The Arcane Arca
"Where Secrets Are Stored In Magic"
"Initiation Part 1"
From "The Cronicles of The Zohan"
I, Zohan the cat burglar, have successfully been indoctrined as an innitiate into the Pathfinder Society. My task is to investigate the ruins of a stronghold that was destroyed by an earthquake. The stronghold was easy enough to find, though my party had to kill some hungry dogs to get inside. Once in, we had to do battle with a giant spider that webbed Dice, the gnome, and carried him to it's web. We managed to kill the spider and save Dice, but he took quite the beating. Further in the stronghold we fought off flaming skeletons and found some artifacts including a banner adorned with a phoenix. Climbing our way up, we killed a shocking lizard, and a couple lizard men. Again we climbed and killed more of the lizard men. Curiosly one had a key. Upon further investigation we found a bunch of shinnies and a door to a holding cell. Opening the cell we found a fellow Pathfinder. I released him and he took his wayfinder back away from Dice who, tried as he might, was not able to hold on to it. The Pathfinder made his way back to Absolom while we continued our investigation of the stronghold. We made our way to the 5th floor where we fought off and killed a crocodile and a very large lizard man. Though the battle just about did me in, we won and recovered. However a large piece of the stronghold collapsed, taking myself and Dice with it. We managed, just barely, to recover from that and finally made our way back to the Grand Lodge in Absolom. From there we were compensated for our efforts in the retrieval and exploration of the artifacts and stronghold.
"Initiation Part 2"
From "The Cronicles of The Zohan"
There is no rest for the weary. We were initiated into the Society as full members and given our wayfinders....yay! Soon after the ceremony, I was handed an assignment called Assignment #17. This assignment had four parts to it and they all must be completed within the day. Wasting no time, I gathered up my party and we headed to the Ivy district to meet with Paracountess Zarta Dralneen. Once at her manor, I soon found out that she is a very "upity" woman who seemed to be more interested in playing the political game than anything else. She told us that she will give us the object she borrowed from the Pathfinder Society, but that we would have to get it from the current thing that possessed it. With that she handed me a silver dagger and opened the door to a room that we heard a lot of crashes and bangs from. Once we entered, she closed the door and left. To our suprise we find a room in complete disarray, and a very frustrated imp trying to open the box we were to retrieve. Dice and the elf tried talking to the imp. While they were doing that I was slowly circling the imp. We found out it wanted the box because inside it was something that would give power to the imps. Somehow Dice and the elf talked the imp into giving them the box. But the imp did not seem happy with just giving it up, he wanted it opened. Getting tired of the games, I attacked the imp while Dice and the elf took off. I managed to kill the imp and myself and Ayla were able to catch up to Dice and the elf just as they hailed a carrige. We got the box into a safe box at a near by bank and headed off to the Ascendant Court.
Once there the driver dropped us off at the Temple of the Shining Star, where a paladin named Ollysta Zadrian wanted us to deliver a parcel of medicine to an orphanage, and to verify the character of the owner, an Auntie Baltran. So we went to the East Gate district. We found the Home for Recovery orphanage and decided it would be best if we split up to find out more about this Auntie Baltran. We did not get much information from the people around the area, but a couple of us talked to the children of the orphanage while I delivered the goods. Auntie Baltran showed me how the medicine works and stayed with the kids in the infirmary while I headed downstairs to locate her personal office. I found the door to her office locked, but it didn't stay that way long. Once inside I closed the doors and did a search of her paperwork. I only found a little black book that showed some skewed numbers that just seemed a bit off. I pocketed the book and left the room making sure to close the door and relock it behind me. The others in my party were talking about her turning the kids into cats or some other silly nonsence. Having what we came for, we went back to the Temple of the Shining Star. Once there I turned over my findings to paladin Ollysta Zadrian who was very grateful for our work. Our next stop is a curio shop called the Pickled Imp on the docks.
Once we entered the shop a very interesting fellow named Guaril Karela told us we were to retrieve a book from a storehouse that is to be siezed by the local authorities. He told us where the warehouse was so we went to it. Again the lock on the door was easily enough taken care of. Inside the stench of rotting foods was prevelant, but what we were looking for was spotted on a plank hanging over a hole in the floor which led to the ocean. Not wanting to compromise our target, the elf climbed up to the rafters and rigged a crane with her rope. I took the rope and secured the crate to it. Once the elf got the crate into the air though, 3 dire rats made their appearance and took a bite out of Dice's calf. I easily dispatched two of them, while the elf took out the third. Not wanting to hang around we took the whole crate back to the shop where it was opened by Guaril. He took the book he was after and we got many other shinnies out of the crate. Seems this guy has some hook ups with the local underground. I will be paying him a visit again real soon to hopefully secure a hook-up in Absolom. The third task completed, we headed to the Wise Quarter, to meet with a Dremdhet Salhar.
We reached his estate only to find that Salhar had to leave on urgent business. His advisor though was more then willing to help us. We were to obtain a map to the Salhar vaults for the Pathfinder Society. The society made a verbal agreement with Salhar. We were told we can go down to the basement to fetch the map we needed. So a servant led us to the basement room. Once inside he closed and locked the door. Feeling this was a trap we quickly looked around. I found a note that said our quest and the way out was within the room. So without further hesitation we investigated and found three chests, a vial, and a wicker basket. The one chest was an illusion. The other chests resisted our best attempts to unlock them. The vial was broken and in it was a key. The wicker basket also held a key...and a viper. Silly elf got bit by it. One of the keys opened the third chest which had a mechanisim in it that opened a panel from the ceiling revealing yet another key. Finally getting that key, we opened the middle chest. It had some kind of trap in it that turned my fur blue for a while, but we found the map. We used one of the keys we found to unlock the door and get out. Seems we passed the test, though the servant wasn't too thrilled that I was turned blue. Catching a carriage we headed back to the Grand Lodge.
Thinking our task was finally over, we ended up in a very clever ambush. Our driver disappeard and a very thick fog surrounded the area. We got out of the carriage and that brought on a crossbow bolt flying by us. Really flustered by the days events and really tired, I mustered my strength and charged into the fog where I found myself toe to toe with a halfling barbarian. We exchanged blows but he eventually fell to my claws. After downing a couple heal potions I next found myself looking at a half-elven sorcerer who also fell to my claws. Before I know it, the fog was lifted and there were four bodies of these would be thieves on the street. After relieving them of their items of intrest, we finally made it back to the lodge. Our efforts were once again compensated and now it's time for a cat nap before the Society hands us another mission.