Sickle moves away from the edge, uttering his arcane words as yellow strips of energy attempt to bind down one of the Pterafolk.  Strength Save: 19

Kasaaptu unleashes three rays of fire that blast out at three different targets, two of them blasting into the Pterafolk scorching their leathery hides. 

Badger throws another crystal ball which strikes one of them, sending off an air trembling boom as the creature gets blasted to one side.   

One of them is shrieking through the blast, "FLEE, FLEEE!!!"  All at once they spin and plummet away from the top of the tower, zipping away into the darkness and away from the tower.  Only one dead body lays at the foot of the tower.  

Badger, only you can see them anymore.  The rest of you have lost site of them in the darkness as they've flown beyond the reach of both the firelight and most of your darkvision.  (they're over 100 feet away now). 

We're out of initiative really, but you can take any final actions the next round if you want.  Otherwise the battle seems done, over before it really started.

Sickle moves toward the center of the tower, away from the edge, eyes to the sky suspiciously, not certain that they were the reason for the Pterafolk’s sudden flight.

(What do we see in terms of where we can go? What is around us? And do I still have a general up/down sense of where the mask is from here or would I need to recast Locate Object?)

The top of the tower is fairly flat and is generally covered in a layer of green growth.  The giant sputtering fire hangs overhead casting heat and light down upon the top of the tower and into the sky around. The tower is the only real feature here.  It's 30 feet high, crumbling and ancient, with stone debris heaped around its outside.  Through its wide doorway you see what appear to be several crude nests of sorts and inside are four old wooden chests, their wood covered in a thin layer of mold and rot.  Looking inside the tower doesn't seem to have any other rooms, stairs, or levels, and is just a square stone structure with wooden supports and a torched bamboo tile roof. 

Yroc looks up, surprised that the creatures fled so easily. However, with them gone he makes his way over to the chests, as the mask doesn't appear to be anywhere in sight. "Probably kept in here, the mask." he says gruffly, setting his boot against the lid of one to try and push it open.

"Find the mask and let's head down," Silas stated, "While they're flying, they are limited in where they will go but I will feel safer when closer to the ground," 

Sickle will mutter something about missing the rogue, and go and open another of the chests.

Kasaaptu  will keep alert for a sneak attack and open a box.

Perception  3

Yroc's dusty boot, scuffed from the extensive climbing, kicks open the four chest lids one after another.  The chests are filled with coins.  Predominantly copper, but silver is mixed amongst the numerous coins, and he spots at least one gem amongst them as well.  A scroll case lays on top of the coins in one box.  Pulling it open and taking out the paper within reveals a "commune with nature" scroll, it's magic tingling beneath fingers.  There's also something wrapped in cloth.  Unwrapped, you see a wooden stylized mask of a tiger. It feels warm to the touch and is obviously magical. 

(2000 cp, 730 sp, 4x gems worth 50gp each) 

Nephyr flaps onto the landing, and walks over to the party.  "Two of the Pterafolk came to the elders cave and inspected your handiwork, and then left.  They flew south straight away from the tower." 

The jungle did not sound like anything or anywhere else, even at night. The noise was relentless, a constant background cacophony of insect chirps, the thrumming vibrations of amphibians, and the loud clicking of lizards. The bugs were relentless, everywhere, twice as big as god intended them to be, and always more poisonous, crawling across everything at all times. The smell, that rotting muck, a tepid warm water of the river, and the underlying smell of death that clung to everything, because everything here died, horrifically. But worst were the spiders. The spiders here made the spiders back home seem like meaningless specks. The spiders here had eyes that stared at you, seeing you, sizing you up for their next meal. But soulless, the eyes were soulless and you know if you died to such a creature, your god wouldn't welcome you into the afterlife, you were just gone. The hair on their massive bodies and leg were like the needles on a porcupine, thick and pointy, unweilding. But even though they were bigger, they were just as fast, their eight giant legs unnatural as they all scurried in random motion. Spiders at home, when they bit you, the would get an inchy bump. Here, they had mandibles that could clip off a finger with little trouble and would cut deep into your muscles and sinew. Boris reached down to where he'd be bitten by the massive thing. His fingers were moist with sweat, a shiver ran through his neck and he was forced to try and stretch his neck out as the muscles there spasmed as he remember the bite, the feeling of the creature chewing on him like so much meat for it to feed to it's millions of children that hung all around them, scurrying across every surface, their webs clinging to his legs, the spiders clambering up his pants. His whole body let out spasm and he tried to breath.  Gregory always said, just breath, just breath, think of the pantry maid back at home, the way her bosoms would stretch the fabric of her shirt out, Janice was her name. He wiped beads of sweat off of his forehead, wiping his hand against his shirt as he lay in the hammock. An ant the size of a peanut walked along the edge of his hammock looking for a way through the mesh to get to him. He flicked it off through the cloth sending it plummeting to the forest floor below. Gregory just said, breath slow, breath slow, and think of Janice. That was his trick he'd said. Helped to keep him sane in this land where no man should live. Why his liege had brought him out here, he'd never know. Some brave knightly quest, because Sir Darak wanted to be a brave knight.  Well, Boris didn't, he just didn't want to work in the kitchen and helping lads put on armor before they went off to kill themselves seemed like a better job.  He'd thunk himself right into this spot, this hell on earth. 

A loud crashing sound suddenly echoed through the jungle a few dozen feet away.  The insects stopped chirping. Hammu, the dinosaur pack animal that could probably bite Boris' arm off looked up, sniffing.  Another crashing sound almost a second later.  Boris spoke out loud, "What was that?"  Gregory answered, "Ain't nothin, stop fretting."  He could tell when Gregory was placating him though.  Gregory was wondering too. 

It didn't sound like nothing, it sounded like something pretty big smashin through trees.  Animals that did that, weren't quite cause they were big and mean enough they didn't need to worry about it.  Boris began to conjure mental images of big, dinosaur like creatures, but, spider shaped.  But, to be fair, the sound wasn't so big.  More like a Hammu maybe, or worse, some Pterafolk. But the sound didn't come again, and the insects started back up, their constant chirping, whirring, buzzing and clicking. 

He closed his eyes, visions of hairy spiders crawling up a pretty girl's legs and out of her bodice haunted his mind until a not so distant crack of thunder rolled across the land waking him.  He looked around. No rain.  No wind. He watched for lightning. He heard a distant crack, and looking through the trees towards the top of the massive spike of stone, he saw small flashes. Lines of distant light that shot through the sky, followed by the quiet taps and cracks of magic. Then another wave of thunder, clearly from the top of the tower.  He heard Gregory whisper quietly, "Yeah, get some you guys, blast the heck out of 'em".  

Then it went quiet. Boris' eyes fluttered shut as he drifted off to sleep, this time imagining a giant tower covered in spiders, the insects flying off of it's heights and pitter pattering around him like rain, but horrid rain that stuck to him, biting stinging bites until he ran to the river and leapt in, to drown himself. 

The sky is beginning to lighten in the east after the party is done collecting the treasure and splitting it up. The blue topaz gems given to some, sacks of coins to others. The top of fire finger belongs to the group, the Pterafolk having fled, not just fleeing to regroup. From here, even with the gentlest of light, the view is spectacular.  You can see twenty miles in every direction.  (two hexes on the map).  You can see the river until it disappears into the rising canyons that are its source. In the distance to the west you can see the Mistcliff mountains, a thin ridge along the horizon, while to the south you can see the sullen red glow and grey smear of smoke from the Peaks of flame that are nearly 200 miles away.  Otherwise, the land around you appears as a massive green carpet in every direction, a bumpy rolling green landscape. It becomes clear that waiting for daylight will reward you with a fantastic view and so you remain for thirty minutes watching the sunlight creep across the land, long shadows shortening and vanishing as the sun rises, leaving pockets of shadows behind. 

Nephyr points to the south, and a bit east.  "Kir Sabal lies that way, though it is 100 miles. The ruins of Mezro lie 50 miles that way."  He points straight east. "The ruins lie at the base of the river Olung. Almost straight south of Mezro is Kir Sabal. I thank you again for my rescue. I will fly home now, but I will tell people about you, and if you arrive, it will be with a hero's welcome. Best of luck to you."  

He pauses, but assuming there are no more questions, he gives you a salute and leaps off the edge of the rock, gliding south east, becoming smaller and smaller until he's no more than a speck against the blanket of green.  With a heavy sigh the group considers the long climb down that is ahead of them.  Fingers and forearms are already sapped of energy from the climb up. 

It's a gruelling one hour descent down chimney's and with rope to help with the ancient ladders before people are touching their feet down on the soft loam of the jungle. Sweating, fingers cramping, calves and arms rock solid and burning. The group trudges, exhausted to the camp where Azaka, Gregory, Sedrik and Boris await, along with Hammu. 

Azaka approaches, looking cautiously optimistic, "Did you find it?"  

Boris' follow up question, less optimistic and mired in thinly veiled misery is, "Where to now?" 

XP:  817 each. 

Badger leaves the big people to present the mask to Azaka. Unsure of how to proceed now that the initial mission was completed, Badger turns to his coins-and-tome. He is aware that Camp Vengeance, Mezro and Kir Sabal are all current options. With his question firmly fixed in his mind ('where should we go next') he casts his coins...

Badger's recommendation is to travel to Mezro, and then follow the river toward Kir Sabal, but not to attempt to travel directly to the latter. He won't object if the decision is to travel to Camp Vengeance, but he also recommends first making for the river.

(DM, any sense of why this thing is here or why the fire is burning? Is it magical and burning forever or...?)

Sickle eyes Azaka, then calmly walks over, and looks her hard in the eyes. “What did we just do? That place, it was their home.  I know they were vicious, and they may well have deserved it. But I would like to know why we just invaded someone’s home.  And what is this thing? What does it do?” He’ll gesture for Yroc to bring it over.

Kasaaptu will agree with Badger to check out Mezro next. She still feels the lost city is the ng one they will need, but maybe Mezro will contain clues to the direction needed to find the lost city

Silas is really just lost and will agree to what the group agree to. He has no direction at the moment. 

Sickle agrees on Lost City, but I think it’s too far for now.

(Do we even know where the Lost City is?)