This wide, open chamber smells of rotten flesh and harsh chemicals. A curved workbench with dozens of drawers sits against the southern wall of this room, its surface covered with surgical tools, body parts, and alchemical items. On the workbench, a hairless six-legged rat the size of a housecat floats in a vat of blue liquid. The creature’s body is covered in surgical wounds that have been carefully sutured shut.
A small, dark-skinned man with elongated features quizzically and annoyingly replies to the party's presence, although the six-legged rat-like creature next to him hisses in anger. "Who are you? I was not expecting guests!"
The six-legged rat creature is a kirrix, a strange monstrosity of alchemy and dire rat mutations. It's bite is virulent and can inflict strange diseases almost willingly. Worse, it can exhale infected pathogens into a conical area to spread its plague to a larger number of people. The kirrix can 'clease' diseases from others, though, and harbor the viruses and bacteria within their bodies to infect others at a later time. They have blind sense, darkvision, and can burrow and climb with moderate efficiency.
The person talking to you is a wayang, a strange group of humanoids seemingly aligned with shadows, but not like fetchlings. They are often irrational by human standards and can blend in the darkness sometimes.
"Oh, in that case, come on in!"
It is hard not to notice the devilish smile of the small man, as if he wants you to step juuuuuuust forward.
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"Well...this thing in here is most likely here to set up an ambush, is what my gut says."
"One moment, if you please."
Marduk moves back down with the others instead.
Grabbing the wand of mage armor, he asks Gob to cast it on him.
"Alright guys, small shady character, and a giant rat thing, that looks hungry."
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Wyeth blinks at the man's sudden change in attitude. That worked? he thinks with a bit of admiration for Marduk's diplomatic abilities.
But, his assessment changes as the beefy monk says something in a guttural language, then confers with the group. "I can, and will, talk to him," Wyeth says quietly, "but I'm with Hakime -- we don't need to be fighting, do we? If Marduk thinks it's a dicey situation, let's apologize for disturbing the guy and go check the doors."
When the party returns to decline the small man's offer, he grins maliciously as he palms a small bag in his hands. "Not so stupid are you? Then have at you!", hurling the bomb immediately!
The little, dark-skinned man cackles as Marduk is covered in acid, the bag hitting him square in the chest as his skin sizzles; Hakime is splashed with some of the blast!
"That's what you get for trying to mess with Doctor Yekai Deathhand!", he shouts triumphantly as he prepares another 'bag', the rat-like beast snarling at the party.
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob
Yekai
Aspex
Wyeth
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
Yekai must have laughed before he looked, not realizing that Marduk's quick reflexes smacked the bomb away from him before it exploded!
The half-orc's deflection sends the bomb into the corner of the wall where Marduk can duck under the worst of the blast, avoiding the painful gobs of acid!
"Wait, what? No fair! You should be dissolving... DISSOLVING!", Yekai shouts angrily.
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob
Yekai
Aspex
Wyeth
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
Gob hits Yekai with his missiles and incurs the little man's wrath. "Bah, let's see if this half-orc is as nimble!"
Gobs of acid hit Gob, ruining portions of his 740gp suit. Marduk evades the blast, already seeing the attack coming!
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (9 damage)
Aspex
Wyeth
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
Grease appears on the floor underneath the little man!
As Wyeth moves up to give the little man the scare of a lifetime, he feels the floor beneath him give way!
Before his spell goes off, Wyeth falls to the ground below, landing with a thud as he is 30' away from the party!
The large rat-beast moves up and waits, ready to defend its master!
Hakime fires a pair of arrows, the first one striking Yekai in the arm! "Let's see if you can resist my goo!", the small 'doctor' giggling.
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (13 damage)
Aspex
Wyeth (7 damage, in pit, prone, standard action remaining)
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
-Posted with Wayfinder
Gob and Marduk continue to hammer on Yekai, who is looking worse for wear. He grabs a vial and chugs it, looking much healthier.
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (15 damage)
Aspex
Wyeth (7 damage, in pit)
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
-Posted with Wayfinder
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (15 damage)
Aspex (crossbow readied)
Wyeth (7 damage, in pit) Perception check + standard action
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
Unfortunately, other than the skeletons of some smaller multi-legged rats, nothing else remains here.
The rat beast stands in front of the other side of the pit, snarling ferociously!
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (15 damage)
Aspex (crossbow readied)
Wyeth (7 damage, in pit) Perception check + standard action
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk
Hakime's arrows go wide this time while Marduk and Gob continue to pelt Yekai with their projectiles.
Yekai tries to move behind his trusty large rat-beast...
... then lobs a bomb overhand towards Hakime!
But the pet in the way throws off the alchemist's aim!
Hakime avoids the acid, but Marduk's reflexes are thrown off by the bomb's poor trajectory!
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (25 damage)
Aspex (crossbow readied)
Wyeth
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk (6 damage)
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Looking around and seeing neither threat nor exit, Wyeth quickly shucks his pack. Knowing he has no grappling hook to aid a climb out of the pit, he instead grabs a flask of acid.
"Arr! Incoming... err... upcoming! Heads up... arg... I be meaning down, mateys!"
So saying, he hefts the flask and then lobs it in an upward arc.
The oracle yelps, ducks and covers as the flask shatters against the edge of the pit's opening.
Wyeth lobs a vial and it smashes on the wall, but not close enough to harm him or anyone else.
Aspex looks on with envy...
The rat creature continues to snarl, just waiting for someone to foolishly cross over the pit...
Init Order (bold = up)
Gob (12 damage)
Yekai (25 damage)
Aspex (crossbow readied)
Wyeth
Rat-beast
Hakime
Marduk (6 damage)
Both Marduk and Hakime wound the rat-beast while Gob's magic missiles render Yekai unconscious!
The rat-beast, shocked at the fall of his master and upon its own injuries first snorts, then exhales a sickening burp of noxious gas!
Hakime seems find, but the half-orcs feel uneasy as they breath in the horrid gas.
Marduk and Gob were probably diseased...
Getting Wyeth out and making it to the other side, the party finds:
- potion of lesser restoration
- potion of remove disease
- 4 alchemist fires
- 5 antiplagues
- 2 antitoxins
- rhinarium paste
- smelling salts
- cloak of resistance +1
- mwk thieves tools
- bronze Aspis Consortium badge
- magic flask
This is a flask of reconcoction. If a level 1 potion is placed into the vial, the flask analyzes the makeup of the liquid. If the potion is drunk, it is refilled automatically 1 week later.
Oddly, the Aspis Consortium badge you find is a knockoff; a well-made one, but a knockoff nonetheless.
Looking over the lab itself, there are reams of paper that litter the area. Most are crammed into drawers haphazardly and are covered with blood or alchemical stains. The notes roughly explain the construction of a magic flask that can refill its contents as well as the procedure for creating the multilegged rat-beasts you encountered.
Mixed with the alchemical notes are trade documents for the purchase magical reagents... conjuration ones in particular.
Hidden among the notes are also some trade agreements between Tseka and a local thieves guild dubbed the Dragon Fangs. You see several arrangements for the Fangs to beat up Tseka's enemies and to replace local merchant trade documents with forgeries.
Within the stacks are documents showing Tseka gathering magical reagents through a variety of means, legit and otherwise. You can tell that one document compares the prices for goods across dozens of different merchants and you recognize some shorthand on the same page that suggests Tseka is planning on starting her own business and undercut the competition.
Hidden underneath a stack of notes is a box with narrow bars of a dull, dark gray metal. The metal is glaucite, an adamantium/iron alloy that is only found in Numeria.
Finally, one drawer mentions something about the Korholm Agenda with several other interesting tidbits. These include schematics of several rooms of the Grand Lodge, plans to have someone named Marnarius lead an army out of the Hao Jin Tapestry.
One of the pages is marked with various odors... like a code of some sort, maybe even some olfactory writing.
This is actually a letter, in the language of Dark Folk! It reads:
The other members of the Agenda were no fools. They all took great pains to conceal their identities. Disguises and illusions dancing through the meeting chamber make the task of identification more difficult, but here is what I know for sure.
The leader betrayed a hint of a Thuvian accent in an otherwise carefully flat tenor voice. The leader has clearly taken precautions against divination magic.
One woman spoke with a voice I have heard only rarely, from the Iblydan archipelago.
Another woman’s voice was distant, as though she were in a trance. There was something eerie and unnatural about it that I couldn’t quite place. Whatever language is the source of her accent, I have never heard it.
Perhaps the easiest to track down will be the Varisian man, who allowed a distinctly Sczarni turn of phrase slip into his speech. Varisian contacts have confirmed his identity: Madreki Gael.
Party status:
Aspex
Gob (12 damage, ???)
Hakime
Marduk (6 damage, ???)
Wyeth (7 damage)
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"Thankee for the rescue, mateys," Wyeth says as he dusts himself off after having been recovered from the pit. "And yer welcome fer me findin' the pit fer ye." He pauses to look over the edge. "Be nothin' down there but baby skellingtons of..." he pauses to point at the rat-creature... "that thing, arr."
Wyeth leafs through the notes and alchemical bits, then stares at the flask. Something about it...
Picking it up, he flicks it with a finger to hear how it rings, then casts Detect Magic on it. (Followed by slowly sweeping the spell's cone of effect around the room while it lasts, to check for other magic auras.)
Once done, he rubs his chin while staring at the flask a while longer. "Arr. This here be remindin' me of someat I hear-ed of in alchemy class. Ye keep a simple potion in 'er, and a week after ye drink it, she refills." He looks around at the others. "A healing potion, or someat else maybe better?"
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"Nothing unusual about this aspis badge." Gob says as he tosses the badge aside. "Now here are a few interesting things. Looks like he was into conjuration magics. Had some dealings with a gang known as the Dragon Fangs and it appears he got his hands on some galucite. Don't normally see this metal outside of Numaria."