Jisara launches a ray of frigid cold at the Jills’ boss and manages to hit!
Chance sends forth a wave of colors toward the remaining ruffians, completely hindering them!
The blinded ruffians grasp their way toward where they last saw Chance and attempt to swing at him!
Round 2
==============
Scarplume (-6)
Jisara
Chance (-20)
Yellow (-9) {Blinded: Round 0 of 1; Dazzled: Round 0 of 10}
Blue {Blinded: Round 0 of 1; Dazzled: Round 0 of 10}
Vitalis
Stargazer (-15)
==============
Vitalis charges into the room, sidesteps the flaming ball, and approaches the ruffians surrounding Chance. Two quick chops should make short work of his next foe. "He didn't see that one coming." Vitalis makes a bad pun. He points his glaive at the bird woman. "Come at me, bird brain! I'm the real threat here."
After batting out the flames on his cloak, Stargazer leaps over one of the boxes towards Chance, and reaches out his hand towards one of the ruffians with a purple glowing hand.
With two quick swipes, Vitalis downs Yellow.
Stargazer advances and lays his hand on Blue.
"Come at me, bird brain! I'm the real threat here."
The Jills’ boss sneers angrily, then smirks. ”Well, you asked for it!” She briefly motions with her head as the ball of fire moves on top of Vitalis!
As Vitalis dodges out of the way, the boss growls. ”Fine then!” She waves her arms ons more as she manifests a second ball of fire right on top of Stargazer!
Stargazer is engulfed in flames as he falls to the ground!
Round 3
==============
Stargazer (-24) {prone; unconscious; dying 1}
Scarplume (-6)
Jisara
Chance (-20)
Blue {Dazzled: Round 1 of 10}
Vitalis
==============
"You lot didn't like my last song, but this one's an old favorite!" Chance starts over with a new inspiring tune.
“Fight fiercely, Ravens!
Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill!
Albeit they have arcane might
Somehow we'll beat the Jills!
We shall live to brag of victory
When at night Kintargo streets will all be free!
(Of muggers!)”
The gnome winces when he sees Stargazer fall. "Hang on, masked stranger!" He hums a few bars of his healing song.
Cursing, Jisara breaks cover so that she can close the distance between her and the gang boss. Planting her feet, she draws on the memories of her worst nights as a child of the Nursery: the despair, the helplessness, the isolation, and she tries to overwhelm their foe's mind with them.
Chance heals Stargazer.
Jisara moves into the fray and casts a spell at the boss.
The Jills’ boss looks on in terror at Jisara’s magicks!
Blue shakes his head as he finally regains his sight and sees Chance healing Stargazer right next to him. ”No, stay down!”
The ruffian then disengages, moving to defend his boss.
Round 3 —> 4
==============
Stargazer (-15) {prone; wounded 1}
Scarplume (-6) {frightened 2}
Jisara
Chance (-20)
Blue {Dazzled: Round 1 of 10}
Vitalis
==============
Vitalis angrily strides up to the avian boss. "That was a mistake, hurting my friends. I told you to focus on me!" Vitalis hacks at the sorceress with abandon.
Vitalis advances on the Jills’ boss and opens a massive gash across her chest an in one of her wings, completely knocking her down!
Upon seeing his boss fall to a single swing of that glaive, the remaining ruffian begins staring agape and clearly terrified!
Vitalis then swings at the remaining Red Jill, knocking him down too!
All that the Jills’ boss had on her of note was a set of +1 spiked gauntlets. Up on the roof of the adjacent building, however, is the nest of the Jills’ boss, with a small fortune of stolen goods, amounting to 2 pp, 6 gp, 139 sp, and 651 cp, as well as 20 gp worth of miscellaneous jewelry and keepsakes.
With the Red Jills’ boss dispatched, the Jills begin to drift apart, and the people take notice of the group that accomplished this. The rebellion gains followers , as well as several donations from grateful citizens that amounts to gp , but the rebellion’s Notoriety increases by as word begins to spread of the Silver Ravens’ actions.
*
Chance spends the first two days working with Vendalfek and the Fushi Sisters (if nobody objects) to Spread Disinformation.
The gnome goes out in search of a different kind of gig than his usual fortune-telling, hoping to try out his new virtuoso pan flute for a week.
After clearing out the Red Jills and settling back in at the Longroads Coffee House, Vitalis decides it might be nice to try to spend some time with Rexus. He spends a week pouring over page after page of documents that he cannot read. Somehow he manages to find some patterns that Rexus finds useful. But afterwards, he decides that he merely got lucky and that this deciphering is way more difficult than he assumed.
Afterwards, Vitalis decides to move on. He recalls the cold shoulder he received in the Red Roof District and wonders if he can perhaps get the tieflings to warm up to him. For the next week and a half, he makes his presence known in the district by playing his harp on the street. He gets to know a few people but comes to the conclusion that this is a cultural barrier that he cannot break through.
Somewhere in this time frame, Vitalis volunteers to take the treasure to market for the group.
.
Jisara buckles down to finish what Rexus and Vitalis have started. Though she only speaks half the languages in the cipher, She knows enough to muddle her way through it and help relieve some of the busywork while Rexus gets some rest. It certainly is less frustrating than her continued attempts to bring in some extra cash for the cause.
Since he's not too confident about his ability to help Rexus, he joins Chance and Vendalfek in spreading false rumors . He spends the rest of the time doing street performances to make some money for the rebellion.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
*
*
Rexus once more gathers the PCs plus Laria together. The noble has a cup of coffee in hand, as he always seems to have for the past several days. Rexus has begun to develop prominent bags under his eyes.
”Rexus…are you…”
“I’m fine, Laria. Just…was working late into the night doing some deciphering.”
“You should really—”
“I said I’m fine!” Rexus sighs and rubs his temple for a moment. ”Sorry…I just…thank you for all the coffee, Laria. Anyway, on to business: I’ve decoded some more of the documents…”
”Unfortunately, this one is really, REALLY brief, but it’s worth mentioning: the original Silver Ravens make several references to something they call the Song of Silver. Unfortunately, any information about this song is scarce, but it seemed that this ‘Song of Silver’ was used to defend Kintargo when it was attacked by enemies. Now, I do have a few theories: one is that this song is just something the Ravens whipped up for morale and just became ingrained as ‘helping the people keep their home’ through folklore and legends being spread—like what the legend of the Temple Hill Slasher has become today. The other, more optimistic theory is that this song is actually some kind of powerful spell or ritual, in which case you guys should keep an eye out for anything you might find related to this Song of Silver, because we might be able to use it for ourselves.”
“It’s nice to see you being optimistic about something, Rexus.”
“Yeah, well, my parents are supposedly dead, my home burned to the ground, I’m currently living above a stingy restaurant—no offense—and my good silk is now stained in coffee; hopeful thinking is about all I have left.”
*
*
Rexus gathers the PCs plus Laria, looking only slightly better than he did a few days ago.
”Now I know I usually do these little pow-wows on Oathday, but a significant advancement has been made on the decoding, thanks in no small part to our resident Vitalis and Jisara—seriously, this really lightened my workload; I can’t thank you enough.”
”So, the majority of the original Silver Ravens were adventurers or worshippers of the Hands of Silver, most prominently Milani. The most powerful and influential among the Ravens was apparently a swashbuckler by the name of Jackdaw, though there wasn’t much other information about this Jackdaw too go off of; I’ll look into it further. Anyway, other Ravens who rose to prominence were a half-elf priestess of Milani by the name of Amyreid, a halfling enchanter named Ba, a…uh…’scoundrel songstress’ by the name of Kyda, and a Nidalese ranger named Brakisi.
“Additionally, the Silver Ravens apparently maintained their primary headquarters in and below the Kintargo Opera House; no other information seems to indicate any other safe houses they may have had. As brief as that information is, it also means that we know that there is likely some secret underground…stuff in the opera house, along with possibly more connections that could be made to the original Silver Ravens. Unfortunately, with the Inquisitor currently occupying the opera, we don’t have much of a way to get inside.”
*
*
As expected, Rexus gathers everyone.
”Alright, I was able to dig up more about this Jackdaw among the documents: they’re apparently an elf who, before the advent of the Age of Lost Omens, built themselves into a sort of Kintargan folk hero who fought for the rights of the city’s downtrodden. I couldn’t find much else; apparently they went to great lengths to keep themselves as much of a mystery as possible.”
*
*
When Rexus gathers the group together this time around, he is surprisingly chipper and excited.
”Forty-two days! Forty-two grueling and mostly sleepless days I have been working on these damned documents! My good silk is practically a giant coffee stain at this point, and my nails haven’t been properly manicured in so long, and now they are almost permanently stained with ink. But. They. Are. DONE!!! The documents are fully decoded!”
“That’s wonderful news, Rexus! Any new information since last week?”
“Oh yes. So, the leaders of the original Silver Ravens had apparently seen the proverbial writing on the wall—they knew House Thrune was likely to seize control, and had to come to the difficult decision to surrender, hoping to prevent Thrune from razing Kintargo completely. When the new monarchy started to rewrite the history books to serve their agenda, what remained of the Ravens decided to hide away the cache that we found in the livery so that it would serve as a time capsule, should Kintargo forget about the Silver Ravens with the passage of time. Now if you excuse me, I am going to pass out in a nice, comfy bed for once!”
Rexus and the rest of the group break for the evening and all go to rest, though, in a cruel twist of fate, Rexus does not sleep a wink all night…
*
*
When the PCs awaken the next day, they find Rexus already awake, seated in the commons area of the coffeehouse with a cup of coffee in hand and deep bags under his eyes.
”Foolish of me to expect to actually sleep once I got the decoding finished.” The noble sets down his coffee. ”May I be frank for a bit? I…I’ve been using the decoding as a distraction. I’ve been using it to keep myself distracted from…my parents. But now that the decoding’s done…” He sighs. ”All night I’ve been thinking about it, and…I don’t think she’s dead. My mother, that is. She’s…I know you never met her—except maybe Vitalis during a banquet every now and then—but she was—is—a stubborn person; she wouldn’t just accept her fate like this.”
Rexus pulls out the note from his mother and lays it out. ”She knew people were coming for her! She wouldn’t just sit around for Thrune to drive in the knife! She knew something was going to happen on the Night of Ashes, so she must have gone somewhere! No bodies were found in the remains of my estate, that’s why I’m still technically dead, so she must be lying low somewhere!
“The Sacred Order of Archivists have a secret hideout known as the Many-Steps Monastery, and I know where the monastery is. If there’s some place my mother would have gone to to escape the fire, then it’s there. I know this is quite an ask, but please go to the Many-Steps Monastery to find my mother!” Rexus looks askance for several moments before adding ”At the very least…she would have kept some personal effects in the monastery. Everything else of hers was destroyed in the fire, so at the very least…I would like those items brought to her next of kin: me…”
Jisara gives Rexus a sympathetic look, before turning her thoughts to consider what she already knows about this monastery.
"Oh course we will help you Rexus. It is good to have hope. Let us hope that she is alive. But you should also stead yourself in case our search yields a more tragic outcome. The note indicated she expected to die."
"Tell us where we can find this monastery and if there is anything we should know about it, and I can be ready at once."
"Tell us where we can find this monastery and if there is anything we should know about it, and I can be ready at once."
”The monastery is located under,” Rexus sighs, then does jazz hands and speaks with forced excitement in his voice. ”HoCuM’s FaNtAsMaGoRiUm! BrInGiNg WhImSy AnD jOy BaCk To KiNtArGo! Man, I hate that name. It’s apparently an oddity museum that was started after the Civil War. It was long before my time and has since been abandoned, but when it was starting to struggle financially the Sacred Order purchased the building from Hocum—a gnome, unsurprisingly—and built the Many-Steps Monastery under it.”
"Whenever someone says, "it has been abandoned", it is never actually abandoned. 1 gp says we'll need to fight some of these "oddities". I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle though. I'm ready."
Jisara tries to mask a snicker at Rexus's performance with a cough. "We should be prepared for anything," Jisara adds quickly. "The Night of Ashes was well targeted and well coordinated. If Rexus's parents were indeed captured, then we must assume that Thrune's agents also know about the Fantasmagorium and its hidden Monastery. I will prepare my spells accordingly."
Rexus hesitates for a moment, then pulls out a mithral key and hands it to Vitalis. ”This should be able to open most, if not all, locks in the museum. It sounds like you guys are going to go now, so anything else you need from me?”
Vitalis takes the key with recognition. "No, I don't need anything else from you. Just sit tight and mental prepare yourself. I'm sure whatever we find down there will be overwhelmingly emotional."
When everyone is ready, Vitalis heads out and will talk to the group aside. "I recognize this key. Rexus had this key way back when we searched the livery. Could he really have been so preoccupied with deciphering the documents that he just thought of his mother now? I'm not accusing him of anything but I'm concerned. If he thought there was a chance that his mother was still alive, why would he wait weeks to announce this revelation? Any number of things could have happened in that time. If she is or was at this Many-Steps Monastery, I just hope that the delay is not costly."
"Tell us where we can find this monastery and if there is anything we should know about it, and I can be ready at once."”The monastery is located under,” Rexus sighs, then does jazz hands and speaks with forced excitement in his voice. ”HoCuM’s FaNtAsMaGoRiUm! BrInGiNg WhImSy AnD jOy BaCk To KiNtArGo! Man, I hate that name. It’s apparently an oddity museum that was started after the Civil War. It was long before my time and has since been abandoned, but when it was starting to struggle financially the Sacred Order purchased the building from Hocum—a gnome, unsurprisingly—and built the Many-Steps Monastery under it.”
Chance's eyes grow wide and wider as Rexus reveals the location, and he practically vibrates out of his chair when the aristocrat hands Vitalis the key.
"The Fantasmagorium?!? You've got a key to the Fantasmagorium and you've had it the whole time and you're only just telling us now? I don't ... I mean how ... I mean, it was my favorite place in the whole city when I was a child! It. Was. AMAZING!!! Let's get going!"
Chance skips over to the door, singing the slogan for the Fantasmagorium without a hint of Rexus's disdain.
"Hocum's Fantasmagorium!
Bringing back whimsy and joy back
To Kintargo!"
"I recognize this key. Rexus had this key way back when we searched the livery. Could he really have been so preoccupied with deciphering the documents that he just thought of his mother now? I'm not accusing him of anything but I'm concerned. If he thought there was a chance that his mother was still alive, why would he wait weeks to announce this revelation? Any number of things could have happened in that time. If she is or was at this Many-Steps Monastery, I just hope that the delay is not costly."
Chance scowls, his mood quickly shifting from utter joy to wary suspicion. "That's an excellent point, Vitalis. Why would Rexus keep the key to the Fantasmagorium secret all these weeks? It was literally the happiest place in the whole city! Maybe he had a reason to keep it all to himself..."
Jisara considers Vitalis's words for a moment, before letting out of a huff that blows some hair out of her face. "Could be lots of things. Maybe he was trying to talk himself out of hoping. Maybe he was waiting to see if we were the real deal, or he was worried he'd be sending us into something we couldn't handle."
She reaches up to scratch Thatch's ears, before giving such a shrug that she nearly sends the cat tumbling to the ground. "I don't trust anyone with more money than me, but he seems all right."
"The Fantasmagorium?!? You've got a key to the Fantasmagorium and you've had it the whole time and you're only just telling us now? I don't ... I mean how ... I mean, it was my favorite place in the whole city when I was a child! It. Was. AMAZING!!! Let's get going!"
"I never got much of a chance to see it, so hopefully it lives up to the hype." Rigel says with a chuckle.
When everyone is ready, Vitalis heads out and will talk to the group aside. "I recognize this key. Rexus had this key way back when we searched the livery. Could he really have been so preoccupied with deciphering the documents that he just thought of his mother now? I'm not accusing him of anything but I'm concerned. If he thought there was a chance that his mother was still alive, why would he wait weeks to announce this revelation? Any number of things could have happened in that time. If she is or was at this Many-Steps Monastery, I just hope that the delay is not costly."
"Maybe he thought we would be too preoccupied with the rebellion? Or he just didn't want to bring up his own personal issues?"
"You're right, though, it is odd. I doubt he would send us into a trap or anything but... I dunno."
"I don't trust anyone with more money than me, but he seems all right."
*
*
This sprawling, single-story structure has certainly seen better days. The building’s stone facade stands out amid the brick-lined walls of its neighboring structures in Redroof, and numerous windows to the left and right are boarded up to the point where it is near impossible to peer inside without taking the time to tear off the boards. Signs advertise rates and incredible exhibits within, and above everything a crimson sign announces “Hocum’s Fantasmagorium!” For a facility that promised to bring whimsy back to Kintargo, its whimsy seems to have long since disappeared. A large padlock hangs from the front door.
Just as Rexus said, the mithral key opens the massive padlock on the front door. The PCs prepare themselves and enter the run-down museum.
Additionally, technically speak “north” on these maps are toward the top-left of the map; I didn’t include the compass rose that’s printed on the map because it would have made the map unnecessarily big. For the sake of simplicity, though, I’m just going to say “north” is toward the top of the map when explaining where the party goes.
This large room holds various theatrical costumes, ropes, posts, blank signs and banners, paints, and some well-worn musical instruments, as well as an open cashbox for the daily ticket receipts.
Unsurprisingly, the cashbox is empty, but Chance notices that several items seem to have fallen behind the podium the cashbox stands upon. In all, there are 1 pp, 4 gp, 2 sp, and a magical ring that Jisara spends ten minutes identifying as a ring of discretion
Macabre taxidermy and menacing skeletons line the walls of this fifty-foot circular chamber. A middling-quality fresco of terrifying and fantastic beasts lines the domed ceiling overhead. Large double doors lie to the northeast, southeast, and northwest ; the northwest doors hang wide open.
The hall contains various exhibits of mythical creatures, including: The skull labeled “The cyclops king of Sweqtiral,” large skeletons labeled “Arcadian skunk apes,” a row of fangs the size of daggers labeled “Teeth of the blue dragon Rivozair,” and so on.
If you critically succeeded, open the spoiler below
As the PCs are distracted with the oddities of the Fantasmagorium, one of the exhibits—the two skunk ape skeletons—suddenly move! Only Jisara and Stargazer are quick enough to notice them suddenly move forward toward Stargazer and Vitalis and let out a terrifying shriek!
Vitalis, who was just looking over the weird exhibits in this room, turns away and finds a seven-foot-tall skeleton that appeared out of nowhere right next to him and shrieking in his face, and that terrifies the paladin!
Round 1
==============
Stargazer
Jisara
Black
White
Vitalis {frightened 1}/Chance
==============
A new padlock on an otherwise abandoned building, not a great sign.
Stargazer seems largely unfazed by the various decorations.
"Hey, someone's been--" He quickly gets cut off.
He turns around quickly to face the skeleton, and reaches out with his hand glowing purple to drain it of its energy. As he does, he tries to remember if he knows what this is.
"Fakes," Jisara says, with a dismissive gesture at the assorted exhibits. "Bad ones, too. It's no wonder that--"
Whatever snarky comment she was about to add is lost in the face of the sudden assault of shrieking skeletons, and her reflexes take over. With a word and a gesture, she sends a jolt of electricity arcing between the two creatures, even as she sends Chance a flash of insight.
Stargazer casts a spell at one of the skunk apes.
Jisara sends an arc of lightning toward the two skunk ape skeletons!
The creatures don’t dodge away from the lightning, but the electricity doesn’t find much conductivity in the skeletons’ forms, and only manage to minorly crack some of their bones.
The skeletons swing their fists at the nearest targets in a brutal assault!
Black only manages to hit Vitalis once.
White, on the other hand, brutally punches Stargazer in the face, knocking the vigilante off his feet from the force of the blow! White then follows up with a second swing at the vigilante that’s on the ground! In both cases, however, Stargazer’s body shimmers and disperses into stars as the attack partially goes through him .
Round 1 —> 2
==============
Stargazer (-16) {prone}
Jisara
Black (-8 from “1” attacks [before resistances])
White (-8 from “1” attacks [before resistances]) {Flat-footed vs everyone except Stargazer}
Vitalis (-6) {frightened 1}/Chance
==============
Annoyed at their resistance to her spell, and then alarmed by the brutal assault on Stargazer, she tries another spell and flings a chunk of broken furniture at the creature. She follows that up with a bit of magic to mend Stargazer's injuries.
Vitalis staggers from the apes fist. Although frightened by the undead's visage, his fear quickly turns to anger. "To force a Shelynite to destroy art is absolutely abhorrent. Luckily my deity recognizes the need to defend oneself. I don't care if these exhibits are fake. I bet children loved them. Take this!"
Vitalis slashes under the skeletal ape's upraised arms and into its ribcage. A pulse of positive energy rattles its bones upon impact. Kicking off from the shock, he leaps over to Stargazer and holds out a healing hand to him. A golden aura engulfs him providing healing and protection. "Get up, Stargazer. The fight's just begun."
Vitalis bites his lip when Jisara flings the furniture. "Please just don't throw any exhibits."
Chance enters the Fantasmagorium, eyes wide. He scurries from one exhibit to the next, muttering to himself as he tries to match the abandoned curiosities with his childhood memories.
"Hey, Jisara's right! Like this cyclops skull - Sweqtiral isn't even a real country!"
"At least these skunk ape skeletons are real! Although not real 'skunk apes.' They're sasquatches, or they were sasquatches, isn't that neat? You hardly ever see ... oh, watch out, Stargazer! If they hit you hard enough, they can ... knock you down, right, I guess you figured that out. Hmmm, that gives me an idea..."
"When the skunk apes
Knock you down, pal,
It might mean that
They're undead.
An evil necromancer
Raised sasquatch skeletons
And they really
Got us seeing red!
Better bash them
With this old table leg..."
As the notes of his impromptu song echo in the run-down museum, Chance asks Jisara, "Mind if I borrow that?" Without waiting for an answer, he calls out "Flugantaj rokoj por ĵokeoj" and points at the white skeleton and bashes it with the same piece of furniture that Jisara hit it with.
After Vitalis gives him a hand, Stargazer turns his fall into a roll and gets back up in a swift motion. He begins casting a spell, calling upon a similar divine energy as the paladin did, but this time directing it at the undead in front of him.
Jisara launches a piece of broken furniture at one of the skunk apes and heals Stargazer.
Vitalis hits the skunk ape hard, and while his glaive only manages to scratch the creature’s bones, that scratch is deep and drains it of its strength!
Chance inspires then chucks a piece of furniture at one of the skeletons, completely knocking it into pieces!
Stargazer stands and slams his hand against the skeleton as a wave of positive energy flows through it! He then throws up a magical shield in front of him.
Black rushes at Chance and screeches in the gnome’s face before following up with a swing of its fist!
White then swings wildly at Stargazer!
Vitalis interposes himself between Stargazer and the skeleton and swings his glaive at the “skunk ape”!
Vitalis slices into the skeleton, breaking several bones and cleansing it in the holy fire of positive energy, which causes it to collapse into an unmoving pile of bones!
Round 2 —> 3
==============
Stargazer (-23) {Fast Healing 4: Round 1 of 4; Prone}
Jisara
Black (-35 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Vitalis (-6)
Chance (-5)
==============
"At least these skunk ape skeletons are real! Although not real 'skunk apes.' They're sasquatches, or they were sasquatches, isn't that neat?"
"They aren't real skunk apes? What a disappointment!"
Vitalis swings around to the remaining ape. "Who said you could take your eyes off of me?" He smashes its skull with his glaive.
Chance tilts his head back to look up at the sasquatch and gulps audibly. Voice shaking, he continues his song.
”Yeah this sasquatch, made of old bones,
they’re getting broken, left and right.
Look! a doorknob, flies at its teeth now,
I sure hope, it won’t be able to bite...”
Chance flicks his fingers at the skeleton again and shouts "Flugantaj rokoj por ĵokeoj”, a little more anxiously than last time.
↻ (if triggered):
Jisara reaches for the remnant of the chair they'd just destroyed the other skeleton with, flinging it awkwardly at its partner. She then snaps a protective shield into place between her and it.
"Ow." Not even getting up, he draws a wand and draws upon positive energy to keep him alive.
Vitalis swings and breaks several bones of the skeleton, knocking it to the ground!
First ten minutes: Vitalis and Jisara Refocus, Thatch Treats Wounds on Stargazer.
Once Refocused, Vitalis casts lay on hands on Stargazer, fully healing him, and Jisara casts life boost on Chace to fully heal him.
Second ten minutes: Vitalis and Jisara Refocus, Thatch Treats Wounds on Vitalis.
After twenty minutes of tending to their wounds, the PCs notice that their fight with the “skunk apes” has disturbed the tracks left in the dust on the floor, making it more difficult to try and follow them.
A briny odor wafts from a dozen water-filled cases in this room, each a display of strange, colorful sea creatures. Puddles of water cover the floor alongside shattered glass and fish skeletons. A ten-foot-square tank of murky water stands to the northeast.
This exhibit features several strange oddities—including one labeled “Arcadian Mermaids” that decay has revealed to be a humanoid torso stitched to a fish tail, and another labeled “Quadclaw Marauder,” which appears to be the decaying form of a four-armed lobster-eel hybrid.
Plants, rocks, and hundreds of motionless specks fill the countless glass cases throughout this long hall. The preserved husks of giant insects and arachnids—including a ten-foot-tall spider—leer over the displays. A dead man’s body, swathed in red-and-black robes and covered in welts, lies on the floor, partially wrapped up in lengths of a thin, iridescent filament.
Jisara doesn’t immediately notice anything in the room, but is uneasy as it is clear that something must have happened to the dead body.
Round 1
==============
Jisara
???
Vitalis
Stargazer
Chance
==============
During the 20 minutes of downtime, when not healing, Vitalis spends a few moments to tidy up the area that they are resting in; picking up the bones and broken furniture and piling them off to the side.
Vitalis frowns at the broken glass tank. "After the skunk apes, there is a strong possibility that some aquatic skeleton broke out of here. Skeletons don't usually animate themselves. Could a necromancer be squatting in this abandoned museum?"
make a Religion or Heraldry roll to check?
A briny odor wafts from a dozen water-filled cases in this room, each a display of strange, colorful sea creatures. Puddles of water cover the floor alongside shattered glass and fish skeletons. A ten-foot-square tank of murky water stands to the northeast.
This exhibit features several strange oddities—including one labeled “Arcadian Mermaids” that decay has revealed to be a humanoid torso stitched to a fish tail, and another labeled “Quadclaw Marauder,” which appears to be the decaying form of a four-armed lobster-eel hybrid.
"Oh, I think that's a reefclaw!" Chance points at the exhibit of the Quadclaw Marauder. "But they don’t usually have four arms, do they? I think we found a real oddity! What's in the next room?"
Jisara peers at the creature skeptically. "Or they mashed two animals together."
"Don't go anywhere near it," Jisara hisses. She turns to Chance while gesturing to him and the room beyond. "See anything?"
She does her best to flatten herself against the wall and stay out of sight.
Chance doesn’t seem to notice anything.
Suddenly, a mass of iridescent filament flies straight toward Vitalis that the paladin dodges away from. As the PCs look toward its source, they find a vibrant yellow-and-purple spider the size of a human child (or a fully-grown gnome) peeking out from its hiding place behind one of the various cases in this room. The spider hisses as it scurries forth and bites at the paladin!
Another web flies out from behind the massive spider exhibit and another spider scurries forward to attack!
A third set of webbing flies at Vitalis, though this time it manages to hit the paladin’s legs and stick him to the ground!
As the webbing wraps around the Shelynite’s feet, Vitalis starts seeing some real strange stuff as the hallucinogenic venom that is infused in the spiders’ webbing!
Yellow then sends a second set of webbing at Stargazer!
That spider then crawls back behind the exhibit it was hiding behind as it Takes Cover.
Another spider appears from behind the exhibits and shoots a web at Stargazer.
The spider then hides behind the exhibit as it Takes Cover.
ANOTHER spider crawls from behind an exhibit and moves toward Stargazer as it bites twice at the vigilante!
And while Stargazer’s oracular powers protect him from the harm of the first bite, the second one still manages to hurt the man!
One final spider crawls out and tries to sneak between Stargazer’s legs!
But the vigilante keeps his stance as he doesn’t let the spider through, so it instead just bites at him!
Round 1 —> 2
==============
Jisara
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Vitalis {immobilized; Poison Stage 1: stupefied 1}
Stargazer (-4)
Chance
==============
Jisara recoils in horror from the sudden swarm of giant spiders, and almost reflexively throws out a bolt of electricity at two of the closest ones. She then throws up a magical barrier between her and them.