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A wildly dressed halfling enters the briefing room late alongside a lightly armored lion. He waits in the shadows until after Amenopheus finished speaking ...
"Well met my friends. Name's Roscoe ... It seems that King George and I have been tapped to help with this assignment.
Any outfitting recommendations before we go? My last venture was a completely different climate, so any help would be appreciated."
- Bristle
- Magic Fang
- Produce Flame x2
- Cure Light Wounds (Reach) x3
"You are headed back into the desert, cool clothing is available in the souks on the streets, and camels with plentiful water are always a wise investment. Should you be magically inclined, there are scrolls for sale to aid you enduring the elements, perhaps good for the heat of the day? A compass may help."
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"Hot weather gear, parasol or umbrella, three times as much water as you anticipate needing for yourself and your companion, holy water, acid, and at least an alchemist fire, possibly an ice if you can afford it?" The half-elf rage-ish sort ticks things off on his fingers.
"Hmmm. Should probably pick up some more water at Cayden's place. Doubles as booze in a pinch -- or was it the other way around again? I always forget..."
"Oooh, camel and water... hmmm... should probably do that too."
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"hmm yes and we should take more water with us. So when should we be underway then"
-Posted with Wayfinder
The party is handed a letter... and a wave of energy passes over you all...!
"Do you have further questions"
There being no further questions from the party, the meeting concludes.
"Once you are prepared to leave Eto, I shall teleport you and your beasts to the northern edge of the Pillars of the Sun."
Diplomacy (gather information) or Knowledge (local)
Witnesses report seeing a rather tipsy Nefti playing the flute in various taverns throughout Eto over the past several weeks. He hasn’t been seen for three days.
A man matching Kafar’s description recently visited a local herbalist and apothecary.
Several caravan guards in the city overheard Kafar and Nefti complaining to one another about the Aspis Consortium.
Nefti tried to sell information about the Aspis Consortium to a foreigner, but the deal fell through
The foreigner was actually a covert Pathfinder operative who suspects Kafar and Nefti may not only be aiming to go rogue, but are also looking for a new patron.
Knowledge (Geography)
The Pillars of the Sun are an isolated range of mountains named for their tall, wind-weathered spires.
[spoiler=15+]
The mountains begin 15 miles south of Eto, and an experienced rider might reach them in half a day. Because of its location and elevation, the region is extremely dry and hot during the day, with temperatures dropping drastically at night due to strong winds.
In past eras, attempts to settle in the region
were frustrated by the mountains’ harsh conditions
and aggressive fauna. To this day, many ruins stand as
reminders of these ill-fated enterprises.
The Pillars of the Sun have long been an isolated place, and interspecies competition has honed the abilities of its monstrous inhabitants. Even creatures that are typically harmless in other ecosystems can be deadly here, and some are said to have truly extraordinary power.
Many ancient structures within the Pillars of the
Sun take advantage of the terrain and are actually carved
inside the rock. Adventurers looking for ruins are more likely to find hidden trap doors and secret passages
than crumbled temples covered in sand. Some of these
subterranean vaults extend for miles beneath the surface,
and a clever explorer can use them to cross from one
valley to another to circumvent the most difficult of the
mountainous terrain.
The group arrives at the northern edge of the Pillars of the Sun and you are able to find the correct path...
Temperatures continue to rise all through the morning, and after four hours of travel, the group reaches a place where the winding path through the spires splits. Frustratingly, it appears Kafar and Nefti split up here and travel in separate directions.
Without knowing which of the two agents has the sage jewels or whether they too have been split up, Amenopheus decides that the best
choice is to split up. He assures you he will remain in contact.
The path leads you through a series of switchbacks that ascend the steep side of a gorge, and approximately one hour after Amenopheus’s departure, you reach an immense cliff where the tracks simply end.
DC21 Survival check (to catch up ground)
TWO DC 14 Fort saves to avoid heat injury* (-4 if wearing armour)
You notice a crevice in the rock face that leads to a trap door
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The angry half-elf is hot, and it's not just because of the weather. He's feeling rather ineffectual at the moment, and is wondering what the point of having 'vast cosmic power' is if it means ultimately nothing. Of course, that's such a deep philosophical thought that it's giving him a headache, enough that he eschews common sense and makes motions to take off his armor (unless the rest of the party is far better at this than he is...)
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Magrim feels the knowledge of a spell that he'd never encountered before, radiating an aura of warmth that protects him and his companions from the sun. He is in his element tracking their quarry, easily gaining ground while also offering advice to escape the worst of the heat damage.
Yes, let's check it out, he says gruffly to Roscoe's query as Lagertha follows closely behind.
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Rogelio is sweating but no worse for wear deciding to let the tracking be done by those more suited for it
-Posted with Wayfinder
You decide to check out the trap door.
After descending down a roughly hewn tunnel, you reach a long underground gallery.
Enigmatic hieroglyphs cover just about every surface of this chamber excavated into the mountain. Bas-relief engravings stretch along the walls all the way from the lofty, tapered ceiling down to floor level, their eerie pictography suggesting an unnerving story. Toppled columns, crumbling shreds of cloth, and potsherds scattered throughout the chamber attest to the place’s abandonment and antiquity. Small holes in the vaulted ceiling let in thin beams of sunlight but do little to illuminate the chamber.
You can hear two creatures trying to quietly shuffle into position...clearly staking an ambush.
Magrim gets his spell off, just as things escalate.
R1
Rogelio (Delayed pending update)
Henrick
Roscoe
Agraic
ENEMY
@Rog: Try over Here :)
R1
Rogelio (Delayed pending update)
Henrick
Roscoe (Delayed, looking for charge opportunity)
Agraic - armouring
ENEMY
Then Magrim, then Kel
R1
Enora
Henrick
Roscoe (Delayed, looking for charge opportunity)
Agraic - armouring
ENEMY
Then Magrim, then Kel