Sir Batman grabs a bucket and starts filling it! The already bronze-colored sprite seems to be laughing!
As the hot geysers begin spraying our poor bat, he seems to consider this plan a failure!
Sylva stabilizes her reckless flank buddy, and lets him sleep while she gets back to work. In the hope that no one else gets needlessly burned, she warns those still standing:
“Okay, everybody! I got this. Just a little bit of backhair grass, two really round rocks, mushroom mush for lubricant and six bandages to compensate for my lack of duck tape.”
She rigs up a thing that looks like it might work, but it’s probably a good idea to stand far far away. Except someone needs to pedal the basketcycle, which is too flimsy to support Sir Bat’s weight and Nox’s gangly legs would bump the handlebar.
So Sylva mounts her contraption and proudly announces, “We’ll have all the water we’ll need in a
Sylva is not boiled alive to death, as the many bits of brain stuck to her shielded her dainty fairy skin. And as an added bonus—
“I’m… clean. And hurt. Ow.”
As Sylva tends to Sir Bat’s burns, she grumbles a reply to Nox, “Like it’s my fault rocks aren’t round.”
Sir Batman opens his burn7ng blue eyes to grin at Nox' truth. The Champion decides to relax on the nearby grass while laying of sunscreen...errr...hands for 30 minutes!
With the water secured, your mission is complete. Rappelling down the side of She Who Walks is a trivial matter. Once you all have disembarked, She Who Walks Through Seasons turns with a rumbling moan and strides back into the jungle, sinking into the trees and disappearing. You are left with the distinct, inexplicable feeling that She Who Walks understood your goal and approved.
When you return to Loskialua, the elves immediately set to brewing a cure for the obnubilate curse. With a few drops applied to the Shadewither Key, the heinous curse Kaneepo the Slim placed upon the relic vanishes entirely. The elven alchemists use the extra waters collected from She Who Walks to concoct some useful consumable items for you:
• Two bottled omens and two drafts of stellar radiance
• Four lesser antidotes, four lesser antiplagues, and four lesser comprehension elixirs
• Two barkskin potions, two potions of water breathing, and a potion of leaping
You now have as much time as you like to rest, recover, and interact with your new friends. At some point, however, it will be time to go. For her part, the astronomer Alleli isn't one to sit on her hands. After several days of research and examining the Shadewither Key, she finds you and briefs you on her discoveries.
“I think I’ve found a way to get you home.” Alleli’s green eyes gleam. “Before you arrived, I was communing with a distant astronomer named Sakuachi—a human from your world. She hails from the same part of Golarion where Osoyo, the Blackfrost Whale, is buried, but there’s more: she told me she was on a quest to seal away an ancient evil that had recently awoken beneath the ice. And now here you are, bearing a key with Osoyo’s mark.”
Alleli closes her eyes and shakes her head ruefully. “We Oatia believe in omens, not coincidences,” she says. “I believe your mission and Sakuachi’s may align.”
She pulls out a bunch of notes lined with arcane equations. “Through means I won’t pretend to understand, Sakuachi attuned her telescope and mine, creating a bond stretching across the space between our planets. At the same time, your Shadewither Key had the power to activate the aiudara that led you here. I believe that if I can link all three—the telescope, the arch, and the key—I can create a one-way portal from our telescope to hers. A doorway back to your world!”
Alleli grins proudly, then frowns. “I should warn you, though: the magic of the aiudara is poorly understood, even here. It’ll be dangerous, and there’s a chance that the feedback could destroy the artifacts. But, stars willing, it might just work.”
That night, as Ravenna sleep, she dreams...
Your heart pounds in your chest as you catch sight of your father approaching, his figure distorted by the haze that engulfs this surreal realm. His face contorts with anger, his voice rising to a fevered pitch as he hurls insults and accusations your way. But despite his vehement outbursts, his words fail to reach your ears. The sound is swallowed by an ominous void, leaving you in a bewildering silence.
As you strain to understand his words, a flicker of movement catches your attention. A man, adorned in a fine coat that billows in the phantom gusts, emerges from the shadows. His face is hidden beneath a monstrous mask crafted from white fur, adorned with thick, twisted horns that spiral upward into the nightmarish heavens.
Your breath catches in your throat as you feel the weight of his gaze upon you. He stands motionless, observing you from a distance, his piercing eyes locked onto yours. A shiver courses down your spine, for there is something unnerving about his presence. In this ethereal space, you sense that you are merely an unwitting pawn in a twisted game.
You try to reach out, to confront the enigmatic figure before you, but your limbs are bound by invisible shackles. Your fingers grasp at empty air, desperately yearning to pierce the veil that separates you from him. But all efforts prove futile, for this world is not bound by your will.
Time becomes elusive as the dream spirals into an abyss of uncertainty. The figure remains distant, his intentions hidden beneath the impenetrable mask. The dream teeters on the precipice of revelation, but just as you are on the verge of understanding, it abruptly dissipates into the recesses of your subconscious.
Your eyes snap open, and you find yourself drenched in a cold sweat. The echoes of the dream linger, filling you with a lingering unease. Was it a mere figment of your imagination or a glimpse into something darker? You cannot be certain, but the imprint of that masked figure remains etched in your mind, a haunting reminder of the terrors that lurk within your deepest fears.
Additionally, however, you feel a stronger connection to your deviant abilities...
Sylva rests, battling inner demons rather than corporeal monsters, and finding solace in the music that sometimes sounds off around her. She performs for her friends from Golarion, her friends of this faraway world, her goddess, those lost to battle whether an innocent or a foe, whether repentant or deserving of death, and… Sylva is performing for herself. And she is ashamed of this because her big takeaway from that missing moment is I’m selfish.
I’ll get what I want in life, but there will be no one to share it with. They’ll all see me for what I am. Nox, Sir Bat, Ravenna… they won’t waste time with me when this is over.
They’re smart not to…
One night, while sleeping submerged in a bowl of water by Ravenna’s bed, Sylva hears Ravenna wake with a start. Not wanting to embarrass her big friend, Sylva closes her eyes and pretends to remain asleep. After all, how can one hear a gasp when submerged in water? How can one feel the quiver of the end table? Of course Ravenna didn’t disturb her tiny aquatic friend…
A minute after waking, Ravenna hears soothing music. Soft. Calm. An invisible string quartet floating about the room. Perhaps Sylva is dreaming and cast Musical Accompaniment in her sleep?
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Ravenna bolts upright, a hand reflexively reaching for her rifle at her side. She freezes mid-motion, straining to hear the movement of hostile feet over the sound of her own labored breathing.
She hears nothing. Her breathing calms, then hitches in her throat again when the music begins. Seconds pass, and her brain finally catches up with the rest of her.
"Sylva?" she calls out, barely whispering. "Are you doing that?"
Feet firmly planted on good soil, Sir Batman waves a gracious goodbye to She Who Walks Through Seasons.
So, hospitable!
The Champion of Mazludeh makes merry all night with their Hosts. The bronze-colored bat-shaped sprite makes the most of the experience!
Listening to the theory of getting home, Sir Batman smiles.
So, we either get home, or our atoms split into multiple dimensions and possibly time too. Cool.
Sylva pokes her head up from the water. “Welllll…… yes.” A little embarrassed that it doesn’t seem to be helping, she admits, “I hoped it would be… peaceful. But I can stop it if you like.”
"No," Ravenna says, shaking her head, "it just surprised me. Having trouble sleeping?"
Sylva smiles. “Not… really.” She did, after all, drift into sleep with thoughts her friendships are all short-term. “I mean, I worry about some stuff. But the music…”
The music starts to change with the mood of the conversation. Sylva’s feeling is one of hope.
“It’s a blessing from Shelyn I think. Like, I really am better off without those blades. I feel different. Good different. I might never marry a princess like that sprite Shelynite nun who totally carried her team to victory in the Ruby Phoenix tourney, but… I feel like I’m on a good path.
“How about you?”
Once you are ready to depart, Alleli and a handful of her fellow sages meet you at the light‑line gondola headed out of Loskialua. The sages haul with them a massive deconstructed telescope, which they’ll set up at the same ruins where you first emerged on Castrovel. The other elves gather to see you off, along with Hubert Hedge, who has grown fond of this place and has decided to stay here for a time. "Think I'll rest my spikes a spell. I'd suggest you try to do to the same, but I know you've got that adventuring spirit in your hearts. Meh, whatever tickles your prickles, eh? Be well, smoothies!"
The light‑line makes the first portion of their journey relatively easy, and the size and strength of the group scares away predators between the light-line and the aiudara. Soon enough, you reach your destination.
The ruins of this jungle aiudara appear exactly as before. The arch stands atop a crumbling, ten-foot-tall stone platform with stairs leading up from north and south, while lower five-foot-tall platforms bracket the main platform’s corners, tipped by obelisks of darker stone.
Under Alleli's direction, the Oatia quickly rig the telescope to the aiudara with enchanted copper wire. They strap the Shadewither Key to the top of the arch with delicate strands of gold appropriated from someone’s necklace. Alleli makes one last adjustment to the telescope, then looks to you. "Are you ready?" she asks.
Sylva (very carefully) gives Hubert a hug. “You take care of yourself!”
Her Musical Accompaniment is an adventurous tune as the party marches on.
When asked if ready to leave, Sylva wonders what adventure awaits back on the other side. (It’s very likely someone else will speak while Sylva is still lost in her thoughts.)
Ravenna gives Hubert a friendly little wave as they depart. "Stay out of trouble," she tells him, a hint of a smile undermining her serious tone.
Later she eyes the odd construction the Oatia have made with trepidation, but nods when asked. "As ready as anyone can be, I think."
She approaches Ravenna and places a hand on one of her fingers. “I… don’t know what kind of a man your father was. And… you don’t have to tell me, if you’d rather not. Just…
“Sorry.”
Sylva doesn’t think it’s a smart idea to tell Ravenna she gave up a memory of her father’s. The last memory of him. Whatever pain the memory brought Ravenna, knowing she gave up the memory and always guessing at what the specifics might be is arguably worse.
• • •
Sylva gives two awkward thumbs up. “Haha, yeah—ready!”
Sir Batman checks his utility belt, shakes his head sadly because the bronze-colored sprite doesn't have a utility belt, and gives a thumbs up.
Alleli closes her eyes and softly chants as she places both hands on the telescope. Golden light spills out from the gate key and cascades down the aiudara, then through the wire to the telescope. With a deep, chest-rattling hum, the telescope blasts a beam of light up into the sky.
Alleli grins and cries, “It’s working!”
Yet as she says it, the hum takes on a discordant note. Her smile falters as the telescope’s beam suddenly changes direction, refracting toward different points across the sky. The landscape itself begins to fuzz and shift, the stones around the aiudara remaining the same but everything else transforming. Images of alien beings and strange places—dragons in the snow, gelatinous blobs in candyfloss clouds, spindly angels soaring in a starry void—flicker past too quickly to catalogue.
“The aiudara’s broken loose,” Alleli shouts, her hands working frantically at the telescope. “It’s searching for a new connection, and trying to take this whole clearing with it. Hold on—we won’t have another chance at this!”
Alleli adjusts something, and the flickering landscape suddenly locks in place. Cold red desert appears all around, broken up by delicate rock columns and high canyon walls. The gateway ruins now stand in the mouth of a canyon, at the bottom of which lies a strange contraption like an insect with canvas wings.
Forty feet away, a ratfolk in a wide-brimmed hat glares at you from the back of a giant red lizard. He rears his mount and shrieks, “This is my salvage, you too-tall sand-suckers!”
Ravenna draws her jezail in an instant. "Stop!" she shouts forcefully, the barrel of her weapon pointed towards but not quite at the ratfolk. "We're not here for your salvage! We're just lost!"
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"Yeah, right!" the ratfolk shouts back, disinclined to acquiesce to Ravenna's request. As he prepares to attack, Ravenna opens fire, but he dodges her bullet.
The ratfolk hops off of his lizard and lobs pair of alchemist's fire vials at Ravenna!
Meanwhile, the lizard rushes in to attack Batman.
Ravenna's shot goes wide as she tries (and fails) to duck the bomb, and she frantically tries to put the flames out before her gunpowder ignites.
And maybe it’s the late hour, or maybe a nice break to see someone else wrestles with personal demons, and really, worse ones. Ravenna’s problem was her own father.
“I just don’t understand. You’re his daughter… how could he hate you for being that?”
• • •
Sylva smashes the lizard!
“Don’t cook me! I’m not pet food, jerk!”
Sir Batman begins to wave a hardy greeting to the local when bullets start flying, alchemical fires start splashing, and ugly lizards come charging!
The folks 'round des parts be asshats!
The bronze-colored bat-shaped sprite Raises his Shield and Strides 40' right into and personal-like with the ratfolk asshat...errr...Alchemist!
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Nox spent the little bit of downtime studying alongside Alleli and the other Oatia, making speculations on the nature and abilities of the Aiudara gates. "The largest issue aside from accounting for distance that I can see is the sheer amount of energy required to traverse the great dark. There is also the question of how they got here, but that's a question that I believe is unanswerable at this moment."
Nox and Hildy cower as the world shifts around them, "It's unfocusing ahh!"
"Why does everything and everyone we meet want to kill us! WHY WOULD WE TELEPORT TO SCRAP! That doesn't even make any sense you quack so stand down!"
It seems somehow some of the great dark followed the crew through the portal and reacts to Nox's anger at the idiotic Ratman, as tendrils of inky black mixed with stardust seem to spread out from him in wild lashing half-ephemeral limbs.
"Let's help the others stop him Hildy!"
His voice grows discordant from his usual vocalizations making the little guy just a little bit more terrifying as he rides to a mid-point between the lizard and the sharpshooter.
"I'm recalibrating! Keep them away from the aiudara!" Alleli calls.
The ratfolk dodges Ravenna's shot as remembers what she knows about ysoki. Beyond their ability to store items in their cheek pouches, there isn't much else that will help in the fight. The lizard appears to be a type of giant gecko, with no special strengths or weaknesses.
The ratfolk dashes away from Batman, moving 15 feet horizontally. He hurls vials of frost at the champion, the ice clinging to him and slowing him down.
The gecko hisses as Sylva kicks it in the face. It retaliates with a vicious bite.
“Ouch! We don’t taste like sugarplums—now you know, so stop that!”
Sylva kicks the gecko in the teeth, then follows with a couple punches!
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Nox shifts in the seat slightly and ushers Hildy forward towards the ratfolk once again, before a tentacle lashes out at him.
"You will stop!"
Regret eats away at the target's mind, punishing it for its violence until it ceases its hostility. The target must attempt a Will save.
Critical Success The target is unaffected.
Success At the end of its next turn, the target takes 1d8 damage per different creature it intentionally damaged on that turn (1d8 if it damaged one creature, 2d8 if it damaged two different creatures, and so on). The maximum is 4d8 if it damaged 4 different creatures.
Failure As success, except the curse damages the target at the end of each of its turns and lasts until the target spends a complete round without intentionally damaging another creature.
Critical Failure As success, except the curse damages the target at the end of each of its turns and lasts until the target spends 24 hours atoning for its perceived sins.
Sir Batman Reacts quickly blocking some of the Frost, but the newly colored blue sprite grits his teeth from the chill!
Shaking off the Frost, the Champion of Mazludeh Enters his Stance, Raises his Shield and Strides-slowly--toward the rat!
You're gonna die for that! Eventually!
Sylva kicks and punches the lizard, knocking it out! Nox curses the ratfolk for attacking you, causing him to wince in regret. "Yikes! Alright, alright! I'm sorry!" he wails, stepping away and raising his hands.
"Regroup! The aiudara's about to fire up again!" Alleli calls.
“Apology accepted,” Sylva says mostly in the interest of not getting stuck on Planet Cowboy. “Your lizard’s not dead,” she assures him before Warp-Stepping onto the aiudara!
Sir Batman looks about to shield boss the shit out of the rat, but the bronze-colored sprite's blue eyes turn to look at Nox.
But big monster!
The Champion sighs and obeys!
As Hildy gallops by Ravenna's position, the sprite reaches out to touch her hand.
Looking good, gurl!
With the fighting paused, Ravenna rolls on the ground to smother burning oil clinging to her. She gets back to her feet as Nox and Batman ride up, the latter taking a moment to lay healing hands on the gunslinger.
The world shifts around you again, and suddenly clouds of roiling yellow-green mist rush over the desert. The sandy ground falls away and is replaced with spongy, fleshlike hills of oozing blisters, dotted with pools of black goo and groves of what look like hair follicles. From the peak of a nearby ridge like a huge vein, an eyeless, black-winged shape takes flight.
"Look out!" Alleli cries!
The horrid creature swoops down at you. It has inky black skin, batlike wings, a long sinuous tail, and demonic horns atop a skull that lacks any face or features. It claws at Batman, grabbing a hold of the nyktera!
Success: The creature is unaffected.
Failure: The creature is clumsy 1.
Critical Failure: The creature is confused for 1 round.
With the gas affecting her, Sylva decides to attack the problem before attacking the monster!
She attempts to disable the trap!
Her head swimming from the pain, rapid fire teleportation, and toxic air, Ravenna still manages to keep her presence of mind enough to take a shot at the monster trying to eat her friend. She reloads behind the cover of the aiudara, trying to figure out what the hell they're up against this time.
Sir Batman suddenly smiles! The bronze-colored bat seems to have been Quickened!
This bird rocks!
His blue eyes watering a bit at the sight of The horrid creature swooping down at him. It has inky black skin, batlike wings, a long sinuous tail, and demonic horns atop a skull that lacks any face or features, the bronze-bat grins at it!
Cousin Alfredo! You break my heart!
The Champion Enters his Stance, Raises his Shield, Hastily enters its space and Shield bosses cousin Alfredo in the beak!
Nox recognizes the creature as a nightgaunt. Nightgaunts dwell in dreams, lurking in wait to spirit away the unwary dreamer. Once connected to such a being, the nightgaunt feeds upon the mortal's emotions before abandoning them—often in places they might never wake from. These creatures are resistant to cold.
Sylva counteracts the poisonous atmosphere as Ravenna shoots the nightgaunt. Batman wriggles in the creature’s grasp and bashes it with his shield.
Undeterred, the creature flaps its wings and flies 20 feet straight up. It maintains its grip on Batman as it uses its tail to try to tickle him! He blocks with his shield.
Cursing, Ravenna fires another shot, trying her best to avoid hitting her friend. "Hold on, Batman!"
Sylva looks up at the creature as it flies out of her reach.
“Hey. No fair. I was doing the thing.”
With a shrug, Sylva takes her banjo and tries to charm the creature.
Hey no fair I was doing the thing
Now you got my Bat Boy under your wing
Don’t ya know his humor’s weirdly fickle
He laughs at pain; can’t feel a tickle
So put my sad clown down
So we can get outta town
You better hurry up
Or you’ll make me frown…
Sylva looks at Ravenna’s face, or rather, at the dark hair obscuring it as she turns her head.
“I don’t understand. I mean… I can’t really ask why he would say that to you because there isn’t a rational answer. He just sounds like a really bad father… or not even good at being a person.
“He’s a dink.”
Her hand remains on Ravenna’s finger. Big People are to immense to hug, she laments.
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Nox looked around and saw some rocks from their previous locations had translocated alongside them. "Drop him gently!" he pointed up and shot a roiling bolt of ephemeral silver energy.
"Don't use freezing attacks the nightgaunt is resilient against that."
Smiling in gratitude to Nox, the sprite growls at the slimy appendage.
Sir Batman flips the ugly bat the bird!
The bronze-colored bat then attempts to Escape!
He then Raises his Shield.
The creature rocks as Ravenna shoots it and Nox dazes it. Sylva manages to charm it an Batman demoralizes the thing, further convincing it to leave well enough alone. The monster swoops down and deposits the sprite back on the ground before flying away.
"Nice job! The aiudara is almost recalibrated again!" Alleli shouts.
Sylva ▶️straps the banjo on her back and warp-steps onto the aiudara.
She quietly sings as she waits to get warped to the next place.
Then I think to myself
What a wonderful world
What a hell of a day
What a beautiful girl…
Sir Batman trotts back to the group smiling.
Thanks twice, Nox! That was a new experience!
"Here it goes again! Hang on!" Alleli calls.
The grotesque living landscape blinks away, replaced by a dead plain of blackened and cratered stone. Where the sky once hung overhead is now only the starry black of space. Nearby, cracked bones litter the blasted foundation of a ruined building. In the distance, a delicate palace rises from the rock, its walls formed from giant, fused bones.
An undead man stands in the building, chatting with a pile of inanimate bones. He turns to regard you and grins. "Ah, splendid! My Bone Sage masters will reward me for capturing warmbloods!"