Shortly after your return to Absalom after braving the deserts of Qadira, you find yourselves assigned to a new task that takes you far to the northwest. You arrive by ship in Korvosa, the largest city found in the wilderness area known as Varisia. It serves as the seat of one of three city-states that claim independent authority over their individual holdings in the region. Its citizens and traditions have strong ties to the nation of Cheliax, with many of its people tracing their ancestry directly to servants of the Empire. Despite its remote location in relation to other major cities in Avistan, Korvasa is nonetheless a major force in Golarion, and the Acadamae looming over you from the Heights District is a constant reminder.
A light rain falls as you make your way through muddy streets to a ramshackle tenement on the outskirts of the city. Inside you meet Sir Canayven Heidmarch, a Venture-Captain assigned to instruct you on your mission, and a haggard human woman whose role is somewhat mysterious.
“For this mission you will have to venture into the sewers beneath Korvosa." Sir Canayven explains, dashing any hope that you've proven yourselves above doing the Society's dirty jobs. He then gestures to the woman that arrived with him. Past her prime, she looks like the rough sort of woman who might stick a blade in your back in some dive of an alehouse, but her posture expresses confidence and experience. “Let me introduce Sascha Antif-Arah. She requires access to a particular vault. The Society is going to help her.”
Sascha eyes each Pathfinder in turn then shakes her head in astonishment, yet steps forward gracefully. “Well this is the damndest group of Pathfinders I've ever seen in my time, but they say you were handpicked. Who am I to argue with the leadership.” She gives Heidmarch a sidelong glance before continuing. ”Some years ago my friends and I had made quite a name for ourselves around Korvosa, and our adventures earned us a considerable amount of gold. We stashed most of it in one of the Vaults after evicting the cult that had already claimed it.” Sascha pauses for a moment, smiles, and shakes her head as if recalling particularly amusing details of the raid. “Anyway, I retired from the business after that, started up a shop, and lived peacefully until I got into trouble with the Hellknights. I can’t show my face in Korvosa because I don’t fancy spending my retirement in shackles, but I’m willing to cede my share of the loot in that Vault to you. It’s no dragon’s hoard, but it should be more than worth your time. The only thing I want from there is an old locket—nothing magical or worth fencing, but it means a lot to me. Once I have it, I’m getting out of this place and off to somewhere the Order of the Nail has no sway. The entrance shouldn't be too hard to find, assuming you know what to look for,” she remarks as she fishes several folded papers from her haversack. “There’s an old service entrance into the sewers about a quarter mile north of my old shop in Midland; I wrote down directions that should lead you to the vault. There’s a big room inside, and I stashed my share under the flagstones in one of the small chambers nearby.” She extracts a few more items from her bag and holds them out. “I hope you don’t need these, but you never know. I certainly won’t be using them in my retirement. Good luck to you, Pathfinders.”
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Ugly drops the half-smoked blackweed roll at the inside threshold of the room; takes the next step with his dung-kicker to grind and extinguish. ::squish:: ...
::grind:: ::grind::
::grind:: ::grind::
::grind:: ::grind::
::grind:: ::grind::
::grind:: ::grind::
::grind:: ::grind::
Once the obliterated smoker has uncomfortably caught the attention of Heidmarch, Sascha and other Pathfinders in the room, he leans on a nearby wall to listen to the objectives. ::a shadow shifts over and shields him from the glare::
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Leonides looks around. There's that whistling again. What's going--ah. "Hello, Ugly. Missed you when we left Qadira."
The inquisitor listens intently to the briefing, pausing only occasionally to arrange his hair. A sewer trip. How wonderful. I will doubtless end up spending much of my share cleaning myself up afterwards. "I believe that we could use these. Thank you very much, Mistress Antif-Arah, and we shall certainly try our best to return your locket."
After the briefing, Leonides will try to find any Silver Crusade contacts in the area, to see if there's anything they might have heard about Sascha or the vault area.
ETA: Also picking up a couple of sunrods, an alkali flask, and a flask of alchemist's fire.
Responding to questions Sascha says, “My old companions were very trustworthy, and as far as I know none of them ever revealed the location of the Vault, so there shouldn't be any competition from other treasure hunters. However, as far as other dangers in the sewers my group ran into some other strange creatures years ago, but our scholar usually identified them for us and I don’t remember what many of them were. The only rumor I can confirm is that the sewers have lots of blackboil alligators, so I wouldn’t go for a swim unless you really have to.”
As you discuss the official mission each of you also must consider additional tasks of interest to your faction. At some point before coming to this meeting you were given letters by your contacts bearing instructions or requests.
and the inclusion of natural cave features.
The garbage also provides nutrition for a wide variety of fungi and shade-tolerant plants. Most are not dangerous, but a rare few supplement their diets by capturing live prey.
History/Engineering - The Vaults employ a hodgepodge of architectural elements both due to staggered phases of construction
and the inclusion of natural cave features.
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Ugly peels himself off the wall, picks up the bear trap, and head out the door, ”The main market should be on the way. Must pick up some supplies,... and see a man about a dwarf.”
At the market, Ugly walks over to the bartender, at least he thought it was the bartender. He leans over and speaks with a gravelly tone, "I'm looking for a man who calls himself 'Habob'. Do you know where I can find him?" When the young fruit vendor replys 'no', the Stranger turns and continues on, creeping out the rest of the market.
You depart the tenements and head into the Midland district. Located in the southeast quadrant of the city, it is home to the majority of Korvosa's merchants, shops, and financial institutions. While others in the party go about purchasing supplies for the expedition under the city, Ugly looks for a man...
Despite Ugly's attempts at getting lost in Korvosa, finding Twill is not difficult, as he is a well-established seller of ceramic goods. However, as Ugly approaches Twill's shop he realizes that any obvious attempts to deliver a message to Twill would damage his reputation.
Ugly's message is delivered with so much discretion that Twill doesn't even realize it until the Stranger makes to leave with his new tea set jingling in his bag.
"Wait, sir, I nearly forgot! Everyone gets a free bag of tea with that particular purchase." As he hands over a bag of tea, he gives a little bow, making just enough eye contact show that the message has been received.
Supplies purchased, the group makes their way to the sewer entrance spoken of by Sascha. There you descend a rusty, slime-encrusted steel ladder into the Korvosan sewers.
Tunnels stretch to the north, east, and south like roads in an underground city. Curtains of fungus and mold hang from the ceilings, which rise roughly ten feet above the tunnels’ walkways, which run along either side of the sewage channels. Occasional dim patches of light filter in from the streets above providing minimal illumination. Despite the sickening smell of decay, the tunnels are free of garbage, waste, and the other byproducts of Korvosan life.
As you are getting your bearings you begin to hear sounds coming from down the north tunnel. "Num, num, brughnum. Togg wants food. Good food." Out of a side tunnel, a large, grotesque creature emerges. This three-legged freak is mostly mouth. Three tentacles, two tipped with barbs and one with eyes, extend from its sides. It extends the eyed tentacle toward the party and says, "Give something good to Togg. I am Togg. Give Togg good food with good taste. Or Togg taste you.”
Togg sniffs the bag of rations. "Hmmm.. smell dry. Boring. Maybe not so boring as garbage though. Have tasty drinks too?" It's eye-filled tentacle snakes out, getting a closer look at Ugly. "You handsome!"
You aren't quite sure, but you think Togg is both interested in the tea, and perhaps Ugly, but the silent treatment Ugly's giving back is less then friendly.
Togg does not seem pleased by the offering or your attempts at diplomacy. "Togg said good food! Lots of good food! This like tasteless snack!"