20. Szraiels ‘Notes aboot Notin’

Seems I was wrong, two of the women survived the succubus’s death. Pity they seemed spiritually and physically scarred by the experience and drained of all personality. At least the attack knocked some sense into AJ and his started using that iron mallet of his, can’t help but wonder if his pop was part of the Maillotins Revolt such is his fetish for hammers. Good for destroying stuff I suppose.

We kept marching along, 8 days; Ron made me some handy boots that allow me to ignore difficult terrain. I know they will come in handy and save me a spell! Seems the others are constantly amazed at my ability to consistently cast my minor magics to boost my resistance. These monkeys have no conception of why they do what they do and how easy it is to keep learning and do other things. It seems age really stifles their ability to push and grow. Aj whines every minute, Helga cackles every minute to herself, Ron checks his stash, Dorian stares at something sexual and makes a comment and they all seem to hold in their poop, encourage their horses, check their angles constantly yet it seems things other monkeys don’t do that they didn’t learn as children seem impossible to them. It really is bizarre. There is no action one cannot repeat constantly with training and will. As if scanning constantly as well is beyond training. I suppose its just another reason we are destined to rule again.

We found the ruined city easily enough and thankfully the others saw the wisdom in circling the ruins. Seems no other group has beaten us here. Expected really considering how fast we dealt with the hermits demands and the speed of our travel. It’s a beautiful ruin, the architecture is exquisite and it has truly stood the test of lime lasting thousands of years against the jungle. AJ seems to think the natives are master builders and made the place, he thinks to much of what he calls kaffas they dominate his time and thoughts like a clerics focus of worship. Finding nothing but some baboon like humanoid tracks we entered closest to a point of seeming interest. A mostly intact ziggurat at the northern end of the city.

I spotted yet another trap. There was some curious thunder at that. Seems AJ and Dorian both - along with the gods have issue with my ability to spot traps. I find this most curious for I have heard of alchemists gaining extra attacks from 4 arms despite this being specifically against the fundamental rules of this world, alchemists crafting despite having no ability with spells only concoctions that work on organic things and more specifically themselves. Nevermind summoners with dubious unarmed feats, caster whose abilities are unstoppable and a myriad of rogues who have never needed what they considered the irrelevancy of automatic trap spotting. As its always been easy enough to have them search constantly (yet apparently to monkeys a mere thought to cast a spell every minute is less acceptable). More amusing perhaps is the party, their always complaining about wasted time searching dead ends (that pay off sometimes), when any other rogue ever heard of would be spending much more time just searching where we just walk. I suppose it hardly matters it’s not like others buffs ever run out even with rogues searching non-stop so doing it legitimately is not a concern.

At least its not an ability of mine that is hampering everyone else. Last thunder strike seemed to make normally available knowledge checks irrelevant. Not really an issue for myself with the shared knowledge of the Akasha and all serpent folk but I feel sorry as all other members of the party, even AJ invested in knowledges that are now rendered useless. Curious that some argued against knowledge checks being useful when their the ones that suffer.

It is wondrous for it has sharpened my edge and instead of situational edge seeking through tapping my character and immersing myself in the world I can now focus on what’s important. Acrobatics, perception, spellcraft, combat skills and spells that flawlessly always give an edge far greater than any action intense situational flavor nonsense.

We entered the ziggurat and started to explore. Some of us spotted three giant wasps which attacked, they were well wounded by the time everyone reacted to attack and were quickly dispatched. As we circled round we found a large paper nest, Ron bombed it with a stink bomb and some sort of mother wasp came out. She was hard to kill for she fought through a doorway and was resistant to damage. I dream some nights of being a martial artist type of monk, I was pondering being one in my youth maybe a sensei or qigong one as well, their immune to so much and have the ability to narrow their eyes and strike through any resistance. Puncturing resistance would be so handy it’s been tedious from the start and I only know of martial artists, inquisitors with bane active and nancy boy paladins that have such abilities. After getting damaged, poisoned and generally vexed the five of us eventually dispatched the lone wasp!

We found an outside area with a walkway but stayed inside as to avoid attracting attention. Entering a lowered area, almost a private sanctuary, we were attacked by 4 small statues. Again their resistance was most tedious but luckily Dorian pulled out some spiritual weapons and managed to smash them to bits as the rest of us farcically attempted to damage them. AJs lack of willpower, common sense, awareness, and intuition (wisdom/will save) again was a liability. I have scanned my spell list and there is no way to cease this with just my efforts.

The statues did have an upside as each one that was destroyed emanated spirits that gave us memories of some sort of map room with a hippie astrology motif, glory hole columns, gems and sparkles. It was very of putting but it gave us an idea of how to use the room should we find it. I think I will leave it to the others when the time comes –Dorian should be anatural.

I was against it but at the others urgings we continued to explore, I had predicted as much and luckily had been stingy with my buffs, unfortunately being the end of the day a dead end confused me into advancing instead of just searching at range. Leeches attacked, ALOT of leeches, swarms really are powerful. I hugged Ron as he bombed us then bolted..it wasn’t my finest hour. Everyone else ran as Ron held them off with bombs backing up to a position where Helga could finish them with a lightning bolt. After it we were badly drained and wounded and really needed a rest. I thought the wasp nest seemed really cosy with readymade sleeping bag hollows, one point of ebtry and the added bonus that no native of the ruins (or most stealthy visitors) would ever poke it. From everything I had read wasp nests are a wonder of warmth, and cosiness. Alas AJ arced up again and insisted some other hard floored, cold, unventilated dump. I suppose monkeys are known for sniffing eachothers ass, I conceded as it didn’t matter as it’s not like I sleep anyway and could perch up on the roof watching amused as the others wallowed in their stink and tossed against the cold floor.