The Slave and Her Sovereign

[Nephis]

ARUNNY quickly perceives the danger and attempts to shield herself and the others from it. However, when she meet the eyes of the materializing Justicar, there is both recognition and satisfaction in their gleam. He stares at her for what seems a long moment but must truly only be a mere blink.

Then he throws out his hands in their direction in a circular gesture. His fingers stretch out into tentacle-like shadows, grabbing at Qamra. As Arunny looks on helplessly, she suddenly recognizes that there are already tentacles attached to Ibhea's forehead, slightly thicker than the ones diving into the young warrior's head.

Xin Mae gapes in horror, writhing shadow tentacles assaulting his three comrades. Qamra shrieks and grasps her head between her hands. Ibhea falters, bends, retches. Arunny, shaking, looks first at her open hands, then up at him. "My fault," she says softly.

---

* Arunny uses Secondary Skill Perception (+15 = Autosuccess) to gain a + 2 bonus (essentially CA) to

* Hand of Radiance ATK vs. Justicar: r(4) + 10 + 2 CA = 16 vs. 21 NAD. Miss

* Glare of Doom vs. Qamra: r(20) + 10 = 30 vs. 18 Will = Hit. Qamra cursed; vs. Arunny: r(9) + 10 = 19 vs. 20 Will = Miss. Curse remains the same DC; vs. Ibhea: r(18) + 10 = 28 vs. 20 Will = Hit. Ibhea now + 4 Religion DC to remove curse.

 

[Manbearcat]

3 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/2 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

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Feeding upon malice and cruelty, the undead priest at the nexus of this horror begins an unbroken liturgy. As dark whispers resound throughout the cave, shadows peel apart the manifesting justicar to coalesce into a writing mass…a mass that begins to take shape as a new, powerful, amplified aspect of Eztcoatl.

The terrible patron of the twisted entity that imbued the Life Defiler with its magnitude in both life and undeath is giving the priest renewed purchase in the material world!

---

How do you break the liturgy? How do you prevent the high magnitude renewal of Eztcoatl? If you cannot then SC fails and Eztcoatl manifests as a level 6 Solo (Level +1) + the hazard from the last conflict for Level +2 combat.

MEDIUM DC

 

[darkbard]

IBHEA recognizes now the nature of the threat they face: Eztcoatl is a potent practitioner of the necromantic arts, no doubt; but he has too the might of a whole religion, however ancient, behind him, and the power of the once-god, Nerull the Reaper. Is he dead no more?

The whisky priest feels he commits a most heinous betrayal, one for which he may never completely atone. Yet no other choice presents itself. Delban's power is not strong enough to meet this threat. Ibhea calls upon Her Radiant Majesty once again, this time invoking the Rites of Light Triumphant over Time, hoping that whatever disjunction allows Eztcoatl this lingering presence can be healed through their Goddess's intervention.

---

Ibhea makes a Primary Skill Religion check to fight liturgy with liturgy, hoping to prevent Eztcoatl's renewal, r(16) +15 = 31 vs 17 Moderate DC. Success!

 

[Manbearcat]

4 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/2 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

---

Eztcoatl’s shadowmass is undone by Ibhea’s supernatural words and intonations. With some measure of protest from the ancient entity, the scrivener’s lamplight shunts him to the periphery where the shadows lurking seem to grab a hold of the cursed priest’s dark, coalescing form and rend it into disparate pieces in all directions.

Xin Mae’s own terror finally catches up with him. Both mundane and supernatural, the scrivener is suddenly taken by awful fear as this entire spectacle washes over him at once.

His hand shakes.

The light wavers.

His face stricken as he looks down at his quavering digits, somehow knowing that if he drops this material conduit for this ritual of light that all will be undone.

---

How do you comfort or otherwise bulwark your loyal scrivener? Or if he drops the light, how can you possibly catch it in time!

MEDIUM DC

 

[Nephis]

The wavering lamplight catches the attention of all. Time is still in flux as the priests turn as if in molasses to see how they can help the hapless scrivener. Then, as on an earlier, happier day (could it have only been a few days ago?), time speeds back up. Almost before the words are out of Arunny's mouth - "Qamra, aid him!" - the seer sees fast movement out of the corner of her eye.

QAMRA instinctively and literally leaps into action, tumbling adeptly over the ancient bones remaining of the behemoth they fought earlier and running to the scrivener's side. She quickly but gently rests her hands on his, steadying his tremor, while her foot balletically lifts to hold up the lamp until he is calm again.

---

Qamra uses Primary Skill Acrobatics check to reach the scrivener quickly and help him balance the lamp: r(6) + 12 = 18 vs. 17 DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

5 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/2 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

---

Breath is finally caught, light is steadied, comforting (and comforted!) smiles are exchanged.

Nerull the Reaper has more than a few sites like this in the world; just hidden from the light of the sun and the moon as if to mock them. But the chimney in this place has the bearing of hewn work, yet not carved by mundane tools. The stone seems bored through by the cold, penetrating gaze of the moonlight…of The Moon Maiden…as if searching…

The terrible priests of Nerull forge their cruel curses as smiths do. Burn a singular bone of their collected victims in a crucible admixed with corrupting agents, words of binding, and unholy steel to encase it all. The Moon Maiden has been “looking for it” to boil away this physical prison in her cold, purifying light.

It must be in this place and very near to her penetrating light…

---

MEDIUM DC

How do you find the cursed crucible (or, perhaps, how does it reveal itself to you) and the imprisoning slag within? What do you do with it and the beshadowed blade that drew forth the bones of cursed victims?

 

[Nephis]

ARUNNY watches the fleet dance of the Blessed through the air of the shadowy cavern, in aid of the Scrivener, and she is astonished at what she witnesses. The molecules through which Qamra flies fall away, swept along by a tide of whispers, these motes of dust reflecting light from the Radiant Downdraft of the Maiden's Keyhole.

They ebb and flow through the currents of her thoughts and observations. The Searing Voice, listening to their faint melody, feels a breeze of cool fingers turning her focus onto a specific current, the journey of a specific wave of radiant motes, their journey taking them to the razor-sharp rocks, the rocks' reflecting their light as the light reflects their dangerously sharp edges.

Now the Seer sees. She points her finger at the abandoned firepit. "Look, Ibhea. Do you see the bubbling magma below? It's making such a cacophonous sound, is it not?" Without hesitation, Arunny steps forward and carefully unearths the inert crucible - cool to the touch - and lays the beshadowed dagger into it. Then she lifts her morningstar, bringing it down upon them, smashing both into shards of dust.

---

Arunny uses her Primary Skill Perception check to find (and destroy) the cursed crucible (and dagger): r(13) + 15 = 28 vs. 16 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

The spectral hand of the dark priest of Nerull, Eztcoatl, materializes momentarily at the sundering. It shakes, flexes and balls into a fist as if in protest, then crumbles into nothingness

The air is suddenly, violently sucked out of the cave as the sacrifices bound to this place all find their metaphysical remedy with the curse lifted. Their souls join their loved ones in the afterlife.

With the site consecrated, only the cool radiance of The Moon Maiden peering through her keyhole in the stone ceiling remains.

---

XP & LOOT

* 600 (CUP) + 300 * 4 (CUJ * 2 + FRD + TDB) + 75 * 4 (EOS) - 300 (Qamra) = 1800/2 = 900 xp apeice

* Skill Challenge: 600 - 75 (Qamra Primary Skill Success) = 525/2 = 263/262 xp

* All 4 characters (P & C as well as A & I) gain 1 magic item of level 7 or lower, Rare items included.

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Make Camp

* Vignette the evening with camp, magic items, reflections, anticipation for the day to come.

* Cast Fortune.

* Extended Rest Refresh with all powers/AP.

* Mark provisions.


Once done, I'll give you the first obstacle of your very, very perilous journey through the canyon; Complexity 1, Level +4 SC!

 

[darkbard]

The votaries release a collective sigh of relief to match the sucking of air from the once-fouled area beneath the great overhanging rock. Their immediate peril is over, and so too is the curse that trapped malevolence and innocents alike in its echo through time.

Freed from any overt thread, the four companions share a simple meal of boiled lentils and rice, then make their rest beneath the stony outcropping, lit only by the streaming light of the Moon Maiden through the chimney. But their sleep is anything but restful, disturbed by images of blood and doom.

“We have laid to rest The Blooddrinker’s spirit, and that of his victims,” notes Arunny when they wake, “but his curse lingers upon us. Let us purify our bodies through Our Lady’s Liturgy of the Rising Sun.” As dawn breaks across the gorge, they supplicate themselves to the incarnation of Omthala as it rises on the horizon, intoning the sacred words in unison, cleansing their hands and faces in ritualized fashion.

When the liturgy is complete and Qamra’s face shines once again with youth and hope, Ibhea nods. “Our devotions are made, and happily resolved. We are ready to face the steep challenges of the day, I daresay: to avoid the feral raiders that hunt these lands and the Canyon Worm both, if our luck serves.”

And so the assembled set out into the canyon of scrub brush and dust, the relentless sun beating down upon them overhead.

Yet Arunny keeps a secret. When The Goddess spared the others further suffering from the justicar’s curse, she withheld her blessing from Her Searing Voice. Why should that be? Is it not the whisky priest who divides his devotion between Mother and Son?

---

Item Reward Choices: Arunny: Boots of the Fencing Master (L7), Chanvati: Philosopher’s Crown (L7), Ibhea: Boots of Elvenkind (L7), Pa’avu: Marauder’s Hide Armor +2 (L7)

XP 11,214/13,000

Extended Rest: All Encounter & Daily resources refresh. Reset to 1 Action Point each.

Religion checks vs Justicar’s Curse of Doom DC 16:

Arunny, r(4) +3 = 7. Failure. First failed check. Until the target is no longer cursed, it takes 3 psychic damage whenever it misses every target with an attack power. At the end of each of the target's extended rests, it makes a DC 16 Religion check to try to end the curse. First Failed Check: The psychic damage increases to 6. Second Failed Check: The psychic damage increases to 9. Third Failed Check: The target dies.

Ibhea, r(12) +15 = 27. Success. Curse Removed.

Qamra, r(16) +4 = 20. Success. Curse Removed.

Arunny’s Cast Fortune roll: 1 (!!!).

Provisions marked: 2 Survival Days remaining x4 N/PCs + Adventurer’s kit rations (A & I).

 

[Manbearcat]

Drect, extremely dangerous route (C1, level +4 SC) straight through the choking canyon that skirts the southern edge of the Raider's Steppe where feral tribes zealously guard their territory, where their ancient barrows of infamous tribal warriors haunt, and where The Canyon Worm is ever in search of a meal.


Goal: Journey to The Pit through the perilous choking canyon that skirts the southern edge of the Raider's Steppe.

Complexity 1, Level +4 Challenge (DCs 13, 19 and vs NAD 23, vs AC 25)

1 Secondary Skill @ Easy DC

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The mouth of the canyon is split by a high butte so that a pair of snaking routes runs parallel to each other until the butte ends in about 2-3 hours of trekking.

The eastern section features a lower face on your right side so the full weight of the sun bears down on you to brutal effect for the entirety of that few hour transit (1).

The western section features the high butte that blots out the sun, but it isn't possessed of the dense ground cover of the eastern side. The limestone floor is pocked and eaten away by the role of erosion and weathering. Sections have fallen away into caves below and other sections have gaping holes below the substrate just waiting to suddenly collapse should you venture into the wrong terrain (2).

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Which course do you chart and how do you navigate the attendant danger?

MEDIUM DC (all)