Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Fantasy
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- Tags
- pathfinder
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
We kept one, IIRC, though it would take a huge amount of time to chip any significant amount of rock away and be very loud.
Update will be tomorrow, I was a bit too busy today unfortunately. I'll get to it in the morning.
Vote closed.
Arc 1 Post 44: In Hollow Halls, by Empty Light
In Hollow Halls, by Empty Light
The Season of Still Stone
If it were not for Gorok there is no way you would have found a way through the muddy slipways that wind down from the surface and spiral into a worm's nest of confusing tunnels. Then again, if it were not for Gorok you would not have to help carve the way through a tangle of what Cob had rightly called 'tumble thorns', roughly spherical masses of blue-black stems and thorns that scatter their seeds with the floods and then absorb all the water and humidity like a cork in a bottle. Thankfully you are only two thirds of the way through the Season of Stone, there is no torrent on the other-side waiting to drown the unwise explorer going up to find a tunnel at a higher elevation, but that does not mean the bloody thorns are any easier to deal with... literally bloody in many cases.
"Must be nice to have skin that can take the scratching," you announce, drawing a laugh from Mina, which cuts off into a sharp breath and a 'darn' that sounds strange indeed in the tongue of your people, though not as strange as the notion that somewhere above your head is a world where cursing at once's ill fortune is softened to similar sounding words.
As you finally make it to a higher elevation Gorok offers the first bit of comfort in what feels like ten-thousand beats. "Upper tunnel, buttressed, northsouth, no more thorns..."
He is as good as his word. The tunnel, just wide enough for Warty to slip through, though without a rider is trying, and thankfully absent the pervasive life you have been fighting so far, though not without the signs of other life. Large round faces with many rows of razor sharp teeth peer at you, their eyes left bare stone. Goblin markings. Even though Gorok had not seen nor heard any trace of them when he had scouted ahead, all of you keep your hands on your weapons.
What you eventually discover is far stranger than any ambush.
Past a barricade of ill-fitting stones with obvious sentry posts behind them, feathered and felted with whatever their occupants could find to make the bare stone more comfortable, the path opens into a long narrow gallery held up by limestone pillars painted even more extensively than the tunnel. Notched and carved with strange art, misshapen spiders whose eyes are bubbles in the stone, thin spires carved into the likeness of spears or spits with meat still hanging off them, rotting.
Pepper paws at a cold hearth, sending a charred bone rattling across the floor.
"Let's get out of here," Mina says anxiously.
"Forward faster than backward," Cob points out reasonably. Even Warty seems to give an approving warble, though come to think of it that may have been contemplative of if there is enough food to bother eating.
The gallery narrows as it moves westwards and after about half a mile the floor falls away into a narrow span of stone with water flowing a good twenty five feet below. As Gorok coaxes Warty over the bridge you notice something in the water. Bodies, goblin bodies. It is impossible to tell what might have killed them unless you want to have a swim, but the grey tone of their skin marks them for Stone Gobblers.
Once you are past the bridge your path is down through what does not seem to be another slipway but a tunnel built long ago by the same hands that had made the straight way, though these walls are far from straight, neat lines. Cracks run like branching wounds along its sides and in places it had even partially collapsed.
"We are level with the magic stone room." Gorok points towards an arch leading off to the side, this one covered in loose rock that in a thousand-beat is enough to clear, especially with Warty's help. The last impediment is... a door, an actual proper door, carved of white marble no less with veins of black that had been integrated into the design by some long gone sculptor who made of them a pair of large bat-like wings that sprout from the shoulders of a woman in the center of the door. You would have to split her in twine to open the way. For a moment Mina hesitates and you wonder if she is going to ask to turn back, but she does not, instead steeling herself to push on the door.
It opens without a sound, spilling crimson light out into the passage to reveal the chamber Gorok has spoken of before. Below polished stone and all around innings in the stone now empty, six in all, above a ceiling set with points of crimson lights in patterns bewildering and strange, but in the center of the chamber is a stature carved of the same marble as the door. The figure is obviously a woman, though not as you have ever seen one, with enormous wings like those of a bat sprouting from her slender shoulders, though the rest of her figure is far from it. Draped in robes clearly meant to reveal and entice far more than their cover, in her right hand is a goblet and in her left what you at first think of as a handful of daggers, but looking more closely you realize the weapons are not held but growing from her hand, nails sharp and deadly.
"This is a temple... and not to any goodly power," Mina breathes. "That looks almost like a sucubus, like the dream the goblins had spoken of."
"Looks valuable," Gorok points out. "We could take lights, sell in Cauldron."
What does Akorian think of this place?
[] It is dangerous, you should not linger
[] It is fascinating, take the time to study every part of the temple
[] Write in
OOC: Rolls would be somewhat spoiler-y to post so they will be added later.
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….who? (Or what?)
- Location
- Singapore
Fixed. It's Zura
- Location
- Argentina
So, what should be Kori's instinct here? Imitate the country bumpkins of his tribe and go all superstitious, and can curiosity overcome his ingrained xenophobia, even if curiosity killed the Caligni?
I thunk curiosity is simply more fun, and we are playing this party to have fun already.
[X] It is fascinating, take the time to study every part of the temple
Also we are fecking dealing in the future with whatever killed the whole tribe, it will ambush us, I am sure.
I thunk curiosity is simply more fun, and we are playing this party to have fun already.
[X] It is fascinating, take the time to study every part of the temple
Also we are fecking dealing in the future with whatever killed the whole tribe, it will ambush us, I am sure.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
My paranoia is tingling.
[X] This is an interesting discovery, but we should be careful not to draw the ire of the creature to which it is dedicated. Study it carefully.
-[X] Recommend that we touch nothing which has not first been examined for enchantments, curses, or contamination (Detect Magic from Kori or Mina, Detect Poison from Mina) and that Cob carefully check for traps. Whatever we may find that is valuable, we should probably avoid taking anything that bares the likeness of the winged woman, her symbol if it can be identified, or that might be integral to the function of the temple.
[X] This is an interesting discovery, but we should be careful not to draw the ire of the creature to which it is dedicated. Study it carefully.
-[X] Recommend that we touch nothing which has not first been examined for enchantments, curses, or contamination (Detect Magic from Kori or Mina, Detect Poison from Mina) and that Cob carefully check for traps. Whatever we may find that is valuable, we should probably avoid taking anything that bares the likeness of the winged woman, her symbol if it can be identified, or that might be integral to the function of the temple.
MordredRaal
Agitating
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] It is fascinating, take the time to study every part of the temple
Update tomorrow, it's Easter today so I did not have as much time as I might have liked to write. Hope you guys are not bored of all the searching around, we are about to get to the end of the arc and some big decisions.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
No hurry, dude. Enjoy the holiday. We're not going anywhere.
Votes are very close, but it does not looks like they will be moving anytime soon so vote closed.
Arc 1 Post 45: To Take and be Taken
To Take and be Taken
The Season of Still Stone
Caution inclines one to check before claiming any part of the chamber, but at first sight only the 'stars' above glow in a mage's eye and even those only with the dim aura no more remarkable than they aught. Thankfully you had come prepared not just with pitons and rope but also with some of Warty's slime to make the climber's grip more sure, an easy climb for such as Gorok or so at least you had expected. As he works though on hammering the sixth of the glowing shards out of the ceiling the piton holding him in place suddenly gives way, sending him falling backwards onto his back with an audible snap of the tail that makes you wince in sympathy. As Mina rushes to heal him though you pick up the steed spike and notice...
"It's like something's been eating at this." Scarred and pitted as if by acid, the damage does nonetheless bear the patina of rust. If you did not have other pieces to compare it to, the iron still unmarred, you might have mistaken it for neglect and mischance.
Gorok takes 6 damage; heals 9 damage from Healing Hex -> Unharmed
"Stones not glowing," Cob prods one with his foot then sends it clinking into the wall with a kick for good measure before picking it up. You are about to congratulate him on his caution when he picks it up and licks it. "Tastes... it tastes like iron, sharp-iron-stone."
Thanks to Mina's gifts you swiftly have a better name for it, red quartz. A pity it has no more magic to it, but it might still serve a magician's works.
Gained 22 pieces of Red Quartz Worth 660 gp
Emboldened by the success Gorok harnesses Warty to pull the statue from its place, it is sure to be worth a decent payout in Cauldron on the skill of the carving alone. Her eyes are heavy lidded, a frown just creasing her forehead and her lips are just parted, as though she were in the midst of starting to speak.
"Heave!" Gorok commands the slurk even as he starts to pull on the ropes himself.
Rather than the sound of shifting stone smashing against stone you are surprised to hear the clank of metal.
As the two of them stop you see that what you had taken for a conical support at the base of the stature had not been stone at all, but plaster disguised to have the same color as the local stone. It is pulled apart to reveal heavy steel chains fit to bind an ogre around perfectly formed feet of stone.
"That is not a statue!" Mina says, anxiety suddenly congealing to something far more urgent in her expression. "It's a fiend made stone! Get away from..."
Out of the corner of your eye you see Cob move suddenly, diving for the statue without a word. You do not hesitate, turning around to tackle the goblin full in the chest, sending the both of your smashing into the far wall. Something small clinks against the floor and though you cannot see it you know with a cold certainty what it is, the ring that had been taken from this very chamber.
"Stop, stop! Cob is Cob!" the Goblin shouts as he goes limp in your grip. The scratch on the left side of his face where it had scraped along the edge of the alcove is angry red, bleeding. Guilt jars you more than the wall had done. "Ring wanted Cob to put on finger of stone woman. Cob is good now, Cob will not touch ring no more."
What do you do?
[] Let him go, slowly, someone else will hang on to the ring
[] Get rid of the ring first somehow
-[] Gorok can smash it
-[] Feed it to Warty, a slurk's stomach acids are a potent thing
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: The vote for caution was part of the reason why Kori got that tackle roll, though fascination would have done it as well. Wanting to get away as fast as possible on the other hand would have had him thinking about leaving instead of paying attention.
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This update was actually pretty slow since I had to look up a bunch of things.
