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Serge watches blood pour from the judge's body, a determined, angry look washing over his face. His eyes flash pure vengeance, tiny red flames dancing in his pupils. "Foul beast! Do you know what the difference between you and you five minutes ago is?" He says, charging the nearest wolf with his huge sword held overhead.
His blade slides into the wolf's heart, and Serge drives it through to the other side. "... The you of five minutes ago had five more minutes to live!"
Serge cuts down one of the hounds, while Aiden and Bishop wound the others. The remaining monstrous dogs lash out with fang and claw.
The hounds’ jaws snap shut on air, and the black hound draws an attack from Luurg and his long spear in the process.
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Sheela completes casting Sleep ... and her targets have split apart. She decides to put the black-furred wolf next to the judge asleep.
Then she moves up toward the judge. "Where was that wand..."
With spell, spear, and (sp)foot, the Pathfinders put the last of the wolfhounds to sleep! As the final hound falls, the courtroom falls eerily quiet, with the rattling breath of Judge Padowca echoing as the only discernible sound.
The weathered old woman sits up suddenly, coughing and sputtering, as Serge's divine healing closes her wounds. She raises a wrinkled hand to her chest and pants with terror and pain as she looks around at the men and women who saved her life. "Thank you, all of you," she says, tears starting to form in her eyes, "I thought I was a dead woman for certain! Please, don't delay, you must find that monster and destroy it!" She points a bony finger toward the door behind her bench, which has been smashed open, "Before he left me here with his pets, the beast ran through that way. Oh! Before you go, please let me repay your bravery in some small way. Here, have my sword. It's mostly ceremonial, but it may lend you some authority if you need to command any locals to assist you. And, here," she disappears briefly into her chambers through another door, then reappears holding a small musical jewelry box filled with gold and silver baubles, "Such things are of little worth to an old woman like me, but perhaps you will find use for them. Thank you again. Now go!"
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Luurg smiles at the old lady "Old ladies are so nice. I figured mebe cookies or apple pie, but fancy swords n gold n stuff is gud too!" He smiles. "Do you tink it was Mister Vilk dare or?"
As he waits for a response, Luurg pulls out a small red fruit and wipes it off gently on his stained and sticky cloak before popping it into his fruit destroying maw. He chews a few times slowly and swallows. Almost immediately his large gut, which caused some poor armorsmiths some headaches as they crafted his mithril breast plate, redistributes itself upward, filling out his already muscular chest, arms and back with even thicker flesh. His face and other exposed skin also seems to get rougher, like the skin on a dried peach.
"Woah, so gud! Hehehe!" Chuckles the orc, sounding even more boyish than usual.
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Sheela finishes her magic...only to realize the enemy is dead. She reaches for her wand... only for Serge to heal her target's wounds. She shrugs.
"You should find somewhere safe to hide. Also, you shouldn't bear grudges, you never know when they'll come back to bite you!" Sheela mentally pats herself on the back for the pun. "But seriously, don't make yourself a target and move on in your life."
Sheela is ready to move on when the party is.
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Serge smiles at the lady, but struggles internally. "Madame, thank you. However... I do not think it right the way you run your courtroom, and giving us this tool does not absolve you of what you've done in the past. Please, for yourself, your town, and your country, ensure that you act as an upstanding judge should act." He sternly says. "There is no room for selfishness in mediating the laws of your land."
"I have no idea who that beast could be, I have no intention of staying out here among all these horrid creatures. I'll be in my chambers. Please, do hurry, before it strikes someone else!"
The Mauler’s trail through the courthouse leads clearly to an open holding cell and a torn-open sewer grate. The tight confines of the courthouse sewers eventually open into wider tunnels collecting effluence from the neighboring buildings. The putrid stink of human refuse mingles with a more natural stink of decomposition. Bubbles and ripples occasionally break the water’s surface, filling the chamber with a constant gurgle.
As you descend into the sewers, the Mauler's trail becomes a bit less distinct, due in large part to the knee-deep water you are trudging through as you navigate through Ardis's collected waste. You think you may be able to pick up the trail, however, with the application of the appropriate skills.
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Luurg quickly lumbers in the direction the Judge points, not near so worried about the proper rules within a court room, only the completion of another paying mission! "Lez go guys, dis ting got a head start n we only so fast! Specially you dare Serge in dat armors!" You notice Luurg isn't slowed down with his breastplate in the least.
Luurg hops down into the sewers and a smile crosses his face. His bare feet hit that water and immediately begin to wiggle in the grossness that is sewage "Dis day can't get much better! All dis poop water sure go to waste, you know you can put it 'round fruit trees vines and dey grow super good. But dey just dump into the ocean fer no gud reason!"
He sniffs the air and squints his eyes trying to find the path the creature took. He rubs his belly for good measure, even though it currently isn't there.
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"Luurg, you must teach me the ways of being fleet of foot even whilst donning heavy armor." Serge smiles at the half-orc. "Do you see anything? Where did this Mauler go?"
Luurg stops and smiles at the paladin "Dey make mine wid real light medal. Stupid lots of gold for dat stuff, but like you not even have it on!"
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You are able to follow the Mauler's tracks deeper into the sewers, but come to a junction in the tunnels with open paths in every direction. Luckily, Luurg's familiarity with swamps and bogs makes him a natural at tracking even through shallow water like this, and he is able to direct you toward the southern passage.
Before you move too far, however, Marduk, Bishop, and Aiden call for a halt. "The Dreamer has shown me this before," Bishop warns enigmatically, "There is something in the water...there!" He extends a finger and points to a spot in the water that Luurg had just taken for some particularly potent fertilizer. As Bishop points to the spot, however, it begins to quiver, and suddenly rises up and expands to a shimmering cube of translucent ooze!
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"Eww, ooze!" Sheela sighs. "No brain to mess with. Guess I'm summoning again..."
Sheela begins casting Summon Monster I.
Sheela begins weaving a spell, while Luurg bravely steps toward the ooze and thrusts his spear into the wriggling mass of filth.
From the northern tunnel, small ripples begin to cross the surface of the water as something comes your way...
Most of the Pathfinders work on positioning themselves in the fight, while Marduk moves into a position to make an attack! He leaps up onto the walkway, though he nearly loses his footing, and moves up to deliver a kick to the ooze.
In response to the strikes of the two half-orcs, the ooze lurches forward and tries to engulf Luurg!
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Sheela completes the spell. She snaps her fingers and a Dire Rat appears. "Mister Nibbles! Um, guard me! Or just stand there." Mister Nibbles kind of looks at her, wondering what it's supposed to do against a swarm.
Sheela runs up, grabs a flask of acid and hurls it at the swarm.
"I think I have one more flask around here."
Luurg's spear once again stabs into the ooze, sending ripples through the gelatinous being. Meanwhile, Sheela adds to the general filthiness of the water as she tosses a vial of acid into the mix, doing some decent damage to the swarm of spiders.
Bishop's toss of the alchemist fire doesn't quite hit its mark as the vial breaks against the wall. The burst of flame still catches a few of the spiders, however, reducing the mass of vermin bit by bet.
Meanwhile, Marduk, Aiden, and Serge unleash a barrage of attacks against the ooze. Aiden's attack in particular seems like it would hit with special force if his opponent were anything other than a mass of amorphous goo, but he still does his damage and destroys the ooze!
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Luurg watches as the fruitcake dissolves into the sewage from around his spear tip "Huh, I tink someone broke da sauce dare... ooo spiders!"
Luurg hustles to the side walkway to get closer to the mass of spiders "Oh I seen dem bafore! My very first mission wid dat half-lady Janira!"
Luurg starts pulling off a coconut that's hanging from his belt "My coconuts werk real gud on dem spidies, just wait!"
A cacophony of tiny shrieks echo down the hallway as Sheela dispatches the last of the spiders, ending the threat of the sewers!
With the fight over, you resume tracking your quarry, and Luurg quickly rediscovers the Mauler's tracks leading up and out of the sewers. The mouth-filling stench of the sewers finally breaks in the relatively fresh air of Ardis’s docks. The moonlight shining down upon the weathered stones beneath the sewer gate catches a glint of gold: a small, worn locket smashed upon the rocks holds a pair of tiny portraits. One shows a Vonran Vilk who might have walked these streets fifty years ago. The other, torn and gnawed, shows Markov Rutowski—Vilk’s former lover!
A howl pierces the night sky. Looking up to see where the sound came from, you see a hunched figure pause several blocks away to watch its pursuers emerge from the sewer, then take off running in the direction of Rutowski’s townhouse.
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Luurg, about to make use of his explosive coconuts, smiles and laughs as Sheela and Bishop make quick work of 'dem pesky spidies' with bottled fire. He slogs up between them and clamps a large hand on each of their shoulders "Gud one guys! Nobuddy likes to find spidies under dare armors or in dare pants. So itchy!" He bellows with laugher before going to take a closer look at the giant oozy fruit cake.
"Owie! Dis ting burns like acid... mebe et too many lemons er sumting. Lez move! Da trail is dis way!"
Luurg hustles down the tunnels and up a ladder, back into the city. He points off in the distance "Dare he is right dare! Get ready fer sum runnin!" He promptly wipes the bottom of his slimy, s~@& covered feet on the cobblestones and stows his spear across his back.
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"Definitely no spiders in my pants." Sheela smile and tries to ignore Luurg's slime covering her shoulder.
Sheela takes a breath of fresh air as she emerges from the sewers. "Oh, finally." She prepares to cast prestidigitation to wipe off the gunk when she sees the beast man run. "Oh! There's no time to waste!"
Sheela sprints forward, running up to a collapsed structure. "Huh, usually someone's breaking down the door into the room I'm in, not the other way around."
"Jealous ex-tackle! Hiyaaah!" Sheela's shoulder tackle clobbers the door open and she runs through, not losing her footing along the way.