I'm not sure how much I like the jungle...
I mean, there are a LOT of dangerous things out here. Sure, there are dangerous things everywhere, but here you don't see them until they're nearly on top of you. Oh, and the insects? Let me tell you about the insects. Imagine the abyss...and being trapped there, naked. Without a weapon. Now add intense heat and horrible teeny tiny little demons that you can't actually see. They bite you..all the time. And there's no getting away from them. That's what the insects are like. Seriously.
Luckily for me I'm a follower of Caiden Caileen and he's provided us w/ a natural anesthesia: Beer and Wine! But that's pretty much an answer for nearly any problem I've come across. Nearly. Not all.
There we were, being led through the jungles by Raimondo. At the base of the cliffs he stops us and prepares us for the climb. And this is when our witch captive decides to break free. Sigh. We of course have two choices, let her go free and starve, and get eaten alive out here in this endless green abyss. Or go after her and humanely save her. Sure. We're altruistic like that.
After her we go...And right into an ambush. That's what you get for trying to be humane. No more of that. Seems the Aspis had caught up to us after all. They had planned this well, and the witch led us right into the middle of it. But, we were up to the task and took the fight to the Consortium toadies. Back and forth through the underbrush and along the vine festooned paths we struggle with the villains. It was a very close thing...and to be truthful, I'm not sure who was going to win.
Luckily for us, no one had to stick around to find out. Our little soiree was interrupted by the Anghazani. What, you might ask, are the Anghazani? Well, to put it bluntly, they're a highly evolved ape-like creature that's capable of arming themselves w/ weapons, and wearing armor. They're still primitive, but they're dangerous in the extreme.
Seeing that the situation was suddenly more than we could handle, we skedaddled. And on the way out we warned the captain of the Aspis. He too decided that it was time to vacate the premises immediately. We had an advantage, Raimondo had avoided the fight and had been driving our caravan up the cliff this entire time. So we quickly caught up and made the gates of the "fort" much before the Aspis Consortium.
Here's a moral dilemma for you: Let our enemies in, or turn them away, to be horribly dismembered by hundreds of angry ape creatures? What would they do? Right, we'll do the opposite. That's exactly what we did. Opened the gates and let them in.
Inside we find what's left of Durvil sister's forces. Not much. They're basically scarecrows manning walls. It has been more than three months since their last supply shipment. What on Golarion have they been eating? Honestly, I shudder to imagine.
So after a quick agreement by the captain of the Aspis we man the walls. And hear an enormously loud, bestial scream come from beyond the plateau. Ruthazec! The king of gorillas... I look around at the meager walls and the even more meager defenders and again...I shudder. We might be in trouble. But the defenders honestly don't look all that worried. And the piles of ape bodies outside stand grim testament to their ability to defend these walls. OK, I'm a bit more mollified.
Durvil's sister, Destiny, meets us and more importantly greets Durvil in a very frosty manner. Ah the politics of wealth. I'll never understand. Which is fine by me. Seems there was some type of misunderstanding and after a quick explanation by Durvil, Destiny is a little more reasonable. She shows us around the dig site and tells us that if she can get through the set of doors in the cliff-side, she'd be wealthy beyond belief. If.
And that's when she asked Durvil for the key. Oh yes....they key. Apparently their father knew that the key was a very special thing, and ended up incorporating it in the hilt of their family's long sword. Clever, if you ask me. When Durvil presented the key, Destiny's eyes quite literally lit up.
We waited the night, since it was late in the afternoon when we arrived anyway. Each of us selecting a spot w/in the camp that we thought was as secure as it could be; considering that the Aspis consortium was inside, while the Anghazani were beating their chests and making the relics inside the dig site glow in all sorts of strange ways. Not sure how or why that was occurring, but I AM sure that Ix was quite perplexed.
After a long night of studying the existing documents, Destiny had figured out how the key opened the door. The ape people hadn't let up all night, which might make you think that we didn't get any sleep, but it's not true. Even leaning up against the door all night long, I felt rested and ready to proceed.
It didn't take long for Destiny to figure things out and placing the key onto the door in just the correct way, the strange portal opened. To reveal a large room in which two massive shapes loomed in the shadows beyond. It was exactly at this time that the Anghazani decided to attack. An ill omen? Time will tell, I'm sure.
Accompanied by the frenzied screaming of the ape people and the hustle and shouts of the defenders, we slowly descended into the darkness of the newly revealed chamber. The shapes turned out to be large metal statues of some type. According to Ix though these statues at one time had the gift of movement. A scary thing indeed. I for one would not fancy being trapped by one, no less two. of these enormous iron creatures!
Selah, ever observant, noticed that this place looked more like a museum of types than anything else. After a short exploration of the Golems, for that's what Ix had called the iron statues, and their room, we proceeded down the hall. Only to run smack into the undead!
These six creatures were frantic and as chaotic as I've ever seen. They had not a whit of intelligent motive behind their actions, attacking solely because it was in their nature. Mindless frenzy is what it was. And we quickly put it down.
With the sound of battle outside as our companion we moved further into the ancient edifice.
To be continued...
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