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Thighbite calms, and quickly checks himself over, surprised to find that he's seemingly no worse for wear. He takes a look around, his glance eventually pauses on Harnac, and he giggles a bit. The sound of Vaetta's voice renews his focus. "Ok bird, lets go check it out! Come along, dwarf and half-dwarf friends, wizards!"
Thighbite finds the body to be that of a woman matching the Phitoness's description. Though bound and unconscious, he notes that her thin chest rises and falls ever so slightly. Her torn robes offer little protection from the cold, she wears no shoes, and her feet are black from frostbite. Around her neck is a thong bearing a single stone tablet.
He notes a small wooden chest beside her, nearly hidden in the icy frost. The chest is locked.
Nym's poke with a wand is enough to make the woman's eyes flutter open. "Eya!" Vaetta exclaims, and the bird rushes to peck affectionately at the woman's hair.
"I don't know who you are, or why you are here," the woman says between shallow breaths, "but I need your help. Can you take me to Absalom, in the Inner Sea?"
"That's mine..." the Phitoness says carefully, eyeing Linslo.
Eya looks in surprise to the gnome. "To take me back? ...Who sent you?"
"Can you tell us how you got here?"
Sense motive check
1d20+21
"I was... abducted." She shudders. "I would rather not relive it just now."
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Linslo nods at Thigh,"Agreed, but she is frail and is ill dressed for this cold weather."
Linslo remember he bought a heatstone when he was traveling up north a while back. he fishes it out of his pack and strikes it against the hilt of his shortsword. he places it on his pack and wraps his bedroll around her shoulders. "Easy now, young lady, I have seen and been through much. excuse my prying curiosity."
"Osprey. I thought so. The bile of a doppelganger. I have it here," she gestures to the locked chest. "Though I am sure the key is lost. Would you mind?" She indicates an assent to Linslo's lockpicks.
"No, no time for rest. I must leave this mountain. Absalom is where I must go. Will you take me?"
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Thighbite ponders once more, confused that she wants to leave immediately, in the state she appears to be in. "Wait are you sane? We heard this place does strange things to people...travelling with crazy people can be difficult, trust me, are you sure you don't want to rest first?"
"I guess maybe we could get going now though."
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"Don't worry, Thighbite. I'm in no shape right now to teleport us. I need rest and time to study before I can do that again. It's exhausting being a powerful enchanter." Nym says to his gnomish companion.
He looks to Vaetta and says, "And I scried upon you, madame. I saw you unconscious. It's how we were able to get here so fast. Well, despite a mishap or two. But still. If there's more danger to be found, we need to know. I have a little bit of magic left, and could move only some of us a short distance."
Linslo takes to the lock like a charm, and the chest's lid pops open. Inside is a handy pile of gold, which Eya invites you to take -- "I will not need it" -- and she also points out the false bottom, beneath which is a potion of barkskin and stone of alarm. The most important item, of course, is a silk-lined satchel, in which rests a small crystal vial balanced within a cagelike holder made of silver and ivory. The vial contains a pale, sickly greenish-yellow viscous fluid: the bile of the doppelganger.
Leaving the cavern is slow-going, and Nym falls off a rope more than once. Outside the howling winds of the Chasm of Screams, the Pathfinders convince Eya to make camp in a secluded grove, and enjoy a much deserved rest. In the morning, Thighbite gets into a terrific argument with Nym about the idea of teleporting back, and through obstinance alone gets everyone moving on the two-month foot journey back to the City at the Center of the World.
This lasts less than an hour before Eya has a quiet word with Nym on the trail. When Markolf turns around to utter something sardonic, he finds the pair gone. A moment later Nym reappears, without the Phitoness. "Phitoness? What Phitoness?"
The next day, the wizard gets the gnome while he's sleeping with a little help from Senzo and Hack, and soon the hearths of Skyreach welcome the whole party back home.
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Each day Markolf jealously eyes the bile of the doppelganger. His hair begins to fall out, his posture growing hunched and deformed. His eyes bulge and his voice grows coarse as he whispers to himself.
"Yes, we shall takes the bile. While the pathfinderses sleeps."
"No! We cannot takes the bile! Pathfinders is friends!"
He makes a full recovery once back in Absalom.
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Senzo spends the time immediately after the return in meditation. It is a combination of self chastisement and planning for the future.
He gets a few ideas, and grabs a pile of coin from under his caught.
"Now I just need to find that crazy gnome. Thighbite will be perfect...."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Each day Markolf jealously eyes the bile of the doppelganger. His hair begins to fall out, his posture growing hunched and deformed. His eyes bulge and his voice grows coarse as he whispers to himself.
"Yes, we shall takes the bile. While the pathfinderses sleeps."
"No! We cannot takes the bile! Pathfinders is friends!"He makes a full recovery once back in Absalom.
wicked! Tricksy!! False Pathfinders!!!!