[PFS2, Outpost07] 2-17 Lost Maid of Anactoria (Inactive)

Game Master Watery Soup

This is an Outpost VII game scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024. Signups should be done through the Outpost VII spreadsheet.

Please dot and delete after you have claimed your spot on the spreadsheet.

The Pathfinders find themselves in Ustalav’s capital city of Caliphas, at the Pathfinder Society’s Vodavani Lodge (formerly known as the Havenguard Asylum). Venture-Captain Evni Zongnoss of the now-destroyed Lastwall Lodge has been running Vodavani Lodge recently, but is away on business, so the Pathfinders meet with the lodge’s former venture-captain, Beaurigmand Trice.

Feel free to introduce yourselves and get to know one another.

A small figure in brown robes holding a gnarled staff and wearing a bone mask is waiting in a corner of the room. Is it his poor attire, his constantly wet robe and hair, or the strong smell of sewers and salt water emanating from him... still the employees of the lodge avoid the Ysoki, staying as much as possible 10 feet away from him.

A young human woman with long, dark-blonde hair enters the room. Her blue eyes have an unfocused look, as if she’s looking past (through?) everything. She wears a simple brown dress with a black hooded cloak. A red and black spider is perched on her head. Another spider, halfling-sized, brown with a silver chevron on its thorax, walks beside her.

She curtsies to the others. ”Flory Buntzer”, she says. ”These are my cohort, Lady Gwendolyn and Sir Miles” The two spiders bow.

Lazzare nods and answers: "I'm Lazzare and this is...", he looks around as if searching for something and finally a rat comes out of one of his sleeves, "... and this is Ratatouille."

The rat quickly climbs on Lazzare's head, obviously scared by the spiders: "Boss, boss, spiders!!!! Burn, kill, eat! Who brought them here?"

Flory looks up toward Gwendolyn. ”Now now, Your Ladyship”, she says. ”They’re just frightened is all. We must always be gracious to new friends”

She continues look at the spider for a long moment, then looks at Ratatouille and grins.

Ratatouille continues: "Are you insane? Don't you know that spiders bite, and are poisonous? Not that I care if you die, that'd be natural selection. But if any of your legged monstrosities gets next to me, I'll turn it into an unlegged monstrosity!"

And he shows his teeth and despite being comical he also manages to be rather scary.

Lazzare grabs Ratatouille and throws it inside his large sleeve: "Don't be afraid, his bark is worse than his bite."

Lazzare stares for a second at Flory and says: "I feel, I feel...", and he continues with a deep voice, raising his arms toward her: "I feel that life chose you more than you chose it. I feel the burden of fate over your shoulders. I feel that your destiny is written in a cryptic language!"

Flory stares in Lazzare’s direction. ”You see much”, she replies. ”My mother beheld me to the Fae. My fate is blurred to me, but I’m sure it’s in their ancient tongue”

”And yourself? Peering from the briny depths, who guides you on your path?”

Lazzare smiles: "The Lord of the Depths watches over me. But he doesn't guide me. He just shares his power with me... at a cost."

"Your fate is blurred... Do you want to see it more clearly? Who knows, I may be able to help you with my unique perspective."

"Is that just a fancy way to say you don't know?"

There's a scruffy little goblin sitting against the wall, eating... something... wrapped in paper. He's made some money as a Pathfinder agent, and been advised to get some nicer clothes. The concerning thing is that he did.

"I'm Zibini. I do magic!" He waves a hand, and several colored lights swirl around him.

There's a second goblin with him, smaller and nervous-looking. "That's my cousin. He knows some stuff, but he doesn't do any magic. Don't worry about him." hireling

Flory stares in Zibini’s direction. ”He sees the destinies of others, but thinks his own doesn’t exist”

She smiles at the light show, then turns toward the other goblin. ”And what is your name?”

A young aiuvarin girl wearing leather armor with a bow strapped to her back enters the room. Her emerald green cloak is intricately embroidered with a large owl and what appears to be a lizard. Or could it be a cat? Her head is turned and she is having a spirited conversation with someone behind her. "...just saying that you really gotta stop messing with that wizard. He's gonna turn you into a newt or something. Why'd you have to steal his sandwich again anyway? What is it with you and sandwiches? You just eat the meat and make a big mess out of the bread."

A large snow-white owl flies into the room and perches atop a tall credenza. "Screech!"

"You couldn't have been hungry. You just had some of that tien barbeque from Xiao-Feng's noodle cart."

Silence turns his head upside-down and stares at the archer.

The girl sighs. "You never stop, do you? No you can't have any more of that barbeque. You ate it already. It was a long trip from Absalom, remember. Besides, you just ate a rat not twenty minutes ago. Now settle down and let's meet our teammates." She turns and introduces herself to the assembled pathfinders. "Hi everyone. I'm Meadow and the hungry owl over there is... eek!" She squeals in alarm as she finally spies the giant spider.

She quickly regains her composure. "Wow that's the second biggest spider I've ever seen." She ponders for a moment. "Well actually third biggest. Maybe fourth?"

Silence flaps his wings.

"Oh yeah. That's right. I forgot about those guys. So that makes this one the seventh largest? Eighth? We really have run into a lot of spiders now that I think about it." She shakes her head. "Anyway let's start over. I'm Meadow. I'm an archer and up there is my very best friend Silence. He's an owl."

Lazzare smiles, he's rather used to mockery: "Off course I have a destiny. And I try to get as much enjoyment as possible in between its threads."

Lazzare watches the newcomers speaking together, thinking that Ratatouille will love the company of an owl even more than the one of spiders.

"I'm Lazzare, and I do magic, too. So, Silence keeps you company? Nice allegory. I wonder if we should trade companions, mine gets on my nerves sometimes..."

"What? No, Silence isn't an allegory. He hates water. As for getting on my nerves, well..." She surreptitiously glances at the owl before leaning in and continuing in a conspiratorial whisper. "You have no idea how much trouble he gets us into." She raises her voice once more to ensure the owl can hear. "I wouldn't trade him away for anything. He's my very best friend after all."

Silence preens his feathers.

"Allegory is when something makes you sneeze blood," says Zibini with perfect confidence, "Gory and allergy together."

"Really? I thought an allegory was one of those big water lizards."

Lazzare looks incredulous at his two teammates: "In general, I'm the weird one..."

Then thinking a bit: "Three spellcasters and an archer, I hope this isn't all of our party. Someone knows what we are heading for?"

Lazzare looks incredulous at his two teammates: "In general, I'm the weird one..."

Then thinking a bit: "Three spellcasters and an archer, I hope this isn't all of our party. Someone knows what we are heading for?"

”I’m sure Meadow and Sir Miles can face off against any foes we may find”, Flory says confidently.

Lazzare raises an eyebrow while Ratatouille sticks his nose out of the sleeve to see what's happening.

"And what makes you so sure?"

Lazzare raises an eyebrow while Ratatouille sticks his nose out of the sleeve to see what's happening.

"And what makes you so sure?"

”Because Pathfinders are very capable, and we’ll be helping them”, Flory replies.

She looks toward Meadow. ”You’re not one of those archers who runs away from danger, are you?”

Silence flaps his wings. "Screech!"

"'Danger' is not my middle name. Stop making things up." Meadow gently scolds the owl.

She pulls a well-used rapier from a scabbard at her side and briefly fights an imaginary opponent. "I'm not one to back down from a fight if that's what you mean." She grins evilly. "Just ask all those icky spiders we fought. Oh wait, you can't 'cause they're dead." She sheathes the rapier with a satisfied smirk.

Flory gives her a nod. ”Fair enough”, she says.

"Pft, anybody can do that," says Zibini, "spiders aren't scary."

Adopting something approximating a warrior's stance (poorly), he holds his hand out with two fingers in front of him and swipes them through the air.
And, for just a second, it looks like he is the warrior he pretends to be and a crude sword slices through where he points. But then everyone can see that he's really just a scruffy goblin again.

Imaginary weapon!

"I dunno. They were pretty big spiders. At least as big as a horse. We let the last one go after we took out the bad guys that were controlling her. We left a warning sign at the entrance to her cave to warn any people away." She frowns momentarily as she recalls the event.

Ratatouille intervenes in the conversation: "Let's make a fight between the owl and the spiders and then put the survivor out of its misery!"

Ratatouille speaks too often, I've made an alias out of it.

Ratatouille intervenes in the conversation: "Let's make a fight between the owl and the spiders and then put the survivor out of its misery!"

Ratatouille speaks too often, I've made an alias out of it.

Flory looks in the rat’s direction. ”What was that, little morsel?”, she asks.

Sir Miles clicks his mandibles together.

Ratatouille seems offended. He climbs on Lazzare to get on top of its head: "Little morsel? So you're big and get all tingly about it! You see me and you talk to me and you think I'm alone, but I'm many, everywhere, looking at you with our piercing eyes. Walk on my tail and you won't see it coming, but the bigger you are the harder you'll fall!"

Intimidation: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

And the rat manages to be actually intimidating. Lazzare smiles and taps on Ratatouille's head to calm it down.

Flory nods sagely at Ratatouille’s tirade. ”Impressive”, she says.

Her eyes don’t leave the rat. ”He’s not familiar with the Society’s tenets, I take it?”, she asks Lazzare. ”Especially the last one?”

Lazzare shakes his head: "Don't worry, Ratatouille will be an ally when you'll need one. If being pleasant was part of the Society moto, I'd not be here to talk about it."

”All squeak, no bite. Understood”, Flory replies.

She turns back to Zibini’s cousin. ”Your name again?”

The nervous goblin squeaks, and attempts to hide behind nothing at all.

"That's Zip! Or Zop. Something like that."

"It's Tup," offers the quiet one.

"Yeah, that's what I said. He follows me around because he says I'm not careful enough. He's good with navigation."

Flory smiles and curtseys at Tup. ”You’ve done a fine job of getting him here”, she says.

The conference room in the Vodavani Lodge bespeaks its earlier incarnation as Havenguard Asylum: small and utilitarian, yet comforting, with paintings bearing abstract images in soft colors hung on the warm, wood-paneled walls. Seated at the head of the table is a disheveled man who seems more than a little relieved at the arrival of help.

“Ah yes, agents, come in. Sit down. How are you all feeling? I’m glad you are here—and seemingly in good health? Very well, I’ll come to the point. We’ve received a letter from a friend of the Society, Mother Belchescu, a Pharasmin priestess from the peat farming village of Anactoria. They’re famous for the ‘Maid of Anactoria.’ It’s a bog body, the corpse of a human female, preserved in the bog for hundreds of years. It’s quite fascinating! The anaerobic conditions in the bogs north of town prevent decay, resulting in a natural mummification—ah, sorry. To the point. Right.” The doctor rifles through the mess of documents on his desk, producing a folded letter.

Dear Dr. Trice,

The grace of the Lady of Sorrow be with you until death. Please excuse this brief missive, but I write in haste so that this letter may make the outgoing stagecoach and not be delayed several days until the next. Several members of the Aspis Consortium have been frequenting town of late, showing special interest in the Maid of Anactoria, of which I trust you have heard. I fear they will try to steal the Maid, which as you know brings many visitors to our humble village. I well recall your connections to the Pathfinder Society, and I beseech you to send some of those agents here to guard against any impropriety by their rivals.

I hope to see you before the last journey on the river of souls.

In faith,

Mother Belchescu

Please post your Society or Ustalav Lore modifiers for a secret check if you'd like to Recall Knowledge for more information about Anactoria.

“The uneducated locals believe the Maid has mystical powers: healing tears, whispers of portents, the usual. All rubbish! But they rely on the Maid to draw tourists, so it’s rather important to them. Mother Belchescu has asked for our help in protecting it—the Aspis Consortium has been snooping around, and she believes they mean to steal it. Alas, so many patients need my help here these days. So, the mission is yours! Investigate the Aspis agents’ motives and ensure the Maid’s safety. Any questions?”

A tall man with a shaved head sits at the desk and carefully takes note on the briefing.

"So we are to protect a mummy? Is that it?" he asks, a trace of a smile on his lips, "I must admit this is the first time I've heard of such a mission." He turns to the rest of the party and bows, "Loong Laohu, but I admit that my name is a bit of a mouthful, so you may call me Tiger, for short"

Lazzare shakes his head and mumbles for himself: "Rubbish... It's always rubbish to the blind eye."

Before asking: "Do we go there to counter the Aspis Consortium or do we go there to protect the Maid?"

"The mummy is... dead-dead? Not undead?"

Society +9

A fit human male with the look of Taldan blood sits at the table, dressed in full plate armor, it looks a bit awkward actually. "Greetings, I am Jadran Tagar. Anything to help defend against those Aspis cut-throats, you have my shield at your disposal." The man oozes confidence, is that a good thing? Hopefully.

"The mummy is... dead-dead? Not undead?"

”Being dead may not stop her from running off”, Flory muses.

"That is my experience with dead things," Zibini agrees with an enthusiastic nod.

Society +8, dubious knowledge

"Why would the Aspic Consortium want to steal an icky old mummy? Also this Mother Belchescu sounds super creepy."

Silence briefly flaps his wings.

"Oh yeah good question. Thanks Silence. Can someone tell us about the Aspic Consortium? I've heard the name before but I don't understand how some sort of meat jelly cartel is somehow the Pathfinder Society's greatest rival."