Angelo returns, "Bah! I can't find her. And there are no bartenders or street beggars to quiz around here. Right now none of us are going very far without that," and he flutters his hands, "that thing that Hurg says is missing. These elves, they travel fast. If they have made off with it, we need to pursue them quickly."
"Hey you - Mogwag was it? If you want to be useful, you could get back Hurg's big magical metal egg-thing. Or at least help us get it back. That much good faith might buy you a ride up river."
sure, if it can buy me that trip
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As you talk, you are suddenly aware of another person nearby.
Sitting in the shade of a tree, as still as death, is a tall man. You know he's tall as he must be four feet tall even in his current cross-legged position. He is clearly Mwangi with dark brown skin and wiry hair long fashioned into elaborate coifs. His armour is a mixture of animal fur and skin and it is adorned with various bits of animal (and presumably human) bones and teeth. His body is adorned with ritualistic scars and a number of piercings – although his face is untouched.
How you didn't spot him earlier, you have no idea - he must have heard the argument with Corax and the problems you are encountering. He sits with his hands open, palms facing upwards and he has no visible weapons. He makes no effort to engage you but slowly moves his head to look in your direction.
"Don't mind me - I have nothing to do with these...elves.". His voice is deep and almost too quiet for such a big man. "But I could not help but hear of your troubles, and the animals of the jungle tell me you are travelling the same direction as me. Perhaps we could be of use to each other?"
He remains still apart from his lips and when he finishes speaking, he continues to look in your direction, unblinking.
Poulain takes a knee.
Well then Mogwag give you salutation says the large men Mogwag doesn't know them either but Mogwag is also looking for passage
Ba'utan remains seated, his eyes now travel to the dark-haired man - a white man but with trappings of the Bekyar. 'Odd yet simultaneously natural. This one has hidden depths - the creatures of the forest were not wrong. A curious one, definitely curious.'
Ba'utan's face remains impassive whilst he waits for a response from the young one.
Hurq and Faruq shrug their shoulders and Hurq says, "I don't really understand this nonsense, we need to report to the Captain that we don't have the fuel."
Mogwag understaind, Mogwag will wait then.
"Merda allora! Out from under the rocks they spring - these natives looking to ride along. And now you Poulain, you begin falling at their feet. Pfaugh!" Angelo fumes for a moment, with perhaps more drama than intensity.
To Ba'tun, "You - you may want to look less like one of the dispatched around here. I am likely to bury you with the quiet dead."
"Attendere. We are none of us going anywhere until we have Hurq's amese back and doing it's work. Can any of us locate this thing, or the dire savages that have made off with it? Come - time to demonstrate our mettle and earn our tickets."
Angelo turns with a dramatic flair of his duster, and prowls in a circle, obviously contemplating where to being pursuing the amese.
Only now does Ba'utan rise - and you see his full height can't be much short of 7 feet.
He collects a bag from the other side of the tree he was sitting in - and he now holds a longspear in his left hand - albeit it doesn't look that long compared to his height.
"No time like the present. If these elves were carrying something, they should be relatively easy to track, no?" He looks at Poulain for some assurance.
Provided that one does have that skill and that they were indeed the ones who took the item. Mogwag can track if needed
Hurq looks up and says, "We need to talk to the captain, he will know what to do, not to mention it doesn't look like the elves took it anyway."
The dwarf waddles his way to the boat and on the deck is Selim. The captain frowns at seeing the group return and then says, "Where is Corax and that oddball dinosaur clown, anyway?"
Mogwag does not know
"They have walked off into the jungle. Unreliable natives I understand. I am still puzzled by Corax - I went in pursuit, but she apparently desires not to be found."
"Not the elves you say? Let's talk to the captain then, if there's more to understand about this disappeared thing."
Angelo heads back towards the boat, pausing only to wait for the others to follow.
Hurq says, "Even if the elves took it, it would probably have died due to the sunlight and so on..."
The captain looks at Mogwag and says, "Who the hell are you and why are you answering my questions? It is almost completely ridiculous one of our crew gets got and then miraculously and uncannily there is someone to replace them in the jungle."
"eh, Capitain, a feast of crows. This carcass of a city has attracted many different sorts. Some have survived, some have squabbled and departed. What you see is what Lady Pharasma has decreed as the fated and most capable survivors. Or at least those that she finds most amusing." Angelo shrugs, "I do not always agree with the Lady of Graves, but I've seldom found it wise to argue too vigorously."
"We are in the presence of an honored druid of the expanse. This is a good thing."
I am Mogwag of the Huron tribe i cam to this village hoping to find a ship as i was trying to evade the bands or roaming elves
"So capitain regardless of the rif raf that have attached themselves, how can we procure a new energy source for your river boat here? If the old one would be dead of sunlight now, is there some replacement that we might procure? Is there something that might be done digging through this husk of an outpost?"
Ba'utan speak to Hurq. "Why did you say it does not look as though the elves took this device of yours?"
Hurq shakes his head, "It is no device it is a living creature that provides the energy for our boat. It is a proprietary design that only four were made before the engineer died. And now as far as I know there are only three left, the River Queen and two others because we found the Lady Fortune sunk two days back."
The Captain says, "Don't be too callous about throwing titles around, I have already seen two 'honored druids' on this voyage and they have both cut and run. Either way, we can still use the help, My name is Captain Esteban Selim of the River Queen."
Hurq cuts in before the pleasantries have ended "Kapitain, the energy source is not here."
The captain's face becomes even more grim, "I elect to forge on upriver
rather to try and recover
any of the arcophagesn here. Even with the energy
supply aboard the River Queen dwindling, I
know of a place where we can likely find a
replacement arcophage with a short detour. the Brimstone
Falls"
"Brimstone Falls it is then."
Indeed
Selim snickers, "Angelo, which of the two FNGs will be the first to go, I wager a Platinum on baldy, ha!?!"
Shortly thereafter, the captain has Poulain untie the boat from the dock at Whitebridge Station. Where Hurq puts the engine into gear and the River Queen clears the large desolate bridge.
Shortly after leaving Whitebridge Station, the
River Queen enters the jungle proper, rising
alot like the wall of a green fortress, the Vanji
River issuing from its dark gatehouse.
A little more than 10 miles into the jungle,
Captain Esteban steers the wheelboat into
a tributary he calls the Kurka River rather
than following the main artery of the Vanji.
He explains "This stagnant rill flows from
Kurka Swamp, in turn fed by the Brimstone
Falls on the opposite side. The Kurka Swamp
is rife with plantlife of all kinds, including
the mobile plant creatures that serve as hosts
for the badly needed arcophages."
A little later he says, "it should only take the boat a few days off
of our schedule, and what the hells, the only other alternatives are
to swim or walk once the current arcophage
gives out."
At these words, he gets a strange look in his eyes
Mogwag just nods at the mention of the choices.
Can Mogwag visit your ship captain?
Responding to Selim, "I hope none of them leave. I'd have to learn names for new ones. It would be unacceptably disrespectful and dismissive to call them all 'mudboy' or something. Might be easier though." and he shrugs.
~~~~~~~
A little later he says, "it should only take the boat a few days off of our schedule, and what the hells, the only other alternatives are to swim or walk once the current arcophage gives out."
At these words, he gets a strange look in his eyes.
"Capitain, what happens when the arcophage 'gives out'? What an awful phrase. It will die, won't it? With what effect?"
"You ignorant asses! You think lowly shaman are akin to a true druid of this jungle? No wonder she wants to kill you."
"Poulain, I respect your opinion. I will attempt to distinguish more closely among g the native folk. It's not within my training or experience. I bow to your greater familiarity with native folk that are not house servants."
Selim looks at Poulain, "On my boat, respect is not given but earned. Be them Druids, Shamans or Warriors. I've been making this run for years and lost my share of men, so don't be arrogant around your captain."
Later after another 3 miles, The swamp stretches out as far as the eye
can see. Hummocks of tangled trees and
plant life grow among hundreds of water
channels overgrown with reeds and showing
only the slightest trace of a current in their
stagnant surfaces. The ever-present rumbling
of the River Queen’s engine suddenly ceases,
leaving an unnatural silence over the scene, with only the sounds of the creaking vessel,
the faint whisper of a breeze through the tree
tops, and the occasional cry of some strange
marsh animal. The boat slowly drifts to a halt
at the very edge of this marshy labyrinth.
Selim explains, "Due to the
tangled plants and drifting debris of the
swamp, it is not safe to use the sternwheeler,
lest it becomes snarled and damaged.
Therefore, the only way for the River Queen
to traverse the swamp is to be pulled with
ropes by crewmen walking ahead of the boat.
Fortunately, the water is only about 4 feet deep
in the swamp—deep enough to accommodate
the wheelboat’s shallow draft but not too deep
for a someone to walk and keep his
head above water."
interesting.
Ba'utan skits on the deck and listens to the banter. He's heard much worse and from better people too.
'Trading words with these unfortunates will serve no purpose. The ranger has respect for the jungle - and death - and that is a start. Perhaps my continued silence will be more unsettling than loud words?'
Selim says, "Alright from here the boat needs to be pulled.", and he and Hurq tie off two large ropes to bow of the boat and throughout the day each of you are required to pull for two hours in shifts.
GM Rolls
You pull the boat for six hours until at dusk, Esteban calls a halt to the day’s pulling and has the River Queen pulled up onto
a fairly dry nearby beach. Faruq gets
off a lucky shot and brings down a boar shortly
afterward. There is a minor celebration, and a
cooking pit is dug on the beach and the boar
roasted on a spit while Esteban breaks out a
cask of grog from the hold.
Hum Fine roasted Boar. Mogwag enjoys a party
"Dragging a boat. Not the types of laboring I was raised to expect. But roast boar sounds like precisely the thing to round of the day."
Angelo pours a small libation on the ground, and burns a small portion of boar in the pit, as thanks to Lady Pharasma for a day without a casualty.
Ba'utan checks his portion of boar for poison (something he routinely does if someone else prepares the food).
har, This is good stuff says Mogwag eating some more
You see a dim light bobbing in the distance out over the swamp like a lantern being carried. Whatever it is making a sound that
resembles a hacking and choking cough, which seems to stumble off in the distance.
Poulain looks to the druid.
Ba'utan considers the light and noise. Common sense suggests a traveller with a bad cough - but his life in the jungle says that common sense should be ignored in the dark of night in a swamp.
A single light, hum might a a lone party of something. Mogwag think it might be worth to have a look
Noting the interplay between Poulain and Ba'utan, Angelo inquires, "Compagno of yours, Ba'utan? I think there's some extra boar here to share. Perhaps we go invite them, very politely?"
Noting the interplay between Poulain and Ba'utan, Angelo inquires, "Compagno of yours, Ba'utan? I think there's some extra boar here to share. Perhaps we go invite them, very politely?"
"Two types of jungle-dwellers travel alone at night. Fools and those that want you to be the fool. I'm trying to work out which one this is - but I'm not sure either warrants an invitation to join us."
"Having said that, Mogwag here seems keen to find out for himself which type we have in front of us."
Mogwag makes his way into the swamp towards the light. The further Mogwag moves towards the light, the further it seems to go away. By this point he is chest deep in water. Then the light flickers out.
He looks back towards the campfire and GM Rolls:
Mogwag gets hit with a shock, touch attack hit electricity damage.
Initiative: Mogwag , Wisp
Round 1
Wisp attacks again shock, touch attack hit electricity damage.
Outch !
Hearing Mogwag's cry, Angelo takes a brief moment to cast 'sanctuary' on himself, check his bow and sword, and move towards the sound of the cry. "Ba'utan, it appears your question has been answered, and your compagna has found himself a fool. But that one belongs to us, not a predator in the night."
Ba'utan puts a hand on Angelo's arm. "Go carefully. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
"Our friend's efforts may well attract other night-time visitors."
With this, the tall man moves forward slowly and carefully.
round 1
to identify the creature weakness
Mogwag has no idea what it is.
50/50 hit chance ,
Mogwag is somehow able to pinpoint the creature attacking it however is unable to connect.
Round 2
Initiative: Angelo , Poulain , Bau'tain , Crew , Slick
Wisp attacks again shock, touch attack hit
Angelo, Poulain, Bautain, Crew, Mogwag, Slick
Outch ! says Mogwag after being zapped again