Iron Gods : Double Characters (IC)

[Sleepy Shade]

With nothing more to be gained in the caves you make your way back to Sef. You see the Gremlin Sarina knocked out in the caves is gone. Back at Sef's hut you see her sharpening a dagger. She looks up and smiles "Ah your back. Thought you weren't gonna go in until tomorrow. So you got rid of them?" She continues to sharpen the knife as she talks to you.

[Continental Op]

Kallak responds, "Yes, we killed most of them, including their leader. They won't bother you again." He gestures inside the hut, "So can we go inside and we speak to..." and he looks to Thorny, "Sef, is it?".

[Sleepy Shade]

Sef looks at you in confusion "I am Sef and no we won't go inside. But Luepel came back and told me you went in there So i'll give you your reward those gremlins have been a pain in our side for to long." Sef gets up sheathes the dagger and enters her hut for a moment she comes back out holding a small sack and hands it to you.
Inside the sack is some silver disks and some strange cards. The cards are made of a f lexible, smooth material and have a brown stripe their are five of them.
"I know you have questions so now that you got rid of those gremlins I'll answer them."

[u-b]

"Just go ahead and give us the answers you gave the previous groups. We'll let you know if we want to clarify anything else." Thony does not seem any more friendly than at the end of his earlier interaction with Sef. He does not move to take the reward either. When it becomes too obvious that he's not doing it, Sarina staps forwards and takes the bag. She takes a look into it. "What is that?"

[Sleepy Shade]

Sef shakes her head "Only one group interacted with us before you on friendly terms. I didn't talk to them our leader at the time Kerrilk did. What question do you want answered?"
At Sarina's question Sef just shrugs "I'm not sure but the lady that came through before asked us to search for those weird cards so they must be important"

[Continental Op]

Kallak looks from Thorny to Sef, with a little surprise showing on his face. "Oh, you are Sef. My apologies. My name is Kallak and this is Yarro. You already met Thorny and Sarina, obviously. What group talked to you before? And what lady talked to you? Was she shorter, like a halfing?"

Yarro steps up next to Sarina. "What cards? May I take a look?"

[u-b]

Sarina takes one card out then hands Yarro the bag with the rest. She casts a spell then, and looks at the card in her hand.

Spoiler

Show

Detect Magic for...
Know (arcana) (1d20+5)[10]
Spellcraft (1d20+5)[13]

[Sleepy Shade]

Sarina holds up the card and tries to detect any magic it may possess however the card is entirely non magical and no aura shines forth. Yarro however immediately knows what the card is an Access Card. The brown coloring denotes it as the lowest grade of card.
Sef answers "The first group that we meet when we came here struck a deal with our leader. It was mostly Half orcs and rat men but they followed a pink haired woman. She was about as tall as you" She gestures to Yarro "She wasn't a short person. She wanted us to keep anyone from following her that came through here but I've decided that was a crap deal we're to few and we can't go home." Sef spits on the ground annoyed.

Spoiler: Access card

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An access card is a small strip of stiff plastic with a color-coded stripe on one side. Some access cards are further decorated with names or titles, or even photographs. An access card functions as a key—when swiped through an electronic lock (a move action), an access card unlocks any lock of its color code or a color code of a lower rating. Although access cards do not consume energy themselves, they work in only electronic locks that currently have power. Among certain societies, access cards are also used as decorations, worn as affectations, and incorporated into ceremonial regalia.
Access cards must be encoded to specific locks before they can function. Often, all of the doors in a complex are keyed to a unique set of cards that don’t work on doors found in other complexes, much like a skeleton key might open all the doors in one castle but none in another. Coding an access card for specific locks requires a lock coder.

Access Card colors Low to high->
Brown,Black,White,Gray,Green,Red,Blue,Orange,Prism atic

[u-b]

"How did they pay you? And will you elaborate about interactions with the other groups?" Asks Thony, putting just minimal effort to not sound outright interrogating. Sarina intervenes. "Where is your home and why can't you go there?"

[Sleepy Shade]

Sef just shrugs "They paid Kerrilk with what I'm not sure but everything of value was taken from his place when he was killed. After they paid him and went through the metal wall we encountered two groups. The first seemed to be a bunch of thugs their were a lot of them but they went down easy for the most part. But then a smaller group came by had some sort of spell caster." Sef pauses for a moment thinking "There were about a dozen of us we've survived some tough stuff and had Kerrilk's magic. But they slaughtered our defenses and destroyed almost everyone only the four of us remain" Sef pauses taking a moment to collect herself. "Another group soon came by they had some heavily armed people and weird symbols they went through the metal wall as well we didn't interfere with them they looked like they would have attacked us at a moments notice.The third group came again but we hid no hope in fighting them. They went beyond the metal wall only one came back we were not going to let some revenge slip by and chased him into fungus room. Finally we decided to greet you when you came through and you've proven more helpful than I expected." When Sarina bring up her question Sef responds with "You saw that big hole in the floor near the metal wall? It's long and runs deep Kerrilk used some sort of flying spell to transport us from the deep below to this cavern. This cavern we thought would be safer than down there. You can see how that has turned out for us. Now with no way home we're stuck here as the hole is to deep for us to climb back down."

[u-b]

"Do you know what is behind the brown mold or anything about the blinding-eyes critter called blindhiem and how it ended up where we had to kill it?" Thony is ready to explain where exactly was that and what the critter was like. "As for the thugs, do you still have the bodies and stuff?" Then, while he thinks what other questions to ask, Sarina adds some. "Do you have everything you need to survive at the moment? We'll be back to town soon enough and back here tomorrow, we can buy stuff for you, if you need anything, food and the like." Neither has brought up the topic of how people in town would feel if and when they learn about the fates of the previous expeditions and how this would relate to these folks' survival. Sharing the things just learned will require some thinking, to be sure.

[Continental Op]

Kallak and Yarro listen to this exchange with interest. If the question is not answered in response to Thorny, Kallak picks an appropriate time to chime in about the brown mold, asking "Yes, about that brown mold. Do you know how to deal with it? We would like to reach the person who was caught in it."

[Sleepy Shade]

Sef looks at Thony with some surprise "Pet was still around? When we came up we brought Pet to help us hunt or act as a guard we had lost him in the fight he must have been hiding in one of the caves. The mold we have encountered it before it feeds off heat you'll need some sort of spell or alchemical stuff to kill it with cold. We threw some torches to grow it when we first got here to block off any sort of ambush."
When the topic of the thugs come up she looks hesitant "The bodies were disposed of down the hole not much use for them. Their items we stripped from them. Kerrilk told me to sort them before the attack came so I still have all that stuff. I'm willing to trade but I want stuff in return."

At Sarina's question she thinks for a moment before answering "For now we don't need anything we lived underground for ages we know how to live here. The gremlins were the biggest nuisance we had down here."

At Kallak's question about the body she scoffs "You want that corpse you can have it. Just ask one of the others to fish it out for you tell them Sef's orders."

[u-b]

Neither Thony nor Sarina have any more questions. They now intend to get the body from the brown mold, search it, then take it to the surface.

[Continental Op]

Kallak looks surprised, and follows up with, "Can we look at the stuff from the previous groups? What would you want in trade?"

[Sleepy Shade]

Sef considers kallak question and answers "You can look for now but trade later." She walks over to her hut and grabs a crudely made box made of scrap "This is the lighter stuff don't feel like dragging other stuff out right now. Maybe next time"
If Thony and Sarina want to ask the humanoids to help get the bodies they can.

You have 2 hours and 50 minutes left of water breathing.
Skill prompt
Appraise on the stuff in the box

Spoiler: Box of stuff

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Gold coins in a small bag
Two bottles of some liquid
Two sets of tools
two unidentified scrolls.

[Continental Op]

Yarro takes a good look at the items in the box. Kallak looks over her shoulder and points out a thing or two in an undertone to help her.

When she is done, she nods and says, "Thank you. We may be interested in some of these items. What sort of things would you like in return?"

And Kallak chimes in, "Yes, and when we return we would be interested in anything else you have. Specifically any personal items from anyone who died. Even if it does not look like it has any value to you, someone on the surface may want it because it is personal."

[Sleepy Shade]

Yarro and Kallak have some trouble identifying the items however Sef allows you to take them out of the box and take a closer look.
The two sets of tools are thieves tools but you can't get a good look at them to asses their quality.
The bottles Yarro figures are cure moderate wounds potions after examining them for awhile.
The scrolls you can't make sense of. You might need to cast read magic to get a better understanding.
At the bottom of the box you do see a sunrod you overlooked initially.

"Thank you. We may be interested in some of these items. What sort of things would you like in return?"

Sef considers for a moment looks back at her house and responds with"Something to sleep on might be nice and some of us need better clothes, food is always welcome but if you can find us some way to learn magic that might be worth alot."

"Yes, and when we return we would be interested in anything else you have. Specifically any personal items from anyone who died. Even if it does not look like it has any value to you, someone on the surface may want it because it is personal."

"The gremlins would come around and steal from us on occasion if you found anything around their lair it's most likely thoise personal objects you want. Odd stuff might turn up on occasion we might find something we'll let you know."

[u-b]

After the examination of the stuff is complete, Thony goes to get someone to fish the corpse out of the brown mold.

[Continental Op]

Kallak goes with Thorny to check out the brown mold and the body.

If Sarina stays, Yarro turns to her and asks, "There are some scrolls here. Would you be able to identify them?"

[u-b]

Sarina casts a spell and looks at the scrolls. She cannot make much sense of them beyond establishing whether they are magical. After some time of trying to make sense of the writings, she hands the scrolls back to Sef.

Spoiler

Show

Detect Magic is all that Sarina has at the moment.

[Sleepy Shade]

Thony soons finds one of the male humanoids of the group he by one of the huts scratching something into some small bones using the tip of a dagger he looks up at you and puts the bone away waiting for you to speak.

Sarina reads the scroll auras and finds that one has a divination aura and the other abjuration.

Skill prompt
Identify the scrolls : Spellcraft Dc 21

[u-b]

Thony explains what he wants. "Sef orders the corpse lying in the brown mold fished for us so we can take it back to town. Can do?"

Meanwhile Sarina comments on the scrolls. "They are magical, all right, one divination, another abjuration, but I can make no conclusions about which spells those actually are. We can try buying them if Sef calls her price and then have them identified in town."

[Sleepy Shade]

The humanoid stands up and speaks " Sure give us a bit"
After about 20 minutes of getting a rope around the corpse and dragging it out you can now examine the corpse. However Brath (the huminoid you spoke to) tells you you'll have to drag it back to the entrance yourself.

The body is a human male
Skill Propt
Identify the body: (Know Local: Dc12)
Examine and determine cause of death: (Heal: Dc15)

[u-b]

Thony looks the corpse in the face. He thinks he recognizes this one. He fails to make sense of any damage that might have occured before whatever the mold did that supposedly finished this person. He then proceeds with a thorough search, just in case.

[Continental Op]

Kallak tries to help Thorny, but does not accomplish much. "You recognize him? Hmmm...nope. I don't think I know who he is, or how he died, sorry."

---

Yarro nods at Sarina, and looks at Sef. "When the boys get back, we will be going to the surface. We will come back tomorrow with some of the supplies you want."

[Sleepy Shade]

Thony while not a native of the town recognizes the body is that of Gerrol one of the people from Khonnir's team. While you can't make a definitive prognosis as to what killed him you do notice some strange green spots on the body.
The body is currently wearing a masterwork chain shirt and you also find a few things on the body of masterwork thieves’ tools, a masterwork hand crossbow with 5 bolts, several empty vials and a bag with 37 gp. The clothes are torn and it looks like he was in a fight before he was killed.

Skill prompt: Know Nature to identify the green stuff

[u-b]

Thorny reports his findings to Kallak and is ready to gather everybody and head back to town, dragging the corpse there too.

[Sleepy Shade]

Kallak tries to remember what he can about the various types of fungus he read about in Khonnir's books as he examines the body and the mold and a sudden chill goes through his body. The mold is Russet Mold a parasitic fungus that will eventually kill its host and birth from the body a group of vegepygmys.A patch of russet mold is unharmed by all effects save for acid, alcohol, or remove disease (or a similar magical effect, such as heal), all of which can kill a single patch of russet mold on contact. Luckily this patch of mold on the body is still fairly young you might have a full 24hrs before the russet molds matures enough to release the vegepygmys. It's odd though this type of mold usually exists in tropical climates what it doing here?

[Continental Op]

Kallak stops and explains this to Thorny. "What in the nine hells is this this doing here?! Thorny, this fungus is bad. It will start to spawn creatures in a day if we don't get rid of it. Sarina can conjure acid, right? We should get this to her quickly. Just - don't touch any of the green."