Ajoran looks in amazement at the gallery before them. So many gods, all unknown, all slain by He Who Walks In Blood. Was there a false pantheon? Some rebellion within the divine caste? Many questions course through his mind, but he silently reminds himself of the importance that the dead be left to rest.
Round 1
Ajoran is caught off guard by the magma-like creature, leaving his legs partially bound. He frantically checks his tome to see if information can be presented to him.
◇ Tome Adept Recall Knowledge vs (Target)
Thankfully, the portal beside him grants him passage.
◆ Stride
After that, he produces a token from his robes as he attempts to identify and prepare for this creature. In this case, he holds a small glass vial with an ice-like crystal preserved by a dehydrating powder.
◆ Exploit Vulnerability vs (Target)
Lastly, he closes the gap by twisting his mirror to catching himself in a reflection against the monster, creating the lifelike optical illusion of him standing right next to her.
◆ Mirror's Reflection
Suryo looks closely at the magma-eyed woman. His weapons may be less effective, but he supposes he can still doom her.
He makes a change...
You channel your zeal through a sacred weapon, bringing a foe closer to their demise. Strike a target with the required weapon. On a success, the target becomes doomed 1 or increases the value of their doomed condition by 1 (most living creatures die when they’ve reached doomed 4). Creatures doomed in this way take a status penalty to their saving throws against divine spells equal to their doomed value.
A creature that would become doomed 4 by this Strike can attempt a Will saving throw against your class DC to avoid increasing the value of their doomed condition. When this occurs, this ability gains the incapacitation trait.
--------------------
You apply one of the following debilitations, which lasts until the end of your next turn.
Debilitation The target takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds.
Debilitation The target becomes enfeebled 1.
Your opportunistic attacks are particularly detrimental. When you use Debilitating Strike, you can apply two debilitations simultaneously; removing one removes both.
--------------------
He draws the electrical, crackling rapier.
Now he is seen wielding a sparking blade and another flaming. He hopes it is at least a little intimidating.
Yujin closes the gap and unleashes flame on the librarian!
And it is at this point that you realize something interesting: this woman is Garundi, and she seems to have an accent that implies that she’s from Rahadoum. But the accent is…old. And the pieces start to fall into place: this woman must have been there during the implementation of the Laws of Mortality in Rahadoum, and was among the Red Mantis when divinity was outlawed in that country. That would mean she has been here for over 2,000 years, and was among the Red Mantis that founded Ilizmagorti!
Weakness acid 15; no resistances; immune to bleed, critical hits (meaning “doubled damage from critical hits”), precision, and unconscious.
Ajoran moves forward and reflects himself against the librarian.
Suryo swaps his weapons and slices at the woman, but misses.
Janna swings with her powerful spell but misses.
The librarian sees herself surrounded and just chuckles. ”Alright then.”
Seeing the force that was behind Janna’s attacks, the librarian morphs both of her hands into sawtooth sabers as she attacks the psychic!
The woman then Extends her Limbs and attacks Janna again!
Round 2 —> 3
==============
Suryo
Janna {Unleashed Psyche: Round 1 of 2}
The Librarian <Orange> (-13) {doomed 1 & penalty vs divine spells}
Yujin
Ajoran {-15-foot to Speed: Round 1 of 10}
==============
Yujin is disappointed by the lack of ignition. "There's more than one way to burn my foes."
Yujin activates her incendiary aura then shoves another fireball at her enemy.
◆◆Incendiary Aura
◆Ignition
Feeling her energies starting to ebb already, Janna summons the last of her strength to produce her psychic sabers again.
◆ Step
◆◆ Amped Imaginary Weapon
Suryo is not pleased with his aim and perhaps the librarian not taking his attempted strikes seriously. Now he has out both weapons that he believes he can do ample damage with.
First with the electrical blade...
You apply one of the following debilitations, which lasts until the end of your next turn.
Debilitation The target takes a –10-foot status penalty to its Speeds.
Debilitation The target becomes enfeebled 1.
Your opportunistic attacks are particularly detrimental. When you use Debilitating Strike, you can apply two debilitations simultaneously; removing one removes both.
--------------------
Then with swipes of his sawtooth sabre.
You channel your zeal through a sacred weapon, bringing a foe closer to their demise. Strike a target with the required weapon. On a success, the target becomes doomed 1 or increases the value of their doomed condition by 1 (most living creatures die when they’ve reached doomed 4). Creatures doomed in this way take a status penalty to their saving throws against divine spells equal to their doomed value.
A creature that would become doomed 4 by this Strike can attempt a Will saving throw against your class DC to avoid increasing the value of their doomed condition. When this occurs, this ability gains the incapacitation trait.
--------------------
Ajoran is in position, his target analyzed, and yet... he hesitates. "Something feels wrong about this. This woman is thousands of years old. She knows so much... and we struck first."
Ajoran does not disarm himself, but he lowers his weapons. "She could not have gotten this far without passing the trials. Everyone, lower your weapons and back away! If I'm wrong, may I suffer for this."
Then, he inclines his head towards the strange, magma-looking ooze woman. "You. Are you some sort of keeper? A guard? Cease hostilities, and I will endeavor to ensure we do the same."
Yujin activates her aura and covers the librarian in fire!
Suryo attacks!
Janna slices into the woman with a massive force saber!
Ajoran lowers his weapons and attempts to call for peace.
Then, he inclines his head towards the strange, magma-looking ooze woman. "You. Are you some sort of keeper? A guard? Cease hostilities, and I will endeavor to ensure we do the same."
The librarian staggers from the assault on her and glowers. ”Know this, I am Niesha, head librarian of the Sarzari Grand Library. And you four are cronies to the woman traitorous to the Mantis God!” Suddenly, the librarian—Niesha—begins to…become shorter? ”This is my library, heretics; none shall blaspheme within its sacred halls!”
Niesha continues to grow shorter and shorter until it becomes clear what is occurring: beneath the woman is a drain pipe, and she squeezed her gelatinous body through the grating until her body fully entered the drain pipe and was swept away.
There is a brief, awkward pause. Then suddenly, a voice seems to call out in the assassins’ minds. The “voice” seems…muffled somehow?
”So…Is she gone now…?”
As the group suddenly looks around in shock, the “voice” comes again.
”Well, thank you for dealing with that old crone. Hey, could you be a friend and let me out. Oh, sorry; the box under the desk—I think I’m still under the desk…”
Out of sheer confusion, or morbid curiosity, the group searches under the desk, and sure enough they find a wooden box. Similarly, they find a black key held to the underside of the desk itself by a bent nail.
The assassins open the aforementioned box, and inside they find a red velvet book with a phrase engraved in gold: Where there is progress in the field of magic, there is always someone who uses it to set things on fire
The “voice” from before comes back, this time much more clearly. ”Oh my goodness! Thank you! That horrid woman shoved me in that box…I don’t even know how long ago. And every time I heard someone and tried to call for help, she’d give the box a hearty kick! She was a real…OH! You there! Dragon lady! What’s that spell you’ve got going creating that much heat? I know a thing or two about fire magic, and you and I are birds of a feather, lemme tell you!”
The book practically leaps out of the hands of whomever is holding it toward Yujin. ”Name’s Blaze, pleasure to make your acquaintance! I’m a spellbook, and I’ve got loads of spells that I think you’ll love!” The book flips open revealing the magical formulas for various classic fire spells—fireball, wall of fire, divine immolation, etc—but nothing really of note beyond that.
”I like you; I know we’ll be good friends, you and I!”
As the group searches for a bit, they find that there is a secret door in the wall to the south. As the group takes a bit more of a cursory glance, they find that the T-intersection leads to two very different parts of the library: To the west is a normal library setup—organized bookshelves, ladders, tables, etc. To the east, however, is a tangled maze of books and bookshelves in pure disorganization and chaos. Runes and writing covers a variety of surfaces, as if a calligraphy lesson exploded all over the room.
[ooc]So, there are four places that y’all can go: the doorway just behind the desk, the secret door to the south, the organized bookshelves to the west, and the disorganized bookshelves to the east. I’ve circled these on the map and will just pause here to give y’all the time to deliberate where you want to start. I know I usually do a lot more railroading, but this particular instance kinda needs to fall into the PCs’ agency since where y’all start makes a difference.[ooc]
Yujin pets the tome gingerly. "Oh I like you too. Not many address me as dragon although they should. Come with me, Blaze, and together we will set the world aflame in our wake."
Yujin loosens her belt and tucks the tome snuggly against her hip.
As Yujin glances at the options of rooms to investigate she takes note of the numerous grates on the ground similar to the one that the mezlan escaped through and points them out to her allies.
"It is likely that this Niesha can use these grates to travel. Until she is dealt with, we should assume that our conversations are being overheard and that we must keep our backs guarded."
Yujin asks Blaze, "Tell me, little one, did your captor give off heat that your senses are able to perceive?"
Janna looks deep in thought. She nods to Yujin's suggestion of caution.
"She was healing as we fought, when she next attacks she will be at full health, so we'd best be too"
At that she floats cross legged and hovers.
"I do agree the chaotic bookshelves seem most interesting, discerning what happened there may help us learn what happened to Jakalyn. I would appreciate some time to meditate though"
Suryo smiles as the tome cozies up with Yujin.
Who can resist the face of an adoring pet?
He nods at her wise intuition about Niesha and adds
She could emerge from any corner.
--------------------
One set of shelves organized, and one set in complete disarray. Surely there is something to learn from this contrast...
Ajoran huffs with frustration at her threats and her retreat. The prospect of making a persistent foe of her is not very pleasing. "This strange, ooze-like woman is living history. I wonder if she is the most precious repository of information here, even above the tomes?"
The assassin does not drop his weapons, but he does exchange his older sawtooth saber for his dutiful tome. All the better to cross reference. "We should endeavor to take care in here. This place is sacred, and the knowledge held within is a treasure beyond material value. We should attempt to find a way to seek peace with the keeper here, but I will not endanger anyone beyond myself in pursuit of that goal."
Ajoran will also take this time to share everything he knows about Niesha, both to emphasize her importance and in ways his allies can defend themselves as a last resort.
Suryo frowns.
She seemed very displeased at our presence. Perhaps I acted too hastily. It did not seem words were in order.
Admittedly his reconsideration is anchored to her potential informational value. He is further regretful and reflective once Ajoran explains the significance of this librarian.
He nods at Ajoran's statement.
I think that is a wise strategy. We will see what peace can be made next she appears. I shall take a contrite tone with her.
"The ooze did not seem inclined to concede peacefully but I will acquiesce to your request Ajoran out of deference to our alliance. However, I won't hesitate to retaliate if she declines our offer."
Yujin asks Blaze, "Tell me, little one, did your captor give off heat that your senses are able to perceive?"
”I mean, yeah, when she put me in. But I was also stuck in a box for a while, so I wasn’t able to detect much.”
The 30-foot-high bookshelves in this room are stacked to the ceiling, and are arranged in a tangled, maze-like pattern. Words and runes have been embossed, scratched, and painted on a variety of surfaces, as if a calligraphy lesson exploded all over the room, while small bloodstains splatter the floor here and there.
As the group comes to this area, nothing seems to immediately jump out to attack. So they begin an exploration of this strange maze. Perhaps they are interested in what secrets they can potentially discover here, or their priority is to continue to search for High Priest Saviya.
Whatever the case, as the group proceeds through this maze, their highly-trained assassin instincts spike—they are in danger!
TL; DR: I’m saying that the enemies see Ajoran and Janna because of flimsy in-game reasoning and out-of-game not-wanting-to-waste-an-entire-day-without-posting.
Suddenly, a rune in front of Yujin—a purposeful blood splatter in the shape of Achaekek’s holy symbol—begins to shift and morph into divine runes as it becomes clear that it seems to be silently Casting a Spell! Then one of the “mantis claws” that make up Achaekek’s symbol seems to come off of the wall and point directly at Ajoran!
Failure.
Then a globule of electrified blood flies out of the rune at Janna!
Basically, these creatures’ spaces are actually in the “lines of the squares” rather than the squares themselves.
And for these creatures’ movement: “sliding” from the bookcase onto the floor or vice versa counts as 5 feet of movement, and doing a “U-turn” from one side of a bookcase to the other also counts as 5 feet. And because of HOW these guys move, my arrows are gonna be really weird as I will be pointing along the lines of the squares rather than from center-to-center. And because they’re 2-D creatures, they can move through the gaps between the bookshelves at no penalty. But based on the image provided, I’m gonna say that these bookshelves are flush with the floor, so they can’t move underneath the bookshelves.
These enemies are weird; please bear with me.
Green Strides along the wall and Casts a Spell as a 5th-rank divine wrath covers the PCs!
Success --> Critical Success (Juggernaut)
Failure --> Critical Failure (nat 1)
Success
Success
Success
Orange Strides through the bookshelves then reaches out and casts a 6th-rank harm!
Success --> Critical Success (Juggernaut)
Then it spits electrified blood at Ajoran!
Red Strides then casts a 6th-rank harm on Janna!
Failure
Yellow Strides then fires electrified blood at Ajoran!
Round 1
==============
Living Rune <Red>
Living Rune <Orange>
Living Rune <Yellow>
Living Rune <Green>
Living Rune <Blue>
Suryo (-11)
Yujin (-11)
Ajoran (-111)/Janna (-46)
==============
"What are these things?!"
Janna forgets she can fly in her haste to scramble out of the way of the strange things attacking her.
◆ Stride
Once to a position of some safety, she racks her brain trying to think of what things things are and how to kill them, as she partially fades away to hopefully resist some of their life-sapping energy.
◆ Recall Knowledge
◆ Cast Ghostly Shift
"Books be damned. They are no good to us if we are dead."
Yujin holds out an open palm and begins firing rays of fire at the rune creatures in front of her. Then she calls out to her new friend, "Blaze. Ignite them!"
Basically, these creatures’ spaces are actually in the “lines of the squares” rather than the squares themselves.
Disoriented, and entirely unsure about the nature of their enemy, Suryo draws two of his blades.
and strikes at one near Ajoran .