You are escorted to the bridge. Oversized femurs and ribs have been bound together into a ladderlike structure supported by log rafts that float atop the tar, creating a ramshackle bridge to the adjoining island.
The lizardfolk points you a couple tables not to step in.
Short after you reach to the main island where Achahut was spotted by Splits. When you arrive Achahut is engaged in combat with a half-mad dinosaur with thick bony plates armor, its powerfully muscled tail ending in a bony club!
You spot strange worm holes in the dinosaur's head, you think the dinosaur came here following its infection by an affliction known as Mwangi brain worms.
Achahut strikes powerfully with his pick at the dinosaur's front right leg, and the massive creature responds biting the lizardfolk's arm and tearing apart a good chunk of flesh.
It seems like Achahut is seeking death by challenging greater beasts to battle.
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"Um, I think he's trying to die with honor by fighting the dinosaurs that come here?" Tonny whispers to his companions. "Though I don't know if he's really a match for an ankylosaurus - they're fearsome with that tail of theirs. Um, do you think he'd want help?" He looks at their guides for guidance.
The druid is quick to analyze the situation. "I do not know the name of this creature, but it's heavily armored and probably not easy prey."
He sees something is off about the dinosaur, "Brain worms..." He recalled what he had heard about parasites, "They must have brought it here."
Splits the Leaves looks ready to assist the lizardfolk and the dinosaur, knowing full well that a sacrifice might have to be made between the two.
"We should help him. If he wishes to die, we can provide him an honourable exit after should he choose."
After crossing the bridge, Ingolf mounted Ebba again. When they spotted the old lizardfolk fighting the dinosaur he asked, "Tonny, can you translate for me?"
Riding forward he called to the shaman, "Achahut, your warriors need your wisdom to guide them in these uncertain times; I would be honored to fight alongside you!"
Ingolf words sink deep and well on the lizardfolk, but it is too focused on the dinosaur right now to parley "The great beast is my death! Do not make me regret speaking on behalf of your wretched people"
As he speaks you do understand that in fact she is a female lizardfolk, not a male.
Lizardfolk and dinosaur clash together with pick swings and tail barrels.
Despite his fearless attempts the thick skin of the dinosaur deflects the lizarfolk's pick. The dinosaur barrels her back then and leaves her stunned with a huge strike on the face.
she's going to get herself killed! we have to help
Jonah pulls his bow out and fires a shot at the dinosaur.
unfortunately it is more of a warning shot
Ingolf urged Ebba forward and prayed to Gozreh to aid his allies (including Achahut) in battle. Flanking the dinosaur he called out, "I would like to find a way to help you and your kin!"
Adriana is conflicted - on the one hand, they only barely had the trust of the Lizardfolk, and interfering seemed likely to undo their efforts. On the other hand, doing nothing while Achahut fought alone did not sit well with her.
Still weighing the risks Adriana flicked her scimitar in her hand and quickly decided to at least draw the dinosaur's attention to give Achahut a better opening to strike.
The druid holds a healing spell should one of them fall, he saw the maggots and truly knew that there was no saving that dinosaur.
"I don't know if what the dinosaur has is contagious, but be warned."
Jonah's shot goes wildly high and is confused as an alert one more than an attack.
Ingolf's blesses the area then moves forward, the dinosaur attacking him as he approaches.
The creature mops the gnome with his tail in a strong stunning strike.
The other two lizarfolk look at each other, they seem to look reverently at Achahut's fight, but Tonny has the feeling they will not try to stop your group saving their leader either.
Adriana rushes forward drawing her scimitar. Ingolf has the dinosaur distracted and that let's her reach the oversized lizard without harm.
Splits ready himself to heal whomever might fall. By the strength of that tail it appears he is going to have a lot of work.
Dazed, Achahut does nothing this time to attack the dinosaur and seem unable to talk as well, while the huge creature swings its tail against him once more.
The strike is colossal and nearly sends the proud leader to the ground. This time, he manages to endure the sunning pain.
"Lightfoot!
The dinosaur grows to size and rushes where they may need an extra jaw and the druid quickly calls up a blessing from the sky and rains.
Forming some lightning, the water in the air materializes into a stormcloud.
Jonah fires off two more quick shots at the big dino, staying far back from that massive tail. he does not send in Rosemary this time, worried about the danger of fighting a big creature like this.
Ignoring the absolute insanity of charging a massive dinosaur to draw its attention, Adriana guessed at what would count as a weak spot on such a large armored beast and using the distraction provided by Achahut and others, slashes at the sick beast.
Ingolf was too stunned by the blow to do anything.
Tonny quickly drinks and extract and prepares to try reduce the danger of the dinosaur.
Splits takes a piece of tree struck by lightning from his pouch and says a few divine words. A crackling, spherical storm cloud materializes over the dinosaur with crackling electricity.
But the dinosaur spins around out of the sphere.
Jonah is not afraid from the huge dinosaur. He came to the Korir River delta for this, and his arrows are precise. The first one though is deflected by the thick hide of the animal, but the second one lodges deeply on his neck. The creature shouts in pain.
Adriana slashes pretty hard at the dinosaur, but despite the flank, the hide is too thick and deflects his blade.
Ingolf is dazed by the blow, but Ebba would not remain still seeing her best friend attacked.
The dinosaur gets mad, and starts to attack around, this time at Adriana.
The hit comes with incredible strength, crashing just on her chest.
"我告诉过你不要帮助！" shouts Acahut in Draconic "[/b]面对如此巨大的丛林野兽而死是我的荣幸[/b]"
"I told you not to help!"
"It is my honor to fall dead against such a huge beast of the jungle"
The lizardfolk female swings his heavy pick and attempts to bite the dinosaur.
With the dinosaur distracted with Adriana, Achahut manages to strike deeply with his pick and render the animal with claw and jaws super aggressively.
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"Mru-mrm mruph mrum!" Tonny replies before his eyes widen and fall. "Mumph."
Taking careful aim, the half-elf spits a stream of pale-green liquid at the huge dinosaur. "There!" he exclaims, wiping away the last few droplets from his lips. "That ought to... wait, is it... oh no." His face falls visibly and he clutches his whip tightly. "Um, well, 我们需要和您谈谈！ 而且，如果您真的想死，那么您将不会反抗这种恐龙!" He pauses. "嗯，您总能与下一个战斗而死吗?"
Rage overtook Ingolf, who furiously stabbed at his massive foe, snarling, "Ebba, attack!"
As the boar surged forward, the spiteful creatures that haunted the gnome joined in the assault, invited by his anger.
Heeding her master's call, Ebba moved forward to try to gore the great beast.
Jonah is encouraged by his one good shot and just keeps up a hail of arrows as fast as he can draw
With no experience fighting something so large and armored and her scimitar scraping off the thick hide of the dinosaur, Adriana isn't prepared as the massive beast strikes out at her with it's bulk, the air beaten out of her lungs as she is jolted back from the blow.
The druid uses the lightning, hoping for it to strike true.
Seeing the battle turn poorly, he holds healing magic in his hand.
"Lightfoot! Be cautious."
The dinosaur tries to weave through and find an opening.
Tonny spits an adhesive but the ankylosaurus huge volume is too big for the small quantity of adhesive and the dinosaur is unaffected.
Ingolf is overcome by rage, his long hammer strikes powerfully while the spirits around him strike as well to the dinosaur trying to protect the gnome. Achahut open his eyes wide at the sight of the spirits "The Saoc Spirits!"
Ebba fails to hit when the dinosaur swipes around with his tail.
One of Jonah's arrows breaks as he loads the bow, but the second one stabs very deep in the dinosaur's hide.
Adriana is dazed, trying to recover from the tail's hit and can do nothing.
The thundercloud is again avoided by the dinosaur, while Splits readies to heal and his familiar steps closer to the akylosaurus.
The dinosaur turns towards Achahut after the lizardfolk bite him hard.
With a terrible slap, the lizardfolk falls to the ground.
Ingolf dropped his polearm and drew his morningstar (being too close to use it), as he guided Ebba to move around the dinosaur. He smashed at the monster, joined by the spirits.
As commanded, Ebba started to work her way around the creature, and attacked again.
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Stepping back, Tonny begins frantically pawing through the vials on his belt. "Elongate, elongate, where are you... Aha!" Triumphantly he pulls out a bottle of bright yellow fluid. "Maybe with those bananas it won't taste so bad..." As the liquid runs down his throat, the scholar's arms elongate first to simian and then to ridiculous proportions. "Haha!" Tonny yells. "Try to reach me now!"
Seeing the warrior fall, the druid makes a hard decision. "Lightfoot, once more." Splits the Leaves runs around the edge of the swamp, unhindered by the terrain .
He skirts the dinosaur's large tail and hopes he won't be too late.
Jonah feels around in his quiver for his enchanted arrows, firing two of them at the big dino
Ingolf swings his morningstar but it is Ebba who manages who strike true.
Tonny drinks an extract to get his arms ridiculously long!
The dinosaur seems adept at ignoring the thundercloud while Lightfoot circles around the huge creature.
Jonah's arrow goes slightly deviated and gets deflected by the dinosaur fur. But when it seems the akylosaurus is about to smash someone else to the ground, the expert hunter puts a rapid shot between both eyes of the animal.
The akylosaurus goes down like a giant tree. The tar terrain trembles under the heavy weight.
Winded and the pain of the blow lingering deep within her, by the time Adriana is able to come to her senses the battle is over, the massive beast shaking the ground as it collapsed, causing her to lose her balance and drop to one knee in pain.
Aware that the lizardfolk were still with them, Adriana struggled back to her feet to see if their joining the battle had changed while walking shakily towards Splits and Achahut.
"Is he alive?" She groans.
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Ingolf felt a wave of both relief and fatigue as the great beast went down. He rode over to the fallen lizardfolk and tried to keep her alive.
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"Whhooo-wee!! did you see that!? that is what I'm talking about
the hunter is very excited about taking down the dino, but then quickly realizes the situation they are in, and sees the fallen lizardman. he tries to pull back his enthusiasm a little bit, but can't keep a grin from sticking on his face.
He walks over to examine the dino, making sure it is dead and trying to decide what part he could bring back as a trophy
Ingolf rushes to maintain Achahut alive. The lizardfolk recovers consciousness with the gnome's healing "I... I told you not to mingle..."
Slowly the old lizardfolk female stands up "I have no people and no worth. The least your kind can do to repay my sacrifice is deliver me an honorable death in battle. You owe me this after stealing me from the dinosaur's death"
Meanwhile Jonah approaches the fallen akylosaurus and identifies very promising pieces. But probably the most identifiable part is the bony club at the end of its tail which has stunned half the party.
Ingolf replied to the old female, "Why do you say you have no worth? Many warrior societies would consider your battle against such a monster to be worthy of great honor!
"A few moments ago you called out something about the Saoc spirits. Can you tell me more? These spirits have haunted me for many years, although I don't know why. Usually they're a minor annoyance, moving things around so I have trouble finding things. But now they seem to seem to attack those who I'm fighting!"
Achahut seems impressed by Ingolf and Tonny's words and the dinosaur fallen next to them. The lizardfolk females falls to her knees "That is true, we came to dwell in the tar pits after opposint the feather-backed coward Daruthek. I stood against his plan. My people are excellent hunters but there is no honor or purpose in conquest, a purely human vice..."
"The Saoc spirits, yes, the same doom that plagued my people when we found the Sky Temple. The same spirits that made Daruthek powerful and mad" the female answers breathing slowly, looking at you, like gauging how trustful you are.
Still in deep pain and considering either magic or potion, Adriana joins Achahut on her knees and grimacing through the pain, attempts to acknowledge the conflicting points of view.
"We have come a long way to learn all you can tell us about the Sky Temple," She isn't sure if she should be speaking directly to Achahut or have Tonny translate, but even breathing was uncomfortable, and she simply wanted to speak. "Anything you can tell us, if there is no other way..." A fight to the death against a dangerous opponent didn't bode well for any of them, and she wondered if an alternative would be possible.
As his adrenalin wore off, Ingolf became more aware of his own injuries; he healed himself and Adriana.
He told Achahut, "When I was younger, a lizardfolk chief said I was cursed, just like the Mireborn. That's part of the reason that I came to the colony in this area: to see if I could find out something about my affliction." He decided to leave out the part about the lizardfolk attacking him and his grandfather.
"We have learned of an old temple build by a sect of Gozreh known as the Storm Kindlers; perhaps it is this Sky Temple. We were wondering if it has something to do with the recent increase in unusual storms in the Korir river delta."
The druid reaches the fallen warrior only to see Ingolf already trying to recover her wounds. "That was a foolish thing to do. Fight a dinosaur like that alone, but then again we do foolish things for our people."
He spoke matter-of-factly, there wasn't malice in his voice.
Splits the Leaves listened and finally spoke up. "What they speak is truth. We are not here to be conquerors, we are doing the best we can to stop this oncoming storm that is looming and threatening to swallow the land up."
Tonny effectively translates the conversation for Adriana and the others who do not talk Draconic.
"If that is so, then you should look into the Sky Temple. The Storm Kindlers built it after being expelled from Lirgen. My people found the little that remained from them, and the spirits they brought from Lirgen haunted them" Achahut looks back at you almost in remorse "Their obsession about the Storm... they want to use it to destroy your settlement"
"I can provide you with directions to the temple if you agree to show mercy to my tribe and target only Daruthek and his corrupted followers" Achahut looks at your eyes like if staring at your heart directly "And only if you promise to give me an honorable death by battle in exchange afterwards"
Jonah is distracted by the dino carcass and leaves the diplomacy to the more eloquent members of the party. he pulls out a knife and begins working on the tail.
He is going to ask the lizardfolk if they want to share in the meat and skin of the dino, wanting none to go to waste, but he doesn't see an opening to bring that up yet.
his eyes perk up when the lizard asks for a death in battle though
"whoah now, after all that work saving you, you want to just die anyways?! doesn't seem right at all. I'm certainly not going to kill ya. by the way, you want any of this meat?
Ingolf tried convince Achahut not to give up hope, "You have warriors here who still follow you. Can you tell me more about Daruthek? We might be able to help you break his hold over your people. Perhaps it is your destiny to save the Mireborn from his malign influence!"
Splits the Leaves raised an eyebrow at Jonah, not understanding why he went about it that way.
"If she chooses death, I am happy to respect her wishes, though it would be wasteful. The druid went to Lightfoot and the two of them looked at the fallen dinosaur, examining the brain maggots.
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"But, like, who will lead the tribe when this Daruthek is gone?" Tonny blurts. "Those folks back there trust you, and they think you're a really good leader or they wouldn't have stuck around. What if the next person to lead the tribe gets mad that we came to stop Daruthek and swears another vendetta against the humans and then this whole mess just keeps going? You could break the cycle and save your tribe rather than giving up on them here!"
Still sore but grateful for the burst of healing magics, Adriana stands and thinks hard on what she wants to say.
"My friends speak truly; if there is no other way, she shall honor your request. She doesn't say outright, but if it came to it, she would step up and fight if no other solution could be found.
But there was always a little hope.
"But they are also right that you have choices; we can help you, your clan and people, we can help you find a purpose, you need not die here today." She shows Achahut her missing finger "Even if you cannot rejoin your clan, there are always options aside from dying - we can help you, if you wish."
Driven by honor, Achahut rejects the dinosaur's meat offered by Jonah "This was not my hunt"
The lizard woman seems to finally accept that the party is not willing to give her what she wants "I am a warrior, I want to die on a battle, but I accept you are not willing to give this to me here and now"
"Daruthek is not the leader of the tribe. We had used the Sky Tempest Temple as a seasonal camp for decades when some of the eggs laid in the temple led to birth of a dozen sickly, feather-covered infants. All but one of whom died within weeks. The survivor, Daruthek, eventually manifested strange magical abilities" Achahut looks at that moment at Ingolf "Daruthek thinks himself as a prophet, and has closed himself with a few lawful followers in the depths of the temple to bring the tempest over the human settlements. But our leader is Chieftain Shathva. She has only accepted Daruthek's dealings and his sacrifices only because of fear to you humans and your colony's expansion. She expelled me for voicing my concerns against Daruthek"
"Your words are probably wise though. I will remain here hopeful you can remove Daruthek's influence from my tribe and convince Shathva to accept my return to the tribe" Achahut then looks at you filled up with pride and hope.
Ingolf said to Achahut, "If you can give us directions to the Sky Tempest Temple, we will got their and put a stop to Daruthek's plan. We will return here when we have accomplished our task. It has been an honor to fight alongside you."