Blayne puts his wayfinder away and joins Bastion in looking for a way down that doesn’t involve descending a nearly vertical slope covered in creeping vines, strangler figs and Gozreh knows what else. After a brief search, they discover a switchback trail hidden by overgrowth, that looks like it could be safely traversed to the valley floor with little to no climbing.
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After calling everyone over Blayne asks "who's likely to be the best climber among us. I have some silk rope so we can tie ourselves together,but with all this armor I'm not best suited to leading us down. ""
-Posted with Wayfinder
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"Well that's certainly different! " Blayne says as he follows along down the trail.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Bastion leads his fellow Pathfinders down the path he has found, reaching the valley floor with nothing worse than a slippery turn or two in the trail. A dense canopy of tall jungle trees blocks most of the sunlight, leaving the jungle floor largely devoid of undergrowth. The trail winds its way through moss-covered rocks and massive root structures from the ancient trees, and the tracks of the kobolds and miners are easily discernible here.
Following the tracks for a couple of miles, the trail opens on a lovely flower-filled clearing. The dense jungle flora thins here, opening up enough to reveal the sky through the canopy. Beneath this opening, an ancient ruin consumed by the jungle is barely visible. Vines and leafy foliage encrust toppled blocks of quarried stone, tall grass grows up between derelict paving stones, and squat statues depicting dwarves in heavy armor stand crooked or fractured entirely from the infiltration of twisting roots. Among the more notable features here are the exotic flowers—tall, pitcher-shaped, golden blooms with seven petals, the interior of each a deep red. The soothing fragrance of the flowers fills the valley, and motes of pollen drift lazily in the air.
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"aye. I try not to let anyone outside my Pathfinder team see me change. Wrecks the magic."
"ohhh. Smells like candy. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
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The Taldan is wary of sickly sweet smells in the jungle, and does his best to contain his breathing by covering his mouth and nose with a cloth. "Dwarves? What are dwarves doing here? Aroden will want a note of this." he asks in a muffled voice. He produces a journal and begins sketching one of the statues.
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Blayne looks around for any watchers before looking the ruin over more closely for entrances.
-Posted with Wayfinder
No one is able to come up with any useful knowledge of the jungle that might apply to this situation, though the Instrument does produce some fine sketches of the crumbling statues.
Blayne looks off into the distance and sees a quartet of statues standing in a rough square, with the ruin of a slightly larger building visible just beyond them.
As Torriki moves further into the clearing, there is a sudden burst of pollen from a nearby plant! It is a sprawling patch of vines, ornamented with beautiful crimson and violet flowers, the petals of which seem to bear tiny faces. The man-fox is struck by the heady scent of the flowers just as he realizes that the pollen floating all around him seems to be making him very, very sleeeepy.
The vulpine form of Torriki can be seen swaying briefly in the cloud of pollen, but as the dust settles, he is still on his feet!
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"Toriki - are you OK? "
Blayne ties a scarf over his nose and mouth and then continues to cover Toriki with his crossbow.
-Posted with Wayfinder
As the cloud of pollen quickly disperses on the breeze, Aroden’s Instrument on Golarion calls out helpful advice, but nothing else seems to happen. The clearing is quiet, but for a soft breeze carrying the pollen of this strange plant far and wide.
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Is there any sign of the path the kobold and their captives took through the ruins?
-Posted with Wayfinder
Bastion and Wayne begin to move across the clearing, and as they approach the beautiful patch of vines, another burst of pollen engulfs them! They both feel very drowsy indeed, yet the Cunning Fox seems unaffected.
Focused as he is on dispensing the wisdom of Aroden, the Instrument of the Last Azlanti walks right through another patch of strange vines, which release a cloud of pollen just as Blayne and the Instrument pass by!
The Instrument easily resists the soporific effects of the drifting pollen, but Blayne feels strongly that it would just be so pleasant to lie down in the lovely field of flowers and just rest a bit…
As the breeze clears away the cloud of pollen, there’s a new arrival on the scene! A flying thing, looking like a broad leaf with great whiskers like a catfish, swoops down from a nearby tree, lashing out at Wayne with its barbed tail! Its accuracy is shocking, and the creature’s stinger jabs right into Wayne’s neck, injecting its poison!
Wayne resists the flying leaf's poison, and gives it a punch for good measure as it flits away!
Seeing Blayne fall asleep next to a patch of the strange vines, Torriki darts past the plant nearest him and moves over to stab the one threatening the dozing Caydenite cleric!