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Nadrics peers down into the well for a few moments, and then with a hum he takes off his backpack to extract a climber's kit. He drives a piton into the ground at the top of the well. "It looks a bit rickety, but I have some rope and crampons to help with the climb down. Someone can borrow the equipment, if you're particularly concerned about getting down safely." He also whistles and snaps his fingers to summon a pair of flickering lights that hover just behind and above his head.
He eyes the grippli, who seems like a sturdy fellow. "No objections here, to you taking the lead!"
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Eyeing the deep well, Umbrato smirks. "Getting down is the easy part. It's the climbing back up that's troublesome."
"My friend, you are welcome to lead the way. I'll be down immediately after to help scout."
Tugging a carved femur from his pack, he calls out "Cloth to Stone" and taps his cloak. A shimmering, translucent light covers the man.
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Malusha peers down the well's opening with a little hesitation. Too many unpleasant memories associated with climbing. "Thanks for the offer but I'm good," he replies to Dart, indicating the wand. He watches Nadric place the piton and rope. "I will use that rope in getting down. And this." He wiggles a finger in the air that has a silver colored ring that looks like it's made of feathers.
"You guys can go first and I'll follow."
Malusha waits for the others to go down and then grabs the rope. He gently, and carefully, lower himself down.
Dart moves down the well first, the little grippli skillfully using the stone handholds to descend. Umbrato floats down behind him and lands soundlessly on the ground. Malusha and Nadric both slip and tumble down the well.
----
Dart and Umbrato’s eyes adjust to the darkness and they see, out through the 5 ft wide opening, a small shrine. A dark pool fills the center of this vast chamber spilling out of its cracked basin. The trickle of water flows west through a short tunnel of rough-hewn stone and pools at the bottom of a collapsed well. Alcoves set in the walls give the illusion of staring at the flared hood of a cobra. Two altars face each other across the pool in the chamber’s northwest and southeast corners. A statue of a robed human male stands in the northeast corner, and what must have been its twin lies toppled in the southwest corner.
Here, the lights from Nadric's spell seem to shy away from this place, dimming.
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Sira watches closely as his party members descend. When Nadric loses his grip, his Sylph heritage takes over and he utters a single word in his native Auran tongue,
"Firrîn!"
Nadric falls slowly and lands safely on the ground.
"I sure hope i manage a little better than that!"
At the present track record of descent, Sira will fall back on his Balanced Education and rely on his intellect to help him with the climb down.
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Malusha tries to climb down the side of the well using the rope but, as always, he is unable to coordinate his actions. He loses a grip on the rope and starts to skid down the wall. He let's go of the rope and he fall immediately softens as the magic of his ring takes over.
Malusha casts light on his turban to help illuminate the area.
"Well, this is interesting," Malusha says as he looks around. "Let's be careful though."
He casts detect magic around the entire chamber while standing at the entrance.
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In spite of all his preparations, Nadric can't seem to maintain his grip on the rope, and starts to fall. But before he even has time to react, his descent is slowed. He looks up to see Sira managing his fall. He gives the sylph a playful salute. "Why, thank you! But actually I could have caught myself just as well. Tell you what, I'll help someone else get down in return. Gotta pass it along, eh? Just have that dog of yours jump down, Ankird, and I'll make sure he's okay."
----
Once he starts paying attention to his surroundings, Nadric realizes that the others are trying to be stealthy. With an "Oops" he covers his mouth with one hand and draws his shortbow with the other.
Through various means, you all make it down without injury and start to probe the tunnel and the shrine beyond, but soon enough you find large snakes on either side coiled and hissing violently at Umbrato, clearly seeing him in the gloom, but not Dart! What you assume to be multi-colored bands coil the creature's body, but all Umbrato and Dart can see are the shades of gray.
In Combat!
Bold may act.
Active party buffs: none
Surprise Round / Round 1
Malusha
Umbrato
Ankird
Nadric
===========================
Snakes!
===========================
Dart
Sira
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"What, snakes?" Nadric whispers back, and then moves forward to look into the large chamber. It's dark in there, and the light from his magical torches seems curiously ineffective, so he sends the dancing lights forward to get a better look. Hearing combat sounds from one of his allies off to the left, he focuses in that direction until the light finally reveals a snake threatening the grippli.
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Tugging a scroll from his lot, Umbrato makes a few quick folds. The piece of parchment suddenly seems to resemble a paper dagger.
Smiling he moves towards the unthreatened snake, holding the piece of parchment like a weapon. Calling out to his companions, he seconds Malusha's plea. "Yeppers, got us some snakes here. Come on in guys!"
Dart attacks the snake to the left, delivering a punishing blow to its head while Malusha casts a beneficial spell for the party. Umbrato and Ankird move in. Nadric controls his floating light to illuminate the battle.
The snakes hiss again and one manages to strike Dart, fangs dripping with venom. The other misses Umbrato with a wild bite.
After the snake has its revenge, Dart retaliates with a sharp blow of his own, knocking the creature unconscious! It slumps to the ground in a tangle.
Bold may act.
Active party buffs: bless
Round 1 / Round 2
Malusha
Umbrato
Ankird
Nadric
===========================
Snakes! (Red (15 NL, unconscious), Blue)
===========================
Dart (1 NL, Fort Save needed)
Sira
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Now that the party is helped, Malusha moves to where he can get a good shot at the snake creature. He pulls his crossbow off of his shoulder as he moves and then quickly loads a bolt. At first Ankrid is blocking his path but as Malusha moves into the room a clear shot opens up. He aims the light weapon at the snake and fires.
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Spotting the rapid demise of Dart's foe, Umbrato glances at the snake before him. "Hmmm...Don't think I'll be needing this." he mumbles.
Cautiously stepping away from the hissing opponent, paper sword still in hand, he calls upon the arcane traditions of old. The delicate blade overwhelming the man's desires, a tiny icicle is all he's able to summon. Flying true, it finds it's mark.
"Well, every little bit helps." he announces with a chuckle.
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Nadric finds the snake just in time to see it drop unconscious at Dart's feet. There is still more hissing, so he searches around some more, following the sounds of combat to light up the second snake.
He draws an arrow and tries to find an opening through the cluster of allies that are suddenly ganging up on the reptile.
Dart's physiology is able to resist the poison from the snake's bite. Then the combined might of the Pathfinder team crushes the snake into a pulpy mess in the sand!
Out of Combat!
Now that you have time to survey the area, you note the two statues, one broken, one intact. The place feels eerie, the darkness seemingly hemming you in everywhere you step. However, it soon becomes apparent that Malusha's divine magic has done something to this place. The darkness relents, ever so slightly at first, but then after a few long moments, the darkness recedes and the lingering magic is banished.
This is a shrine to Apep, a snake god of Ancient Osirion whose portfolio included dangerous rapids, drowning, and darkness that consumes all light.
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"Huh. Never seen a shrine to Apep before." remarks Umbrato as he looks around. "He's a rather old Osirian god."
Quickly setting to the task at hand the man searches the cavern for anything of use. Quickly uttering an incantation, he creates a circle with his index and thumb on the right hand, peering through the opening.
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Malusha approaches the broken statue and begins to examine it. The light from his turban provides bright illumination as he carefully inspects the ruble as well as the remaining pieces of the statue.
When he is satisfied that he has found all that he can there, he crosses the room to the intact statue and repeats his examination.
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“Well, that’s better!” Nadric sighs in relief as his dancing lights go back to their usual flickering brightness. “Now, what were we supposed to find down here? Some Osirian artifacts? Some kind of magic rod, was it?”
He joins Umbrato in casting a magical detection spell, and then turns in another direction from where the wayang is looking, to scan the cave for signs of the magic rod.
Nadric and Umbrato manage to uncover a secret compartment in the intact statue, removing a large stone to reveal the alcove, and several different items wrapped in cloths.
You find a mask, three clay tablets describing funerary practices written in Osirion, and a rod. The last clay tablet of the set and the rod radiate magical auras.
This is a rod of the viper, a +2 heavy mace that is able to poison enemies.
This tablet is a scroll with the spells deathwatch and false life
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"Well, I imagine this is the rod he was talking about...but can't quite place the magics on it. That clay thing is magical too, but...hold on. It's got some writing here..."
"Neat! It's a spell that reveals how close we are to meeting Pharasma and another to help prevent it."
Holding the rod up for the others, he adds "So...we know our informant wants this. You think we could sneak it past the guards? I may be able to help if we're quick."
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"If you have a way to hide the item that may be useful. My thieving skills are not dependable."
"If we want we can return to the city, but if we have more tasks beyond the wall it maybe prudent to delay and complete at least one more of those tasks before returning."
"I wonder if there is another way into the city we may explore at night?"
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Nadric inspects the rod, curious about what they were sent to retrieve, but he is unable to learn anything from it either. He considers the tricks available to him, magical or otherwise. "I'm afraid I don't have any special means to help us smuggle an artifact into the city. The idea of sneaking in at night has a certain appeal, but the risks would likely be higher if we're caught at it. And I'm not sure I'm keen on the idea of waiting around until nighttime just for that. But I suppose waiting around in that customs queue will take a long time as well." He sighs at the memory.
He looks one more time over the list of things they have to do. "The rest of these tasks involve tracking down people, of one sort or another. If I had to guess we'll be looking inside the city, unless maybe the gang leader has a base outside of Eto. But perhaps we should deliver the rod before we go hunting for gang members, in case something should happen to it."
When thinking of how you might approach Eto, you remember your first entrance into the city. The walls around it had been sixty feet high. The gates were open during the day, but logically they would be closed at night with a patrol of guards stationed on the perimeter.