Hikaru takes a massive bite from the momma stirge.
Okay. Hikaru takes 22 damage, and already starts to feel woozy as the queen starts to drain him...
Vralk and Chak are up! Chak has an Attack of Opportunity!
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Chak tries to bite the stirge as it flies up to him.
*crunch* chomp, comp, nom, nom, nom
He drops his bow figuring it will do him no good.
He then pulls out his nodachi as he moves around to flank.
Pretty sure I still have my folio reroll, so I might as well use it on the attack roll.
alas, no luck.
Chak clears away the last of the little Stirges, but misses big Momma.
Big Momma starts slurping Hikaru.
Nope.
She starts slowly... savoring her meal. Yummy, yummy Swashbuckler!
Then she attempts to bite him again...
...and misses!
The whole party is up!
Because of Stali's previous debilitating strike, Chak hits and does twenty points of damage. Stali misses, and Sarano does a liberating command on Hikaru, who can now escape as an immediate action with a +10 to his attempt. Sarano peppers the Stirge Queen with bird-shaped magic missiles for another ten points of damage!
Hikaru, Vralk, Andrietta and Gallako are up!
Hikaru kills the queen!
The battle is over! Along with the many Stirge bodies, you find the long dead bodies of three dwarves and a bunch of coins littering the floor.
You have explored the Temple! What do you do now?
"Sorry I killed her, Vralk... she didn't leave me a lot of choice... but I assume she'll make a fine pie.. just not a never ending source of stirge meat."
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Karkadon comes up. "These are stirges? We can have stirge pie! And there's a hoard too!" He's so excited, his claws are scrabbling the stone floor as he approaches. "A hoard! And stirge pie!"
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"Well, that's that, then." the grandmother quietly notes as she flicks the blood off her blade so as not to hit the party, dragon, orc entourage or fallen dwarven bodies.
"Is anyone skilled with the arcane or engineering to see perhaps what is going on with those lead panels?" she inquires briefly before nodding to Karkadon.
"We'll cook some things up for you very soon. First, though, we need to examine this room and see if there are any items of historical importance related to the fallen warrior or her adopted people. Shouldn't take too long, I don't imagine."
The lead panels look very old indeed. At one point, maybe they sealed in some ancient guardian, but there is a breach in the ceiling where the stirge nest surely few in. Whatever else may have been here, in this room, appears to be long gone.
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The grandmother will move over by Shirish and carefully hand over a bundle to her.
"Any good leader knows when a good time to take tea is. Hopefully this will help you get started, and give you some ideas as to how to try other teas, and help bring your people a measure of strength and personal power in these dangerous lands." she will opine.
Sarano, at Stali's urging, examines the dwarven bodies, and discovers that they are not armored holy crusaders, but the same dwarven explorers whose alchemical supplies they had found. They had barricaded themselves in here, hoping to exit through the hole in the ceiling, and then fell prey to the Stirge hive and never made it out.
Meanwhile, a few more pies are baked by Shirish and Gallako, this time with the secret ingredient of Stirge. Karkadon is well pleased by this, the new recipes, the coins in the vault and the tea. He insists on helping with the cremations of any bodies that you take from here, once you had a chance to remove the heads. "Flame is what I do!"
He's very excited at the chance to show off, and gives the "Dragon Princess", Yua Yohanatsu, a fine send-off.
Your journey back to Lastwall is somewhat uneventful. Zohruk greets you all on the wall on your return, and treats you to dinner with him, listening to all your tales with rapt amazement. On hearing that you brought back one of the lost crusaders, he dispatches an honor guard to take you back to Shevar Besnik's rather unconventional Pathfinder Lodge.
Shevar is delighted with your findings, and the tales you had to tell of tea-drinking orcs and hungry dragons, and he claps his hands. "Finally! A group of true scholars, and what a story you had to tell!"
And now, dear party, we have reached the end of our adventure. Thank you for doing this journey with me. It is a tradition in my games that everyone at the end submits an Easter Egg: a little extra scene or vignette showing your characters in action.
Is there an NPC they'd like to visit with again? Was there something in particular they learned? A moment that helped them grow? Feel free to show us and enjoy!
I am hoping we can have a reunion (whether as ratfolk in Paul's game, or in some future 5-9 for crows.) But for now... Thank you for being a lovely, lovely group!
Hmm
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Hikaru has said little during the tea and pie ceremonies, and the communications with the dragon and orcs. There seemed little to add to the excellent rapport developed by Grandmother with these folks. When they return with the remains of the crusader, he lets others tell the tale as well, having little to add, though he does, at the appropriate moment later, offer a toast to the fallen hero and the dwarves, wishing their spirits well.
After the experiences in Lastwall, he bows deeply to Grandmother Crow. "Dearest Grandmother, you and your excellence in manners and tea have saved us much conflict again I think. You are indeed a beacon of good and law. I salute you and your faith, not only in your god, but in yourself, and in us." He addresses the whole party as he adds, "You are all my dearest friends. I cannot imagine adventuring further without you, yet it seems our days as a cohesive group are coming to an end, at least for now. I must return to my beloved Jerizhana and the Umbral Circus. It is time for me to travel with them for a time, maybe to take up arms in the name of the Society from time to time, but my heart pulls me to Varisia and my one true love. I wish you all well in the future and look forward to a reunion someday. Sarano, you be careful, dearest little sister. Stay safe. Stali, and Gallako, be well and take care. Vralk, you continue to be great and keep this reprobate," he indicates Gallako, "in line. Chak, may your future bring you satisfaction as well as prosperity, wealth and financial success." He hugs everyone warmly before gathering his gear and setting out for Varisia.
On the way to the Circus he stops in the first large city between Lastwall and Varisia and makes a few purchases
Once back in the familiar camp of the Umbral Circus, he bids all a hearty hello, bowing respectfully to Almara, and asking her permission to rejoin the group and travel with them, "I promise that as long as I stay with you, you have my oath to protect the caravan, and all who live and travel with you."
Once his hellos to the members of the circus in general are done, he takes Jerizhana by the hand and leads her to her own wagon, where he begs forgiveness for his long absence. "Dearest one, I am so very sorry for being gone so long... I vow never to leave your side for such a long time again, as long as it is my decision to make. I love you dearly, and would not be parted again. Jerizhana, will you do me the great honor of becoming my bride? I know there are impediments to our union... but I believe our love can overcome all. Please say yes." He presents her with a gold ring, set with a large diamond, encircled with smaller stones the exact shade of Jerizhana's eyes.
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Staying quiet during the final proceedings with the Dragon and orcs, she is really hesitant to just let them go. . . but listening to Grandmother has never steered her wrong.
As everyone goes their separate ways, off to explore the far reaches of Golarion, Sarano offers her farewells to her friends.
"Goodbye, Hikaru, be safe in your travels and say hi to the folks at the Circus. ." and to the rest of her friends and companions, "Be safe out there please. .and um I hope to adventure with you guys again one day, for now, I'm heading home. No not to Absalom, Tian Xia, I'm hoping to find my family."
Heading off on her own, Sarano heads back to Absalom, to pay homage to the orphanage where she grew up and then to head across the Ocean, to Tian Xia, to find her home.
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Andrietta is surprised and no small amount of pleased that Karkadon and Shirish decided to not attack the Pathfinders after the mission was accomplished in the lost temple.
Seeing that these orcs may just be on the path to Good (or at least neutral), helping them along the path can't hurt and might help.
To this end, making sure that the water of the location is drinkable, and the 'bad stuff' cleared away from the fetid pools will go a long way to ensuring that Shirish and Karkadon's people have a valuable resource to help their fledgling clan prosper and grow in the future.
Also, there will be a recommendation to patch the 'bottomless' hole in the floor, because nothing good can come of that place, and using it as a 'trash dump' without a guard might be a bad thing if something nasty were to eventually slither up it...
"Given how well you've worked with the Pathfinder Society on this expedition, I'm going to write a letter to our superiors, to let them know that you are a valued ally, to respect your home, and to set up trade with your people. It would be good to have friends in this harsh desolate land, ones that aren't disreputable mercenaries like Grask Uldeth.
Benefit of setting up trade should be pretty obvious, even though I'm not the most mercantile of folks, an' y' have a good spot t' operate from. They might come armed and armored against the other tribes in these lands, but if you treat with 'em like you've dealt with us, then there shouldn't be an issue. Definitely need to get y' some seeds for growing some of these herbs we were cookin' with, and maybe some livestock, too..."
The grandmother considers.
"Might even be able to get some craftsmen to drop by and restore this place to it's original glory, even, though that might take a bit more working out between the Dragonhost Clan and the Pathfinder Society. And yes, the Society DOES have the resources to fix a lot of the broken things here, but there might be a request for safe passage in return, or something. We'll leave it to folks what are better at the negotiation thing to work that out."
After a few days of cleaning the problem areas of the shrine, it's time to pack up and head back to Lastwall.
Andrietta presents Shirish with a package.
It's a bit bulky and clinks a bit as it is handed over.
"It'd be rude to introduce you to tea without giving you the means to make it yourself. I'm giving you one of the two sets that I carry with me for travelling purposes, and enough tea to make it for a month, possibly longer if you stretch it out. You mentioned before that you have someone that is good with leaves and the like, you might have some leaves here that could work as a fine tea, too. "
The entire trip back, the grandmother is even deeper in thought and musings than the trip to Mendev at the start of the mission.
Well, the kids are getting it right. Just hope that they can keep getting it right. So many bad influences in the Society, what think that the best way to deal with a thing is to end a thing. Ending a thing is easy, too easy. Bringing them to being a decent person is hard.
She'll drop a letter like she has in the past regarding Ilsurian and Ravenmoor when she gets back to the Diamond City.
As promised, she will take any and all of the team to the Kwanlai representative, explaining a little bit more about her experiences 'back home' on the way...
”Once upon a time, there was a mighty nation that spanned the continent of Tian Xia. Because the nation did not care for our people, they effectively put us in our own little corner, to let us sort out our differences. Unfortunately, they didn't give us the resources we truly needed to become a solid state, so the next closest thing to a government was family units. And then that mighty nation collapsed, and things sure didn't get better.
You've seen how well that's worked out in the small towns in Varisia, now imagine an entire country like that. In some ways, it's worse than Galt – at least Galt tries to have some sort of government, whereas typically in Kwanlai it's more a factor of what family you know and who is in power and who's pissed off who today.
Blood runs hot in such a place. “
When it comes time for some of the party to split off and go their separate ways, she'll give a hug and a bit of a nod.
”You kids take care of yourselves, and be good, you hear? Don't make me come track you down and give you a good crack to the back of the head.” The tone is clearly gentle and joking and the harshness of the words belies the fact that she's going to miss this misfit crew...
Once his hellos to the members of the circus in general are done, he takes Jerizhana by the hand and leads her to her own wagon, where he begs forgiveness for his long absence. "Dearest one, I am so very sorry for being gone so long... I vow never to leave your side for such a long time again, as long as it is my decision to make. I love you dearly, and would not be parted again. Jerizhana, will you do me the great honor of becoming my bride? I know there are impediments to our union... but I believe our love can overcome all. Please say yes." He presents her with a gold ring, set with a large diamond, encircled with smaller stones the exact shade of Jerizhana's eyes.
Jerizhana puts on the ring and hugs him, crying tears of joy. “Yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!”