Kolvant clears her throat. It's a sound, unsurprisingly, like stone grinding on stone. "I came to tell you this for two reasons. First, because you will soon be returning to the Material, and such persons of interest are hard to find. Second, because I'm not the only one watching your lot with...interest. Powers both fell and fair seem convinced that this ragtag band of adventurers is destined to play a part in something great or terrible—or both. It seems far-fetched to me, but I've always been a bit of a skeptic.
"Roughly a month ago, I was taken by a terrible vision." Kolvant's eyes are already pale from death, but they turn almost white. She seems to be reliving the event. "I was still alive then, of course. I saw burning dragon bones that danced like puppets on strings. I saw a rift in the world spewing out green worms like an old wound spewing out pus. I saw an enormous many-eyed grub giving birth to that which has no life. I saw my old home under siege by wicked worms."
She swallows. "And I saw a...man. Twice my size, hooded and cloaked, wielding a great scythe. He...was the worms. For he was no man at all." Shaking now, the stone giant chieftess starts to speak slowly, as if reciting something. "'For it is of rumor that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws, til out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.'"
The paleness leaves her eyes. The great giant shivers. "The Age of Worms draws nearer every day."
"Thanks for the warning, Kolvant. But, we kinda already knew that. Now, if you don't mind I'd like some privacy with Astraden," Cuetzpalli says.
He stands and smiles at the giant, then nods a farewell to her. He then walks a ways away with Astraden. Once they are alone, he grabs her and kisses her passionately. After the kiss fades, he pulls back and says, "I should have done that a long time ago. When you died..." Tears fill the olman's eyes. "It was well..." he clears his throat "..rough."
Carina smirks as she looks at the doppelganger. She unhooks a bomb from her belt and shakes it.
"Excuse me, sir?" She calls it out. "I think you dropped this. Here, have it back."
She throws it.
When Cuetzpalli draws away from the kiss, she is smiling. The cleric wipes his tears away with her sleeve. "It will be rough with you gone, too. Let's make the most of this time. Wanna go dancing?"
** spoiler omitted **
The stone giant turns away. "I'll leave you two be for now—though I have a feeling I'll be seeing you again, Astraden."
She walks off into the forest, and quickly fades from view.
Carina's bomb misses. The doppelganger rolls his eyes as he receives a slight burn.
The doppelganger fires another shot. This time, he manages to hit Farrukh in the arm.
He then backs away.
"Seeing red, everyone!" calls a voice from up ahead.
The echoing voices and mirrors make Tanith’s head spin but he knows the party needs to stick together now more than ever.
”Nobody move. They’re trying to use the mirrors to confuse us. I’m going to get this trapdoor open.”
Tanith lowers his poleaxe and squares off with the false wall. The big Kordite crouches slightly to lower his center of gravity, asks Kord’s favor, and then barrels into the trapdoor like a rampaging aurochs.
Tanith smashes down the trap"door", nearly crushing Farrukh against the southern wall in the process.
"Aw, not again..." Eben says as Farrukh is cut off from the group. He whips his head around as Carina throws a bomb beyond his line of sight. With Tanith trying to break the wall down and no other enemies in sight, he decides to stay still for the moment so as not to walk into another trap. That doesn't render him without purpose, however. "Two can play at that..." he says, gesturing ahead and throwing a bit off wool into the air. Ahead of the group, another Eben steps out of a mirror and stays still. He smiles towards the group and puts his fingers to his lips in a 'shhhh' motion. Then he turns to the north and aims his illusory bow menacingly.
** spoiler omitted **
Carina smirks at Eben as he conjures up his illusory double before looking at the flask of purple liquid on her belt.
"I think some of them may be invisible. Tanith, you still have that extract I gave you... and I have this." She plucks it from her belt.
Second time I've decided to use this. Last time... didn't end well.
She uncorks the bottle, causing a disgusting formaldehyde aroma to waft from it. Trying not to think too much about how it'll taste, she chugs it.
It kicks in immediately. Everything is thrown into sharper relief. The dirty mirrors reflect light at greater intensity. Her thought processes accelerate to the point of nigh-incomprehension. Her fingers elongate slightly and her motor control improves to almost superhuman levels.
If Farrukh found the lever to open the door he would open it.
Farrukh moves in after his double, and targets him
Then he slashes, if possible.
Farrukh slashes into the doppelganger brutally.
There is a pause.
Suddenly, a scimitar flashes out of nowhere. Eben is sliced in two, collapsing in a pool of blood.
That is to say, the false Eben.
"Ha!" says False Farrukh. "I got one! Ix and Elaxan seriously let themselves get murdered by these guys? Wow, that came out wrong." He looks up, seeing Tanith about twelve feet away. "Hey. No hard feelings, right?"
Tanith hears running footsteps. Another doppelganger appears, swinging his scimitar at Tanith. This one is wearing Tanith's own form.
The doppelganger facing Farrukh slashes with his scimitar, then leaps back. He misses, but takes a nasty blow in turn despite an impressive show of mobility.
The clattering of steel on stone rings out, and a moment later, Farrukh sees a fourth doppelganger appear from up north, firing an arrow at him.
He's able to block the arrow with his klar.
The real Eben smirks, and, with a slight wrinkle of his forehead, adjusts his bisected illusion. The handsome human features ripple and melt away like a pool of wax, resolving into the grey form of a doppelganger, one with a serious look of surprise and horror on its twitching, 'dying' face. Meanwhile, he yodels down the hallway: "Whoah, you guys just killed one of your own. That's got to be embarrassing. Look what you did!" There's something actively... compelling about his voice, causing all doppelgangers in earshot to actively resist looking at the illusion and not at the living threats right next to them...
Carina's eyes light up and a wide smile appears on her face. "Wrongoneyoushapeshiftingdumbass." Her words flow from her mouth at an incredibly rapid pace.
In a blur of motion, she yanks a bomb from her belt and throws it!
Her reflexes are honed to the point where she manages to concoct another bomb in the time it takes the first one to finish flying through the air.
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Tanith swipes at the fake him as he comes barreling in. Distracted for a moment by how defined his own traps were getting, he suffers a nasty blow in return.
"Ha! That's a terrible disguise", he laughs despite the wound. "I'd never use a tiny blade like that!"
Taking his hand off the polearm, the Kordite shifts back into a brawling stance. He comes in close for a hard strike with his elbow followed by a knee to the gut and a brutal headbutt.
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Farrukh hesitates for a second, torn between knowing it's a bad idea to follow the Doppelganger further into the maze, but also knowing that standing there and getting shot is just as bad.
Let's see if I can stop him running off...
Farrukh makes a note of the archer and his fightng style, then turns the corner and swings his klar at the creature, hoping to slam it into the wall's corner and knock him over.
"Not getting away that easy, you bastard!" he roars.
Farrukh rams the now-dead doppelganger into the wall, knocking it to the ground.
Two of the doppelgangers ignore Eben's words, but the one fighting Tanith is momentarily disoriented. He looks around, almost as if he's forgotten where Tanith has gone.
Tanith hits the doppelganger twice. The creature sways, but doesn't fall.
Still preoccupied with the death of his apparent comrade, the doppelganger to the west is caught off-guard as Carina hits him in the leg with one of her bombs—burning the dead illusion further.
The doppelganger affected by Eben's spell quickly breaks free as Tanith pummels him to a bloody gray pulp.
"C'mon, Axerus!" the burnt doppelganger shouts. "Make 'em bleed for every inch!"
He rushes towards Tanith, ducking under the bardiche as he goes, and slashes with his scimitar.
The other rushes by as well, dodging a clumsy snap from Spiny as he does so.
As the other doppelganger runs by, the wall surges up behind him, trapping him in with the party. He pays it no mind.
Tanith is bloodied as the dopplegangers effortlessly hit him.
"Everyone fall back a bit!" he calls out before praying to his patron for strength.
What with the lie of effect between him and his illusion cut off, EBen abandons his plans of having it rise up as an undead Eben-Doppelganger and just lets the thing dissolve. Instead, he launches some arrows at the 'burned' doppelganger.
Carina hops backwards and levels her crossbow at the burned doppelganger, somewhat annoyed at having to shoot around Tanith.
She reloads after firing.
Eben shoots an arrow into the doppelganger's side as Carina lodges a bolt in its leg, but it remains standing.
"Thank Norebo." Farrukh mutters under his breath.
His eyes widen in sudden understanding.
"Maybe breaking mirrors belonging to evil Doppelgangers is seven years of GOOD luck!"
You may spend an action point to gain an extra move action on your turn. This move action cannot be used in conjunction with a full attack action.
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Farrukh moves to the now-closed door and whips it open, then quickly studies and slashes at the Doppelganger he finds behind it.
Snicker-snack goes Farrukh's blade.
Farrukh swings true. The doppelganger's eyes can only begin to widen as Farrukh slices straight through them, scalping his horrible duplicate. Purple brain-goo splatters everywhere as the doppelganger collapses.
Spiny descends upon the last doppelganger. Before they can lift their scimitar to strike again, the False Tanith is literally ripped in two.
Carina's hands are twitching as the last doppelganger is torn to pieces. "Ohmy. Neverstopsbeingbrutal." She mutters, seemingly unaware of how quickly she's speaking.
"Whoneedshealing?"