Fresh off your induction into the Pathfinder Society and the completion of your basic training within the organization, you find yourselves in the office of Ambrus Valsin, the Venture-Captain in charge of daily operations in and around the Grand Lodge. The efficient and straightforward chamberlain greets you curtly and motions for you to sit before jumping straight into your assignment.
“All right, Pathfinders, Listen up!" He says, looking you over like a military officer looking over green recruits. "I know you are new, and eager to make names for yourselves in the organization, but first we need to make sure you are up to snuff and won’t get yourself killed out there. I have a number of small assignments for you and your team, and it would be best if you could finish them before the day’s end." Ambrus takes a moment to size you up, a thoughtful look on his face.
“Every day we get some doe-eyed hopeful or some sniveling bootlicker willing to do anything to join up with the Pathfinders. Most of them are good kids, but not all of them have the salt to make it in a world like this. It’s rough out there and I’m not just talking about the ruins, tombs, and wilderness Pathfinders find themselves in on missions. We’ve got people who look down their noses at us, folks who think we squander our resources, and agents who want to take everything we have collected. This wealth of knowledge and these items of lore make us powerful. That said, since we are fractured and widespread, it’s difficult for that power to light on anything for too long. For every friend of the Society, there are two enemies." His warning given, he allows the gravity of his words to settle in before clearing his throat and getting back to the business at hand.
"Your first mission, to test your mettle and loyalties, sends you to meet a few people important to the Society living here in Absalom. These are other venture-captains or close allies of our organization, so follow their orders as you would mine. I’ve prepared a list tasks I want you to do. They’re not arranged in any particular order of importance, but I want them all completed as quickly as possible. Only report to me once you complete them all. Included in the envelope you hold in your hands is the list, complete with the name of your contact, and directions to the meeting location.”
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Task
Chelish Paracountess Zarta Dralneen possesses an item loaned from the Vaults. Meet with her in her estate in the Ivy District and retrieve the item in her possession.
Task
Visit the offices of Osirian nobleman Dremdhet Salhar in the Wise Quarter. The Pathfinder Society needs to obtain permission to delve the Salhar ancestral vaults beneath Sothis. He has made a verbal agreement, and your visit makes it official. You will receive an official charter and detailed maps. Do not embarrass the Society in this matter.
Task
Ollysta Zadrian requested aid and is expecting you at the Temple of the Shining Star in the Ascendant Court. She needs someone to deliver a parcel of medicine and curatives to a needy orphanage and verify the character of the recipient.
Task
A man named Guaril Karela runs a curio shop in the Docks called the Pickled Imp. Go to him and fill his request as a favor to the Society. I believe it has something to do with a set of rare books.
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You are currently in the Grand Lodge, located in the Foreign quarter of Absalom. You have until the end of the day to complete these tasks, which are located in different places throughout the city. It might prove wise to first determine the order in which you handle them.
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A gnome with quite a mustache listens to the briefing among the rest of the adventurers gathered here. His attire is eccentric but not out of taste, especially as gnomish attire goes. He carries numerous scrolls on his person, as well as a backpack to store his other belongings. He twirls his mustache some before speaking in a colorful tone. "Well, well. Looks like we got a quest on our hands, doesn't it? And it looks like we'll be wandering about meeting new people? My favorite task!"
He goes back to twirling his mustache.
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Fresh off your induction into the Pathfinder Society and the completion of your basic training within the organization, you find yourselves in the office of Ambrus Valsin, the Venture-Captain in charge of daily operations in and around the Grand Lodge. The efficient and straightforward chamberlain greets you curtly and motions for you to sit before jumping straight into your assignment.
“All right, Pathfinders, Listen up!" He says, looking you over like a military officer looking over green recruits. "I know you are new, and eager to make names for yourselves in the organization, but first we need to make sure you are up to snuff and won’t get yourself killed out there."
Snuff?
"Valsin you mean that there is no chance to be killed?" The elf woman seems dissapointed.
"Venture Captain-", stares down a mustache trimmed like a privet hedge with one cranked eye-brow, "-or Sir..." He shuts his thick assignment ledger with a thud. "Killed? You mean murdered. Yes sometimes, although it seems like elves have the highest chance for some reason...". With a dismissive ::Hmm::, he turns and thumps the door shut.
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"Venture Captain-", stares down a mustache trimmed like a privet hedge with one cranked eye-brow, "-or Sir..." He shuts his thick assignment ledger with a thud. "Killed? You mean murdered. Yes sometimes, although it seems like elves have the highest chance for some reason...". With a dismissive ::Hmm::, he turns and thumps the door shut.
"Good." she says satisfied.
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Nice to meet you, Elf. Akter Thrune.
The voice of the Ranger came from the back of the room, and seemed now directed to all, as an introduction. He continued speaking, as he approached the group.
You have a point, mate. - as he agrees with Huratas - ... And, my fellow Pathfinders, what grace should I direct you all as?
With a strange accent and obvious manneirisms, the Varisian was quite a figure to have around - as much as he had been on silence until now.
The temple of Desna's quarter-morning prayer bell echos outside, signaling the hours you have left in the day to accomplish your goals.
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"Dale is the name I have chosen to go by today." the gnome says with a mischievous smile. "And I would love to head to the Ivy District. It's low crime and high profile, so in other words, a pleasant place to be."
He takes out a wand. "Would any of you happen to be able to use a Wand of Cure Light Wounds? It takes a devoted life or trickery to use such devices, and I'm not good at the latter and definitely not the former."
Arriving at Paracountess Zarta Dralneen’s townhouse in the Ivy District—one of several homes the noblewoman keeps around Absalom—you come upon a magnificent gothic structure three stories in height. The ebon lacquered double doors wrought with gleaming silver fixtures greet you, a prickly brass cone hanging from a chain serving as the door chime.
Moments after ringing it, a beautiful servant woman in loose, almost scandalous attire opens the door, greeting your group as if expected. With a knowing smile, she takes Selfi by the arm and leads you through well-appointed sitting rooms, ballrooms, and a grand stairway granting a view of an elaborate study, before finally arriving on the third floor of the house, at the door of Zarta’s personal study.
Knocking upon the door and announcing her presence, she opens the darkly stained wooden door. Inside, a large intricate carpet dominates the marble floor in this sitting room. A chaise sits along the north wall and a desk spans the southeast corner, its chair positioned with its back to the southwest corner of the room. Three comfortable chairs are positioned around a small, low circular table.
A cacophony of booms and crashes sounds from beyond the room’s west door. Sitting in the chair behind the desk, doing a good job of ignoring the sounds from the next room, Paracountess Zarta Dralneen regards your group with a wry smile, putting away a few papers before standing and waving off the servant. “Alidani, you are dismissed. Close the door behind you and attend to your other tasks.” She then turns her attention to the group. “She didn't try to lick anyone this time I assume? I wouldn't blame her. I mean, look at you scrumptious little teacakes. I could just ::shudders:: each and every one of you up. But I assume this isn’t a pleasure visit since most of you are terribly overdressed for that manner of occasion, so that must mean you are here for that trinket Valsin has been nagging me about. Seems I can’t get that man around these parts anymore,” she gestures, sliding her hand down her body and widening the gesture to sweep out and across the room as if her home were a secondary thought. “On the good side, he always sends me all the precious new recruits."
“Many think we in Cheliax serve and worship devils, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, we use the creatures for their power. They serve us and we sculpt their power in our own interests. The world must come to terms with the order of things. People need to know their place and operate accordingly. It is the only way to make order from this world. Too many people stretch too far beyond their station, making waves and eroding the true order...”
She pauses at an extended eruption of noises before continuing with the conversation. "I apologize, a servant is greatly misbehaving. The item Ambrus sent you to retrieve, a seven-lock iron case, is in that room, and you’re going to have to deal with it in order to get it." She goes over to the desk in her study, opening a drawer and drawing out an exquisite silver letter opener shaped like a dagger. “You might need this to get it to submit,” she offers with a sly grin.
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Challenge? It sounds like we just have to talk to the fine lady. - says Akter, juvenile - Unfortunately I'm not good with them magic sticks either, Daring Dale. - he completes with a friendly smile to the Gnome.
Spell Trigger: Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell. This is the case even for a character who can't actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin. The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity....
"This is a poor weapon." Selfi says looking over the wand. "Someone of your stature would find it difficult to wound anyone with this stick." She tosses it away, and pulls a big, bone-handled, serrated knife from her belt and offers it to Dale.
________"We are to wrestle you?" Says the tribal-looking elf in her handmade leathers, seemingly disappointed again.
Zerta appears enticed by Selfi's notion, "Not with him in the room", she thumbs towards the bedroom door. She puckers a kiss and wink, then leaves you all in the antechamber.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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"I have a cure wand, too. A reward for surviving the Harbingers. I can use it, but not very well."
Tere seems taken aback by the forwardness of his faction head, but listens and pays attention to everything she says. So silver is of use? He leaves the elven curve blade in its sheath over his shoulder and draws a light mace from his belt before opening the door.
Tere opens the door and looks in on what seems to be Zarta’s bedroom. Decorated in the colors of Cheliax—ebon black and crimson red, silk, rare woods, and carefully carved marble compose every bit of furniture in the room. Goose down now litters the room, covering almost every surface and the silken shreds of the cushions that contained it lay about like flayed skin. A post on the massive screened bed is snapped in half, collapsed on the bed and drawing the screened curtains into a ripped slope of formerly fine cloth. Vials of perfume and crystal jars of other cosmetics sit smashed on the marble floor around the dresser. A prominent fixture in the room, a large “X” made of stout wood sits along the west wall, complete with leather shackles and chains. A table sits to its left strewn with various items intended for pleasure, but outwardly
resembling implements of pain.
Crouched at the foot of the bed is a small winged creature about the size of a common alley cat.
For the moment, it seems unconcerned with your presence as it bangs a dented case against the bedpost, then claws at a seam, curses in a foul fiendish tongue, then bangs it again.
Ned'farious
Selfi
Akter
Tere
Dale
Huratas
The fiendish creature had been aware though seemed un-bothered by your presence, until Huratas and Selfi suddenly begins to cross the room. In a blink of an eye, it magically fades from view with a cackle!
Selfi goes bounding across the room and across the bed, reaching out to grab Zerta's pet but lands with an empty hand. Akter has a knocked arrow in the middle of the room, Dale scans around but sees nothing and Huratas is readied for a wrestling match. The pet had disappeared so fast that Tere was still turned waiting for an answer.
, it continues to shout out as it destroys more of the room.
-Posted with Wayfinder
-Posted with Wayfinder
-Posted with Wayfinder
Selfi and Huratas find their double team to produce only quizzical looks. Akter is still standing near the door looking around with a knocked arrow. Tere hears a noise over near the X rack and flings a blanket onto the spot only to drape the rack with a cozy feel, but netted nothing else. Dale is uncertain of where to release his spell.
The bedroom door suddenly slams shut!