"I say we take the Minky route," Anklebiter says, indicating his familiar with a clawed digit. "Let's get up high in one of those ruins, preferably somewhere with only one point of access. Making an ambush is so much easier if you can see the enemy coming and they can only attack you from one direction. I've got my Fire Sneeze-spell prepared, so that will probably be helpful."
It doesn't take you long to determine that most of the ruins give very little shelter. None of the multi-story building survived the years, and very few of the single-story buildings managed to hold enough of their walls together to be defensible. After about a half hour of combing through the buildings, you finally settle on one with three downstairs rooms and a partial roof. The floors of the downstairs rooms have rotted away, leaving bare dirt and rotten wood as the flooring, but the walls appear serviceable.
"This is suitable, though mind your step."
"I should have bought some scrolls of Alarm," Anklebiter says as he makes a circuit of the room, shaking his head so his ears flop. "Help me find and block spots where small things could crawl in, please?"
"Certainly, friend," Lefrik looks around to help the goblin. Now in the wilderness...of sorts, he feels more confident in his abilities when it comes to know how.
Calla looks around well, trying to make sure the area is as safe as possible. "Hey, beardless, any chance you can set up any surprises for anything that tries to get in?"
It quickly became apparent that there were far too many holes in the walls and ground to plug all of them, so Anklebiter and Lefrik settled for stopping up only the larger ones. Prepping the camp was a straightforward task, and the companions each pitched in.
The skies opened up around midnight, drenching the island, and leaving everything dripping wet. The partial roof provided some shelter, but even so, any supplies - and people - that weren't in tents or under tarps were soaking wet come morning.
Nobody was in a very good mood as you stirred in the early morning light. Though the rain had stopped hours before, the sky was cloudy and it looked as if it might pick back up at any minute. Bruendor yanked the tarp off the pile of supplies with a little more force than was necessary, and jumped back as three writhing forms boiled out of the foodstuffs.
AC 15/18, touch 12, flat-footed 13/16
Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +9
CMD 14
HP 29/29
Divine retribution (DC 13) 0/6; Judgments 0/2
Arrows: 1/30; cold iron arrows 0/20; bolts 0/17
Spells: 0/4 (first-level); 0/2 (second level)
Effects:
"Bloody hell!" Calla curses, moving south to put the hole between the bugs and her as she pulls her bow and an arrow and lets one of the shafts fly.
;
Lefrik flings a javelin at one as Calla curses, "Well, If I wasn't awake before..."
Round 1
Kel picks up her loaded crossbow and fires on the one that Lefrik chopped.
"Sagittae, omne errore vacuae, volete!" Anklebiter chants, and two darts of force fly from his hand to impact the hindmost centipede.
Bruendor throws away the tarp and springs away from the monstrous vermin. "Didn't expect to see that this early in the morning!", he cries, pulling his blade and slashing at one of them.
Attack, then adjust to I6.
The initial onslaught of magic and steel destroyed the two-foot long centipedes. The twitching remnants thrashed about for a moment, then lay still. As Bruendor checked the supplies, he found that the creatures had glutted themselves on the stores. He estimated that they had lost two days' worth of supplies to the vermin. It wasn't enough to make him worry about starvation, but unless they were able to supplement their stores, they were going to have to tighten their belts before the Cloud returned in a week.
As the sun rose, the clouds remained, lending a grey air to the island around you, and the ruins of the harbor seemed that much more dilapidated and, perhaps, creepy.
"Blast it," Lefrik gets his javelin back and cleans it off. "I hate fasting especially when some bugs are the cause. Somehow I doubt the centipedes are edible."
"Well, I'm sure you can find something on the island you can kill and eat."
"If we're ready, we might as well get a move on. Perhaps we can find some stores left by the other groups. Just be careful about what's underfoot."
When you arrived yesterday, there were a few landmarks you saw from the deck of the Flying Cloud. First, and most obvious, was the towers at the top of the highest peak on the island - the community of Witchlight - where you saw the smoke and flashing lights. Then, there was the giant crate that the meteor left in the jungle. There were the Western and Eastern lighthouses, and of course, the jungle itself - a dense tangle of trees and vines that looked difficult to travel through.
Exploring out from the buildings, you can see that the jungle is rapidly taking back the territory it once lost to the colonists. Many of the buildings and open areas were covered with vegetation. There was a road that left the harbor area, but it was heavily overgrown, little more than a trail in some places.
From the map that Anklebiter had coaxed out of one of his magi contacts, drafted sometime around the original colony, it looks as if you are in roughly the northern-center portion of the island. You estimate the location of the crater to be halfway up the eastern arm of the island's crescent. There are a number of locations marked on the map with structures, but no legend. The lighthouses on the eastern and western tips of the crescent are obvious, and Witchlight has to be the large cluster of buildings and towers in the center, but the others are anybody's guess.
"What's wrong with eating centipedes?" Anklebiter asks, nonplussed. "Just cut out the poisonous bits, roast them and put on lots of salt, mustard and garlic so you can't taste the centipede. Then spit out the legs."
Regardless the response to this little insight into Goblin 'cookery', the Goblin scurries outside to have a good look at the visible landmarks.
"The Cyphermages are probably in trouble," he says, "and they might be helpful. Do we go to Witchlight first?"
"Eeww, mustard, I would just have the centipede with salt and garlic, pan roasted in a light sauce. Witchlight sounds like a good first stop, finding the Cyphermages would give us strength in numbers and they might have some useful information about the island, maybe they even know what attacked the dwarf and his men?"
"I don't understand the Cyphermages, but they've never done us wrong that I know of. Let's go save them," Lefrik says and takes the lead.
"Lovely. Why don't we talk about cooking up an otyugh and how they're delicious with a little wine and fava beans." The half-elf rolls her eyes at the discussion.
"Helping the Cyphermages is fine. Maybe we can get some sort of favor out of them. Food, perhaps, so unlike the rest of you I don't have to eat bugs."
Kel smiles mischievously at Calla, "You ate at the Golden Goblin same as I, I'm pretty sure we've eaten a few bugs already."
anklebiter
kelendra
bruendor
calla
lefrik
hippogriffs
You begin walking up the road, which quickly devolves into an overgrown trail. In some places, the trail is only a few feet wide, while in others it is nearly fifteen. The forest is dense on either side of the trail, making it obvious that any travel directly through the woods would be laborious and slow.
The trail started out relatively level, but within a quarter of an hour the rise in elevation of the island made its appearance. Laboring up the steep trail had most of you puffing within minutes. Eyes scanning the path ahead, and the woods to either side, Lefrik caught side of a pair of large creatures astride the road ahead.
Curious beasts they were, part horse and part predatory bird. One was noticeably larger than the other, and it stamped its hoofed back feet as it caught sight of you. Between the creatures, lying on the path, was a much smaller form, obviously a baby...and just as obviously dead. Another form lay torn and bloodied on the side of the path.
The larger form stamped its feet again, and then raked the air with vicious looking claws.
Round 1
Kel calls forward a pattern of shifting lights to distract the creatures.
Lefrik pauses, "They're protecting their young?"
"I think it's dead," Anklebiter says, squinting. "I think the other thing lying there is probably what killed it. This would be a good time to be able to call the dead back to life; they'd really like us then."
"I suppose that would depend which thing you were planning to bring back, Gobbles. Anyway, if they're not looking for trouble, I'd say we don't need to pick any. Hopefully they'll move on if we give them a couple minutes."
"The baby, of course, Elf-Ears," Anklebiter replies, frowning at Calla. "Or foal, or chick, or whatever you call that. It may be more than a few minutes; they won't want to leave their young, even if it is dead."
The dazzling lights and sparkling rainbows that burst from Kelendra's spell have an immediate calming effect on the hippogriffs. Both stand still and stare at the swirling colors.
You continue to discuss the situation as Kelendra maintains her concentration.
Initiatives:
group
hippogriffs
"I can maintain this while we investigate what's ahead. Let's hurry though, if something killed their young it may still be lurking about and getting ready to pounce on them."
Lefrik nods and tries to see if there is a way around it that won't block KEl's spell
Calla also advances, trying to make as little noise as she can, though her attention is elsewhere as she looks for the possible threat.
Kel admires Lefrik's shoes as she attempts to keep up with him.
Anklebiter scurries along in the others' wake, doing his best to move as quietly as he can.
"Nice work with the magic, Kel," Bruendor said approvingly. "Let's get out of here before whatever killed their young comes back."
As you approach, the creatures get restless, tossing their heads and snorting. Kelendra's spells are still holding them in check, but it doesn't look as she will be able to hold the much longer.
The small form on the ground is definitely a baby hippogriff. It looks to have been slashed by some kind of weapon, rather than clawed or beaten. The other form is that of a man. His body has been torn and slashed so heavily, that the fact that he was once human is only barely recognizable.
"Stupid human!" Anklebiter snarls, looking from the dead man to the baby hippogriff. "Ugh, now what? Do we run or do we try to scare them off?"
"If he's responsible, he got what he deserved. Of course, he could just be like us, happening to come on a bad situation. At any rate, any ideas how we can scare them off without antagonizing them?"
"Why would he even attack a baby hippogriff? I can understand wanting to capture one alive for sale, but why kill it, that makes no sense?" Kel uses Lefrik as a human shield as she passes by the hippogriffs, doing her best to not disturb them.
"Through the forest then..." Lefrik suggests.
"Wonderful. Do try not to step on every single dead branch and leaf in there."
As you begin to move into the forest, the larger of the hippogriffs suddenly tosses its head and shrieks. Mighty wings unfurled, and it charged at Lefrik, slashing at the barbarian with its beak. The razored edge cuts into Lefrik's shoulder. The mighty wings buffet the barbarian, nearly knocking him over.
"No!" Anklebiter shouts. "Solum unctum!" the little Goblin chants -- and a puddle of rancid, bubbling grease appears under the magnificent creature's hooves. Or talons. Or whatever it might have...
The creature's hooves slid out from underneath it, and it sank to its haunches with an audible oomph.