Rahaan says "Sky spirits, our mothers fathers, see us. Kon Lesh? No." He doesn't understand the rest.
As the group moves, the rainbow letters in the sky change to "we have translator".
Kiki scouts ahead and soon calls out that she found someone. The group steps into a clearing and you see a single beam of sunlight, piercing the dense evergreen forest and focuses on what appears to be a person sleeping against a tree trunk across the small clearing perhaps 40' away. You soon realize it is actually not a person but a skeleton. The clearing itself is almost picturesque. All it seems to be missing is a unicorn a rainbow and some faeries dancing in a faerie ring.
It does strike you as odd to find a body out here though.
Quassine looks to the sky, "I wonder who found the camp first?"
Quassine thinks to himself, "There are two spirits, the meta physical spirit and Nethys for my spells unless there is a way to fully tap into my meta physical being to manifest and cast everything or if I am doing it now since I am not sure if Nethys is still around 1,000s of years later? Hmm, I wonder?"
Quassine looks at the skeleton, "Rahaan, do you know what the story is with that?" Quassine points to the skeleton.
He sees you point to the skeleton and say his name. He shrugs "Rahaan no see today."
You scan the clearing from the edge of it but don't notice anything that stands out as abnormal to you.
Xanya scans the clearing for magic. "This is crazy. Why would a humanoid skeleton lie here all on its own without any clothes or gear or anything. If some civilized race killed it, it should be buried, if beasts did it, it should be more ruined and have gear" She readies her lance from the edge of the clearing, ready to charge in at the first sign of danger.
If needed for detect magic:
Kiki speaks in a quiet voice "It looks like a man that went to die in peace"
Cryxial replies "It looks like there may be clothing or gear, it is hard to tell at this distance. It is quite covered in undergrowth."
Kiki you are used to the shadowy forest depths, but in your old homeland there would sometimes be small forest glades like this, peaceful clearings. This reminds you of one. The bright yellow spring flowers dot the meadow right up to the edges of the treeline. Even some smaller orange ones often called faerie paintbrushes provide an offset to the yellow ones. Butterflies and bees flit about in the sun. Birds are chirping in the trees. While the group has a darkness circle around them that dampens the sunlight in the part of the clearing you have entered, you can see the brightly lit area from within.
"Ahh, what the heck. It's a dead man and it isn't magical. How bad can it be? I am going to go to get a closer look." Xanya swiftly recasts darkness on herself before riding into the clearing to get a closer look, riding all the way over to the skeleton if possible. She isn't planning on desecrating the body or anything, but she is curious.
Seeing Xanya riding off, Cardau is curious about what's going on, so he follows her.
"If nothing's up with it, let's just keep going. They probably just died and people came and took their stuff... Either way it looks like it was a long time ago if they're just a skeleton now... I don't think we should mess with it."
Simon looks uncomfortable/slightly icked at the idea of messing with a dead person.
"Simon is right, we shouldn't disturbe the dead in a place like this, and it is quite possible that this place has a protector"
Kiki shouts a warning.
Kiki you aren't sure what kind of flowers they are that might bloom at this time of year, perhaps some sort of wild iris maybe?
Xanya, Cryxial and Cardau move to investigate the body. As they cross the clearing they sense several light 'pffffs' and suddenly a heavy cloud of pollen wafts over them. They dodge most of the effects.
Reactions:
While the others don't notice it, Quassine notices something weird. "Did you see that? It looked like those flowers spat out a puff of pollen at them?"
edit: forgot one part:
"Hunh? I didn't see anything. What kind of flowers are these anyways...?"
Know Nature
Simon takes a look at the flowers.
"It might be nothing, but maybe you guys should come back this way, just to be safe."
"What the!?!" Xanya shouts out as they are hit by the pollen. "Let's get out of here. Some old bones are not worth it." Cryxial starts heading out of the clearing again. Before he can starts moving again Xanya focuses her magic again and a sound like a roaring forest fire resounds through the clearing.
Xanya you know that plants are typically immune to mind affecting things, but you heard that they can still be fooled by some illusions, so you try your ghost sound to mimic the woosh of fire. You have no way to gauge their reaction, and your illusion generates no heat. You quickly get away from the clearing and rejoin your friends at the back.
After conferring with Simon, the both of your surmise the plants may be yellow musk creepers and you would be ok if you avoid their pollen.
"Yellow musk creepers! They eat people's brains and turn them into zombies! That must be evil, we vanquish evil. Wait...? Can plants be evil? Killing is evil right? But hunting to survive is not. Do they need to eat brains to survive?" Xanya starts of yelling, then gradually her volume lowers before she finishes off confused.
Xanya and Simon put their heads together and all they can recall is that yes they are plants, they shoot an entrancing spore cloud to draw you in and keep you docile and helpless while the plant burrows into your head. When it kills you, you become a plant based zombie.
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"I think you need to be able to make conscious decisions to be good or evil, unless you are a Demon, Angle or Undead or something, to be good or evil."
"the question is, is it necesarry to destroy them, so they don't spread or endanger those that plan to settle here, or if it is enough to mark this place with warnings, so no one enters it"
"I don't know of they're neccesarily evil, but they are dangerous. Should we clear them out, or let them be? Plants don't usually think, but it does kill people. Group vote?"
"If we could make a warning sign, I would vote against killing the plant but since we do not have the materials to make a sign and it poses a threat to all of us, I say we kill it upwind from the creature so we are safe from the pollen or spores. Does anyone know how to kill the plant safely besides being upwind from the plant? In addition, I do not like how the plant desecrates the humanoid by reanimating him or her. If it just ate the person without reanimation, then that would be the proper order of the universe."
"I don't think being upwind saves us much, unless someone can conjure up a much more powerful wind than this. The point about making this area safe for others is a good one. Keeping people safe is good right? As Quassine says we don't really have a way to mark the area." Xanya is the impatient type and just as fast as she charged out of the meadow earlier, she now charges back in. She moves a bit about so she can get a clear line to the targets over easy ground before Cryxial springs into motion. As she charges in she feels the rage one again filling her, but this te she focuses further, tries her best to extend her rage outside herself and into the corner of her mind that Cryxial occupies and somehow miracolusly she feels it working.
Out of nowhere Xanya goads Cryxial to speed and lowers her lance against a patch of yellow flowers. The lance digs in as it hits and dirt and roots plant matter flies into the air as she destroys one of the vines. The remaining two plants shoot their spores at her.
The spore clouds hit Xanya and her mount.
- success
- success
They breathe in the spores but through sheer force of will and ferocity are able to overcome the mind numbing effects.
Kiki draws three of her weapons, coils her tiny legs and jumps onto the musk creaper next to Xanya, that she can reach and that still looks alive.
On landing the spiderling jabs her wakazashi deap into the plant.
+
Quassine, throw me at that plant" Kiki points a a still living Yellow musk Creaper near Xanya
[ooc]can Kiki draw her weapons as part of being thrown/ did she draw her weapons when the musk creapers attacked?
Kiki leaps into combat skittering across the darkened glade, stabbing one of the plants with her tiny weapon. (not close enough to Xanya for flank or sneak attack}. Your tiny blade hacks off one of the plant's thick vines.
Cardau approaches within 30 ft. of a creeper. As he cocks his arm back a snowball appears in his hand. He chucks it towards the creeper.
"Or we could run in and start hacking stuff down, I guess... that works too..."
He looks down at his lion.
"Go ahead, Aster."
The flower lion pounces on the third remaining plant.
Hit Claw A
Hit Claw B
Hit Bite c
Dmg Claw A
Dmg Claw B
Dmg Bite C
Simon conjures up a ball of acid and tosses it at the same plant Aster mauls.
Acid Splash Ranged touch
Acid Damage on hit
Quassine hangs back to see if anyone needs healing, "Being upwind is still better than being downwind and it would have been better to attack from range instead of melee or close range." Then Quassine looks around to see if anything else is trying to sneak up while they are focusing on the plant creature. Not too keen on attacking the creature with a range attack that is hard to defend against with melee and he will save his magic for either healing or future attacks.
Yeah your mount would have attacked too at the end of its charge, pouncing on another plant, ripping at its tendrils and flowers heavily shredding it but not killing it. Kiki could have finished that plant off.
Cardau's snowball misses the third plant. Aster roars and charges in, pouncing and getting a few claws in while Simon's follow up acid would wound it even further.
The remaining plant casts its spores at Aster which is right there.
- fail
Aster stands there helplessly.
I don't think we need to RP the destruction of the third wounded plant unless you want to. Unless you all rolled 1's, the group has enough power to destroy it before it would bore its tendrils into Aster.
Everyone gets 360 XP. ( I am keeping a tally in the reference header for the campaign. )
As soon as combat is over Xanya turns against Quassine and rides towards him. Rage still coursing through her system and eyes blazing. "What in the nine hells was that? You refused to join in the fight, to protect your friends, though I am not sure you can even call us that anymore! How could you do such a thing? It was a good thing these were easy foes or someone might have died because of you. Does it look like I have any ranged weapons? Do any of us have? I am far more effective in melee than at range. If you aren't going to fight with us, why are you even here? You even voted for attacking them! You need to get your priorities straight. Can we count or you in battle or are you going to stay out of it or even run away at the first sign of an uncomfortable situation?" Xanya's anger doesn't dissipate through her tirade and she is gripping her lance tightly in both hands, though she doesn't make any moves to attack Quassine. Her torn and bloody clothes along with her sizable muscles complete the formidable image.
"Hey, hey. What's that about? It worked out just fine. There's nothing wrong with being a bit cautious, especially when something can immobilize you. Everything worked out fine. I think you need to calm down, a bit, hon. It's only been a day. We can't forget everything we learned and turn on each other so soon."
Simon steps in, obviously not wanting his friends to fight, especially over such a simple thing.
Aster pads back over, shaking his head to try to clear out the fuzziness from the pollen.
Simon pets him softly, still looking concerned about Xanya's sudden turn.
Quassine simply answers Xanya with, "Do you and anyone else require healing?" Quassine then looks to the others.
"No healing required, luckily we were able to take them out before they could start feeding on poor Aster's brain. Are you not paying attention to what is happening? And Simon, that's exactly what this is about. We shouldn't forget what we've been taught but strive to protect each other, not stay out of the fight because we are worried about getting hurt ourselves. If someone stays out of the fight it just means that the enemies will focus their attacks on those that remain, increasing the chance that someone comes to serious harm. Everything worked out this time, but how can we be sure he won't refuse to join fights in the future. Even hesitation could cost us dearly against a challenging foe. At least answer me this Quassine." Xanya continues her tirade strongly, but as she speaks the fury behind her words lessen. At the end of it she just sounds frustrated and she shakes her head.
Quassine looks back to Xanya and humbly replies, "If you were not in battle rage, you could answer your own questions regarding me. If I was such a coward or non-team player that you are hinting at, you know I could have easily rolled away from the goatling battle and ran away from the fight which was much more deadly than this one, and you know it! Everyone here knows I was in the middle of that fight like everyone else and was fighting valiantly. In addition, we were discussing about the best way of attacking the plant creature from range since it was not going anywhere and before we could come to a complete consensus on how to do it, you charged. I am thankful we have someone like you and Kiki in this group and everyone, including me, can thank you for primarily killing the plant menace. But currently, I am not a charger, I am a planner and planners don't charge if we don't have to. I was going to cast magic missile but you all were killing it quickly, the spell would have been an absolute waste for maybe something larger and more deadly in the future. And I was also watching our back to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us which may have used the plant as a devious distraction. If we all had attacked and were knocked out by the plant which is statistically impossible, but still very plausible, there wouldn't be no one remaining to save anyone especially Aster. When I was a human, I could charge into battle with my two-handed sword held high mowing down everyone who stood in my way but the Illithids stole that from me. Archmage Goodwin is confident that will return to me in due time and to take a step back to think before charging until that day comes when I am strong enough to charge into glorious battle again along side you all or any of our brothers and sisters." Quassine then punches his hand hard which normally would have caused damage but Quassine's internal focus and calluses deflect the kinetic energy. Quassine looks to Rahaan, "Rahaan, I am sorry that I had to mention our battle again." Then he looks to Simon with a caring look, "Simon, does Aster need healing."
The goatlings who had also stood by the perimeter of the glade, and did not get yelled at, wonder what the argument among the group is about. They look to each other questioningly. When Quassine addresses Rahaan, his seems to get some of the idea of it. He nods solemnly and looks at Xanya and shakes his head sadly. "Xanya, brave warrior, but bad spirit, bad head, bad heart."
Simon knelt down and had Aster's head in both hands before hugging him and scratching the top of his head and standing again, one hand still on his friend.
"No. He's alright. Thanks. If I remember right, those don't do anything unless they get a hold of you. Whoever bred those way back when was pretty sick. The poor plant doesn't know what it's doing. That's just how it gets on."
Simon doesn't bring up anything else about what happened, hoping they can move on now that it's over. He does look genuinely thankful at the offer of help.
Quassine looks at Rahaan with a humble look while using gestures, "It's ok Rahaan, Xanya is discovering her heart."
Quassine nods to Simon, "Good ... good ... It sounds like you know what species of flower it is? If you do, what kind is it and do you know a lot about it?"
After everyone is ok, Quassine checks the skeletal remains with a stick for anything useful and can shed light what happened to the skeleton. And are there any stones nearby that could cover the skeleton.
Quassine prods at the skeleton the remains of an old musk creeper vine lying brown and shriveled. The skull of the man topples to the ground, and it is riddled with holes. Quassine finds this ironic, as he of all people with his tentacles able to burrow into a victim's skull can appreciate the abilities of the musk creeper tendrils to do the same.
You clear away rotted plant matter and get to the torso, rotted clothes tear away and the chest cavity is filled with debris and a horde of beetles, bugs and worms spill from the body as Quassine's stick prods the man's rib and it collapses. He brushes away the debris and plants from the mans arms which had fallen to the ground, and from the legs, laying sprawled and half buried before him. Around what would be his wrists if he was reassembled are rusted shackles. Around both ankles would have also been shackles. The ankle shackles have been severed, the chain connecting them broken. Not so with the wrist shackles, the chain is still in tact, just very rusty. Quassine prods and digs more, finding the man's jawbone, missing quite a few teeth.
Digging in the dirt deeper, pulling away scraps of rotting pants, worm ridden and moldy, the body mostly collapses away now, the spine, somehow semi propped against the tree, tumbles over along with the rib cage, the bone encases pinata of a bone encasing its prize of bugs, dirt and rotted plant matter, spilling into a heap.
Deep within the heap, Quassine sees a glint of metal. Tarnished and brown, a smallish ring flips from the dirt and Quassine spots it. Either the man had it in his pocket, or more likely swallowed it, based on its location....
"Wow, the plant either did a number on this man and/or he has been here for a while. Oh, what is this?!" Quassine picks up the ring and studies it by using detect magic and using spellcraft. As he studies the ring, "We should bury him or place stones on him. If neither are here, we should just honor him with words. " He looks at Rahaan, "This will not take long Rahaan and good for his spirit."
The goatlings have stood back a bit while you investigated. They peer on from afar and seem to be perhaps a bit superstitious about the skeleton.
Rahaan replies "Good spirit?"
He also replies in goatling "(something something)..bury...(something)..fire...(something) spirit."
Quassine the ring is magical, and after examining it with detect magic for some time and applying your knowledge of spellcraft, you know that it is infused with a faint conjuration magic. You suspect that the ring is linked to some type of summoning spell, perhaps the monster summoning line or natures ally, or a variant there of. You are unfamiliar with the type, but could perhaps determine more with more study.
"It's a, uh... yellow... vine... creeper. Yellow... Musk! Yellow Musk Creeper. It breeds by killing people or animals and animating them with vines inside. And then it sends those off and they decompose and fertilize the new plant. Really smart system, but really awful too..."
He looks rather icked out when Quassine prods things. Simon is probably what some people would refer to as 'a pansy.'
"Poor guy... I hope he ended up somewhere nice..."
Simon looks for rocks, and or flowers that aren't creeper vines to make a decent grave with. He notices Quassine found something.
"What's that?"
As he studies the ring, "Yellow Musk Creeper? It's terrible! Is it natural or did an evil wizard create it? I am guessing that is what happened to the poor human man?" Quassine looks down at the ring and non-nonchalantly replies, "It's magical from the school of summoning. I'll study it further to see what it reveals." Quassine then helps Simon bury the man but quickly, "Come on Simon, let's not take too long and keep Rahaan waiting for long." Quassine looks to Rahaan, "Good for spirit."
Before the desecration: "I saw the way you fought earlier. You are not weak and could have helped us out in melee. You would have to be quite powerful at magic for magic missile to be more effective than this. If someone comes to attack us while we are busy fighting it's much better that you are with us rather than isolated and alone. That way we can protect each other's flanks and flank them instead. Though you did stay with Cardau and Simon, so maybe it wasn't that bad. Just help us out in combat without hesitating in the future and we'll be good. I already told you that they are Yellow Musk Creepers and plenty of what we know already. Simon's knowledge of why they do it is new to me, but I guess he didn't think it was relevant when we discussed things earlier.[/ooc]"
Xanya's eyes widen in surprise when Quassine starts desecrating the corpse. She thinks back to the time when she learned about the way internals of bodies worked from her elders. It was not so unlike this, but more flesh, blood and organs than dirt, grime and insects. Raising the dead was evil, that Goodwin had taught her, but just searching a dead body shouldn't be right? No one got hurt this way. She mutters a quick incantation to guide her search then scans for magic similar to Quassine to determine the effects of the ring. "[b]If it helps summoning, then Simon should probably wear it. He summoned a dog earlier and I am sure he'll summon more creatures as well"
Xanya turns towards the goatmen and tries to say something similar to "You do what you want with the body, we'll help you bury it or light it on fire. Then we can head to the camp. Or do you want to go to the camp first?"
Day 2 - Afternoon
Spellcraft with guidance to identify the ring, I didn't even know partial results were possible: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
The goatlings to assist Simon with collecting rocks. Simon and Quassine make a crude cairn and bury the bones. Probably the only thing preventing them from being carried off by coyotes or the like is the presence of the musk creeper plants. The irony of the situation sinks in to all of you.
The group takes about ten minutes to collect the rocks and bury the bones. Since there isn't much body left, it requires a lot less rocks and very little digging to cover the bones. In fact it takes more time to find suitable rocks than it does to cover the body with them. With the goatlings help it goes quickly.