I missed that defense. No she does not get though, but they still run.
You find no sign of the original inhabitants (in the fort). However you don't see much sign of a struggle. It's as if everyone just decided to leave one day and the Spriggans moved in. Of course that does not explain the Succubus. Spiggans arn't the sort of thing they usually hang with.
Are you looking for loot?
There is a well with 4 potions of water breathing next to it. The cellar has enough equipment to be worth 1 BP, but transporting it would be tough. There are other things. I'll have to look. I decided to skip the rest of the Spriggan encounters in the fort. They are a time wasting joke.
Armory
A large number of weapons and suits of armor are stored
here—the gear seems to have been rifled through but not
thoroughly searched.
That chamber has been left largely
unmolested as the weapons are not sized correctly for
spriggans. Hanging from racks and packed in chests are
12 suits of padded armor, a masterwork breastplate, seven
light wooden shields, 20 spears, three short swords, two
handaxes, a shortbow, two longbows, four light crossbows,
2 heavy crossbows, a +1 morningstar, 200 arrows, and 220
crossbow bolts.
Save 1
Save 2
Mallichatti rubs his head as they flee. "Ugh, I need to get laid."
"Riva, There is a raven that has been following us ever since we came into town."
"Don't you even know who you are Redwig? As a redwing black bird, you are member of the noble icteridae family, not the dirty corvidae family, where common ravens come from. And don't refer to yourself in the third person. It's unbecoming."
Riva sighs before continuing.
"Followed me from home did you? You're supposed to be watching over my daughter. If she's followed you here, I'll use your feathers for pillow stuffing!"
"No my foolish and unobservant master. I am referring to that raven over there that has been spying on us since we entered town. As for your daughter their is no way she bribed me with sweets and followed you."
"All's the better then, Redwig."
Riva casts magic missile at the raven.
"One can't be too careful around these parts it would seem. Nearly as dangerous as home."
The raven takes the hit and seems hurt. But then in flys away. No ordinary raven could have survived that.
The raven takes the hit and seems hurt. But then in flies away. No ordinary raven could have survived that.
"As I thought. Stay close. We're being watched."
It flew to the south west.
Before the raven can get too far away, Riva shouts for Vallisa to kill it with her long range spells (like fireball).
Riva also makes a note of the flight path's direction and (if Vallisa fails to bring it down) prepares and casts vampiric touch , bestowing the spell upon Redwig.
"Hunt it down and bring me its corpse, Redwig. If it proves formidable, hide and return to me when you can."
Vallisa: "What? where? Oh there."
The raven avoids the fireball like a boss.
It is flying just as fast as Redwig. And Redwig understandably does not want to get within fireball radius.
Riva will also burn a 3rd-level spell slot to get more arcane reservoir points.
3rd (5/day) – lightning bolt, slow, vampiric touch
2nd (6/day) – blindness/deafness, protection from arrows, raimant of command
1st (6/day) – chastise, mage armor, magic missile, shield, silent image
0 (at will) – detect magic, light, mage hand, mending, message, prestidigitation, sift
These are in addition to the ongoing spells she normally casts on herself at the start of each day (false life, mage armor, protection from arrows).
Remaining Spell Slots:
3rd (3/day)
2nd (2/day)
1st (2/day)
Arcane Reservoir Remaining: 4
Redwig understandably does not want to get within fireball radius.
It is flying just as fast as Redwig.
Well they are both going 120 feet a round. The Raven of 160 feet away to begin with. Fireball at level 7 has a range of 680. Do you think Vallisa will want to try and blow her full load? You have not cleared the rest of the town.
Not many obstacles for two flyers. Wind for fly checks DC 15.
Well that bird is rolling make 5 success for Redwig to keep pace.
Do you think Vallisa will want to try and blow her full load? You have not cleared the rest of the town.
Not many obstacles for two flyers. Maybe wind for fly checks.
Vallisa: "You won't get away that easy!"
Got away from that one easy.
Got away from that one easy.
"Right. Not even going to ask who thought that was a good idea to atttach to their axe. Care to take care of it now?"
Vallisa: "Third times the charm!"
That one hit, but it seems to have avoided about half of it and it's still going.
That one hit, but it seems to have avoided about half of it and it's still going.
Well going by your own rolls. The raven got away there as well.
"Return Redwig! That bastard bird has gone."
Once the fort has been fully explored, Riva turns back towards the town proper, intent on finding surviving locals.
We begin making our way back the way we came, exploring the rest of the town more closely, starting with the two-story inn.
Perhaps the most unusual feature of
the Waterhorse is its sole, occupant—a giant-sized spriggan
that stands, silent and perfectly
still, facing a paper-strewn table
in the corner of the common room,
one hand clutching a book. The back
of the spriggan’s skull is a shattered
mess of blood and bone, though his
face betrays no notice of this mortal wound. A shimmering nimbus of amber surrounds the spriggan’s unmoving form.
The party moves up as quietly as possible . Riva waits for everyone to take tactical positions before calling out. She herself hides just around the corner of the front door of the Waterhorse Inn.
"Leave this place or be destroyed, spriggan."
If the creature doesn't respond, she motions for Toran to shoot it with an arrow.
Well it does not move. It is real hard to tell a dead body from a unmoving undead.
Toran will fire an arrow at the spriggan,
Hits no reaction.
Riva moves closer to examine the book the body is holding, taking care not to touch it. Is there anything on the cover that might indicate what kind of book it is?
Secrets of the Rashalka Mounds,
by Ernst Gavinport
Sorry to say no knowledge check would be enough for this Secret knowledge. It's in the book title.
"It's unnatural to die standing with book in hand. Probably some kind of trap."
Riva ignores the spriggan and book for the time being, moving past to explore the rest of the structure.
Research materials remain on the table in the corner; they include several books with titles like Iobarian Prehistory, The Centaur Skyles of Central Casmaron, The Untold Heritage of the Taldan Armies of Exploration.
Among these works is an incomplete ethnography of the indigenous tribes of the Iobarian steppes—Pendrod was working on a section on the Rashalka centaurs and speculated that a local tribe called the Nomens is an offshoot of the greater Rashalka population that broke away and relocated to the area of Varnhold at some time in the distant past. Mixed in with the books are a number
of charcoal sketches of a heavy jade bracelet bearing peculiar markings that Maestro Pendrod has attributed to the pre-
migration Nomen centaurs.
At the bottom of the stack sits a letter
dated 2 months ago from Maegar Varn and addressed to Maestro Pendrod. This letter describes Willas’s discovery of the jade “bracelet” on the banks of a “river of local provenance” and requests Pendrod’s presence for further study of the artifact. The “bracelet” itself, however, is nowhere
to be found.
A search of the inn’s guest rooms reveals
that only one of them was inhabited at the time of the vanishing. An investigation of the personal effects that remain indicate its occupant was Ervil Pendrod. Among the more mundane possessions in his travel trunk is a small library of further reference works. These tomes seem to be of less immediate relevance to his current work, but a
locates a centuries-old geography book created by one Carmyn e’Brothasa, chronicler of Taldor’s Third Army of Exploration into the north. One passage is marked by Maestro Pendrod and reproduced nearby. Pendrod’s own handwriting in the margin of the text contains a simple but strange note: “Vordakai—perhaps a Nomen centaur god?” The book, frustratingly, does not provide a location to the semi-mythical island mentioned in the text, nor does it provide any further clues to Pendrod’s cryptic margin note. The name “Vordakai” is a difficult one to recognize,
The inn’s till holds 37 gp, 52 sp, and 114 cp. Maestro Pendrod’s collection of books could be sold to a bookdealer for as much as 900 gp, though they might question how the PCs came by books that bear the professor’s own sigil as well as that of the Kitharodian Academy on the inside cover. The academy itself would pay a 500 gp reward for the return of all of Maestro Pendrod’s books and papers.
recall it as the name of an ancient Iobarian cyclops necromancer who once ruled a pre-Earthfall empire in this region. You are more likely to need to seek out the Nomen centaurs to learn more about this name
Riva collects the various works for inclusion in her library (she can have her scribes make copies before returning the originals to the academy). She leaves the gold in the till (we're not paltry robbers) and hands the viola to Vallisa for the eventual return to its proper owners after appraising it .
When there is more time later on back at her library, Riva further researches facts and lore on some of the newly acquired materials, setting all of her minions to the task. Together they consult with sages, peruse historical documents, and use magic and influence to unearth all of the secrets that they can. Riva believes the work important as it may provide further insight into what occurred at Varnhold.
Riva leaves the inn, the area having been thoroughly searched, and heads to the nearest building back the way they came .
You don't want to check. The book in the hand?
You don't want to check. The book in the hand?
Riva casts detect magic and magically examines (from a safe distance) the book left in the spriggan's death grasp.
The book gives off a weak conjunction aura. There is some spell on it.