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Joli cries out in keeping with Silt's ruse. "Oh, I won't taste very good mister scrag. Please don't let them eat me."
Answer answer answer come hurry.
Purpose Creche stands ready with senses trained on the door.
See invisibility: Does what it says on the tin!
Defensive shock: First melee attacker to hit me takes 3d6 elec, next hit 1d6, then spell fades.
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You hear a scraping at the door, which opens to reveal two confused-looking scrags.
Silt grunts and points a claw at the top of the tower, then shakes a fist at the cave below. He jumps up in the air, and when he lands with a boom he attempts to knock the nearest scrag prone!
Joli, riding Scrag’chaak’s shoulders, tries to get one over on the scarfs, singing up frost and lashing out with his tongue.
The scrags open the door and the fake scrag gives a mighty stomp, knocking the near one prone. They narrow their eyes. Initiative!
Purpose
Toby
Joli
Cedar
Pink scrag
Blue scrag, prone
Silt
Joli tumbles past his friend the scrag to lash out at the still-standing scrag . "Good day, sir!"
Seeing his friends leap to attack, Toby draws torrents of water from all around, redirecting them into one might blast at the still-standing scrag.
Purpose Creche darts behind Toby and looses an arrow at the standing scrag.
Joli darts in before they can react, attacking the pink one! (She is a ma'am, by the way, but I'm not sure if the characters would be able to tell.)
Toby peeks around the doorway and lets loose a blast of water at the female scrag. Purpose tries to do likewise, but has a harder shot, and misses.
Purpose
Toby
Joli
Cedar
Pink scrag, -39 hp, 10 NL, fatigued
Blue scrag, prone
Silt
Cedar is up!
The last attack hits the blue scrag!
He stands up, provoking from Tuko, and then attacks the leopard!
The pink one tears at Joli, but can't quite catch the slippery grippli!
Purpose
Toby
Joli
Cedar
Pink scrag, -39 hp, 10 NL, fatigued
Blue scrag, prone
Silt
Silt smiles at Tuko's spirit of teamwork!
Joli catches all three of the scrag's attacks on his armor. Sparks flicker along his tongue as it whips out at her.
Toby gathers power to himself and fires again at the pink Scrag .
Purpose Creche fires another missile into the chaotic melee.
Silt's strike as the creature rises and subsequent three hits down the blue scrag. Joli hits with an electrifying attack.
She falls to the ground twitching! Toby easily hits, even against the prone target, taking her down.
Out of combat!
Silt looks around the room, taking 10 on perception for 21. Do the scrags have any treasure/ keys on them?
Tricky as a creeping Karl, are we. So cutting.
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Cedar walks cautiously into the room as well. He scratches the scruff of Tuko’s neck, and the celestial leopard purrs, eyes twinkling.
”Let’s see what else we’ve got in here.” Cedar detects for magic as he looks around. Tuko pads after him, keeping guard.
Joli joins the search, looking for any clues as to what lies ahead.
"Yes good continue." Purpose Creche takes purposeful steps towards the base of the statues. He cranes his head back to examine them, and his speech slows to a normal pace. "Interesting. Implications to their placement. Deific link?"
He then scans the rest of the room before heading towards the western stairs. "Did not see other inhabitants so come search recover antiquities."
Things you all notice:
The foyer has those those two statues, seemingly of Desna and Pharasma, and the altar depicts a kind of hybrid symbol, a spiral with a five-pointed star at its center.
In the ruined kitchen, hanging above one of the tangles of animal carcasses is a pewter cuff bearing the seal of Andoran (worth 20 gold).
In the living quarters, there is a battered and rusted tower shield emblazoned with the spiral-and-star symbol as a kind of “headboard,” behind which has been tucked away a small assortment of gemstones pilfered from remote shipwreck, worth 350 gp in all.
The library is mostly in ruins, but there are a few tantalizing fragments of ancient lore surrounding Nal-Shakar. It would take you about an hour to make sense of what's here.
You poke your heads downstairs, to the now partially caved-in basement. The lower half is flooded by five feet of water. Mold cakes the walls and ceiling in black blotches, rivulets of water leak from cracks in crumbling masonry, and the air is a foul mixture of musty and sulfuric stink. A wide stone staircase connects this lower level to an upper level of the basement. The masonry of the east wall has collapsed.
Once the group reaches the library, Purpose Creche immediately begins sifting through the stacks of moldering text.
"Purpose, we must press on," days the woodsy frog prince.
"They're just moldy books. They aren't gong anywhere."
There was actually some more stuff downstairs in the basement!
The stink of mold and sulfur clings to the air in this damp basement. A single arched doorway leads down into a flooded portion of the basement, adjacent to a tall circular shelf loaded with mushrooms, glass jars of desiccated insects, dried herbs, and other reagents. A small table outfitted with a cauldron and alchemical gear fills a nook by a large, ascending staircase. A small workbench covered with carving tools and whittled bone and bits of jewelry stands to the west, next to a large table laden with scraps of paper and fragments of etched stone tablets.
These papers would also take time to interpret.
, possible height. awareness/see invis.
Virtually all of you notice a brick in the cobbled floor that is a slightly different color than those around it, right next to the circular shelf in the middle.
"I find myself torn between air and water today," Joli says, sparks still dancing around his head. "I imagine there must be some passage to the cave. But if our hag is above, perhaps going there first would keep any waterbound minions from rushing to her aid...? So up first...?"
Purpose Creche emits a harsh buzzing sound as he pulls away from the books, but quickly follows the others out of the library.
In the basement, he responds to Joli. "One moment. Are there minions at all. Please don't touch the brick while I'm focusing. Maybe a trap trigger."
Another cloud of ash puffs from his body before coalescing into a tiny orb that disappears a moment later. He stands stock still as the sensor swoops down the steps.
Purpose examines the brick with his mind's eye, and he suspects that the brick would release a secret compartment.
"Ah." Before extending his senses into the sensor, he presses the brick.
The brick reveals a chamber tucked away inside the bookshelf. The chamber holds a chest containing 17 pp, 457 gp, 3,770 sp, and 11,700 cp. Additionally, there is a +1 chain shirt, a +1 light steel shield engraved with the spiral-and-star symbol of Nal-Shakar, a +1 shortsword, a silver statue of Desna in Pharasma’s embrace worth 600 gp, assorted gemstones worth 550 gp, a scroll of corrosive touch, a scroll of darkness, a scroll of delay poison, a scroll of fox’s cunning, a scroll of mage armor, and a scroll of restoration.
I neglected to mention that the shelves also hold 1250 gp worth of alchemical reagents!
Joli looks with interest at the short sword and restorative scroll. "Even more reason to move quickly and with confidence!" He paces in place, the slurry if water under his feet threatening to send him speeding off.
"Well, quickly at least." This place gives me the willies.
Joli slides across the floor on his glistening stream and begins ascending the stairs. "Upward, don't you think?" He makes his way as quietly as possible.
To be clear, in both this room and the library, you can't just take the papers to read later, since you'd have to sift through all the ruined stuff to find the legible fragments.
You reach the foyer on the second floor. (Map, Slide 3!) Two sprawling bas-reliefs decorate the second-floor landing. The interior wall is engraved with depictions of a robed Azlanti man bearing a sword and an unmarked shield, battling a colossal demonic creature in a hellish landscape. The outer wall is likewise carved with a dramatic bas-relief etched with the finest details, in this case illustrating a turbulent ocean. In the image, shattered pieces of land are spiraling down toward the center of a massive whirlpool, each with fragmentary pieces of crumbling cities atop them. A single shaft of light or energy lances up from the middle of the whirlpool to the top of the relief.
A pair of staircases wrapping along the outer walls ascend and descend the tower, while double doors embellished with images of Desna and Pharasma are located in alcoves at the top of each staircase.
(The shading is slightly off on this map. The staircase to the left is coming up from the first floor, and the staircase to the right is going up to the third floor.)
What is this pretty picture, purpose?
Joli carefully makes his way across to the door on the left, searching for traps as he goes.
”Hmm.” Purpose Creche examines the reliefs and does his best to answer Silt’s question.
Joli does not find any traps.
Purpose, you recognize the image on the inner wall as depicting a figure that is most likely Aroden (though many of the physical details diverge from how he is usually portrayed) battling the demon lord Deskari, an event that took place thousands of years after the destruction of Azlant.
The relief on the outer wall is harder to interpret. It either shows the destruction of Azlant (though by different means), or it depicts an event that has not yet transpired. It is clearly showing the destruction of an island landmass as the ocean floor collapses into an impossibly large vortex.
"Wait, was this place built after...?"
"Or they somehow knew? Were they psychic?" Toby asks, a look of awe on his face.
"I had thought the depictions of the Tender of Dreams and the Gray Lady below were apocryphal. That perhaps these were as well." Purpose Creche stands very close to the glyphs. "But I think not. Aroden struck down Deskari. Maybe before prophecy's unraveling. Before his death. The inhabitants of this tower foresaw these events." He extends a hand, moving it in a spiral pattern to mimic the carved maelstrom. "This. I do not know what this is. It could be the fall of Azlant. But it would not be as it happened. No Earthfall. It could be something yet to come. There is so much to learn in this tower."
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He points at the demon lord. Deskarl must be Karl's old parent. I am glad our friend learned to be nice; this is a good history lesson, Purpose. I will tell new Karl not to be like old Deskarl, or the Azlan tea farmer will strike him down.
"Remember our previous conversation. Azlanti. No tea farms. Similarly it is Deskari. But sometimes education is about broad strokes. I'm glad you're learning." Purpose Creche looks up towards the doors. "I'm learning as well. There is much to consider here. There may be more."
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Joli smiles at the chitter chatter and opens the door on the left.