Menace Under Otari

Journey - Menace Under Otari

Tangent's Log, Pathdate: 2023.1020

Outset

Our characters arrived at Tamaly's Tavern in the port city of Otari.

Large shipments of fish have gone missing throughout the town. Tamaly's Tavern was picked as a secret hold, but even its cellar was not safe.

Two lower ranking Pathfinder agents were assigned to investigate, but they did not return. Once enough time had passed, our heroes arrive on the scene to solve the initial contract and recover the missing agents, or their bodies.

Arriving at the tavern, the party notices some footprints that lead around the back. A quick look shows a path doing around the back into the woods. There is no damage to the building on the outside, so this does not seem to be how the fish have done missing.

Our party of heroes are a Kholo (Gnoll) named Mirthful Rhus, A felt Poppet named Warraine "Spike" Lorren, a Cactus Leshy named Ruby Dew, and a Human sailor named Jerrick.

The Tavern

As our party enters the tavern, all eyes are on the new arrivals. The party had agreed to keep Spike's status as a living creature a secret. Our heroes notice four notable characters, a brooding individual muttering in the corner, an Elf sorceress, a Half-Ork Barbarian, and the human bartender. As a silent observer, Spike stealthily is looking around and observes these individuals in greater detail. The Elf and the Half-Ork seem very familiar with each other and seem to be having a wordless conversation. A quick glance is all one needs to show the Half-Ork's intentioned are betrayed by the critically failed stealth check of his trousers.

Pringle has taken a bit of an interest in the brooding individual, fidgeting with something. As a tinkerer, Pringle mistakes this stranger as a kindred spirit and begins to approach. As Pringle draws closer, the intense start he receives inform pringle otherwise and is now suspicious of the individual. Instead, Pringle rejoins the party as they make their way to the bartender.

Jerrick wastes no time immediately purchasing a drink and begins chatting up the bartender. Rhus sighs and leans his weight on the bar. Waiting for Jerrick to take a sip of his drink, Rhus interrupts the conversation to get to the point "Tamaly?" The bartender shifts into a more defensive stance "Who's askin'?" Rhus rolls his eyes and shifts his weight back to standing at full height. Before any escalation can occur, a Halfling emerges from around the corner and introduces herself. "Good evening to you, I am Tamaly, Are you with the Pathfinder Society?" Rhus looks at her and nods and point to himself "Rhus". Tamaly seems intimidated by Rhus so Jerrick takes over the conversation and she led the party to her office.

On their way into the office, Pringle places Spike on a table near the brooding individual to see if they can discern anything. Spike listens closely to the mutterings in a demonic language in praise of some entity. He is repeating the same phrase over and over again, almost like a mantra.

Tamaly explains to our other heroes how the last agents never returned and is scared to ever go into her cellar. The last time she went in, she was chased out by giant rats. She has since locked the door and not gone back in. Jerrick, an enthusiast in niche crafts takes a keen interest in the manufacturing of the door but is disappointed when Tamaly is unable to answer his questions, not being a kindred spirit. Regardless, he uses his charm to get some resources from her and use of her tavern should they need to rest and recuperate. With their supplies procured, the party journeys to the cellar and begin their descent.

The Cellar

The party journeys into the cellar. Spike uses magic to illuminates the torches. Large boxes and barrels can be seen, and the odor of fish is strong in the air. Some crates seem to be missing and drag marks indicate they were moved elsewhere. Following these scuff marks, a large hole in the wall is clearly visible that leads to an underground passage. Jerrick and Rhus take out a torch and Jerrick turns to Spike "Would 'ye kindly do the honors?" Spike uses magic to illuminate both torches. Upon entering the passage, they notice it filled with aggressive rats which our party dispatches one after the other. One of the rats managed to bite Rhus but was eaten whole for its transgressions. The party did not express their distaste in Rhus' culinary selection or bother to point out that the tail was stuck between his teeth. Spike was rather taken by one of the rats and decided to reanimate one and call it Cheesers.

After clearing out the vermin, the party found that the passage continued until a steep dropped off. The marks indicate the crates were pushed off of the edge and landed below. While our heroes considered their next move, Rhus grew impatient with the back and forth of ideas. Rhus walked over to Spike, tied a rope to them and simply tossed the Poppet over the edge, while holding the rope. The party looked in horror as their companion sailed through the air and landed silently on the floor. Spike, being soft, did not feel the impact of the fall and tied the rope and signaled they were ready. Shaking off what just happened, Jerrick gingerly took the other end of the rope from Rhus and tied it to the cave wall to make a zipline for a much safer approach to descending. The party left the rope so if they should need it, they could return the way they came.

The Cave and Underground Path

While the party continues to proceed cautiously, Cheesers is happily leading the charge. Coming to a large opening, Spike asks Cheesers to scout on ahead. The party watch as the happy undead rat walks further and further into the darkness until Cheesers is suddenly grabbed and pulled into a darkness. The rat squeaks once in surprise and all goes silent. Our heroes take a moment to catch themselves as Jerrick rushed into action. He launches his torch into the darkness. The torch illuminates the cave and begins to melt a portion of what looks to be a massive spider web covering the entire room. The spider, unsure of how to deal with the torch is distracted trying to save its web from the flames. While it is distracted, our party descends swiftly on the spider and ending its life before it can act. Once the spider is dead, Spike inconsolable morns the loss of Cheesers. A human skeleton exposed from where the web was burned away can be seen. Closer inspection by Rhus and Pringle reveals this was one of the missing Pathfinder agents. Though the positioning of the body seems to indicate he may have been killed before the spider found him and brough him back as super. While the Rhus and Pringle were confirming the identity of the skeleton, Jerrick looks around and finds the quivering mass of web and gently cuts into it to free Cheesers. Jerrick brings the rat to Spike and drops it into their arms. Spike and Cheesers are happy to be reunited and continue on with renewed enthusiasm.

Further along the passage is a barricade that block one of the paths. Our heroes briefly consider what may be down the road but opt to return later and continue down the unblocked path. Rhus did lift Pringle up to get a better look, but he could only see the faint glow of ghostly blue lights.

-End of log

Tangent Log's, Pathdate: 2023.1029

The Missing Supplies

The passage continues and begins to widen out. The stone begins to look carved rather than natural. Our party happens on a large wooden door with rusty hinges and the sound of arguing whispers. Spike takes lead to investigate to discover four Kobolds arguing in Common as one is trying to pick a lock to a cage with crates and barrels. Spike uses a magic Ventriloquism spell and begins to insult the Kobold working to pick the lock. "You call that pick-locking? No wonder you never amounted to anything." This causes the kobold trying to pick the lock to lunge at one of his companions. Three of them begin to brawl while the fourth attempts to pick the lock. Distracted and entertained by the brawl, he isn't paying very much attention.

Rhus sneaks up to the one attempting to pick the lock runs his rapier through the Kobold and whispers in its ear "Nighty night" as it silently falls dead to the floor. Jerrick and Cheesers attempts to strike one of the Kobolds, but it twists out of the way, still fighting with its companions. Spike conjures up three crochet needles from their purse and using magic and fires them through the Kobold's skull. The remaining two Kobolds, realize they are under attack and scramble to defend themselves. One attempts to use his sling on Jerrick, but misses while the other attempts to take out Cheesers. Before the Kobold can reach Cheesers Jerrick reacts and quickly decapitates the Kobold yelling "Not so fast!". Cheesers squeaks its thanks. Hingle shoots the last Kobold with his crossbow who dejectedly accepts his death and it last words were "Aww, dang it!"

Using one of the spears of the fallen Kobolds, Rhus forces the lock and gate open. These are clearly the crates taken from the cellar, but most of the food has spoiled. Jerrick investigates the contents while Spike and Hingle wander off to the previous door. Cheesers decides to remain near his newfound friend. Jerrick finds a sword, gold coins, and a golden ring in various barrels and chests. Jerrick makes a mental note to ask what these bits and bobs are doing inside barrels and crates meant to only contain fish. He suspects other goods were smuggled in as the actual cargo since much of the food and fish has been left to spoil. He hands Rhus the sword and golden ring to hold onto.

The Alter to the Sea

Meanwhile Hingle and Spike wandered back to the previous large wooden door and work together to open it. It creaks and groans loudly in protest. They see a large room with a squid-man sculpture. It is moist and damp and the smell of mold hangs heavy in the air. Spike illuminates the two small candles in the room. While studying the room, Spike recognizes it as an alter dedicated to the Gozreh, The Winds and the Waves, a deity of air and sea. The eyes of the statue are intently staring at a bow of water in between the two candles. The water is pure and has no scent or contaminants. Hingle tells Spike that he can detects magic coming from the bowl of water. Spike grabs the bowl and pours the liquid into their water skin. Spike hears faint whispers as the water pours the water and staches the bowl in their pack. They make their way back to the others.

Jerrick and Rhus continue to check the room and find a stone slab hides the passage into what looks like an entrance to stone dungeon. Once inside a trap is triggered that causes stones to fall from above. Jerrick is struck by a few while Rhus makes it out unscathed. Once the party regroups and ensures everyone is alright, they continue to the next room.

The Alter to Wealth

The room has three statues, two standing facing a seated one with its palm facing upward. Spike recognizes this as a statue of Abadar, The Master of the First Vault, a deity of wealth. in the center. A disembodied voice boom loudly to our heroes offering them a riddle. Of the 9 coins presented to them, one is a deception. Jerick groups coin into three groups. Coins 1-3 on the left, 4-6 on the right, and 7-9 are set aside. Once the statue's right-hand sinks down and the left is lifted up, Jerrick knows the deceptive coin must be in the left hand. Jerrick removes coins 1-3 from the statue and places coins 4 and 5 in each hand and holds up coin 6 in his hand. When neither hand moves and stay level, Jerrick declares "I have 'ye fake coin right here." All coins disappear and the voice says "Congratulations, you have passed my test." One of the two doors in the room slides opens. Jerrick steps into the chamber to see a large chest and a pull lever of sorts. Opening the chest reveals some gold coins, an unusual gem, and an unusual scroll that Spike holds onto. behind the chest is a small hidden level that when pulled results in an audible click from the other room.

Kobolds, Kobold, and More Kobolds

Jerrick and the rest of the part leave to inspect the remaining door. They can hear voices coming from behind the door. Jerrick presses his ear to the door to try and get a better idea of what is going on. Meanwhile Spike is very curious about the pull lever in the chamber, and throwing caution to the wind, cranks it down. Jerrick steps back as the door begins to rise in front of him. Thankfully, the now revealed Kobolds are too busy bickering to notice our heroes.

Our party quietly file into the large room with columns and stairs that lead to a raised section. They take up positions while staying hidden in the shadows. Jerrick gestures to his party that he will begin combat by drawing his blade and looks to them for Approval. Rhus nods and the others look at each other and ultimately nod as well. Jerrick strikes one of the Kobolds dead in the middle of their conversation and gestures the other Kobolds are next. The Kobolds struggle to grab their weapons as they are taken out one by one by our heroes. One of the Kobolds was about to fling a stone from his sling at Jerrick, but Cheesers put everything he had into taking down the Kobold. After the Kobold ceased to struggle and death claimed them, Cheesers fell apart. His skull rolled until it stopped, having made contact with Jerrick's boot. Jerrick gently picked up the skull and handed it to Spike, who began to sob. Jerrick turned away to hide the single tear from his eye and said stoically "T'was a good rat".

The click heard earlier was the result of the party unwittingly disabling a large trap. This had caused the Kobolds to argue about what could have gone wrong with their machine, giving our heroes the advantage in the fight. After the Kobolds have been dispatched, our heroes take a moment to catch their breath. At the top of the raised section of the room, the entrance to a long spiral stairway can be seen. It leads down and into the darkness. As they continue forward, Spike feels a tingle in their felt that might indicate a demonic presence.

-End of Log

Tangent Log's, Pathdate: 2023.1223

The Welcoming Party

Point of order, Mc Cringle was replaced by Ruby

As our heroes cautiously descend the stairs, the find themselves in a room with furniture toppled over. They can hear hissing from two Kobolds who have spotted the party due to the light of their torch and the sound of their footsteps. The Kobolds are threatening our party. One is hidden behind a table, the other behind some barrels.

Rhus springs forward and kicks the table at the Kobold hiding behind it causing him to fall backwards and hitting the wall. While the first Kobold is mildly dazed, Rhus continues to the other Kobold. Spike uses their magic to set the furniture alight while Ruby Dew launches a hail of splinters at the kobold, stabbing into him painfully while the splinters on the floor feed the flames. The Kobold scurries to get away from the spreading flames, but before he can get far is felled by Spike's crochet needles in the back.

Jerrick and Rhus flank the remaining Kobold who threatens Jerrick that him and his brothers will eat him, catching him off guard and lands a grazing blow. Using this opening Rhus bites down on the Kobold's shoulder him holding him in place. Jerrick strikes down on the Kobold, being careful not to hit Rhus. The kobold cries in pain and manages to escape Rhu's grasp and hurriedly retreats. Climbing onto some barrels and boxes. As he slips away Rhus laughs and states it looks like they will be eating him and his brothers instead. The Kobold is fleeing for their life, but fails to notice Ruby using elemental water to douse the burning furniture. Ruby turns the water onto the Kobold, who slip and falls breaking the boxes below them. The fall broke his neck and he dies. Influenced by the smell of the cooking Kobold and Rhus' mention of eating kobold, Spike takes a moment to skin and prepare the meat of the cooked Kobold for later use.

The Hidden Path

The fires have revealed that one of the stacks of barrels was used as a barricade to block a path. There is another path as well, however, our heroes decide to see what waits beyond the secret entrance now revealed. The smell of stagnant water hangs in the air. Spike asks Rhus to toss them over the barrels, which he obliges. Jerrick attempts to climb over, but his foot goes right through one of the barrels and Rhus helps him out. Spike weakens the barrels and Rhus works on breaking them down. There is water on the floor. Jerrick, still a little bitter at the indignation checks down the other path.

The stone room exudes an eerie chill, its stagnant air heavy with moisture. Ancient walls, slick with damp, enclose the space. Amidst the gloom, a mermaid fountain stands as the room's heart. Carved from stone, the mermaid's tranquil visage is frozen in time, her once-flowing waters now just a memory. The chamber, colder and damper than any other, hints at tales untold beneath its depths.

Jerrick recalls the story of the dangerous pirate sea captain of mermaid lagoon and a shanty comes to mind.

Of many a-dangers are found at sea,

Beware the sirens' deceptive plea.

Fellow sailors, heed my cry,

Stear clear of their lullaby.

Oh, Mermaid’s Cove, so dark and deep,

Where sirens sing and secrets keep,

Tread lightly, sailor, heed the sound,

Lest the mermaids drag you down.

The waters shimmer, the moonlight gleams,

But beneath the waves, a danger teems,

Their voices sweet, and for you they yearn,

But from their grasp, few ever return.

Oh, Mermaid Cove’s, so dark and deep,

Where sirens sing and secrets keep,

Tread lightly, sailor, heed the sound,

Lest the mermaids drag you down.

Unnerved by the memory he looks back and notices Rhus coming towards him. He grunts and tells Jerrick the path is clear, and something about a "fire rat." Jerrick notices the path is a bit flooded, but nothing too drastic. The path splits revealing a small ledge where the pool of water gets deeper and the other what looks like a shrine with a creature glowing as if made of flames. It is indeed a fire rat, better known as a cinder rat.

Rhus simple gestures to the rat and says "fire" then gestures to the water at their feet "Water". The party nods in understanding at the plan. Spike climbs on Rhus' Shoulders to get a better line of sight. There appears to be four alters, all but one has orbs of elemental energy. Once is an orb of what looks like swirling mud, another appears to contain swirling clouds, and the last is an orb made of flames that the cinder rat observes with great interest. Rhus creeps closer with Spike on his shoulders. Once in position, Spike launches their crochet needles and angers the rat while Rhus taunts it and they retreat into the water. As the rat comes closer, it hesitates at the edge of the water, but continues carefully and bites Ruby. The poor cactus Leshy is in pain as the fire elemental bites down. Seeing his friend in pain, Jerrick rushes forward and hits the rat with an axe. Rhus joins Jerrick and Ruby and kicks the cinder rat, breaking its grip on Ruby and knocking it deeper into the water. It writhes in pain as the water reaches up to its underbelly and seems to douse some of its body of flames. Ruby gathers cold elemental energy and blast the cinder rat, dousing its flames further. The rat scurries away in panic manages to swim to safety, trying to lick its wounds and relight its flames. It releases a cloud of steam, concealing it. Spike uses an illuminate spell on the rat to relight it, burning off the steam, it is surprised by the assistance. Before it can react, Spike hurls crochet needles through its body. As the throws of death take the cinder rat, all that is left is a small pile of ash.

The Blessings of the Orbs

After the cinder rat had been disposed of, the party begins to examine the alters. Ruby, being familiar with primal energy, and Spike being familiar with Occult and Arcana deduce that these alters represent the elements of fire, earth, air, and water, with the water orb being missing. Spike climbs onto the empty alter and a reaction begins. The water from the Spike's waterskin emerges from it, encasing them in an orb of water. A voice is suddenly heard saying:

I am Gozreh, I bequeath thee this gift. The ocean's might fortify thee and stays thy wounds once a cycle of the star.

The water then began to seep into Spike's felt and was absorbed. The orb of wind unfurled into a cloud and flowed towards Rhus, swirling around him.

I bear no name, beckon the wind for my blessing to ascend the skies. Come morrow's light, my gift shall wane.

The mud orb spilled onto the floor and pooled at Ruby's feet.

I bear no name, beckon the earth for my blessing to gain its strength. Come morrow's light, my gift shall wane.

Amidst the elemental gift exchange, Jerrick eagerly reached for the fire orb, only for it to fizzle out, leaving a disappointing puff of ash. The awkward silence was palpable. Seeing Jerrick's dejection, Ruby, ever the compassionate soul, took his hand, whispered a few arcane words, and passed on the earthy blessing to him. Jerrick smiled and thanked Ruby.

A Repugnant New Threat

Our party, armed with new blessings investigate the cliff face they noticed earlier. Our party struggles to scale the wet stone, but clumsily makes it up the cliff. They hear voices in the distance and see three Xulgaths, human shaped reptilian creatures whose poor temperament is only matched by their repugnant stench. Ruby, noticing the threat rushes the three and pelts them with sharp wooden needles that painfully embed themselves in their flesh. Spike then illuminates them, causing damage as all needles alight.

Rhus rushes over to the nearest lizardman and intimidates him by asking him if he tastes like a kobold and bites down hard. Jerrick runs over to a pillar kicks off and using both his weapons and cleaves the Xulgath in half. Ruby generates a log of wood, hurling it into the face of one the two remain Xulgath. Spike hurls their knitting needles through the heart, and he collapses to the floor. The last remaining Xulgath tries to intimidate Jerrick and strike him with a club. Jerrick easily parries and responds, "I've gutted fishes smellier than you!". Rhus swallows the chunk of Xulgath still in his mouth and laughs maniacally as he gets behind the Xulgath biting down onto him and holding him still while Jerrick cleaves his head off.

The party, having dealt with the threat, heave a sigh of relief and begin moving away from the smell. Jerrick joins them a little later, having found and helped himself to their gold and split the funds among the party. It's not like the dead will have use for it. -End of Log