Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

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Okay, there are several whales and sharks with the colour-setup as described.

Would we know if there are any supernatural associations with specific ones in Anwa-legend?
 
I can't remember anything off the top of my head, but to me that it looks like it's used for hunting points more to whales than sharks, we know that whales are hunted by the Anwa while we know nothing similar about the sharks.

Though if there is uncertainty, the vote can be something like

[] Try to answer the riddle
-[] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales and sharks.
 
[X] Try to answer the riddle
-[X] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales.

[X] Try to answer the riddle
-[X] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales and sharks.
 
@DragonParadox, editing for last update Arc 14 Post 61: The Hidden Way:
The Hidden Way

Fifth Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"The underside is strange..." Swift Pebble sends, "It is smooth as though it had been worn down by silt and silt swirls all around it still, a current that comes from nowhere and goes, just to that rock. Like magic?" the last she says more as a question than an answer for even after all this time she is not sure what is and is not magic, especially around Zaia and his works.

"Well then I hope the insides answer more questions than the outsides," Antonio says, passing with a clasp of the hand the odd ethereal sense of his own thoughts and of something far deeper, like a shadow just out of sight. "I've found it is usually so with things that come out of the sea."

"I'll see if I can gut a rock then..." you say, more glibly then you say as with rope and lantern you dive down the long dark of the crevice.

It would perhaps have made better sense to send Swift Pebble down here once more, but it is an uneasy thing and rightly so to lead without leading to not take the chance of the unknown yourself.

The walls are wet and reek of brine and rotting seaweed, still draped like ragged curtains across the shaft, but as soon as your eyes adapt to the light you can see the solid surface underneath, a pale stone contrasting with the darker pumice. Thus you soon land with a surprisingly soft thump in a pocket of air between the two layers of stone followed a moment later by Swift Pebble and then Wanderer and Esha last of all.

The only reason the sorceress isn't holding her nose is that she had to hold on to the rope, passing some of the slime off her hands, though at least she doesn't have to stoop through the narrow way most of the time at least. Thankfully the floor curves downward at a steeper angle than the roof, making it more easy as you move along.

Just as you finally manage to straighten your head you hear out of the dark a sing-song voice speaking a riddle in the tongue of the Anwa:

Dark on the bottom white on top
That's the sea, but if you swap?
What's white at bottom dark on top
Answer now thwap, thwap

The last do not sound words at all, but like a sort of wet thumping sound that makes you wonder uneasily what else besides worms has died down here.

Something glitters ahead in the pale light of Inge's conjuring. "Is that a knife?" the girl asks. She gets it close, but not quite right, it is a spear tip, though instead of the five inches that were common to the weapons of the Anwa this one was almost ten. Even more strangely it's point is jagged, it's edges serrated meant to pierce flesh and stay lodged in, a cruel thing.

What do you do?

[] Keep walking though the hollow

[] Try to answer the riddle
-[] Write in

[] Write in


OOC: Sorry this was so late guys, I had an inconvenient power outage.

Perhaps there a second "say" should be some other word, like "feel" or "think"?
you say, more glibly then you say

And there is still Inge inconsistency, when the group went down there, it was only Roland, Swift Pebble, Wanderer, and Esha, like it was specified in the vote:
Thus you soon land with a surprisingly soft thump in a pocket of air between the two layers of stone followed a moment later by Swift Pebble and then Wanderer and Esha last of all.
But then as Goldfish already pointed out it's written as if Inge is there with the group:
"Is that a knife?" the girl asks. She gets it close, but not quite right
Perhaps she should either be mentioned on descent if she decided to go with the group even though Roland did not call on her specifically, or her knife question should be removed / replaced?
 
Update has been fixed, it was really late last night so I put in Inge instead of Esha.
Sorry to tag you repeatedly, but if it's alright with you, this
Something glitters ahead in the pale light of Esha's conjuring. "Is that a knife?" the she asks.
would probably be better as follows:

Something glitters ahead in the pale light of Inge's conjuring. "Is that a knife?" Esha asks.

Because we have light of Inge's conjuring with us in the form of lanterns from her Light cantrip, but Esha doesn't have any lighting magic.
 
I can't remember anything off the top of my head, but to me that it looks like it's used for hunting points more to whales than sharks, we know that whales are hunted by the Anwa while we know nothing similar about the sharks.

Though if there is uncertainty, the vote can be something like

[] Try to answer the riddle
-[] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales and sharks.
Yeah, I'll go with that. I hope this doesn't cause some sort of fail condition if we get it wrong.

[X] Try to answer the riddle
-[X] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales and sharks.
 
[X] Try to answer the riddle
-[X] Many of the sea creatures, in particular, whales and sharks.
 
@DragonParadox, can you tell how large the space we are in right now? One of the reasons we went down with a limited number of people is because it was assumed that the space would be limited, but does that assumption actually hold? The pumice raft is a little bigger than Marcella, it's certainly possible for it to have ample inside space.
 
@DragonParadox, can you tell how large the space we are in right now? One of the reasons we went down with a limited number of people is because it was assumed that the space would be limited, but does that assumption actually hold? The pumice raft is a little bigger than Marcella, it's certainly possible for it to have ample inside space.

The room you are in for lack of a better word is just barely high enough for Rolarnd to stand in and it is about 30-35 ft long.
 
Ok, let's see how this works out.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jun 19, 2022 at 4:05 PM, finished with 23 posts and 8 votes.
 
Arc 14 Post 62: Leviathan
Leviathan

Fifth Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Whales," you answer, recalling as you do that it is a trial of great strength among the Anwa to hunt such a beast with just such a weapon as you have found. "Sharks also..." Something shifts underfoot by some unseen current as Wanderer snaps his head back whence you had come, but even as you come near to biting your tongue you say, "And other creatures of the sea besides of which there are many."

The shaking stops as abruptly as it had started, the last swaying of the light casting strange shadows on the dark stone of the walls. Wait, the walls... You look down to see black boots on a pale surface covered in a patina that is more than water. As you open your mouth to speak again the same odd voice echoes from the far reaches of the chamber.

"Many creatures of the sea... one is much like the other then?" a thrumming pause hangs there and then a question poisonously soft. "So if I were to slay the creature you call Ripper that even now swims close, then he would be to you much as any other. Curious that he should dare to come so close when you value him so little."

"It's alive... it's all alive," you had never heard that tone in Swift Pebble's manner, as a drowning soul gasping out a desperate call.

That is when you see it... above there is stone arching in a rough-hewn dome, to your left, to your right there is stone, but below the shifting pale floor, too smooth like the underside Ripper had claimed to have seen in the silt that was alive, the body of some titanic beast in armor of pumice.

"You asked a riddle and I made my guess," you answer, your voice more steady than you had expected it to be, perhaps more steady than it aught to have been given where you stand. "If you wish to take it for an insult then I cannot stop you, save to say that I did not mean it so. If you would make threats against one who had lead faithfully and fought with honor then beware, be ye creature of flesh or spirit or dragon of the depths."

A strange gurgling sound echoes under the vault of stone... It takes you a moment to recognize it as mirth. "Three tasks I was asked to put to you: one of mind, one of might and one of will. You failed one, but should you pass through the others then you shall have that twice stolen..."

"What the hell is going on?" Antonio's voice cuts through the strange offer. "All the otter-kin are running around like their tails are on fire..."

"It's not a stone, but a beast with a shell of stone on its back."
You get the dubious honor of learning five new curses in the span of an instant. "It's man-clever at least, it wants us to play a game."

The moment of frozen shock spreads like ice over a fountain pool, stilling the chatter of your company, then Esha clears her throat and primly proclaims. "Is it not thought ill done among your kind to make a riddle that only you can be the answer for?"

Again the laughter comes and then a single word: "Choose."

"Should we barge in and make bloody sheets of the fog?" Antonio asks and to be honest you are more then a little tempted and yet you recall well the other words, the talk of rewarding you in something precious is not without its own temptation.

What do you do?

[] Call out to Antonio that he needs to fight it from without as you did from within

[] Try to take the trial, as much for the curiosity as the promise of reward


OOC: You guys were surprisingly close with your guesses.
 
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So is it Formless, or what? Some unrelated beasts?

In regards to what to do, I'm honestly not sure, but maybe taking the trial is better, Roland is sufficiently mighty and sufficiently strong-willed, while if we start to fight it, would it even be possible to win? We don't know anything about it's capabilities.

@DragonParadox, is just running an option? Roland and the group tries to get out and back to Marcella as fast as possible, and Marcella tries to get away from it full speed?
 
So is it Formless, or what? Some unrelated beasts?

In regards to what to do, I'm honestly not sure, but maybe taking the trial is better, Roland is sufficiently mighty and sufficiently strong-willed, while if we start to fight it, would it even be possible to win? We don't know anything about it's capabilities.

@DragonParadox, is just running an option? Roland and the group tries to get out and back to Marcella as fast as possible, and Marcella tries to get away from it full speed?

It is, but a distraction from Antonio and company would likely make it much easier
 
Of course it would end up being some sort of disguised monster with a pumice overcoat. Effin' Formless...

Not particularly interested in trying to play any game where the rules not only are unknown to us, but are likely to change at the whim of the monster that's already made implied threats against Ripper.

[X] Call out to Antonio that he needs to fight it from without as you did from within
 
[X] Try to take the trial, as much for the curiosity as the promise of reward
 
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Overall I think fighting it would be harder than the trial, the trial is somewhat constrained, while fighting would involve going against it's whole might.

And it says it was asked to put us to trial, so probably it's not something completely outlandish, there should be some constraints making it passable by specifically us at least in theory.

[X] Try to take the trial, as much for the curiosity as the promise of reward
 
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