|
Tibal takes a moment to focus as she again forms a rune from clouds and fires off two bolts of electricity at the unwashed man and his companion in red.
"Sadly I didn't prepare any water based spells. I didn't expect to encounter some adverse to soap of all things. Which is disgusting, might I add."
She then forms another barrier around herself from the thin remaining mists of the clouds.
|
Kazimir sends a small fireball at Baltaram, striking him between the eyes and knocking him cold. Tibal and Grammy send lightning at the bodyguards, dropping both Red and Yellow and singing Blue.
------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
Before Your Turn:
After Your Turn:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Blue (-2)
Kazimir - AC 16, 15/15
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 8/17
Tibal - AC 17 (18 w/shield) 17/18
**Marcus Howe - AC 19, 21/21
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 1/15
**X-23 - AC 16, 16/17
|
|
Marcus winds up and swings at Blue, connecting solidly. Sentinel reaches out and smacks Blue with a tentacle and knocks him cold.
Dr. Rolph and Penelette Weaverish come forward to stabilize any fallen parties. Baltaram and his thugs are rudely awakened and sent packing.
After the mess has been cleared away, Asrennia reassures all that the confrontation with Baltaram was planned all along.
"I thank you all for coming. I hope you enjoyed the salon and the planned spectacle. Why of COURSE I planned this little scene. Otherwise these gatherings will be utterly BORING."
Although Arsennia plays up the fight as a planned spectacle, she fixes you with a glare as a not-so-subtle hint that it's time to leave. Either way, Baltaram's reputation has been ruined and Trinsky is back in Arsennia's social circle.
You return to Shance at the inn with the good news. He pays you for your work and invites you all to dine with him and his uncle. Whether you stay or go is up to you, but that is another story...
|
|
While traveling on the Flood Road near Urgir an unexpected storm—a rainstorm drives them to seek shelter in a nearby cave. Inside, you find the remains of a campfire that is 2 days old, as well as some simple traveling gear such as a bedroll and cooking pot. A small note is stuck into a crevice in the cave wall, where it stands out against the dark stone. The crevice is near a narrow tunnel that leads deeper into the caves. The note is written in Common and Orcish, and is dated 2 days before.
If you find this, I am caught somewhere below. I am Lorekeeper Unzgrin, and I’ve gone below to explore what I believe are the ruins of an ancient dwarven outpost. I trust that there is no danger, but if you find this note, and more than a day has passed, then I am likely in trouble. I offer a reward in gold for any assistance in exploring the caves — and for my immediate rescue, should I be in danger.
—Lorekeeper Unzgrin of Urgir
()
|
A tall and imposing orc in chainmail that is definitely not of orc make, but with a proper orc helm on tromps into the cave and shakes off the water from the sudden cloudburst outside. "Damn stuff's going to rust! Hate when the weather turns like this!" He takes his time in drying, pulling out a surprising number of towels with odd sigils on them, and takes care with his sword, a weapon one could readily classify as a longsword, if they could be made in the shape of an isosceles triangle.
He adjusts the various accoutrements he carries, from a small drum to what looks like a weathered banner of some forgotten warlord, but takes a long moment to make sure the large jagged shard of a mirror that he has partially wrapped in leather is okay. Peering out of the cave, Hon looks around for anyone else. Sighing in dispair, he plops down on the floor of the cave, clear view of the outside and not showing much interest in the note. "Signed up with the Pathfinders, said I was to meet a group of them around here and there's no one. Great! How am I going to find the way to kill my living reflection and go back to my tribe if the guides never show up?"
|
A thinner looking man wearing spectacles and carrying a bulging pack comes scrambling up the trail. Sweat beads his face and damp marks cover his clothes as several books fall from his bag upon reaching the cave. He finds an Orc near the entrance as well and stops defensively as he raises a hand showing he carries no weapons. He looks around for any others in the Orcs hold before calling out. "I just seek shelter!"
|
|
Hon moves away from the cave entrance a bit, realizing after a moment that he might be imposing and keeping people from getting inside. "Ain't my cave, nor my land, so come get some shelter. If you're this far in orc lands, I'm assuming you got proper passage rights, and so on. You haven't seen nothing of the Pathfinder Society have ya?"
He pauses as he watches the near gallon of water gush out of a gun that looks like it could hold a quarter of that at best, " Sudden cloud bursts like this can last up to a few hours. It'd be good to have something to do."
|
|
Marcus stands and grabs his maul with alarm when the orc arrives. He had heard of orcs beginning to flood into the Society, but this was the first one he had seen. While he trusted the Society not to take in any bent on murderous rampage, it was still a shock to see one, especially for someone who had grown up in Lastwall. When his path as a Paladin had been cut short, Marcus had decided to stick to the fight rather than continue his lessons with the Church. His true hatred was reserved for the undead that wiped out his home, but he wasn't fond of Orcs either. And old habits, like Lastwall, died hard.
Marcus glances at the thin man and waves him into the cave. He turns back to the tall orc. "Jig's right. We're all friends here. Right? I'm Marcus."
|
|
Hon takes a moment to pause at the sudden reaction of the man in the cave already, but doesn't take any aggressive actions. "Not one to call friendship quickly, but we sure ain't enemies, and I have no beef nor bad blood with anyone here... yet. But, with Arazni as my witness, you try something stupid and I will respond likewise."
|
|
Drenched to the bone and seemingly enjoying every minute of it, the hunched over elderly form of the half-orc Grammy Thistledown shuffles into the cave.
"Oh, nature's blessing feels good on these old bones. I just love it." She looks at the other half-orc gives him the once over. "Worries about rust deary? That's why I don't wear no metal. Hides and furs and wood have served me well enough, though I have been thinking about getting a spear recently."
Cloak sodding wet, Zarish enters the cave. She looks pale and not particularly pleased with the weather. "I clearly read the birds wrong when I set out on this job or I would have packed better," she says with a cheeriness that belies her miserable appearance. "I must learn that trick that wizards use to dry themselves off."
|
|
Hon looks over Granny and shakes his head. "Metal's much better at keeping one safe, *honored-distant-elder*. Besides, any leather worth it's salt in protection ought be boiled to rock solid hardness and would soften in the rain as well."
He then turns back to Fynn, giving the man a toothy grin and a laugh. "Being cautious never hurt, and I know how bad the, what do you call it, uhh, 'mob mentality' can get with my brethren. You're being smart, and I like that."
He picks up the letter and gives it a glance over. "Seems like someone went spelunking on their own without warning anyone. Now this is just being stupid, going into ruins on your own, ya never know what might come about." ...like an enchanted mirror that makes an evil living reflection of you that steals your armor and takes your place in the tribe claiming you as the imposter.
Shaking his head to clear the memories of his own stupidity, Hon starts gathering firewood and other materials for a fire. "It's not magic, but the second best way to dry out would be a good campfire. We probably ought to eat something before we go rescue that wayward traveler too. Never know when the opportunity will arise again."
|
|
Hon looks over Granny and shakes his head. "Metal's much better at keeping one safe, *honored-distant-elder*.”
”Oh stop, you’ll make an old woman blush. I haven’t heard that term in years. Most of the knights of lastwall just called me ‘that crazy old lady that lived in the boonies.’ Didn’t stop them from comin’ to me when their bones needed mendin’ though!”. She lets out a hardy laugh but then calms down. ”But in all seriousness, thank you, I haven’t seen a youngin’ with good manners like you in an age.”
She then casts light on the tip of her cane.
”I assume the rest of you don’t have keen half-Orc eyes so here’s a little light for ya.”
”Hmmm, someone was here recently, look at those boot tracks in the mud there. Probably not a halfling given the boots. . . Wonder what they were doing all the way out here.”
|
|
Hon nods in thanks to Granny, clearly wanting to say something disparaging about his fellow orcs, but ultimately stays silent. He instead turns to look down the cave, now brightly lit. "Hrmm, there are some boot tracks there. You have some keen eyes, *Honored-distant-elder*, doubt I would have ever found them. Take it we're going to get this explorer? Not a bad way to pass the storm." He grips the large mirro shard in one hand and his longsword in the other, before traipsing further into the cave.
|
|
”Oh aren’t you the flatterer.” she replies to the other half-Orc. She hooks her cane under her armpit and extends her hand. ”They call me Grammy Thistledown. Healer of some skill. As for finding the tracks, just a habit of an old lead Druid. . . We tend to watch where the grass grows, HA!
“Oh, and you humans are welcome for the light. To be honest I prefer seeing the world in color anyway, makes it easier to identify the plants y’see.”
|
|
A passage ranging from 3 to 10 feet wide leads into the caverns below. The cave walls are a mix of natural stone and clay. The ceilings range from 10 feet high in the narrow tunnels to 20 feet high in the largest caverns.
Following the footprints, you find yourselves in the northern section of the caves facing a large human sized mushroom. Grammy takes one look and identifies it as a Shrieker. At the base of the Shrieker you can see a backpack, with moss starting to grow on it.
|
|
”Shhhh, shrieker.” she points to the fungus. ”Odd little fellow, has an air sac, when someone gets to close, it lets the air out in a sound kinda like shrieking. If I can puncture the air sac just right, the air will release and we can walk by without any shrieking. Don’t worry, it’ll heal itself and replenish its air sack within a day.”
Grammy manages to get out a Javalin and puncture it just so.
”Oh, sorry little guy, but you’ll be fine in a day.”. She then gathers a few spores before motioning to move on. ”Little guy hadn’t spread his spores in a while. It was getting clogged up in there, just helping clear out his cap.” she says by way of explanation. ”Plus these spores are good at treating gout in gnomes.”
|
|
Grammy sneaks up to the Shrieker and pokes a hole in its air sac. It attempts to scream, but all that comes out is a burp. She also notices that footprints lead from the Shrieker to a large cavern with a pool.
The pool in this damp chamber is only a few inches deep. The sound of dripping water echoes throughout the cave. Thick webbing covers a large boulder protruding from the floor at the center of the pool. The desiccated husks of dozens of insects and arachnids, and the bones of a few small mammals, lie in the water. One recently dead spider with an intricate pattern on its abdomen lies near the boulder, a dagger embedded deep in its thorax.
|
|
Hon noting that the humans have the backpack covered moves closer to the pool and with his mirror in hand moves it to reflect a sudden flash of light before there's a second exact copy of him standing next to the humanoid shaped web cocoon. In stereo he comments, "Should check this out. Might be our 'adventerer.'" The Hon near the Web-thing then lifts his longsword and starts to cut into the Web thing as the one near the shores of the pool readies to step away and dispel the copy.
|
|
The two Hons give a shared look of surprise at the living woman that quickly melted into worry as they both pull out some spider lily. The one near the adventurer wraps it around any apparent wounds, while the other one near the edge of the water wraps his in open air. The Vines falling to the ground. "Right, she's stable and shouldn't be suffering anymore, but some actual healing would be needed to get her up and about."
|
|
Grammy blinks her eyes several times and then shakes her head and mumbles something along the lines of "Need to schedule another appointment with the head druid, seeing doubles again." but shuffles forward to the woman.
"Out of the way, let ol' granny have a looksee. Oh, hmmm, no visible wounds, but I bet a gold piece she darn near suffocated. Lessie if ol' Granny has a spell that'll help.
She does a careful once-over of the woman's body and then takes out her waterskin and pours some water out, turning the cave dirt to mud. Then she smears the mud into glyphs and runes around the woman's body. She then begins chanting in Orcish some ancient, powerful words.
Just as you are about to ask what she is doing the mud begins to glow green and it seems to melt into the woman's body and color returns to her skin.
|
|
Grammy heals the unconscious woman. She groans and her eyelids flutter open. She starts at seeing all of you.
"What... what happened? Who are you?" she asks as she rubs the back of her head, and then moves her hand to look at the blood that is caked in her hair. "Oh... The last I remember is heading into a cavern system, looking for signs of ancient ruins. I found a cave... there was a loud shriek... and a spider..."
"Where are my manners? I am Unzgrin, lorekeeper for the Urgir Society of History. Might I trouble you for some water please? I am exploring the caves to find any sign of the dwarves who fled here thousands of years ago after the fall of Koldukar. After this long, any bodies would likely be gone, but I hope to find historic relics they left behind, or perhaps another ancient ruin of some kind to which they had fled. I believed I was on the cusp of an important breakthrough in understanding the history of the dwarves of Koldukar. In my eagerness to discover something significant, I got careless."
She notices Marcus wearing her backpack.
"My backpack! Thank you very much for finding it. It had my notes about the sites I was going to visit. May I have it back please?"
|
|
”Don’t worry deary, you’ve had quite a shock. No no, don’t get up too fast, just let your body rest a spell. No, I got water right here. Of course we’ll make sure you get your notes back, but you’ve been through a lot. Here, rest your head on ol’ Granny’s knapsack.
“Lorekeeper you say? We are something of Lorekeepers ourselves, we are pathfinders. I’m sure our archivists would love to know about any ancient Dwarven ruins. We’ll give first credit to you of course, you did the hard work of tracking them down, but maybe you’d see fit to share your findings. . . When you are better of course.”
"Where do you suppose the spider went to?" Zarisha asks, drawing her wand.
"That one looks like the loremaster killed it, so there's at least one more. The one that wrapped him up," Zarisha says. "But let's get back to the cave.'
|
|
Unzgrin gratefully takes a sip of water and sighs. "I guess this expedition is a bust. I was hoping to find signs of dwarven ruins but looks like this cave is a dud. I'm planning to head back to town to recruit a crew. I think we've seen..."
Unzgrin's voice trails off and her eyes widen as three spiders round the bend and attack.
Pink steps forward and shoots a web at Marcus.
The web strikes and causes Marcus to be stuck to the floor. Marcus also starts feeling a burning sensation on his skin where the web is attached to.
Pink sees Grammy and shoots another web at her.
------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
Escape DC - 16
Before Your Turn:
DC 16 Fortitude - Marcus
------------------
Those with ** may go
Pink
**Hon Utushi - AC 18, 21/21
**Fynn - AC 17, 17/17
**Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
Green
Blue
Marcus Howe - AC 19, 21/21 (Immobilized, FF)
Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
--------------------------------
CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS REFERENCE
--------------------------------
Max Duration: 4 rds
Stage 1: Stupefied 1 (1 rd)
Stage 2: 1d6 Poison Damage, Stupefied 1 (1 rd)
|
|
Both Hons take a moment to think about what they might know about the spiders, as both mirrors turn to reflect the spiders.
He fails to find a specific weakness, but does remember he has a fly swatter of the great orc Onzalack that was purported to be the antithesis of any insect or arachnid, both Hons put their swatter on their longsword, before the one on the island where Unzgrin's cocoon was moves closer to the spiders, the Hon near everyone else shattering into tiny mirror shards that quickly dissipate.
Getting up to the closest spider, he takes a swing with the longsword with a growl and grunt.
|
|
Marcus grits his teeth and powers through the poison. Grammy's lightning gives Pink a terrible jolt but Blue avoids the worst of the damage. Both Jig and Hon both fail to connect with the spiders.
------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
Escape DC - 16
Before Your Turn:
------------------
Those with ** may go
Pink (-12)
Hon Utushi - AC 18, 21/21
**Fynn - AC 17, 17/17
Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17 (AC 18)
Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
Green
Blue (-3)
Marcus Howe - AC 19, 21/21 (Immobilized, FF)
Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17
|
|
The slightly shy Fynn groans in pain. He throws an arm back to the others to stay away from him. His voice turns gravely and deep as his arm snaps backwards at a sickening angle. Screaming in pain his back spine cracks and breaks as he hunches over before throwing himself down onto all fours. Bones snap, break and quickly realign themselves as his skin bursts apart to reveal a thicker skin of dark grey fur beneath. The bloody sloughs of skin fall free onto the cavern floor as he rushes the spiders.
The lucky rabbits foot still clings tightly around his neck as it sways back and forth.
HP 17/17
AC 17
Hero Points 2/3
|
|
Although Jig's attack missed, one of the wayward spoons finds its way into Pink's eye and kills it.
Blue turns and tries to sink its fangs into the prey item that happened to end up beside it.
Unable to penetrate the orc's armor, Blue decides to go after the webbed prey instead.
Unfortunately, Blue probably hasn't eaten in awhile and can't seem to bite an immobile object. Green attempts to bite Hon.
Green manages to dig its fangs into Hon, but strangely the fangs don't penetrate (). Green tries again.
Green doesn't connect and starts backing away.
|
|
------------------
COMBAT TRACKER
Round: 1-2
Tactical Map
Active Conditions:
Escape DC - 16
Before Your Turn:
------------------
Those with ** may go
-2-
**Hon Utushi - AC 18, 21/21
**Fynn - AC 17, 17/17
**Grammy Thistledown - AC 16 (18 w/shield), 17/17 (AC 18)
**Jig Gnasher - AC 18, 15/15
Green
Blue (-3)
-1-
**Marcus Howe - AC 19, 21/21 (Immobilized, FF)
**Zarisha - AC 18 (19 w/shield), 17/17