None of the party's blows manage to strike true and the remaining Aspis agent lashes out with a shortsword he draws, adding injury to insult as he strikes a nasty gash in Smiley's side!
Smiley falls down to the ground, bleeding! The Aspis then takes a 5 foot step back, triggering a retaliatory shot of acid to the face from Markus!
The lone remaining Aspis agent strikes out with his shortsword at Kharg, grimacing as the acid and orc-axe bite into him. He moves back slightly, grimacing as the end is in sight.
The combined assault of the group finally is enough to finish off the final agent! You have a moment of respite as the north east circle begins to crackle with energy!
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As the circle in the northeast suddenly begins to crackle, Nella groans. "No no no, what now!?" Realizing that getting Smiley back on his feet pronto would probably be the best idea, she pats the dwarf down until she finds the potion he'd picked up earlier and tips it down his throat.
"Um...those guys don't happen to have any potions on them do they!?"
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We're not out of the clear yet. And whatever's next is going to be pretty awful without Smiley's help.
Jillia produces a blue potion from her belt that has small bits of coconut floating in it. On the side is a label reading "For Emergency Use."
I'd say 300 feet up and unconscious counts as an emergency.
Shrugging, she offers it to Smiley.
"Hang in there. Hope you like coconut."
Markus determines how to use the Sky Lance!
When a creature casts scorching ray while adjacent to a skylance, the spell’s range increases to long (400 ft. plus 40 ft./level). A creature adjacent to a skylance can also spontaneously convert any spell with the fire descriptor and that is 2nd-level or higher into scorching ray. Finally, once per day a creature can use the skylance to fire a single scorching ray (CL 3rd) without any spellcasting required, though in Subtier 1–2, this ray only deals 2d6 fire damage
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"Here, let's give him this one we found; you two may end up needing yours depending on what comes out of this circle," Nella replies quickly, passing the recovered potion off to Smiley. "Be sure you drink it all, okay?"
Once that's done, she backs towards the wall behind her and pulls out her crossbow.
With an explosive burst, the ward in the north east corner explodes, triggering an even larger explosion of energy from the larger ring. The mist within seems to retract a moment, and two beings of lightning burst forth!
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"Ithink these lenses shoot fire," Markus states after examining them."They work best if you can power them with some sort of fire magic, but they can shoot a beam of fire once everyday without empowering." Any further description is interrupted by the emergence of what seems to be two small lightning storms from the magic circles.
Not now, not again, Markus thinks as he launches a ball of acid at the nearest creature then moves towards the nearest lens, hoping to figure out how to use it.
"Rozpustit!"
The hairs on Kharg's arms stand on end as he brings his axe down heavily through the mass of lightning, which explodes in a small shower of sparks!
Nella barely misses the elemental, which whirls around and races to Kharg with the speed of electricity!
The elemental darts up, and slams into Kharg, his double headed axe causing an arc of electricity to spark up as it completes the circuit!
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With the combined efforts of the group, the final elemental is blasted, bashes, and otherwise obliterated into tiny crackles of lightning that dissipate almost immediately.
The circle on the ground begins to pulse in an amethyst energy, crackling violently, shuddering, and there is a permeable feeling of heaviness... before there is a poping noise and a tiny snake-like creature that floats in the air, regarding the group. "I'm free!" it exclaims in a tiny, excited voice as spins around excitedly, then swims through the air away from the group.
Moments later, the Master of Swords, Marcos Farabellus emerges from the stairwell, his namesake sword covered in a mixture of different colors of blood, his usually jovial face grim. He walks while holding a Wayfinder, noting your presence, then going to the corpse that the... whatever that was... left in a mangled heap in the middle of the circle. Quickly, the Master of Swords riffles through the pack of the dead Aspis Agent, revealing a strange Numerian device that you could recognize as the Sky Key from the descriptions you've heard of it.
He spares a moment to look about the wreckage of the tower before sighing and turning to the group. "Come, let us take this back to where it belongs. You've earned that honor." He turns down the stairs, with the group following in his wake. As you journey back down into Arliss hall, a crowd of onlookers watch on as you accompany Master Farabellus, some whispering, some cheering, others just looking on in shocked silence. He waits for you to leave the Hall, before following out and placing the Sky Key in a warded box, the moves to the ruins of Durvin Gest's statue and addresses the crowd of waiting Pathfinders.
“We were tested today, my friends,” he confidently states as he hefts a sheathed sword in one hand, “But we were not found wanting!” Following a ragged cheer, his expression sobers. “We also lost people today: good agents and one of the great men who taught them—the Master of Spells Aram Zey. But I tell you we saved something far greater. Not some ancient relics from a bygone era! No! We kept our wits! We kept our courage! We kept our faith in one another, and we stood, shoulder-to-shoulder, !”
Another cheer rises up and after it subsides, the Master of Swords quietly observes, “And the damned snakes in the Aspis Consortium still don’t have an answer for that.” He clambers down the fallen stones and waves, “Tend to your wounds. Get yourself a good meal and some rest. We have a lot of work to do this year. Dismissed!” With that, he walks side-by-side with other venture-captains towards Skyreach.
Brob rejoins the group, brimming with stories to tell and eager to hear of your own exploits, to maybe even incorporate them into a new song!
Around you, you can't help but overhear that your involvement certainly didn't go unnoticed. A pair of students that you rescued from the Quadrangle recall how you rescued them from their captor. "I thought we were goners for sure, before a halfing pirouetted right through the bloody window! Then a slight slip of a gorgeous red head dive tackled him!" You also hear how the guards caught a looter running from the Mausoleum, babbling almost incoherently, ". Don't let the halfling get angry at you... How can something so small be so scary? Beware the halfling..." Several Pathfinders approach Kharg on where they can get an axe like his and a couple even refer to him as the "Stone-hewer" after witnessing the spectacle of him decapitating the statue. And last but not least, numerous Pathfinder agents insist that they buy Smiley a drink, exclaiming, "I'll be buggered if you aren't the craziest bastard I've ever seen, but you're damn sure lucky!"
Despite the tragedy, life returns to normal in the Grand Lodge. Unable to achieve more than a handful of minor objectives, the Aspis Consortium and their dupes have turned tail and fled. Renovation of Skyreach’s towers has already begun, and the venture-captains already have sound theories on how to rescue Aram Zey. All signs point to this escapade having completely backfired for the Aspis Consortium thanks to the Pathfinders’
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Although not sure whether or not to feel uneasy about the strange little creature that had declared its freedom and swam away into the sky, Nella had to admit that on the whole things had gone much better for everyone than had been expected - except for Master Zey, of course.
I hope Master Shaine and some of the other senior Pathfinders will be able to figure out a way to save him, she muses amid the celebratory cheers, hugs, tale-swapping, and high fives. And I can't wait to tell Aleris about this, even though she probably won't believe me. Heck, I'm not even sure that I'd believe it if I hadn't been here to see it!
"Yes we did," she smiles as she returns Jillia's high five. "And like Master Farabellus said, we did it because we worked together, all of us, as a team. I'd be honored to work together again with any of you, anytime!"
In fact, she knew she'd be honored to work with any of the Pathfinders going forward, whether the ones celebrating with her now, the ones she had met on her Confirmation, or the ones she had yet to meet.
Like that one I caught staring at me that day back when I was just a trainee. He must be out on a long-distance assignment because I've not seen him since. Ah well, give it enough time and I'm sure we'll cross paths again and then I can give him a hard time about the staring. That'll be fun... she grins.