Shan brings his leg up and stomps the poor woman twice, causing her to lose consciousness.
Terrill attacks the remaining lady, but his blade misses by a hair's breadth!
Linnea tries to whip-trip the remaining lady, but misses!
The woman takes a scroll she has in her hand and stabs at Terrill with it, but he dodges the strike!
Terrill slices into the woman once more! With a look if astonishment on her face, she slumps down in a pool of blood!
Looking around, Shan notices at Cathixia’s desk is a detailed map, albeit somewhat allegorical and stylized, of the Vudran peninsula. Close inspection of the map reveals that it hides within it the workings of a know direction spell and functions as a scroll of the same spell.
Among straw packing, Shan notices a small idol, partially wrapped for transport, and a larger statue, wrapped in blankets and tied with twine lies on its side beneath the desk.
Checking the women(?), the party finds a potion, a very fine chain shirt, daggers (3), masterwork sap, cold-weather outfit, sunrods (4), bronze Aspis Consortium badge, and 27 gp on Neevindi.
On Cathixia, the party finds six scrolls, a finely made cloak, a spellbook, spell component pouch, and a silver Aspis Consortium badge.
Linnea discerns that the scrolls are bear's endurance, dimension door, hold person, false life, shout, and tongues. She also sees that the cloak is a cloak of resistance +1 and the chain is a chain shirt +1.
Shan discovers that the potions is a cure light wounds.
Terrill thinks that the idol is a statuette of an asura (a many-armed and grotesquely tusked seminaked woman). While the statue is Meenashdu, god of charity and almsgiving.
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Terrill helps his companions collect the valuables from the two slain women, then says, "Looks like there isn't any further we can go this way, but there was another doorway near where the cat first attacked us. Let's see where that goes." He heads back down the short flight of stairs and around the rounded wall of the room, gesturing for the party to join him.
As the party moves back toward the courtyard, everyone notices three people doing a poor job at hiding. A half-orc, human, and ratfolk all attempt to secret themselves behind columns, the human up on a wall. Seeing that they are noticed, the half-orc roars. "Get them!"
Terrill steps into the courtyard and blesses the party!
Leska spins around the back of the statue and come up next to Terrill, blades in both hands!
The half-orc strikes out twice, but is unable to land a blow!
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Linnea steps into the fight, unlashing her whip as she does so. She keeps close to the northern wall and notices the woman being flanked.
"Oh, I see - everyone wants to dance with the new girl. Be careful honey, I might get jealous!" With those words, Linnea hopes to inspire some courage in her allies.
Shan circles around to gain the advantage on the half-orc, but she moves at the last instant, avoiding the dwarf's kick!
Linnea moves into position and begins to inspire her companions!
Two shuriken come hissing through the air! One strikes the wall nest to Terrill, but the other bites into Linnea's arm!
The ratfolk begins a droning tune on a flute and continues to cower behind the column.
Linnea feels a numbing sensation begin to creep up her arm and across her chest. Her tongue begins to fill swollen and her eyes flutter as she falls to the ground, unconscious!
Terrill's swings at the half-orc, his blade cutting deep. The woman's eyes widen as she feels the blade cut to the bone, but she continues to stand!
Aryk moves forward and places himself in front of Linnea, striking out at the half-orc.
He swings goes wide as the woman ducks!
Leska growls in pain and lashes out.
One of her blades sinks into Terrill's side, while the other blade misses the cagey dwarf.
Linnea continues to be unconscious.
Shan unleashes on the half-orc dropping her to the ground on his first blow!
The ninja suddenly vanishes and you hear a soft thud and a curse in Tian!
As the half-orc goes down, the flute suddenly stops as the ratfolk digs in a pouch, producing a potion and drinking it. Suddenly he vanishes as well!
Terrill makes a judgement call and moves toward Shan. Swinging his curved blade, he slices nothing but air.
Aryk moves to where last saw the ninja and takes a wild stab.
His blade meets nothing but air.
Linnea dreams comedic dreams.
The party hears footsteps as the ninja and ratfolk begin to flee.
After waiting a couple hours for Linnea to wake up, the party searches the rest of the temple, of which there was only the room the tiefling and his partners came from. Stuffy and hot, this shrine has been transformed into a guardhouse and barracks for the Consortium’s henchmen. The smell of cooking food fills the air, and the poorly vented fire, burning in the shrine’s southwest corner, leaves a smoky haze in the room. Everywhere there are signs of a hurried collection of artifacts—the walls are covered in an elaborate relief sculpture, its surface marred with deep gouges where parts of its face were haphazardly carved from the larger whole, and a number of niches in the wall now lie empty, their icons and relics absent. The fire consumes a huge sheaf of palm-frond pages, upon which Vudran calligraphy may be discerned as the flames devour it.
Reviving Leska, the party questions her, finding out that she was assigned to create a lasting Apsis Consortium base here from which other agents operating in the tapestry could be dispatched and which could act as a staging area for treasures plundered before they were sent back to Golarion. She tells you that the portal is located within a temple in a giant sphinx monument in the middle of a vast desert . She also knows the portal connects to a location in Varisia, though she can’t provide more information than that.
She also tells you that the ratfolk was apart of an alliance in the works between the ratfolk of Round Mountain —who hold perhaps more power than any other stable civilization within Hao Jin’s demiplane—and the Aspis Consortium. The ratfolk was sent as an envoy to the temple to invite the commanding agent here back to the rats’ home in Round Mountain, and other envoys were sent to other Aspis Consortium settlements throughout the demiplane.
She also tells you that the ninja is an agent in the Goka based crime syndicate known as the Golden League and says that his goals and the Consortium’s currently align, so he is working with them for the time being.
As the party readies to leave, you realize that you neither take any of the Apsis as prisoners or provide any rescue for the slaves, as only yourselves can return through your personal eddy in the Tapestry.
Returning to your respective eddies, the party returns back to Absalom. Aram Zey and other Venture-Captains commend your party on a job well done and are quite excited to see the notes and map recovered. Once you relay all the information gathered from Leska, your superiors are nearly besides themselves in glee with the amount of intelligence recovered.