Pazúr makes his way up the stairs, pondering Heyou!'s question. What exactly is an eland? Will any of us know it when we see it? His musings are interrupted by the startled bog-guard! In an effort to silence the frog-man, Pazúr darts forward and slashes with his claws!
Chivivit fires at magic rock at the boggard.
Pazúr squeezes where he can. There's enough space for him to launch and attack. It's plenty effective. the boggard takes the hits. A moment later it's head practically explodes as Chivivit blasts it with a perfectly placed rock!
Pazúr gives Chivivit a satisfied nod as they finish off the guard before he can sound the alarm. His smug grin fades, however, as the tip of his head dislodges some chunks of boggard brain, which fall to the floor with a quiet splat. "Agreed, Holton, quite disgusting."
As Heyou! checks out the door to the north, Pazúr waits quietly by the double doors, ready for just about anything in this place full of bipedal amphibious threats and squishy menace.
”Forgive my surprised expression, but I’m not used to seeing you guys act so fast. I haven’t even had a moment to get my claws out!” Ferrun says with a toothy cat grin.
The catfolk moves over and searches the boggard corpses.
Ferrun comes away with little to show. Heyou! throws a small tantrum when the door to the north proves to be boring. He opens it only to find an empty guard room. Pazur easily hears croaking from the other side.
"Pazur, do you hear something about to croak?! Let's go get it!"
When his companions are ready, Ferrun opens the door.
This wide, arcing room has a double door you're standing in, and two double doors leading east; all of the doors bear a large sunburst symbol. The southern double doors on the east wall have been knocked off their hinges and lie askew on the floor. Against the north wall, an elaborate wooden chair balances atop a wooden chest, which itself balances atop a stone shelf that’s been knocked over to serve as a base. The chair is festooned with large leaves and reeds to give it a more ostentatious and dramatic appearance.
Atop the chair is the meanest looking boggard you've ever seen. He is remarkably fat
and has a discolored splotch the rough shape of a dragonfly atop his round head. He's flanked by two stout warriors.
Not wasting a second he orders his minions to attack, and they do, but reluctantly.
Round 1:
Sir Holton: Go
Croakchief: TBD
Pazúr: TBD
Boggards: TBD
Chivivit: TBD
Heyou!: TBD
Kicsit: TBD
Ferrun: TBD
Assumption of Ferrun Scouting
Sir Holton opens with a stunning display of magic. Sarenrae's fury rips across the boggards! The Croakchief, in his hubris, never really took cover and pays the price with some nasty burns.
The corakchief roars into action. He grabs a gnarley looking greatclub and leaps right up to Sir Holton with an overhead swing:
for
Round 1:
Sir Holton: Fireball
Croakchief: ATK
Pazúr: Go
Boggards: TBD
Chivivit: TBD
Heyou!: TBD
Kicsit: TBD
Ferrun: TBD
Croakchief: 21
White: 10
Black: 10
"Heyou! I don't think that taunting the chief was wise. You've made him pretty mad now. That being said, you were telling the truth."
"One croaked frog, coming up!" Pazúr calls out as he bounds into the fray. He leaps to his left, as if to deceive his foe! He lands awkwardly and nearly crashes to the stone floor! Barely recovering his balance, he swipes fiercely in frustration at the great big frog-boss!
Pazúr's gambit does not pay off as the big bad boggard boss buffets the backswing away. Pazúr does manage to sneak in a quick claw though!
The underlings, warriors in their own right, close, attacking both Heyou! and Pazúr:
MISS
MISS
for
MISS
Round 1:
Sir Holton: Fireball
Croakchief: ATK
Pazúr: Hit
Boggards: ATK
Chivivit: Go
Heyou!: Go
Kicsit: Go
Ferrun: Go
Croakchief: 33
White: 10
Black: 10
Ferrun moves up and uses the boggard king as a scratching post!
The heroes make a powerful counter attack. Ferrun's first attack cuts a trio of long gashes across the croakchief's chest!
Heyou!'s bomb is perfectly placed, and the king nearly falls from the wounds. The plucky goblin adds another injury as his dagger sinks into one of the guards!
Round 1:
Sir Holton: Fireball
Croakchief: ATK
Pazúr: Hit
Boggards: ATK
Chivivit: Go
Heyou!: Crit
Kicsit: Go
Ferrun: Crit
Croakchief: 74 (6 Persistent fire!)
White: 12
Black: 12
Bot for Chivit.
Chivit sends a quip towards the boss frog, insulting a possible matriarchy in his lineage.
Then he casts hideous laughter. DC21 Will save, possibly after he’s been demoralized.
Chivivit's words give the wounded leader pause! The follow up spell doesn't work though.
Round 1:
Sir Holton: Fireball
Croakchief: ATK
Pazúr: Hit
Boggards: ATK
Chivivit: Demoralize
Heyou!: Crit
Kicsit: Go
Ferrun: Crit
Croakchief: 74 (6 Persistent fire!)
White: 12
Black: 12
Bot for Kicsit.
Kicsit and Sir Holton both struggle with their attempts at killing blows. The leader, barely clinging to consciousness, sees no hope of escape, and clearly won't entertain surrender.
He winds up and starts swinging for all he's worth!
for
And again!
MISS
And yet again!
for
He gives a triumphant croak, even as the fire burns his flesh. The fires go out, and it's shocking he's still standing!
Round 2:
Sir Holton: Miss
Croakchief: TO THE DEATH!
Pazúr: Go
Boggards: TBD
Chivivit: TBD
Heyou!: TBD
Kicsit: TBD
Ferrun: TBD
Croakchief: 80
White: 12
Black: 12
Pazúr bobs and weaves, trying to distract the chieftan before giving him the old one-two slash!
The croakchief exults in his power as Pazúr floats like a butterfly. The croakchief moves to block, and scores a quick stop after the feint, but the combo leaves his next completely exposed.
A powerful slash from the other claw cuts the sound, and the life, from the boggard!
The two injured warriors immediately throw down their clubs and genuflect to the heroes, "Please. No kill! No kill! We are sorry!"
The boggards, not getting immediately killed, inch towards the way downstairs, and ultimately, an exit.
"Well done, Pazur.". Ferrun comments as the chief drops. Watching, the boggards slink to the door, he stands and does not give chase. "Be gone and do not come back!"
With the boggards gone, the party looks over the fallen corakchief. He doesn't seem to have anything of value, but he does have a chest next to his "throne" and it's not locked. In fact, it barely closes. The chest contains: several cleverly woven mats of reeds and grasses that are interesting but valueless, several pieces of fake jewelry, a smelly leather pouch containing 48 gp, five gold bracelets worth 60 gp each, eight playing pieces from an ivory chess set worth 12 gp each, a barkskin potion, and a +1 breastplate.
Ferrun looks through the treasure with mild amusement.
”Heyou! What are you doing chewing on the boggard chief’s mat? That’s probably one of his playing boards he uses for his kingly pieces. I would love to play, but I’m not sure this Boggard has all of the necessary pieces. The hole in his board won’t help either.”
Inspecting the armor, he remarks, ”This breastplate is actually not half bad. I’m not sure I would be as fast in it, but I think those plates could actually ward a decent hit. Pazur, do you have an interest?”
With the party healed up, they enter the room heretofore only Heyou! has seen. An enormous sun symbol carved into the floor of this room glows with a warm light. The symbol is a loose spiral with triangles surrounding it like rays. Two holes pierce the stone floor in the symbol, one at the symbol’s center and the other at the end of the sun-spiral. The walls are carved with intricate runes and myriad shapes of animalistic humanoid warriors, and it takes only a moment of examination to realize that these shapes represent the Pillar-Watchers around Kibwe. A raised dais at the far end of the room contains a pedestal for a statue, but no statue is present....
”This looks like a labyrinth to the heart of the sun. I do like a little curl up when I find some decent sunlight. However, this may not be the time.” Ferrun walks the path and investigates both holes at each end of the design, trying to gain insight into their purpose.
Ferrun walks the room, and there's a lot going on here. The walls are rife with clues, but they don't present themselves easily. The walls seem to be directions for the performance of a ritual, but it's hard to parse out exactly what needs to be done.
The carvings on the walls seem to be an inventory written in an archaic version of Mwangi
The hole at the center of this symbol looks down onto the end of the spiral of the lower sun, while the hole at the end of this spiral looks down on the center of the lower sun.
To activate the sun symbols, you must first perform the ritual illustrated on the wall carvings and pass a Nature or Religion check. It looks like it's a two person ritual. Once must be up here doing their part, and another below.
"You take that armor, Ferrun, or Holton can have it," Pazúr responds, "it's too bulky for me, can't dance around in it the way I like."
Pazúr studies the carvings on the walls, and is quite pleased with himself when he manages to puzzle out their meaning!
"With what Pazur described, this site looks perfect for performing the ritual. Perhaps we can get two of us to make this work. I am fairly knowledgeable with my skill at religion. How comfortable do any of you feel with your knowledge of nature?"
”Hmm, Heyou! I’m glad to hear you were born in nature. That seems well natural. However maybe Sir Hilton knows enough religion that we won’t need to rely on the nature aspect of the ritual so much. What do you say, Sir Holton? Are you willing to give it a try?”
Pazúr gives Sir Holton and Ferrun some coaching on what to do, and the two take positions to perform the ritual.
An intangible orb of light 1 foot in diameter appears around Sir Holton 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 a few seconds, and then a circuit of the lower symbol in a similar amount of time.
Each time the orb returns to the upper sun symbol, the pedestal on the dais at the east end of the room glows as well. The moving light is plainly powering the pedestal, although its precise effects aren’t clear... since there's no statue where there clearly should be one. In addition to powering the dais, the orb’s energy is life-giving. Each time the orb enters a room, you feel invigorated.
The missing statue is a huge problem, and means the curse is still a major problem. Abayone needs to hear about this!