Li Jie (still a bit famished) Strides back into a Flank with Hooli against another cacodeamon. The Alchemist then Strikes!
The Nagaji smiles.
Is there something in my teeth?
He then Raises his Shield.
Impelled by Xiung-Lau's spell, Kwan Tai crashes into Hooli's assailant, trying to batter it back off the foolish trickster.
Xiung-Lau's shadows lash out, grabbing a stone and hurling it at the non-flanked cocodaemon (if there is one not being flanked).
He then draws out a vial from a pouch on his belt.
The two remaining daemons quickly fall to your assault, dissolving into wet puddles of blood that stain the ground.
The corpse of the vulture spasms and thrashes as it falls to the ground while red light begins to shine through splits in its flesh. You quickly move away before the heart-eating vulture explodes into a blast of red butterflies with razor-sharp wings and claws! The butterflies scatter, leaving behind only the heart the vulture had clutched in its talon.
In the sudden silence, you can hear the sound of a faint whispered voice calling out, “Save me.” The voice comes from the heart...
Li Jie shakes his serpentine head in disgust. He then approaches the heart, taking a stick from the forest floor to poke at it....
I am not talking to a dead demon vulture heart....
Kwan Tai stoops lower, "It's not the demon's heart."
"Who are you?"
A few of the feathers the vulture left behind are magical. There are three magic feathers in all: an anchor feather token, a holly bush feather token, and a ladder feather token.
The heart merely repeats its plaintive cry. "Save me..."
The Nagaji shudders.
Working for a Talking Heart is going to be new.
Bending down close enough to smell the Talking Heart, Li Jie asks
And what can we potentially do for you little talking heart?
"Save me..." the heart repeats once again, still lying on the ground where it fell. To Lie Jie, it oddly has no smell.
"Unless I am mistaken, this is the heart of Tan Sui-Jing, which the demon bird was feasting on. We should restore it to the corpse ... perhaps there is still time to save the hero." He unceremoniously scoops up the heart in his hands and rushes back toward where he thinks the corpse was, though will not rush so much as to lose sight of his companions in the mist. "Hurry, come along quickly."
As soon as Xiung-Lau picks up the somewhat gnawed-upon heart, the ambience of the woods shifts. Night falls, plunging the foggy forest into darkness, and the feelings of doom and of being watched intensify.
A thunderous roar ripples through the forest, followed by the sound of toppling trees and thunderous footsteps, as if some immense giant has taken notice and now slowly approaches...
Critical Success: The character is unaffected and is temporally immune to Terrifying Roar for 24 hours.
Success: The character is unaffected.
Failure: The character is frightened 1.
Critical Failure: The character’s frightened condition increases by 2. If this would increase the character’s frightened condition value above 4, the character is instead fleeing until the end of their next turn.
The Alchemist pees his pantaloons.
The Frightened Nagaji Strides forward 25' and mimics Hooli with a strained grin.
Thisss isss going ssswimmingly.
The Alchemist begins recounting religion motif inspired protective chants.
Xiung-Lau shivers as the roar rips through him and takes off running, waving a hand and shimmering as he leaps from shadow to shadow.
"Give me the heart, I will..." Kwan Tai trails off as Xiung-Lau flashes away. "I will catch up."
As you race towards the heartless corpse, Lie Jie lingers behind a bit, invoking a prayer to disrupt the angry spirit. The sound of something immense striding just out of sight through the forest, darkness, and fog fills the air, then the trees are infused with malevolent life, causing clawlike branches to lash out at you!
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Xiung-Lau is slashed by the angry trees, letting out a grunt of pain, but he continues to flicker along the path as he moves, using his connection to the realm of shadow to gain a slight advantage.
The Nagaji dodges the worst of the tree slapping. He continues to Stride and sprout more Religious things!
Kwan Tai continues sprinting, his plate protecting him from the worst of the branches.
Both Kwan Tai and Xiung-Lau get close to the corpse while Hooli and Lie Jie lag behind, trying and failing to hinder the haunt. Another bone-chilling roar fills the air as the trees lash at you again!
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Will:
Reflex:
HP 38/58, +3 hp
AC 22
Fort +9, Ref +13, Will +10
Hero points: 3
Seasonal Boon: summer []; fall []; winter []; spring []
Spells: 1st []
Effects:
Hooli is ready for the roar, and manages to avoid the worst of the shrubbery this time, ducking under the slashing branches as she again tries to ward off the malevolent spirits -- and again fails.
The Alchemist's Numbing Tonic seems to be mending his previous scratches a bit.
The Nagaji Alchemist stumbles through the reaching claws with the performance of a drunken barbarian ballerina on skates....
And, apparently, he makes it look easy!
Shrugging as if he has zero points for that lucky maneuver, Li Jie continues to Stride and offer up religious signs!
Kwan Tai shrugs off the strange bellows, but the branches and twigs work their way into the gaps of his plate as he pistons forward.
Xiung-Lau darts forward, coming to a stop near the corpse.
He then looks to try to figure out how to ... reinsert? ... the heart into the corpse's wound.
Xiung-Lau reaches the woman's corpse and places the heart within her chest. Doing so causes the haunt to howl in pain and frustration. It sounds as if the unseen giant is fleeing into the distance. The woman's body sinks into the stone, and then an immense sugi tree grows up out of the ground, consuming the stone and harmlessly pushing Xiung-Lau aside. As the tree grows to a height of nearly a hundred feet, its branches unfurl and drive away the fog...
...and then reality fades. You find yourselves back on the Pilgrim’s Path northwest of Willowshore near the Wall of Ghosts. Now, the foggy tunnel through the wall can be traversed with ease. The way to the Tan Sugi Monastery lies ahead...
Li Jie plops down on the forest floor. The Nagaji exhales slowly.
Rest?
Kwan Tai's gaze stays locked on the road ahead, but he nods begrudgingly to Li Jie's suggestion.
"We should at least dress our wounds."
The monastery is located in a secluded valley many miles to the west, surrounded by steep mountains. The only safe path to and from the site is the Pilgrim’s Path. While the last stretch of the trip to the monastery from Willowshore along the Pilgrim’s Path is only a 13-mile hike, traditionally those who would seek knowledge made the trek slowly, pausing to spend the night three times at three shrines along the way. These shrines—one on a floating platform in a lake, one near an ancient dead tree, and one on a secluded, rocky perch overlooking the path below—represented the traveler’s past lives, their future lives, and their current life. By turning the short hike into a multiday meditative trip, the seeker of knowledge and enlightenment adopts a mindset better suited to receiving the teachings of the monks of the Tan Sugi monastery.
***
Once you are ready, you begin your trek along the Pilgrim's Path. It doesn't take long to realize that the area is even more restricted here than in the hinterlands around Willowshore. Anybody trying to leave the Pilgrim's Path and travel into the surrounding wooded mountains finds themselves returning to the Pilgrim’s Path not long after losing sight of the trail, having been turned around without noticing the change in direction. As long as you stay on the Pilgrim's Path, though, you can travel unimpeded in either direction.
With his knowledge of occultism, Xiung-Lau comes to the conclusion that the Pilgrim’s Path is a more constrained version of the same curse that contains Willowshore and its hinterlands. What’s happening on the Path could indicate that a deeper revelation about the nature of the curse does await discovery at the Tan Sugi monastery.
***
On the first day of travel, as you make your way toward the Bridge Shrine, the weather along the Pilgrim’s Path is crisp and cloudy. While you know that the physical distance from the Wall of Ghosts and the Bridge Shrine is about 5 miles, this leg of the journey along the Pilgrim’s Path was intended to be taken slowly, so that the traveler arrived at the shrine at sunset. The first part of the path winds through dense forest. One thing you note immediately as you travel further down the Pilgrim’s Path is how strangely preserved it appears. The road was once well-traveled, but in the 46 years since the monastery was abandoned, the road became overgrown and increasingly indistinguishable from the surrounding woodland. Not so now, however.
About 30 minutes after you have begun your trek, you round a corner to find a lone kappa trudging at a snail’s pace down the path in the same direction that you are heading. Upon spotting you, the kappa drops down on his hands and knees. "My apologies! I did not mean to get in your way! Please, I beg you, have mercy on me!" He crawls pitifully to the side of the path to let you pass, avoiding eye contact. You notice that the bowl in his head is empty of water.
Walking the path provided by the possibly possessed forest, the Alchemist warily watches as the kappa meanders a bit into their view.
Wondering if he had any fresh cucumber in one of his many pockets, Li Jie bows to the small turtle dude.
Greetings friend. We are on a strange trek through the Pilgrims Path on our way to investigate the old monastery.
Noticing the poor fellow's empty bowl, the Nagaji pulls out his water skin
If I may?
Li Jie knows that kappas delight in playing pranks on unsuspecting travelers. While not overtly malicious, kappa pastimes can be a significant nuisance to their victims, such as stealing the clothes of people while they bathe or snatching up unattended food from campfires. Kappas also enjoy proving their worth in competitions of strength and, despite their propensity for trickery, are known to be honorable competitors who keep their word and remain polite in conversation.
"Oh!" the kappa says, blinking. "You are not agents of the storm mother, then? I am Enko. She has been tormenting me! First, she tricked me into spilling the water in my head bowl when she told me to beg for my life. Then she picked me up and flew into the air with me in her clutches, cackling with cruel delight and dropping me off at the edge of the world, far from any water! All I want to is to get back home to Mirror Lake."
A slight breeze wafts by, and the kappa cries out in fear, waving his arms. "Do you hear it? The storm mother's voice! She taunts me! Yes, please, fill my bowl with water, that I might escape her wrath!"
"I did nothing more than simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Enko laments. "The storm mother is a terrible and frightening monster who can hurl lightning and blasts of wind that can strip flesh from bone."
Li Jie happily supplies the little fella water for his empty bowl.
Storm Mother? Sounds like a blast.
"What does she want? If we will be forced to fight her we should know now."
"Oh, thank you!" the kappa says as Lie Jie fills his bowl, restoring his mobility. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He continues to thank you over and over to the point of near absurdity.
"She is not near now, thankfully, though she whispers threats on the wind! If you continue on the path, you will no doubt find her sooner or later."
Enko travels with you along the path. It is the middle of the afternoon when the path emerges from the dense forest and curves around the eastern edge of Mirror Lake. Enko is ecstatic to see the water again.
"I would have never made it back home without your help." The kappa splashes into the lake and sighs in relief. "Wait right there for a few minutes."
He swims underwater, then returns about five minutes later with treasures he found in a sunken boat nearby. He gives these to you as thanks for your kindness before retreating back into the lake's depths. The treasures are a +1 striking silver shortsword and a wand of endure elements carried on a minor sturdy shield.
Having restored the lost heart, Xiung-Lau tends to his wounds before setting off.
He is intrigued upon encountering the kappa, on the brink of offering water from his walking cauldron when Li Jie speaks up. He is pleased to see the exchange go well, and enjoys the remainder of the travel with their strange new companion and friend.
Upon receiving the gifts from Enko, Xiung-Lau investigates the wand of endure elements. "This is not the brand of magic I am most familiar with, or which my patron normally grants me, but I believe I can get this wand to cooperate when the time comes."
He nods toward the shortsword. "That sword would in particular be good in general against devils, bypassing some of their physical resistance to attacks ... and, of course, the various changing breeds of beastmen." He glances over toward Hooli. "Present company excluded, of course."
He glances over at Kwan Tai. "The shield will most likely benefit you, if you think you would make use of it."
Once more than an hour has passed, he again tends to his wounds.
You continue on along the Pilgrim's Path. Just as the sun begins to set that evening, you reach the Bridge Shrine.
The path leads up to a river’s edge, where a twenty-foot-wide rope bridge hangs a half-dozen feet over the slowly flowing river surface below. A hexagonal wooden shrine stands in the center of the river, its roof providing shelter from the elements while also offering a viewing portal in the center to allow those in the shrine to contemplate the flow of water below. Several long-handled dippers for bringing up draughts of river water for drinking lean against the central hole’s railing, along with a half-dozen delicate-looking clay vials. A total of six wicker mats lie around this central hole, affording places to sleep above the river.
With his knowledge of religion, Xiung-Lau knows that Zhi Hui felt that time spent along the shore of Mirror Lake provided an opportunity for self-observation and reflection. She hoped that pilgrims, when stripped of the distractions of others and the mundane problems of daily life, might see in their reflections a true vision of who they are when unburdened. To aid in this, each pilgrim would chant a repetitive prayer meant to invoke the cycle of reincarnation, then retire to sleep above the gently flowing waters.
Strangely, the Bridge Shrine washed away a decade ago during a flood, yet here it stands, looking well-cared for yet still abandoned...
Xiung-Lau passes on his knowledge of this shrine's history and purpose on to the others. He begins considering his own prayer, as he takes some of the river water and puts it into his walking cauldron. Escorting the animated cauldron back to the shore, he starts a fire, and the cauldron nestles in over the fire. Once the water begins boiling, Xiung-Lau opens some packets from his supplies and empties them into the cauldron, then offers the others some of the soothing warm herbal tea when it is ready. He consumes a serving of the tea himself while quietly eating his rations.
Once refreshed, and any preparation or conversations have taken place, he returns to the shrine and looks down into the viewing portal, chanting a soft prayer, "Behold the Mother of Souls, take our spirits that depart this world, and weave them into the beyond or back into the tapestry of this world..." He repeats this prayer four times, before concluding, "We trust in the Mother of Souls, who alone knows if our journey to the grave will lead to a different world, or begin anew in this one with a return to the womb."
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Hooli grins as Xiung-Lau calls her a beastman, when neither term fits her. "You might need your eyes checked!" she jokes.
At the shrine, she looks around with some concern. "This was washed away a decade ago. Nothing is what it seems like it should be!" she says.
She looks around for anything of note beyond the obvious.
The Nagaji looks at the wicker mats.
I've slept on worse.
"I like it not that here the ghosts of even buildings seem to walk. I do not fear to undertake this devotion, however."
Hooli's initial inspection doesn't reveal anything. However, no sooner have you all stepped into the shrine than the surface of the river below starts rippling violently. What at first appears to be water bubbling up to the surface quickly resolves into a nightmarish vision of hundreds of ghostly arms scrambling up out of the water from the lake’s depths! These hands reach up on either side to grab onto the bridge’s planks, but also rise through the hole at the center of the shrine or up over its outer railings, the better to snatch at you.
At the same time, a plume of water sprays up through the central hole in the shrine, tossing two swarms of wriggling leeches up into the shrine! As the leeches seethe onto the floors, they form the word "Kugaptee" over and over as they swarm about!
Kwan Tai's lip curls in disgust behind the faceplate of his helm - leeches squelch beneath the blows of his hammer, while he looks to the spectral hands. "Away spirits! Your terrors will find no home in my heart!"
The Nagaji shakes his head in disgust.
As if Kugaptee is going to pay us off with a delicious delicacy as fresh leech. The nerve.
The Alchemist then Commands Blue to mix up Mistform elixir . Blue then Administers it.
Li Jie then takes out Numbing Tonic(5) and Drinks it.
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HP 58/58
AC 22
Fort +9, Ref +13, Will +10
Hero points: 3
Seasonal Boon: summer []; fall []; winter []; spring []
Spells: 1st []
Effects:
"Ew," Hooli says as she sees the leeches start coming toward her. She dances away, calling out as she does: "Oh spirits, go back to sleep, don't grab us!"
Xiung-Lau begins prayers to hold back the spirits.