"I'm blinded too. A shame the mind swap didn't put me in a body I could take advantage of, but at least it helped end the fight." Kallie tries to stave off panic by being clinical about the fight and her spell. She'd envisioned a lot more utility bordering on shenanigans with mind swap. Next time...
"I have some magic left, but stopping wouldn't be a bad idea. I could swap out some of my available spells for better utility going forward."
"I've been careful to conserve my energies, so I could continue on at need, but we do this together or not at all."
Croq nods. "No need to stop on my account, but I'm still ready to rock.
"The only question I'm thinking about: do the forces that we're opposing" (she says with a wink) "Know we're moving against them yet? Or are they likely to find out while we rest? If so, then resting could be riskier than continuing on."
After scratching her scaly noggin for a moment, she says, "We've only dealt with two of the corrupted shrines so far. That would leave five for tomorrow.
"Mom always used to say, 'Be Kind To Future You.' Let's at least fix the Green one!"
"I think I can handle that, Sis," Aurealia agrees, nodding along to their mother's advice.
"Three, actually. I don't believe there's anything else stopping us from disabling the green shrine right now," Galatea remarks, pointing at the emerald peacock shrine resting on the top of the fountain. "Well, besides the inevitable trap, obviously. Kallie, Jaya, I believe this is your area of expertise?"
"Hmm... Not certain I'm familiar with this. Kallie?"
Kallie inspects the shrine. "Well, if I had to guess..."
After some careful study, Kallie determines that removing the green rod could be rather... lethal. In short, the emerald Peacock Shrine has a potent magical poison effect tied to it. Anyone who removes the green rod would have to power through the poison or... drop dead. And even if they withstood the initial lethality, the lingering poison could be very draining on their constitution. Kallie determines that the magical poison would last about thirty seconds in total.
"Well, drat. I don't have anything left that can treat poison," Galatea mutters. "We'll need someone... robust if we want to deal with this today. Croq, I imagine your music could help with that?"
Smiling her toothiest grin, Croq says, "Time for a Big Damn Hero then!"
She sings a few raucous lines of 'Hergoff's Heroism' and then says, "Stand back!" and confidently strides up to the alter.
After pulling it out she sways there for a minute–her scales drained of their normal healthy green to something pale and queasy-looking–but in the end she's still standing.
"OooooOOoohh. Honestly? Do not recommend."
Galatea approaches Croq and takes a moment to examine her for damage.
"I can see some damage. It's nothing... ruinous, but it'll take some potent magic that I don't have on hand to fully fix," Gali admits. She sighs. "I'm sorry, everyone. These blind spots of mine are pretty glaring, aren't they? I really dropped the ball here..."
Aurealia looks on with concern as her sister does something incredibly reckless, then sighs with relief when she doesn't drop dead.
"Oi! Don't scare me like that!"
Now that the shrine has been disabled, they find themselves back at the question of whether to continue on or not. "One more shrine? That would take us more than halfway. Or are we going to do all four of the others tomorrow? I don't think we'll get rest in here uninterrupted more than one time, if that..."
Jaya looks almost as green as Croq as she watches, fists clenched at her sides in useless anxiety. She manages a sickly smile once Gali pronounces her diagnosis, but doesn't trust herself to speak.
Kallie gasps as Croq pulls out the rod, trusting her own fortitde and luck. Though she survived, it appears to have cost her.
"Should've checked with Cai’nan. Lot of druids are immune to poisons," she mutters under her breath.
Croq grins sheepishly at her friends' concern. "Aw, don't look like that, I'm fine. We've all gotta step up and be the hero sometimes, if we're going to win against foes like this, right?"
When Aurealia asks about continuing, Croq nods with determination. "I may not be quite at my best, but I can still give a drumming to whoever is, ahem, betraying Her Emminence and mucking with her shrines. Let's try one more before the word spreads that Her Emminence is on to the betrayers. And I agree we don't want to let this go more than another day."
At Gali's comment, Croq reaches out a big, scaly hand to ruffle her hair. "Don't feel bad, Gali. No one expects you to be ready for everything. The Power of Rock will prevail!"
"That works for me. Jaya, you said you've been conservative so far... Think you can bring the heat if we have to fight again?"
Jaya smiles, "Oh yes."
Aurealia giggles. "Well, which shrine would be closest? Let's do one more."
Galatea initially seems somewhat wary about pressing forward. However, after a moment of contemplative silence, she nods and vanishes from sight again. You get the sneaking suspicion that Gali will likely be sticking to "Spam Wand of Cure Serious Wounds" for the rest of the day.
You make your way back through the woods, encountering no further trouble before you reach the main path. From there, you starting moving north along the river banks, carefully looking for any signs of any more Peacock Shrines. At a glance, there does not appear to be any obvious locations or hiding spots for where one might be...
(+2 more if it's night)
The bulk of your group makes one final sweep of the southwestern woods and ultimately concludes that there is nothing else of significance there. Meanwhile, Croq swims across the river and explores the northern forest. She discovers nothing of note there. By all accounts, it appears that the Peacock Shrines on the property grounds have been neutralized and all the remaining ones are currently inside the Temple proper...
Croq emerges from the river, shaking water droplets in every direction.
She asks East and West to please go stand guard (just out of earshot) and then she says, "Alright, I was hoping there were more shrines to tackle outside of the Temple, but it seems like the rest are all inside it.
"Seeing that, I'm gonna join Gali in her suggestion that we turn in for the night, and just be ready for One Big Day tomorrow."
"Sounds about right. Once we go in we'll be stirring the hornet's nest..."
Seeing no disagreement, Croq nods.
"It's settled then. Any objections to holing up at the Forester's Grove? We'll have to watch the paths from the North and South but it seems as out of the way as anything."
Aurealia nods in agreement to this suggestion, finding it sensible.
"In that case, I'll go fetch Viralane. She's been laying low for... Gods, I know it's only been a few hours, but it sure feels like nearly a year," Gali remarks. "Anyway, I'll meet you in the Forester's Grove."
Leaving Cheshire by your side, Galatea promptly vanishes from sight. About an hour later, she returns with Viralane in tow. The ginger actress has nothing of note to report, apparently having just hid in some bushes while you were busy cleaning house. She is a bit surprised to see Cai'nan and Thalanir but ultimately just rolls with it; at this point, she's just plain used to all the oddities that seem to follow your entourage.
Nothing of interest happens during the night. You do overhear Eura and Zephyra (East and West respectively) wanting to check in with their sisters-in-arms at the front gate. However, since their best friend Kallie still needs their help, they seem content to stay by her side for now.
"I know it's not really my place to ask, but what exactly are you going to tell Her Eminence when we get to the Temple?" Zephyra asks. "It's a little... troubling how many traitors and tainted Shrines we kept finding yesterday."
Kallie blows out a slow breath when Zephyra approaches her. She closes her spellbook after selecting her revised spell list as she chews over the question. "I don't know. I'm open to suggestions at this point."
Croq's scaly brow furrows. "Good question. We should discuss...but Eura and Zephyra, would you two mind standing guard while we do. Maybe you there, Eura. And Zephyra, over there. That's right, far enough away that you can catch someone before they could eavesdrop."
Once their two allies in "eliminating traitors" are safely out of earshot, Croq says, "Kallie, how strong is your sway on them? I think once we enter the temple things may get less subtle and require more drumming." (She pats Drumstick as though she's somehow unsure that everyone will get the hint.) "Particularly once we encounter Zurea herself, I worry at some point that Eura and Zephyra will realize they've been duped, and turn on us. Or that one of the wizards in there will know how to dispel your awesome charm. Should we have them wait somewhere harmless?"
"Either way, there's just one long bridge to get to the temple...and I'm guessing that those inside will see us coming. Anyone have a more subtle way for us to enter? I could try swimming around the building to see if there's an alternate entrance...but then we'd need to get everyone there. Whaddaya all think?"
”If there is an alternate entrance, that makes sense to me. If not, maybe we can just talk our way in the front and be ready to fight if that doesn’t work?”
"Alright," Croq says, rolling up her carpet and tucking it into her backpack. "Give me a few minutes. Feel free to keep talking about whether to bring East and West with us while I'm swimming."
Croq sings out Acute Senses to help her best both be aware of hidden entrances and of being observed, and then she swims out. Knowing that she can hold her breath for quite a while, she does her best to mostly stay under the water, coming up only sporadically.