Wardove's Rumble in the Jungle

Game Master Laithoron

Ignoring Alis' comment, Sasha pipes up, "Who is going, who is staying? The fire has been destroyed and that casts all of the village in darkness. I can go, but outside the light of your magic, Alis, my utility will be limited."

"The darkness doesn't frighten me. I can see just fine without the fire. But, if you need to see, I can light up my shield for you." Darvesch begins to walk outside, "Okay, which way to the hag."

Sasha nods at Darvesch's offer and follows him outside, bow at the ready. "That would certainly be helpful..."

Darvesch uses his light cantrip to brighten things up a bit.

"The building to the east of here was pretty well gutted, but she originally flew away further south of it. Of course, depending on how long she can keep flying, she could be anywhere around here by now."

The princess pouts a bit at Lureene's suggestion. "Just because I have such a big chest doesn't mean I want to go sticking strange things in there. We still don't know what it does yet, El."

Lureene responds in a smirking voice, "Gee, 'Lis, maybe you should keep it in your other chest!" Her voice grows serious, "Really, 'Lis maybe Priyya should carry that blade for now."

Alis groans a bit and grumbles something under her breath.

"My vision is fine in darkness and if need be, I can make it very bright. We also should have a care for that flapping devil that only seems to come out at night."

Sasha nods and says, "Then one of you should lead, otherwise I will be walking in my own shadow. Also, I can see and loose over you. The reverse cannot be said."

"Really, 'Lis maybe Priyya should carry that blade for now."

"That's up to Priyya, Lureene. Priyya, if you want to take that blade, I'm setting it in the corner of the room that doesn't have a door." She pauses for a moment and says, "I've used up most of my magic, but I can manage a see invisibility spell on myself. That is, if you want El and I to come with you."

OK guys, I'm not making your search plans for you. Give me some actions or squares that you'd like to move to and if we're taking everyone or just a few people. :P

Sasha stands to her full height and looks over her shoulder, annoyance evident in her tone. "If you can see the invisible then it would have been prudent to suggest such a capability sooner, don't you think? Perhaps I should guard our saferoom with Lureene while you skulk about in the dark."

"Oh a thousand pardons your highness-ness," Alis says, heavy with sarcasm and mocking Sasha's customary ineptitude. As she heads out the door, Alis whispers something to Lureene.

NOTE: When I list names in (parenthesis) after a Skill DC, that means those characters succeeded at the skill check and are entitled to read the spoiler.

With that Alis steps outside and gives an exaggerated bow to Sasha as the huntress steps back inside.

My faith in the boards displaying edits properly is fading FAST. I'd advise everyone to read the actual posts from the edit/reply screen since otherwise changes are not showing up consistently. Anyway, here's the current map...

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 85ish)

Lureene sighs, Now? Now she cares about this? Trying to keep the irritation out of her voice, she whispers back,

Raising her voice to the others, "I saw her fly to that building in the south part of the village." AW48 "That is where you should start your search. Let Grak know if you find anything."

I am ok with Lureene and Sasha staying back in the tower, keeping an eye out for the other giantesses and Malikadna.

Alis refrains from further comment and instead casts her see invisibility spell. She gives an apprehensive look to the stormy skies overhead before scanning the vicinity.

"I don't see anything invisible, at least not yet. Let's move along, shall we?"

Finding Sasha's behavior over the last few minutes both out of character and questionable, Priyya scans the redhead for evil. On impulse, she takes the blade and lugs it onto her shoulder. "I think Darvesch, Alis, and I should go on the hunt while you ladies keep an eye on things here. So let's just give you some additional protection..."

Priyya casts Protection from Evil (defensively) on Sasha to break whatever enchantment she may be under. She is watching Sasha closely throughout the process, prepared for an attack.

CONCENTRATION 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

If her fears prove unfounded...

Priyya says, "Darvesch, Alis, let's go." As soon as they are out of earshot of the two women, Priyya halts them both. "Something isn't right with Sasha. If she's under an enchantment, I wasn't able to break it."

Priyya will move towards AG33 with an eye to sweeping around the south side of the building around AG40. Anytime she stops, she sweeps with detect evil and looks for anything unusual with mundane vision.

"Save the bickering for later. I'll take point." He'll run to AK35

Alis and Lureene both look up noticing the spell that Priyya is casting on Sasha. The huntress tenses for a moment, a sneer of contempt crossing her face as she raises her bow before she staggers and nearly falls over.

Leaning against the doorway with her bow hand, she rubs her forehead with the other and exclaims, "Holy hell that sucked! Felt like I was a little kid being forced to sit and watch a dumb play or something. El, I thought you were supposed to be good at that magic stuff, what the hell?"

Shaking her head, she turns back to the others who are outside and says, "Uh... well, thanks for helping me out there Sar– uh... Priyya." Then more quietly she mutters under her breath, looking rather chagrinned, "And I guess you too Miss Alis..."

Sasha looks out over the dark village trying to see what she can but ultimately frowns in frustration. "Um, so am I good to go now or is that witch-b1tch still in my head?"

"Save the bickering for later."

"Indeed..." As she says the word, Alis spares a glance at Lureene before saying to Sasha, "Priyya's spell should suppress the witch's control for a few minutes at least. Hopefully by then we'll have ended her. Good to have you back, Sasha, although I think some of us never realized you were gone."

With a wink, she nods her head and follows after Darvesch.

Darvesch jogs around the edge of the building complex you wer just inside of and turns the corner to find a stretch of dense foliage bounding the southern edge of the village. If what the succubus said was accurate, it wasn't all that thick and there was another building on the far side of it.

When Priyya catches up to the rest of you, lugging the huge sword with her, she accurately points out that she can make out its silhouette.

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 87)

"Thank you, Priyya," he says to her after pointing in the direction of the building. Move to AP38 and start hacking bushes

Mike is there some way I can strap this blade over Priyya's shoulder? I would prefer to be walking with bow in hand and not have to worrying about having to drop this thing to bring her bow to bear. Moreover, the chief reason I took it was to keep it out of Sasha's hands in case she was possessed. Now it seems like a good security precaution that we just don't leave it lying around.

Priyya nods, "Think nothing of it, Darvesch."

Priyya moves due south watching in all directions, particularly around the blind corners and the roof-tops. She mutters quietly, "Come'on, you miserable hag. Stick your head out so you can experience what happened to your monkey."

Jason: You could use SM for that, however being as you only just met Sasha and had no baseline for how she normally acts, that seemed a bit gratuitous. Also, given how the domination was being used (i.e. continuous control), I opted to go with DC 25 rather than DC 15. The reason? I figure the 'limited nature of actions' possible when a dominated creature isn't actively controlled would require time to discern. At that point in time, not only was she being actively controlled, nothing had transpired beyond the normal range of actions you would expect for a hunter keeping an attentive watch.

Justin: The sword is about 9-ft in length overall. The best you could do would be to use a belt as a baldric. The method I've seen used at ren faires is to lodge the tip in the buckle, and then to lash the upper part around the hilt or ricasso. Of course, that's 6-ft tall guys carrying 5-ft long blades. I don't see a feasible way of doing so that wouldn't put you off-balance. You could let Alis carry it if you prefer.

Lureene shakes her head in chagrin as she realized how close to disaster she had come just now. She looks at Sasha and moves next to her, ”I…I am sorry Sash, I should have anticipated that witch would try something like this! I hope you can forgive me.”

Lureene will move next to Sasha (AC21), and ready an action to use Dazing Touch on her, should she show signs of being actively controlled. She also has her rapier and wand out.

No worries, Mike. Priyya will lug it over her shoulder. I'd like to keep it on hand for Hag Slam 2011. :)

Fie on work getting in the way of play!

Eric: No, there was surprising shortage of sibilance for it to have been Ieana.

Compared to hewing down giants, Darvesch's axe makes quick work of the heavy brush forming what appears to have been left as a natural privacy hedge. The wary dwarf steps thru to the other side and finds what he suspects is another building size for giants.

Like the others you have seen, it is constructed from sturdy masonry that has seen more than a century of neglect. The smell of strange herbs and other less natural concoctions are evident in the air here. Grak informs you that he can smell that a ssstinky old woman passed this way only a few minutes ago.

Darvesch nods pointing out a series of tracks and the imprint of a staff or walking stick leading around the side of the building. His darkvision also revealing spatters of blood on the ground, and broken twigs on the bushes leading around the western side of the structure.

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 88)

"Aww, well you're still learning, right? You'll get the hang of it!"

When Lureene walks over, Sasha gives her a 1-armed hug, still leaning up against the wall for cover as she keeps her eyes on the shadowy courtyard outside.

Priyya signals that she will head around the building in the other direction and sets out that way.

Darvesch will circle around the building in the opposite direction as Priyya. At this time, he'll cast divine favour on himself, praying to Kahn for aid and divine retribution.

I'm assuming he was able to grab his holy symbol too. If not, correct me.

Lureene smiles, "Thanks, Sash I appreciate that." Her gaze then shifts to focus on the two doors at the other side of the room, warily watching for any signs of either witch or giantesses making their presence known.

Jason: Yep, you've got all your equipment now.

The four of you split up. Grak following after Priyya as she moves east along the north side of the building, and Alis behind Darvesch as he moves south and turns the corner, still following the tracks.

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 89)

Priyya stops and puts the sword down quietly to free her bow. She turns to Grak as she fits an arrow to her bow, whispering "Check the roof, I'll cover you."

She backs slowly away from the building, to use her bow more effectively, while watching the roof line as well as the area around her. It could be a feint.

Grak nods silently at Priyya and flies up to the top of the roof, his tongue probing the air searching for any traces of the witch.

Fly to AT44, 5’ above roof level.
Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14 with Scent
Stealth 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23

Priyya gingerly sets down the blade and takes a step back into the prickly embrace of the underbrush, not entirely sure if the twinge of pain she just felt on her calf was a thorn or an insect. The loud buzz of a cicada only a few feet from her head does make her tense a bit but she quickly recognizes the sound and doesn't betray her efforts at remaining inconspicuous.

Grak flies up and find a pair of chimpanzees probing a chimney stack in the center of the roof. Upon spotting the strange flying snake, one of them hoots in alarm and the pair race off leaping back to the safety of the trees which sway under their weight as they swing away to safety.

On the opposite side of the house, Alis ducks as the creatures go leaping over her head and into the trees. She breathes a sigh of relief before catching up to Darvesch who had followed the trail to a half-open door on the south-east corner. The smell of herbs and of alchemical reagents is stronger here. There are also a number of primitive fetishes such as the jawbones of animals, humanoid skulls, bundles of feathers, and other more obscure oddities around the entrance.

Leading up to the door is a path composed of worn old stones leading further east around the clump of trees and brush you just cut thru. Several overly-large moths with giant eye markings on their winds abandon their blood feast and scatter at your approach, a few flying inside.

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 90)

While Alis motions for Darvesch to hold for a moment while she inspects the door for traps magical or otherwise, Sasha frowns and whispers to Lureene.

Priyya signals Grak back down. She rubs the creature lightly, "Good work" then grabs the over-sized sword and moves out, continuing her sweep.

Alis turns to Darvesch and whispers, "There's some ooof... faint abjuration on the doorway, a ward maybe?"

Frowning, she begins digging in her pack again, irritated at how difficult it is with such large fingers when suddenly she finds it getting easier by the second. With a start, she realize that Aycenia's spell has finally worn off and she's now standing inside a mounded-up banner that's only just barely staying on her shoulders.

"Er... just... *sigh* give me a moment here Darv'. Could you turn your back please?"

With that, she instead begins pulling her black leather explorer's outfit back out of her pack.

Just then Priyya comes out from around the corner to find Alis standing naked and hopping up kneeling on the ground behind Darvesch's back. Grak hisses and mentally relays this news to his mistress.

Note: It will take another 4 rounds for Alis to finish getting dressed quickly.

Lureene moves over to the doorway and looks out past Sasha. When the huntress clears her throat and move her hand as if pushing down, the succubus realizes that she needs to crouch so as not to get the way of her bow.

When Sasha asks, "See anything?" Lureene realizes that the distance a human can see without any light source must be quite limited indeed.

MAP: V - Giant Cannibal Village, (Round 91)

Lureene at first readies to activate her wand, but then thinks better of it. Maybe we can use him to draw her out into the open...

She then mentally informs Grak of this turn of events, so he can relate this news to the others, and awaits his response.

Alis pulls on her short, tight-fitting breeches and hops up and squirms back and forth until they are properly in place. "Klorak's alive? I guess the charm I have on him is technically still active but..." she picks up her black leather bodice with the fishnet back, "I don't look anything at all like one of them now. I wouldn't count on it working."

As Grak convey his message as best he can, Sasha taps her friend on the shoulder and points back at the scene outside.

End Round 92

Priyya watches Alis jump, squirm, and pull a contortionist act while getting dressed. "Alis, you really need to get more practical clothes."

Alis slips her arms thru the bodice and scowls at Priyya, a drawstring held in her teeth. "Zhis ish a fractical ouffit!"

Holding the front together with one hand, she then takes the drawstring, points to her bust and whispers, "Close sesame!" Instantly, the front of her bodice laces itself up while.

"Hmmph!"

Boots... boots... Boots!

Lureene goes to look outside again when a giant mosquito fills her field of view. With a soft whimper, she leaps back just as Sasha whacks it out of the air with her hand, crushing it under her boot. The ranger holds a finger up to lips and shakes her head.

End round 94

Alis pulls on her left boot and laces it up with a cantrip. She looks over her shoulder at Priyya and says, "What? I'd like to see you get into all those robes any faster! *sigh* OK, you can turn around now, Darv' I'm just putting my boots on..."

Priyya holds a finger up to her lips for silence. She points north and whispers. "Something that way, pretty far away... maybe an animal or someone straining themself."

Waiting a bit to see if Lureene or Priyya have and actions to post.