Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng’s pinched face is hard to see from behind the stack of books that divide the front of his office from the space behind his desk. A shockingly old man with white hair and slightly milky eyes, he is surprised by the appearance of outsiders in his office, and looks up, half startled and half relieved.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice. I’d been meaning to give this assignment to you at a later date, and with less pressing time constraints, but it seems that time has conspired against us.” Dreng mumbles to himself as he passes out a stack of notes and maps from behind the wall of books. “These notes are from a recent Chronicle—it contains some interesting finds, but one of them is now the utmost priority to the Society.”
Dreng lightly taps a bony finger on a map, on which can be seen a section of Absalom with a small corner townhouse circled in deep red. “This townhouse is a façade for an underground vault. The vault belonged to an old noble family of Absalom that was expelled a decade ago—the Decklands. The family was forced out when their patriarch—a man known as Orias—was discovered to have written documents detailing the city’s defenses, documents he intended to hand over to hostile forces loyal to Cheliax. The Chronicle indicates that a copy of these documents exist within the vault."
“A Pathfinder looking into the Decklands and their Chronicle references in Cheliax was attacked and killed ten days ago. The thugs made off with a copy of his notes—fortunately, he’d already sent us another. We have reason to believe it was the work of the Decklands’ oldest child, a young woman named Celeena, and she’s the reason this assignment is now urgent. The fact that Celeena and her forces were willing to kill a Pathfinder for this information shows how desperate they are to retrieve the documents. If she were able to get these documents and return them to Cheliax, it would undermine the defenses of the whole city, as well as cause the Society undue headaches. Find Celeena, find the documents in her vault, and prevent this situation
from turning into one big mess for the Society.”
|
A tall, thin man with rustic blue robes enters the room. "Gaius Pellandir reporting as requested." he states in a crisp, clear voice that carries unnecessarily. As the mission briefing begins, he listens with polite interest. Gaius' hair is as white as the wizened Venture-Captain's, but he shows no sign of age. An arcane tattoo faintly visible upon his brow.
He paces the room, looking over some of the dusty tomes in the room with faint curiosity. His eyes tighten slightly at the mention of Cheliax, but otherwise he shows no outward gesture that he has anything but mild professional interest in the task at hand.
|
A powerfully built man of over six feet tall leans against the wall, listening to the Venture-Captain's briefing. His skin is an ash grey, with red eyes and hair, and tusks that protrude from between his lips and make his lower jaw look larger than his upper. He is dressed in a simple black tunic with bronze bracers inlaid with images of Chimeras. At his waist hangs a Temple Sword, a Dagger and a Nunchaku.
"Want us to use kid gloves on Celeena?" he asks. "Bring her in alive and mostly unharmed?"
"We do have some questions we'd like Celeena to answer...that's generally easier to do if she's alive." Dreng becomes momentarily lost in thought. But there are ways around that I suppose. Use your best judgement."
Dreng turns to Lucian and answers "Leave when your ready to leave. One should never leave before one is ready. Unless its an emergency. Which I suppose this sort of is. Please prepare to leave as soon as possible"
"With luck it will be your only stop. Should you find that Celeena has already left with the documents, well then we have another problem on our hands. But hopefully that should not be the case."
"There’s not much that can be said about the vault or its defenses. It was reportedly used to store a portion of the family’s wealth and was ingeniously trapped when the Decklands fled Absalom. The family archives, where the documents should be stored, should be right next to the family crypt in the lower levels." Dreng rifles through a pile of papers before finding the one he was looking for."Oh yes, and this little bit. There are reports that Celeena has hired mercenaries from the Devil’s Claw Company, a mercenary organization of failed Hellknights.”
"She's just a Cheliaxian noblewoman hell bent on revenge...she most likely has some skill with magic." The venture captain once again gets a faraway look in his eye before proclaiming "Blast...I'm late for my next meeting. You'd best be off...and good luck!"
A1: Townhouse
Sitting on the corner of a quiet street, the red brick Deckland townhouse melds in with the middle class buildings in this portion of Absalom. A small, flickering candle can be seen through a barred window on the building’s west side and a single door can be seen on the building’s south face.
|
"Wait", Amaranti says suddenly, and sits down on the street. "One more friend is coming."
Crossing his legs and closing his eyes, Amaranti starts mumbling in a language which is not familiar to anyone. A green rune appears on the man's forehead, as his mumbling quickens. After a while the ground starts to rumble, sand and stone shoots upwards.
|
"Don't mind if I do sir, now keep your eyes and ears open in case she's home." Jorus moves along the shadow to the front of the townhouse, listening to the night air as he did.
He will approach the door and will stop at it looking for traps and even then will wait for the group. "You wanna move in quiet or loud?" He whispers to his fellow pathfinders.
After a thorough observation you discover that the only two means of entry are either through the main door or through the barred window. Although it will make quite a bit of noise, the bars can be removed with a DC15 Strength check.
-----------
|
|
A lanky, hooded man approaches the group, revealing a hellish red complexion and two long, goat-like horns. His eyes glow faintly with a white light, with an oil-like voice, he says, "Hello, chaps. A bit of trouble here with this here trap? Phaertes, I'm called. The Society was a bit late in calling me, and let's just say I ran into a bit of trouble as well..." He drops his voice to a whisper. "My apologies, I didn't realize it was this kind of mission. What is the plan?"
|
|
Gaius sighs, resigned to what he clearly considers an unrefined approach. "Righto boys, if you want to kick the door down I won't stop you. I have a decent wand to heal you if you don't mind a rather prickly feeling to go along with it. Try not to get yourselves killed and I'll be right behind you." he says. He draws his Crossbow in his right hand and fits a bolt to it neatly. "Anyone like a bit of magical armor?" he enquires, drawing from his belt his Wand of Mage Armor and casts it on himself before pointing it around to the others, waiting for their consent.
Jorus looks thoughtfully at the string and bell contraption, furrowing his brow and making several grunts of contemplation. Removing a small knife from his kit he cuts the string, sending the bell tumbling through the air...and directly into the ranger's hand!
|
|
"Well... that was unexpected." says Gaius in surprise, seeing the ball in Jorus' hand. "If you guys like I could use a little magic to try to disable those two fellows in their before they can raise any alarm. Or we could sneak up stealthy-like and get them a rather close shave." he suggests, dragging his thumb across his throat as he speaks this last sentence.
|
|
Gaius uses his Wand of Mage Armor on Balak before stowing it back in his belt. "You got it, big fella" he says before turning to the others. "Well, if everyone is alright with the plan, I'll go in first and disorient them. But be sure you to follow close in behind me, I'm none too handy with an axe or sword."
|
|
"Yes, magic is good", Amaranti says, moving close to Gaius. "After magic, we hit. Might make some noice." After looking into the narrow corridor, he puts down the lance he was holding, and grabs a heavy-looking morningstar from his belt.
"Not much space. You go first, Kaisharga!" Amaranti notes, directing his serpentine creature.