Vesperscale opens up with a fireball, not caring about property damage to the shadow theatre.
Vesperscale then holds the front and raises their shield.
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Vesperscale barely waits for her to finish speaking as he completely ignites the group of fetchlings.
As the dust settles all but one of the scouts and the lieutenant are left standing as the flames incinerated the oxygen in the air around them.
Tenpot doesn't recall any weakness and begins to work on creating his own as he offers up a glint of bottled sunlight onto his bullet and fires it into the shadowy being, killing the wounded scout.
Aegis stares in disbelief and takes full advantage of the situation, rocking the masked lieutenant with a large wave of magical missiles.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Victoria
Vesperscale
Tenpot
Aegis
➤ Toadclobber
Shadow Lieutenant (Purple)
Wow. Look at those special effects. Opera is the best.
Toad looks at the Scout. The smooth-brain option is give up.
Toaclobber displays a page in his tome that is full of disturbingly violent scribbles.
Victoria devises a strategy against the remaining enemy.
With a good idea coming Victoria draws an alchemist's fire and throws it.
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Victoria tosses an Alchemist fire into the shadowy figure as they burst into flames. The mastermind draws a hand crossbow and loads a bolt firing it at Vesperscale.
The bolt pierces into the curtain.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Victoria
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Tenpot
➤ Aegis
➤ Toadclobber
Shadow Lieutenant (Purple)
(haunts, curses, and creatures of any type)
Toad double moves to the enemy.
Tenpot quickly reloads his pistol and fires again at the remaining foe, then reloads once more.
Pistol: loaded
Ammunition Remaining: 48
Vesperscale hustles forward, striking with her longsword.
Toad eats the moth then scribbles an open portal in his coloring book with his black crayon. A portal opens up in the air.
Uhhh, bravo.
He burps and a single mothwing flutters to the floor.
Before stepping back through the portal, Tenpot turns to his companions, blanching a little as Toadclobber belches out the moth. "So what's the plan with Vir? Bahvan's story rings a little truer after this..."
Do we have any proof or whatever?
Maybe we should let Bahvan handle it.
Do we have any proof or whatever?
Maybe we should let Bahvan handle it.
"I think letting Bahvan handle the tricky details is our best bet." Vesperscale agrees with Toadclobber for once.
"That makes sense, I guess. We should be ready for trouble, though. She may not take our interference well."
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With the portal opened you burst back through behind the curtain where the tiefling woman and Bahvan await you. The tiefling woman seems inpressed. "Thank you for all you have done. You can't begin to understand ow many lives you saved." She holds out her opera glove, itself embroidered with the Helping Hand sigil, with a note written in ink up the arm that says, “Reach out if you require a Helping Hand.”
Just as you grab the glove the portal fluctuates and you feel a strong pull. One by one you are each sucked into the portal as it snaps shut. You rise from the ground with a new Case File spilled out on the ground.
Xopatl has always struck me with a sense of wonder, its ancient, long-lost magic casually defying what we thought possible. The area around Yllaldo Castle has, for several years now, seen an unusually large number of people, or even nonsapient creatures, gaining spontaneous deviant powers at first one every few years, then yearly, and then more frequent. Accelerating. There must be a cause. Powerful things dwell there, and nothing so powerful is ever lost.—K.H.W.
Looming behind you is a large castle. You find yourselves staring at Yllaldo Castle, in the magic-saturated Arcadian nation of Xopatl.
"Xopatl? We've really sailed beyond the sunset now..."
"Wow! Who lives in there? Some kind of big-shot I bet." Toad makes his way up to the castle.
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A muscular man with simple robes opens his tattooed arms in greeting as you approach the doors. “Ah, welcome, heroes! I am glad to see you have come to aid our humble order in our time of need. I am Edibaro Jolínarez, head monk of the Order of Yllaldo, ever in your service.” Edibaro bows slightly.
“As you may have heard, there have been strange goings-on in and around Yllaldo Castle of late. I’ve learned of locals waking with awesome and nightmarish abilities, but becoming overwhelmed with their mysterious powers, often hurting themselves or others in the process. While I can’t explain the reason for these, I do believe I know when they began. Our order routinely scours the network of tunnels and chambers beneath the keep to clear out any creatures that might have taken up residence. During one of these undertakings, we ran into a powerful bulette that caused a sizable amount of destruction. We magically sealed off the area in hopes of returning later to finish the task, but the first transformations and awakenings of abilities began shortly afterward. We believe that something occurred during that engagement with the bulette that might be the cause for all of this."
“Unfortunately, many of our order are now bedridden, injured as others transformed or sickened by their own, and I’m afraid our numbers are too small to safely return beneath the keep to investigate. We assumed a group of investigators such as yourself could take the lead and assist us with the matter. Hopefully we can put an end to this whole matter altogether.”
"A bulette? As in big, armored, land-shark bulette?" Tenpot tries to recall anything he's learned about these notorious creatures...
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Tenpot knows a bit about BUletes, but none that cause the sort of strange going-ons that are happening at Yllaldo Castle.
Bulettes are fearsome predators that roam just beneath the surface of desolate wilderness areas. When they burrow through the ground, only the fin of their thickly armored backs protrudes above—at least until they are ready to leap out and strike their prey. Their appearance, appetite, and iconic dorsal fin have earned the nickname “landshark.”
A typical bulette claims a territory of approximately 500 square miles. When it finds an area rich in food, such as a farming village, it adds that area to its regular patrol route. Over the course of a few months, it can wipe entire settlements off the map. Bulettes are fiercely competitive creatures that battle relentlessly with other predators in their territory. They actively avoid contact or conflict with other members of their kind unless seeking a mate. Bulette pairs share territory and mate for life—a mated pair of bulettes being the only known exception to the creature’s penchant for solitude. They rear their young for a short period of time. The mated pair instruct the young bulette how to hunt, teaching their spawn which creatures are easiest to kill and which creatures to avoid. The mated pair drive off their young after its first successful hunt.
The first bulettes were magically created guardians, intended to serve as frightening pets for a power-hungry and sadistic wizard. The technique for their creation, as well as their original purpose, has since been lost to history, and multiple conflicting accounts of ancient texts exist with dozens of wizards claiming to have been the first inventor of the notorious beast. Some sages postulate that the original inventor may have been an elf—a theory born out of little more than the curious fact that bulettes, for all their ravenous nature, seem to find elf flesh unpalatable. Unfortunately for elves who stumble into a bulette’s path, bulettes are no less likely to kill them than any other intruder, simply leaving the bodies unconsumed where they fall.
"Those things swim through the ground, right? And you're saying you have it contained within?"
"I am full of mysterious powers in my brain. How are these powers hurting people?"
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"Those things swim through the ground, right? And you're saying you have it contained within?"
"We are hoping so, but can't be entirely sure."
"Do you have any idea what could have caused this other than the Mutant X gene)"
“It’s hard to say. We’ve seen everything from extreme strength to astral projection. When these abilities awaken, the person sometimes undergoes a physical mutation—one brother grew a second, fanged mouth over his heart that spits bolts of lightning.”
"I am full of mysterious powers in my brain. How are these powers hurting people?"
“In a lot of cases, yes. These abilities are sometimes powerful, and the newfound power can overwhelm the person. Many people manifest an ability and almost immediately fall comatose. In other cases, the ability is unleashed in a destructive manner that hurts the person and others around them. One traveler began to unintentionally throw things about their guest room as they were unable to control their new telekinetic abilities. Even for those who survive the initial awakening, their newfound abilities are often incapacitating and unstable.”
“I’m sending a few of our monks with you. Some of them are already downstairs, the rest will lead you down to the appropriate area. I have to remain here to tend to some of the ill.”
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The stone tunnel and chamber walls here were all carved by Yllaldo during the keep’s original creation. The walls feature a regular pattern of glimmering bas-relief stars along the wall; while this glimmer isn’t enough to light a chamber on its own, touching a star, causes all the stars in a chamber to glow brighter, filling the given chamber with dim light.
The monks lead you deeper and deeper into the keep for a few minutes before the band arrives at the entrance to this wing of chambers. The monks note a set of obvious guides along the floor that you can use to return to the surface if they need.
A large pair of stone doors, set with a carved star, is the only feature in the otherwise empty hallway. One monk proceeds toward the door, intent on leading the group inside, but just as she reaches out, she lets out an anguished cry. Two more pained screams follow, as all three monks drop to their knees, erupting in flames. The cries grow quiet as the flames seem to burn away what life remains in the monks. A moment later, the monks’ bodies rise, still burning on despite being exhausted of fuel. They howl in pain as they reach out to attack!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Burning Monk 1 (Red)
Burning Monk 2 (Green)
Burning Monk 3 (Yellow)
Tenpot
Toadclobber
Vespercale is ready, as their weapon flashes into their hand with lightning speed.
Stepping forward Vespercale advances with their shield up and slashes into Green 2.
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Vesperscale is ready at all times and quickly draws a longsword slashing into the combusted monk. Aegis calms his mind and begins to shred the air and reality all around the wounded monk.
The flaming monks begin to put off an intense heat that burns everyone around them. Your armor begins to grow quite hot as your skin forms some blisters.
The lead monk lets loose a frightning howl as the man within screams in absolute agony. The heat from its breath burns through what little oxygen remains in the air as the others pummel into Vesperscales defenses.
+ 1d6+2 Persistent Fire
+ 1d6+2 Persistent Fire
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Burning Monk 1 (Red)
Burning Monk 2 (Green)
Burning Monk 3 (Yellow)
➤ Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
Tenpot quickly hops away from the burning monk, his pistol already in hand as he frantically tries to recall anything he's heard in his lifetime of strange stories.
He quickly fires at the howling inferno, hoping to end the monk's suffering and remove the threat, before quickly reloading.
Pistol: loaded
Ammunition Remaining: 49
Vesperscale does surprisingly well against the assault, even if the former monks turned out to be much tougher than expected. Vesperscale turns and attacks Red Monk 1, with a shocking spellstrike.
Vesperscale follows up with a shielding strike.
(haunts, curses, and creatures of any type)
Toad consults his coloring book for flaming monks. Oh ya right here. He has seen these before, and slides an icy blue crayon against his Toadslicer!
Then he slices #1 twice!
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Tenpot quickly realizes that a creature combusted and nearly made of flames has quite the weakness to water. ipping his bullet in water he blasts a decent sized exit wound into the dying monk.
Toadclobber's coloring book gives him quite the flash of insight as he knows quite a bit about these combusted monks. It takes both strikes from Toadclobber but he eventually puts the poor man out of his misery.
Vesperscale holds out against the burning sensation and redirects his own spells into the monks. The electricity flares the flames but the man within shudders in pain as his nerve endings at least stop feeling pain.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Burning Monk 2 (Green)
Burning Monk 3 (Yellow)
Tenpot
Toadclobber
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Aegis backs up sending a small pair of magical missiles into the flaming creature as the heat begins to hurt.
The monks continue to converge, their blistering, and melting hands eagerly reaching out for help, the look of pain and tearful pleas in their eyes as their fire burns brighter and brighter.
DC 19 Basic Reflex
DC 19 Basic Will, Crit fail is also frightened 1
DC 19 Basic Reflex
DC 19 Basic Will, Crit fail is also frightened 1
The raging inferno around you doesn't seem to subside.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Burning Monk 2 (Green)
Burning Monk 3 (Yellow)
➤ Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
Vesperscale tries to finish off Green #2 as gouging claws grow from his sword.
Vesperscale then stays put and raises their shield.
"Usually i am more on fire!"
Toad turns to Monk 3 and slices, his Toadslicer shedding icy blue flecks of crayon.
Then he runs back.
Tenpots moves to get a clear shot, firing his pistol at the remaining monk before quickly reloading.
Pistol: loaded
Ammunition Remaining: 48
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Tenpots pistol blasts the monk backwards. He slams into he wall falling inert once more as the flames take several minutes to simmer down to a non-blistering level.
As you catch your breath, you feel an alien vibration within your own bodies. What at first feels like a light hum quickly grows into a shiver and then an overwhelming but inaudible tone that you feel throughout your own bodies.
Vesperscale watches in horror as she tries to remain conscious herself, though the pain becomes unbearable. One by one you slip inot unconsciousness, only to awaken with a strange set of manifested powers.
Aegis seems to feel a third invisible arm manipulating objects near him as tiny wisps of wind seem to move about him.
The inside of Tenpot's mouth crackles with sparks of electricity as colors drain from his touch.
Toadclobbers wounds smoke as they rapidly begin to seal themselves shut.
Vesperscale seems to consume sound all around her as the strange vibration ceases, though trace amounts of blood drips from her eyes.
Vesperscale stops, drops and rolls.