Whispering to Zerekias, but including everyone: "Shall I produce some light? My god will give us light if we need it, but did you want to rely on stealth?" Tarin picks up a rock, ready to cast light on it if everyone's happy with a light source.
"Yeah, give us some light." He responds as he keeps his attention on the surrounding area.
"Divine Cayden, grant us light," Brother Larvendi murmurs reverently, and the stone in his hand begins to shed a bright, clear light that swells out from between Tarin's fingers.
Glad I've no need of that.
Xanyon moves quietly behind the group, attempting to keep his eyes open for these pugwampi.
The rock lit up by Tarin flares to life, and sheds light out around you.
You continue moving forward, with some caution, and follow the faint, tiny tracks that lead up the sandy slope. Up ahead, the canyon appears to widen out a bit, but the area is choked with the growth of larger cacti. The thicket is dense, but appears to be navigable, if caution is used.
From up ahead a sound echoes through the shallow canyon; a cry, like that of a child.
Xanyon stops, crouches and whispers.
"Goat."
Zerekias's eyes narrow as he peers in the direction of the sound. "We find the goat, we find these pugwampi creatures. Let's move." He then immediately heads toward the sound, constantly keeping a watch for danger.
Sati hears Xanyon whisper that there is a goat up ahead. She hears a faint cry but isn't able to place it.
She continues forward cautiously, being careful to avoid the prickly spikes of the cacti.
Hearing the goat's cry, and seeing his fellow half-elf start to move forward, Tarin hisses in Elvish:
Zerekias turns and glares at the Inquisitor, moving up next to him. "E we lean laanillw fa illw anilna nyilma. E's veelv iloanam aniralaa nymailanymala. Illw eo ean'la il anmilty, aniral lae fa ean. Aey nyill aeaniram fa anirama ane malatyelw amiral E laaan ean eoo em lean. Silnala le weooamalnya ane sa." He then returns back to where he was, "Time to go. For those of you not wanting to, you can stay here for all I care. But for those that don't know, your goat 'friend' is not in the best of health." He then resumes his movement toward the goat's cries.
For a moment, Seif-al-Din thinks there is a child lost, and in pain, out here, until his companions voice that it is a goat.
With a sigh, his face takes-on a slightly more relaxed countenance, but at the mention of Pugwampis, he draws his weapon, and cautiously moves forward...
"Let's rescue that goat!"
When Zerekias speaks to him Tarin responds with a sharp nod:
Completely ignoring the boisterous Oracle, Zerekias turns back toward Tarin, pondering his offer for a moment and then eventually nodding in acceptance.
"Let's rescue that goat!"
Tarin holds aloft a small sheet of parchment, murmurs an entreaty to Cayden, and touches the parchment to Zerekias's chest.
[ooc]There you go, +2 deflection to AC for you. You might need it I reckon :) Only lasts for 10 mins, so I hope there's beasties up here to fight...
Tarin readies himself to follow someway behind Zerekias.
Xanyon, pistol at the ready, trails behind the group and prepares for the goat rescue of his life.
Sati's expression seems to indicate that she has understood the elven conversation. She leans over and touches Mohgwier, whispering monotonously under her breath.
Sati falls in step near the middle of the group, sickle in hand. Mohgwier moves ahead of Sati to walk in step with Zerekias.
The cactus patch is dense. As you get closer you can see gaps here and there that may allow you to squeeze through without getting too many spines; however, doing so will require you to move carefully as you duck and weave between them.
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
Muqaq has been quietly following the group since they found the pugwampi tracks. Now that they are approaching the thicket, he will stand at the edge of it for as long as he can keep his companions in sight. He casts a spell of protection on himself which causes his body to be surrounded by a thin sheen of flickering ghostly flames.
If the others penetrate more than he can see into the growth he will follow them at a distance, keeping them just inside his radius of vision.
[spoiiler=Acrobatics if needed]
[/spoiler]
Xanyon hangs back, not sure he can clear the cacti. If everybody else enters he will follow in the rear.
Seif-al-Din carefully works his way through the cactus patch, trying to avoid the densest knots of spines...
Gin slips his way through following his companions as they press forward.
Sorry I haven't posted much recently, my computer crashed so I've only been able to work off of an iPod for the past week. But now I'm back.
As soon as anyone tries to start positioning and manoeuvring themselves to get through the cacti, they are able to see that it looks to pretty tough to get through without getting stuck by a few dozen spines.
Pulling out a couple of spines that got him, Zerekias studies them a moment. "Hm. Not poisonous." He then discards them and continues on.
Muqaq begins cursing under his breath as a few of the long spines stick him painfully. How deep is this accursed thicket? he wonders as he trails behind the others.
With Zerekias in the lead, most of the group proceeds into the dense patch of large, thickly needled plants. Xanyon and Muqaq hang back at the edge of the patch, unsure if they want to penetrate any further.
Zerekias is initially able to find a path into the cacti, but then a unlucky step causes spines to stick into his leg. In the next stretch, keeping his eyes too much on his feet manages to catch him a cactus arm in the scalp, again sticking him with needles.
Tarin follows Zerekias in and manages to turn his ankle on a hidden stone, slipping him into a nearby cactus instead of pitching him over. The spines hurt as they stab in and draw blood. The randomness of the misstep is as annoying as it is embarassing. After the first accident, he manages to weave in without further trouble, avoiding Zerekias' bad luck.
Sati hits the same rock as Tarin, though she thought she had stepped far enough to miss it. She moves nimbly through the second stage, only to catch an unlucky gust of wind that blinds her for a moment and tricks her into reaching out a hand agaist a cactus to steady herself. The cactus is not forgiving. Mohgwier seems to have the worst luck by far, being close the the ground he gets a branch full of prickles lodged along his back, another litters his belly with spines as he tries to jump a low branch, and a third catches him in the face when he turns from pulling out the spines with his teeth.
Gin moved through the dense branches quickly and easily at first, until his fortune changes and a quick moving shadow that turns out to be a bat darts past him, causing him to reflexively dodge, into another of the many cacti.
Seif finds himself all knees and elbows as he tries to move through the field of spines, and it must feel as if all luck has abandoned him as each step seems to turn him into a cactus, take his gaze down when he should be looking forward, or distract him just long enough for an unfortunately placed plant to catch him in an unprotected spot. Much like Mohgwier, he is bristling with spines by the time the goat is found.
About 25 ft into the cactus patch, the goat can be heard, and then soon after, seen, as it pulls against a cord that has it haphazardly tied to a large cactus near a rock. Just a few feet beyond the goat, the crumbling earth drops away, and the narrow canyon continues after a 15 ft drop. At the bottom of the drop, the ground slopes away, marking your current position as the summit of this particular hill. A massive multiarmed cactus stands at the bottom of the drop, and might catch anyone unlucky enough to pitch over.
Gin:
Muqaq:
Sati
Mohgwier:
Seif:
Tarin:
Zerekias:
The goat stands there bleating, but there is no sign of this supposed gremlin.
Seif-al-Din winces in pain from all of the cactus spines that have turned him into a fairly decent impersonation of a pin-cushion.
"I can't believe how much trouble we are having pushing our way through these cacti... Let's grab the goat and get out of here!"
He then frowns...
"Although I must admit that I am more than a little bit curious about who, or what, tied the goat to that cactus..."
Tarin looks around the immediate area, using his light stone to examine the ground for tracks, listening for any sounds beyond those if his companions, running his eyes over the goat...
"What do you see in there?"
It's a trap, it must be.
Sati takes a moment to compose herself before attempting to heal Mohgwier. The pain is an irritation far less bothersome than the assault on her dignity.
.
Sati takes a moment and pulls many of the spines from Mohgwier's fur, the strange beast standing still and enduring the treatment. The injuries left are numerous and leak small amounts of blood, but are not overly serious and should heal. The injuries to herself are likewise minor, but painful and irritating.
Xanyon, standing back at the edge of the copse sees the light moving and wavering as Tarin searches. A glance down the hill behind him, and at the edges of the ridges above reveals nothing of note.
Near the rock and the edge of the drop off, the goat bleats widely and is pulling frantically at its knotted lead. The rope is looped around the cactus in a chaotic manner, and knotted back upon itself a dozen or more times, not in a true knot, but in the kind of tangled mess a child might make when trying to tie one. The goat, much like yourselves but even worse, is bristling with cactus spines, as though whoever led it here was not particularly concerned about its safety or well being. He is tugging and thrashing, and as you come into view, his bleating changed into full blown brays of distress. His frantic movements are causing the rope to dance about and the knots to pull tighter, and the soft earthen ledge of the cliff threatens to crumble away as his hooves hammer down and push against it while it pulls at the rope.
Sati moves as quickly as possible towards the goat; she attempts to grab the lead and bring the goat to safety. Mohgwier remains behind, where the ground is safe and sturdy.
As he realizes just what kind of situation the goat and Sati could be in, Gin pulls off his belt and offers it as a means of support should the ground collapse beneath them. "Would you care for a second hand? I cant go out there with you as it would likely not hold both our weight and the goat, take hold of this and if you fall, we can help pull you up, the last thing we need is for another person to die in this mess"
Sati takes the belt (or rope) offered by Gin and edges closer to the goat, trying to snag his lead. Unfortunately, the ground proves as unstable as it looks and gives way beneath her feet. However, the tiny silver haired woman is so light that she presents no challenge for Gin to hold on to, and she is quickly pulled back up.
As the earth gives way beneath Sati, enough of a chunk goes with her that Rombard goes over as well. The lead is wrapped around his neck, and it snaps taught when he reaches the full length. . You can here him choke and then right himself, getting his feet between him and the cliff. However, the loose sand and stones that form the side of the cliff present no purchase for him to climb, and so he scrambles against it in vain, tearing away more of the earthen embankment as he does. Caught as he is about the neck, he likely has little time before he chokes.
Tarin motions to Dashki the scout. "These prints here... We should attempt to follow them." Tarin bends his head to the tracks, again using his light source to examine them.
The goat's struggling becomes a little less energetic. He's likely to fall unconscious very soon, and be dead soon after.
Zerekias scowls at the whole situation as he moves to grab the rope the goat is hanging by.
Luke_Parry
