Pinebrush watches the dragon go. "Wow, she went from 'I don't require flattery' to 'puny mortals cower before my super-greatness' pretty quick, huh? And dragons are mortal! Sprites aren't!"
He looks over at the new card. "I mean, I am. But she doesn't know that. Most sprites aren't! Oh yuck, this one's nasty."
Looking down at the pile of loot, Sigourney curiously examines the glove. After making sure that it is safe to hold, she puts it on, investing it. She is surprised when a scroll containing a powerful arcane spell materialises in her hand. Quickly shoving the scroll up her sleeves, she takes out her knife-wand using her gloved hand. It vanishes into the extradimensional space. Satisfied with her new acquisition, she also draws her Staff in her ungloved hand.
Sigourney turns to Pine with a curious gleam in her eyes. "Is that true? But is it just you that lacks immortality, or an entire subset of sprites?" She ponders out loud.
After letting that awkward question linger in the air, Sigourney turns to the mounted members of the party.
"If we are going to be walking into an obvious trap, we might want to leave the mounts safe and out of danger." Sigourney points out. "If you both need temporary, mount-free flight, let me help with that."
She casts Air Walk on both Billy and Slick.
As she does so, she has an epiphany.
"Hang on, why do we need to trigger the trap. I have a better solution." She tips her Mage hat and summons a Animated Kite which appears 30 feet away from her before floating away.
"Right, so we can just follow this kite from this distance. It will hopefully trigger the Cluster Heart before we do. That way, we will have an idea of what we are up against." Sigourney suggests.
She puts Reginald up her sleeves, just so that he can avoid the effects of this unknown hazard. Reginald squeaks appreciatively.
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"I'm Wingless," Pine answers, "Aside from the obvious, what that means is that I was born here, in this world, and not in the First World. Fey are influenced by their surroundings, and sprites born in the mortal world are mortal. That means we can die, but there are good aspects to being mortal, too. I've grown a lot not literally. Fey usually... um, don't. They're very chaotic in some ways, but they never really change their nature. A First World sprite will always be a sprite. Their innate magic makes them dangerous to an untrained mortal, but... I didn't have that. I had to learn, and practice, and get stronger. But I could. When the first Wingless were born without wings, their parents were concerned. When the first of them actually died and weren't reborn, their parents panicked, and decided never again to travel to this world. But then some of those surviving Wingless grew up. They started out weaker than other sprites, but they didn't have the same limits. They say the Wingless have unfettered potential.
"I think I was powerful when we met, but I've kept growing. I'm even stronger now! You know that I've fought demons and liches and things. If my parents did that, they'd be squished like a bug. But they wouldn't go to the Boneyard, they'd be reborn in some way. They might be different, and they might not remember their current life time, but their souls wouldn't die. I can... um, so they say. I haven't tested it yet, and I don't plan to!"
Slick listens to the others talk about the Cluster Heart. "If this Cluster Heart thing is a trap, or some sort of hazardous mechanism, then that sounds like a job for Pinebrush. Maybe he should take the lead once we have it in sight. He might be able to figure out a way to deactivate it without having to set it off."
When Sigourney banishes Slick's mount and gives him the ability to walk on air, Slick nods in approval. "Yes, this should make things better if some sort of conflict erupts."
He walks across the chasm to scout the other side and try to find where the Cluster Heart is located. He discovers that the cave complex continues south. "If the Cluster Heart is anywhere, it's probably in the next cave that way." He points south to where he sees an opening into another cavern.
You gather together and identify loot and Sigourney makes preparations to get you safely to the Cluster Heart. You head over to the passageway the dragon took. The reverberations in this long, low hollow can be felt and heard, issuing from a huge nodule of glowing crystal that crackles, rings, and purrs. Treasure is piled around it.
Sigourney is about to send her elemental off to see what happens when she reconsiders for a moment. Conferring with the rest of the group she and Billy both recognise it as a powerful from of environmental hazard. It could be disabled by a Master of Nature or Thievery, but you would need to either be adjacent or have some way of working on the crystal at a distance. It can also be destroyed with damage however that may set it off. It is vulnerable to sonic damage.
The heart will activate if attacked or if a non elemental being ends its turn adjacent to it. Activating it will cause it to erupt in massive spiky crystals or force, dealing significant piercing and force damage which might well damage or destroy the treasure piled up around it. It is clearly the source of the crystal corruption here, and, thinking about it, it is quite likely the xorns are also infected.
"Ooh. Anyone else think she only abandoned those things because she couldn't get near it now that she's not all crystal? I can probably handle it, but I don't think it's gonna give me a lot of time, and if it blows up it might damage the treasure."
Nodding along, Sigourney agrees with Pine. "That does seem like that would be the case. The best solution would be to give you the ability to disable the heart, then get away before it blows up." She thinks to herself out loud. "But how would we go about doing that?"
As the group is deciding how best to handle it, Billy asks Pinebrush, "Think you can disable it? If so, I can give you some Airwalk and some Haste." The bard explains, "That way, you can zip in, disable, and zip out. If Sig and I are right, it won't activate unless you remain next to it. This way, if it takes a few rounds of disabling, you should be okay." He adds, "Probably."
After others chime in, Billy continues, "I can also assist you with a bard song."
Billy concludes by saying, "If anything goes wrong, Sig will be ready with Healing, Slick with Protectors Sacrifice, and I with Shadow Siphon."
While the others prep Pinebrush for his heroic attempt to disable the Cluster Heart, Slick prepares himself to absorb some of whatever damage the sprite might incur if the attempt fails and sets the thing off. He also prepares his sword in case he has to rush in and destroy the thing using a more hands-on approach.
He nudges Billy. "Sigourney says it's vulnerable to sonic damage. If I have to go in and take care of it personally, perhaps you could start things off with a blast of The Trumpet." He hopes it doesn't come to that, because he's liking the look of the treasure piled up around it and it would be a real pity if any of it got damaged by an explosion.
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"I can handle it!"
"Oh, oops."
"I can't handle it!"
Pine rushes forward to try and disable the Heart. However, the crystal is strange and powerful and unfamiliar and he isnt quite sure which bit he needs to remove to deactivate it.
He runs in a second time but somehow stumbles and brushes against the crystal, setting it off!
Spikes of crystal, tipped with glowing beads of force, shoot out and try to impale the little sprite. They also shred several rather expensive looking but bulky art objects.
Reflex Save
, Improved Evasion
Pine fortunately manages to twist away just in time and avoid the damage and, likely, exposure to the crystalline corruption. However, having set it off you have enough time to recover the remaining treasures and then destroy it from a distance.
You can recover the following: A standard-grade suit of mithral chainmail, the shattered remnants of a darkwood bow, various bits of cloth and pottery that were once valuable art objects and 10,000 sp.
With the crystal heart destroyed the caverns are filled with a sense of peace. The xorns quickly arrive, noting the change in the crystals and they are pleased you have freed them from both the Dragon and the Curse. They pledge to help you if you need it in the future.
At this point you can return to base to an ever more excitable Usilket who is keen to learn about all you have seen.
Slick winces at Pinebrush's first ham-handed attempt at disabling the Cluster Heart, then lets out a sigh of relief when nothing happens. "That was a close one Pinebrush. Better luck next time." When Pinebrush heads back in, Slick calls after him, "Break a leg!" and then looks on in mild horror as the sprite practically runs into the Cluster Heart, setting off an explosion. "I didn't mean that literally!"
Shaking his head at the destruction, Slick collects what unbroken items remain and packs them away. "A pity we couldn't save it all, but c'est la vie."
Once they get back to Harrowheart, Slick makes sure they've epitomized all the cards they've collected in Kho so far, namely The Owl, The Desert, The Marriage, The Bear, The Tangled Briar, The Beating, and The Sickness.
Upon their return to the enclave, Slick let's Billy handle bringing Usilket up to date on their adventures. He was far better at that sort of thing than Slick.
After some discussion, Sigourney grabs a couple of items from the loot, and Slick decides to hold onto the trident and flaming rune for the time being; he might well be able to make use of the Flaming rune when he upgraded his sword, but he wasn't so sure about the runes on the trident. He'd just sell it later if it wasn't of any use to him.
The rest of the loot he takes into the markets of Katapesh, and sells it using his special Pactmastercard to get an extra 5% cash back. Upon his return, he distributes the proceeds to his friends.
"Oh. Well," says Pinebrush sheepishly, "All's well that ends."
With a little time on their hands before the next foray into the ruins of Kho, Slick decides to take a day off to get some fresh air in the Harrow Court. He spends the day taking in the sights and epitomizing some of the cards they'd recovered recently.
Before he leaves Harrowheart, he epitomizes The Bear and creates a forested courtyard in the castle containing an unusually intelligent and curious bear. Maybe later, when he had more time, he'd have a chat with the bear on things philosophical.
He does the same with The Tangled Briar, and patches of twisted undergrowth quickly appear around the castle and then spread outside throughout the Harrow Court. He carefully plucks a blackberry from the new spiny bushes and pops it into his mouth; Delicious!
As he works his way through the village, he epitomizes The Marriage and watches as a new building pops up from which a pleasant priest emerges. He does the same with The Beating and The Sickness; a small group of soldiers appears and begins to set up training grounds next to a sprawling cemetery run by a surly caretaker.
As he travels through a forest, he epitomizes The Owl and watches as an unusually large example of its namesake makes the woods its home. He does the same with The Desert as he passes near such an environment and the place appears take on a magical cast.
The day begins to wane as he finishes up his work and he decides to head back to Harrowheart. On the way back, he spots some swamps in the distance. He remembers the last time he entered those swamps and how close he'd got to catching the will-o'-wisps and claiming his prize. He decides to spend the night there and take another shot at chasing the wily creatures. Maybe he'd get lucky like Pinebrush and catch one this time.
He settles in for the night, and once the light fades, he starts his hunt. He remembers a few tricks from the last time he went on such a hunt and hopefully these will come in handy now. Spotting some floating lights through the mangroves, he begins his pursuit. After spending most of the night splashing through fetid water and getting slapped in the face by sticky bug-infested vines, he finally comes to a small clearing with a group of them clustered within. Rushing in, he...
...manages to miraculously catch them by surprise. They scatter in all directions, but not before one of them drops a runestone in the panic. Slick dives on it and grabs it before the will-o'-wisps have a chance to reclaim it. Just like Pinebrush, it turns out to be an Antimagic armor rune.
Covered in dirt and smelling like a sewer, Slick returns triumphantly to Harrowheart for a well deserved bath. "Sorry for the mess Baines, but it couldn't be helped. Those will-o'-wisps led me on a merry chase, but I got them in the end."
After getting himself all cleaned up, he takes his precious new runestone to Sigourney to have her transfer it onto his armor.
"The treasure! No!" Sigourney yells as the Crystal Heart explodes. As the dust clears, she is horrified to see that the expensive pottery and art is destroyed. However, she is even more astonished to see that Pine managed to walk out of there completely unscathed. Somewhat disappointed by the whole experience, she takes an inert piece of the Crystal Heart and keeps it up her sleeves.
She joins Slick on a shopping trip. While shopping, she realises that over these past few encounters, she has come quite close to death. The realisation of her own mortality spurs her to buy a lucky talisman that supposedly wards off death. Flashing her Pactmastercard, she sells her trusty Retrieval Prism and pins a Mortalis Coin to her robe.
She spends the rest of the day seeking out the Mountain Man in his cabin. Upon meeting the large man, Sigourney pulls out a shard of crystal from the Crystal Heart. She makes an earnest attempt to convince the Mountain man to accept it as a trophy.
"Hello. I do not believe we've met before. I bring trophies from monsters I've killed. This crystal is from a powerful crystalline beating heart which turned an ancient dragon into a crystal wyrm." She pushes the crystal over to the Mountain Man along with a roll of parchment.
"This list of items contains what I would be happy to receive in exchange for the crystal. Also, does it count as 'using' an item if I reverse engineer it for its formula or feed it to my familiar?" She follows up.
Elemental Oil
Sairazul Blue
Oil of Keen Edges
Scroll of Ferrous Form
Scroll of Monstrosity Form
Scroll of Shock to the System
Scroll of Frigid Flurry
The next day, she is surprised to find Slick back at the Castle, covered in dirt. She asks Slick to move his filthy armour to the Brass Dwarf's smithy before she gets started. There is no way she is going to drag that thing herself. Before she starts to apply the rune to Slick's amour, she makes sure to clean the Armour by Casting Prestidigitation on it.
Reginald munches on any scrolls Sigourney receives from the Mountain Man, if she received any.
Billy is glad Pine took care of the crystal ... one way or another. Relieved to see the sprite walk away unharmed, Billy says, "Let's tell Usilket the good news."
Returning to the xorn creatures, Billy pour drinks and highlights the finer parts of the encounter. After assuring them the crystal has been irrevocably destroyed, and as such, the caves are safe for their people, he asks Usilket, "It's been quite rewarding working with your friends and family here." He continues, "It appears a meeting with the Prince of Wolves is likely in our future. We were hoping we could count on your support in that upcoming battle. Won't you consider joining us when the time comes?"
Billy congratulates Slick on capturing the wisp. He then considers some purchases of his own.
o He also buys a Wand of Ant Haul so he can carry almost as much as Slick.
o He decides to keep the Prismatic Spray wand for one more journey to see if it proves useful. He mostly likes how colorful it is. He pays Slick the gold for the kitty.
o He also looks into a Wand of Spirit Sense.
When everyone's ready the next morning, Billy draws his daily harrow omen card.
He also takes a quick visit The Carnival to learn whom we might meet and who can be trusted.
The group make various purchases, do some crafting and visiting of various places.
The Mountain Man grumbles a bit about Sigourney brining him a piece of a hazard rather than a creature but he relents and provides the requested items.
Billy visits with the Xorns who are happy to help if they can when it comes to confronting the Prince. He also visits the Carnival. He finds himself visiting the booth of a fortune teller, an old woman wearing a blank, white, porcelain mask, she predicts that he will be eaten by hyenas! He thinks he can trust this woman, which is perhaps a little worrying.
With all of your preparations done you come together again at your hidden base in Kho and prepare to travel into the jungles of the lower city to visit the charmingly named Pit of Endless Night!.
Slick finishes up his preparations and rubs his thumb over the fancy new Antimagic rune he now sports on his armor. "This better come in handy. Those will-o'-wisps weren't easy to track down. I'm still finding traces of swamp muck in my equipment."
He then picks up Markish's old trident and looks it over. With his new fancy flaming rune waiting for his greatsword to be upgraded, he was pretty sure he wouldn't need the trident or its runes. He shrugs inwardly. "You never know. It might come in handy." He straps it to his back within easy reach.
Gathering back at the enclave, he once again looks out over the ruins. "The Pit of Endless Night, you say? Woooo! Sounds scary. Can't wait to find out what's waiting for us at the bottom." "Good thing I trained with the guard on how to better fight against enemies trying to hide from me."
Your battle instincts make you more aware of concealed and invisible opponents. You don’t need to succeed at a flat check to target concealed creatures. You’re not Off-Guard to creatures that are hidden from you (unless you’re Off-Guard to them for reasons other than the hidden condition), and you need only a successful DC 5 flat check to target a hidden creature.
While you’re adjacent to an undetected creature of your level or lower, it is instead only hidden from you.
He steps out into the ruins and leads the way.
After Reginald ate all of her newly acquired scrolls (again), Sigourney smiles with glee. She can't wait to try out at least one of her brand new spells.
Sigourney moves behind Slick and starts looking for powerful magic.
Billy finds the group after his short visit to the carnival. "There was a fortune teller wearing a black and white mask. She seemed nice and warned me about being eaten by hyenas." He considers and adds, "Perhaps these animals don't like music."
After activating his two new daily wands , he follows Slick to the Pit of Endless Night.
"Maybe they'd like it better if I sing?"
Your preparations made the group get together and head out through the broken terrain of the ancient city. You make decent time through the central city and are descending towards the lower jungle. The sun is high, the stones of the broken paths hot to the touch and the air full of the sounds of birds, monkeys and the occasional large hunting cat. Suddenly, those sounds stop. The air quivers, expectantly...
, +2 item visual/hearing, +2 circ scout
, Perception +24, +1 circ if visual, +2 circ scout
, +2 circ scout, +2 item visual
and two massive mounds of goop rise up from the surrounding cliffs.
One of them is very quick to act. It lashes out with a pseudopod at Slick, slapping into him, leaving a burning acid stain across his cheek. It tries to wrap its appendage around him but Slick easily shrugs it off so it lashes out at him again, going well wide.
, B and then Acid
Turn Order
Red
------------------------------
Sigourney
Billy
Pine
Slick
------------------------------
Blue
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [233], 31 damage
Billy [186], 10 THP, see invisibile,
Pinebrush [201]
Sigourney [188]
Reginald [105]
Billy is enjoying the pleasant walk, when the group is rudely interrupted by animate soil. He sings out inspiration,
♫"It's really a beautiful day.
Traveling on our merry way.
.....Large blobs of dirt?
.....Let's make them all hurt.
And bury these two lumps of clay."♫
Seeing how Slick may want an easy way to reach the nearest enemy without climbing, Billy chants a ditty to create a magical stairway.
♫"Looking high atop, some monsters made of sand.
This play, it needs a prop: a stairway would be grand."♫
"Eugh."
They look like they're just close enough together. And still far above the party. So before anyone gets closer... Pine plucks the last bead from his necklace, hurling it up into the air. As it explodes, he draws his weapon.
A nonmagical string falls away, all used up.
As Sigourney watches a gargantuan oozy mass slap Slick along his face, her expression is not one of shock but of intrigue.
"What fascinating creatures...Surely I've read about them before."
She quickly recalls what she knows about these creatures.
She then tries to further Recall Knowledge about what she knows about the big mounds of goop.
She uses her Loremaster Spells (Loremaster's Etude) to boost her cognitive ability. Unexpectedly, she feels The Fiend boosting her ability to think!
Sigourney recognises these as a form of alchemical ooze. Created by the comingling of ancient, alchemical reagents, possibly with the exploding power core of a flying city they are potentially very dangerous.
Their most dangerous feature is the dreaded Split. If you attack them with slashing or piercing damage they will divide into two, taking no damage and splitting their remaining HP between the two of them. As to immunities, they are immune to acid, critical hits, mental, piercing, precision, slashing and sonic damage, the unconscious condition and visual effects.
Sigourney shakes her head in disapproval. "These oozes are the product of terrible, dangerous alchemy. We need to avoid splitting them into smaller pieces with slashing or damaging attacks! Also, they're immune to acid, critical hits, mental, piercing, precision, slashing and sonic damage, being unconscious and visual effects."
She moves away from the oozes, outside of where she thinks they can reach.
She then invokes her patron in order to give Slick some relief from the acid burns.
[/s]
Activate—Antimagic Armor [reaction] (concentrate); Frequency once per day; Trigger A spell targets you or includes you in its area; Effect The armor attempts to counteract the triggering spell with the effect of a 7th-rank dispel magic spell and a counteract modifier of +26.
Slick does not like the look of these creatures and getting an acidic slap in the face does not improve his opinion of them. Sigourney's report tells him that his weapons are useless against these blobs of goo, so he decides to resort to a more hands-on approach. Dropping his greatsword, he does a couple of arm reloads to loosen up his muscles before charging up the convenient stairs to begin pummeling the goop into goopier goop.
Pinebrush lets his shortsword slip from his hand as he plucks the bead.
If his weapons aren't useful... well, maybe he can still support Slick. Pine flies up towards the closer ooze.
Sigourney provides Slick with some relief from the pain and then Pines fireball explodes overhead. Both of the oozes shudder under the roiling flames.
Slick rushes up the handily created ladder to punch the horrid blob. As he does so, it lashes out at him, leaving more acidic burns! Both of his powerful blows land but to much reduced effect!
Across on the other cliff the second monster oozes down the rocks to the ground. It lashes out at the little halfling twice but he manages to twist away.
Meanwhile, on the cliff, the other blob dislikes the way it was punched by Slick. It slaps Slick again but once again fails to wrap him up in its oozy goodness.
, crit fail
, fail
, fail, pass
On Billy
On Slick
, hit
Turn Order
Red
------------------------------
Sigourney
Billy
Pine
Slick
------------------------------
Blue
Bold to act. I have applid Slicks FH.
Combat status
Slick [233], 71 damage, FH 16 (2/4), 20' up
Billy [186], 10 THP, see invisible
Pinebrush [201], 20' up
Sigourney [188]
Reginald [105]
Red, 127 damage, 1d12 bleed, 20' up
Blue, 34 damage, ground level
Realizing the oozes aren't really blocking their way and considering the group isn't ideally equipped to handle them, Billy asks, "Any reason why we can't just go around these creatures and leave them be?"
Billy carefully takes a step back, and then he moves as fast as he can to put the largest possible distance between himself and the blobs. As he's running along, he cheerily sings,
♫"When danger reared its ugly head,
They bravely turned their tail and fled.
Yes, they bravely turned about
And gallantly they chickened out.
Bravely taking to their feet
They beat a very bold retreat."♫
As he departs, lingering in the air is the sound of two coconuts rhythmically banging together.
Sigourney follows after Billy and runs.
"Oh. Uh. Okay!"
Pine zips down to retrieve his dropped sword before following after Billy. "Bye yucky goopy things!"
With everyone heading south at top speed, Slick clambers down the stairs, picks up his greatsword, and follows after them.
Obstacle the First!
You must break off contact from the hideous blobs. Relevant skills are Acrobatics, Athletics, Occultism or Stealth. If you can fly you will pass automatically but you may still roll to see if you can crit. The DC is 36. Everyone must roll.
Sigourney uses her limited Occult knowledge in an attempt to outsmart the oozes...and just barely manages to duck behind a wall before the oozes notice her.
Slick takes off at a run, doing his best to avoid the pseudopods being flung at him by the gargantuan oozes. Every so often, he kicks or flings a large rock at the creatures to distract them from their prey.
Billy considers what he knows of oozes and tries to stay one jump ahead.
Alas, they seem to follow his tracks. Perhaps it's his musical accompaniment that's giving him away...
Pfft. Easy!
"Tooooo slow, slimy!"
Dashing away from the horrid monsters you manage to put a bit of distance between you. However, the are relentlessly pursuing you and they clearly know the area better than you do. Now you must navigate the twisting canyons and thick jungle before they catch up with you!
From her position behind a wall, Sigourney slowly moves away. With her mastery over nature she is certain that she will escape without running into naturally formed holes in the ground...
Pine is in his element here.
...but darting around quickly and unpredictably remains a more important part of his approach.
In theory, anyway.
With his training in the occult not as effective as he'd hoped, Billy tries to search for a hidden path.
Slick once again uses his strongest skills to quickly scramble up inclines and get a better lay of the land ahead. He then directs everyone along the canyons and trails least likely to end in dead-ends.
Sigourney leads the group through the jungle, narrowly avoiding entanglements with a wide patch of particularly nasty thorns, filled with poisonous moss. Obviously the oozes, being massive, ignore such things.
Pine is so much in his element he gets tangled in a bunch of hanging vines and has to spend some time disentangling himself. Fortunately Slick is more on the ball and Billy spots a path through the jungle that lets the group get further ahead of their hungry pursuers.
However, as you burst out of the jungle you reach a large rocky cliff. Circling above the area are a pair of massive jungle Rocs, gargantuan predatory birds, eagerly searching for prey. You must navigate the cliff while avoiding the notice of the birds and being quick enough to escape the pursuing oozes.
Pine could just turn invisible.
But nah. He doesn't need it to avoid such big dumb birds so far away, not with all this cover!
Learn a lesson about hubris? Never.
"Rocs. Move from cover to cover and don't make loud noises. They won't dive down at prey they can't see or hear." Sigourney whispers to the party.
Reginald, seeing another yet winged predator, cringes in fear and darts into Sigourney's sleeves.
When Sigourney suggests cover, Billy uses his superb repair kit to construct a makeshift forest canopy.
He's admittedly not feeling super confident.