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Venture-Captain Hestia Themis, a small, dark-haired,and dark-eyed Taldan woman, sits behind her enormous blackwood desk in the Pathfinder lodge in Cassomir and clears her throat. “My friend, the Countess Arieta Patrizia, is dead. She escaped her capture by the fiends who operate beneath Cassomir only to succumb to disease and wounds incured in Cassomir’s disgusting sewers. Ordinarily, this would be a matter for the Taldan authorities, but Arieta came to me directly after escaping and recounted a story that leads me to the natural conclusion that only the Pathfinder Society can resolve this issue.” Venture-Captain Themis rises and paces back and forth behind her desk. “Arieta told me of an artifact she saw while in captivity below Cassomir. This artifact, called the jet rat, is known to us, but we must confirm that what she saw is indeed true. She claims to have seen it transform normal rats into something bigger, more vile and mean. If that’s true, the artifact she saw down there is old, evil, and should be stored safely in the vaults beneath the Grand Lodge in Absalom where we can study, catalog, and examine it. Worse, she claims to have seen this object in the hands of the derros, vile Darklands creatures that we have long suspected are responsible for the Cassomir kidnappings. I have a map here that shows the location of the sewer grate Arieta was dropped through when she was kidnapped. She could not, due to her illness, recall much about how she got to the location where they kept her in captivity, but she knows where they dropped her into the sewers and you’ll find that location on this map.” Venture-Captain Themis stops pacing and eyes you across her desk. “Bring me back this artifact—if you happen to free a few captured Taldans along the way, that’s good news, but the
artifact is your mission. Any questions?”
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What do we know about derros? Either what can she tell us or what Knowledge rolls can we make?
What section of the city is this grate located in? Any anticipated problems getting there and access to the grate?
Other than the rat cult, is anyone else going to care about us poking around the sewers? Will we run afoul of the taldan authorities wondering what we're doing?
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Good questions:
Derros: This pale blue humanoid race has bulging white eyes, wild hair, four-fingered hands. Though derros dwell deep under most of the surface world's cities, very few know of the sadistic creatures' existence. Descended from mysterious fey that once dwelt deep underground, the derros lust for the comforts of the surface, yet the light of the sun causes them to blister, burn, and die. Derros often abduct surface dwellers to perform hideous experiments on them in their never-ending quest to divine what protects those who dwell above from the burning death. A typical derro fights with a short sword or a repeating light crossbow with plenty of poison bolts. Venture-Captain Themis never saw more than a handful together. Pathfinders of your stature should be able to easily dispatch them and recover the artifact.”
Grate & Sewers: The grate located near the wharves and should be easy to find. Once you're in there you will need to follow her trail and fins the artifact. The Taldan authorities should leave you alone, I've taken care of that. As for what else you will find, we know of no other groups operating there, but we can't be sure. You’re Pathfinders, not
stumbling fool adventurers. I’m sure you’ll use your wits, skills, and brains to figure that out for yourself.
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And we're off!
The Cassomir sewers are actually the third incarnation of a sewer system beneath Cassomir. As the newest, the current Cassomir Sewers are large, vaulted affairs with tile ceilings, brick walls, stone walkways, and make-shift wooden bridges. Unless otherwise noted, the sewers are completely unlit. The sewer waterway itself is a combination of rain water, tidal salt water from the harbor, human and animal waste, and the city’s other refuse.
Using the information given to you, you locate the grating. The grate is roughly 5 ft in diameter, and can be easily lifted via leverage. Before proceeding, you look down. Murky puddles dot the tile floor below, which gently slopes toward the room’s center where some of the puddles are very slowly draining into a large, 10-foot-by-10-foot drain. Thick, sticky webs cover most of the corners of the room, and several large vermin appear to be caught in the webs. The sound of running water can be heard to the north.
How do you wish to proceed.
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Assuming we are able to enter the room on the map unmolested...
"Friend Maldrek: You can see in the dark, no? What do you see down yon hall?"
If no-one else has a light active, Zolrak will cast light on his greatsword - carried loosely in his left hand - and look around the room.
Skill rolls here or on roll20?
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Shizzle P peers down into the small chamber of the sewer and snorts wistfully as he imagines the acoustic properties of the room, the reverb, the sound, the glorious sound. Sadly, he keeps his mouth mostly shut, avoiding the urge to rap in such a sound chamber in an effort to keep the beasties unaware. The play of emotions through the hulking orc's features is only evidenced by a sad, 'Word'
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4/6 say they go in, so the rest follow.
Unless otherwise noted, the sewers are completely unlit. The sewer grates at the end of each “dead end” lead to smaller and smaller pipes that eventually connect to the storm drains throughout Cassomir. The water is 10 feet deep and moves rapidly, advancing anyone who falls into it 5 feet per round toward the east and south. The water in most places is 5 feet below the level of the adjacent walkways.
As you descend into the chamber (I'm not making you do climb checks - I assume a knotted rope), you look around. Using both light from Zolrak's sword and Ishwar's light spell, you see a chamber roughly 20ft square, with a mostly clogged circular grate in the middle of the floor. Around the walls and ceiling are webs, which contain the bodies of numerous vermin. They are all encased in sticky webs. Maldrek points out to the group the shape of a humanoid in the webs near the north west corner, but before anyone can move to investigate, Shizzle P mutters 'word...' and points to the ceiling of the north east corner. You all gaze as a huge spider with a massive red hourglass shape on it's abdomen descends from the ceiling...
Perceptions:
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If you go to this page:
https://app.roll20.net/home/
Does it list the new game under the "Your Recent Campaigns" section? By the way, I've had it happen before when if I wasn't logged in I couldn't access the page, so make sure you log into roll20 first before clicking on the link to Mike's campaign here:
https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/727705/bomit-s01-30-the-devil-we-k now-part-ii-cassomirs-locker
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Okay, the spider defeated, you search the room.
You find the corpses of a number of oversized rats. In addition, the humanoid form reveals itself to be a derro! The derro still carries the following gear: 2 potions of cure moderate wounds, leather armor, shortsword, and a repeating light crossbow with 10 poisoned bolts.
After the search, you begin to cautiously move down the sewers, avoiding the nasty, and fast flowing water. Eventually you reach an intersection. You need to chose South, West or East. Please look at the map for details, but you don't see much down either way for the gloom, and the loudly running water makes hearing ahead very difficult.
What do you want to do?