The Devil's Gorge (and Beyond)!

Game Master Rynjin

"I feel at least three different hostile presences..." whispers Donovan to his allies. "Each one coming from one of those trees in the clearing."

"Creepy."

Thetsu then whistles a bit before speaking out.

"Anyone out here spot a monkey man with silver fur? I have food for those willing to help."

Speak With Animals

Then he calls out into the clearing in the language of those who live beside nature.

Diplomacy?

Diplomancy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Thetsu merely provokes a response.

"Leave here or feel the wrath of the forest." a Sylvan, vaguely female voice echoes from the trees.

"I think you should be more wary of those who have come to hunt, lest you end up their prey as well. We're looking for one in particular, but if you stand in our way then conflict is unavoidable."

And Thetsu takes an aggressive stance as his muscles flex in response to his body being ready to move.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31

Dorla has the sense to stand still and keep her mouth shut while Thetsu deals with this.

Can Dorla and Donovan hear/understand the conversatio or are they speaking in... Uh... "Speak With Animals"-ish?

I think they said they were speaking in Sylvan.

"I think you should be more wary of those who have come to hunt, lest you end up their prey as well. We're looking for one in particular, but if you stand in our way then conflict is unavoidable."

And Thetsu takes an aggressive stance as his muscles flex in response to his body being ready to move.

[dice=Intimidate]1d20+13

The voice sounds terrified, but does not leave or show itself.

"GO AWAY!" it cries.

Does anybody have Kn. Nature?

Yes, Dorla has knowledge nature at +17 bonus. Do you want me to roll it?

It's good enough as-is.

Dorla notes that quite a few woodland creatures, particularly Fey, have a strong tie to the land, and specific trees. "Getting out of your way" could cause physical harm to these sorts of creatures, and perhaps even death should they stray too far from their tree.

It would be more humane to simply go around the area as they have asked.

Dorla whispers what she knows to Thetsu. She also suggests that we could ask them if they will let us pass through. We will be careful not to harm whatever plants they tell us are important to them. Or, if they can suggest a path around, we will take that.

"Huh? Oh. Well now I feel like a jerk." Thetsu says bashfully.

"Can you show us a good way around? We're strangers to these parts. I'm sorry for being mean but time is really of the essence for us right now."

The voice disappears for a moment, and then some of the trees begin rustling softly, forming an oblong outline of the "forbidden area".

"Neat. Let's roll. " Thetsu begins walking along the outside of the outline but looks to see if he can spot the mysterious fey voice.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29

I take 10 (26) on Perception/Sense Motive because I don't want to type the dice code on my phone.

Thetsu sees nothing but the slight waving of the trees and falling of leaves.

The final location is a cave, to no one's surprise. You almost miss it as you pass by, as covered in weeds, trees, and brambles as it is.

For someone who can teleport, or small woodland creatures, getting into the entrance of the cave would be trivial.

For you, it will require a bit more work. The brambles are thick, with thorns over an inch long, and the going will be slow and painful without a very thorough (and likely noisy) clearing of them.

Donovan casts "Detect Psionics".

"I can get in there." says Donovan. "Can't take you with me, though... Well... Maybe Chirrup. How much does he weigh again?"

"What if we smoke him out? Or Thetsu could ask his new woodland friends to take those things out of the way."

Dorla is SOOOO tempted to just throw a bomb into the entrance...

"I wouldn't really call them friends..."

"Smoking him out seems like a fun idea."

"Well... Ask your woodland acquaintances if they can get the vines out of the way... If they can't, ask if they can contain the fire. If they can't do that either... Well... Tell them to stay away from the cave. It's going to get hot."

Thetsu shrugs and goes to ask the fey whilst staying outside the outline.

"Hey so there are these spikey thorns blocking our way...can one of you help us with that or...we maaaay have to smoke our prey out. In that case, can one of ya contain a fire?"

You are miles away from there.

I figured as much. Okay let's smoke em out!

"Do you guys want to smoke him out, or do you want to use gaseous form to go through the thorns safely? If you want to smoke him out, I have bombs or a vial of alchemist's fire."

You are miles away from there.

Wait... When did that happen? Where are we? Did we just give up on investigating that location? I'm legitimately confused. oO

Sundakan wrote:

You are miles away from there.

Wait... When did that happen? Where are we? Did we just give up on investigating that location? I'm legitimately confused. oO

You investigated.

The occupants said "Leave".

You said "Okay".

Now you're here.

"Hmmm. The potion to get in sounds like a good idea...up till we need to leave or if things go awry and we need to retreat or chase after the guy."

"I still think smoking the guy out is the best plan of action."

So we just gave up on searching the last area? Uh... Okay, then.

"Burn it, then."

Well... No point in wasting one of Dorla's bomb.

Donovan lights up a torch and throws it at the vines.

"Sorry, leafy"

Some of the foliage catches, but green plants are notoriously hard to burn. The driest are incinerated, but the densest portion is left largely undamaged.

You'll need some oil or something to make the fire "stick". Especially if you want to create enough smoke to fill a cave.

Would there be something helpful in the alchemist's kit, which later books rename the alchemy crafting kit? Is glue flammable? Would plants burn better after being splashed with acid?

Chirrup will flap his little wings to try to help the fire catch.

Acid would shrivel and dry them, making them more flammable. You probably have some oil and glue, but not in significant quantities to douse this entire patch.

*Checks his sheet to see if he has Survival, sees he took Kn.Religion for some reason he can't remember* g%*%#&mit.

Untrained Gather Twigs Check: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Thetsu gets some sticks.

"Okay burn these and get a blanket to waft the smoke into the cave. I'm gonna go get more sticks. Dorla can you make a couple of Smoke Sticks? Maybe we can find the materials needed around here..."

Take 10 on survival for gathering more burnable stuff.

How do the mechanics of crafting cheap stuff quickly work?

While fresh vegetation is somewhat difficult to burn, that wouldn't be the case if there was some sort of inflammable liquid on it... Like an Bombs or alchemist's fire. So we can use that.

How do the mechanics of crafting cheap stuff quickly work?

There's always the possibility of begging for GM mercy. Maybe Chirrup can even be cute to help...

If Dorla takes 10 on craft(alchemy) and Chirrup doesn't roll a 1 on his attempt to aid, Dorla will have a 40. She also has 'swift alchemy' which cuts time in half. The DC to craft a smokestick is 20. If I can add 20 instead of 10 to the DC, I have a DC of 40. The check times the new DC is 1600. That means that Dorla could make 8 smokesticks in a week (20gp=200sp). If we assume a 40 hour work week, that means each smokestick takes 5 hours. However, this is before 'swift alchemy' which cuts the time in half. Thus, 2.5 hours to make a smokestick. That's a bit more doable, but still a pain.

"I'm sure you guys love doing crafty stuff... But we could try one of those highly-incendiary bombs first, you know..."

While fresh vegetation is somewhat difficult to burn, that wouldn't be the case if there was some sort of inflammable liquid on it... Like an Bombs or alchemist's fire. So we can use that.

That would work as well (at least, just as well as Acid for "priming" the vegetation to be torched). Note that this a 15 ft. square patch of foliage. You'd need multiples to torch it all.

Fire spreads. The heat from the initial flame dries the surrounding vegetation.

It spreads, you don't just want fire, you want smoke. So you'll either want it to all go up at once (making great big billows of smoke) or a really really slow burn all in one direction(which would take a bit of maneuvering. I'd probably call for Survival there to shape the flame).

...Maybe I'm overcomplicating things.

We don't really need it to burn all at once... Burning slowly will produce just as much smoke, it'll just take longer for him to notice. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

"So... While we're at it... How about some anti-poison potions?"

I drink my antitoxin. I don't remember how long it lasts, though. :P

Thetsu flexes.

"My body can resist any poison!"

Except, like... At least 5% of them. Because natural 1s exist. :P

"Good for you! Now, Dorla... For the rest of us, do you have anything that helps with poison?"

Dorla spends a little while mixing some extracts. She makes:
delay poison (x3)
fly

She hands one delay poison to each of the others, then drinks her delay poison and fly. Then she sets off a bomb, pushed a bit into the brush and thorns. Then she quickly steps back out of range.