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Somewhere in Lepidstadt, a haggard-looking man in a heavy grey cloak navigates a maze of rain-beaten backstreets, seemingly looking for something he is unable to find, until he notices a powerful flash that is coming not from the sky, but from inside a nearby building, a story or two up.
He barges into the...confectioner's shop???...on the first floor, barely makes eye-contact with the perturbed shopkeeper before intuitively rushing through a heavy curtain, up a fire-escape, into a printer's shop on the second floor that has seen better days where he waves at the aged and sour-faced clerk, who leads him to another door down the hall, leading to a much nicer-looking office with long marble tables, a few strange charts on the walls, and a single unoccupied desk with a large bookshelf behind it, which he very gingerly roots through until finding a strange figurine like a stylized moon, which his large, gnarled hand manipulates with difficulty until a trapdoor opens...directly underneath him, and he falls unceremoniously onto another marble table like the ones in the office above, except larger and covered in straps and tool-mounts, in a room that is likewise much larger, much colder, with tough stone walls instead of the polished wood above, and filled with glassware, papers, other unguessables and apparatuses...and a lone figure who is now leaning over him.
"Uhrrk...message for you...Herr Doctor...I was told it was urgent."
"Thank you, Valeriu," Replies an almost-unnaturally even voice, with only a hint of tension and intensity. "Nice of you to 'drop in'; I'll look at it as soon as I can. How's your hand? Listen, as long as you're here, would you...*snap* mind terribly *buckle* assisting me with *tighten* one more thing...?"
There is another powerful flash of night from the window over the backstreets.
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"Been a long time," the Thuvian man said, blowing hot air into his hands. It got too cold in these mountains. He spent last few years trying to keep south of Absalom. If he could, he'd probably retire to Eleder, or Anthusis, or whatever the locals were calling it now. It was warm there, and a continent away from Geb. It'd been a while since he had a mission from the Society, not since that business in Rahadoum, the Citadel. But that was years ago.
Even with the endure elements, Captain ibn Horrit thought it was too damn cold. There were junior Pathfinders, hurrying to and fro. Amwari didn't feel the need to prove himself. He was powerful servant of the Pirate Queen, and friends already with Calisro Bennary. Proven himself to the Society. He wasn't going to be snapped at, by some Venture Captain.
Table GMs, it is March 2nd in Greenwich, so you may begin!
Our story so far:
Part 1: The Pathfinder Society received an urgent call for help from the Blakros Museum. (This happens often enough that there’s a staff member at the Grand Lodge whose sole task is to be ready when the Blakros family calls for aid.) It seems a group of intruders had gotten past the defenses and barricaded themselves in the building. When the Society sent assistance, the intruders–members of a Kellid tribe called the Twinhorns and their spiritual leader, a woman named Medda–turned out to have a very good reason for what they did. It seems that the Twinhorns have long kept a relic of the Shining Crusade, the hilt of a dagger that was used to banish Eshimka, a nightwalker lieutenant of Tar-Baphon, from the world, and they use the relic in an annual rite at the Winter Solstice to keep Eshimka and its followers at bay. Blakros agents stole the hilt and brought it to the Museum to display. When Ambrus Valsin heard the Kellids’ tale, he was furious, and promised that the Society would escort them back to the Tusk Mountains with the dagger hilt.
Part 2: The Society agents secure passage through the Hold of Belkzen.
Part 3: Medda, the Twinhorns, and the Pathfinders arrive too late at the location where the rite is to be performed: Eshimka’s undead forces have begun to enter the world through a portal at the standing stones. The Pathfinders successfully defeated the intruders and closed the rift, but left a weak spot in the walls between the worlds. The next solstice would be critical.
Part 4: The dagger belonged to Ivvora, a paladin of the Empyreal Lord Vildeis. In order to learn how to either repair the dagger or create a new weapon against Eshimka, Medda asks the Pathfinders to escort her to where Ivvora died fighting a great white dragon. There, Medda hopes to commune with Ivvora’s spirit. The Pathfinders had to fight the descendants of the white dragon and their kobold servitors, but were ultimately successful.
The long journey south from the slopes of the Tusk Mountains to the edge of Fangwood took several weeks, during which many of the Twinhorns and Pathfinders exchanged ancestral stories and tales of daring adventures to pass the time on the relatively uneventful trek. By the time the Fangwood rises ahead in the brisk morning air, both groups are eager to confront whatever lies ahead.
Medda addresses the crowd gathered before her. “South of here lies a battlefield where the paladin Ivvora risked her life in a daring ploy to help her battalion defeat an undead horde. For her selflessness, Ivvora earned a token of Vildeis’s favor: the dagger she used to deal a terrible blow to Eshimka! For all the crusaders’ heroism, I can sense an undead taint lingered here, and that stretch of the Fangwood has expanded in the centuries since to absorb it. It is now our turn to earn Vildeis’s blessing, risking ourselves to end this threat so that in turn we might slay Eshimka once and for all.
“The terrain favors small groups over larger formations, so we shall divide into smaller groups to navigate the forest and identify the corruption’s heart. May Ivvora’s example guide us to victory!” With that, Medda and her phantom Anok turn and enter the Fangwood, followed by Pathfinder and Twinhorn teams that fan out behind her.
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A portly fellow with bluish skin and a jovial expression comes bustling up, bearing a platter covered with a simple cloth. ”Sorry to be late, so sorry, though I believe when you see what delayed me you’ll forgive me.” He pulls the cloth aside, revealing an array of... well, it’s hard to say what these concoctions may be: clusters of rice and vegetables and mysterious-looking lumps of fish meat. Seeing the quizzical expressions on his companions’ faces, he throws his head back and roars with laughter. ”Aye, not many in Avistan have acquired the taste yet, but believe you me, it won’t be long before the Kings and Queens of the Inner Sea and beyond are all hankering for a taste! Undiana Jones is the name - Undy to my friends - and I aim to be the sushi king of all Golarion; it’s just a matter of time before I’ve got a franchise in every hamlet this side of Katheer. But as you can imagine, it’ll take some capital to get the ball rolling, which is what brought me to the Pathfinder Society: hard to find a better way to make a quick buck, don’t you know? But where’s my manners? I’m sure after hearing all this you must be famished, which is why I hope you’ll forgive my lateness - if you want to harvest the freshest baby reef claw you’ve got to wait until the tides are just right (and it doesn’t hurt to wait until mama reef claw has gone out neither!).” He offers the platter towards the group, and as he does so, a small dragon pokes its head out of his robe and slurps up half the samples in a flash. ”Riddywipple! Those are samples for our new customers, I mean friends!” Sheepishly, Undy offers the remaining samples to the group, while the faerie dragon smacks his lips with gusto.
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"I would not mind a bite before we head out. I love sampling different cultural foods. Where did you learn to make sushi?" A tanned Garundi woman wearing glasses, a Mithral breastplate and wearing a Handy Haversack smiles and reaches out to take a sample.
"My name is Katswiri. I am seer, and look forward to working with all of you. The gods took my hearing when they granted me my powers, so please let me know if you hear something outside of line of sight. My magical glasses let me see the words on your lips, which is often sufficient, but occasionally I need some help with certain things."
After taking a bite, she sighs in contentment. "I didn't get a lot of fish growing up in the desert, but I have to say I have acquired a taste for them. Once we're in less immediate peril, I would love to document these in greater detail."
Katswiri casts Magic Vestment on her Armor and Shield, Delay Poison and Ant Haul on herself.
"Shall we see what the darkness in the forest holds?"
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Jules reaches for a sample of her undine ally's undersea offerings.
"That's exceptional!. Did you get fresh kelp locally? Mmmm. And this fish - is it
She follows up with a sip from a silvered hip flask, one etched with Cayden's mark.
She turns toward the seer & continues "I'd love to join you for a more in-depth sampling once we're done with this mission, Katswiri. I expect that the tastes will be ... delightful."]
Jules is a human woman, perhaps 20 years old, with honey-blond hair done in a French (Galtan?) braid & amber-colored eyes. She's quite pretty & very personable. Under her doublet (deep blue edged in gold, in the current Taldan style) you might spot a hint of fine chain mail & she carries a rapier at her hip. Her haversack rests on the table, where she'd set it before sampling the sushi.
She offers a graceful bow to the rest of the party.
"I'm Julia DeLay, but most of my friends call me Jules. My enemies say that I'm quite vexing. It's my pleasure to make all of your acquaintances."
Brambles grow wild throughout the edge of the wood where a thick canopy of trees begins to filter out sunlight, turning day into night. The overgrown plant life forbids easy access deeper into the forest and fills the air with the sickly-sweet smell of decay.
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The sickly-sweet smell is briefly overtaken by a vinegary odor, as a patch of the local brambles begin to shrink in upon themselves in reaction to...something.
Through the resulting clearing, that 'something' strides quietly forth before the brambles snap back into position behind it: A gaunt elf, with fine straw-blond hair and ice-blue eyes that smolder with an ominous coldness, and dressed in the white formal garb of a physician, inexplicably immaculate even in these environs. At his side and back are a brace of traditional (if of a somewhat macabre aesthetic) Elven weapons, and a large black bag that looks like it should be much heavier than his grip on it would otherwise imply; from it trails a small censer the contents of which he has apparently been using to cause the foliage around him to recoil the way it has.
Although his expression is sanguine, he looks, as they say, like death warmed over, and there is something quite simply...unnatural about him.
He nods at you and flashes his Open Road insignia.
"I came as soon as I could; it is good to meet you," He says as he extends a spidery gloved hand. "Dr. Zephyrus Vitruvian, University of Lepidstadt."
There is a sudden and powerful peal of thunder in the distance.
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Although Undy manages well enough, he notices that his faithful faerie dragon is looking a bit green around the scales. "I told you not to eat all the sushi! You've no one but yourself to blame. No, I'm not conjuring you any peptobizzmo, whatever that is, this will teach you a lesson I hope!"
Riddy merely groans and waves a stick at Undy.
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Katswiri comes meandering out of the forest by Dr. Zephyrus, almost absent mindedly side-stepping around all of the harmful vegetation as she follows her vision to safety. "Oh! Hello. I'm Katswiri, Seer, Painter, Linguist, and general lover of academics." She takes Dr. Zephyrus' proffered hand and shakes it. "A university professor? I guest lectured in Arcane theory a few times before I joined the society. Though honestly, I've advanced tremendously in my studies since I started doing active field work for the society. What is your area of study?"
The forest floor is blanketed with eerie dark flowers that paint the otherwise lightless woods with their purple incandescence. Disorienting paths cut through the trees, forward-facing paths seem to lead back to where they started, and retracing one’s steps leads to unfamiliar terrain. Glowing eyes glare hungrily from within the impenetrable thickets where the vines slowly curl around anyone who gets too close.
With stealth that belies their size, two enormous creatures sneak up on the Pathfinders' flanks. Their eyes glow purple, and the same flowers that blanket the forest also grow upon their bodies.
The creature from the south blasts a sticky, greenish web into the Pathfinders' midst.
Round 1 - bolded may go
Blue
Jules (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Eric (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Undy (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Katswiri (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Dr. Vitruvian (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Red
Amwari (Reflex save, Fortitude save)
Katswiri recognizes these as goliath spiders, a type of vermin. They have 14 hit dice, no DR, immunity to mind-affecting effects, and poison:
Bite—injury or web-contact; save Fort DC 23; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Str and paralysis 1 round; cure 2 consecutive saves.
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She takes Dr. Zephyrus' proffered hand and shakes it. "A university professor? I guest lectured in Arcane theory a few times before I joined the society. Though honestly, I've advanced tremendously in my studies since I started doing active field work for the society. What is your area of study?"
The Doctor's grip is gentle but firm, and exceptionally cold and dry - but at the mention of the word "professor", it momentarily clenches.
"'Professor'?" He laughs, causing a somewhat bizarre effect, almost like a ventriloquist-act, as the throaty laughter escapes tight and barely-open lips. "Oh, I merely mention the alma mater out of habit, and perhaps a tic of tradition, and I suppose in recognition for the fruitful privilege of studying there - but 'professor'? Sadly, it was not to be. By trade, I am a physician...but my aims are so much higher. Medicine at the mortal scale is merely a threshold to much-needed medicine at the cosmic scale!"
"They laughed at my theories, back at the University," He continues, now releasing his grip to fuss with his cufflinks. It is no challenge for one of Katswiri's preternatural senses to notice that each of his platinum, moon-like, cufflinks is delicately engraved with the contours of a skull. His voice remains calm on the surface, but begins to take on an undercurrent of near-mania. "Laughed me right out - but with the resources and opportunities since afforded to me by my affiliation with the Society, I shall show them all."
He reaches into his big, black bag and gingerly pulls out a long, thin syringe full of glistening black sludge, like a cross between tar and a starry night sky. He looks it over with a proud smile before putting it back.
"Having seen the Beyond for myself, as fate would have it, was just the breakthrough I needed; this is only the beginning...!"
"BAH! Accursed beings, but clever...!"
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Go to Eric
Greetings all! I hope I am not too late joining you, the path from Taldor was brutal. I am Eric, Trade Prince of the Exchange.
( I cant possibly make any of those checks so fort it is)
Round 1 - bolded may go
Blue
Jules (entangled, poisoned)
Eric (entangled, poisoned)
Undy (entangled, poisoned) and Riddy
Katswiri (entangled, delayed poison)
Dr. Vitruvian (entangled)
Red
Amwari (entangled, poisoned)
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Undy feels the poison coursing in his veins but thanks to Katswiri's quick intervention he feels confident that he can worry about that after the fight is over.
"Quick, Riddy, let's blind that Blue monster before they make dinner out of us!"
Both Undy and Riddy begin to cast spells, though the entanglement of the webbing presents Undy with an additional challenge.
Undy casts a Flurry of Snowballs at the Blue spiderthing.
Riddy, not wanting to remain within the creatures' range, flys up 30' (to an altitude of 35'; Undy is still 5' above the ground) and then casts Dancing Lantern, a spell not normally known for its use in combat, but somehow it causes the snowballs hurtling from Undy's hand to turn into steam.
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To some geometers, Dr. Vitruvian reflects to himself as he looks up at the monsters, the Square-Cube Law is a sacred truth; these things probably think it's something one puts on the end of a toothpick.
Being entangled impedes movement, but does not entirely prevent it unless the bonds are anchored to an immobile object or tethered by an opposing force.
In the hopes of buying time, he reaches into a deeper section of his big black bag, and from it he pulls a fist-sized glass sphere; though frosted over (and from the inside, somehow), you can make out what appears to be a mass of grey and yellow strands suspended within a mysterious medium.
He hucks it at the spider to the north!
There is an acute burst of cryogenic gas, which then billows into a terrible cloud of pestilence around the spider!
Being entangled impedes movement, but does not entirely prevent it unless the bonds are anchored to an immobile object or tethered by an opposing force.
The creatures seem unbothered by your study of biology, though.
Jules, Eric, Undy and Amwari are unbale to move as the poison moves through their veins.
Katswiri frees Undy from the sticky webs.
Roddy ascends and fires missiles at the blue-tinted foe.
Dr. Virtuvian hurls a bomb at the reddish spider.
The spider takes the damage, but ignores the other effects of the attack.
Pathfinders look tasty!
plus poison
plus poison
Amwari smoothly dodges out of the way, but Katswiri gets crunched.
Round 2 - bolded may go
Blue (-19 HP)
Jules (entangled, poisoned, -4 Str, 1 save)
Eric (entangled, poisoned, -4 Str, 1 save)
Undy (poisoned, freedom, -4 Str, 1 save) and Roddy
Katswiri (-52 HP, entangled, delayed poison)
Dr. Vitruvian (entangled)
Red
Amwari (entangled, poisoned, -4 Str)
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Dr. Vitruvian (who, others might now notice, has a strange red ring around his neck) looks back at the sorry state of his comrades and realizes the gravity of the situation.
He reaches not into his bag, but deep into his coat, from which he draws a thick canteen filled with something that bubbles furiously, as if in defiance of its tightly-stoppered heavy metal prison - he leans back as he chugs the contents within, then immediately begins to thrash furiously as his body twists and shifts into something all but unrecognizable: Equal parts elf, demon, skeleton, and crustacean. Only his iceball-eyes appear the same...but behind them is a certain mania that was not there before .
Even though much of the forest withers from some evil curse, eager faces flow from tree to tree as the friendly, whispering spirits encourage their would-be saviors onward.
The bluish spider is pelted with former snowballs. It still manages to sink its fangs into Katswiri, despite being unable to see.
Eric's spirits grant him additional resilience that allow him to shrug off the poison. He approaches a spider.
plus poison
Unfortunately, the creature bites him, exposing him to the venom again.
Round 2 - bolded may go
Blue (15 nonlethal, blinded 1 round)
Jules (entangled, poisoned, -4 Str, 1 save)
Eric (-44 HP, mutagen, -4 Str, Fort save)
Undy (poisoned, freedom, -4 Str, 1 save) and Roddy
Katswiri (-52 HP, entangled, delayed poison)
Dr. Vitruvian (mutagen)
Red
Amwari (entangled, poisoned, -4 Str)
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Julia, finally free of the venom's paralysis, pulls & drinks the Antitoxin (+5 to the Poison saves). Defensively, she triggers her mirrored triplets (Mesmeric Mirror as a free action.
Side note - Jules would have triggered the Painful Stare for +4 damage when the Blue spider took damage from the steamballs.
Note 2: This round, her BoF bonus is the +2 AC boost.