Splits comes to Tonny and gathers all the alchemicals he might be able to use against the plant.
Ingolf attempts to harm the shambling mound are in vain, the creature wooden nature makes it very hard to crack.
Protected by Adriana's and Ingolf line, Tonny and Splits attack without creating opportunity attacks.
The druid's alchemical crashes on the wall and splashes over the plant, but it seems it has some resistance to fire at least.
The whip is good at generating an opening on the creature defenses that Adriana might be able to profit with her attack.
Jonah fires 2 more arrows
Regaining her balance and using the momentum to push forward, Adriana keeps enough distance for Splits to attempt dousing the mound with alchemists' fire without being burnt.
She's not sure if the fire is working or not, Tonny's strike with the whip seems to do enough to distract it and she slashes at the smoldering vine mass.
The second of Jonah's arrows stabs deeply inside the mound's body. The vines shake furiously, testifying of the pain received.
Despite unable to flank for a sneak attack, Adriana's courage pays off. The young inquisitor cuts clean one of the vines when it tries to grasp her.
Furious for the damage suffering, the badly wounded shambling mound changes its attention to Adriana.
Although she manages to deflect one of the vines, another grasp her from one leg and pulls her up, at that moment, all of the vines launch for the prey, every single extremity coiling around Adriana and pressing her.
This gives an opportunity for the others, as the mound is now grappled, making it an easier target and unable to perform attacks of opportunity.
Ingolf desperately tried to take down the plant before it consumed Adriana.
Ebba sensed that one of her allies was in trouble, and redoubled her efforts.
Seeing Adriana getting crushed by the plant, the druid runs up as fast as he can and tries to heal her with some energy from the wand.
Seeing Adriana in such a doomed state brings the best of his friends.
Splits brings new energies in the woman while Tonny gives precise advice of the area where the plant is more weak.
Ingolf does not hold back. Following the advice he lunges over with Ebba, stabbing tusks and bursting at just the core of the plant.
With a loud crack, the plant trunk breaks open, the vines suddenly lose all strength letting Adriana free! The shambling mound collapses to the ground. Lifeless.
Below the remains of the lizardfolk, you also find the body of a man. It wears a medallion with the symbol of the Aspis Consortium explorers.
The explorer, little more than bones and teeth, has two potions of cure moderate wounds, and a sack containing assorted clay statuettes from around the temple (worth 400 gp).
Ingolf spotted the body of a man, lying underneath the remains of the lizardfolk. He held up the medallion saying, "Aspis Consortium explorers. I wonder what they were doing here?"
He healed himself, Ebba and Adriana; the plant creature had wounded them all.
"Perhaps we should rest before using the seal to enter the inner temple. I'm out of spells."
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Jonah is ready to press on, but he understands the need for the magical companions to get their spells back. he helps find a suitable place to camp if needed.
he also looks for the 4 magical arrows that missed their target
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With the sudden shift from being constricted to dropped all Adriana can do is gasp and cough as she feels her ribs contract and pop back into place, mumbling and willing her arms to work but only managing a light flailing, her scimitar clattering harmlessly to the ground.
"I'm-I'm okay." She says convincingly as healing energies repair the damage she can feel in her bones, and she sits up to catch her breath. "Thank you."
Taking a moment to recover and regather herself, Adriana stands up with a little stiffness and frowns as Ingolf identifies the emblems carried by the skeletal remains. "Aspis...wasn't that woman with the consortium? She might have sent people here. What was her name?..." she muses while trying to remember the woman's name - if this had been one of the jobs they might have been potentially recruited for.
Splits can retell the Storm is alarmingly growing, but you should have one more day, perhaps even two, to stop it before it can tear down the whole region.
"The storm grows, but we have been making haste as if the winds itself carried us. I think that we should have another day of grace, but I would not want to tempt Gozreh more than that." He considers everything he has seen, "I need to meditate here. I feel like I am able to use more powerful magic, and there was that shrine as well."
During your rest, you have the opportunity to visit the northwestern area of the temple.
A boggard alchemist and a very old lizardfolk as large as a giant growl at you when they spot you, but otherwise stand for your truce with the lizardfolk and do not openly attack you.
Aside from a room full of lizardfolk dirt, the most remarkable thing you find is a prison guarded by two of the Mireborn. Jailed inside a cage, there is a gagged man of blond hair.
The prisoner reacts eagerly when he sees you and mouths some silent mumbling.
You sense the man is trying to plea for your help.
The druid holds fast as he walks through the temple. After dealing with the threats, and having the seals in hand, he decides that if it were up to him he would take some time to worship in a place like this.
Eventually he sees the man in the cage and halts himself. Splits the Leaves thought it might be the long, forgotten master, and worries about his current health.
"Hail." He doesn't move towards the mireborn, "Be calmed, we will try to ensure your freedom comes amicably."
Even with the healing magic Adriana still feels stiff as she shuffles about, recollecting her sword and taking a moment to review their situation, worried about the storm but reassured by Splits that they had a little time to regroup and regather.
"If there's time, a moment to get our breath might help so long as our truce holds." She says as she attempts to work out some of the stiffness, the lingering ache in her ribs refusing to dull.
Hands where they can be seen and keeping a careful distance, Adriana points to the gagged man and addresses the guards in polyglot. "May I talk to him?"
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"Look!" Tonny nudges Splits the Leaves and points at the pin holding the man's cloak in place. "The leaf - isn't that a symbol of Gozreh? Maybe it's the priest from town who hasn't been heard from in a while!" His face brightens, then falls. "But why do they have him gagged? Well, if he is a priest, then maybe they didn't want to deal with him casting spells, or maybe they feared his honeyed tongue, or maybe he is just really bad at singing and they can't stand to listen to it any longer..."
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ingolf asked Shathva about the human prisoner, "I see you are holding a human prisoner. How did he come to be imprisoned here? Can we talk to him?"
The man makes gestures of desperation in response to Splits words.
The mireborn guards close up when Adriana attempts an approach. They reject with the head and respond in perfect polyglot "Talk with the chieftain"
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Shathva frowns looking down at Ingolf "Why do you want to know?"
Although the bad approach makes the chieftain receive you with a worse attitude, she nevertheless answers some of the questions "We captured him when we raided the camp of the explorers of the snake. The Swamp-Speaker, Daruthek, insisted to spare his life"
"Daruthek spoke a lot with him. Now that you say it, it was after his long talks that Daruthek made it deeper in the temple and came back with his plan of calling the storm to back us up" the chieftain tabs with her toe impatiently "I am not sure I want to let you talk with the human. He has caused enough trouble. I probably should just kill him"
Jonah looks to the others to respond, worried that he will make more of a mess of things by trying to negotiate with the chief.
"maybe we can trade something for the prisoner? he says quietly to the others
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”Chief Shathva, could it be possible that Daruthek used the prisoner for his own plots?” Tonny asks hesitantly. ”I mean, it would make more sense that he would have been searching for a way to access the lower reaches of the temple, and that he recognized this prisoner as a priest of the Wind and Waves who he could extract information out of. I might even guess that he promised the prisoner his life or freedom in return for this information, and then gave neither. Also, what did you mean by ‘explorers of the snake’?”
Through cunning diplomacy and very convincing arguments Tonny makes the chieftain change her mind "You might be indeed right. Ok, I will let you interrogate the prisoner. I will only release him though, only once you have resolved the storm problem"
"They carry these medallions with a snake coiled over itself. They explored the temple without our permission. We followed them to their base in the jungle and killed them all, except for the human prisoner, and that woman. Their leader" the chieftain explains and it is obvious her anger.
"Hmm." Is all Adriana says as the chieftan explains how the tribe had come to capture their prisoner, several possible connections beginning to form in her mind.
With time not as urgent as previously feared, Adriana first huddles with the others and says quietly "This has to somehow tie to the colony - we have to bring him back with us once the storm is handled." and then, a little louder to not cause the Mireborn too much unease, looks to Tonny and asks "Tonny, would you mind assisting me? I'm going to talk to the prisoner and my polyglot is still a little off - I don't want anything to be mistranslated. Everyone else is free to stand and look intimidating, if you would like." she finishes with a small smirk and moves to approach the prisoner, stopping at the same point she did the first time and spoke again to the guards in her passable polyglot.
"We are going to question this one. You are welcome to join, if you would like."
After the guards make sure you have Shathva's permission they let you in and unggag the human.
"Oh dears! Please, you have to help me! My name is Magdi Kukoyi" the man coughs before he can continue with difficulty "The lizardfolk have me prisoner for months..."
Jonah stands back, crossing his arms and looking intimidating, fingering his new velociraptor claw necklace, Rosemary perched on his shoulder
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"Tonny, would you mind assisting me? I'm going to talk to the prisoner and my polyglot is still a little off - I don't want anything to be mistranslated..."
"Oh, uh, of course!" Tonny answers quickly. "Um, let me find a clean piece of paper so I can take some notes..." He digs through his haphazardly-packed backpack, eventually pulling out a crumpled drawing of what looks like a leaf of some kind. "I'll just use the backside of this..."
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"Magdi... Kukoyi..." Tonny repeats under his breath before looking back up. "And what were you doing when you were captured by the iruxi?"
"We... we were at camp. I was contracted by Hamsa Gadd to look for the Sky Temple. I am a Gozreh faithful..." Magdi touches the leaf symbol holding his cloak in the neck "...and have some ties to the people that build the temple on its origin"
"Apparently the iruxi consider this their land, and attacked us" the man gulps seeing he is not immediately released "It... it seems you are allied with them somehow... can you ask them my release?"
You feel he is saying the truth but intently not disclosing all the details. Probably because of fear to be left alone in the cage now that he sees a potential escape.
Kneeling down in front of Magdi, Adriana watches closely and listens as the man explains himself and what he was doing in the area, wondering if he was aware he had been working for the Aspis organization.
"Well, Magdi, we may be able to bring you back to the colony with us once we are done here, but I'm curious - for a Gozreh faithful, you choice of company seemed... odd." she holds up the insignia Chief Shathva had recovered from the camp attack. "The people associated with this symbol are well known for being unscrupulous at best. What did they want? Why did you really bring them here?"
She doesn't harden her personality yet as she questions, but she does hold Magdi's gaze and waits to sift the truth from him.
Magdi looks at the emblem and then stares down to the ground "I am member of a new sect of the order of the Storm Kindlers. It came to our ears that a heretical cell emigrated here from Lirgen when they were expelled from Gozreh's believes..."
"I came here to unveil the secrets of that cell. But I needed money and protection for the expedition. When I explained it to Hamsa Gadd, she accepted to help me on the condition of leading the expedition and choosing herself the men. I only discovered later on she was a golden agent of the Aspis Consortium" the man holds his eyes down "I told them it was a bad idea to sack the temple"
You feel he is saying the whole truth now.
Watching Magdi closely as as he explains how he ended up in the cell and why he was in the company of Aspis agents, Adriana lets out a low sigh and nods once, thinking.
"I do not feel you are lying, Magdi, but I can be.... difficult... to convince, and," She holds up her hand with her missing finger. "I have been harmed by those who had only good intention." She sighs and looks to the others with her.
"Thoughts, my friends?"
Ingolf shook his head saying, "Hamsa does seem to have her hands in something that's not right. I have no way of judging Magdi's trustworthiness. It appears that he was taken in by Hamsa scheme, and now regrets it. But perhaps we should put off releasing him until after we deal with Daruthek." He felt bad for Magdi's imprisonment, but worried about making a mistake by releasing him, without knowing more.
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Tonny looks up from his notes. "Oh! Well, uh, I guess that's a mistake anyone could make," he offers hesitantly. "Um, maybe we could ask if they can give him something to eat and drink while we're, uh, resolving the consequences of his actions below. Oh!" He turns to the prisoner. "What did you tell Daruthek of this temple, and the inner sanctum? We need to stop this storm before the iruxi chieftain will release you to us."
"He asked me a lot of questions about the Storm Kindlers, and about the temple. The Storm Kindlers, even the heretical sect that built the temple, are Gozreh's followers. But..." the man gulps, a difficult task for him to say the following "...while exploring the temple with the Aspis, I uncovered heretical prayers to the elemental lords used in the creation of a powerful ritual. I... I do not believe this sect of Storm Kindlers could have fallen to such dealings, the temple was clearly build to pay homage to Gozreh, it is... it is as if one of them decided to turn towards the elemental lords to subdue the power of the storm... in exchange of the power of a storm as huge as the Eye of Abendego... but it seems something happened before the ritual could be completed... perhaps the other Storm Kindlers realized and they fought to stop it? The temple has been abandoned for a long time, so... something happened"
"Anyway, I was unable to gain access to the chambers beneath the temple. But I fear my explanations served Daruthek to get in. The growing tempest leads me to believe that the Mireborn's swamp-speaker has managed to find the way to perform the ritual on its fullest" taking a long breath the man adds finally "He has to be stopped. I would try myself if I could"
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Listening the whole time, the druid feels like he gets a good grip on the caged man. Not hiding anything else from us?" It wasn't as much of a question as it was an observation.
Splits the Leaves almost lets off a gasp when he hears his suspicions and fears start to become true.
"Profane rituals..."
He wasn't sure what needed to be done, but he knew his place in the chaotic play that the Wind and Waves had directed him to.
"... This must be what Gozreh was trying to warn me about." Looking toward the others, he puts his staff down and gives a steeled gaze, "I will be going down to stop this. I would not ask any of you to come down with me but truthfully, I cannot do it alone."
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Ingolf reassured Magdi, "We shall stop Daruthek — you have my word! This corruption of the faith of Gozreh will come to an end."
He replied to Splits the Leaves, "I will come with you; this affront to the faith of Gozreh cannot continue! I am ready to use the seal to open the door to the inner temple."
Magdi nods relieved as the group starts to pronounce themselves.
The group will be able to have a rest without much trouble before trying to unseal the gate to the inner temple.
Jonah nods I don't know much about the servants of Gozreh, or what exactly these lizards are trying to accomplish, but you know I am with you Splits. get your rest and then lets end this danger. then perhaps we can negotiate the release of this prisoner.
Jonah will take a watch in the late evening, even though we are supposedly friends now with the tribe. he still doesn't quite trust them
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Tonny does his best to prepare a few useful potions in the morning, giving the precipitation a few glares of annoyance as the water threatens to dilute some of the fluids. "Here, I've got something for everyone," he explains as the group prepares themselves to enter the inner sanctum.
"Adriana, this should help protect you for a few minutes once you drink it," he continues, handing her a bottle of clear liquid. "I'm not completely certain how it works, but I've tested it enough times to be certain of the results if not the method."
"Ingolf, this should toughen your skin." The scholar hands the warrior a vial of shimmering grey particles suspended in an oily substance. "It's a new recipe, so I haven't quite got the taste down yet. Hope it's not too terrible..."
"Oh, and this one's for Ebba!"
He hands Jonah a bottle of milky white liquid next. "If you really need to, I don't know, land a bullseye or something, well, this should help your aim. Not that it needs helping, I'm not trying to imply that... I'll be quiet."
"And you have the keenest eyes, but they, uh, they don't work well when you can't see someone because they're invisible." Tonny does his best to ignore the red flush creeping up his face as he turns to the healer. "But this should let you see them just fine, if you need to."
"And that's it. Oh, if you can return the vials to me afterwards, I'd love to reuse them and not have to buy more. Um, but only if you can do so safely. And not like in the middle of battle, but maybe afterwards. Just, uh, just don't go throwing them on the ground because you think it looks cool or something like that." Tonny takes a deep breath and looks up at the sky. "And, well, I can't protect us from lightning, but I suspect those elementals aren't the last electricity we're going to see. Anybody got any ideas?"
After a long rest you wake up all energized for the next day. Despite your precautions with the lizardfolk the night goes uneventful. Except for some mutual surveillance the iruxi do not look to talk with you or do any other interaction.
On the sky, the storm is pouring even more water than yesterday.
Splits prays and gains enhanced power given to him by Gozreh himself. Tonny distributes the extracts he has been working on.
Once everyone is ready, you come to the gates and place the two crests. The gate creeks and slowly opens given you pass to the inner temple.
A heavy roof, constructed from a single block of solid granite, sets this large chamber apart from the rest of the open temple. Colorful murals cover the walls, depicting various birds swimming through the sea and fish soaring through the clouds. An ominous stairwell fills the center of the room, a dull, churning roar echoing endlessly from somewhere in its depths. The broken remains of a statue litter the floor.
Contrary to the rest of the temple, this room has a roof. You bring some light to see inside. The roof gives you respite from the storm and a casual examination allows you to understand it has been only recently built.
Druidic script accompanies the murals.
The script details the history of the Storm Kindlers of the Sky Tempest Temple. The history begins with their exile from the distant Sodden Lands, and goes on to describe their emigration to the region, their first ritual storm callings, their second attempts, and the eventual discovery of a successful ritual.
You quickly recognize the shattered statue as Gozreh. It has not been broken by anyone. The statue just shattered itself when her sacred ground was covered by a roof instead of maintained open to the weather.
A set of stairs descend down.
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The druid prepares new spells for the day, and he suddenly knows how to call down the storms themselves. The knowledge goes into him, and he readies it and some other spells to assist in their battle.
"I have prepared a spell that can protect us from the elements, though splitting the duration up will stretch my magic thin. I will use it when I feel we are closer." Taking the extract from Tonny, the druid nods, "I have prepared some fae magic in the case that we do encounter something that is invisible, it will outline them for the rest of you."
Moving to Lightfoot, the druid looks into his companion's eyes. "It comes to this. I will grant you my protection, and your heart has given you more strength than I ever could have expected."
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Splits the Leaves looks around and sees the mural, but his eyes are immediately attracted to the statue in the middle. "Gozreh... What have they done?" He gingerly touches the statue only to realize that it had collapsed due to the roof above their heads. "When all of this is done, I will break the sky and free your sanctuary as it was meant to be." Looking to the others he nods, "I appreciate you all coming down."
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With her companions overall feeling satisfied with the questioning of Magdi and his answers, Adriana stands up and echoes her friends sentiments.
"We will do what we can to make things right. Until then..." She doesn't intend to sound ominous so much as she's uncertain of what awaited them. About the only thing that seemed certain was that she would argue that they should all rest and recover while they had the opportunity, but also reassuring Splits by saying "We've come this far together friend, it's only right we finish this together."
Taking the clear vial from Tonny and inspects it, unsure of what she's exactly looking for in the clear liquid but nodding all the same and carefully hiding it on her person. "Thankyou Tonny."
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Feeling much better after an uneventful night's rest and pleasantly surprised that their truce still held, Adriana spends a quiet moment to herself offering a prayer to Sarenrae - quietly, of course - and finding herself as ready to face the day as she can be.
Even knowing as little about Gozreh as she does, the large stone roof closing off the temple felt wrong; a deliberately mundane blashphemy to the god of sea and sky. Giving Splits a sympathetic look she looks back to the stone roof and wonders aloud "Could we break it? Would that help us?"
Splits the Leaves looks to Adriana and catches the look she gives, "I do not know, but if it would not cause too much trouble perhaps it might. I don't dare consider what Gozreh would give or do, They are capricious after all."
He gives a suggestive look at the roof, "I do not know much about engineering sadly."
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“Hmm. Well, it depends on how well the ceiling is secured to the walls. Professor Caldi would demonstrate construction methods used around the world, and some of them would simply use gravity to keep a roof on. Those places did tend to be located in geographical areas lacking high winds, but it’s also much quicker than attaching everything so if speed was the concern here...” Tonny’s voice trails off as he continues to study the roof.
Ingolf looked at the murals and waited while the others inspected the construction; once they finished he descended the stairs on Ebba.
Tonny finds a few key spots in the roof that provided appropriate tools, like a pick or so, could help collapse the structure with the work of a few hours.
Ingolf observes as the group inspects the room. At the moment he starts to walk downstairs mounted over Ebba, two spirits emerge from the murals and attack!
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"Shadows! Beware of their touch!" The druid was happy that he wrote down regenerative magic to resist the strength drain.
He delays until Jonah and Ingolf decide what to do, "Try not to engage them if you don't have to."