Doomsday Dawn, Chapter One: The Lost Star

[Maetrox]

Being the one who finished Drakus off with his zippedy zaps, Gorgutz strides over to his corpse with pride and a smug grin on his face. Seeing a familiar shine around Drakus's neck, Gorgutz grabs the key and yanks it off his lifeless corpse. Bouncing up and down on his chest, Gorgutz laughs loudly and examines the key in his hands. "Gorgutz iz Biggun' now, Drek. No bloody slurpz anymore!" Gorgutz puffs up his chest and lowers his voice as much as he can. "Gorgutz go git shiny, Gorgutz go boom vault, Gorgutz kleen slime... Gorgutz not doin' anythin', Gorgutz iz Biggun'."

Just as he's done with his rant, he gets beckoned by Finn. He walks up to him and starts looking at both him and the key for a good minute. "Gorgutz new Biggun', iz true. New Biggun' iz not shiny crazy, 'ere iz key. Gib back soon, iz promiz." Handing over the key to Finn, Gorgutz moves back to Drakus's body once more. He levitates the largest object he can find, and drops it on Drakus's face. "Done."

 

[WetHawk]

Finn did his best to make out the garbled mess of common that Gorgutz spoke in, gathering that he still wanted the key back after Finn had finished. He gave him a smirk and a pat on the back. "Friend, you can have all the keys you want once I'm done with this." He walked over to the chest and carefully inserted the key before unlocking it with a crisp snap, and opening the chest to reveal various riches. Fucking hell... these buggers really were busy, weren't they? His keen gnomish eyes quickly sorted through the gems, precious metals, and finery until he spotted a familiar broach. There she is... the Star of Desna. Finn quickly snatched it up and eyed it carefully before pulling out a torch and lighting it to be able to inspect it in the light. Yep... that's her. Never seen anything catch the light quite as perfectly as she does before in my life.

Finn pocketed the Star and relocked the chest as walked out to the rest of the party, tossing the key to Gorgutz. "Alright, the Star of Desna was there and fully intact. There's all sorts of shit we should sort through here, but the master chest is off limits. That's the property of the nobility of Magnimar, you hear? Anyways, good work, all of you. I know I might not've seemed too keen to work with all of you lot, but a gnome can be wrong once in a blue moon, eh?" He chuckled, nodding over to Eketh as he mentioned the moon. He then paused for a moment before looking at Cadseem and Aralouk, the most able bodied of their crew. "Anyways, either of you mind grabbing the chest? I'm not too keen to leave it down here any longer."

 

[Expersprobi]

Having vanquished the abomination known as Drakus the Taker, successfully located and secured the Star of Desna, and pacified the remains of Drakus' goblin horde under the leadership of Gorgutz, the party makes the short trek back out of the Ashen Ossuary, through the sewers, and up through the floor of the Daverin family vault. The trip takes longer as you haul the chest back, a convenient vessel for the goblin's ill-gotten gains.

As you exit the vault, you can see that it has grown late, the moon is high in the sky and Jansen wakes in his chair where he's been waiting to greet you, "Back for a break? The house is open to you all for the evening." He is surprised to find that you have collected the Star of Desna and are returning after only a day in the sewers. "Marvelous, I'll collect Madame Daverin at once. Please make yourselves comfortable in the study."

Gathered in the study, there's a few moments for the party to sort themselves out and get comfortable before the door opens and Jansen announce Keleri as she enters. He promptly closes the door behind her, presumably waiting outside. Keleri looks around the room, distress on her face, "Jansen just woke me, he said you had urgent news, are you alright? Did one of you fall?" She looks around, counting you all, "No... What requires my attention at this late hour?" The concern in her voice grows desperate. In her worry, she completely misses the large chest sitting next to the table.

 

[WetHawk]

Finn leaned against the wall as Keleri arrived and gave her a jaunty wave. "We're all fine, Keli, although I think the dwarf might have some indigestion over the next few days." He approached her and gave a mock bow as he withdrew the Star of Desna from his jacket pocket and presented it to her. "One Star of Desna, as requested. I'd get it polished before wearing it because Calistria knows what the fucker was doing with the thing, but other than that it's in perfect condition." His cocky air dropped for a moment as he gave Keleri a genuine smile.

 

[Expersprobi]

Keleri takes the star, wrapping Finn in a hug. "Oh! Thank you Finn!" She turned back, "Thank you, all of you. It means so much to me. What... of the goblins and their vampire leader?" She looks to Gorgutz, "Your friend is safe and comfortable, but she wanted a new life for all of you, not just her. I promised to work at getting the laws reformed and allowing goblins into the city as an equal race."

 

[Zilfer]

Cadseem was humbled to have heard the voice of his goddess. A honor reserved mainly only for the highest of her clerics, and paladins who felt the goddess' renewed blessing everyday. This cemented his thoughts that the goddess might have influenced events so that he was included in cleansing her Ossuary. He would have to report this to his father and the church. He wasn't an active member of the church, though at one point he had thought to become an acolyte. He still felt he could do more good outside of the constrains of the church.

As the others went about collecting a few things of the dead, he set about saying words he had been taught by his father to lay the spirits to rest. The weight of the infernal thing in his bag weighed heavy to him as he now knew there were those out there that would corrupt such a holy place. It would need to be destroyed, but he wasn't confident in his own ability to do so. His mind pondered this as he worked on setting the goblin's into their own resting places as best he could, save for Drakus who he thought would feel insulted if he gave it a resting place in her Ossuary. He carried the corpse out into the sewers casting it aside for anything down here that might feast upon it, and upon returning he was offered one of the finely made longswords.

He was hesitant to steal from the dead but then he remembered Pharasma speaking of their reward. He uneasily accepted the blade looking momentarily down to his heirloom still tied with a peaceknot. In addition he collected the Silver holy symbol of Pharasma looking at the gleam that the spiral icon reflected back at him. 'Was this the end of what you needed from me? Or was there more I can do?' he asked himself privately. They had managed to save some of the goblins lives. Was that enough for him? He supposed it was. Cadseem gave his own praise to the gnome when he called out that it was good working with everyone, and let the group know he wasn't against working together in the future since everything seemed to go smoothly.

Cadseem also spoke briefly thanking them all. "I was raised Pharasmian as you might have guessed from my knowledge about this place, though I'm no Cleric or Paladin it means a lot to me that we were able to cleanse this place of a taint. I would have gladly done this job for free had I known it would lead to this. Allow me also to thank you all for your services to the goddess, as she expressed herself earlier. After we return I plan to get that icon in the water destroyed, and inform my father who is of the church of Pharasma as to what had happened in the Ossuary."
______________________________
With that they headed out into the sewers, Cadseem contemplating how differently the day had turned out than what he had expected. When they arrived and Keleri thought one of them had died or that something was wrong it was the best he could do to politely smile. Obviously the hour was late, and she might have been woken up and groggy from sleep.

"Some of the Goblins are safe, though unfortunately not all of them could be saved. Whatever the thing was it mentioned a Red Bishop and I intend to find out what it meant by that," says Cadseem firmly as he uses his dagger to tap his bag where the statue that had corrupted the sanctum's water. "And whoever sent it to corrupt Pharasma's tears. I couldn't in good conscious take money for something I would have done for free, so I would request that you instead send my payment to the Church of Pharasma."

He smiles widely for half a heartbeat. "Meeting new friends is reward enough."

 

[Expersprobi]

Keleri thought a moment, "Red Bishop? That doesn't ring a bell, but I could ask some people I know." She looked to Eketh, not sure if he would understand who she meant. Keleri shook her head, "I'll ask, but I can't promise answers. I will make sure your reward is delivered promptly to the church - in the morning and that your success impressive achievement is made known to the Pathfinder Society. I'm glad to hear that some of the goblins survived, perhaps with time they can be given a place in the city as it should be." She looks around the room again, noticing the chest on the ground. "And what is that?"

 

[WetHawk]

"That? Oh, that's just all of our stolen belongings. No big deal." Finn casually approached the chest and carefully flipped open the latch of it, mindful of the poisoned trap, before opening it and displaying it's contents to Keleri and the rest of the group. "I'm pretty sure I see a fair amount of my family's shit in here, but there's certainly tons of your gold as well. I'm sure that someone less... open minded than I would be better able to sort through our possessions."

 

[Expersprobi]

Keleri peered into the chest, "Oh, yes... I recognize some of these things." She yawned before bending down to pick up a small leather bound journal. "I've never seen this before though. Who could own it?" She flipped it open and turned pale. "We should... This needs... Uh..." Keleri looks a little embarrassed, "I am an initiate of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. Remus is the local chapter head, he should see this book immediately; it may contain secrets on the machinations of the Night Heralds and the impending world's end. It will take time for us to study this book, but I encourage you all to aid us in this quest, you are all clearly capable and we need all the help we can get."