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"Luurg, you are as brave as you are intelligent," Serge says with a smile. "You and I may have trouble seeing in the woods at night, Bishop. We don't possess the same powerful vision as Marduk, Sheela, and Luurg. No matter, Ragathiel's light will guide us there." He takes out a torch and carves a wing on it with his dagger, then lights it. The torch sputters up in an anticlimactic display. "Well, sort of Ragathiel's light."
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"Well then! Once we're at the edge of town, I'll set up some message magic. Just point and whisper- we can hear each other pretty well!"
And so Luurg does. The carriage arrives outside the Ardis safe house as you finish questioning your host, and Erudyta invites you all in to rest for a few hours, but urges you to start before the moon rises. The safe house itself offers few amenities, being more a museum and office than a home.
You need little motivation to begin your efforts, however, and soon make your way toward the city gates, where a pair of burly guards with silver-tipped bolts loaded in their crossbows stop you briefly to warn you of the dangers outside. From the crooked glances they throw one another throughout the conversation, however, you can tell they are more interested in scaring visitors for a bit of fun than in actually helping to protect you.
As you exit the city, you turn to your guide for direction on where about the city you might find a suitably quiet part of the forest where wolfsbane might be found growing wild.
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"Oh, I hope you strong, vigilant gentlemen will still be here when I return." Sheela gives the town guards a fetching glance. "This town can rest safe knowing brave warriors like you are on patrol!"
She considers charming the cowards but merely smiles and follows the party. Her well-hidden sarcasm will have to do.
"Now then, let's find this wolfsnbane. Grandmama spent a few decades forcing me to learn about plants, but it's been quite useful. One man I know well was once covered in rashes because he fell into a patch of poison ivy, trying to impress me all the while."
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Luurg gets to where they need to go, and quickly urges everyone to get off their butts so they can hit the woods "Lez go guys! Much easier to find stuff in the day time, dark time tings aren't so easy to see, no colors and can't so near so far!" He shoos them along as fast as possible.
Once they get to the guards at the gate Luurg waves at them "You guys so nice, we be back oky? No shoot dem dare silver bolts into are backs or fronts!" He smiles with his perfect, pearly white orc teeth.
As they head out he listens to what the others have to say about where to go, he does his best to stay in the lead "So gud to be in da woods! Deez woods smell not da same as our woods back in Abslom." He gets down on one knee and takes a long, deep breath of the forest floor.
"Mmmmm can you smell da good stuff? I tink we near a good spot!"
Indeed, the three of you do quickly find what you think promises to be a good spot to harvest some wolfsbane. Tangled masses of roots and undergrowth hamper movement in this wood, and straining branches overhead blot out nearly all natural light. Less than a hundred feet into the overgrown forest, all signs of the nearby city vanish, leaving nothing but shockingly untamed wilderness.
Guided by Luurg and Sheela's knowledge of flora from throughout Golarion, you're even able to find a patch of bushes that seem to contain exactly what you're looking for!
As you approach the clump of bushes where Luurg and Sheela saw patches of wolfsbane, however, the two half-orcs in the group see something else moving among the leaves. Actually, as they look closer, it is the leaves themselves that are moving! There are some kind of living plants nestled right among the wolfsbane that you came here to harvest. How will you proceed?
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Luurg holds up his spear to block the others as Marduk gives warning "Ya hrm, plants r weird. Sometimes some plants not want to give up dare fruits, dem selfish plants! Gimme sec and I go check it out!"
With that, Luurg stabs his leafy spear into the soft earth while he pulls out a stoppered vial and with it a small green lime. Taking out his dagger he cuts the lime in half and squeezes it into his mouth and swallows the bitter juice "Eooooaahhh dem dare limes is sour!" He then quickly unstoppers the vial and pours it into his mouth, rinses it around a bit and spits it back into the vial before letting out a pleasant sound "Oh dats better. Dems taste so gud when you mix 'em up like dat!"
He shakes his body with a bit of a shiver and smiles, seeming even more enthusiastic than before. "Lets do dis!" And steps forward spear in hand to investigate the bush closer.
Drawing closer to the plants, Luurg notices that it's not one, but three living plant creatures lurking among the wolfsbane bushes. The greatest mass of writing vines and leaves belongs to a young assassin vine, while on either end of the clump of fauna are two xtabays.
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"Eww, dem some mean plants, that killer vine real mean! Don't use no fire an stuff, dat may ruin our wulfsbane!" With that he pulls off yet another fruit from his belt, this time a banana, and squeezes the bottom, launching the inner fruit up into the air where he swallows it in one gulp, much like a gull downing a freshly stolen fish. "Yum!"
After he does so his arms start to get extremely long as they stretch out like a monkey's almost.
The Pathfinders advance toward the bushes and find them alive with dangerous creatures ready to attack any who are careless enough to enter unaware.
Aiden quickly moves in and finds exactly the right root to strike to immediately dispatch one of the xtabays, and some of the motion among the leaves ceases. Marduk moves to provide assistance, but the enemy has already been destroyed. Perhaps he'll still have a chance to prove his strength soon, though.
Meanwhile, Bishop expertly throws a dagger into the center of the mass of vines and strikes a telling blow. Combined with the deadly spear-thrust from Luurg before the fight began in earnest, Bishop is able to cease the vines writhing.
The final xtabay snakes through the leaves and limbs of the bushes and begins to make its way toward Luurg, provoking an attack from the long-armed swamp-dweller.
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Sheela finishes her magic and summons Princess Sparkletrot, a fine pony from the celestial realm! The equine is quite surprised by the bush she's in front of and tries to kick it!
Sheela takes this opportunity to use the wand of Mage Armor on Marduk.
"Hi Princess! Crush that bush, please! I promise I'll comb your hair tomorrow!"
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Bishop easily sidesteps and watches as the zealous Serge Foxmourn charges at the bush displaying some parlour tricks in hopes of distracting it "I do not think the plant cares for your theatrics, Sir Foxmourn so do not tire yourself out."
Bishop gets into a better position and tosses a dagger at the carnivorous plant.
Between Luurg stabbing and the magnificent Princess Sparkletrot stomping, the remaining xtabay is turned into a pile of red and green pulp. With the xtabay destroyed, the fight is over!
After clearing out the bushes, you are able to find enough wolfsbane to create up to 5 doses of the extract needed to treat lycanthropy.
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Luurg pulls his spear out of the plant husk, shaking it a bit to dislodge any of the remains "Hehe dat weren't so bad like I thought." He turns to see the pony "Hey, who brought dat pony? Real sneaky pony!" He shakes his head then reaches his long arm over to pet the thing, while he stabs his leafs spear into the fresh mulch. You swear you hear it cheer softly at this.
"So, lots of gud lookin wulf-herbs here! You guys help me pick sum real nice ok and I'll mix it up nice n gud just in case we needs it on the way back!"
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"Well that was quick." Sheela puts her wand away just as the fight starts. She shrugs and becons her pony over.
"Princess Sparkletrot! Say hi to everyone. This is Bishop, Serge, Marduk, Aiden, and this is Luurg!" The celestial princess looks at the party and snorts. "She says hi." Sheela translates for the party's benefit.
"Come on, pet her already, she doesn't have long before the celestial realm takes her back, or something. I don't know exactly how it works."
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"Well, that was not quite as threatening as I had anticipated," Serge laughs, sheathing his greatsword. "Or maybe I simply travel in capable company. It looks as if we have found what we came for. Perhaps now we can cure this Vilk without resorting to more drastic means."
He walks over to the pony and runs his palm along its side, watching the celestial glow beam through the edges of each of his fingers. "Do you ride her, Sheela, or is she perhaps too small?"
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"I used to ride Princess Sparkletrot when I was young, but that was a long time ago!" Sheela pets Princess Sparkletrot. "Although this one time, in a tavern in Absalom I was in the bath and I had to reach an ally, quickly. So I hopped out of the bath, summoned the Princess, and rode in to the rescue!"
"The Princess was not happy, but I said I would learn how to call upon her mother soon. I've only met her when other family members would summon her. I... don't even know her name."
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"Queen Prances, that's a good start...I'll need to jazz it up a bit, the name's a little too mundane." Sheela seems to be in deep thought until Bishop chimes up. "Don't be afraid of Princess Sparkletrot. As long as you're not evil at heart she's really gentle!"
"Grandmama told me she's from a herd of celestial horses that run around the plains of Elysium. Lots of wild, untamed lands. Somehow everyone forms a loose sense of harmony up there, despite the lack of rules." Sheela pulls out her comb and runs it through Princess's mane.
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Aiden sheathes his sword. "Sounds like pure chaotic hell. Rules were made to keep people safe and in line. Maybe it's all sunshine in Elysium, but down here if people don't work within the system, people starve and turn to crime."
"But that pony sure did trample the plant!" He chuckles. "Hate to see what a full sized one can do. I bet Queenie Rainbowstar would knock you senseless."
Though you survived the encounter with the "deadly" plant creatures, others haven’t been so lucky. All that remains of an ill-fated romantic tryst at the vine’s base are a bag of assorted gems and coins, as well as two potions and an elixir.
After collecting the spoils of your fight and doing some light gardening, you make your way back into the city, past the guards now enchanted by Sheela's seductive air, and through the busy streets to the Pathfinder safe house to speak with Erudyta. The agent once again points the heroes to Vilk's former half-elf courtesan, Markov Rutowski, and provides his home address. However, a wide gulf lies between learning Rutowski’s name and gaining an audience with the elitist noble. Firmly entrenched in Ardis’s web of courtly intrigue, the silver-tongued half-elf rarely sees anyone without a name backed by 12 generations of history.
With these warnings in mind, you make your way to the address Erudyta provided. A scraggly hedgerow and a thousand storms’ worth of water stains mar Rutowski’s otherwise beautiful townhouse. Well-worn marble steps lead to oaken double doors and an ornate, yellow bell pull.