Making sure to keep the shadow flanked, Xin strikes and then calls for Esh to strike with him.
If one of his allies hits the target, Xin will use Opportune Backstab to hit the creature again.
The hobgoblin tumbles forward and attempts to provide Esh with a flanking position. As he rolls into the thick of it, aided by his spherical midrif, he conjures forth a protective rune.
Xin shouts, and I strike, my blade slicing through cleanly thanks to Xin's instruction. I continue my attack, doing my best to preserve my momentum.
Yog'Moi joins the melee, and between his strike, Eshs's attacks, and some opportune backstabs from Xin, you swiftly destroy the shadow! Even as the spirit's fragments flow toward the brazier atop the tower, Hotcha is already winging her way up there. With a fiery punch, the sprite sits the signal ablaze! You can feel the spirit's thanks as it is put to rest, and in the flames appears a reward: a +2 greater striking greater flaming wind and fire wheel!
Hotcha flutters down and says to Esh, “I don’t need to meditate. That wins you a fairy massage if ya want one.”
If he does, Hotcha tromps all over his back for ten minutes.
Hotcha flutters down and says to Esh, “I don’t need to meditate. That wins you a fairy massage if ya want one.”
"I would certainly not object to such a thing," I say after taking a moment to sheathe my blade and get my breath under control. After she's done I sigh in pleasure and stretch, feeling much better.
"Thank you!"
"Do any of you want this 'Wind and Fire Wheel'?"
Hotcha examines the loot (after giving Esh the massage of course).
“It has the same runes as my handwraps. You could sell this for a lot, but I think you guys can put the runes to use. I mean, there ain’t a much greater rune than greater flaming!”
The DC of the Crafting check to transfer a rune is determined by the item level of the rune being transferred, and the Price of the transfer is 10% of the rune’s Price, unless transferring from a runestone, which is free. If you’re swapping, use the higher level and higher Price between the two runes to determine these values. It takes 1 day (instead of the 4 days usually needed to Craft) to transfer a rune or swap a pair of runes, and you can continue to work over additional days to get a discount, as usual with Craft.
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Yog'Moi succeeds at transferring the runes onto a different weapon.
"Esh and Hotcha already have them, and I enter melee more often than Yog'Moi, so that should go on my weapon, then," says Xin.
Once his hobgoblin friend has transferred the rune, Xin tests the edge by chopping at a nearby stand of bamboo. Nodding in appreciation of the razor's edge, he bows to Yog'Moi. "Thank you. This was good work."
You head north along Bonmu's eastern coast, exploring the foothills of the region. You come upon another Stone Market here, allowing you to trade for goods should you desire. During your shopping trip, another team arrives: Under the Pale Sun. These four warriors hail from the Kelesh satrapy of Zelshabbar in Casmaron. Two of them are archers, while the others are scimitar-wielding dervishes.
Does Xin know anything about their special attacks or defenses?
Xin looks at his warriors for approval, then approaches the Keleshites.
"Welcome to Tian Xia!" he says. "I am Wu Xin of Lingshen. My team and I are known as Three Men and a Fairy. When you have finished your shopping trip, you would honor us by accepting our challenge for three feathers."
He smiles beatifically. "You're in luck. The fairy's in a good mood today."
The Keleshites size you up before accepting the challenge. It takes a bit of time to travel to the nearest fighting site, near a bridge over a mountain ravine, but soon enough a team of enforcers arrives to oversee the challenge. Ingdani bows to the enforcers as you take your positions. "Three Men and a Fairy versus Under the Pale Sun! Ready? FIGHT!"
Your fierce battle cries set the archers aback!
Hotcha ▶️energizes her wings, ▶️flies around Orange and strikes!
“Your hat is cute!” she yells to the archer as she punches the fighter in the ear.
Yog'Moi growls and then, as if answering his anger, Hei Feng supercharges the hobgoblin's burst of outrage. He weaves it into a spell and calls forth a torrent of lightning.
Both dervishes take the full brunt of Yog'Moi's lightning. One of the archers dodges somewhat, while the other one evades completely!
Xin moves up to strike at one of the dervishes, but the man manages to parry with his scimitar. Hotcha flanks him, though, and scores two critical hits, briefly stunning him! Xin takes the opportunity to stab him in the back!
Esh enters a rage before moving in to strike the wounded foe as well.
The dervish who isn't stunned whirls around, slicing at Esh and Xin. Xin takes a hit.
The other one shakes off his stun before trying to hit Hotcha. He slices her twice, once critically!
The archers fall back to the bridge before firing on Yog'Moi! Two arrows find their mark.
Yog'Moi strides forward and laughs maniacally. The laughter is perverted into a thing of pure terror by his magical mask, and it fills the minds of their foes with fear.
Critical Success: The target is unaffected.
Success: The target is frightened 1.
Failure: The target is frightened 2.
Critical Failure: The target is frightened 3 and fleeing for 1 round
Hotcha sink into jellyfish stance and strikes, but her flurry misses!
Xin squints in concentration. Yog'Moi's terrifying mask is difficult to ignore even when it isn't directed at you.
Xin slashes Orange (or Red, if Orange is down from Hotcha's strike), then directs his comrades!
If Orange is still up, Hotcha goes for the KO per the general’s order!
“Tiiiiiiger Uppercut!”
Two of the foes are unfazed by the demon mask, but the wounded dervish is shaken while the other archer is quite frightened!
Xin stabs the wounded dervish again, then exhorts Hotcha to finish him off. The sprite flails at the man, only managing to hit with the last strike of her combo, but that final blow is enough to knock him out!
Esh attacks the other dervish. His first critical hit leaves the man flatfooted, allowing him to land a second critical hit! The dervish staggers, barely standing, but manages to fend off the elf's third strike.
The dervish slices at Esh with his scimitar while the archers continue to to focus their fire on Yog'Moi.
Hotcha ▶️flies up and gets behind the archers, spin-kicking in mid-air!
“Spinning bird KICK!”
Xin rolls to his right, signalling Esh to go left and set up the flank. Then, analyzing the pattern of the archer's defenses, shouts to Hotcha. "Green jacket lowers his knee when he reloads! Strike...now!"
“ARROW’d!!” Hotcha yells at the archer to distract him while she kicks him in the lower knee!
“I miss Christina,” the fairy says nostalgically, probably because she knew a zen archer at the convent named Sister Christina.
Beaten and ravaged by the archers' relentless plumed assault, the hobgoblin goes on the counter-offensive and charges in. He hacks and mows with his blade in an unrefined fashion, but anger trumps technique for now.
Yog'Moi moves to the archers, swinging his sword in wide arcs but not managing to hit his foes. He does, however, set up a flanking position for Hotcha. The sprite flitters in to attack with a flurry of kicks that leaves her opponent stunned. Xin encourages Hotcha to strike again, allowing her to land a third blow.
Esh slices into the dervish, allowing Xin to take him out with a critical strike! The elf then rushes to join the fight against the archers, landing another good blow!
The archers take a few steps away from Esh and Hotcha before trying to shoot the sprite, but she is able to dodge all but one of the arrows.
“You are not safe from me there. Why… you barely moved an inch!”
Hotcha shoots yellow!
Knowing that it isn't up to him to beat their foes silly, Yog'Moi unleashes a mighty roar and throws himself at his direct opponent. He lunges at her as a frenzied badger would.
Success The target becomes frightened 1.
Success: Your target is grabbed until the end of your next turn unless you move or your target Escapes.
Failure: You fail to grab your target. If you already had the target grabbed or restrained using a Grapple, those conditions on that creature or object end.
Critical Failure: If you already had the target grabbed or restrained, it breaks free. Your target can either grab you, as if it succeeded at using the Grapple action against you, or force you to fall and land prone.
Xin pursues Yellow, stabs him and calls out formation advice to Hotcha.
Xin yells at me to follow the archer as he retreats and I do so, yelling and trying to kick him off the edge of the ravine he so helpfully stepped towards, slashing at him to force him to back off even more.
Yog'Moi scares the wounded archer as he grabs a hold of him. Xin moves in to stab the man from behind, then as Hotcha delivers a powerful blast, he stabs him again and takes him out!
Esh moves as Xin directs him, yelling at the remaining foe. While he fails to demoralize the archer, a well-placed kick sends the man toppling over the edge of the ravine!
He barely manages to grab a hold of the edge before reaching the bottom, but the impact still jostles him. In his precarious position, there's no way for the archer to realistically continue the fight, and so he reluctantly surrenders!
"Three Men and a Fairy wins!" Ingdani declares. The enforcers applaud and transfer the three silver feathers from Under the Pale Sun to you. You now have enough feathers to qualify for the Ruby Phoenix Tournament! Now you'll just have to hold onto them until you can turn them in tomorrow...
After bowing to his defeated opponents, Wu Xin also bows to his compatriots. "That was well done. Truly, your skills are worthy of excellent praise."
"Logic dictates that we now hide to avoid losing any feathers. However, I am not in the mood for hiding. I want more feathers. What say you?"
Hotcha gasps as the tournament almost takes a deadly turn. She herself had seen the danger the archer had put himself in.
She cheers not at the victory, but at the archer pulling himself to safety. She heals herself, flies to the archer, and bows before him in midair.
“It was an honor and really really fun to face your team! Thank you so much, worthy opponents!”
Xin was right about the fairy’s good mood, which just got even better. If in the dictionary, there was a picture of Hotcha’s smile under the word giddy, no definition would be needed. A few people might then think giddy means teeth, but who cares about those idiots! Ten feathers! Yay!
Hotcha’s meditation is full of such distracting thoughts, she will bathe an extra five or ten minutes to calm herself.
In reply to Xin, “I’m good at hiding. We’re good at getting feathers! And ya know what, I feel like we’re really learning how to back each other the more we fight. I mean, before yesterday, I never would have guessed that getting swallowed is something my training prepared me for.
“Jellyfish style is da bomb! I gotta write a thank you note to Master Spiegel!”
She then turns to Ingdani, “So what’s the deal with us now? Can we earn extra feathers for… well, I guess emergencies?” She is thinking about how the ravine could have led to an unintended fatality. She is well aware of the silver feather’s life-saving magic.
"There are no rules about collecting more than ten feathers," Ingdani says. "You will just need to present at least ten of them tomorrow to confirm your entry into the tournament."
Hotcha says, “Then we get extras! Champions don’t hide from fights! They—” No, not ‘they.’ WE. We - are the champions.
I can salvage this—
“—do what WE do…”
Uhhhhhh….. dramatic effect. Not stalling…..
“—NOT hide from fights!”
She punctuates her inspirational improv with a fist pump. “Who’s next?” Not the bird. NOT the bird.
The team continues their previous pattern, looking both for intel on the island (they will have to fight here tomorrow, after all) and for advantages, but also other teams to challenge. Or, you know, avoid.
Yog'Moi dreams about what's next but doesn't get past the obvious. "Hopefully a big juicy steak and an overflowing mug of ale, ha!" The wear and tear of the long hard days here are starting to get to him. Durable, sure, that he is. Lazy, too, beyond a doubt, if given the chance.
"Ha, if we truly start swimming in these feathers, we can set up competitions for other teams to partake in. I'd say we can sponsor Tino's, but that's not really in the spirit of the tournament. They'd surely prefer earning them instead."
You still have a few more active hours of the night to explore, so you head north along the coast before heading inland. You find a few more teams' bases, as well as an abandoned magic shop that still has several treasure within: four pouches of dust of disappearance, a major staff of illusion, a scroll of blink, three scrolls of chain lightning, a scroll of ethereal jaunt, a scroll of mariner’s curse, a scroll of project image, and a scroll of tongues.
You travel via transport tower back to the temple of Irori, arriving a few minutes after midnight. It's been another long day, and you settle down for some well-deserved rest before the final day of the pre-qualifier...
...except, you haven't even had the chance to fall asleep before Ahmitar suddenly rushes into your quarters. "Wake up!" the little man shouts. "Enemies approach! The temple is under attack!"
Indeed, as you follow him out into the temple's training space, you see four clay constructs carved to resemble stern warriors clambering over the walls! They drop down to the sand and raise their swords and shields!
Xin and Yog'Moi shout at the soldiers, taking the lead two aback!
Ughhhhh. I retie my sword around my waist and follow the diminutive crafter out to the courtyard.
Clay warriors? That's unexpected...
Terracotta soldiers. Hard but brittle. I briefly contemplate just kicking them and saving my sword from possible damage, but decide that as much as I like my sword, my hands are harder to replace. I dash forward and attack, though it's sloppy in the darkness.
Xin DOES NOT use the Phoenix Necklace. No point in making nonlethal attacks against constructs.
"We'll hit the south side first," Xin says. "Try to take down at least one of them before the others join the fray. Let's put all we've got into taking down that one," he says, pointing at Yellow.
Xin enters his inspiring stance as he moves into melee. Esh strides up beside him and swings, just managing to connect! Xin takes the opportunity to critically stab the same construct!
The terra cotta soldiers attack Xin and Esh as they raise their shields.
Meanwhile, the other two soldiers suddenly teleport in front of Hotcha and Yog’Moi! They slash at them as they raise shields as well.