Korvin charges the serpent swarm with his mattock. The swift, slippery creatures nearly manage to avoid his attack, but the mighty Ulfen man barely connects with a little help from Janira, killing several of the creatures outright and sending more fleeing.
Liara attempts to put some distance and allies between her and the swarm. As she pushes her way past Azura, she also imbues the bard with a bit of her goddess's blessing. Janira continues to inspire courage and teamwork in her allies with her skillful oration.
The snakes that remain hiss angrily and begin to envelop the bloodrager.
Tarō believing his weapons will be of little use, distances himself from the reptilian threat, and Elise creates an illusory copy of herself and together they fire their crossbows sending even more of the snakes slithering away while Azura lobs an alchemist fire incinerating any of the creatures unlucky enough not to have fled.
"Well done, Pathfinders!" Janira praises as she walks around making sure everyone is well. "Excellent teamwork." As she reaches Korvin, she mutters some soothing words of encouragement and the Ulfen man feels vitality surge through his body. "Also, take these if you're going to rush in and draw the threats from your allies," she says with a smile, handing Korvin a potion of barkskin and a potion of cure light wounds.
"Now then, we must press on. If we do not reach the caves by nightfall, we may miss our opportunity.
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looking in horror as Azura incinerates any possible surviving woodland creatures Liara whimpers at the smoldering wound in the earth as she lets the ashes from the woodland collective flow thru her fingers giving Azura spiteful looks between her occasional sobs how could the divines create such a evil creature.
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Korvin scraps the last few snakes off of him, stomping on them as they hit the ground. He seems to enjoy the crunching sound, or maybe it's just the feeling of not having snakes coiling on him any more. Accepting the potions and healing from the halfling, he slips them into his belt pouch and thanks her. "I'm sure if I have time for them, they will prove quite useful."
"Onwards!"
As the group continues to travel through the wilderness, they find trails blocked by fallen objects, shortcuts overgrown, and other minor delays that cost them a bit of time, but fortunately Korvin is able to guide them through with little delay.
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.
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Azura watched with dark, stormy eyes as her new halfling friend sped toward the danger while commanding her not to follow. She felt the pull to disobey and run after her anyway, peppering the beast with arrows to make it forget the small form it now focused on. She took a steadying breath and reminded herself that part of this test was likely to demonstrate that she could trust her superiors and follow orders.
'Take care, little sister.' she thought to herself as she offered a prayer for Janira's safety.
Her hair whipped around her irritably, as if stirred by an aggressive wind that no one else seems to feel as she turned and followed the others into the cave, relying on first her darkvision and then plucking a pebble (or a bead or bell from her outfit) and casting a light spell on it, holding it out on her open palm for the others to better see.
"Time is of the essence, yes? So what do we see here?"
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whimpering in a corner in the darkness Liara seems to be struck dumbstruck when Azura lights the area reveling her aggressive demeanor and wishes to continue "B-but what are we supposed to do our leader is dead h-how can we continue when she could not. We are lost I think that the leaders would understand if we turned around." Liara croaks horsely as she lights her glaive and offers a prayer to the goddess "May Janira continue to sing in the presence of the goddess" she whispers clasping her trembling hands together before looking at her surrounding for any potential dangers.
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As the minotaur emerges from the woods, Korvin grabs a mattock off his back and prepares to charge forwards towards it, but stops after a single step as the backpack goes flying past him and the halfling's words register.
Instead of charging forward, he hurls the mattock towards the beast with a wordless shout of frustration, and turns to duck into the cave.
Inside the cave, he pauses to let his eyes adjust to the much dimmer magical light, then peers around.
The cave entrance is 5 feet wide and extends 20 feet into the rock before widening into a broader tunnel. All of the tunnels in this area are between 3 and 10 feet wide and vary equally in height, though most are a comfortable 7 or more feet wide in each dimension. The caves are damp, and you can hear water dripping from stalactites and the distant rushing of underground streams. The caves’ walls are patterned with blue-green luminescent fungi that provide dim light. Petroglyphs—most depicting marine animals or spiral shapes—periodically decorate the tunnels’ walls, becoming increasingly frequent as you descend deeper into the cave system. The rough surface of the carvings provides a natural platform for the fungi, causing it to grow thicker and making the carvings glow slightly brighter than their surroundings.
The narrow tunnel twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole spans the cave’s width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
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Azura responded to Liara's wailing about Janira being dead with a withering look and made signs of warding against the evil of the words she had spoken. She could not help a smug smile when Elise voiced her own thoughts about the craven cleric.
"I have some rope here, Elise. Shall I stabilize it for you?" she said as she removed her pack to retrieve the coil of silk rope from her bag.
"A pathfinder must be prepared, yes? Taro, what is in the backpack Janira gave us?"
She intoned the incantation and casts Detect Magic and scans around, paying special attention to the pit and the bundle of cloth below before anyone goes down. She then helps secure the rope for climbing.
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looking as if visibly struck by Elise Liara silences herself for the time being and tries to help Azura with what ever she may be doing even is she does not understand what she is doing herself.
"you don't think that it is trapped" She whimpers tugging tightly on the rope " I hope it is not I don't know what I would do if another of our number were to.." she lets her words linger not wanting to draw the ire of the two dubious Aasimar.
Janira's backpack contains a potion 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), a scroll of obscuring mist, a wand of burning hands (CL 3rd, 4 charges), a wand of cure light wounds (CL 3rd, 8 charges), flasks of acid, alchemist’s fire (2), and holy water, a smokestick, a tanglefoot bag, a thunderstone, an antitoxin, and sunrods (2).
Elise descends the rope first with some help from her allies, followed by Azura, and then Korvin, while Tarō nimbly leaps the pit. Liara looks down from the ledge as Azura inspects the cloth bundle a bit closer, and Elise looks around for a hand getting back up as it seems it will be a bit more difficult than getting down was.
The cloth is a cloak of resistance +1.
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.
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Azura shakes out the bundle of cloth, revealing it to be a cloak, which she dons for the time being. She then squats down and clasps her hands together making a sort of stirrup.
"Come now, friends! I will show you the Varisian lift, put your foot here and I will boost you up so Taro can pull you the rest of the way."
Once out of the pit, she peers around entranced by the blue light. "These look odd, no?" She casts detect magic and scans around as she moves toward a plank leaning against the wall to further investigate.
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"thank you Azura" Liara says with a smile as she avoids her hands all together and climbs up on the bards shoulders on her crawl up struggling as she makes it up the top shuddering with exhaustion before casting a look further down the cave "well that could have been helpful" she sighs as she lifts herself up patting the dust off her clothes before donning her armor once more well lets get going no telling when the bull creature will come for us after he is finished with janira" Liara says as she pushes Yamada down the path.
The carvings here are different in style from the petroglyphs found elsewhere in the caves, and they date back to long before the gillmen explored this area. Scattered throughout the cave are inscriptions from the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden, and images that depict these passages. The carvings focus on parables that feature Aroden’s 12 guises, meant to illustrate his hopes for humanity: the artist, beggar, craftsman, farmer, fisherman, hunter, merchant, scholar, shepherd, soldier, tailor, and thief. Only four of these parables are still decipherable.
The Artist is depicted painting murals on the walls of impressive buildings, associated with Aroden having painted the city of Absalom with beautiful colors so that it might awe all who visited.
The Fisherman is depicted hauling in an enormous catch of small fish to take back to Absalom, illustrating Aroden’s declaration that a great host of creatures could accomplish a great task, whether that be taming the wilds or feeding a nation.
The Soldier is depicted bearing a lantern through the streets of a city, following the dead god’s prophecy that the vigilant shall carry light to the darkest corners of the world to banish the shadows.