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Janira leads the remaining four members through the streets of Absalom, which is slowly coming alive as the sun rises. Along the way, you manage to pick up some basic supplies which you are lacking.
Eventually, the group catches up with Luurg and Begrilda. Janira purses her lips as she approaches them, wagging her finger at the two. The sight especially of the halfling gesturing at the half-orc towering over her is unintentionally comical. "First rule of adventuring - never split up the party!" She glares at the two of them briefly, but clearly is not able to hold her anger for long. With a deep sigh, she smiles reassuringly like a big sister, "Oh well, that is not always true. Just listen to me, ok? It is a dangerous world out there, and you are my responsibility for this Confirmation. I'll never forgive myself if something happened to you."
"Anyway, one more thing before we set off." Janira reaches into her pack and pulls out paper and writing supplies to distribute to each of the party member. "The Pathfinder Society's three tenets are Explore, Report and Cooperate. It is important for you to keep accurate records of your adventures to report to Kreighton when you return. This would also determine the success of your Confirmation."
Once everyone is ready, Janira leads everyone WEST of Absalom, circling around the great city walls before traversing through the Cairnlands. The party makes use of a well-worn path that leads toward Diobel. The long trek across the Cairnlands is uneventful. Along the way, Janira point out countless siege towers that are scattered throughout the lands surrounding Absalom, some heavily overgrown with moss. She shared that they are relics of repeated sieges mounted against the city throughout history but none successfully breaking through its defences.
Just before sunset, the party pitches camp just off the trail. Janira shares that the next day, you would have to break off the trail, cutting across dangerous wilderness, to reach the caves. She urges everyone to have an early night to rest well. She follows her own advice as shortly after dinner, she sets up her bedroll and is soon soundly asleep.
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Luurg's smile turns upside down as Janira hands him the papers and their associated mandate. "You sure you heard Bossman right?" He follows that up with his best 'But do I have to mom?' face.
His spirits quickly return to form once they begin their trek outside the city. He's definitely at home here, hiking along with a loaded backpack, barefoot, and his leafy spear acting as a walking stick. He frequently darts off the path to snag some tasty wild treat hanging from a bush or to retrieve his spear he throws at some chattering squirrel.
"Mmm lots of good stuff out here! Squirrels are real gud. Good ting Janira have such short legs, lots of time to hunt on the way!"
Once we make camp Luurg will chose a couple of strong trees and tie up his hammock and cover it over with some camo netting. Afterwards he proceeds to build a fire and start roasting squirrels. "We gunna post watches so nothin sneaks up on us in da night? I see gud in the dark if we want to."
Once asleep Luurg snores and snores HARD, his hammock and netting swaying.
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Begrilda waits beside Luurg at the North gate, her hand still stinging from smacking the half-orc on his grossly protruding belly. She had yelled at Luurg for a solid minute when she finally caught up to him, but his laughter seemed to indicate that he wasn't taking the message to heart. She had finally run out of breath and decided to just go along with him as they made their way to the gate to await the rest of the team.
When the others finally appeared, Begrilda totally wilted under Janira's wagging finger, but she returns the halfling's sisterly smile when the scolding ends. "Sorry, Janira. I guess I was a bit upset and wasn't thinking. Anyway, I think Luurg and I are ready to leave, so we won't hold up the group any longer." She takes the paper and writing supplies and listens closely to Janira's explanation of the Society's tenets. The bit about Cooperating sticks in her craw a bit as she thinks about dealing with people like Luurg, but the part about Exploring sounds interesting enough to make it worthwhile.
As the group sets out across the Cairnlands, she comes up with a question for every factoid Janira can share about the siege towers and the lands surrounding Absalom. Unsure of whether this would be an official part of her Confirmation, she makes a few notes about the most interesting facts that Janira shares with her.
At the camp, Begrilda reviews her notes, filling in any extra thoughts or details she could come up with. She stays up a short while after Janira, but makes sure to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
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Bishop chuckles as he watches Luurg and Begrilda dashing about like two children playing 'chase me'.
Better him than me. She does get quite emotional maybe I'll have to talk to her about that.
Bishop nods his thanks to Janira when she hands to him an official Society journal. He remembered well how the elf...ah yes Mr. Peppers, from the Red Arm of Absalom had took thorough notes in his first assignment. Fortunately his line of work required some meticulous note taking too so he was well versed for this. He stows the journal into his backpack and nods at Janira that he is ready to leave.
In his journal Bishop records his first entry:
Date
Left Absalom. En route to Kortos Mount. Led by Janira Gavix.
Task: Head to investigate a cave system that Janira has seen gillmen* enter on several occasions but never leave.
Party consists of:
Luurg - potbelly orc who eats fruits?
Begrilda - crazy dwarf priestess who claims to everyone she is married to a man she has only met once. Man's name is Gallix also a member of the Society and a group I've met called the Red Arm of Absalom.
Damiel - half elf alchemist; seems paranoid about werewolves? Think he has been drinking too many of his own concoctions.
Einn - Ulfen lady. Quiet woman. Could probably break me in two with her hands. Probably some warrior. Think most of these ulfens are the beserker types.
Jerrid - human. no idea what skills he brings. Has said maybe ten words since joining with this group.
Day One on the road. Headed through the plains passing by several siege towers. Janira explained how the battlefield is the failed attempts by other nations to rule over Absalom. All have failed to date. First travel uneventful but I will share some insights on the more colourful members of this team.
Luurg. What an interesting orc. He hadn't met many orcs or their half bloods when he was in Osirian and very few in Andoran. Absalom had been eye opening in terms of the races it attracted. Still this orc was hmmm timid compared to other orcs. He had no sense of personal hygiene but that bloodthirsty kill first talk later attitude that he heard in passing was non-existant in this orc. He was in fact more like an over-sized child. Sloppy and curious.
Begrilda. That dwarf had been relatively quiet since her chasing the orc. She was clearly embarrassed at the orc calling her out. Some secrets were better left as secrets, but the dwarf liked to her voice and now she had gotten bitten for it.
Notes: *gillmen - humanoid race much like humans save for the three piscine gills on both sides of their necks; secretive; Will confirm how hostile they are after I encounter one. Most live in or near the water.
Finishing that he finds a comfortable spot and drifts off to sleep. Hearing the orc snoring. I wont forget to record that Luurg sounds like a irritated camel when he sleeps
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The verbal jabs between Begrilda and Luurg should be interesting Jerrid thinks as he is handed the material to keep track of his journey. He frowned a little bit, unsure of his skill to write a good report but will try his best.
The travelling excited Jerrid, exposing him to many new sights he is not use to. When the group setup camp, he saw the others were writing on the paper given them before they called it a night.
He looked around for a tree that had a large and thick enough branch before carefully climbing it which put him just above Luurg's hammock. He than comfortably straddled the branch while leaning his back against the tree's trunk. Now comfortable he began to write his first journal entry before he called it a night, not bothered by the snoring beneath him.
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And here I thought I had the attitude problem. Damiel keeps to himself mostly throughout the trip, save asking for a few questions about how to survive in the forest, in the cave, how to kill monsters ... etc. He notes this things down frivolously but notes in none-the-less. He was known to be a great note taker in his school.
As the group takes camp, he once again goes through his belongings meticulously. Counting every single alchemist component that he has on himself.
"ummm... hey guys?? Nothing's going to kill us at night right?"
He questions the party as he unpacks his sleeping gear.
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Einn purchases a Spelunking Kit and uses the prestige she earned on her last mission to purchase a wand of Cure Light Wounds on the way to the North gate.
Taking the paper and pen given her she tucks them carefully away during the day's journey. She seems more relaxed as the group leaves Absalom, "It will be nice to get out of the city. I've spent too much time in one lately. I need to smell air that doesn't have an undertone of humanity once in a while."
When they arrive at the camp for the evening. She helps Luurg make the fire and roast the squirrels. She notices where he set up his hammock and chooses a place on the other side of camp to set up her sleeping area. She has a good idea of what's coming when the half-orc falls asleep. She rolls out a piece of canvas, and taking three sticks makes a makeshift tent facing the fire. Once settled she makes a few notes about the journey so far.
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Next morning after the party has broken camp, Janira leads the party off the track and cutting through the wilderness. As the party progresses deeper into the forest, the trees towering overhead begin to shield most of what remains of the day’s sun and the vegetation beneath grows denser.
Janira pauses a moment and pulls out an intricate silver compass emblazoned with the Pathfinder Society logo: the Glyph of the Open Road. "I received this wayfinder when I successfully completed my Confirmation. Should we be successful on our journey, you will get your own as well." She flips open the device and holds it in front of her; the initials J. L. are engraved into the inside of the device’s lid. After studying the compass inside for a moment, she remarks, “We’re on the right path. We need to keep heading northwest past those large rocks up ahead.”
Just as Janira is keeping her wayfinder, a loud creaking noise is heard from a dead tree some distance behind you, as it starts falling over. Perhaps your passage disturbed its precarious balance. It smashes onto the ground with a loud *boom* that echos throughout the forest. Tiny birds burst from the surrounding trees and take flight. Small ground critters, too, burst out from their hiding places underground and in the udnergrowth, dashing wildly away. A horde of tiny snakes swarm out of the ground just behind you. Sensing your presence as a threat, they writhe across the ground towards you to attack!
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Luurg hears the sounds of the falling tree and spins around quickly, memories of a demon jungle tiger flashes through his head. "Oh. Just sum baby snakes. Deez too small for eatin, dis coconut prolly make 'em skerd."
Luurg hustles back down the path a bit and plucks a dangling coconut off his belt, pushes on a protrusion and shakes it violently before underhanding it on top of the mass of snake babies.
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Another loud *boom* fills the forest as the coconut smashes into the the midst of the swarm. The resulting fire explosion kills a number of snakes and scatters some fleeing back into their hidey-holes.
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Unfortunately, Damiel's hands are shaking so badly that his bomb goes wide and lands to one side of the swarm. The splash destroys some of the snakes but most of the snakes dodge out of the way of the explosion.
The snakes, incensed at the repeated explosions, swarm towwards their nearest victim, crawling all over Damiel.
"Scatter, everyone!" Janira shouts out. "They may appear frightening but learn from Selmius Foster’s race against a marid and efreeti on the isle of Jalmeray. Nothing is truly impossible and every situation can end in victory!” Saying that, Janira circles around the swarm.
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"Dem baby snakes sure is hungry... if I was you mang, I'd move way far away from dem snakes so I don't blow you up with more coconuts!"
Luurg moves to the southwest as far as possible while staying in coconut range and readies to throw another 'nut at the mass of snakes once Damiel gets out of range.
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"EWEWEWEWEWEWEW!!! KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!!!!" Begrilda shrieks as the snakes emerge from their holes and begin crawling all over and around Damiel. She draws her mace and hides behind Bishop. She looks at the man and has a thought. "Here! You take it! You're good at killing things. So take this and go kill them!" She holds the light mace out to Bishop.
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Bishop starts lighting a torch, seeking to emulate a whip-snapping adventurer he heard stories of once long time ago. Einn follows his example but lights an oil flask instead. Begrilda turns away from the snakes in disgust, but she pulls out her mace to offer to Bishop. Jerrid fearlessly steps up to assault the mass of snakes, but he stumbles somewhat on the uneven ground and is certain that he would miss the swarm completely. Janira, however, suddenly shouts out, "Jerrid, shift your weight to the left." With this inspiration, Jerrid quickly readjusts and his kick land solidly into the mass, smashing a number of the snakes.
Luurg waits for Damiel to flee from the swarm of snakes and lobs another bomb into their midst. Inspired by Janira, Luurg's aim is true and bomb lands squarely and explodes with a tremendous force. The remaining snakes are either blown into smithereens or startled sufficiently to flee back underground.
Janira quickly turns to Damiel beside her, lays a gentle hand on him, and sings a soothing tune. All of Damiel's wounds quickly close.
Only when that's done does she turn and look at all of you proudly. "Good job! You dealt with that threat quickly and efficiently. And more importantly, by working together as a team! To help Damiel. To support each other. I believe you would all go far as Pathfinders!"
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When the adrenaline high from the battle eventually fades, Janira urges the party to quickly set forth. ”We have to get there before nightfall before moonrise, if we want to have a chance to catch the gillmen.”
As the group continues to travel through the wilderness, you find trails blocked by fallen objects, shortcuts overgrown, and other minor delays that cost you time. Janira turns to you, somewhat discouraged. ”I’m sorry, the trail must have overgrown significantly since I was last here a few months ago. Come, we need to work together to find the trail. This is not my forte, having lived in a city my whole life. Can anyone take the lead?”
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Luurg smiles as his second coconuts blasts the remaining snakes to smithereens. "BOOM! Dem beby snakes didn't stand no chance, coconuts are a blast! Luurg readjusts his remaining 'nuts. "Oh, er.. you ok Damiel? Hope none of dem snakes crawled in yer mouth, yuck. You need any more med'cin or Janira fix you up gud?"
Luurg abandons his food gathering after the snakes as it appears to be a bit harder to follow the path. "Ya Luurg find dis trail no problem. It not so hard if you take some time. Come, help look wid me."
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After the fight, Damiel sits down while he recovers, drooling a lot. He thanks Janira and the rest of the team for saving his life. "U'm urlive,ur fink, nes fime ur wun de rash." with heavy slurring as he pieces together his head.
Damiel keeps quiet mostly on the path, but tries to be a team player, though it's clear to see he is very lost at the outdoors.
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Jerrid dusts himself off after the battle and looked over Damiel as he was healed, "Thanks for the advice with my kick Janira. Helped me land a strong kick."
With Damiel healed Jerrid pats him on the shoulder, "Close call there but thankfully you will pull through."
Jerrid looked over the trail. He thought he could jump over or slip under a few spots, but not with everyone in the group following him.
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Einn gives Damiel a pat on the shoulder "Throwing your bomb like that. Very brave."
She walks along grinning to herself when Janira says she's lost the trail. City folk. Can't find anything without road signs and cobblestones. It's right there plain as day.
"Just take a couple of steps to the left, and duck under that fallen tree. You should see the trail right after that."
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With the expert guidance of Einn and assistance from Luurg and Jerrid, the party easily manages to find the path. Janira lets out a sigh of relief when the trail begins to clear again and rapidly guides the party to the caves.
A couple of hours before dusk, the dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. ”Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines,” Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. “This is where I saw the gillmen enter.”
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, “Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!” As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, “A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag,” she continues, pulling off her backpack, “and head deeper into the caves. It will only slow me down. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!” She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away. She gives the party members a confident wink, and calls out, partly to you but also partly to taunt the minotaur, ”No cow can keep up with my nimble feet! Not in these dense forests!”
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Bishop extinguishs his torch happy to not have had to walk into that nest of vipers. He'd grown up seeing what one snake bite could do much less two score!
"Thanks for the mace, but you well know one day you'll be needing this Begrilda. Better learn now than wait until it's too late." he hands the mace back to dwarven priestess and heads over to the jittery half elf.
Bishop couldn't help but wonder what would happen next to this alchemist. He'd chosen an interesting profession for a person that seemed in over his head. Hopefully the mission would help him gain more confidence, but hearing those words weren't what the half elf needed at this moment. "Damiel you took that on like man possessed and got a couple trophies to remember it by! Good job!" he points to the snake bites that have basically healed thanks to Janira.
Following along he let's the others assist with looking for the trail.
Better to keep out of the way.
Quickly finding the trail he is lead on until Janira points to a slight crack barely noticeable. His eyes quickly move to the orc and get wonders how oversized monstrosity of a belly will fit in there. Before he can remark out loud he turns as the area comes alive with fleeing wildlife. From the clearing his mouth drops as the bull headed human creature charges into view. The axe being almost the size of Janira herself. When Janira then throws the pack in the cave and tells them to go on without her Bishop quickly listens and grabs Begrilda before the dwarf can object.
"Inside now! The man who waits for the scorpian to sting him usually gets stung! Orcs included!" rushing into the shadows of the tunnel Bishop looks for a spot to light his torch as he listens to Janira run the creature, a minotaur he believes he heard her call it, off in another direction.
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Surprised the site of the huge bull creature, Jerrid turned and dashed into the cave entrance. "I hope Janira will be alright. One smack from that thing will break every bone in her body."
Jerrid blinked his eyes several times to adjust them to the darkness of the cave, though it help little without a proper light source to see anything.
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"Oh my heavens!" Begrilda does not resist Bishop as he drags her along into the cave. Once they are safe inside, she breathes heavily, nearly hyperventilating from all the excitement. She turns to the rogue and gives him a quick embrace, "Thank you, Bishop. I never thought I would miss those foul sewers in Diobel, but these forests...who knew such a lovely place could be so full of dangers!" She looks around her and whispers, "Now where are we?"
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The minotaur begins approaching the party, even as you dash into the cave. Janira completes her spell and suddenly, she is indeed running around much faster than what her short legs would be able to do. Her shrill voice rings out in an unfamiliar language, taunting the minotaur, while she peppers it with crossbow bolts.
The minotaur roars in anger, and chases after the halfling. They quickly disappear into the thick undergrowth, and soon the crashing noises fade away, too.
You hide near the entrance of the cave until the sounds die down, and the usual chirping of birds return. At your feet lay the backpack that Janira had thrown in before you. When you search through it, you find quite a number of very useful items! You spend some time sorting through the items, before examining the cave, slowly making your way deeper.
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Bishop disentabgles himself from Begrilda's vice like grip and mutters out, No problem, Begrilda. I don't know how I would have lived with myself if you got trampled by that minotaur thing before I met this Gallix."
Bishop takes the pack from Jerrid and pulls out a vial and small rod. "Janira came prepared."
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The tunnel that you are in varies from 3 to 10 feet width and height at different places, although it is usually a comfortable 7 feet wide and high. To Luurg's delight, the caves are actually quite damp, as water is constantly dripping from stalactites. The air is humid and you can hear the distant rushing of underground streams, and a thin stream of water seem to be flowing down the tunnel you in. As a result, the ground and walls are slippery. Beyond the radius of your light sources, you find that the caves’ walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent fungi that provide dim light.
What is more interesting are the petroglyphs — most depicting marine animals or spiral shapes — that periodically decorate the tunnels’ walls, becoming increasingly frequent as you progress deeper. The rough surface of the carvings provides a natural platform for the fungi, causing it to grow thicker and making the carvings glow slightly brighter than their surroundings, creating an eerie yet solemn effect.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage about 10 feet wide. A large hole spans across the entire tunnel's width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the 20 feet deep pit lies a small bundle of cloth. The tunnel here is 10 feet tall with a ceiling mostly devoid of stalactites
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Einn moves quickly into the cave, and stands at the entrance crack watching Janira lead the minautor away. Good luck. I hope your speed helps you, and you don't get lost in the woods city hafling.
Einn takes a couple of bottles from Janira's backpack. She did come prepared. Einn lights a lantern, and leads the way. When the group arrives at the hole she carefully examines the area. "This isn't natural. It was creature made, and not recently. It's been here a year at least.
She sets down the lantern, and begins to pull a rope out of her backpack. "Anyone good a climbing? I'd like to see what's in that pile of cloth."
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Jerrid followed behind Einn and when they enter the wider passage with the deep pit and looked down. "I wonder if those cloths belong to someone that fell down there. I'll climb down anyway and check it out. I'm pretty good at climbing."
When the rope is ready and properly secure, Jerrid grabbed it and slowly descended down the pit, using the pit's wall to steady his descent.
When he reached the bottom, he searched the area and the cloths.
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As Jerrid and Einn work to secure a rope so that one of them can climb down. Bishop looks into Janira's pack again.
"Hmmm. Several items still left. Keep the scrolls in there for now but let's make use of the wands." he looks over the note that the halfling left in the pack describing each item until his eyes fall upon the items in question. He grabs the glass wand and then hands an ivory wand to Damiel.
"The wand from Janira's note indicates that it is a healing wand. Probably could be useful in your hands. Take it for now. I'll take this flame wand and hope that from her description I can get it to work."