Deluge, follows up his first magic stone, with his final one. He takes aim, and lets it fly. It soars through the air, and connects with the head of the serpent-like creature. The stone seems to have been aided by outside forces, and a very audible CRACK can he heard as it reverberates through the area. A crack starts to form, and it travels from top to bottom as the animated object falls into multiple pieces.
Groosaugg lets a javelin fly at the statue still moving, but the javelin flies wide to the right and lands on the tile. Omrijka shuffles to the side and uses Iago as a distraction to inflict a bit of punishment on the lone statue. Iago, tries to use Omrijka, but even despite her presence the swing misses.
Deluge: magic stone downs green
Gwen: go round 2
Me: waiting
Iago: swing and a miss
Groo: javelin misses
Omrijka: hits red with SA
Damage:
statue: 6 damage
|
The Pathfinders have worked their way through the Temple Interior, and have discovered that the serpentfolk are performing some kind of ritual in a basement level called the Ophidian Rectory. Perhaps if you rush there you can learn all about the serpentfolk's ancient sacrificial techniques.
…
Oh, also potential save some people. That could be important too.
The feathered ally flies through the air, and drops an alchemist fire from up high. It shatters on the statues hard exterior, and the volatile substance burns the statue which forms cracks as it crumbles to the ground.
After looking at the statues, you look around the massive stone plaza that stretches out before a stepped pyramid at its far end. Buildings and stalls line either side, and heavily inscribed stone columns stand throughout the area, forming a spiral pattern. Banners and tarps hang between the columns, creating distinct areas of light and darkness. Smoldering coals surround the bases of large, heated ceramic cylinders, which glow softly. They’re warm enough to be felt from a distance, but not hot enough to ignite the blankets draped over them or the banners dangling around and above.
Gwen, after studying the statues for a bit determines that they serve Asa magical focus and jots down notes about them.
She than begins to look over some of the columns. She notes their historical and architectural significance to the culture, but it takes her awhile to get the notes and information just right.
|
[ooc]Taking 10 on perception on that first check if it is
Iago looks around for Historically relevant features worth documenting.
The enormity of it all just dumbfounds him. "All this... Haha... This is INCREDIBLE!! LOOK AT THIS STUFF!"
"JUST LOOK AT THIS!!!" exclaims the Chel, visibly unconcerned with the stray bow shots bouncing about around him. "This is all PRICELESS! The THINGS we can LEARN FROM ALL THIS!"
|
Does that mean I can make 3 knowledge Nature checks or that the group needs to succeed with a DC 15 check in each of the three groups (craft, knowledge, profession)?
Either way, I'm going for the roll in Knowledge Nature with a little boost from a Guidance spell.
Now I'm not sure if I give you two more Knowledge Nature rolls or an untrained craft roll now.
Between Omrijka standing and keeping a close watch over Gwen, Iago and Deluge, and Grooslaugg throwing a javelin when Omrijka points out a serpentfolk off in the distance, the group doesn't get harassed for a good five minutes.
Gwen is able to decipher what some of the paintings might mean in the history timeline if the serpentfolk. She jots down a few notes about the painiting
Iago has more trouble, the mass of information before him he is unable to decipher anything meaningful in the mess.
Deluge is in the right track when he notices a painting a few feet from Iago that depicts the ritual of a serpentfolk rising to adulthood. He takes notes about it, then looks to the others.
Groosalugg and Omrijka keep watch and scare off the spying crowds as Gwen looks over a piece of artwork that has writing around the base. She notes the style, depth of chisel, among a=other key characteristics of what she sees.
Once she is finished, she stands up, and nothing else seems to stick out to the group. You head inside to the interior of the temple.
Chaotically twisting tunnels and chambers shoot throughout the temple’s interior, some ending abruptly and others opening into smoke-choked studies, scriptoria, and meditation chambers. Countless alcoves are cut into the walls—almost entirely hidden within the elaborate mosaics. A single clay tablet inscribed with pictograms lies on a nearby table. It appears to be only part of a much larger set.
As you go through twisting tunnels, you can hear chanting, and other strange things coming from a passageway.
|
|
"Chanting. Why is it always chanting. Do the gods really care if you sing? Or the creature from beyond the pale, does it really care about your latent musical ability? Gods on high. Let me know when you've found something interesting so we can move onto something nowhere near the chanting. Unless, of course... Yeah, this would fit into "practical observations of ancient rituals" wouldn't it. Figures. Let's find this thing then head straight towards the happy chanting cultists. I'm sure they don't mind spectators" sighs Iago.
Omrijka, after taking some time searching, finds a tablet. She goes up near it, and much to her surprise, a gout of flame come rushing towards her. The tablet is engulfed in flames, and is not readable anymore.
Afterwards, Omrijka spends another 9 minutes finding another tablet, tucked away in the interior of the temple plaza.
Sorry Deluge I might have mistyped...it will take 1d6+4 minutes to find part of a tablet and document it for the Society. You are not actually trying to find a document. Hope that makes sense.
Omrijka finds another tablet, and she almost grabs it, but suddenly stops. She looks closer, and can see a symbol behind the tablet. She figures that is what caused the other tablet to get scorched. She tries to carefully disarm the magical trap, but clumsily sets it off as another gout of flame scorches the tablet and her.
---------------------------
The group, aggravated at everything burning up in their hands, decides to forgo trying to collect a taablet and what it may have written upon it for the strange chanting heard deep below the temple.
You head down where yo heard the chanting, and some heavy presence within this massive, domed chamber claws at the chest and weighs the air itself down. Strange glows emanate from the cardinal points of this massive, circular chamber. In the center of the room, an elevated, spiraling staircase entwines a column of stone, atop which sits an altar
You see groups of Pathfinder fighting serpentfolk and dark colored coatls among other various beasts. In the corner, you see something more manageable and you decide to help out and take care of the incoming threat of skeletons and hungry snake.
Initiative:
Groosalugg
Gwendolyn
Omrijka
Deluge
Iago
skele
snake
Init Tracker: round 1
Omrijka: gp
Deluge: go
Gwen: go
Iago: go
--
Skeletons
--
Groo
Snake
|
|
Deluge will fire off a storm burst at the one closest to Deluge. Point Blank bonus applies
but does not matter.
"Well this is a bit of a ruckas! Hi Toad!"
Deluge calls out to an old fried battling snakes on the other side of the room.
Init Tracker: round 1
Omrijka: hits snake for 11
Deluge: miss with storm burst
Gwen: mage armor
Iago: miss
--
Skeletons: done
--
Groo: go
--
Snake
-----------------
Omrijka rushes forward, and leaves a mighty gash on the snake as it is unable to react to the incoming threat. Deluge, fires off a buffeting blast of wind, but it dissipates before it even gets to the intended target. Gwen, casts mage armor, while Hera flies up to get a better vantage point. Iago, takes a mighty swing of his own, but fails to hit the skeleton he wants to bash to bits.
The skeleton respond, and attack the Pathfinders. Only one razor sharp claw gets through Omrijka's defenses. Iago, is less fortunate as two claws rip through his defense and nearly clip his vital spots. Luckily he is able to dodge to worst of hit.
----------
Damage:
Iago: 9
Omrijka: 3
Snake: 11
Groosalugg misses with his hammer. The snake slithers forward, and tries to take a bite out of Omrijka. Little does it know that Omrijka's weapon reaches farther.
Party up except Groo
|
|
Omrijka swings at the snake
If that finishes the snake seh will step back and swing her glaive at a skeleton
if grabbed by the snake drop glaive pull sap and stun
Omrijka thinks I will need to get a proper 1 handed weapon for future hugsies and bloodletter(meaning bludgeoner) for skellies I must add em to healy stick and alky fire list
Omrijka slices the snake in the gut, and it's entrails spill out. She than steps back and slices at the skeleton harassing her. Despite the blade slashing no, she powers through and the skeleton falls to the ground in sliced pieces.
Meanwhile, Iago's anger fuels his swing as he obliterates the Skelton near him.
|
|
A crack of thunder and the tang of ozone cut through the complex. The figures before you, and indeed the walls, the floor, even the air itself seem to crumble and fall away like glittering sands through an hourglass. Unfamiliar figures—their heavy, hooded robes embroidered with the symbol of a winged eye—stand about the field, their hands crackling with lightning. Dozens of Pathfinder spellcasters lie dead at their feet. A gargantuan image of a woman appears and shimmers like a desert mirage. She has a regal bearing, but her features are lined as if by years of endless duty.
”Arrogant Pathfinders! Your ridiculous Society spends fortunes and lives to reassemble a treasure that turns time itself like the pages of a book—a key that could undo all the misery and suffering our world now knows—and you use it for this? Poking at snakes and playing at heroism? Golarion knew a true hero once! Our Lord Aroden—who raised the Starstone from the sea and imprisoned the undead tyrant Tar-Baphon—could already walk the world again were it not for your petty games and delays. Every death in your hours of playtime now hangs as a weight around your collective necks, you spoiled children.
“I am Lady Arodeth, and on behalf of the Harbingers of Fate and the God of Mankind himself, I have seized your Sky Key. Its defenders threw their lives away trying to stop compassion and destiny from returning to this world. I advise you not to throw your own lives away attempting to do the same.
“Behold the return of the Last Azlanti! Behold Aroden!”
As everything swirls around you, luckily for you, the sea level of modern day Kortos is close to "normal" ground level. You race out of the Reactory, and backtrack through all you have explored, seeing everything start to fade and vanish. You make it out in time, as the "time bubble" you were in pops. You see other Pathfinders tumble out of the bubble, some taking bumps and bruises on their way down.
After reorienting yourself,
The robed Heralds begin casting, and arcs of lightning leap to the rods made of skymetal. A deep thrum from somewhere below reverberates with chest-tightening force, then the earth begins to heave and quake. Emerald green miasma lashes out, snaking back along the arcs of arcane lightning and infecting hooded casters throughout the crowd. Your body—or perhaps the whole world—crumbles to dust and you hear a distant scream of She’s overloaded it!
And just as swiftly, the world is whole again, but in place of a flower-speckled field stands the sprawling marketplace of a small city. Ivory-white buildings and columns feature reliefs and endless statuary all depicting physically perfect human specimens in poses of glory over serpentfolk. A chiton-clad crowd of gawkers stares, both at you and at the roiling dome of green light that encompasses nearly a square mile of territory, beyond which this strange city stretches on.
Robed Heralds panic as they sprint beyond the edges of the glistening dome, only to collapse just beyond its border. There they scream and writhe, their bones cracking as flesh and sinew age to dust in mere moments. Meanwhile, those unfortunates consumed by the green miasma scream and stagger, their features warping and bloating as if the power seeking refuge within them were too big for mere flesh to contain.
And high overhead, a looming stone glows with a light visible even in the growing light of dawn.