Even as her missiles streak forth to injure the second shark, Lureene's squid crushes the life from the first; it sinks to the bottom, food for crabs.
Before Sasha can even resurface, the next shark is on her. Once again, she ably avoid's it's toothy maw and manages to retreat from it, pulling Jask along with her as she passes him.
"CLIMB, OLD MAN, CLIMB!"
Swim Checks
, sharks, Sasha, Jask
MAP: P-Low Tidal Causeway, (Round 06)
Lureene dares to hope Sasha and Jask will be able to get away from the sharks, but she knows the sharks are still a threat…
She continues her volley, switching her target to the closer shark.
The squid moves off to charge the closest shark...
Lureene's squid once again comes to Sasha and Jask's aid, tentacles writhing as it sinks its beak into the shark's flank drawing blood. Now faced with a threat it can comprehend, the shark turns in the water, attempting to bite at the rubber creature assaulting it, but it is unable to connect.
Still sensing softer prey, the other shark swims past and surges up to the two swimmers. In a single lunge, it catches the slower swimmer in its jaws opening a huge wound on Jask's side that turns the water around him red.
In a panic, he reaches for his holy symbol and a wave of healing energy ripples forth healing everything within 30-feet of him, including the shark that just attacked him. Thru sheer desperation, Jask manages to splash further away, somehow evading another bite from the vicious predator.
Swim Check:
Dammit, Jask...
"GET CLIMBING, I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!"
With those words, Sasha draws her rapier and delivers a deep stab thru the shark's abrasive skin clouding the water with yet more blood.
Fvck with me? I'm going to make some damn boots out of your hide!
, sharks, Jask, Sasha
MAP: P-Low Tidal Causeway, (Round 07)
Lureene curses as she sees the sharks are out of range of all her spells. She can do little but watch the events unfold with her heart in her throat...
Her squid cares little for this, instead continuing to attack the shark in front of it.
The yellow squid, finishes the next shark off, stinging it to death with its tentacles. With cold efficiency, it jets past the defeated creature to close with the last enemy.
Behind Sasha, Jask begins to pull himself up the steep, rocky shore even as the huntress just barely fends off another bite. Then in the next moment, the water turns red amidst screams, thrashing, and churning water!
"GODS!" Gelik gasps, "Did it get her?!"
Lureene and Gelik look on, frozen in horror, when suddenly Sasha bursts forth from the water, long hair plastered to her form and a feral smile upon her face. "Yeah, THAT'S RIGHT! Who's eating who now B1TCH?"
There before her, floating belly up, are the eviscerated remains of the fourth and final shark.
Lureene sighs in relief as she notes Sasha has prevailed. Still, it had been a close call there.
Next time I am gonna build a raft!
She calls out to the ranger, "Are both of you OK?" She also will scan the water for any other threats in the water.
Jask waves a hand weakly as he struggles up to the top of the slope and stands, hands resting on his knees as he tries to catch his breath.
"Oh yeah," Sasha begins collecting teeth from the mouth of the shark she just butchered, "yeah, we're both fine. Not for long though..."
With that, she moves on to skinning it.
Need to cut some steaks from this sucker for later...
As Lureene and Gelik begin to make their way across, Sasha continues to merrily butcher her kill, making quick work of it, paying little heed to anything else.
Up atop the Silent Island, Jask turns around and asks, "Who is it? Is someone there?"
Perception Checks
"Huh? What are talking about there, old–" Sasha looks up over her shoulder to notice that Jask has walked away. "Old guy?"
As Lureene exits the red-tinged water ahead of Gelik, she finds that Jask is nowhere in sight, the redhead doggedly working at her task. That's when the sound of a struggle reaches Lureene's ears. There's a quick THUD and then the sound of something being dragged along the ground.
Seemingly oblivious to it, Sasha says, "I'm almost done here. That bony bastard's up there and he's not talking to me right now Even though he OUGHT to be KISSING MY ASS right about now for not leaving him there."
With a smile she looks up and announces proudly, "Shark steaks, shark teeth, and hide for some new duds!"
Perception Checks
Lureene does not return the smile, instead glaring at Sasha,
Not even waiting to see how Sasha takes the berating, she establishes a link with Grak, who has been flying behind her. She then casts a protective spell on herself, before hurrying off after the old man.
"Find Jask."
Grak silently acknowledges his mistresses' command, and flies off to find Jask.
"Wha?!" She reclaims her kukri the the shark carcass as Gelik staggers out of the water. Pouting at the fact that her hard work isn't appreciated, she protests, "He's the one who wandered off! I was..."
Her eyes darken as Lureene runs off. "I'm gonna kill him!"
Glaring at Gelik she says, "Keep. Up."
Perception Checks
As all of you scramble up the rocky slope (or try to in Gelik's case), Grak swoops past overhead, flying low and trying to use the strange, leafless 'trees' for cover.
"Misssstressss, sssomething isss carrying Jasssk away. Lotsss of sssmall green men."
Lureene and Sasha make it to the top of the embankment even as Gelik gives a cry and falls back into the water below.
Before you stands a nude, grey 'forest' of foul fungual stalks big as trees. Between these weird stalks, the “undergrowth” consists of thick wiry tangles of lichens and gray fungus, all growing on a foul-smelling
muddy surface. With the exception of the waves crashing along the beaches, and the sound of Gelik's fuming, the island is eerily silent.
Although Lureene knew that Grak had spied the little green men, from where she stands, she is unable to see them. Sasha however turns and hisses, "Hey, I see them! Little green guys about Gel's size, they're dragging Jask off."
She pauses for a moment, forehead knotted in concentration. "You know... This might be the most useful thing he's done. It would be dark before we could search this whole island, but if we can trail those guys, they might lead us to something!"
Perception Checks
MAP: P-Silent Island, (Round 20)
Toil.. Toil..
Scrub, scrub, scrub..
Drawing..
Hammering..
Fixing...
Lureene pauses and lets out a soft sigh. She pauses for a moment to allow Gelik a chance to catch up to them. She touches Sasha on her arm and whispers, "Sash, can you tell what race those buggers are? It might give us some clues here."
Sasha ignores Gelik as the athletically-impaired gnome finally makes it up the steep enbankment. "[smaller]Hmm, I didn't get a real good look, but this whole place is covered in fungus, so I'm guessing they're probably vegepygmies. They get made when someone gets killed by this strange fungus then their body splits open and the little guys bust out like peas from a pod. They don't usually get much bigger than gnomey here, but they're tough. Pretty much have to chop them up with something heavy like an axe or machete."
She taps Lureene's scabbard with her rapier before sheathing her own. "Our swords and bows will do about as much good as trying to cut a rope with a hammer."
"Did you say–" A glare from Lureene and Sasha at the level of his voice turns Gelik white. "Did you say vegepygmies? Uugh, disgusting creatures!"
He pats Lureene on the small of her back and says, "You do realize that our charm spells won't work on them, right? They're plants, you see, so magics and toxins that might affect a man or animal will have no effect. No sleep, no stuns, and you can forget about any illusions that don't actually manifest something you can see, hear, smell, or touch."
"Well, too bad about Jask, really, but I suppose it's better him than us..."
"Misssstressss, Grak ssstill followsss. Should Grak come back?"
Stealth Checks
Aerys takes a break from helping Darvesch scrub rust from gears and cogs to fetch them some refreshment. The tall sailor had found a large vat of lard and had handled the unpleasant task of heating several bucketful to extract oil without complaint.
Now, late in the afternoon, both their hands, arms, and faces were darkened with stinking reddish-brown grease and grime.
"Here," she says, handing the dwarf one of the waterskins she brought along, "need to be keepin' water in you in this heat or I'll be carryin' you back to camp for that tree lady to fix up."
"Not that I guess you'd be mindin', of course," she mutters with a wry grin.
"Phew!" She wipes her forhead with the back of her wrist which only spread a streak of gunk across it. "Wonder how the others are doin'. Bet that Gelik is talkin' Jask and them to death."
Lureene resists the urge to rip off his hand, and turns to face him. She gives the gnome a look...a long look. "Gee, Gel, if I had followed your advice, then you along with Jask and Aerys would be nourishing those cannibal warriors at this time! You must be happy we decided to rescue you all..."
She turns her attention to Grak sending to him via her link, Grak, keep following them but stay out of sight. We will catch up shortly.
She asks Sasha, "What do these plant creatures want to do with Jask? Eat him? Do these vegepygmies sleep at all?"
Sasha turns back to Lureene. "Well, I guess they sleep like how a tree does."
Gelik blanches at Lureene's rebuke, but when he hears Sasha postulating, he replies, "Well, Sasha, trees don't actually sleep. You see, th–"
"Great," Sasha grumbles, "well I guess that means they don't sleep then. Anyhow, maybe they want to use Jask like plant food or something? I mean, I think we're the only things on this island that aren't already covered in fungus."
"Mmm... mmhmm..." Gelik nods stroking his goatee thoughtfully as he pats Sasha on the thigh. "Yes, that could be it actually. Unless I'm mistaken, which I'm probably not, they can only reproduce by infecting a living creature with russet mold spor–"
"Uh... yeah that's great and all, but I already went over all of that alr–"
The huntress suddenly straightens up and grabs the hand on her thigh. Forgetting her voice she spins Gelik around with one hand while frisking him with the other. "What the hell Gel? Don't you have any weapons or anything?!"
When he short fellow holds up his hands in apology, she shakes her head. "See El, I told Mal it wasn't my fault these guys got captured but would he listen to me? NOOOooo!!! Alright, Gel, use this dagger and don't lose it! I want it back after we're done here."
Catching a glance from Lureene, she says in a quiet voice, "My first boyfriend gave it to me. Well, actually my mom did. She sort of caught him carving our names in one of her fig trees with it and so she went and did the same to him before throwing him to the sharks..."
Realizing that she's getting melancholy, Sasha laughs nervously and thumps the gnome on the top of the head with the pommel. "Anyway, I'll go find some sharks for you too if you lose it so you better be careful, okay?"
Gelik simply swallows hard and nods his head, saying quietly, "Uh... yes ma'am!"
Lureene sighs in frustration as she overhears Sasha's exclamation. By the GODS, does Gelik have any brains working in his skull, or does becoming a lecher remove all common sense? As she turns to look at the gnome, she thinks, Yes...yes it does...
She nods silently as Sasha does her part to help the gnome out. "Yeah...I am sorry about that, Sash." She brushes her eyes quickly, "Let's move out. We do not have much time before it gets dark, and I have a feeling Jask won't make it that long."
Time: 1:00et (evening, 7:00pm)
Darkshoal: Waxing Gibbous
As if having one of her group captured and slogging across an island covered in slimy fungal goo wasn't bad enough, shortly after they began to follow the vegepygmies, Lureene felt rain. While it was no monsoon, the weather did little to improve anyone's mood. Grak was griping, Gelik kept slipping, and Sasha caught Lureene in the eye once with a sopping wet braid when she spun about to get everyone on the ground after Grak failed to notice a patrol of vegepygmies that had passed dreadfully close to them.
Thankfully, you were not spotted and the group of four you were trailing at Grak's direction were never alerted to your presence.
Although the rain had stopped nearly an hour ago, you were all still rather soggy as you crouched behind a mold-encrusted, fallen tree, gazing upon an ancient wreck that lay wedged between a pair of rocks up ahead. Yet despite its age, the ruined sailing ship at first seemed in relatively good condition. It had no color to its lines, and was completely covered in a layer of soft gray mold. Even its sails appeared fully intact, although what hung from the spars was not canvas but sheets of thick, pale fungus. Several thick ropes of fungus connect the ship’s upper deck to the island almost like crude rope bridges.
As the sun's last rays disappeared behind the western horizon, leaving only the moons to light your way, Sasha made note of the wreck on your map.
Stealth Checks
Survival Checks
Stealth Checks
Survival Checks
Stealth Checks
Survival Checks
[ REAVER'S SHIV: Map | Position (033 - The Silent Island) | Overland Rules ]
Grak quietly alighted near his mistress. He had successfully trailed the kidnappers across the entire length of the Silent Island without being seen. While the little green men had taken the long, dark man inside the strange ship, the small, winged serpent knew that his lady would have a plan.
"Misssstress, the mossss men have disssappeared into the shhhip. Shhhould Grak follow?"
Lureene shakes the water out of her eyes as she studies the ruins of the sailing ship, which appeared to be the source of the blight, if she did not miss her guess.
How to sneak in, that is the question.
She tells Grak silently, "Yes, see if you can find the tall black man, and also see how many green men you can see too." Once he flies off, Lureene turns to Sasha and Gelik, "OK it looks like we found them. Now we need a way to sneak in unobserved, once Grak finds Jask." She gazes at the ship, now consisting of the strange fungal material. An idea starts to form in her mind. We need to cause a distraction...
She picks up a piece of the fungal growth, "Sash, do you think this stuff burns?"
"Hmm... everything's all soggy now, but it might. Not sure that we'd want to go breathing it in though."
Aerys takes a break from helping Darvesch scrub rust from gears and cogs to fetch them some refreshment. The tall sailor had found a large vat of lard and had handled the unpleasant task of heating several bucketful to extract oil without complaint.
Now, late in the afternoon, both their hands, arms, and faces were darkened with stinking reddish-brown grease and grime.
"Here," she says, handing the dwarf one of the waterskins she brought along, "need to be keepin' water in you in this heat or I'll be carryin' you back to camp for that tree lady to fix up."
"Not that I guess you'd be mindin', of course," she mutters with a wry grin.
"Phew!" She wipes her forhead with the back of her wrist which only spread a streak of gunk across it. "Wonder how the others are doin'. Bet that Gelik is talkin' Jask and them to death."
"Who knows." He shrugs. "Thanks for helping. I appreciate it. It shouldn't be much longer." He takes a drink from the waterskin, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to need a bath after this. Grease isn't my colour." He chuckles.
Grak wonders what has been bothering his mistress. Ever since she had arrived on this island, she had been tense and irritable. Still, her instructions were clear...Find the dark-skinned man and see how many of the green men there are.
He flies towards the shipwreck and lands closeby out of sight. After scanning the area with both his eyes and his tongue, he starts to walk silently towards where the green men took the tall dark man.
"Tch–" Aerys laughs, "Yeah, you 'n me both! I'm supposin' by the fact that we've been scrubbin' rust all day that you don't know any of those handy cleanin' spells like the girls do, huh?"
As the first rain drops begin to fall, Aerys says, "We should probably pack it in and get goin'. Don't need anything rustin' up again and we've already put in a long shift — these are lookin' as good as they're goin' to get. We can get workin' on the assembly tomorrow mornin'. At least the rain'll be washin' us up a bit as we're walkin'..."
"Tch–" Aerys laughs, "Yeah, you 'n me both! I'm supposin' by the fact that we've been scrubbin' rust all day that you don't know any of those handy cleanin' spells like the girls do, huh?"
"Where I come from, it's frowned upon to use magic for frivolous things like that. If you needed a wash, you stripped, and got in a basin of water." He flashes a smile at her as he continues his work.
As the first rain drops begin to fall, Aerys says, "We should probably pack it in and get goin'. Don't need anything rustin' up again and we've already put in a long shift — these are lookin' as good as they're goin' to get. We can get workin' on the assembly tomorrow mornin'. At least the rain'll be washin' us up a bit as we're walkin'..."
"I'll leave the rain to wash my armour. Won't stop me from bathing none. Unless you're afraid of a little sky water," he says sarcastically with a mocking tone before patting her on the back and laughing. "No worries. If you want, I can wait till you're finished washing up before taking my turn." Darvesch seems to be full of smiles today.
"Where I come from, it's frowned upon to use magic for frivolous things like that. If you needed a wash, you stripped, and got in a basin of water."
Aerys shrugs. "Can't say it's ever been an issue for me. Up until meetin' your crew, I wasn't exactly hangin' around folks rich enough where that was an option. They just seem to be usin' it like it's a tool like any other, hadn't really gone thinkin' about it like that, Mr. Hellhammer."
"I'll leave the rain to wash my armour. Won't stop me from bathing none. Unless you're afraid of a little sky water."
Aerys gets a chuckle out of the term 'sky water'. "We're callin' it rain up here these days. Just so's ya knows. Plus, unless I'm rememberin' wrong, wasn't it me suggestin' we get walkin' back in the rain?"
"No worries. If you want, I can wait till you're finished washing up before taking my turn."
Aerys gives the dwarf an curious glance at his odd tone and the pat he gives her. "Look, Mr Hellhammer... I appreciate you tryin' to cheer me up and all, but I'm still kinda raw over Alton gettin' killed savin' everyone. Now I'm not bearin' any ill will or nothin'. I mean Alis, Priyya, and Lureene did right by us, Sasha too. But I can't help feelin' that if it had been her highness wound up dyin' instead of one of us that they'd have been some plannin' to bring her back or somethin'. Guess that's another difference between rich folks and the rest of us..."
Darvesch is at a loss of words when the conversation suddenly takes a dour note, and simply says, "I can't speak on behalf of anyone but myself. I'm doing the best I can. I'm going to bathe now. Join me, or wait if you wish."
Darvesch walks outside, strips his armour off, leaving the metal outside for the rain to beat on, and cloth inside to keep dry. He walks to the water and begins washing the oil off his hair and skin.
"I'll be waitin', thanks. Goin' to wait until we reach fresh water, don't feel like havin' all that salt in my hair."
Grak swoops down and flies around the ship coming up on the opposite railing. The air around here tasted even worse than on the rest of the island, and he could hear things moving around inside this strange, musty boat.
Folding his wings against his sleek body, the opalescent snake poked his head above the port rail and gazed about. The little green men smelled exactly the same as the rest of the ship, but he could tell that the tall black man had been brought this way. looking to one side, between a pair of stairs now overrun with fungus, he could see a dark, yawning doorway leading inside. Atop the deck of the ship, there was a yellow glow shining forth from a burst hatch now criss-crossed with strands of fungal growth.
"Misssstressss, there is a doorway and alssso a hole in the floor leading inssside."
MAP: R-The Nightsong, (Round 00)
Lureene mentally nods at Grak, "OK, we will be right over."
GODS, I wish 'Lis was here!
She turns to Sasha and Gelik, a determined look in her eyes. "OK, we know what we have to do; Find Jask, free him, and get out. Let's try not to get into a fight if at all possible, OK?"
She draws her wand and motions for Sasha to take the lead. "Be sure you check for traps." As Sasha heads off, she turns to face Gelik giving him an encouraging smile, "Gel, I need you to watch our backs, OK? We are going to be in a hurry, and we don't want our escape route cut off."As she turns to head out, a thought occurs to her and she turns back to face Gelik, "Do you have any magic you can use to mask our presence?"
"Watch your..." Gelik's gaze suddenly snaps upward from Sasha's rear to meet Lureene's eyes. "OH! Actually, now that you mention it, after that fiasco with the giants I decided to work on an invisibility spell. Now it only lasts a few minutes so don't be too long. Oh, and naturally if you attack anything that cancels the spell so be careful, Sasha!"
With that he pushes up his sleeves and asks, "OK, ready?"
The huntress frowns a bit and whispers in Lureene's ear, "Why's he telling me to be careful?"
Lureene supresses a grin, "Because he doesn't want you to become visible to the green men." She thinks wryly, Only to himself!
Sasha frowns as Gelik casts his spell upon them. "Alright, well I'll try to hold off until we've got grand-pa back..."
With that, the two set out for the wreck of whatever ship this once was.
As Sasha and Lureene proceed towards the ship, she scans the outside of the ship looking for any traces of the green plant men. She knows her enchantment spells will be useless, so if they were discovered...it would come to more violent spells, like her fireball.
Assuming this fungus was not flammable....
Once the pair arrive at the base of the 'bridge' , she whispers to Sasha, "You go first, I will be right behind you, Sash."
I wish Sash was light enough to fly us across...
Sasha nods, forgetting that Lureene cannot see her, and silently sets off across the fungal rope bridge. The two women move in absolute silence, taking great care to minimize how much they shake the bridge so as not to give away their presence.
Once onboard the 'vessel' they find that the deck beneath their feet feels spongy and gives disconcertingly beneath their weight. Assuming that Lureene is following her, Sasha enters the dark aft cabin. On the east side of the room, there is a vaguely desk-shaped mound while other smaller pieces of furniture have become mere overgrown mounds, swallowed by the all-consuming blight.
Beside her, Lureene feels a tap on the arm and a whispered voice, "Hey, I can't see in the dark, but if we use any light that'll give us away."
Stealth Checks
Perception Checks
Stealth Checks
MAP: R-The Nightsong, (Round 08)