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”We appreciate your assistance, priest!” “Yeah! You saved my life, Pet!”. Seren and her spirit deliberate for a moment on the wisdom of diving back into the fray, her dancing hesitant before she sucks in a breath and dives around the corner to join the others in surrounding the imaged caster. As she arrives she follows her momentum of her dance to take a swing at however many copies there may be left.
*POP*
*POP*
*POP*
*POP*
Chak and Lathlo combine to destroy another four of Livilla's images.
Petrok avoids much of the fleeting sleet storm, and heads for the relative quiet of the library to heal Seren, Gajutai and himself.
Gajutai looks to speed up proceedings, while the whispy tendrils continue their negative energy assault on Livilla.
*POP*
The first ghostly appendage takes out the final mirror image. Unfortunately, the other two both miss.
Seren and her Seven roll back onto the battlefield. Surum skewers Livilla through the abdomen, but it’s not enough to put her down.
Naked of all her images and out of comrades to sacrifice, the sorceress clutches her stomach as she shuffles 5 feet to the NE.
She then tries one last desperate gambit.
A golden cloud of particles spews forth from the greenhouse flowers, settling on the clothes and faces of all the mêlée Pathfinders.
“Surrender the book and I might let you live!”
PARTY BUFFS: haste
Lathlo /78 hp
Petrok /47 hp protection from fire
Seren’s Seven /66 hp (+13 FL)
Surumi Gajutai /61 hp protection from fire
Chak 55/76 hp protection from fire
---
Livilla
PARTY UP!
DirtyS + JeffG to go
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Gajutai easily recognizes one of the spells he's got in his own arsenal, so he needs but to blink on a certain part of the incantation, and to open his eyes to easily see the cloud of golden glitters covering his allies and him.
The skald goes silent, but the wisps swirl around the pathfinders with the same intensity.
He turns around to attack the spellcaster, while the wisps swirl around him.
Chak’s nodachi sweeps low above the sorceress’s heels, severing both Irori’s tendons.
The blows from the flat of Lathlo’s scimitar help gravity send her to her knees, where her hands fill with belly blood and intestines which stream through the navel enlargement Seren gave her last round.
The Aspis leader lifts her head in a silent scream … which Gajutai ends with a horizontal slice through her open mouth, taking off the top of her head.
Lying at the foot of a heavy shrub near the center of the greenhouse is a fifth Aspis corpse, still smouldering from Petrok’s fireball. It appears to be that of a human priestess who has been strangled by a vine-laden plant. She wears ruined leather armor and an iron bull’s head pendant around her neck.
Livilla’s pack holds a leather-bound volume with clenched hands embossed on its cover.
The book is extensively illustrated with numerous unarmed fighting styles, and written in a language that employs Taldan characters – though it’s certainly not Taldane.
Harmid Bestah makes an appearance in the greenhouse, with a makeshift bandage (Lathlo may recognise as the lining from his cold weather jacket) tied poorly over his nose.
His voice sounds nasal and whiney as a result.
“Mwell! Wu took wour smeet time sworting out vose Aspiz zcum!”
“I’wm fwine, fanks for askwing.”
“Nweed mwe to wook at thah bwooks? Zhen wot’s za pwan?”
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Petrok channels twice more and then sets about searching the Aspis agents bodies, the greenhouse, and the room(s) we first encountered them thoroughly. While searching, Petrok see's Seren is still bruised and offers her a bit more healing, Come here little one, you and all your friends could use a bit more healing.
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Seren now sparkles rather grandly as she finishes her dancing, but doesn't go blind enough to miss the rather visceral death of the last Aspis. She makes a sound in the back of her throat, but manages to swallow something before wandering over to Petrok at the preist's request. "Hey thanks, I don't really like havin' holes in me. Did you know there are a LOT of friends right now? Scales made a bunch too!" She lets him heal more of her wounds, but continues to look vaguely pale as she heads over to Dr. Bestah.
"I'm sorry about that nose, I didn't mean to HIT ya with a book. Just toss it to ya, but I'm glad ya left. She coulda killed you with that cold!" She tries to pat the abrasive scholar on the arm. "We gotta use ya to figure out the real book, and then get the heck outta here. Look, I'll help ya read'em." Seren's amber amulet will glow a moment, her eyes taking on a matching light. "Now I understand all sortsa stuff."
Seren will dash over to the others, avoiding all the bodies, and try to grab both tomes to bring to Bestah. She'll then helpfully read over his shoulder to try and assist in identifying the right manual.
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Having seen the symbol used by some of the more infernally minded Shamans of his homeland, Petrok drops the un-holy symbol back on the dead priestess after he's through examining it. The Symbol is of Moloch an Arch devil, she was most likely a priestess of the fiend. Petrok says in a perfunctory manor. Some of the shamans of my homeland still pay this devil their due.
A thorough search of the Greenhouse and sweep with detect magic only reveals the magic items the dead Aspis carried.
wand of vampiric touch
ring of protection +1
cloak of resistance +2
“I'm sorry about that nose.”
“Apwologee NWOT axeptwed!”
"Now I understand all sortsa stuff."
Bestah *scoffs* “Wou knwow gothing, Swearen Sevhern!”
Accepting Seren’s close supervision with a huff, Dr Bestah gives both versions the once, twice and thrice over. But you can tell he was certain after his first reading.
“Va Aswis won is fwake. Iht’s witten woosing Twaldwayne twext for Meffys’s swake! Chwak fwound va ghenwuinn won.”
His eyes plead with the party. “Cwan wee gwoh now?”
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"Let's heal up and get out of here. We have what we came for. The only question is whether we head out this back way and face unknown guardians that might be out there, or head back the way we came in. Maybe those fish-guys will take umbrage now that we have what we came for, but I still think it might be the wiser course to head back out through the house. What say you all?"
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Seren gets practically force-fed several potions while being obtrusive to Bestah, as she gives Petrok that look you'd get from a three year old that didn't want to take their medicine. There's no actually voiced complaints as she downs the potions, and she looks remarkably better after the fact.
"Yeah, I don't wanna get eaten by no plants. I think goin' out the front door is a good idea. We got a book, we got a scholar, we should get out."
With the book secure in Chak’s haversack and the cantankerous scholar in tow, the party retreats back through Ghenett Manor to the front gates where the Gauntlet began. The Fish Heads still sway from atop Passad’s banquet table, though this time it seems like they are waving silent farewells.
The damage to the Entry Hall and Front Garden remains –– but there is no sign of the Po’s. Even Gamaradim’s chair that once sat before the open iron gates is gone.
With Ghenett Manor about a mile in your wake, Dr Bestah finally proves his worth by flagging down a passing caravan, laden with vegetables and fish bound for the markets of Katapesh. After a short negotiation in an unfathomable local dialect, he climbs up beside the laughing driver and angrily ushers you all into the back of the ‘van.
“We’re not in Druma. Two-Toned Tribulations! We’re not even in Avistan!”
He gives the five of you a disgusted look. “I would have thought even you ninnies would have known that!”
Thankfully you are spared more of Bestah’s ignorant hectoring as the scholar leans back to sleep through most of 15 hour road journey to the Capital.
⛢⛢⛢
On arrival at Farseer Tower, Dr Bestah and the Mutani Manual are jointly taken into custody by a white-eyed Seer and a burly Tian-La man wearing the livery of the Lantern Lodge. A second Tower Seer then locks you in an antechamber of Wulessa Yuul’s outer office for about six hours(!)
Through the walls you periodically hear heated arguments between VC Yuul and another woman. If any of you have undertaken missions in Tian Xia, you may recognise the high-pitched voice of VC Amara Li – head of the Lantern Lodge.
When you are eventually released, a Seer ushers you in before the desk of a fuming VC Yuul, who points to chairs and takes a moment before trusting herself to speak.
“Let me first say a hearty well done. I assume none of you has any ‘items to declare’ after your visit to Ghenett Manor? Seren, nothing? Good.”
She interlinks her fingers and rests them on the flat surface of her desk. “We've got scholars working around the clock to make a copy of the Manual in every common language for preservation.”
“However, Dr Bestah is claiming all the credit for the success of the mission on behalf of the Lantern Lodge, and in support of his claim is threatening to make a formal complaint to the Decemvirate about inappropriate behavior during the mission by YOU Five.”
Yuul looks levelly at each of you in turn. “He accuses you, Seren of an ‘unprovoked assault with a deadly weapon, causing Grievous Bodily (Nasal) Harm in a time of conflict against a hostile armed force.”
“Petrok, he claims shortly after his release you entered his personal space and ‘interfered with his restful state for the express purpose of initimidation, with reckless disregard for the Co-operate tenet of the Pathfinder creed.’”
“And Lathlo, he cites you for: She *sighs* as she reads from a report. ‘Endangering the primary mission objective by deliberately ignoring credible Mission Specialist advice to capture rather than execute an enemy extraplanar combatant, thereby losing intelligence vital to the mission’s success.’”
The VC looks up at the swash-rager. “Then he adds, ‘and being mouthy about it.’”
She rubs her forehead like she’s got a headache. “Care to comment on these allegations, Pathfinders? Surely they're not true.”
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Petrok yawns covering his mouth in an obvious display of indifference. Personally I find the man a bore. We should have left him where he was. In fact, I probably would have without your express orders, Wulessa Yuul. Petrok nods at his superior in respect but shows no distress or remorse in the manor he treated the doctor. In fact, he cares very little what the doctor or his friends in the Decemvirate, might do to his career as a Pathfinder. The spirits knew he had performed his mission with honor. And the spirits had memory...unlike some of his Pathfinder superiors. They knew of the sacrifice he and his comrades had made for this relatively valueless book. Furthermore, the spirits knew of all his service in this world and theirs. Petrok smiled, I almost feel sorry for the Doctor...the spirit world has a long memory and never forgets a slight to one of it's own... Petrok closes his eyes and meditates and drones the rest of the conversation out. Not caring about the doctor's hysterics or Pathfinder politics for the moment. He finds peace in all the universe.
He reaches out to the place where Water, Air, Fire, and Earth meet. Where the spirits of the dead, of nature, light, and darkness all dwell. Where chaos swirls in perfect order...where the mind goes ...when madness prevails...but logic lingers.
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Seren offers Venture Captain Yuul an absolutely terrible attempt at a salute. "Nope, nothin' on me. Not even the perfume Tahoni wanted me to steal. But I told ya I wouldn't, so I didn't!" Which was really hard to do, but promises were promises. She'd stolen a bunch of things off the Aspis anyways.
She shrugs at the accusation. "The Aspis busted in on us, he told me he wanted the book, and I had a book, so I tossed it at him. He can't catch so well, but he's pretty good at his scholarin'. Bit of an arse, though."
"He's just whining cause Petty had to make sure he was Betsy, and I like Betsy, but he ain't no specialist on ooky tentacle monsters. And the guys what are said to kill it. So we did!" Seren wiggles her way over to the desk and starts dropping some of the figs she'd traded out in the Ghenett kitchens onto the surface. "If he wants to be grumpy about it tell'em... tell'em... hmm."
"Tell'em that if he stops actin' like a sour puss and stops bein' dumb I'll let him join the Scarab Sages. I can do that, cause I'm one of the Jeweled Sages, right? I'll just tell Tahoni about it and she'll say okay. Ain't his fault the Society sent him on the wron' sorta mission for him, but he's gotta know what he is and isn't good at. Like talkin'... or knowin' about horrible monsters."
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"The doctor, while a font of information, truly excels at spewing useless hectoring utterances that actually inflict harm on the success of pathfinder missions. We found him bound and gagged while wearing a woman's kimono. One can only assume he ended up there through some stupid or ignorant comment he made while he first attempted to secure the manual. And that resulted in our having to risk our very lives to make up for his stupidity. And even worse, almost resulted in the Aspis Consortium getting their hands on the volume. Although I must admit, I was a bit vexed, for there were several Aspis agents that I managed to subdue, only to have them die when their leader unleashed cones of cold in our direction. But it wasn't for my lack of trying. Perhaps if Dr. Bestah hadn't been cowering in some corner, and would've tried moving a subdued enemy or 2 to safety, some of them might have survived. But the simple fact of the matter is we were sent to recover the book and the scholar. We did both. The Doctor failed at his mission, and we bailed him out. The fact that he's ungrateful is no surprise, and of little consequence."
“Let me get this straight …”
VC Yuul begins massaging her temples. “The ‘deadly weapon’ you ‘assaulted’ him with was a BOOK?”
“And despite the man’s shortcomings, Agent Seren you are recommending the Diamond Sage accept him into your faction if you manage to recruit him?”
She takes in Petrok’s ambivalence as she continues to listen to Seren. “So I can assume you ‘invaded his personal space’ to check he wasn’t an illusion, Agent Kaznikh? Immediately after encountering a number of programmed phantasms in the Manor.”
She opens a drawer and pulls out a manila envelope marked BURN BAG, as she listens to Lathlo’s explanation.
“I can see you feel strongly about that, Agent Lathlo.”
There is a hint of a smile as she inserts the complaints on her desk into the bag, initials it and rings for a Seer to collect it.
“I’m also pleased you weren’t ‘mouthy about it.’”
Kicking back from her desk on a wheeled chair, the Venture-Captain stretches and places her hands behind her head. “Unless you have any questions for me, I think all that’s left then is for me congratulate you once again and wish you success in your future endeavors, Pathfinders.”