----
Behemoth skill checks
The behemoth is 20' down not 15' down.
Kyrie’s shield connects with brutal force after Cai goes down — Vilree's head snaps back and a tooth goes flying!
Spite's Cradle: Round 3
Cai mutagen (weak 5 vs all but fire), -10 speed (entangled), dying 1
Vilree, 1/? electric cartridges used, -43 HP
Guyzer
G'nak, unluck aura until moves out of aura, turn resolves before Kyrie's
Kyrie, mutagen (weak 5 vs all but electric), -4 HP shield -7 HP, burning 2 (DC 15 flat at EoT)
Behemoth, 10'/30' up
Marula
G'nak steps out of the aura, quickly makes a moderate acid flask, and tosses it at Vilree.
persistent +2 splash
G'nak hits Vilree — she gasps in pain and looks at you with contempt.
You think victory's at hand, but I’ve already won. I won before you even found me. I dispatched my minion hours ago with the key to destroying the town. It's too late. Everyone wretched man, woman, and child in Plaguestone will soon be DEAD!
Spite's Cradle: Round 3
Cai mutagen (weak 5 vs all but fire), -10 speed (entangled), dying 1
Vilree, 1/? electric cartridges used, -54 HP
Guyzer
G'nak, unluck aura until moves out of aura, turn resolves before Kyrie's
Kyrie, mutagen (weak 5 vs all but electric), -4 HP shield -7 HP, burning 2 (DC 15 flat at EoT)
Behemoth, 10'/30' up
Marula
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”If there’s truly nothing we can do to stop it, then we might as well finish killing you.”
The behemoth climbs!
The Behemoth howls in frustration as it almost falls into the water, but it grabs an edge!
Spite's Cradle: Round 3
Cai mutagen (weak 5 vs all but fire), -10 speed (entangled), dying 1
Vilree, 1/? electric cartridges used, -54 HP
G'nak, unluck aura until moves out of aura, turn resolves before Kyrie's
Kyrie, mutagen (weak 5 vs all but electric), -4 HP shield -7 HP, burning 2 (DC 15 flat at EoT)
Behemoth, 15'/30' up
Marula
Guyzer, delayed
Ina pursues her quarry, intent on ending Vilree's life.
Marula also continues to focus on the psychopath, sending a blast of cold her way.
Vilree growls as the leopard bites her before falling to the ground. Her dead is face frozen in a rictus of pure hatred.
G’nak searches Vilree’s body for her mother’s ring.
”Did she really send her ring off with someone else?”
Marula produces a berry and crushes it between Cai's teeth. And another.
Ina's teeth remain in Vilree's maw until she's certain her tormenter is dead. She then quietly pads over to Marula, brushing their foliage and purring.
"Fire courts the forest.
A man may quench its ardor,
If he's fleet of foot."
Vilree has the following loot:
An Alchemical Crossbow. The weapon can deliver bolts that are alchemically infused. You can slot an alchemical bomb into the crossbow, and the next 3 attacks deal 1d6 damage of the type dealt by the bomb in addition to the piercing damage of the bolt. These attacks never deal splash damage.
SHe also has a +1 Striking Dagger.
Vilree also has 6 moderate acid flasks, 2 moderate alchemist’s fire, 4 moderate bottled lightning, 3 lesser elixirs of life, and 1 lesser tanglefoot bag. These are infusions.
Kyrie heals Cai, bringing the gymnast to consciousness. You hear the pugwumpi tormenting the Behemoth below as it struggles to escape the water. Soon, the rushing water pulls it deeper underground…
You look at one another, wondering what your next step should be.
Marula reads from the scroll in hand, sending life's energy surging into Cai.
"The blight's still spreading.
She lies dead, yet the grove lives.
Etran's Folly waits."
With that, they call Ina to them and move to leave.
Etran's folly waits, indeed! Marula wisely forgoes more lengthy healing measures, on Cai.
You may take your horses to try and get there before the minion does , or try to track it in the wilderness.
Let me know what you want to do.
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”To the horses!”
Kyrie nods. She had hoped she could finally breathe after the death of the great villain, but she would need to hang on a little longer.
There is still a grim possibility that the town of Etran’s Folly is now a town filled with the dead and dying. Miles pass, minutes turn to hours, and finally, the unsuspecting village grows ever closer. There is no sign of Vilree’s minion, but that only adds to a growing sense of dread.
Etran’s Folly comes into view at the crest of a hill. The alchemical drudge is now approaching its final destination—the plaguestone—where it will carry out its final gruesome command from Vilree!
Just as you race into town, your horses lathered with exhaustion, you see the plaguestone ahead — and 120 feet away, emerging from the bushes, is an alchemical drone!
Lounging in a lawn chair near the plaguestone is Farmer Eallom. He's drinking cold turnip ales with Ulf and Olf. They pointedly ignore Sir Lawrence Krent, who stands nearby clean-shaven and laundered and proselytizing about the evils of drink and debauchery.
Phinick comes out of an alleyway, running towards G'nak. Where Boss go? Why go without Phinick?
Cooky is at a wagon washing his Eye-Rens and clutches them to his chest as he sees you dang fools galloping in like mad!
Out of the forest, about a hundred and twenty feet away, lurches an alchemical drone. It holds something small in its hand and seems to be coming this way with single-minded intent.
Whuzzat? says Eallom.
Marula whistles at Ina, pointing her toward the drudge. As the leopard scampers toward the menace, her leshy friend shoots icy cold from afar.
As she reaches the harbinger of doom, Ina chomps down, holding it in place.
Eallom slaps his knee and sips his ale. HAW! What kinda dang fool cat is that? Too big, too many spots. Too on fire!
No, we're humble folks aroun' here. You give Ol' Eallom a regular kinda cat any old day. No need for no fancy fires or spots. Good 'enough for anyone, I say.
Olf nods sagely. Care to bet on how long that fancy fire-cat can hold that weird critter? Ulf grins eagerly. Double or nothin'?
Cooky yells: Smash 'em like ye smashed my eye-rens, Cai! For Bort!
G’nak’s eyes go wide as he sees Phnick running toward him.
”Get down you fool!”
G’nak, with Vilree’s alchemical crossbow in hand, dives off his horse as he fires a flask of alchemist fire at the drone.
He tackles Phinick to the ground.
”Don’t breathe until I tell you to!”
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The bomb engulfs the drone in flame, which Ina doesn’t mind one bit. Cai thunders closer.
Phinick holds his breath and gives G'nak a hug.
A second later he says Boss really care! Nice boss! Then he blushes and gulps a lungful of air.
I knew come back! I tell Delma new boss come back, I quit… oops! He sucks in two, even larger, lungfuls of air.
But she still feed me old turnip. So all okay. Not eating much garbage. Sorry, boss! three more massive pulls of air.
…… Boss? is Phinick holding breath good, boss?
Kyrie rushes onward towards the drone. She takes out her longsword and uses it to stake the drone to the ground while she searches it for the ring.
Kyrie stakes the Drone to the earth and finds a tarnished silver ring in its hand. It's shaped like two leaves twining into one.
Just then, Cai thunders by and lops the drone's head clean off!
The Paladin looks up and Krent nods at her — now that he's sober and clean, she can almost see the ghost of the fallen paladin's former self looking out from those pale grey eyes.
Eallom grumbles and throws coins on the plaguestone, grumbling about how he can't wait for you to all leave town. Olf looks at the drone. Was that what killed Bort? Ulf pauses as he collects Eallom's coins. Don't look nice to me.
Tamli and Delma come around the corner, stopping when they see the drone. Tamli looks at you. What happened here?
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G'nak holds up a hand, as if to stop any objections before they even start.
"Yes, I know it seems too obvious, and perhaps overly literal, but the stone in the center of Plaguestone is actually a plaguestone. You can't make these things up."
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"The woman, Vilree,
Locusts are a lesser plague.
She meant to kill... y'all."
Marula approaches Tamli.
"We quenched that wildfire.
And now it lives in Ina,
Wild beast. Inferno."
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Olf looks at the Plaguestone, eyes wide. Eallom's been beating his fists on the stone all day! He lost so much gold!
Ulf picks up the coins off the ground and then groans. I think some gas escaped, and I breathed some in!
Olf holds his stomach. Ooof… me too. I thought it was the turnip milk we had this morning, but I think I'm POISONED!
Ulf leans over to the side. We might need DAYS to recover.
Olf sheds a tear as he pockets more of Eallom's gold. Terrible timing! We're probably going to head out now, but we can't help load the caravan.
Ulf moans. But I love loading caravans!
The brothers look at the sky and shake their fists. in unison, they wail
Tamli rolls her eyes and kicks the chair out from under one brother, then the next.
----
The town as a whole is grateful you — you can stay at the Feedmill for as long as you like, free of charge. In fact, the town commissions statues of you to replace the old Plaguestone itself — Flonk the bard is working on the design and in a year or so the images of Cai, Kyrie, Marula, G'nak, Guyzer, and Ina will greet visitors to Etran's folly. You just hope the statues are better-made than the strings on Flonk's lute, which still break whenever he plays.
The next day the whole town of Etran's Folly turns out for Bort's funeral service in the graveyard on the hill. The new section of the cemetery contains a scattering of well-carved wooden headstones. The older, much larger section features only a half-dozen ancient markings, tilted by changes in the topography and too weathered to even read anymore.
The vast majority of plots here are unmarked — plague victims resting in anonymous, quickly-dug holes.
----
You share stories about the kind old storyteller — while he might have made some unwise deals with bad people, his heart was always in the right place, and he always dealt fair. He always brought this small town what it needed, and you can see that Tamli resolves to do the same.
Cooky places a mysterious star-shaped platinum pendant in Bort's pocket before the corpse is buried. Glunda watches alone from the forest clutching her carving of a bear and cub; tears streaking her dirt-stained face. The brothers pour libations to the man who saved them.
Tamli sheds more than a few tears, and has the most difficulty saying her final goodbye — you get the feeling that Bort helped her cope with another significant loss in her life long ago, and over the years he became a pillar of comfort in her life. In fact, he was a pillar in all the lives of his crew. Now, that support has been ripped away — all for an act of cruelty so casual so as to barely be worth a thought to Vilree.
You again look to the old burial grounds — all those nameless victims — and wonder where Vilree's mother, Silwyth Eldara, lies forgotten.
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BRAVO! Thanks, Doug, for all of our hard work on this. I appreciate how much creativity you put into even a relative combat slog.
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At the funeral, Cai Fen takes a brief moment to grieve and then steps up to speak of Bort’s kindness and willingness to see the best in people around him. He relays, to those who have not heard it yet, the story of how Bort encountered Pharasma and cleverly escaped her clutches.
His voice is tinged with emotion and he makes a heroic effort to do the story justice.
He stays at the Feedmill for the next few days, helping with the dinner rush. Though he turns in early, as is his want, he has a difficult time sleeping, and can be found in the common room or wandering Etran’s folly under the light of the stars. The shadows under his eyes grow deeper with every passing night.
Eventually, he says his farewells to his companions and quietly packs his things. He travels to the coast of Avistan and charters passage on a merchantman back to Tien Xia. He is greeted warmly by his parents and siblings upon returning to his ancestral home, where he stays for many months, working feverishly into the night on his novel.
Finally, the world joyously receives his masterpiece – “The Adventures of the Great Detective Smokehouse H’loms and his incompetent sidekick Doctor Wat Sun.” The book also includes other colorful and comic characters, such as a stalwart knight who is always one step behind, a leshie who only speaks in limericks, an elf that communicates entirely through gestures, and their adorable pet rat, Mr. Squeakers.
Cai Fen uses the proceeds from the novel to purchase a plot of land, supplementing his writing income with beekeeping. He also constructs a small shrine to Tsukiyo for the benefit of the town and stops by weekly to worship there. Stories begin to spread among the locals of a quiet, humble man dressed in simple white robes who can be seen wandering under the light of the moon, and who is always happy to guide a traveler, or soothe a troubled soul with a kind word and a jar of honey.