KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

"Maybe not, but the prisms could be useful..." Carina tilts her head at the stash. "...we should take what we can carry and get a move on."

"Sure, if you wanna make rainbows..." Eben picks up one of the prisms and holds it in front of Mr. Shiny to do just that. "Okay, sure, it's probably magic and I'm being sarcastic. Astraden, you want to confirm that this stuff is glowy? We can just stash it all and identify it later. I mean, I could try and make something work too, but if they're like, one use prismatic sprays or something, best not to go waving them around as an experiment."

"...kinda like what you're doing now?" Carina flinches and gets out of the prism's light path.

I actually had already assumed you ran the Astradenometer--they're all magic.

Eben's eyes open wide. "...Oh," he says, simply. He stops making rainbows with the prism in case they come to life and kill the party. Instead he just sticks the prism (alongside its mate) into his belt pouch. "Right, don't want to repeat what happened to Zalamandra in Kuluth-Mar..."

Cuetzpalli chuckles and nods at this sage advice. "Well...On to the next one?"

The strange creature looks at its four brothers, then back to you, cold and alien once more. "The Fountain of Dreams shall know those destined for its gifts in but one way. It will know them by the Trials of Tilagos. Survive these trials, and you may slake your thirst on what you seek. Fail, and Last Resort shall be your grave. I am Tylanthros, and the first trial is the Silence of the Doomshroud’s Mournful Song."

The green-eyed being speaks up next. "I am Beskawahn, and the second trial is the Claiming of Krathanos’s Golden Belt."

The third speaks. "I am Thadimar, and the third trial is the Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare." Its eyes spark with crimson fire.

Finally, the last creature speaks, eyes shining with blue light. "I am Sayren-Lei, and the final trial is the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King."

Tylanthros speaks again. "These trials complete, return here and we shall show you the Fountain of Dreams. Until then, we shall watch. And wait."

So where to next?

Want to go after the Doomshroud next?

It's less about what to tackle next and more like where to go. From the last environmental description KC gave us, the two notable features of the highlands we were in were the Vale of Thorns, and a mountain peak about two days travel away. I suppose we could have Astraden divine us the location of a specific challenge, but right now a hike in the mountains is otherwise the likeliest next stop. Actually, if we want to save time, Eben could shadow walk us up to the mountain.

Sounds like a place where a Roc King would live. That's fine with me, let's go to the mountains. Sure, Eben can shadow walk us if that's fastest.

Sounds like shadow walking up the mountain is the plan. I'll just wait until we hear from Farrukh and Astraden.

Okay, and just so the information is out there IC and people aren't wondering if they're supposed to telepathically interpret the will of their puppetmasters...

Eben looks back over the lip of the cave down at the thorny valley below. "Dunno about you guys, but I have absolutely no desire to head back down and walk to the mountaintop. That's, like days of mountain hiking. Anyone up for another trip through the shadow plane?"

Running the math real quick, if it would be a two-day trek through trackless mountain terrain, that would translate to about 24 miles of walking. Shadow walk covers 50 miles per hour, so it'll be a nice little 30-minute jaunt through shadow.

"A mountain hike's good for the glutes Eben!" Tanith claims proudly.

Sure, let's visit the horrifying shadow realm.

Clunk walks over and plunges his sword into Harrowdroth's neck. He stares hard at Farrukh as he does so. "You seem to only be... improving at chronological distortions," he grumbles.

** spoiler omitted **

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (18) + 17 = 35

Farrukh takes a moment to try and assuage Clunk's concerns.

"I know I may not always act like it, but I do take what I do seriously. I'm not going to be abusing my abilities when there's no purpose. Hells, with any luck, once this Age of Worms things is dealt with I won't ever have to fight or use my abilities again."
------------------------------------------------

Okay, and just so the information is out there IC and people aren't wondering if they're supposed to telepathically interpret the will of their puppetmasters...

Eben looks back over the lip of the cave down at the thorny valley below. "Dunno about you guys, but I have absolutely no desire to head back down and walk to the mountaintop. That's, like days of mountain hiking. Anyone up for another trip through the shadow plane?"

Running the math real quick, if it would be a two-day trek through trackless mountain terrain, that would translate to about 24 miles of walking. Shadow walk covers 50 miles per hour, so it'll be a nice little 30-minute jaunt through shadow.

Farrukh grimaces. "After what nearly happened last time? I want to avoid it if possible. We're badass, but not 'fight a literal army of shadows' badass. Can't we use that super fats flight spell Astraden used once instead?"

"I hope... this unit's prognostications pursue a timeline in which your expectations prove accurate." Clunk nods slightly.

"Oh, pshaw..." Eben says, disdainfully. "That was on a 14-hour march across a shadow version of the Nyr Dyv. This would just be a few minutes walk, the likelihood of meeting up with a shadow army is pretty minimal."

So, shadow walk or no?

I vote yes.

Let's do it.

Aye aye!

Cool, four votes aye. I suppose Krekie and Clunk represent the independent voters that could tip the scale, but the NPC voting rights lobby has been lax. Plus, we know OOC that Astraden hasn't prepared wind walk and would need to cast it twice to get everyone even if she had, so...

"Okay, that's enough of a consensus for me..." Eben says, instructing people to grab hands (or talons) and form a human (or other) chain.Standing in the center of the chain, he looks out through the cave opening towards the distant mountain peak and recites...
"...catching fire, taking hold
all that glisters leaves you cold
no-one is near, no-one will head
your changeling song take shape
in shadowtime"

song lyrics unapologetically stolen from Siouxie & the Banshees.

The cave itself contains two wide crevasses that nearly fill the cavern. Each crevasse constantly vents thick clouds of steam that waft along the ceiling to escape via the cave mouth.

Lootlist:
Strewn about the far end of the cavern is a tangle of corpses. Among these slain adventurers, several magic items can be found, including a brutally sharp scythe with the word Alacrity carved into the haft, a mace constructed of iron set with silver rivets, a pair of circular prisms, a golden crown, and a pair of fine blue shoes.

Astraden does make a scan of the assembled items, confirming they are all magical and making an average-effort attempt to identity them.

Spellcraft (good hope): 10 + 19 + 2 = 31 31 on all the items.

She nods assent to being shunted back into the shadow zone. "Didn't prepare the super fast flight spell today. I asked Olidammara for 'a flight spell' and he gave me this one." She stomps on the air to demonstrate. "I was a little skeptical when I realized which one it was, but I assumed he'd chosen what we needed most. And as it turns out, he was right - Eben had plenty of story magic left in his wiry little body."

1d100 ⇒ 6 Harrumph. Would you believe I'd given it a 5% chance that Something Happened?

Spiny's Six's journey through the Plane of Shadows is quite uneventful this time--perhaps because Tilagos is itself a demiplane and its connection to the Plane of Shadow is less perilous somehow.

The towering mountain is devoid of any vegetation save scraggly shrubs, scatterings of lichen, and a peculiar paintbrush-like flower almost reminiscent of bloody feathers.

As Eben ends his song, however, and returns the party to the solid world at the very precipice of the mountain, they see that the crimson-stained feathers that lie before them are not flowers.

The nest of the Roc King tops the very peak of the mountain, some ten thousand feet towards the ever-gray, ever-drizzling skies. Sprawled within it is the form of a titanic bird, its wingspan nearly two hundred feet across. Dried blood stains the scorched branches and feathers lining the nest.

The Roc King is dead.

"Uh oh. I almost forgot. We are in a race. Should we go back to Tylanthros in case they try to get to the Fountain of Dreams?"

The olman scratches his head. "OR, should we book it to try to find the Golden Belt and Mournful Song? Do we have a way to figure out which they are going for next? If not....I feel like we should go back to Tylanthros and hope they haven't beaten us there. They could just be waiting there with the Roc feather to ambush us after we weaken ourselves, then enter the fountain themselves. Seems like maybe that's what we should do to them instead."

Eben claps his hands over his ears a few times as they emerge from Shadow. "Ow, stupid sudden real world altitude changes, my ears are popping..." His complaints stop as he looks upon the enormous bird carcass. "Damn it." He bites his lip, considering, as Cuetzpalli throws out suggestions. "Astraden could do some divining, but we'd need to rest overnight for that, I think..." he says, then looks over at the dead roc again. "Maybe while we're here we should still search, though. You know the saying, 'the king is dead, long live the king'? Maybe this one had a chick or fledgling, in which case, that's the new Roc King."

Cuetzpalli nods and begins scouting about.

Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (5) + 18 = 23

Cuetzpalli finds no signs of an egg or a hatchling.

A reminder that Sayren-lei's trial made no mention of needing to fight or kill the roc, necessarily--only that you must bring "the living feather of the Roc King".

"this one might be a draw. Didn't we need a 'living feather'? If it's dead, I don't think it counts. Grab one anyway though I guess."

"Well, yes, that's why I was hoping we'd find a Roc King chick around, to yoink a feather off of. What, you didn't think I was planning to kill a baby, did you?" Eben asks, appalled. "I mean, maybe if it was sitting on a huge pile of treasure and it was conditional that we had to...NO I WOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT." He rather dubiously walks over to the carcass and plucks a feather off the bird. "I dunno, I somehow see the druids as being sticklers for their own rules. I mean, first of all, druids, second of all, druids who stuck around after dying to make sure things got done properly. Not seeing a lot of flexibility. Think it'll even count for the Hierophant's gang if they killed the roc before plucking it?"

"Who knows? Only way to find out is to continue this weird treasure hunt they sent us on."

You do not know for a fact that they killed the King before plucking the feather, to be clear.

Tanith looks on disappointed at the slain mythical creature. "Any idea how long ago this happened? Astraden, do you have magic that can fix him?"

Do we have a raise dead or resurrection available?

While Astraden can prepare Raise Dead, I don't believe she has the diamonds at the moment.

Carina examines the dead Roc King's corpse to determine time of death.

Heal?: 1d20 + 28 ⇒ (2) + 28 = 30

Hey, at least it's not a Natural 1!

Tanith looks on disappointed at the slain mythical creature. "Any idea how long ago this happened? Astraden, do you have magic that can fix him?"

Do we have a raise dead or resurrection available?

Astraden looks up from the funny flowers on the ground. "Huh? Oh, not right now. Olidammara charges quite a lot for resurrecting a dead eagle. Famous enemy of the armadillo, y'know."

"Maybe we should bring the guardian guys some of these spiky flowers. Being druids and all I bet they like that kind of s#@~."

Farrukh eyes the flowers suspiciously.

"Any chance these flowers are called 'Roc King's Feathers' or something and the Druids are f%**ing with us?"

1d20 ⇒ 12

"No luck." Krekie bends to examine one of the flowers and sneezes. "Bloodfeather heather. It's very pungent, and so good for hiding poisons in drinks."

"Think there's anything we can do? Farrukh, can you piss off Clunk again by breaking time and making the Roc King recently dead enough for Carina or Astraden to breath of life him back to health?" Yeah, I know it won't work that way, but Eben is Eben and has to ask... "I guess... otherwise you could speak with dead and speak with animals at the same time and at least find out if the bad guys took the feather while he was still alive? That way we still might have a chance to steal it and get the task completed?"

Or, oh! Oh! Oh!
"Or, oh! Oh! Oh! Astraden!" Eben says, practically bouncing up and down on his toes, and yanking on the priestesses' sleeve, "What about that teleport spell that lets you bounce back to the All-Seeing Eye in Magepoint? You could prep it twice, go there, buy whatever you need to, then bounce back here? Yeah, we'll probably have to camp out here a night for you to memorize those, but that could work, right?"

"No luck." Krekie bends to examine one of the flowers and sneezes. "Bloodfeather heather. It's very pungent, and so good for hiding poisons in drinks."

"Ah, too bad. That was a good idea, though, Farrukh."

Astraden picks some of the flowers anyways, sticking them in some of the crevices in Cuetzpalli's armor.

She grabs Eben's sleeve and starts jumping up and down with him. "Yeah! I do actually have it prepared! But I have to really know the place I'm teleporting to, or else you end up spread across fifteen different similar-looking places. Also, it doesn't work between demo planes and the Material Plane! Also also, if we want a living feather, I think it still has to be attached to the bird - so we'd want to bring the whole King back with us to the well." She slowly stops jumping.

She sizes up the champion of the arena with a worried expression. "... Tanith, do you think you can carry a bird that big?"

"...yeah, looks like the Roc King was slain in the last eight hours." Carina nods.

"Any of you reckon this might be some sort of illusion?"

Eben looks morose as Astraden pours the ice water of reality all over his hypothetical plans. "Seems pretty real..." he says, deflated, reaching out with the feather he plucked to tickle Carina's nose.

"Aa-a-ACHOO!" Carina sneezes.

"Eben!"

"Actually, sneezes can be caused by illusion as well. The little gnomes in your nose pull on the sneeze billows whenever they feel threatened, so even a flash of bright light can get a sneeze."

Dungeon Kobold wrote:

"No luck." Krekie bends to examine one of the flowers and sneezes. "Bloodfeather heather. It's very pungent, and so good for hiding poisons in drinks."

"Ah, too bad. That was a good idea, though, Farrukh."

Astraden picks some of the flowers anyways, sticking them in some of the crevices in Cuetzpalli's armor.

She grabs Eben's sleeve and starts jumping up and down with him. "Yeah! I do actually have it prepared! But I have to really know the place I'm teleporting to, or else you end up spread across fifteen different similar-looking places. Also, it doesn't work between demo planes and the Material Plane! Also also, if we want a living feather, I think it still has to be attached to the bird - so we'd want to bring the whole King back with us to the well." She slowly stops jumping.

She sizes up the champion of the arena with a worried expression. "... Tanith, do you think you can carry a bird that big?"

Cuetzpalli smiles and struts about in his new plumage. "Caw, caw!"

"Don't be rude to Krekie..." Eben says in an undertone to Cuetzpalli. Then, at his normal volume, "So, to sum up: doesn't seem to be anything we can do to get a 'living' feather by raising the Roc without traveling all the way back to the mainland, this 'non-living' feather I have probably won't count, and we probably don't have time to detour back to the mainland because we're in a race. So the only option is to ambush the bad guys? Which, since they were probably gonna ambush us at some point, seems like a strategically smart move anyhow?"

Krekie cocks her head curiously at Cuetzpalli, then at Eben.

Cuetzpalli shrugs, continuing to smile. "Yeah, I could do an ambush. How do we find them though?"

"It is possible that this I could help with," Krekie says. "I can call one of my crows and send it to scout the island. They might spot it, but..."

*they might be spotted.