The Masters of Golarion

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"As long as there are no anti-magic fields the winds will not be an issue. If we need aerial recon I can provide that when it comes to it."

Validk had already finished his morning routine, including the selection of spells to memorize for the day, and those he routinely cast every morning.

What did they eyes tell you? Anything interesting? Other than this sandstorm. It should have dissipated long before now. It looks to have been consistently blowing for several days.

Validk finishes assisting Orsenn with taking the pavilion down and stowing the amenities in the portable hole. Good thinking on the water, I often forget about mundane backups.

Orsenn nods thanks to his boss and hands him the folded up portable hole. Orsenn unrolls his carpet and settles himself onto the front of it. Ready when you are boss.

Seems like a fairy tale, to be riding a flying carpet across desert sands. Validk steps up onto the carpet and stands behind Orsenn. Lead the way Jacob.

As the party makes their way across the remnants of Manaket. The town looks like it will soon be completely buried under the sands.

The party approaches the dune that can now be seen to follow a curved line that was the edge of Katja's weather control around the city.

Orsenn and Validk float along, just a few feet off the ground, not much faster than a steady walk. They follow one of the roads that seems to lead directly to the southwest. Along each side are half buried buildings lining the street, their windows broken in and doors flooded with drifting sand.

The buildings and road come to an abrupt end. Validk places a hand on Orsenn's shoulder, This is unusual. It looks like there are buildings missing.

Orsenn points to some debris on the lee side of a building across the street. That looks out of place.

Modes of transportation? Order and distance from others? If flying, how high?

Jacob would be taking point, flying roughly 5-10 feet off the ground.

"Curious" Jacob stopped midair near where the road ended. "I could've sworn this was some kind of illusion I was seeing through. It doesn't seem like this is anything a normal sandstorm should do."

"It's possible that one of our mysteries has it's solution somewhere around here. Should we investigate here first or start off to the supposed origin of the River?" He looked out amongst the landscape ahead. "We are here already, though."

"Oh, what do you see, Val?" He just caught a glimpse of the debris himself. However, from his recollection, none of the eyes picked it up earlier.

"Very strange. I don't remember seeing this before. I wonder why..."

Jacob landed and approached the debris for a closer inspection.

It doesn't look like much, just a piece of wood sticking out of the sand, a couple of tugs indicates whatever it is attached to is big and buried under a couple feet of sand.

beyond the end of the road, and between the buildings, the sand is smooth and pristine, as if from the deep desert, undisturbed, and untouched by human hands.

Jacob pulled on the stick as well as he could.

Strength: 1d20 ⇒ 6

"Well, that's pretty well stuck in there. Maybe there's a tree down there. Or something big."

The desert ahead seemed too strange to him, however. "For a blustering storm, it seems just a little TOO smooth out there for my tastes. Plus, why aren't there any signs of buildings at all?"

The week following the battle with Golthanos is a relatively calm one for Nagato. Recalling that it has been a while since she had done so, the Oldest Samsaran renews the life on her demiplane the following day. Afterward, she spends most of the time meditating on what to do next. Despite having vast resources on hand, Nagato is not sure how to seek out the power that controlled the Storm. If it could control a Spawn, then such an entity probably had access to some sort of variation of Mind Blank, which can block off even her mighty Miracles.

Mira spends the time back on Golarion proper, managing her surrogate mother's assorted disciples. However, the blonde sorceress visits the Vault of Samsara every day to renew certain spells/wards and make sure that old age has not caught up with her mentor. As usual, nothing (thankfully) changes with Lady Nagato. Such is the routine that they often repeat for months on end.

The former Razmiran Priestess also takes the time to go shop around the various big cities of planet for new gear and gather supplies from her mentor's supply caches. She does not want a repeat of her near death at the hands of Golthanos. Mira had been poorly equipped in many ways, and that had nearly cost the sorceress her life.

Much to Mira's surprise, an hour before she makes her usual visit to the Vault, Nagato makes an unexpected appearance amongst her followers on the seventh day following the fight against Golthanos. The Samsaran quickly beckons Mira to follow her while the rest of her followers are told to simply continue going about their day.

OoOoO

"We are heading to Manaket in Rahadoum," Nagato explains as she and Mira walk outside into the old forest surrounding the old Thassilonian building that the Eldest Samsaran had claimed as her hideout. "Either Lord Irori or Mother sent me a vision. They seem interested in something there..."

Realizing that the Samsaran probably knows little else, Mira only nods as Nagato finds a particularly large tree and places a hand against it. The Masked Monk places a hand on it while settling her other on her adopted daughter. A second later, the two vanished into the Fey Lines.

Nagato will use her Walk the Lines ability (which acts as Transportation via Plants) to get as close to Manaket as possible. Considering that there probably aren't any big trees left, she will then cast Find the Path, transform into a Huge Air Elemental, and fly herself and Mira the rest of the way.

Katja had been flying above (about 100') when she noticed Jacob trying to get the item out of the sand.

Katja lands, and moves next to Jacob. She will attempt to pry loose whatever the object is. "Here, allow me."

Scooping away some of the sand, Katja then grabs the stick and gives a mighty pull.

Strength: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17

Seaweed is a plant, and offshore there is plenty of seaweed. :)

Emerging from the seaweed, Nagato and Mira find themselves a bit wet. The water is murky with the over abundance of sand that is being blown into it. Enough sand to be killing off the marine life.

Surfacing and quickly drying out, the transformed Nagato sees a sand storm blowing from one horizon to the next. Nearly centered on the shore a bubble of calm keeps the wind at bay. Considering what landmarks can be made out, Nagato is fairly sure that the calmed air is about where Manaket should be.

*****

Katja and Jacob work together and manage to pull the shaft of wood from the ground. As they tug on it, it readily becomes apparent that the shaft is attached to something much larger. To either side the sand shifts as two curved hoops of wood are drawn from the sand.

Continuing to pull on the shaft and the hoops soon reveal spokes pointing inward. A pair of planks to one side and between the two hoops is soon revealed. Jacob realizes that he was probably standing in top of the planks when he first tried to pull on the shaft of wood.

With so much now showing, the rest easily and quickly comes forth. Laying on the sand before the trio is a wagon.

More to the point, half a wagon. The shaft was broken off before the traces for the mounts. Just behind the wagon seat the wood planks of the bed are shredded in a jagged zig-zag across the width of the wagon.

Knowledge: Arcana DC 40, Nature DC 50, Healing DC 50:

Knowledge: Arcana: 1d20 + 35 ⇒ (5) + 35 = 40

"That almost looks like it was bitten in half by something with big, sharp teeth."

Knowledge(Arcana): 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (7) + 26 = 33

Jacob tilted his head and squinted. "You think? What would want to eat a wagon? Barring the possibility something was in the wagon worth eating, I'd say wagons make for absolutely terrible foodstuffs."

He tilted his head in the opposite direction and rubbed his eyes. "Though I guess I can see something like that when you point it out..."

@Nagato What is your typical mode of travel? If flying, height?

Teeth? Those are some pretty good sized bites. And what happened to this part of the town? Looking at the age of these buildings and the surrounding area, there should have been a couple of buildings in this clearing. I'm not seeing anything in here. Validk hops off the flying carpet and walks into the clearing a few feet. His feet sink down into the sand an inch or so.

Kneeling he digs his hand into the sand and pulls up a handful of the sand. Looking at the sand, he slowly lets it flow through his fingers and watches as it falls back to the ground. Interesting, the sand is particularly loose, this is just in front of the roadway, this sand should be nearly as hard as rock from being compacted.

Katja, can you blow some of this sand away? Let's see if the foundations are still there.

Nagato is a bit surprised at popping out of a rather large seaweed plant. Despite living many lifetimes, this experience is certainly a first. Luckily, her foresight of daily casting Life Bubble on herself and Mira allows them to breath just fine and endure any sort of pressure that the depths might exert on them. Once she is able to find Mira's hand, Nagato quickly shifts her form to that of a Huge Water Elemental. Once her daughter is secure in her grasp, the Samsaran quickly swims her way up to the surface.

"Huh. I've heard rumors that Manaket was turning into a desert, but this is kind of ridiculous," Mira comments dryly as Nagato quickly Wild Shapes into a Huge Air Elemental and carries them both into the air.

Once about a hundred feet or so up, Nagato looks at their surrounds and begins to ponder.

"We should head toward that bubble; it is certainly not natural. I could navigate the winds in this form, but they might be too much for you, Mira," says Nagato.

"Doesn't Miss Golarion give you Control Winds everyday when you prepare your spells?" Mira inquires.

"That could work," answers Nagato as she remembers Katja's skilled use of said spell and quickly begins casting it. Once finished, the Elemental Samsaran Monk quickly forms a protective bubble around herself and Mira, and the two begin to head into Manaket as Nagato keeps her senses open for trouble.

Perception: 1d20 + 49 ⇒ (14) + 49 = 63

If she needs to travel fast, Nagato usually assumes her Huge Air Elemental form for the 120 feet of perfect flight. Due to her Celestial Bloodline capstone, Mira has an infinite perfect flight speed of 60 feet, so she usually lets Nagato ferry her around, but the sorceress can hover and such on her own. Both women are currently 100 feet up.

Nagato and Mira find that the town once known as Manaket has effectively been buried by sand. It doesn't take much to recognize a control weather spell in effect over the city.

But the spell is not the cause of the town's current status. Instead, it is holding at bay the horrendous winds blowing offshore.

An area a couple miles across is held at rest. However, along the edges a large dune has formed where the sands driven aloft by the blowing wind are falling as they cross into the area of calm air.

On the southeastern side of Manaket three individuals stand on an area that is unusual in the lack of sand covered buildings, or the lack of buildings themselves.

As perceptive as everyone is, the site of a huge air elemental carrying a huge water elemental through the air can be seen coming from the coast.

I think you misread my post, Fnord. Nagato turned into a Water Elemental to escape the water and then an Air Elemental to fly to town. Mira never changed form at all.

While Validk and Katja focused on the anomalous sand, Jacob's attention took to the sky. "Heads up, you two, huge elemental coming in from the northeast."

He couldn't tell from the ground if the elemental was friend or foe, but regardless he readied himself for any possibility. He left the ground again and reached for his Rod of Absorption, just to be safe.

However, as the creature gained ground, he did begin to make out a familiar face. "Mira? Oh my, I take it that must be Nagato. Pardon, you two, we're a bit on edge over here."

Just saw that typo, myself. Changed Jacob's response to match the intended situation.

You know, I've always seen Nagato as male and Mira as female, didn't realize he was a she. But then I have a lot of spanish around here to influence my perception of name genders.

Validk winks as Mira comes in for a landing, Morning ladies, how nice of you to drop in!

How much time spent exploring the area? Perception checks please.

I thought that we would still need to have Katja clear the sand, but I guess we could easily spend at least ten, fifteen minutes observing the area.

Perception: 1d20 + 37 ⇒ (12) + 37 = 49

Upon seeing the arrival of Nagato.

"Well, fancy meeting you here! It seems that fate has brought us together once again. We are attempting to figure out what is causing this destruction."

When Validk makes his request.

"Good idea. Some extra wind should help here."

Using control winds to create a strong wind to clear all loose the sand. As to the time spent exploring, I would say around 20 minutes.

Perception: 1d20 + 48 ⇒ (5) + 48 = 53

Nagato's actually a Japanese name that can apply to either gender, but it does strike me as more male sounding.

"The feeling is mutual," says Nagato as she adjusts her Air Elemental form to more closely resemble her humanoid appearance as opposed to the more monstrous one she normally assumed. "A vision brought me here, but the details were vague. It is good to know that I will at least have allies in this endeavor."

Perception: 1d20 + 49 ⇒ (15) + 49 = 64

The winds generated by Katja quickly move the sand, blowing several feet of it off to the sides, and incidentally burying those buildings even deeper that border the clearing.

The group sees that the sand has been blown below where the hard pack layer should have been.

In fact, the hard pack is now visible around the edges of the clearing, jagged chunks of it mark an area about a hundred feet in diameter.

Maybe it was Nagato's height before hand, or just her breath of life experience that connected the dots for her. The edges of the hard pack indicated that they were thrust upwards. There were characteristics similar to a dust digger, but they tended to cave the sand in and down upon themselves, and even in the darkest reaches of her memories, she only recalled ever hearing that they only grew a few yards in size.

Whatever caused the damage is larger than anything the heroes have seen before, fortunately it does not appear to be here now.

Jacob simply couldn't wrap his head around the sheer size of what he was seeing. "Could someone tell me what all this is about? What in the world could've made this kind of thing?!"

Judging by the sheer scale alone, this beast had to possess incredible strength. "I'm not sure if this by itself could have caused the storm, but I'm beginning to think that there may be more to what we thought about this River of Sands. Messing with it may have summoned this sort of beast to reek havok. We'll need to be terribly careful moving ahead."

The quartet is reunited and discuss among themselves several ideas regarding causes.

It does not appear that anything else can be learned at this point, the party has a few choices on directions from here.

Hunting for the survivors of Manaket. Not likely they went into the sand storm. Many of the boats are missing from the harbor. However, Manaket's local fleet is coastal fishing boats and they would not have been able to go far from shore, and would risk capsizing from open water at sea, and the winds close to shore. More than likely, the boats are at the bottom of the harbor, but this has not been confirmed. The other options are east and west along the coastal roads.

Jacob has mentioned looking for a place called "River of Sands" someplace to the southwest.

Nagato mentioned that a vision brought her to Manaket.

Katja has not mentioned why she was in Manaket. She does have some pretty powerful weather control... hmmm....

Validk stated he was looking for the wife of an acquaintance in Jistkan, otherwise known as "River of Sands."

"I believe we have an impasse here. We can either head down this tunnel or continue towards the River of Sands. Seeing as the two have got to be connected somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if we would see whatever caused this as we get closer. On top of which, I'd rather try to save who I can before dealing with giant monsters." Jake began to fly his way over the gigantic hole. He was unsure how far the mystery area was from the city exactly and feared it may already be too late to save the Venture Captain.

Knowing that Jacob could probably use some muscle on his side, Nagato decides to wordlessly follow the most sorcerer on the planet.

As she follows her mother, Mira turns to the rest of the group and comments, "I agree; we should try and see if there are any survivors first. I would hate for the fallout of any battle to kill them; we really lucked out with confronting Golthanos in an empty plan."

Which way did Jacob fly?

There is no tunnel. Building on sand is complicated. When you have hundreds or thousands of people walking, riding, rolling across the sand, it will be compressed and turn from loose sand into a hard pack. Over time, as more sand blows in, this layer can build up and be several feet thick.

A section of town that used to reside on this hardpack has disappeared. Since most of the town has a new, several feet thick, layer of loose sand blown over it, Katja used her power to blow that loose sand away. This revealed that a large chunk of the hardpack was no longer present. The edges of the hardpack indicate that something thrust up from below the hardpack. (A crater will have different characteristics from a bomb that blows up on the surface to one that blew up ten feet under the surface)

The area that has been cleared of sand is only a few feet deep, deep enough to clear off the newly arrived sand, and deep enough to reveal the depth of the hard pack.

To attempt to track the subterranean ground disturbance will require: 1)a burrow speed, 2) blind sense or something similar, 3) a means of not needing to breathe or providing air, 4)lots of ranks in know:geography, nature, and/or survival.

Pardon, Fnord, I seem to keep getting these little details wrong when I post. I thought the broken rock pack meant there was a giant tunnel caused by what looked to be a giant dust digger. I'll try harder to analyze under scrutiny in the future for these gameplay posts.

Suffice to say Jacob is flying southwesterly above the thruster up area where the hard pack was broken through. Currently, his plans were to look for this River above ground before trying to head to track the source of the disturbance. If I've misunderstood something again, please let me know as soon as possible as I can adjust accordingly.

No worries, it's a learning process of my communication as much as anything. It won;t be the first time I know what I'm talking about.

The disturbed area was about a hundred feet across. Guessing by the way the buildings were situated in the surrounding area, there was probably a half dozen buildings there, without finding a resident, an exact count isn't possible.

Validk digs a hand into a pocket and searches around. The tries a different pocket. And then remembers it was in his other shirt. Digging into his haversack, he pulls out a folded letter and looks at it briefly, Rashidi says his wife was headed to the Napsune Mountains. That's across the desert, from some research I did before coming here, the typical trip took a good week on camelback with some meandering to reach watering holes along the way. It's nearly a month to go around the desert.

Validk looks off to the southwest, as if trying to pierce the wall of windblown sand that rains down at the edge of the sandstorm and Katja's spell. River of Sands is a name for an ancient city also known as Jistkan. I don't know what connection that city has, but it is interesting that two of us had specific references to it.

"Two is a reasonable lead, as far as I'm concerned. Just thank goodness that a third of us didn't mention it. That would surely spell certain doom." Jacob squinted past the sands, trying to make out any mountains and how far away they would be.

"A week is too long. We should already be moving. And fast. Just a shame that my Shadow Walk idea didn't seem to have quite the best outcome last I tried." He rubbed his chin, hoping someone would provide an alternative means of quick transit. If not, he was prepared to push himself via his own Overland Flight.

The Napsune Mountains run northwest to southeast. Closest to Manaket they are about 150 miles away, closer to 250 miles where the gem mines are located which was near the search area for Jistkan.

"If she was headed to the Napsune mountains, she may not have necessarily made it, Validk. We could try due south. Could end up cutting her off on the pass. If we don't get any headway, we could make a sharp eastern turn. What do you think?"

Validk shrugs his shoulders, utilizing a rod, he casts an extended communal phantom steed spell, conjuring two steeds for himself and Orsenn.

With a flick of the reigns, he takes to the air, south it is! Lead on good sir!

The party settles itself into a loose formation of flying beings using various methods or transportation.

Flying over the growing sand wall formed at the border of Katja's control weather and the ongoing sandstorm, the party heads south.

A bubble of calm weather pops forward every couple of minutes (assuming Katja takes time to change the weather pattern and recenter it).

The party travels a couple of miles with the sandstorm in full swing around them. After traveling five miles, the control weather spell flickers a few times. Each of the heroes experiences their own sensation of falling as their flight spells are interrupted for a moment. With no harm done, the party senses that something has changed. Ahead, they can see that the calmed weather bubble no longer has harsh winds blowing at it. To the sides the wind's appear less intense and the volume of sand in the air is lessening.

Know: Arcana and perception rolls.

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (14) + 26 = 40
Perception: 1d20 + 37 ⇒ (10) + 37 = 47

"Seems like we may have hit a break, finally." Jacob muses, before nearly toppling into the sand, in front of everyone. "That was odd. Anyone else feel that?"

Katja continues to keep the weather at bay while the group travels.

Since Katja is flying, her method of transporation is not interrupted by whatever it is that disrupts any magical means. She comes in and gracefully lands near Jacob and any of the party who may have already landed.

Knowledge: Arcana: 1d20 + 35 ⇒ (9) + 35 = 44

Perception: 1d20 + 48 ⇒ (14) + 48 = 62

"I did feel it to be sure. Something has indeed changed. Let's find out as I am most curious."

Since their means of flying do not come from spells, neither Nagato or Mira seem to have any difficulty stay in the air; in her current form, Nagato's flight is as natural to her as that of Katja is to a silver dragon. Meanwhile, Mira's means of flight is a supernatural aspect of her celestial heritage. However, seeing the arcane casters of their group fall out of the sky is still a bit startling.

"What just happened?" Mira asks Nagato as she promptly moves herself to help Jacob get steady.

"...Let me think," the Samsaran mutters to herself as she begins to scan her collective 10,000+ years of memories.

Perception: 1d20 + 54 ⇒ (1) + 54 = 55

Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 34 ⇒ (18) + 34 = 52

"I'm not sure, I think I... Tripped? This place is getting particularly weird, magics just deciding not to work or shorting out. Is everyone entirely sure we didn't make a wrong turn and head into the Spellscar Desert?" Jake's flight seemed to be working just fine at the moment, but these disruptions in magic were worrying to say the least.

Only natural flight would be unaffected. flight by supernatural means would have also felt a disturbance.

Magical means of detection suggest some sort of conjuration affect that does not appear to have a single point of overwhelming aura emanation but an area extending all along where the sandstorm originates.

With nothing further to investigate the party continues southwest. After only a couple of minutes the sand storm is passed. Whatever the effect is that is generating the storm, it covers a vast area.

Once clear of the sandstorm, the air is clear, no clouds. A bright burning sun shines down on a sea of sand that stretches to the horizon. The air is extremely dry.

Flying across the sand dunes is unremarkable, the sun travels across the sky, the sand dunes display characteristics of a consistent prevailing wind. Here and there are areas where the uniformity of the dunes has been disrupted. The crests fallen into the troughs, almost as if a finger had drawn a line through the sand.

Assume travel will be uneventful for the day, what will you do, when?

"Good hustle today, everyone." Jacob cheers on for everyone as the sun starts to sink. "I think we've got a couple choices from here, though. Seems like we could either keep going during the night or we could set up a camp. I'm not opposed to setting up another Mansion if anyone's ready to bed down. Though, we may cover more ground easier if we travel at night than day. This heat's something oppressing, alright. "

He looked out amongst the group, trying to gauge the general reaction to his proposal.

After a few hours of travel, the sun indicates that it is not quite noon yet. Already the temperature has increased dramatically. Even the breeze provided by Katja's control weather doesn't seem to help much. With so little moisture in the air, it's just a hot dry wind.

Two hours in, and the DC will have risen to 27.

Validk has endure elements, and does not need to make any saves.
Orsenn does not have endure elements.

fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26, fort: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (6) + 15 = 21
nonlethal: 1d4 ⇒ 1

After an hour and a half, Orsenn swoons, Oh man, this heat is really something!

Validk hand't realized how serious the heat was until Orsenn spoke up. Oh dear, I'm sorry, I hadn't thought about that. Validk rummages through a pocket and pulls out his wand. Anyone else need some help with the heat?

Vlaidk casts endure elements on Orsenn.

Sorry, I assumed nothing would happen till nightfall.

Jacob swore at his pocket watch, trying to wind it again mid-flight. "Damn watch, must've got something stuck in it. Could've sworn night would be soon." He gave a sigh as he flipped his hood up, trying to keep the sun from beating down on him too hard.

Fortitude 1: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (11) + 23 = 34
Fortitude 2: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (18) + 23 = 41
Fortitude 3: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (8) + 23 = 31
Fortitude 4: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (3) + 23 = 26
Fortitude 5: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (4) + 23 = 27
Fortitude 6: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (10) + 23 = 33
Fortitude 7: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (3) + 23 = 26
Fortitude 8: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (4) + 23 = 27
Fortitude 9: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (16) + 23 = 39

Overall, the heat didn't get to Jake. At least, not to the point of exhaustion. Internally, he was surprised he found himself in a situation where he would rather be in Irresen. "For the moment, I'm alright. Maybe later. Does anyone happen to see anything?"

What fun (for me) would that be?

Nagato and Mira do not seem to be particularly bothered by the heat. Any druid worth their salt usually has a spell to handle extreme temperatures on hand, and Nagato is probably the shining example of such. Speaking of who, the Samsaran Air Elemental scans the area from the air in response to Jacob's question.

Perception - Taking 10: 10 + 54 = 64

Mira begins fumbling through her haversack and asks the group, "I have a scroll of Commune in here somewhere. If I use my priestess training, I can keep casting it until I run out of my stronger magic reserves. Maybe we should consult higher powers on this one; just floating here doesn't seem to be very productive."

Nagato adds, "Perhaps we should invoke a Miracle as well? I have a few of those prepared. We just need to figure out the best spell to replicate with it."