Here the game will take place and all actions and ingame stuff of your characters will be posted.
You just signed in to the Pathfinder Organisation and finished what they call "basic training" as you find yourself summoned to the office of Ambrus Valsin, , the venture-captain in charge of daily operations in and around the Grand Lodge, a famous man you already heard a lot of stories about. Looking around you see some faces familiar from those lessons, but before you can think anything forther, Valsin bids you his welcome and motions for all to sit down on some chairs, a kindness better not ignored. As all sat down he begins to speak:
All right, Pathfinders! Listen up. I know you are new recruits eager to make names for yourselves in the organization, but first we need to make sure you are up to snuff and won’t get yourself killed out there. I have a number of small assignments for you and your team, and it would be best if you could finish them before the day’s end.
In an uncomforctable silence he eyes everyone of you critically, examining all from head to toe.
Every day we get some doe-eyed hopeful or some sniveling bootlicker willing to do anything to join up with the Pathfinders. Most of them are good kids, but not all of them have the salt to make it in a world like this. It’s rough out there and I’m not just talking about the ruins, tombs, and wilderness Pathfinders find themselves in on missions. We’ve got people who look down their noses at us, folks who think we squander our resources, and agents who want to take everything we have collected. This wealth of knowledge and these items of lore make us the most powerful organization on the planet. That said, since we are fractured and widespread, it’s difficult for that power to light on anything for too long. For every friend of the Society, there are two enemies.
Pacing around in the office, he comes to a halt looking out of the window, hands folded on his back. With a sudden movement he faces you again, continuing his speech.
Your first mission, to test your mettle and loyalties, sends you to meet a few people important to the Society living here in Absalom. These are other venture-captains or close allies of our organization, so follow their orders as you would mine. I’ve prepared a list of things I want you to do. They’re not arranged in any particular order of importance, but I want them all completed as quickly as possible. Only report to me once you complete them all. Included in the envelope you hold in your hands is the list, complete with the name of your contact, and directions to the meeting location.
He hands one of you a papyrus roll and motions to the door. While gathering in the hallway to look at the list, you realize how small and umimportant you all still are and what a great chance this is to become a real and cherished member of one of the world´s mightiest organisations.
Someone opens the roll with the list and you take a look at it.
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"Like the owl who does not long eye the mouse before striking!
Let's get done with this and why not just start with the first point?"
The tall blackhaired elf clothed in animal hides declaims to the rest of the group still standing in the hallway with him.
"I'm Onvyr. How do each of you call yourselves?"
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A very small and fragile looking figure steps between your legs, politely looks at each of you and makes a small bow, smiling all the time.
Hello my good and gentle men. Miranala Giarin´s the name. But you may call me just Mira. Care to give me your little list? Can´t see it from down here.
Barely audible you hear a small mutter Hope this one there won´t eat me...
While you are still standing gathered there, the door opens and Valsin walks out, some scrolls and cases under one arm, sword in the other hand, looking at you surprised while passing by:
Gentlemen, are you having a tea party here? Might be i gave that orders to the wrong ones and should have let you report to the head of the ktichens? Get on your way! This might not seem like the stuff for legends, but it needs to be done anyway! I trust you report back to me with positive results soon.
You leave the Grand Lodge Complex in the Foreign Quarter and walk your way to the Docks, where you easily find your first destination with the adress you were given and some inquiries about the way. Curiously about what awaits you in the curio shop you enter, after remiding yourself that you are just about to meet Guaril Karela, the head of the notorious Sczarni Faction in Absalom.
The creepy shop contains myriad odds and ends, most bereft of any discernible use. A number of malformed creatures and creature parts bob in jars on a long, prominent shelf, a tiny fetal devil centered in this macabre lineup. The shopkeeper, a greasy-haired Varisian with a thin mustache, shouts from behind the cluttered counter:
Ah yes, I see the Pathfinders have arrived. I’m glad Ambrus was able to lend a few of his new recruits to help me. Please come in and let me tell you what I need.
Looking around as if to be absolutely certain no customers are browsing the aisles of knock-off Thuvian burial urns or supposed Azlanti porcelain, he begins again.
Well met. I am Guaril Karela. A friend of mine has a warehouse near here and he received a parcel on behalf of me and some of my associates, but there’s a problem. See, Master Gelbane had to leave town in a hurry and our shipment is still waiting at his warehouse. Rumor is he ended up in trouble with the law and the place was seized. I heard tell from someone down at the docks that some creep was snooping around his warehouse just the other night, so I want to make sure nothing of mine was taken. He keeps all kinds of things, from beer to nails, in that old pelican, but every now and then he stores something really special. This is one of those cases.
There’s a big crate marked with three crows arranged in a triangle. Inside that crate is a smaller container with a few books and papers in it. That’s the only parcel I’m interested in, and as far as I’m concerned, you can help yourself to the rest of the crate. Honestly, anything else you want in the place too. I’m sure the once things get sorted out, the city will seize most everything else anyway.
My associates and I often work with the Pathfinders when it comes to special relics and documents, getting them in and out of ports and across borders where the authorities ask too many questions. Most people don’t realize what they have and frankly many don’t deserve to have it, so sometimes we help take the goods off their hands. If things work out well and you get this done, I’d be glad to talk with you more and help you out with any future endeavors, as long as you help me out too. I’m good at returning favors, trust me.
Here the Quest Listagain.
I also posted a map of Absalom in the campaign description.
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Mira steps forward, smiling and bowing in the direction of Guaril.
Ugh, this one looks as if he never heard something of fashion or body hygiene. But oh well, nobody said this is gonna be easy. Smile, Mira, smile, just another stupid schmock to be messed with.
Good Day to you good sir. What a nice mustache you´ve got! It complements your striking features quite well, if I may say so. And your shop is most exquisite!
This sounds as an easy enough request. Going to a warehouse, probably disposing of some poor fellow who happens to be too greedy for his own good and getting back your little books. Should be not to hard with these nice gentlemen around me, well versed in disposing and taking stuff by the looks of it, don´t you think?
As my friends said, it would be most welcome if you could describe the exact location of this fabulous warehouse so we can complete our mission as soon as possible.
Really, Mira, friends? Sometimes I disgust myself.
Ah yes of course! That is an information i shall not detain from you! he says, tilting his moustache like the animated hands of a clock It is one of those commonly called a Pelican Warehouse, an old rickety building perched at the end of a pier which allows ships to load and unload farther out from the far more busier docks, which also gives one appreciated privacy of sorts. They became rare these days and most are in a decayed state because there is an increased tax on this type of property. This one is at the far end of the dock. You won´t miss it, it´s at the end of the farthest outstretching dock, nearly 100 feet from the boardwalk. Just walk along the quay. The seemingly always present sneer returns to his face as he tilts his moustache again.
I´m glad to hear that this little task won´t overstrain you. I wish you a nice walk on the quay promenade and await your return.
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Thank you very much for this wonderful discription, we will find it in no time. Well then, of we go.
Bowing again, Mira walks to the front door, appreciating all the asserted goods in the warehouse with knowing looks and smiling again in the direction of Guaril.
Outside, she waits for her companions, thinking Ah well, at least they look like they could be useful in a fight, even if most of them don´t seem to have any manners at all.
I am now taking over this thread here. Everyone please look at the discussion thread.
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Karthacus was following the other guys. He had no idea what was going on. His brain was first and foremost occupied by the thought if he should eat the small guy. That one was talking so much in his annoing voice and... he was easy eatable. So he could a. eat him, b. not eat him, f. eat him later on... In the last corner of his little brain Karthacus heard the voice of his last owner: Don`t eat people if I don*t tell u to do so! That was way to much thinking for him... all this noice and people gave him a bad headache. It was totally time to hurt someone.
Guaril Karela watches you leaving the shop, tilting his moustache in his sneering face.
You begin to walk down the road to the quai, on your way to the warehouse.
You notice a brutish man watching you from across the street and following you.
All of you understand that Mira wants to tell you someone is watching and following you.
While you chatter diligently you turn around to see if the person is still there, but it is gone, vanished in the crowd as if it never had been there.
After a brisk walk you arrive at the destined location. The pier this pelican warehouse sits on stretches 100 feet from the boardwalk and the docks proper, and stands 15 feet above the water. The planks on the pier are sturdy but weathered. A few local fishermen and some kids sit scattered along the pier casting nets or bobbing lines into the waters below. The building looks abandoned and in disrepair. The windows are dark and dirty and provide no view into the structure’s interior. A small boat bobs in the water below, tethered to the pier by a stout, salt-crusted rope. The warehouse’s heavy wooden front door is closed. On there waterside is a closed loading door, where a small ledge leeds to.
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Looking at her heavily armored companions and the others, who also don´t seem to be very sneaky, Mira sighs:
Ah, I thought so. Alright, I´ll go, as it seems that the ledge would either break under your weight, or you would be as loud as a drunk trying to sing a birthday song.
Showtime Mira. And you know full well how this is going to end. Either you will slip and fall in the water, or some lunatic will open one of those windows and shoot you in the face. But never mind, we both know you´ll do it anyway.
Mira tries to stealthly approach the buildung,
then tries to balance over the ledge,
and listens to any sounds coming from inside the warehouse.
Mira arrives at the double door with ease, but the only thing she hears is a man with a norse accent cursing and splintering wood as a battleaxe crashes into the front door with a loud "thunk".
Some of the door splintered away, but it will need some more heavy blows with the axe before you can pass through.
The Son of Man seems to be bestet by a heavy wooden door, his battleaxe barely scratching it.
Roused by the noise two fisherman look into your direction, pack their things and relocate further away. Else no one seems to take notice or even care.
On the third mighty blow by the Son of Man a big part of the door collapses and it seems quite broken and battered. You still need to do some more work before you can pass through.
Already sweat is streaming down his face from under the helmet as Buliwyf managed to cut down 3/4 of the heavy door by an impressive show of physical might in the noon sun.
Unde the heavy impact of Karthacus masterfully swung spiked chain the door flies into a thousand flinders. Wooden chips cover the ones standing near. The door is finally open and you can enter.
Looking inside, you see the entrance. It´s only some feet to the next outer wall, but there seems to be more to the right. You have to enter to see more.