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Rations moves closer to his fellow Pathfinders on the log. Once there he exchanges his flail for one of the strange curved clubs on his back. However, before he makes any aggressive moves, he places the back of his hand against Boris' shoulder. The air around Rations smells like fresh cut wheat for a moment.
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
Rations moves forward to put the other warriors in his aura and then heals Boris.
The sprite punches Vermithor with her luminous spark.
◈
Rations' glow blocks all damage on Vermitor!
◈◈
Then the Sprite attacks Rations!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Map on Slide Four
Boris (-6)
HT Dragonkin
Kirin (-12)
Rations (DC 16 Will Save)
Sprite (revealing light, dazzled, off-guard)
Vermithor
The Sprite makes the concealment check to land the Daze on Rations.
HT's needle darts hit a nearby tree.
Vermithor punches the sprite in the face and knocks her out!
Then he punches the Kirin! The first punch connects, though the second one misses!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
You now can spend two actions calling the kirin back to reason if you wish.
UNCOMMON AUDITORY CONCENTRATE LINGUISTIC MENTAL
Requirements An enraged nature spirit is visibly shaken by being reduced to half their hit points or fewer. You call out to a visibly shaken foe and attempt to call them back to themselves and shake of any malign influence affecting their behavior and actions. Depending upon your strategy, attempt a Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Nature check against the foe's will DC to make your case for the foe's surrender.
Critical Success The foe is quick to surrender and attempts to convince their allies to surrender as well. You and your allies gain a +1 circumstance bonus to checks to Call to Reason for one minute.
Success The foe takes your words to heart and surrenders to you immediately.
Failure The foe brushes off your attempt and continues to fight.
Critical Failure Your argument is severely flawed or laughable. The foe disregards your words and continues to fight. You take a -1 circumstance penalty to checks to Call to Reason for one minute.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Map on Slide Four
Boris (-6)
HT Dragonkin
Kirin (-26, Persuadable)
Rations (DC 16 Will Save)
Sprite (knocked out)
Vermithor
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Ration's right eyelid twitches as he begins to get a headache. Maybe that is why he grumpily shouts at the kirin, "Back down now! We're on a mission from Sakura, the mistress of these woods, and she will be quite angry if we need to kill you!"
He then throws his curved club at the kirin in a roundabout way. The club clunks the kirin. Rations draws the other curved club from over his shoulder.
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
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Ration's right eyelid twitches as he begins to get a headache. He grimaces through the pain and struggles to remain calm. "Noble spirit! We come in peace on a mission from Sakura to cleanse the taint from these woods. Please! Come to your senses. We do not want to hurt you, but we must defend ourselves to carry out our mission if you persist in your rage."
- - - - - -
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
As Rations calls the kirin to reason, the kirin breathes slowly in and out for a moment, and then lowers his head. The kirin heals both Boris and the sprite, nods to you again, and then clip-clops away.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
A glowing cherry blossom sprig drops at your feet, a talisman coming directly from Sakura.
Usage affixed to weapon; Bulk — Activate [free-action] envision; Trigger You strike an unholy target with the affixed weapon; Requirements You're trained in the affixed weapon.
This small glowing sprig of cherry tree flowers is only granted by Sakura, the kami of Silvertree. When activated, the affixed weapon gains the holy trait for the triggering attack and all other attacks for 1 minute.
The kirin nods back, and disappears into the woods.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
As you stride out of the fog, you meet bewildered villagers coming out of their humble homes, some of whom blink their eyes as if they haven't left their dwellings in a long time. The villagers cry with joy as they see not only you, but also the Risuchō squirrel-rabbits, who run around for at least half an hour delivering a month's worth of mail to the lost villagers.
A woman squeals as she gets a letter, “My daughter gave birth to a healthy girl! I'm a grandmother!”
Other villagers shout their joy as they receive letters from friends, family, or even just trading partners in other villages. “We've not been forgotten by everyone!” one man says, clutching his letter to his heart.
An elderly tengu woman wearing thick round glasses approaches you. “Newcomers, please speak plainly. Has Sakura forgiven us?”
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”No. She has not,” Rations answers the spectacled woman, resting a conciliatory hand upon her shoulder. ”She believes you have knowingly allowed a corrupting influence into the woods and your village. While I’m certain this intrusion is unintentional, she feels it is necessary to seal it away. However, we have been tasked with finding the source of the taint and removing it. If we are successful, she will lift the fog.”
"Thank you for speaking plainly." The elderly woman sighs upon hearing the news. "I'm Mayor Kimi. Do you have any idea what happened? If there is some taint in our village, we want you to find it as much as you do."
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Mayor Kimi encourages you all to investigate. You can investigate either by conversing with and calming villagers, or by seeking clues within in the village.
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Vermithor begins to ask questions of the villagers he sees around. "So none of you are aware of any evil presence? Did anything change or did anyone new come before this happened?"
Not getting anywhere with asking questions, Vermithor begins trying to sneak around town to see if he can catch anyone doing anything suspicious now that they have arrived.
The villagers are fairly quiet and shy around Vermithor and Rations, but Huang Tong manages to get some of the parents talking after his magic show for all the children. "Everything was normal for a while," one Grandma says, "but then that bloody rain fell and shortly after that, Sakura arrived and she was FURIOUS and told us that we had to get rid of the unholy taint that haunted us, and we don't know what it is!" Another old lady confides, "And then shortly after that, the mayor's nephews - Kenji and Daisuke - disappeared."
Meanwhile, Boris is lifting up crates when all of a sudden he hears the unmistakeable caws of SEAGULLS.
Boris knows this sound. It's the sound of two seagulls, fighting over food. That chuckling sound is their territorial way of saying, 'Mine!'
As he runs towards the sound, he sees a greasy-looking hut with a flock of seagulls on its roof, all cawing and fighting over some fish pieces. The sign on the front of the hut reads, "The Fish Fry." The moment they see Boris, they all start cawing at HIM.
There's also a Risuchō pawing on the front door of the building, trying to get in.
Scrabble-scrabble-scrabble
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Vermithor sneaks up and hides behind a barrel. He takes a breath and then prepares to look up and over it, where he's sure that he'll be able to spot someone slinking off to hide an evil artifact. Instead, when he looks up he is eye to eye with a small tabby cat staring at him from the barrel top. It hisses at the dragon and then gives a screeching yowl.
About the same time, Huang Tong begins yelling about Boris finding something. The bronze-scaled dragon leaps to his feet and scampers off, away from the hissing feline. He bravely heads towards his fellow dragonkin and whatever evil they might find. "I'm coming!!!"
The door to the Fish Fry flies off its hinges! Aside from the cloud of small, black flies that pour out the open door and the smell from a pile of rotting fish parts that assaults the senses, the Fish Fry's interior is neat and almost impersonal: hammocks and fish nets dangle from the ceiling and a few boxes of fishing tackle lay stacked along the walls.
It occurs to both Boris and Rations that this hut is... odd. No experienced fisher would leave a pile of fish parts to compost in their own dwelling. Anyone who did so must have intended a certain unpleasantness to discourage frequent visitors. Furthermore, the lack of personal effects indicates that no one is sleeping in this space.
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Vermithor bursts into the building a moment later. He sniffs and wrinkles his snout. "What is that smell?" He spots the rotting fish and gags a bit.
The hyperactive dragon moves around the space, looking for any hidden spaces or openings. "Maybe there's something here that no one wanted people to find."
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Rations blinks at Boris' attempt at humor. "This is no way to run a restaurant," he says, tsking as he steps around the pile of rotting fish. "No one has lived here, but so eone has been here recent enough to dump fish that still stinks. It would not surprise me if this smell is not the evil aura that Sakura sensed."
He moves inside to keep an eye out for danger..
Boris and HT discover a trap door under the rotting fish. It leads to a stone stairwell that leads under the village. As you step down the stairs, you come into an underground dining area lit by lamps. The floor is sticky with spilled sake, and crumbs from previous meals crunch underfoot. Dirty dishes from a prior meal spread across the two wooden tables.
Before you have much time to think of it, you see some weird-looking clockwork heads bouncing around on the furniture.
Sproi-oi-oing!
Then they turn towards you, revealing sharp mechanical teeth that are gnashing with relish!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Vermithor
Boris
Red Head
Blue Head
HT
Rations
Vermithor charges the Red Hopping Head and slashes viciously at it.
Sproi-oi-oing! CRUNCH!
He slices it in two, and pieces of the gears and ceramic casing clatter haplessly to the floor.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Vermithor
Boris
Red Head (DEAD)
Blue Head
HT
Rations
Map on Slide 6.
Sproi-oi-oing! Crunch?
Amazingly, Boris leaves the hopping head with a single hit point! The blue hopping head decides to bite Boris on the nose!
It sproings up to bite Boris.
◈
And... One good crit deserves another, right?
Then it does a hopping strike to leap at Vermithor!
◈◈
Alas, its hopping strike goes wide of the kobold barbarian!
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Vermithor
Boris (-18)
Red Head (DEAD)
Blue Head (-24)
HT
Rations
Map on Slide 6.
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Rations winces as the clockwork doll's head bites a chunk out of the overconfident amurrun. The white tengu descends into the room and strikes out with his flail before raising his shield.
Trigger: an enemy damages an ally, and both are within champion's aura
Ally: resist all 3 vs. triggering damage
Enemy: revealing light, dazzled, off-guard until the end of my next turn
Rations takes out the bitey head, and once again ceramic pieces and gears clatter to the floor.
Nothing leaps out at HT and Vermithor in this empty little alcove. Weapons racks and two well-scarred practice dummies stand in this room. Vermithor spots a little bronze coin with a square hole and two carp engraved on it.
Rations has seen one of these coins before. These coins are tokens for the criminal organization known as the Golden League, a group reputed to be involved in open corruption, gambling dens, smuggling, protection rackets and organized crime activity.
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Vemithor catches the dummy, though it knocks him to the floor. From the ground, he spots the engraved coin in a corner. "Hey, shiny!" Once back on his feet it grabs it like a good dragon. He shows it to the others. "I found a Golden League coin! Maybe this is one of their hideouts!" He pockets the coin to add to his dragon horde.
Having explored the training area, you decide to investigate the door just to the south of you, .
It's closed but not locked. You open the door, and hear snores. There are two sleeping halflings sprawled out on two of the six beds, and on the floor are some empty sake bottles.
Do you go in?