"I see. Wait here." Khatijah checks her armor on last time before hefting the sword and trying to hack her way in.
Thurrios will follow Khatijah.
"See anything?"
Khatijah swings her greatsword several times, attempting to hack through the thicket. Large bits and pieces of cacti are thrown up, but after a while it becomes clear that no substantial progress is being made. Even with a tool better suited for the job, you infer that it would take at least an hour to clear a way through.
"To hells with this!" Khatijah says as frustration takes over. She covers her face with her arms and barrels through to the other side.
"What's the plan my friends?"
Ceasing her attempts to cut down the brush, Khatijah opts to charge right into it instead. The cacti is dense, but there is just enough room for her to fit through - but not without a scratch. As she forces her way through the prickly plants, their sharp points stab into patches of exposed skin, drawing just a trickle of blood. It is an endeavor made no easier when she nearly trips and falls face first into the bed of needles.
Khat grits her teeth and pushes her way through.
Marossa turns towards Thurrios and tilts her head towards Khatijah, "We have to follow right? We can't leave her in there alone."
Trying to carefully pick her way through the cactus, Marossa yelps almost immediately as she brushes against one of the sharp needles, seeing blood well up at the cut on her arm. Pulling her hand up to sooth her arm, Marossa follows behind Khatijah slowly.
"Yep"
Thurrios and Marossa follow Khatijah into the thicket, attempting to take a slightly more cautious approach. In spite of his armor's bulk, Thurrios manages to avoid the worst of the countless needles, those that do touch him merely tugging on his clothing. Marossa is less fortunate, receiving minor cuts from her attempt to slip through.
Khatijah continues to take her less graceful approach, pushing through the cacti while ignoring the wounds she is receiving. She is pricked several times by the spiny plants, but her lack of caution allows her to move through more quickly than the others.
The fighter is thus the first to reach the clearing, emerging from the cacti with slight wounds. As she does so, a goat no larger than a small dog looks up at her and bleats weakly. Up close, you can see that the animal has had a rope tied around its neck, securing it to a small wooden post that has been crudely driven into the hard dirt. Remarkably, perhaps because of its small size, the goat is uninjured, though it is clearly unsettled by something.
The hairs on the back of Khatijah's neck stand on end as she notes the goat's discomfort. She ignores the rivulets of her own blood flowing down her arm as she looks about.
As it turns out, the clearing is quite literally the end of the line. The area past the cacti stretches on for just another ten feet before abruptly dropping off into what appears to be a small ravine.
Khatijah looks about with unease, searching for the source of the goat's discomfort. Nothing seems to catch her eye... that is, until a tiny creature, no taller than her knee, hops out from behind the rock. Rombard immediately bleats out in terror, tugging against the rope desperately.
Cackling with sadistic glee, before Khatijah can react the dog-faced gremlin aims at her with a minuscule bow and fires an arrow comparable in size to a toothpick at her. The small projectile zips through the air, biting into an unprotected portion of her arm. The attack stings, just barely drawing blood, but is far from lethal. Nonetheless, the pugwampi celebrates its successful attack with another bout of laughter.
Its ego inflated, the creature quickly nocks another arrow and fires it, but this time it strikes Khatijah's armor, quite literally bouncing off its surface.
Initiative: Pugwampi, Marossa, Khatijah, Thurrios
Khatijah takes her sword in both hands and brings it down in a mighty swing for the pugwampi's head.
"GHIK!"
Only to have her shoulder's go numb as the shock of hitting the rock instead shivers up her arms.
Thurrios will move on up 20' and casts True Strike.
He'll keep his eye on the wee biter, so he knows where to whack it next round!
Marossa moves up slowly through the cactus and begins humming a tune that carries surprisingly far despite her small frame.
Marossa advances through the cacti slowly, attempting to avoid the sharp needles. In spite of her best efforts however, an uncharacteristic clumsiness seems to grab a hold over her, causing her to stumble forward right into one of the prickly plants. The plant draws blood, but does nothing do deter her from starting her bardic performance.
Thurrios on the other hand leaves caution to the wind, simply pushing past the plants as Khatijah did before him. After emerging from the thicket, he casts his spell on himself, preparing to attack the noisy gremlin.
Khatijah swings her large blade at the pugwampi, but the otherwise well-aimed attack is thwarted when her grip on the sword nearly slips at the very last second.
The pugwampi hops up and down, continuing to cackle madly despite being outnumbered. It fires another arrow at Khatijah, but evidently jumping around does little to help its aim. The toothpick misses her completely, flying somewhere into the brush. The goat does not seem terribly amused.
"Yeah, they found it alright," you hear Dashki observe loudly from back outside the thicket.
"GET YOUR FAT ASS IN HERE CUR!" Khatijah yells at Dashki as she tightens her grip and swings again.
Alrighty then, I'll move on over and give it a thump!
Drawing his rapier as he moves, Khasra steps to the little gremlin and takes a swing.
"Well look what we have here, a puggie!" Khasra says with the first hint of humor since the others met him. With a small smirk on his face he stabs at the little creature.
"Huzzah"
"Welcome Khasra!"
Marossa follows behind the others, still struggling with the cactus field. The small dagger she holds in her hand particularly pathetic looking next to Khatijah, still she moves up next to her fellow slave and tries to help her strike the creature, giving it less avenues to escape her swings.
Initiative: Pugwampi, Marossa, Khatijah, Thurrios, Khasra
Marossa finally enters the clearing, having managed to slip to past the last of the cacti needles without hurting herself. Drawing her dagger, she moves to aid Khatijah by distracting the pugwampi. In the meantime, she continues to bolster her allies with her performance.
Khatijah does not seem to be having any luck with the creature. Her swing very nearly strikes it, but passes over its head by a hair's breadth. This only amuses the gremlin even more, earning another round of mocking laughter.
The creature is not left laughing for long, however. His weapon guided by magical insight, Thurrios steps forward and takes a swing. The mace strikes true, connecting solidly with the pugwampi's face. The sudden impact takes it off guard, shutting it up immediately.
Wanting in on the action, Khasra rushes through the brush with reckless abandon, ignoring the wounds he sustains in the process. He stops just short of entering the clearing.
Having been stunned for a moment by the sudden blow, the gravity of the situation finally seems to dawn on the pugwampi. On the verge of panic, it lets out a shriek of terror. Tripping over its feet, the gremlin scampers past the rock, attempting to weave past everybody and escape into the cacti thicket.
Here is my AOO
As the pugwampi attempts to flee, Khatijah, Thurrios, and Marossa scramble in an attempt to stop it. Their concerted attempt to kill the creatures backfires however, each of them stumbling or accidentally locking weapons with one of their comrades.
Laughter ringing out of its mouth once again, just as the pugwampi is about to escape into the cacti brush, Khasra abruptly runs it through with his rapier. Its eyes widen and its tiny body jerks in shock, before finally collapsing to the ground, blood pouring out of the massive stab wound. In that instant, the strange sensation seems to vanish, as though heavy fog had just been lifted.
The tiny goat, still tied to the post, bleats out in triumph, evidently none too pleased by the gremlin's demise.
Khasra wipes off his blade on the pug.
"That ends that." he says calmly as he wipes off the small spots of blood from the thorns.
"Unless you think there are more out there?" Khasra asks Dashki curiously.
"We were only tasked at bringing back one."
"Of course there are," Dashki answers. He enters the cacti bush, carefully passing the prickly plants with little effort. Evidently, it is not so hard without the pugwampi's influence. "But it's as the redhead says. This little bastard's almost certainly the one that was in the camp. We're done here."
The gnoll expert reaches down, scooping up the small creature's broken remains.
Marossa hesitatingly speaks up, "I... I guess we should head back to Mistress Almah yes?" Her head tilting slightly back towards camp.
"Seems so. She asked for a pugwampi, she shall have one!"
Khasra merely grunts for a response as they head back to Almah.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"So whadda we do about the goat?"
Well, to give it back to the herders, yes, take the goat!
With its tormentor dead, you have little difficulty freeing the small goat from its worn tether. It cooperates fully, acting more akin to a pet than livestock. As small as it is, it is easy enough to carry through the waist-high cactus bush. Without the strange, oppressive atmosphere from before, little effort is needed to avoid injury.
Sami takes a few moments to tend to the little goat's injuries, removing the cactus needles and dabbing its wounds with salve. Smiling warmly, she volunteers to carry it the rest of the way to camp. Dashki grunts indifferently, clearly not caring either way.
Without having to follow tracks slowly or methodically, it takes little time at all to reach camp again. Nonetheless, it is at the dead of the night that you finally reach the Sultan's Claw. On your way back to Almah's tent, you are quickly spotted by Hadrod, the male camel driver. "Rombard!" Seeing the tiny goat in Sami's arms, he runs over and scoops the animal up in his arms, thanking you hysterically. Hadrah simply looks on from a distance with a bemused expression.
Noticing your approach, one of the Pactmaster guards enters the tent for a moment, before exiting to signal that you may enter. When you enter you find Almah and Garavel just as before, both looking rather tired. Quickly masking her exhaustion, Almah asks for your report. As you explain what happened, Dashki unceremoniously dumps the dead pugwampi onto the ground before her, much to Garavel's displeasure. She studies the creature for a few moments with an expression of disgust, before gesturing for the gnoll expert to take it away.
"So much trouble caused by such a small creature," she muses humorlessly, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Eloais would have appreciated the irony. At any rate, this settles it - the Sultan's Claw is far too exposed to be an effective base camp. As I feared, we will have to move closer to Kelmarane." She looks to Garavel, and then to the rest of you, her expression resolute.
"This situation has not given you a good first impression of our operation, has it? Garavel was right to bring you along. If anything good has come of this night, it is that you have proven yourselves to be resourceful." Pausing, she looks to her majordomo, nodding her head. Garavel steps forward and hands each of you a small pouch, clearly filled with coins.
"Consider this your starting payment. Yes, even the two of you," she adds, looking to Khatijah and Marossa, "You may be slaves, but this is yours to keep and use as you please. Serve the Pactmasters well, and there will be more to come. That applies to all of you. And of course, any spoils you find are yours to keep. All that matters is that the gnolls are killed or driven out in the end."
"If you do not have any more questions, then I suggest that you all get some rest - it has been a long night for all of us. We will be moving our camp in the morning."
Thurrios will bide his time and hopefully wait for the others to leave before asking, "if I may ask, what is the going price for a slave these days? Specifically, to whom would one speak and purchase the contracts on those two?"
Khatijah takes the coins without comment, and leaves. Shortly after she has stripped off her armor and found a place to sleep, she's gone, the day more wearing than her tough demeanor would suggest.
Khasra nods as he is handed the coin-filled pouch.
"Guard duty, I'll assist first watch." he states as the Majordomo hands him the money. "Objections?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"If you insist," Garavel answers indifferently, not at all opposed to the idea.
"The price would depend on the slave," Almah replies, lifting one of her thinly trimmed brows ever so slightly. [b]"But it does not matter. Those two will earn their freedom in due time. That is why they are here, I understand."[/b
Marossa accepts the coin pouch without comment, having learned long ago to not protest a gift from her master, and holds it with both hands, curtsying low before her Mistress before stepping backwards out of the tent and only turning her back once she is outside. Knowing of no other place to go, Marossa walks over to the nearest wagon and crawls under the carriage, settling herself down as she rolls out her gifted bedroll and curls up, clutching the gold tightly as she goes to sleep.