Scenario 02: The Hydra’s Fang Incident Tier 1-5
This will be a CORE run of the scenario.
|
A quiet elf, dressed in flowing red robes wanders into the hall. He walks with a staff, though he seems quite young. He takes his time examining the decor, mumbling to himself at some minute detail. Once he sees others he raises an eyebrow, "Apologies. I should have introduced myself. My name is Thranalas, though you can call me Thran is elven is too meandering for your embouchure."
|
Also in the hall is a stout dwarf. His head is shaven and he wears the trousers of a peasant.
"As the water runs, so do people come to this hall. They all have come from somewhere, and all are gong somewhere - but do they all have names?"
He bows to Thranalas.
"This pebble is known as Oggil. I have come from far to learn at the halls of the Pathfinders."
You arrive in Diobel via the overland route from Absalom to meet a contact in a pub known as “The Tails”; a dingy, brine-soaked shack covered with swordfish tails located in a rundown section of town called South Reach. There, bitter longshoreman coming off the graveyard shifts pile in and slam rounds of a potent shark-fin liquor, cursing and complaining until they’re drunk enough to be carted home by noon.
The disparaged scene has few prying eyes—the ideal place for Pathfinders to pass along their covert whispers. You enter early in the day, when the small crowd of older men is at its most drunk and rowdy, the revelry within barely contained by the boarded-up windows. You stand out like sore thumbs among the ruddy-faced dockworkers, most of whom have more ginblossoms than teeth. The crowd immediately heckles you for being up-scalers and gold-thumbers, demanding you spend some of your coin to buy the bar a round, but quickly fall silent when moments later, a dark, cloaked figure rises from the back of the bar. Then, eyes averted, everyone returns to their former conversations. Drawing back his cloak, your contact reveals himself—a man his late forties with obvious Chelaxian features and a faint beard. He introduces himself only as Osprey, then invites you to sit before he finally tells you why the Society dragged you to Diobel:
“We’ve word that the accursed Chelaxian pirate Darsielle Du Moire’s has anchored his much sought ship, the Hydra’s Fang, in the harbor. Everyone’s looking for that bastard. He carries with him some ancient tablets of extreme historical value to our organization. Unknown to most, Wittlestone, the small Andoren town Du Moire razed to the ground, was also home to Myraxus Threeshadows, a noted but aging sage and umber mystic supposedly of ancient Azlanti decent.”
"Among Myraxus’s possessions he kept ancient forgeries of several tablets used in ancient rites during Old Azlant’s height. When Darsielle destroyed the village, he slew the wizard and took the tablets, hoping to pawn them to one of his buyers in Diobel. The tablets are a priceless archeological treasure, one greatly desired by the Pathfinder Society. In fact, just prior to the Azlanti’s death, we placed several bids to purchase the tablets and so naturally were the first to realize they’d gone missing. You must race to get Du Moire and recover the stolen tablets before his pursuers find him or he flees port.”
“If our sources are correct, we’ve learned that he owes a substantial amount of money to one of the Consortium’s more ambitious Enforcers, an importer named Lubor Staizkal. Likely he needs to settle with him at some point. Go to Lubor’s shop on Meldon Lane, near the docks, and see if you can pick up Du Moire’s trail from there, then do whatever you can to get those tablets. May the Gods speed you in this task.”
|
|
Thran takes copious notes. He looks up at the end. "do we have a description of him? What kind of entourage does he travel with?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"DuMoire is one of the most despicable people I have ever known. A Chelaxian brat, nobody likes him, not even his own family. His crew are all contemptible bastards. Any he doesn't like, he has fed to the sharks. "
He gives you a pretty detailed description of the man. He also describes what he knows of the tablets that you seek.
|
"DuMoire is one of the most despicable people I have ever known. A Chelaxian brat, nobody likes him, not even his own family. His crew are all contemptible bastards. Any he doesn't like, he has fed to the sharks. "
"I like him already." Says Colleen a young fit woman in billowy white shirt and black captain's jacket, her long black hair bound up in back.
"So someone in the Society has obviously seen them how big are they? How much do they weigh and how many are we looking for? I don't want to get there and find that the entire one-hundred forty-eight stone tablet collection weighs eighty pounds a piece."
"Lubor might aid you, provided he sees you as beneficial. Apparently, Du Moire owes him some money, so at least you are starting out on the same side of things... but remember, Lubor is going to want his coin. He is a businessman, and perhaps a little on the shady side of the customs and import business. He plays pretty close to the chest, though, so I don't know much more about him. In any case, he is the best lead I have for you."
You ask directions, and follow them until you arrive at a shop. A sign over the door reads “Lubor’s Imports.” The door hangs slightly ajar. All is dark within, and eerily silent. As you peer inside, you witness the scene of a recent brawl. Furniture lies smashed and strewn about. Near a closed door at the back of the shop, two bodies slump upon the floor, their blood pooling slowly beneath them.
No signs of life. Their throats have been slit.
Thranalas hears a sound behind the closed door that is located between the two bodies. Someone else is here.
|
|
"As a stone rolls down a hill, so do misdeeds come back to haunt one.." notes Oggil as he carefully enters the room.
He steps up to the bodies and checks them for signs of life.
"You read that on a shirt too?" Colleen says drawing her rapier and moves forward. "Say, where's that gal that was brought up in a cave at?"
And then promptly kicks one of the dead men's boots.
*THUD!* "Dammit! Couldn't Pharasma have snuffed 'em somewhere more convenient?" Colleen curses perhaps louder than her kicking the dead man's boot.
|
"It is unlike a disciple of Torag to be late of her own accord, but I shall not blame anyone else for my tardiness. I will soon catch up on our mission and support as I can."
When Tanna speaks her dwarven accent is almost to thick to understand, but with some practiced listening, you can begin to understand her quite clearly.
Oggil kicks open the door, to find a teenage girl hovering over the corpse of a middle-aged merchant. Her silent eyes filled with tears, she mouths the word “daddy.”
You see two archers unsuccessfully trying to ambush you from the dark corners, and you move a little quicker.
|
|
Yeah, I both love and hate that about Season 0. The feel and methods were still pretty fresh. PFS didn't take a step up from Living Greyhawk until Season 1, but you can see it in some of the more amazing Season 0s.
"HAVE AT THEE! Oggil, I let me in!" Thran delays until after Oggil.
Once Oggil is out of the way, Thran will dash to that square and let loose a Color Spray targeting as many of the enemies as he can (assuming that square isn't threatened.)
Well, that was fast. All three of them are struck by the colors and pass out for rounds.
Plenty of time to hog tie them before they wake up.
|
|
Oggil removes the mens weapons and ties them up. He then goes in search of a pillow for the poor girl, as she must have banged her head on the way down to the floor.
He addresses Thranalas
"He who throws out the baby with the bathwater will have a hard time staying clean." With a gesture to the girl he adds in plain speech. "Care must be taken lest allies are also victim of your enchantments."
Looking around for some water he tries to bring the girl around.
"What is your name, and what happened here? What names does the man on the floor have?"
|
|
Thran has to think about the monks words.
"worry not my enigmatic friend. If you were in the way, I'd have chosen a different spell."
As an afterthought, "or I'd trust your dodging skills and will power."
He turns to the prisoners "talk."
-Posted with Wayfinder
The girl stammers a bit, then says "My poor father! His name is Lubor Staizkal. The real killers just went through that door - if you hurry, you can catch them!" She points to another door in the room.
Colleen can see that his throat was slit open by a sharp blade, and he is certainly dead.
|
|
Tanna, in trail, pauses briefly to touch the lass on the shoulder and whispers a short prayer of support to Torag. She then says, "Oi, I too lost me parents, tho I was much younger than ye... find strength in whatever and whomever ye can, but most importantly ye mus find it in yerself!"
She then reaffirms her grip on her crossbow and follows her new companions, looking for the attackers.
You all go through the door, and find an emptied storeroom.
|
|
Oggil opens the trapdoor and looks down with his darkvision.
He then walks back to the girl.
"A Cord of two braids be stronger than a single line. Can we take you do your neighbours, or call the guard to help ye. I dunnie like to leave a girl alone with these thugs, even tied up, and her dead par too."