Jaxon takes a kick at the pink snake and cracks the living ice in nearly half but it still hisses on. The hurting snake is too distracted by the pain to realize that the big man is even trying to do something, as it coils up into a defensive position to avoid the next kick as well.
That however makes it an easy target for Alaric who fires a bolt of fire and melts the thing into a puddle.
Samna steps closer and lashes out with three punches, she only lands one of the strikes but it proves to be a weak point that cracks the ice further than expected.
Kondai tumbles through space for a few feet and ends up behind the black snake and with a powerful punch, pulverizes the creature into a fine cold dust.
Francine, teeth chattering in the cold, fails to warm up and get around the snake’s quick reflexes, and then fails to deal some damage with her weapons as well.
Qigiq then calls down the healing from the stars on Kondai, keeping the saiyan man on his feet at full health.
The final snake realizes its in a predicament and lashes out twice at the two heat sources near it.
Both Fran and Samna prove quick enough to avoid the snapping jaws at their feet. Discouraged the snake decides to slither back into the corner as far as it can go, hissing in defensive fury.
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Kondai 26/26
Alaric 22/26
Jaxon 18/30
Samna 23/30
Qigiq 23/24
~~~~~Round 4~~~~~~
Francine 10/19
Ice Snakes:
Black Dust
Blue: -6
Pink Melted
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The firey one once again fails to dupe out the ice snake, maybe her extra heat has the thing on the defensive, but she does finally land a hit!
++++++++++++++++
Kondai 26/26
Alaric 22/26
Jaxon 18/30
Samna 23/30
Qigiq 23/24
~~~~~Round 2~~~~~~
Francine 10/19
Ice Snakes:
Blue -8
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In the corner Samna and Jaxon move in and quickly shatter the last snake with four well placed hits leaving not even dust behind.
With the snakes dealt with, removing any further items from the place proves easy but it stays frigidly cold and staying in the space might prove to be damaging.
Additionally, with the exception of the recently healed Kondai, everyone seems to have taken some damage from the cold, Samna still having some living ice in her veins.
Alaric 22/26
Jaxon 18/30
Samna 19/30
Qigiq 23/24
Francine 10/19
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After getting the relics out, Kondai will move out of the room, trying not to show that he's shivering from the cold.
"Ice Snakes . . . what else will they come up with?" he says annoyed.
He then gives the slightest of nods to Qigiq, an obvious show of thanks but Qigiq gets the feeling that if Kondai said anything out loud his pride might threaten to eat him whole for relying on another.
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"It looks like we could probably use another rest after this mission." Alaric looks around and sees everyone injured. He combusts the flammable air around him which seems to close several wounds at once.
HP 22/26
AC 20 (22 w/ shield raised)
Resistance: Mental 2
Spells (1) 1/3
Focus Points 1/2
Infernal Detonations 0/1
Hero Point 2/3
Jaxon and Kondai get the last of the scrolls out of the room as Alaric uses a heal spell to get almoest everyone to full, leaving only Samna, Jaxon and Francine still slightly frostbitten.
Qigiq uses a blanket and some heating to help Samna recover from the freezing poison in her veins and she quickly recovers.
Kondai 26/26
Alaric 26/26
Jaxon 25/30
Samna 26/30
Qigiq 24/24
Francine 17/19
With everyone doing better, it's a simple process to gather all of the scrolls and materials from the room and carefully carry them up and out of the cave system. Nearing the exit, the party runs into a slightly charred Galandrial and the golden kobold who met you at the entrance, as the kobold keeps scooping cold water out of a room filled with it and pouring it over the singed elf's burns. He looks up at you, hands not stopping for a moment. "Ah perfect! You were able to get those scrolls after all! I'd help you take them to Gorm but someone still needs my help. Gorm's been wanting people to come and deliver their discoveries in person anyways. I'm sure you know where his tent is and if you don't anyone can point it out to you if you need."
Out back on the surface, the sun is shining bright and the warm muggy air is almost oppressive compared to the freezing cave. Gorm's tent is readily found by the large symbol of the Grand Archive in front of it. Ringing a small bell outside the space, there's a sound of rustling and a call of "Just a moment!" A few moments later there's the sounds of others talking and another group of Pathfinders leave the tent, where Gorm greets you all with a broad smile. "I take it you found some scrolls by that rather large haul you have there! Come on in, did Tavlu, the golden kobold, send you? That's perfect."
The interior of the large, canvas tent is remarkably cool and dry, especially considering its location in a swamp. Several tables fill the interior, and various papers and small objects rest atop them, each carefully labeled. Gorm heads to the back of the tent where another doorway rests, "Given the age and delicacy of these documents, I've been storing them in an extradimensional space made specifically to keep documents safe. Please put them in there. However, I know how dangerous getting ahold of these can be and just leaving them in there without getting a look at them would be cruel."
He opens the door to reveal a small chamber of stone that seems especially dry and cool, with air that is surprisingly hard to breathe. Walking in, he points to a clear table that wasn't there a moment or two ago with a placard with your names on it. "So, feel free to take the documents out, give them a look over them and then set them into the cases over there. There's a limit to how many people can be in here at one time and new groups are coming out all the time, so I can't guarantee you more than 10 minutes, but that should be enough time if you don't dawdle... Also don't forget to use these gloves." He finishes by tossing everyone a set of white gloves.
Undoing the seal on one of the scroll cases reveals a beautifully illustrated manuscripts written in what might be Azlanti.
Everyone starts to open, catalogue, and organize the various scrolls and scroll cases.
Samna is the first to find something that she recognizes. It seems very similar to various scrolls that detail how to perform certain martial feats such as her throwing star stance or the best way to throw a quick flurry of punches. This however seems to be an illustrated guide to how to use some sort of device to open a portal to an Elemental Plane. The movements and gestures appear to be purely practical in use with no magical or arcane significance, and a small scribble of Azlanti numerals at the bottom seems to imply that most researchers at this location had any magical ability whatsoever.
Francine proves to be efficient at opening the scrolls and even more so at gently placing them in storage boxes, but she has little to no interest in the actual contents to more than glance at the scrolls.
Kondai finds a scroll that seems to contain minutes of a meeting (where the recorder go bored and started sketching pictures of things in the columns) where much discussion was given to the topic of branching out to the Plane of Air, but after a long time of back and forth over the topic (as the detailed sketches seem to suggest) the plan was ultimately scrapped due so something that could best be described as ‘howling madness’.
Qigiq finds the personal notes of a person who seemed to be in charge of the maintenance of the device for the portal to the Plane of Water. It includes many intricate prayer designs that bear a striking resemblance to modern designs in some faiths. These ones seem to be asking some deity for ‘help’ in finding a ‘solution’ for some kind of ‘pressure differential.’ Further pages seem to include sketches of ideas on how to alleviate the problem and one even seems to show a hypothetical situation were the portal to actually rupture.
Jaxon moves through his share of the documents with speed getting them all in there individual storage containers before taking a more leisurely look at them. He first realizes there’s some extensive notes about several shell necklaces that the researchers collected, and pictures of how they seem to have been bartered like currency in exchange for services or goods.
He next notes that the writing on one of his scrolls seems to shift whenever he looks at it closely, before he realizes that this is a scroll with some spell written on it. A few moments of examination proves that it contains a casting of Magic Missile.
Jaxon then finds a third scroll detailing various devices the researchers were testing on the Plane of Water. All of them seem to be devices for breathing underwater, but none of them seem to require some source of magic, seemingly instead to be purely mundane pieces of equipment. Sadly the half of the scroll that details how well the experiments went seems to have gotten wet and no details can be made of that part.
Most of Alaric's portion of the scrolls deals with records about gems. A great deal of work was dedicated to the study of gems and the ways in which they could be altered and improved to effectively store magical effects. Much of this combined research utilized both earth and fire portals. Seems the latest version he has starts to examine creating lattices of metal inside the gem itself to hold the magical energy of a spell.
The group is able to finish up documenting and storing the scrolls before there is a knock on the door and Gorm sticks his head inside. ”Time’s up, there’s another group coming in, and they seem to have been through the wringer with some fire… You finished up?”
Stepping out of the room, Galandrial is there, nursing his burned left side but otherwise no worse for wear. The rest of his group seem better, though lightly charred around the edges. Gorm gestures for you to wait while he guides the new group into the room. He then comes out to meet you in the tent. “Did you find anything interesting? Any insights as to what kind of research was happening down there and how?” Showing him the scroll of Magic Missile, he takes a moment to examine it before handing it back. ”We have plenty of examples of this type of thing. Feel free to keep and use it if you want.”
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"Apparantly their research didn't include the plane of air. Something about a 'howling madness' at the time. Might be worth looking into." Kondai says about his discovery. Then he waits by the tent flap so that the party can continue on to their final destination.
When the subject of the scroll of magic missile shows up Kondai lifts an eyebrow.
"It looks like a standard scroll, I could probably even be able to copy it into my spellbook if I wanted."
Gorm quickly has yet another group at the flap of his tent and he gets up and gently sees you from the tent, as he welcomes the new group in. He gives you one final wave before turning and grumbling at the newcomers carrying so much dust into his tent.
Benarry is in her tent, and calls for you to come in. Her place is rather stark bare for all but the necessities for living, a hammock, and several barrels of some variety. She is just putting the lid on something that seems to be a mead she is setting up to brew. She put the lid on it before turning to the group. ”Ah, Kondai’s group? Perfect you’re just in time. Mind helping me lift this over there? Help save my back some pain tomorrow.”
As she moves the barrel, she comments, “Finally going after those ruins? ‘bout time, nearly thought I’d have to give it away to a new group of newbies. Anyways good luck, don’t do anything stupid. Bravery and heroics make great stories, but you’ll never get to tell them if you get yourselves killed!”
She leads everyone over to the entrance she pointed out earlier and removes a rope from in front of it. “New ruins. Exciting! I wonder what could be down there. Deadly traps? Ferocious monsters? A mild-mannered family of groundhogs? I’ll have to tell you about the talking capybara I met once… Now before you go, you have enough food and water for a few days, right? You might be down there for days. But then again maybe everything has collapsed, and you’ll be back before lunch. I wish I could go with you, but having me breathing down you backs would demean your discoveries and exploits. Good luck!”
The entrance, once you get past the parts worn away by the elements, quickly resolves itself into a set of stairs that extend down a few stories into the earth. The place ust have been a sight to see when it was new, gleaming marble and silver decorations… however only a shadow of that remains among the chipped stones, mildew growing everywhere and tarnished furnishings.
Moving into the room direct across from the stairs. Various square stains along the walls are all that remain of the decorations of this room. To the south stands a statue that has lost all shape and definition. The marble seems to be carved with various phrases. If you had to guess this might have been a prayer room? But now it seems bare of anything interesting or important.
The next room off to the left also holds various bits of stone that might have been statues or something else in the past, but now is nothing more than rubble at this point.
Moving past the room on the right reveals another empty room, Jaxon and Samna both move into it only noting a patch of mold that is growing on the ground to the north. Kondai, however notices how cold the room is compared to the rest of the ruins and quickly notices that the fungus to the north is brown mold and seems to be drawing in the heat of the room. The fungus seems to reach for the light sources you carry... or the heat your bodies produce.
The fungus seems to wave as the light leaves, as if giving a morose farewell but otherwise unresponsive to the retreat of the group.
Qigiq can’t recall what type of mold this is, but it seems to not be moving, or at least is so slow it poses no threat to the party that way… But perhaps covering your mouths when passing by again would be a good idea, just to be safe.
Moving down the hallway off to the right expands a large open space devoid of little but the flickering and failing light sconces that line the space making the darkness thin slightly. The pillars that seem to be holding the ceiling up are half broken and parts of it curve in periously but it seems safe enough to pass under.
Starting with the left, and working around in a clockwise motion reveals more than a few empty spaces. The first is a room full of pillars of various thicknesses, but the age and mildew have hidden all but the biggest details.
The other room bears an unusual shape but anything that was in here must have either rotted away to nothingness or been stolen.
Moving into the open space, the one alcove to the north holds only a statue with indeterminate features and nothing else. Moving into the hallway of the only way forward, the party finds two more statues, bearing very few features, but the half broken halo on one and the chipped horns on the other might suggest a heaven and hell motif.
Kondai, Jaxon and Samna quickly realize the floor beyond the room is moving oddly, before noticing the room is filled with thousands of little things that are covered in a slimy substance… and they seem to be closing in on the pathfinders!
The three are able to raise an alarm before the swarms and swarms of these things can close the gap.
++++++++++++++++
Alaric 26/26
Francine 17/19
Jaxon 25/30
Samna 30/30
Kondai 26/26
Qigiq 24/24
Thousands of translucent hairy things!
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