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Amvolwatt manages to avoid the blast completely.
Tarcog catches part of the blast.
“Ow!”
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Jayma sees her sharp debris hit home and is about to jump with glee when the zombie explodes and the blast forces her to take a step back, though not with enough force to actually cause her damage. "How unexpected". She sends a short death glance Thurston's way, then says, "Sorry everyone". Inwardly, she shrugs and forgives her friend for the tardiness of his warning. "It's not like I would've done anything differently had I known".
With her practiced ability to calculate ranges, she begins to worry about the proximity of the remaining zombies and what she might do to avoid being caught in the next explosion. She's about to hightail it up the hallway when Meadow and Silence unexpectedly turn into a finely tuned killing machine. "Noooo!"
Too late.
Boom!
She barely manages to get some of the door between herself and the explosion. It helps minimize the damage, but several pieces of flying debris still manage to hit home, which her pink Shield absorbs like a boss before it collapses.
Meadow hunts prey on Yellow, and gets a critical hit!
And Dr. Lazarus, Turiik, Tarcog + Amvolwatt all need to save from it.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus (-29, 1d6 Persistent Fire, 2 DC 19 Reflex Saves)
Turiik (-19, 1d6 Persistent Fire, Blinded for 1 round, Temp HP used, DC 19 Reflex)
Tarcog + Amvolwatt (-48, 1d6 Persistent Fire, DC 19 Reflex)
Jayma (-10)
Meadow (DC 19 Reflex Save)
Orange Zombie (EXPLODED)
Blue Zombie (EXPLODED)
Yellow Zombie (EXPLODED)
Once again, Amvolwatt is able to avoid the blast.
This time Tarcog also managed to avoid the worst of the blast.
He rushes over and helps put out the fire on Amvolwatt.
“Help me put out this fire!”
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Unable to avoid the carnage when the zombie near him explodes, Dr. Lazarus is pelted with fire and debris. In the midst of dusting himself off, he calls out to Meadow, "Well done, dear lady ... and your very capable companion! After another attack, I thought I might be the one needing a do..." In mid-conversation, the final zombie explodes. Lazarus dodges some of it, but staggers back, critically wounded.
And still aflame!
Grumbling as he continues to burn, the flames on the good Doctor finally dissipate. Near death, he dusts himself off (again) and notices Jayma. Unscathed. As usual. "You needn't worry about me, dear lady. I'll be fine. Looks like you barely survived. Can I get you anything?" He rolls his eyes.
Everyone is damaged from the exploding party popper zombies. I am assuming that we need some time to heal everyone up properly?
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With exaggerated effort, Dr. Lazarus limps into the room with the barbarian and the dragons. He retrieves his hammer along the way. "My dear gentlemen, now that we're all no-longer aflame, let's see about cauterizing those wounds." As the Doctor unpacks his tools to create a makeshift infirmary, he calls back to the ladies, "Jayma and Meadow dear, can we trouble you to be on the lookout for the next 30-40 minutes?" Let the bandaging begin...
With everyone patched up, Dr. Lazarus turns to Jayma. "Any chance you can spare one of your Prestidigitation spells?" He packs up his tools.
You all heal up after near an hour of medical care and rest before deciding to move further South.
This chamber features a multitude of religious symbols and other iconography carved into a wall. The room was used as a simple room for prayer. The array of religious symbols expanded over millennia as castle residents added their deities' symbols. The wall now contains hundreds of different religious symbols.
Turiik finds a set of Holy Prayer Beads hanging from one of the walls.
As you make your way into the Second Hall, you hear buzzing and feel some creepy telepathic messages hitting your minds.
Mind One: Mortalsesss and dragonsesss traveling together? Do they make the mussssicsss that brought ussss here?
Mind Two: Noo... Though they hear the musssssicsss... It ssshapesss them. They came from the holy room, they must be priestssss, kill them!
Mind One: Yesssss.... And here I feared that we were trapped, with nothing to do... Come here my little material prey, so that we may dissssmember you. Ssslowly.
Mind Two: Yesssss... Come here, it'ssss friendly and sssswarm.
When they come into sight, there are two insectoid looking creatures, beating their wings.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog +Amvolwatt
Turiik
Green
White
Meadow + Silence
Jayma
This chamber features a multitude of religious symbols and other iconography carved into a wall. The room was used as a simple room for prayer. The array of religious symbols expanded over millennia as castle residents added their deities' symbols. The wall now contains hundreds of different religious symbols.
Tarcog and Amvolwatt spend some time looking through the holy symbols for one to Apsu.
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Tarcog and Amvolwatt move as one to the side passage.
Then Tarcog lets out a bolt of electricity that hits both of the creatures.
“Despair creatures, for you face two mighty dragons!”
Unfortunately the timing was such that it was very difficult to make out what was said over the noise of the lightning.
Tarcog cleans the holy symbol to Apsu and the two say a few brief words of prayer.
Both insects mostly evade Tarcog's bug zapper. They giggle in a high-pitched way, and remark:
Green: The little Apssssssu worssssshipper wantssss ussss to be sssscared...
White: Sssssuch a pleasssure to disssapoint him... We can't ssssend him to hissss god too ssssoon.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog +Amvolwatt
Turiik
Green (-4)
White (-4)
Meadow + Silence
Jayma
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In the Prayer Room, while Tarcog looks for Apsu, Dr. Lazarus takes a moment to find the Azure Hand, symbol of Irori, god of knowledge and perfection. "Oh great Irori. I continue to impress upon my colleagues that knowledge is power." Then in a softer voice, "I'm not entirely certain all of them can read, but I do my best to enlighten them." He continues in a normal tone, "Thank you for watching over us." He bows and leaves with the group.
Entering the large hall, the Doctor stares at the strange insects. He studies the near one.
After describing the creatures to his allies, he regretfully does not see a clear path through the near insect's exoskeleton. Instead, he turns his attention to the far one and hurls his hammer twice in succession.
After the battle, Turiik looks a little green behind the gills while Lazarus treats his wounds. He does not say much. The other detail that is notable is that a band of his hair on either side remains white rather than returning to his natural color.
Turiik undergoes his bestial transformation as soon as the threatening insectoid creatures appear. The change seems to happen incrementally faster each time. "You will not be sending my host back to his gods," he growls before pouncing at the closest of the two alien creatures.
Dr. Lazarus recalls that these are Wihsaaks, insectoid neutral evil fiends that thrive on fear and have an affinity for swarms.
He throws his hammer twice, but only hits on the second strike as the white wihsaak flutters its wings and dodges out of the way of the first blow.
Meanwhile, Turiik bites (and just barely misses a critical hit) on White as he tears into the bug's flesh. The creature's flesh sizzles from proximity to the Prayer Beads that Turiik carries. You dare carry holy magicssss?
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
It's the Wihsaak's turn!
◈ Green beats its wings, creating a droning distraction.
Success The creature is unaffected.
Failure The creature is confused and stupefied 1 for 1 round.
Critical Failure The creature is confused for 1 round and stupefied 2 for 1 minute.
◈◈ Then Green casts a third level Fear targetting Dr. Lazarus, Tarcog, Amvolwatt and Turiik. Fear the sssssswarm! Fear usssss!
Meanwhile, White moves away from Turiik's burning beads, and stands next to the investigator to cast a third level Fear spell on Meadow, Silence, and Jayma.
Fear the ssssssquigglessss! White says, squiggling its mandibles at Meadow.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog +Amvolwatt
Turiik
Green (-4)
White (-42)
Meadow + Silence
Jayma
>
Tarcog shows some fear and confusion with everything that is going on.
Amvolwatt is unaffected by the droning but fearful.
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Knowledgeable and well-versed on wihsaaks, Dr. Lazarus shakes off the mental effects that he's all too aware of. Stating the obvious, "They thrive on fear and confusion." He continues, "In a book I co-authored "Incredible Insects: Friend or Fiend", I describe them in great detail." Realizing the gravity of the situation, he quickly adds, "Perhaps later..."
Focusing on the enemy beside him, the Doctor prepares an attack.
With the enemy in melee range, Lazarus carefully drops his hammer, draws his curve blade, and swings.
+1 Striking Elven Curve Blade (w/ Stratagem) vs White: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30
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Jayma is a little stunned from the double explosions, but recovers quickly. A careful check of herself reveals no actual damage, except perhaps a little soot on her bespoke explorer's clothing and a few hairs that decided to slip out of place. A wave of her hand and a "deterge" quickly takes care of all these deficiencies.
Once she's taken care of herself, she does a quick scan of her colleagues. "Poor Thurston looks like he took a beating. Good thing he's a doctor. 'Medice, cura te ipsum' and all that." When he inquires about her health, she waves him off. "It's so kind of you to ask, doctor, but except for the trauma of the explosions and perhaps a little tinnitus, I am well. You should feel free to concentrate on treating the other wounded." She then sits herself down on a relatively clean surface to recover from the terrible ordeal.
When the good doctor finishes up and asks for some cleaning up, Jayma happily jumps to her feet and casts as many cleaning spells as needed to make everyone look spik and span. She takes special care with Turiik. "My poor dear. Look at you all covered in blood again. Is that zombie goo I see? Good thing those flames burned most of it off. Stains like that can be tricky to remove." It takes a couple of castings to return the Erutaki man to some semblance of normality.
In the prayer room, Jayma looks around and is surprised to find a couple of broken hourglasses among the symbols carved into the walls. She sends a short prayer to Shyka for taking care of her during the recent fightning.
When they finally run into more creatures in the next room, Jayma isn't very surprised. She crinkles her nose in disgust. "Ugh! I hate bugs, especially the ones that bite."
The droning sound of one of the wihsaaks begins to cloud her judgement...
...but she shakes it off. "Not today cockroach, not today."
But then another of the flying buggers casts a spell on her...
...and a fear begins to gnaw at her. "Oh no, can we take these bugs? I'm not so sure." She glances towards the door to make sure no one is in the way of a quick exit and then pops her magical shield in place with a "scutum magicae".
Not seeing anything smokey or flamey about the creatures, she feels confident that she can now unleash one of her big guns. She had been hoping to drop a nice fireball between the two wihsaaks, but a quick glance tells her that Turiik had managed to put himself exactly where gound zero of the explosion would be. "He could probably take it, but then I'd have to clean him up again." Instead she decides on a less explosive, but just as deadly backup plan. She opens her arms wide and calls out, "Sizzling streaks strike soaring scourge", before pounding the tip of her staff down hard twice: <crack!, crack!>. With each strike of her staff on the ground, a ray of scorching heat blasts from its head and flies towards a different enemy.
Tarcog is frightened and confused. Amvolwatt is frightened. Dr. Lazarus shakes off both effects, but Jayma winds up being frightened.
Dr. Lazarus realizes from the Wihsaak's own admission, they have been summoned here by the creepy song. This robs them of one of their most powerful abilities, an at-will teleport effect. However, they are still spellcasters who specialize in spells like vomit swarm and suggestion. They are weak to Good energy, which is why they dislike the prayer beads and the Prayer Room. He also knows that these creatures are unlikely to explode when slain.
Dr. Lazarus strikes White with his elven curve blade, while Jayma casts two scorching rays, one at each target!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog +Amvolwatt
Turiik (2 DC 23 Will Saves)
Green (-32)
White (-94)
Meadow + Silence (2 DC 23 Will Saves)
Jayma
"Screech!"
Tarcog, being confused, casts Ray of Frost on the nearest creature who is not his eidolon, the Green Wihsaak.
◈◈ CS: double damage and –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 round.
The ray of frost misses!
Tarcog is confused, but I am ruling that Amvolwatt can still act.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog + Amvolwatt
Turiik (2 DC 23 Will Saves)
Green (-32)
White (-94)
Meadow + Silence
Jayma
"That one right there! Get him Silence!"
damage on the first hit.
"Screech!"
Silence launches himself at his foe.
Turiik crunches whatever bit of fiend he managed to rip away.
Unfortunately, the droning of the fiends wings drives the beast within Turiik mad. His eyes widen, and his jaws slaver. Fortunately, he is also made less effective by the supernatural fear instilled in his mind.
Possibly also fortunate that each fiend stands between him and the other Pathfinders. He steps toward the nearest consumable creature and attempts to eat it live.
Getting a chance to act, Amvolwatt steps up to the green creature.
Meadow and Silence both miss against White, but Turiik tears into the Green Wihsaak, getting two large bites in despite his fear. In addition, his prayer beads sear Green's chitinous skin.
Amvolwatt moves up to the Green Wihsaak.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Green runs away from Turiik and his burning prayer beads, and then casts vomit swarm. The movement triggers Amvolwatt's attack of opportunity, which alas, misses. The swarm turns into a nasty morass of biting insects that swarm all over Turiik, Tarcog and Amvolwatt.
Yessss.... Bite them, my little ssssswarmssss....
◈ Stride
◈◈ Spell
Not to be outdone, White does the same to catch Meadow, Silence, Dr. Lazarus and Jayma in a similar crawling, biting swarm - filled with creatures with squiggling mandibles.
◈ Stride
◈◈ Spell
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Vomit swarms with DC 23 Reflex Saves for everyone, yay!
Dr. Lazarus
Tarcog + Amvolwatt
Turiik
Green (-76)
White (-94)
Meadow + Silence
Jayma
Tarcog gets swarmed by the bugs.
Amvolwatt is able to avoid most of the bugs.
Tarcog moves back a little bit as Amvolwatt moves to flank with Dr. Lazarus.
Tarcog then channels energy into the dragon for its attack.
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"Eeeeww! Gross!"
Having moved into flank, Amvolwatt strikes with claw and tail at the white bug.
He obviously agrees with Meadow’s assessment.
“Can you get any more disgusting?”
(deadly d8, finesse, magical),
(agile, finesse, magical)
Eidolon’s Opportunity
(deadly d8, finesse, magical),
Silence makes an awful hissing sound. He flaps his wings, sending insects flying in all directions.
Turiik shakes off his confusion. He turns his head to glare at the fleeing fiend and then lopes after it. "I have a taste for your flesh, now!"
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Jayma watches in horror as the swarm of biting insects heads her way. "Nooo! I hate bugs!"
She ducks down and most of the swarm fly past her... but not all. A few of the insects make a bee-line for her and come face-to-face with her glowing magical Shield; they all perish in a flash of pink. "Ha! That'll teach you."
The close call with the swarm incenses Jayma. Flinging her arms open once more, she calls out, "burning beams blast beastly bugs", and with a <crack!, crack!> from her staff, another pair of scorching rays blast from its head towards the wihsaaks.
With her magical shield offline, Jayma instead points at Thurston, and closing her eyes, says, "May The Many guide his hand".
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Well prepared against these foes. Dr. Lazarus avoids the worst of the swarm.
He devises a strategy against his adjacent enemy and strikes twice, with some magical guidance from Jayma! "My thanks, Jayma dear. Let's make quick work of these pests, shall we?"
+1 Striking Ghost Touch Elven Curve Blade (w/ Stratagem) +Guidance vs White => 8 + 16 + 1 = 25
In a flurry of reflex saves, spells and strikes, the two wihsaaks get torn to pieces by the party.
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Turning his head to do so, Tarcog spits out a few bugs that had gotten into his mouth.
He moves over to Amvolwatt and starts cleaning the two of them.
“Although there are more disgusting things back home, those things combined disgusting with rude. Glad they are destroyed.”
Looking to Dr. Lazarus, he asks “What were they called again?”
You get the impression that Tarcog actually enjoys Dr. Lazarus’s little lectures.
After the fight, Dr. Lazarus heals everyone up. You check out the next small room.
This room was originally used to store food and alcohol, but the residents that used this room left the castle several centuries back, leaving the crates and barrels in this room to decay.
In amongst the spoiled goods, Dr. Lazarus finds a Decanter of Endless Water.
North of you is an enormous unfinished cavern. Perhaps Yllado had once hoped to build something here, like an underground garden or a ballroom, but all that is here is pacing and somewhat twitchy bulette that is making snorting and chiming noises.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Turiik
Bulette
Meadow + Silence
Dr. Lazarus
Jayma
Tarcog + Amvolwatt
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Wiping off the excess insect innards, Dr. Lazarus retrieves his hammer. Excited to answer Tarcog's question, the Doctor reaches into his bag and hands a book to the dragon. "It's all in here, my dear boy. "Incredible Insects: Friend or Fiend" When Tarcog declines, Lazarus continues, "Commonly mispronounced as wihz-aak, it's actually a hard-S sound: wihsssaak." After Tarcog tries it, Lazarus commends him, "Not terrible. Keep practicing!"
The Doctor unpacks his healers tools and takes 10 minutes to heal everyone back to full strength.