"Maybe each of us must have an amulet?" Quinn looks uncertain of anything, "Where do we go next?"
Apetir continues only the path to the next door, where a carved symbol resembles an inverted half-circle with a horizontal line across the top and several lines exiting the circle. A single extended arrow points downward in the center.
Pems, with Flash's help, again recognizes it, this one as a symbol for twilight, in a style favored by Iobarian witches.
As the ape opens the door, a slight chill wafts through the room, carrying the stale scent of carrion and peat. Beyond, an impossible forest seems to have devoured the entire chamber. The walls are woven from tangled knots of black, leafless trees, and fine flakes of rusted iron cover the floor, softly crumbling to dust. A pale light emanates from a fist-sized orb that rests within a nest of black iron branches in the center of the room, turning all forms into ebon silhouettes.
A narrow passageway lined with jutting, leafless branches hides behind a tangle of dead branches at the rear of the room.
As before, shortly after you enter the room, a raven flies out of the darkness and settles atop the glowing orb, casting a huge, ominous shadow.
A small iron amulet hangs from a leather thong about the bird’s neck.
Eying you suspiciously, he darts his head in short, crisp movements.
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Apetir enters the room and goes to one knee to head bow to the raven.
to aid Diplomacy
Lookee me! I'm a trained monkey! I could join Quinn's clergy.
"Say, Raven, can we get that amulet around your neck? We'll trade you a riddle for it, here it goes, The More You Take, the More You Leave Behind."
Baba Yaga is going to eat Quinn for a breakfast poach, chill Hektir's meat for lunch tar tar, and finish with Mal's gamy bone marrow in supper stew. Everything in threes, of course. Three birds, three amulets, and our three stooges.
Tsin waits for the Raven to present its challenge.
"These halls and chambers are growing stranger and stranger as we press onward. Iobaria, indeed." Malavarius regards the Raven and nods in greeting, leaving the talking to Quinn. "He seems eager enough to speak, wouldn't you say, Zeno?"
"You jabber and jabber, but say nothing. Have you come just for my amulet? You can't have it!" it crows.
"Please, master Pemsworth. The Raven is none too pleased with Quinn's casualness here. Raven, the albino just awarded an amulet to this halfling here for answering its riddle. We're assuming you're here to vet us as a servant of Baba Yaga as well, and present us another obstacle requiring a leap."
"Very well. If you are to find Baba Yaga, first you must persuade me you possess the strength necessary to bear my knowledge. My question is a simple one:
"Born twins, they live not,
"Yet they grow until death.
"Their fates are of ’n tied.
"Ever-crescent, as the moon,
"Symbols of the warrior’s pride.
"The answer to this question lies in the chamber beyond. Bring me the answer, and I shall give you what you seek."
"Right, so we go into the next room and find the think you want. Got it." Pems sighs and moves to the door.
Resolve... Wit... now, Strength. Let's hope this is the last Raven.
Tsin walks to the hidden corridor, and hacks away at the dead branches, making passage easier, hopefully. Once clear, she proceeds down the way, expecting a need for strength, her strength, shortly. She grips at her sword, unsure of its usefulness, should the test of strength require lifting or carrying something heavy.
Zeno abandons his perch as the raven finishes speaking and, alighting beside the larger bird, proceeds to introduce himself and strike up civil discourse in a language only the pair can understand.
Malavarius, shaking his head at Zeno's new penchant for social niceties, strides into the chamber the raven indicated. He remarks to no one in particular and yet everyone at the same time, "I like these birds much better than those bothersome ones in Irrisen at least. Those greedy, unpleasant witchcrows didn't make for good hosts, if you ask me. I wonder what this one's riddle means. Hmmmm."
Apetir knucklewalks on in, trusting his echolocation to find things unseen.
Perception
How do I feel about the ravens? They *are* less annoying than the white wolves, for sure.
The walls of this wide chamber are lined with gray, lifeless trees and thorny tangles of brush. In the center of the room stands a gnarled and leafless tree whose outstretched branches twist like cruel, beastly talons.
As Hektir enters, he spots a massive boar -- easily the largest he's ever seen -- at the far corner. The beast snorts as it spots the gorilla, pawing at the ground and lowering its massive tusked head in challenge.
Hektir:
Malavarius:
Pemsworth:
Quinn:
Tsin:
Antagonist:
Round 1, Init 22
Apetir points to the corner, making the ta-tonka (link) gesture.
He moves to the other (right) side of the tree...about 20' from the tatonka.
Round 1/2, Init 18
AC = 21
HP = 64/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Falchion
Condition(s) = None
Tsin cranes her neck, then steps into the room as Hektir moves across the room. She draws her blade down, hoping to mask its intent, though she equivocates as to whether she wants the boar to charge her or Hektir.
Keeping the gnarled tree between him and the boar, Quinn follows Apetir on the right side while looking for an easy way to climb the tree.
If no easy climb presents itself, Quinn will Bless the party against this foe.
AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 21
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +12 (+2 vs enchantments)
CMD 21
HP 47/51
Resources Remaining
Bolts: 19
Door Sight: 4/6
Touch of Chaos: 6/6
Channel Energy: 6/6
Spells:
4/5 + 1/1 (first)
1/4 + 1/1 (second)
3/3 + 1/1 (third)
1/1 + 1/1 (fourth)
Temporary Effects
none
Constant Effects
Damage Resistance, Cold (2)
Blessing of Fervor
Each round for the duration of this spell, each of your allies can choose one of the following bonuses for that round at the beginning of its turn (their choice).
~ Increase its speed by 30 feet.
~ Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
~ Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus.
~ Gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
~ Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell.
Pemsworth: 12*
Malavarius: 8*
Hektir: 22
Quinn: 19
Tsin: 18
Antagonist: 14
Hektir and Tsin move into the room, followed by Quinn, who tries to scramble up the tree, only to have the handhold break beneath his weight.
Seemingly furious, the boar lumbers forward and gores the massive ape, its tusks coming away stained red with blood.
"Good heavens!" Malavarius staggers to a stop as his eyes fall on the king of boars. "That boar's gigantic!" Fumbling in his sleeve, he produces his trusty wand and looses the last of its magics.
HP: 40/40
AC: 11 (11 T / 10 FF)
Fort: +2 // Ref: +3 // Will: +7 (+1 vs spells, SLAs, & Su abilities of evil arcane spellcasters)
Resist 5: Cold
Energy Absorption: 0/21 absorbed
Pearl of Power I: 1/1 used
Cantrips Prepared (4): detect magic, open/close, prestidigitation, read magic
Level 1 Prepared (4+2+1): endure elements [X], feather fall [ ], hydraulic push [ ], protection from evil* [ ], mage armor [ ], snapdragon fireworks [X] [ ]
Level 2 Prepared (3+2+1): create pit [ ], glitterdust [ ] [ ], resist energy* [ ], scorching ray [ ], spontaneous immolation [ ]
Level 3 Prepared (2+1+1): dispel magic* [ ] [ ], fireball [ ], haste [X]
Level 4 Prepared (1+1+1): stoneskin* [ ] [ ], wall of fire [ ]
Protective Ward used: 0/8
Scorching Ray charges used: 42/42
Ongoing Effects:
mage armor (Hektir): 7 hours
Round 2, Init 22
The boar's curved tusks narrowly miss Apetir, as Mal's armor protect him (it probably bounced off the invisible feather in the cap).
Apetir begins to flails at the dream with amulet enhanced tooth and claw.
to hit (bite);
damage.
to hit (claw);
damage.
to hit (claw);
damage.
ApeTir
AC: 16+4 (mage armor)+3 (barkskin) =23 (1 dex, 4 NA, 1 Deflection)
Str: 23 (19 base + 4) (+6)
Dex: 12
Con: 16
Low Light Vision, Scent
Attack: +5 BAB +6 Str +1 Amulet =+12
Bite: +12, 1d6+7
Claws x2: +12, 1d4+7 + grab
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Speed 30 ft., Climb 30 ft.;
HP 73/73
Endure Elements (24 hours)
Echolocation (70 minutes)
Barkskin (140 minutes)
Round 1, Init 18
AC = 21
HP = 64/64
Weapon Equipped = +1 Falchion
Condition(s) = Blessed
Tsin slips across the room, seeking the boar's flank.
"So... the Ravens vet all newcomers... hand out amulets... then, what, renew the dream, reset the caged objects, and reincarnate the pig?"
Round 2, init 19
After failing to climb the tree, Quinn shifts under it's branches and slaps the boar before it can turn on Tsin. "You bristly brute, give us those tusks, the Raven demands them!"
AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 21
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +12 (+2 vs enchantments)
CMD 21
HP 47/51
Resources Remaining
Bolts: 19
Door Sight: 4/6
Touch of Chaos: 6/6
Channel Energy: 6/6
Spells:
4/5 + 1/1 (first)
1/4 + 1/1 (second)
3/3 + 1/1 (third)
1/1 + 1/1 (fourth)
Temporary Effects
bless
Constant Effects
Damage Resistance, Cold (2)
Blessing of Fervor
Each round for the duration of this spell, each of your allies can choose one of the following bonuses for that round at the beginning of its turn (their choice).
~ Increase its speed by 30 feet.
~ Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
~ Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus.
~ Gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
~ Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell.
Pems stares at the Boar, concentrates and whispers a word of sleep.
Pemsworth: 12*
Malavarius: 8*
Hektir: 22
Quinn: 19
Tsin: 18
Antagonist: 14
Pems' witchery does its job and the beast suddenly falls over.
Tsin sighs as the fight ends before she's had a chance to swing a second time. She wipes her blade and sheathes it, before drawing the adamantine warhammer. She points at the boar, while beckoning Hektir to hold the creature symmetrically on its belly. She moves to the front of the beast, and brings the hammer down squarely on its snout, shattering the underlying bone. She repeats this several times, making sure the base of the horns are easy to separate from the fragmented skull. A little knifework to separate the pulp and nerve endings, and the horns are liberated.
"Quinn, would you like to present them to the Raven?"
Tsin stands over the creature, recognizing that it should probably be dead before they take the tusks. There are nerve endings in the tusks, and we don't need to cause it undue suffering, just for having to answer a Raven's riddle.
Apetir, after Tsin's hammer falls, beats down with his own fists, making sure to finish the job.
While Tsin is butchering, Apetir walks around the room, looking for things of interest.
Perception
Because he can and needs the practice in this body, he climbs the tree in the center of the room. He longs to understand how and why this room exists, a marvel of twisted and thorny nature trapped within a hut.
Tsin's blow kills the beast and is able to harvest the tusks as Hektir explores the room, finding little of interest.
When you return and present the tusks to the raven, he intones:
“This amulet holds only one of the three clues you seek. It reveals the first ingredient for Baba Yaga’s kettle. Look for this key where time catches up to us all.”
Clutching a boar’s tusk in each talon, the crow lifts itself atop the glowing orb in the nest. As it lands, the orb’s light winks out and the raven disappears, but not before it caws one last mysterious phrase: “Look for the Mother when the moon is full!”
The Iobarian rune on the amulet means "dragon"
Pems looks somewhat regretfully at the dead boar, surprised to see such a majestic creature so lifeless and dead. "I hope the raven does bring it back. Poor thing. Seems a shame for it to die without a last battle."
Malavarius watches as the raven vanishes with the tusks, pondering aloud why these birds seem fixated on riddles and tokens. His eyes then widen as he recognizes the rune on the amulet. "Dragon?!" He tugs on his beard and looks at the others, "Do we need to put a dragon in that blasted cauldron? Good heavens, that's preposterous!"
"Maybe it's a small dragon?" Pems says hopefully.
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Apetir huffs and relaxes over the body of the boar, taking a moment in the tree to collect the remnants of his humanity, his masculinity. He focuses inward, inward towards remembering who he is and what he stands for.
Apetir, in short, returns to being Hektir.
He stretches his arms out, checks his junk, and jumps out of the tree. It's clear that he does not relish not being himself, but acknowledges at the same time that some of nature's forms are just better for some tasks. After all, nature finds a way with thousands of different forms and some very specialized abilities.
They were nature's gift to him...one that he appreciated, but did not always enjoy.
* * *
"What do you say now?" Hektir asks to examine the amulet. "We're supposed to fight another dragon?" Hektir hands the amulet back and clenches his fists with anger.
"If the #$%!@! witch wants us to #%!!%$@! find her, why didn't see leave the #%!@!% keys for us to easily %$^@ find? This is why I *hate* @$#%^!@ witches."
Hektir tirades for a few more minutes, getting it all out. His tirade includes more cussing, some beating of his head against a wall, kicking the tree, and air punching.
When that is done, he leaves by the double doors and goes...someplace.
"Maybe it's a dragon Egg?" Quinn beams excitedly at his companions, "What did you do with that egg, Tsin? I hope you took care of it."
"What did you do with that egg, Tsin? I hope you took care of it."
"Afraid not. We could search for eggs on tables of the previous cauldron room, but, we're no longer present in such a room."
"Soooo..."
"'Seek now the sisters three who are one: Mother, Maiden, Crone.'"
"'Look for the Mother when the moon is full!'"
"'You will find the Crone only when the moon wanes.'"
"'The Maiden... may only be caught with the waxing moon.'"
Tsin purses her lips in thought, trying to collect the other snippets from the Ravens.
"'For that which you desire, the changeling holds.'"
"'This amulet holds one of three clues. It reveals the first ingredient for Baba Yaga’s kettle. Look for this key where time catches up to us all.'"
"Frankly, I'm at a loss for this egg hunt. We have amulets, and words, and a cauldron that might help us travel yet again. But the Rider has set us on this course, with the specific cauldron keepsakes. Aren't we just looking for a way out of the Hut now?"
Tsin follows where the others might lead.
"We go left, I think. Ain't no purpose in going right, it just don't feel right," Hektir says with a spit, turning left.
"This way is clearly the better way, obviously."
Hektir begins to walk down the long passage left.
You continue on in the same direction you've been traveling down the hall -- yet all too soon you seem to have returned to what look like the doors you first exited into the hall.
Across the hallway from those doors, all of you but Mal (who's perhaps engrossed in a new dispute with Zeno about his favorite hat or still thinking about the dragon) notice another set of doors that you hadn't seen earlier.
There are no visible handle or hinges, and its facade looks much like the log walls that cover the rest of the passage, but the logs sections are cut in a rectangular shape consistent with that of a door.
The door seems to be held fast.
Staring at the door that just appeared, Pems' professional curosity gets the best of him. He starts unrolling his tools and goes to work on it!
Pems is able to open the lock he finds ... but the door still won't open.
Quinn places his hands against the door and pushes his sight to the other side.
Pems stares at the door. "Maybe the amulets? Maybe they trigger it to open?" He pulls out the amulets he has and starts holding them against the door.
Quinn looks inside, getting a glimpse of the room, as Pems tries the amulets. When he touches the first one you received to the door, it lets out a loud chime, and the passageway swings open, revealing a spacious room that resembles the interior of a wooden cottage. Stairs to the right of the entrance climb to balcony atop which rests a wooden table. A wooden walkway continues around the room to a small landing and another set of stairs to the left of the entrance. A third staircase leads down from the walkway to an alcove opposite the door. Crates, boxes, barrels and other mundane materials crowd the space.
Malavarius strokes his beard as the others dilly dally with a simple, unremarkable section of wall. "Zeno, look at this. They're all enamored with a square of wall now. Bewitched by the powers of the hut, no doubt."
As the door hidden in plain view swings open at the touch of the amulet, Malavarius starts, "Good grief! Now the walls are doors! Blasted hut, we can't trust anything in here. What if the floor is the ceiling? Utter madness, I say. These are dark days we're in, Zeno. Dark days indeed."
Hektir enters the room and pokes around, still holding his club in one hand.
Perception
"What is this place? A storeroom? Why...?" Hektir lets his question trail off as he doesn't expect an answer.
When others are satisfied with the room, Hektir will ascend the stairs and take a looksee at the table and upstairs areas.
"You guys find anything? Is this just a witches closest, is it?"
Tsin moves to the left, taking the stairs there to ascend, and gain vantage on the room along the walkway. Expecting another door, hopefully an exit, she moves across the room.
As you move into the room, you see a bear of a man standing in front of a door in the lower alcove. He stands facing a door leading out, and doesn't seem aware of your presence.
Hektir, there's nothing on the table, though it looks similar to the one you saw in the entrance of the hut back in Whitethrone.
Tsin holds her position at the top of the stairs, newly aware of the large man. She sheathes her falchion, and prepares an arrow, in the event that their spokesmen spook the sentinel.
Seeing a figure standing across the room, Malavarius jovially greets the man, "Hullo there, young man! You wouldn't have happened to see Baba Yaga or perhaps my good hat come by this way, have you?"