The beating the Yuzuki's are taking begins to show. After Kamo drops, it takes everything Sakura has just to stay on her feet. She blurts out a raspy "No, Kamo-" as she swings her katana around a bit, overwhelmed by wounds, sickness, stupefied and slow.
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Pagma's bomb takes out the wounded monk. She sets the other one ablaze, then Jing-De blasts it with holy fire! Sakura is unable to land a finishing blow, however. The undead ignores the fighter in favor of Jing-De, battering the sorcerer!
Unable to do anything properly, Sakura continues to hack away at the monks who are now killing her friends.
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[ooc]off guard, 4 splash[//ooc]
[ooc]2d6 per, 4 splash[//ooc]
[ooc]2 per, 4 splash[//ooc]
"Leave him Alone!" Pagma cries out practically slamming her satchel with her remaining bombs at the monk.
Sakura splashes the undead with two more bombs, and Sakura lands a glancing blow. Fortunately, it proves to be enough, and the black monk collapses and lies still.
The cabinets and shelves are in tatters, but two moderate healing potions, a set of expanded healer’s tools, and a pair of healer’s gloves can be found in the debris.
Once the undead monk falls, Sakura, too, crumbles. She staggers towards Kamo, aiming to assist her brother, but her strength fails. Clutching her katana, she falls to her knees and collapses forward, her hand reaching out in a futile attempt to stabilize herself. Laying on the ground, she begins to vomit, a groan escaping her lips as she lies in the mess she's made.
After healing and recovering from the grueling battle, you head south to the last chamber in the southern part of the monastery. A wooden statue of a regal-looking woman sits in a meditative pose atop a low dais to the south of this otherwise empty room. Bones, dead leaves, and chunks of mummified flesh lie in heaps around the statue, whose missing head appears to have been hewn off by a single blow. Bloodstained, moldy ropes have been wrapped tightly around the statue, amid which many more old bones with bits of dried meat have been affixed.
This is a statue of Pharasma. The nature of the statue’s defiling is meant to represent a fundamental rejection of her power over life and death, indicating that she’s blind to the truth of it and powerless to change her ways.
When you enter the room, you see what looks like three robed monks kneeling before the statue, as if in prayer. But as they turn to face you, you see that these humanoid creatures' mouths are stitched shut with lengths of their own hair. Their arms are long and broken-looking, while their chests are little more than rib cages filled with red wet butterflies that crawl through and cling to the creatures' ribs and organs.
The being's stithced mouths twitch unnervingly as they greet you. Despite the stitching, the creatures speak freely, their hollow-sounding voices issuing clearly from their sealed lips. "Welcome to the shrine of the Pretender. Do not bother to offer her your prayers, as she will not hear them."
"Perhaps she hears, but cannot answer will all of those ropes around her," Kamo brandishes his dagger. "We could remove them, easily."
"But still your prayers would fall on deaf ears," one of the beings retorts. "For life after death is a myth that mortals have spread for eons. After death, there is only us! If you like, we can kill you now so that you can have proof of the Pretender's lies."
Sakura steps forward, her hand resting on the hilt of her katana, her gaze fixed on the figures before her. She addresses the stitched-mouth and says "Why do you defile this sacred place? What purpose do your desecrations serve?" Sakura’s words are sharp and she is clearly irked by what has been done here.
"You could try to kill us, but you will fail. So think wisely of your actions before you act."
"We serve our master, Kugaptee. We assist the undead monks who toil tirelessly to help Kugaptee return to life. Even now, Xin Yue toils to use the incarnation of his old enemy's body, the sugi tree that grows over his grave, as the raw building blocks of a new living body. And then, your whole world will know see the truth."
"Um" the utterance brings the monk's focus on the alchemist with her hand raised, she faltered for a moment, but a question sparked in her mind, that she has to get an answer "I... well, you said there was no life after death. So if Kugaptee died, wouldn't Kugaptee be gone, unable to be able to be returned, cause all of him or she would just have ceased at death. Or are you saying when someone dies they come here? I... don't understand?"
The creatures groan and the lead speaker shakes its head. "There is no life after death for you. For mortals. Because we are there to devour your souls.
"We grow weary of this conversation. Perhaps a challenge will liven things up! It is as simple challenge. You are to run a circle around the central courtyard, going east from here and looping through the consecutive chambers until you return to us. If at least one of you can make your way through the circuit before we complete our rebinding of the statue here, then we will reward you with a valuable treasure."
Jing shakes his head and knows that fundamental truths apply even here. Slower, surely, but this place cannot escape the universal equilibrium they impose on all existence. "No, you are here to get a taste, but come the river of time, we all flow down into Pharasma's arms. Slower than even something so out of time like you might be aware of, but flow to Her we do."
Perhaps fulfilling their ridiculous challenge will impose an ember of this truth into their minds if they do indeed possess a thing one could call a mind.
Pagma frowns, not liking that answer at all. She does like Jing's and gives him a thankful smile.
She looks to the statue, and then to her friends. She doesn't care about a treasure, she doesn't like the idea of them rebinding the statue, and she hates the idea of doing anything they ask, especially one that could exhaust them before having to fight them.
But she bites her lip to keep from telling them what they can do with their suggestions and waits to see what the others want to do.
Sakura turns her back on the creatures and lowers her voice as she speaks her frustration to her allies "I will not be commanded to run around in a circle like a child. Why should we not just deal with these pests here and now and take their precious treasure when they are experiencing death?"
Kamo nods at Sakura.
This is likely a trap, anyway.
As you turn back to the creatures, they brandish their broken swords...
Sakura charges and attacks! ”Time for you to pass on now!
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Sakura’s first strike misses, but she follows up with a critical hit that shatters the armored interlocking bones and wicker weaves around her target’s body! The creature grunts and staggers, red butterflies streaming from its grievous wound.
The wounded monster slashes at Sakura, then it inhales deeply and its stitched mouth stretches open grotesquely and it release a sound identical to Sakura’s scream!
The other two monsters each cast spells, blasting the rest of the party with sound bursts!
Critical Success: The creature is unaffected.
Success: The creature takes 2d6 mental damage.
Failure: The creature takes 4d6 mental damage and is frightened 1.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 8d6 mental damage and is frightened 3.
Kamo shakes his head to clear the ringing in his ears, then focuses on the monster that his sister attacked.
With no good path to attack, he traces a sigil in the ground with his toe. Stones fly up and batter the enemies.
Pagma knows why she is friends with these three people... and it isn't because they are just the only other people in the village about her age. It is because she didn't even have to say, this is dumb and dangerous for them to think this is dumb and dangerous.
She grinned, then threw her hands over her ears as they screamed. She managed to cover them from the worst of it, but spirits did it hurt. She flung two bombs at the one Sakura was hacking at while drawing her dagger.
Louder than he realizes, Jing gives voice to his power and power to his voice, and commands their foe to run away.
Sakura is more intimidated by the scream than she cares to admit. Frightened, she still tries to inspire her allies and take one of these creatures down.
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The nindoru heals itself as it steals Sakura's scream, but that healing is swiftly undead as the warrior cuts it down with a critical hit! Kamo pummels the remaining nindorus with scree, and Pagma critically hits one with her lightning bomb but only splashes them with her fire bomb.
Jing-De commands the less injured foe to flee, and it does so for a few moments before overcoming the compulsion. It snarls as it turns back around and moves into melee with Sakura. The other foe moves to flank the warrior, stabbing with its broken sword.
Kamo searches for openings on the more injured creature.
Unconvinced of his chances, he heads for the other undead, flanking with his sister.
for
"Stay AWAY from my friends!"
With her supplies running very low, Pagma throws out two new kinds of bombs. One shatters into a fiery glow that coats what it hits into something akin to sunlight, bathing those not dead already in warmth and burning those that are.
The other shatters making the red-brown gas within explode and solidify in ragged red crystals that rip through what it hits and coat the floor, cutting its feet as it moves.
As Sakura's fear recedes, she lashes out twice more before raising her blade in a defensive manner.
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◈Dueling Parry: +2 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn
Between the Yuzuki siblings’ powerful attacks and Pagma’s bombs, both nindorus fall in quick succession! With their defeat, you can now see about cleansing Pharasma’s statue.
Critical Success: The statue is purified.
Success: The statue is purified, but as you do so, a weakened blast of pure loathing lashes out as it’s driven from the statue. You take 2d6 mental damage (DC 22 basic Will save).
Failure: The statue remains unpurified. A blast of psychic rage lashes out at you, inflicting 5d6 mental damage (DC 22 basic Will save) to you and anyone who attempted to Aid your attempt to Purify the Statue.
Critical Failure: As failure, but 10d6 mental damage, and no one can attempt to Purify this particular Statue again for 1 hour.
"I know I am not your adherent, Lady of Graves, but no goddess deserves this treatment," Kamo prays as he cuts some of the cords with his silver dagger.
The statue’s purification remains incomplete. Belatedly, Kamo realizes that you will have to find the missing head first.
"Drat. We'll have to find the missing piece," Kamo grumbles. "Is everyone ready to push on? How many more statues do we need to find?"
Sakura cleans her blade and then checks her gear, nodding in agreement with Kamo. "We need to keep moving. Every minute we delay gives Kugaptee’s forces more time to strengthen their hold."
Once everyone is ready, she leads the group north and east to the next unexplored area.
Several ruined tables and broken benches lie in heaps within this refectory. The chamber might have once been a fine and relaxing place to take a meal, but now it feels cold and empty.
A trio of undead monks stand listlessly in this chamber, mournfully staring at the room. They look up as you enter and sigh. "Do you realize what a pleasure it is to be able to eat? It has been ages since we have been able to experience that simple joy," one says.
"Tell us about your favorite meals. What do they taste like? What is the mouth-feel?" another asks eagerly.
"Do you have any tea? I would die for a cup of tea right now!" the third groans.
"Kamo? If you brew and pour, I'll make sure you make no mistakes."
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Though not terribly good with people, as a rule, there's nothing Kamo likes to talk about more than food.
"...And the festival dumplings are particularly good! They make a special filling that is only used during that time. I've tried to figure it out, but I can't get anywhere close..."
plus Aid
The undead monks obviously satisfied with the tea, even though they can’t taste it, and after they swallow, the tea simply leaks out through holes in their chests. At the end of the ceremony, they smile wistfully and crumble to dust!
From here, you head to the western wing of the monastery before going further north. The walls of this library have been charred black, and the tatters of burned and ash-grayed shelves drip dirty rainwater onto the floor where the roof has caved in. Books and scrolls have been shredded to pieces, and all of the furniture has been overturned. In the northeast corner of the room, a soft glow outlines a hidden door--it is likely this door that Zhi Hui's ghost told you to seek!
However, a pair of lumbering creatures shamble through this room. These towering humanoids' bodies are bloated and constantly bursting with small red butterflies that flitter away before melting into mist. Their arms are overly long and so broken as to writhe more like tentacles. They wear clothing and capes made of moldy straw and wield broken swords whose shattered blades still float roughly in place. Their most unsettling features are their complete lack of heads; instead, where a head should be sits a wicker cage filled with a writhing cloud of butterflies.
The two creatures periodically sift through the ashes with their broken katanas, lifting up a ruined page to peer at it before discarding it or simply staring into the distance. They do not immediately react to your presence...
Sakura tightens her grip on her katana, the metal gleaming faintly in the dim light filtering through the broken roof. She nods at Kamo, signaling her readiness. She whispers "We can’t let these monsters stop us from reaching that hidden door. Let’s deal with them quickly."
She steps out into the open and declares boldly, "With me!" as she charges towards the moldy, lanky, broken-bladed, red butterfly things.
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As Sakura charges forward, the creatures turn towards her and raise their broken blades!
"OH, the poor books!" Kamo gasps upon seeing the ruins of the library. It takes him a moment to catch up to his sister and pinpoint the culprits.
Angry at the destruction they have wrought, Kamo charges one of the creatures.
for
Kamo doesn't recognize this type of nindoru. He moves in and slices the nearest one, his silver blade exploiting the creature's weakness.
In response, the creature releases a cloud of red butterflies from its body, each of which carries a false memory that infects Kamo. It slashes at him with its sword, but Kamo manages to dodge.
The other creature points its sword at Sakura, filling her mind with phantom pain. Those who get close to the creatures start to feel forgetful...
Critical Success: The creature is unaffected.
Success: The creature is stupefied 1 until the end of its next turn.
Failure: The creature is stupefied 1 and confused until the end of its next turn.
Critical Failure: The creature is stupefied 1 and confused for 1 minute. It can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns to end the effects.
Critical SuccessL The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune to Aura of Forgetfulness for 24 hours.
Success: The creature is unaffected.
Failure: The creature is slowed 1 until the end of its next turn, as it has trouble remembering what it intended to do.
Critical Failure: As failure, but slowed 2.