Thanks GM Cwethan!
Here I am! Wonder what we will all play. I'm thinking cleric. You all?
I'd like to try the rogue. Might even go with a halfling. :)
Went with barbarian
Nearly a year ago, Absalom fought off an invasion of demonflesh constructs and undead marines remembered as the Fiendflesh Siege, during which the city’s siege lord offered every slave freedom in exchange for their assistance in defending Absalom. Practically overnight, one of the city’s cruelest industries came to an end, and many hundreds of the liberated have since become Absalom’s newest citizens.
Although most have welcomed their manumitted neighbors with open arms, an unidentified serial murderer known only as the Rose Street Killer has systematically slain at least a dozen of these freed people. So far, the city’s guards have questioned scores of witnesses and suspects with no luck. The Rose Street Killer remains at large, and one of their most recent targets was Nelfurhin Zor, a former scriptorium slave who had joined the Pathfinder Society shortly after the siege. The Society doesn’t normally investigate crimes in Absalom, but Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin is furious that a Pathfinder’s gone missing thanks to this criminal. He’s assembled a team of agents to help solve the case. Don’t let him down—lives are on the line.
The following missive summoned you to the Grand Lodge:
"Pathfinders,
The circumstances surrounding the recent disappearances have me convinced that the fault lies not with some “Rose Street Killer,” but with the Band of the Palm, that flimsy front for the despicable collection of villainy known as the Bloody Barbers. Come see me for details.
-Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin"
*****
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin himself flicks an invisible speck of dust from his impeccably pressed cuff before speaking. “Thank you for arriving together; I don’t like to repeat myself. I trust you received my note, and I hope you have your wits about you. It’s all well and good for everyone in the city to concoct their own thrilling hypotheses about
some serial murderer, but Pathfinders need to be a bit more…” Ambrus thinks for a moment before continuing, “…evidence based.
“To that end, I’d like you to find some low-ranking members of the Bloody Barbers and press them for information. I suspect their straight razors are ultimately to blame for the disappearances.”
Almost as an afterthought, Ambrus adds, “I shouldn’t need to tell you to be careful in dealing with Absalom’s largest thieves’ guild, but do try to avoid the old crimson shave.” He draws his thumb across his neck for emphasis.
"Any questions?"
"Yea. What's a thieves' guild? Wait, they have a guild for that here? Don't they just steal from each other? I don't get it. Why doesn't the city just bust up their guild house and throw them all in jail?"
"You want we should break legs? Slice 'em up good? Make 'em inta stew?" Sippit leans forward, looking manic and excited by the prospect of Society-sponsored violence.
A middle aged Tian-Sha woman twists and turns, stretching herself out while she listens to the Venture Captain's briefing. Her sleeveless silver silk shirt exposes her lean and densely muscled arms, while simultaneously standing out like a sore thumb against the common clothing around Absalom. She shakes out her stocky legs in their extra loose trousers. She tightens her rope belt with a sharp tug and rests almond eyes on the Venture Captain.
Jumping mentally back to early in his explanation of the situation, Min asks in clipped syllables "What makes you think this action of Band of the Palm, or Blood Barbers, if that is their name? Thieves, more than any others, have reason not to kill unless they themselves want to die. Better profit in secrecy and subtlety, is that not right?"
She rests a hand on Valsin's desk before continuing "But if you feel Blood Barbers are to blame, we can go and break them a little. Does not sound like very difficult bounty for Society's normal pay." She casts a glance at the manic goblin "Though this one may make more difficult. Should we break it too?"
After a pause to hear some of the VC's responses, she also asks "How many of these slaves go missing? And where? If these Blood Barbers not helpful, we can look who else might skulk around."
A lanky elf frowns gruffly at the assignment of infiltrating thieves. His face is at once youthful and experienced. It's hard to pin down whether he's middle aged or "fresher" for an one of his long-lived ancestry. He has sharp facial lines, long white hair and particularly bushy eyebrows that a dwarf would be proud of (but you better not tell him that).
I agree. In the spirit of evidence-based, can you relay the circumstances that cause you to believe the thieves' guild is responsible? When speaking he projects a forceful presence that isn't apparent otherwise.
I do hope he's wrong. I was looking forward to the intrigue of tracking a serial killer who loves his or her work. Handling thugs is not my preference.
Ambrus's face is a mask of concern as he tugs at his muttonchops in dismay, "What part of "be careful" was unclear? While several of the last dozen mysterious murder sprees in Absalom were eventually linked back to the guild, unless this is their work as well, I'd as soon not force every agent on duty in the city to have eyes in the back of their heads!
"As for why the city hasn't shut them down, the reasons are threefold: corruption, they're relatively decentralized, and of course, their guildhouses aren't advertised as such.
"To find them, I'd start by comparing notes. I know some of you have an ear to the ground, or other ways of acquiring information.
Well? Get to work!"
"Subtlety is overrated. How about I go out there and knock some heads together until someone gives?"
"I like dwarf plan. Maybe we add burning people/things too?" Sippit nods vigorously, forgetting the whole 'be careful' admonition.
Min pulls back as the Venture Captain simply skirts past her questions about the missing people. "Fine, we will look for your thieves gang members. You must have had really bad experience with them in the past. " She muses a little out loud.
"We will be back soon with the lead you need, Valsin." With a single final stretch, she stalks comfortably out of the room. Over her shoulder, she comments to the party "I will spend some time pondering the situation while you smash skulls or burn or whatever strange methods you think appropriate. We will meet back up to discuss results. Good?"
The elf shakes off his distaste at the assignment and thinks for a moment.
My cousin got himself into some nasty trouble with the thieves guild. He thought he could make some extra tuition money as an informant and a lookout for burgling operations. Every family's got one. I barely paid attention when he talked about the places he frequented with them... what was that tavern where he would meet them?
After Taldidri finishes questioning a few suspects, if they did not provides satisfactory answers Grinwald will corner one and ask his own questions.
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Sippit is able to charm his way into quite a bit of information, which Taldidri is quite helpful in sifting into more usable bullet points.
True to their appellation, Bloody Barbers often work as barbers, using barbershops as bases of operation and meeting places.
The Band of the Palm, the cover organization for the Bloody Barbers, meets regularly in the Coins. Searching in or near that district is likely a good starting point.
The Bloody Barbers are notorious loan sharks and often run illegal narcotic dens, so a neighborhood with a high concentration of such activity is likely to house at least a few chapters of the Barbers.
Though the Bloody Barbers are the larger guild, the Smoke Knights thieves’ guild is much more secretive—so much so that it’s never been proven to exist. However, the Barbers at least attempt to maintain a veneer of secrecy and are unlikely to gather anywhere that a high-profile crime has recently taken place, lest they draw attention.
The little-known head of the Bloody Barbers, Anken the Cutter, is notoriously paranoid, and he is likely to forbid meetings of lesser members anywhere near his favored parts of the Coins.
As for Min's understanding, she is able to provide a little extra insight as well:
Not even the Bloody Barbers dare to operate in large groups in Absalom’s central district, known as the Ascendant Court, full as it is of churches and good-aligned priests. They’re unlikely to meet nearby.
The handful of families that control the Bloody Barbers are of Chelish descent, and many have taken up their homeland’s worship of devils. You are likely to find signs of devil worship near one of the Bloody Barbers’ meeting place.
This all helps narrow things down - somewhere close to but not in the Coins district, nowhere near the Ascendant Court, avoiding the many many high profile crimes scattered throughout the docks, but also keeping an eye out for signs of diabolism.
Still, your area is still pretty large to search until Grinwald leans on a recalcitrant victim of a Bloody Barber burglary who provides something crucial: a name.
======
The Smiling Cut is a small barbershop in the Docks, just south of the border with the Coins district. Inside it has four worn barber chairs and a wooden waiting bench. The astringent odors of various hair tonics combine with that of talcum powder to produce a potent aroma. A large, tarnished mirror runs the full length of one wall, with a low shelf below it that holds an assortment of combs, razors, scissors, and jars holding murky liquids. The shop is almost empty, and it’s quiet enough to hear the snip of its lone barber’s scissors as she works on a large man’s wild mane, while a freckled shop sweep stoops over hair clippings that he’s meticulously swept into a neat pile.
"Maybe Sippit is going under the covers? Maybe he is needing haircut?" The goblin helpfully pats his bald goblin pate.
Grinwald is fairly certain there is a secret room somewhere. He's sorely tempted to make a circuit of the room thumping walls and the floor looking for a hollow sound. At least that's how its done in all the stories. But he figures he should wait a bit for the more subtle members to try their approach first. He's not sure how the staff would react to him banging is falchion against everything, but suspects it would be a negative reaction.
Min crosses her muscled arms as she looks carefully around the Smiling Cut. After a pause long enough to be uncomfortable, she bobs her nose towards the shop sweep to get his attention. "We're not here looking for haircut, boy. Get us the right people to talk to, understand?"
The elf carefully enters the barber shop, nervous about not knowing how his group is going to approach infiltration. Should he sit down for a haircut to help maximize staff distraction?
When Min speaks up so directly, he starts with surprise and looks at her with wides eyes and mouth agape for a brief moment. He quickly recovers and looks to the shop sweep.
He nods sternly to the boy and adds Quickly now! We'd like to save some of our patience for your people.
The boy looks at you with mouth wide open; he looks like he's about to say something when the barber cuffs him behind the ear. "Quit your gawping, Snips! Does it look like the shop's clean?
What kind of people mighty you be looking for? If you're not looking for a haircut, you might just be lost."
Greta smiles in what she hopes is a disarming manner. "No, not a haircut. We've heard talk around the streets that this is the place to go if we're looking to raise some quick gold. And we're talking about turning those stakes into some serious profit. It's a sure-fire thing, you see. But I'd better not go into any further details until we see the folks that can help us raise that kind of coin. But believe you mee that those who front us the gold come out ahead, and so do we! See?"
The boisterous barber gets very still as Greta talks. She fixes a smile to her face and responds in a rather less convincing manner than the halfling, "Get rich quick schemes, eh? Well, I'm sure I don't know anything about those. All I do is rent this chair, and keep my head down, get me? I've got hair to cut, and after that, ale to drink. No time for any trouble."
"Who am knowing what am going on?" the goblin lets a flame play over his fingers. "Am shame if place am burning down. Shame, shame, shame."
Eyes wide she folds up her razor and starts ushering her half-shorn customer out the door, "He's done. I'm off to the pub. Don't want any trouble, didn't see any faces, don't know any names. Snips, lock up once they've done what they need to do."
Grinwald is sorely confused by all the veiled threats and responses and all that nonsense about get rich quick schemes.
"What does that mean? Is that a new style of beard?"
Greta taps her chin with one finger as the barber and her client make a hasty exit. Glancing at the one called Snips, she speaks to the youth. "Seems like she isn't interested in the more lucrative part of this business. Maybe you can help us find what - or rather who - we're looking for?" The halfling is ready to take action to defend herself if necessary, but she is also confident that the Bloody Barbers are like any criminal organization - willing to do business if it's going to make them a profit.
The elf watches Greta work her tongue efficiently, and chuckles to himself when it causes the barber to spook and shuffle past him out of the shop, pushing the confused customer along.
I hope this one doesn't scare so easily.
He looks back and forth between Greta and Snips, expectantly.
With Greta taking the lead on 'negotiations', Min walks over towards the young sweep and claps him on the shoulder. "You are a very good shop sweep, are you Snips? Also good at other things maybe? Answering questions one of those?" She steps behind him and pushes him towards Greta to encourage him to answer (while simultaneously surrounding him).
With the only one left in the group a scrawny lad, Grinwald starts moving around the room looking for secret passages by thumping on walls and the floor, moving furniture and book shelves, and generally making a noisy nuisance of himself.
Once he's alone, Snips looks up at you all more directly, though he's clearly still very nervous. "Y-you're l-looking for the Bar-Barbers?"
His gaze flicks to the glassy storefront of the shop, and he flinches.
"I can tell you how to find them. Just m-meet me out back, where no one will see us talking."
Greta figures the kid is just nervous about the situation in general and gives him a wink to help calm him a bit. "Lead on, kid. We'll be right behind you. Nothing to worry about while we're around you."
Grinwald figures the talkers can keep talking. He's got something more important to do and continues to search for secrets.
Min nods to Flynt, leaning over to offer in response "Maybe ambush, maybe something else. I am ready to fight if needed." She follows the boy out, jogging to catch up with him and then keeping him within arm's reach.
Taldidri follows cautiously at the back, whispering. He seems like he's just nervous, but I agree if he's not one of them he's still leading us to them and there could be an ambush regardless.
Unaware that the others are heading in a different direction from him, Grinwald continues on his pointless mission until he looks up and finds himself abandoned.
"Hey, where are you all going? Wait for me!"
You follow Snips out, eyes pricked for danger as he whistles in what is clearly nonchalance.
Outside six thugs wait at the ends of the alley with blades drawn. As they advance, one of them sneers a greeting, "Well, well, well. Looks like this time you aren't catching anyone by surprise."
Greta
Bloody Barbers
Flynt
Taldridi
Grinwald
Min
Sippit
Sippit cackles at the thugs. "Oh oh! They is made of flesh! Tasty, tasty flammable flesh!"
He makes a motion and speaks a word (two action spell) and casts Produce Flame! He flings at the nearest thug! for fire damage! he then moves 25 feet closer to the thug! (3rd action)
Greta smiles as her nimble fingers load a bolt into a small crossbow and she fires at the lead thug while moving for cover (if there is any to be had!). "That's what you think!" She shouts in her piping voice as the bolt flies toward him.
vs AC of lead thug
piercing
precision (piercing)
"I was wondering when you'd show yourselves. How about you do us a favor and stay conscious after this. We need one to interrogate." Min winks at the one that spoke, then cracks her neck from side to side, ready to fight.
Flynt's arrows drop the closest of the thugs, but unfortunately Sippit and Greta's projectiles go awry.
The thugs close, some of them ducking behind cover as they draw nearer, a couple braver ones taking potshots with their slings instead.
Fortunately, the canny monk is entirely aware of their presence, and is able to duck out of the way of their stones.
Greta
Bloody Barbers
Flynt
Taldridi
Grinwald
Min
Sippit