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Round 2 ini 30
Syndra again stands solid and points to the red skeleton "Ma nimetan edasi pall happe leida see blend alum" she says again while cupping her free hand. She finishes speaking and holds a glowing green and yellow ball in her hand. She reaches out in the direction of the skeleton, and the ball shoots from her hand hurtling towards the creature.
Jimmy kills the black skeleton and the snake shoots forward. It tries to bite and grab hold of Doran. The creature misses as Doran ducks aside from the acid blob flying past him. Syndra takes out the red skeleton and the other two run forward. The yellow skeleton takes a swing at Doran but it also misses.
Combat Round 2:
- Syndra
- Skeletons
- Verhaal
- Jimmy
- Doran
- Falshin
- Roscoe
- Snake
In bold may act!
Doran drops the skeleton and makes space for the others to move forward.
Combat Round 2:
- Syndra
- Skeletons
- Verhaal
- Jimmy
- Doran
- Falshin
- Roscoe
- Snake
In bold may act!
Jimmy moves in and swings at the snake, nearly killing it in a single stroke. Roscoe moves past Jimmy and smashes his sword into the snake's skull, with a few shudders the creature dies. Verhaal continues her powerful song whilst Falshin bolt for the open space.
Combat Round 3:
- Syndra
- Skeletons
- Verhaal
- Jimmy
- Doran
- Falshin
- Roscoe
In bold may act!
Syndra can't see the dead snake or the skeleton. The skeleton attack Doran, missing all its attacks again.
Combat Round 3:
- Skeletons
- Verhaal
- Jimmy
- Doran
- Falshin
- Roscoe
- Syndra
In bold may act!
Doran finishes off the last skeleton and you inspect these odd servants.
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Syndra takes a look around making notes as needed. She allows aid from her friends, but suspects that the Pathfinders will want to add her information to the archives. "My how interesting, can anyone believe all of the information that we've gained. I can only imagine how this will enhance our knowledge of this time!" she exclaims.
You have defeated Xassvissec and her minions, you now have the unique opportunity to interview the Azlanti hero Krahnaliara Lac Suhn—a figure whose name still appears on several ancient monuments left by the dead civilization, even if his specific deeds are largely forgotten. You can use social interactions skills to coax information from him about Azlanti history, religion, and life, and even learn the location of now-forgotten Azlanti outposts that the Pathfinder Society might one day uncover. The general is polite, and his years of military service that required honoring temporary alliances with non- Azlanti have softened the arrogance common in his homeland.
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Falshin asks the general how he bakes his bread and the man looks utterly confused at him. Roscoe comes to the rescue and stands in front of Falshin, pushing him aside. He introduces the party and the general looks interested. Aided by Verhaal he starts telling about himself, in exchange for information about the group.
"I have always loved my grandmother’s ittho bread. Only used the honey from her own bees, and only fed them blossoms her grandmother brought back from the Western Colonies. Nothing ever tastes the same now."
He trails off, not completely sure why he responded to Falshin
"Sorry. I start to get nostalgic around Peacock’s Dusk. These damn family holidays. They always remind me I still haven’t taken my boys to the Western Colonies. They love their little-folk nanny, and I thought they’d like to see one of the cities her people built."
He says with a fond smile.
"Do you have family you want to celebrate with? Or are you going to celebrate it with your friends?"
After getting a satisfying answer he continues his story.
"...It has also been many years since we heard from my great-grandmother’s descendants, but I sometimes imagine that when I gaze into the sky and see the red planet, they can hear my prayers for the health of them and our empire’s colony..."
He trails off again until Verhaal interrupts his thoughts. She tells him about secrets of modern day society, trying to lure him into telling more about the Azlanti secrets. She pries him some more about his relationship and children and he sighs.
"I never do get to see the wife and kids anymore. Marrying into a colonial family may have helped avert a war, but these years of separation are a heavy burden on anyone’s shoulders. But enough about my family, it saddens me to think about them."
He suddenly jumps topic, going on about political issues.
"...Imperator Emalliandra was right about the political dissent rising in the colonies. Drunkard or not, she’s got twice the political insight her father ever did..."
He thinks for a short time and continues his story.
"...I don’t care if his great-great-greatwhatever grandfather gave us ioun stones or water itself ! Imperator Illsmus is a headstrong fool, and his notions about raising mankind to godhood will end in embarrassment at best..."
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"Jimmy thinks man will tell military secrets if Jimmy impresses him!" Jimmy announces, and smashes the nearest wall with his heavy flail. The impact creates a small crater with cracks going outward. Jimmy suddenly looks a bit concerned when one of the cracks reaches the ceiling.
Jimmy wonders if that was a good idea...
Jimmy smashes a wall and part of the ceiling collapses sending dust and rocks across the floor of the cavern. The general however looks impressed, he is just reminded of something and grows slightly angry.
"My warriors are no cowards! They didn’t surrender in the field, and if these snakes hadn’t taken their sikkar—their coiled knives—they never would’ve been taken alive."
He half growls. He looks a bit taken aback a moment later.
"Sorry, that was inappropriate. We had separated into two regiments, with shield walls, and I sent the left flank wide to take the serpentfolk from behind. We’d been clashing near the mouth of the Ilssele for years, trying to push the colonies’ eastern borders. They caught us by surprise with their odd weapons."
He continues.
"The key to battling serpent-men is the night battle, or making your main thrust at dusk. Then the fatigue of battle hits the same time as the cold reaches their hearts. Slows them down. That was General Akorian’s secret to victory at Esrogas, when they tried to land on the homeland itself, and it still works all these years later."
He eventually trails off, coming back to his family. He starts to talk nostalgically about them.
"We had a beautiful private island villa in the colonies. My whole family would come there on this holiday. South from the Mierani forests, hugging the coast east for about four days and then a shot southeast from the southern cape. A most beautiful place it was."
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Syndra thinks back to her history lessons and the books that she has read on the subject, but does not seem to be able to recall the details of the specifics that would lead her to the discovery of the site.
"I am sorry my friends, I don't know where this could be. I have failed you, and the society." She says.
Verhaal thinks back to the history books she's read and thinks that Lac Suhn's villa was located somewhere off the coast of Nidal. The society should have a rough location on where to find one of the ancient Azlanti sites.
The rebels thanks you and the general meets up with them. The general signals for everyone to leave...
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A crack of thunder and the tang of ozone cut through the complex. The figures before you, and indeed the walls, the floor, even the air itself seem to crumble and fall away like glittering sands through an hourglass. Unfamiliar figures—their heavy, hooded robes embroidered with the symbol of a winged eye—stand about the field, their hands crackling with lightning. Dozens of Pathfinder spellcasters lie dead at their feet. A gargantuan image of a woman appears and shimmers like a desert mirage. She has a regal bearing, but her features are lined as if by years of endless duty.
”Arrogant Pathfinders! Your ridiculous Society spends fortunes and lives to reassemble a treasure that turns time itself like the pages of a book—a key that could undo all the misery and suffering our world now knows—and you use it for this? Poking at snakes and playing at heroism? Golarion knew a true hero once! Our Lord Aroden—who raised the Starstone from the sea and imprisoned the undead tyrant Tar-Baphon—could already walk the world again were it not for your petty games and delays. Every death in your hours of playtime now hangs as a weight around your collective necks, you spoiled children.
“I am Lady Arodeth, and on behalf of the Harbingers of Fate and the God of Mankind himself, I have seized your Sky Key. Its defenders threw their lives away trying to stop compassion and destiny from returning to this world. I advise you not to throw your own lives away attempting to do the same.
“Behold the return of the Last Azlanti! Behold Aroden!”
The robed Heralds begin casting, and arcs of lightning leap to the rods made of skymetal. A deep thrum from somewhere below reverberates with chest-tightening force, then the earth begins to heave and quake. Emerald green miasma lashes out, snaking back along the arcs of arcane lightning and infecting hooded casters throughout the crowd. Your body—or perhaps the whole world—crumbles to dust and you hear a distant scream of
"She’s overloaded it!"
And just as swiftly, the world is whole again, but in place of a flower-speckled field stands the sprawling marketplace of a small city. Ivory-white buildings and columns feature reliefs and endless statuary all depicting physically perfect human specimens in poses of glory over serpentfolk. A chiton-clad crowd of gawkers stares, both at you and at the roiling dome of green light that encompasses nearly a square mile of territory, beyond which this strange city stretches on.
Robed Heralds panic as they sprint beyond the edges of the glistening dome, only to collapse just beyond its border. There they scream and writhe, their bones cracking as flesh and sinew age to dust in mere moments. Meanwhile, those unfortunates consumed by the green miasma scream and stagger, their features warping and bloating as if the power seeking refuge within them were too big for mere flesh to contain.
And high overhead, a looming stone glows with a light visible even in the growing light of dawn.
Looking around you and up into the sky realization dawns on you... You have been thrown back just before Earthfall...
Looking around you and up into the sky realization dawns on you... You have been thrown back just before Earthfall... Judging by the size of the rock you have about two hours left before the meteor crashes into the earth, killing everyone.
Though the citizens of Azlant are more accustomed to everyday magic than even the cosmopolitan residents of Absalom, these humans of the past have never laid eyes upon dwarves, gnomes, or half-orcs. The sudden appearance of a massive crowd in their midst, combined with the long-standing war and chaos in the sky, proves too much. The crowd of onlookers grows angry, then defensive, yelling threats in Azlanti to order these strangers out of their city and summon the guards.
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Falshin looks around at the scene unfolding before him, not quite understanding where in time they were; however, one thing he did understand was the raising panic around him. "All of you, calm yourselves! You must not let panic override your senses. We are not here to harm, but rather to help you. We have been sent to this place by a foul woman seeking to harm us. Please, we need your help."
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Syndra stands besides Falshin watching the events unfold. She takes a look at her surroundings and the sky, and consults her knowledge of history, taking time to recall as much as she can while Falshin clams the crowd realization dawns on her, and she notifies her friends.
"My friends, we have been thrown back just before Earthfall... Judging by the size of the rock we have about two hours left before the meteor crashes into the earth, killing everyone. We must act quickly!"
Falshin quickly manages to subdue the crowd with his calming words. They seem to go on about their 'normal' lives, choosing to ignore the new group of pathfinders.
A familiar figure limps out from between two buildings. The weight of years seems to hang over Kreighton Shaine, the Pathfinder Society’s illustrious Master of Scrolls, his face more deeply lined than it was this morning.
"My apologies for not reaching you more quickly, but I have been quite distracted,"
He pants. To the left and right across the ancient marketplace, other versions of Kreighton Shaine are speaking to other, equally bewildered Pathfinders.
"It seems redundant to say so at this point, but the Harbingers of Fate have seized control of the Sky Key, and we all appear to be trapped in what the Isle of Kortos used to be eons ago. The same sort of temporal bubble that brought the serpentfolk city of Sessegishoss to us now keeps our forces pinned down here.
"We are attempting to uncover the Sky Key Vault now. While the vault itself seems to be here in this time period, our entrance to it wasn’t projected back, and we’ve lost our bearings relative to its location in this new landscape. What’s more, I worry simply reclaiming the Sky Key will not be enough to allow our escape— that green surge we all witnessed seems to have invested many of the Harbingers with enough of the Sky Key’s energy to maintain our chronological exile."
Shaine looks worriedly up at the sky.
"We will need to work together to uncover the vault and cut the tethers that anchor this time period to the Harbingers’ spellcasters. We must do both so we can use the Sky Key to escape."
A crack of thunder sounds overhead as the dome of green light twists and arcs down to the surface with a thunderous crash, and strange, hairy beasts stride where it struck.
"And we would be wise to move quickly."
This version of Kreighton joins the group to offer some basic support. Kreighton is not a formidable combatant by any measure, but he can cast spells on the group’s behalf to help supplement your depleted spells remaining. This instance of Kreighton Shaine has an AC of 20 and 47 hp, and he keeps to the rear in any combat encounters.
The copies of Kreighton Shane don’t possess the full spellcasting abilities of the Master of Scrolls. Instead, he has a limited number of spells prepared, and he can cast only a few of them. He can cast only a number of spells whose combined spell level equals to 2. His caster level is 10th, and he can cast the following spells.
2nd—bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, resist energy
1st—enlarge person, identify, shield
Shaine distributes a single potion of cure light wounds to each of you and asks you if you have any further questions before moving on.
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Jimmy looks around and tries to make sense of the situation. His simple mind has trouble processing all the information, but one thing's clear to him: "Jimmy doesn't want himself and his friends to die! Jimmy wants to smash the bad people who keep him and friends here!"
By scanning the crowd with both his eyes and detect magic Jimmy tries to find the Harbingers that are using magic to keep the Pathfinders trapped.