Exploring the Necropolis (Arodus [VIII] 9th-10th 4707 AR)

The heroes killed the ghast. The wave action that periodically spouted into this chamber was a small annoyance.

Each stone sarcophagus was stuck closed except for the front most one in the northwest alcove. The heroes could slide this lid aside. Opening the lids of the other sarcophagi was harder. When the heroes opened the lid to the front most one in the northwest alcove, it slid aside with the sound of a grinding millstone. The well-preserved body of a teenage girl lay inside, stringy black hair obscuring the face. Her atrophied limbs were drawn up like folded sticks against her torn school uniform.

The heroes noticed that the girl was wearing the ruby ring of the salamander. They also found something startling: the girl was still alive. The ruby salamander ring functioned as a ring of sustenance.

The ruby salamander ring of sustenance slipped easily from the girl's thin fingers. The following treasures lay beside mummified remains within the other five sarcophagi: a set of polished silver plates each with the decorative bust of a Taldan noble rising from its center like a man from a mercury pool (700 gp) and a goldplated, ceremonial longsword (150 gp).

Leaving the Necropolis

It was a simple matter for the heroes to return the way they came in order to leave the necropolis. Marlinchen, alive and having followed the heroes into the dungeons, stubbornly refused to leave the spirit of his daughter.

When the ruby ring of the salamander was returned to the Pathfinder Society, they were naturally pleased at acquiring such an important artifact and Venture-Captain Drenge personally thanked the heroes for their service to the Society.

Andoran Faction: Heroes from the Andoran faction ripped out the pages of Grishan Maldris’s diary and earned 375 gp each. Also, Andoran faction heroes retrieved the shield of the dead Gebbite general and earned an additional 375 gp each.

Taldor Faction: Heroes of the Taldor faction gained 375 gp each.

Exploring the Drownyard

In the Headmistress’s office-turned-classroom, the heroes discovered a locked metal box in a desk drawer and three diaries—all in the same handwriting—on the desks of Mrs. Heracks and two students. Mrs. Heracks’s diary plotted the location of the black pool of bubbling water in the school yard. The heroes opened the lockbox which contained several parchment missives that revealed Headmistress Kiwu as an Osirian spy.

Dinner with Lady Dacilane

The heroes learned about the history of the Tri-Towers Yard by gathering information around Absalom. The heroes came to the attention of Lady Miranda Dacilane, a striking, middle-aged Chelish noblewoman who lost her daughter, Junia, at the Tri-Towers Yard. She sent a formal invitation to the heroes on delicate (but expensive) parchment hand-delivered by a household page in livery.

"Hero of the Society,

It has come to my attention that you and your cohorts were chosen by the noble Pathfinders to enter and explore what became of the Tri-Towers Yard. As my daughter, Junia, was lost there during the great quake, it seems only proper that you attend the banquet I am holding tomorrow in memory of her. You and your friends should wear your finest and arrive at the Dacilane Estate in the Ivy District at sundown. As you are probably not accustomed to the traditions of nobles, not attending this dinner would be a serious slight upon the memory of my daughter.

Sincerely,

Lady Miranda Dacilane"

When the heroes chose to attend the dinner after venturing into the Tri-Towers Yard, they arrived at the address on the invitation to find a sprawling estate surrounded by a tall, wrought-iron fence and overly decorated in statuary, fountains, and a carefully landscaped garden. The Dacilane house interior had over-the-top opulence, with gilded furniture, painted ceilings, gold-spun wallpaper, and valuable Chelish rugs that, if sold, could easily feed a family in the Puddles District for a year. Despite her obvious wealth, Lady Dacilane received proper introductions during the dinner (a 10-course affair). Toward the end of the dinner, she finally broached the subject of her daughter and the Tri-Towers Yard.

“My daughter Junia was one of so many children lost. Hundreds of them pinned under the rubble in that sinkhole. The black water rising—the kids screaming.” She quiets for a moment. “None of us could get to them.”

Lady Dacilane was polite, though she tended to treat vagabonds, like those often found in the Pathfinder Society, with disdain. However, she was courteous and encouraged the heroes to bring her anything they might find whatsoever of her beloved Junia. When the heroes asked for a description of Junia, Lady Dacilane gestured to an enormous painting of her daughter—a rigid, sharp-featured young girl with long black hair—that loomed over the entire banquet hall. Lady Dacilane knew nothing of the necropolis, but she recalled her daughter once mentioning that lesser children—not her Junia mind you—skipped class to tell ghost stories by candlelight in an abandoned corridor beneath the school.

Once the dinner was over, Lady Dacilane showed the heroes to the door herself, wished them luck in their exploration, and impressed upon them once again how important it was that she received any word of her daughter.