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Now that he wasn't worried about the spiders, Ingold searched the area. He called out to the others, "Hey, there's a niche behind this wall. There's three sealed jars here, and a magic pearl!"
After examining it for a minute he added, "It's a pearl of power, a very nice one!"
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"Fascinating - this stuff's royal jelly, though judging by the quantity it either came from a large number of small bees or a small number of large bees." The scholar chuckles nervously. "Kinda makes you wonder what might have happened to all the bees, huh? Oh, sorry, we should keep moving." He tucks one of the jars into his pack for further experimentations later. Assuming there is a later...
A pearl of power?
"What is such a powerful item doing here? With it, I can enhance our resistances to the elements an additional time today or call forth more lightning. I believe the former may be the most prudent."
"Tonny, do you believe there to be another elemental challenge remaining? If so, what would be left?"
"well the last one worked pretty well to just shoot the orb before defeating the guardian. if i see an opening I'll do that again. hopefully this will be the last one right?
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Tonny is startled out of his thoughts by Splits' question. "Oh! Well, uh, the element of air is often represented by lightning as it comes from the sky. The relationship is a bit misleading since it's not the air itself that's creating the electrical charge, you know, but small particles in the air that rub against each other. Water droplets are the most common source of this charge, though I remember Professor Gille telling us about a sandstorm with lighting and Professor Slemp wouldn't let any class pass without someone reciting the story of the electric volcano where the eruption's ash cloud supplied the particulates. Really, we're always creating an electric charge whenever we move - the thing is that the charge goes away really easily when you're touching the ground or water, but it doesn't like to go through air and so that's how the charge can build up to such extremes that you get lightning..."
The group reorganizes, heal and prepare for the last orb, then move ahead through the stairs at the west.
The howling of cyclonic winds fills every corner of this high-ceilinged chamber. A circle of bronze posts stretches up to the roof, forming a cage in the southern end of the chamber. Visible blasts of air move from the cell and south into a series of branching tunnels and strangely fluted walls.
As if conjuring Jonah's words, there is no orb here to destroy. On its place, there is a cage with a turquoise skinned woman twice as tall as a human, although its lower torso trails away into a vortex of mist and wind. From her face of pain you understand she is suffering terribly from an unseen torment.
This creature is a female djinni. You understand the djinni is serving as a substitute of the orb in here, channeling the force of the plane of air into the center of the temple through the tubes that extend to the southeastern tunnels.
The cage is made of bronze bars and you think they can be reasonably brought down by a strong weapon or tool.
You think the cage is magical and maintain the powers of the djinni confined. Breaking just one bar would be enough to break the magic and let her recover her magic and escape.
In the room there are also two lizardfolk cultists. One of them , a female, raises her quarterstaff towards you and exclaims in Polyglot "Halt there intruders! Surrender immediately or pay the consequences!" she menaces you.
"What are you doing too that unfortunate woman? How dare you pretend to pretend to act in Gozreh's name!"
He started to recite a prayer to bless his allies.
The druid hears Tonny and begins to ready a spell, staying in the middle of as many of his allies as he can.
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Wait, the lady is the orb?? so do I shoot her?
Jonah is thrown off for a second, but then sees the lizardmen instead.
Let's start by shooting them I suppose!
Once the way is clear Jonah will take a 5' step down into the doorway and shoot at the closest lizardfolk twice
Seeing the group does not obey, the leader reacts with a chanting or divine words "Hshurha, make this insolent intruder to run away!" he points to Ebba casting cause fear on her.
Splits readies a spell to protect the group against any coming element.
Jonah shots a quick couple of arrows, the first one lodging deep in the chest of the first cultist, the second one deflected by the tough scales on its right arm.
Tonny gives advice on how to deal with the lizardfolks.
The cultists finally react casting protective spells. A low wind surrounds both of them, making arrows more difficult to strike.
Ingolf casts bless on the party.
Adriana does something heroic!
"Last chance! Surrender to Hshurha!" booms the voice of the leader as he casts yet another spell and holding his quarterstaff strongly with both hands.
divine favor
Ebba ran in fear, despite Ingolf's protestations.
The druid turns to his companion, "Lightfoot!"
The small dinosaur grows to size, and Splits the Leaves casts a spell of power on her,
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Tonny cracks his whip, worried for a split second that it might sound too similar to thunder and be mistaken for one of the iruxi spells, but the thought doesn’t arrive until after the sound has reached his ears.
“Don’t let up!” The scholar’s voice cracks in much the same way as his whip as he continues to harass the cultist in front of him.
Spellcasters! keep them distracted so they can't magic us!
Jonah pauses and takes aim, waiting for the lizardfolk to cast another spell. (ready an action to shoot the next time a lizard starts to cast)
He directs Rosemary to harass the closest lizard
With the realization that there was no orb and instead a captive, Adriana rushes forward to attack the lizardfolk guarding the cage, running through several options as to how to get the djinni out before the lizardfolk kill them all.
Nothing came to mind, but that wouldn't matter until her target was dealt with.
Scimitar raised high in defiance of their 'god', Adriana hacks at the lizardfolk down with righteous fury!
Uurgu looks with satisfaction as Ebba runs away with her knight "You others should follow their example or would soon will pay for it"
Tonny swings his whip maintaining the lizardfolk to the south in position for Adriana.
The inquisitor comes by and slashes at the iruxi already damaged by Jonah. The scimitar bursts in flames as Adriana decapitates the cultist with a single blow. The head rolls in the ground silencing the other cultists.
Lightfoot enlarges and his muscles become stronger when Splits touch him with a spell.
Jonah raises his bow and takes aim while Rosemary starts fluttering wildly at Uurgu "Stop that thing, bring it away of me!"
The other cultist takes a scroll and starts to read. Jonah releases his arrow that flies all the way and through the entropic shield, and lodges in the lizardfolk's neck. Among the extensive blood, he fails to pronounce the words of the spell. Choking in blood, he draws a trident.
Assuming Adriana closes by to attack, Uurgu swings his quarterstaff trying to bring her down while bringing the judgement of his god to help "Hshurha, give me the strength to destroy my enemy!"
But the woman moves swiftly, avoiding all the attempts to hit from the iruxi captain.
Jonah grins as his arrow cuts off the magical language from the cultist. but now it looks like the lizards are stuck in, and he switches back to rapid fire arrows.
Rosemary shrieks and flaps, biting and clawing the other lizard
Ebba ran back to the platform, where she could no longer hear the priest, and then stopped.
Ingolf tried to talk to Ebba, "The bad man cast a spell on you. to make you run away. It's OK, you're safe now."
Jonah performs a couple of good shots, one arrow stabs deep into the cultist's chest, but the other is deflected by the magic winds that cover the cultist. Anyway, the pain of a second arrow makes the lizardfolk collapse out of pure pain and falls to the ground defeated.
Only the leader, Uurgu, remains. He fights for his life, avoiding the ill intended, for his own life that is, attacks of Rosemary.
Meanwhile, Ingolf talks with care to Ingolf and manages to calm the boar, who seeing no immediate danger, halts and tries to recover.
The flash of fire and warmth as her scimitar cleaves the head off one cultist pushes Adriana forward towards the remaining cultist, her still hot sword raised as both a challenge and a sign of the inevitable.
Dodging and deflecting the creature's staff attacks, Adriana meets the cultists gaze and dispassionately states "Your god has abandoned you."
Lightfoot rushes the nearest foe, crunching on them with her jaw.
The druid waits to restore anyone who seems injured, pulling out the wand.
Uurgu raises her quarterstaff to stop Adriana's swing when Tonny coils his whip around the uruxi's arm, enough to stop the parry, which Adriana profits to score a hit on the cultist's chest!
Lightfoot joins the fray. With his larger teeth, he tears the right leg of Uurgu when he is still fighting Adriana.
Split's readies the healing wand.
Spitting blood, Uurgu swings again his quarterstaff at Adriana "No! Your weak gods cannot triumph! Die!"
Perhaps emboldened by the blood, Uurgu manages this time to hurt Adriana despite Tonny's best efforts to stop it.
Ingolf continued to calm Ebba down.
Jonah and Rosemary continue to attack the last lizard
The druid hears Tonny and moves towards Adriana, drawing the more potent wand.
Lightfoot goes for another bite with her large maw.
With a final assault, Jonah, Rosemary and Lightfoot give good service of the remaining lizardfolk. The uruxi falls to the ground like a pincushion.
Splits manages to partially heal Adriana, also removing her non-lethal damage.
Ingolf manages to calm down Ebba and conduct her back to the room.
The cultists had some useful equipment.
potion of cure moderate wounds
potion of darkvision
salve of slipperiness
mwk studded leather
mwk quarterstaff
cloak of resistance +1
manacles
gold holy symbol of Hshurha (60 gp)
scroll of spiritual weapon
2x +1 leather armor
2x mwk trident
2x silver unholy symbol of Kelizandri (25 gp)
The djinni continues suffering in great pain within the prison.
Ingolf finally convinced Ebba to hurry back to the others, only to find that the battle was over. Realizing what Tonny was trying to do, he tried to insert his polearm between the bars of the cage and pry the the prison open.
Tonny's effort seems futile as the bar does not move a single inch. But when Ingolf joins the effort and Lightfoot starts slowly wearing down one of the bars, the iron first bends, then a fissure opens, and finally the bar breaks under the combined force of the group.
When this happens the magic of the prison collapses, the energy transfer ceases, and the djinni female is released from the prison.
She flies out of the bars circle and looks around at all of you "I am Lady Fafrail. Thanks a lot for freeing me" the genie expresses disgust though, despite being grateful "Such an awful thing to be captured and subsequently released by lesser beings"
"But tell me, how can I repay you? Some dinner worth of kings?" she snaps her fingers and a table full of dishes with roasted beef, cheese, tomatoes and many fruits materializes in the room "Oh, no, I see, you are more on the taste of wine, isn't it?" she snaps her fingers again and two large clay jars full of red wine appear just next to the table "Or do you perhaps desire some crafted tool so you can tirelessly continue your earth scratching lives?"
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Jonah eyes the magical food and drink, but is skeptical. Never take the first offer, as my dad always said...
but he waits to see how the other respond to the djinn.
Teeth grit as the cultist flails wildly against her, Adriana stands her ground as her friends push forward and finish the job, nodding in wordless thanks to Splits as he soothes her wounds to a dull ache.
Taking a moment to recover her thoughts as magic restores her body, Adriana watches as Tonny, Ingolf and Lightfoot manage to shatter the bars holding the djinn, and finds herself in awe of Lady Fafrail - lessened once she believes the djinn to be rewarding them out of obligation.
But perhaps....
Still a little stiff, Adriana bows a little and says "Lady Fafrail, those that imprisoned you have defiled this temple and still remain. Would you aid us in punishing those who captured you?" and then, wondering if a little nudge would help, "If nothing else, great lady, we offer you the chance of revenge against those who will, given the chance, imprison you again."
Lady Fafrail looks down at Adriana bothered "I have no interest in your petty human wars" but she stretches her lips and softens her stare looking at the woman's inquisitor "But it is certainly in my interest they do not try to planar bind me in this place again. And as I understand your victory means the destruction of those other minor creatures of green scaled flesh"
She opens her hands and shows the ill state of her arms "I am in no shape to combat, but I can tell you what I do know and support you with magic" you can indeed tell, the pain of the prison's sipping her energy has caused a great damage on her being "From my time here, I understood they called me to replace some broken orb they called storm seed. As I understand, they are using these energies to gather storm creation power in the center of this temple"
"I got to know their leader is an albino scaled one named Daruthek, and he is currently directing the growing hurricane from the Chancel of Four Winds located inside the swirling maelstrom at the temple's center" she explains, then extends one of her hands towards Adriana "I can plane shift you to safety if you need, I can create for you any tool you might need, and I will give you the power to become as ethereal as a cloud for a few hours"
She will cast wind walk on anyone willing that steps forward now.
The gnome stepped forward and introduced himself, "Hello good lady! My name is Ingolf, and this is Ebba, my faithful steed! I am ready to finish our task and stop Daruthek from unleashing the hurricane."
Agreed Ingolf. let's finish this before the storm grows too large! becoming ethereal sure sounds helpful, thank you ma'am.
Lady Fafrail answers Ingolf's implied question "From what I have understood from the cultist's conversations, you need to stop the other three storm seeds"
Of course, she does not know you have already done that.
"Once done, I do believe the maelstorm in the center of the temple will fall giving the opportunity to go in and face Daruthek" she looks down at Ebba "From what I have heard, you better prepare yourselves for a good fight before stepping in there though"
The druid listens in, and offers some magic for the elemental. "Do you need some aid after they abused you like so?" The druid wasn't willing to let her leave without help should she need it, "Gozreh would look poorly on me if I let you leave this once holy temple in a worse way than you came."
Is there anything you could help us do to prepare for the fight? or would you be willing to join us in getting them for what they did to you?
Jonah is ready when the others are, eager to finish this fight
Ingolf asked everone, "Who needs healing before we fight Daruthek?" He made sure that Ebba was healed up to full with Split's wand.
"I wish you all the best, but you humans will have to fight your own wars. I have no interest in risking my life for this insignificant region of the multiverse" Lady Fafrail does not even deign herself letting Splits fulfill his vote, with a hand movement, she disappears in a pop coming back to her plane of existence.
In addition to the food, she leaves the wind walk boon for you to help you in this fight.
Aside from some nonlethal damage, Ingolf notices Adriana is the only one actually really injured.
Adriana sighs a little as Fafrail simply leaves, almost certain that the opportunity for revenge would have been a point in their favor. Being called insignificant didn't sit well with her either.
"Well. At least she's not fighting us." Adriana says and looks to the others, specifically Ingolf, as she nods in thanks to Tonny and takes the vial offered.
"If there is anything to spare, please."
Jonah shrugs. "like my dad always said, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
Right before we advance, Jonah will cast his two spells. Acid Maw on Rosemary and Gravity Bow on himself.
Ingolf gave a potion to Ebba to drink, "It will help protect you." He kept Tonny's other vial at in hand, ready to drink just before combat.
When they neared the enemy, he recited a blessing of Gozreh on everyone.
Splits uses the wand to fully heal everyone before moving on.
Ingolf, or perhaps Adriana, blesses the party.
Rosemary's maw becomes acidic as Jonah's bow twists gravity.
Tonny shares a few extracts that are drunk before moving in.
Entering the maelstorm chamber you discover the engine has indeed stopped and the elemental barrier is now down.
The bodies of four small lizardfolk lie atop altars set in the cardinal directions of this massive, gear-shaped platform that rises from the water. Lines of strange script mark the floors, which are otherwise polished to a mirror-like sheen.
In the middle of the room, there is the Swamp-Speaker Daruthek. The white lizardfolk is flanked by a pair of strange tiny air elemental creatures and a quartet of his cultists.
Daruthek speaks up "As I thought, the halt of the engine could only mean the intruders have come back"
He raises his trident, and starts to float a few inches over the ground "What can you do mere mortals against a chosen servant of two elemental lords?" the winds start to gather around him as electricity crackle all through him.
Jonah has a bow and little patience. When the lizardfolk seer starts to speak, he has already an arrow nocked in his bow, and an eye aiming at his quary.