Chantif carefully lines up his shot, and the grappling arrow strikes home in a tree across the left creek.
Chantif secures the rope to a near tree. "Det, take hold o' this, just in case." Then he wades across the creek by gripping the rope.
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Det starts taking off his armor. "If we don't want to lose the rope, somebody's going to have swim it across. Can you guys carry my stuff over for me?"
"Not a problem. Last person will knot themselves to the rope and we pull them across. But yeah getting the gear across first should be a priority, no reason to half-drown in the process.", Umash agrees.
Chantif ensures the rope is securely tied on his end. Then he does whatever is necessary to help get the mules, gear, and other party members across.
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Chantif and Rhona manage to get the mules tethered and then coax them across the first creek. Sal starts to float away, but Rhona catches him. Drexel makes it across unscathed, but Umash goes under momentarily, but she hauls herself up with the rope and finishes crossing.
EDIT: Det crosses easily with the rope.
Chantif stows the rope and grappling hook, then puts his armor back on. Best be movin' on.
I let out a huge sigh once across, "You know, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. How is,everyone else?" I then check all my gear and ready myself to press on.
Rhona eases Sal down upon the shore and laughs. "Well, this journey hasn't been uneventful, has it?" She shoots Drexel a wink as she starts to pile her armor back on. "Never been one to turn down a good swim, myself." After drying off a bit, Rhona stands ready to get back on the trail.
"Right... Umash comments, her head tilted, both hands wringing her dredlocks "Beats the hell out of a nocturnal Kobold ambush. But then again that doesn't say much."
The party works their way back down the riverbank to the road, and travels for three hours before finding an open glen that seems to have been used often as a campsite just before sunset. As the party sets up camp, Det pipes up: "If we make good time for another three days, we should make it to Meston."
Aye, we're not too far off-track just yet.
"Yep, yep. Onward to Meston, then?"
The night and the next morning pass uneventfully. Just after lunch, however, the trail begins to narrow, and the party comes to a spot where it is completely overgrown with vines. The vines, which have three leaves on each stalk, criss-cross the trail, making it impassable. Det says, "Ah, guys, that's poison ivy."
Chantif grunts at the sight of the ivy. "Maybe we can find a way around it."
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"I definitely don't want to mess with it. Nasty stuff. Lets go around it."
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"Poison ivy? Damn. I had a nasty run-in with this stuff as a kid." She smiles as she reminisces. "Last time I ever wore a sun dress."
Umash without saying anything steps closer to examine the vines.
To the east (the party's right, since they're headed more or less north) the terrain ascends sharply to a ridgeline roughly a hundred feet or so above the level of the trail. There are patches of ivy all along the side of the ridge, but they get thicker and closer together the closer you get to the natural chokepoint in the trail. It's possible that a nimble person might be able to dodge most of the patches of ivy while scrambling along the ridge, but it would be difficult, and there's no way the mules would make it.
On the other side, the grade is slightly less steep as it drops down towards the creek you crossed earlier. It would be somewhat difficult, but you could probably get the mules down that way.
As the party contemplates the vines, two potentially significant pieces of data emerge: 1) although the trail is hardly a major thouroughfare, the party has seen significant enough signs of passage that it seems unlikely that the trail has been deserted long enough for the ivy to overgrow the trail naturally, and 2) the thick ivy ends precisely at the west edge of the trail; the slope down to the creek only has a few, scattered patches. Noticing this, Drexel begins gesturing and muttering. A few seconds later his eyes become a milky white as the pupils disappear.
Tain't natural. It just ain't natural. Chantif looks around for anyone or anything who might be hidden, watching the party.
I reckon we can go down that slope there, and... Chantif's eyebrows raise. Uh, Drex, whatcha' doin' there?
"This makes me uncommon queasy. I hope this was left for someone else and not us--I hope we haven't been compromised. No one is nearby though, leastways as far as I can tell, but... this spell--for spell it was, I'm certain--coulda' been cast days ago."
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"Down the slope...?" Rhona considers their options and nods. "All right, then. Better than poison ivy, I guess. That said, if somebody did leave that here to deter us, there's a chance there's a trap of some kind waiting for us down there. Let's just keep our eyes open, then, eh?"
Chantif walks over to Bob and pulls off the climber's kit. The party gets the ropes tied off, and then they begin carefully making their way down the hillside. Umash loses her grip on the rope about a third of the way down and slides through some briars (thankfully, not ivy vines) and skids into some rocks. Rhona loses her grip a moment later, but she reacts quickly enough to brake her descent with her feet and grab the rope again before it is out of reach. There are no further mishaps during the descent.
Once the party reaches the bottom of the ravine, they can see that it continues forward until the ridge the trail follows turns west towards the creek. Walking along the ravine for about an hour, the party reaches the point where they need to either head back upslope onto the trail or follow the creek. Det pipes up: "I don't know how far that thick ivy went, but the creek is heading away from Meston."
"Let's look up the slope and see if the ivy is still up there." Chantif will pull the gear out again and climb the slope to have a look.
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I follow the group quietly as we move down the slope, my face pales as we head down the steep slope where one misstep could send us into the swollen river below, and along the treacherous ground using all my concentration. When Chantif says he will go back up I simply clutch the rope and nod.
Chantif climbs up.
Chantif frowns deeply. He climbs down in a hurry. "We best be getting back up the slope and not go wasting any time about it. There's still patches of ivy but we can get around them if we're careful. There are people living a few miles upstream on the far bank over there it would be better for--for us to avoid. I hope, um, let's all hope, that they haven't seen us yet."
D***. Not now. Not yet.
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"Wait, we're turning around?" Rhona cocks an eyebrow, still rolling her sore shoulder from the little slip-up a few moments before. "What's wrong with the people upstream? What about the poison ivy?"
She groans loudly and hoarsely, scarcely bothering to hide her frustration even as she starts to make her way back toward Chantif. Her face quickly turns beet-red. "There's something you're not telling us," she growls. "Spill it, Chantif. Umash and I just took a spill going down this stupid slope, and if it turns out we busted our butts and our pride for no damn reason at all, I'm going to-" She cuts herself off just before she says something she will regret, instead opting for something a bit gentler. "-to pull your ears down and tie 'em underneath your chin. Yeah."
Chantif, cheeks a little more flushed than usual, looks at Rhona warily for a moment. "We're going north. Means we need to go that way" he points up the slope "to keep going where we're going." He points at the huts on the riverbank. "That way ain't North, and there's people there. The fewer people we meet in our course the better for us." He turns away and begins readying the gear and animals for the re-ascent.
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After making their way upslope, the party carefully marches along the trail while ensuring that they avoid the scattered patches of ivy that still dot this part of the trail. After an hour or so, the party pauses to rest.
"That damned detour has set us back. We are falling behind. Let's press on to make up for some lost time."
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On the way Umash carefully collects a few samples of the ivy.
Umash manages to collect two usable samples of ivy while the party is discussing whether or not to continue.
I grit my teeth and haul myself back up the embankment. Once we get to the top I finally start breathing normally again. "I agree, lets press on. I don't want to tarry on the trail. I am beginning to regret volunteering for this." I grimace, gingerly touching my still healing wounds.
Beating through the overgrown trail must have taken more out of the party than it seemed, for they are feeling the strain of an extra hour of travel.
Rhona's mood is not helped at all by the strain of the day's journey. Her muscles ache, and it takes everything she has not to groan audibly as the hours stretch. Clearly, however, she is not the only one suffering from exhaustion; Chantif and Drexel look rough as well. Her mood is dark enough that she can't even bring herself to gripe at Chantif or pick on Drexel, so she just glowers quietly.
Covered in sweat and panting I cast prestidigitation every few min to clean the sweat from my clothes and myself. "Well, I am done for today."
Chantif nods, breathing heavily. "Alright. Let's make camp here."
He sets up the campsite.
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The party finds a spot close by that is flat enough to set up camp. The night passes uneventfully, and the party resumes their northern course. All of the sudden, a pair of long tentacles reach down at Det, but both of them miss. Looking up, the whole party sees a lanky creature with its legs wrapped around a tree branch and his arms dangling down towards Det.
"Oh, hell...!" Rhona shouts as she sees the creature's tentacles threatening Det. Chantif's longspear could likely reach the creature, but Rhona herself lacks a long enough weapon to poke at it. Oh, well- that's what her throwing axes are for!
Umash draws a bomb vial from her bandolier: "If you want trouble, get down here!", she hurls the vial at the creature.
The creature howls in agony as Chantif stabs it in the side with his spear and Rhona's axe hits it in one of the tentacles. Umash's bomb explodes above the creature. Det bashes at the creature. The creature moves into the branch's foliage.
Umash draws another vial and hurls it into the tree.