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Faliana noticing that Brady needs help and didn't just die in a few quick snaps, decides to spring into action. Taking a few short strides forward despite Fritannia's vehement objections, she ends up just with in reach of the creature's snapping jaws. She takes her longspear and then tries to play the 'be a nuisance' game and try give Brady another opening. "Hey giant snake thing! Look at me! I have a pointy stick, and you've got lots of eyes that I can poke out!"
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As the stump of a neck, head missing, flails about, Tad steps inside its range, and points his wand towards it. Stunned, the hydra can do little to avoid the small sheet of flame that shoots out, engulfing its entire front end, including the severed section.
But as the fire clears, despite the obvious damage it did, it does not appear to have been enough to completely cauterize the end of the stump! The severed end of the hydra's neck starts to contort and twist, splitting and extending. From it, two more necks grow, each forming a fanged head of their own as they grow!
The gigantic beast continues to reel from Monty's blow, and is unable to direct the remaining heads to do more then wave about in confusion. But it doesn't take long to recover. More of the burns heal over, and it quickly comes back to its senses... now with seven heads eager to attack!
- Round 4 -----------
Dru (-33, prone, unconscious), Brady (-10), Faliana -----------> we are here!
- Round 5 -----------
Monty (1 nl), Tad, Dale
hydra (-28, 7 heads)
Party is up!
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Again Dale opens his eyes to see he hasn't blown up anyone with his bombs, but everyone keeps getting closer and closer, so the odds keep rising, he does the same and moves closer. "7 heads? that's not good!" Dale cocks back another bomb to toss and lets it go, hoping the shorter range will do the trick.
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Brady's glee at successfully severing a head almost immediately turns to shock and then dismay as the head regenerates all too quickly! He redoubles his efforts at severing heads, but also begins looking down the mountain for an escape route. "We might have to rethink this and come back, Pathfinders! I'm not fighting this any more if it gains another head!"
Monty tries a second time, to strike the huge beast on whatever sensitive spot he located last time, but his first swing with the staff just bounces off of its scaled hide, and his followup kick, though connecting lightly, does not seem to have nearly the effect as before.
In too close to worry about it, Brady continues trying to target the bevy of murderous snake heads. As more of them start chomping down at him, he brings his dagger around in a fierce blow, connecting solidly with the base of one of the necks. The blade cuts through the hydra's flesh like it was nothing, and just like that, a second head is flopping on the ground beside the first... the stump of where it once connected flailing about overhead.
Tad quickly backs away from the shower of hydra blood, and tosses a quick heal on Drusilla, hoping to get her at least conscious, in case they have to flee. As the healing energy flows through her, the warrior woman finally recovers enough to once more become aware of what's going on around her. Unfortunately, what she sees is not peaceful, the huge serpentine beast still towering over her.
Dale moves in behind Tad, taking careful aim this time after his two previous throws went wide. He makes sure to hit the hydra just as the newly severed neck section swings around! His bomb sails true, striking the creature's torso, and exploding all over, covering the hydra in alchemical flame that runs up many of its necks, including the headless one!
Suddenly, the entire length of the creature starts thrashing about, all of its heads twining, and its body coiling in pain, before all of it flops to the ground with a thunderous crash, still smouldering.
For just a moment, you think you've done it... the remaining stump from the newly severed head a charred mass, no more heads sprouting from it. But then you realize that though that head does not appear to be coming back, the rest of the creature's wounds are still healing! The remaining six heads start to lift off of the ground, lidless eyes staring, and fang-filled mouths opening once more.
- Round 5 -----------
Monty (1 nl), Tad, Dale, Faliana -----------> we are here!
hydra (-48, unconscious, 6 heads)
Dru (-25, prone), Brady (-10)
As the hydra starts to get back into the fight, Faliana quickly thrusts her longspear as hard as she can. Again, the multitude of heads drops back to the ground.... but again, the body continues to mend.
But all six Pathfinders prove more then a match for a giant serpent with six heads... and eventually even its unnatural ability to mend damage to itself gets overwhelmed, and it will finally lay still.
The hydra is slain.
As the rush of combat finally fades, you realize you still hear the hammering coming from the ruin, but no other signs of anyone or anything.
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Monty leans on his staff and pants for a moment before sliding back down to the ground. As he does so, he dashes over to check on Dru as she comes around.
You know what? Your right, it sucks being on the other side of this and worrying about someone getting themselves killed. I think I almost prefer being beaten unconscious all the time!
He hoots his laughter and holds out his hand to help her up.
Suuuure you don't want me rushing wildly in first and getting knocked out instead? It's a harder job than it looks you know!
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As the others stab, beat, and chop at the regenerating Hydra, Dale rushes up and gets in close to study it "This is amazing! The regenerative properties on this thing... " He takes out his dagger and slices a bit around the midsection and watches as it tries to knit itself back together. I must learn more about this! He ponders.
You all take a minute to recovery from the battle, before moving on to whatever waits in the ruins.
Although you don't see the cobra that bit Monty, you do notice a few other snakes in the area, mostly concealed under the nearby rocks and boulders, or lurking in bushes and undergrowth. None of them are as large as the cobra, nor as aggressive, and seem to be minding their own serpentine business.
The entrance to the ruins seems to have been cleared and widened recently, and descends downwards. Whatever structures remain appear to have been buried below, as the upper levels collapsed over the centuries. Though it is not a cave, it feels almost like one, as you make your way inside. Enormous blocks of white granite, probably once walls or ceilings have crumbled all around, creating a tunnel through which you now enter. Small clouds of white dust shower down on you periodically, as the hammering sound deeper down sends vibrations through the aged walls.
You start to notice snakes down here as well, all of which hastily slither away to hide beneath crumbling masonry, or bits of rubble, as you approach.
You are surprised to see so many different species of snake living in such close geographical proximity. You would not have expected to see this variety, so closely located, anywhere outside of a herpetarium.
All of them appear to be native to the Expanse, mind you, and include both poisonous and non-poisonous varieties... but the current terrain certainly is out of place for some of the species you're identifying. In fact, you think you might even have seen a spotted water viper, which you would not have expected to see so far from a water source.
The collapses nature of the tunnel quickly gives way to a less damaged section, that then opens up into a large room. The room has high walls made of the same blocks of crumbling, mossy granite... but the roof is entirely absent, leaving it open to the sky.
Before the ceiling disappeared to time, you suspect it was probably over twenty feet overhead. Now, only the walls remain, and makeshift scaffolds have been recently erected along them. Numerous folding tables are set up around the room... the items on them, and even the walls themselves, have been carefully cleaned and labeled.
A wide opening leads to a separate section of the room to the east, and looming over it, is a high balcony with a huge ivory sphere on it, that even in the light of the late afternoon, you can tell is glowing brightly. It is an exact duplicate to the sphere buried in the excavation back at the Azlant Ridge site. Across the wall below the balcony is a large mosaic depicting sway-backed, one-eyed astronomers at the base of a tall tower. That wall, and the mosaic, has been cleaned and labeled like the rest of the room.
Opposite from where you enter, along the northern wall, you see a wide doorway, almost fifteen feet tall... but the door that was once there has been smashed open, and now lay in pieces on the floor in the wide hallway beyond it.
All around the room, and up on the scaffolding, you see half a dozen people busily working, many of whom look up as you enter.
One of them, you recognize almost instantly, is Juliet Dias!
"What's this?" She says, a bright smile coming almost unbidden to her face. "You?! I did not expect to see you folks here! Did Happ send us some reinforcements? There's so much to study and catalogue here, a few additional helping hands would be a godsend!"
She quickly climbs down from where she was taking notes on the runes on a section of wall to one side, and comes over to greet you warmly.
"Welcome to Starwatcher Tor!" She says proudly. "Isn't it amazing!?" She waves at the room in general, clearly quite pleased with the find.
... and still the loud incessant pounding, coming from not far away, echoes all around you.
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On the way up into the ruin Dale with nearly every step points out yet another snake "Look at that one! Strange to see it here.. especially living so close to that one there! This is strange friends. Hold up a second so I can get my journal out... Oh and watch your step, many of these are poisonous!" Dale drags out his journal and ink and pen, handing his ink pot to Brady to hold for him as he walks and takes notes, occasionally dipping the drink pen into the ink.
As they head deeper Dale starts to ignore the snakes as he sees the mosaics and the architecture of the ruins "Snakes be damned, this is amazing!" He continues taking some notes until they reach the researchers.
"Oh great to see you Juliet, and the rest of you too of course" He smiles and waves at her assistants. "I don't mean to sound rude or anything, I know these new finds likely have kept you here... but the rest of your assistants back at the other site? Well, they are about to flee.. actually they left this morning. You should have gotten back to them maybe?"
Once he's said his peace Dale quickly grabs his ink pot from Brady and heads over to the table to start looking over the finds, leaving the others to continue the questioning as they hear Dale examining and arguing over things with the other researchers. He pulls out that prism and starts peering over things. "Wow, this thing works wonders! Hey, hands off! Watch it or I'll feed you to that hydra!"
"Aya had no cause to panic!" Juliet replies, shaking her head slightly. "Such a worrier! This sight is one of the temple-observatories of the Ghol-Gan Empire! A late report or two is worth the time to study it!"
"And I'd have hoped Happ would hang on a little longer, but what's done is done." She shrugs, seemingly unconcerned about the previous sites fate. "Azlant Ridge is secondary to our discoveries here!"
As she talks, the pounding continues unabated. You notice the archaeologists seem to be ignoring it.
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"When you crashed that overgrown mechanical golem out of the camp you kinda breached the wall... and the angry monkey locals have been wreaking havoc.. especially when you took all the warriors with you." Dale comments without looking up from the artifacts he's peering at through the prism.
"You got that thing 'excavating' for you downstairs or something?"
"What?" She replies. "Oh, that thing? That wasn't us." She says, dismissively. "Silly thing came storming in here a couple of days ago, destroyed valuable relics in the process!"
She waves over to where the inner door has been smashed down as proof.
"No clue what its doing now." She adds, with an unconcerned shrug. "Nothing important, anyway. As long as its not stomping on our artifacts!"
"Here, look at these!" She adds, excitedly, as she goes over to a table and shows Dale some etchings with strange symbols and diagrams and starts talking about lunar cycles and celestial geography.
"Hmmm?" Juliet responds, "Oh, nothing to worry about."
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Brady takes the inkwell, expecting that Dale just needed a free hand to retrieve something else from his bag, and finds that, no, he's just an inkwell holder now. Wait, what?
But Dale has become too good of a friend now, so he just takes it in stride and tries to stay near the studious Pathfinder as he meanders from one edge of the path to another.
I suppose if we discover a threat, I can just smash this in its face...
Brady looks as shocked to see Juliet as she is to see the Pathfinders. "The last thing I expected was to see you here just... working! We thought we were on a rescue mission... or worse!" He begins looking around the space, examining the artifacts that have been uncovered on the table. He stays quiet when the topic of Happ's abandonment comes up, feeling partly responsible for driving the man off.
When it becomes clear that Juliet is so casual about the monolith and the pounding, though, he has to speak up.
"You have an ancient Azlanti monolith pounding away at who-knows-what deeper in this site, and you don't care to know what... or why?" He shakes his head incredulously. "I would expect your scholarly instinct to want to know what that's about, at the very least. But even barring that, it never occurred to you to check it out for safety reasons?"
"Well, good thing we brought our own scholarly interest with," he says, looking right at Dale. "I think we should go check it out."
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Faliana gives a sigh of relief as she walks into the room with everyone in it. Oh, good! They're all right.
She hangs back for a few seconds watching Juliet and everyone else as they continue working, but doesn't seem to find anything off.
Deciding Juliet is probably just so engrossed in her work that she forgot the date, Fali heads over to the woman a disappointed look on her face. "I wouldn't complain about Aya being worried, you'd been consistent up until then and the last one talked about heading off into the woods. You worried everyone, not even sending word back that you were okay, but now that we know, we'll make sure Aya is informed you're okay." Then lightening her expression, Faliana takes a look around the room, before adding in, "So what's so impressive about this site that is has taken a front seat to the Azlanti Ridge you were so loathe to leave a few months ago you came back almost immediately? ... and can you try explaining it simply? Dale might love the details and intricacies, but broad strokes are enough for me."
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Dale happily looks through things with Juliet and her assistants, at least until the others start asking questions and Brady seems to insist they investigate further. "Well, I guess I could be torn away for a few minutes. Maybe I'll find the greatest of great relics down there and get to claim the credit!"
He pulls away from Juliet, bringing the prism with him, keeping an eye on the scholar to see how she reacts.
Juliet laughs at Brady's surprise. "As you can see, we're fine! Just excited by what we're finding!"
"As for the monolith..." She waves one hand dismissively. "Its just in the east hall making noise. Nothing to worry about. We've learned to tune it out."
"Besides, there are far more fascinating things to look at here!"
"Feel free to look around if you'd like. You'll see!" She adds. "Though make sure you don't destroy anything, we'll likely never get the chance to study another Ghol-Gan observatory... and are not sure how long we have with this one... so every little piece is crucial!"
"The Ghol-Gan Empire predates Earthfall and even the Azlanti. They worshiped the sun and the moon... we believe from this very observatory!" She looks around reverently. "Think of it... there might be clues on their ancestral astronomy magic here. No one has found evidence or even details of that... anywhere before!"
"We've concentrated on this area so far, so we've not really gotten to catalogue everything in the other areas yet." She shakes her head with a happy smile. "So much to do."
"Oh... if you happen to find any stone discs, make sure to bring those back here." She adds, holding her hands about a little more then a foot apart. "Should be about... so big. Unusually heavy for their size... and emitting light."
Monty will realize that Juliet seems to be acting a little oddly. Though she definitely seems excited and interested in the finds they are uncovering here... some of her responses to what is going on don't seem exactly right...
You begin to suspect there might be some sort of magical influence at play. Though whatever it is, is relatively subtle.
"Not stones... discs made of stone." She corrects. "And we know they are very important from the mosaics." She waves one hand absently at the nearby walls. "We're still working out the specifics of how they work. We have found a couple so far, and put them somewhere safe for now... but there might be more, so if you see any, please, bring them here."
She shrugs, leaving it at that.
"Like I said, feel free to look around." She grins at Dale. "I know at least some of you are eager to see what we've found here."
"Try not to disturb the work we've done. There are a few old crypts on the west side, around the central chamber, then a single room on the east side... though we've avoided that for now, as it seems to be covered in some sort of supernatural darkness." She purses her lips, clearly unsure about that last room.
"Stay away from the orb though." She adds, pointing up towards the sphere above you on the balcony. "We thought it was like the one back at the Azalant Ridge site... but this one is different somehow. It's made everyone who's gone up there sick, so we've had to restrict access for now. Poor Arletta still hasn't recovered from accidentally touching it. Her absence has set our work back a few days already."
"Everywhere else is perfectly safe though!" She concludes.
"We've set up our gear through there," She points through the opening to the east, past the balcony. "If you want a place to store yours, while you look around."
Tad knows nothing of the Ghol-gan empire... though the fact it predates Earthfall, means it was well over ten millennia ago... so not surprising.
History that long ago, would even predate some of the gods!
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Monty raises a eyebrow and looks at the others before asking.
Might we see Arletta? Tad is quite a skilled healer, he should take a look at her. Strange that you didn't send for healers when she first fell ill...
He gives a pointed look to his team.
It's very unlike you. But I understand the importance of the find.
Juliet gives Monty an admonishing look. "She's sick. Not dying."
She smiles at Tad. "She asked to be left alone to rest... but the sooner we can get her up and well again, the better. So much to do here, it's been difficult a man short."
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Dale smiles and nods, taking a look around to see how all this lines up Wonder why Monty thinks something's up?
As they discuss the downed team member Dale nods as he looks through the prism at the mosaic "Don't worry, myself and Tad will be happy to do what we can with her, you'll be happy to know both of us learned much when we stayed with the Ekujae Tribe for a couple weeks. Not that we didn't already know quite a lot but, of course we expanded our knowledge base to include local remedies!"
Dale moves around the room, having the time of his life.
Dale does not know any more about the Ghol-Gan empire then he was able to recall back in Nantambu. Some of what Juliet is mentioning now is entirely new information for him!
The main mosaic, on the eastern wall, obviously depicts cyclopes, and the best Dale can determine the tower was where you are now, as it was back when the empire was thriving. Now, of course, there are only these ruins remaining.
It would appear that once, the tower (that Juliet called Starwatcher Tor) was not only an observatory, for studying celestial bodies, but also a temple of worship.
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Dale does not know any more about the Ghol-Gan empire then he was able to recall back in Nantambu. Some of what Juliet is mentioning now is entirely new information for him!
The main mosaic, on the eastern wall, obviously depicts cyclopes, and the best Dale can determine the tower was where you are now, as it was back when the empire was thriving. Now, of course, there are only these ruins remaining.
It would appear that once, the tower (that Juliet called Starwatcher Tor) was not only an observatory, for studying celestial bodies, but also a temple of worship.
Once Dale's done investigating he asks one of the assistants where Arletta is resting so they can do what they can to help get her back on her feet. He pulls out his healers kit and waggles his eyebrows "I'm a trained Doctor you know.."
If allowed to see her he takes a look at her symptoms to see what the problem could be... "Tad, what do you think?"
"She's probably sleeping." Dale will be told, as he is pointed towards the eastern room, where Juliet mentioned you could store your gear. "Whatever the orb did to her, has had her laid up for days."
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Faliana's eyes narrow ever so slightly as she reads the meaning in Monty's words. Hmm, something is wrong here. Let's see if we can get out of earshot and talk things over in private.
"I am fairly untrained, but I've been told I have a talent for healing, though nowhere near Tad's or Dale's, of course. Maybe I can help some? It's just in there where we can drop our luggage, right?" Fali, driven by an immediately suspicious Fritania, starts to mentally file possible 'things' that could be 'up,' as she heads with the group into the eastern room.