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"He's noticed that you have the same cloak as him." Natalia says to Kuukuruu, "Maybe he wants it back."
She then introduces herself to the Gillman, "Hello, my name is Natalia and my friends and I are Pathfinders. What's your name? These caverns are quite interesting, could you tell us anything about them?"
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Grey winces at Natalia's clumsy introduction "I believe the idea is to make friends Natalia, unless I missed something in the briefing? Pretty sure Lucy could do a better job of an introdu..." says Grey sarcastically before be interrupted by head butt to his leg from Lucy.
"What? I was being nice." Grey says with indignation as him and Lucy continue their patrol. "I know, I know everyone loves you...I'm sorry alright."
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Ri closes her eyes and hears a mysterious voice urging her to join the group in the smiling, cheery ganging up on the gillman in an effort to get some information from the man. Do all Pathfinders hear this voice? Is this why that weird beast master has suddenly put on a smile? she asks as she shakes her head and shrugs.
"In for a copper..." she says, going with the Pathfinder flow as she closer to be next to Nerias and extends her hand.
"Greetings, I am the First Rìguāng of the Sunlight Sect in Tian-Xia. Perhaps you are aware of the continent though my sect is not likely known in this part of the world." she says cordially.
"We are here at the behest of the Pathfinder Decimvirate of Absalom. We would like to know more about the gillmen of the area and we are willing to provide compensation if need be." she says with a nod.
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The gillman initially stares suspiciously at Kalak Chei and Natalia, their martial appearances making him cautious. However, as the more of the party approaches non-threateningly, more curious than hostile, and especially when Kuukuruu offers the cloak, he gradually smiles warmly back in return.
He takes the cloak over from Kuukuruu before introducing himself. His voice is stilted, and almost gurgling in nature. In addition, the intonation is unusual, but he is still understandable. He places both hands across his chest, and bows to each of you in turn.
”My name is Uori, here on pilgrimage. Our prophet Gorem discovered this abandoned cave a few generations ago. This spring produces the purest of water and that is rare and sacred to our people. Despite the distance and dangers, we gillmen have been coming here to meditate and listen to the holy waters. We do this during the full moons when its pull brings the waters alive.”
He turns back to address Ri. "No compensation is needed,, my child. We claim no ownership of these caves. I believe these caves were once a sacred site of Aroden, the dead god of humanity. I believe you would have seen the weathered carvings in the previous chamber? The site was likely abandoned though shortly after his disappearance more than a century ago.” He pauses here and looks around the entire cavern slowly. ”However, I sense some remnants of his divinity that remains, especially in this room, although in time even that would fade completely.” He points at the stone column with the city of Absalom carved on top. ”Aroden founded the city of Absalom. He set the Starstone raised from the depths of the Inner Sea on this Isle of Kortos and grew the city around it for its protection. I sense the source of divinity centred on this stone column, and from the items left on it, I believe that it had once been used as an altar for prayers to Aroden. The rituals are likely linked to the carvings in the previous chamber.”
He turns to Kuukuruu. "Thank you for returning this. One of the earlier pilgrims might have lost it. Not all of them returned. May I know where you found it?" He looks anxious to find out what happened to the pilgrims who had come before him and did not return.
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Kalak listens in respectful silence as the gillman explains the significance of this cavern.
Once he is done, she murmurs, "I know next to nothing of the cult to Aroden or your own to pure water, but..." Her words trail off. She takes out a gold coin from her pouch as she steps into the cold water, moving at a steady pace toward the small altar, and she puts the gold coin next to the ancient ones. She stops, bows her head and whispers a very short prayer, asking for guidance toward self perfection.
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Nerias solemnly takes out the parchment on which he had been recording their trip, especially the wall carvings. He steps up to the altar, bows to it, and then turns around to face Uori.
"Allow me to share some of our recorded travels, just as Aroden the Scholar would."
He then proceeds to read a bit from the parchment. After he's finished, he bows again to the altar, and steps back in silent contemplation.
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Seeing the pair of Kalak and Nerias move off without even mentioning where the group found the cloak, Ri feels a bit better about herself. "I'm not nearly as cold as this Pathfinder Society..." she says, not expecting this.
Turning to Uori, Ri bows her head solemnly. "We found the cloak, but no body." she starts. "It was at the bottom of a pit down that tunnel." she says with respect in her voice as she points to the tunnel that they travelled in from.
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While listening to the Uori Grey found himself growing bored, that is until the Gillman mentioned the only interesting thing in the room; the stone carving of Absalom. As interesting as it was Grey was about to leave it all in the hands of the other pathfinders and resume his patrol until Nerias reciting of his notes concerning the wall carving tickled something in the back of his mind.
Remembering the depiction of Farmer Grey decided to approach the city and make four long furrows in the gravel. After a moment of examining his work Grey shrugs his shoulders and continued on his patrol.
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Uori listens (or rather watches the lips) intently to Ri and Kuukuruu, his brows deeply furrowed with worry. "Yes, I came across the hole as well. I was puzzled by it as past pilgrims had never mentioned it. I retreated back out of the cave and found a plank long enough to cross the hole. My eyes are not good, though, and that was likely why I didn't spot the cloak. If the owner had fell into the hole, why was there no body?" Uori stands forlornly, worrying over the fate of his predecessors.
Meanwhile, Kalak and Nerias make their respective offerings to the Absalom-shaped altar, but other than some inner peace from within, nothing much else seems to have happened. But as soon as Grey drew four lines into the wet gravel by the pool, a sudden orange glow burst forth from altar, lighting up the entire cavern and washing through all present. It disappears almost immediately after, and the altar looks as unassuming as before. But you are all left with a faint afterflow, feeling greater fortitude ever so slightly.
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After ensuring that Uori understands about his comrades, Ri turns to the altar, dismissing her flames from around her body, so she doesn't evaporate the pool with her pyrokinesis.
"We also saw the soldier which refers to lighting a lantern. So perhaps lighting up the altar will help..." she says as she conjures a flame to swirl around the highest tower.
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As soon as Ri brings light to the altar, again an orange light burst forth to fill the entire cavern for a brief moment before fading away quickly. In its wake, however, you feel a sense of divine protection laid on you.
By now, Uori has joined you to observe the altar, his concern over the lost gillmen set aside for now. "What an amazing sight. Indeed, it seems that despite Aroden's death, some of his power still lingers here in this holy site of his. If that is the case, is he truly dead?"
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Seeing that his first attempt at the Scholar's ritual was not successful, Nerias makes another attempt. This time, he writes some information about the history of his native Osirion on a new piece of parchment, reads it to the others, and finally places it on the altar.
Then he walks back, curious to see what will happen...
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Both Kalak and Nerias recalls the carving of the scholar and get to work writing some lore on a piece of parchment. Nerias completes first and places it on the altar. Almost immediately, the all familiar orange light burst forth again from the altar. As it fades, you gain a greater clarity of mind to access your memories.
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Looking over her notes and pictures, Ri is certain that the coins on the altar have something to do with the Beggar, but giving a coin did not work as Kalak tried that.
Shrugging, Ri reaches down and takes one of the coins, knowing that beggars receive money. "Maybe we are supposed to be the beggar..." she says as her nose wrinkles in disdain.
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Uori nods at you as you prepare to take your leave. "Thank you. Even though we gillmen have little love for Aroden, experiencing a god's divine power, if it is some remnants of it, is still something to behold." He pauses here, somewhat troubled, before continuing. "If I could ask one more favour. If you are able to uncover the fate of the owner of this cloak, or even those earlier pilgrims who never returned, I would greatly appreciate it." With that, he bows with both palms across his chest as you leave.
From this chamber, two tunnels exit, one to the east and one to the west. Seeing little difference between the two, you head to the eastern one.
The cave’s damp air becomes increasingly stale as the you continue down through this tunnel. Gradually, what you only catch as a whiff gradually grows stronger. The stench of decay grows increasingly unmistakable. After heading south for a distance, the tunnel abruptly turns east and opens into a small cavern littered with bits of broken glass, rotting pieces of paper, and other unusable detritus. At the back of cavern, the body of a medium-sized humanoid lies facedown. Four skeletal figures emerge from the shadows and heads towards you!
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Natalia keeps quiet after her mess up with the gillman, but seems to spring back into life when the undead spring to unlife, "They are skeletons! Bludgeoning weapons work best on them! They are immune to cold!"
With a dagger always in hand, Natalia moves into the room and attempts a sneak attack on the greenish flat-footed skeleton.
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Seeing the narrow hallways, Ri frowns, but decides to chance it as she quickly threads through the party to strike the yellowing skeleton, getting into its face as flames circle her hands.
She channels her energy into her fists as flames rise from the ground of the cave, causing the moisture to evaporate and the dirt and rock to crack. [b]"Burn!"[b] she yells as the fire blasts through the skeleton.
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Kalak nods her assent at the gillman before they head out into further tunnels. At the intersection, while others are trying to decide which way to go, Kalak takes out her parchment to note which way they do go. Once the decision has been made, she quickly stuffs it back in her bag.
Kalak wrinkles her nose as the stench of rot becomes stronger. "I'm really looking forward to tasks that don't involve sewers... or undead," she mutters as they come upon the skeletons. Confident that her companions can deal with these skeletons easily, Kalak makes her way to the last untouched skeleton and punches it without hesitation.
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Before the skeletons have the chance to react, Natalia weaves in between two of the skeletons and slices her dagger across the back of one of them. The strike was a hard one, but is partially deflected its bones. Ri steps in the room, risking a close encounter with one skeleton, and blast the other into pieces with a fiery bolt. Kalak Chei dashes into the room and swings a fist at a skeleton at the back of the room, but slips on the wet floor and her strike misses.
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Nerias moves out of the of the tunnels and fires with amazing accuracy at the already injured skeleton beside Ri. However, despite his precise strike, the bony body of the skeleton deflects his shot.
Kuukuruu similarly moves out and fires at one of the skeletons with his bow, but the skeleton's rusty chain shirt blocks the shot.
The skeleton that Kuukuruu fired at steps forward, ignoring Kalak Chei, and slashes at her with its clawed hands. The nimble grippli ducks under the clumsy strikes, however.
The other skeleton turns its attention to Kalak, similarly lashing out with both claws. This skeleton is similarly inept, and Kalak easily side-steps the attacks.
The one injured skeleton senses Ri as the greater threat after she destroyed one of the undead with just one fire bolt. It ignores Natalia and rakes at Ri with both claws. Ri is similarly dexterous enough to dodge the skeleton.
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Grey moves forward and attacks with his greatsword, but the skeleton nimbly ducks away from his blade. Lucy grunts as she rushes at the skeleton, but again, the dexterous undead jumps aside just in time. Forced into close combat, Ri elects to go into full defensive mode, ducking and weaving from the skeleton's attack.
At the other side of the chamber, Kalak is left alone to deal with two skeletons. She is unperturbed, however. With one fist, she slams into the skeleton on the right, snapping its skull right off as the rest of the bones collapse onto the floor. With her other fist, she smashes into the other skeleton's solar plexus, obliterating it in one blow, sending bones shards flying.
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Natalia hacks at the skeleton, more to distract it then to cause any actual damage. Nerias seizes the opportunity to fire another bolt at the skeleton but the bolt flies harmlessly in between its ribs. Kuukuruu, not finding a clean shot, decides to wait for an opening.
The skeleton finds itself surrounded and it randomly lashes out at Natalia, perhaps annoyed by her distracting dagger. The agile knife master dodges out of the way of its clumsy attacks, however.
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Ri sighs as the skeleton appears to be mindless. "Regardless, the loud man and his swine can handle this." she says as she steps back, considering sending a gout of flame. "I doubt he'd like some fried bacon right now, so perhaps I should hold off..."
Shrugging, she decides to risk it. ""Watch out, swine!" she calls out as the flame shoots over the head of the beast.