Gameplay thread
The crisp chill of the Arcadian Ocean can be clearly felt as it sweeps across the fetid waters of Riddleport Harbor and onto the city streets, and the briny air inspires recent memories. Only a few days ago, back in Magnimar, Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch detailed the covert mission from behind the oaken desk in her office. Lissala is the Thassilonian goddess of runes, fate, and obedience she explained. Her followers are wicked and secretive, but they can be bought for the right price. The Aspis Consortium offered that price. In exchange for creating a backdoor into the Hao Jin Tapestry—a museum demiplane that we Pathfinders thought was entirely our own—the Aspis Consortium promised a river of wealth to the secretive cult. The Pathfinder Society ejected the Aspis Consortium from the Hao Jin Tapestry and the Consortium defaulted on its contract with the cult of Lissala. As you might expect from followers of a goddess of duty, the Lissalans are irate at the Aspis Consortium for defaulting. Tensions between the two groups are at their breaking point, and I need you to finish the job.
Vidrin Jenk is a silver agent in the Aspis Consortium, newly arrived in Riddleport and anxious to prove his worth to the organization. The Aspis Consortium recently purchased the Barracuda Cartage company, and Jenk operates out of the offices there. Jenk plans to patch up relations with the cult of Lissala, which is well hidden somewhere in Riddleport. To help him, Jenk requisitioned a group of Aspis Consortium specialists—all bronze agents led by a mysterious troubleshooter named Thestil Shadowtongue.
At this point, Venture-Captain Heidmarch slid several bronze badges across the desk, some flecked with blood. Those specialists aren’t going to make it to Riddleport. You are. I want you to pretend to be the Aspis Consortium agents Jenk requested. Do as he asks, but only to keep suspicion off of you until you find out where the cult of Lissala is hiding. Once you know that, I need you to do two things. First, sabotage the Lissalan safe house as completely as possible. Second, throw the blame for the sabotage onto the Aspis Consortium.
How you complete these tasks I leave to your discretion, but I want you to keep murder to a minimum. One of the Lissalan cultists is feeding us information, and I don’t want to risk you killing this valuable source. Furthermore, we want the Lissalans to remain alive so they can turn their full ire against the Aspis Consortium. Once you’ve accomplished these two mission objectives, return here.
Heidmarch smiles broadly. Welcome to the Aspis Consortium. Any questions before you leave for Riddleport?
As she awaited your questions the Venture Captain pushes the badges across the desk. All of them show the shield and viper insignia of the Aspis, but one is more ornate. She picked up this fancier badge This one belonged to Shadowtongue. One of you must take this and assume the identity.
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An elf with long braided hair wearing a loose, blue flowing robe joins the discussion. A snow-white owl is perched on his shoulder. "Greetings everyone. I am Meirdrarel of Iadara, and this is Mialee," he motions to the owl. "I do like the idea of the Consortium having a hard time with the Lissalan cultists, but this mission is still going to be a challenge."
He starts taking notes of the Venture-Captains instructions and takes one of the ordinary insignia of the Aspis Consortium, clearly avoiding the more ornate one. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a talker, but I may be of aid when it comes to research."
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A well organized dwarf greets the group, "Khargrom Shadowband at your service." He points to the fancy badge, "but no relation to Shadowtongue there, heh heh."
Khargrom appears to be a professional soldier. Average height for a dwarf, he has very little extra girth and moves surprisingly quietly when he walks. His clothes reflect subtlety as well, being mostly dark and mottled colors of greys, blacks and tans. A black metal battleaxe is strapped to his hip and his right arm sports a metal guard with nasty spikes. Set on the floor by him during the briefing is a standard bedroll and backpack. His dark brown hair and beard are an expectedly impressive length, but always secured tightly by brown leather ties.
He stays quiet until Kent speaks up, "aye, that's my skillset too. Sneaky but ain't much for talking... I tend to keep my mouth shut because otherwise I'll just tell the truth, ain't got no time for lies. But doing the sneaky subtle stuff while avoiding combat, I think that might be right up our ally."
He grabs a normal badge and starts polishing the blood off it.
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Khargrom continues picking the blood out of the crevices on the badge and adds, "about all I know about the Aspis is that they pretty much exist everywhere, no one knows who their leaders are and well... they pretty much don't care what happens to the people who get in their way."
He then looks up at the VC, "oh yeh Captain, what race was Shadowtongue and would Jenk know that fact?"
He then looks up at the VC, "oh yeh Captain, what race was Shadowtongue and would Jenk know that fact?"
That’s the best part of this: Jenk doesn’t know anything about Thestil Shadowtongue other than by reputation. Thestil is known to be a loyal Aspis Consortium agent, but goes to great lengths to remain mysterious and anonymous. Almost no one knows what race Thestil is, or even whether Thestil is a man or a woman. I recommend that your best liar claim to be Thestil Shadowtongue, and that he or she emphasizes Thestil’s ‘enigmatic spy’ reputation.
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A bunch of scrolls are placed on the table as Meirdrarel tries to remember anything about Lissala, the Consortium, and Riddleport.
"Lissala was the Thassilonian deity of runes, fate, duty, and obedience. Her followers are so obsessed to obeying her that they tend to inflict self-pain for enlightenment." The elf narrows his eyes and searches for more information about the deity, but gives up as the sea of parchment overwhelms him.
He clears his throat. "Regarding the Consortium, Khargrom is right about the anonymity of their leaders. But what we do know is that their hierarchy consists of Bronze, Silver and Gold agents. The Bronze agents are being monitored by the Silver ones and they are in turn overseen by the Gold agents, who are usually stationed in a large city." He searches for more information as Mialee watches him with her big owl eyes. "It says here that the Consortium has made several loans to temples of Riddleport with high interest rates."
"Now, the three primary temple of Riddleport are the Publican House, a tavern-temple of Cayden Cailean; the House of the Silken Veil, a brothel-temple of Calistria; and the Fish Bowl, a temple of Besmara. I'm not familiar with the House of the Silken Veil and the Fish Bowl, but I do know that almost all are welcome in the temple of Cayden Cailean." With that, he keeps the scrolls in his backpack and pats Mialee on the head.
Your new guises as Aspis Agents assumed you travel across the city. You reach Barracuda Cartage as the sun is setting.
The Aspis Consortium’s headquarters in Riddleport is a dilapidated compound showing signs of recent repair. The cartage company’s main building rises three stories above the filthy streets. Behind this main building stands a coach-house large enough for four wagons. A weedy yard is enclosed by a high brick wall, but the large wooden doors to the yard stand open to admit new business, even in this evening hour. Beside the doors, a wooden sign reads, Barracuda Cartage. Under New Management.
A group of six thuggish individuals stand around in the loading yard, overseeing a dozen laborers loading carts with a large shipment of fine sailcloth. They look suspiciously at you as your arrive, but do not approach you.
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Explorer's outfits are pretty customizable. I'm sure a bandana would be applicable instead of a hat or scarf... but I don't see any actual masks in the core equipment set, only in Ultimate Equipment.
Other than the slightly out of everyone's price range Mask of the Skull.
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OK. Instead of a mask, he simply wraps his head in a long scarf so only his eyes are visible. Behind the scarf, his face is wrapped in bandages. He is wearing the more elaborate badge.
He comes to the front of the party, stops and stares at the thugs as if waiting for something. He sighs, clearly disappointed, and turns to Khargrom. In his raspy whisper, he says "Tell those fools that Thestil Shadowtongue is here to see Jenk." He then turns back to stare at the thugs, and waits until he hears Khargrom's powerful voice. He gives the thugs a few seconds for that to sink in and then slowly walks into the place as if he owns it. He does move oddly, though, as if trying to hide a limp that switches sides from time to time.
If they make to bar his way, he will stop well out of their reach. So they can hear his raspy whisper, he'll say, "Ahhhh.. so this Jenk isn't a complete fool. Or is he a coward? Tell me, young one. Which is it?"
The thugs hear the name Jenk and one breaks from his duties. He escorts up upstairs into an office.
Vidrin Jenk stands behind a desk covered in contracts and ledgers. He peers down at the table switching his gaze between several documents. He has sharp features and is dressed in finery befitting a merchant-prince.
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Crap...
Clearly a little underwhelmed Jenk looks at "Shadowtongue" and mutters Well, ok then. I was expecting something a little more professional. Speaking a little louder he asks Forgive me, but may I see your badges?
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Nonplussed by his failure, Shadowtongue replies, "Careful, young one. Those who think they know everything, are often left to flounder on their own." He offers up his badge, "So you think you are skilled enough that you can detect a counterfeit badge? Don't worry. I've made sure you have no way of knowing who you are dealing with. Look, you are a busy man with a delicate situation to deal with. You need help. We're here. Let's skip the pleasantries and get down to business."
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While the team banters with the man, they recall their first meeting with Khellek, back in the VCs office.
Khellek listens with interest to the briefing. "I'm not sure how much help I will be if things get rough. Although bessie here.." he pats the crossbow at his side "has seen me through some tough times."
He thinks for a moment or two. "Lissala was the Thassilonian deity of runes, fate, duty, and obedience. Her worshipers are generally sadistic self-flagellants who believe that self-inflicted pain opens the mind to enlightenment. Some unkind folk have likened taking my classes to joining her cult." he shakes his head. "Lissala taught the seven virtues of rulership to Thassilonians, but these virtues became perverted under the runelords to reflect the seven mortal sins. At that time, Lissala’s worship grew more secretive and more sadistic. Many scholars assume that Lissala, like most Thassilonian gods, is no longer worshiped."
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Wylka had kept quiet during the mission meeting, deep in thought over his last mission.
Through the travel he hides all symbols of his faith, knowing that would not look good for Aspis agents.
Wylka still keeps to himself after arriving but snaps out out of it when the mission truly starts.
"My friend, Khargrom is right. Why did you drag us here? Hope it is 'entertaining'." Wylka chuckles at himself.
Jenk looks at each of you in turn, sizing you up and making his own judgements of Shadowtongues’s team. Let us all calm down. I have requested your special services to help me deal with a troublesome contractor, namely the cult of Lissala. I would like to present them with some goodwill gifts, but I need you to collect them for me. The collection itself will simply require some legwork on your part and perhaps some coercive negotiations. We have loaned three temples in the city a substantial sum and all three have defaulted on their repayments. I do not want the interest in gold, but in objects. The temples have been sent letters of demand and so you simply must go and collect. From the Publican House you must collect a sacred mug. The House of the Silken Veil has a magical dagger and the Besmarans at the Fish Bowl have a magical bicorn hat. All three must be collected tonight but I do not care in which order you collect them. Do well on this and you will be the party to deliver our gifts to the Lissalans.
The temples are reluctant to part with their relics and I cannot send mere everyday thugs to handle such important artifacts. You may need to use force or the powers of persuasion. Your reputation is that you have both, my muscle downstairs have but one, and it is not persuasion.
Jenk looks down at the cluster of papers on his desk. Now if there are no further question I really must get back to work.
Good day then
They already have been sent letters of demand and will likely be expecting representatives of the Consortium.
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Khargrom seems to be deep in thought, ”alright, that guy doesn’t trust us, that’s obvious. But either way we still gotta play along enough to get the location from him.”
He looks around at the group, stomach churning in doubt about what they may have to do. ”I see two ways to get this done and it depends a bit on who we are dealing with. Option one is to play the good Aspis agents and bully, intimidate, steal and cheat these people out of their artifacts. Option two is to play the greater good card. Be honest, explain that our need for the relics is to stop a great evil and that it will benefit the temples to loan the items to us. Once this thing crashes down on the Aspis and the Lissalans blame them for it all, we return the items and maybe build some trust in this town. I don’t know if that should be our primary option, but let’s at least keep it on the back burner.”
He doesn’t seem to have much to add about the choice of where to go, ”I don’t know much about all your weird gods, so anywhere is fine to start. Do we have any details as to what their followers believe in?”
Calistria is the most widely worshiped elven goddess on Golarion—an ancient deity with a long memory for old slights, at once mysterious, alluring, temperamental, and passionate. Although most of her worshipers are elves, she is popular with other races as well, for at some point almost everyone has felt the fire of lust, engaged in trickery, or been driven to revenge.
Revered by pirates and the unpredictable beasts of the deep, Besmara scorns land and laws for the freedom and fortune of the sea. She delights in chaos and pretense, and it’s said she crews her own ship, the Seawraith, with particularly brave or cunning pirates, taking them for raids across the planes. Brash, lusty, and greedy, she nevertheless follows a code of honor and loyalty to her crew and allies. Though she isn’t interested in senseless murder or other unprofitable acts, she prefers conflict to peace—when two nations squabble, that’s more opportunity to plunder both sides.
The Publican House is a sprawling building of rough-hewn wood and weathered shingles. Large bay windows of leaden glass provide an expansive view of the river. Loud cheers issue from the tavern, as does the sweet smell of spilled ale.
You enter and see that the place is crowded with people. There is a competition full swing. Several intoxicated patrons lift stools and tables stacked with metal cups brimming with ale. As might be expected, the interior of the Publican House is spattered with large puddles of ale and broken furniture.