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Seeing that it is too crowded to turn around at strike at the cackling Derro, Odo resolves to press into the fight against the men coming through the door. But first, he mutters, "By the Light of Dawn" and raps his hand to his breastplate.
He then strides forward and to the left to strike at the man entering the room. "I know not why you have thrown in with a twisted maniac, but Sarenrae willing, I will put an end to your evil designs."
"MARLA!" Brak bellows. "Out o' my way all of ya!" he says, first swinging his axe at the thug in front of him before he looks for a way to get at the Derro.
Initiative Order - Round 1
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Odo - double move
Darren - moves and casts
Li - fires and misses
Marla and Brak - Kills Rat and Marla is hit
Svetlana - moves and readies attack
Derro! - shoots and strikes Marla
WS - move and attack
Selter and Sithiss - attack redirected
-------------------------------------Round 2
Odo - ko's WS1
Darren - destroys the derro
Li - redirected to WS2
Marla and Brak - kills WS2
Svetlana - can't find anything left to hit!
Everything happens fast as the ballet of combat unfolds. Svetlana strikes the man heavily with her bardiche and Odo moves in, slashing with his scimitar to finish him off. Darren fires a volley of arrows at the derro, striking him squarely both times. The vaguely gnomish, twisted looking creature drops it's weapon and crumples to the stone floor.
Li seeks out another target, settling on the second man and wounds him heavily. Brak strikes him as well, nearly severing the man's head in his rage.
The derro wore leather armor, and carried a short sword, repeating light crossbow with 10(poisoned, you'd guess) bolts, 300 gp worth of platinum pieces and a ring of keys. The next room has several clean straw pallets covered in blankets and sleeping mats as well as a stack of small cages containing mundane sewer rats. Resting atop a small table is a ledger written in a strange hand and a shiny rat statue of heavy black stone. The jet rat you were to find.
A chest in the corner opens easily to one of the keys on the ring and contains a wealth of gold and silver, assorted jewelry and ornaments, and even grisly bits like gold teeth extracted from their owners.
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Marla heaves a sigh of relief when her comrades dispatch all the threats with stupendous efficiency. Brak makes his way over to her as she reenters the room, concern on his face. Marla smiles at him somewhat wanly, and lets him tend to binding her wound while she sits on one of the barrels. When she is ready to move again, she approaches the bisected body of the large rat and looks it over. "It occurs to me that we may want a sample of one of these altered rats. Is anyone skilled in surgery?" she asks.
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Odo also joins in the search for slaves. He figures his smaller stature might prove less intimidating to any remaining mites who might be enslave than the his larger companions.
The Derro's head accompanies her out in a small wooden box.
As Svetlana starts this grisly business, Odo suggests, "Why not take the whole of him instead of just his head? Anyone interested in examining him will might learn more from him intact than they can learn from just his head."
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"I was only asked for proof of existence, a head is light and can do that, and a body is a bit cumbersome. I got the feeling they just wanted to proof it was here rather than poke and prod a deader. If you want the whole thing I suppose he might get squeezed into a box" Svetlana offers rather thoughtfully.
1)
2)
3)
4)
4.5)
5)
6)
Li extracts a perfect specimen from the Dire Rat with a practiced hand. There are less Taldan citizens held here than you had expected, but they are grateful for your aid and eager to follow you out of this place. The mites seem to have all disappeared.
Several of you notice a box hidden in the rafters. When you retrieve it, it contains a large stoppered vial of a thick black fluid and an apparent kit for coating weapons with the substance.
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The level 2 is not in the 3-4 sub-tier, so the gold is the average of the 1-2 and 3-4 rewards.
The level 3 and 4 characters are in sub-tier, they get the 3-4 gold.
The level 5 is also out of sub-tier, but the gold is the average of the 3-4 and 6-7 rewards
So just note in the Gold reward box for those not 3-4 that it is 'OOT' and write in the correct (averaged) amounts for the relevant players :)
So hopefully you understand my shorthand here, this is the breakdown of the gp for the chronicle.
OOT>___885
3-4>___1266
OOT>__2219
Darren has already run part 3, so unless he wants to run for no-credit I was thinking we'll need to try and shuffle the table to get the higher tier. That may mean I need to go recruiting again...
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Thiss better be the right place thiss time Sslipss and not another temple of Calisstria." A pale man dressed in a black robe with blue trim says as he enters the room. "Yess it was akward when one of the preisstesssess ssat me down and danced in my lap. Esspecially with you giggling in my ear the whole time." His long black hair seems to meld with his long black beard making it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. He speaks with a slight lisp and seems to be carrying on a conversation with himself. Until he notices the party staring at him. "Oh hello, my name is Kursse and I do magic and sstuff."He pauses as if to listen to some unseen presence."No Sslipss I am not going to introduce you as they cannot ssee or hear you." Kurse then brings his attention back to the group. "It iss nice to meet you all," he says with a grin.
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The frozen beauty from the icy wastes sits herself down comfortably in a slightly tangled heap, wincing and grumbling at bodily aches and pains and what appears to be the collection of small wounds under fresh bandages. Whilst being pleasant enough to look at, her glacial coldness and bluish white skin, as if in from a cold chill, gives a sort of frigid 'otherness' that speaks of an unearthly heritage. Her clothes are plain, she's neatly groomed, and apparently unarmed - holding only a glass bottle containing water; there is little mistaking her athleticism - and the bruising and scars of a martial practitioner.
She looks up at the new arrival curiously, her face warming at the arrival, "What curse? You have a magic curse?" she questions earnestly.
Your victorious return from Cassomir Below should have been sweet, but like the stench of the sewer that still clings to your clothes and gear, it held a bitter taint. You brought the jet rat out of the enemy's hands, true. But you freed only a handful of kidnapped Cassomir citizens and returned with nearly as many corpses as you did live bodies. The reports on those you saved is not encouraging either, as some seem irreparably damaged from their time with the Derro.
Questions plague you as you while away your time, on stand-by once again. Some of your companions give voice to them over drinks.
"The place seemed so empty. Why would there only be one derro? It just doesn't make sense."
"Did you see all the empty cages? Did we arrive too late?"
But no answers come, and you are left again with too much time to speculate.
The traffic in Cassomir and the Inn ebbs and flows like the tide as ships deliver people and cargo to the nearby docks and then carry them away in the next moment. More Pathfinders come and go and you get the distinct impression that Venture Captain Themis is putting a lot of agents on the problem. Other folk of all varieties drift through the common room, unloading their own cargo of news and rumors. The Teppish name catches your ear and you begin to hear conflicting accounts from those conversing nearby. First someone speaks of the traitorous Dalirio Teppish's well deserved death but then later the same day, someone else reports that he has escaped the Pathfinder's grasp. Yet another rumor tells the tale of lost love reunited and a dark wedding somewhere in the depths uniting the Teppish and Ismacco families forever. The flotsam and jetsam clutter of conflicting whispers do nothing for your peace of mind.
It is a relief when the door of the Inn finally opens to reveal Cestis, the fresh-faced scholarly Pathfinder you freed from the madman, Dalirio Teppish and his slave-mongering cult. He approaches your group with yet another list of names and urges you gather your gear and follow him to the Pathfinder Lodge.
Gamma (3-4 tier)
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1) Marla Gunddur - Summoner 3
2) 'Hellion' Svetlana Irriseni - Fighter 3
3) Li Shuo - Zen Archer/ Qinggong Monk 3
4) Frindlikh Ardig - Rogue 3
5) Kurse - Oracle 2
6) Otiophon - Paladin 2
Venture-Captain Hestia Themis regards you with dark, haunted eyes. The petite Taldan woman was widely known as quite a beauty, though her now harried appearance revealed she had not borne the stress of the recent troubles well. The sunken shadows under her eyes told of long hours spent straining by candlelight instead of getting much needed rest. With a perplexed stitch in her brow, she paced beside her enormous desk as you settle in to hear her speak. Her voice is gravelly with overuse and saturated with frustration and cynicism, but still commands the attention of the room.
“I simply do not understand. A new kidnapping spree plagues us again despite all our efforts. It seems our citizens make easy prey to those who profit from such exploits! While this disturbs me, I am more troubled by reports that some of those kidnapped have returned to the city as undead monsters who accompany this Cult of Nature’s Cataclysm plague, a plague that I can’t seem to excise from my beloved city." She trembles with rage, her lips peeling back in a snarl as she slams her fist down on the polished blackwood.
“This ends now! For a third time we battle Groetus-worshiping dogs and there will not be a fourth!” Taking several deep breaths, Hestia regains her composure, smoothing wisps of raven hair back into her up-do.
“I am sending you to Swift Prison to interrogate a cultist we captured who was trying to kidnap a local engineer. Meet my man Garver out front — he’ll take you in to see the Nature’s Cataclysm fool. Find out where the other cultists hide, where they’ve taken their recent victims, and how they’re turning them into skeletal undead monsters. Free as many Cassomir citizens as you can, of course — the good publicity never hurts. Any questions?”
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There will not be a fourth. With the way this is going, I'm not too sure about that.
Frindlikh just stares intently as Themis describes another round of kidnapping.
Sounds like napping kids will soon become an export product of Taldor if this keeps going.
As the VC wraps up, he looks around the room. Arright he mumbles get info from the prisoner. I see why Svetlana is here.
Kidnapped people returning as undead. What have they been using undead for?
This is not just kidnapping, they're preparing for something bigger. You don't create undead unless you want to use them in some way
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Kurse absentmindedly rubs his left hand which is hidden in the sleeve of his robe as he replies to Svetlana. "It'ss not a magical cursse, Sslipss and I agree it iss a gift from the Lady Pharassma." Kurse starts to ask if there as been any news about the blue man group but seeing the state of the Venture Captain thinks it best to leave it alone for now.
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"You aren't misssing much ssince I'm the only one that can hear him. He can be a real jerk ssometimess too as he likess to play jokess and misslead me. The real pain iss that he iss right ssometimess sso I can't dissmisss everything he ssayss." Kurse stops to listen, "well I'm only telling the truth and if you don't like what I have to ssay then maybe you sshould sstop being ssuch a jerk all the time. Well maybe you sshould sstop helping you won't get any complaintss from me." Kurse looks back at Svetlana and whispers, "Don't worry he likess the ssound of his own voice to much to sstay sslient for long".
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Otiophon strode confidently into the room and was about to speak when something seems to have caught his eye and given him pause. Inexplicably, the armored knight stands there awkwardly for a long moment before making an embarrassed cough into his gauntlet, then quietly sits down near Svetlana and Kurse and the others.
"Ah, it will be useful to have my partner - my partner in interrogation back," Oti thinks, shifting in his seat, "Given that there is another person to interrogate and a mystery to solve..." He coughs again and wishes he had brought a flask of tea with him.
"First shipbuilders, then nobles, and now an engineer? How many and of what kinds of people are missing in this latest wave of kidnapping?" Oti asks, clumsily repeating Svetlana's question.
"Regardless, it does seem strange for simple slavers, or for someone who needs a body - any body - to create undead to target such. Continued direction from members of the fallen, vengeance-seeking Teppish and Ismacco families would seem to make sense."
“It's as good a theory as any I've heard. We believe at least 15 Cassomirites — all of them engineers, city planners, masons, and the like have fallen victim this time. Maybe the cultist in Swift Prison can tell you more.” Themis nods to Cestis who approaches with another stack of missives from your various factions.
Andoran Faction Mission, optional (Alternate for Silver Crusade)
Osirion Faction Mission, optional (Alternate for Grand Lodge)
Taldan Faction Mission, optional (Alternate for Sczarni)
Qadiran Faction Mission, optional
Information on Swift Prison:
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A sweet-looking Dwarven maiden with long, intricately braided hair in a honey-brown hue, sits listening to the briefing, or rather writing it all down. She has a large book in her lap and is writing in precise Dwarven runes. Behind her, a massive, antique-looking Greataxe held between his hands, is another Dwarf. He is armored head to toe, and has a long, wild, white beard and equally wild hair on his head. There is an unearthly quality to him, however. His hair wafts as though bothered by an unseen, hot wind, and there is a faint green glow limning the edges of his form when he is seen in dim light. Notably as well, a glowing rune floats above his forehead - and above the maid's as well. It is the rune for Ancestor, if you speak Dwarven.
"We'll get the information out of him!" the elder Dwarf says with a frown.
"Yes. Uncle and I are with you." says the woman.