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Celentrai searches the backpacks for useful things and finds ropes, shovels, torches, lockpicking tools and a few pieces from the temple: two rings and a small golden monkey figurine, wrapped in old clothes.
Iso proceeds further into the temple halls and sees a mosaic of a monkey-faced figure decorating the floor of this room, though the tiles that would form its eyes are missing. The north end of the room is filled with rubble blocking an arched passageway. To the west, vines and foliage intrude into the temple through an open-air balcony, while a similar balcony to the east remains relatively clear of plant life.
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The rings are not magic, the figurine is.
Iso scans the area and finds out that there is room for tiny creatures to climb over the rubble clogging the archway to the north into the next room. Small creatures can squeeze through . Creatures larger than Small will have to go around the rubble via the balcony to the east.
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Celentrai thinks the monkey figurine might be an alluring golden apple. In the room borrobol finds another bag the looters dropped when getting away. It contains a coral holy symbol of Ragdya and six jeweled tiles.
Iso does not get an answer and nothing moves around him so he moves to check the balcony. A narrow path extends between the exterior wall of the temple and the thick web of vines and tree branches that cover the temple’s walls. At the other end of the path, another small open-air balcony leads back into the temple.
Tippy peers through the opening into the next area and spots a large statue of a monkey-faced man sitting on a pedestal at the north end of a small shrine. The shrine is in a big room.
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You cross the path and the balcony and after some bush whacking you reach are able to enter the final room of the temple.
A 20-foot-tall, high-relief sculpture of a mountain dominates the north end of this large chamber. A statue of a figure now missing its head sits in the lotus position at the mountain’s peak, while smaller statues of monkey-faced pilgrims rest on ledges farther down the mountain. Shattered pieces of yet more monkey statues litter the floor.
The southern half of the room is filled with rubble, obstructing an arched passageway to the south. In the center of the room, a small enclosed shrine made of dark brown stone faces south toward the rubble. A hallway to the west leads to a balcony overrun by foliage.
Inside the room you see two creatures, they seem to be the creatures the looters were talking about.
Tippy
Borrobol
Celentrai
Iso
Tripurasura red
Tippy
Tripurasura blue
Borrobol
Celentrai
Iso
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Tippy follows the others around. As they burst in, they're just outside of Tippy's effective range with his daggers, so he just advances 20 feet into the room during the surprise round.
After Iso pulverizes one of them, Tippy takes a five foot step forward and hurls daggers before the remaining creature can react.
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Tippy, Celentrai and Borrobol rush into the room, preparing to attack the creature as soon as possible. Tippy is fast and throws two daggers at the creature, one of them hits the target directly in the chest leaving a big wound which seems to close partly.
The remaining Tripurasura mumbles a few words and climbs up the temple walls and now sits at the ceiling staring at you.
Tripurasura defeated
Tippy
Tripurasura blue -7HP
Borrobol
Celentrai
Iso
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Borrobol throws a rock at the creature at the ceiling but the rock hits only stone before it gets back down almost hitting Borrobol on his head. Celentrai throws a magic missile at the tripurasura. She hits and the creature drops to the floor.
Tippy
Tripurasura blue -10HP, prone -4AC
Borrobol
Celentrai
Iso delay
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A dark grin crosses Borrobol's lips as he watches the creature fall from the ceiling after being struck by Celentrai's spell. Even though it quickly gets back to its feet and races to the wall, the dwarf leaps after it in pursuit, dropping his shield and drawing his dwarven longhammer which he swings viciously at the Tripurasura, hoping to stop it before it can get back onto the ceiling.
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Borrobol, Iso and Celentrai attack the creature in the corner and are able to defeat it. It drops down from the wall and stops to move. At a closer look you can see a crown of frilled horns and a sting on its tongue.
Suddenly you see a horde of monkeys getting into the temple from all sides, stealing the asuras' longbows. As fast as they appeared they disappear again.
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A large statue of a monkey-faced man sits on a pedestal at the north end of this small shrine. The statue’s arms and legs are missing, and deep scratches have been gouged into its face. Pieces of broken stone, rotting plant matter, and other assorted rubbish lie in heaps on the floor of this room. The smell of rot is particularly strong here. The asuras took great delight in desecrating the shrine at the heart of this temple.
The statue of Radya is wearing a furry belt which can be removed. A small cabinet in the pedestal below the statue holds a richly illuminated copy of Vigrahin Patitraka (a Vudran holy text) and a handwritten journal belonging to a priest who accompanied Khiben-Sald on his travels around the Inner Sea.
It's a monkey belt.
Two of the monkey statues in the the entrance hall changed. They are now kneeling and hold the weapons stolen from the asuras out as if to present them to you as a gift or trophy.
The rest of the hunting expedition passes without incident, and you make your way back to the hunting lodge and further to Absalom without any difficulty.
Baron Rudyahm is grateful to you for your help and to his son-in-law Falroun Matsanda for organizing the expedition. Finally satisfied that he avenged the friends lost on his last expedition, he retires from hunting to write his memoirs. Falroun is also overjoyed with the Pathfinders for helping him bond with his father-in-law. Falroun arranges to have your trophies stuffed and mounted and delivered to you as a gift.
Though Ambrus Valsin is excited to inspect any of the items you found in the lost temple, he is especially thrilled that you recovered the journal recounting Khiben-Sald’s travels. He immediately refers the log to the Society’s Vudran historians for analysis, hoping to glean information about other lost sites the Maharaja may have built or visited during his travels.
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Several weeks pass after the adventure in the Seegang jungles before you hear again from the Pathfinder Society. You are invited to Cassomir, a big city in the empire of Taldor. The settlement is located at the mouth of the Sellen River and is also home to the greatest of Taldor's imperial shipyards.
Venture-Captain Hestia Themis, a small, unassuming woman of Taldan heritage with dark hair and eyes, holds a large sheaf of papers in her small hands and clears her throat. Her booming voice, the antithesis of her stature, fills the main hall of the small Pathfinder Lodge.
"One of our own has been kidnapped. Pathfinder Cestis was taken just days ago from a relics auction in the Imperial Naval Shipyards, and we believe his dissapearance to be related to the six dozen or so kidnappings of the last several months. Now that one of our own is missing, this has become a Society matter — something we’ll get to the bottom of."
Themis gestures to a teenage boy standing beside her, who nervously regards his surroundings and sweats profusely, his thick brown hair matted and wet against his head.
"This is Nefti, the assistant to the biggest thorn in my side in Cassomir — an agent of the Aspis Consortium named Kafar. Kafar is also missing, taken from the same relics auction along with Pathfinder Cestis and a dozen other citizens of Cassomir. Nefti was at the auction, saw where a small group of the kidnapped victims were taken, and his handlers in Cassomir have give us access to him so that he might guide us to our missing Pathfinder. If you happen to find Kafar..." Themis grinds her teeth.
"Let him go, per the agreement I’ve just made with his superiors. Your priority is Cestis, and I think Nefti can lead you to him. Any questions?"