"Maybe we could look into that? I've got skills, I could make and sell enough to cover paying for a stable stall. There's got to be some stables near the wharf somewhere, right? And if we invest in a cart, we can not only carry more salvage, but I can store my ammunition and gunpowder on it so I don't have to carry everything on my person."
Juno looks around them. She remembers the squawking of the galagos, and wants to know why they can't hear them now.
Impaired – the character is fatigued, and takes a -5 penalty to all speeds (after armor and other modifiers). After failing two saves, the character advances to Exhausted.
Exhausted – the character is exhausted. After failing two saves, the character advances to Heat Exhaustion.
As the party hikes through the moonlit grove, Juno peers into the shadows, hoping to catch sight of one of the galagos. At the ford, she does see a flicker of movement. Something on the bank a few meters away shifts slightly, and she can make out a long, scaled body in the reflected light.
Juno holds up a hand, and gives a quiet shush. "There's something ahead." She raises her musket, and readies a shot.
Juno can tell that it's a reptile, but nothing else.
The 7-foot long scaled thing jerks forward as she speaks, and slithers into the water.
Juno is going to fire off a shot, taking careful aim.
(+1 if within 30ft, or remove first range increment, whichever applicable)
(that fatigue is really hurting her dex, but if she has PBS that's a +2 instead)
The shadows and undergrowth in the grove make it hard to see, but the creature is close enough for it not to make a difference. A scatter of musket shot hits the reptile in its flank as it slips into the stream. Seconds later, it surfaces on the near side of the stream and charges towards Juno.
Whimsy whines and bares its teeth at the approaching monster, which reveals itself in the moonlight to be some sort of oversized lizard. The dog hides behind Sunt.
Juno reloads the musket (a move action because of the Fast Musket deed and Rapid Reload) and fires again.
The second shot connects solidly and almost checks it, but the injured lizard has too much momentum. It barrels into Juno, snapping its jaws around her hamstring.
Suddenly, the tree above rustles mightily - and a second lizard drops down on top of Adi, trying to latch on to her left arm.
Charging fall: When you intentionally try to land in someone’s square, they get either an attack of opportunity or a Reflex save (but not both). They may only take the attack of opportunity if they have reach greater than 5 ft., and then you still land on them and treat them as a soft surface. If they choose the Reflex save, they roll against DC 15 + your size modifier; if they fail, you still treat them as a soft surface when determining damage; if they succeed, you must determine falling damage based on the surface below them. Whether or not they succeed at either AOO or Reflex save, you still get a +2 bonus to your charge attack roll(s), as normal.
"Seriously, was this really necessary?"
Nesica waves her hands and launches the small motes of force towards the already injured lizard.
The second lizard lands solidly on Adi's head and arm - knocking her out with its momentum, while itself remaining unharmed.
Nesica's spell blasts the first lizard almost to shreds. It's immediately unconscious.
Sunt swings her greataxe at Adi's assailant, cutting into its side.
Whimsy begins barking viciously when Adi is injured.
She reloads, and fires at the lizard.
"You say that as if we weren't going to be fighting these anyway," Juno says to Nesica.
"We could've snuck ----," Sunt says with a shrug as Juno's gun goes off. The shot goes off-center, but several pieces of shot still hit the lizard, and it suddenly disengages, fleeing into the stream.
Sunt drops her axe and kneels down to look at Adi's wound. "Who is this new kid anyways? They don't seem cut out for our line of work." She closes the rent in Adi's skin with a pincer-like grip and presses down on it.
Nesica tries to determine if the creature is simply circling or if it is attempting to flee.
Unable to really read its motives, she prepares for a spring attack from the water, readying an action to cast another magic missile if it appears within view.
Whimsy growls at the stream.
It's still more adorable than anything fierce.
"Everything out here has tried to kill us one way or another. What's wrong with the element of surprise for once?"
Juno reloads, trying to get a good look at it.
She manages to pinpoint it, and fires another of her increasingly scarce shot because she wants to keep as much distance between her and it as she can.
Juno takes a moment to look for bubbles on the water surface, then fires a load of shot into the stream, but it slows down too much to do any damage.
The lizard disappears - Juno can't be sure if it's gone upstream or downstream, but it's definitely out of sight.
Nesica continues her readied action, while also saying 'I guess we've chased it off...'
Sunt nods, putting away her greataxe. "We continuing then? You want me carrying the Avistani?"
Juno lets out a long sigh, and suggests "Now that it's not filled with poisonous lizards, this place seems like a decent place to make camp for the night. I'll be honest though, I think you two are going to have to handle the watch," nodding at Nesica and Sunt, "I'm not in the best shape and Adi's going to need some time to recuperate."
The party sets up a camp in the full moonlight, with Nesica and then Sunt taking watch shifts. Sunt tries to harvest the lizard's flesh, but notices it had a disease that can pass to humanoids and dumps the body downstream instead. The grove is cool, water condensing on leaves and clothing, and the gentle temperature allows the party to begin recovering from the long, harrowing day.
After the moon has set but before the sun has risen, Juno and Nesica wake to the sound of thunder. No rain comes, though, and they are able to fall quickly back asleep.
Sunt seems no worse the wear for her sleep-shorted night, and wakens the party at dawn on the 7th of Lamashan. "Adi's attracted company," she says, pointing up towards a vortex of buzzards black against the rosy sky.
She shrugs. "They're carrion birds, they won't attack until we've been dead at least a day. Still, time to be moving on. Hopefully Eleder's not too far."
If you failed 1 or 2 saves, you are Fatigued.
If you failed 3 or 4 saves, you are Impaired.
If you failed all 5 saves, you are Exhausted.
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Nesica summons a breeze regularly throughout the day to keep cool.
She only gets a little flustered, but is still huffing later in the day regardless. The breeze certainly puts in work, as does the occasional happy miniature rain cloud that drifts nearby, completely unexplained.
It definitely isn't Nesica summoning them. Nope.
Juno explains that they're about three and a quarter days from Eleder, about 50 miles from it. She also urges, once again, that they really need to think about investing in a cart so they don't have to walk everywhere.
Surprisingly, unlike yesterday, Juno seems to cope a lot better with the heat than she usually does, working up a sweat but keeping up a steady pace.
Adi is slung across Sunt.
Whimsy and Sunt seem pretty drained by the heat and the loads they're carrying, but they stay conscious - the same can't be said for Adi.
The party hikes for about five hours, making frequent stops to readjust loads and wipe sweat out of their eyes. As the morning wears on, the spent thunderheads vanish into the east, and the sun shines brightly.
Sunt doesn't manage to find any water sources by midmorning. "Did anyone bring a waterskin? I haven't drunk since we got moving, and it's about to get really, really, hot."
[ooc]The DC is the same - 16. If you've failed a total of 0 saves today, you're Unimpaired.
If you've failed a total of 1-2 saves today, you're Fatigued.
If you've failed a total of 3-4 saves today, you're Impaired.
If you've failed a total of 5-6 saves today, you're Exhausted.
If you've failed a total of 7-8 saves today, you're in Heat Exhaustion.
If you've failed a total of 9-10 saves today, you're in Heatstroke.
If you've failed a total of 11-12 saves today, you're Comatose.
Consult the house rules if you're unsure what each stage means.
If you rolled a 24 or less, Sunt finds a massive beté tree off road, its white flowers in full bloom and its wide, fuzzy green leaves providing ample shade. The temperature in the shade is cool enough that the party only has to make 4 saves for this period (open the spoiler above after rolling).
Note that Sunt's Survival check grants a +4 on your Fortitude saves, instead of +2, if you stay stationary.
If you roll a 10, you find enough food and water for one Medium-sized person, or two Small-sized people. For every 2 points by which you exceed 10, you find food or water for an additional Medium-sized person.
Juno tells everyone to stay stationary while she looks for shelter and sustenance.
Even Juno's affected by the heat now.
Adi is not doing well at all.
With Juno's help, Sunt finds a shady tree that the party can hide in the shade of.
Juno finds enough food and water for four people, bringing in full waterskins and a bulging backpack of edible roots, berries, and wild herbs.
The shade of the bete tree is noticeably cooler than the surrounding terrain, and Nesica, Sunt, and Adi seem almost better than before their four-hour rest. The heat finally decreases when rainclouds again drift in from Desperation Bay, screening the party from the sun and sending down lightning strikes several kilometers away, and it's at this time that the party gets back on the road. They aren't rained on, but at one vantage point they can see rain falling on the higher hills off to the east.
During the hike, Juno detects a tinkling noise and discovers a shallow well camouflaged by rocks and gravel laid over a wooden lid.
Poor Adi just does not seem to be having any luck.
Juno, on the other hand, seems to be doing extremely well in the heat. She's still fatigued, but getting no worse.
She decides a well is a decent enough place to refill their canteens, but is suspicious of the tinkling noise. It seems a little too convenient.
She readies her musket as she approaches the well, in case there's more lizards, or snakes, or anticores waiting to leap out at her as she checks it.
The tinkling noise seems to be coming from the splashing of water. Juno doesn't notice any reptilian creatures.
The party makes it to the evening without any new victims falling to the heat and humidity. Sunt seems to lag a bit, tired from a full day of carrying Adi.
As the sun is getting ready to set, the party sees a stone ruin at the top of a ridge they're climbing, silhouetted against the yellowing clouds. They can camp on the ridge where they are, claim the ruin as a campsite, or choose to continue hiking into the night. The soil on the trail is damp and cool, as if it'd rained here earlier in the day.
"Sunt and I can try to gather some food for tonight. Depending on what those ruins are like, we might want to use them for camp tonight. Defensible walls, good elevation. But if there's anything there, Adi's not looking good, and I've got limited ammo to deal with it."
The party climbs up to the ruins. They seem abandoned long since - only a few walls remain standing, and piles of rubble are strewn everywhere. The ruins cover an area of about 50 square meters, and look out on both Desperation Bay and the faint violet outlines of the Bandu Hills. As the party sets up camp in a corner where two walls meet, they see the setting sun drop below the horizon. A speck on the water catches the last orange rays - a sailing ship, somewhere out in Desperation Bay.
Juno thinks the ruins are curious, but not especially noteworthy.
Juno tends to Adi's injuries as best she can, making sure the makeshift bandages aren't too loose or tight.
She suggests taking the middle watch. She does, after all, have better vision in low light.
The party randomly assigns Nesica to first watch, Juno to second watch, and Sunt to third watch. It's possible to see clearly for quite a distance from a wall-remnant promontory on the northern edge of the ruins, thanks to the full moon's light and the infrequent clouds.
The party's night is undisturbed, and they rise with the sun feeling relatively refreshed. The morning light catches pieces of crystalline rock embedded in one of the walls that made their shelter, and a pattern can be made out.
Juno examines the pattern in the wall.
The crystals aren't especially valuable, but points out the humanoid pattern. "I think we just slept in a giant ruin."
She looks up, at the clouds, tests the humidity, and consults with various other portents that her father taught her as a girl.
She determines that it's going to be extremely warm day, especially between 11 and 3, and that they really need to find a way of cooling down if they can.
While she's assessing the weather, she's also placing herself geographically.
"We've still got 41 miles to go, but we'll only be able to make about 9 if we keep ourselves fed. Since the heat's going to be hard enough, I'd prefer if we didn't also have hunger to contend with.
While Juno is doing this, Adi is examining the Hellknight armour. Now that she's conscious, she's assessing whether it's been damaged by the fire Nesica and Juno apparently set, because if it is she has a spell for that.