d'Log managed to nick the mutated wolf before Rick squeezed behind Dahros and healed him. With his other hand, Rick tossed a bit of fire onto the injured wolf, burning away several of the pustules and a hunk of hair. Skittles healed Dahros a bit with an elixir, before the fighter attacked. Dahros brought his hammer over and around, crushing the wolf's head and splashing himself with more of the burning acidic pus even as it died. Blinking away tears, he swung back across, hitting the other wolf.
The wolf snarled and lunged, catching Dahros in the leg and savaging it, leaving a veritable stream of that acidic saliva to drip down inside Dahros' boot where it burned painfully. Dahros was still looking at the ruin in his leg when the ground came up to smack him hard in the face.
d'Log receives 15 healing
d'Log takes 2 persistent acid damage
Dahros receives 5 healing
Dahros is splashed by the pustule's pus and takes 9 acid damage (DC 19 basic Reflex save).
Dahros is bitten for 18 damage, is dying, and has a persistent 1 acid condition
everyone is up!
R3: wolves, d'log, rick, skittles, ykka, dahros
map is updated!
current status:
d'log 14/26 (2 persistent acid damage)
dahros 0(-9?)/32 (1 persistent acid damage)
rick 24/24
skittles 28/28
ykka 28/28
Ykka advances into the tunnel again, continuing her song but also screeching at the top of her lungs. Every so often, her bow draws a discordant shriek from the strings. She hopes the echos will scare the wolf away from the D but is doubtful they have any effect
Auditory, Concentrate, Emotion, Mental
With a sudden shout, a well-timed taunt, or a cutting putdown, you can shake an enemy’s resolve. Choose a creature within 30 feet of you who you’re aware of. Attempt an Intimidation check against that target’s Will DC. If the target does not understand the language you are speaking, you’re not speaking a language, or they can’t hear you, you take a –4 circumstance penalty to the check. Regardless of your result, the target is temporarily immune to your attempts to Demoralize it for 10 minutes.
Critical Success The target becomes frightened 2.
Success The target becomes frightened 1.
Dahros spits blood out of his mouth as he regains consciousness, pulling himself up to his knees and shaking his head. Trying to get his bearings, he picks up his warhammer, climbs to his feet and strikes, ignoring the burning pain in his face.
Rick whirls flames and a sling stone at the standing wolf. "Back off from my friends you ugly mutt!"
As Rick blasted the wolf with flame, Skittles moved in to tend to Dahros' wounds. d'Log moved behind the wolf, stabbing it with his 'slicer and ripping open several of the large pus boils, which splashed acid his way. The mutant wolf, badly injured, collapsed to the ground, dying. In a matter of moments, the creature was dead, Dahros was sitting up, and Ykka was entering the cave wondering if there was anything she could do to actually be helpful.
Both d'Log and Dahros continued to feel the acid burning into their flesh.
d'log 12(-12?)/26 (2 persistent acid damage)
dahros 10/32 (1 persistent acid damage)
rick 24/24
skittles 28/28
ykka 28/28
Rick tries to help the burned goblin and fails. He takes a look around instead, apologizing to D'log.
Rick looks around the cave, but sees nothing of any real interest other than the glowing pool. Looking at it more closely, he can see that the water is oily, and the glow comes from the oily substance.
Dahros groans about the acid eating away at him and tries to splash it off with water.
Rick steps between the gung-ho gnome and the gross goblin, pouring water from his waterskin onto both acid-splashed heroes.
"I don't like the look of that water. Not sure we can trust anything 'natural' around here without verifying it isn't as blighted as these wolves."
Rick casts Detect Magic and takes a closer, but careful, look at the water that apparently glows but was thought to be safe for washing by a crazy gnome.
Skittles, in an attempt to help d'Log, plunged the goblin into the oily, glowing water. The goblin came up spluttering, the acid washed away. Then, within a few minutes, he started itching and clutching at his throat and stomach.
d'Log began retching up some of the oily, acidic water that he had ingested when Skittles tossed him into the pool. Several patches of skin sloughed off and he felt terrible.
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d'Log pops out if the pool and moves over to Skittles. hey, that was fast mind of you. Thank you for the save kind fellow litt.....
d'Log starts to turn a different shade of green. He looks at his hand and a piece of skin is hanging off. He takes the pice of skin and uses his teeth to tear the bit. Except it was way more than a bit and de-sleeves his finger of it's skin.
d'Log proceeds to vomit all over Skittles. Goblin skin, wolf piss, gross water and goblin blood and bile.
Dahros looks at the vomit all of Skittles and states "Goblins.", while shaking his head.
"Can someone help heal me please before we move on?"
Dahros screams in pain "WHAT THE F*&# SKITTLES!" and pulls his face away, reaching up to find that his wounds are now bleeding and worse than before. "Where the hell did you learn how to heal anyway?!"
Rick tends to Dahros's wounds while shooting some side-eye at Skittles. "You were trained in this, right??"
Dahros sighs as some of his pain is correctly addressed. "Thank you Rick, much appreciated."
Rick waits to see if his medical skills are needed after Skittles attempts to patch the party up again.
Ykka leads the rest of the group out to talk with Noala, "we took care of the wolves but a few of us are pretty hurt. Don't suppose you have anything that could help?"
Noala heard Ykka call out, and within moments she was stepping into the clearing. "Oh no, I am sorry that anyone was injured. Please, take me to them and you can tell me about what you found while we go."
The first thing Noala did when she entered the cave and saw Dahros slumped on the floor was to go to his side and hand him a flask with a healing potion in it. Then, she examined the wrappings on his wounds.
"Whoever did this did almost as much damage as the wolves did. Did you even bother to clean this first? And who taught you to wrap a bandage? This looks like it was done by a blind monkey...with its feet!"
The ranger proceeded to re-wrap Dahros' wound after first washing it out. then, once she was sure the wounded had been taken care of, she moved to the mutant wolves and the pool.
"I agree, it seems that this pool is the source of the mutations here, although I have no idea how it got that way. It's not natural, for sure. There are no other caves in the immediate area that I know of that have access to water. But, there are other blights in the area. Perhaps if we travel to one of the first places I saw the blight cropping up, we can learn more? It is a day's walk from here, and we can tend your wounds along the way, if you feel comfortable doing that."
Rick takes another look all around the cave before heading out.
"Hey Skittles maybe if you ask real nice Noala can show you how to not kill someone with your bandages. From what little I know they generally are NOT supposed to go around the wounded person's throat. Maybe once that's done we can roll out."
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Yeah, keep talking ginger face....
Skittles holds back frustration and lets out a forced smile. "MmmmHmmm. Thanks Rick! I'll be sure to remember that when you need aid next!"
Skittles thanks Noala for her assistance in tending to Dahros, before joining the party in helping Nuala.
"Whoa. A day's walk you say. That will place us there by nightfall at least. Is it dangerous in these parts at night. Do you know a safe spot to camp for the evening nearby the blight?"
In a flat voice, Nuala said to d'Log, "Get over it goblin. I know your kind eats and drinks all manner of foul things. You'll live."
In a somewhat softer tone, she explained that they would not arrive at the original blight area until tomorrow morning at the very earliest, and that there were plenty of places to camp out overnight. Good thing the weather was mild, as none of you really have any camping gear.
"I will teach you all a bit of something of first aid while we are at it. Perhaps then you will all know how to render basic aid, even if Skittles is the one injured and unconscious."
Rick prepares his stuff to roll out. Before leaving he burns the blighted wolf corpses in the cave.
The trip through the forest was exhausting. Noala set a brutal pace, though she slowed after the first mile or so to account for the shorter legs of most of the party. The worst dangers you encountered were thorny vines that pricked and scratched, and the occasional turned ankle from a root or rock. None of you were especially adept at forest movement, and it showed. But you go better, especially as Noala called back advice as you went.
Camp that night was under the stars in a small glade. Noala estimated that you were a little over halfway to your destination, and should reach it before mid-day next. Once you had set up camp, she took the time to show you how to properly clean a wound and bandage it, how to set a broken bone, and a few other first aid basics. For some of you it was a new skill, and for others merely a refresher. Still, the skill would be useful in the long run. Noala also imparted a lot of knowledge about the forest, describing fungi and berries that were safe to eat, and ones that most certainly were not.
In all, you were exhausted, both physically and mentally when it was time to turn in for the night. You split the night into watches and tumbled into your sleeping rolls, bags, and furs, respectively.
The night passed without incident, and you awoke in the morning stiff and sore from your forced march and the night on the hard ground, but well rested despite that. The brisk walk after breakfast loosened those muscles, and Noala took the time to point out trails, animal tracks, and how to move quietly through the woods. In all, the ranger was giving you a crash course in survival in the woods - invaluable information for the adventurer on the go.
Finally, you stopped, as Noala pointed out the same squishy ground and wilted off-color leaves that you had seen the day before around the blighted wolves' den. You were at your destination.
"Be careful in there. I know there are creatures in this blight that are stronger than I am, which is why I needed your help in the first place. Take these potions, they might help. And don't be too proud or foolhardy to withdraw if you come across something you can't handle, or get too injured in the process. I don't think this place is going anywhere. Let's just take it nice and slow. I am going to circle the area setting traps along the trails leading from the clearing, just in case something tries to get away."
The potions Noala handed you were marked clearly. There were two vials of Barkskin potions, and two marked Minor Healing Potion.
"Oh! That's how you apply that salve." Dahros says, turning to Skittles. "Hey, so, it turns out you don't actually use a knife to carve out the scab first, huh?"
"Thank you for your assitance, Noala, it is greatly appreciated."
Once everyone is ready, Dahros leads the way forward. He asks, "Remind me exactly what we are doing here?"
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Skittles retorts back. "Well, she may be using natural medicine, while I use Science to heal!" She crosses her arms in a huff and turns her back to Dahros, her nose pointed up, clearly getting irritated at the remarks.
Shrugging it off, she thanks Noala for the lessons takes her time showing Noala the way she does things herself, with potions and extracts. In doing so she prepares all her extracts for the day (profile updates)
"Well Dahros, we are here to investigate the blight. So investigate onward! What do you see? Use those survival skills Noala showed us. Anything out of the ordinary?"
Dahros points out every single thing that is out of the ordinary, starting with the fact that Skittles should probably stick to drinking water and sitting down before she hurts herself.
Ykka thanks Noala and tries to put her new skills to use. She's happy when she noticed some of what Dahros did and picked up more than their resident alchemist who seemed more focused on explaining "science" to everyone.
When they were ready to proceed, Ykka began playing a soft song to inspire them.
Rick takes the time to repeat to Skittles much of what Noala taught them... verbatim.
"Never Eat Shredded Wheat. See? Get it?"
You mostly just see what you expected. Soft, mushy ground, wilted trees and grass, and a scent of faint rot in the air. Ahead of you was an entrance into a lair of some kind, set into a wall of thick brambles. There are several trees and bushes in the field leading up to the thorn hedge.
Rick examines the brambles to see how easily they burn and how well the crew can fit through them into the lair. He casts light on Dahros to prepare.
Dahros scouts the area looking for dangers before they press ahead.
Dahros, looking carefully at the open area before the thorn hedge notices something odd. Several of the bushes were moving. He wouldn't normally have paid attention to that before - bushes do move in the wind, after all - but his lessons with Noala had him really looking for a change, and these bushes were moving against the wind.
While Dahros scouts, Ykka plays a happy, searching song. Everyone feels a bit inspired and ready to hit things faster and harder. Fear of a repeat of the wolves abates a bit.
Rick steps up and lobs fire at the nearest deathbush, but he swings wildly with his toss and narrowly misses Ykka.
"Whoops, sorry! Watch that chord!"
Dahros spins and attacks a moving bush!
Dahros leaped forward, taking Ykka's inspiring music to heart and splattering the viny creature across the nearby grass. Meanwhile, Rick tried a creative toss of fire that went awry and nearly singed the gnome bard.
one down!
R1: everyone, plants
After striking down one, he spots another one moving ahead and surges forward and strikes at it.