"Well then... will you fight the undead or the astral invaders? Choose quickly!" The man draws his blades and looks ahead.
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Another portal opens in front of you, and a stream of Pathfinders arrive. As they clear the path for the lizardfolk, a masked man approaches you. "Good job, Pathfinders at Slave Mountain." He shows his wayfinder. "We can take it over from here. A few updates on the other regions:" "Krella, leader of the ratfolk sends her regards. We helped her clear passage to the village and renewed relations with them." "The Temple of Empyrean Enlightenment was corrupted by a demon, and the Pathfinders helped repel the demon. Its influence tried to corrupt the new leader, but we returned and purified him." "Aspis had influenced several groups at the fringe of the tapestry, but they were willing to parley with us. We showed them evidence of Aspis's treachery, and they decided to join us." "Taikaga family guarded a wellspring of eternal water from undead, and they requested our assistance. We supplied it." By the time he finishes explaining, the lizardfolk cry out excitedly. "Water! The warmblooded found water!" They bow down in thanks. "We are ever grateful!"
The Red Raven is caught off guard when Hanlin finds some of Tseka's documents. "Ah, yes. You will find this documentation quite useful, yes?"
"Ah yes..." "Xuan Fung, the chest contains a total of seven pieces of contraband—a dose of blue whinnis poison, a pistol from Alkenstar, "You may be interested in this whinnis poison." The Red Raven produces it from his contraband. I hate to lose it, but we must secure our escape. "I'm certain you will all enjoy the day off Tseka gave you." He smiles.
"Tseka wouldn't dare harm someone of my status." He flashes the false golden Aspis badge. "But she did request some privacy. She even told one of her subordinates to keep quiet." He shoots the nervous woman a quick glare to keep her quiet.
"Tseka asked not to be bothered until tomorrow. Isn't that right, friends?"
"Ah, thank you." The Red Raven takes the contract. "I will tell the Society of your willingness to join us." "Since I didn't see an escape hatch I could use... I agree, Hanlin. We will show them our gold badges, tell them to give Tseka her privacy. Do not bother her for another day. "
"We plan to return to the surface." The Red Raven realigns the sack. "Tseka was full of lies, anyway. Her badges were fake, and I doubt she could align you with her Consortium. You would find the Pathfinder Society to be a much better group, and we could use more intelligence on the Darklands."
"What say you? Perhaps our agents could meet your agents in a more... neutral location?"
"We can also use this false badge as an excuse to escape. No other Aspis member would interfere with us if they learned we had gold badges." The Red Raven chuckles. "Let us speak to the mushroom man and convince him she had no real power. Then we can trick the guards with the gold badge."
"As you wish. She was a silver member of Aspis, aspiring to become a gold member. And she made at least one false emblem. Her relationship was clearly frayed. Remember this."
He reads the missive. "Oh. Is she referring to the attack on the Grand Lodge? This may be a name of one of the organizers." He grins. "Marmarius... I will remember that name. May I have the chance to capture you personally."
"Yes, these plans as well. Sorry, someone was trying to make things complicated." He shoots a look to the captive.
"I know not the value of this. Gather Tseka's notes and intelligence."
I have played Serpents Rise, and I have the chronicle. Thanks for asking again, I forgot I played it as Experiment 322.
The Red Raven finishes stuffing Tseka in a bag when he notices someone. He moves up to the ratfolk. "Trying to escape? Going somewhere? Without telling me?"
"That isn't very nice of you."
The Red Raven grabs his burlap sack and drops Tseka into it. "Let's get out of here." He grunts and lifts Tseka over his back.
"I hit her once with my sap. Is she still alive?" The Red Raven peers at her and waits for Hanlin's response. "Good. If you can turn her invisible, that's all we need. Let's stop the bleeding and put her in a sack, quickly." "If anyone asks, our business was concluded and she asked for some privacy. See didn't want to be disturbed until the next day."
The Red Raven calms down. "This was a good time to tell the truth." He pants. "You may live. I suggest you leave, and never cross the Pathfinder Society again." He looks to Makino Tokaji's body and finds some proof to bring back. A wayfinder, his signature, something.
"...you are wiser than you master." The Red Raven pants. The adrenaline rush wears off and now the wounds ache. "She is our prey, and will face justice." "We need a way to get her out of here without alerting the other guards." He glares at the woman. "What's the safest way out of here. ANSWER ME!"
"You are fast. Coordinated." The Red Raven compliments his adversary. "But you hog too much experience for yourself." He delays until someone is flanking with him, then he begins a full attack on Tseka's Red Ratfolk swarming partner.
"Your ally is weak!"
"Hmm, she's very aware of her position." She quickly twists away reducing his vital blow to a basic bruise. No matter, now she can't run. And his weapons are ready.
As much as he'd love to tear her apart, The Red Raven has his orders. The Society may want her alive. He uses his hasted speed to leap over the human traitor, climb up the stairs and flank with Nina on the other side. He draws his sap along the way and makes a single swing at Tseka.
"Oh, sweet Despair, my pet!" Tseka shrieks. "You will pay for that foul deed, priest!" "Oh please, you were going to fight us anyway. We killed your pet and ruined your toy." He glances at the foolish traitor. "Give up now and I will spare you my wrath."
Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up.
With all of the noise and the screaming, it was clear a quiet extraction wouldn't work at this point. The Red Raven moved 60 feet into the room, up to Tokaji.
"Foolish!" The Red Raven appears. "Tseka would sacrifice you at her earliest convenience. Your betrayal cost many Pathfinders their lives."
The Red Raven drinks his potion of invisibility and moves up. Hmpf, everyone else ran ahead.
"I assume we were heard. Let us capture Tseka quickly, we need to bring her intact." The Red Raven barely flinches. "Either she is preparing to flee or arming herself. Hopefully the latter, so we don't have to run through another dozen checkpoints."
The Red Raven sees the bomb coming, but he's too slow to avoid the explosive.
But after the explosive blast he avoids any further effects. He tries to use his acrobatics to move through the mad bomber.
As he swings around the wayang, his short sword swings at a weakpoint.
Unable to get close enough to flank, the Red Raven moves around. "I'll leave the miscreant to you." He swings to kill the Kirrix.
"The Red Raven strikes!" The Red Raven hustles forth and tries to leap across the pit.
Kirrix is unaware: The Red Raven startles the creature and attacks it flat-footed.
So, are we ready to attack this alchemist?
He awaits, ready to strike.
The Red Raven pulls out his sap and gets as quiet as possible.
"We did hear something about an alchemist ally." The Red Raven muses. "I can use my sap to knock him or her unconscious, but those animals may make noise." He shrugs. "We're not good liars. We'll have to drop pretenses at some point."
Fung leads. He can see in the dark easily, and the Red Raven is having trouble keeping up. He stands still when he hears the noises. letting Fung lead.
The Red Raven skulks behind Fung.
"Flying? Usually a tactical advantage, but now you are vulnerable from the ground and air." The Red Raven muses.
"Tokaji is a fool." The Red Raven concludes. "We'll get them both, but Tokaji will realize his folly when Tseka tries to sacrifice him." He holds onto the journal for now. "Hallway to the north? Yes, let's secure this area so we know how to escape..." He looks towards the northern hallway.
The Red Raven keeps his eyes peeled for traps.
If he doesn't notice anything, it's time to read a book. A journal, in this case. Whose journal is this? What has happened recently to Aspis here? And what is Tseka up to?
The Red Raven isn't surprised by the Pathfinder training dummies. He's imagined plenty of Aspis agents during his training sessions.
You recognize that the gown appears to be the ceremonial attire of members of Goka’s parliament. A macabre trophy, probably taken by an assassin who once occupied this building. "This is the ceremonial attire of Goka's parliament." He points at the gown. "Probably a hunting trophy, taken by an assassin." He muses. "Best to leave it alone for now, but maybe we'll reclaim the evidence later." "I agree Hanlin. Let's see that hallway."
"Alright, let's make sure this room is alright." The Red Raven agrees with Fung as the check the northwestern door. "We need to secure an exit route, anyway. We don't want to fight our way out of here once Tseka is captured."
If the room is empty, the Red Raven decides to take a look around the room. "There might be a clue to Tseka's whereabouts. And more detail on Aspis activity. Watch my back."
Assuming he finds nothing interesting, he moves to the western door.
"Western door it is..."
"Should we go north next? I don't know what's with this door-" he points to the southeast door "But the answer may be on the other side..."
"Terrible visions..." The Red Raven mumbles as he loses his composure for but a moment. "But we must carry on."
The Red Raven enters, notices the rune and the bowl. Hanlin's words fade into the back of his mind as something gets his attention.
Something's intruding. Luckily this Tian-Xia monk taught me a thing or two. Focus Aric, focus!
It sounds like I'm holding onto the contraband, since I gave some pieces away already.
"I think we should go through the Southeast exit next."
Devouring. Darklands. We are in quite deep, now. But it doesn't seem too attached to her. Once the Pathfinders reclaim control we can clean up this place. The Red Raven emerges and then nods, not wanting to upset things too much. "Shall we travel more to the east? You've had a wonderful conversation but we should continue our trip. Time is money."
Huh. You don't see that every day. The Red Raven simply stands aside and lets the fungoid pass.
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