The fear in Junia's eyes ebbs away when she realizes you don't have evil intentions.
"Monster..." Junia whispers weakly. "I hid here, but it found me..."
Junia describes there was a cloud of shadows that boiled in the air, with a skeletal maw that eerily babbled and claws that manifested from the darkness. Tereze realizes this must've been an allip; an incorporeal type of undead able to drain a target's wisdom with a touch.
Further questioning reveals Junia was playing in the necropolis's halls, which she and her classmates had discovered. When the earthquake hit, Junia and her friends ended up trapped inside. When her friends began to starve, Junia did not. As her friends became weaker and less able to continue their search for a way out, Junia snuck away from them and hid in an empty sarcophagus that was unsealed by the great quake, desperately seeking an escape from the misery of her dying friends. Confused, increasingly frightened of the darkness beyond, and lacking hunger or thirst, Junia stayed in her hiding spot until she was found by the roaming allip. Its merciless attacks completely drained her wisdom and Junia laid here in a nightmare sleep, her body preserved by the magic of the necropolis, for 10 years. Only the ruby salamander ring kept her alive.
There's no sign the allip's still around, even with detect undead.
You head back the way you came, with one of you carrying Junia. when you ask Marlinchen if he's ready to come with you, the disillusioned man replies, "No, I'm going to stay here with my daughter. She's having such a good time!"
Marlinchen smiles brightly as he sits on the cold floor, watching the spirit of his daughter tell stories to the other spirit children.
Tereze determines Marlinchen's no victim of the allip. The broken man simply wants to stay with his daughter, whose death he's never been able to accept over the past 10 years. He doesn't look willing to leave. Ever.
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"While i think everyone should be free in choice, it is unfortunate to see a man fallen into such delusions from sheer grief.
Even if we bring him back, and get him admitted somewhere, he'd probably die from grief over not seeing his little girl there too, or turn violent against staff to get out and go back here."
"Unless one of you knows something -really good- to help him get rid of his mental state, leaving him might be for his own best, at least in his own world."
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Ery stops. Puasing right before he would disappear beyong the corner. Turning, the elf looks to Locke and approaches with an ever growing smirk stretching across his face.
"Ah, I see the predicament. I know just the people to fix this whole...grieving thing." Ery Slides past Locke with a nod.
"If we're converned he'd die form grief, then allow me and mend his broken soul and stitch the thrashed mind."
Ery kneels before the gentlemen placing a hand upon his shoulder.
Whispering into the man's ear, Ery offers a variety of words in an effort for him to join him a place that could offer solace. For both he and his daughter.
"But how could we get there?" Marlinchen asks Eryzule. "She looks so happy here. I don't think she wants to leave just yet."
"You'll make sure she comes with us?" Marlinchen asks.
He gets up and hesitantly follows you. As he walks into the corridor, Marlinchen looks behind him at the spirit of his daughter. "I'll be right back, dear. These kind people are going to help us."
You exit the necropolis the way you entered it and split up, with one group escorting Marlinchen to Calistria's temple and the other group bringing Junia to the Dacilane mansion.
Returning the barely living body of Junia to Lady Dacilane has several repercussions: she’s naturally overwhelmed with joy and sends for the best clerics of Asmodeus at once to see to her daughter’s recovery. Lady Dacilane alters her previous reward and promises to assist you in the future if you ever have any need of information about the aristocrats of Absalom — a small gesture, to be sure, but a very generous one in the mind of Lady Dacilane. The other parents, upon hearing that there was a miraculous survivor after all these years, mob the Tri-Towers Yard in an attempt to gain access to the necropolis. Absalom’s city watch is called in to quiet the disturbance and sends in a team to search for additional survivors. Of course, there are none.
When you've all gathered afterward, you return the ruby ring of the salamander to the Pathfinder Society. The Society is naturally pleased at acquiring such an important artifact and Venture-Captain Drenge thanks you for your service.
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With some of the team talking to the broken man, and taing him along, Locke's left observing the scene.
But Gwen's mood can't be missed, and Locke moves over.
Standing next to her as Marlinchen is guided along, the masked face turns to her.
"It's everyone's choice to have them. Loss of any friends or family is hard whatever the circumstances.
Yet, are you saying there's not even a tiny bit of you, that would want to have a bundle of cute in your arms? Even if it is with...hehe, our resident playboy."
The next day you spot Marlinchen walk back to the Drownyard, together with one of the clerics. Marlinchen sees you too and waves. "We're going to visit my daughter again!"
Often when you're back in Absalom and near the Drownyard, in between your missions, you can see Marlinchen walk to or from the necropolis with the same cleric. The broken man looks happy, and when he sees you he always approaches you with a cheerful story about how he visits his daughter daily.
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The first time Gwen spots Marlinchen being escorted by the clerics she wonders if the cleric is going with him to free his daughter's spirit, but then the second time she realizes what the cleric is doing for the man. In an uncommon display for her, hugs Marlinchen and the cleric. "Thank you." She whispers to the cleric. She then quickly rushes away with tears streaming down her cheeks...
From that day onward, she always tries to make time to find Marlinchen after he visits with his daughter and listens to his stories with a big smile on her face.
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Locke can't help but chuckle, this turning into a slight soft laugh.
"Point taken, he would make for an odd sort for a rolemodel of a father."
Calming down....
"Anyway, Mary had left me a little box of strawberries this morning.
Maybe a few will cheer you up, and we call this crypt roaming a day."
The following two days you spend training to defeat the dragon, which you'll have to defeat in little less than a year. Two of the three deans of the Pathfinder Society are present to aid you in your training: Master of Spells Aram Zey and Master of Swords Marcos Farabellus. With their guidance you learn a couple new ways to use your spells more effectively, and learn to better spot openings in an enemy's defense.
After the second day's training Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin approaches you. He's been watching you train for some time, same like the day before. "I see you've picked up some tricks since I watched you yesterday. Good! Now, about something else... I've got a new mission for you. You'll get the details tomorrow, from Venture-Captain Moldreserva. Meet her in the Lodge's great hall tomorrow morning."
There's some more small talk after that, and once Valsin and the deans are gone you head to the Final Farewell for some drinks.
Venture-Captain Alissa Moldreserva, a fiery red-headed woman who climbed from the depths of Galtan revolution to become one of the Society’s finest (and most well-connected) Venture-Captains, stands in the great meeting hall of the Grand Lodge in Absalom. She stares down her hawkish nose and sighs.
"I ask for the best and they send me you. Lucky me. The Society’s best contact in Osirion, Grand Ambassador Dremdhet Salhar, informed me this morning that his lovely Chelish wife, the Lady Anilah Salhar, was kidnapped and sold into slavery.
"Normally, I wouldn’t care a bulette’s eyeball about who was or was not enslaved in Absalom, but Salhar is the Society’s best avenue for acquiring all of the necessary official paperwork to make our frequent delves into the tombs of Osirion cheap and legal. This is a relationship we want to preserve and since the Ambassador made it clear that our status is in jeopardy, I’ve been instructed to send our best agents to find her and return her safely to Salhar.
"I guess you’ll do.
"Salhar hasn’t sat idle since his wife was taken — his own agents are prowling the streets and dug up one possible lead. A one-eyed Andoren, a grit junky named Fredrik, is known for selling or helping to sell nobility into foreign markets that desire house slaves. Being enormously illegal, this trade makes Fredrik a fair bit of coin that Salhar’s agents assure me all go straight into the pockets of the Second Chance, a grit den dockside in Puddles. That’s all I have to get you started. Go quickly. The fate of our Osirian exploits is in your hands."
The Second Chance is a one-room, run-down tavern-turned-grit-den located dockside in Puddles. It has one main entrance and three small rear entrances. When you approach the door you hear it's quite rowdy inside.
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Tereze looks in irritation at the water she is splashing through to get to the tavern. I guess it's better then the sewer again.
As she sees the tavern she says:
Does anyone else zink he will run if we all approach him at once? Do we want to approach in force and have a small group in back to catch him if he tries to run, or be more discrete?
She glances at Ery worriedly as she says the last.