Jawari follows Thulgrum into the building. Hearing the sound of cooking, and seeing no staff around, he walks to the open kitchen door and knocks.
Seeing the cook working, the big man briefly nods his head. "Pardon me miss, can we trouble you for a moment? We are trying to look up Justerian, and make sure he's okay. The guard told us that there was a cook here who was friends with him, and were hoping you might be able to help us."
A rather matronly woman stands at the stove frying fish in a skillet. She turns to you ask you breach the threshold. She appears sad as she prepares to answer Thulgrum, but then relief washes over her face when Jawari explains their purpose.
“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.”
The dwarf walks over to the doorway. "We've been looking into someone who has been watching him and other former slaves. We wanted to talk to Justerian to see if he might know who it was. Do you know where Justerian lives so we can check up on him?"
"He kept staying in this real rotten old place where no one’d think to look," Dahlia says. "It's a two story manor--completely abandoned and neglected--five blocks east and two blocks north. I'll be so grateful if you would check on him!"
"Thanks for the help. We'll go there right now."
"Yes, thank you kindly," the big man rumbles. He pauses briefly as he prepares to turn away, and then turns back to the cook. "Before we leave, let me ask you something. Before he stopped showing up here, did Justerian ever say anything that made you think he was in danger, other than his worry about underground slavers? Or did he ever put a name to these slavers he was worried about?
"I dunno who his enemies are. He’s real private about his past, and I don’t like to pry when it’s not my business," she says.
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 its front door hangs open. Two staircases lead up to the second floor, their steps riddled with small holes.
Thulgrum pulls out his climbing gear and starts to climb the wall.
Shash giggles slightly as he climbs up the wall as if it were a ladder.
Bypassing the rickety stairs, Thulgrum and Shash make climbing the crumbling wall look easy. They soon find themselves on the second floor. The rotten doors are ajar and most of the shutters are a strong breeze away from falling off of the windows.
Despite Kyra's relatively heavy armor, she manages to stride up the stairs without any difficulty.
"Shash, being the quietest of us do you want to take point?"
Stubbornly resisting the urge to ask Thulgrum to toss down a rope, Jawari attempts to make his way up the stairs.
Lulled into a false sense of ease, Jawari heads up the stairs. He steps on a termite eaten board, and his leg plunges through the broken board. He frees himself, bloodied, from his misstep and joins the others on the second floor landing.
Kyra illuminates her holy symbols, banishing the shadows inside the abandoned manor. Shash leads the way. As they approach the middle of the hall, everyone notices the floor in the master bedroom is sagging and has a shallow layer of flooding. More worrisome, debris from the rickety ceiling falls as bats shuffle in the sudden light. When the bits of wood fall into the water, it sizzles like acid. Your boots are likely to protect you from the acid--so long as you do not dally too long--but the splatter from the falling debris will likely sting.
Status
Jawari (-2 hp)
Looking around, Thulgrum starts to grab boards on the ground and tries to brace the ceiling. "I think this should keep us safe for a little longer before the ceiling collapses."
Sash looks between the bedroom and the hallway and then back to the group quizzically.
Jawari comes up to the group, leaving a slight blood trail from his leg as he mutters under his breath about rotten stairs and bulky armor. The big man nods at Thulgrum when he begins to brace the ceiling, asking, "Do you need a hand with that?
The dwarf turns to Jawari, "That would be great. We can get these braces up and hopefully not have the ceiling come crashing down on us."
"Don't mention it," Jawari replies, as he walks over to Thulgrum and gives him a hand with propping up the boards. "Happy to lend a hand."
Shash notices a blood trail near the base of the stairs in the room across from the bedroom. However, before he can mention it, a wave of filthy water rushes from under the bed, displacing the furniture and a trunk underneath it, and then washing over Thulgrum and Jawari. The pair find themselves covered in sewage.
A gray-brown ooze emerges from under the bed.
Kyra entreats Sarenrae for her blessing.
Encounter mode! Round 1. Bold may act.
Kyra-bot
Thulgrum (reflex save DC 15 or Hampered 10 ft)
Shash
Jawari (reflex save DC 15 or Hampered 10 ft)
Ooze
Bats
The sewage covered dwarf enters into a fighting stance. He then steps to Flank with Jawari before throwing a couple of punches at the gray-brown ooze.
Sash looks disgusted at the ooze and begins slowly following the blood trail.
Jawari fails to avoid the wave of sewage that washes over him and Thulgrum. Seeing the ooze right next to him, and Thulgrum in a flanking position, he does not even take the time to draw his sword, instead attempting to bludgeon it into pieces with his heavy shield.
"Shash, stop stalking your next victim and help us with this thing!" he calls out as he sees the goblin moving away from the fight.
...and the fight is over before the bats even get disturbed.
There remains a ruined bed with a chest partially revealed underneath the foot of it.
Shash finds a club at the bottom of the stairs. There is a bit of scalp with hair stuck to the side of the club.
Jawari looks askance at the scalp stuck to the side of the club. "That doesn't look like hair from a live person that I've ever seen," he says slowly. "Might be a zombie or some other undead creature. I've never heard of a zombie picking out victims before though . . . This investigation keeps getting more and more interesting."
Noticing the chest under the ruined bed, the big man asks the group, "Thulgrum or Shash, do you want to take a look at that chest, or should I open it up?"
Thulgrum reaches down and pulls out the chest. He then scans the chest to traps.
The trunk contains two sets of simple clothing, 50 feet of hemp rope, a waterskin, 10 days of rations, a set of cookware, a minor elixir of life, a vial of nectar of purification, and 12 sp. It also contains a letter.
Justerian,
Again I ask that you find somewhere else to live. You don’t need to live in squalor—not when you have friends who can help you find a safer home.
-W
Jawari and Shash notice a wooden amulet further up the stairs.
Jawari carefully picks up the amulet and examines it, trying to recall if he recognizes the design. Failing to recognize it, he passes it around to the rest of the group, "I don't recognize this design, but this amulet looks unusual. Maybe identifying it can help direct our search. Do any of you know it?
From where Jawari stands midway up the stairs, he can see insects fluttering about the top of the stairs. There seem to be one species of moth and a small swarm of flies.
The dwarf moves over to Jawari's location. "I'm not sure on that icon." Then noticing the insects up the stairs, he continues "those are corpse flies and death's head moths. The flies are drawn to rotting meat. We should check up there." Thulgrum then tries to move silently up the stairs.
Sash follows from behind.
A male, human body lies in a puddle of congealed blood. It would not be a stretch to assume that this is Justerian.
"Another dead body. I wonder if that journal we found in the sewers belongs to the W who wrote to Justerian. We should break the news to Dahlia then head back to Valsin. Does anyone want to hold on to the elixir of life or the nectar?"
"Poor bugger," the big man says, looking sadly at Justerian's corpse. He bows his head briefly in respect for the dead.
Jawari then looks over at Thulgrum, "I agree, we should inform both Dahlia and Valsin of these developments. Dahlia will be pretty broken up about it I think. Might be a good idea to mention it to Ziraya or one of the other Muckrakers too, since there's a corpse and what looks like a murder here."
As a seeming afterthought, he adds, "I'll take the elixir, if you're offering."
You return to the Frog's Tongue and inform Dahlia of your findings. "Oh-Oh my," she says, eyes starting to well up. She blinks away the tears and sniffs. "Well, thank you for looking into this for me. I hate the news, but it's better than wondering and wondering. Did you find any clues as to who her killer might be?"
-- - --
Backtracking, you manage to find Ziraya near where you first encountered her and still hunting rats. "What? Murdered? That's a shame. We'll get the body taken care of and a proper burial. Thanks for letting me know."
-- - --
Back at the Lodge, Ambrus Valsin listens intently to your report, his frown growing deeper with each detail. "Can I see the amulet you found?"
Assuming that you hand it over, he looks at the carving and nods to himself. "This is the symbol of Milani. Makes sense for a freed slave to have it. Unless the killer is one of the other freed slaves, it probably belonged to this Justerian."
He sighs gruffly. "I'm even more worried about Nelfurhin. Take the night and get some rest. I'll see what the thinkers can make of your findings."
When back at the Frog's Tongue Thulgrum asks Ziraya."Do you remember Justerian talking about someone with a name starting with a W?"
Later on with Ambrus Valsin. "The Barbers said there was a hired murder of a half-elf cleric. I wonder if that cleric followed Milani. Maybe we are looking for someone targeting followers of Milani?
At the Frog's Tongue, after Dahlia's response, Jawari somberly says, "My condolences on your loss. We don't know who or what killed Justerian yet, but we saw some evidence of foul creatures near the scene. I'm sorry we don't know more than that at this time."
--
Finding Ziraya, the big man says, "You're welcome, ma'am. We found some evidence of a battle with undead creatures, a zombie or something like that, at the scene of the crime. Have you seen or heard any evidence of these around the Puddles?"
--
Back at the Lodge, Jawari also relates the findings of undead flesh at the scene to Ambrus Valsin, and asks if he has any advice for fighting this sort of enemy. He continues, "It seems strange to think of a zombie specifically targeting freed slaves, though. As far as I understand, they're usually a little more ... indiscriminate with their targets. Maybe someone is controlling them, or maybe it's a different sort of undead ... Anyway, please pass that along to the thinkers as well," he says, giving a slight bow.
"No, Justerian was always really secretive about his past. He didn't have any friends other than some priest that sent him our way looking for work," Dahlia replies to Thulgrum.
-- - --
"Nothing concrete," Ziraya replies to Jawari. "Not since that siege last year when all the dead rose up. Might always be some remnants somewhere."
The next day, you receive a letter from Ambrus Valsin.
Pathfinders,
Your information has led me to conclude that the Rose Street victims were all former slaves, somehow connected to the church of Milani. I’ve determined that when the victims were freed, each was hidden in the same safe house, a tavern called the Sanguine Thorn. But that seems unlikely, as multiple accounts report that the earthquake destroyed it decades ago. Go to the tavern’s address in the Precipice Quarter. If it’s somehow standing, search for information that can help us stop this murderer or find our missing Pathfinder, Nelfurhin Zor, before it’s too late.
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
As you head through the gates to the Precipice Quarter, the Absalom's Post Guardsmen warn you that the gates are ordered to remain closed from dusk until dawn, no matter who asks to be let through.
Through a shroud of heavy fog, the twisted silhouettes of ruined structures loom over the broken cobblestone path. What was once the corner of an intersection is now an imposing chasm. The mouth of the crater is large enough to have swallowed a colossal beast, but mist, detritus, and darkness obscure the bottom. Numerous shards of stone and debris jut out from the inner walls as if the cavernous hole is baring its teeth all the way down.
If you make a Religion DC 10 check:
Thulgrum pulls out his climbing kit and prepares to descend the crater.
Using a complex system of rope, pitons, and pulleys, Thulgrum makes it down without issue. The base of the pit is thick with fog.
The dwarf can barely make out sunken structure through the fog. Broken bedrock, hunks of wattle, and splintered lumber—all lightly dusted with sea salt—sink into the mud. The lurching profile of a bowed and broken structure stands here, its walls little more than rows of warped timbers, covered in withered vines, that converge at strange angles. The door on this side of the wall is missing from its frame.
Despite her heavy armor, Kyra makes it down the pit using the rope left behind by Thulgrum.
Although he does not have a climber's kit to attach himself to the wall, Jawari also carefully makes his way down the rope left by Thulgrum.
At the bottom of the crater, he turns to the dwarf, saying "Thanks for that rope. Climbing in this armor is always dicey." Looking around, he continues, "I have a bad feeling about this place. Keep your wits about you." He methodically dons his shield and draws his longsword, while keeping his eyes on the surrounding area.
"I'm not liking this fog. Let's keep our eyes and ears open."
Shash enthusiastically scampers down into the depths with the others. He is definitely happier about the fog than they.
As you scout the sunken tavern, you note two additional entrances besides the open door frame on the side wall: the front door under a crumbling veranda and a section of the back wall has several gaping holes screened by withered vines.
Kyra- provides light for herself and Jawari.
Jawari turns to Shash, quietly asking, "Shash, do you think you could scout out that first room without being seen by looking through the back wall?"
Sash grins his typical grin and creeps toward the back wall.
Peering through the dead vines, Shash can see two zombies swaying in place.
Shash sneaks back to the others. "There be two zombies inside. And side entrance."
"Should we try the side door? Shash did you spot any traps?"