Zhēnzǐ asks Jing's father, "Are you hurt, sir?" as he produces a soft-shelled healing hazelnut and offers it to Jing's father.
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"Get out of my friend's home!" Zhēnzǐ creates a hardshelled hazelnut in each hand and throws them at the jinkin.
Zhēnzǐ walks up to the shrine, "Please help us make our town safe again like you have have before."
"Jing, we should swing by your place while we are close by to make sure your father is safe before escorting the children back to their grandmother."
"Ater we bless the shrine here, we should continue west into Northridge, with our next place to check being my home, Mother's Coil, so I can make sure Jubei is safe."
Zhēnzǐ moves around to the opposite where Jing is working on the trap, his hands closed, making sure to keep more than enouugh distance so the rolling hazlenuts of his kinetic aura remain more than ten feet away from the trip lines, feeling for anything odd through the ground with his tremorsense. He creates a hazlenut in each of his closed hands, so the children do not know he magically created them. When he gets to the other side he talks to the children, "Hi, children. My name is Zhēnzǐ. Keep your eyes on me, okay?" Zhēnzǐ opens his hands to show the children the hazelnuts, then throws the hazlenlut in his right hand into the air above his head as he closes his left hand around the hazelnut in that hand and his empty right hand, as the children witness the hazenut in the air vanish while it is still air. , "Which of my hands is still holding a hazelnut?"
Zhēnzǐ asks for some platters to be placed around then creates 100 various fruits onto them. He then spends the few minutes left before he and the others head out, offering healing hazenuts to the wounded.
"We need to find Choe Chung-Hu as well. His absence this morning might be because he was one of the first to know of the attack on the town. He could have information about the attack that we don't have yet." Zhēnzǐ then looks directly up at Granny Hu, "Ugly Cute was not destroyed, we found his tracks from where he was entering the river. For all our sakes I hope it is Ugly Cute and not one of the invaders controlling the statue."
He then places one of his hands on one of Jing's shins, as he looks up at his friend, "We will check out the Mushroom House first after we leave here." Then looking at the priest, "Could you show me to the kitchen so I can help feed the refugees here like I did at the Matsuki Estate?"
"Choe Chung-Hu never showed up to meet us this morning as planned. Do you know where he is?"
"Ugly Cute walked away from his post. I hope it was his spirit that is moving his statue and not whatever is controlling the animals. I assure you, I am still the same me I have been for the past five years." After the others add more to what they have encountered and dealt with, Zhēnzǐ asks Granny Hu where the kitchen is and tells her and the priest he will help feed the refugees that have gathered at the trade office.
Conjuring his 'signature' hazelnut wood bow in his hands he shoots a vitality arrow into the water where he saw Yue get pulled under, knowing that the arrow will not harm Yue.
Round 5
As Zhēnzǐ looks eastwards to the now lowered depth of the tributary river that the Ceiba River is to the Duyue River, he recalls the others telling him earlier in the day not to call ghosts ghosts, he remembers there is another reason to be afraid of entering the water besides the threat of the river's current pulling him away from town... ..as he turns his head back towards where his companions are crossing, he sees Lady Lao nearing the north side of the river near him, fear on his face as he says one of the town's communal beliefs, "Avoid entering bodies of water when a ghost is nearby."... ...and if on cue, he notices something pulling Yue beneath the surface of the water Just before he is about to yell to warn the others to get out of the water, he knows doing so could risk alerting more threats to their location, he starts frantically waving his arms in the air and pointing towards the the southern end of the dam... Being too small for them to notice the significance of his movements, he looks at Lady Lao as she exits the water, "Something pulled Yue into the water. 'Avoid entering bodies of water when a ghost is nearby.' We need to help them without going into the water." Zhēnzǐ tries to recall if he can remember anything that might help...
Yes, it would have....that might happen at higher levels. :)
Zhēnzǐ climbs up to the top of the dam that is now an unbroken bridge from each side of the river's shores, takes a nervous look down at the river, then starts moving across the dam.
Zhēnzǐ's Acrobatics (Balance) checks to cross the river via the dam:
Zhēnzǐ's footing starts good for the first ten feet, then one of his feet slides a bit too much for his liking, and he pauses to calm his nerves. He tries again, gaining confidence in his ability to treat the top of the dam as if he were climbing up the side of one of the buildings in town during a rainstorm, quickly navigating across more than half the length of the dam with ease. With only twenty feet left to get to the other side, a bead of sweat forms on his brow when his feet start to slide again. He slows his pace and makes it to the other side, climbs down the edge of the dam, onto the ground.
His gaze looks at the river, glad he did not have to find out whether or not he is a strong enough swimmer to avoid being pulled away with the current. He then looks towards his companions making their way through the water. He activates his kinetic aura, feeling through the ground for any unseen movements that might indicate a threat to him and the others.
After giving his injured companions each a healing hazelnut, and the poison stops harming his friend, Zhēnzǐ asks Jing to lie down on the grass, and then conjures some dirt, which he quickly transmutes to mud and spreads it out Jing's flesh where the spiders bit him. He then puts some extra mud on one area and makes a poor artist's rendering of The Great Willow, and after ten minutes, like the last time he used mud to heal, the mud starts to harden, then flakes away from his skin.
As the drying mud flakes and dissipates away, Zhēnzǐ sees the spider bites look the same. "They shouldn't still be there. Here, have another hazelnut, Jing."
Zhēnzǐ then makes another healing hazelnut for Denkō.
Zhēnzǐ, used to climbing trees without difficulty even in the heaviest of rainstorms, tests to see how good his climbing grip is at the side of the dam just at the water's edge...
@GM: If Zhēnzǐ's climb speed will not allow him automatic success to climb across the (top or sides of the) slippery dam, how does the following sound for a fair adjudication? Zhēnzǐ gains the +4 circumstance bonus (that is usually applied to Athletics (Climb) checks to try to get a critical success instead of the automatic success for having a climb speed) on the Acrobatics checks to cross the dam? On a related note (which I did a few days ago): I updated Zhēnzǐ's leveling plan so his first skill increase will be to Athletics instead of Acrobatics, and his 4th level skill feat will be Combat Climber (so he can use one of his hands for something other than climbing when he is climbing (such as using impulses). Reminder: Creatures with climb speeds are not off-guard while they are climbing.
"Eat these." Zhēnzǐ tells the injured Jing & Denkō, as he creates a healing hazelnut that appears in an open hand of each of them.
Thank you. I was under the impression if you saved against the bite, you would not be poisoned. Swarming Bites ◆ Each enemy in the spider swarm's space takes 1d4 piercing damage with a DC 14 basic Reflex save. A creature that fails its save is exposed to spider swarm venom. Your impression was correct. Someone who succeeds at the Reflex save does not need to make a Fortitude save against the poison. Note: That if someone failed both saves on an earlier round, they will continue to make Fortitude saves in subsequent rounds (until they have reduced the poison stage to 0) each round, even if they succeed at the Reflex save for all subsequent turns. This is the situation that the saves become independent of each other (to a degree), as it only takes one failed Reflex save to be affected by the poison, and one failed save to be affected by the poison (which continues on subsequent rounds, even if no subsequent Reflex saves are failed (or critically failed). Multiple exposures to poison in PF2E edit addition: Yue Baihe ninja'd his correction while I was typing this up. Multiple exposures to the same poison can (on failed saves) get you to the end stage of a poison much faster.
@GM: Please clarify: Is the large red marker by W8 (Milling Houses) where we are along the river's edge? If it is not, please put a marker on map so we know what area of the river's edge we traveled to.
Zhēnzǐ wonders aloud, "That's odd.", as he moves farther away from the threat, then shoots another arrow at the swarm of spiders, but this time the arrow is a solid arrow with a blunted head.
"Watch out!"
Zhēnzǐ reflexively scurries to create some more distance between himself and the new threat, conjures a longbow made from hazenut wood in his hands and shoots a vitality element blast arrow at the swarm of spiders.
: Spirit damage hurts the possessing spirit without hurting the possessed creature. It has been over a year since I have had to look up how vitality damage interacts with an undead creature who is possessing a living creature. I do not recall the details. I decided against checking how vitality damage interacts with creatures that are usually damaged by it, when such undead creatures are possessing living creatures; so that I do not potentially spoil a potential significant part of the adventure path (particulary if the AP changes the way the normal rules handle the mechanics of that particular situation). Therefore, I do not know, for this AP, how the mechanics work for when (undead) ghosts possessing creatures interact with vitality damage ==> whether or not they are temporarily immune to vitality damage while possessing a living creature.
"More of us to deal with the monsters on the bridge would be better. We'll need to take the dam across to get to Northridge then. Do you think we should head there next or continue looking for the other hunters before heading to Northridge?"
That matches up with how I envisioned the chorus of voices rising up to thank Zhēnzǐ at the Matsuki Estate - some that were already familiar with him (as Zhēnzǐ being a fellow resident of the town, though Zhēnzǐ is not particularly close with any of the townsfolk currently gathered at the Matsuki Estate). After the heroes left to take care of the tasks Old Matsuki gave them; 'off-camera', some of the gathered townsfolk at the Estate telling some of the others, "We told you he was real!" :)
"With Sumika staying here, it could help save us time in locating the rest of the hunters if we go deal with the monsters on the Dawnstep Bridge, relight the eternal lantern, then either come back here to find out if any of the hunters have returned, or continue on to Northridge before coming back here to see if any of the hunters returned...that is if we do not find them on the bridge or on Northridge."
Maybe Zhenzi has an overinflated sense of his significance in and around town. No, Zhēnzǐ does not have an overinflated sense of his significance in and around the town. He is 'doing his expected duty' with the task he was assigned by the town elders years ago. Whether or not the task as 'specialized guard' was a serious task the elders assigned or was to 'keep him busy', Zhēnzǐ thinks they gave him a way to 'earn his keep' as a resident of the town. Earlier today, one of the town elders gave the PCs (which includes him) some tasks to do, which is in addtion to his 'default task' to help guard the town. Any townsfolk that Zhēnzǐ might overhear referring to him as a 'nutter', he thinks they are referring to his preference of eating hazelnuts as opposed to other foods. Does Yue Baihe have an overinflated sense of his significance in and around the town? Do any of the other PCs have an overinflated sense of their significance in and around the town?
For a future reference, can everyone tell me which deity they worship, if they worship any.0 Zhēnzǐ primarily reveres The Great Willow as being the spirit that awakened him, with Jubei as being the secondary responsible being for awakening him, and Jubei's friends that helped with his unplanned awakening ritual being tertiary responsible beings for awakening him. @Jing: are you one of Jubei's friends that helped Jubei with the 'familiar bonding' ritual (that was his awakening ritual) at The Great Willow five years ago? Zhēnzǐ primary faith philosophy is: The Way OF Spirits: Followers of the Way of Spirits believe that most things in the universe can take on a spirit and become sentient, developing minds of their own. Most living plants and animals are born with these spirits, but even seemingly “inanimate” objects like stones, rivers, seas, possessions, and cities can come to develop spirits over time. Esteem and veneration hasten this development, and a prized family heirloom, for example, may develop a mind of its own after generations of care and attention. Accordingly, temples where offerings can be made to spirits can be found all across Tian Xia, from its densest forests to its largest cities. The Way of Spirits teaches that all spirits should be afforded the respect they deserve, with a particular emphasis on protecting and preserving the natural world, as the a primal force of nature itself is believed to be the catalyst for most spirits’ first awakening. Zhēnzǐ has viewed The Great Willow through the lens of The Way of the Spirits since the night he was awakened, without realizing he was doing so, even before Jubei taught him about The Way of Spirits. Zhēnzǐ sometimes wonders if someday if the spirit of his 'three hazelnuts bucker', that Tian-Zhe made for him, might one day 'awaken' as well. Willowshore has a few Spirits he has never forgotten about: The Great Willow Tree, "Ugly Cute", and the spirit he thinks the eternal lantern must have.
Zhēnzǐ looks around the gathering of people with him, "What are the rest of your names? This is my friend Jing!" LOL :) I never said Zhēnzǐ remembers the names of all the residents of the town. Zhēnzǐ is a lot more 'memorable' than a typical resident of the town. :) If anyone met a real-life talking dog and four teenagers in the same day (say when the teenagers and talking dog stopped their van, and got out to ask a stranger for directions), chances are meeting the talking dog becomes the most 'memorable' memory of that day the stranger recalls, even years later. Zhēnzǐ is also prone to certain OCD behaviours (his OCD juggling hazelnuts as an example) and can be 'forgetful' occasionally. I am using the combination of those two personality traits to represent his ancestry Intelligence flaw. He has been observing the people of the town a lot over the past five years after being awakened (and for five years before that as a normal animal) that has been adding to his 'memory banks' - which will become much more 'accessible' when he gains the Clever Improviser ancestry trait. Best way to distinguish: His short-term memory is good. His long-term memory not so much (until he gains the Clever Improviser ancestry feat) (with significant people, places, objects, such as The Great Willow, Mother's Coil (his home), Spider Gate, Dawnstep Bridge, the eternal lantern, "Ugly Cute", Jubei, Jing, You So-Jin, Huo Tian-Zhe, Jubei's other friends who helped out with the unexpected Awakening ritual, the town elders that tasked him with 'protecting town' with his vitality bow, etc.) being some noticeable exceptions that are long-term memory that he is not forgetful about.
I was working with a town of only 200 residents, who has a talking squirrel resident, that the residents would be aware there is a talking squirrel in town, and his name, or the rumour that there is such a resident of the town, even if they have never met him. He has been an 'active wandering guard' of the town for most of the past five years (bridges into town being primary areas he 'patrols' and rooftops of homes along permieter of town buildings being 'secondary patrols'). I grew up in small town country (less than 1,000 residents per town), so the rumour mill would probably have made his presence known to most of the residents of the town....though some residents who have never met him in the five years since he was awakened might dismiss such 'rumours' as 'hogwash', and some who have only met him while they were drunk, might have dismissed witnessing a talking squirrel as a trick of their drunken minds. :) Also a reminder, that he spent a fair bit of time during the five years in town before he was awakened 'people-watching' You So-Jin at Graveside Manners. After he was awakened, he continued on occasion, observing her skill at tending to people's injuries. Are some of the hunters from the Silvermist Lodges new to town? Hmm, I wonder how mnay residents saw Zhēnzǐ in-person for the first time during the Reenactment Festival. Were there any obvious 'first-time seeing the talking squirrel' residents at the Masuki's estate?
Zhēnzǐ's healing plaster mud to Treat Wounds on Sumika's mangled leg: Zhēnzǐ asks Sumika to lay on the ground on her back and carefully removes her clothing away her mangled leg, then some mud appears in his left hand and he starts to pack it in and around the injury. "The mud healing is not as fast as the hazelnut healing, but the mud is better for mending broken bones and flesh. By the time I am done moulding the mud, the full stomach feeling from eating the first hazelnut will have passed and I will give you another one to eat."
After Zhēnzǐ has packed the mud in and around the injured flesh, he spends the remainder of the ten minutes making a rendering an impression of The Great Willow into the mud. Ten minutes after he first started to apply the mud to her wounded leg, the mud hardens and the imprint of The Great Willow becomes a perfect silhouette rendering of the beloved tree, before the dried mud starts to flake off to show the flesh undeneath it has been mended.
There was a reason Zhēnzǐ told Sumika he would give some additional healing to her leg after we get her away from the buildings where the gremlins are - as it takes 10 minutes (minimum) to Treat Wounds (without the Battle Medicine skill feat), and sticking around by the buildings for 10 minutes would be unwise and defeat the purpose of a stealthy rescue without the gremlins starting combat with us. For ones that are unfamiliar with it, Battle Medicine allows a character who has it (and the required healer's toolkit) to make a single Treat Wounds check once per day per indidivual with a single action instead of the typical 10 minutes (or 1 hour) to Treat Wounds. The Medic archetype improves the frequency a character can heal with Battle Medicine.
I will peruse the Tian Xia World Guide religion section over the weekend to see if any of the deities/philosphies might be ones that shaped Zhēnzǐ's worldview over the past five years, in addition to The Great Willow (which he might associate the Great Willow with certain deities/philosophies).
"I am Zhēnzǐ. You are welcome, Sumika. What kind of tools?"
A look of confusion appears on Zhēnzǐ's face in response to Sumika asking her rescuers who she has to thank for her rescue. He then looks at her mangled leg, and activates his kinetic aura and creates a healing hazelnut and holds it up to Sumika, "Eat this. It will heal you. Once we get you away from here, I can use some mud to heal your leg some more."
As Lady Lao and the rescued woman come into his view, Zhēnzǐ clambers down the side of the building, runs over and asks the woman, "How many others are in the buildings here that are in need of being rescued?"
Zhēnzǐ indicates he will remained stealthed in case talks with the gremlins turns to violence, with making healing hazelnuts for the others to heal during the midst of combat, if the plan for just talking fails.
Zhēnzǐ climbs back down and whispers to the others what he saw, then he up the opposite side of the building is perched on, waiting 10 feet up on the wall , while he waits for the other heroes fate has gathered to engage with the gremlins and their apparent animal allies.
Zhēnzǐ, starts climbing up the side of building our characters are beside, to try to gain a better eyes-view of the voices that can be heard. The hazelnuts on the ground that have been traveling along with him via the ground's slight rippling effect, remain on the ground , as he makes his way towards the roof the building.
In response to Yue finding him in the kitchen, Zhēnzǐ climbs down from the counter to join the others in completing the tasks Old Matsuki has given them, "I will make more when we return." * * "Hi, So-Jin. Have you seen any of the gremlins about?" * * "I think the tracks might be heading to a farm with a barn I used to take shelter in during stormy weather during my first few years in Willowshore."
When Zhēnzǐ finds the location of the kitchen, he asks the the kitchen staff/others already in the kitchen if they could retrieve some large platters from the cupboards and place them on the counters. He climbs up onto one of the counters, and with a bit of a disappointed look on his face mutters, "Why doesn't everyone love how delicious hazelnuts are?" before he starts to recite the alphabet in the correct order, conjuring a fruit that starts with the letter he is saying as he continues how Jubei taught him the alphabet. Over the course of about three minutes, the platters to one side of him start getting filled with one of each of the following fruits: apples, bananas, cherries, dragonfruits, elderberries, figs, grapes, huckleberries, icacos, jujubes, kiwis, lemons, mangos, nectarines, oranges, peaches, quararibeas, raspberries, strawberries, tangerines, ugli fruits, vanilla beans, wolfberries, ximenias, yuzus and zalzalaks. After finishing his 'OCD' self-recital alphabet lesson he asks the people in the kitchen, "Which ones do you want more of?" Zhēnzǐ spends another 13 minutes filling up the platters with fruit, With some of the fruit platters being taken out to serve to the assembled frightened townsfolk while he is in the process of still adding fruits to the platters, Zhēnzǐ continues to fill up more platters with fruit.
You lit the replica. The eternal lantern is the one at Dawnstep Bridge.
"Is there a special way that the eternal lantern needs to be lit?" Zhēnzǐ then asks Old Matsuki, "Where is the kitchen? I can help to feed the ones gathered here before we leave to take care of what you want us to."
Zhēnzǐ, his 'OCD' kicks in to find the kitchen, starts searching for the its location without waiting for Old Matsuki to tell him where it is.
"Be careful where you step. Jinkin gremlins enjoy luring victims into the traps they make." Zhēnzǐ will be stepping around any ground that seems 'off' due to his tremorsense and will alert the others to avoid such patches of ground, as they make their way to the Matsuki estate.
"Jubei is probably helping people on Northride, so the long way around to home is fine by me."
Zhēnzǐ, hearing Yue's prayer, and his reference to blooming-flowers prompts Zhēnzǐ's oft-OCD-esque mind to focus on that, and two tiny fully-bloomed yellow-petaled and green-stalked flowers appear in the grass, one by each head of the dead guards, each rooted in the grass.
"Both are dead."
"How many of them were fighting the three of you?"
Zhēnzǐ's healing hazelnuts have the texture of soft pretzels (that grows on a tree I thought of that is one of the myriad of trees that exist on the plane of wood; no need to crack an outer shell to eat it) which in addition to (vitality) healing, provides scaled resistance to void damage for 10 minutes, and cannot eat/benefit from Fresh Produce again until the 10 minute cooldown has expired. |