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Seeing Roustan fall unconscious from Warren's color spray, Simeon realizes that he's much closer to the front lines of this fight than he likes.
Raising his hands and speaking his arcane words of power, Simeon lets loose a color spray of his own, hoping to catch as many of the attackers as possible by aiming over Roustan's unconscious body.
Success
Success
Success
All enemies fall to the ground unconscious.
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”Someone who knows how should tie these thugs up so that we can ask them some questions before we turn them over to the city guards. I’ve got a length of rope in my pack we can use for at least one of them.”
Simeon kicks the weapons out of the hands of the unconscious attackers and towards the rest of the group.
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"Wonder twin powers activate! Your color spray, very impressive magic Simeon. I'm excited to introduce you to Sebastian my summoned owl, when next the chance comes. We could accomplish so much together! During our last outing with Bressa and some other pathfinders, Sebastian was instrumental in a battle against the Hounder gang and it's leader, a notoriously vicious gang located in the poor Absolom district. In fact I'm pretty sure Bressa is quite smitten with him!" Warren laughs, eager to talk arcane hypothesises and theory, and swap spells and knowledge with the formidable mage Simeon! Before that however, he gives the human barbarian a swift kick in the family jewels. In honor of the summon he vanquished..
Warren slips however, and tries to play it off like an awkward jig..
"What the he'll was all that for anyways, if your bandits then you've just s@$* the bed. For were all broke." Warren says to the unconscious human, and then heads over to rouse Roustan, the only victim of Warrens magic
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"What tha?!" Bressa is surprised when the vessel of rage, froth, and iron muscles that she grabbed hold of suddenly goes limp. Fearing it may be a ploy and worried that she might not be able to hold the man up, she continues the grapple all the way to the ground and holds him fast. "Oh..." is about all she offers when she realizes the dude she has in a body lock is unconscious. She pulls out some rope and helps tie them all up.
She sighs and giggles when she hears that Warren stunned our own guy.
"Oh yeah, Sebastian? One hell of an owl. I'd fight back to back with him any day." A mischievous grin warms her face, "Maybe you should leave the finger-wiggling up to him too"
-- edited about 8 times already :)
Roustan awakes to see the three attackers bound.
During the examination of the fallen you find two symbols that all of the attackers were carrying with them.
The first symbol is the holy symbol of Norgorber. He is the only evil god amongst the Ascended. He is known as a Taldan deity of thievery and assassination, as well as a keeper of secrets. He is called the 'Reaper of Reputation' by some, but has more insidious titles among his other worshipers. He remains an enigma to most, and his true motives are unknown. Many of his own followers remain ignorant of his plans and designs.
The symbol belongs to an organization called the Harbingers, which was founded around the Book of One Thousand Whispers and that are dedicated to bringing about the promised Age of Glory by making the prophecies from the ancient Book of 1,000 Whispers come true.
The Book of 1,000 Whispers is a book of prophecy used as a guidebook by the Harbingers of Fate in Absalom. This book predicts events happening between the years of 4604 AR and 4714 AR. Unfortunately for the Harbingers, many of the remaining prophecies make no sense.
Additionally, the dwarf had a written note that unfortunately is written in a strange code.
The note details that the Harbingers want to attempt to make the recorded prophecies within The Book of 1,000 Whispers come true so as to set the world right after the death of the god Aroden. The group has come to the Shrine of the Failed in search of unattended items that fulfill more of the book’s strange conditions, but they have heard of the investigation of the Pathfinders and as their mission is in direct violation of the Harbingers’ mission they are to attack the Pathfindes and try to kill them to ensure the Pathfinders don’t interfere with the foretold omens.
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Quinn looks at the symbols and gasps. "Harbingers! I've heard rumors, of course, but thought they might be just that. They believe in the prophecies of the legendary Book of 1,000 Whispers and that some sort of Age of Glory could be set off in the next few years."
He rapidly reads the note, scoffing at the elementary code used to encrypt it.
"Ah, and now we see their true purpose here. They came to the Shrine of the Failed to steal some items to help fulfill the more . . . unusual prophecies in the Book of 1,000 Whispers. But when they learned of our mission here, they knew we would interfere. Today has been a day of revelations indeed!"
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"Well, I think we need to secure these documents here and make sure that Drandle Dreng learn what we discovered. I suggest that Quinn and I take a look through what's here so that we can better report our discoveries. Maybe some of the rest of you can get our captives out of here and hand them over to the city guard, perhaps without mentioning the secret cache of documents we discovered."
"There is also still the mystery of what message is recorded on the Pathfinder coin. Though I think we may have solved this mystery without finding out."
Simeon can't wait to page through the document cache, looking for anything particularly secret or noteworthy. :-)
You save your attackers' lives and learn that they were Harbingers that wanted to kill you because some of the Harbinders' crude prophecies could have been invalidated by Eylysia’s cache.
After surviving the ambush, you are able to leave the Shrine of the Failed after some explanations to the city guard who take the three Harbingers into custody.
The crowd gathered around the Starstone Cathedral has disbanded, and many of the locals are still horrified following Sir Reinhart’s attempt to vault the chasm on horseback, which ended with a fall into oblivion.
You arrive back at the Grand Lodge with Eylysia’s cache.
You are now just steps away from Dreng who looks at you with a smile at first and with some concern when he sees the marks of battle on your clothing.
"You are back. I hope you have my bottle ... and can explain the shape that you are in." he says with a raised eyebrow.
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"The wine cellar was a little dusty. We went down to grab your bottle of wine and found a secret room. Then got attacked by a swarm of bats. Read some notes from previous Venture Captains talking about an exploration stash being kept from the Lodge. Raided a mausoleum and found a coin. Then went to this gnome's house and found a password. Went to the Shrine of the Failed and found a secret dwelling that had this exploration archives. Got attacked by some Harbingers."
After a long breath and swig from the waterskin, "I believe Simeon, Quinn and Warren will have better notes than I on our wine delivery trip."
"I ... I cannot believe that I have been in this wine cellar so many times and have never noticed this secret door! You Pathfinders might have found something that gives us a taste of our roots." he says with genuine surprise in his voice.
"You had the luck of finding a long-lost trove of documents and by following my directions you will potentially earn some renown in Absolom. This is an important find and you were the ones to investigate some potentially far-reaching discovery related to Eylysia because you were the ones to stumble upon it." he says with a sly smile.
Then he looks at the documents in more detail.
"The documents you found will need to stay with me so that I can begin assigning other agents to decrypt and collate the contents for proper study and comparison to exploits published in the Pathfinder Chronicles."
Drandle Dreng personally thanks you for your successful investigation, indicating his interest in your future careers as Pathfinders.
He speaks with each one of you and should you not have completed your confirmation, the venture-captain promises to speak with Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine to have the process expedited.
In the next weeks you receive a lot of attention as the news about your discovery spreads!
Several Venture-Captains from near and far send you their regards.
The Wounded Wisp staff is still flabbergasted about your discovery and has received some funding from the society with which the repair the disgrace in their cellar. You now also enjoy Heryn's gratitude which means that the first drink is always on the house!
And of course you can be sure that several agents in the Wounded Wisp will never forget you and the events of that night.
After about a month you receive a summons to gather in the Grand Lodge as Dreng wants to give you a thorough debrief on this mission.
When you arrive in the meeting room you are all together again but Dreng is not there, yet.
A little female gnome comes in again and says with a sigh "So sorry, but Dreng is not able to join you again! But Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin will be here shortly! You guys have become a popular?! Hee?" she says with a little bit of jealousy in her voice.
She leaves again slamming the door.
The little gnome enters the room again to tell you that you have to wait some longer and there you see a Wayfinder in her pocket.
She is so kind to look at the coin and tries to identify it for you.
A moment later she says "Unbelievable, you found a Pathfinder's Coin. Let me explain ..."
PATHFINDER’S COIN
PRICE 1,500 GP
SLOT none
CL 3rd
WEIGHT — lbs.
Aura faint divination
This apparently simple coin, usually styled to resemble ancient currency, hides intricate gold and platinum wires within. This matrix, carefully modeled after fragmentary Azlanti coins, causes the Pathfinder’s coin to rise an inch into the air and slowly spin in place if placed atop a wayfinder. In addition, when levitating above a wayfinder, the coin can be given a message of 25 words or fewer. This message repeats in the speaker’s voice the next time the coin is floated above a wayfinder. Only one message may be stored at a time, and once it is triggered, the message is expended and a new one may be recorded.
CONSTRUCTION COST 750 GP
Craft Wondrous Item, identify, levitate, magic mouth
She is quite delighted and also places it on her Wayfinder.
"I am sure you do not mind using my wayfinder to check the message?!" she says with a sly smile.
she lets the coin hover above his wayfinder and suddenly you all hear a male voice speaking:
"The path and chamber are complete, hidden behind the nameplate of the requested aspirant and guarded by the word you requested. Fimbrik will add more."
After about ten minutes Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin's enters the room. He looks at you with a keen interest.
"Your recent investigations and recovery of agent Eylysia’s papers have already yielded results. Under my direction, a team of scholars has tracked down the long-retired Society ciphers the gnome used and translated many of her entries. Although many of these records present valuable leads, one is especially timely and exciting.
Several months ago, the Pathfinder Society recovered an incomplete relic called the Sky Key. Its missing components disappeared millennia ago, carried by dwarven refugees to the far corners of Avistan and beyond, and the Society has struggled to follow these faint trails to piece the potent device back together. It appears Eylysia may have found one of the pieces centuries ago!
She writes of a visit to Tar Kuata in Osirion, where she not only met with the Iroran devotees there, but also the curious order of dwarven monks known as the Ouat. According to her journals, some of the resident dwarves’ ancestors arrived long ago from the distant north bearing a broken treasure of wire and steel. Based on additional context and several magical divinations, I have reason to believe Eylysia—and you—may have found one of the lost pieces of the Sky Key!
We need to make diplomatic contact to the Ouat which will take months. But as soon as I am contacted by Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir in Sothis to prepare for an expedition I will potentially contact you.
Until then I wish you all the best on your future missions!"
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