Kryolani nods to Jacobus while scanning the area with Detect Magic for more dangers. "I am fine, thank you. Is Rok ok?"
Kryolani then looks to the bone dust on the floor, in the vague outline of a man, "...and did we just kill a druid? I've heard some can take the form of a beast, though I've never seen it myself."
Not seeing any immediate threats, the sorcerer begins to make a more thorough search of the immediate area.
Serolt searches the glade with his new found magical abilities casting Detect Magic. ”Hey, this is really neat!”
He then searches the glade inside and out, spending a couple hours as needed to take-20 in a few spots.
While he’s inside, he spends a little time praising Erastil for all his gifts. ”Truly we are blessed.” he says.
”I propose we spend the rest of the day here and camp here. This is quite peaceful.”
Roksana feels the gash on her face close thanks to Jacobus' healing and when it's done she feels the re-knit flesh and smiles at him greatfully. "That's going to be an impressive scar!" She then joins Kryolani inspecting the remains of the bear. "I've never seen anything like that happen. If he was a druid, why attack us? Do druids go feral?"
Raising an eyebrow at Serolt's sudden magic use she moves among the rest of the ruins looking for anything special or interesting. She shakes her head at the idea resting for the night.
"Peacful until another man bear attacks us anyway." All the same she seems relaxed now that the battle is over.
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— Sunday, Gozran the 3rd, 4609 AR
— Dawn to evening
— The Narlmarches
— Sunny and temperate
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After spending the night in the temple of the elk, you wake up early in the morning and hit the road as quickly as possible, eager to explore a new area. You spend the whole morning exploring this forested area and following the river’s course.
---
The ground just east of the Skunk River here slumps away into a soggy mire, notable for the fact that a pair of ruined stone buildings jut from the soggy ground. As you move to explore the ruins, you hear a distinct croaking coming from one of the ruined buildings. The source of the loud croaking is a lumbering, pale purple frog-like creature with sickly green eyes, a healthy covering of slime, and two huge, walrus-like tusks.
Before you can even draw your weapon, you’re approached by a strange creature: bulbous eyes glare atop this creature's decidedly toad-like head. A multitude of warts and bumps decorate its greenish skin. The creature holds up his hands (one a poorly healed, mangled mess) and croaks out, “Truce! Truce!”
______________________________________
--- ---
After spending a large portion of the day wandering around in the boggy, sodden mess that is the groups most recent area of exploration, Kryolani is quite ready to char-broil a few more enormous frogs.
And the many-hours-long crossing of the aptly named, and horrid smelling, Skunk river does nothing to improve his temper.
It's much to his surprise when they meet what appears to be an enormous anphibian that talks, and speaks of truce no less! Kryolani first looks around to see if maybe their fey friends are up to their tricks again...
...and then slowly raises his empty hands, attempting to imply no harm.
"Um....Truce? Sure. Why not. Truce with a frog man. Live around here long?"
The strange, toad-like creature shakes its head. "Truce! Me Boggard! Truce! Go! You Go!" croaks out the creature, clearly unable to articulate more complex phrases.
Roksana spies the Skunk River early and when she realizes they need to cross it she borders on gleeful.
"Oh I have not been for a swim in forever!" She moves into the water and crosses it with ease, barely stopping for breathe before coaxing over the horse she'd claimed from the bandits.
Smiling as the chestnut colored beast easily crosses right behind her, the woman realizes she's growing attatched to him. "Good boy, you love swimming too, yeah?" She strokes his neck and looks on to see how the others are doing.
When everyone is finally over and they encounter the strange frog man she keeps her hand on her hammer, buy let's Kryolani speak with it before taking any drastic action.
Comprehension seems to dawn upon Kryolani, and he speaks carefully over his shoulder to the others, "Guys, I don't think the little fellow really speaks much Common."
Kryolani begins to slowly pantomime, waving his hands to encompass the ruins, "All this, You? This ruin, belongs to Boggard?"
Kryolani then gestures towards a swampy path leading past, but not through, the ruins, "Can we go past? Around the Boggard Ruins, and have Truce?"
Serolt does his best to cross the river easily.
vs DC 15
vs DC 15
vs DC 15
Amazingly, Serolt and his retinue manage to cross quickly and easily. Regin does not like the water much, but he seems more pliable to Serolt's will since the temple. Mitzy just continues to amaze...
Serolt will swim back himself if he can help anyone else across...
When faced with this new foe, Serolt leaves his bow in its place and waits for Kryolani to sort it out. Good talker that one.
Not confident on his ability to swim, the inquisitor removes his armor and piles on top of his horse.
He then guides his horse across
Finally after getting thoroughly wet and embarrassed, the inquisitor made it to the other side.
The inquisitor bids his time and waits to see what the frog-man wants.
The creature stands at Kryolani with a puzzled expression, scratching its greasy head with its only intact frog-like hand. "Boggard, Me. You, Go" it croaks out once again.
Unfortunately, you cannot let this place unexplored: you need to know what's inside these ruined buildings. But convincing the boggard to let you explore the structures appears not to be that easy. The creature appears to consider these ruined buildings as its territory. By the way, the boggard does not seem overtly aggressive, and could be reasoned with if you find a way to establish a line of communication with it.
In the meantime, the strange, slimy frog with walrus-like tusks, moves to the side of boggard, croaking at you.
Kryolani turns to the creature, and resumes his pantomime attempts, "Us Humans. Look around? You Boggard, hungry? Want Food? Gold?"
With this, Kryolani reaches into his pouch and bring out a ration of dried beef, and a few gold coins, attempting to offer them in exchange for a tour.
"If this doesn't work, we should go get Jhod Kavken and come back. He might know a spell that could let of speak to him, and we've got to go tell him about the temple anyway."
Serolt wonders what he can do to help, but can think of nothing. When Kryolani suggests food and gold, he completely agrees and helps to find the choicest morsels from among their stores.
I knew I should have tried that Goodberry spell today.
"Hey little fellow, we just want to take a look around. We won't take anything. Just visit."
Sigh.
"I'd rather not have to get the good father for this. Surely there's something we can do. Something this guy needs."
He turns back to the creature, "What do you need? What do you want?"
The creature begins nodding frantically as Kryolani offers food. "Slurk hungry! Slurk hungry!" says the creature indicating its strange, frog-like companion.
Kryolani tosses the dried beef to the Slurk and backs off.
"What do you think, guys? Press our luck and start trying to explore the ruin? Or hold off till we can figure out a way to actually talk to the little fellow? I vote we hold off. We need to check this place out, but I don't see as how it's a super urgent thing."
Kryolani re-pockets his gold coins and backs away from the pair of creatures, far enough that if they become agitated, he won't be in immediate danger.
"I say we press our luck. This thing looks timid, I could probably just scare it away. Unless it's trying to warn us about something?"
Roksana looks over Boggard with a practiced eye, to determine if he is afraid or just defensive.
"In either case, I sincerely doubt Jacobus wants to cross that river again so soon."
"Maybe if just one of us searches the area, so he's more relaxed about it. I think if we all go barreling in, he'll panic. I'll volunteer me, but if you want someone else, that's fine too.", he grins.
No man dies wishing he had worked more, a voice inside his head whispers.
Oh hush.
If the party agrees, Serolt commands Regin to Watch near Mitzy. It's not that Mitzy will get out of control, but poor Regin doesn't know the Guard command as yet. Serolt shrugs hoping for the best.
He then heads into the area, searching slowly so as not to offend the frog-creature, but he's thorough. He'll take-10 on the first sweep as he goes through the buildings (Perception 17).
If the man doesn't object, he'll search further, taking-20 (Perception 27) but just in areas that seem of interest. He doesn't want to push his luck.
He doesn't touch anything, he stays as passive as he can, as if he were moving among a chicken coup - he's careful not to trod on any eggs.
The sorcerer sighs in obvious relief.
"I absolutely support someone other than myself searching the area. I am delicate, and probably quite edible, if you were to be a frog person, and into that sort of thing."
Kryolani then fishes out another serving of dried meat, ready to attempt a bribe if the fish-man or his pet become agitated. He hopes this works, as he is also supremely uninterested in swimming back across the skunk. Even with the magic cleaning powers of multiple applications of Prestidigitation the man felt like his clothes, and those of his compatriots, stank of swamp, mud, and decaying fish parts.
Kryolani has found many things out in this wild to be breathtakingly beautiful. This particular region was not included in the list.
"Go ahead Serolt, I'll keep an eye on this one here." Roksana laughs, "It's certainly not going to want me blundering around the ruins."
She continues sizing up the strange little man and attempts to keep him distracted with conversation while the ranger inspects the area.
"You from here? Where do your people live?" She uses exaggerated hand motions and speaks slowly, unsure if anything she's asking is getting through. "Why are you out here alone? What happened to your hand?"
As soon as Serolt moves towards the ruined building, the boggard begins croaking out fiercely. "You die!" he says with a threatening croak, before drawing a weapon similar to a morning star, with some swamps' predators teeth in place of spikes. "Truce! Truce! You go!" croaks out again the boggard. Its frog-like companion begins croaking aloud too, showing its tusks in an intimidating display.
Serolt backs away a little and holds up his hands. "Sorry, sorry..." he mumbles as he walks away.
When he's back with the others he says, "I think we need to talk to him, not just understand him." he shrugs.
"Maybe when we come back through here he'll be gone and we can check. Oh, wait! I have another idea."
He gets a nice morsel of food and goes near the frog. He holds out the food... gets in close... casts Cure Light Wounds... and touches him quickly before falling back with his hands in the air apologetically.
He heals, on the poor things hand.
If this doesn't work...
When Serolt draws near and pronounces his mystical words, the boggard grow immediately suspicious and tries to attack him with its crude morning star. Thankfully, the boggard's swing is unaccurate, and misses Serolt, who can continue concentrating on his spell and cast it before the creature can react.
The shoanti archer's healing magic restores the boggard hand to its full integrity, and the creature stands astonished, its big eyes widened to a ridicolous size, its empty gaze fixed on the restored hand.
Unfortunately, the boggard's frog-like companion has reacted with a slight delay to what it must have perceived as a threat to its master. The creature plunges its walrus-like tusks in Serolt's leg, causing him a deep and bleeding wound.
Before things can quickly escalate in violence, the boggard stops its companion hitting it on its head with its morning star and croaking out something in its croaking language. The slurk moves back his master as a hangdog.
"Truce!" croaks out the boggard, pointing to his restored hand. He then indicates one of the ruined building with its morning star. "You Boggard call out the creature as suggestion you are to follow him into the ruined building. The slurk jogs along its master keeping both of its bulbous eyes on Serolt.
____________________
Serolt takes the hit for the greater good. "Truce." he says back.
He looks over his shoulder at the party, "Be right back." he says with a grin.
He follows the boggard inside and keeps his distance from the slurk.
Serolt takes the hit for the greater good. "Truce." he says back.
He looks over his shoulder at the party, "Be right back." he says with a grin.
He follows the boggard inside and keeps his distance from the slurk.
"Wow there, Serolt. You can't go in there by yourself and wounded."
He held up his hands so the frog-man could see them and asked the Shoanti over.
He then inspected his wound, Jacobus had become much better at that these days. It was all due to having to rely on himself more than before. His caravans usually had an experienced healer whenever he had traveled Brevoy.
He prayed to Abadar and produced copious amounts of clean water with which to wash the wound.
He then proceeded to take out the healing wand and make a pass at the deep puncture wounds. "Let's watch that in the next day or two. Puncture wounds are notoriously hard to clean." he looked at the frog-man's pet, "And those are the longest tusks I've seen in a while."
Satisfied with his work, he asked the Shoanti, "So what's your signal? You know... your signals to come in and help you? You really don't expect us to just wait around here while we can't even see you. How long are we waiting before we come in to get you?"
He touched his golden key, "Abadar helps those in need but he has little patient for those who don;t think their task through."
Satisfied with his work, he asked the Shoanti, "So what's your signal? You know... your signals to come in and help you? You really don't expect us to just wait around here while we can't even see you. How long are we waiting before we come in to get you?"
Serolt give him a blank look after thanking him for the healing. "Uh, I dunno. We should get thunderstones or something for signaling. I guess I'll just shout if I'm in trouble."
Serolt makes haste.
The boggard takes Serolt in the first ruined building, its frog-like companion trotting to his side. "Slurk" explains the boggard indicating the ruined structure.
Serolt takes a look around, but there's nothing interesting here apart from debris. As soon as Serolt tries to touch something, the boggard warns him rising his crude morning star: "You die."
Then the boggard takes Serolt in the second building, showing him: also this building does not feature anything noteworthy, except for a small grove of strangely colored and foul-tasting mushrooms. Again, if Serolt tries to touch something, the boggard warns "you die."
---
Serolt has been able to take a look at the ruined building, and that is enough for you to consider this area completely explored and leave. At least for now, you don't have any mean to establish a line of communication with the boggard, so there's nothing left for you to do here. As a result, you greet the strange creature and its frog-like companion and spend the rest of day exploring the whole area surrounding the boggard's lair. Unfortunately, you have little time to do so, and when night comes you have still plenty of exploration to do. That swim caused you a long delay.
It's night, and you set your camp in this area, hoping to be able to complete your exploration tomorrow.
The inquisitor asked again, "So nothing interesting eh? It's obvious they think that this is important to them. Did it feel like a place where they lived or just a place that they held sacred somehow?"
Jacobus was somewhat embarrassed but put an arm around Kryo's shoulder and stated, "As you may have noticed. Kryo and I aren't the best of swimmers. Sorry for the delay in crossing that damn river today but we must do better. Perhaps we should plan our exploration a little better to avoid too many of these river crossings. Does the map show likely areas where the rivers may be easier to cross?"
He looked at Rok and Serolt, "Any tips? Would it help if we used some sort of floating device?"
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— Moonday, Gozran the 4th, 4609 AR
— Dawn to evening
— The Narlmarches
— Sunny and temperate
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On Moonday, you continue the exploration of the area surrounding the boggard’s lair. At afternoon, you’ve completed your exploration and you move into the next area. You camp there and spend an uneventful night in the Narlmarches.
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— Toilday, Gozran the 5th, 4609 AR
— Dawn to evening
— The Narlmarches
— Sunny and temperate
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The next morning, you wake up early in the morning and start exploring this new area of the Narlmarches. Thankfully, this time there’s no river to cross.
---
During your exploration of this area, you stumble upon a hollow under a large fallen pine tree, the branches of which have created a natural shelter. Bones litter this den, and while you’re still wondering to which beast may this lair belong, a grizzled boar, distinctive gray bristles on his face, charges at you, fiercely growling as he moves forward. This ill-tempered beast's tiny, bloodshot eyes glare angrily above a mouth filled with sharp tusks. Serolt, who has been talking about this boar for a rather long time with Vekkel Benzen, immediately recognizes it as Tuskgutter, a grizzled monster who’s vexed and avoided hunters for years, also putting an end to Vekkel’s career as a hunter by claiming his leg.
Seeing that everyone in the party is still mounted, the boar charges at Regin and with a single, powerful attack with its sharp tusks knocks the firepelt cougar down. Regin is bleeding badly, and Tuskgutter is covered in the firepelt cougar’s blood.
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---- ----
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•
• Kryolani
• Roksana
• Jacobus
• Serolt
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— 22/22
— -2 AC (charge)
The reverie of being in a beautiful place was harshly broken by the attack of the huge boar.
Seeing what that thing could do on the ground, Jacobus yelled, "Take him out from afar!"
he then pronounced his judgment of destruction on the beast, "You've killed enough, old one. Time to die!"
He then pulled out and loaded his crossbow while he willed his horse to remain still. He smiled as the shaft penetrated deep on the animal's side.
EDIT: critical?
Round: 1
Cold Iron Arrows: 29/30
Cold Iron Silver Blanch Arrows: 10/10
Conditions: Angry
longbow: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +4 Damage: Str +2
melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +2 Damage: Str +2
Spells (Caster Level 2, Concentration +4)
Zero (12): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light
First (13): Cure Light Wounds, Magic Fang
- - -
Regin
HP: -1/10 AC: 16 (F11/T15)
Fort: 4 Reflex: 8 Will: 1 BAB: +1 CMB: 2 CMD: 18 Move: 50’
Conditions: Stable
Tricks: Attack x2, Flank, Heel, Sneak, Track, Watch
melee Attack BAB +1, Dex +4 Damage Str +1
- - -
(point blank) (point blank)
vs DC 10
The inquisitor asked again, "So nothing interesting eh? It's obvious they think that this is important to them. Did it feel like a place where they lived or just a place that they held sacred somehow?"
Serolt describes everything he saw.
”It wasn’t very interesting now, certainly not worth the goring I got for it.” he grins. ”If we ever gain the ability to talk to the little man, I’d be interested in knowing what those mushrooms were. They looked… interesting.”
Jacobus was somewhat embarrassed but put an arm around Kryo's shoulder and stated, "As you may have noticed. Kryo and I aren't the best of swimmers. Sorry for the delay in crossing that damn river today but we must do better. Perhaps we should plan our exploration a little better to avoid too many of these river crossings. Does the map show likely areas where the rivers may be easier to cross?"
He looked at Rok and Serolt, "Any tips? Would it help if we used some sort of floating device?"
”I’m not sure what would help. Maybe a boar-bladder filled with air. Have to be a pretty big boar to do much good though…”
- - -
Serolt quickly dismounts off his horse sliding off with the grace and ease of someone comfortable around the animals. He draws his bow and shoots at the ugly boar, hoping to get it off Regin by force. He tries to focus in on the beast, but alas does not quite have the time.
”Watch out for this one, it’s a known menace! Beware the tusks!”
Regin’s breathing eases as he stabilizes, though it’s still dangerously shallow and uneven.
The reverie of being in a beautiful place was harshly broken by the attack of the huge boar.
Having no skill in riding, much less mounted combat, Jacobus dismounted.
Seeing what that thing could do on the ground, Jacobus yelled, "Take him out from afar!"
He then pronounced his judgment of destruction on the beast, "You've killed enough, old one. Time to die!" and pulled out his crossbow...
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"You know Jacobus, you and Kryolani could just learn to swim!" Rok barks laughter as they finish their exploration around the ruins. "These are the river lands, if we have to plan for only easy crossing we're going to spend a lot of time traveling out of our way."
Ribbings aside, she spends much of the next day enjoying the scenery, relaying the old stories from traveling similar forests with the Blue Dogs. It was a pleasant way to pass the time, until of course it was all upended by an ornery boar.
"Regin!" she cries as Serolt's cat is brutally gored, conjuring images of a bear claw in her face from just days ago. Bandits? No problem. Wildlife? Damn near kills us!
As the cat falls and her companions draw their weapons and fire, Roksana moves to dismount. It's fluid and practiced, not from riding but from the honed, practiced control of her muscles, but the horse beneath her legs shuffles awkwardly. Perhaps just in her imagination, but it seems reluctant to let her off, causing her smooth dismount to become awkward and time consuming.
"Damn it! Horse!" She shouts, weapon in hand as she rushes forward toward the boar hoping to take it's attention of the ranged members of the group.
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Despite the shrill cries of the maimed Regin, Kryolani does as he's been practicing these last few weeks and carefully dismounts from his nervous horse. Then he turns to the slavering beast, a boar larger than any he had seen. Not that he had seen many alive, instead of turning slowly over a spit at his cousins country estates. He was never one for the hunt, and this was entirely closer to the action than he would like. No matter, the beast had to burn, before it finished off Serolt's pet. Gesturing in the air to summon forth the arcane power, the sorcerer called to the beast.
"Hey! Hey! Look here! Not at the cat, HERE!" as he unleashed a Burning Hands spell directly into it's face.
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Tuskgutter jumps back instinctively as Kryolani cone of flames invests him. The boar’s skin gets partially burnt by the flames, but the tree trunks has allowed the beast to reduce the potentially critical damage. One moment after, the boar shows Serolt why it’s considered such a hard prey for the Greenbelt hunters: Tuskgutter manages to avoid the shoanti archer’s arrow by repairing behind a tree trunk.
When Roksana gets closer, Tuskgutter turns to hit her with his tusks and manages to plunge its sharp tusks deep in the half-orc’s leg.
In the meantime, you horses flee the battle, retreating somewhere safer than here.
--------------------------------
---- ----
--------------------------------
•
• Kryolani
• Roksana
• Jacobus
• Serolt
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— 18/22
—
"Ah s%@%, Rok almost got gutted by the beast."
Discarding his crossbow, the inquisitor drew forth his mace and hefted the weapon in two hands.
He neared the beast and brought down the heavy mace for an overhand strike...
_________________________
Serolt eyes the tusks and is glad he’s not the target - at least not yet!
He steps back slightly now that Jacobus has stepped over Regin - but not before focusing* solidly on the beast!
”Rok, I told you not to get hit!” he shouts, partly in surprise, and partly in good humor.
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Cold Iron Arrows: 28/30
Cold Iron Silver Blanch Arrows: 10/10
Conditions: Angry
longbow: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +4 Damage: Str +2
melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +2 Damage: Str +2
Spells (Caster Level 2, Concentration +4)
Zero (12): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light
First (13): Cure Light Wounds, Magic Fang
- - -
Regin
HP: -1/10 AC: 16 (F11/T15)
Fort: 4 Reflex: 8 Will: 1 BAB: +1 CMB: 2 CMD: 18 Move: 50’
Conditions: Stable
Tricks: Attack x2, Flank, Heel, Sneak, Track, Watch
melee Attack BAB +1, Dex +4 Damage Str +1
- - -
(point blank, focus)
(point blank, focus)
"You're not my boss Serolt!" Roksana growls offhandely as she assesses the hit. There's another scar.
"You'll regret that, pig!" Roksana raises her hammer but instead of swinging it down she waves it overhead to distract the boar as she moves into better position and locks eyes with Jacobus. "Move behind him and strike at his legs, you'll cripple him!"
_________________________________
Seeing his teammates swarming onto the boar, Kryolani takes a step back to limit his blasts of flame from scorching Roksana.
"Watch the hooves! If it gets one of us down on the ground, we'll be in trouble!"
Another roar of fire pours forth from his hands. Kryolani thanks the recent rains as he sees thin whisps of steam come off the ground, and fallen leaves begin to curl beneath the heat.
If this turns into a forest fire, we'll be in more danger from that than from the boar. The others had best bring it down soon...
_____________
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This time Tuskgutter is not nimble enough to jump away before Kryolani’s flame could devour him. The boar gets invested by a burst of magic flames, and just as the flames extinguish, Roksana is right behind the boar, and Jacobus brings down his heavy mace on the wild beast, almost crushing its skull with a single, powerful strike. Empowered by Abadar’s favor, Jacobus has felt the guide of his god as he stroke, and managed to put an end to this fierce threat for all of the civilized lands, especially those bound to grow and prosper here in the future, if any.
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--- ---
[spoiler=]
— -1/22
—
Serolt, rejoices at Jacobus' strike. "Well done! Good job."
He looks at Rok as if to say, Do you mind? and turns first to heal Regin. He casts Cure Light Wounds.
While not much, it's still sufficient that Regin lurches to consciousness and growls woozily. Serolt waits in line for the wand of curing until after everyone else is well. He then borrows it for Regin's benefit.
He then spends the next hour or so rounding up the horses. When he returns he says, "Well, we need the head for Vekkel." He takes out his dagger and gets to work on the bloody deed.
____________________________________
Jacobus washes away boar's brains before he puts away his weapon. He nods in understanding at Serolt's compliment. "Well done yourself."
He then takes out the healing stick and nears Rok and quips, "Ever hear about dodging? Here let me wash that before we close it up."
He then looks at Serolt sawing away the head, "Were the tusks part of the deal? Those are a beauty. We can roast this pig right?" He cocks his head remembering, The guides in our caravan always cooked some mean ribs.
____________________
"Psh, if you just take the blow instead of flinching out of the way you get a better shot at hitting them where they're weak." Roksana explains as the human once again tends to her wounds. "Besides, I've got you here to fix me up afterward!"
Once she's patched up she kicks the dead boar, not hard, just a nudge to appreciate it's weight and size. "We should bring the meat to 'Lana, I bet she knows some mean recipes that call for boar meat. Looks like we've got a beautiful day ahead of us for some more travel too. So let's hoof it."
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— Toilday, Gozran the 5th, 4609 AR
— Dawn to evening
— The Narlmarches
— Sunny and temperate
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After having defeated Tuskgutter, keeping his head for Vekkel, you continue your exploration of the area surrounding the boar’s den, but the rest of the day is completely uneventful.
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— Wealday, Gozran the 6th, 4609 AR
— Dawn to evening
— The Narlmarches
— Sunny and temperate
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The next morning, you wake up early in the morning and after two hours of travel you exit the Narlmarches, entering into an area known as “The Kamelands”: the rolling hills of the Kamelands are often pocked by small caves, twisting valleys, and small woodlands that crown hilltops or nestle in clefts.
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This area is crossed by the Thorn River, splitting in two the hilly landscape. This time, though, you can maybe avoid to swim through the river by using a bridge connecting the two opposite shores of the river. Here, The Thorn River winds through a 20-foot-deep gulch between a pair of hills. An old wooden bridge spans the gulch, allowing passage over the river.
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How do you cross the bridge?
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Jacobus looked over Kryo's shoulder to make sure the map was being done properly. "Did you get the orientation of the river and the bridge correctly?"
He smiled, "One of my father's favorite sayings is 'Never cross the bridge until you get to the river.'"
He turned to the others, "And we're here. Now about that bridge. How safe do you think it is?'
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Serolt checks the weather, and advised the party, ”Well the cold may be behind us, but we’re in for a rainstorm day after tomorrow, probably in the afternoon. Might lose a half day's searching depending on how bad it gets.”
When he reaches the bridge he frowns. ”I dunno if it’s safe or not, but I bet someone around here is going to want a toll. It is awfully useful isn’t it?” He walks up to the edge of the bridge and calls out,
When Regin looks to start crossing, he holds him back with a word and a gesture. ”Heel!"
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Jacobus shakes his head, "I don't like this. This is a long bridge and bound to start swinging once anyone is on it. Can you imagine me leading my horse across? The beast is not trained and will probably spook."
He chuckles, " Heck, I might spook if it swings too much."
He looks at his companions, "Look, since there's nothing preventing us from getting to the water's edge, I say one of the better swimmers crosses the bridge so we can say we explored it but the rest of us just goes for a swim. Any other ideas?"
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If no one calls out, "You wait here, I'll cross first. If Mitzy spooks, I might be able to calm her."
Serolt tentatively begins to cross the bridge, leading his horse and sending Regin on ahead.
“Pharasma makes cradles for us all.” he mutters under his breath as he crosses carefully and evenly.
Kryolani gained a look of startled near panic, as he begins to shift the map this way and that, trying to confirm that he did, in face, line up the bridge properly. Finally reassured, he responds "Well I am now. See that hillock over there behind us? how it runs up to the edge of the gulch? It's on there properly. I think."
At the start of the bridge, he looks around for places that might have hidden bandits, without much hope of success.
"You don't place tolls where there isn't regular traffic. Only people who might cross this thing regularly are the bandits. The only people who might enforce those tolls? Also the bandits. We're probably safe on that score. I'm more worried at how well maintained this thing is. Every building and structure we've run into south of the trading post has been a ramshackle ruin. If bandits have been keeping this thing together, how do we know they've done a decent job?"
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