Uori's page

Tusk walks up to the pond and splashes a little.

"We cleaned up one end of the place. Mind if we do the other end. That was fun."

"AAH! Do not sneak up on a man like that! 'Cleaned up'? Oh! Did- did you loose your stout friend?"

Telos re-enters the pool-room and starts chatting up Uori as if they're already fast friends. A bit presumptuous.

"Hey there gill-guy! So do you feel safe around here, because we were down this one passage and ran across some gill-zombies..." he proceeds to recount the entire tale of all they encountered on their way back out into the open to fight the bull-man.

He looks in particular for a response to his recounting of the gillfolk zombies.

"Oh. I see. Very good! Here, take this it might come in handy, while you 'clean your other end' as it were. And... you have thanks, all of you."

He hands Telos a bit of driftwood with a spiny, petrified starfish at the end.

"Just touch the tip of this to a person, and say the magical words: 'Klaatu barada nikto' and it will encase that person in a bubble of defensive magic."

It is a wand of shield of faith (CL 6 so +3 deflection to AC for 6 minutes; 10 charges).

"What is to the east?"

"Aye? East? I wouldn't go that way if I were you."

Liv's words spark an idea. "Not a bad though, elf. Hey Tusk! While you're over there, make a tidal wave on that city." Aside, to the gillman, she quietly explains, "It'll wash some of the frog poop and whatnot off there to fertilize your water plants. Sorry about the damage. Orcs, you know. But anyway, what exactly is to the east and west of here?"

"Huh? What? Orc? Oh, I wouldn't go that way either. Too dangerous."

Meanwhile, hurricane Tusk batters Absalom.

"Aye? Oh. Immigrants I 'speck. take my advise, you should never trust people. They'll only hurt you. There should be a wall or some such--with someplace for proper people to swim through. You though seem to be good ones though so I'll tell you, there's some shifty sorts about just east and west of here. I wouldn't venture down those tubes too far."

Once back on shore, Yangrit stands there dripping and asks the gill man, "What can you tell us about this cave system? What is in the other areas?"

"Aye? Oh it runs all over the place under the cliffs here. My people often bed down in the damper caves when they are on pilgrimage here--or at least they used to. The neighborhood's gone to pot in recent years."

Telos scratches his head, feeling like he's not gotten anything out of the model or the gillman.

"Aroden doesn't seem very important to you. So why do you and some of your kin come here? Also, based on your explorations of these caves, can you tell us what else lurks within? Is it all gillfolk or have you encountered any other strange denizens?"

"Aye? Who? Oh him. His own followers could carve him the same way twice so why should I care about him? Didn't I say--the pure sacred waters. You are soaking in 'em. Honestly you seem the sort that would visit a museum of fine art and then come out saying they had a very nice food court. Honestly. Small people these days."

"Aroden. The fallen God's name. Aroden." He repeats it a few times for the old fella with the socks and sandals. He holds out the cape and hands it to him "If yer younguns think that's stylish then you better take it. Dwarves ain't ones fer sequins and such, at least not the Dwarves I wanna be 'round."

"Oh I couldn't--though if you insist." Uori tosses it over his bone shoulders and looks at his reflection in the water. "Quite chic don't you think?"

"Toy city? What city was it supposed to represent? It looks to be too detailed to not represent a real one?"

Uori shrugs.

"If you would allow us to enter the pool, I can promise you that we will show the proper reverence."

"Be my guest. But do mind the lakeweed. I've just given it a mow."

"Abdul is a dryback god not mine. No offense. You seem like good drybacks not like the others. I only know he's dead. Don't your people have these big places full of paper with writing all over it? Maybe you could learn more there? That is a darn nice cloak. Sort of couture-thing that people are up in fins about."

"I am Uori." says the old man rising from the waters dripping. He wades closer revealing wet, black socks and sandals.

"Look, a tiny city!"

"City? .... Oh, the toy. Yes. It is small."

"Interesting. We will try to respect that. What is sacred about these waters? Why do your people visit this place?"

"You seem polite. Not like the others who have come to this sacred place. The water is pure here. Once this was a place sacred to a god of your people--Aaron or Adam or some such (I never have gotten the drift of your fantastical surface names), but that god is a century dead now and his grasp here slips as it must. Soon it will be gone completely like his graven images in the next cave." he says nodding in the direction the party came from. "Are you here to worship this Adella?"

Ironshanks is happy to see the halfling show some manners and respect to the elder gillman "Hello there Sir. I'm Ironshanks Magee. We've been asked ta explore these caves by the Society.. a bunch of history types back in Absalom." He pauses a bit to feel the air then thumbs back to the South.

He raises his eyebrows up and notices the old fella's crazy cape "Ya know, we found a cape like that back in that death trap. Did one of yer people lose it?" He pulls it out to show the fishman.

"Huh? Aye?" Uori says turning to the dwarf. "That is a mighty stylish looking cape you've got there--the sort the kids are wearing in their schools. All pre-torn and threadbare looking. Back in my day you had to do that yourself. It was hard work, but we were thankful for it. You don't see that much nowadays I can tell you. Still, it looks a might more stylish than mine. 'Society'? No, I don't think they're to blame this time. I think Alistair just died of natural causes--gettin' killed by a demon lord."

The man nervously pulls his cape closer about him.

"'Temple'? No these are the sacred waters." the man says to Tusk in a strangely inflected accent.

"...!?"

Noting the party's light, and all the people standing along the edge of the pool, the strange aquatic man turns and rises to gaze upon the party. He is old and pale, the color of a fish's underbelly. His eyes are a fathomless violet. His clothing a simple loincloth covered over by an sequined cape like brightly-colored fish scales. The outfit (such as it is) is accented with beads of which he wears aplenty around his neck, ankles and wrists.

He makes a sign with his webbed hands, and bows, but does not take his striking eyes off of the party.

"It's terrible what he did, but he was a genius in his own way.... Thank you." He hands the remains of the book back.

He flips to another page.

"'However far away
I will always love you
However long I stay
I will always love you
Whatever words I say
I will always love you
I will always love you.' Huh?"

"'The deep, deep, darkness of my eternal soul'?" Uori reads questioningly.

"I'm sitting in a wading pool! .... WELL!?"

Like a silent movie villian, El Garrapata sneaks up on the meditating male gillwoman and taps his damp shoulder.

"BWAH!! Why must you do that!?" Uori says on the edge of sputtering, apoplectic fury.

Later.

Meditating. Meditating. Meditating. Meditating. Meditating. Meditating....

Map updated.

Sorry. Somehow I missed this.

El Garrapata happily walks up and taps the old gillwoman on the shoulder. "HELLO! Remember US?"

Uori also jumps at the arrival of El Garrapata and company.

"So I take it that things weren't dangerous enough to kill any of you." The old man says in mock disappointment. "I guess you took the wrong tunnel."

Would Uori count as a "scholar, knowledgeable spellcaster, or similar figure" for purposes of the Dark Archives Faction Objective?

Well, he's certainly knowledgeable. So yes.

Uori is startled by Lydia's sudden appearance a the water's edge.

"This is a remarkable place," Says Lydia to Uori. "I can hear the spirits of the ancients echoing off every wall. Is that why you come here, to learn their secrets?

"Oh?" He holds a large trumpet-shaped shell to his ear, and takes a moment to listen. "I can't hear anything."

"I ask because I'm a librarian for the Dark Archives - we specialize in occult and forgotten knowledge. I was thinking you might have a lot of knowledge to offer, and if you're interested, we could offer you a great deal of it in return...." Lydia tries to entice the mystic's curiosity with an occult riddle.

Uori muses over the riddle for a long moment before the answer dawns upon him, the thought of it bursting out him into an hysterical, wheezing fit of laughter that after a solid two minutes leaves the old man floating upon the surface of the pond like a gasping fish.

"Yes yes. Quite good. A real snapper that one!" He says between titters when he is finally able.

Success! Remind me if I forget to put a note on your chronicle sheet at the end of the game.

"And here." He hands Lydia a stick with a clam shell mounted at one end. "This might help you. Touch yourself or one of your friends with this and say 'Blibdoolpoolp' three times fast. It will help to shield the touched person from harm."

It's a plan!

Back at the fish cave, Uori is again in a state of quiet, meditative contemplation, kneeling in the shallows.

Map updated. Slide 6 is now slide 1 again.

typo....my bad. Its what u get for posting on a phone :-)

typo....my bad. Its what u get for posting on a phone :-)

It wasn't any typos. It was just the fact you were rolling dice. Like making a Climb roll after you've made it to the top sorta thing. ;)

Hallimir blinks blankly at Uori several times as he tries to process the Gillman's rantings.

"I see... very, err, interesting"

"Or... do you mean the fact that the tides are higher during a full moon and therefore it is easier for my people to approach this place?"

After a moment staring at the diagram, Hallimir stands up and continues, "Well, as we mentioned earlier, we are on a mission to map these caves. We would greatly appreciate any assistance you could provide.....do you know much of the remaining tunnels?"

"The things in the deep caves of this place are unknown to me." He looks back a forth between the two side passages. Their mossy stalactites making them look like gaping maws. "Only I know that they are deadly to my folk. Many pilgrims have not returned from this place of late--even members of my own school."

"I was not doubting my sanity, Tawner," he replies--though maybe I should--"I was surprised that Uori heard it."

"Huh?"

"Är det ljudet av gudomlig favör? Jag har aldrig hört det tidigare." Says Sissyl Lydia before slapping her hand over her mouth in surprise.

"Oh! Some of the oracles of my acquaintances speak in tongues. Are familiar with the Dark Tapestry?"

Still unsure what has happened, Hallimir turns back to Uori,

"So Uori, I am curious, why ha e the Azlanti have chosen an Ancient Shrine to a dead God as the place for meditation and worship. Also, would you mind explaining the significance of the full moon? "

try again :-)

Hallimir, that guy who tries to impress his Scottish friend with his Scottish accent even though Hallimir has never actually been to Scotland. "Aye laddy, I was just ut and aboot!" "Yeah, that's great." Technically you don't have to roll again unless I ask, he's already been made friendly (for him) despite Hallimir best efforts.

"How should I know? Why did he pick it? As for the the full moon well you see it is just one of many lunar phases. A lunar phase is the shape of the illuminated (sunlit) portion of the Moon as seen by an observer on Golarion. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits Golarion, according to the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Golarion." He draws a diagram on the floor of the cave with his finger and strikes a professorial tone. "The Moon's rotation is tidally locked by Golarion's gravity, therefore the same lunar surface always faces the planet. This face is variously sunlit depending on the position of the Moon in its orbit. Therefore, the portion of this hemisphere that is visible to an observer on Golarion can vary from about 100% (a 'full moon') to 0% (a 'new moon'). The lunar terminator is the boundary between the illuminated and darkened hemispheres. Each of the four "intermediate" lunar phases (new, first quarter, full, and last quarter) is roughly seven and a half days, but this varies slightly due to the elliptical shape of the Moon's orbit. Many of the world's mystical traditions ascribe magical significance to the various individual phases. The full moon in particular is thought to influence the activities of were-creatures, lunatics, calendar-makers, certain animals, and so-called normal people both above and below the waves. There's a saying in the sea: 'It must be a full moon up there'. We say it when things are all mucked up."

"Huh? Well, you get that sort of thing after when god's die."

"What? What are you doing?" Tawner calls from across the cavern. "Didn't Uori just call this place graffiti? You're not helping to change his mind by adding dead fish and scrawling ink!"

"Ah let her paint. It's no moisture from my back. Autobot is your god not mine.

Then, an odd idea strikes her, and she crouches over the water...

Lydia snakes a slender but powerful arm into the water, and pulls out a small, pale fish. She snaps its neck out of mercy, then gently lays it among the diorama's frogs.

"The Fisherman," She intones as if from some distant memory, "feeds Humanity with the bounty of the oceans."

Uori snorts. "You call that a catch? Were I this Autobahn, I would be laughing in my grave. One tiny minnow?" He snorts again. It is an unpleasantly viscous sound.

"Hallimir," Sidi says slowly, keeping his face directed towards the gillman, "I believe the Azlanti is hard of hearing. He is reading our lips. Make sure you face him when you speak."

"HARD OF HEARING!" The man practically explodes. He stomps up out of the water revealing his damp, black stocking feet and shell-encrusted sandals "Why I'll have you know I was hearing things before you even had ears! You young races today! What with your air-only lungs! What do you know about hearing! Why I outta...." His monologue devolves into unintelligible muttering.

The Bas'o bows and then addresses the gillman again. "My name is Sidi? Would you share your name?". He gestures for Garrapata to come over. "Maybe this cloak will keep you warm while we talk?"

Garrapata makes an OOOOOO noise as Sidi's words ring true. "Hello GILLPERSON OF INDETERMINATE GENDER! I am EL GARRAPATA. It is NICE TO MEET YOU. Can you TELL US WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE?"

Garrapata speaks slowly and in exaggerated words, much like he does for everyone else.

He looks up from his muddled tirade. "Say! That's mighty nice material you got there. I am Uori. Nice to see manners didn't go out with the tide." He takes accepts the cloak. "Thanks. Why, you got some muscle on you lad. Remind me of me when I was your age. Why I could turn the mermaid's heads if I had fancy to do so...."

Later.

"'What am I doing here?' What does it look like I'm doing here? I'm meditating. This place is sacred to my people. Sure it's covered in all this surface graffiti," He gestures to the worn and faded images of Aroden. "But we overlook it for the chance to take a dip here. Besides, give it a century or so, and all that 'Eragon' crap will melt away--It's so derivitive. What's it to you?"

The aquatic man's frown deepens.

"The cheek! To come here and use your sexist racial slurs! I am Azlanti, are you low-humans?" The man sputters in accented Common.

"...!?"

Noting the party's torch's light, and Sidi standing on the ledge to his side, the strange aquatic man turns and rises to gaze upon the party. He is old and pale, the color of a fish's underbelly. His eyes are a fathomless violet. His clothing a simple loincloth covered over by an opalescent cloak made of interwoven discs, like fish scales. The outfit (such as it is) is accented with beads of which he wears aplenty around his neck, ankles and wrists.

He makes a sign with his webbed hands, and bows, but does not take his striking eyes off of the party.

The old gillwoman man watches Hengist's and Balgrym's mouths form the words.

"Well, I have rash that's hard to reach to apply ointment to." Uori says expectantly. Then his eyes shift to the passageway to the west. "Or as your over-large halfling says, there's always the dungeon. Sort of a three-quartersling I guess..."

"Uori?" Hayden moves in front of the gillman and waves to get his attention.

Uori starts from whatever tranquil nirvana his mind had taken him to.

"WHA-!? Oh. It is you...."

"We found this on a corpse, surrounded by undead. It appears he was preying on your people to try and build an undead army. But he's dead now and your people should be safe." He hands the note to Uroi.

Annoyed, Uori snatches the damp sheets from Hayden's hand. He produces a large, glass lense that was once the bottom of a bottle, and reads the papers through it. He ocassionally glances up at the party, possibly disappointed to find them all alive and well. "Well, that is something, I suppose."

"Ah, of course." Karayan unclasps his cloak and holds it out in front of him "We found this in a pit earlier in these tunnels. Is it yours or do you know who it belongs to?"

"No, it's not mine. I've got mine. It's nice though.... Real nice.... I don't know anyone fool enough to throw something like it away."

"...."

Hengist nods, and turns to the others. "Well then! Shall we venture into one of the side passages? They may lead anywhere, and I have little doubt that they would be helpful to our report!"

He eyes the water as he does so. Is it shallow enough for a medium character to wade?

Yes. The water comes up past Hengist's waist, so Medium-sized folks have the option of wading or swimming.

"Deadly things in the side passages? Sounds like something to investigate."

Uori considers the party's words, then says: "Would it help your decision to leave to say that several of my fellow pilgrims have not returned home from this place? I'm sure there all sorts of secrets, forgotten treasures, and nameless horrors that one might unearth--should one go deep into the tunnels, far away from here."

"I have warned you of the danger. I count my task done. Now if you will excuse me. I am old for my kind, and would wish to spend what time I have in meditation."

"Perhaps, we could explore and ensure your safety while you are here?" He glances back at the others. "If we have ensured there are no threats, perhaps you could explain to us more about your people and the importance of this place."

"You might say that we are pilgrims like yourself; we come here seeking ancient knowledge and personal illumination."

"As you will."

"Uori am I to some. Charmed...." He he stares at Sir Hayden for a beat from beneath leaden eyelids. He continues in a professorial tone. "The things in the deep caves of this place are unknown to me. Only I know that they are deadly to my folk. My business at present however is not with them."

"I wonder..."

Mr. Monty walks next to the gillperson and sits down in the same sort of prayer like position.

"no harm praying to a dead god after all."

He makes a show of praying before the diarama. Nina eyes the low azlanti nervously as Mr. Monty sits close.

Hengist eyes the pool. "Didst thou hear, Monty? Be careful!" he calls.

....

The gillwoman man takes little note of Nina and Monty.

"Do not your people live in what was once the crater of the Starstone? Just because this place was once sacred to the now worm-eaten God of Humanity does not mean it has meaning only for you Low Humans. Still one cannot be too careful here. There are other things in these depths that are not as cordial as you and I."

Hayden joins Karayan and bows to the gillman, imitating his own gesture. "We did not wish to disturb your ritual, though we are interested in it and you too. Do you worship Aroden?"

The aquatic man looks intently at Sir Hayden's mouth as the man speaks up.

The aquatic man's eyes flicker meaningfully between his former seat, and Karayan meaningfully, and after a beat he crosses his arm over his chest, and his frown deepens a bit more.

The man puffs out his gills and frowns.

"...?"

Noting the light of Hengist's torch, and Karayan standing on the ledge to his side, the strange aquatic man turns and rises to gaze upon the party. He is old and pale, the color of a fish's underbelly. His eyes are a fathomless violet. His clothing (what little there is) is opalescent in the blue-tinged light, and accented with beads of which he wears aplenty around his neck, ankles and wrists.

He makes a sign with his webbed hands, and bows, but does not take his striking eyes off of the party.