Vardlon will again send his blade through the air, aiming for the hurt crocodile.
Bikmalu wild shapes into a parrot and flies away, circling back to safety and landing on Milhar's shoulder.
Vardlon misses his attack at the crocodiles. Bikmalu flutters away in bird shape. Seeing no targets in the water, the crocodiles retreat back into the pool, sinking out of sight into the murky depths.
Milhar shakes head at the poor start to their venture, especially when the crocodiles remain a threat.
William lets out a curse. Did anyone see where Bouzz went down? I may not be the best swimmer but I hate leaving anything to those crocs especially a friend.
William sheaths his sword and reaches into his bag for a rope.
Bikmalu circles back to land next to everyone on shore and transforms himself back into a man, "I fear I did not see the location William. Skirros, I am sorry, but it looks like he may be gone." Bikmalu surveys the water just to be certain.
"The crocodiles are a terrible foe in the water. If we are to get past them, we will have to bring them back up. Tomorrow, I might be able to use magic to help us past them. But today, I might be able to summon a creature to give them new prey. Do enough of you have ranged weapons that you could use to concentrate an attack against one of them?"
The waters still churn from the recent departure of the crocodiles, but at the moment they have receded back under the water. Bouzz has went down with the crocodiles as they seem to have had enough for now.
The murky waters have gotten even murkier with a large amount of spilled blood from Bouzz, the crocodiles, and the ranger.
The rope is retrieved and Bikmalu considers bringing another creature to scout the waters.
Bikmalu muses, "Perhaps a rat...a really big one."
"I can't let Bouzz just die!" Skirros screams as she pulls a wand from a loop at her belt, dropping her bow. She speaks a short word of power, and the wand bursts forth with light. She then waves the wand about, speaking a command word and dives into the crocodile-infested waters, trying her best to aim where she last saw her snake.
Sandrion struggles to hit feet, still bleeding from his struggle with the crocodiles, and draws his bow. "Skirros, go ahead and find your friend! I will cover you!"
Bikmalu looks on with horror as Skirros dives into the water, "This will not end well. The jungle is full of snakes. Can she not find another one..." Without waiting for a real answer, Bikmalu begins casting a spell to summon the rat.
$#!% William tosses one end o the rope to Talon before diving into the water after Skiros drawing a dagger as he goes holding the other end of the rope in his other hand.
Talon secures the rope when tossed to him. He then readies his bow for a shot on any croc that may come to the surface.
Milhar trains his bow on the water's surface.
Skirros dives down toward the bottom looking for Bouzz. At the bottom of the pool, the snake is in bad shape surrounded by three crocodiles.
Skirros
Enemy
The crocodiles seem alert to the entrance of Skirros into the water.
William and a summoned creature plan to join the fray. They seemed to be snacking on Bouzz when you arrived.
Skirros looks down at her snake and sees that he is already being devoured by the crocodiles. She would love to help her companion, but realizes that here in the water she will soon be torn apart by this powerful creatures.
Realizing she can do nothing, she attempts to surface with all haste and make her way onto dry land.
William and Bikmalu's creature join the party. William is unable to get the jump on the crocodiles. As he dives with his rope into the murky water. He sees the crocodiles rise to meet him and a dimensional portal from in the water with a new creature (courtesy Bikmalu)
ORDER Round 1 continued
Skirros (back to surface)
Bikmalu's summons
Crocodiles
William
Milhar pulls Skirros with sorrow across his face then he grabs for William's rope to help.
Bikmalu concentrates on the body of water and wills the rat to appear. Suddenly a splashing dire rat appears and begins thrashing around.
William dives into the water and looks around. He tries to orient himself when the three crocodiles that reacted to Skirros' dive come up to meet him.
William gets attacked by the trio of crocodiles and bitten. He slips out of a crocodile mouth after one bite, but he is definitely grabbed by the other when bitten and held fast.
The territorial crocodiles seem to resent the intrusion into their domain, and start to stir up the pool. William is holding his rope firmly and about five feet deep with three angry crocodiles 'underneath' at about six to ten feet.
ORDER OF ACTION
Crocodiles
PARTY
Now that Skirros is free, Milhar tugs on the rope three times. Then readies to pull hard when he gets a response. William may need help.
William pulls on the rope the struggles the turn the tides on the croc that has him.
Talon drops his bow and grabs the rope and begins pulling William back up.
Bikmalu directs the rat to keep thrashing around in the water hoping that it might make a more inviting target than the armored fighter.
RECAP
Skirros returns to surface after seeing crocodiles biting Bouzz. Threatened, the crocodiles rise as Will dives and the crocodiles are a bit faster in the water and attack him. Milhar and Talon pull on the rope to bring up the warrior and the 1200 pound crocodile. They cannot pull as effectively as they hoped, but they do get his head above water.
The crocodile and Will come closer to the surface. Seeing the rat, another crocodile lunges for the rat and grabs him in his mouth.
The third crocodile comes up to go for a bite on Will to help his companion in the tug of war.
One crocodile is on the surface and two are at about five feet. The one with Will in his mouth continues to bite him.
PARTY TO GO
William gives up on beating the crocodile at a grapple and instead stabs at the crocodile
Sandrion sees the crocodiles break the surface and does not hesitate. He moves closer to the pond's edge and fires at the croc grappling William.
;
Let's try once more with Hand of the Apprentice:
Bikmalu calls out an incantation and after a moment, a flame appears in his hand. With a quick throwing motion, he casts it toward the crocodile grappling Will.
Talon is still engaged with manning the rope unable to reach his bow at the moment. he continues to struggle to keep Will from going under once more.
Milhar waits for when the crocodiles are about to get a firmer grip on William and then pulls. He summons some inner energy to help the exertion, just like he has seen other elven monks do.
Milhar pulls the armored fighter up and out of the pool after Will slices the crocodile something fierce. The crocodile quickly lets him go and retreats to the bottom. Sandrion's shot barely turns away from the tough hide as he expertly fires into the scrum. His training not stopping him from taking touch, close shots.
One crocodile grabs part of the rat, and the other two crocodiles retreat to the bottom of the murky pond fighting over the tender morsel. The crocodiles seem uncomfortable fighting on the surface of the water. Some of them bear significant wounds from tangling with two-legs and seem more respectful of them. You do not see them even coming close to the surface.
Will huffs as he expels some water and his armor is somewhat dented, but not significantly, by the pressure of immense crocodile jaws. These 1400 pound reptiles seem to have a nasty bite.
Sandrion lowers his bow and sighs heavily, a sense of relief flooding him. Thank the Gods no one else was killed! Well except for... His gaze travels over to the savage half-elven female as she cradles her faithful snake companion to her bosum.
He slowly walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "I...I don't know how to say this...but I wanted to thank you, and also Bouzz. If he had not been here, then there is no way I would have survived."
I think Bouzz is beyond our help. We all may be beyond help soon. If we move quickly we my be able to get past the crocs while the are entertained with the rat but it will be a risk. If they don't let us past it seems that fighting when on their turn may be the only option.
The group recovers the drifting canoe, and starts off down the passage in three canoes. The ranger and fighter are nursing some nasty bites from the crocodiles.
The crocodiles do not seem to want to disturb the group any more. The trip is uneventful and the canoes run aground in a narrow passage at the far end.
The natural caverns ends here in a small beach. Extending from the beach is a passage of worked stone. Footprints of many creatures mar the smooth sand, but their age has Sandrion shaking his head in confusion unable to identify them.
The party sees that the narrow five foot wide passage ends in a door.
As the group continues down the passage, Sandrion takes the moment to heal himself from his wounds.
William ties some cloth around his wounds then moves to the mouth of the passage as everyone disembarks from the canoes. He glances over his shoulder to Talon.
This is pretty tight and a good place for a trap. You want to take the lead? Feel free to drop back behind me if you see anything that moves.
Milhar waves a hand over the door and passageway by way of agreement with William. "Let us see if there is a magical surprise ahead."
Bikmalu climbs out of the canoe, "Let's hope we don't have to leave in a hurry. I wouldn't want to face them again." He stands watchfully as everyone looks over the door.
Talon moves up to the door, and is quiet as a ghost. He listens at the door and returns to report.
Vardlon also is watching, but not as well as Bikmalu.