Almaas overcomes his hunger and fires again.
But misses his target.
Meanwhile, Scarlet thinks tactically, Aja thinks musically, Kal'Ryon thinks gigantically and Bocke and Myth lay on more arrows.
The creature looks like it's going to step on Kal'Ryon but stops right before him and hurls his head and torso forward, spitting out a massive blast of sharp bone that engulfs everyone except for Scarlet, who was smart enough to get away.
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Busy with her performance, Aja barely moves as the shower of bones blasts into her, pummeling her from head to toe. But the bard gamely continues to demonstrate her mercurial courage in the face of adversity.
DuKOru-DuKOru-DuKOru-DuKOru...
Aja repeats the refrain for several seconds, then descends in a sort of frantic jabbering in Minkaian, growing increasingly wild with her mandolin strumming. The pace of the song accelerates, and she whips her head back and forth, her bright auburn hair swirling about with an almost liquid flow...
The skeletal creature dies (again) under a barrage of properly organized arrows and a flurry of bites and claws.
After downing the giant, you are able to trace it back to a half submerged cavern. Examining he inside you see scratch marks on the stone, indication of centuries of incessant digging by the desperate creature to escape the erstwhile prison that was formed in the aftermath of Hao Jin's meddling.
Inside you also discover a samurai’s daisho, including a +1 wakazashi in a scabbard of keen edges, a +1 katana in a scabbard of stanching, a suit of +2 o-yoroi armor, a ring of feather falling, and a collection of ancient Lung Wa coins with a present-day value of 1000 gp.
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Aja is a mess. Her clothes are soaked and dirty, even ripped and bloody in a few places, she sports a really nasty bruise on her left cheekbone and is holding in the blood from a gash on her left arm. Nevertheless she looks both excited and happy at the end of the fight.
"Did you see how that thing actually vomited a stream of bones at us?! That was so interesting! I had no idea they could do that! What an exciting fight! Woohoo!" She even actually begins to hop around gleefully, yipping triumphantly and playfully on the shattered bones of the monster.
"I'm going to have to write some of these details down. How tall would you say that thing was? At least 20 feet, wouldn't you say? I was too busy singing--was it making any sounds? Or talking maybe? My friend Sesta is going to be so jealous when I get back home!"
"So, wow, is anyone else hungry? Could you guys eat? I could eat. I think I have some cheese in my pack..." She munches on cheese as the group makes its way to the horror's lair, and after wrapping her bleeding arm, she tests out a few chords and proto-melodies as she begins to concoct a song about the battle.
But if anyone thought she was excited about defeating the skeletal giant, it's nothing compared to her excitement at discovering the Lung Wa coins.
"Oh wow. Oh wow! I recognize these! I mean, not from personal experience, I've never seen these before, but look at these markings -- these are dates, and these markings over here indicate the names of the ruler who most likely minted these. These are 4th Dynasty Feng Xia currency! They actually have a pretty high gold content, they're not just bronze or iron. Of course the Feng wouldn't have wasted their bronze or iron on coins, since they used it all on weapons and armor. You've probably heard of the Feng emperors, they're the ones that the legends say were all vampires and liches. Nasty court gossip from the people who supplanted them mostly. Probably. I mean, who knows? But all those stories come after the fact, and the records show them living and dying normal lifespans in normal ways, except for Lady Xu Bao Song, who was almost certainly a necromancer and a soothsayer. The legends say she had long beautiful snow white hair nearly her entire life that hung down past her waist, and fingernails so long she needed to use cantrips to even feed herself, and she had special slippers that allowed her to float everywhere instead of walking. The collectors back in Absalom will love these coins! I'd like to keep one as a souvenir though, if I can. To think, a real live Feng gold chingusen! What a find!"
"Anyway, I think we could learn more back at the fishing village, but it might be more interesting to make our way to the garrison. We haven't talked to any of the military figures here yet, and they might be able to throw some light on those clockwork creatures we ran into. The governor did mention that the military has been busy at the borders fending off clockwork enemies. I'd sort of like to know if there's more to what's happening there than just smuggling toxic mushrooms."
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"Souvenir? It is the beginning of your own portable museum of curiosities!"
"Oh, hardly the beginning." says Aja. Perhaps nothing could be more calculated to make Aja positively quiver with anticipation than the prospect of talking to a willing audience about her collection. But she plays it off to be polite. "But you don't actually want to hear about all my little keepsakes, I'm sure."
"Do you?" she asks hopefully out of the corner of her eye.
The party heads for the last location of interest in Old Rat's Ticker.
A squat stone fort sits atop a small rise a mile east of town. From the top of this rise the signal lamps at each cavern entrance are clearly visible, simulating an artificial starry nightscape. Several soldiers stand stationed along the fort’s roof parapets, observing the distant pinpricks of light.
When they arrive and announce themselves, they are sent to wait for the commander. The wait is long and they watch several people come and go through the antechamber in which they're waiting with varying (but always high) levels of urgency.
Finally, they are allowed into a room full of maps and reports and ratfolk (who have quite a knack for filling a room and little concept of personal space.)
A torn eared ratfolk (see slide 3) looks up at you.
"Yes? What is it? I was told that you needed to see me. Make it quick. I have an invasion to stop."
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"Do you?" she asks hopefully out of the corner of her eye.
Scarlet and Poppy seem to pause character for a moment and take on a very straight tone "I'm sure by now you've worked out we're scoundrels, honest people carving out a dishonest living - so it's a strange but welcome thing for someone to offer to show us their personal treasures"
"We'd love to see them"
***
"Probably less a problem with invasions and more a problem with a giant rock appearing - which will also dramatically alter any so-called invasions. How do you feel about evacuations?"
Nor Zhen just stares at Scarlet flatly then looks around at his officers and attendants quizzically.
"No, there is definitely an invasion to deal with. Unless you have information about these clockwork abominations planning to drop rocks on our citizens or have some way that we can drop rocks on them, we're not at the point of evacuation. And if we can drop rocks on them, we may not need to evacuate, at all."
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"Look, we can see how busy you are and your task is very difficult and important, so we don't want to waste your time." says Aja soothingly in salesperson mode. "Admittedly we are outsiders here. But we do have some relevant things to talk about here, I think."
"What my colleague was referring to is the fact that we have very strong reason to believe that this whole cavern, the entire Old Rat's Ticker, is about to be obliterated. This place was not originally a natural phenomenon, it was created accidentally when a powerful sorceress centuries ago grew interested in the ratfolk who lived in the tunnels here, and contrived a spell to teleport the entire community along with their homes away to a special pocket dimension of her own creation. This cavern is the hole left over after that spell. We've come to warn you that this spell is about to fail, and that mountain of rock is about to reappear here and obliterate everything. I know that sounds incredible, but I assure you it's quite true. And I think you must ask yourself -- if there is even a chance that such a thing is true, should you not consider what to do about it?"
"Our mission has led us to travel days through the Darklands from our home on the Surface of this world to deliver this warning and help you evacuate your people. We believe this event will happen in about 10 days from now. We've spoken with your governor, and I think she has also had a hard time believing what we say. We've come to you because if anyone is going to plan and execute an effective evacuation of the Old rat's Ticker, it should be a military mind like yours."
"But let's also talk a little about your clockwork invaders. Who is sending these mechanical creatures to attack you? We encountered a clockwork mage and his pack of clockwork hounds on the way here, and we discovered they were carrying toxic violet fungi hidden in secret compartments in their chest after we destroyed them. Have you noticed this as well in the clockwork creatures attacking you? It's possible they were smuggling the substance in, perhaps to pollute your waters or food, or perhaps delivering it to someone here simply because it's valuable. We'd welcome your insight on this matter."
"Even if I believed you - which I don't - an evacuation of the civilians would have to be approved by Governor Zho Bai and she would need to request military assistance," he answers Aja.
"But these invaders you found. Where were they? You say they were smuggling toxins? Why would you think they were trying to pollute our food or water? Why do you say one of them was a mage?"
He sighs and rubs his ear, toying with the scarred portion thoughtfully. When he speaks it is as much to his advisors as you. "Perhaps these things are not as mindless as we thought."
He focuses back on you. "We are facing an invasion from Pan Majang. It is an area of the Darklands known to be infested with ancient clockworks. No one knows who built them or why and whoever it was disappeared long ago. They are usually no threat unless you try to enter their territory, but recently, for unknown reasons, they laid siege to us here.
[b]"Until now we believed they were cleverly built but mindless constructs and that we could outwit them. It is quite troubling if that is not the case. They have numbers on their side and they're quite durable so they are a much greater threat than we knew if they are also intelligent. If you give the governor this information I suspect she will at least evacuate the civilians."
He pauses thoughtfully for a moment. "If you have any other questions, please see my quartermaster. We must return to planning given this new information."
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"Even if I believed you - which I don't - an evacuation of the civilians would have to be approved by Governor Zho Bai and she would need to request military assistance," he answers Aja.
Aja's shoulders slump a little and she sighs. "I must be losing my touch." she confides to her companions.
"But these invaders you found. Where were they? You say they were smuggling toxins? Why would you think they were trying to pollute our food or water? Why do you say one of them was a mage?"
•Aja tells him approximately where in the mushroom forest they had been.
•"Yes. Violet fungi."
•"I don't know why the creatures were loaded down with toxic fungi, I'm only speculating. But it's not a normal feature of a clockwork creature, so there must be a reason."
•"Mostly because it was casting fire spells at us."
He sighs and rubs his ear, toying with the scarred portion thoughtfully. When he speaks it is as much to his advisors as you. "Perhaps these things are not as mindless as we thought."
"In our encounter with these things, it laid an ambush for us and attacked us from a hidden position and employed commendable tactics of teamwork. Their actions may be programmed, but they were not random or mindless."
"our organization, the Pathfinder Society, faced a similar assault from clockwork creatures about 5 years ago, in one of the dwarven Sky Cities. So we have a little bit of experience with them."
"If you give the governor this information I suspect she will at least evacuate the civilians."
He pauses thoughtfully for a moment. "If you have any other questions, please see my quartermaster. We must return to planning given this new information."
"Well, that's something, I suppose." says Aja. "I know you have a job to do, and I respect your courage and your sense of duty. Just... consider that what we say may be true, and make some contingency plans if the order from the governor comes for you to evacuate. We'll be returning to her to speak with her again, and we'll tell her all we've learned."
"Thank you for your time. We'll talk to the quartermaster before we go, as you suggest."
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As Aja leaves Nor Zhen's office, her face is screwed up in thought. Her hair visibly darkens to a brownish red.
"You know, I've learned not to trust coincidences." she confides to her friends. And it strikes me as a pretty big coincidence that this clockwork assault should be happening right now. The clockwork creatures are being used by someone else, that much is clear -- they have their own home already, and don't have any sort of imperial or colonial impulses of their own. They don't particularly need the resources of this cavern."
"I'm just thinking out loud here... what if there's another party that is trying to drive the ratfolk from this cavern before Round Mountain returns? They launch an endless assault of non-living soldiers in an effort to press and weaken their defenses and willpower, and separately they try to poison their water to make this place less habitable. It's classic siege tactics, really."
"I'm not sure who would be doing this, or why they'd be using such violent, harmful tactics. But it might fit facts of the situation. And given several more weeks, it might even work. But it doesn't seem like it'll work within 10 days."
Aja is able to get a good sense of the ratfolk's military traditions with her knowledge of nobility and how they are linked to martial traditions.
The quartermaster, though harried, will be happy to talk to anyone about possible trade deals that will bring in fresh supplies to deal with the Pan Majang invaders (with a Diplomacy or Profession (Merchant) check.)
With the outline of a trade plan in place, the group makes their way back to the center of town.
"Well? How did you enjoy your explorations?" Zho Bai says jovially when you are ushered into her office.
"I do hope that the Big Ticker meets the requirements to be included in your prestigious Pathfinder Chronicles."
At first, Zho Bai seems as politely dismissive of Aja's warning as ever. But, perhaps because of the time the group has spent here and the reputation they've earned, or perhaps just because of how eloquent and insistent Aja is, it becomes evident that she has made the governor a believer.
"Is it really going to happen?" she asks, rhetorically.
Without waiting for an answer, she turns to her advisors and immediately begins giving out orders and asking for facts and details. It is only a few minutes later that she thanks you and asks you to stay in the Big Ticker in case she needs information or assistance.
The next couple of days are hectic and wild as a stream of ratfolk begin to leave the area. A trickle at first, though more and more people get organized and the trickle steadily grows until the elevators are working nonstop and groan under the weight of their cargo as the ratfolk prove as capable as ever of cramming a surprising amount of their number into tight spaces.
You and your fellow pathfinders are, indeed called back to meet with Zho Bai, who is joined by Nor Zhen. Zho Bai thanks you again for the warning but then turns things over to Nor Zhen.
"To ensure that the citizens have a chance to evacuate, somebody must stay behind to hold the clockwork army at bay. I know that those who stay behind may not but I intend to weaponize the return of Round Mountain, by first luring the clockwork army into the Big Ticker. Once the bulk of the clockwork forces move into the cavern, a group of soldiers will then collapse several elevator towers to block the clockwork invaders’ escape. Any soldiers that survive up to this point will then evacuate to emergency bunkers and await rescue," he pauses to look at those gathered before continuing to his hypothesis about the results of his audacious plan.
"Round Mountain’s return could thus crush hundreds of clockwork abominations, which would go a long way towards securing the region. My soldiers are already busy digging out and stocking several bunkers."
"And I am releasing two immovable rods from the treasury, in the hopes that they may strengthen the bunker ceilings," Zho Bai adds.
She turns to you. "I want to thank you for the assistance you have rendered to date. Both in informing us of the coming catastrophe and in dealing with the undead and bringing us additional intelligence about the clockwork army.
"I do not expect you to help with the evacuation, but if you have any spells or magical items that might help they would be much appreciated."
Riada waits only a few moments before stopping forward. "I'll stay behind. I believe my ability to magically tend to wounds and create food and water may be useful. I can also prevent the spontaneous creation of undead creatures like the one you fought at Old Rat's Eye."
"Your assistance is welcomed and appreciated," Zho Bai says and looks to the other Pathfinders. "Will the rest of you be staying, as well, or will you join in the evacuation?"
Aja uses one of the items Amara Li gave them to communicate with her and it takes a little over a day to get a response after you send the bat with the message to her location.
She encourages you to use your own discretion, though subtly urges you to assist in vanquishing the Pan Majang invaders.
The next few days are spent helping with the evacuation, which the ratfolk undertake with surprising speed and organization. The speed increases and the organization decreases on the 11th day after your arrival.
A fine haze fills the air and you realize it is dust. The barriers between the material plane and the Hao Jin Tapestry are already beginning to thin and matter from the other side starts to leak through. It only gets worse and by the next day, larger particles begin to leak through and a steady rain of gravel rains down.
The Diguo-Dashu, most of whom have never even experienced rain panic as rocks literally begin falling on them, expediting their evacuation.
As the final day approaches, Nor Zhen gives you a few hours warning then positions you at the entrance to the fortress' eastern most ramp.
"The leaders of the Pan Majang army have formed a vanguard. We just need you to hold them here long enough for us to collapse the bridges and elevators and then they won't have anywhere to go," Nor Zhen says.
Myth launches an arrow at the nearest attacker then waits for his targets to get closer.
Which they, largely, obligingly do.
The two machines that resemble the mage you previously fought draw closer as well, the one to the south sending 5 missiles of force at Kal'Ryon.
The other sends a tiny bead of fire at the rest of the group, which explodes into a massive fireball when it gets near them.
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Aja goes into her routine. She begins a frantically paced dance routine that involves a lot of running in place while banging her finger cymbals, her head flopping back and forth comically in time like a wacky metronome.
"The other night I drifted off Round Mountain rats arrive
Hao Jin on the side, LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Leonard Bernstein, Aram Zey and Keighton Shaine
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom!
You symbiotic patriotic clockwork junk, right? Right!
It's the end of Diguo Dashu as we know it
It's the end of Diguo Dashu as we know it
It's the end of Diguo Dashu as we know it
And I feel fiiiiine."
Bocke and Myth both fire arrows that don't come anywhere near their targets.
Aja makes everyone fast and brave. Well...Kal'Ryon is not fast, but brave.
The Ganzi delivers a devastating blow to the soldier before him leaving it a no longer animated clockwork.
Almaas fires an arrow.
The mage nearest Kal'Ryon comes closer and sends a white hot beam from three of its four hands.
The mage that is now between Poppy and Scarlet does the same to them.
Or tries to but is too distracted by the two ladies flanking him.
The soldier who has two arrows sticking at him charges Myth.
The other remaining soldier hustles to keep up but can't reach any of the flesh bags.
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"Grease is the word, is the word, that you heard..."
Aja reaches out and gathers Myth's hair into her hands briefly, pulling her fingers through his locks, then abruptly raises her hands over her head and twiddles her fingers rapidly until they glisten. She then splays her hands out violently before her toward the ground in front of Myth, causing the dirt and grass to glisten as well.