After the rats take a fifteen foot drop into the sea with a spectacular splash, Alan expertly tosses the rope and snags the crate. With a firm tug, he finds the hook has grabbed the crate securely
The combined effort of all four is enough to pull the crate toward you. With much creaking and groaning of floorboards, the crate finally slides onto firm flooring, right as the boards it was perched upon give way and fall into the bay. Once you secure the crate and open it you find the rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, which contains five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. The titles and subjects seem completely unrelated to each other: Practical Thaumaturgy In Accordance with Creation, Geographic Anomalies of the Inner Sea, Under Kaer Maga: A Trial and Travel, Physiology of Dragons: An Illustrated Reference, Lost Sarusan. The leather folder contains cargo manifestos, warehouse inventories, and other financial logs from a dozen different merchant houses and trade guilds. The crate also contains 10 sets of masterwork thieves’ tools, three flasks of alchemist’s fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of various inks, a footprint book, adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, a deck of marked cards, and two sets of average loaded dice.
The group walks back over to the Pickled Imp and presents the items Guaril wanted. Excellent! he says I hope it was not too much trouble. Well done Pathfinders. Remember if you ever need a favor in the future, come find old Guaril. With that, Guaril go back into a back office and disappears from view.
The party leaves the Pickled Imp and heads north through the city, making their way to the Wise Quarter. You soon find yourself at the rich estate of Grand Councilmember Dremdhet Salhar. A guard at the gate says he is expecting the party and shows you in, upon which you are greeted by a servant who tells the group Salhar is not present, called away on important Council business, but his most trusted advisor is available to negotiate any business they may require. The servant explains this while leading the group down well decorated hallways, past expansive rooms. After a few minutes, the group arrives at a simple study near the end of a long hallway. Inside Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, a tan-skinned old man sits behind a desk flipping through pages in a large tome. Scraps of paper jut from the book marking over two dozen different places. As the group approaches the open door, the wise sage silently gestures the party into the study with one thin hand, while closing the tome with the other after finishing what he was reading. Once everyone is inside the study, Amenopheus says “Good day to you, Pathfinders. I am Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, advisor to Master Salhar. I understand you were sent here to discuss archaeological permissions. Knowing this was coming, I spoke with Master Salhar at length on the subject and have this to say. He begins pacing back and forth. “Since Osirion was reopened to exploration a decade ago, adventurers, historians, and treasure-seekers flock to my country by the hundreds, perhaps thousands. While most families with ancestral burial vaults maintain guards and keep their sites out of the hands of casual thieves, not all families have the wealth or power to restrict everyone, and as we all know, not every defense is perfectly secure. Unscrupulous tomb robbers and maligned merchant organizations cause Osirion to bleed relics into the Inner Sea—something the descendents of Ancient Osirion cannot afford. He stops pacing to stare at the group. We Osiriani have thousands of years of rich history coursing through our veins, and while that power has been out of focus in recent years, we are content to wait, knowing our enemies will wear themselves down. As they fall into arrogance, folly, or greed, we wait for our return to power, knowing we bear the riches of our ancestors at our feet. “Master Salhar remains impressed by the Pathfinder Society, orating in their favor a handful of times in front of Absalom’s Grand Council, in fact. Due to previous relationships between him and the Society, Master Salhar has agreed to grant permission to the Pathfinder Society to explore his family’s vaults below Sothis. The only thing he requires is that you retrieve the map of the vaults from his own vault here. The servant will lead you to the basement and show you the room.” The Sapphire Sage’s eyes twinkle as he smirks knowingly, then he turns back to reading his book as though he had never been disturbed.
After leaving Amenopheus’ study, the servant brings the group back through the spacious estate, leading them down sturdy stone steps into the cool basement. Down a hallway, after a couple turns, the party ends up at a plain wooden door. The servant opens the door, gesturing to the room with a bow, and waits silently for the party to enter. As the party files in you see a plain stone room contains three chests: a copper-banded chest of smooth, dark wood; a red lacquered chest; and what looks to be a cube of solid steel. Behind the chests sits a low table holding a clear glass jar half full of liquid and a covered wicker basket. Once all of the party enters the room, the servant shuts the door and locks it behind them. Written on the back of the door is the message: “Within these cases lies your quest and your way out.” These five containers hold clues to solving the puzzle of this room and one holds the prize the Pathfinders seek—the map to the Salhar ancestral vaults beneath Sothis.
Alan examines the chests, basket and jar. He notices that the jar holds a key at the bottom and that there are tiny bubble on the key indicating the liquid may possibly be corrosive. From the basket, Alan hears movement. At that point, Chak takes the jar and pours it's contents in the corner. The liquid runs out and upon contact with the wicker basket, it burns a hole in the bottom, proving that it was indeed acid. As the hole is being formed, the party begins to hear an angry hissing and a small snake comes slithering out and heads straight toward Chak, rearing up to strike. The viper strikes at the tengu, but it's small fangs are deflected by the the birdman's hardened leather armor.
# 72 raises his foot and tries to stomp the viper, but it slithers out of the way of the incoming boot.
Assid on the viper as I step back so that it avoids and as many of the party I can
Between the acid and Alan stick the viper is quickly dispatched.
Chak begins to pour the jar on the copper-banded chest, emptying its contents. The acid, though strong enough to burn flesh, only peels some of the varnish and cleans the oxidation off the copper bands, making them shining again.
Chak cheeks the steel chest and finds that it is trapped, a trap of magical nature. He also finds that the key from the jar does not fit in the steel chest.
# 72 charges the copper-banded chest and is astonished to find that he connects with nothing. The chest is an illusion! His momentum carries him past the illusory chest and losing his balance, he tumbles to the floor.