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Kaspar makes his way through the bramble in an ungainly manner, while Raijan and Barl take the long way around. After healing their assorted flesh wounds the team presses forward.
After another hour, Kalkamedes suddenly veers to the east, straight towards a shallow bog made deeper by last night's rainfall. It is only two feet deep at the edge, but farther on it grows much more so, and the sleeping Pathfinder does not seem to plan on holding his breath. The bog is perhaps forty feet across and one hundred feet to either side of the trailblazer. His path, however, seems to take him straight down the middle. "Drag him around, perhaps, or jury-rig up a raft," a voice suddenly says. It seems to be emanating from the sword. "Or, better yet, can you get him to breathe water?" Just as quickly, however, it goes quiet, as if it believes itself to have spoken rashly.
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After they push through the brambles Seren will frustratingly pick through all the brambles and plants stuck to her clothing before doing much else. She'll be muttering half of a conversation and occasionally waving a hand through the air as if warding someone off.
Finally, satisfied that a wrong move won't stick a clinging bramble through her clothes and into her side, she'll begin to fiddle with the cure wands of the party, including her own. It won't take up much of the hour they're walking for her to get everybody healed up.
Seren purses her lips in frustration as Kalkamedes starts trying to walk into a bloody bog. When the sword speaks her attention diverts to Kaminari. "Those are good ideas, Kami. But I don't know if we have time to make a raft. It might be easiest to just have Korug take him around. Even if he can hold his breath... it's a bog! He might catch a cold or get leeches on himself or something trying to push through that sludge. Also it smells."
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Kaspar thanks Seren for the wand-handling.
Kaspar speaks absent-mindedly in response to Seren and the talking sword while he's focused on picking thorns and leaves off his robes. "Unfortunately, air bubble is not in my spellbook. Going around may be our best option..."
"Wait, who said that?"
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Tinkler listed to the conversation and his eyes popped open wide as the sword started talking to Kaminari.
"So you talk. Greetings sword. Do you have a name that you would rather go by?" he asked "This sleep walking behavior is most unusual as he did not wake up when he got hurt. What can you tell about Kalkamedes and maybe why this is occurring?"
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The group simply takes the long way around the bog, avoiding it entirely. Until the sleeping Kalkamedes realizes he is on the other side, closer to his destination, he struggles, punching and kicking at Korug.
It is also at that point that the sword decides to speak up again. "I see now you are trying your best to protect my friend. As such, I must apologize for my silence. I am Gamin the Misforged, and should you have any questions or require any of my services to aid in our quest, you need only ask."
Kalkamedes's path winds westward into a steep mountain pass that climbs several hundred feet. The surface levels out only to terminate fifty feet ahead with a precipitous drop into a thirty-foot wide canyon. Rooted securely in place by Korug, he pulls harder at the rope, trying his best to get down into the canyon, unfortunately in the most direct way, seventy feet straight down.
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While the dwarf and the tengu are coiling the ropes together, Kaspar sits down and loosens the spellbook from his belt. "My magic can get three people down safely without issue. Assuming you are still up here in fifteen or so minutes..." The old wizard begins studying the tome, and the scorpion familiar scurries out of its hiding place.
"...Feeble... *mutter* ...Magic..." Kaspar's quiet muttering seems to be an involuntary habit.
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Tinker looked at the sword. "Well, as this is the first time we have traveled together, we have no idea what you are capable of doing. Rather than asking for something you can not do, at the worse possible time, let's start off asking what can you do, Gamin the Misforged? he asked.
Seeing Kaspar studying his spellbook, Tinker waited until the group safely traversed the canyon. "When you have some time, would it be possible to peruse your tome? I regret that you would not be able to copy the ones that I have in my formula book but they would help me serve the Archive." he asked.
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"I'm not so good at this climbing stuff." Seren is kneeling at the edge of the cliff and peering down while the others prepare the rope, muttering to herself as much as the old man is, though she actually seems to be holding a conversation with the air. Eventually she looks back at the party. "If you knot that thing up, no one will probably fall... except. We're a bit concerned about Kalkamedes, he doesn't seem to want to climb, and the others are not sure how hard it will be for Korug to climb down while dangling the guy beneath him."
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"Tinker, is that your name? I am an enchanted weapon, although my flaws preclude me from being used to my true potential. As such, if you hold me in one hand and another weapon in the other, that weapon will receive my power. Additionally, so long as you hold me, I can guide you in both offense and defense."
"It may be best if Kalkamedes and the one tied to him - Korug, was it? - and one other, the worst at climbing, should benefit from the spell."
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Kaspar finishes his memorization, and turns to Tinker. "But of course, Boneshaker. I even have your namesake spell studied *cough* and mastered." He attaches the tome back to his belt.
"Feather fall is ready. Our escortee Kalkamedes, his carrier Korug, and I are the ones using it, correct?"
"Have no fear, Korug, this spell has — *cough cough cough* — never failed before. Of course, I have never used it with other people, but I have read the principle. On three. One, two, three!"
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Kaspar and Korug leap over the precipice, perhaps bravely, perhaps longing to be on solid ground again, taking Kalkamedes with them. The three plummet but their descent slowly devolves into a controlled slow fall. Upon landing, Kalkamedes shows no signs of surprise, instead straining forward against the rope, towards the other end of the canyon, thirty feet away. "It appears as if he is trying to climb up the other side," Gamin muses, whoever is in possession of him notes. "Fear not, he is a strong climber even in his sleep. Are the rest of you? For some of you must still get down, and all must get up the other side."
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Seren is able to fumble her way down the side of the wall with the rope easily, if not gracefully. And she makes certain that there's a slipknot it in before she goes down so they can recover it once everyone reaches the bottom.
The small woman shuffles over to where the others are considering the wall and puts her hands on her hips. "Wynn says she can almost climb that, she doesn't think I'm quite strong enough, but she says she's got the skill to do it. "
She blinks as if something surprised her and caught her attention. "Oh you're right, Wynn..." Slowly she will peer over her shoulder to Kaminari "Hey Kami, can I borrow the talky sword? I bet he can help us with this."
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It'll take Seren a minute or two to figure out how to attach Gamin amidst her hodgepodge of gear and then gather up the double length of rope the party has been using. She'll wind up abandoning her own bag in a process involving several awkward bends of the shoulder and muttered curses just to make sure she doesn't weigh herself down. "Someone bring that up for me, yeah?"
When she's ready she'll approach the base of the far wall and give Gamin a tap. "Hey, can you do your 'guide me in defense and offense' thing and maybe help me find a few good handholds?" She'll actually start to climb with a skip into a cartwheel and finally spring at the wall. Her eyes will roll back in her head as she goes and her skin will turn pallid. Her climb is as much a performance of acrobatic displays of daring, momentary poses in precarious positions, and sudden thrusts of force to spring up.
It's as much as dance as she can manage while clinging to a cliff face.
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"You will have to hold me for that to be effective, but it should not be a problem." Seren, with Gamin and the voices in her head to guide her, scales the other side of the cliff without much difficulty. The fact she must do so one-handed, however, tacks on some time. Upon reaching the top, she drops down a knotted rope for her teammates.
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Waiting for the others to climb down, Tinker joined them as he carefully climbed down himself. Once on the bottom, he waited in line for the climb back up the other side of the canyon. "Let's see, we went through a patch of brambles, Walked around a body of water and now marching through a canyon." Tinker said. "I do hope that we are past the obstacles and get to where we need to go for Kalkamedes.
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Tinker makes the climb down and back up without a hitch. Korug allows Kalkamedes to go before, the latter seeming perplexed by the massive weight attached to him. He seems to be getting along fine without the rope, but after a while he realizes it is there and proceeds with ease. Korug, too, makes it with no trouble, as does Kaspar, and eventually, Barl and Kaminari.
With Kalkamedes leading the way, the team moves forward. Great bands of stars sweep across the cloudless night sky, illuminating a series of game trails that chase through the mountain shrubs and berry bushes. It is along one of these trails that the sleeping Pathfinder finds yet another way to get himself into trouble: He has walked towards a black bear feeding on the local berries, accompanied by two cubs. Undaunted, Kalkamedes plows forward, but twenty-some feet away the larger bear roars in displeasure. He does not seem to notice, however, and strains to continue forward against Korug's weight.
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Tinker, from his extensive expertise in the natural world, knows this is no simple matter of the delicate ursine palate. Kalkamedes has committed the double threat of infringing on the bear's territory and 'threatening' its young. However, it is also loath to fight, and would forgive such a transgression if the offending party leaves as quickly as possible. Finding a safe way around Kalkamedes will follow, however, may prove problematic.
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Seren frowns thoughtfully at Kami's question, and stage whispers something out the side of her mouth that can't quite be heard before glancing over at the bird. "Wynn can only reeaally be good at a couple things a day, and that wasn't what I asked her to do. And I ain't got no druid ghosts." She shrugs with her unhelpful response and bumbles about with one of the swords at her hip. "Katsumoto has a habit of killing things, though."
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"We have three options. A, Since we are in its territory, we can go around it. B, Try to scare it away, or C, fight it. I would rather not fight it as then we will have to deal with the cubs. If someone was able to intimidate it, she might clear out but given how protective they are, you would have to do a very good job. Now if someone has illusion magic to make them look like a bear, a spell to make them the same size as a male bear, and some minor magic to make the person smell like a male bear, it might do the trick." Tinkler suggests.
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The group is about to hustle Kalkamedes away from the bear's territory, but it is too late - afraid the meddlesome humans will interfere with her food supply or her cubs, the mother thunders down the road and lashes out at Korug from behind! It barely manages to pierce his armor and gash his back, trying and failing to get him in its crushing embrace.
Before anyone can react, the bear continues its assault, striking twice more.
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The lithe girl manages to get one of her swords free as the bear charges and proceeds to tear a few large chunks out of Korug. She's caught off guard and pauses several seconds before realizing she should do something. "Hang on big guy!"
She starts flitting across the combat, falling into a twirling dance as her eyes roll back in her head. When she takes her latest pirouette around the barbarian she finds a clear path at the bear's hide for one of her thin blades to slide at while she continues to twirl.
Spirit Aura: All allies within 30ft gain a +2 bonus on all non-spell damage rolls.