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"We need to follow the ones that went along the river towards the Nightfall Station, to find Tameka," Rheed answers quickly, then continues after a brief pause, and Kaeviel, too. But we should tell Dardin about this golden scarfed woman so he can deal with her when he returns.
"That's probably the best course of action," Rheed says to Ceer, before turning back to Garboko, "What do these trackers look like in their human forms? When they walk as men?"
"And what did the half-man gain from your arrangement," Rheed adds, "it sounds like this was a pretty one-sided arrangement."
"Perhaps we should ask the big ape about his deal with the halfling... and ask him to describe Kaeviel's partner." Rheed says, rising and looking around for signs of Malgri.
"Seems like the logical course of action," Rheed agrees, "I just need to buy a few last things from the merchants and I'll be ready to go." The ex-mercenary frowns briefly, "out of curiosity, what happened to Garboko?"
Rheed looks apologetically at the dwarf, "Don't get me wrong, Kaeviel has demonstrated himself to be a complete bastard sealing you down there with the scorpions... but I can't believe that Tameka would have meant for that to happen. I mean, I know she can be a little... focused on getting what she wants, but you're a fellow Pathfinder."
"I...I don't know," Rheed begins hesitantly, "that language is something I have seen Tameka use... but the Aspis Consortium?" A hopeful look enters the ex-mercenary's eyes, "I'm sure she intended to betray them, just as she did Garboko..." he looks over to Dardin, "and I doubt she would condone 'getting rid of' you in the fashion Kaeviel did, she must have intended for him to leave you behind somewhere you could travel back to Nantambu."
I'm pretty sure it was some type of non-magical gear... I remember being surprised it wasn't already on my equipment list. It was something that would have been handy in that encounter, but not something that would have had a huge impact, maybe a mirror?
No problem, I've been away over Easter so I wouldn't have been able to post anyway. I kind of like having an ever-expanding thread, the milestones give me a bit of a smile—I'm kind of sad that way :). There's something that I realised I wanted to buy just as we where facing the mechanical scorpion, but I can't remember what it is now... it was something that seemed obvious at the time, but now I have no idea!
"Don't worry," Rheed says to the dwarf, "we'll try to bring him back in one piece, so the two of you can have a nice little heart-to-heart." Looking about the room, he asks "Is there anything else you notice that is different?"
"Yes," Rheed says in agreement with Mo'Butu's words, "I'm sure you'll be back on your feet in no time once we get you back to the camp. You say you saw Kaeviel write notes using this 'code', I think I've seen Tameka with some notes written like this... has Kaeviel spent much time with her?"
"Agreed...if Garbako ever escaped we might see him riding the scorpion after us...that's not something I would like to see."
Rheed stows the head in his pack, then rushes to catch up with the others in their search of the structure. "We shouldn't take too long," he says, quickly looking around, "Dardin should probably be taken back to Malgri's camp soon."
Rheed looks up briefly from his work on the serpent, , "It might be that the scorpion will stay inactive until the phrase on the map is spoken again. In any case, I'm not sure how long it will survive if we leave it here, perhaps we should leave it with the Pathfinders back in Nantambu."
Wow, that makes entangle pretty scary, even with the lower DCs... I might need to invest in a reach weapon.
Cursing quietly under his breath, Rheed stops his work on the serpent to look to the others, "This might take a little longer than I thought, damn thing's all jammed up, do you mind holding up for a few more minutes while I get this off? It looks like a pretty unusual piece."
Rheed begins to tinker with the serpentine construct attached to the wall.
"I suspect Corvus would be able to put it to best use," Rheed says, moving over to the spear and looking more closely at the construct impaled by it.
"Perhaps Dardin will know what the notes say," Rheed says, gathering himself, "it might be some form of Pathfinder Society shorthand... but barring any revelations on that front, those ruins do look like the most promising avenue of investigation once we get him back to civilization."
"This looks familiar," Rheed says faintly, holding the strange note, "I think... I think Tameka had some notes written like this." Rheed trails of and remains silent after this, remembering the doomed expedition on which he met Tameka, and thinking of her uncertain fate.
Of course... that increases the chances of a cursed item. Fun!
Done. I've picked up the trap-spotter rogue talent, not only is it really useful, I think it fits PbP games very well; it'll save a lot of "I search of traps" posts.
"It wouldn't have done much good without someone able to use the notes I found," Rheed says modestly, "let's put it down to a team effort."
Rheed moves with the others into the room, retrieving his dagger and sheathing it. "That went well."
Hey, you might be doing it right, I don't think Mike has said how we're handling it.
It did prove very effective just now didn't it. Are we leveling up now, or next time we rest?
Woot, indeed! That went surprisingly well.
"Alright," Rheed says quietly, "if we are decided." He slinks slowly to to left side of the stairs and draws his longsword and axe, waiting for the moment to strike should the guardian below react with hostility towards Ku'ada's attempt to deactivate it.
"Is it possible that the phrase is keyed to elven blood?" Rheed whispers to the group, "That might explain Kaeviel's failure... or perhaps the phrase was not recorded correctly on the map."
"Other than the huge metallic scorpion? There where a couple of bags, one that looked like it was full of food, the other seemed to belong to the halfling." Rheed answers quietly, "There was also a raised area at the far end of the chamber, full of broken statues... I didn't get close enough to see many details of them." "Oh," He adds, whipping out another roll of paper and placing it in Ceers hand, "there was also this map of the local region."
"Surely it can't just be as simple as reciting the deactivation phrase," Rheed says, seemingly from nowhere, "otherwise Kaeviel would have been able to do just that."
Rheed carefully takes the parchment from the pack and tucks it under his jacket before quickly searching through the rest of the smaller pack for other notes which might relate to the diagrams on the map.
Once convinced he has everything Ceer will need to disable the construct, the failed pathfinder draws his dagger and tosses it to clatter as far away from the entrance as he can,, and starts to sneak back to the party after giving the scorpion-like guardian chance to react to the sound.
Contingency if the construct notices I'm present and invisible: Rheed mutters the arcane syllables of the single spell his father managed to drill into him, , lifting the small pack from the ground and causing it to move as though carried by an invisible creature towards the middle of the room.
Rheed shudders slightly at the sight of the terrible creature, its ominous countenance giving him plenty of motivation to get the map back to Ceer as quickly as possible. After waiting for the illusion to move into the room, he moves carefully, but purposefully, around the right side of the room—keeping his distance from the dark-metal construct.
Rheed drinks the potion and then follows the illusion into the room to look around for the discarded bags and map.
"Ready," the former mercenary whispers, quietly uncorking the potion in his hand.
"So the plan is for me to go in with this," Rheed holds the potion of invisibility, "and bring the map back for Ceer to try to disable the construct?" Checks:
"Perhaps Ceer can also use the potion of invisibility we found earlier... hopefully that should allow him to find and decipher the map without much trouble, but to be honest I'm not too familiar with constructs, would that be effective?"
"Maybe if we can get you this map from Kaeviel's bags you could use the incantations where he failed?" Rheed asks the sorcerer. "Did he leave it with the bags?" he asks the dwarf, "or was he carrying it on the way out?"
"Alright." Rheed says, straightening, "If we're agreed, then let's go take a look at this secret staircase."
"I agree," Rheed says at Mo'butu's comment, "We should get you back to Malgri's camp as soon as possible... Kaeviel already has a considerable lead on us, so I doubt the time it takes to get you back to safety will change that much." "How far away did you drop your bags?" He asks, "Do you think it would be possible to reach them without alerting the guardian construct to our presence?"
"Is it like Kaeviel to betray you like this? Did you know him well before he approached you about this expedition?" Rheed asks, "Might he be under some influence from the stone?"
"Yes," Rheed agrees with Ceer grimly as he retrieves a vial of antitoxin and hands it to Mo'butu, "I...We are also looking for Tameka Hite, we where ambushed by those damned Ape-men and I lost track of her in the confusion."
Rheed looks over to Mo'butu with a concerned expression, "He mentioned scorpions, can you help him with the poison? I have some antitoxin."
Rheed retrieves a coil of silken rope from his pack and calls down to the dwarf, "are you well enough to tie this around yourself? Or should I come down there myself?"
"Join in any time," Rheed says to Corvus, pulling out his own axe and swinging it down at the wooden shield.
"I can try cutting through the shield... but it might take a while," Rheed comments, "how much room is there down there, is there enough distance for us to safely break our way through?"
"Hah!" Rheed lets out at the voice's suspicion, "We've been asked by a certain dwarf back in Nantambu to look for a few missing Pathfinders... you wouldn't happen to have seen any around here would you?"
"Hello?" Rheed calls through the shield, "Kaeviel? Dardin? Is that you down there?" |