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Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng’s pinched face is hard to see from behind the stack of books that divide the front of his office from the space behind his desk. A shockingly old man with white hair and slightly milky eyes, he is surprised by the appearance of outsiders in his office, and looks up, half startled and half relieved. “Thank you for coming on such short notice. I’d been meaning to give this assignment to you at a later date, and with less pressing time constraints, but it seems that time has conspired against us.” Dreng mumbles to himself as he passes out a stack of notes and maps from behind the wall of books.
“These notes are from a recent Chronicle — it contains some interesting finds, but one of them is now the utmost priority to the Society.” Dreng lightly taps a bony finger on a map, on which can be seen a section of Absalom with a small corner townhouse circled in deep red.
“This townhouse is a façade for an underground vault. The vault belonged to an old noble family of Absalom that was expelled a decade ago — the Decklands. The family was forced out when their Patriarch — a man known as Orias — was discovered to have written documents detailing the city’s defenses, documents he intended to hand over to hostile forces loyal to Cheliax. The Chronicle indicates that a copy of these documents exist within the vault. A Pathfinder looking into the Decklands and their Chronicle references in Cheliax was attacked and killed ten days ago. The thugs made off with a copy of his notes — fortunately, he’d already sent us another. We have reason to believe it was the work of the Decklands’ oldest child, a young woman named Celeena, and she’s the reason this assignment is now urgent. The fact that Celeena and her forces were willing to kill a Pathfinder for this Information shows how desperate they are to retrieve the documents. If she were able to get these documents and return them to Cheliax, it would undermine the defenses of the whole city, as well as cause the Society undue headaches. Find Celeena, find the documents in her vault, and prevent this Situation from turning into one big mess for the Society.”
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Vrald Sehir, a Taldorian knight, steps forward and bows stifly from his waist. As he does so, the armour he wears slides around, clanking slightly.
"Vile murder! I will be happy to take on this mission Captain. Vrald Sehir at your service!
He clanks back to his seat.
"Is there any more you can tell us of the target? I assume the vault is expected to be unoccupied? What of the townhouse itself?"
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Before you you see a twitchy halfling wearing some light armor who is accompanied by a feral looking creature who seems to be a mix between a wolf, a tiger but with a long neck and scales over his body.
The halfling introduces himself softly a soft and high voice:
"Greetings everyone. My name is Tywin. And this is my associate...."
The creature that accompanies Tywin interrupts him by slapping him across the face. You are surprised when he starts to speak in a booming voice "SILENCE WHELP! I can introduce myself just fine. Greetings mortals. You may call me Graxus for my real name would twist your tongues in a knot.
NOW! Let us find this Celeena. Where do you suggest we start looking fleshling?"
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“The agents in Cheliax report that Celeena hired mercenaries from the Devil’s Claw Company, a mercenary organization of failed Hellknights. They are protecting both, the townhouse and the vault. There’s not much that can be said about the vault itself. It was reportedly used to store a portion of the family’s wealth and was ingeniously trapped when the Decklands fled Absalom. The family archives, where the documents should be stored, should be right next to the family crypt in the lower levels. Celeena is for sure already in the archives looking for the documents.” Drandle Dreng answers to the questions.
The door opens wide, and a tall, imposing figure stands in the doorway. the man dressed in a billowing green cloak walks in, a small white wolf at at his heels. He says " My name is Fidelias, and I overheard the mission from outside. Am I too late to join in the endeavor? With a sorcerer that powerful, it be foolish to send too few in. I assure you that I can be useful."
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A muscular and attractive Kellid woman of about twenty is standing in the room with the other Pathfinders. She wears a padded armor under a fur-trimmed hide tunic along with some bone and ivory jewellery. A greataxe and a spear are strapped to her back while a heavy mace hangs at her belt.
"I suppose you can join," she says to Fidelias, "there is strengh in numbers after all." She then turns to the other Pathfinders. "Does anyone know how to disarm traps? It could be useful when we will be in the vault."
Fidelias mutters " My skills lie elsewhere. But safe to say, I'll likely see a trap long before it springs." His wolf starts wandering around the office, scoping out the other adventurers. " I'm prepared to heal you, with my magic, but what have you prepared, Tywin?"
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"Failed Hellknights? I tend to agree with you Graxus."
It obviously pains the knight somewhat to have to agree with the highly disagreeable creature.
"We do need some type of tactic for managing traps. Surely the vault will be full of them. I'm not sure that sending Tywin in will be a...sustainable method for bypassing them."
He nods to Belka "I have devoted myself to skill at arms, rather than the location and removal of traps. It may be that some other methods may be required. Perhaps if we acquire some balls, we may roll them down corridors or such and hope they spring the traps?"
He doesn't look overly hopeful.
" Traps are made to go off only when needed. If they could be bypassed that easily, there would be no point to them. While we can try to set them off by other means, our best bet is to find them early, and have someone who can avoid, or block the effect do so. He sighs and remarks, " It's more luck than anything else that we get past the traps. All we can do is hope there won't be too many, or that we can avoid the ones there.
I doubt they can get all of us with traps."
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A tall man, wearing a polished breastplate with symbols of Iomedae on it, enters the room. He could just pass for a handsome human if not for the golden hair and eyes, which his hood can't completely hide.
"I'm sorry for the delay, my fellow Pathfinders. My name is Seinto, knight and cleric of Iomedae. I've been already informed with the mission, and you can count with my sword and my faith to accomplish it."
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Vrald steps forward and grasps Seinto's arm in a warriors handshake.
"Pleased to meet you Seinto. I am Vrald Sehir, Knight of Taldor."
He looks around the room. "We are almost all here by the looks of it. From the sound of it, there may be some opposition, and some traps. While I don't normally carry rope through the city, if we are heading into some type of vault, unusual equipment may come in handy."
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"This all sounds good then," a pile of books in the corner says. Stepping out from behind them is a short creature with hair as white as the Venture-Captain's and a book for a face. The book snaps shut to reveal a ruddy-faced gnome with a face covered in tattoos. "Let us draw back this veil then, shall we. I am Gilfroy, and it is a pleasure to meet all of you, except you," he adds, pointing at Graxus, "because you are rude."
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Sitting on the corner of a quiet street, the red brick Deckland townhouse melds in with the middle class buildings in this portion of Absalom. A small, flickering candle can be seen through a barred window on the building’s west side and a single door can be seen on the building’s south face.
There are two potential methods you can use to enter the townhouse: either through the main door or through the barred window.
Fidelias's ring flashes with a blue light, and he takes a long look at it and sighs. " It appears that I must go, and make a long journey. my brother awaits. Do not follow me. This is my journey alone." He says, and departs, calling his wolf, leaving no trace. After about two minutes a newcomer arrives. He proves to be a rather short elf, blond hair, green eyes, and a silent step. He's dressed in close fitting black clothing, carrying a longbow, and other sorts of equipment. He says " I seriously doubt that you'll get in there safely without the help of a rogue. Traps, guards, you need all the help you can get. Whaddya say? As long as I get a cut of the rewards, I'll help. You can call me Connor. " This should be profitable enough. I should probably keep out of that eidolon's way though
He takes a look in the window.
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"Bwahahaha, watch your tone small one. I have had bigger pigs for breakfast. If you keep talking I might get hungry again."
Graxus licks his lips as he finishes his last sentance.
Gilfroy merely smiles at the eidolon's bravado. "As I said, rude. Thank you, pumpkin. I do so enjoy it when people, or things, prove me right."
Gilfroy casts detect magic to check for magical booby traps or effects on either the window or door.
"There's two guys, playing cards and arguing. I can't see anything else "
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"Just wait, pumpkin. A bit of scouting never hurt anybody."
Gilfroy holds his right arm up and lets the thin fabric fall back to reveal an impressive computer tattoo of a small bird. He whispers to his arm and the tattoo rises off his skin and fleshes out into an actual thrush. "Go have a look in that window and then fly around and see if there are others."
He casts message on himself and his familiar, and sends Mayberry on her way.
Connor looks around and says " Sure. Give me a minute. Just don't expect me to stand in front of it when it opens. Don't blow our cover." He slowly opens it.