Teke's telekenetic arc misses the small viper in the grass, fortunately Alarin sees it and turn it into a splatter with a volley of missiles.
Naruda is unable to shake off the giant snake. Ito tries his lance again at it - this time missing the mark. As the the giant viper rears back to take the rest of Ito's arm, Eazy interposes himself with rapier and magic, slaying the monster!
[1 Favor pt for Rudyahm]
Porters lay about, wounded. Underneath the elephant, who is struggling to get up on it's feet, are the two nobles, "H..e..l..p" Both are completely pinned. After a combined group effort of bracing and pulling, they are eventually extricated and appear to have broken a few bones in various places.
[PC up!]
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Naruda uses her Samsaran powers (deathwatch 1/day[/i] to triage the wounded people among the group, seeing which people are beyond helping and which ones need the most immediate assistance. She finds the person closest to the edge of death and uses her power to stabilize them.
Once she has an idea of how needs help, she begins directing the uninjured porters to move the less injured out of the way and to gather supplies.
Teke destroys the rest of the nest and any remaining signs of snakes. Naruda sees that the surviving porters suffered superficial wounds. The two nobles are the worst off; Matsanda with a broken leg and several ribs, Rudyahm with shattered collar bone and concussion.
The two men are conscious, though obviously not very mobile.
***
"Much thanks to you - I feel as if I had not been injured at all!" Matsanda exclaims. ”Yes, same here!” Rudyahm joins the sentiment.
***
The next morning comes against the excitement of the previous day. Camp is broken and once again you are back on the hunt. A few hours into jungle, Rudayahm signals a pause when he sees a small stream crossing the trail ahead. He calls down to you,"This is it! -Where we were ambushed by that tiger! Its den must be in the area. Come! We'll hunt it down!"
Perception:
”It is probably best I not get the way of campion hunters”, Matsanda backs down nervously, ”I'll take the crew back down to the lodge and wait for you there to return with your prize.”
”Go on - take your leave”, the baron replies loudly, then more quietly, ”Amatuer.”
After following the stream for an hour, the jungle opens up into a wide grassy clearing bisected by a shallow, burbling stream. In the center of the clearing lies the partially eaten carcass of a large gaur. Its throat has been torn open, and the grass all around the dead bison is covered in dried, sticky blood. Baron Rudyahm proclaims, "The kill is fresh, it will likely return to finish its meal later tonight. We'll set up here." he points to the trees and instructs you on how to set up machans — a type of portable hunter’s blind in the high trees around the clearing.
[Survival checks to construct the machans, DC 13. PCs up! ]
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Naruda carefully looks for a good spot for her blind and begins building her machan. Unfortunately, she happens to pick a spot in the windiest part of the clearing, and struggles with her stand constantly squeaking against the branches of the tree she is in and her placement of the leafy branches she picked out for camouflage actually seem to make the machan more obvious.
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Alarin has worn a constant scowl since the nest of snakes. Though he knows the group needs to impress these noble fools, he is starting to wonder if they are worth the effort.
Upon finding the fresh kill and hearing Rudyahm’s instructions to prepare an ambush, he looks around and makes a half-hearted attempt...
.. abandons the idea and moves to stand over the bloody carcass with his sword drawn.
”If anyone sees it coming, give me a sign.”
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Eazy looks with evident disdain at the conglomeration of sticks and fabric.
It doesn't take him long to create a tangled mess that somehow includes his own cloak.
Bah! Give me a good ice-cold Royal Fizzbin in a tall glass, and a friendly waitress to drink it with me, over this blasted machan.
He tosses it aside and settles down in the brush to wait.
Come at me, tiger. We'll see who's the better warrior.
Oddly, the shortlings in your group easily set up the machans; the rest of you just made a mess. Rudyahm seems frustrated with seeing this and demands that no one spoil the trap by being on the ground, then orders the porters to help make proper machans. It takes longer than desired, though eventually everyone is in a tree.
[ooc][/ooc]
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Eazy pretends to help the porters disassemble his giant mess and configure it into a useful machan, but mostly he stays out of the their way.
He chooses what he thinks is the best tree, and climbs up nimbly.
"Stay on the ground". "Come at me, tiger". What was I thinking? They must think me a fool. Well, we shall see.
As you climb into the machens, Rudyahm says, "Now listen. When the tiger get into the clearly, I'll take the shot. The rest of you stay in the trees - fall out and you'll get mauled to death. We'll spend the night night in these trees if we have to."
You recall the words of Captain Valsin - "Fulfill our end of this bargain by helping the baron bag his tiger, and try to make nice with at least one of these nobles."
[pending Alarin, Naruda, Ito]
As dusk falls on the jungle glade, the moon is already high in the sky. Rudyahm had climbed into the same tree as Eazy, he added, "No talking or lights until we spot him."
Perception:
You sit patiently in the machans watching the area. It had been one hour since Matsanda took the old elephant and the rest of the porters back down the trail to the lodge. Alarin's acute hearing suddenly catches distant cracking sounds, though they were brief, it was definitely several muskets...
Rudyahm seemed to have heard it too but appear less concerned about Matsanda, more about his hunt, "It was too brief, it'd last much longer if they were fighting for their lives. And they have a flare shot in emergencies, I don't see anything in the sky. They're probably just shooting some trail game for dinner. Now keep quiet! You'll scare off our prey."
Perception:
A few hour of listening to the jungle night passes. At first a distant sound, eventually everyone hears Matsanda calling out in a panic. "Baron! Baron!! Help! I'm badly wounded, my legs! We were attacked! Where are you!? Help!"
You can see that Matsanda is thrashing through the bushes to the south east. Rudyahm quickly scales down the ladder and rushes over to help the count.
Initiative:
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Naruda begins to carefully climb down the ladder, clearly not comfortable with climbing. The little white stoat that is normally resting on her shoulder jumps off and makes the climb on its own; its tiny claws perfect for scuttering up and down tree trunks.
"Snowflake, don't go chasing after that tiger!" she shouts as it scampers towards the sound of cries.
Rudyahm and Eazy comes to a skidding halt at the treeline to search for Matsanda. Instead of the squirrelly baron, they see the stripped haunches of a huge tiger. The bestial form clears the bushes and rears up, towering over the two men - this freakish beast has the head of a badger, the hooves of a stag, wide mouth with sharp ridges of bone instead of teeth, it's body entirely stripped like a tiger!
Rudyahm exclaims, "YOU!!!", raises his musket and misfires! The beast cackles back, mimicking the Matsanda's voice in a grotesque manner, "YOU!!!" snapping out with jaws that nearly removes Rudyahm's left arm.
[PCs up! Round 2]
Initiative:
Leucrotta
Rudyahm
Teke: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Alarin: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17
Naruda: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Ito: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (9) + 0 = 9
Ezekias: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
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As the mysterious beast emerges from the jungle, Naruda frantically tries to recall everything she's read about Leucrottas. If things go bad for us, will I be able to scramble back up the ladder or will it just climb up the tree after us?
Naruda reflexively fires her crossbow at the monster and then begins wading across the stream. None of my magic will work on it unless I can get closer.
[Leucrotta:Scent,Darkvision,Mimick Sound]
[1d6, but since the prd is all screwed up i can't even look at the rules, I'm gonna say save ref for half, dc 15.]
Your group converges on the leucrotta! Teke manages to jolt the creature with an electrical blast, at the same time, Naruda's bolt flies true and strikes its side. [damage?] Alarin dashes across field towards Rudyahm. Ito hurries out of the machan but takes a little tumble, leaving Goliath in the tree. Eazy throws up a blast of color but the magical beast shrugs it off.
The leucrotta continues its attack on the baron, jaws finding his shoulder and collar, blood gushing like an exploding melon. [crit] It flings Rudayahm down to the ground in a red mess. [trip] In return, the old fighter yanks out a kukri and swipes a cut onto the same leg he had wounded many years ago; it appears that he is also about to bleed unconscious. "If I go down - I'm taking you with me!"
[PCs up!, Round 3]
[Ito can run 4X = 60', I moved your icon, putting you at 10' from leucrotta]