Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

21st of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

A quick understanding, more in looks than words, follows as you put away the... book. While there might be time to dash out there certainly isn't enough to wipe clean all signs of your passage, not to mention it would risk the well-being of the one you had come so far to save.

"Over here!" Mina calls out, as Sirim gathers around her shoulders, staff set against one of the shelves. "We're in the library."

For his part, Gorok sheathes his weapon and does the best that one so fearsome and well-armed can at looking peaceable while you quickly pick out a unobtrusive corner as far away from any window as you can manage, whispering a spell of smooth-talking just to be safe. Cob... is hanging from the ceiling.

"Those will run out of resin for the day if you play with them you know," Mina scolds him, though something tells you he's not just having fun. That would be a great ambush spot if things go ill.

Still, he clambers down one of the curtains, getting mud all over it, just as the first of the knights, a brown haired woman of middling height in the blue and silver of the Eagle Knights, advances cautiously into the room. "Oh, you're the 'foreign contractors' then, are you?" Her sword's in hand, but it's not raised. For all that there is no mistaking the poorly veiled suspicion in those words, nor can you keep from counting the three... four... five Andorans behind her, one of them bearing a magician's staff.


"DeVerge sent you?" Sirim projects and you can already see all of them stiffen at the notion that they had been set on the trail like a pack of goblin-dogs. "No matter now, we found the girl. She was being held in preparation for a blood rite by the Belle Dame..." he pauses for comment, and when none seems forthcoming he adds. "A kind of vampire."

"A vampire that walks in sunlight and shows up in mirrors, is it?" The knight-captain looks around the shelves. "I suppose she'd dead and dusted, is she?"

It is at this rather inauspicious point that Cob decides to take the head out of one of his belt pouches and wave it around. "Not dust, see!"

Sirim Diplomacy (DC 21): 1d20+12 = 13 (Critical Failure)

"What the...!" the captain exclaims, as the mage, who you now realize had been too far back to notice Cob, waves his staff violently. A spear of flame bursts from the tip and scours the stone beside your friend.

"Ware! Goblin! Goblin!"

Eagle Knight Mage Attack: 1d20+4 = 6 (Failure)

"Corvus, stand down!" the captain snaps, though her anger does not seem to abate when the hapless wizard lowers his staff. "You five, we'll be taking you into custody until we can establish what just happened here. You will remain here under guard while we check through the house for any remaining devils..."

"Or goblins," someone mutters under their breath.

"On what grounds are we being held?" Sirim presses coldly.

"These grounds that you are trespassing on," the knight answers unyielding. "Lay down your weapons. and that includes any spell components!"

"We've only seen one devil so far, it died defending its mistress," you speak up calmly. "I do wonder where all the others might be and what they might be doing. Tell me, sir knight, do your people often attack without orders, without warning?"

She narrows her eyes at you. "What are you saying?"

Knight Captain vs Unnatural Shadow: 1d20+1 = 6 (Failure)

"One supposes a lurking fiend would have the wits to recognize the magician, most able to see through their glamor. Should they have a means to twist minds to suspicion, who better to use it upon? Divide us, best of all if we fight, but even just keeping an eye fixed on the other t'would let them slip out and wreak havoc."

"You would know a lot about fiends wouldn't you, shade-spit," 'Corvus' spits with unexpected venom, which you are quite sure is wholly his own, but does not help his case. Unseen devils are clearly more alarming to the band of knights than unseen goblins.

"Alright, you can keep your weapons for now and come along so I can keep an eye on you."

Akorian Bluff (DC 25): 1d20+16 = 26 (Success)

Finding Elenora all wrapped up in a bedroll with a cup of honey-water beside her helps ease suspicions further, at least as far as you being mere thieves. The broken lock-box though makes it obvious that you are not above helping yourselves once the deed is done.

"Don't worry Miss, we'll get you home right away..."

"It's over now, she's dead..."

"Can you stand... no no, Helric, you carry the lady, that's right..."

Alas, the reassurances are reserved for the former prisoner. To your company the captain offers an unpalatable choice, either go under a truth spell to recount the day's events or empty your pockets and your bags of everything you had taken so that it can be assessed.

Elenora Will Save to Stay Conscious: 1d20+4 = 17 (Success)

"Wait!" Elenora doesn't really have the lungs to be shouting, but she does her best at it. "They saved my life! Why are you treating them like criminals?"

"In the interest of public safety we have to establish a timeline of events..." You have a feeling this is a well worn line, but despite barely being able to keep her head up Elenora's having none of it.

"Oh, I will give you a timeline of events alright! Brave adventurers save prisoner from vampire that's been preying on the people of Almas for years, then the Eagle Knights show up an hour late and a halfpenny short, all fired up to interrogate the heroes who did their job. Would you like me to lay out that in an interview to the to the Almas Star, Lieutenant?"

"Erm... she's a captain actually, Miss," one of the others offers.

"Not for much longer if she does not change her course," she retorts, gaze burning with outrage. "They will be accompanying me home, after which I am certain they will all be more than happy to submit a written report to Executive Consul Reginald Cormoth. In fact..." Her eyes light up all the more with the fire that had seen her clinging stubbornly to life for weeks on end. "I'm sure the Old Man would very much enjoy meeting such selfless folk. Maybe they will even have some stories to share."

Elenora Intimidation(DC 21): 1d20+11+5 (Circumstantial) = 34 (Success)

You do not have to think very hard on the the name to recall where you had heard it before. She is talking about the Lord Commander of the Eagle Knights, by most reckonings the second most powerful man in the Republic behind only Supreme Elect Codwin the First.

What does your party answer?

[] Humbly demure meeting the leader of the Eagle Knights

[] Accept the offer of a written report

[] Write in

OOC: Kori's bluff roll is mistakenly marked as +18 since I thought enhanced diplomacy worked on bluff, but I kept the roll and even without that +2 you did make it.

21st of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Swallowing a sigh at what had already been a big mess you cast your own judgement reluctantly in the direction of meeting with this 'Reginald Cormoth'. There's going to be a hell of a price to pay once you get back to Gavhaul and explain how his associate had ended up in two pieces, her name now less than mud. Sirim is more cautious on the matter, spending the time in the back of the Eagle Knight's blue-curtained carriage arguing that it is better to keep away from those two deeply 'moved by the Inheritor'. Some of her champions do not need to drag the truth out of others with spells to know when it is kept from them, and you have plenty of truths you'd rather not share. For his part Cob's grumbling into the hand-pie he'd drawn from one of his many pockets over 'stupid magic-man not careful with fire', and understandably so. That leaves the matter to Mina and Gorok, who each for their own reasons want to meet the one spoken of in almost-reverent tones as 'The Old Man'.

"I'd like to ask if we could use the Order's library, or maybe the one at Almas University. We've been making due with what each of us knows or can remember, but one of these days we are going to guess wrong if we keep building the foundations of our understanding on shifting sands." It has almost the tone of a challenge to Sirim, to try and use the tomes of a knightly order in his quest to take on a body, among others, though he doesn't answer aloud or in the mind.

"Warriors make a straighter cut than mummers," is all Gorok says.

"Do you mean Eduarmot?" Elanora laughs a little, then winces at the motion.

"The whole city is a stage, yes?" the iruxi warrior asks.

Up in front the driver scoffs none-too-softly about 'philosopher lizards', drawing a glare from Cob. It is perhaps fortunate for the fellow that Cob still wants to eat that pie of his more than he wants to throw it.

When you arrive at the large and busy house on the outskirts of Timbertwon that the siblings share, Elanora is greeted with a tearful hug and you with hurried words of apology. It seems you had missed the Eagle Knights coming by to share their own suspicions about Breolia only by virtue of having found Eduarmot on Madok's Mirage, they had been waiting for him at his home. Confronted with the prospect of potential mistaken identity he had judged it safer to tell them who you were and just what you were doing in the house.

"What of the chests?" you probe. "There is hardly need of more evidence."

"Ah... yes, of course. I will have Rayhold, my valet that is, deliver them to you," he answers with a charming smile that is almost enough to make one forget that the information he had given out had not been good enough to avoid Cob almost being broiled by a mage. "Now, Mr. Gorok, what kind of land are you looking for? Feeland is the most well-developed part of the country, the best potential for trade and some of the finest soils, though if you would rather keep away from too many curious eyes the south of Aspodel Province has many untapped riches, fish and game are plentiful, and the locals there say good fences make good neighbors. Father east, along the Missa Shelf from Augustana to the borders of Freeland, there are many small natural harbors that could make for a seafaring life. Some say the sea is as dangerous as she is generous, but if things were so balanced why then would men all along the Inner Sea crowd to her shores? She is more generous as long as one is willing to endure her moods. Finally there are the Carpenden Plains between the Andoshan and the eves of the Verduan..."

The place you will hopefully be riding through soon, you add mentally.

"The land there is settled and safe, and it has been under the plow since the early days of the Taldan Empire. It is rich and bountiful with little to trouble the peace of the realm, though that does come at a price. The most fertile lands have long since been claimed, leaving only lesser stretchers for would-be homesteaders." DeVerge gives a 'modest' little laugh, "Though I do remember one fellow from Numeria coming down here and exclaiming that he found the land so fertile one could 'sow nails and harvest cauldrons', so it's what you're used to I guess."

"What about the Verduan itself?" Mina asks when it's clear the man had finished talking. "It seems like a nice enough place."

"Mayhap, I've never been, but it is a wild and strange place filled with pacts, going back a hundred generations, of faerie-folk for whom that is like yesterday. A writ from the Office of Land Management is hardly worth more than the parchment it's written on among the trees. It's them you have to speak to if you wish to stay. And before you ask, you do not want me to speak up in favor of getting a grant in the Darkmoon Vale, not unless you are looking to get Lumber Consortium leg-breakers after you." He stops as though in deep thought, though can't quite hide a smile. "Though if you really want to I shan't stop you, Andoran could do with less Consortium Leg-breakers and you look like you could handle them."

Which location do you think Gorok's tribe should resettle to?

[] The rugged Aspodel Province on border with Cheliax
-[] Write in arguments

[] Busy and prosperous Freeland, heartland of the capital
-[] Write in arguments

[] The wide stretches of southern coastline along the Missa Shelf home to, among other things, the Claes Redoubt
-[] Write in arguments

[] The quiet fertile veld of the Carpenden Plains
-[] Write in arguments

[] Perilous Darkmoon Vale, abode of shape-changers, hostile fey, and the Lumber Consortium
-[] Write in arguments

[] Better to try your luck in the Verduan Forest
-[] Write in arguments

OOC: The choice will obviously be Gorok's, but the better the argument the more likely you are to sway him.