Akmon merely looks sad again, at Dale's question.
"What names we gave to things are irrelevant now." He says. "The cloak of time will have wiped all those away, if not the places themselves."
He looks around sadly at his city, now with the knowledge it will soon cease to exist.
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"They may be irrelevant to you now, but WE can give them life once more! The more you pass to me of your civilization, the more I can breath life into it once more!" Dale is quite incessant on this. Dale really, really likes to know things that other's do not... and THIS would be a grand feather in his cap.
The image of Akmon just shakes his head. He starts to say something else, but suddenly, a ways behind him, you see two cyclopes suddenly start arguing, though you can not hear their words, despite the fact they seem to be yelling. Akmon does hear them, as he turns suddenly in surprise.
The argument rapidly erupts into a full on brawl. One of the cylopes pulls a blade and suddenly guts the other. The second cyclopes falls to the ground, still gasping for breath as his entrails spill onto the stones.
"I must leave." He says suddenly, his voice strained, obviously in emotional distress. "No place is safe from the barbarity that consumes us. Perhaps we are better off forgotten."
I will try to contact you again, by the lake. A mile northwest of here." He again points down the phantom road. "I can only hope it is still there." He adds, as he moves away, and his image fades from your view.
Behind where he was, the first cyclopes starts to consume the other's entrails, while his victim still twitches.
Before you can see more... perhaps you're glad you don't see more... everything switches to a different moment in time. A dark stain on the stones where the cyclopes were a moment before makes you think this is slightly later in the timeline.
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Dale watches the scenes change and wrinkles his nose "Barbarism for sure. One of them killed another, then ate his small intestine with a side of pancreas while he was still alive!"
After a bit more note taking Dale finally stands up, a bit wobbly with his oversized eye. "Are the burial rituals complete? We should really get to this fiend thing first. Those other things from the vision can probably wait since they've waited for thousands and thousands of years already."
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"That eating the entrails, aren't there certain barbaric tribes that consume their enemies' strength that way? I wonder if that's what that was about." But Brady shakes his head, getting the thought out of his head for the moment. "Let's help the grippli with this fiend, first. If we find we can help by ourselves, all the better; that's the pressing danger, no? If not, and we need to learn something from these visions first, well, we'll figure that out in the moment, won't we?"
Purpurrup seems a little suspicious of Dale and Faliana, but is grateful for assistance with the Hazh'a. She doesn't mention the taboo again, though its obvious she is thinking it whenever she looks their way.
She turns to the others, and nods decisively.
"This one's master's fiend is trapped in big broken buildings, far across the city." She says, pointing west. "But this one knows the way."
She immediately starts heading in that direction, though not directly as her route leads more to the north at first.
The little grippli seems nervous as she starts out, as if expecting trouble at every step ... not a completely unwarranted feeling, once Drusilla points out that the halflings appeared to have come the same way.
As you travel, you do not feel like you're walking through an ancient city... in fact it seems just like more jungle... though with somewhat more frequent rocky obstacles thrown in the path.
Dale and Faliana though, see something completely different overlayed on top of it all. All around them, the ghostly images of buildings and structures loom, showing where there was once a road or a building of unknown purpose, and the occasional giant cyclops walking among them. In her head, Themptius is commenting constantly, pointing out residences and shops, government buildings and religious structures, as they come in to hazy view, before the visions pass them by and they fade back into jungle.
You've been traveling for maybe half an hour when Purpurrup adjusts her course a little as she turns more to the west skirting along the southern edge of a large swamp. The bugs descend on you almost immediately, small clouds of mosquitoes dogging your steps.
You follow the swamp edge for a while, the path forming a gentle arc as it follows along, when Purpurrup stops and points across what is little more than a large marshy lake to a large stone ruin across the far side, covered in vines and moss.
"There." She says. "The fiend is there."
It looks like you will have to walk around the marsh to reach it, though Dru points out that the Hazh'a trail goes the same way.
Even as you observe it, you see the ghostly form of a solemn cyclops, clad in pelts carrying an enormous stone casket, wrapped in chains, trudging along the avenue towards you.
He stops about fifty feet away, and starts intoning a few hateful-sounding words, before spitting on the casket and hurling it into the depths of the lake. As he does so, you hear the sound of cheers going up all around, though you do not see anyone to make them.
You almost jump out of your skins, when a voice directly behind you sighs. Once again, you see the ghostly form of Akmon nearby, seemingly watching the same scene as you. "This is a painful memory." He says quietly, his voice barely audible and full of regret. "The Idol of the Sun and the Moon."
He doesn't seem to be looking at you at all, merely watching the spot where the casket hit the water, even as it starts to settle from the recent disturbance, back to the calm clear lake it was before.
"If you could salvage it from its prison, and allow it to once again bathe in the natural light of the world..." His eyes go skyward. "Even so different a world as this. That at least would be something."
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"Ahh, I'm glad you asked Brady! There are numerous tribes and civilizations throughout history that have claimed to gain knowledge and/or power from consuming parts of others.." Dale continues along in an amazingly long diatribe on the walk to the marsh, only stopping occasionally to raise an eyebrow and oogle at some unseen sight. Amazing!
It is pretty impressive to see the man walk, talk, and jot down notes in his book, running into the back of Dru more than once as he goes. Once they reach the marsh he nods in confirmation with an unseen person "Ahh the great lake! Its here that the sun and moon idol is hidden, down beneath the water in a chained casket! We should retrieve it on our trek across... shall we build another raft?" He starts to look around for suitable timbers and vines to do the work.
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"Wait, Dale. Are you saying that we have to go down in that muck to retrieve this idol? How deep is it? I'm not sure that I signed up for that?!" Brady's look is one of pure incredulity, as if Dale is speaking nonsense.
"Please tell me you mean there's a chamber down there and we just need to find the tunnel that takes us there."
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Dale smiles innocently at Dru when she suggests his contact was anything other than innocent "Your physique is truly impressive! Especially for one who prays as often as you do. Sometime when we're not out in the jungle further study is in order." She truly could birth some genetically superior physical specimens. Or perhaps just some lab work could replicate the effect if necessary.
As Dale looks around over the swamp/lake before him he simply shrugs his shoulders at Brady's apprehension "I'm afraid I can't answer that question with certainty either way. There are thousands of years of history I can't see here. Maybe someone hauled it up and stowed it away, maybe its in the mud, maybe in a nice patch of shallow water... one can only surmise the answer until we investigate!" Dale waves the others to follow him as he starts making his way around the swamp to look for clues on the relic.
"Keep your eyes peeled for a chained, stone coffin like thing!"
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Faliana watches the first few moments of the new perspective with an avid fascination. So this is what the place looked like and the enviromnet that Themp grew up in. As the conversation takes a darker turn though, she slowly grows horrified over the degradation of the cyclopes, the horror of what happened to them stilling her mouth. After a few moments, she switches to mechanically translating things for everyone without a front seat to the proceedings, sounding like a distant and emotionally flat machine, clearly distancing herself from the emotions that the scene is evoking. As the final fight and barbarism of the cannibalism proceeds, she stops mid sentence and looks away for a few moments and shudders once, twice, a third time before reaching up and wiping her face. When she turns around again, most of the puffiness is gone from her face and she is smiling, though a grim determined one.
She nods and follows the rest of the group after the demons and halflings, silently promising she'd personally see that all three requests of Akmon get fulfilled.
As they reach the swamp, she stops at a specific point. "The coffin should be around there, assuming it&s anywhere near the point it was originally dumped." After a second she closes her eyes and casts a spell on herself, before opening them, the larger eye clearly outlined in purple and gazing out into the mud.
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Faliana glances over at tad for a second and catches sight of one of his 'looks', and for the first time since drinking the water gives a genuine smile, she slides over next to the little guy and gives him a playful nudge. "Just cause you're devoted to your faith and we're on a mission doesn't mean ya can't be happy. I'm sure she'd love someone to hold her right now... having just lost so many of her friends and family! Go on, it doesn't hurt to offer!~"
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Seeing into the muddy marsh waters proves almost impossible from the bank, nor can you tell how deep it goes. Dale seems to be having more trouble than usual, picking out the real from the ephemeral proving tricky... though he does notice Faliana does not appear to have the quite same problems.
"Waters not deep." Purpurrup says, hesitantly, as you stop. "Maybe this one's height, five or six times again."
"But big eaters there." She warns, glancing at the marshy waters again... though they are all quite calm, showing no signs of predators.
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"Big eaters? Can you describe these for us?" Dale asks, then repeats the question in Grippli to help avoid any confusion.
As the others stop to look into the water as well, Dale backs away from the bank to a dry, flat stone. He pulls out his alchemy tools and book and starts mixing up an extract. "I'm going to make something up to help with swimming, just in case I need to get wet." It would be nice to see what sort of plant life is down there.. hrmm.
Dale adjusts his spiffy hat as he sits and measures, mixes and sniffs his concoction. "You know, I have a length of rope and a hook if anyone wants to try dragging the bottom for our prize. It might work." He calls out cheerfully. At the very least it'll bring some hidden aquatic plants within my reach! He blinks his oversized eyeball a few times.
Purpurrup's description would describe large reptilian creatures as the most common threat in the marshes. Probably some sort of crocodile or the like.
Although probably not too far out from the bank when it was originally thrown out there... in the thousands of years since, the marsh has taken over, and the bank has receded a fair distance... so that the indicated spot is perhaps thirty feet out.
While Dale mixes his alchemical concoction, Brady tries the more mundane method of trying to snag ... something ...
Much to Dale's pleasure, he does come up with all manner of strange slimy plants and bits of mud and other less identifiable organic matter... even catching the grapple on a few things in the process. Though there's no way to tell if they are roots or rocks or broken bits of the city that once surrounded you. Nothing that produces a large stone casket, anyway. Though, after so long, it was a long shot at best.
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Dale puts away his contraptions and slides the extract into his bandoleer. As Brady comes up with different things on the end of his grapple, the eager botanist grabs up the plants and starts to take closer looks for 'clues' all while encouraging the man to continue with his efforts.
"Another half a dozen throws may just do it Brady, no sense in stopping now. You've not even touched that area over there." He says, not picking his head up from his finds, scratching down notes in his book as he goes.
Its pretty clear Dale is now more interested in the plants and gunk than the likelihood of catching the stone chest.
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Faliana gives Tad an understanding nod. "I'm not entirely sure what that means, but if it would offend then don't, but don't forget to be supportive either. And definitely stay in contact!"
She streches some before continuing in a louder voice. "Tad you wouldn't have a spell that could let us walk on the marsh's surface would you? I'm not going to go swimming in muck with alligator like things I can't see!"
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"Like I said, we can build a small salvage raft if needed.. prod the bottom with long poles and then use the grapple to maybe salvage? It isn't likely very safe to go swimming in there." Dale urges everyone to keep looking around, if that doesn't go very far then maybe they should continue on to the temple and the fiend.
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Brady continues to throw the hook into the water, as much at Dale's suggestion as to entertain himself while they discuss strategy. "That's probably fine, but what about these 'big eaters' lurking in there. I'd rather not be on a homemade raft if one decides we could be lunch." He tosses the hook out again, and drags back a flowering lily. "Anybody think we could try to draw them out, increase our odds here on shore instead?"
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Monty looks at the water and sighs.
Lay it on me Tad. Water doesn't stop my attacks, and with my mobility even underwater, I'm the least likely to go down quickly if I get jumped under there...
He cracks his knuckles and flicks his tail.
First sign of trouble, I'm coming back this way in a hurry.... safe word is "OH MY GODS THEY ARE TRYING TO EAT ME!"... hohohoh.
He chuckles at his own joke, then after Tad casts the spell, wades into the water.
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"Our odds of success are at the maximum if we all go together. I must warn you though that my ability for combat underwater is about as close to zero as you can get without rounding." Dale shifts a bit nervously or excitedly at the chance though.. who knows which.
If they do decided to go down, then Dale will bolster his defenses before hand. And then pack his important things in his waterproof bag.
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It is pretty much agreed that going in the marshy water is going to be unpleasant... but it is also fairly clear that it might be the only way to have any chance of not only finding any sign of the missing casket, but also having any hope of removing it from its watery grave. Dale and Faliana both saw it in their visions, and it was not a small box... but a large stone casket, probably originally intended to hold something, or someone much larger than a human. If it's down there, it will require some solid ropes and bonds and a bunch of manpower to remove.
In the end, Monty volunteers to make the dive, though once Tad reveals he can call up a prayer that would give everyone the ability to breath underwater for over an hour, you decide that perhaps staying together would be advisable, though no one relishes the thoughts of having to fight underwater, should Purpurrup's 'big eaters' show up.
For her part, the little grippli adept decides not to go down with you, instead saying she will wait on the shore... and pray.
Slowly Monty works his way into the muddy water, his feet sinking into the soft bottom with every step, and slimy cold plants rising up from the bottom entangle his legs like the fingers of the dead! He is about ten feet out, when Dru takes the first few steps to follow, while both Brady and Faliana stand hesitantly knee deep along the shore, dreading what's coming.
Of course, that proves to be fortunate a moment later, when Brady sees something that at first seems like a bit of flotsam on the water. No one else notices it at all, even as it suddenly starts to move, heading straight towards Monty as his head drops below the surface.
Brady calls a frantic warning, pointing towards the disturbance. But even then, the others don't what see it... but his yells are enough to reach Monty's ears just below the surface, and he turns towards the right trying to see whatever it might be through the muddy water. Only to realize that he can barely see a few feet in front of him, much less any dangers approaching. He quickly tries to backpedal back towards the others, but the muddy ground and muddy water make even that like moving in slow motion.
Of course, the ones you see are not the ones you have to worry about. Even as the creature starts to drift towards him and you see Monty's head start to break the surface as he tries to get back to the others, there is a suddenly a huge splash, and crash of disturbed water, as something really really big lunges into him him from the other side!
Both Monty and the second creature disappear from sight once more, disappearing beneath the swamp in a flurry of frantic movement. You think you can see a splash of red in the frothing water!
The first one suddenly accelerates towards where you last saw Monty, all pretense of stealth gone as it goes to join its mate.
Their scaled skin is almost black, making them very hard to spot in the muddy swamp water... but though they look like crocodiles, they seem much bigger, and the snout narrower. You think it might be a species of crocodile, found in the Expanse, called a black caiman! Dangerous enough given its size and rows of sharp teeth, but if it manages to lock its powerful jaws on you underwater...
- Round 1 ----
Everyone but Brady can react!
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Monty resists the urge to scream as he feels teeth pierce his skin. Knowing slitherbane will be next to useless in the water, he instead jabs hard with pointed hands, piercing through the water.
He twists and turns in the water, trying to avoid the snapping jaws more than a little to close...
Snake Style - AC vs first attack in round =