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Does the cloud shed light/provide illumination?
Also, I realized I forgot about the concealment caused by the cloud, and didn't apply it to the green veela's attacks. Please help me remember such things in the future with a reminder in your posts. Thanks.
Alden continues his hot pursuit in cold water. The light from his flail reveals nothing, at least above the surface of the water, in the tunnel as it turns south.
The red water veela spasms as lightning bolts within the thundercloud course through its body.
Haliban's first shot strikes the red water veela, both arrows piercing its brain, and the creature dies before it sinks beneath the cold water.
In the dim light from the lightning flickering in the thundercloud, he spots the qallupilluk lurking next to the rebel green veela. He directs his second and third shot at monstrous humanoid. The cold iron arrows pierce the creature's tough hide.
The qallupilluk roars in pain from its wounds and outrage at your veela ally. "You will die rebel! And your friends must turn away, or I will slay them, too."
Qallupilluk
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Alden
Urien
Ninlil & Snaggletooth
Theo & Fairbeaks
Green Water Veela
Hector
Haliban
The asteroid groans as if an invisible weight had been lifted from it, leaving the air cleaner and breathing easier. The reassuring breeze emanating from tunnels suddenly drops in intensity, leaving a feeble stream that whistles weakly as it drifts off into space. A moment later, portals wreathed in tumbling stone open all across the asteroid, and Sorrina Westyr urgently beckons everyone to come through.
“We've truly grabbed the scorpion by the tail. Whatever entity was holding us at bay has loosened its grip, but it has redirected its efforts to cutting off the source of air that allows us to survive in this place. The path forward is no longer filled with lethal energy. We have at most…an hour or two before we must return home or face asphyxiation. But if we press forward and find the source of the air, I believe it is tied to whatever captive is imprisoned here. Our portal minders will stand ready in case we need to evacuate quickly.”
Sorrina leads the assembled Pathfinders toward the edge of an immense, steeply sloped tunnel that descends into a miles-wide, spherical cavern. A crude stone fortress floats near the cave's center as if it were a rocky sun, and enormous slabs of earth orbit it like a miniature asteroid belt. These slabs gravitate inward toward the fortress, but periodic blasts of air slow their approach and cast the jagged masses back toward the edge of the cavern. Each gust is slightly weaker than the last.
Robed figures cling to the rocky slabs and chant loudly, as if empowering the stone. Unimpressed, Sorrina Westyr casts a spell at one of the distant cultists and flings him off his crude platform.
“Aiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!” The cultist screams, arms and legs askew as he hurtles toward the fortress and collides with its surface with a faint splat.
“Woo hoo, Bullseye!” Drandle Dreng claps, then goes back to organizing a party of Pathfinders who are busily unpacking knotted ropes. “Hurry, there’s not a moment to lose!”
“We must get to that fortress,” Sorrina announces before signaling others to lower knotted ropes down to the cavern. “Clear off the opposition, then we'll make our way inside. I find it reassuring that whatever lies within the fortress has an aura of good, and no doubt seeks our aid.”
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Ninlil slowly trudges forward under the weight of her gear.
She directs her Aggressive Thundercloud toward the qallupilluk:
It illuminates as a candle, as per:
A crackling, spherical storm cloud flies in whichever direction you point and deals electricity damage to those it strikes. It has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability. If it enters a space that contains a creature, the storm stops moving for the round and deals 3d6 points of electricity damage to that creature, though a successful Reflex save negates that damage. It provides concealment (20% miss chance) to anything within it, and its flickering light illuminates the same area a candle would.
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Ninlil inches closer to the wounded qallupilluk, and with a flicker of her slender fingers, she urges the greater aggressive thundercloud toward the monstrous humanoid. Engulfed by the cloud, sparks fly around and through the creature.
Hector trudges through the frigid, murky water, in painstaking pursuit of his quarry.
The haggard qallupilluk emerges from the thundercloud shroud and attacks the rebel veela with a cry of vengeance.
Terrible tooth and claws connect, but the rebel veela laughs when the attacks fail to harm her. "You'll have to do better than that, beeahtch!"
Determined, she slips around the prison guardian's side, creating an opening for the Pathfinders, and counterattacks with her daggers. Both blades strike, but the qallupilluk's own hide proves hard to penetrate.
The veela shouts a warning,
Qallupilluk
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Alden
Urien
Ninlil & Snaggletooth
Theo & Fairbeaks
Green Water Veela
Hector
Haliban
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Discomfitted by clinging to Fairbeaks' back, and with the enemy veela finally out of the way, Theo finally slides off the axe beak, into the chill waters.
He quickly brings his club to bear, suddenly realizing its even harder to swing it when in the water. With an annoyed growl, he smashes it down towards where the qallipuluk is anyway.
, for damage.
Finally free of its annoying burden, Fairbeaks gives a relieved squawk. He immediately tries to descend on the newest foe, but can't seem to get its footing in the water, despite losing the dwarf.
With another aggrieved sound, it turns to snap his powerful beak at the new foe beside Theo from where it is.
, for damage.
But everything about this place is clearly throwing the giant bird off... and it has no better luck!
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Theo dismounts, and when his feet fail to touch the bottom, he realizes the water's deeper here as well. Treading water, he swings his tetsubo. He bludgeons the qallupilluk, though the water blunts the force of his blow, and the creature's tough, scaly hide absorbs more of the damage.
Fairbeaks and Haliban adjust their positions, but the water's only about 4ft deep where they're at.
The axebeak pecks at the qallupilluk, but it only manages to splash the water in an icy cascade of water.
The rebel veela calls out to Haliban, "The water seems deepest around me and the dwarf!"
Ninlil sends her storm cloud over the qallupilluk, then she follows up with two serpentine bolts of arcane force from her staff. While monstrous humanoid evades the lightning bolts, the two magic missiles send the creature to a watery grave.
Haliban
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Theo quickly clambers back to where it is shallower, trying to grab hold of Fairbeaks to get the bird to help haul him up... only to have the axe beak step back out of his reach, clearly not wanting to repeat the earlier 'riding' incident.
He grumbles as he crawls awkwardly back out on his own, cursing quietly in tien.
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Urien attempts to quickly check the corpses to make sure they have nothing of interest, before gesturing that they should move on - and quickly given the warning that was just made.
I'd suggest we push onward as quickly as we can. Friend-veela, can you indicate the best direction for us to go?
Urien then re-casts heroism on himself as the duration on the first finally expires.
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Heeding Sorrina Westyr's call, you make your way to the entrance of the Vault. The rebel veela guides you quickly there, where she bids you farewell. "Good luck, Pathfinders. May the gods grant you luck this day."
As she leaves you, she turns around one final time. "Be careful, friends. The fortress’s surface is constantly shifting as the living stone repairs the damage Ranginori inflicts on it. The rooms shift hundreds of feet relative to their previous location every minute, making spells like dimension door dangerous and teleport spells very likely to lead to false destinations."
"Ayrzul’s will infuses the earth here. Any spellcaster that attempts to magically dig through or alter the fortress often fails." She warns and sets off.
Gravity in this area of Aucturn’s Tear is almost the same as on Golarion, angled down and pulling everything toward the Vault’s heart.
The temperature is actually comfortable, but the illumination is dim.
Society agents lower knotted ropes down the sloping tunnel that drops into the immense spherical cavern where the fortress awaits.
A rune-scribed floating island begins drifting beneath the tunnel and brushing against the lowered ropes.
"These rocky fragments gravitate toward the fortress," Sorrina shouts as she hangs from a rope. "If we can cling on before it travels out of reach, it should carry it toward our destination."
The iceberg-sized rock spins slightly, revealing a host of undead cultists that cease their chanting, point toward the Pathfinders, and let loose unholy wails. "Now!" cries the Master of Spells, and agents begin rappelling down to the crude platform.
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Unless all of you can fly several miles—attempting a controlled fall with feather fall is too dangerous due to the orbiting rocks that move in hard-to-predict orbits and are likely to crash into plummeting adventurers—you must help claim one of these islands to reach the fortress.
You're suspended 15 feet above the surface of the rock, and you must climb down the knotted rope or drop in order to reach the ground and fend off the undead cultists. Remember, you need both hands free to climb, but you can cling to the rope with one hand in order to use the other to fight.
Theo figures Fairbeaks's best option is probably to leap down to the surface of the rock.
Observing the strange, alien environment, your estimate that each round, the floating island moves another 20 feet toward the bottom of the map, providing you only a limited amount of time to reach the surface before your ropes are left dangling over the edge!
Two undead former cultists scramble around the floating rock, invoking Ayrzul’s power. They quickly and mercilessly descend on any interlopers. Each of the intelligent undead carries a dagger.
One is a red skeletal carcass that pulls itself from the ground, its body formed as much from earth and soil as from bones and rotting flesh.
The other has shreds of leathery flesh clinging to its pink skeletal body, while twin motes of fiery light glow deep in its eye sockets.
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
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Pink ??
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Theo
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Red ??
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
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"What a nice lady."
Seeing the creatures shambling forward Haliban decides to buy his allies some time.
He studies the skeletel creature then fires a Tangleshot arrow at each of them.
"That won't hold them for long."
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After Haliban entangles the two undead creatures with his tangleshot arrows, Hector climbs partway down the rope and drops the last 10 feet onto the surface.
Ninlil takes a sylph's graceful airy step down to the surface. She recognizes what they are.
Ninlil targets the red skeletal carcass of earth, soil, bones and rotting flesh with black and white magic missiles from her staff.
Snaggletooth reveals to the team that red is a guecubu, and pink is a crypt thing.
The pink crypt thing utters what sounds almost like a raspy death rattle and waves its bony fingers at the party. It roars its frustration when only Fairbeaks is affected. The unfortunate axebeak finds itself suddenly alone upon a ledge, a 300-foot trek back to Theo and his companions.
(+2 heroism)
(+2 heroism)
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
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Pink: Crypt Thing
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Theo
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Red: Guecubu
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
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Theo looks shocked, as Fairbeaks suddenly disappears. Unsure what just happened, but sure its the creature down below's fault somehow. Ignoring the rope, he leaps off the edge to the rock below...
Landing awkwardly, but staying on his feet, he continues towards the skeletal creature, drawing his tetsubo as he goes.
, for damage.
Fairbeaks is quite shocked to suddenly find himself ... well, not where he was.
He lets out a loud squawk of displeasure, the shrill sound echoing off the rocky outcroppings, as he looks around to figure out where the dwarf went.
Getting his bearings, he starts bounding over the stones in that direction. The axe beak might not be able to fly, but running... it was made for that!
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Theo trusts Fairbeaks is all right and will find his way back to him as fast has he can. The ranger drops to the surface, sticking the landing, and marches toward the pink crypt thing, ready to club the creature with his tetsubo, if it's foolish enough to get within his reach.
The red guecubu shrugs mightily, bursting through the adhesive goo from Haliban's tangleshot arrow, and it burrows into the ground, leaving behind no tunnel or hole. When the undead creature resurfaces, Hector finds himself within its aura.
The ground in a 30-foot radius around the guecubu ripples and shudders unnaturally, transforming the area surrounding the creature into difficult terrain.
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
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Pink: Crypt Thing
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Theo
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Red: Guecubu (-10)
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
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Urien moves forward a step calling out in what seems like a bad impression of a play popular in Absalom a few years ago.
Huzzah and to Pharasma, foul abominations!
Move begin Inspire Courage +2 (audible)
Swift: Arcane Strike
5-foot step
Standard: Shoot at the target Ninlil called with her attack (red)
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With No hesitation what so ever, Alden takes the plunge trusting in his magical boots to see him through. A quick run and a leap in trust to send him straight into the creature.
A cloud of dust accompnies his landing but thanks to his magical equipment, Alden lands on his feet and strides straight up to the creature.
"Miscreant! Dare you think such petty tricks can avail you against us!!"
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Urien delivers a few lines from a popular heroic drama, inspiring the team to greater courage in battle. He tries to take a 5ft step, but finds it impossible in the difficult terrain caused by the guecubu's broken ground aura. Then he fires his bow at the red guecubu. The arrow strikes true, but its penetrating force is blunted by the creature's stone-and-bone body.
Alden displays no shortage of personal courage, ignoring Ninlil's warning, taking a flying leap and landing in front of the guecubu. He delivers a Hellknight's tongue-lashing to the creature.
Ninlil casts haste on the party, always a helpful buff.
Thanks to Urien's inspiring acting abilities, all of Haliban's many arrows find their aim. He, too, notices that their force is blunted by the creature's stone-and-bone body.
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
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Pink: Crypt Thing
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Theo
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Red: Guecubu
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
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Jeeves answers Hector, "The red one's a guecubu. It's resistant to cold and immune from electricity."
Figuring Alden will handle the guecubu, Hector elects to deal with the pink crypt thing. Moving out of the broken ground, he makes haste to his chosen foe. When the swashbuckler gets within 10 feet of the undead creature, a wave of fear crashes against him. He fights off his panic and thrusts his rapier into the crypt thing. The enchanted blade wounds the undead with no apparent difficulty.
The pink crypt thing lashes out at Hector with its claws. Hector parries the first blow and counterattacks with a devastating riposte. The creature's second attack also fails to connect.
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
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Pink: Crypt Thing
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Theo
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Red: Guecubu
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
Fairbeaks continues to run back towards the others, his long legs eating up the distance quickly.
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Theo senses the crypt thing's frightful aura, but he conquers his fear. The silver tetsubo shatters and crushes bone. The undead creatures collapses in a heap.
The guecubu lays into Alden with tooth and knuckle, cursing the hellknight with its bite, and then staggering the man with its fists.
Fairbeaks, like a giant roadrunner, chews up more of the distance between himself and his master.
Haliban
Hector
Ninlil
Theo
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Red: Guecubu
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Urien
Alden
Fairbeaks
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Theo watches the skeletal thing fall apart with a satisfied scowl.
He then turns to marches back towards the other one, plucking his way slowly across the rippling ground. Only the haste spell allowing him to close the entire distance.
He looks around, trying to see if destroying the first one caused Fairbeaks to reappear.
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In the time it takes Urien and Alden to consider their next move, Alden executes an about face, heading toward the guecubu, wielding death in the form of his tetsubo.
Just as the dwarf ranger gets in the undead creature's grill, Ninlil blasts the guecubu with two magic missiles, then Haliban plinks it with another five arrows, permanently laying the thing to rest.
Alden
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Theo doesn't seem particularly upset that he didn't get to smack the other undead, content that it is now destroyed. Instead, he looks around with concern, still unsure what happened to Fairbeaks.
The bird in question however, shows up just as the fight ends, standing in the rocky tunnel above, and gives a loud triumphant squawk to announce his presence! Standing there like some sort of perched bird of prey, for dramatic effect.
Inwardly relieved, but outwardly grumpy, Theo just shouts something to it in tien, which the bird ignores, as it poses.
Then, on his own schedule (definitely not because the dwarf told him to) the axe beak easily jumps down from the ledge above to investigate the dead skeletons, to see if they might provide a meal.
Of course, neither has anything worth chewing on, and the bird gives an irritated sound at the discovery.
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Once you defeat the undead forces attempting to drive you back, you and several dozen other Pathfinders are able to cling to the rock as gravity pulls it back toward the fortress.
The floating Vault is nearly a half-mile wide with defenses established in every direction. An adamantine shell encloses the structure; however this has been ruptured, and strands of the sky metal practically bleed from the holes in a vain attempt to repair the damage and reseal the area completely.
The ground bulges all about, and chunks of earth and metal explode periodically as blasts of air billow out from within, driven by an unseen force.
First, you must get inside. As the floating island you’re on approaches, you try to identify a prospective breach in the fortress.