Hana swaps to her hankyu and takes a simple shot at the painted stranger above.
(includes -1 due to Dex damage)
After mulling over her options for a moment, Mum gestures and chants until her extremities transform. She then begins climbing...
"Right behind you Dereje!"
Your hands and feet alter to make you better at climbing and swimming. You gain a 10 foot climb speed and swim speed. This spell has no effect if you are wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a medium or heavy load.
Climb Speed
A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a Climb check to climb any wall or slope with a DC higher than 0, but it can always choose to take 10, even if rushed or threatened while climbing. If a creature with a climb speed chooses an accelerated climb (see above), it moves at double its climb speed (or at its land speed, whichever is slower) and makes a single Climb check at a –5 penalty. Such a creature retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) while climbing, and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it. It cannot, however, use the run action while climbing.
Dereje starts up the slope easily enough, but nearly loses his balance, forcing him to stop to steady himself.
Lawdrak makes a harsh, tearing noise in his throat, then a sharp click, pointing up at the attacker, and Sharpmaw begins to scramble up the slope. The young druid then fishes out his sling and returns fire.
Despite his clawed toes, the dinosaur has a little trouble finding purchase at first.
Seeing the new enemy, Adara quickly begins to follow her comrades.
"You there!" she calls. "Do not attack. We have no wish to fight!"
With the new foes appearing out of the blind, Hana grunts slightly as her suspicion - an ambush choke point - is confirmed. She fires another arrow at the same target.
(includes -1 for Dex damage)
Adara's eyes narrow, and her mouth sets in a firm line. Clearly this group had no interest in stopping. She redoubled her efforts to reach the top.
A vine catches on her belt loop and she spends time trying to free herself.
Dereje attempts to pick up the pace, but in his haste he stumbles over something.
Lawdark decides that the archer he hit before obviously needs another rock...
With a shrill roar of pain and displeasure, Sharpmaw digs back in to his climb.
...and goes nowhere, rear claws digging great furrows in the soft earth.
Mum continues climbing.. slowly but surely.
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Lawdrak hurls another stone at his previous target but fails to connect, but that matters little as Hana's arrow pierces the savage's heart, ending his life.
Adara, Dereje, and Sharpmaw attempt to scale the slope, but find footing rather difficult. Estietre, aided by her spell quickly climbs closer to the savage's blind.
Seeing the wizard get ever closer to their position, one of the savages targets Mum with bow shot, catching her in the shoulder with a arrow.
The other savage target's his most deadly opponent thus far, Hana, but misses his shot.
(PBS)
(PBS)
This time, the dinosaur finds good purchase, and scrambles up the slope toward lunch.
Hana dispassionately draws on the next target.
(includes -1 from Dex damage)
After his bad stumble, Dereje scrambles back to his feet, jaw set a little tightly. It was a little difficult to see, but his cheeks had a slight tint of pink to them - certainly just sunburn, of course. The paladin stubbornly continues to tackle the slope.
Going for a more steady approach, Adara slows down to attempt to actually make progress.
After being struck, Mum tries to climb with greater speed.
Once at level ground, she prepares and fires off a quick spell... blasting the savage with a cone of scintillating colors at the nearest enemy.
"I doubt that we can run him down. Well, it seems we aren't alone here after all..." Keeping his sling looped over his wrist in case the savage returns with help, Lawdrak beings to pick his way slowly up the hill toward their fallen foes.
[ooc]take 10 to climb out of combat?[/b]
Dereje finally reaches the top of the slope, not looking very happy about how long it took him to do so. When he sees that the fight has ended with minimal bloodshed on their side however, he simply lets out a sigh.
"Indeed," he replies to Lawdrak, approaching one of the fallen savages. The paladin stoops down and takes a better look at what they were facing. "They must have set up those traps as well, to capture food or intruders."
Hana says to Dereje, "One and the same."
Adara frowns at Hana's comment. "Are you suggesting...cannibalism? How could you know?" The suli looks unsettled at the notion. She shakes her head in consternation at Hana's suggestion. "Well, we have at least one living one. We should secure him as soon as possible and find out the truth."
Adara will climb so she can reach the bodies of the downed savages. She will examine them while assisting those in the blind with tying the savages, presumably with their own vine traps if there is material at hand.
"The trap was made for large bipeds. Not flying lizards, not crabs," says Hana matter-of-factly.
Adara frowns. "Setting traps for humanoid enemies doesn't mean they are the food," the oracle says in reply. But looking at the savage before he wakes, she seems uncertain.
As he begins to struggle, Adara tries to speak to him making soothing gestures.
"Calm yourself. Just stay calm. Do you understand?"
Dereje grimaces at the theory Mizu put forth. He had been thinking the same thing, but he found the idea far too distasteful to speak aloud. In no hurry to argue with her logic, he instead focuses on their captive.
Adara looks around at the surrounding jungle concerned at the savage's wild yelling.
"Quiet, you," she hisses. Unable to communicate with the man verbally, she works with something more universal. Drawing her scimitar, she places the point on the man's chest.
"None of that now!"
Dereje grimaces when the savage starts screaming, but is glad when he quickly ceases.
"Did anyone understand that nonsense he was speaking?" he asks plaintively, unfamiliar with the tongue.
Hana shakes her head in the negative.
"The words.. yes. He does not seem to be terribly skilled at sentence structure or enunciation, however. Go tear heart swallow... is all I could make out... he's speaking Infernal."
She looks to the group as she squats to help Kainey nestle into the soil at the top of the cliff. "Anyone have a response to that?"
"Infernal? Mayhap descended from an old Cheliax shpwreck?"
"Considering all of the wrecks we have found so far, that is not a bad theory," Dereje says to Lawdrak, clearly worried about what the island native was babbling about. Estietre's translation did not inspire much confidence. "We should be careful, though. They might well be devil worshipers in their own right."
Looking back to Mum he says, "Let's start by asking who he is and where he came from."
Hana folds her arms and, despite her short stature, somehow manages to lean threateningly over the captive.
Estietre asks the savage in Infernal.
"Who are you? Where do you come from?"
She thinks for a moment about what other useful things he might be able to tell them... "What do you fear most on this island?"
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Between the blade pointed at his chest and the stern gaze of Hana, the savage settles down and tries to have a conversation with Estietre. It is quickly obvious that he is having difficulty understanding her questions, but he does seem to piece some of it together.
In response to Mum's first question, he points to himself and says "Kavik."
Kavik blinks a few times, trying to grasp the next question before responding in what sounds mostly like gibberish.
To Mum's final question he says, with his eyes growing wide,
"What did he say?" asks Hana. "Anything useful? There are clearly more of them. They must have a camp or village somewhere on the island or close by."
"And if they be foes, we have now alerted them to our presence on the island," Adara says with a heavy sigh. "I fear we must return quickly to the camp in this case. We need to warn the others and probably find a more defensible location."