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You enter into the entrance hall of Leventi's Scriptorium...Vetrivides and his bone devils enter with you...
Silver flames along the wall accent the features in this statuary chamber. A marble humanoid devil with four horns stands proudly in the center, draped in robes and reaching toward the horizon. Regal statues of humans line the walls. Three large wall scrolls with writhing text adorn the north, west, and east walls.
Vetrivides smiles and nods to you. "We'll let you take it from here; I and my entourage will await you. I can convey that the scrolls on the walls here serve as supernatural conduits to other parts of Leventi’s quarters..."
Tholvinus the imp then pipes up. "Yes, the bone-daddy is correct. The scroll to the west leads to the study; you can find legal texts and perhaps some records there. The one to the east leads to the archives; Leventi keeps records and treasures there that he's not currently displaying...while it's possible, he is not likely to be in either of those rooms. His Thrune museum lies through the northern scroll; it's possible he could be there...and that is the extent of my knowledge of this abode..."
Looking at the statues, Zarta muses aloud. "Hmmmm. This middle one is Leventi himself, the others, monarchs of House Thrune; a legacy of rulers deposed or murdered by their successors—makes me wonder who might be scheming to unseat Abrogail II, the current ruler of Cheliax…"
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Cast Defending Bone. Lasts 8 hours. Grants me DR 5/bludgeoning until 40 points of damage is negated
"Super." remarks Edgar. "Shall we check out the study and and the archives first? Perhaps we can find some additional evidence?"
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I think we have a pretty ironclad case already, but these devils are slipperier than a pixie coated in my special super slippery salve, so more evidence couldn't hurt.
We'll go with Resist Energy Fire on myself then.
I second checking out the study first! I'll search for traps as we go about our business.
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Sorrow detects no traps in the entry hall...
Ridley agrees to accompany Edgar to the study...Zarta decides she'll go along as well. One by one, the three press against the scroll; it gives way and you push your way through it as though it were a viscous fluid. Once you are partly absorbed, the scroll draws you in and channels you to a corresponding scroll. You each notice that you have a tattoo upon your left arms that appears to have been transferred to you from the scroll you entered...
Edgar, Ridley, and Zarta find themselves on a steep, narrow staircase that spirals down one hundred feet to an isolated office with a simple wooden writing desk, a bookshelf stuffed with heavy legal texts, and an iron post with chains and manacles attached. Edgar notices a unique and peculiar quill resting in a jar on Leventi's desk...
Ridley barely notices a secret compartment within Leventi's desk; within lies a ledger. Upon opening it, you find it contains cryptic notes about dozens of different contracts and deals that are difficult to parse but might provide more context when combined with other clues.
You see nothing else of interest in this room...
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Jack spent a good portion of his time teaching Ophelia his various titles so that she could act as his herald if he needed to be presented. As he did so, he eyeballed the Leventi statue and cast Detect Magic in the first room to see if there was any residual magic remaining on the entrance hall's statues or if they were trapped in some way.
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Jack detects no residual magic on the statues so he can only assume they were commissioned and, at some point, found their way here...
Ridley goes through the scroll on the southern wall, followed closely by Zarta...they are quickly sucked to the archives...
This simple storage area contains numerous records and treasures Leventi isn’t currently displaying. As Tholvinus warned, there is burnt othur fumes here...
...but Ridley and Zarta are able to withstand its effects...
Zarta is fascinated by what she finds in the northeast shelf. It holds the first 19 editions of The Glorious Nation of Cheliax: The Certified Most Accurate and Complete History of the Greatest Empire on Golarion.
Zarta ponders a bit as she skims through some of the histories. "I wouldn't even exist as a memory if Pathfinder had not thwarted the Order of the Rack and Tancred Desimire's schemes..."
You recall that Tancred Desimire was the man who conspired to have her abducted years ago.
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Hey Zarta! Want to bring those books with us? Here, put em in my haversack, plenty of room in there.
Then once back with the rest of the group,
Hey guys, found Leventi's 'oh crap I gotta go' supplies. Some nice stuff here! Nothing left here but to go get the man himself! Everyone ready?
Ridley will motion for Croc, or someone a bit beefier to lead the way.
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Zarta gives a sultry smile and takes Ridley up on his offer. Ridley finds Leventi's travel stash and then both head back up to the entry hall...
Tholvinus makes one last comment to you before you move on. "Leventi some times frequents his museum...that's the room the scroll on the eastern wall will take you to...if he's not there, you'll find him in a connecting room, through a scroll on the southern wall of the museum. I have never been to that room, so I can't tell you much else...so I'll stay here so I'll have plausible denial..."
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With the People's Champion leading the way, you each proceed through the scroll on the eastern wall...
...and you each resist Leventi's tattoo ward. You arrive in Leventi's Thrune Museum..
This opulent gallery hosts an esoteric collection of relics, dioramas, and portraits. The prow of a frigate juts from the north wall, a seared section of bridge sits in the southwest, and unmoving figures play out a diabolic sacrifice beneath a twisted tree in the northeast. Along a reproduced battlement to the northwest, a desperate battle between human combatants is frozen in time.
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Dioneo gets no reply to his declaration...
Zarta smiles at Jack. "Of course Vetrivides wants us to do his dirty work, my pretty...but I assure you he set no traps. Him wanting to nail Leventi is the reason I was able to arrange this mission..."
Zarta is taken in by the displays in the museum. "Exquisite; this gallery was acquired from a fallen Wiscrani house...you can tell from the 40-foot vaulted ceiling..."
She waxes and wanes as you look about the room. Exhibits include: a fragment from the Arch of Aroden burnt with hellfire when the devil Baraxiel dragged the paladin Rius Galdaeon to Hell outside Corentyn; illusory figures fighting on a Corentyn battlement during Davian’s last surge during the Battle of One Hundred Kings in 4639 ar; the prow from the Sargavan frigate Dauntless that sank in that same battle; a ritual scene reenacting Abrogail I’s sale of her soul to Asmodeus in Winter Grove, and a copy of the contract’s two page preamble in a glass display case. The portraits on the wall depict Thrune agents whose souls Leventi acquired.
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Jack stopped advancing into the room and gestured over towards the exhibit for the sake of the others. "Illusion, negative energy, haunt, curse, or something that targets mental faculties. Either that or I'm just incredibly paranoid for whatever reason. It's not really in my personal toolset to investigate it further than that, so if someone else could..."
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Not long after Jack warns the others of what he perceives of the exhibit, the illusory army assaulting the battlements to the northwest increases in size, filling most of the room. A moment later, a towering devil, sporting a pair of gigantic, flame-seared wings and eyes smoldering like embers in a truly horrific appearance, manifests in a pillar of flame amid them, sowing terror. It roars, "I...am...GORTHOKLEK! Look upon me and despair!"
Zarta pales. "Aiiigh, aiiigh, a pit fiend!"
A pit fiend, indeed! It looks upon her, smirking, "Lannava Davian...how long has it been since your house fell? I recall tasting the blood of your kin...DELICIOUS!"
Dioneo and Edgar, along with Ophelia and her shadow, tremble in fear, drop what they're holding and scatter away from the beast...while the Jack, Ridley, Leatherhead, Sorrow, and Zarta resist the worst affects of the pit fiend's aura, they are visibly shaken...
The pit fiend then approaches the closest Pathfinder, Jack, and strikes out viciously with a claw...
...but, Jack's perception and nimbleness of foot allow him to duck and the fiend's claw whiffs above the ifrit's head...
Zarta backs away, defiantly yelling, "I am not the woman you speak of...but you will remember ME!!!" She begins chanting and waving her hands, trying to work some magic against the pit fiend...
COMBAT! Round 1 - The bold may post!
Gorthoklek
Zarta Dralneen (shaken)
Jack Blakros (shaken)
Ridley (shaken)
Leatherhead (shaken)
Sorrow (shaken)
Edgar Poe (panicked, then confused)
Dioneo (panicked, then confused)
Ophelia Peran (panicked, then confused )
Shadow (panicked, then confused)
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Jack's aldori sword quickly answers, as his first and last strokes find their mark on the pit fiend's torso...
COMBAT! Round 1 - The bold may post!
Gorthoklek (-26)
Zarta Dralneen (shaken)…
Jack Blakros (shaken)
Ridley (shaken)
Leatherhead (shaken)
Sorrow (shaken)
Edgar Poe (panicked, then confused)
Dioneo (panicked, then confused)
Ophelia Peran (panicked, then confused )
Shadow (panicked, then confused)
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The People's Champion is surprised as the pit fiend easily avoids his grappling attempt, seemingly amused by the attempt...
Sorrow, suspecting something's hinkie here, tries a more reasoned approach. She can only recall that Gorthoklek is a very powerful pit fiend, in the service of House Thrune. She tries to disbelieve the fiend...but it appears to be real to her. She casts detect magic; the only magic she can sense are the two 'entry/exit' scrolls on the walls in addition to the magical items carried by her friends...
COMBAT! Round 1 - The bold may post!
Gorthoklek (-26)
Zarta Dralneen (shaken)…
Jack Blakros (shaken)
Ridley (shaken)
Leatherhead (shaken)
Sorrow (shaken)
Edgar Poe (panicked, then confused)
Dioneo (panicked, then confused)
Ophelia Peran (panicked, then confused )
Shadow (panicked, then confused)
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Ridley tosses a force bomb at the pit fiend...
...but the large devil proves agile and dodges the toss...
...but its splash still catches the beast...
The legendary pit fiend shakes off the bomb, swiping another claw at Jack, taunting, "You'll not dodge me this time, ifrit…"
As the claw penetrates your defenses, you initially get a cold feeling...before you realize that the pit fiend is not real, it's only an illusion...
Edgar and Dioneo overcome the affects of their confusion, at least at this moment.
Still confused, Ophelia and her Shadow beat themselves for points of damage...
Zarta continues chanting at the pit fiend...
COMBAT! Round 2 - The bold may post!
Gorthoklek (-39)
Zarta Dralneen
Jack Blakros
Ridley
Leatherhead
Sorrow
Edgar Poe (confused, may act normally)
Dioneo (confused, may act normally)
Ophelia Peran (confused, -8)
Shadow (confused, -8)
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Jack figures it out and warns the others...but before they can even react, after Jack’s second strike lands, the pit fiend laughs loud and hideously, ”You actually think you could kill MEEEE? I think not,” and then POOF, Gorthoklek disappears along with the illusory battle. Also gone, is the confusion caused by the haunt...
That being dealt with, the entry scroll on the southern wall ominously awaits...
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"Well that was a bit unpleasant..." grumbles Edgar, eyeing his companions. "Gather 'round and let me tend to your wounds before we press on. I truly expect Leventi to put up more of a fight."
Pausing a moment, he eyes the shadow. "Apologies...I don't believe I have anything to help out your companion."
Drawing a wand, he moves up to Ophelia and taps her with it. "That's a little better. If you need more later, I should be able to assist you."
Pulling out another wand, he eyes the scroll. "I suspect our foe is beyond there." Tapping himself with the wand, he nods to the others. "Ready when you are."
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Ready to face Leventi, each of you enter the transport scroll on the southern wall, one at a time, and are sucked into what would appear to be his trophy room...
The lurid glow of flames within an iron-grated pit illuminates this well-appointed chamber. Ancient scrolls smoldering with Infernal script move with an unseen breeze, and glass cases display statues carved to resemble hellish armor along the southern wall.
Leventi awaits your arrival patiently near the west wall, charming and poised, smiling and lifting a glass of some hellish concoction he's drinking, as each of you appear. He awaits until the last of you has arrived before speaking...
“Welcome, my esteemed guests! Please, let us not resort to our baser instincts when we can instead discuss this matter to our mutual benefit. I am a simple broker, and if I have something you desire…” He holds up a glass jar swirling with inky mist and an older Chelish man’s disembodied head peering out. “…I would gladly negotiate its sale.”
From the glint of light coming from Zarta's eyes, you deduce that the head you see in the jar is that of Gellius Thrune…
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Raising an eye as he scans the room, Edgar whispers "Stay off that grate. It'll fry ya."
Moving closer, he considers the demon's words. "Well, we could just take what we came for...but it would be simpler if you just turned it over."
"We have a few desires. One being the freedom of a certain subject bartered unfairly...another being the freedom of those Hellknights improperly acquired...we've also a need for a certain soul in your possession. I've heard rumors the authorities are interested in your dealings as well."
"What type of terms would you anticipate for such things?"
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Jack smirked and clapped his hands together once, seeming to be his element more than when trying to avoid getting struck. "Now, now. No reason to threaten him with a good time with forcibly taking the head. We've been sent on behalf of Queen Erecura herself to deal with you, so it seems like negotiations are what are preferred."
Jack sidestepped the grate from the other side. "Now you do have me curious to your motivations. After all, it would be one thing to intentionally mislead those in your dealings as to the contents of the contracts and another entirely to write them through incompetence. I suspect that based on your high station that it would either be malice or a lack of diligence and hope no one pays enough attention. After all, someone lusting for more would not want unwanted attention focused on them to prevent that."
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Ridley listens to the beginning of the negotiations, then addresses the group as if the Devil weren't even there.
Leventi's already shown a keen ability to twist deals to his advantage. I'm not keen to go toe to toe to him with in negotiations, but I'm pretty sure my bombs would blow him up just as well as anyone else. But by all means, if you think you can get a deal out of him that is worth it, carry on.
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Leventi clucks, shaking his head. "Tsk, tsk...listen to the handsome ifrit, don't be so hasty, till you hear my terms...and my terms are always negotiable...
"I will give you the soul of this Gellius Thrune, whom I've heard you have an interest in...a most valuable asset whose market value would be in the tens of thousands, for a mere pittance. Just give me the evidence you have against me...and dispatch that Vetrivides fellow for me..." He looks up expectantly...
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Leventi arches an eyebrow, rubbing his hands together. "Now it's a negotiation...
"The mere pittance I mentioned is nothing other than what I said; give me the evidence you have gathered against me and kill Vetrivides. As for sweetening the pot...that happens to be my specialty; you must know devils such as myself may grant wishes. In addition to the soul of Gellius Thrune, I shall toss in a wish, within certain limits, in exchange for the aforementioned evidence and the death of Vetrivides…
"What say you?"
Wish for Glory: You regain 2 Prestige Points, but any points that exceed your Fame must be spent immediately or are lost.
Wish for Power: You can spend 16 Prestige Points once to gain a +1 inherent bonus to one ability score of your choice.
Wish for Wealth: You earn an extra 650 gp (Subtier 7–8) or 1,100 gp (Subtier 10–11) for completing this scenario.
Abstained from the Inferno: You chose not to accept the wish. You can manifest your defiance of Hell once per day as a standard action to harm evil outsiders as if you were a cleric of your character level using channel energy to harm undead. The DC for this effect is equal to 10 + your character level. If you can already use the channel energy ability to harm evil outsiders or living creatures, you can instead use this boon once per day to increase the ability’s save DC for evil outsiders by 2.
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Jack looked towards his ioun stone that he had the misfortune to acquire and force him to atone. He looked back towards Leventi and sighed. "I see. So it was carelessness after all that motivated your actions. It's sad to see a contract devil that doesn't think things through.
Vetrivides has been investigating you and the powers that be are well aware of that. If they turn up missing, then your problems are not only merely delayed, they are compounded by you being tied to an official disappearing. Not outright turning down your offer because there are some here that could use that wish, but it seems fairly shortsighted to kill someone known to be investigating you."
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DR 10/good; Immune fire, mind-affecting effects, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10; SR 21
binding contract: use contract as whip for lethal damage + bleed (1d6); if disarmed, a new contract is always available for him
impale (2d8+7): as a swift action, a contract devil can impale a grappled opponent
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Leventi taps his fingers impatiently upon the mantle. "Hmmm...so t'would seem that getting your own hands dirty by killing Vetrivides makes my latest offer not so sweet. How 'bout one last sweetener then; I propose the following alternative...
"You still give me the evidence you've collected, in addition to providing me a detailed accounting of how you collected it...and, instead of destroying Vetrivides, give me a means of escape from here, without detection, so I may...deal with things to my favor and then be back, with no one the wiser...
"Near the scriptorium’s entrance is a metallic hourglass device that inhibits my ability to leave so long as it remains connected to my likeness. You need to sneakily detach/disable the hourglass and convince Vetrivides that you failed to find him; you can tell him you were stymied by my guardians. These services will allow me to escape long enough to take care of loose ends and cover my tracks before Vetrivides can corroborate your findings. And in return, you still get the soul of Gellius Thrune and the aforementioned wish..."
Leventi looks expectantly to you, a pleasant smile on his face. "What say you to that proposition?"
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Dioneo sighs, letting his arms fall beside his body. He breathes heavily and cocks his head up with a defiant look.
"I am not ready to accept the terms of this one." he says.
"Lies and deceit. Each breath you take is an injure to this plane. And to the material as well. What says that you won't break your word? My kin suffered enough from devils." he declares, peeling off his gloves to show deeply scorched hands.
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Jack held a hand down towards Dioneo to settle, acting like he had any say in the behavior of others. "As you can see, not all are as willing to use words. Yes, your reputation up to this point has been unpredictable at best which could easily be solved by voluntarily subjecting yourself to a zone of truth. With some honest warning, my blade has not yet been used today for my lord's daily obedience and it seems as if that could easily be fixed in this room. However..."
"Your proposition seems to be something worth considering. If you were actively being a thorn in the queen's side, I imagine that Pharasma and Ragathiel would take some enjoyment in that. Now as my other associate brought up and you haven't yet addressed, there is that issue of the others we've encountered that were cheated out of a fair deal. I assure you that most here would find leaving without those fixed as well.... unpalatable."
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Leventi smiles...but the smile does not reach his eyes. "I have stated my proposal quiet distinctly and make no other assurances...I will cover my tracks as efficiently as possible...and that is all you need know...plausible deniability and all..."
Zarta gives a pouty smile. "Duckling, our mission here is to acquire the soul of Gellius Thrune...it appears our options here are either to negotiate...or attempt to take it by force. You have gathered most of the evidence and done all of the fighting...it is only proper you make this decision yourselves..."