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Hey y’all. Paul here. The time has come for me to hang up the spurs on this game. I’ve been dragging my feet at doing this for a long while, and though I’ve very much enjoyed running this game for y’all, I simply don’t have the fire (pun intended) to continue it. I thank you all for your continued efforts to this game. If you’re keen to have another GM pick it up, then I’ll leave it open and it can be advertised in the PbP Recruitment channel. Layaali and Co, it’s been fun working with y’all and gaming with some of the youngest PbPers with which I’ve ever had the pleasure to roll dice. Drael and Razif, you’ve been stalwart and rock star posters and I thank you for your dedication. Yantuk, you took a chance on this game and I feel badly for leaving you when you’re just getting your feet wet. I have fond memories of this game but the time to say good-bye is nigh. Adios, and my our gaming paths cross again someday in the future. Peace and Natty 20s -Dink
Crouched on the floor, Drael summons the vestiges of his dwindling energy, reels his head back... ...and sneezes. A coarse stream of incorporeal smoke and ichor exits the suli's body, and using perhaps the last twitches of vitality in his muscles, Drael flops, scrambles and lunges forward just as Layaali and Razif descend again into the caverns.
GM rolls:
Round 16!:
The dark cloud, tinged rusty by its recent meal, opens its blood-red eyes on two new targets. Like a dart, it makes for the ranger bearing the flaming arrow.
Layaali: You know that this is an evil creature, though that might not help you at this desperate moment.
Drael activates his bloodrager powers as he tries to force the belker from his body! Sadly, despite his wrath, the suli only manages a feeble wheeze, sinking to his knees as he does so. The wicked creature delights in tormenting Drael's internal organs anew!
Drael coughs and splutters blood as it runs freely from his nose and mouth, coughing and hacking as he claws his way on his andry hands and knees towards the sky.
Something tickles Layaali's memories as she meditates on the identity of the horrid gaseous thing. It's a belker! Layaali (though I'm sure she'll share it with all of you, but Drael shouldn't know this, yet):
Belkers are hateful elemental air creatures resembling fiends made of smoke. Xenophobic in the extreme, they see most non-elemental creatures as threats, and stalk and kill any such intruders in their territory. Among their elemental kin, they especially hate djinn and jann. They tolerate air mephits, dust mephits, steam mephits, air elementals, and fire elementals, but given the choice, prefer the company of their own kind. Additionally (just for Layaali):
They have a horrible attack known as 'smoke claws' where they enter the body of a foe and wreak havoc on its internal organs. The victim can expel the creature only by coughing it out. Fortunately, belkers aren't able to remain gaseous indefinitely - only a couple of minutes per day. Meanwhile, inside the Mountain's Maw, Drael coughs weekly, blood trickling from his mouth and nose. Pain wracks his body once more as the horror savages him again.
The suli expels a sanguinous spray, desperately struggling to exit the salamander demesne!
The burning gaseous foe enters the suli's mouth and nose, searing his respiratory tract with sharp clawed tendrils! Drael coughs and wheezes as he stumbles forward, but as he lunges to a halt up against the warm rock of Andgronakraks' greeting chamber, he coughs up a bloody spray of hemoptysis.
The exit passage leading to the surface beckons.
The gnomes, followed hastily by the oracle, exit the cavern complex to find Razif and Yantuk waiting them on the blasted surface of the mountain pass. Drael successfully hacks out the malevolent gaseous foe once more, then races after his colleagues. Unerringly so, the gases once more envelop and attempt to enter the suli's form!
The animate smoke (with the malevolent red eyes) flows over Drael, trying again to enter the suli's nose and mouth! Drael steels himself under the assault, desperately trying to buy his allies some time!
Meanwhile, the remainder of the party rush back through the sauna room and into the entrance chamber. Androgrongkaks is notably absent. The exit from the caverns awaits, along with two other unexplored passages.
Racing like mad back into Lesaar's chambers, the desperate team fails to spot the salamander anywhere. Razif races straight through the room to the other side. The cloud of grey mist swiftly seeps out of the magma chamber into the passage, enveloping the aasimar. Layaali coughs and hacks as the anthropomorphous smoke penetrates her mouth and nose and into her lungs.
With a great sneeze, Layaali forcefully expels the fumes.
I am back from PaizoCon! It was loads of virtual fun. Layaali, hope you had a good time as well. Getting back to this encounter - Yantuk is the only one who has not posted their action for this round as of yet, but I will assume that they are fleeing alongside Razif (as Yantuk was the one to suggest fleeing). I will also assume that Min will delay until Rab-rab acts. That means that Drael, Layaali, Min, and Rab-rab are in place when the round starts back up and my creature takes its actions. Drael, I am feeling benevolent and will allow you to drop down onto the edge of the stone by the magma pool. Your fly spell has ended.
GM roll:
Drael:
You recall the fiendish shape that the smoke took. Perhaps it is an incorporeal demon guardian? You cannot be sure. The party can all see the billowy smoke seeping across the lava toward them. Whatever it is, they will all be able to inspect it up close soon if they choose to remain where they are.
The smoke fiend lashes out at Drael as the suli flees, raking him across his leg as he flees. The remainder of the party see Drael explode out of the hidden cavern, racing through the air across the magma. As the suli draws closer, the blood of fresh wounds, cauterised by the heat of the chamber, can be seen streaked across his form. The party, blasted by the scorching heat of the chamber, wipe the sweat out of their seared eyes! Somewhere behind Drael, a dark cloud of ash and smoke appears near the southern bank of magma.
Round 2:
I just wanted to comment on the timing of Drael's flight back to the north side of the cavern. In all, that leaves Drael with 15 seconds to touch down on the north end of the cavern before the fly spell abruptly ends.
Drael flies back over to the southern edge of the massive cavern, intent upon the nascent chamber revealed by pulling the disused mechanical lever. As he approaches, he notes the ancient smell to the air within, hinting at the room's ignorance for ages. Light reflecting from the bubbling magma in the adjoining cavern throws odd shadows into the immediate narrow opening; the modest room opens further into dim light. The far wall incorporates a number of small alcoves, each flanked by crude images of jackal-fanged humanoids and snake-headed demons. Within each lies a pile of stained and tattered linens draped over neglected remains caked in volcanic dust.
The dust and ash kicked up by Drael's passing disturbance roil at his feet, but as the suli inspects the walls, something innate within him trips his alarm and he brandishes his axe! Unfortunately, the formless, billowing smoke spirals up and around Drael, engulfing his form and attempting to enter his nose and mouth! GM rolls:
Drael clamps his mouth shut, preventing the creature's internal penetration! In response, the demonic-appearing, red-eyed smoke cloud lashes out with a dizzying fury of claws and bites, as if years of entropy has exploded in action!
Layaali is unable to read the scrawled words, but Razif can. Gnoll:
"An offer is made to you, Thratnias, on behalf of the Carrion King. The House of the Beast offers strength. Come and hear." Meanwhile, Drael zips back over the magma pool and back to the statue. Alighting on the statue's shoulders near its head, the suli cranks down on the neglected-appearing lever with no small amount of force; Drael hears a grating stone-on-stone noise in response. On the far southern wall of the cavern, a stony facade juts open from the wall, dust and stale air denoting ages of disregard billowing from the opening.
Drael soars over the super-heated air of the chamber and the magma lake to the far side. A closer inspection of the 9-foot-tall statue spied from the far side reveals a snake-headed deity depicted in corroded stone. Over time, the harsh conditions of the cavern have warped the details of the statue and destroyed most of the surrounding shrine. It appears that someone has attempted (less skillfully) to add to the shrine by looping now-cooled magma into crude serpentine coils over the figure’s legs.
The suli easily spies the copper disk described by Lesaar, slightly buried amongst the serpentine coils at the statue's base. It appears to have once been a part of a shield. A series of crude scratches on one side of the disk appears to be a written message, and though Drael cannot directly translate, he recalls Lesaar's description of the invitation by the Carrion King to Thratnias. The other side of the disk features a detailed-yet-unlabelled map, most likely of the gnoll compound.
Drael almost drops the disk as he catches sight of a corroded lever poking out near the top of the head of the statue.
"It is done?" Lesaar emerges from the secret entrance to the north where the party entered the magma chamber. Seeing Kitil's fallen form, the usurper salamander cackles with something resembling glee and quickly advances. "Did they suffer? It would be only what they would deserve for centuries of sloth and indecision." Lesaar breathes deeply of the fumes in the chamber, their eyes closed in vengeful pleasure, then re-opens their eyes a slit. "Once you have completed your tasks in here, I will lead you to the promised passage to the Carrion King's demesne. I must now make preparations to assume power." Lesaar abruptly slithers back the way they came.
Drael's axe cleaves through Kitil's skull, felling the salamander bodyguard once and for all. Unlike Thratnias, Kitil's body does not dissipate into ether. As if angry at the intrusion, the searing environment of the cavern reminds the entire party of the continued dangers posed by their mere presence.
Perusal of the remains of the ruling power couple reveals a pair of bracers of armor +2 on Kitil's corpse, along with a masterwork iron short spear. Though Thratnias' body has disappeared, her infamous short spear remains as a spoils of battle. Its inherent power seems easy enough to discern from Lesaar's description.
Across the bubbling lava pool rises an intimidating metal construct at the southern edge of the room: the coiled shape of a winding snake topped with a strong humanoid torso a holding a spear. Punctuating the view, a large chunk of rock falls from the ceiling into the churning pool of fire, splashing flaming motes of igneous spray in all directions.
Rab-rab races back to Min as the sorcerer unleashes an off-kilter icy blast nowhere near the blind salamander. Kitil roars with rage again, slashing into Razif.
Kitil's scimitar clips Razif's shoulder, and somehow too-bloodthirsty, the salamander leans in, swinging far too wildly with his backswing and tail to touch the ranger again. After the attack, however, the dilated serpentine pupils of Kitil's eyes focus once more, and the salamander snarls with a wrathful smile. "I see you now, worms! Die fiery death!"
Thratnias smiles as her head cocks in the direction of the pink-haired gnome fleeing the melee.
The salamander leader's spear head whistles inches away from Rab-rab's head as the gnome comes up with a air missile. From the side, Min fires off an icy blast of energy. Thratnias gets caught again in the elemental intersection, but this time, she shrieks in pain and winks out of existence in a puff of acrid smoke. Kitil's head whips to the side. "Szerelmem? THRATNIAS!! NEM!" Ignan:
"My love?! THRATNIAS!! NOOOO!"
The gnomes both connect with their pneumatic and glacial attacks, raising screeches of fury and pain from the distant salamander. Despite her visual disability, the smaller salamander streaks forward in a straight line, right at Rab-rab!
Hissing with anger, Thratnias screams as she thrusts her crackling short spear at the pink-haired gnome!
The salamander leader's spear point stabs straight through Rab-rab's sternum! Meanwhile, the muscular Kitil thrashes out at Razif, his eyes similarly sightless.
Razif withstands the barrage of attacks, a few hairs on his head the sacrificial lambs. Layaali's wound pours forth with fresh blood as she absorbs some of the hideous wound recently suffered by Rab-rab.
The team unleashes hell within the hellish landscape!
Though the salamanders seem affected less than would-be-hoped-for by Layaali's opening salvo, Rab-rab's spear of air connects with the javelin-wielding salamander, while Min's blast of radiant energy leaves them both reeling!
Undaunted, the two salamanders advance, Thratnias' javelin flashes into a bolt of lightning that streaks through both (the invisible) Drael and Layaali as Kitil advances cautiously upon Razif, a stony short spear held aloft!
The powerful salamander's spear whistles past Razif and the smell of ozone fills the air.
Round 3:
As the hardened group of adventurers cautiously advance into the room, weapons and spells at the ready, Layaali gets blasted by the cumulative effects of the heat on the collective. The aasimar heals herself, then announces their presence. "Helloooooo? Is anyone here?" In response, near the centre of the lava lake, two forms break the surface, splashing motes of molten rock everywhere. A muscular salamander wielding a wicked spear glowers at the team, but the smaller, copper-skinned salamander holding a short javelin crackling with electricity grabs the attention as she addresses the party. "Intruders, you were declined an audience with me. Now, you disturb my slumber. By the will of Jhavuul, I will see your bodies immolated in the fires of the mountain's maw!" And with that, she hurls her javelin! GM rolls:
Initiative Order:
The prepared team, coiled for action, springs right to it!
Ignorant as to the portent of the Scroll of Kakishon, the group accepts Lesaar's potions and proceeds through the passage hidden in the western wall, emerging after a brief squeeze into a much larger chamber.
A broad pool of sputtering lava laps against the walls of this vast cavern. Through the distorting waves of heat and smoke, several rocky islands of various sizes are visible, bobbing on the steaming surface. At your end of the cavern, a massive column of steaming stone connects the floor to the ceiling. At the southern edge of the searing pool rises an intimidating metal construct: the coiled shape of a winding snake topped with a strong humanoid torso a holding a spear. Pieces of the craggy roof frequently drop into the lava pool, splashing the liquefied rock.
Initiative Rolls:
Initiative Order:
Movement within the lava cavern feels ponderous and fateful, as if time ticks audibly away the moments within the lethally-sweltering room. No foes are in sight.
The sound of escaping steam hisses through this next chamber, the walls broken with thick cracks radiating flickering firelight. A stone table scattered with coal, ember colored stones, and elaborate patterns drawn in ash fills an alcove to the north, while opposite that lies a pallet of cinders and dark iron shavings. Lesaar awaits you all by a large crack in the eastern wall. As you enter, they irritably gesture you closer. Unfortunately, a familiar tickle creeps into the back of your throats... GM rolls:
Drael:
You notice no tickle in your throat. Min, Rab-rab, and Layaali:
You swallow a few times and the tickle subsides. Razif and Yantuk:
The tickle doesn't go away with a few throat clears, and the familiar cough reappears. The tell-tale signs of intoxication of the inhaled elements in the air seem to be affecting the ranger and the kobold once more. Lesaar regards the two of you with disdain as you approach, then turns to look at Drael. He gestures to the large fissure in front of which he stands. "Through here, you will find a large cavern containing a molten pool of lava. The protections you have been afforded shan't continue to protect you from the extreme heat, so you'll need to move quickly. Thratnias will most likely be slumbering with her consort, Kitil, beneath the molten surface, the slothful ruler that she is. She allows none to share the vast chamber so you have no worries of further combatants." Lesaar offers Drael two vials. "I have prepared a tincture that mimics my innate ability to appear invisible, so you will find that useful. Additionally, the other potion allows one person to fly for a short period of time - I felt that this might be useful for your assault." Lesaar notes the wide-eyed stares from the others.
"There are stone islands floating in the pool of magma across which you may cross, but be wary! Solid enough though they may be, they are but floating objects that could easily be rocked by a foe within the pool. And your two foes are powerful indeed. Kitil is a flamebrother - one of our elite warriors, though you just bested two of them back there, and Thratnias is a fierce spear-maiden who wields the power of lightning within her weapon." "And why, just why are you helping? Why, for the secret entrance to the lair of the Carrion King, of course, but ah more, more, indeed. Thratnias thinks Lesaar is dim and sees not where she hides her pretty treasure, but Lesaar is no fool. Indeed, the cache of Thratnias' plunder as lieutenant in Jhavuul's army lies on the southern bank of the lava pool, south of the pathetic serpentine statue that Thratnias favours so. In there, you'll find a map to the Carrion King's compound, scrawled on a brass disk delivered to the Coils of Flame once when the Carrion King tried to curry our favour. Now it lies useless to us, but valuable to you. And yes, more!" Lesaar's eyes gleam as they hiss excitedly. "The Scroll of Kakishon! I can tell you where it is!" At your lack of a response, Lesaar glances between the five faces. "Surely, that is what you seek. It was even coveted by General Jhavuul. It exists, deep within the Carrion King's compound - he knows not what he possesses, the beast.....you do not know of what I speak...." They trail off in exasperation. DC 30 History or Arcana: You've vaguely heard of this scroll. It's similar to the famed Hao Jin Tapestry that the Pathfinder Society (once) owned - an item that stores an extraplanar dimension, a pocket world. You think it was created by the archmage Nex, but you know nothing more.
Rab-rab's blast of air topples the remaining salamander. Min's icy blast somehow goes straight up and hits the ceiling in a blast of steam.
Lesaar waits impatiently at the far end of the chamber. "Tarry no longer! Come this way - there are no further guards with which you can pick fights." They turn and slither into the chamber immediately to the east.
Rab-rab's blast scours the salamander, raising a roar of determined anger from the cobra-hooded snake-person. Layaali partially heals her many wounds. The similar-appearing hooded salamander off-set from Drael, noting the odd energies healing Layaali as well as the suli, slithers closer to Drael but aims its cruel spear at Layaali!
The burning spear lances past Drael and sinks deep into the flank of the aasimar. Round 4:
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