Rory, already at the back of the room, reasons that most of what they have fought is elemental, not evil in these seed rooms. He debates for a split second, then pulls magic out of the wand of Cat’s Grace to touch Tygrah and grant her increased coordination (and a higher initiative bonus).
He then hangs towards the northwestern end of the room, hoping to have an angle of attack at whatever comes out that door!
"Look out!" Tygrah shouts, backing away from the doors.
The iron doors scattered across the eastern wall slam open releasing jets of super-heated gases.
"Aye, brisk indeed!" Tygrah declares.
"Let's get through here quickly then!" calls Rory, moving quickly to the east and opening the door to allow the others to move out of the intensely hot area near the grate.
Rory appears to be a bit out of breath and a profuse sweating has started on his smooth head, seeming to well out from beneath his topknot.
The rest of the group follows Rory through the room, moving as quickly as possible.
Through the door lies another room that if anything is even hotter than the previous one. Charred stone walkways cross over a shallow pool of boiling water in this room’s center. A sturdy treasure chest is bolted to the floor in the northeast corner. A red, fist-sized orb floats three feet above the room’s center.
Standing on one of the walkways between you and the orb is a humanoid figure made up, of all things, ice.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
---
Next room:
Puzzled, Bavick nevertheless moves drawing his bow and shoots the ice creature.
”Hmm...Must be some kind of fire-resistant ice creature,” thinks Rory, ”That gives me an idea.”
Not exactly sure what to do about the ice creature, Rory sees everyone taking heat damage and moves over to Magdi (2 squares west), using the last of his Qi to inure the healer from heat (Resist Energy/Fire 10), saying, ”Keep us alive, if you would.”
Bavick's arrow chips a piece off the construct's shoulder, but the half-orc's axe doesn't seem to get past the thing's innate toughness. Magdi steps past Rory and touches Tygrah. She feels strength welling through her.
The figure opens up its icy maw and a blast of freezing cold envelopes Ashlion.
With muscles bulging, Tygrah takes her terbutje in both hands as she moves in to flank with her husband and hacks at the golem!
Tygrah easily ducks under an icy fist as she slips by the frozen figure. She slams her weapon into it and shards of ice vaporize almost instantly as they scatter. Argil flits through the hot, damp air and sends an arc of electricity towards the construct.
Round 2
Bavick stows his bow, then moves drawing his sword.
Rory hustles along the western wall and circles around behind Tygrah, just making it to the floating red sphere ‘seed’. Reaching out a hand towards it, he starts trying to discern its magic & how he might sever its likely link to the plane of fire.
Bavick moves around the boiling water to approach the construct from another direction. Ashlion's axe shears off a huge section of the creature and clouds of steam billow off the rapidly melting ice chunks. Rory examines the energies coming off the seed and can tell that it's identical to the other he disabled, but connected to the plane of fire.
Magdi moves in behind Ashlion and casts a spell upon him.
The mindless automaton swings its icy fists at Ashlion. He manages to dodge the first one, but the second catches him out of position.
Tygrah swings again.
Both Tygrah's swing and Argil's blast of electricity fail to do any damage.
Round 3
"Ashlion, attack and step to the side!"
Rory sets a hand on the fiery seed and attempts to sever its connection with the plane of Fire.
With a single powerful blow of his enchanted axe, Ashlion shatters the golem, sending razor-sharp shards of ice flying through the air in an explosion of energy.
Combat Ends!
Rory spends a few moments manipulating the energy of the elemental seed until he finally severs its connection to the elemental plane of fire. The change in the environment is almost immediate. The painful burning heat is reduced to just uncomfortable and the roiling of the water begins to subside.
Tygrah nimbly dodges away from the exploding ice, only taking a few shallow nicks. "You literally made it explode, husband! That was incredible!" The half-orc laughs and leaps into Ashlion's arms, rewarding him with kisses.
Rory catches the brunt of the exploding ice, taking heavy slashing damage and some minor cold damage (Cold Resist 5 for 8 slashing and 2 cold damage). Holding on long enough to sever the seed’s connection to the plane of fire, he gasps for breath and sinks to his knees afterwards.
Bavick was going to jump in there for a flanking Spring Attack, but instead just watches in awe at Ashlion's blow.
Magdi looks around the not-quite-as-hostile chamber. "That should leave just one seed to deal with," he says. "Be aware, though, that once the fourth seed is deactivated the storm wall will be gone and we'll have to deal with Daruthek and whoever is assisting him with the ritual." He looks around at the injured group as Argil moves about as if examining each person. "I bring it up to point out that we may not have a chance to rest or recover resources once the final seed is disabled."
Rory rubs his palms together and channels holy fire into his chest to heal his mounting wounds.
for both lethal and non lethal.
He answers Magdi, saying, ”While I fear that the storm grows more and more deadly with each passing hour, my Qi is nearly depleted for the day, I would rest if we can.”
Glancing over at the “treasure” chest, he adds, ”Bavick, what do you make of that chest over there?” Rory will cast “Vision of the Gods” (Detect Magic) to see what he can make of the chest himself.
Tygrah is badly banged up as well. "A rest would do us good."
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Rory detects a number of magical auras emanating from the chest. The chest itself doesn't appear to be magical. Examining it further indicates that it is locked. The pattern on the lock, though, matches the pattern on the large key that you recovered from the eel's cave.
Unlocking and opening the chest reveals a pair of matching wands . Resting between the wands is a set of ceremonial robes and inside the robes is a silver headband .
"Perhaps then we should use some of the beds in the barracks to rest?" Magdi suggests.
”That sounds like a good idea to me, as long as the storm is not too powerful yet. It matters not if we defeat the Storm Callers after their ritual is complete and the town is destroyed.” Thinking for a moment, he asks, ”Magdi, can you send Argil out to check on the power of the storm? If there is no time to rest, these items in the chest may give us enough power to prevail regardless...”
Rory clearly wants to rest, but he seems obsessed with saving the priestess...ah, that would be the town from the storm. Checking out the items, he says, ”I should be able to harness the magic in this wand and headband to enhance my Qi, and this other wand should be useful to Magdi for healing, if that is okay with the rest of you.”
The group takes rest on the bunks in the warm room and Magdi sends Argil out to scout the current conditions. He returns a few minutes later to pass along that the wind and weather are now making their effects known even through the heavy jungle canopy.
Dreading the delay, but knowing that to continue on in your current state would be even more of a risk, you make the difficult choice to sleep and recover.
You rise, fully restored and notice that the barracks is no longer warm, but cool and damp. Magdi points out that each day Argil can choose an affinity to either electricity or to cold. "Which would be preferable for the last day?" he asks.
"Argil, how 'bout cold. A lizardfolk with hopes of bein' a Storm Kindler might be more like to protect themselves against electricity."
The group gathers at the floating stone platform again and removes the ropes to ride it around to the last platform. They reach it in due order and lash it stable.
Double doors etched with geometric swirls and curves representing wind stand at the top of a short flight of stairs to the north of this landing. The left door has a small keyhole. The pattern around the keyhole seems familiar somehow.
Tygrah then remembers that it matches the pattern on the key that Zaahku (the chieftess of the Song'o tribe) gave you.
Retrieving the key from the magical haversack, you use it to open the door. Interestingly enough, after using it, you notice that the door doesn't seem to be locked. What it might have done, you're not sure, but opening the doors reveals another room.
Dull, waxy hives line the walls of this chamber, spilling honey into filthy, insect-laden pools on the floor. Cobwebs fill the space between hives, and a stairway to the west leads up toward the howl of intense winds somewhere beyond.
Awaking refreshed and recovered, Rory goes executes his morning kata slightly better than normal, due to the new headband he is wearing (take 10 for Perform/martial arts is now a 21). Finishing his kata activates his "Ki Armor" (Mage Armor).
"For those of you who wish it, I can protect you somewhat from lightning, as I did yesterday," Rory remarks after their rest period is finished.
As they approach the final seed area, Rory considers that, given Magdi's advice, this battle is likely to spill into the final one. He says, "If you are ready, I will use my Qi to give us some short-term protections." Assuming the answer is 'yes' before we go into the hive room, Rory extracts the last bit of magic from the Cat's Grace wand to give Tygrah and Bavick +4 Dexterity for 3 minutes, then casts "Circle Block" (Shield) on himself, which will last 5 minutes. Loading his the new wand into the nunchukau in place of the spent one, he nods that he is ready!
"Icky bugs. Watch your step."
Tygrah casts longstrider and keeps an eye out as she leads the way.
Bavick moves along, sword in hand, looking for traps.
Bavick moves along, sword in hand, looking for traps.
As you move past the web-covered hives, kicking large insects out of the way, three much-larger spiders drop from the shadows.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
Bavick stabs at the spider nearest him.