9 years, wow. Time flies.
2014 I was still in China and kidless.
Thanks for running for so long.
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Late Merry Christmas guys!
This district is notable for its dearth of ornamentation. The buildings here lack the artistic flourishes present in other regions of the city, with structures tending to be utilitarian in design.
A five-hundred-foot-long fortress sits atop a fifty-foot-high bluff. The bluff’s sides are sheer cliffs draped with vines, but a long, narrow pathway winds up to the fortress from the ruins below.
This flat-topped island is barren of significant vegetation. The top seems to have been excavated, as if some huge object was only recently buried here.
An immense plaza, its stone slabs filthy with excrement and littered with bones and other bits of waste, sprawls at the edge of the city’s central lake. Four stone pillars rise from the plaza, each of which displays what appear to be the hanging bodies of serpentine humanoids.
This one-hundred-foot-high ziggurat is capped by a hundred foot-tall spire of stone. The sides of the ziggurat’s tiers are carved with images of battle, warfare, and military supremacy, depicting countless clashes between strangely armored humans and serpentfolk. A twenty-foot-tall statue of a horned, bat-winged gorilla stands on the ziggurat’s roof at the base of the spire, its massive arms raised up in anger.
The chimeras’ collected hoard is in the ruins; it consists of gloves of arrow snaring, a potion of delay poison, a potion of water breathing, a gold goblet studded with turquoise worth 700gp, a flawless red glass orb worth 100 gp, seven silver rings worth 50 gp each, four amethysts worth 100 gp each, five bloodstones worth 50 gp each, 15 pieces of malachite worth 10 gp each, 44 pp, 1,281 gp, 2,373 sp, and 5,172 cp. There is also an acid-burned skeleton wearing a handy haversack containing
Cica's arrow blasts the dragon head open as it streaks right through, ending the chimera's life.
The scythe hits, but Luna is unable to pierce the Chimera's hide.
The beast lashes out in fury at everyone around it!
The huge chimera rushes right past Garland, ignoring him.
It hisses "ឃាតករ! ស្លាប់! before chomping down at Ilistra on the ground. Draconic:
"You murderer! Die!"
She manages to roll out of the way, and the thing bites into the dirt instead!
Garland's scythe hits the beast, but only manages to dent its scales, leaving a superficial mark. The thing rears back and unleashes a giant wave of fire over Ilistra, Luna and Cica, before hopping back a bit.
Cica's blade scrapes along the monster's matted fur and scales, but doesn't really penetrate.
The wounded chimera whirls and launches back in the air, trying to get away from the humanoids before it dies. In its panic it leaves Cica an opening and she stabs up straight through its side and into a kidney. The flaming beast takes off, flaps a couple of times, and then falls in a shower of blood and smoke to ricochet off the cliff below and smash into the surf-blasted rocks cresting the waves. The larger chimera screams in rage as Cica murders its mate.
The chimera lights on fire as Ilistra melts its faces off, horribly immolating it. The creature appears to be in extreme pain, and shifts from an offensive posture to one of flight.
The larger chimera leaps forward and snaps at Luna.
The wounded chimera is burned, but does not ignite. It takes a moment to tear Cica's arrows from its flesh.
Ilistra 23
A larger, male-looking chimera flies out of the ruined fort and lands behind the group, cutting off their route back to the beach.
Ilistra hears Cica's cry and bursts out of the bushes where they'd been hiding. She runs forward until she can see one of the beasts, and fires off a blast at it, but misses. Cica sends a pebble clattering, and watches nine heads on three monstrous bodies all focus in on her. "F&##!! Those things are chimera. I kinda doubted they were even real, but they seem a little too interested in us for now." Cica fires an arrow off at one, and then reloads while hopping backward slightly. The arrow pierces through one of its legs, hindering it. The one that Cica shot roars with all three heads before leaping into the air, and flapping up over the wall. It's draconic head rears back and spews a cone of acid over Cica and Ilistra!
Ilistra hears Cica's cry and bursts out of the bushes where they'd been hiding. She runs forward until she can see one of the beasts, and fires off a blast at it, but misses.
Cica continues to advance and makes it to a crack in the wall, from where she can see three chimera feasting over the scraps of bloody carcasses.
The chimera's nostrils flare closest to Cica and its three heads turn towards her hiding spot, eyes scanning for a moment before focusing on her. it screams in draconic, before springing to attack.
Ilistra 23
As the group creeps up on the ruined fort, Cica begins to hear the noises of some large animals eating, hissing and growling at one another. Sounds like they are inside the ruined courtyard.
An ancient castle or fort of some sort stands atop a small island here, its rear half draped with hanging vines and its front half collapsed into a mass of ruins.
Crossing is relatively easy with the rope in place.
Cica doesn't recognize the tracks, but it seems like whatever was making them must have either been jumping, flying or teleporting around.
Cica is able to swim the rope across to the island without issues. She notices some large feline tracks in the sand, they go in short spurts before they disappear only to appear again several yards away or not at all.
A five foot deep swampy pool fills the bottom of this cave — this pool is tainted with guano from its former denizen. Other than a wealth of fertilizer, there's nothing of interest here.
An ancient castle or fort of some sort stands atop a small island here, its rear half draped with hanging vines and its front half collapsed into a mass of ruins.
One last arrow through the eye sends the massive animal crashing into the ground. Dirt and jungle detritus plume into the sky. Nearby birds shriek in alarm and take off before the jungle returns to the relative quiet of the insects chirps and buzzes a moment later.
Cica 22
Ilistra shrieks as she's snatched up into the air by the creature. Her body immediately becomes painfully hot to the touch, causing the jaws holding her to burn and blister! Cica's arrow sinks into the beast's chest, leaving a savage bleeding wound in its chest cavity. The bat drops the burning hot woman and instead tears into her, hoping to end the fiery threat. Its teeth and claws rip flesh from the kineticist.
Garland hustles over to Ilistra and tries healing her wounds. Meanwhile, Luna stands vigilantly at his side and prepares to attack the bat if draws near.
Slightly dazed from the grapple and claw attacks, but emboldened after Garland healed her some, Ilistra charges up and throws another blast of fire at the bat, melting its face off!
The shaft sinks into the bat's neck, wounding it further.
The bat drops the burning hot woman and instead tears into her, hoping to end the fiery threat.
Ilistra shrieks as she's snatched up into the air by the creature. Her body immediately becomes painfully hot to the touch, causing the jaws holding her to burn and blister!
As the blinding effect clears, the flaming bat shrieks in fury. The bat blots out the sky as it turns on the tiny fire-ape who keeps burning it. It swoops down and snaps at her with its huge jaws.
Just like it did with Cica, the bat snatches Ilistra up, then begins flapping its wings as hard as it can, preparing to gain altitude.
Cica can't manage to get her knife into the creature with it biting down on her so hard. However, being blinded seems to have thrown the titanic animal into confusion.
The bat tosses Cica like a rag doll, sending her flying something like fifty feet in an arc through the air before slamming down into the ruins.
Garland strikes the bat directly in the eyes, blinding it. The holy light does not appear to burn the animal.
The dragon-sized bat is not hard to hit, but its hide must be as tough as boiled leather, because Cica's arrow skids right off it.
The massive aerial predator swoops down on Cica with lightning speed, attempting to snatch her off the ground in its massive jaws.
The bat's teeth slam down on Cica like a bear trap. She's yanked into the air leaking blood like a sieve as the bat pulls up, flapping hard to gain altitude. Ilistra charges up her fire and blasts the bat with a gout of fire, searing it.
As Cica begins to creep away from the monstrous beast's den, she steps on a twig. The sound is so minor that at first she thinks nothing of it. Then she glances over her shoulder, just to be sure. The bat's massive ears are pointed right at her, and its huge, globular, beady eyes focus in on her. It unleashes a hypersonic barely audible shriek as it launches into the air!
Cica 22
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