Jonah feels like he's getting back into his familiar groove fighting this big dino. he loads up another set of bolts and fires them at the big critter
Magdi considers his options rapidly. He tugs out his crossbow, leveling it and firing it at the dinosaur. Surprising even himself, the bolt flies reasonably accurately, not even risking the health of his teammates.
Jonah scores hit after hit, lodging two new bolts on the dinosaur's hide shooting to his best benefit around the door's cover.
Tonny tries to focus, lashing at the elasmosaurus' back with his whip, distracting him from Tewa and Andriana!
The elasmosaurus, with his long neck, bites for Magdi as he shots his crossbow.
The snap is brutal as the massive animal tries to sink his jaws on the human, but still shaken, the attack is glanced away by Magdi's armor!
Despite this, Magi endures the pain and puts a bolt through the beast's neck without danger to the melee fighters at the other side.
Tewa takes the moment of breath Tonny’s whip crack gives her to reset her stance, bringing her greatsword to a low tailing guard. She steps forward, hammering it over her head towards the dinosaur’s neck.
Keeping careful awareness of where everybody is as the elasmosaurus once again uses its long neck to snap and bite at her friends, Adriana makes sure to be out of reach of Tewa's strike as she lashes out with her scimitar.
Adriana's scimitar cuts through the dinosaur's flesh, but it is Tewa's massive iron which severs the head cutting through the neck in an almighty swing.
The elasmosaurus head falls hitting the balcony's railing and then splashing into the waters.
With the dinosaur danger faced, your way is clear to the bottom of the manor.
Floodwaters fill this chamber to the roof, the current pushing the ragged remains of the curtains to and fro. Sheets of algae cover the lounge chairs and end tables along the walls. To the north lie three doors, a small one beneath the marble staircase which leads to the balcony and a larger one on either side. To the west and east, immense windows, long since shattered, look upon the submerged landscape beyond.
This area is completely submerged but the manor walls shelter the interior from rough waves, leaving the water calm for the purposes
of swimming.
"If no one else has the ability at the moment, I can grant us water-breathing." Magdi says, eying the dinosaur mournfully. He pats his snake's head, glancing around. "Wingless here could also scout, if need be. He has little need to breathe air when water will do."
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"Ooo, that could be lovely!" Tonny muses out loud, rubbing his chin and staring into the water. "Does he know how to open doors? Does he know what a door is? Can you talk to him and ask him what he saw? Oops, uh, that might have been offensive, I'm sorry!" His face starts flushing to match his hair.
"Mm. He may be able to open some doors, if they are rotted through. But no, he has no hands, so many doors are beyond him." Magdi waves away the apology. "Wingless and I can communicate, yes, though it is much the same as you or I might - we need to be able to hear one another."
The doors seem still in good enough condition despite the general state of neglect. What Wingless could easily do is to swim through the shattered windows to alert the group in case of a dangerous approach.
There are four doors here, one in the central section and another one to right and left of the stairs that lead up to the balcony you entered through.
Another set of doors at your back should had been the main entrance to the manor in better times.
Jonah spends a few moments collecting some teeth from the big dino.
Great hit, Tewa! Not many have a trophy of killing on of those beasts! here, take this.
He presents her a handful of the teeth from the beast. You're a dinosaur hunter now!
he accepts a casting of water breathing and heads down with the others.
No idea which door to go through. guess we just pick one? he moves towards the double door to the south, waiting for the others to be ready. He will open the door, but doesn't plan to be first through.
Jonah performs a teeth ritual granting Tewa the title of Dinosaur Hunter. Then, he opens the double doors to the south.
These ones lead to outside the manor, opening into the base of the flooded city with several feet of water covering on top. A few fishes swim through and you can see the aquatic vegetation has covered the area after years of flood.
Eventually, one of you open one of the other doors too. The one below the stairs results to lead to a small closet with totally ruined coats, boats and other clothing stuff.
Afterwards, you open the door.
A barnacle-encrusted heap of rubble makes up the western wall of this flooded room. Remnants of an elegant rug peek out from beneath the debris, the fabric rotted and worn from years beneath the water. Pieces of demolished furniture have been wedged into gaps between the collapsed beams, forming a crude barricade.
The cramped quarters look uncomfortable, but a group of five nervous locathahs are bunkered in here.
When you come into the room, they raise their tridents ready for a fight and shout at you "Ko wai koe?! Kei te aha koe i konei?!"
"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"
You get the understanding these locathahs are scared and want to know if you are a danger.
The one shouting at you, who seems their leader, has an amulet made of pure gold around the neck and wears as a bracelet beautiful abalone shell figurines.
You do identify the amulet as the leaf holy symbol of Gozreh.
The abalone shell figurines could do for a good tribute to the Stormreaders.
"These locathahs are Gozren." Magdi observes, his brow furrowing. "Does anyone speak what language they're using?" He holds up his hands palms outwards, indicating that he has no wish to do battle.
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Tonny forgets about the itch in his new gills as soon as he spots the locathah. "Aue, karekau! Kia ora! Ko Tonny ahau! Kei te torotoro matou, te tuhi i nga mea, i mau koe i te elasmosaurus? Kua ngaro inaianei, ko taku tumanako ehara i to mokai, ka pouri ahau mena ko tera, Jonah maybe put the teeth away?" The words finally stop tumbling from his mouth as he tries to wave at the hunter behind his back.
Thankful once again for Tonny's linguistic abilities, Adriana stays quiet but subtly reaches for her own holy symbol, something that could hopefully help back up Tonny's words.
The locathah relax a bit when Magdi shows his empty hands and smile when Tonny talks in their language although they seem confused by Adriana's symbol "E mohio ana koe ki te reo o nga wai. He pono kua haere te elasmosaurus inaianei? He uaua ki te whakapono..." they do lower their tridents as their leader makes a sign to stay down "Ko Ketheero ahau, koinei te toenga o to matou roopu. Ko matou nga morehu o te iwi Wavewhisper, ko tetahi haurua, kua kai te elasmosaurus." he makes a gesture of greeting towards you.
"Oh, you know the language of the waters. Is it true the elasmosaurus has gone now? It seems hard to believe..."
"I am Ketheero, and this is what remains of our group. We are the survivors of the Wavewhisper tribe, the other half, the elasmosaurus has eaten."
Another of the locathah in the back shouts expressively "He rite ki a koe i kite i roto i au whakakitenga Ketheero! I tika koe, i haere mai ratou ki te whakaora i a matou!"
Ketheero smiles "Kei te mihi ahau... mena he mea ka taea e au mo koe... He kaituhi korero ahau, he mohio nui ahau mo nga Whenua Sodden me Hyrantam i roto i nga korero pakiwaitara me nga tikanga tuku iho i nga reanga o to tatou iwi. Kei te pohehe ahau he roopu penei i a koe e pirangi ana ki nga mea penei, engari mena he huarahi kee hei awhina i a koe, me whakaatu mai, kei te noho nama matou ki a koe."
"It is like you saw in your visions Ketheero! You were right, they came to safe us!"
"I am grateful... if there is anything I can do for you... I am an historian an know a great deal about the Sodden Lands and Hyrantam in the form of legends and rituals passed down through generations of our people. I doubt a group like you are interested on such things, but if there is any other way I can help you, just let us know, we are indebted to you."
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Tonny can only open and close his mouth like a fish for a few moments as the locathah answer. His eyes look like they would be glistening with tears of excitement if he were not currently underwater. Finally he has the mental faculties to realize his companions might not understand what the folks they'd rescued were saying.
"Aue, ka whakamaoritia e au nga korero mo aku hoa i konei, he rua noa iho... Sorry sorry sorry! Um, let's see, they first asked, wait, that one is their leader, Ketheero, he might be a seer or something, anyway he asked who we are and what we were doing here, and I answered that we're explorers and asked if they were trapped by the elasmosaurus, and Ketheero said they were after it had eaten about half their tribe, or maybe he meant it had eaten half their group and that the group was the survivors of the Wavewhisper tribe? Uh, but he's - Ketheero, I mean - he's also a historian who knows about these lands and Hyrantam! Can you believe it!? And he offered to tell us the legends and rituals passed down through the generations! Hopefully they're employing multi-generational checks to keep the stories consistent - did you know there's tribes of Kellids that can accurately describe the beginning of the Age of Darkness? At least that's what Professor Lingonbort always told the first year students... Oops, sorry! I got off the topic at hand."
Doing his best to ignore the flush of embarrassment creeping up his gilled neck, the scholar turns back to the locathah. "Kei konei matou na te mea ko tetahi o nga taone-mata o te rohe - kei te mohio koe ki a Lirgeni? Heoi ano, kei te kohia ratou e tetahi roopu e kii ana ko "Stormreaders" e tono utu ana i nga taonga mai i Hyrantam hei utu mo te kore e whakangaro i te taone me nga awha. Kei te mohio koe mo enei Stormreaders?"
Magdi sighs. "Calm down, Tonny." He says, though his exasperation is clearly good-natured. "Some histories can be quite reliable, whether oral or written." The shaman says after a moment, his expression dark.
"Assuming that people care enough to keep track of them."
"Kaore matou e tino mohio mo nga Stormreaders ake, engari he tauhou ratou ki Hyrantam. Engari e mohio ana matou mo ta ratou whatitiri: Aeassra. Ko tana whakatoi me tana hononga ki nga Stormreaders i nga wa tata nei ka whakapataritari ia matou, a ki taku mahara kua whakamahia e nga matakite nga mahi makutu ki te whakahaere i te whatitiri, ki te kore ranei etahi tikanga tohe ki te akiaki i tana mahi tahi—engari kaore a matou tino tohutohu mo te waahi me pehea koe e whai ai i tenei. whakatewhatewha atu." Ketheero explains back to Tonny "Ko nga awha tino kaha kua peia te nuinga o nga kararehe mohoao o te rohe ki nga whanonga kino, a ka whakatupato ahau ki a koe kia tupato mena kei te tirotiro koe i nga ururua."
"We don't know much about the Stormreaders themselves, other than they are relative newcomers to Hyrantam. But we know about their thunderbird: Aeassra. Her recent aggression and alliance with the Stormreaders vexes us, and I suspect the seers have used either magic to control the thunderbird, or else some means of coercion to force her cooperation—yet we have no real advice on where or how you should pursue this investigation further."
"The strangely violent storms have driven much of the region’s wildlife to particularly aggressive behaviors and I warns you to take care if you are exploring the ruins"
Jonah asks Tonny to ask the locathah:
"see if they can tell us anymore about this place, and if there is anything worth diggin into here or other scary monsters"
Other than that Jonah stands back to let the others do the talking
Tewa listens carefully, able to understand Aquan fine herself. ”So this thunderbird is under control of some kind? Might be worth trying to figure out how to remove that control so we don’t have to kill her.”
She clears her throat before switching to Aquan.
”Now that the elasmosaurus is gone, do you all want to come back with us? Just want to make sure you have a safe place to stay. We would be honored to partake of your wisdom as well.”
"I'd hoped as much." Magdi says, skin around his eyes relaxing. "If we can deal with the coercion or remove the enchantment, we'll be much better off, and Ylimancha will be most pleased." He pats his cloak of feathers.
Relieved that her symbol didn't draw hostility but did little to contribute, Adriana simply stands as non-threatening as she can while Tonny speaks and translates for the locathahs.
The strange behavior of the thunderbird plays on her suspicions and she nods in agreement with Magdi and Tewa, showing surprise as Tewa speaks to the locathahs in their language.
"We might have to ask around some more about the thunderbirds, but with a little luck we might not have to fight. Coercion might be harder to deal with than enchantment, but it gives us options. It's something."
Ketheero answers back to Jonah's questions first "E rua nga riri kei tera ruma kei te rawhiti. Ki ta matou whakaaro ko ratou pea nga wairua rapu utu o nga tangata taketake o te whare rangatira. I mau matou i konei i waenganui i te elasmosaurus me ratou. Waimarie kare ratou e raru ki te haere mai ki konei."
"There are a couple of wraiths on the other room to the east. We think they might be the revengeful spirits of the original dwellers of the manor. We had been trapped here between the elasmosaurus and them. Fortunately they would not bother come here. They still have some of their ancient valuable belongings but are a danger to anything alive."
They smile grateful to Tewa "Kei te koa matou ki te whai atu i a koe ki waho o tenei wahi huna. Ka rapua he rua hou, engari tera pea ka haere tonu mai ki konei i nga mohiotanga katoa, katahi ka hiahia koe ki te kimi i a matou mo te korero."
"We are pleased to follow you out of this hiding place, mighty woman. We will look for a new lair, but most probably will keep coming here every now and then, in case you want to locate us for talking or need some specific knowledge."
When it comes to the talk about the thunderbird they do explain "E mohio ana matou ko Aeassra te ingoa o te whatitiri. Kaore matou i te mohio he aha te kaha e akiaki ana ia ia, engari ki te hiahia koe ki te korero ki a ia, me ako koe i te reo Auran. E mohio ana matou kei a ia tana kohanga i te Torona o Augur. , kei reira nga Stormreaders e noho ana, engari kua kite matou i a ia e rere ana i te taha o Hyrantam me te mea e tino rapu ana ia mo tetahi mea."
"We know the thunderbird is called Aeassra. We do not know what force is driving her, but if you want to talk to her, you will need to learn the Auran language. We know she has her nest at the Augur's Throne, where the Stormreaders dwell, but we have seen her often flying around Hyrantam like if she was desperately searching for something."
Tewa smiles at the mention of Auran. ”Yep I know that one. Good to know when you captain a ship relying on the winds.”
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Tonny's expression goes slightly blank as he stares off into the distance. "As if she's searching for something..." The color drains suddenly from his face. "Oh no. What if she's searching for her egg? Or a chick? And the Stormreaders have told her that the people of Hyrantam have stolen it?"
He begins to pace back and forth. "I could try to talk with her - I mean, I know a little Auran, enough to get a passing grade in Professor Kriock's Esoteric Linguistics 202 class, but it's been years since then and I haven't used it at all and what if I say the wrong thing, what if I try to tell her the town doesn't have her offspring and I get the conjugation wrong and accidentally tell her- Wait, you're fluent?" He stops and stares at Tewa, then rushes over to the larger woman. "I heard that right, right?"
As you decide to put a rest to the spirits, the locathah tell you in Aquan "We will wait here a few minutes in case you need help. Come back. There is a token I would like to give you before you leave."
Collections of tarnished silverware and broken bottles line the shelves of this cramped, windowless room. Two small doors provide passage to the east and west. A broken staircase descends into the rubble-filled pit that used to be a basement.
The collapsed basement below is completely inaccessible as there is no much space left between the rubble.
It is clear this room once functioned as a storage space for flatware and utensils, where servants could make meals presentable after they came up from the kitchen in the basement. The flood destroyed most of this room’s contents, as well as the kitchen below.
Two potions of delay poison and 2 doses of twitch tonic are hidden in the ruined liquor cabinet; you found them while registering the room.
A watertight bottle of well-aged liquor from ancient Hyrantam sits in the cabinet as well.
Tewa's divine favor and Adriana's spiritual weapon are expired by now.
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Magdi keeps his senses keen, relying on Wingless and his own senses to work together.
Jonah follows the first few into the room, crossbow loaded and ready
if nothing immediately attacks, Jonah is of course drawn to check out the liquor cabinet.
got a few bottles in here! he exclaims
he pulls out
2 potions of delay poison
2 doses of twitch tonic
and a fancy-looking bottle of booze
this looks nice, probably worth more sealed than for drinking
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Certain that there's a joke to be made about the different types of spirits as Jonah checks the liquor cabinet, Adriana looks about for any possible danger as well as signs of any lingering malevolence.
Jonah secures you a few spirits while Adriana does not find any evilness on this room. Now, that is different once you open the eastern doors looking for more spirits...
Water currents stripped this room’s elegant dining table of its contents, leaving tarnished flatware and silverware scattered across the floor and shifting with the currents. An exquisite centerpiece built to look like a miniature orrery sits in the center of the table.
The greatest treasure in the room is the orrery centerpiece; it is worth no less than 2500 gp and can clearly be used as an item of tribute.
Wingless seems unnaturally scared to go into the room and not willing to approach.
Nowadays the room’s contents swirl about in the water, corroded beyond repair.
Among the dift, there are two ghostly figures, little more than a dark shape with two flickering pinpoints of light where their eyes should be. They immediately rise up to attack you!
These creatures are wraiths, evil undead incorporeals able to sense alive creatures to whom they feel a great hatred. Wraiths are undead creatures born of evil and darkness. They hate light and living things, as they have lost much of their connection to their former lives.
Their touch is very dangerous, their negative energy able to frozen the hottest of hearts while it drains its Constitution. Also, armor non made of pure force (mage armor, shield) is just ignored by their spiritual hands.
You also know magical weapons are required to damage incorporeals (half damage only), and only ghost touch weapons cause full damage and are able to cause criticals. As for magic, only positive energy (healing spells and channel energy) causes full damage to them, as well as force effects.
Animals do not willingly approach to them as they sense their unnatural presence, and their master needs to push them to do so.
These kind of creatures have a weakness to light though, and direct exposure to the light of sun, under which they cannot attack and become staggered.
You are first to react while the spirits are still on the process to wake up!
Magdi draws his spear - his bolts would do little to immaterial undead, if anything. Rather than rushing in ahead, he focuses on soothing Wingless, hoping to keep his little snake calm.
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Tonny is about to say something about the orrery in the center of the room before his darting eyes spy something else. Somethings else.
“Yep those are wraiths oh no ohnonononono, bad news, don’t get touched or they drain away your breath, wait! Take this!” He fumbles for a moment at his belt, then pulls out a bottle of clear liquid. “Drink this!” he yells, practically shoving it in Adriana’s face. “Does anybody have any sunlight?”
Magdi does not know what this exactly is, but he understands enough to know these are incorporeals and non-magical means will not hurt them. He calms down Wingless and pushes him to follow him into the room if needed.
Tonny knows this and even identifies what exact type of incorporeal spirit they group is facing. Handing a potion extract for Tewa to drink, the woman drinks it up and moves forward to protect the group with her magical greatsword, while the half-elf gives opportune advise to the group.
Jonah puts his crossbow around the corner of the door to shot at the wraith there in front.
Two of the bolts hit the mark after easily diving through the water. Their magic partially harming the spirit!
The spirits eyes shine in red and speak up in a spine-chilling voice from beyond death "Фол хато буд... чаро зинда ҳастӣ... ту бояд мисли ҳама чиз дар хонаи мо бимирӣ..."
"The omen was wrong... why you are alive... you must die like everything in our home..."
Just before flying through the waters with their hands forward towards Tewa.
The first hand goes through the heavy armor of the warrior touching her heart and freezing inside, but the second attack is fortunately blocked by the force shield surrounding her.
Adriana takes he vial from Tonny and immediately downs it as she moves forward to attempt to flank their incorporeal foes, assuming such a thing could be done.
Calling upon the spirits of the wild, Magdi hardens his skin like the bark of the trees that weather the storm. That done, he strides into the room, blackwood spear ready to strike.
Tewa is able to withstand the undead’s withering touch, and she focuses herself on the task of fighting underwater.
She then holds her sword up high and brings it barreling down through the cyan apparition.
The wraiths do not seem to know Tonny's whip is non-magical, and they are bothered by it as they try to avoid it.
Meanwhile, Adriana takes the extract and drinks it, with some difficulty because she has to suck the contents due to the water pressure rather than just down it, but the water breathing helps with this anyway.
The spirits attack her while she gets into the room.
Only one manages to reach her freezing her vital energy.
Magdi casts a reinforcing spell.
Demonstrating great flexibility to adapt to any circumstance in combat, Tewa slashes mightily through the water, her magical blade hurting the incorporeal essence of her foe!
Then follows a barrage of bolts from Jonah that pierce the spirit with their magic, leaving it in a very dwindled state.
One of the spirits attack Adriana.
While the other goes for Tewa.
Thanks to the powerful shielding magic provided by Tonny both women emerge unscathed from the incorporeal assault!
Magdi steps into the doorway, calling upon the spirits of storm to obscure the vision of one of his foes.
As Tonny whips around, the first spirit reacts holding back almost instinctively at the half-elf appendage.
Then Magdi steps in, and as he moves his hands the waters in the room start to move and swirl, with air bubbles spinning around the red wraith at a high speed. The visibility of the spirit seems severely hampered by the deed!
The locathah, who are watching through the door, exclaim in their Aquan tongue "Oh! The Saoc Brethren! That one who controls the seas and the storms!"
Tewa swings again, but the exclamation from the other room briefly distracts her.
The touch of the spirits is cold, and Adriana fights off recoiling away from the shadowy creature, instead turning the momentum into a heavy slash with her glowing blade.
As Adriana is being touched her hex ward disappears, but not before protecting her from the sapping of vital energy.
Tewa's distracted swing goes just too wide, but Adriana's scimitar cuts through destroying great part of the wraith essence.
The friendly cover forces Jonah's shots and only the first one connects, but still, the magic of the projectile is enough to end this first wraith that disappears with a loud infernal shout "Нооооо! Аломати мо!"
The other wraith keeps the fight on Tewa.
But again, the magical shield protects the tough adventurer!