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The invitation delivered last night was remarkably simple,especially iven the importance of the occasion: Start where it ll began. Meet us at the Pig’s Paunch one hour before dawn.
The Pig’s Paunch is a run-down building with a faded sign f a large pig standing on its hind legs, arms folded above a corpulent belly. Inside, the air is thick with the scents of human sweat, stale tobacco, and leftover food. In the center of the room, surrounded by inebriates sleeping off their revelries, a familiar elven man stands high upon top of a large round table. Welcome! Welcome, my students! Please, have a seat! With that, Kreighton Shaine, the Pathfinder Society’s Master of Scrolls, nimbly drops down to sit cross-legged on the table before looking about the tavern with a sense of reverent wonder. Can you believe it? It all started here years ago—well, over four hundred of them at least. Under this very roof the Pathfinder Society was born.
But today! Today you will begin your Confirmation! Master Farabellus, Master Zey, and I all agree you each have shown your worth and dedication to the Society, so there’s no better time to see if you can handle becoming full field operatives. Allow me to introduce you to Janira Gavix, he says as he motions for an excitable halfling woman to approach. She wears a large backpack and carries all manner of tools, pouches, and scroll cases around her waist. Shaine continues, saying, Janira here will be going with you on your Confirmation. She was one of my brightest pupils and will no doubt be an invaluable resource on your journey, for she discovered the caves you are about to explore during her own Confirmation.
Janira speaks up in an enthusiastic and cheerful voice, Greetings, aspiring Pathfinders! Six months ago, while I was mapping cave entrances in the foothills of the Kortos Mounts, I witnessed a lone gillman entering a concealed cave. I thought little of it at the time, but I saw another one enter the cave again a month later as my Confirmation stretched on. A few days later, after I completed my assigned task, I entered the cave system, but was unable to find the gillmen.
Master Shaine hops to his feet. Initiates, for your Confirmation, you will travel to these caves to explore and document its many passages. Additionally, and most importantly, you are to learn what the gillmen are up to in there. Oh, and you need to come back alive as well. With these parting words, the Master of Scrolls jumps off the table and strolls out of the building while humming to himself.
At the center of the Isle of Kortos stand the Kortos Mounts, the points on the island.
Entire tribes of centaurs, harpies, and minotaurs constantly vie for territory up and around the Mounts, with harpies being the most common at higher altitudes and centaurs controlling the lower slopes and foothills.
Also known as the Low Azlanti, the gillmen are
an amphibious humanoid race believed to be the last descendants of the ancient Azlanti people.
During Earthfall, the Starstone struck Golarion and destroyed the human empires of Thassilon and Azlant. It is said that gillmen’s ancestors survived the cataclysmic event because they received the blessing of an aquatic entity that allowed them to breath underwater.
Most scholars believe the terrifying aboleths were responsible for the gillmen’s transformation. Any alliance between them appears to have fallen apart over the millennia, however, and the gillmen are now an independent people.
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A muscular half-orc nods in understanding. Unlike others of his kind, he is a few inches under six feet in height, more compact but also more agile. He carries himself with a noble demeanor.
The half-orc bears the arms and armor of Tien, with a slightly-curved, masterfully crafted katana at his side.
Politely, he responds to Janira, granting her his utmost respect. "Rest assured that we will complete this task to your satisfaction," he replies. "However, not being from this land, I do not know much of the area or history. Should any of that information prove critical, please make it known to me."
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Ace has a seat at the table that the elf was seated at and grin as he leans back in his chair and listens quietly.
After the halfling starts talking he can't help but turn the grin to a smirk, then when the pair finishes speaking, the young gambler scratches his chin as if he is thinking for a moment.
"So ya wantin' Ace and company ta head ta the center o' the center of the world...and find some creatures from the sea...an' see what their about, yes?" the thick Varisian accent coming out as he talks and he begins to shuffle a very fancy deck of Harrow cards idly.
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A regal-looking human male, with sharp, aquiline features, and a handlebar mustache, strides into the room. Clad in a suit of armor crafted from steel plates, he incongruously wears a small bowler hat.
"Greetings, one and all. I am the Reverend Mudgett, loyal follower of Abadar."
The man is clearly somewhat bemused by Kreighton Shane's presentation, sighing as the Elf wanders out.
"Sad to say, that it entirely in keeping with what I have heard of him..."
He then turns to the assembled adventurers.
"Tell me, what can we expect of one another? I have some skill with the morningstar in combat, but I am also good with words and languages, know a thing or two about comparative religion, and I am good at spotting things unnoticed by most..."
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"While fighting is not exactly my forte, I have some skill with Abadar's sacred weapon, the crossbow." Constantine pats the ornate crossbow at his belt. "I can also bestow an array of divine blessings upon our group, heal wounds, and am a very knowledgeable and perceptive fellow, if I say so myself."
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"Mistress Janira...could you tell us any o' tha details ya might be able ta fill us in on? Such as what to expect in the mountains...why the Pathfinders think we might find something o' importance right under their noses...and what sort o' worries we might have? Roughin' it ain't exactly my cup o' wine, and I don' think takin' a caravan is what we are lookin' ta do..."
Ace, the Pathfinders don´t expect you to find something of great importance, but to prove your value after three years training in the lodge.
On to the details of the mission at hand, Janira says with an eager grin. After reviewing my mission reports personally, Master Shaine believes it is no coincidence that each time they entered the caves it was during a full moon, so it is also no coincidence that you have been called here now, just a day before the moon is full again. We both believe that tomorrow night is our best chance to find out why these caves are important and what exactly the gillmen are doing in there.
The caves we’ll be travelling to lie under the base of the Kortos Mounts. We’ll need to spend every minute of daylight possible to reach the caves by foot, crossing over the Cairnlands, taking the paths to Diobel, and finally making our way through the wilderness. With any luck we won’t run into any of the local inhabitants. Once in the caves, we’ll need to work together to explore and determine whether any gillman are present or have been recently. Keep an eye out for any other clues that might hint at the caves’ significance, too.
I don´t expect any problems, at least not anything i nsurmountable. I´ve been in the region for three months to pass my own confirmation, and I´m here talking with you. Nevertheless we should go prepared, here´s what I carry to be prepared. Saying that, Janira opens her backpack and start putting is content over the table.
As she puts everything on the table, she describes its uses t you, I have two potions of cure light wounds, so if I fall unconscious you can cure me, a potion of barkskin, and a wand of cure light wounds to use in anyone who need it. A potion of feather step and potion of vanish because sometimetimes exploration is dangerous, scroll of entangle, scroll of gust of wind, scrolls of mage armor, identify, obscuring mist. Wand of burning hands, acid, alchemist’s fire, holy water, to be prepared against swarms and undeads. Smokestick, tanglefoot bags and a thunderstone because always are fun to use. Sunroods to be able to see, antitoxin in case I´m poisoned. An of course, my armor, a hand to hand weapon, my whip, and a distance weapon, my light crossbow.
Janira gives you some time to talk between you before leading you out of Absalom to the Cairnlands.
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Herman pinches the bridge of his nose, and sighs.
"If it is so urgent that we get there by tomorrow night, necessitating force-marching through the wilderness, why wasn't a party sent out yesterday, so that there would be plenty of time to make the journey? *Sigh* let me guess; Master Shane left things until the last minute again..."
Nevertheless, he nods in appreciation as Janira lays out her collection.
"That is a useful kit you have there. I am afraid that mine is paltry in comparison, but then again, I am only just starting out..."
Herman then shows off a finely-crafted backpack, containing a crowbar, 100' of rope and a grappling hook, some pitons, and a 10' pole, whilst from a belt pouch he produces flint and steel, a whetstone, and some chalk.
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Continuing to shuffle his cards, he looks to each of the other and gives them a nod. "Mornin', seems we abouts ta head out inta tha wild. Everyone can just call me Ace. I ain't much for fightin', but those who try and fight me...they tend ta end up down on their luck. Desna seems ta favor the charming," he says with a wink. Then with a deft movement, he kicks his backpack opened so that the few things inside can be seen. A sunrod, a few days rations, a couple of flasks of alchemist fire and acid. From the looks of things, he has no weapons, at all.
The first day going throught the Cairnlands go uneventuful, Janira uses the travel time to instructs you a little about the Cairnlands geography. ... That red ruins you can see far there, is the Redbout of Karamoss, place of one of the thoughtests fights for Absalom, and today a Pathfinder training ground! Oh, and there is the fortress where one of my friends was taked captive for a few hours! She looks excited with every piece of information she tells you, as if all and everything she talks aboaut is the most interesting in the world.
As the party progresses deeper into the forest, the trees towering overhead begin to shield most of what remains of the day’s sun and the vegetation beneath grows denser. Janira pauses a moment and pulls out an intricate silver compass emblazoned with the Pathfinder Society logo: the Glyph of the Open Road. I received this wayfinder when I successfully completed my Confirmation. Should we be successful on our journey, you will get your own as well. She flips open the device and holds it in front of her; the initials J. L. are engraved into the inside of the device’s lid. After studying the compass inside for a moment, she remarks, We’re on the right path. We need to keep heading northwest past those large rocks up ahead.
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As they are walking through the trees, Ace picks up a large staff, using a dagger that no one saw him carrying to make sure it is properly cleaned, he eventually begins walking with the staff to help balance and add some leisure to the otherwise quick march. "Mistress Janira, ya seem ta know a good deal about everythin'...Seems ya jumped inta them books a good bit more than most I have met..."
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Korvalis maintains a thin smile as he listens to Janira go on about this and that.
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Well, Ace, I always been interested in learning and the lodge has... She suddenly stops talking, an looks in front of her and to the back.
Look!, wolves! They look hungry and are trying to flank us!
Combat round 1
Bold can act
Korvalis
Janira
Muirdarcaien
Herman
Ace
Constantine
Wolves
Helm
With his head crushed, and a bolt in his flank, one of the wolves falls to the ground quickly.
Combat round 1
Bold can act
Janira
Muirdarcaien
Herman
Korvalis
Ace
Constantine
Wolves
Helm
The wolf aproaches Muirdarcaien, who tries to hit him with his scythe failen. Then, the wolf bites Muirdarcaien in a leg, making him fall to the ground.
Combat round 1
Janira
Muirdarcaien
Herman
Constantine
Wolves
Korvalis [ooc]Currently delaying
Ace
Helm
The wolfs fortune looks to have gone away, specially when Korvalis and Helm go to his side to smash and slask it until it stops moving.
That was a great fight! You know how to fight as a group, they not have even a chance. Only Muird has been hurt, but we can fix it quickly. Says Janira as he approachs him and cast a spell curing him completly.
After curing Muirdcarien, Janira urges all of you to pack quickly so you can reach the cave before the night. The travel throught the wilderness is difficult due to the overgrown plants, fallen trees blocking paths and similar natural problems.
Muirdarcaien, used to depend of his own ability on the wilderness, can find a shorcut to the destination.
The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines, Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. Then, she pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. This is where I saw the gillmen enter.[b]
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, [b]Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us! As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond yours capabilities, Janira screams, A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag, she continues, pulling off her backpack, [b]and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO![b] She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
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Helm appears torn between his loyalty to his commanding officers and his concern for Janira's safety.
His katana rings from its scabbard.
"Janira!" he yells. "If you command me to enter the cavern, I will do so...but I believe we can defeat this beast if we work together! Do not take a foolish action!"
Helm awaits at the entry to the cave, either to engage the beast or, if Janira commands it, to be the rear guard to enter the cave.