of the first floor have rotted away or been torn down and the floor is a flooded pond full of algae and dozens of frogs.
Climbing the stairs into the second floor and true business area of the tavern, you find on a couple of patrons sipping drinks or picking at their meals. The door to the kitchen is open, through which you can easily see a middle-aged woman frying fish on a skillet.
Oktai quietly approaches the cook, coughing gently to catch her attention. "I apologise for disturbing you in the midst of your work, but we are looking for Dahlia?"