Kihel is unaware of any such practice related to Korada's worship.
Based on a quick survey of the texts present in the library, completing Aram Zey's task will take about 40 person-hours, or the better part of a day if everyone works on it.
Kihel looks over the office and in a forgotten corner finds a catalog of the texts that were present at the time the catalog was last updated, predating the acquisition of the temple by Hao Jin. With that document in hand, Aram Zey's task will take much less time--only around ten person-hours to verify the catalog's accuracy and mark the texts that are missing.
Do you want to complete Aram Zey's task now, or continue to explore the temple? No one has shown any inclination to kick you out of the place as evening approaches.
It's a DC 10 Climb check to ascend the ladder, and the three who aren't being sneaky can take 10 on the check.
Nala, Kyra, and Tusk reach the deck and see three gnoll sailors, a surly-looking half-orc, and a human on the quarterdeck. The human calls out, "About time you got here. Busy day at the harbor?"
You can try to distract him and the others with Bluff, Diplomacy, or something else creative.
This time it's at least some of the enemy that's incapacitated, though.
There are no troglodytes behind the barricade as far as Lybram can see (note that visibility in the cloud is ~5 feet). He thinks he hears retching sounds coming from a couple of different directions, along with shouts in a language he doesn't understand.
Round 4:
Lybram doesn't hear any changes in where the sounds are coming from.
Do you want to do anything besides monitor the trogs?
The celebration goes until quite late, as just about everyone in Sandpoint seems to want to stop by and at least say hello. Despite it being past midnight when things finally wind down, everyone in the party wakes up early, convinced that they've forgotten something important. Nothing comes to mind as you make your daily preparations, and you're just sitting down to breakfast when the sharp crack of stone on stone rings through the air. It sounds remarkably like a flying boulder hitting the city wall near the north gate, and the silence that follows is broken by screams of terror from the same direction.
There's a link to a map of Sandpoint in the header, showing the location of the Rusty Dragon and where the sound originated. What do you do?
The door opens onto a large room thickly carpeted with sawdust. Two large log splitters and two saws are set up over openings in the floor; another pair of openings is fitted with winches and ropes to raise uncut lumber from below.
Alton, I messed up the fight sequence. Lybram is running delay poison and went into the stinking cloud before it expired. I mistakenly assumed that the whole party was going to wait to enter the room until the spell was done, so now I'm running Lybram in the cloud. If Alton follows Lybram now, he'll have to make Fort saves to avoid becoming nauseated.
I think I have folks largely set up. Please finalize your positions and let me know when you're ready. The ettin and bear will be entering from the top of the map.
Lybram can act. As noted above, once you reach the barricade it's a DC 15 Acrobatics check and a move action to cross it, or a second move action if you fail the Acrobatics check. If I count correctly, you can make it to the corner of the barricade this round (as shown on the map).
The young woman starts when Kihel speaks, looking up from her book. "Me? Oh, no. There is no librarian here, and hasn't been one as long as I've been at the monastery. I'm just reading."
In answer to The Balrog, she looks a bit abashed. "There is a holy pilgrim who lives with us, the gnome Gastidem. I've heard he came here twelve years ago. He offers a rite sacred to Korada--it provides inspired visions to the pure of mind, but those with impure thoughts lose some or all of a finger as a penalty for seeking enlightenment while still unclean. It is painless, but--" She looks downcast, hunching down her shoulders. "--it's hard to fail."
The inspector has apparently seen this sort of thing before, because she offers one last piece of advice. "Look, I'm not implying anything here, but it's not unusual to have a boatload of people with the pilot. If there are two ships in harbor waiting for pilots and they're fairly close to each other, we'll put two pilots in one boat. Sometimes, if a ship hasn't docked here before, we'll send a couple of guards with the pilot. But having four people coming up over the side is going to raise an alarm. If that's important to you."
It's shortly after sunset. Absalom’s harbor is an inky, shifting landscape of shadows, illuminated only by the last light of the day, the city’s lights, the waxing moon, and the distant blaze of the Absalom Lighthouse on Pilot’s Island. Eventually, a three-masted ship with white sails comes into view. It’s just over one hundred feet in length, and its bowsprit is a weatherworn representation of a canine-headed mermaid. The crew is busy as they await an escort through the Ship’s Graveyard. A rope ladder hangs from the rail of its starboard to a foot above the waterline.
As you come alongside, everyone can see the ship's name painted there. The "K" and "son" look slightly different from the other letters, and seem to have been painted more recently. Nala, Seebonickk, and Xuan Wu see folded yellow sails on the upper deck.
As you approach the Rusty Dragon, Ameiko comes to the door to see what all the commotion is about. She shouts a greeting when she sees you and motions you to come inside. "You're back! Tell me about what happened. I got a letter from Shalelu that you rescued her father, but she didn't give me any details. Bethana! Clear some space for the Heroes of Sandpoint!"
Zhuang escorts you to the library, just a little ways away from the meditation room. It's a spacious room that's crammed with narrow bookshelves and large tables. Many shelves are empty and the remaining scrolls and tomes seem tattered and sagging. A small open door looks into a tidy office. The room is clean and bright despite a general atmosphere of abandonment. Several windows look into a garden to the west.
There is a young human woman that you recognize from the refectory, reading a book with obvious rapt attention. She's missing the first and second joints of two fingers on her left hand.
Making your way to the Docks, you easily find the Harbormaster's Grange--probably the best way to find the answers to your questions. The Inspection and Pilots’ Office of the Harbormaster’s Grange is cramped and perfumed by a particularly smelly bowl of salted fish stew that’s cooling on one of its several desks. Ledgers and loose papers occupy most of the horizontal surfaces in the office, and a bookshelf on the southern wall sags under the weight of heavy files.
At present only one inspector is on duty. The sleepy-looking halfling woman sits up, covers a yawn, and says, “Welcome to the Harbormaster’s Grange. I’m Inspector Second Class Lilia Ginsi. How may I be of service?”
When you present her with Lady Darchana's request, she starts. "Oh! Of course--let me find that for you." It's the work of only a few minutes to confirm the pending docking request for Kat Season in her ledger, locate and sign out a rowboat, and locate the pilot roster. She excuses herself for another couple of minutes to notify a pilot (time that would be important if you had members of a particular faction in the party, or we were still using the faction Prestige awards). She comes back into the office, a little out of breath. "Zigil is waiting for you at Docking Slip 49. Just...she's going to expect you to do the rowing. Any questions?"
Skarn, it looks like you joined the party while they were investigating the Skinsaw murders, so before exploring Foxglove Manor. If so, you should know at least a little about Sandpoint.
If no one else is going to attempt the meditation technique, we can move on to the next location on the list. Just remember that you haven't completed the first task.
The ongoing interaction with Lady Darchana is something that clearly works better and runs more quickly in f2f, so in the interests of keeping things moving I'm going to skip it.
“An Okeno pirate captain? Captain Wardak of the At Sea.” she nods her head, a brief smile flickering across her face. “Yes, that would stand to reason.” She flips open a ledger sitting on her desk that bears the seal of the harbormaster and begins scanning the pages, “When I became aware of the eavesdropping handmaiden, using my own magic I was able to follow the arcane trail back to its origin. I only got a brief glimpse of the heavily veiled perpetrator, but based on the distance and direction, I knew the culprit was on Stonespire Island near Katapesh—somewhere underground on the island at any rate, with a powerfully enchanted mirror. The Okeno pirates’ base of operations is a city on that island, and the Katapesh Fleshfairs may be the largest slave markets on all of Golarion. It is a cunning place through which to move these sensored slaves.” Her hand finally comes to rest in the ledger. “At Sea, here we are. It has been to Absalom two other times in the last three months. According to this, however, it has been marked with a bounty. ‘Failure to fully declare cargo value for taxation.’” She clicks her tongue loudly. “Excellent. You said Mahjub Mahdi was expecting another shipment from the At Sea tomorrow? If it hasn’t already docked, it’ll be anchored outside the Ship’s Graveyard, waiting for a pilot. We cannot allow those slaves to reach the Docks unaccompanied! I trust I count on you to help?”
As any of you who’ve sailed into Absalom Harbor know, by law all foreign vessels (presumably including the At Sea) must have a Pilot’s Guild member navigate them through the hazardous Ship’s Graveyard. Lady Darchana excuses herself briefly, calling on Jemima to bring the party some light refreshments. She returns fifteen minutes or so later, smiling. ”I have spoken with a contact at the Harbormaster’s Grange. There is an outstanding docking request for a ship called Kat Season, which I suspect is our ship with a flimsy disguise.” She writes out a letter, seals it with wax bearing her mark, and hands it to the party. “Carry this note to the Harbormaster’s Grange at the Docks—it authorizes the inspector to provide you with a rowboat and a pilot. So long as you can confirm the ship’s identity, you are legally free to claim the bounty yourselves.”
The return trip is uneventful. It's an odd feeling, coming back to a place that doesn't seem to have changed at all in the weeks you've been away, while you've changed so much and grown so much more capable. From the first chance encounter, though, it's clear you haven't been forgotten.
Where are you going first? Wherever you go, you'll be leading an impromptu parade.
While Xuan is speaking, Lady Darchana maintains a level of focus on him that under other circumstances might be considered disquieting. When the oread finishes, she nods once and turns her attention to Seebonickk. "Did you have anything to add?"
Damn, I just looked at the scale on the city map. Absalom is *tiny*. Like, from Azlanti Keep at the north end to the waterfront is less than half a mile. That's four standard city blocks. The area enclosed by the city walls could fit inside of the Schönbrunn Palace grounds in Vienna (a square roughly 1 km/0.6 mile on a side). But I digress!
A short walk later, the party arrives at Lady Darchana's home. A tall wall of polished stone surrounds the property and its gardens, and Nightkit realizes that many of the plants have arcane or alchemical uses in addition to their esthetic value. A doorman greets the party, and after confirming their identities escorts them in and hands them off to the estate manager, a woman who introduces herself as Jemima. "The mistress has been expecting you. This way, if you would." She leads you to an upstairs study.
The walls of the study are inset with bookshelves that are brimming with texts of all varieties. A large drawing table in the middle of the room bears an unrolled map of the Inner Sea region. At the far end of the study stands an impressive darkwood desk, and seated behind it is a woman dressed in midnight-blue robes. Her piercing gray eyes look xpectantly at Jemina.
The estate manager softly clears her throat and announces, “Senior Lesser Councilwoman, Archdean of the Arcanamirium, Second Spell Lord of Absalom, Lady Darchana of House Madinani, please receive these agents of the Master of Spells Aram Zey of the Pathfinder Society.”
Lady Darchana beckons with a short hand movement, “Pathfinders, join me. That is all, Jemina.” She folds her hands together and waits for Jemina to close the door behind her, then continues. “After my conversation with Master Zey, he agreed by necessity to keep the details that were passed on to you to a minimum. I am keenly interested to hear what you were able to learn based on what you were provided.” She looks at you expectantly.
