Dora, giving up hope with a peaceful solution, shoots a magic missile at the Battle Leader.
Jack picks himself up off the floor and assesses the Battle Leader cooly.
Then he lashes out with his sword cane, striking left, right and then at the kobold's hand, aiming to humiliate with blows to the crest and weapon.
Dora's magic missiles slam into Battle Leader Rekarek. Jack picks himself up and bashes the kobold leader with his sword cane, then Edison moves into a flanking position. The champion's first strike goes wide, but the flank helps him finally land a powerful blow that knocks out Rekarek!
The remaining kobolds gape as their leader falls. They quickly drop their weapons and raise their hands in surrender!
The Doctor glowers at the remaining kobolds and fishes in his pouch for a small bottle. He pours four drops onto his tongue and shakes his head in a gesture that says quietly clearly that whatever he tasted was not pleasant. He then sets to work with gauze and alcohol to clean the minor wounds caused by the kobolds.
"Doctor, could you see to their leader as well, just to ensure he is safe?" Dora says, waiting for him to patch up Edison and Dani first.
She then calls for the trusty Eddie and Lou to help keep an eye on the kobolds and confiscate their gear whilst she and her colleagues take time to question them.
"Now, where have you kept the hostages?" she says calmly, rubbing at the wound caused by one of their slings.
"Merk-merk! They upstairs in shrine!" one kobold yips. "Many brave warriors guard them, along with our excellent leader, Dragon Mage Skerix. She very smart! Teach us chants in human language!"
Another kobold begins to chant, and soon the others join in the refrain: "Merk mep, mep merk! Equal pay or we won't work! Merk mep, mep merk! Equal pay or we won't work!"
Jack pours a shot of his unpleasant tasting medicine down the kobold leaders throat and nods in satisfaction as the lizard shoots upright spluttering.
"You do realise, even if you were awarded equal pay, that you are very likely to be incarcerated for taking hostages in our city? Therefore you would be unable to spend your pay anyway." She states realising she is talking to her self when they continue to chant.
Sighing, she talks to their battle leader after Jack helps him to regain consciousness.
"Now, are there anymore booby traps like the one our Doctor walked into here? Please make sure you think very carefully about your answer, as you wouldn't want to make your position any worse."
Dani thanks the doctor for his healing, nearly feeling herself again. Slipping her bow and violin away for now, she remarks "Thanks for the pick me up, Jack." as she pats him gently on the back.
Turning to Dora she says "Excellent work with those projectiles, Dora. You are quite a force to be reckoned with!"
When the equal pay chant starts, Dani frowns. "If you just wanted equal pay, why don't you just ask for it instead of taking hostages? Please take us to Dragon Mage Sherix so we can talk about this peacefully".
She levels a pointed finger at him and adds "And I don't want any more trouble or what happened to Battle Leader over there will need to happen again. Am I clear?"
Dora knows the kobolds are likely to be imprisoned for their crimes here, perhaps sentenced to hard labor for a time.
"Blargh!" Battle Leader Rekarek sputters as she sits upright. "That's yuck-yuck!" She glares up at you. "Bah, you softskins tougher than you look! When they tell my legend as great warrior, I'll tell them to leave this part out!"
She glares at Dora but grunts. "Yes, we make more traps. Dart trap in antechamber, and exploding statue in Hall of Faces! That one a good one! Ha!"
Doopa, who had been hiding in the next room watching the fight, sheepishly emerges. "I can take you to Skerix. Other kobolds may still want to fight, though, so be careful!"
Dora looks across at Dani and smiles at her pun, appreciating some light humour given the situation.
"Lead the way Doopa, but you must do your best to support us if any other kobolds attack. If you do that we may be able to consider lessening your punishment for taking part in this crime."
Doopa nods. "Okay!"
A wide stone path leads from the western wooden archway into a roofless, open-air atrium. Ten-foot-tall wooden lattices with strategic gaps provide viewing windows all around the area while preventing visitors from falling off the raised structure. Rising up from the elegant landscaping on either side of the path, six squat stone-and-iron lanterns nearly the size of humans stand like sentinels, their bases surrounded by exotic flowers. At the eastern end of the atrium, wide marble steps ascend ten feet to two large wood-and-bronze doors.
Four of the walls of the next octagonal chamber are lined with low stone benches. Beneath each bench is a honeycomb of small, built-in cubbies. On the walls, colorful tile mosaics portray a tranquil stream winding through a deep forest, with tiny, half-hidden humanoid creatures peeking furtively out from between branches, behind trunks, or underneath rocks. A large, ornate brass seal depicting a winding dragon is embedded in the center of the room’s wooden floor. Soft, flutelike music emanates around the room, along with a gentle breeze. Bronze double doors to the west and east are the room’s exits.
"This is where we make dart trap. Step one at a time to not set it off!" Doopa says.
You follow the kobold into the next room. The twenty-foot-tall ceiling and half-finished mosaics of pastoral scenery on the visible walls here give the impression of a grand hall, but the floorboards have been systematically torn up to create a veritable maze of dangerous catwalks. The pagoda’s zigzagging support beams and the bare earth twenty feet below are visible through the ripped-up floorboards. Exits include numerous sliding doors on either side of the hall, a set of bronze double doors to the west, and an ascending staircase to the east that ends at a wide pair of sliding doors.
"Some floorboards weak here. Follow me!" Doopa says. You step where she steps to avoid breaking through the floor. She leads you up the staircase, then through a north door onto a wide, open-air walkway that wraps around the outside of the veranda. A wooden spiral staircase ascends to the second floor.
A kobold keeps watch on the second floor walkway. "Wex! These humans come to negotiate!" Doopa says.
"Merk mep! Mep merk! Equal pay or we won't work!" Wex chants enthusiastically. He continues keeping watch as Doopa takes you into the room on this level.
At the western end of this large, unfinished room, a statue resembling the upper half of an armored warrior seems to float above a stone pillar carved with dozens of tiny creatures. Three mirrors positioned around the statue are angled so as to create an endless line of reflected stone warriors stretching into infinity. At the shrine’s feet, six humanoid workers lie bound and gagged, their eyes wide with fear.
Three kobold warriors guard the hostages, as well as Dragon Mage Skerix. The tan-scaled kobold regards you as you approach, her warriors moving to hold knives to the prisoners' throats. "I see your uniforms. You are agents of Edgewatch? I am Skerix, leader of the newly formed Kobold Trade Union. Will you listen to our demands?"
Dani nods, "Yes we are Edgewatch. Yes we will listen to your demands. All that we ask in return is that you keep this free of violence and let us negotiate in peace. We would like to see those hostages freed without any further injury to anyone."
"We will release the prisoners, but we want two things in return. One, we want back pay equivalent to what the workers from Minkai received. It has become clear that we were severely underpaid for initial construction efforts. Two, we want a guarantee that there will be no further reprisal for the regrettable deaths of four of the workers that occurred during our uprising." Skerix scowls. "That was actually the work of Battle Leader Rekarek. I tried to rein her in, but my efforts were insufficient."
Jack nearly says something cutting but restrains himself just in time and leaves the talking to the more diplomatic members of the group.
"We will take your demands back and see what they will agree to. Please see no further injuries come to the prisoners or the negotiations will not go smoothly."
She turns and moves away from Sherix to talk to her companions. "I think equal pay is a no-brainer, but I'm not sure that the deaths being waived off will go smoothly. Someone needs to be held accountable for what has happened. I suggest we take these demands back and see what they say. What do you think?"
"Demand they give up the Battle Leader." Jack suggests. "The Union as a whole can put the blame on a single angry kobold and that deals with the matter. If it was genuinely her work then that is justice and expedient at the same time."
"I agree, the Lead Architect did confirm about the equal pay earlier when I asked if we could offer it."
"I absolutely do not think we can agree to the second demand as that does not stop this situation arising again. It also appears the two leaders here are Battle Leader Rekarek alongside Skerix. They should be held accountable for leading this uprising rather than using more diplomatic channels."
Dora takes Dani's lead and heads back out to discuss the situation with the Lead Architect.
"Hello again Madam, we have a solution. Step 1 would be to award the Kobolds full pay which would be fitting. Step 2 would be to prosecute their Battle Leader fo the sad deaths of the construction workers that they left in their wake. All hostages will be freed. This would be the most peaceful solution and would most likely be accepted by the kobolds. I do strongly suggest you consider this solution very carefully."
"Okay. We're all agreed then. We try to get them to agree to equal pay and we will tell Sherix that Battle Leader Rekarek needs to be held accountable."
She follows behind Dora, ready to back her up should it be needed.
Ama Uomi thinks on the offer for a few minutes, her mouth a firm line. At length, she nods. "Very well. It will cut even further into our operating budget, but we will pay the kobolds what they are owed. So long as somebody is held accountable for those they have killed, then that will suffice. You may tell Skerix we have a deal."
Skerix is true to her word. Once you report that her demands have been fulfilled, the mage orders her followers to release the hostages. The other kobold warriors are free to return to work with no charges pressed, but Battle Leader Rekarek is hauled away to be put through Absalom's justice system (which is quite likely to find her guilty and sentenced to death for murder). The other kobolds seem ambivalent to the arrest of their brutal ally, who they understand committed egregious crimes worthy of punishment.
With the crisis averted, the architects allow you to requisition the remaining valuables in the pagoda as a reward. In the administrative office, you discovered the bloodstained bodies of three humans. These workers were not killed by Rekarek, though, but rather by an infestation of flying predatory pests called bloodseekers! The creatures attack when you enter, but you make quick work of them.
A drawer in the counter holds 45 gp—the key to the drawer is in the pocket of one of the corpses. Also behind the counter, on a shelf, is a bottle of rare Minkaian sake worth 10 gp. The corpses have nothing valuable on them other than a splendid bejeweled brooch in the shape of a dragonfly, worth 10 gp. Inspecting the brooch reveals an engraving in Minkaian on the gold backing that reads “To Ibetsuo. May our good fortune never wane. Ama.” Ama might want this returned.
The next room contains dozens of terra-cotta sculptures of strange creatures ranging from tiny to nearly ten feet tall. This must be the "Hall of Faces," so you do well to steer clear of the statues until the kobolds disarm the trap.
Another room contains the corpses of the workers Rekarek killed, their bodies studded with arrows. Jack marks them for the coroners' office to handle.
Yet another room is a hall with small cushions. A kobold and her pet spider dwell here, but they pay you little mind.
The final room at the top of the stairs seems to serve as a staging area for construction materials and tools. Flanking the sliding doors to the west are a pair of white stone statues of foxes—one with its mouth open, the other with its mouth shut. To the east lies a precarious mound of loose lumber, rolls of white paper, and countless hand tools such as saws and hammers. Among the tools you find a few weapons--a light hammer, a hatchet, a maul, and a warhammer. There is also a crinkled scroll of shape wood.
Ama and the other architects are extremely grateful that the situation was resolved without further death. They’re also aware that their illegal treatment of their contracted laborers led to this problem in the first place, and thus eagerly reward you with a 100 gp “donation” in an attempt to remain on their good side and avoid any punishment from the law.
Now that you have rescued the hostages, you can finally ask questions about the five specialist stonemasons and sculptors who went missing days ago. Unfortunately, the remaining laborers know fairly little about their missing comrades. The five all came over from Minkai together and didn’t associate much with the common laborers. On the night the specialists went missing, however, several people heard them complaining about the shabbiness of their assigned quarters and how they were going to talk to Jeremin Hoff about finding them better accommodations. No one has seen them since.
Jeremin Hoff is a powerful Absalomian labor broker who won the bid to provide local labor to the Dragonfly Pagoda project as well as to arrange building materials, temporary housing for the foreign workers, and other necessities. He’s notoriously corrupt—skimming building funds, bribing inspectors, and sourcing materials from sketchy vendors— but since that flexibility around the law also helps his projects get done on time and on budget, he never hurts for reputable clients. In addition, he was the person who initially introduced the pagoda architects to the Stonescales as a way of potentially expediting construction. Ama explains all of this and agrees with the other architects that Hoff might know what happened to the missing crew, and she urges you to pursue the lead.
Questioning Hoff will be tricky, though, as he likely won't want to talk to the city guard. He lives in and operates his business from an elite social club called the House of the Planes, an exclusive underworld (and literally underground) speakeasy carved out of the Undercity ruins beneath Eastgate.
Skerix is happy to provide her perspective on the situation, if questioned. She doesn’t know anything about the missing stonemasons, but she suspects that Hoff and his associates might (as far as she’s concerned, the shady businesspeople know everything going on in the upper city). Skerix also knows something even more important: the House of the Planes has a secret back door that Hoff used to bring her in for the initial meeting. She suggests that you sneak into the club to observe or question him incognito, and she draws you a map to the secret entrance. Given that the club is in the Undercity, getting to the back door will require a bit of dungeon delving.
For now, you should decide whether or not to give Ama the brooch, then report back to Edgewatch HQ!
Dora is visibly delighted when they find the beautiful dragonfly brooch but is disappointed to learn that it probably belongs to Ama and she insists that it is given back to Ama before reporting back to headquarters.
On the way back to report to headquarters, Dora asks "When we report, I think it would be good if someone suggest we perform a little undercover surveillance ourselves before we try to question Mr Hoff. It might go down well with the boss. I think Skerix actually had a good idea. Dani, didn't you say you were experienced with undercover work? Do you think this would be a good idea?"
Jack nods. "That seems... logical. Dani, perhaps this should come from you since it is your expertise."
Dani agrees that the broach should be returned to Ama as it is quite clearly an item either originating or related to her.
When discussion of reporting and a plan forward comes around, Dani's giddiness cannot be contained. "I did not think the opportunity to go undercover again would present itself so quickly. That is exactly what I was thinking as well. This approach will ultimately allow us to not only obtain information that will help us question him more effectively, it potentially exposes us to other criminal elements or associates we would not normally have received so easily."
Trying to wipe away her smile she puts her hands on her hips and asks them "Are you sure you're up for a little undercover work yourselves? It's serious business, after-all." Despite her best efforts however, her smirk still remains plastered on her face.
As suggested, Dani takes the lead in reporting back to Ollo. "Sarge, we handled the situation at the Pagoda successfully and both sides are happy. We picked up a lead, but in order to flush it out successfully to ensure we get the best result we're going to need some additional information. We'd like permission to go undercover in Undercity to collect it."
"As you likely already know, I previously served a stint undercover over in Ivy, sir. I'm aware of the differences in operation and I believe I speak for team when I say that we all concur on this approach, LT."
Tears well up in Ama's eyes when you return the brooch to her. "Thank you. Ibetsuo was one of my very best friends. I will miss him dearly, but at least I have this to remember him by. You have my eternal gratitude, friends." She bows low.
When you return to the station after rescuing the hostages, Sergeant Ollo listens eagerly to you story, especially the information gained by questioning the hostages and kobolds. "I am in agreement," the laconic dwarf says slowly, sipping a mug of tea. "Speaking to Hoff at the House of the Planes is the best move. Even if the labor boss doesn’t know anything, one of his associates must. Unfortunately, there’s not enough probable cause to go kicking in the door or demanding meetings with such influential figures—the Edgewatch isn’t all-powerful, and rattling the wrong cages could cause the precinct a world of problems. Instead, I believe Agent Folsamir's suggestion is the best course of action. I suggest that you rest until the evening, then go undercover as the sort of high-profile lowlifes to which the speakeasy caters, using the kobolds’ secret back door to slip in, mingle, and covertly investigate. Come with me."
Ollo leads you into one of the station's back rooms, where an impressive collection of clothes and costumes stands on display. "Welcome to the Wardrobe, agents. We keep this on hand for precisely this purpose." All manner of disguises, from chic cocktail dresses to garish jester outfits, hang from over a dozen racks that line the walls of the vast walk-in closet.
"From what I have heard, you can probably wear your weapons and armor in the House of the Planes without raising too many eyebrows, but the Edgewatch uniforms will have to go." With a surprisingly shrewd eye for fashion, the dwarf advises you to dress to impress—the flashier the better!
Dani literally skips into the room and twirls about as she lifts up a dozen different outfits in under a minute. "PERFECT!" she declares and rips a scantily-clad scarlet cocktail dress off the hanger and holds up in front of her. "What do you think Sarge?"
"A daring choice! It is definitely flattering for your figure. The high slit will provide mobility and put your long legs on display. I think it will be a hit!" Otto says, giving Dani a thumbs up.
Dora's eyes light up when they are shown the wardrobe, rushing forwards to the case of ladies accessories first.
"Okay Dani, if undercover work starts like this, then I'm always in."
She picks up some dangly geometric golden earrings and then rushes straight over to the cocktail dresses. "I wonder if these will be too much?" she thinks out loud, rifling through the rail.
"What do you think Dani, help me choose?"
Jack is ready in a remarkably short time, but effects a considerable transformation in the process.
His usual frock coat is replaced a long leather duster with silver pauldrons and embroidery down the front. A deep hood is raised over his head beneath which pale skin and faintly red eyes glow oddly. Underneath the coat a dark waistcoat and trousers show a (grubby) white shirt.
The look is completed, and made extra menacing, by a pair of heavy looking metal gauntlets and a wicked curved and very large knife that hangs from a broad leather belt. All in all, this man looks nothing like the urbane Doctor Maturin!
"OoooOOoh." she coos over the earrings, "Those are fantastic! Remember, the flashier the better!"
She watches the sorceress go through dresses with "Hmmm." or "Oh, that's nice." and finally says "Pick something that accentuates your hair, it's beautiful. What do you think about something bright and bold like this?" She pulls off a bright golden-yellow cocktail outfit with a smirk "That should attract all the attention."
Before she can settle on it however, she rips off a strappy purple one that shifts shades when viewed from different angles from the rack instead. "Oh. Oh now this should definitely divert their attention. No one will even bother looking at Jack over there in his burlap sack he's wearing!"
Dora is absolutely in love with every dress that is pulled out, but settles on the purple beauty after Dani speaks so highly of it.
"Its so nice to wear anything I want. Lets just say Taldan standards are much more conservative!"
Finally turning around to take note of what anyone else is doing, she notices Jack's outfit.
"Oh Doctor! That is...quirky."She says, unsure of what else to say without offending him.
"They'll look at you and try not to look at me." Jack replies, in a slightly gravelly voice. "It should help."
Laughing at "quirky", she slips her arm around Dora's shoulders and guarantees "With us in these, they won't want to look anywhere else!"
"Edison. Are you going flashy or the shadows like Jack?"
"We need at least one person to join us if any unwanted attention comes our way, I'm sure. I'm sorry, I came with Mr Whitechapel here, ought to do it. Dress up Edison, it would help very much - and its such great fun!"
Clearly Dora hasn't been anywhere like this before so is using all her knowledge from reading to inform the situation yet again.
Edison chooses an appropriate disguise to complement those you have chosen. After resting through the afternoon, you prepare to infiltrate the House of the Planes.
Absalom’s famed Undercity is a warren of tunnels, from naturally occurring caverns to monster-excavated burrows and a palimpsest of old buildings and basements buried by centuries of new construction. The House of the Planes has taken advantage of the unregulated tunnels to construct an elite hangout for some of the city’s extralegal entrepreneurs. Located in Absalom’s quiet Eastgate district, the place’s heavily guarded main entrance is in the basement of a dive bar called Mulligan’s, not far from the Blue Tower. To reach the back door, however, you must start in a small neighborhood graveyard, a cemetery dubbed Raptor’s Rest for the stylized headstones of several Eagle Garrison members buried here.
Raptor’s Rest is a nondescript plot of land crammed between buildings in one of the less affluent sections of Eastgate, its graves packed so close together that there’s barely room for grass between them. The doors to the large mausoleum in the cemetery’s center are unlocked; inside, you find a nondescript sarcophagus with a hidden staircase leading down—the secret Undercity entryway mentioned by the Stonescales. Close examination of the sarcophagus’s lid reveals scratches in the stone around the lid’s edge that look like they were made by humanoid claws.
The 5-foot-wide staircase descends for several stories, periodically shallowing out into a narrow corridor running south. The masonry of the staircase ends at the entrance to a cavern carved out of countless layers of rubble and ancient city buildings. To the west, the subterranean passage continues.
Edison notices that the dust on the floor has been disturbed. He can see several sets of tracks, including kobolds, strangely mangled humanoid feet, and some sort of large rodents.
Dani uses her dancing light spell to help illuminate the passgeway for her allies, treading carefully given the nature of their current "adventuring attire". When Edison points out the various types of tracks, Dani moves a light source closer to them so they can inspect them. "I suppose I expected there to just be humanoid traffic in here, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised there are rodents. It's just that," she scrunches up her nose and shivers, "I don't like rats."
"What could have made those marks?" Dora says, shivering at the possibilities of the claw marks on the sarcophagus lid.
When it gets too dark, Dora casts light on her ring, a fabulous piece of costume jewellery from her personal collection, which lets out enough light to see by.
She sticks very closely to the others in her group which she points out is for the light source, rather than admitting it is for her nerves.
With bright line shining from Dora's ring, you continue forward. The floor of this broad cavern appears strangely clean and polished. Even the debris of the crumbling building façade to the west is devoid of dust and dirt. To the south, a narrow tunnel has been thoroughly walled off with white bricks. To the north, a crevasse yawns in the floor and stretches under the northern wall. Just east of the pit lies a small heap of gleaming armor and weapons in the middle of a tunnel that leads northeast.
"Why on Golarion would a pile of weapons and armor in such good condition be left here unguarded?" Dora muses out loud, stopping at the entrance to the cavern, waiting for someone else to enter before her.
She holds up her ring to cast the light across the cavern to give everyone a better look.
Jack goes first, his sharp eyes examining the hallway carefully in full expectation of a trap.
Jack doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
"Either they were taken here and hidden or someone is stashing them for use later. Either way, it is rather peculiar, no? Let's keep this in mind as we move ahead.
She looks at the equipment again and asks "Dora, can you search it for magical items since we're here?"
The Doctor approaches cautiously and pokes the pile with his boot.
Dora nods and casts, looking around for magical auras, with an extra special close look at the pile on the ground.
Dora does detect magic auras nearby.
As Jack walks up to the pile of equipment, he walks right into a wall of protoplasm! The transparent ooze quickly engulfs the dhampir!
"Something is definitely magical, but..." Dora replies, just as Jack is engulfed by the ooze.
Reacting fast, Dora three bolts at it.
The doctor is trapped, helpless.
Dani gasps when the doctor is engulfed "No!" Looking left and right, she says "We need to get him out of there! Can he breathe in there?"
She pulls out her violin and begins to play a tune to keep them focused. She picks up a stray shield from the hallway and throws it towards the cube, hoping to miss Jack's face as she does so.
Edison runs up and pummels the ooze, while Dani and Dora damage it with spells. The cube slithers forward, and Edison dodges out of the way to avoid being engulfed. It continues past him, stopping just in front of Dani! Its acid continues to eat at Jack’s flesh.
"Its like he can't even move!" Dora calls sounding alarmed. "Is there another way to get him out?"
Dora shoots a frost bolt at the ooze aiming to miss Jack.