Douena will take the middle with Mahjik.
Makoa slips his shield on to his back and takes the lead.
"Lorenz, perhaps you should stick close, eh? Then you could get to the prey quicker!" He jokes as he tries to lift everyone's spirits.
"That was my plan exactly, Makoa." Lorenz smiles. "Aakif should be up here too, since he does such a good job of destroying everything that we run into."
Douena looks behind her at the empty path. "How did the middle turn into the end?" she asks Mahjik.
"Maybe they feel we need some alone time?" Mahjik grins, "Or maybe they worried that it's contagious."
"Ah, but if I solve all your problems, when will you ever learn to solve them yourself?" Aakif grins at Lorenz. "I will take the rear guard, along with Soulwind. Besides, someone has to make sure our Little One isn't snatched by boogeymen coming up behind us!"
After about a quarter mile of going more-or-less south, the trail turns southwest for another half mile, at which point it turns south again. Only a short distance farther, the trail opens into a small clearing. From here, the trail splits going to the east and the west. To the south, there is a small patch of more jungle, but rising above that, you can see another one of the cliffs that dominate this island.
As Makoa is about to step into the clearing, there is a snapping sound under his feet and a swoosh as a snare whips around his legs.
The snare wraps around his and pulls his feet out from under him. In the blink of an eye, Makoa is pulled upside down up into the trees above. He can see several sharpened spikes to which he is hurtling.
He slams against one of the spikes, which pierces his side. He is then left hanging there. Several birds take to the air in surprise at Makoa's sudden arrival, but then the jungle returns to normal.
"The irony of this is not lost on me." He calls down to them as he slowly rotates high above the ground.
"Eep!" Douena shrieks in surprise and dismay. "Nobody move!"
"Eep!" Douena shrieks in surprise and dismay. "Nobody move!"
Makoa's head is now about 10 feet off the ground. The snare is made from vines.
Lorenz doesn't need Douena's instructions to freeze in place. He carefully inspects the ground around him.
"Hang on there, Makoa. We'll get you down as soon as we can figure out how to do it safely."
"Take your time. Kinda at the end of my rope when it comes to things to do up here." Due to his current predicament, it looks like he's frowning..
Lorenz doesn't need Douena's instructions to freeze in place. He carefully inspects the ground around him.
1d20 + 0"Hang on there, Makoa. We'll get you down as soon as we can figure out how to do it safely."
Lorenz finds no indication of anything else odd about the ground. It looks like there was only the one snare.
Douena stands very still for several moments, waiting to see if pygmies are about to boil out of the jungle around them. If everything stays quiet, she relaxes a bit and examines the dangling half-orc. "Aakif," she says at length, "if you get on Soulwind and lift me up, I can probably get up there to cut through the vine. Makoa might fall on you, though."
"Aaannd the crazy plans start. I'm surprised no has said anything about the axes I carry! Perhaps Wise Man still has enough sense to remember, or maybe Aakif and Urza will.." He thinks as he sways.
"Aaannd the crazy plans start. I'm surprised no has said anything about the axes I carry! Perhaps Wise Man still has enough sense to remember, or maybe Aakif and Urza will.." He thinks as he sways.
"Well, why don't you just chew through the vine, then, you big bitey guy?" Douena replies a little tartly.
"Well, why don't you just chew through the vine, then, you big bitey guy?" Douena replies a little tartly.
"Because I'm half-expecting you to fly in on a dimorphodon to save the day."
*sway*
"I'll cut him down, but maybe we should gather something to cushion his fall? Just some branches and a pile of leaves should do, really. Actually, never mind, I'm sure he'd rather just get down from there and don't mind the bruises."
So saying, Aakif leads Soulwind up to just one side of the trap and swings himself onto her back. He stands up in the stirrups, waits for a moment for Makoa to start swaying away from Soulwind, then cuts through the vines with his falchion.
"Because I'm half-expecting you to fly in on a dimorphodon to save the day."
*sway*
"Oh, that would be fun," Douena reflects seriously. "How long do you think you could stay up there? Sasha's egg might hatch pretty soon. We could come back here once a day and throw food at your mouth until then."
Aakif cuts through the vines holding Makoa, and he falls to the ground.
Try as he might, Makoa cannot break his fall.
"That's going to bruise." He grumbles as he stands. "Not a bad trap though. Probably meant to catch smaller prey and kill them on those spikes."
"This island is full of surprises. At least we won't get bored while we're here." Urza looks over at his friend to make sure he's ok. He doesn't say anything knowing that Makoa is a hardy fellow.
Mahjik has a look a the trap itself, to see if it is some remnant of long-gone castaways - or maybe freshly laid this morning. Perhaps there are some other people around to befriend.
While Makoa recovers from the experience, Lorenz keeps careful watch of the jungle around him. He didn't want to be surprised by whoever set the trap in the first place.
"We should be careful. Anyone who sets a trap in the middle of a path is hunting a very particular sort of prey." He eases his rapier in his scabbard and straps his shield onto his arm.
Seeing Mahjik examining the snare, Douena asks, "Mahjik, do you think this is a trail animals use to get down to the beach, or was it cut by people? Because if it's a people-trail, it must be kept up or it would grow back together, wouldn't it?" She looks at the dividing trail. "Should we go that way, toward Ishirou's treasure," she asks, pointing east, "or that way back toward the bay?"
"Good question, let me double check."
"Should we go that way, toward Ishirou's treasure," she asks, pointing east, "or that way back toward the bay?"
Mahjik is not able to determine anything about the vine trap by himself. However, I'm sure there are others willing to help out...
The vine trap cannot be particularly old. It requires a certain tension to operate effectively. Over time, the vines would either stretch or the branches holding them would snap. To keep the trap up for any length of time, it would need frequent maintenance. Lorenz and Aakif are also able to determine that there has been frequent passage by humanoid figures along the east-west trail in both directions, the most recent being within the last 24 hours (in both directions again).
"I'm inclined to see what we can learn about whoever set this trap. If we have neighbors, we might like to know whether they're friendly or not. Given the trap, I doubt it."
Lorenz looks a little worried but it's plain that he's curious too.
"I wonder if they ever lived at that abandoned camp -- or if they cut the trail so they could come boiling out of the jungle and ... well, leave those bloodstains," Douena says darkly.
"Great. A mystery." Urza says with a sigh."So which way do we go? East or west?
"I think east is better - we can make effort to finish the entire eastern knob of island before moving on to the west. That way we won't leave a surprise in our backs."
"That sounds fine," Douena answers Mahjik. Blissfully ignorant of the geography of the island -- she lost track of which way they were facing shortly after entering the jungle -- she only knows that east leads to treasure.
Aakif grins toothily at Mahjik. "Wise Man is still wise when he's sick! I agree; we should make sure we have no enemies at our backs before exploring the land in front of us. And I have to admit, I'm certainly interested in seeing what Ishirou's treasure is, myself."
You head east along the trail, taking care to watch out for any further snare traps. The trail travels relatively straight for about half a mile through the jungle before turning towards the south. Only a short distance past there, the jungle pulls away, revealing a wide open field of grass and flowers to the south and east. To the west rises a tall cliff, presumably the same one you saw from the snare clearing a short while ago. Across the field to the northeast, maybe another half mile or so, you can see another cliff rising up. The trail continues south, more or less following the western cliff.
After about another mile of travel, during which the jungle slowly closes in to the east again, the cliff turns to the west. However, the trail turns east into the jungle.
You haven't gone far along this way when it happens again! There's a snap and a swoosh as a vine whips out again at Makoa.
Once more, Makoa finds his feet pulled from under him. He hurtles up into the trees, but luckily there are no spikes this time.
"I'm beginning to think Erastil's getting back at me for all those hunters I scared away from my forest when I was younger.." He mutters.
"Okay everyone, back up while I hack this vine."
While everyone is moving away, Makoa draws his dagger and begins slashing at the vine.
Douena looks up from the handful of quickly-wilting flowers she picked from the clearing. "Maybe I should have asked Desna to heal Makoa after the last trap he stepped in," she opines. "I didn't think he'd step in another one."
"I think he's just jealous that you're small enough to ride a lizard-chicken and is doing his best to find a way to fly himself." Aakif stage-whispers to Douena.
Makoa slashes through the vine holding him and falls. Unfortunately, he's unable to break his fall perfectly.
Makoa returns from the woozy, dark place he fell into when he hit the ground to see Douena smiling down at him. He does not immediately notice the daisy chain she crowned his head with while he was incapacitated.
"Well, from here on it cannot be far to the treasure - nor can it be that far til we find more faces."
Lorenz shakes his head sadly at Makoa as the half-orc sprawls out on the ground. "Maybe we should try something different to keep you from getting yourself killed by these traps. Travel on the edge of the trails? Or push a pole in front of you?"
He turns back to the others. "Whoever set these traps is going to know there's someone else on the island as soon as they come along to check them. I wonder if we shouldn't consider setting up a trap of our own?"
"Wise man would prepare well - the problem is we do not know really what to prepare for. We suspect them to be hostile, but this is not a certainty. On the plus side - Ishirou has been most diligent with setting up traps around our camp; so far it looks like it has been working well." Mahjik is lost in thought for a bit; as if slightly strained, then continues, "We don't know if the dead monkey was a message of sorts by the very people that set these traps."
"Anyone who sets a trap in the middle of a path is hunting more than a beast," Lorenz points out to Mahjik. "But I was thinking more along the line of keeping watch on one of the sprung traps somehow, so that we can find out who it is who has set them."
Makoa sits up and grunts.
"Lorenz, you can lead now. I'd hate to deny everyone else of the chance to see the jungle in a new way. Thanks Desna for me Douena."
He stands and brushes himself off, rubbing the side he fell on. He doesn't seem to notice the flower-crown.
Lorenz sighs. "I guess I should then. Unless you want to lead, Aakif? Perhaps your horse is far too heavy to be caught up by these traps?"
Lorenz looks to a nearby tree and cuts a branch from it, trimming the leaves and sprigs from it so that he can have a rough staff, from five to six feet in length.
You set out again, this time with Lorenz in the lead and Makoa taking the second position. The trail goes east for only a short distance before turning south again, then east again, then south. It winds about a fair amount, but maintains a generally southerly direction. After about another mile it comes out of the jungle along a rocky beach. Based on your map of the Shiv, you should be along the northern shore of the long south bay.
Straight ahead of you is a small house. It's not much more than a shack, really, although it is larger than the small huts at the abandoned camp to the north. It appears to be not quite completed, as a section of outer wall is missing at the back. There is no sign of any occupants.
To the east, you can see the beach curves to the south and another cliff gradually rises up. Looking out over the trees to the east, you see their tops gradually rise with the cliff, but some distance away (about a mile to a mile and a half, you estimate), you see a large hill sticking out above the trees, its top clear of trees. You estimate that hill should be roughly in the position of the treasure indicated on Ishirou's treasure map.
To the south, across the water, you can see the jungle rising up again along the slopes a small mountain.
It's currently about 11:30 a.m. It's starting to get very hot out, but you have another half hour or so before the hottest part of the day begins.
"Well, that's odd," Douena says. "The trail goes from one shelter to another, but there's no one in any of them?" She grins. "I'll go check it out, shall I?" She starts to creep carefully toward the open back wall of the structure to peep inside.
Douena peers into the shack. It's just a single room inside, although foundations have been laid for additional walls that were never added. The first thing that stares prominently out at her, however, is a large pentagram carved in the south wall beside the broken front door. Several teeth (human-looking) have been hammered into the centre of the pentagram. Dried blood is spattered throughout the shack. A single wooden chair, also spattered in blood, lies toppled by the west wall.
"That doesn't look very nice," Douena murmurs to herself, as she waves the rest of the party to approach.