Investigate and stop the murderer of a Druman farmer's prized alpacas near Petitioner's Port, a town in the nation of Druma!
You have recently arrived or spent some time in the town of Petitioner’s Port. One of the town’s deputy leaders, Administrator Salayah, swiftly comes to town from the government building on a nearby hill, stopping in front of the town’s major rest stop: the Meticulous Truffle Inn. She places an updated sheet on the local bounty board, which you come across as the administrator is placing it. The newly posted request writes:
Adventurers Needed!
My farm has been the victim of a terrible threat. Some kind of awfulness is murdering my precious alpaca herd. I need help immediately and am willing to pay a reward of 20 gold to the adventurers who put a stop to these murders. Come visit my farm, due north of Petitioner’s Port, for more information. -Wilhuff Harjhack
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A drunk goblin enters the inn in the middle of the night holding a golden harmonica.
Hey everyone, let me play a beautiful song dedicated to all of you.
His drunken state made him play out of tune.
Hmm. Is it me or is this thing (looking at the harmonica) broken?!
Not long after, he fell asleep while sitting down at the inn’s lobby. He was awoken by Ulvard who asked him if he could read the notice. He rubs his eyes and endures a pretty bad hangover, but nonetheless reads the post.
Hey, Ulvard is it? I’m Marhok by the way. I love drinking booze and playing music. I think they are looking for adventurers to hunt down an alpaca-murderer. Are you up for it?
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"Beyond the Pale!"
An old gnome carrying a large lantern emitting a pallid light shines it onto the bounty poster "Therein a claim of failing herds, and blood, a scene of mysterious death, a petitioner farms for help... no... a farmer petitions for help! But what deeper truths lie just below the rhetoric of this sign, no one knows!" the high-pitched but somehow crotchety voice seems to distrust itself with each turn of phrase, earning every question mark it's bearded lips utter.
"Gold they say. But is it fools gold?" leaving the reflexive query in the air, he leans against his cane with his good arm, anticipating a guess from any gathered, as if poised to pounce with words and further riddles!
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"Hello...Marhok. " rumbles Ulvard. "You would fit right in where I come from. Apart from the height. They are more likely to fit you into something else thinking about it. Maybe a barrel. Do they toss goblin barrels where you come from?" he enquires, quite seriously.
Then a second short person turns up. This one also can read. And paraphrase. And turns words all around. After just a moment or two Urlvard looks confused. "Who are you calling a fool? Fool!"
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And pounce he does!
"The calling of the fool... yes... YES..."
"...And who is the Fool? The Fool? Or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
Uncowed by the large man's no doubt superior build, Swix Harlequinn stands defiant before him, the physical imposition a show of force juxtaposed, no, betrayed by the contrast of stature; but that for which our riddlesome hero lacks in size, he more that amply makes up for in attitude (to say nothing of the lamp pointed directly into the ulfen's face), as if, by some whim, that which is the Universe's, and belongs to It, could be His, if only he lay his palm open, and seize it!
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An athletic-looking Alijae Elf with coffee-coloured skin and red streaks in her dark hair speaks up "Nice to see you again, Ulvard. I hope we have as much success as we did in Cassomir. I see we are tracking a killer again." She nods towards the sign.
Her voice is soft but firm and there seems to be a little fire in her blue-flecked amber eyes. She wears plain-looking studded leather but her clothes are a variety of bright colours underneath. A carved wooden mask and a variety of tools and weapons on on her belt.
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He pointedly turns his back on the gnome-of-big-words. Maybe it was the words. Or maybe it was just the light shining in his face. Hard to tell. Or maybe it was just the arrival of an old companion.
"Ahh, Friend Ehlanna!" smiles Ulvaard. He reaches out and grasps her hand in a tight grip.
"I am hopeful that this time my righteous anger will not get the better of me. This nefarious alpaca assassin must be brought to justice!"
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A scrawny pale-skinned Nidalese man of average height is standing a few meters away, listening attentively to the ongoing conversation. He is wearing simple travelers clothing including a long cape, all of it in brown-grey tones and well worn out. A black raven is sitting on his left shoulder. The man has a few pouches but no obvious weapons on his belt.
He walks a few steps towards the bounty board and studies the newly posted request himself.
"Some kind of awfulness..." he mutters to himself with a raspy voice.
"This does not sound like just some wild animals. I wonder if something exciting worth investigating is happening there." he continues. It is not clear if he is speaking to himself, the raven on his shoulder, or the people standing nearby.
"You are interested of this?" Administrator Salayah talks to you as she points the newly posted request, seeing that you are reading and discussing about it. "You can go to Harjhack's farm just north here. It is a two-hour walk though. His farm is relied upon by this town with various food stuff and local fineries here depend on his alpaca wool. Ugh, the best fabric I have ever seen! Anyway, I gotta go." she says with a smile and hurriedly goes back to her office.
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Relief.
Could have been pulverized!
He turns to Tolok "All is worth investigating... for ALL is Suspect? May your eyes be cheated by a spell? Or cheated by the world? Yes. YES! I see you have no arms of your own. Mighty must be your mind!" he looks back once more towards Ulvard, as if to make comparison "Do you not see that a God walks among us!" smiling back at both of them.
Henceforth, Swix Harlequinn, Antiquarian, decides that the man-witch will be the one whom he follows into danger, limping around on his cane, and pointing his lantern this way and that.
And it is then that a new onlooker spies them, and he whirls to answer the question "Intersted? Why yes. YES! Interest has taken us! A farm? Where? Oh, there? Yes. YES. We must go. To the Farm! I shall follow you. Follow!" for surely, his rantings, were they not ignored by the administrator immediately, would soon be so, substituting substance for affect.
He hobbles along in the indicated direction.
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"WEll..." sighs Ulvard.
"I came down south to join the Ulfen guard, and make my sash. But they were full. So I did a work of work around the barracks. Tidy away weapons, clean armor. But that is no life for a warrior." he rumbles.
"I'd heard tales of the Pathfinder society - open to all. And thought, well, why not join up? See the world, practise my skills. Make a reputation for myself. Then the Guard will be asking me to join them. Real nice too."
He shrugs. "After the last job, I thought I'd spend some of my cash and see a bit more of the world before heading back to Absalom."
He smiles as he lays out his Life Plan(tm) to the pretty elf.
"What brought you down here?" he asks in reply.
As you greet one another and give salutations for some of you meeting again, you start your two-hour trek north towards Harjhack farm. You walk mostly through rolling green hills broken by the occasional idyllic stream or copse of trees. A sturdy wooden fence marks the borders of the
farm as you approach it; though it might prevent animals from escaping, it doesn’t pose much of an impediment to any other creatures looking to enter the property.
When you arrive in the farm, you spot a wandering herd of several dozen alpacas off in the distance, moving behind a growing hill. As you continue towards them, you see the leader of the herd ascend to the top of the hill, silhouetted by the sun. Its brilliant wool reflects into you the light of the sun, trying to impede your sight!
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"I think this Harjhack is no ordinary alpaca farmer. I was talking with a weaver in the King's Arms a few night ago. He told me that Baccalias wool is the best. But really hard to come by as they are quite rare. Then he started talking about different dyes and I kind of lost the thread of the conversation. The ale was good though."
As the group approaches the farm, Ulvard tries to .
"Wow, that is quite the sight. I can see why their wool is so valuable. I think maybe it is worried by our presence. We should try to avoid them.."
His eyes dart around, just making sure the herd wasn't worried about anything else.
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"WEll..." sighs Ulvard....
He smiles as he lays out his Life Plan(tm) to the pretty elf.
"What brought you down here?" he asks in reply.
"I'd never been out of the Mwangi expanse until I joined the Pathfinders. I read about their exploits uncovering things from the past and using them against current threats. My people seek to oppose demonic influences, so I chose to leave and learn more. I'm hoping to do some delving into the past to fight those forces that seek to destroy Golarion. I was impressed by your rejection of the priestess."
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Swix agrees with his ulfen friend - extends his analogy perhaps far past it was meant to find application "Yes! YES! And where there are hidden spiders, there are hidden Webs!" clearly this last word has some special meaning to him, as his face enlightens upon speaking it.
"We are All targets - the only true questions is: Who is the hunter!" again, as if trying to weave in some obscure wisdom, our non-sequiter hero shines his lamp upon each comrade in turn - Ulvard and Sedasseril - in offering his profane sanctimonialia!
Having half of the party dazzled by the reflections off the herd leader’s brilliant wool, though impressive, the effect quickly fades as your eyes eyes adapt. Moments later, a rugged-looking Kellid man in dirty overalls approaches from afar, using a pitchfork as an impromptu walking stick.
the man shouts, waving happily his free hand up in the air, and quickly goes into your location. "Hello, hello! I am Wilhuff Harjhack," he says as he shakes hand of each of you. "Are you all here to help me out of my current situation? Troubling times, you see! I would be much happy if some of you younger generation are still willing to help an old man. Ha! Anyway, may I know your names so that I may address you properly, eh?" the old Wilhuff says to every one of you, giving you his wide smile of incomplete set of old teeth.
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Ulvard shoulders his way forward. "Ulvard, most recently of Taldor!" he says. "Ulvard is surprised to find another northman down here.."
However old the man appears, Ulvard keeps a wary eye on the pitchfork. The kellid are renown warriors, and to have reached such an age, the man must know how to use it.
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"Hello Wilhuff, I am Tolok." says Tolok from partially behind Ulvard.
"Can you tell us more about what has been happening here? The information we got in town piqued my interest - I hope these are not just some attacks from wild animals?" he inquires, hoping to have a case worth investigating.
Looking down to Swix, standing next to him, Tolok remarks "And indeed, let us find out who the hunter really is."
Wilhuff finds it funny when Swix hides behind. ”Haha! Be not frightened, I am just an old man.” he says. He then listens to everyone that introduces themselves.
He then turns to Tolok with a grim face. ”It started about two weeks ago, when I found one of my alpacas, Shadow, dead near the northern fence. Looks like she got spooked something fierce and was caught up in the wiring we use there. Didn’t think too much of it until we found more alpaca bodies in the coming days. With ol’ Rockford gone , that makes four dead alpacas” the old man answers him, shaking his head.
”Why not I bring you to the place where it happened. Come on.” he signals you to follow him and escorts you to the northeastern section of his land where he has kept the body of his latest lost alpaca, Rockford, untouched near the containment fence.
”Here,” he says while gesturing to the dead alpaca Rockford, ”I have left it untouched to avoid disrupting your investigation. I hope you could find answers.”
”You see, aside from Shadow getting caught up in the wiring, it’s been right strange. The other alpacas look like they just dropped dead from fright. I can’t tell much else, as I don’t have a medical background. I'll entrust you this matter and gonna leave you so that you can perform your investigation in peace.” Wilhuff says before departing quickly to get his herd gathered up and put into the barn.
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"The Terror upon the World which Old Men have Inflicted!" somehow, the capitalization of each word is audible when the gnome speaks "But as you say, Fear You Not I will, for even as you Are as you say you Are, so I believe you Are, for no other reason than... I know! Yes! And so it Is!"
Either he comes out from hiding behind the ulfen, or, the ulfen moves from the position of providing cover. Either way, rather than scrutinize the clues individually, like one in performing a proper investigation ought, instead our non-sequiter hero ponders the universals of all instances of murder of alpacas, losing the trees for the forest...
LINK
Prerequisites Trained in a skill with the Recall Knowledge action
You're a treasure trove of information, but not all of it comes from reputable sources. When you fail (but don't critically fail) a Recall Knowledge check using any skill, you learn a bit of true knowledge and a bit of erroneous knowledge, but you don't have any way to differentiate which is which.
"None that I know about. It makes me wonder who would do that actually." Wilhuff responds to Ulvard.
Ulvard finds the dead alpaca has a nice wool and sees that Rockford has six golden studs on his ears. Swix, on the other hand, finds that the grass of the terrain where Rockford died is mostly withered, and also notices the wool on the dead alpaca's neck to be stirred.
Ehlanna investigates the fence and finds no damage or sign of forced entry into the enclosure. She also sees that the fence is rotted in several places and wouldn’t withstand much direct damage, giving her an idea that the assailant might have chosen to bypass it. Ehlanna also notices within her view while checking the fence that there is something like red stain in the dead alpaca's neck.
Reji finds the same thing as Ehlanna, also noting that the fence has no signs of use, so whatever entered the area likely did so by leaping over the fence.
Ehlanna notices that the dead alpaca's neck seems paler than usual, as if its blood has been totally drained. Upon flipping the dead alpaca's head, she notices several puncture marks underneath the wool of the alpaca’s neck.
Tolok confirms what Ehlanna and Reji have found and upon inspecting the terrain he finds nothing unusual.