"Sure, you too Corliss... longshanks make use o' yer pegs. Iffin those wee ones end up where there goin then we might hae more'n just a status o' ol ugly tae contend wi' eh?"
Corliss gives Dibbets a hearty nod. Telling Cora to stay out of trouble while they're gone, he races after the fleeing elves.
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Cora mumbles something sleepily and sinks back down on the stained altar as Corliss darts after the fleeing elves. Kaul is right behind him and Dibbets hops after. Jim finds himself in a tricky tangle.
Obstacle #1: The thick vegetation obscures the trail of blood.
Plunging head-foot and a variety of other appendage-long into the jungle, Dibbets is immediately affronted by the continual smack of foilage across his face obscuring his eyes... rendering the trail a mite difficult to follow...
...his bushy eyebrows shielding his ocular region from the worst of the leafy assault. Chest heaving and a sheen of unhealthy sweat starting to more thickly coat his tattooed torso he's focused on the continual struggle of inhalation and exhalation to be able to cry out directions behind.
Jim tries to tear himself away, but his heart isn't in it.
Walking slightly awkwardly, Kaul joins the hunt - invoking his jigsaw shark totemic abilities to aid finding their quarry's trail;
:
"Har! Blood drippin's on the undergrowth! We be on the right trail, lads!"
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The amount of blood slicking the forest floor drives Kaul to distraction. He has to take a moment so as not to start rolling around in it. Low to the ground, Dibbets susses out the trail quickly and waves Corliss to follow. The pair stumble into a thicket of seriously spiny trees where the fleeing male elf appears to have become stuck. His nearly naked form is streaked with his own blood as he gingerly tries to extricate himself.
Ground 0: Jim
Obstacle #1: Tangles Kaul
Obstacle #2: Brambles Corliss, Dibbets, Tordell
Corliss knows better than to try to be athletic and acrobatic as he enters the area of the spiky trees--Besmara will just have a good laugh at his expense if he tries to do something impressive. So instead he holds his buckler before him and tries to power through the sharp spikes. He gets stuck after a few steps, the oversized thorns piercing his flesh and drawing thin trickles of blood. In the back of his mind, he thinks he hears soft feminine laughter.
Hey--did better than the nekkid elf! he thinks in reply to the taunting voice.
Befuddled by his ardor, Kaul scowls at the slick blood trail and focusses;
:
His arms slicked with sweat and other fluids, Jim manages to tear himself free and follow the party. He blows a quick kiss over one shoulder, though. "Later, hey? Save my place!"
Not really caring to attempt diving through the thorned undergrowth, Dibbs channels his half-ape-like ancestors and uses his arms muscles to propel himself aloft...
Acrobatics:
...the vines he chooses holding firm and seeing him safely over. As he passes the bare ass-ed elf he allows himself an exclamation of satisfaction, and just barely quashes the temptation of sending a gobbet of blood-flecked phlegm t'wards the restrained one.
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Dibbets takes to the vines like ship lines to climb over the brambles where Corliss finds himself nearly as ensnared as the hapless elf. Kaul appears at the edge of the brambles a moment after Dibbets swings clear and onto the next section of trail where the halfling finds a cloud of hornets now blocking the path. Jim tears himself from the groping hands pulling his pants up as he heads into the jungle to find his mates have already pushed on.
Obstacle #1: Tangles Jim
Obstacle #2: Brambles Kaul, Corliss, Tordell
Obstacle #3: Hornets Dibbets
"C'mon, Bessie!" Corliss mutters under his breath as he's stopped in his tracks and slightly bloodied by the spiky foliage. "When I don't look good, ye don't look good! Now let's make a marvelous recovery, eh?"
"Oh, fer the luvva…."
Noting the hornets blocking his path Dibbs slows his hobbly-shuffling pace a mite to draw in an o'erlarge breath. He then disgorges a foetid spittle laden whoosh from 'twixt his deepest bowels to tunnel a path through the light and easily air-driven insects...
...The hornets flee as much from the force as from the smell, leaving the small and determined wee bugger right on the trail. He calls out half breathless o'er shoulder "Feckin hell, keep up eh?"
His mind still on the dalliance/wrestling match, Jim misses critical clues on the trail.
His ardour dimming, Kaul feels his belligerence returning and opts to press on through the brambles;
:
"Hur... Hack. Slash. Lopp. Dash!"
Ax readied he ploughs through the prickly pears in search of longears to cleave...
Jim needs a moment to recover from the lusty episode and refocus on finding the trail. Kaul finds the spines are little concern to his barnacle-kissed hide and darts through leaving Corliss and his half-elf chum still snared at least for a moment before Besmara seems to take mercy and Corliss follows in Kaul's wake. Dibbets blows away the spiteful stingers for the moment and hobbles on to find the deadfall trap that likely stirred them up. A pile of logs bars the way forward.
Obstacle #1: Tangles Jim
Obstacle #2: Brambles Tordell
Obstacle #3: Hornets Kaul, Corliss
Obstacle #4: Deadfall Dibbets
Time for fun and games later...got to get myself together. After a bit of study, Jim spots the track and presses on.
Faced with another void which he needs to cross, Dibbs sets jaw and attempts to work up speed enough to see it done...
Acrobatics:
...soaring majestically... into the lip of the far side of the pit. A mildly discouraged "Ooof" is all the witty commentary that can be managed in the short term.
Enough blood returns topside for Jim to refocus on the mission and he tracks the blood trail into a thicket of brambles. Down the path, Corliss and Kaul come upon Dibbets tumbling down a pile of logs to land flat on his back after failing to leap frog over.
Obstacle #2: Brambles Jim
Obstacle #3: Hornets Tordell
Obstacle #4: Deadfall Dibbets, Kaul, Corliss
"Alley-oops!" Corliss screams with a mad look in his eye as he tries to leap the daunting pile of wood.
Scraping himself and his dignity back together, Dibbets re-sets and attempts the precarious passage anew...
Acrobatics:
...the tumble clearly having knocked a fair amount of his balance a kilter. Ask he ignobly crumples he implores Kaul to "Keep at matey - forge on"
Kaul pauses momentarily, his mechanical claw flexing toward the downed oracle.
When his grubby shipmate cajoles him to press on, the bloody minded thug shoots him a quick nod and hard grin;
"Hur... Will do matey.... Me an' Lopps'll leave some intact fir ye to pepper!"
He lumbers forward, springing across the chasm;
:
Jim follows the trail of blood, the night air clearing his head. The mass of brambles athwart his path slows but does not halt his progress; he takes a running start and leaps over the barrier before continuing on his way.
Jim is back on track as he leaps up to grab a vine and swing over the bramble patch landing clear on the other side. He spots the backside of a bloody elf ahead. Meanwhile, Corliss' faith in himself and sans a word in prayer doesn't pay off. He leaps up to the top log landing inexpertly and it shifts tossing him back on top of Dibbets. The halfling gives an encouraging word to Kaul who easily clears the hurdle.
A moment later, half-flensed half-elf follows with a crazed look in his eye. "HAWANA!" he howls as he sprinkles blood on Corliss and Dibbets below. Both he and Kaul spot a bloody female elf with a leg trapped beneath the deadfall on the far side. The male half-elf leaps at her grabbing for the bloody baby corpse. "Give me the sacrifice!" he shrieks. Ahead, the path skirts the edge of a cliff.
Obstacle #3: No Hornets Jim
Obstacle #4: Deadfall Dibbets, Corliss
Obstacle #5: Crumbling Cliff Kaul, Tordell, Elissin
"Fine, fine! We be a team! Dearest Bessie--help me over yon deadfall with me dignity more o' less intact."
Corliss casts guidance before again trying his luck with the pile of logs. As he reaches the top of the pile he blows a kiss in the general direction of the ocean.
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Grumbling intensifying as he sees Corliss make passage, the halfling swears in what languages he knows as well as tidbits he's picked up during his travels... particularly fond of a Vudrani phrase that roughly translates to swollen arse of a buggered goat. With that verbal fortitude he stirs loins to forward motion...
Acrobatics:
...to find his efforts met with but similar result. The missing flesh on his leg begins to send phantom pains as his mouth detects a tinge of salt flavour on the air... A normal devotee of a normal god might see this as sign of disappointment... but to Dibbets it was merely an indication that his indifferent saviour was laughing at him... as watching a one-legged midget try to pole-vault over a pile of fallen tree-trunks must be. From his prostrate position Dibbs rolls his eyes and laments "Oh aye, harhardehar... nei help ye are eh"
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A faint wind whispers at his kaulifolower ear and the scarred thug nods and grins
"Time fer ye to take a fall longears!"
Kaul sprints forward attempting to shunt the nakkid elf off the cliff edge;
:
The male elf grabs the 'sacrifice' away from the fallen female elf. "No! Mine! Hawana!" she wails inconsolably as he runs away. Kaul follows leering behind the runner. When they reach the edge of the cliff, Kaul hip checks him and the elf and dead baby go over. It's not far, but the elf knocked off the shelf doesn't get up. Corliss lands gracefully on the path behind to find one of the insane marooned elves lying numbly at the base of the dead fall and he spots Kaul ahead knock another elf overboard. Behind him, Jim trots up to the dead fall to find Dibbets whinging over his peg leg.
Obstacle #4: Deadfall Dibbets, Jim
Obstacle #5: Crumbling Cliff Kaul, Corliss
"Well...this looks perfectly safe! Bessie--protect yer humble servant as he takes 'is life in 'is hands, all fer yer glory, o' course!"
Kaul halts looking first at the downed loungers, then scours the surrounding locale for any other routes or obstacles;
:
Corliss tries to rush around Kaul, but the rock along the rim crumbles nearly pulling him over. He stumbles back while Kaul takes a thorough vantage from his gander point. They appear to be standing on level escarpment some 25 feet above the jungle floor. Just to the east, Kaul spots the last bloody elf reach the ground by a hidden path and duck into a passage in the cliff face.
Kaul scowls and hefts Lopper, bellowing to his shipmates;
"Last longears just ducked into the cliff face Easterly lads! Let's get after 'im!"
He lopes toward the crevice with a leer;
"Anyone fancy squeezin' into a dark passage?"
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Jim grins. "If I'd wanted to do that, I would have stayed behind."
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Picking himself gingerly back to his feet Dibbs gives the deadfall logs one last murderously dark look before slowly maneuvering his way past. At the words of the other longshanks he scoffs "Still a chance there iffin ye wants it Jimmer" gesturing t'wards the lass held stuck by the deadfall.
To Kaul he adds "Good work matey, but chase is still on eh - intae tha dark we goes."
The crew regather below the cliff which is so regular as to look formed by craft, not a natural feature. Indeed, the passage into the sandstone is covered in eroded petroglyphs that have been painted over in wide vertical yellow and black stripes. Barely discernible beneath the thick paint are the much older carved scenes of hominid creatures engaged in horrible acts of violence and lust overseen from below by a the same squid-like creature as the idol. Stairs descend about 20 feet before ending in tall wooden double doors. A few drops of fresh blood can be found on the stairs leading to the doors. The creepy voice is heard in your heads again, Ah, you're here. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?
"A stupid red whale wreckin' our ship!" Corliss spits aloud...at the voice in his head.
Jim scratches his head. "Say, aren't black and yellow Calistria's colors? I remember seeing them, ah, well."
"A stupid red whale wreckin' our ship!"
He's still doing his job then; keeping me supplied with fresh meat to corrupt. I don't think that I will need Qualmaga's whale much longer though.
Jim's experiential learning hits the mark where Corliss' study misses.
Kaul looks at Jimmer all quizzical like;
"Calley-Who?"
He then whispers an aside to his shorter shipmate;
"You hearin' voices in yer noggin Dibbs? Or is it just me again?"
Explaining to Kaul "Calley-whorequeen tha wasp lady. And aye, voices in all our noggins" before straightening to his mighty small height and addressing the voice "Qualmaga's whale eh? Whats 'e then, yer partner like?" gesturing for Kaul and Jimmer to keep descending whilst they're talking.
"Qualmaga's whale eh? Whats 'e then, yer partner like?"
Partner? Funny. Just another slave as you will soon be. Hurry now.
The great doors swing open with a touch. The stone entry hall beyond is thirty feet wide and slightly longer. Open arches lead to the right and left. Another pair of wooden doors stand in the opposite wall. Shattered bits of statues that once bookended those doors are scattered over the floor with puddles of brackish water. The chamber is obviously ancient. Dim light comes from a ruby-colored torch at each archway.