Round 1 (partial)
Niles steps into the room, and gags on the stench. He dodges past the reptilian, and casts a spell.
Fargrim advances to the end of the passage and attempts to punch the reptilian from around the corner, but misses. The stench becomes overpowering, sickening her.
Lyoto shouts, "We're being attacked!" and then dances past the green reptilian, stabbing with his sword. Unfortunately his attack is ineffective. The nagaji seems unaffected by the stench, perhaps due to his different sensory organs.
The grey reptilian raises his club and steps out of the passage for a clear swing at Vasilios. The club catches the edge of the passageway and throws his aim way off.
Henry slashes the creature across the belly, and his hisses and falls to the ground, lifeless.
Vasilios' attack fells the second reptilian, and he falls without a sound. Both appear to still be alive and breathing, though badly wounded and unconscious.
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Having seen unconscious and bloodied bodies all the time before he joined the society Lyoto all but ignores their condition.
Lyoto heads straight for the desk. He Has no idea what the glowing stone does is far more interested in the chests that he sees underneath the desk.
Maybe there's something cool in one of those chests. Somebody smarter than me can figure out what that stone does. At least when they stop gagging from the smell. I suppose there is one advantage to having been in shady places.
"Hey Fargrim, Niles," Lyoto yells as he pulls out and opens the chest closest to the eastern door. "Do you guys have any idea what that glowing rock thingy is?
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"I'm guessing it is a stone with continual flame on it.."
says Fargrim, who does what she can to bind up the wounds of the two lizard creatures.
<- see how many rounds it takes to stabilise them. 3
Half a minute of banding alater she then looks at the stone to see if her hunch is correct.
"Careful with those documents, they will be hundreds of years old."
She looks around and calls for Heryn
"Did you know about this room? It looks like you had extra compnay down here, you may want to get some help with moving them."
After inspecting the stone she sets to work looking at the documents.
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He rushes forward as battle ensues, ready to defend Fargrim. He pauses mid-stride. You mean all of them. Ready to defend all of them. In his moment of hesitation, a few well-placed blows from the others make short work of the two lizard-things. Idiot. Stupid thoughts like that might have cost him or one of the others their life were they in greater danger. He looks down at the creatures. "Such a waste. They weren't even evil." He kneels beside each of them in turn, muttering a short prayer. "May the Inheritor's light guide you to eternal peace." He straightens and looks around the room.
You give the room a thorough searching. The main treasure is the documents spread on the desk and filling both of the chests. They seem to be the personal notes of one Selmius Foster, a founding member of the Pathfinder Society. Many of Foster's adventures were published in the earliest Chronicles, and here you find his original notes upon which the Chronicle accounts were based.
Perhaps of more value are various notes and leads which Foster was pursuing before his death. One investigation which Foster seemed obsessed with was tracking another Pathfinder agent, a gnome named Eylysia, whom he suspected of not reporting her finds to the Society. One passage, on a sheet of paper inserted at the front of the main journal, is particularly telling. (See next post)
Selmius Foster's Journal notes
"I write this letter in the event that my upcoming expedition to Bhopan goes poorly. In this trove I have left my considerable findings, which I hope will be of use to our growing Society. While most of this information will no doubt already be in the hands of fellow Society members, there is a personal matter which I have left contained within.
"Events over the past decade have led me to suspect a fellow agent of hoarding her knowledge and not submitting it for review. This woman - a surprisingly sensible gnome by the name of Eylysia - has partaken of almost as many missions as I, yet she reports only a third of what I have brought to light. In order to ensure knowledge is not concealed, I have begun an investigation into Eylysia and her activities here in Absalom, hoping to find her hidden repository of stored knowledge. Thus far, I have come across two promising leads.
"The first is Eylysia’s contact with a well-known stonemason by the name of Arkath. I had the displeasure of meeting this fellow in his dying days, when he promised to take any secrets he held to his grave. He was interred in a mausoleum in Eastgate weeks after our encounter, though I still believe there is more to his connection with Eylysia.
"Another lead is Eylysia’s friendship with a member of the Arcanamirium. The fellow is a gnome by the name of Fimbrik. All of my attempts to speak with him have failed, though I have noted his home address in my files for follow-up.
"It is my sincere hope that I am able to return to discover what Eylysia has hidden, but should I not, I entrust this to my assistant Adolphus or any brave Society agents who come across my unfinished work.
- Selmius Foster"
There is also another note appended to the first, which seems to represent the follow-up work of Foster's assistant, Aldophus, at some later point.
"My mentor, Selmius Foster, is dead - slain during our journey to the island of Bhopan. I have taken up his investigation into Eylysia's activities, though recent developments mean my time in Absalom is short.
"My initial follow-up of Foster's investigation into Arkath involved hiring several diviners to discern the veracity of Selmius's leads. It appears the stonemason was quite honest with my mentor; there is some key clue buried with him in his mausoleum.
"I have watched Eylysia for many months since my return, and I have caught her making additions to the Wall of Names - the memorial built in honor of my departed mentor. She has added three names, none of which are true Pathfinders and are likely worth investigating. Their names are Doulgonlir Caskmail; Hollis 'Evil Grin' Thorne; Karina Clamp.
"Events are in motion that will soon take me to Quantium, after which I will be unable to conclude this investigation. I leave this hidden under the Wounded Wisp, in hopes that one day I might return, or that the Society endures its current woes and a future generation of agents can take up this cause.
-Adolphus"
The troglodytes have nothing save for the crude spears and clubs they carried. The stone hanging from the cieling is indeed just a rock with continual flame cast upon it. Both troglodytes are still alive, but unconscious. The tunnels lead off to the land of "beyond the scope of this adventure". :)
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"Lets get these documents back to the VC Surely he knew about this trove and that is why he wanted us to get the bottle of wine." says the suspicious but practical Fargirm.
"Heryn, you may want to do something about these lizards, and the tunnels... they provide a backdoor that you maybe don't want to keep open."
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"They're alive?" He kneels down again to the closest one. From the look of things, Fargrim had taken quick action to stop the bleeding. Well done. He'd been too distracted to notice. "Hm. Looks like you're right. Maybe it's not too late for them. As it says in Act Eight, 'Let this stand as proof, all but the vilest of souls can still be saved.' Let's just hope they find the light in time."
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I agree, let them rot in their smell. We need to show these documents to the Venture Captain Dreng. We haven't been able to retrieve his bottle and failed in our mission.
But, founding these documents is may be a greater achievement than our first mission, may be our findings will be written in a new Chronicle ?
Henry helped Fargrim to pack up the document to protect them from the rain and the wind.
You pack up the documents carefully, and Lyoto manages to retrieve the continual flame stone.
Heryn stands outside the door, watching with a shocked expression on her face. She shakes herself out of her shock at Heryn's statement. "Yes, I will... yes, yes... I... I guess I 'll need to have more than just that plank repaired!"
As you head upstairs, you can see that the clientele of the bar has changed little. There is a small group of unkempt and elderly men sitting at a table, listening to noted Absalom scholar Yargos Gill relate another of his tall tales; in this one, he single-handedly saves Absalom from an undead invasion. The half-orc twins are still there as well, drinking rowdily.
You head back out into the rain, and return to the street corner where you met Venture-Captain Dreng earlier, but he is nowhere to be found.
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Vasilios considers this for a little while, before speaking with his rumbling voice "Thats certainly a good idea, but I know that I myself wouldn't be opposed to doing a little more research into this chaps notes. For one thing, he mentions the mausoleum often, as well as a gnome named Fimbrik, and we could certainly dig a little deeper ourselves before returning to Dreng early.
You head to the Grand Lodge, and find that Venture-Captain Dreng has indeed returned. You are led to his outer office and wait for a few moments, before he bustles in. He is still wearing the ragged disguise you saw him in earlier, and he is still dripping wet and bedraggled.
"Ah, yes, come in, come in. Did you bring my parcel?" he asks with a twinkle in his eye as he ushers you into his office and clsoes the door.
Dreng looks at the assorted documents with a broad smile. "Well DONE, agents!" he beams. "You seem to have stumbled serendipitously across a mystery in the performance of otherwise mundane duties! This is an occasion for which you must always be alert, for a Pathfinder never knows what discoveries lie on the open road. If you only complete your assigned task, you may miss out on greater discoveries." He pauses to let his words sink in before continuing.
"As the discoverers of this lost cache of documents, it falls to you to follow up on them, wherever they may lead. I release you from any previous obligations in order to concentrate fully on this new discovery." He pauses again, thoughtful. "I'll just have to head to the Wisp myself and select another bottle of wine..."
The Wall of Names is in the grove along the western edge of the compound, and it will take only a few minutes to walk there.
"... unless you have been tired out by your visit to the tavern, and require a vacation?" Dreng inquires. "You don't need to follow up; this isn't an assignment, but an opportunity."
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"I agree, we should check it out. Righting an old wrong might not help anyone directly-- who knows whether any of these people are still around-- but it's the right thing to do. Like it says in Act Ten, 'I will not shrink from the truth. Buried it may lie, but it is the duty of the righteous to seek it.'"
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"Well, I can name three places it is likely to lead..." says Fargrim after biding farewell to the VC.
Pointing ahead she indicates the wall. "Here is the first of them. Lets see what we can tell about those names."
She starts to look for the names on the list, and also looks for the two other people listed in case they too were pathfinders.
The Wall of Names is a curving wall of black glass that stands atop a small hill at the western edge of the lodge’s grounds. Trees surround the hill, providing ample shade and privacy for those visiting the wall to remember fallen comrades.
Carved into the wall are the name and date of death of every Pathfinder killed in the course of duty since the wall’s construction, and most entries also include a sentence or two summarizing either the agent’s greatest accomplishments or how she died.
You find the earliest name refers to Selmius Foster, who died in 4330 A.R. while on an expedition to the Isle of Bhopan.
The three fake names are spotted after a few minutes of examination. They read as follows:
Deceased 4332 A.R.
Wrote in solitude for 101 days.
Lived a long life of silence and serenity.
Deceased 4331 A.R.
Travelled to distant Jalmeray.
Failed to maintain the necessary Sixteen Poses.
Deceased 4330 A.R.
Administered to the mindmenders of Ustalav.
May they overcome the screaming fear.
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Fargrim also looks for
Selmius Foster
Aldophus
Eylysia
Arkath and Fimbrik.
"Those are certainly odd inscriptions. Does anyone know what they mean?"
She looks harder at them. "Each 'died' one year apart... I wonder if that is a clue too."
She looks hard at the stones, trying to work out if there is anything else hidden in the inscriptions.