Sakura is distracted by Kamo's comment and can't put together two good swings, so she raises her blade defensively as well. "Pagma! Get rid of the freaky frog!
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Pagma hurls bombs at the guhddgi, splashing it twice before finally landing a direct hit. Jing-De blasts the frog-fiend with searing light, badly wounding it! Kamo finishes off the foe he wounded earlier and injures another, while the slowed Sakura only scores one hit on her opponent.
The guhddgi lurches forward, using its two spears to balance. It staggers across the room to get to Jing-De before stabbing out with both spears from 10 feet away!
The remaining meokdans attack Kamo and Sakura. The gurgle in delight as they rip off bits of flesh, chew, and swallow, healing some of their wounds!
The guhdggi continues to burn.
"I. Am. Trying!" One would think that throwing clay pots at a huge frog would be easy but apparently it is not. So after seeing her first two miss somehow, and after doing a mental calculation of the size of this place and the number of bombs in her inventory, Pagma draws her knife.
Kamo focuses his attention on the guhddgi, looking for a weak spot in its defenses.
He runs to Jing-De's assistance, stabbing the creature in the back.
for
Slow Sakura is unable to do much of anything and hacks away ineffectively.
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Pagma splashes the guhdggi with bombs, then Kamo moves in and finds an opening. He drives his silver dagger deep into the frog-thing's back, and it lets out a anguished shriek! The red butterflies in its mouth scatter to the winds as the nindoru collapses!
Meanwhile, Sakura slashes one of her assailants but is unable to finish it off as it narrowly avoids her second strike. Fortunately, Jing-De scores a critical hit with a ray of frost, finishing off her wounded foe.
The two remaining meokdans open their mouths wide, reach down their throats into their stomachs and pull out a human femur! They wield these femurs as clubs, one leaping to attack Kamo while the other swings on Sakura. Sakura's foe hits her, the bone splintering with the force of the impact!
Jing uses mundane means to heal both himself and Sakura.
Swallowing, with only a slight hesitation, the alchemist rushes into the fray, her silver dagger slashing the nearest meokdans.
Kamo faces off against the meokdan that attacked him, dagger flashing.
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Kamo eviscerates the meokdan attacking him. Meanwhile, Pagma rushes in to assist Sakura, stabbing her assailant twice. Sakura then beheads the nindoru with a critical slice of her katana!
A thorough search of the room reveals a small tear under one of the mattresses. Within is a spiritsight ring.
Kamo shoos away the last of the spooky butterflies, "Let's rest for a moment. How many people are hurt?"
He carefully cleans the fiendish bites.
"Wise words, brother." Sakura says, taking a knee while he addresses her wounds.
She studies the ring after her allies explain to her what it can do. "Interesting. Sounds quite useful." Looking Kamo, "Who shall wear it? Who shall be our eyes?"
Pagma holds up her hands and shakes her head. "I get distracted too easily." she admits but knows they know her well enough to know that already.
Sakura chuckles at Pagma's response, patting the back of her friend without actually verbally responding. She knows it's true. "Ok. I'll slip it on for now, but if anyone feels like they should have it, it's yours."
Once she's patched up and her slowness has faded, she leads the party onward in search of the next statue.
You head west into the monastery's main hall. This open-air chamber has a sixty-foot ceiling. In between regularly spaced archways in the walls that allow views into the surrounding courtyard, intricate depictions of the hills and forests of the Specterwood are carved and painted in fading colors. A fifty-foot-tall stone statue of a tree rises in the center of the chamber, its branches extending over the room. Circular rows of moldy cushions lie on the ground around the statue.
It's only a few moments after you enter the chamber that the stone statue suddenly lurches to life, its branches whipping through the air as a horrifying roar rips through the monastery—a roar that seems to come from underground!
At the same time, four of the cloth coverings on the moldy cushions rip free, flapping into the air to reveal vestigial faces on their undersides!
Success: The creature is frightened 1.
Failure: The creature is frightened 2.
Critical Failure: The creature is frightened 2 and fleeing for as long as it remains frightened.
"With the frog gone maybe the rest of this place will be..." Pagma had been saying this to her friends as they entered the new room. "easy?" the last word is more of a croak as the spike of fear tears through her.
Just like last time, Sakura is overcome with fear. Her hands shake, the katana trembling in her grip.
Easy. she tries to tell herself. Pagma-chan said this would be easy. Easy. Easy. Easy. she repeats, trying to calm herself.
Kamo is slightly frightened by the statue. "At least...it doesn't have a gross human face, or too many arms!"
Though Jing-De is shaken by the roar, he maintains his conviction as he speaks the words to a bold prayer, exorcising the haunt! The statue ceases its animation and becomes inert again.
However, the four sheet-monsters fly at Sakura! Two of them manage to slam into her and wrap their bodies around her, trying to wrap her up!
Jing tries to figure out what these things are and asks Kamo for help. Are they undead? Or are they animated creatures, stirred to life by an ancient evil?! Whatever they are, Jing sees Sakura is getting hurt and attempts to intervene. He dons a sepulchral mask and tries to 'will' them away. Like this entire place, they're not supposed to exist.
Pagma throws two firebombs at the clothing that has not wrapped around her friend, then pulls her dagger to help cut her free. "Aggressive Dressing?"
Sakura struggles mightily against the aggressive dressing. "Let.Me.Go!" she grumbles as she hacks about with her blade ineffectively.
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Kamo looks for a way to cut the sheet off Sakura--preferably without slicing into his sister.
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Both Jing-De and Kamo recognize the creatures as ittan-momen, the same kind of kami that Gray Butcher was. Jing-De’s spell inspires dread in the kami. Pagma incinerates one with her bombs and scorches the others, setting Kamo up to slice up the two remaining creatures with his fan! They flutter limply to the ground, releasing Sakura.
With the danger gone, you can now attempt to purify the statue.
"Daikitsu, help purify this statue." Kamo sends up a short, but fervent prayer to his favorite goddess.
Searching the room reveals a spellguard shield among the moldy cushions.
A blast of loathing fills Kamo's mind as he purifies the statue.
The ghost of Zhi Hui manifests again, sighing in relief. "Thank you. You are making good strides towards cleansing this place. Two more statues remain to be purified. I have enough strength to answer two more of your questions now."
Sakura drops to the ground, free of the evil-cloth-kami that was trying to dress her up against her will. She thanks her allies for freeing her and is impressed once again by Kamo's abilities.
"Brother. You keep this up and they are going to be writing songs about the small-brained, smelly man who helped cleanse this land. Well done."
Sakura opens her mouth to ask a question but closes it without doing so. She looks back at her brother and Jing-De, who likely have more intelligent things to ask. She nods to each of them as if telling them to proceed.
Kamo gets a bit of a headache from cleansing the statue, but it's not too bad.
"Are you mistaking me for a tanuki again, sister? Pagma is the alcohol brewer," Kamo jokes. "I'll stow that shield away. Perhaps it will be a historical prize back at home. Let's clear out the rest of the monastery's front before we push deeper. I don't want anyone sneaking up behind us."
When asked about the curse afflicting Wilowshore, Zhi Hui explains. "It is Kugaptee’s influence that has caused the tragedy unfolding now. It is no mere curse that traps you and Willowshore. Time itself has been stolen from you. We are all trapped in a cycling mindscape that repeats every year, beginning on the first day of summer and ending on the last day of spring. Each time the cycle repeats, your memories have been reset. I retain my memories, but I know not how often the cycle has repeated, and until now have not been able to see further than Kugaptee’s darkness.
"But I know who started it—your governor, Heh Shan-Bao. He sought to bolster the Tan Sugi, but it needed no bolstering. His attempt backfired and opened cracks into Kugaptee’s grave—cracks that plunged us all into this cyclic mindscape. It was enough to whisk Heh Shan-Bao away even from this mindscape that traps the rest of us.
"While I cannot say how many years we’ve repeated this cycle, I do know that something has changed this time—whether due to Kugaptee’s growing strength or other outside forces. What is important is that you have been given the chance to change our fates, and you must not waste this opportunity if you wish to free us all. To stop the cycle, you must uncover the truth of what happened, and that begins with ending Kugaptee’s influence over this mindscape."
Zhi Hui words instill a sense of dread and primal panic within Jing. He shakes his head from left to right, but no amount of shaking can undo what Zhiu told them. Has their existence become a mockery of life? If so, has his rekindled faith been a lifeline thrown to them by Tsukiyo and Shizuru? The questions flood on in but offer no clarity, only further confusion.
Right before he's about to open his mouth and pour out all those questions and more onto Zhi, Jing realizes that they only have one more question to ask. One. And they better make it count.
"How can Kugaptee be defeated? He was merely imprisoned before; are we powerful enough to manage it?" Kamo hopes to sneak in an extra question, or at least get some encouragement from the spirit.
"I do not know the answer you seek. If anyone does, it would be Heh Shan-Bao. He caused of all this, but he is now trapped within his own mindscape. Once Kugaptee’s influence has been diminished, there will be trails to follow and clues to seek that will surely lead you to where your governor has gone. Find Heh Shan-Bao and you will get closer to understanding what is happening now and how to escape from this cycle of malice."
Zhi Hui's form begins to be ripped apart again, but as she starts to vanish, she cries out, "Seek the hidden library... my friend, Yen Rui, can help..." Then she is gone.
Sakura stands rigidly, her thoughts racing as she processes Zhi Hui’s explanation. The revelation that their lives might have been looping endlessly evokes fear and anger at the same time.
Worse yet, the thought that someone from their own community might have unwittingly caused such devastation stirs a sense of betrayal.
"Time stolen... memories reset..." she mutters under her breath, her fists clenching. The idea of being trapped in an unending cycle is intolerable to her.
"We need to stop it. Wait!". Panic washes over her face as a realization comes to her, "Are we going to forget this? When are we going to lose our memory?"
"If what the spirits says it true, we have the rest of the year, at least," Kamo considers. "I wonder how long has passed since this loop began? It's impossible to know, I suppose. A morose thought, but at least the spirit her thinks this repetition is different! We may be able to unravel this ball of fishing line, yet."
Once you are ready, you head west to a large room. A large hole has been torn into this room’s northern soor. Shredded cots, ruined chairs and tables, and other debris adorn the floor, and deep, long gashes have been carved into the walls. A thick rancid smell permeates the chamber, while battered shelves lie in a heap against the western wall.
Two undead monks lurch toward you as you enter but don’t attack at once. Instead, they rasp out in unison, “Have you come to join Kugaptee? Are you here to escape the prison of life?”
"A time... ring? Circle? Loop?... hmmm, I like Ring." Pagma likes distracting herself from the abject horror of things, cause otherwise this just might be the last crack. "We just need to break the loop, divert time back on its normal flow- what in the heavens?!!?" she had been talking with they entered the room and got distracted from the distraction.
"That is foolishness," Kamo snorts. "Look at yourselves. Who is in prison here?"
The monks snarl as they continue to advance menacingly!
"Stand with me!" she calls out to her allies, turning towards the undead.
"Let me help you escape your prison." Sakura growls, unleashing her magical blade upon them.
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Sakura charges in and slices one of the black monks twice. However, it retaliates with two critical hits, pummeling her with its fists,
The assault leaves Sakura wounded and bewildered, momentarily slowed. The undead takes advantage of that, leaning over and attempting to suck her breath out of her mouth!
The other black monk rushes at Kamo, delivering a devastating punching combo!
Effect: The kurobozu leans over and sucks the breath from the target, who must attempt a DC 22 Fortitude save. Regardless of the result, the creature is exposed to black apoxia and its breath reeks of carrion for 1 minute.
Critical Success: The creature is unaffected.
Success: The creature can't speak for 1 minute.
Failure: The creature becomes sickened 2 and can't speak for 1 minute.
Critical Failure: As failure, plus the creature falls unconscious and begins suffocating.
Sakura gets absolutely pummeled! Sakura tries to recover from the first series of strikes and is unable to catch her breath. She gasps out horse sounds but can't audibalize any words. Bloodied, bruised and nearly broken, she feels sick to her stomach and can barely manage a single attack before raising her blade in defense.
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Kamo can barely move! He slashes at the zombie who attacked him, but to little effect.
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Jing clasps his prayer beads and taps into the wellspring of his soul to shower Sakura with healing magics.
The attacks are stunningly quick, shattering her friends in a blink of the eye. Pagma's fear spikes at the thought of losing them as she pulls out two of her bombs...
... and when her friends need her the most her aim is rubbish. Shame burns alongside fear... so she throws her last fire bomb at the monk's stuff, their broken cots and things "Hey, you haven't escaped anything, you are stuck here and now you don't even have a place to sleep!"
Pagma's bombs are off the mark. One does splash the black monk attacking Sakura. Kamo misses, but Sakura scores a critical hit, leaving her opponent terribly injured!
Despite that, the black monk strikes back! It furious assault leaves Sakura staggered and bewildered, Jing-De's healing the only reason why the fighter is still standing.
The other undead knocks out Kamo with a devastating combo! It then staggers over to Jing-De, but the sorcerer dodges its wild punch!
"May your souls rot as much as your manners have!" Pagma curses them both, hating being ignored, but not nearly as much as seeing Kamo broken on the floor.
She tosses two bombs at the most wounded of the monks, then rushes over to Jing in the hope of drawing the monk's attacks away from their healer in the most physical fashion.
Jing shifts from defense to offense as the roiling waves of power within him react to seeing Kamo getting seriously hurt by the undead monk. He unleashes an awesome bolt of light and, with a wide swirl, it arcs towards the monk that downed Kamo.
Kamo slumps to the floor, but he is not in danger of bleeding out.