Dot
here
Eyes everyone suspiciously....
Here... where ever here is...
Walks among them all looking them over to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Wonder's what happened to last night's rounds and where he is
The five of you wake up, heads reeling as you shake off the cobwebs inhabiting your stream of consciousness. After a minute or so, you make out where you are, on a field of grassland as far as the eye can see in all directions. Next to each of you is a sack, inside the sacks are your personal posessions that you use most or couldn't live without . Inside each sack is a note:
Greetings unfortunate souls, and welcome to my fun little experiment. Survival of the fittest, I wish to see if people really are the fiercest in the world. Your mission, survive my island. On my, well second home as it were, are all sorts of hazards and obstacles to challenge you. Feet not, there is a way off my island...well two actually. First, and what I suspect will more than likely happen is you die. Or the second; less likely option, you find your way out. I will even give you a hint. There are two ways out, finding a blue teleport circle or finding my lair and confronting me. Good luck puny mortals, you shall need it.
It is signed Brizzik
--------------------
It is a shade after daybreak, about 7am. You have the whole day to gather yourselves, and start your search to get the hell off this madman's island.
"I say we go north, look for the coast follow it east until we find trees. Then we make a raft and leave this place."
Muttered quietly while reading the note and looking in his bag. Great, just great.
He looks up as the the early silence is broken. North is good a direction as any from what I can see. I think our priorities should be moving downward slope if we find such an option. Though, finding something to climb to look around better wouldn't hurt.
Other than that we might want to prioritize food and water. I've got about a day's worth of both. How's everyone else?
He then takes time to look around at the other unfortunate souls destined to die for the amusement of a wizard, and settles his armor and gear. His sling and a few slightly porous sling bullets go in a uniform pocket, the rest goes back in the bag after a brief inspection. The major items appear to be a lantern and a few smokesticks.
I think I've the heaviest armor, so I guess that means I go first. The name's Even Fell, wish I could say it was nice to meet you all.
With that he picks up his halberd, and starts to slowly walk around the drop point looking for any useful items that weren't in anyone's bag, or other information/clues visible on the horizon (Tree's, mountains, etc).
Vladimir wakes to see the mugs of those he was looking over seemingly yesterday. A little confused at the situation but thinks to himself as he looks into his bag.
At least they didn't take anything.
He immediately starts to pull the material out and put it on as fast as possible. Although he is without armor his cloak and odd military dress hat complete him. He is up and ready quickly with sickles at his sides and a backpack carrying his things.
"Might as well make the best of it people. Hope you all have food."
Vladimir peers out across the lands in all directions to get a feel for his surroundings.
" Looks like north is as good as any other direction; our numbers is our strength."
Xipe looked around getting a lay of the land and double-checked all of her gear. Her head pounded. How had they taken her?
Stringing her bow and checking her stock of arrows, she checked the sky, assessing weather, and then scrutinizing each of her new-found companions. They all seemed rather pragmatic about the situation. She rubbed an arrow thoughtfully and kissed it, and then marked it with her fingernail. This one is for you Blizzik.
She considered to herself how it was important to determine how large the island was, and what was available for food, water, shelter, and what dangers were present.
She sniffed the wind hoping for a smell of campfire, animal dung, sea salt, or the scent of tree pollen. She gauged the sun's location in the sky, and looked for any landmark to assist.
She checked the ground briefly in a small circle around the group, treading slowly, cautiously, and looking for tracks. Unless brought here magically, there must be tracks from their captors.
Growling softly under her breath, she fell in with the others saying nothing.
The group gathers their wits and most importantly, belongings and readies for the seemingly impossible task of escaping the madman's delightful island. Even and Xipe do their best to get any sort of indicators from the land. All they see is plains, as far as the eye can eye. While the group travels North, Xipe can see the sun go from earky day to reaching high overhead and beat down on the group.
Vladimir, can see off in the distance, about 45 feet, a tuft of grass. He sees a snake slither out of the grass, it's movemwnt almost undetectable, but not for Vlad.
Init tracker: round 1
Vlad
Yurian
Me
Thoros
Even
Xipe
Xipe hunkers lower into the grass and knocks an arrow, using stealth at half move to creep up 15' and fire an arrow point blank at the snake from 30' away.
Other rolls:
to identify the snake ( max DC 10 for untrained rolls )
Vladimir points at the snake to alert all the others.
He watches Xipe move forward, crouch down and loose an arrow.
As she begins to move he then draws his weapons while moving slowly 15' toward the snake himself in the grass.
He then holds to attack the snake with both of his sickles if it approaches him.
Thoros will advance longspear ready.
"we should try to preserve it, snake meat is usually edible and we will likely need all the food we can find."
Thoros will advance longspear ready. 1d20+1; 1d8+1
"we should try to preserve it, snake meat is usually edible and we will likely need all the food we can find."
Confirm
The snake, slithers forward and comes to a stop as Xipe takes aim and lets an arrow fly. The arrow gracefully pierces the air, then embeds itself in the head of the viper. It ceases to move, and is quite dead.
As the snake stops from the well placed shot. Vlad runs over to the snake to confirm the kill.
"Nice shot! What's your name again?"
Pulling and knocking another arrow immediately, she moved to the kill.
Xipe recovered her arrow, it appeared to have broken when it pinned the snake to the ground, and buried itself in the earth, the tip blunting on a rock below the surface. She collected it anyhow, inspecting it. Possibly with the right tools it could be remade
Turning to Vlad, her eyes narrow briefly, then relax, "Xipe." she responds, her single word thickly accented. She glanced over him, his sickles probably meant he was a farmer of some sort. But two sickles? Perhaps not. She did not know what to make of his odd mix of clothing. She was unfamiliar with the dress of other peoples.
"Who are you?"
Vlad makes an attempt at being a gentlemen with an odd bow.
"Xipe, I am Brdo. Vladimir Brdo.
Seems we have breakfast, ya."
Vlad puts away his weapons and looks about for more company.
"Ah maybe we look for more, where there is one there is probably more. No."
"Eat it raw now, no wood for campfire. Takes too long to smoke. Will smell by nightfall."
Xipe uproots some of the grass, to determine how long the roots are, long deep roots could mean infrequent rainfall or common prairies fires. She checks the dampness of the soil.
"Snakes here means other animals for prey. Watch for rodent burrows. We will have lunch and dinner."
Xipe continues to watch the sky for birds, visiting a potential waterhole or carrion birds circling a kill.
A smallish boy, perhaps just starting adolescence, steps out from where he was standing pretty much unnoticed until now.
"Um, what is going on here? I don't even remember going to sleep, and then I wake up here... And this bag, and the note? I don't get it! I mean, everything I own is in this bag, everything I ever managed to... acquire. But, like half of this stuff was hidden; I couldn't walk around with this kind of stuff or I'd get rolled, or picked up by the watch, and then I'd lose it all! I had it safely stashed in case I ever needed it, or needed to sell it! Who is this wizard guy, and what the hell does he want with us?"
- for Anything Out There.
Even turns to the lad that had been following quietly, almost unseen.
"Well lad? The part of the story I know is there's a powerful wizard with too much time and money on his hands. And he's bored. And not too squeamish about causing others deaths either. Add that all together, and he kidnaps random people, drops them here, and watches how long they live.
As to how he found your secreted caches? Most likely Magic of one kind or another, not that I know much about that. As for your fear about the Watch, well, I'm more than willing to make you a deal. We get out of here, and I'll come to your aid if you ever get in trouble with any member of the Law.
Now that you get a closer look at his uniform, you realize Even probably IS a member of a constabulary group, though almost guaranteed to not be one you have had any dealings with.
The group continues north after the brief stone with the small snake. Xipe, notices a small mound of dirt 30' from their current trajectory. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a burrowing den, what caused it is unclear.
"Look! Dirt!"
Inspecting it, feeling puzzled.
"Ha dirt. Xipe is a funny one. Let's see what lives there, maybe more food."
Vladimir pulls out his sickles and moves toward the mound keeping an eye out for any change in his surroundings.
Initiative
Init tracker: round 1
Xipe: go
Vlad: go
Thoros: go
Me:
Even:
Yurian: go
Thoros advances longspear ready.
If an attack roll is needed
Xipe holds action to fire at first denizen to appear.
The blonde boy fumbles with his sack, pulling out a light crossbow, which looks almost comically large in his underdeveloped hands. He starts loading it, pulling the string back like someone who theoretically knows how the thing is supposed to work, but may or may not have every actually done it with the real thing.
Vlad continues forward and prepares an attack on anything that approaches him other than his group.
"Come out come out Vlad is waiting."
Init tracker: round 1-2
Xipe: go (rd2)
Vlad: go (rd 2) (1 point damage?)
Thoros: go (rd 2)
Me: done
Even: go (rd 1)
Yurian: go (rd1)
Xipe, Vlad and Thoros all ready attacks as two fox appear from their burrows. They both nimbly dodge the incoming attacks and attempt to bite at the intruders.
AOO
Even marches onward throughout the day looking for signs of food or landmarks. When someone points out the potential threat, he hesitates a moment.
He then Waits for either The party to attack, or the creature to attack.
--
If Even is engaged first (as based on his previous statement, he's likely in front, unless someone objects to his lack of stealth) he will attack defensively (Partial Defensive action AC 18,
If the party is advancing to engage (nonstealthily), he will move forward in a defensive posture, holding his Halberd at the ready, trying to keep himself in front of everyone but not get in Xipe's line of fire. (Roll/stats above)
If the party is advancing to engage (Stealthily), he will try and intercept the first advance with a charge if/when it engages the party, but otherwise hang back. (Charge Attack, Dice above, +6 to hit for charge and not defensive)
--
Going to toss in a Round 2 set of actions as well.
If by the time my turn is up again, I'll charge whichever is uninjured if there's room, move/attack if there is not. Dice roll will assume charge range, so please -2 as needed.
(AC 14)
Yurian quickly takes aim at one of the foxes, aiming at the one furthest from his new travelling companions...
As the shot leaves his bow (and likely misses), he starts loading it again.
Thoros, even with his reach is unable to get a good angle on the wily fox, it ducks under the spear and tries to bite Xipe, but misses badly.
AOO on fox
Round 2 continue the fight after the foxes tooth nips him.
"Bugger you will fall, breakfast is near."
Vladimir, with quick reflexes swipes his sickle across the fox's chest, dropping it as it opens its tiny jaws to bite his foot. Just as he drops the foe, Even takes his halbred, sticks it between Xipe's legs and kills the other fox. After a few seconds, all goes quiet, no more disturbances come from the hole.
Xipe recovers her arrow from the mound of dirt near the foxhole. She listens down into the hole for sounds of kits.
Xipe puts her ear to the hole, trying to hear the sounds of babies, but all is quiet. As she pulls her ear off the mound she catches a very brief glint coming from the den. She sticks her hand in, and pulls out a fine crafted dagger. It has a leather enforced hilt with a dragon etched into it.
Swapping the dagger for her current one, slipping it into the sheath, She grunts in approval.
We shouldn't have to worry about bad food/ water, my minor magics can remove any dangers from them.
Yurian dashes forward and hunts down his own lost quarrel. He finds it, and seeing it undamaged, he cleans the dirt off it and returns it to his quiver.
"Just as I thought, mmm... more good food. Anyone want I got the snake meat?"
Vlad sheathes his blades. He leaves the kills for the others and begins looking around for the next path forward when he sees Xipe pulling goods from the whole.
"Nice find Xipe! Where to next?"
"Strange to find this precious dagger in a hole. The wizard, perhaps he toys with us." She examines the dagger for any clues, surely a maker's mark would appear on such a fine weapon. Although what good it would do is unclear.
She tosses her braided hair back and looked about. "We should keep heading until we see forest or shelter, or we will be sleeping in grass nests tonight with no fire or protection."
She still didn't know what to make of these other people yet. They seemed randomly selected from other lands. She did not trust them, but they seemed strangely friendly. Perhaps they were part of the trap too. She would be wary. Perhaps after nightfall she would sneak away.
The group keeps traveling north, and unfortunately all that is seen is grassland. A random tree, dots the land here or there, but no groupings to represent a forest might loom in the future. The sun goes from beating up the "rats in a maze" to dipping on the horizon. The sun begins to set.
"We may wish to camp at the foot of on of those tree's if there's one close enough. We might be able to cut a wide enough layer of turf aside so we can safely make a fire. A 3-5' ring should be wide enough, depending on the wind. And, come morning, someone can climb the tree and look for more landmarks, I'm willing if no one else is. As for watches, I'm willing to take one, I'm used to night watches. Anyone want to wake me in a couple hours?