"Our friends have problems of their own," Helga guesses, and starts down the slope.
Climb:
... not so much 'climbing down' as 'plummeting' ...
"Helga!" Setebo leaps from the ridge trying to grab her.
If I catch her. "Helga please let me assist you." Setebo ropes them together. Aid another climb . My own climb down .
If I do not.
"HELGA!" Setebo races down the ridge. Accelerated climb dc 15,
@ Cutlass if you feel you cannot keep up with the game then I won't have you fall ill like the others just reduce you to NPC status until the party leaves the island.I leave the decision up to you
@ The others if Cutlass withdraws there will be no further places offered in this game..
Up above
Helga plummets over the edge of the escarpment. Setebo fails to pull her back
@Helga Make a DC10 Reflex save to grab hold of something to arrest your fall
Down Below
Caithens blow ends the savages howling as he falls to the ground bleeding profusly.
When Natalyah looks up to see the last savage slain she kneels to grab her opponent by the hair and ends his life with a clean cut across his throat with her dagger. She throws the body back to the ground and moves back to the group.
Where's the rest?", Natalyah demands as she approaches the group. "Where's Amisi, Helga and the freak?"
Amisi's spell dies on her lips as she sees the foes go down.
Reflex Save:
As she tumbles Helga's out-flung arm grasps a creeper that yields but not swiftly, dropping her relatively slowly through the canopy to the ground below.
Reflex Save: 1d20+6
As she tumbles Helga's out-flung arm grasps a creeper that yields but not swiftly, dropping her relatively slowly through the canopy to the ground below.
So we have helga decending gracefullly until her dainty feet lightly grace the soil. And then we have Setebo smashing through the foliage like a hairy heavily armed cannonball. Nice.
"Helga and the Freak reporting as ordered knife lady. There was a strange plant-woman at the camp site. She attacked, we killed her. No one else was hurt.
"Oh and Hega, nice joke with that vine. You really had me thinking you were falling."
"Ah Setebo, just in time." Caithan says as hes wiping his blade and putting it away. "Be a good chap and remove the mess here from the path? That's a good man."
Caithan looks up at the plateau. "Well that was brief. Too bad about the lizard though. I imagine it will eat well tonight."
"Ah Setebo, just in time." Caithan says as hes wiping his blade and putting it away. "Be a good chap and remove the mess here from the path? That's a good man."
Caithan looks up at the plateau. "Well that was brief. Too bad about the lizard though. I imagine it will eat well tonight."
"Sir!"
Setebo begins to gather the bodies and look for a suitable place to dispose of them. Anthill, termite mound, hollow log, handy ravine, lonely beach wrapped in plastic, pie shop, you get the idea.He will check the bodies for gear as he disposes of them.
** spoiler omitted **
"Rollo! You know you are only supposed to chew on them when they are alive! Put that down!
Atzi looks over the corpses and then spits on the closest one as she calls Quetza back to her side. For some reason they filled her with a fury she couldn't describe, she felt like wiping them out whenever she saw them. Quetza hissed at the corpse before moving away, he didn't share Atzi's sentiments he just didn't like anyone who threatened her. Atzi turned and nodded in agreement to Caithan's statement "Indeed it shall eat well tonight, now unless we have a quick place to dump them I suggest we move on to the ridge and scout it out. Setebo, Helga do you know what lies ahead? And Natalyah what did you find friend? Other then these troublesome things..."
The jungle returns to it's normal noise levels.
Natalyah looks at Atzi and shakes her head.
"Those...things prevented me from scouting to far but if this is one of their paths then perhaps the camp isn't as secure as we need it to be"
She turns with a scowl at Stebo's comment.."Plant woman?..what kind of 'Plant Woman'. If you have slain a forest gaurdian I promise you ..."
She leaves the unspoken threat hanging.
"Plant woman?..what kind of 'Plant Woman'. If you have slain a forest gaurdian I promise you ..."
"'Twas a walking dead woman infested with greenery, sister," Helga informs her seriously. "I heard you tell of the walking dead elsewhere, this did seem to me to be one of them. It shambled at us and we defended ourselves, Setebo here guarded my life with his own, a deed I'll not forget."
Atzi looks over the corpses and then spits on the closest one as she calls Quetza back to her side. For some reason they filled her with a fury she couldn't describe, she felt like wiping them out whenever she saw them. Quetza hissed at the corpse before moving away, he didn't share Atzi's sentiments he just didn't like anyone who threatened her. Atzi turned and nodded in agreement to Caithan's statement "Indeed it shall eat well tonight, now unless we have a quick place to dump them I suggest we move on to the ridge and scout it out. Setebo, Helga do you know what lies ahead? And Natalyah what did you find friend? Other then these troublesome things..."
Setebo replies to Atzi. "We did not get much of a chance to look before we heard the fighting down here, but the little we did see looks promising. I will dispose of the bodies and we can continue searching if you like."
Cutlass finally catches up with the others, standing at the base of the ridge. Then hearing the scuffle at the top of the ridge he scrambles up the ridge.
Rollo plays tug of war with Setebo as he tries to pull the body away until a harsh clipped word in varisian comes out of Caithan's mouth making the hound drop the body.
Caithan looks up at the ridge. "Well we'll just have to see what's on the other side then."
With that he takes his time and starts to climb up. The dog whines and starts to follow him up though at a much slower pace.
Natalyah looks unconvinced.."dead plant woman..show me..I don't trust you people to know your dryads from..whatever." She begins to climb the slope.
Eventually you all congregrate at the top Amisi having been helped over most of the distance.
The dead woman is still there clad in the tattered remnants of a once fine dress and her dessicated skin sprouting vines which now seem to be withering.
Natalyah studies the corpse and nods grimly.."Some kind of plant zombie after all..Atzi, do you agree that these are yellow musk vines?..if so we have to beware the plant itself.Indeed it might be best to find and destroy it before we even attempt to find a suitable camp site."
She stands and looks around scouring the area for tracks..the stops and kneels her fingers tracing something on the ground.."She came this way..she was running..fleeing something and then she just stopped..I think the vines must have possessed her here.She probably had no idea what was happening to her.." the Elven ranger falls silent then stands again.
"We can't risk blundering into a Yellow Musk Creeper, We will have to deal with it"
"What is it vulnerable too?" Helga asks seriously.
"Most plants don't have any real vulnerabilities..hit it hard enough and it dies..there may be more of those corpses with it..and you need to beware it's pollen but as long as we stay more than 10 yards away we should be able to kill it without too much trouble..off course seeing it at more than 10 yards in this might be a problem"
Can you all look at the OOC thread where important questions are being posed with regards to loot
Caithan takes in the magnificent view as he listens to Natalyah's words then looks around at all the swords, daggers, knives, claws, and teeth everyone's carry."Are you suggesting we try to kill a patch of vines with arrows?"
Natalyah glares at the Armoured Chelaxian.."No..it's not a patch of vines and yes it would be safest to destroy it from a distance..the pollen has a stupefying effect get too close and have that occur and..well you end up like her" she points to the corpse.
"I have some alchemist's fire in my pack," Helga mentions innocently. "Will that be efficacious against it?"
Caithan looks at Natlayah impatiently. "Well woman what the bloody hells is it then. All the warnings in the world don't help us if you can't tell us what to look for."
Caithan takes in the magnificent view as he listens to Natalyah's words then looks around at all the swords, daggers, knives, claws, and teeth everyone's carry."Are you suggesting we try to kill a patch of vines with arrows?"
"Cutting seemed to work best on the plant-woman. Perhaps if we can find the plant maybe I could borrow the axe from the camp. It should work well."
"um.... this may not be a good idea....but it rains pretty heavily here... kind of at a predictable time every day..... Would the rain keep the pollen down? We could hack it out then. might take a couple of days though....."
"I have some alchemist's fire in my pack," Helga mentions innocently. "Will that be efficacious against it?"
"And I noticed a number of oil flasks back at camp. Fire might be the best plan. We could even collect some dry wood to help it burn."
Natalyah takes a deep breath to shout at Caithen and then Setebo's comment seems to catch her off guard....she blinks her mouth closes with a snap and then she narrows her eyes as she looks at the half Orc..
"You know..that might be the most sensible thing you have said since we met you"
"My teachers told me that the plant has a central core and creepers like tentacles that come off it. Those can reach out to about 10 feet, the main danger is the pollen as I said and it could have more of those zombie things it creates to seed itself ,maybe up to half a dozen. If we dont deal with those then we'll have more of the plants to deal with. I don't think it will be far from this point the zombies dont go far from the main plant until they are almost broken down..or so I was told."
Atzi nods even though she grimaces at the thought of fire being used so blatantly, controlled fire was a good way to purge dead plants and help place to recover quickly. Uncontrolled fire could bring unthinkable devastation. "We can save the flask of fire for a time when we need it, but if we have enough oil I can start the fire myself. Although if we try to burn it after the rains it may not burn as easily as we hope it will."
Satisfied with the answer Caithan thinks on the problem for a moment. "So about these zombies. Only humans? or things like them? Could we be dealing with say, zombie monitor lizards?"
"I was....indisposed...I tink Kallakan ate too many berries last night!"
After listening to the others
"Spores they get in the nose yes? Then when we hack, put some cloth over our mouths and nose like a veil."
Atzi basically confirms Natalyah's suspicions.
Yellow musk Creepers are slightly ambulatory plants that rely on their mind clouding pollen to bring people within its reach so it can use them as hosts for its seeds
"I have several flasks, but you are right, we should keep them for when we need them," Helga agrees. "Still, we have bows: We can shoot at and draw out any of these walking corpses we find, and destroy them away from the creeper, then deal with the creature."
"Bows won't do much against the dead" Natalyah says "and we don't have so many arrows that we can waste them ..but slings would do to draw them out..we have rivers here with good rounded stones and a little rope and sail cloth will make slings for all off us.I think we have the basics off a plan here...if everyone can work together"
"...if everyone can work together"
Setebo seems confused for a moment, the Lady of Blades counseling cooperation? This plant-beast must really be fearsome.
"The plant-woman seemed quite slow....If we find where the others are perhaps I can convince them to chase me, draw them into a trap or off a cliff. Even a covered pit, plant woman did not seem too bright.
But first we have to find the plant beast. There may be no more plant people. Could we track this one back to the source?"
Caithan thinks for a moment. "I have a bottle of alchemists flame in my pack and a vial of some rather nasty acid. Slings would work I think but might be a bit complicated. Had we some bamboo or similiarly stiff and straight wood we can make some serviceable javelins. Might be a touch more effective. Slings tend to merely annoy some foes. Great for hunting small game but I aim higher."
"The ground is soft and she wasn't exactly trying to cover her tracks..it won't be hard to find where she came from, and we have some javelins..those savages were carrying more than one each."
Kallakhan will summon a creature to attack the monster as well, can anyone else bring forth such creatures?
"Here is where Olaf and his throwing axes would be useful," Helga sighs. "Failing that I shall do the best I can with sling and bow."
Setebo picks up one of the savages javelins and weighs it in his hairy hand. He smiles at Natalyah when she stiffens as the freak picks up a weapon.
"Not bad. A little tip heavy but it will serve."
btw. How any savage javelins are there and was there any other gear? Setebo checked the bodies before tossing them in a handy shallow grave.
you have a total of 4 javelins(and another 4 at base campfrom a previous encounter.)..the savages were also carrying a light wooden shield apiece along with a broken sawtoothed scimitar and a red coral bracelet worth about 50 gp(you now have 4 off those apologies for my forgetting them on the treasure sheet)
you have a total of 4 javelins(and another 4 at base campfrom a previous encounter.)..the savages were also carrying a light wooden shield apiece along with a broken sawtoothed scimitar and a red coral bracelet worth about 50 gp(you now have 4 off those apologies for my forgetting them on the treasure sheet)
To Cutlass: "I had no idea you had such power." There is some awe in Setebo's voice.
"These are still serviceable," Setebo says holding up the savage's javelins. "but the swords may need some work. Could still serve though. If we want them to."
Setebo brings one of the broken sabers to the groups attention. "The plant-woman fell quickly when my knife parted some of the vines under her skin. This weapon seems very well suited to this task if it could be repaired. Is that possible?"
"Even as they are," Setebo slashes some foliage. "they can help us move faster through the greenery."
"Well" asks Natalyah getting to her feet. "are we going to find this thing or not?"