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Your minds drift back to the letters you've received, before you are snapped back to reality by a smiling Ashasar as he stands up from his expansive turquoise pillow, steps towards a nearby bookcase from which he removes a delicately assembled lantern, which he lights with a snap of his fingers.
Former enemies are now allies. I have been in communication with Ashasar, a senior member of the Concordance, and our organizations have reached an understanding. The Concordance will be compensating the Society for their theft of our property, and is now looking forward to working with us. I’ve offered your services as representatives for the Pathfinder Society in this newfound truce. You and your fellow agents are our eyes and ears on the Plane of Air for now. Unlocking the secrets of the Untouchable Opal is our highest priority, so assist Ashasar and the Concordance, while keeping an eye out for ways to strengthen our position over there. When we release Ranginori, we must be ready to combat Hshurha if we are to reap the benefits of an alliance with the Duke of Thunder.
— Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir
The Ten recently concluded important deliberations regarding the Pathfinder Society’s agreement to work with the Concordance of Elements. During the end of these negotiations, the Concordance asked for a group of agents to assist in retrieving a magical relic useful in battling the malign forces of the Plane of Air. The Decemvirate is divided on where this item should stay after its retrieval—be it with our new Concordance allies, or in the vaults of the Grand Lodge. This missive is sent to reinforce the Decemvirate’s trust in your judgment on this matter, as you’re to be the agents sent to retrieve the item. If this relic returns to the Grand Lodge, we’ll have another powerful item at our disposal. If the item is presented to the Concordance, we’ll cement our new alliance.
The choice is yours.
—Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
The representative to the seat of Balance gives you all a knowing smile as he walks a slow perimeter around the open rooftop. Seemingly satisfied, the janni takes a seat with a contented sigh. "One can never be too careful when dealing with the Duchess Hshurha" he states, in a voice that wouldn't be out of place in one of those tranquil gardens one can find in Qadira and the Keleshite empire; low, soothing and warm. "With the winds themselves at her beck and call, who knows what kind of agents she has hiding about? It appears our organizations are not as at odds with one another as we once thought. While the Concordance was initially resistant to breaking open the Untouchable Opal and freeing the Duke of Thunder, the Duchess has grown too bold and forced our hand." He places the latern down upon a low table and sits back down upon his cushion. "We must work together to free Ranginori from his prison before Hshurha throws the Inner Planes into utter chaos. As a token of our mutual new goodwill, I ask for your help in a sensitive mission that could prove pivotal in our fight to maintain balance."
The cloud that orbits around him turns into a galleon, as he continues: "When the Concordance considered the Pathfinders Society to be a threat, I sent one of our agents to retrieve a powerful weapon we have hidden here on the Plane of Air. I believe you are familiar with her, no? Jamila’s task was to retrieve the Horn of the Hurricane, which allows its wielder to call forth tremendous elemental force. These energies are particularly devastating against creatures native to this plane. Since the accord between our organizations was cemented, I have been unable to reach Jamila, and I fear that she may be incapacitated. Worse yet, it’s possible she’s been killed and the horn is now in Hshurha’s hands. Since we cannot be sure, we must take every precaution to protect the horn and rescue Jamila, if she lives. I have already arranged for your transportation to her last known destination and ask that you leave at once."
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A thin and sallow dwarf, wearing a pack that shows the telltale shape of wizard's spellbooks crammed into it, steps forward. "Chasing Jamila yet again!" she exclaims. "Well, if it brings us to the elemental planes again-- I'm happy to do it."
"Are you able to tell if the Horn has been removed from its hiding place?"
Cantrips: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation
L1: Feather Fall x2, Magic Missile x2, True Strike
L2: Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray x2, See Invisibility, Protection From Arrows
L3: Tongues, Fly, Summon Monster III, Protection From Energy
L4: Mnemonic Enhancer, Elemental Body I, Locate Creature
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"How long will the journey be?" Asks Alexis, an exceptionally-short Gnome whose skin and hair are atypically drab for one of her race, but the enigmatic glint in her eye, almost as though she had liquid opal for vitreous humor, somehow makes up for it. She is finely dressed, with numerous numerous odd trinkets and charms sewn, stuffed, and otherwise bedecked into her clothes and armor (the latter of which is very seldom seen on the same personage as the accessory at her side, a large, richly-bound grimoire). All this is topped off with an extraordinary hat - a sort of tall, deep-purple fez bearing a scarab beetle inset with a stylized eye, all intricately constructed from a combination of precious metals and stones, like a modern foreigner's amateurly-informed-but-technically-skilled attempt to replicate certain Ancient Osirian symbols of power, on its back.
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Ollo grumbles his way into the room, his normal ornery self. He does, however, pause in his grumbling to give Alexis and Agate a delighted smile and small bow. Its amazing the change that can come over the surly dwarf when he stops grumbling!
He continues to a chair and eases his heavy load into it.. He's not overly fat for a dwarf, just.. solidly made! He listens to the speach of the air-person before harumphing at the end.
"So its back ta chasin' Jamila again, is it?? An' I'm ta be guessin she don't know we're friendly now, so shes like ta still be up ta her old tricks too. Any way ye can give us some proof for her? She's not like ta just believe a few pretty words if'n we find er alive.."
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A newcomer enters the room, a short kitsune also just shy of being fat. He wears armor over gray robes that look to be those of a priest or monk, perhaps both. At his belt lies a whip, strapped to his back is a banner. One side bears the Glyph of the Open Road, on the other is the Master's Rebus.
He plunks down on the nearest chair and looks around at the assembled Pathfinders, eyeing the symbol on Alexis' hat a bit warily. "Hello all, the name's Draklor," he grins. "Preacher of Irori and a seasoned agent, much like yourselves I assume. I take it you've been on this Jamila's trail before?"
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Reclining slightly on his cushion, Ashasar serenely replies to Agate: "Unfortunately, I do not know. Jamila discovered the horn
somehow reached Port Eclipse and she alone knows its current location. This is part of the Concordance’s design to keep our resources safely hidden. If Jamila is no longer part of the equation, you should find her safe house in Port Eclipse for more information on the horn’s current location."
Switching his gaze to Alexis, he continues: "It is only a three-day journey by airship. And it will be aboard captain Nix's wonderful airship; we should all be grateful for such brave and fearless gnomes."
Turning back to Ollo, he adds: "She should have ways of contacting me directly. Better to get her information from the source, no?"
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Theophilus has slicked back oily hair, cold eyes, and clothes perpetually stained by food or travel. His rail-thin build rattles around in what clearly used to be someone else's coat before he crookedly stitched in some loops to hold his gear. While Ashasar explains matters he rolls a pair of coins across his fingers, and taps his foot impatiently, but to look at his face he's all focus.
"So what happens if we fall off the boat?"
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"What in the Abyss is that on your head, Short Stuff?" says the tall, Ulfen man in leathers and furs to the gnome who barely comes to the man's exposed knee. The muscles along his broad chest ripple with arcane glyphs tattooed into his skin. One tattoo in particular stands out the one over his heart that says in the Common tongue: This Ink Don’t Run!”
"'Air ship' you say" the man says running a big calloused hand over his beard (it makes a rasping noise in response) "Well, that sounds like and adventure. I have to see this tub. Let's move out. Our quarry ain't gettin' any closer."
0 (at will) — detect magic, light, ray of frost
Note: He does have a use of arcane bond (amulet) available.
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Ashasar nods serenely as his cloud companion turns into a strange, two wheeled contraption that would surely fall to its side if anyone had the unfortunate desire to build it. "If you fell, you would just need to will yourself in the direction from which you fell. And then will yourself to a standstill. And hope the boat will stop to pick you up. Which it should. Unless you have insulted the captain. Which would be quite difficult." He shifts and replies to Agate. "If the worst has happened, bring us her remains. She is the only one who knows the location of her safehouse. Compartmentalization seems to have failed us after all. For now. It will save us in future, no doubt."
As your step out of the Inn, narrowly avoiding colliding with its Air elemental waitstaff, and into Armun Kelisk's busy street you mull over what you know of your destination.
Arriving to the docks, you quickly spot the ship you are to board, as it sticks out not by its sleek curves, nor by it size nor it's hardy appearance. Rather, you spot it because it seem to be built out of several different ships, a number of steam machines, unholy fusions of the mechanical and the arcane. As you approach the gangplank of this piecemeal construction of scrap metal, crystal shards, and patchwork sails, the ship belches a cloud of green smoke from below bridge, and a gnome with bright cyan hair steps out, most of her left side covered in green dust. Or soot. With a final hack, she does take note of you. "Oh. Oh. OH! Customers? Clients? Or maybe? Oh yes, Ashasar's cargo! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm captain Nix, and this here is my ship, the Airdozer 3000 X-press."
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Draklor ponders the situation, but finds himself put oddly on edge by the giant of an Ulfen. "Irori isn't seeing fit to inform me on all this," he says meekly. "Maybe that means we don't need to know much...?"
Upon reaching the monstrosity of a ship and another strange gnome who refers to the Pathfinders as 'cargo', the kitsune closes his eyes for a long second. Opening them, his voice assumes as polite a tone as possible. "That'd be us, Nix. And what a fine ship, indeed! Have arrangements already been made with Ashasar, or do we still need to pay?"
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"I don't know much of Port Eclipse," says Agate, "other than it's a rather lawless place, a sort of open territory that no djinni claim. It's also completely enclosed, so don't worry too much about falling into the depths of the Plane. If any of you want to ask around before we go, I have a spell that will help."
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"I know of this place, actually," Says Alexis as her short, weak, weighted-down legs finally catch up. "Very much unlike, say, the wondrous Armun Kelisk, Port Eclipse is not meant for the entertainment of extraplanars, so knowledge of the Auran language will not merely be a demonstration of sophistication, but a necessity - and the resident translation services charge through the nose." She sniffs, as if to make some possibly-ominous point. "Fortunately, I can indeed speak it."
"I have also been informed of the politics of the settlement: The mayor is someone - or something - named Vendria, a semiretired airship captain who feels, I should say understandably, insecure in her new throne. She is especially wary of a recent smuggling operation, ruled over by a being I know only as 'the Coldfire King.'"
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The vessel has a full crew, whom at a first glance still look somewhat apprehensive. Of you or of the ship? Hard to tell; after all you seem to be a rough and tumble bunch, and you are heading to Port Eclipse...
Agirran works as much as he is allowed to aboard the strange ship.
"I have also been informed of the politics of the settlement: The mayor is someone - or something - named Vendria, a semiretired airship captain who feels, I should say understandably, insecure in her new throne. She is especially wary of a recent smuggling operation, ruled over by a being I know only as 'the Coldfire King.'"
"Ah! Pirates! My kind of people!"
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"Need to pay? Hardly. Old Ashasar has already paid me. Come on board and lets get cracking!" And without much further fanfare, the ship sets sail for port Eclipse.
Aboard the ship, whose name changes with the whims of her captain, your travels only take a couple days, during which you get to witness the captain avoid a massive thunderstorm, hundreds of miles wide, by flying over it. the sight of lightning arcing harmlessly beneath you is hauntingly beautiful. On the second day of your travels though, the half-elf in the crows nest hollers down:
"Comozant wyrds at 2 to 5!"
Captain nix stops in the middle of her explanation of how she rebuilt one of the starboard engines to utter an unusually descriptive string of swears. "Just what we need: the religious police. Lets see what they want."
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Before consulting her spellbook, Agate takes out a small plaque of ivory and arranges a pattern of ink and string on it. She spends several minutes staring at the plaque and muttering to herself.
Cantrips: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation
L1: Feather Fall x2, Comprehend Languages, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon
L2: Gust of Wind, Knock, Flaming Sphere, Protection From Arrows, [http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/spells/seeInvisibility.html]See Invisibility[/url]
L3: Fly, Tongues x4
L4: Arcane Eye, Elemental Body I, Rainbow Pattern
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As two purple/cyan dots grow larger and larger on the horizon, captain Nix sighs. "Comozant wyrds. Not cormorant birds. Just don't piss them off, nod and play nice and we should be fine. Remember, this is Hshurha's realm."
AS the captain starts calling for the engines to slow, it occurs to Draklor that she just doesn't want to get into trouble. This is her livelihood, and should these creature report back to their masters something that does not reflect well on her, she might be in trouble.
The two creatures land upon the ship, and begin to emit some loud noise.
Soon thereafter, the crew forms a line which the comozants slowly drift down, occasionally enshrouding one in electrical flames. And soon, they are approaching you.
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As two purple/cyan dots grow larger and larger on the horizon, captain Nix sighs. "Comozant wyrds. Not cormorant birds. Just don't piss them off, nod and play nice and we should be fine. Remember, this is Hshurha's realm."
Against his better judgement Agirran nods and smiles. It is a terrible smile. It is the sort of smile that sadists make when introduced to a new rusty dental implement.
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Agate flushes at Agirran's words. "I try to be prepared for many possible outcomes," she says as she digs into her component pouch, taking out a curious geometric shape of dried clay. She murmurs a few arcane words over it, then touches it to Draklor as it crumbles away.
Cantrips: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation
L1: Feather Fall x2, Magic Missile x2, True Strike
L2: Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray x2, See Invisibility, Protection From Arrows
L3:
L4: Mnemonic Enhancer, Elemental Body I, Locate Creature
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"Probably because that other one did magic. Look at how stumpy it is!"
The two creatures converse in Auran, before turning their attention to both Agate and Draklor. Suddenly, both find themselves surrounded by crackling plasma.
One of them again garbles something, but this time in Draklor's direction.
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Draklor soaks in the shame, plus a tad of annoyance when his height is brought into question. Still, the kitsune remains calmer on the outside. "May have to let them walk on us a bit," he whispers, confirming Agirran's hunch. "Sorry, not much else for it. I'll try to minimize." He then continues, trying to keep the wyrds feeling superior.
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Ollo sits quietly through the rest of the briefing and the fist day aboard the airship. The second day, as the creatures zoom in on the ship, he shuffles up to join the others in line. "Ach.." he groans. "Me old bones'r not up fer this like they usedta be.." Remembering Captain Nix's words, he holds still as the creatures approach his group, but waits with baited breath as the others relay what the conversation is about. However, the fires of indignation roil in his blood at the insults slung their way. As the lash encompasses his friends, he finally looses control of his tongue and the normally diplomatic dwarf starts turning red in the face as he takes a half step forward.
"Hey now, ye overgrown puffballs!! Ain't no call fer that kinda trash here! Why donna ye just do yer jobs an shove off?!?! We're no here fer trouble, and we'd kindly like ta keep it that way.. but if'n ye think yer gonna hurt me friends, well , we got other ideas then!"