Our adventure begins in Eto, a bustling settlement on the Golden Road in Osirion. Some of the adventurers could have recently arrived with one of the caravans or might have already spent a few days in the trade city. The Bent Coin tavern maintains a bulletin board where caravan merchants often advertise to hire guards, drivers, and other employees. A gnome merchant with shocking blue hair glances appraisingly at the board before borrowing one of the bar stools to pin up a notice.
The Bent Count’s other patrons gather round to view the posted scroll. Anyone who investigates sees an intricate drawing of a puzzle box covered in odd gears and mechanisms, plus a request written in Common, Osiriani, and Kelish.
Reward: Stolen Puzzle Box!
This antique puzzle box was stolen by a bandit raid on my caravan yesterday. It is a keepsake from my grandmother, and of immense sentimental value to me. I am looking for a few brave souls to confront the bandits and retrieve the puzzle box along with any other clockworks of mine you find with the Wizelboom mark. Adventurers bold, please inquire within!
–Tidbit Wizelboom, of Wizelboom’s Clockwork Creation
...but before we get to all that, why don't you introduce yourselves!
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"Hello fellow pathfinders! My name is Duvar and I'm a strongblooded storm druid dwarf.
If you're in need of some healing or to bring the wrath of lighting to our foes, you've found the right companion!"
Duvar is geared with a hide armor and shield, has a dagger on his belt and an ornate dwarven clan pistol on a holster.
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"Good day Duvar and Ramona. I am Quinthalas. I am interested in this posting as well."
A tall and wiry dark-skinned half-elf male walks over and rereads the post. He is dressed in plain dark brown robes. He has his pure white hair neatly tied behind his head. He sports a single dagger by his side. He is carrying a leather backpack that looks like its built to withstand a beating.
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Incidentally, she had expected to meet a friend for tea at the Bent Coin, arriving early and having had thought she spotted her, and sitting down next to a gnome with shocking blue hair on her left, two dwarves and an elf on her right. It takes her a few moments to realize her mistake. Oh wait, our play date is tomorrow!
"Well. My day just yielded clear skies..." making the better of the moment, and looking around the table at the people she had thought were also waiting for other people - it is a crowded pub, after all - it is here she notices the gnome just about to get up to post the bounty on the board: She says to her leftmost seatmate just before she rises "Yes we have met. It has almost happened yet" then begins sipping her tea - the perfect temperature! - and decides on a whim that wherever the fates carry her this day, that she will go willingly.
Then to her rightmost seatmates, whom she had overheard talking, she interjects herself "My name is Zòila, and that is how I am called, though I have gone by other names, it was now that I go by that one" her gaze focused on something far away (perhaps) as she threads these last few choice words together to conclude her thought, and too, it is now that the lines in her face become more defining in the poor lighting here, as something about her seems to suggest a youthfulness, a non-physical element, an energy of some kind, and somehow, a firmness yet softness juxtapositioned just so, like she might be equally quick to scold as to praise, her smile a communication of intelligence, wisdom, and... something else!... mischief?...
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"Hello Purrlock and Zoila! It seems, we are gathered for the same purrpose. Let's do what you've said and speak to our employer."
Quinthalas faces the blue-haired gnome and says "Hello! May we assume that you are Tidbit Wizzleboom? I am Quinthalas, and we here are interested in helping you retrieve your lost puzzlebox."
"This is Duvar, Ramona, Zoila and Purrlock." he says gesturing at each person as he says their name.
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Norbwald is an armored purple haired gnome. They look a bit dishoveled and down on their luck, frequently drinking from a container wrapped in a old canvas bag.
"Call me Norbwald. Need a few more coin to get through the week. Hopefully get a real society mission soon." sulks the gnome.
"I used to run an orphanage for aspiring fighter children in absalom, but ever since the new weight restrictions on the flickmace, business just hasn't been the same. The change literally killed me." jokes Norbwald.
He'll offer a sip of his hidden beverage to anybody that's polite enough to listen.
The Pathfinders find Tidbit inside the tavern tucking into a meal, and she happily answers their questions.
"Fascinating!" she says, gazing at Norbwald as she adjusts the strange goggles she's wearing. She shakes her head, "Sorry, yes. Yes, I'm Tidbit."
She explains that the Sand Scorpion bandits attacked her caravan on the road west of Eto. She proudly recounts the bandits’ failed theft of her main wagon: “My, were they surprised when the cart sprouted scimitars and defended itself! They weren't able to get to my valuable wares, but they raided my residential wagon. It's not as well-defended. I don't have much in their f any value, but they stole my grandmother's clockwork puzzle box! I suspect they mistook it for a jewelry box. I'm afraid they'll just smash it open to get inside, when the box itself is the part I care about!”
Tidbit shows the adventurers a map and points out a location near Pillars’ Rise oasis. "I've done a little research already. My sources say the bandits' camp is near here. I already know where it is, but I'm not really equipped for a counter-raid so I'm hoping to hire... well, you I expect!"
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"Is that tea?" Zòila inquires of the "gnome" called Norbwald, whom she gives a stern glance, noticing his cup never seems to fully empty, but accepting the offer none-the-less. Smelling the liquid, she observes it's temperature and scent first, then takes a single sip.
Considering the map in front of her, she now eyeballs each of Duvar, Ramona, Quinthalas, and Purrlock, as if reading something on each of their faces, and smiles to herself.
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As you're talking a 3'4 gnome wearing a brown and green tunic excuses himself and enters the room, a scroll with the pathfinder's seal on his hand.
He greets everyone in the room and the walks towards the dwarven druid with purpose on his steps.
"Duvar Brewbuster?, you've been summoned to the headquarters, please assist inmediately. I'll stay here in your place."
As the dwarf nods and rapidly exits after issuing his apologies to everyone, Van presents himself.
"Sorry for the inconvinience, my name is Van Suuvet, and I command the primal magicks around us. I hope we can get along well."
With that he makes a quick salute to everyone present and focuses on listening and getting himself up to speed on whatever Duvar was doing here.
After two hours of overland travel, the group finally arrives at Pillars’ Rise, a small but lush oasis guarded by an ancient sandstone statue of a sphinx.
As the adventurers approach the oasis they can hear laughing voices near the sphinx. They quickly discern, however, that those voices belong not to bandits but to implike creatures that seem to be made out of the sand itself.
Soon as they notice you, they howl angrily and swoop to attack, provoked simply by the party's presence!
Though their hostile intent is obvious, they don't react quickly enough and the group of trained adventurers is prepared for them.
All PCs' turns. Map added (and image)
Initiative:
Van (Hidden)
Norbwald
Zòila
Purrlock
Quinthalas
Ramona
Green
Pink (10 feet up)
Red
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Purrlock runs forward and draws a throwing knife.
Purrlock attempts to get the best angle on the pink creature and tries to find out what it is.
Sure of his target, Purrlock hurls the knife at it.
Purrlock hurls the knife at Pink.
Purrlock doesn't see a direct connection between the odd elemental creatures and the bandits other than proximity.
His knife still cuts into the one perched on the sphinx's paw, drawing a line of bloo--actually no, it's just dust.
Van, Norbwald, Zòila, Quinthalas, and Ramona's turns.
Initiative:
Van (Hidden)
Norbwald
Zòila
Purrlock
Quinthalas
Ramona
Green Mephit
Pink Mephit (-4, 10 feet up)
Red Mephit
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Norbwald draws their warhammer, takes a sip from their beverage and looks at green.
Success You recall an important fact about the creature, learning its highest weakness (or one of its highest weaknesses, if it has multiple with the same value) but not its other weaknesses, resistances, or immunities. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Failure Failing to recall a salient weakness about the creature, you instead attempt to exploit a more personal vulnerability. You can exploit only the creature's personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.
Critical Failure You couldn't remember the right object to use and become distracted while you rummage through your esoterica. You become flat-footed until the beginning of your next turn.
Norbwald is able to confirm that these are elemental creatures and not fiends. Specifically they are mephits, a type of elemental often associated with multiple elements. More specifically they are dust mephits, creatures of earth and air.
They don't have any particular weakness for him to exploit, but he does know one useful fact about them.
Van, Zòila, Quinthalas, and Ramona's turns.
Initiative:
Van (Hidden)
Norbwald (Exploiting Green)
Zòila
Purrlock
Quinthalas
Ramona
Green Mephit
Pink Mephit (-4, 10 feet up)
Red Mephit
Don't clump up too much! Dust mephits have a breath weapon where they blast fires with shards of dust on whipping winds.
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Quinthalas does a strange macabre-looking dance, muttering unintelligible words as he sways. A thin bolt of lightning flies off from his forefinger striking one creature, then the bolt immediately arcs to another.
(OOC - he casts Electric Arc, targeting pink then red. REF Save vs DC 17]
He then dashes to the right, looking for cover.
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Heeding the orphanage director's advice "Let me see..." by stepping to the side, Zòila presses her elegant fingers to her temple and closes her eyes...
...a vision of three flying Dust Mephits surrounding the party engages her third eye, from every angle of approach, she remembers how this fight unfolded, but only for a moment, when the conceptualization suddenly wanes, like a dust storm engulfing a dune...
"The thin membrane between it's wings - hamper it there!" as she speaks, the Pink Mephit's vulnerable spot glows with a faint mauve dazzle!
◆) Step
◆) Calculate Threats
◆) Glimpse Weakness
+
↺) Amped Guidance
The mephit with a slightly pinkish hue to its dusty skin arcs away from the electricity--though not as well as the other one, who dodges it entirely.
Already dodging the electricity, Van's spell also misses even though it doesn't seem to have seen it coming. Ramona's hits though--with Zòila's guidance. That mephitic isn't looking so good. It appears to be leaking dust. It starts screaming in a language that few understand, though it sounds like it's just cursing.
The mephit furthest from the group pushes away from the ground. Higher out of reach now, it giggles and points at the ground in the middle of the grouped adventurers. The sand there starts to sparkle and whips up into a sudden whirlwind, covering them with brilliant shining sand.
The injured mephit seems slightly better, as though the sand around it is actually sealing its wound. Nonetheless, he turns and dives in the other direction, hurtling through the air away from the group, screaming what are presumably obscenities in its obscure language.
He passes directly by the final one, who darts towards most of the party. Pausing near Quinthalas--near enough to be in reach, but high enough up to be impossible to flank, he inhales deeply then unleashes a blast of hot wind and piercing sand.
All PCs' turns.
Initiative:
Van
Norbwald (Exploiting Green)
Zòila
Purrlock
Quinthalas
Ramona
Green Mephit (15 feet up)
Pink Mephit (-10, 10 feet up, about 70 feet away from the edge of the map)
Red Mephit (5 feet up)
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◆) Step
◆) Calculate Threats
◆) Glimpse Weakness
◆) Strike
+
↺) Amped Guidance
Making a mental math error, mis-aligning her superposition in the present time stream, Grandmother Time snaps from her reverie and whirls her staffsling at the Pink Dust Mephitic!
Grandmother Time's attack strikes the fleeing mephit, and it plummets into the sand. Van's spell is similarly successful, if not as immediately effective.
Quinthalas and Ramona's turns.
Initiative:
Van
Norbwald (Exploiting Green)
Zòila
Purrlock (one action remains)
Quinthalas
Ramona
Green Mephit (15 feet up)
Red Mephit (-5, 5 feet up)
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As her temporal arrow stabilizes, our anomalous hero perceives sight beyond sight, time beyond time "I don't remember you getting away..." she ponders, stepping into what for her feels like a casual causal stroll, but to what onlookers might be perceived as an expeditious stride, behind a few of her teammates, setting her sight on another fleeing (Green) Dust Mephit!
◇) Bend Time
◆) Reload
◆) Time Sense
◆) Strike
+
↺) Amped Guidance
Three missiles of magical force slam into the next mephit. Mid-giggle, it too drops into the sand.
The mephit dodges away from Ramona's spell, but then dives angrily towards her.
With the party spread out more, it doesn't try its breath but instead slices at her with its claws.
And then Zòila's sling stone nails it in the side of the head. Dust bursts from the wound, and the creature continues cursing unintelligibly.
Van, Norbwald, Purrlock, Quinthalas, and Ramona's turns.
Initiative:
Van
Norbwald (Exploiting Dust Mephit)
Zòila
Purrlock
Quinthalas
Ramona
Dust Mephit (-9, bloodied, 5 feet up)