Smell of the Pines glares at Red, and Red definitely looks a bit shaken. Resinosa hits Red hard, and chunks of rock fall of the creature.
piercing damage
Yellow Boulder rolls up as well and slams with incredible speed into Resinosa. Resinosa wobbles, but manages to stay upright from the force of the attack.
Rain in Cloudy Day jumps into action. "Oh no, you're already in trouble! I'm such a bad Pathfinder, everything I do goes wrong! But I have faith in you, defeat these ugly mugs!"
He starts cheering you on, giving you the effect of Inspire Courage!
He then moves forward, plucks a small mushroom from his body, and throws it at Yellow Boulder, but it sails over its head. "Here, take this!"
Red Boulder
Smell of the Pines
Yellow Boulder
Rawiri
Rain in Cloudy Day
Merian
Corona
Ghul
Everyone except Smell of the Pines may act!
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Rawiri moves forwards, and almost gets to the flanking position with Resinosa, almost...
He tries to mesmerize the enemy with his movements of the dancing flame, but this is a thought crowd that he got here.
He attacks with a blunt edge of his clan dagger, hoping that it will do some work against the stone
Rawiri tries to fascinate the boulders, but it doesn't seem to work. Both his attack and Merians's miss. Corona's Divine Lance strikes Red square in the chest, but it doesn't seem to harm Red whatsoever. Ghul marches forward and interposes himself between his allies and his enemies.
Red Boulder looks like it's going to make a retreat, but then turns around and rolls with a running start into Rawiri!
The incredible force knocks Rawiri off his feet!
At the moment of impact, Ghul sends out a wave of redemption, but the boulder does not seem very remorseful.
Red Boulder
Smell of the Pines
Yellow Boulder
Rawiri
Rain in Cloudy Day
Merian
Corona
Ghul
Smell of the Pines may act!
Smell of the Pines glares at the yellow boulder, but it does not budge. Similarly, Resinosa's branches brush over Yellow's rocky skin, but fail to leave a mark.
Yellow Boulder also takes a rolling retreat, then bashes into Merian!
Luckily, Merian dodges out of the way at the last second, leaving the boulder biting dirt. It attacks once more.
The second attack also harmlessly sails by Merian.
Rain in Cloudy Day continues to boost morale. "See, these boulders are no match for the mighty Pathfinders! Leave our iruxi friends alone!"
Another round of Inspire Courage for everyone.
He plucks another fungal growth from his body and tosses it at Yellow.
The growth hits Yellow square in the chest, and a small cloud of spores hangs around Yellow. Then, he tries once more.
Red Boulder
Smell of the Pines
Yellow Boulder
Rain in Cloudy Day
Rawiri
Merian
Corona
Ghul
Everyone except Smell of the Pines may act! Inspire Courage is active.
Merian lands a heavy blow on Yellow and wrenches her trident in between two joints of the boulder's body, and manages to sever the connect between them. Yellow Boulder falls to the ground, lifeless.
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"Huh. They're not eeeeeevil. But I don't know if they're good, either. Maybe they just...'are'?" Corona muses after her divine lance fails to have any effect. She then focuses before directing a beam of moonlight at the remaining boulder!
As her spell completes, you swear you see the young woman's feet leave the ground for just a few seconds.
"Oh! I feel...strange..." Corona murmurs as she takes a halting step foward.
Your unnatural lightness makes it hard to keep your footing and interact with other physical objects. You are enfeebled 1 and take a –2 penalty to saves and DCs against Grapple, Shove, and other forms of forced movement.
______________
Corona launches a beam of moonlight at Red, which sails past completely. Ghul creeps closer and bashes his shield against Red, pulverising rock beneath its weight.
Rawiri gets up from the ground, walks into a flanking position with Ghul, then strikes with his clan dagger.
With the builder still dazed from Ghul's onslaught, Rawiri stabs him in the back and the boulder crumbles to pieces.
End of combat!
---
With the enemies now defeated, Rain in Cloudy Day finally has time to greet you properly. "Oh hey, I recognise some of you! We had Trapspotting classes together, don't you remember? I'm so glad you're here, now we can help these iruxi defend themselves, and I might finally complete my... Confirmation..." Rain in Cloudy Day trails off there for a moment as he realises why you're here. "Oh shoot, I was supposed to be back a week ago! The Deans must be worried sick! It's just that everything went wrong: there was this huge storm on the ship, and then I got mugged, and then I got lost in the swamp, and and and..."
Tears start welling up in his eyes. "And then these iruxi captured me and thought I was a smuggler, but I convinced them I wasn't, and now I'm helping them. I told Chief Thakik what I'm doing here, and she allowed me to explore the ruins. I found out that ruins belonged to ancient Azlanti survivors from the time of Earthfall, and specifically appeared to be part of Nacar-Azen, an ancient Azlanti city-state. While Thakik and her tribe don't seem to care much for it, they were impressed with my knowledge, and allowed me to stay here."
A few moments later, Chief Thakik strides out of the bushes and greets you.
“Ah, I see you have reconnected with your fellow Pathfinder-in-training. I wish this reunion could be under better circumstances.” Thakik pauses and looks back in the direction of the enclave.
“Our scouts report that the creatures that attacked came from a larger set of these ruins, deeper in the swamp. They emerged from a partially submerged structure, meaning we have no idea of the threat within—but we assume the site is quite dangerous. I know Rain in Cloudy Day has been interested in investigating these ruins, but the risk is too great. However, our enclave can’t afford to withstand more of these attacks.”
Thakik looks over the assembled group, as well as Rain. “Would you be willing to venture into this structure and find out what has agitated the creatures within?”
Rain in Cloudy Day looks at you with a hopeful smile and big puppy-eyes.
"Regardless of your answer, Chief Thakik says, "It's getting late. Let's return to the tribe and have dinner. You can decide tomorrow morning."
Back at the settlement, Chief Thakik prepares an unused hut for you to sleep in, and invites you to dinner with her and the red iruxi from before, who introduces himself as Kazuuk. Dinner consists of turtle soup and a sweet dish made of nuts and berries. Rain in Cloudy Day instead gets a bowl of dead leaves and decaying swamp moss, which he eats with gusto.
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Ghul stands erect, and places the shield back on his back - the former motion with great difficulty, the latter with some unknown and brooding trepidation. A slow conversant, he looks to answer the leshy's question, but not in time, for Chief Thakik is already directing them back to camp, and things seem more-or-less decided. The clunky sound of armor walks him and his back to the iruxi camp - he observes the unused hut, and seems content.
Until dinner, that is. Trying his best to be politic, raising the soup to his face, careful not to inhale the sickeningly bland smell, and staring blankly at the nuts and berries, closing his eyes to transfer some of the liquid into the hole in his face that is his lipless mouth, and exerting all of his will not to cough or retch at it's intake. Being "civilized" the act itself of forcing the square peg that is our doomed hero into the round hole that is the hospitality of this swamp tribe.
He shifts his weight uncomfortably, the creak of his rusting armor a loud and sharp crank, and attempts with great strain to make talk that is small "Chief Thakik - you mentioned having suspected our colleague of smuggling - has this been a persistent problem within or across your domain?"
He shifts his weight uncomfortably, the creak of his rusting armor a loud and sharp crank, and attempts with great strain to make talk that is small "Chief Thakik - you mentioned having suspected our colleague of smuggling - has this been a persistent problem within or across your domain?"
Chief Thakik slurps up the last bit of her turtle soup. "Yes, smugglers have been coming and going through our domain for generations. From what Rain tells me, Cassomir is a rather poor city, so smugglers often go through the swamp to transport illegal substances in or out of the city. When we come across some of them, we capture them and threaten to eat them, then release them after they're proper scared."
Chief Thakik smiles and her eyes glaze over as she relives some good memories.
"Okay, we can have dinner, but along the way, you have to tell me everything you know about the ruins so far."
"Oh yes, certainly! Well, I haven't explored much due to the monsters, but it seems like a fairly large settlement. I haven't discovered any writings yet, those must've all rotten away in the swamp I'm afraid, but I'm sure lots of knowledge must be stored away somewhere!"
He happily talks about all kinds of theories and what else he expects to find in the ruins. Once he starts, it's difficult to shut him up, he's that eager to share his knowledge with his friends.
Some of the iruxi children of the village become curious with the shining steed unadorned with the usual trappings of a warhorse - there was something wild about it that drew their attention, collecting as they do in their curiosity into a semicircle, until one such among them, after some talk, perhaps a "dare" here or there, decided to distinguish itself from the rest by crossing the threshold and moving to within potential reach of it's hooves...
...and here, Unifax lowers it's head in submission...
...which in turn emboldens the young warrior to mount it! And so, while the village leaders spent the evening talking with the outsiders about very important business, those among this collection of young warriors and scouts spent the evening traipsing around the swamp riding bareback, laughing and screaming and tumbling into the murky water again and again...
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"It sounds like something or someone stirred things up in the ruins, New Friends," Corona remarks as she digs in to her meal. "New Friend Pines said those gravel piles were elementals...elementals don't normally live *here* where we do, do they? I thought they lived on other planes. If that's right, then someone or something is calling them here..."
She muses on this thought as she loudly slurps her turtle soup, her way of paying compliments to the chef.
"So good! Too bad we ate the last of the cornbread I had already; I bet it would taste good mixed in with the soup."
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Rawiri gets from the ground and looks at his dirty clothes. He shakes his head, stones are steady but they lack the spark of passion.
He follows the others to the dinner
"I agree with Corona, something is stirring things up in those ruins. We should finish the mission with a bit of help from our leashy friend here."
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The leshy looks at the plate of the other leshy with a mix of envy and curiosity; he’s not a fungus leshy but that looks better that the soup. When someone offer to eat soup, he just refuses politely.
The pair of plant creatures also take a couple of looks toward the mount, mainly when the younger iruxi have a burst of laughter or screams. When watching, they both seems a bit amused and perplexed at the same time.
Smell of the Pines remarks “Corona is right, those elementals might have been summoned. If they come frequently, something might have caused them to act like this; as sometimes the barrier between world is thin enough to allow passage.”
When Rain notices Smell of the Pines looking at his plate, he scoots over to Smell of the Pines and shares his portion with Smell.
"They usually cook more than enough for just me, I'm sure there's more if you want."
You have a good night's sleep, certainly better than the rest you had last night, and you wake up the next morning refreshed and ready to find out what's causing the elementals to appear.
It's a two-hour hike through more swamp, but Rain in a Cloudy Day keeps up the morale by telling what he's found out so far and what he's learned from the iruxi tribe. He leads you quite a ways into the Azlanti ruins, commenting on all the potential functions he suspects the buildings had. Eventually, he leads you to a skewed platform that half-rises out of the muck that seems like any other building: overgrown with shrubs, tree roots, and partially submerged. But what's clear is that several shrubs have been stomped down by recent activity, making an entryway underground clearly visible.
"It's going to be dark inside," Rain in Cloudy Day pipes up. " Luckily, Chief Thakik lent me this everburning torch, but I'm not sure if that's going to be enough."
When everyone is ready, you head down the stairs.
A polished tan white stone stairway leads down into a large, worked chamber made of similar styled stone. Stairs ascend along the chamber’s northern end to a raised platform. Two halls branch from the raised area, one to the north covered in debris, while the other to the west connects to a wider hall heading north. A sealed stone door to the east bars access beyond. A large crack along the eastern wall of the lower section continues into a damp cavern replete with the smell of flora.
As you enter, you see a small bipedal creature with sagging flesh scampering around the ruins. As soon as it sees you, it hisses at you, then starts cowering and curls itself into a protective ball.
Corona
Rawiri
Smell of the Pines
Creature
Ghul
Rain in Cloudy Day
Merian
Corona, Rawiri, and Smell of the Pines may act!
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The night before, the leshy tried the fungus preparation but did not feel completly satisfied with it but said nothing.
Smell of the Pines listens to all of what Rain in a Cloudy Days says with interest, but forgets most of it in the next couple of minutes.
If the light is not enough for the others, as it and Resinosa can see even if there is low light, it will offer to light a torch but does not seem to really like the idea. The leshy will gladly use the wayfinder thought.
Upon seeing the creature, the leshy uses two of his cantrips, and sparkles appear around Resinosa, who then moves and attack.
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"New Friends, it's a dretch demon," Corona - now back to normal after a good night's sleep - calls out. "They're born from slothful souls so sometimes they're slow...but other times, watch out! They'll get you with their claws. But they also don't like cold iron or goodly strikes!"
She moves up close to Resinosa before grasping the pendant hanging around her neck and casting a spell, conjuring a small blessing for herself and her plant ally.
"Come closer, New Friends!"
______________
Resinosa strides closer and tries to thump the miserable creature, but it sails by harmlessly. Corona comes closer as well and blesses her friends. Rawiri also closes the distance and hits the thing square in the chest.
The creature curl up in a ball even more, making itself less of a target, but still snarls at the party menacingly.
Corona
Rawiri
Smell of the Pines
Creature
Rain in Cloudy Day
Ghul
Merian
Rain in cloudy Day strides forward, inspires you with his bardic abilities, then throws another fungal growth at the thing.
The creature gets hit square in the face, and starts choking on the spores. But he quickly spits them back out and is fine again.
Everyone may act! You have Inspire Courage active! Bless and Inspire Courage don't stack, just so you know.
The Dretch just hisses and grows at Merian's question, clearly not understand her speech.
Resinosa drags the demon to the ground, and some pine needles are still stuck in it afterwards!
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Ashava's blessing seems to blend in with Leshy Rain's powers. Good to know!
Realizing that her own blessing isn't really providing any further benefits on top of Rain's inspiring actions, Corona doesn't worry about extending its range. Instead, she tries directing a divine lance at the beast, aware that *this time* it should prove effective.
She then steps behind Resinosa.
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Rawiri moves past his allies, he gets towards the prone demon and tries to roll on his back.
But the demon body build is irregular and Rawiri can't get to the other side. He tries to grab a hold of his body and push himself to the other side...
Which he hopefully does.
Rawiri lands on the other side with a smile and a bit of swagger and he swings his fist at the enemy.
Corona throws a lance of holy energy at the Dretch. Flesh bubbles and chars as it connects. Rawiri lands behind the creature, but only manages to graze it with his clan dagger.
The creature suddenly has a spurt of energy and stands up quickly, then casts a spell at Resinosa! Resniosa feels like it's stuck in pine sap, slowing his movements down.
Resinosa, make me a DC 16 Fortitude save versus Slow!
Rain in Cloudy Day continues his performance, boosting everyone's morale, moves a little closer, then throws another fungus pod at the Dretch.
Corona
Rawiri
Smell of the Pines
Creature
Rain in Cloudy Day
Ghul
Merian
Everyone may act! Inspire Courage is in effect, and the creature's still huddled in its protective ball.
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"Come on! Show some spark of life! Dance with me! Leave that tree trunk alone!"
Rawiri whirls, using the fact that the demon was casting a spell. He feints an attack with his back fist to try and stab the creature with his dagger. His movements are fluid and his hair resembles flames burning in a moonless night. The dwarf seems not to be taken back by his short posture and whirls and cuts, throwing blows as he moves.
The creature's jaw drops, not being able to keep up with all the movement. Then, suddenly, Rawiri throws a jab out at it just as it's distracted, catching it completely unaware. Blood and guts tumble out of its belly as Rawiri strikes.
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"Are all demons this tough?" Corona muses as the dretch takes a licking but keeps on ticking. "It's like fighting a fat, overgrown cockroach!"
Pleased to see that her divine lance had an effect, Corona circles back around to stand near Rain and hopefully provide a more tempting target should the dretch look that way. She then tries flinging another lance of divine energy at the demon.
"Go away! Go back to the Abyss where you belong!"
______________
Merian strikes the creature with her trident, and the cold damage slows its down. Corona's divine energy melts more flesh off the hideous creature, and finally Ghul grinds it down to a fine paste. The Dretch lets out one final pitiful (and maybe thankful?) cry and is no more.
Corona gets one Hero Point for exploiting its weakness to Good-aligned damage!
With the creature no more, the ruin is free to be explored.
To the north, a cave-in has made this passageway inaccessible. It'd take hours, if not days, to clear this passage.
There's a small passageway to the west.
To the east, there's a cavern system, and a door to the northeast.
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After the fight is over, the leshy asks “Is everyone OK?”
As it does so, it waits for the slow spell to wear off.
As the team goes on, Smell of the Pines trying to remember things he learnt, while Resinosa looks around.
If the team is unsure where to go on, it points toward the caverns, indicating “That seems to be as rocky as those elementals we fought outside.”
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"I'm fine, New Friend Pines," Corona responds, giving the leshy a thumbs-up. "Checking the caverns makes sense to me. Something probably broke out of them and into these ruins."
Deciding to take a different approach this time, Corona calls upon a minor but very useful cantrip to watch for magical auras in the area.
______________
Caves stretch out from several breaks in the walls of the stone complex. Though the cave is mostly damp, patches of permafrost show up regularly within the dug dirt walls. In several places, moisture has come through the dirt, only to be frozen in place. Along the east, several smaller tunnels, too small for even a child, connect to hidden passages beyond.
As you walk forward into the cavern, Ghul walks through what he assumes to be a patch of dirt, but as soon as he disturbs it, he feels the temperature drop to arctic temperatures.
Also, as you walk deeper into the cavern, you see that the door you skipped over leads to a small room, where a cave-in has joined it with the cavern. In the corner of the room is a small iron treasure chest.
This aeon stone allows you to cast the 1st-level shield cantrip as an arcane innate spell, surrounding yourself in pink energy. When you invest the aeon stone, it orbits your head instead of being worn on your body. You can stow the stone with an Interact action, and an orbiting stone can be snatched out of the air with a successful Disarm action against you. A stowed or removed stone remains invested, but its effects are suppressed until you return it to orbit around your head again.
When slotted in a wayfinder, a dusty rose prism aeon stone increases the damage prevented by your aeon stone’s shield spell from 5 to 10.
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Rawiri almost jumps in surprise when Ghul enters the patch that hurts them. "Ugh! That was unexpected, but I see two similar spots there and there."
He says, when Merian casually goes to the chest. "Wait for the others!" he yells as he tries to catch up
"Magical gold?! Every gold is magical if you ask me!"
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"New Friends, I don't sense any magic here, but I feel like there's...something...deeper in the caves," Corona remarks after scanning the immediate area for a few moments.
After Merian cracks open the chest, she moves up to have a look at the items within.
"Ooh...pretty! But I have no idea what kind of stone this is, New Friends," Corona remarks with a shrug.