Nerik charges up to the thing gnawing on Emerys' leg, and smacks it hard with his morningstar. It hisses at him like a snake.
Sunny scrambles to her feet, and begins singing an inspiring shanty of some sort.
Donk crawls away as best he can to get away from the snake thing.
Polson looks to move round into a flanking position and attacks now with both short swords
Strong hand Shortsword
Off hand Shortsword
Sulna will try to move into a flanking postion from Polson, or anyone else, and attack.
Sunny begins a soothing song to help ease Emerys pain,
(Forgot about the Bard song and the +1 to hit)
Seeing nothing he can do immediately, K'Tzhang takes the bow from his back and readies an arrow, he looks ready to fire should the creature start to make a run for it.
Belros charges in, stabbing with the borrowed short sword... ...and fails to stab the offensive beast.
Emerys twitches a little as he lays there on the shore.
The creature raises up a little, and opens its maw, unleashing a stream of liquid at Polson.
Sulna launches a series of strikes at the beast, managing to connect with only one.
Nerik swings his morningstar again, missing the beast.
Sunny narrowly avoids the snap of the beast's jaws as she reaches to heal Emerys.
Donk curls into a fetal position and cries a little.
Polson dives to avoid the beasts attack
Reflex save
and then strikes twice.
Stronghand
Offhand
Having quickly helped Emerys Sunny shifts over and lays a cool hand upon Donk's shoulder as her lilting voice caries more of her power into healing the big man.
Sulna continues his attacks on the creature.
Seeing Emerys still unconscious, despite Sunny's healing, K'Tzhang decides to move to Emerys (keeping away from the creature as much as possible), he drops his bow and tends to Emrys wounds, looking to treat anything unusual if there is evidence that poison may be at work. After all, any creature spitting as an attack, is more than likely to have used poison in an attack. However the injuries are to confusing for K'Tzhang to do much of any use.
"Nice catch we got" making a sour face "Can we use a smaller bait, so we might catch something to eat, not something to eat us" and with a smirk in his face
Round 2
Try to to flank it if possible or attack it from behind
Attack
Damage
Polson easily evades the stream of caustic saliva from the beast.
Narrowly avoiding Belros' blade, the beast puts itself in perfect position for Polson to successfully strike it with both his blades.
With the sinking of his second blade, the creature goes limp. Sulna stomps on it's unconscious form, snuffing out whatever life it had left.
Emerys is still unconscious, but no longer bleeding thanks to Sunny's two healing spells.
Donk is still curled up and crying.
Sunny sighs.
"There in't nothin' more I c'n be doin' fer Emerys...." Then she looks over towards Donk.
"Has any one a knowledge of whut th' flippin' heck that thing wus?" She asks, standing and walking over to the big Mite. She puts her hands gently on his shoulders and begins to softly croon a lullaby.
She looks over to Polson,
"Hsst! Mate? Come over here an' lend yer gabbin' t' me at helpin' this poor bugger out, hey?" She asks, in a tone of voice that is set at a pitch so as not to startle or upset Donk.
With a big grin in his face "Whatever that was, I don't think Donk would like to be bait to fish a second one and ask it" puting a hand on Donk shoulder "Common big fella, you are alive still and there are more horrible things in the world if you are not careful enough"
*Grimacing at the flurry of activity over the river creature's arrival, keeps watch for any other threats.*
Polson wipes the creatures blood from his blades, smiling to himself at his own work. Walking over he speaks to Donk in hushed Undercommen, trying to reassurance the big lunk that he is safe!
"Well, I think we can rule out swimming. Should we rest and recover for a bit then try and find a way across?"
While still seeing to Donk's well being with Polson and Belros, Sunny looks across at Sulna,
"Feh! I in't afraid o' th' water!" She declares, then smiles. "Though, given that none else be in my boat," Her words changing to a teasing and joking tone as she again gives Donk's shoulder a friendly squeeze.
"We be lookin' fer a ford or some where shallow t' be gettin' across, right? Heck, th' bugger's whut took th' horses done found away." Stepping away from The other two Elves and Donk she begins to strip down more, removing her wet armour and laying it across her back-pack to dry off.
Once down to her simple shirt and pant, she looks around, "Tell ye whut. Some one lend me a dagger an' I'll go an' scoot around fer some place shallow?" She suggests.
Sunny does move over and has a look at how Emery's is faring.
** spoiler omitted **
As the party catches their breath, examines their wounds, attempt to wake Emerys, and calm Donk, it becomes obvious you'll not be catching up to whoever that was with all those horses.
Donk says...
As you talk about how to cross the river, it's decided that the weather, and water, is still too cold for everyone to safely cross by swimming, even with a rope to help everyone. You know there is a bridge a few hours walk to the southeast, but that's in the opposite direction of the horses. To the northwest, the terrain is unknown.
"While it takes us back on ourselves I would rather we had a place to cross than hold out hope for another bridge. I suggest we travel south'"
Feeling rather pleased that the healing knowledge has come to help his new friends, K'Tzang pipes up, "You know, if we can't catch up the horsthesth this way, perhapsth you wouldn't mind going sthomewhere I've alwaysth wanted to explore. I got to the edge of the forestht to the westht of here, but old grumblegutsth, well the old chief never let me go. If the talesth are correct, the river goesth that way too, maybe there'sth a crossthing." K'Tzhang smiles at the party with expectation that they might head off to places new, and he'd be an adventurer.
"There are important things for me they stole and I don't feel comfortable just wielding this weapon, not that I don't know how to use it, but I'm used to my weapons"
"I would vote the southern bridge. Better a place we know than someplace we don't."
"Aye, heading fer th' bridge we know about would seem t' be th' better option than strikin' out an' hopin' t' find a ford of other crossin' in plcaes we dunt know nuthi' of...." Sunny tries to explain to K'tzhang.
"An aye, gettin' our kit back from th' horses as well as gettin' th' investment o' th' horses back be a very top priority." She adds, to show agreement with Belros.
Sunny looks over at Emerys.
Thinking about directions Sunny groans and collapses down on the grass beside the unconscious Emerys.
"Dang an' buggerit!" She sighs. "Well, should we make camp here? We've at least fresh water an such while we wait fer Emery's t' be wakin' up? She looks left and right along the river bank.
"What say maybe K'tzhang an' me head just a little west a-ways along th' river any-who? Use th' time t' have a gander..." She suggests.
K'Tzhang calls Sunny and anyone feeling any wounds or injury to move to Emerys and where K'Tzhang prays to the great dragon, channeling energy into Emerys and others, hoping that Emerys will recover from unconsciousness.
Once finished with Emerys, K'Tzhang speaks about the choices ahead. "You know the longer we wait the quicker the trail gos cold, to follow game trails, I never wanted to be more than a day late, but going to the southern bridge after waiting is long and could well end up with us loosing the trail. I don't mind going that way if we agree, but be warned it is no guarantee of success."
After the second wave of healing energy, Emerys' eyes fly open, and he jumps up with a panicked start. [b]"We need to go to Oleg's!"[ooc] And he starts heading northwest along the river, with or without the rest of the group.
Sulna jumps in front of Emerys, "Hey! Slow down there. What are you talking about?"
The boy says, "I don't know how or why, but we need to get to the trading post as fast as possible."
Sunny tilts her head at Emery's actions, but shrugs stands and jogs off after him.
"T'is gon'a be a long run back t' Olegs..." She says, trying to pace herself.
Shocked and surprised by Emerys' sudden burst into life and legging it off, followed by Sunny, K'Tzhang shouts "Wait for me!" as he picks up all his belongings and follows along after. "Stho where you going, what isth thisth Oleg?" He runs along behind, until he can catch them up.
"Ok, you lead then."
Sulna moves out of Emery's way and gathers his belongings.
He looks across the water and sighs. He's going to miss that horse.
Sulna will bring up the rear and make sure no one left anything before following.
Working together, Polson and Sunny manage to get Donk up and moving. Catching up to Emerys as he somewhat blindly leads the way towards Oleg's Trading Post.
After a few hours, Emerys begins to stumble, which isn't a surprise as he's still badly wounded.
Well if you are gonna stumble all the way, might as well just helping a little bit so he won't slow us down so much as he moves in to give him a hand and a shoulder to lean on so he won't stumble.
"Aye, I ken yer need fer hurry, but unless we pace ourselves we'll not be in any state t' be doin' nuthin' by th' time we gets there." Sunny adds, herself a little out of breath.
Even with help, Emerys begins to stumble to the point of being a hindrance to everyone trying to help, and dusk has arrived.
K'Tzang, having at last caught up with Emreys, asks the lad what the rush is about, trying to see what it is that is making the poor boy want to go off like that, without any seeming rhyme or reason. "Now young man, what'sth thisth all about?"
With dusk approaching Sunny looks about for a place to camp for the night, though taking her cues a to where from those more knowledgeable than she.
"Uhm... a little help here?" Sunny asks from whatever mishap has caught her up in....
Donk scoops Emerys up, and carries him almost like a baby.
After getting over the shock of this, Emerys weakly says, "After I fell unconscious fighting that....thing, I don't know...I had some kind of...vision. A couple times, when still with the bandits, I watched the comings and goings at Oleg's. That's how I knew what I saw. Some kind of...dark cloud, full of gnashing teeth was coming from the west, out of some mountains. It swept over Oleg's, leaving nothing be death and blight behind." He passes out from exhaustion, still in Donk's arms.
With dusk approaching Sunny looks about for a place to camp for the night, though taking her cues a to where from those more knowledgeable than she.
"Uhm... a little help here?" Sunny asks from whatever mishap has caught her up in....
You think this is the bestest best campsite ever!
Not influenced by her efforts at finding a campsite, K'Tzhang does his best to find a site that could easily be defended and is reasonably well hidden from view. He calls over to Sonny, "I think you might find thisth a little better to sthleep the night."
Once everything is ready for the night, K'Tzhang will try and sooth Emery's restfulness and his bad dreams/memories from the fight with the snake thing. Staying with him for most of the night, resting next to him, to be ready to mop his troubled brow. He sees if this is some sort of magical effect on the boy, trying to get to the bottom of what caused him this trouble. Even praying to Aspu for guidance in detecting the magic that might have entered him.
You think this is the bestest best campsite ever!
Eventually Sunny gets her stuff together and sets up with every one else.
*Wanders around camp as everyone sleeps, keeping an eye and ear out for anything threatening the camp, apparently not needing to sleep*
Polson is happy to fit in with the watches as they fall.