If the other's declined her potions Hinata would return her attention to Poe. "I still have a few weaker ones and I can make another if you need something stronger I'll just need a little time." Hinata would place her potions with Poe as she began to pulling items out of her bag and mixing them within her vials.
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The path underground continues for hours and hours, and with the map you have, you're sure you're going the right way, but the need for rest eventually overcomes you.
After what seems like forever, you finally across countless small halls and chimneys breaking off from the primary tunnels, most blocked or redirected by occasional collapses. The halls effectively create a dizzying, three dimensional maze.
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Poe has little issue finding the correct path through the maze, and you all form a chain as you make your way through, managing to avoid anything or perhaps anyone who may have been lurking around a corner.
Out of the maze, the path stretches on, and with 18 hours having passed, you figure it's probably a good time to take a break.
Poe finds a comfortable looking side tunnel, and you turn in for the night.
This time, your sleep is interrupted when Hinata begins shouting that something nefarious approaches. A dog-sized wasp floats into the cavern, glowing with a dim, violet light.
___
The wasp points its stinger at Hinata, and fires two lightsaber-like beams of purple light at her.
Both beams singe her flesh deeply for 19 damage, and Hinata is surrounded by an aura of violet light.
Poe shakes his head, grabbing Olivia since he typically cradles her while he sleeps. He's actually thankful he's laying down since it would make shooting him harder.
Grunting, he racks the slide and fires again.
Lilly was sleeping peacefully, well almost peacefully, with a strange dream in the end, before something woke the group up.
"Hey, what's up?", *rubs her eyes*, "Holy....!! Giant bug!"
Lilly closes her eyes and mutters a chant.
Yizzik is startled awake as the sudden sound of yelling and combat forces him from his relaxed state into a survival mode. Rolling onto his feet, he'd grab both his shield and axe, forced for now to fight with only his natural scales and trusted shield to protect him.
Hinata cries out as she takes the hits hard but manages to stay in the fight, she gets ready to dodge the next attack as her fur begins to glow softly mending her flesh.
Vingold stands and draws his whip. "Whuzhapening?" He slurs as he blinks and looks around.
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Poe's second shot tears a decent gash in the giant wasp's abdomen, but not nearly enough to fell it.
Hinata retains her unhealthy-looking purple glow, her body taking on a sudden thinned out appearance.
___
The glowing wasp turns its gaze on Lilly and fires away.
Hinata (-14, radiation poisoning, faerie fire)
Lilly (-6, prone, pending fort save)
Poe (prone)
Gloomwasp (-16)
"I do not work midnights." Vingold says as he looks longingly back at his bed.
Lilly grits her teeth, as an eye pulls wider as something is wrong in her body.
"Tha 'ell?" Poe mutters, when he sees Lilly and Hinata affected by the glow. Nevertheless, he resumed fire on the wasp.
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Lilly suffers a low dose of radiation poisoning. but manages to complete her spell.
Inspired by Vingold's performance, Poe manages hit the gloomwasp once with a bolt, clipping one of its wings.
Hinata (-14, radiation poisoning, faerie fire)
Lilly (-6, prone, radiation poisoning, faerie fire)
Poe (prone)
Gloomwasp (-35)
Lilly's spell is completed, ..help me my feathery friend!
A celestial eagle appears directly above the bug.
Lilly stands up, and dark shadows whirl around her.
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Lilly's eagle misses all three of its attacks, and Hinata lobs a stone at the wasp's abdomen.
The gloomwasp turns and zips up to the eagle, stinging him in the side.
Hinata (-14, radiation poisoning, faerie fire)
Lilly (-6, prone, radiation poisoning, faerie fire)
Poe (prone)
Gloomwasp (-40)
Eagle (-1)
The eagle looks like a light bulb.
"Oh, the bird looks shiny now, pretty cool."
Lilly stares at the bug with a weird smile.
She then takes a 5ft step SW.
The eagle continues attacking.
While certainly not the lizardfolks typical style of battle, he knew he had to try something to slay the wasp that floated just out of his reach. So it was with a mighty growl that he'd rear back before chucking his magical adamantine battle axe at full force at his enemy
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Lilly's magical eagle pecks at the wasp as it floats up to his level, then takes another swipe from its claw. Interestingly, the wasp understands what Lilly's odd expression means, and it starts to tremble in fear.
While it's scared, Poe fires a bolt which smashes through its head and carries it off into the cavern.
"Seems duergar won't be the only things to worry about down here," Yizzik would comment offhandedly as he moved to collect his axe, tail swishing from side to side against the rocks in slight exasperation.
Poe yawns. "Right. Back ta bed wit me." he replies, reloading Olivia manually and loading up his spare clip with bolts.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Thankfully, the rest of the night goes without incident, although the healthy glow from Lilly and Hinata doesn't subside just yet.
In the morning, or at least you assume it's the morning given that the Darklands is just that - permanently dark - you pack up and continue on towards what's hopefully Phaedextrin's Maw, referring to your map to keep you on the right path.
Ahead, brilliant stripes of red and black stone and growths of glittering crystal line a massive chamber's central pillar.
Behind the column, you catch a glimpse of two four-legged creatures with feathered tails who look to be happily munching away at the iron-rich ore here. They have not yet noticed you.
Lilly casts guidance on herself, as she figures she will need to be healthy before heading out again. That strange glowy thing wasn't normal.
While certainly not his most successful talent, Yizzik would slink low and start to try and slip past the creatures first. He hoped by taking point and sneaking by first he'd either make it, or at the very least distract them from his companions if he was caught.
Lilly, still under the effect of her shadowy cloak, moves forth, drawing her whip.
"Bugs bugs bugs, i heard of a rabbit named such once.
I don't know the rest of the story, but bugs should stay out of my bed."
Babbling her nonsense, she cracks her whip at the northern bug.
Poe grimaces, his pipe almost falling out of his mouth. "Ah s#$+e!" he shouts, raising Olivia.
"Take that!" he crows.
With no option left to him but to charge in for the assault, the reptile would move in hard for the attack. He had no idea what the monsters were, but couldn't risk them sneaking past him to attack his companions.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Vingold recognizes these creatures as rust monsters. Their antennae cause metal objects to swiftly rust and corrode, eventually turning to useless piles of rust that they then happily munch on.
Being four-legged, the monster avoids Lilly's whip, but definitely not Poe's bolts, one packed with enough force that it impales the beast's brain and sends it to its death.
Yizzik rushes the remaining monster and cuts deep into its abdomen, coating his axe in blood.
The creature's antennae twitch for a moment, then reach out and touch Yizzik's armor.
Where the antennae land on Yizzik's armor, a tiny square of rust forms that quickly expands to cover the entire full plate.
As his armor is rendered nearly useless, an elven woman stumbles into the cavern, seemingly out of thin air. At the same time, Vingold slumps over and vomits a black and sticky tar, and is suddenly very still.
Dawn, Lilly, Poe, Hinata (?), Yizzik (half armor AC), Rusty (-17)
"Let's see... which way did they go...which way-" A pale-skinned elven woman rifles her hand through her flower-studded hair. "Oh! There they are. And they are dealing with... something."
The woman snaps her fingers and a cloud appears on the creature, raining lightning down on the monster. She draws her falchion and closes in. "Hope you don't mind if I help slay this thing. Rust just isn't your color!"
"Hey, i didn't order you to give a paw, you are no dog."
Lilly walks NW, and tries again.
Aiming for the head....
"Vingold!" Poe shouts, crouching at his friend's side. "Damn it! What did that!?"
Somewhat distracted, he only fires one shot at the remaining rust monster.
Yizzik would notice and even hear the sounds of his armor corroding beneath the touch of the strange insect. Knowing that it's abilities to help his team would be at risk if this creature should destroy his armor, he knew he had to bring it down, dropping his shield now to put everything he had into his next axe swing. He had heard the new voice ring out in the heat of battle, but was unable to focus upon it for now, lest the beast catch him off guard.
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The newcomer conjures an angry looking storm cloud which zaps the rust monster. Poe fires another shot into its brain, and the combined attacks are enough to end the beast's life before it can rust anything else.
With the death of the rust monsters, a half-orc man stumbles out of a small campsite setup in a cavern nearby. He walks to the corpses of the rust monsters and kneels down, sighing. "Ah, the divine messengers are slain. No matter, I suppose all things die eventually, right?" His hair is covered in lice and greasy enough that dozens of the bugs have slid down and formed a clump on his shoulders. His behavior is strange, and he occasionally claps into the air and then examines his hands, as if to kill an imaginary fly.
"Divine Messenger, eh?" The lice are a nice touch, though.
How rational is this guy?
Dawn retrieves the cloud, directing to stay at her side.
"How long have they been around? Frankly, how long have you been around? And have you seen a goat-legged woman around here? Kinda creepy, hanging around with animated skeletons?"
It fizzles away as she discusses matters with the half-orc.
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Dawn senses a sort of madness to the half-orc, catching him mumbling questions to himself and then answering them shortly after. The sorry state of his hygiene and his madness implies he must have been alone down here for a very, very long time.
"Why, I've been down here for as long as Rovagug has been with me. Did you see him? When you killed those things, did you feel his insight wash over you?" He seems pretty interested in the details of the rust monster slaughter. "Goat-legged woman and skeletons. They might have been wandering these lands. They traveled there and then days later, a few went there, but no goat woman that time," he says while nudging his head in the direction you arrived from, and then pointing the opposite direction further down into the tunnels. "Will you destroy them? It is the only way to please The Rough Beast. Conflict is insight."
Imprisoned since the Age of Creation, the god Rovagug seeks only to destroy creation and the other gods. Believed to be imprisoned in a state of torpor somewhere deep within Golarion, his increasingly restless stirrings are taken by many to be the cause of volcanic activity and earthquakes.