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Denair scratches her head, trying to remember something.
Meredith sees Frankie walking right into danger. "Frankie!" Meredith runs in front of him. "This is why I wanted you to stay with the Venture-Captain." She calls upon some kind of force and a magic barrier forms in front of her, patterned like a giant translucent leaf.
"Denair, get over here!"
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As Zavubak begins to flip through the pages, he hears a click. Then a rumble. Then he sees it - a nasty, poisonous scorpion crawling at him. "Oh, well then. Just the moment I've been waiting for."
He grins wickedly and shuts his eyes. As he stands completely still, the veins in his arms begin to bulge and his muscles double in size. His skin takes on a scaly, blackish hue while sharp claws of ebony grow from his hands. He opens his eyes, now bloodshot red, and in a flash, he leaps forward and viciously swipes at the scorpion.
The red scorpion snaps its enormous pincers at Zavubak and even takes a cursory swing with its apparently venomous stinger, but the half-orc, perhaps empowered by his draconic lineage, seems impervious to the vermin's futile attempts at self-defense. Instead, Zavubak's claws bite deeply into the creature's thorax, punching through the chitinous plating that is meant to protect it as if it were cheap parchment, and rending it in two! Oh, and Meredith yells at Frankie and Denair and casts a spell to protect herself.
After the scorpion falls, Frankie follows Meredith's example and takes up a defensive stance rather than engaging with the nasty bug. Better to leave such things to the adults, right?
Lost Chamber, Round 1
Meredith and Zavubak
Scorpion (red)
Frankie, Denair, Saritirnen, Alice are up!
Scorpion (yellow)
"Oh?"
"Sounds like scorpions! Also, Meredith's yelling at me again!" Denair heads in, seeing the path blocked. She shrugs as her right arm grows twice in size, stretches over Zavubak and waits for the scorpion to approach.
Her left hand is used as a pair of rabbit ears, behind Zavubak's head. She gives Frankie a wink to see if he gets the joke.
"A little closer..."
"Whoops! Hard to claw at things when another weapon is in the way!"
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Saritirnen can hear the combat begin and a sense of excitement begins to run through his body. He pushes his feet along giving little concern for his lack of moblility and the discomfort he feels with every three to four steps.
'RELEASE hold of me!' he shouted in his mind to The Many. The ever present weight of the hundred and one elven spirits clung to him slowing each pace. The curse might have saved him but it had left him in a condition that rarely left him in an agreeable mood. Spear in hand he tries to refocus on the battle hoping for any sort of relief.
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Donair's branching arms extend and claw at the yellow scorpion as it advances on Zavubak, but she is unable to find any purchase against the creature's natural defenses. Alice arrives and provides a blessing to guide the eidolon's next attack. Saritirnen follows the call of battle, and fights against the spirits holding him back.
The scorpion moves out of the shadows toward Zavubak and unleashes a flurry of claws and stings, following no other impulse but the desire for a good square meal.
The first claw clamps hard around Zavubak's leg, but narrowly misses crushing a major artery. Alerted by the pain of the first attack, the half-orc/half-man/half-dragon (Is that too many halves? Not in Golarion, it's not!) manages to deflect the remainder of the scorpion's attacks.
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Denair giggles as Frankie replies to her gesture. This kid gets it! Meredith isn't sure why she's giggling, but it's inappropriately timed. "Denair! The scorpion! Focus."
Denair shrugs and stretches her left arm around Zavubak. "Picky, picky...you want to help?"
Meredith draws her heavy mace. "Saritirnen, good luck." Meredith calls upon the essence of saplings to guide the elf's next strike.
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Saritirnen finally moves up with the others and watches as the insolent half orc tries to deal with a rather large scorpian.
He listens as The Many jeer at the abomination.
'What is this creature? Look at his hands they are now claws?'
'The creature cannot know the art. They are bred for their small minds and re incapable of even knowing what feeling the art'
'Watch as it attacks and leaves itself exposed!'
Slowly he drowns out the voices of The Many and balances his grip on the spear. He feels a slight unseen touch guiding his spear as the young woman blesses him and he strikes out at the scorpion.
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Frankie quickly withdraws his bunny ears when Meredith starts looking around and quits his giggling to resume his innocent face. That face quickly turns to concern when Zav gets pinched in the leg, rather close to his swimsuit area. "Careful there Zav! That looked like it hurt! Someone say the word and I'll go get help upstairs, I bet those nice half orc twins would come lend a hand!" He moves a bit closer to the room entrance just in case.
Heryn hears and sees Frankie from the other side of the chasm, where she retreated as soon as the scorpions appeared, and calls out. "You've got it 'andled, love! Don't worry, if things turn bad, I'll run and grab some o' the lads to help ya!"
"Well done, Mister Scorpion Slasher!"
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Saritirnen leaned on his spear for support while eyeing the orc with suspicion.
'The beast is tainted beware of it!'
'Dangerous yes. But also impressive.'
'It is bred to kill and that it will.'
The Many stirred in his head conversing within Saritirnen's mind as if they were the swordmasters on the training ground evaluating a new student or studying a new enemy.
When he was born it had been more like a soft word whispered here and there. It had surprised him and put him on edge. As he had aged the whispers soon grew louder and louder at times even drowning his own thoughts out. It had driven him crazy almost taking his own life but they had stopped him. How he did not know how but they had. He was their vessel. The last remnants of what they had been existed in him and they clung to his well being even if they also were at times the reason for his undoing.
His attention slowly returned back to the others his eyes now gravitating towards young one named Frankie.
"What is it that we found, child?"
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Frankie smiles at the Elf "Well, other than those neat dead bug things, there's this sweet glowing ball hanging from the ceiling... mind giving me a boost so I can grab it? There's a desk with some papers and stuff on it too, but that's probably something boring like old homework or lists of chores." He looks around for a chair or a stool, or a person to climb up to reach the light.
Zavubak does indeed show young Frankie what it looks like to make something hurt as he shreds the scorpion to pieces. Heryn returns across the bridge and up to the entrance of the small chamber. "Ah! I know what this is. My grandad heard about this place from his grandad and the story's been passed down from there. This must be Salmius Foster's old study."
With the scorpions exterminated, Zavubak returns to examining the contents of the small chamber and appear to confirm Heryn's guess. The papers chronicle the personal exploits of Selmius Foster, a famous Pathfinder whose name you recognize from your training as Pathfinder agents or from conversations with patrons in the Wounded Wisp. Apparently, this chamber was a sort of secluded office for Foster and, later, his apprentice Adolphus. Most of Foster’s more infamous adventures appear here in varying amounts of detail, but it is evident there is another investigation he had been pursuing before he died: the lost records of a Society agent named Eylysia.
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After the scorpion goes down, Zavubak relaxes, his claws retracting and fading into his skin, which soon takes on a much more half-orcish greenish-brown. "Curious enough. A gnome wouldn't fully report on her missions for the Society, so Selmius Foster tried to figure out why. After his death, his associate took over and mentions three names who may be connected. Maybe we should bring this back to the Venture-Captain along with the wine," Zav says.
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The dust clears, and not too long afterward Meredith's leafy guard scatters. "Good job, Zavubak. Can anyone help that scorpion pinch?" She watches Zavubak walk to the desk and shakes her head. You don't need to show off...
Meredith waits to read the notes. "Wow, deep stuff...I thought the Pathfinders were supposed to cooperate and all. Kind of weird she'd hide information..."
"At least we got what we came for, and something extra. This Arkath fellah may be worth looking into later." Meredith helps pack the notes up.
Denair is very curious- you can see it in her movements- but she stays quiet. Reading isn't her strong suit.
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Noticing his request is being ignored by the adults, Frankie turns to his large tall tree friend for help and whispers "Psst Denair, lift me up so I can get that glowy ball down from the ceiling!" Big people just don't notice the cool things for some reason...
If so he waits for them to finish with the room then...
"Sure thing!" Denair uses her long, growing limbs to hoist Frankie up to the ceiling. "Man, you eat a lot."
Frankie puts his "childlike" skills to work as he climbs up into Denair's branches arms and plucks the small glowing stone from its chain. The stone appears to be fairly ordinary, except that it glows with the soft brightness of a candle. As he messes with the stone, the light flickers and wavers throughout the room, making it increasingly difficult for Zavubak to finish reading Foster's notes and Adolphus's addenda. Just as Frankie is climbing down off of Denair, Heryn looks in again, "You lot better get along to your Captain now. 'e doesn't like to wait when 'is wine's involved. 'e might want ta hear about those papers too."
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"Man, you eat a lot."
Frankie chuckles, doing his best to hold back the ticklishness and his dislike of being restrained "I sure do! Today its been a whole ton of cocoa and some flaky sweet treat so far!"
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"Oh? You mean to mend my wounds, elf?" Zav looks surprised at the offer, but accepts anyway. "An injured warrior is a less effective warrior. Please, do as you will."
The light goes out as Zavubak is reading and he grumbles at Frankie, but only a little, because his special vision allows him to keep on reading. "Well, let's take the papers back with the wine. The Venture-Captain might be able to shed light on Foster and this elusive gnome."
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Frankie watches the lame Elf heal Zav's wounds and quickly jumps down after retrieving the light "Woah! Was that magic? You just totally did some magic! You got any wands? I could totally shoot some bad guys with lightning bolts from a wand!" He starts pointing his axe at people and 'blasting' them with bolts of lightning.
"ZORT ZORT ZORT! Maybe that old guy will give us a wand for getting his wine!"He says as they head back upstairs.
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"I have a wand, but it's only good for helping Denair recover when she's wounded." Meredith grins at Frankie's energy. "I don't want you drawing attention, though. Those scorpions are dangerous when provoked. Not everyone has claws growing from their hands." Meredith leaves with the wine and plans to return to Drandle Dreng.
Denair pauses. "What is this?" She checks her arm, sniffs the gooey residue, then licks it with her leafy tongue. "It could be sweeter." She casts some kind of magic upon her arm, then tastes it again. "Much better!"
With both Zavubak and Meredith interested in speaking to the Venture Captain, if only to complete the errand that originally brought them to the Wounded Wisp, the party makes its way back up to and through the tavern. As you move toward the exit, you notice several other agents preparing to leave and overhear them discussing someone named Sir Reinhart of Kenabres, who plans on attempting the Test of the Starstone.
You make your way through the rain-soaked streets of Absalom and eventually find yourself back at the intersection in front of the inn where a dripping-wet young man dressed in a page's outfit stands. As you approach, the young man greets you and says, "Hello Pathfinders! Captain Dreng asked me to wait for you here to let you know that he has returned to the Grand Lodge. He awaits your presence in his chambers there. If you will follow me, please." The young man leads your through the city and to the Grand Lodge in record time, taking a series of rather clever shortcuts. Upon arriving at the Lodge, he takes you directly to Dreng's chambers, where the captain emerges from a side room, no longer dressed as a beggar. "Ah! I see you've found my page. And my wine! Thank you very much. I trust everything went smoothly."
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Frankie skips along in the rain, swinging his axe about, sometimes chopping down Denair and sometimes Zorting whoever crosses their path, including the poor sopping page. "Man I should have brought a cloak or a poncho or something, I'm soaked!" As he jumps in yet another puddle, splashing as many people as can. He's happy to lame legged Elf walks slowly though so his short legs can keep up better. He does seem quite impressed and interested in the shortcuts they take to the lodge. Well aren't these helpful! I'll have to remember..
"Hey again Mr!" Frankie greets the Captain. "Denair found your wine! And Zav killed your hidden bugs! And this guy" Pointing to the Elf "Umm I forget his name... he used magic to heal Zav's leg! And I got this sweet glowing ball from the ceiling! What A DAY! Do you have any wands that shoot bolts of lightning?"
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"Thank you," Zav subtly nods to Sartrinen as his wounds close up. He follows the page through the streets of Absalom, the rain of little bother to him.
At the office, Zav softly laughs as the overly excited Frankie explains his findings. "Right, we've got your wine, and we also found these papers. We did have to dispatch some scorpions, but they were really no bother. You should've seen Frankie fight!" The half-orc laughs. "The papers seem to have belonged to Selmius Foster and his aide," Zav says as he holds the papers out to Captain Dreng. "Any idea what they might mean to the Society?"
Dreng takes the wine from Meredith once she steps in and asks the page to take it to his private cellar and wait outside for further instructions. Once the young man is gone, Dreng takes the papers from Zavubak and looks through them. "Hmm...yes, very interesting! It would seem you've stumbled upon a cache of Foster's work. The majority of these seem familiar enough, I'd wager they're early manuscripts of many of the chronicles Foster reported to the Society during his career. Valuable, to be sure, but not apparently unique." He then holds up the letter and note about Eylysia, "These, however, are very interesting. As some of you might recall, it is one of the Society's guiding values to report your findings. To hear that this gnome, Eylysia, was concealing so many of her discoveries is...potentially very upsetting. I'd like the five...six of you to follow up on this. It only seems right since you were the ones to find this information in the first place."
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"Hmm, that's what I thought." Meredith ponders. "We're supposed to Explore, Report and Cooperate right? I guess we need to find out about this Eylysia lady, and what she did with the names on the wall."
"Maybe we can talk to that blacksmith, Arkath...oh wait." She frowns. "He passed away. Maybe there's a clue in the mausoleum? What do you guys think?"
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Once the party decides on their next step, she thanks the Venture-Captain. "I know Denair is always by my side, but we are two Pathfinders. Thanks for clearing that up."
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"The note does mention a clue being buried with Foster, but," Zavubak scratches his head, "Are we really going to uncover a body? Something seems wrong with that, even if we are Pathfinders. We can't possibly bring a child if that's the sort of work we have to do," he says as he looks over at Frankie.
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"Alice has a point, Captain. We were able to protect Frankie from the scorpions, but if we're going to a graveyard he definitely shouldn't come with."
Meredith turns to Frankie. "Sorry kid. I was hoping to watch over you until your mom returned, but... I guess that won't happen now. Stay out of danger, alright?"
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Frankie looks back and forth between the group as tears well up in his eyes "If... if that's what you want. I guess I'll be ok... but if I came with you I'd never once be in the way, you wouldn't even know I was there! I promise!" He goes and sits in the corner, shedding a few tears and covering his face. The occasional sniffle and snort coming out.
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Meredith looks at Frankie and pities the boy. "Look, I said I was sorry-" but she sees him looking at her behind his hands. Is he mocking me? "When you're older that kind of trickery will come in handy some day."
Denair, meanwhile is quite depressed and a little angry at Meredith. "Well, I guess I'll look after him, then, since you won't!" And stomps off out of the bar.
Denair waits for everyone to leave, then doubles back into the bar and sneaks up on Frankie.
"Frankie! Let's go after them! No way are they gonna hog all the fun without bringing you along! I'll hide you in my branches if I have to."
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Zav doesn't know how to handle Frankie's disappointment and shrugs. It wasn't as if childcare was something he grew up learning, nor did he ever spend much time around other kids at all. He goes over to the corner, "Kid, if the walking tree weapon looks after you, I won't stop her if she brings you along, but you may not like what you see," Zav says as he ruffles Frankie's hair again and turns to walk out the Lodge. "To the mausoleum, then."
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He looks at the child and nods. "The child should be returned to his mother regardless if he feels the desire to join us. Child go find your mother. The orc's reasoning is sound – amazingly – the work that we have set before us is nothing a child should be involved in. How the child made it this far eludes me but the younger races have always made questionable decisions in the past."
As they continue he watches as the child following along. "So be it. The child is your responsibility then." he looks directly at Meredith and moves along with the assistance of his spear.
"Now now, I think Frankie here should accompany the rest of you in your investigation. He seems a capable lad, young though he may be. Besides, it is important that Pathfinders respect the finds and claims of their colleagues, and this exciting mystery is yours, all of yours, to pursue.” With these final words, Venture Captain Dreng dismisses you to continue your investigation in whichever way seems best to you.
northeast corner
Details left by Selmius Foster in his notes indicate the location of Arkath’s burial site: a plot of land in Eastgate operated by the Church of Asmodeus. Buried in a mausoleum on the church’s property, Arkath paid a substantial sum to have his remains guarded. A fence surrounds the necropolis grounds, and although members of the faith and city guards routinely patrol the property, it is still legal to enter the grounds to respect the departed. According to the notes, Arkath’s crypt is the northernmost structure on the map.
While the gates into the necropolis are left open to those paying their respects, the doors of the mausoleums are sealed with sturdy stone slabs.
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Denair appears from...somewhere and hoists Frankie upon her head, growing a pair of stout twigs from her head like handlebars. "Yaaay! Let's go, let's go!"
"Um...sure. If you say so." Really? I should take him there? Well, papa took me to... somewhere. when I was a kid. I can't remember at all. Meredith follows through the town to the burial site.
At the site, Meredith checks out the mausoleum. She whistles. "Wow, why would you keep all this room to yourself, even after you passed?"
Meredith (and eventually Denair) take a look at the door, to see if there is any way to open the hatch.
"Hey Frankie, can you see if there's some way to open this without causing a racket? Don't touch nothing if you can."
Just as Meredith and Denair (and her rider) approach Arkath's mausoleum, a long, low whistle comes from beside another of the tall granite memorials directly to the east. Well well well. What 'ave we 'ere?" From the shadows, a man in the long, black robes of a priest emerges. He wears a wide, smug grin on his face and his expression is one of a person looking at something small and filthy. "What business brings you lot 'ere to the 'ome of the dearly departed, I'd like ta know? Wouldn't be gettin' up ta some sorta trouble would yeh?" His hand flicks aside his robes show a large mace wrought of dark, glistening steel.
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"Back off," Zavubak commands as he jumps in front of Meredith. "Or you'll be the one getting into trouble." He shows the robed man a cocky grin and a tinge of red flashes in the whites of his eyes for a second as he tightens his fists.
"Now that we're all on the same page, who are you and what are you doing here?"
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Prior to encountering any people, Alice casts enhanced diplomacy and guidance, as safety measure.
"Good day sir. We wish to consult records in the mausoleum, and pay our respects. Is it occupied, or may we enter?"
If you choose to resolve the brute's boasting first, it's the same lines.
Except that she uses mage hand to pull his ear as a correction, prior to speaking.