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Tonny starts to raise his whip again, then sees the blood pouring from the fallen man's throat. "Uh..." He glances about, swallows, and puts his other hand on his dagger. "Splits, follow me!" The half-elf blindly rushes around his companions into the bush and past the strange men. The branches claw at his clothes and almost make him trip, but Tonny keeps his footing and tries to dodge the swings his foolhearty action was sure to have provoked.
The spirits surrounding Ingolf surprise the thugs, but nevertheless they step back avoiding it, which the gnome profits to strike one of them with his long hammer.
Ebba attempts to surround one of the thugs, but she fails to strike with her tusks.
Tonny surrounds the aggressors trying to distract them from the party druid.
They both cut on the bold half-elf, one opening a gash very close to his neck.
Watching Tonny run through, the druid nods quickly and follows the scene to see a man fallen on the floor.
"Lightfoot! Follow that scent of that man!"
Channeling energy into his hands he speaks the words in druidic that come naturally to him. Many could not grab positive energy as he did, but right now, unprepared, he was able to and could save a life with it.
The little dinosaur hops off his shoulder and works to smell the brigand who escaped seconds earlier.
Adriana had anticipated a fight, even with her blunt warning - she needed to practice, perhaps.
She wasn't prepared for Tonny to rush forward into danger however, and as the half-elf barrels past the thugs into injury she has no choice but to give chase before it's decided he's the easier target, charging forward with a warning shout of "Away from him!
Moving through the bushes like at his own home, Splits magic works the miracle, the throat slit man starts to cough as the gash quickly closes and looks at the druid with thankful eyes.
Lightfoot barely needs to smell the air before darting around the house following the steps of the though. The little dinosaur starts to screech excitedly.
With a precise strike Adriana makes a deep cut on the thug flanked with Tonny.
Stepping back, Jonah shots two arrows at the first thug.
The first arrow sends the thug to the ground, thus he quickly changes aim to the other man.
Despite the close quarters, the hunter is incredibly precise, and lodges the second arrow in the thug's shoulder, whom in combination with Adriana's attack, falls to the ground unconscious.
Oblivious to what is happening to his companions, the third thug continues his tactic of surrounding the house to try catch off guard the group with a flank.
With true good heart Tonny kneels and makes a tourniquet and the thug stops to bleed.
Jonah looks around for the thrid thug, waiting for him to show up again. Rosemary flies up in the air and follows the man, letting Jonah deduce that he will come around the other side. he aims an arrow, ready to shoot another one as soon as he sees the man.
The group stabilizes the fallen thug that is not dead, and the battered man. "Who are you?" he asks to Splits.
The party is a bit confused about where the third thug went, but Jonah, in a better position, eyes him as he approaches. The hunter lodges an arrow in the man's right shoulder, but he will keep coming, hoping to meet his colleagues alive.
Just as Ingolf prayed to Gozreh to keep one of the fallen enemies from dying, he heard Jonah's warning. He turned around and engaged the circling villain. "Ebba, Attack"
Ebba rushed to protect the gnome from the new threat.
The druid speaks, "I am Splits the Leaves, a druid of Gozreh. Lay still your wounds are still fresh."
He readies a blast of wind should be be approached by a thug.
The dinosaur looks happy at its survival skills, and lays in wait should its quarry escape.
Although Ebba fails to strike the approaching thug, Ingolf delivers a precise strike, although weak.
With only a single thug remaining, Adriana's blade and Jonah's arrows make a fast end of the man who quickly surrenders in front of the group weapons and his fallen comrades.
potion of cure light wounds x3
alchemist's fire x6
thunderstone x3
mwk chain shirt x3
daggers x9
mwk short sword x3
forged guard badge x3
192 gp
Among the clothes of the thugs you find a note that says "Make it look like he left town"
The beaten man seems terrified and barely manages to say "Th... Thanks for your help. You saved my life. I... I am Kamjo Arram. Who are you?"
The Gnome introduced himself, "Hello, my name's Ingolf, and this is my companion Ebba. I'm glad you're alive.
"Have you had any dealings with Hamsa Gadd, Count Narsus' Financial Advisor? She seems to consider you 'inconvenient'?"
With the fighting over and everyone subdued in some way, Adriana produces some rope and attempts to shackle the beaten thugs to restrain them until they could be delivered to the sheriff.
With the others helping the wounded man Adriana stands guard over the collected prisoners, the note found on them in one hand and her scimitar, twirling the blade as she watched and waited over the prisoners.
The druid contemplates, "I would have done that for anyone under that sort of pressure brother Arram." He reveals his staff and the symbols etched on it, "But I do think we need to get off of the street before we continue this conversation."
Ingolf saw the wisdom of what Splits the Leaves was saying, "I suppose we should be careful about being overheard."
Adriana firmly binds the two thugs that are still alive.
"Another follower of the Sky Father!" Kamjo is further calmed by the prospects and accepts to come with you.
Once you reach a more calm and secure area he starts to answer your questions "Hello Ingolf and Ebba. Yes, I know Hamsa Gadd, me and my master Magdi Kukoyi were part of her expedition to the jungle before its fatal end"
"I have been ever since trying to find my master with no result" the acolyte sighs "But let me know, how can I repay you for your help in such a dread moment?"
Jonah stays with Adriana and the prisoners, keeping watch over the area with his bow still at the ready in case more enemies make an appearance.
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"So you- ouch!" Tonny winces as he gets to his feet, snagging one of the healing potions from the thugs and drinking the contents. "Sorry about that. So you were part of- mint?" He looks at the bottle in his hand and makes a disgusted expression. "It's like whoever made this didn't even strain it when they were done. Eugh, that's strong. Have I got green stuff on my teeth now?" He bares his teeth for inspection before catching his train of thought again. "Ahh! Sorry, sorry, um." He clears his throat, makes a face again, then continues. "So you were part of an expedition with Hamsa? What were you all looking for? What happened? Where?"
Ingolf was intrigued; he figured that there must be something that Hamsa was trying to cover up about her jungle expedition. He asked Kamjo, "Can you tell me what happened on that expedition? I don't know too much about it."
Jonah makes sure there are not unwanted ears around when Tonny, enjoying the taste of one of last years harvest potions, and Ingolf interrogate the man.
"So you think she is trying to cover up about the expedition? My Master is a Storm Kindler. He believes there is an old temple built in the region by a first-generation cell of heretical Storm Kindlers. That is the reason we came to this area. When Hamsa Gadd knew about his story, she insisted to finance and accompany my Master with claiming any left treasure as payment for her help" Kamjo seems unease and sad as the story comes to this point "For some reason my Master wanted me to remain at Pridon's Hearth with the excuse to prepare some stuff and serve as a link, so he marched only with his elemental companion Argil. This was some months ago, and Hamsa Gadd is returned but none of the other expeditionaries, including my Master. Hamsa refused to accept talking with me, and my attempts to explore the jungle by my own have failed. I am trapped here, without even money to go back to the Sodden Lands, without knowing what has been of my Master, and now this..."
The Storm Kindlers were a fanatical group of priests of Gozreh.
They viewed the appearance of the Eye of Abendego as a manifestation of their deity and flocked to the Sodden Lands. Their leaders wore goz masks, but ultimately even these failed in the face of the unexpected ferocity of the Eye. All of this first generation of Storm Kindlers are thought to have died. They were attempting to repair the devastation caused by the Eye of Abendego, but the priests failed their self-appointed task.
A second generation cult of followers of Gozreh adopt the name of Storm Kindlers. They also seek to understand the Eye of Abendego. Aware of their precursors' mistakes, this new generation of Storm Kindlers has devised elaborate methods to navigate the storm-lashed Sodden Lands.
Jonah is inrigued by the conversation and slowly moves where he can hear better
storm kindlers, eh? sounds like people trying to do what those lizards were doing to this town!
Jonah doesn't butt into the conversation yet, but is very interested to hear more of these storm kindlers
Ingolf replied to the man, "The lizardfolk shaman attacking the settlement said he was a Storm Kindler. Your saying there are two different factions?"
"Is that possible? A lizardfolk? According to my Master Magdi Kukoyi there were some of the Storm Kindlers here years ago. But I had it understood they were civilized races, not lizardfolks. Do you think the lizardfolks have anything to do with the disappearance of my Master?" Kamjo sighs "In any case, if you find anything about Magdi or his elemental companion Argil during your explorations. Please let me know. Even if you can just bring proof of his death it will help me put a closing. He was carrying a pouch with money, I could use to buy my ticket back to Sargava, and his Gozreh holy symbol"
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He hears the word Storm-Kindler and realizes there was still so much for him to learn. "By my word if we find anything about your Master we will bring it back." His words are delicate but firm, it wasn't going to be a matter he would move on. "Ingolf is right, it seems to be a second faction. They did mention some other god who wasn't Gozreh... I wonder if this has to do with your heretical kindlers."
He taps his staff on the ground, "Do you feel we should approach Hamsa? We have no proof unfortunately and we still have to help our Song'O friend get home. Perhaps we need to amass more knowledge first."
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”Why would we go to her?” Tonny asks. ”If she is innocent, she would claim she didn’t know about this. If she’s the one who set it up, she would claim she didn’t know about this. And if we wanted to talk to anyone else about this, it would be our word against hers - and she’s been in town working closely with the mayor a lot longer than we have, so I don’t doubt he would listen to her rather than us.” He pauses, then bends down to grab the scrap of parchment from one of the unconscious bodies. ”If we could compare writing styles...” he murmurs before looking up. ”Why don’t we drop these three off at the sheriff’s office, let her know we caught them trying to kill this guy,” he jerks his thumb at Kamjo and winces, ”and see if she can get any answers from them. We can hardly be said to be badgering or leading a witness then, and she might trust us more when we tell her what happened here since we saved her life in that storm.”
Ingolf asked Kamjo, "Can you give tell us more about his companion Argil, so we know how to recognize them if the worst has happened?"
He offered is opinion on the matter of Hamsa, "I don't see what is to be gained by questioning Hamsa right now. I think we need more evidence before confronting such a well-connected person."
Kamjo listens carefully to your discussion about how to proceed "I will do as you wish. But being honest I am a bit of scared after this. I don't want to stay here around more time than the needed for my Master to come back or learnt what happened to him"
The man nods to Ingolf "Sure, Argil is a Mamiwa. A salamander-like elemental of air and water. Magdi Kukoyi befriended him while he was exploring the edges of the Eye of Abendego"
Jonah nods "I agree with Ingolf. let's learn a bit more about what's going on before we come in hot with accusations that we can't back up. without proof we will get nothing except losing favor with the town.
Splits the Leaves nods, "There is wisdom in your words, I feel like I may have gotten too worked up with the situation." Whether he was serious or not was hard to tell with the way his masked face was, "Kamjo, should you wish to flee do so and we can speak and find you after if we do have information..."
The thoughts of fleeing gave him pause, "Actually, what were you doing the day of the huge storm? I tried to find you to assist us but I could not."
"I was trying to find my master" Kamjo answers to Splits "I cannot stay here, I will try to hide somewhere around town. I will find you once you come back to the colony"
Agreeing to leave Hamsa's business be for now, you prepare your expedition to continue the next day.
Accompanied by Muhdzuzi you depart the next day after completing your preparations with the idea to check on Sheriff Adaela Praet's cousin then bring the Song'o to Cahshil.
Jheri's plantation is only a bit farther away from Pridon's Hearth than the now desert Fort Breakthrough. You need only a few minutes to leave behind the colony's farms and start stepping over the swampy ground that surrounds it.
Splits and Jonah guide well the group, without losing direction at any point. Apart from the many mosquitoes, your morning is peaceful. After lunch though, you enter into an area walking in an area of jungle trees when you find a patch with plenty of broken bushes. There is the carcass of a large dinosaur Jonah identifies as a deinonychus. Something has fed on him and has left large tracks around. The surroundings are in complete silence.
Whatever made this was a flying creature, because it left no tracks further away. By what it is left, the attacker was not an animal.
The tracks are recent, whatever made this can be very close.
Whatever ate the dinosaur was not an animal, not even another dinosaur. The carcass has suffered from corrosion and the jaws were longer and sharper than animal ones.
The death was just some minutes ago. Whatever did this might be very close.
You note the bushes around the area have suffered strange corrosion. As if they had been bathed on acid.
Everything points to a forest drake. A cousin from real dragons, they life in all kinds of forest and have an acid cloud breath.
They are immune to acid, sleep and paralysis.
Their stamina is such, that three times a day, they can take an extra move action.
Their weakest save is Will.
They can fly, have scent and darkvision and are good at swiming.
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"Huh." Tonny gets distracted on his way to investigate the fallen dinosaur by the strange shape of the leaves on the nearby bushes. Curious, the half-elf squints, then sniffs, then finally licks one. "So... from the shape... of these leaves... something... happened... to burn... away a good chunk of them," he says distractedly as he tries to wash out his mouth with his waterskin. "I thought it was fire at first, but there's no ash or discoloration from heat. And the taste confirmed it - this was done with acid." He glances around the clearing, noting the amount of vegetation bearing similar defoliation, and his ears fall. "A lot of acid."
Ingolf examined the carcass and the surrounding area area.
"Uh, I don't think that whatever killed this is a normal animal; it must have had unusually large jaws. And this happened very recently — within the last few minutes! There's evidence of acid on the corpse as well."
He looked around nervously, fearful that the attacker was nearby.
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Her mood as sour as the swamp from the inability to do anything more with the men captured during yesterday's scuffle and exacerbated by the endless mosquitos, Adriana remains sullen for most of the journey in order to not snap at her companions - they had gone through too much together already for her to start arbitrarily arguing with them.
Coming across the dinosaur carcass Adriana instinctively places one hand on the hilt of her scimitar and looks about, not really certain what she's going to find but on the lookout nonetheless; an ambush in a swamp wouldn't be a good start to their journey.
"Hmm. Acid, and recent. Nothing seems around..." She ponders a little on what could have been responsible while keeping her eyes open for danger.
"Swamp, jungle, acid...oh, what are those things? Like dragons, but smaller. Still dangerous." She says, slightly on edge at her own guess.
As Adriana links 1 and 1 you hear a roar along with a sudden clash of leafs and broken branches as a forest drake emerges in between the trees.
Fortunately, Adriana's voice warned you just on time and you are ready when the dragon-like appears!
Muhdzuzi shakes in fear for the presence of the large creature. The Song'o screams in Polyglot "The... the forest drake!"
Ingolf's heart was pounding at the sight of the large flying lizard. He prayed to Gozreh for aid against this formidable foe and moved forward, ordering, "Ebba, heel!"
The druid sees what is happening before he has a chance to really react, at least it confirmed his suspicions.
"Lightfoot!" Casting a spell of protection on his companion , he quickly moves into the underbrush to gain concealment from the creature.
The little dinosaur senses danger and grows in size, ready for battle! Moving a little into the brush, it tries to get a better shot if the creature flies down.
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Tonny gapes at the flying creature before coming to his senses. ”Spread out!” he yells, frantically pulling a bottle from his belt and pushing through the dense vegetation. ”Don’t stand next to ea-“ The rest of what the half-elf might have been trying to communicate is lost as he swallows the contents of the vial, pale green liquid trickling thickly down his chin.
Jonah moves back, pulling out his bow. he directs Rosemary to stay back, not wanting his bird to try to tangle with this massive flyer.
what is that?! Jonah tries to ID it as he moves, wondering if it is a dinosaur. or at least an animal?
Ingolf blesses the party.
Splits shields Lightfoot and disappears with ease through the underbrush.
Tonny drinks an sticky pale liquid from one of his extracts.
Jonah moves away and finds the creature it is not an animal, as it is in fact a drake. His arrow though is effective and lodges on the creature's right shoulder.
In response the drake spits a ball of acid back at Jonah. The ball bursts exhaling an acid mist that covers the hunter and those around him. Muhdzuzi and Adriana.
The mist persists, blocking sight like an obscuring mist but not causing further damage. Jonah will have to more again in order to see the Drake.
The drake flaps his wings and continues his flight unperturbed, increasing height and concealing himself by going around one tree. It screeches "你是我土地上的人类！ 你现在是我的食物！"
"You are in my lands humans! You are my food now!"
Coming out of the mist very injured, Muhdzuzi valiantly fires the sling he has been loading.
But the small stone goes wide!
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Tonny instinctively ducks as the massive creature flies overhead, then follows after it. "Ishfmrphunshrnsh," he tries to explain, but the contents of his vial muffle and distort any words he might try to say.
Oh, yeah. Gotta spit first, gotta spit first, gotta get close enough to reach i- Ouch! The half-elf's thoughts are interrupted by a branch snapping back unexpectedly and striking him in the leg as he pushes through the thick underbrush. Gotta get close enough... There!
A stream of pale green fluid flies upward from the canopy, spattering all over the drake before rapidly hardening into sticky tendrils. "Haha!" a voice crows from the underbrush. "Look who else can breathe stuff!"
Ingolf healed some of Muhdzuzi's wounds, then led Ebba away from the other party members, so they wouldn't present such a tempting target.
Tonny nearly stumbles with the vegetation and barely reaches with his spit, but reach he does and the sticky content pours all over the drake.
Sticking one wing to the other, the large creature starts to spin in the air and falls over the jungle vegetation with a loud THUMB!
Concerned about Muhdzuzi, Ingolf heals the Song'o before moving with Ebba closer to the stream. The halfling looks back with thankful eyes.
"Nope, that's not a dinosaur! it's a dra.....
as Jonah yells out, the ball of acid hits him, completely unprepared. he runs out of the cloud of acid, wiping his eyes. once clear he shoots at the drake, surprised to find it on the ground!
The druid grants the now medium dinosaur the strength of larger animals, and casts Bull's Strength upon her. "Strike!" He asks the dinosaur to support his allies, and Lightfoot understands enough to weave in to find an opening.
HP 12/12; Size M; Magical Beast
AC 14 (10 Base + 1 Natural + 2 Familiar + 1 Dex + 1 Deflect)
TAC 12 (10 Base + 1 Dex + 1 Deflect)
FF 14 (10 Base + 1 Natural + 2 Familiar + 1 Deflect)
Bite +7 (1d6+6+Poison)
Dino's Poison (Ex) Bite — injury; save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save.
As she sees the drake, Adriana says a word in the name of Sarenrae, and her scimitar spurs into flames as for sun metal at the same time she studies the drake as her next target.
Both her and Jonah take the blunt of the acid blurb.
Despite its prone position and cover, the entangled drake can do nothing against Jonah's arrow that lodges deep in the neck of the beast.
Empowering Lightfoot, Splits sends the dinosaur to fight the fallen drake.
The drake attempts to snap at him, but prone and entangled it proofs to difficult and fails.
Adriana moves forward through the underbrush looking to reach the drake as well.
The drake attempts to stand up, which allows Adriana and Lightfoot an opportunity to attack it.
Adriana makes a clean cut with the scimitar while the drake stands up.
The drake attempts to give back but utterly fails, it roars in frustration "不可能！ 如此卑劣的种族而羞辱！"
"Not possible! Humiliated by such an inferior race!"
Muhdzuzi quickly reloads his sling, but the stone bullet strikes directly into one of the trees.
Jonah shoots two more arrows while the beast is pinned