With Ramona's approval the troubleshooters set out to hunt the missing colonists. On the way out of Talmandor's Bounty, Ashlyn hears her name being called and finds Alba Divenvaar hurrying after her as quickly as her short legs will carry her.
"I'm so glad I caught you dearey." She says between breaths. "Ramona said you're going out today, could I get you to collect some herbs for me? Kingswort, Blood Nettle, that sort of thing - if I'm going to craft potions then I need the ingredients to do so! I made a list with descriptions so that even people like your preening friend can find them. Thank you dearey."
After heading in a north-easterly direction for a couple of hours the trees thin out around a field of shattered stones and fragments. Toppled marble columns jut haphazardly from the ground and are partially ocvered with moss. These rocks are the only evidence that buildings once stood here, but the passage of thousands of years has left little but their broken stone skeletons. One remnant remains incongruous with the ruins: a perfectly circular marble dais carved from a distinctly lustrous pinkish stone, perfectly preseved but is surrounded by a crumbled stone rotunda that has not weathered the ages nearly as well.
Atop this rotunda stand a group of four goblins chanting as a fifth goblin shakes his spear and howls.
"Ugh. Goblins again," Sarine growls. "Does someone want to talk to these things, or can I kill them all?"
"Of course, Alba! I'll keep my eyes open for them."
Ashlyn happily takes the list and turns, ready to head out to find the missing colonists alongside her friends, and her drippy ectoplasmic friend.
"Perhaps they're friendly goblins." Ashlyn remarks hopefully. "Does anyone speak goblin, or should I try to greet them in common?"
Elizar shakes his goopy head at Ashlyn and howls angrily in his ancient tongue.
Ashlyn smiles at Elizar as if he were a child misbehaving, who was far too adorable to scold. "Oh, you! Always so judgmental." she remarks with an indulgent smile and a shake of her head.
"All creatures speak Aurelian's language," the swordsman says, seeming quite serious in his usual jovial manner.
"HELLO!" he calls out in Common.
At Aurelian's bold introduction, Ashlyn smiles, then stands up and waves.
"Hi, there!"
Jenner slooooowly facepalms. As a free action.
"Sarine... weapons out, aye?"
The goblins spin around, they don't seem hostile - until they catch sight of Elizar, at which point they all scream in unison and brandish their spears!
Quicker off the mark than the adventurers, all the goblins charge! Three go for Elizar and two for Ashlyn.
The battleground is suddenly a whirl of flfying fur, tails and spearpoints, but Ashlyn and Elizar weather the storm well.
Theater of the mind until I can get a map up.
"Why did I even ask?" Sarine growls as she runs up to the nearest goblin.
HP 21/21; Hero Points 0/2
AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 17
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 0/3 charmed life)
CMD 14 (16 vs. disarm)
Panache: 3/3 (0/1 deed reroll);
Effects:
"Yes, he disturbs everyone, but you should not attack the lovely miss Ashlyn," Aurelian remonstrates the goblins and moves in to attack, sword flashing as it quickly draws blood.
Elizar looks down at the one little goblin whose spear managed to harm him. He opens his mouth wide, and screams in his face.
Then he slams his form into the goblin
Ashlyn lets out a yelp of surprise as the goblins attack her, but manages to dodge both of their spear points.
"Well, that's just rude!" she exclaims. Then she punches the nearest goblin in the face.
Aurelian's eyes grow wide at Elizar's reaction.
"Remind Aurelian to be careful if he ever needs to stab the creepy creature," he mutters.
Elizar smashes a goblin into one of the stone blocks surrounding them - turning the little thing into paste.
"Yeh, I'll second that," Jenner mutters in agreement with Aurelian, and hurries to join the fray...
Sadly, the effort of jogging to keep up with his compatriots means Jenner's actual swing is off balance. "HELL'S SUNKEN BELLS, WHY DO I NEVER REMEMBER TO ASK ABADAR FOR LONGER LEGS?"
Sarine and Aurelian each put down a goblin. Aurelian with a clean and precise thrust, Sarine by simply chopping it in half. Combined with Elizar's brutal prowess and a roaring, if ineffective dwarf, the two remaining goblins turn tail and run. One scampers up the column immediately next to him and flees in a series of flying leaps. The other, furthest towards the back scampers across the strange pink dais.
As he flees a tall figure, wearing black robes and a strange metal helm, which entirely encloses his face apart from a small mesh of chain links over his mouth, appears on the dais. The front of the helmet is decorated with three upward pointing tines which move as the figure raises its hands to you and makes a strange gesture.
"optimis civibus imperii - vereor ne. quod per fraudem et operta est caelum maculam generat in nobis dum oro ut in hac perturbata chao simul orantibus escendere suggestum. Tendunt ad munia, et confido in vobis iusto Ioun imperatoris audīmus audītis audiunt, et liberabit te. Fallunt nos non deficiet."
"You don't see that every day," Sarine says as she regards the black-robed figure. "That thing is insane, or maybe an illusion. Be ready to back me up."
Sarine sheathes her greatsword and walks up to the dais before speaking to the shade. She glances around, looking for Demon Cat as she does so.
Ashlyn hurries after Sarine and gives the man a wave only to suddenly fall to her knees and clutch at her head.
Elizar lets out a howl and moves to chase the goblins, only to see the strange man. He stares at him for a moment in confused silence, the screams at the top of his lungs. Nearby, Ashlyn drops to her knees at the sound, but he doesn't seem to notice. He continues to howl and scream in anger and confusion.
Ashlyn focuses really hard on Elizar and staggers back up to her feet and over to him.
As Sarine and the man converse, Elizar slowly begins to lower his voice, but doesn't look at Ashlyn, even as she reaches his side and places a hand on his goopy shoulder.
"By the depths of the damned and the high tide of heaven," Jenner mutters with some intense side-eye of the black-garbed figure. "What the deuce is it saying-- here now! Ashlyn! Easy!"
Jenner looks far more alarmed at Ashlyn's crumpling to her knees. "Dammit, you wretched spirit, look what you're doing to her with that screaming!" he snaps at Elizar, trying to help Ashlyn up though she may manage to get up just fine on her own, before she goes to touch her spooky friend.
"Sarine, what'd that thing say to set off Mister Spook???"
@Sarine: the figure doesn't respond at all. He simply stands, lets his hands fall to his side and then raises them, beginning the speech again. Attempting to touch him proves that it is an illusion - but a powerful one, to have survived so long.
"I'm not sure. It's an illusion left behind by the Azlanti I think. It's a message to the people, telling them to trust their government. Ashlyn, are you OK?"
As Sarine reaches right through the figure, Elizar's screams suddenly stop. He lets out a howl of rage and slumps onto the ground, sobbing in tears.
As Elizar slumps over in tears, Ashlyn gives her head a shake. She crouches down and wraps her arms around her goopy ghost.
"It's alright. It's not there. Shhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh..." She soothes him.
With a look up at Jenner, Ashlyn says, "Thank you, but I'm alright now. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. The sight of it just... set him off...?"
Then she turns her attention back to Elizar and goes back to soothing him.
Reassured that Ashlyn isn't being injured, Sarine turns back to the illusion. "Of course goblins would be attracted to something like this. They're probably worshipping it."
Aurelian shakes himself, as if coming out of a sudden reverie .
"This is very strange," he says, not understanding the figure's words.
After seeing that Ashlyn is OK, he goes over and walks around the figure, trying to see if he can determine where the illusion is coming from, occasionally slightly poking it with his sword.
After o few minutes experimentation the party is able to establish that by leaving the dais and waiting a minute or two the illusion disappears, only to be re-established when someone walks onto the pink stone again.
Having learned all they can, the group presses on and eventually crests a low hill, heavily covered in vegetation where Ashlyn notices some of the plants Alba had asked her to look out for. In the distance a strange silvery shape appears to be moving across the landscape, like a drop of mercury flowing over a piece of paper - towards what appears to be some sort of monument in white marble.
"Oh, hey! These are the plants Alba wanted. Hang on while I... What is THAT?"
Looking around for more attractive ancient illusions, Aurelian instead notices ...
Among the vegetation at the top of the hill Aurelian's sharp eyes and Ashlyn's practised ones catch sight of one plant which does not fit in with the rest - a long, think vine that sways slightly despite the lack of breeze.
"Look out" Aurelian warns, gesturing with his sword. "That plan, it wants to eat you."
"The plant...wants to eat me?" Sarine asks, glancing at Aurelian dubiously. "I don't see anything special."
"It is OK," Aurelian says, patting Sarine consolingly on her shoulder. "Aurelian Fache, he is trained to spot danger. It can come from anywhere. Sometimes -- like with Aurelian and his sword -- it may even be so beautiful that you never expect it to be dangerous and then you are surprised. See how that vine sways? Like a beautiful woman dancing naked in the moonlight?"
Ashlyn blushes brightly at Aurelian description of public nudity.
"I see the plant. It's that one there, Sarine. It's all vine-like, and is swaying and moving even thought there's no breeze. But, I have no idea what it is. Plants aren't really me specialty. Pearls are." She smiles, then looks at the strange plant.
"Ready to check it out, pal?" She asks Elizar.
Elizar's eyes lock on to the potentially dangerous plant. He howls in rage.
"Right!" Ashlyn replies. She focuses hard on a nearby rock, causing it to lift off the ground and fly at the strange plant.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ashlyn pelts the slow moving vine with rocks and batters it thoroughly. The vine does its best to close, but when it does it faces an angry ghost and finds that its plan is no match for Aurelian Fache!
With the plant dead, collecting Alba's herbs is not difficult and you return to Talmandor's Bounty, straight into what appears to be a heated argument between Luetin and Harcourt.