A short adventure which takes place in the lair of an ancient Thassilonian wizard on a small island near the city of Magnimar.
Drawn in part by the many changes taking place among the city-states of Varasia in the Saga Lands, you have been participating in some Pathfinder training at Heidmarch Manor. Sir Canayven and Shiela Heidmarch have been excellent hosts and you have managed to hone several of your pre-existing skills while learning about the methods and means of the Pathfinder Society. However it is now early evening on Fireday and with the Angel Day celebration honoring the founding of Magnimar taking place tomorrow, you will have two days off before returning to training on Moonday. You decide to head off to the Bazaar of Sails in the Dockway district to purchase a few needed supplies and some local foodstuffs.
A destination for traders the world over, the Bazaar of Sails is the largest free market in Varisia. Anyone with merchandise to sell is welcome to set up a tent, booth, or wagon among the hundreds of other ever-changing shops that fill the dockside plaza. Crops from local farmers, Varisian artifacts, Osirian spices, Chelish finery, Andoran quartos, and more exotic goods from a hundred foreign ports fill the market, with each day’s offerings varying with the season, trade winds, and tides. As merchants eagerly trade, competitions, rivalries, and all manner of criminal temptations arise. Along with the various stalls and booths there are a number of notice and job boards hoping to attract the attention of patrons.
At one of these notice boards, a slight bespectacled man is hanging a poster with weary determination. His clothes, while clean and well-kept, seem to be from another era. His posting reads as follows:
As poor students without a lot of time to work at day jobs, are you interested in making a few quick coins?
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Mirzos sighs as he counts the coins in his wallet, then slowly puts a wooden figurine of a serpentine draconic figure back on the merchant's table. Head hung low, he walks away and almost runs into a flower merchant standing between him and the closest bench. He slumps down and puts his head in his gloved hands, gazing across the plaza despondently.
The tapping sound of something being nailed to a notice board catches his attention. Slowly the wheels start to turn in his head. Once the connection between someone looking for help and money is made he quickly perks up and heads towards the sound to investigate.
Xandian, and any others who wish to come along, follows the stranger through several intersections along the docks before he turns into The Old Fang. The best known of Dockway's taverns, the Fang also offers cheap rooms to rent. It is well known locally for the enormous swamp barracuda head that hangs above the bar. Rumor holds that the head belonged to a beast that killed Ol' Mam Grottle's husband in the Mushfens several years back. However, any that have had to deal with the burly no-nonsense matron of the Fang well understand that she is not one to be trifled with.
The stranger sits down at a table and orders something to drink and eat, before pulling a number of papers from a backpack and spreading them out.
Do you wish to go introduce yourselves to him and inquire about the job?
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Mirzos checks that his colleagues are with him, then trots up to the stranger. "Hi! You're the fellow with that help wanted poster, yeah? What kind of help you want? I'm sure we can help - we're Pathfinders!" He stands proudly, knowing the other man will know what kind of help he can expect from members of such a proud and storied association as the Pathfinder Society.
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Xandian takes a look at the barracuda head decoration as he walks through the doorway of the tavern. "Most interesting."
He stands nearby behind Mirzos providing silent backup while Mirzos introduces them all - though Xandian knows that he would look a lot more intimidating if he was more than two and a half feet tall and made of something more substantial looking than leaves.
Speaking in heavily accented Common, the stranger introduces himself as Zarzan. Many years ago before Earthfall, he was an apprentice to the great wizard Meave the Enchantress in the Thassilonian realm of Bakrakhan. He was on an errand to retrieve rare supplies in the capitol, Xin-Edasseril, when Earthfall changed everything and stranded him outside of time.
When he recently found himself in this new time and place, he traveled south to see if his teacher’s home and study were still standing. He found Meave’s home on a nearby island, called Gull Island by locals, but putrid oozes now infest the place. Unable to eliminate the creatures himself, he hired a local mage to conjure an ooze mephit for him. He then sent the mephit to handle the oozes, but the slimy servant is overdue.
I have a simple task which should take no longer than a single day for brave adventurers such as you. Should you go to Gull Island and clean out any remaining oozes, along with the ooze mephit, I am prepared to offer each of you four gold pieces, to be paid at the conclusion of their mission.
I have arranged for a fisherman with a small boat to take you to Gull Island early in the morning and remain offshore for your return later in the evening. Can I count on your assistance?
I appreciate you willingness to help! I will have a small rowboat waiting at the nearby docks tomorrow morning. A fisherman familiar with the waters around Gull Island owes me for an elixir to help his ailing mother, and in exchange for ferrying you and waiting for you to complete their task, I have agreed That the man’s debt will be marked paid.
Early the next morning you easily locate Zarzan and board the rowboat. The trip takes about one hour. Gull Island is one of many similar islands in the waters near Magnimar, some of which boast dilapidated ruins.
A building of wood and plaster stands at the peak of the hill-shaped island. Despite its supposed age, it looks to have withstood the passage of time. There is no sign of the oozes as you clamber atop the weather-beaten rocks of the island and approach the building.
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Nhorri looks up at the gulls soaring overhead, eyes alight. Suddenly she dives to the side, just in time to avoid a sizable splatter from the gull she was watching. "Whew! Good thing I was paying attention that time!" She doesn't even notice that she's standing in a similar splat right now. "Hm. That would've been extra bad if my eyes and mouth were open. Yeesh."
She's not ready to go into that dank, dark old house. "Wanna check around outside first? See if there's a big hole in the wall or anything?"
As you discuss who should open the door and get into a possible order, you subconsious continues to nag at you about something that seems a little off...
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"Hold on, something's not quite adding up..." Mirzos looks at the sky, then back at the building, then back at the sky, then back at the ground, then back at the sky. "Look at that - none of the birds are landing here. There's not even any footprints for where they might have landed. Not that there's any lack of impressionable material here by the doors." He takes a firm grip on his hammer and double-checks the knobs on his mechanical suit. "I think there's trouble on the other side - ready when you are."
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"What? Really?" Nhorri looks all the same places Mizros looked, but can't tell if there are footprints or not. It's all a mottled, scattered, gloppy mess as far as she's concerned. But she shrugs, assuming that she just missed the signs, like always. "Okay. Here goes!" And with that, she opens the door and quickly steps back behind Mizros and Xandian.
As the door opens inward you see a lone table facing the entryway in this windowless chamber, but any small items appear to have long since been removed. The floors are slick with moisture, and a putrid smell hangs in the damp air. A trail of filth leads to an open door opposite the building’s entrance.
However, despite the wet environment and horrible smell, no rot or mold infests the magically reinforced building or furniture. The ceilings are 10 feet high. The foyer is dimly illuminated with the only illumination coming from deeper in the building indicating that there might be an open courtyard or holds in the roof deeper in the building.
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"Oh, guys, look out for the trap on the floor! We gotta scootch along the walls to get past it." Nhorri warns, opening her Kinetic Gate. Crisp, cool, clean air swirls around her. "Here! I can help us get around it." She activates her Four Winds ability, putting the wind at the party's backs to propel them along.
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"Oh, guys, look out for the trap on the floor!"
"What? Where? Whoa!" Mirzos almost drops his weapon in surprise as the air pressure around him fluctuates and pulls him in the wake of his taller companion. But after steadying himself, he moves to the front and brings down the pointed end of his hammer on the sludgy mass.
Mirzos' hammer smacks wetly into the strange creature creating a wave of wet filthy slime splashing out on the floor of the foyer. The creature slowly flows across the floor to close with Mirzos and extrudes two pseudopods with strike out at the kobold.
Both of the creatures pseudopods wetly smack against the kobold causing a total of 8 bludgeoning and 5 acid damage. Based upon the result of Mirzos' attack and wind created by Nhorri, you can surmise that lacks almost any type of armor and senses movement through vibration and air movement. As Xandian makes his RK roll I will add other specific information based upon it.
Sewer Ooze -9/?
Mirzos 5/18
Nhorri 20/20
Xandian 19/19
Ulfhild 20/20
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Nhorri shouts across the room "You stop whacking Mizros, you...gross thing!" She really has a way with words. It's her expansive and sophisticated vocabulary that really sells it.
From where she stands, she sends a tri of elemental blasts at the gross thing, trying to figure out which one will hurt it most.
By the end of your impressive onslaught, bit and pieces of the sewer ooze are scattered far and wide across the foyer and you are left alone in the room.
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Nhorri dashes up to the kobold as soon as the splatters stop moving. "Mirzos! Here, take this potion. Glad you're still standing, but whew! You deserve better than to be killed by a stinky glop like that."
After Mirzos is healed up, Nhorri turns her attention to the foyer. "Boy, it sure is gross in here. Guess that shouldn't surprise me."
Once all the searching, healing, resting, and daydreaming is finished (for now), Nhorri points to the double doors on the north end of the foyer. "Big doors first? ... Or last?"