Torku strikes with his Rapier to free Gideon and as the tongue loosens, the man pops free.
The tongue flops to the ground and it is quickly snapped back into the open maw of the beast.
The monstrous Mobogo squirrels its may back out of the entrapment and turns to feast on the ones that didn't get away...
A bag is tossed over the rubble and you hear a voice, "Agents! Take the tablet back to her! We'll hold off this..." ...you hear screams of Aspis in the distance as you make your way into the cover of the jungle.
In the confusion you are able to grab the Aspis bag and follow a path into the jungle.
* *
You are all gasping for breath.
Gideon is covered in all sorts of various slimes but manages a small grin, "Well s!*# that was quite impressive. You all happen to be recruiting?"
He wipes his hands off onto his soiled clothing, not making much of a dent in the dirt.
"So uh do you all have a boat? If not, I can prolly sneak you into the one we chartered. By the sound of those screams I'm guessing there aren't many agents left and the crew is just a bunch of mercenaries."
He looks closely at a couple of you, "it has nice bunks, you all could get some rest at least."
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Vulpina has a thought. She's looking surprisingly pristine, given everything that's happened in the past few minutes.
"Do you think we could get the boat out onto the open water, then ditch it and take our own?" she asks. "It would be a shame if that creature's dinner was interrupted because a few of their folks made it back to their ship... and that would leave it less hungry for our return trip, should we need to take one."
Gideon is a little startled.
"You ... you would kill everybody on board by sinking the ship! The ... there are not enough boats or life vests! This is an old ship!"
"No, please! They will think I colluded with you! I would really hide you on the ship. But we can also take your boat of course. I will tell you everything I know!" he says exhausted.
The monstrous Mobogo squirrels its may back out of the entrapment and turns to feast on the ones that didn't get away...A bag is tossed over the rubble and you hear a voice, "Agents! Take the tablet back to her! We'll hold off this..." ...you hear screams of Aspis in the distance as you make your way into the cover of the jungle.
In the confusion you are able to grab the Aspis bag and follow a path into the jungle.
Gideon looks at Makras and then the bag. “But you got what the Aspis came here for! It’s in there!“ he says incredulously.
Gideon points at the bag.
"Can you feel the dark energy?"
He waits for you to pay attention.
"You feel it, don't you? That's what the boss sent us for ... she calls them the 'Twelve Rites". She's got like seven or eight of them now, and we found two here."
You all look at the two tablets and when you touch it you feel something... someone watching?! And memories wash over your thoughts but you cannot remember anything.
And when you start discussing the fragments that you associate with the Tablets from different angles you put a storyline together.
You also remember information that were provided in the debrief documents that the Venture Captain showed you.
All of Boalisi culture, including the ruined city of Boali, either vanished or was destroyed 2,000 years ago due to an unknown catastrophe.
Boalisi explorers ventured far into the Kaava Lands before the collapse of their culture. The few scraps of history that remain speak of them claiming various ruins, but few other sites in the Kaava Lands have been definitively connected to this exploration.
The Boalisi frequently built their settlements with materials pulled from ancient ruins and claimed all manner of relics from the sites as their own.
Shortly before the collapse of their culture, Boalisi people recovered dozens of relics from the ancient cyclops city of Kaddodi, part of the fallen cyclops empire Ghol-Gan.
* * *
The collapse of Ghol-Gan saw the cyclopes’ decline from high-minded scholars, prophets, and warriors into a brutal species of shortsighted giants.
During the Age of Darkness, a powerful asura called Parveen took over one of their profaned temples within what is now known as Kaddodi in the Kaava Lands.
Parveen embarked on a millennium-long meditation on ruin, contemplating Ghol-Gan’s perverse religions and studying several profaned tablets known as the Twelve Rites.
These powerful relics once contained deep truths and spiritual wisdom, but after the cyclopes’ decline, they became a set of blasphemies that harnessed infernal powers.
Through her studies, Parveen grew in strength, eventually ascending into an asurendra, among the most powerful classes of asuras.
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Makras nods, knowingly. He places a palm on the tablet, and an image appears: a glowing, skull-faced moon. "More testament to the end of all things. First, Ghol-Gan. Then, Boalisi. All striving is folly, as all falls to dust and decay." Makras pulls some dried meat from his pack. "I'm hungry."
As Loam states that you should investigate this place further you have almost reached your boat. Suddenly, you hear the sound of the Mobogo again!! It can’t be far away!
Gideon is a little startled by the sound of the monster.
"Can we leave now?“
He then looks at the tablets.
”Guessing by what that guy being digested right now shouted before dying, these are at least two of the twelve rites tablets as my old boss Shinri called them. The predicament you found me in was the result of locating one of them. Touching it... well gave me a really odd feeling. Sent chills down my spine. Worse then when I saw Shinri punch a guy so hard his eyeball popped out."
* * *
When any of you touch the tablet you feel an incredible evil trying to consume you ... you make brief contact with a malign presence during your reading! You see Kaddodi! The presence offers something ... wants you to continue to contact it ...
You push past this evil to the last person touching the object. You can suddenly feel Gideon’s thoughts!
The boggards have already devastated the Consortium’s ranks in Boali, reducing our expedition group from nearly 30 strong to fewer than a dozen members.
The remaining agents fled the Tralika the best they could and continued their search, eventually we ended up in an abandoned arcane laboratory.
There we found one of the Twelve Rites hidden in a secret chamber. Unfortunately, in an attempt to claim it, I accidentally activated an ancient trap put there to protect the tablet.
Unwilling to risk their lives to save their precariously positioned comrade, me, the remaining agents took the tablet and abandoned me, continuing onward with little afterthought.
When you touched it make the mark Makras you suddenly see and feel the recent memories and emotions of Gideon. What that means to you is up to you.
|
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Accusing eyes fall upon Gideon. "There were THIRTY of you? No wonder they didn't come back. Aspis treat their agents as if they're disposable. You also neglected to mention that you tried to activate the tablet, which led to you being trapped in the first place." His tone softens, "Sounds like you've had a rough patch. But I think that is all behind you now. Let's get you back to civilization."
Gideon suddenly looks at you as if he woke up from a dream.
”Wha... What are you talking about? How do you know?!“
* *
You decide to return and are now on your boat with Wallace steering back towards Senghor.
Overwhelmed by the situation and Korum stating the obvious about how Aspis treat their agents you see Gideon in a thoughtful state.
"So my former boss, Shinri is tough. She earned her spot with the Consortium as a Bronze agent by coming up with good plans and cracking any skulls that popped up along the way. I’ve been a part of her crew in Bloodcove for two years, and let me tell you, it’s much better to be standing behind her than in her way. Shinri was born on the streets. She’s a natural fighter, tough as crocodile and furious as a hippo, but lately she’s been even more ‘Shin-rey’ than normal. That’s a word we use when we’re safely out of earshot. Over the last few months, she has been meditating for four or five hours at a time, and she’s been using all kinds of strange fighting techniques she never used to, things you don’t learn on the streets. This might sound strange, but I think she is actually talking to someone when she meditates. Someone, or maybe something?”
He shudders for a moment.
"Our operation here was pretty simple. The boss wanted us to collect some stone tablets with weird-looking markings etched onto them!!“
He pauses to breathe heavily.
”I was in the process of procuring one earlier when I was so rudely interrupted by the floor swallowing me up. If I recall correctly, that going to be the tenth one in Shinri’s set. Once, I overheard her calling them the Twelve Rites during her meditations. She’s begun talking to herself when she thinks no one is listening!“
White-Tooth Wallace shows his pearlies and seems bored, "Good that you are back! This place is disturbing my sleep pattern." and smiles.
He starts piloting the trawler out into the coastline and Gideon gives him some directions to avoid the larger ship. You are already on the water when you see a much larger sailing ship anchored in a small hidden bay which is preparing to leave the island.
Gideon is pointing at the now far away Aspis ship.
”That is the ship that I was telling you about! We could have had a very comfortable trip back but now we are stuck in this little boat and I can assure you that it will be very hard to get back to Senghor earlier than the ship!“ he sighs.
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Loam watches the waves for a while to help Wallace.
Without a lead, she tries to chip in after Korum is done. Not her specialty, maybe even a weakness, but desperate times call for it. "Shinri didn't seem to think much of your life, considering what she sent you into. But we, your apparent enemies..."
The ratfolk triggers Gideon's post-traumatic stress response before she can get any further.
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Torku silently glares at Korum before turning to Gideon. "Agreed, but apparently this unnecessary hardship is for some higher good or other religious nonsense. Doesn't that make you feel better. In the meantime, you have plenty of time to tell us where to find Shinri."
Once the Pathfinders settle in for the trip, the tiefling takes up a position at the bow of the ship and tries to spot the lights of Senghor in the distance.
Gideon is not really opening up.
"I can show you the warehouse they operate in. As for the tablets, I couldn't tell you anything about them other than she's collecting them. I'd as soon never touch one again, though. It sent chills down my spine.”
Gideon goes on to tell you about the general layout of the hideout.
He lets you know that they keep someone in the foyer to pretend to be a legitimate business that just happens always to be closed, maybe you should try back in a few days.
How you go in is up to you, but you will probably find several aspis agents and Shinri herself there.