"Oh, that's really interesting!" Haunt calls out "Tarwch fi!", and a translucent disk of force shimmers faintly in the air in front of him. The amurrun steps forward, amulet in one hand, and examines the swarm for weaknesses (although he is already unconsciously reaching for the chicken feathers he picked up earlier).
EXPLOIT VULNERABILITY [one-action]
ESOTERICA MANIPULATE THAUMATURGE
Frequency once per round
Requirements You are holding your implement.
You scour your experiences and learning to identify something that might repel your foe. You retrieve an object from your esoterica with the appropriate supernatural qualities, then use your implement to stoke the remnants of its power into a blaze. Select a creature you can see and attempt an Esoteric Lore check against a standard DC for its level, as you retrieve the right object from your esoterica and use your implement to empower it. You gain the following effects until you Exploit Vulnerabilities again.
Critical Success You remember the creature’s weaknesses, and as you empower your esoterica, you have a flash of insight that grants even more knowledge about the creature. You learn all of the creature’s resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, including the amounts of the resistances and weaknesses and any unusual weaknesses or vulnerabilities, such as what spells will pass through a golem’s antimagic. You can exploit either the creature’s mortal weakness or personal antithesis (see below). Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren’t already.
Success You recall an important fact about the creature, learning its highest weakness (or one of its highest weaknesses, if it has multiple with the same value) but not its other weaknesses, resistances, or immunities. You can exploit either the creature’s mortal weakness or personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren’t already.
Failure Failing to recall a salient weakness about the creature, you instead attempt to exploit a more personal vulnerability. You can exploit only the creature’s personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren’t already.
Critical Failure You couldn’t remember the right object to use and become distracted while you rummage through your esoterica. You become flat-footed until the beginning of your next turn.
You can attempt to Exploit Vulnerabilities in one of two ways: either by invoking properties that repel that type of creature, or by attempting a more improvisational, ad-hoc method with your esoterica that can impose a custom weakness on any creature, albeit one that usually isn’t as dire as a creature’s existing weakness.
Mortal Weakness After identifying a creature’s weakness, you use a thematically resonant bit of esoterica to attune your attacks to your discovery. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes activate the highest weakness you discovered with Exploit Vulnerability, even though the damage type your weapon deals doesn’t change. This damage affects the target of your Exploit Vulnerability, as well as any other creatures of the exact same type, but not other creatures with the same weakness. For example, when fighting a pack of werewolves, you might use silver shavings or crushed moonstone to deal damage that applies their weakness to silver to your attacks against any of the werewolves, but you wouldn’t apply this damage to any other monsters with a weakness to silver.
Personal Antithesis You improvise a custom weakness on a creature by forcefully presenting and empowering a piece of esoterica that repels it on an individual level; for instance, against a tyrant, you might procure a broken chain that once held a captive. This causes the target creature, and only the target creature, to gain a weakness against your unarmed and weapon Strikes equal to 2 + half your level.
AMULET’S ABEYANCE [reaction]
ABJURATION MAGICAL MANIPULATE THAUMATURGE
Trigger The target of your Exploit Vulnerability would damage you or an ally within 15 feet of you.
Requirements You’re holding your amulet implement and are benefiting from Exploit Vulnerability.
You forcefully present your amulet to turn away harm. You or a target ally within 15 feet gain resistance to all damage against the triggering damage. The resistance is equal to 2 + your level.
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"They seem to be resistant to my spout of water!" Laesah informs the others with some frustration. "It would seem that this swarm bears properties that no swarms I've ever encountered have! I am sure that Madame Koride would be keen to study the properties of this heretofore never before seen swarm!"
Laesah gulps as Much gets engulfed.
"If we survive, that is."
Maddox runs into the room, sets up a flank with Haunt and makes a stab with his rapier. It hits! He pulls his blade back and sees one caterpillar skewered on his point.
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Laesah whips her ponytail back over her shoulder and down her back. Her form blurs. With a whip-like movement, Laesah repeats the thrust of her hand in front of her and a further blast of water buffets the centipede swam from underneath.
"PerhapsIwasincorrectaboutthelackofdamagefrommywaterspoutspell," she says quickly.
Laesah's gout of water blasts more away. The swarm is starting to look significantly diminished, but it's still a threat.
Initiative
1. Laesah - X
2. Much - 17/32 HP <-- We are here
3. Swarm - 23 damage taken (now updated for proper Spout rules)
4. Haunt
5. Maddox
Much reels out of the swarm, and strikes out twice at the vermin.
Much smashes down on the swarm. It looks pretty depleted, but it still flows over Haunt and starts biting.
Initiative
1. Laesah - X
2. Much - 15/32 HP - X
3. Swarm - 27 damage taken - X
4. Haunt <-- We are here
5. Maddox
Haunt quickly attaches several of Pelaksana's dropped feathers to the tip of his rapier and starts stabbing at the centipede swarm, waving his amulet in a strange pattern with his other hand.
"Fear the feathers of my poultry blade, you oversized carnivorous poison-spitting vermin!"
After his second stab at the squirming menaces, Haunt calmly speed-walks away from the swarm.
"No worries, Laesah! It's all goo ... hey, the little bastards bit me! Ugh. I don't feel so hot."
After stabbing once and only doing a small amount of damage, Maddox assesses the situation. He also stops to think if he might know anything about this particular enemy.
Feeling good about his odds, he sets up to strike.
Maddox feels like he did some damage that time and tries again.
Maddox analyzes the movements of the depleted swarm, thrusting forward at just the right moment, skewering all the remaining centipedes on his rapier.
Maddox pulls out his healer's tools and rushes over to help Haunt, who looks quite unwell. In his spare time, Maddox has been reading more about medicine so when he bends down to Haunt, he looks him over with a more trained eye than before.
He moves over to Much, who has sustained damage and attempts to patch her up.
Still woozy, Much gives a deep, appreciative nod to Maddox and a disgusted glance to the small puncture wounds on her shins before turning her gaze to her poisoned packmate.
From the cast iron pot, you hear a banging and a muffled voice. "is it ok out there? i don't want to be bug food!"
Maddox gladly hands over his Healer's Tools to Laesah and watches as she does a slightly-better job than he did looking after Haunt. He puts a hand on her shoulder after she's done and says, "That was a good try. I can learn from you, I think."
He then turns to Haunt, who still looks rather green, and asks, "How are you feeling? Is there anything we can do?"
Hearing the banging, Maddox walks over to the talking cast iron pot and asks, "Hello?"
"is it safe? are you a bug? if you aren't a bug can you let me out?" Says the voice.
Haunt smiles a little woozily at all the fuss. "Oh, I'm fine. Just a flesh wound. Felt a little dizzy for a second there, but really, I'm OWWW! What in the Hells..."
The amurrun groans. “Actually, I don’t feel so hot after all…”
Much wraps her stone rope around her waist, frowning at the insect pulp staining it, and begins to poke around the room as well.
Laesah grabs Haunt and makes to run for it, pointing out a hole in the base of the wall near the pot that was likely the entry point for the swarm. Much is able to collect some remaining centipedes, much calmer now that they aren't assembled in a swarm.
When Maddox opens the pot, A'mino is in it, squinting against the light. "oh hey it's you guys. i thought i was bug food for sure thanks so much. i just wanted to surprise laesah by getting a job at the kitchen with her, not wind up on the menu."
At that moment, Chef Yao bursts in, flanked by animated brooms whirling dangerously over her head. "I saw Laesah leaving and the injured boy. Are you all OK?" You fill her in and she looks ashamed and disgusted.
"My kitchen doesn't get bugs," she says. "I know the charms and I keep it spotless... I hope you got them all, and that Teacher Ulawa can help.
She thanks you all and gives you a lemon-flavored potion of water breathing and two cat’s eye elixirs that taste like cinnamon.
Laesah's long libs and Ki talents carry her across the campus with great speed. Haunt is wracked with poison along the way and then eventually gets his body under control, shaking off the worst of the effects, right as they reach Koride's door.
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Laesah knocks on the door of Teacher Ulawa, fearful that whatever has given the amurrun the decidedly-green colour to the visible skin around his mouth has not yet run its course.
"Teacher Ulawa! It was a centipede swarm in the kitchen that Madame Yao wished us to exterminate. We were successful, and my classmates are collecting specimens of the aggressive insects, but Haunt here has been envenomed. I'm not sure if it's run its course or not..."
Laesah hurries Haunt into the teacher's apartment.
Koride grabs a small, concave, mirror with a stone set in its center and mumbles, "light," causing a tight, bright, beam of light to spring forth. She peels Haunt's eyelids back and shines the light in each. Haunt winces. She then looks at some of his more obvious bite marks, pushing back his fur to see inspect his skin.
"Pffft. He's fine," the teacher says, dismissively. "Or he's through the worst of the poison anyway - looks like he could use a little healing. Still no reason to let a perfectly good poisoning go to waste..." She produces a clean white cloth from a kit at her hip and dabs around the wound, picking up some greenish poison residue. She places the cloth delicately in a glass jar and seals it.
"This will help with figuring out what's going on, but definitely still bring those specimens. Right then, off you go, try not to come back again until you've gotten them all." Says Koride, returning to her desk and jotting down some notes in an open book.
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A blank look on her face as Teacher Koride bluntly treats and dismisses Haunt, Laesah wrinkles her brow slightly as the teacher sits at her desk. Wordlessly, she turns to open the door to the apartment to leave, glancing back at Haunt with a wordless gesture to come along.
Laesah strides quietly back to the dorms as agreed upon with her team, face screwed up in consternation, providing only grunts to Haunt's words. Once back to the dorms, she heads to the wash room and grabs some rags soaked in water, then comes back to ther amurrun.
"We'll wait for the others in your room. You need to rest."
The anadi looks troubled.
Haunt mutters something like "Thanks, Laesah. Do you think Anchor Root knows any healing spells? I gotta pick up more feathers from that chicken anyway," then collapses onto his bed.
Much gathers up her centipedes and hurries back to the dorm, concerned about her Ammurun friend and more than a little battered herself.
You find Anchor Root and she looks concerned as you tell her your story. Pelaksana scratches the floor angrily. Between her magic, and Maddox' medicine, you are all patched up, but now most of the day is gone.
Maddox looks up at the waning sun in the sky and then around at his friends after having spent some time mending Haunt to full health. "I would like to swing by the gardens, if no one has any objection. We should check in with Thema," he says. Hoo, on his shoulder, says hoo encouragingly.
"If it is all right with you, I'd like to go tomorrow. I could use a night's rest." Much says and gestures at her ragged shins.
After some rest and further healing, the party heads out to continue the assignment. The riotous Leshy Gardens are a tangle of trees, shrubs, and vines amid carefully cultivated green spaces, such as sparring fields and picnic spots.
Small, twisting paths lead through the foliage, and the leshys along the way are happy to have visitors, waving and greeting you with excited voices. They are industrious today, carving and shaping large pieces of wood, layering them together to make thick, but supple, sheets.
Thema, the groundskeeper/head gardener isn't on hand, but a gourd leshy named Shade-in-Autumn explains the situation. "Bark beetles. TONS of them." Shade says. gesturing at the piles of lumber they have amassed. An infestation of bark beetles has been gnawing on the bark plates they’ve been working on, slowing down their progress. "Koride says she can help remove them if she gets a sample. We need the help. They won't bite people, but they will bite a leshy." Shade holds a finger up and shows some damage from what must be an insect bite.
Maddox, with his keen investigator's eye... ...notices that the bark looks to have a pattern in it. At a glance, you aren't sure what it means - it would require closer inspection to figure out.
Much, hands on hips, lips pursed and single eyebrow raised, stands up on her tippy toes to peer at the bark over friends' shoulders.
"Hmmm..."
With a little help from Maddox, Much is able to puzzle out that the bugs seem to be chewing a pattern into the bark. It looks like the runic markings that would be used in summoning or conjuration.
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"Are they....summoning something?" Laesah whispers incredulously. "They're insects! They don't....unless...."
Laesah looks around in horror.
The anadi youth stands in her hybrid form at the mouth of a massive, moss-grown cave within a dark forest. All around, a pitched battle roils between different anadi in hybrid and full spider forms and large roiling worm creatures. A flash of fire, a boom of an explosion, the scream of anger and terror encircles all.
Laesah watches as a circle of anadi in spider form, legs entwined, scuttles forward towards the mouth of the cave. The ring glows with a pale unearthly energy that rises above their forms, humming with intensity. As the group reach the mouth of the cave, the energy coalesces into a blob budding off of the ring, not unlike a bubble being blown from a wand. The bubble breaks off and floats to the cave entrance.
In an instant, it implodes and dissipates. A robed figure on two legs becomes highlighted within the mouth of the cave, thrusting a staff above its head to destroy the energy. Its flesh as we come closer seems to be moving under its skin, and then we see...
...there is no skin. Only vermin. A walking anthropomorphised swarm of vermin.
Laesah watches entranced as the bipedal swarm gestures towards the anadi ring with its staff, a cruel purple energy glowing. The anadi ring has reformed another pale bubble of energy, this one smaller than before, their efforts clearly lessened. The bubble is released as the Worm-That-Walks releases its purple energy...
And Laesah falls to her knees with a soft cry in the Leshy Gardens.
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Shade approaches Laesah where she's fallen and reaches towards her, a viney hand rolling out and resting on the anadi's shoulder. Dew collects under the eye holes of the pumpkinesque face, glistening like tears. Shade frowns with concern and says, "Don't be afraid, you are with friends. These bugs are a nuisance, so we asked for help, and they sent you." The frown turns into a gentle smile. "You will help us. The leaders of this school know what they are doing. If they sent you here, it's because you are the right person for this task. Take heart."
Slowly, leshies appear from within the garden, placing leaves, vines, and bark-like appendages on Laesah's shoulders, head, and back. One says, "Thank you." Another says, "We're here." All of them have some affirming sentiment as they circle the young woman, arms outstretched, then still, providing contact and support for as long as it's needed. Patient as an oak tree.
Much rushes to Laesah's side, eyes scanning for whatever could have caused her distress.
Much doesn't see anything that reads as a threat within the gardens. The bugs themselves seem mundane, and are easy to collect for transport back to Teacher Ulawa.
As far as you know, you've done what was asked for - gotten a sample of the bugs causing problems at this location, and discovered a tidbit that might interest the eccentric entomologist.
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Laesah looks up as multiple leshy branches, leaves, and vines drape over her shoulder. She sniffles, rubs her nose, then gives a choked-off laugh.
"Yes, you're too kind. Thank you." She begins to stand from her kneeling position, embarrassment colouring her cheeks. "I'm sorry; it's just a disturbing memory, nothing more. I'm fine."
She fixes Shade with a gentle gaze. "I am here to help."
Laesah joins her companions in gathering the insects, keen to head back to the campus and seek out answers from one of her teachers.
Haunt picks up a piece of the bark with the conjuration rune chewed into it. "Shade, is it OK if we take a couple of pieces of this bark they've been eating back with us? I think Professor Ulawa might be interested in the pattern they're making."
"Of course. Those are compromised, structurally. See you soon!" The leshy says with a wink and a grin.
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Haunt bops alongside Laesah, nervous about her fainting spell and about the possible implications of whatever the beetles are doing.
"Laesah, what happened? Are you OK? Have you done battle with bark beetles before? Why do you think they're chewing these runes into the bark? Are they trying to summon something? Maybe a bark demon? Oh, or a tree demon? What if it's Treerazer? I hope not, he could do a lot of damage in the Mwangi. But it would be exciting! And scary. Is that why you fainted? I don't mean because the beetles are summoning Treerazer - might be summoning Treerazer - I mean because you had a bad experience with bark beetles before?"
Much has been walking about in a bit of a haze, shakes her head loose of vague fears about flesh-eating bugs and upcoming combat tournaments.
She looks around to see her compatriots also seemingly lost in thought. She clears her throat to break their revery and catch their attention. "Shall we head towards the main stage?" she asks. "Might as well wrap up this bug business so we can start preparing for the tournament."
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Laesah smiles at the barrage of questions from Haunt.
"No, it's....uh....it's difficult to explain, Haunt. My people, we have shared memories of historical and cultural importance that get passed down through generations. They often lay dormant until triggered by some event. I must have known at one time in history of malevolent insects being summoned and I guess I was thrust back into that vision. I seem to recall hearing someone describe the phenomenon as 'a former life'."
She shakes her head irritably. "Like I said, it's hard to explain, but I think we should finish the work given to us and then I'll speak to someone about it. I'm sure it'll be fine."
The anadi smiles in a not-completely convincing way.
The party heads to The Speaker’s Stage on the west side of the campus. Several large stone basins form a ring around a grand stage on top of this artificial island, magically illuminating it. The Speaker's Stage is a site for announcements and performances of all kinds. You all know that by tradition, these performances must always be free of charge, and they’re quite popular in Nantambu, even the more amateurish ones.
Delicate water striders crowd around the island, skating back and forth on the water. The insects are plainly agitated and difficult to catch because they dart about so quickly, but these are the bugs you've been sent to capture.
Maddox notices a few townsfolk working across the canal. As you approach the stage, some look on with curiosity.
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"It appears that we have an audience," Laesah murmurs. "Time to put on a show!"
Laesah moves purposefully around the island as she attempts to snag a few of the striders.
Laesah immediately slips on the flagstones and splashes headfirst into the pool, catching herself on the edge in time to pull out her dowsed head and shoulders. The striders scatter away from her as she splutters on the ground.
"Baptism, eh? Seems that you can take the wave out of the druid, but you can't take the druid out of the wave," she giggles, taking a moment to sit on the ground, legs akimbo.
The folks across the water burst into laughter. A few clap. Laesah realizes that this is good-natured, rather than malicious. More people wander over, hoping to see an impromptu show.
People falling face-first into water is universally funny, and Much laughs along with the crowd. Seeing that Laesah is taking things in stride, she decides to rib her a bit more and play the crowd for laughs.
From a standing start she leaps across to a small rock, attempts to scoop up the striders, and leaps back to bow to the sodden Laesah.
There...
And back again...
Haunt waves and gives their audience a cheerful bow. "And for our next trick..." he calls out.
"Carefully, carefully," he mutters to himself. Haunt inches up to the water's edge, kneels on the stone, and sloooowly reaches out over the darting insects. He holds his hands still just above the water skimmers and waits for several to pass close together, then quickly grabs for them.
A finely dressed member of the crowd steps to the edge of the canal and calls over in the clear voice of an orator. "We rarely seem slapstick on that stage. It is refreshing." He says, still chuckling. "Here, take my appreciation, and my encouragement to keep practicing"
He holds a small bauble in his outstretched hand and a bat swoops down, snatches it up, and flies it over, dropping it between the group. Upon inspection you discover it is a Bird Feather Token.
With a quick check of his memory, Maddox notes that the man who sent you the gift is called Asanda, and he's one of the eleven magistrate-mayors who govern Nantambu.
Between Haunt and Much, sufficient bugs are captured. You have now accomplished all of your errands for Teacher Koride.