Hotcha is suddenly unscathed.
She bows. “Oh, but you fought so well. You and your sister are so brave. Why fight 4-against-2 though? I thought maybe you each had a fairy in your pocket!”
Hotcha isn’t teasing the woman. She genuinely respects the pair.
“You can bring you sister to my bed if you want. It’s the abbot’s bed. I only slept on the pillow, so if you flip it over it’s like having fresh linens!”
Hotcha will also like a goblet so she can meditate for the next half hour.
”We had hoped to secure an early victory by challenging you before you were ready,” Manyala says. ”But we did not account for your skill! You four are quite impressive.
“I appreciate the offer, but I will rouse my sister and we will retreat to our base to heal. We should not tarry here, as now we are one feather further from our goal! Good luck to you, warriors.”
She bows once more, then gives Rijana some first aid to bring her back to consciousness. The Ahmoza Twins depart thereafter.
The duo's courtly graces and etiquette surprise Yog'Moi. In defeat, he'd be anything but that gracious. Perhaps, he figures, that's why they lost in the first place. Perhaps, he figures, he's just an a&!@@+$ of a hobgoblin. Both could be true.
"May the Gods smile upon your endeavors and continue to bless you with grace."
"Well," says Xin to his companions. "That was a rousing start!"
"Yog'Moi, Hotcha, can you get us fixed up for the day? I was thinking that we might continue our exploration and simply challenge any team we come across. There will be time for targeting our opponents if we want to do that later."
“Sure, Xin… but I think I should meditate first. Yog’Moi’s way better at treating wounds than I am. He can probably batch ya both up before I finish meditating.”
She looks a little bashful as she adds, “I just need one o’ ya gents to kindly place a goblet on the ground, a shelf, or wherever you please.”
After bathing, Hotcha will walk all over the map (literally, on the paper map!) along where the coast is drawn. She then asks of her proposed route, “Ya like?”
Xin places his goblet where Hotcha can reach it and awaits some healing from Yog'Moi.
After bathing, Hotcha will walk all over the map (literally, on the paper map!) along where the coast is drawn. She then asks of her proposed route, “Ya like?”
"That will do fine," he says. "I see no reason yet to prefer any one route over any other so long as we minimize retracing our steps. I think your route is a little over five miles. Let's get to it now, have lunch there and return by a more interior route. We should cover a fair bit of the island and meet many of the teams."
You head north from the temple of Irori and begin exploring along the western coast of Danger Island. It isn’t long before you come across an ancient seaside shrine. ”While the people of Bonmu claimed and converted many of the existing temples and shrines on the island, they left several of the ancient Taumatan shrines alone,” Ingdani explains. ”The abandoned gods haven’t been worshipped in some time. Perhaps they might bless anyone who honors their shrines.”
"I did study Taumatan history before we came to this island," days Xin, "hoping it might prove an advantage to us at some point. If I recall correctly, these are the emblems of Jinya-Por, the Taumatan goddes of sailing, swimming and the wind. She is honored by swimming in the waters beside her shrine."
Xin bows low and calls for the attention of the spirit of the shrine. When he has ritually cleansed his hands and head, he lays aside his weapons, strips and enters the sacred waters, swimming with strong strokes.
After several minutes of swimming in the waters, all of you feel the gift of the currents settle upon you.
The hobgoblin shakes his belly and head dry as a dog might. With no hair, the splash effect is considerably less impressive, but perhaps still a little annoying. "Ha! No one tell Heng Fei that I paid swim service to another God, let alone a Goddess of sailors and winds!"
Once dry, he walks up to the shrine and quietly pays his respects and thanks. It is a rare moment of genuine reverence. "Ok, I'm done. Let's go. There are mountains to climb, rivers to cross, idiots to bonk."
Hotcha doesn’t come up for air during the entire swim. Between her uncanny ability to hold her breath for several minutes and her precious ring, waves and the undercurrent aren’t scary to this fairy.
She leaps out… disappears under a crashing wave… and leaps out again and moves before the next wave hits the beach.
“Oh, what fun! More than one Cayden monk has said I ‘drink like a fish, but swim like a dolphin.’ Even the guy that grumbled about my taste in low-alcohol ‘girl-beers!’ I don’t think holding my breath like this is a sprite thing. If I ever meet another sprite, I’ll ask her.”
Remembering an earlier conversation, she repeats, “Her,” and jokes, “If it’s a him, I’ll be… busy.” She wrings seawater from her hair, then combs it with her glittery fingernails.
You dry off after your swim and continue north through the forest. You've only been walking for a few minutes, though, when the ground begins to tremble with heavy footfalls. A few moments later, an enormous tyrannosaurus bursts out of the foliage! It opens its massive jaws and roars a challenge, the noise echoing through the woods!
Xin and Yog'Moi roar back, and the massive dinosaur actually seems taken aback by their defiance!
"Oh crap, Hei Feng clearly was none too pleased 'bout that ... !"
All in all, the day is going quite well. A nice quick spar to warm up first thing in the morning, and then some lovely exploration, and a swim to top it all off. I feel great, and happily play my shamisen as we walk.
Then the ground started shaking, and I cautiously put my instrument away and draw my sword. A prudent action, as a giant dinosaur spots us and announces it's displeasure. Xin and Yog roar back at it, and it seems concerned. Honestly, I am too a little. That's intimidating.
First thing to do when facing a significantly bigger and stronger opponent is to reduce their ability to hit you. As such, I start by attacking it's legs.
Esh rushes up to the tyrannosaurus, but he is unable to cut through the thick hide on the dinosaur's leg. It roars as it lifts its foot up and stomps on the elf with crushing force, driving him to the ground and pinning him in place! It then begins to tear at him with its jaws, ripping out chunks of flesh with its huge teeth! Esh manages to get his sword up in time to block its final strike, but the barbarian is hurting!
Hotcha is more than a little freaked out, seeing a person big enough to step on her get stepped on!
She ▶️ energizes her wings!
She flies, hoping to move too high for those jaws!
From the air, and hopefully out of reach, Hotcha draws her ki and starts shooting.
With Esh pinned by the colossal beast, Yog'Moi supercharges a fist with Hei Feng's anger and lashes out at the t-rex. From range, electricity arcs from Yog's fist to the beast's jaw. While the static discharge disappointed the hobgoblin, perhaps it will knock the beast off its feet.
Hotcha scorches the tyrannosaurus’s nose, but it resists her stun. Yog’Moi’s harm spell doesn’t hurt thr djnosaur much, but the divine power infused into it knocks it down on the floor! Its foot comes off of Esh, freeing him!
I groan and my vision returns from star speckled black as the dinosaur releases it's pressure on me. I groggily look around and see it also on the ground beside me.
"You are a gargantuan, non-sapient brute, but somehow I'm still the bigger idiot," I say to it, dazed.
I painfully drag myself to my feet, staggering around it's stubby arms (which are still roughly the size of my leg), and thrashing jaws to a spot where I can reach it's neck. I fuzzily attempt to execute, but my eyes and arms can't seem to make sense of how to function properly, and I settle for just limping away to get some distance. The world around me is nothing but fire, and my blood is roaring in my ears, I can barely see or hear as I stumble away.
Xin moved around behind the dinosaur before Hotcha attacked. While his initial attack failed to find its mark, as the sprite scorches the tyrannosaurus's nose, Xin drives his rapier into the beast's leg, nicking an artery!
Esh gets to his feet and strikes ineffectively before stumbling away. The tyrannosaur roars in anger as it gets to its feet, weakened by its leg wound. It lunges at Hotcha with its jaws, grabbing the monk between its sword-like teeth!
I manage to take all of two deep breaths before the thing gets back to its feet and eats Hotcha. That angers me enough to push past the pain and go back on the offensive. It's my job to get attacked by enemies! I stumble towards it, but I am too weak and blood-soaked to do any good, and I dart away again to clear my eyes and clean my hands.
Hotcha thinks she’s safely in the air until the T. rex leaps and—“AAAAH, not AGAIN!” She tries to fly, kick teeth, use the uvula as a punching bag…!
…nothing works!
Yog'Moi stuffs the dinosaur's stomach with accursed food in an attempt to make it cough up the sprite and make it more susceptible to the spell that follows: a lance of angry chaotic energy.
Critical Success: The target is unaffected.
Success: The target is sickened 1, but if it spends an action to end the condition, it succeeds automatically.
Failure: The target is sickened 1.
Critical: Failure The target is sickened 2.
A target sickened by this spell takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speed until it's no longer sickened.
Xin sees Hotcha in dire straits and wants to let his fury take him, tearing into the dumb brute. But his years of dedication to Irori grant him self-possession. He sticks to his role, calling out "Hotcha, as we practiced, strike...NOW"
The long teachings of his master ring not in his mind, but in the spirit of his actions:
“What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man's knowledge. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void. In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.”
The tyrannosaurus ignores Yog'Moi's spell. Neither Xin nor Esh are able to get through its thick hide, but Hotcha delivers a critical punch to its nose, lighting its face on fire! Xin's opportunistic stab comes up short.
The dinosaur snorts angrily as it tosses Hotcha up in the air, then opens its jaws wide and snaps them shut around her! Its tongue pushes the unfortunate sprite down its throat, and she slides down its gullet into its stomach! Powerful muscles begin to crush Hotcha!
The tyrannosaurus then whirls around to attack Xin. It just manages to grab the rogue, crushing him in its jaws!
The flames on its face sputter out.
Hotcha gets into ▶️ Jellyfish Stance intent on slashing her way out of the stomach!
Two bloody slashes appear along the tyrannosaurus's abdomen, then Hotcha suddenly bursts out of its stomach, dripping with digestive juices! The dinosaur groans in pain!
"Kneel before Hei Feng, beast! You are not our master, you are not our end!"
Hotcha bursts out of the beasts belly in a (small) shower of gore, and I sigh in relief, darting in to take advantage of it's distraction.
Xin stabs the tyrannosaurus in the eye, piercing the orb and causing blood to flow freely from the ruined socket. He calls for Esh to strike, and while the elf misses with his first hit, he cuts deep into the dinosaur’s leg with his next attack!
The tyrannosaurus flings Xin to the ground and roars weakly as it tries to stumble away. But its bleeding wound pushes it over the edge, and it topples to the ground a short distance away, the ground shaking with the weight of its fall!
I sigh heavily as the creature falls, taking a few moments to breathe and suppress my flames. We made it, though it was certainly not pleasant. My flesh and clothes both were bloodied and torn. I slowly and painfully begin cleaning my sword, there's still hope for that at least.
"Hotcha, are you well? Being in the belly of the beast is supposed to be figurative, not literal!" I joke, but even I can tell the my voice has more pain in it than levity. Ah well. I tried.
“Looks like something it ate didn’t agree with it! Ha!”
Hotcha’s joking… but she also reeks of dinosaur interior.
“Yog’Moi, if you would kindly take your goblet and pour its contents on me, that’ll suffice as a shower. I’ll need a few minutes of your healing touch before I meditate.”
After taking some time to heal up, you continue north along Bonmu's west coast. Soon, your explorations lead you to another Taumatan shrine.
Not one to deny a person their drinks, Yog'Moi does what the sprite asks and showers her in alcohol. "Stupid lizard, it should know better than to challenge our might! How small must its brain be for it to think it stood a chance?!"
"So, eh, who is this shrine to? I, eh, I got no clue, ha!"
“Yeah, what a moron!” Hotcha agrees. Pointing to the corpse, she adds, “That’s why he ran over there and died. He’s so dumb he didn’t know he was dead. Even I could probably lift his tiny bra—”
She pictures herself lifting a brain that’s about half the size of a fairy.
“Heyyyyy, wait a minute! A human brain’s bigger than my entire body! Size doesn’t matter—it’s not the size of the brain, it’s the thought that counts! That dinosaur is dumb for reasons not necessarily associated with brain-size, such as the number of brain-wrinkles, or the brain-to-skull ratio, or lack of education in a non-nurturing environment…”
Hotcha’s tiny brain can’t even guess what the ancient god is a god of.
"See, Yog'Moi? I told you size didn't matter!"
"I don't remember this one from the book."
"I couldn't begin to say," I shrug along with the others.
Unsure of how to honor the god of this shrine, you leave it for now and continue north. The area here comes to an end at a peninsula, where another lighthouse stands. This lighthouse is the headquarters for another team, and as luck would have it, you spy that team approaching in the distance! They are the Lightning Callers, a pair of expert archers from Osirion.
"Thanks for keeping the team in good shape, Yog'Moi," says Xin.
"Archers should be no problem for us," says Xin, considering the Lightning Callers. "Hotcha and I can fly. Esh is fast, and Yog'Moi has ranged spells. Any objections to a challenge?"
"None from me," I say, rolling my shoulders out and doing a few squat jumps to limber me up. Healing magics work wonders, but always leave me feeling slightly stiff. I agree with Xin's assessment, while the archers would of course be dangerous at range, we can likely close that distance before anyone sustained serious injury. And fighting against a person instead of a monster will be a relief. Much easier to deal with.
Hotcha gives Xin a thumbs up. “Might wanna warn ’em not to put me in their mouths,” she says.
She might be kidding.
The hobgoblin variably bounces with energy and optimism when Xin asks them whether or not they should challenge the archer duo. "Let's beat them up and take their feathers! I got a good feeling about this, ha!"
The Lightning Callers size you up before nodding. ”Very well. We accept your challenge!”
It takes some time for the enforcers to arrive to observe the battle, but eventually, you assemble on a small island battlefield adjoining the lighthouse. Ingdani bows to the enforcers. ”We have a challenge. Three Men and a Fairy versus the Lightning Callers! Ready? FIGHT!”
Your fierce battle cries leave both of your foes shaken!
Hotcha ▶️ moves.
She sinks into ▶️ Jellyfish Stance, and unleashes a…
Hotcha darts forward and distracts the closer archer, so I follow suit and charge the other.