Halbarad draws his arrow and fires it at the positively delightful orc stirring soup for his now ex-friends. Sadly, Halbarad needs to work on his element of surprise and his face-shooting as waves of force force his arrow into the ground at the orc's feet.
"Master Sky Plant will not be pleased with your aggression." the orc states plainly.
Initiative:
(+4 Urban, +2 Underground)
Initiative:
1st: Desmond @ 92/92 HP; Sahrek; Halbarad @ 72/72 HP; Terrill @ 59/69 HP; Atum @ 104/104 HP;
2nd: Orc Shaman
3rd: Dragorin @ 100/80 HP; Basalte @ 69/70 HP; Flinders @ 73/73 HP;
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"The stew is people. Desmond cries out somewhat mockingly as the party attacks. He was kind of friendly to the rest of 'em. Dunno why the elf turned so quick.
Desmond decides to get up-close with the orc - drawing his falchion as he jostles through the cramped kitchen. He winds up next to Atum and swings at the formerly friendly shaman.
"Stay put, Sahrek."
The wolf complies and stays where he is.
Between one of Halbarad's arrows (the other three missed) and a flanking assault from Terrill and Desmond, the orc is outright slain on the spot.
Terrill passes out briefly as Halbarad is bucked from his mount. Sahrek snorts before turning away from Desmond and curling up in the corner.
Use your power for good. Travellers rely on the offering of stranger's aid and to attack someone offering aid to my chosen flies in the face of my edicts.
On the freshly maimed corpse of the orc shaman, you find a potion of cure light wounds, a potion of cure moderate wounds, a potion of invisibility, a headband of alluring charisma +2, a metamagic rod of lesser silent, a masterwork long spear, a ring of protection +1, a wand of expeditious retreat, and 100 gp.
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Desmond looks at Sahrek, "What? I thought...He was cooking a stew of brains - human brains! Seemed like an evil thing to me." Desmond sheathes his falchion and kneels down to pet the wolf.
However, Sahrek gives a curt growl and jerks his head away. Desmond stands up, "Alright, alright. I'm sorry." A dull pain swells in his stomach.
"Guys - I don't know that I feel so good about killing this guy..." He looks nervously between Halbarad and Terrill.
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Flinders glances at Dragorin. "Did you see him murder anyone? Do we know for sure that there were, indeed, human brains in the stew? Perhaps someone else brought him the brains. Perhaps he was merely mad, that is no crime, or cause for slaughter. Indeed, what if he were under the influence of this Master Plant and his actions were not his own?" The archaeologists asks, growing more peturbed with each question. Checking the orc to see if he is beyond help, Flinders shakes his head and continues to mutter to himself.
Not feeling any sort of pulse, Flinders stands. "Unless you want to destroy anything else here, I suggest we move on."
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"I find that I feel similarly, Desmond," Hal returns, kicking out the fire underneath the pot. He certainly seemed evil. Halbarad also checks over the orc for a pulse...
Finding no signs of life, Hal spends a moment reconciling himself with his beast companion, using a language more meaningful than words. Then he gently and carefully slings the body over the back of his mount, mulling over the purchase of a raise dead spell if the group returns to civilization in time.
The beasts reconcile with their masters as Terrill comes back to consciousness. Hal and Flinders find that Terrill's death stroke slashed two major arteries in the man's veins and he quickly bled out on the floor.
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Terrill’s countenance is grim indeed as he hauls himself to his feet and recovers his sword. ”I regret what we did as well,” he says. ”It seems to me that someone who cooks the heads of his enemies into soup must be evil to the core, but Desna is a wiser judge than I, and sees things differently.”
He gives Desmond and Hal each a long look and says, ”Let us see if we can redeem ourselves, whether it be in the eyes of our gods or our beasts.”
Moving purposefully, Terrill strides to the door at the far end of the kitchen and pulls it open. Seeing more stairs, he waves his companions forward and climbs to the next level of the tower.
Halbarad knows enough to be able to put Krug's spirit at ease once they have finished their mission.
The group moves on to explore the rest of the tower. The next floor's main room was once the lord of Skull Hill’s chambers, this room is still well appointed despite some damage to the southeastern wall and what appears to be a thorough ransacking of the room. Most of the furniture is damaged, either slashed or smashed, and anything of value was long ago taken away. A body lies discarded near the fireplace—though it’s decayed somewhat, a quick check reveals that this is the body of Heralt, the missing Pathfinder delver.
Heralt has a hastily scribbled note hidden in a false pocket in his jacket. A quick search of the body by Flinders and it is found easily. It reads, “Chelish know I’m not one of them. I’m to be murdered soon.”
The rest of the rooms in the tower are of no importance.
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Hal gives the body a once-over. "Judging by the bruises along the neck, it appears that he was strangled to death. I guess he was right. Poor fellow." Hal will sling Heralt's body alongside the orc's for later burial.
"A delightful tower of ruin and death," Hal mutters unhappily. "Let's go meet Master Sky Plant and see what answers are to be found."
From Halbarad's knowledge of orcs, he knows that they would never strangle someone unless they had to and the handprints on the man's throat does not appear to be that of an orc.
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Atum shakes his head from the back of the room. Phew! Must be the humidity. . . I'm spacing off. You've trained for this, Atum! Keep your head in the game!
"Right. To the crater!" Atum puts his bec-de-corbin back in place on his back and hefts the battering ram over his head once more. Rather than head back down the stairs, he tosses the log through the wall of the kitchen area and rips an opening to the outside. He then leaps from the hole and lands on the ground, standing up to march away towards the crater.
At the bottom of this crater, it appears that there is a large jagged opening into some underground caverns. It is likely that there are some other entrances to these caverns around Skull Hill, but conveniently this has shown itself to you.
Entering the hole, the Pathfinders find a large cavern. This 50-foot-by-55-foot cavern stands fifteen feet tall, littered with stalagmites and stalactites, that make the entire room very difficult to traverse. The only light comes from the hole above. A large rock, about 7-1/2 feet in diameter, rests against the north wall of the cavern, evidence clearly indicating that it punched the hole in the ceiling above. The rock itself is black as night but from it stretch hideous, bulbous vines one to two feet in circumference that stretch all about the cavern, grow up out of the hole above, and wind down into the other cavern below.
Situated around the vine-laden rock are three large flowers(?). Each is unnerving as they have decidedly creepy orc features. Each is adorned with a caricature of an orc face complete with open mouth and pointy teeth, right in the middle of the main stalk.
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As the party descends into the crater Dragorin discusses their plans. If we are indead dealing with a Master Plant I believe fire will be a good option for us. I have a number of fire spells at my disposal but have no good way of assuring melee types are not caught in the blast. I can offer fire resistance to those of you who will be going in close.
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Desmond takes in the strange sights. "So, I guess this is the Master Sky Plant, or whatever that orc was talking about..."
He glances over at Dragorin and the others. "If'n nobody minds, I'd like Sahrek and myself to get some of that fire protection. I figure that Halbarad and Flindurs are likely gonna wanna keep outta the fray anyhow. That leaves me, Sahrek, Terrill, Atum and Basalte. And no, I ain't sending in Sahrek while I hang back and shoot arrows."
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"Terrill, as a servant of Desna, could you bless Sahrek with a shield of faith? I'd like to have him as protected as possible." Desmond asks of the inquisitor.
"Also," Desmond draws his falchion from its sheath, the name Dingo etched into the face of the blade, "is there any way you can make ol' Dingo here more awesome?"
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Hal rides up to Terrill and nudges him. "Do me a favor and cast a few detect alignment spells?" he whispers.
Closing his eyes, he whispers a few words of magic. When Terrill turns to answer, he is greeted with a truly odd sight: feathers have sprouted across the elf's face, matching the plumage of his mount, and surrounding huge bird-like eyes. Elsewhere, his skin seems to have sunk, leaving an even more bony frame than before.
Pulling off his pack momentarily, he fishes out a light source and sets it orbiting his head.
As he re-shoulders his pack, he tries to address the plant in Common using the skills his days in the wild have taught him. "Do you understand my speech?"
Flinders can't recall anything about the massive creatures in front of him. They seem to be protecting an even larger growth between them, however.
Terrill detects no alignment in the plants.
Two of the plants begin to glow before releasing massive, successive light bursts.
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Desmond and Sahrek do their best to shield their eyes from the blinding lights... the dead lights.
Desmond is blinded! "Those lousy weeds - can't see a gorram thing!"
Sahrek paws frantically at his eyes.
Though blinded, Desmond reaches down to touch his bone-encased wayfinder. Using it as a focus, he casts longstrider on himself.
"Hold up boy - don't rush in without me."
Status:
Desmond-Blind (2 rounds) @ 92/92 HP; Sahrek-Blind (3 rounds); Halbarad-Blind (3 rounds) @ 72/72 HP; Th'reiwa-don-Blind (3 rounds); Terrill @ 59/69 HP; Atum-Large @ 104/104 HP; Dragorin @ 100/80 HP; Basalte @ 69/70 HP; Flinders @ 73/73 HP;