The arrow Cato fired is on target, but it passes harmlessly thorough the creature's empty rib cage without effect.
Kymani whispered "Earth mother, let me pass unabated so that I may end these abominations."
As she rushed forward, the jungle seemed to part and even the sand at her feet seemed to harden before her feet. She skidded to a stop, interposing herself into between the rising skeletons and the gnome, her boarding pike raised before her, ready to strike any that came close enough.
As a free action, you can gain increased mobility for 1 round. For the next round, you ignore all difficult terrain and do not take any penalties for moving through it. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
"Skeletons, of course skeletons. God damn island!"
With a flick of his wrist Zarek wraps a silvery strand of aether around a piece of the wrecked ship and launches it at the closest skeleton.
"Ah. That seems about right for this Island." Cato mutters a quick incantation then drops his bow and yanks is sword free as he strides forward.
The piece of rotten plank hurled by the Gnome’s powers misses the advancing undead.
As the skeletons close. Ky lashes out with her pike.
Shattering one’s arm. But not dropping it.
It reaches her and swipes its bony fingers at her.
Missing!
The second skeleton however is decapitated by her strike. It collapses in the sand
Her third attack shatters the pelvis of a skeleton dropping it.
The rest move forward. Two reaching KY!
These two also fail to connect with Ky.
A third undead makes it to Cato but is unable to attack.
Cato grunts and swings his sword hoping to take the skull off one as Ky had.
Suddenly finding herself surrounded, Kymani plants the butt of her spear in the sand with a muffled thud. Her hands still grasping the weapon, she pulls herself upward, her legs splitting out in opposite directions as she tries to kick two skeletons at once.
Seeing the skeletons begining to surround Ky, Zarek launches a piece of ship at the skeleton directly south of him before taking up a position next to Ky.
Cato swings his sword but is unable to connect with the skeleton.
Ky’s maneuver, while impressive and entertaining, fails to hit either of the bony undead.
The ship's plank, hurled by Zarek’s power however, hits and causes the skeleton to collapse in a pile of bones.
Two swipe their clawed hands at Ky
Hitting only once
leaving bloody furrows on Ky's arm.
The third undead attacks Cato.
But it misses.
"Oh, bugger!" Exclaims Cato as he fails to cause serious harm to the skeleton before him.
Kymani's feet land in the sand with a soft thud. Her lip arches up in a snarl as she kicks at the skeleton southwest of her, one hand still on her planted boarding pike.
Her other foot comes around towards the midsection of the northwest skeleton.
Cato again proves that while he can hit the skeletons, stabbing a sword blade through an empty rib cage does not have the desired effect.
Ky on the other hand has more success. Her first strike crushes the creature’s chest and it falls to the sand in an untidy heap. The second strike however, fails to connect with the undead’s abdomen, as it does not have one.
Strands of silvery aether start to swirl around Zarek, coalescing on his dagger. Zarek takes a step toward the south most skele and smashes his kinetic into it.
Blunt
These Skeletons are proving to be evasive targets. Zareks attack also fails to connect with the creature's bones.
One slashes it’s clawed hands at KY
The other attacks Zarek
They apparently find you hard to hit as well. All miss.
With one hand still holding her boarding pike and her frustration growing, Kymani's elbow came around at the skeleton, aiming to take it's skull clean off of it's body. She continued her spin, with a furious backfist flying towards the other skeleton.
Cato grumbles in frustration and shifts his focus from trying to harm these things to trying to distract the skeleton from Zarek.
Ky's intention and her aim are true. She does indeed pop the skeleton's head off. It spirals to the ground several yards away, the rest of the body falls where it stood.
Her second attack looks like it is going to connect. But misses by less than an inch.
Cato's sudden movement ploy is successful as the remaining skeleton seems to focus it's attention on you, instead of the Gnome.
Zarek takes a step to flank the skele while gathering aether around his weapon before striking the skele.
Somehow this Skeleton avoids yet another attack.
Ignoring the others it attacks Cato.
Missing.
Ky continued her assault on the remaining skeleton, her left foot kicking for the skeleton's knee as her hand came down in a hammer fist towards it's skull.
"Well, at least 'be bait' worked. Good to feel useful," Cato quips sarcastically as he hops back a few more feet.
Ky's kick does indeed shatter the Skeleton's knee. Along with the leg and pelvis. It falls apart in the sand.
"Well, let's see if there are any surprises left on that wreck." Cato says sheathing his rapier and striding forward.
Kymani glanced at the fallen skeletons. "What curse has fallen upon this place?"
She pulled a kunai from her bandolier and held it up, slowing rotating it back and forth, letting it catch the suns rays and reflect them back into the sky. Within minutes, a small raptor stopped circling above and dove down, pulling up at the last moment and coming to a landing on Kymani's shoulder.
She rubbed the raptor's head for a moment, before pointing to the ship wreck.
"Seek."
The Bird circles the wreck several times before returning and settling quietly on Ky’s shoulder.
(Since he returned without any ‘souvenirs’ means the bird saw nothing onboard.)
30%
80%
Exploring the wreck thoroughly takes 1/2 hour. and yields the following:
1 Butterfly net, 1 Bear trap, 1 Bullseye Lantern, Alchemical Glue, 1 Glaive, 10 Flight Arrows, 10 ft. of chain. 1 Abacus, 1 Crowbar, 1 Folding Shovel. 1 Set of Sure foot training blocks. 34 GP.
Cato takes time to inventory what they've scrounged from the wreck before commenting, "Well, we have some daylight left, let's keep moving."
Heading south, brings more of the same terrain already encountered. And nothing of interest. You do notice that heading south on the island the elevation is increasing.
"I think we should head west from here, more inland, and head back towards the camp. Aurora should be able to see the camp from the sky and guide us in its direction."
"Beats hiking uphill late in the day!" Cato says with a smirk.
"Sounds like a plan." Zarek says as he heads west, picking up the pace.
Aurora takes to the air rapidly gaining altitude before beginning a slow ever increasing circle flight path.
She stops the circular search and flies back and forth to your south for a minute before resuming the circling. It then begins to head northwest. Stopping at the edge of your vision and begins to fly back and forth once more.
Cato slaps at an insect biting his neck as they trudge on. "I hope your bird found game we can hunt rather than a ghoul."
The route west slowly becomes thicker jungle terrain. Visibility rapidly drops to less than 30 feet.
You all notice what had looked like a fallen limb, suddenly rear up next to Cato. Now a 10 foot long snake standing even with the half-elves chest. Flaps around it;s head expand giving it a somewhat shovel shape.
"Of course, something venomous!" exclaims Cato as he jumps back and away from the Serpent. Careful now, cobras are quite aggressive!" He quickly utters an incantation to conjure a bright flash of light before it's eyes.
The Cobra seem unimpressed by Cato's spell. You can tell this because it slithers after him and strikes.
The snake misses Cato. Then looks about for other targets.
Hoping to put the poisonous snake down quickly, Kymani stepped up and brought down a hammer fist to the snake's head.
[]
Zarek quickly moves into position and attempts to plunge his dagger into the snake.
Ky connects with the snake’s head.
The snake dodges Zarek’s dagger thrust. But it is stunned, and does not attack this round.
Planting his feet firmly in the sand, Cato pulls his bow free and takes aim at the snake's heart.
Kymani continued to pummel the snake into unconsciousness.
Cato’s arrow misses the snake’s heart. (It’s pretty small after all). It does nick the body however.
The snake lunges to the left and right into Ky’s strikes. The creature collapses like a dropped rope.
You should be able to harvest some meat.
Where to next? You are in E14
Walking west for 20 minutes brings you to coastal cliffs. These drop 30 to 50 feet down to a narrow sandy beach. The shoreline continues to the northwest. Turning north takes you back into the jungle.
You travel 20 minutes to the north. Encountering nothing but a continued bewildering variety of colorful birds, bright flowers, and annoying insects.
Another 40 minutes of walking brings you back to familiar territory.
The sights along the way were simply more of the same already encountered.
"This way. We're almost there."