Alem chuckles at Zoisa's exuberance, an even greater display than normal for her. "If we send you off ahead, you might never come back to us! But perhaps you and I should collect some sample for further study?"
"I'll go along," says Arian. "I can probably stay quiet and low to some degree."
"Pfft! Don't worry, Al! I'd come back. Who else would entertain Kaspar when he gets bored?"
She frisks the monkey a bit to prove her point before turning to Arian.
"Alright, Ari! Let's get going!"
She crouches down and commences skulking.
Arian hunkers down and moves through the bushes as quietly as she can.
Zoisa and Arian, stay low and together as they begin to work their way across the pesh fields.
You can feel something in the ground, definitely, a new sensation, something large is making its way up, and its coming fast!
Arian pauses, taps Zoisa on the shoulder, then quickly brings her pole arm up. "Do you feel that?" she whispers.
"Feel what?" Zoisa asks, having gotten distracted by a yellow-and-black swallowtail butterfly flitting around the flowers of a particular cactus.
In the middle of the Pesh fields, suddenly, a large wormlike creatures bursts forth! Sand is sprayed everywhere and Arian and Zoisa are able to maintain their footing thanks to the slight warning given by Arian.
Initiative Order: Arian, Dust Digger, Seyhannah, Faffnyr, Zoisa, Alem
Arian, you're up!
Arian leaps into action as she spins her glaive-guisarme and brings it across in a hacking motion at the worm!
Watching the others creep quietly toward the pesh fields Seyhannah decides to join them on their mission. As she closes on the group, she is caught quite off guard when a creature bursts through the ground.
Drawing her bow she let's an arrow loose at the world.
Alem, quite content to let the others to do their skulking, investigates a nearby pesh cactus. Absorbed as he is searching to see if he can determine where the cactus flowers from, he notices nothing amiss even as Kaspar tugs on his sleeve. "Not now, Kaspar. Zoisa will return soon enough."
The massive worm bursts forth from the earth (which all of you definitely see) and is immediately wounded by Arian's expert weapon wielding. In retaliation, it attempts to slam her with its many tentacles.
But its attack goes wide razing a row of pesh instead of Arian's head.
Arian draws back her pole arm and slashes again at the worm!
Faffnyr quickly casts bless.
Alem startles violently as the ground shift suddenly and the dust digger emerges. "By the gods!" Fearing for his companions, he runs off to join the fight at once, Kaspar scampering along at his heels and chattering angrily at his master. Getting as close to the creature as he dares, he raises his staff and incants a spell, gesturing with his free hand. His ray of frost strikes the creature but appears to have no effect.
Zoisa jumps with a small "Eep!" as the creature emerges, before witnessing Arian's magnificent glaive skills.
"Nice work, Arian!" she says, before casting a spell and conjuring a disk of force before her, with glowing Kelish and Gnome script circling the center.
Arian's deft attacks strike another blow against the beast, inflicting another wound. With a roar, it dives beneath the surface of the sand as quickly as it arrived.
The creature disappears beneath the sands. The pesh fields seem quiet. For now.
For that size, that sandworm wasn't particularly old, and sandworm children tend to be minded by their much larger parents...
As the creature dives into the sand, Arian makes a diagonal upward slice, pitting the creature's own momentum against the blade of her pole arm.
Alem sighs in relief as the creature sinks back beneath the sand. "It would seem that our approach may be noticed despite our efforts, friends. Pray we should make haste. I fear that the sand worm was just a young, and I would sooner not be here when his mother comes to call on us."
Zoisa frowns a bit as the sandworm vanishes.
"Awww, that's no fun!" she exclaims. She turns back to the others and listens to Alem's words and her eyes light up.
"Wait, it was just a baby?! And its Mom is even bigger?! I WANNA SEE!"
It screeches but continues into the sands. With grievous wounds like that, it probably won't resurface for a long, long time.
"You'll see it from the inside if it shows up," says Arian dryly to Zoisa. "C'mon, I don't want to get eaten today." She gestures with her pole arm for the group to move ahead.
"It is not wise to tempt fate. And also, we have other areas to explore!"
"Pfft! Fate's easy to tempt! And that's when things get interesting! Still, I see your point. Onward!" Zoisa says grandiosely as she turns towards the town.
"Time for some sneakage!
"Why is this a question? Onward to our destination. " Seyhannah says in a harsh low tone. "Fighting worms in a Pesh field is hardly going to help us approach unnoticed. "
Map is updated. So far you haven't run into any sentries or such. You found that the town's natural defenses funnel you to the right.
Please advance your own tile and I'll update the map.
Zoisa advances towards the first broken-up building she sees, peeking around the side to see if there's any people...or pugwampis...in the town.
Alem stays back behind his skulking compatriots, making careful notes in his journal as they approach.
Kelmerane's defenses appear to have been constructed with great care. They yet stand many years after the denizens of the city have abandoned its walls. We are forced to traverse the outer limits counter-clockwise toward the west from our southern approach. Whoever now holds the city, they are not as organized as the former occupants. There is no sign of any guard patrolling the outer limits, though the the landscape is littered with the bones of abandoned buildings and may provide ample shelter for potential invaders.
As he writes, Kaspar quickly grows bored of his master's studious note-taking and grabs at the quill playfully from his perch atop Alem's turban. "Kaspar! Stop this at once! Run along to Zoisa if you are going to make a pest of yourself," Alem grumbles as he wrangles his pen back from his familiar. Suddenly, he realizes his own accidental genius. Plucking the monkey from atop his head, he holds him out in front of him, delighted. "Yes! Kaspar, you mischievous monkey! You will be the perfect spy! Whatever lies ahead will think nothing of a mere monkey poking his head over the walls. Go on, help Zoisa and the others now and leave me in peace." Obligingly, Kaspar scampers off to Zoisa where his natural penchant for going places he oughtn't can be of more use.
So far the coast is clear.
Faffnyr will stay a bit in the back, to best offer support by calling in the blessing of her goddess.
Arian continues to push forward sneakily, with an eye out for further danger. She walks without rhythm.
Hanna will generally stay toward the front but not point, bow drawn. Using what cover she can and crouching. Watching for dangers, hopefully spotting them before they us.
Zoisa creeps into the ruined building, using it as cover while she peeks out through another wall.
Zoisa finds the building abandoned, long stripped of any valuables. Seyhannah is close behind. The rest of the group seems to lag behind, wanting to make sure the coast is clear.
Those keeping a perceptive eye out don't see anything out of the ordinary.
Not finding anything interesting, Zoisa slips out of the building and crosses the street, ducking into the next building and looking about.
Zoisa climbs over a broken down wall of what might be someone's old home. She slips, falls over the edge and lands roughly, but nothing comes running out at her. A few seconds of hesitant waiting, and it seems all is well.
Seyhannah peeks over the ledge and asks in whispered tones "Are you alright? I saw you slip and assumed the worse. "
Seeing Zoisa fall Faffnyr slowly moves forward, concern in her eyes. Putting a hand on Seyhanna she makes a questing gesture. It is clear that she feels bad at sneaking and is afraid her clumsiness would endanger her comrades.
Arian follows a short moment later.
The group slowly moves up. Fire claimed much of these buildings ages ago, leaving behind only partially collapsed shells. There's an old ruined sign bearing the legend "-AVE MARKET" hangs above the gaping entrance on the north side.
You can hear a hissing sound coming from one of the buildings, a dangerous and venomous giant mammba has taken up residence in one of the buildings nearby.
Not noticing anything usual, but then she reads the sign.
"Hmm, cave market, no makes no sense, ah now I understand."
Understanding that this was once a slave market, the already subdued ex-slave starts to feel even more awkward.
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Seyhannah peeks over the ledge and asks in whispered tones "Are you alright? I saw you slip and assumed the worse. "
Zoisa pops up and dusts herself off.
"I'm okay. It takes more that a little fall to stop Zoisa the Magnificent!" she says beaming.
She jumps slightly as she hears the hissing.
"Watch it, Faffnyr!" she warns the priestess quietly.
"There's a snake nearby! A big one, by the sound of it. I'll see if I can talk to it, maybe it'll let us pass through its territory."
She sets about looking for the serpent and getting its attention without appearing like a threat.
Kelmerane bears clear marks of a fire sometime after it was abandoned. Its cause is lost to the sands of time, but the charred timbers of buildings that yet stand bear witness to the loss.
"Cave market?" Alem looks up from his notes at Faffnyr. He was no expert on half-orc body language, but she seemed tense. "Fear not, the snake will cause us no trouble," he says, misattributing the source of Faffnyr's unease.
Zoisa, you see no patrol coming. In fact, you find that there is no trace of regular movement that is in the area you're in. You're somewhat confident you could rest or retreat to this area and not be bothered. However, if they're looking for you, then they may check this area out eventually.
The snake hisses at anyone who get's to close.
Zoisa hisses back at the snake.
"Easy, big guy. I'm not gonna hurt you. Are you hungry?"
"Warning..." is the reply you hear back.
If you try to move near it, its hissing gets increasingly more agitated.