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Ash manages to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the attempted show of dominance. Nevertheless, he's here to act as a good soldier, so he takes the food and starts moving it. Once that is done, and the pathfinders are told to clean up their barracks, he reminds himself why they he's hear, spits on the floor, and starts brushing the spot.
Then the magically adept speed up the process, and he smiles. "That will do as well. Thank you."
None of you find yourselves fatigued from your morning efforts as you Pathfinders join the rest of the Ungrounded for a simple lunch of dark break, salt pork, and lentil stew.
After you return your dishes to the kitchen for washing, Dell escorts you new recruits outside to a large yard of packed dirt.
Captain Othis waits, her face still wearing its seemingly-permanent scowl.
"Listen up, you lazy slobs - if you're going to fight with the rest of the Ungrounded, you have to know how to coordinate with them. There are over a hundred hand signals and verbal commands used, though I'll be lucky if I can get even one of them through your thick skulls. Now march!"
Kridash, and Camina are doing quite well while the others seem to be a little confused.
"Well at least some of you aren't complete wastes of air," Captain Othis bellows after over two hours of drills.
"Maybe they can teach the rest of you sorry lot how to put your pants on in the morning too. Now move!"
She marches the Pathfinders outside the city to a rocky field where what looks like an obstacle course has been set up.
"Alright you sacks of wet noodles, it's time to show me what you're made of!" Captain Othis orders.
She points at a 4-inch wide log spanning a pit gouged into the rocky ground, then a tangled mass of metal wire filled with glass, sharp rocks, and broken bricks, then to a 30 ft high stone wall, and finally to an abandoned quarry filled with muddy water.
"Your goal is to get to the other end of this obstacle course without making yourselves look more incompetent than you already have."
She blows on a shrill whistle and looks at the Pathfinders impatiently.
"Get to it!"
The log is the first obstacle - a thin piece of wood straddling the two sides of the pit. It will take some grace and skill to cross this without losing one's balance.
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Shenendril is glad that no one pays much attention to her when it comes to the commands. She's pretty lost about them all. But, the other pathfinders do so well that she is overlooked. She gives a grateful smile to them all as they move on to the next trial.
"There's some sort of slippery stuff on the log. Perhaps that spell you used earlier might help in this situation, Zandu? A clean log will be easier to cross."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shenendril's hint helps the team get rid of the grease but that unfortunately does not really help her.
She starts to cross and immediately loses her balance and really falls on the ground!
The captain just laughs!!
Shenendril tries again and this time she expertly gets over the log!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The captain looks at Shenendril and points at a structure.
"Well, the next obstacle will take the air out of your lungs, Sylph!" she says.
Shenendril sees that the area beyond the pit is covered in a tangle of metal wire scattered with glass, sharp rocks, and broken bricks.
A crawlspace 2 feet in height is the only passage through the detritus.
~
Tracking
Obstacle 1 Balancing Act:
Obstacle 2 Bear Crawl:
Shenendril: Obstacle 2 Bear Crawl, 2 damage
Camina: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Kridash: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Ilarien: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Zandu: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
BOLD is up!
Ilarien is a champ and has perfect balance when she crosses the pit!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The captain looks at Ilarien and is almost satisfied when she gets stuck at the opening and is really not able to push herself through.
"Pull the woman out of the bear trap! This is embarrassing! Now go and climb the wall!" she shouts at Ilarien.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A stone wall faces Ilarien once she is pulled out and placed in front of the bear trap. This wall is 30 feet high. The sheer rock wall has few handholds
~
Tracking
Obstacle 1 Balancing Act:
Obstacle 2 Bear Crawl:
Obstacle 3 Climbing Wall:
Shenendril: 1 success, at Obstacle 2 Bear Crawl, 2 damage
Camina: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Kridash: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Ilarien: 1 success, 1 failure, at Obstacle 3 Climing wall
Zandu: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
BOLD is up!
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Zandu obliges Shenendril's request, and cleans the log of grease. He then quickly and nimbly follows after her over the log.
Seeing the tiny crawlspace, Zandu grins a little and casts another spell; a layer of grease now covers all of his clothing!
Once on the other side, Zandu looks up with some foreboding at the wall they are supposed to climb. He dismisses his grease spell, shrugs, then attempts to make the climb.
Here his physical weakness betrays him, and he seems unable to make any headway at all toward climbing the wall.
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Shenendril's cheeks turn faintly purple with embarrassment when she falls. But that just makes her that much more determined when she tries again.
She largely ignores (or pretends to, anyway) the Captain's dismissive comments at the next obstacle.
She gets into the obstacle easily enough but then gets stuck for several seconds.
Finally, she makes it to the final obstacle.
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Balancing Act
Bear Crawl
EA untrained
Climing wall
Ash clears the log with relative ease, but has problems with crawling through wire. His light frame embeds itself into the mud like a nail, and he has issues pulling himself out. Once he reaches the climbing wall, he seems short of breath after the mud crawl... He looks at the wall, cursing quietly under his breath.
He offers a hoist to anyone while he catches his breath again. "Explore, Report, Cooperate!", he whispers as he makes a backet out of his hands just above his knee to other approaching pathfinders.
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Rushing in, you see a halfling in a chain shirt with a buckler strapped to his forearm. He manages to hastily catch up to your group as you as doing various morning drills in an attempt to ‘prove one’s worth’ to the hosts.
Ryskovich looks as the log before him, and cocks his head to the side slightly. Okay, seems straight forward enough as he puts his buckler away and begins to cross the log.
————-
(Presuming I get fished out of the pit and put in front of obstacle 2? If not then fix as needed)
Ryskovich dusts himself off if dirty and looks at the field of glass, debris, and other pointy objects. He tries to carefully traverse the danger before him. He manages to get a few steps, then crashes face first into the metal wire. He barely gets his footing when he fails to traverse the obstacle before him.
His face gets a combination of frustration, and anger as he looks at the wall before him. You’ve got to be fricking kidding me! What the blue hells is the point of this! he lets out under his breath.
He searches his backpack for the silk rope, and tosses it at his fellow pathfinder.
The captain looks at all of you Pathfinders and shakes her head.
“It seems as if you’re undisciplined and unorganized association is sending another recruit! I’ve just received the letter and as usual I am not amused!“
When the captain sees that the Halfling is already starting the action but is really not successful she is furious.
She points directly at Ryskovich.
“You Halfling!! If these 10 that I always hear about from your organization sent someone like you to support this Pathfinder team then I have no reason to believe that you can achieve anything here!“ she shouts.
The captain looks at Ilarien with a stern look.
"If you use a rope or magic to bypass the wall, I can only berate you for being too weak to scale the wall unassisted! These cheap tactics do not count as successfully conquering the obstacle!" she says with a raised eyebrow.
Zandu, Ash and Shenendril also fail to climb over the wall!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A stone wall faces you that is 30 feet high. The sheer rock wall has few handholds
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Behind the wall there is an abandoned quarry filled with muddy water that is 15 feet deep.
"Come on! Do not stand in front of the wall you lazy fire crackers. If you cannot climb then swim!" the captain says and points to the other side.
~
Tracking
Obstacle 1 Balancing Act:
Obstacle 2 Bear Crawl:
Obstacle 3 Climbing Wall:
Obstacle 4 Sink or Swim:
Shenendril: 2 success, 1 failure, at Obstacle 4 Sink or Swim
Camina: Obstacle 1 Balancing Act
Kridash: 2 success, 1 failure, at Obstacle 4 Sink or Swim
Ilarien: 1 success, 2 failure, at Obstacle 4 Sink or Swim
Zandu: 2 success, 1 failure, at Obstacle 4 Sink or Swim
Ryskovich: 2 failures, at Obstacle 3: Climbing Wall
BOLD is up!
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The wall seemed much less daunting that the water. At least with the wall, if she fell her natural connection with the plane of air would have saved her.
There was a rumor that her many times great grandfather was a brine dragon but she didn't get any traits from him if that was true so she had no affinity with the water. She could only hope no one would actually let her drown.
It is surprising that a being made so much of air could sink so much but Shenendril quickly recovers.
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For want of any strength, Zandu expects to do horrible at the swimming challenge. So, before going in, he leans on another alchemal solution and pops an air crystal into his mouth. He then immediately goes into the water.
As expected, he swims about as well as a rock, and drops pretty quickly. Luckily, he can still breathe, and so just walks along the bottom until he reaches shore and comes back out again.
As your new Halfling Pathfinder companion Ryskovich begins his climb, suddenly something happens ...
... loose a barrage of rocks and pebbles are suddenly triggered and they fall on Ryskovich's head!
The bleeding halfling suddenly slips and is knocked back to the ground!
~
The captain looks at all of you and just shakes her head after seeing the swimming performance of the remaining Pathfinders and that some of them had to be fished out of the water!
"Not a single one of you was able to make the whole challenge. Do you feel any shame? Do you want to give up?"
The swimming obviously is the last challenge.
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"Yes, I am ashamed of my performance here. Clearly, I need to work on my physical skills more. But failure is not a reason to give up, it's a reason to learn and try again," Shenendril calmly replies to the captain, though her shivering and some of the water on her face may not have come from the pool.
Camina obviously has perfect balance!
Captain Othis looks at Camina who is only struggling with the swimming and takes a deep breath.
"Enough!" she bellows. Pointing at two Oread, she continues, "Stop lazing around and get those Pathfinders out of there before they drown."
Within a few hurried seconds, you Pathfinders stand assembled in a line before the captain.
Most of you are still soaked from swimming in the muddy water, but Ryskovich is no less worse for wear after the fall.
"Listen up roaches," Captain Othis yells.
"You need more than strength and agility to succeed in battle - not that there seems to be much of either between you sad lot. You need to know what you're up against and how to fight it. So let's see how stupid and unprepared you really are!"
She points at board with questions.
"How many soldiers are typical for efreeti battalions?"
Her finger shifts.
"What is the quickest way to extinguish your companion who has been set on fire during a battle?"
Next she points at. "How does a salamander typically fight, and what are the best ways to counter it?"
Then: "How do you keep yourself from immediately going up in smoke as soon as you set foot on the Plane of Fire?"
Next: "What are fire elementals immune to?"
And finally: "An efreeti squadron is on your trail and has nearly caught up to you - how to you throw them off your trail?"
She folds her arms and waits impatiently for answers.
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Shenedril stands with her head down and shoulders drooping, watching a puddle of dirty water form around her feet as her clothes drip on the ground.
She can only dread what the next test will be...until it happens.
"Wait...I know this stuff," she comments.
She rattles off the answers almost as quickly as the questions are asked.
"512"
"Dousing or submerging them in a non-flammable liquid if it's available, if it's not rolling them on the ground and snuffing the flames with heavy cloth."
"Well organized units using polearms. Getting within their reach and breaking up their formations."
"Ideally targeting your arrival to one of the few places suitable for creatures not suited to extreme heat combined with magical or alchemical resistances."
"Fire and heat, of course but also poisons, bleeding, sleep magics and stunning."
"Seek out and cross a body of water."
As Shenedril answers the question correctly and Ilarien adds details, both receive a follow up question based on their answers!
~
Ryskovich receives a stern mocking from the captain and she asks a follow up question!
~
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Kridash sighs when the barrage of questions ends. He cracks his neck to both sides. "A squadron of whoever should know better than to trail us. We are a well-oiled machine. Each of us a cog with a different purpose. I'm sorry if you were looking for an all-purpose tool in each of us. Where we come from, people specialise in what they do, and join forces to overcome. Some know their weakness, some know how to hide, some know how to crush their joints."
He looks at Ryskovych. "You okay, buddy?"
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Zandu looks concerned at this, a frown crossing his face as he tries to come up with some reasonable answers. "I am not sure of my information, though am eager to learn more. From what experience I do have, though, I understand that..." He then goes on to try to give the best answers he can. He stumbles a bit on the second question, but generally keeps up decently.
The captain laughs at the Sylph and frowns at Ash for his attempt to intimidate her.
“You are sinking so low that it’s almost unbelievable!“ she says.
She sees at what level Ryskovich, Zandu and Camina are and she asks them questions designed to be insultingly easy, such as
“Which elemental plane do earth elementals come from: the Plane of Earth or the Plane of Fire?“ or “What is the name of the unit you are unsuccessfully trying to join?“ but you obviously are able to answer those questions.
Essentially, Ilarien is the the only that shines in this exercise!
The captain is obviously furious at Ilarien who also answer this harder question.
“You are almost universally worthless! Physically and mentally!“ she says and reminds you of any failures you had in the obstacle course before dismissing you back to the barracks to peel potatoes.
BARRACKS LOCATIONS
The following sections describe the key locations of the barracks that you see during your basic training.
BUNKS
The building that houses new recruits has space for up to 300 occupants, but most of the rooms are currently empty. These rooms are set up like dormitories, each with three stone bunks topped with thin mattresses and sharing a bathroom with one adjoining room. Several communal showers are located at regular intervals throughout the hallway. People seeking a place to hold private conversations can easily find an empty room far from the other recruits.
CAPTAIN’S OFFICE
Captain Othis summoned you to her office several times throughout the course of the training. When she is not busy conducting drills or supervising the training, Othis spends most of her day in the office, leaving only to take dinner and and rest in her private chambers in the evening. The office is cramped and contains a walnut desk, a
hard-backed chair, and a bookshelf.
MESS HALL
New recruits and veteran members alike take their meals in this institutional cafeteria-style dining hall. Several dozen stone tables surrounded by stools occupy the spotless room. A partial wall separates the kitchens from the dining area, providing space for two separate serving lines, though only one line is currently in use. Many of the Ungrounded are deployed, so while a hundred or so mercenaries attend each mealtime, several tables always stand empty.
TRAINING YARD
This training yard is designed to accommodate a variety of drills, demonstrations, and gatherings. It consists of stone viewing stands encircling a large, oval-shaped area of flat ground, from which rise four stone pillars.