"Did you want to take action?" Orn asked, trailing alongside the tall human as they moved out. "Kobolds have a saying: 'Stay out of the way, live another day.' We've learned that delicate situations sometimes require you do nothing at all. Better to let the right people do the job than to jump in yourself and screw it up."
"Let's say you notice a shaft in the snarl is weakened due to faulty supports. The smart thing is to report it to the fore-dragon - you know, the one with the mine map and knows where the right kobolds are, then stand back and stay out of their way. The wrong thing to do is to try and fix it yourself, especially if you don't know what to do. That puts the whole mine and your tribe in danger." Orn looked up at Sleggar and nodded. "And with your size, it's better to not say anything. You're definitely bigger than me, so you don't have to say anything - people know not to screw with you. When you're my size... well..."
The kids hold up their shiny gold coins as a makeshift salute to their new 'master'. As they do, the first 'minnen' half-runs and half-tumbles down and gives Orn a hug before they leave. "Come back soon."
The activity at Auntie Gilga's place has brought up a large crowd of people who live in the Eastgate district, but it seems that the local Post Guards have the situation well in hand.
11 Lamashan, 4707, Oathday, 3:05pm
You arrive back at the Ascendant Court and make your way to the temple of Sarenrae, where Ollysta Zadrian is awaiting you. "Sun's light and peace always be upon you Pathfinders. Please, tell me of your findings with Auntie Gilga."
Odryk frowns,
"I fear there has never been one more illsuited to handle those poor children."
He will sum up the events of the whole event, giving credit to each of his companions for the parts they played in piecing the information together.
"Please tell me there is a way for you to rectify this mess and provide for those poor little ones."
For the first time since you've met her, Ollysta Zadrian looks sad. Even the attendant acolytes around her seem to follow her lead with frowns of their own. "It is an unfortunate thing that there are those who would take advantage of the charity of others. That is why I helped build the Silver Crusade. We will be sending a few acolytes to her home right away to care for the children until we can establish more permanent care. Thank you all for the help you gave in this. It is important that you all know your place under the Sun and that each place is important." With that, she leans in to kiss each of your foreheads and says a quick blessing to Sarenrae for each of you. "May Her Light always give you wisdom to see in the Dark."
She then turns and begins to walk away, her acolytes following suit. Then she says over her shoulder. "I look forward to working with you again soon."
Orn seems somewhere between awkward and happy to get the hug and see the children "saluting" him. It was new to him... he liked it, but it would certainly take some getting used to.
Following back to the Silver Crusade, Orn lets Odryk explain things, perking his fringes up as she frowns. He didn't think she'd shown much emotion at this point as before - it was disconcerting. Asmodeus knows one wouldn't see that from a kobold chief. But hearing they had someone to help take care of the little ones he'd left was a relief.
He seems to recoil a bit at the kiss as well. Clearly, physical affection something he'd have to get used to. "Let's go, then? I think we have one more stop?" he asked, evidently eager to hop out of there.
Sleggar nods knowingly when she speaks of those who would be that cruel to others and offers his condolences and best wishes as he heads to the next and final stop.
She then turns and begins to walk away, her acolytes following suit. Then she says over her shoulder. "I look forward to working with you again soon."
"Indeed, same to you my lady. Happy to have helped, despite the unfortunate results."
He nods his head and walks away with his comrades, one task left for the day.
11 Lamashan, 4707, 3: 37pm, Oathday.
It is not a long walk from the Ascendant Court that houses most, if not all of Absalom's religious buildings, to the Wise Quarter, which in contrast houses those buildings that belong to the government of the city. Some would say it coincidental that the two are so closely stacked together, but others would whisper more intriguing things are afoot. Either way, you notice that here the district guards are more alert and better armed, their armor and weapons glistening in the late afternoon sun.
The Wise Quarter is the home of several prominent schools and libraries, but none are so prestigious as the Arcanamirium, one of Golarion's most well-known magical schools. Scholars and philosophers from all over the world over congregate in the Wise Quarter to teach, research, and debate any topic known to mortals on Golarion.
Once you navigate your way through the maze of merchant houses, lower council manses and past the Arcanamirium, you come upon the row that contains the Grand Councilmembers' homes. Coming to the end of the row, the guards at the gate nod at you knowingly and allow you up to the main door. The decor here is immaculate. Beautiful topiaries and statues of various creatures line the well manicured lawn and gardens. The house itself is a stone and wood structure and definitely appears to be quite costly.
When you get to the door, it opens immediately and an older human servant bows and shows you in the the Grand Foyer, an immense room that seems more like a dining hall than just the entrance. You are taken down well decorated hallways and vast rooms while the servant speaks.
"Master Salhar is not here at the present for you to speak with. He left his most trusted advisor to see to your discussion."
He takes you to a small study, where you see a tan skinned old man sitting at a mahogany desk reading a rather large tome that has various pieces of paper sticking out of it marking several places. He is wearing a jeweled turban on his head that sparkles in the candlelight. As you approach he gestures that you sit in the cushioned chairs without looking up from whatever he is reading. After you take your seats, he finishes what he is doing and closes the book. He looks at all of you and smiles.
"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.
“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. 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.
The servant then leads you down a darker hallways and after several turns opens a door and takes you down a short flight of stairs to another door. He opens this one and gestures that you go in. All you see in the room is plain stone walls and 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 wooden table holding a clear glass jar half full of liquid and a covered wicker basket.
Sleggar breathes a sigh of relief. After all that bothersome political maneuvering at the old lady's house a simple dungeon romp sounded quite nice.
Sleggar leads the way into the chamber quietly, hoping to regain some of his leader cred.
Odryk helps navigate toward their location, relying on memory of a map he'd seen, but it proves successful. Still feeling mentally drained from the days previous encounters, he puts up no argument and follows dutifully toward the vault.
Once in the stone room he ignores the chests and moves straight toward the vial of liquid, his natural curiosity for alchemy sparking a revival in his mental faculties. He picks it up and studies it intently.
Sleggar will approach the chest and attempt to open it.
Orn felt even more out of place as he walked through the government district. He just felt like eyes were constantly on him, like he was going to steal anything that wasn't nailed down if given the chance.
He felt due some credit - he wasn't THAT stupid.
As he plopped into a cushy chair, he settled in as he listened to the tan human speak, talking about biding their time and waiting on their heritage to shine through for them. He liked him... this Osirian bunch seemed to have a kinship with his kind.
At the mention of jumping into some vault, Orn sounded intrigued. The prospect of finding anything valuable was always appealing to him, even if he had no use for it. He looked between the chests and baskets as he started to glean any magical energies from them.
Kobolds thrived on paranoia. It's how they survive.
As all of you enter the room, the door closes behind you and you can hear the servant locking the door. As he does so, a series of runes start to write themselves on the back of the door.
Within these cases lies your quest and your way out.
The runes then vanish into nothingness.
Odryk looks at the glass container he picks up and notices there is a jeweled brass key at the bottom of it. The clear liquid fills up the container halfway.
Sleggar randomly chooses a chest and attempts to open it, in this case, the copper banded one. It does not open and appears to have a locking mechanism on the front.
Orn spends a minute looking around the room and finds that there are definitely magical auras in the room. One centers around the chest Sleggar is messing with and the other on the steel chest.
"Hmph, bleach eh?" Odryk pours the bleach onto the floor, careful not to let the key slip out, when it's mostly empty he tips the jar and drops the key onto the table while he peers inside the wicker basket.
"Not sure which chest this key goes to, but it's worth a look."
Sleggar realizes the chest he is holding is not real as it disappears from sight.
He will try to act cool and pretend like he wasn't just playing with a fake chest and instead try to open the red-lacquered chest.
As Odryk pours out the bleach, some of it splashes up towards him.
There is a blue stone key on top of a pile of linens in the wicker basket.
Sleggar leaves the first chest alone and goes to the second chest. The red lacquered chest has a keyhole with runes carved around it. It does not open for Sleggar.
Sleggar briefly considers trashing the red-lacquered chest but decides it's probably some kind of priceless artifact.
Hey Odryk, can you read these runes?
"That burned some, let me see Sleggar, perhaps I can read them."
Momentarily distracted from the basket Odryk grabs it the key and heads over to the chest to inspect the runes.
Orn, for his part, has a good look at the steel chest, detecting magic coming from it. Obviously, the banded chest was dispensing a trace of illusion magic, but Sleggar made the much evident when he tried toying with it.
"...this thing has some sort of aura of magic about it... if it's anything like the others, it may be trapped. Let me test it..." Orn carefully closes the distance between himself and the box, and once in range, takes his talon and chucks it at the steel box, hoping that if whatever trap would trigger was from touch, he'd be out of range... hopefully.
Odryk inspects the runes on the red box and determines that they are a simple warning that surrounds the keyhole.
"Use the key correct, find what you seek. Use the key wrong, your future more bleak."
Orn tosses his weapon at the steel chest and it makes a resounding Clang!. It does not open, but Orn does notice a temporary glow of runes surrounding the seam where it would open. His magical senses tell him that if this box is opened, even correctly, a minor transmutation will occur, if one can not resist the magic contained within. Knowing this, he can relate that someone who is familiar with traps can attempt to disarm it.
Nori leans in close, scrutinizing the gold banded chest while her companions fumbled around with the others. Her hope was that her patience and focus would pay off as she set to the task of unraveling the mystery of one chest at a time.
"Hmm, a correct key..." Sleggar looks at the Red Lacquered chests keyhole and then looks around at the room for something that might fit it.
The only keys that Sleggar sees are the one in Odryk's hand and the one on top of the linens in the wicker basket.
Praying to every god he knows, Odryk will use the jeweled key on the red chest, hoping it is the 'correct' one.
Sleggar takes a long couple of steps back from Odyrk as he does this
Sorry old friend, just being careful and all that
Odryk places the jeweled key in the keyhole of the red lacquered chest and as he does so, the runes light up and the key begins to spin on its own accord. It then stops and falls out. You never hear it make contact with any of the lock mechanism. It is then that all of you hear a ticking sound.
Cursing under his breathe Odryk keeps a cool head and starts inspecting the chest.
"If I just killed us all lads, let me say it's been a hell of a day. Was good to meet you all!"
Odryk determines that there is indeed a mechanism attached to the red chest, but it is not the source of the ticking sound. Instead, it appears to be associated with the locking system. It does not appear to be a trap however and looks to be a mechanism designed to open something else.
Odryk, having looked the mechanism over, looks for whatever the mechanism is set to open.
If he doesn't find anything he'll turn his attentions back to the wicker basket and remove the linen to see what is moving beneath it.
Odryk is unable to determine what the mechanism goes to without opening the chest. Going over to the wicker basket, he reaches inside for the linens and suddenly a fast green shape attacks his hand.
Sleggar uses the key that Odryk was holding to try and open the Red Chest.
Sleggar uses the key that Odryk was holding to try and open the Red Chest.
"Damn this stupid room!" Odryk pulls his hand out of the basket and shakes it. He looks at the wound but decides it's nothing terrible. He draws his sword, and backs away from the chest, opting the let the snake escape it it wants.
He prepares himself just in case though.
Sleggar Cracks his whip at the snake so he can grab the key
Orn watches Odryk tinker with the chest, before getting bitten by the snake... and as he does, he can't help, but think about the dwarven ruins his tribe used to call home. [i]No wonder they cleared out. I'm impressed they lasted long enough to build the place.[/ooc]
"Looks like you disturbed her nap. Best to put the lid back on and let her be." If he can, Orn will get close, put the lid on basket again, and turn his attention back to the chest he was examining. "If the key won't open that chest... perhaps it will open this one. Give it a shot?" he asked, allowing Sleggar to do the honors.
"Looks like you disturbed her nap. Best to put the lid back on and let her be."
"I'd love to Orn but there's another key in the basket."
Odryks reply is terse as he is both frustrated that he's been burnt and bitten, and also that the Kobold just reclosed the basket.
Orn blinks back at the dwarf, looking down in the basket. "There is? ...well, that's an easy get. If you have the right spell prepped. I don't, but there is another way. Several, actually. Got any instruments?"
"An...an instrument, why in the-"
Odryk closes his eyes and breathes heavily. He looks down apologetically at the Kobold and shakes his head.
"Sorry lad, that wretched woman really put me out of my good mood today and I feel like I used up all my mental acuity just handling her. Either way I don't have an instrument, is there anything else you had in mind?"
Nori's eyes were keen indeed as the illusion faded from view. She grumbled and turned her attention to the action with the snake. An idea struck her and she glanced around the room, looking for anything else peculiar or out of the ordinary.
Silently observing most of the puzzle solving, when Odryk is attacked Kelwin springs into action, aiming and firing his crossbow at the basket and what it contains.
The shot hits the basket, knocking it to the ground and a very angry green viper hisses at you, now exposed. A blue stone key also clatters to the ground as well.
Nori moves in to nab the snake with her blade,
and it instead sends sparks flying from the stone ground.
Seeing an opportunity, the snake lashes out for Nori, but Odryk's sword is faster, slashing out to catch it in mid-strike. The agile snake is faster and still manages to get Nori.
Nori is bit in the leg, but the fangs barely scratch her.
As punishment, Sleggar's whip cracks in the air and it snaps at the viper, sending it flying into the stone wall. It slumps in a pile, unmoving.
Orn moves over the the overturned basket. There is a blue stone key and linens lying about, near the defeated viper.
"Ah, that's fine. I wouldn't know how to play it properly. I read that some musicians can charm snakes with music... I was going to try that. But I have a few other ide-"
Orn blinks as everything around him happens so fast, barely able to register what just occurred. However, when the snake stops moving, Orn seems somewhat saddened by the death. He clenches his claws, fangs bare, as he glared up at Kelwin. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?!? I was going to try luring it out with some of my snacks for the day! You didn't have to kill it!" He looked up at Sleggar, as if about to chastise him too, but stopped himself. He was simply reacting... he did what was best...
Orn picked up the key and frowned, before handing it to Odryk and turning to the snake, kneeling down and checking it for life... and if he can, try to rose it. "...I know I have little room to speak on this matter: paranoia and preemptive action is the hallmark of my kind. So I understand the desire to strike first and worry never. But ever since I've come into contact with bigger races, it seems like you all want to resort to violence at the first excuse you get. I know you don't have scales, but I thought your skin was tougher than this."
Orn frowned. He was pretty sure he wasn't going to get the viper to come around. He bowed his head for a bit, before inhaling. "Perhaps it is because I know what it's like to have your home invaded... but I don't want to meet everything with fighting. I'm tired of the anger, and isn't good for those on the weak end."
The viper appears to simply be stunned and may recover, but Orn is unable to tell how long that might take.
Sleggar waits out the outburst from Orn and shows him the lack of blood on the whip. The reason I use a whip instead of a sword, Orn is for this reason. The Whip is the noblest of weapons. It is incapable of killing unless in the hands of a true master and even then, only when the wielder wills it. That little viper will wake up with an all-over ache but he will be just fine.
I am a Hellknight, first and foremost, I am sworn to uphold laws of the world to their absolutely strictest sense. I know we are trespassers here in his home, but his home is also someone else's home, yes? Anyway, that is why my order of hellknights only resorts to blade when all else has failed. Because even the worst criminals deserve not death, but punishment. Sleggar grabs the blue key and then cups the viper in his hands and places him back in the wicker basket.
Now let's see if this opens this red chest
As Sleggar places the blue stone key in the lock, the runes light up and the key turns on its own. You hear a slight grating sound and then the red chest opens. Inside you see a jeweled scepter with a key forged at the end of it. You then hear another grating sound in the ceiling. The opening that Odryk saw earlier is now open and a golden key is hanging a few inches from the ceiling. It dawns on Odryk what the mechanism in the chest did.
Orn stares down at the viper, before inhaling quietly. "...thank you, Sleggar. You'll make a very good chief of the Hellknight tribe."
Orn looks up as he sees a gold key fall out and hang down for them to see. He cocks his head to one side as he blinks at it. "...is that the key we want?"
Either that one, or the one I hold in my hand - did we get any real indication of what key they were looking for?
"We were sent in here to get maps, I imagine this scepter has something to do with it, and I certainly won't be able to reach that key on the ceiling."
Nori stares up at the key, "I may be able to leap. However, it would behoove us to work together in this. Knight, I assume you can hold my weight on your shoulders?" Assuming he would agree, she climbed on top of his shoulders and perched there as she straightened up toward the key.
Nori clambers up Sleggar's shoulders and manages to reach out as far as she can. Her fingers barely touch the key as she balances there. Perhaps if Sleggar could lift her a bit higher...
Sleggar balances Nori in his hands and lifts her high enough to grab the golden key from the ceiling. The ticking sound continues...
You have a jeweled scepter with a key attached, a golden key and only one unopened box, the steel one.