GM Bret’s Outpost VIII CORE PFS1 8-19 Treacherous Waves (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

We should also see whether the sahaugin is still there.

After the party leaves, Galandir remarks, "Tsomo Qorra being too busy to grant us an audience is convenient. And suspicious."

Salvio nods absently. "That's why I wanted a copy of the charts. If Zahra saw something different and made decisions based on inaccurate information, we could probably clear her of wrongdoing." He walks on a little further and stifles a yawn. "Sorry. It's been a long day."

After spending about twenty minutes copying information from their charts, you travel back to Yuka’s workshop. It takes about an hour to get there.

Outside you see a different sahuagin in about the same location as the other one was. You quickly determine it is also watching the shop. You are pretty sure it is a different one because of a pattern on the scales.

You go in and remind Yuka of the promise to make a filter. “Oh yes, I was just about to start on that!” Neither Salvio nor the Red Reverend believes him. Probably going to need to remind him again.

I don’t think you have anything else to do here, but am willing to back up if there is.

You then travel back to see Zahra. It takes you about an hour to get there.

She listens with interest to your report.

“Do you think talking to the sharks would help? Lileone has always challenged my authority over the smallest of details, but I think you could get her to interpret if you asked nicely. That ability is one of the reasons I sought her out for the expedition.”

Anything specific you wanted to ask her?

"Oooh, she can talk to sharks? That's amazing! How does she--no, wait. Not important now. Ah, did you see the Murajau charts during the expedition?"

"It certainly might. We're all more than willing to follow any further trails you may have, because... Well we've pursued the others and, to my eyes, there's little to be found. Tsomo's, ah, receptionist was less than forthcoming, it must be said. But that in itself isn't evidence of anything."

She says “I have my copy of the charts they provided. Is that what you want?”

Looking to Goldur, she says “Did you ask Honoke or Razethka about Tsomo? They might know more. They were both familiar with them when I was organizing the expedition.”

“You might also try finding contacts in the city. We have a fairly large market area, that might be a good place to ask questions.”
Diplomacy to Gather Information

“Oh, also have you been able to convince anyone to help with the coral reef?”

Salvio nods. "Yes. I want to make sure that you were working from accurate charts. Oh--do you know anything about ownership fin-marking conventions for sharks? And Honoke and Yuka said they'd help, but Yuka will probably need to be reminded. I don't understand how some people can be so easily distracted." He is unable to keep a straight face as he says this. "We didn't ask Razethka because she offered to cover the next expedition to the Lambent Bloom, and after that we didn't want to ask for more right away."

She chuckles at the comment about Yuka. “His equipment is always in good condition, I was willing to put up with his peculiarities.”

She shows Salvio the charts she has. They appear to have the same information as the ones you saw at Tsomo’s office and copied. In with the papers, you find a certificate where some official verified the charts. If asked, Zahra confirms that she had another expert review the route before the expedition.

Those of you with a merchantile mindset realize that the people at Tsomo‘s probably allowed you free access to the charts because they knew that Zahra had her own copy.

In the topic of the shark fin markings, she says “No, not really. Honoke was my animal expert, but if this is something where you want a second opinion Lileone is always ready to give hers.”

Zahra is pleased to hear that Razethka is willing to fund another expedition, but says “Best we finish the analysis on this one before planning the next one. I am glad to hear that she still has trust in me.”

"Certainly. Let's go ask Lileone if she can translate for the whale sharks."

Salvio nods in agreement.

Before you leave, Zahra recommends a couple of different inns where you could get a room within the travel budget of an agent.

You aren’t fatigued yet, but at some point you will want to sleep.

It takes you about ten minutes to find Lileone. She greets you and asks how the investigation is going. She seems genuinely interested in spite of her thinking it is a waste of time.

She readily agrees to speak with the sharks, but warns you that their outlook is that of a shark. They have multiple ways of expressing food, a few for danger, and none for mathematics. Counting tends to be one, many, a large group.

"Thanks! Do you know anything about fin-marking conventions for sharks? We've seen notches on some of them."

She looks at the drawings of the marks and says “These are all different!” She points out a few of the differences and then realizes that you already know that.

“Although I’ve heard of people marking their draft animals to identify who they belong to, I’ve not heard of people changing the marks on each animal. The whole idea would be to have the exact same mark on each animal.”

She thinks the marks are something else.

"It seems odd that they'd be a coded message, though. Wait, you said that talking to sharks is hard, because their predatory mindset and use of a vocabulary that probably draws heavily on their extremely sensitive senses of smell (all right, I just inferred that part from what you said), right? So if you could talk to sharks and you wanted a shark to send a message to someone else who could also talk to them, you couldn't rely on the shark carrying anything more complex than 'humans taste awful, no fat on them, not like seals.' So you would put the message on the shark." He scratches his beard as he thinks further. "Would those marks heal over time? It seems kind of wasteful otherwise."

"Curious." Goldur frowns. Could there be something here after all? "We could ask the sharks who really put the marks on them, and whether that person said anything to them."

Xuan, Red, is there anything you'd like to do or add?

“Woah! Slow down a little!” Lileone says as Salvio gives his flow of consciousness on shark messaging.

“Yes, it can be difficult to relay a message through any animal. Simple messages can get through, complex ideas often get jumbled.”

“The marks were in the fins, so I don’t think they would heal.”

Looking over to Goldur, she say “Yes, but it would be from the sharks point of view. I’ve had trouble in the past where an animal couldn’t differentiate between a merfolk and an aquatic elf.”

Salvio chuckles at something. I wonder how often a message ends with "Continued on next shark," or "Disregard previous shark, all may yet be well."

I hope this shark finds you well. And doesn't eat you.

"To be fair, to us, most sharks look alike. It would be unfair to assume that they could tell humanoids apart."

Salvio seems like he's about to say something, but in a rare moment of sense keeps his mouth shut.

"Let's go talk to Honoke's whale sharks. Say, Lileone...do you know why Yuka would have sahaugin watching his place?" Maybe someone better with people than I am will be able to tell if her reaction is suspicious.

Thought I posted something, but it isn't here.

"It probably just says 'I prepared explosive runes this morning' in shark-fin-code."

"And unless we uncover something pressing," Goldur says with a yawn, "that may be a good time to find an inn. These old bones don't have the endurance they used to, especially so far from home."

Lileone starts in the direction of Honoke’s place.

When Salvio asks about Yuka having sahuagin watching his place, she says “No good reason I can think of, sounds mildly suspicious. Do you know anything else? Is it possible they had just paused in the area to rest?”

"It's possible, although we have seen two different ones in the same spot. Is that a... common sahuagin resting area? For what it's worth, Yuka himself didn't seem concerned."

“You may have noticed, Yuka is much more involved with his gadgets than anything going on around him. It does sound suspicious if you saw two different sahuagin watching the shop. That means someone is having the shop watched in shifts.”

“I know some people in the local militia that I might be able to convince to watch over the shop. Be easier if we knew why they were there and if they were hostile or not.”

Would take a diplomacy roll to have her call in some help.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

"It would indeed. Let us all work together to unravel this mystery."

Lileone takes you on a short side trip to a tavern where she has some contacts. She arranges for some protection for Yuka. She leads with sahuagin being involved, which gets the attention of the people. You get the impression that they are hoping the sahuagin will misbehave.

You get to Honoke’s place after about an hour and a half, including the side trip.

Honoke looks like he was able to get a nap while you were gone. He and his sharks look in much better shape.

When questioned by Lileone, the whale shark tells them another shark carved the notches in its fins and asked it to find other sharks. Lileone isn’t sure how to interpret it, but that is the best translation she can offer.

You have been up for a little less than 10 hours at this point.

Salvio mulls over what the whale shark said, turning over possible interpretations in his mind. "In your experience, do sharks think of sahaugin as kin?"

She thinks on Salvio’s question a moment, then answers saying “Probably. I’ve never asked a shark, but sahuagin have a very close relationship with sharks.”

“Another way to translate what I was told would be member of a shiver of sharks. Part of its group.”

Salvio nods at the answer. "You may be right that Zahra is at fault for the failure of the expedition, but it does seem that we've found something strange here...whether it's related or not. There was something else we were supposed to follow up on...oh! Honoke, have you seen Tsomo recently? Their assistant said they were too busy to talk to us even though Goldur and the Reverend asked very nicely."

Honoke asks Salvio “Is there some reason you need to talk to Tsomo?”

"Tsomo had a shark with similar fin markings that were used to indicate ownership, and we wanted to ask whether there was some meaning to them. Sorin wouldn't let us talk to Tsomo, though."

"There are two mysteries we've not solved: the markings on the whale sharks, and the sahuagin watching Yuka's shop. I don't know if either of them are related, but we wouldn't be doing our, ah, due diligence if we didn't follow up on them." Though it feels like we're only indulging Zahra at this point. "I'm not convinced talking to the sahuagin is a good idea, but I hope Tsomo can shed some light on the markings."

Honoke hesitates a moment, then says “It seems you are talking to everyone involved with the expedition.” He does give a puzzled expression at the comment about the shark markings.

After another couple of seconds, he gives you directions to Tsomo’s house so that you can try to talk to him there.

On the way, Xuan suggests reminding the selkie *again* about his promise to help.

Unless there are any complications along the way...

Goldur knocks politely on the door of Tsomo's house.

It takes you about an hour to get to Tsomo’s residence. You have been up for almost eleven hours at this point.

When you get there, you realize there might be a problem. The door is in the air-filled part of Vialesk, but the house is completely submerged.

No one responds when you knock.

"I've got a scroll of water breathing, if we need it."

No one seems to be around.
Being able to breath water would make checking the area out a lot faster. Otherwise you can take a deep breath, dive in and look around, come back for air. Repeat as needed.

IIRC, the Red Reverend prepared water breathing today, so if he casts it I can save the scroll.

Looks like Xuan is easily the best swimmer of the group. Want to dive in?

He did indeed. Two hours for each of us. Are there any other wet places we might want to visit during the duration of the spell, should we have the time? If not, he can prepare again tomorrow - which will probably be soon, given how much time we have spent.

I don't know whether there are other places we'd need it for.

Xuan goes swimming!

Swim: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24.

I will give the brief information that Xuan would get from a single dive and return. You can then decide which of you if any will get the spell.

The room is filled with corals and schools of colorful fish, but is otherwise sparsely furnished: a chest of clothes is wedged into the south wall, a carved stone desk sits on the floor, and a large saltwater tank extends from the east wall.

The saltwater tank is filled with a variety of marine life, most notably a small host of bamboo and bonnethead sharks. Each of these sharks has a series of notches on its fins. There are

The desk has a number of beaded strings. Briefly looking over the desk, Xuan finds a hidden compartment that appears to be trapped.

Discussing it after Xuan returns there are enough sharks in there to give you enough samples to analyze the markings.

Does anyone know the Aquan language?

No, but I can cast comprehend languages (and if we really need it I have a scroll of tongues). Two hours of water breathing would pretty much take us to the end of the day, so this might be a good time to cast it.

Xuan attempts to carefully disable the trap.

Disable Device - 'take 10' = 21.

Has the spell been used?

Xuan is able to disable the trap on the desk hidden compartment.

Inside he finds several waterproof maps marked with the Pathfinder expedition's route and the original location of the algae bloom. He also find a tide chart and a set of calculations for how long it would take the tide to move the algae bloom, as well as a sinister mention of “Having them handle the liability that Yuka presents to the operation, by whatever means necessary.” There is nothing indicating who they might be.