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Our relatively new Strength of Thousands campaign reached the 2nd chapter of Kindled Magic, which covers the spring season (semester) of classes. I decided to add some scenes in actual classes.
One of the classes was "Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse" taught by Takulu Ot. I created it for the character Jinx Fuun, who had the Sponsored by Teacher Ot background and a backstory of birdwatching with Takulu and Niana Ot. I played a boat tour of the Vanji River as part of this class, in which the students would use the Approximate spell to count bird and fish populations. Three of the seven PCs, including Jinx, signed up for this class.
I used several sources, such as Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse, to did up information on the rivers around the Mwangi Expanse. Pathfinderwiki,com attributed a lot of information on the parts of the Vanji River near Nantambu to GameMastery Module W2: River into Darkness, published in 2008 for for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. So I bought it.
A vast merchant consortium has a simple job for you—one that pays extremely well. All it asks is that you stand guard over one of its outposts for a few weeks until reinforcements arrive. The problem, of course, is that the outpost is in the middle of a vast and dangerous jungle and the natives seem intent upon putting an arrow in you at every turn. If the journey there doesn’t kill you, though, you might just learn what is worth risking your lives over.
In River into Darkness the 4th-level PCs are hired in the port city Bloodcove by the Aspis Consortium to temporarily guard their Nightfall Station outpost. That place has had some losses and the Consortium needs time to bring in more 2nd-level mercenaries as permanent guards. The party travels up the Vanji River on the paddlewheel boat River Queen, powered by a mysterious engine fueled by magic mushrooms. And they encounter river hazards such as hippopotamus and attacks by several species of natives on the journey upriver. A massacre at Whitebridge Station prevents refueling, so they take a side trip up the Kurka River to harvest fungus to refuel. And Nightfall Station has troubles of its own.
It contrasts greatly to Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse. I knew that Paizo's early adventures in the Mwangi Jungle had been based on the European legends about Africa, treating the Expanse as savage, uncharted territory to be explored with weapons ready. The PF2 material is written from Africa-based stories instead, celebrating the people who lived in the Mwangi Expanse for generations. Many of the opponents in River into Darkness are Ekujae elves, the natives whom the Aspis Consortium feared were cannibals. The player character Zandre in my Strength of Thousands campaign is an Ekujae elf.
Especially incongruous is what River into Darkness said about Nantambu: "After leaving the swamp and passing the now-abandoned village of Nantambu, the River Queen appears to be finally having a smooth run. The locals deserted the area, taking anything of value due to the hostile Ekujae nearby. Esteban [captian of the River Queen] does not stop, for fear of an ambush." Stength of Thousands occurs in 4721 AR, ony 13 years after River into Darkness. The city of Nantambu could not have been abandoned and then resettled in that time without a single mention of the event in Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse or Stength of Thousands.
The contrast is amusing but not worth the $19.99 to buy the PDF. Fortunately, I found other uses for the module. I borrowed two maps, Whitebridge Station and the Brimstone Falls, for my school boat trip. And I stole some scenes out of River into Darkness for excitement on the school trip, though I reversed one scene from hostile to friendly.
The school trip would go down the Vanji River in a sailboat from Nantambu to Whitebridge Station, upriver again but turn off at the Kurka River tributary to visit the Brimstone Falls, and then the class would climb the path alongside the falls to spend the night at an Iruxi (lizardfolk) village. But when Takulu Ot used a Sending spell to contact the village shaman (a higher-level teacher at the Magaambya School cast Sending for him), he learned that the elderly shaman had recently died of old age and her young apprentice, a Lizardfolk Stargazer, requested help against a Will-o'-Wisp preying upon their village.
I threw in the Will-o'-Wisp because River into Darkness had a fight against a Will-o's-Wisp along the Kurka River. Also the River into Darkness party had fought lizardfolk at Brimstone Falls, so I put a lizardfolk village on the Kurka River above the falls.
River into Darkness revealed that an Ekujae attack on Whitebridge Station had wiped out the personnel there. I figured that the Aspis Consortium would send more people there afterwards, so Whitebridge Station is up and running in 4721 AR. However, instead of being a base to support ruthless colonial exploitation of the Mwangi Expanse's natural resources, it now serves a base for river trade with the natives of the Mwangi Expanse. That is still profitable for the Aspis Consortium. The Aspis Consortium's paddlewheel boat River Queen still journeys up and down the Vanji River. Whitebridge Station also grows the magic acrophage fungus that fuels the River Queen's engine.
As for the claim that Nantambu was abandoned in 4708 AR, my story is that in those days the Consortium spread the lie that Nantambu was an abandoned plague town to keep the River Queen away from it. The engine that runs the River Queen is a technological secret and they wanted to make sure the researchers at the Magaambya Academy never got a look at it.
My party consided of seven 2nd-level students at the Magaambya Academy in Nantambu.
Cara'sseth Ti'kali, a catfolk fire kineticist with wizard free archetype
Idris, an anadi divination wizard with Magaambyan attendant free archetype
Jinx Fuun, a tengu enigma bard with druid free archetype
Roshan Azar, a fleshwarp eldritch trickster (elemental sorcerer) rogue with Gelid Shard free archetype
Stargazer, a ghoran enigma bard with druid free archetype
Wilfred Eugenus Rosehill-Aglag, a dromaar redeemer champion with magus free archetype
Zandre, an elf starlit-span magus with dragon disciple free archetype
Cara, Idris, and Jinx were enrolled in the Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse class. Takulu Ot allowed the other four to join in because of the Magaambya belief that a cohort of students ought to stick together.
I belatedly declared that their dorm-mate Ignaci Canterells was also enrolled in the class, because his colonial background would offer insights about Whitebridge Station.
Born in the colony of Sargava before it became the nation of Vidrian, Ignaci earned his parents’ disapproval through the company he kept—rebellious youths, disaffected soldiers, and the native Mwangi populace. This minor rebellion proved enough for Ignaci’s colonist family to abandon him at the start of the Vidric Revolution, deliberately stranding the teenager amid the violent chaos. Ignaci joined the fight for Vidrian’s freedom, in part for justice but mainly driven
by a hatred of his family and everyone like them. Ignaci hopes to one day aid Vidrian against foreign interests.
The module says that Ignaci is a thaumaturge in the Emerald Boughs branch of the academy. He knows cryptography and can make the Forgetful Ink alchemical item. I statted him out as a 2nd-level character.
Ignaci Canterells Thaumaturge 2
Unique Medium male human humanoid
Branch Emerald Boughs; Background Codebreaker; Heritage Versatile
Perception +8
Languages Common(Mwangi), Common(Taldoran), Elven
Skills Acrobatics +7, Arcana +8, Crafting +6, Cryptography Lore +6, Deception +7, Diplomacy +7, Emerald Boughs Lore, Esoteric Lore, Nature +4, Occultism +6, Religion +4, Society +6, Stealth +7, Thievery +7
Str +0, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +2, Wis +0, Cha +3
Items +1 shortsword (borrowed), dagger, leather armor, lesser acid flask, lesser mud bomb, 2 elixir of life
Alchemical Formulae: acid flask, mud bomb, elixir of life, skeptic's elixir
Specialty Formula: forgetful ink (page 75)
Alchemical Crafting
Crystal Healing
Glean Contents
AC 18; Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +6
HP 26
Speed 25 feet
Melee [one-action] +1 shortsword +8 (Agile, Finesse, Versatile S) Damage 1d6 piercing
Ranged [one-action] dagger (Agile, Finesse, Thrown 10 ft., Versatile S), Damage 1d4 piercing
Mirror Implement, Mirror's Reflection [one-action]
Scroll Thaumaturgy +7
Wizard Dedication
Arcane Prepared Spells DC 16, attack +6
Cantrips (1st) frostbite, prestidigitation
The rest of the students in the class were nameless.
Kindled Magic had an entry for Takulu Ot as a 4th-level wizard. My players thought that 4th-level was too low for a lore-speaker teacher at the Magaambya Academy, so I raised him to 6th level. That is a good level for fighting a Will-o'-Wisp. Amusingly. the 2nd-level spells that Takulu Ot already had were good for fighting a Will-o'Wisp; I just needed to add some 3rd level spells and more healing.
Takulu Ot creature 6
UNIQUE LG MEDIUM HUMAN HUMANOID
Male human Cascade Bearer teacher
Perception +13
Languages Amurrun, Common, Elven, Iruxi, Sylvan, Xanmba
Skills Academia Lore +15, Arcana +15, Diplomacy +14, Library Lore +13, Nature +11, Occultism +13, Performance +12
Str +0, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +5, Wis +3, Cha +2
Items anteater mask, potion of moderate healing, staff of air (Step into difficult terrain once per round; 3 charges: Cantrip gale blast; 1st air bubble, gust of wind), 8 scrolls of force barrage, 1 scroll of revealing light.
AC 23; Fort +11, Ref +16, Will +14
HP 80
Quick Lesson [reaction] (auditory) Trigger An ally Takulu can see and who can hear Takulu makes a skill check or an attack roll; Effect Takulu grants the ally a +2 circumstance bonus to the triggering check.
Speed 25 feet
Melee [one-action] staff +10 (two-hand d8), Damage 1d4+1 bludgeoning
Arcane Prepared Spells DC 23, attack +15;
Spell Selection for class boat trip
3rd dream message, force barrage, translate
2nd resist energy, revealing light, see the unseen;
1st heal x3
Cantrips (3rd) approximate, caustic blast, detect magic, message, prestidigitation
Extended Reach Spell [one-action]
You can extend your spells’ range. If the next action you use is to Cast a Spell that has a range, increase that spell’s range by 60 feet. As is standard for increasing spell ranges, if the spell normally has a range of touch, you extend its range to 60 feet.
I followed the lead of LunarScribe in Reddit that Esi Djana is the daughter of Teacher Tahenkot. Esi is driven to excel because she has two exceptional parents. I imagined her father as a athlete with awards in sailing and swimming. This boat trip gave me a chance to introduce him to the party as the boatman handling the sailboat.
Itoro Djana Athlete 6
Medium Human Humanoid
Based on Acrobat, Gamemastery Guide pg. 236
Perception +14
Languages Common (Mwangi), Dwarven, Iruxi
Skills Acrobatics +15, Athletics +17, Diplomacy +11, Intimidation +9, Performance +9, Sailing Lore +15, Survival +11
Str +4, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +2
Items +1 striking staff, +1 striking atlatl (20 darts), dagger, fishing kit, climbing kit, rope (50 feet)
Steady Balance When Itoro rolls a success on an Acrobatics check, he gets a critical success instead. They aren't flat-footed when attempting to Balance and can attempt an Acrobatics check instead of a Reflex save to Grab an Edge.
Cat Fall Itoro treats all falls as 20 feet shorter.
Nimble Dodge [reaction] Trigger Itoro is targeted with a melee or ranged attack by an attacker they can see; Effect The acrobat gains a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
AC 22; Fort +14, Ref +17, Will +11
HP 80
Speed 25 feet, Swim 15 feet
Melee [one-action] +1 striking staff +17 (Two-Hand 1d8), Damage 2d4+4 bludgeoning
Ranged [one-action] +1 striking atlatl +17 (propulsive, range incr 60 feet), Damage 2d6+2 piercing
Takulu Ot warned the Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse class about the upcoming battle with the Will-o'-Wisp and told them that the Powderpile supply center would lend them +1 weapons for this. He asked the students to prepare Approximate, Force Barrage, and Heal, if they could. Zandre was given the opportunity to turn in his longbow to crafters to permanently give it a +1 potency rune (I find excuses to improve the PCs' gear, because looting would be out of character for students).
The Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse class gathered together at dawn on a Toilday and set sail down the Vanji River. Their teacher pointed out the fish species in the river and the bird species above the river and asked the students to count them with Approximate. Takulu himself had researched an extended reach spellshape to count birds beyond the usual range of Approximate.
At midday, they reached Whitebridge Station and paid to dock there. Ignaci treated his dorm-mates (the PCs) to a traditional Sargava lunch of fish and chips, hot cross buns, pork sausage, and meat pies, while Takulu and Itoro handled the other students. The human shopkeepers of Whitebridge Station were friendly with Ignaci due to his same pale-skinned race as them, but kept wary of Zandre, an Ekujae elf. They were hesitant with the dromaar (half-orc) Wilfred until his aristocratic Taldoran accent endeared him to them.
Ignaci told the party of his childhood in Sargava and his secret work with the rebellion that liberated it as Vidrian. He also demonstrated his mirror implement, the first trick he had learned as a rebel.
The school expedition then sailed upriver again, but turned eastward at the Kurka River, which soon widened into the Kurka Swamp. A Fen Mosquito Swarm caught up to the back of the boat. The students rolled higher initiative than Itoro and Takulu and attacked, mostly with fire, but the only area of effect (to which the swarm was weak) was a Flying Flame impulse from the kineticist Cara. The mosquitos on their turn bit Roshan, Idris, and several nameless students. Idris caught pyrexic malaria. Itoro spent his turn sailing the boat away from the swarm, and the students' cantrip attacks killed the swarm before Takulu had his turn.
Tying up the boat at the landing near the base of the Brimstone Falls, Jinx took time to treat wounds on the students damaged by the mosquitos. She failed to diagnose Idris's pyrexic malaria. Some players decided that their characters would take advantage of the clean water from the waterfall to swim. One of the two Lizardfolk Scouts watching the party from hiding slide down a waterfall rivulet to join them. The scouts were there to guide the school expedition to the Iruxi village. The scout explained that the waterfall was sacred to his people, but splashing around there was not sacriligeous. He taught them which streams of the waterfall were safe to slide down. (This, of course, was my deliberate contrast to the River into Darkness party fighting lizardfolk to ascend the waterfall's path.)
At the Iruxi village, Takulu Ot introduced Itoro and the students to the Lizardfolk Stargazer shaman. They eat a feast and sang songs in honor of the deceased former shaman. At dusk this ceremony attracted the Will-o'-Wisp. The lizardfolk and the nameless non-combatant students took shelter in the village's buildings, while Takulu, Itoro, Ignaci, and the party stood their ground for battle.
Idris and Zandre were the student arcane spellcasters who could activate scrolls of Force Barrage, and Jinx and Stargazer were the student occult spellcsters who could activate scrolls of Force Barrage, too. Takulu Ot was supposed to give them some of the scrolls of Force Barrage before the battle, but I forgot. Fortunately, Idris prepared Force Barrage twice, Zandre started with her longbow, and Jinx was busy healing, so they did not need the scrolls. Unfortunately, Stargazer could have used some scrolls, because she had not learned the Soothe spell and neglected to borrow a +1 martial weapon from the Powderpile of the Magaambya Academy.
Takulu reminded the class to taunt the Will-o'-Wisp so that it would stay in the area to fight rather than flying. The wisp flew in, mocking the humanoids for foolishness and asking, "Who is in charge here?" Jinx claimed to be in charge, so it made the pun, "Then you will get a charge out of this," and shocked her. It critically hit (30 to hit versus AC 17) for 21 damage, leaving Jinx at 3 hp.
Jinx was next in initiative, so she started a Courageous Anthem and cast Soothe on herself.
The rogue Roshan followed with a bold move: she grappled the Will-o'Wisp. She failed, but the player spent a hero point and succeeded on the reroll. (Note: the player made Roshan expert in Athletics, because with so many ranged casters in the party, she does not expect a flank. She hopes to use Grapple and Trip to make foes off-guard.)
Cara moved onto Jinx's square to Reposition Jinx further away from the Will-o'-Wisp.
Zandre moved away to avoid her longbow's volley penatly and shot an arrow at the Will-o'-Wisp. Thanks to the +1 weapon potency rune, the Courageous Anthem, and a good roll of natural 15, she rolled 25. The wisp's AC was reduced to 25 due to the grapple, so she hit for 5 damage.
Stargazer realized her only weapon was her unenchanted [url="https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx?ID=112"poi[/url], unlikely to hit or deal significant damage. And her spell repertoire lacked Soothe to heal Jinx. She started a second Courageous Anthem in case Jinx went down.
Idris cast Force Barrage for 12 damage. Itoro hit the wisp with his staff for 10 damage. Takulu cast Revealing Light on the Will-o'-Wisp's area, which illuminated and dazzled both the Will-o'-Wisp and Roshan. But the Will-o'Wisp succeeded in its reflex save, so it would be revealed for only 2 rounds.
Ignaci empowered his shortsword with Implement's Empowerment, but missed. Wilfred hit with his falcata for 5 damage.
Then the Will-o'Wisp zapped Roshan with two critical hits to free itself from the grapple. Instead of flying away or Feeding on Fear of 2d4 healing or Going Dark, it attacked Itoro, its apparent main threat, with its 3rd action.
Jinx cast Soothe on Roshan. Roshan woke up. Cara Stepped to flank for Itoro. Zandre cast Force Barrage on the wisp. And Itoro rolled a 36 to critically hit the flanked Will-o'-Wisp and took it down.
The villagers and other students came out for a celebration. The following morning, the student expedition returned to the Magaambya Academy without incident. We had time to begin the Surprise Birthday Party extracurricular activity. Three days later the onset time of pyrexic malaria passed, so Idris became visibly sick. Jinx escorted him to the Magaambya clinc where he was cured.
The party earned (4/7)(60 xp) = 34 xp for fighting the Fen Mosquito Swarm (counts as a party alone since the others did not help) and (4/16)(160 sp) = 40 xp for fighting the Will-o'-Wisp (a larger denominator due to the help from 3 others). And saving the Iruxi village from the Will-o'-Wisp counted as a service project for an additional 100 xp.
I had deliberately overstacked the assistance from others during the Will-o'-Wisp battle to push the threat down to Trivial, because Takulu Ot was not willing to expose his students to a greater threat.
The players had been looking forward to the river expedition of the Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse class. They thought that the extra elements from River Into Darkness added a lot of enjoyable educational flavor about the non-Nantambu people of the area.
Tuesday June 4, I conducted the 2nd boat trip of the Rivers of the Mwangi Expanse class.
On this trip the same people--the party, Ignaci Canterells, nameless students, Takulu Ot, and Itoro--went upriver on the Vanji River. I created two maps. One was the simplest map I ever used: a blue rectangle representing the river (I ignore that some descriptions claim the waters of the Vanji are red, because the maps show it blue). For the other map I copied the Google map of the merger of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers and labeled the Mississippi as Vanji River and the Wisconsin as Buunta River. I named that one Buunta Overlook.
On the trip upriver, I used the Blue Rectangle map to roleplay the Magaambya sailboat passing the River Queen paddlewheel boat. The players roleplayed the awe of seeing their first engine-based vessel. Takulu Ot explained that the RIver Queen used acrophage fungus to power its engine. Acrophage grew on Shamblers, so Whitebridge Station was the only place willing to cultivate it.
On the Buunta Overlook map I had converted Pikes Peak State Park into an Ekujae village. Takulu Ot told how the Aspis Consortium used to enslave local Ekujae elves to work in their gold mine at Nigfhtfall Station up the Buunta River. But inexperienced slave miners meant plenty of dead slaves, so a necromancer took advantage of the bodies. The battle against undead destroyed Nightfall Station. Afterwards the Ekujae established the Buunta Overlook to ensure that neither the River Queen nor any Aspis Consortium boat ever went up the Buunta River again. They still allowed the River Queen to trade up the Vanji River.
Takulu Ot's plan was to dock by the Buunta Overlook Village and spend the night there. But a Crab Swarm infested the dock. The sailboat anchored 60 feet away from the docks and the students practiced killing the crabs with their medium-range spells: Ray of Frost, Frostbite, Extended Produce Flame, and Spellstrike bowshot with Produce Flame. The crabs got a turn and took to the water to hunt down the chunk of ice from a missed Ray of Frost (crabs are not smart). This led to some students jumping into the river to grab the dead crabs for dinner and Stargazer casting Tangle Vine on the crabs and students to keep the crabs from floating away. They had a crab dinner at the Buunta Overlook Village.
The next morning, the sailboat went across the Vanji River to where I had placed a two-square Hollow Log token. The party was building an obstacle course in the Leshy Gardens for the leshies to exercise on and they had wanted a large hollow log. Jinx and Winfred made Acrobatics checks to ride the log after they dragged it into the river and tied a tow line to it. They rode the log back downriver.
But when they returned to the Blue Rectangle map, I had replaced the River Queen paddlewheel boat with a herd of hippopotami. Itoro took care to steer away from them, but one token named Angry Angry Hippo took a dislike to the party. The tengu Jinx cast Mariner's Fire between the boat and the hippo to discourage it, but the hippo instead attacked the fire, got burned, and got angrier (the wording of Mariner's Fire is ambiguous how long the fire lasts, but I accepted lasting more than instantaneously for the comedy). Itoro tried sailing away quickly, but I gave the boat only 40 feet per turn to keep the hippo able to attack. Its first attack was a capsize attempt on the boat (a dice roll picked the boat as its target rather than the hollow log), which failed because the boat was much bigger than the hippopotamus.
This fight highlighted the difference between the pre-Remaster Ray of Frost, which targets AC, and the Remastered version Frostbite, which calls for a basic Fortitude save. The hippopotamus has AC 21 (moderate 5th-level AC) and Fort +15 (high 5th-level Fortitude), so Ray of Frost was more effective. The player characters without legacy Ray of Frost switched to spells that called for Reflex saves. For example, Stargazer delayed her turn until the hippopotamus was adjacent to the boat again and cast Timber, which calls for a Reflex save. Takulu Ot and Idris still had Force Barrage prepared, so they used that spell.
Athletics-expert Roshan tripped the hippopotamus. Since it was swimming, this did not knock it prone, but I ruled that the hippopotamus was disoriented and would need one action to reorient itself. This slowed the hippopotamus enough (and it was heavily wounded, down to 7 hp) that it gave up the chase when Itoro sailed the boat further away. My purpose in the hippopotamus attack was to demonstrate that the Vanji River was untamed and dangerous, so escape was as good as victory.
I had not planned to return to River into Darkness after those game sessions during Kindled Magic, but I did during the game sessions of Tuesday, February 25, and Tuesday, March 4.
In Spoken on the Song Wind the party had to deal with the fire sorcerer Fire-Pot Ubantu, who had been cheated by two spies pretending to be Magaambya students. He was angry with the Magaambya, because they refused to honor the imposter students' 300-gp debt to him. The party talked with him, and he suggested an alternative payment: they could give him three pounds of acrophage fungus instead. Acrophage fungus grew on shamblers, creature 6, so it was dangerous to harvest, but the 5th-level party could handle it.
This quest was not simply for story. Because my party is oversized at 7 members, I sometimes increase the challenge of the module's encounters and other times add additional encounters to give them experience points to level up at appropriate times. This quest for fungus was an additional mission to give them more experience points.
The players asked me for the market value of a pound of acrophage fungus ("pound" was my unit for a typical harvest from one shambler). River into Darkness does not cover the price, and PF2 has a different set of prices than PF1 anyways. I decided that it would count as a 6th-level consumbable, which would cost 50 gp. Thus, Fire-Pot Ubantu was willing to settle for half the debt in the form of a rare trade good. They thought that that was a good deal and accepted.
Idris went to the library to research the fungus and the shamblers on which the fungus grew, and rolled a natural 20 for lots of information about shamblers, such as electrical damage stimulating them instead of damaging them. They also checked with the Magaambya Academy, who approved the expedition but asked if they could pick up a 4th pound of acrophage fungus for their researches.
The party hired a fishing boat to take them down to Brimstone Falls for 3 gp. They fought a river drake on the Vanji River. In the Kurka Swamp they encountered another Fen Mosquito Swarm. The magus Zandre was the only party member to roll higher initiative than the swamp. The player said that his only area-of-effect spell was Fireball, which he was reluctant to expend. The other players begged him to do so, since they remembered Idris catching pyrexic malaria in their last encounter with a Fen Mosquito Swarm. So Zandre threw the Fireball at the swarm. The swarm succeeded at its reflex save for half damage, but the extra damage from its weakness to area effects was enough to finish it off immediately.
An iruxi scout guarding the falls said that the jungle northwest of the falls had several shamblers. Nevertheless, the party also returned to the iruxi village upriver to check that they were fine and did not need any additional aid since the battle against the will-o'-wisp. Then they went to seek the shamblers. I used a Google map of an African jungle or forest--they look the same in the photos--for the encounters.
However, the party had an interesting plan proposed by the tengu bard Jinx Fuun. She pointed out that they did not need to fight the shamblers. The creatures had Int -2, enough to agree to a deal, and could understand Common, Elven, and Fey (Sylvan), but could not speak. I changed that to Elven, Fey, Iruxi, and Wildsong, since those particular shamblers lived near iruxi, but the party could not speak Iruxi. If the party used pantomime or a spell to have a two-way conversation with the shamblers, they might agree to have the acrophage fungus removed without conflict because it was a parasite on them. Speak with Plants is a 3rd-level spell in the divine, occult, and primal traditions, so in theory the party could manage it from a scroll. In practice, the player of the ghoran bard had not finished her spell list, so she had a 3rd-level slot open in her repertoire. She instead elected to fill an open 2nd-level slot with Translate. Since Stargazer was an animated plant, she could interpret unspoken plant language, and Translate could let her understand the shambler's unnamed plant language. Stargazer was also an expert in Diplomacy and had the Glad-Hand feat for fast Make an Impression.
I had the party members roll Perception to spot a shambler, but reduced the DC from 28 to 22 because the acrophage fungus was distinctive to someone who had seen the pictures in the reference book Idris had found. If they failed, the next shambler would ambush them from Mound Form, but with six characters rolling (Wilfred's player was absent) one always managed 22 or better. The players hammed up a roll of natural 1, saying the character mistook a moss-covered rock for a shambler.
When Stargazer talked to the first shambler, it agreed to have its fungus removed in exchange for small gifts such as electricity. Jinx's player persuaded me that Jinx should roll on Medicine DC 22 for harvesting the fungus, since it was surgery on a living creature, with other players rolling Aid with Survival, my usual skill for harvesting. Due to the aid, she had a critical success and harvested 1.5 pounds of funngus.
Stargazer failed her Make an Impression on the second shambler, but Roshan tried Coercion on it. She succeeded. Since Roshan has ifrit heritage, I roleplayed the shambler as scared of fire (despite Resist fire 5). and it agreed to have the fungus removed if the party kept the fire monster away. They harvested 1 pound of fungus from it.
Stargazer rolled a natural 1 on her Glad-Hand with the 3rd shambler and it launched into combat with the party immediately. (Stargazer's player passed up spending a hero point for a reroll, because some other players liked combat.) Stargazer used her first turn in Encounter Mode retreating away from the angry shambler and beginning Courageous Anthem bard song. I declared that the jungle was difficult terrain, just because that felt right. That gave the party an advantage, because they had ranged attacks and did not need to move, but the shambler had only a melee vine attack with 10-foot reach. Also, Jinx began her Triple Time bard song to give her party more movement.
The party knew to not attack with electricity. Fire kineticist Cara was disappointed to learn that the shambler had Resist fire 5, but she had invested in the 5th-level option for cold fire and switched to that. Others used Ray of Frost/Frostbite. Cara also had an ability to create a cold aura around her that would not hurt allies, and closed in on the shambler. Roshan was also a melee fighter who closed in, and Jinx just happened to be within 10 feet on the 2nd turn, so they were all caught by the shambler's Vine Lash which did multiple attacks on all opponents within the vine's 10-foot reach. Roshan was critically hit for 38 damage, so she backed out of combat.
Most of the party's successful attack spells dealt only 9 damage (10 with the +1 damage from Courageous Anthem) and the save spells were even worse due to the shambler's high saves. In contrast, the starlit-span magus Zandre managed two critical hits with spellstrike Frostbite and dealt about 40 damage with each critical hit. Combat lasted only 3 turns. They harvested 1 pound of acrophage fungus from the dead shambler.
The party discussed whether to stop for an hour to fully heal up, or just for 10 minutes for a single Treat Wounds on Roshan, but the Translate spell was nearing the end of its one-hour duration, so Jinx cast a high-level Soothe on Roshan and they pressed on without a break. The fourth shambler agreed that its acrophage fungus was an annoying parasite and agreed to its removal without gifts. The party obtained another pound from it.
They spent the night at the iruxi village (I purchased the PDF of the NPC Core the day after this session and learned about iruxi musical traditions that I could have used for that night), while the fisherman stayed locked up in her boat's cabin at the base of Brimstone Falls. They returned to Nantambu to give 3 pounds of acrophage fungus to Fire-Pot Ubantu and 1 pound to the Magaambya. That left them with the extra half pound from a critical success. They sold that to Fire-Pot Ubantu for 25 gp. The party gave all 25 gp to Jinx, who combined it with her own funds to buy Expanded Healer's Tools.