Azara and Shel together take down Pahg-Vahr in a beautifully choreographed set of attacks. Just before Azara does her first slice, Vahr whispers, "Danke."
Azara kills on the first hit, and then shreds the adjacent blue ogre with great panache.
Kiku, Juniper and Yojimbo are up!
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Kiku nods and gives a brief smile to Yojimbo for his bravery and dedication as she backs away.
While she still cannot target all of her allies at once, Kiku sees the ogres surrounding them and decides that she must act now, as waiting for a perfect moment might be even more dangerous.
She once more raises her staff, waving it around in increasingly wide circles.
"Desna, let us fly into battle with the speed of the stars. Haste!"
Juniper moves up to face the thing in the rubble. Yojimbo provokes an attack of opportunity from the green ogre, who misses.
The red ogre looks towards the dead body of Pahg-Vahr, and then back, fearfully, at the rubble. "No madaxa soo socda! Orod!"
Instead of taking his attack of opportunity against Juniper, the red ogre bolts, running away from the battle.
The rubble explodes, and out bursts the most disgusting giant you've ever seen. Instead of a head, it possesses little more than a gaping maw the size of its neck, jagged bones and bits of skull serving as teeth for a monstrous mouth. Its moist, splotched body is marked with rune scars that echo those on the body of Pahg-Vahr. Muscles and bones show through its translucent flesh.
The disgusting giant bites at Juniper and misses, but its appearance is so horrifying that many of you quake with fear.
The ogres are running away so the whole party is up!
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Blessings on Kiku for this speed
Grigorii moves up to the monstrosity, continuing his thunderous song.
"Glorymane! Defend us!"
"'Cause we're fierce and we're reckless
When I jam on my guitar
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a waraxe and big allies
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a flank space, puny
And I'll make you rage
Bloody lips
Feral eyes
I can show you incredible things
Deadly kisses, subtle lies
You're raging, puny, I'm just mean
Find out where you’ll be
Get set up, so we’re flanking
But the worst they’ve yet to see
Oh yeah
Screaming, dying, perfect form
I can make all the tables turn
Hitting harder filled with scorn
Keep you up’n swinging like oh my gods
Who is he? I want you on my team
And you'll come back each time you leave
Cause puny I'm a nightmare when I start to rage sing"
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The disgusting inverted giant bursts from behind the rubble, but although his fear aura is strong, this party has a strong resolve to carry them through.
Shel runs forward to protect Juniper. Harsk shoots and slays the Green ogre. Grigorii runs forward and attacks the atrocity, hitting it twice.
Azara, Kiku, Juniper and Yojimbo are all up!
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Kiku remains undeterred by the disgusting creature, deciding to help take the offensive against something so monstrous and terrible as to frighten even the ogres.
"Damerrich, let your axe pass judgment upon this creature!"
A spiritual weapon, a greataxe, materializes next to the creature, taking a single swing.
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"What the hell that thing? It's no wonder the giants were trying to bury it!"
Mechanics:
Narrative:
Why am I so angry!? "That is quite an inspiring song, Grigorii. " Juniper shouts, her brow furrowed in a manner that seems unfamiliar.
"By Apsu's will, I will shield you, Shel. May you strike true! Yojimbo, flank with us! Flank with us!!!"
"Apsu protect us as we—" Juniper falls backwards. "That was intentional," she whispers, meekly before standing again, provoking an opportune attack from the malformed monstrous giant.
10 base
+11 armor
+1 deflection
+3 Dex
+8 dodge
+2 luck
+3 natural
+1 shield
+1 size
+1 haste
–1 rage
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touch 25
incorporeal 29
flat-footed 29
Since Shel was the first to provoke, the atrocity takes its attack of opportunity vs Shel.
It hits!
The red ogre runs as fast as his feet will carry him away from here.
Kiku's spiritual weapon misses this round. Grigorii's spirit slams and hits. Azara hits and crits with her flank attack, hurting the creature the most. Her spirit slam misses.
The atrocity then turns to the biggest threat, the person who hurt it the most, Azara.
Because Azara eschewed Juniper's aid, it beats her CMD, grabs Azara in its mouth and then claws at Grigorii. Azara, you're now grappled.
Both claws miss Grigorii!
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Grigorii shouts as the thing bites Azara.
"Watch out for those jaws!"
"Glorymane! Bite it back!
"Bloody lips
Feral eyes
I can show you incredible things
Deadly kisses, subtle lies
You're raging, puny, I'm just mean
Find out where you’ll be
Get set up, so we’re flanking
But the worst they’ve yet to see
Oh yeah
Screaming, dying, perfect form
I can make all the tables turn
Hitting harder filled with scorn
Keep you up’n swinging like oh my gods
Who is he? I want you on my team
And you'll clear waves each time you cleave
Cause puny we're a nightmare when I start to rage sing
So give into your anger
They’re gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the strength was worth the pain
Got a waraxe and big allies
They'll tell you I'm insane
'Cause you know I love dead bad guys
And you love the rage
'Cause we're fierce and we're reckless
When I jam on my guitar
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a waraxe and big allies
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a flank space, puny
And I'll make you rage"
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Juniper shakes her head. I mustn't allow my anger to control me. she shouts as she quickly stows her shield and casts a spell. The halfling reaches a hand out and touches the grotesque monstrosity, discharging a bolt of frigid energy into the beast.
Juniper then circles around toward the grappled ifrit, but looks back at Shel. "Zuretzat izango dut zutoinera. Contador da gogorra!"
10 base
+11 armor
+1 deflection
+3 Dex
+2 luck
+3 natural
+1 size
+1 haste
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touch 18
flat-footed 29
Harsk hits the atrocity twice with flaming arrows, but it didn’t take as much damage from the fire as expected. Grigorii casts liberating command on Azara, and then attacks the creature with his axe, hitting once. Grigorii’s spirit attempts to slam into the creature but fails.
Juniper stops raging and hits the creature with frigid touch, staggering it. The frigid touch does damage, but not as much as Juniper was expecting.
As the spell hits, it triggers the Thassilonian rune scars all over the creature’s body, which flash with a light that threatens to blind everyone within 10 feet of the creature. Since Azara’s head is currently in the creature’s mouth (and you thought it smelled bad from the outside), she is currently shielded from this effect.
You all somehow manage to shake off the flash, and manage to not be blinded!
Azara, Shel, Kiku and Yojimbo are up!
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Shel hacks away three times at the Monstrosity in front of her. Before doing so, she accepts the rage song, and also feels bolstered by Yojimbo's spirit.
Flanking Attack with Rage song and Yojimbo bonus
Damage plus
Sneak Attack
Flanking Attack with Rage song and Yojimbo bonus
Damage plus
Sneak Attack
Flanking Attack with Rage song and Yojimbo bonus
Damage plus
Sneak Attack
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Azara and Shel take down the monster in a wild flurry of Yojimbo-enhanced raging attacks! When you examine what they've left of the now shredded guardian, you see that Vahr was right to fear her fate. Many of the guardian's scars are identical to the ones on the body of the dead ettin.
As you approach the cavern, Shel holds up a hand, pointing to a number of those pesky Thassilonian runes.
Realizing that the runes comprise a trap, Shel asks you to wait while she takes care of it, moving rune stones carefully from one spot to another in succession to slowly disable it. Although the trap looks to be insidious, with her high skill she is able to disable it easily by taking ten, leaving all of you free to explore the cavern if you wish.
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Kiku breathes deeply, kneeling down next to the ettin.
"I am so sorry, Pahg-Vahr."
She glances back to the dead abomination.
"I see now what you were afraid of."
While Shel finds and disables the trap, Kiku stops at each of the dead ogres and giants and performs a silent prayer for each of them, swearing to herself to return and perform a more complete service.
She finally follows her companions into the cave, checking the runes as she goes.
"This place is dedicated to the last Runelord of Envy, Belimarius. Please be watchful for strong abdjuration effects."
She nods and Yojimbo replies likewise. Kiku holds out her staff perpendicular to the ground and then begins spinning it at an ever-increasing tempo. As she does so, Yojimbo's tendrils of ectoplasm retract and his form becomes lighter until he finally settles on a calm translucence.
"If you could please lead the way, Yojimbo."
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Shel was in her element in the passageway. She easily spotted the runes, and was able to get the group by them without much problem.
She holds the others and moves about 20' ahead of the group, carefully looking for other traps or things that were abnormal.
Perception +3 if a trap
[/ooc]Edit: Kiku, Shel has her own wand, so I will take the six charges from her wand. I was just hoping for a spell if there was one out there. Thanks. [/ooc]
The group says prayers over the dead, heals themselves, and studies the trap that Shel disabled. Shel knew only that it bestowed a curse, but with Kiku's knowledge of Thassilonian, they make out runes for "resistance," "mighty," "beneficial" and "magic".
________________________________
Yojimbo and then Shel travel cautiously into the chamber. Once, this was clearly the intricately carved antechamber of a Thassilonian palace. Now, there are rocks and mostly crumbled statuary everywhere, despite the many tons of rubble that had been hauled out by Pahg-Vahr and the ogres.
The mutilated corpses of several ogres are scattered about the chamber haphazardly. The bodies bear multiple burns and slash marks from claws and teeth. In the back of the chamber, partially excavated from the rubble, is an opaque, ivory covered sphere. There is one item outside the sphere, a staff currently resting against the wall.
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Juniper follows the other halfling into the chamber, and casts detect magic. "Begira, Shel, langile bat," she whispers, pointing.
"Um, I have no idea what it does." Juniper picks up the staff, "but I might be able to make it work."
"Oooh! That was pretty neat!"
"But I don't know what that spell is." Juniper giggles.
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Kiku is too distracted by the gruesome scene to think about ancient Thassilon. She slowly takes in the room, internalizing every bit of pain and death contained within.
"Oh, my...this is...."
She has never had such a visceral experience with the Runelords' evil. She would do her best to make sure this never happens again.
She absent-mindedly scans the staff with detect magic...
...and draws a blank, the scenes of burned and eviscerated ogres still crashing through her mind.
Juniper, you feel like you have a rather prickly protective aura. Are you experimenting further?
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Grigorii stops to consider what he knows of ancient Thassilon.
But, he has exhausted his lore. Few people write songs about the runelords. At least, few survived to sing them.
Before examining the staff, Grigorii casts moment of greatness on himself and the party. As he examines it, he uses it to beat a simple rhythm on the stone floor.
"The people of Thassilon did not write many songs about their runelords, but there were some few works about their toys. This is the Thassilonian relic known as Edasseril's Scorn. The staff can cast three spells: covetous aura, lesser spellcrash, and stunning barrier. But, I'm not quite sure what covetous aura does. That spell you cast was a stunning barrier, Juniper." With a wink he adds, "It suits you."
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"I think I worked out the words to the ditty. It's in a strange seven-line style that fell out of favor with ancient Thassilon. I'll buy the first round, if you sing along!"
Edasseril’s Scorn
Lady Queen Belimarius.
ruled all the realm, and yet was envious,
So craft a staff she did to wield
The scorn of all Edasseril
With it at hand, her beauty stuns
Spells lesser crash, and wise men run
For hers is the aura covetous
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Distracted by the carnage all around you, you decide to save the question of what curse the trap may have contained for a later time.*
The portion of the ruins excavated by Pahg-Vahr and her ogre conscripts represents a modest fraction of the entire site. However, when you attempt to continue the explorations, you run into an insurmountable barrier. Not even Yojimbo seems able to get past the pearly white spherical ward. Attempts to use dimensional magic to travel through the barrier fail. You soon find that most spells cast on the barrier rebound upon the caster, especially if they deal in abjuration effects. After much experimentation, you conclude that your group simply does not have the resources to attempt to penetrate this powerful Thassilonian ward.
On the other hand, you realize that the magical wards here are more than sufficient to keep any of the island's giants from causing much damage. Further exploration of these ruins would require considerable effort by a larger team of Pathfinders and staff. In time, Society scholars might unravel the wards sealing the ruins' interior. Your group is not only bringing back a major relic for the society to study, but you've also made such a positive impression on the Averakan War Council that you think the half-orcs might happily provide a base of operations for future forays to the ruins.
Is there anything more that you all want to do here before traveling back to the Winter Lodge, and then to Averaka?
_________________________________________________
*That time will be when you receive your chronicle sheets. Dun dun dun!
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Juniper absent-mindedly wipes her dusty brow on the low-hanging tasseled end of Azara's scarf while the ifrit is listening to Grigorii's song. "Well, I think that about does it here. Let's get back to the Winter Lodge and make sure Rukus hasn't destroyed it."
Is there anything more that you all want to do here before traveling back to the Winter Lodge, and then to Averaka?
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"I believe I read once, in the Pathfinder Chronicles, about a team that discovered the location of, and subsequently defeated, a slumbering Rune Lord."
Azara appraises the barrier one last time before exiting the cave.
"No... His sanctum was buried miles underground..."
Kiku, gentle soul that she is, holds a prayer service over the bodies of the dead ogres and the ettin. Once she's satisfied that the dead have been treated properly, you decide that it's time to return to the Winter Lodge. On the way, you snack on some of the treats that Tabi packed for all of you: apples, sandwiches, and her famous potato rolls, still tasty even when they're cold. Soon the familiar sturdy stone walls of the Winter Lodge appear before you.
Ruckus is sitting outside on the porch, munching happily on some salted fish. Behind him, the red ogre, now with a bloody stump where one of his fingers had been, bolts and runs back inside the lodge.
Ruckus, still wearing the crown on his head, grins and waves at you. "Waxaad dilo laba-madaxa iyo ma-madaxa, iyo ogre diri igu soo noqda!" He tears off a piece of fish with his teeth, then offers it to you. "Waxaad ma-cuto! Doonayaa kalluunka?"