This time the blast is too forceful, catching Purpose Creche full in the chest before he can react. He crashes against a wall in a burst of smoking splinters, bounces off, and lands on the floor in a heap.
He slowly retrieves the scavenger's stone and passes it over his body. Pits and cracks in his body gradually fill back in.
Reflex save plus sudden insight:1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 5 + 2 = 16
With time to examine the dais, you think that it is some kind of communication device. Purpose can take 10 on Knowledge (arcana) to attempt to replay the last message.
The crystal pillars flare to life and the arcane sigils on the dais crackle with activity. A moment later, a spectral image of a robed figure in an ornate helmet that obscures its face flickers into view. He speaks in Azlanti. “The time we have been preparing for is now upon us. Our enemies move to bring about our end, but we will not allow them this victory. Hold fast, remain brave, and have faith that the final solution is at hand. Soon we will rid the world of this veiled menace. Glory to Azlant!” The spectral figure raises a clenched fist and then disappears like the blown-out flame of a candle.
Yes, it looks like the same guy you saw in Book 1, on the platform and again in the tower.
Joli's bright, multihued flesh turns to pastels as he hears the words, "Final solution." "I know not why, but no two such dissonant words were ever said. I fear villainy on both sides."
I'm actually going to propose a slightly different course of action! There is stuff at the observatory, but it doesn't really advance the plot right now. I can paraphrase what you find there, but we can move on to Nal-Shakar, the tower in the volcano where the sea hag resides! You can figure out where exactly it is from the stone tablet you took off Skorika, the sahuagin leader.
If everyone is cool with that, then please level up to 6 before heading to the caldera!
Sure thing! Any interesting items or healing for us to knock of charges for the observatory tripe? Also...
After cleaning the cinders off his flesh and that of his companions, Joli finds a little brook and sings gently to his deific namesake. Soft mist enfolds him as he recounts efforts to befriend the Strix and cool the fires of long dead Azlanti.
Iggi the octopus descends from beneath Joli's tricorn and sings along with him, startling the grippli. They soon take up a melody and harmony and wind gathers around them. Iggi begins to crackle. Small gouts of lightning travel around the mist and settle into Joli's finger tips.
I'll be trying out the Wind spirit next, as well as some new spells: dousing rain, burst of radiance, magic circle v. evil. This will mean Joli has fewer healing options but a bit more offensive and defensive flexibility.
Level 6:
+7 HP
+1 druid spell (burst of radiance) [racial favored class option]
+1 Acrobatics
+2 Diplomacy
+1 Knowledge Local
+1 Perception
+1 Sense Motive
+2 third level spells/day
+1 third level spirit spell/day
Leveling up a bit later tonight but I thought reviewing the history and hearing everyone's theories would be nice at this juncture.
That evening, Silt stands in the dark and gazes up at the night sky. He imagines the Azzlan tea farmers of old times, looking up from their fields at an even brighter tapestry of light. Silt's wide, toothy mouth smiles crookedly.
He comes back to the camp and rubs a potato in the dirt, admiring the way its brown wrinkles collect the black earth. A bright red hermit crab skitters across the pale blue pauldron on his shoulder. He squats near the Wyrwood.
Purpose, can you teach Silt? About Azzlan? The fake man who spoke of "end answers" did not seem nice. But we search for their knowledges. Dangerous knowledges.
He looks at his blackened scales. Do you think our invisible worms are hiding under menace's blanket, too? Will the fire that burned us burn again?
Cedar and Hakkuho gain various +1s to things and another 2nd level spell slot. The only exciting ability they get is Maker’s Jump.
Maker’s Jump:
Maker’s Jump (Sp)
At 6th level, whenever the synthesist is fused with his eidolon, the synthesist can cast dimension door as a spell-like ability using his caster level. This ability only affects the fused synthesist and eidolon. The synthesist can use this ability once per day at 6th level, plus one additional time per day for every six levels beyond 6th.
This ability replaces maker’s call and transposition.
As he stirs a pot of steaming stew over the fire, Cedar smiles at Silt’s questions while Mitzi yips and barks and stands on her hind legs, waiting for a bite of something yummy.
”I doubt we’ll see that fire again, and I don’t know if I’d want to.” Cedar licks off the soup spoon and then holds it out for Mitzi to lick, which she does eagerly.
”My worry isn’t so much worms in our blankets, but hags on our island.” He gestures with the spoon as he speaks. ”I’m not sure what to expect if we face down Helkhterie, but I feel we must.” For a moment he gazes beyond the fire, into the darkness, then he licks off the spoon one final time before dropping it back into the pot.
Silt cringes when Cedar licks the spoon a final time. He sucks a chunk of dirt out from between his teeth and lets it dissolve on the front of his tongue before taking another bite of potato.
Freshly washed and prayerful, Joli perches over the camp on a tree limb. He offers, "Do you hear that bird in the distance? The cricket in the bush? How about the drop of dew onto the grass?"
He hops over to another branch."There's no single melody or verse for us to sing in our new home. Helkhterie, Onthooth, who knows what other atonal notes in our tune. Less important than our fight with each one is the chorus we raise to drown them all out."
Off the northern coast, you find a jumble of massive whale bones, stretching up like columns from the rocky shore. Tattered remnants of tarps, tangled nets, and the collapsed domes of underwater structures are all that remains of what may have been a community of seadwelling creatures.
It's called Bonetown. Double entendres abound.
Somebody tries to make you fight each other. Oh no! You're all too mentally fortified for that. He is pretty freaky and has a grasshopper head. He teleports out.
You travel through a marsh that is actually smoking (thanks to the ancient laboratory buried by Earthfall) until you get to an island. A will'o'wisp tries to lure you into an ambush by a shambling mound and a bunch of stirges. You fight them off.
Treasure:
Scattered around the base of the tree, amid heaps of animal bones and numerous humanoid skeletons (primarily gillmen and at least two locathahs) are suits of rotten leather and hide armor and other gear that has decayed to the point of uselessness, as well as two sunrods, an amulet of natural armor +1, a masterwork handaxe, a masterwork light wooden shield, a potion of enlarge person, a wand of chill touch (26 charges remaining), a suit of enchanted eelskin, and assorted coins in moldering pouches totaling 670 gp and 80 sp.
Shortly after, you get ambushed by a belker.
You eventually find a cave decorated with a bunch of bones. Some of the bones are rigged to fall on you! Inside the cave are gillmen cannibals. They attack! You fight them. Further in the cave is a shrine to the demon lord Zura. Oh no! You fight a gillman cannibal cleric (she has art), plus that annoying grasshopper guy, who is a wihsaak sahkil! And some gillmen cannibal minions. The cleric has potion of bear’s endurance, potion of bull’s strength, mithral chainmail, a +1 rapier, a spell component pouch, and a wooden holy symbol of Zura.
Good job, team!
By the way, you think the locathahs might be interested in Bonetown if they want a more permanent spot on the island.
Joli feels really bad about fighting the grasschoppers, pleading their case until the prove to just be pests. He tries not to think very hard about what Purpose does to them.
"You know, maybe we could present Bonetown to our friends with a humble request to forgive the Strix. It’d be great to have them talking again."
Silt nods eagerly at the idea of giving Bonetown to the Locathahs. Dead whale, best. Roomy bones. Maybe they can think nice things about Strixies again.
He gazes fondly off into the distance. One day Silt would like a whale. Llyu-Llyu could play in its shade. A coral brain inside the skull, jellyfish eyes. Long happy eels squirming in the backbone tunnel… strong ribs to break the strong tide. A place inside to float in still water, to be safe in the big ocean. Would you visit Silt for cold kelp tea?
I say go for it if you want the rapier, Joli! I’m assuming Cedar has gotten his +1 agile AoMF by now too.
”Pointing the locathahs to Bonestown sounds like a good idea. That’ll keep our trading buddies close. And more locathah friends means more kelp tea! Maybe we could get some of their urchin ale for our pub? That’s more to my liking,” Cedar says with a grin.
Okoloro urchin ale. It might taste nice. Some urchin eat heavy ooze of dead things, some eat snail, mussel… salty algae. Some Locathah work urchin farms, planting urchin snacks, making new flavors. No urchin ale is like any other.
You guarded sheep at your old home, yes? Sea otter friends guard the urchin too. Locathah ride seahorses. Otters run with them in waves above. With braided kelp they wrangle urchin herds. Green whips looping through the tide, a seahorse rearing below the urchin stampede, the otters barking in the foam… you will see; we will visit one day.
The next morning, the quiet moments before dawn are shattered with the sound of a tree groaning and then splitting, and a crash. Loud footsteps thud into the camp.
A brightly-colored troll wearing coral armor approaches, dragging an entire mullberry tree in his long arms.
The rass berries. Growing taller, growing stronger. The troll snaps a branch and throws it in the fire; sparks dance up into the air and are reflected in his dark eyes. So too does good grow stronger, to fight back.
Past where the forest tapers off into sparse, dead trees, the mountain slope becomes steep and rugged, leading to a circular ridge enclosing the sunken peak of the mountain. Once crested, the high caldera rim gives way to a rugged, rocky slope bristling with scrubby vegetation, leading down into a large, steaming lake. At the center of the crater lake is a small, rocky island upon which an octagonal tower rises one hundred twenty feet, its peak lying just below the caldera wall. The top of the tower consists of a dome of plated copper, long ago turned green with verdigris. The crumbling stone columns of a long-collapsed bridge are all that remains of a land route to the tower.
The caldera lake itself is a mildly sulfuric hot spring with an average temperature of 98 degrees (comfortably warm for most humanoids). The lake exudes a faintly eggy smell but is otherwise safe to bathe in or drink (though it tastes bad). The former land route to the island, an ancient stone bridge, collapsed into the lake during Earthfall, leaving crooked stone columns as markers of where it once stood.
Joli doesn't skip a beat as the troll approaches the cooking fire. "Oh, hi Silt. This is great! The Rillsong loves a nice deep bass." His tongue whips out into the fire and grabs a bit or roasting, reconstituted salt cod.
As the party reaches the caldera, Joli peers into the water, gauging his ability to see an approaching predator. A spark dances between the shiny buttons of his tricorn.
The tower is on a small island just over 400 feet wide in the middle of a caldera lake roughly 1,000 feet across and 120 feet deep at its lowest point.
Silt doesn't see anything unusual, but he cannot see the whole lake.
Male Rougarou Aquakineticist 9 | hp 74/97 (>3 Burn: 83/106 hp) | NL 60 (from burn 54), Burn 6/9, Buffer 0/1 | AC 20, T 14, FF 17 (>3 burn: AC 21, T 15) | | F +14, R +12, W +9 (>3 burn: F +15, R +13) | H2O blast +9/5d6+10 B | Per +6 (low-light), SM +1 | Change shape 1/1 | Speed 30ft (+10 on flat, +20 downhill), Swim 20ft | Elem. Over. +3/+6, cold-resist: | Init +3 (+4)
"Yeah, let's go for a swim!" With that, Toby dives in surfacing quickly and making a face. "Blech, this stuff tastes terrible. Here, you try!" He splashes some water onto Cedar, then swims a little ways away, laughing.
"We can all swim. Less disruptive to we move under our own power than be thrown from a raft in an attack."
Purpose Creche slips quietly into the water, where his form blurs and extends into that of a manta ray. The leftmost portion of its wing incorporates the ioun gauntlet, and is mottled brown and gold. Flakes of illusory ash float on the lake's surface before they're dispersed by Silt's monstrous splash. Casting heightened awareness! +2 to Perception and Knowledge checks.
Cedar recoils from Toby’s splash, not only because of the smell, but the temperature as well.
”How can you swim in that, it’s so hot!” He wipes the smelly water out of his beard.
”Let’s see what Hakkuho thinks about this.” Cedar scoops up some of the steaming water, tosses it into the air, and begins the ritual to call forth Hakkuho!
Soft eddies of hazy water carry Purpose Creche's voice from the slit of his manta ray mouth to Hakkuho's ears. "Let Cedar know there's nothing to worry about. Heated by magma. Only some volcanic action beneath. No threat."
I’m not trying to hold things up. Cedar will go through either door, once there’s a consensus. I can write something that makes sense for him either way. Obviously, going through the cave will be more dramatic for him and someone else will probably have to lead the way.
I’m not trying to hold things up. Cedar will go through either door, once there’s a consensus. I can write something that makes sense for him either way. Obviously, going through the cave will be more dramatic for him and someone else will probably have to lead the way.
I think Purpose's reconnaissance makes good sense and we can decide our next step once it's resolved.
I'd also be totally fine if Cedar did "hold things up" for a while - it sounds like confronting a hag is a Big Deal for him, so to me it makes sense to spend time working through that!
Purpose is just ignoring his "care about other people" training because he's confronted with intriguing historical and religious stuff, so he's selfishly suggesting the front door.
Just making sure errbody knows that Andrew's totally fine with rushing to unchain the cyclops, and I think it's a great character moment. Purpose is just calculating and only intermittently empathic!
Chronicle Sheets for Book 2 are here. We're not totally done wrapping up, but the end of this one basically runs right into the start of the next one, so go ahead and start leveling your characters up to 7!
Male Rougarou Aquakineticist 9 | hp 74/97 (>3 Burn: 83/106 hp) | NL 60 (from burn 54), Burn 6/9, Buffer 0/1 | AC 20, T 14, FF 17 (>3 burn: AC 21, T 15) | | F +14, R +12, W +9 (>3 burn: F +15, R +13) | H2O blast +9/5d6+10 B | Per +6 (low-light), SM +1 | Change shape 1/1 | Speed 30ft (+10 on flat, +20 downhill), Swim 20ft | Elem. Over. +3/+6, cold-resist: | Init +3 (+4)
Toby's all leveled up. not much new at 8th: BAB +1, new skill points, and a new utility wild talent that lets him effectively hold monster on water elementals and such.
I now have iterative attacks, a 14 Wisdom, and put 3 additional skill ranks into Knowledge (dungeoneering)!
I also got the magic circles and outsider contact class features, which I'll probably switch out for story reasons at some point!
Questions about the mind eye scouting! I'll summarize what I understand, then ask specific questions.
GM Kate wrote:
C7: The smell of oil and grease fills this room, where armorplated statue heads, limbs, and torsos as well as gears of all sizes have been placed on stone shelves. A nearly complete body consisting of similar gears and armor plates lies face down on a stone table with a large key embedded in a clockwork mechanism in its back.
C7: The room northwest of us, with a clockwork creature inside.
GM Kate wrote:
C9: Gears, hammers, shears, springs, tongs, and plentiful other tools and components lie scattered on shelves and on the floor of this room. The room’s main features are a large hearth with a darkened metal hood and exhaust duct above it, and an anvil placed in front of it. A single steel gear is lying on the anvil, and right next to the anvil is a stack of metal tablets with cogwheel-shaped indentations of different sizes on them.
C9: A forge/smithy for making clockwork parts.
—Are the metal tablets with cogwheel indentations some kind of jig/pattern, or are they something else?
Possible Knowledge (engineering) to know more:1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 14 + 2 = 18
GM Kate wrote:
C2: Finely crafted but timeworn marble furniture adorns this spacious office.
C2: Just an office!
GM Kate wrote:
C10: The walls of this gear-shaped room have seven alcoves, each five feet deep and fitted with a horizontal metal shaft. Each of the hollow, cylindrical shafts has six notches cut around the outer edge. In three of the alcoves stands a trio of intricately sculpted metal statues, one in each alcove.
C10: A gear-shaped room. Three metal statues, seven alcoves with horizontal shafts.
—The shafts span the sides of the alcove, basically crossing from one wall to another?
—“...six notches cut around the outer edge.” What’s the orientation? I’m picturing six notches on the outward-facing surface of these horizontal shafts such that a gear, oriented perpendicular to the floor, would “slot into” the shafts and maybe turn them.
GM Kate wrote:
C11: Three fifteen-foot-tall cylinders of polished bronze each stand on a dais in this long, curved room. The bronze shells look sturdy and heavy, and sizzling arcs of lightning can be seen and heard dancing along the surfaces of the containers. Silvery lines set into the floor connect these containers, and tiny embedded crystals pulsate with a dim light every few seconds.
C11: Long, curved room. Three 15’ tall bronze cylinders with lightning dancing across their surface. Silver tracery in floor connects the cylinders.
—Is the lightning confined to each cylinder? Or is it jumping between them like a Tesla coil?
—“Tiny embedded crystals pulsate with a dim light every few seconds.” Are these crystals embedded in the silver tracery, the cylinders, or something else?
—Do I know what the crystals are? Possible Knowledge (engineering):1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 14 + 2 = 24
GM Kate wrote:
C12: Two stone cabinets stand against the south wall of this chamber. A few ancient robes lie crumpled in the room amid fine, colored dust and other debris.
C12: Two stone cabinets, some multicolored dust, and crumpled robes.
—Would I know of any significance to the fact that the dust is multicolored?
—Could I tell if someone was disintegrated here?
Possible Knowledge (arcana):1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 16 + 2 = 21 Possible Spellcraft:1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20
GM Kate wrote:
C13: Stone shelves on the walls of this storage room are full of jars and vials of different sizes. A sweet but musty smell hangs heavy in the air.
C13: Stone shelves, lotta jars and vials, sweet and musty smell.
—Could I identify the source of or reason for the scent? Possible Knowledge (nature):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
GM Kate wrote:
C6: Many long bookcases of fine marble stand side by side in this room. Some of the shelves have been smashed to pieces, and countless marble fragments and remains of ancient documents are strewn about the floor. The few surviving books and other documents on the shelves look wrinkled and fragile. The air in this room is stale and reeks of mold.
C6: Lots of marble bookcases, and stale air that reeks of mold. Many bookcases are smashed and many documents destroyed. The few intact books seem fragile.
—Could I identify the source of or reason for the smell? (assuming it's not just damp getting to the paper) Possible Knowledge (nature):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
—Could I identify the subject matter of the books?
—Would the books disintegrate even if we handled them delicately?
GM Kate wrote:
C5: The steep stairs in this wide hallway connect the upper temple to the lower temple 30 feet below. Purpose thinks he sees some creatures lying in wait in the water.
—These are the stairs in the wide hallways just around the corner from us, correct?
—They head downwards and to the east?
—Assuming the above is correct, which hallway are the creatures lurking in: north or south?
GM Kate wrote:
C4: Battered steel chests lie scattered across the floor of this vault, their contents strewn throughout the room. The thick stone walls are reinforced with steel bars and look nearly impenetrable, but the door to the vault has been torn off the hinges.
C4: A vault! The door has been torn off its hinges, steel chests inside.
—Are the steel chests are unopened?
—Does the battering look like the result of someone trying to open them?
Purpose recognizes that the colored dust in the robe room is the decayed remains of multi-colored robes. He surmises that the robes that remain are magical in nature.
