Willow's attack with the whip hits the human right in the face!
Round 2
1. Darnellius
2. Human greatclub, Elf Bow
3. Willow, Akaash, Jinny, Uri, Tata, -> GO
4. Dwarf with shortsword
#Male elven archer: -1 HP
#Male Human with greatclub: -12 HP
#Female Dwarf with shortsword: Full HP#Akaash: -15 HP, stable
#Uri :
#Darnellius : -15 HP, stabilisation roll needed
#Willow:
#Tata:
#Jinny:
Jin unfortunately does not hit!
Beginning to panic about having to face that barbarian in melee combat Uri moves and casts his last spell to try to take out the remaining enemy. He burs his last two phrenic points to increase the DC by 1 from 15 to 16 for his color spray.
Again, both the Barbarian and the dwarf are unaffected by the spell of Uri!
The dwarf again casts a spell on the barbarian's to heal.
Round 5
1. Darnellius -> GO
2. Human greatclub, Elf Bow
3. Willow,Jinny, Uri, Tata, Akaash
4. Dwarf with shortsword
#Male elven archer: -1 HP, unconscious
#Male Human with greatclub: -4 HP
#Female Dwarf with shortsword: Full HP#Akaash: 14 Damage , stable
#Uri :
#Darnellius : -15 Damage, stabilisation needed
#Willow:
#Tata:
#Jinny:
THe dwarf has a holy symbol of Norgorber. An evil god. She is probably a cleric. She might be able to channel negative energy.
Jin now sees the human scream again and swing his large greatclub at hitting the Swashbuckler in the abdomen so that Jin is hurled against the cavern's ceiling.
Tata ends his second sleep spell and now you see the human getting very sleepy! And suddenly the barbarian falls to the ground with their eyes closed.
Round 3
1. Darnellius
2. Human greatclub, Elf Bow
3. Willow, Akaash, Jinny, Uri, Tata, -> GO
4. Dwarf with shortsword
#Male elven archer: -1 HP, unconscious
#Male Human with greatclub: -4 HP
#Female Dwarf with shortsword: Full HP
#Akaash: 14 Damage , stable
#Uri :
#Darnellius : -15 Damage, stabilisation needed
#Willow:
#Tata:
#Jinny: -21 damage, stabilisation needed
The dwarf is completely overwhelmed and drops to the ground unconscious.
ugh...that hurt. Finish them off, quickly! Darnellius says as he gets up and steps toward the last man standing.
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Willow taps happily away at Jinny with her wand, and pours Akaash's extract down his throat. (rolled an 8 for it earlier)
She looks around at the unconscious dwarf and elf, and the snoring human. "Getting up and moving is a good thing, but what are we going to do with these guys? Don't really want them waking up and coming at us again"
She has no qualms about killing the helpless enemies (after all they did hit first), but isn't sure if it might be better to restrain them up and find out why they were there.
"That elf in particular has been out for a while, he's probably going to be opening his eyes soon."
After examine and bind the fallen you notice that they are all still alive but will not wake up in the next minutes.
During the examination you find two symbols that all of the attackers were carrying with them.
The first symbol is the holy symbol of Norgorber. He is the only evil god amongst the Ascended. He is known as a Taldan deity of thievery and assassination, as well as a keeper of secrets. He is called the 'Reaper of Reputation' by some, but has more insidious titles among his other worshipers. He remains an enigma to most, and his true motives are unknown. Many of his own followers remain ignorant of his plans and designs.
The symbol belongs to an organization called the Harbingers, which was founded around the Book of One Thousand Whispers and that are dedicated to bringing about the promised Age of Glory by making the prophecies from the ancient Book of 1,000 Whispers come true.
The Book of 1,000 Whispers is a book of prophecy used as a guidebook by the Harbingers of Fate in Absalom. This book predicts events happening between the years of 4604 AR and 4714 AR. Unfortunately for the Harbingers, many of the remaining prophecies make no sense.
Additionally, the dwarf had a written note that unfortunately is written in a strange code.
The note details that the Harbingers want to attempt to make the recorded prophecies within The Book of 1,000 Whispers come true so as to set the world right after the death of the god Aroden. The group has come to the Shrine of the Failed in search of unattended items that fulfill more of the book’s strange conditions, but they have heard of the investigation of the Pathfinders and as their mission is in direct violation of the Harbingers’ mission they are to attack the Pathfindes and try to kill them to ensure the Pathfinders don’t interfere with the foretold omens.
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Akaash stands as the potion takes effect. He plints at the symbols, muttering as he reads through the letter. "Harbingers and worshippers of the assassin god Norgorber... trying to bring about a new world order, fulfill ancient prophecies." He hefts his morningstar. "These guys are dangerous zealots. Best to kill them and put these documents in the safekeeping of the Society."
They had no trouble trying to kill us....get rid of them....
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[dice=Knowledge(religion)]1d20+7
[dice=Knowledge(religion)]1d20+7
[dice=Linguistics]1d20+7Akaash stands as the potion takes effect. He plints at the symbols, muttering as he reads through the letter. "Harbingers and worshippers of the assassin god Norgorber... trying to bring about a new world order, fulfill ancient prophecies." He hefts his morningstar. "These guys are dangerous zealots. Best to kill them and put these documents in the safekeeping of the Society."
I agree. I see no reason to keep at least the cleric alive. I assure you he is quite dangerous and am confident he can channel to harm us all. That elf is the one I'd try to question if I were to try to talk to any. That barbarian is just too dangerous.
Both of the enemies are immediately dead after your coup de grace!
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"Is everyone OK? We should take these notes back to the Society for processing, and the Elf for questioning."
Willow looks around at the other two "We should also clean this up. Even though this passageway is behind a hidden wall, this is still a public shrine and it's not appropriate to just leave bodies here."
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Akaash glances in his pouch. "Daft ... I have an extract that may help." He quaffs his comprehend languages extract as he moves back to the materials and begins collecting them together, looking to see if the magical effect reveals any more about the documents. As he does so, he says, "I quite agree ... at least drag them into a side corner or something. And, of course, take their weapons. We can drop an anonymous letter to the caretaker of this sanctuary later, informing them of the hidden door and what to expect within."
You take two of your attackers' lives and learn that they were Harbingers that wanted to kill you because some of the Harbinders' crude prophecies could have been invalidated by Eylysia’s cache.
After surviving the ambush, you are able to leave the Shrine of the Failed.
The crowd gathered around the Starstone Cathedral has disbanded, and many of the locals are still horrified following Sir Reinhart’s attempt to vault the chasm on horseback, which ended with a fall into oblivion.
After some explanations to the city guard who investigate you thoroughly. They ask you to wait for reinforcement and further questioning ... and you are eventually saved by Venture Captain Dreng who speaks to guards to rescue you. Dreng is very astounded about your findings but at the same time is questioning you about your methods.
* * *
Together with Dreng you deliver Eylysia’s cache to the Grand Lodge.
He speaks with each one of you personally to understand what happened in the cavern.
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After sitting down with Dreng and discussing the details of the search for the documents founf in the secret room, Willow gives her thoughts on the cavern encounter. "After we had gathered up Eylysia's papers, we were about to return to give them to you for research and processing. I apologize, by the way, that we did not get your wine, but I hope these documents are a sufficient replacement.
As we were coming back, a group of three approached us with every sign that they were intending to attack. I attempted to use a non-lethal spell that would stop the encounter without doing any harm, but they resisted it, and Akaash tried to speak with them with the same intent of avoiding hostilities. They ignored him and immediately attacked with no attempt at discussion. During the fight, they very easily took three of our group down before we could get them unconscious.
Checking them out, it was discovered that they were members of the Harbingers of Fate and had been sent to assassinate us due to our discoveries. Although they were out of commission, I felt that they were too dangerous for us to avoid further hostilities.
We killed two of them, as mercifully as possible. The brute had already taken out three of us, with only one hit each, and I had fears that he would not be held by mere rope. The dwarf had already shown the ability to heal, and as she was a cleric I feared that she could channel energy to harm us even while restrained. With some of our people barely living that was too much of a threat as well. The third member, the archer, was much less of an immediate threat and as such we restrained him and brought him in for questioning instead of making the call on our own.
These decisions might be questionable, but I feel that making the call to remove those that were still a threat in order to successfully bring the third in as well as the documents, not to mention stopping the Harbingers' plot, was worth any risk to my reputation or honor."
She seems confident in the decision, but willing to accept any punishment that the Society might impose. "Any decision can be found to be a good one or a bad one in hindsight, and actions in the moment have to be made based only on the information given in the moment."
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Jinny is unconcerned with her actions in the cavern.
They were there to kill us, and they knew it was us or them going in. We tried to talk them down, but they didn't even take the time to reply. If we had let them go, we would see them again, and this time they might win. In every great story there is conflict and sacrifice. I'm sure their god will reward them for their service.
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Adding to Willow's story Uri provides what he believes is additional justification for the group's actions. I know it seems harsh, but the magic we had used to put down our ambushers was quite temporary. We were badly wounded as a group and I feared the cleric could take more of us down, and maybe even kill the most wounded with a simple channel to harm. Worse, if she chose to include the barbarian in such a channel it would have only scratched him but awoken him!. We as a group were mostly out of resources to deal with such a man. The decision, in my mind was truly life or death for us.
Uri contemplates his choices in life and for the first time believes he has made the right choice to become a spontaneous caster.
"Thank you for your honesty ... please be aware that I will not judge and your words make sense in your specific situation. But I did not say that you should kill anybody on this mission without need. I am telling this to you now so that you are not disappointed to find yourself on a side of the Society that you might not find fitting. There are many factions and movements in the Society. A Venture-Captain will give you all the information that you need to understand your objectives ... but you will always be responsible to find the path to your objective."
He pauses for a moment.
"In my view, the Pathfinder Society should try not to kill at all and that we are here to research and to gather information which we then provide to the public if it is ready for these insights! Your task is to achieve your missions through exploration, to report and to cooperate with each other!“ he says with a stern look.
"I do not want to say that killing is not an option. You need to defend yourselves. I trust in you. What happens to opponents ... that's for your conscience and circumstance, but we need to abide by local laws and cannot decide who needs to meet justice - preferably we hand disabled opponents over to the local authorities for fair trial and due punishment"
He tries to assess your level of comfort with this mission and continues.
"This is one of your first missions. So I hope that you realize that what you found was immensely valuable to the Society. Thank you for your diligence!"
In the next weeks you receive a lot of attention as the news about your discovery spreads!
Several Venture-Captains from near and far send you their regards.
* * *
The Wounded Wisp staff is still flabbergasted about your discovery and has received some funding from the society with which they intend to repair the disgrace in their cellar.
You now also enjoy Heryn's gratitude which means that the first drink is always on the house! Rosie can still take cooking lessons in the Wisp whenever she wants.
And of course you can be sure that several agents in the Wounded Wisp will never forget you and the events of that night.
* * *
After about a month you receive a summons to gather in the Grand Lodge as Dreng wants to give you a thorough debrief on this mission.
When you arrive in the meeting room you are all together again but Dreng is not there, yet.