Cussing I get back on my feet, only to drop again as I put weight on my leg. "Curses! Should have seen that one. Ouch! Zag, how about some healing? Think I tore something in my leg. Can barely stand on it and with the way things are going down here, I think I may need full mobility before we are out of here again." As I wait for the druid to drop a healing spell on me, I look around and notice the corridors leading away from the pit. "Don't think I like the look of that. Either they're maintenance tunnels or something's down here, waiting for us to walk into its lair. And the latter holds no appeal at all for me. I suggest we climb out and follow the main corridor. And I will be even more careful from now on as I look for traps. Thanks Zag. That's better." Testing my leg, I stand up and let out a sigh of relief as I feel no more pain, my leg restored to full functionality, courtesy of Zag's healing magic.
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With your rope, you have no great difficulty getting down into the pit. Getting Shiv down is another matter. The crocodile is big and heavy, and if it were possible to create a harness it proves difficult to find a way to lower the crocodile down safely. In addition, Shiv is clearly distressed, nearly toppling over the side of the pit wanting to get to Zaghigoth. Uncomprehending, the crocodile snaps at those still above the pit.
"Oof! Uhg!" Zag sounds out as he plummets down the pit. "That was unpleasant, I say..." Using the wall for stability, he gets up on his feet, and checks his person to make sure he hasn't dropped or lost anything. He nods to Cat and checks her over as well before bestowing some magical healing upon her and himself.
Cat Cure Light Wounds:
Zag Cure Light Wounds:
"Aye, those tunnels look unsafe, I say...better to climb back up on the other side of this hole and continue on...though I do not know how we will get Shiv across...I could beseech the spirits for a useful spell but I have exhausted my power it seems."
I'm also fearing that big bugs are going to come out of these tunnels while we're down here, haha.
Yekskya takes the offered potion and drinks it down.
Wondering at how quickly his wounds stitch back together, Yekskya remarks "That is much better. Thank you. Zag, I have some rope we might be able to use to lower Shiv and then pull him back up on the other side."
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You have the ropes and are able to climb out or be pulled out by your comrades. The dilemma is, do you climb out and carry on forward, leaving Shiv behind to fend for himself or find someway to get him across the pit? Or do you backtrack and hope to find some way around the pit? The small, narrow tunnels don't appeal to you. As for Shiv himself, he seems agitated that Zaghigoth has gone down into the pit without him, but your druid might be able to calm him down.
As you are debating, you make a startling discovery. Zaghigoth turns towards the tunnel to the north and notices a doll lying beside it, as if cast aside and forgotten. Odd, the half-orc thinks to himself, I'm sure I would have noticed that before now. The doll itself is unusual and somewhat disturbing, crafted from bird bones, children's bones, hair, and twine. A glittering, nearly pulsing bright ruby seems to be set inside its chest. Zaghigoth turns to mention the find to Rowena, when he notices another doll, similar to the first, on the other side of the pit. Turning back to the first, he is shocked to notice that it looks much closer than it did before, no longer lying against the side of the pit. Wait, did that doll just move?
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Rowena Percept
Zaghigoth Percept
Rowena SMotive
Zaghigoth SMotive
init
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Round 1
As the hideous looking dolls begin to move of their own accord, Yekskya leaps into the pit!
Rowena stares at the strange dolls before her, now moving with a life of their own. She tries to bat one of them away with her rapier as she takes a step back; though the blade bites deep into the doll's body, it seems to shrug off the strike.
Seeing the ill-omened attack down in the pit, Grym turns and runs back through the double doors, to the rock strewn span covering the entrance hall.
The doll nearest to Zaghigoth takes a few steps back from the half-orc. Despite its crudely fashioned limbs it takes small, mincing steps like a young child. The ruby embedded in its chest flashes for an instant, and the doll begins to hover off the ground, rising up towards the top of the pit. Within moments it has risen 20 feet up in the air, drifting towards those of you above in the corridor.
The other doll suddenly produces a thin, needle-like dagger, and leaps at Rowena! It leaps and darts about, slashing and stabbing at the rogue viciously, though Cat is able to swat the attacks away with her blade.
These twisted attackers are tiny constructs known as soulbound dolls. They are animated by the gems embedded in their chests, which have been filled with the life-essence of a soul. They are often created as guardians or sentries. They often take on small fragments of personality from the soul splinter that animates them. These soul fragments can imbue the dolls with different spell-like abilities, making them unpredictable foes.
Initiative
24 - Yekskya
23 - Rowena
22 - Grym
22 - dolls
19 - Zaghigoth (indeed, doesn't quite count as jungle terrain!)
18 - Aerys
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Aerys init
Grym init
Rowena init
Rowena attack
damage
doll 2 attack
Zag looks on in bewilderment as these strange dolls move against the party. He briefly reflects on all of the horrors that this island has presented him with...malign spirits of the restless dead and the spawn of dark and aberrant gods. Blinking, he shakes away the haze and knows he must snap into action. His eyes follow the floating doll only for an instant, for he knows that if the doll wishes to rise to the top of the pit it will only meet a swift end in Shiv's jaws. He instead lets club and shield fall to the ground and reaches for his falchion, lunging forward in an attempt to bring the chopping weight of the blade down on the bizarre doll attacking Cat. Unfortunately the awkwardness of the cramped quarters combined with Zag's rustiness with the big weapon lead to a wild miss.
Falchion attack:
Damage:
Yekskya's eyes go wide as the dolls come to life. "This is bad magic! Shark told me there were living statues like these, but I didn't believe him." The archer quickly nocks a pair of arrows and sends them flying toward the first doll.
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Round 1 continued
Zaghigoth tries to chop the closest doll apart with his falchion, but it's small and quick, evading his slices. Shiv shuffles about at the edge of the pit, eyeing the floating doll.
Aerys readies her bow. Standing at the back of the group, it's impossible to see everything that's happening down in the pit, but she's ready to act if there's an opportunity. "Cat! Zaghigoth! Get out of there!"
Round 2
Yekskya, teetering at the edge of the pit, refrains from leaping down and instead unslings his bow as well. He targets the first doll by Zaghigoth and Rowena, hitting it with a well-placed arrow.
Rowena continues to fend off the doll, and with the attacks it's now looking tattered and splintered. With a neat slice, she shears off a shoulder and its off-hand. It still dances about, though.
Grym returns with an enormous stone, one that would require the prodigious strength of the half-orc trapper to lift. With an athletic charge he lobs it awkwardly down into the pit. Rowena ducks from the falling missile as it hurtles down and hits the doll square, obliterating it. Splinters of bone and hair go flying, along with the flashing ruby that was attached to its chest.
The other doll continues to rise from the pit. As it emerges level with those of you in the corridor, it regards you with its empty eyes and continues to rise upwards. To the ceiling, where it begins to crawl resolutely towards you, pulling itself along!
Initiative
24 - Yekskya
23 - Rowena
22 - Grym
22 - dolls
19 - Zaghigoth
18 - Aerys
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Cat attack
damage
Grym ranged touch
damage
doll 1 Reflex
Knowing he is out of options for range, Zag gathers up his discarded weapon and shield and makes to start climbing back to the top of the pit.
Still balancing precariously on the edge of the pit, Yekskya draws a bead on the disturbing sight of the doll crawling across the ceiling. "At least we've found they can be destroyed. Quick, let's get this one too!"
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Round 2 continued
Zaghigoth sheathes his weapons and shield, and using the rope starts climbing back to the top of the pit. Shiv tilts his reptilian head to the side as he contemplates the crawling doll, his tail swishing.
Aerys tries to knock the doll down with her bow, shooting at it but her arrow bounces off the ceiling and goes careening down into the pit.
Round 3
Yekskya tries the same tactic, with noticeably better accuracy and style. Both his arrows hit, piercing the doll and causing it to fall off the ceiling as its levitation spell fails. The doll falls the forty feet to the bottom of the pit, nearly hitting Zaghigoth and forcing Rowena to duck once more. It smashes into smithereens on the stone floor, not a piece left intact apart from its animating gem, a sparkling, rosy-hued ruby.
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Aerys attack
"I think that's probably our best bet Zag. We can try to lower most everyone with the rope and perhaps knot it for the way back up."
"Very well." Zag finishes climbing to the top of the pit and gets to his feet, looking back down the hole to the floor where the splintered remains of the bizarre creatures are strewn about. "Are we to try and lower Shiv down? I should be able to get him to cooperate, I say...though I will tell you I have exhausted my link to the spirits this day. I can draw no more power from them, I say. But we must go on so our enemies have no extra time."
Handle Animal:
"Come on guys. Put your backs into it. Not going to leave Shiv behind all alone." Spitting in my hands, I grab the rope that's secured to the make-shift harness holding Shiv and help to lower the crocodile into the pit. Once the big reptile is safely on the ground, I make to climb out of the pit, asking Grym for a boost up the wall on the opposite side. When I'm safely out of the pit, I help the others climb up and finally join them in hoisting up Shiv.
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With a bit of effort and brute strength, you manage to find a way to get the whole party across the from one side of the pit trap to the other side. Fortunately, during this time you are not attacked by any more homicidal dolls or other temple guardians, though you remain wary of a further ambush.
Reaching the junction at the end or the corridor, you see that the south branch leads down a steep staircase and around a corner to the west. You gather that that might lead back to the other long corridor that you came across and adjoins the ground floor of the entrance hall.
The northern branch of this junction leads to another pair of carved double doors. As you approach, Zaghigoth suddenly stops, halting the party. The half-orc indicates that it is suspiciously just like the ground just before he stepped on the pit trap just around the corner. Grym moves forward and examines the ground. "Yup. Pit trap here. Smaller than the last one, but good bet it's just as deep. If we could disable it, we could get across a lot easier. I'm not confident I could do it, Cat you want a try? Otherwise we could try to make a jump for it, it's only ten feet across."
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Cat perception
Yeks perception
Zag perception
Aerys perception
Grym perception
"Not a lot of room on the other side. I'd be willing to try jumping it, but if there is anything on the other side of those double doors, we'd be better off having all of us over there instead of having to figure out how to get the rest across."
Kneeling down by the side of the pit trap, I remove a rolled-up piece of cloth from one of my pockets. Unrolling it reveals a set of tools, which I carefully consider before making a selection and setting to work.
After some careful probing, I find the spot where the trigger is located. Pulling a few pieces of metal from the roll, I carefully insert them in a narrow crack before looking up at my friends. "There! That should do it. I've jammed the triggering mechanism."
"Good work, Cat...I don't think Shiv would have liked another ride on the ropes, I say. Now, for what lies behind those doors..." Zag looks around to his allies and readies himself, arming spear and shield for whatever lies ahead.
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Cleansing Shrine
Kneeling down by the side of the pit trap, Rowena deftly disables the trap, making it possible to cross over it directly. Reaching the large double doors, you determine that they aren't trapped themselves and pull them open.
The doors open onto a large octagonal chamber. An oval pool of what looks like softly rippling blood sits at the center of the room, filling the air with a metallic tang. Four round pillars support a ceiling decorated with crisscrossed supports and grooves, while ten two-foot-wide circular holes decorate the walls at chest level. Another pair of doors sits across the chamber.
Apart from Yekskya, you also notice, just inside the doorway, what looks like a slab of red-streaked bronze retracted into a sheath above the doorway. Examining more closely, it looks like the slab could be released to slide down over the doorway should someone enter the chamber. There must be a switch inside that would allow one to disable the trap, or to cross over to the other side of the chamber. The crisscrossed grooves may hold a blade of some sort.
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Cat percept
Yeks percept
Zag percept
Aerys percept
Grym percept
Zag shakes his head in disgust upon seeing the room. "A foul place for foul people doing foul things, I say...and it looks like another trap, too." Zag unbelts his club and throws it through the doorway to see if motion affects the trap.
"A trap? How do you all see it, but I do not?" Yekskya looks futilely on until Zag points it out.
Zag shrugs. "The spirits guide my senses."
Dot. ^^
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Zag shakes his head in disgust upon seeing the room. "A foul place for foul people doing foul things, I say...and it looks like another trap, too." Zag unbelts his club and throws it through the doorway to see if motion affects the trap.
Temple of Blood
Zaghigoth throws his club through the doorway to see what happens. The wooden club bounces off the floor a couple times and skids to a rest. You wait a moment with baited breath, but nothing seems to happen.
Dot.
"Think its just not active anymore? Or is it going to take more than your club to set it off Zag? Cat, think you can see about jamming it like you did with that pit?"
Zag shrugs. "Might be not motion, but pressure, I say." He points to the section of floor just over the threshold.
"If pressure, do you think your spear might do it Zag? Or do we need something longer? Or perhaps Cat can slip something in to keep the floor from depressing?"
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Eleder
The three of you have been working together for a short while. Perhaps finding some common history, personality, or motives you have found common cause and either by design or by fate you have arrived in Eleder, capital of the relatively young nation of Sargava.
After a day of taking stock of your supplies and running errands, you make your way across Portside towards the Sargava Club. You wind up through the docks until you come to a narrow alley facing the harbour. There you find a now-familiar two-story mud brick building covered in plain whitewash. Upon its front door hangs a carved wooden sign that reads "The Sargava Club." As dusk is approaching, you cast a look about you that you aren't being followed, and enter.
In many ways Eleder, and indeed the whole of Sargava, suffers from a form of split personality. On the one hand, the nation was built on the adventure and an enterprising spirit, but today many former colonists are suspicious of adventurers and the havoc they seem to bring in their wake. Similarly, the people of Sargava turned their back on their former homeland, the empire of Cheliax. At the same time, many cling to Chelish customs and crave Chelish fashions.
A darker note of this split personality is the fact that the Sargavan colonists fought so hard to earn their freedom from Chelish tyranny. Yet, the way that they treat the native Mwangi peoples is often no better.
Entering the club, you find that it looks to be a busy evening. The ground floor is split between shop and tavern, while upstairs serves as an inn. Ahead at the bar you can see Briga, the feisty and outspoken half-orc sellsword who owns the club, cheerily chatting away to anyone who will listen.
Many of the people in the club look as if they are not native to Sargava, colonists or otherwise. At one table sit a group of swarthy sailors, from their accent they sound like Shackles pirates. They laugh raucously as they swill their ale and cheerfully insult one another.
At another table, a tall, wiry Mwangi warrior sits with his long legs propped up against another chair. His hair and beard are bound in intricate braids decorated with colourful beads. A bow rests against the table beside him as he enjoys a cup of mupute, a sickly sweet but potent local liqueur made from sugarcane and pineapple.
In a far corner, a few groups are engrossed in the latest Chelish fad, a game known as Stageless Play. One player takes on the role of Playwright and composes a tale in which the other players participate as the heroes of the story. Rather than play as themselves, the other players create alter-egos and as the Playwright’s tale unfolds, describe how their characters react to events. A dizzying array of dice are used to determine whether their actions are successful or not. One of the groups looks like they might be short a few participants. Watching them disinterestedly is a man who looks as if he has only just come out of the jungle, with bushy red hair and beard, and well-worn travelling clothes. Not far from him at another table sits a man clothed in expensive Vudran styles, nursing a drink and looking glum. Around him sit three shifty looking warriors, likely bodyguards.
The Sargava Club is one of two main social hot spots in Eleder. It caters to adventurers, explorers, and travellers, and serves as a meeting place to plan expeditions into the wilds. There is also the Adventurer’s Club, which used to have similar clientele until it was taken over by Eleder’s elites and now serves as little more than an aristocratic social club.
The mood in Eleder is tense at the moment. Though proud of its independence, Sargava’s coffers run dry due to the hefty tribute imposed on the young nation by the Shackles Pirates, for their help in winning Sargava’s freedom from Cheliax. It also means less money for maintaining Sargava’s defense. Many of the tribes of the Mwangi Expanse are keen to reclaim the land that has been settled by colonists, and the status-quo is fragile at best.
The man watching the games of Stageless Play is Amivor Glaur, a renowned local Pathfinder and leader of several expeditions into the Screaming Jungle. The man sitting near him is Sanjeet Ralama Pakhesh, owner of Obari Imports, exotic traders.
There is a table with a few seats open for anyone wanting to participate. To play, one person volunteers to take on the role of Playwright, directing the story in a way that immerses the other players in the tale. The play is broken up into five sections, an Opening, three Challenges, and a Climax. Make five Perform checks (type doesn’t matter too much for this). The higher the roll, the more skilled the direction and the more fun everyone has, creating a memorable experience. The other players can either assist by making a successful Perform check against DC 10, or can attempt to steal the limelight for their own characters with a rival Perform check. This game is all the rage at the moment, and a memorable experience can enhance one’s reputation in the city.
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Temple of Blood
You stand at the threshold, looking for a trigger or switch for what you suspect might be a trap. However, you've not spotted anything. Aerys peers at the door on the other side of the chamber. "Do you think those doors are locked? I bet I could sprint across to there, might be able to do it faster than that slab could come down and cut me off."
Grym is a bit more pessimistic. "I don't know, this is a clever one. That pool of blood though, looks significant. I bet this place had a purpose, so if it is a bad trap there must have been a way to turn it off or ensure it didn't attack the wrong people."
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Cat percept
Yekskya percept
Zag percept
Aerys percept
Grym percept
Eleder
Maudrill shakes his head and smiles as they enter. "No no Krolmnite, black dragons breath acid." His smile fades slightly at the onslaught of voices upon entering, a headache quickly forming as he tries to make sense of half a dozen languages at once. He finds a seat at the bar and unclasps his charcoal colored cloak. "Tea if you have it, any kind is fine." Maudrill avoids striking up conversation with strangers, more comfortable with the comrades he has grown accustomed to. "Quinta I hear so much about your performances but I have not yet had the pleasure of being the audience for one. Perhaps you can steal some of the stage time tonight?" He gives his curious little smile, double checking the bandana around his head. Imagine if somebody asked the same thing of me, I would balk at the very thought.
Eleder
"Oh ho oh, black dragons and acid! I'll try to remember that. You know, I'm going to defeat an evil dragon one day. There is no worse scourge in the world than those nasty buggers. Oh the glory that will follow once that fine day arrives! You'll be proud to have known me," the gnome offers.
"This little game looks exciting. Quinta, are you giving it a run? I could get talked into taking a chair, I'm sure."
"I don't know traps. Running through does not seem good, I say...but if any think they can make it, that is your path to follow. Just know I cannot heal any more this day." The druid glances nervously up at the blade.
"I don't trust this place at all. Aerys, better wait till I have checked this door out. I don't doubt your prowess, but I'd rather not see you sliced in half in case you don't make it in time for that slab to slide down. And there's these grooves that may hold more blades. Not to mention those openings in the walls."
Once again retrieving my tool roll from my belt, I start examining the door for a way to disable the trap that I suspect the slab to be.
Eleder
Quinta casts an almost imperious look about her, and a brief smile flickers over her face.
'A far cry from the Opera House, this, but a stage is a stage. And I am a performer.'
"No games just now, friend," she tells Krolmnite. "Not yet, anyway. Keep your ears peeled, Maudril. And your eyes."
The Chelishgirl sashays to the performer's stage, if one is available and empty. If there isn't one, she just heads for an empty table and goes to stand on top of it. An almost hypnotic sway of her hips, and the Chelish Bard launches into an odd song. Initially, it seems as if Quinta is performing a proper Chelish opera; the volume, the tone, the grand gestures, it's all there.
Soon enough, however, the gestures start to flow and bleed over into one another as the Chelishgirl starts to sway on top of the table, almost as if she were dancing. A blue-and-green-scaled viper comes slithering out of her sleeve, twining itself about Quinta's arms and hands in time with her song.
The words change. While the first verse was an appeal to the powers of song and music, a call for blessing upon the song, what comes next is a paean of freedom such as is not heard in Thrice-Damned Cheliax these days. Part words, part pure music, Quinta's voice soars like a bird and slithers like a serpent, but always moves onward. She shifts into a lower octave, and the rhythm changes to remind the listeners of the drum-supported chants of Mwangi as words of Polyglot bleed seamlessly into the blend.
The rhythm changes, accelerating as the imagined drums speed up. Shrieks of Polyglot and wails of Common lament the fragility of freedom -- and burst into pure Azlant as Quinta shifts back into full operatic power. For a moment, the young performer holds silence -- and then she somersaults forward, off the table, to land on her feet. The viper that accompanied her tune has nimbly disappeared from sight by the time Quinta takes her final bow.
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Temple of Blood
Rowena carefully examines the slab from the doorway, trying to understand the nature of the mechanism. It is difficult to determine from the doorway without actually entering the chamber, but it definitely looks like a type of trap, designed so that the large bronze slab should slide down and cover the doorway should anyone step inside. You would guess that a similar slab stands above the opposite doorway.
There must be pressure plates in the room, either scattered about or perhaps the entire floor is difficult to know. You might be able to disable the device, but it's going to take a lot more time and effort. Likewise, you feel there should be some way to switch off the trap, but from your vantage point you don't see anything. You definitely feel that the grooves that crisscross the ceiling in that chamber are connected to the slab in some way, and are just right for a blade to flash out.
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The Adventurer's Club
Briga, the half-orc barkeep, gives Maudrill a frank appraisal, then turns and prepares a cup of tea without comment. Despite her size, she moves with the solid efficiency of a warrior. The aasimar takes a seat at the bar, avoiding those already present in the room. Briga pushes over the cup of tea. "Don't think I've seen you in here before, are you new to these parts? What brings you to the Club tonight?"
Krolmnite watches the games of Stageless Play unfold. One of the tables only has a couple of players, a young man in robes covered in elaborate sigils, and a Halfling with rather pointed ears and a curly mop of hair. Seeing the gnome's interest, they wave you over and invite you to join in. Then the Halfling sidles over to the man with the bushy red hair and beard, and seems to be cajoling him to join in.
Taking up Maudrill's challenge, Quinta looks around for a stage to perform. There is indeed a stage not in use, and she sashays across the taproom floor. Once there she begins a song so beautiful, so intricate in its weavings of language and meaning and movement, so hypnotic, that the entire room stops to listen, entranced. Many are entranced as well by the rhythmic swaying of the viper. Many of the Stageless players look up from their games, completely agog at this vision before them on the stage. When Quinta's song ends, the entire room erupts in enthusiastic applause, and you are pleased as a scattering of coins fall at your feet. As the performance ends and the noise from the crowd dies down, their attention returns to what they were doing before. [ooc] The crowd loved it, and you earn 15 silver pieces for the performance.
Though everyone's eyes were on you during the performance, you don't notice anyone taking undue interest in you, though you can make a Sense Motive check if you want to be sure.
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Eleder
Maudrill nods gratefully for the tea, sliding over the appropriate amount of coin. "Uhmm, mainly work. Well, traveling for work anyways. The locals gave high praise to this establishment so we thought it would serve as a fine place for repast and rest."