Start here for Tier 3-4 group.
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A small, brown song thrush flies in, and declares loudly "ISSLES!!!" in almost human sounding speech. It cocks its head, as if examining the occupants of the room.
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A suit of full plate, slightly shorter than average for a human, with a katana and other weapons sheathed to its belt clangs into the room noisily.
"Has anyone seen a songbird?" the armored warrior asks in a feminine voice with a slightly Tien accent.
The bird responds by chirping, flying over to her, and landing on an armored shoulder.
"There you are!" she says, and removes her helmet to reveal the face of an angelically beautiful Japanese anime girl Tien-Min aasimar woman. Looking at the others in the room, the woman introduces her self.
"My name is Misaki Hamamoto. I'm a warrior, obviously. And this bird is my companion, Whistles."
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The odd grey-skinned gnome in the room, a small crown affixed to his head, doubles over in laughter at the "contest" emerging between the old man and the brown thrush.
Wiping his brow, he composes himself and seats himself on the end table to gain a slight advantage in height.
"Oh ho! Before you stands frozen King, do not contest there is no such thing! Eagerly we await a captain's tale of Cassomir. Of dark and scary places, King Hurley has no fear!"
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Whistles quiets down as soon as Vim starts petting him, and sits on the chair watching the old men tell his stories for a while.
After King Hurley introduces himself, and Misaki curtseys, Whistles flies closer to join them.
"ISSLES!" the bird introduces himself to the gnome, landing on the floor in front of him.
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Hurley beams at the sight of Misaki playing to his kingly game.
"Hee hee!"
Leaping down from the table, he offers his hand to assist her in rising again.
"Good tidings, Princess from far to the East... who isn't alone in traveling with friends, avian, amphibian or beast."
Rummaging in his garments, "King" Hurley produces a greenish-brown toad, also wearing a tiny crown of his own.
"Allow me now to present the Prince of Toads... kept King Hurley safe he has, along many dangerous, twisted roads!"
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The presence of the gnome seems to filter through Vim's haze of recollection, and he goes wide-eyed at the sight of the Prince of Toads.
"Oh my! Is that a Taldan Brown Toad!? I thought they'd gone extinct due to the amount of make-up washed into the canals and aquifers. You're a most lucky indeed! Did you know, that the Taldan Brown Toad is..."
With that, Vim descends into a dissertation on the wide variety of alchemical uses the different parts of the toad are rumored to have.
As you may (or may not) recall, Cassomir has had some problems lately with citizens being snatched in large numbers. The Pathfinder society has successfully infiltrated the lair of Nature’s Cataclysm, a cult of druids that appeared to worship rats. You also defeated an undead cleric of Groetus named Dalario Teppish. Many would-be slaves were rescued and released, but clues were uncovered that lead to the underground system of buildings and passageways known as Cassomir below. It is there that Dalaio's twin brother, Grench Teppish, was destroyed. It seems that Grench had joins forces with dark dwarves, the Derro, and together they had plans to use an artifact, the jet rat, to create an army of dire rats and to enslave the citizens of Cassomir. Again, the Pathfinders were victorious and ended the threat for good. Or did they?
Venture-Captain Hestia Themis, a petite, raven-haired, black-eyed Taldan beauty, paces her office within the Pathfinder lodge in Cassomir and addresses you.
“I am perplexed. A new kidnapping spree plagues my beloved city. It seems our citizens make easy prey to those who profit from such exploits. While this disturbs me, I am more troubled by reports that some of those kidnapped return to the city as undead monsters who accompany this Cult of Nature’s Cataclysm plague, a plague that I can’t seem to excise from my beloved city.
“This ends now! For a third time we battle Groetus-worshiping dogs and there will not be a fourth!” Taking several deep breaths, Hestia regains her composure. “I am sending you to Swift Prison to interrogate a cultist we captured who was trying to kidnap a local engineer. Meet my man Garver out front—he’ll take you in to see the Nature’s Cataclysm fool. Find out where the other cultists hide, where they’ve taken their recent victims, and how they’re turning them into skeletons. Free as many Cassomir citizens as you can—the good publicity never hurts. Any questions?”
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Almost unseen in a corner, quietly listening to the antics before and then the briefing with nary a nod, a pile of cloth suddenly becomes animate and sits up a bit, a conical hat being pushed back a bit so a beaked countenance can appraise the room with a bit of a wary aged squint.
"We getting resources, or do we improvise?"
The tengu's head tilts slightly as he appraises the group again and lets out a slow exhalation.
My hand might get tired from this one. Let's see how they work in the field.
His cloak slides open slightly to show a well-crafted crossbow slung under one arm as he sits up a bit more.
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Hurley's eyes widen at the mention of cults, kidnappers and walking skeletons. He seems to drop his rhyming and teeters slightly between his left and right feet.
"Ohhh, oh! Necromancy! Hurley will not permit such in Cassomir... no, no! Agrees with raven-haired veesee! But Hurley wonders, if the attempt to grab an engineer was intended or coincidence? What would they need such a man for? To assemble? To disassemble? To unlock?"
“At least 15 Cassomirites have been taken—all of them engineers, city planners, masons, and the like. It doesn't seem like a coincidence.”
"As far as I know, only the skeletons."
"Resources? I thought you Pathfinders were resourceful? What do you need?"
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The tengu straightens up a bit.
"If we're going to be healing a lot of freed prisoners, that could be an issue for a team's limited resources? Only ask because it came up last Society job."
As the prison is mentioned, the tengu considers.
"Swift Prison is an a la carte deal. Pay for privileges, the more paid, the more one gets. Can even run 'round streets near th' prison if folks really pay, or get good racks. But if they cross out of the confines, immediate execution."
"Compared to Chelliax, almost a posh club. Just don't be poor."
There's a slight headtilt.
"Name's Gibbs." he mentions belatedly, realizing that he hadn't introduced himself properly. "Ranged specialist."
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"I have a wand for healing. If any of the people we rescue need it, I can heal them a little, anyway, until we get them somewhere safer where they can be attended to properly."
"Speaking of wands, can any of you use a wizard's wand? I have one that puts magic armor on Whistles, but I need to ask my fellow Pathfinders every time for help using it."
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Vim's eyes flutter for a moment, where after he jolts up, eager to impart his vast knowledge.
"Swift Prison is truly a misarable place. If a prisoner can't pay his fees, he might be thrown into the begging cells; a fate one might not survive..."
Satisfied that he was able to tell his comrades som useful information, Vim continues.
"This seems to be a rather straight forward task. I say we go see this attempted kidnapper, and hear what he has to say."
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Hurley bobs between his two feet again with enthusiasm.
"Resources! Yes, Hurley has! Copious resources, he!"
He pulls out a charred blackened wand.
"Mends wounds it does! The Chelaxian way! Burns and burns yet mends and mends!"
Tucking the wand back into his belt, he scurries to the door.
"To the kidnapper we go, make haste!"
"Do what you must, but know that within the prison, you would be best served by staying on the guards 'good' side."
Assuming there are no further questions, you proceed to the prison.
Swift Prison’s formidable gates loom over those who pass beneath them. Out front, a gilded statue stares uncaringly at those who serve time beyond her sentry-like gaze. The wrinkled, dirty faces of Cassomir’s prisoners are briefly illuminated behind the bars of the ground floor begging cells. Their pathetic drone as they beg for coppers fills the courtyard in front of the prison.
Hestia’s man, Garver—a tall Taldan man with a slim physique and plain peasant’s clothing—approaches. “You made it. Good. Follow me.” Garver turns and enters the prison, marching through myriad hallways that twist and turn and finally end at a plain but thick wooden door. Garver produces a key and says, “Our captured cultist enjoys visitors, and if you like his work, it’s all for sale.”
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Misaki pulls out a handful of copper coins and tosses them to the prisoners in the begging cells as we pass.
Whistles stays on Misaki's shoulder as the group walks through the prison, apparently trying to go unnoticed next to her helmet. Just as Garver opens the door to let us in to the prisoner, a flash of magical light passes from the bird into the aasimar girl, as Whistles casts Guidance on Misaki.
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Gibbs is rather quiet on the way to the meeting spot and then the prison, attempting to keep track of the turns and twists as the party advances.
He was about to say something to Misaki about tossing coins to the beggars, but then realizes that nothing he can say will make a greater impact than the coin she tossed around, and what the beggars will do to get it.
"Artistic, then?" he inquires of Garver.
You are led through the door and down several stone steps into a dingy, shadowed room with three cells. Garver gives the two guards there some coins and they head back up the stairs, closing the door behind them. In the center cell, covered in paint, a man dressed in torn beggar’s rags, his feet shackled to the floor by a 3-foot length of chain, throws color onto a dirty canvas. The man stops painting when you arrive, looks through the bars, and exclaims with a toothless grin: “For you, my master, always for you!” He then lays the painting atop a small pile of recent works and sets up another blank canvas, madly attacking it with his brush.
One of the paintings depicts a stately, white stone building. Three-foot-tall bas-reliefs circle the building’s outside walls at ground level, though they are warped and twisted in the crazed painter’s art. Short humanoids with large, black eyes stand atop the hall’s steps and seem to punish criminals—all of whom are wearing the robes of Taldan government officials. At the southwest corner of the building, the bas-relief glows a bright white. A lone figure attempts to sooth a group of frightened children by playing a flute— the notes are actually painted above him on the canvas.
The creatures appear to be dark dwarves, the Derros.
The next painting depicts the northeast retaining wall that shores up parts of a ruined building. It shows dozens of the same angry creatures smashing brightly-painted urns against the retaining wall, while the same lone figure from the other painting frantically attempting to push down an obviously barred door in the middle of the wall, presumably to escape another group of menacing creatures that seems to pursue him.
The moon iconography as belonging to Groetus.
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As Misaki removes her helmet to talk to the painter, Whistles whispers in her ear quietly enough that the others will have a hard time hearing (perception check subject to GM discretion), "Those moon icons on the painting are symbols of Groetus, god of end times. These aren't just random image. This guy knows what he's painting."
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"Hmn... It seems that the first picture is of Derro's attacking Cassomir’s Imperial Hall of Records."
"The second painting depicts Quickfall Abbey, a local ruin. The lone figure in both paintings is Aroden, or at least how he is pictured traditionally in Taldor."
Vim turns to the cultist, turned painter.
"What does it all mean? What can you tell us?"
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King Hurley is able to pick out the forms, identifying the Hall of Records, Quickfall Abbey and the general iconography of Groetus.
"Oh! Dark things clouds this one's mind."
Loping ahead, he comes "this close" to prodding the image's creator before posing his inquiry.
"Tales of the past or planes for future these be?"
The prisoner ignore's Vim's query. He seems to not notice you at all.
It is impossible to tell which was painted first, as they are both now dry.
After Misaki compliments the painter, he says “Friends! Did the Master send you? Yes, he must have. Praised be he who ends the days! Do you seek my secret? Soon enough—but in return I ask something from you. You must give it to me as I need it to complete my collection.” He points to two paintings hung in a shadowy corner of his cell. A third canvas hangs next to them but is blank. “If you go outside this very prison you’ll find a statue covered in gold. You may have already seen her! Describe this statue to me in exquisite detail and I will tell you all I know.”