Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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

Cob runs his new armor through his fingers, entranced at the feel of cool metal flowing like water and the faint tinkling sound. So might starlight sound falling upon ice, yet not so far nor yet so wondrous that he would give up what you and Mina had taken to privately calling the 'Hide of Reek'. Still, Cob is nothing if not clever and he knows it would be pointless to wear two sets of armor one over the other, particularly as this one is so much lighter and yet able to turn away the sharpest knife.

"Smell can be di-still-ed," he sounds out the syllables carefully, though the idea behind them had been long known to the Stone Muncher Tribe, stronger vinegar makes for better pickles and harsher brine for tastier meats. "Make talisman of smell to make enemies weak-in-stomach, make 'em too busy to losing food from stomach to hit Cob."

Mina looks startled, which is probably a more positive expression than the one you are wearing at the moment. Dark Below, you thought you had him this time.

"Could you do that?" she asks Sirim, who had taken to spending time under the old tree, though he had not ventured into the tap room of the tavern just yet.

"Certainly," he answers too quickly. "Gebbite Quickrot could even do so through simple alchemy, though admittedly it would serve one little since the host of the effect would have no immunity to it."

"Doesn't sound so good," Cob says, clearly happy that his horrible armor is superior to this thing from a land neither he nor you had heard of before, save that it had too many necromancers.

"It is meant to be a poison," Sirim says, with just a touch of the dramatic. While no one would accuse him of the broad gesticulations of one of the People's Dancers, the more you converse with him the surer you are that he rather enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.

Cob Will Save (DC 10): 1d20+3 = 5 (Failure)

1st of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Over the next two days Gorok goes out to find a saddle for Warty to serve in place of ropes and door as well as 'tents' made to purpose, an invention of the open sky, while you and Mina try to make some sense out of the figurine you had snatched up from the deck of White Eagle in the battle with the sea dwellers. The first thing you figure out is that it seemingly had not been carved or molded, but grown with the seams in strange winged forms corresponding to a metamorphosis from a bulb of black stone through some manner of tadpoleb into the strange creature you now hold.

Akorian Linguistics: 1d20+4 (DC 10) = 15 (Success)

Gain Abductor Beast Figurine

Description: This strange statuette is unlike any beast seen on the surface of Golarion, breeding a nagging fear in those who walk under the light soon to avert their gazes. They have never experienced those tendrils first hand.
Ability: Same as Serpentine Eagle Figurine (Greater Power Usable 1/Month)

"Odd that it seems to be connected to the cycles of the moon," Mina taps her chin as she writes down the last of the observations you had been able to tease out of the almost hair-thin runes. "Do you think it has to do with the Azlanti ruins the priest mentioned, the ones that keep out the 'Mind Hunters'?"

"Could be I guess...." No answers whisper themselves into being at the back of your mind, only the niggling itch of curiosity for all you try to reach as deep as magic would allow.

Akorian Lore (Azlanti) (DC 25): 1d20+9 = 16 (Failure)

Speaking of, smaller, treasures, the things Cob had taken from the rat-man were... odd. Oh, not the coin pouch, that could just about cover the cost of the new saddle for which one could only be grateful, but the rectangles of oiled parchment covered in a six-hued melange of colors and in a few cases images of strange beasts, mighty warriors, and magicians. Mina had seen a set like this before, she calls them fortune teller's cards, an old Varisian tradition that had long since spread across the lands of the Inner Sea. These cards have no particular magic to them, but in the hands of one skilled in the art of card reading they could, she assures you and Gorok, still be worth more than their face value.

The second odd device is a steel circle filled with clear liquid in concentric rings, water and alcohol, each ring holding a ball of iron and one of silver, the weight and balance of them ensuring they are almost impossible to balance.

"There was one of these at the monastery, under lock and key against need, but I got one of the sisters to bring it out to show us kids once. It was invented by a scholar at the Lepidstadt University to provide a more reliable way to find ghosts..." She looks out the window pensively. "They say he just vanished from his laboratory a few months after he made the first one. Still, supposedly they work great."

"Maybe he was a seer of some kind," you say, trying to put the two objects together with their last owner. "That might have been how it got to him..." Seeing the look of confusion in Mina's eyes, you add: "The Nightmare thing?"

"I guess... They say shapeshifters could be anyone, though I have a hard time imagining one of them being a diviner. It seems a bit too spiritual."

Now it's your turn to tilt your head in bemusement. "Spirits will contact whoever suits them, just like the rest of us."

"That's not what I..." she cuts herself off. "Well, I guess evil spirits will do that."

"I feel like I'm about to stumble into a lexical snare again. Is that what ponder means? Thinking? But ponderous means slow, or how you named a deadly poison the 'beautiful lady'?"

"Not quite." She pauses for a moment, getting her thoughts in order. "I guess most people like to think of their relationship with spirits and gods as good so spiritual became a good thing, but when you are talking about something from beyond the world that's wrong or unnatural you say ghastly or uncanny."

"Most spirits are natural though," you think back to the usurped patron of the xulgath tribe. "Nature is not good, it just is, or if you want to get more particular I guess you could say it's hungry. Beasts that burrow, beasts that fly, demons in hell and angels in heaven, light and shadow dancing, they all want something, need something, or they wouldn't move, wouldn't be at all."

"But they are different though," she insists. "Things fall down, they don't fall up."

"Down is different on the moon," you get into the spirit of things, which is to say speaking more in play than earnest. You talk of the things you had found, strange and ancient, new and bizarre, of devils and hidden sea folk. Neither of you stop until Gorok shows up saddle in hand, a little out of sorts for not having found any weapon more nimble than the axe he was already wielding. Still, if the saddle isn't hint enough he's as direct as ever about wanting to shake the dust of Augustana off his boots.


Still, it would be folly to just charge out into the wilds, and apparently ill luck to do it on the first day of this month in particular. So the four of you resolve to look around for leads and patrons who might fund our wanderlust.

Elven Weapon Availibility (DC 50/66): 1d100 = 33 (Failure)

Which do you investigate?
(Choose Three)

[] Try to find a map of the Inner Sea well made enough to plot out the insights from the Azlanti Vault upon them

[] Follow up on the dwarf at the Forester's Endowment, apparently he'd managed to find a wealthy patron

[] See if Captain Caulker or any of his colleagues will be sailing out soon and if so what the pay is like for the Grey Corsairs

[] Speak to Venture Captain Goldgather about joining the Pathfinders

[] See if House Naran has need of discrete investigators beyond the walls of the city

[] Speak to High Loreseeker Jaes to see if she has any work for wanderers. According to Mina Desnans usually do

OOC: That was a doozy. I think this will be the only update for today. Enjoy guys.