Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

27st of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

For a moment it's not a rat man on the floor of the temple, it's not a temple at all, but a rough cavern in delved through the earth by the blind paths of some ancient worm. You see the pale-belly prisoner and know he's going to die. It's as true here as it was then, now as it was then, there are some terrors only blood will repay. "I think we should kill him. He's going to die anyway, the only question is if we can learn something worthwhile beforehand. That's not worth the trouble it'll make." All this you say in duergar, the tongue of the dark lands, being careful to keep your tone level.

Mina closes her eyes against the axe's fall, but another speaks up: "What the nightmare spirit wished done with its soul cage after his escape could provide insights not only into its plans, but into its very nature."

"Why do you care so much of the workings of death, Kuthite?" Comes the priest's response, attempting anger still, but shaking with fear.

Maybe it's physical nearness, shadow with shadow dancing, but you feel a flash of fury from the Nidalese magician even as he calmly retorts: "I care for all knowledge, priest, particularly that with might reveal a peril unseen. Can you say the same?"

"Alright then, question it!" he snaps and takes three steps back.

Sirim Diplomacy (DC 21/26): 1d20+11 = 31 (Full Success)

After accepting a spark of insight from you, Sirim rises like a cloud of smoke before the prisoner and asks: "If you have any enemies you hate enough to reveal them to us, old or new found involved with your actions tonight, now would be the time to do so."

"Fuck you with a rusted pick, shit-fucking snake fuckin' demon!" the rat man snarls and his limbs start to twist and contort as the axe comes plunging down through skin tougher than it has any right to be, but still on through flesh and bone mid-change. Alas, even in death a wall of spite bars you from whatever thoughts Sirim's questioning might have elicited. All you are left with is an array of curses gurgled out with a dying breath.

Sirim Diplomacy (DC 27): 1d20+11 = 19 (Failure)

Fortitude Save vs Coup de Grace: 1d20+2 = 17 (Failure)

Will Save vs Detect Thoughts: 1d20+6 = 16 (Success)

"Talk to the skull," Gorok motions at High Priest Tuvius. The man was looking positively green, unable to answer. Shouldn't he be familiar with death? you wonder, or was it just death by violence? Was he used to all his corpses arrayed bloodlessly on stone or pyre?

"Yes, I'll see what I can do. Though I do not imagine such a beast, given over to the service of demons, would deign to answer..."

"Shape still half and half, not taken. He was born as you see him now," Gorok says with the confidence of a people who had lived under the skies for years uncounted. "Less rage, more focus. No more likely to serve demons than any other warm or cold blood. Served ghost thing in the end. It was enough."

Gorok Knowledge (Nature) (DC 16): 1d20+7 = 27 (Critical Success)

"Ah... I hope you are not going to extend that to us, master..." Frasam trails off, waiting for a name

As your friend provides his name and Cob starts looking through the corpse's ragged pouches the high priest turns to a matter he is on much firmer ground with, the punishment of the five other attackers who had blown out the door, invaded the temple, and raised a hand against its rightful defenders. You are starting to get what Mina meant by 'penitence' as he gets going, though any sympathy you might have for the man is hard to disdain given the pain of having the skin on the front half of your body seared with alchemical flame.

Either way he had not gotten this job in a dream. A certain 'Cayden Smith', flesh and blood enough to order two rounds of drink on the house this morning, had informed the mercenaries that a dangerous cult had taken barricaded themselves inside the temple of Pharasma, including among their number 'a goblin, a witch, a were-lizard, and a vampire spawn with mastery over shadow'. When asked why he did not inform one of the other temples, the mayor's office, or the city watch, Quaffi, the halfling, admits they had seen the chance at easy loot from the 'cultists.'

"Well..." you sigh. "I suppose we are going to have to add 'Cayden Smith' to our list of troubles then."

"That's not going to do you much good," Tuvius shakes his head. "My apologies, I forget you are not from around here. That name is so commonplace that it wraps around to being a jape about amateur spies in plays and books. Whoever the mystery man was he was having a laugh as they worked the dark spirit's malice."


28st of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

On the next morning the five of you have the last laugh at least at the expense of the nightmare thing as the ring finally gives way under the priest's ministrations with a sound like metal cracking bone.

"It is done. Go now and be at peace. Go now into the River ever-flowing," these words the priest speaks in a dozen tongues, including the dwarf tongue and one hauntingly alike the sacred language of the People's tales, the one from whence your name comes. Yet you cannot help but wonder, how much peace can there be in a passage that might end in Hell or the Pit? In the silence of your mind, where none may stand in judgement, you cannot help but feel some understanding for never wanting to make that leap.

Akorian and Cob gain 817 XP
Mina, Gorok, and Sirim Gain 883 XP -> Level Up

You shake off the thought and turn your attention instead to more practical matters, pay. The priest explains to Gorok that he can either pay you eight hundred golden sails or in some of the things the temple had confiscated from the hapless mercenaries: a silvery shirt that flows like water over the fingers, a pair of slippers that seem to constantly exude a sticky alchemical residue, though which he ensures you is intended, and Frasan's cloak, which proves he had not been without a shield after all since it can harden to batter away blows in the hand

Choose a reward:

[] 800 gp

[] Small sized Mithral Chain shirt

[] Slippers of Scampering

[] Shield Cloack

OOC: Items from the wererat will be handled next update, it is very late for me. You guys can post level up plans, but if nothing gets enough steam that is fine, it can be the next vote.