Irel brings you to a huge store room overflowing with supplies. Take all you need.
"Since we don't know where we're going it's difficult to determine what we will need. Could you give us some details?"
Marrant shrugs. "Unless there is some special equipment required I don't need anything but what I have. Someone else can have my share if they need it."
Arkavus manages to fish out a very sturdy looking backpack out of storage.
"This feels sturdier than my own old backpack. I guess I could part with that old thing."
You will be traveling mostly in forests, however your destination is in a deep cavern.
Caladral takes 5 days of trail rations, a bedroll, a tent, a backpack, and a waterskin
Arkavus will take a bandolier as well and an accurate map of the area if that is present.
Narciso fills up his empty wineskin from a bottle of fine wine and grabs two more bottles of the same vintage to take along. He also takes 10 vials of alchemist's kindness, 50 feet of silk rope, and 2 cheap packs of playing cards.
Ren chooses herself a shortbow along with twenty arrows, a silk rope, a waterskin filled with water, a belt pouch, five trail rations, and three smokesticks and vials of alchemist's fire, as well as two daggers. After a bit of thinking, she also takes a heatstone and a compass.
the PCs have one day on board before they land, If you have any pressing matters post them before 12:00 EST tomorrow.
The ship lands in a small run down port around noon the next day. At the far edge of town is a rising plume of smoke.
Torge go with them and check it out, we will be with you shortly.
A burly man with a hammer on is back leads you towards the smoke. Upon getting there you see a burning church and a crowd of people watching it from outside.
"Let's form a bucket brigade people. We don't want the fire to spread, do we"
Narciso runs up to the burning church and starts casting Create Water at the smaller flames to prevent them from spreading.
"Is there anyone still inside?"
No everyone got out. Who was that man?
"What man do you speak of?"
Arkavus helps with the bucket brigade as well, else he'll follow Narciso's example of Creating Water to clear up the smaller flames.
Caladral runs up and joins the brigade.
Ren too takes her place in the brigade, trying to catch a glimpse of the burning church while she passes the buckets forward.
Ren has no idea who the church is for.
Right before the church caught I saw a man, he is gone now.
"Could you describe this man?"
I only caught a glimpse of him. He was tall and was wearing a dark cloak and a white mask.
"Is he the one responsible for this fire? Do you know what direction he was headed?"
"Wearing a dark cloak in this heat? Well, he's definitely deranged, that's for sure."
"I think we have to save a church now, before we chase after mysterious men, don't you think?"
The fire has finally been extinguished but the church will need a good bit of work.
I don't know where he went, he just disappeared.
"When you say 'disappeared' do you mean he blinked out or that you lost sight of him? If he was walking away, did you see which way was he going?"
"Well he can't have gone far yet. I have some small skill at tracking. Comes in handy in my line of work. Let's see if I can pick up a trail"
he walked right back into the church and never came out.
Narciso you find no foot prints leading anywhere except those of the villagers.
"So he was a suicide arsonist? I wonder why a man would do such a thing, being burned hurts like hell. Perhaps there is a hiding place or secret tunnel out of the church?"
"He waked into the church?" Marrant asks nonplussed. "That, I did not expect" Is she telling the truth?
(regardless of the outcome of the sense motive) Murrant will walk to the church entrance and look around
"Narciso, did you want to try tracking in here?"
I don't know of any secret tunnels, but I guess if I did they wouldn't be very secret.
Marrant is fairly certain she is telling the truth, or at least thinks she is.
"It's worth a shot Marrant."
Narciso walks into the burnt out husk of the church and starts looking for tracks, or for any hidden doors that the man could have used to hide or escape.
Caladral follows the rest of the party into the church and has a look around.
Arkavus looks around the burnt church, seeing almost nothing more than ashes and blackened walls.
Drake pops his head out from under Arkavus's collar and looks around and sniffs the air.
Shortly after Arkavus senses that he saw something, after that Drake climbed off of his master and chitters across the floor to the source of light.
Ren follows the others to the church, though she does so slightly unwillingly. "Let's try to hurry, guys. I'd rather not find out the hard way if the fire has considerably weakened the structure of this building."
"Damn it! Got ash in my eye..."
Caladral walks over to the altar and crouches down, brushing away debris. "Hey guys, there is a trap door here!"
"Well that would explain where our mysterious masked mad got to. I wonder why we haven't seen any officials from the church? Perhaps this blaze was set to cover up a crime?"
Leaving Caladral to work on the concealed door, Marrant will poke around.
"Ah, the old trap door under the altar design. My church used something like this to hide the entrance to the ceremonial mead cellar. Did anyone even bother checking what sort of church this was? For all I know we just saved a temple of Asmodeus and the man we're chasing is a paladin."
Arkavus looks on as they find the trap door, looking at the rest of the building before one of them goes in.
Ren's comment made sense to him, it had him worried for a moment.
He checks the foundations for anything that seems to indicate the rest might way.
"You do bring up a good point Narciso, we have no idea as of yet as we haven't had the time to talk to the villagers."
"Churches normally have holy symbols. This one doesn't. I've got a bad feeling about this..."
Marrant shouts out to the crowd, "What deity is this church dedicated to?"
A man steps forward. Well, umm... An obsidian spearhead pierces the man's throat from behind and he falls to the ground, revealing a tall figure in a dark hooded robe and white mask. He rips the spear from the man's neck. Welcome, we've been expecting you.