Nketiah brings you guys back to your guest quarters which is really just a large flat style suite in the trees, she walks you through how to pull closed the thin paper like walls, keeping the bugs out for the night. "I figure a good nights sleep will do you all well, besides it will give us a chance to help prepare you for your trip into the jungle,"
Nketiah leaves you to your nightly preparations, returning early the next morning with a number of elven porters having brought a variety of goods to the platform outside your suite. "Ose Panin and Ose Atsu were impressed with how quickly you earned the tribe's respect, we believe you are the ones that will be able to help us overcome these Cinderclaw Cultists and restore the Mwangi Expanse. Our Leaders have prepared a number of items to aid you in your exploration of the forest. Additionally, here is a map of the area, I will mark a few areas of note,"
Laying out the map flat, she has already marked a few areas, the huntergate and temple of Ketaphys you arrived from, Akrival the elven village, as well as a white line drawn in chalk, "this line is where the blindness starts, something deeper in the Forest is causing this, the effect is new, recent to whatever the Cultists are up to,"
Taking stock of your supplies provided, much of it is basic necessities; Two pup tents, five full waterskins, 4 weeks’ worth of rations, mosquito netting, healer’s tools, 12 vials of lesser antiplague, 3 lesser elixirs of life, and 10 vine arrows and 4 lesser potions of healing.
Nketiah also has a porter bring in a number of items wrapped in cloth, "Due to our blindness, we will have to provide you with every tool we can to retake our forest, if we can't physically help you, we can at least outfit you with the right tools," She takes off an amulet, shaped like a dragon's eye placing it on the table, "This Dragon's Eye charm was giving to me years ago by a friend, I want you to have it,"
She also lays out on the table, a pair of Boots of Elvenkind, a red, white, and black spellguard shield, a ring of the ram, a Librarian Staff, a Charm of Fire Resistance .
"You are much too generous." Lyra says looking over the items on the table. "Violant, I think this staff might be something you'd like. And if you all don't mind I'd like to take this rams head ring"
Both Opa and Doxie stare in wonder at the Dragons Eye Charm.
"I would be honored to explore as well."
Later, though, Violant practically drools at both the librarian staff and the charm of fire resistance. "I'd be glad to take the staff, and does anyone want the Charm of Fire Resistance? I'd need some time for it to replace my current amulet , if I do take it. But multiple staves is no problem."
Stom's eyes go wide as he takes in the supplies and items that Nketiah and the rest of the Ekujae have offered them. "We will be honored to help you. Your generosity will certainly help us on that task."
Stom eyes the charm as well. "The charm would be helpful to all of us, but I wouldn't want to fight over it."
"Maybe we can decide based on whoever guesses closest to the current time," Violant says (quite obviously, in fact) jokingly, hinting at something she's just figured out. I'm walking Hound of Tindalos bait now, aren't I? S~$#. she thinks to herself.
Oppa slyly puts the Dragon Eye Charm around his neck.
[ooc]Here's my accounting so far on the items.
Laughing awkwardly, "Well the spellguard shield was sentimental, its understandable it might not be needed, luckily I had at least one back up prepared," Nketiah pulls a pair of dirty leather boots out of a bag, "Here we go, these are some perfectly good pair of Boots of Bounding, little prestidigitation and they'll look good as new!"
"And who should the boots go to?"
"I think Stom should take the boots! Thank you again for your generous spirit and hopsitality." Lyra bows slights towards Nketiah.
Stom excitedly agrees with Lyra. "Ah, they look like they fit, too! Boots of Bounding! That reminds me of that time I jumped from that tree platform and sliced one of those half-orcs nearly in half with an attack as I landed! HA! Think of how far I can jump with these boots!"
As the excitement wears down, Stom asks Nketiah about what to expect in the jungle. "I've never been in a jungle before now. What preparations should we consider? Do you need special clothing? Or special bedrolls? Oh, do we need to sleep in the trees? Should we bring extra rations, or is hunting plentiful?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Samael suggests that we head southeast and do a proper search of the hex. He will always try to Avoid Notice and leave the scouting and searching to others.
Sounds good to me. Oppa will Investigate and Doxie will Scout.
Violant will do her usual activity even during exploration, and that sounds good to me, Samael
Your group, with supplies in tow, find the jungle to be a hot, stuffy, damp environment, surrounded constantly by buzzing clouds of mosquitos or gnats. Snakes and lizards rustle bushes and slither up trees as you pass through the area. Your first full day of exploration, turns up little directly southeast of the Elf Village.
Renali splits off to explore the adjacent Hex. You guys push further south, approaching a large bluff in the distance. This day passes rather uneventfully, you passed through the area the Ekujae elves said made them blind, Violant though seemed unaffected. Whatever is causing the Ekujae to go blind seems to be somehow targeting them specifically.
Renali reports to you all in the morning, that she found something to the North. "A one-person campsite occupies a small clearing in a narrow valley. There is a ten-foot-tall wooden pillar topped with a carved dragon head looms over the other. The dragon head and pillar have been stained black with pitch, and thin wisps of smoke rise from the head’s open mouth," She reveals the location on your map. The description matches the broken pillar that was found at the Temple to Ketaphys when you all first came through.
"Well, that's really our only lead at the moment. Seems like we should head that way. Renali, did you see any people at the campsite or around the pillar?"
Stom readies himself to travel to the north, hopefully this time with some cooler and less humid weather.
After a long day of stomping through the hot and humid jungle under brush Lyra welcomes the rest at the end of the day.
” how odd that someone would take the dragon from the temple and put it in the middle of the jungle. Did you notice if the campsite was recently occupied?”
After she finishes with the maps, "I did not want to risk sticking around for too long to see any creatures that were there. The information I had seemed important enough to deliver in a timely manner. The campsite looked occupied, Lyra, but I did not see by who,"
Resting through the night, you guys set off to follow the directions on the map, Renali sticks with you all to help guide you to the location, speeding your journey greatly. It still takes about 8 hours of marching, arriving in mid-afternoon, the humidity and heat are at their hottest. Thankfully, with Renali's guidance through the jungle, you aren't fatigued when you arrived.
Just on the outskirts of the clearing, you see the Dragon Pillar, stained black with pitch, plumes of smoke actively waft up from the mouth of the dragon's carved head. the lone campsite has one resident who is slathering the Dragon Pillar with more black pitch. The creature looks like some sort of half-red dragon Charau-ka with large hideous red wings, black spikes down its back, a large two pronged tail that drags in the dirt behind it.
Stom quietly expresses his anger at the scene. "I haven't seen such a thing before. It's like they are defacing that pillar!"
He tries to calm himself and figure out what is going on.
Recall knowledge on the Pillar, Religion = +9
Recall Knowledge on the creature, Society = +9
Lyra, Samael and Stom take in the pillar, trying to understand its religious significance, Lyra is able to determine that it is not being defaced, rather it has been created in Dahak's image, and the black pitch is likely in reverence to Dahak's connection to Evil Black Dragons.
Additionally, it seems connected to something, there is residual divine magic emanating from the pillar, connecting it to something larger, a network of divine magic.
Violant and Samael glean little from what this potential half-dragon Charau=Ka is, judging from it being a half-red dragon creature, it likely is immune to fire and can potentially breath fire or otherwise enhance its natural attacks with fire.
"Should we try talking to the Charau-Ka-Dragon?"
“I think taking a diplomatic approach would be good!”
"If the group decides that a peaceful option should be the first attempt, I won't argue with that. But, if Lyra is correct that the pillar is connected to both Dahak and to greater network of divine power, then the pillar cannot stand."
"Unlike other gods associated with Evil, Dahak only stands for destruction and chaos. So I'm with Stom here," Violant says.
"Well, who knows maybe this follower of Dahak, will want to walk the path of redemption?" she says with a shrug. but yeah the tower does need to be taken down."
Stom nods at Lyra. "Go, offer them the chance at redemption. If they refuse, I'll be ready to offer them a different path."
Stom slowly eases his weapon from its strapping and readies himself for a fight.
Walking away from the group, she is determined to offer this follower of Dahak the path to Saranrae's light.
Waving a hand aloft with her holy symbol she starts to talk at the creature. "Greetings! have you heard of the teaching of her Holy Firesword? or maybe you might know her by another title The Everlight? She offers the path of redemption." Lyra continues talking as she approaches, stopping about 10 feet away from the creature.
Lyra, bravely, boldly walks out to entreat the creature to turn away from its destructive apoplectic ways and turn towards the light. Sadly it doesn't understand common and sees a heavily armed half orc waving a piece of metal at it.
It shrieks in draconic,
Round 1 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Stom ☘️ -
Racherak(half-dragon) -
Violant ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ ☘️ -
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
Ready for combat, Stom scowls at the Charau-Ka as Lyra approaches. Stom replies to it in draconic: "No, you prepare to die!" Stom closes the gap more quickly than is expected for his stout dwarven frame. He swings at the creature's upper legs, hoping to sweep its feet while dealing damage.
◇ Rage
◆ Stride
◆◆ Slam Down
Stom strides forward raging, great axe swing with such tremendous force at the creature, which catches it in one hand, deflecting the blow to the side, red glowing smoke growing in its mouth, hissing in draconic, "I've never eaten a dwarf before, are you as delicious as they say,"
Racherak steps diagonally to position itself next to Stom and Lyra then goes into a draconic frenzy, biting Stom with its fiery jaws as it seems to be building up fire in its throat and then slashing viciously at Lyra.
Round 1 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Stom ☘️ - 16 damage
Racherak(half-dragon) -
Violant ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ ☘️ - 21 + 12 pending a shield block
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
Lyra, quickly blocking with her shield, holding back some of the damage of the creatures claws.
She pulls her scimitar out and attacks.
She then locks her shield back into place.
Wilbur, the war pig comes running up to join the fight and attempts to hoof the creature.
◆ Samael will begin juggling a couple of cards.
◆ He will stride next to Racherak
◆ He will piercing damage.
1A: RK
2,3A: Elemental Zone
Oppa strides to the side, getting out of any potential fire breaths while boosting Doxie's physical abilities and sending her in to show this Half-Dragon the power of a full dragon.
Doxie bites,
Unfortunately Doxie can't get a bite in between this all out brawl.
Violant electrifies the air, ionizing the air and making the are smell like burnt ozone(whatever that is).
Lyra blocks the first attack, taking some damage, before the other claw rakes her as well. She returns with a slash from her scimitar but her scimitar fails to pierce the tough dragon hide.
Samael finds more successful with his playing card, slicing into a soft spot he found in the half-dragons hide.
Finally you see the Black Dragon Pillar of Dahak, charge with unholy energy, the eyes alight with black fire and they fire a black energy beam at: slamming into Violant.
Shen tries to spin out of the way as the black energy beam plows a furrow into the ground toward her but it was just a little too quick.
Round 2 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Active Effects: Elemental Zone (+2 Dam w/ Electricity & Bludgeoning)
Stom ☘️ - 16 damage
Racherak(half-dragon) - 11 damage
Violant ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ ☘️ - 22 damage / Shield: 9 damage
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
Violant quickly messes with time itself to avoid the brunt of the damage of the eye beam, only ending up being blinded for 1 hour as opposed to the entire day.