A short adventure which takes place in the lair of an ancient Thassilonian wizard on a small island near the city of Magnimar.
Drawn in part by the many changes taking place among the city-states of Varasia in the Saga Lands, you have been participating in some Pathfinder training at Heidmarch Manor. Sir Canayven and Shiela Heidmarch have been excellent hosts and you have managed to hone several of your pre-existing skills while learning about the methods and means of the Pathfinder Society. However it is now early evening on Fireday and with the Angel Day celebration honoring the founding of Magnimar taking place tomorrow, you will have two days off before returning to training on Moonday. You decide to head off to the Bazaar of Sails in the Dockway district to purchase a few needed supplies and some local foodstuffs.
A destination for traders the world over, the Bazaar of Sails is the largest free market in Varisia. Anyone with merchandise to sell is welcome to set up a tent, booth, or wagon among the hundreds of other ever-changing shops that fill the dockside plaza. Crops from local farmers, Varisian artifacts, Osirian spices, Chelish finery, Andoran quartos, and more exotic goods from a hundred foreign ports fill the market, with each day’s offerings varying with the season, trade winds, and tides. As merchants eagerly trade, competitions, rivalries, and all manner of criminal temptations arise. Along with the various stalls and booths there are a number of notice and job boards hoping to attract the attention of patrons.
At one of these notice boards, a slight bespectacled man is hanging a poster with weary determination. His clothes, while clean and well-kept, seem to be from another era. His posting reads as follows:
As poor students without a lot of time to work at day jobs, are you interested in making a few quick coins?
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Mirzos sighs as he counts the coins in his wallet, then slowly puts a wooden figurine of a serpentine draconic figure back on the merchant's table. Head hung low, he walks away and almost runs into a flower merchant standing between him and the closest bench. He slumps down and puts his head in his gloved hands, gazing across the plaza despondently.
The tapping sound of something being nailed to a notice board catches his attention. Slowly the wheels start to turn in his head. Once the connection between someone looking for help and money is made he quickly perks up and heads towards the sound to investigate.
Xandian, and any others who wish to come along, follows the stranger through several intersections along the docks before he turns into The Old Fang. The best known of Dockway's taverns, the Fang also offers cheap rooms to rent. It is well known locally for the enormous swamp barracuda head that hangs above the bar. Rumor holds that the head belonged to a beast that killed Ol' Mam Grottle's husband in the Mushfens several years back. However, any that have had to deal with the burly no-nonsense matron of the Fang well understand that she is not one to be trifled with.
The stranger sits down at a table and orders something to drink and eat, before pulling a number of papers from a backpack and spreading them out.
Do you wish to go introduce yourselves to him and inquire about the job?
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Mirzos checks that his colleagues are with him, then trots up to the stranger. "Hi! You're the fellow with that help wanted poster, yeah? What kind of help you want? I'm sure we can help - we're Pathfinders!" He stands proudly, knowing the other man will know what kind of help he can expect from members of such a proud and storied association as the Pathfinder Society.
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Xandian takes a look at the barracuda head decoration as he walks through the doorway of the tavern. "Most interesting."
He stands nearby behind Mirzos providing silent backup while Mirzos introduces them all - though Xandian knows that he would look a lot more intimidating if he was more than two and a half feet tall and made of something more substantial looking than leaves.
