You begin the adventure late in the morning after several days of travel from Heidmarch Manor in Magnimar to Kaer Maga, on orders from Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch. The City of Strangers and its 80-foot-high walls loom far above them from atop the Storval Rise.
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A female gnome with wavy aquamarine hair, amethyst eyes, and golden oak skin arrives and looks around as if expecting others to already be present. Not seeing what she seeks, she leans comfortably against the wall, conjures a set of panpipes out of thin air, and begins to play a tune that meanders through various emotions: curious, pensive, excited, wary... She continues playing until the arrival of someone she was expecting. "Hello! I'm Salaish. Quite the mission we have, huh?"
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A massive and well muscled goblin, at least 3' 2" walks up. He wears a breastplate and carries a heavy pick. A rapier and daggers are at his waist. He is dark green skinned but actually appears to be much neater than the average Goblin.
He also has a pack across his back and what appears to be two small casks on his back and the back of his belt. You also see a metal flask riding above a dagger on one hip and another one stuck in a sash on his armor.
"Greetings! Me be Grog! Always nice to meet fellow pathfinder! Me brew good beverages, want a drink?"
With that he pulls a bottle out of his pack, uncorks it and passes it to over.
"My latest creation. So far it popular! It mead with a touch of Strawberry!"
He looks around, "We first? Grog usually fashionably late. This feels weird."
When he gets close you also notice he is nowhere as, well, fragrant, as the usual Goblin. In fact he may even be wearing some light cologne. You also notice a wooden symbol of a tankard around his neck.
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A curly haired halfling joins the gnome and goblin. "Heya, Groggy! How did that latest batch go?" He takes the bottle and helps himself to a swig. "Hey, that's not bad! I like the hint of strawberry."
A satchel at his side clinks with several alchemical vials. "Argoni Slate at your service again. Sounds like we're the teachers this time, as opposed to just searching the school like last time."
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A wiry kobold struts alongside the others, trailed by a monstrous scorpion the size of a Labrador retriever. His coppery scales shimmer in the morning light.
"Inducting hobgoblins. Yeah... I'll try a snort of that," says Rannarix, reaching for some of the mead. "They're going to love us. Meadow's the only one more than half their height."
"Oof, that's not bad at all, Grogggg. Groggg? Groggggg? Anyway, don't let Mister Snappers have any. He's a mean drunk."
The kobold pours some water from a canteen into a bowl and sets it down, whereupon the scorpion just stares at him.
"Don't be like that! You know what happened in Magnimar! Just drink the damn water!"
After a long arachnid stare, Rannarix says "So you're not going to drink it?"
"Fine. But no booze!" He carefully pours the water back into the canteen and stows it.
"Come on," he sighs. "Let's go."
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Argoni laughs as he watches the scorpion being obstinate. "What did you feed him to make him grow so big? Maybe some runoff from potions of enlarge?" He glances at Rannarix's coppery scales. "Oh, you need to meet my friend Rhaegal. He's a coppery and gold kobold too, though he keeps telling me that if he eats well and is a good boy, he'll grow up to be a dragon! He's tried a few times, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it. Good party trick though! Are you more of a *Grrrr* dragon or a --" Argoni mimes waving his hands in some weird pantomime of spellcasting. -- dragon?"
The halfling considers whether the hobgoblins will take the small-folk seriously. "You know, maybe Grogggg can brew up some drinks for them. People tend to be friendlier with a drink in their hands. Maybe a good meal too. What do hobgoblins like to eat besides halflings?"
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Argoni laughs as he watches the scorpion being obstinate. "What did you feed him to make him grow so big? Maybe some runoff from potions of enlarge?"
"He was that way when I met him. He was sent by the Monkey King. Not really sure why he's not a monkey, but we're good friends anyway. I'm told he'll get a lot bigger before he's finished growing."
He glances at Rannarix's coppery scales. "Oh, you need to meet my friend Rhaegal. He's a coppery and gold kobold too, though he keeps telling me that if he eats well and is a good boy, he'll grow up to be a dragon! He's tried a few times, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it. Good party trick though! Are you more of a *Grrrr* dragon or a --" Argoni mimes waving his hands in some weird pantomime of spellcasting. -- dragon?"
Rannarix says "The 'Grrr' kind, I guess. I don't know any spells but these mean business," he says, baring his razor-sharp fangs. "And sometimes I spit up a little acid."
The halfling considers whether the hobgoblins will take the small-folk seriously. "You know, maybe Grogggg can brew up some drinks for them. People tend to be friendlier with a drink in their hands. Maybe a good meal too. What do hobgoblins like to eat besides halflings?"
"I've never met one. The stories I've heard make them sound pretty unfriendly, but I've heard the same stories about kobolds."
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Salaish happily accepts a bit of strawberry mead, holding out her pan pipes and plugging the hole of the longest pipe with her finger. "Just a little bit, thanks. It goes straight to my head." She tilts it back, pauses to appreciate it, then swallows it with eyes wide in appreciation. "Oh wow! That's good! Thank you, Grogggg! Oh, now I want to compose a song about strawberry mead..." She tips the last of the mead into her mouth, then dismisses the panpipes by tossing them over her shoulder. They disappear just before they hit the wall.
"It's good to see you again, Argoni. Yeah, being the teacher this time ought to be fun. I spent almost the entirety of my last mission trying to make friends with a whole town of people in Razmiran, so I've got some good practice. But surely they won't actually try to eat us, right?"
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A young half elf woman wearing leather armor rushes up. On her shoulders is a green cloak embroidered with an owl and what appears to be a lizard or maybe a cat. She has a shortbow slung across her back. She is out of breath and has clearly been running for some time. She is closely followed by a snowy owl. As she skids to a halt she is almost knocked off of her feet as the owl crashes into her from behind.
She turns and scolds the owl. "Watch it, Silence! Haven't you caused enough trouble already?"
Turning back to the party she grins wryly. "Sorry I'm late but someone, she turns and glares at the owl before continuing her story, "flew off to chase a rabbit."
The owl is unfazed by the scolding and calmly preens his feathers.
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"Oh hey Grog!" The young woman waves at the goblin champion before continuing her story. "Anyway that detour ended up taking us right through a bandit camp. They must have chased us for miles but we finally managed to lose them. Of course since we've never been to Varisia before we were now very lost and it took awhile for us to get here to...Where are we again?"
"Screech!"
As you are walking and chatting, some of you try to recall what could they know about Hobgoblins and the whole situation.
Hobgoblins from Oprak are making headway in improving the reputation of goblinoids throughout the region, but they still face a great deal of prejudice stemming from the bloody Ironfang Invasion and their reputation as monsters and murderers. There are many hobgoblins who still cling to these old ways, but General Azaersi continues her efforts to bring hobgoblins and other so-called "monsters" under her banner of diplomacy.
The Iolite Squad is the first of its kind, a test squadron put together with an emphasis on qualities the nation of Oprak believes will mesh with the Pathfinder Society’s values. Its leader, Sergeant Drussem, is renowned not only for her successes in battle during the Ironfang Invasion, but also for avoiding unnecessary combat and helping to negotiate several key treaties.
Since the armistice between Oprak and the surrounding nations following the Ironfang Invasion, relations have steadily improved to the point that hobgoblins have assimilated into the surrounding area.
Finally, you get to and through the gates and begin the search for Sorry Excuse. You pass some other Inns called Blood Invasion, Helpless Charms, and Badger Chomp when finally you see a small Inn called Sorry Excuse. You can hear some humans saying "I tell you, Drumbar. Someone should kick those Hobgoblins out of this inn. We could round some boys and teach them a less" you hear as they depart.
With nothing better to do you enter inside.
Laughter and shouts rise from the boisterous crowd that occupies the cheaply furnished tavern room at the Sorry Excuse inn. The staff moves from table to table with practiced efficiency to take orders and deliver pints of frothing ale. Four hobgoblins seated near the entrance size up everyone who enters and ignore the mugs on their table.
Seeing you, one of the hobgoblins stands up and approaches your group.
"I am Sergant Drussem, squad leader of Iolite Squad Alpha. You can call me Sergant. Who is your commanding officer?" she says in a military voice looking at the six of you
Drussem is slightly taller than the rest of the hobgoblins, her armor is well made, and her equipment—from her cloak to her sword and shield—is utterly unadorned save for the flag of Oprak at her shoulder.
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"Hey there, Sergeant. I'm Rannarix. Pleased to meet you. You're training as Pathfinders now and we don't use ranks much. Nor do we have commanding officers in the field. It's a little more...democratic isn't the right word...'freeform'? We live by a code, not by orders. So with your permission, we'll drop the ranks and call your squad by their actual names."
"We're here to train you in the Pathfinder way, which is significantly different from the military way, but you're free to continue using a command structure if that feels more efficient to you. Just don't expect any other Pathfinders to do it with you."
He signals the barman for a beer.
"Now, I'm no expert in military intelligence, but I have it on good authority that in a little while we're all going to be handling some bigots who don't like hobgoblins. And to be fair, they may have been victims of your recent invasion. So this is how it's going to go: Talk first, violence second. We will try to calm things down or possibly intimidate or deceive the opposition. We will only engage them in combat if absolutely necessary and even then we will not kill if we don't have to. I hope that's clear enough. The Pathfinder Society tries to keep good relations with various law enforcement and civil authorities whenever possible."
"If it helps, you can think of this as the first training exercise. An exercise in nonlethal civilian interaction. Hopefully."
"Beer?"
"I am Sergant Drussem, squad leader of Iolite Squad Alpha. You can call me Sergant. Who is your commanding officer?"
"Screech!" Silence flaps his wings.
The owl turns his head upside-down and hoots softly at his friend.
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Another goblin jogs in, she is, well, surprisingly beautiful for a goblin, she looks more like a miniature green human with long ears than a goblin, it's strange. She has a pick on her side and wears a black full plate.
"Hi, sorry, i was stuck on the way. Name's Grandel. I'm form the shackles but i'm an experienced pathfinder now, love to meet new people, help, all the stuff, you know how it is"
She claps her hands
"Ok,so, what do we have here ? What do our hobgoblin brothers and sisters need ?
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Argoni glances at Grandel and her armor and weapons. Then back to Rannarix as he speaks to the hobgoblin. "We don't have strict ranks, but that doesn't mean we don't have a sense of leadership. We just let us naturally rise to the top. And we expect it from everyone." He nods towards the kobold. "Rannarix is right though. You're bound to be called 'monster' and maybe even treated like it. If you hope to be Pathfinders, you have to show that your squad is capable of handling yourselves among the populace, no matter what their mood is. I mean, some people assume that halflings are all thieves and criminals." He smiles and winks at Drussem.
The cheery halfling waves over a server to order some drinks. "Now I hears Iolite Squad was hand-picked as some of the finest Oprak has to offer. And you were picked to lead them, Sergant. So let's make sure your group succeeds, yes?"
While the server places down their drinks, Argoni leans over to Groggg and Grandel and whispers. "You both speak Goblin if needed, right?"
One everyone has a glass, he says, "Now, my name's Argoni. Ari sometimes to my friends. How about we all toast to a successful mission, eh?"
Sergeant Drussem listens to what you are saying, she is baffled about an organization without strict ranks and simply comments
"That would be an interesting experience for us"
She looks at Rannarix and Grog "We have our beers at the table, come and join us before we depart." you can clearly see that not even a sip was taken from the four mugs at the table
Drussem smiles at Salaish nodding her head in appreciation from the salute and salutes herself. Her posture is impeccable such as her salute.
Sergeant Drussem turns to Meadow "I don't know much about owls... Can you understand them? I mean owls? That is remarkable..."
Sergeant looks for a moment at Grandel and Grog and asks them
"And what inspired you to join Pathfinder Society?"
Sergeant Drussem takes you to the table. She calls her soldiers to attention before introducing each of them by name. Akrag grins broadly and extends his lanky arm to shake hands with each of the Pathfinders, his belt bristling with small bladed weapons.
"This is Akrag, he is our drill instructor. Very much interested in practicing his knowledge and skills."
Gintka, their sapper, gives a quick nod as Drussem introduces her before she returns to fidgeting with the metal buckles and sealed vials adorning her gear.
"This is Gintka, she is an engineer. She is great at what she does, just at times she lacks focus."
Finally, the Sergeant introduces Ozaril, their veteran scout, who gives a perfect salute, his fingers coming close to the many scars that cross his head.
"This is Ozaril, the oldest of our squad. He is our Scout."
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Grandel looks left and right at the conversation that she just joined. **"Goblin ? Of course i speak goblin ? How could i not ?"**
Well some apparent chaos can be very organized. If you see a free captain's ship, you will think it is a total mess of ragtags pirates but they have an extremely sharp hierarchy and a set of rules taller than me .
Grandel looks at the Sergeant Drussem and replies to her question by the following Well, they made a big ruckus in a tavern while i was drinking peacefully. And i have learnt that they do a lot of bounties that way and that their income is guaranteed. In the shackles you never know if it is going to be payday or sink day, so i figured I'd rather have a solid source of income
She then salutes the three new hobgoblins.
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Grog smiles at the sergeant, "Grog, like many goblins here have rough life, many poor. As others say, many other races look down on us. That seem to be changing but slowly. Grog ran into some Pathfinders who help Goblin tribe under city. Grog impressed with them, seem like good people and not total murder hobo Grog hear about. So, Grog go to join them, see what it really about. So far Grog happy and meet many new friends. Grog has worked with several here before. There skin be pale but their hearts good."
When they head back to the table Grog offers some of his wares to the Hobgoblins to try if they wish. He has a cask over half full of the strawberry mead, some decent ale in the other cask and a large flask of very good home made whiskey he will offer. He seems very proud of the whiskey...
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"Truth be told, our goblin kind isn't really good at many things. My original crew was the worst in the shackles. This is why i went from free captain to free captain, in order to better my situation .
She laughs "The only thing goblins and longshanks have in common, is how easy their heart can be captured
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Settling in with the new crew, Salaish chuckles at Grandel's observation: "Heheh. There's some truth in that, but it's balanced by loyalty once a truly worthy cause or person is found."
"So! Anyway! Switching topics--sorry about the conversational whiplash." She pauses to take a deep breath, then launches into an explanation of team selection in the Pathfinder Society.
"So, how did your group come together? Were you randomly assigned, or specifically chosen? And how long have you been together?"
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Argoni greets each of the hobgoblins on the team. He grins broadly when Gintka is introduced though. "Ohh, a sapper! We should have fun together, fiery lady! What kinds of chemicals do you use? Maybe we can share secrets!" The halfling gives her a wink and holds up his satchel filled with alchemical items and reagents.
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Sergeant Drussem turns to Meadow "I don't know much about owls... Can you understand them? I mean owls? That is remarkable..."
Meadow suddenly looks very uncomfortable and becomes uncharacteristically quiet.
"This is Ozaril, the oldest of our squad. He is our Scout."
She perks up again when the scout is introduced. "Oh a scout? I'm a scout too you know. Maybe we could trade some tricks?"
Sarge simply nods her hairless head to Grandel's and Grog's reasons for joining Pathfinders.
She then listens to explanations how Pathfinder Society is organized and nods her head "That is so much different than how we operate. Our squad was formed a couple of years ago, we have all been in the army for some time already. But this setup proved to be very efficient. " says Seargeant Drussem
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Ozaril smiles to Meadow and brings her a chair nearby. He begins to share a story when he was tracking guerilla bands on the slopes of the mountains. Living off the land for weeks as he was trying to find tracks on the stony ground...
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Gintka raises her cap which proves to be having a wig underneath that and she rubs her bald head. Then she puts her hat back and smiles wickedly
"I have some acid with me, but what I am experimenting with the most are those gas bombs. The smoke is very intense and makes it harder to see."
She pushes mugs of beer to the side and begins to throw ingredients on the table
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When a few hours have passed, you move out.
The journey from Kaer Maga to the training grounds stretches through many miles of varied terrain and should take you multiple days. During one full day of travel, you have a chance to see how well do Iolite Squad Alpha operates. They set up a camp in no time and set up watches. Sergeant Drussem orders are done without bickering or delay, the wood is collected, a fire set up and meals prepared.
Ozaril usually scouts ahead to learn the lay of the land while the rest set up the perimeter.
The first two days pass by, uneventful. But during the third, when Ozaril was scouting ahead, he quickly came back
"There are troubles ahead! Some caravan is set up near an abandoned building and a pack of wolves is threatening to overrun them." Ozaril speaks to Seargeant Drussem who turns towards you.
"It seems that some humans are in a pickle. We could make our perception of ourselves better by helping them. What do you think?"
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"Oh yeah, totally! Let's see... I think the best way to introduce you to them, so they don't assume it's more trouble (no offense, but scared people make inaccurate assumptions all the time) is for our team to appear first, then have your team finish off the wolves. Then we can talk with them once they're safe. What do you think?"
Once the plan is agreed upon, Salaish conjurs up a trumpet so she can provide an inspirational backdrop for this rescue. She winks at any of the Iolite Squad Alpha soldiers who seem to question her choice of weapon. "Trust me, people respond well to the music."
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Ozaril smiles to Meadow and brings her a chair nearby. He begins to share a story when he was tracking guerilla bands on the slopes of the mountains. Living off the land for weeks as he was trying to find tracks on the stony ground...
Meadow is an excellent listener and asks several insightful questions although she does occasionally have to interrupt to admonish Silence to pay attention.
Ozaril usually scouts ahead to learn the lay of the land while the rest set up the perimeter.
Meadow practically begs Ozaril to let her come along on these scouting trips.
Looks at everyone "Just to make sure, errr, do we help the wolves or the humans ? Because wolves are cool too" She draws her pick.
Meadow looks at Grandel incredulously. "What is wrong with you? Of course we will help the caravan and most definitely not the wolves." She rolls her eyes and leans over to whisper something in Silence's ear.
Silence flaps his wings.
You positioned yourself between the rocks and soon you hear growling from in front of you. A set of furry wargs are coming your way.
Sergeant Drussem responds to Salaish "You keep the center, we will hold the right flank! We try to aid you when we can."
Round 1 Of Wolf and Pathfinder (Bold can go)
Salaish
Argoni
Meadow
Warg red
Warg Blue
Warg green
Smaller warg pink
Rannarix
Grog
Grandel
Hobgoblin
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Chuckling in anticipation of an exciting but not overly dangerous fight, Salaish raises her conjured trumpet to her lips and blasts out a tune that evokes confidence and bravery. With the music comes a tingle of magic in both teams' minds.
"All right team! Let's do this!" With a confident cheer, Salaish draws her rapier in her other hand and takes a step forward, waiting for the wolves to come to her.