Interesting choice on leaving two eggs behind.
The four of you recover the rope and grappling hook from Phillip's climb. Looking west, you continue along the beach. The inner lagoon has the same breezes as the outer curve of Smuggler's Shiv, but without the violent waves.
Sasha is chatting happily with everyone, mostly about her plans for hatching the reptile-bird and training it.
After almost an hour, the beach narrows, and all of you see three small islets off of the tip. You've reached the northern end of Smuggler's Shiv. Looking across the lagoon, you see the green, jungle-covered curve of the Shiv end in two islands - the first is rather flat, while the other is a silent grey scar on the horizon. The second island might have dwarf trees, but it's hard to tell at this distance.
Apart from the usual surf sounds, you don't hear anything at this northern tip of the island. The sun has begun its' western track, indicating that midafternoon approaches.
What do you want to do.
"So is anyone up for a swim...starting to get hot...
"Sure am. I think I'm going to try and reach that little island, in fact."
Phillip will swim around with Ashana for a little while, first without his astral suit, also taking off his armor, and then with his astral suit on, obviously much more at ease in the water with it wrapped around him; in a few minutes, whether she comes with or not, , he will take off towards the closest islet.
Looking out at the wake shaking his head "I am good, the water and I don't seem to work well together. Adriano finds a place in the shade if any and sits "I'll wait here for you.
Sasha looked around at the others. "Well, I'm not shy. Most times." she said, shrugging. Taking off her weapons and gear, she gently put the egg sack in the sand, covering it with her equipment.
"Hey Adrinao, watch this, wouldya?" Sasha asked the cleric. The redhead sat on the sand, taking off her boots and chain shirt.
When she stood back up, Sasha pulled up her shirt out of her trousers, re-tying it in front of her, and then bent over at the waist in front of Adriano, rolling up her cuffs above her knees. Throwing off her hat, the redhead took off at a run, joining Phillip and Ashana in the ocean surf. "Not fair - I thought you were a cat, not a tiger!" she shouted happily at the cat-woman in the water.
Ashana will take off her gear and then head off to the water, steping in slowly as the water is quite cold compared to the heat of the day that's been beating down on her skin. She chuckles as Sasha runs off to catch up with her and shrugs. "I usually don't like water but its been so hot lately...not a good day to have a black coat... she says before trying to do the back stroke into deeper water but not getting very far. It becomes pretty clear that she's like a fish out of water when it comes to swimming.
She looks at Philip and shakes her head "Looks like I won't be joining you on the islands...I'd drown getting out there probably.
Perception check on Sasha:
Thinking he really needs to learn how to swim "not a problem I will make sure nothing happens to anything." he pat the egg gently watching as his companions head into the water.
Perceptio:
@Ashana, It's probably best you didn't. With my skin on, I'm an incredibly powerful swimmer, and without it, I doubt I'd even be trying.
While Sasha is playfully splashing around, you catch what looks like a tattoo on her back, where her pulled-up shirt doesn't cover it (upper back/shoulders). You can't make the entire tattoo out, but it looks like insect legs. Red insect legs. The color doesn't match her hair. Humans don't have fur, so coloring themselves with tattoos is a mystery.
From your advantageous viewpoint, while Sasha is getting ready to swim her shirt slips and you get to see her upper back quite a bit. Sasha has a large tattoo between her shoulder blades. You can't make out the entire tattoo (higher DC needed), but you do see red insect-like markings. You're a scholar, not a Bard, so it's unlikely you can piece together any meaning from the strange inking on Sasha's back.
That, and it's pretty obvious the redhead hasn't tanned herself at all recently.
For Phillip: well, nothing. ;-P
So how long are you guys & gals going to swim?
I'm gonna swim with the girls here for about 10 minutes, and then I'm going to try and swim to the nearest Islet with my Skin on, as I said before.
Ashana will splash around for about 10 minutes before getting out and getting dressed again.
Phillip has no problem swimming to the tiny trio of islets. The rocky moss-covered bumps in the waves are more a hazard to navigation than a habitable piece of land. The sea life here is nothing to remark about, either. Just normal fish and small, nonthreatening crabs.
When everyone's done with swimming, all of you gather your gear. Everyone is now cooled off, even in the heat of the day, with the beach breeze helping to keep the hot sun at bay.
You've pretty much cleared the perimeter of the beach in this area, albeit by ignoring the upper jungle. You can either turn around now and go back the way all of you came, or go up to the jungle layer and see what you've missed in the interior.
So what do you want to do? It's about two o'clock, with 5-6 hours of daylight left.
Well, shall we go up to the jungle before we head back? Search around, see if we can find anything good?
Sounds good we check up there, then head back towards the camp.
I agree the jungle sounds good...it will provide some shade from this sun as well.
As they head off towards the jungle Ashana will approach Sasha. I noticed some funny looking colorings on your back earlier? Are they some sort of really organized birth mark? Hope I'm not being to forward by asking but they looked interesting.
The redhead gave a noticeable start when Ashana mentioned her markings. "It's probably nothing you've heard about. Just a tattoo." She answered the cat-girl. "And...it's personal." Sasha added, her hand with the missing pinky finger moving up to adjust the collar of her shirt higher around her neck. The woman appeared to be put off by the question, but she dropped her hand back to the egg in the sack on her hip, thoughtful.
After seeing the response from Sasha when Ashana commented on her markings he decided to leave it for now. "so Sasha what are you going to name the creature inside the egg when it hatches. doing his best to not think of the climbing he is going to have to do.
"Yes, that's a good question. What will you be naming it, Sasha?"
"Well, I may as well start climbing, eh?"
About a third of the way up, Phillip loses a bit of footing, but he quickly regains his composure. Once up, he'll hook the grappling hook to a suitable anchor, and put knots in the rope for the others to climb up.
"Hmm..." Sasha mused. She started listing names out loud, as to test them, while Phillip tackled the cliff. "Diver? Killer? Flappy? Dino? Dimor? Hey! Watch your footing there, Phillip!" the woman called out, shading her eyes as she watched the blond man scramble up the cliff. "Fido? Hmm...its' parents didn't do too well with flyby attacks."
As he reaches the top, he calls down, "No, they certainly didn't."
Once he finishes knotting the rope and sending it down: "Well, come on up."
Adriano wraps his hand with cloth hoping those will work as make shift gloves to climb off the beach.
Climb
Adriano falls after a few feet determined to make it up he tries again.
Climb
Climb
Climb
Ashana starts as she sees that Sasha is missing a finger and wants to ask how she lost it but senses that the redhead doesn't really want prying questions at the moment. Once Philip lowers the rope and Adriano climbs up Ashana will try her luck.
Climb checks:
The last to climb the rope, Sasha decided to go up slow and steady . She moved the egg to her back, adjusting the burlap sack. Halfway up Sasha muttered "I should have put the egg up the rope first. Ah well."
After taking twice as long as the others, Sasha finally made it up to the cliff's edge.
With everyone atop the jungle layer, you have a much better view of the islands across the lagoon. There's not much difference, just a more complete view of the strangely small grey trees on the big island.
Turning back to the interior jungle, you navigate by the sun to determine how you are walking back to camp. But the jungle layer lacks the innate breezes of the beach, and the first thing that assaults your senses is the overwhelming heat! You have to walk back in this?
Fortitude check:
Survival check:
Fortitude Check:
Survival Check:
Fortitude Check:
Survival Check:
Sasha took 3 points subdual damage from the heat.
Phillip takes points subdual damage from the heat.
Adriano takes points subdual damage from the heat.
Using the sun as a guide through the jungle, the four of you set off through the leafy underbrush. Adriano's scimitar proved most effective at cutting the vines and leaves. Unfortunately, after an hour everyone but Ashana is covered in sweat and feeling the steamy heat. Another half-hour after that, Adriano and Sasha notice that the ground is sloping up a little, as if all of you are approaching a hill.
The wind picks up, clouds move in, and a sudden afternoon downpour drenches everyone. It's the afternoon rain on the island.
Perception
"Somebody tell me they can find us a dry spot in all this rain!" Sasha shouted from the rear of the party.
I can barely see, so that's a no for me. Anybody else?
Perception:
Perception check:
"I'm with Philip...I can barely see in this down poor. I think we should should head for dryer ground though."
You can make out your surroundings much better than the others in the rain , and you can see the streams of runoff forming from higher up the hill and going past your feet. The streams are turning into rivers. Downhill is definitely worse than uphill in this case.
You do spy an outcropping several feet higher on the hill...it might be a cave. Better than looking for the biggest tree to shelter you from the downpour.
Summer lightning crashes in the clouds above everyone. The thunder is terrific, along with rain in cloudy sunlight.
Adriano looks around down at the base of the hill seeing the water pool then glances up the hill and sees something up a little ways that might be something they might use as cover.
"I think I see something up the hill it might be some cover."
Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get up there!
I'm all for getting out of this rain Ashana says as she starts heading towards the spot that Adriano found.
Climb check if needed:
The four of you, almost led by the hand by Adriano, make it to what appears to be an open cave. Although the back of the cave is in shadow, the wide entrance only has a few spiderwebs. All of you bustle out of the rain.
Before you can move much past the entrance out of the downpour, however, a strange smell assaults your senses...as well as the furious hissing of several disturbed snakes!
Initiative =
Ad Sa Ash Ph boy, Phillip sure is unlucky
"Well, that's better." Sasha said loudly, shaking the water out of her mail shirt. Her nose wrinkled. "Ugh! It smells like-" the woman's eyes widened as she heard the multiple hissing coming from behind her, deeper in the back of the cave.
Initiative:
Much. comes the reply from Phillip, before he too smells the smell, and hears the snakes, at which point he says: Hmm.... I could be mistaken.
Initiative:
Initative: