Xiung-Lau continues to be concerned about the food situation and attempts to use his knowledge of nature to aid with the harvest.
He spends his evenings investigating the curse.
You make strides towards further preparing the town.
While Xiung-Lau hits a roadblock in his research, Hooli is able to decipher some of Zoudou's notes. Before the Tan Sugi monastery was abandoned, the monks performed daily rituals to ensure the health of the sugi trees, but now that the place has been left to fall into ruin, the most likely source of the curse seems to be Kugaptee’s influence seeping out into the region—particularly given the fact that the monastery appears to be hidden inside a cursed shroud of its own. By spending a little more time researching and drawing upon methods the noppera-bo were attempting to utilize, you might be able to develop a specialized ritual that might allow passage through the Wall of Ghosts!
***
Before the end of the week, another townsperson approaches you for aid. A fisherman named Goh comes to you, shaken and scared. Fifty years ago, Goh lost his only sibling to the Ceiba River when he left his younger brother unsupervised while he snuck away to play with his friends. Shame for his role in his brother’s accidental drowning has haunted Goh for decades.
Earlier in the day, Goh explains that he felt hands grabbing at his ankles after he got into the water to pull his skiff ashore. He’s convinced that these hands belong to his brother’s spirit, returned to Willowshore to carry him away for letting his brother drown.
Xiung-Lau nods to Goh. "That sounds quite unsettling. Here, let me get you some tea, to soothe your nerves ..."
The Alchemist seems a bit distracted by the progress he has seen recently. The Nagaji is smiling.
At the approach, story and request by Goh, the Alchemist nods in complete believability.
At the last part of the guilt-riddled fisherman, Li Jie frowns.
Perhaps it is our own weight of guilt that causes us to manifest these terrors. Perhaps we returned to the site of the accident and speak words of warmth, forgiveness and farewell.
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"And if not, I can crush the spirit in my hands." Kwan Tai adds comfortingly
When Goh leads you back to the spot on the river near his home where the incident occurred, no new haunting manifests despite your attempts to investigate. Relieved, Goh steps into the river as well, only to immediately be attacked by the haunting once more! A shadowy figure that looks like a swimming child appears to grab ahold of Goh’s ankles and begins to pull him deeper into the water!
The Alchemist begins pulling out various trinkets of religious meaning and presenting them to the Ghost!
The Nagaji seems confused as to what constitutes religious....
"Goh! This fear that you feel is not some spirit working its ill upon you. It is your fear, yours to control. Take the reins, boy. Feel it, know it, master it."
Kwan Tai's words get through to Goh. The old fisherman sobs as he confesses his guilt and shame and begs his brother for forgiveness. And as he finally lets go of the darkness in his own heart, the manifestation of that darkness dissolves and fades away, releasing Goh from its grasp. Goh sobs with relief and thanks you for saving him!
Heading back to give
(1 RP, DC 17 Library Lore or DC 19 Arcana)
a hand, the Alchemist begins his studying.
Xiung-Lau continues trying to help with the harvest during the day ...
... to little effect. In the evening, he goes to study with Great Willow.
... but also to little effect.
Kwan Tai joins Xiung-Lau in the fields, though he focuses more on the purely operational aspects of the mission, rather than Xiung-Lau's strategies.
Kwan Tai makes some progress aiding the harvest, while Hooli and Lie Jie successfully complete their research, devising a ritual that should allow you to bring down the Wall of Ghosts at your leisure! You've learned everything about the curse now that you can in town. More information surely lies beyond the Wall of Ghosts at the ruins of the Tan Sugi monastery! The ritual requires a large amount of sanctified rice grains and incense, but the elders are happy to provide that for you.
Shinzo has arrived in town again, giving you an opportunity to purchase supplies before your expedition to the Tan Sugi Monastery. And the experiences of the past several weeks have strengthened your resolves and honed your might.
Rare, Concentrate, Necromancy
Cast 1 day; Cost rice grains and incense worth 60 gp;
Secondary Casters 3
Primary Check Occultism or Religion (expert); Secondary Checks Deception, Diplomacy, or Intimidation
Range 40 feet; Target the Wall of Ghosts
Duration 1 year
Your research into the nature of the so-called Willowshore Curse has revealed a possible method of opening a doorway through the eerie Wall of Ghosts found west of town. By starting with a consecrate ritual and then applying Sangpotshi theories of the cyclical nature of life and reincarnation, along with insights gleaned from Zoudou’s notes, you’ve created a magical ritual that can quiet the angry spirits that haunt this misty barrier and allow other creatures to pass through into the regions beyond.
This ritual is unlikely to grant total protection from the ghosts or evil spirits within the wall itself, so once you open the wall, you and your allies might need to face additional dangers within before you can exit the other side. In addition, the ritual must be performed during a crescent or new moon (a time that equates to the second half of each month).
Critical Success: The ritual succeeds and offers unexpected protection while you’re passing through the Wall of Ghosts. While navigating the Wall of Ghosts, you and the secondary casters to the ritual gain a +2 status bonus to Armor Class and saving throws.
Success: The ritual succeeds.
Failure: The ritual fails.
Critical Failure: The ritual fails spectacularly, and two of the ghosts trapped within the wall tear free and attack.
Xiung-Lau compiles the notes of everyone's research and says, excitedly, "Yes, I do believe this will give us access to the Wall of Ghosts. We must prepare for the journey!"
With Shinzo in town, Xiung-Lau takes the opportunity to stock up on some more formulas and scrolls.
Grins on his serpentine face, the Alchemist welcomes the Merchant with excitement.
Your timing isss impeccably on time. Mossst welcome.
The Alchemist spends some time looking for Formulas and stocks his supplies.
"I am always prepared," Kwan Tai brags matter of factly. "I will keep the spirits from your back as you do your witchwork."
Once you have made your preparations, you head west from Willowshore, traveling to the site where you foiled Zoudou's ritual several weeks ago. As you approach the Wall of Ghosts, the sounds of wildlife, the rustle of wind through tree branches, and even the sound of your own footsteps grow eerily quiet.
Stretching as far as the eye can see to the north and south, a cascading wall of silvery mist rises fifty feet into the air and the surrounding woods. The mist seems to rise up from the ground, looking almost like a ghostly sheet of foamy water as it flows upward before fading away. Yet, this aspect is far from the most unsettling quality of the wall, for within the mist, ghostly shapes churn and float into and out of sight. Every now and then, one draws close enough to the edge to reach out an arm or to press a face against the mist—acts that distort those limbs and visages into feral, monstrous caricatures of humanity, before some unseen force within the mist yanks them back into the foggy depths.
"This is a long casting time for this ritual. We should search the area to be sure there's nothing that would interfere with the casting. It would not be good for a stray dog to attack us in hour 20."
Once confident that the area is relatively secure, he begins setting up the focal elements of the ritual, "Alright, you stand there ... Yes, very good."
Kwan Tai does as Xiung-Lau bids, happy to turn over command to an expert in the field (despite his youth). The battle hardened shi has no training in mysticism, but his undeniable force of personality does serve as a beacon or a bludgeon to some clades of spirits.
Staring straight at the Mist, the Nagaji shudders.
Well, that isss certainly disconcerting...
The Alchemist stands by ready to Aid if needed...
Xiung-Lau leads the lengthy ritual, which takes and entire day. Finally, at the completion of the ritual, an immense rippling effect washes through the Wall of Ghosts. This ripple pushes the swarming ghostly figures away, deeper into the mists, and removes the weird sound-dampening effect the wall had on the surrounding terrain. A 10-foot-radius tunnel-like gap opens in the fog bank. This tunnel allows you to see a somewhat overgrown road winding into the foggy forest beyond.
As soon as you step into the Wall of Ghosts and set foot onto the revealed road, the fog surrounds you again, cutting off your retreat and trapping you in what appears to be a fog-shrouded woodland—yet something about the woods seems strange. The terrain is all wrong, with the road appearing to wind through a small, forested valley rather than forested hills. In addition, the spiritual atmosphere of the forest within this area feels off. The sensation of being watched from the foggy undergrowth, the lack of any animal calls or even a soft breeze, and a pervasive feeling of impending doom make for an unnerving atmosphere all around...
Living up to its name, the large spider Crawler of the Night slinks deeper into the folds of Xiung-Lau's robes, hiding from the oppressive environment. Behind him, the walking cauldron scurries, as if using the witch for protection.
Xiung-Lau observes the area, but can discern nothing useful. He kneels down and looks to place a couple of large rocks on the side of the path, then pulls out a piece of chalk to mark upon them occult sigils representing "home." "I do not know if the portal location is fixed, but it is possible we will need to return here. It makes sense to somehow identify the location where we arrived."
As he does this, and makes a bit of a show of it, he looks around for a third rock at the base of a nearby shrub. While doing so, he casually makes a series of marks on a different rock at the shrub's base, in a manner that he hopes no observer would notice. He then takes the unmarked rock he "found" and marks it, placing it atop the other two. "Yes, there, that should be easy to find if we return this way."
Just to be sure that his patron's power can be reached in this place, Xiung-Lau tests it out by casting warp step and then figment. He glances around. "I do have some spells that may prove helpful to maneuver in this strange place, particularly if we feel we are being led astray by misdirection, but they are of limited duration."
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"Ha! It looks like where the Tan Sugi monastery ruins should be -- but they're invisible!"
She shakes herself, like if she were wet and wanted to get the water off.
"This place doesn't seem very funny. What happened to the monastery? This might be worse than being inside the wall of ghosts ... unless maybe we actually are in the wall, instead of passing through it. There is where the ghost of the monastery itself would be. "
Li Jie enters the Wall of Ghost. The Nagaji expecting to pass through to the real other side....
Looksss fine to me.
"Then this is an illusion. Or some other trick. A force so great as to obliterate the monastery would leave other marks of its passage."
The terrain is all wrong, with the road appearing to wind through a small, forested valley rather than forested hills.
Xiung-Lau listens to Hooli and nods, then looks around to see if the area looks similar to him as well. He says, "I agree, we saw no indication of a force that would destroy the ruins when casting the ritual. We clearly have been transported somewhere ... perhaps to a shadowy reflection of the material plane."
Xiung-Lau's magic functions normally in this eerie place. There are no unusual magic auras nearby.
The dirt trail comes to an end at a fifty-foot-wide clearing. A smaller trail leads into the woods to the north, while at its center sits a large slab of cracked, crumbling stone. A woman’s corpse lies atop the slab, her chest a gaping, gory hole and her left arm extended, as if pointing toward the northern path. Curling coils of fog writhe up from the hole in the corpse’s chest, slithering up and merging into the fog that surrounds it. Under the body, deep furrows on the upper surface of the stone seem to form a word.
The corpse on the rock appears only recently dead, with the blood pooled in the crater of its chest not yet clotted. Her heart is missing. A close observation of the tendrils of fog rising out of the corpse's chest reveals distorted and silently screaming humanoid faces rising up from the hole before they fade and merge with the surrounding fog.
A faint voice whispers through the clearing: "Find the seed."
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Hooli looks horrified by the scene in front of her, but then startles with realization. "I think that's Tan Sui-Jing! The legendary heroine said to have defeated a powerful fiend nearly a thousand years ago at the site where the Tan Sugi monastery was built! It looks like something claws out her heart!"
She jumps.
"You all heard that, right? What seed?!"
She pulls out her daggers, looking around for some awful clawed thing to come out of the fog.
The Nagaji words aloud.
Kugaptee.
The Alchemist studies the corpse from afar.
A growing annoyance seems to betray his mental compacities.
Anyone else hear a Who?
Xiung-Lau nods in response to the observations of the others. "This is ... a troubling find." He motions toward the northern pass. "It seems she used her last ounce of strength to point ... unless I am reading too much into random positioning of the dead." He looks around to see if there are any paths in other directions. "It would be good if one of us would develop the ability to look for tracks ..."
"This doesn't seem random. A long-dead warrior's appearance, the impossibly absent monastery, this is some sort of vision. We are meant to follow."
Hooli catches a whiff of a rotten scent and leads the way through the woods for a short time before you reach a clearing. A ten-foot-high deadfall of trees lies in a rotting mound in this forest clearing. Blood spatters several of the decaying timbers, and an opening in the center emits a foul, rotten stink.
An enormous vulture lurks here, hunkering in its nest while it chews and pecks at a human heart. The vulture snarls in anger as it notices you approaching. "Leave at once, lest you find yourselves added to my fine meal!" it demands in a raspy voice. It doesn't wait, spreading its wings as it prepares to attack!
As it lunges, three spherical clots of blood rip free from the heart and transform into shrieking fiends that look like distorted human faces—close inspection reveals the faces to be similar to that of the corpse, save that these faces possess glowing yellow eyes and mouths filled with sharp teeth.
"The vultures of the battlefield have never before feasted on me, why should you be any different?"
Kwan Tai surges forward with a roaring battlecry.
At the disturbing sight of the Talking Vulture dining on their Guide's heart, the Nagaji hisses.
Did you receive permission from the previous owner before taking liberties?
The Alchemist Commands Blue to retrieve and dump a Numbing Tonic (5) down his throat.
Li Jie then Strides into Flank with Hooli and Strikes!
Xiung-Lau reaches out and swirling shadows spiral out from his hand, gathering around the arms and feet of Kwan Tai, before dissipating. The hobgoblin's movements seem faster than normal.
He then turns his attention to the bird, sending a wave of shadows in that direction, this time with them reaching up and attempting to wrap around the creature's face and eyes, obscuring its vision.
Xiung-Lau speeds up Kwan Tai before blanketing the vulture's eyes in darkness. Kwan Tai greatly demoralizes the bird before charging in, delivering two powerful blows. Hooli and Lie Jie move to flank the vulture, slicing and biting it!
The bird shrieks as it tries to rip and tear at Kwan Tai. Its beak pierces his armor, drawing blood. Then, the vulture hacks and projectile vomits up its last meal all over the hobgoblin, the bile burning his skin!
The floating globules of blood attempt to fill your minds with supernatural fear!
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HP 58/58, +3 hp
AC 22
Fort +9, Ref +13, Will +10
Hero points: 3
Seasonal Boon: summer []; fall []; winter []; spring []
Spells: 1st []
Effects: frightened 1
Hooli shivers as a wave washes over her, at the same time feeling invigorated by the thrum of her own terror. Still, it's enough to throw off her own attacks as she slashes wildly. Desperate, she tries to kick dirt into the bird's eyes.
Kwan Tai recoils from the horrid bounty that the vulture bestows on him, barking commands to his allies as he smashes his hammer home.
Crawler of Night springs from Xiung-Lau's robes, darting across the ground, to take up a position near the vulture.
Xiung-Lau twists his staff and the shadows coiling around the vulture's eyes continue to hold firm.
Xiung-Lau considers the floating globules, to see if he can perhaps identify their nature.
Being across from the Fighter, Li Jie feels extra courageous against this Bird!
Unfortunately he is an Alchemist so the Nagaji sweats...
Feeling that his opportunity to Strike seems ripe, the Alchemist initially Commands Blue to Retrieve and dump a
Item 3
Source Player Core 2 pg. 289
Price 12 gp
Bulk L
You gain a +2 item bonus, your claw deals 2d6 slashing damage, your jaws deal 2d8 piercing damage, and the duration is 10 minutes.
The Body builder then decides to Bite the Bird!
The Medic then does a Doctor Visitation to Kwan.
Xiung-Lau identifies the blood globules as a form of cacodaemons. Cacodaemons constantly hunger for mortal souls and yearn to create suffering. They are immune to death effects and weak to holy damage.
Kwan Tai delivers a punishing blow to the vulture, shattering its skull with his hammer! With the larger foe defeated, Hooli and Lie Jie attack one of the daemons, taking it down.
The two remaining daemons fly at Hooli and Lie Jie, biting at them. Neither one manages to hit.