Something strange has occurred on an archaeological dig: it's pathfinding time!
Welcome to Thuvia!
You have all been invited and, if necessary, transported to Merab in Thuvia.
More precisely, to the Twisting Garden Lodge, where the Venture Captain, Diya Akan, has a mission for you.
The Lodge is surrounded by a complex hedge maze and it takes nearly five full minutes, even with a guide, to traverse the maze of hedges and sandstone walls leading to the center of the Lodge.
The path eventually opens onto a spacious courtyard with a large pavilion at the centre.
A voice calls out, “Please, join me, before the food grows stale!” The guide gestures to the pavilion, where cushioned benches line the edges of the shaded area and surround a large table covered in delicacies.
There you find a half-elven woman, wearing a loosely wrapped red and white headscarf affixed at her shoulder with a scarab pin.
She gesture vaguely to her eyes, pupil-less like any elf but a cloudy white, like chalk mixed in water, "I'm afraid I can't look you up and down today." the woman half-smiles, "So you will have to introduce yourselves."
She takes a sip from her glass, and then she listens.
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”Oh hello!” A halfling with similarly-clouded eyes and a withered leg waves at the venture-captain happily from atop a grey wolf. ”I’m Luli, most recently returned from Cheliax. That was certainly a whale of a tail, but I’m sure that’s a story for another time.” He leans down to pat his companion, then grins. ”Oh, Karma just learned this one. Karma, say hello to the nice venture-captain!”
”Bwoof!” Karma barks once before settling down for a nap, the halfling still astride her.
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A young Taldane woman dressed in earth-toned explorer's garb, bandoliers and a shortbow slung over her shoulders and a longsword at her hip, looks the half-elven woman over. "Hello," she starts. "Lara Evangeline Ellicott-Tillingsworth, of the Opparan Ellicott-Tillingsworths, at your service. I understand there's been...setbacks at a dig site?"
The woman does not seem to register Luli’s wave but turns to each speaker in turn, ”A wolf, I hear, and two Pathfinders from the cold north. Who else?”
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A young man with small horns who is well dressed with a fine hat and a rapier at his side comes in and says” Hello! Don’t mind if I do!”
He comes in and looks around the table in the pavilion, sampling small bits of fruit and bread before settling on a modest plate. He is quite finicky with the selection, as well as that of his beverage.” Nothing too strong, this must be serious occasion. Well, no worries, I always bring my own.” He pulls out a small vial and adds a bit to the coffee drink that he has concocted.
As he sits with his plate and takes a small approving sip of his drink, he introduces himself,” I’m Elrus, a well rounded student of life, as well of Shaine’s from the Grand Lodge. I’m a specialist in both using this, “ as he pats the rapier at his side “ , and at identifying, investigating, and overcoming the hazards frequently encountered on pathfinder missions to explore hazardous sites. The summons to Thuvia was a bit vague, but I assume I’ve been selected for something of that persuasion?”
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Giovanni sits on the edge of the courtyard deeply involved in his book as he hears the call. He closes the book with a page dog-eared for reference, and slips it into his bag. He takes out a kerchief and cleans his glasses before replacing them on his face.
Giovanni wears a smart coat with a rapier dangling from a sheath on his left. He is thin but not too tall. Bookish looking, but you'd be mistaken to underestimate him in a sword fight. His hands move swiftly but lightly.
Greetings. Giovanni Stellaluce. Luli, I hope you enjoyed your time in my homeland.
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A Dwarf with a weapon nearly his height, Teks looks precisely what one would expect him to look like if one had a notion of Earth's westerns and applied it to the Dwarven frame, right down to the Silver Crusade badge pinned to his leather topcoat.
"Folk call me Teks. Me and Betty here, well we solve problems. Heard tell there might be problems here."
He ate, though the fraction of the food he ate that wound up in his prodigious beard would fuel a small creature for the better part of a day. It didn't seem to faze Teks, who seemed oblivious to the lack of actual nourishment reaching his mouth.
"It aounds like there is one more?"
Warwickshire.
With kids, other hobbies and work, I don't get the time to play face-to-face.
The Venture Captain inclines her head in acknowledgement when Siegfried completes the introductions. “I am Venture-Captain Diya Akan. Please, eat. Then we shall talk.” Her eyes, though clouded with blindness, betray her elven heritage. A dog with sand-colored fur snoozes at the venture-captain’s feet, his ears giving the occasional twitch when someone speaks.
Diya continues. “If you have spent any time in Merab these past few weeks, you have no doubt witnessed the ongoing construction as this city expands to meet its fast-growing demand for housing. You may have also heard that an archaeological dig team accidentally loosed an angry spirit on the city when they broke into an ancient section of the undercity. Rumors are swirling, and the creature is causing serious harm. Usually this would be left to the city watch, not the Pathfinder Society, but— well, I will let the Sapphire Sage explain.” She hands a letter to Giovanni “Read it aloud, would you?”
1 = Elrus
2 = Giovanni
3= Lara
4 = Lucky
5 = Siegfried
6= Teks
Once Giovanni has read the missive aloud, she continues: “Merab’s officials have requested that your first order of business be to inspect and clear the ruin. You may learn something of the creature’s purpose in the process. I suggest you interview the dig team and speak with the scholar Obahar, who is probably already nosing about the site. You can trust his assistance. After investigating the ruin, follow up on these leads, and any others you discover. We must discover what this creature wants, as Amenopheus asked.”
With that, she hands Giovanni a slip of paper
predate any known structures.
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Giovanni shares the additional information about the woman and the alchemist. He takes some time to drum up more info.
Follow Up (Ex)
An investigator can roll twice on any Diplomacy check made to gather information, and receives the information for both results. This takes the same amount of time as one check. If the lesser of the two checks reveals false information, the rogue is aware of it.False information is not revealed in this way if the people she questioned do not know it to be false.
The creature is mostly likely a div. Common around these parts.
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Elrus consults his pathfinder chronicles and thinks of what he knows.
He adds," Typically, such ruins are uncovered as the city expands outward, but this discovery was near the centre of the city, where previous construction is being cleared to make way for newer, sturdier buildings. These ruins likely
predate any known structures."
Lacking much in the departments currently being discussed, Teks keeps largely to himself. He's ready to head out at a moment's notice, but then asks. "Say, any special sort of ammunition I should have? Do I need something special to hurt a div?"
Passing through the city, you see many bazaars where you could stock up on supplies. Eventually, close to the heart of the city, you arrive at a construction site.
Nearly a dozen workers mill about the area as a wide array of excavation tools gather dust in the corners. A bearded man busily examines charts and objects laid out on a wooden table shaded by temporary awnings. A muscular young man in his late teens walks up and says, “I am Anaref. If you’ve come to cleanse the ruins of evil, I’ll tell you all you need to know!”
"No, we all fled, gods be praised!" He shakes his head, “I saw the creature with my own eyes! A floating head, with a tongue as long as my arm and eyes like ice. It tried to lick me! I asked my gran, and she says it was a vargywheel.”
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"Oh now there ain't no harm in spinnin' a yarn. A Vargouille is a critter I think I heard of once or twice," Teks adds. He knows the man isn't being truthful, but he's a bit softer about it. Everybody lies, the better question is why.
Fortunately he has his gun with him, and doesn't have to worry so much about who says what when it comes time to start shooting.
As Elrus approaches the entrance, a middle-aged woman peels off from the workers and approaches, "Woah, woah, woah, who are you? What do you think you're doing?"
She squints into the sun, which is behind you, "I'm the foreman here. What's going on?"
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”Oh hello!” Luli says once he can see the woman. ”We’re Pathfinders, asked to come look at neutralizing an evil spirit that’s been terrorizing the city. My name’s Luli - would you like to be addressed as Foreman or by some other name?”
The halfling’s smile broadens as he recognizes a bracelet on the woman’s wrist. ”Truely, we wish no disrespect to the honored dead and the Lady of Graves,” he continues. ”But we seek to protect those who still draw breath. May we enter?”
the woman makes a strange gesture as she speaks.
"You must be careful, the beast was an angry flying face, before it disappeared. My crew need to work," she looks back at the workmen, "We would be grateful if you could make the place safe. Nobody ever provided for their family from the grave."
She draws closer to Luli and speaks quietly to him, “It was a floating head, like the others say — thin and ugly. Seemed to be in quite a bit of pain. Reminded me of a rabid animal. I heard it in my mind. It said it was looking for the dungeons, and that ‘she who wears the spiral of death’ would be there. I have no idea what it meant. I’ll admit, I don’t scare easy, but it scared the skin off me. Please kill it.”
As you approach the entrance to the ruins, a man in an ill-fitting jumble of garments, but possessed of a neatly trimmed beard, is studying some papers on a fold-out table, under an awning. He is making thoughtful noises and occasionally glances over to the tunnel entrance.
He sees you draw close and peers over at you, "“You must be the Pathfinders. I am Obahar, local expert on archeology and ancient history. I’m glad you’re here! With our combined expertise, we’ll have this all figured out soon enough!
While I am eager to learn more about the ruins, I am afraid my adventuring days are long behind me. Please go inside and take careful note of what you discover. This is possibly the most important find in Merab’s history — aside from the sun orchid elixir, of course!
Where was I? Ah yes. The ruins spat out one fiend already, so there’s no telling what awaits you. Whatever you find, return it as-is. When you report back, we can find out where this monster is from and what it might be up to.”
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"Thank you for the warning. And the warding," Lara says to the woman before the group departs.
"Lara Evangeline Ellicott-Tillingsworth, of the Opparan Ellicott-Tillingsworths. Do you truly think your find here so important?" she asks Obahar. "Have you found anything so far? Or for that matter, what did you find when this floating head-spirit was unleashed?"
She refrains from mentioning that she herself is an archaeologist, since the man may view her as a rival if he knew.
The woman shakes her head, "No, it leapt out the moment we breached the entrance way. We were laying foundations, just making the undercity safe."
Obahar butts in, "You're strangers, you might not know. The 'undercity' is what we call any old foundations or buildings which lie underneath new construction. There is little sense on digging out a solid structure completely. Teams like this just shore up the structure and make it part of the foundations."