Vladimir shakes his head. "I think you may confusing Elmere and Woelder Hague with Chafwinth Crossroads, my love."
"Well we haven't been there in something like two years, so that's understandable."
"I did not say that it was not understandable." Vladimir says.
"I just did not want to malign the reputations of our friends at the Crossroads, and certainly did not want them confused with that despicable excuse for an Abadarian priest, Woelder Hague." he adds with a half-grin.
Turning his attention toward his other companions, Vladimir asks, "If there is nothing else to seen here, shall we be on our way?"
Looking slightly more disgruntled than he was with the bones five minutes ago, Balter nods to Vladimir a little too eagerly. "Yeah, no point in wasting any more time. Let's get out of here."
Durielle's feelings of sympathy for the deceased creature's manner of death war with a wave of revulsion for what the creatures may have been and what manner of mischief they performed to cause their own deaths. She allows her restraint to lessen on the temporal distortions that disturb her vision, but the scene here fails to coalesce. She gets vague impressions of fear and anger, the out of control fire consuming this ruin, and the meaty thud of a rock bludgeoning the former owner of the bones before them.
The sound echoes through history to the present, and the disturbing squish! the skull and brains make as the stone breaks through the bone turns the delivate elf's stomach. Quickly she reasserts what control she has managed to push the sense of the moment back to the past, but Durielle feels some portion of her last meal trying to make its way back up her throat. She swallows hard while desperately covering her mouth and leans forward slightly clutching her stomach with her other hand. The oracle's features gain a vaguely greenish tinge made much more evident by her pale features.
By the time you finish your investigation of the decades-old ruined group of dwellings it is a couple hours from sundown. You determine from the map and past experience, there is another eight hours of exploration left in this hex.
Less than a quarter mile further, you come across a clearing.. a pair of thylacine are skulking and sniffing around the edge of a partially limb-covered pit. The two brush dogs scatter when they spot you, but you hear some kind of pained "bleating" from something apparently in the twenty foot wide pit.
Vladimir dismounts Shadow and slowly and carefully moves toward the pit, keeping a wary eye out for other pit traps along the way. Once he makes it to the edge, he looks down.
The pit is about fifteen feet deep. Within it, you see a very large elk - maybe seven feet tall, and antlers equally wide. You see it from the side, its skin tight and drawn.. ribs showing, emaciated. The creature lets out another mournful bleat before it turns toward Vladimir, spots him, and suddenly makes a weak charge toward him.. bashing its massive antlers against the wall of the pit. It takes a step back.. hobbling.. seeming to have rung its own bell with the ineffective attack.
"Looks to be a very large, very hungry, and very angry elk." Vladimir comments. "I suppose we should try and get him out of that pit. Balter, any thoughts?"
Marisol gladly leaves the site of the gruesome fire behind. As the team explores and finds the pit she says, "Wish I had a spell to smooth and level the ground, make a ramp out of the pit... but alas. I wonder who even built this pit in the first place?"
"I have a spell that can levitate creatures. Normally, an elk would be too heavy for that, but given its condition...it might work."
"We are not terribly far from the fort. This pit might be how the Stag Lords minions captured that owlbear that was locked up."
"Sounds like it would be worth a try." Vladimir responds to Nico, while glancing around to his other companions for their opinions.
Durielle moves closer to see the animal trapped below. Her heart aches to see its plight, and she smiles kindly at it.
"Perhaps we should start by giving him food and water. Gaining its trust may make our attempts to remove him from the pit easier."
The elf looks to Nico, her eyes bright. "Do you have a spell that lets one of us go down safely? I'm willing to join the elk in the pit to provide succor to the creature." She gazes again on the pitiable elk. "I am certain the blessing Erastil gave us will protect me once I am close enough for him to feel it."
She examines the ground around the pit. "How much earth would we need to move in order to make your ramp, Marisol?"
"Oh, I don't know," says the magus. "There's just a selection of spells that excavate earth or make pits or barricades, I was just thinking it would be handy to use one of those to extend out a long ramp so it could climb out easily. It would probably take a few hours to do it with shovels."
"Levitating it may work, but once you have it floating in the air we have to get it pushed sideways to the ground outside the pit without it kicking us."
Balter kneels down by the edge of the pit and takes a long, hard look at the rare and pitiable creature. He frowns deeply, regarding the pit with the same disdain he leveled towards the rusty beartraps. They were such cruel, unsporting tools. If the person responsible truly wanted to dispatch an elk or some other beat, they should have hunted it themself. As the others continue to discuss how to get the animal out of the pit, Balter
"Ni fyddwn yn achosi niwed i chi, anifail gwych," he says to the giant elk with a soothing tone, his tongue lacking any of the harshness it usually had when he speaks in Taldane. The animal would not understand him regardless of what language he spoke to it in, but it was more important to convey feeling than meaning. "Byddwch yn dawel, a'n galluogi i roi cymorth i chi."
Quietly, to Marisol, Nico says "True, we'd have to move it laterally. A couple of ropes and some muscle power might do, though admittedly that might piss it off even further."
The large undernourished elk sniffs the air as it hobbles a couple steps in Balter's direction. It then lets out a much quieter pained sound... it does not show the same burst of rage it had before.
"That's definitely progress," Durielle nods approvingly at Balter's actions.
She dismounts from Whisper and retrievs a small bag of feed from their store. Approaching the pit again, she slowly sits and swings her legs to dangle over edge.
"Now," the oracle turns to Nico. "I'm ready."
Durielle is clearly getting ready to jump into the pit.
Nico walks up to Durielle and peers over the edge. "You are a thrill-seeker at heart. Go ahead. I'll slow your fall."
"I know I had rope somewhere in here..." Balter mutters, digging through his pack. When his hand finds the coil he looks up, only to find that Durielle has opted for a more expedient approach.
Durielle drops off into the pit, the effect of the Nico's magic changing the usual feeling of gravity. Upon landing, she watches the hurt elk with kindness allowing it time to adjust to the new situation before making her move. She feels confident Erastil watches over her, and she whispers a common prayer to him as she charges up her hands with time-altering magic.
The oracle offers the animal some of the feed as time warps around her hand. Through the distortion she sees (and those senstive to magic could see) images of the elk hale and healthy, its body full of vigor. Visions of a time before the animal became trapped in the pit. Or perhaps even of times after.
"Come now, mighty one," Durielle says gently, her voice soft and breathy. "The master of all the wild places would surely rather you be made whole and live to run the forest again. Accept our help, and you shall be freed from this tragic predicament."
The elk takes just one step back as Durielle approaches. It sniffs at the offered food, and quickly gobbles it up. As Durielle heals it, the swelling on the joint of its foreleg goes down, and it seems to be more stable.
"There you go," the elf breathes softly to the injured animal as it nibbles at the feed she offers it. She runs her other hand lightly across its flank feeling the fur of its coat and carefully looking over the beast.
Durielle lifts her chin and looks up at her friends above.
"Balter, would you join me with some rope? I'm imagining we can loosely wrap a line or two around him," she strokes the beast's side, "to help stabilize him while Nico levitates him out of the hole."
"Assuming it's not too heavy for the spell, it may, uh, panic once it lifts off the ground. Something to keep in mind."
"Yeah, I'll be right down," Balter replies. The ranger quickly loops the coil of rope over his shoulder and starts to lower himself down the edge of the pit.
"As long as you don't drop it on us, I think it'll be fine. Might want to stay out of its way once it reaches the top, though."
At the bottom of the pit, Balter circles the huge beast, holding out the rope length lamely. He cannot quite tell how heavy the elk is, let alone how much weight Nico's spell would be able to lift up. After a while he lowers the rope and sighs.
"There were some fallen trees up there, yeah? It'd take some real work, but I think we could make a ramp for this guy. Might have to camp nearby, but we could avoid traumatizing him."
"Hmm. Anyone have a hatchet? I don't relish the idea of trying to carve timber with my cutlass, even if the mithral is resistant to wear," says Marisol.
"I am afraid not, my dear." Vladimir says, before turning to Arliss. "Anything of use among the camp supplies?"
"No hatchet here, either. I'm afraid I'm, uh, more likely to hurt myself with one."
Arliss rummages through his saddlebags and produces a smallish hatchet.
"Aye m'lord."
"Perfect. Thank you, Arliss." Vladimir says with a smile. "Alright Balter, point me in the direction of where you want to start and I will start chopping away."
(Aid Allies ability from Order of the Dragon increases the aid bonus to +3 if successful)
Balter lets out an exaggerated sigh. "Sit tight, Starshine," he says, looking over at Durielle, "This might take a while."
The ranger gives the giant elk another pat before climbing out of the pit, so that he can give Vlad a hand with the lumber.
Balter lets out an exaggerated sigh. "Sit tight, Starshine," he says, looking over at Durielle, "This might take a while."
The ranger gives the giant elk another pat before climbing out of the pit, so that he can give Vlad a hand with the lumber.
[dice=Survival (Aided)]1d20+9+2
Marisol sticks to just following directions, hacking off branches or stripping leaves from the tree as needed.
The oracle continues to stroke the megaloceros' coat gently.
"Sit tight, hmmm?" Durielle's laugh is slight and delicate. "You don't think I can be of any help, Master Farshadow?"
"I think a straight ramp may be much more difficult and laborious to construct. We should spiral the ramp around the hole slowly increasing the elevation with each right angle at the corner."
Durielle traces a square spiral with her finger through the air.
"That should allow us a means to ensure the elk maintains his balance as a wall of earth will always be to one side as he goes around."
The elf's face becomes even more pale, and she begins to cough, her grip on the majestic creature's coat more to hold herself upright rather than the delicate touch of comfort as before. Durielle attempts to catch her ragged breath a moment later while the elk shifts a tad more nervously now.
"Forgive me," she whispers to it, her voice a tad hoarse. "I promise this doesn't make me a bad person."
You work for hours cutting the wood and building the supports for the ramp, and then another hour and half placing the surface - lashing it to the supports. After completion and testing, it seems sturdy enough for the large creature.
Marisol sticks to following directions and staying out of the way. Given her unnatural heritage, animals tend to have strong reactions to her anyway.
Durielle's attempts to coax the animal up the ramp are hampered by the thick damp air in the pit of earth which triggers her rather unfortunate phlegmy coughing more than usual.
"My apologies..." she mutters to her friends between bouts. The oracle leans a hand on their makeshift structure as her wasting condition leaves her drained of energy for the moment.
Vladimir does his best to try and coax the elk up the ramp, gently pulling rope, but does not have a lot of success. "Balter, if this is going to happen, I believe it will be up to you."