Try as he might, Bad Seed can't quite seem to connect against the CSG with his fiery blasts...but thankfully he's not one to give up quite so easily! Captain Chlorophyll ducks around behind the creature, which snaps at them with sharp teeth...
...and misses! They then give the CSG's tail a good, hard stomp! Judging by the high-pitched squeal that follows, it does, indeed, hurt.
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Round 2
Captain Chlorophyll
Nira
Poison Oakley
Bad Seed
Tacca
Boom Sticks
Motueka + Dauswil
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CSG (-22; Blur; Miserable Strike, Shaken, Sickened - 1r)
Active Conditions: None
Poison Oakley, Tacca, Boom Sticks and Motueka + Dauswil are UP!
Dauswil's typical moaning ceases for a moment as he goes quiet and attacks with both tankards.
After the assault he begins to breathe heavily as the adrenaline fades.
"I won't let anything hurt you, my friend."
Getting a little tired of this, Boom Sticks commands the CSG to GET OVER HERE GET DOWN HERE and brings his lucerne hammer right down atop the creature's head with a solid *THUNK*!
Motueka delivers a truly epic burst to strength to Dauswil, who swings both tankards - one goes wide while the other barely misses the mark.
Both Tacca and Poison Oakley also attempt to rain down blows against the creature but for such a large creature it proves surprisingly hard to strike as it keeps flapping to and fro, avoiding the blows!
As understanding that some of her leshy companions could use the extra help, Nira takes another bold step forward and unleashes another barrage of brambles and splinters against the monster. This time, the CSG isn't quite so agile and it takes the full brunt of Nira's attack!
Appearing to be knocking loudly on death's door, the CSG has had enough. It quickly ascends into the air and attempts to flee overheard, back towards the way you came in!
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Round 3
Captain Chlorophyll
Nira
Poison Oakley
Bad Seed
Tacca
Boom Sticks
Motueka + Dauswil
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CSG (-45; Blur)
Active Conditions: None
Everyone is UP!
Although it looks to be difficult, the CSG does manage to ascend straight up as it attempts to flee! Captain Chlorophyll runs after it and chucks a seedpod...and connects! With an almost anticlimatic-sounding *POP* the seedpod slams against the fleeing monster and sends it plummeting to the ground where it lies in a heap, silent and still!
Nira turns slowly to regard the fallen monster...and you'd swear that if she were physically capable of smiling, she would be right now.
"It is...done. Good. Very, very good."
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Bad Seed looks sadly at the dead tarp monster, but then brightens slightly before affecting his usual stony punk demeanor at the thought of the EPIC song this is going to make. He wonders if he could invent a musical instrument to make the wicked splinter spraying sounds...
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"Ah, no... no threats." says Boom Sticks as they calm down after the excitement of the battle.
"Oh! But I totally forgot to ask them something else!"
Boom Sticks goes back to the wall to talk to the vines again.
While everyone takes a few moments to collect themselves and reflect on the strangeness of the creature you've just slain, Boom Sticks ducks back into the entry crevice to ask the vines a few more questions...
"Space? What's space? Guns? What's guns? Boom? Sometimes the sky booms when the water comes down! We like the water!" the vines respond, a veritable fount of useful information.
The rest of you wait, eyeing the bats a bit nervously. But unlike before, these don't seem inclined to attack or even approach, staying in their roosts on the cavern ceiling. Maybe the weird space ghost had some sort of sway over them before?
To Poison Oakley's question Nira slowly nods, her head wobbling atop her broken neck. "Yes...avenged. The Mad Shadow dances...no more. We...I am...happy. Mercy is safe."
"Travel...with you?" Nira repeats slowly, as though processing a new piece of information or a thought previously unconsidered. "We...no, I...would...like that."
Then, she nods once. And then again.
"Yes. Yes, I would...like that. Work here is done, Mercy is safe. No need to...stay," Nira continues, voice growing more resolute.
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looking to Bad Seed, Captain Chlorophyll says “It seems sentient, shouldn’t we be asking Nira what they want to do?”
Looking to Nira, he continues “Is there something you want to do? It seems you are a splinter of Amenira. If you want to know more about that, there are a lot of people in the Pathfinder Society that might be able to help you figure out more of what happened.”
Looking to the group, they say “We do have more cave to explore. One crazy flying monster doesn’t explain how trees are growing down here.”
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Boom Sticks returns, a little downcast.
"They don't know anything more about the Crazy Space Ghost, but I suppose they can't move much from where they are. They're not leshys, after all. Maybe the Crazy Space Ghost's ship is deeper in the cave though? Captain Chlorophyll is right, we don't know what makes the trees grow down here, or what protects Mercy either since Robori isn't really a god. The vines just call it 'the Warmth and the Light,' that's our only clue."
Maybe the Warmth comes from the spaceship's engine? What's an engine though?
'a splinter of Amenira'
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Dauswil shakes off the fatigue and heads over to the creature.
"To die afraid....it isn't a proper way to go...will you linger in this world longer?" he asks the creature before returning to Motueka's side.
The little leshy shakes his head and pats the phantom.
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"Well thrown, Cap'n Chlorophyll," Tacca congratulates the alchemist.
Turning to the doll, he says, "The Pathfinder Society welcomes you into its ranks, Nira. You've been a great member of the team." He hesitates before asking, "Is there more you can tell us about what happened to you and to Amenira?"
His eyes shine with interest, hearing from Boom Sticks. "I'm sure the priestess, Zuri, will want to learn about 'the Warmth and the Light'."
"Let's take a look around this place. Don't want to leave anything else behind."
Nira nods again, more energetically. "All of...you. Pathfinders? Yes, I'll go...and learn. Learn more about...myself. About Nira." She turns to respond to Tacca, shoulders slumping a bit. "No...we...I, don't remember. Maybe your...Pathfinder Society will...help me remember?"
With the threat of the Crazy Space Ghost ended for good, your attention now turns to the curiosity that is this cavern and the abundance of plant life that grows down here. Resolved to look around a bit more, you can see a small tunnel leading away to the east and you also recall the thick curtain of vines hiding another passage to the southwest.
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"Oh! You're new down here! Hello hello! Did you just sprout? You seem different from the others that sprout down here," these vines respond more cheerfully. "And yes! The Warmth, the Light, here! Just past us, not far!"
Explosive Runes!
"You're welcome! Welcome, welcome! Come back and talk to us more sometime!"
Pushing your way through the wall of vines, you enter into a small cavern cluttered with various items, many of them rotted well beyond salvage. More importantly, you also find the partially decayed remains of a human female, dressed in a tattered orange robe.
The woman has been dead for roughly two months or so and the cause of death appears to be several large bite wounds dotted across her limbs and torso...bites that would be consist with the mouth shape of the Crazy Space Ghost.
Although most of the items here are too decayed to be of use, a search of the chamber does reveal a length of vine that holds two spherical seedpods. One of the seedpods contains a potion of Desperate Escape, a bright purple liquid that functions as both a Potion of Cure Light Wounds and a Potion of Vanish. The other seedpod contains a gray Potion of Protection from Alignments.
The cavern is otherwise empty, though another passage leads away to the southeast.
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Captain Chlorophyll looks at the remains. Picking at some moss on the body, they says “Her body has been here for about two months, that is how long it would take this to grow.”
Pointing out some large bite marks, they add “Alone, she was no match for the monster.” Looking to Nira, they add “Fortunately a portion of her remains with us.”
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"Still, we should bring Amenira's remains back to the Temple of the All-Seeing Eye in Katapesh. Venture-Captain will be interested in our report."
Tacca examines the seedpods. "Interesting. Properly tended, these vines might provide the villagers a useful export. Maybe we can even convince the villagers to abandon their murderous vegetarianism."
Tacca drops to one knee. "Want a ride, Nira?"
Nira seems oddly unmoved by finding what would seem to be the remains of her original form, but since the little doll wasn't designed with an expressive face it's hard to tell if she's genuinely unmoved or if she's physically incapable of expressing her feelings on the matter.
"I...yes. Yes, I do," she responds as she climbs up Tacca's back and settles partially in his pack, her head, shoulders and arms still poking out so that she can see what's happening. "We should...go. Leave this cavern...and move further on."
A pause.
"It feels strange...to be here."
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At Nira's urging to be away from the location of her earthly remains you continue to explore the cavern, making note of the numerous small tunnels and caverns that you encounter along the way. Thankfully, nothing else seems to live in this place except for the numerous plants that sprout from the ground and hang from the walls and ceiling and the bats. However, that changes as you come to another large, dead-end cavern at the southwestern end of the cavern complex.
The temperature is much warmer here than elsewhere in the tunnels and you see that a tangle of vines spins and twists out of the rocky ground to cradle an enormous seedling. Both the seedling and the vines glow with a vibrant green light.
"Oh..." Nira whispers, sounding as amazed by this as any of you might be. "How...beautiful..."
The seedling shifts in its cradle, seemingly asleep...though when Boom Sticks reaches out to it, the seedling's eyes flutter open for a moment...and it smiles.
"Yes...that's what they call call call me," the seedling's vines reply in a dreamy tone. "My children children children, my children. But you can call me the Verdant Spark Spark Spark, the Verdant Spark. Not an engine, no no no, I'm not. They planted me, years years years ago, the green ones did. A new hope hope hope, a new hope for them I was to be..."
You suddenly recall that a renegade druid named Ghorus created a new form of plant life that could survive the blighted landscape of the Mana Wastes many centuries ago, creatures that eventually became known as ghorans.
"Not not not Ghorus, not him," the Spark replies. "His own children, the ones he made made made, the ones he made planted me. I was supposed to be like them, like like them...but they didn't know all the right words words words, they didn't know them!"
Here, the Verdant Spark's tone grows sorrowful, almost unbearably so. "So when I started growing growing, when I started growing my presence made them sick sick sick, it made them sick and withered! They left left left me, they left me here. No choice choice, they had no choice..."
The Verdant Spark grows silent and for a moment Boom Sticks wonders if its perhaps drifted back into its slumber. But then it speaks again, its voice quiet, strong.
"I was alone for so long long long, for so long. But it gave me time to learn learn learn, it gave me time to learn about myself and the things I can do. Grow grow grow the plants, make them strong strong strong, I can make them strong! And the ones who came later later, the ones who came later - I helped them too, made them strong! Like us us us, like us. My children, all my my my children."
Boom Sticks feels a surge of real pride, real love as the Verdant Spark speaks not only of the plants of the region but the ones that must've been the early settlers of Mercy and all their descendants since there. But when he asks about the Crazy Space Ghost, he senses disgust from the Spark.
"Not mine mine mine, not mine! Strange beast, strange strange strange beast it was. Did things things things, did things that only made sense to it!"
"Seeds? No no no, no seeds of that beast, no seeds at all," the Spark replies to Captain Chlorophyll's question. "Alone alone alone, it was alone!"
"Thank you, thank thank thank you," the Verdant Spark responds, its physical form shifting and rolling over as it continues to slumber. "But I'm okay okay okay, I'm okay. One day I'll wake up up up, I'll wake up! Then the whole world world world, the whole world can feel my embrace, my loving loving loving embrace..."
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"There is an acolyte, a priestess of sorts, named Zuri who lives in Mercy. Would you be willing to meet her? I'm sure she would be happy to learn more from you. As would some of our colleagues in the Pathfinder Society. Would you agree to meet with them as well?"
Beware benevolent beings who wish to 'embrace' the entire world. Such a hug can be crushing in its unintended consequences.
"Is there a message you would like us to convey? Some missive or token you might wish to send them? Such might help us express, on your behalf, your good intentions."
"Oh no, I can't be moved, can't can't be moved!"
For the first time since striking up your conversation, the Verdant Spark sounds...afraid. As you watch, the sleeping seedling fidgets and twitches, as though caught up in a bad dream.
"The green will wither wither, it'll wither and die without me! And the others others, the others, the ones made of flesh, I won't be able to protect them! The storms storms storms, the storms will take their homes!"
It takes a few moments for the Verdant Spark to calm itself but when it does, it sounds thoughtful.
"Message? A message to the out out out, to the outside? Tell them that I just want to help help help, just want to help everything grow strong."
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"Oh! We can't take the Warmth and the Light away! No! All the plants and all the plant people would perish, out here in the Wastes." Boom Sticks says to their fellow pathfinders, a shocked expression on their woody features.
"I want you to stay here Sparky! Zuri and some of my friends who care about balance and the natural world will come and visit you, and they'll protect you! No more Crazy Space Ghosts here Sparky! My friends are called 'the Concordance', they're part of the Pathfinder Society that we all belong to." Boomy indicates the assembled leshys (and phantom).
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Tacca retreats back into the maze of tunnels until he finds a private spot where he can transform into his more social alter-ego. Then he rejoins his companions.
"Yes, I agree that it would be best for you and for the creatures of Mercy for you to continue to serve here as the Warmth and the Light. Will you agree to work with them and with us? The Pathfinder Society can learn much from you."