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The invitation delivered last night was remarkably simple, especially given the importance of the occasion: "Start where it all began. Meet us at the Pig's Paunch one hour before dawn."
Unsure whether breakfast will be served or how much time you will have after the briefing, everyone decides to meet a little early at an all night kitchen. Despite the hour--too late for last night's drunks, but too early for this morning's workers--the kitchen is still relatively busy.
Seeing your large group get in line, a halfling tries to cut in front of you.
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A gnomish man with scraggly blond hair and thick eyebrows joins the party. His unwashed face and dirty appearance seems to be intentional as you don't smell much foul smell coming from the gnome other than the earthy smell of soil and dirt. He wears leather armor and has a club by his side. He has various scrolls and carrying a spell component pouch.
He turns around and pets the boar beside him, talking to her. "Man, this is so much city for me. I totally love to be, like, you know, out in the wilderness and stuff. I bet you would too, huh Drootina?"
When the halfling cuts in. "Hey, what's the big idea? We stood in line like everyone else! You can't do that!" City folk are so rude!
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A short woman with wild green hair glances around the room in wonder. 'Are all the missions going to be this exciting? When the guild asked me on, they did say it would be different than the woods...
Fidgeting with a long stck, pointed on one end and a rock lashed to the opposing side. She eyes the gathering crowd. 'I suppose waiting in a line is the trade off to hunting down your meal. Is that a boar? I've eaten a few of those, but never eaten with one.'
"Hey!" she hollers out. "You must wait your turn! If you don't feel like standing in line, perhaps you should find food elsewhere."
Stepping forward, her hands instinctively move to hold the weapon properly.
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The door to the Pig's Paunch bursts open, and a huge silhouette takes up the doorway. In the glare of the outside daylight, a statuesque woman stands, posing lackadaisically with both hands on the corners of the doors. She languorously strides into the room, her red robe playing with her abundant, shapely form, and her cloak, left side black, right side white, billowing behind her, collar high and framing her face in a crown of daggerlike spikes.
She smiles beneficently with protruding tusks. She absentmindedly fetches a suddenly unattended breadstick from a nearby table. Holding it like a long cigarette, she approaches the assembled squabbling little people, and proposes, "Oh, cutting in line? Sounds like fun."
She steps in front of the offending halfling. "Would anyone like to cut in front of me?" With her back to the gnomes and halflings, her huge axe on her back is apparent.
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"Oyyyy" A dwarf says at the back of the line. A scraggly beard hangs from his face, his thick, blocky fingers massaging his temples. "Jus' need some breakfast to soak up whatever that cheat bartender gave me last night."
He takes a hand away from his head and reaches into his pack and pulls out a bar of soap. He cracks off the corner with his teeth and begins to chew, rolling the ball of soap around his tongue. To all the commotion with the halfling, he pulls out a deck of cards and fans them out.
"I'll play ya for yer spot in line, halfling. Got quick hands, neh? So who's in for first in line?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Kranzer and the halfling manage to win a few gold at the expense of Tishka and Huratas, but business cuts short the game. After a short walk, you find The Pig’s Paunch, a run-down building with a faded sign of a large pig standing on its hind legs, arms folded above a corpulent belly. Inside, the air is thick with the scents of human sweat, stale tobacco, and leftover food. In the center of the room, surrounded by inebriates sleeping off their revelries, a familiar elven man stands high upon top of a large round table.
“Welcome! Welcome, my students! Please, have a seat!” With that, Kreighton Shaine, the Pathfinder Society’s Master of Scrolls, nimbly drops down to sit cross-legged on the table before looking about the tavern with a sense of reverent wonder. “Can you believe it? It all started here years ago—well, over four hundred of them at least. Under this very roof the Pathfinder Society was born.
“But today! Today you will begin your Confirmation! Master Farabellus, Master Zey, and I all agree you each have shown your worth and dedication to the Society, so there’s no better time to see if you can handle becoming full field operatives. Allow me to introduce you to Janira Gavix,” he says as he motions for an excitable halfling woman to approach. She wears a large backpack and carries all manner of tools, pouches, and scroll cases around her waist. Shaine continues, saying, “Janira here will be going with you on your Confirmation. She was one of my brightest pupils and will no doubt be an invaluable resource on your journey, for she discovered the caves you are about to explore during her own Confirmation.”
Janira speaks up in an enthusiastic and cheerful voice, “Greetings, aspiring Pathfinders! Six months ago, while I was mapping cave entrances in the foothills of the Kortos Mounts, I witnessed a lone gillman entering a concealed cave. I thought little of it at the time, but I saw another one enter the cave again a month later as my Confirmation stretched on. A few days later, after I completed my assigned task, I entered the cave system, but was unable to find the gillmen.”
Master Shaine hops to his feet. “Initiates, for your Confirmation, you will travel to these caves to explore and document its many passages. Additionally, and most importantly, you are to learn what the gillmen are up to in there. Oh, and you need to come back alive as well.” With these parting words, the Master of Scrolls jumps off the table and strolls out of the building while humming to himself.
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"Ha, HA!" Kranzer says. "They finally gonna give old Kranzer 'is due, eh? Don't you worry folks there ain't no trap these knobby joints can't take care of. But don't you worry 'bout what's on my breath, either, eh? I work better with a couple'a drinks sloshing around in me."
He slaps his knee hard, laughing with his whole body.
"Well 'least I know where we're goin'. Don't know nothin' bout a gilly-man. Some kinda fish monster, eh?"
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Janira listens patiently to each would-be-Pathfinder in turn before answering. "Loni, gillmen are a humanoid race much like humans save for the three piscine gills on both sides of their necks. They're a little secretive but not outright hostile. Most live in or near the water."
Janira chuckles a little at her fellow halfling's naivete, "No, Huratas, quite the opposite. The Kortos mounts are small mountains.
"You will need to do your own research of the area and its history, Tishka--as all Pathfinders must.
"Oh dear, Eveleth! Why would anybody ever say that to someone? That's horrible!"
As the questions start to wind down, Janira pulls out a large leather-bound journal and opens it on the table. “Before we set out, we should all get to know each other and review our plan. After all, the most important factors that determine whether an expedition will be a success are cooperation and preparation! I’ll go first!”
"I'm from Eastgate and have six younger brothers and sisters. Our father is a porter who delivers purchases to stores' customers, but I always wanted to be an adventurer! My family all worship Desna, but we respect other religions too. Everybody needs a god or goddess to watch over them!
"At first, I wanted to travel and see the world, but then Master Shaine got hold of my imagination, and now I help him discover and preserve knowledge. One day, I’ll have a discovery published in the Chronicles!
“Now, tell me all about all of yourselves!”
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Loni speaks up. "My name is Loni. I like nature and animals and stuff. I can cast OK and I like summoning nature in to help us when I can. I also totally like helping other people, you know, and I will use a cure wand on you if you'd like. Yeah, I like being helpful and stuff. Yeah, I cooperate, like totally!"
He pets the boar standing next to him. "And this is my boar Drootina. She's totally radical."
Loni reaches to his belt pouch. "Oh yeah, if someone could use this wand on Drootina when needed, that would be totally sweet. It holds Mage Armor, and I wouldn't be opposed to someone else using it if you need to. I can use it too but not reliably."
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"Aha! I can master the arcane mysteries of armor! Give it here. I promise I won't break it."
Eveleth grins at Drootina, tusk to tusk.
"As for myself, Janira, I was forged in the fires of Gorag... er, formed in the flames of Torum... um, forced to flee the gulag... Something like that."
She holds out her left fist, encased in a black iron spiked gauntlet. "I wield the might of the Stark Fist of Removal," then showing off her right fist, clad in a silvery-white gauntlet, "and the caress of the Smooth Fist of... Removal."
"My specialty is in magic in close combat, and I wield an axe when that fails."
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"Kranzer's the name. Bit of a jack of all trades. Grew up in Trunau but I've played cards all over, from Whitethrone to Almas to the Impossible Kingdom, but there's somethin' about Kaer Maga that I always come back to. Nothin' like the smell of trolls' entrails and gargoyle farts in the sky to start yer day. Like to scrape up enough money to start my own tavern there one day. One like this, maybe. One day..."
He trails off, lost in thought for a moment, but then snaps back to the present, shaking his head and matted beard. He points to each of the assembled party so far. "Good ta meet ya Janira, Loni, Drootina, Eveleth, annnnd Huratas! Look'a that, what a memory this dwarf's got, eh?"
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Gleefully listening to the tails of the others, Tishka dives in. "Well, this is the most I've been around civi's as far as I can recall. Used to have a small family, but bigger people took them away. Some small orcs raised me in the wild."
Pausing as she glances towards Eveleth, she continues. "They taught me not to take crap from anyone! And a bit about surviving. The hair dye's were my own invention." Beeming, she points to her green hair. "Yeah, not my real color. Anyway, some guy approached me when I was selling my stuff in town and offered me a job. Seemed like fun. So here I am."
Suddenly realizing she'd stood up during her oratory, the gnome blushes and quickly sits back down. "Oh, and I don't know much about magics. Sometimes I accidentally make light, but mostly I just use this stick of mine."
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"That's the spirit, Loni! You'll make a fantastic Pathfinder." Janira throws a quick scratch at the boar's ears, "And you to, Drootina!
"Well, now that we've all met, let's go over the mission at hand.
"After reviewing my mission reports personally, Master Shaine believes it is no coincidence that each time they entered the caves it was during a full moon, so it is also no coincidence that you have been called here now, just a day before the moon is full again. We both believe that tomorrow night is our best chance to find out why these caves are important and what exactly the gillmen are doing in there.
“The caves we’ll be travelling to lie under the base of the Kortos Mounts. We’ll need to spend every minute of daylight possible to reach the caves by foot, crossing over the Cairnlands, taking the paths to Diobel, and finally making our way through the wilderness. With any luck we won’t run into any of the local inhabitants. Once in the caves, we’ll need to work together to explore and determine whether any gillman are present or have been recently. Keep an eye out for any other clues that might hint at the caves’ significance, too.”
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"Me first!" shouts Kranzer. He pours out his pack on the table without a second's hesitation and a riot of implements and combat gear emerges. A wand, a grappling hook, rope, alchemist's fire, holy water, a tanglefoot bag, and a set of thieves' tools to round it all out. All are clearly marked in the most awful handwriting anyone's ever seen, and signed Kranzer's Property in scratchy, half-script.
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Watching as the dwarves possessions are laid bare, she looks to the others. "Are all halflings this bossy?"
After the man's items have been returned to their place, she lay's her hooked hammer down before overturning her pack. "Now, I don't have quite the fancy stuff he does, but please point out any oversights....this is my first time. Well, with a group that is."
Joining her perfered weapon are a dagger, sling with bullets, a waterskin, bullseye lantern complete with extra flasks of oil, a few tindertwigs, a long coil of silk and a few rations.
"How's that? Am I missing anything major ma'am?"
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Combat Gear scroll of comprehend languages (not on druid list), scroll of faerie fire, scroll of magic fang, scroll of obscuring mist, wand of cure light wounds, wand of mage armor (given to Eveleth) Other Gear backpack, masterwork buckler, cold weather outfit, club, masterwork leather armor, spell component pouch, waterskin
Loni dumps out his gear. "Here it is! And this is a Scroll of Faerie Fire, and this is a Scroll of Magic Fang, and this..."
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Janira wraps Tishka in a sisterly hug, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to be bossy, I just thought it would be fun. Can you ever forgive me?
"Wow! Everybody is so prepared. This will be a great confirmation!"
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If you roll 21 or higher, you may ask for more information.
Round 1
Effects none
- Huratas -
- Loni -
- Eveleth -
- Tishka -
- Kranzer -
- Red -
- Green -
- Janira -
As the party progresses deeper into the forest, the trees towering overhead begin to shield most of what remains of the day’s sun and the vegetation beneath grows denser. Janira pauses a moment and pulls out an intricate silver compass emblazoned with the Pathfinder Society logo: the Glyph of the Open Road. “I received this wayfinder when I successfully completed my Confirmation. Should we be successful on our journey, you will get your own as well.”
She flips open the device and holds it in front of her; the initials J. L. are engraved into the inside of the device’s lid. After studying the compass inside for a moment, she remarks, “We’re on the right path. We need to keep heading northwest past those large rocks up ahead.”
But before you can start moving again, a large tree falls to the forest floor, startling all sorts of creatures. In their fear, some start to attack your party.
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"Oh! Puppies!" exclaims the gnome as she hops forward, yanking her weapon free. "Back off!"
With the last word, she twirls her stick, trying to catch the animal before her with the blunt end aimed for the animals head. She tries to jab in immediately afterwards with the sharpened side.
Giggling with glee, she smiles back to her companions. "Now this is fun, don'tcha think?"
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Round 1
Effects none
- Huratas -
- Loni -
- Eveleth -
- Tishka -
- Kranzer -
- Red -
- Green -
- Janira -
Huratas calls forth the chaos of his god to momentarily curse and confuse the rust-furred wolf. Eveleth splashes the other canine with some acid, burning away some of its fur, then Tishka bashes it with her hammer hard enough to audibly crack several bones. Kranzer quickly moves up behind the beast, so that he and Tishka can flank it.
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Round 2
Effects inspire courage +1
- Huratas -
- Loni -
- Eveleth -
- Tishka -
- Kranzer -
- Green -
- Janira -
Loni draws a wand and urges Drootina into the fight with a vengeance, as she drives both tusks clear through the wolf's exposed throat, then with a shake of her head, throws the limp body against a log.
The remaining wolf weakly tries to bite Tishka, but can barely open lift its own head from loss of blood, and Janira starts cheering you on, “Let us remember the sacrifice of the fabled Yasmin bint Faroud, favored of the Ten, who gave her life distracting Zythrustianax, draconic scourge of the Society, so dozens of junior agents could survive. Her act of benevolence is the epitome of cooperation within the Society.”
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Kranzer presses the attack if the dog lives.
If Tishka killed it he hollers in victory. "What a show! Good job!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Tishka quickly takes down the last wolf, and Janira just as quickly sings everyone's praise, ”Congratulations! You all worked together well. See how much stronger you are as a team when everybody cooperates?”
Several hours pass uneventfully, but then you start running into problems: first a recent landslide that blocks the trail, then a shortcut overgrown since a month ago. ”I’m afraid we’ll need to find a different path. If we don’t get there by dusk, we may have to wait a whole month for another chance! Is anybody well trained at tracking or navigating the wilderness?”