Absalom, The City at the Center of the World, a churning hub of humanity with a healthy smattering of Golarion's other sentient inhabitants. They say you can buy and sell anything in Absalom, and the great city has always been a beacon for those seeking their fortunes - you are such a person.
But the city is overwhelming and achieving your dreams is far from easy, already you have seen dozens of derelicts huddled in side streets, perhaps some of their number shared your own lofty goals? Asking around you eventually receive directions to Jacq's Hire House, a dingy back alley establishment surrounded by hard looking folk dressed in a broad assortment of armour and bristling with weapons.
Making your way past the flat stares of these rough and ready mercenary types you enter a utilitarian room with a great map covering one side wall, and a massive noticeboard on the otherside, both bristle with notes pinned to their pocked surfaces. Ahead of you are three barred windows, two of which have halflings behind them dealing with small ques of mercenaries. In the center of the room are an array of battered and mismatched chairs where a half dozen more would be sell swords wait in various stages of boredom.
As you enter an elderly halfling woman approaches, she wears a well worn leather jerkin and is followed by a massive grey mastiff one of whose eyes is a misty white,
"New aren't you, right? I'm Jacqueline Bright, own the place. I like to take an interest in new folk, get your measure so as I know where to send you. I've got just the task for you, bit of danger, bit of intrigue, and a decent bit of gold. Two hundred decent bits of gold in fact, if you get the job done right. I'll take you over to the rest of the new folk and when I've got six of you I'll fill you all in, no point wasting my wind."
She ushers you over to a small group of people and you wait a while until she returns with the sixth member of your little party of strangers.
"Well what I need is for you to find out what happened to some dwarf Ambassador from Highhelm. The Token Guard can't get into his forge where the body is because of some little magical constructs, or some such, that went crazy when he died, I guess they don't see enough potential profit to risk their necks. But the Dwarven Merchants Guild are prepared to pay for justice, and that's where we come in. Find out what happened and kill or capture whoever did it, from what I understand they can make out it wasn't natural causes. His forge is in The Coins district, just east of that big old two headed owlbear statue. Well? Are you moving you behinds or do I need to round up some of this rabble?"
Elhona endures the initial gruff greeting, and adjusts her brown curls away from her shoulder holster. "Glad to find a source of coin, Jacqueline, and glad, too, that you'd entrust it to a newcomer like myself. Lead on." She holds her hand out for the dog to sniff on the way to the back room.
While she waits for others, Elhona pulls out a small brush to clean the inside of the pistol's barrel, then stows it in her shoulder holster. The butt of the gun is worn smooth with use, it is capped at the end with a pewter carving of a Taldane dragoon at full tilt.
---
Once the mission is explained, Elhona looks at the others and asks, "I'm still a little new to the city. How far to the Coins District from here?"
Jacq shakes her head,
"I won't be taking you, thats what I've got a honking big map for. Me and Snaffles here don't ride out for this kind of money, not that we ride out any more. No, we're on the eastern side of Puddles where it meets the Docks, so you'd be best following Minter's Row straight onto Coins. See? Ten minute walk tops."
"Thank you miss. I'll just be waiting here then." Seeing Elhona on the bench he'll add, "Morning, the names Gabriel. Pleased to meet you I'm sure."
Elhona nods a greeting at the curious little gnome. "Well met, Gabriel. I am Elhona," she raises a hand in greeting. "Do you hail from Absolom? I thought that Oppara was a busy port, but it is nothing by comparison!"
"Waiting, don't get paid for waiting, despite what this lot seem to think," Jacqueline says, snorting as she gestures with a thumb over her shoulder at the seated men, at least one of whom is actually sleeping. "Get yourselves ready and get out there so we can all get paid, hey?"
Snaffles, the mastiff, sniffs at Elhona's proffered hand and looks thoughtfully upwards before sneezing.
Gabriel will reply politely, "Not from the city. Our farm was off to the west a bit. The closest I ever came to the city before today was the farmers market outside Westgate." He furrows his brow, "Oppara eh? That's in Taldor ain't it?"
Elhona nods again, with a sad smile. "A beautiful place, even if it is full of corruption. My mother hails from there, but work was too infrequent for me to support us both, and she is getting on in years." She scratches Snaffles' head for a moment after the sneeze. "Did something happen to your farm to lead you into the city?"
Gabriel shrugs a little sadly, "It's a story that sounds a lot like yours. A wee little farm with not enough work or food to go around. It's time to make my own way in the world."
A young-looking man, not very tall, but with a body that stands out his strong muscles, using a light clothing without apparent reinforcement, enters the room with a face indifferent.
"Very pleased, I came to sell my services, happy to be here". He says looking to Jacqueline.
Then, looking at his new companions, putting his hand on a warhammer locked on his waist, but without change his emotionless face.
"I´ll strive to be useful in our endeavor, my friends".
"My name is Gabriel, well met I'm sure. We all hope to be at least useful, yes?"
The halfling exchanges a look with her dog and both exhale in unison,
"Charmed I'm sure, but you will have to excuse me. Now you come back and see me when this is all nicely wrapped up and I'll give you a job that pays some real coin, we may not be fancy shmancy like the Pathfinders here, but that means our overheads are lower and you get more coin. So get this done and we can all get our pockets nice and lined. Good luck!"
Ah what an interesting group. I am of course Chandra
Ah what an interesting group. I am of course Chandra
"You are? I suppose you must be then. Chandra that is. It remains to be seen if any of us are interesting I suppose."
Elhona stands to greet the newcomers, turning first to Yves, "Well met, then. I am Elhona, and also hope to be useful," and smiling politely during the greeting. She inclines a nod toward Chandra, then chuckles to herself. "I'm not used to being the tallest in the room, to be honest."
A dwarf enters the establishment, apparentky he comes from nobility and his armor and weapon show no signs of ever having been used. he probably has never even gotten his hands dirty before.
when the halfling introduces herself. he just grunts a response of acknowledgement but says ver little else.
his firat instict is to locate other dwarves. second in priority is those that may be possible merchants or dealers in trinkits.
he makes his way to the table of other newcomers. he looks at each in turn sizing them up.
hrumph, no dwarves, guess I might as well be a babysitter, I trust each of you are capable enough. if not, than I can commit ya now to the mother earth.
He takes a seat not wanting to be too close to these non-dwarves.
Yves looks closely at each one of those present in that room. However, he dosen´t speak a single word, only move his eyes, leaning against one of the corners on the wall. When someone greets him, he responds with a nod.
When the dwarf get in that place Yves got clearly bothered by his attendance, frowns. His gaze did not deviate from him, that one which is presented as a reflection of civilization, religion and nobility. All that he ever learned to walk away.
In your newly formed party you head out into the great city again, its late afternoon, just beginning to cool and the streets are packed. Everywhere you look there are people shouting and jostling, or drovers trying to make their way through the press with camel trains, or axebeaks - horses are rarer than hens teeth in Absalom, something to do with the local centaur population.
It takes you some fifteen minutes to cover the quarter mile or so to Coins. The district seems to consist of a huge market, filled with brightly coloured stalls and the heady sent of toil mixed with a thousand spices, surrounded by scores of more mundane establishments. You swiftly spy the great statue of a two headed owlbear and make your way over to it.
The forge is easy to locate, despite the fact it bares no sign in contrast to all the buildings about it for it has large windows of heavy bubble filled glass through which tools and forges can readily be seen. The establishment has a single door and appears to adjoin other buildings on its three other sides.
"Denenor's the name." Not usually so short of tongue, the paladin had little use for mincing words. The gold would give him food and shelter for another day, and talk was cheap. "The Puddles do need some cleaning-up, all kinds of dastardly folk seeking to stab you in the back if you give them the chance." Many of them weren't truly ill at heart, but even misguided mistakes were still mistakes - and violent ones at that.
"I wouldn't worry about reacquainting me with the earth, Dwarf; her metal guards me well." Though not wearing plate, a heft shield strapped to Denenor's back along with a shining chain shirt would make him a tough target.
"Does anyone know anything about these 'humungous' things?"
Elhona shakes her head. "Never heard of them, myself. Wonder what they do?"
She steps up to a window and peers through...
Peering in through the flaw filled glass Elhona sees a neatly laid out forge, clearly the workspace of a master as no simple smith would require the gradations of fine tools seen here.
As she scans the scene she can just make out a body slumped over a workbench at the far end of the forge, but the angle is poor and she can only really make out a still dwarven rump.
Her keen eyes pick up something more though, as hidden amidst the tools she spies two tiny creatures. One, almost directly across from her partially concealed by a set of bellow looks like a heavily stylized winged badger, the other further down the room sitting in a small recess on a workbench appears to be a stylized dwarf with a flared cape, they are both about six inches tall.
"I think we must go in and get a look inside, silently, and if necessary break any of these *dangerous toys*."
Yves walks towards the door, prepares his warhammer, and tries to open.
Chandra thinks "I must know something about these homonculus, after all I am me!"
Denenor does his best to remain quiet as well. Not easy in all the armor though...
Yves opens the door attempting to be stealthy, but his efforts are rendered moot as a bell rings triggered by the opening door.
The two known constructs emerge from hiding instantly flying up towards the ceiling and another, a stylized winged dog, comes hurtling straight at Yve's head from the door lintel! It sinks its tiny teeth into the barbarian's eyebrow and yanks free a great mouthful of blood and hair!
Yves though seems unimpressed, he's taking things so in his stride infact that he's fallen asleep! Or perhaps these things have some sort of sleep inducing ability in their bites...
what the blazes ave we got ere! bloody wizard folk need ta stop dis crap. right ya mankey psycho choobs jus cause ya fly don't think ya be safe from the earth that originally spawned ya.
with a twirl of his axe he points it at one of the flying creatures. enleashing a blob of brown viscous slime at it
@Chandra, Arcana is indeed correct, if in doubt just roll and I'll adjust to the appropriate knowledge skill mod if you've picked wrong. I'll roll now to speed things along.
google docs is pretty much it. everything else is blocked.
I can see everything fine at home so i can update then just less frequently.
The paladin strides into the joint , drawing sword and shield, taking a wide stance.
"Enough! If you or your master have any sense, you would do well to stand down!"
While not knowing if the oppoenents he saw were the only threats in the room, Denenor decided offering quarter was the just thing to do. He hoped they didn't reject the offer...
Elhona is startled by the speed of the attack on Yves, but quickly responds by drawing her falcata and taking a swing at he little biter. Too close to the human to shoot! her instincts yell.
Gabrial moves to E13 and throws a Shuriken
damage = 1 + 2 + 1 = 4
"These creatures have been created by their master using their master blood to animate them. How discusting.
I dont believe sleep or daze will work on such creatures. Oh well I will have to make due."
Chandra looks around for a good target.
"Come out to play little ones"
Ehlona's falcata flashes through the air, but fails to connect with the winged dog, but Chandra's sling stone strikes it with a resounding crack sending a few flakes of red clay drifting to the floor.
Meanwhile Kibur and Gabriel move into the room and strike the other two homonculi with shuriken and acid, both damaging the clay constructs.
As Denenor enters another creature lunges from the lintel hurling itself at the paladin's head! And offering up a chance for the elf to strike at it as it goes for the eyes!
But the elf's is easily able to ward the low with his shield, frustrating the homonculi's efforts.
Yves, now slumped against the door frame continues to snore.
The remaining creatures hurl themselves at their closest wakeful targets, offering up the chance to strike as they close in to those with weapons in hand. Kibur's armor turns the badger's fangs aside, Elhona dodges without effort, but Gabriel takes a miniature axe to the forehead sending blood coursing down to drip from the point of his nose!
Elhona grunts with exertion as she dodges out of the way of the clumsy blow, then returns the favor with a falcata strike. After this, she steps to the side, drawing the creature further from her allies, and draws her pistol.
Chandra's eyes glare at the homonculi distracting the creatures attack.
"Your choice!"
Having given them fair warning, the elf retaliated against that which attacked him with a stroke of his sword.
"Hold still you little annoyances"
blasted little steamin greetin arse-wipes! he yells attempting to smack the little bugger down with his axe.
but the close proximity is preventing a sucessful blow.
Yves sinks further down the doorframe still sleeping while the furious little constructs, seemingly untroubled by the groups efforts redouble their efforts to maim!
Both Elhona and Kibur are injured by snapping jaws, while Gabriel and Deneor evade damage with aplomb.
Yves has nightmares about unresolved slaughters...
"ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzzzzzZzuashasuhduahirorororororoZzZz"...
A quick reposte from the elf strikes back at his foe's opening.
Chandra slides to I12 "Hmmm sleeping on the job are you"