Makoa almost gets the one flying past him. His teeth make contact, but do not break through its leathery skin . Urza and Mahjik both miss completely.
The one by Makoa circles slightly to the west . The one by Urza flies up and over him into the branches of the tree north of him . The one by Mahjik circles past him to the northeast .
Still Up: from , last dimorphodon movement, Aakif, Mahjik, Urza, Douena, Lorenz, Makoa.
Aakif has no better luck trying to hit the flying lizard-chicken with his sword than he did with his bow.
The dimorphodon easily dodges Aakif's blow and flies southeast, circling round Mahjik .
Up Next: Mahjik, Urza, Douena, Lorenz, Makoa, Dimorphodons.
Urza steps back to 80AQ and casts color spray once more (dc 14) at the one in the tree.[
"I wanted to leave. I didn't even want to be here." He continues to complain.
Aakif mutters a string of curses in Kelishite and chases after the nearest lizard-chicken. This time his aim is much better, and his blade connects solidly, snapping bones and tearing the creature nearly in half.
Aakif's blow brings the beast crashing to the ground, a bleeding hump.
Mahjik then steps up and successfully whacks the one near him.
The blow does not bring it down, but it does injure it a little.
Urza steps back and shoots off another cone of brilliant colours.
The beast crashes to the ground.
Up Next: Lorenz, Makoa, Dimorphodons, Aakif, Mahjik, Urza.
"Quick!" Douena shouts. "Smush the ones on the ground before they get up and try to eat us again!" Once again, she takes off and runs, ending up behind Mahjik. "Desna guide your blows," she blesses him.
Lorenz steps away from one of the trees and raises his bow for the last beast still in the air. "What's with the whining, Urza? If you don't want to take any risks, you can stay back at camp with the others."
"That's more like it!"
Makoa steps around the knocked out bird and begins to pull out a javelin as he goes to help Mahjik, tossing it at the dimorphodon as carefully as possible...
Though his throw is his mightiest, he desire to avoid hitting a friend causes his aim to go wide.
As Douena attempts to boost Mahjik's luck, Lorenz fires his bow. The arrow zips through the air and strikes the dimorphodon in the tail.
It almost loses its balance, but manages to remain airborne.
Makoa throws his javelin, but misses.
The dimorphodon that Lorenz hit screeches and, seeing its companions falling around it, turns tail a flies back towards its nest .
The other dimorphodon bites at Mahjik.
It is unable to hit him, however. It then attempts to fly away from him, opening itself up to attack.
Up Next: from , dimorphodon movement, Aakif, Mahjik, Urza, Douena, Lorenz, Makoa.
1d20 + 4
1d6"That's more like it!"
Satisfied that he'd driven off the scaly bird he'd shot, Lorenz looked to the stunned one near him and decided to finish it off.
"Damnation! I can't even hit them when they're not moving! I must be cursed!"
Mahjik connects solidly, sending the creature careening...
Mahjik's blow does indeed connect solidly.
The beast screeches in pain as it flies off .
Up Next: Mahjik, Urza, Douena, Lorenz, Makoa.
If the other birds continue to leave, Urza will finish off the birds that he's stunned before going back to camp.
Aakif looks around as the lizard-chickens start to retreat, then relaxes and starts to clean his falchion. "Well, looks like we'll have a little variety in our dinner tonight. Wonder how lizard-chicken tastes?"
Mahjik charges at the retreating lizard, and with a single blow, slams his fist into its stomach. The beast gives tries to squawk, but it's more of just a gurgle. It crashes face first into the ground, twitches a few times, then goes still.
Lorenz wrinkles his nose at the leathery things lying on the ground. "Somehow, I don't think these things taste remotely like chicken. I wouldn't dream of stopping the rest of you from eating them, however. Be my guest."
Wiping his blade and returning it to his scabbard, Lorenz straightened. "Well, those things are no longer a threat. Now that we know how easy they are to kill, we shan't waste any more time trying to hide from them. Shall we continue on a short way then before heading back to camp?"
"You don't want to check and see if maybe there might be something interesting in their nest?" Douena asks hopefully.
Mahjik ruffles through Douena's hair, "And what would you do if you found a hatch of little scaly birds down there?"
She considers the question somberly for a few moments. "Maybe we could raise them as pets and when they grew big, they could fly us off the island," she concludes grandly.
Mahjik laughs at the prospect of riding the birds. "Wise man would agree with you that it is best to leave no stone unturned."
"I'd assume that those that escaped returned to their nest to guard them more closely. Of course, I don't know anything about flying lizards so I could be wrong. At any rate, what's there to find? Eggs with flying lizards in them? I don't really consider that worth fighting for. In fact, that seems kind of wrong."
Lorenz looks away with a sad expression on his open face. The thought of poor ugly little lizard chicks, crying for their mother haunted his imagination.
Mahjik looks over to Lorenz, "You realize that it is too late already then? We may have inadvertently killed the last viable breeding pair of these creatures. However, given that we've done as much as this - it would be wasteful not to investigate more. We know little of these creatures - maybe they are avid scavengers that drag all manner of goods to their nests. Maybe we learn a strange new habit of theirs. The knowledge we gain in the few minutes we can spend here may well aid us in our future. Wise man would prepare well for the road ahead."
"Thanks, Mahjik. That makes me feel a lot better about hunting the last one down and stealing all its eggs."
Lorenz's frown grows even larger.
Mahjik laughs, "Oh, I'm not suggesting to kill it - nor take any eggs or young ones. I suggest we have a look to see what there is to see."
"We can use your rope," Douena adds helpfully. "Rope always comes in handy. We should never go anywhere without rope."
I reiterate, Urza is going back to camp. He'll go alone if the others want to explore some more. I'll also drink the Potion of Cure Light Wounds as I have 2 hp left.
I reiterate, Urza is going back to camp. He'll go alone if the others want to explore some more. I'll also drink the Potion of Cure Light Wounds as I have 2 hp left.
"Bye-bye, birdies," Douena sings out as the flopping corpses plummet over the edge of the cliff.
When you drop the bodies over the cliff, you see the one surviving one has returned to the nest. It is sitting there nursing its wounds and squawks angrily as the bodies drop. It does not make any moves to come after you though.
There are definitely eggs in the nest. You can make out at least five of them, but there may be more. You can see nothing shiny or glinting in the sun, however.
"Good news, Lorenz!" Douena tells him. "We haven't single-handedly wiped out the entire species. As long as that little birdie down there does his job and takes care of those eggs instead of trying to eat us, there will be man-eating bird-things to terrorize people on this island for generations to come!"
Lorenz perks up at Douena's news. "Well good. I'm not sure they're man-eating birds. Far as we can tell, they were just defending their nest. I think we should leave them be. If we end up needing eggs for some reason, now we know where to go."
Seeing how determined Urza was to return to camp, he sighed. "Well, I was hoping to make more progress today but Urza seems to be putting his foot down about returning to camp. I guess we should accompany him."
Mahjik agrees. "Returning to camp will be good now. The others may start to worry unnecessarily. Or perhaps we should be worrying about them more right now."
You begin the journey back to the camp. The heat is still horrendous, but you press on nonetheless.
Most of you are really starting to feel the heat's effects by this point, and you can only hope it lets up soon.
At long last, the heat starts to break a bit. It rains again, this time for a much longer period and it actually seems to cool things down. Over the last couple hours of the journey, you feel much more refreshed as the rain constantly washes over you.
It's still raining when you finally arrive back at the camp. Ishirou is on guard, his katana drawn. He relaxes when he sees you, and sheathes his sword. He calls out to the others, "They are back." They look up from what they are doing. Jask and Sasha are sorting several small animal carcasses, mostly lizards, presumably the results of Sasha's hunting for the day. Gelik was in the middle of telling a story, but he breaks that off as you approach. Aerys sits by herself on the far side of the camp.
At camp, Urza gives a few grunts by way of greeting his fellow castaways and goes off to prepare the meat that they brought back.
"Looks like we'll have our choice of food tonight, friends." Makoa observes as he looks over Sasha's catch.
"Urza managed to get some food as well during our exploration. I've got a big snake in my pack, all in pieces ready to be cooked. He also brought back some dimorphodons. They're nothing but bad-tempered pigeons." Makoa says as he sits down and drinks from his waterskin.
"Anything happen? Gelik tell any new stories?"
Lorenz walked wearily into camp and lowered his backpack to the ground. He stretched his shoulders and wiped his face with a hand.
"Gods. If it weren't for the heat, I think this place wouldn't be so bad. Lizard birds, snakes, that's nothing. The heat, on the other hand, may be boiling me from in the inside out. Simmering in my own juices."
With a tired grin he patted his stomach. "Now I'm hungry. Let's see how that snake tastes after it's been cooked over a fire!"
Mahjik relaxes a bit, sitting down and leaning against a nearby tree. Nodding his head in agreement with Lorenz statements: "Wise man would harbor resolution; but I have to agree with you, it will take time getting used to these conditions."
As the heat grew, Douena's temper has turned sour again. "Stupid hot island," she grumps, as she flings herself down in the shade of the canopy. "And now we have to go all that way again tomorrow to see if we can get to the tip -- if it's in that direction at all."
"Once I'm rested, I'll go back if you want. Night would be better, since it would be cooler. I'll move faster alone."
"Welcome back!" Jask exclaims as you arrive back in camp. Sasha echoes his exclamation, although not quite as jovially.
Gelik steps forward. "I have been telling many stories, friend Makoa," he says. "I have been valiantly keeping these sourpusses morales up. I've even drawn out one or two short smiles from pouty-face over there." He points to Aerys. "They were very brief, mind you. Poor thing. At any rate, I'll be more than happy to regale the rest of you with some rousing and hilarious tales."
"Actually," Jask interjects, "I would be much more interested in hearing what our friends here discovered in their travels. No offense to your stories, Gelik, but it's important for us to know about this island."
Gelik scowls briefly, but then nods. "Of course," he says and takes a seat on the ground. "Well then, let's see how good any of you are at telling stories, hmmm?"