Nonalwe is able to identify the gold and green amulet as one that will help protect the wearer. She, however, doesn't understand the bracers.
At the end of a dead end, the group has to turn back. The tunnels slowly lightens up and looks cleaner and cleaner as everyone climbs back out of the undead hollow. Uori, staying cautious about the undead, immediately notices you coming back, he gives you a smile and a wave that could only be the result of someone hearing about them from a terrible explaination."Well? How did it go?"
Feeling a little bit flustered and lost from that last combat Belmir says simply (to the gillman) well enough...my companions handled themselves well.
Uori nods, "It is good to have reliable companions, no?"
He then turns to Kardas and focuses on his mouth intently, before accepting the diary. He keeps it out of the water as best he can, and reads it over carefully, as if parsing each word. "This news is.... troubling. I will have to warn my people to be more careful in the future. Maybe it is time to start travelling in pairs? Hmmm" Storm clouds darkening his face, he turns back to the water, before remembering something. "Oh if you wouldn't mind fulfilling a request of mine, there are some very impolite visitors in the caves beyond to the west. Would you possibly be able to convince them to leave?"
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"Oh if you wouldn't mind fulfilling a request of mine, there are some very impolite visitors in the caves beyond to the west. Would you possibly be able to convince them to leave?"
Belmir pauses only for a moment before answering, Of coarse Uori, we’d be happy to evict unruly tenants for you! Belmir motions for Kardas and his giant bug to lead the way and falls in behind Janus as the move towards the next passage. Before, he leaves the gillman, Belmir looks over his shoulder and says, exactly what are these unwanted guest we’ll be evicting?
Belmir pauses only for a moment before answering, Of coarse Uori, we’d be happy to evict unruly tenants for you! Belmir motions for Kardas and his giant bug to lead the way and falls in behind Janus as the move towards the next passage. Before, he leaves the gillman, Belmir looks over his shoulder and says, exactly what are these unwanted guest we’ll be evicting?
Uori gives a small up-down gesture with his hands, a blank look on his face. “Ai’m not sure. The water just says it's dangerous and the persistent hammering seems to support that.”
Belmir taking charge again marshals the group and matches them out. Not 10 meters down the tunnel, a small sound that could be hammering sounds out. Further down, the sound grows and turns out to be the hammering Uori had been talking about. Just a few meters from the what looks like a well lit cavern, the hammering stops with a hissing SSHHHH. A second later, a voice issues out in a guttural language that seems to place an emphasis on the ‘S’s.
“តើអ្នកឮទេ? ខ្ញុំគិតថាសត្វព្រៃខ្លះនឹងមក! គ្របដណ្តប់នេះនិងទទួលបានត្រៀមខ្លួនជាស្រេច!”
A hurried rustling sound then sounds out as everyone gets closer. Kardas, Slimy Dolora, and Januus all burst into the cavern just in time to find two lizard looking humanoids scurrying for some rock cover. One off them catches sight of you and gives a hissing sinus you could swear meant something along the lines of “Shit!”
They both turn to face you, reluctantly readying weapons.
The lizardy people move a just a bit too slow, with a few of the group getting the jump on them!
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Arnie mentally picks up what initially appears to be a small rock but turns out to be a good sized boulder. The little man though proves he is more than capable of using it as he flings it straight into the middle of the hidden trap, tearing out a good chunk of the ground in the process. The rock also sets off the trap causing a small horde of green-tinged darts to fly up and clink off the ceiling of the cavern. The small lizardfolk squawk angrily at the little man for ruining their trap. “ទ្រង់បានបំផ្លាញអន្ទាក់របស់យើង! ធ្មេញតិចតួច!”
Januus’s attempts a diplomatic overture, hoping to avoid a fight but his words fall on deaf ears the creatures give him little more than a glance, not caring or not comprehending his words.
Belmir comes in and makes a snap decision that this is not something they can chat their way out of and fires an arrow. It falls woefully short, but does finally break their attention away from the trap and back on everyone else.
The two pull out slings and fire on the group the green shooting at Arnie and the yellow at Belmir. Green is able to strike Arnie but doesn't do much more than leave a scratch. The little creature starts to give a cheer before decrying the fact it did so little.
The yellow one misses Belmiir completely hissing in annoyance!
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"Pull back, little child! The frontline is no place for you!" Kardas barks out. With his allies in his way, there is clear path for Mantis to charge. Dropping his lance, he directs his vermin steed to fly over the heads of everyone to close onto the nearer lizard folks before slicing into it with his greatsword.
First, to clear things up, the lizards have no extra benefits from their slings, so there was no chance of poison or other effects on a hit. Your force ward does take damage, there’s no doubt about that, you were ‘hit’ and your force ward takes that damage. Now the fact that they are very weak and rolled a flat zero for damage would normally mean it deals the minimum 1 non lethal.
Now is that minimum damage an ‘ability’? As a GM I am inclined to say no, especially as it is not whether you hit or not, but how low the damage roll is and is not something special to these creatures but inherent to the game. So i would argue the non-lethal damage should activate, but here’s the kicker. Non-lethal normally doesn’t interact with temporary HP, deducting and whatnot, just using the actual and temp hp for the combined total to stagger/knock unconscious. Which would imply it would stack onto you the character, but that the completely bypasses the Force Ward in the first place, makes its self-healing ability mute and is quite powerful.
I’m going to ask the collective minds of the boards if they have a better answer, but for right now I’m just going to say that they did one point of non-lehtal damage to your ward, pending a better answer.
The stone from Cyan’s sling skips lightly off Arnie’s ward of force surrounding him, causing the small guy to mentally flinch for just a second.
Kardas, seeing the smaller one being targeted, takes to the sky with a warning and slashes straight through the cyan lizard man in one fell swoop leaving Mantis a little to swing at but the dead carcass off the scaly one. It does catch hold with his claws and gets a few good bites out of it before it slides out of his grip.
Januus fires an arrow in the general direction of the remaining scaled one, but he completely miss calculates the trajectory with the cave ceiling, causing the missile to plunk off the roof of the cavern harmlessly.
The remaining scaled creature gives Kardas a dirty look and starts slinging what are clearly insults his way.
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Belmir takes aim with his shortbow and almost releases his arrow before he stops for a second and actually takes a second to calculate how the thing would fly in the cavern. He quickly realizes that the trajectory would being it into contact with particularly large stalactite and re-adjusts his aim. On the other hand, Arnie gets ticked with the little lizard that fired a sling bullet at his head and decides to repay the creature in like, flinging the bullet right back at the lizard, both the arrow and bullet perforate the body, thrusting the soul of the creature on a path to the boneyard.
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"Let's press on. We can keep the gillman informed, but--just like we would for the Society--let's have a complete report before we do." Her eyes pause on the young Arnie before glancing towards the exit across the water. What a strange little human; I didn't think they became so self-sufficient at that age.
"Onward," she concludes before pressing on herself.
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Belmir opens his mouth to vote to go back and speak with the gilman..Such a rare opportunity! But soon realizes the logic of most of his companion's desire to press on..As the last they had seen of their guide and senior Pathfinder Janira...she was being pursued by a Minotaur!... Come my friends...we best be moving forward...a senior agent put her life on the line for us...we should complete the expedition as soon as possible and seek her out to ....if it's not too late... Belmir lets the last of his sentence fall off softly...the implied meaning hanging for everyone to catch.
With a few of the group giving a glance back at the way they came and the path leading to Uori’s pool, the group decides to press forward and explore the cave completely. The party carefully picks their way across the small poisoned darts littering the floor leading to the ford of the small stream. Splashing across the stream and up the other side to the eastern cave entrance takes almost no time. Just as everyone is poised to move down the tunnels, a faint sound echoes down the caves. It takes a second to make out the words and even longer to realize who was saying them.
“...as the legendary Gregaro Voth successfully battled the wild beasts in the deepest reaches of the Mwangi Expanse, so shall I defeat you, foul servant of Lamashtu!”
It’s Janira! Still fighting with the minotaur. In a flurry of movement, everyone rushes up the cave path heading to the voice as it grows stronger and stronger. A breeze starts to carry smells of the outside world down into the caves and a weak moon light can be seen in the distance. The caves narrow for a section and becomes unusually wet, with drips sounding among Janira’s shouted words and if anyone actually stopped for a second, they might be able to determine the sounds of a large slimy thing squelching through the caves.
With their leader in sight though, everyone presses forward, unaware or not paying the things in the dark any mind. Instead bursting out of the caves and into the a moonlit glade. It takes a moment for everyone’s eyes to adjust but soon the forms of Janira and her adversary can be made out fighting across a stream.
She gives a shout at the beast, “You vile beast! I know not what drives your black heart, but I shall not fail in my duty. I shall see you driven from this forest, back to the hills from whence you came!”” Her words sound brave but more than a cursory glance is enough to tell that she has nearly collapsed from the many wounds covering her body. The minotaur catches the a whiff of the party’s scent and turns to face you for a second, giving everyone an aggressive huff of air, before Janira’s whip draws his attention back in.
The full moon bathes the hill down to the river in a silvery, dim light, picking out the young trees in a delicate silver and even highlighting the light undergrowth. Despite the nice lighting, the way looks a little treacherous, requiring care to avoid getting tripped up but a vine or slipping on a patch of leaf mold.
The moonlight also gilts the river in silver, showing just how fast the nearly 10 foot wide river is moving. It looks swimmable though, though it’d certainly be a challenge for all but the best swimmers. A silver looking log also lies across the river, making a good, if possibly slippery makeshift bridge.
Off to the south a bluff rises up 20 feet and looks like it might provide a great vantage point of the battlefield and maybe even a good place to fire on the beast.
Januus, Kardas and Dolora all seem to grasp the situation with the minotaur with alacrity and spring into action!
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Map has been updated, Slide 2
Would the minotaur be aware of him? The reason I ask is that he gets different abilities if the foe is not aware that he is there. His ability is kinda of like sneak attack.
Januus pulls back on his bow and is able to arc an arrow up over the young trees and plunk it down into the eye of the minotaur catching the beast completely off guard and making it bellow out in pain. It glares up the mountain at the group, finally catching notice of you. It watches as Dolora and her slimy counterpart rush down the hill and notes Kardas and Mantis’ approach, but decides to pay no more mind to the far prey and focuses its attention back on Janira.
This proves to be perfectly timed to catch Kardas’s flask of alchemist’s fire right across the horn, spraying the substance all over his fur and lighting the creature up in flames.
The skewered eye and small flames finally draws Janira’s attention up to you as well. She falters mid-oratory, surprised to see everyone again. “You guys! What are you doing here? Nevermind, I won’t deny that I need the help, but just be careful okay? ‘Be careful’ was the very model that Granthor Holsti always proclaimed in his grand thirty years of working with the Pathfinders, in which time he found…” She turns her attention back to the minotaur and tries to pull its attention in again.
The minotaur, however had long focused back no her and takes advantage of her momentary distraction to swing his cracked but still deadly axe around to the side and catches the halfling completely off guard, scoring a deep wound along her side, and knocking her unconscious. Leaving the downed halfling in a heap he instead turns to the people who so greatly injured him and starts to clamber after the little man who’d tossed the burning liquid on him.
After the initial outpouring of blood, Janira’s body seems to only ooze the precious red fluid slowly, seemingly safe for the time being.
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With the minotaur charging right up towards them, Kardas finds his lance on little use and drops it on the ground. Pulling out his greatsword, he grunts as he takes a mighty swing at the beast.
He then urges Mantis to step back, and hopefully draw the minotaur closer to the rest of the team.