Carina looks rather unnerved when the morning(?) comes.
"...Tylanthros' trial, I suppose? It was the first one mentioned."
Cuetzpalli also looks somewhat harrowed upon waking. "We have to start somewhere," he agrees.
"Well... not like they were nice enough to post signs. We've got a spooky forest in one direction, big hills the other way, and a well within spitting distance. Where to? I say, hey, the well's right here."
"Seems as good a place as any. I'm not sure if the challenges are as bad as they appeared in our dreams. For all we know, they may be worse. This place has been pretty good at f*#!ing with our heads, making us feel things that aren't real. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."
Tanith nods in agreement with the others. "The first is as good a place as any to start." The big man hesitates for a moment. "The Brawler came to me in my dreams last night. I think it was a warning. Or maybe encouragement? He mentioned the second trial, Krathanos."
"Do the names in any of these trials mean anything to anyone?"
"Krathanos? That's the golden belt we have to steal, right? I have to say, I kind of approve of a trial that's basically 'make someone's pants fall down.' Me, I had a dream about a creepy singing tree, but it didn't give me a name."
The name is intensely familiar. Forzamele remembers vague legends of an ancient titan named Krathanos, a murderous menace whose reign ended abruptly when he vanished from the world fifteen centuries ago. He was known for his gleeful despoiling of the natural world.
"The well appears empty," Clunk says calmly. "This unit investigated it earlier. I suspect it may be the location of the Fountain, when activated."
Eben stops, his eyes going wide, and seems to be listening to something nobody else can hear for a moment. "Oh. Huh. Well.." He shrugs, then addresses the rest of the group. "OK, the bow has an opinion and is weighing in. Apparently Krathanos is some former big-deal titan boogeyman who disappeared, what was it Forzi? A millennia and a half back. Apparently he loves to trash nature, so I'd guess he's in the hills and not the forest."
"Sounds like someone whose ass we should kick," Cuetzpalli says, frowning at the thought of destroying nature.
"In my dream Kord conquered the giant in battle. Maybe the Brawler wants me to wrestle this titan? Bah! Why are the gods always so vague with their warnings."
"I mean, statistically speaking, yes, it's a fairly safe bet Kord wants you to wrestle this guy. He's not a particularly subtle god, I've noticed."
"Well, if anyone could do it, it'd be Tanith 'Meatslab' Creed."
"Well, if anyone could do it, it'd be Tanith 'Meatslab' Creed."
Tanith instinctively flexes for an unseen audience.
"Well, if anyone could do it, it'd be Tanith 'Meatslab' Creed."Tanith instinctively flexes for an unseen audience.
Carina briefly stares dumbly at Tanith's flexed muscles.
As the party makes their way towards the mountains, they see that the island appears to be heavily populated--but not entirely by animals they recognize. A peacefully-grazing herd of antelope takes little notice of Spiny's Six as they pass by, but scatters when a trio of bizarre creatures come bounding in from the highlands, shooting jets of acid at their prey. Nearby, a pack of velociraptors keep their distance, looking for a chance to cut in and take advantage of the chaos without getting melted.
The highlands are a craggy, treacherous place, as if the land itself grew furious enough to sprout teeth and quills and spines. They are unforgiving to travel over at the best of times.
After about a half-hour's journey, the ground beneath the party's feat suddenly begins to rumble. It is like an earthquake, but strangely localized--and growing more and more violent by the second. As if something beneath the earth is moving towards the party.
"If we had more time this might be a good place to get a workout in", Tanith muses watching the dangerous wildlife and hostile terrain.
"We might get our workout in, yeah. There's something down there about 50 feet deep. Whatever it is, it's bigger than even you can lift, big guy. Probably."
Eben bounces up and down a little, in time to the vibrations. "Okay, entertainment value aside, should I be casting spells right now?"
Cuetzpalli takes that as warning enough and casts mirror image on himself.
Tanith shadowboxes, throwing a few punches at an unseen opponent, and then touches the mark of his patron tattooed across his bulging pectoral. His skin hardens and turns an ashen grey.
Carina starts scrambling for her extracts and mutagen. "Oh boy..."
Eben notices everyone dropping what they're doing to throw a few wards between themselves and whatever's in the ground. "Oh. Guess that's a yes, then..." he says, before he starts waving his rods around like a cheerleader who doesn't quite grasp the concept of pom-pom's.
Farrukh activates the flight enchantment on his shield and takes off a bit.
Clunk turns invisible as Krekie casts false life upon herself.
Krekie
CR 17
Female kenku rogue 6/ranger 1/assassin 10
NE Medium humanoid (kenku)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision, Perception +11
Languages Common, Ignan, Infernal, Kenku
AC 26, touch 16, fl at-footed 21; Dodge, Mobility; improved uncanny dodge
hp 96 (111 with false life) (17 HD)
Fort +11 (+16 vs. poison), Ref +21, Will +8; evasion
Spd 30 ft.
Melee sword of subtlety +18/+13/+8 (+22/+17/+12 sneak attack) (1d6+6/19–20 [1d6+10/19–20 sneak attack])
Ranged +1 repeating light crossbow +18/+13/+8 (1d8+1/19–20 plus poison [DC 18, 1d6 Str/1d6 Str])
Base Atk +12; CMB +12
Atk Options Spring Attack, death attack (DC 25), favored enemy +2 (humanoid [human]), sneak attack +8d6
Combat Gear flask of dragon bile poison (4), Large scorpion venom (10 doses), scroll of hallucinatory terrain, scroll of mirage arcana, scroll of permanent image (2), wand of cure light wounds (47 charges), wand of darkvision (17 charges), wand of mirror image (27 charges)
Assassin Spells Known (CL 10th)
4th (3/day)—dimension door, freedom of movement, glibness, greater invisibility
3rd (4/day)—deeper darkness, false life, magic circle against good, nondetection
2nd (4/day)—fox’s cunning, invisibility, pass without trace, spider climb
1st (4/day)—feather fall, jump, obscuring mist, true strike
Abilities Str 10, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 8
SQ great ally, hide in plain sight, mimicry, poison use, trapfi nding, trap sense +2, wild empathy +0
Feats Ability Focus (death attack), Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Repeating Crossbow), Mobility, Spring Attack, Track, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +15, Bluff +4, Disguise +4 (+6 acting), Escape Artist +18, Stealth +35, Jump +7, Perception +11, Survival +8, Use Magic Device +18
Possessions combat gear, +3 improved silent moves leather armor, +2 mithral buckler, sword of subtlety, +1 repeating light crossbow with 40 bolts, amulet of natural armor +1, ring of protection +1, gloves of Dexterity +2, headband of intellect +2, boots of speed, cloak of resistance +2, ring of chameleon power
Great Ally (Ex) When successfully aided on a skill check or attack roll by an ally, or when aiding another, a kenku applies or gains a +3 bonus on its check or attack roll (instead of the normal +2 bonus). Furthermore, a kenku gains a +4 bonus on attack rolls against an opponent flanked by an ally.
Mimicry (Ex) A kenku can perfectly mimic familiar sounds, voices and accents. This ability does not enable the kenku to speak languages it can’t normally speak. To duplicate a specifi c individual’s voice, a kenku makes a Bluff check; a listener familiar with the voice being imitated must succeed on an opposed Sense Motive check to discern that the voice isn’t genuine.
"Guess I should cast some spells too, then. Olidammara, you can still hear me in this place, right?"
Astraden consults the mask around her neck for a couple seconds, then touches Cuetzpalli's ring finger, making the air around him hum with slightly higher intensity.
"So the titan can dig, huh? That seems like a valuable bit of information Kord could've given us, Tanith. You should let him know next time he dreams at you."
"Thanks, dear." Cuetzpalli smiles.
The party stands at the ready as the rumbling gets louder and more violent, almost sending the less sturdy partymembers off their balance as the tunneling thing burrows towards them. The thing burrows closer, and closer, until it's right beneath the party. It is a great, long rolling pounding beneath their feet, like the passage of some impossibly lengthy vehicle of solid iron.
And it continues on, passing them all by. The shaking slowly subsides as the tunneling being speeds away, departing as quickly as possible from the scene.
Eben stands, bow drawn, teeth clenched as the Doom From Below comes nearer and nearer.... and then passes by like a stiff, subterranean, breeze. He lets out a deep breath. "Woah, that was kinda scary, but I guess we got all worked up over nothing, huh? I mean, how tough could whatever it was have been when it's just running away from something bigger coming in the same direction?" He grins and helpfully points off in the distance where he can feel the 'something bigger' coming from.
"It's probably the bigger thing we should be worried about anyway."
Farrukh frowns.
"I'm not sure it's actually bigger, just...closer. If that huge thing is running from something smaller than it is, that's not a good sign."
As the group turns, they all begin to feel the tremors Eben and Farrukh noticed. The ground ahead shakes, and they see something emerging over the ridge: what looks like a metallic fin taller than Tanith. As if sensing the party, it begins to accelerate, heading for them as straight as a speeding bullet.
"Hey!" says Eben, aggrieved. "That's not fair, tht thing you wanted to eat is going on in that direction. Shoo! Git! It's gotta have way more meat on it than we do!" In spite of his disparaging remarks about the less-than-desirable meatiness of the party, everyone feels strangely buoyed by his words.
"LANDSHARK INCOMING!" Carina calls out before chugging down an extract of shield.
"What? Where?"
Tanith watches for the beast.
Astraden wobbles as the shaking intensifies, wheeling her arms wildly and nearly bashing Carina in the face. She lets out a screech of shock at Tanith's question. "Right ahead of you, you big lug! Get out of the way!"
She lifts up her mask and reminds Olidammara of a prayer she made the day before, letting an instantaneous wave of laughter wash over the party and their foe.
She then skedaddles to the side, trying to drag Cuetzpalli with her.
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Eben looks across the terrain to the giant fin swooping in toward the party, then back at Tanith, then back at the fin. Then back at Tanith. And repeats this action as many times as he can manage for the next six seconds. "...'Where?' REALLY?"
With a shriek like shattering glass, a vast armor-plated creature surges from the rocky earth, its toothy maw gaping wide as a fin-like dorsal plate rises between its shoulders. With its built-up momentum, the creature springs right into the air, like a great whale breaching the surface of the ocean, and falls like a speeding bulette straight towards Tanith--falling claws-first.
The landshark rends brutally at Tanith with all four claws, its momentum giving it extra ferocity, before landing before the party and snarling.
"Daaaaammmmnn....." Cuetzpalli mutters to himself before springing into action.
Cuetzpalli's magical blade rends the landshark's armor blades with a horrible screeching sound like ripping metal. The landshark roars in rage.
Krekie's form ripples into shadows as she races around the landshark to flank. The landshark growls and twists, appearing to sense her movements but not well enough to retaliate.
Clunk tries to arrest the creatures movement, while Farrukh charges in and slams the creature!
Carina squeals and starts throwing bombs!
Her first bomb explodes against the beast's hide!
Eben cheers, his mouth salivating as the smell of barbecued landshark fills the air.
Eben delays until Tanith does his thing.
Eben cheers, then retches a little bit as the smell of pulped raw landshark fills the air.
Eben sighs, looks down at his bow and arrows, then back at the landshark that is somehow still standing, and decides that nothing he can do is going to wrap this up sooner. So instead, he brings his performance to a close with a dramatic flourish and a little pirouette.