In your own way each of you has come to the attention of a Pathfinder and in so doing you were eventually (about six months ago actually) drawn into the Society yourself. A week ago, your mentor (each of you have a different mentor), called you in and shared the great news that Sheila Heidmarch (the owner of the Pathfinder Lodge in Magnimar) has asked for you to pay her a visit. Your mentor expresses what a great opportunity this is, don't screw it up. He or she then begins to work with you on various things, most seem silly, but your mentor thinks they are important. Finally, the day arrives.
You are each escorted up the lodge which you have not visited having lodging elsewhere in the city. It is located in the Alabaster District of Magnimar, not far from the city’s easternmost gate. The manor grounds are surrounded by a stone wall, but the front gate is open. You, your mentor, along with several other pairs of obvious fellow adventurers make your way into the manor house. You are greeted by a young maid at the door. Your mentor leaves you in the care of the maid and the company of the other young adventurers. She leads all of you to a comfortable sitting room with plenty of plush chairs and a couch. A table in the center has two decanters, multiple cups, a tray of bread and cheese, and a bowl of fruit upon it. "Her Ladyship will be out in a moment." the maid says and departs.
A a lithe, red haired and fit woman in studded leather stands at the edge of the room. She has a rapier and a kukri, the rapier clearly having seen more use out of the 2.
One her back is a full backpack, with a curious note reading "Dear sponsor, your longbow could be right here smilyface" attached to it.
Bonjour Sirs and Ladies, Aurie de Valois at your, and the societies service. I am fairly acrobatic, an aspring duelist and generally speaking know my way around people. I have a knack for languages and can get by in Abyssal and infernal. I am also broke so I cant tell you where my emergency healing potion is, because I dont have one. She finishes with a white beaming smile.
She eyes the fruit tray, as well as the bread and cheese, with a clear expression of hunger.
You can clearly hear a rumbling from her stomach, but she considers it gauche to start eating without their host being present.
A tall and nimble man in brown and blue light clothing with a blue wrapped cloth around his head. He sits lightly on the couch and eyes the surroundings enviously. He is very intently focused on people as they talk, and speaks slowly with a heavy accent, choosing his words carefully and with difficulty, choosing simple words for the most part.
"Hi. I am Shathee," he says with a flat pitch to his voice. "I am from the distant Qadira. I am sorry, but I am a little slow on the language of this region. I have been poor all my life, but manage to find my way. This house is very nice." He reaches over and takes a cup and eyes the two decanters, trying to decide which of the two may have the finer beverage in it before choosing one. With a nod of his head, he decides to grab a piece of fruit and a hunk of cheese, savoring the sight of the delicacies.
He eyes Aurie carefully and sighs lightly holding the food and cup awkwardly until others begin to partake.
A tall young human male with a slender face well, groomed black goatee black hair pulled back into a ponytail. Wearing Studded leather with a backpack, on walks into the room and quietly finds some wall space to lean on to watch the room.
A young man whose dress and appearance clearly mark him of Shoanti descent, despite his relatively small size and more slender build, drops a a pack and his bow just inside the doorway to the room. His armor is heavy enough to support him being in the thick of things.
Smiling at the room, he grabs a pitcher without looking in either, and pours himself a cup, grabbing a few pieces of the offered food before settling into a chair further away from the table and beginning to nosh.
With his mouth full, crumbs spewing forth as he speaks, reasonably clearly, "One of the rules is to never pass up food you can trust, because it may be far too long before you get more. One of several lessons I was provided as I moved to claim this role." He pauses to wash the food down his throat before continuing. "I am Yahto, born here in the city and not trained in the ways of a Quah. Trained instead to be a Pathfinder. I hope that our lives are never boring." He laughs at his own comment, before taking another bite.
Dressed for travel, a young woman with dark green eyes and an outdoor tan crowned by curly blonde locks moves across the room, fidgeting with her pendant as she studies the motley crew assembled about her. Her looks don't quite place her ancestry.
When the room appears to look her way, she sits up in her chair and offers a courteous nod. "Leylia Lucresh. Not sure how to follow such unforgettable introductions but...here I am. Think we'll be lucky enough to go treasure hunting?"
Finally partakes of the food after Yahto, nodding in agreement with his rule. His ears perk up at the mention of treasure hunting. "I grew up seeking taxes only to find out that most of it is owned by others. I've heard that there are unclaimed tax treasures across the continent, but have never laid eyes on one."
Seeing the slightly confused look on faces, he apologizes. "Sorry, I seem to have misunderstood some of my words. I hope you understand."
Shathee reaches over and grabs another bite of food while waiting on the Ladyship to arrive.
The other member in the room is a dour dwarf in scale mail. He carries a shield as big as he is which he leans up against the couch before setting himself on the cushions. He nods at others but remains silent.
Without warning, one of the three doors into the room opens and a stern looking, yet attractive woman in her late thirties, steps out followed by a very pretty younger woman. The older of the two speaks. "Excellent, you are here. Thank you for coming at my summons. As you may have guessed, I am Lady Heidmarch. This is Koriah Azmeren." This last she says in a manner suggesting you should know the name.
Koriah Azmeren as one of Varisia’s most famous Pathfinders and a well-renowned expert on the Darklands
"Darklands, then?"
Somebody underestimates how self focused I am. Lets impress her, because she may be one of the exceedingly few persons that could know anything about what happened to my mother. Aurie thinks.
Sacre bleau, a tax collector! You will never get my loot! Which is a second rate concern because I dont have any, yet! Aurie eyes Shathee with a fair bit of suspicion.
Sheila looks at Yahto approvingly, "At least someone has been keeping up with their studies. Koriah has returned from the Darklands with a surprising number of Thassilonian artifacts. I will need a few more moments discussing the implications of this discovery with Koriah. I apologize for the delay." then she pauses for a moment as if in thought. "Actually, all of you, follow me." She then strides across the room to the third door (the first being the one you entered from) and enters.
The chamber is the lodge library and study. The walls are lined with bookshelves, while several tables in the middle of the room are heaped with scrolls and books. One table in the center, however, supports only a single object— an ornate cubical stone coffer covered with Thassilonian runes. "Please, have a seat." she says gesturing to the table with the lone object.
“I apologize for the delay, as I must conclude my business with Pathfinder Azmeren before we meet. In the meantime, though, I thought you could help us with another minor issue. This stone coffer is an ancient Thassilonian puzzle, a cunning feat of magical engineering known as a paradox box. As you’ll see from even a casual investigation, what appear to be seams on the sides are only shallow grooves—there’s no obvious way to open the thing. Each paradox box has its own secret method of being opened. Essentially, a paradox box substitutes hidden catches and magical triggers for a lock. Given time, anyone clever enough could figure out how to open a paradox box, just as given time, a locksmith can open any lock. This particular box was among those items recovered by Koriah—the scrolls next to the box are her preliminary notes on possible triggers or methods of opening it, but she’s not yet had a chance to sit down and properly investigate the thing. So... why don’t you put your heads together and see if you can’t do that for me? Even if the box is empty, as I suspect it probably is, knowing the method of opening it makes it a valuable find anyway. I’ll return shortly, and I hope to see that box open! Think of this as an audition, if you will—because the actual task I want to speak to you about soon will require as much wit as it will brawn!” She then motions to Koriah to follow and steps back out of the room.
Lady Heidmarch speaks a bit to fast for Shathee to follow, but with the box and some papers in front of him, he understands enough. "They start us off with something interesting," he says as he moves forward and picks up the strange box his curiosity with the puzzle getting the better of him. He immediately begins running his fingers over the grooves and feeling for any catches or soft spots that could depress as buttons. As he pushes his sleeves back, there is a slight blue streak over the back of his arms clearly marking him as a bit more than just foreign to the region.
The warrior will instead turn to the notes, and look them over for the ideas mentioned.
Leylia's eyes light up at the sight of the locked box. locked means valuable; if that thing's empty I'm an orc chieftain. As Lady Heidmarch exits, she licks her lips and steps up behind Shathee, watching him closely and noting his attempts as she skims over the contents of any open scrolls on the desk. "May I?" She holds out her hand and, accepting the artifact, casts a quick cantrip (detect magic) and begins her own examinations, pressing, twisting, pulling, placing multiple fingers in specific (but random) spacings as she glances back at the scrolls.
Aurie racks her brain, she had that admirer who was really big into puzzles and riddles, but then he got eaten by a Sphinx or something, before also looking over the notes!
Khobin walks around the Object inspecting it.
The scroll lists translations of the significant runes on the box—one of the most oft-repeated symbols was the rune for “wrath,” which Koriah also notes is associated with evocation magic, and in the earliest days of Thassilon with the word “kindness.” Her notes indicate that this rune merely marks the box has having once belonged to a citizen of the Thassilonian nation of Bakrakhan, and that the rune likely has little to do with the method of opening this particular paradox box.
Another of Koriah’s scrolls lists a few other key observations—the key observation being that five of the box’s faces are identical, but on one face, several additional runes appear. These runes spell out the word “CRUEL.” Koriah suspects that this word is somehow linked to the box’s mystery. She’s also noted that each of the individual runes in the word can be reorganized by touching two runes at once—doing so causes the two touched runes to exchange places for an hour before reverting to their original spelling of “CRUEL.”
You realize the key might be hidden in anagrams of the word "CRUEL". In other words, some other word that can be spelled from "CRUEL".
You may make a series of Linguistics checks DC 13 or Intelligence Checks DC 16 to try and figure it out OR you may just make word guesses.
Leylia's expression lifts as she looks from the scroll back to the box. "ohhhhhh so it's a language test then...anyone who doesn't have the right vocabulary would be stuck guessing. And I'll bet that's just the first layer of lock, hm? Father would love this one...he enjoys word games like this."
"However, if they wanted to lock it with an anagram, they should've picked a more ambiguous set of letters than these. I've never written a dictionary but--lucky us--I know there are few anagrams for 'cruel." She begins to test the letter swapping mechanism. "And as They're also known for accruing ill-gotten gains through inhumane, but lucrative enterprises, I have a distinct feeling that Thassilonians had a sense of poetry..."
She rearranges the letters: L-U-C-R-E.
While Thassillonian is a dead language, are we certain that it actually is the Bakrakhani alphabet? And are we certain is isnt ULCER? Because thats what any other Thassillonian realm would have, as a joke, attributed to Bakrakhan? As in "Be so angry you get an Ulcer?"
Also, do we know the letter C is supposed to be pronounced as a soft K rather then in essence an S? If I recall my history, Irrisiseni, where that very much is the case is a direct linguistic descendent of Erithian...
Aurie ponders moving the runes herself when Leylia's first try causes the box to click. It unfolds as it opens giving everyone a feeling of excitement and accomplishment. This feeling is short lived however as two dog-headed humanoids about the size of a halfling leap out. They stare at you for just a moment and then one grabs the scrolls and begins tearing them up while the other points his finger at the lantern on the stand and says a guttural word. The lantern shatters sending glass and oil onto the floor.
These are gremlins called pugwampis. They create bad luck around them, are slightly resistant to weapon dmg and spells (DR 2/cold iron and SR 7).
F+~$ing hell
Aurie Bloodrages and immidiatly starts violence, 2 whatevers messing up the pathfinder lodge would, after all, look horribly on her record sheet.
The young warrior vocalizes a less-than pleasant colorful metaphor about the moment, pulling the light hammer from his belt (the only one of his weapons he hadn't left with his pack in the other room) as he moves . . ..
Seeing as Aurie is attacking one of these things, he goes to attack the other.
Managing to penetrate the damage reduction without ever knowing it was there.
Shathee jumps back from the table as the two little creatures spring into action. However he quickly pulls the shortsword from his hip and moves to flank the small creature with Aurie.
Khobin seeing Yahto is taking one by himself I try to move and Flank his. Pulling his rapier out and taking a stab
Init 1
Init 2
Flanking with rapier
oops damage is wrong
"What in the--!" Leylia's eyes widen, first in surprise, then in anger as the mischievous creatures emerge and incite chaos. "Are those--? Pugwampis! They're literally bad luck!"
As the others move to engage the creatures, Leylia takes a quick assessment and then maneuvers around to Shathee's back and casts a spell, tapping him on the shoulder between his movements as she completes it.
Khobin hops to the side of the table across from Yahto and stabs the gremlin who shattered the lantern. It screeches and falls to the table. Shathee as well takes a shot at the other gremlin but misses as his lead foot kicks the chair leg bringing his thrust up short. Aurie unsheathes her rapier and while the pugwampi avoids Shathee's stab it does not avoid Aurie's and is sorely wounded. The gremlin runs down the table and leaps off trying to get away but Yahto with a well aimed throw knocks it in the head with a hammer sending it to the ground.
In short order Sheila arrives with Koriah to check on the disturbance. "What is going on here?" she asks seeming a bit perturbed.
Round 1
Khobin
Shathee
Aurie
Pugwampi near death
Yahto
Leylia
Sudden things appeared, starting to destroy furniture, unluck aura, fey I guess because they dont like cold iron but dont seem demonic.
She seeks to knock the last one out with the flat of her blade.
"She," indicating Leylia, "got the box open, and these things jumped out and started a ruckus. They don't accept discipline very well."
"Pugwampis," Leylia repeats flatly, eyeing them with a hint of disgust. "They're living misfortune, make all sorts of things go wrong...and they distinctly enjoy it too. The moment they escaped the box, they started destroying whatever they could see. I'm afraid to look at what they did to the scrolls..." She stands a few feet from the fallen gremlins, grimacing as she examines them. "I doubt even Desna herself could like these vicious things..."
Sounds eerily like some of grandmoms less intelligent dating choices Aurie quips as she begins cleaning her blade, her hair becomes less bright red and her eyes switching to a normal green, back from the red they suddenly where, as her bloodrage leaves her.
I do wonder about who exactly keeps a bunch of fae in stasis? Like, if you have access to magic of that calibre, why not some real hitters to actually screw over whoever opens the box? She poses a question.
"Oh, well. My apologies. I did not intentionally give you a trapped device to be sure. As it is..." she pauses as she scans the room. "Good work. It looks like the damage was minimized to the lamp and the top sheet of notes. Was there anything in the box?" She then looks to Koriah, "Do you mind leaving your notes here and I'll have the first page copied as soon as I am done here. However, right now I need to discuss some business with this eager group."
"It would be my pleasure," Koriah answers before dipping a curtsy and departing.
With her question you all look in the box to see if there is anything in it. Sure enough there are three garnets (worth 50 gp each), a silver dagger (MW), and a ring (feather falling).
Sheila turns back to the group. “First, allow me to apologize for that unpleasantness regarding the gremlins—but it does provide an excellent object lesson. The life of an adventurer is not one for the weak-hearted. That you not only took care of the gremlins but also got the box open in the first place is all the confirmation I need that my gut was right—you’re the perfect group for the job I have in mind."
“You see—I’ve recently had trouble with one of my informants here in Magnimar, Natalya Vancaskerkin. She’s a half-Varisian who recently approached the Pathfinder Society with an offer to serve as a street informant. She runs with the Sczarni—I’m not sure with which group. A week ago, Natalya sent me a cryptic hint that her gang was on the verge of uncovering an item that would be of great interest to the Society. Since the Sczarnis’ methods of uncovering something often involves an armed robbery or breaking into somebody’s personal chambers, we thought it prudent not to press for further details and instead wait to see what it would produce. Suffice it to say, she hinted strongly that it pertained to Thassilon, and promised to meet with me to discuss this find three days ago."
“She never kept that promise—instead, she seems to have simply vanished. Initially, I assumed that the acquisition of this item was simply taking longer than expected, but now I’m hearing rumors that the Sczarni are looking for her as well."
“It seems likely that Natalya has absconded with this item she’s discovered. And this is where you enter, my friends. I want to know what it was that Natalya and the Sczarni found. In fact, I’m more interested in that than in what happened to Natalya herself. For now, I’d like to keep all of this quiet—if you can find out what happened to Natalya without letting a lot of people know she was also working for me as an informant, that would be preferable—that’s a big part of why I’m coming to you, as new members of the Pathfinder Society, with this task. You don’t yet have a reputation in Magnimar, and as such, the lowlifes and criminals you are likely to encounter may be more likely to talk."
“So... go out there and look for Natalya. Find out what happened to her, and to this item she and her gang discovered. If you can secure the item, all the better—bring it back to me and I’ll have a reward of 500 gold pieces for you. And if you can bring Natalya back alive for me to speak to, I’ll double that!”
"The keeping it quiet angle would mean avoiding using contacts our mentors have built, too. Shame. I imagine Ivantiu could point us at the right people fairly quickly. Do you know where she ran most often? I assume her gang would be in that area."
The breakdown of the situation furrows Leylia's brow. "Soooo...let me get this straight. A Sczarni gang member offered to sell you information, then found something valuable and disappeared from under yours AND her fellow gangs' noses, presumably just after finding said treasure? Call me cynical but that honestly sounds fairly normal for such folks. If she's smart she's probably already left the city."
Pausing her train of thought long enough to note the expressions of the gathered, she clears her throat. "But I suppose it's what we're here for, so...I'll just stop thinking aloud now."
Vancaskerkin? Isnt that a mildly important riddleport crime family? Aurie perks up
Oh we can be "open" in searching for her, we just shouldnt get the society involved. Easiest way to look for her is to hint she stole something from our employer, and that employer wants it back, without law enforcement involvement, and without letting anyone know whom she stole something from, and without ruffling the wrong czarni gang.
I have been known to work at the Hippodrome, so I would be a degree of muscle, someone else is the brains.
She pauses
Do you know which Czarni she was with?
"She did not mention a gang. The only name she mentioned was someone calling himself The Amazing Zograthy, a street performer." Sheila responds.
The Amazing Zograthy is a Varisian who keeps a permanent tent and fortune-telling business in Washers’ Row in Dockway. He often works as a middle-man between Sczarni and outsiders, but he expects gold in payment for his services.
I only know an "Amazing Zog", half orc performer at the serpents run, notable for having wanted to call himself "Amazon Zog", but he did get beaten up by some actual amazons because of it so he dropped it.
If you want to know how a bunch of people in the serpents run have win/loss ratios of like 19 wins/1 loss, its because they fight people like "Amazing Zog" a lot.
What does this mean I know?
"Fortuneteller? I've heard of him, but nothing good. He lives near the Dockway, right?" Shathee asks, glad to have picked out the name and actually been able to place it. His time in this city has been short, but he is very familiar with those who keep to the shadows.
Leylia frowns. "Sadly, street performers and sczarni gangs weren't part of my education. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to catch him performing and in a helpful mood."
Khobin and Shathee both seem to be aware of the Amazing Zograthy who performs in Washer's Row in Dockway. Since Lady Heidmarch has little else to share beyond a warning to watch out for Nidalese Slavers the group departs to run down their lead.
Washer's Row is run by one of the larger Szcarni gangs, the Washside Wringers.
At the southern end of Washers’ Row, a tattered banner hanging over the entrance to the small side street advertises “Professor Callivario’s Stupendous Exhibition of the Outrageous and Sublime.” Beyond this overly exuberant advertisement is a squalid setup consisting of little more than a series of rundown sideshow booths and carts with assorted games and amusements of the meaner sort. To one side, urchins pitch pennies at lily pads floating in a small, scum-covered fountain while a bored carnie looks on. Nearby, the sound of cats hissing and fighting arises from behind a cart where a small crowd of ne’er-do-wells has gathered to cheer and place bets. Everywhere lurk faces pinched with suspicion or hunger— expressions worn by carnival workers and visitors alike. This is not the sort of place to be careless with a coin pouch.
Good thing I have a fake coin pouch at my belt, and the actual one under my armor, behind my breasts. The fake one has a piece of paper with the words "if that were my pouch, I would find you and stab you so rejoice!" in it.
She head directly to Mr. Zograthy
Using her serpent runner credentials, Aurie should be capable of quickly finding Zograthy while not getting mugged. While to pretty by far for this area, her open display of weaponry and armor likely deters would be assailants.
It does not appear that this place is very different from where I grew up, Shathee ponders to himself. Remembering back to when he was growing up, he looks for a young urchin who appears hungry while he makes sure to secure his coin pouch while taking out 5 silver coins into his hand.
Spotting one small halfling, Shathee approaches him confidently and tosses a single silver coin to him. In halfling he says, "I grew up much like you but in a far away place. I was always hungry until a grown up taught me the skills I needed. Trading information for coin is a good skill to have. I'm looking to have my fortune read and have heard about the Amazing Zograthy. If you can point me in the right direction, I've got 4 more silver coins for you."
Aurie does indeed draw attention with her pizzazz. People seem to move away from her if possible but when she approaches they do not run. She quickly gets a response with someone pointing toward a tent about three down on the right. Shathee gets the same information just a heart beat later.
It is a small, well-patched tent crudely painted with mystical symbols and decorated with chicken bones and other oddments. Within the stuffy, cluttered tent is a table covered in blue velvet stitched with moons, stars, and arcane symbols. A dusty crystal ball and a dog-eared harrow deck sit upon it. Behind this table sits an aged, bald, Varisian man with threadbare purple robes and piercing eyes.
When the first person enters, the man says in a booming voice so that even those at the rear of the group can hear, “The Amazing Zograthy sees all and knows all. A double fist of silver for a turn of the cards or a vision in the crystal; a treble fist of gold for the secrets of the multiverse."
You believe this man may be a pesh, common drug, addict.
Oh boy, here we go... Leylia fights to keep from rolling her eyes at the gaudy decor and Zograthy's symptoms. If this man's not a charlatan I'll eat my pendant... She leans over to her comrades and shares her observations in secret. "I think he's a pesh addict and I smell a con..."
Duly noted She whispers back
Ahh, the amazing Zograrthy, I have heard much of you! Aurie tries her hand at small talk, to collect information
Is it possible to perhaps have anothers fortunes read? I have been hired to protect and escort a certain individual, yet she did not appear at the agreed meeting point, and I do fear some ill fate has befallen her.