You move toward Kekkaw as he runs toward you. When you are about 100 feet from each other, you see a figure on the top of the 30 foot cliff above emerge from the vegetation into a clearing. He scrambles down a narrow path toward you. He yells out, and Kekkaw stops.
"Doctor! It me Ishirou! Natives got others! Dwarf on horse is going after! Come quick!" Ishirou is filthy and bloody. A bandage hangs loosely around his injured foot.
"And i was talking of relax.Let's be sure those plants aren't another threat before simply turning our backs to them though"
Scimitar in hand, the varisian girl waits for the others' opinions
{b}What?! Tol's off after the cannibals all by himself?! We gotta go after him before he and Gorra get killed!![/b]
The chubby she-dwarf was near panic.
Syndlara nods her head vigorously. "There's bound to be more excitement--Let's move, quickly! I can already feel the beginnings of a song."
Kekkaw tries to speak... still catching his breath, when Ishirou continues "I got away. Made them think my foot was still bad. They let guard down. I got away but some chased. Bird man and Dwarf on horse heard, he went after to keep them from telling others. Hurry, we go!" He starts heading up the path again.
O.K.! Mugambi moves with all the speed he can muster. We follow. Where? Is there trail?
The rotund she- dwarf hustled after the limping Tian man ,stumpy legs pumping to keep pace. She waved her double- barreled Twinbellows as she went,spoiling for a fight.
Tol! Gorra! Here we come!
Ishirou leads the way up the steep narrow path to the top of the cliff. Kekkaw lags behind. Ishirou lingers for a moment until everyone is at the top then takes off again... through the vegetation, presumably toward the trail on which Tol gave chase to the natives who had come after Ishirou.
He talks loudly over his shoulder as he negotiates the terrain. "Two women left after you did. It was just me, gnome and mwangi man Jask when they came. Came in the night. They make Jask and gnome walk, but carried me. They stop to rest and I run with fresh legs! Ha!"
:
:
"The two women are that half elf and the red haired one i take? Do you have any idea of where they may have gone Ishirou?"
Perception
Gatherine made sure her pistols were reloaded and the steel shield was still squarely across her back and her pack.
As you are following Ishirou, you notice you are about to enter a patch of red oxleaf. Contact with the leaves causes severe burning rashes and nausea.
"No. Don't know where they went. Said they were looking for their own way off the island. Went west from the camp."
Syndlara stops short before entering the foliage. "I wouldn't go that way if I were you, uh...mister," she says to Ishirou.
"I don't think it's wise to run straight into the cannibal camp,but we cannot leave Tol and the others.Lead us if you like Syndlara,you are our best woods...girl"
Syndlara stops short before entering the foliage. "I wouldn't go that way if I were you, uh...mister," she says to Ishirou.
Ishirou stops in a patch of squat bushes with red tinged broad leaves, and turns around. He lifts his leg and scratches his ankle "Why is that? This is the way I came."
He then turns to Iolana "Camp? I have seen no camp. Was taking you to where I saw dwarf last." He points northish.
Mugambi stops and looks at Syndlara with a perplexed expression on his face?
"You're...you're standing in red oxleaf there. It's a wonder you're still capable of walking! That stuff causes your skin to break out in a really nasty rash--not to mention that it makes most people nauseous just by contact," Syndlara says, frowning. She murmurs a short arcane phrase and studies Ishirou (), her frown remaining.
Ick.No,thank you.
The she-dwarf gave the red plants a wide berth as she chose another path to charge along.She had enough problems without a rampant rash.
Ishirou lifts his pant leg; his ankle is red and swollen. "Gah!" He gingerly steps out of the patch and around with you. He looks at Syndlara as she subtly gestures in his general direction. "No magic."... he mutters sheepish and grumpy.
. you detect no auras in his direction.
He leads you a few hundred feet further until your path intersects with another. To your left you have a view of the ocean... past maybe a quarter mile of sparse vegetation. "Here is where Dwarf and I parted. He went that way to catch the two running back to others." He points to the right.
The tribes-man resumes his walking without a word despite being a little worried about the Tian. Need to examine that foot on the first opportunity. That wound can be worst than it looks.
Answering Ishirou
"Well, the fewer cannibals we see the better.Let's hurry now"
Gatherine edged away from the Tian man and resumed her waddling charge along the right path, following the churned earth bearing chaotic passage.
You continue along the path which is quite dense early on, but after a several hundred feet it opens up to a grassy area where the thick vegetation is in clumps. Ishirou continues straight forward, though he does seem less sure of himself now that the trail is less defined.
He looks around as he walks... A couple hedgehog-looking rodents scatter from the clearing as he veers in their direction. He stops at a tree and leans his back against it. "Feel sick. Need one moment..."
Mugambi comes close and starts to examine the man.
Didn't Syn say those red leaves pitched and made you nauseous?
"Yeah," Syndlara replies to Gatherine. "It's amazing he lasted this long, really..."
Though you can't identify the condition, his symptoms are clear. Nausea, swelling, and rash on the affected area (this goes along with what Syn said about the plant) legs and lower torso.
"Stopping feels no better. Not far. I rest when we find your friend." He stands and looks around. "Where is trail?"
Iolana points to the ground "Right there"
Mugambi follows Iolana as she tracks Gora.
Ishirou goes along with the group; following Iolana's lead with a look of pained determination. The trail veers south at the far side of the clearing. You enter a part of the jungle dominated by trees with clamshell shaped leaves the size of an ogre's hand. The branches web together and all around you... the fat leaves cut off visibility like you are in a tunnel in all different shades of green.
After another 1000 feet or so, Gorra's prints veer off to the left, then one of the human sets of prints turns the same way. You see disturbed foliage and a depression of weeds a dozen feet from where Gorra's tracks turn back to the right.
Iolana slows after maybe a quarter mile and peeks below the hanging wall of leaves. You follow her gaze to a native lying in an impossible position, wearing a red circle of blood on his chest. He is partially hidden.. enough that you might have not noticed.
With her outstretched right hand,Iolana signals the others to stop and stand still and silent.
Tol's work? the tribes-man wisper.
Don't know anyone else skewering foes with lances and trampling whatever's left atop a warhorse.
"Now that i looked better you are probably right Gatherine,we should be on the right path."
After another few hundred feet, you find the second native's corpse; lanced and trampled. At first glance, it looks like Gorra's tracks go on southeast for about 30 feet then stop. Past that you only see human prints coming from that direction.
As you follow Iolana tracking Tol, another bluff comes into view to the south. Occasionally you are able to get a clear view of it. It has several tiers as you have seen before; rising 30 feet above the 20 foot canopy like a stack of large hatboxes.
You find the second corpse off the trail near a row of bushes. One of the large leaves is lying on the ground. Small pebbles and dirt have been arranged into letters onto the leaf.
Move the bush
While following, Iolana cannot refrain from observe Tol's doing "Another trampled native,and here another charge.Tol really had fun without us."
Perception
Gatherine read the dwarven runes made by the debris and started to clear away the bush,searching for anything that stood out to her eyes as she avoided touching the mass of pulped flesh and bone that had once been a native before being impaled and stomped under a couple thousand pounds of armored horse.
Survival
"What those runes say Gatherine"?
Says to move the bush.
Syndlara follows along quietly through the party's retracing of Tol's steps, her mind adrift among thoughts of the words to tell to bring the story to life, and the dance to accompany it.
Gorra's trail continues here. The foliage is thicker again... you can just barely make out the dark shape of the bluff you are moving toward. The trail ends in a path up the first tier of the bluff. A break in the trees here allows you to see Tol looking down at you from 30 feet above you. He gestures to the path up, crouches down and moves out of your view.
Excitedly but as cautiously as she could manage, the she-dwarf hustled her way down to her guardian.
The tribes man waves at Tol happy to see their companion once more. Looking around he follows Gatherine up.
You find Tol and Gorra in a well hidden shallow cave. There is a fairly easily scaled climb to the top of it. Tol leads you there, just above the canopy of trees. "Well hidden here. Take a look." To the southeast you see several small gaps in the trees... enough to make out a worn trail. Tol points out where the trail bends east, there is a clear view. "The group that took Jask and Gelik... I saw them there. They must have decided to move on to the main camp... there." He points south to something sticking out of the blue-tinged horizon. It looks like the top of a lighthouse... maybe 6 or 7 miles away.
In between your current position and the lighthouse, is a large green hill... as high as the bluff you now stand on, topped with an enormous red oak.
What you see is (again) recognizable, but noticeably different from the map.
map
Hmmm, we could move to dat hill with da giant tree. It gives a bettar view of da lighthouse.
"Agree with Mugambi.How many natives did you manage to see Tol? Is it possible that there are more around than those you saw with Jask and Gellik?"