The four of you - amazingly - manage to sneak past the two drunk and insensible snoring halflings. You move past the night shift dormitory back to a small room marked 'Accountant' on the wall in neat script.
Two plain wooden desks are crammed into this office. Built into the southern wall is a sliding door.
The full incriminating records of the Golden League Cell's activities can be found in the storage area behind the sliding door. In tiny print, there are seventy years of every smuggled or stolen item or creature that has passed through these walls. One of the most recent entries notes the discovery of Bloodmoon, noting that the remarkable artifact would surely be worth thousands of gold pieces to the right collector in Goka, but that the boss seems unable to part with it.
Hidden within her desk, the accountant squirreled away a spellheart smuggled from the forest, a thorn triad.
When you come back out into the night dormitory, the two drunk halflings continue to snore, oblivious.
What do you do next?
You decide that it is time to check out the next rooms - the day shift dormitory at .
As Vermitor steps in, he notices two things. One... the floor is super greasy. Two... there is a tengu standing on one of the beds, shooting at him!
The tengu gets off one surprise shot!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
To his surprise, the Tengu Sneak finds himself first in initiative, and keeps shooting!
He does one shot at Boris, who he sees behind Vermithor, but Boris is not on the oily floor yet.
Then he shoots Vermithor again, but misses!
Then he swaps for his sword.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Tengu Sneak
Boris (-10)
Vermithor (-6, Acrobatics needed)
HT
Rations
On your turn once you enter the room!
Trigger A creature walks into the greased area; Effect The triggering creature must make a successful DC 12 Acrobatics check to avoid falling prone. The area is uneven ground.
HT moves, falls prone, and sends needle darts flying into... a bed? He does not have the actions left to restore Vermithor's mind.
Vermithor manages to get across the greasy floor and strike the Tengu once with his axe, but the tengu ducks the flail.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Tengu Sneak
Boris (-10)
Vermithor (-6)
HT (prone)
Rations
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Rations heads into the room. He slips on the waxed floor, falling on top of Huang Tong. "Apologies!" He crawls off the kobold so that he can get to his feet.
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
The tengu sneak who oiled the floor in anticipation of this mayhem snickers, clapping at the pile up of Pathfinder bodies in the entryway.
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Vermithor growls at the Tengu as he brandishes his flail, whipping it back and forth like a dragon's tail. He looks back to see how the others are arraying themselves in tactical brilliance. The dragon sees them piled up on the floor and raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing down there?!"
Boris joins the pile of bodies by the front door before making his way to the tengu sneak.
The sneak preens. He survived an entire round with two barbarians! He's invincible!
He lashes out at Vermithor.
Then the Flash of Grandeur from Rations hits, protecting Vermithor and dazzling the rogue. "Gah, get that light out of my face!" The sneak waves his Feather Fan, causing dust to rise in the area.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Tengu Sneak
Boris (-10)
Vermithor (-13)
HT (prone)
Rations
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Rations climbs onto the bed and carefully balances toward the sneak. Squinting through the dust, he strikes out with his flail at the sword in the other tengu's hand.
Trigger: an enemy damages an ally, and both are within champion's aura
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
Swatting away at the dust, Boris attempts to turn the tengu into a pancake. ”Do! Not! Hurt! Me! And! My! Friends!”
The tengu sneak goes down in a pile of attacks from all sides, and the cloud of dust dissipates. Eventually, you spend time healing up both Boris and Vermithor before moving on to the next door.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
This office contains one wooden desk, a coffee table with the remains of breakfast, and a comfortable chair. A small wooden chest lies under the bed.
As you search the room, HT discovers the boss's diary. The diary chronicles Big Katsu's rise to power within this cell of the Golden League, along with his favorite recipes for cutlets. He obsesses about his meals, the sauces he uses, and tips for braising and preparing the meat. Practically every entry talks about business deals followed by loving descriptions of his meals, or less loving descriptions of him punishing erring cooks.
The entries reveal a ruthless cunning and honest self-appraisal. The Golden League cell has been hiding within Silvertree village for decades, integrating with the villagers and blending in seamlessly, so they can use the settlement as a hiding spot for stolen or smuggled goods until it was safe to move them. Big Katsu boasts about his cleverness in smuggling rare creatures right out from under the noses of protective Kami.
But in the most recent diary entries, the handwriting becomes erratic as the boss extols Bloodmoon, a legendary naginata that has promised Big Katsu greatness. His entries become distrustful, worrying that his minions will poison or plot against him. The last entry states, “They don't want me to succeed, but I will crush them all like the insects they are.”
Vermithor smacks his face with the crowbar, and the small chest remains where it is, silently taunting all of you.
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Boris looks at all the feathers, licks his lips picks one up and says, " My eternal foe must of been here." Boris then turns his attention to the box, being a cat loves boxes and wants to see what's inside. Muscle bulging, he attempts to open the box with brute strength.
Boris rips the lid right off the chest! The locked wooden chest contains a purifying ladle—to prevent the Boss from being poisoned by underlings—and a smoke veil.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
You move on, and find yourself in an eerily large underground dock area.
Water laps softly against the docks in this muddy subterranean cavern. Seven boats cluster around the dock, all usable and in good repair, and three tunnels lead back out to the Bunkatsu river. There are curving pictographs over the archways that lead to other parts of the complex. Along one wall is a frieze with several carved hobgoblin figures, each raising a hand in greeting.
Vermithor looks at the frieze of hobgoblin carvings, and remembers hearing about an underground tien hobgoblin clan called the Rahk Lo, and realizes that this place might have once been a trading post. Perhaps the bandits did not create this underground complex beneath the Forest of Spirits. Perhaps they found it.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Exploring the whole area, you find a narrow hallway with a back exit that leads to a narrow stairwell leading back up to the forest outside the village.
Water-resistant waders and raincoats hang from garment hooks near this back exit.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Backing away from the exit, you go beyond the dock area to where a pile of crumpled bodies lay.
The bodies of two young tengu men lie sprawled and broken in the entrance to this room, their black feathers scattered and mixed with a pile of mud, dirt, and broken tiles. In the center of the floor, a tiled mural of the moon has been ripped out and painted black, then splashed with blood.
Rations realizes with horror that these two young men, likely the mayor's nephews Daisuke and Kenji, have been sacrificed to desecrate this shrine. It was once a shrine to Tsukiyo, the god of the moon and friend to the lonely and outcasts, and has been rededicated in this grisly manner to his brother, Fumeiyoshi.
Fumeiyoshi, the god of the night, was jealous of the attention that his younger brother, the moon god Tsukiyo, got from the sun goddess Shizuru. In a fit of jealous rage, Fumeiyoshi used his naginata to slay Tsukiyo. Shizuru resurrected Tsukiyo and then stripped Fumeiyoshi of all his prior dominions, leaving him to only be a god of graves and envy.
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"Fiendish epicurean," Rations notes as he peruses the diary. "It casts an even more ominous shadow upon the purpose for this blackmarket creature trade. I can understand Sakura's outrage."
After Boris cracks open the chest and the ladle's properties are identified, the albino tengu eyes it with envy.
A sharp hiss escapes Ration's beak upon discovering the profane tableau. After speaking a prayer for the fellows' souls, he offers the restless spirits what advice he can on coming to terms with the inevitable and senseless twists and turns a mortal fate can take. "It may often not be fair--the innocent are sometimes punished, and the unrighteous far too often reap great reward--but it is the price we pay to experience the many wonders of life. Be grateful for the joys you found and leave behind the suffering, take only beautiful memories with you into the river of souls."
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The four of you take time to cleanse the temple and set the souls of Kenji and Daisuke to rest. As you leave the temple, you hear the sounds of two people talking as they enter the docks area from the back entrance.
"And when I become a god? Surely everyone will offer me all the cutlets I want! Breaded! Fried! Covered in tangy barbecue sauce, the world at my feet!" This voice, low and booming, is coming from a tengu wearing a huge floppy hat.
"All this and more..." A sinister and more high-pitched voice, coming from a naginata covered in swirling blood.
At this moment, Sakura's sprig activates, glowing with holy energy that glitters and lights up the entire cavern.
"Intruders!" The naginata calls out to the tengu, "and they're here to foil our rise to greatness!"
The tengu grins with a leering beak, tossing off his hat and revealing oni horns as he grows larger.
"...and remind me to hire a dialogue coach for you later," the bloody naginata mutters.
Bloodmoon floats menacingly in the air, but Boris... Well, he sees the biggest darn SEAGULL he's ever seen, and it inspires him to race into battle!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Boris
Bloodmoon
Big Katsu
Rations
HT
Vermithor
Boris runs up and attacks Big Katsu, tenderizing the huge seagull with his morningstar.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Bloodmoon floats towards Vermithor, monologuing the entire while. "Do you not see my greatness? I was the naginata that Fumeiyoshi used to slay the moon! And now, I will cut you down!"
The first cut swishes over Vermithor's head, but the second hits its target!
Meanwhile, Big Katsu yells,
He hooks Boris once, then stumbles a bit on the slippery footing of the dock.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Boris (-9)
Bloodmoon
Big Katsu (-11)
Rations
HT
Vermithor (-7)
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HT is shocked at the violence done to his friends.
He concentrates and hurls needles at the seagull.
for
"Great? You look pretty puny to me. Did you know that my friend here is a Dragon of great prestige? No? Then maybe you should learn! Dragons are born great, you know!" he quips at the tiny thing slashing at Vermithor.
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Vermithor's eyes sparkle as the naginata floats towards him. Despite the nasty cut, the dragon laughs. "I do see your greatness! An ancient and storied weapon will be the perfect start to an endless dragon horde! But I will break your influence and ego first!"
He swings his axe down at the haft of the polearm and whips his flail towards the blade of the weapon.
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Rations leaps over the channel. He moves past the talking naginata to stand beside Boris. "The bigger they are--," he says as he snaps his flail between the giant tengu's knees and then yanks.
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
HT attacks Big Katsu's body and mind.
Vermithor crits Bloodmoon, breaking the legendary weapon - which was only a shadow of its former self. The naginata screams, then disintegrates into dust.
Then Rations trips Big Katsu, who falls to the floor.
"Wait! You smashed my pointy stick! It was gonna make me a god!"
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Boris (-9)
Bloodmoon (Dead)
Big Katsu (-17, Bon Mot, prone)
Rations
HT
Vermithor (-7)
Boris snarls and swings at the prone Big Katsu.
◆ Raise a Shield (no shield block)
Big Katsu spends an action to stand up.
He misses Boris, and attempts to strike again.
Then the flash of light hits Big Katsu's eyes, reducing the damage he does to the furry barbarian. "Gah!"
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Boris (-16)
Bloodmoon (Dead)
Big Katsu (-28, Bon Mot, dazzled, off-guard)
Rations
HT
Vermithor (-7)
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"You are not behaving," Rations chides the overgrown tengu bully. He snaps his flail toward the ogre hook in Katsu's hands. Then he snaps the flail toward Katsu's knees once more. Then he raises his shield to defend himself from the--hopefully fully foiled--oni tengu.
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn