The sudden loss of two does seems to have un-nerved the deer, and the buck raises his muzzle and lets out a coughing grunt before spinning in place and leaping with a white tail held high.
The two remaining does let out smaller versions of the coughing grunt, and then spin in place and bound away.
Kong runs a short distance after them, covered in his own and the doe's blood... growling...Not ZAT easily, jou don't!
Slumber hex on the buck...DC 14 Will save.
Neri wasn't willing to try to kill the doe by wasting valuable spells. It wasn't likely to have a way to heal itself, regardless, so would likely die. Further, the blood trail would likely be more useful to Harry if he -did- desire to track them. He likewise had no way of knowing if the creature would go berserk. He mourned how ineffectual the mud had been.
"Medic?"
...it will die eventually...all things do...it sought food...why be angry at something for being what it is... The thought echoes in his head, like a dying breath.
If he can't get the hex off, he casts Cure Light Wounds on himself... ...and heads toward Neri.
...What is wrong with being dead...all become dead... only those who realize this understand that it's not oblivion... it's only another step on the way... surely someone who is already dead and lives again would realize this... Kong's heart stops beating for several seconds before lurching back into motion again. ...as long as you fear death.. you have not truly understood what you are...what we are...what I am...
Kong looks considerably more irritated than usual.
I cannot ztand people zat try to control me.
Kong pulls a CLW potion from his bandolier and tosses it to Neri, then quaffs one himself.
...silly mortal...there are no others... just you... And the thought fades away.
Sterling hands Kong, another Healing potion [clw] that he concocts on the spot. This might help
Lumpy looks over the deer that Kong killed Vicious venison...Dangerous deer...Bad attitude bucks...I bet thats some good eating
Vell...ve get to find out. Harry...how do you zkin ziss ting?
Kong looks at Sterling, then the deer, then Harry...then back at the deer...
"Not really tricky. You have to remove the guts first, then hang it to drain the blood, and then we can get to skinning it. "
and he will continue to show how it is done
Neri drinks the potion Kong tossed him without asking what it was, simply looking at it with crimson glowing eyes.
"We could probably follow them back to their lair. We haven't seen any children, to my knowledge, so they probably keep them in a den. I worked in a circus, so I'm okay enough with animals to maybe be able to rear some if we had a place to keep them, and an adequate supply of meat. Wonder if Lina would mind us using her stables..." Neri trailed off with a frown.
After watching Harry for a few minutes, Kong goes to see if anything from the other is salvageable...I don't sink it vould be zuch a bad idea to track zem...und eliminate the threat...
"Honestly unless you want more meat, I wouldn't bother. Predators are pretty quick to learn a lesson when they get blooded, and avoid big threats. They are not really known to hold a grudge. In close quarters, I think they would have a better edge, and those look like dense woods."
I agree with Harry. Let's just move on. Lumpy addresses Kong I thought you wanted to see the big city? Do we keep heading north?
Maybe jou missed what dat sing did to me. How many of ze rest vould haff zurfived it? If ve vould haff taken care of it to begin vith, maybe I vould not be ztanding here cofered in my own blood!
Kong growls out the last of it, accusingly.
"So we have to stop at the town again?"
Ve do now. After zat, healink is zomewhat depleted.
Emphasizing his words, Kong drinks another.
"Alternately, it might have been one of ten sets of carnivorous deer." Neri shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I'd be in a puddle of my own blood if I'd let one of them gut me like that, I guess I got lucky with the speed of my reactions."
He felt the wounds close and nodded. "Alright, so the water is like those. Got it. I don't really have a spell that works entirely like that, sadly, and I have no idea how to learn anything else. Either way, we should stop by town, if only to pass through. Sterling has a point with the wall. Them knowing to go to town doesn't help them if they don't know how to get to us, so we should at least let them know we're going north. I don't have a reason to stop, though."
I don't blame anyone for going back, but I'm not. We are explorers here. You think Lewis and Clark turned back after two days? Not me.
How many man-eating deer did jour Lewis and Clark have to deal viss? Nefer mind...if it wass one of jou, ve vould be ztopping to dig a nize big hole...but why not. Fine. We keep goink.
I'm sure we'll run into eucalyptus munching grizzly bear to even things out.
The group continues on, and has a fairly uneventful two days before they reach the mountains again. The mountain face is odd, as they walk along it. It's weathered, but the mountains are chopped off, thousands of feet up it eventually returns to normal mountains, but until that point, the face of the stone looks as if someone took a knife and hacked it off and tossed away the rest of the mountain. The sheer walls look totally unclimbable without special equipment, and even with it, it would take days to ascend.
After a day of following the wall of stone, and finding no cracks or crevices or even caves in the stone, toward the afternoon of the third day, most of the group hears a crunching sound from the nearby woods, and those see a large horse come stalking out of the underbrush, it's body obscenely muscled, heavy fangs jutting from it's jaws, and bones sticking out of it's hide along the shoulders.
Neri did what he felt was the most obvious thing he could think of... he began casting his Mudball spell once more, and waited for the Horse to move towards them so that it would be in range. He'd launch it as soon as it pressed the assault.
Sterling sticks with what works. He imbibes a bubbling concoction. His painfully contorts and his limbs become more defined and hairier.
I don't think this one will be domesticated.
New Stats:
AC/Touch/Flat 20/14/16 | Fort/Ref/Will +3/+5/+4 | Init +4
"Aww, but I like horses. "
and he will shoot it anyway.
deadly aim, rapid shot
Despite the partial cover provided by the bushes, Harry's arrow strikes true, ripping off several leaves as it slams into the horse's chest.
But then the horse is charging at the nearest target, which in this case is Sterling. As it closes on him, Kong flings a ball of mud in it's face, but the horse shakes it's head and flings the mud away even as it charges.
The horse clamps it's fang filled mouth on Sterling's shoulder and then proceeds to lift the man from the ground and shake him like a rag doll, the horse's head turning and twisting as he shakes Sterling as if Sterling weighed nothing.
When it's finally done, it flings Sterling to the ground, slamming his body into the forest floor with an impact hard enough to send up puffs of dust. The thing's massive hooves within inches of Sterling's now prone head.
Luna runs over to Sterling and attacks the horse with her whip.
Jacob was completely taken by surprise in the first encounter. Though he'd taken fencing in school, he'd no actual experience in a real fight - one with swords anyway. The battle was over as soon as it began for him.
This time though? No.
"We will be the predators now! Spread out in surround it. Together, we'll make quick work and some glue out of Nelly there!"
Though he didn't feel like it, the comedy just sprang from his mouth. His intent was to inspire confidence in those around him as he drew his rapier.
Neri slipped forward to beside the deer that was unable to properly defend itself properly, he quickly brings the blade up towards a vulnerable spot, as the creature moves. His other hand dances through several moments, as first, it glows with a blue flame, and then his blade sparks, three runes appearing on the three out-turned blades of his weapon, frost collecting on the blade. He tries to take advantage of the moment to attempt to drive the blade home despite that. If he connects, one of the runes fades.
Sterling takes advantage of it's blindness. He backs away then spins and launches a bomb at the horse. He makes sure his associates are not splashed.
Luna, against her better judgement, tried to knock the beast to the ground.
The whip snakes out and wraps around the horses leg, but when it's pulled on, it disentangles before it pulls the massive leg off balance.
The horse then shakes it's head, and flings the mud away from it's eyes. Unsure which creature injured it just now, it spins around and performs a mule kick on...
...Neri.
The hoof slams into Neri's chest, and the sounds of ribs cracking fill the air as the man coughs up blood from the kick.
...magma balls... that hurt... good thing it didn't hit with both!
As it's turned with it's legs toward Neri, it drops it's muzzle toward Sterling, fangs dripping with saliva.
Sterling is plucked from the ground and the feral horse sprays blood everywhere as he shakes Sterling like a rag doll before slamming him into the ground hard.
Harry will fire off a couple more arrows at the thing.
point blank shot, deadly aim, rapid shot
miss
he will also spend a mythic power to do a distant barrage
nevermind
...and if it survives...
Using Mage Strike again, and blowing Blindness/Deafness...
Christ that hurt. You so have to die.
Swift Action
Trickster Attack
Deadly Throw (Ex)
As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to draw a thrown weapon or alchemical item and make a ranged attack with it. This attack doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. When making a deadly throw, roll twice for the attack, take the higher result, and add your tier to the roll. If the attack misses, the weapon or alchemical item lands adjacent to the target, regardless of the range.
Powder, Flash 50 gp Creatures within the 10-foot-radius burst are blinded for 1 round (Fortitude DC 13 negates)
Jacob begins urging his companions on, and a heartening feeling envelops them. Harry then slams an arrow into the equine from the side, drawing blood. Sterling tosses a flash-bang at the horse...
...which seems totally unaffected by it. As Sterling is deciding what to do next, Kong steps forward and rips into the horse with his scythe, causing it to scream in pain and anger. But that screaming is silenced as the arcing scythe slides back around in a reposte that slices through the horse's spine and sends it crashing to the ground, it's blood frothed head landing on Sterling's chest, sending an 'oof' out of him.
"Medic?" Neri asks again, more nonchalantly this time than the last. He kneels down... and then curses himself as he realizes that yes, that definitely was a kick he took to the torso. He stood back up straight again, and just looked at the horse for a moment, before attempting to use detect magic on it, and the surroundings. Surely there was -something- to spot. These animals still didn't make sense, and maybe there was something controlling them to act so... strangely. Evolution doesn't create Mammoth horses for hunting, so at some point, there was some sort of outside influence.
If the group decided to cook this one, Neri would look on with crimson pupils as Harry cleaned this one as well.
Kong wipes the blood from his scythe, looking the beast over.
Do jou sink it's goot to eat?
His eyes float to rest on Harry...then take in the rest of the group...
...then he steps over to Neri...making odd gestures over his chest and speaking arcane words...
"Now I can't say I've been one to eat horse, but there are people that do it. Though given the size of that damned thing, I'm not exactly sure how the heck we could hang it up to drain all the blood. If you're curious about the taste, reckon we best just chop of some choice parts and take that. Kinda wasteful I know, but that there looks like a heck of a lot of meat. "
I don't know...but it's fresh meat...and oterwise wasted. Fresh meat iss better zan no meat.
Kong moves to assist.
Neri nodded his thanks to Kong. He was still injured, but that took care of enough of it to not be worthy of complaint. Okay, so he could still complain. 'So I take it you get to feel the pain, too? So why do you keep trying to set me on fire? Or is that just hugging?' he thought towards Id.
He kept that eerie eye glow up unless someone overtly distracted him.
There is a faint aura of transmutation, you hadn't seen it before. But it's not centered anywhere, it's just sort of all over. It's almost an echo of an aura, rather than an actual aura.
...go suck a lava tube...
Harry will pull out his hunting knife and start carving off what he considers choice cuts such as digging out the tenderloin. This will be a mere pittance of what there is available, but enough to feed the party for a little while. "Yeah, I guess it is worth having fresh meat rather than just more jerky. "