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/tba dot!
The incessant beat of hammer against anvils and weaponry greets entrants into Smine’s Weaponworks, a smithy of great repute in the town of Tymon in the River Kingdoms, along with an oppressive wave of heat and the acrid smell of coal. A broad-shouldered dwarf, face and arms smudged with soot from the furnaces, smiles broadly, proclaiming in a voice harsh with years of yelling, “Ah! I was expecting you lot! Step inside my office. I have refreshments.”
He steps inside a cozy office, gesturing at several chairs, ranging from an overstuffed chaise to a sparse and undecorated rocking chair. After rinsing his face off in a nearby basin of water, he pours out several glasses of water, immediately quaffing one for himself before refilling it and sitting down to his desk. “Venture-Captain Holgarin Smine, at your service. Guessing the Lodge got my message. You don’t look too fresh-faced for this mission.” Finishing the rest of his drink, he wipes the corner of his mouth with a clean cloth.
“ I’ll be quick about it. You’ve got a bit of travel ahead of you. One of the mayors of Uringen, Lady Aurelia Ogden, wants the Society’s help—with an experiment she’s been doing. The clock tower of Uringen has drawn all sorts of researchers. It hasn’t worked quite right from the get-go. It makes a whole piece of the town disappear. Four clock faces, each with a different way of counting time. All displaying a different time—until now. The mayor thinks that those faces might finally join up. What’s going to happen when it does is anybody’s guess. She doesn’t have the staff she needs to record it properly. That’s where the Society comes in.”
“Uringen’s alchemical goods are some of the best. In exchange for recording the experiment’s effects, and dealing with unexpected issues, Mayor Ogden will give the Society a discount. But there’s something else that the Society wants. You heard about the mishap with the Sky Key? How it’s not working correctly? Turns out, that clock tower might have something that can fix it. Scholars call that something ‘temporal essence.’ Fetch at least one vial of the stuff. Ogden says the best time to collect it is in the middle of the clock face alignment. I’ve arranged for travel to Embeth Forest. When you get there, you’ll be meeting Jamel Visser. Visser’s the leader of the local forest guides. They call themselves the Embeth Travelers. Don’t dawdle. You’ve got to make it to Uringen before the clock faces align. The boat will get you to Visser in a little over 2 weeks if you don’t run in to trouble. The clocks align in 3 weeks.
“Any questions…or refills?”
I only know about the tower. One of the founders of the town built it. Great piece of work—even if it’s not dwarven,” Smine says with a wink. “It combines magic and machinery. I’m no wizard; can’t tell you more than that. It causes a piece of the town to disappear and reappear—or at least. At least, people in Uringen say that’s what it does.
Uringen’s alchemists are renowned through the Inner Sea for the effectiveness of their elixirs and potions.
The clock tower that stands in the center of Uringen doesn’t tell the same time on all its faces, and one of the faces always spins wildly out of control.
The town of Uringen was founded in 4637 ar by an Ulfen skald name Birji Uringen
The grig Mather Nithra has made numerous threats on the people of Uringen as well as on travelers through Embeth Forest.
Hold off on buying any alchemical goods until you get to Uringen. No sense wasting your money. Don’t go blabbing that you’re with the Society while you’re in Tymon. Locals don’t know about this lodge.
After an uneventful trip along the Sellen River, the group arrives near the edge of the Embeth Forest.
A sturdy wooden pier stretches over the western bank of the
fast-moving river, where a river barge offloads several crates
of labeled goods. Nearby, a camp laid out in a rough semicircle
bustles with activity, its borders marked off by covered wagons and tarpaulins. Water from a recent downpour collects in the
canvas’ folds and in puddles on the ground.
A group of travellers directs the adventurers to a Jamel Visser, who is standing by the central campfire. Dressed in plain forester’s garb, as well as a worn but well-kept suit of leather armor and a longbow, he listens to the two scouts with a pensive look on his face. At the party approaches, he turns to greet them.
“Well met, travelers. Smine sent word of your arrival, expressing the urgency of your journey, but we will have to delay your departure. On our trip here, we ran afoul of that blasted grig’s traps, and we won’t be able to leave until we’ve fixed things up.”
These forests contain some benevolent fey, who occasionally assist those who provide them offerings of bread, honey, milk, or alcoholic beverages.
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Know Nature (Aid first who wants it)
Scarlet caught up to the group a little late - "Seemed there was a job needed someone handy with locks" she offers by way of apology.
The slightly feline woman then gets to entertaining the rest of the fellow travellers with acts of legerdemain and acrobatics to while away the time.
"Traps you say?" her interest piqued "Tell us more about these traps and what lay ahead? What is a Grig, and why is it laying tricks traps and snares?"
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On the trip along the Sellen River, Rhanloi tells the rest of his party what he knows about the area they are travelling to. "As you may have heard, Uringen’s alchemists are renowned for the effectiveness of their elixirs and potions. That's why Venture-Captain Smine told us not to bother purchasing these items before we arrived. The town of Uringen was founded in 4637 AR by an Ulfen skald name Birji Uringen. From what I've heard, the clock tower that stands in the center of Uringen doesn’t tell the same time on all its faces, and one of the faces always spins wildly out of control."
In the campsite, at Vissel's tale, Rhanloi adds, "I have heard about a grig named Mather Nithra, who has made numerous threats on the people of Uringen as well as on travelers through Embeth Forest. Although I've never seen a grig in person, I read that these tiny creatures have gossamer wings, the prickly legs of a cricket, and the upper body of an elven woman. A strange combination sure to have strange magical abilities...Can you tell us why it has such enmity on you?"
“I’ve got a few problems, to be honest. Deadfall, pits, whatever snares those twisted fey thought of, and that’s just the start. They’ll all need to be cleared or disabled before we go back into the woods.”
“Our mules are sick, probably poisoned, and even some of our hounds have succumbed too. Our healers would be most appreciative if you helped them out.”
“Grigs, they're fey folk. This forest hosts a group of them let by Nithra. I’ve never actually seen him face to…well face, I guess. Just in passing as he hopped away from putting mistletoe in the stew pot. Some fey might clean your house while you slept at night, and I can tell you, he’s not that kind. The fey like to harass us in and out of the woods. We usually catch most of their tricks, but not this time.”
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RHanloi offers to attempt to contact Nithra and speak with him. Elves and the fey had a connection, after all, and Rhanloi had learned their language as part of his upbringing...
"But if I do this, I must know anything your people may have to cause his actions. I know the fey - they are capricious pranksters, but not usually prone to such damaging tricks unless they are responding to a threat or an offence. So tell me why they are fighting you...Oh, and I will need a bottle of your best liquor as an appeasement."
Boram finds a nasty projectile trap. As soon as he sits down to disarm it, he triggers the mechanism. A dart whizzes past his head and bores itself into a nearby tree trunk.
Marra takes some time to treat the poison, but the venom seems to be quite powerful, and takes a bit more effort from her ().
The rangers lead the party deeper through the forest, until one of them signals a stop Here's another trap. See that pile of logs there? Doesn't look safe to me.
Scarlet manages to secure the logs with a few well-struck pegs. Not much further down the road, she spots another, similar pile.
Scarlet disables the other trap. After some more moving, and with the help of Rhanloi, she finds another one - a poison dart trap like the one Boram set off.
Meanwhile, Marra is having a hard time treating the animal, though she eventually manages to cure one with a timely dose of inspiration.
With all of these setbacks, and not a single fey in sight, the rangers travel onward, until Visser makes a sign.
Raising his voice over the jingle of yokes and the rattle of wagon wheels, Visser booms out “Halt!” Dismounting from his horse, he gestures down the road. “About half a mile down that road, you’ll be in Uringen. Desna smile on you in that place.”
“Since you’ve been right useful this trip, I was hoping you could carry these reports to Mayors Mieren and Ogden, since you’ll be in town anyway. Put in a good word for you as well, maybe you’ll get something from them for it.”
These reports mostly keep track of what we see. With Uringen so far from anywhere else, it’s good to keep in mind what beasts are wandering about
The town of Uringen is a flurry of activity. Puffs of multicolored smoke rise from tall stone chimneys that emerge from steeply pitched rooftops, and people dressed sharply in black and white shuffle about the town, preparing for the convergence. The divide between the two halves of the town is stark. A wide street, 20 feet across at its widest, separates the static and unstuck portions of the town.
Boarded windows and prominent “closed” signs decorate the static half of the town, whose residents speak in hushed and tense tones. In the unstuck half of the town, excitement and curiosity outweigh fear, and groups of people gather in the streets. Above it all, a four-sided tower looks out upon the town, with an enormous clock face decorating each side at its pinnacle.
In the middle of the street between the two halves, a pair of well-dressed figures appears to be locked in a debate, their words clipped and harsh. Their heated conversation is in Skald, with a smattering of words and phrases in Common.
The man rests his hand on the hilt of a rapier at his side, while the woman hooks her thumbs in the wide sash wrapped around her body. A tiny blue-skinned humanoid with iridescent blue butterfly wings flits behind the woman’s head, a miniscule pair of pince nez perched upon his pert nose.
The pair are the mayors of Uringen, Knavar Mieren and Aurelia Ogden
The butterfly-winged humanoid is a pixie, a kind of fey creature.
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Marra nods taking the reports, "Right Mayor Mieren and Ogden, Thanks for the escort."
Seeing the group in the street, the halfling giggles "I've never seen a Pixie wearing eye glasses before! I bet one of them is the mayor." Moving up to the pair of well-dressed debaters the small halfling looks up at the two, "Excuse me, would one of you happen to be Mieren or Ogden?"
The man crosses his wiry arms over his broad chest as Marra approaches. The woman is approaching her middle years, the barest grace of silver among sun-bleached brown hair at her temples
and crows’-feet around her brown eyes the only real sign
of her age, and welcomes the group with considerable more grace: “Excellent to see that my message was received and heard by the Society! I’m Mayor Aurelia Ogden, and this is my compatriot, Mayor Knavar Mieren. I trust your journey through the Embeth wasn’t too hazardous?”
“Not unexpected news, but I will leave the details of the guard arrangement with Mieren. Right now, I must focus all my attention on my experiment—and I, for one, am happy that you are here to assist with it,” Ogden finishes, with a pointed glance at Mayor Mieren.
“Your role in the experiment is very straightforward. I will need several people to observe the westward-facing clock, and record everything you see or hear—taste, smell, touch as well if it becomes necessary. As members of the Pathfinder Society, your experience with…unusual situations is legendary, and this alignment will certainly qualify as ‘unusual’—one for your Pathfinder Journals, I hope!”
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Skarn greets the pair formally in a flawless, native Skald, before reverting to common for the ease of conversation for his companions.
"Greetings, Lady Mayor. The journey was fine for the most part, thanks to our sharp-eyes companions. Nothing out of the usual though. Here are the reports."
"I'll be delighted in assisting you with your experiment. Do you have any insight on how we could collect some temporal essence?"
Collect temporal essence? I don't know anything about that. It's observations what we're after. As you might know, when this part of town becomes ‘unstuck,’ as it is referred to in the local vernacular, we lose all sense of how much time has passed. I am hoping that the timepieces I have constructed will allow us to keep track of time while we remain out of phase with the rest of Uringen. While I’m observing my timepieces, I will not be able to pay attention to other events in the tower. That is where you come in.
It is possibel to have a look inside the tower. Of course, it goes without saying that disturbing any of the mechanisms could have catastrophic side effects, so I will ask you to refrain from doing so. If you want a more thorough tour, please see Cerotious,” and she gestures at the pixie accompanying her. The pixie replies with a start, “Yes, of course! Come with me. I would be most happy to show you around.”
You must tired of travel. the mayor continues, If you want to relax, just go to the Oaken Knot Tavern. I shall cover your stay while you are here, seeing as how you have done such a good job for Visser.
In the center of “unstuck” Uringen stands the Clock Tower, a five-story edifice constructed of blue-gray stone and mottled with pearlescent white blocks. At the very top, the clock faces align to the cardinal directions, while long arms of weather-tarnished metal click out the hour and minute, but the four faces do not depict the same time. The time on the western face moves the most erratically, with its arms swinging backwards and forwards, while the northern face depicts an accurate time. On each floor, glass windows break up the monotony of stone, but even these are covered with arcane scripts and sigils from an eclectic variety of arcane traditions.
Cerotious eagerly welcomes the party when they arrive at the tower together: Welcome to the Tower—I would be Cerotious, aide-de-camp for Mayor Ogden and advisor of First World affairs to Uringen. Is there anything in particular that makes you curious? The pixie manages to pull off a courtly bow in mid-air as he presents his name and title. Around the butterfly-winged fey, plain-robed apprentices set up delicate apparatuses, while others walk slowly up the wooden stairs to the next floor.
“As you can see, Ogden’s lesser apprentices are moving her timepieces to various places within the Tower, but my focus is here—on the circle. Most of the speculation up to this point thinks that Reckless Rhona messed up her construction…but I don’t think so.”
The pixie flits over to an open windowsill, pointing at the narrow gap between the stonework. “This is not the work of a sloppy person! No! The tower is build on top of a fey circle, and I think that interfered with her design somehow, and that’s why part of the town disappears…I just have to prove that somehow.”
The pixie pauses for a moment, tracing a symbol on one of the white stones embedded in the wall. “Aurelia mentioned that an unbiased and fresh set of eyes might reveal insight otherwise clouded by staring at it too long. As the senior assistant researcher and head pixie on the clock tower deciphering project, I take any potential leads very seriously.
The gears within the clock tower are extraordinarily intricate. Scarlet notice an anomaly in the mechanism; some of the gears should not be moving at all, or should be moving in the opposite direction, if they worked as typical gears.
Marra takes her time, thoroughly examining every floor (). She notices the tower is built out of the crystalline stone known as quartzite instead of the more common granite.
Rhanloi investigates the strange sigils. They're hard to decipher, but within the jumble of markings and glyphs, there seems to be some unusual magic. When pointed out to Cerotius, he makes a whoop of joy Brilliant! The sigils, we've never noticed them, but they looks to be part of Ambros' esoteric time magic. This is a major breakthrough! We'll finally be able to figure out if the tower really can be used to travel through time.