Continuing Developments
Story Awards
- Images of Thybidos are quite rare—since the PCs made a good copy of this image (with a successful DC 25 Craft or Profession check of an appropriate type) and gave the image to Sheila with the journal, she gives them a 1,000 gp reward for the discovery.
- Delivering the Journal to the Heidmarchs, earns each member of the party +1200 XP and a Wayfinder. Further, the specific details in the journal earns the party another 2,500 gp from Lord Canayven and they are awarded yet another +2000 XP each. Also the Fame scores of PCs who choose to become members of the Pathfinder Society faction increase by 8 and they earn 8 Prestige Points for their accomplishments. These deeds do leek out to the general populace, in a manner, also increasing each PC's Reputation score by 2.
- +800 XP each—for opening the Siccatite doors.
- There may be some value in having found the earthly remains of Nazir Kalmeralm, former Prince of the Market, who disappeared in 4685 AR. Perhaps a trip to the current Princess of the Market as that information may be worth something?
- +1600 XP each—for disabling the Rift Siphon
- If the PCs secure Lockerbie's assistance against the derros, award them +1200 XP each. If they deliver the broach to his wife and thus ease her pain, award them an additional +800 XP (each).
- +600 XP each—for rescuing the prisoners.
Jasper Kandamerus
(as told by Sheila Heidmarch)
On the morning of the 21st of Rova, before the PCs set out for the Lady's Cape, Sheila mentions that it might be a good idea to look for some additional advice about the region, if only to get a better idea about the dangers that lie in wait for them. Of course, if the PCs plan on walking through the swamp rather than simply taking a boat south, a guide's advice will be invaluable. Sheila Heidmarch suggests the PCs seek out Jasper Kandamerus, an eccentric who, if the PCs can get him to focus his mind, has travelled the southwestern Mushfens more than anyone else the venture-captain knows. She warns them that Jasper is a bit “unhinged,” though, and that they should bring some patience with them if they hope to gain his aid.
Jasper has no fixed address—he spends much of his time in Rag's End these days, preaching to any who walk by about dire apocalypses that will surely soon come to Varisia. Sheila warns that Jasper's never been quite right in the head since Varisia's close brush with Runelord Karzoug rising from his tomb several years ago, and is now convinced that event presaged an unavoidable doom that surely will come to Varisia within a year. If this worries the PCs, Sheila wryly observes that Jasper's been prophesying the “end of Varisia by the end of the year” for several years now, and that he is more mad than prophetic in nature. Still, his knowledge of the Mushfens is solid, and if the PCs can get his madness to abate for a short time, interviewing him should give them some key tips on how to proceed.
Defending The Street Prophet
Approaching Jasper's street corner, the PCs are likely to hear his raspy voice before they spot him in the flesh. Jasper is a wild-haired bearded man clad in a dusty armoured coat and armed with a heavy flail with skull-shaped heads, ranting in a stentorian tenor at any who care to listen.
“Woe! Woe unto thee, O Magnimar, for oblivion approaches and thy lamentations shall drown out the sounds of the sea! The Great Whore straddles a two-headed beast and rides this way, sowing the contaminated seeds of her blasphemies as she draws nearer. Weep! Weep, O Generation of the Damned, for none shall escape the pitiless scythe of oblivion. Heed my warning and turn to Groetus! Grasp this mortal hand I offer and we shall march into the void together!”
As the PCs approach Jasper, two things occur in quick succession. First, as Jasper notices the PCs, he pauses in his sermon and stares in their direction with a look of jubilant awe before he bellows exultantly: “Behold! The Blessed Ushers of the End Times! The Holy Escorts of Oblivion! Soldiers of the Void, champions of mighty Groetus himself!”
At the same moment, a group of three thugs who have been waiting for Jasper to suddenly become distracted seize the moment to make their move against the doomsayer. Each of these ruffians is clad in cracked leather armour and wields a stout club. Their lips and the corners of their mouths are stained black—side effects of the pesh cut with night lotus root they're all addicted to.
These three thugs are cousins—pesh addicts who call themselves the Black Kiss Boys. “Oi!” shouts one of them. “You filthy beggar! We've had jus' about enough of your mad racket, scarin' honest merchants, frightenin' away customers with your gloomy twaddle!” He and his two companions immediately raise their clubs and step forward to teach Jasper a lesson—unless the PCs intervene.
Seeing this atrocity in action, Rupert was first to act and struck all three cousins with Scorching Ray. This was immediately followed by Taarn putting on such a display of martial prowess that all three cousins were demoralized (and almost soiled themselves). Mersit was next inflicting a piercing wound to one of the cousins while Esdar poked one with his "pickle fork" and Ashen proceeded to flash freeze another (solid ice black kissicle). Jasper, for his part swings his flail at one black kiss boy missing then after taking a club or three look like he will swing at the kissicle when he drops his flail and falls to his knees, holding his head, and wailing that the end is nigh!”
The Black Kiss Boys stayed focused on Jasper as Rupert fired more Scorching Rays into the melee missing with two, but striking one. Taarn bull rushed the frozen black kiss boy into one of his cousin's pushing him ten feet past Jasper. Mersit flitted over Jasper and landing behind the remaining black kiss boy and drove his sword into the ribs bringing that cousin to a quick comatose state. Esdar proceeded to stabilize the unconscious miscreant. The final cousin ran for his life.
Speaking with Jasper
Securing Jasper's cooperation requires more than merely saving his life from local thugs. He's suffering from schizophrenia, and his madness is currently in full form. Until the PCs can calm him down, talking to him is an exercise in futility. A DC 20 Diplomacy check is enough to get him to settle down long enough to talk to him, as is a successful hypnotism, hypnotic pattern, enthrall, touch of fatigue, or calm emotions spell (or any effect that successfully fascinates or fatigues him, such as opium or flayleaf ). In this case however, the party brought him to an inn that Taarn was not yet allowed to step back into (until the next full moon) whereupon Ashen gave Jasper a shot of Elven Absinthe. Once calm enough to speak to, Jasper expresses his thanks to the PCs for saving him from the Black Kiss Boys. Between bouts of rambling and proclaiming dire omens (see below), he confirms that he knows much about the southwestern Mushfens and the Lady's Cape, indicating that for many months he sought something of interest in the region. If pressed for more details, he only morosely replies that, “It doesn't matter now—the Doomsday Door was probably in Bakhrakhan anyway, and is likely underwater today.”
Asked specifically about the Lady's Cape, Jasper can give the PCs the following three particularly useful bits of advice.
Maroux: First, they should seek out the witch Maroux. Jasper can give the PCs directions to the witch's home, but warns them that she's somewhat easily angered by trespassers. He tells them that as they approach her hut, they should call out to her, “Greetings, Lady Maroux—Jasper sent us to you. We seek your advice!”. Furthermore, he suggests they offer their help to the woman, since she's always got little tasks she wants done but lacks the motivation or courage to attempt these tasks herself (Jasper warns the PCs not to tell her he said that!). She knows much about the region, and more to the point, has lived at the Lady's Cape all this time and as such will know much more about current conditions and events in the area than Jasper will, as his information is at least a year old.
Navigating the Mushfens: Jasper can scrawl several notes and landmarks onto a piece of paper for the PCs. This serves as a map of the region, granting a +4 circumstance bonus on all Survival checks made to avoid becoming lost in the Mushfens while travelling south to the Lady's Light.
Troglodytes and Boggards: Jasper can also warn the PCs that the Lady's Cape is home to numerous monsters, but none more fecund than the troglodyte and boggard tribes. These two tribes have long bickered, and the PCs may be able to use that to their advantage, given the right circumstances.
Jasper's Outbursts
- “Beware the woman who bears nature's bounty—she hides Midnight's Viper in her bosom!”
- “Choose thy allies wisely, for the armoured one who rides with arms akimbo will prove thy most precious comrade!”
- “O unwise generation, ye labour for naught! Abandon thy plow and heed the tolling of Oblivion's bell!”
- “When vexatious choice presents itself, the rightward path always leads to safety!”
- “Only with the green fire of copper wilt thou triumph!”
- “Better to lose thy finger than burn cold the spirit that animates it.”
- “The blue-eyed raven marks the grave of one of thee... the one who heeds my warnings yet does not believe!”
- “The penultimate gray door holds something more prized than rubies and more potent than the learning of sages!”
- “All know that the Dark Child sings on the salted wind. Be wary of the chorus that presages Oblivion's watery denouement!”
Murder on the Wanton Ways
Returning to the Pathfinder Lodge, the party tells Sheila about their encounter with Jasper. While she isn't surprised at his state, she did catch the reference to the Doomsday Doors and lets them know that she will research the topic in their absence. Also, she will have Jasper looked after until their return especially since Esdar believes he may be able to cure Jasper at that time. The venture-captain then gives them the name of Yarnelle Fessender, captain of the Wanton Ways. With the letter of introduction she provides the PCs, they won't need to pay for this journey—but the ship leaves the next morning at dawn. If they dally, they'll need to secure their own passage.
The Wanton Ways makes a monthly run between Riddleport, Magnimar, and Korvosa, and is currently bound for Korvosa. Captain Yarnelle Fessender commands a compliment of 30 sailors. Yarnelle is polite and professional with the PCs, but she tolerates no shenanigans aboard her ship. The party and any mounts can barely be squeezed onboard, as it is stuffed with Korvosa-bound cargo. Not an inch of extra space is left on the fat vessel. Casual observation reveals that the captain's first mate, Pockeye Sewel, is a rather brutal taskmaster and is strongly disliked by the crew. His brother, Chebby Sewel, quiet and shifty with a well used cat-o-nine-tails in hand, is Pockeye's right hand man and, by all accounts, an instigator who enjoys goading the crew into doing things that get them punished by Pockeye. Captain Yarnelle tolerates these two because of the efficiency their harsh manner achieves. Apart from the PCs, one other passenger is onboard, a woman named Dialla Marteme. Quiet and not terribly interested in conversation, Dialla boards the ship at the last minute, after the PCs have already arrived. If any PC seems particularly curious about this last-minute addition to the Wanton Ways, allow them a DC 20 Perception check to notice Dialla hand the captain a small but bulging pouch after a short but quiet argument. The captain accepts the pouch quickly and immediately changes her tune, obviously agreeing to let Dialla join the already full ship. Once the ship sets sail, Dialla keeps to herself, but doesn't act particularly secretive or sinister.
The trip will take 2 1/2 days to get where the party can be dropped of. While it should be a quick trip, the extra long time seems to be taken up by redistributing cargo that had not been properly secured while docked. A fact that the Sewel brothers relish remedying.
On the first night around midnight, Taarn—who is sleeping in a lifeboat on deck—wakens to the faint sound of a squeal. He raises his head enough to see Chebby Sewel walking to the starboard rail holding a tiny furred thing with a very slim tail in his hands. The squealing stops just as he throws the thing overboard. At that moment a shadow steps out from behind the main mast and makes its way silently behind Chebby. The shadow looks to be the passenger, Dialla Marteme, who takes a dagger and slits Chebby's throat from ear-to-ear eliciting a sharp gargle of pain then heaving him overboard with little more sound. Once accomplished she makes a bee-line for the starboard lifeboat and when getting within 30 feet is surprised by Taarn sitting up and clapping his hands. She assumes a defensive stance and speaks to Taarn.
“I have no quarrel with you: I am Dialla Marteme, of the Balconies of Bis in Kaer Maga. That offal you saw me kill is responsible for the death of my sister. We were visiting in Riddleport and she had gone off to pick up some supplies with a pair of my porters when they were waylaid by local thugs. One porter was killed and the other knocked unconscious. It was then that she was 'rescued' by Chebby Sewel.” She spits at his name and continues. “He dragged her to the House of the Silken Veil where I found out later that he tried to sell her, but was turned away by Madame Pamodae. Shealla was found in an alley a few blocks away, naked, ravaged and dead. She was only thirteen years old, friend, and the damned Gendarmes bought the alibi Chebby's pig-of-a-brother provided. My sister deserved justice Riddleport's “society” failed to provide, and so that task fell to me. I've been tracking Chebby for going on seventeen months, and now the deed is done. Yet I have no wish to taste the captain's justice. I ask only for your silence—I have a plan to assume Chebby's appearance for the rest of the voyage. I was going to cut loose a rowboat to make it look like I'd left the ship, pose as Chebby, then leave and retrun home to Kaer Maga once we reach Korvosa. What say you?”
Taarn points to the other lifeboat then puts his head back down. Once Marteme unloads the lifeboat, she walks back over to Taarn and thanks him for his silence by gifting him with a +1 dagger (glows like a candle) and a ring of protection +1. She then makes a twist of the hat she wears, winks at Taarn, and damned if she didn't turn into Chebby Sewel and walk off.
The next morning there is a bit of commotion when one of the lifeboats and the last passenger aboard are missing. Rumours fly that she stole off in the middle of the night with the lifeboat intent on nefarious schemes. Over the rest of the voyage, as the ship makes its way on to Korvosa, the crew quietly and thankfully mutters about how much more calm and agreeable Chebby's become—much to his brother's dismay.
STORY AWARD: +640 XP each if the PCs help Dialla escape or help cover up the murder (by keeping quiet), award them XP as if they defeated her in combat.
Disembarkation and meeting Maroux
About midday of the 24th of Rova, the Wanton Ways reaches the Lady's Cape. The Lady's Light rises majestically and eerie above the late morning fog. Captain Fessender anchors offshore just to the east of the Cape itself, then aids the PCs in off loading their gear and mounts, if any, via the ship's boat. The Wanton Ways can't approach the Cape itself due to the reefs, so the crew sets the PCs ashore just to the east and wishes them luck on their adventure. Captain Fessender won't stay behind to wait for the PCs—once they finish, they are expected to find their own way back to Magnimar. However, a bribe of 100 gp by Mersit was enough to secure her promise to stop here on her way back from Korvosa to Magnimar 26 days hence. She'll anchor offshore in the same location for a day—if the PCs wish her to send the boat to pick them up at that time, they need only signal her with a fire on the beach. No amount of money can convince her to stay and wait, though—her honor prevents her from abandoning her promises to those in Korvosa who await the shipments the Wanton Ways carries.
It is at this point that Taarn tells the rest of the party what had happened on that first night aboard the ship.
Using Jasper's map, and Taarn's magnificent survival skills, they are able to locate the narrow trail that connects Maroux's isle to several hills to the south and east as the party works their way north. It has taken 5 hours before they reach a rickety-looking (but sound) bridge crossing the water to a small island, however, there appears to be nothing there.
Ashen speaks loudly the words that Jasper instructed the party to speak. Moments later the party hears the crow of a raven followed by the image of a barren and bleak isle melting away showing a large cultivated area with a ramshackle hut at it's centre. Rupert is taken aback by this arcane display and immediately attempts to categorize the magic, but fails to do so. He knows of no magic that seems to affect an area as large as he has just witnessed.
During the day, curls of smoke from the hut are visible , while in the evening, the flickering lights in the hut's windows attract the eye. The bridge leading to Maroux's isle is decorated with bleached humanoid skulls with weird sigils painted on them in crusty, reddish-brown dried blood. PCs who succeed at a DC 12 Knowledge (nature) check identify them as boggard and troglodyte skulls , while the sigils are merely warnings and rants against trespassers written in Boggard and Draconic. Maroux's hut sits at the center of the small island, a mossy wooden shack perhaps 15 feet square with a sagging roof sitting in the shade of a few moss-draped willows. A plume of smoke wafts from a chimney, and cooking smells pervade the area, though the odour is not altogether pleasant.
From out of the hut comes Maroux, an olive skinned half-orc with a raven perched on her shoulders. She waves the party over and asks how poor Jasper is doing. Before allowing the group to answer, however, she invites them into her hut stating that darkness will soon be upon them and there are beasts and other creatures out in the fen at night. The party will be safer indoors for the night.
Entering the small hut, one cannot help but notice that the inside space does not match the outside footprint. The hut is far from small, in fact it could better be described as a mansion with a wide winding staircase, multiple rooms, floors and windows. Another impressive feat of magic that Taarn takes in stride but the two arcanists look almost ready to begin to dissect with equal aplomb. One thing is noticeable, however, and that is the definite abundance of painted butterflies and stars decorating the 'hut.'
Maroux invites the group to sup with her, triggering an alcoholic induced memory to ooze out of Taarn's brain. Something about a shop in underbridge and a woman whose name started with “A”—wanting something in the mushfens. Once Taarn takes a bite of the stew, he is fixated on a particular taste and remembers that the woman was the Princess of the Market, Sabriyya Kalmeralm of Magnimar's Bazaar of Sails (this triggers a memory in Rupert about the body they found in The Crow, Nazir Kalmeralm—a relation?) looking for spices that grow in the region. Still trying to piece it together, he asks Maroux what spice she used to give it this particular flavour. She responds that it is whiplily. Yes, that was one of the spices and the lady didn't just want some to bring back she wanted someone to broker a deal allowing for a regular supply route for the herbs in question. Oh man. Now what were the other spices again? After a few more questions the spices are whiplily and frogs-eye that grow near the troglodytes and miresh and fen-pepper that grow near the boggards. Maroux declines the opportunity to be the supplier and tells them that they would have to set that up with either of the two tribes. She wishes the party luck with that since both groups are demon-worshippers.
After that, she goes on to talk about Jasper and what she managed to piece together in the several months he was in the area as he frequently stayed with Maroux. She explains that she made an elixir that allowed him a few hours of peace when he would visit. The brew spoils quickly so could only be taken here when freshly made and not brought along with him.
Jasper's Story (as told by Maroux)
Jasper is a wild-eyed madman, a dogged cleric of the god Groetus who's convinced that the end of the world is just around the corner. The man stands 6 1/2 tall with piercing blue eyes and a tremendous head of wild hair. Add to that image the fearsome flail he favours (a weapon whose twin heads resemble grinning, almost spherical skulls), and the result is an imposing figure indeed. But Jasper wasn't always a doom-spewing street preacher. Born Jasper Smallwood, the man who would become Jasper Kandamerus grew up in the village of Abken on the Yondabakari River, son of a heretical worshipper of Pharasma named Fala. At the age of 15, Jasper left home and stowed away on a barge bound for Kaer Maga, intent on becoming a priest of Pharasma. But the heresies he learned from his mother so appalled the resident clergy that he was soon cast out of the faith along with accusations that he was “mad enough to dance with Groetus.”
Jasper lived on the streets of Kaer Maga for a time before he discovered a new home under a ruined building in the district of Oriat. Once the home and library of a reclusive scholar of Thassilonian history, the building's upper floors were destroyed decades ago when the Brothers of the Seal suffered their violent schism. The day after he moved into the ruined chambers below, Jasper came upon something wedged in the spine of a volume entitled The Void's Desire and Oblivion's Black Trumpet. Reading a passage within the book described the object's oracular powers. Still a novice at speaking Thassilonian, Jasper misread the passage, coming away with the mistaken belief that it could be used over and over again and that its revelations were not limited to the immediate future. The first question he posed to test its power was “Is my death near?” Jasper interpreted the answer as a yes—just as death is near for all mortals. His second immediate question was “Should I now proclaim the coming of the End Times?” Again, he assumed the answer to be yes. That was all Jasper's increasingly unstable mind needed.
Jasper found much to distract him in the hidden chambers that yet existed under the ruins, and for the next several years he dwelt there in peace, learning Thassilonian and growing ever more distant from his faith in Pharasma. The Phrasmins' accusation about Groetus further intrigued Jasper, and when he found several ancient tomes that spoke of that god's worship in ancient Thassilon, he grew more and more fascinated. And more and more insane, for few can study the teachings of Groetus without going mad. Jasper grew particularly obsessed with a man named Kandamerus, an ancient Thassilonian priest of Groetus who, the legends told, found a pair of massive doors deep under a region referred to as “The Rasp” that were carved with strange runes that prophesied the end of days. This Kandamerus carved a temple to Groetus out of the stone surrounding this so-called “Doomsday Door,” but never managed to open the doors. Jasper's growing schizophrenia soon caused him to identify more with Kandamerus than himself, so that by the time the man (now a devout follower of Groetus) had studied all the tomes his home had to offer, he'd come to think of himself as Jasper Kandamerus, reborn into this new world to witness the end… which was surely only a few years away!
Jasper took to Kaer Maga's streets to spread warnings of the imminent end, but quickly wore out his welcome. He left Kaer Maga and worked his way west, hoping some day to reach the Varisian Coast (the region known as the Rasp during Thassilon's height), so that he might learn more about the location of the Doomsday Door. He came to Magnimar in the same year that Karzoug nearly rose from slumber—and in the years to follow, watched as time and time again strange events shook Varisia, prime among them a falling star that struck the island of Devil's Elbow near Riddleport.
Now, Jasper's mental state fluctuates between two extremes—periods of madness and periods of lucidity. While mad, Jasper wanders the slums of Magnimar, preaching to any who will listen about the coming end of the world. The durations of his lucid times are growing progressively shorter—he spends the bulk of these times researching the possible location of the Doomsday Door. For many months, he was convinced the door was located in a cavern under the Lady's Light, and he made several expeditions to that site to explore the region. He eventually found proof that the original Kandamerus was an agent of Bakhrakhan, and as such, his temple would have not lay in Eurythnian lands but would likely be further to the northwest—the realization that the Doomsday Doors may well lie inaccessible to Jasper deep under the waters of the Varisian Gulf has been a major factor in the quickening deterioration of his sanity.
