Before much else could go on a young, well dressed, yet balding human man walks into the room, followed by two scholarly looking half-elves. Ambrus looks around and starts dividing everyone into groups while the half-elves passed around several ancient looking tomes, urging people to use caution with them.
Once Ambrus gets to the PCs, he quickly gives them a once over, nodding at all current Pathfinders. "You all know the drill. Everyone who isn't familiar with the Pathfinders, you'll quickly learn that knowledge is power. I'd start reading up on what you might find on that island. Start with the name Acererak. He was a sorcerer- what is it?" He spins around an annoyed look at one of the half-elves who nervously whispers something to him.* He nods, sends them away, then turns back to you all. "I'll be back shortly to brief you. Start getting to know each other, and start studying. That is of course, unless you want to end up dying of ignorance." With that, he disappears off into a hallway, followed by the two scholars.
Knowledge check history take 10 for a 23 (bard ability)
Knowledge arcana take 10 for a 22 (bard ability)
As we are doing research, Thule will say "so, it appears that we will be working together to explore this island. My name is Thule Aegrim, and I am a servant of The All-Seeing Eye. I can work the magic of the divine, and have a innate understanding of how magic works. What do the rest of you do?"
Ransaq eyes the tome, but lacking linguistic training, closes it and sets it aside. He raises his eyebrows and mumbles, "Death by ignorance then I guess".
He listens to the half-orc's introduction, then reveals his spell book and answers. "I solve problems of many sorts Thule".
Cooper seems lot in the tome. jotting notes as he was reading.
glancing up from the tome, Cooper, Captain Alistair Cooper, Sothis militia and Osirion Pathfinder lodge. He quickly returns to the tome attempting to glean all he can.
for a Venture captain that is so meticulous for details, and perfection, you would think that he would have evenly polished each of his brass buttons, also he missed the left side of his neck when he shaved this morning. In any event, Once he has completed receiving his orders from the Decemvirate he will probably only tell us what he believes we need to know.
|
Okay, so collectively, you can put together this information...
You actually find yourselves learning more about the nature of this Acererak fellow. Apparently, he was a human sorcerer-king of an island nation from ancient times, who believe it or not, was quite benevolent and peaceful. Acererak actually implemented many laws that put a stop to crime, corruption, and improved the quality of life for all of those in his nation.
Putting much of his time to perfecting the magical arts, he aspired to accomplish much in his short life, actually starting research that would later accumulate to spells such as Breath of Life. Unfortunately, as he grew older, he become eventually became irrated with how little he perceived himself to be doing. All he wished was to help the people living under his rule, and he found that he had too little time to do so. so this
There is a large gap in the information you can put together, leaving out a fair chunk of Acererak's life,
He took steps that would secure his island nation from the outside world: He opened permanent portals to Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss and made his island the combination of various evil planes, and demiplanes of his own making. The fabric of reality around the island became so fragile that the mere acts of teleportation or summoning became dangerous, as teleportation would allow evil outsiders to crawl through the rips in the plane, while summons would likely be fiendish and hostile to the one who summoned them. In fact, Acererak took so many precautions that he enhanced his castle and Tombs to resist spells such as stone to mud and stone to flesh.
After years under the king's rule... His island simply disappeared one day. Disappeared completely off the face of Golarion in fact... Nothing has been heard of him since then...
And at this time, a rock falls and everyone dies
After about an hour of reading and sharing information with each other, the Venture Captain comes back, but this time alone. He points at the PCs and gestures for you to follow him.
Leaving the amphitheater, and the mass of people behind, he leads you down a set of stairs which seems to extend down hundreds of feet. When you get to the bottom, you are confronted with a solitary door that seems to be made of gold.
"Who you are about to see if your your eyes, and your eyes alone. If you value your life, I would not anger this person, and show all due respect that you would a King, Queen, or Emperor. Do you understand me?" Not waiting for an answer, he conjures a key into his hand and taps it twice against the door. This door fades away before your eyes and he gestures you inside.
Standing before you is a masked figure in a magnificent suit of armor, that seems to be made of a precious gemstone. He looks at you with crossed arms and gives a small nod. "When... if you return from this mission, you are not to speak to anyone about meeting with me. I..." The figure pauses in dramatic fashion. "Am one of the Ten.
"I hope you learned everything you want to know about Acererak," he says curtly. "Because we are going to have one of our Venture Lieutenants teleport you onto onto a boat near the shore of that island. You all are some of the most competent adventurers we have available at the moment; everyone else is fighting off demons in the Worldwound. Anyway, you are going to be entering one of the two locations that Acererak may be hiding, with another group going into the other. Here's the catch."
Though masked, you can tell the man's expression is grim. "The truth is, we have no idea why Acererak returned after all this time, and we aren't even sure he is a hostile. Nothing has attacked any of the people we sent to the island thus far, and with someone of Acererak's reputation, we find this very surprising. We want you to find him and discover his goals. If he can be reasoned with, then go that route. If not, we want you to destroy whatever threat he poses, understand? Believe me, we in the Decemvirate wish we could send more experienced adventurers, however, that simply is not possible. We have our best agents and allies preoccupied in a strategic attack in the Worldwound right now, and we have not the time to pull them out of their current missions."
Ransaq listens to the man speak, but can't help but wonder why they perceive the man a a possible threat when everything g they had just read made him out to be a saint. "Then again, one in power can have his own choice of words written of him".
The Decemvirate member simply stares at you Max.
"So, does anyone know how the guy went from 'I want to help people' to 'Here, let me open permanent portals to all the Fiendish planes'?"
The masked man shakes his head. "That knowledge has been lost to us throughout the ages. Several important texts concerning that time period either went missing or destoryed with each passing century."
When the Venture-Captain gathers everyone up, instictively Cooper tucks the tome he was given into his sachel and follows.
Meeting the Decemvirate, Cooper is his usual cordial self. Well, looking at the rest of the group. This is ratehr interesting, a mission that garners enough attention to involve teh Decemvirate directly, Yet not enough for the most experienced pathfinders. Either things are in fact much worse than it is to be believed, or, there is more that you are not telling us.
knowledge local = 19
knowledge history = 21
knowledge arcana = 20
knowlwdge planes = 19
knowledge nobility = 20
Safe!
You don't know much about the locale (as you don't have the circumstance bonus provided by studying for an hour in a library) but you do know that Acererak's family line today had completely died off BEFORE the island disappeared. Apparently he had them all executed for high treason.
~~~
The man shakes his head. "Again, with the problem of the Worldwound, and the delicacies that particular issue holds, we have our top members in strategic positions that we could not simply pull them out of at the moment. We are trying to haste their missions along, but it is not going well. In fact, we are so short on manpower, The Ten are going ourselves to the center of the island; Acererak's castle should be located there, along with the portals to the evil planes. With our combined power, we should be able to easily handle whatever comes out of there, be it Pit Fiends or other horrors."
You get the sense that the Decemvirate going on a mission personally means that the situation is much more dire than you may have originally thought.
Safe!
"We set out immediately then?"
"Actually, you are now to meet the man who is to go with you. He was... is a Cleric of Sarenrae." The masked man frowns. "I suppose I should reveal this fact now, so that none of you are shocked when you see him. He is a Venture Lieutenant named Andross Stern, an experienced diviner, chronicler, and, well... he is a vampire."
Agnir frowns.
"Vampires...I don't like them."
Cooper simply shrugs, Well now this mission just keeps, getting, better.
does he come with his own blood supply? or should we all offer some donations ahead of time.
finally realizing there really isn't much choice in the matter Oh hell, whatever. I've done business with mummies and pharohs Demons and fey, might as well add Vampires to the list.
Ransaq can't believe his pointy ears. "Why are you in good standing with a vampire?"
The masked man only shakes his head. "In the Pathfinder Society, you learn to work with people you never thought possible. Why do we work closely with a vampire? You could ask why we work with necromancers in Geb, or diabolists in Chelliax, or revolutionaries or abolitionists in Andoran. We do so because they value knowledge and are able to put aside petty things like ethics or morality in favor of the pursuit of knowledge.
"You'll find Alkyd a curious case, even so. How to describe it? Ah, so if a paladin were to use his divine ability to detect evil on Alkyd, the aura around her would definitely appear corrupted, but looking into this woman's soul, the paladin would find that she has maintained her humanity. The necromancy that animates her rings as evil, yet she herself does not. She swears it is her loyalty to Sarenrae that has helped her, and even with our best wizards and clerics studying her, we could not find an alternate explanation.
"You also need not worry about providing her with blood. If you've studied vampires, you'll find that some become crazed when they have not fed in some time -hunger- while others become crazed when they do feed -literal bloodlust-. She is of the latter category, and so does not feed on the living."
"Actually, you are now to meet the man who is to go with you. He was... is a Cleric of Sarenrae." The masked man frowns. "I suppose I should reveal this fact now, so that none of you are shocked when you see him. He is a Venture Lieutenant named Andross Stern an experienced diviner, chronicler, and, well... he is a vampire."
followed by...
"You'll find Alkyd a curious case, even so. How to describe it? Ah, so if a paladin were to use his divine ability to detect evil on Alkyd, the aura around her would definitely appear corrupted, but looking into this woman's soul, the paladin would find that she has maintained her humanity. The necromancy that animates her rings as evil, yet she herself does not. She swears it is her loyalty to Sarenrae that has helped her, and even with our best wizards and clerics studying her, we could not find an alternate explanation."You also need not worry about providing her with blood. If you've studied vampires, you'll find that some become crazed when they have not fed in some time -hunger- while others become crazed when they do feed -literal bloodlust-. She is of the latter category, and so does not feed on the living."
Thule listened to the briefing without comment, taking in everything that was said. He wasn't the most intelligent man in the world, but he know that if you listened to what people said and didn't say anything, they would eventually reveal what you wanted to know in the first place. At the mention of the vampire, Thule's eyes widened and then narrowed. Vampirism was a serious disease, one which ravaged the afflicted. He would need to watch this man carefully. As the briefing was winding down, Thule cleared his throat and asked "Other than what we have learned and has been mentioned here, is there anything that you think we should know so that we can succeed?"
The masked man nods. "To guarantee that everything goes according to plan, we have had our Venture Lieutenant to construct certain magical items for you all. Each one contains a breath of life spell contained inside, so if at any moment, you meet an unfortunate end, you are back in the game. We started work on these after the Shadow Lodge you see..."
Strolling over to his desk, he opens a drawer and pulls out several items and hands one to each of you.
[ooc]That is exactly what I am asking.[p/ooc]
Ransaq reaches for a ring, then curiously inspects it.
Agnir takes a ring from the desk.
Cooper takes a ring as well, Well, Let's just hope that we won't be needing to use these.
"Well then. Is everyone else ready to get started?"
"I am, but is there a reason payment has not been discussed?"
Cooper looks over to Ransaq, he seems to be appraising what Ransq has by way of equipment. already wonder what he will lay claim to.
Though you cannot see it, the man raises an eyebrow underneath his mask. Is it not custom for adventurers to keep whatever they find in dungeons or other strange places they go? You may even keep the items I gave you if it proves to be that you don't need them... but first let me introduce you to Alkyd.
With that, the man gestures you to follow him, and leads you to a secluded part of the Lodge, even further down into its twisting and winding halls, where the floor seemed to grow dustier and the air thicker. Eventually you've made so many turns that even those who have been in the building before have forgotten their way to the amphitheater. There are no torches in this part of the building, nor are there windows to let in moonlight, so the man casts a light spell to illuminate the corridors. Finally you reach a dead end where there is nothing but a trapdoor on the floor.
He gestures to the trapdoor, as if he wants you all to climb inside. "Alkyd, the adventurers are ready to see you."
After a moment you here a female voice reply, "Yes, yes send them down. I want to inspect them with my own eyes, not through this blasted crystal ball."[/b]
Ransaq becomes annoyed at the audacity of the expectation.
"Alright then, well, you wouldn't mind doing my laundry while I'm off risking my life with your vampire friend would you? You can keep any change you might find in the pockets."
"We're here to investigate a potentially world threatening, or at least city threatening event. Your wallet is the least of everyone's concerns."
"We're here to investigate a potentially world threatening, or at least city threatening event. Your wallet is the least of everyone's concerns."
Cooper heads down the trap door, Well might as well put a face to the voice.
Cooper turns to face the Vampire companion, Well, hello there
Ransaq can't help but wonder if Agnir is truly as foolish as his words, or if he's just a brown noser. "Oh yur right, please, let me fund the entire expedition", he responds with condescending sarcasm. "I hope you have more wit in battle than in logic".