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Raoul puts his hand on Jivokun's shoulder. He gives him an update on what has happened while the rogue has been blinded.
"The two gillmen that were at our table are down. One by your hand - nice work, by the way - quite on the way to death, and the other is unconscious thanks to a spell of mine."
Raoul then walks to the down gillwoman and fires off another bolt from his wand at the barwoman that seems to be trying to get away.
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Pulling away from Pozukets swipe, she continues on across the bar and launches herself at the hole where the fishtank was. Battered and bleeding, she disappears into the waters below.
The tavern is mostly still apart from the fish flapping on the floor. One gillman nailed neatly to the table, and a gillwoman lying stunned and unconscious on the floor.
The relic is safe.
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Thank you brother.
Jivs replied to Raoul for clueing him in. He wrenched his dagger free from the body of the gillman adn whiped it clean until his sight returned to him. He heard Slagtoes pushing for a retreat.
We still have a deal to make yes? Perhaps these were just imposters. What do you say Rees?
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Nester looks a bit disappointed in the outcome of the 'meeting' "I had hoped that this would all be above board and an opportunity to examine a new relic or artifact, instead it was a pedestrian swindle"
Nester looks set to take his complaint to the Gillman embassy, and frog march the gillman back there as a symbol of his disappointment.
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Aran pulls out a few bits of rope and hands them to Grog, "We may wish to take this chance to tie them up, since they will not be resisting. Otherwise, we will have another fight on our hands," he then looks to Rees, "Shall we attend this meeting at the embassy with you? Since we were here on an official capacity?"
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"Damn it all, grab the damned living and leave the dead. We must move! If not for gilman, then town guard! I will carry the girl and get Rees to move. To hell with this deal and these stinkin' fishfolk. Sea rats they are." With that Grogson moves with all haste to cuff and stuff the living member of the delegation.
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Once the dust (and water) settles...
Nester Rees strides off to the Gillman Embassy, captive in tow.
After some deliberation it becomes clear the Low Azlanti were completely unaware of the activities of Ulionestia and her allies. After everyone is comfortable that this was a genuine double cross, the Aspis consortium having clearly made some earlier deal with Ulionestia and not the Embassy, you give the Low Azlanti ambassador Gloriana Morilla’s letter, though when he opens it he simply smirks to himself and shakes his head at a silent joke he doesn’t share.
You safely return the genuine Pathfinder artifact to the vaults of the Grand Lodge, after a brief sea journey home – it has become clear the Aspis consortium weren’t watching the sea particularly well. Venture-Captain Dreng thanks you for your efforts and apologizes for sending them on a fool’s errand, but he commends you all for uncovering the ruse and preventing the Society’s enemies from gainingcontrol of a true Azlanti artifact.
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The Storval Rise is a cliff of immense proportions which stretches across the width of Varisia, dividing it in two like an unavoidable facial scar. Reaching heights of over a thousand feet in the south, the Rise begins as low as only a few hundred feet in the north, by the Velashu Uplands. It is here, at the cliff's lowest point, that ancient giants built the Storval Stair, which still provides the easiest access from the fertile lowlands to the harsh Storval Plateau above. Much of the cliff face is filled with ancient statues and monoliths, relics from the long-lost empire of Thassilon. One such ruin is the mysterious hexagonal city of Kaer Maga, which sits atop the edge of the Rise at the falls created as the Yondabakari River plummets to the land below.
Standing atop the Storval Rise, the cliff-top city of Kaer Maga (pronounced kare MAH-gah)is built inside the ruins of an ancient fortress: a six-sided ring of 80-foot-high seamless stone, stretching more than a half mile in diameter and topped with towers of every shape and design. Also known as the Asylum Stone, Kaer Maga has served as a refuge for exiles, misfits, and ne'er-do-wells fleeing persecution and prosecution for thousands of years, and is known throughout Golarion as a place where anyone can fit in, and where anything can be bought and sold.
Though an anarchic "civilization", a loose consortium of groups, gangs, and families rule the people of Kaer Maga. The entire city is a melting pot of citizens from all cultures, such as the Ardoc family of Bis, the Brothers of the Seal, who are ready to kill each other over whether or not they should open the great portal they guard somewhere deep in the caverns beneath, the gently whistling Sweet-talkers of Tian, with their lips sewn shut to keep them from uttering the true name of their god, the troll seers who predict the future by casting divinations with their own intestines, and finally the bloatmages, with the leeches that keep them alive attached to their bulging bodies.
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It’s been nearly a month since Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng, a decrepit yet well-respected Pathfinder, instructed you to meet him dockside in Absalom.
On arrival, Dreng herded you on to a Korvosa-bound merchant vessel and gave you a series of quick, stern instructions. “One of my good friends, amerchant in the Varisian outcast’s haven known as Kaer Maga, sent me a very strange letter, which I need you to investigate. The merchant—his name is Horis Collgardie—tells me that the residents of Kaer Maga are very upset about the Society’s plan to build a lodge in their city and even further upset that the agents we sent are making trouble, stirring up the delicate balance of power that exists in the so-called City of Strangers. The trouble is, not the Decemvirate or any venture-captain I can find gave the okay to build a lodge there. We know it would be folly to do so—at least right now—and so this idea that Collgardie has that the Society is there and doing just that is worrisome". Pausing to gather his thoughts, he reads your faces for a reaction.
"In a few weeks time, you’ll be in Korvosa. From there, book passage on a river ship for Harse, then travel overland to the road’s end at the cliffs below Kaer Maga—the so-called Twisted Door. There you must pay the Duskwardens to escort you through the Halflight Path to reach Kaer Maga. Once inside the city, find Collgardie and find out what he’s talking about. If there are Pathfinders in the city founding a lodge, tell them I order them to stop at once. If this is some kind of ruse, get to the bottom of it and do what you can to keep our Society’s good name in Kaer Maga—we may not be completely welcome there, but neither are we unwelcome. Let’s keep it that way. Any questions?”
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"Could this be the Aspis Consortium out to ruin us somewhere to get a better footing?"
”Find out if the story has any merit first, and if you find it does, then tread carefully whilst you find out who or what they truly are then put a stop to them Warn them off, tell them it is a bad idea, but don’t go stomping about the place like it was a pharaoh’s tomb. Be cautious, be careful, and be courteous—even if the locals make fun of you for doing so. Oh, and the locals are likely not what you expect—you’ll see when you get there.”
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"That's where the delicate political balance may have worked the other way; if these people have led people to believe they are part of the Society then that affords some protection, the various groups would be of the belief that taking open action against them might warrant a reprisal from us, and this means taking some losses...which leaves them in a precarious position with their rivals. They might not be able to afford to strike yet over a small issue - they'd expect a little larceny here and there, the odd mouse stealing some cheese, but eventually enough becomes enough. If that happens, they might collectively decide that Pathfinders are a problem to be stopped by committee, and then we'd have a problem if we decided to settle there. Best we nip it in the bud."