Ryli can't help but smile brightly. "Mankind brought wolves into their camps before recorded history. The descendants of those wolves are now called dogs, and have the instincts of a friend and protector. Olympus is not a dog, certainly, but I allow Kallie to play beneath his watchful eye, just as humans allow their children to play with dogs. If I had the slightest doubt about Olympus, would I risk that?"
She prances a bit to put Olympus between them, but keeping a hand on him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Brognar. You need not apologize. I disrupted the herd with my arrival." She looks back toward the camp, her troubled thoughts showing on her face. "I can only imagine what the herd thinks of me."
Eugeni drops a haste spell on the group.
Ryli shrugs when he asks about the other wild animals. "True enough. Most people don't expect to see pet bears or vipers. Or rocs."
She clicks her tongue to give Olympus his usual cue, but then speaks to him using the language of living things. "Go hunt. I'll see you in the morning." The great bird takes a few hops while stretching his large wings, then takes flight. He soars off into the dwindling light of the day.
Ryli looks back at Brognar with a soft smile on her lips. "You weren't unwelcome. I was waiting to see if anyone would be brave enough to approach the mysterious new Earthmother who has a roc as a friend."
She looks over Brognar, wondering what might be the issue with him that would cause the herd to think that he is weak or sickly.
"Born to no mother? You mean your mother died while birthing you?"
He shrugs and replies ”I don’t know. The Earthmother would only tell me that the Herd found me in the wilds with no Herd nearby to claim my existence. And I’ve always been shunned for my small size and the way I talk.”
At the mention of the old Earthmother, Ryli's face goes through a number of expressions. "Okay, I can sort of see the size thing, but the way you talk? What does that have to do with anything? Have you taken the trials yet?" she finally asks.
Ryli frowns as she sees the scars on his arms. Her own trial was also brutal, and only because of her powerful healing magic did she not have scars of her own to show. She wondered what sort of trials Chogra had designed for this one. She supposed it made some sense for individualized trials, since not every centaur would be able to go a couple rounds with a smilodon.
Her eyes dance as he talks of being good with languages. "That's a blessing! The entire tribe is enriched because you can speak languages the others can't.
"Speaking of, I know the trick to talking with stones, and they have long memories. Perhaps we could visit the place where you were left and I could find out how you came to be abandoned. If it's something you'd like to know."
He walks with you through the fields, leading you towards where he was found. As you walk he talks with you, and you gather that he has a keen understanding of nature and the elements and the stars. In some ways, the experts of Golarion could even learn a thing or two from him. As you walk, you also note that the ley lines are flowing together one by one, and seem to converge on the small corpse of trees he is leading you towards.
Inside the small cluster of trees is a serene grove centered around a convergence of the natural world. Natures magic seems strong here, and it honestly could serve well as the sight of a Druid Circle. The grove is fed by a picturesque brook that babbles gently through it, and the trees part just enough to let the moon shine through in beautiful beams of silver.
As you work your magic, the stones answer your question regarding his origin.
::The boy? Aaaahhh, yes. The boy hoofman. He was born here on a mid-summer full moon. He appeared from nothingness within a cradle of ferns. Before him was no one. And after the hoofmen found him, there was no one. Man and beast stop by here and there. But no other good man besides the boy.::
Brognar stands quietly, but is obviously eager for the result of your question.
Ryli instantly fell in love with the place. She wanted to linger, to get to know the trees and the moss and the stones. To speak with the animals that visit this site, and make sure it is protected.
She casts her spell, waking the stones from their long sleep, and asks them about the time a baby centaur was brought to this place, or perhaps born here. What she learned, she did not expect.
Could he, could he be another Eldrunai? But one born as an infant, not a young adult. How is this possible? she ponders before slowly turning to face Brognar.
She tries to keep her face neutral, but her own confusion reigns. "I-- I'm not sure I can explain. The stones say you just... appeared. There was nothing, and then, here you lay." She points to the spot. "I cannot explain it further. Rocks are not very good at knowing more than what they observe."
The moment your hands touch, it’s like a flash of memories wash over you! You can see a young elf maiden and elf lord walking through a vibrant, bustling Kyonin, holding hands and talking pleasantly. The same two kissing in the moonlight from atop a lookout above the canopy of the forest. A stern rebuke from the elf maiden’s father. The pair of lovers desperately sneaking out to find time together. A secret pact. A hidden ritual to let them love each other for all eternity. The elf lord’s death at the hands of the elf maiden’s betrothed in a duel. The elf maiden’s suicide. Life after life spent searching, until the elf-maiden couldn’t remember that they even were searching...
As you come to your senses, you can feel that he just shared a similar experience. He looks at you, confused...but hopeful. But you immediately recognize him for who he truly is.
Zenlan.
And the feeling of his hand in yours obliterates the memory of the heat Chogra stirred in you. This is much more than lust. Much more than attraction. This is those things and more. This is spiritual.
He studies your features before cautiously asking ”Ry’liandralia?”
Zoli darts forward, hoping to stab this monster while she has the chance! The creature swipes at her, though she is able to avoid it with her halfling agility, but doing so makes her own strike go wide!
The wendigo snarls at the tentacles holding it in place, and you all hear in your heads ::You foolish mortals think such primitive means can hold me for long?::
It wrenches itself free of the magical tentacles, and flies up and out of the tentacles...and out of sight!
__________
Ryli growls in frustration as the wendigo breaks free. It will likely wait for the spell to expire before striking again, so there is no point but to continue to the cabin. "Let's go. The cabin is our best bet. We can rejoin the bones to his brother, and then retreat to Eugeni's mansion to rest."
Ryli then begins moving in the direction of the cabin.
"Zenlan?"
The name felt strange to say. Stranger still to hear her true name spoken. She felt as if she had woken up from a dream. Or closer yet, that she was waking up from death once more. How many lives had she lived and not known? How was it possible that she could have forgotten?
Even as her hearts swell with the distant memories of love, deep shame and guilt rises. She had forgotten. She had allowed her memories and love of Zenlan to fade.
I betrayed him. I betrayed our love. I stopped searching. I stopped loving.
The taste of Zenlan's blood on her lips came back to her. The words of the forbidden ritual. The unheeded warnings. The Wheel itself, uncaring, inexorable, ever turning and drawing them further and further apart.
Yet, Zenlan stands before her now. Calling her name, her real name. The fire of love between them so hot she feels that she could be immolated if she gives over to it. If we're consumed once more, how long before we find each other again? Will I fail him again?
She's crying, she realizes. Will he understand? Will he forgive me?
She reaches out, terrified. Afraid of loving, afraid of losing, of dying, of forgetting and of remembering. She leans forward until her forehead touches his, still unable to resist the power of her heart and her love for him.
"I'm here," she whispers.
"Eugeni, Elthariel, get in the center of our group," Jeevika orders like a seasoned general.
Dropping her sword again, Jeevika picks up Ryli's staff and stores it. She then pulls her sword back into her hand and starts moving. Meanwhile, Elthariel does as asked.
Eugeni hides in the center of the group, hoping to never be grabbed again.
While Ryli pauses to let everyone gather under her huge reach, she casts a quick spell and makes sure that Eugeni cannot be grappled.
on Eugeni
After an hour, Brognar lies panting next to Ryli, the pair catching their breath in a beam of moonlight next to the romantic brook. ”This will cause problems with Chogra,” he says bluntly. ”He has all but assumed that you would be his. And I have no wives in this lifetime...it’s so strange...isn’t it? So many lifetimes wasted...” he says as he draws little shapes on your skin. ”But I couldn’t care less about that. We are together now. We could go wherever we want. I can already feel my memory and Druidic training returning.”
”But running isn’t our way, is it my love?”
While hiding in the herd, Eugeni casts a mirror image spell on himself.
Basking in the afterglow, Ryli nuzzles close to Zenlan. The future and the past were as pale and immaterial as the moonlight filtering through the canopy. She didn't want to think of such petty concerns as the desires of another stallion, or the rise of some long-dead wizard. She desired only to stretch this moment into eternity, like her foolish elven heart had imagined when they bound themselves to the Wheel.
Finally his words caught up to her and she dreamily opens her eyes and drinks him in. "I get to choose my mate, isn't that the custom? What can Chogra say? He will accept my choice as he said that he must. He can let his four other wives comfort him, because I will not be his fifth."
She clings to him tightly as Zenlan talks of running away. "We cannot. I need to be here with Kallie; she's all that's left of dear Setsuna. She needs to stay and learn to be a centaur, even if she decides to leave the herd when she becomes an adult. And I feel some kinship to the herd -- it brought us together at last, hasn't it?"
Moving steadily in a group, the Rangers advance towards the cabin, while the wendigo does not Attack again for the moment. Eventually, the writhing mass of tentacles fades from existence.
Like a gigantic, flaming mother hen, FireRyli guides her flock in their dash toward the cabin. She urges them on, staying alert for the hunter lurking in the storm.
Ryli gasps as Zenlan becomes, well, Zenlan. The real one, the one that haunted her dreams and disappeared into the ephemera of memory. "You-- you can recall your old lives?"
She reaches deep into the Wheel and finds the string of past selves that stretched so far back that she never thought it would end. So she had never searched for her first, real and truest self. Aided by her restored memory, however, she recalls Ry'liandralia with perfect clarity. Beautiful. Pale, white hair, the bluest of eyes.
It could be like we never died. We could be together, go to Kyonin and start over. Just the two of us in our love. Our neverending love.
She shakes her head of those thoughts and remains a centaur. "No. I'm sorry, Zen-- Brognar. This is who I am. What if we're discovered? The herd already thinks me too much a two-legger; if they were to find out I could become one at will?"
She reaches out and tenderly brushes the hair from his face and traces a finger along his long, pointed ears. "I'll love you in whatever form we're in, but this--" she gestures to her half-equine form -- "is what I am now."
Ryli welcomes Zenlan back to his current incarnation by kissing his neck repeated. "Agreed," she says after several minutes, tearing herself away and starting to gather their cast-off gear and clothing. She takes a moment to wash the scent of passion from her coat in the clean water of the glade.
"Say nothing of this night. I will speak with Chogra tomorrow, if Chief Durkon still lives. If he has passed into his next life, I will give our new chief some time to mourn. I do not wish to add to his grief. I do owe my standing in the herd to him."
Once all her items are recovered and her armor and gear back in place, she starts back to the herd at a brisk trot. She spies a dark shape circling in the skies. "That would be Olympus. I'll go get him, you can return to the herd as you will," she says, giving Brognar another peck before galloping hard in the direction of Olympus.
She whistles him back down to her, and when he lands, she laughs. "You'll never guess what happened to me!"
* * *
After inspecting Olympus and ascertaining what his kill was, she trots back into camp. She has her companion stay on guard just within the perimeter that the warriors had established, then heads into the camp. She makes a quick detour to find Kallie and make sure she is tucked in, and sings her a quiet song in Elven -- one that came to her out of distant memory.
Finally, stowing away her giddiness and the impossibility of finding Zenlan after so many millennia, she seeks out Chogra.
Zoli thinks to Wrathblade, ::Is there anything you have--and trick you haven't taught me yet--that might help us survive here, that we might track Karzoug down to his lair? ::
::Other than letting you see it in this pitch darkness and being the best weapon in your arsenal? Thanks for making me feel helpful...::
The magic of the haste spell fade, and you all half expect the wendigo to immediately rush through the snow to get you, but then the cabin suddenly comes into view through the snow! You manage to step inside and close the door to the storm, finally getting some respite from the lack of visibility...albeit that respite being inside a haunted cabin in the middle of the night.
Ryli releases her huge fire elemental form lest she set the place ablaze. Squeezing through the door, she unlimbers the pack that contains the stone shell with the bones of the dwarf brother.
With some sharp kicks of her hooves, she cracks open the shell. "Okay, I was with Zoli when the ghost spoke. Where do these bones need to go? Before that thing decides to burst in here while I'm no longer on fire?"
"He just said to bring the bones to him," answered Jeevika. "In that case... Mr. Vekker! We have your brothers bones as you requested!"
While Jeevika tries to make contact with the beyond, Ryli turns to Eugeni and pulls him inside the cabin. She makes sure her bulk is between the door and him. "Let's bring up that mansion now. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of that white dragon incident."
Eugeni nods, and tiredly casts the requisite spell.
"I still don't feel right. That thing did something to my mind and it isn't going away."
When the PCs return to the cabin with Karivek’s bones, a strange sense of calm seems to fill the structure. Even the howling sounds of the blizzard outside seem muted and quiet. As soon as the Rangers bring the bones to the main entryway where they last saw the dwarf spirit of Silas Vekker, he appears again, an expression of sadness and forgiveness on his face. Yet Karivek is not yet quite ready to accept his brother. The cannibal ghost manifests as well, his bones crumbling to dust and reforming his
ghostly incarnation. The two ghosts silently face off against each other, seemingly caught in a struggle of wills as wispy strings of ectoplasm and wafts of ghostly presence lash out and coil about one another.
A moment later, the cabin is rocked by a massive impact on the outer wall! You all hear an inhuman voice shout out "You will not ruin my masterpiece!"
A moment later, the western wall of the entryway is torn asunder, the wendigo's claws ripping the old wooden wall away like it were made of rice paper! The monstrosity leers at you with cold, calculating eyes!
__________
"Hey Wendy, if that's your masterpiece, I think it's time to consider another line of work. Have you considered basket weaving?"
Zoli steps forward, twirling her blue scarf with panache. She then swings once, concentrating all her force into a single, staggering blow to the torso.
Ryli gasps as the entire wall is torn away, but at least the creature's action has given Zoli the chance she needed to actually strike it. Though her pulses race as she contemplates bringing her plan to bear knowing that if it chooses to retreat once more she'll have lost the element of surprise, her hope is that perhaps the creature has committed itself to stopping the ghosts from finally finding rest. Therefore, she begins summoning.
Eugeni casts a spell on the creature, hoping to hold it fast for his allies to attack.
A paralyzed character is frozen in place and unable to move or act. A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions. A winged creature flying in the air at the time that it becomes paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A paralyzed swimmer can’t swim and may drown. A creature can move through a space occupied by a paralyzed creature—ally or not. Each square occupied by a paralyzed creature, however, counts as 2 squares to move through.
Elthariel swiftly casts Instant Enemy on the Wendigo and then starts pelting it with arrows.
Jeevika takes a step forward and starts slashing away at the monster.
plus
plus
The creature takes a pair of strikes from both Zoli and Jeevika, but Elthariel’s shots bounce off it like it had hide of stone. Eugeni’s Magic’s seem to have no effect either.
The wendigo then lashes out at Jeevika, it’s fangs bypassing her magical shielding and sinking into her neck and shoulder near her collarbone! It maintains a grip on her and flies off into the air, back into the storm! It then tears into her with both claws as well, opening more wounds on the elf!
__________
Ryli finishes her summoning and greater elementals appear outside the cabin.
She shouts to them in Terran, "The horned creature is your enemy! Knock it into the fire I'm about to summon!"
Then she quickly casts another spell, conjuring up a molten hot wall ten feet high just behind the wendigo. The radiating heat emanates from the wall of lava, harming everything close to it.
The gigantic earth elementals follow Ryli's command, and try an Awesome Blow, sending the wendigo flying straight into the wall of lava!
The other elemental tries the same trick.
Then, Ryli causes a plume of lava to leap out and strike the Wendigo with a glob of lava.
Zoli whirls into motion, making 3 quick slashes at the horrid creature.
She manages to leave it even gorier than it was before, but it remains standing.
______
Elthariel takes a hop forward to improve her precision slightly and then lets another volley fly.
plus
plus
plus
plus
Jeevika takes a hop backward and bestows a Bit of Luck onto Eugeni.
"Hmm... It seems that our highly flammable foe will most likely hit that wall of lava if someone were to knock it backward... Anyway, fire at will, Mr. Silva."
Eugeni drops an empowered battering blast on the Wendigo, hoping to blast it into the wall of lava as Jeevika suggests.
* 1.5 = 37
* 1.5 = 43
* 1.5 = 36
* 1.5 = 52
* 1.5 = 40
The blasts from Eugeni sends the wendigo flying backward through the lava wall and on into the storm. The creature does not re-emerge from the blinding snow immediately. Seconds turn to minutes, and still nothing.
Eventually, Karivek’s ghost suddenly relaxes and sighs. His teeth return to normal and his feet grow back before he fades away into nothingness. Silas turns to face the heroes, his expression now at peace but not without an element of sadness. As he begins to fade away, he says ”You have saved my brother. You have saved me. I should reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins. Very well. Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come...”
As he finishes speaking, Silas fades away as well. As he does, several parchment pages appear and float lazily to the ground. These are the missing five pages from Silas’s ledger from the room above, and they provide exacting details on the route to Xin-Shalast!
"Jolly good, then. I am very pleased to be finished with that ordeal."
"Lava's a many splendored thing," Ryli mutters as she uses her echolocation to make sure the creature isn't coming back.
She watches the two spirits fade into the Great Beyond, leaving the pages behind. She shudders, but not to the cold. Tears start to well in her eyes. "I'm-- Excuse me. I'm going to go find Olympus," She says quietly.
She goes back out into the storm.
Shaking her head and grinning, Zoli replies, "I need a lava that won't drive me crazy!"
Then she notices Ryli heading back about for Olympus. "Wait! I'll come too."
Zoli air walks back out, following Ryli.