TPS Report 4

The
Pathfinder
Society

Report



By: Tyack Verumpeto
It was a dark and stormy night. Ok it was neither dark nor stormy. As a matter of fact it wasn’t even night, but I thought I would add some dramatic flair for whatever poor SOB at the Pathfinder Society got assigned to read these damn things. But now that idea is totally ruined so you’re stuck reading the boring facts as they happened. Well at least I almost died in this report, which was both exciting and terrifying. Not for you of course, you just have to read this. For you it would be better if I had actually died then…hey…one less report…I can knock off early and go to the pub. Sadly no such luck and for that I apologize.
Anyway, to continue, proceed, and carry on with my repetitively redundant narrative. We managed to get the Foxglove town house exorcised and came away with a little bit more loot plus foxgloves journal stating that he had regularly met people at the Sawmill in Magnimar where he was making 200gp payments to what was marked as B7. B7, which in addition to giving me a Bingo, we deduced stood for the Brotherhood of the 7, an organization we found owned a third of Foxglove manor, which after a certain time, the house would revert to them completely. Since my precognitive powers granted to me by a spirit (or several glasses of spirits, take your pick) predict that Foxglove manor will go up in a great fountain of flame in the very near future, I cannot think that the Brotherhood will ever have a chance to collect. Nevertheless we decided to make the rendezvous with the brotherhood in Magnimar, the following Oath day. We also planned to investigate Foxglove’s townhouse to see if we could find any more clues with which to enrich ourselves.
Now Grok decided not to travel with us because he was catching up with his old comrade from Janderhof and Nando had decided to try out his camping skills after losing some money while gambling; so Valdaire, Bock and I proceeded to investigate on our own. We arrived in town after escorting Belven Valdemar. I was willing to do it for just the good will, but my companions wanted to remuneration for it. Sadly, my companions seem a little coin-obsessed. But based on what I’ve seen Valdaire shell out for spells, it’s not that great a surprise. Still, with Valdaire’s intelligence he should be able to figure out that the good will of the nobility is worth far more than the pittance of money we would get for any task. Sadly, Valdaire’s diplomatic skills need a bit of work. Bock, is of course a Shoanti, who missed several of our more lucrative hauls, and seems a bit strapped for cash as well.
After we dropped Belven off, we went to Foxglove’s manor to search the place. I donned Valdaire’s hat of disguise to appear to be Foxglove, just in case any servants were milling about the place. Much to our surprise, as we were investigating the house, we came across a couple in the library that appeared to be Aldern Foxglove and his wife Iesha. Knowing that these two individuals were dead (we killed Aldern and he killed Iesha) I tried to bluff my way around it. However it turns out that these two weren’t crafty adventurers like us but instead beings known as Faceless stalkers who had rubbery skin and the ability to take various human forms. A fight almost immediately broke out. Bock fired his bow with great accuracy and rapidity while Valdaire first believed he had this great conflagration ability that he could endlessly cast with no consequences, but that turned out to be either a dream, or extreme wishful thinking. Instead Valdaire used his other fire spells to bring the stalkers to a fiery end and achieve a truly pyrrhic victory. My part in the combat involved getting the hell repeatedly knocked out of me while I flailed around like someone who had spent too much time recently at the Hagfish. I was nearly slain (see I promised that it happened) and only a final remembrance to heal my wounds before searching for treasure saved my life. Sadly there was very little to be found at Foxglove townhouse, so we proceeded to spend the next several days looking around town, shopping, and (with the party’s agreement) hiring a cleric to travel with us, for a full share of the treasure. We landed at the temple of Sarenrae, where I received succor for my wounds and where we hired Kyra a dark-skinned priestess seeking adventure. After some haggling over the price, she agreed to come with us. And glad she would be for that decision (as you shall see in a bit)
We decided to make the appointment on Oathday, once again I was disguised as Aldern where I planned to make the payment for “Iesha’s weekly trip to Absalom”. By-the-way, if you are ever thinking of buying a cap of disguise, and using said cap to disguise yourself as Aldern Foxglove….SAVE YOUR MONEY! That trick never works. And so it was when we went to investigate the Magnimaran sawmill. I gave the knock, I was skeptically invited in. I asked to see the “Master” I was shown upstairs , and then the employees put on crazy skinsaw masks and I was attacked.
This fight is what we in the adventuring community like to refer to as a “comedy of errors” Nobody could hit anyone. Bock and our new cleric were trapped outside a locked door that took several tries to open. Valdaire, came in through the basement and couldn’t hit anything. I stunned one cultist and kept the others at bay while I blocked their only doorway into the stairwell in which we fought. Almost the entire rest of the combat I was missed and pushed back, and commanded to fall down by the spells of these crazed cultists. Finally Valdaire was able to pressure the Master cultist to flee, while Bock who had finally gained entrance, proceeded to mow down the rest of the cultists with almost god-like precision shooting from his bow. Finally the master was forced to flee down the stairs with us in pursuit. I leaped upon him and gained my only other hit of the day, knocking him into unconsciousness. I manacled him and he was unmasked to be revealed as ….Justice Ironbriar. Thankfully we hadn’t killed a high-ranking (though depraved) member of the town and I immediately instructed Kyra to get her High Priest, or someone else trustworthy, with authority to come view the scene, so that we, as strangers to the town, might not be seen as criminals.
We also searched the sawmill and discovered that Ironbriar, was a very sick sick man and had human skins decorating his office. I should note however, as I did then, that I was impressed with this cults civic duty by all holding down vital town jobs in the saw mill while committing whatever other nefarious acts they were doing. I can only imagine the interview process went something like:

Ironbriar: So you want to be a member of our blood-thirsty, skin-wearing cult? Well, what are your skills.
Applicant: Well, as a youth I killed my family and flayed the family pets. I wore my dog’s head as a hat for weeks and since then I have been on a bloody rampage across the countryside.
Ironbriar: Yes, yes…all well and good, but have you ever worked in a sawmill cutting lumber?
Applicant: I have used saws to split people in two. I kidnapped a girl and placed her on a log splitter to see her ripped in half?
Ironbriar: Yes, Yes, as I’ve said, your killing skills are quite good, but have you ever worked in an actual sawmill? Sweeping up sawdust, getting a feel for the plane of the wood and how to split it just so, so you can get maximum usage per square foot with only a minimal amount of reforestation needed?
Applicant: Um?
Ironbriar: To differentiate between your hard and soft woods and broker relationships with the carpenters and builders that can turn your beautifully cut piece of timber into a cathedral or perhaps a dresser, or dare I say even an Ottoman?
Applicant: Um, I had a job as a barrel maker once.
Ironbriar: Oh I am so sorry…we really would have liked to have you, but really without sawmill skills, I’m just not sure you would fit in.
Applicant: But…but…I really like ritualistic murder.
Ironbriar: I know you do son, I know you do, and it breaks my heart to turn you away, but hey I tell you what, they’ve got a sawmill up in Sandpoint. Why don’t you apprentice yourself there for about a year or so, learn the trade, get a feel for the grain so to speak. Then you come back here and I promise we’ll review your application again. Now run along, I have a rich politico to eviscerate before I get back to my two loves of jurisprudence and lumbering.

Or something like that.

Regardless we found also found a ledger in IronBriar’s room written in a very complex cipher which we need to decode. In addition to this, we were able to get the constabulary on our side and round up the absent cultists by awaiting them the next morning in disguise and sending them up to see the “Master”. The entire sawmill seemed to be culpable for ritualistic murders of wealthy/miserly people. As I previously had suspected. Despite the cult’s disdain for the miserly the money we made off of the place amount to well over 1500 gp each, making Kyra quite grateful that she had joined us. She even gained a wand of Cure Moderate Wounds