The woman's eyes flutter for a moment, and she suddenly sits upright, looking around at all of you in a panic. "Wh--where am I? Where are the others?!" She tries to stand and gets about halfway up before nearly feinting again from the effort. "Oh. I guess I need to take it slow for a moment." Looking up at all of you again, she takes a deep breath, then launches into her story. As you had guessed from your outfit, she also worked at the Golden Crown mining camp the kobolds had attacked. The kobolds had killed many of the miners, but had taken several captives as well. Diane was one of those taken captive. She fell behind, however, when they passed through the clearing, as she fell victim to the xtabay's pollen. From what she remembers, it wasn't too long ago that the kobolds passed through here with the rest of their prisoners. She isn't sure what the kobolds wanted with the prisoners, but it seemed like they were trying to keep the prisoners alive for the most part.
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"That's a good question, we wondered where the others went." Meredith looks about. "It's good to hear they kept those prisoners alive, at least. Some of the other people here weren't as lucky."
"We're looking for a man named Sharrowsmith, by the way. He's about this tall, elder human, and he may have carried a wayfinder with him." Meredith shows hers. "Some people think he's responsible for the kobold attack, and we're here to investigate."
"We're about twenty miles from the nearest town- you may want to travel with us, but we're going right into the kobold camp. It's not safe here, anyway."
"Ah. Well I see you folks are just as mad as that friend of yours, Sharrowsmith. Yeah, he came through the camp just a little while before the kobolds showed up. Went off in uh...this direction actually. Seemed he was looking for some old dwarven city he said was in this valley." She breaks off as she struggles to get to her feet again. With a bit of assistance she does finally make it, and she begins walking back the way you came. "It's a bit far to get all the way back to town, but I'm not crazy or stupid enough to go wandering into some kobold encampment. I'll let you all handle that part. I'm gonna head back up to the rim of the valley, and, if you guys smart up or win out, you can pick me up on your way back to town, alright?" She walks a few more limping, painful paces, then stops and turns to you one last time, "Look, I don't mean to be so rude about it, I'm sorry. Tell ya what, if any of you are looking to strike a deal with any of the mining companies around here, I'll put in a good word for ya with the Gold Crowns okay? Thanks." And with that, she moves into the trees, heading back toward the rim of the valley.
Anything else you'd like to check on here before moving on?
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Willem listens, offering his hand to the woman to help her up as she speaks. "We appreciate the information and the warning Miss Diane," he smiles when saying her name. "I will gladly take you up on that offer of working with the Gold Crowns. Perhaps when we return we could discuss it over dinner?" He bows, "Until then, wish us well and we will return to take you home."
After they move on, he looks to the others. "How much you want to bet Sharrowsmith has something going on with those kobolds? Like really something? They are capturing miners and taking them to dwarven ruins. The same ones he came here after. This doesn't bode well for the Society's reputation, if I'm right."
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"Thanks Diane. We'll try to clear this up." Meredith shrugs. I'd be cranky as well, honestly.
"Hmm. I wonder if Sharrowsmith and the kobolds are under some kind of hold. I mean what would the kobolds get out of it?" She checks her gear and readies her mace. "If Sharrowmith is doing this freely, we're turning him in. I don't endorse slave labor."
Diane wishes you all good luck and asks you to try not to die, then turns again and begins making her way through the dense undergrowth leading up out of the valley. After a few more moments of inspecting the clearing, you also carry on, now following the clear tracks the kobolds left as they lead their captives through the forest. Eventually, you come to another footpath, which the kobolds seemed to have followed.
A deep ravine divides the valley here, bridged only by an ancient and crumbling span of stone reinforced by haphazard wooden reinforcements. A pair of ancient dwarven statues flanks either side of the bridge, each in considerable disrepair. An ancient stone building partly consumed by the jungle is visible across the ravine.
As Denair approaches the bridge, her sharp eyes notice a loop of thin rope partially concealed beneath some leaves. Following the rope from the loop, she sees that it leads up into a tree just to the side of the path. It would appear that the rope is some kind of trap!
Denair scampers forward, takes a curious look of the bridge.
"Leaves, leaves, leaves...rope, thin rope, tree. Trap?" Denair twists her head. "I don't think that's how bridges work. I think it's trapped."
Denair scampers back to Meredith and rifles through her pack. "Gum, waterskin, rope, a stick, ewww syrup!"
"Okay!" Denair pulls out her box of tools. "Frankie told me I could use this to disable traps and stuff." She walks up the bridge and the suspicious rope. "I can try to disable this unless someone else is better at it." She pauses and looks at Laishai for a moment.
"Okay, maybe that did it." Denair tries to cross the bridge.
Meredith readies herself to dismiss Denair if she should fall off the bridge.
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Farshaya removes the large tropical leaf wrapped around his head like a bonnet. Now that they are momentarily out of the sun, it seems unnecessary. "Figures," he mutters, watching Denair and Laiashi examine the rope. "Couldnt'a been too easy, say. And where there's one trap, there may be two, three." He counts on his fingers.
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Laiashi crouches beside Denair, watching the little fey work. "Right," she nods. "Although I think it might work better if you use this attachment, and work it in right there..."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Denair and Laiashi work together for a moment to disable to trap. As Laiashi passes over the suggested tool and Denair applies it, a faint *snap* comes from the tree, and a further length of rope falls limply from the limb.
With the trap disabled, the bridge now lies open before you. Before crossing, the more martially inclined among you notice that the dwarven statues flanking the bridge actual hold serviceable weapons.
The crossing is harrowing - the ravine is 300ft deep and the bridge has seen better days - but you all make it across without too much threat of falling to your doom. As soon as you cross, the influence of the kobolds inhabiting the area becomes more and more apparent. The path beyond the becomes a road, which now lies in ruin, along with a crumbling series of ancient stone walls, shattered monuments, and weathered statues overgrown with massive jungle trees. The kobolds have claimed this place entirely and defaced many of the dwarven monuments and statues, decorating them with bone and feather fetishes or covering faded frescos with rudimentary kobold pictographs. Much of this kobold art depicts a ferocious golden dragon with wings outspread. While the kobolds have done their best to deface the ruins, you can still find many carvings and inscriptions that match the style of the one in Venture-Captain Sharrowsmith’s office.
The kobolds’ and miners’ trail leads to a fallen temple.
What remains of the ruins’s heart may have once been a shrine. Demolished walls encircle an ancient dais, atop which a shattered anvil-shaped altar lies defaced with dried blood, chalk markings, and other detritus. The bones of dozens of humanoid creatures are scattered about the building, along with the larger skeletal remains of what may be wyverns or drakes that are marred with deep claw marks. Behind the altar, a large stairwell stained with the blood of countless creatures descends into some dark vault below.
You approach the temple and find a horrifying scene unfolding before you. This is where the kobolds intend to sacrifice their human captives from the Golden Crown, and you arrive part way through the ritual slaughter. Several kobolds are in the temple proper, painting the captives with red and white patterns with a single yellow wing upon each human’s forehead. Others are nearby in the forest, singing and chanting Draconic paeans to the golden god you have seen depicted in the pictographs leading to the temple. You recognize the clothing the captives wear as uniforms for the Gold Crown mining company. The kobolds seem distracted, so you are able to get close enough to see the scene, but you are confident that drawing much closer will catch their attention.
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Jann kneels by the skeletons, noting the powerful marks of deep claws. "See, here how they were slain by claws? I doubt a kobold would be able to make such marks."
Jann will take the dwarven weapons, believing they ought to retrieve artifacts whenever possible. Of course, it is better for them to fall into entropy in the hands of Pathfinder rather than rusting to naught in the jungle humidity.
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"Thanks for helping Denair out. She convinced me this wasn't a bad habit, I guess she's right." Meredith thanks Laishai and looks at the longspear. "I'll hold onto this, if you don't mind."
Meredith is too distracted by the yelping of Kobolds. Denair points at the skeletons and agrees with Jann. "Big creatures. I don't know which ones, though. Not a cheetah!"
Meredith looks at the wounds, but nothing comes to mind.
Denair and Meredith are too distracted by the kobolds to make sense of anything. She hefts the longspear, renews Denair's Mage Armor and looks at Farshaya. "I can make your limbs stretch to about 10 feet long, like Denair can. Might help when you start flurrying. Oh yeah, do you want mage armor, too?"
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Willem crosses the bridge in confidence, trusting in the little fae's abilities. It helped that Lai was keeping an eye on her as well. He let the others loot the weapons from the statues, knowing full well there was more ahead. There had to be.
As they approached the grisly scene, he took a moment to take it all in. The chanting, the claw marks, the people...
"No deity, kobold or otherwise, requires this kind of ritual." Willem says. "Those claw marks tell me they are being sacrificed to some beast. Feel like slaying a monster?" With that, he readies his shield and draws his sword, holding it aloft. He holds it in such a manner, if there were a horse underneath him, it would make more sense. He even catches some dirt with his boot, readying to go forward... "Say the word..."
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"Eugh." Lai takes a close look at the remains, but doesn't see a difference-- they look like kobold marks to her. "I just hope we're not too late."
She's a bit relieved to see the prisoners still alive, though how many there were to begin with is anyone's guess. "I think we should take Denair's usual approach here."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Oh! You mean the part where I hide?" Denair hops to the side, slowly creeping forward.
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Passing through the entrance you hear Saritirnen make note of the dais and the anvil-shaped altar. "A holy place dedicated to Torag. Father of the People of the Mountain. The place has been made a mockery of and defiled."
Saritirnen moves in with the others witnessing the preparation of the mining company captives for a grand sacrifice. "Be wary we do not know who the creatures offer these captives too."
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"As you wish. May Gozreh smile upon you and help enhance your arms and legs!" Meredith intones and green vines grow down Farshaya's limbs. "Takes some getting used to, but just reach out and hit em!" She taps Farshaya with her wand, and a translucent field of leaves form around him.
She hefts her spear. "I'm ready. Let's go."
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"That's the one." Daggers in hand, Lai moves behind the rock wall to get closer.
-Posted with Wayfinder
A little closer! I'm doing good! Gonna squish some kobolds and save the people. Then they'll help my boss!
Denair continues to sneak up, closer...
"Wha-?! What is that thing? Huh? Oh no! Bigguns are here, bigguns are here!" The shill voices of the kobolds who had been preparing the captives for sacrifice ring out across the ruined temple, as they first point to Denair, then notice the assembled Pathfinders standing on their doorstep!
A gasp and cries of hopeful unbelief from the kneeling figures awaiting what they believed to be their doom. Perhaps there's some hope for them after all!
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Lai moves with Denair, but unfortunately isn't able to stay any quieter. Cursing herself for letting them be spotted, she readies herself to strike.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Saritirnen begins to chant in elven and points with his spear at the furthest kobold commanding him forward.
Farshaya rushes forward, his long arms trailing behind him like streamers on a kite. He stops suddenly, however, and his right arm whips forward, smashing into the kobold's face and sending the small reptilian beast sprawling.
In retribution for taking down their friend, the two kobolds from the back, who had been preparing the captives for sacrifice, rush forward, their spears drawn, and move in to attack Farshaya from multiple sides! They fail to notice, however, that Farshaya's arms are still long and dangerous, and they move right into what legends might someday call "Punch-town".
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Seeing one kobold react slower than the others, Laiashi dashes forward hoping to slip a dagger between its ribs before it knows what hit it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
One of the kobolds has a more greenish tint to his scales. This kobold had been determined to avenge his orange-scaled friend. His spear was drawn, his blood was hot, and his aim was...not that great really. None of that mattered, though, because as soon as he got close to the gangly-armed human that dropped his friend, a crowd of voices entered his mind and completely overcame him.
"Come to us...yes, that's it...come closer...," they said, beckoning him to continue on, past the human whose unnaturally long arms were lashing out at him now right up to the grim-faced elf with a massive spear held at his side. That was definitely a good idea. That was exactly what he wanted to do. No need to worry about anything...
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Ser Willem moves next to Satirnen and takes a backhanded swing at the kobold with the green eyes.
-Posted with Wayfinder
The green-scaled kobold falls from any number of grievous wounds, finally being dispatched by Willem's sword.
The red-scaled kobold, however, leaps aside and avoids Laiashi's knife. He draws a spear and stabs at the ifrit in return for her attack, shouting, "Ahah! You come to offer yourself as sacrifice for the Golden One? Very well. Then DIE!"
The nimble young woman avoids the spear, however, and her attacker calls down curses upon her.
Denair watches Meredith stumble forward and almost bury the spear into the stone. She runs up to the red-tinted kobold and takes a swing.
"Golden One? Weird... Oh! Maybe it's a deer?"
Farshaya's fist slams into the yellow-scaled kobold's gut, causing it to double over. This also has the effect of Meredith's spear going straight over the creature's head. It is not fortunate enough to avoid the strange, otherworldly cold that Jann calls upon to freeze it's blood. The creature seems to shrivel up with the cold, and falls over, dead.
The Pathfinders give a cheer of victory as they fell yet another kobold. Only one remains, though he has proven difficult to strike. Their thoughts of an easy victory quickly evaporate, however, as six more kobolds appear out of the jungle and approach the temple! Is there any end to these waves of foes?!
Two kobolds appear behind Saritirnen and Willem, and the elf's warrior instincts kick in. He brings his spear over his head in a long arc, lines up his target, and strikes!
The spear head punches through the thick scales on the kobold's chest and disappears in the small creature's torso, reappearing as it slides out of the deep-purple tinted scales on the kobold's back. The kobold slumps over the shaft of the spear, and, with a fluid motion, Saritirnen draws his weapon back.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the freshly dead kobold's younger, lighter-colored brother charges into the temple and attacks Laiashi.
Laiashi once again nimbly dodges the attack, however, not that it was a serious strike in the first place...
Though his initial assault was a success, Farshaya's second chance to strike at the kobolds falls just short. Luckily he will get another chance to test his mettle, as another one of the new arrivals, this time a pinkish little kobold, moves in to attack the long-armed monk himself!
While the pink kobold attacks Farshaya, another of his companions with a brownish warpaint on his face moves into the temple, drawing a loading a sling which he begins to whirl menacingly.