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For a moment Cedar tries to follow Silt’s logic, and when he can’t he starts to laugh. He claps Silt on the shoulder and gives him the remaining half of the potato. ”I hope I can learn to think like you some day.”
And then he calls out to the others. ”How’s goes it over there?”
"No more monsters, so far!" Toby sniffs around the perimeter, looking for hidden creatures.
On the way back to Talmandor's Bounty, Perrell fusses over the exact translation of the Azlanti figure's words. She rushes back to her cabin the moment that you approach the edge of the settlement.
Carver, on the other hand, hangs back.
"You've all done amazing work here, keeping the colonists safe and exploring the surrounding area. You've found two major Azlanti ruins already! I have to say, we could really use you in the Pathfinder Society. Cedar, I realize that you're loyal to the Bountiful Venture Company, but please give it some thought. I am authorized to perform field commissions."
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Visions of dashing adventures walking down the dusty road that comprised his home town fill Toby's head.
"Me, a Pathfinder? Wow! Um...is there, like, a test or something?"
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"Alas silence from Jalaijatali where treasure's involved. That song's elsewhere, my friend."
Joli takes a moment on the way back to climb up the tallest tree in sight, seeking some overlook on the island. Mayhap I can help map this place.
Eventually he catches up with the group, playfully engaging in a game of leap-grippli with his companions. He hops over Carver's head as the Pathfinder offers membership, counting coup on his head as part of a triple somersault.
"What does a Pathfinder do? Sailors say 'rob graves,' 'topple governments,' 'lead crusades against demons.' I'm here to find a home for my créche, but happy to help as I can!"
"Well, normally you would apply at the Grand Lodge and go through several years of training, but this lets you skip that process. I can already see that together, you have the skills we look for in Pathfinders."
Joli waits for his friends to finish their dialogue with Carver before saying, "Seems that some mysteries remain, as well as much more to secure the island. The well and the chapel may yet need our wards. There’s more to explore. I yet seek a spawning ground for my créche. Silt, where do your people spawn? Rivers? Lakes? Coral reefs?" He knocks his head as if to imagine and hides a shudder.
"And the mysteries of the clockwork servant and the absent colonists. Much to do. But anyhoo, I say we make sure the village’s safe and then go leapabout. The well?”
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To Carver: I do not understand this "Pathfinders." Grand lodge… commissions in fields? Too many things I do not understand.
He blinks at Joli's words. Spawn in coral caves, safe from eel and bobbit worm… and little froggies. He blithely grins, showing needle-like teeth.
He pauses. I meet you at the well. Tomorrow at sunrise. Purpose, Cedar, Toby, you come?
"Mayhap I’ll climb down and see if there’s what to see? Then we’ll rest if here’s aught?”
Joli skipjumps to the well and beckons, smiling as he climbs in.
Joli easily scampers down the cracks and crevices of the well. Less apt climbers could also use the well's rope to descend.
Just above the waterline, a small break in the wall leads north. Joli can fit in easily, but the Medium members of the group would have to squeeze. Assuming Joli moves in to take a look...
Joli takes a while in the well. Eventually he clambers back up with news. "A long tunnel for us to follow on the morrow. It’s long and narrow. Mayhap Purpose and I’d be best to lead when the time’s right."
"Carver, I...I don't know anything about being an adventurer. If I was a Pathfinder, what would that mean?"
-----
"More tunnels, more caves. What a weird place."
Toby, Cedar, and Silt have to squeeze through the opening in the wall of the well, though Joli and Purpose fit without much trouble. The walls of the tunnel and rough and uneven, while stalactites hang from the stone ceiling of this cave. The air is cool in contrast to the warmth of the island's surface. A natural tunnel meanders in a northerly direction.
As you continue up the tunnel away from the well, the sunlight coming in through the crack fades away.
Eventually, the passage splits into two tunnels. The faint dripping of water into small pools echoes softly down the cave tunnels.
The walls show signs of being rich in crystalline rock.
Silt casts Barkskin. He also takes some accursed Goodberries i with the group.
The frog prince takes the left time of the fork, moving quietly.
The cramped tunnels open up into a larger cavern. Its irregular walls open to dark spaces. A suspicious-looking pile of bones sits in the corner of the floor, while the faint scent of blood and viscera has almost--but not quite--faded away.
Joli hears a small thud, as though a rock were thrown at a wall, but can't quite spot the source. However, he seems to have remained quiet enough that nothing comes to attack.
Joli climbs up on the pillar in the middle of the room and quietly climbs around it, searching for the source of the sound.
Assuming he sees nothing, the grippli returns to summon his companions.
Joli strains to perceive what might be in this cave. He barely picks up on some very soft footsteps from creatures smaller than him, but still can't quite spot anything.
Joli continues to strain to see what's moving around, hoping to get the drop before alerting his friends.
Joli sits still on the pillar, focusing all of his senses. Finally, he notices two very small (size Tiny) creatures scampering around the cave. These bizarre long-limbed aberrations have fingers like tentacles, just as your friends described, but they seem much smaller than what the party described fighting.
Seeing his chance’ Joli hops down and lashes the nearest creature with his long tongue.
He gives a shout. "Two of them. Are they all so wee?"
After several hours, the wyrwood steps back and arranges a new series of shadow stencils in front of a single candle. He borrows from another taper, and when this new flame flickers to life, its glowing birth reveals abstract shapes rendered in dull orange on the opposite wall.
A broad expanse of sinuous lines fills the middle. On the right, slivers and barbs point directly towards the twisting shapes. On the left, an oblong outline houses squat rectangular forms within. Beneath it all, five vaguely humanoid shapes stand side by side, two small and three large. Flanking them are three much smaller, shorter, and wider figures, one of which is topped by a v and stands atop a cluster of tiny dots.
A family portrait, of sorts, wrought in light and shadow by inexpert hands.
Four apricot-sized silver orbs spring into existence, two above each of his shoulders, and cast the scene in austere light. One hand holds the splinter, and the other rests on the pommel of his sword.
"The inexhaustible torch is in my pack. Should others need it."
Joli darts down from his perch, striking out at one of the creatures with his tongue. Unfortunately, the creature is so small that Joli can't quite seem to connect, attacking directly over her head.
Initiative!
Yellow baby choker
Blue baby choker
Joli
Green baby choker
Red baby choker
Purpose
Cedar
Toby
Silt
The small creature steps up to Joli and he sees long arms with spiny claws come straight toward him! Luckily, she misses in her surprise at the leaping grippli.
Another that Joli didn't even notice before comes running in from the opposite side of the cavern, but seems winded by the effort and does not attack.
Round One
"Croak! Four. I meant four."
Joli attempts to leap out of reach of the chokers and land on the wall near their fellow. His tongue flicks out with a wave of sea brine.
****************
Purpose Creche points out the crystal seems while the group moves through the tunnel. "Not valuable themselves. But proof of more precious stones in the area. Very interesting. Many scholars theorize that the Azlanti highlands were rich in such things. Rare minerals and gems were integral to their unique magic. Ioun stones, others. I wonder, still—what is the Ioun Imperative?" He gestures again at the walls. "But the earth's bounty, now. A resource for the present. For Talmandor's Bounty."
****************
Joli leaps out of the way of the grasping hands of the tiny chokers, and strikes out at another one, connecting this time .
The green one, pushed back by the force of Joli's attack rushes back in.
The red one runs up, but his small legs don't propel him quickly.
Yellow baby choker
Blue baby choker
Joli
Green baby choker
Red baby choker
Purpose
Cedar
Toby
Silt
"Listen.
Purpose Creche's head snaps to the sound of combat. Wood taps stone as he runs down the hallway. The four lights trail behind him, and when they illuminate the grey-skinned creatures, midnight visions and emberscent fill his head.
Toby rushes forward, until he can see what all the noise is about.
"Ah! More? Are these little ones drunk, too?"
The yellow choker moves in to attack Toby, wrapping him up in a strange limb.
Blue moves in, emboldened by her sister's success, and lashes out at Purpose. While she solidly hits, she can't quite grab on to the slippery wyrwood.
Yellow baby choker
Blue baby choker
Joli
Green baby choker
Red baby choker
Purpose
Cedar
Toby
Silt
Round 2
Reaching a hand up, Joli kicks off with his powerful legs and tumbles out of reach of the choker . He puffs up and sings a prayer, calling on winter storms to cool his foes. At that, his long tongue flicks out covered in hoarfrost at the choker assaulting Purpose.
Thanks for the double move. Silt will delay, as he can’t get in to attack anything with a melee weapon right now.
Joli easily darts out of the way of the tiny choker, and strikes the blue one with a tongue attack.
The red one is unable to reach a target, but he stands poised and ready to pounce.
Yellow baby choker
Blue baby choker
Joli
Green baby choker
Red baby choker
Purpose
Cedar
Toby
Silt
The crack of splitting wood echoes through the chamber as Purpose Creche retreats from the choker's blow. His attention turns to Toby, struggling in another choker's grip.
You were never one to check your fury, progenitor. "No means of mitigation. I'm sorry, Joli."
He raises the splinter. Ice gathers on his fingers, and a glittering ray of frost lances between the cavern walls and the young rougarou's body to strike the choker.
That just confirms with cover, taking the yellow choker down!
Toby, gasping and free of the dispatched foe, moves around behind Joli's opponents and fires.
*cough* "Thanks, Purpose!"
Toby, thrown off by the attempted strangulation, aims wide with his blast. Silt and Cedar are up.
With Longstrider up, Silt is able to move a bit quicker than normal. Drawing his spear as he moves, he smites the blue baby choker.