"So... Vantas, are you planning on settling down here, if you keep on like this I expect we'll see you start to build a farm."
Vantas awoke to the sound of Somia's voice.. though sadly not in his hammock to keep him warm at night. It however was good enough for him, Somia's face was like a ray of sunshine; the call of the eagle to spread its wings to meet the day; an oasis to the thirsty adventurer in the desert. He felt energized simply from their small interactions.. If only the situation did not have to be during the deaths of other crew members and stranded on a cursed island. He shifted out of his elevated bed and stretched.
" Eager to speak to me this morn so early Lady Somia? To answer your question, No I do not expect to settle here. We needed a sufficient shelter and I provided means to. Until we have a stable or constant source of food however.. a farm might be possibility. I don't plan on being here more than a few months if possible. Don't you worry. B-But if that WAS the case... I-I wouldn't mind being on such an Island with you..." he paused and fake yawned "You all by my side.. yes.. you all.."
He began strapping on his equipment and seeing to the morning ritual of starting a fire. He checked on the well being of everyone else then proceeded to wait for the rest.. Jask ensuring everyone is fresh " Now my lady, we are going into dangerous territory. We are going to find out what this island has to offer and hopefully more food. Along the way we should get information on wildlife, the captain and Ieana, and any Loot we can find to make life a little easier. You have about an hour, I dont want to waste sunlight.."
Thrace sits in a corner sharpening blades and glaring at the wizard. As soon as he makes eye contact, she pantomimes gagging at his fawning over Somia.
Vantas raises a curious brow at this and while paying full attention to Somia during his conversation he keeps tabs on Thrace as well. When he is doe he walks over to Thrace arms folded and inquisitive. Seeing her little display he could not help but say this. " And I see you are busy preparing your blades. Good, I will note however that your little message is unbecoming of you. Somia is the sun incarnate but that does not mean you do not have charm of your own even with your deadly accuracy and abrasive personality. Your appearance is not bad either, you simply push people away. Then again, there might be a person or two that finds that attractive, who's to say? Regardless, we are leaving soon, but you know that already.. right?" turning away, leaving it like that; he heads to Siddok.
I don't need courting advice from a lovestruck magician. She hops to her feet and stows her blades except for the starknife.
Let's stop wasting time and get to work. The sooner we find a way out of this place, the better. And I don't want him or any of his heathen spells touching me, got it? she adds pointing the blade in Jask's direction.
"I have a feeling that what Thrace wants, she simply takes - and has no need of courting." Somia pulls on her armour and readies her bow.
Siddok is reallys tireds, buts is readys fors adventures. Siddok jumps out his bedroll stark naked and walks over and stretches as he goes to his armor he left to dry by the fire. He pauses momentarily for one last stretch... Reaching for his toes and then grabs his leather armor. Putting it on carefully to make sure everything is perfect and every strap and belt is in its correct position. He then packs up his bedroll and reorganizes his backpack and bandoliers.
Vantas sighs and shakes his head. You cant please everyone, he submitted himself to that fact. Thrace clearly had something going on with her mindset that he could not fathom, not that his experience with women have ever been all that.. successful in life. " Fine. I will say however.. If you become terribly injured I will DRAG YOUR BODY BACK HERE AND DO IT ANYWAY. Otherwise you are completely dependent on my magicks if your resources dwindle. "
His smirk lengthens somewhat and he looks to the rest of his team. " Regardless, we will be sweeping the coast west of here and then doing one inward into the forest, much like a large lap in a field. We shall be back to camp before it becomes dark. Our first objective is exploration to create some sort of map specifically for this island. I and Siddok will be marking our progress. Our Second objective is stockpiling food. Anything other than that such as supplies, reclamation of our lost items or information shall be tertiary for now. And I must stress survival is the most important, it overrides any other objective. If there is a choice between your life being in danger and retrieving something I will choose your life. Corpses are useless to me. If you are tired, I'm sure that will solve itself as we walk. Let's depart. "
Vantas turns and rests his spear on his shoulder before walking west.
The party doesn't make it far into the treeline directly west of them before the sudden onset of a rainstorm.
Soon after they draw the attention of a snake which lunges out at Vantas leading from the front, who is unable to see the creature in time due to the driving rain.
Luckily, the snake's strike while true, is deflected by Vantas' armor.
"Wretched creature.. How dare you strike out me.. I'm sure your body will make good cooking. "
Vantas leaps back and tries to skewer the snake on his spear.
Vantas' sidestep left the snake wide open to strike out at Thrace, but even caught off guard Thrace was more than fast enough to dodge the striking viper.
Somia steps forwards firing the arrow she has readied
Vantas sees the snake is quicker than he expected, noting its size and type he figured this creature was dangerous as well. A Black Mamba, both deadly in trees and in the sea. After Somia's arrow went wide at the last moment, he saw it his job to make sure it died as fast as the scorpion before.
"Siddok get on the other side of the snake so that lady Somia has a straight shot towards it whether she uses a bow or blade. Your job is to just provide another threat. Thrace strike together from the other side of the snake like we did upon the ship.. we need to kill it before its venom reaches anyone! He instructs, hoping the coordinated assault would confuse the creature and leave it open.
Siddok swallowing his fear of this rather large snake, loops around Thrace and goes for a body punch with his cestus, trying not to leave openings.
When Thrace gets into position Vantas unleashes a powerful strike hopefully while it was distracted and enough to drop it after Thrace's assault.
Thrace steps up and swings her starknife and dagger, missing with the former but striking through the snake with the latter, killing it.
Vantas shakes the snake's corpse off his spear, leaving the body to Siddok, " Hrmmph, that is what it gets for attempting to strike at a superior creature. Excellent teamwork, everyone. Siddok, draw its poison and then recover as much of it as you can, surely the snake is worth a meal or two. When you are finished, we are moving onward..we covered barely a mile. The weather shouldn't pose too much a problem " He checks the point of his weapon as it rains; he continues in the little time it takes Siddok to salvage the snake.
While Siddock is butchering the animal Somia goes to see if she can retrieve her arrow, who knows when she'll get chance to buy more, though it galls her slightly to be searching around in the mud.
Continuing along their trek the raid is unrelenting; after a great deal of distance has passed, the party hears screaching coming from nearby trees before two odd looks reptiles swoop down from them to attack the party.
Vantas seems very ready in the pouring rain. His mind cannot fathom what these creatures are for now and as such he takes precaution. Seeing as Thrace seems astounded by the attack and unable to react in time, Vantas covers her as she was the only other ranged Specialist next to Somia. " Everyone Form a tight group on me, Wait for them to strike if you have no way to get them from afar.. that way they risk the most from any attack. My spear should prevent the most foolhardy attacks. Thrace I thought you were more aware, I'll cover you for now." He readied his spear against a charge from the sky.
Somia tries to fire a shot at one the creatures.
Thrace mumbles angrily about allowing herself to be caught off guard while cleaning her weapons, but she follows Vantas' commands.
Siddok moves up and readies to hit with his cestus combat expertise style.
The two odd flying lizards swoop down from the trees the two pass over Thrace before biting at her neck.
Vantas waited for the wrong cue the creatures seem attached to Thrace for some odd reason.
Thrace throws her masterwork dagger at the first lizard and her cold iron starknife at the second lizard:
As Somia fires another arrow. at the nearest lizard, she mentions to Thrace "Red, there's another dagger on my belt if you want to help yourself to it." with a slightly suggestive air.
Somia's arrow strikes true and hard in the first lizard, while Thrace catches the second with a grazing blow from her starknife.
Vantas harries the flying lizards, having gotten a feel for their flight patterns and realizing bracing would do little good as they seemed mobile. This however lead him to believe that was their fighting style and he would use that against them. He strikes out with the spear at the lizard Somia aimed. Then setting himself to allow the creatures no escape.
Whichever deemed to move at all he stabs once more.
Siddok cowers behind Somia grabing her leg and shaking. Preparing a cestus flailing if they get close enough.
Totally fine.
Vantas' first stab kills the lizard that Somia shot, the other snaps at Vantas' face but misses as it flies off back to the trees; but not before taking a spear across its abdomen, killing it.
Vantas drops the spear down impaling one of them upon the blade and inspects it. " I am not sure if they have anything useful for your materials Siddok, best to check. Otherwise add them to the food pile.. It seems besides scorpions, this island has its fair share of aggressive reptiles. " He picks the dagger Thrace misplaced and tosses it back to her " Here, Catch. Next time we meet something like those... I believe the belly is soft and exploitable. making sure they are properly cleaned before having the group explore further, it could not have been more than 2 hours.
"As I mentioned before, if you need another dagger, you can always take mine, I'm sure I'll be fine with my sword and bow, until we can get somewhere more civilised."
Wes has abouts ans hours lefts befores wes shoulds starts headings backs, Siddok doesnts wants tos risks travelings ins the darks.
"Surely one of the brothers of dragons is not afraid of the dark, I thought you'd prefer places to hide." Somia smirks.
" Lady Somia, I believe it has to do with pride and more to do with danger. The creatures we have faced are not nocturnal, which means that worse could arise in the night. And though his race and mine both fare fine at night, you and Thrace are Human; thus require light. We will do one more foray west before doubling back to the camp, hopefully a little more food in tow. " Vantas says somewhat upset at the rate their exploration had gone but even more concerned at their current food consumption.
The party arrives at a break in the treeline that leads to a cliffside overlooking the ocean. In the air you can see four more of the odd flying lizards that attacked you not long ago. However judging from the noise coming from below the cliff you can guess there is a startling amount of them that must have made the cliff face their homes.
Off in the distance you can see the sun has begun it's descent into the oceans horizon.
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Nopes nopes nopes nopes nopes nopes The sound of Siddok fades aways as he backs back into the woods.
Vantas watches Siddok back up and thinks upon his caution. So far not a single creature has shown much deadliness outside of lethal poison. However the party had the advantage of numbers. In this case there was one for each. Each of their bodies should give about enough sustenance for 1-2 people. Resources were scarce.. at least the 4 of the creatures would need to die to provide for the camp. Luckily, if there were more Vantas had a plan. Where animals and humanoids differed, was intelligence.
He whispered to Siddok as he started into the trees " Siddok dont go to far.. I have a plan and it may require you; Besides, if you leave a snake might gobble you up. You know how poisonous they are."
You're at the treeline so they're out past the cliffs, which is around 150 feet away, so we'll say that they're 180 feet away and around 40 feet above you.
The four you can see in air seem to be doing odd series of loops, dives, and squawking.
It would be quite a feat to be able to tell the amount of flying lizards roosting on the cliff face, you only know they are there in great quantity.
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"It's an impressive display - I'd rather not interfere with the mating practices of the creatures here, especially as many creatures fight a lot more viciously when protecting mates or young."
Vantas looks to Somia and sighs though she was somewhat right, survival dictated that the strong had to overcome or become the weak. " That is fine Somia, I understand, however this is not a game.. we barely have food for the rest.. and While I can supply more it is not a sure thing.. we will need more. It will become night however and we can come here later after we have formulated a plan. " Vantas sighs.
"Back to camp then?"