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Andor steps forward.
”It was a pleasure to help you! And I hope that you remember this when you listen to the next couple of sentences of mine!“ he says and looks at his companions.
”We are sorry for invading your territory but we found evidence that links your twin candles organization to an attack on a merchant where we not only found your symbol but also found evidence that links the event to the Pathfinder society! We are Pathfinders and can assure you that this event had nothing to do with us and therefore we would like to speak to you or somebody else in your organization that can provide us with more information on what is going on here!“
“What evidence? What merchant? Did this alleged incident happen outside Ordellia?”
Eun takes the lead from his cousin who is suddenly quiet.
“If so, it was nothing to do with the Twin Candles! We do not operate east of the Yondabakari.”
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Andor raises an eyebrow.
“Well, then you surely also have nothing to do with a shipment that we found!? Documents affixed to the side of the crates we found detail their progress from western Andoran aboard a ship called the Zoot II? Have you heard anything about that? And we found a piece of cloth with your twin candles symbol on it!! Please tell us what you know!“ Andor says and asks the group to show the cloth they found.
“And we found a piece of cloth with your twin candles symbol on it!! Please tell us what you know!” Andor says and asks the group to show the cloth they found.
A scowling Eun snatches the satek out of the hands of the party. However, his open scepticism turns quickly from disbelief to horror as he turns the cloth over in his hands.
Ignoring you for the moment, he turns a shocked face to his cousin. “Ylandria, what have you done?”
“YOU KNOW NADA, IDIOTA!”
What follows is a fiery argument between the pair in rapid-fire Varisian. Between the yelling, finger-pointing and tears from both Sczarni, the name Uncle Titus is repeated frequently in unflattering tones.
Perhaps twenty minutes later, Ylandria turns her back on both Eun and the party, moving a short distance away to sulk.
This leaves a shame-faced Eun to give the party an explanation. “As well as being indebted to you for my life, I now owe you an apology, Pathfinders.”
“It seems my cousin was sent to negotiate with a drug wholesaler in the Dockway last night. At the last minute, our kapteos’ Uncle Titus insisted she take along a couple of his boys for security.”
“You must understand, Uncle Titus is not initiated in the Twin Candles. But because he is our bosses’ uncle, he cannot just be ignored.”
“Ylandria claims negotiations were going well, when for no reason one of Uncle Titus’ punks stabbed her contact with a poisoned sharp and both of them began ransacking the shop. Then – if you can believe this – a crazy plant came out of nowhere and began attacking them!”
“They managed to fight it off, but Ylandria was worried about leaving her unconscious contact in the shop with it. So she dragged him outside when she got spooked by the movement of curtains and candlelight in a neighboring building.”
“Before the three of them took off, one of the young punks dropped a brass ornament beside the body.”
He pauses to take a breath. “Ylandria needs to report this complication involving your organization to our bosses. She needs to do so now.”
"If it ain't your people, then it's in both our interests to work together here."
“As the half-orc says, it would be helpful if you could also tell our kapteos what you know. Then it can be decided what is to be done.”
“As such, I would be delighted to offer you an escort through Twin Candles territory so you can confer with them. What do you say?”
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Sleeping Sword snoozes through the row between the two cousins, then jerks upright as Eun offers his apology.
"Uh, apologies? Good Mr Chert and our new friends here are drug dealers, mmm? The Way of the Sleeping Sword says: the gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit."
The old monk lets the words of the Way stand as his introduction.
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The noblewoman offers a smile. ”I am the Lady Vulpina,” she states. ”A pleasure to have removed you from the sinkhole. I have met some in my travels who I could only wish to have had the chance to let succumb to the earth in such a way as you nearly did.”
She is quiet a moment, then:
”Actually, that number is higher than I would have liked, now that I ruminate upon it. At least each case has been remedied with lead and steel.”
Both Loam and the GM are familiar with a few such folk in Vulpina’s past, of course.
“The pleasure is mine, Señora Vulpina. I can think of one person right now who could benefit all of us by not waking from a long dirt nap.”
“The Way of the Sleeping Sword says: the gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man understands profit.”
“I will not find fault with your conceptos sesgadó this day, Muerto Papá. Not when your amigos save my life and we potentially share the same enemigo.”
With Ylandria some distance ahead on point, Eun leads you past decrepit buildings and flooded streets, many of which are barricaded with dubious warnings of imminent collapse, painted hastily in Taldane and Varisian.
“Something has upset the underground population of mites in Ordellia.” Eun explains.
“They block many of the drainage tunnels beneath the prefecture in ‘revenge.’”
He shrugs. “We take advantage of the chaos by sealing some of the areas of our territory. Makes it easier to patrol and defend them.”
“Though it does increase the chance of sinkholes forming in the event of seismic events. As you and I know all too well.”
☠
Eventually, the Varisian gangster leads you into a central enclave, comprising a small collection of shanties, painted wagons, and tents built in the grounds of a collapsed ruin. The Twin Candles’ headquarters Two- Lights, sprawls about a pair of gigantic torch-like beacons erected in the slum's center.
The scent of incense suffuses this ramshackle camp, not quite overpowering the pervasive odor of mildew. Gnats swarm between lean-tos, shanties, and tents, the best of which are assembled on foundations of scrap wood, and the worst of which rest directly on the soggy ground. Soot-smeared children play near cook-fires tended by old women, while tannery workers eat from bowls held in their stained fingers.
With Ylandria nowhere in sight, Eun leads the Pathfinders through the cacophony of color and smells to the base of the twin-beacon’s masts, which support a festively ornamented and irregularly shaped tent, clearly occupied by the camp’s most important residents.
A muscular Shoanti, sporting crossed-out tattoos in the shape of stylized eyes stands outside the tent. As you approach, the formidable guard hefts an earth-breaker and bares her teeth. However, a short exchange in Varisian with Eun seems to placate her.
“Two Coyotes says Ylandria is with the kapteos now. We should wait for her to come and get you. It should not take long.”
At the Shoanti woman's not-so-gentle nudging, Eun turns reluctantly to Lady V. “Two Coyotes also asks – and I beg your pardon for being so forward, Señora Vulpina – whether you are currently ‘claimed’ or ‘hunting?’”
Perhaps twenty minutes later you farewell Eun as Ylandria leads you inside the unusual dwelling, which houses a sumptuously appointed den draped in heavy curtains and furnished with piles of pillows. Leaving briefly, the rogue returns with two impossibly young Varisian nobles.
Similarly attired in ornately edged trousers and voluminous silk blouses, by their features it is obvious the pair are siblings. ”Pathfinders, meet kapteos Coralina and Jacek Giatano.”
“They are most interested to hear your version of events and will try to answer your questions.”
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Lady Vulpina is out-of-place.
This isn't the first time she has seemed a bit out-of-place within the Pathfinder Society, of course; no noblewoman looks at home in a sewer, or alongside a bevy of raging quarter-dressed half-orcs. But in a slum like this, she can't help but feel eyes on her.
She considers passing out alms. Would that be insulting, or helpful, she wonders?
She settles for... not. Glaklos at the Lodge still needs coin to enchant my pistol, she remembers, and I will need every one I can scrape together.
At the Shoanti woman's not-so-gentle nudging, Eun turns reluctantly to Lady V. “Two Coyotes also asks – and I beg your pardon for being so forward, Señora Vulpina – whether you are currently ‘claimed’ or ‘hunting?’”
Vulpina looks blank for a moment, then grinned. "The last man who tried to lay claim to me attempted to press his claim," she explains, pulling one of her pistols from her hip-- though she doesn't hold it by the grip, to show that she's not planning to use it as a weapon.
She eases the flintlock down, so that it doesn't spark, then hands it sideways to Two Coyotes.
"It did not go well for him."
On the side of the pistol is an immaculate engraving of what appears to be the Lady Vulpina in a bridal veil, firing a shot into an armed samurai's fundoshi while a wedding party looks on in horror.
Anyone with a good knowledge of nobility might find that story familiar, actually...
"If I am to be your game, always remember that a cornered fox is far more dangerous than a jackal," offers Vulpina, holstering the pistol when it is returned, "and that I am fond of caramels."
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Oh, great. More people skills. I stink at this. Okay. Okay. I can do this.
After Andor has told his tale, Kala adds: "The plant's name is Antaios. It was just protecting its friend and its territory."
It comes out as more gruff and accusatory than she intends. Well, that didn't help. Time to keep my stupid mouth shut.
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Sleeping Sword snoozes intermittently as the group follows Eun.
“Though it does increase the chance of sinkholes forming in the event of seismic events. As you and I know all too well.”
Fools, bringing their doom upon themselves! I was right all along, they are nought but bandits!
In the ornate tent, Sleeping Sword lies down on the pile of pillows, his scabbarded katana held in one hand. "zzzzz.....zzzzzz...."
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Two Coyotes grip on her weapon tightens when Lady Vulpina draws her piece. However, she expels a deep, chuckling *GROWL* after being handed the weapon and having time to inspect the engraving.
As she returns the firearm, Two Coyotes makes another aside to Eun. “¿Qué son ‘caramels?’”
In broken Taldane the Shoanti continues, “Eun … get … me … some … NOW!”
"The plant's name is Antaios. It was just protecting its friend and its territory."
“Before taking him out for dinner and dancing at the Gilded Cage, no doubt.”
Jacek Giatano sticks out his chin, speaking calmly but firmly. “Signorina, please do not make the mistake of thinking that because we were born in a shack-on-wheels we are stupid.”
Coralina continues more graciously and with a smile. “Our thanks for the synopsis of your misadventures to date, Master Andor.”
“Brother Sleeping Sword, Mistress Loam Yin, it seems portentous that the goals of the Twin Candles and Pathfinders coincide like a lunar eclipse, when Lord Moon and Lady Sun unite for the briefest time.”
“Allow me to explain how we find ourselves with this joint-problem.”
The twin kapteos recount how the Twin Candles recently undertook a recruiting drive to help solidify their tenuous position in Magnimar’s underworld, and perhaps enable a move into the lucrative narcotics trade.
“We were contacted by our mother’s maverick step-brother, Titus Terliss. He told us that his gang was on the out in Riddleport, and was hunting for a perch in Magnimar to hide out for a season. He mentioned one of his fellows was a savvy alchemist, who could help us cut in on the trade.”
“Though they originally worked hard to produce product for our new endeavor, they had other priorities. They began conscripting our soldiers for unauthorized break-and-enters and began carrying out bolder and more violent robberies.”
Jacek continues grimly. “They have worn out any welcome they had here, and we want them gone. Uncle Titus may technically be family, but he isn’t Blood.”
Coralina concludes, “If you eject them, you can help yourself to whatever spoils they have accumulated. Our excursion into the drugs and antiques trade has not been profitable, and we wish it ended.”
“If you agree, Ylandria can lead you to their present accommodations which are not far from here.”
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Loam's gaze roves over everything present, as if unsure of what is going on. She also finds herself dusting off her robes more often than is necessary for a clean pocket in all this mess. Still, she manages a nod to the twins in recognition of their obvious knowledge.
"Your line of work would be appreciative of well-informed help, I assume. So I have several questions. Need we do anything with Mr. Terliss and his associates...after...they are dealt with? To keep the affair secret, unable to be traced back to you?" The query provokes another fit of cleaning. She quickly follows up, keen to move away from the topic. "Secondly, what did the man do to be forced from Riddleport?"
“We do not care who knows about the demise of Uncle Titus’ once-promising career. Indeed, our prestige is enhanced if the streets know what happens to those who cross the Twin Candles.”
Coralina places a hand on her brother’s arm. “However, if you spare any of Uncle Titus’ younger minions, we can re-train and subsequently find work for them inside the Family business.”
"Secondly, what did the man do to be forced from Riddleport?"
The twins share surprised glances, before Coralina shrugs and nods at her brother.
“We realize as Outsiders you may not know about our Code called Omertà, which prohibits us from asking family those kinds of questions.”
Jacek shows his teeth. “However, Coralina and I have speculated privately that Uncle Titus may have offended a rival crime lord in the City of Cyphers.”
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Andor is a little surprised about the flow of information.
He looks at the lady and bows.
”We very much appreciate your honesty! We just want to make it clear that we are not trying to help you create your space for business in this town or help you to get rid of arrival! We are just trying to clear our name and if there are other solutions that might not be perfect for you, we cannot promise that those will not be the option we choose. But we can agree that have a common enemy and that together we are more impactful so let us proceed today and see what else happens tomorrow!“ he says with a sly smile.
Jacek opens his mouth to reply, but his sister silences him with another deft touch on the arm. “Of course, Master Andor.”
“We have no doubt the Pathfinder Society will deal with this matter the way it thinks best.”
Once you are ready, Ylandria leads you about a quarter-mile from the Giatano’s pavilion to a weed-filled section of the same enormous ruin the Two-Light beacons crown.
“The underground section of our Manor never saw much use before Uncle Titus arrived. He and his people really value their privacy.”
Buttresses jut crookedly from the ground, between piles of shrub-covered stone. A narrow gap in one of the standing stone columns — just wide enough for a person to pass through — leads to a small, cylindrical chamber within. A sturdy block and tackle attached to a simple horizontal platform is mounted above a five-foot-wide pit, leading into the darkness below.
“The shaft is about 20 feet deep. We had previously cut hand-holds into the sides to allow access for exploration in the early days.”
“The platform and pulley system is new. Uncle Titus had it installed for lowering heavy supplies and native artefacts we liberated from offensive displays in museums and the private collections of ignorant Chels in the Alabaster district.”
“You could use it to lower your animal companion, Signorina Kala if you squeeze in with him. Eun claims it’s pretty easy to operate, but I’ve never tried.”
“One more thing, there’s no light sources below. I’ve got a torch to get me up and down – but that’s it.”
Ylandria lights one of her torches and begins climbing nimbly down the side of the shaft. “I’ll see you at the bottom.”
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Throughout the meeting, Vulpina seems... distracted. She lets Andor take the lead and barely chimes a word in aside from to introduce herself and agree.
"Mmm..."
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Loam looks relieved that Pathfinding has not reached a new low in corpse disposal. Yet.
The ratfolk tries to operate the pulleys as best she can, preferably from outside of the lift as Kala descends with Stinky. But if needed, she will join the wolverine. She shrouds her gun in light. Provided no disaster strikes immediately upon reaching the ground, she holds it in one hand and Sleeping Sword's wand in the other.
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Vulpina, snapping out of it as they reach the shaft, gives a sigh.
On the one hand, she could fall into it purposefully, to show off.
On the other hand, there was only like a 5% chance of this going badly.
But if it did go badly...
Vulpina eyes her rat-bites.
I shall have to be impressive later.
She takes the handholds.
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"All right Stinky, let's go. C'mere." Kala lifts Stinky up like a baby, hefting him so his chin rests on her shoulder, and steps onto the lift. She lets Loam manage the pulleys. "Thanks, Loam." Once they reach the bottom, she feeds a chunk of dried meat to Stinky. "Good boy!" Ruffling his ears before drawing her warhammer, Orc Brains, she casts Light on it and takes stock of their surroundings.
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Aww! I love you too, Kala. ... Ya' know, this is nice and all, but it feels weird. When can I get down. OOH! And can I have a treat? I'm so hungry! Can I? Can I? ... YAY! MEAT! Omnomnom! Ohmygosh! So good! Yummy! Stinky's stubby tail wags excitedly as he chomps on the nearly-rock-hard dried meat, dribbling slobber all over the floor of the dark room at the bottom of the shaft.
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Hungry.... Yes, hungry. Those fool sczarni, so bright, so lurid, I could practically taste them. What do they know of Lady Sun, I didn't mention the Divine Empress?
Lost in thought, Sleeping Sword almost stumbles into the pit shaft before coming to his senses and scrambling down the wall like some bizarre man-sized spider.
'Uh, Mistress Loam, would you employ my wand now please? I expect trouble."
Loam operates the Stinky Express elevator expertly, while the other Pathfinders also make it safely down the 20’ deep shaft, which breaches the roof of the dungeon’s antechamber, another 15’ off the ground.
With her torch held aloft, Ylandria beckons you to the eastern side of the chamber where a 6-foot stone stele, seemingly part of the chamber wall, stands. It is etched with an eroded relief of twin humanoid-elementals – one male and cloudlike, the other female emerging from the sea.
The figures on the stele suggest it was consecrated to Gozreh, the dualistic god/dess of nature known colloquially as the Wind and the Waves.
The image is positioned above a slightly less eroded inscription.
As the storm’s fury bends the strongest tree,
So can the wrath of humanity turn aside all obstacles.
“There’s a secret doorway here. When we Twin Candles took over this camp, the door was open, and point a’ fact, we couldn’t figure how to move it at all.”
“When the cousins came, Uncle Titus spent a little while tryin’ to read this writing. After that, this door was closed whenever we came down here. We were locked out!”
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Lady Vulpina reads over the inscription, tapping her chin with her free hand; she's drawn her pistol with the other. She translates:
"As the fury of the storm bends the strongest tree,
So can the wrath of humanity turn aside all obstacles."
"Well, there is no reason to lose one's composure," she states.
“I guess book learnin’s good for something then?”
Quite impressed, Ylandria watches your preparations and listens to your banter and approaches to problem solving. “¡Caray! You got further in ten minutes than we did in several months.”
“But the door still isn’t open, is it? What are you smart-britches doing about that?”
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"Uh, good Kala, I believe you are right again. 'The wrath of humanity turns aside all obstacles.' Try striking the stele in anger. Uh, if if requires a human to this then I cannot assist, and it is best if I do not get angry in any event."
The Way of the Sleeping Sword teaches us that the best fighter is never angry.