Welcome to my new scenario! Please dot in and I will get started!
You begin in an antechamber, in a building rented by Yigrig Moneymaker, a successful goblin merchant. You arrived into Katapesh yesterday, at the behest of Venture-Captain Wulessa Yuul, and are starting to get used to the heat of the city.
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In himself: Well the first mission for this Society. Not their trials. Let's see if there will be more perilous than the bounties I took to earn a bit money.
The slightly shaggy-looking man arriving wears leather armor under a cape and a clearly decorative dagger on the belt. But what probably intrigues the most is the cloud of gems that flies next to him.
I hope that it will be some mushrooms at least. For an omelet. It's good an omelet with mushrooms.
He spies the other ones waiting with him in the antechamber. Do they like mushrooms? He remembers once to have asked the question to a leshy who was very disappointed.
Finally he says looking from : My name's Vilmur. Do you like mushrooms?
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You [...] are starting to get used to the heat of the city.
"I'm never going to get used to this heat!" announces a muscular, purple-blueish woman donned in full-plate as she enters the room. She has long, purple hair, several gills on either side of her neck, and necklace with a single, eloquent pearl resting around her neck. Strapped to her back she wields a long polearm with a hook at the end, and she has several seashells tied to her backpack.
Most noticeably, her skin looks fairly dry and and she begins wiping herself with a damp cloth as she moves across the room and claims a chair. "Name's Torrent. Not sure who thought sending me to the desert was a good idea but here I am, following orders."
Finally, turning to Vilmur, "Not sure if I like mushrooms to be honest. But maybe I just haven't found a good way to cook them." She smiles, "Pleasure to meet you."
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"It obliges him"
Nary a foot tall, humanoid and with a male shape, cloven feet, a thin double layer of chitinous elytra overlapping flaxen hindwings, the strange creature walks up to Vilmer and speaks, pointing it's longnailed finger at it's own chest in speaking the word "it" followed by pointing now at the human audience in speaking the word "him", to clarify the subject and object of the simply spoken sentence.
Standing expectant of receiving a mushroom - Why might one mention but not produce such a treat!? - and confounded by the lack of ceremony. But only for a moment.
Maruta dashes off a moment, straight down an adjacent dune, bent of some mission, disappearing from sight, leaving a tiny trail of ash in it's wake...
You are all ushered into a large meeting room. Shelving, charts, ledgers and a little artwork are around the room. A table separates you from your host.
Yigrig Moneymaker, the powerful goblin merchant, slumps in a large chair. His face, normally so proud and assured, looks troubled. “It’s good to see you, Pathfinders! I have a lot of respect for the Society. You’ve been good to me in the past, and my family has aided you in return. But today I come before you, my hat in my hands, in need of help.
“My family and I have almost brokered a trade agreement between the cities of Solku and Oenopion. It’s a beneficial deal, one where Solku gains the materials it needs to defend itself, Oenopion gains a new trading partner, and everyone stands to make a heap of coin. There’s only one issue standing in the way of the negotiation being finalised: a bridge must be constructed over the Elemion River to facilitate safe travel between the two cities. My family is responsible for building and maintaining this bridge. It should have been a simple job… easy to pull off.
“It has been anything but easy.”
The old goblin leans forward. “Every morning at the work camp, it is discovered that more of my children have been pulled from their beds in the night, presumed dead. Every shipment of aid I send gets attacked. The last one I sent did not even arrive.
“There is a lot of money riding on this deal, but I admit this isn’t about money anymore. This is personal. Someone is harming my family and I can’t sit by and let that happen.
“I have contracted the Pathfinder Society to protect the bridge and surrounding work camp while construction is completed. I have a caravan ready to leave, filled with new workers and supplies for the bridge site. I want you on it. When you see it safely to the bridge site, I need you to stop the attacks on the camp by any means necessary until the job is complete. When you get to the work camp, you will meet my son Zig, the overseer of the project. Sweet kid… takes after his old man. He’ll be your liaison with the workers and see to your needs.
”Any questions?”
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Quickblade is a tall man, his skin bronzed from a life spent in the outdoors. A quiver of crossbow bolts hangs at his side, though his pack and crossbow sit in the corner of the tent, along with his sword belt, upon which hang two swords.
"Greetings, fellow Pathfinders. I am Quickblade Trueshot of Absalom."
Quickblade is clearly unused to being around people.
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...returning from the dune with a tiny copper-colored mineral chunk, the sprite scampers around the briefing room unnoticed, scoping out each of the other five (six!) soon-to-be official nestmates...
...and crawling over a piece of furniture, and spitting into his hand, rubs the mineral with the faintly green glowing saliva, then reaches up with two long-nailed fingers, and quickly Affixes the Potency Crystal unto the Well-Strung Longbow of Jing Chiwu, before disembarking and just-as-quickly scampering back out of the room, mid-conversation...
“Since the attacks began, information has been spotty getting out. However, I know that some sort of large animals have been attacking the work camp during the night, and something else has been aggressive toward anyone that tries to leave or enter the site, no matter what time of day. Bandits? Animals? Accounts have been conflicting, but whatever they are, they’re dangerous. There have been lots of injuries and deaths.
To Vilmur he says “I’m not aware of any mushroom growths in the area. It would be too bright for them. I don’t trade any around there, although if there are any significant cave systems, you never know.
He turns to look at Torrent “As for swimming in the river, I’ve never tried! It’s quite a big river, hence the need for a good bridge. You can’t just ford it with a merchant caravan.”
Maruta, Quickblade and Vilmur realise that the area they are visiting is home to great beasts such as lions, panthers, dire wolves, and more. Such creatures might be responsible for the attacks on the camp.
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...returning from a second foray holding a chipped nail(?) sticking out of a cactus leaf, our mischievous little hero speaks "Cait Mhóra" accompanying his enunciation with some mimicry: Curling his own longnailed fingers, he bares his teeth menacingly, and crouches to all fours, "pouncing" on Quicklbade and attacking his boot!
Then, like a feral housecat, and still "in character", he scales up another chair, and Affixes an Owlbear Claw to the tengu human's bow, and whispers into his ear "Le haghaidh gabhála" and leaping back down, resumes his bipedal walking, leaving the "cat" behind, but, still animated, walks over first to Vilmer, and then to Torrent's accompanist, and drops a Minor Healing Potion into each of their pockets!
And once done, claps his hands together, a puff of grey ash clouding the air briefly, and preparing to walk out of the room, sharing a "square" with Jing Chiwu's Horse Companion (not riding - rather underfoot!)
"Big Cats" then "For Capture"
”Right then, let’s get you moving.” says Yigrig.
He leads you to a goblin caravan at the back of the warehouse.
It consists of four Huge wagons and 20 nervous goblin workers. It also contains an assortment of supplies including wooden beams and food. The leader of the caravan is a goblin named Muckmuck, who looks worried about the journey and because many goblins loathe horses, the caravan’s wagons are pulled by camels.
After you have left Yigrig and the warehouse behind, Muckmuck laughs to himself. Addressing Torrent, Vilmur, Jing and Quicblade he says “You longshanks think you can protect us? You can’t save Muckmuck. You’re weak. Face facts. We’re all going to die.
“You sit there in the back and talk to the workers. We’re all scared. Doesn’t matter what we do. We’re all going to die.
“Tell you truth, I don’t want to go. Yigrig reads too many books. He’s lost his mind. We all think about leaving before he gets us killed. Not help that the minstrel lost hand in teeth-brushing accident. Much blood. Can’t play lute anymore.
“Tell you what. You want to help? You be the minstrel. Make fancy music. Make goblins feel less likely to run away. Convince them we’re not all going to die.” He glares suspiciously at Ban Baio.
To Ambius and Maruta ”You two are foolish for joining this. Us small folk going to die.”
The caravan will take two days to reach the camp with one overnight stay on the side of the path. The journey is hot and the Goblins are very wary of Jing’s horse. None of them will go near it. They huddle inside the wagons.
You have the chance to speak with the goblin workers at the overnight stop. Just as Muckmuck says, they are terrified to travel to the camp.
However, the caravan is filled with goblins, and despite their fear, their wandering attention span quickly turns to revelry in its many forms. The night is filled with fights and cackling laughter as the goblins try to impress the you and each other with feats of physical prowess. If you so choose, you can partake in this revelry!
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Torrent thanks Maruta for the gift, "I will hold this for you, I suppose?" she says with a curious look.
Soon after when Vilmur approaches her Torrent seems more at ease with this gesture, "Ah, I have studied these before but have never learned the art!" she says excitedly. She then affixes the bag of herbs to her polearm. Thanking Vilmur, Torrent reaches to her backpack and unties a seashell. "And take this. A gift from the sea. May Lysianassa protect you should you fall into a body of water" The seashell, much like Torrent, smells of the ocean though the seashell at least doesn't have the combined smell of dry skin associated with it.
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During the travels Torrent tries her best to reassure the Goblins of the prowess of the Pathfinders, but of the many languages Torrent speaks Goblin is not one of them. She resorts to speaking in Common and Draconic in case any of the goblins understand that. Her words seem to have little effect until the caravan breaks camp for the night when Torrent has a chance to show the workers some feats of strength.
Seeing Quickblade climb a tree was impressive, and Torrent will need to do something different. Looking around the caravan she gets an idea.
First, she pulls out her gillhook, runs towards one of the caravan wagons and plants the polearm in the ground to try to polevault herself onto a wagon.
Once on the wagon, Torrent goes up to the end of each wagon and then instead of a running jump, she stands still and Quick Jumps from wagon-to-wagon, repeating this several times until she has jumped across the entire circle of wagons.
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Torrent, in looking down to assure Maruta that his potion will be safe with her, soon notices that he hasn't any way to carry it himself at all - being utterly without equipment, even clothing, seemingly only wrapped inside of a gentle light green aura that pervades his entire tiny being.
He smiles, and despite himself, his eyelashes twinkle.
Along the trip, he spends time curiously wandering through every single wagon, backpack, canteen, saddlebag - anything that stores anything - seemingly on some sort of "quest" to find something or other, and always coming up empty-handed. At one point, his nosy meanderings offend a few adjacent goblin workers, who catch him in the act, and soon begin chasing him throughout the wagons, the tone quickly shifting from one of pursuit of a perceived thief to silly and reckless joy for it's own sake!
From where Maruta comes from, "foolish" is a compliment "Were it not to die" pointing at himself when he says "it" with a longnailed finger "would not that it could have lived" feeling like he is stating the obvious, the whole feeling of Muckmuck's hopelessness flying hopelessly over our mischievous hero's head.
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For One Night Only! The oasis you have stopped in becomes a raucous party venue. The goblins, terrified and hesitant when you arrived are now merely slightly anxious.
The tall palm trees are climbed and longshanks perform feats of daring at the top! The wagons are used for an astonishing display of leaping!
The acrobats flip around as the goblin plays!
The sprite leads goblins on a merry chase, peppering Muckmuck with existential questions!
The horse rider tells a frightening tale of mercantile betrayal!
The goblin and his ghost then lead a rousing sing-song!
Muckmuck seems to be both irritated and elated at the same time. He obviously does not want to develop hope but he might just be edging that way!
Around lunchtime the next day, you can see the bridge site in the distance.
But then...
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Torrent cheers and celebrates each of her teammates morale-boosting efforts. As the night dies down, Torrent finds a tree to rest against and casts Spout on a blanket to completely soak it, and then wraps herself in it for the night.
In the morning her skin is revitalized and she smells like a fresh ocean breeze rather than a dried fish baked in the heat of the desert. Torrent starts her day grasping her pearl necklace, eyes closed, and her lips are seen muttering words. Afterwards, she dons her fullplate armor and collects her things for another day's journey. Torrent spends her day traveling in the front of the caravan and keenly remembers that the caravans have been disappearing so she is on high alert keeping her gillhook ready and her eyes peeled for danger.
Initiative
A group of what you can only assume are bandits blocks your way! They scream a battle cry and attack!
The one group (yellow) appears to be wielding short bows and the other (blue) have bottles in one hand and swords in the other.
Initiative
Maruta
Jing Chiwu
Yellow Group
Vilmur
Ambius
Quickblade Trueshot
Torrent
Blue Group
Bold are up!
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Popping out from under the wagon, Maruta points a long-nailed finger at the incoming bandits and hisses. Then, flapping his mothen wings, a tiny cloud of choking ash generates around his body, feeding into his faint primal aura, and gaining tremendous speed, flies forward a black plume, landing in the center of the shortbow-wielding bandits, and with an anticlimactic silence, balloons suddenly into a gigantic cloud of choking ash engulfing too the shortsword-wielding bandits!
◆◆◆) Ash Cloud
LINK
Range > 120 feet; Area > 20-foot burst
Saving Throw > Fortitude; Duration > 1 minute
Critical Success > The target is unaffected.
Success > The target takes half damage.
Failure > The target takes full damage and is Dazzled for 1 round.
Critical Failure > The target takes double damage and is Blinded for 1 round.
Vilmur up, not Chiwu!
As the ashen cloud billows out, sounds of choking can be heard from within.
The goblins in the caravan scatter and hide.
A group of three archers spills out of the side, spitting and wiping their faces. Taking aim at the closest armed or dangerous individuals, they fire a volley of arrows at Maruta and Torrent.
At Maruta:
At Torrent (flat footed):
A single arrow catches Maruta for 1 damage.
Initiative
Maruta (-1)
Yellow 1 (-3)
Yellow 3 (-7)
Yellow 4 (-3)
Vilmur
Jing Chiwu
Ambius
Quickblade Trueshot
Torrent
Blue Group
Bold are up!
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Why are they so far away! Torrent thinks disappointingly as she realizes she won't get to use her gill hook directly this turn. Instead, she begins channeling energy through her gillhook. The surrounding area gets somewhat chilled as her gill hook nearly turns to ice and Torrent attempts to blast one of the yellow bandits with a ray of frost
After the strike, Torrent diverts the cold energy and cycles it through her body in order to use it again next turn.