Still shrieking madly, the small charau-ka ducks swiftly under Makoa's massive axe and then away from his sharp teeth. Neither of the half-orcs attack manage to cause any damage.
Mahjik moves up closer, causing the darkness to recede ahead of him, but also eventually for the darkness to reappear behind him. However, Raogru is soon brought into the light, as is Douena.
"Ha!" Pezock exclaims as the charau-ka becomes visible. "Now you die!"
Next Up: Untari, Jask (subject to delayed action), Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Raogru, Tar'kanas, Charau-ka #2, Alton, Lorenz (subject to delayed action), Ishirou (subject to delayed action), Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Makoa, Mahjik.
"Ow!" Douena says, blinking her eyes rapidly as the daylight suddenly returns. "Who turned off the dark? Oh! Makoa, hold on!" Seeing the half-orc bruised and battered and blood oozing from tiny toothmarks in his leg, she dashes behind the wall of Mahjik, Urza, and Tar'kanas to maneuver up behind Makoa and deliver a healing touch.
Now able to see more clearly, Untari growls and moves to attack the lone enemy.
As the darkness recedes, Douena hurries over to help Makoa recover from his wounds.
With prey at last in her sight, Untari leaps at the enemy, gore into the shrieking charau-ka and pulling him off his feet.
Next Up: Sasha, Pezock, Raogru, Tar'kanas, Charau-ka #2, Alton, Lorenz (subject to delayed action), Ishirou (subject to delayed action), Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Makoa, Mahjik, Douena, Untari, Jask (subject to delayed action).
Well, in that case, Urza casts Magic Missile before moving to B36
Magic Missile
Urza's magical bolts slam into the prone charau-ka, who continues to shriek in rage.
Sasha hurries round to get an attack in
-- hit
Raogru tries to roll aside, but Sasha has the advantage and neatly stabs him in the arm.
"Now we have you," Pezock says, chuckling and moving around Raogru to flank with Makoa .
-- hit
He swings his blade down right into the back of the rolling charau-ka, leaving a large gash.
From his prone position and still shrieking, Raogru tries to attack Makoa.
-- miss
-- hit
-- hit
-- miss
Despite his unfavourable position, Raogru still manages to get two hits with his mace on Makao.
Next Up: Charau-ka #2, Alton, Lorenz (subject to delayed action), Ishirou (subject to delayed action), Shokambe (subject to delayed action), Makoa, Mahjik, Douena, Untari, Jask (subject to delayed action), Urza, Sasha, Pezock, Raogru.
Tar'kanas drops his bow and pulls out his curved blade as he moves next to the charau-ka before bringing the blade down toward the creature.
Tar'kanas brings his sword down at Raogru. The charau-ka tries to roll aside, but isn't fast enough. Tar'kanas's sword cuts deep, leaving the charau-ka very injured.
#2 continues to do nothing but cower.
Alton flies in and attacks.
-- miss
However, as he swoops down, he gets the angle wrong and bites much too high.
Lorenz moves to try to get an unobstructed shot .
-- hit
He lest loose an arrow which flies straight into the charau-ka's forehead. Raogru's shrieking and rolling about immediately stop.
"Poor little evil monkey-man," Douena says with genuine sadness, looking down at Raogru. She'll stabilize any of the fallen charau-ka who are still alive before approaching the one cowering at Shokambe's feet.
The cowering charau-ka looks up meekly at Douean and nods very slowly. Then he slowly sits up and looks cautiously at the rest of your large group, making certain that no one looks ready to start swinging weapons again. Finally, the charau-ka stands up and runs off into the woods.
"I wonder at the wisdom of letting him go, Douena." Urza remarks before helping to see if any of the deceased charau-ka have anything useful on them.
Tar'kanas sheathes his blade and moves to retrieve his bow. Once regained, "Let us be quick about finding what we can upon these creatures so we can continue on. The longer we remain out here, the more time we give for these creatures to gather their nerve and return with more of their kind. They do not strike me as ones who give up that easily."
"I wonder at the wisdom of letting him go, Douena."
"Killing evil things only fuels the Abyss," Douena remarks unperturbedly as she watches the charau-ka go. "While there's life, there's always a chance for someone to change their ways. Besides, with Raogru dead, there's no one to whip the monkey-people up to risk their lives. They ought to be smart enough to stay away: If we defeated their leader with his spells and snake, they must know there's no one among them who can stop us. Some of them might hope the snake-person-priest in the temple will kill us, but I doubt they'll volunteer to help him. Filgru said they weren't even allowed to go in."
Urza decides not to debate Douena's where there's life, there's hope philosophy. She won't be swayed to part from it, and it is the thing that makes her a great person and great companion. Instead, he focuses on the evil that's in the heart of the charau-ka "He worships demons and tried to kill us. I think he might be willing to lie to us as well."
"He's.. afraid now. Terrified. His demons didn't.. save any of them." Makoa pants, weariness settling in his bones as fast as his blood settles in the ground underneath him.
"But is it really that simple? I mean, suppose you follow Iomedae but you're not a particularly good good-doer; it's very well possible that Pharasma may judge you unworthy of heaven and place you elsewhere instead. Is it possible to worship demons but not be sufficiently evil and you don't go to the Abyss thereafter? Does a typical monkeyman have enough opportunity to be vile and despicable enough to end up down there?"
"Bah! Who cares?" Pezock says. "If they don't attack us, they're smart. If they do, we'll kill them. It's as simple as that. Now, onwards!" He points dramatically with his sword in the direction you were following along the trail.
Urza's search (and anyone else who wants to assist him) of the charau-ka finds little of interest on most of them. All any of them carry is a club. Raogru, however, has additional items. He has a holy symbol of Ydersius and a heavy mace, which detects as magical. His hide armour also detects as magical. Finally, he has a spell component pouch and a vial of liquid that detects as magical.
-- fail
-- +1 hide armour
-- fail
Douena amuses herself by hopping in and out of the crescent of inky blackness at the edge of Mahjik's torchlight.
Tar'kanas looks to the tengu and a slight grin forms. "The tengu is nothing if not blunt. I confess I do appreciate his confidence."
Navior, how potent is the magic on the mace?
It's not too difficult to find something to wrap around the mace to block its darkness effect. Pezock is rather fascinated that such a method works. "It's like anti-light," he mutters. "If I ever go back to my crab, I'll have to get something like this on one of the eyes. That way when I open it, it'll plunge the area into darkness. I'll get a magic light effect on the other eye, so I can light things up at night. And if I open both eyes at the same time, it'll cancel the effects. That way, I can surprise people by closing one eye suddenly and plunging them into darkness." He chuckles to himself as you begin moving on.
You continue following the trail, which soon leads to three conical cylinders connected by low, thick walls of piled stone. Boab trees burst from the crumbling structures, their thick roots and branches devouring large chunks of ancient stonework. The walls surround an overgrown courtyard of topple statues, weathered foundations, and a path of broken cobbles winding around large, watery pools.
The trail continues past the structure, while another trail runs north and south from here, winding through tar pits in both directions. To the north, at the far side of the tar pits, you see a multitiered stone ziggurat, large portions of it covered in mounds of vegetation--presumably your destination.
The journey across the tar pits is relatively easy. At points, the trail is quite narrow, but not so much that it becomes unnavigable. At the front of the ziggurat, a wide flight of stairs leads up to a columned entrance. Rubble litters the steps and vines grow over just about everything. You can only see a portion of the chamber that the steps lead into, but given the rubble, it's clear that portions of the ceiling have collapsed. Plants and more tangled vines grow up through the floor.
In addition to the stairs, you can see two other entrances to the ziggurat. A pair of double doors to the right allow entry to a side section, while to the left, a single door provides entry to another side section.
"Keep an eye out for trouble," Douena tells the others. "I'll see what's behind the doors." She approaches the eastern as quietly as possible, leaving the others to watch the main staircase.
Douena places her hand on the double doors to the right of the stairs and concentrates. Gradually, an image of what lies on the other side becomes apparent to her.
Cracked, faded paintings on the walls of this room depict ancient soldiers fighting snake-headed creatures under bright skies. The stonework beneath the paintings appears damp and is covered with condensation. The ceiling above is decorated with faded solar designs. Light leaks into the room through one spot where the ceiling has partially collapsed.
Mahjik edges forward, trying to spy into the room beyond. Cautiously he peers around the corner from at the top left of the stairs.
Douena removes her hand from the door and trots quietly back to the others. "Jask, is this supposed to be the snake-y temple or the vampire-y temple, I don't remember? There were pictures of people fighting snake-people under the sun, so it shouldn't be the vampire-y temple. Anyway, there's no one in there. Mahjik, where are you going?"
"Let's take a look around anyway. No one in there means no one to try and kill us."
"He's.. afraid now. Terrified. His demons didn't.. save any of them." Makoa pants, weariness settling in his bones as fast as his blood settles in the ground underneath him.
Douena shakes the wand experimentally before putting it away. "You'd think it would get less heavy, the more it gets used up," she remarks.
"In that case wisdom decrees that you will gain weight as you become a more powerful magic user."