Jawari's eyes narrow as the Barber speaks. "If what you say is true, you must at least have some leads on the killer," he says.
"We suspected that it was revenge for the hired murder of some half-elf cleric--before you ask, I don't know, I wasn't part of that assignment," the Barber says. "We hit the town, trying to drum up leads. All we learned is that there were other slaves killed--all freed during the Fiendflesh Siege last year --and that the killer probably wore metal armor and seemed to have a problem using the right side of his body.
"Now, if you'd be willing to let me go, I'm sure that I could explain to the big bosses that this was all just a misunderstanding between two grieving parties... and no need to retaliate against your people."
Back at the Lodge...
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 encourages you to rest for a while as he finishes piecing together his next lead.
"It looks like this is getting dangerous," the venture-captain says as you prepare to depart. "Take this minor elixir of life for an emergency."
Items & Resonance Tutorial
Shash stays near the back of the room maintaining his creepy, sharp toothed smile.
A messenger delivers each of you a letter:
Pathfinders,
With the ongoing rash of disappearances in the streets of Absalom, it seems prudent to strengthen ties with our allies. I’m sending you into the sewers to meet with one of the Society’s most dependable, albeit more unconventional, allies in Absalom: the Sewer Dragons kobold tribe.
You’ll be meeting with their speaker, Dragonspeaker Engashez, and offering whatever assistance you can. When people disappear on the surface, bodies usually end up in the sewers, and having the eyes of the Sewer Dragons helping us could prove invaluable.
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
You arrive at the cramped operating base for the Sewer Dragons as directed.
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!”
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.
Kobolds 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.
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.
I'm needing to learn more of my new home
"Who is Fazgyn and where do we need to go?"
Thulgrum checks his gear in his backpack before putting it on.
"I'm ready."
Shash smiles a wide smile. "Kobolds don't like bright light. There will be traps. And I will kill their leader. Done"
Jawari looks towards Shash and gives him a small nod.
“Most skilled trapper of all the Sewer Dragons. If you don’t know about kobold traps yet, he’ll teach you!” the kobold answers Thulgrum.
"Trapping is a good skill to learn. I look forward to learning from Fazgyn."
"Huh," the kobold says. "You not as talky as most Pathfinders. Well, get going that way. Fazgyn meet you."
You head out of the chamber and into the sewers. Shortly after departing, you are met by six kobolds. Their leader stands apart as a red scaled kobold wearing a chain shirt and with a short bow decorated with red feathers. "I be Fazgyn," he introduces himself. "You be fresh meat. I know novice when I see one. You clumsy topsiders. No worry. Fazgyn teach you good!"
He gestures for you to follow him. "To find traps, you have to be trap-smart, and you get trap-smart 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!”
“It’s easy to get distracted by enemies and arrows and forget to watch for tripwires. Want to stay alive? Take a moment to look around.”
"Any questions?"
"I be good. Our little friend here has a date with the Dragon Sharks leader." states Thulgrum while nodding to Shash. "How dark is the place we are going? Do we know about how many there are in the Dragon Sharks?"
Shash grins broadly when Thulgrum gestures.
Jawari breaks into laughter after Fazgyn's introduction, nearly doubling over in mirth before collecting himself and straightening up, as he wipes tears from the corner of his eyes.
"Ah, I didn't realize it showed quite so clearly," he says, a broad smile splitting his face. "A good reminder not to take myself too seriously! Fresh Meat, reporting for duty! We'll keep an eye out for traps, and try not to get killed. Do you have any information on what to expect when we fight the Dragon Sharks, other than traps beforehand?"
“When I’m walking like this," Fazgyn gestures toward the sewer tunnel before you all, "I’m always looking. It takes effort unless you get really good at it. 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
"Now you try," Fazgyn gestures for you to take the lead.
Shash keeps to the dimmer parts of the path, blending in like the cat from the famous bard's play. His teeth being the last to be seen, and maybe the first as well.
Thulgrum keeps his eyes out looking for traps and ambushes.
"We'll leave the disarming traps to someone who knows what they're doing. But I'll keep an eye out!"
Jawari removes a torch from his backpack, and lights it with his flint and steel.
He walks along towards the front of the party, eyes scanning the area as he keeps an eye out for traps. "Times like this, I really wish I could see in the dark," he mutters to himself. Well, maybe I'll be a distraction from the rest of the party, assuming I don't go down in a hail of hostile arrows, he muses as he walks along.
Kyra concentrates on detecting magical auras in order to notice any magical traps while you explore.
Jawari spots a trap door in the floor in front of you just before any of you step on it. At this point it is unclear what danger lies under the trap door.
"Good eye," Fazgyn compliments Jawari. "I wondering if any of you going to see pit."
"Yes very good eye, Jawari"Thulgrum takes a few steps back and makes a leap over the pit.
Shash sneaks up and quickly deals with the trap door.
Shash reveals a rather deep pit with nothing interesting at the bottom, but it would have been a painful fall. You all leap over the pit easily and continue onward. Eventually, you reach a junction.
"You probably do fine, now," Fazgyn says. "We close to Dragon Shark outpost. So you go that way, and we go this way. Meet in middle and smash Dragon Sharks like falling rock trap. Good? Good."
Kyra illuminates the sewers for Jawari, and the companions head down the sewer tunnel.
Jawari once again saves you from a painful misstep by spotting a pressure plate at the end of the tunnel at a T-junction.
You know, Mom, he thinks to himself, moments like this, I think you were right. I should have stayed a blacksmith.
He carefully walks just up to the plate, gathers himself, and Leaps over the pressure plate and sewage , landing on the far walkway and taking a step out of the way of the next party member.
Shash fails to find a way to disable the trap.
With the dangerous tiles identified, however, Thulgrum and Jawari simply leap to the other side of the sewer. The dwarf hears the soft murmur of idle conversation down the sewer tunnel .
Encounter Mode. Round 1. Bold may act.
Jawari
Shash
Green
Kyra
Thulgrum
Red
Blue
Shash attempts to remove the trap once more.
Shield and torch at the ready, Jawari strides down the path toward the sounds of conversation. On rounding the corner, he sees that he doesn't have a great way to get to the enemy, and moves back along the wall, taking cover.
Requirements: You are benefiting from cover or are near a feature that allows you to take cover.
You press yourself against a wall or duck behind an obstacle to take better advantage of cover (see Cover on page 314). If you would gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and Reflex saves due to cover, you instead gain a +4 circumstance bonus to AC and Reflex saves from the cover while you’re taking cover. Otherwise, you gain the normal benefits of cover. This lasts until you move from your current space, use an attack action, become unconscious, or end this effect as a free action triggered by the start or end of your turn.
The criminal goblin rogue successfully disables the pressure plate, allowing safe passage.
Jawari moves along the wall, pressing himself close to avoid being shot by whatever weapons the kobolds might be holding.
The robed kobold makes a startled noise and then weaves a complex series of hand gestures before vanishing.
Encounter Mode. Round 1. Bold may act.
Jawari
Shash (two more actions)
Green
Kyra
Thulgrum
Red
Blue
Thulgrum pulls out a javelin then enters into Tiger Stance. Thulgrum then strides 20'.
Shash then moves forward crouched and presses himself against the wall. He grins widely for what he is about to do.
Kyra brings the light of Sarenrae to the battle.
A kobold leaps across the sewage and moves to meet Jawari at the corner. He swings his pick, but it cracks loudly off of the corner of the tunnel. Another kobold scurries down the tunnel and into the intersection.
Encounter Mode. Round 2. Bold may act.
Jawari
Shash
Green
Kyra
Thulgrum
Red
Blue
Shash rushes around the corner, flanking the kobold engaged with Jawari, teeth bareed. He lunges...
The big man grins wolfishly at the kobold, after seeing its pick glance off of the corner. His face hardens as he takes a guarded step and swings his heavy shield at the kobold's head.
Giving a fierce battle cry, Jawari turns to face other kobold he can see.
Jawari, seeing his foe still standing, again tries to bash in its skull with his shield.
Shash scurries around and bites the kobold's leg. While the scaled guard is distracted, Jawari comes around the corner and bashes his lights out with a solid smack to the face. He fails to intimidate the other kobold guard defending their tribe's stolen territory.
The robed kobold then appears and, chanting, sends a magical missile into Shash. He then scrambles along the walk to hide behind the remaining guard.
Encounter Mode. Round 2. Bold may act.
Jawari
Shash (-5 hp)
Green
Kyra
Thulgrum
Blue
The dwarf moves along the sewer edge before leaping across the sludge. He then launches a javelin at the closest kobold.
Thulgrum leaps across the sewer and tosses his javelin into the kobold guard, wounding it gravely. Kyra wades into the muck in an effort to finish it off, but the small creature dances out of the way of her slashes.
It tries to retaliate, but Kyra finds cover next to the edge of the walk.
Encounter Mode. Round 2. Bold may act.
Jawari
Shash (-5 hp)
Green
Kyra
Thulgrum
Blue (-5 hp)
Jawari growls as he sees the robed kobold's magical attack damage Shash. With a sudden sprint, the big man dashes around the enemy, coming up behind the robed kobold, and viciously assaults him with his shield.
With a similar low growl, Shash dives at the guard, teeth bared.
Jawari bashes the kobold sorcerer into the next life. Shash tears the last kobold guard apart with his bare teeth.
You hear several more kobolds rushing out of the tunnel, but you quickly realize that it is Fazgyn and the other Sewer Dragons as they enter your light.
"Good jobs!" Fazgyn compliments you. "We finished the puny scouts on other side of tunnel. We will tell chief you good to word."
Inside the tunnel, you find the 'treasure trove' of the Dragon Sharks. Within the wooden trunk there is a scroll of illusory disguise, hat of disguise, and 8 silver pieces. There is also a waterlogged journal.
...to ensure that my clients receive all the support they require. Many forget that Milani is not just a goddess of liberating the oppressed, but also of ensuring they’re not condemned to hardship once free.
Justerian—male human dockworker, about 40 years: I worry about Justerian. The slavers wore down his spirit as much as they did his body. He struggles to cope with his new life and fears his former masters might find him and shackle him again. He needs friends, and while I am glad to see he has steady employment, his living conditions are not healthy.
Remna—female dwarf scullery maid, about 40 years: With good reason, servitude has left her resentful of social elites. She’s ambitious, but I have tried to counsel her against association with some of Absalom’s more dangerous circles. Much as I do not like the rumors I’ve heard of her new role models, she is free now—including free to make her own decisions. I shall stay in touch should she need help.
Aedo—male halfling gardener, about 50 years: He has managed fairly well with the transition. Wealthy families who once secured his services for free were eager to hire him. I have provided him the silver needed for tools, and his business is thriving along the Petal District’s Rose Street.
Nelfurhin—female elf alchemist, age unknown: Formerly a scriptorium slave handling several households’ documents, Nelfurhin has found a welcome home at the Pathfinder Society. The Society is a good fit for her, particularly as the Grand Lodge continues to clean up some of its questionable practices.
Omoak—female half-orc personal assistant, about 25 years: She served Lady Eambria Tullian, who perished during the siege in Absalom’s defense and apparently willed Omoak a considerable sum for a decade of service. I’ve helped her locate and start up a grocery business.
"Fazgyn, it was an honor to fight along side you and the rest of the Sewer Dragons." Then turning to the rest of the Pathfinders, "Venture Captain Valsin will be interested in this journal. I'm thinking Remna was the Bloody Barber killed. I wonder if the other three have been killed as well."
"I agree, Thulgrum," Jawari responds. "Let's get a copy of this to the Venture Captain, and go pay Justerian, Aedo, and Omoak visits. They shouldn't be too hard to find, and if they're still alive, they might have some clue whose journal this might be."
Turning to the Fazgyn and the Sewer Dragons, Jawari smiles, "Glad to be of assistance, and thanks again for the guidance! If you find any new bodies in the sewers, let us know."
"Good work," Venture-Captain Valsin says after you finish your report. "I'm sure this journal will open up some leads. First, though, go get some rest--and a bath."
Pathfinders,
There are certain places in Absalom where criminals go when they want to keep a low profile. The Puddles is one of those places. Street after street of abandoned buildings and a small and underfunded guard force make it an ideal place for people looking to stir up trouble without getting caught.
Still, someone there may have heard something useful. Travel to the Puddles and speak to the guards. They’re called the Muckruckers, and you can recognize them by the bronze badges they wear. I’ve provided you with a small donation to help fund their public services, which should help convince them that talking to you is worth their time.
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
The letter arrives with a sack of thirty silver coins.
Shortly after arriving at the Puddles, you come across a guard.
Rain patters down onto the muddy streets of Absalom’s Puddles district, covering it with the murky pools of water that give the district its name. The buildings that line the streets have seen better days. Many of them are decaying, shuttered, or boarded up. The door of one of these buildings swings open, letting rats rush out into the streets. A woman wearing leather armor and a bronze badge stands in the doorway, slashing a shortsword into the swarm of rats and urging them out of the building. On her forearm, a tattoo of a dog animates and snarls.
The dwarf moves towards the building but staying out of reach of the short sword being swung around. "Looks like you got things under control but if you need some help just say so."
Shash stays in the shadows of the alley nearby.
Jawari follows Thulgrim's lead, taking a pleasant tone with the (apparent) Muckrucker, "Pardon our interruption, but we were hoping to speak with you when you have a moment."
“As you can see, I’m busy. Can’t have vermin chewing thorough our food stores, and this isn’t even the first swarm of rats I’ve dealt with today. They’ve been everywhere lately. But I can spare a moment.”
She sheathes her sword. "My name is Ziraya. How can I help you?"
"I'm Thulgrum Flintbreaker and these are my associates Jawari and Kyra. Our friend, Shash, likes to keep to the shadows and stay on watch. We are members of the Pathfinder Society looking into a matter that brings us here. We are looking for a follower of Milani whom seems interested in former slaves who earned their freedom during the siege. The person was watching three individuals by the names Omoak, Aedo, Justerian. Hopefully you might have heard something. And here is something to help with your efforts in the Puddles." states the dwarf as he hands her the bag of coins.
Ziraya accepts the sack of coins. She hefts it to get a sense of its weight and raises an eyebrow. "That is might generous of your organization," she says. "I see they haven't forgotten our aid during that terrible siege last year."
She ties the sack to her belt. "I don't know too much that will help you, but the name Justerian is familiar. There's a cook at the Frog's Tongue tavern who's been asking the Muckrakers to look for her friend by that name. That's about all I know. We've been too busy with other problems to go looking for an itinerant worker who might very well just be sleeping off a hangover."
Ziraya gives you directions to the Frog's Tongue.
The Frog's Tongue is a tavern located at the top of a flight of stairs. The sign bears a mummified tongue nailed onto the board. Underneath the elevated tavern is an artificial pond that is home to dozens of frogs.
Entering, you find only a few elderly patrons playing cards or picking at small plates of food. No servers are immediately visible, although the door to the kitchen is open. You can hear the sound of a frying pan sizzling something.
The dwarf nods to the patrons as he moves to the kitchen door. Thulgrum booms out, "Hello. We are looking to talk with Justerian."