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Just as Caranthir discovers a hidden key sandwiched between two rickety slats on the building near the doorframe, Van wands the door open.
Darkness fills the warehouse, the ambient light from outside blocked by a filthy, oily film on the structure’s few windows. Darting illumination comes from light reflecting off the water through a splintered hole in the floor. Throughout the warehouse, crates, boxes, and barrels lean against each other in vaguely sorted stacks. A lingering smell indicates some of the contents are certainly spoiled.
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After leaving the Varisian's shop, Alek can't shake the greasy feeling he got from being in the strange shop and the greasy feeling he got from then himself. "Does anyone else think we should have obtained more information on the shop before strolling in here like this?" He looks at his comrades. "I don't trust that man..."
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Perched in the middle of the hole, teetering on split planks, sits a large crate stamped with three crows arranged in a triangle—the very crate the party has come to find! Handholds cut into the stout wooden crate ring the rim.
Other barrels, boxes, and crates sit stacked along the walls of the warehouse. Just inside the door sits a handful of crates and kegs of beer. Most of these smaller crates and barrels contain foodstuffs in various states of freshness. Some crates reek of rot. Stacks of simple coffins sit against the east wall. The rest of the crates stacked along the north and south walls contain simple sundries including, but not limited to beer, blocks of clay, coffee, coils of rope, dried fish, lead ingots, nails, nets, raw cotton, rough wool, spare sails, timber planks, various pulleys and tools, and cheap weapons.
A crane, used for loading and unloading boats, clings to a rail running the length of the warehouse, hanging 5 feet below the high ceiling, and can slide out to extend past the loading doors along the west wall.
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Alek, it isn't our place to decide who we assist. We were sent to assist him, and that is what we are going to do. Slime or no.
Looking around the room, Is that what we are looking for? The one most precariously placed item in the entire warehouse? How do we get it? Sir Dydimus and Van are probably small enough to not break through those floorboards, but probably not strong enough to shove the crate.
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"I understand we cannot choose who we are assigned to assist; however, we do not have to follow that person blindly, Opal. How do we know he is not sending us to break into this place and steal a crate he has no legal rights to? I'm not saying we don't do the job we were sent to do, just don't rush in blindly..."
Once they step into the warehouse, Alek looks at the crate... "That may prove to be difficult in obtaining..."
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Van ventures in after the others and his mind boggles, "Wow, look at all this cool stuff. I could fun for hours with this junk!"
Realizing his cool exterior was eroding, he clears his throat and looks around, "Yeah, I mean, I could build something with the crane to pull the crate out, no problem. Might take awhile though."
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Caranthir discovers that he must make an acrobatics check not to fall through the hole in the bottom of the warehouse!
And he makes it like a champ! His arrow strikes true. Alas, it is not a critical hit.
ROUS3 has 1 HP remaining. With an arrow through its shoulder, ROUS3 reconsiders his life choices...
This is round 1.
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Adjacent creatures get a reflex save vs alchemist bombs. (If Dydimus is OK with the splash, that's fine.) At higher levels, you can exclude squares from your splash.
Splash damage from an alchemist bomb is always equal to the bomb's minimum damage [...] Those caught in the splash damage can attempt a Reflex save for half damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the alchemist's level + the alchemist's Intelligence modifier.
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Dydimus also makes a reflex save to avoid falling through the hole:
Dydimus laughs at the hole. :-)
He also pierces ROUS2 right through the middle of its forehead. Its eyes turn inward following the path of the point of the rapier, and it expires with a confused, cross-eyed look on its face.
Only ROUS1 remains standing.
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Alek, Caranthir, and Opal are up.
As an immediate action, ROUS1 slips on a pair of spectacles, looks at Alek and holds up a sign, Wile E. Coyote style: "You wouldn't hit a dire rat with glasses, would you?" His innocent countenance includes drooping ears, very large eyes, and a sad grimace. :-D
This is round 2.
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Cinderpaw saunters forward with a sly look on his muzzle.
The dire rat smiles abashedly at the wolf. He holds up a new sign: "It's my birthday!" And his smile deepens while beads of sweat drip from his forehead.
Cinderpaw holds up a sign of his own: "Happy Birthday!" Then chews off the dire rat's face.
This was round 2.
Combat over!
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Taking 10's or 20's the party can retrieve the crate.
The rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, which contains five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. The titles and subjects seem completely unrelated to each other: Practical Thaumaturgy In Accordance with Creation, Geographic Anomalies of the Inner Sea, Under Kaer Maga: A Trial and Travel, Physiology of Dragons: An Illustrated Reference, Lost Sarusan. The leather folder contains cargo manifestos, warehouse inventories, and other financial logs from a dozen different merchant houses and trade guilds.
The crate also contains 10 sets of masterwork thieves’ tools, three flasks of alchemist’s fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of various inks, a footprint book, adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, a deck of marked cards, and two sets of average loaded dice.
The party returns the requested item to Guaril Karella's shop.
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Caranthir, Dydimus, and Opal notice a halfling with a handlebar moustache has followed the party off and on throughout the day. But, he's too far away and soon disappears into the crowd.
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You all complete the fourth and final task on your agenda and start to head back to the Grand Lodge. You must pass through the Foreign Quarter back to the Society’s headquarters. Along the way, a throng of people blocks the street ahead. A performance art group commandeers the street, drawing graffiti to create a jolly hellscape complete with illusory devils comically dancing around in circles. A few citizens avoiding the crowd slip off-street through a nearby alley, the only egress past the gathering.
The party takes this shortcut also. Then alleyway is thrown into a hazy fog as a strong voice calls out strange sounds. Once that happens, the common citizens flee.
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WOOO! What just happened? Weren't we just in a warehouse? Did I just have a stroke? Sid Dydimus Looks around confused trying to his find his pulse on his neck. He lets out a sign when he finds it I'm still alive! he cries in excitement. After a couple deep breaths he looks around and calmly asks, So why is it so foggy all of a sudden?