Joll shuffles closer to the snake at G6. The sight of its bared fangs fills him with dread but there is no going back now. The trail is blocked by his bunched comrades; he would never be able to get away from the snake. So he feints a thrust and then brings is morning star down in an overhead arc. But he is far too slow and the snake is gone before his weapon lands.
Jack squints, attempting to brush off the comments of his comrades in favor of the task at hand. Joll's movements nearly startle him into letting the arrow go, but he manages to keep himself under control. The bow is held tightly in position as he aims to fire an arrow at the second snake. Unfortunately, the arrow goes wide and sinks into a tree trunk instead. "You're distracting me, people!"
Sasha steps forward and slashes with both blades their gleaming tips tracing an x in the air as each descends towards the serpent in front of Joll. The lithe creature dodges her rapier, but her kukri catches it socring a hit and sending gleaming black scales flying.
The injured serpent hisses in anger and flings itself at Sasha while its companion darts forward and strikes at Joll! Joll's ophidian foe times its lunger poorly and its fangs snap shut on air well clear of his flesh, but Sasha is not so lucky and the injured snake buries its fangs in her thigh cauing her to cry out in pain. Her face turns pale and drawn as the creatures posion enters her system sapping her vitality.
Sasha - has gone.
Jack - has gone.
Snakes - have gone.
Dragolan - is up!
Lydran
Alexite
Quinta
Joll
Quinta takes a step forward and starts to sing, her magic running through all the party members and strengthening their limbs, firing their blood.
And just as quickly as she started... she stops. "That's all I've got," she says, looking suddenly pale and sweating even more heavily. "I am out of magic for the day, gents. Blades must carry the day..."
Round 1:
"Black mambas! Very dangerous!"
Dragolan moves up to stand next to Sasha and attack, but his mace blow goes wide of the mark.
Alexite was ready to cast his bow aside and close in with the snakes when he heard Dragolan's warning. Remembering his last and very recent encounter with poisonous beings in the island, he quickly changed his train of thought. He moved aside trying to feather the snake.
Shruging at the crowded melee, Lydran takes another step forward as he loads a bolt into his crossbow, then waits for one of the snakes to make a target of itself. As snake on the left darts towards Sasha and the girl withdraws from the blow, Lydran pulls the trigger and lets the bolt fly with a resounding "twang."
Lydran's bolt flies wide of the mark, and Alexite's arrow deflects off black scales doing little more than startling the snake.
Lydrab's bolt to is deflected by the snake's slick scales glancing away into the undergrowth.
Joll tries again to club a snake with his morningstar. And surprisingly he seems to hit snake instead of dirt.
Attack
Damage
Joll bludgeon's the injured serpent knocking it's rearing upper body down to the ground, but despite looking considerably the worse for wear it hisses and rises angrily once more.
Sasha's blades flash again, and it looks like both with skitter off scale until Quinta's music lends her just enough resolve to force the rapier's point home skewering the already injured snake and dropping it limp to the floor! With a triumphant laugh she steps forward motioning at the snake with her kukri to those behind her.
Jack - is up!
Snakes
Dragolan
Lydran
Alexite
Quinta
Joll
Jack takes another potshot at the remaining snake. "If I shoot you, it's nothing personal!", he calls to his allies on either side of the serpent.
The arrow flies wild and nearly grazes Sasha's ear. "Oh! Sorry about that, dear."
Round 2:
Dragolan leans aside as Jack's arrow goes by and overbalances. Scrambling to keep his footing, he's too far off balance to land a blow on the snake. He mutters under his breath in Infernal.
Too many people around just one snake; the risk was too much and keeping the shot in check was a sure way to miss.
The ranger dropped his bow and unsheathed his heirloom blade. He moved around Joll pinning the snake against Sasha (G6) and struck low, in a horizontal arc but with enough force to sever the serpent in two.
The snake lunges at the rotund oracle Dragolan, but ends up slamming into a nearby branch and swaying backwards dazedly.
Alexite drops his bow and races around pulling his blade, and dodging barely aside as the Mamba snaps at him, to cut the snake near in two! Its still conscious, but obviously only barely, and it looks like its just a matter of time before it falls.
Jack - has gone.
Snake - has gone.
Dragolan - has gone.
Lydran - is up!
Alexite
Quinta
Joll
Lydran siddels to left as the melee begins to part. The scales of the snake seem uncommonly tough, so Lydran lowers his crossbow and draws back his hand, beads of acid swirling around it as they gather in his palm. Uttering a single, sharp syllabel, his arm shoot forward, sending a dart of acid screaming towards the serpent.
"Oh, bother," Quinta mutters. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."
The pretty Bard rushes forward and jabs her rapier at the venomous reptile.
And Quinta's blade sinks home ending the ophidian threat with a wet squelch.
Continueing on past the Mamba's tree you walk on for another hour eventually coming to the southern shore - from which you can see a large lagoon, and more island to the north. Its now fairly easy to position yourselves and you can make out another much smaller island to the west covered in trees that are a much draber darker color than the verdant jungle around you. It looks like you could reach the end of the western tip of the island and return to camp by the end of the day.
"Ha, nice job everyone! Do you think I can get some of that poison I don't really know how, but it can't be that difficult - its certainly good stuff I feel like crap! Sasha exclaims happily, poking a dying snake with her rapier.
Quinta rather daintily cleans her rapier with some thick leaves, making sure not to get any of the snake's liquids on herself, before she sheathes it again.
"Which parts of these things can we actually eat?" she asks, eyeing the snakes speculatively.
"That doesn't look very healthy at all," Quinta says, pointing out the section of dark, drab trees. "What do you think? Pestilence, or something worse?"
Jack's stomach turns as he briefly entertains the thought of actually eating one of those scaly things.
Quinta's remarks are met with a cocked brow. "I don't know. They look like trees to me." Jack kept his bow drawn for the rest of the trek, and kept his eyes open for anything suspicious.
"Ha, nice job everyone! Do you think I can get some of that poison I don't really know how, but it can't be that difficult - its certainly good stuff I feel like crap! Sasha exclaims happily, poking a dying snake with her rapier.
"I can try to alleviate some of the poison's effect. I will only take a short while."
If he can take 10 it will result in a 17 and she should get a +4 bonus on her next save against the poison. Otherwise:
Heal
The ranger meticulously cleaned the falchion before putting it back in a richly adorned scabbard. It seemed like he murmured something to it before putting it away. He went back and picked up his bow, inspecting it for any damage before turning to the others.
"It looks like the extent of the island's western tip is close by. We should go there and then call it a day and go back to camp. I don't like the looks of that forest but would like a closer look."
Heading onwards for another hour the group continues until Sasha reaches down and holds up a long scale, that has an almost feather-like quality. With an excited whoop she rushes off ahead, emerging from the jungle again to see a cliffside atop of which sits a large crudely constructed nest.
Dragolan will assist Joll, for another +2. Then he'll see about butchering the snakes, gathering the meat, and trying to collect some of the venom.
Two of the flying dinosaurs Sasha spoke of earlier, wheel about the nest and another sits hissing at Sasha in the nest. Behind this beast are two smaller lizard heads peeking curiously out.
"Leave them be, why don't you," Quinta calls to Sasha. "We're not even properly settled into a camp yet, let alone provided with a way off this island. Pick one of those little lizards now, and the parents could be bedeviling us for our whole stay. Them and their extended family."
"Sasha, we know where to find them now so we can always come back before we leave. But now is not the time to try to grab one. Besides, we would have to kill three to get one. Then the one you take would hate you for killing its family and would attack you whenever it could. You would not want a pet that could not return your affections, would you?"
"When we see one alone, that will be the opportunity to grab it."
Intrigued by the local fauna, the ranger takes a few moments to study them from a distance, trying to discern their habits and compare them to other more familiar creatures.
Sasha pulls a face,
"I don't really think animals think like people - especially lizards. But you are right, we do know where they are..." Sasha concedes reluctantly.
Its easy enough to move past the pterosaurs, which eye the group warily, but make no aggressive moves save hissing. Continueing onwards you finally reach the edge of the isle, spotting another dimorphodon nest down upon the cliff edge overlooking the crashing waves of the sea some hundred and fifty feet below - though this one appears to contain no young.
Taking a slightly different route back, closer to the northern edge following a small clear space along the cliffside the group eventally descend onto a rocky beach where the tattered remains of a small blocky boat are wedged well beyond the waterline. The vessel's hull has been torn to shreds, and it looks more like a coast hugging fishing ship than a true sea going vessel. It has clearly been here for years as tropical ferns sprout from between many of the rotting timbers. Faded paint work reads, "The Tattoed Lady".
Alexite finds the flying dinosaurs too far from his own experience to be able to find any menaingful comparison.
"Well, look here. It seems ours is not the only shipwreck on the island. Everyone keep your eyes and ears open, it seems that boat has been there a while and could be a perfect spot for local fauna to seek shelter in."
With the necessary warnings and bow and arrow within easy reach, the ranger quietly approaches the boat to get a better look.
"Unless enough of the crew survived to strip her bare, yon hulk might contain some things of use, still, too," Quinta says. She draws her rapier and ghosts after Alexite.
Dragolan shrugs and follows at a respectable distance, as stealth is not his strong point.
"Good thinking, Quinta" Joll then falls in behind Dragolan.
Lydran hangs back with Dragolan, loading his crossbow and keeping an eye on the ship.
Approaching the ship see a skeleton walk out onto the deck, snatch up a pile of rotten nets and hurl them over the side. All the while a discordant twanging can be heard coming from within the cabin, as if someone is torturing a violin...
The skeleton looks out over the group, but does not seem to notice anyone, after a few minutes it hauls in its rotten hole riddled nets and begins busying itself with the rotten rigging.
Dragolan shakes his head mournfully. "It is unseemly for the dead to cling to the forms of life, though its joys are such that I cannot fault them for trying. But why would they ape the work they did as living beings, when there are so many other...no, I suppose they couldn't do that." He looks off in the distance. "Or that...or especially that...no, it is simply unseemly." He hefts his mace. "Shall we send them to rest?"
Undead! Alexite shook his head in disgust as he silently walked back to the group. He still didn't quite understand what or how it was that things kept on 'living' when they shouldn't. It didn't matter; they had to be... destroyed.
He looked at Dragolan and nodded, "Yes, let's destroy once and for all. But perhaps we can be smart about it. It's obvious they haven't seen us. How about we try to draw their attention and let them come to us. We can them fight them in the open, probably get a couple of shots at them and certainly flank them. I remember fighting alongside a local shaman whose very presence weakened the undead around her. Do any of you still have any magic left that can affect them?
"I have zero magic left," Quinta says in a flat tone, "and we have no idea how much of the crew remains unquiet. Today was meant to be a scouting mission so we could determine where to go, yes? I have no problem hitting an undefended target or fighting something that won't budge from our path or tries to eat us, but why look for trouble when we're not at full strength? The undead will still be here tomorrow."
The ranger nodded, "That's the best idea I heard all day. You're right; let's leave quietly now and come tomorrow morning."
"I agree. They have not seen us and we don't know how many of them there are. I am curious as to why they continue to ply their former trade, though."
"If we do need to destroy them then Alexite is right; let them come to us. We can drown and they cannot so the water will be less of a threat to them than to us. Also, it might be worth seeing if they catch any fish in that net. A catch would be useful to us."
Jack keeps quiet for most of the exchange between his fellows. He's not quite sure what to make of this situation, but doesn't feel as though he has enough expertise on the subject to make any good calls. When the suggestion of turning back comes up, he breathes a sigh of relief.
"Good idea. I'm all out of magic, too.", he sarcastically whispered.
Dragolan sits down heavily before replying, fanning himself with one hand. "Oh, I can put the quietus to them...at least to some extent. I have most of that power remaining. With respect, Quinta, I should like to do this today. My concern is our food supply; there is a great deal to eat all around us, and my magics can tell if any of it is toxic, but there is a considerable gulf between 'toxic,' 'nutritious,' and 'pleasant to eat.' If it is not necessary to return here for anything else, dealing with the undead and taking what's useful now will save us some time."
"Well, let's decide here and now. My weapons are ill suited to fight the bones. Given a little more time, I can come back with maybe a large club or at least a staff of sorts. But, having said that, I can break a few bones with my blade. I mean, if I didn't have the time to prepare, I would be doing just that."
The ranger shrugged his shoulders, "I don't think we are that far away from camp. I vote we come back tomorrow but will follow through whatever decision is made."
He looked around, "Well, we heard Quinta and Dragolan. What do the rest of you think?"