Sword in hand, Kieran follows Qhude's example and moves towards the door. "Ah, thus we become gardeners, destroyers of flora..."
Expecting to have little to contribute beyond healing, Tebati stays near the wall, seeking neither to see nor be seen as a target when the door is first opened.
"We should try to draw them out. I do not like the idea of fighting them all at once.
Akirra takes his bow in hand and looks for a place to stand that affords him a clear shot into the room if possible.
Perhaps if some of you line up on either side of the door, and when one of you open it, I will send an arrow or two into the room in an attempt to draw them out.
With brutal, repeated force Qhude smashed open the stone door, and those gathered saw what had clearly once been a well maintained, if extremely exotic, garden. Crushed fences and restraints had been thoroughly broken over time by vines, roots and vegetation. The internal walls of the large room were near-covered in different varieties of moss, vine and fungus. The floor was coated in rich, thick soil that served as a home for hundreds of different kinds of plants and trees, of various sizes. It was not immediately obvious how these plants were provided water, or how the soil was kept full of nutrients.
It was clear that this room was once well segregated, with space used efficiently to keep the various plants contained and separated from one another. However, it seemed that it had now been shaped to the designs of something else.
That something else could only be the two man-sized, floating spheres of tentacled moss staring back at the group with red eyes spaced almost randomly across their plant-like, spherical forms. In addition to the two spheres, two shambling, green-skinned zombies each had a pair of the same glowing red eyes and they seemed to have been waiting for the door to be burst open. The extra-planar plants and their two mindless servants immediately moved to attack...
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Kieran- 22
Tebati- 20
Qhude- 19
Akirra- 18
Jakob- 17
Ansha- 16
Plantoids- 11
Plantoid Servitors- 7
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
With the door smashed the open, the quick-witted and agile party were upon the plants first, taking advantage of their momentum to strike first!
You spot a hidden threat skulking in the bushes at M59- another hostile, moving plant mixed in with the foliage. It is small sized and looks like a small mound of brownish-green leaves. From its trunk sprout several thick branches, each covered sparsely with leaves, and each sporting rows of needle-like thorns. The leaves have small pale buds of gold and purple.
Round 1
Jacob's spear tests the plant-man in M,62 damage if relevant
Round 1:
Perception:
The bas'o warrior is already breathing heavily from his exertion when the door falls before him, however the prospect of the fray washes away any thought of fatigue. Qhude welcomes the white heat like an old friend, letting it grow within his gullet from a spark to an intense inferno. With barbaric "Yawp!" and a hopping agricultural slash of his weapon, he takes the battle to the plant-creature immediately before him.
Raging Power Attack Guisarme: for
Wasting no time as soon as the door is smashed open, Kieran quickly enters the room, using his agility and the sword in his hand to defend himself against any incoming attacks from what appears to be a green-skinned undead man waiting inside ready to attack before striking at it himself.
His bow at the ready Akirra asks Ansha to, Please open the door and then stand clear, that I might send some arrows into the room ahead of us.
As the door swings open Akirra sends two arrows at the plant zombie directly in front of him...
His arrows delivered, Akirra takes in the rest of the room before him...
...spotting a hidden foe. There is another hostile hidden in the bush straight out from your door by the wall!
Akirra sighs in frustration while dropping his bow and yanking the door open himself . His sword then seemingly appears in his hand in the blink of an eye as he steps into the room and brings it down upon the plant man...
And shouts his warning to the others.
The elven enchantress nods wordlessly. "Beware the plant that shot me!" she cries to the Umkhaya as they begin their assault, the memory of the thorns fresh in her mind. She throws open the door and quickly steps aside, not desiring a repeat of her previous attempt at entering the room.
Darting into the room, Kieran tumbled over the slower zombie, sticking his blade into the back of its neck as he acrobatically rolled over it and immediately bringing the weapon up to defend himself from further threats. Qhude finished the zombie off by beheading it with his guisarme. Moving into the room, Jakob displayed his usual level of expertise with the longspear by stabbing it one of the two floating, moss covered creatures. Withdrawing it, he was relieved to see that it least he had definitely hurt it, as hot ichor hissed angrily upon the metal of his spearhead
Throwing open the door to unleash an ancient Mwangi with arrow nocked, Ansha fired off a conjured lance of violent acid at another of the plantoids, covering moss and tentacles alike with burning fluid. The Mwangi archer found that combat came back to him despite many centuries of no practice; his skills as sharp as they were when he took his "nap" so long ago. Two arrows thudded into the plant man's abdomen and he swiftly brought his sword to bear and stepped in to follow up on his advantage. The tough servitor was almost downed by the arrows, but was still dangerous until it fell, fighting utterly without morale or a sense of survival for its plantoid master.
The closest threat ended, Tebati quickly crosses to Qhude's far side, touching him with a blessing. "Shimye-Magalla grant you success."
Their survival instinct riled, the plantoids and their remaining, devoted servitor fought back against the invaders. With their mossy tendrils able to reach out over ten feet, the physically quite frail floating extraplanar creatures lashed out, although the quickness of the tendrils did little to disguise the lack of force behind the blows. Kieran's agile defence and his darting sword more than matched the strange being for swiftness and his armour was never even brought into play as he parried, dodged and weaved around the tendrils as he fought.
The plantoid attacking Jakob was far more agile and while two if its tentacles were warded off by the spear-wielding warrior, two briefly made contact with his flesh as they slapped hard against it. In both instances, Jakob felt his mind begin to give in to the urge to defend the noble plants; to serve their every whim and lay down his life for them... But as the tendrils failed to maintain their physical grasp upon him, the compulsion passed as suddenly as it began. The sensation was quite unnerving.
At the southern door, the servitor Akirra fought was bloodied, but not broken. The thing came at him with in force, bashing his greatsword aside for a moment with one arm and slugging him across the face with the other, the heavy fist colliding with his cheek. Spitting blood and staggered for a moment, Akirra recovered his posture in time to see the zombie leaning in to bite his exposed neck; and subsequently brought his hilt up in the close quarters to shove the zombie back into strike range.
Revealing its position to everyone obscured in the bushes, the thorny bush within fired its cluster of thorns at Kieran; all the man's considerable skill in evading blows worthless against a foe he spotted too late. Fortunately for him, the plant's aim was poor and the thorns scattered harmlessly against the far wall, just above Jakob.
Gardening, round 2
Damage taken 2.
"The tendrils take your mind. Don't let them grab you!"
Jakob moves to support Kieran.
,
Round 2:
As Qhude's bellow fades a flash of steel cuts through the haze of rage clouding his sight and the plant creature before him falls with a gushing spray of ichor. The white heat fuelling his strength surges as shadows in the shape of the umkhaya move past him and within the room. A touch to his shoulder forces a grimaced leering turn, but the presence of the Sangoma is a calming void within the swirling chaos. With a fleeting moment of presience he nods a brief acknowledgement before turning to throw himself back into the fray.
Breaching the doorway he is drawn to the alien nature of the moss covered malevolent orbs. His chest expands as though a bellows before the breath is used to fuel a rising cross strike with his hard-won polearm...
After shoving the zombie back, Akirra brings his greatsword around in a sweeping waist high arc...
Undeterred by the creature's failed attack, Kieran takes a step to better position himself before swinging his curved sword in a horizontal arc at the strange creature in front of him.
Ansha repeats the same incantation as a moment ago, and another dart of viscous fluid streams out to strike the same plantoid as before .
Round 2-
Ordered Initiative-
Kieran- 22
Qhude- 19
Akirra- 18
Jakob- 17
Ansha- 16
Plantoids- 11
Archer Bush- 1
On Delay- Tebati
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
The plant Kieran assaulted was quick enough to evade the worst of his blade and when he finally struck, he got it tangled up in the thickest part of it, not truly harming it. .
Standing side-by-side, Qhude and Jakob went to work with their respective polearms. Qhude's white-hot fury manifested into a viciously effective slash but it was supported by a strong lunge from Jakob, the "gardener" as always a little bemused by his ability to solidly plant his spear in just the right spot. The plantoid recoiled as much of its form was torn apart by the respective steel; and then the two arrows of potent acid Ansha had conjured caused what was left of its form to crumble into a sizzling, rapidly dissolving pool of organic material.
To the south, Akirra returned his wound by severing the servitor in half with a hefty swing of his greatsword, his speed and strength belying the size of the weapon he wielded. It seemed the Mwangi warrior had been quite the veteran in his former life.
Even as the group slew one plantoid, the tendrils of the latter all reached out to attack Qhude, seeking to control his mind and bring his formidable strength to bear for its own survival. He was hit several times by the flailing tendrils, barely wounded but irritated by the moments of control the contact had over him. Hardening his mind and will, Qhude finally kept his composure as the third tendril to hit him made contact and began to tighten around him. Ignoring the distraction, his guisarme lashed out and severed several tendrils and a good part of its main body. The strange extraplanar creature was clearly almost slain.
The small, thorny bush Kieran was up against shifted its roots and made a little room for itself as it darted away from his blade and fired at him again. At point-blank range, Kieran's ability to dodge and even deflect some of the thorns as he acrobatically fought was impressive. His swordsmanship had only become more efficiently, economical and elegant under the rigorous training and trials of the past couple of months.
Round 3-
Ordered Initiative-
Kieran- 22
Qhude- 19
Akirra- 18
Jakob- 17
Ansha- 16
Plantoids- 11
Archer Bush- 1
On Delay- Tebati
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
Gardening, round 3.
Damage taken 2
More once placement confirmed.
Round 3:
Instinct maintains the bas'o as the plant creature lashes out towards him, his arms moving without need for independent thought or intent. When a brief opening provides, he presses his brutal assault, seeking to end the remaining beast...
Akirra activates the magic in his boots and deftly moves into the room avoiding opportunistic attacks by the various plants still hostile...
Finding the fun in battle as always, especially since he appears to remain unscathed through it and even if it is not another swordsman he is facing, Kieran continues his assault, moving gracefully and quickly and pressing the attack against the strange plant creature.
Kieran was not discouraged by his attempts to press the attack and followed in, landing a light blow upon the plant and severing several thorny branches.
Meanwhile, Qhude lashed out with a clumsy, telegraphed swing; but it was swift enough to destroy the plantoid, which crumpled to the ground, the magic sustaining its hovering nature ended along with its life. Surging into the room, Akirra's greatsword rose and fell in a scything arc, slicing the archer bush from near the soil.
The room fell silent. Although other countless plants grew here in a verdant manner, none of them seemed sentient or able to attack.
The clumsiness of Qhude's arcing swing unbalanced the mwangi enough that he stumbled. The danger fading from the room he let the rage ebb slowly from his form, expelled through heavily and raggedly drawn breath. His head remains bowed for a goodly span of time, guisarme placed haft down upon the floor for support and balance.
All of the hostile plant-life slain, Ansha cautiously enters the room. "That...went almost too smoothly," she says. "Well, let's see if what we're after is in here."
With that, the elf starts to search the room over.
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Jakob starts in on examining the plants. Hoping that nothing unique was killed in the fighting.
The immediate danger dealt with, Tebati cautiously enters the conservatory. The more organic surroundings fail to dispel her sense of unease, as the plants are growing in such an unnatural environment, cut off from authentic sunlight and rain. "This seems an unlikely setting to discover the Third Treatise of Arioch," she remarks dryly.
"As opposed to what given the general strangeness, love?" Kieran's retort is complemented by his smile as he briefly runs a hand across Tebati's cheek, kissing her before moving around the room looking for anything that could interest or even better assist them in exploring the place further.
Qhude finds his way back to his feet and flexes the parts of his torso that were lashed by the vines, relishing as the stinging wounds cut through the torpor of his swift but brutal exertion. As Ansha searches and Jakob looks to the welfare of his first love, Qhude's own eyes regard the plant things put down by his weapon...
Knowledge (Nature):
Akirra sheaths his sword and retrieves his bow from the doorway while the others examine the room.
Well that went extremely well... he remarks to no one in particular while wiping a little blood from his lip.
Unable to contribute in any meaningful way in the examination of the room, with his memory and knowledge lost, he sits against a wall and contemplates the dilemma of the Third Treatise.
He begins brainstorming...
Many things have spoken to us here in this place. Has anyone tried speaking back to one of the machines?
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Qhude and Jakob both recognized that the dense garden contained vegetation sufficient to stock a town market; or feed a small army. The variety of plants that grew here seemed to utterly defy the soil that served as the base of the room. Many of them, quite simply, were utterly in the wrong climate to grow, especially without sunlight or water. Swamp and wetland plants flourished alongside vegetables that grew in warm, open fields. The garden was obviously magical and clearly was designed to make the structure quite self-sufficient if needed. This notion was only reinforced further by the pair both noting that plants cut and trampled during the skirmish were already rapidly healing, growing new leaves and vines to replace those cut away. Cutting away some berries from an inexplicable hedge row growing straight out of the north wall, Qhude could see more beginning to form to replace that which he took almost immediately.
Jakob's understanding of this place bordered on the miraculous, however. He saw beyond the basic miracle of what appeared to be a renewable source of food that might yet feed hundreds. He noted not only the dozens of exceedingly rare plants, many of which he had only heard whispers of or seen mentioned in ancient lore, but also understood that rare reagents grew here that made it a herbalist's paradise. A skilled potion brewer could likely make a small fortune here, the gathering of exquisitely rare herbs such as Mandrake and Ravenseern made simple by having them all in a single place.
Some instinct deep within him compelled him that this room held yet one more secret from him though. With no learned knowledge or Lore guiding him at this point, Jakob leant down and simply thought of the plant he had in mind; willing it to grow in the soil he ran his fingers through on some strange, intuitive hunch. He gasped out loud as he felt some strange force pass through him and immediately felt short of breath, as though he had just sprinted half a mile. Staggering back upon the soil, fatigued somehow, he saw that where his hands had been in the soil, a Wolfsbane sprig had already begun to rise up from the soil, willed to grow from the soil by his own thoughts.
Jakob falls backwards. Sitting in an undignified manner in the verdant soil. "That is not possible!"
The oracle scrambles a bit, grabbing the spear he dropped and trying to catch his breath.
"The plant...It wasn't there..."
He recovers a bit.
"Well if we get out of here alive Sagrava will never worry about paying the Pirate king again."
The verdant nature of the room begins to unsettle Qhude as he kens the extent at which the natural order had been perverted. The o'erpresent scowl upon his face deepens as he keeps white knuckled grip on his guisarme. He doesn't speak as yet, though slowly he respositions to put one of the room's exits in easy reach.
Seeing the Baso's response to the wonders of the room Akirra asks, What is wrong Qhude?
"What is not wrong?" Tebati interjects. "All of this ... to eat and drink magic, to depend on the ingenuity of the arcane for all that the soil and sky are supposed to provide. It is unnatural."
In toneless voice Qhude speaks in the language of the Mwangi "Kuphambene nomthetho imithetho yemvelo"
Ansha rolls her eyes at Qhude and Tebati. Superstitious barbarians. The elven enchantress walks over to where Jakob sits upon the ground and crouches, resting her elbows on her thighs. "How did you do that, Jakob?" she asks, her voice deliberately calm, yet still evidencing her curiosity.
Akirra had been purposely baiting Qhude but was quite surprised and perplexed at Tebati's interjection. Interesting, he says. How long has magic been considered "unnatural"? Is it not part of this world? Part of the cosmos? Does it not naturally develop in people of this time? Do you believe it unnatural or "contrary to the laws of nature" if a farmer uses a plow and oxen team rather than his own hands to till the soil? OR even that he tills the soil at all? Or the Shaman who causes rain to fall where none would have otherwise? What about the priest who uses magic to mend wounds?
Pausing he adds, And what makes you so certain the source of these wonders are arcane?
"I have no doubt that the mages of the Magaambya could lift fish out of the river and into their cooking pots," Tebati replies, "but their kitchens still buy fish from people like my father and my uncles and cousins. There is value in people working with their hands in the water and their heads bare to the sky. It keeps them in touch with the natural order, lest they decide in their arrogance they have no need for it." She leaves no doubt that she believes the Order of Arioch is a prime example of such hubris.
Turning to Jakob and Ansha, she asks, "Ought we not to remove the dead things from the room? The magic might have power to revive them." She keeps a wary eye on the thorn-shooting bush to see if it is recovering from its aggressive pruning like the trampled plants are.
Who says the Order had no need? The purpose of this room seems to be quite obviously to provide "natural" sustenance in a place that could not possibly provide it unaided and for a time when they could not hope to acquire it from the outside. Rather than abandon nature, they chose to embrace it. If they were capable of growing all this, surely they were capable of just conjuring sustenance if that is all they truly desired. Why go the effort of growing real plants if they themselves were not what was truly desired?
You should let go of your prejudices, and open your mind to other possibilities...
Akirra's rebuke of Tebati brings out a sense of protectiveness in Qhude and stirs the fire enough to conjure caustic words. A spit upon the unnatural soil is accompanied by "You lecture on the ideals of a group that you let inkumbulo-vuna and leave you an umoya-ze."
Turning to Jakob and Ansha, she asks, "Ought we not to remove the dead things from the room? The magic might have power to revive them."
Ansha turns to glance at the dead plantoids. "They are aberrations," she says. "But it cannot hurt."
Yes, yes, mind erased, empty soul. You've mentioned that a few times now.
Akirra gives Qhude a long look. Your closed mind and distrustful nature result in a near equal of my current circumstances. We aren't all that different you and I. We just got here by different paths.
Akirra then moves to help remove the defeated plants before they should arise, renewed by the room's magic.