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Rhydderch borrows the rope from Harboth's pack and secures the twitching fighter...offering a nod of thanks to Rachele for the deft use of her magic.
He crouches down beside Harboth to stabilize him. (Sacred Touch) and calls upon Sarenrae for aid.
Not satisfied with the results, he does so again.
With that Rhydderch rises and surveys the scene before speaking with to his companions. "This day has been taxing my friends, and I fear I have called upon Sarenrae too often today. I must rest now and thank the goddess for the help she has given us so that she may continue to bless us tomorrow. I fear I will be of little use unless I am able to do so."
"Should you choose to continue on without me...I wish you well. Otherwise I hope to see you tomorrow."
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Marisan rushes with Kyle over to Harboth's side and attempts to assist him in stabilizing the ranger.
She then, with the group, looks over the bodies and collects the valuables. Eventually, she offers somewhat sheepishly, "Sorry I wasn't very effective there. I won't let you all down next time." She adds to Rhydderch's comments. "I too could use rest."
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With the guy tied up, Kyle looks at the party, "Do you guys want to wait until tomorrow to use these potions? I will heal the party after we rest. I say we split them between myself and Rhydderch. I will use them during combat when needed and Rhydderch can have a couple in case I fall."
"Since you like to tank Harboth, I recommend you wear this Half Plate," Kyle says as he takes the armor off the lady. He checks the lady's condition while doing so.
After handing the armor to Harboth, he goes to check out the condition of the fallen men (1 and 3?) respectively.
If any of them are alive and bleeding, he will take 10 to stabilize them starting with the worst person off first.
"I'm not wasting a potion on these criminals, we'll question this one," he points to man2, "and turn the others into the city watch. We can question the two monks before we hand them over too, but this lady who was giving demands. What do we do with her? I don't want to hand her over until we can question her first."
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Elwyn collects himself after the series of battles. He eyes the room, making sure that nothing else is of interest, keeping an eye out for a special amulet or brace or something worn by any of their assailants.
He calls out to the group, "Can someone see if there are any other magical auras at work here, anything else that might be of interest?"
"We need to find out who is behind these kidnappings, maybe we can get something out of these brutes, maybe we need to question the captives further. And we do need to get them to safety."
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Kyle looks at their fallen foes. With the exception of the man who was color sprayed, and the woman, most foes are too hurt to revive without healing magic. The color sprayed foe slowly wakes up from his state of doze, and the woman can be woken with some help (Heal check DC 12)
In response to Kyle's questioning, the men indicate that that work for Luscilia, the woman you knocked out earlier. They refer to her as the 'boss.' These men were hired months ago by Luscilia to help her man the Prancing Prince when it set sail for Cheliax. The galleon with the slaves was to have sailed in the morning, but that clearly will not happen. They are part of Nature's Cataclysm.
No magic, outside of the "Leet Loot" mentioned at the end of combat, is detected. Elwyn, the party has walked through all parts of the boats and decks, though time for a complete search as not been invested. However, you are fairly certain that aside from the men you saw on the lowest deck (which are still there, bound...read earlier postings for more details), there were no others on board.
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Elwyn heads back down below deck to where the captives are and pays particular interest to the young nephew of the Cassomir Governor. He looks him over trying to see if he is wearing any amulet or brace. He also begins to question him, "Listen, its time to come clean, it will go over easier for you in the end if you let me know what's really going on here."
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Harboth rises slowly from the deck.
Plbmmh? Gnrrrgh. How 'bout them Orioles?
As he staggers to his feet, Harboth shakes his head and slowly pulls himself together.
Thanks, friends.
He crunches his face into an awkward expression at the word "tank," but takes a hold of the armor and looks it over.
Thanks, Kyle. This looks helpful, but I don't know that I can wear armor this heavy and still keep track of what I'm doing. I'll take it with us, and maybe we can sell it in town.
He then sets off on a thorough search of the boat, methodically working from one end of the deck to the other, knocking things over, emptying vases, picking up any movable objects, and generally searching for any other clues or decent-looking lewtz.
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Marisan moves over to Luscilia and attempts to revive her.
Marisan then questions her, standing above the bound woman but not brandishing a weapon at this point. "Tell us about your god - this Groetus - and Nature's Cataclysm. And what was to happen when you made port in Cheliax? We'd like to be able to tell the guard that you were cooperative."
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Elwyn sees no amulet. Orfeo looks at the rogue. "Eh? What business do I have with you? I don't believe I have none! He then sees the sorceress. Eh, you're a pretty thing, aren't ya? Perhaps we could go out together, pretty!
Harboth, in looking through the ship and the bodies, you find a Wayfinder on one of the half orc monks. It has Cestis' name engraved on the side.
Marisan wakes up the woman. . She immediately attempts to break free of her bonds, but to no avail. She looks up at the druid, scowling. Yer all heart, ain't ya. I can handle myself without your benign acts of kindess, her voice laced with sarcasm. She hears and responds to Kyle. Pft. One of the clerics of da gods, I see. Don't ya care about the forest? I guess not. You don't care about the sacrifices we make.
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"Just because I'm not a member of 'Nature's Cataclysm' and I follow Sarenrae, doesn't make me an enemy of the forest," Kyle points out. "Not everyone outside of your group agrees with the 'Treaty of the Wildwood.' I prefer the forest to remain wild and unharmed. I have no use for ships to roam the sea. Tell me what your plans are and what it is you gain by taking people as slaves. Are you looking for something specific? There might be a peaceful resolution."
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Fine, she says, I'll tell you what I know... if only to get some peace about the whole thing. Twelve years ago, a cleric of Groetus and member of one of Taldor’s more dramatically fallen families, Dalirio Teppish, decided he’d had enough of Taldor and would do all within his and his patron deity’s power to ensure the total destruction of his native homeland. The Teppish family once stood as the right hand of the Grand Prince, a family of wealth, power, and absurdly large holdings throughout northern Taldor. A Teppish once sat in the governor’s seat in Cassomir Prefecture. A Teppish once led thousands in battle against the Qadirans during the Grand Campaign. A Teppish negotiated the Treaty of the Wildwood, guaranteeing Taldor a renewable source of druid-protected blackwood trees that would forever supply the empire with the ships built in Cassomir’s famous Imperial Naval Shipyards.
She coughs and continues. The Teppish family’s power came to a close nearly 50 years ago when a series of rival houses launched attacks on their holdings and wealth, and even went so far as to assassinate several of the Teppish family patriarchs. In just a few short years the mighty Teppish were reduced to laughing stocks in the Opparan social scene and were left with few possessions, even less gold, and no power at all. So the Teppish family did what any self-respecting Taldan family does when left destitute: they turned to a life of organized crime.
She frowns, Their crimes were crimes against the state. They robbed treasury caravans, ambushed military convoys, even traveled deep into the Verduran Forest and sabotaged druid-guided logging operations. Slowly and methodically, they sought to destroy Taldor from within—a destructive ideal that soon caught the attention of Groetus, the God of End Times. Groetus sent his cultists to infiltrate the Teppish family and just over a generation later, their family has become one of the more ambitious Groetus cults in the western Inner Sea.
Dalirio Teppish was raised in this environment of seething hatred toward the homeland, and by the time he’d reached adulthood, Dalirio had dedicated his life to Groetus, training as a cleric and slowly concocting a plan to start the first in a series of catastrophes that would eventually bring hated Taldor to its knees. His plan was simple: disrupt all ship construction in the Imperial Naval Shipyards and Taldor would cease to be a power in the west. Everyone knows the Taldan Phalanx is under-funded, that the nation’s infrastructure is falling apart, and that the corruption of Taldor’s Bearded class is pushing the empire toward ever-increasing acts of frivolity and excess. If it weren’t for the power of Taldor’s Navy, the empire would long ago have ceased to exist. Dalirio wanted to help make this happen.
She continues, The vengeful cleric spent years recruiting a small cult of Groetus followers from the underprivileged of Taldor, not telling them the full extent of his plans but offering a huge reward for obedience and loyalty. He approached us, a local circle of druids known simply as Nature’s Cataclysm . We hated the druids of the Wildwood Lodge for giving up so much of the Verduran Forest to the empire, and enlisted their help. The guy even traveled deep beneath Cassomir, wandering Cassomir’s Locker and then the Darklands before finding the derros in Corgunbier, their city deep beneath northern Taldor, and plying them with thousands in gold before convincing them to step up their kidnapping in Cassomir to create further confusion and sow chaos. The derros agreed for their own reasons, and suddenly Dalirio found himself leading a sizeable band of miscreants with mayhem on their mind. Together they adopted the moniker of the druids, calling themselves the Cult of Nature’s Cataclysm.
While wandering the Darklands, Dalirio received a dream from Groetus, telling him to seek a specific cavern to find the weapon that would help him succeed. Upon waking, Dalirio immediately followed his patron’s guidance and found a bizarre grotto filled with a brackish lake, dozens of decayed, staring faces floating just above the waterline. In the center of the lake was a small stone outcropping, upon which rested a solid gold, gem-encrusted amulet. Dalirio swam out to the stone, feeling dozens of skeletal hands lightly grasping at his skin as he went, and took the amulet from its perch. Once he touched the amulet, the faces on the lake awakened, their eyes bursting with blue light. Groetus had granted Dalirio control of several huecuva, fallen clerics of Groetus that the God of End Times had left here as punishment. Dalirio had the final piece of his plan—undead servants who would obey him unquestionably and prove to his followers that they truly had the blessings of Groetus himself.
I and my druids agreed to this because by sowing this chaos, we hoped to slow or even stop the growth of Taldor's infringement on our forest. So, by his prompting, we began nighttime kidnappings a few months ago. Cassomir had always had some trouble with kidnappings, but this was different—only carpenters, shipwrights, and guards from the Imperial Naval Shipyards were going missing, and we were doing so at a rate of one or two a night. The Cassomir authorities tried to keep it quiet, but when ship production missed a launch deadline for the first time in a decade, the Grand Prince himself demanded action. Martial law was instituted, the shipyards were guarded heavily at night, and the streets were patrolled by an increased presence of the constabulary. These changes did nothing, as we had the blessing of the forest on our side, and the kidnappings continued.
She finishes, I guess we got brash—a few days we kidnapped an entire group of citizens who were gathered for a secret auction of Taldan artifacts just after sunset in the shipyards. I guess that drew the Pathfinder Society's ire. Pft.
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Marisan nods at the druid's story. "Our mission is to rescue a Pathfinder agent that was kidnapped at that auction. We have found some of those taken that night, but not him. Where have the rest been taken?"
She pauses, then adds, "I fear, however, that your alliance with this cult might be counter-productive to your own goals. Should they succeed in destroying Taldor, whatever swoops in to seize power could be even more aggressive in destroying or tainting the Verduran forest."
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"Well said, Marisan. Swapping one regime for another, or for anarchy hardly seems a solution. Ah, the ways of Taldor, I'll never understand."
Elwyn looks to the woman and acknowledges her assistance, "While your methods may not meet with our approval, we are sympathetic to your plight."
He announces to the group, "We must also find this Dalirio and separate him from his source of power, the Society would be grateful for retrieving such an artifact."
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Harboth nods at Elwyn and Rachele, and gives a slightly pained smile.
Ah, it's nuthin I can't handle, especially with the support of our new traveling buddies.
He walks toward Marisan with the wayfinder in hand.
This belongs to the Pathfinder we are looking for. Maybe it will jog this cultist's memory. If not, I'm happy to ask her a bit more...strongly.
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Maybe you're right. she says to the Marisan. You can find them in cooper warehouse, on the south side of the Imperial Naval Shipyards. Look for a trap door in the main office that leads to a hidden basement where they meet and gather supplies. I believe you will find your friend there. She nods her head at the wayfinder.
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Harboth stares at Kyle as though trying to hear a telepathic message.
I'd say we turn these bums over to the authorities and release the - wait, do we need to take any of these prisoners back to the Lodge?
At any rate, maybe we should take a brief rest after that. There could be more goons at that warehouse, and if we have time to get to full strength we should.
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"Thank you for the information." She starts to turn away from Luscilia, then looks back at the druid. "I do sympathize with your anger at the forest's treatment. Maybe there are other, more balanced ways to protect her."
She then returns to the group. "It sounds like we have some time to rest, as Rhydderch and Harboth have suggested. But, yes, I think we have some deliveries to make first. I'd ask we relay to the authorities that she," Marisan points at Luscilia "eventually was cooperative, helpful even."
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"If we agree that we have the time, I'd favor that we address what to do with the hostages, regroup and make an assault on the warehouse at an optimal time. Hopefully they don't get word of our work here and are tipped off. Should we move the ship somehow? Was it supposed to have left? I'm not advocating that, but are there measures we should take to maintain our element of surprise"
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"I agree, we should see that our hostages are turned into the authorities first. I will also vouch for Luscilla's helpful cooperation, " Kyle states. "I don't see any way of hiding this ship. And I don't suggest we go any further until we've rested. We'll just have to pray that we can get there early enough before they have a chance to react. Kyle says a prayer under his breath. "Maybe we can get away with a brief rest. I can cure anyone feeling fatigued."
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Marisan checks the hostages to see if there is anyone who cannot get home, or at least somewhere safe, on his or her own. If so, she asks if someone else in the group can help her accompany them to a safe location nearby