"That sounds like a plan. Really the lake is at the center that seems almost designed."
Amalgus drones quickly sweep the cavern you are in. It is, as you suspected, quite large. From your end to the other wall it is about 120'. The cavern is vaguely ellipsoid in shape, with the other diameter being about 90'. At your end, the end with the multiple entrances, the walls are marred with clawmarks and uneven signs of digging. Deeper inside the walls appear less damaged and more naturally formed. A bit of centre, the lake sits with its crystal clear water. It seems as if the creatures you encountered earlier did indeed dig their way down here, into the natural cavern with the water. Like the walls, the floor is mostly rock and dirt. It has a gentle slope, with the lake being the lowest point. If you are too careless or reckless, you might risk slipping on the wet, cool earth and slide all the way into the water! (Leila is contemplating just that - it looks fun! Sadly she is the one holding the lantern ...) The air is moist and damp and the only light that makes it down so far below the earth is the one you brought. Don't loose it!
Alas! It would seem as if Bazzles guess was correct - there was indeed four holes. And you slew two creatures. Another pair seems to be down here with you. The creatures rests on the opposite end of the water hole, eyeing Amalgus drones lazily. One is noticeably larger then the ones you previously encountered. Luckily, the creatures seem to harbour no resentment towards you and are currently content to merely watch and observe these strange visitors. The larger one yawns, revealing an even more fearsome set of teeth then his kin.
"I guess at least they don't seem to be a threat, but we ought to keep a careful watch. I can't imagine we'll find better shelter against the storm than this. Could be they've just fed and we'll be safe for a while. "
Leila peers into the darkness at the shapes. "But I was going to ride the dirt slide into the pool ...!" she pouts momentarily, then laughs quietly. "But I guess I can resist, for the sake of not being eaten ... Say! Speaking of eating - I've got some trail rations in my bag. I would unwrap and prepare the leftover Jacktalope... But that might remind those buggers about food." Softly whistling, the halfling gets to work creating a meagre meal out of their rations.
"Out of the fire and into the frying pan. Lets keep that watch sharp lest we make it to their table. I can make them out fairly well I will keep my eyes peeled."
You quickly settle down in your end of the cavern. Lelia shares her meal of dried Golarian supplies but after the dry jerky and hard bread is consumed, there is precious little to do. The halfling unpacks her flute, but after short contemplation she sighs and puts it away again. Instead she withdraws one of her books and start her attempt to decipher it. Except written joys or the occasional game of cards (if someone brought such a toy along!) there is little to do but wait. After only a few minutes, those sitting down feel the last of the heat being drawn away by the cool, damp earth. Those standing or even restlessly pacing maintains their warmth easier, but even them soon starts to feel chilly. Blankets and winter clothing is soon brought forth - for without the sun to warm them, Akiton is not a warm nor welcoming place.
After what feels like an quiet eternity, you finally hear the faint howling of wind. The storm has arrived! Opposite the lake, one of the beast stirs in response. It slowly brings itself up and walks over towards the lake, but stops several feet short. It does enter the brighter part of the lighting, allowing everyone a good look at it. It yawns and extends its muscular tongue into the water, curling it into a large fleshy straw from which it drinks the clear water. Thus the sound of slurping is added to the howling of wind and suddenly the cavern is no longer oppressive in its quietness. Soon the monster finishes its drink and looks up at the party, studying it with its enormous eyes - probably trying to make sense of the miss-matching lot of weird critters.
"Careful if you head down to the water. Might be some quicksand over there. Looks pretty soft. We ought to assign watches so we can get some rest. Not a heck of a lot to do down here. "
"Eh?" Leila looks up from her book. It seems as if she managed to get trough a whole pair of pages since she started! "Watches might be good. And I wasn' planning on -" She glances towards the water hole, finally noticing that one of the beasts moved up. She is quiet for a few moments as she meets the beasts eyes. "Woah! Yeah - watches will definitely be good to have! I could take first watch - I'm not getting far in this book anyway without my magic... An hour long? You said this storm wouldn't last more then a few - right ?" She turns to Amalgus, but still seems to be keeping watch on the monster from the corner of her eye. "We easily bored Golarians are holding up decently. How are you doing?"
"Yes, the storm should be over in a couple of hours. But it never hurts to get rest while you have downtime. You never know when you will be without it. "
"We will maintain guard. Our energy reserves should be sufficient to last the duration of this atmospheric event."
"Good, good ..." Leila curls into a ball underneath her warm blanket. She throws another look at the closest beast and continues. "You think that one will go away anytime soon ? I mean, it doesn't look like it's going to lunge at us - but still ..."
Responding to Lelia but not taking his eyes off the creatures. "It will ignore us till its hungry . . . or we give it an easy target. Well as far as I know."
"Lets hope so ..." Leila retreats further beneath her blanket.
"If it hasn't moved to attack by now, I would guess it is not hungry. Of course we don't know how fast it gets hungry after a meal. "
After a few tense minutes the beast shrugs and returns to its resting spot across the water hole. The quiet conversation in the camp momentarily increase in volume but soon dies down again. There was surprisingly little of excitement or interest to speak about in the cavern, and no-one felt like sharing personal anecdotes with the threat of the beasts looming over their heads. And lo, soon the only sound to be heard was once more the faint howling of the wind.
Twenty more minutes pass and Amalgus begins to feel his systems hitting power saving mode, cutting down on maintenance and limiting power output. Leilas lantern are starting to burn the last of its oil and the halfling refills it with another bottle from her backpack, still uncharacteristic silent.
Another thirty minutes and so passes, and the most peculiar feeling overcomes the party. Something has changed - something is missing. They look around in the cavern, but nothing appears to have shifted. The beasts are still resting peacefully. The water of the oasis spring is still crystal clear. And the walls still there. Still, the feeling remains. The silence turns oppressive as the party looks around - trying to put their finger on the change ... The silence! The droning of the wind was gone !
Henrick will head cautiously back topside to check out if the storm is completely over.
"Perhaps we should stick close . . . incase our hosts get hungry. We can walk with you and I can keep my eyes on them as we head that way."
Leila nods at Bazzles suggestion, having a distinct desire to not be eaten by some alien. She quickly collects her things and follows the other up towards daylight.
The party starts their ascent towards the surface without a hitch. Bazzle keeps a watchful gaze over the beasts, but they show no signs of following. Soon enough you see the end of the tunnel - and daylight! After spending such a long time in the dim illumination of cantrips and lanterns, the brightness of the sun is almost too much for the eyes. Still, there is no sign of the storm visible from inside the tunnel so the party decides to head outside, into the light. Stepping into the suns rays is a pleasant experience - their comfortable warmth soon banishes the chill of the caverns. But you all know - soon the light will feel harsh again and the cold will be missed - so you savour the sweet moment.
Looking around you, the ground is covered by a thin layer of fine sand - remnants of the storm. The local fauna seems to have weathered the elements just fine - the under-brush appears mostly unharmed and the strange three has only one broken branch. However, now is not the time to botanize. While the sky above you is calm, further in the distance you can see a raging wall of red-brown clouds, reaching all the way from the ground into the heavens above! The wall seems to surround you on all sides, in a circular pattern. Luckily, the tube of still air is quite large and it appears that the wall will not hit you for another minute or two. Of more concern is the thirty foot cloud that just appeared over the wall of the oasis. The hostile mote of sky glares at you with a pair of small, red eyes. Even more bothersome - it swiftly reshapes into a vaguely humanoid shape, with the enormous arms are not looking to hug you! It howls sending the fine layer of sand flying in every direction and charges.
What that other thing attacking you is - is a question for another disciple. But it is clearly not natural!
Air Elementals of this size is swift as the wind and display complete mastery over aerial combat (). They are swift and nimble in combat too, slamming their foes with accurate buffets of air (). In a similar vein, they rely on their dexterity and speed for defence as well ().
Since it is made out of air, it takes significant effort to disrupt its shape ().
Air Elementals are obviously a member of the Elemental order of Outsiders, primeval incantations of the elements themselves ()
They are known to transform into whirlwinds on occasion, carrying away any creature smaller then itself while simultaneously trapping them. ().
While they might appear as little more then enraged animals, they are in fact sentient and can communicate in Auran - the language of the wind. However, they are not known to be talkative.
Magic that targets their reflexes is doomed to fail, and their fortitude is on par thanks to their vast size. Their magical weak spot is spells targeting their minds.
"This doesn't look good, that's a pissed off air elemental. Watch out for the whirlwind. "
"Ummm back underground?" Bazzle looks between allies as he sizes up the creature before him.
Leila follows Bazzles pointed finger, but before she gets a chance to act on his advice the elemental surges forward and descends upon the party like a gale of storm. The dust swirls in its wake and as it approaches, it hisses and curses in its foreign tongue. While few of you understands - all get the message. Its tone bites as harsh as a bitter winter wind and it certainly means to take out its fury on all mortals it comes across!
It reaches the party faster then any mortal creature could and slams out with a fist of solid air, striking Leila. The halfling batters about, the wind tearing in her clothes and her hair - blood spraying from her nose. "Aow!" she cries out. The elemental laughs as the droplets of blood are propelled upwards and around by its own winds.
Bruised, but not beaten, Leila takes a step back and conjures up a spell - empowering her allies with warmth and hope. Everyone can feel power surging in their veins and their spirits soar.
Henrick will start at 1' and take a 5' step back and load it up with arrows:
miss
miss
Seeing her companions arrows veering of course, Leila quickly adds another helpful spell. Glittering runes pull the last of Henricks arrows back on course and it strikes the elemental!
But with clustered shots, the DR only applies once to the two arrows.
A pair of Henricks arrows strikes a glancing blow! Curiously, the arrows seems to slow down to a crawl as they enter the airspace within the elemental proper, but its howling leaves no doubt to whenever it got hurt or not. At last, the projectiles come to an halt, suspended within the elemental some ten feet above ground.
Stunned a moment that no one understood his words. He turns his attention to the monster and screams in a strange language.
He stretches out his hand and tries to blast the creature.
Amalgus too steps back and gestures towards the raging elemental and three canine drones spring forth from eerie blue motes of light. Two appear in front, preventing the elemental to advance further along ground level while the last materializes behind, lunging at the elementals "heels".
One of the drones manages to sink its teeth into the creature, but bites only smoke and air.
The huge elemental looms over the party and surges upward, spinning as it does. The quick, frantic dance lasts a mere second and then its terrible purpose is revealed - the Elemental is gone, and in its place a 60' high whirlwind zips forth! From deep within, you hear a sound that can only be vicious laughter.
It whips up a choking cloud of red dust, an unpleasant reminder of the real storm raging mere minutes away. The Elemental surges forward, seeking to engulf the entire party within its roaring insides. It quickly sweeps over Amalgus drones before heading into the backlines. The poor drones disappears up into the stream of air, as does their master. Leila acquires a series of new bruises and cuts. The wind scatter her the blood from her bleeding nose all over the area and her dress is torn, but she manages to stay on the ground trough a mixture of luck and quickness.
The elemental laughs with glee as you feel yourself being lifted off the ground, into the deadly vortex!
Lacking the means to escape the vortex Amalgus calmly extends his magic outwards to his allies, trusting them to end the elemental quickly and efficiently. The party feels some of the air diverting around them and instead of harming them it aids them and loans them some of its speed. The elemental hisses out in annoyance.
From within, his drones claw and strike at the elemental but fails to stabilize long enough to manage a solid strike.
The halfling quickly wrapped her scarf tightly around her head and made her way out of the cloud, invigorated by Amalgus magic. Her legs quickly carry her to the mouth of the cave before she swirls around, looking up at the whirlstorm that caught her friends. Whoa! That thing is huge! I better do something, quick! Ignoring her aching and sore skin, she reached into her pouch and retrieved some of her magical dust. With a swift incantation she sent it into the air, hoping to atleast distract the creature! Aim high, and Amalgus will be save! she thought to herself as she completed the spell.
The magic took a strong hold over the elemental, and with a silent explosion the entire whirlwind started to glitter and glow. Confused grunting escaped it and the moments became erratic - as if it lost all sense of direction!
been rolling like that all day
Space so that the shape doesnt get disrupted by the avatar portraits!
This is an all post btw :)
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... __________________________
....\......................../
.....\....................../
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.........\............../
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............o\..../o
.........oOO\../OOo
.____oOXO\/OYOo_______________
................|0'
..............|5'
...........|10'
........|15'
The ________________________ is the ground, the triangle is the elemental in its tornado shape. The 0OOOOOOO0 represents the cloud and Y & X are you. (picture isn't really to scale, the tornado should be thinner at the top (60' high, 30' across at the top!)). The "...." is there to provide spacing since the message boards have silly formatting :)
The cloud has a radii of 15' from the bottom of the tornado/air elemental which occupies a single 5' square. You are currently in the square 6-10' away from the base of the elemental. 30' should be plenty if you decide to step away into the 11-15 square which allows you to see out of the cloud. Or you could step towards the elemental, into the 1-5' square and be adjacent. It cannot make AoOs but you will have to deal with concealment (but melee will work!). You could also take a move action to move out of the cloud - since Concentration checks are required when casting within - but you should still be within 30' to shoot an un-obscured part of the elemental : )
@Henrick - You need to make two saves to be carried away, just remember that you can still act : )
Edit: TL:DR yes, 30' is enough to assault the elemental : )
Also, whomever decided that the layout and font of the text should alter substantially between typing and posts ...
Bazzle backs out of the cloud and lets loose a steel scarf.
Bazzle whips a hand out and a ribbon of scarf normally wrapped stylishly on his arm shoots out and hardens to steel as it strikes toward the creature.
Henrick will send a volley of arrows at the whirlwind:
rapid shot, deadly aim, kirin strike
clustered shot so DR only applies once for all the hits.
The elemental cries out in pain and the tornado almost stumbles to the side, but manages to stabilize itself - it looks to be weakening, but not slain yet!
The unstable vortex of wind sways, seemingly uncertain of what to do, where to go. The elemental hadn't been in such a tight spot for a long time. Blinded and battered, but not beaten. With a feral roar, it went for one final gambit. Escape into the one safe place - the one that felt like home - and use it against the puny fleshlings! The whirlstorm intensified and ascended into the sky, carrying Amalgus and his drones with him into the air.
The shattered remains of two of Amalgus drones were expelled and rained down over the area, before the eerie blue light once again arrived and the pieces disappeared.
Leila retrieves her sling and sends a bullet flying straight up towards the elemental, but it doesn't manage to get trough the winds. "Shoot it before it runs away! I'll catch them!" she calls out to her companions.
Another volley of arrows: (assume outside of 30')
With little hope of reaching the creature from the ground Bazzle moves closer to his allies and mutters the words to a spell you assume by his gesticulations and Henrick, Leila and any living Amalgus drones within 30 of Henrick or Leila (assuming they are within 30 feet of each other to begin with) glow with a blue light.
Henricks volley of arrows traces a line of blue light straight into the heart of the vortex. With an audible sigh the wind dissipates and the elemental breaks apart into small clouds of vapour, which soon too fades from sight. For one short, curious moment Amalgus and his drone hangs motionless in the sky. Then gravity reassesses its hold and they start to fall down - luckily Leila stands ready with her Feather Fall spell and they land safely.
Not soon after, the last of the dust settles and the scene turns calm once more. The real storm rages on, but it still a few minutes away. Leila removes the scarf from her face and looks around. "Whew... Talk about hostile weather! Are you guys okay?" She murmurs a quick spell to mend the worst of her wounds. Then she lifts her gloving sling and smiles. "Pretty nifty! Will it last long enough or shall I reignite the lantern?"
"Oh yeah, eye of the storm and all that. Best we get back into cover. The storm will be back up shortly. "
The party makes their way down the caves, a bit battered from the encounter with the elemental. The cool of the cavern once more embraces you and sunlight fades once more as you descends into the bowels of Akiton. Bazzle's spell lights the way for the first few minutes, then the lantern took over. You resume you wait once more, at the same spot as before. The second hour of storm passes easier then the first. It is always easier to wait when you have the end in sight. The beasts are calm and doesn't bother you this time.
Soon you once more emerge onto the surface, the storm having subsided. Looking around you, the storm left surprisingly little damage in its wake. A few of the strange but now familiar thorn-brushes have been broken and cast aside, but most of the hardy undergrowth seemed to have managed just fine. The weird tree at the centre of the oasis seems to have lost a single branch. The pile of refuse and skeletons seems to have suffered the worst damage, with bones scattered over a wide area - quite the macabre scene!