“Whoa, you’re here already? Are you the Magaambya delegation or the group from the Pathfinder Society? Either way, one moment.”
The white-scaled kobold snatches a bandolier off a nearby hook and hurriedly fills its pouches with a variety of rune-covered daggers from a nearby weapons rack.
“This is the weapons vault, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Normally I’d have greeted you before you got this far, but Ziik’s having a little bit of a rat problem and the boss says if the ratcatcher can’t deal with the rats himself, then he should probably just let the rats eat him so she can find a better ratcatcher.”
With the bandolier filled with weapons slung over her shoulder, the little kobold quickly tucks a variety of other items into her kilt pockets before thrusting one tiny hand into the air seeking a handshake.
“Name’s Purepurin. I’m the steward of the vaults, and it’s my job to keep the items clean, the inventory logs up to date, and the ratcatchers uneaten. Please follow me for the time being and, uh, stay about ten feet back and try really hard not to step in front of me if it looks like I’m pointing at something.”
Instructions complete, Purepurin quickly leads the way through a twisting series of tunnels. The farther the little kobold gets from the weapons vault, the louder and angrier a constant, chittering squeal becomes, a rising crescendo of rodent clicks and cries. Purepurin holds up a hand as she reaches a sharp corner, the dancing light of distant torches indicating a much larger room just around it.
“Ziik really is a good ratcatcher, you know.” Purepurin calmly runs her fingers across the hilts of the daggers sheathed in her bandolier until her grip settles on a ghastly blade, its hilt wrapped in what appears to be the dead gray skin of some humanoid creature. She draws it carefully. “The problem is that sometimes one of the really smart rats nibbles through the protective fulus and gets ahold of an item in the special vaults that turns it into something that’s just a little bit too much for your average kobold. Case in point…”
Purepurin’s gesture to peek around the corner leads to a truly horrific sight: hundreds of black-furred, white-tailed, red-eyed rats swarm around a large stone well with a wooden steeple. Perched atop the steeple is a lone elderly kobold, desperately fending off the occasional encroaching rodent with a gnarled walking stick. Seething through the furry hordes, a slick wet mass displaces rats like a leviathan shedding water as a rodent of unprecedented size emerges. Still-smoking scars and other remnants of recent battles indicate that the monstrous creature has mounted several unsuccessful attempts to devour the stranded ratcatcher, whose panicked expression seems to indicate that he has no more tricks sufficient to stall the beast.
With a quick wink, Purepurin hurls her dagger into the middle of the roiling mass of rats, skewering one with a single flick of her wrist. The other rats around the skewered target begin to squeal and scatter as a foul stench emanates from the slain rodent. As the smaller rats choke and disperse, Purepurin calmly walks into the relatively clear space, drawing an item from her pocket. The oversized rat turns toward the new challenger, placing its back to the old kobold and the well upon which he perches. With a wicked grin, Purepurin levels what looks to be an elaborate seashell at the rat.
“Bang.”
A geyser of twisting water suddenly erupts from the “seashell,” slamming into the rat monster with enough force to send the creature up and over the edge of the well and down into its murky depths. Wasting no time, Purepurin gestures furiously for assistance, chasing rats away from a heavy, steel-shod wooden cover clearly intended for the well. With some assistance from Ziik and the visitors, Purepurin seals the well, the rat monster apparently unable to climb up quickly enough to secure its escape. The old ratcatcher, Ziik, grumbles about needing to march all the way to vault 47 for clean water. As he places protective paper talismans around the edge of the well, Purepurin recovers her thrown dagger and smiles widely.
“Too much for the average kobold, but not for yours truly!” Purepurin calmly waves a beckoning claw as she exits the room through a different doorway than the one she used to enter. “If you think that was scary, wait’ll you meet the boss!”
Thrower’s Bandolier — Item 3
Conjuration, Invested, Magical
Price 60 gp
Usage worn; Bulk LThis bandolier is covered in straps and pouches capable of holding up to 2 Bulk of one-handed thrown weapons. A thrower's bandolier has a +1 weapon potency rune etched into it, and it can be etched with runes as though it were a one-handed thrown weapon. When you invest the thrower’s bandolier, you can attune it to all the weapons sheathed in it (this ends any previous attunements made with the bandolier). Whenever you draw a weapon from the bandolier, the bandolier's runes are replicated onto that weapon. Any runes already on the weapon are suppressed, and any runes previously replicated to a different weapon in this way are removed, returning it to normal.
Activate [two-actions] envision, Interact; Effect All weapons attuned to the bandolier, not including any weapons you're currently wielding, return to the bandolier.
Ghast Stiletto — Item 3
Magical, Necromancy
Price 60 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk LA ghast stiletto is a +1 dagger wrapped in the still-undead skin of a ghast. While you wield the dagger, you gain a +1 status bonus to all saves against paralysis.
Activate [one-action] command, Interact (divine, necromancy, olfactory); Frequency once per hour; Effect The ghast stiletto afflicts the next living target struck by the dagger with a terrible wound that emits the foul stench of the grave. For the next minute, the target creature, as well as any creatures within a 10-foot emanation, must succeed at a DC 16 Fortitude save or become sickened 1 (plus slowed 1 as long as it's sickened on a critical failure). While within the emanation, the creature takes a –2 circumstance penalty to saves against disease and to recover from the sickened condition. A creature that succeeds at its save is temporarily immune for 1 minute.
Craft Requirements The initial raw materials must include skin from a ghast.
Torrent Spellgun (Lesser) — Item 3
Attack, Consumable, Evocation, Magical, Spellgun, Water
Price 12 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Activate [two-actions] Interact, StrikeCarved of seashell, a torrent spellgun is damp to the touch, and seaweed wraps around its grip. You Activate the spellgun by aiming it at one creature and making your choice of a spell attack roll or a firearm attack roll against the target’s AC. This spellgun has a range increment of 30 feet. The spellgun blasts a powerful jet of water that deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage, then disintegrates into sand.
Critical Success The target takes double damage and is knocked back 10 feet.
Success The target takes full damage and is knocked back 5 feet.
Michael Sayre
Design Manager
Varmints in the Vaults
Wedensday, February 1, 2023
