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Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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Arc 9 Post 32: Bringing Terrors to Light
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    • Bringing Terrors to Light ​

    8th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

    "Alas, it's no night-blind burnlander's guess nor idle rumor of which you speak of. You speak of the only elves ever spoken of in the tales of my kin and foul was the telling. Deeper than the caverns of Nar Voth where the the deep dwarfs live, slaves to Droskar among the ruins of the race of serpents, dwell those whose hands wove this...." You open your cloak to show the spider-silk shirt, gleaming dull silver in the light of the sun which had so rarely fallen upon such a weave, though not yet so rare as men might wish it.

    A moment's pause, a spell cast, and then you continue speaking to an ever more intrigued Sir Pisca: "They are the drow, masters of wide arched Sekamina. Graceful they are and skilled in sorcery, as long lived as their kin of the uplands, but there all kindship ends for they are treacherous and hateful to all who are not drow. They delight in cruelty and the arts of demons, which they learned at the feet of Andirifkhu, demon lord of knives, illusions, and traps, Haagenti, demon lord of alchemy and change, and Abraxas, who has dominion over knowledge and arts accursed by those who first crafted them."

    As you speak the names of the demons the next one comes to you, and the next fueled by the enchantment as a lantern is by oil: "To Kabriri, Him Who Gnaws pray the necromancers wrapped in shrouds, and to Shivaska the Chained Maiden pay homage the slave keepers who delight in agony. They are the reason the People bear knives out into the tunnels of the world."

    Akorian Knowledge History (DC 11/16/21): 1d20+5+4 (Bestow Insight) +1 (Guidance) = 24 (Full Success)

    "To fight these... drow?" Pisca sounds intrigued and worried in equal measure, which is to say not worried enough.

    "Aye, knives and feet and fists and whatever strength can be mustered. But should that strength fail, should we be taken by the drow, this our elders taught us: the knife is for you."

    On the fact that you had not been gifted such a knife before departing you are silent, though the thought could not be further from Pisca's mind.

    "Who would cry over rotten teeth?" he wonders half to himself before explaining. "There are islets just off the coast before Grayguard Castle called the Dog's Teeth, the haunt of thieves and beggars for no honest man could raise a house on a foundation of sand. There have always been tales of people going missing there from the commonplace to the lurid, perils enough to die and rocks enough to weigh down a corpse to the bottom, but now I wonder if perhaps some of those unlucky souls weren't taken, as you say, by those who dwell below. You said this place is below the domain of the dark dwarfs?"

    "There are no clear borders below, but the stone changes supposedly. there are more and wider gaps, allowing many roads that span the length of whole realms, not just one Long Road. If I were to guess how far down Sekamina begins... eighteen hundred feet, maybe a little more, maybe less in places. Passages down are as uncommon as passages up and they are claimed by traders, though we are far past the easternmost of the Long Road before it curves back. Mayhaps there is just one long passage from the Burnlands all the way down into the deep caverns of the drow. If that is so, than you are fortunate to have lost so few..." Cold comfort is all you can offer, and you are not even sure it has the worth of being true. As large and teaming as the cities of men are the loss of dozens could have been overlooked, especially if the slavers take from among the poorest. In Augustana you had seen how little the guards were willing to risk themselves even in the ordinary running of the city. Going down a dark passage after a beggar... as soon to expect a mouse to willingly go down snake holes.

    "News worth bringing to the governor. Would you be willing to bear witness to this in person? You say you've lived in the darklands, right?"

    "For most of my life, yes, though as soon ask the dwarfs, they hold many of the passes down into the depths." True you had not spoken to Urgor about drow, but one does not idly speak of them. If the Taldans are so ignorant that even Pisca, headlong gambler that he is, makes a good messenger...

    "I'll ask Master Urgor as well then," he does not let up.

    "I will consider it once we reach shore," you allow, not wanting to be pushed into an obligation you do not wholly understand.

    Speaking of elves, the skull of Miska, First Mate of the Scorpion's Sting, proves to be stubborn in keeping the secrets of her kin and why they had been hired to meddle with the dwarfs of Highhelm.

    Miska's Skull Will Save vs Speak with Dead: 1d20+3 = 20 (Success)

    Sirim opines cautiously on the suggestion that you appear before the ruler of Cassomir that night: "Pisca is imagining a short sharp campaign against slavers who have not the strength to stand and fight. If he delivers this to Governor Bozbeyli and the latter is feeling combative, one could well imagine the accolades he too would earn, especially if he is the one to bring a native guide for the expedition."

    "I was half-worried he would charge in there himself and end up daemon fodder. I'm not sure if this is better," you admit.

    As the forest grow thinner to either side, the glades and villages more common, you wonder how far you are willing to go in order to bring the drow to light.

    [] Agree to speak to Lord Governor Bozbeyli about the Darklands and the drow in particular

    [] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already

    [] Write in

    OOC: Since the skull made the save you will not be able to try again for another week, by then you will be in Cassomir.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Nope. The further we pull that thread, the more we are going to get tangled up in it. We have other obligations to deal with before delving into Taldan politics.

    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.
     
    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.

    Yeah. This is not a small nation state or barbarian outpost. This is an evil empire.
     
    Yeah, don't want to be involved in this if the humans want to go into conflict with drow. Not our buisness.

    @Goldfish maybe add to vote suggesting they seek to get more info from dwarves? Maybe even dark dwarves since they are their direct neighbors/rivals?

    Still awful, but not as bad as draw.

    [X] Goldfish
     
    zxzx24 said:
    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.

    Yeah. This is not a small nation state or barbarian outpost. This is an evil empire.
    Click to expand...
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    More like evil city states, the drow are only nominally united.
     
    Massgamer said:
    Yeah, don't want to be involved in this if the humans want to go into conflict with drow. Not our buisness.

    @Goldfish maybe add to vote suggesting they seek to get more info from dwarves? Maybe even dark dwarves since they are their direct neighbors/rivals?

    Still awful, but not as bad as draw.

    [X] Goldfish
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    Pisca is already planning to ask Urgor. That should cover the Dwarven angle, at least from our perspective. If that isn't enough for him, he can inquire more with the local Dwarves.
     
    [x] Agree to speak to Lord Governor Bozbeyli about the Darklands and the drow in particular

    Excellent. An audience with the Lord Governor on our first visit! We are moving up the social ladder quickly!
     
    We are already moving up on the social hierarchy in Andoran. This might be good but if we keep going we are not going to find a place for Gorok's tribe anytime soon.
     
    I am half-joking, of course, making fun of the 'they are going to wage war on drow and take us down below as a guide!' 'not my business' sentiment.

    But... we crossed a relatively important house for reasons we have no idea about, and we are planning to do business in Cassomir, whether to be able to sell the adamantium and restock on spells, or what have you. It might be that if we aren't in a public eye, someone could get an idea to quietly dispose of a group of perceived 'glass-sweepers', or otherwise make things difficult for us while remaining out of our reach.

    Having patrons in high places may be making ourselves more of a target, but also reduces the number of people willing to take a shot.
     
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    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.
     
    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.
     
    [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
    -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.
     
    Ok... onward to Cassomir
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 24, 2024 at 4:43 AM, finished with 11 posts and 7 votes.
    • [X] Do not agree to speak to the governor, you are tangled enough in politics already
      -[X] Offer to go into greater detail with Sir Pisca, to explain what we know of Drow culture and the threats even a small outpost of Drow slavers may pose, but that we do not wish to become further involved in local affairs than we already are. He can have credit for bringing the threat to the governor's attention, but we have other obligations that take precedence.
      [x] Agree to speak to Lord Governor Bozbeyli about the Darklands and the drow in particular
    Click to expand...
     
    Arc 9 Post 33: Of Beards and Boats Abroad
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    • Of Beards and Boats Abroad ​

    12th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

    The remainder of the journey downriver is made up of trading tales with an ever more fascinated Pisca. It's not that the man thinks of you as a friend, even an equal really, but the more you speak of your adventures the more he seems to appreciate you as a fellow traveler, hunter of demons, ogres, hags, and other horrors that the light of Taldor burns against. He seems rather more fascinated by the world below than you would be in his place, half blind and still nine tenths ignorant, but as Mina puts it, his heart is in the right place.

    Sirim chimes in to say that only means a drow assassin would know where to find it, a jest only Cob finds funny.

    Forests give way first to tended woodland, sleepy apple-dryads with gold in their hair waving to passing ships, and then to markettowns and wide expanses of fields that know not the touch of any fey spirit. The Dancing Slurk's journey is not interrupted by any save passing officials of the Taldan Crown, the blue of their uniforms growing ever more vibrant and crisp the closer you come to the city.

    "How do they get those curls in their hair?" Mina asks in passing.

    "Hot iron," Pisca answers seriously.

    "Urgh, I'll stick to spells." Mina shakes her head at the things people do for their appearance, and not even for their own sake. Apparently it is the custom of low-level Taldan officials to adopt the fashions of the century prior, and that includes the curling.

    "At least they aren't wearing fake hair," Urgor grouses.

    "Wigs?" Cob has the sound of someone who is considering the virtues of snatching one.

    "Beard 'Stentions," he swallows the 'e' and turns the 'x' into an 's'. "Dwarves don't cut their beards for cheap, you know. they're a mark of age and status, but there's always those bad enough off they're willing to sell."

    "And so the wealthy buy off the seeming of age and wisdom," you finish. "Think we're going to meet someone like that in the city?"

    "Not from us Surefoots, but when it comes to handing those gems back you bet your ass lad. Send a dwarf to deal with humans they won't know what's true beard and what's knotted. Best place to send some well-born gravel for brains who should still be breaking ore for the furnace."

    "'Handing it back?'" Gorok hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation on warm-blood grooming until became about the treasure you had just secured.

    "Oh aye, you can't treat dwarf gems like they're pirate spoils. Every jeweler in a thousand leagues of the mountains will know what to look for and they'll hand you in for a ransom."

    "Then they will pay us the ransom, yes?" Your friend presses. One might mistake the insistence for greed, but he's just as blunt in wanting what he's earned as anything else.

    "Depends on what the lawspeaker says..." the dwarf stops.

    "Regarding?" Mina asks, you suspect prompted by Sirim.

    "If it's the Crown that got them back then there's nothing to pay, it was their job to keep the river way safe." The reluctance paints the picture well enough. Dwarves are known to the stingy. If they can get away without paying anything to get their property back, that's the way they'll take.

    It is with such thoughts that you come within sight of Cassomir the Golden and gold it seems indeed as the evening sun shines off the light yellow sandstone of which it had been wrought. The style of it recalls that of Augustana or Almas, but the arches are more squat here, seeming pressed under the weight of near six thousand years. Statues of generals and admirals look on with eyes of unseeing stone upon ships that spill out from the river mouth towards the sea, though their living counterparts have rather more to say about strange ships and glass-gathers.

    The port fee for 'an untested ship of magical origin' is two thousand gold a month, and one has to pay for a month to dock it in the first place.

    "We could just take the ship apar..." Mina trails off as she catches Cob's stricken expression. "We could take it back upriver to anchor."

    "This ship is stone, sorcery, and skill, we have no lack for any of them," Sirim notes. "There is no impediment to unmaking it now and making it again when we wish to leave."

    What do you do?

    [] Pay the docking fee (-2000 gp)

    [] Take the Dancing Slurk back upstream (You will have to send a party member up there or ensure it is guarded some other way)

    [] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed

    [] Write in

    OOC: Welcome to Imperial Taldan Bureaucracy, it has been growing unchecked for three ages of the world.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Holy shit, seriously? 2000 gold to dock for a month? You can buy a basic +1 magical weapon for that price.

    Sorry, Cob, but the Dancing Slurk will rise again.

    [X] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed
    -[X] Reassure Cob that the Dancing Slurk will return, better than ever thanks to the lessons we learned when she was first crafted.
     
    Goldfish said:
    Holy shit, seriously? 2000 gold to dock for a month? You can buy a basic +1 magical weapon for that price.

    Sorry, Cob, but the Dancing Slurk will rise again.

    [X] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed
    -[X] Reassure Cob that the Dancing Slurk will return, better than ever thanks to the lessons we learned when she was first crafted.
    Click to expand...
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    If you are making non-standard magical craft they assume you're some kind of arch-mage. If you are not some kind of arch-mage (or have one on retainer) they would rather you not put untested magical boats in their harbor
     
    DragonParadox said:
    "The cargo, was it insured in Bolgrad?" Oka calls over, much to your confusion. The word you know but not the use.

    "Oh aye, t'would be illegal otherwise. Dwarves aren't the sort of leave things to wind and chance."

    "Then why," the old cook asks, glancing up at cloud covered sky through an open window. "Would he choose to fight instead of giving in?"
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    The ship had nothing special in the way of cargo except for the maps.
    DragonParadox said:
    Scorpion's Sting loot:

    Chest of Dwarvish Gemstones
    A plain iron chest inlaid with darkwood from Andoran and sealed with a complex lock. The pirates did not dare open it before they reached safe anchorage, least it draw the eye of some dwarfish scryer on them.

    Charts of Fey Voyage
    Written more in subtle glamor than ink and parchment, these charts purport to show the slow 'migration' of the Verduran's trees, opening anchorages where there had been none and hiding an them from prying eyes.
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    Who do we turn to to determine what was so valuable about them? Assuming they have value to smugglers and those wishing to avoid the River Guard, it's probably not Taldan authorities.
     
    [X] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed
    -[X] Reassure Cob that the Dancing Slurk will return, better than ever thanks to the lessons we learned when she was first crafted.

    We can get Tears to Wine from the first stage bonus to the second stage at the very least.

    I also hope we might get our hands on the Deathwine spell while here, by leaning heavily on Pisca; considering all we've done for him. And luck, of course.
    And wanting while a spell to boost necromancy CL might look iffy, necromancy is a perfectly valid school of magic, especially if we explain we want it for Spellsister purposes.

    Maybe the dwarves we're returning the gems to will (after we try to get what we can), will be able to help (Just spitballing)
     
    [X] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed
    -[X] Reassure Cob that the Dancing Slurk will return, better than ever thanks to the lessons we learned when she was first crafted.

    DragonParadox said:
    If you are making non-standard magical craft they assume you're some kind of arch-mage. If you are not some kind of arch-mage (or have one on retainer) they would rather you not put untested magical boats in their harbor
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    Trying to extort Archmages is not traditionally a safe or sane way of making money.
    Even if they do have a few thousand coins as spare change.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    [X] Unmake it and re-make it later as needed
    -[X] Reassure Cob that the Dancing Slurk will return, better than ever thanks to the lessons we learned when she was first crafted.


    Trying to extort Archmages is not traditionally a safe or sane way of making money.
    Even if they do have a few thousand coins as spare change.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It is if you are the Empire of Taldor, they used to employ most of the Archmages on the continent and the laws have not been updated since.
     
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