The xtabay somehow senses that Torriki is nearby and releases another burst of pollen!
The fox-man shrugs off the soporific effects! The awful plant then moves awkwardly away from Torriki, shifting its vines toward Blayne’s sleeping form and hauling itself on top of him! Taking advantage of its clumsy movement, Torriki stabs it again! Meanwhile, the other vine patch shuffles slowly toward the fight.
Wayne's bullet blasts a hole clean through the leaf, but its ragged form continues to flitter on!
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Turning around, the Taldan is unprepared for the chaos behind him. "Didn't I say away from the plants?" he mutters to himself. He hurries back towards the plants and comes to a sudden halt. His outstretched hand glows with a ring of orange sigils and he utters a single word: "Burn."
The Taldan hurries back towards the action and draws a flask from his pack.
The leaf ray tries for a different target, one that might not hit it quite so hard as the last one! It attempts to sting Torriki and misses, and the kitsune has just as little effect trying to stab the flying leaf as it darts past!
Torriki sees the plant that covers Blayne begin to wrap him tightly in its vines, and he smells a sharp, acrid scent, perhaps the plant’s digestive juices! He stabs at the thing, nearly stumbles, and catches himself just in time to drive his blade into a pulpy mass at the center of the plant! The xtabay twitches once, then goes still, its tendrils slackening around Blayne’s peacefully sleeping form.
Wayne's shot is too much for the wounded leaf ray, and it flies apart in a scattering of leaf fragments, which flutter to the ground and drift listlessly in the slight breeze.
Bastion calls out to Torriki to get out of the way, then strides across the clearing and slices through the vines atop Blayne. The vines cease their squirming and writhing and go still, leaving Blayne covered in a heap of fragrant blossoms and inert vines, sound asleep but still alive.
Everyone looks around to be sure there are no further threats about to leap on them, and as they do so, Bastion notices something on the ground: skeletal humanoid remains, tucked away within the vegetation throughout the ruins. A closer examination reveals the bodies of at least fifty humanoids of varying races, including one figure who is not yet dead!
A badly injured, unconscious woman lies entangled in vines near the clearing's center. In addition, as the Pathfinders explore the clearing, they discover some items of value left behind by other victims of the carnivorous plants.
The woman sputters a bit as she swallows the potion, then opens her eyes and groans, then mumbles, "I'm still alive? Who are you? What happened?" She lifts her head a bit and looks around before saying, "There was a burst of pollen, and I don't remember anything after that. The kobolds must have left me for dead. You saved me!"
Meanwhile, Blayne snores on...
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Torriki smiles and talks to the woman as he wakes up his comrade. "No worries, we had a tough time too. We've run into a few miners, what brings you put here?"
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The injured woman and the dormant Caydenite both rouse under the Instrument's varied ministrations, and she tells a little about herself, "Miners? I'm a miner too. The kobolds captured a dozen of us, and brought us here not too long ago. I don't know what they want with us, but they were more careful than I expected with keeping as many of us alive as they could. I guess when I went down, they figured I was dying. Well, I came damned close to it, I'm ready to get out of this place."
She struggles to her feet, aided by the strong hand of Bastion, then says, "You folks going back up the valley, or after the kobolds? There's no way I'm chasing those kobolds, but I don't know if I can make it back to Fort Bandu on my own. How about I wait for you up on the ridge, and we can make our way back together?"
"Sharrowsmith?" the woman replies to Bastion, "Don't know him, but he wasn't with us." With a weary look at the Instrument, she continues, "Well, I'm hoping when destiny is done with you, you can still take me back to Fort Bandu."
As Blayne sits up and tries to look in every direction at once, a rueful grin crosses the woman's face and she comments, "Glad I'm not the only one those plants knocked out."
She thanks the Pathfinders once again for saving her, then turns and begins to walk slowly back up the switchback trail to the ridge top.
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Blayne stands and dusts the pollen and dead plans off himself before saying "I suppose we should move on then. I wonder how the kobolds went through here? Or why they didn't avoid it... " Hefting his crossbow he moves on down the trail.
-Posted with Wayfinder
With Wayne’s stings cured and the miner vanished into the jungle, trudging her way up out of the valley, the Pathfinders continue their quest. Reaching the far side of the clearing, they can more clearly make out the figures they saw in the distance. A deep ravine divides the valley here, bridged only by an ancient and crumbling span of stonework, with the center of the bridge seeming to only still be present due to haphazard wooden reinforcements. A pair of ancient dwarven statues flanks either side of the bridge, each in considerable disrepair. A weathered stone building partly consumed by the jungle is visible across the ravine.
Bastion continues his run of hearing and spotting everything around, and he and the Instrument both hear something rustling in the vegetation off to one side of the bridge.
There's still a bit of rustling in the shrubbery, but nothing more.
There is a brief rustle in the bushes, as of something moving away from the spot Bastion is poking, then silence...
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Blayne tries to get to the other side of the bushes from Bastion to bracket whatever is in the shrubs, and pokes around with his rapier. "come out, come out, wherever you are. "
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Whatever it was, it seems to have vanished.
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"More dwarves?" the Taldan exclaims. He breaks out the journal again and makes another sketch of the bridge and building on the far side, as well as a map depicting the Gold Crown camp, the carnivorous plant ruins, and this location.
He pays little heed to the bushes, assuming that his companions are handling it.
Just as Bastion approaches the bridge, he notices a slender rope running along the ground to a nearby tree, clearly meant to trap the leg of an unwary passerby and lift him into the air!
Torriki deftly slices through the trigger line attached to the rope, rendering the whole mechanism harmless. Standing by the kitsune's side, Blayne peers over the edge, then reels back in alarm when he sees that the chasm appears to be nearly bottomless! He leans forward again and squints, concentrating on what he sees, and thinks he can make out the bottom of the deep split in the earth, hundreds of feet below him. Aside from that, he sees nothing.