The elf drew his curved blade and moved closer to his companions, He gave a grim stern look at the boy and said "When the fighting starts, you will find a place to hide. Once this is over we are going to have words you and I."
He readies himself and waits for the trouble to start.
Sensing the tension in the air, Abishek sighs. "Ugh, if one of you lot spills so much as a single drop of blood on these silks..."
Abishek walks back to the front of the barbershop, then opens a scroll case attached to his satchel. He takes out then unravels an scroll scribed in crimson occult-looking script, speaking the otherworldly language a moment later. As the scroll puffs into smoke and ash, Abi gestures with his hands, taking the magical essence of the scroll and washing it over his body like incense.
He returns to the party with an otherworldly shimmer around him. A faint smell of brimstone piques the nose. He unravels his whip, then sighs again. "Okay. Shall we?"
Liranna sneaks along the wall, very quietly as she looks and searches for the bandits.
Liranna spots the hiding bandits and moves in to attack with her rapier before they get a chance to react!
1st Action: Seek
2nd Action: Move
3rd Action: Attack
He'll move up to the closest spotted target and attack with his primary weapon.
1: Seek
2: Move
3: Attack
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Abishek advances, seeing Liranna attacking the shadows.
He doesn't seem to see anything, so he looks harder.
Ah, it was one of those bloody Bloody Barbers, all along.
[i]Pre combat[/] Mavis readies her crossbow and runs through all her spells that she memorized in her head.
Mavis the Maroon moves up and points to all the thugs in the alley. She then fires a shot from her crossbow at the thug in blue.
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The Pathfinders attempt to surprise the Barber's with their own ambush! But find it surprisingly difficult to spot the barbers while they are in their hiding spots!
But almost immediately, the barbers spawn from the trash with daggers in hand and retaliate! "Arghghh!"
The Paladin Siv holds his ground, and fends himself with expert swordsmanship.
On the other hand, Abishek is caught off guard by the pair and they cut him a few times with their daggers.
Liranna dodges a few times, but gets slightly hurt in the process.
~~~
With black presenting such a ready, flanked, target, The ranger tries to stop him where he stands.
If the black Barber is still standing, Taleath will try for a pure bonus strike.
If the black Barber is not still standing, the Ranger will reposition himself in an attempt to help his companion. He will loop up and past Liranna and around into flank with green.
1 & 2: Double Slice
3: Attack or Move, depending
Abishek takes a step back after getting slashed to ribbons, then flutters his hands in a distracting manner. Bright flashes of iridescent hues snap and crackle in an area in front of him, surrounding two of the Barbers.
His eyes go dark, and his voice takes an ominous tone. "Shaanadaar roshanee, in dushmanon ko apane chamak ke saath dhundhala!"
Swirling colors affect viewers based on their Will saves.
Success Dazzled for 1 round.
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Failure Blinded for 1 round, dazzled for 4 rounds.
Critical Failure Stunned for 1 round, blinded for 4 rounds.
An blinding, prismatic light bursts forth from Abishek, washing over the Barbers, who find it ever so alluring.
Liranna, using her allies' help, continues her attack on the Barbers with her rapier, using them to create openings!
Assuming he goes down then, Liranna makes her way to flank with Siv, moving around to the other side of Red and attacks him!
Mavis reaches into a pouch with one hand pulling out abit of ground up cricket. She then says Aa rooky hooka
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With barber's out in full view, the Pathfinders retaliate with full force taking out the thugs one by one! Taleath and Liranna deal with one thug each with some expert swordplay, striking the thugs down to unconsciousness through injury. Mavis turns to magical means and knocks down another with use of pure energy!
Abhisek turns to the magic of light in attempt to subdue the remaining thugs, but they manage to turn their eyes in time to only be momentarily dazzled. But even with their hindrance, they move up to attack Abishek! Some of their attacks land, hurting the sorcerer.
~~~
Shifting position over to deal with another one of the thugs, Taleath unleashes against another flanked target (Green).
1: Move
2 & 3: Double Slice
Abishek, frustrated by the bandits, peels away from them, then curses them in an occult tongue. "Mahaan Kaalaateet Ek, mujhe apanee shakti udhaar den aur in brigedon ko neeche dabaen!"
The sorcerer extends his arm and splays his fingers, and cold, necrotic energy shoots forth towards the Barbers.
Black shadows curl out from your fingertips and race through the air, taking the form of ephemeral vines spiked with thorns.
You deal 2d4 negative damage and 1 persistent bleed damage to living creature in the line, depending on their Fortitude saves.
Success The creature takes half negative damage and no bleed.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Failure The creature takes full damage.
Critical Failure Double negative and persistent bleed damage.
Stride, Cast (Somatic, Verbal)
Seeing the barbers fall around her, Liranna gives a smirk as she quickly makes her way over to help with the two that are left. She gets into position now with Taleath and goes again with her rapier!
I will also be using my Nimble Dodge reaction to the first attack that comes against me. I get +2 dodge bonus to my AC for that attack.
Startled by the sudden flurry of attacks, Sivrilltri missed an opportunity to defend himself. Instead he flinched back from the sharp onslaught as they thrust at him. Then his enemies were down and he found himself to be barley staggered by the blows of the daggers. Recovering himself he moved with grim determination to flank the closest threat he found. This time he did not hesitate as he brought his Elven blade down on the unsuspecting barber.
Slightly out of breath from the encounter, Abishek reaches into his satchel and pulls out a vial of liquid. He uncorks it, then downs its contents.
"Everyone all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just took a scratch. Rather easy, honestly," Liranna says, putting her rapier away. She then turns to look at the kid and glares at him.
"So, you saw how we took down your friends there. Wanna make this easier on us and just tell us everything you know about the Bloody Barbers' movements? Or point us to someone who can? I'm sure you'd rather not end up at the end of any of our blades."
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"Ahh. Ahh." The boy visibly squirms, and agrees to tell you everything he knows about the Barbers and their recent activities. His explanation starts by revealing how he thought the barbers were "cool" and wanted to be part of something bigger than himself and lives a life of crime. But curiously enough, he's overheard about the recent dissapearances, namely that the local Barbers have been afraid for their lives and scrambling to figure out who is behind the murders. He adds that the Barbers’ only lead so far is that whoever is killing seems to be targeting former slaves.
Taking out her notebook and quill she begins writing all that the boy says. Hmm yes I see. That is absolutely fascinating. Slaves you say. Who would kill slaves and why? Maybe keeping a secret... Slaves from where exactly?
Abishek looks at the Barbers, and notices that they are still breathing. "Perhaps one of them does? Let's ask them."
Reaching into his gear, the Ranger produces a healer's kit, and tends to one of the Barbers at Abishek's request.
But his ministrations don't seem to be productive.
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Eventually, a barber is returned to consciousness for your questioning. In addition to what you've learned, the criminal organization also knows that the former slaves are all ones freed during the Fiendflesh Siege a little over a year ago. Among those was Remna, a former scullery slave with a mean streak, who joined the Bloody Barbers and shaved part of her head after being freed, then disappeared mysteriously about a week ago. Some believe this was an act of revenge for a hired murder of a "half-elf cleric". The Barbers have questioned several witnesses to track down the rose-street killer and get revenge themselves, but the only helpful information they found was that the probable killer wore metal armor and seemed to have difficulty controlling the right side of their body.
Although the Barbers may commit numerous other crimes, they’re as much the victims as the Pathfinder Society is in the case of the Rose Street Killer. Ambrus Valsin is relieved to hear that resolving this situation won’t involve going toe to toe with such a formidable opponent, but he remains troubled that the killer is still at large. He thanks you for your investigation and ask you to rest while he pieces together his next lead.
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And it isn't too long before the Venture-Captain summons you again.
You follow the directions that came along with the summon, to eventually travel into a cramped operating base within the sewers of Absalom. Dragonspeaker Engashez gesticulates wildly while pacing within the tight confines of a foul-smelling side chamber in the sewers. The energetic and elaborately attired kobold strides around a deep circular pit in the center of this chamber, waving her hands to accent her ongoing speech.
“Bandits! Intruders! Not-true dragons! These new kobolds, these so-called ‘Dragon Sharks,’ are a blight upon the Sewer Dragons’ dominion of Absalom’s most grand sewer ways. They cannot be allowed to continue their intrusion into our territory and must be stopped. You will help us, yes? The Pathfinders have always proven to be firm allies in the past, and it’s time our allies made their presence known in these sewers.”
Engashez looks down into the out-of-place pit, a hint of disappointment in her eyes. “Especially after one of our other allies decided to wander off!”[ She then looks up and nods her head vigorously. “Yes, you can go with Fazgyn. Trap the Dragon Sharks between two sides and crush them for the glory of the Sewer Dragons and Chief Yiddlepode!”
Abishek waits until this supposed Dragonspeaker isn't looking, then mutters under his breath to the other party members. "These things are kobolds? They're so small, and tribal, yet they claim to be dragonkin..."
Liranna smirks at Abi’s question, finding it humorous and hoping to the gods that the kobold Dragonspeaker was not looking.
”Got it. When did this new...gang of kobolds move into the sewers? Recently? Also, what of this ally that walked off? Who was that?”
"One of your allies decided to wander off? Who left?"
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Liranna recalls a handful of knowledge about the kobold kind. Kobolds are small reptilian humanoids that often inhabit deep forests or underground areas with little sun, largely because kobolds’ eyes are sensitive to bright light. They love to engineer traps. As most other humanoid creatures are far more physically powerful than a kobold, most kobold tribes line their camps with countless traps to even the odds against intruders. Additionally, Kobolds tend to follow the most powerful member of their tribe or scouting party. Defeating the leader often causes the remaining kobolds to panic and lose combat cohesiveness. Spellcasters often take leadership roles among kobolds by citing a lineage going back to a true dragon.
Engashez responds with haste, talks a bit too fast, and a little high in pitch. "The Dragon sharks, morons, moved in relatively recent, maybe a few months, idiots! She makes her hatred very strong and clear of the other tribe.
Then turning to respond about the wanderer, she responds with equal criticism “Who walked off?! A loud oaf who was supposed to be guarding this section of sewer, such incompetence! I wonder where he and the other man want off to?! It doesn’t really matter though; we have you to help us now!”
Valeros groans when he hears that his assignment will take him to the sewers, but grabs his new shield and prepares for the worst. He cathec us to the rest of the party and hearing the hissing kobold speaking instinctively grabs his blade only to realize that this who he was sent to help.
"Greetings," he says sheathing his blade. "Valeros of Varisia, at your service. It seems you could use a good blade to drive out these sharks."
Mavis continues to take studious notes in her journal. He is also mapping the tunnels and looking for anything unusual. Yes I see, the Dragon Sharks do pose a threat to the cohesive harmony of the sewer dwelers. We do not want such chaos to diffuse to the upper streets. If we aid you with your problem, will you help us with our investigation? Sewer Dragons know things the surface dwellers ignore. We need you expertise.
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The kobold trapper named Fazgyn emerges from the shadow and eagerly leads you and a band of five other kobold warriors down the sewers. As you start your journey, he explains to you the dangers of exploration.
"The sewerssss here are full of traps, so you best keep an eyeee out! To find traps, you have to be trap-smart, and you get trapsmart by dealing with traps or being really good at spotting traps. If you’re not good at looking, you might miss the trap that kills you! Some dragonbloods can sense magic and magic traps, but that also takes effort. You want to focus on sneaking? Hiding behind shields? Life’s full of choices, and my choice is to look for traps and stay alive.”
“It’s easy to get distracted by enemies and arrows and forget to watch fr tripwires. Want to stay alive? Take a moment to look around.”
“Once you find a trap, you can jam it, trip it, reconfigure it—you name it. Or you can hit it until it’s gone, but that probably sets it off.” Fazgyn rolls his head in exasperation and makes a disgusted sound. “Or just use magic to kill magic traps. I don’t know the details, but it takes strong magic to do.”
But he doesn't stop there, he continues to explain the dangers of the traps that are not true traps, such as environmental hazards, and sometimes that of supernatural things, with his infinite wisdom of 'traps'. “Maybe it’s not a trap but it’s brambles or falling rocks or sky thunder or snakes. Use your outside smarts to avoid those. Sometimes there are ghosts instead of traps—bad news. The more you know about spooky things, the more you can trick those ghosts into going away.
"You muggles got that?!"
Abishek has to do everything in his power to keep from speaking up at the prospect of following orders from a kobold. His pride dutifully swallowed, he listens to his words, and surprisingly, finds some wisdom in them.
"I must admit, you seem to be an absolute font of knowledge where trickery and ruthlessness are concerned. We are but... humble students, and thank you for your generous lessons." Abi could swear he felt a touch of bile when the word humble escaped his lips.
Not wanting to lower himself by conversing with a filthy Kobold, Siv let his fellows lead the conversation. When he was satisfied they had all the information they were going to get the Paladin moved off with his companions.
He spoke, "As much as I want to be shut of this horrid stench, we should take this slow. We don't know what kind of horrible things await around this labyrinth's corners."
He moved slowly careful to search as he moved, His keen Elven eyes looking for any signs of possible danger.
"Searching for traps it is, then."
Valeros remains on his guard.
Liranna keeps to the shadows as the group continues forward.
Mavis follows near the rear looking for any clues as she continues to move her Dancing lights along with the group.
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Led by Fazgyn, you head deep into a sewers maze, It's fairly dark and the smell of sewerage is overwhelming. Two path exist on either side of the sewerage but the path is narrow forcing you to travel in a single line down into the unknown. It is quite evident when you walk down they it you're in hostile kobold territory, blood marked walls, broken weapons, sprung traps left out and about. An hour into the journey, Taleath spots a well hidden pit, a trapdoor that causes those who step on it to fall blocking your path to advance.
"Egggssselent!!" Fazgyn mutters, "You have been listeningss. Now, as mention before, once you find a trap, you can jam it, trip it, reconfigure it—you name it. Or you can hit it until it’s gone, but that probably sets it off. Now, who will attempt to clear the path?”
”I got this, this is easy.” the elven woman says, smirking as she steps up to deal with the trapdoor.
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Staying true to her word, the elf named Liranna easily jams the trapdoor using her thieves tools, enabling the group to walk over the door without triggering it.
”Yiss, eggssellent, good job” The kobold praises the rogue, impressed at her thievery ability then continues to take lead, pushing the group into the sewers. Not long, you come into an intersection that goes into two opposite directions. The kobold lays low on the ground and sniffs each for a couple minutes. ” We’re near men, we spilt up here! Pathfinder you go there, Sewer Dragons go here, we surround dragon shark and crush them! Remember looks for trapsss”
The kobolds unsheath their spears and in a single line tread down the darkness in the opposite direction.
With the tunnels around them darker than ever, Abishek motions to his party.
"If you wish, I can illuminate the way, just say the word."
"Light is appreciated. Prefer to see what I am hitting." says Valeros.