Concerned about the group's predicament, Clover conjures a mighty little tree in the middle of the pool. As it sprouts, she takes hold of one of the branches and allows it to lift her up and clear of the water!
Meanwhile, Roark also dives under the water to join Bella, Stitch, and Meat Wagon. He does a little underwater shimmy for the Red Shark and while he can tell that it doesn't really find his performance fascinating, the act is still enough to give a little extra oomph to his antics. The tengu then raises his shield, ready to defend himself.
Those who are underwater have a much better look at what you're dealing with; the sharks have legs, oddly enough, though Yellow and Blue look to be juveniles compared to Red. Yellow and Blue each have a strange, tiny creature attached to them as well, creatures that look to be a cross between a flower and some sort of eel. One of them, Orange, detaches from Blue and moves into Meat Wagon's space, trying to bite him - but the construct easily dodges.
Blue Shark sets its sights on Meat Wagon and snaps twice at the construct, to no avail. It then begins swimming and spinning quickly in place, its movements disorienting!
Yellow Shark, currently underwater, makes for the surface as it approaches Nicole. As it pops out of the water - and into view - it snaps at the alchemist...only for Clover's tree to intercede and take the blow! Undaunted, the shark tries again to bite Nicole and once again the tree intercedes, sacrificing its life in her defense. One of the shark's teeth does manage to graze Nicole's arm but it could've been a lot worse.
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Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
==============
Orange
Yellow Shark
Blue Shark
==============
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Purple
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Nicole and Vardarel are up!
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"Because it's fun, duh- oh my gosh! Cute little legs!" Khiari is completely distracted by the cute little legs.
Vardarel does the only sensible thing in his mind and gets out of the water. There's sharks in there, what the heck! He then conjures a ghostly bow that manages to zero in on Red Shark, despite it being under the water, and fires an arrow. Those underwater see a ghostly arrow pass through the surface of the water to strike Red Shark in the back!
Also underwater, Stitch ignores the dizzying effects of the baby shark's dance but Meat Wagon finds it oddly fascinating and lowers its defenses somewhat.
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
==============
Orange
Yellow Shark
Blue Shark
==============
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Purple
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Nicole is up!
Nicole flings a small vial of fire at Purple, which misses but still explodes when it connects with the water and splatters all around. While Purple does take some damage from the splash, Nicole notices that Yellow Shark doesn't seem to be affected.
Purple detaches from Yellow and swims towards...
...Nicole, attempting to bite and latch on to the alchemist. Luckily, the attempt is clumsy and easily evaded. Red Shark, no longer fascinated, beelines towards Bella and clamps down on her leg. Worse, it dives deeper into the pool, dragging Bella with it!
"Shark with legs??" Selan calls out from beyond the wall of fire. "Those are brine sharks! Get out of the water if you can, they're a lot slower on land!"
"Sometimes sharks bite more out of curiosity than anything! If you show that you're not tasty or an easy meal, they might lose interest," Taiwalei calls out.
Opting to try a different approach, Roark looks up towards the surface and directs an electrical blast at Purple and Yellow. Yellow eats the full blast and while Purple seems to avoid part of it, the damage done is still enough to finish it off! The tengu then makes for the surface.
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
==============
Orange
Yellow Shark
Blue Shark
==============
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Clover, Stitch, Bella are up!
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Bella remembers this stage performance. People at the beach, playing with inflatable balls, wearing much too little but enjoying themselves.
And then those ominous >two notes.< Sent chills through the audience, although Bella was eager to see why one person dressed in gray was so quiet.
And then he jumps, grabbing one of the underequipped women and dragging her backstage, leaving a stream of tomato juice across the stage. The crowd was aghast with fear. Bella followed every note, every effect, the timing and direction was perfect. What an incredible introduction to a fantastic show.
Unfortunately the sequels were... of lesser quality.
Bella's eyes blink open.
Khiari responds.
Bella considers her options. Her first attempt is to escape.
If that frees her, Bella will spend an action getting to shore. If it didn't, she will try to pretend to fall limp, hoping the shark will let go as she isn't struggling.
Khiari takes this moment to get to shore next to Clover and Vardarel.
If Meat Wagon had a head to nod with it would. If it had a blinker or hazard lights it would activate those too. Instead it just moves through the water, trying to squeeze, under and around the blue shark towards the beach. Best do what the loud one wants.. I guess.
Clover heeds Selan's advice and retreats out of the water before turning around to blast Red and Yellow with a jolt of electricity. Both sharks manage to partially avoid the blast but Yellow is looking rather bloodied.
Underwater, Bella manages to wriggle free from Red's teeth and kicks furiously for the surface. While normally it'd be slower going she gets a boost on her way up and out that's similar to what Meat Wagon experienced when it was expelled from the pool you found earlier. She comes staggering out of the water and onto the shore, with Khiari following close behind.
Now the only ones left underwater, Stitch raises his shield and indicates what Meat Wagon needs to do. The construct moves through the water with all the speed and grace of a blimp but manages to slam into Blue just the same, sending its now-lifeless body tumbling through the water! Meat Wagon then triumphantly rolls up onto dry land.
Orange, deprived of its meal, turns and heads towards the two Pathfinders still in the water. It lunges at Roark, sinking tiny teeth into his flesh. While this itself doesn't hurt, the tengu feels a little dehydrated as the lamprey drains the water from his body.
Yellow Shark makes a beeline for the nearby shore, swimming past Roark and moving up to the patch of weird metal trees. The shark then begins snapping and biting at the trees, chewing on the mixture of wood and metal and swallowing it down. It seems to grow a little heartier for having done this!
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
==============
Orange
Yellow Shark
==============
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Nicole and Vardarel are up!
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Nicole follows her teammates out of the water while Vardarel focuses on the wounded Yellow Shark. Both he and his ghostly longbow open fire, with their combined efforts finally bringing Yellow down for good!
Red Shark turns its attention to the easy prey still in the water and ascends, breaking the surface to strike at Roark. It bites down on the tengu and finding him tasty, immediately releases to try and take another bite. Luckily Roark is able to avoid this second attack.
Unhappy to be the center of all this attention Roark swiftly beaks the lamprey attached to his arm, forcefully ripping it free of his flesh and killing it in the process. Blood trickles out into the water. He then turns his attention to Red, jolting it with an arc of electricity and damaging it a little bit.
"Go for the eyes, Roark! Go for the eyes!" Taiwalei cries from beyond the wall of water. "Elemental water consumes metal," Selan continues to holler from beyond the wall of fire. "So those sharks probably like to chew on metal too!"
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Clover, Stitch, Bella, Nicole, Vardarell are up!
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"Let us finish this." Bella wades into the water, her cold iron dagger at the ready. "Did you enjoy taking a bite out of my flank? Maybe you'll enjoy this." She waves the dagger close.
Khiari calls out "Be careful with that!" She looks at the dagger with a mix of concern and annoyance.
With her preparation ready, she tries to finish the shark off. If only she had some barrels to bait it- that worked wonders during the play.
Ready to end this nonsense, Bella steps back into the water and brandishes her dagger at Red in a fake-out move before suddenly striking out at the shark's other flank. Blood spurts from the wound but the shark isn't giving up the ghost just yet!
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Clover, Stitch, Nicole, Vardarell are up!
Meat Wagon spins on a gold crown and races back across the surface of the water towards the remaining shark. Smash 'n slice! Trample 'n dice!
Vardarel tries to weaken the shark with a bolt of dark energy; it strikes Red and it *does* look like the shark grows a little bit weaker for it. He also continues his ghostly bow to continue raining down arrows but this time its aim is a little off and the arrow misses the mark.
Meanwhile Stitch commands Meat Wagon to unleash hell while he raises his shield - just in case. Meat Wagon rumbles back into the water and tries twice to slam into the shark, but the darn thing is evasive! Clearly this shark was the biggest and toughest of the trio.
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Clover & Nicole are up!
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Nicole gets into a nice position and throws a fire bomb at Red! "Good thing you got out of the water. I just hope this bomb works on you." she babytalks to Red before throwing the bomb.
fire damage, plus 2 persistent fire damage, and 2 fire splash damage
She then loads her hand crossbow.
◆ Stride
◆ Quick Bomber
◆ Interact to load weapon
Nicole maneuvers into position and flings a vial of liquid fire at Red. Unfortunately, Red seems a little harder to hit than his other shark friends. The vial shatters against the surface of that water, splashing the shark, Bella, and Meat Wagon. While Bella and Meat Wagon suffer minor burns, the shark seems completely unaffected.
From the shore, Clover summons fiery phoenixes that heal her friends with rejuvenating flame while blasting the shark. And the shark eats the fiery blast, unable to dodge! And yet, it looks like the shark still manages to weather the bulk of the damage. It's almost as though it's resistant to flames...
And for good measure, Clover also directs a little of healing Nicole's way, completely mending her wounds.
Red, finding itself face-to-snout with a thing made almost entirely of metal, goes to town and rips into Meat Wagon with great gusto!
*CRONCH CRONCH CRONCH*
Nearby, the wall of fire seems to diminish somewhat in intensity and you hear Selan give a triumphant cry. "There! Now it's passable without burning to an absolute cinder!"
"You first," comes a rather dry response from Yeyacha.
______________
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
Nicole
Vardarel
==============
Red Shark
Active Conditions: None
Environmental Conditions: Metallic Tree Patch (Difficult Terrain)
Everyone is up!
Roark steps in to flank with Bella and gives the shark two hard, decisive beak strikes that finally put an end to the aquatic menace! The two arrows that sail over Roark's head milliseconds later serve to put a nice finish on the whole strange encounter.
With the defeat of the sharks and their lamprey hangers-on the elemental rifts slowly close, leaving behind the shallow pool of water (now truly a shallow pool), a line of burnt grass, and the odd-looking metallic trees. A few of you are injured and Roark's lamprey bite is still oozing blood, but it could've been much worse.
Roark
Clover
Stitch
>Meat Wagon
Bella
>Khiari
Nicole
Vardarel
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Stitch's face contorts in anguish at each loud CHOMP from the red shark. You can tell a bit of his soul is chewed up with every bite. Whew! Seeing no immediate structural or functional damage he lets off a sigh of relief.
"Finish the job Meat then get to the shore so I can make some repairs." Everyone immediately hears the mower blade engage as the red shark is blended, sending a frothy briny mess in all directions, much to Meat Wagon's delight.
Stitch taps his imaginary watch a few times as a reminder "We got a few spare minutes. I'll fix the wagon, you guys check out them weird metal trees.. grab me a few samples to take along!" He quickly disappears under the hood, making repairs.
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Bella watches the red shark turn to red chum against Meat Wagon before making a wise decision to exit the pool. "Blood Red does not go well with my dress."
"Many thanks, Sir Vardarel." Most of the bite wound closes. "I've never fought a shark before. They don't roar like I thought they would."
Khiari stomps through the puddle. "Of course they don't roar! They're sharks! You're still thinking about that fourth play, aren't you? When the shark explodes? Gah! That was terrible! And don't get me started on the shark curse."
"It was over the top, but very bright. Besides, the actors said they had a free location so they could act on set. It wasn't all bad." A smile creases across Bella's face. "They even transported us to the Mwangi Expanse for the opening night. Father had many connections that gradually paid off."
Khiari's sigh mixes resignation and acceptance. "Yeah, I saw the encore performance at the Waterfall that Doesn't Stop. Father was eager to see it again with me. I still don't get the appeal."
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As Meat Wagon begins turning the water red, Vardarel moves to the path that will lead to back to the Grand Lodge.
“Only play involving a shark that I remember had a daredevil jumping over the shark. Think it was meant to be a satire.”
He waits patiently, figuring the group could spare the ten minutes it would take Stitch to repair his construct.
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Clover watches as Roark spits out his potion right back into the bottle. "You should show off that skill on stages! I'm amazed that you didn't slosh it over the sides!" But then she pauses. "But um... you really should mark that one so others don't try to drink it."
Khiari facepalms as Bella's imagination carries her mind away. "Great, now she's going to be thinking about jumping over sharks. Not on my watch!"
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"Anyone hurt?" Nicole draws out some minor elixirs of life the others can drink on. She even checks out the unusual creatures they just defeated. She also comes forth to the others behind the barriers of elements. "Are you alright?" she asks their other companions while her Pathfinder allies are making a conversation about the recently concluded water fight.
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Seeing no one check on the important bit of their recent experience, after the repairs Stitch rolls up on Meat Wagon to examine these odd metal trees. "Always take the time to experiment with new building materials, alloys, hardening methods, and otherworldly 'stuff'. Its how innovators keep on top of their field."
He salvages any broken bits from the shark chomping, the bigger the better. "Don't give me any lip, I know you can carry much more weight than I am!" He raps his fist against Meat Wagon's quarter panel.
With the last shark taken care of, everyone reconvenes and takes a few minutes to patch injuries and straighten their garb - after all, there's a party to get to and it wouldn't do to show up looking a mess! Taiwalei gives an apologetic shrug to Roark. "Well, I thought that if it worked for a hamster then it might work for you. Better than nothing, right?"
When you return to the Grand Lodge’s Events Hall, you find the ballroom packed full of people who begin clapping and cheering upon seeing Taiwalei. On the far side of the room, a large banner with the words "Congratulations on Your Promotion" hangs off the walls. The first word looks a little crooked and crinkled but does not distract the energy from the hyped-up crowd. Fola pulls Taiwalei up to the small stage set up before the banner.
"Friends, fellow agents, as you are all aware by now, Taiwalei has now joined the ranks of our excellent venture-captains, in recognition for all he has done in helping us recruit talent from all corners of Golarion. Many would not be here if not for your enthusiasm or charity. You, Taiwalei, have been a compass to many, and we hope to see that passion continue. It is with pride and pleasure, therefore, that I present you with this opportunity: an assignment for as long as you wish at the Woodsedge Lodge, where you will be working on an effort to map out the Maze of the Open Road."
As Taiwalei jumps in excitement and accepts a token pin bearing the Woodsedge Lodge’s coat of arms, the room erupts into applause. Many shout their congratulations for the venture-captain. A few of the faction leaders look a little less enthusiastic with concern in their eyes but clap sincerely. It’s clear that they are ready to support Taiwalei in his work ahead. Besides, any doubts and reservations they had are quickly swept aside as Taiwalei approaches each of them with drinks and questions on if they have any advice going forward.
The rest of the evening goes swimmingly, full of music, performances, dances, and games. At some point during the party, Fola approaches the group to find out more about how the tour went. She's especially delighted to learn that you made new friends with Gedun and Yeyacha. While it’s uncertain what befriending the duo might bring, Fola is quite optimistic on the matter.
Taiwalei also finds time to sit down with each of you and thank you for the eventful tour. He also eagerly invites you to come help out any time on exploring the maze further. He also asks, "So, have any of you worked with Janira Gavix or Rain in Cloudy Day before? What are they like?"
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You all wave your farewells to Clover, who's competing in a cooking competition in Absalom and head off to your next assignment! You're heading off to the Hwanggot Lantern Lodge in Tian Xia!
You arrive at the Hwanggot Lantern Lodge in the morning. That network from the Maze of the Open Road really cuts down on travel time!
The Lantern Lodge is already bustling despite the early hour, Pathfinders exchange greetings as they make their way in and out. Several local vendors are parked just outside the door with wares pre-marked for their regulars, who snatch up their breakfast and make payments with practiced ease. In the midst of it all stands Venture-Captain Yi Da Som, smiling serenely. She's a samsaran with perfect posture and a pleasant manner.
“Good morning, Pathfinders. Thank you for being so punctual. Please, follow me and we'll get your briefing started.” She heads into the lodge, politely greeting anyone on the way, and opens the doors to a private meeting room. A covered meal of dumplings and rolled eggs as well as a large pot of tea sits on the large table for guests to serve themselves.
Already seated is a woman in flowing robes and an equally flowing waterfall mask that obscures her entire face. “Hello, Pathfinders,” she says. “You may call me the Waterfall. Help yourself to some breakfast and introduce yourselves.”
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Stitch and Meat Wagon roll along the maze with heaps of broken metal tree bits, branches, rocks, and soil samples "You're wheels are still barely even leaving a rut, keep going. Builds character my father used to say." A blast of sooty smoke erupts almost in annoyance from all corners of Meat Wagon's exhaust tubes, but it rolls ahead.
At the party Stitch makes his appearance short and sweet, ducking a bit out of any attention and quickly shuffling towards the food and drink table. Once he's loaded up on as much as he can carry its off to the exit.
Intercepted by Taiwalei on the way out his response is brief "Yep, both. Far too much energy for me!" He grins, hands the man a muffin, and makes a quick escape.
---
Now let's just see what I can do with all this strange metal.. I bet there's something I can come up with... oh yes, check out that tensile strength!
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A female goblin already sits at an adjoining table, sipping tea and munching on a large green pickle. A sweet melodious song wafts from her table, coming from a set of pipes she plays.
Upon seeing the other Pathfinders, she gets up and asks, "Oh, hello. Are you the Paffinders bird-man tole me to meet? I's Lokaloka. I's joining you while bird-man Rork having feathers redone."
She walks up to each of you and asks "Pickle?" while offering the one she's been eating...