Josef shoots the lizard with thunder and arrows. But Granny's knitting needles finish it off.
Amanita (6 damage)
As the dust clears, you have some time to check for wounds and items. A rusted yet functional warhammer lies next to the smashed wall. You notice a wine-red beret in the corner, perfectly clean despite the water and debris. An ivory jewelry box is in the corner.
As Josef tends to Amanita, he notices Barry's tears and bruises are also closing.
Granny looks at the beret and realizes people skilled in Arcane or Occult studies could spend about 10 minutes to figure out its purpose.
The beret seems like it could complement anyone. Especially when you realize it can take many shapes, like a scarf.
You realize it is a >Masquerade Scarf< that can project an >Illusory Disguise< on the wearer for 1 hour or so.
What does the rest of the team do in the meantime?
Niccolo needs a few minutes to figure out how the beret can help with
magical disguises.
Taigan checks the jewelry box. It's made of ivory, opens up like a clamshell, and there is a keyhole but no key in sight. Finding nothing suspicious, he cracks it open and finds it is empty and a little dirty inside. But no traps.
Within the room, you see a crack in the wall that leads to some kind of water tunnel. The Puddles is prone to flooding, so this must be where some of the water comes from. You figure with the warhammer you could free some of debris and squeeze through into the tunnel.
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Clebsch surveys the scene after the fighting ends. "Good teamwork," he says. "Anyone know what these beasts are?" He gives the carcasses a onceover himself.
Once people are healed, he picks up the warhammer and uses it to clear out some of the debris and expand the opening. Afterwards, he holds onto the hammer, as he doesn't have a smashing weapon.
It takes 10 minutes, but Clebsch toils to and fro to knock a hole in the wall large enough to fit himself.
As he clobbers the wall, he realizes the lizards were Crocodiles. Given the size of the hole and the masonry, they probably got stuck in the wall. The water must have swelled suddenly and washed them into the wall. Thrashing wildly freed them, but caused the wall to collapse and trap them inside.
Amaninta holds onto the garment and finds that it can quickly turn into a hat, a scarf, a necklace, a pair of socks... anything the wearer desires.
The strong scent of saltwater hints at the daily flooding that washes through these sewers from the nearby sea, as do the occasional stranded fish or crustacean. The walkways alongside the sewer are slick and damp, although relatively clear of the normal waste found in a sewer.
The... "water" is about 2 feet deep and is considered difficult terrain.
Tall stone cylinders stand in a line in the center of this chamber. Broken pipes protrude from the ceiling above the cylinders, rusted and covered in green algae. Every few moments, one of the cylinders makes a feeble grinding sound and a dribble of water flows down from the top of the cylinder and drips to the floor.
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"Well, um, if the pump is supposed to be connected to the pipes up there, then the pipes that connect them are, uh, gone. And pulling water up here isn't going to help when this area is flooding. This looks like more of a 'long-term' project. But we made it safer for engineers to get to, so we should definitely report it."
As you finish investigating, you hear footsteps, paired with someone attempting to stay quiet while shouting at her subordinates. Sounds like the mercenaries you were competing with.
They are approaching from the Northern side, you'd reckon. What do you do?
"Wait just a minute!" A familiar voice rings out. 6 mercenaries run up after you, weapons drawn. The leader holds up her hand to halt her compatriots.
"Look. Pathfinders. Right?" She scans the lot of you. "Back off. We're getting paid well to explore these sewers first. Once we're done you can do whatever you want. But if you're going to get in our way..." Her associates raise their clubs, short swords and crossbows. "It's going to get messy."
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Grannys voice of calmness cuts through "I think you are all getting a bit ahead of yourselves with all this sword and crossbow business, you can wander around the sewers all you like, as can we. We have our job, you have yours."
"Our task is to explore and assess, and to build a relationship with our Goblin cousins. There was also talk of some evil creatures or the like and we are to be mindful such a thing does not get loose and harm the local populace. We care not for your expedition or your payments, the only real concern here is that you inadvertently free some monstrous beast that gets out and eats some poor fisherman and his family - and that the Pathfinders get the blame for something we had nothing to do with"
"So, what have you been told about this place?"
Diplomacy
The leader holds up her hand as Granny speaks. "We didn't free nothin, you came here first remember?" She sighs and relaxes as Granny's words sink in. "Okay fine." The mercenaries keep their weapons drawn but relax a bit.
"I'm Tess. That's Gerrod, Fidor, Pell, Maxie and Sid. We were hired by Olansa Terimor. She's on the city council. She hired us, said to help the goblin problem. I didn't expect us to audition for them."
"She told us to help the goblins with their underground troubles. She didn't say why. She never says why. Norgorber worshippers never talk about the why."
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"Uh...I don't know your Avistan gods much, but isn't that the god of guys who like backstab you?"
"Nice to meet you all. There could be more 'monsters' down here. And the place needs fixing. It's going to fall into the ocean. The city council might want to know that--evacuate people...or fix it, whatever they'd prefer. I'd suggest fixing it, since that way you won't have Puddles refugees flooding--no pun intended--the rest of town."
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"The way I see it, as long as the goblins are helped and all then there would be no issue with you going back and claiming your coin - was it written into the contract that you personally had to swing a sword, or just that the goblin problem was solved? I mean if we solve the problem we can happily support your claim as your 'assistants' as it were"
Tess listens to the team's arguments, especially Josef's points. "Hey, if she's got a reason she didn't tell us. As far as I know, we're being paid to do a civic duty." She nods, and some of her mercenaries nod.
"If you want to solve the problem, we're not going to get in your way. We'll uh... pass your advice onto her." She smiles a bit before turning to her teammates. "Alright, stow yer weapons and let's get out of here. Let these Pathfinders clean things up."
Her teammates back up, sheathe their weapons and begin making their way back to the entrance.
Granny and Josef's words seem to have calmed them down and averted bloodshed.
With the immediate danger handled, you make your way to the next room.
The sides of this chamber are rough and uneven, dropping sharply to a large pool of water that fills the entire room. To the north and south, the masonry of the sewer walls has crumbled away.
The water is much deeper in the pool, you'd guess at least 6 feet deep. The center of the pool must be even deeper, maybe 15 feet or so. Through the calm water, you catch the glint of something shiny at the bottom of the pool.
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Clebsch is relieved when a fight is avoided. "Good goin'," he says to those who talked the mercs out of a fight.
In the next room, he surveys the water and says, "I'm a fair ta middlin' swimmer, even in my armor. Unless anyone else has a better idea, I'll swim down an' try ta get ta that shiny dingus."
Clebsch decides to take a quick dip into the pool. He retrieves a barnacle-encrusted lockbox, sealed with frozen wax.
Within the lockbox is an old scrap of paper reading: For the Ilnudar family matter. Inside you find a jade cat. It also has 5 gold pieces.
Illundar? That sounds familiar...
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"Parely and discussion is always a sensible way forward, no point getting all stabbity stabbity over a sewer. Plenty of other things to stab and for good reasons already"
"Well done Clebsch, I knew your strength would come in handy - I'm no good at the bottom of a lake. What have you there? That looks interesting. We should look up the Ilnudars in the grand libraries when we return to the surface"
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"Uh, no need. I just heard about them--the Illundar family moved out of Absalom about 100 years ago. They were a famous and wealthy shipping family who spent their money seeking wild and dangerous locales throughout Golarion. The eldest daughter disappeared under mysterious circumstances and was never found. The family blamed Absalom and moved out as a result.
"Sorry, my brother has been doing some historical research."
With the history lesson concluded, you move ahead to the last point of interest.
Crashing water and the occasional bit of flotsam from the sewers flows into this large, broad pool that fills the entire cavern and extends to the northwest. A small cove stretches to the southeast where a barnacle-covered boat is moored. The craft is mostly filled with water, and the rope securing it to the shore is saturated and beginning to rot.
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"First thing when we're done here is going to be a trip to a bathhouse and then to the armorer to get my equipment cleaned up," Clebsch quips as he looks about the flooded area.
"That boat looks unreliable, but perhaps someone knows how it can be fixed so we don't have to wade or swim across this area."
The tethered boat is easy to prepare, and Clebsch uses longspear to row. Across the stream you can see the entryway to an old and decrepit temple...
The entrance bears motifs of a tall eel with a shark's head laughing as the tide looms over imperial battleships as if they were children's toys.
The water varies between 1 inch and 1 foot of depth. Not enough to require swimming. 8 foot tall walls of stone surround the hallways, and the area is enveloped in complete darkness.
A rocky beach covered in bits of assorted refuse meets the water to the southeast. To the northwest, what once must have been a natural cavern wall partially collapsed some time ago by the settling ground on the water side, revealing an area beyond of worked stone. The chamber within is large and constructed of a pale green stone. Multiple rounded passages worm their way to the northeast and southwest, while a grand staircase rises to the northwest. No creatures have passed here recently.
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"Ahhhh, so maybe there are more creatures with big teeth around?"
Taigan turns to Josef. "Do you think this eldest daughter might have been sacrificed here? Did we find an assassin's payment? However...whoever did this, if it was payment received, wasn't able to keep their money."
He shakes his head. "one hundred year old devoured bones won't stick around in a place like this."
After you finish examining the entrance, you figure out which way to go next.
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"Oh a temple, how interesting - and to Dagon, The Shadow in the Sea. A deity of sea, sea monsters, and deformity. Dagon encourages sea predators to spread and consume all prey"
"Greeaaat," Clebsch deadpans. "Remind me to stay out of large pools in this area."
Clebsch keeps his shield up both for defense and to allow his torch to illuminate the area ahead.
"Why don' we check out th' area at the top of these stairs. Seems ta be th' mos' important part o' the temple."