Grumbling as he lifts the chest (filled with the many, many suits of leather armor and dogslicers to the point that Chad-for-Short put a leather armor around the chest because it needed rope to tie it shut), Davros says "If we're gonna keep findin' s**t, you'd better buy a damn draft horse or something. This is gettin' stupid."
The party follows the trail the skeletons had left dragging their treasures and lumbering through the moist, soft swamp ground. Crossing over a rather wide river (With Chad-for-short being the only one who actually has to swim, as the chest-high water leaves him completely submerged), the party takes a few minutes to dry off and let the Tengu put his armor back on before the follow the path through the muck. The traveling is slow, and after several uneventful hours (Sadly, the benefit from the breakfast is lost), the party comes across a small fork in the road, having stumbled across the middle of a path. One end goes left, the other goes right.
The party needs to make a DC 15 survival check to try and figure out where to go, or guess on a direction.
Ryoga finds that the right path, while it was once well worn, hasn't been used in several months. The trail of the skeletons continues down the left path.
"Shall we continue following the trail?"
MT the Clown rolled 0-sided dice:
Total: 0 (-0)
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 6:57 pm
"Sure, I could always do with some exercise." Holding out a hand for the others to lead the way.
Following the trail south (to the left), the party wanders for several hundred feet when the signs of the undead moved again to the West. Heading off the trail once again into the wilderness, they break for lunch of trail rations and continue on for several more hours, wading through sometimes knee deep, bubbling marshlands.
The trip is made slightly more bearable with Chad-for-Short's dramatic retelling of one of his earlier adventures, back when he first set out.
. . . So there I was, traveling along with nary a crumb in my belly and a copper to my name. This was the LAST time I buy a map from a Ratfolk Cartographer. 'No, no! It's cool! I've totally been out there! Merchant roads are hard to mess up after all!' Little b*****d's map led me off a cliff into a outdoor pool filled with these muscle-bound dudes wearing nothing more than a smile. They stared at me. I stared at them. It ended with me running for my life into the woods, huffing and puffing and maybe tripping on a rock that put me on a shortcut down a mountain. When I woke up, I was hungry and half-delirious. I was spending my time wandering through the countryside, slamming my beak against trees attempting to suck out sap. Took me a while before I realized I pecked a hole into a rock and my face was hurting.
. . .Aaaaaaaanywho, I was exhausted. Turns out rocks? Really bleedin' hard! I took a break and started thinking about how much grass and flowers I could eat before I turn into a chicken of some sort, when I start to hear singing. 'Well, if my brain's getting baked,' I said to myself, 'at least I'm getting a musical score to go with it.' I got up and wandered out towards the sound and, lo and behold, I found this quaint little town and hoped that they wouldn't mind I was eating some corn. Turns out, it was some sort of festival! My heart skipped a beat! Then a second one! And I realized that I probably should see if they have free food and drinks before I have a heart attack and die in front of all the village children!
. . . Good times. So I was sneaking my way to and from various stalls and stands. I SAW THAT LOOK, DAVROS! I CAN'T JUST PUNCH MY WAY OUT OF EVERY PROBLEM! ...where was I? Oh right, stands, picking up the occasional apple and cup of beer. Sneaking and petty theft was one of those things you're raised up never reeeeeeally thinking you're ever going to need as an adult. But thankfully, my being raised as the eldest of fifteen brothers and sisters gave me ample life skills, such as how to maneuver around in tight spaces without making a sound and learning how to cook the same flipping meal made for 5 people with 6 different allergies between the lot of them. Gods help me if I didn't love them so. Anyways, so I'm thinking that any moment I'm gonna get caught right? So I'm trying to act all natural as a four-foot-something man-bird can be in a town full of humans and elves and whatnots.
. . . There's the town guard, approaching me menacingly and I'm like 'well ******** me with a spiked war club. Abort! ABORT!' when there's this loud screeching cry of terror. Everyone kinda stops for a minute and looks around, when all we here is this yappity dog. Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! AROOOO~!!! Everyone turns and from what I heard, there be goblins. Bam! They don't call those blades 'dogslicers' because they're good for playing fetch. I say 'heard' not because I couldn't see the scene, but rather I was stuffing my pocketsies with salmon steaks and bread loafs at the time. If I was going to die from some sort of external brutality, by jove I'm going to do it with me horking down as much food as possible. Imagine what it'd say on my headstone. "Chakka-chakka-chuuko-bucha-brukha-wikki-wikki: His feathered a** choked to death with half a fish down his throat when goblins showed up. Funeral followed by lovely orange sauce."
. . . Anyways, so a Goblin leaped up on the table in front of me, his face wide open with a large toothy grin as he's holding the other end of one of there salmon steaks. 'To HELLS with that and you!' I shouted as I punched him right in the mommy-daddy button. That sure as anything made him give up the fish. He pulled out a dogslicer and gnashed at me, singing 'slice em! Dice em! Put in a stew and serve with rice, mmmm!'. Goblins are not very creative creatures, as I'm sure you know. So he grabs at another fish, and I pull out the Lovechild here. *Chad-for-short grabs his b*****d sword for effect* And I'm kinda feeling like 'party's over. The villager's won't need this no more, right?' So I grab the fish as well. We both swing our weapons. Our blades locked, we draw in close and give each other a stare-down. I think I won on the basis of my pecking his eyes out and beheading the little bugger while he's screaming about it. Talk about a sore loser.
. . . So, I'm all like 'I should take this opportunity and see if there's some free wine around or something.' So I wander around in the chaos and there's these people fighting up a storm. There's this dim-witted looking oracle with a club that looks like a giant love-handle (studded for her pleasure), this ranger guy swinging swords around, a magus... I'm all like, 'Dude, they got this.' Then some goblin woman with a fancy headdress disarms the ranger boy and he's all helpless. I'm like, well, curse my heart of gold. What am I to do? I leap on a table and I cast some protective spells and shout 'COME GET SOME, BITCHEEEEEES~!!'
. . .Turns out to be a very poor choice in words, as a couple of the not-dimmer goblins walked up and flipped the table I'm on. Then like, 2 of them jump on, one on each side, pinning me under it. This one goblin comes up and cackles as he pulls out his dogslicer, and I'm like 'Uh... Haaaaaaaalp~!' and the ranger's like 'I have my own problems. Why should I help you?' and I'm like 'Because... I love you?' While I did get him to laugh, I didn't get him to help so much. Goblin aimed at my face, so I went for one of my go-to spells and made his weapon flare up. Know what's bad? A sharp knife coming at your face. Know what's worse? A searing-hot knife coming at your face. That's when that Oracle fellow walked up and started swinging his junk in the breeze. By which I mean that giant weapon thingy. He sucked at using it, but it was enough to get the goblins' attentions as I wiggled free and helped fight off these little bastards.
. . . So, it somehow ends up me against the goblin woman with this headdress thing, right? So that's when I used my secret tengu battle art of-
Davros interrupts the story, saying "Uh, I think that's the place, yeah?"
Ryoga and Kim both think about smacking up Davros for ruining the best part of the story, and barely notice that the time is now mid-afternoon. Davros however was looking for an excuse to put the chest down and rest his shoulders. With a chin jerk, he shows the party that there's a wide fissure opening in the side of the cliffs. "I think I'm getting a blister on my shoulder. We REALLY need to get a horse, or you need to stop being a bloody fairy and learn to carry things." He puts the chest down, which actually sinks several inches into the soft, wet mud due to the sheer weight of the contents."There's no way I'm carrying this ******** thing up a cliff, even if it's only 10 or 20 feet up by the way. That's all on you."
DM is to read this to the players
A fifty-foot-high cliff rises along the marsh’s southern border, its face a thick tangle of jutting rocks and bright green vines and nettles. A curtain of these thick nettle vines partially conceals a cave opening at the base of the cliff.
Davros, stretching as he walks towards the nettle vines, says "'Bout damn time. I'm seriously getting sore here." Back-handing the vines with nary-a-thought, he promptly flinches a little and sticks his hand in his mouth, cursing a bit in Orcish.
Orcish is such a colorful language for expressing one's rage, isn't it? He just called the vines Goat-Molesting-"
"WILL YOU JUST GET OVER HERE AND CUT THE ******** THINGS, ALREADY!?"
"What's the magic word?" Chad-for-Short says with an amused chuckle.
"Angry. Sodomy."
Chad-for-Short thinks about that for a minute, then gulps a bit as he pulls out his b*****d sword and says "R-right you are! Uh... j-just gimme a moment~"
Hacking away as Davros does the little pain dance with his hand until it stops stinging, Chad-for-Short removes most of the hanging nettles and gives the all-clear sign. Ryoga and Kim can see the inside in the dreary overcast light.
I grayed out everything you can't see because maps are hard to edit and I'm lazy at 1:14 am.
There's a small tunnel off to the right, and a wider path off to the left. The sounds of trickling water can be heard, but you're next to a swamp, so that should be obvious. (Someone needs to carry a light source to see farther as Davros is the only one with Darkvision. And also choose a direction.)
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:21 pm
Though amused by Chad, Kim turns to Darvos, "If it's too much, I'd be happy to help." Pointing to her own pack as she puts it down to find a torch, "I've been able to carry my stuff, what's a bit more?"
Letting out a small 'ah-ha' Kim quickly repacks everything with a pair of torches in hand. Unable to find her flint and steel, she just retrieves a small glowing vial of some unknown liquid. Pouring a bit into the first torch a small pop is heard as a fire roars to life. Smiling at everyone, "There. All better."
" We can just leave it here if it's bothering you that much, Davros. We'll be coming back this way eventually anyway." Ryoga walks over to the newly cut hole and sticks his head in. "So from what I can see there's a left path that sticks close to the water and a smaller right path. I personally vote left."
MT the Clown
(I forgot what I originally quoted when I was editing this.)
"That's a neat trick, what's in that stuff?"
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:46 pm
"Umm... Mostly this and that. The abdomen of a giant fire beetle. Tears of joy from a rising demon. Tears of sorrow from a fallen angel. Sweat from a hairless ape. Ashes from a funeral pyre. The ecstasy from a newborn alrune. Need I continue?"
Ryoga blinks... "No, no I get it. Spooky mixture-magic-y stuff... But did you make some of those up? I've never even remotely heard of some of that crap."
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:21 pm
Grinning, "All of it actually. That stuff is used by my brother for his body altering mutagens. I just use stuff like sulphur and saltpeter. Oh! And a healthy dose of my life force to power my bombs. What about you? I've never seen an adventurer without armor or magic before."
"Armor's overrated. If you keep a watchful eye out, you can anticipate most things coming your way. I reckon I can avoid damage just as good as most guys wearing heavy cumbersome armor. Big difference though, is I'm much faster."
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:35 pm
"My brother would absolutely agree with you. Never saw him wear armor. Not even back when he was a field researcher during the war." Gazing off into the distance with a dreamy look, Kim eventually returns to reality, "So, where are we heading off to now?"
Davros, carrying a large, fist-sized metal ball and tossing it in the air like one would do with a baseball, chimes in "You could, as an alternative, sack up and not run away like a little girl in a fight."
I'm a very lazy cow about this
L3. Cavern Pool: These brackish waters remain behind from periodic storms and floods, slowly seeping into the rock. The water here is 3 feet deep at its deepest point, but the rock floor beneath the water is slippery. Crossing the pool or wading in it requires a DC 14 Acrobatics check to avoid falling prone
The party travels across the larger pathway to the left, and eventually opt to start wading a bit through the waters. Everyone gets through rather fine, except for Chad-for-short, who trips twice on stones and with a loud *KER-SPLUNK* flops into the water. He's left dripping and can be heard squawking to himself in what mostly everyone assumes are Tengu curse caws.
Looking around casually, the party is still left with a fork in the path. Continue downward, or head up the narrow passageways and see if there's anything worth seeing.
Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:36 am
Cowpies77
Davros, carrying a large, fist-sized metal ball and tossing it in the air like one would do with a baseball, chimes in "You could, as an alternative, sack up and not run away like a little girl in a fight."
"Only one of us has been knocked out in a fight so far, Davros. Twice actually if I remember..."
Ryoga glances towards the small enclosed tunnels and back to the open area they were following. "Well we'll prob end up coming back to here, but I say we keep following this water. The little green guy said something about a wreck and if my hunch is right the skeletons we're following came from there. If they did we'll find 'em near water."
"Well we'll prob end up coming back to here, but I say we keep following this water. The little green guy said something about a wreck and if my hunch is right the skeletons we're following came from there. If they did we'll find 'em near water."
"Your hunch tells you we'll find a boat or caravan in the back of a waterlogged cave in a cliff hidden by and covered in vines of stinging nettles in the middle of a swamp?" Chad-for-Short wanders aloud idly. He's quickly silenced with a bop on the head from Ryoga. "Just saying... if we're looking for a wreck of anything, we should be checking Soggy Lake."
(I'm feeling wiped right now, so I'm gonna add a post later most likely.)
