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Carina almost falls over as the horrible light show speeds through her, and she half-stumbles toward Ansha. As she focuses, she barely avoids losing thoughts and spells, and focuses all her will on holding herself together. With a fluid motion, she draws from her belt pouch a blackened shard of wood, and crumples it into dust. With her other hand, the Varisian seer reaches into the pouch that she stores her Harrow deck, and draws a trio of cards from it. She briefly glances at the cards she drew, and pales considerably, before shoving them back into their pouch, and tossing the dust in hand toward the etheroot, where the winds carry it to the plant, and a small stormcloud forms around part of it, crackling with lightning.
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Most of the group manage to avoid the psychementals, and those that don't are able to avoid losing parts of the mind to the creatures, who still lurk nearby, ready to try again.
Ansha's magic missiles strike the yellowish psychemental, causing it to shimmer in some semblance of pain.
Carina's thundercloud sends crackling electrical bolts towards the etheroot, however it manages to whip its tendrils out of the way and avoid any damage for now.
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Dryden's magical blade slashes into the psychemental. Although the blade doesn't seem to cause as much damage as it would on flesh and blood it does seem to cause the strange creature some pain. Unfortunately, the haze emanating from the etheroot blurs his vision somewhat and two of his strikes miss their intended target.
The etheroot slithers forward and lashes out towards Dryden with its tentacled mouth.
It snaps at the head of one of the 8 elves in front of it but finds only air as it dispels one of Dryden's multiple mirrors.
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Ansha's latest attack on the psychemental seems to be resisted by the strange swirling mass of colours, shapes and faces.
Serres, hoping for better luck, steps back and sends off a powerful burst of electricity into the thing.
The electricity crackles into the creatures, the ever-changing faces contorting in pain...but similar to a ghost, the intangible creature suffers less than a creature of flesh and blood would.
The psychementals then fly back and forward along the path, attempting to pass through each of the Pathfinders in turn, their colours taking on darker hues and the faces within them scowling in anger.
You suffer 2 temporary negative levels from a mindwipe
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Able to avoid the first two, the third psychemental passes straight through Serres's head. A confused look comes over the half-elf's face and he clutches his hands to his head.
Dryden sends a burst of lightning towards the etheroot, catching one of the psychementals in its line of attack.
While the creatures duck away from the full brunt of the lightning bolt, the electricity seems to have at least some effect. The strange psychic creature convulses in what passes for pain in such a strange being, and the plant gets noticeably sizzled.
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Malusha tries to swerve out of the way of the psychementals but is unable to avoid two of them. The first passes through his head leaving only a dizzy sensation but as the second one passes through him he feels his life essence drain away.
"Ohhh," he gasps and holds his head. Suddenly feeling weak at the knees he almost collapses to the ground.
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Spackle's shot looks good out of the bow but as the arrow flies past the large plant he realises that the haze had deceived him and he was aiming just to the side of the etheroot.
The surprisingly agile creature again manages to squirm out of the way of Carina's stormcloud for now. Unfortunately, her snowball also flies wide of its mark.
Half of the group start to feel the effects of the pscyementals attacks. Certain memories of past adventures and training seem to slip from their minds and they struggle to remember all of their spells or how to perform attacks as well as they used to.
To make matters worse, the creatures seem to draw strength from the stolen thoughts, looking less pained than they just did.
For each negative level a creature has, it takes a cumulative –1 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks. In addition, the creature reduces its current and total hit points by 5 for each negative level it possesses. The creature is also treated as one level lower for the purpose of level-dependent variables (such as spellcasting) for each negative level possessed.
If the target is a spellcaster who must choose and prepare spells in advance, each negative level imposed by mindwipe also causes the target to lose one prepared spell from her highest level of spells known for each of her spellcasting classes for which she must prepare spells. These lost spells are no longer considered known by the target until the corresponding negative levels are removed.
If the target is a spontaneous spellcaster, each negative level inflicted by mindwipe causes her to lose one spell slot of her highest level of spells for each spontaneous spellcasting class in which she has levels and to lose knowledge of one random spell known of that level (or the next lowest level if she has already lost knowledge of all spells known of that level, and so on). The target cannot use the lost spell slots and spells known as long as the corresponding negative levels last. When the target loses a spell known, the spell remains on her class list but she cannot prepare or cast the spell.
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The desperation of the group ramps up a notch as they start to feel their lives drained away by the mindwiping attacks of the psychementals.
Spackle's shot hits true, right in the heart of the plant's fleshy body. The bolt explodes in a blast of sonic energy, causing the etheroot to writhe in pain for a moment. While still alive, it looks seriously wounded.
Malusha summons a weapon of pure spiritual force. The magical scimitar cuts into the psychic being as if it were flesh, but unfortunately the cleric has been weakened by the attack on his mind and the attack doesn't have enough force behind it to do more than minimal damage.
Serres tries to blast one of the insubstantial creatures into another with a burst of pure telekinetic force.
With massive contact that belies their insubstantial bodies, the two creatures collide into each other. Their swirling colours and faces intertwine for a moment before they disentangle with an audible pop.
Their colours taking on ones tinged with an angry red, the psychementals again rush towards and potentially through their opponents. Two of them that is. The yellowish one instead reaches out towards Dryden's mind in a different way, attempting to whip his very ego into submission with a powerful psychic attack.
You suffer 2 temporary negative levels from a mindwipe
You are also left feeling hopeless and unsure of yourself. Staggered for one round and INT penalty lasts for 8 rounds instead of 1.
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Not sure how you made that second attack. You took a standard action and then moved, yes?
The bard dodges farther to his right as well, sending an arrow in the Etheroot's direction.
Thundering Orc Hornbow vs Giant Plant of Doom {Bless/Haste/IC}: 1d20 + 8 + 1 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 211d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 1 = 10
Miss: 1d100 ⇒ 9
Spackle lines up another shot. As the first arrow hits, it seems to explode with a peal of thunder that echos through the jungle.
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Only Carina succumbs further to the psychemental's recent attacks, losing her grip of another large chunk of her memories, including those relating to her most relied upon spells and abilities.
Ansha's splash of acid fails to connect with the intangible creature, instead landing on the ground and only managing to destroy a small patch of grass next to the path.
Dryden's bolt of electricity crackles towards the etheroot once again, and this time it isn't quick enough to manage to squirm away from the brunt of the blast. It gets severely scorched and looks to be on its last legs, or roots as it were.
The magus then steps up to the yellow-tinged psychemental and with a rapid fire flurry of strikes, manages to disperse the mind-altering being out of existence.
The plant just barely manages to avoid Carina's persistent thunderloud, however, before lashing out at Dryden with both its tentacled mouth and its full set of thinner appendages.
The etheroot only manages to connect with its bite, sinking its sharp 'teeth' into the magus's arm. The elf is agile enough to avoid the entangling tentacles however, which for a moment threatened to try and drag him off his feet. They do at least disperse a few of his illusory doubles, if nothing else.
Beyond the pain of the bite, however, the touch of the plant threatens to mess with Dryden's mind. A sudden rush of fear starts to envelop his mind, inducing a potential panic that if unchecked might cause him to flee for his life.
2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Shaken is a less severe state of fear than frightened or panicked.
You become panicked and must drop anything you holds and flee at top speed from the source of your fear, as well as any other dangers you encounter, along a random path. You can’t take any other actions. In addition, you takes a –2 penalty on all saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. If cornered, a panicked creature cowers and does not attack, typically using the total defense action in combat. A panicked creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.
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Spackle's next volley of arrows sink into the huge plant and for a second or two it shudders and convulses in pain. Then its tentacles all retract and then go completely limp. The etheroot looks to be dead!
The remaining psychementals shimmer in anger or shock but show no signs of relenting their psychic attacks.
Malusha commands his spiritual scimitar to press the attack on the blue-tinged creature, slashing through it and causing it to shudder and shimmer some more in mental anguish. While the strike seems to hit right in the centre of the swirling mass of colours and images, the damage inflicted seems no more than would be expected. It looks like it is close to being dispersed, however.
Serres once again telekinetically forces one of the creatures into the other, eliminating the bluish one completely and leaving the reddish one looking very distressed.
Seemingly desperate now, the psychic being reaches out to Serres' mind, attempting to weaken him directly, rather than focussing on the rest of the group.
A somewhat dazed looks comes over Serres who looks momentarily staggered by the creature's last ditch attack.
JUNGLE CLEARING - MAP
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Knowing it to be useless at the moment, Spackle lowers his bow. With a quick incantation, he calls forth a fist sized ball of flame. With a quick flick of the wrist, it flies toward the remaining elemental. Instantly, another ball of fire appears in his hand.
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A sudden panic overtakes Dryden's mind. He thinks to himself how can this be. These insufferable creatures will not relent. He feels overwhelmed and fears he will not survive this encounter. He runs as fast as he can away from this futile clash dropping everything he is carrying trying to save himself.
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Serres joins the others in trying to finish off the last pscyhemental.
Finally, with the weight of numbers in their favour, the Pathfinders wear down the psychic creatures and disperse the last psychemental in a burst of visual psychic feedback that leaves them blinking for a few seconds from the bright burst of vibrant colours and unusual shapes.
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Serres joins the others in trying to finish off the last pscyhemental.
Finally, with the weight of numbers in their favour, the Pathfinders wear down the psychic creatures and disperse the last psychemental. As the plant and the last of its minions is defeated, there is a burst of psychic and emotional energies that will no doubt have some sort of effect on the tapestry and those within this section of it. Holes begin to open in the tapestry where the etheroot's tendrils used to be and planar energies surge into the demiplane from outside.
With the clearing now free of any threats, the group find that the etheroot left behind some colourful crystals which pulse with psychic energy
In addition, they uncover two villagers' bodies each wearing a set of masterwork +1 leather lamellar armor a sheathed masterwork longsword, and a set of high-quality clothing.
As the holes in the tapestry begin to grow wider, however, the group soon find themselves caught up in the vortex of the sliver squall that Malusha had warned them about earlier. This patch of violent psychic weather from the Astral Plane, is a tide of aggressive, competing ideas, like an argument made manifest.
The group can hear the discordant voices of opposing ideas clashing with each other, proponents of Onhae’s old ways clashing against the new. The fear of the apocalypse that was halted is struggling against the shame brought on by killing the old leader. The Pathfinders can hear the arguments they presented to Fen or the villagers within the Silver Squall, parroting their own statements and her justifications against them.
"Our god, the Ruby Phoenix, reached out to you too? Yes, I am his chosen one! What would you speak of?"
"We are, indeed, quite interested in making friends. In fact, we would be quite interested in hearing more about your Ruby Phoenix"
"More trickery! They are in league with an evil spirit!"
"Jest comin' out here ta be payin' respects is all. M'name's Spackle, 'n my friends 'n I 'r with the Pathfinders"
"You are here to trick me into letting my guard down so you can kill me and take over the village!"
"Come now, there's no need for violence here. Call off your guards--we mean no harm."
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The group realise that to defeat the squall, they must try and counter the beliefs and ideas it represents and argue it down.
The first set of arguments seems to represents Lin Fen Hai’s faith in her new god, Aram Zey, the Ruby Phoenix Guardian and savior of Onhae.
“Aram Zey saved Onhae. The old ways failed to protect my people. Evil spirits corrupted the old faith, and it was time to purge them.”
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"Ah hate ta be the one ta break it to ya, but Aram ain't no god. Suren he has his wits about 'im when it comes ta castin' spells, but he's still as mortal as you 'n me. There also be a rule that states, 'Correlation don't equal Causation'. Essentially what that means is, just cause Zey showed up, it don't mean yer gods failed ya. Fer all you know, they sent Zey ta save yer people in the first place. Ah mean, how do ya know they didn't? Just because yer faith came inta question don't mean that they abandoned y'all."
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Ansha finds herself annoyed that the magical stones' properties remain just beyond her reach, but puts it aside as the Silver Squall makes its presence known.
"We never know the ways in which the gods choose to work. Maybe they were testing your faith by working through other agents, in which case they did not fail you, but you failed them. But Aram Zey was most certainly no god. He never demanded your worship, did he? Because he knew who he was--a wizard, like myself. A powerful one, who the old gods may have used to save you, but even so...not to be worshiped, but venerated. A hero, not a new god."
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Malusha listens respectfully while Spackle and Ansha provide logical explanations of how Aram isn't a god. When they complete he adds his own knowledge to the conversation.
"I myself, being a student of religion, have studied much about other deities and I can assure you that the ways of gods and religions are frequently beyond our mortal ability to comprehend. We see things now from our tiny and limited point of view. It is well beyond our grasp to see how all things work. It is unwise to make a claim that our old religions have failed us."