Chimwemwe thinks rapidly on his options as the wall of force. He considers the equation that he has been working on to fold space, but it is incomplete and difficult to control. He remembers a device he prepared this morning. With a prayer, he hopes that he prepared the correct sort.
The Lirgeni arcanist removes a wire wrapped crystal from a belt pouch. He touches his thumb and little finger to two specific runes carved upon the stone and then releases it. The stone emits a wave of etheric energy and then clatters to the ground.
Chim folds space around the wall of force, removing a chain of atoms from existence and unraveling it like a thread.
ESCAPE!!
The other creature hurlks fire at Wisps, who seems to be the only creature succumbing to their attacks:
Then it attempts to unravel Akoril's magic:
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Wisps
Shining Child 3
Chimwemwe
Akoril
Shining child 2
➤ Kiri
Shining child 1
Rushing to take advantage of their target's temporary distraction from Chim, Kiri's claws blur as they slash at the creature.
Kidi lands a series of decimating blows against the astral being!
F
The shining child screams and teleports, appearing behind wisps.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Wisps
Shining Child 3
Chimwemwe
Akoril
Shining child 2
Kiri
Shining child 1
Wisps steps away from the shining child.
"We've got them on the run now!"
She fires an arrow at S1.
Shining 2 drops another Sun burst!
Then flings a ray a t Kiri:
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Wisps
Shining Child 3
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Akoril
Shining child 2
Kiri
Shining child 1
Akoril unleashes a quick forcefang at #1.
Akoril twists and turns and still gets rather burnt.
before firing a followup spellstrike at near point blank range.
Chimwemwe slows down as the shining child rips away Akoril's magic and then flames wash over him. He weaves between the tables to interpose himself between the seriously wounded shining child and Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke.
Chimwemwe swings his shield with the goal of knocking the creature unconscious.
Akoril fails to knock out the shining child; Chim misses it. But the battle is soon over as the enemies are out of resources. You can dispatch the unconscious creature back to its home plane.
In the room is a bracers of armor type II, a golden lions wondrous figurine, a 6th-level wand of vital beacon made of gold and inscribed with celestial symbols, and 784 gp and 801 sp in old Mzali coins.
Akoril thinks to himself I really need to get back on my studies, I can never tell what any of these things mean.
Chim finds that esidual energies and ley lines denote that something happened here with deific energies, opening a rift to the astral plane and then closed once again, trapping the creatures here. Further, the ghosts in the room over seem to be far more powerful than they are, preventing them from even leaving the room as they would attack the Shining Children on sight.
Akoril suggests "Since we've got a lantern, lets head back up."
You move up, twilight lantern in tow, heading to the twilight door that angle=d off the Golen's room.
Several plots of dirt are evenly spaced along this room, each surrounded by a thin trench of flowing water. The plots are overgrown with plants, making it difficult to see the floor. An open archway leads to a smaller room beyond. A large hole in the floor against the left opens up to a massive chamber.
There are a dozen bilokos in here. They quickly move to attack, until one of them steps forward, gesturing to the stronger among the biolokos to stand down. As he does so he grows until he's 10 foot tall.
The powerful biloko speaks in mwangi:
Door openers. Would you speak, or fight?
Kiri remains ready, but makes no move to attack as they speak from the shadows. "We seek no fight with those we do not know. We would speak, given the choice."
Wisps puts her bow on her back and spreads her hands wide.
"We always seek to speak."
A wise choice, otherwise we'd have to eat you!
I am Gambulami, leader of my people.
We are plagued, plagued by omens curses and ill luck! Weeks ago dinosaurs stampeded through our beautiful villge — now our home is rubble.
We searched for a new home. We found an entrance to a place below this temple, a cavern. We explored there and then climbed up here, found this room and the disgusting plants inside. Gambulami spits on a tomato plant.
Had our luck turned? Were there stupid, plump gardeners to kill and eat? We waited and waited… and waited! No! These vegetables are magical, there are none to tend to them! This place flourishes with no keeper. And thus: we starve.
Old magic locked the door you opened. That way was beyond our skill to smash through or trick open. When we tried to backtrack out the way we came, big blue worms burrowed out of the cave walls below and ate some of us. We fled back here.
And so we are trapped. Left to die of hunger in this twilight garden, or to be the feast for the worms below.
I will share the garden's offerings, and what we know of this place, if you help us get outside. Perhaps then, our luck will turn.
"That appears to be a simple enough request," Chimwemwe says cautiously.
Wisps raises her eyebrows at the subject of killing hypothetical gardeners, but doesn't interrupt.
Bilokos have a fondness for bells, and the sound of ringing bells often indicates their presence. In addition to carrying and ringing them while out hunting, bilokos sometimes enchant bells with potent magic, or hang them on strings to serve as alarms for their encampments.
Bilokos look like slender but wiry humanoids with crocodile-like heads, rust-colored skin, and blood-red eyes. They eat only the meat of humanoids, though they can survive for extended periods of time on a single meal thanks to their snakelike ability to consume a Medium humanoid creature whole. They do this by unhinging their jaws and slowly swallowing the victim from head to foot. Thanks to their acidic saliva and sharp teeth, a biloko can masticate their food into an easy-to-digest pulp, grinding flesh and bone into a compact mush, even while swallowing; thus, they do not flinch while devouring meals two or three times their own size.
Bilokos prefer to move about in small, stealthy packs in dark, isolated sections of the jungle. When a band of bilokos finds a suitable hunting ground, it claims the area exclusively, digging pit traps, crafting snares from vines, and building blinds high in trees where the predators can lie in ambush.
Gambulami is a unique creature, but definitely a kind of Eloko — a biloko who was lucky enough to consume several spellcasters or other creatures with innate magical abilities, and therefore more powerful. ELoko can grow to giant size and often lead communities of Bikolo. He leads a band of reavers, Bilko far more powerful than you'd normally encounter (e.g. they would not be pushovers should you choose to fight them).
"Mmm. We can release you. We have dispatched many of the beasts and spirits of this place, and still we stand, so leading you to the surface will not be a challenge for us," Chimwemwe says. "We are in deep in the jungle. It will be a natural habitat for you. We expect that you will not hunt down villages further away. This should be acceptable to you."
"Yes, it should" Kiri adds, the unblinking lights of their eyes staring at the bilokos.
Yes, yes, we've heard of mighty teachers from Magaambya in the region. We know who you are, we will find a new home in the far places, where we like it!
Gambulami gives you his club. A token of peace.
Gambulami tells you of what they found below, drawing a map in the dirt.
A large flooded carven, walls broken into other temple chambers. The The Pasuango River runs deep, and below a side stream grew and grew, carving out a massive part of the hill with it. Now, strong currents rush through the area below, eroding a massive chamber and chewing through the walls of the ancient temple.
The cavern worms: deep-blue creatures that lie in wait within the walls, ready to ambush prey. They swim too, and there is water cutting the cavern in twain.
----
The temple: Beyond the cavern is another room, bisected by the rushing waters. This area is home to the bloated dead who wait in the water to pull victims down — another place where the Bilokos lost members of their band. Gambulami noticed these creatures can manipulate water and while thy might have drowned some of his biloko brethren quickly, they draw out their suffering.
Crit/second success:
----
The Boloko make their way out with haste!
----
You explore the rest of this area. Beyond the garden is a small tool room, which contains no treasure.
To your left this level of the temple has collapsed; you can see where the Biloko crawled up from the lower levels. There is a massive chamber 60 feet below with water rushing through it.
On the far side of this chamber, on your level, the temple continues on with a small hallways and a twilight door. You could open it if you had a way to cross the chamber. (~80 feet)
Maps are updated for visualization purposes.Note the slide that has the levels side-by-side, which may help you get a clue about how they fit together.
Wisps isn't familiar with either.
Akoril looks at the club but can't sort it out.
|
Chim id's the club as a deflecting branch
None of you can ID these strange blue worms, though they seem like fearsome foes indeed.
Chim id's the undead as drenchdead. When great heroes or other powerful individuals encounter misfortune and die at sea or to other water-related accidents, the anguished soul sometimes clings to its corpse, creating a drenchdead. Drenchdead prefer to lurk in water and attack from ambush, giving victims the same deadly surprise that led to their own deaths. They can grapple and drag you down as forced movement. They want to drown victims and this is a tactic they will use mercilessly and bolster with magical abilities.
Wisps teleports you across the chasm safely. Opening the door is simple with the twilight lantern, and you do so, stepping into a large circular chamber that's bisected by an elaborate carving depicting the sun and moon moving across the sky.
The ceiling is only six feet high at the edges but arches up to twenty feet high at the far end. The air in here is hot and close.
A knight sits in the center of the far wall. He does not breathe or move. His hands rest on the pommel of a miner’s pick, driven into the stone a gravemarker. His armor's blackened iron plates glow at the edges and slowly shift, as if they're drifting on streams of liquid lava.
His voice is like stone-cracked rock.
You disrupt my meditation. This is a sacred place. A temple. A tomb. A prison. A moment lost between moments, a would-be joining of radiance and rest, judgment and grace. Go back, lest you be deemed unworthy of the one whom I serve.
"We apologize for disrupting your meditation. Who is it that you serve?"
The knight pushes up his visor revealing a gleaming skull. One empty eye socket flickers with flame, the other is as black as an eclipse and rimed with frost. As the undead knight speaks, you tease out archaic inflections and turns of phrase. This is what Mwangi sounded like thousands of years ago.
Chohar's own daughter. Dajermube.
I still feel her soul enduring on the other side of this ritual chamber, after all this time. Aeons. Trapped, twisted, waiting.
I too am trapped here, reliving my moment of failure, when the council's knives pierced her flesh — interrupting her apotheosis. If I could only have given her a few more seconds to complete the ritual…
The flames gutter and die, quenching the room in pitch darkness. There is naught here but a shadow who failed to shield the light. Leave this place.
Akoril scratches his chin "We are not powerless when it comes to rituals. Can you tell us more of your story?"
My story does not matter. I was only a friend who failed.
The Council's attack coincided with a full solar eclipse. When the sun stepped out from shadow, the ritual would be complete and she would ascend. They killed her mere seconds before she was bathed again in sunlight.
I am bound to serve. I will not allow you to enter her chamber unless you demonstrate that you are stronger than me — strong enough to succeed where I have failed. He stands and pulls the greatpick out of the stone.[/b]
Yes. I will test you before allowing you to proceed into the ritual chamber.
If you wish to prepare, I will wait. If you leave and never return… I will be here, too.
"We do not need to disturb this soul," Chimwemwe observes. He unconsciously traces equations in the air with his finger as he watches the undead knight. "I wonder if what this knight guards is what Walkena truly sought by sending us here. We might inadvertently grant him access to something better kept away from him."
He calls out to the knight, "You were here when the Council attacked."
Who is Walkena, and what are they looking for?
Yes, I was here when the council attacked. We — villagers, miners, and farmers — were fighting against their tyranny. Chohar’s own daughter, Dajermube, led us. She possessed a touch of his divine power. We could have ended the Council’s tyranny once and for all had she completed the ritual and ascended to godhood. There is little justice in the world. I failed her. I didn’t protect her while she conducted the ritual of ascension. I saw them kill her mortal body. I can only hope that in the intervening centuries the Council of Mwanyisa has been wiped from the face of the Mwangi.
"Walkena is the god-king of this land. As far as I can tell, he seeks only to eliminate any threat to his rule."
So a new tyrant rules. The undead knight slumps. And the Council?
"Walkena bent them to his will. Their successors serve his whims," Chimwemwe adds. He considers for several quiet moments. "Neither future circumstance--that the Bright Lions will be able to defeat this knight's challenge nor that we will be free to return with the Bright Lions--are likely." He sighs. "What is your name, if we are to fight you?"
The knight's shoulders slump more. Umandayo.
Will you prove your worth to attempt saving Dajermube's soul where I could not, or no?
Chimwemwe looks to the others. "It appears that our fates have intersected with one from the distant past."
Kiri looks at Chimwemwe for a long moment, their expression unreadable as always, then turns back to Umandayo. "If we must fight, we will."
Wisps nods. "I think we must follow this through. The lost daughter of Chohar."
Umandayo is a little rattled by Kiri's yowl, but wades right into the thick of it:
and
The graveknight's fiery pick pierces Chim's armor, though he stands resilient using his shield to deflect some of the force, and resist the piercing tip of the pick.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Umandayo
➤ Wisps
➤ Kiri
➤ Akoril
➤ Chimwemwe
"Time to prove ourselves."
Wisps backs away and tries to slow down the graveknight.
Kiri loops around, skidding to a stop and slashing at the grave knight.
Akoril moves back and snaps off an arrow that conjures a spike from beneath the graveknight.
Success The target is struck by the spike and takes half damage.
Failure The target is impaled through a leg or another non-vital body part. The creature takes full damage and, if it's standing on solid ground, becomes immobilized. It can attempt to Escape (the DC is your spell DC). While it remains impaled, it takes damage from any weakness to cold iron it has at the end of each of its turns.
Critical Failure As failure, but the creature is impaled through a vital organ or its center of mass, taking double damage, and it is flat-footed as long as it's impaled.
Chimwemwe grunts in pain as the death knight's weapon punches through his shield. He wrenches it free and raises it to defend himself before tracing the invisible tattoos along his forearm. His armor and shield begin to spark fitfully.
With a grim expression, he slams his shield toward the ancient guardian.
+
Kiri darts around and hits once. The knight barely grunts. Chim lands one strike, but discovers the fire has no effect.
Akoril's arrow misses.
The graveknight lashes out hwen Chim tries to manipulate his armor:
The knight strides toward Wisps, recognizing her as the biggest threat on the field with her debilitating spells —
— barely missing another devastating blow with the pick.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Umandayo
➤ Wisps
➤ Kiri
➤ Akoril
➤ Chimwemwe
Akoril takes a step back and whispers to his bow We will destroy this abomination
After you activate the bow, you can’t activate it again for 7 days. If you kill the creature you’ve sworn an oath against, the oath ends and you need to wait only 10 minutes before you can activate it aga
Akoril then fires a shot.