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"Interesting!" Lady Darchana of the many titles considers what she has heard and then turns to Lotho and Dahrani, noticing their reactions to the gnome's recounting of the information they've gained. "And you two...what have you to say about what you've all uncovered? Is there anything else you can tell me? You friend mentioned you found out the name of a person who may be involved, and the name of their ship, well what are they?"
She favours the latest two Pathfinders with a similarly intense and engigmatic stare, as she awaits their response.
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Lotho nods. "Ship's called the At Sea, which is a little on the nose, if you know what I mean, ma'am." He clears his throat. "Anyway, ship captain's a pirate by the name of Waheeda Wardak. They're arriving back in port today, and Mahdi is expecting another, um..." He sneers slightly as he says it, despite himself, "... another delivery. He claims that Wardak says she has a Pathfinder captive she's selling off." His hand reflexively forms into a fist at his side as he finishes this last bit off. "We also got the names of other slaves in the same previous shipment as Atlag, and who they were sold to, but we haven't investigated them yet to see if they had similar scrying enchantments," for a moment he seems to be trying to sort through which of her titles to use and then settles on "Ma'am."
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Dahrani watches as Lotho does a great job rounding out the rest of the information the team learned. When he realizes Lady Darchana expects him to contribute, he straightens himself out a bit.
"I suppose our next step is to go find this ship and investigate the ship itself or talk to the Captain. Though, I suppose if the ship isn't here yet, we could ask around and see if anybody else has done any business with Wardak..."
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The Second Spell Lord of Absalom seems satisfied that she has all the information that the group has uncovered, giving one last look across the rest of the group, just to be sure.
“An Okeno pirate captain? Captain Wardak of the At Sea.” she nods her head, a brief smile. “Yes, that would stand to reason.” She flips open a
ledger sitting on her desk that bears the seal of the harbormaster and begins scanning the pages, “When I became aware of the eavesdropping handmaiden, using my own magic I was able to follow the arcane trail back to it’s origin. I only got a brief glimpse of the heavily veiled perpetrator, but based on the distance and direction, I knew the culprit was on Stonespire Island—somewhere underground on the island at any rate, with a powerfully enchanted mirror. The Okeno pirates’ base of operations is a city on that island, and the Fleshfairs may be the largest slave markets on all of Golarion. It is a cunning place through which to move these sensored slaves.” Her hand finally comes to rest in the ledger. “At Sea, here we are. It has been to Absalom two other times in the last three months. According to this, however, it has been marked with a bounty. ‘Failure to fully declare cargo value for taxation.’” She clicks her tongue loudly. “Excellent. You said Mahjub Mahdi was expecting another shipment from the At Sea tomorrow? If it hasn’t already docked, it’ll be anchored outside the Ship’s Graveyard, waiting for a pilot. We cannot allow those slaves to make it to the Docks unaccompanied! I trust I count on you to help?”
The Archedean of the Arcanamirium then goes on to explains that by law, a ship like the At Sea must have a Pilot’s Guild member bring it in through the hazardous Ship’s Graveyard. She then excuses herself briefly to follow up on this information and returns 15 minutes later.
“I have spoken with a contact at the Harbormaster’s Grange. There is an outstanding docking request for a ship called Kat Season, which is likely our ship with a flimsy disguise.” She writes out a letter, seals it in wax with her seal, and hands it to the group. “Carry this note to the Harbormaster’s Grange—it authorizes the inspector to provide you with a rowboat and a pilot. So long as you can confirm the ship’s identity, you are legally free to claim the bounty yourselves.”
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At the mention of the acquisition of the full list of slaves purchased from Mardak, the Senior Lesser Councilwoman looks particularly pleased. "This is most interesting indeed!" She then casts her eyes across to group once again "Are any among you of your 'Sovereign Court' faction? If you would stay back a minute after the others depart, I have something I'd like to discuss with you in private. If you don't mind?"
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Esper stays behind as the others depart and gives her a respectful nod. "Greetings, I am Esper Zevral of the Sovereign Court."
After hearing her message, Esper smiles. "It would be my pleasure. I thank you for the opportunity to show you my skills." She stands, bows, and departs after her companions.
---
Once shes' rejoined the others, Esper smiles. "You certainly sound excited. Shall we?"
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The group, note in hand, eagerly head to the docks to intercept the shipment of slaves.
The Inspection and Pilots’ Office of the Harbormaster’s Grange is cramped and perfumed by a particularly smelly bowl of salted fish stew that’s cooling on one of its several desks. Ledgers and loose papers occupy most of the horizontal surfaces in the office, and a bookshelf on the southern wall sags under the weight of heavy files.
At present only one inspector is on duty. The sleepy-looking halfling woman sits up, covers a yawn, and says, “Welcome to the Harbormaster’s Grange. I’m Inspector Second Class Lilia Ginsi. How may I be of service?”
The sleepy looking halfling is happy enough to help the group once presented with Lady Darchana' request. It takes her only a few minutes after reading the request to confirm the pending docking request for the Kat Season in her ledger, locate and sign out a rowboat, and finally locate the pilot roster. "You'll excuse me for a second, won't you dearies? I'll just duck out back and tell one of our pilots to get himself ready for a quick departure. Stay here, I'll be back in a jiffy!" Ducking out a door in the back of the office, she leaves the group all alone for the moment.
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Esper stands right beside the woman's desk as she does the paperwork, pleasant as always. While the halfling sifts through papers, Esper tries to figure out where everything is -- particularly where the docking certificates are kept -- without being obvious about it.
"Oh, my! You have so much paperwork Inspector Ginsi! However do you find anything in here?" she chuckles. "Of course, I'm sure you know where everything is, yes? The ledgers and rosters and docking certificates?"
After the woman leaves Esper quickly heads towards the docking certificates and flips through them to find one marked 'At Sea.'
"Tell me when she comes back," she whispers to her companions as she searches.
If she finds it she takes it, stuffs it into the folds of her robes, ensures the rest of the certificates are where she found them, and stands as if she were just curiously walking around the room.
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Esper doesn't notice any clues as the whereabouts of the docking certificate while Inspector Ginsi is still in the room and the sleepy halfling barely even register's the mesmerists's comments.
After she's gone, after around three minutes of feverish searching while her friends keep a lookout for her, Esper manages to locate the certificate she was after! As it turns out she had a few minutes to spare, as about three minutes after that, Ginsi returns, none the wiser!
"Your pilot, Zigil, is ready to depart down at Docking Slip 49." She escorts them out through the door to the docks and points them in the right direction to their rowboat and pilot.
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Zigil is a rough looking dwarf, who speaks little but nods to the group and looks ready to go. She hops into the boat, heads to the front and signals for the rest to follow her and take a seat, three along each side of the small vessel."OK, you lot. Grab yourselves an oar each and get moving. You row, I'll navigate us through the Ship's Graveyard!"
It is just past twilight as the Zigil expertly guides the crew of six Pathfinders in the rowboat through the maze of wrecks the constitutes the Ship's Graveyard and towards the Kat Season.
Absalom’s harbor is an inky, shifting landscape of shadows at night, illuminated only by the city’s lights, the waxing moon, and the distant blaze of the Absalom Lighthouse on Pilot’s Island. Eventually, a three-masted ship with white sails comes into view. It’s just over one hundred feet in length, and its bowsprit is a weatherworn representation of a canine-headed mermaid. The crew is busy as they await an escort through the Ship’s Graveyard. A rope ladder hangs from the rail of its starboard to a foot above the waterline.
Zigil instructs the group with a series of gruff, to the point commands, that eventually get the rowboat in the correct position beside the ship.
There is a rope ladder hanging down from the side of the ship, which is clearly the only way up onto the deck.
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Corbett eyes the ship as they approach it. "Ochre sails. Means she's flying Okeno colours, and we 'appen to be looking for an Okeno slavecaptain. Looks like we've found our target."
As they come across the prow, Corb points out that the "Kat Season" looks like a hastily made modification of it's nom de mer.
He looks around the small boat at the others, then motions to the rope ladder. "Bird's not a bad idea. When it comes to boarding, want me to go first, or do any of you want to take point?"
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As the team rows towards the Kat Season, Kaepora would have perched himself onto the end of Dahrani's oar, surveying the ship's graveyard while bobbing up and down.
As the boat approaches their target, Dahrani scoops Kaepora up onto his hand.
"Ok, Kaepora. We've practiced this before. Check out the boat and let me know what you see."
Kaepora looks at Dahrani with a look of bewilderment, before letting out a low caw, seemingly begging for food. He starts nudging Dahrani's hand, expecting to get something.
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Zootloot settles onto one of the rowing benches. Of course he feet don't reach to the floor of the boat which makes it difficult for him to get any leverage to row. He does his best and apparently that's enough. Eventually they make it to the ship.
As the ship comes into view Zootloot notices the painted on name. He chuckles and elbows the rower sitting next to him. "Hah. Look at that sloppy job. I think my blind grandmother's deaf aunt's lame cat could have painted that better."
The boat floats close to the ship and Zootloot eyes the rope. This could be tricky. "Yeah Corbett, you can go first."
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Kaepora eventually takes flight and flies up and over the deck of the ship in a wide circle. A few seconds after the owl heads up into the sky, there can be heard the muted sound of a deep voice from above on the deck.
"Did you see that? Was that a bat or a bird?
In response the voice only recieves a couple of barking-like grunts in return.
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Corb lets out a sharp sigh of breath, knowing that whoever is topside won't be too happy to see a boarding party.
He shrugs his backpack off, then opens it up to grab a grappling hook tied off to a loop of rope. He throws it over his shoulder, then ensures he has his swordbelt tight. He spits into his cupped hands, then grabs the roughshod rope rungs with calloused palms.
Right ol'boy, over the top we go.
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Corbett is the first to safely make his way up the ladder and onto the main deck of the At Sea. As he clambers over the side, he sees three figures up on the deck. Towards the aft of the ship is a large, surly looking half-orc armed with a greatsword and over towards the port side are two scruffy gnolls with longbows strapped across their hunched backs.
The half-orc grunts impatiently as he sees Corbett emerge onto the ship. "'Bout time! We ready to go!" It seems he's been expecting a pilot to guide the At Sea through the Ship's Graveyard.
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Zootloot grabs the bottom of the rope ladder once Lotho is about halfway up. He tests the stability with his foot a couple times then starts the climb up. The rope rungs are made for average sized people so it is a bit of a reach between them for the small gnome. With only a little struggle, he makes it to the deck of the ship.
With a quick glance he takes in the situation and then stands next to Lotho. "Are they ready yet?" he says impatiently.
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"We got a lotta ships to take care of today, boss. Where's the captain?" He glances around at the crew."
"Not that it's any of your business, mate, but the Captain's down in her hold. Ye're dealin' with me. Got a problem with that?" The half-orc snarls across the deck at Lotho, who realises that it is very unlikely that slaves would be allowed to walk free on the upper deck wearing armor and carrying weapons.
As the rest of the party continues to climb up and pile onto the ship one by one, the half-orc starts to get a bit anxious. "Hey, what's going on here? There usually only a pilot and one or two sailors for this sort of job...and why some of you guys carrying so many weapons?" Before the group can answer, he draws his sword and signals to the two gnolls scratching themselves near the far rail of the deck. "Liven up boys, we're under attack!"
"SCRREEEEEEEE---"
Kaepora dives out of the night sky above the gnoll and begins flapping his wings wildly.
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As Savron battles the troublesome ladder and remains stuck down in the boat with the rough-looking dwarf, the rest of the group find themselves in a fight with something other than just a few strands of rope.
Dahrani's owl starts the fight off on a good note, choosing the perfect time to descend from her circling of the ship. Flapping around the head of one of the gnolls, she looks to have given the hyena-headed creature a bit of a fright. The gnoll pirate lets out a high-pitched whelping sound as it waves a hand around to try and shoo off the bird.
Perhaps worried he might end up hitting Kaepora, Dahrani rushes the gnoll but his strike is not at full force and deflects off the gnoll's leather armor.
The gnoll, still in a bit of state, draws a battleaxe off its hip and takes a wild swing at Dahrani. With the distraction of the owl pecking at its head, however, its swing is ineffective.
The half-orc then sizes up his opposition and takes one hand off his greatsword for the moment. "I not need this against you lot. You not worth me using my sword!" He then draws a mace from its sheath, steps forward and takes a swing at Lotho with the smaller weapon.
The sea-faring half-orc proves that he's not just all talk, as he lands a solid blow on the side of Lotho's jead that staggers the paladin, almost knocking him out. Lotho, blood pouring down from his temple looks like he might be barely able to stay on his feet.
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Savron (still on rowboat)
Dahrani
Red Gnoll
The Half-Orc
Esper
Yellow Gnoll
Lotho 0/12 hp Disabled
Corbett
Zootloot
Esper is up!
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Esper strides forward and focuses on the half-orc. Her mind probes his, latches her psychic tendrils into his brain and clings tightly. She removes all trace of her mental probing from his mind.
Then she focuses hard, causing her golden eyes to glow with power. She casts her hands out at the half-orc and a bright cone of glowing lights springs from her hands into the half-orc's face.
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Lotho staggers against the railing under the blow from the mace. One eye is red with blood both inside and out, while the other appears unfocused. He draws the spear that hangs from his side and readies it to attack the half-orc pirate, but sways slightly as even the slight motion of the at-rest ship causes him trouble with his balance. One of his eyes is red with blood, both inside and out, from the blow.
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The burst of colors envelops the half-orc First Mate, who then rocks back and forth on his feet for a moment or two, his eyes glazed over and drool dripping out between his large tusks. He then he collapses face first onto the deck with a THUMP!
The last gnoll emits a surprised whelp at the sight of his boss being taken out so easily but for now seems willing to fight. He pulls back his bow and lets loose an arrow towards the woman who just took the First Mate down.
The gnoll proves a capable shot at short range and against a lightly armored opponent. The arrow strikes Esper hard and sinks deep into her side.
The owl continues to flap wildly around the gnoll