Prickles follows his noisy pet!
Danicka shrieks loudly and dives to the side. The yell must have thrown off the targeting sensor of the toad, as it lands clearly away from the group... right into the middle of the remaining oblivious Aspis agents. One was completely squashed like a frog run over by a cart. The rest are in slightly better shape, but still were knocked prone from the shock wave.
As quick as it lands, the Mobogo takes flight. You see a possible escape route and dart down a side street. It cuts you off, hovering at the end. Its giant wings pumping gusts of air down the narrow alleyway. You can withstand the gusts or push your way through .
Prickles stands strong against the gusts.
The phantom floats around in the wind, reveling in the strong gusts and laughing.
Dark plants himself firmly against the wind and Dolora spins around him laughing off the mundane weather effect. The rest of the group shelters behind, safe and sound. The Aspis, again are not as lucky. The winds pin the remaining few against the wall.
Seeing the edge of town, the group cuts towards the safety of the jungle. The remaining Aspis trail just behind. The mobogo chants and the innocuous vines on the walls suddenly spring to life, threatening to choke off the escape route. Identify which plants will allow safe passage or find a safe route around them .
Prickles tries to find a safe route through after his pet!
The plants in front of you bow to Danicka's intellect and part ways, leaving a nicely covered path for the group to stroll through. The Mobogo croaks in anger as the group escapes her trap. One of the Aspis tries to follow but then seems to disappear completely, possibly swallowed up in malicious tangling vines.
The giant frog dragon beast thing thunders after you. Up ahead, the lower half of an ancient statue forms a crumbling archway. Darting under it, you think that if the right pressures were applied either through brute force or intelligent removal of the cornerstone that it would all tumble down around the beast.
The phantom is right behind Dolora, adding a fist slam to the attempt.
Prickles mimics his pet!
Prickles growls as he is grouped in with the ladies but uses his anger to rip out a chunk of mortar and fling it suspiciously close to Dark's head. However, it was just enough to trigger the cascade started by Dolora. The statue begins leaning towards collapse as the group darts out the far side. The Mobogo hops forward, sure that her prey is now an easy catch but is pinned for a brief moment under the collapsed stone statue. A shriek of anger is heard as she opens her mouth wide...
... and her tongue shoots out, slamming stickily into Gideon's back, who had been limping along at the rear. She starts dragging her consolation prize back towards her gaping maw. You can pull him free or hack away at the thick tongue .
Prickle bites the tongue!
The phantom goes shooting past Dolora and Gideon and pummels the tongue, trying to break him free.
(last check barely made it!)
Danicka grabs Gideon and the rest start hacking and biting at the tongue. Avasir's sword is the finishing blow as about 3 feet of tongue is taken as a prize by Prickles. The rest of the tongue flops to the ground and it is quickly snapped back into the open maw of the beast. The monstrous Mobogo squirrels its way back out of the entrapment and turns to feast on the ones that didn't get away.
A bag is tossed over the rubble and you hear a voice yelling, "Gideon! Take the tablets back to her! We'll hold off this..." ...and you hear the screams of Aspis in the distance as you make your way into the cover of the jungle.
Gideon grabs the pack and follows the group. Once under the canopy, he hands it over while gasping for breath. He is coated in tongue slime but manages a small grin, "well s+%* that was quite impressive. You all happen to be recruiting?"
He wipes his good hand off onto his soiled clothing, not making much of a dent in the dirt. "So uh do you all have a boat? If not, I can prolly sneak you into the one we chartered. By the sound of those screams I'm guessing there aren't many agents left and the crew is just a bunch of mercenaries." He looks closely at a couple of you, "it has nice bunks, you all could get some rest at least."
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Danicka makes sure everyone gets to safety before letting them stop and chat. "Oh, that was terrifying!"
She takes the tablets and peeks inside.
Then she puts the tablets back in the bag and passes them to someone else who's interested in seeing them.
"Recruiting..? Well, yes, I think so. I sponsored someone's entry just last month. Why, did you...? Did you want to be a Pathfinder?" she asks curiously.
Seeing Gideon trying to clean himself, Danicka giggles. She waves her hands around and casts a spell, then turns it's magic on the poor man, magically cleaning him. Then she looks at herself and does the same. It's around this point she realizes she never did find that missing shoe. She blushes brightly, and finishes cleaning herself. Then she turns her magic onto Prickles, and anyone else who wants it.
"We do have a boat. Let's hope it's still there." Danicka looks a little wistful at the word 'bunk,' but doesn't complain.
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"Gideon, when they threw you these tablets they told you to take them back "to her". Who is she? If we're looking for information on Aspis activity maybe we should pay a visit to whoever she is."
Seeing Danicka's wistful look, she continues with her idea. "Also, if we are going to go to wherever she is, it might be easiest to get close if we took their ship back and got some rest. Well rested Pathfinders coming unsuspectingly out of a trusted vessel will be much more apt to get her to talk than tired dirty pathfinders showing up in a dinghy."
I'm not as sure about that last part, but hopefully it's convincing enough to allow me to get some sleep on the way. Maybe we could use the ship as more evidence to convince the council as well...
Danicka recognizes that some of the runes match those that were inscribed in the silver summoning circle and the stone table back in the ruins. She can also tell that they relate to some sort of demon or devil ritual, but nothing else without significant more study.
Prickles starts to eat the frog tongue.
As you start making your way to where you left the fishing trawler he shares some of what he knows. He seems to be in much better spirits, possibly due to being saved and treated quite well by Danicka.
"So She would be my former boss, Shinri. She earned her spot with the Consortium as a Bronze agent by coming up with good plans and
cracking any skulls that popped up along the way. I’ve been a part of her crew in Bloodcove for two years, and let me tell you, it’s much better to be standing behind her than in her way. Shinri was born on the streets. She’s a natural fighter, tough as a crocodile and furious as a hippo, but lately she’s been even more ‘Shin-rey’ than normal. That’s a word we use when we’re safely out of earshot. Over the last few months, she has been meditating for four or five hours at a time, and she’s been using all kinds of strange fighting techniques she never used to, things you don’t learn on the streets. This might sound strange, but I think she is actually talking to someone when she meditates. Someone, or maybe something?”
You make it back to where the trawler has been tied off. The snoring from inside the cabin is still cranking along, but stops when you board. White-tooth Wallace pops his head out, "back already? And with a friend I see."
Once that errand has been handled, you all walk along the coast while Gideon adds a bit more information.
"Our operation here was pretty simple. The boss wanted us to collect some stone tablets with weird-looking markings etched onto them. I was in the process of procuring one earlier when I was so rudely interrupted by the floor swallowing me up. If I recall correctly, that was going to be the tenth one in Shinri’s set. Once, I overheard her calling them the Twelve Rites during her meditations. She’s begun talking to herself when she thinks no one is listening.”
I know there might have been some questions earlier I haven't covered, you are welcome to repeat them. He'll answer to the best of his knowledge. If you wish for him to testify before the council, you need to convince him to do so and get him there alive.
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"Gideon, I have two favors to ask of you. Firstly, could you take us to where this Shinri is? We need to have a little talk with her. Secondly, after that is done would you be willing to come with us and testify as to the Aspis activity in Boali? It would both help you get free of the Aspis without any chance of punishment and would look very good towards getting you into the Pathfinders."
"It sounds like Danicka is willing to sponsor you, but if you do this for us you'll probably be able to get all of us to assist in your recruitment. No offense intended to her, she's a valuable member and her sponsorship will get you far, but the word of 5 is always better than the word of 1."
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Dark ponders on the way back as Gideon tells us about his former boss. "Perhaps some demon or such is partially possessing her. Or she might of become a spiritualist like our companion Dolora here."
When the discussion of sponsoring Gideon to the Society comes up, "I will be willing to exchange my sponsorship for Gideon if he does help us with acting as a witness to Aspis operations on these ruins."
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Gack turns to Dark, then to Dolora. "WHAT?!" His head flicks back between the two, resting on Dolora. "Why didn't you lead with that one?! I just thought you were a weirdo!" He lets out a mighty "HARUMPH" and sits down.
He turns, his feelings obviously hurt, and looks to the former(?) Aspis Agent. "Listen. Come with me. I don't have any secret ghosts. You and I can go chat up those stuffy fellows and nobody will remember you used to be one of the Asp-ees."
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"What's a spiritualist? Ever since I lost my family I have been trying to figure out what I'm doing, and sometimes that thing would pop up and cause issues. I've just recently been figuring out that it is friendly(ish) and how to work with it instead of against it. I'm sorry Gack, honestly most of the time I just think I'm a weirdo too."
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Gack turns back to Dolora with a sniff. "It's ok! My buddy Forrest saved a little girl much like you. But..." He squints his eyes carefully. "no more secrets! I told you what my super-cool-banging-boom-boom pistol did, didn't I?" Then he smiles and pulls out his favorite possession, staring at it's shiny surface.
"Dolora Too" sneaks up behind Gack and gives him a big hug. Unfortunately that leaves him with a bit of clear slimy residue where she squeezed him.