The Nagaji turns to Tai.
I wasss sssaying that we should jussst take them out and then go find thisss Zoudou. But thisss isss bessst.
Xiung-Lau nods in agreement, cradling Crawler against his chest as he steels himself for the encounter they are about to have.
A well-traveled trail leads away from the lumber camp. It starts to the north, but soon turns west through the hills. After about six miles, the forest trail suddenly reaches a clearing in the woods, where a few fallen trees and stumps testify to woodcutting pursuits abandoned years ago. Beyond a fallen tree, the clearing’s northwestern side is obscured by a seething wall of mist that reaches fifty feet into the sky. Now and then, what appear to be silently screaming ghosts thrash and writhe through this mist, as if tormented souls were trapped within the fog. A three-tiered stone stands near this wall, while a bit further to the east of this platform stands a dome-shaped cage built of bent branches and wooden slats.
A faceless woman wielding a ritual dagger stands on the second step of the stone, with poor Kum Meng-sung, the sone of Willowshore Stable's owner, bound hand and foot and lying on his back before her on the tallest tier of the shrine. The young man squirms and thrashes and shrieks through the gag he wears, but to no avail. A pair of faceless occultists stand on the ground to the east and the south, about 5 feet from the shrine’s lowest step, performing duties as secondary casters while the woman on the stone leads a lengthy. Absorbed in the ritual, the creatures haven't noticed you yet!
The Alchemist will begin imbibing Vials of Alchemical items while the Cultist asshats fail to notice them.
Item 3
Source Core Rulebook pg. 546 4.0
Price 12 gp
Bulk L
You gain a +2 item bonus, your claw deals 1d6 slashing damage, your jaws deal 1d8 piercing damage, and the duration is 10 minutes.
Somebody should probably do something about that ritual. Probably not great for us.
The Nagaji reaches for another vial....
Xiung-Lau considers the ritual trying to see what he can determine about it's intent ... and how close it is to completion.
Vexed by the ritual, he ponders some more.
Kwan Tai hefts his polearm with relish. "Let us begin then."
The Alchemist offers anyone either a Juggernaut Mutagen, moderate or a Quicksilver Mutagen, moderate before they begin to close the 80' gap between them and the hostages....
Smiling as they begin their advance, the Alchemist also has Blue Quick Alchemy a Smoke Ball and the Familiar hands it to Kwan Tai.
Probably be useful if you used it by the poor about to be sacrificed folk. Have fun!
Xiung Lau moves up with the others initially, but finds a position to take cover but still see the battle as clearly as possible, staying about 50 feet away from the sacrifice (or as close as possible). He sends Crawler of Night to scamper ahead closer, moving from hiding place to hiding place.
Xiung-Lau determines that the noppera-bos are in the midst of a consecrate ritual. The ritual takes 3 days to cast, so there's no worries about it being completed anytime soon.
Once you are ready, you make your presence known.
Engrossed in the ritual, the creatures are slow to react!
The Alchemist looks down forlornly at the still four unused Vials of Frost before sighing.
Li Jie Strides forward into a Flank with Hooli before taking his frustrations out on the Cultist!
He then Raises his Shield.
The occultist is caught off-guard, badly wounded by Hooli's daggers and Lie Jie's fangs. As it prepares to fight back, the other one remains focused on the ritual. You can overhear its telepathic prayers:
"I offer thee my name, Great Kugaptee! Unbind me from those whom I called friends. I offer thee my blood, Great Kugaptee! Unbind me from those whom I called family."
The wounded occultist raises a magical shield of force, then it attempts to steal Hooli's face!
Meanwhile, Zoudou shouts at you in your minds. "You dare interrupt our most holy sacrifice? You will die for your insolence!" She likewise raises a magical shield and tries to steal Li Jie's face!
Critical Success: The target is unaffected.
Success: The target is dazzled until the start of its next turn.
Failure: The noppera-bo gains the target's face. The target's face vanishes until the end of its next turn. Until then, it is blinded, can't speak or ingest, and can't smell. The target must also hold its breath or begin to suffocate.
Critical Failure: As failure, but the effect doesn't end automatically. The target can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns, and the DC cumulatively decreases by 1 on each such attempt.
No! Not the money maker!
Grateful for his face not being stolen, the Nagaji decides to turn his fangs to Zoudou!
U Can't Touch This!
Tasting like chicken, the Nagaji tries again!
He then Raises Shield.
Xiung-Lau's face, which he still has, expresses shock as he sees Hooli's face disappear and appear on the noppero-bo. This expression changes to confusion as he tries to decipher Hooli's quip, muffled as it is by her lack of a mouth.
Meanwhile, Crawler of Night advances, slinking along the ground toward the sacrifical altar, hiding beneath it but adjacent to Hooli's assailant.
From his position behind cover, Xiung-Lau jabs with his staff. Shadows reach out toward the faux Hooli.
Another quick jab with the staff and a shadowy version of the weapon flies across the area, attacking the noppero-bo that has Hooli's face.
The shadowy staff misses widely, flying back toward Xiung-Lau, who barely catches it in his free hand. "They're who should be scared of shadows, not you!" he mutters in admonishment to the shadow staff.
Kwan Tai surges forward, unwilling to miss an opportunity to plant his hammer in Hooli's face; the savage joy breaking through the normal leash of his discipline turns his face into a terrifying mask.
Kwan Tai greatly demoralizes the monster that stole Hooli's face. He bashes the foe with his hammer, causing it to stumble and double over in pain. Xiung-Lau's summoned armament fails to hit, but Hooli herself manages to finish it off with a lucky strike as she flails about blindly. Fortunately, her face returns moments later.
Lie Jie moves in to attack Zoudou, scoring a light hit. The zealous noppera-bo maintains her magic shield as she attacks the nagaji with her red-tinged dagger. Li Jie avoids the blade.
The other occultist continues the ritual. "I offer thee my blood, Great Kugaptee! Unbind me from those whom I called family."
Crawler remains hidden beneath the altar, but Xiung-Lau turns his attention to the occultist continuing the ritual.
He tries to draw shadows around that occultist, then hurls the shady staff toward it. The staff twirls and dances among the shadows, lashing out at the occultist.
After two strikes, the shadow staff dissipates ... and then reforms back in Xiung-Lau's free hand.
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HP 35/35
AC 20
Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +8
Hero points: 1
Seasonal Boon: summer []; fall []; winter []; spring []
Effects:
Her face returned to her, Hooli takes on a grimmer expression than usual. "You handle Zoudou," she calls, "I'm going to stop this ritual!"
She races over and stabs him in the chest. "If you like ghosts so much, go talk to them yourself. In person!"
Li Jie frowns at his tiny puncture wounds.
Try try again!
The Nagaji Raises his Shield before biting twice!
Kwan Tai shifts his grip, whirling his hammer around at full extension as he lunges for Zoudou. "Now you fall, face-thief!"
Kwan Tai and Li Jie lay into Zoudou. The noppera-bo discharges her shield spell to blunt some of the impact, but she is still badly hurt, especially from Li Jie's fangs which score a critical hit!
Xiung-Lau's shroud of night clouds the occultist's senses as his spiritual armament bashes the monster. Hooli moves in to finish off the occultist with her blades!
"No!" Zoudou shrieks. A sudden rumble—as if an enormous tree suddenly toppled over—rolls out from beyond the Wall of Ghosts. Zoudou collapses to her knees in fear and begins to telepathically beg for mercy as a vast, vaguely humanoid shadow rears up beyond the Wall of Ghosts. The shadow lunges at the wall from the far side, causing the misty barrier to suddenly flex and bulge as if it were a solid wall being pushed against from beyond.
A moment later, the shadow vanishes and leaves the Wall of Ghosts intact, but the bodies of the three occultists, be they living or dead, suddenly burst apart as immense mockeries of their previous forms climb out of their bodies, shedding the smaller frames to emerge as misshapen undead versions of themselves. Their arms hang low, nearly to their ankles, and appear to be broken in several places; instead of heads, they have moldy wicker cages filled with blood-colored butterflies. They loom over you as they prepare to attack!
Before you can react, the monster that was Zoudou swings on Lie Jie. The former occultist near Hooli attacks her, while the final one lumbers over to attack Kwan Tai, its long, broken limbs giving it superior reach.
The Nagaji sighs.
I really felt like we were making progress....
The Nagaji Raises his Shield before biting twice!
Xiung-Lau's jaw slackens as he gazes upon these new abominations, trying to draw out any legends he may have heard about such horrible creatures.
Without a clear understanding of what he's facing, he sticks with what has been working and again throws his shadowy staff at the nearest one.
Kwan Tai answers horror with iron discipline, letting his warrior's mien do the talking for him as his hammer whirls and falls.
None of you are able to identify the lumbering creatures. Kwan Tai's attempt to demoralize is ineffective against the mindless brutes! Lie Jie tears into his opponent with his teeth while Kwan Tai bashes his foe twice, pushing it away. Hooli slices with her dagger, the slashing weapon proving quite effective against the monster's rotting flesh. Xiung-Lau's spiritual staff batters Lie Jie's foe.
All three foes strike back, with the one Kwan Tai pushed taking a lumbering step closer again before attacking. The hobgoblin is the only one of you who takes a heavy blow!
With the direction from Hooli, Xiung-Lau waves his physical staff and a jagged rock flies toward the same creature as before, the one fighting Lie Jie.
He then continues his previous maneuver of hurling his shadow staff, which dissipates on contact and returns to his hand.
Cursing, Kwan Tai drops his hammer and rips his sidearm from its sheath, but the less familiar weapon twists in his grasp and he makes no headway at all.
The Nagaji pinches his fangs to try to make them sharper...
The Alchemist Raises his Shield before biting twice!
Lie Jie and Xiung-Lau finish off the enemy the nagaji had been fighting. Hooli and Kwan Tai move to flank the one the hobgoblin has been attacking. Hooli lands two good hits, but Kwan Tai is unable to score a strike with his sword.
The long-armed brute attacks Kwan Tai again while Hooli's former foe lumbers in pursuit of the kitsune, attacking once.
Xiung-lau again hurls a jagged stone with telekinetic force, then throws his shadow staff.
Kwan Tai turns aside the creature's strikes, slicing at its grasping limbs, then drawing it farther on.
Immediately Raising his Shield and Striding to the remaining creature being Flanked by Hooli and Kwan Tai, the Alchemist takes a bite!
Xiung-Lau's projectile scores a critical hit, bisecting one of the undead brutes! The rest of you team up to finish off the third and final foe. As each one falls, its body bursts into a cloud of glistening blood-red butterflies that spiral into the air before melting away into wisps of red smoke that fly to rejoin the Wall of Ghosts.
At the base of the platform where the ritual was performed, Kum Meng-sung, the son of Willowshore Stables' owner, breaks into tears. The boy is physically unharmed but mentally traumatized by the ordeal.
Searching the belongings left behind by the monsters, you find a twisted knot of wood that served as Zoudou's religious symbol, as well as a magical dagger: Fiend's Hunger. You also discover a tattered leather-bound ledger that was once used by the lumber camp boss to track profits and expenditures, but only the first quarter of the pages contain these mundane annotations. The rest of the journal is filled with dense notes and theories about the nature of Kugaptee, the Wall of Ghosts, and the “paradise” she has come to believe lies beyond the wall. These notes are all written in a mix of Abyssal and Aklo. It's impossible to glean any insights from these notes without the ability to understand both languages.
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Xiung-Lau casts soothe on the boy, hoping the mental calming effects will help him deal with this trauma. He also orders Crawler to stay away from the boy, figuring that the familiar's appearance will not help with the situation.
Spending a few minutes looking over the dagger, Xiung-Lau explains its properties to the others. "I am unlikely to attack a fiend physically, so this is not ideal for me ... but seems quite good for either Hooli or Kwan Tai. I leave it to you to argue over it."
He then turns his attention to the ledger. "Unfortunately, this is not in Necril or I could make some sense of it. It appears to be a mix of two languages, but I know neither of them."
Xiung-Lau casts soothe on the boy, hoping the mental calming effects will help him deal with this trauma. He also orders Crawler to stay away from the boy, figuring that the familiar's appearance will not help with the situation.
Spending a few minutes looking over the dagger, Xiung-Lau explains its properties to the others. "I am unlikely to attack a fiend physically, so this is not ideal for me ... but seems quite good for either Hooli or Kwan Tai. I leave it to you to argue over it."
He then turns his attention to the ledger. "Unfortunately, this is not in Necril or I could make some sense of it. It appears to be a mix of two languages, but I know neither of them." He flips through the three-quarters of the ledger filled with these notes. "There is quite a lot here to get through ..."
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Hooli comforts poor Kum Meng-sung, reassuring him that they'll bring him back to town as quickly as possible and that he's safe now. She glances at the book. "Is that Taldan? It's a funny alphabet, but..." she shrugs. "Maybe Granny Hu or someone can read it."
She looks at the dagger and glances over at Kwan Tai to see if he's interested in it. If not, she's happy to claim it.
Xiung-Lau suggests searching the rest of the lumber mill, just to be sure there aren't any other clues.
The Nagaji looks over the journal.
Partsss of it isss written in Aklo. The other language mixed in isss not known to me.
The Alchemist will patch up anyone injured while they decide on their next course of action....
"It's yours." Kwan Tai waves off the small blade. "I will need Li Jie Qiang's assistance with these wounds, however, before we can continue our search."
50 minutes