Zarke smashes #3 again
Before letting T'gon'l carry him across the battlefield to further debilitate the Aspis halfling.
Asta and Fuchsia get to work fighting the definitely real dwarf. With three successful strikes, one a crit, the dwarf is bleeding profusely but still stands.
Jack's leshy successfully hits the other definitely real dwarf and Zarke takes him out with a final crit!
Zarke moves across the room to see if Paga is allergic to goblins!
She sneezes, then musters up a little halfling luck.
Still a little sick, but much better.
Seeing one of her actual bodyguards fall, she yells out "Drop your weapons! All of you!"
The wizard tosses a ball of fire and all the dwarves except #4 reload and fire crossbows. The statues glow brighter.
#4 lashes out at Asta, then runs through #5 to go hit Zarke.
Initiative!
?
Paga, -22 hp, slowed 1, sickened 1
#4, -56 hp
Zarke, - 32 hp
Asta, -13 hp
Jack
Fuchsia, -56 hp
Fuchsia steps into a flank.
Is that all you got?
I'm coming for you next!
Fuchsia and takes out the dwarf!
Smash her — for YUTUUR!!!!
She will One for All her smashy Druid friend.
"Zarke, don't listen!"
Asta drops his weapon, then picks it up and moves to set up a position for Zarke or Fuschia.
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Zarke then spends his turn putting his maul gently onto the ground while T'gon'l who doesn't speak common takes a bite.
Jack seems uninterested in dropping anything. So he doesn't.
Action 1: Sustain a Spell
Action 2-3: Ray of Frost
Holding his connection to his summoned leshy, Jack points at the halfling and says, "Make her pay."
The leshy takes several steps closer and hurls a spike from its body at her!
Jack then fires a ray of frost at the wizard for good measure.
Zarke hits with his attack of opportunity, but can't stop the spell. He spends his turn managing his weapon.
Jack hits with a ray of frost!
The remaining figures go through the same motions again: the wizard throwing fire, the statues glowing, and the dwarves firing crossbows.
Paga whips at Asta, then moves away.
lethal slashing
Initiative!
Paga, -50 hp, slowed 1, sickened 1
Zarke, - 32 hp
Asta, -41 hp
Jack
Fuchsia, -56 hp
Fuchsia strides, tumbles, and strikes.
(full damage on miss)
That's for Yutuur! No more running.
Zarke picks up his hammer and continues the chase.
Action 1: Sustain a Spell (Stride, Strike)
Action 2-3: Ray of Frost
Jack keeps the pressure on, once more sending in his summoned ally before firing a ray of frost.
Asta dashes over into a flank with the summoned creature, studying his target as he goes.
Not seeing a good opening, he first tends to Fuchsia's wounds, then strikes.
Fuchsia tumbles next to the halfling and stabs!
Zarke connects once with his hammer back in his hands.
Jack and the leshy focus on the wizard but can't seem to connect.
The leshy calls out to Jack that the wizard isn't real!
Asta, unable to find a good opening, patches up Fuchsia's wounds.
The halfling, quite injured now, grabs at Fuchsia and starts drawing life energy from her!
, DC 27 basic Fort (accounting for sickened)
Initiative!
Paga, -97 hp, slowed 1, sickened 1, +? temp hp
Zarke, - 32 hp
Asta, -41 hp
Jack
Fuchsia, -38 hp, Fort save pending
This is for Yutuur!
and This is for Yutuur!
Asta continues his study of the Aspis leader.
Seeing a slightly better shot, he stabs as the halfling three times.
T'gon'l helps while Zarke smashes again.
Zarke then finishes with an electric arc.
Fuchsia loses some of her vitality to Paga as she fails the Fort save, but the ratfolk quickly makes up for it by striking the halfling twice!
Asta follows that with two more hits!
Zarke then brings around the hammer, which, despite the extra health stolen from Fuchsia, drops the halfling! The rest of the figures fade away.
You have only a few moments to mourn Yuturr before the real Cursebreaker marches into the room, covered in dust and twigs, and stands on the pedestal.
Nothing happens.
You soon realize that you need to power the pedestal in the same way you activated the sun symbols the last time you were here.
Do your best to finish this, Cursie. For Yuttuur.
Fuchsia will try to Aid whoever who needs it more.
Zarke sits and pushes the tears in his eyes for his fallen companion aside as he focuses on Cursebreaker Standing on the central Sun.
Asta moves to the secondary position, joining Zarke in the ritual.
Jack steps up, moving to the other symbol. He knows that he needs to complement Zarke in the ritual, and does his best with what he knows. With Asta leading, he lends his aid.
Hero Point
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Everyone works together to perform the ritual, with Zarke and Asta taking lead and Fuchsia and Jack providing key support.
An intangible orb of light 1 foot in diameter appears around the character at the center of the upper sun symbol and moves away along the spiral. When it reaches the end of the spiral, it drops through the hole in the floor to the center of the lower sun and traces a similar path along that spiral. When the orb reaches the end, it rises up through the ceiling to the center of this symbol and begins the path again. The orb moves quickly, completing the circuit of the upper symbol in 1 round and then a circuit of the lower symbol in the following round.
Each time the orb returns to the upper sun symbol, the pedestal on the dais at the east end of the room glows brighter. This goes on for ten minutes.
Finally, the Pillar-Watcher glows with a fierce, bright fire that washes over the room, through the walls, and across the city.
As the fire washes over the catfolk, lying dead on the floor, Yuturr starts to sparkle and glow and soon, opens his eyes.
He hears a very faint voice in his mind.
"...eight lives left..."
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Yuturr's eyes flutter open and his head thrashes back and forth. I'll beat you each apart! I'll take you both together! I— He settles back down a bit. Ugh, my head.
Asta looks up, startled as Yuturr starts shouting. "How in the..." Moving closer, he examines the cat with a physician's stare. "I was sure you were beyond help, and yet here you are shouting at the wind! Curious, indeed!"
Fuchsia hides the tears in her eyes with a laugh.
Like I said… you had to have a couple cat-lives left. That's three left by my reckoning. But who's counting!?
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"There's a song in this. That cat is a veritable eight nation army."
As you leave the building, you see celebrations and joy all around. The curse is gone! The slithering has ended! People are still tentative about contact, but Cursebreaker did its job, and the city of Kibwe is free!
We did it!! Never had a doubt. You should have seen it, Yutuur. Now the most important question… just how big should our statues be? Fuchsia adjusts her silk hat and fancy red dress, practicing her most fashionable pose.
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Mine should be bigger than yours, Yuturr says to Fuchsia playfully, since I'm bigger than you. However, I'm willing to pose in my natural state, and at this he lies on the ground.
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Fuchsia twirls her red cloak as she approaches the statues. She leads several dozen young ratfolk like a pied piper. The young ones look like they don’t have much money, are well-fed and taken care of nonetheless.
See that? That’s your auntie Fuchsia! She spins and poses like the statue; the young rat children watch, entranced by their charismatic friend.
She produces her rapier, spins it, and points. That pumpkin-head is JACK. And the stick-person on his shoulder is Nutmeg. One of the ratfolk hums one of Jack’s songs. I’ll get their autograph next time they’re in town.
That’s ZARKE. See his hands, don’t they look kinda tired? They do to me. That’s ‘cause he spent probably hundreds and hundreds of hours fixing up me and my friends up after we got hurt. But he could dish out the hurt too, with that maul and his friend T’gon’l.
That dog-person in the long coat is ASTA. I’d like to think I learned something from him, but it was lots of boring lectures and stuff that I probably forgot. He was good with that sword-cane of his. It was almost fashionable, too, though he probably would never admit it.
That’s UNCLE YUTUUR. Official Ysoki. Even if he says otherwise. He gave up almost all his lives but one to save the town. His second-to-last life was the closest call of all because he’s still a scardey cat deep down, and fell for the illusions made by the Aspis agent. Anyways you know Uncle Yutuur already 'cause you see him when he visits for dinner, right?
Fuchsia pauses and frowns at her statue. The sculptor seems to have forgotten something… HER HAT!
Her eponymous cloaks swirl as she leaps onto the pedestal climbs up her own statue. She removes her own silk hat. She places it on the statue’s head and ties it tight before adjusting it to a jaunty angle. She leaps down to admire her own handiwork. That’s better.
**
Days later, the twine breaks. Fuchsia’s silk hat drifts away into an old garden where it's caught among the bottlebrush like a red bloom.
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Fuschia doesn't notice — or, more likely, consciously ignores — the small placard draped across the reclining catfolk statue that says "NOT A YSOKI". Even when one of the youths points and tries to say something, Fuschia doesn't notice — or, more likely, consciously ignores — their observations too, as she merrily leads her ragtag group down the boulevard.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now a regular on the shady-but-not-quite-illegal Unku trade route across the Shattered Range between Kibwe and Alkenstar, Yuturr's visits to his friend Fuschia are infrequent, but are welcomed by all parties when they do happen.
His caravan arrival almost always brings a new hat for his swashbuckling friend, and plenty of food for her rogue's gallery.
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Meanwhile Zarke is already chasing after another intrepid band of adventurers, a lightning bolt extending from one hand, with an even larger than before comically large roll of gauze in the other.
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After the fanfare and celebrations are over, Asta takes a job in the coroner's office, leading investigations into the most unusual of deaths around Kibwe.
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Jack and Meg resume their tour, doing a couple shows in Kibwe before heading east into Katapesh, then north to Osirion before concluding their tour in Absalom. After that, the two began writing songs for what would be their final album, Oozy Thwack. The split was hard for Jack at first, but he later when on to have his own solo career.
No song of his was ever more popular than the one they wrote right after they saved Kibwe from the Slithering curse. Eight Nation Army, what amounted to an ode to Yuturr, would be played in sporting arenas throughout most of the Inner Sea region. It had a notable drum beat and bass line that was about as contagious for humans as the Slithering itself.
What Meg got up to afterwards was about as big a mystery as the tiny leshy herself.