Chimwemwe and Soomdevi clobber the Vexgits, but they both still stand.
Wisps tries to intimidate them, but they're too cranky to hear!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Akoril
Soomdevi
➤ Alrinkiri
Wisps
Chimwemwe
Vexgit 1
Bee
Vexgit 2
Alrinkiri steps away from the fey, leaving them in a pinched position between the automaton and Chimwemwe. They immediately lash out at the same on Chim attacked, trying to put a quick end to the gremlins.
Akoril slides back over and once again pulls debris around their arrow before firing.
Alrinkiri destroys their target. After Akoril's arrow clatters against the wall the remaining vexgit flees.
Help! Help! Dumb Wizards here!
For now its tiny voice is masked by the bee's droning wings.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Akoril
➤ Soomdevi
➤ Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
➤ Chimwemwe
Bee
Vexgit 2
"Do you think you can catch him?" Chimwemwe asks Alrinkiri as he steps up to the automaton. He drops the pick on the ground and quickly pulls a pinch of enhanced bludwort from his bandolier. He taps Alrinkiri with his dust covered fingers at three vital locations to speed their healing. "There."
He bends down and retrieves the witch's pick.
"Yes." Alrinkiri dashes after the fleeing creature, darting through the room and following it out the far side and lunging at it as they catch up.
Akoril strides to another good spot and takes a shot.
Before catching his breath for a moment to regain his spellstrike.
Wisps dashes back across the cavern, starting to get out of breath.
"We've almost won!"
Together, you take down the last annoying vexgit before it can call for help!
As you heal up, you search these caverns. You find a pile of bee corpses — it seems the gremlins were forcing them to work to death. The last remaining bee buzzes feebly in a corner, too exhausted to put up a fight or do much at all.
Inside the gremlins' room you find gold worth of trinkets pilfered from the school.
"Binji, do you know what lies that way?" Chimwemwe asks, pointing down the tunnel to the northwest. "Or which way leads toward the Stone Ghost? This way or that way?"
Binji knows! That way! She points at all the tunnels you haven't explored. But the big ons won't go that way right?
”We must if we are going to keep you, Binji, and everyone else safe from the Stone Ghost,” Chimwemwe says. ”You can wait for us here to stay safe. Or make your way away from this place if you prefer.”
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Wisps tries to treat the bee, but ends up bending one of the wings the wrong way! Unable to fly, it crawls slowly, trying to make its way toward the hive you found earlier.
Wisps looks over the bee, to see if there's anything she can do for it.
Wisps tries to treat the bee, but ends up bending one of the wings the wrong way! Unable to fly, it crawls slowly, trying to make its way toward the hive you found earlier.
You move into the next area. Several wide, shallow puddles cover the floor of this cool, moist cavern, including the Southern passage leading ut. Thick brown fungus covers a natural pillar near the northeast passage out of this room.
Binji hides behind Akoril's legs. Binji knows it gets cold in here, by the pillar. She moves quickly through here.
Wisps notices that there is brown mold growing on the pillar. You could disable it with a DC 18 Survival, though getting near it will cause you to take cold damage.
"Why don't we go back and around through the place where we fought the witch so we can avoid that?" Chimwemwe suggests.
You move around, taking several minutes to squeeze through low passageways and chambers to vircu,mnavigatet his section ove cave.
You finally make it around to an intersection that has a wad of blankets pushed up against one wall, out of the way. Tiny bugs crawl all over the blankets.
Binji waddles over to them. This is Binji's home. No one wants her, so she stays here, near Stone Ghost's room. She rummages through the blankets and clutches three poorly-carved figurines to her chest. These are Binji's friends.
There are two secret doors nearby, which Binji blatantly ignores. Time for Binji and her friends to go to big uns’ home?
"We need to stop the Stone Ghost so he can't hurt you or anyone else again," Chimwemwe says. "We can take you to a safe place to wait before we continue."
Wisps nods in agreement with Chimwemwe.
"We can take you someplace more safe, but then we have to see Stone Ghost."
Binji starts to cry, then hides under the blankets. <sniffle> Binji will wait here… <sniffle>…
Binji will hide here… don't forget about her…
Binji tells you about a final secret door, that goes to Stone Ghost's room at the end of the hallway.
You go through the doors, and find that the two corridors converge near another gremlin nest. Unlike the other nests, Soomdevi detects magic in here.
DC 19 ID Magic on beak:
DC 19 ID MAgic on bag:
While quickly searching the room, Chimwemwe comes across a macabre item. "Do gremlins normally engage in taxidermy?" he muses quietly as he pulls a blanket off of the stuffed stirge. "Or did they steal this from Teacher Koride?"
When directed to the other items in the room, he examines them thoughtfully.
Beak:
Bag:
"Ah. They've turned the stirge's beak into a talisman," he explains. "It may prove quite helpful if I affix it to Alrinkiri's hand wraps. The bag is useful though not immediately so. It can hold all of my tools, our books, and much more while weighing little. It could be helpful if we have to travel far from the Magaambya." He raises the mask so that you can see his eyes and the sincere concern within them. "But we need to deal with Stone Ghost first. We should talk about how we want to approach this. He may be stronger than we anticipate. We should probably have sent word to the teachers in case we are overwhelmed--not that I would expect him to stay here once discovered. What is our priority in the coming battle? To stop the Stone Ghost or to ensure we survive to fight another day?"
Chimwemwe chuckles, whether Soomdevi intended to break the tension or not, "They might have trouble fitting through those tunnels. I barely fit."
"From everything we've seen and everything we've heard about this Stone Ghost, it's hard to imagine them going quietly." As they speak, Alrinkiri partially unwraps the cloth bands around their wrists, the better to incorporate the taxidermied beak.
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"I think we must take care of ourselves, first. We can't help anyone if we're dead. We'll see if we can take care of Stone Ghost ourselves, but if not, we can go get more help."
She taps her mouth and looks thoughtful.
"I may still be able to send word."
If there are any spiders around, Wisps asks them to find Tzeniwe and tell her what is happening.
Akoril nods "I can leave a message, but have no way to send it."
Wisps whispers to the spiders, who move away ton find Tzeniwe. Akoril leaves a message and gives it to Binji, who can give it to someone else later. Bonji will do her best. SHe'll mourn for her dead friends.
You return, and push open the door…
This well-appointed bedroom and study almost makes one forget that it’s hidden deep underground. The space is neatly furnished with mismatched items, including a bearskin rug and extraordinarily comfortable-looking chair. A heavy professor’s desk sits off to one side, along with a massive, gently scuffed four-poster bed. Rugs and curtains hang in an inadequate attempt to make the space seem less like a cave, but craggy wall peeks through the gaps.
Chimwemwe affixes the talisman to Alrinkir's hand wraps while Curling-Wisps-of-Smoke searches for spiders and Akoril records his message.
"Alrinkiri, your eye is sharp, you should lead the way," Chimwemwe whispers as he surveys the furnished cave. "If the Stone Ghost has learned from the gremlins he enslaves, he has probably left traps behind." He follows after the automaton and makes his own effort to spot any hidden traps or waiting foes.
Chimwemwe changes his tactics before entering the room. Neither Akoril, Chim, or Wisps see anything amiss in here. The room is empty.
Alrinkiri slinks in, staying hidden. Soomdevi detects magic at the far end of the room. he turns his cone, determining it's on or under the bed.
Soomdevi looks under the bed, and sees two Jinkins; they each hold one end of a wooden mask! AHH! they screech in surprise and tug on either end, neither willing to let the other have the mask!
At that moment the ghost of a young man glides out from a tapestry; his translucent feet don't quite touch the ground. His faceted skin matches the stone blocks that make up the Magaambya campus. His hair and face are made of ruined mosaics. His body is covered in fragmentary runes.
Stone Ghost's voice is deep, like gnashing stone. Kill them all. He pummels Akoril —
— cracking the magus's collarbone!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Ghost
➤ Soomdevi
Jinkin 2
Alrinkiri
Wisps
Jinkin 1
Chimwemwe
Akoril
Stone Ghost laughs at Soomdevi's glare. It's full of cruelty.
Both jjinkins yawn a bit, but blink the sleepiness away.
Jinkin 2 draws a tiny short sword and rushes Soomdevi! Boss said kill! YAAAAAH!
The short sword pricks Soomdevi's ankle!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Ghost
Soomdevi
Jinkin 2
➤ Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
Jinkin 1
Chimwemwe
Akoril
Wisps moves around for a clear shot.
"We will not be defeated!"
Seeing Stone Ghost's massive blow against Akoril, Alrinkiri sprints that way, skidding to a stop on the far side of the ghost and lashing out with two quick strikes!
Wisps' arrow clatters off the wall, Alrinkiri's claws knock bits of stone off the ghost's flesh; he seems largely unfazed.
Jinkin 1 moves in and then pretends to trip.
He then slashes at the witch's feet! Hehehe!
Soomdevi starts to bleed.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Ghost
Soomdevi
Jinkin 2
Alrinkiri
Wisps
Jinkin 1
➤ Chimwemwe
➤ Akoril
Chimwemwe hums deep in his throat, frustrated by the two fronts. He abandons Soomdevi, his torn expression hidden by his mask, and moves to Akoril. He strikes the gnoll on three pressure points to enhance his body's regeneration.
He then traces a glyph on the inside of his arm. The invisible tattoos and the runes on his armor flare with white light. "I'll help Alrinkiri."
Akoril reels as their collarbone cracks, glad to be aided by by Chumwewe.
Akoril draws back a phantom arrow made of acid and fires it point blank.
Akoril then moves deep into the room to get a better firing spot.
Akoril's arrow sizzles against the ghost's chest before he moves back.
---
Stone ghost wheels to Alrinkiri and reaches his hand into their body. Alrinkiri briefly becomes intangible, turning into an ethereal version of themself. Stone ghost shoves them down into the earth.
They are pushed halfway into the floor before their body can fights it off. They rematerialize from the ethereal plane, trapped waist-deep in the ground!
Stone ghost then slams his mace down as hard as he can.
He laughs as he cracks the automaton's skull.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Ghost
➤ Soomdevi
Jinkin 2
Alrinkiri
Wisps
Jinkin 1
Chimwemwe
Akoril
Chimwemwe curses in a manner to make Mariama proud as the Stone Ghost shoves his classmate into the floor. ”Wisp! Can you heal Alrinkiri?”
Soomdevi's projectile flies wide.
Jinkin 2 dashes after Soomdevi! It too tries to feint, but this time the fetch;ing sees right through the ruse!
The creature ends up stumbling for real, accidentally thrusting the swordpoint deep into Soomdevi's left ankle!
The many little cuts are starting to take a toll…
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Ghost
Soomdevi
Jinkin 2
➤ Alrinkiri
➤ Wisps
Jinkin 1
Chimwemwe
Akoril