Zane will try to remember anything his teachers might have said about these things.
He will then cast a spell, Electric Arc (Produce Flame if weak to fire or resistant to electricity).
"While we are underground, let us remember the warmth of the sunlight from above. We will prevail!" calls out Ufi.
Neither Zane nor Muruwa remember discussing a creature like this in class.
Ufi uses magic to make adjacent allies more accurate and protects himself.
Ekene makes a rapid series of strikes, but can't quite make contact.
However, she provides enough of a distraction for Muruwa to move into position and strike her.
Kalaggi seems intimidated, but draws his bow and hits the creature solidly with an arrow.
Zane zaps her with lightning.
She cannot move out of the way in time.
She turns her gaze on Muruwa, who seems like the greatest threat at the moment. Then claws at the grippli.
Her attack is perfect, and the rogue falls to the damp ground.
Round 2-3 - bolded may go
Muruwa (-18 HP, dying 2)
Ngaja (-26 HP)
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene
Kalaggi (frightened 1, slowed 1)
Zane
"Muruwa! No!" Ekene cries as her friend falls! She redoubles her efforts, battering Ngaja with crane wing strikes!
If down
Ufi gulps in horror as the friendly Grippli falls!
Even as he raises his shield toward the horror, his necklace starts to glow with a warm radiance that spreads out over Muruwa, healing his worst wounds.
◆ raise shield
◆◆ Cast heal
If Muruwa still stands"
Ufi calls on the sun lion to bless his cudgel. "Let it bring your lightness to his place of darkness."
◆ raise shield
◆◆ cast magic weapon
Muruwa stays on her feet at the last moment!
Ufi magically enhances his weapon and takes a defensive stance.
Ekene unleashes a myriad of blows, and lands two before getting out of position.
Kalaggi fires a pair of arrows, but too much is going on for her to get a clear shot.
Round 2 - bolded may go
Ngaja (-38 HP)
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene
Muruwa (-9 HP)
Kalaggi (frightened 1, slowed 1)
Zane
Muruwa screams in pain, but then, somehow it doesn't feel as deadly as she first thought. She glares at her attacker, "Time to return the favor!"
Clearly shaken by her near death experience, Muruwa isn't effective with her attacks. In the interest of self-preservation, she carefully steps away.
Zane casts electric arc and pulls out an elixir of life.
DC 17 Reflex
Though surprised that Muruwa managed to stay standing, Ngaja still avoided her attacks. She could only partially get out of the way of Zane's spell, though.
Feeling threatened, she lashes out at all the students near her.
Kalaggi takes a serious blow, but she cannot get into a good position to hit the others.
Round 3 - bolded may go
Ngaja (-42 HP)
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene
Muruwa (-9 HP)
Kalaggi (-11 HP, slowed 1)
Zane
Ekene continues her furious assault, landing one solid hit.
Ekene's barrage of attacks was not the most accurate, but the one that hit was enough to take Ngaja down.
You quickly move to the back of the cave, where you find Teacher Ot and two students bound in the corner. Ot is only mildly injured, and comes to quickly and thanks you for your help, but the others are in poor shape. Your teacher asks you to free him and his students and tell him about what happened today.
Teacher Ot stands up with a warm smile on his face. “This isn’t exactly what I intended for your first lesson, but I’m glad you found me. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time.” He gestures to the two injured students. “Mnroba and Okulou confessed their part in helping out this hag with her schemes. It seems she tasked the two with placing a number of magical runes throughout the Heron Archives intending to flood the Magaambya with the waters from this canal. She would then claim the Magaambya as her own domain. Luckily for us, Okulou was never very skilled at producing runes, so I believe we may still have some time to prevent this attack. I’ll tend to these two and then alert the rest of the staff. I’m trusting you to take care of those runes. Now, go!”
I was never very skilled at producing runes, but at least I never betrayed the Academy.
Zane glares at the two.
"Where are the runes?"
Muruwa is about to move in for a final sneak attack, when Ekene drops the enemy for good. "Well done, my friend. Now we Ot to free Ot." She rushes with the others to untie their Teacher.
Muruwa looks curiously at the 2 student traitors and wonders aloud to Teacher Ot, "If they were helping this ... you called her a hag ... why are they bound?" She listens patiently.
When Teacher Ot mentions runes, Muruwa chimes in excitedly, "We disabled one flooding rune while we were tracking you. It was in the room across from the large 7' mirrored clock." She turns to the students and admonishes them, "How dare you harm the wonderful school. Shame on you! How many more runes are there?" She stares at them until they respond.
After she gets answers, she realizes the group is pretty injured. "Do we have time to heal up?" If Teacher Ot or Ufi aren't able to offer up healing (magical or otherwise), Muruwa reaches into her bandolier and grabs her elixir of life and quaffs it down.
Ufi sighs. All tooled up and nohag to smite.
"Well done, well done. We still have some potions." he reminds the rest of the team. The rest of the badly injured team.
"I am just glad we could bring some light to this dark place." he adds, fingering his beads. But if the other runes activate, then the academy is still in danger, so we should hurry.[/b]"
When Ufi mentions the extra Minor Healing Potions, Muruwa nods. "Completely forgot, Ufi. You should save your healing for in-battle. Maybe Kalaggi and I should each take one now unless Master Ot or Ufi can provide non-magical healing?" If the group is okay with it, and only if the group is okay with it, Muruwa will drink one more potion.
Ekene anxiously shifts from foot to foot as the others ask questions and tend to their injuries. ”Let us not delay long. We have a school to save!”
You return to the Heron Archive to find the top floor flooded in knee-deep water. Faculty are evacuating students from the area, leaving you as the only ones around to stop the flooding.
Unfortunately, it won't be simple, as you notice movement from the south of Teacher Ot's office that is not from a person.
Round 1 - bolded may go
Kalaggi (-5 HP)
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene
Pink
Muruwa
Zane
Ekene rushes forward, her long legs allowing her to quickly close the distance to the creature. She enters her crane stance and attacks with a flurry of kick!
Muruwa sees Ekene charge after something, but looks a little bewildered as to what's going on.
Ufi moves until he has a better view of what is moving. He then examines the thing in the water.
Finally he checks his shield is firmly in place. After the last encounter he realises that he can't help others if he is dead.
Kalaggi does not know what this is or why they are fighting it, but fires an arrow at it anyway. The shot strikes true.
Ufi moves into position and identifies it as a brine shark, an elemental with the aquatic and water subtypes. It resists fire and can dive extremely quickly, even with something large in its mouth.
Ekene moves toward it quickly and kicks it once, then misses with a second attempt.
The shark does not appreciate being hit in the nose, and does not seem inclined to flee, no matter what you may have heard. Instead, it begins the process of eating what hit it.
plus Grab.
It begins to drag the unconscious monk away.
Round 1-2 - bolded may go
Kalaggi
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene (-16 HP, dying 2, grabbed)
Shark (-11 HP)
Muruwa
Zane
Ufi puffs forward and then quickly fingers his beads. "Hold on Ekene!" he calls out. A warm light suffuses the necklace and then Ekene feels a bit better.
There is intense pain, then Ekene’s vision goes black. Fortunately, warm healing energy floods her body and brings her back to consciousness. The elf groans and realizes she is in the shark thing’s mouth. ”Let go!” she shrieks, pummeling it!
Muruwa turns the corner to see Ekene in the mouth of a shark. She shrieks, "Oh dear! Hang in there, my friend. Try not to get eaten." Already wielding her hand adze, she draws her dagger with her free hand. She then advances as far as her little grippli legs will carry her.
"Ekene, no!"
He turns the corner and pulls out a bottled lightning.
Muruwa and Zane head toward the elemental, each drawing a new weapon.
Kalaggi fires two arrows at the shark, hitting with the first.
Ufi turns the corner and uses his magic to heal Ekene.
Ekene continues pounding on the creature, though its tough hide prevents damage from all but one of her blows.
The shark bites at Ekene again.
She is hit, but hangs on, barely.
It then swims away to the south.
Ekene watches as it vanishes from view about 15 feet from the corner. You hear splashing from further east.
Round 2-3 - bolded may go
Kalaggi
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene (-15 HP, wounded 2)
Shark (-23 HP)
Muruwa
Zane
Ufi moves forward and hands over two potions to Ekene.
"I think that is all of them."
Prepared to fling her dagger at the shark, Muruwa turns the corner to the south to follow it. Sadly, she doesn't find the beast that terrorized her friend. She does however find a rune. "Look! One of the runes." After studying it, she says, "I think I can just rub off the markings." Muruwa removes the rune from the wall.
Once completed, she tries to stay hidden in the shadows of the corridor.
[ooc]Actions: ◆ Stride, ◆ Interact (remove rune), ◆ Hide
Zane still has 3 elixirs of life. He draws two and offers them both.
Ekene is grateful for her friends' assistance. She drinks the elixirs as Ufi and Zane hand them to her.
Muruwa erases one of the runes, then conceals herself.
Ufi and Zane give healing potions to Ekene, who quickly quaffs them.
Kalaggi looks down the north hallway, but does not notice any further runes.
He does, hoever, find the elemental, who swims up to him from aorund the southern corner and tries to take a bite.
Round 3-4 - bolded may go
Kalaggi (-16 HP)
Ufi (-2 HP)
Ekene (-2 HP, wounded 1)
Shark (-23 HP)
Muruwa
Zane
Ekene leaps back into the fray, moving up to attack the elemental!
After removing the rune, Muruwa sees the shark return. She runs over to get in a flanking position with Ekene and glares at the shark creature. "Stop hurting my friends! Time for you to die." She strikes with her hand adze.
Ufi also hurries forward puffing into the battle.
Finally be brings his cudgel to bear on the elemental-shark.
Actions: ◆◆ Stride x2, ◆ Strike
Zane moves up and casts electric arc.
DC 17 basic Reflex
The elemental is causing serious damage to the party, and the students go on the offensive in hopes of taking it down before it can do so again. Muruwa sneaks up behind it and finds a weak point with her weapon, and Zane quickly follows that up with a blast of electricity. Kalaggi limps away and fires a shot that misses, but it provides enough of a distraction for Ufi to bash it with his cudgel. Ekene's attacks strike only water as the creature dissipates.
With the threat gone, the students can carefully search the archive for the remaining runes and erase them. The students - now heroes - have earned a chance to rest and the recognition of not only Teacher Ot but the rest of the Magaambya’s faculty and their fellow students. A week after the events, Teacher Ot is fully recovered and calls the heroes to his office.
Teacher Ot has a warm look on his face as he gets up from behind his desk. “Welcome to the Magaambya, esteemed initiates. You’ve acquitted yourselves quite well in your first week of study and saved my life. Thank you. The Magaambya and Nantambu are built on community first, and you have all shown you understand this deeply. We’re truly fortunate to have such promising students join us” — he smiles knowingly — “no matter how much trouble you might get up to. No matter which paths you might take, I believe you all will bring honor to the school.” With that, Teacher Ot gestures to the door. “Now you better get going, or you’ll be late to help Alandri!”
Zane puts his arm around his buddies.
"After a quick celebration, of course!"
He pulls out a bottle of brandy.
"Ha ha, just kidding!"
Ufi nods seriously at Zane. "I should hope so." he says.
"No celebration should be over quickly!" he adds with a broad smile.
Seeing the shark elemental finally dissipate, Muruwa breathes a sigh of relief. She looks around, "Is everyone okay?" Turning to Ekene, she grins, "You took quite the beating. That's what you get for being so quick that you're the first to battle." Muruwa uses the flowing water to clean shark guts off her hand adze.
During the de-briefing, as Teacher Ot is warning us not to be late for Alandri, Muruwa waits for Ekene to proudly accept her congratulations. While the elf is shaking hands with Ot, Muruwa quietly slips out to get a head start to their assignment.
"I seem to remember that it was you who took the beating last time," Ekene responds to Muruwa. "It seemed only fair to take my turn!"
She shakes Teacher Ot's hand, then turns to look for her grippli friend. "Oh, no she didn't!" the elf shouts when she realizes Muruwa has already left. "I'm not going to let her beat me!" She takes off at a run!