"As long as they didn't worship it." Sasha says, "People get all prickly about religion and especially don't like you killing their gods."
Sasha motions to herself, Pakshee and Faith all green from the swampy water, standing so that only the very tip of the hilts on her back could be seen by approaching boggards. "I don't think anyone as waterlogged as we," she half shrugs and waves Faith out of the equation, "as the two of us are could be that threatening."
She moves over to check on the abrasions the monster left on Tulip, "Need to work on your guard when you get close to big monsters." She comments to Zaine, quietly.
As the group waits on the outcome of the patrolling boggad, they have a chance to look at the surrounding landscape. It hasn't faired well over the centuries, with what would have once been fruitful fields not lost to swamp and sinkholes. A lot of sinkholes.
"Thankful so long as we do not pose a new threat," Faith agrees.
"As long as they didn't worship it." Sasha says, "People get all prickly about religion and especially don't like you killing their gods."
"Points made." Áine agrees with a nod at Faith and Sasha.
"Something looks wrong with that, don't you think?" Áine says, looking at Zaine and pointing towards one of the fairly nearby sinkholes while putting a hand on Faith's arm. Green motes explode outward from the big northerner in a fine mist, coating anything immdeiately adjacent to him or settling gently to the ground.
Áine at least temporarily is about a third to half green, looking somewhat startled. "Didn't exactly expect that." she mutters before turning to the others, "do you want to stay looking that way?" she takes a couple of steps away from Faith shaking a bit and causing some of the green to drip down. She extends her right hand in open invitation towards the others to accept or not as they wish.
She again steps away before performing the same routine on herself once everyone else who desires it has taken their turn.
"Yeah, I saw that. Could be some kind of cesspit or something."
As Aine starts doing whatever she's doing, Zaine clicks his tongue, and Tulip takes a few wary steps away.
"Could be." Áine says, but flies over to take a closer look.
"Thanks," Faith says. "Add it to the list of things that I never expected to see."
Áine blinks. Purses her lips and furrows her brow. Then an "ah ha" look of understanding, "Oh, you mean the cleaning thing?" She holds out her hands, spreading her fingers. "Gloves! Never go through a swamp or jungle without 'em!" She chuckles happily, displaying a set of well-worn, nondescript fingerless gloves as if that explains everything, turning her hands back and forth. Then primarily to the other semi-bedraggled women dripping green water, "would you like an insta-poof?" she offers in the tone and manner of a sit-in-the-corner book-worm school girl who has found something that at least temporarily interests the cool kids.
The quiet sounds of the boggard scout moving through the jungle towards the spire. If he is reporting back to the boggard settlement it will be at least a half an hour before any response would get to the green lake.
Examining the odd 'sinkhole', you can see there is are definite worked structures that have been covered over by mud and vegetation. The closer look reveals the jagged edges of a broken roof, the broken tiles and uneven floor and slow eastward movement of the muddy water which disguises what may have existed when the structure was 30-feet higher.
Áine, at the edge of the sinkhole, turns to address the rest of the group. "At least 3 humanoid creatures come in and out routinely. Webbed feet. I'd assume boggard sized. Maybe they fed the froghemoth? I'd like to check it out." she looks back in the direction of the retreating boggard, "Probably stil have time to run that one down if anyone else is having second thoughts on letting it warn the rest of its tribe." she looks to Zaine and Faith.
Áine kneels down to study the tracks further, "Nope, not boggard, something more fishy." she says.
Áine, at the edge of the sinkhole, turns to address the rest of the group. "At least 3 humanoid creatures come in and out routinely. Webbed feet. I'd assume boggard sized. Maybe they fed the froghemoth? I'd like to check it out." she looks back in the direction of the retreating boggard, "Probably stil have time to run that one down if anyone else is having second thoughts on letting it warn the rest of its tribe." she looks to Zaine and Faith.
"Fine by me," Zaine says.
The group, with the airwalking dinosaur and the carpet riding ranger, is able to descend quickly through mid-air. Sasha takes advantage of the numerous jungle growth and vines to climb down. Near the mid-point she pauses to test the floor, taking care when the sloping supports prove unsteady. The final part of the climb is easy when she spots a grouping of vines that have seem to have been intentionally woven.
The room at the bottom of the climb is dark, lit only by dim dusk light that filters down from the sinkhole. Fallen debris has formed a small unsteady promontory on which the redhead alights.
Murky, silt-laden water fills the chamber. A dark humanoid form bobs near the ceiling in one corner, the body occasionally jerking in the slight current that leads out of a hallway tunnel to the east.
Zaine pulls the musket from the bandolier, pulling the hammer back. "Tulip and me are going to see what's going on with that body. If it comes to life and attacks, hey, at least it'll have a t-rex in its face."
Zaine clicks his tongue and nudges Tulip over. She approaches with caution, bobbing her head and cooing.
Áine hovers over Zaine and Tulip as they investigate. Watchful and ready to intercept anything that may come towards them with a cold iron tipped shaft.
As Zaine and Tulip walk above the water to look, Sasha moves into the clogged water, swords in hand, ready to put on a burst of speed when the corpse starts to attack. Closer, the form resolves definitively to be a human. With Áine hovering above, Tulip noses the corpse, flipping it - revealing a body where all of the flesh in the water has been stripped from bone.
At the same moment, Sasha hisses in pain, falling backward onto pile of debris and pulling her now bloody legs from the water. There is a thrashing in the silt-laden water which causes a boil.
Additionally, Tulip needs to make a Will save DC 19 vs hold monster.
Will save
One round later
Tulip
Ride check
From the cramped (with only a foot or two of space above the water) tunnel hallway you make out movement away from the group, faint but obvious to the keen-eared in the group. Sasha rubs at her bitten legs, getting the bleeding to stop. She looks at the thrashing in the water, "Keep Tulip out of the water, Zaine." She looks in the direction of the movement, then at the swarm threaded silt.
You can act utterly normally atm. If the attack nearest creature comes up due to the confusion, Tulip is considered part of you and not a target.
"You all right, Pepper? What's in there?" Zaine's voice is slow and wobbly, like he's been drinking.
Áine drifts out to get a better view of anything possibly coming down the tunnel and closer to the rest of the group. Once again, the amber pin fastening her cloak together begins to glow a golden hue, weblike strands writhing up her arms to crisscross around her bow and the metal heads of her arrows. She fires repeatedly into the boiling mass of water near Sasha, the corpse and anywhere else swarm pockets might be. The aroma of cooked fish (probably) begins to fill the area.
Faith looks into the water, frowns, and says, "Deep smelt."
Sasha looks at the bites on her legs, "Piranha." She cocks her head as she looks over at Zaine, "Body that bad?" She asks with concern.
A great deal of the activity of bubbles around that now flipped body gives the fish swarms access to flesh of the body.
"Piranha are smelt?" Pakshee asks Faith.
It's hard to see down the passage where you still hear the faint sounds of movement as the muddy water fills most of the space. Fish nip at the bottom of Aine's carpet as she tries to get an angle down the narrow space.
In your confusion you hit yourself with something you are holding for
Zaine frowns, shifting in the saddle, and brings the musket over to his other shoulder for some reason. As he does so, the butt cracks into his nose quite hard, and causing a stream of blood to fall down his face and onto his shirt. He settles back in the saddle, apparently unaware of what he just did.
"No," Faith says to Pakshee, continuing to frown. "I think they are worse than smelt."
"Lad?" Faith asks Zaine, gesturing toward his nose.
"No," Faith says to Pakshee, continuing to frown. "I think they are worse than smelt."
"Lad?" Faith asks Zaine, gesturing toward his nose.
Zaine peers at Faith's nose. "You're clean," he says, nodding. "Hey, are you still with Pakshee? I never would have called that one. You can't get married out here, though. The bachelor party would be too weird."
"Are you okay, lad?" Faith turns from frowning at the water to frowning at Zaine. "You seem a little off. Did something hit your head when I wasn't watching?"
"Are you okay, lad?" Faith turns from frowning at the water to frowning at Zaine. "You seem a little off. Did something hit your head when I wasn't watching?"
"Why? What have you heard?"
"I didn't hear anything. That is why I am concerned. How do you feel?"
Faith is focused on Zaine, assuming that Áine has a bead on anything that's coming.
The water settles as Aine's barrage stops. There is still movement in the water by the body but the water is no longer seethes with teeth, the majority of the swarms settling in the deep.
There is an unsettling clicking which echoes over the water down the tunnel.
That would be attack nearest creature.
And the random numbers agrees with the story and Faith is the closest.
Zaine's eyes widen. "You're not Faith! I'll teach you to impersonate the grumpy weirdo I hang around with!"
Zaine attempts to clobber Faith with the butt of the musket.
...but the clumsy blow glances off Faith's armor.
Áine tears her gaze away from the tunnel and the unsettling clicking noise and turns to the brawling boys. "Ah wouldn't mind checkin' tha' out, but ahm not quite sure if he's confused, high on the bad air in 'ere or just touched in the 'ead, but I don't think tha's acting normal.
D'yu want help with that?" Áine looks like she might be a tad affected by some residual confusion herself.
If Faith doesn't then Zaine can act normally.
The haze in Zaine's eyes clears momentarily. "Faith? Faith! I'm sorry! I swear, it didn't look like you. It looked like someone wearing a you mask or something." Zaine shakes his head. "I don't feel so good."
Sasha makes a very familiar click-whistle, Tulip looks back at Zaine on her back then moves over to the red-haired woman. She rubs the nervous t-rex then Zaine's leg her concern plain.
"Bad air, maybe?" She motions down the water-filled hallway, "If they can avoid or control the piranha, then it is a good way to keep their lair safe."
Zaine continues to be sane.
Pakshee glares at Zaine, clearly not as forrgiving about the unprovoked attack, but grudgingly, "Maybe can help. If magic not bad air."
"Please!" Zaine says. Then realizes he's holding the musket and tucks it away into the bandolier.
Hunching down on her carpet, Áine becomes impossibly thin as she glides silently down the tunnel to see what's up ahead.
Pakshee starts to mumble in the almost-infernal of her cannibal tribe, first pulling at the air near the ground, then with a considering look at the air all around her as if there were strings running through the air. The mumbling continues as the atmosphere around her thickens, settling into her hands with a pale blue light. She reaches out both hands to touch Zaine, pausing only long enough to speak, "You promise you no attack Faith every more."
And with the touch the blue light sinks into Zaine and disappears.
Make a DC 19 Will save vs hold monster.
... attack nearest - which would be Pakshee or Sasha based on the posting
Pakshee does have a good chance of making the caster level check... but not with that roll. DC 19
"Of course! I don't know what came over..." Zaine trails off, his eyes dilating. "It's a trick! Faith, that's not Pakshee!" The cavalier throws a punch.
Where there had been the odd clicking from down the hallway there is only the slight movement of water through vegetation.
"Of course! I don't know what came over..." Zaine trails off, his eyes dilating. "It's a trick! Faith, that's not Pakshee!" The cavalier throws a punch.
Pakshee shakes her head as Zaine punches in almost the exact opposite direction and bruises his fist on Sasha's armor before tagging her with a unaimed but sturdy blow. Sasha seems slightly more surprised than hurt.
"Probably bad air, then," Pakshee says, her eyes narrowing in the darkness, "but maybe just not use magic right."
She cautiously casts again, clearly ready to dodge if (when) Zaine makes a swing at her.
each carpet has its own command word to activate it—if the device is within voice range, the command word activates it, whether the speaker is on the rug or not. The carpet is then controlled by spoken directions.
As Aine and the carpet freeze in place, wedged in the tiny opening of air in the tunnel, she sees one of the creatures raise its head above the water, gills flexing in the air.
The finned head watches Aine with all-black eyes. From beneath the carpet she can feel a hand push up from the water, investigating.
That would be damage to yourself...
If the carpet does respond to her thoughts, it will take off back the way she came as quickly as possible.
[Ooc]I personally think the scent ability would only work if she was in the water, however, the thought ability definitely would have picked her up, so not arguing the point.
Zaine punches himself. His nose is bleeding like a faucet.
Áine rockets backwards as fast as she can.
"Is better to hit you than you hit Faith," Pakshee says as she tries for the last time.
For the first time since he saw the eaten corpse of the man in the water, Zaine's head clears.
At the same moment, there is a very quiet whispered command from Aine. As the carpet slips out of the impossibly small air passage with the archer that shouldn't be able to fit, you can see long tears carpet, as if series of knives were drawn through.
Zaine holds his head and turns the air blue the way only a career mercenary can. "I don't know what happened there. Nothing made any sense." He shakes his head as though to clear it from the cobwebs.
"Grey Nisp's" Áine gasps out as she returns into the ruins of the room with the others, "Not sure if there's more then one. Probably two...make that at least three, going by the footprints we saw earlier. Nearly got me. Large, swims very fast, detects thoughts, has very keen underwater scent and likes to rip their prey apart to see how they tick. Oh, and it can cast Confusion, Hold Monster and Slow at will." she continues, breathing heavily and looking a little wild eyed, but trying hard to get herself under control. "That's probably what 'appened to you. Confusion, I mean." she adds, looking at Zaine. Her eyes go wide and she has the look of mentally smacking her forehead, "Bad air! D@mn it. The Life Bubble I put around all of us would have kept bad air out. It should last for almost an hour if you're willing to go under water hunting for these things, but I can't help with the vision or other water hampering issues...except the breathing." she seems to have her nerves mostly back under control, but continues to take long measured breaths.
Zaine sighs. "I'll do it. Not sure how smart it is considering what these nisps did to me already and all we had to do to get me out of it, but I've never been known for being smart."
Áine nods, "If we come back, we know what we're up against and I could at least have an offensive magic. Right now I'm tapped. But we know where they are and you're likely momentarily inured to at least one of their confusion abilities. I don't know. Faith, Sasha? What do you think? ... Honestly, I think it might be better to come back. Maybe think up what to do."