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"Men..." Drusilla sighs, and shakes her head. While her companions push the raft to shore and dock it, she draws a crossbow from her haversack. The weapon in hand, she disembarks the raft, and turns to the others. "Follow me. Keep close, try not to get lost"
While not a seasoned hunter, she knows the ways of the world - and her connection to the ki guides her where her own knowledge is not enough.
The lack of experience doesn't keep Drusilla from finding the tracks of a lame caribou. A few minutes later she corners the poor beast and brings it down with a skilled shot of her crossbow.
A moment after the offering is dumped into the river the Rumawa emerge from the jungle foliage - six young warriors and one older male decorated with dried flaking white war paint. The warriors clutch crude longspears but do not level them at the party right away. All of the native Mwangi are dressed in little more than scraps of hide and their exposed flesh is covered in a patchwork of ritual scars.
The older man speaks in a series of hoots and tongue-clicks.
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Drusilla takes a sheet of paper, and starts drawing crude images of men and demons, and scribbling some words of what she remembers of Polyglot. Then, showing the drawing to the natives, she tries to explain in a pidgin of Common and the local language.
"See here, this is <evil man>. He steals <stone of demons>. <Dangerous>. We, " Drusilla now points at herself and the other Pathfinders, "are here to stop <evil men>"
Seeming placated by whatever they were able to glean from Drusilla's images and words, the natives remain peaceful. The elder among them points upriver and performs an eating motion with his hands as he speaks.
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Drusilla listens carefully while the elder speaks, writing down quick notes of words she didn't really understand. Then she translates the elders words to her companions.
"I think he says our enemies came through here, and killed some of their warriors. There is uhh... Place That is Forbidden, perhaps, upriver. Demons inside, who drive people to madness. He says we can go in, but we need stay close to water. And we must not take anything from the land, except what we need to live."
Then the woman thanks the tribe's elder for his advice, and waves him goodbye.
After their meeting with the Rumawa the party resumes their trek up the muddy jungle river. Several hours pass without additional incident but the heat quickly becomes overwhelming for Farg and Fek who can do little more than sweat and cling to the primitive vessel. The sun is beginning to set when the party comes across a grisly sight - a bloated corpse floating face down at the shallowest part of the river.
After dragging the raft up onto the shore the party is free to investigate. Whoever this unfortunate soul was fish have gnawed away much of his exposed flesh including the face, hands, throat, and chest.
Conveniently, there's freshly hacked passage into the underbrush not far from the body.
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Chaine gives a potion of endure elements to Farg and Fek, recalls Silvermane from magical hibernation, and sets up the two exhausted companions on the horse. He offers a waterskin full of water to each of them, and instructs them to drink in abundance in order to re-hydrate.
Once the two companions are comfortable, Chaine tells Farg to use Chaine's wand of CLW to heal all their nonlethal damage.
Taking one last look at the bloated corpse, Chaine also quaffs a vial of antiplague, and administers one to his horse too.
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Drusilla breathes heavily as she steps out of the raft. She tries to look dignified while wiping her forehead with a cloth. Unfortunately, the heat is really overbearing.
"Look here, perhaps this was one of the Aspis agents," she says, taking the bronze badge from the corpse. Standing close to the body, she takes the opportunity to study it, and quickly sees the wounds.
"Raked with claws, but also cuts with small bladed weapon. We best be wary, whatever killed this man could be out there, lurking."
"Thank you dear, very kind of you." Drusilla thanks Chaine for his effort to help the rest of them.
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"Thank you dear, very kind of you." Drusilla thanks Chaine for his effort to help the rest of them.
"Tis my pleasure. I would advise, however, that you either take one such potion yourself or accept my offer to give you one. Going into this site with a disadvantage such as a sunstroke is not advised, based on the worried looks we got from the natives..."
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Farg doesn't like being told what to do but does it anyway while grumbling.
Explore, report, cooperate...
Perception
Heal untrained
Well claws and small blades would indicate multiple assailants...like some humanoids and some animals. Me being both...
Farg draws a dagger and demonstrates the difficulty of clawing and stabbing at the same time.
can attest that achieving both at the same time is tricky at best...So how do we go about this. The strong men go first to protect the feathered and the females?
After refreshing yourselves and preparing for danger, the party sets down the freshly cleared trail. A few hundred feet further the trail opens up.
In a small clearing, the remnants of a campsite lie splayed open by some dark violence. Collapsed canvas tents, torn to shreds, hang about like dirty streamers. The ground is trampled into mud and decorated with the scat tered coals of a fire-pit, only faintly smoldering after the torrent of afternoon rain. Viciously strewn about the site lie gory husks of bone, blood, and hair, all caked with mud and bearing vicious bites of jungle scavengers.
Three enormous savage boars appears to be scavenging the site when the party enters the scene. They squeal in anger at the interruption and charge.
Before the party can react the beasts are on top of them!
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0. Free Action, Chaine:
1. Swift Action, Chaine: "For Democracy and Freedom!" For The King (swift, once per combat only, +3 competence bonus on all attacks and damage to all allies within 30 feet for 1 round)
2. Standard Action, Chaine: Tactician (teamwork feat: Precise Strike to all allies within 60 feet, duration 7 rounds)
3. If step 0 was successful, Move Action, Chaine: equips lance
4. Guide with knees + Fight with a combat-trained mount: Ride DC 5 & 10 - no action / free action - both are auto success
5. Handle Animal as free action to have horse attack: Handle Animal DC 10 - free action - auto success
6. Full Attack, Silvermane:
Horse Full Attack
for
for
for
(add 1d6 on each attack if he flanks with someone else)
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"Good grief, what are they eating to grow so big!?" Drusilla stands amazed as the giant boars smash into the party's first rank.
She is about to start barking sound advice to her companions, but Chaine beats her with his cry. So instead she approaches one of the beasts. "Temper, temper..." Drusilla says, and taps it gently on the snout.
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Farg, reacting instantly, is able to spear some boars but takes a blow in the process.
AoO vs. Green Damage
AoO vs. Yellow Damage
The Tiefling then tosses aside the pesky spear and shows them stinkin boars what a real animal can do.
Claw Damage Precise strike
Claw Damage Precise strike
Bite Damage Precise strike
Gore Damage Precise strike
The beady-eyed dire boar huffs in confusion as it finds itself unable to gore Drusilla after she's booped it.
Farg manages to jab two of the porcine beasts with his spear as they bear down on him and then, working with Silvermane, he finishes both off in a flurry of claws, hooves, and toothy violence.
Rendered impotent, the surviving boar oinks in panic and runs off into the jungle.
With the danger passed the party is free to search what remains of the site.
Near the edge of the campsite, a crude cage woven from jungle vines covers a 15-foot-deep hole in the ground forming a sort of crude prison cell. Human moans of pain can be heard from within.
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Assists Fek on Perception rolls:
Untrained Heal:
Chaine approaches the prisoners with Silvermane: "Have no fear. We have been sent to help. I am Lance Corporal Chaine Alazario of the Eagle Knights, currently detached to assist the Pathfinder Society in a rescue mission. Step forward and identify yourselves." Chaine offers water to the prisoners.
Inside the small chest Fek finds assorted personal items including a journal. A couple of the most recent entries stand out.
Peering into the sunken cage Chaine spots a middle-aged chelish man, covered in mud and blood but alive. He sits up weakly when Chaine comes into view. "Are you the voices in the walls? Have you come to see me to dinner?"
It becomes immediately apparent that the man is quite mad but Chaine's measured tone seems to restore some lucidity to him. "No, you're no the voices. You're real. I'm Lang. What are you doing here? Pathfinder Society? Are you here to rescue me?" He takes the offered water bottle through the bars of the simple cage and takes a long draw. "Oh. This is quite good. Much better than the blood the mermaid had me drink. It has the most foul aftertaste. I wouldn't recommend it."
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Chaine solidly attaches a rope between the sunken cage's bars and makes a loose bowline knot on the other end to form a loose yoke, which he carefully sets around Silvermane's shoulders and the grip of the military saddle end. Slowly, carefully, he coaxes Silvermane to start pulling with all its might in an attempt to pull the cage out of the mud.
[dice=Handle Animal; +4 with Animal Companion; "Push an Animal" vs. DC 25 to simulate unknown 'Work' trick; Silvermane can pull up to 6,000lbs.]1d20+18[/dice]
(ninja'ed by Fek... whatever works! :) )
Under Silvermane's 'horsepower' the wall of the cage if forcibly torn free from the rest of the structure. Lang climbs out of the pit and wipes his hands on his leggings (which does little to clean them) before offering the party handshakes.
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Chaine answers with a firm handshake, and offers rations, wine, water and soap if the man wants to freshen up. He tries to respectfully assess the health of the man to see if a potion of endure element is needed here. "Mister Lang, please rest, drink, eat and see to your needs. Don't hesitate to ask for anything. We will take a break to give you ample time to recover. When you feel up to it, we'd like to talk and see if you know anything that can help us in our rescue mission."
Chaine observes his expression when he asks Lang about helping with the rescue mission
Chaine can tell the man is dehydrated but not too badly. All he needs is some fresh water and rest. He doesn't notice anything to suggest Lang is misleading the party.
"Rescue? Yes, you're here to rescue me of course. You've done it so let's go home now."
Rek snatches away a small satchel from Lang. On the inside flap is an embroidered Glyph of the Open Road. In addition there's a journal and a statuette of a small silver hawk. The journal has the name Eiastor Wyrn written inside it's front cover.
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"Take a breath and rest. Tell us what happened here Sir. How did you get here? are there others? who is this mermaid you speak of and why is she feeding you blood. Don't worry, we'll take care of you. We're looking for other people too, and we'll have to stay until we do. But don't be afraid, we're not leaving you here by yourself. In the name of Cayden Cailean I will protect you in your travels from here on out. Here. Let's drink this wine." Chaine takes a long drink from his wineskin, and passes it to Lang.
After a few moments, savoring the wine with eyes closed, almost lost in thoughts, Chaine swallows the mouthful of wine. Then opens his eyes. Those close to him can see tears well up. "Lady D'Alazario, what is this Sift-Cache you speak of? who uses such tridents?"