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Raoul hears a slight scraping of roofing tile and notices the archers bearing down on them. He takes note of the two on the far side of the street that seem close together and draws out a small bit of incense, rubbing it between his palms. A strange earthy scent fills the air and encompasses the archers done up in blue and yellow - filling their minds with fantastic patterns of color.
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Raoul reacts quickly and hypnotizes Ungala with his fascinating patterns! Johendar begins a shanty!
U: fascinated
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Hearing the seafaring aasimar begin signing just before he can, Vasily shoots the man a sideways glance, then advances up past the rest of the group, training his crossbow on the Green brigand, hiding in the alley. With a clear LOS, Vasily lets fly with his bolt. The bard curses as the shot flies high, missing everything.
Raoul speeds the party's movements, although Vasily's bolt misses his target.
U: fascinated
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An injured Sen moves (SE SE S E E) to pin down Red brigand, drawing katana along the way! If he proves to be "not threatening", Sen will try to stab!
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Sen moves to stab one of the brigands but his blade slips over the man's armor! Ungala stands transfixed by Raoul's spell but her cohorts press the attack!
U: fascinated 1 more round
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Darius moves directly in front of the 'green' henchman, drawing a sword and slashing at him.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Sen gives the man his best oni face. "Two hits? I clearly need to catch up, you lowlife."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Darius cuts into one of the brigands! Jennix then takes down the man atop the building and finishes off the one behind the barricade for good measure! Sen then finishes off the one in the alley. Antonella then hits Ungala with a chakram and clears her head of the fascinating pattern!
U: 5 dmg
green: 7 dmg
Johendar takes down one of the bandits and then turns his attention to the leader, putting an arrow in her chest and dropping her! Raoul finishes off the man near Darius and the lone bandit remaining throws up his hands in defeat!
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Raoul brushes any dust off of his robe as he looks around at the fallen enemies. "Good show, everyone. Good show."
He furrows his brow at Vasily's suggestion, "But, shouldn't we return to Novaria after delivering this wagon?"
"However, I guess since we're here we could look for that clue from the note. What was the number? 342, right? Must be a stall number..."
Free Trade Square is the busiest part of Bloodcove. The streets swarm with merchants and wagons buying, selling, and transporting food, spices, and antiquities. Lot number 342 sits on the southeastern edge of the market, bordering the fringes of Warehouse Row. A run-down-looking stall dealing in lamps and oil occupies the space, though the poor quality of the lamps may be an indicator of why no customers are anywhere near the stall. The owner, a thoroughly bored middle aged Mwangi man, sits behind the counter making fishing lures. He does not react when you approach his stall.
The man stares at Johendar for a moment. "What?" he finally asks in confusion.
His demeanor changes drastically when you mention (more directly) the bounty board message. His eyes become serious and he glances around the square before waving you to come around to the back of his stall.
He emerges from the back of the stall with a small clay oil lamp in one hand. He once again checks the area no one else is watching before handing the lamp over to you and saying “This will lead you to what you seek. Only one of your number can use it, but keep it protected and out of sight as much as you can. Good luck.” With that he returns to his stall.
The clay lamp is unremarkable, but it rattles slightly when handled, as though there were a broken piece of clay inside.
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"Oh, no. She's one of those 'I do these twenty exercises once a week, let me describe them all in detail uninterrupted RIGHT NOW' kind of women."
Sen doth protest the seemingly-random destruction of the lantern. "Uh, you think they'd give us a lantern that sounds broken if it's not supposed to be? Did I miss something at the briefing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time 'smash the stuff' and 'protection' mix are when the shopkeep comes up short on his dues, right?"
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Walking away from the stall, Antonella and Sen can come up with no other method to retrieve whatever is in the lamp except to smash the thing.
Inside is an item very familiar to Pathfinders: some kind of ioun stone.
Slot none; CL 12th; Weight -
Aura moderate divination and evocation; Price 500 gp
While orbiting a creature’s head, this ioun stone provides its bearer a +2 enhancement bonus on Survival checks to avoid becoming lost. Once per day, its user can use it to cast know direction.
When slotted into a wayfinder, the stone causes the wayfinder’s needle to point toward the nearest hematite sphere ioun stone, no matter the distance, enabling bearers to locate one another across a city or even across a continent. When an ioun stone of this type comes in contact with another hematite sphere ioun stone, one of the two stones fades into a dull gray ioun stone, while the other stone begins to home in on the next nearest stone.
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Raoul chuckles softly as he searches his pockets. "Thought for certain I had purchased a wayfinder, but it seems I was mistaken. Does anyone have one?" The elf looks around expectedly.
"Oh!" Raoul exclaims as he reaches into one of his pockets and draws out two small pearls. He takes one and balls his fist around it, then holds his fist to his forehead for a moment. He repeats the process with the other pearl.
"Oh, don't mind me. Just refreshing some of my arcane abilities."
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Sen shrugs at the forced destruction. "Weird, usually my bosses complain when I have to break junk they loan me. I figured it might'a had, like, a focusing chunk in it that had to jumble around or something."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Once the stone is slotted into the wayfinder, the wayfinder directs you to a section of Bloodcove that occupies dry land. There, a fountain stands in a small plaza, and the needle points to an unoccupied storefront. There is little of interest inside the building beyond its cellar door, which is sealed with an imposing iron padlock.
Vasily notes that the lock is only an illusion and leads the party inside the cellar!
The cellar beyond is a small, square room with walls made of irregular stone cobbles.
(+1 traps)
(+1 traps)
Antonella, Sen, and Raoul note a hidden niche behind one of the stones. Unfortunately none of them spots the spring-loaded trap rigged to the stone! A needle flies out towards Atonella!
You discover a second ioun stone as well as a broad, wax-sealed scroll case that contains dozens of pages detailing Aspis activities in Bloodcove, qualitative data about the upcoming expedition, and even dossiers on several of the agents involved. Some entries stand out from the others, including Pahwoki the Blade, a murderous Bekyar who wears a necklace of ears and is believed able to make the trees walk; Lilianna Alazzario, an agent relocated to Bloodcove after she burned down an Isgeri village just to collect a small debt; Yola Hask, a one-handed smuggler banished from Rahadoum for “crimes against the state;” Micky Threetoes, an Andoren exile with a history of aiding slave traders; Zamil Namoth, an Ustalav aristocrat known both for his charm and his claiming trophies from his macabre hunts; and “Fiveknives” Kalim, a seasoned explorer of the Mwangi Expanse infamous for his callous treatment of the native people.
Malika also suspects that the mission’s primary purpose is looting, and she reports that the Consortium is particularly interested in a giant golden statue of some type.
Finally, her report suggests the Consortium knows about Venture-Captain Nieford Sharrowsmith’s expedition to the Bandu Hills, though it seems the Aspis are merely planning to attack him but have not actually done so yet.
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Quickly reviewing all the data, Vasily tucks it back into the scroll case, and stores that safely in his backpack. "I bet the old VC's would like to take a look through this stuff. That group sounds like serious trouble, and if they're after the expedition to Bandu, someone needs to intervene."
Pointing to the ioun stone, the Varisian suggest they use the same method to see if it leads them to another cache of information.
The ioun stone does not point to any further caches, but with Malika's reports in hand you feel confident that it is time to return to Aya and report on your findings.
Exiting Bloodcove is relatively easy, but less than a mile from the city the road leads to a narrow bridge crossing a small tributary of the Vanji River. On the other side of the bridge stands the Consortium agent, Na'alu, accompanied by a strange, artificial looking humanoid. "I'll be taking those documents back now," he says smugly. "My employer would very much like to know their contents."
Na'alu falls into Raoul's pit!
N: 8 dmg
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Darius moves ahead slightly, standing on the ground kust north of the bridge's closer end, then readies his sword for an attack should the strange creature move within range, hopefully with a friend flanking.
-Posted with Wayfinder
N: 8 dmg
You can't see what goes down in the pit but you certainly hear several curse words emanating from below ground.
N: 8 pnts