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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brakkart" data-source="post: 2554753" data-attributes="member: 19617">DM's Log of Session FortyFrom what Masembe told them, the party decided that the most likely location for Esau's laboratory was in one of the two stepped pyramids overlooking the vast plaza, as only those two buildings corresponded to the location they saw in the scrying pool back in Tashluta, of a balcony overlooking a vast plaza lined with standing stones. with this in mind, the group realised that they needed to head around the outskirts of the city towards the northern end of the vast partially ruined sprawl to be closer to where their target was most likely to be.They stayed low, travelling by means of a shallow overgrown ravine, which had plenty of canopy cover, so as to avoid detection from the air, as now and then they shrunk down as the winged form of a Ssvaklor would pass overhead. It was while pushing their way past bushes and through hanging creepers that one of the plants made a lunge at Zamtap who was bringing up the rear of the group, a huge maw opening in the bush narrowly missing the priest with its bite.Hearing the clerics call of surprise and alarm, Ki tumbled in and slashed at the Tendriculos with his claw bracer which had little effect, simply tearing off a few leaves which grew back within seconds. A huge vine tentacle shot out from the plant mass then, wrapping itself about the ,onks usually nimble feet and picking him up off the ground, he dropped into the creature cavernous mouth, wooden teeth puncturing his flesh and holding him fast. Another tendril shot out to wrap about Aeron. Zamtap spread his hands and chanted, calling into being a Spritiual Warhammer and sends it to bash the creature, while he pulls out a bottle of Alchemist's Fire. Never one for subtlety. Jebodiah simply bellowed and charged into the fray, attacking with his new handaxe, Stormcleaver slung on his back as he had agreed with the others in the group that the chance of it thundering was too risky, and the noise would be far too likely to draw unwanted attention to them. Ben was right behind the dwarf, the big ape tearing into the plant monster, and causinbg it enough damage to distract it, Aeron taking advantage of that to slip free of its grip and back away, his mind remembering lessons on dangerous flora, and figuring out just what it was they were fighting, he calling to the others "Bludgeon it!". Masembe simply started summoning.Struggling in the creatures mouth, Ki managed to get a punch in before he vanioshed from view, swallowed whole and sliding into the creatures gullet, he swallowed a mouthful of its strange stomach juices, his body going utterly rigid as he could feel himself being digested! The creature lashed out with both tentacles, missing Jebodiah with both, and hitting the side of the ravine behind the dwarf with one of them doing itself some damage. The glowing warhammer continued to batter it, zam,tap drawing his own warhammer and joining in the assault, giving up on firing it now that it has Ki in its belly. Jebodiah snarled as his axe sliced through leaves but did nothing more, none of his blows hitting anything of substance, and the ground erupted beside him then, as an Earth Elemental, summoned by Masemebe joined the fray, though its rocky fists failed to connect, the druid moving a bit closer and beginning another summoning spell. As Ben tore into the Tendriculos, so Aeron cast Mass Enlarge Person to make it impossible for the creature to swallow any more of the group.The Tendriculos managed to bite Jebodiah then but was unable (due to the dwarves sudden increase in size) to grab him, and its tentacles missed both Ben and Zamtap, the clerics own warhammer striking it again, though the spiritual one missed. The pain from his wound sent Jebodiah in a frenzied rage, the barbarian tearing into the creature and dropping it, though as he stood victorious over it, it was apparent that its wounds were swiftly knitting back together, new leaves and branches rapidly replacing those his axe had snapped off. Finishing his chanting, Masembe gestured and a Thoqqua tunnelled upout of the ground, but missed with its glowing point, the elemental failed to hit, Ben tripped and fell over and the druid moved up to beside the collapsed creature and also missed! From the back of the party Aeron clapped his hands and called out encouragement!Zamtap's spiritual warhammer swiftly put an end to the Tendriculos, and the started to try and get Ki free from inside the pile of collapsed vegetation. Jebodiah calmed his breathing and regained control of his temper, feeling the after effects of having lost it, buit nevertheless lending Zamtap a hand to pull their monk out, helped also by Ben, the task quickly accomplished. While Zamtap saw to patching up wounds sustained during the brief battle, Aeron and Masembe searched through its remains, but found just 60 pieces of gold for their efforts.Reaching roughly the area they wanted, the group paused to come up with a plan, eventually settling on Masembe's idea to head into the city in stages, working their way closer towards their target and hiding in the ruins, being as stealthy as was possible. With this decided on, Masembe (in snake form) and Ki (being his usual sneaky self) went ahead of the rest of the party to find a suitable location for their first campsite in the ruins, returning a couple hours later to report having found a derelict bazaar of sorts, though with one snag, the place had numerous snakes lying around."Great," muttered Aeron "more instant dinosaurs".With the possible threat of having one or more Ti-Khana creatures to deal with, the group debated trying to find another location, only for Masembe to point out:"It's a city of snakemen, snake-like monsters and snakes. Wherever we try we are going to run into snakes. Ki and I looked at a few places, this is the best location we could find, some of the buildings still have roofs which we'll need to hide under to stay unseen by the Ssvaklor's".With that in mind, the debate ended and the group readied itself for a possible fight as they made their way towards the ruined bazaar, activating brooches and casting numerous protective magics on themselves and each other, particularly Neutralise Poison.Deciding to enter the bazaar from two of the alleyways that led into the broad courtyard, Ki sneaks down one, while behind him Masembe began summoning, while Jebodiah simply charged out and swung his aze into one of the many snakes basking in the tropical sunshine. Aeron flew up and hovered just over a ruined building at the edge of the courtyard, casting a Dispel Magic on several of the slumbering snakes that had no effect, while Zamtap moved into the courtyard also and readied a casting of Doom.Masembe gestured and conjured a crocodile into being, its jaws snapping at a snake near Ki but missing, as the snake shifted form, growing and growing, to the alarm of the nearby monk and those watching, it taking on a huge two legged form, massive jaws filled with dagger-like teeth opening as its eyes spotted Ki almost instantly , drawn by the monks attempt to move stealthily. Jebodiah finished off the snake he had sliced already and on seeing the huge shape of the Ti-Khana Tyrannosaurus Rex, he ducked into a doorway. From his vantage point, Aeron had a grand view of the great lizard and imediately cast Phantasmal Killer at it, but the spell merely hurt the creature.DM's Notes:Figured I'd end the groups run of T-Khana creatures with a real doozy. I love T-Rexes, have done since I was a kid, and I'm a huge fan of the Jurassic Park movies so it was kinda inevitable that I'd fit one in somewhere in the dinosaur jungle. A shame I couldn't have a Spinosaurus really, but a TK Spiney would be like CR 15 and there is no way the group would survive that fight! Tricky part is I need the party to go up a couple levels so either they face lots and lots of creatures (not really realistic, such losses would soon be noticed by those in the city and a far more more powerful force than the PC's could handle would be dispatched to hunt them down), or a few tough battles against higher CR rated creatures. Neither option is without its difficulties though!</blockquote>

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