Medically fragile hostages and soulbound dolls are being successfully evacuated from the hospital wing of the Dispatch’s facility. During the evacuation, some experimental supplies were found and distributed to all Society agents.
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A Pathfinder Intern runs up to Adelmare who is standing in the entryway of the dojo. She hands the centaur a small pouch containing 6 vials. She explains in a hurried and well-rehearsed spiel that these are experimental medical alchemical items that function on the living, constructs, and undead. The item will restore them to full health while also restoring mental focus one minute after being activated. As she curiosly peers past Adelmare’s flank into the dojo beyond, she proceeds to inform him that these alchemical items are quite sensitive and thus cannot be used during a fight or other time-sensitive event.
Granny-Wolf slides down the banister, her skirts billowing up around her. At the bottom, she chomps into Red twice. The first chomp takes a big chunk out of the man’s shoulder, and the second just decapitates him with a loud crunch.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Eltis
Shalosar
Black Disciple
Red Disciple
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Green Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Yellow Disciple
Blue Disciple
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Adelmare thanks the pathfinder, dismisses them and stores the six vials in a bag on his flank before galloping into the fray.
♦Stride
As he charges forward he yells out from behind. Knowing he's not very good at making any kind of impression he sticks with the basics:
"You are Surrounded"
And then he shoots Yellow from afar.
♦♦Cast Needle Darts at Yellow
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Eltis puts a crossbow bolt into the one in the Yellow shoes just before Adelmare’s hail of needles vaporizes the same youngling’s entire head.
The next to act doesn’t like the look of Granny’s teeth but can take advantage of his ally’s positioning to attack Shalosar. He moves up next to Black, stabs at the Pathfinder, and raises his cloak in defense.
And now, after that horrible whiff of an attack, the Carnelian Signet announces her presence!
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Black Disciple
Red Disciple
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Green Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Yellow Disciple
Blue Disciple
The Carnelian Signet Strides down the stairs, longsword and fire ablaze. "I am the Terror that burns in plain sight! I am the Hellfire that awaits you upon Judgement!"
"Red Mantis Dispatch! Surrender peacefully or... half of you are dead already." She shrugs.
Then she looks at Black-garbed disciple. "Bravery gets you killed, by the by..."
For all of her talk, The Carnelian Signet forgot to actually prepare her swing and is much too slow.
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The Carnelian Signet strikes absolute fear into her foe! Black is so afraid of the Terror burning in his sight that he fails to dodge the swing of her blade!
Green uses his cloak in a tricksy move to keep Zenari’s first strike from hitting. He reacts by trying to snag her weapon within the folds of his cloak
…destroying the new cloak that he just got issued this very week in the process.
Blue looks at Adelmare and then over at his buddy in the dark Green combat boots. He opts to head into the scrum since they can do more damage when they team up on their foes. He strikes at Zenari, raises his cloak, and emits a high pitched whistle.
At the sound of Blue’s signal, five more Dispatch trainees emerge! Three pop out of secret hiding compartments at the back of the room near the big group fight. At the same time, two more fast-rope down from hidden spaces between the ceiling joists landing close to Adelmare. They each take a swing at the biggest target in the room and then raise their cloaks also.
They both hit, putting gashes in the centaur’s meaty sides.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Black Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
Green Disciple
Green Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Blue Disciple
Blue Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet strikes absolute fear into her foe! Black is so afraid of the Terror burning in his sight that he fails to dodge the swing of her blade!
"...I meant to do that."
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Shalosar slings a chain at the wounded disciple. His wounds slow down his reaction and the chain slices right through the poor youngling.
Eltis moves to help Adelmare and shoots at one of the the new ones. The ninja uses his Blue cloak to deflect the trajectory of the crossbow bolt just enough to keep it from killing him.
Mrs. Crinkle takes a huge bite out of one of the ninja-snacks, but some blood sprays into her eyes when she tries to bite again, leaving the man still in the fight.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
ADELMARE May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Black Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
Green Disciple
Green Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Blue Disciple
Blue Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
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"Oh spirits above and below me, why do knives hurt so much more than the books make it seem."
♦Cast Nymph's Grace
♦Strike Blue Circle
♦Raise Shield
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Adelmare rears up and stomps on Blue’s head. The hoof pulps the ninja wannabe’s cranium leaving only a headless corpse and Adelmare with a bloody hoofprint.
Red struggles to maintain his grip on his sanity, but not for long.
Meanwhile at the other end of the dojo, three younglings have targets aplenty. Black delays until Yellow moves closer and strikes, both ganging up on the Terror in plain sight before raising their cloaks and awaiting the fury to come.
Black would look rather pleased that he actually did some damage - if you could see behind his bug-mask.
Green Steps up to face the furry face of Mrs. Crinkle and tries to slash her before also Raising his cloak, even knowing that it really won’t do much good.
Likewise, Green is feeling pretty good after cutting the Wolf-woman, but he knows he just painted a big ol’ target on himself.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Yellow Circle Disciple
Black Circle Disciple
Green Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Blue Disciple
Blue Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
"I love your cloaks, darlings!" The Carnelian Signet feels the blade cut through the intense flames and actually nick her. "But you have to put those toothpicks away, before someone gets hurt!" She blows an intensely hot kiss that tries to burn the Younglings wearing Yellow, Black, and Blue.
She uses the ◆◆>Flying Flame< infusion, dealing Fire Damage.
"For example, my longsword." She points at the Yellow cloak. "Your cloak is going to burn to a crisp, sorry about this."
A magical oubliette set free a weary-yet-lively Pathfinder Society hostage named Khione who is all too eager to regale you with all of the information she’s learned about the Dispatch’s members, their insecurities, their foibles, their night-terrors, how they take their tea, ad nauseum.
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A blast of fire flies from the Signet, singeing two of the Disciples. Yellow dodges it completely - right into the Signet’s follow up swing. His cloak does indeed burn as she slices straight through the cloak, the armor, and his torso.
Zenari’s first strike decapitates the ninja then her second cuts him from neck to groin! She then moves to flank with Mrs. Crinkle - as if the old lady needs the help.
Red seems confused. The centaur that was right there a second ago seems to have vanished or something, so he spins around and sees something red. Yes, an enemy in Red - the Carnelian Signet! He rushes to the far side of the room and at the last second flings his dagger at her. Uselessly.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Yellow Circle Disciple
Black Circle Disciple
Green Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Blue Disciple
Blue Circle Disciple
Red Circle Disciple
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Eltis magically stitches up some of Adelmare’s wounds from afar then puts a crossbolt bolt right through Red’s spine. It looks like the ninja is barely standing.
Shalosar’s words cut deeply, just like Eltis’ crossbow bolt. He stands there, barely moving as the blackened chains take his head off.
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Black Circle Disciple
Green Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
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Granny-Wolf gets a nice crunchy-chewy-salty mouthful before trotting over to stand with the Carnelian Signet. (Oh, yeah, Green is dead. Quite dead.) Can Adelmare finish off the last ninja, or does it fall to the ladies?
The Dojo of Younglings
Conditions:
BOLD May Act
Shalosar
Eltis
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
Black Circle Disciple
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
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Adelmare moves further into the room, his hooves clomping on the hardwood floors slick with the blood of many younglings. He flings needles of glimmering metal at the last of the disciples, the weakest and most junior of them. The darts catch him in the back, rip trhough his body, and return to Adelmare’s posession with nary a trace of viscera upon them. The room falls silent with only the huffing and puffing of a certain wolf elderly lady to be heard.
Shalosar
Adelmare
Mrs. Crinkle
The Carnelian Signet
Zenari
Eltis
"Well, now we've done it. We executed a series of Younglings." The Carnelian Signet's flames extinguish in a moment. "They were clearly outmatched..." She sighs. "Reminds of too many in Chileax, trying to punch up above their weight. Order people above their station. Summon devils who toy with them." She shakes her head. "Dreadful."
She finally notices her injury. "And one of them managed to hit me!"
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"Well, now we've done it. We executed a series of Younglings." The Carnelian Signet's flames extinguish in a moment. "They were clearly outmatched..." She sighs. "Reminds of too many in Chileax, trying to punch up above their weight. Order people above their station. Summon devils who toy with them." She shakes her head. "Dreadful."
She finally notices her injury. "And one of them managed to hit me!"
Shalosar grunts as the chains retract into his wrists.
”Eh, we barely got tagged”, he replies, taking out a healing kit.
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As you emerge from the Red Mantis Dispatch slaughterhouse training dojo all healed up, cleaned up, and ready to get back to business, Zarta spots you. She has a serious look on her face, commanding attention. “One of my own darling agents, Khione, is being held by the Dispatch, and I think I’ve finally figured out where they’re keeping her.” She points to a hastily drawn sketch of the island. “The villains built themselves some kind of oubliette—also known as a ‘place of forgetting’ under this dockside tavern. Let’s make sure we don’t leave any of our people behind today. Go rescue her, post-haste!” Zarta points you toward the docks and a sturdy tavern built at the water’s edge.
"I like a man with direction. Lead the way, Eltis!"
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Eltis takes no time at all finding a hidden tunnel built into the tavern’s foundation. Once inside the dark tunnel, he and everyone else immediately notices there’s no sound!
It’s fairly easy to discern what’s happening here:
===End Spoiler===
In addition to the silencing effect, this magical prison appears to have two layers to it. The first outer layer traps light in a sphere, making both inside and outside very dark, but the boundary of the prison painfully bright. In order to create a breach in this wall safe enough to travel through, you must use reflective surfaces to create a prism and then insert that like a key into the dark spherical wall. Anyone with a mirror, carrying items made of adamantine, silver, or dawnsilver, or with the Prescient Planner feat gains a +2 circumstance bonus on the following checks.
Creating and inserting the prism requires three DC 16 successes using Arcana, Crafting, Nature, Occultism, Religion, Thievery, or a relevant Lore. Anyone who becomes invisible can place the prism much more easily, gaining one automatic success. A dispel magic spell with the subtle trait counts as a critical success. There is no penalty for failure, but on a critical failure, well, let’s just say that bad and painful things will happen….
Horror of horrors... no one can hear the Carnelian Signet! A shame...
With all of this light, she pulls out her Silver Longsword to shield her eyes and realizes she can make a lens if she cuts things in just the right way.
Making jewelry? Maybe she could get into that as a full time job after she retires...
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Just out of curiosity. Is there a Mister Crinkle?
"Oooo, not anymore. He died quite some years ago. Thank goodness; he was a bore. We couldn't stand each other. And now that he's gone I'm free! Heehee!"
___________
As soon as she notices there's no sound, Mrs. Crinkle immediately begins yelling the worst obscenities anyone has ever known at the top of her lungs, giggling to herself the entire time. Anyone who can read lips is probably either impressed or scandalized by the breadth and depth of her potty mouth and vulgar vocabulary.
And then everyone smells it. Those ghouls from earlier... She may have actually swallowed a bit of them, because *whew*! That is a rotten stench. It's unclear if her flatulence would've been silent in a place with sound, but it's very nearly *actually* deadly.
The Carnelian Signet works twice as quickly to make that prism and make an exit. The stench is horrendous.
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The Carnelian Signet uses her silver sword to excellent effect and slides it exactly where it needs to be. She’s so focused on her prcise movements that she doesn’t even notice what’s going on behind her - or more accurately what’s going on behind Mrs. Crinkle.
Suddenly, the Carnelian Signet and the rest of the party are drawn forward into the next zone of the prison leaving the ghastly stench of twice-digested ghoul behind.
Here, the oubliette’s inner layer traps sound inside of it, reflecting it back on itself so much that even the sound of a person taking a step reverberates into an ear-splitting cacophony. Breaching the inner barrier requires that the team work together to forcibly create a sudden burst of sound on a precise focal point in order to break open the prison. Creating an appropriately loud burst requires all of you to work together, coordinating your timing and actions, which is difficult due to the silence surrounding the oubliette.
Giovana of the Red Mantis assassins nods her head with a predatory smile. “You Pathfinders don’t disappoint. Hmm... your swordsmanship is a bit imprecise though. Perhaps a minor boon from He Who Walks in Blood might help.”
A savvy thief has been set free from captivity and has handed over a Chelaxian contract to the Dispatch for the assassination of Zarta Dralneen, as well as a trove of insight into their combat tactics.
Please add these bonuses as appropriate:
Acrobatics +8
Athletics +9
Religion +6
Zarta Dralneen has a satisfied smile on her face as she check-marks a list she’s carrying in a slender hand. “A hostage rescue under dire circumstances... ah, this really brings me back.” She gives any nearby Pathfinder agents a wry look. “Oh, come now, you do find this a little bit thrilling, don’t you? In any event, we’re just about done here, so catch your breath and be ready to move underground, where the Dispatch leaders are holed up.”