Welcome Pathfinders, Venture-Captain and retired heroine Luna Aldred needs your attention in the town of Olfden in the free nation of Andoran to explore a recently discovered site on the volcano known as Droskar’s Crag.
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A goblin with an oversized white lab coat smiles "Ahh greeting fellow Pathfinders! Andoran you say... hmmm solicitor said licensing status still under appeal here so that make me Dr. Ripfang Muk Muk. If you have any dental needs happy to cake care of them for small fee."
A small stuffed monkey peeks out of Dr. Ripfang's bag before hiding back insde.
A seemingly mute muscular man follows behind, with an ill-fitting labcoat and a hefty shovel.
Ripfang looks up again "Oh ya, almost forgot to introduce uhh, dental assistant." says Dr. Ripfang pointing at the man who looks more like a gravedigger than anything else.
After responding to a letter from Venture-Captain Luna Aldred, you have arrived in outside the Pathfinder lodge in Olfden, one of the safest towns in Andoran’s Darkmoon Vale. The streets of Olfden bustle with activity as shopkeepers call out for attention, promising only the very best wares. In front of the Pathfinder lodge on the outskirts of town stands a statue of a woman wielding a blade and a wand, furiously battling a group of humanoid wolves. Several stone wolves lie dead at the statue’s base, but it’s clear the woman is being overwhelmed. As if to give voice to the fallen wolves, a chorus of deep barks echoes from a walled yard behind the lodge.
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"Glad to meet you, Dr. Muk Muk. Me Screech Razorsong. Hero of Lastwall. At least me was a defender of Lastwall, until my unit threw me out of the country telling my singing could wake the dead! Well, I guess they were too late, 'cause the next day the Whispering Tyrant woke up. Me pretty sure it wasn't Screech, but who knows?"
Screech is a goblin, replete with an entertainer's outfit and a recorder that appears to have been made out of a variety of woods and other scraps.
"Why do you think dis woman was fighting wolves? Wolves is good people, not like dogs or horses, or even short-nosed bears!"
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”The stars guide me,” says Capricio Durey by way of introduction. ”Perhaps the wolves are merely a metaphor.”
The dark haired Varisian wanderer has a thick mustache and deep set brown eyes. His leather armor and cloak are the color of the night sky and adorned with stars and moons. He carries a lavender, wooden lute on his back, decorated with butterflies.
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A half-orc woman has half a dozen hatchets strapped to her person. She tips her tricorn hat and grins, showing very large tusks.
"Nice to meet you all! I'm Rixette Bragg of the Risen Albatross. When they made Captain Fane a Venture-Captain, she gave all the crew field commissions, right? So now we're all Pathfinders." She examines the statue. "I sure wouldn't like to be her."
With no answers presenting themselves with the statue, you head inside.
The lodge is decorated with adventuring trophies as well as what look like gifts and thank yous from grateful townsfolk. You're waved into a homey reading room with an assortment of plush chairs and side tables haphazardly piled with books, where an older woman with startling yellow eyes introduces herself as Venture-Captain Luna Aldred. It’s immediately clear that she’s the woman depicted in the statue outside, though clearly also much older.
Venture-Captain Luna Aldred sets down a steaming mug as she leans back in her chair. She smiles and gestures for everyone to find seats as she props her feet up on a padded stool and reaches down for her knitting. She looks like the picture of retirement, but a sword hilt and wand poke out of the basket of yarn at her side.
“Welcome to Silver Moon Sanctuary,” she says. “Olfden doesn’t see as much activity as some lodges, but I’m always happy to see agents. I recently learned a group of prospectors discovered an entrance to what may be an old dwarven ruin on Droskar’s Crag. It could be part of a much larger complex and may hold significant historical value.”
Her silver knitting needles click as she continues.
“I’d like you to take a look, see what you can find. Oh! It’s probably not a surprise, but it sounds like you’ll be sticking your hand in the wolf’s jaws. The prospectors didn’t all make it back out.” Luna shakes her head sadly. “I couldn’t get many details of what happened--the survivor is pretty upset; I had to push a pocketful of gold on him and swear nobody would get hurt before he would draw a map--but maybe you’ll have more luck. He’s been staying down the street at the Silver Bulette inn, if you want to talk to him.”
She sets down her knitting and sits up, yellow eyes intense as she emphasizes her next words. “I don’t know how big this place is, so don’t go too deep. Explore as much as you can, but I don’t want to send a recovery team in a month just to find out you’ve followed some path to a fey party in the Vale. Clear out any threats and make a note of any tunnels leading deeper into the mountain, but save them for another expedition. All right?”
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"Boo-lay," she replies, "though I know some people say it differently. I think in Galt, they say bullet. But you know, they pronounce things differently there. Like 'chaos,' which they pronounce like 'government.' "
She makes an expression -- a cross between a smile and a grimace -- at Rixette.
"Yeah, the town insisted,” she says ruefully. “I quit adventuring 15 years ago. Turns out I should have waited a little longer -- I got back here at the same time as a werewolf army. I did what I could, which apparently was just enough for the town to turn the tide. The high priest of Sarenrae was kind enough to bring me back to life the next day, but I still can’t really recommend dying.”
"That's part of what I'd like you to find out," she replies, "though they would certainly be centuries old."
Screech, as she answers, you remember a few details suddenly: The ancient dwarven empire Tar Khadurrm dominated this region for centuries. It was known for its cities Jernashall and Raseri Kanton, which were centers of trade in southern Avistan. But when Droskar’s Crag erupted in an event known as the Rending, it destroyed the cities and led to the empire’s demise 500 years later.
Screech, you suddenly also remember that Droskar’s Crag has been dormant for centuries, but it’s still just hot enough to send melting snow from the ice-covered peaks cascading down the mountain. Freezing water could be a real threat for anyone ascending the volcano.
"No, not always," the venture-captain replied. "In fact, now I try to care for those wolves that were dragged into that fight. It wasn't their fault. Most of them have passed, but I still care for their descendants." She gestures to an area that you guess would be where the animals you heard earlier were.
"I'm not sure," she answers Capricio. "The prospectors -- Elsitt Treddy was the survivor, the other two were a gnome named Gethel and human named Floria -- were used to being outdoors, so I'm sure they had both, but Elsitt can tell you more, if you can get him to talk to you." She describes the half-orc, so you can find him at the tavern.
She hands you a map. "Here are the directions I was able to get from him to get you up the mountain. Getting there should be easy. You’ll follow the road to Falcon’s Hollow. Then, I hope none of you gets seasick, because I’ve arranged for you to be ferried up the River Foam to Gold Falls Inn. It’s a nice place, run by a retired Pathfinder, Mierson Berekland. Stay there the night, then head up the mountain. Just follow the map.”
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Just follow map. Dat what the legionaries said when they sent Screech out of Lastwall. Then the big boom happened and everybody die.,. And come back again, but not in good way.
“Me happy you take care of wolves. Wolves is good people, not like dumb dogs.
“We go talk to prospector. Learn much. Eat at tavern. Drink beer. ”
It's not difficult to find the Silver Bulette, a large inn with an expansive tavern on the first floor. You can quickly spot Elsitt Treddy, based on the description from the venture-captain. Unfortunately, it looks like the rugged half-orc is well into his cups of dwarven whiskey. He looks up blearily as you approach, eyes red-rimmed from crying.
Elsitt sniffs, and wipes some snot and tears from his face with his sleeve.
"Sure. A-a-another drink'd be good," he cries. "No, m'notOK. My, my friends are dead!"
He sobs forlornly again.
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”Screech knows what dat is like. ” commiserates the goblin. ”Screech’s entire squad was killed when the Whispering Tyrant escaped. Screech only not die because friends threw Screech out of country right before it happened. Me think now they did it to save my music!”
Screech plays a little tune on his home made recorder…
”So, can you tell Screech what happened? Maybe Screech write song to honor your friends?”
The man sobs a bit, but Screech thinks he's on the right track. Perhaps by sharing some stories, you can get him to open up.
You can continue to encourage him to share stories, joining in with their own. You can attempt a Deception or Performance check or use an appropriate Lore check, such as Pathfinder Lore or Warfare Lore, to share your own tales. Each of you can attempt one skill check (the one above will count for Screech). You can earn Commiseration Points on a success, or lose them on a failure.
As Elsitt listens to your stories, he begins to open up a bit. He says “suits of dwarf armor” attacked when the prospectors entered the first room. His friends were killed before they could escape, but the suits of armor did not follow him outside. In addition, he says, he was only inside for a minute, but it was really hot: “It felt like we had stepped into an oven.”
"I found this when we first found the doors," he says, handing over what looks like some sort of charm. One side bears the image of a dwarf hefting a warhammer, while the other depicts a mole. "Maybe it'll bring you more luck than it brought me."
You recognize the figure as Magrim, dwarven overseer of the afterlife, whose sacred animal is a mole.
As you go to leave, Elsitt calls out to you. "I wouldn't go there, but if you do, please bring back his friends back so we can bury them proper-like. I'll pay you their share of the money Luna gave me. They shouldn’t be left to rot -- or worse -- in that place!”
Screech proudly makes his pronouncement. And then remembers Magrim is a boy god.
Ripfang thinks Elsitt is describing some sort of animated object. They're usually very tough, but once you wear them down -- or get one big hit in -- they become a lot easier to deal with.
Finally ready, you depart for an easy trip north to Falcon’s Hollow, where you board a boat to travel 25 miles up the River Foam to the Gold Falls Inn at the base of Droskar’s Crag. At first the trip is lovely, rolling plains passing before you and the Darkmoon forest growing ever larger in your vision to the northeast. Unfortunately, as you make your way north, you encounter an unexpected obstacle at the confluence of the Darkmoon River: a log jam blocks the way forward! Log drivers work furiously to clear the mess, but they’re clearly struggling. Several look like they've been in a fight, with bandages on, and scrapes and bruises.
As the boat slows and pulls over to the shore, a hirsute, muscular halfling standing atop the pile shouts loud enough to be heard over the rapids and tumbling logs. “Don’t just stand there gawking! You can’t go anywhere until we clear this, so help already!”
You can attempt an Acrobatics or Athletics check to clamber atop the logs and dislodge them, or a Crafting, Nature, or Thievery check to figure out the best way to direct workers to undo the tangle. Everyone can attempt one check.
For Ripfang, figuring out which log needs to come out is like deciding what teeth need extraction. Rixette's able to easily clamber along the pile as well, giving help where needed, though Capricio and Screech struggle a bit to keep up. Still, soon enough the pile is on the move again, and the halfling -- Boss Pattin -- extends an offer to join him for dinner before you move on.
Over a hearty stew, he tells you, “Nothing has gone right on this trip. Couple days ago, duergar raiders attacked, tried to take us prisoner! We sent them back up the Crag, but they left us bloodied. That’s why this mess happened.”
You spend some time with him, and before departing, he offers you a satchel, stamped with what looks like a stylized ax. "Here. We don't need this now, so maybe it can help you. Just don't let any higher-ups in the Lumber Consortium know," he adds, perhaps half jokingly.
The satchel contains a lesser leaper’s elixir, a sunrod, and a minor elixir of life.
After getting back on the boat, your finish the journey without incident and soon reach Gold Falls Inn, a former dwarven ruin that has been transformed into a lodging with spectacular views of the waterfall. Retired Pathfinder Mierson Berekland welcomes you and provides you a hearty meal, plus some snacks for your trip up Droskar’s Crag. The map leads you to a cliff ledge where rocky debris hides a pair of shattered gates that open into the mountain.
The crumpled remains of iron doors leave this entryway open to the elements. Ash, dirt and other debris cover the floor. The bloodied bodies of a gnome and human lie near the entrance, arms outstretched toward the exit, away from the suits of dwarven armor standing in each corner. Below the remains, a map carved into the stone floor spreads across this chamber. A wide hallway leads east out of the room, and to the south, a narrow set of stairs leads down.