On the way back, Magdi considers for a time. "I will leave the more mundane scouting to you, Jonah, though I could also ask the birds if they know where it is..." He pauses. "But most aren't terribly smart, and probably don't know where the egg is hidden. No, I shall consult the spirits to discover what we can."
He looks to Tewa She, scratching at the stubble on his chin. Need to shave soon. Shaking the thought away, he smiles. "I just need some incenses and other materials... and a question that would best guide us to where to find the egg." He looks at his fellows. "Suggestions?"
|
“Well, we have her name…” Tonny’s voice trails off for a moment. “So that should help us avoid getting information on some other thunderbird’s egg. It’s not something like asking ‘where is her egg’, is it? Maybe you can ask about the steps to finding her egg? The actions we must take in order to find her egg? Yes, that might work!”
Next day, you are discussing the details of your divinations attempts at Vance's office when you hear a commotion outside over the noise of the storm.
A lirgeni young girl enters the office pointing outside out of breath "I-It's dead!"
You pick up your weapons and rush out into the pier to see a giant tentacled abomination pouncing over the structure and people running away trying to reach safety!
With a tentacle the huge squid takes one lirgeni fisherman and crushes it to death, dropping the remains on the stormed waters! Meanwhile another tentacle slams on the pier breaking a section!
It is clear this squid is devoid of life, an undead zombie abomination! It is common knowledge those type of creatures are immune to mind affecting and have damage reduction against non slashing weapons.
Also, those things have no feelings, it is going to keep fighting around until it is dead-dead.
You know squids have a jet ability to propel themselves incredibly fast in water (260 feet per round).
Also, with that size, the squid is going to have 15 feet reach.
|
|
“Aaah! It certainly is dead!” Tonny fumbles with his belt pouch and starts frantically passing out vials. “Adriana, I’m pretty sure I’ve got this shielding potion correct this time. Cut it down, they’re like little rubber mats. Well, at least the little ones are. Remember to to watch the base of the tentacles to see where they’re moving. Oh, and then move in the other direction!”
Jonah sighs. more undead? these bolts are not great against them, but it's better than nothing he thinks.
He moves out on to the dock, a little ways apart from the group and fires a single shot at the monster
Rosemary takes to the air, but does not attack yet.
Tonny passes some vials and gives good advice of maintaining yourselves away from the tentacles.
Meanwhile, Jonah gets out of the office two and puts an arrow in the air. Although already dead and vital points not being that sensible now, Jonah still remembers well how to engage an ex-animal like this, specially of dinosaur size.
His arrow sinks well on the place he knows more painful.
Magdi rushes out into the rain, alarmed. That's one spell I can't cast. No blood to bleed. He moves towards the water, considering the current.
Magdi hums a tune to Harborwing, summoning the spirits in her service to bless himself and his allies.
With everyone so close together and their foe on the surface, Tewa wastes no time in casting the spell she thinks would be most helpful: communal water walk.
She then calls upon her ancestral knowledge to heighten her accuracy.
Magdi can notice the waters are really moving because of the storm, and well, because this somehow is, or was, a river too.
The Yamansani blesses the party with a quick movement and plea.
Meanwhile, Tewa calls the power of water allowing everyone to walk over the furious liquid.
Adriana does something heroic!
The undead squid then swims around the docks, reaching your position, its tentacles moving around menacingly.
As the creature closes up, you can read a message carved in Common on its body Meddle not in our affairs!
Magdi grimaces, focusing on casting his spell without giving the undead creature a chance to strike at him. With a chant, he unleashes healing power into the flowing waters beneath them, which surrounds the undead squid.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jonah hits the monster once, and comments It might be undead, but it's still an animal! I've got this.
He fires a full volley of missiles at the squid horror
|
|
“Looks like they’re keeping tabs on us!” Tonny yells over the hubbub. "But they didn’t send Aeassra, so that’s… a good thing, right?” A tentacle crashing on the dock in front of him quickly brings him back to the current threat. “Aaah! Chop them off! The tentacles! Without them, it’s only got its beak!”
Magdi blesses the moving waters which burn the undead skin of the squid!
Jonah's bolts rain over the huge undead monster, stabbing hard in two occasions, although the heavy dead meat prevents some of the damage.
Tonny gives good advice and points at the feeble parts of the squid, giving you all a chance to deal more damage.
Turn 1
Scimitar in hand without thinking and with Tewa's magic leaving an odd tingling sensation in her feet, Adriana nods once and rushes forward, faith in both her blade and the magic of her friends to offset the foolishness of running to distract the decaying creature with a moving target.
Turn 1 Actions
Turn 2
Her focus now entirely on the abomination in front of her, Adriana lets the wrath of Sarenrae flow through her and starts hacking at the creature's rotted flesh.
Turn 2 Actions
Tewa casts Divine Favor on herself and moves in to the melee with Adriana.
Adriana goes in, which triggers the fury of the squid.
The smash is hard and leaves Adriana ill injured, but she nevertheless gets a great attack into the middle of the squid, his blade burning in the flames of the Dawnflower to cut very very deep into the undead!
In retribution she receives new vigor!
Tewa asks for the favor of the winds and the waves, and moves in profiting Adriana has the squid distracted.
The squid keeps smashing on the inquisitor.
One of the tentacles hits her on the shoulder leaving a huge bruise and consuming all the recovered vigor.
Magdi curses, before gesturing at Adriana to grant her a ward of protection once more.
Tewa steps forward and hacks downward at the giant sea beast.
Jonah isn't sure how much arrows are helping against the undead beast, but he certainly isn't going to go in close! he almost got dropped by a normal human-sized zombie already!
Instead he moves back and takes some cover around the corner of the building, firing one slightly more accurate shot this time.
Magdi focuses the energy of the spirits surrounding the area, requesting them to ward Adriana.
Tewa reaches the undead squid and performs a powerful swing that regretfully is deflected by the tough undead skin of the squid.
Being careful as he sees Adriana being quickly bashed, Jonah takes cover and puts another bolt in the undead creature.
Tonny gives accurate advice on where exactly to cut on the zombie.
And Adriana does just so, putting all her strength and good Tonny's advice into a knowledgeable slash that cuts on the core of the squid which completely collapses and stops moving.
It was a close call, but Tonny's advice just put the zombie out of order. With the squid leaning over the pier, you can better examine the carcass and you find out someone has carved actual words on it Meddle not in our affairs!
You realize this squid is a dead body that has been dead and floating in the waters for a long time now before becoming an undead.
The zombie is not the kind that becomes an undead by itself, it has all the signs it has been animated using animate dead, powerful necromantic magic.
Timidly at first, people start to get out of the enclave structures and approach to see you are all ok. Vancen is one of the first ones to reach your position "Thanks Gozreh you were here to end that unnatural existence! What a perversion of nature!"
The people around agrees, Mparu reaches the pier, slowly walking with difficulty with the storm wind blowing in random directions "Indeed, not for you, this could have caused havoc and deaths among us"
Magdi nods at Mparu, swiftly offering her a hand to aid her on her path. "It is good that it did not do as much damage as it might've." He says over the wind and rain.
A quick examination of the corpse prompts him to realize something. "This creature was dead long before it was made into a zombie."
He considers for a moment. "Perhaps I should attempt to scry on the Stormreaders, once we have the time to rest. It seems as though they know about us..." Did the thunderbird speak of us to them?
Jonah kicks the body
Are we sure it is actually dead now? I agree with Magdi, this thing has been dead for quite some time. they probably wrote on it then sent it after us. but if it was dead and came to life once, what's to stop them from just animating it again?
"Butcher it." Magdi suggests. "Even if they reanimate it, it'll be pretty useless if it's all in pieces."
Assuming the party agrees with Magdi's plans, you ask around town about a proper place to use the scrying and are directed to a small well the town uses to extract water a bit less salty than the one from the estuary. The water is close and can be seen clearly, which Magdi uses for his magic on the member of the Stormreaders you met personally, Orleva.
The scrying though does not work at all and the only image seen at the pool is a field of algae, something strange that never happened to Magdi, as he usually notices if the targeted creature makes the save, which has not been the case. This is something else going on.
You think this might be some magical effect protecting from divination, like a mind blank or similar effect.
Assuming you go on about using a divination spell to find Aeassra's egg, you borrow a palm of incense which Magdi powders over the water while he asks about the current location of the egg.
Instead of a word from the gods, the waters start to move and become crystal clear like a mirror, then an image starts to appear, vividly green. You see a large egg languishing in a cave lit by a mysterious green glow. As the image becomes more clear, you see water sloshing against the edge of a fungus-encrusted beach of slippery, shiny gravel to the west of the cave. Thick tangles of roots, infested with filaments of pale fungus, hang from the cave roof, which is the source of the glowing green light. The four-foot-tall sky-blue egg, which surface periodically sparkles with tiny tendrils of electricity, sits amid a heap of glistening fungal growths, like a natural nest.
You do recognize the strange glowing green fungus as Tendrilutus. A strange pale fungus that grows inside caves of swamp areas at the edge of water that recedes and goes up periodically.
The fungus is totally innocuous and not dangerous, aside of creating light.
The image holds for about ten seconds, then fades and disappears, leaving behind only the powdered water.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
“Um… Maybe something went wrong?” Tonny holds his hands helplessly as he watches Magdi work.
The scholar starts bouncing up and down excitedly as the shaman conducts his next divination and the image of the egg is revealed. “Oh! That one I recognize! It’s, uh… tenta, tectra, Tendrilutus! Needs lots of moisture, so it can be found in and near swamps. However, it seems to grow best in dark caverns where the water level follows a periodic cycle of high and low depths.” He pauses to clear his throat and grin sheepishly. “Sorry, I just, uh, you know how sometimes it’s easier to learn things by rote memorization? Uh, anyway, we’ve got a bit of something to work with. The water was moving, so probably something connected to a river or the ocean. But the fungus is a native species in swamps, so maybe where those two biomes meet? I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with the rock the gravel was composed of, so no help there. Oh! Maybe the nymph we met earlier would have heard about such a vividly green cave? Or maybe someone here?”
Magdi grimaces, shaking his head. "It seems likely. Damn. I was afraid of this - that they'd somehow protect themselves or the like. Hopefully they don't realize I tried..." He says to Sonny.
After performing the ritual to divine the location of the egg, Magdi listens carefully to Tonny's explanation. "It sounds like it might be along the river." He observes. "And asking the nymph or our hosts where we might find such a thing is an option, certainly."
Checking up with Vancen and Mparu, they can point out some general areas "There are two swampy areas in Hyrantam that are affected by the tidal movements, at the northern stream bed and the southern one" says the aging sage woman "The northern one is lowlands, mainly beaches, so I guess if you are looking for a cave, this one has to be in the southern banks for there it is rocky and there are some cliffs which are prone to natural cave ins"
"Mmmm... I do not know about the gravel and the tendricu-tendrilutus?" adds the Harbormaster "Maybe that is a good idea Magdi, checking with the friends of the wild you have made can narrow down your search if they know about some specific place where you can find both things"
Adriana peeks at the map while thinking.
"They need the egg safe to keep their leverage while its hidden from prying eyes, so caves would make most sense. We can try to call Eryssala and see if she can tell us anything."
"Do we want to draw any further attention to ourselves and relationship to her? It might make them move the egg." Magdi grates, his expression thunderous.
Tewa shakes her head. ”We’ve tarried enough. Let’s just make a call and go for it. Follow our instincts!”
I'm with Magdi on this one. We need to avoid tying ourselves to Eryssala any more than we already have. Let's explore other ways of getting directions first.
Jonah shrugs
Sounds like the South is a likely place to start but we sure could use some help narrowing it down a bit.
Magdi hums thoughtfully. "I can attempt to, but I'm no great speaker either." He says. "But I can help."
”If we must tarry. I wonder if there are any pearl-diver ladies around….” Tewa takes to asking around for information quickly, but she does get rather distracted easily.
Tewa leads the group's efforts asking around the enclave. You are pointed to some people who usually fish or collect on the outskirts of Hyrantham, but none of them knows anything about tendrilutus. Tonny's extended description though and Magdi's comprehension of the currents finally make strike a few memories from a couple that was collecting oysters in the southern cliffs "Yeah, I remember about a cave with some green brightness like this you describe... maybe is the one you are looking for" "The one at the peninsula south of Watcher's Way? No-no, we never went in there, is the lair of that witch" "Narlysa you say? No no, that one was killed by a group of adventurers a few years ago, no, there is no witch no more" "Ah, yes, it was a few years ago, yeah yeah, I guess you can give it a try, but I do not know, I think you are making these gentle people lose their time..."
The two go on talking almost at the same time, it is hard to follow up who is saying what. The case is, you narrow it down to a smaller area where you can make a try.
You embark on the ship once more an sail through the stormy estuary until you reach the area of the peninsula. There you start checking caves, some of them are quite big with some vegetation within, but none seems the one you are looking for. After visiting three of this, you spot a place with gravel and reach to a promising one.
Flood water sloshes through most of this cavern, slopping against muddy, seaweed-encrusted ledges. Several partially eroded columns of rock emerge from the water to support a roof thick with dangling roots above, while to the south, a low passageway with only a few inches of headspace above the churning waters leads deeper underground. Something farther south, beyond this mostly flooded tunnel, flickers and glows with a strange green light.
|
|
“Oh, I think this is it!” Tonny almost falls off the boat in his excitement before catching himself. “Um, but that doesn’t look tall enough to fit a boat through. Not unless it was a very flat boat, I suppose, but then you have to consider whether that even is a boat and not a raft or something else entirely, like, if you’re balancing on a log in a river, is that a boat?”
Looks like the place Jonah comments, looking around for signs of animals or enemies.
They said there was a witch here at some point. what are the odds we find an undead witch? seems like something we would find with our luck, eh?
"Gods, I hope not." Magdi says dryly. "In any case, I will grant us the ability to breathe underwater. At least then we need not worry about drowning if we're not careful." He chants a spell and touches each of his companions.
Once all of that is prepared, he looks to his companions. "Adrianna, Tewa She. Would you two do the honors of going first?" He turns to Jonah. "I also have a spell prepared that will help your bolts bleed your targets out, but if we face undead, well..."
With Magdi's magic, the group can approach the cave with confidence despite the waves and tidal force menacing to bring you into the deeper waters.
Jumping to the waters, you try to stick to the shore where you are covered until almost your waist. As you do advance, very close to the entry rocks, the waters push you forward and back, forcing you to focus in maintaining your balance.
Jonah notices someone has been visiting the cave although not frequently, despite the tides have erased the tracks to anything but a well trained eye like his.
This is when you do notice the carcass of a beached sea animal, a squid most probably, but much more smaller than the giant one you recently defeated. It seems as the currents have brought it there. The stench though is terrible.
The carcass is otherwise harmless, or so you think until it raises as two grotesque masses of blubber and rancid flesh piling up hideously upon themselves. The strange creatures open a vast maw filled with teeth.
Those are no animal carcasses! These are Globsters, large oozes of the sea with a terrible stench. They are dependent on water and can grab, nauseate and constrict their prey.
The two creatures swim faster that you would have expected reaching Tewa by the end of the surprise round.
|
|
“Eaugh! That’s as bad as the time Professor Clipsi brought a bottle of decomposing globster to class… Oh, because it’s the same thing! Uh, but not decomposed. Ish. It’s complicated. Watch, um, the… base? It’s a physics thing - they’ve got to push from somewhere to move. And there was something else… Oh! Chop chop chop the glop. Sorry, mnemonic. But they’re too bouncy to bash and too… soupy? to pierce, so cutting’s the only way to injure them.”
The globsters’ swift approach - and the wave of stench - knocks a bit of wind out of the scholar’s sails, but he push on. “Now, if you do get hit, they’ll try to grab you. Uh, try to not let that happen. Here, Adriana!” He fishes a vial of pale white liquid out of his pocket, shakes off the seaweed that somehow managed to wrap itself around the bottle, flips open the cap, and tries to feed it to Adriana with one hand while the other fumbles for the whip at his hip.
Tonny identifies the danger for what it is and is more than ready when they move forward, providing opportunistic advice to the party!
He quickly follows up by producing a vial and put it on Adriana's mouth for her to easily drink. The faithful of Sarenrae sees her own figure to be displaced a few inches from where she really is!
"Gods and spirits, why is it always cutting? Chopping is not my forte." Magdi grumbles, before chanting out a quick spell and laying his hand on Adrianna.
She takes Tonny’s advice to heart and trusts that Adriana is getting the healing she needs. Slashing weapons, huh? Well she’s got exactly what she needs then.
Jonah sighs
I don't do a lot of slashing! Maybe Rosemary will have better luck
He casts a short spell, giving Rosemary some extra bite
the falcon then dives in and bites at the red glob, but doesn't have a good diving run.
Magdi feels pretty bad about the nauseating scent of the corpses, but nevertheless manages to put some healing on Adriana, whose bruises quickly disappear, making her feel better.
Tewa cuts through the first globster, Kuye Lam cutting through one good chunk of the carcass!
Feeling a bit sickened by the scent, Jonah touches Rosemary's beak, which starts to drip acid. The hawk descends over the glob but she does not manage to pierce through the dead flesh.
Meanwhile, Adriana holds a bit in the back, activating her healing judgement and calling for Sarenrae's favor!
The globsters focus their rage on Tewa.
But the sailor has her feet quite firm in the shore, and avoids their attempts skillfully!
Shaking her head to lift the mental fog she's been in, Adriana surges forward to join Tewa in hacking the globsters apart, striking at the second rancid mass before it could overwhelm Tewa
Actions
Move token on map to fight Yellow, then attacking.