Janira performs her inspire courage.
Nora hits the wolf in the bushes.
Eponine throws her bomb at the wolf that charges at Jhalan, and it connects! making the poor wolf get blown up.
As the wolf charges him, Jhalan is ready to strike but instead of closing the distance all the way, the bomb strikes first, blowing up in front of him.
Nestezuk throws his Javelin at his wolf but misses.
Valkyrja gets ready to send off a spell at a wolf, but no wolf approaches her.
One wolf charges Jhalan and gets blown up while the wolf charges Nestezuk but the wolf trips on a branch on its way to him.
Janira continues talking about heroes.
Wolf, Jadger, Janira, Nora, Eponine, Jhalan, Nestezuk, Valkyrja
Jhalan rushes forward and slashes the wolf in two!
Janira stops orating and starts clapping. "Well done everyone! You were able to dispatch the wolves without any of you getting harmed! But we must hurry if we are to make it to the caves by dusk. If we don't reach there tonight, any gillmen who are already there may be gone before we arrive."
As the group continues to travel through the wilderness, the PCs find trails blocked by fallen objects, shortcuts overgrown, and other minor delays that would have cost them time if not for the combined efforts of Eponine, Jhalan, and Nestezuk.
The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. “Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines,” Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. “This is where I saw the gillmen enter.”
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, “Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!” As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, “A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag,” she continues, pulling off her backpack, “and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!” She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
The cave entrance is only 5 feet wide and extends 20 feet into the rock before widening into a broader tunnel.
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Jhalan does not question Janira's judgement and obeys, taking the bag with him.
"Selflessness is a rare virtue, Janira. Stay alive! "
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Eponine follows her companions quickly into the cave, pausing only to pick up the halfling's bag. "I reckon the sooner we are able to solve the mysteries in this cave, the sooner we can help Janira."
"I am Guessing she intended us to take this pack, otherwise she would have kept it with her. We can take stock as we walk? I am not to quick if I carry anything extra, anyone else mind packing this along?" Eponine explains as she rifles through the pack with the joy of a child opening gifts on her birthday.
As Eponine looks through the pack, she finds a potion of barkskin, 2 potions of cure light wounds, a potion of feather step, a potion of vanish, a scroll of entangle, a scroll of gust of wind, a scroll of identify, a scroll of mage armor (CL 6), ascroll of obscuring mist, a wand of burning hands (CL 3rd, 4 charges), a wand of cure light wounds (CL 3rd, 8 charges), acid, 2 alchemist’s fire, holy water, smokestick, tanglefoot bag, thunderstone, antitoxin, and 2 sunrods.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole with water at the bottom spans the cave’s width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the water lies a small bundle of cloth.
Jhalan and Nestezuk are able to determine that the hole in the ground is artificial, and they also learn that the hole is at least a year old.
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Jhalan points at the potion of feather step, barkskin, as well as one of the curative potions. "I would gladly use those, if that is fine for you?"
The Qadiran inspects the hole, seeking a way to cross the chasm in front of them. "I could remove my all-too-heavy armor, bind a rope around my waist, climb down, swim across the chasm, then climb up on the other side with the help of another rope attached to a grappling hook. There, I'll look for a place to attach it so that we can all cross safely with it." he proposes.
If he reaches the other side, he'll look for a rock or root to tie one of the ropes to.
After Jhalan reaches the other side he looks for something to tie a rope to but is unable to find anything on the other side. Going a little further to find anything that will help, approximately 30 feet beyond the pit and out of sight around a corner is a long, 3-foot-wide wooden plank that rests against the cave’s wall. A gillman pilgrim in the cave placed it here after using it to cross the pit.
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"No problem", said Nestezuk grabbing Jhalan's stuff, "if it's heavy for you, I can always take your bag, mine is almost empty". Brute looks a bit disappointed, since his comrades haven't supported Janira in fight with minotaur, and secretly he hopes to meet one on his way back.
Killing such beast, would be a real Confirmation, not that paper-ink-rock-gillman games
Getting out of the water with the cloth, Jhalan realizes that it is a cloak, possibly left behind by a gillman.
The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls. There are six sections of reliefs and inscriptions but two are too eroded to decode.
Jadger realizes that these carvings are inscriptions from the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden. Upon further scrutiny, he also realizes that these are slightly different than the ones in History and Future of Humanity, suggesting that these might represent an earlier version of the work.
Jadger is able to decipher the parables that are remaining. They are:
He also finds some writing under inscriptions and images, but they don't make sense to him yet, something about a pool of water, a city, and magic.
Finished with the wall for now, the party moves on. The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.
Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey. Kneeling in the water is a lone gillman who does not show any signs of noticing the pathfinders yet.
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"Greetings, gillman. We come in peace, as explorers and loreseekers. We merely want to talk with you, if you will." says Jhalan from the entrance of the cave, holding his hand with an open palm as a sign of peace.
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The gillman does not react to Jhalan. It is facing the water.
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Jadger explains what he has found to his fellow pathfinders but perhaps his discourse was to dry as soon enough most of his fellow pathfinders show signs of sleepyness.
Meeting a gillman was of course a fantastic piece of work and putting thoughts about a magical city of water aside for a moment, he eagerly waits for the gillman to respond.
When Eponine taps the gillman on the shoulder, he raises his head, looks and sees her and the rest of the party. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't hear you all enter." When Valkyrja talks, everyone notices that he watches her lips intently, as if he is reading them. "I'm glad that you also share our reverence, however it may not be in the same deity. You see, this cave is sacred to us gillmen. It was also once sacred to Aroden, the dead god of humanity, as well, but over the past century, the carvings in the nearby room have weathered and melted, and I believe that soon Aroden’s influence will have faded completely. However, other creatures have invaded the caves and are not as polite as you all. If you want to perform some rituals in Aroden's name by the pool, feel free."
"Well, yes, that would be nice, but not terribly necessary. The creatures are small things that would pose no problem to you strong adventurers, normal cave dwelling creatures I believe. I haven't seen anything personally, but I do know that some gillmen have gone missing while on their pilgrimmage in here." As he turns to look at one of the tunnels that lead out of the cavern, the adventurers see that on his back is a cloak of similar style and color to the cloak that Jhalan found in the water.
"My name is Uori. Yes, that would be nice. However, no gillmen have lived here only come here on pilgrimages before heading to the sea. But not as many have actually showed up in the sea as have left on pilgrimage." He watches Jhalan and Jadger in wry amusement.
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Nora looks with tender emotion to her friends and continue communicate with gilman while some of them take the bath.
"Nice to meet you, Uori! Great that you join us, together we have more possibilities to complete our goal.
Why are you here alone? Did you also participate in pilgrimage?
We want to explore these caves."
"Oh, I'm not joining you, I'm on my own pilgrimmage. We gillmen come to this pool to seek enlightenment and to rehydrate before going to the sea. I'll be at this pool until the moon goes down. Feel free to explore the caves."
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After a quick, pious bath, Jhalan thanks Uori with signs if peace. The he dons his armor, and suggest going East.
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The cave’s damp air becomes increasingly stale as the adventurers continue down through this tunnel, and as they approach this area, the stench of decay grows increasingly evident. The passage turns to the east and opens into a small cavern littered with bits of broken glass, rotting pieces of paper, and other unusable detritus. The body of a male dhampir lies facedown toward the back of the cavern. The adventurers also see 2 skeletons and 2 zombies that seem to have been gillmen when they were alive.
Round 1(begins)
Valkyrja, Skeletons, Eponine, Jadger, Nestezuk, Jhalan, Nora, Zombies