Ankha nods gratefully at Ku’Hania’s warning, then, like a protective den mother, quickly leads the attack. With her fauchard held back over her shoulder to build momentum, she plants her feet and then swings down then up, in a massive arc aimed to split a choker in two.
Becky again uses her magical bardic ability to inform the others about chokers' abilities and tendencies .
Ankha strikes a lucky hit, and downs the first choker without even really sweating. The second one lashes out with its unnaturally long arms, taking swipes at her in return.
Its attack strikes true, and Ankha quickly finds herself wrapped up in a grapple with the beast again.
Init:
22- Ankha
19- chokers
19- Braxton
17- Ku'Hania
14- Becky
"Ugh! Heckin' graboids!" Xylian ducks under Ankha's impressive polearm and lands a less impressive stab on the one grabbing her.
Seeking to bring the choker down where it would be easier to deal with, Ku'Hanbia raises her arms, directing a quick blast of water at the monster.
“Oof!” Ankha exclaims with a painful wince. “Grabby little buggers, aren’t they?” With the extra strength imparted by her mutagen, she tries to wrench herself away from its grasp.
“You go Braxton!” she cheers the swashbuckler’s attack.
Ku'Hania shoots a blast of water out at the horrible creature, knocking it into the wall and onto the ground. It doesn't let go of Ankha, however,
However, Ankha manages to find a way to slip out from between it's grasp and escapes, pulling away from the grapple.
Init:
22- Ankha
19- chokers
19- Braxton
17- Ku'Hania
14- Becky
As soon as she wriggles free, Ankha extricates her fauchard, swings it up and around her head, and whips the blade down in one continuous build-up of momentum. Unfortunately the high-speed rotation makes the alchemist loses her grip on the weapon, and the polearm flies out of her grasp, smashing harmlessly into the cavern wall.
"Oops!" she exclaims, embarrassed. "I think I'd better just help Braxton deal with this thing." In an effort to make herself useful, she dashes around the creature, ducking and dodging to avoid its long arms while using her sling staff to threaten and distract it from Braxton's attack.
Becky's initially unsure of how she can best aid Braxton, letting her bardic performance expire . She's so indecisive that she delays long enough for Ankha to execute some neat acrobatics to close on the remaining choker.
Wish I could do that! she thinks wistfully. Ankha's so brave...and maybe kinda reckless. OK--here goes nothing!
Becky steels herself and closes on the monster, trying to tumble the last 10 feet to get beside it and stab it in an eye! Gaa! Tumble, not stumble!
for
Now that the monster is at Braxton's altitude, he dances sideways and and tries to land another strike in the creatures brain region.
The choker does reach an arm out and hit Becky, but Braxton quickly gets retribution for the small scratch its sharp talons leave. It falls to the floor in many pieces, and the cave is quiet once more.
A quick glance over this wing of the cave reveals a burlap sack full of random knickknacks that the chokers have apparently taken from somewhere. The sack contains a porcelain tea set, haphazardly thrown into the sack such that three of the teacups now have broken handles. There is also a steel flask full of whiskey etched with an elaborate “R,” a silver mirror with a rose motif worth 150 gp, a set of dice in a wooden cup capped with leather, two vials of defoliant, four star candle fireworks, a thunderstone, a meridian belt, and a wadded-up shield cloak.
Looking rather embarrassed by her spectacularly failed attempt to tumble past the last choker, Becky silently pulls out her wand and taps Ankha. Her expression perks up when the healing from the wand eliminates a good chunk of Ankha's wounds. "That's more like it!" she exclaims upon seeing the amount of healing from the wand's touch. "Not broken after all."
“Ooh, nicely done Braxton! Where did you learn to handle a rapier like that!” Ankha’s praise soon shifts to the young bard as well. “Ooh, thanks Rebecca! That feels much better!” She stretches her arms and shoulders, twisting her trunk as she takes a measure of the healing wand’s effectiveness. “Pretty much as good as new,” she grins cheerfully.
Upon finding the burlap sack, she exclaims, “Won’t the colonists be glad to get all their belongings back!” Then she blushes, embarrassed. “I mean, after we find them all of course. I’m sure they’ll be happy their stuff is waiting for them after we bring it back. But I suppose we ought to explore everything fully down here first, to make sure there aren’t any more chokers hidden somewhere. Though …” her eyes widen in recognition as she fingers the shield cloak and feels it stiffen to her touch, “… this could be useful in a fight. Maybe I could take it now and use it? It’s not like anyone would miss it, right?”
"I just kind of wing it and hope for the best." Braxton answers Ankha. He is still unapproving of her aggressive approach to any and all dangers, but as long as they stick together, she shouldn't end up over her head. "That polearm of yours continues to impress. Can't say I've faced any battlefield weapons in my life, myself."
He swishes his blade through the air, sending choker blood splattering in an arc on the stone floor and shudders. "Blech! Those arms are unnatural!"
"Looks like they dragged their loot down here." He picks up the whiskey flask, hefting it to judge its weight and fullness. "'R', huh. Do we know any 'R's'? Rayland Arkley, but then it would be engraved with an 'A', wouldn't it?" He unstoppers the flask and gives the contents a sniff, trying to judge the quality.
The whiskey in the flask smells as fresh as you'd expect it to the day it was made, and seems to be of somewhat fine quality. Certainly better than the alcohol you found elsewhere in the colony.
Must be someone's special stash from the mainland, to be this high quality and 'hidden' in a flask.
"Fine stuff." Braxton pours a few drops of the precious liquid on the ground in memory of whomever the lost owner is, then slips the flask into a pocket. It goes without saying that it would be safest with him. Once the other things have been gathered and everyone is ready, they move on. "Hopefully that is the last of the creepy longarms."
The rest of the cave to the west opens up into another large chamber. A section of the northern wall in this spacious cavern has been hollowed out and veins of various crystals exposed, which refract any light cast upon their surface. Small piles of rock are heaped on the ground nearby, where the earth has been carefully chiseled away to expose the potentially precious stones. A closer look at the wall will be necessary to see what exactly is over there.
A small tunnel to the north seems to be the second exit to this underground cavern full of monsters.
Ku'Hania moves a bit closer, looking at the exposed crystals in the wall.
Becky creeps forward as well, waving her light-treated rapier to-and-fro to look for more treasure or more monsters.
Braxton advances, rapier held ready, one eye on the ceiling. The primitive crystal mine strike him as odd. "Do lurkers or grabboids mine for gems?" He takes a closer look, though geology and gemology is far beyond him.
Becky, looking closer with Braxton, realizes that the excavation is not a full-blown effort to mine the cave, but is instead the effort of a singular or small group of creatures with a specific purpose in mind (extracting crystals and precious stones).
The group just investigates the wall until Becky reaches out to touch a particular section, revealing it is actually an illusory wall, a silent image. Hiding behind the wall are two small weird-looking crystal scorpions.
Becky recognizes them as crysmals, originating from the deepest caverns of the Plane of Earth. On rare occasions, these strange creatures wind up on the Material Plane, usually in subterranean areas rich with natural gem and crystal formations. Singular in purpose, a crysmal seeks only to reproduce. It does so by gathering stone crystals and gemstones, fashioning them into a Tiny facsimile of its own body, and jolting the new creature to life with a burst of the crysmal’s own life energy.
Crysmals have a bit of magical power within them, which some people attribute to the fact that the crystalline planes of their bodies absorb and refract natural light.
This pair of crysmals don't immediately attack, instead seeming very surprised that Becky can see them and chittering in what sounds like a language that none of you can understand.
"Uhh, does anyone know what they are? They're too pretty to kill..."
"Um...yeah. Sorry. Got a bit caught up in marveling at them," Becky eventually replies. "They're crysmals, somewhat related to earth elementals and the like. If someone knows the Terran language, we could talk to them...maybe even make a deal with them."
“Ooh,” Ankha exclaims excitedly after Becky shares her impressive and extensive knowledge of the crysmals, “I just learned a formula from Alba that will let us communciate! Just give me a minute to mix it up!” The alchemist moves away from the illusory wall to find a wide, stable space to set up her portable lab, then quickly proceeds to create her potion, swirling a coarse white powder into a clear yellow liquid in one flask, then combining it with a preprepared sooty residue in a slender test tube. Throughout she chatters as enthusiastically as Becky did.
“Alba calls this a ‘Comprehend Languages’ potion—it’ll let you understand any language at all, written or spoken! Isn’t that amazing! Though,” she hesitates to admit the formula’s shortcoming, “it won’t actually let you speak the langauge. So you’ll still need to be really good at miming what you want to say through charades, but at least you’ll know exactly what the crysmals are saying! Or rather, I’ll know what they’re saying—these extracts are highly tuned to your metabolism, so I haven’t figured out how to make them work for anyone but me. But if you do the ‘talking’, I can tell you exactly what they’re saying, and try to help clear up any confusion they have. Ooh, and do you think it would help to make a present of some pretty crystals and gemstones to them, to show that our intentions are good?”
Ku'Hania listens with interest as Becky describes the elemental creatures in extreme detail, watching as Ankha mixes her concoction to help with communicating.
Ankha can translate what the crysmals say, but unfortunately you cannot communicate back with them outside of basic phrases. There might be someone in the colony who speaks Terran, but you would have to check.
"Stay away from our crystals, interlopers. We found them first!" chitters one of the pair, waving what passes for its hands around angrily.
"Yeah!" the other one joins in, taking an aggressive stance. "That's for our offspring, you can't have it!"
“Ooh, maybe we’d better not touch the crystals and gemstones,” Ankha warns as she translates their speech. “They seem to be really worried that we’ll take them away or steal them, so it’s best not to risk a misunderstanding. They need the crystals for their offspring, so I’m pretty sure they’d attack if we touched them.” The alchemist makes a show of backing away from the crystals, and waving her hands back and forth from the crystals to the crysmals, as if to indicate that the gems properly belong to the creatures. “Perhaps we should just move on and let them be?”
"Yeah--that sounds good to me," Becky replies, also stepping out of the illusory wall and the area beyond. Though perhaps the crysmals might make for good allies and/or trade partners, this doesn't seem to be the time to press matters.
"Eh? Intelligent, are they? Well, so long as they are not in the habit of strangling people, I don't see why we cannot get along." Braxton pulls a kerchief out of one of his pockets and offers it to the shiny boys. "Here. Something soft from the surface."
Ku'Hania simply shrugs as she backs away from the crystal creatures and illusory wall. "We should see where the exit leads." she says, indicating the small tunnel to the north.
The crysmals seem happy once you start backing off, talking small obviously not serious threats of violence. Once you have left their immediate 'nest' area, the two crysmals investigate the kerchief, passing between their bejeweled claws before eventually tearing it into small pieces of cloth in what looks to be rage but is just them playing with it.
The tunnel exits out of the other side of a small hill not far from Talmandor’s Bounty. A short hike southwest over the hill eventually leads back to the farm where the well originally was.
“Such interesting creatures,” Ankha muses as they exit the tunnel and gather their bearings. “I’ll need to work on refining Alba’s extract so that you can speak the language too, not just understand it. Then maybe I can talk the crysmals into participating in a scientific experiment.” Her soft brown eyes shine with a hungry, eager hope.
"Oooh! Scientific experiments do sound exciting!" Becky gushes. "Not so much for the crysmals, I suppose, but...."
"Hopefully that should be the end of chokers attacking people in the night." Ku'Hania says as they head back. "I suppose we should let Ramona know that they've been dealt with."
"I can do that if the rest of you have other things to do," Becky comments off-handedly.
You can see by the gleam in her eyes that she really wants an opportunity to relay the results to Ramona and maybe chat her up some as well.
“Ooh, would you do that for us?” Ankha eagerly asks Becky. “That would be wonderful! I’d have a bit more time to brew my potions and fiddle with some of my formulae. Goodness knows the colony could use all the potions I can make.” With that the alchemist heads back to her laboratory.
Ku' Hania casts a glance at Becky as she volunteers to inform Ramona, a hint of a smile touching the shamaness' lips. "Good idea Becky. You should go and share the good news."
It seems the expedition leader did not want for admirers.
"Then it's unanimous!" Becky squeaks with excitement, giving Braxton a wide grin. As soon as the party nears the colony, Becky veers off to meet with Ramona, waving her goodbyes to her adventuring comrades.
When she meets with the colony's leader, Becky walks that tricky line for her: Saying everything important while not rambling on for an hour or more. She does fairly well until the subject of the crysmals is breached. There's just so many possibilities and scenarios running through her head that she inadvertently goes off on a couple of wild tangents, but eventually she suggests that perhaps the elemental creatures might become trade allies in the future. At that point, Ramona thanks Becky for an excellent report and nudges the talkative bard towards the door. As she finishes ushering Becky out, she ends the meeting with a quick smile and two words that Becky takes to heart: "Great job!"
Ramona is quite impressed at the story that Becky tells her, and is quick to commend her and the group for their heroism at clearing out the well.
"Could've given us plenty of problems in the future, it's good we got that handled proactively! Will have to keep an eye out for any future problems coming up from down there, as well as work on our relationship with the crysmals. I'll look around and see if anyone in the colony can speak their language. Keep up the good work!"
The next few of days pass without incident, with the most dangerous thing in the colony being some more petty bickering and construction accidents; turns out cutting down trees is dangerous, who could've guessed!
Becky spends most of her time helping Ankha with her alchemy and mad scientist stuff. She's actually picked up most of the basics by now, becoming more of a helper and less of a hindrance.
Ankha passes most of the next three days working in her lab, glad for Becky’s assistance when it helps, and equally happy to play the role of mentor and teacher when the girl falls a bit short. She creates a variety of potions for the party’s use, and some curative and strength potions for the colony, to help the loggers transport the felled trees, and to heal any who might be unlucky enough to be underneath a falling tree.
She does take one afternoon off, however, to accept Kelpa’s invitation to visit. This time the alchemist is prepared with a couple vials of her language translating potion, so that she can understand any of the grindylow who might be accompanying the brinecaller. “Hi Kelpa!” Ankha calls out in a cheery voice. “How are you today? I brought a small present for you.” She presents a bouquet of colorful wildflowers.
Braxton tells Hastings - and whomever else it may concern - about the crystal magic scorpions, and presents the idea that the back door to the well should probably be secured somehow to prevent animals from accessing their water source.
Since his own personal goals are more long term than simple immediate survival, he opts to help around the settlement, and generally hobnobs to keep spirits up, as well as stay informed on any developments. He offers to teach Becky some points about fencing, since she is so set on throwing herself into danger.
With a silver tongue and an endless supply of summoned alcohol, Braxton sets about convincing the other settlers and realizing his dreams. They had made a foothold in the surprisingly hostile land and even made some friends in the kelpies - a nice surprise. So many unanswered questions still hung overhead, but it was a promising start. Unsurprisingly, there is not much resistance to Braxton's idea to build a tavern for the village to keep spirits up and, eventually, bring in outsiders and their coin. He also speaks with the quartermaster, ensuring his needed supplies will have a space on the next cargo ship coming in.
Carver is extremely curious about the site with the permanent image, and resolves to go see it as soon as he can get away from his duties at the colony. At the end of the second day, he catches the group at dinner and tells you how astonished he was to see the figure and hear its message.
"The figure is wearing something called a decemvirate helm. These powerful objects protect the anonymity of the Decemvirate, a mysterious secret council that governs the Pathfinder Society. I don't know why he has or had one, but it is an intriguing discovery nonetheless. This excites me greatly, because it confirms certain theories that Ancorato might be part of the lands that one of the more famous Pathfinders, Durvin Gest, explored long ago. Be sure to keep me in mind if you find any more Azlanti ruins or artifacts!"
Ankha's gift to the brinecaller is extremely well received, with Kelpa seemingly performing what might be a blush for their kind before the pair quickly dives into conversation. The alchemist's trip to the grindlylow warren is quite productive, as she learns some interesting ways to get more out of her extracts pertaining to water, as well as some new ingredients to make them last longer.
[ooc]Will give a chance for Ku'Hania to post and for you to react to Carver's info before moving on to the third day.[/ooc[
“Kelpa was so nice!” Ankha gushes enthusiastically to the others after her visit. “And so helpful—I didn’t need to dissect any of the grindylow to figure out a way to make some of my extracts last longer. She really knows her stuff about anything related to water. I’ll need to introduce her to Alba.”
When talk turns to Carver’s knowledge about the Azlanti illusion, she ventures a theory and a question. “Then maybe the decemvirate helms orginally come from the Azlanti, and were passed onto Durvin and then onto the pathfinders? But I never knew that the Pathfinder Society is governed by a secret council. Why would they need to be anonymous?”
“Then maybe the Decemvirate helms orginally come from the Azlanti, and were passed onto Durvin and then onto the pathfinders?
Carver nods thoughtfully, seemingly musing on the theory and many other things.
"It's an intriguing proposition, and I think is also the closest to the truth."But I never knew that the Pathfinder Society is governed by a secret council. Why would they need to be anonymous?”
"Not many do know, actually. I don't think I'm technically supposed to tell you this information, but we're so far away from Absalom that I don't think anyone will be coming after me." he takes a quick breath before continuing, obviously excited to be speaking about this.
"There are rumors of an attempted coup many years ago, before the Decemvirate was anonymous. An outside force attempted to take over the existing structure of the society, and from then on the leaders were always strictly anonymous."
==End of the third day==
As you wind down from your third day of relative calm (minus the occasional grindylow visit or ongoing 'talks' with the crysmals below the town), the night sky is suddenly lit up with a bright red light shooting up from somewhere near the north side of the colony.
The colonists took the star candle fireworks and elected to use them as an early warning signal in case of emergency. Ramona struck upon the brilliant idea of tying them to arrows so they could be fired into the air.
This bright red light shot into the sky is exactly one of those, an emergency alarm to alert the colony that something has gone wrong. Within a few moments, Ramona has gathered the group at the center of the colony. She seems cranky, as if she was woken up near moments ago.
"I don't know what that was, but you know the drill by now. Go investigate what that is and report back. I'm hoping it's just some of the younger colonists fooling around, but we can never be too sure."
Becky hears the fireworks go off and immediately rolls out of bed to arm and armor herself. She gets to the center of the settlement just in time to hear Ramona's orders. Casting a light spell upon her rapier, the plucky teen is ready to rush off to investigate.
"Government or secret society: nobody who hides behind masks is qualified to hold a position of authority."
==========
Braxton had gotten used to sleeping in the featherlight mithral armor by now, so he's more or less ready to go whenceever. "I knew those crystal scorpions looked shifty!"