"It seems... My question remain unanswered, but before we get to that, I beileve that... We have a company." Heju smiled darkly, "Perhaps, someone could step out of shadow and talk about their desire?"
Reeling for a few moments from the sudden shift in lighting, Hanqiu hears Heju call out to…someone, and decides to cautiously keep it moving until there’s more tangible evidence of whatever/whoever that might have been.
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden Both of you feel a shift in temperature, literally chilling you right down to the bone, as a dark, malevolent, yet very vaguely familiar voice reverberates through your heads "I have come for revenge. You have vanquished me once before, but I have come back this time, more than tenfold more powerful. Prepare to experience a slow, painful, and foggy end at my hands. Your permanent death is nigh." The elves, humans, and Enchelei, however don't seem to notice it and keep walking, calling back for you to join them and you get the sense the entity isn't directly in the area. What would you like to do?
Hanqiu takes note of the words, but otherwise ignores them and keeps moving. Having dealt with a number of both intangible forces and similarly vague threats in his line of work, he doesn't think there's anything to fear from such hazy intent. Even on the off chance the threat is both real and followed through on, there's nothing he can do until it becomes either a curse or a tangible assault, so he sees little point in giving it much thought before then.
"So, unless you would be so kind and show up, I beileve that your words are meaningless to me. Do not insult my power, until you face them." The inkling whispered rusty to the fog then it follows Hanqiu, mainly due to unable to see but only sense life beings.
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden And so, you leave the Fortress of Xarxendroth. Once you get out, you notice a large group of humans, dwarves, elves, Enchelei, lizardfolk, dragonpeople, and others who seem to have organized themselves into siege teams with sophisticated war machines, such as fireball-spitting cannons and siege towers as fortified as the fortress it self, with arcane ballistas mounted on their top, rushing to besiege the crumbling fortress and defeat the more stubborn of Xarxendroth's minions. What would you like to do now? Visit the village, leave the area to go explore for other interesting occurences, investigate the weird phenomena, or else?
I can't think of any reason to stick around, so we might as well go see what else the realm has to offer (i.e. 'explore for other interesting occurrences').
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden And so you leave the fortress and continue out, eventually leaving the area and heading toward a forest you haven't explored before. As you go in, you notice a particularly tall tree with a hole that seems to lead under the tree and then up the tree, which, after inspection, seems to be hollow. At its top, about what seems roughly 500 feet above the ground, you see a faint yet bright magical green light coming from a rocklike object. What would you like to do now?
Grateful for the natural shelter, Hanqiu starts setting up camp for the time being. Upon noticing the strange glow, he gazes nonplussed at it for a few moments before returning to his work. "Heju, you wouldn't happen to have an inkling (pun intended) as to what that might be or how we could get up there, would you?"
Heju would take a look at the strange glow where Hanqiu gazed at.
"That... Depends." Heju said rusted by the slime that flowing around his voicebox as if he were whispering. "If we were to find a someone who could reach the creature.... With wings, or someone with knowledge of able to reach something that cannot be normally reached. Then inkling can use that to bring us up to there."
(Heju needs a creature with reach to transform an inkling that can summon tentacles to turn into vine-like for him and Hanqiu to climb up.)
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden As Heju relays this message to Hanqiu, you both notice very faintly glowing green old yet very durable vines running up the tree. They look like they might hold your wait but you do not know if they are dangerous. You also begin to hear distant rumbling sounds echoing down the tree.
Heju is unable to see the vine that was little brighten up by the strange glow, but if a rumble sound was made by a life form, Heju will be able to sense he is not alone. That is up to Hanqiu whether to realize vine's present or not.
Taking note of the vines as he sets a couple supplies against the trunk, Hanqiu dismisses the notion that they might be able to climb the tree with them, as it's unlikely mere vines would hold long enough to reach whatever might be up there, and falling from even a relatively short way up would surely be lethal, perhaps crippling if they were extremely lucky.
Upon hearing the distant rumble, Hanqiu deftly sets about retrieving what little he's managed to set down. "Time to go I suppose," he mutters, wary and preparing for combat.
If the source of the noise doesn't reach the pair before he finishes packing, Hanqiu intends to leave the tree immediately.
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden Before you can escape, the entrance disappears and looks like it was never there. You are stuck inside the tree. The rumbling gets closer and closer, before two of these land in front of you and yell "Beware those who would trod upon the domain of the great Shard!" Combat, vs x2: However, one catches you by surprise and slams into Hanqiu for 3. Then it's your turn.
@FireOfGolden Hanqiu will let Heju act first. If the inklings can deal at least 2 damage to each of the Shardborn Guardians, Hanqiu can both slay the Shardborn Guardians and reduce the elementals that'll spawn from their death triggers to 1/1s via Smoldering Spite into Curseblight.
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden And so, both guardians are lacerated, then withered to death. Two minor elementals leap from the sides of the tree, only to be withered down to their last legs too. Desperate, they both lunge for Heju, trying to take down the less resilient of their two attackers, reducing Heju to a 3/2. Then it's your turn again.
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden As the last elemental falls, the vines glow iridescent green and start flashing, with an extremely bright bead of green light traveling up until you can't see anymore, then reappearing at the bottom of the vines and restarting the cycle repeatedly. You are still stuck in the tree because of entrance somehow sealing itself off with tough, damp roots. What would you like to do now?
Hanqiu stares up for a few moments at the light show. Well, this doesn't look good, but I doubt either of us have the ability to do anything about that…what did those creatures call it? A shard? If it's incomplete, perhaps it'll exhaust itself if we wait?
Chuckling quietly at how unlikely that train of thought is to bear fruit, Hanqiu steps away from the vines and opts to wait until something changes.
Heju will see if he can't create an inkling to feast on the corpses to become a test subject to use the vine. (Assuming that Hanqiu pointed out vine's existence to Heju and shown where is it.)
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden The inkling east the corpses and then, upon touching the vine, starts climbing up with ease. It goes out of sight for a while, then climbs back down in a half torn and ripped state, barely reaching the bottom and nearly dead. What would you like to do now?
Have inkling learned about the strange sound? ALL inklings share mind, so what did inkling seen is shared to Heju. If it happened too quick for inkling to handle then;
"Well. At least we now know that the vines you speak of is secured. Unfortunately, there is a barrier at top and minion was unable to recall what attacked it."
@cadstar369@FireOfGolden The campaign isn't progressing due to a mix of GM work and player semi-inparticipation, so i'm gonna have to do this. Suddenly, vines lash out and seize you both, immobilizing you to the vines and dragging you roughly up until you see a vague outline of large hydralike creature above you, the glowing object you saw before nestled in it's grasp. The vines continue pulling you towards it. What would you like to do? Flavor card:
Welp, Hanqiu can do naught but wait while the two of them are dragged closer to the creature.
~~~
To respond to your concerns, this campaign seems to suffer from giving the players too much freedom in an empty world, similar to many sections of Arkanion. For a large portion of the campaign, the PCs have had nowhere to go, no knowledge of anywhere they might want to go, no recurring characters to speak to or otherwise seek out, and no objective aside from the nebulous side quest to “find out more about the Ancient Crusader,” as they still have no idea why he deigned to interact with them or what he might otherwise want. (There’s also the apparent divine intervention and Xarxendroth’s alleged return and subsequent threat, but those events are insubstantial as far as the PCs are concerned.) With all that, it is no wonder sections of this campaign progress like pulling teeth; the players don't know what the GM wants from them, and the GM hasn't given the players much of anything to explore.
For the current encounter, why not just have it be along the lines of “the tree seals up around the PCs as they enter, twining vines pulling them up toward [a chamber containing] a monstrous creature clutching a pulsing verdant gemstone,” and start combat? (Unless the creature has both the capacity and desire/motive to converse with the PCs.) When presented with “something strange is glowing green up there, but it’s a 500 foot climb with only vines for footholds,” the situation doesn’t exactly seem like anything the PCs would reasonably have any tools to interact with, particularly when attempting the climb will probably result in them falling to their death. There’s also nothing to stand on (so far as the PCs are aware), so how would they interact with whatever the source of the glow is, assuming they manage to reach it?
Looking at the most recent development from Hanqiu's perspective as an example of 'too much freedom,' the PCs are “immobilized,” so Hanqiu can't use most, if not all, of his currently established spells/abilities, and he doesn't expect Heju to have any outs either. Even if they somehow managed to free themselves though, they’d just fall and die. Why ask what the PCs want to do in this moment when they appear to have no options?
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Both of you feel a shift in temperature, literally chilling you right down to the bone, as a dark, malevolent, yet very vaguely familiar voice reverberates through your heads "I have come for revenge. You have vanquished me once before, but I have come back this time, more than tenfold more powerful. Prepare to experience a slow, painful, and foggy end at my hands. Your permanent death is nigh." The elves, humans, and Enchelei, however don't seem to notice it and keep walking, calling back for you to join them and you get the sense the entity isn't directly in the area. What would you like to do?
And so, you leave the Fortress of Xarxendroth. Once you get out, you notice a large group of humans, dwarves, elves, Enchelei, lizardfolk, dragonpeople, and others who seem to have organized themselves into siege teams with sophisticated war machines, such as fireball-spitting cannons and siege towers as fortified as the fortress it self, with arcane ballistas mounted on their top, rushing to besiege the crumbling fortress and defeat the more stubborn of Xarxendroth's minions. What would you like to do now? Visit the village, leave the area to go explore for other interesting occurences, investigate the weird phenomena, or else?
And so you leave the fortress and continue out, eventually leaving the area and heading toward a forest you haven't explored before. As you go in, you notice a particularly tall tree with a hole that seems to lead under the tree and then up the tree, which, after inspection, seems to be hollow. At its top, about what seems roughly 500 feet above the ground, you see a faint yet bright magical green light coming from a rocklike object. What would you like to do now?
"That... Depends." Heju said rusted by the slime that flowing around his voicebox as if he were whispering. "If we were to find a someone who could reach the creature.... With wings, or someone with knowledge of able to reach something that cannot be normally reached. Then inkling can use that to bring us up to there."
(Heju needs a creature with reach to transform an inkling that can summon tentacles to turn into vine-like for him and Hanqiu to climb up.)
As Heju relays this message to Hanqiu, you both notice very faintly glowing green old yet very durable vines running up the tree. They look like they might hold your wait but you do not know if they are dangerous. You also begin to hear distant rumbling sounds echoing down the tree.
Upon hearing the distant rumble, Hanqiu deftly sets about retrieving what little he's managed to set down. "Time to go I suppose," he mutters, wary and preparing for combat.
If the source of the noise doesn't reach the pair before he finishes packing, Hanqiu intends to leave the tree immediately.
Before you can escape, the entrance disappears and looks like it was never there. You are stuck inside the tree. The rumbling gets closer and closer, before two of these land in front of you and yell "Beware those who would trod upon the domain of the great Shard!"
Combat, vs x2:
However, one catches you by surprise and slams into Hanqiu for 3. Then it's your turn.
Heju will extend its neck-like to let his slimy teeths sink onto Shardborn Guardian's arm then rips it off only to spit it to another.
(Heju casted Bitten by an Inkling on each Shardborn Guardian, each are at 3/1 now.)
And so, both guardians are lacerated, then withered to death. Two minor elementals leap from the sides of the tree, only to be withered down to their last legs too. Desperate, they both lunge for Heju, trying to take down the less resilient of their two attackers, reducing Heju to a 3/2. Then it's your turn again.
As the last elemental falls, the vines glow iridescent green and start flashing, with an extremely bright bead of green light traveling up until you can't see anymore, then reappearing at the bottom of the vines and restarting the cycle repeatedly. You are still stuck in the tree because of entrance somehow sealing itself off with tough, damp roots. What would you like to do now?
Chuckling quietly at how unlikely that train of thought is to bear fruit, Hanqiu steps away from the vines and opts to wait until something changes.
The inkling east the corpses and then, upon touching the vine, starts climbing up with ease. It goes out of sight for a while, then climbs back down in a half torn and ripped state, barely reaching the bottom and nearly dead. What would you like to do now?
You here?, or is it time to tune the campaign for the better again?
"Well. At least we now know that the vines you speak of is secured. Unfortunately, there is a barrier at top and minion was unable to recall what attacked it."
The campaign isn't progressing due to a mix of GM work and player semi-inparticipation, so i'm gonna have to do this.
Suddenly, vines lash out and seize you both, immobilizing you to the vines and dragging you roughly up until you see a vague outline of large hydralike creature above you, the glowing object you saw before nestled in it's grasp. The vines continue pulling you towards it. What would you like to do?
Flavor card:
~~~
To respond to your concerns, this campaign seems to suffer from giving the players too much freedom in an empty world, similar to many sections of Arkanion. For a large portion of the campaign, the PCs have had nowhere to go, no knowledge of anywhere they might want to go, no recurring characters to speak to or otherwise seek out, and no objective aside from the nebulous side quest to “find out more about the Ancient Crusader,” as they still have no idea why he deigned to interact with them or what he might otherwise want. (There’s also the apparent divine intervention and Xarxendroth’s alleged return and subsequent threat, but those events are insubstantial as far as the PCs are concerned.) With all that, it is no wonder sections of this campaign progress like pulling teeth; the players don't know what the GM wants from them, and the GM hasn't given the players much of anything to explore.