Thank you for your assistance. Is there anything we should know about these parts. Any thing that would help us stay ahead of trouble and see it coming before it bites us?
After they Muckrucker’s response Mavis says, Thank you again. And which way is this tavern?
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The guard points you off in the right direction, and gives you a clear warning to stay away from the rats, and perhaps any suspicious looking individuals. Thankfully your short journey through the wet and narrow alleyways is uneventful.
The Frog’s Tongue, a small building, seems to embrace the water that often floods the Puddles. Recognizing that keeping the first floor of the building dry was a losing battle, the owners instead hollowed out much of the first floor and built a permanent pond, stocking it with frogs for novelty. The tavern patrons primarily use the second floor.
The sign announcing the tavern is a mummified frog glued to a slab of wood. As you arrive in the early afternoon, business is slow. The door to the kitchen is open, and you spot Dahlia frying fish in a skillet. As you approach her, she immediately embraces your presences and drops everything she does causing the fish to burn slowly in the background.
“Thank the gods, the Muckruckers decided to send someone after all. As I was telling the badge lady with the dog tattoo, it’s not like Justerian to not show up for work. He’s a cook here with me, see, and he loves his job. He’d been a slave for years, and with all that slavery isn’t on the up and up anymore, he finally had a chance to pull his life back together. Puddles ain’t the best place for that, but he was managing just fine. He kept talkin’ about how he was worried that one of those underground slavers was gonna come snatch him back. I thought it was just talk, but now I’m worried.”
Abishek nods at Dahlia's words. He was struck by her mention of how Justerian was trying to eke out a living on his own. Kind of like how he had shirked his family's drag on him to see the world and be his own person.
"Clearly you're worried about your friend. Do you know if he had any plans for last night? Was he meeting anyone? Anywhere he would have went? Otherwise, where does he call his home? Perhaps we can start there."
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She thinks for a moment, but doesn't hesitate to respond when the answers flow through her head "Well, he was kind of a loner, never really went out or had much friends, kept his life really private, you know? His place would be a good idea as a start I reckon, He kept staying in this real rotten old place where no one’d think to look. It’s because it’s not safe. The stairs are full of termites, and the attic’s full of bats. One good storm and the whole place might just fall down.” She describes in further detail where the house in the puddles is located.
Well I suspect that is a good place to start. Is there anything else you could tell us about him. Did he have any enemies? Maybe someone to whom he owed money. If you have their name address and SIN that would be very helpful. Mavis keeps jotting notes and sketching things in her notebook. She also keeps an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious in the Frog Tongue.
"Sounds like a rough place to live." Valeros remarks. "Still, it may be our best lead to finding your friend. Can you point the way there?"
"I... I think you've forgotten about something." Abi points to the kitchen door.
Valeros repeatedly ponders nature.
"In any location where it appears, change the value of the untrained proficiency rank to your level minus 4"
The ranger is happy the cook shared her information so quickly and easily. He hopes it might be a sign of how hard it will be to find the killer.
Liranna has been rather quiet, but at the ready when her expertise is in need.
Thank you, mam. This will be of great help. She quickly grabs the map and studies it intently. This way follow me.
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The group follows the directions to one of the worst hit areas of the Puddles. Buildings seem to be crumbling, and roads much more uneven, to a point the majority of the locals avoid this area for their own safety. You eventually stumble upon the ruined Manor Justerian calls home.
Only weeds surround this once majestic Manor House, which now leans slightly to the west, sinking into the muck. The first floor is flooded, and it's door hangs open. Two staircase lead up to the second floor, their steps riddled with small holes.
As Taleath examines the steps, he clearly recognises the degradation of the wooden features are as a result of the termite infestation Dahlia referred to, and explains the patterns of their habits.
Valeros artfully scales the wall and prepares the enter the decrepit manor.
Taleath attempts to bounce up the stairs, working to avoid the most termite-eaten portions as he goes.
Liranna gracefully climbs the steps of the manor, making sure she was staying hidden.
Mavis carefully tries to navigate up the steps, the whole time whispering I need to learn a spell that will let me levitate, or a grunt that will carry me...
Abishek looks up at the other members of the party scaling the wall and scoffs. He looks at his manicured hands, then walks to the door of the first floor.
There, he sees the floodwaters, and looks down to his fashionable shoes. I am going to have to start wearing boots if I want to give this spelunking and adventuring thing a real go, aren't I? He trudges through the water, and gets to the stairs.
Halfway up, he hears a creaking groan come from underfoot...
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Valeros scales the wall successfully while most of the party attempt to risk stepping on the broken and rotting stairs. Taleath and Abishek get their foot stuck as they misstep and suffer a few cuts from splinters.
Immediately as you reach the upper floor, you are overwhelm by a dreadful stench, following it, you come to a large unfurnished room with a spiral stairwell heading towards the attic. The floor bears several bloodstains and a dribbled trail of blood leads up the stairs. On the floor nearby the dried bloodstains is a wooden club, and a holy symbol. Near the top of the stairs, some insects fly about.
Mavis goes to inspect the club first. She rummaged through her bag taking out a small polished piece of glass. Turning her hat around she bends down, brings the glass to her eye and inspects the bloody weapon.
If she can she will continue to inspect the room going next to the holy symbol. He puts on a tight fitting blue glove on her left hand and carefully picks up the symbol trying to place it in her studies of religions.
Finally she can no longer ignore the buzzing of the insects and walks over to look at them. If they seem safe enough to catch she will try to do so and inspect it more closely.
The ranger also bends to examine the club, though he doesn't add any tools to do so.
He skips over the holy symbol, not so worried about it, specifically, focusing instead on the insects . . ..
Valeros wonders what other awful stench might be pungent enough to overcome the presently awful stench.
Abishek adds what information he can.
Club:
Holy Symbol:
Insects:
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The group investigates the scene thoroughly, leaving no clue unnoticed. Taleath recognises a few strands of hair from the club belonging to an undead creature. Abhisek knows that the Holy Symbol belongs to a follower of the goddess Milani, she represents devotion, hope, and uprisings. Additionally, being a man of knowledge, the sorcerer also identifies the insects, two sets of them. Flies predominantly drawn to meat and rotting corpses, and death-head moths! This insects are sacred to Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony, disease and undeath. Although they are indigenous to the Isle of Kortos their presence here seems more than a coincidence.
The stench seems to be coming from the top of the spiral stairs, but also somewhat of interest, is the room opposite your current spot. A bedroom that looks used to some degree, and a pools of sludge litters the floor of it.
Good work everyone. It seems we are dealing with some undead. If these flies are attracted to rotting flesh then I would not be surprised to find something dead upstairs. I suggest we clear this level before heading up. I do not want to find ourselves cornered in the event we need to retreat. Let us investigate the room ahead. It appears this is the room our victim used as living quarters.
Mavis will move carefully detecting magic. She would also like to investigate using a recall knowledge I’m not sure which would be relevant or if she can can do both in exploration mode.
Carefully, with great effort Siv finds purchase behind Valeros pulling himself up.
Sivrilltri nods to Mavis as he regards the indicated direction. "Aye, that room is as good as any. We should tread lightly and guard our backs, undead can be trick-some, depending on the variety."
His weapon at the ready Siv moves forward peering about seeking any hazards that might be hidden from view.
Abishek moves with the group, albeit a step behind with his whip drawn.
Valeros with blade drawn surveys the area for trouble.
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Siv follows behind a little late, and cuts himself a little as he attempts to catch up by scaling the walls.
Satisfied with the investigation, the Pathfinders then progresses to search the bedroom, becoming weary of a possible undeath threat that may lurk within the house. The bedroom's walls is covered with dark greenish mold and smells equally bad with small droppings on the floor. Other than the bed, which is adorned with fresh blankets and pillows, the rest of the furniture, consisting of a chair and a bedside table is decaying and covered in dust.
You soon realise the sludge pools that cover the floor is something unnatural, as an ooze like creature deposits slime everywhere it moves, wandering about the bedroom. The creaking floors also cause a disturbance to a nest of sleeping bats and they start flying from the ceilings.
You realise that the ceiling to the room isn't stable, while it's not enough to become a falling object that poses a threat, you realise that the debris falling on the acidic sludge on the floor might cause some sort of splashing hazard. You may perhaps brace it and attempt to avoid it.
Reacting to the situation early, the ooze moves immediately towards the party and unleashes a wave of filth and slime!
"That ceiling looks unsecure. Beware of splash caused by falling debr--ah!" Valeros stops midsentence and grits his teeth as he is covered within a wave of slime. He tries to determine what it was that just struck him.
Unsure, he shrugs, moves forward, and strikes it with his blade.
"Stupid...filth!" Liranna screams as she tries to dodge out of the way, but gets hit with some of the filth.
Liranna pulls out her rapier, trudging forward with some ooze slowing her down and expertly tries to attack the ooze.
The Ranger decides to try to take stock of the situation as best he can before acting as hastily as humans are wont . . ..
Siv let out a gasp at the sudden onslaught of filth, Feeling the acid starting to burn into his armor and skin the elf attemps to wipe it off.
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Liranna and Valeros waste no time and turn to their weapons in attempt to cut down the ooze-like creature. The ooze barely moves as it takes a beating with slime spreading across the room with each swing.
Taleath knows a little about the ooze, from the smell it's definitely derived from the sewers, and due to it's nature is immune to acid, mental and visual afflictions. And without any proper anatomy, is immune to precision. The Bats on the other hand, are common household bat swarms, and because they are difficult to hit can be resistant to most attacks.
From beneath a coating of dripping, putrid goo, Valeros looks pleased with his swordsmanship.
Liranna tries her best to swipe out as much of the ooze as possible!
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Taleath realises the bats are more spooked than they are hostile and it is possible to attempt to calm them down.
Although easy to hit, the ooze is much tougher than it looks, taking quite a beating.
The bats start to scatter and surprising fly over most of your heads out of the room. But they stop in the path of Mavis and Abhisek and in the madness bites them!
As the bats fly through, some of the loose debris from the rotting ceiling collapse and falls nearby Valeros, causing a splash of acid to hit him.
Siv pulled himself to his feet. The elf looks disgusted with the goop that was sprayed all over him, with a flick of his hand he wiped of what he could.
Watching the bats, fly at his friends the elf sets himself and begins to cleave wildly into the swarm.
Reaction: Retributive Strike
Trigger; Ally is attack by creature in my reach
effect: Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature at a –2 penalty before the opponent rolls the damage for the triggering hit. If your attack hits, the target is enfeebled 1 for the remainder of its turn, or enfeebled 2 for the remainder of its turn if your Strike was a critical hit. The enfeebled condition ends immediately if the creature makes a Strike against you. If Retributive Strike incapacitates or kills the triggering creature, the triggering hit deals no damage.
Seeing the debris fall, Valeros shakes his head. "I knew that ceiling was unstable..." His trained reflexes cause him to move in an effort to avoid the caustic splash.
"Get out of my hair, you tick-infested wing-rodents!" Abishek draws a blade, and slashes wildly overhead at the swarm.
Abi feels a trickle of blood seep from his brow and get into his eyes. He wipes it away with the sleeve of his tunic, and sees a swath of crimson.
"Gods below, they've nicked me! I'm bleeding!"
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Mavis attempts to move out of the bats way as they fly towards him and narrowly gets past, having a few cuts and bruises along the way. He tries retaliate but to no avail as the swarms swiftly flies around him.
Valeros quickly reacts to the crumbling ceiling and moved deftly out of the path to avoid a acidic splash! The ooze attempts to latch on to the fighter in attempt to digest him alive, but once more the human avoids the danger through quick dodges.
Siv picks himself up, wipes off the ooze and swings his weapon wildly in attempt to assist his allies in ridding the bats. Only his first strike hits, taking out a few of the vermin.
"The bats are mostly scared. We might be able to calm them down. The slimy thing over there is going to be much harder to stop. Just punish it!"
Taking his own advice, the young elf tries to calm the bats before taking a shot at the ooze and working to avoid any other debris.
1) Interact (Calm the bats)
2) Strike (ooze)
3) Avoid splash zone
Noting that the ooze creature hasn't caused him much harm, Valeros wonders if he can subdue it quickly with a volley blows.
He quickly realizes that he cannot.