'Stand by...' You think bitterly to yourself for maybe the fifth time today as you can't help but look up as the Inn door opens again. And again you sigh and fidget restlessly as you think again,
'Stand by may be the worst thing to hear as a Pathfinder. No going home, no work, no leads and nothing to do but wait for the higher-ups to get their ducks in a row and remember where they stashed their "tools"...'
But this time, after nearly a week of downtime with noting to do but spend your own gold, you see a familiar face behind the door. The studious Pathfinder your group was sent to rescue last time, Cestis, waves as he enters with a hastily scrawled note clenched in his hand. He looks completely recovered from his ordeal.
He quickly assembles your team and bids you to hurry and gather your gear. "Venture Captain Themis needs to see you at the Cassomir Lodge immediately. I'm to guide you there. These are the Pathfinders she's selected for the next mission."
1) Odo the Bold - Paladin 2
2) Dietrich Wenger - Fighter 2/Rogue 1
3) Selter Sago de'Morcaine PFS - Druid 2
4) Marla Gunddur - Summoner 3
5) 'Hellion' Svetlana Irriseni - Fighter 2
6) Li Shuo - Zen Archer/ Qinggong Monk 2
Once ready, Cestis guides the party to the small Pathfinder lodge here in Cassomir. Venture-Captain Hestia Themis, a small, dark-haired, and dark-eyed Taldan woman, sits in her offices, looking even more mousy and diminished behind her enormous blackwood desk. She clears her throat and looks up at you with red-rimmed eyes.
“My friend, the Countess Arieta Patrizia, is dead. She was among some of our more prominent citizens that had gone missing, though she is the only one who managed to come back. She escaped her capture by the fiends who operate beneath Cassomir only to succumb to disease and wounds incurred in Cassomir’s disgusting sewers. Ordinarily, this would be a matter for the Taldan authorities, but Arieta came to me directly after escaping and recounted a story that leads me to the natural conclusion that only the Pathfinder Society can resolve this issue.”
Venture-Captain Themis rises and paces back and forth behind her desk. “Arieta told me of an artifact she saw while in captivity below Cassomir. This artifact, called the jet rat, is known to us, but we must confirm that what she saw is indeed true. She claims to have seen it transform normal rats into something bigger, more vile and mean. If that’s true, the artifact she saw down there is old, evil, and should be stored safely in the vaults beneath the Grand Lodge in Absalom where we can study, catalog, and examine it. Worse, she claims to have seen this object in the hands of the derros, vile Darklands creatures that we have long suspected are lurking below Cassomir. Since your group brought us news that the derros were involved with the Cult of Nature's Cataclysm, I knew you would want the chance to follow up. I have a map here that shows the location of the sewer grate Arieta was dropped through when she was kidnapped. She could not, due to her fever, recall much about how she got to the location where they kept her in captivity, but she knows where they dropped her into the sewers and you’ll find that location on this map.”
Themis stops pacing and eyes you across her desk. Though her tone is all-business as usual, her eyes burn with a vengeful fire.
“Bring me back this artifact—if you happen to free a few captured Taldans along the way, that’s good news, but the artifact is your mission. Any questions?”
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The beauty from the ice wastes sits herself down on a comfortable spot, only pausing briefly to wince at some small bodily pain. Whilst being pleasant enough to look at, there is a bit of a glacial coldness about her and her blue skinned tone, a sort of chilled 'otherness' that whispers of an unearthly heritage. Her plain clothes, neat grooming, and lack of any obvious weapons give little clue as to what she 'does' - although there is little mistaking her athleticism, the bruising, and scars of a martial practitioner.
"More of them rat fanciers is it? Heard about the Derros too on our last mission, can't say I like their handiwork. She say how many were there or how many captives she saw? How big is the artifact?"
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Odo sits in his newly upgraded armor (masterwork breast plate instead of his chain shirt) and with a new darkwood shield, a bit disappointed that his first mission with the new kit will be through the sewers. But the disappointment does not deter him from his duties.
"Did the Countess describe her place of captivity at all?"
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The brawny man sits with his feet up and his arms behind his head. He give the pretty tiefling a little grin as she walks in. There is a large woodsman's axe leaning against the table by his side and he wears a weathered breastplate over his well-worn clothes.
"Almost as bad, but I've had enough of ships for a good long time. Don't worry, fighting in close is what I'm best at. It's these blasted derros that have me worried. My pal Todric ran into 'em on his last mission before heading off to Kaer Maga. They were doing some sort of nasty experiments on people. I'd be glad for a chance to put paid to their plans, believe me."
"More of them rat fanciers is it? Heard about the Derros too on our last mission, can't say I like their handiwork. She say how many were there or how many captives she saw? How big is the artifact?"
"Arieta could not be sure of numbers... she didn’t describe any human captors. She saw only derros, rats, and a few creatures she could not name and I could not identify. She claimed to have seen dozens of captives, some of whom she recognized as fellow prominent citizens of the empire. This goes beyond the recent kidnappings in the Imperial Naval Shipyards — it even goes beyond Cassomir’s normal and storied disappearances. This is another level of madness and I can’t help but think that the jet rat might have something to do with that.
The artifact is small enough to hold in one hand. As I understand it, it is smooth, shiny black rock and carved into the shape of a rat.”"Did the Countess describe her place of captivity at all?"
"Yes, she did. Though I cannot be sure some of her story was not fever induced delirium, I've pieced it together as best as I can from what she told me.
She said the derros grabbed her from her villa in Old Cassomir, bound and gagged, they drug her through the night streets to a sewer grate in the heart of the Imperial Naval Shipyards. They took her through a dizzying number of sewer turns before binding her legs and lowering her down a ladder into the strangest thing Arieta had seen — there, beneath the surface of Cassomir, was an entire city block of houses, streets, and even lamps, signs, and hitching posts, as though a section of Cassomir was just bricked over and forgotten. I've never heard of such and hesitate to believe it, but she was not ill then, so perhaps it is true.Over many days, Arieta witnessed the derros using the black rat statue to make bigger, meaner, and more brutal rats. She saw new slaves come in, she saw old slaves go out, and she waited and watched. She managed to escape when one of the small blue creatures guarding her pen accidentally left the cage open after feeding time. She hid in Cassomir Below for a day before climbing the ladder into the sewers, where she was attacked by rats and only managed to escape by diving into the sewer itself to swim away. Over a few confusing days she managed to fight off more rats, even as she began to feel terribly ill and was slowly getting weak from lack of food. Finally, she found a way out and made her way to me."
"What is known about derro, please? Strengths, weaknesses?"
"Like most Darklands inhabitants, they cannot endure sunlight. They are small in stature, like halflings or gnomes and very pale in coloring. I'm afraid that's all I know for certain."
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Sitting in a chair with a book open on her lap is a pretty young Dwarven woman with long brown hair in braids. She takes notes in the book with an inkpen, looking up from time to time at the others. Behind her stands a Dwarf of advanced years with a beard and hair of white leaning on the haft of an antique-looking Greataxe. He appears solid and real, but there is a faint green glow and a fuzziness at the edges of his form. Floating before both his and the younger's brows is a glowing green rune.
"Fighting in close quarters is what we Dwarves are made for." says the elder Dwarf. "If you long-limbs don't like it, leave it to the Stout Folk."
The younger Dwarf looks up at him and says, "That's enough of that, Uncle." she says.
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The reptilian figure seems bonelessly relaxed with a large snake draped over his shoulders.
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Rats are prey for better predators. Altering that state is a perversion of the highest order. It is proper that we should be among those to stop this from happening. Consider it done.
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Hmm... Derro... Seems I remember something about Derro...
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Sithiss agrees with a flick of her forked tongue. Sss...
Though their madness-induced high charisma make derro natural spontaneous casters, they are also highly adapted to a life of stealth and subtefuge. They have the ability to take advantage of unaware or distracted foes to place a telling blow much like a rogue does, are natural poison users and suffer no risk of exposing themselves to the toxins they employ, and have a racial knack for staying quiet and hiding from view.
The reasons for the derro's madness is a subject of much speculation and debate, but a popular theory suggests that might have once been a type of light-loving fey that was twisted somehow by dark magic.
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From prior ssstudiesss, I recall that Derro are sssneaky and visssciousss. Expect them to ssstrike without warning with poisssoned bladesss. Their madnesss ssseemsss to sssomewhat ssshield their mindsss from magical attacksss. They themssselvesss are alssso magic usssersss. Though each of them knowsss relatively few ssspellsss.
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Marla sighs and closes her book, puts a cap on her inkpen and tucks it into her pocket, and rises from her chair. "We'll meet you after we've retrieved our gear." she says.
Later, when the Pathfinders meet, she is armed with a battleaxe and crossbow and armored in a breastplate with a brand new cloak. Brak, on the other hand, looks exactly the same. "Greetings everyone." she says with a shy smile.
Brak bulls up to the others and stands at the entrance. "Well, Pathfinders, are we all prepared?" he says with a grim stare at each of them.
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Stepping in, getting there late, having been tied up with his partner in crime, he finds himself coming in as the others are about to leave...
"Oh bloody...My apologies. It seems I missed the briefing..."
Arriving is a bearded half-elf, his sharp eyes and ears give away his heritage, but he looks as if he knows his way around a city despite his nature.
"I'm pleased you could join us, Master Varkon. I'm sure you'll be a welcome addition to the team, especially since Dietrich was called away on other business." She quickly reviews what she has covered so far and then continues on.
She opens a drawer of her enormous blackwood desk and withdraws an item wrapped in black silk. She unwraps the bundle carefully, almost lovingly, and reveals an ornate hair pin of silver metal and golden-toned pearls. The end has been recently and roughly sharpened into a shiv. Themis' eyes linger on it before she looks up to speak again, her gaze burning with vengeful desire.
"If you should find a derro with a long scar down the left side of his face... likely made by this item, make you sure you kill him. Painfully." She says this last through clenched teeth and waves her dismissal, and then begins re-wrapping the hair pin with a kind of reverence you rarely see outside a temple.
Cestis herds you toward the entrance, holding a stack of envelopes.
"I wanted to speak to you before you set off. I still think those wily Teppish are involved somehow. I did some more digging and it seems that Dalirio has a twin brother! I find it strange to think that they would not be working together toward a common goal, so I think it likely you may encounter Grench Teppish in your investigation. It's said he was the more gifted of the pair, so be on your guard! It's possible you might encounter more of their clan as well."
The scholarly young pathfinder smiles stupidly at Svetlana and Marla for a moment, and then suddenly remembers the envelopes he holds.
"Oh! And here, missives from your factions, I'd wager."
Osirion Faction Mission, should you choose to accept it. (Alternate for Grand Lodge)
Andoran Faction Mission, should you choose to accept it. (Alternate for Silver Crusade)
Taldan Faction Mission, should you choose to accept it. (Alternate for Sczarni)
Brak nods to Selter. "Right. I'll come down last." he says. He turns to Marla. "But yer not going down first!" he tells her as she is peering down the grate.
The rank odor of the Cassomir sewers wafts up to meet you as the sewer grate is opened. It's a particularly feculent cocktail of fishy brine combined with rain run-off, human and animal waste, and the city’s other refuse.
Murky puddles dot the tile floor below, which gently slopes toward the room’s center where some of the puddles are very slowly draining into a large, 10-foot-by-10-foot drain. Thick, sticky webs cover most of the corners of the room, and several large vermin appear to be caught in the webs. The sound of running water can be heard to the west.
Selter searches for any sign of movement but all appears still below. He notices one of the creatures caught in the webs looks as if it might be humanoid, though he is not certain from his current distance.
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"Sir, shall we follow you, or are we best to stay up here so that our lights do not inhibit your vision?"
While he waits, he takes the opportunity to lay his bow on the ground and empty a water skin upon it, almost as if he is watering a plant. Once done, he returns the delicate looking wood to his hand and tests the draw.
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Ssslowly fellowsss. There is a deadly ssspider waiting for usss to enter.
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Hmm... Thisss ssseemsss like an excellent time to ssshow that ssspider websss burn.
Selter pulls an alchemist fire out of belt his pouch. Anyone elssse have one of thessse? If ssso, get them ready to throw on the count of 3.
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"I can see easily enough in the dark, but don't mind being illuminated and drawing myself as a target as well, better they come bother me than some of you, and I can stick 'em with my blade well enough too" with that she reflexively clenches and flexes her hands and the spiked gauntlets covering them "Reckon a spider will go down fine enough if we stab it, but watching out for more is also worth doing"
"Reckon I am happy sliding down a rope and setting guard, that spider moves whilst I'm getting into place then nail it with that vial of nasty if it comes scuttling out, I don't mind even if you drop the vial in close to me, the fire wont hurt, just give me a little tickle is all - what you reckon Selter? Deal?"
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The large spider becomes more animated as the Pathfinders move into her lair, focused on her. She lifts two spindly legs menacingly as she rushes forward slightly, firing off a thick, sticky web at Svetlana. The eager tiefling avoids the entangling mess, drawing a discontented hiss from the creature. She maintains her position on the wall, swiveling to take her next shot.
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Li Shuo
Marla and Brak
Odo
Enemy: Spider shoots web, misses
Svetlana
Selter and Sithiss
Darren
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Li Shuo - shoots for 5 damage
Marla and Brak - casts Guidance
Odo - teases the spider
Enemy: Spider shoots web, misses
Svetlana - Rushes and stabs the spider for 19 dmg
Selter and Sithiss - delays
Darren - Crit shot for 22 damage
Li Shuo fires twice, but only lands the first shot. The spider begins her advance but Svetlana moves in to intercept, stabbing into the black widow's thorax with her bardiche. The spider screeches in pain, curling in on herself defensively as the ranger's first arrow barely misses. Darren's second shot is a deadly one, splitting open the creatures fat abdomen and splattering the wall behind it. It falls to the floor curled and shriveled in death.