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By now the intrepid Pathfinders realize the pink ratfolk was a mere illusion.
When the wounded green ratflolk draws back its arm to throw the tanglefoot bag, Nina skewers it with the tip of her lance. The creature's knees buckle, and it sprawls unconscious on the floor.
Then the summoner stabs at the shadow beast, striking the incorporeal creature with her magical lance.
Hanlin raises his palm like a laser cannon and blasts Tseka's shadow companion, tearing its insubstantial soul to tattered shreds.
"Oh, sweet Despair, my pet!" Tseka shrieks. "You will pay for that foul deed, priest!"
Erlathan
Aric/Red Raven
Okami
Nina
Inky
Hanlin
Xuan Fung
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Red Ratfolk Female
Yellow Ratfolk Female
Green Ratfolk Female
Tseka
"Oh, sweet Despair, my pet!" Tseka shrieks. "You will pay for that foul deed, priest!"
"Oh please, you were going to fight us anyway. We killed your pet and ruined your toy." He glances at the foolish traitor. "Give up now and I will spare you my wrath."
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Okami only stops briefly upon arriving face-to-face with the erstwhile shadow. Dissipating quickly under magical effects, he utters a single "OH!" before continuing on to the leader of this assembly of Aspis Agents: Tseka. He stares her down, frills erect and shaking before uttering a single word in Aklo: "☝︎♋︎●︎⧫︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ⬧︎□︎ ❍︎♋︎♑︎♓︎♍︎✏︎"
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"Gesundheit, nagaji," Tseka replies to Okami. "Your frilly erection does not impress me, but I concede, your handkerchief delivers quite the sting."
The determined pair of ratfolk females swarms Okami. The red ratfolk draws a rapier and thrusts at the nagaji, and Tseka stabs at him with her short sword.
The nagaji falls at their feet, his life's blood spilling into a growing puddle around his body.
Erlathan
Aric/Red Raven
Okami
Nina
Inky
Hanlin
Xuan Fung
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Red Ratfolk Female
Yellow Ratfolk Female
Green Ratfolk Female
Tseka
As much as he'd love to tear her apart, The Red Raven has his orders. The Society may want her alive. He uses his hasted speed to leap over the human traitor, climb up the stairs and flank with Nina on the other side. He draws his sap along the way and makes a single swing at Tseka.
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Hanlin shakes his head at the sight of Pathfinder down. He raises his palm to the sky and asks Iomedae to bring forth her healing light on everyone. Well, everyone except those three rats. "You, and you, and you and... nope not them, and you and you..."
Then he moves up over the downed Okami to protect him. "Over my dead body."
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"I was really starting to like the green guy and his stories! He didn't even judge me for my tentacles!" Erlathan grumbles, looking upon Okami's body. He holds one palm out and drags the index finger of his other to guide the flaming sphere into the two remaining foes.
Then he takes out a candle and lights it, chanting arcane words.
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Careful to avoid staining her paws in Okami's puddle of blood, Inky steps close enough to Tseka for Nina to jab at the Aspis agent with her lance.
Xuan Fung sends another electomagnetic pulse hurtling toward Tseka. The ratfolk woman's hair stands on end, sparks fly from her eyes and ears.
The Red Raven leaps over Makino Tokaji's corpse, races up the steps and attempts to flank Tseka. He bludgeons the Aspis agent with his sap, and he realizes she's too skilled to be flanked.
Hanlin calls upon the healing powers of his goddess, closing the wounds of his companions.
The fallen Okami, regains consciousness, looking up through Hanlin's hairy legs at the deadly pair of ratfolk ladies swarming on the steps.
Erlathan flicks his wrist and his flaming sphere rolls into Tseka and the red ratfolk female. Tseka dodges the napalm ball, but her minion isn't so fortunate. The creature screams, "Ow! That burns!"
Tseka glances at her minion out of the corner of her eye.
Erlathan
Aric/Red Raven
Okami
Nina
Inky
Hanlin
Xuan Fung
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Red Ratfolk Female
Yellow Ratfolk Female
Green Ratfolk Female
Tseka
"Hmm, she's very aware of her position." She quickly twists away reducing his vital blow to a basic bruise.
No matter, now she can't run. And his weapons are ready.
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Okami adopts a dying-cockroach defensive posture and manages to get off a spell, healing more of his wounds. He remains prone rather than risk almost certain death at the hands of the swarming ratfolk.
Tseka glances down at a pair of vials in her belt loops. Aric follows her gaze, spotting the wicked skull-and-crossbones symbol warning label on both. With relief, he observes her slight, frustrated shake of the head and silent curse.
Tskeka points at the Red Raven, and says in a voice a bit louder than necessary, She and her minion swarm Aric.
Aric thanks his lucky rabbit's foot, when only three of their vicious attacks penetrate his defenses. The Red Raven lives!
Erlathan
Aric/Red Raven
Okami
Nina
Inky
Hanlin
Xuan Fung
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Red Ratfolk Female
Yellow Ratfolk Female (-22; unconscious, dying)
Green Ratfolk Female (-20; unconscious, dying)
Tseka
"You are fast. Coordinated." The Red Raven compliments his adversary. "But you hog too much experience for yourself." He delays until someone is flanking with him, then he begins a full attack on Tseka's Red Ratfolk swarming partner.
"Your ally is weak!"
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Subjected to another powerful surge of electricity from Xuan Fung, Tseka crumples to the floor, unconscious.
The Red Raven shifts his attention to the red ratfolk woman. Only the first of this three attacks lands, but it seems that with her mistress down, the ratfolk chooses surrender over certain death.
The red ratfolk drops her weapons and throws up her hands. "I yield!"
"...you are wiser than you master." The Red Raven pants. The adrenaline rush wears off and now the wounds ache. "She is our prey, and will face justice."
"We need a way to get her out of here without alerting the other guards." He glares at the woman. "What's the safest way out of here. ANSWER ME!"
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Shaken, the ratfolk female answers with lips quivering over her incisors, "What other guards? You've seen and probably already killed our sentries on your way here. We heard you fighting Yekai Deathhand, and I presume he's no longer among the living." The ratfolk woman sighs, still shocked she's still alive. "There are secret tunnels out of this room, but they're a little narrow for the wide hips of folks your size."
She points out the concealed exits, and it's true. They're little more than literal worm holes.
"Out the way you came would be the only option I can think of."
The Red Raven calms down. "This was a good time to tell the truth." He pants. "You may live. I suggest you leave, and never cross the Pathfinder Society again." He looks to Makino Tokaji's body and finds some proof to bring back. A wayfinder, his signature, something.
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Hanlin stands a bit frozen as the battle rages around him, so many things cross his mind and he has trouble making a decision one way or another. Finally it's all made simpler as Tseka falls and her ally gives up. Without saying a word he sheathes his sword and draws his healing wand.
"Back up, she's coming with us, alive hopefully." He checks to see if she's still alive before healing his most damaged party members first.
"Iomedae please heal our wounds. Especially these two, they look like s@%+." His palm glows white as he heals his companions.
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Erlathan dismisses his flaming sphere, then takes out a wand a moves amongst the party. "Healing, anyone? It may feel a little evil, but it'll cure your wounds all the same!"
He shuffles over to examine the worm-sized holes. "At times like these, I wish I was an earth elemental. But I am not, so it appears we must carefully return with the, er, cargo, back the way we came."
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The Red Raven suggests the Aspis agent leave and warns her to not cross the Society again.
Then the vigilante searches the remains of Makino Tokaji. The Pathfinder turncoat carried a masterwork quarterstaff, a broken wayfinder, and a bronze Aspis Consortium badge.
With the help of the spellcasters, the team identifies a number of magical items in the erstwhile Pathfinder's possession, including a scroll of identify, scroll of invisibility, and a scroll of obscuring mist; a cloak of resistance +1; a spell component pouch; and a spellbook containing the following spells:
2nd—darkness, darkvision, fire breath, mirror image
1st—burning hands, mage armor, magic missile, shocking grasp
0—light, mage hand, message, ray of frost
"I hit her once with my sap. Is she still alive?" The Red Raven peers at her and waits for Hanlin's response. "Good. If you can turn her invisible, that's all we need. Let's stop the bleeding and put her in a sack, quickly."
"If anyone asks, our business was concluded and she asked for some privacy. See didn't want to be disturbed until the next day."
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Hanlin winces a bit as the other two ratfolk pass away, he was admittedly too concerned with their goal. Something he'd need to work on in the future. They fell in battle, their spirits will be at rest.
With his tell tale grin Hanlin waves off Erlathan's offer, his grin quickly turning to a look of horror as he realizes the source of the healing. "No Sir, Iomedae is happy to help. Keep your wand for emergencies."
He starts to gather up all of the fallen valuables. No sense leaving them for the Aspis to benefit from right? "Luckily she is a small person, more easily carried by Okami perhaps?"
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Fung descends from the ceiling, although he stays a few inches from the ground. He has little idea on how to smuggle Tseka out but tries to be helpful by moving back down the corridor, keeping to the shadows and looking to see if any of the Aspis should have heard the battle and come down to investigate.
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Hanlin, ever the conscientious cleric, remembers to gather 'alms for the poor' and perhaps a few items of interest to the Pathfinder Society. He decides to search the dead ratfolk first.
The two dead ratfolk minions wore leather armor, were armed with a masterwork dagger, a light crossbow with 5 masterwork bolts and 10 regular bolts, and each carried a potion of cure light wounds, a potion of pass without trace, acid, alchemist’s fire, a tanglefoot bag, masterwork thieves’ tools, and a combined 242gp.
Xuan Fung leaves behind the ratfolk woman who had surrendered and the unconscious Tseka. He spots the body of the alchemist Yekai Deathhand where you left him.
The Red Raven grabs his burlap sack and drops Tseka into it. "Let's get out of here." He grunts and lifts Tseka over his back.
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Hanlin calls for the aid of Erlathan as he collects the useful items in the room "Help me find things quickly. Look for their magic or something. We don't have much time, but we've surely enough to do a quick 'repo' right?"
He does a quick walkthrough of the room before working his way back to the alchemist's lab to do the same there.
"Anyone have any experience with alchemy? We should get any information that could be useful. Judging by the strange creatures they were creating it would be helpful if the Society had a 'heads up' to any strange concoctions they've been working on." He heads over to the lab area and careful starts poking around.
"Fung, relieve that alchemist of his possessions, especially any books or notes."
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As the Red Raven puts the unconscious Tseka in a large burlap sack, her assorted gear clinking and clanging as its jostled around inside. One of her hands is sticking out of the bag, and he stuffs it roughly inside. Then he notices subtle movement out of the corner of his eye.
Hanlin walks around Tseka's war room, observing the walls are covered in maps.
of the Lantern Lodge, and a detailed drawing of an unexceptional multicolored tapestry covered in abstract patterns—the Hao Jin Tapestry.
The cleric retrieves Tseka's shortsword and shortbow from the steps, where she dropped them.
Hanlin tells Fung to search the slain alchemist, while he starts searching Yekai Deathhand's laboratory.
Reams of paper that exhaustively detail Yekai’s experimental processes are crammed into drawers underneath the table. These notes include his procedure for creating kirrixes and his ideas for refining his flask of reconcoction. Many of the pages are stained with blood or alchemical ingredients.
While Yekai’s papers fill most of the space under the table, the eastern row of drawers is packed with Tseka’s notes. She has not bothered to lock these drawers—trusting that no lock could survive the skills of her ratfolk allies, she instead buries information among stacks of trade documents detailing the purchase of magical reagents. Some of these reagents are circled.
Letters hidden among the trade documents detail arrangements between Tseka and a local thieves’ guild called the Dragon Fangs. They reveal that she regularly hired them to beat up her enemies and to replace local merchant’s trade documents with forgeries. Tseka’s documents also disclose that she was gathering magical reagents by a variety of means, including stealing them in transit and purchasing them legally. She also compiled extensive lists of ingredients and lists of prices.
A small wooden coffer in the back of the bottom drawer contains narrow bars of a dull, dark gray metal.
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"Ah yes, of course." Fung looks uneasily at Hanlin moving into the room by himself, but he trusts that he knows what he is doing. Besides, Fung is there to back things up. He floats down, sitting on the air with his legs crossed as he goes through the body of the alchemist.
Once he's done, he flies past Hanlin over the pit and keeps an eye on the left and right passageways for anyone approaching.
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"Allow me, Hanlin," Erlathan pushes his way ahead and scans the maps. "The maps on the wall are of locations of attacks that Tseka is organizing. It seems they contain an architectural layout of Goka, a sketch of the interior of the Lantern Lodge, and a detailed drawing of an unexceptional multicolored tapestry covered in abstract patterns—the Hao Jin Tapestry."
The elf examines the papers in the drawers, and mumbles to himself. "Most of the circled reagents are used in conjuration spells."
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Erlathan makes sense of the maps and drawings hanging on the walls of Tseka's war room, then leaving them where they are, he follows Hanlin into Yekai Deathhand's laboratory.
The elf arcanist is able to shed some light on one of the documents among the drawers in the lab. But unable to make any more sense of most of the documents and items he's recovered, Hanlin elects to stuff it in his rucksack, hoping to have someone else look it over later.
Xuan Fung searches the body of Yekai Deathhand. The alchemist wore a leather lab coat that functions as +1 leather armor and a cloak of resistance +1. His spear is nearby.
The kineticist also recovers a potion of cure serious wounds, a potion of lesser restoration, a potion of remove disease, a wand of heroism (5 charges), four flasks of alchemists’ fire, five vials of antiplague, two vials of antitoxin, rhinarium paste, smelling salts, a flask of reconcoction, a formula book and an alchemist’s kit, masterwork thieves’ tools, and a bronze Aspis Consortium badge. His belt pouch holds 35gp.
heroism
2nd—blur, cure moderate wounds, false life,
spider climb
1st—bomber’s eye, comprehend
languages, expeditious retreat, reduce
person, true strike
The Red Raven finishes stuffing Tseka in a bag when he notices someone. He moves up to the ratfolk. "Trying to escape? Going somewhere? Without telling me?"
"That isn't very nice of you."
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Once he's finished fishing around and taking valuables and documents from the lab, Hanlin heads back to the war room to see how everyone's doing "Those maps sound important. Just because we've got Tseka doesn't mean those attacks aren't already planned. We should take them as well."
He heads over to roll them up to bring along. "Anything we miss?"
Inky clears her throat, "Well, Pathfinders, perhaps we ought to search the little ratfolk, see what she might have up her sleeve, before she tries to escape again. For that matter, are any of you opposable-thumbs types going to search Tseka? Stuffed in a sack, sure, but left with an Aspis Agent's tools of the trade? Please."
The eidolon ticks off a short to-do list, "We've been through almost all of this Aspis lair, but we were moving fast. After we search our prisoners, we might want to pay our respects to that myceloid emissary."
"And what about those sentinels at the entry hall and the others in the tunnels we passed? How do you plan to deal with them?"
Having deigned to share her feline wisdom, she sits back on her haunches, licking a paw for dramatic effect.
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"Huh? ....Oh! Right!" Nina exclaims, blinking away the daze she'd been in; sometimes the excitement of battle left her a little drained and unfocused after the fact. "Good ideas, Inky! You're so smart!"
She turns to the wannabe-sneak ratfolk. "Okay, time to hand over all your stuff - it'll go a lot easier for everyone if you just do what we say, okay? We don't really want to have to hurt anyone else today if we don't have to."
"Um...that is some ugly metal," Nina feels the need to point out. "Why couldn't it have been something pretty?"
Noticing that Erlathan seemed content to leave all of Tseka's maps and drawings tacked to the wall, she shoots him a puzzled look and begins to take them down herself and carefully pack them away. "Um...I think the Lantern Lodge might wanna know that they're in danger," she points out. "And these other places, too. We need to take all of this stuff back with us! All the maps and plans and paperwork!"
"Yes, these plans as well. Sorry, someone was trying to make things complicated." He shoots a look to the captive.
"I know not the value of this. Gather Tseka's notes and intelligence."
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Tseka's lieutenant sighs, handing over her gear to Nina, then doffing her +1 studded leather and cloak of resistance +1. The ratfolk woman points to her hand crossbow with 10 bolts and masterwork rapier lying on the steps.
Searching through her rucksack, Nina discovers an elixir of hiding, a potion of cure light wounds, two potions of invisibility, a wand of shocking grasp (CL 4th, 12 charges), two flasks of acid, masterwork thieves’ tools, silk rope (50 ft.), and a grappling hook. She has 314gp in a belt pouch.
Nina and Aric gather up the rest of the maps, drawings and other useful documents in Tseka's war room.
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"You're right, Nina," Erlathan replies. "I suppose I was just too excited about all of these magical goods, I didn't think for a second we'd take some boring old maps!" Then he notices the formula book, and his eyes go wide as he flips through the pages. "I'll definitely be copying some of this magic! Excellent find. As for this badge, it looks like Yekai’s Aspis Consortium badge is not official. Someone was hired to create this badge - it's a fake!"
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Okami, unskilled as he is in most of these trades, looks on sheepishly as he realizes he could have healed some of that himself.
Grabbing onto Tseka, he begins to rifle through her belongings, putting everything, even lint and a half-eaten dim sum into a bag of his. Does he know what he's got there? The answer is likely not. However, if one is thorough, one cannot leave anything of value behind! Of course, should anyone request he slow down, and provide triage, well... Okami is nothing if not an accommodating... Man-beast-child-whoknows.
"So... What mean "Nottoficial bad'ge"? Is bad? Good? Food? Okami is much hungry." He pauses as he picks up Tseka's shortsword. "Is sword?" He licks it, and cuts his tongue a bit. "Is sword. No lick" he warns.