Poe quietly attends to his wounds.
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As soon as its clear that the thrasing in the water dies down, Yndra drops her staff and wades to aid Tem. Despite her age, she's not afraid to get her hands dirty. She similarly aids Tsschas in digging a grave to the gnome. She let's the speech to the Sarenite though, feeling that he he more appropriate things to say than she does. She keeps it simple. "As a Pathfinder, he always knew the danger he was in. But surely he had hoped for a more fitting way to meet his end. Alas, we can't know in advance. Farewell, Julius. You will be missed."
--
After that, she turns to the other remains that they found in the lizard's stomach. Tuned in to magic as she is, something caught her eye. A quick casting of detect magic confirms her suspicions. "As I thought, these boots are magical. That's why they withstood being in its stomach so long. They can allow you to walk and run faster. Anyone who needs them in particular?" It doesn't take an mindreader to see that Yndra herself wouldn't mind to keep them, for now at least.
Perhaps it is a consequence of his memory of life, but Tem's ectoplasmic form shudders and stiffens with the great lizard's venom even whilst Poe suffers the pain of the monster's bite in Tem's place.
As the venom runs its course, Tem becomes rigid and collapses.
How is Poe taking the 19 points of damage from the phantom? You can't take damage from the phantom unless that damage is going to take it cause it to disappear back where it came from (ie: if the damage causes it to reach negative con hp's. 0's not enough!)
Not that it matters at this point, I suppose =)
After burying Uncle Julius deep enough to keep the cadaver safe from scavengers, you press on towards the jungle and the old mine site that you believe to be the destination of the Roidiran pilgrims.
In the late afternoon you reach the jungle. It is just as hot as the desert. There are many biting insects that irritate you. You follow your directions along well-trodden paths, and at dusk you come upon the old mine. All of the mining equipment is piled near the entrance to a makeshift camp, set amongst the columns of some long-ruined building.
A majestic statue covered in vines announces the entrance to the Roidiran shrine. The statue is of a woman, tall and cloaked, with thick curls of hair that are richly detailed in the stone. Her hand is outstretched to the distance as if pointing to some far off but attainable truth. A plaque at the base of the statue states, in both Common and Kelish “Certainty and understanding cannot coexist.” Two supplicant Roidirans stand on either side of the statue, all but lost to the world. They pay you no heed.
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Yndra cautiously greets the two Roidirans. Once she's determined that they are unresponsive by waving a hand across their face, she turns her attention to the statue. "Certainty and understanding cannot coexit," she reads aloud. "Well, that makes sense. But disregarding all common sense and knowledge seems a mockery of this motto."
Like Fate, she tunes in to magical auras. Then, she takes a closer look at the statue. "Roidira herself, probably? How long would it have been here?" She looks for signs of age and for other clues, on the statue.
--
"... Is that mantra an attack on certainty? That with understanding comes measured, reasoned doubt?"
No magic auras are detected.
The statue itself is in excellent condition, better than the ruined columns beyond. Yndra cannot be certain who it depicts, but Roidira does seem logical.
The two supplicants at the statue do nothing to prevent your passage.
Within this jungle clearing you find twelve ancient pillars, one of which has been toppled by a great tree. Three great upright tablets bear bas-relief carvings depicting Roidira leading the masses away from the domes and towers of Qadiran cities towards a bright star on the horizon. The tablets bear an inscription, in both Kelish and common: “There is no presence; there is absence, There is no meaning; there is knowledge.”
Roidirans pray mutely at the tablets, and at makeshift shrines they have erected. Like those at the statue, they ignore your presence. They appear deadened to the world. Flitting between them are four insubstantial creatures, human-like, but somehow incomplete.
These ghostly figures are unfettered phantoms, radiating despair. A powerful force binds them to this shrine, preventing their souls from moving on. The phantoms are Outsiders, not undead.
DC20 (Poe does not auto-pass)
DC25 (Poe does not auto-pass)
One of the ghostly figures approaches: “There is nothing,” she says, “nothing for you here; nothing for us; nothing for all.” she holds up a hand and points back the way you came, as if in warning.
This phantom addressing you is desperate. An unfettered phantom lacks an anchor – and without one it is a creature of raw emotion and need. She radiates a palpable sense of despair.
You are an anchor. What is more, you realise that the need and desire of this phantom is so strong that were you to open yourself up to her she would supplant Tem. Her desire is stronger than his. What would become of Tem you do not know, but you would serve as this phantom's anchor henceforth.
Poe has a choice to make.
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"These are not remnant spirits of the dead as we have come to know them. They are from beyond this plane. Yet, something holds them here. Should we come into conflict with them, try to attack them when they are still. Their forms are incorporeal when they are moving." He reflects on what his patron has provided this day. "If it should come to it, I can try to make one of them more substantial, but only a single one of them."
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Yndra is glad to see the Grippli speak up, soft as his voice may be. "I think it works both ways. Or at least, it may have been meant that way originally. Only by rejecting certainty, by allowing doubt, can one come to new understandings. And even that new understanding should be subject to doubt. It does not itself become certainty. That would lead to staleness. But what the Roidirans have made of that seems like a perversion..."
--
Yndra nods as Fate explains about the phantoms, even if he seems to know more about them then she does. "They are anguished, all right. Trapped here? What I'm wondering: Are these spirits victims of whatever happened here, or are they the cause of what's driving the pilgrims mad?"
She holds for the moment, not wanting to provoke the spirits. "Poe, everything all right?"
Poe studies the phantom and feels it's pull. He is silent for a long period as he quietly considers Tem. Tem had been quite, introspective since the death of Uncle Julius... As if his anger has been burning out and had started to fall into despair...
Addressing Tem Poe chooses his words carefully; "Maybe you need to rest Tem? You have leading me all over the Inner Sea on your mad mission against the Decemvirate and the Venture Captains... And nothing has come of it, Uncle Julius is still dead and here I am a thousand miles from home surrounded by lunatics" Poe makes no effort to exclude his present company from that statement.
As Poe ponders, the phantoms drift closer. The lead phantom grows impatient: "“You walk Roidira’s Road, yet you are not truly on it. You defile this sacred place. What we have given to her, for her, is not for your ken. Leave.”
Then Tem initiates combat.
Pet
Pet
Combat round 1
Fate
Yndra
Tem
GM stuff
Phantoms
Blackfang
Mr Graves
Poe
The bold may act!
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Yndra feels for the Grippli, caught up with a companion he is obviously not able to confront. She's about to speak up, but Tem's rage gives even her pause. When Tem strikes the phantom, those thoughts are pressed aside by more pressing matters.
--
"Here we go," Yndra sighs. She had somehow hoped to confront the spirits without confrontation. "Couldn't we have at least tried to talk to them?" she calls to Tem. "Maybe we could have learned something about their situation..."
Preparing for a difficult fight, Yndra calls to her patron. "Nethys, All-Seeing Eye, grant me your favor in this fight, so that I may continue to do your work."
Tem is up.
The enraged Tem stakes his claim to Poe with a mighty blow! Though she did not take the full force of it, the lead phantom reels...
Yndra and Fate cast spells to aid in the fight.
The other phantoms drift towards you, wailing their anguish incoherently...
The phantoms' attacks prove ineffective.
Then the human cultists seem to notice you for the first time. “Where does the Brotherhood lie?” one of them calls out.
Combat round 1
Fate
Yndra; divine favour
Tem
GM stuff
Phantoms
Blackfang
Mr Graves
Zarisha (lead phantom); -21hp
Poe; nauseated
Active effects: bless
The bold may act!
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"Oh great." Graves mutters in annoyance, when Tem seems to go off the deep end, aggravating all of the phantoms that were seemingly non-hostile only moments before.
As the creatures advance, he suddenly recognizes the phrase the Roidiran mutters, though he's not sure the man even knows what he's talking about anymore.
"At peace, beneath her black wings." He calls, as his ever-present shovel appears in his hands, and he moves to block one of the phantoms.
Tem strikes the first phantom to approach him.
Mr Graves speaks the passphrase - the phantoms seem to hesitate, but they do not relent. Graves strikes true.
Tsschas aims a sword blow at a phantom, and finds that Fate's blessing guides his hand. His sword cuts through the ectoplasmic spirit.
Zarisha, the first phantom, battles with Tem for his anchor!
She strikes Tem, but cannot harm him.
Combat round 1 (2)
Fate
Yndra; divine favour
Tem
Phantoms (blue -7hp; orange -12hp; green -7hp)
Blackfang
Mr Graves
Zarisha (lead phantom); -21hp
Poe; nauseated
Active effects: bless
The bold may act!
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Yndra steps up besides Graves to complete their battle line, whipping her head around to get her braid out of the way. "You got the password right, as far as I can tell. It slowed the spirits, at least." She keeps a close watch on the human cultists to her right, to see if they heard and respond to the passphrase. "If they decide to join in, we could have a nasty situation on our hands."
Bolstered by Fate's blessing and Nethys's favor, Yndra goes for a powerful blow. She heaves her staff high and brings it down on the phantom in front of her will full power, wrinkled face red with the strain.
Fate twists the skeins again...
...but the phantom is unimpeded. "You are nothing!" it says. "You have no power here! You are lost!"
Yndra swings a powerful blow with her staff, but does not find her target.
Tem does better, both his rage-fuelled attacks hitting home.
The phantoms, realising they have little or no possibility of hurting Tem, try to make him share in their despair by hurting his allies.
Combat round 2
Fate
Yndra; divine favour
Tem
Phantoms (blue -7hp; orange -12hp; green -7hp)
Blackfang
Mr Graves
Zarisha (lead phantom); -36hp
Poe; nauseated
Active effects: bless
The bold may act!
Tem strikes the moving phantom but does not destroy it.
Mr Graves does better, his shovel sending his target back to the plane from whence came.
Tsschas almost, but not quite, does the same for his foe.
Zarisha drifts sideways and aims her blows at Yndra.
The phantom strikes Yndra, who feels a sense of the creature's all-consuming suffering. Yndra, attempt a DC13 Will save.
Combat round 2 (3)
Fate
Yndra; -6hp, divine favour
Tem
Phantoms (blue -11hp; orange dissipated; green disabled; black ok)
Blackfang
Mr Graves
Zarisha (lead phantom); -36hp
Poe; nauseated
Active effects: bless
The bold may act!
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"So much for keeping our ranks closed," Yndra huffs when she finds herself assaulted from all side. She manages to avoid the first few attacks, with one of them glancing off her breastplate. However, that took her attention so much that the phantom in charge manages to slip past her defenses. "Ugh!"
The dwarven woman finds that the touch sends a shiver through her spine, but she grits her teeth. "Is that the best you've got? You think I haven't suffered worse in my life?!" Her right eye makes jerky motions as she turns and steps in between Tem and Zarisha. "Here, take this!" She swings her staff again, in a wide arc this time.
Fate's target succumbs to his hex.
Yndra swings too wildly again, but Tem's rage proves stronger than Zarisha's despair - he strikes her so hard that she is reduced to a puddle of ectoplasm on the floor.
The remaining phantoms surround Tsschas
In its anguish, the green phantom lashes out at Tsschas - but the effort is enough to cause it to dissipate. The black phantom takes its place.
Swirling around the paladin on all sides, the assailants land several blows.
Combat round 3 (4)
Fate
Yndra; -6hp, divine favour
Tem
Phantoms (blue -11hp; orange dissipated; green dissipated; black misfortune)
Blackfang; -16hp
Mr Graves
Poe; nauseated
Active effects: bless
The bold may act!
The tempestuous Tem and the grim Graves finish off the remaining phantoms, and all that remains of them is slick ectoplasm on the ground, and coating your weapons.
Combat over!
Party status
Yndra, -6hp
Tsschas, -16hp
A stone stairway leads down into an old mine...
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Yndra wipes some sweat from her brow and pokes at the wound on her arm. "So, it seems like we got off decently lucky then. We'd never leave a fellow Pathfinder out to dry, Tem. Even if he's.... in a state such as yours." She makes a quick check to see whether the Roidirans are still catatonic.
When there's no further danger, she retrieves a slender wand from her belt. "Tsjas, do you need healing as well?" She activates the wand once, and then twice more when the wound turns out more resilient than even two charges could deal with. She glares at the wand before the puts if back. "Tem, does the presence of these phantoms - or their ectoplasm - inhibit magic in any way?" She's suddenly highly interested, feeling as if the wand's magic were less then expected.
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"Very well. If we're all ready, let's proceed then. Now that we're here, I'm eager - like Tsjas - to get to the bottom of this. Seeing these writings of Roidira really has me curious to see where things went wrong." She stowes her healing wand and takes her place in the marching order to explore the mine.
You descend the stone stairway into the old mine. The lower level is carved into rocky ground. Its construction is somewhat unstable, as evidenced by the collapse to the southeast.
On either side of the stairs leading into the forest shrine’s lower level are two curved pieces of stone, each polished to a mirror sheen and inscribed with the same sentence over and over again in a variety of languages. The sentence on the northern stone is “All truths are lies,” while the sentence on the southern stone is “All lies are truths.”
Ahead of you in the distance soft lights are visible through the dark, both to the northeast and closer to the north, just down the mine passage.