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Yazi, he had an opportunity to speak with us. It could have gone differently but it did not. He is as much to blame as any other. It is the way of life. This pass is now safer for travelers. His kind eat our kind, now he eats no more.
The Phamet, what is that?
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Yazi sighs and lets her shoulder's slump before speaking. "Dwarven advisors and prorectors to the Pharaohs and Rulers to all of northern Garund. They live in and maintain their mountain necropoli, to them the dead are more inportant than the living. They revere sphinxs above all else, seeking to emulate their majesty and inscrutable minds." She pauses momentarily, mulling something over. "When the Gnolls forced my family from Kelmarene it was the Pahmet who took my father and baby me in... They raised me... They were my family, and now... I can truly never go home now."
Bartan wraps Yazi in an embrace. "You are home now... with your friends and companions, here. Everyone makes mistakes, and should be forgiven as deserved. Do not worry. We are here."
Hajar, being the only member of the group to not engage the sphinx in combat, says Mistress Yazi, tomorrow is a new Sunrise. With the dawn may come forgiveness. We should all take this opportunity to learn and grow. The Dawnflower shines on us all as we reflect upon our actions. Hajar ends his words looking at Paige.
Regardless, we should make camp and set watches. The Pale Mountain is not a safe place.
So the party moves from the dead form of the ram-headed sphinx, and up the river to a defensible point. Setting up camp for the night, both men and women see buzzards circling to the south, where the battle had been fought.
The next morning, yet more birds of carrion are seen as the party breaks camp.
A drumbeat is heard coming from Pale Mountain. The rhythm is quick and brief, but is repeated several times over the course of an hour.
You mean I have to crack open the book (well, PDF) after all this time? Argh.
Katapesh Highlands Encounters, p.57
div, pairaka (bleah)
behir
lions
div, doru (yuck)
div, doru (yuck again)
vs. Survival checks to miss
Yazi 14,
Paige 11,
Hajar 8, 8, 20, 6, 20
Khayal 17, 14, 24, 6
We'll say the multiples assist the greatest.
17+14+11+8
14+8
24+20
6+6+the GM doesn't like that creature
20
The next week is a troublesome one. Different members of the party take the lead, first Khayal with Paige and Yazi, then Khayal and Hajar alternatively leading the mules and the wagon. Khayal claimed to smell a wild animal nearby, taking the party deep into a ravine. Hajar swore the next day he heard the roar of a lion, and the party stopped for several hours, their weapons ready. The eleventh day a foul odor coming from a rocky cleft made everyone jumpy and irritable. The twelfth day of their expedition wasn't much better, with clouds overhead concealing the sun.
survival
perception
Bartan is alert, but has no outdoors skills to speak of.
Khayal
Yazi
Paige
Bartan
Hajar (Likes the sunrise)
Khayal = 11, 6
Yazi = 37, 16
Paige = 19, 20
Bartan = 23, 0 Perception nullifies
Hajar = 19, 15 But that is a really high score.
That night...
Barely off of Bartan's night shift and into Hajar's sunrise duty, Hajar hears a noise to the rocky hills in the northwest.
But it misses him, an arrow out of the darkness burying itself into the rocky soil next to his bedroll. Other attempts follow from the moon-filled blackness.
Two arrows manage to clang off of his plated armor. One was uncomfortably close to his chest, the other near a shoulder.
ROUND ONE
Init:
Hajar shouts a warning, hopefully waking up the others. Then he hunkers down.
Can paige see anything with her nighty eyes in nighty owl form? She takes to the skys.
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"... Hurz... Wha fuz... Dammit Sunshine you can't just shove it... Wai-wha?!?!" Groggily coming to from whatever dreamscape she was sequestered in she stands up, her sword arm immediately latching onto her greatswotd without so much as a thought. Through fast fading bleariness she scans the area for anything out of order.
Bartan groggily comes to, having just recently bedded back down after his shift. "I.... oh. Well then." He stands, and readies himself for combat. Unfortunately he has not yet had the chance to prepare his new spells for the day.
Hajar's armor gets another plummeting, but none can penetrate the metal. A couple just entirely miss him, whizzing off into the night.
"Bah! Weakling pups! Get in there before they awake! And remember, female slaves fetch a better price!"
No time for armor, let's go Khayal thinks to himself quickly assessing the situation. He grabs his kukris and stands up.
Hajar continues to hold, but will shout in Gnollish You will find no slaves here. Only servants of the Dawnflower sent to destroy your master, come and face my blade if you dare!
ROUND TWO
Init:
You see six gnolls in the dark descending from the ridge to the west-by-northwest, forty-five to fifty feet out.)
You hear the scuffle of several somethings moving down the rocky ridge to the west of the campsite.
One of the mules nervously, shaking its' head.
"I'm useless without some light, my friends. We must illuminate these creatures as quickly as possible!"
Hajar will use (Round 1) to cast Light on Tempest.
Paige circles the gnolls overhead from a save altitude. She can cast some spells while in wild shape, a skill she has just learned recently...time to try it out!
Substituting for the V components, Paige uses tail feather flicks and mechanical like owl-eyelid blinks, she casts ENTANGLE, CENTERED RIGHT ON EM. Once she sees the spells effects she will high wing it back to the others and report if they are slowed. (DC17)
Paige casts entangle, but the gnolls are descending down a rocky ridge, so the lack of vegetation reduces the effectiveness of the spell. A nearby tree's roots provide most of the material element to the druid's magic.
Yazi charges but due to the large boulder Khayal was sleeping next to the best she can manage is a double-move.
All but one gnoll (#6) is caught by the tree's roots. Snarling and barking ensues as the five attempt to free themselves.
Gnoll #2 and Gnoll #3 make the save, but cannot get out of the 40-ft area before the end of their move Gnoll #1, #4, and #5 are stuck. Gnoll #6 up on an outcropping decides to shoot the human female it thinks is a spellcaster.
Bartan calls for more light.
Hajar moves to assist Yazi.
Paige lands next to the others, transforming to human shape on the way down. Most of them are stuck in druish funk. Gnolls by the look of them. Be careful! A few have have found their way out of the driud thicket I have cast. Paige walks forward with the group, following Hajar.
Khayal double moves, Kukris in hand toward the gnolls. He can not see well in the light so he heads toward the noise.
An ambush, how did we let this happen?
ROUND THREE
Init:
Bartan double-moves up behind Yazi and Hajar, ready to cast and toss a card next round.
With a dip of the wing Paige casts Air Geyser right underneath that guy (map updated). DC17 reflex or take bludgeoning and fly 15 feet up into the air, taking damage from the fall back to Golarion.
As Bartan runs, the gnolls try to get out of the entangled mess again.
Gnoll #2 had to fight his way free, but Gnoll #3 slipped the roots and is thus able to attack. Gnoll #6 was not caught in the entangle, so he is free to move & fire. The other three gnolls are not so fortunate, and struggle to get out of the roots clamping down on their feet.
The two gnolls decide to fire at the male spellcaster who made his sword light up. (Hajar)
All the gnolls drop their bows and prepare to draw their battleaxes.
Gnoll #5 tries to prevent himself from flying due to Paige's spell.
And the furball is jerked upwards like a puppet on a string, only to fall back down again, hitting the roots-infested ground hard. The beastman literally has the wind knocked out of him, and he's not moving except to gulp air back into his lungs.
Hajar charges
Drop your weapons and flee this place! Hajar barks in the gnollish tongue.