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The incessant beat of hammer against anvils and weaponry greets entrants into Smine’s Weaponworks, a smithy of great repute in the town of Tymon in the River Kingdoms, along with an oppressive wave of heat and the acrid smell of coal. A broad-shouldered dwarf, face and arms smudged with soot from the furnaces, smiles broadly, proclaiming in a voice harsh with years of yelling, "Ah! I was expecting you lot! Step inside my office. I have refreshments."
He steps inside a cozy office, gesturing at several chairs, ranging from an overstuffed chaise to a sparse and undecorated rocking chair. After rinsing his face off in a nearby basin of water, he pours out several glasses of water, immediately quaffing one for himself before refilling it and sitting down to his desk. "Venture-Captain Holgarin Smine, at your service. Guessing the Lodge got my message. You don’t look too fresh-faced for this mission." Finishing the rest of his drink, he wipes the corner of his mouth with a clean cloth.
"I’ll be q uick about it. You’ve got ab it of travel a head of you. One of the mayors of Uringen, Lady Aurelia Ogden, wants the Society’s help — with an experiment she’s been doing. The clock tower of Uringen has drawn all sorts of researchers. It hasn’t worked quite right from the get-go. It makes a whole piece of the town disappear. Four clock faces, each with a different way of counting time. All displaying a
different time — until now. The mayor thinks that those faces might finally join up. What’s going to happen when it does is anybody’s guess. She doesn’t have the staff she needs to record it properly. That’s where the Society comes in."
"Uringen’s alchemical goods are some of the best. In exchange for recording the experiment’s effects, and dealing with unexpected issues, Mayor Ogden will give the Society a discount. But there’s something else that the Society wants. You heard about the mishap with the Sky Key? How it’s not working correctly? Turns out, that clock tower might have something that can fix it. Scholars call that something ‘temporal essence.’ Fetch at least one vial of the stuff. Ogden says the best time to collect it is in the middle of the clock face alignment. I’ve arranged for travel to Embeth Forest. When you get there, you’ll be meeting Jamel Visser. Visser’s the leader of the local forest guides. They call themselves the Embeth Travelers. Don’t dawdle. You’ve got to make it to Uringen before the clock faces align. The boat will get you to Visser in a little over 2 weeks if you don’t run in to trouble. The clocks align in 3 weeks. Any questions…or refills?"
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A tall half orc with a large rat perched on his backpack sits chewing something in the meeting room. A large worn unstrung elm bow sticks out from the back, bits of water buffalo horn visible in its belly. He raises a small wooden cup to his mouth. Small pointed tucks are visible in his mouth. He quietly spits in the cup and continues chewing. Then pauses and asks.
"Can we expect any trouble along the way?"
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Archie, thumps the hilt of his dueling blade with his fingers making a drumming sound. His slicked back hair and fine clothing showcase his status as nouveau riche as all that he wears is brand new, freshly taxidermed snow fox pelts adorn his belt, which he seems proud of as they were his own creations.
What do we know about these forest folk, their leader in particular. Anything in particular we should know in our attempts to transact smoothly with him?
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She is and elf, blond long hair and blue eyes. She wears light armor and carries a Composite long bow and an efficent quiver. Dressed in green clothes looks more like and explorer than and wizard, and her two hand curven elven sword doesn´t help.
She looks like she is pondering after the venture capitan explanation.
If not permited I will only use Arcana.
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"The area is full of feys. That's all I know. Maybe you better ask Visser. He knows more. At the top of the clock tower, between the gears of the clocks, a thick, silver-gold substance drips out, crackling with arcs of red and blue. You can collect this essence in a vial." Smine tries to anser Shagratt's and Yoshi's questions.
"The Embeth Travelers get folks to and from Uringen safely. I’d heed Visser's word about anything. With the fey thick in those woods, I’d take precautions against them too. Good man, though. He doesn’t have much use for coin. We’ll be paying him in more useful goods." Smine nods toward a collection of weapons hanging from the wall.
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After you got your equipment you meet up at the docks to get aboard the Arctic Mist. The boat's already been paid for.
After an uneventful trip along the Sellen River, you arrive near the edge of the Embeth Forest, where Jamel Visser and his group of Travelers are waiting for you.
A sturdy wooden pier stretches over the western bank of the fast-moving river, where a river barge offloads several crates of labeled goods. Nearby, a camp laid out in a rough semicircle bustles with activity, its borders marked off by covered wagons and tarpaulins. Water from a recent downpour collects in the canvas’ folds and in puddles on the ground. Travelers are at the pier, greeting you friendly.
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Archie will take a deep bow and present a writ he wrote himself explaining the situation as described by the venture captain Hello there, honorable forest guide. I am Baron Archibald Peck, esquire and I am here today on behalf of the Pathfinder Society. We have quite the issue before us I am told, which I have laid out in plain text in this here writ but in the meantime, allow me to cut to the chase because time is short - we would be grateful to you if you could lead us to Uringen post-haste so we can complete our time sensitive objectives.
Archie will loose his shield and his rapier from his back so both are handy and will bend over to change from his presentable boots into his outdoors boots and then will await his benefactor's response.
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"Ah, the Pathfinders Holgarin sent! You are here to meet Jamel Visser, for sure!" the man at the pier says and directs you to a man wo his standing by the central campfire. Dressed in plain forester’s garb, as well as a worn but well-kept suit of leather armor and a longbow, he listens to two scouts with a pensive look on his face.
At your approache, he turns to greet you.
"Well met, travelers. My name is Jamel Visser. Smine sent word of your arrival, expressing the urgency of your journey, but we will have to delay your departure. On our trip here, we ran afoul of that blasted grig’s traps, and we won’t be able to leave until we’ve fixed things up."
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"I would be most appreciative if you could help us out. Our mules are sick, probably poisoned, and even some of our hounds have succumbed too. Nithra’s folk like to harass us in and out of the woods. We usually catch most of their tricks, but not this time. " Visser answers and asks some of his rangers to lead you into the woods.
The Traveler leads you along worn roads, not far from the camp. In the jarring nature of the ever-shifting forest it's hard to detect traps and once detected they may slip past you within seconds.
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You walk through the woods and S'Slarn points out every trap. The first, second and fourth trap are also detected by Lucia, while Shagratt confirms the fourth trap and Oloch the third one.
"Good job, you are really skilled at trapfinding." a ranger says. "But are you also trained to disable them? Several of these poisoned dart traps hit our caravan and the falling logs blocked our way."
You detect two poisoned dart traps and two falling log traps. You know that removing the logs from the road would take about four hours if the trap is set off.
"They are alive." one of the rangers whispers. "The trees watch everything. And your healing will be needed back in camp for sure. Many of us are sick, even the animals."
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"Can any of you be summoning monsters? If so they could be used to trip the poison traps." suggests Yoshi.
When looking at the falling log traps he ponders
"Perhaps we could put a large rock in the way, or create a wall of some kind of stop the logs, or redirect them away from blocking the pathway?"
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" If you are looking to trigger them, that´s easy I have a wand of summon monster for this. Easy to use and cheap. Bur if you want to halt the logs... I have a little Knowledge in engineering that could help us but I am not that confident."
As she speaks she looks more composed, clearly she likes the place.