Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

26th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

"I... I don't know how to say this," Mina hesitates. "I guess just 'in order' will have to do. We were part of a caravan heading north to Carpenden by the old Legion Road from from Almas when we were set upon by fiends in the night. We managed to fight them off, but we were afraid that they would come for us the next night so we set out to finish off the rest of them while the sun was still in the sky. That lead us to a line of hills east and north of here," she motions to them, though the gesture is lost in the dark even to your eyes. "That's where we met a pair of children herding sheep from... here. I'm sorry we don't know the name of this village, we are from far away."

"I can see that, miss," Elder Rostor steps out of the doorway, motioning gingerly to a light wood table and sets his the lantern in the center of it from where he had obviously picked it up on his way to the door after coming downstairs. "You're in Occarin. We do a bit of most things here, herding sheep and driving cattle, but also growing some of the best melons in all Carpenden, as well as seeing to folks who take the Drover's Road. I ain't heard anyone arguing about the Golden Mare if you want to stay the night."

"Oh no, thank you, we have to rejoin our company." To your eyes Mina looks even more guilty for the news she is about to deliver, but your host seems to think she's cold from the way he's eyeing her cloak.

"We sent the children home and we had a friend with them to guide them back." Here Pepper pops his head up, does a feline bow with one paw to his chest to introduce himself, causing a start, though more of wonderment than fear. The cat himself recounts the tale again from the foul scent of the Pit to the lost sheep and the girl showing sense in following him, which leaves the elder chewing worriedly on his mustache and gives Mina the time to collect herself.

Mina Diplomacy (DC 15): 1d20+1 +4 (???) = 22 (Success)

"Hmm, that'd be Essa and her brother Berry... have to talk to their folks in the morning."

"We were attacked by the fiends we sought and the dead... dead children. We put them all to rest, but we wanted to give what warning we could to the nearest village so we came here by the same path out of the hills."

"Describe them," the words are strangled with horror.

Mina glances towards the cloud of shadows still lingering in the doorway, but Sirim's answer is clipped. "I wasn't looking at their faces."

Sirim Illusionist's Memory: 1d20+4 = 5 (Critical Failure)

"When you say children, how old did they look? Just little ones, or older girls too like Essa?" the Elder asks after a long moment spent looking down at the table.

"The oldest looked maybe eight or nine winters old, no more than that, and there were boys and girls," Mina answers.

Winter... that reminds you of what Sirim had said about the 'night-loved', dead of neglect. "They looked to have died of cold."

"Children get lost, drown, get taken by beasts sometimes, just gone. All you can do is pray to Erastil and Jaidi for protection. I would have never thought..." He shakes his head as though recovering from a blow. "I'll wake Mother Agtha to go up there with some of the hunters and herders, see to the... bodies. Pharasma guide their souls... You've done more than enough, but we are going to need a guide to find them."

What do you do?

[] Go with the party from the village to see to the bodies

[] Just send Pepper to guide them back again and...
-[] Ask questions around town, figure out who lost children and how and what was that about older girls?
-[] Try to search for the demon
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: Beside Sirim none of the rest of you are really trained to remember faces, that's why he was the only one to get the memory roll.

26th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

Demon hunters you shall be then, the resolve isn't something you talk about really. For all that time is short and you might have to leave the path before its end, you can't just leave these people to be preyed on. They had greeted you no worse than any other travelers blown in from the road, and for all the news of tragedy you brought there was no hint of accusation, even of doubt, in Elder Rostor's face. The night's still young and time enough to hunt.

As lanterns spring up down the main road like anxious fireflies, the dogs barking now that their humans are awake, a grey haired amethyst-eyed wisewoman steps up from the crowd to take charge of the worried villagers. She seems to know just what to say to calm anxious parents and worried shepherds alone. Though she bears neither club nor sling, spear nor bow, all heed her words of calm and reason. They trust her even when she says that they aught to listen to a cat, though there's a bit of a fuss when the locals hear that none of the rest of you would be joining them.


Best not to give hope where we might not be able to deliver, you reason, a sentiment Sirim approves of and Mina is willing to play along with, more for the sake of not having to draw more strangers' eyes. Before departing with the villagers, Pepper has informed you that the swaithe is not likely to lair in a cave or hollow with wild beasts. Besides those charmed by her magic, most of them would try to drive her out with fang and claw. Instead she'd seek some place near enough to the scent of man to keep away beasts, but remote enough that only the brave, desperate, and the unlucky would come calling.

Akorian Bluff vs Aghta Sense Motive: 1d20+16 = 26 vs 1d20+9 = 17 (Success)

"Might be something in those hills, but if there is the dark one will go to ground as deep as she is able. One night's not enough to dig down every root to see if there's a hollow," Gorok says as he looks over the map, hisses in annoyance at the scale, rolls it up, and starts to draw his own in the dirt. "We have one trail though, marked in blood."


The sheep had not died well, and you can say that as someone with no great understanding of sheep. Its glassy eyes are still wild with fear and blood foams around its mouth as flies buzz and burrow in its ears. Gorok however pays less attention to those parts of the head and more to its jaw. "Swollen, was sick when it died. Saw this before in other sheep-beasts, makes them slow, hard to move. Never raided herds myself, none of the nearby villages kept them by the time I was hatched, but old ones said a herd with many beasts sick like this was a good target, even with the dogs they wouldn't be able to get away fast enough."

Gorok Knowledge (Nature) (DC 15): 1d20+8+1 (Guidance) = 16 (Success)

"Why enchant this beast to run then?" Mina wonders aloud. "You'd think it would make it harder."

"It does," Sirim agrees. "Pain sharpens the mind against compulsion."

"If it was slow, at the edge of the herd, an easy target," Urgor dismisses the whole thing.

You motion to the grotesque mound. "A lot of work for a lazy demon. What was this anyway, before the demon got to it?"

When you reach out a hand to help her out as you had Gorok, with a pinch of insight Mina shakes her head sadly, having figured out the answer at first sight, for she had seen the like on the roads back home all too often. "Suicide's grave, they are buried at crossroads so their haunt or husk won't be able to find its way back to their living kin. This is an old one though. See, there used to be a crossing of paths here...." she motions along a north-south line where, if you know to look for it, the underbrush is a little less thick.

Mina Knowledge (Religion): 1d20+12 = 31 (Success)

"That's the way it went, down the dead road," Gorok proclaims.

One wishes he had gone with some other choice of words. Still you walk along, Warty hopping and Cob skulking, until you come to a clump of forest, if forest it can be called, thin-branched trees gathered around the arc of a drying guttered stream bend. Once the stream that passes and gives life to Occarin passed through here. Now all that's left to remember are the flies, ticks.... and among the roots and dried grasses, the remains of foundations eroded by wind and wave, just the kind of place Pepper had predicted your quarry would go to ground.

Gorok Survival to Track an Evil Outsider: 1d20+19 = 34 (Success)

"Do demons sleep by day or by night?" you ask with one eye to the sky, the moon has yet a quarter of its path to wander across the star-studded heavens.

"Demons don't need to sleep at all, though it does not spare them sloth or gluttony," Sirim answers. "This one might have decided to seek the oblivion of its own foul dreams, or it might still be watchful."

"To snatch us?" Cob asks, a little too eagerly.

"To make its escape. Lesser demons learn to fear the greater, that low cunning they keep when they come down to Golarion," the mage explains, leaving you all in a bit of a quandary.

Should you just leave Warty behind with one person to guard him while the rest of you step among the trees? Everyone, even Urgor, is relatively light-footed and more blades to give the fiend it's end would be welcome, especially if it's not alone. On the other hand, Warty alone or with a light guard might draw the swaithe's foul eye. It loves nothing more than to torment beasts.

What do you do?

[] Split up, leaving Warty behind
-[] Write in with who

[] Go all together and hope the demon will defend its lair

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy.