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Since the posts in the other thread were getting a bit spread out (and the title wasn't really indicative of what the thread was), I decided to conglomerate them all into this one here (not being able to update posts after an hour is one of the few things I dislike about this forum), so this will have the previous chronicles + backstory and the new one I wrote today.
So for those of you who have been reading it, here's the new one, and for those who haven't, I'm gonna be updating this every week.
At the age of 8 he was sent to the monastery (though he spent every other day at home, also being groomed to take over his family's estate), where his parents hoped he would learn discipline and self-control from the monks there. And so he did, learning combat techniques and meditation forms from the masters for the next 8 years of his life. He revered Irori's strength of will and conviction along with his perfection of form, and made it his goal to strive his hardest in any endeavor he so chose, which at that point was likely to be the merchant trade. At age 16 he left the monastery as a full time student, the masters judging him capable of continuing his training alone if he chose to do so.
A happy year was spent at home, and though he still kept up a strict (by most people's standards, if not the monastery's) training regimen, he mostly devoted his time to managing one of the shipping warehouses his parents utilized, and to furthering his knowledge of history and religious texts (especially Irori's) in his spare time. Over this year a few life-changing events occurred. Firstly, Sun Xiao for the first time felt he had a sense of purpose, and he reveled in it. Secondly, and not as cheerfully, his parents' business came under attack. Shipments started mysteriously disappearing when brought over the ocean, and warehouses spontaneously caught fire. Sun Xiao's parents were forced to ship everything overland and post guards 24/7 over their major warehouses, and so started to hemorrhage money. They were far from destitute, but money started to become tight.
Unbeknownst to any of them, their business had started to step on the toes of an old and well established merchant family whose routes had been taken over a couple of years back by the Xiao family. They had finally had enough and resorted to sabotaging the Xiao business, in the hopes that they would be forced to start letting go of control of those routes. Unfortunately for them, the Xiao family were excellent at managing funds, and while money was tight and their standard of living dropped from "extremely comfortable" to "very well off" they were in no danger of losing any of their trade routes any time soon.
Unfortunately for the Xiao family, the rival merchants were not above taking a more direct approach since the indirect one had failed. The family attempted to hire a group of 5 Red Mantis assassins to take care of the Xiao family permanently. The Red Mantis representative shook his head and laughed, saying "You want to hire five of our elite to eliminate a simple family of merchants?"
"It will only take one."
He left, carrying a message to a master assassin to eliminate the Xiao family in the night, and to leave no witnesses.
Sun Xiao awoke to the sound of a guard who managed to begin to sound an alarm. And rushed out to meet the threat.
The sight that greeted him in the main courtyard were the corpses of his parents, laid out neatly among the bodies of all the guards and every full time servant at the estate, and a figure in red armor.
The assassin turned to finish the job, and a fight ensued. Sun Xiao was strong, and had natural ability and 8 years of training in hand to hand combat on his side. The assassin, however, had not been softened by over a year doing light exercise and poring over ledgers and tomes, and had experience and equipment on his side.
The fight was short and bloody, and left Sun Xiao with a gaping slash across his throat and three more across his chest. He fell unconscious and was assumed dead by the Mantis.
He was found and revived by a healer monk, who was coming to deliver a message from another of their order. She had had a vision of the slaughter, but it came hours late for it to make any sort of difference, if it would have in the first place. Sun Xiao was patched up and spent nearly 4 months recovering, which he spent secluded in the monastery. Whenever he could he turned to drink, finding solace in the dark depths of dreamless sleep drunks enjoy. When he could not, he contemplated how easily the Mantis had bested him and all 10 of their guards, and grew envious of that power.
Upon recovering from his wounds, Sun Xiao fled from Ilizmagorti in the dead of night, to Sargava, where none were likely to know his name. He spent the next two years modeling himself after what he considered to be Irori's prime aspects. Strength. Perfection. Discipline. Honor. He determined that they were not enough. He had held by those teachings most of his life, and they had not been enough to protect him from the Mantis. He still revered them, but did not consider them to be the whole picture. He contemplated what separated the Mantis from him.
In a flash, it came to him. The Mantis embodied other virtues. Ruthlessness. Fear. Justice. And a twisted form of honor. Sun Xiao took these virtues into himself and fused them into a cohesive whole, and he lives by that code.
No strength without fear. No justice without discipline. No perfection without ruthlessness. He ingrained these words into his memory as he honed his body again to its physical peak so that he might conquer whatever challenges the world threw at him. Eventually he ended up as a mercenary, mostly hired to protect others from dangers he saw as a welcome chance to hone his skills and gain experience in true battle. And so he continues to do today.
Backstory (short term, i.e. why is he with this party? Warning, minor Serpent's Skull spoilers ahead):
On the surface he is traveling with the Aspis merchant caravan for the benefits it provides. He respects the Aspis Consortium's ruthlessness and efficiency in their business dealings and wishes to protect their interests, especially since this particular caravan is on its way to somewhere he would like to be, namely [Insert City Name I Forgot Here] (and he also surreptitiously tests if the mercenaries are as ruthless and efficient as their masters. With few notable exceptions, they are not.). He travels with the caravan in exchange for 2 meals a day and full funding for his next venture once he leaves the caravan to pursue other goals. The caravan has never been safer from assorted bandits and creatures, so they see him as more than fulfilling his end of the bargain.
And on a basic level, this is true. However the deeper reason for traveling with this particular caravan is that it was the first caravan leaving Egorian. Sun Xiao had had a "minor dispute" with a pushy lesser son of House Jeggare, which ended with the arrogant weakling left with a distinct case of critical existence failure, and Xiao in desperate need of a bath. While Jeggare likely cares little for this minor twig from the family tree, family honor must be upheld, which means hired thugs were dispatched to eliminate Xiao.
Fortunately for these thugs, Xiao was long gone before they ever found him. Unfortunately for Xiao, he can never return to Egorian as long as he lives (not openly in any case), and Jeggare has dispatched trackers to find him and put out a general bounty on his head. It is doubtful that many of such trackers will be able to find him in the untracked wastes, but the persistence granted by the promise of a reward from the richest family in Cheliax will likely spur many young bounty hunters to their doom in the near future.
Basic Personality:
Sun Xiao (just Xiao to his companions) is obsessed with excellence, or perfection as well as martial might and strength. If you can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack, that's okay, so long as you're damn good at something else useful like gathering information or forming plans. He'll go out of his way to protect those types of characters above all others in fact; the other warriors/combat specialists on the team he expects to be able to take care of themselves, but these guys' talents lie in another direction, and he can respect that.
And he's not going to go out of his way to kick puppies or eat babies. He doesn't hate someone for being weak, he's just utterly indifferent towards them. If you are of no use to him, or you don't even have the ambition to better yourself you don't register on his radar. He won't leave you to die in a burning building out of spite, he'll leave you to die in a burning building because you don't have the will to fight your way out of there.
That's not to say he doesn't have his soft spots. He likes children, seeing them as being little balls of untapped potential. Weaklings who realize that they're weak and wish to better themselves earn a bit of respect in his eyes as well. He may even decide to take such people under his wing as pupils in order to allow them to achieve their ambitions. The training won't be pleasant, but it will be thorough, and he's never unfair, even if he is a bit harsh. Hell, he might even stop to pull a man out of said burning building if he's the kind of guy who carried his unconscious family outside and collapsed on his last trip out or something.
He isn't needlessly cruel, but his worldview is warped enough that he registers as evil when compared to most people. He's definitely not good, and he might be closer to neutral than evil over all, but anything that doesn't fit within his moral code in some way or another is just a distraction to be ignored or pushed aside. Eliminated (not necessarily killed, though he's definitely not above it) if it becomes persistent.
Caine is a Cleric of Sarenrae, and coincidentally happens to be Ulfgar's brother (other than their shared half-elven heritage I would never have been able to tell. Ulfgar has almost a foot and a half on Caine and his boisterous attitude makes a stark contrast to Caine's introverted manner).
Arkanis is the party's resident dedicated magic user, a Sorcerer. He irks me, and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's the fact that he continues to hit on everything that moves and is extremely familiar towards me.
Evelon is a Bard, though she plays no instruments. She has a fine singing voice, however. Another half-elf (quite a high concentration of them), and is very quiet...most of the time.
Geralt is a rogueish sort, and he also keeps to himself during the workday. At night or when resting, however, he is an amiable fellow and will often chat up the other members of our group.
And finally, Nesteruk, our Druid. He rarely speaks, or does anything really. Kind of an odd duck.
We did run into a mite of trouble on the third day however. While shopping for supplies we heard a disturbance. We went to investigate and found a crowd of civilians fleeing the are. Ulfgar grabbed one of them and asked them what was going on. The civilian told us someone had released wild dogs into the streets and that we should run. I was incredulous that this many people were running from a pack of dogs, and voiced this sentiment as we walked along. In doing so I missed the 9 of them coming around a corner.
Our hyperactive Sorcerer, Arkanis, excitedly yelled a magical phrase and a ton of gravel and rock fell from the sky to crush the canine foes. I almost felt sorry for them.
As we were turning to return to our business (and ask around if anyone had seen where the dogs had come from) we started to smell smoke coming from a warehouse a few blocks away. We ran to investigate, knowing the Aspis warehouse where our supplies were kept was near this area. Sure enough, it had been set ablaze, with a group of armed men lobbing vials of Alchemist's Fire at the building. I voiced a concern to my new companions; My travel bags were in that warehouse and within them were contained five fuse grenades.
They looked at me oddly for some reason and I stared back. Of course, this didn't last long as there were more pressing matters to attend to. Combat was engaged, with Ulfgar immediately moving forward to chop down an arsonist, with me shortly behind. I did not manage to finish off my target, but the vial of fire that he dropped at his own feet gave me the opening I needed to hit him while he was overextended and finish him off, only slightly singed. Combat ended swiftly after that.
As it turns out, these things were connected. Apparently a man named Umagro, believing we were a group of slavers had been trying to sabotage our departure. We managed to talk him down and get him to release his hostage (a man that the rest of my companions new, they had been trapped on Smuggler's Shiv together), though he would not believe our intentions. We offered to fight him in one on one combat, and Ulfgar jumped at the chance to commit more violence. A short and bloody fight ensued (Ulfgar narrowly avoiding all of Umagro's attacks) and Umagro was left alive (if barely) to leave in peace. Before he left he mentioned that a man wearing a Wayfinder had set him on us, and I deduced that an agent of the Pathfinder Society was trying to sabotage our journey.
The next few days passed uneventfully, as we got our gear in order. Our contacts in the Aspis Consortium mentioned that we would likely need a guide, and pointed us in the direction of a hermit named Tempest who could lead us to Tazion, and beyond. We took the overland route, as many party members were reluctant to set foot on a boat again after what had happened the last time they had done so. Along the way we encountered a pair of giant crabs which were summarily slaughtered by my companions with zeal. Most of them muttering "Damned crabs, I never want to see another one as long as I live" or something similar under their breath.
When we reached Tempest's home and summoned him, he was less than pleased that we had killed his pets. *Sigh*
We did manage to convince him to help us, with the caveat that we complete two trials to prove our worth. The Trials of Wind and Water. We decided to go after the Trial of Wind first, and we made our way to Gozreh's Crest to take a whole feather from a bird named Chirrock. Upon arriving there were were annoye dtaht he had failed to mention the bird resided at the top of a 500 foot tall plateau. As I was the only one capable of making the treacherous and slippery climb in the rain I ascended alone (Ulfgar tried valiantly to follow, but never made it more than 10 feet up before falling). Upon reaching the top I scoured the nest and surrounding area in the dark in the hopes of finding a feather there, but to no avail. After a fruitless few minutes searching I straightened up and looked over my shoulder, just in time to see the bird swooping in to defend its nest.
Having learned my lesson from killing the crabs, I set about attempting only non-lethal and stunning blows on the bird, until eventually I had beaten it unconscious. I took a tail feather for Tempest and another for my trouble, and climbed down, where we were greeted by a group of tribesmen who lived nearby. They were angry that I had stolen from Chirrock, but softened a bit on hearing that I had left the bird mostly unharmed. Nevertheless, they demanded that one of us fight their strongest member in unarmed combat, first to pin the other being the winner. Ulfgar stepped up to do so, but I reminded him that I had quite a bit more experience in unarmed combat than he did. I stepped up to fight their "strongest member" and summarily pinned him in just a few seconds. Hmph. I had expected him to at least give me a struggle. I made my displeasure known by dropping his head in the dirt but otherwise left him unharmed. No point starting a fight now that they had no quarrel with me, nor I with them.
Upon returning to Tempest we were given the Trial of Water to complete and were immediately sent on our way. We needed to retrieve a black pearl from the reefs around a small fishing town. The locals were friendly and traded us supplies that would be helpful, and gave us handy advice. Ulfgar and I dove beneath the surface (the man is an incredibly strong swimmer, though I'm no slouch myself) and within a few moments I had found a pearl (he may swim better than me on a good day but his eyes are not nearly as sharp) and we ascended. Thanking the villagers for their help, we left to return once again to Tempest.
He made sure our offerings were real, and being satisfied that they were he took us into his home, where he painted on our faces and chanted a strange chant. Upon completion of this ritual he handed us a piece of root, which all but Nesteruk (being absent) consumed. Evelon grew sick from the root, but the rest of us entered a dream-like state where we floated above the world and could see it almost as if it were a map.
Within a few moments, everything shifted and we each transformed into an animal that I assume has some significance to each of us personally. Ulfgar became a mighty lion, while Caine became a lithe leopard. Geralt became an eagle, while I, of course, assumed the form of a giant Mantis.
Tempest became a giant crab. Thankfully, in my insectoid form I was able to avoid showing a visible wince.
A snake appeared, with marking on it Caine identified as being similar to those on the body of a serpentfolk woman they had fought on Smuggler's Shiv. A battle ensued, and the snake was defeated with little trouble. We all returned to our natural forms in Tempest's hut, and the dream was interpreted as being symbolic of the death and beheading of the god Ydersius. As we camp here for the night and I pen this chronicle I have to wonder exactly what I've signed up for.
Moving on, soon after hitting the road we came across a woman and her pet dinosaur (our Druid identified it as a Deinonychus) who ordered us to halt. We soon determined that she had mistaken us for dinosaur hunters, and once the misunderstanding was cleared up she gave us a little info about the salt mine we had been contemplating entering. It had been overrun years back by salt wights, who had killed everyone in the mine and camp. She urged us to look for her parent's corpses (we would know them by a silver locket with her picture in it) and we agreed to look for it.
We fought three wights almost immediately upon entering, and everyone escaped miraculously unscathed. I myself was lucky enough to take advantage of three missed attacks against me by the Wights, which finished off those three in one fell swoop.
I was not so fortunate in the second room of the mine. Failed blow after failed blow I missed my targets and failed to avoid being hit by one of the wights who should by all rights never have touched me. I could feel my skin wither and thought that I might be in trouble, but mighty Ulfgar clove the wight in two with a single blow mere seconds later, and the Cleric healed my wounds and restored my health, for which I am grateful.
In the final room we encountered the people we were searching for. Though people is hardly the word I'd use to describe what they had become. I immediately recognized that the man (later confirmed as Aetherya's father) had become a Cairn Wight who wielded a pick with surprising skill. We nearly ran to our potential doom to attack the creatures, but our Druid summoned an eagle to start off the battle. Immediately upon entering the strange blue pearl surrounding the wights, it dropped to the ground, slain. We decided that it would be best to keep at range and I readied my crossbow while firing a Scorching Ray at the Cairn Wight, and the battle progressed similarly from there, with everyone simply staying out of range, except the Barbarian (who stood at the entrance and waited for a target to present itself) The Barbarian was nearly killed due to the wight's odd draining ability, but he survived to the end of the fight, where he dealt the finishing blow to the creature. Upon inspecting their corpses we found the silver locket and a journal explaining some of what had happened, with which we pieced together the events and deduced the rest.
The miners had found this blue pearl and accidentally cracked it open. Upon entering, Aetherya's father had been killed by its powerful negative energy and arose as a Cairn Wight, quickly slaying the rest of the miners, who arose as wights themselves (though of a lesser caliber).
They swarmed the camp, killing everyone but Aetherya, who grew up alone in the wilderness. Knowing this, we destroyed the pearl (and made short work of it to boot) and made our way back out, where Aetherya was waiting for us. Upon receiving the locket she offered to be an advance scout for our party, and we graciously accepted her offer.
For the next few days, with Aetherya's knowledge of the land, we made good time.
Needing a short rest we stopped in at a roadside attraction, which seemed to be the home of a small cockfighting ring. Having some money to spare and being in no great hurry, we decided to bet on a fight. Half of our party bet on a rooster named Cornugon, while Geralt decided he liked the look of Muddy Lyza better.
Lyza, being made of sterner stuff than she appeared, allowed Cornugon to get in a weak hit, before promptly killing him in one of a flurry of attacks.
I turned to pay the man the 20 gold I owed him, when he suddenly turned on us and demanded more. We refused, and he sent his thugs after us, exclaiming he would beat our golds out of us.
Losing my patience with the arrogant upstarts, I struck a hard blow at the nearest thug's windpipe, killing him. Almost simultaneously, Ulfgar cut down the thug nearest him. Being terrified, the third fled, luckily taking his fresh stench with him.
We turned to the leader of the cockfighting ring, and he gladly handed over his coin purse. Upon later inspection of the purse it contained 500 gold, netting us a solid gain. The man is unlikely to try to cheat the next outsiders so openly, as this slip up cost him dearly.
Less than a day later we encountered a group of villagers offering us hospitality. They seemed friendly enough but I got the sense that they were hiding something, though they meant no harm. We spent a night eating a simple, though filling and tasty, meal and drinking a heady wine that left most of my companions woozy after a mug or two. Upon reaching our lodging for the night, the village shaman came to us. She said that she had always believed outsiders to be cursed ones who would bring misfortune to the village, but that she had no choice. She explained that a Chemosit (a monster our Sorcerer, Arkanis, vaguely remembered as being a half-ape/half-bear monstrosity) had been coming into the village and eating the brains of villagers at night. She begged us for help, and we agreed to spend the night there and try to kill the monsters as they came into the village. To make sure we encountered them, she marked our door in some sigil with goat's blood and then departed.
Most of the night passed uneventfully. I was woken for my watch just before dawn and I sat near the door, meditating. Without warning, the Chemosit burst into the room, awakening all but Arkanis (quite hyperactive when awake, he was a damned heavy sleeper), and we leaped into action. Before we could do anything, however, the beast unleashed a mighty roar that shook the very walls of our hut. Not even Arkanis could sleep through such a racket.
While the others scrambled to find their weapons, I went for a disabling blow to the creature, hoping to buy time. Utilizing the basic Dragon stance, I hoped to maximize the effectiveness of the blow and struck, hitting the creature solidly in a weak spot. Obviously in pain (and bleeding slightly from its ears) it roared again, but was otherwise not debilitated by my attack. Enraged, it swiped blindly around the room, solidly striking Nesteruk, the Druid in the chest and knocking him back down from his half-upright position. Evelon, finding her voice, finally managed to belt out some of her magical songs to bolster our strength, allowed Arkanis to hit it with a pair of magic missiles and Nesteruk to finally gain his feet and swipe at it with a glowing blue energy on his palm,which discharged into the beast's fur with the crackling sound of breaking ice. Ulfgar gamely charged at the monster, swiping it with his greatsword for the killing blow.
Relaxing slightly, we look around. Ulfgar decides to step out of our hut to call the all clear,when he is suddenly pounced upon by a SECOND Chemosit! Thankfully the swipes from its mighty arm-paws miss, but it bites Ulfgar solidly on the shoulder while Arkanis fires a few missiles of force from his fingers at it. I manage to find the flowing rhythm of the Snake and slink out the door to confront the monster, but am unable to deal a solid hit to it. The beast is obviously in pain though, and is even moreso once Geralt's bow nails it in the shoulder and Evelon conjures magical shards of glass from nowhere to bombard it. Nesteruk had had enough by this point, and he shapeshifted into a mirror image of the Deinonychus we had encountered earlier, and with a swift healing from Caine leaped out the door.
His transformation was wasted, however, by Ulfgar's enraged retaliation against the savage bite, which smote the Chemosit's head from its shoulders. Not having much, the shaman could only provide us with a treasure map to a chest filled with gold ingots and and a shriveled monkey's head which I took, once it was revealed to be a device that would banish a summoned creature with a single touch. It could come in handy soon.
Nothing of note happened for a few days, besides some burrowing insects that I and Ulfgar were able to dispatch simply by moving closely with each other and then waiting for the creatures to surface. It was almost boring, really.
Then we came across the tree. Blackened and burned, surrounded by corpses both hanging from the tree and littering the ground around it, it gave off a foul, nauseating stench which took all of my power to overcome. As I wandered closer, motioning to my companions to stay back, the corpses all sprang to life at my presence, lunging at me.
Before they could do much, however, Arkanis called a ton of gravel mere inches from my face, halting them temporarily. Recognizing these zombies as plague carrying monstrosities, I quickly danced out of reach (communicating their oddities to my companions), readied my crossbow, and fired at the nearest zombie, which exploded in a cloud of green smoke and ichor, Apparently Arkanis' spell had been more effective than it first appeared, bringing these creatures to a point of imminent (and dangerous) re-death, as the next two shots fired by my companions also messily felled one of the undead.
Three survived, who lurched forward and all tried to sing at me, though channeling the litheness of the snake I was untouchable. Knowing there was no way around it, I resigned myself to getting my hands dirty and retaliated against all 3 of the zombies, slaying them and being covered by their disease ridden juices. Immediately I knew I had contracted the disease and warned my companions of it. Luckily the disease affected my health not a whit, but I was gravely in need of a washing by the end of the day.
Later that night we arrived in the city, and having met Cheiton I write these chronicles for anyone who might be interested in the finer details of the expedition to Saventh-Yi. Shortly after I complete this I intend to go out, drink myself silly, and sleep like the dead for the night. In two days we leave this city and continue towards Tazion.
We stopped for the night in…hold on, let me get the note I had Cheiton write up for me here…Calabuto, and Cheiton was kind enough to offer us lodging for the night. There were only three rooms to split among the seven of us, but as it was free loding I don’t see that any of us had room to complain. Me and Evelon (our Bard) shared the third room’s bed for the simple fact that nobody else besides Ulfgar could be trusted alone with her. Arkanis also shared the room but he slept on the floor. He objected, of course, but I saw no reason why such a small person should take up space that could be better utilized by others.
The other rooms were divvied up among Nesteruk and Geralt, and Ulfgar and Caine respectively. We settled into sleep and got most of the way through the night before we were rudely awakened by the world’s loudest and most inept “assassins”. One of them even had the perfect chance to hit me while I was still trying to untangle myself from the sheets and get up, but he managed to miss. Upon gaining my feet, I happened across a new use for my Ki. Upon swiping at the “assassin” I noticed my hand had become covered in a thick, steaming acid that hit the assailant directly in the face. Within seconds (and with help from Arkanis own well timed acidic attack) he had dropped to the ground with a smoking ruin where his face used to be.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room Ulfgar swiftly felled another assailant with the second swipe of his Greatsword (as inept as they were at hitting us, they were surprisingly resilient) after taking two hits from the two who had burst into his and Caine’s room (Caine himself had protected himself with divine power against all harm and was making the rounds to heal any injuries we might sustain). Not far from where we stood, in the next-door room, Geralt and Nesteruk were not doing too well, everyone being unable to land a hit, friend and foe alike.
In our room, I tried to hit the second assailant, who was very adept at dodging my attacks. He seemed much more confident than the others, even being able to swipe Arkanis with his sword, dealing a grazing blow when Evelon finally had the presence of mind to do something besides sing a ditty to calm herself and put us in rhythm with the flow of combat (it’s almost second nature to her by this point) and she flung out with a web of magic and paralyzed the second assailant. I left Arkanis to tie the helpless foe up and raced around the corner to help Geralt and Nesteruk, being able to land another acidic strike on the nearest man, not quite killing him. Geralt fixed that failure scant seconds later with his twin blades, leaving only one assailant versus me, Geralt, and a very angry dinosaur. Needless to say, he hardly stood a chance. Meanwhile, Ulfgar felled his second opponent with a mighty swing (nearly burying his sword in the floorboards, which could have been embarrassing) and looked around for more threats. Recognizing the battle was over he calmed himself and gathered around our prisoner. On him, we found a Wayfinder. I had my suspicions already but we woke him up to interrogate him. It took a little work (and a stark reminder that I was capable of doing to him the kind of irreparable damage I had done to his friends via my new “trick”) but he finally admitted that he was hired by the Pathfinder Society, confirming my suspicions. I thanked him for his thoroughly useless information and killed him (quickly and painlessly) by driving my fingers through his chest to puncture his heart. My companions, save Arkanis, did not seem to approve. His approval brings up a slight doubt that I did the right thing, but I see no reason to let live one who broke in, tried to kill me and my companions, and then could not even provide me with information I did not already know.
Interestingly, upon searching their bodies, these inept “assassins” had been amazingly well outfitted. All of their weapons and armor were of the highest quality, and they had been outfitted with potions to grant them invisibility and a Thunderstone apiece, neither of which they had the chance to use thankfully. I pocketed the Thunderstones and we moved downstairs to check on Cheiton.
We found Cheiton cowering in his bedroom, having heard the whole thing. I was barely able to stop myself from strangling the cowardly runt, but decided it was not worth the trouble it might bring were I to eliminate an Aspis agent that was currently in their employ.
We left after completing our night’s rest (selling the surplus equipment garnered from the assailants, though Geralt got a better sword and armor, as did Caine and Evelon), and traveled down the road for several days, before we came across a lake. It looked familiar and the nearby villagers confirmed that my interpretation was correct; this was the lake that our treasure (the reward for driving off the Chemosits over a week ago) was supposedly hidden. We all opted to go check out the wreckage containing the treasure, though we were warned to watch out for some sort of sea creature that had been terrorizing sialors recently.
Upon reaching the ship, we immediately encountered the creature. Battle was swift and merciless. Evelon had barely had time to start singing when Ulfgar swung his Greatsword in one of the most powerful cleaves I have ever seen him unleash, wholly severing one of the beast’s tentacles and driving the sword nearly a hand’s length into its head. While it was not dead, it took very little coaxing (from Arkanis’ magic and a final crushing blow from my drunken fist technique) to bring the beast down. Geralt easily unlocked the box and we found the treasure we had been promised (a number of gold ingots with a modest sum value), and a bonus we had not expected: A machete made of adamantine, which Geralt quickly jumped at the chance to take. While the value of the item is certainly considerable (worth more than the ingots themselves by my estimate), none of us had any objections to him taking it. Who knows, we may have to carve our way out of a treasury at some point.
Continuing down the road for three more days, we decided to stop and rest. In the night, we were attacked by some tribesmen we had heard rumors of, which stalked their territory and mercilessly slaughtered outsiders. While most of us got up to fight immediately (Ulfgar was on watch, and his lung capacity dwarfs the rest of ours by a considerable amount), Arkanis somehow managed to stay asleep. The man apparently transports his consciousness to another Plane when he sleeps, because he’s certainly not among the mortal realm if he can sleep through Ulfgar’s roaring (and more importantly, the CHEMOSIT’S roaring a two weeks before). It was a long hard battle, with no one escaping unscathed. I took barely managed to dodge one arrow myself and then took another immediately afterward before I was able to crush the man under my heel. Ulfgar felled 3 of the six tribesmen, each with only one blow. This was not without cost, however, as the tribesmen were intelligent enough to recognize both the threat of the massive wildman (and start pumping arrows into him while retreating) but were also able to immediately discern where Nesteruk was even as his summoned monitor lizard was trying to grab onto one of them. It was a short battle, but a hard one, with me, Nesteruk, and especially Ulfgar sustaining serious injuries. Had Caine not been present, it would have been a long and difficult recovery, for sure.
A day after that, we finally reached the Screaming Jungle, and most of our time spent there was spent without encountering anything overtly dangerous. We came across a group of beasts, but as I readied myself to defend us from attack Ulfgar identified them as hippopotamus, and while they are indeed dangerous, they were non-threatening unless provoked. We skirted clear of them with no issue.
The problems come from the second and third days in the jungle. On the second day we were alerted by a loud roaring and crashing as some sort of large ape burst into the clearing. Ina flash of intuition, I knew that it was not in control of itself, having been possessed or charmed in some way. Remembering the severe monkey head I had stowed in my pocket and its magical properties, I leaped over to the ape and swiped it across his nose. Shortly thereafter, some sort of shadowy figure emerged from his body and was sucked back to whatever Hell, the Abyss, or whatever plane it hailed from. The ape immediately shook its head to clear it and ran away with no more threat.
The third day is mostly my fault. I noticed a clearing a short ways into the distance and noticed a boar carcass had been dragged there by someone or something. As I moved in to investigate (making sure to use my Ki to harden my skin in preparation for trouble), a man suddenly walked out of a nearby crypt and spotted me, siccing an undead abomination after me (a zombified troll, thankfully bereft of its regenerative abilities). Just to be safe, I moved in and used my newfound acid affinity to attack the trollish abomination, and Ulfgar and Geralt quickly finished the job before the beast had time to do more than take one half-hearted swipe at me. The man himself (I assume he is a necromancer by default) is much harder to deal with. While Nesteruk was able to send some sort of spongy flaming material drifting towards the necromancer, and Geralt loosed some arrows towards him (missing, sadly. The man loves his bow but he’s a horrid shot with it) he was able to take to the skies while only taking minimal damage. Evelon, hoping to bring him down, paralyzed the necromancer, but he just continued to drift in the air, helpless. I fired a few bolts of Ki empowered fire towards him but every shot missed. Thankfully, Evelon and my other companions are much better shots with their bow (and in the case of Arkanis and Caine, target seeking magical missiles and spears of burning light respectively) and Nesteruk was able to gently lay the man’s body to rest on the comfortable spongy flames he had conjured, and the Necromancer was felled before he had a chance to do anything significant. We waited for his corpse to drift down and searched his belongings, netting a very useful ring that obviates the need for food and drink, as well as a terrifying mask that I took until we could get rid of it at the next town (nobody else wanted it though Arkanis noted it was very valuable).
We made camp in the clearing that night after cleaning up the corpses, and I sit here writing these journal entries. One more thing of note, however. Over the past few days Nesteruk has been showing clear signs of discontent, but won’t share these feelings with any others in the group. I have a sense that he is contemplating leaving us, though I do not know why he would think we didn’t have a right to know. It is a breach of contract, but that is simply a matter of forfeiting his share in the gold and glory that comes with discovering a long-lost city, not something we would be particularly put out over. Something more may be at work here, though I could just be paranoid. I end these chronicles here for the night and hope the morning brings peace of mind and new adventures.
Is it just me or are these getting longer every time? Though hopefully they're getting better as well. I tried to cut out a lot of the step-by-step battle happenings to describe the general high points, tell me which you prefer and I'll take that into account for the next one.
We actually had to look up massive damage rules for the "Kraken" fight because Ulfgar dealt 55 of its 80-ish hitpoints.
/totally not a bump.
Well i rather enjoyed reading this :) can you link to the first part pls?
Well i rather enjoyed reading this :) can you link to the first part pls?
Well I'm glad you enjoyed it. =)
This is actually all the ones I've written, I'll just be periodically taking them all and moving them to a new thread. This is really just missing the "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv" portion of the Serpent's Skull AP, in which I played a different character. And honestly, there's only so much excitement I can milk out of 2 hour crab battles and the tale of the boss with bad Fort saves. I might go back and write a quick synopsis of those events, but they won't be from Sun Xiao's perspective, but Navorak's. He was an interesting concept I thought (a former slave Half-Orc Monk) but he was very un-fun to play due to mediocre stats and my own ineptitude when building a character (he was my first character) so I peacefully retired him upon our escape from Smuggler's Shiv.
Speaking of, I have a special edition today. The rest is coming soon, but I decided to make a completely separate post for this particular event.
The day started off uneventfully. We departed from the Necromancer's clearing and traveled a good ways down the road before we made camp. Everything was perfectly peaceful and silent. I was on watch, and nothing seemed to be amiss.
Seemed was the operative word. Without warning a clear bell-like note rang out and ensorcelled the rest of the party, save Arkanis and I. Everyone else started marching off roughly in the direct the tone seemed to originate from. They didn't make it far, however, when a strange creature jumped out of the grass, brandishing an object and growing to monstrous size with 4 of his brethren. He shook it at the group and all of a sudden they started running as if the hounds of hell themselves were chasing them.
Save for Geralt. He managed to shake off the compulsion at that instant. Unfortunately, he was surrounded by 5 of the creatures. Knowing he couldn't escape, he shifted behind one of them, deftly dodging one of their blows and tried hacking at his backside. A bit of the compulsion's mind fogging effect seemed to still affect him though, as his swipe completely missed the target. Arkanis tried to help him, but with fear of hitting Geralt with any of his more powerful magic, Arkanis sent a thin sliver of burning acid at the beast directly in front of Geralt. It seemed to pain the creature, but hardly slowed him down as he reached to swipe at Geralt. Realizing this situation was unlikely to be resolved with just three of us in a straight fight (and one surrounded by foes to boot) I grabbed a Thunderstone from my pouch and tossed it in the hopes of disorienting a few of the creatures enough that they would halt their attack temporarily. Shouting for Geralt to cover his ears, I let fly at the two things nearest to him, but far enough away he might be spared the full force of the blast. I briefly thought I may have bought Geralt some time, but the creatures were barely fazed by this sensory assault and shook it off immediately, the two swiping at Geralt. He evaded one swipe, but the other hit him squarely in the abdomen, bringing small droplets of blood flying from his mouth as he screamed in pain.
Knowing he couldn't afford to stick around any further, he looked over at me and shouted "I'm okay! Just bit my lip a little!" as he clicked his heels and tried to escape from the clutches of the things. He dodged one attack, and then two. The third knocked the wind out of him. The fourth made him stumble. Finally, the fifth hit him with enough force to launch him backwards almost five feet and send him crashing to the ground with a gurgling rattle.
Realizing his only chance at survival was immediate healing, I told Arkanis to cover me with his magic as I raced forward to pour a magical healing potion down Geralt's throat. I channeled the energy of the snake to avoid being hit and retaliate in kind, and managed to stop Geralt from bleeding out, though he still looked much the worse for wear. It was clear he needed more medical attention than I was equipped or trained to provide. The creatures never let up and soon I was buried under an onslaught of blows. I managed to dodge and retaliate against three of their attacks. The fourth creature smashed me in the skull from behind and the second blow immediately knocked me into near unconsciousness. Arkanis, true to his word had tried to protect me, but there's only so much the little man can do without fear of hitting us along with the creatures. I know now that I should not have been nearly so angry with him later.
Spitting blood Geralt managed to croak out "I've got you Xiao." as he reached to pull a healing potion from his bag. "Heh. Spriggans. God damned evil Gnome things. Hold on one-"
That was all he managed to get out before the creatures, now identified as Spriggans, smashed his skull in.
I concentrated as hard as I could in an attempt to get up. I felt I had reached a sort of equilibrium. I couldn't move, but I knew that if I was given the chance I could recover from this. As the creatures moved over to start eating Geralt's still warm flesh, I knew I'd never get that chance.
But wait, a savior had arrived! In came Ulfgar, swinging his blade in a great curving arc, smiting one of the Spriggans down instantaneously. Immediately afterwards the second moving in towards me completely froze, as if someone had taken him and stiffened all of his muscles to steel. A great rushing wave of light rushed over me and I felt, if not completely rejuvenated, restored to fighting condition.
Not trusting my legs to hold me I focused my fingers towards the nearest Spriggan and unleashed a rush of superheated Ki energy in the hopes of killing the creature. It flew forth from my fingers and slammed directly into...an afterimage. I was not at all recovered enough to fight, it seems.
No matter. Between Evelon's paralyzing magic and Ulfgar's mighty blows the battle was over in moments. In anger I stomped on the final paralyzed creature's heads in an attempt to crush its disgusting skull, which also failed. Ulfgar was kind enough to make his displeasure known on my behalf, by slicing the creature until it resembled nothing more than quivering cubes of jelly on the ground, only calming down when nothing was recognizable as a living creature any longer.
The business done, we turned to face Geralt's corpse, bowing our head in a moment of silence. Arkanis said something, I no longer remember what, that angered me to the breaking point. I aimed a crushing blow at the little Gnome's skull, only at the last second gaining control of myself enough to turn what could have been a fatal attack into a powerful backhanded slap and told him never to speak what it was he had spoken again.
We held Geralt's funeral with the sunrise, Caine speaking a blessing to Sarenrae over his body before we set it ablaze. We buried him with his armor, but stripped him of magical gear and weapons. This tragic encounter only proves that we need all the help we can get in this savage land. I took his boots. Perhaps they will bring me more luck than they brought him.
Later that night he came and apologized to me, once everyone else was settling in to sleep. It seems that within that callous and cruel exterior, a decent human being can shine through. In the morning we continue our journey. Even now daylight fast approaches and Caine stirs from his bedroll to greet his goddess. Our map suggests we are less than 3 days travel away from Tazion, and we set forth with new resolve to see what our fallen companion never will.
Apologies for typos, Word Pad has no spellcheck so I had to edit manually this time.
Also
Okay, it's a bit late but here's Part 4.
We continued with our journey scant hours after my previous journal entry. Only one thing of note happened on the short road from Geralt’s resting place to Tazion, leaving me with plenty of time for retrospection.
I was weak. I should never have allowed those creatures to touch me. I need to grow stronger.
More importantly, I was reckless and not thinking straight. Clarity of thought is paramount. I should have seen Geralt’s case was hopeless and attacked from range. My sentimentality achieved nothing but to get me into a situation I was unequipped to deal with on my own. Had I shoved down that nagging voice of weakness the battle would have been over in moments. Between my grenades and Arkanis’ magic the Spriggan’s would likely have had their numbers thinned before the first even looked up from their meal. I have failed, and I have forgotten my creed. No perfection without RUTHLESSNESS. I will not make the same mistake again.
But enough of that, this is a chronicle of our journey, and I am no adolescent girl to wax eloquent about my feelings.
Less than a day down the road from the previous night’s camp we came across a group of four dancing girls washing themselves by the river. In my mind, alarm bells immediately began jangling, but the rest of my companions were unconcerned with them. Apprehensively, I followed. After all, if they were going to attempt battle with us, they would do so if I were to say anything now. Better to wait and see if anyone was going to come looking for them were they killed, and ascertain their true strength.
They led us back to their small inn by the side of the road and introduced themselves as we walked as something entirely incomprehensible. To that end, I will dub them in this log as Kiya (the ringleader), Ozie, Mosie, and Paya. We were the only guests, but the place was clean and the furniture serviceable, so they apparently did fairly well for themselves. I tested the food and drink my tasting a small amount and waiting to see if I felt any toxic effects. After a short while, and catching Arkanis mumbling some words and waving his hands over his meal, then nodding his head and happily digging in (The little Gnome might not be as perceptive as I, but the man has enough natural paranoia to more than make up for it), I decided the food and drink was safe and dug in with gusto. It is the first thing besides trail rations and the odd small jungle animal we’ve had to eat in quite a while and it tasted great (probably better than it really was) and I drank my fill, though not enough to cloud my judgement. During this time I mingled with the other dancers and tried to act as if I were having a good time. After a while I noticed something peculiar; the dancers seemed very unfocused when Kiya wasn’t nearby, almost as if they weren’t all there when she wasn’t around. I deduced that Kiya had them held under some sort of compulsion, but I still had no proof. I had to confront her.
Once I’d decided I had drank enough to make this convincing, I swaggered over to Kiya and tried to question her surreptitiously, playing up my drunkenness (and using my now boundless reserves of Ki energy to harden my skin against potential attacks).
“S’okay, tell me summat wouldya? How’d you gets all these bootiful wimmins to come out here to the middle o’ the woods?”
She immediately sees through my façade. I drop the act and step back, handing Arkanis a mug of ale when he asks from my own stock just to shut him up for a moment.
“Hmph. Fine, we’ll try the direct route. Tell me, why have you enchanted these women?”
She responds with “Well…yes…I need them in this state so I can help them. I’m guiding them to understand their inner spirit and strength with my minor magics.”
Bah. She’s a much better liar than me, I’ll give her that. Not quite good enough to fool me, but definitely an admirable effort.
I turn to Arkanis and Evelon (who were nearby) and in the native tongue of the Mwangi people (it was my best bet for her to not know exactly what we’re saying) inform my companions of her deception. Whether she understood me or not, her next action cinched it. I turned to face her and felt a wave of energy course over me, sending a sensation not unlike insects crawling over the inside of my skull which I quickly concentrated on, slamming iron walls around my mind to cut off the intrusion. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream an order at her enthralled dancers when I quickly channeled the dragon’s strength and jabbed her in the throat, making sure to hit the sensitive pressure point nearby as I did so, and she grabbed her throat in pain and hunched over.
As I did so, I called to my companions across the room “She was trying to mess with my mind. I don’t know what her purposes are but they surely don’t line up with ours.”
And the battle commenced. Ulfgar swung his blade, and wonder of wonders, it hardly seemed to faze her. This woman was definitely not human. As I built up my Ki for the next attack, around the room all of the dancers began undulating their hips in a seductive manner. All of a sudden, Nesteruk seemed to lose control of himself. “Sit.” One of the dancers said, and he did so.
Caine, meanwhile, formed a brightly burning spear of light and threw it at Kiya, causing her to scream in pain and start rubbing her eyes. I unleashed my mighty blow, supercharged by drunken Ki energy and coated in acid, which drilled a hole straight through her. Upon her death, the dancers were freed and her disguise was dispelled. Arkanis identified her as some sort of demon (and he should know, being descended from one), a Succubus, who preys on men with the promise of pleasure.
The dancers, freed from their enchantment, come up to us and confirm that the “Unlocking spirit energy” portion of Kiya’s lie was not entirely false. They had the power to bring us in tune with our spirit animals, through some sort of tattoo. We agreed, and though the procedure was painful, I ended up with a vibrantly draw image of mantis (red, since I asked kindly) tattooed over my arm. We thanked the dancers and continued to Tazion, where the first boon of the animal spirits became apparent. As soon as we set foot on the road, the road ahead appeared in a flash, showing us the fastest possible route to our destination.
The next day we finally arrived at the ruined city of Tazion and scrambled through the broken and crumbling walls of the city. We had finally made it. One member short, but days ahead of our caravan (and presumably the other advance parties as well, as none of them were here either). We set about investigating anything of note and trying to make the city safe to inhabit for our caravan once they arrived.
Moving to the nearest area, to what appeared to be a well, we got the first glimpse of what would likely be our most common adversary in these ruins, the Charau-Ka, ape men. While small in stature, they fought fiercely (though hardly well). Really, the only thing of interest that happened here was what came out when I pushed one of the ape men (nearly 15 feet straight backwards, I misjudged my own strength) into the hole at the center of the area, which prompted an attack from SOMETHING with tentacles, which Ulfgar promptly sliced off with no issue when one tried to grab him. Already we were missing Geralt’s expertise, as he could have told us what the thing was and whether more were likely to be around. Thankfully there weren’t.
We went from area to area, and really did nothing but wipe the easily slain Charau-Ka from the area in multiple locations, including one area that was knee-deep in small snakes, but otherwise fairly unremarkable.
Upon entering a temple-like structure however, we found a much more organized force. There was even a trap set up near the entrance, designed to drop a large rock onto any unwary intruder. Thankfully, I noticed the trap at the last instant and we managed to get around it without setting it off. While crude, it was a rather deadly trap, and once again drilled home exactly how much Geralt had done for us.
While still easily dispatched (and at this point, incredibly easy to intimidate) the Charau-Ka seemed engaged in some sort of ritual designed to burn the flesh from the victims bones in some sort of sacrifice, presumably to Ydersius, though none of us knew what the ape men were doing worshipping a serpent god. The next room gave us our answer.
Inside was the high priest of this strange cult, a massive (comparatively) Charau-Ka who glared menacingly as we entered. Of more interest to me, however, was the rather large snake hanging around in the shadows of the area. I had little time to worry about the implications of this, however, as the two attacked us as soon as we entered. The ape Priest was cloven from head to sternum by Ulfgar in the first blow of the skirmish, and the snake hissed and lunged at him, grabbing Ulfgar and trying to bring its coils to bear in a way that it would be able to crush the life out of him. I rushed over and attacked, trying to stun the beast, but it simply moved so that I hit Ulfgar, but thankfully missed all of the vital points due to the sudden shift in angle and the massive amounts of muscle the burly half-elf possesses. The snake was easily dispatched with a combination of fire attacks from Nesteruk and Arkanis, some judicious bow use from Evelon, and a single swipe from Ulfgar’s blade (one handed). The fight was over before it got a second chance to act.
As I write this we are camped near the area we entered from, at the “entrance” to the city. There is only one place we have left to search, and odd altar-like area at the opposite end of the ruins. Tomorrow we search there.
And whatever we find inside will taste the wrath of my new technique. I have been in the jungle long enough to see the lithe motions of the great jungle cat that lives there, the tiger. It has taken me nearly two weeks, but I believe I have managed to incorporate those motions and that effortless power into my own strikes, and the new moves seem to be combat ready. I dare say I would have finished it much sooner had I not been trying to refine my Ki. It occurred to me that I lacked a way to incorporate the tiger’s second most important feature: the claws. Any fingernails I grew would be inadequate to the task, at least for a while. As a result, I have spent a great deal of time and effort learning to create a sort of sheathe around my hand. It extends hardly more than a quarter of an inch above the edge of my hand and each of my fingers, but it is honed to razor sharpness, on par with any petty blade you’d care to mention. With this my triumph is two-fold. I have something new to try on my enemies, and I have proved, now and forever, that with discipline and dedication, conventional weapons are mere distractions.
The combats were almost pathetically easy this time around. I don't know whether we got lucky, the AP is giving us a breather after the grueling Spriggan fight, or it's lulling us before another huge battle.
Whatever it is, I suspect we'll find out next time on Dragon Style Xiao!
Yes, this one's very late. But it's almost twice as long to make up for it!
We lost another member today, in a decidedly…interesting manner. But I’m getting ahead of myself. At the end of my last report we had made camp to rest and recuperate before our journey into the ziggurat, the one place we had yet to enter.
Upon entering the place, we were immediately set upon by giant wasps. Obviously territorial, they charged us upon catching a glimpse of our presence but were quickly felled by the combined might of my acidic punches, Ulfgar’s blade, and a smattering of magic. After that, all was quiet for a while as we observed our surroundings. Eventually, we decided to head towards the nearest room, off to our right a ways. Immediately after opening the door we found a strange plant creature. This, too, we summarily dispatched. Our egos swelling, we determined that nothing in this ziggurat could possibly pose a threat to us.
We were soon shown the folly of our arrogance. In the middle of the room was a smaller, square shaped chamber. Upon investigating it we found what appeared to be a giant wasp’s nest. Arkanis held up his hand and pointed at my chest, and I discerned his meaning immediately. Holding my hand up to my lips I bade my companions to be silent and lit one of the grenades I took from my bandolier and tossed it through a hole near the top, thinking to kill whatever was buzzing inside of the nest (which I presumed to be another wasp of the same sort we had fought earlier). I was wrong. With a bang and a cloud of smoke, half the nest was blown wide open and an even more gigantic insect rose from the wreckage and turned its gaze upon us, seeming more annoyed than damaged by my explosive.
What ensued was a more difficult fight than we had expected. I moved in, channeling the fluidity of a snake to avoid being hit, and attempted to stun the beast by attacking a weak point. Unfortunately, its carapace was hard and I could not find a place that would allow me to attack a nerve cluster or anything of the sort. While Arkanis, Nesteruk, and Evelon attacked it with what magics they could summon on such short notice, Caine and Ulfgar exchanged a glance, and Ulfgar moved swiftly to the side of the beast and sliced through the insect with his sword, and immediately after Caine unleashed the same spear of shining light I had seen him use on the succubus just a few days before. The beast was obviously distressed by this use, though not killed, and it swiped at Ulfgar who took a solid blow to the chest from its snapping pincers. Weakened by the purifying light of Caine’s spell, it was quickly felled by a combination of Evelon’s arrows, Arkanis magical missiles, and Nesteruks’s sphere of spongy flames.
We looked at each other as if to determine whether one of the others had expected something like this and moved on to the opposite side of the courtyard.
Upon entering the door, we found a strange room, roughly knee deep in water and completely black, that seemed to be dedicated to the Dark Tapestry. Finding no danger, and noticing that there was a door around the corner, Evelon and I hopped into the water to investigate. We made it about five feet in before the leeches attacked, in a giant swarm. We managed to escape with minimal blood loss, but took quite a few minutes to figure out a solution. Eventually we determined that the leeches would not detect our presence if we were not in the water and could hardly leap out to get us, so Caine gave us (minus Arkanis, who already had the ability from his ring) the ability to walk on water and we made it safely to the door.
Inside the room lay a pillar, with drawings of some religious ceremony all over it. None of us were able to determine what exactly they were depicting, however, so we turned to leave the room, somewhat dejected that our trip had been for nothing. Upon turning to leave I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. As it turns out, the pillar contained a hidden drawer which I had noticed the release to. Upon opening it we found a number of valuable relics, and after another cursory search of the room we left with a renewed spring in our step.
Walking back to the room where we had fought the plant creature, we finally decided to check out the room beyond it, which led into a hallway with another door at the end to the right. Upon opening it we were assaulted by a cloud of yellow spores, though thankfully besides a bit of choking and coughing we were unharmed. The room seemed to be dedicated to Nurgal, a Demon Lord of some power whose domain covered both warfare and sunlight. We did not spot anything else in this room, so with a resigned shrug I turned to my companions and led on to the only place we had yet to enter, the door at the top of the area.
Waving to the others to stay outside, Ulfgar, Caine, and I walked into the area, where we were immediately bombarded with a barrage of flashing rainbow colored lights and a mental command of to lay down our weapons, which I quickly shut out. So it seemed did Ulfgar and Caine, but after a while and a bit of careful travel further into the room, Ulfgar laid his sword by his side and sat cross legged on the ground. Fearing some subtle magic had taken hold of him, I rushed over to see, but he seemed to be in full control of his faculties. Distrusting of this scenario I stood at the ready for a short time before finally allowing myself to relax. Upon doing so one of the great statues at the other end of the room started to glow with a diffuse purple light and levitated towards Ulfgar, before gently touching his head with one finger. Ulfgar seemed unharmed afterwards, and even beckoned to the rest of us to submit to the effects of these things, which apparently imparted the knowledge of where to find what we were looking for. Caine and I did so, beckoning Arkanis to come forth and take knowledge from the fourth statue, and the statues then went back to their silent vigil. As we put our collective heads together we determined that the statues had given us the knowledge of how to enter Saventh-Yi by activating stone pillars in a room further up the ziggurat. It also imparted that we would need some kind of stone, at which realization Caine pulled the odd black crystal we had found the previous day out of his pouch and determined that this was one of the stones we needed.
Armed with knowledge of our new immediate goal, we ascended the stairs of the ziggurat. There we found the pillars we had been searching for, which formed a sort of map of the city of Saventh-Yi. Finding nothing else and still lacking the three other stones, we climbed the second set of stairs, where to our surprise a serpentfolk was waiting for us.
Rather, it seemed that a total of four serpentfolk were waiting for us, though we quickly determined that all four of the creatures were identical and moved in the exact same way. Secure in our abilities we surrounded the serpentfolk and attacked, but his sinuous moves and an odd repelling force deflected all of our blows. The serpentfolk hissed a spell and climbed up the wall where he thought he would be safe. Several seconds of combat followed, where our own magic users attempted to assault the serpent folk with spells that utterly fizzled against his scaly flesh and Ulfgar and I attempting to hit the beast, also to no avail (bar a single glancing blow from Ulfgar’s sword). The beast tried to do something to my mind during that time, though I easily shrugged his pitiful spell off. Knowing that this combat was likely to last indefinitely with neither of us being able to deal with the other, I did the only thing that sprang to mind, and jumped up to the serpentfolk (now outed as a wizard of some power) and grabbed onto him, attempting to pull him down from the wall. While I failed in actually pulling him down, I did succeed in immobilizing him, and except for one small instant before I tightened my grip, I maintained control of the grapple for the rest of the fight.
Indeed, over the course of the next few seconds, my companions proved to be a greater danger to me than the wizard ever was. Ulfgar sliced cruelly into my back, almost making me lose control in the pain, and mere moments later I was sliced into by stray arrows from Evelon and an awkward spear thrust from Nesteruk. Yelling at them to hold off for a moment, I shifted my grip into something that would hopefully give me more control over the wizard’s movements. At that same instant, Caine unleashed a spell at the wizard that ceased the functioning of his ability to climb walls, and we tumbled to the ground. I was ready for him, and before he could react I dropped him onto the ground and twisted his arm behind his back, pinning him face down. I told the others to hold off for a moment so I could retrieve the rope from my belt and wholly incapacitate the wizard, but Ulfgar decided that now was the perfect time to strike, and swung his sword in a mighty chop, activating his magical gauntlets as he did so. He very narrowly missed hitting me (for which I am grateful, in my current state I would not have been able to mitigate the damage one whit), and sliced the serpentfolk in half diagonally across the chest. As the battle completed and Caine rushed over to heal my wounds I shot a glare at the reckless barbarian, hopefully communicating the depths of my rage at that moment. The moment passed and upon a quick search of the wizard’s pouch we came across a few magical items and -more importantly- the three remaining stones we needed to activate the pillars. Resting downstairs in the room of pillars for the night, we awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to take on the world. Upstairs we found a small pack of Charau-Ka and an angry Girallon (a type of four armed ape) which were quickly dispatched due to a combination of Ulfgar’s sword and Arkanis’ new pit summoning spell with kept the creatures dancing around for fear of falling in.
And just like that, Tazion was made safe for the caravan to arrive. Congratulating ourselves on a job well done we departed the ziggurat.
What transpired afterwards is something I will remember ‘til the day I pass from this earth, and likely beyond it.
A rift in the air opened, and an unnatural heat rolled out from the opening. Out of the rift stepped an impossibly tall, strangely handsome man who scanned our party before landing his eyes on Arkanis. He cracked a smile…of sorts and beckoned to him. “You have done well…son. It is time for you to come to the Inferno and start your training there.”
In a rush, Caine and I realized three things: First, the man standing in front of us could only be Asmodeus, King of Hell and lord of all the devils that dwell there. Second, Arkanis was, somehow, and offspring of this deific creature. And third, and most troubling, this devil was standing right in front of us, staring as a cat does at a mouse.
As Arkanis said his goodbyes (leaving his ring with Evelon, the one who he had always lusted after), he stepped toward the rift with a wink and a nod, telling us that “We had served him well” and that he thanked us for it. And with that, he was gone.
Asmodeus turned his gaze to us, and the smile was gone from his face. As he opened his mouth, we braced ourselves to go out swinging in a futile battle against the lord of Hell, but before anything like that could happen, a great light appeared behind us.
Stepping forth from a tunnel of light was Sarenrae, goddess of the Healing Light, and patron deity of Caine, who immediately prostrated himself before her as the rest of us stared in awestruck silence. She turned to Asmodeus and spoke to him. “Your business is completed here. You have returned your son to the Inferno and have gotten what you have wanted. I warn you, this group travels with a cleric of my faith and is under my protection. We would both likely regret your planned actions this day Asmodeus.”
Asmodeus, determining that a battle with the Dawnflower was not worth it to have a little fun with some mortals, turned and departed through his rift, a faint smell of brimstone being the only indication he was ever present. Sarenrae turned to Caine and motioned that he should stand, smiled at him, and presented him with a circlet, though not explaining what powers it may hold. She turned her gaze to all of us, and I squirmed as her vision landed on me, with a slightly disapproving look. But without a further word she also departed from the mortal world.
We all looked at Caine. I decided, that since Arkanis was no longer with us (I will miss the little man), I should ask the question. “Caine. Why did your deity just hand you a tiara?” It was not my finest moment. The way he blushed from ear to ear makes me not regret it in the slightest.
We went back to our main campsite and tried to pretend as if none of that had ever happened as we waited for the caravan to arrive. Within a few days they had all made it in, also the first caravan to arrive at the city. At this point, Nesteruk said his goodbyes and left. He determined that there was nothing in Saventh-Yi that he needed to see at this point and went out in the nearby jungle to find a place to make his home. With a severely understaffed group we moved into Saventh-Yi by activating the stones and set up a permanent and defensible campsite and ordered some goods to be delivered by Aspis agents (I picked up an amulet that let me apply my acidic fist ability to all of my strikes, albeit at a lesser power) while we waited for reinforcement. Upon returning to our camp we relaxed for a little bit and planned our next day. Out from the woods stepped an Elf, followed by his wolf and a strange man who seemed to be geared for a foray into the mountains rather than into a hot jungle. He introduced himself as Caecilius, a Ranger, and mentioned that he had been sent by the Aspis to reinforce our party since we were three people short from when we started. We welcomed him (he seemed a friendly sort) and he told us a little about himself, including how he had raised his companion wolf from a cub after its mother had been killed. The man behind him appeared to be named “Corgi” though I may have misheard, and he was an odd and somewhat threatening young half-elf who later proved to be handy with both magic and a blade in equal measures. Finding that he was likely to be a good fit to the party (and having no choice but accept the other one) we rested and set out the next day, toward what our map suggested was the merchant district of the city.
Upon crossing the bridge and reaching the area we were assaulted by strange hairless apes who had claimed the area as their territory. They were easily dispatched (Caecilius proving himself to be a peerless shot with his bow. Easily capable of firing four arrows in the span of a few second unerringly), no thanks to Corgi who repeatedly fired gouts of flame into the room with no regard for our safety and we went in to investigate the house, finding scattered treasure on the floor. Sensing trouble, we all stayed on our guard, and I drank some of my whiskey to access my reserved Ki and harden my skin against assaults. We didn’t have to wait long before a number of the hairless apes (Identified by Caecilius as Kech) jumped down from the roofs unexpectedly and began to attack the party. While most of us weren’t in any danger, Caecilius did take a few blows (taking down two of the ambushing Kech at the same time) but all in all we escaped unscathed and scooped up the treasure, after which we departed for camp, as a runner had come up telling us we were needed.
Upon returning to camp, we saw why. A Paladin, in gleaming adamantine armor walked up to us and introduced himself as Percival. He seemed a friendly sort, though I kept my distance from him (as did Corgi, I noticed), as he radiated that sense of righteous arrogance that most Paladins seem to. I did not doubt that this was going to be a difficult member to reconcile with our usual courses of action.
And so here I sit, writing the report. I have begun research into alchemical substances lately. I’ve always been a bit of a dabbler but I believe I may be on the verge of a breakthrough. By channeling my Ki while holding certain vials, they seem to react in an odd way. I have put in a request to the Aspis to hire an Alchemist to teach me more, though he may not arrive for several days or even weeks. If I can find some way to use these substances to enhance my strength, I would be a fool not to utilize them in battle. Already I feel myself slipping behind the overmuscled physique of Ulfgar and the flawless accuracy of Caecilius. This is something I cannot allow to continue.
Yes it is, but it's on a slower time scale now, since I'm running a Gestalt Carrion Crown campaign for the same group on alternating weeks (though it's really been more 2 weeks of CC, one week of this).
That, coupled with the fact that I wanted to rebuild Sun Xiao (So he's gone off into the woods to train and meditate, and come back sober) has meant there hasn't been much Chronicling to be done, at least from his perspective. I had expected him to come back after today's session, but we didn't hit level 7 until late in the day and we decided to end there. I'm planning on writing a journal entry tomorrow explaining why he went off for a while, with a short synopsis from the perspective of another character (Either Caine or Caecilius, most likely) explaining in short the events that have transpired over the last 3 (2?) sessions, and then hope to continue regularly either the week after next or the week after that, depending on when we meet again.
I may start doing one for Carrion Crown as well, from the perspective of my GMPC (A Cleric/Alchemist of Pharasma that they picked up from the conveniently placed temple of Pharasma in Ravengro) if Alex (Arkanis and later Caecilius' player) decides he doesn't want to go through with it, now that their characters aren't in constant mortal danger (we started part 2 this past week).
I will admit though I did kinda get burned out on the idea for a short time, but I've regained interest again now, and am looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for the interest!
Kind of a rush job, but I think it conveys the emotion I was going for. A bit of misplaced helplessness and such.
Sun Xiao’s Journal:
Day 1:
As the day ended and I lay down to sleep, I was struck with a profound sense of sadness. While Arkanis was certainly, on the surface at least, a profoundly unlikeable little creature, I had shared a strange camaraderie with the little Gnome. I fear for his safety in the hands of his father. He hardly upholds the ideals of Hell, and I can only foresee two paths ahead of him: Either he’s cast aside and likely killed for being too undisciplined and destructive, or he is broken and remade into another unbending lord of Hell. Either path sees the death of the man I knew, and I grieve for his loss.
But my frustration is two-fold. I joined this expedition in the hopes of bettering myself, and hopefully finding at least a glimmer of the perfection I seek. I have improved rapidly, yes, more than I thought possible in fact, but I feel no nearer my goal than I was when I started. While I am undoubtedly much stronger than I was when I started, I am still overshadowed by the sheer physical might of Ulfgar and the unerring accuracy of the newcomer, the Elven Ranger, Caecilius. It feels that they have come closer to my goal in their chosen areas of expertise than I have, while I remain what I always have been, useless. Not good enough to either protect what I hold dear, myself, or even my traveling companions, and relying on tricks to even keep up with my companions.
And I believe I know why. I have forsaken the teachings of my masters, ingrained in me so long ago. I have used the drink as a crutch for far too long now. It has brought me strength…of a sort, but I have become reliant on its powers to sustain me through my journeys these many long years. So I know what I must do: Purge myself of this addiction and reteach myself what I have forgotten.
Day 2, morning:
Today I set out into the jungle, saying farewell to the companions I have come to know as friends. I could not stand to let them see the period of weakness I was about to enter into, and so I will depart far into the unexplored wilderness to go through with my meditation.
Day 2, Evening:
I have made it to a likely spot. Near enough to the newly established encampment that I can make my way back when need be, but far enough away that no one is likely to stumble across me in my weakened state. I will begin my meditation on the morrow, and harness my Ki to force the lingering poison from my veins.
Day 5, afternoon:
My meditation is a success. Nearly 3 days of wracking pain and agony has passed, as I forcibly ejected the alcohol through my pores and purged my system of weakness. I can feel some things returning to me now…but some things leaving as well. While I feel heartier than I have felt in years, my ordeal has left me less nimble than I once was and my Ki reserve feels slightly smaller, and I seem to have lost many of my Ki-fueled skills. I’m sure I will manage without them.
But I now feel so ALIVE, more than I have in years. While I still need to recover a little from my ordeal, I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from my chest, like something was holding me back in all regards, mentally, physically, and spiritually. My memory is better than it ever was, my body feels as if it has been strengthened by my ordeal, and I feel much more clean than I have in a long time.
Day 8, morning:
I believe I have completed my meditation and recovery. It did not take me long to achieve my previous level of physical prowess, and, to my surprise, I seem to have surpassed it without my addiction holding me back. I feel ready. I am sorry to have abandoned my companions for so long, but hopefully they managed without me. Now it is time to return to them, and show them how truly powerful I will become.
We now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for: Rusigari Rashiska's Wild Musings!
Appearance: Bestial. Lion’s tail (but prehensile), hair is almost like a mane (think Sabertooth from X-Men but not quite as shaggy), sharp canines and slightly lion-esque features, and brightly glowing golden colored eyes. He has a very lithe, muscular build and moves like a predator stalking his prey. He has a golden brown tan, very like a lion’s coat/mane in shade, and he speaks with a growl (not helped by the almost constantly lit cigar in his mouth). His fingers can be bent unnaturally far backwards, reminiscent of his Rakshasan ancestry (backwards facing hands), and where he leaves footprints they appear as a lion’s pads. Yeah I went kinda overboard with the alternate appearance options for Tieflings.
Personality-wise, he's got a different personality than his full Rakshasa self. He fancies himself a ladies man, and is very charismatic when he wants to be, but he retains a somewhat "whimsical" personality in that he gets a childish glee from doing whatever he's doing at the time, and he's somewhat scatter-brained. He also has a penchant (and a talent) for destructive magics, which he uses to bide his time while he researches a "cure" for his condition or to enjoy his fully mortal life while he waits to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation that he instinctively knows he is still a part of. Nevertheless, he is a man of his word and never reneges on a contract, though he is prone to pulling "amusing" pranks on his fellows or getting them into danger if they're foolish enough to follow him anywhere he treads or turn their back on him when he thinks it would be funny to sabotage their efforts.
He'll be doing his own "Chronicles" from now on until Sun Xiao's return, which are more of a First Person, stream of consciousness sort of recap of the events as they happen than a formal Journal such as Sun Xiao keeps.
Here's a quick rundown of what's happened in the past few sessions.
Day 1: I've joined the group in the hopes of making my fortune, and getting a little excitement. Today was a good indicator of the future.
The Barbarian was almost eaten by a HUGE crocodile. I had trouble holding in my laughter.
Also, Shadows are unbelievably scary things unless you're not the one being swiped at. Then they're just silly. Note to self, learn to use spells that can harm incorporeals fully.
Day 2:
Exciting! Today was the day we conquered a new district. I even got to meet Daddy Arakundo. He's a Rakshasa like me, and he's nice. He gave me some Opium to smoke and i just drifted away.
I need to keep an eye on the party though. They killed Daddy while I was out of it and I was very upset. Thankfully I was able to get his Ring of Waterwalking and remaining Opium to remember him by.
Day 3:
So we conquered a new District. Unfortunately, the thrill of that victory is ashes in my mouth due to the lingering images of a parade of naked gorilla titties. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head. and NONE of them above the waist. Urgh.
On the other hand we killed a Dream Spider and I was able to collect some of its venom and webbing. If I could just find a skilled Alchemist I could be in BUSINESS.
New Chronicle get!
Disclaimer: All of the events are entirely made up and did not play out in session. They're really just my explanation of what happened that held Sun Xiao up for so long since it's been almost (or a little over) a week in-game since he left to train.
I should be able to continue playing Rusigari on occasion, since he was getting VERY fun to play. The whole "charismatic, but foolish" schtick has really come together in the past session and half, and I like playing him as the "competent buffoon" type character, who's good at what he does (kill things with magic) but has a fairly abrasive (to the other characters, not the players) personality for all his charisma (a whopping 24 now, since 8th level came today). From this point forward, however, in sessions I play Rusigari there will still be a Chronicle as Sun Xiao hear's about the events second-hand.
Quick breakdown of this past session before new semi-Chronicle:
New party member (and new player). Vishkanya <Class Omitted>. You can guess from the Chronicle and find out why this is so amusing to me. Name's Harishama if I recall. Rusigari just calls her "Shamu", even though she asks to be called Rita.
We form an alliance with her faction, effectively netting us (half) the upsides of another Faction besides our own.
Fight a buncha vegepygmies. Took almost 3 hours. Was frankly annoying but led to some fun conversations in combat and stuff so I call it an even trade.
Cleared the residential district, Rusigari tries to chat up a nice young woman who loves talking about plants. Rita finds basement full of corpses, Rusigari doesn't care ("Just because she's evil and kills people doesn't MEAN she's a bad PERSON!"), but she attacks anyway. Pulls of a sweet tumble to backflip off the chair he was sitting in and land on his feet. Spell resistance sucks. Bash her head in with +1 Heavy Mace. Having a Sorcerer with 16 Str means I can laugh at the melee chars when I get the final hit in in melee, is fun.
Find Temple district, meet up with Red Mantis Clerics (at which point I was like "Awww man, I REALLY shoulda brought back Sun Xiao THIS session"), they only speak Draconic. Guess who's the only one who can speak Draconic. That's right, Evelon the Bard! Nope, just Rusigari. Garbledly translates Common into Draconic in the (OOC) hopes of mildly pissing off the high priest. Want to take test to prove worth, but Rita beats me to it and gets a shiny minor artifact. Rusigari pouts and blows a raspberry at Shamu.
Return to camp, Sun Xiao shows up (not in session).
Chronicle:
It appears I passed out quite a distance from my makeshift home and was found and captured by a group of serpentfolk who patrol the areas around the city. Luckily, I suppose. At the very least, I am lucky it was something willing to take me prisoner.
Still feeling weak, I spent the next day and a half stuck in captivity, biding my time and seeing what I could gather of the layout of the place. One thing I learned was that, while I was the only prisoner currently present at the time, I was not nearly the only one they had taken recently. They seemed to take pride in the fact that they were whittling down some of the camps, one by one, snatching prisoners in the night from all over Saventh-Yi as they preyed upon the explorers of the various groups present. Intrigued by this, I decided to explore further.
When the pitiful guard they placed over me had turned his back, I sprang into action. Snapping through the wooden slats of the cage proved to be child’s play, and the guard’s neck proved to be even less of a challenge.
Freed, I began to explore around the area, moving stealthily to the best of my ability. There didn’t appear to be too many serpentfolk in this…raiding band I suppose is the appropriate word. Though they do appear to be highly trained and organized, all things considered.
Nevertheless, I continued to whittle down their numbers over the next two days, until they realized that something was up after multiple squads came back missing members or not at all. I’m surprised it took them that long to figure it out, though I suppose they rarely look up so it is to be expected. Oh the wonderful things you can do with a bit of rope and a good hiding place high in the trees.
Of course, once they were onto me, thinks weren’t so easy. I found myself hunted and chased through the forest, mildly wounded on more than one occasion. Eventually I lost or killed my pursuers, and circled back around to sneak into their camp once more. There were a mere 10 left, but the odds were definitely not in my favor.
I decided it was in my best interests to try to find my gear, or at least some replacements, and so I snuck into the (now unguarded due to tragically short staff) “armory” I had come across before.
While unable to find most of my stuff (though at least I found my Bag of Holding with most of my non-valuable supplies and things How thoughtful of them to keep it around.), I was able to find quite a few replacements.
Geralt’s boots, however, seemed lost for good. A shame that, but there’s nothing for it.
Geared up and a little more well prepared, I began to hatch a plan to get rid of these dangerous foes assaulting the campsites.
As with many of my spur of the moment plans, it involved explosives. A few well placed grenades (another thing they were kind enough to leave lying around!) into their campfire grievously injured two and sent the others packing. I stopped for a moment to finish of the wounded and began to stealthily weave my way around the camp, avoiding any serpentfolk traveling in groups.
Eventually, I found a lone pair and tried to act swiftly to capitalize on the element of surprise I had garnered. Stunning one, I turned my attention to the other, adopting the serpentine defensive posture that would best allow me to read his movements and react to them. Avoiding his blows and retaliating in kind left me with one dead serpentfolk as the other gathered his senses and prepared to strike. But a lone foe is hardly a match for my skills, and he was swiftly dispatched as well.
Two more groups I dispatched in a similar manner, swiftly incapacitating or killing one foe from a hidden position, either by stringing him up on a rope or attacking his pressure points, and then dispatching the other in single combat (where my advantage lies), before turning my attention to the recovering foe.
Eventually, only two remained, and I decided to get reckless. Adopting the wide open, inviting posture of the Panther I charged across the field to the two, narrowly avoiding their blows and retaliating with equal force. Only one attack slipped through my defenses, though a strong one it was, before I ripped the hearts from the final serpentfolk.
I spent the next few days cleaning up their camp, tending to my wounds, and searching through the armory. I picked up and re-familiarized myself with a number of weapons from my monastic training, including one (a bladed fan) I remembered showing great aptitude for before my adolescent embarrassment forced me to switch to more “masculine” weaponry. Thinking I had better take whatever I can get and use, I took it and left the area with a spring in my step. I’ve never felt as alive and powerful as I do right now, perhaps a result of finally recovering from the effects of the alcohol that had clouded my mind and dulled my reflexes for so long.
It took me a few days, searching for signs of any other bands of serpentfolk roaming the area, but I finally arrived back at camp. It seemed much has changed since I’ve been away.
We’ve gained two new members to the group, and seemingly lost another (Caecilius, who seems content to guard the camp these days). A spellcaster named Rusigari Rashiska, who specializes in combat magics, and a quite surprising addition to the group.
A Red Mantis Assassin.
Nah, come back any time.
It'll keep me honest. ;)
Have you read the rest of them by the by? I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression Sunday, the fact that you're a Mantis won't cause PROBLEMS per se, it's just there'll be a bit of friendly rivalry going on.
No sabotage, yes competition.
Your character will probably either like him or be offended by the fact that the holy symbols of Achaekek and Irori both share space on his chest.
As I just finished playing Hitman (Silent Assassin, Contracts, and Blood Money, and I'm about to start Absolution. I actually just finished Blood Money like 30 seconds ago) he may be a bit "47-esque" for a while, which may have been reflected in the most recent bit.
And blarg, just noticed there's a typo in my last post I can't fix.
Truly the worst part of this forum.
Have you read the rest of them by the by? I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression Sunday, the fact that you're a Mantis won't cause PROBLEMS per se, it's just there'll be a bit of friendly rivalry going on.No sabotage, yes competition.
Your character will probably either like him or be offended by the fact that the holy symbols of Achaekek and Irori both share space on his chest.
She'll probably be amused by that more than anything, to be honest. She's a weird little git, and she'll be quite interested to hear exactly how he reconciles the two.
Also, I am more than a little amused that Egzimora believed the "gotta go pee" bluff, completely failed to hear me exploring the entirety of her house, but then was incredulous as to the idea that Rita was taking so long because she had to get in and out of a full-body mantis suit with a lamellar shirt built into the chest. The beauty of a crappy Bluff roll.
Funny enough, Rita originally joined the Mantis' expedition to try to get her own revenge on them for killing her parents. Maybe you'll get to find out what changed her tune in upcoming sessions.
Oh, neat!
I had thought about the revenge angle myself but ultimately decided it might be interesting to do something a little more out of the box. I'm a big fan of revenge stories so I wanted to get away from that for once and try something new.
And thus: Envy, instead of anger.
Oddly enough, for me, revenge is out of the box. Most of my characters have either been mercenaries, crusaders, or lunatics. My old Inquisitor Hazkara was all three.
Ah, so YOU'RE the guy who caused the issue for me last week.
Me and Rey had like an hour long discussion about whether or not a Pharasmite (their Cleric) was forced to drop everything and go racing off to destroy undead if he so much got a whiff they were around. -.-
Yeah, Pharasma is so anti-undead that Paizo released modified Death and Souls domains for her followers (animate dead and the create undead line would be immediate excommunication). I wouldn't really think a Cleric of Pharasma saying "eh, it's just some zombies, let's go do something else" would remain a Cleric of Pharasma for very long.
This was more of a
I don't think followers of Pharasma are dedicated to destroying undead above all else and to the exclusion of common sense. There's nothing in the description of Pharasma worship (even the detailed one that comes with Carrion Crown) that suggests such. In fact, it puts MUCH more emphasis on the midwifery and funerary rites aspect, with hatred of undead being mostly a footnote of the worship.
A strongly worded footnote, but definitely not the overriding tenet of their worship.
That and the AP in question explicitly states "Yeah Pharasmites and Paladins and such could justify this".
Maybe I should start a Carrion Crown journal too, after Ramon's brush with imminent death last session. Alex said he was going to but he never did go through with it.
That and the AP in question explicitly states "Yeah Pharasmites and Paladins and such could justify this".
I just read the part in question, and it's definitely one of those places where yeah, a Cleric of Pharasma could get away with "OK, we 'help' the vampires...and then maybe we kill them once the danger to ourselves is over". I had gotten the impression that the act in question was to simply ignore an imminent undead threat. Asymmetric information strikes again.
Hazkara still would have balked heavily, and possibly even refused and left the party, but not solely because of her worship (she may as well have been an intelligent weapon with purpose "slay undead" and Ego "like a billion").
I'll admit I'm enjoying Rita and Rynjin's Rules Roundtable, though. It's kind of refreshing to talk to someone on the forum who doesn't have an active interest in attempting to override RAW, RAI, and developer commentary because they just flat-out don't want a game mechanic to work the way it does, and they don't want anyone else to play it that way ever.
I have a few rules I'm like that on (I have a severe hatred for the current state of the Paladin Code) but that's more of a "Give me variants" kinda thing rather than a "Change it or get rid of it forever" (though I certainly wouldn't shed a tear).
But most everything else it's just my interpretation versus whoever else' when it seems ambiguous.
I'm kinda torn as to what I want to do this week. I'm excited about the upcoming off-the-wall encounters in Carrion Crown (IMO for the most part special enemy tactics like "Run away!" have made the encounters so far a bit too easy for them), since this is pretty much the part where the training wheels come off for a while.
Then again, I finally get to bring my Monk back, and I'm having a lot of fun in SS lately (and we're a bit behind on that one).
Think I'll just leave that up to a group vote.
I think Pharasma followers would be willing to hold off the undead hunting rather than go barreling in. Gtaher information and such, come back when you have the advantage.
As it turns out, this game is going on another bit of a hiatus. GMs takin' a vacation and won't really have time to run the game for about a month.
Sorry about that. Just wanted to give a heads up so there weren't any more "is this still going?" posts. The answer is yes, just not for a while (think of it as skipping a couple of sessions).
New Chronicle! Hope anyone who might still read this enjoys it. I personally like ti a lot better than some of the others I've written. I think it has a bit of a better flow to it.
I walked back into camp (moved, somewhat, so it took a bit of searching) seemingly just before the group was getting ready to leave for another day of exploration. They were talking about how someone named “Rusigari” had failed to show up that day and whether they should wait for another reinforcement to arrive or risk going out undermanned.
However, most of this did not register to me at the time. My thoughts were taken up mostly by the other new addition, clothed in distinctive insectoid armor.
It was, without a doubt, a member of the Red Mantis. Red started to cloud my vision as I walked forward to confront the “recruit”, thinking at the time that I’d like nothing better than to harden my Ki and punch my fist through the murderer’s chest before she got a chance to retaliate.
However, about halfway across the clearing, I came to my senses. What was I angry about? The Mantis had taught me the virtues of ruthlessness, discipline, and strength above all. I should be thanking them for that, not condemning them for shearing the shackles of affection from my adolescent self.
And yet...I could not entirely shake that feeling of hatred. It was obvious that I still had not managed to excise the affection I felt for my family, a weakness I had hoped would leave me along with the dependence on alcohol. But it seems that I have not yet managed to purify myself of every weakness. The perfect being has no attachment to such inconsequential trappings of this world, only pride in the self and the drive to push ever further. I must remember this.
I shoved aside the irrational hatred and mistrust as I came closer to the group.
“I return, my companions, finally purged. And I do not believe I have been introduced to our newest addition...?”
Evelon turned to me “Sun Xiao, you’re back! I was wondering if you’d ever return. This is Harita-Heema Sharma, an emissary from the Red Mantis Assassins. Rita, this is Sun Xiao, he traveled with us from Eleder but temporarily left us about a week ago.”
Rita and I stared at each other for a moment and I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t keep a bit of a glower off of my face.
Ulfgar walked over to me and clapped me on the shoulder. “It’s good to have you back. However, we need to get moving. Are you coming with us?”
I nodded in affirmation and we set off. As we went forward I noticed that Rita and I had appeared to take up the same position. Apparently she had taken over as point while I was away. I tried to get a read on her but she was inscrutable beneath the helmet.
Shaking my head to clear it and turning my attention to the task at hand, we traveled along to various locales. Many I had not seen, but the rest of the group had obviously already explored.
We eventually ended up on a small isthmus containing a straw and mud statue of some frog-like creature. I climbed atop it to see if there was anything of interest around but saw nothing.
After climbing down, I turned to my companions.
“I think we should destroy this statue. Something seems…strange about it and it likely couldn’t hurt.”
“You’d be surprised...” Caine muttered but nobody really paid attention to him. Within minutes the statue was destroyed with no ill effects. We stuck around for another minute or so to make sure, and when nothing happened we departed.
Soon after we came across the den of a boggard, who was quickly dispatched as he was unprepared for battle, as we saw upon my kicking in the door to his hut. Rita displayed some impressive stealth skills, being able to hide even from my honed senses in the shadows.
Departing that area we passed by a pond. Thinking I saw something rippling under the surface I scooped up a rock from the ground and tossed it into the water near where I saw the disturbance.
Almost immediately, something emerged. A humongous blue frog-like creature breached the surface and started waving its purple tentacles everywhere.
“Froghemoth!” Evelon cried.
I immediately backed away and tossed a shuriken at the creature, but the weapon barely left a scratch on the creature.
The Paladin was the first to charge in. Unfortunately before he could move in to deal any damage, he was snatched up by a flailing tentacle and held in place, being squeezed hard.
Reveling in my restored power and vigor, I quickly channeled the spirits of both the Snake and the Dragon and charged forward to help my entangled companion, not far behind Ulfgar. Thankfully, the creature was utterly enamored with Corvus and continued squeezing the life out of him, allowing Ulfgar, Rita, and I to get enough strikes in to fell the beast before it turned it’s attention to the rest of us and more dangerous avenues of attack.
Corvus thanked us and was healed by Caine, after which we moved on.
Not long afterward we came across a creature in a watchtower. It looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place it before it dashed down and attacked us. I vaguely heard Evelon mutter “Vrykolakas…” and had my memory jogged of the creatures abilities.
Knowing my restored Ki network to be more than capable of protecting me from its foul diseases, I moved forward to meet the creature, reaching it just after Ulfgar took a swipe at it and Caine unleashed a surge of holy energy at the abomination.
I managed a solid hit on the pseudo-vampire and readied myself for its inevitable counter attack. It nipped at Ulfgar with its jagged teeth and missed him, and I deftly dodged its two clumsy claw strikes. Smirking at the now off-balance undead, I retaliated, paying him back with just as many blows, plus an extra to finish it off.
On the last hit it abruptly vanished, and I quickly climbed atop a nearby building and looked around for any animals it might have escaped into. Evelon quickly filled in the Rita and Ulfgar on its abilities while Corvus and Caine were already searching the area too (having remembered reading of its abilities, as I had, from the name Evelon gave), with Corvus concentrating hard to detect its evil presence.
After a short time, Corvus found it. He pointed at a frog roughly 25 feet away from his position.
“There!” he called “That’s the body it jumped into!”, and he sprinted as fast as his heavy armor could carry him. However, it was Rita that rushed in from the shadows and neatly bisected the frog, which exhaled a foul smelling spirit which dispersed into the air.
Having dispatched the nasty creature, we moved onward again, not having to move far to reach the edge of the lake again, where we could now see some sort of ziggurat or tower off in the distance sticking out of the water. Caine granted everyone who did not already possess such a power the ability to walk on water and we easily made it across.
Once we reached the island and climbed to the top, we noticed a sickly green light coming from the room at the top of the staircase. Moving cautiously to investigate we noticed that the light appeared to emanate from a head in some sort of jar.
“Come in, come closer! I will answer your questions, if you but ask them.”
“What is this thing?” I wondered aloud.
The thing seemed to smirk for a split second. “I am a dispensary of knowledge, of course, set here to answer questions from any who may come near.”
Alarm bells started ringing in my head and I examined the creature closely. It seemed to be smugly waiting for some reason, and I did not like it.
“Perhaps we should simply leave this place. I fear that by-“
At the same moment Rita started to speak “And why would you want to answer these questions so badly, exactly?”
“-asking these questions we are giving it what it wants…”
But it was too late.
“So that I may be FREE of my imprisonment, of course!” it cried, and it cackled with glee as a deep green smoke filled the room. In place of the bottle, a creature now stood. Bearing traits of both reptiles and amphibians it loomed over the rest of us, even Ulfgar, and gave off the unmistakable stench of the Abyss.
Ulfgar charged the beast, only to be grabbed by one of its muscular arms and restricted in movement.
The creature extended its hand to the rest of us and unleashed a cloying mass of greasy shadows. Caine, Ulfgar, and Evelon gasped and grunted in pain, while Corvus writhed in agony. For some unexplained reason, Rita and I were left entirely untouched.
Hardly one to question my fortune, I moved forward as Rita vanished from sight. I swung at the creature twice, and though I felt my blows connect solidly (especially the first), I do not believe they fully harmed the demon.
Caine called upon Sarenrae’s power and unleashed what I can only describe as a direct counter to the demon’s mass of shadows. However, the demon’s skin cracked with blue light for a moment and it hardly seemed phased by the attack.
Corvus quickly recovered and glared fiercely at the demon.
“In the name of Abadar I vow to destroy you, foul beast! Taste Divine Judgement!”
He became engulfed in a bright, but pleasing glow and swung his falchion at the demon, who shrank back from the light, and shrieked in agony as the holy fires ignited in his wound.
He stumbled back from the Paladin with fear in his eyes, dropped Ulfgar, and vanished from the room.
Corvus whipped his head from side to side, eyes blazing with the promise of holy vengeance, and he held his palm out to see if he could detect the presence of evil. Though his eyes furrowed in temporary confusion as his hand passed over me, he eventually decided that the creature was vanished, not merely hiding invisibly in the room, and he allowed his rage to die down.
Evelon furrowed her brow in concentration for a moment.
“Hezrou”, she eventually said “The demon was a hezrou. Nasty things.” She detailed a number of disturbing powers the creature possessed and a nature as twisted as you would expect from a demon.
“We will find the beast and end its life on this plane, so I promise.” Corvus said, and we turned to leave the area.
Feeling quite tired and with the magic users running low on spells, we headed back to camp for a night’s rest.
All in all quite an eventful return to the group indeed, though I am somewhat disappointed at other adventure I missed while I was away, which Evelon spent the evening regaling me (and anyone else who would listen) with.
My newfound power is intoxicating, much sweeter than any liquor I could imbibe and twice as potent. I feel as if I could take on anything right now, and that gives me confidence.
I can handle the Mantis if she turns on the party. That I am assured of indeed.
We actually played for a bit longer (maybe a half hour-ish) after this last encounter but we're still in the middle of exploring so it wouldn't make sense for there to be a journal of it just yet, and it will be a bit more interesting if this is the first thing that happens next time, as it will affect the writing style juuuust a bit.
Unfortunately, looks like the game is off. Expect no further updates.
You volunteering to write it?