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"ACK! BITTY!!" Bun screams, "Thomone grab her and pull her back!" Summoning his courage, he tackles Egg to prevent the dinosaur from running forward and potentially getting himself killed by any more unseen dangers.
Thith ith going to hurt tho bad... he thinks, closing his eyes and jumping on Egg...
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"No rushing. You should rush when danger is behind you, not when it is in front." Galvaka looks at the spear up and down. "I can keep better eye out, but I can't be sneaky and looking at the same time. Like trying to cast spells and walk at same time. Very hard."
Given the presented danger, Galvaka is being more careful as she tries to look about.
Meanwhile, Egg realizes he has a stuffed animal clinging to him, and rolls over on his back to wrestle.
"Chiiiirrrrrrp!"
Retreating a bit, you wait for Bitty to recover.
The area stays mostly quiet while you wait. Occasionally you can hear something moving around - vermin of some sort most likely. But whatever it is that you hear seems very interested in not being noticed, found, and eaten itself. The loudest thing in this place seems to be when Bamidele wants to play with its new favorite plush toy.
Eventually, Branch checks Bitty's injury and changes the bandages.
For good measure, Branch checks Galvaka's injuries as well.
With everyone feeling better, you make your way down the hallway again - this time a bit more carefully and with more people checking for traps and hazards that may still be active after all of these centuries.
A short way down the hallway from the last spear trap, Bitty and Ashun find another one. Galvaka nearly walks into it, but the other two pull her back before she triggers it.
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Bitty settles down to wait for the hour to pass. She turns to Branch and Gavalka. "Since we are all waiting here anyway, can you tell us a bit about yourselves?"
As he continues to tend Bitty’s wounds, Branch tells his tale.
“I was born and raised in Otari, a small town on the isle of Kortos. Most people have heard of Absalom or maybe Diabel, not as many of Otari.”
“I did my apprenticeship in Absalom and learned much about magical theory. It was during that time as an apprentice that I journeyed into Last Wall. As I said, that experience caused me to take an interest in medicine.”
“Once I finished my apprenticeship, I decided to join the Pathfinder Society. It seemed like a good way to continue learning about magic. I have moved back to Otari, but report to the Grand Lodge.”
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Ashun gets scared about Bitty, but after Branch takes care of her, he settles down and wait, ever ready to pick up Bun if needed.
During the rest, he lays down a bit against a wall to relax, listening to the chatting of the others.
“I was born and raised in Otari, a small town on the isle of Kortos. Most people have heard of Absalom or maybe Diabel, not as many of Otari.”
His head turns to Branch when he comments about Otari
"Huh, interesting... I passed through Otari on my way to Absalom to enlist, but did not stay very long.", giving him a nostalgic smile.After everyone is feeling better and they walk down the hallway again, Ashun warns the others about the trap.
"It does seem like even if the place is old, it is still trapped. I suggest we take slow steps to avoid surprises. Better than getting impaled.", he lightly jokes and sigh, showing concern but trying to keep it in high spirits.
"Any of you are proficient in disarming? Say the word and I can make a focus tattoo on you to help."
He prepares Guidance in case anyone tries to disable the trap.
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Galvaka channels her energy through her gear during the rest as she seemingly ends up withdrawing and fiddling with everything in her back while wounds are tended to. "Don't remember where I was born, but what I remember first was growing up in Absalom. Did stuff for a lot of crews, some meaner than others."
"Between jobs I got caught nabbing some coin from a guy at the tavern. Surprise, didn't seem mad about it, but still made me talk a whole lot. Laughed at some bits. Ended up telling me join the Society for home and learning stuff." She waves her hands as she mimes stabbing motions. "Like stabbing and spellcasting!"
Waving out some thieves' tools she also says, "but I still have lots of my skills before I've been cleaning up. I think I could take care of a trap like this."
It takes a couple of close calls, but Galvaka gets the pressure plate disconnected from the rest of the mechanism and making it safe to pass by.
Now knowing what to look for, Bitty and Galvaka have no problems finding the next spear launching trap along the hallway.
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"I have never dealt with traps or similar, so it is fascinating watching you both solve them. Closest I have gotten is untying herb tendrils while foraging I would guess.", he shrugs lightly.
"But your family seem to be quite lively, you speak fondly of them. It appears it would be fun to meet either your brother and, or, your grandparents someday."
He takes a few steps forward until he notices a room to the side, taking a peek inside to check if it's safe to enter.
Rain gives Bitty and Galvaka a bit of a bow. "It is definitely a good skill to have, it seems. I probably would have been skewered rather completely if I came down here on my own."
To Branch, he comments, "I am glad that you did not become undead. The world is better with you alive and well."
You make your way through the rest of the hallway without spotting any more active traps. The hallway makes a last bend and opens up into a large circular room. From the entryway you can see a large stone column in the center of the room. This pillar is covered in runes pulsing in a dim green light. It looks like the magic that powered this magical creation is at an ebb. You notice that some of the runes don't so much pulse as flicker. And likely when it was fully powered, the runes glowed bright and steady.
At the edge of the light cast from the group, you can barely make out the other sides of the collapsed passageways that you passed while coming here from the entryway and the hallway. You can also see a couple of broken areas of the wall that lead into either more, or the same caverns that you saw the mud creatures come from earlier.
You hear a bit of scuffling from the direction of the other side of the room, but you don't see anything from the hallway entrance.
Rain comes around the corner and sees the pillar with the dimly glowing runes. "Oh wow. That is really interesting. I think I can read them." He starts moving towards the pillar.
Galvaka dashes ahead of Rain and stops him, and the rest of you, from coming closer than 10 feet from the pillar.
I'll leave it to you to announce the details in-game.
As you are looking at the pillar, a bit of movement from the far side of the room catches your eyes. Out of the gloom a rather horrifying spectacle appears. It looks approximately like a skeletal snake - but it doesn't look like it is made of the right bones. It seems that someone cobbled together humanoid bones into the shape of a snake and then animated it in some manner. The creature picks its way across the rubble at the edge of the crack in the wall, then moves over to Bitty and bites.
"Aah, that thing is creepy. Fight back that creepy thing guys." Rain moves away and starts encouraging everyone. "What is this thing anyway?"
"All I can tell you is that it is some sort of arcane construct"
Weakness 5 to bludgeoning. Which your trident will trigger after you succeed at the check.
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Branch waits for Bitty to act, saying “I’m going to try to blast the creature away from you Bitty!”
As he is waiting, Branch tries to identify the creature. He will share anything he might know about it.
Then he shoots water out of the tip of his staff at the creature. “Get away from us!”
knocked back 5’
knocked back 10’
Like many creatures made of bones, it is weak to bludgeoning damage.
It isn't an undead though. It is a construct and has many immunities common to constructs - especially notable is mental and linguistic effects.
The creatures are often crafted as guardians. They also generally have a paralysis effect on their bite. And can hypnotize their targets by doing a strange clattering dance, but doing so takes them a bit more than 5 seconds to perform.
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"Oooh!" Galvaka's normal behavior or running and stabbing is interrupted as she focuses and stares at the central pillar in the room. Ignoring the combat she declares, "lots of fancy magic eyes around the pillar. They are trying to stay hidden, probably a magic trap!"
Smiles she draws an arcane symbol in the air as she continues, "they are watching for anything that gets closer than me. If you keep your balance, then maybe they won't spot you."
Looking at the party she sees they are dealing with a magical construct and does her best to identify it.
Despite the creature, Galvaka is very interested in getting to the pillar, if only because the creator didn't want her near it. Immediately she skulks the ground and tries to get close while avoiding the the magical sensors she can barely see around the pillar.
The creature is surprisingly fast (reflex is best save). It is also mindless, so mental or language attacks won't work at all. It has weakness to bludgeoning damage.
The entire list of Immunities: bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, mental, necromancy, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, unconscious.
You can also tell that it is more than halfway destroyed after the first couple of hits.
Galvaka starts approaching the pillar, carefully ducking under and stepping past various points in what seems like random patterns to most of the rest of you.
"It is a bit tricky to read them from here. But it looks like many are pleas for salvation from the darkened sky. The name Nacar-Azen shows up a lot. I think it is the name of this city. Oh, and it looks like..." Rain starts to say as Galvaka makes a misstep and and elbow goes through one of the sensors. The runes flare for a moment and something starts to materialize. "It looks like it summons creatures," Rain finishes a bit lamely.
The runes don't make much sense to you, but you suspect that it is going to be out of power for any more summoning for many hours.
The creature is a construct rather than an undead. It is mindless, so mental attacks and language attacks won't do anything. The creatures are often created as guardians or for some other long-term mindless task - which they will continue to do indefinitely. They are remarkably fast (reflex is highest save).
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Galvaka gives a waves to Ashun as she responds, "but being careful means going slow, and sometimes slow is even more dangerous. I'm not sure which case this is though!"
She does issue information she believes is true about the biting construct. "Yes, but it isn't smart at all, no mind in its head. Although you don't need to think a lot to bite."
Galvaka focus ends up on the pillar, but she struggles to make heads or tails out of the structure. She ends up giving more information about the creature. "It is like a rock. A fast rock that can dodge explosions. So stuff that doesn't work on rocks won't work on it. But smashing it works! Bitty's weapon will work super great!"
Not moving very quickly after getting knocked around with a water blast, the snakelike creature takes the full brunt of Konbu's wand.
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"Yiketh! What are thoth?!"
Bun immediately pulls his arquebus off his back, draws a bead on the ghoul and fires.
for
"" Again the shot reverberates through the chamber as Bun's shot barely catches the ghoul. Bun drops down and hides behind Ashun and reloads, before firing another round.
for
"" Bun fires from his position, his gun positioned between Ashun's legs as he drills the ghoul right in the chest.
Bun's quick shot catches the ghoul before it completely finishes the summoning process. It is dead - fully dead - before it even gets a chance to move.
Bun's second shot is instead aimed at the bone construct.
The blunt projectile, propelled by both alchemy and magic, hits the construct right below its neck. The blast shatters the bones there and the head drops to the floor - the rest of the bones collapsing and falling shortly after.
Rain looks at the pillar a bit concerned. "If that thing has been summoning monsters, maybe it is what has been driving the swamp creatures out of this area and towards the Iruxi village. Or perhaps it is the source of the strange creatures that have been plaguing the village. Either way, we should turn it off permanently."
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Ashun lightly pats Bun's head, looking at him with a fun smile.
"Fun, is it not?", as the runes on Bun's weapon start to dissolve.
He starts taking a few steps forward, but then notices that the enemies have fallen, and sighs in relief, changing his pace to calmly walk forwards toward the pillar.
When the runes take a duller color, he appears a bit less worried
"Well, it appears that the magic has lost most of its power and probably needs some time to recharge. We may as well try to dispel it right now."
Now closer to the central column marked with glyphs, Ashun starts to try to decode them and unweave the magic using his own glyphs. Drawing simple sigils on the pillar, as if writing backwards on top of the runes and slowly unfurling them, akin to unrolling a ball of yarn and making the string tips fade out of existance.
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Looking to Bun Helsing, Branch says “How about you, Bun? Where did a rabbit like you find a gun like that?”
"Oh thith? Thith ith my arquebuth. I thaved up for it from the treathurth I got from my previouth adventureth. Do you like it? A good friend of mine runth an equipment shop. I get pretty good dealth there tho I got thith when I had enough money."
Seeing Ashun walk calmly and directly up to the pillar and nothing bad happens, Rain follows. "This is quite the magical artifact. It is too bad we have to disable it so permanently," he says with a bit of regret as Ashun wipes out some of the more important summoning runes. "But it is better to have it not causing problems. There are still plenty of other artifacts here to study."
Looking towards Rain, Branch asks “Is there anything more here you need to explore or document?”
"Well," Rain thinks for a bit, "there are the caverns that the monsters were all hiding in. But maybe that would be better handled with a full expedition instead - not that you don't handle yourselves quite well. I should have plenty of information to put in an initial report."
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"I'll try to see if I can draw what it looked like around when it was still working. They love information in reports." Galvaka pulls out parchment to help draw whatever needs to be documented as well.
"I wonder if there are any more of these in the ruins. I would love to see more around. Maybe they summon even more exciting things!"
"You are right though, maybe another time since the leaders want to see your report sooner than not."
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You make your way back to the surface. It is only just past midday at this point, but you do still have a couple of hours journey to get back to Tskikha.
When you arrive at the Iruxi village, you report your findings to Chief Thakik.
"Ah, thank you for removing the summoning pillar that was stirring up the swamp creatures as well as creating its own. That should make life here a bit more peaceful."
The next morning, you set out for Cassomir. When you get to the Three-legged Frog, you find Janira Gavix, an instructor from the lodge, waiting for you.
"Ah, good. You are all safe. I came over to help as soon as I heard that a group of novices and recent graduates were sent out on a rescue mission. I have no idea what got into Master Shaine. He probably got talked into the idea by Master Farabellus." She looks at the group of you. "But, at least they sent out a good number of you. And you were indeed up to the challenge. So I guess I should keep my criticisms to myself, huh."
"Anyway, let's get out of this den of thieves, shall we. There is a ship leaving with the tide in about three hours, and it looks like you are still all packed up."