Nightime is approaching. Do you make camp, or leave the area?
Wren queases at the sight of the de-sanguinated monkeys.
"Oh dear. Oh dear, that isn't right at all. If someone is doing this to monkeys, what might they be doing to all my bird friends?" Wren clutches Plume protectively while scanning the sky and trees.
Wren backs away slowly, looking at Shilyn, her flockmate and friend.
"Halfsie, maybe we should go a different direction now. I don't like this way," Wren clucks. "Osmillar, I don't like this at all. Let's go around."
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Muttering to herself, once again today, Shilyn sticks the tip of her tongue out and runs a finger gently over it feeling the bump where she'd bit it in her sleep.
"Well, not sure what happened to the critters, but ya know.. I bet we could skin them and roast the meat into jerky,"[b] she says with a shrug. [b]"Granted, it's not my preference, but hey.. why look a gift monkey in the mouth?"
Turning from the others to gather her things together, she mutters some more.. "Unless the damn thing is biting your tongue and chewing on it.. but no.. that was a serpent.. lizard.. thingy.."
"On one hand, this definitely seems like a clear warning. On the other hand, this may very well be other survivors protecting themselves from the wildlife. I'm not quite certain what we should do about this."
RE
D1
D2
D3
%Sunk
You travel for a few hours hacking into the jungle, all the while feeling that something is watching you.
You come to a clearing and stare directly at a beast waiting for you. This beast has grown to the size of an adult human and has its wings spread wide. It has two large teeth protruding from beneath its lips. Dried blood is around its mouth in thick contents, as it seems that it has recently eaten.
It looks at you appraisingly and doesn't move, as if it is playing some game with you.
Wren 'parrots' the pose of the creature, her 'wings' spread wide as well. She keeps her eyes upon the creature, studying it.
"It looks like it just ate already. Maybe it will just let us pass if it's not hungry... "
"It...doesn't look friendly. Proceed with caution, it also doesn't seem natural."
knowledge:
It is reptilian in nature, and it does not look friendly. As far as you can tell it is a chupacabra. At least, you think anyways, because they don't normally grow this big, or grow wings.
A knowledge that far over the DC, I'll give you two more meta info's. What do you want?
Zero?
"This... this is no ordinary creature. It looks like a Chupacabra, but they are never this large... or this winged, in fact. Proceed with much caution, I very much doubt it's only here to say 'hello'."
Know (Nature)
Wren keeps her pose and waits to see what the beast is going to do.
Special Attacks/Knowledge:
"Those fangs look pretty intimidating... like maybe for drinking blood!"
Chupar (Ex) A chupacabra that pins an opponent or maintains a pin can suck blood from that opponent as a free action once per round, dealing 1 point of Constitution damage. Upon successfully draining blood, the chupacabra is invigorated, gaining a significant boost in speed for 10 rounds similar to the haste spell. The invigorated chupacabra can still drain blood—and in so doing increase the length of its invigoration—but it gains no additional effects.
These notorious predators have an undeniable thirst for blood. Chupacabras prefer to prey upon the weak and slow, often watching potential prey from hiding for long periods before attacking. Spry and stealthy, they prefer to keep to areas of high grass and protective rock, their slightly reflective scales allowing them to blend in well with such surroundings.
With a preference for lone travelers and farm animals (particularly goats), chupacabras leave little evidence of their presence apart from the grisly blood-drained husks of their meals, often leading locals to believe a reckless vampire lives in the area.
A typical chupacabra measures nearly 5-1/2 feet from muzzle to tail tip and stands just under 4 feet tall. Slightly built and light of bone, most weigh close to a hundred pounds. They mate rarely and only during the hottest months, with the females each producing a single egg that hatches into a tiny, dehydrated creature. The mother typically leaves helpless prey in her cave so the hatchling can immediately feed.
It is not unusual for older chupacabras to grow to Medium size. These larger specimens tend to be leaders of chupacabra gangs, or, more commonly, loners capable of tormenting entire villages on their own. Some chupacabras are mutants with large reptilian wings, and have been known to carry off goats and children.
"Let's go around, maybe it will leave us alone if it's just fed." Travis says softly.
He backs away into the jungle, putting some brush and leaves between himself and the creature... He hopes the others will do the same. He starts moving very stealthily AROUND the clearing. Having seen the dimensions of the clearing, he should have a pretty good idea where to go.
The creature looks at Wren mimicking him, and turns its head sideways, puzzled at what is happening. Shilyn draws it out of its musings as she throws it a piece of dried jerky. It scoffs as the jerky up to its powerful toes, as if to say You think I couldn't have that from you if I wanted it?
Besides, after getting a look at the fangs on it, which are clearly used to drain blood, you think that dried jerky isn't really "on the menu" anyways.
In fact, seeing dried jerky and thinking of the monkeys you encountered the night before kind of makes you all shudder a little.
"I agree, let us back away slowly." Osmillar follows Travis back, slowly stepping away.
"No arguments from me." Alphonse says as he tries to look non-threatening.
Retro your reactions
As the group backs away in a non-threatening manner, the beast lowers its wings and looks at them seriously. With a powerful leap into the air, the beast explodes out of sight through the dense canopy overhead. You hear the WHOOSH WHOOSH of wings as it seems to be flying over your heads in a zig zag pattern, flying overhead from you at the north at first and then the south a few seconds later, and then the north again.
The animals all scatter as they hear the whoosh whoosh sounds.
After what seems like a minute or two of this it leaves you. To where, you don't know, but it doesn't seem to be following you, and you don't feel quite as eerie anymore.
The mood is a little lighter that night when you find a spot to camp, and it even gets to Sasha joking about what a bunch of sissies you looked like, and Gelik making a song about Shilyn throwing meat at the beast in defiance and the rest of you wetting your pants.
Ishirou discusses fishing boats with Shilyn around the campfire, Jask tends to anyone that seems hurt or fatigued. Jask is concerned about Aerys. She is taking the lack of alcohol hard, and has the constant sweats and now has a large headache. He has heard of a berry that is indigenous to these islands that cures the mind. "Dat bad bottle be no problem after dees berrees, ya know?
Sasha jokes willingly and readily, and seems to laugh at everything that Alphonse says quite a bit more readily.
Wren continues to study the thing until the party slowly backs away and it leaves. She seems struck by the potential violence that the creature has...as well as its lack of feathers.
"Oh Plume, I didn't like that at all. That thing is a predator to our flock. But don't worry, Plumie, I'll protect you if it comes after you," Wren coos at her bird friend.
* * *
Wren looks over the berries that Ishirou produces, examining them and asking pointed question about them.
Know Nature - the berries
* * *
Fort Save
When the creature leaves, Travis circles back in to the clearing.. shrugs. Ducks a little when it whooshes overhead a few times... then relaxes. "I dunno about the rest of you, but I had a bad feeling about that critter."
---
At camp that night, Travis inquire to Jask about the berries and what they look like. "I'll keep my eye out for such things for Aerys' benefit, though I've heard enough time can alleviate her desire as well. We had a few fellows at the monastery who had similar urges for various substances, and after a time, they were better, though I understand sometimes the need never completely leaves."
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Shilyn talks to Ishirou a bit about boats before turning her attention to Jask. "Hey Jask, Tell me about Nethys," she asks quietly trying to lift his spirits a bit and draw his attention from worrying about Aerys.
Grabbing a small stick, she pokes the fire a bit and unties her hair, letting it hang down for the night.
Alphonse, you have a burning fever and have come down with what looks to be the same symptoms that Shorga was going through.
Alphonse loses point of INT, and must make a check every night. Making two DC 12 saves in a row will get rid of this nuisance.
Shilyn, do you need me to cue the hip shaking music?
Alphonse grimaces as his head starts to feel fuzzy.
"Ugh. Think I might have caught what Shorga had." he says with a look at Shorga, as if it's his fault he got sick.
Wren tut-tuts over Alphonse's ill feelings, holding Plumie away from the man lest he spread the infection to the bird.
"Alphonse, be a dear and try to stay downwind, won't you?"
Wren will hang with Ishirou, trying to make sense of the berries.
"Oh dear, another case... This isn't good. There must be some way to protect ourselves, surely?"
That evening, Osmillar does what he can to help alleviate Alphonse's symptoms, and searches his medical knowledge for any possible preventive measures.
The berries are known to grow in the thicker parts of the jungle. They are known as viper nettles. They are known to be pretty prickly.
One night goes by, so Alphonse owes me a roll, and everyone else can roll a diplo if you want.
The next day along your journey you come across a terribly large looking constrictor snake that has horsemeat on the menu.
It double moved at you for its first round.
INIT
Wren - 25
Shilyn - 22
Alphonse - 20
Snake - 20
Shorga - 16
Travis - 9
Osmilar - 6
Round 1, Init 25
"Ooh, Halfsie!" Wren says to Shilyn. "Watch out for that snake! It's a biggie!"
Know (Nature)
Wren will babble what she knows of big snakes.
She will then move up to Alfonse and give him some advice.
"You're going to want to hit that snake hard with your weapon, dearie."
Alphonse looks at the group.
"Stand back for a second. I've got this."
He walks up to within about 30 feet of the snake and begins talking to it.
"Hey little buddy, calm down. You don't want to eat Mr. Horsie, do you? Too much fight in him. Why don't you just move along, huh?"
A "1" or "2" means that you incapacitate the snake with your soothing tones, and it forgets for the time being that it is hungry.
-- The snake approaches the horse cautiously and carefully slithering, only to be approached by a few of the "legged ones" approaching it with calm, dulcimer tones and gesturing. One of them, the black haired one, is throwing pieces of meat from her pack. The snake seems partially confused, and thinks that this must be some sort of ambush. Or, that they might want to catch his mighty self to eat. In any event, there are more of them than he originally expected, so he retreats as far as they let him.
Exploring through an area (marked on the map) the combined weight of the group causes you to fall through another deck of the ship overgrown by vines.
This one seems to be void of any bad things and has a treasure chest just like the other one.
Alphonse looks around to see if the chest or room is trapped in any way.
Travis grumbles slightly as he falls onto the deck of a ship... again. "This has GOT to stop."
He does a passable job at making the fall and landing on his feet look effortless, like he planned the whole thing...
He looks about, expecting more undead like last time, leaving the chest to those with skills suited to opening such things safely.
Wren lands with a thump, an unhappily yelp escaping her lips. Plume flutters down and lands gently nearby.
Getting up and dusting herself off, Wren ganders about.
Perception
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Picking herself up off the ground.. again, Shilyn mutters something about pirates burying too much stuff and proceeds to the chest, dusting herself off as she does.
"Ya know.. buried treasure yes.. burying a ship.. I mean really.."
She takes a moment to examine the chest and locks. "Stand aside folks, leave the delicate work to the professionals," she says with a grin.
Once she's reasonably certain, in her own mind anyway, she begins to pick the lock.
Trap detected and disabled. Lock picked. Goodies forthcoming once I get to my notes at home. Good thing you all waited ;)
"A buried ship? Now that is not a common sight. I can only wonder: Was the ship buried, or was it sunk and later reclaimed by the coast?"
While Shilyn busies herself with the chest, Osmillar looks around the ship, curious to find some indication of the ship's name or its origins.
Alas, the most likely sources of information would be outside the ship, and the party has neither the means nor any true motivation to dig such things out.
"Actually we are looking for a couple of wrecks specifically, so finding out the name of this ship might actually be of some import. It's worth checking out, anyway."
Travis looks for a name plaque of the ship or a way into the captain's quarters to look for a log... anything that might give us a name.
"Far too true, far too true. Let us take a closer look."
Osmillar helps with the search best as he can.
Alphonse does the same.
"The ship's log could be a very interesting read."
Wren looks around, waiting for the chest to be opened from a distance.